Po­lice in the Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion say they have al­so re­port­ed a no­tice­able in­crease in cop­per thefts, in­clud­ing telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions ca­bles and are ini­ti­at­ing height­ened po­lice ac­tiv­i­ties in a bid to quell fur­ther van­dal­ism and thefts of valu­able equip­ment.

A long-an­tic­i­pat­ed diplo­mat­ic meet­ing be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela is set to take place to­day, with For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers trav­el­ling to Cara­cas for talks with Venezue­lan For­eign Min­is­ter Félix Plasen­cia.

Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land says the Op­po­si­tion will not sup­port any at­tempt by the Gov­ern­ment to fur­ther ex­tend the State of Emer­gency (SoE) be­yond Sep­tem­ber 17, main­tain­ing that its po­si­tion is ground­ed in an as­sess­ment of the mea­sure’s ef­fec­tive­ness and a com­mit­ment to prin­ci­ple.

Al­though the State of Emer­gency (SoE) is sched­uled to end on Sep­tem­ber 17, Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDOs) con­tin­ue to be is­sued.

As the T&T Guardian cel­e­brates 109 years of ser­vice, it con­tin­ues to re­flect on a lega­cy built on in­form­ing, ed­u­cat­ing and doc­u­ment­ing the na­tion’s jour­ney.

Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) chair­man Mar­vin Gon­za­les has dis­tanced the par­ty from al­le­ga­tions of gang af­fil­i­a­tion, in­tim­i­da­tion, bul­ly­ing, ex­tor­tion and threats that have prompt­ed a ma­jor shake-up with­in the North Cen­tral Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (NCRHA).

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s spe­cial In­de­pen­dence Day mes­sage to Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) sup­port­ers is draw­ing crit­i­cism from promi­nent voic­es with­in the In­do-Trinida­di­an and Hin­du com­mu­ni­ties, with for­mer In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Suni­ty Ma­haraj and Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SDMS) Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Vi­jay Ma­haraj warn­ing that her rhetoric risks deep­en­ing racial di­vi­sions.

While the term of Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) leader and Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar runs un­til June 2028, there is no word yet on the fu­ture of the par­ty’s Na­tion­al Ex­ec­u­tive (Na­tex), whose two-year term ex­pired in June.

With schools set to re­open next week, Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe is de­mand­ing an­swers from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion over the readi­ness of school fa­cil­i­ties, rais­ing con­cerns about what he de­scribed as a “late start” to main­te­nance works on some build­ings.

The Par­ent-Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion (PTA) of Mara­bel­la North Sec­ondary is call­ing on the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to ur­gent­ly ad­dress what it says are se­ri­ous health and safe­ty con­cerns at the school, just days be­fore the new aca­d­e­m­ic year be­gins.

Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) To­ba­go Of­fi­cer De­on Ro­driguez has warned that teach­ers would not en­ter mouldy class­rooms when the new aca­d­e­m­ic year be­gins on Mon­day.

Ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence (AI) is head­ing in­to more sec­ondary school class­rooms this aca­d­e­m­ic year, with Forms One and Two stu­dents get­ting ac­cess to an AI-pow­ered tu­tor called “Chris.”