Robinson
Independent investigative journalism & global affairs
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All reporting
63 reports
International Affairs · Investigative Analysis
War-crimes allegations, emergency powers and the legal risks facing Trinidad and Tobago
Mexico and Spain have challenged Trinidad and Tobago’s use of emergency powers. Across the Caribbean, US boat strikes raise a harder question: when can a security partner become legally responsible for the operations it helps?
NOV. 10, 2026
Justice & Rights · Visual Analysis
Same-sex intimacy is not a crime: how Jason Jones defeated Trinidad and Tobago’s law
The Jason Jones judgment is not only a verdict on a colonial inheritance. It is a reckoning with the law Trinidad and Tobago made for itself — and the constitutional rights that law could no longer defeat.
NOV. 10, 2026
Commentary · Faith & Society
Is wishing your neighbour well a betrayal of faith? A message to Jaamia Madinatul Uloom on festival greetings
A Marabella institute says Muslims must not greet neighbours of other faiths on their religious festivals — Christmas, Divali or any other. Its argument rests on an interpretation, not an explicit verse, and some of the most senior Muslim authorities in the world reach the opposite conclusion.
NOV. 9, 2026
International Investigation · Paraguay
More than US$800 million in public money, a US$2 million mansion and a secret Israeli biometric vault: the scandal that brought down Paraguay's President
Paraguay's former President is charged over the collapse of a bank that held hundreds of millions in public money and lent him the money for his lakeside house. Inside that house, behind a false wall, prosecutors found a vault they still cannot open.
NOV. 9, 2026
World Affairs · Data analysis
Lame duck in Washington, exposed in Port of Spain: the Republican collapse and the Government that bet on Trump
Kansas last elected a Democratic senator in 1932, Texas in 1988. Both did on Tuesday. The data show how deep the Republican losses ran, how fast the party has turned on Trump and Hegseth over Iran, and why a Government in Port of Spain that staked its foreign policy on one President now faces a Congress run by the party it derided.
NOV. 5, 2026
Foreign Affairs · Analysis
Trump's pen, America's verdict: the cost of tying Trinidad and Tobago to one man in Washington
Eight months after Donald Trump handed Kamla Persad-Bissessar one of his signing pens, American voters rejected his party and the war in Iran that her Government endorsed within hours. The record shows a foreign policy built around one American President, and what it has cost with CARICOM and at the UN.
NOV. 4, 2026
Foreign Affairs · Investigation
From Country Club to American fortress: inside the half-billion-dollar U.S. Embassy rising in Maraval
For two centuries the land at Long Circular Road and Saddle Road belonged to Trinidad's planter class and then to its club class. Washington is now spending more than half a billion U.S. dollars to turn it into one of the most heavily engineered buildings in the country.
NOV. 4, 2026
Foreign Affairs · Analysis
We helped build the International Criminal Court. Now we are tearing at the fabric of our own legacy
Trinidad and Tobago did not merely endorse the International Criminal Court. Through Arthur N. R. Robinson, it helped bring the Court into existence. The abstention of 2 November is therefore more than a diplomatic vote: it asks whether the country is retreating from principles it helped establish.
NOV. 3, 2026
Public Money · Visual Analysis
Budget 2027: what’s going up?
Digital subscriptions, high-use electricity bills and selected imports face new charges. Business taxes and compliance fees add another layer. Follow the measures, the rates and their proposed start dates.
OCT. 14, 2026
Public Money · Investigative Economic Analysis
Behind Budget 2027: a contracting economy and the geography of public money
The Government’s own documents forecast weaker output, record rising unemployment and expose a sharper concentration of municipal capital funding in 2027. The figures test the promise of recovery against the money allocated and the spending delivered.
OCT. 13, 2026
Governance · Cartographic Investigation
Trinidad’s municipal map is about to be redrawn
The proposed move from 14 corporations to 17 would redistribute administration, representation and public resources across the island. The map shows where the balance changes.
OCT. 5, 2026
Foreign Affairs · Strategic Analysis
The plan to make Trinidad and Tobago Israel's primary Caribbean partner — and Port of Spain a Jewish centre
A Security Council seat creates the opening. Geography, gas, diplomatic investment and a proposed Jewish institutional base could make the relationship last well beyond 2028.
OCT. 5, 2026
Governance · Explainer
Beyond the drinking age: what the 2026 alcohol, cannabis, gambling and tobacco Bill really changes
The debate has focused on 21 and 25. The Bill goes further: new $50,000 offences for younger people, liability for children over ten, fixed-penalty and rehabilitation systems, and prison terms of up to 30 years for sellers and operators.
SEP. 30, 2026
State Power · Investigation
When the Senate tied 15–15, Wade Mark cast the vote that passed two Government Bills
The controversy is not whether the Senate President has a casting vote. He does. The question is whether that vote should be used to make a final legislative decision when the Senate itself cannot produce a majority.
SEP. 30, 2026
State Power · Investigation
A new balance of power: how recent Bills and emergency powers are changing rights, press freedom and public oversight in Trinidad and Tobago
How recent Bills and emergency powers are changing access to information, press freedom, policing and public oversight in Trinidad and Tobago.
SEP. 29, 2026
Agriculture · Investigation
In 1997, T&T rejected these seed rules to protect farmers. In 2026, it is adopting them. What changed?
In 1997 the Government told the Senate that UPOV 1991 “erodes the farmers’ privilege” and chose the older convention. The same regime is now being adopted.
SEP. 27, 2026
Caribbean Affairs · Analysis
Mia Mottley’s bigger argument: the global financial system is pricing vulnerability backwards
Barbados is trying to turn the cost of vulnerability into a case for cheaper, longer and more useful finance. The test is whether the architecture changes—not merely its language.
SEP. 27, 2026
Foreign Affairs · Investigation
T&T stayed for Netanyahu's UN speech as ties with Israel grew more active
There is no official tally of the UN walkout. Dozens of delegates left, more than 100 were reported to have departed, and Trinidad and Tobago stayed amid a marked rise in bilateral contact with Israel.
SEP. 27, 2026
Governance · Commentary
Calling senators ‘satanic’ is not an argument. It is an attack on the constitutional check they represent.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar asked the United Nations to trust independent institutions abroad, then denounced independent judgment at home. The contradiction is larger than one ugly phrase.
SEP. 26, 2026
Public Money · Investigation
The watchdog may still investigate. The Procurement Bill would stop it from biting.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Procurement Bill reaches far beyond faster paperwork: it widens exemptions, restricts the regulator’s remedies and narrows the time suppliers have to challenge an award.
SEP. 26, 2026
Governance · Analysis
Trinidad and Tobago is giving the State more power. Trust is the harder question.
Two Bills, considered within days of each other, would expand coercive authority and loosen constraints on public spending. The common question is who can stop the State when something goes wrong.
SEP. 26, 2026
Latest Feature · Press Freedom
Press freedom is not a privilege for journalists — it is a protection for the public
Press freedom is not about protecting journalists from scrutiny. It is about preserving the public’s ability to scrutinise power — particularly when State authority expands and independent safeguards are weakened.
SEP. 25, 2026
National Security
The permit economy: what a closed area does to a block
Seven policing districts. A permit to enter or leave your own street. A $50,000 fine for getting it wrong. The Special Operations Bill’s heaviest costs fall on vendors, shift workers and anyone who talks to a reporter.
SEP. 23, 2026
Caribbean Affairs
Extrajudicial at sea: 234 dead, and a region that will not say the word
A United Nations rapporteur has called the Caribbean boat strikes serial extrajudicial killings. Two Saint Lucians are dead. Trinidad and Tobago declines to characterise any of it.
SEP. 23, 2026
Public Finance
Twelve ambulances, $17 million, and a regulator still investigating
A $5.5 million tender for Isuzu ambulances became a $17 million fleet of Force Traveller vans, none of them in service by last November. The Procurement Regulator opened an investigation ten months ago. It has not reported.
SEP. 22, 2026
National Security
Special Operations Bill: Kamla says UNC areas will get “hard policing”
The Prime Minister will authorise special operations in 26 UNC-held constituencies, 70 local government districts and two TPP-held seats. What it means for your home, business and freedom.
SEP. 21, 2026
Press Freedom
What the new Special Operations Bill could mean for press freedom
Clause 15 allows warrantless searches and the seizure of articles and documents, with no express protection for confidential journalistic sources or material.
SEP. 20, 2026
Press Freedom
The courts took six years to protect a source. The Bill would take the protection back.
In April the Court of Appeal held the police search of a newsroom unconstitutional. Five months later Parliament is asked to authorise searches with no warrant at all.
SEP. 19, 2026
Press Freedom · Court Reporting
Mannette v Robinson: what the High Court actually found
Justice James found the broadcast concerned matters of substantial public concern, while distinguishing that wider public interest from the evidence, verification and source particularisation relating specifically to Mannette.
SEP. 16, 2026
Public Finance
The $16 billion year: what the Procurement Regulator could not count
Public bodies reported $16.0 billion in contracts in a single year. Fewer than two in three filed the returns the law requires. The real number is unknown, and that is the finding.
SEP. 12, 2026
Public Finance
Dragon: the country's biggest energy bet, and nobody will publish the terms
A replacement licence was announced in October 2025. A year later the revenue split is still unpublished, the drilling tender is out, and the legal basis rests on a government installed after a foreign capture.
AUG. 6, 2026
Justice
Hadeeds remain in prison after late-night Court of Appeal stay
The court sat late and stayed its own order for immediate release to house arrest, pending a Privy Council ruling. Justice reviewed, or justice delayed?
JUL. 16, 2026
Government
Government source: “The foundations are about to be shaken”
A Government source describes an intelligence-led campaign against organised crime and the financial and business interests believed to support it.
JUN. 25, 2026
International
Human rights are not defended selectively
Gaza, Sudan, Congo, the Uyghurs, the Rohingya and Armenia: the same principles apply to each of them, whether or not it is convenient.
SEP. 24, 2025
Public Finance
Tobago's ambulances: the questions put to the TRHA before anyone went on air
A tender for Isuzu ambulances produced a fleet of Force Traveller vans. Before the story reached the airwaves, the questions were in writing on the Chief Executive's desk.
JUN. 2, 2025
Governance
From accounting error to political scandal: the $2.6 billion controversy explained
No money was stolen, and the Privy Council case was never about missing funds. The story is how a reporting error was detected, corrected and handled, and what the courts have and have not decided.
FEB. 6, 2025
International
The World Court finds the occupation unlawful
An ICJ advisory opinion says Israel's continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful and places obligations on every state.
JUL. 20, 2024
Caribbean Affairs
Trinidad and Tobago recognises the State of Palestine
Port of Spain follows Barbados and Jamaica within a fortnight. The region's position has shifted fast.
MAY 3, 2024
National Security
Government confirms fuel oil is leaking off Tobago
The Government now says the substance leaking from the Gulfstream is fuel oil, not crude. That supports the cargo assessment tested with TankerTrackers on 18 February. It settles nothing about the route, the owner or the purpose of the voyage.
FEB. 24, 2024
National Security
Names are circulating for the Gulfstream's owner. I am not publishing them.
Social media posts are naming possible owners of the barge and tug. I have not been able to confirm any of them, so I am not reporting them. The investigation continues.
FEB. 21, 2024
National Security
The Gulfstream: a barge without a number, a tug that vanished and a spill no one has claimed
Twelve days after oil came ashore at Cove, the barge has a name, the tug has a name, and nobody has accepted responsibility. What is known, what is not, and the questions the State has yet to answer.
FEB. 19, 2024
Watch
On Good Morning Tobago: what the tracking data says about the oil spill
Pearce Robinson joins Kandace Jackson on Tobago Updates to discuss the Gulfstream barge, the dark days in Venezuelan waters, the cargo, and why the response has not gone to Tier 3.
FEB. 19, 2024
National Security
Thirteen days dark: what TankerTrackers told me about the tug, the bay and the cargo
I put detailed questions to TankerTrackers.com about the tug's missing transponder signal, its stay in Pozuelo Bay, the likely cargo and the vessel's past names. Their answers sharpen the questions the State has not answered.
FEB. 18, 2024
National Security
What the satellite images show, and what they do not
Open-source imagery shows a tug and barge together and an apparent slick south of Tobago. It identifies the vessels more firmly than the official account has. It does not yet say who sent them or why.
FEB. 16, 2024
National Security
The Tobago oil spill story is not adding up
The official account places the tug and barge on a voyage toward Guyana. Open-source tracking material tells a less tidy story. The sequence needs explaining.
FEB. 15, 2024
International
The ICJ orders Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza
The World Court found South Africa's claims plausible enough to order provisional measures. It did not rule on whether genocide is taking place.
JAN. 27, 2024
International
Gaza's dead journalists, and the evidence war leaves behind
Each name requires verification. Each strike requires investigation. The unprecedented toll cannot be reduced to a number or converted automatically into a finding of intent.
JAN. 8, 2024
International
Gaza: the General Assembly calls for a truce
The UN General Assembly voted 120 to 14 for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. For small states, the rules at stake are the same rules that protect them.
OCT. 28, 2023
Press Freedom
Haiti's reporters were killed, displaced and left without a State
The Inter-American press-freedom rapporteur recorded three journalists killed in seven weeks and about twelve forced from Carrefour-Feuilles.
OCT. 3, 2023
Press Freedom
The spyware in a Dominican journalist's phone
Forensic analysis found Pegasus infections on Nuria Piera's device. It did not establish who ordered the surveillance.
JUN. 1, 2023
Press Freedom
Shireen Abu Akleh: the evidence pointed to the soldiers' position
The UN Human Rights Office examined the scene, recordings and witnesses. It found the shots that killed the Al Jazeera correspondent came from Israeli forces.
JUN. 24, 2022
Press Freedom
Eighty-four deadlines, and no answer for two murdered journalists
Ten years after Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi were killed at home in Dhaka, UN experts described a pervasive culture of impunity.
FEB. 11, 2022
Governance
Safe zones: public policy set by press conference
Restaurants, bars and gyms can reopen only to vaccinated customers. The rules arrived faster than the regulations behind them.
OCT. 12, 2021
National Security
A public health emergency, enforced as a security one
The state of emergency declared on 15 May puts a 9pm curfew in place across Trinidad and Tobago. How the police use their powers under it needs watching.
MAY 16, 2021
Caribbean Affairs
Small states at the back of the vaccine queue
The first Covax doses reached Trinidad and Tobago more than three months after mass vaccination began in Britain. Barbados sent doses of its own before then.
APR. 2, 2021
Press Freedom
Hopewell Chin'ono: arrest after reporting the contracts
Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin'ono reported alleged Covid-19 procurement corruption, then spent six weeks in custody on an incitement charge.
SEP. 2, 2020
Press Freedom
A journalist disappeared in Thailand and surfaced in a Vietnamese prison
The official accounts never closed the gap between Truong Duy Nhat's disappearance in Bangkok and his reappearance in Vietnamese custody.
AUG. 28, 2020
Governance
Coming home by exemption: a system with no published rules
Stranded nationals must apply to the Minister of National Security to return. The criteria for approval have not been made public.
JUL. 14, 2020
Press Freedom
Maria Ressa and the danger of making an old article newly criminal
A Philippine court treated a correction to a 2012 article as republication after the cybercrime law took effect. The result extended criminal exposure backward in time.
JUN. 15, 2020
Press Freedom
Nigeria detained a publisher before the protest began
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Omoyele Sowore's arrest violated protections for expression, assembly and a fair trial.
MAY 1, 2020
Governance
Borders close at midnight, and nationals abroad are told to wait
Trinidad and Tobago shut its borders to everyone, citizens included. No published procedure yet exists for those left outside.
MAR. 22, 2020
Press Freedom
Khashoggi: when a consulate became the scene of a killing
A United Nations inquiry found Jamal Khashoggi's death was a deliberate extrajudicial execution for which Saudi Arabia was responsible. Accountability stopped short of the officials the inquiry said should be investigated.
JUN. 19, 2019
Press Freedom
Truth and the Commonwealth: what a morning with Sir David Spiegelhalter taught me about misinformation
A reflection on the BBC World Service documentary recorded ahead of CHOGM 2018, and what the fight against false information demands of journalism and of every reader.
APR. 18, 2018