Caribbean Air­lines says it was con­tact­ed on Oc­to­ber 23 by the Trinidad and To­ba­go High Com­mis­sion in Ja­maica and the Min­istry of Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion and Skills Train­ing re­gard­ing pos­si­ble flight arrange­ments for Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als study­ing at The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies cam­pus­es in Ja­maica, ahead of Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa.

For the sec­ond time in his role as At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, John Je­re­mie, SC, has over­seen the ap­point­ment of a Chief Jus­tice, this time fol­low­ing the sud­den res­ig­na­tion of for­mer Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie af­ter 17 years in of­fice.

As the USS Grave­ly war­ship ar­rives at the Port-of-Spain Port this morn­ing, Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley yes­ter­day ex­pressed con­cern at “men­ac­ing mil­i­tary” US ves­sels across the Caribbean Sea. She has called for di­a­logue to pre­vent war from start­ing.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has hit back at for­mer prime min­is­ters of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) who have signed a “Zone of Peace” de­c­la­ra­tion, say­ing re­gion­al lead­ers do not un­der­stand the lev­el of crime this coun­try has had to en­dure.

The fourth an­nu­al To­ba­go Car­ni­val burst with colour as thou­sands of mas­quer­aders and spec­ta­tors flood­ed the streets be­hind bands like Fog An­gels, Icon­ic Mas, Bago Limers, and Jade Mon­key. Paint, mud, oil, and pow­der blend­ed with the rain, but noth­ing could damp­en the mood. So­ca thun­dered, rev­ellers chipped, and the is­land erupt­ed in­to pure cel­e­bra­tion.

Chair­man of the Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion Chair­man (PSC) Win­ston Rud­der says the Gov­ern­ment is of­fer­ing con­tract po­si­tions in their re­cruit­ment dri­ve. As such, he ex­plained, it is le­gal for the Gov­ern­ment to ad­ver­tise and of­fer jobs as part of the Na­tion­al Re­cruit­ment Dri­ve via Em­ployTT.

Ja­maica’s for­mer longest-serv­ing Prime Min­is­ter PJ Pat­ter­son has ex­pressed deep con­cern over the US mil­i­tary build-up in the Caribbean.

Ar­gen­tine jour­nal­ist Mar­cos Sal­ga­do, based in Venezuela, is warn­ing that T&T has be­come a “dan­ger” to the en­tire Caribbean re­gion af­ter al­low­ing the Unit­ed States to car­ry out mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions in the wa­ters of the Gulf of Paria, a mar­itime space bor­der­ing T&T with Venezuela and oth­er Cari­com coun­tries.

More than 260 T&T stu­dents are grap­pling with fear and un­cer­tain­ty as they shel­ter on the UWI Mona cam­pus in Ja­maica as Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa ap­proach­es. Mean­while, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Gov­ern­ment has been co­or­di­nat­ing re­lief and repa­tri­a­tion ef­forts.

The longer the on­go­ing mil­i­tary ten­sion be­tween the Unit­ed States and Venezuela con­tin­ues, the greater the po­ten­tial for T&T to be di­rect­ly af­fect­ed.

About 350 con­tract work­ers at Nu­trien have been sent home fol­low­ing a shut­down at its Point Lisas fa­cil­i­ty, af­ter talks be­tween the com­pa­ny and Na­tion­al En­er­gy, chaired by Ger­ald Ramdeen, reached a stale­mate.

Re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert Dr Garvin Heer­ah has called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to im­me­di­ate­ly ad­dress the na­tion fol­low­ing the ar­rival of the USS Grave­ly, a US Navy de­stroy­er, in Trinidad and To­ba­go amid ris­ing re­gion­al ten­sions be­tween the Unit­ed States and Venezuela.