The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC) is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to clear­ly ar­tic­u­late why there is a need to ex­tend the State of Emer­gency, rais­ing an alarm over why the mea­sure needs to be con­tin­ued.

Po­lice are prob­ing the mur­der of a man whose burnt body was dis­cov­ered in­side a ve­hi­cle along Moo­nan Road in Waller­field over the week­end. 

To­ba­go Ho­tel and Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion (TH­TA) pres­i­dent Regi­nald Mac Lean is warn­ing the To­ba­go MPs about vot­ing in favour of an ex­ten­sion to the on­go­ing state of emer­gency (SoE).

For­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Dr Jack Warn­er is warn­ing that while a State of Emer­gency may help a coun­try sur­vive pe­ri­ods of cri­sis, so­ci­eties can­not thrive in­def­i­nite­ly un­der emer­gency rule.

Even with the ar­rest of a sus­pect in the bru­tal mur­der of his daugh­ter, the griev­ing fa­ther of 12-year-old Mer­cedez Layne says noth­ing will ease the pain or erase the vi­o­lent man­ner in which she lost her life.

Child­hood Jus­tice Col­lec­tive (CJC) con­venor Mar­cus Kissoon is call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to recom­mit to a child-cen­tred ap­proach to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment, amid grow­ing con­cerns over the num­ber of chil­dren be­ing af­fect­ed by vi­o­lence and abuse.

The As­so­ci­a­tion of Maxi Taxi Op­er­a­tors is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to crack down on 'PH' dri­vers, fol­low­ing the trag­ic death of 12-year-old Mer­cedez Layne, whose life was cut short in cir­cum­stances linked to a PH (pri­vate hire) taxi dri­ver.

The Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty has is­sued 40 Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDOs) un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2026, re­sult­ing in the de­ten­tion of in­di­vid­u­als al­leged to be linked to or­gan­ised crim­i­nal net­works, gang lead­er­ship struc­tures and firearm-re­lat­ed vi­o­lence across Trinidad and To­ba­go.

A Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice of­fi­cer has been grant­ed bail af­ter be­ing charged with forgery and mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice.

Labour Min­is­ter Leroy Bap­tiste has clar­i­fied that the $2.8 bil­lion be­ing sought by the Gov­ern­ment in the mid-year bud­get re­view is in­tend­ed to fund salary in­creas­es for pub­lic sec­tor work­ers whose unions have al­ready con­clud­ed wage ne­go­ti­a­tions, and not for new salary set­tle­ments.

Econ­o­mist Dr Roger Ho­sein is urg­ing cit­i­zens to tem­per their ex­pec­ta­tions as the Gov­ern­ment pre­pares to seek an ad­di­tion­al $2.8 bil­lion in the up­com­ing mid-year bud­get re­view to ad­dress wage ne­go­ti­a­tions and out­stand­ing salary pay­ments.

More than 40 ven­dors op­er­at­ing at the Cross Cross­ing Vend­ing Zone in San Fer­nan­do have sought le­gal ad­vice, af­ter re­ceiv­ing no­tice that they would be barred from sell­ing for two weeks to fa­cil­i­tate main­te­nance works in the area.