As Trinidad and To­ba­go cel­e­brates its in­de­pen­dence to­day, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro is pay­ing trib­ute to fe­male of­fi­cers who have helped build and shape the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

That was the cen­tral mes­sage from Jus­tice Frank Seep­er­sad as he chal­lenged cit­i­zens to re­flect on how they have used the free­doms gained since in­de­pen­dence.

A Cunu­pia busi­ness­man who was shot sev­er­al times on Sat­ur­day as he walked out of his es­tab­lish­ment in Trinci­ty re­mained at the hos­pi­tal in crit­i­cal con­di­tion up to yes­ter­day.

San Fer­nan­do East MP Bri­an Man­ning stayed away from the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) pre-in­de­pen­dence event at Port-of-Spain City Hall yes­ter­day, as po­lit­i­cal leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les used the oc­ca­sion to stress the need for uni­ty, re­spect and dis­ci­pline with­in the par­ty.

Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas is re­ject­ing sug­ges­tions that her union is re­ceiv­ing pref­er­en­tial treat­ment from the Gov­ern­ment, even as the PSA moves clos­er to se­cur­ing a ten per cent salary in­crease for its mem­bers while oth­er unions con­tin­ue to press for com­pa­ra­ble set­tle­ments.

The Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union (CWU) has called for the re­moval of Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT) chair­man Kern Dass, ac­cus­ing him of pre­sid­ing over a gov­er­nance cri­sis and at­tempt­ing to make for­mer act­ing chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Keino Cox the “fall guy” in the con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing a pro­posed $49 mil­lion call cen­tre con­tract.

A High Court Judge has pro­vid­ed guid­ance on the cri­te­ria for ap­point­ments to the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC). 

The Caribbean is be­ing urged to pre­pare for a po­ten­tial­ly se­vere drought and heat cri­sis stretch­ing in­to 2027, plac­ing wa­ter sup­plies, agri­cul­ture and pub­lic health un­der in­creas­ing pres­sure as a strength­en­ing El Niño dri­ves hot­ter, dri­er con­di­tions across the re­gion.

Deputy Chief Sec­re­tary Dr Faith Breb­nor says To­ba­go res­i­dents will soon get ad­di­tion­al sup­port to store wa­ter as the is­land faces drought-like con­di­tions and in­creas­ing­ly dry weath­er.

Bul­ly­ing and va­p­ing re­main two of the most se­ri­ous is­sues con­fronting Trinidad and To­ba­go’s school sys­tem, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath has said, urg­ing stu­dents to speak out against both be­hav­iours.

The amend­ed Chil­dren’s Life Fund Act has al­lowed an in­ter­na­tion­al med­ical spe­cial­ist to trav­el to Trinidad and To­ba­go to per­form a spe­cialised pro­ce­dure on a child, avoid­ing the need to send the ben­e­fi­cia­ry over­seas for treat­ment.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says Trinidad and To­ba­go must take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for its post-In­de­pen­dence fail­ures in­stead of con­tin­u­ing to blame its colo­nial past.