The mur­der toll con­tin­ued to in­crease fol­low­ing an ear­ly morn­ing mur­der in Diego Mar­tin yes­ter­day.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has de­fend­ed the surge of traf­fic tick­ets is­sued in re­cent days but says there will be no re­duc­tion in fines. How­ev­er, she said yes­ter­day that her Gov­ern­ment is prepar­ing to in­tro­duce a sys­tem to give dri­vers time to fix ve­hi­cle de­fects be­fore penal­ties take ef­fect.

The Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion of Port of Spain has is­sued an ur­gent ad­vi­so­ry to busi­ness­es fol­low­ing a se­ries of night­time shopfront bur­glar­ies across the city.

As Trinidad and To­ba­go pre­pares for Car­ni­val 2026, head of the Crim­i­nal Di­vi­sion, As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP) Richard Smith is urg­ing the pub­lic to be aware of their sur­round­ings and to drink re­spon­si­bly.

Chief Sec­re­tary and To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty po­lit­i­cal leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine has told what he de­scribed as “paid blog­gers from Trinidad” to keep their “stink­ing opin­ion” and in­flu­ence in Beetham and Laven­tille, say­ing To­ba­go does not want it and will de­cide for it­self.Au­gus­tine made the com­ments while speak­ing at a TPP po­lit­i­cal meet­ing in Mt St George on Sun­day night.

Venezuela’s op­po­si­tion sup­port­ers have long hoped for the day when Nicolás Maduro is no longer in pow­er — a dream that was ful­filled when the U.S. mil­i­tary whisked the au­thor­i­tar­i­an leader away. But while Maduro is in jail in New York on drug traf­fick­ing charges, the lead­ers of his re­pres­sive ad­min­is­tra­tion re­main in charge.

Wor­ried and frus­trat­ed af­ter be­ing slapped with a $19,000 tick­et for six traf­fic of­fences dur­ing a po­lice road­block on Sun­day night, a San Fer­nan­do co­conut ven­dor said he is now un­sure how he will pay the fines with­out “los­ing his liveli­hood.”

Less than 24 hours af­ter mo­torists were shocked to learn of new late penal­ties for dri­ver’s per­mit re­newals, of­fi­cials now ad­mit Mon­day’s fig­ures were a mis­take, and the ac­tu­al fees are even high­er.

A serv­ing po­lice of­fi­cer in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice is among three na­tion­als held by the US and lo­cal law en­force­ment on charges of con­spir­a­cy to im­port co­caine and firearms in­to the Unit­ed States.

San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Louis Par­ris is fac­ing po­ten­tial le­gal ac­tion from lo­cal broad­cast­er Ian Al­leyne over a con­tro­ver­sial Face­book post.

Trinidad and To­ba­go has again sig­nalled its sup­port for the Unit­ed States fol­low­ing a spe­cial meet­ing of the Per­ma­nent Coun­cil of the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS), as re­gion­al ten­sions in­ten­si­fy over the ar­rest of Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro.

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne has urged Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to clear­ly out­line Trinidad and To­ba­go’s for­eign pol­i­cy and ap­proach to re­la­tions with the cur­rent Del­cy Ro­driguez ad­min­is­tra­tion in neigh­bour­ing Venezuela. So far, the Gov­ern­ment has re­mained silent on its po­si­tion.