TOKYO — As Japan looks over­seas to fill labour short­ages in sec­tors such as agri­cul­ture while al­so seek­ing high­ly skilled pro­fes­sion­als, the Caribbean has an im­por­tant role to play in strength­en­ing ties with the coun­try, says the pres­i­dent of the As­so­ci­a­tion for Pro­mo­tion of In­ter­na­tion­al Co­op­er­a­tion (APIC).

The am­mu­ni­tion was found around 11:30 a.m. when of­fi­cers of the In­ter-Agency Task Force (IATF), con­duct­ing ex­er­cis­es un­der Op­er­a­tion R.E.S.O.L.U.T.E. Shield 2026, searched a wood­en struc­ture near a car park along Low­er Dun­can Street.

The Par­lia­men­tary Op­po­si­tion has re­fused to par­tic­i­pate in Prime Min­is­ter’s Ques­tions, ac­cus­ing the Gov­ern­ment of turn­ing the par­lia­men­tary ex­er­cise in­to a “shame­ful par­lia­men­tary cha­rade” de­signed to shield Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar from scruti­ny.

In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors Sophia Chote, SC and Fran­cis Lewis are ques­tion­ing whether the Gov­ern­ment has pro­duced enough ev­i­dence to jus­ti­fy re­strict­ing al­co­hol, to­bac­co and cannabis use among adults be­tween 18 and 25, warn­ing that Par­lia­ment should not im­pose sweep­ing age lim­its with­out stronger lo­cal da­ta.

Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe says high lev­els of binge drink­ing among young adults and ear­ly al­co­hol use among school­child­ren show why the Gov­ern­ment can­not re­main a “pas­sive ob­serv­er” and must in­ter­vene to pro­tect young peo­ple.

The Sev­en Seas De­sali­na­tion Plant will re­main out of ser­vice for a fur­ther 24 hours as the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) car­ries out emer­gency re­pairs to a 24-inch main.

The Sen­ate has passed leg­is­la­tion rais­ing the le­gal age for drink­ing al­co­hol and smok­ing to­bac­co in Trinidad and To­ba­go to 21, and for gam­bling and cannabis use to 25, but the Gov­ern­ment failed to at­tract a sin­gle “yes” vote from ei­ther the Op­po­si­tion or In­de­pen­dent bench­es.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors prob­ing the al­leged rob­bery of over $127,000 from a fe­male po­lice con­sta­ble at­tached to the Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion have sought ad­vice from the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) re­gard­ing charges to be laid against her and four ac­com­plices, in­clud­ing a close male rel­a­tive.

The an­nounce­ment by fer­tilis­er gi­ant Nu­trien Ltd on Mon­day that it would be clos­ing its doors in Trinidad caught hun­dreds of em­ploy­ees by sur­prise, leav­ing them stunned, scared and more ner­vous about the fu­ture.

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing Phillip Ed­ward Alexan­der says he is not par­tic­u­lar­ly both­ered by the shut­down of Nu­trien’s ni­tro­gen op­er­a­tions at Point Lisas, ar­gu­ing that he still be­lieves the coun­try is in a “good place” in terms of its en­er­gy sec­tor. He claims that three en­ti­ties have al­ready reached out, show­ing in­ter­est in ac­quir­ing the busi­ness.

For­mer prime min­is­ter and en­er­gy min­is­ter Stu­art Young says Nu­trien’s de­ci­sion to close its Trinidad op­er­a­tions was un­nec­es­sary, ar­gu­ing that an arrange­ment could have been reached to keep the Point Lisas plant op­er­at­ing while al­low­ing both Nu­trien and the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC) to re­main prof­itable.

The Gov­ern­ment can now legal­ly be­gin Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions across Trinidad and To­ba­go, af­ter Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo pro­claimed Oc­to­ber 6 as the date on which all sec­tions of the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act, 2026, came in­to op­er­a­tion.