To­ba­go’s mur­der toll has climbed to eight for the year af­ter a 44-year-old Amer­i­can builder was found dead in Cas­tara late Wednes­day night.

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine has as­sured To­bag­o­ni­ans that To­ba­go re­mains “a place of peace and a place of love,” even as re­gion­al ten­sions be­tween Venezuela and the Unit­ed States con­tin­ue to dom­i­nate pub­lic dis­cus­sion.

Chief Sec­re­tary and To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine last night en­cour­aged sup­port­ers to stay fo­cused and pre­pare for “dis­trac­tions” as the par­ty host­ed a Prayer and Con­se­cra­tion Ser­vice at Rovanel’s Re­sort last night.

The Home In­va­sion (Self-De­fence and De­fence of Prop­er­ty) Bill, 2025, has been passed in the Low­er House with­out Op­po­si­tion sup­port.

Bar­ba­dos has signed a part­ner­ship agree­ment with Nige­ria to ad­vance lo­cal phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal pro­duc­tion, strength­en reg­u­la­to­ry co­op­er­a­tion, and ex­pand re­gion­al mar­ket ac­cess across the Caribbean, Latin Amer­i­ca, as well as the Eco­nom­ic Com­mu­ni­ty of West African States (ECOW­AS).

Days af­ter Venezuela is­sued an ul­ti­ma­tum to in­ter­na­tion­al air­lines re­quir­ing them to re­sume ser­vice or lose the right to fly, the coun­try has fol­lowed through with that threat. In a late-night so­cial me­dia post, the In­sti­tu­to Na­cional de Aeronáu­ti­ca Civ­il Venezuela (IN­AC) con­firmed that con­ces­sions had been re­voked for six air­lines: Iberia, TAP Por­tu­gal, avian­ca, LATAM Colom­bia, Turk­ish Air­lines, and GOL Air­lines. Lo­cal car­ri­er Caribbean Air­lines was not named on the list. The no­tice was pub­lished in the Of­fi­cial Gazette No. 43264 of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela.

Three dif­fer­ent ex­pla­na­tions from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, air­port work­ers, and Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine have raised ques­tions about why a Unit­ed States Air Force C-17A Globe­mas­ter III land­ed in To­ba­go ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Lo­cal rum pro­duc­er An­gos­tu­ra is giv­ing a Christ­mas gift to con­sumers and re­tail­ers this year, an­nounc­ing price re­duc­tions on their rum prod­ucts for the sea­son.

Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic Pres­i­dent Luis Abi­nad­er an­nounced yes­ter­day that he has au­tho­rised the US gov­ern­ment to op­er­ate in­side re­strict­ed ar­eas in the Caribbean coun­try to help in its fight against drug traf­fick­ing.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says Venezuela was not on the agen­da dur­ing her meet­ing with Chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen­er­al Dan Caine, the Unit­ed States’ high­est-rank­ing mil­i­tary of­fi­cer.

An in­ves­ti­ga­tion is un­der­way in­to al­le­ga­tions of mis­con­duct and un­pro­fes­sion­al be­hav­iour in­volv­ing Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cials as they dealt with a hear­ing im­paired trav­eller at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port some­time ear­li­er this week.

Min­is­ter of De­fence Wayne Sturge says that the Com­mand­ing Of­fi­cer of the Reg­i­ment was sent on im­me­di­ate leave on Au­gust 7, this year, and the de­ci­sion was re­scind­ed soon af­ter due to non-com­pli­ance with Reg­i­men­tal Stand­ing Or­der Num­ber 11.