De­spite crit­i­cism over her de­ci­sion to is­sue a spe­cial In­de­pen­dence Day mes­sage di­rect­ed at mem­bers of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has again used a na­tion­al hol­i­day to de­liv­er a mes­sage specif­i­cal­ly to the par­ty’s mem­ber­ship, this time on Re­pub­lic Day.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Air Trans­port As­so­ci­a­tion (IA­TA) is call­ing on the An­tigua & Bar­bu­da gov­ern­ment to clar­i­fy a pro­posed plan to raise air pas­sen­ger tax­es for in­ter­na­tion­al trav­ellers. On June 24, the Gas­ton Browne-led ad­min­is­tra­tion ap­proved a US$10 in­crease in the Pas­sen­ger Head Tax for all in­ter­na­tion­al pas­sen­gers ar­riv­ing in and de­part­ing An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, in­creas­ing the tax from US$40 to US$50 per pas­sen­ger (one way). Trav­el with­in the CARI­COM re­gion will be ex­empt from this pro­posed in­crease.

Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark used his cast­ing vote ear­ly this morn­ing to break a 15-15 dead­lock and se­cure pas­sage of the Gov­ern­ment’s Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, fol­low­ing a tense con­clu­sion to de­bate in the Up­per House.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is no longer per­sona non gra­ta in Venezuela, with Cara­cas now de­clar­ing her “per­sona gra­ta” fol­low­ing a meet­ing with act­ing Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez in New York yes­ter­day.

Less than a year af­ter ad­min­is­ter­ing the oath of of­fice to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s top ju­di­cial of­fi­cer, Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark will to­day stand along­side Chief Jus­tice Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh and for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Dr Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan as re­cip­i­ents of the na­tion’s high­est award, the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ORTT).

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is call­ing on cit­i­zens to put the safe­ty and fu­ture of their chil­dren ahead of per­son­al and par­ti­san in­ter­ests, while Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is warn­ing that democ­ra­cy is un­der at­tack as Trinidad and To­ba­go marks 50 years as a re­pub­lic.

Cul­tur­al icon and Moko Jumbie Mas­ter Ju­nior Bis­nath, whose life’s work has kept hun­dreds of young peo­ple off the streets, will re­ceive the Hum­ming­bird Medal Bronze for his con­tri­bu­tion to cul­ture.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie has ro­bust­ly de­fend­ed Gov­ern­ment’s pro­posed Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill in the Sen­ate, re­ject­ing claims that the leg­is­la­tion is root­ed in racism or re­sem­bles apartheid and in­sist­ing that any lim­i­ta­tions on in­di­vid­ual rights are jus­ti­fied by the threat posed by vi­o­lent crime and gang ac­tiv­i­ty.

In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors are ques­tion­ing whether the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill (SOB) leg­is­la­tion con­tains ad­e­quate safe­guards against the mis­use of its ex­tra­or­di­nary pow­ers.

The Pub­lic Pro­cure­ment and Dis­pos­al of Pub­lic Prop­er­ty (Amend­ment) Bill, 2026, will ben­e­fit the “small man” di­rect­ly and in­di­rect­ly, im­prove the im­ple­men­ta­tion of Gov­ern­ment pro­grammes and stim­u­late Trinidad and To­ba­go’s econ­o­my, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo said yes­ter­day.

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment’s Pub­lic Pro­cure­ment and Dis­pos­al of Pub­lic Prop­er­ty (Amend­ment) Bill, 2026, is geared to­wards as­sist­ing in re­pay­ing the UNC’s fi­nanciers, who can now be giv­en con­tracts with­out pro­cure­ment over­sight, for­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young claimed yes­ter­day.

The restart of the Guaracara re­fin­ery is be­ing ham­pered, hin­dered and im­paired by some of the pro­cure­ment reg­u­la­tions, and the Gov­ern­ment will have no part of it, ac­cord­ing to En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal.