Trinidad and Tobago

[phkrause]

An offshore oil spill has caused a ‘national emergency,’ Trinidad and Tobago prime minister says

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister said a large oil spill near the twin-island nation in the eastern Caribbean has caused a “national emergency” as crews struggled to contain the oil already coating numerous beaches on Tobago’s southwest coast.

https://apnews.com/article/trinidad-tobago-oil-spill-286ca6d8cae9a0981e0a34bb67f20253?

[phkrause]

Fishermen in Trinidad and Tobago fear for their lives and jobs after US strikes in the Caribbean Fishermen in Trinidad and Tobago fear a U.S. military strike in the Caribbean could kill them and destroy their livelihoods as the country finds itself entangled in the net of a geopolitical face-off between the U.S. and Venezuela. Read more.

Why this matters: Trinidad and Tobago is a nation with a multimillion-dollar fishing industry employing thousands of fishermen who cast their nets almost daily to sustain themselves and their families. Forced to fish in shallower waters for fear of being taken for drug-smuggling vessels, fishermen said the heightened tension is drying up their livelihoods, as they are now catching fewer fish.   Trump declared in a memo that the U.S. was in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels in the Caribbean, alleging they are trying to bring “deadly poison” to U.S. shores. And on Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he had ordered another strike on a small boat he accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela, the fourth since revelations that Trump told lawmakers he was treating drug traffickers as unlawful combatants.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ US Treasury sanctions Mexican companies accused of aiding Sinaloa cartel’s fentanyl production   South American trade bloc orders Peru to crack down on mercury trafficking and illegal gold mining