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.

As Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa takes aim at Ja­maica, the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs says it has been work­ing with the Min­istry of Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion and Skills Train­ing and Caribbean Air­lines to co­or­di­nate ef­forts to as­sist na­tion­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly stu­dents, seek­ing to re­turn home. It al­so says the arrange­ment en­sures that those wish­ing to leave are giv­en pri­or­i­ty on the na­tion­al car­ri­er.

Leighan­na Den­nis, Miss Princes Town del­e­gate in the Miss World T&T 2025 Pageant and founder of Flow­ers for Women, Inc., host­ed the lo­cal edi­tion of her ad­vo­ca­cy ini­tia­tive, “Pads & Pi­lates,” on Oc­to­ber 11 at the Ste Madeleine Golf Course in San Fer­nan­do.

Word is due next week on whether or not Grena­da’s Gov­ern­ment would al­low tem­po­rary US radar equip­ment on that is­land, and 112 or­gan­i­sa­tions of Caribbean women have called on Cari­com chair­man An­drew Hol­ness and re­gion­al lead­ers to sup­port Grena­da’s pos­si­ble re­fusal of this re­quest.

For­mer Trinidad and To­ba­go prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and ten oth­er for­mer Cari­com heads of state have urged ad­her­ence to the Caribbean’s con­sis­tent pat­tern of re­frain­ing from per­mit­ting mil­i­tary as­sets in­to the re­gion that have the po­ten­tial to lure the area in­to con­flicts.

The US mil­i­tary is send­ing the largest war­ship ever con­struct­ed to the wa­ters off South Amer­i­ca, mark­ing the lat­est es­ca­la­tion in the buildup of mil­i­tary forces in the re­gion.

Tight se­cu­ri­ty will be in force around the Port-of-Spain Port, where the USS Grave­ly will dock to­mor­row.

Fullar­ton fish­er­men in Ce­dros say they are still be­ing chased by Venezuela’s Guardia Na­cional as they fish in ter­ri­to­r­i­al wa­ters off the coast of Bonasse and Ica­cos. The lat­est in­ci­dent oc­curred at dawn on Fri­day.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der is ad­vis­ing the pub­lic to go about their busi­ness as nor­mal, “un­less oth­er­wise di­rect­ed.”