Be­lize’s Prime Min­is­ter John Briceño says the In­ter­na­tion­al Court of Jus­tice (ICJ) will re­ceive oral pre­sen­ta­tions in the case be­tween Guatemala and Be­lize from Feb­ru­ary 22 -26 next year.

There may soon be vir­tu­al­ly no safe zone from over­lap­ping cli­mate threats for chil­dren across parts of the East­ern Caribbean, with new re­search warn­ing that more than nine in ten could be ex­posed to at least three cli­mate haz­ards by mid-cen­tu­ry.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice says 395 peo­ple de­tained un­der pub­lic de­ten­tion or­ders (PDOs) dur­ing the state of emer­gency have been re­leased fol­low­ing the ex­e­cu­tion of re­vo­ca­tion or­ders.

Sev­er­al Op­po­si­tion MPs have raised con­cerns about the Gov­ern­ment’s new Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, with for­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land de­scrib­ing it as “more egre­gious and se­ri­ous” than the Zone of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) Bill that failed in the Sen­ate ear­li­er this year.

Crim­i­nol­o­gist Dr Randy Seep­er­sad has wel­comed the stronger ju­di­cial over­sight pro­posed un­der the new Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill but cau­tions that the leg­is­la­tion risks be­com­ing lit­tle more than a crime-sup­pres­sion mea­sure if it fails to ad­dress the so­cial con­di­tions that con­tribute to crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

The Gov­ern­ment has sig­nif­i­cant­ly rewrit­ten its con­tro­ver­sial Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) leg­is­la­tion, re­plac­ing it with the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, 2026.

As Par­lia­ment pre­pares to de­bate the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill to­day, a dis­pute over the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice’s (TTPS) body-worn cam­era ca­pac­i­ty has raised fresh ques­tions about the safe­guards that would ac­com­pa­ny the ex­pand­ed po­lice pow­ers pro­posed un­der the leg­is­la­tion.

Res­i­dents in sev­er­al Mor­vant com­mu­ni­ties say they are not op­posed to the pro­posed Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSOs), but re­main scep­ti­cal about the re­sults the ini­tia­tive can achieve, ar­gu­ing that years of promised crime-fight­ing mea­sures have failed to make their com­mu­ni­ties safer.

With the State of Emer­gency (SoE) end­ing yes­ter­day, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro said the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is ready to re­spond when­ev­er nec­es­sary to keep the coun­try safe.

As the State of Emer­gency (SoE) ex­pired and de­tainees held un­der Pre­ven­ta­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDOs) were re­leased yes­ter­day, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro warned that those re­turn­ing to their com­mu­ni­ties would be en­ter­ing a “dif­fer­ent polic­ing en­vi­ron­ment.”

A sea bath, fast food and time with fam­i­ly. These were the plans of some of the for­mer de­tainees held un­der Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDOs) as they were re­leased yes­ter­day fol­low­ing the end of the State of Emer­gency (SoE).

A Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion re­sponse from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) seems to con­tra­dict the ex­pla­na­tions giv­en by both Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro and Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar about the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the Com­mis­sion­er’s con­tro­ver­sial over­seas trip last month.