El Ni­no, Na­ture’s chaot­ic cli­mate agent, has formed in a warmed-up Pa­cif­ic Ocean and is ex­pect­ed to grow to his­toric strength, me­te­o­rol­o­gists an­nounced Thurs­day.

Ra­heem Stephens has been com­mit­ted to stand tri­al for al­leged­ly stab­bing a man dur­ing Bor­ough Day cel­e­bra­tions in Point Fortin last year.

The State of Emer­gency (SoE) has been ex­tend­ed un­til Sep­tem­ber af­ter the Gov­ern­ment se­cured a ma­jor­i­ty vote in Par­lia­ment short­ly af­ter mid­night on Thurs­day.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has de­fend­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s use of emer­gency pow­ers, in­sist­ing that re­stric­tions im­posed un­der the State of Emer­gency (SoE), in­clud­ing the con­tro­ver­sial 500-me­tre no-protest zones, are law­ful, con­sti­tu­tion­al and nec­es­sary to pro­tect na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

To­ba­go East MP David Thomas has de­clared that To­ba­go’s par­lia­men­tary rep­re­sen­ta­tives are ful­ly be­hind the Gov­ern­ment’s ex­ten­sion of the State of Emer­gency (SoE), de­scrib­ing them­selves as part of the ad­min­is­tra­tion and ar­gu­ing that emer­gency pow­ers re­main nec­es­sary to bring crime un­der con­trol.

Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to im­me­di­ate­ly end the State of Emer­gency (SoE), present a cred­i­ble crime-fight­ing strat­e­gy or step aside, de­scrib­ing the mea­sure as a “na­tion­al sham” and a “po­lit­i­cal hoax” on the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal has called on the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment to sup­port the ex­ten­sion of the State of Emer­gency (SoE), as the da­ta has showed “we’re on the right path.”

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment is such an an­ti-peo­ple ad­min­is­tra­tion that, fol­low­ing a 50 per cent in­crease in the fine for dis­till­ing with­out a li­cence, peo­ple would not even be able to make "babash" again, Diego Mar­tin North/East PNM MP Colm Im­bert said yes­ter­day.

The Gov­ern­ment will be go­ing af­ter white-col­lar crim­i­nals and those who fa­cil­i­tate or­gan­ised crime.

Re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert Dr Garvin Heer­ah is urg­ing au­thor­i­ties to con­sid­er in­tro­duc­ing cur­fews fol­low­ing the ex­ten­sion of the State of Emer­gency (SoE), ar­gu­ing that stronger mea­sures are need­ed to re­gain con­trol of com­mu­ni­ties and send a clear mes­sage to crim­i­nal el­e­ments.

The West­ern Di­vi­sion of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has record­ed a de­cline in mur­ders and oth­er crimes so far this year, ac­cord­ing to head of di­vi­sion Snr Supt Sylvester Williams.

Hours af­ter videos of a man walk­ing through Cy­press Hills, Union Hall, with a firearm went vi­ral on so­cial me­dia, he was shot dead dur­ing a con­fronta­tion with po­lice yes­ter­day morn­ing.