In­ter­na­tion­al af­fairs ex­pert Dr An­tho­ny Gon­za­les says For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers’ re­cent meet­ing with his Venezue­lan coun­ter­part is an en­cour­ag­ing sign that re­la­tions be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela are be­gin­ning to im­prove, and he be­lieves a meet­ing be­tween the lead­ers of both coun­tries could even­tu­al­ly fol­low.

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s lat­est en­gage­ment with Venezuela could sig­nal the be­gin­ning of a thaw in re­la­tions be­tween the two coun­tries fol­low­ing a pe­ri­od of height­ened diplo­mat­ic ten­sions that dis­rupt­ed en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion.

Cou­va South MP Bar­ry Padarath has brand­ed crit­ics of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s In­de­pen­dence Day mes­sage as “pre­ten­tious, spine­less in­di­vid­u­als,” as he came to the de­fence of her con­tro­ver­sial ad­dress to Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) sup­port­ers.

With the start of the new aca­d­e­m­ic year just days away, par­ents and busi­ness­es on High Street, San Fer­nan­do, have mixed views on the back-to-school sea­son.