The Min­is­ter of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism has sig­nalled plans to seek Cab­i­net ap­proval for the ap­point­ment of eight ad­di­tion­al scrap met­al in­spec­tors, as a short-term mea­sure to ad­dress chal­lenges in the in­dus­try.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has con­firmed that Cab­i­net will meet to con­sid­er whether the in­ves­tiga­tive re­port in­to the deaths of for­mer MP Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian and her two chil­dren should be laid in Par­lia­ment.

The Unit­ed Na­tions has urged re­straint and de-es­ca­la­tion amid ris­ing ten­sions be­tween the Unit­ed States and Venezuela, fol­low­ing Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s an­nounce­ment of a block­ade of a Venezue­lan oil tanker.

Mul­ti­ple firearms, am­mu­ni­tion, and po­lice is­sued equip­ment—in­clud­ing bul­let­proof vests—were re­cov­ered dur­ing sev­er­al an­ti-crime op­er­a­tions car­ried out on Tues­day 16 De­cem­ber 2025, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice has con­firmed.

The Ja­maica Con­stab­u­lary Force (JCF) says it will main­tain a height­ened alert sta­tus and take a ze­ro-tol­er­ance ap­proach to­wards ir­re­spon­si­ble firearm use and il­le­gal use of fire­works dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son.

Chief Sec­re­tary and To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine says a re­place­ment for the MV Cabo Star, the roll-on/roll-off fer­ry that has served To­ba­go’s in­ter-is­land seabridge since 2017, has been iden­ti­fied and sub­mit­ted to Cab­i­net for ap­proval. The cur­rent ves­sel’s con­tract, man­aged by Bridge­mans Ser­vices Group, ends on Jan­u­ary 12, 2026, and will not be re­newed.

The Home In­va­sion (Self-De­fence and De­fence of Prop­er­ty) Act, 2025, is now law af­ter Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Car­la Kan­ga­loo as­sent­ed to the leg­is­la­tion, ac­cord­ing to a me­dia re­lease from the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.

Venezuela has ac­cused US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump of “war-mon­ger­ing” and seek­ing to ap­pro­pri­ate its oil and as­sets, and said its am­bas­sador to the Unit­ed Na­tions will de­nounce what it de­scribed as a “se­ri­ous vi­o­la­tion of in­ter­na­tion­al law” against the coun­try.

PNM po­lit­i­cal leader An­cil Den­nis has ac­cused Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine of be­ing un­aware of ma­jor de­vel­op­ments af­fect­ing To­ba­go, in­clud­ing the in­stal­la­tion of a radar at the is­land’s in­ter­na­tion­al air­port and the use of lo­cal air­ports for mil­i­tary ac­tiv­i­ty.

Chief Sec­re­tary and To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty po­lit­i­cal leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine has dis­missed pub­lic con­cern over the use of To­ba­go’s air­ports by US mil­i­tary air­craft as fear mon­ger­ing, in­sist­ing the is­land re­mains neu­tral ahead of the Jan­u­ary 12 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tion.

Sco­tia­bank T&T (Sco­tia­bank TT) post­ed a record in­come af­ter tax­a­tion of $696 mil­lion for the year end­ed Oc­to­ber 2025, mark­ing a 5.72 per cent in­crease or $38 mil­lion over the pre­vi­ous year.
Sco­tia, in its fourth quar­ter re­sults pub­lished yes­ter­day, said the strong per­for­mance trans­lat­ed in­to an im­proved re­turn on eq­ui­ty of 14.77 per cent and re­turn on as­sets of 2.19 per cent, up 26 and 1 ba­sis points, re­spec­tive­ly.
Sco­tia­bank de­clared a fourth-quar­ter div­i­dend of $0.90 per share, bring­ing the to­tal for fis­cal 2025 to $3 per share.
The earn­ings per share (EPS) rose to $3.95 cents, cou­pled with a div­i­dend yield of 6.26 per cent, the high­est in the Bank’s his­to­ry.

Even as some sec­tors of To­ba­go con­tin­ued to ex­press con­cern with the lat­est de­ci­sion by Gov­ern­ment to al­low the Unit­ed States mil­i­tary ac­cess to this coun­try’s air­ports, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine says he was not made aware of the de­ci­sion to grant such per­mis­sion pri­or to Mon­day’s me­dia re­lease from the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs.