Category: CANA News

The Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) has endorsed proposed legislation to dismantle the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and replace it with a Department of Community Safety, citing fears over detention, deportation and family separation among Haitian immigrants.

The San Diego-based organisation said the Reimagining Safety Act, introduced by Illinois Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez, would also abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). HBA Executive Director Guerline Jozef told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Saturday that the organisation’s support reflected growing concerns about the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

She cited efforts to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 300,000 Haitian nationals, alongside intensified detention and deportation operations.

Jozef said the policies threatened to separate families and force people to return to Haiti despite the country’s humanitarian and security crises.

‘The Reimagining Safety Act offers an opportunity to fundamentally rethink a system that has caused enormous harm to immigrant communities,’ she said.

‘Safety cannot be achieved through fear; it must be grounded in dignity, due process, family unity, and the protection of human rights.’

Jozef commended Ramirez and the communities involved in developing the proposal, saying federal policy should prioritise human rights and community safety.

Ramirez, who represents Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District, said the legislation would repeal the authorities underpinning DHS and redirect its funding to programmes supporting working families.

She described the proposed replacement as a federal department centred on people and communities.

‘The Department of Homeland Security was founded out of a profound national trauma. But we cannot add new pains to old ones. We must heal old pain and create new opportunities,’ Ramirez said.

She said communities affected by immigration enforcement helped develop the bill while organising rights-awareness campaigns and networks to support their neighbours.

Illinois State Representative Norma Hernandez also backed the proposal, arguing that enforcement practices had disproportionately targeted Latino, immigrant, Black and Brown communities.

‘You cannot militarize our neighborhoods, surveil our families, and make people afraid to leave their homes and call that safety,’ she said.

State Senator Graciela Guzman said immigration enforcement extended beyond physical operations to databases, technology and information-sharing systems used to monitor and detain people.

Lawrence Benito, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said the proposal offered an opportunity to reconsider the powers granted to DHS over the past two decades.

He urged investment in services benefiting communities rather than continued spending on enforcement operations that separate families.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has expressed solidarity with Panama following a destructive earthquake that damaged critical and historic infrastructure, disrupted travel and left people without shelter.

In a statement, the regional grouping extended support to the Panamanian government and people and wished those injured a full and speedy recovery.

CARICOM highlighted the longstanding ties between Panama and its member states, describing their shared history as deeply intertwined across generations of citizens who have contributed to Caribbean development.

‘CARICOM understands the destruction and displacement caused by natural disasters,’ the statement said, expressing hope for a swift return to normalcy.

The statement did not provide details on the earthquake’s magnitude or the number of people injured or displaced.

On Saturday, the government of Panama declared a state of emergency as the aftershocks of two powerful earthquakes that roiled the country shook communities for hours.

Officials did not attribute any deaths to the quakes but reported damages in all 10 of Panama’s provinces and two Indigenous territories.

The 7.7- and 6.6-magnitude earthquakes on Friday toppled buildings near the epicenter and prompted evacuations across the Central American country. Seismologists recorded more than 100 aftershocks, including ones measuring magnitude 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2.

The earlier quake, also felt in neighboring Colombia, was centered about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba, in the central province of Herrera, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Presidential Minister Juan Carlos Orillac announced the emergency during a news conference in the capital, Panama City. He said homes, schools, healthcare facilities, roads and hotels were among the damaged facilities.

Malitzie Rivera, deputy director of the National Civil Protection System, told reporters the state had reports of 27 people with injuries, ranging from minor to moderate.

Guyana’s accommodation capacity is projected to reach nearly 6,000 rooms by the end of 2026, with another 15 hotels expected to open in subsequent years as investment expands the country’s tourism sector.

Guyana Tourism Authority Director Kamrul Baksh told the State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC) 2026 that room capacity had grown significantly since 2020, supported by new properties and international hotel brands.

He cited Hyatt, AC by Marriott and Four Points by Sheraton among the brands contributing to the expansion.

Baksh said the increased capacity would support Guyana’s growing meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions market, alongside leisure and diaspora travel.

The country has hosted more than 20 conferences and exhibitions so far this year, attracting visitors and generating business for restaurants, bars and other tourism-related services, he said.

Additional accommodation is also expected to help meet demand from visitors attending major events and exploring Guyana’s natural and cultural attractions.

However, Baksh stressed that investment in hotels must be accompanied by improvements in service and workforce development.

‘At the heart of this, Guyana is at a place where we need to upscale our human capacity,’ he said.

The Hospitality and Tourism Institute is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, helping to develop the skilled workforce needed for the expanding industry.

Baksh also highlighted the introduction of approximately 80 tours and experiences over the past six years, developed in partnership with the private sector to broaden the options available to visitors.

Medical specialists are urging Jamaicans to learn their sickle cell status before starting families, with nearly 20,000 people estimated to be living with the inherited blood disorder and about one in 10 carrying the sickle cell trait.

Professor Jennifer Knight-Madden, co-chair of the Ministry of Health and Wellness-led National Sickle Cell Technical Working Group, said greater awareness is needed to help families understand inheritance risks and address misconceptions about the condition.

‘Sickle cell disease is a blood disorder. An inherited blood disorder. So you cannot catch it,’ she explained.

The condition occurs when a child inherits two abnormal haemoglobin genes, one from each parent, with at least one producing sickle haemoglobin. Red blood cells can become crescent-shaped and obstruct small blood vessels, causing severe pain and other complications.

Knight-Madden said people living with the disease may appear calm when seeking emergency treatment despite experiencing excruciating pain, which she likened to ‘chickungunya (ChickV) on steroids’.

She also urged people to avoid labels that define individuals by their condition.

‘The first thing is that we call them people living with sickle cell disease because we don’t define them by their illness,’ she said.

People with sickle cell trait generally lead healthy lives but can pass the gene to their children. When both parents carry the sickle cell trait, each pregnancy has a 25 per cent chance of producing a child with sickle cell disease. Other combinations of abnormal haemoglobin genes can also result in the disorder.

Knight-Madden encouraged young people to know both their own status and that of a potential partner.

Dr Lesley King, head of clinical services at the Caribbean Institute for Health Research at The University of the West Indies, told The Sunday Gleaner that symptoms commonly begin between four and six months of age.

An early complication, known as dactylitis, causes painful swelling of the hands and feet and can be mistaken for an insect bite, she said.

King warned that young children with sickle cell disease are particularly vulnerable to serious bacterial infections, making early diagnosis and preventive care essential.

Figures presented at a recent biennial conference indicated that 99.9 per cent of babies born in Jamaica are screened for the condition.

Jamaica’s screening programme grew out of pioneering research by Professor Graham Serjeant and his wife, medical technologist Beryl Serjeant.

Their work included testing 100,000 consecutive births at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, helping establish the prevalence of the disease and guide treatment.

After screening stopped following the initial cohort study, advocacy helped secure its resumption at three hospitals in 1995. The programme subsequently expanded, with further research and lobbying contributing to nationwide newborn screening in 2015.

West Indies elected to field after winning the toss against India in the third T20I at the Holkar Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.

West Indies have made two changes with Quentin Sampson and Keemo Paul replacing Romario Shepherd and Akeal Hosein, while India has also made two changes with Ntish Kumar Reddy and Prince Yadav coming in for Shivam Dube and Kuldeep Yadav.

SQUADS

INDIA: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Ntish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Axar Patel, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh.

WEST INDIES: Shai Hope (captain), Kamil Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Quentin Sampson, Keemo Paul, Gudakesh Motie, Roston Chase, Shamar Springer, Shamar Joseph.

Umpires: Jayaraman Madanagopal, Virender Sharma.

TV Umpire: Nitin Menon

Reserve Umpire: Rohan Pandit.

Match Referee: Prakash Bhatt.

Airline seat allocations for Jamaica’s January-April 2027 winter tourist season have risen 23.5 per cent from a year earlier, signalling renewed confidence as the island’s tourism industry recovers from Hurricane Melissa.

The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) said airlines have committed 1.32 million seats, approximately 252,000 more than for the corresponding 2026 period.

The increase comes as accommodation providers continue rebuilding after the Category 5 hurricane struck in late October 2025, devastating much of Jamaica’s main tourism corridor.

‘Securing more than 1.3 million seats is a strong vote of confidence in Jamaica and our tourism recovery,’ Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said.

He said the commitments reduce the risk of inadequate airlift during the winter season, but Jamaica must translate the increased capacity into bookings, visitor spending and economic opportunities.

Canada leads the expansion, with seat allocations up 62.1 per cent, followed by the United States at 23.1 per cent and Latin America at two per cent.

The JTB said capacity from Canada and Latin America now exceeds pre-hurricane 2025 levels, while overall winter capacity stands at 92.4 per cent of the 2025 total.

Stopover arrivals fell 68 per cent year-on-year in November 2025 as hotels closed for repairs. The decline narrowed to 34 per cent in December as properties reopened.

The government has approved approximately US$4.43 million in additional funding for mosquito control as depleted larvicide stocks and maintenance problems affecting two ageing aircraft hamper efforts to contain elevated mosquito numbers.

Cabinet approved US$2.16 million for a replacement aircraft and approximately US$2.27 million for additional larvicide under exceptional-circumstance provisions for the 2026 financial year.

Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, the minister responsible for the Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU), told parliament that the original budget provided for one new aircraft, but additional funding would allow both planes to be replaced.

The money for the second aircraft will be transferred from the Infrastructure and Development Fund.

Ebanks-Wilks said increasingly frequent maintenance and repairs were reducing the fleet’s availability for aerial spraying, while replacement parts were becoming difficult to source.

‘The number of days the aircraft are out of service for required maintenance and repairs continues to increase, resulting in fewer days available to conduct aerial spraying,’ she said.

Replacing both aircraft together would provide procurement savings and simplify maintenance through a standardised fleet, the minister added.

She described the aircraft as critical national assets, allowing crews to treat thousands of acres inaccessible to ground teams and helping protect public health and tourism.

Seasonal rainfall and high tides have flooded swamps and created favourable mosquito-breeding conditions, increasing demand for treatment.

Ebanks-Wilks said the additional larvicide funding supplements the unit’s US$12 million operational budget.

‘MRCU’s inventory stockpile of larvicide has depleted much faster than usual,’ she said, explaining that elevated temperatures and increased rainfall had prompted preparations for another surge in mosquito numbers.

Larvicide applications target mosquitoes before they emerge as adults. The unit has approximately 15,000 acres to treat, requiring about eight pounds of product per acre.

Despite the operational difficulties, the MRCU reported that mosquito numbers were beginning to decline.

Light-trap counts on Grand Cayman fell about 75 per cent, from approximately 41,000 on October 3 to 10,000 on Wednesday. Counts were also declining across the Sister Islands.

The unit cautioned that numbers remained high and residents might not yet notice an improvement.

Its only operational aircraft is due for scheduled 100-hour maintenance, leaving crews reliant on ground operations during that period. The second plane remains grounded while awaiting a replacement part and will return to service after installation and the required checks.

Ground teams have been working through the day and into the evening, often in hot and difficult conditions.

‘MRCU understands the frustration residents are experiencing,’ the department said, noting that rainfall and high tides can allow new mosquitoes to emerge even after treatment.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is urging countries to strengthen vaccination and outbreak preparedness ahead of religious mass gatherings, warning that increased travel could accelerate measles transmission across the Americas.

In a regional risk assessment released Friday, PAHO said the risk of spread remains very high amid continuing outbreaks, vaccination gaps.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is urging countries to strengthen vaccination and outbreak preparedness ahead of religious mass gatherings, warning that increased travel could accelerate measles transmission across the Americas.

In a regional risk assessment released Friday, PAHO said the risk of spread remains very high amid continuing outbreaks, vaccination gaps and cases appearing in new geographic areas.

The agency reported 55,792 confirmed cases and 77 deaths across 17 countries and territories between January 4 and October 3, 2026 – 4.8 times the number of cases recorded during the corresponding period last year.

Guatemala recorded the most cases, followed by Mexico, the United States, Peru and Canada. Together, the five countries accounted for 99.5 per cent of confirmed infections.

Cases were also reported in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Bonaire, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Uruguay.

‘Measles is highly contagious, and we are seeing the consequences of gaps in vaccination coverage across the Americas,’ PAHO Director Dr Jarbas Barbosa said.

He urged parents to protect their children with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and called on governments to close immunity gaps, strengthen surveillance and respond rapidly to infections.

PAHO said rising global cases increase the likelihood of infected travellers introducing the virus into communities with low immunity. People can transmit measles before its characteristic rash appears, potentially exposing others unknowingly.

Large gatherings and travel between countries and communities can further facilitate transmission, the agency warned.

‘Anyone planning to attend a large gathering should check that they are protected against measles,’ said Dr Daniel Salas, PAHO’s executive manager of Comprehensive Immunization.

He said domestic travellers could also face exposure when people from different regions gather. People aged six months and older without evidence of vaccination should receive a measles-rubella vaccine dose before travelling or attending a gathering, preferably at least two weeks beforehand, he added.

Regional vaccination coverage in 2025 reached 88 per cent for the first MMR dose and 85 per cent for the second, below the 95 per cent level PAHO said is needed to prevent outbreaks.

An estimated 1.6 million children in the Americas received no measles vaccine dose last year.

PAHO attributed the gaps to setbacks accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine hesitancy, difficulties delivering immunisation services and barriers to healthcare access, particularly among Indigenous peoples, migrants and displaced populations.

The agency said it is helping countries strengthen vaccination, laboratory surveillance, genomic monitoring, contact tracing and outbreak response.

With outbreaks continuing and major gatherings approaching, PAHO urged governments to expand access to vaccination while maintaining the capacity to detect and respond rapidly to cases.

The following is the CANANews and SPORTS Schedule for Sunday , October 11, 2026

GEORGETOWN – Guyana’s accommodation capacity is projected to reach nearly 6,000 rooms by the end of 2026, with another 15 hotels expected to open in subsequent years as investment expands the country’s tourism sector.

KINGSTON – Medical specialists are urging Jamaicans to learn their sickle cell status before starting families, with nearly 20,000 people estimated to be living with the inherited blood disorder and about one in 10 carrying the sickle cell trait.

GEORGETOWN – Veteran politician, educator and Working People’s Alliance (WPA) co-founder Eusi Kwayana has died at the age of 101, the party announced in a statement issued on Sunday, jointly with his family.

TORTOLA – Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has defended increased charter fees that have drawn complaints from operators in the neighbouring US Virgin Islands, saying the charges apply to commercial activity and are not aimed specifically at USVI vessels.

SPORTS

INDORE – India were dismissed for 223 in 20 overs after being sent in by West Indies in the third T20I at the Holkar Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.