Miss Supranational Trinidad and Tobago, Shenelle Ramkhelawan, has been named as one of five continental winners in the modelling competition at the Miss Supranational 2025 beauty pageant.
She outshone contestants from the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti, Curaçao, the Dominican Republic, and the US Virgin Islands during yesterday’s competition.
This marks the first time a delegate from Trinidad and Tobago has captured a continental modelling title at Miss Supranational.
Other continental winners included NaMakau Nawa of Zambia (Africa), Marvelous Sanyaolu of the United States (Americas), Eshwin Kaur of Malaysia (Asia and Oceania), and Anna Valencia Lakrini of Germany (Europe).
(Source:  The Loop, June 24, 2025)

Trinidad and Tobago students applying for student visas in the US must keep their social media profiles set to public, or risk having their applications denied.
In an update today via social media, the US Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago said the measure is effective immediately:
“Effective immediately, if you are applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa, you are requested to adjust the privacy settings to ‘public’ on your personal social media accounts. This is to facilitate the vetting necessary to establish your identity and admissibility to the United States. The adjudication of visa applications is critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States. ”On Wednesday, the US State Department’s Consular Affairs division shared an update requiring all students applying for F, M or J non-immigrant visas to set their social media profiles to public, to allow for vetting by US officials.“Since 2019, the United States has required visa applicants to provide social media identifiers on immigrant and nonimmigrant visa application forms. We use all available information in our visa screening and vetting to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible to the United States, including those who pose a threat to US national security.”
The directive also applies to other CARICOM territories.
In March, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said over 300 student visas had been revoked over pro-Palestine activities. (Source:  The Loop, June 26, 2025)

WITH about 25,800 migrants and refugees from 35 nationalities registered with the UNHCR National Office in Trinidad and Tobago, the head of the agency, Amanda Solando Badilla, is emphasising the organisation's continued commitment to supporting refugees, despite the shift in operations.
The office will be closed to the public on July 25, with operations to be managed remotely from the UNHCR Multi-Country Office in Panama.
"After that, we continue to support refugees, and we continue to be committed with the government of TT to provide our support. However, the way in which we support will change," Solando Badilla told Newsday in a phone interview.
"We will continue to cover TT from our multi-country office in Panama."WITH about 25,800 migrants and refugees from 35 nationalities registered with the UNHCR National Office in Trinidad and Tobago, the head of the agency, Amanda Solando Badilla, is emphasising the organisation's continued commitment to supporting refugees, despite the shift in operations.
After a validation exercise that concluded in May, 12,600 inactive records were closed, bringing the total active and affected population to 25,800.
The closed records represented people who were no longer in the country or who have not had any contact with the office in the last six months.
The majority of the migrant/refugee population – about 21,000 – are Venezuelans, along with nationals from Cuba, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Bangladesh and other countries.
On June 5, the UN Refugee Agency announced that due to financial constraints, its office in Port of Spain will be closed on August 31.
Solando Badilla is a seasoned humanitarian with more than 15 years of experience.
She arrived in TT four years ago and first held the role of protection officer.
In May 2024, she assumed her current role as head of the agency in TT after the departure of her predecessor, Miriam Aertker.
Solando Badilla's career began in her home country of Costa Rica.
She has since worked with several other countries, including a regional office based in Panama that at the time covered seven countries in Central America, Cuba and Mexico.


Reflecting on World Refugee Day, celebrated annually on June 20, she said: "It helps us to honour the strength and the courage of refugees and our solidarity with them."
"It also helps us to shine a light on the rights, needs and dreams of refugees. It helps to mobilise political will and resources so refugees can truly thrive. We have always created opportunities to support refugees in TT."
She recalled that in the past, the agency had partnered with diplomats, businesses, civil society groups, and refugees to organise events like football matches and entrepreneurship fairs. These gave refugees a chance to showcase their talents and products. Cultural activities were also held to raise awareness about refugees' situations.
Despite the physical office closure, two outpost positions will remain in the country to maintain support for local partners: La Casita Hispanic Cultural Center in Arima and the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) in Chaguanas.
​

She explained that La Casita helps victims of gender-based violence and people in vulnerable situations. They also offer a daycare and provide activities to support early development in children.
CCHR, she added, provides free legal services to all refugees in the country.
"We also support the Children's Authority. We actually support with a case worker and with an interpreter English/Spanish to facilitate the case management of children in the country who do not speak English," Solando Badilla said.
"Through these organisations and our multi-country office in Panama, we also stand ready to support the national government with efforts to develop a national asylum framework. That is something that the country is yet to develop," she said.


Solando Badilla highlighted several milestones over the past years.
She recalled a successful vocational training initiative conducted in collaboration with the Pan American Development Foundation and the local and migrant communities in Chaguanas.
Some of the skills training included air conditioning repair, solar panel installation and food handling.
"It was incredible to see how everybody integrated. The skills training sessions were conducted in both Spanish and English. It also helped refugees to practise their English skills and Trinidadians to practise their Spanish skills," she chuckled as she recalled.
Another significant achievement was the inclusion of the first cohort of refugee/migrant children in national schools.
"The numbers are still low. We would like to continue supporting the national government so more children can be included," she said.
"However, this was an important achievement for these children. It was the first time that they were able to access education in the country."
She was referring to the students under 18, whose parents registered in the historic 2019 Migrant Registration Framework (MRF) and continue to register yearly.
As previously reported in Newsday, many Venezuelans have expressed sadness and uncertainty regarding the office's closure.


Asked about the possibility of the office reopening in TT, she replied: It is hard to say at this time, but we are always committed to supporting it in any way that we can."
About UNHCR
The UNHCR website (www.unhcr.org) states that for 74 years, the organisation has protected the rights of refugees worldwide.
The global organisation prides itself on helping people who are forced to flee their homes due to conflict or persecution.
It works to save lives, defend their rights, and help them build better futures.
The UNHCR was established by the UN General Assembly in 1950, following World War II, to support the millions who had lost their homes.
Today, UNHCR works in over 130 countries.
For further info e-mail UNHCR at ttopo@unhcr.org

Textile artist, actor, carnivalist, multi-media artist and writer Christopher Pinheiro has died, leaving the creative and cultural community in mourning yet again.
Reports are the cultural researcher was found dead in his apartment in Toronto recently, with news reaching TT on Saturday. It is said police discovered his decomposing body.
A profile written by the TT Performing Arts Network on March 24, 2017, said Pinheiro was a Trinidad-born "theatrician, carnvalist," multi-media artist, face and fabric painter, writer, curator and cultural researcher who trained with the Trinidad Theatre Workshop under the late Derek Walcott and the Jamaica School of Drama.
It said Pinheiro was a founding member of the Banyan Television Workshop, where he performed in several episodic TV dramas, and the Callaloo Company. It said he has worked with mas-man Peter Minshall and the Toronto Caribana of Shadowland Theatre Inc.
Minshall, in a quote posted by actress Rhoma Spencer, said, upon hearing of Pinheiro’s passing, “'The loss of a brilliant, unique, most gifted brother. My Goodness. There he goes, gliding along the glorious corridors of the Palace of Eternity, trailing along behind him the most fabulous floaty dhoti they have ever seen. Heaven will never be the same again.”
Pinheiro was a past president of the National Drama Association of TT and a recipient of a Commonwealth Foundation Fellowship in Textile Design.
Dominic Kalipersad, in a tribute on his Facebook page, said in Canada, Pinheiro was the founding artistic director of the Swizzle Stick Theatre in Toronto and formed a troupe of stilt performers to showcase their artform outside of the Carnival arena.
The Performing Arts Network said Pinheiro was a studio artist with b current, a small not-for-profit performance arts company in Toronto, where he developed a module titled “Metaphoria”, which draws on his experience to “explashiate the jollification of the nation, through the fine art of "festivation, in the post-colonial diaspora.”
Pinheiro was with this project from 2010 to 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was a founding curator/presenter at the Toronto Island Film Festival beginning in 2009 and curator-programmer at Caribbean Tales Film Festival from 2014.
Pinheiro is remembered with fondness and love by those who knew him, with many crediting him with helping them develop artistically.(Source:  Newsday, June 30, 2025)

The canvas is Leah Yip Ying’s window to the world, and she’s inviting you to witness its beauty, through her eyes. At just 23, this self-taught artist’s paintings have crossed oceans to Germany, the US, and Canada—a dream come true. “I’m really blessed that my art is being seen worldwide,” she says, proudly.
Leah’s style is vivid and strikingly realistic. Her deft use of light and shadow infuses each piece with vibrant energy and bold contrast. For her, the magic lies in the process. Witnessing her imagination take on a life of its own on canvas is “really amazing”, she says, “being able to imagine and envision something, then put pen to paper and have it there physically”.
But it’s not always smooth sailing.
“Admittedly, sometimes they don’t end up how I would’ve pictured it and I question my entire existence,” she laughs.
This transformative act of creation is “almost addictive”, fueling her drive to evolve. “It only makes me want to do better and keep improving.”
While she paints a variety of subjects, fans of Leah’s work know that landscapes are her favourite. Their tranquility offers a calm she believes “is much needed in these times”. Whether hiking, vacationing in Tobago, or cruising back from the beach, Leah finds creative fuel in the unique beauty of Trinidad and Tobago. “There’s something enchanting in the everyday sights here that I feel compelled to capture and share through my work.”
Her most beloved pieces of art spotlight iconic local scenes like the winding waterways of the Caroni Swamp and the picturesque Queen’s Park Savannah—places that hold both cultural and emotional significance. “
“I think I’ve painted it more than any other place in Trinidad,” she says of the Caroni Swamp, chuckling, “to the point where I think my mother is fed up with the Caroni Swamp!”
A year and a half after graduating from St Joseph’s Convent, St Joseph in 2018, Leah took a bold leap, pursuing art full-time. Rejecting the “starving artist” stereotype, she carved out a sustainable path. Now, she regularly sells three to five pieces a month, often through commissions, ranging from $1,000 to $15,000 based on size and intricacy. She has also participated in three joint art gallery exhibitions that have helped her grow her clientele. “It’s a career that demands passion, persistence, and trust in your creative vision—but it’s absolutely worth it and I’m happy I get to do what I love,” says Leah, “I never had another job. Art was always it.”


Leah’s artistic journey began in childhood, nurtured by a family immersed in creativity. “They have always been supportive of me creating and expressing myself through art, since they themselves are very creative, talented people.”
Their encouragement was unwavering, even when her early works were, in her words, laughable. “With each piece that I showed them they made me feel so uplifted … although, as I look back at some of the work in the early stages, I wonder how they didn’t just crack up laughing,” she says with a grin.
“But in all honesty, their positive responses were essential in lighting that fire that I have for art, and helping me to get better over the years.”
Her creative rhythm is a balance of instinct and structure. From her Chaguanas home studio, she sketches from references, then carefully layers paint on canvas, often sparked by a photo, a place she’s visited, or a fleeting moment that captures her eye.
“It’s instinct in knowing what to paint next,” she explains, “and I take my time to make sure each piece captures not just the scene, but the feeling behind it.”
Most of Leah’s pieces take three to ten days to complete, each stroke a step toward breathing life into her vision. As she refines her voice as an artist, her ambitions grow. She now hopes to share her art with wider audiences through international exhibitions.
“It’s not just about exposure—it’s about sharing the stories and spirit of the Caribbean through my art, and inviting others into the world that inspires me every day.”
(Source:  Daily Express, June 14, 2025). 

IN response to rising concerns about escalating school violence particularly among girls, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Psychologists, Kelly McFarlane, recommends the creation of a national plan to support students’ psychological well-being. Speaking with the Express on Saturday, McFarlane warned that while disciplinary action such as expulsion may have its place, it is far from a solution. “The expulsion approach is one starting point but it cannot be the only or the end point,” she said. “What we need is a national framework for school-based mental health that would help both teachers and students and government ministers manage these issues.”
According to McFarlane, such a framework should include consistent support staff, mental health partnerships, and most critically, training, not just for students, but for the teachers navigating these behavioural challenges on a daily basis.
“Training, training, training,” she emphasised. “Addressing violence requires a whole-school approach, not just punitive measures after the violence has already happened”.
She also advocated for emotional intelligence and psychological well-being to be added to the school curriculum, starting at the primary school level. “We must have mental health on the school curriculum,”


McFarlane stressed, “Just as important as teaching children English and Mathematics, we have to, especially in our environment, teach emotional intelligence.” She added that in the same way sex education and religious instructions are taught to students, emotional intelligence is also needed.
She explained that young people need to be taught not only how to understand and manage their own feelings, but also how to cope when they’re overwhelmed. “This is how you understand your own feelings and other people’s feelings. These are ways to cope,” she said, explaining that a large part of school violence was due to students lacking the appropriate coping mechanisms.


She warned that every act of violence is a cry for help. “Violence signals a deeper unmet need,” she said, adding: “If we don’t take the time to understand and address those needs, schools won’t be safe for the children, the teachers, or the parents.”
She said a national consultation must be the next step. “We have to dig deep to understand what is happening in our cultural context and fix it before it gets worse.”
Role of social media
Within the last two weeks, two violent incidents involving secondary school girls have reignited national concern over school violence and the role of social media. The first took place at South East Port of Spain Secondary School on June 3 and the second at Holy Faith Convent, Couva, on June 10, where a student was dragged outside the school compound and assaulted by girls from the nearby Couva Secondary School. According to reports, both assault had their origin on social media.
The incidents were recorded and widely shared on social media, quickly going viral and drawing hundreds of thousands of views. The videos have sparked public debate about parenting, school discipline, and the online culture where the situation escalates. In the Holy Faith Convent incident, one of the assailants went on social media after the fight justifying her actions while further taunting the victim, as well as the alleged intended target who had escaped. 
In both incidents the victims of the assault had to be hospitalised.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar also weighed in during a recent post-Cabinet news conference, where she vowed to implement stricter penalties for students involved in violent acts. She stated that such students would face expulsion and potentially criminal charges.
In a telephone interview, another clinical psychologist, Denise Jittan-Johnson, pointed out that social media was not just documenting school fights, but was also intensifying them. She warned that the online environment is amplifying aggression among teenage girls, turning ordinary disputes into public performances. 
Social hierarchy
“When they’re posting it online, it really amplifies the drama, the humiliation, and the aggression,” Jittan-Johnson said. She explained that young people are increasingly expressing their emotional distress, insecurities, and lack of healthy coping strategies through both physical fights and online bullying that were often recorded and shared for social validation before and after the violence.
Jittan-Johnson noted that among girls, in particular, the violence is often driven by social hierarchy and the need to maintain status. “Young girls’ conflict resolution is really driven by this social hierarchy,” she said. “It’s that kind of emotional one-upping, and the online posting gives it a longer life.” This, she believes, helps explain the disturbing trend of group attacks, where several girls gang up on one. “You see these group dynamics...group effort kind of bullying,” she said. “It comes from a space of trying to secure your tribe. The ‘us’ against ‘them’ type of mentality”.
But while families often come under fire for the school violence, Jittan-Johnson emphasised that home life is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. “It’s a larger socio-emotional, socio-economic kind of need,” she said, adding that unstable home environments, trauma, and a lack of role models for conflict resolution all play a part.
Also weighing in on the situation, Dr Neemal Gookool, head of the Psychiatry Association of Trinidad and Tobago, says the disturbing trend of schoolgirl violence is being amplified by the digital age—where social media platforms reward aggression with attention, shares, and status.
Speaking via telephone, Gookool said platforms like TikTok and Instagram have created a culture where teenage aggression is glorified. “Social media kind of rewards this aggressive behaviour...students want to go viral,” he explained. “You’re seeing fights not just happening, but being filmed and shared as part of this performative cycle.”
He believes that adolescent girls, in particular, are now using violence to establish dominance and climb social hierarchies within their peer groups. “It’s about securing social hierarchy,” he said. “Many girls are battling for acceptance, and fights are becoming a way to assert that status and be known.”
But while public outrage has led to calls for swift punishment—including expulsions and even criminal charges—Gookool warned against blanket responses. Instead, he urged school authorities and policymakers to assess each case carefully. “Justice doesn’t happen in a single step,” he said. “Each fight needs to be dissected and understood. What exactly led to this? What transpired before the incident? These are questions that need answers.”
(Source:  Daily Express, June 16, 2025)