The grow­ing role of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence and dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s tourism sec­tor was among the key is­sues dis­cussed dur­ing a meet­ing be­tween YTEPP Lim­it­ed and the Tourism In­dus­try As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TIATT) on Tues­day at The Chan­cel­lor Ho­tel in Port of Spain.

Thou­sands of com­muters across Trinidad are ex­pect­ed to face ma­jor trans­porta­tion dis­rup­tions from Mon­day af­ter maxi taxi op­er­a­tors con­firmed they will pro­ceed with a na­tion­wide with­draw­al of ser­vice fol­low­ing un­suc­cess­ful talks with Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of di­rect­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro to im­pose new protest re­stric­tions out of fear over grow­ing pub­lic dis­con­tent, while ques­tion­ing whether the coun­try’s top po­lice of­fi­cer is act­ing in­de­pen­dent­ly.

So­ca artiste Nailah Black­man is call­ing for em­pa­thy and uni­ty amid the on­go­ing con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing Ka­ia Sealy, say­ing she felt over­whelmed by what has been hap­pen­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

On the same day ri­ot po­lice shut down the Ka­ia Sealy protest out­side the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP), the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro brought in­to force a list of 15 no-protest zones, which in­clud­ed the DPP’s of­fice.

Two pro­test­ers and a so­cial me­dia per­son­al­i­ty, who were ar­rest­ed by po­lice on Wednes­day dur­ing a demon­stra­tion near the of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP), were re­leased on own bail last night, af­ter be­ing charged in con­nec­tion with their con­duct dur­ing the ac­tiv­i­ty.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has de­fend­ed the ac­tions of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) in shut­ting down a protest out­side the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions on Wednes­day, warn­ing that at­tempts to in­tim­i­date pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al of­fi­cials “will not be tol­er­at­ed” dur­ing the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE).

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to end the State of Emer­gency, ac­cus­ing the Gov­ern­ment of sup­press­ing de­mo­c­ra­t­ic ex­pres­sion while dis­miss­ing pub­lic out­rage over the killing of Joshua Sama­roo in a po­lice-in­volved shoot­ing in Jan­u­ary.

Pa­tri­ot­ic Front leader Mick­ela Pan­day has crit­i­cised Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for her com­ments re­gard­ing Wednes­day’s protest in Port-of-Spain, ac­cus­ing the Prime Min­is­ter of re­spond­ing with “con­tempt” in­stead of ad­dress­ing cit­i­zens’ con­cerns.

Strate­gic se­cu­ri­ty con­sul­tant Dr Garvin Heer­ah is urg­ing na­tion­al lead­ers to “em­pathise first, leg­is­late sec­ond,” amid grow­ing de­bate over the Gov­ern­ment’s re­sponse to Wednes­day’s protest linked to the po­lice-is­sued war­rants for the ar­rest of Ka­ia Sealy over the death of her com­mon-law hus­band Joshua Sama­roo.

While Ka­ia Sealy re­mains out of the coun­try seek­ing med­ical treat­ment, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) says it is not la­belling her a fugi­tive.

Crim­i­nal at­tor­ney Fa­reed Ali says there is “ab­solute­ly noth­ing wrong” with Ka­ia Sealy seek­ing ad­di­tion­al time to re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go as she con­tin­ues med­ical treat­ment abroad fol­low­ing in­juries sus­tained in a shoot­ing in­ci­dent.