Fire One Fire­works will close all its out­lets on In­de­pen­dence Day, align­ing with the Gov­ern­ment’s de­c­la­ra­tion of a Na­tion­al Day of Prayer and Re­flec­tion in place of the tra­di­tion­al pa­rade and fire­works dis­play.

For­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al, Garvin Nicholas, says the Trinidad and To­ba­go gov­ern­ment should not read­i­ly aban­don its clos­est al­lies to ap­pease “those who would eas­i­ly dis­card us”, as he ques­tioned Port-of-Spain’s an­nounce­ment that it ful­ly sup­ports the de­ci­sion of the Unit­ed States to de­ploy “mil­i­tary as­sets” in­to the Caribbean re­gion to de­stroy what it de­scribed as “the ter­ror­ist drug car­tels”.

U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s spe­cial en­voy Kei­th Kel­logg said in Kyiv on Mon­day that of­fi­cials are “work­ing very, very hard” on ef­forts to end the three-year war be­tween Rus­sia and Ukraine, as a lack of progress fu­els doubts about whether a peace set­tle­ment could be on the hori­zon.

The Na­tion­al Ram­leela Coun­cil of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NRCTT) is seek­ing $1 mil­lion to stage this year’s cel­e­bra­tions.

The Dwayne Bra­vo Foun­da­tion is team­ing up with crick­et icons Kieron Pol­lard and Nicholas Pooran to host its first char­i­ty golf tour­na­ment.

To­ba­go has record­ed its fifth mur­der for the year, af­ter 26-year-old shop own­er Ky­lon Mal­colm was shot dead at his busi­ness place on Pem­broke Bay Road, Pem­broke, on Sun­day night.

Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Bar­ry Padarath has an­nounced plans to re­in­state cul­tur­al and re­li­gious events across state en­ter­pris­es.

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has bro­ken his si­lence on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s sur­prise week­end an­nounce­ment that her gov­ern­ment sup­ports the pres­ence of Unit­ed States war­ships in the Caribbean and would even al­low them ac­cess to Trinidad and To­ba­go soil if Venezuela were to at­tack Guyana.

In­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions ex­perts say Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s de­ci­sion to back any im­pend­ing Unit­ed States ac­tion against Venezuela could have dire con­se­quences for this coun­try, in­clud­ing mak­ing T&T a tar­get in any con­flict.

The Gov­ern­ment last week at­tempt­ed to pres­sure the Group CEO of ma­jor­i­ty state-owned First Cit­i­zens Group, Karen Dar­basie, to re­sign im­me­di­ate­ly, a move that was re­pu­di­at­ed by the board of the bank, which agreed to al­low her to take her ac­cu­mu­lat­ed va­ca­tion leave from Au­gust 21 (Fri­day) and re­tire from First Cit­i­zens on Oc­to­ber 21.

Re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert Dr Garvin Heer­ah says with Unit­ed States war­ships bound for the re­gion with a man­date to tack­le drug car­tels in neigh­bour­ing Venezuela, the Gov­ern­ment must now strate­gise on the next step should things get worse.

Al­though not mak­ing any of­fi­cial state­ment on T&T as yet, the Venezue­lan gov­ern­ment has harsh­ly crit­i­cised Guyana’s gov­ern­ment for sup­port­ing the Unit­ed States’ de­ci­sion to send mil­i­tary as­sets to the Caribbean.