Venezuela is not budg­ing and in­stead adopt­ing a wait-and-see ap­proach fol­low­ing Mon­day’s an­nounce­ment of the rein­car­na­tion of the Drag­on gas deal with Trinidad and To­ba­go. Well-placed sources in the Nicolás Maduro ad­min­is­tra­tion told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that the re­cent rhetoric by both T&T and the Unit­ed States against Venezuela has been in­sult­ing. The sources said a dif­fer­ent ap­proach is re­quired from both na­tions in or­der for the Maduro regime to change its cur­rent stance in or­der for any deal to go for­ward.

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal has re­fused to say who will lead ne­go­ti­a­tions with Venezuela over the stalled Drag­on gas project, in­sist­ing on­ly that “the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go is one Gov­ern­ment.”

The US State De­part­ment is not mov­ing from its po­si­tion that Nico­las Maduro is not the le­git­i­mate leader of Venezuela.

For­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter Stu­art Young says the Gov­ern­ment’s rhetoric to­wards Venezuela in re­cent months will in­flu­ence ne­go­ti­a­tions for the Drag­on gas deal.

Shell, which has been T&T’s part­ner in the Drag­on gas deal, is re­main­ing silent on the lat­est move to re­vive the project.

Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo says cel­e­brat­ing the work done by women should not be tak­en for grant­ed, and that women over the years have not got­ten their due ac­knowl­edge­ment.

While the Gov­ern­ment has not yet an­nounced when the 2025-2026 na­tion­al bud­get will be pre­sent­ed, for­mer fi­nance min­is­ter Colm Im­bert sus­pects it could be de­liv­ered next Mon­day.

Bar­ba­dos, Do­mini­ca, Be­lize, and St Vin­cent and the Grenadines have thrown open their bor­ders for free move­ment of each oth­er’s cit­i­zens. But while the de­ci­sion has been hailed as a land­mark for re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion, ex­perts sug­gest T&T is hold­ing back be­cause of its frag­ile econ­o­my and mi­gra­tion pres­sures.

The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice is be­ing ac­cused of tar­get­ing na­tion­al award re­cip­i­ent Ter­rance David, fol­low­ing an ear­ly morn­ing raid at his Sea Lots, Port-of-Spain home yes­ter­day.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has called on the Gov­ern­ment to hold “prop­er” dis­cus­sions with work­ers at the Break­fast Shed to find a mu­tu­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial so­lu­tion to their dis­pute with the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of T&T (Ude­cott).

For­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young has de­fend­ed the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ad­min­is­tra­tion’s han­dling of bor­der clo­sures dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, dis­miss­ing crit­i­cisms by for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan as “un­ac­cept­able” and po­lit­i­cal­ly mo­ti­vat­ed.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has de­fend­ed her re­cent par­tic­i­pa­tion at the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly (UN­GA), amid ques­tions over her role and the pur­pose of her trip.