Category: CANA News

The Barbados-based Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum (CariCOF) Tuesday said that during the second half of the Atlantic Hurricane Season and the transition out of the Caribbean wet and heat seasons, a very strong El Niño could lead to a potential expansion of impactful drought as well as humid heat peaking in October in the Guianas and likely lingering in the Lesser Antilles, culminating in heatwaves.

In its latest Caribbean Climate Outlook Newsletter for the period October to December this year, CariCOF said unusually irregular and infrequent tropical cyclone activity as well as unusually low shower, wet spell and excessive rainfall event frequency are also associated with the strong El Niño.

El Niño is caused by the weakening or reversal of trade winds across the tropical Pacific Ocean, which allows warm surface water to flow eastward toward the Americas.

‘Nevertheless, high to extremely high potential for flooding, flash floods, cascading hazards and associated impacts remains across the region, with the possible exception of the ABC (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao) Islands and French Guiana and coral reef bleaching potential around the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles,’ CariCOF said.

It said that dusty Saharan air intrusions, though infrequent at this time, can further inhibit tropical cyclone activity, while exacerbating heat and deteriorating air quality.

According to CariCOF, as of September 1, short term drought has developed in Antigua, north-north west Bahamas, Central Cuba, Grand Cayman, Grenada, north east Puerto Rico, St. Barts, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, Tobago, while severe (or worse) long-term drought is developing in Grand Cayman, west French Guiana, Tobago, St. Barts, St. Kitts, and the Windward Islands.

CariCOF said that for the period January to March next year in the Caribbean, this period marks the progression to the peak of the Dry Season and the transition out of the Cool Season in March.

‘This year’s very strong El Niño, combined with unusable heat in the tropical North Atlantic will drive higher than usual air temperatures across the Caribbean. The unusual heat should be more comfortable at least through February, but will compound growing rainfall deficits in the many areas where agricultural and hydrological drought is in place or will likely build up.’

CariCOF said that this could expand and worsen drought, with likely growing cascading impacts across various sectors of the economy even by May 2027.

‘ Strong El Niño events further tend to decrease the risk of severe weather throughout much of the region but the risk of flooding, flash floods, and cascading impacts remains moderate,’ CariCOF said, adding that ‘ the very strong Niño means an earlier start to the 2027 Heat Season’.

Barbados kept their unbeaten streak alive, while Bonaire finally secured their first win in League B action when the CONCACAF Nations League continued on Monday.

Barbados registered a hard-fought come-from-behind 2-1 win over the winless Bermuda thanks to a brace from Thierry Gale at the BFA’s Technical Centre to assume top spot in Group B.

After a goalless first half, the game sprung to life in the second period when Bermuda’s Djair Parfitt found the back of the net in the 75th minute.

However, Barbados took just four minutes to respond, with Gale scoring from the middle of the box to level the score at 1-1.

He then completed the comeback in the 82nd minute to propel Barbados to 10 points from their four matches and top of Group B. Meanwhile, Saint Lucia solidified their place in second position with a 1-0 win over Guadeloupe to move to nine points.

The only goal of the night came early on after Kegan Caull controlled the ball in the box and fired home a powerful shot from close range.

In Trinidad, Bonaire recorded their first win in Group C with a clinical 4-1 victory over Grenada at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.

Benjamin Ettienne put Grenada in the lead in the 11th minute, before goals from Railey Martijn in the 13th minute, Berry Sonnenscheinin in the 59th, Myron Bostdorp in the 67th and Ayrton Cicilia in the 83rd minute, put Bonaire in complete control.

In the night’s other match, Cuba and St Kitts and Nevis battled to a 2-2 draw to leave both teams on eight points, with Cuba assuming the top spot in Group C on goal difference.

India defeated West Indies by eight wickets in the opening T20I at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.

Scores

WEST INDIES 171 in 19.1 overs (Sherfane Rutherford 56, Shai Hope 52, Akeal Hosein 15, Kamil Pooran 12; Naman Dhir 3-31, Axar Patel 2-26, Kuldeep Yadav 2-33).

INDIA 172-2 in 14.4 overs (Shreyas Iyer 102 not out, Ishan Kishan 37 not out, Abhishek Sharma 21, Sanju Samson 11).

West Indies Women’s captain Hayley Matthews has achieved career-best rankings in the ICC’s Women’s ODI batting and all-rounder rankings following her impressive performance in the just concluded series against Zimbabwe Women.

Matthews scored an incredible 326 runs in the three-match series – inclusive of two centuries – at an astonishing average of 108.66 to claim the Player-of-the-Series award, as West Indies emerged 2-1 winners.

Those performances have seen the 28-year-old climb to fourth in the batting rankings and second among all-roundersIn the batting rankings, Matthews’s 731 points leave her behind only Indian left-hander Smriti Mandhana (790 points), South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt (782) and Australia opener Beth Mooney (744).

Meanwhile, Matthews – the number one ranked T20 all-rounder in the world – reached a new career-best mark of 467 rating points to close the gap on the number one ranked Ash Gardner (497 points) to just 30 rating points among ODI all-rounders.

Several other West Indies Women also jumped in the rankings following commendable performances in the series.

Wicketkeeper/batter Shemaine Campbelle moved up 15 spots to 74th in the batting rankings, while Afy Fletcher (up two places to 17th), Aaliyah Alleyne (up eight rungs to 49th) and Ashmini Munisar (up 11 slots to 70th) all made ground on the charts for ODI bowlers.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley came to the official opening of the of the Caribbean Investment Forum (CIF2026) on Tuesday with her shopping list of what investments are needed in order to stimulate socio-economic growth in the region.

Moreover, her message to the estimated 500 delegates attending the three-day event which the organisers said would focus on at least 30 bankable investment deals, is that ‘success is a habit’.

Mottley said that until the region develops the habit of success, ‘we are not likely to be able to meet the needs of the region because we become intimidated by the scale of the distance that we have to travel and that scale of distance as with all due respect cannot be US$25 million dollars for a major regional investment forum.

‘It has to be US$250 or US$2.5 billion and how we get there must be the vision that we leave here with but vision as we know is not sufficient and what therefore is needed is the plotting of that journey.’ Watch video

Outgoing chairperson of the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export), Dr Lynette Holder, highlighted the evolution of the forum since its inception in 2022, noting that the initiative has systematically shifted the regional narrative towards investment readiness and robust institutional governance.

Mottley said on too many occasions innovative ideas in the Caribbean did not lead to greater financial success because ‘the language of intellectual property was not one that was understood by this region.

‘In our case, too many of our people have innovative ideas, but they don’t have the capacity to do what? To scale,’ she told the audience of her constant advice to her cabinet that ‘without scale, there is no transformation.

‘Without scale, we have a pleasant discussion, a veranda conversation, an opportunity to fill five minutes on a stage and move to the next level. The Caribbean cannot move on this basis anymore.

‘And I therefore welcome the fact that there are continued efforts by Caribbean Export to be able to create this opportunity to allow us to scale. But even as we are doing, if we are talking about green energy, and if we’re talking about digitalisation in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) then I regret to say that …US$20 million and US$$30 million will not cut it.’

She said the question therefore is ‘at what point do we seize this moment and seek to see how we can truly supercharge what is available for enterprise in this region?

‘In my view, it is only going to be possible if we access the platforms that already exist,’ she said, noting that it is necessary to bring all the other synergies within the industry together.

She said that this was determined by her government which informed other stakeholders that ‘if you want to benefit from our support, the public dollar, the taxpayer’s dollar, then we need to start to see the synergies,’ she said, noting that Barbados has a programme providing funding for hotels to stay afloat at a time when no tourists were coming and hotels were closing down.

‘…the only sure thing was that if you close a building for long enough, the tiles will blow and the pipes will stop working. The government insisted that was an unrealistic prospect in the same way that persons having to sever all of their employees was an unrealistic cost for the balance sheets of our tourism entities.

‘We therefore set about to send a very clear message which remains as relevant today as it did when we set it out iin the midst of COVID. That if you want to be able to have the benefit of our tax dollars, through incentives afforded to you, then you need to carry along other sectors in this economy that are equally dependent on the public purse, but for which the public purse does not have room to carry them at the same time that it is carrying you, the tourism sector.’

Mottley said she was saying so conscious that over BDS850 million (One BDS$=US$0.50 cents) dollars in tax incentives are awarded on an annual basis in Barbados, adding ‘I could go to Jamaica, I could go to the Bahamas, I could go to other islands in the region and articulate the numbers, they are going to be more or less in the same ballpark.

‘What matters, however, is how we leverage that further,’ she said, noting that the area of training is one factor affecting investments across the region.

‘We do not have sufficient training and ongoing training within almost every sector in our region and the truth is that it is going to be the quality of the output of our people that will always make the defining difference, not just in terms of our creativity which is natural and ebullient and pleasing, but also in terms of the internal discipline that we need to have to be able to master the different aspects of the ecosystem.’

She said that this ecosystem also involves participation in electronic single windows where such exists, noting that in the case of Barbados ‘we have at least reached a point where over 300 enterprises are now registered under the electronic single window, even as we perfect it by bringing in other services into the sphere of it.

‘At the same time, we need to make sure that those persons there master the terms of our regional and international trade agreements and very often the average business person in this region does not know what trade benefits are available to them, particularly in Caribbean Community (CARICOM) agreements with the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia, and I can go on’.

She said many businesses continue to relate to a North Atlantic framework because it’s comfortable, it’s readily available, and it does not require any effort to master a new market. ‘Those days can no longer sustain us. We need to recognise that in a world where regional trading blocks are rising more and more, that it is imperative that we master the understanding of what opportunities are available in Central America and in Latin America.’

She said for example in the area of food, ‘the logistics difficulties that we are facing globally and regionally, as well as the tariffs, as well as the determination to be able to put individual interests first, as we saw recently with our determination to ban the export of diesel from the United States of America,

‘But it was no major shock because we have already been the victim of the banning of the export of natural gas after the last hurricane hit Puerto Rico, or the banning of ventilators from export restrictions that were placed on us in the COVID.

‘We are accustomed in this new decade to the imposition of export restrictions by those countries who feel that they have a national vital interest to protect, and therefore to the extent that we have been dependent on one market and one market alone for supply, it exposes us in a very awful and difficult position.’

Mottley said that these things create opportunities, ‘and that is why I say that if we are going to be serious about expanding business and investment in this region, then it means us refocusing how we are going to get to scale, how we are going to accelerate, how are we going to leverage those larger industries’.

She said that the oil and gas sector in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago and soon Suriname, the output there of those sectors alone create a platform base from which other money and other businesses can be sustained.

‘I therefore ask us to look at the Caribbean as a joined-up equation. We talk about it, and even when we talk about it, those institutions that most reflect it are those that are most beleaguered at the moment.’

Mottley said she was also calling on the Caribbean to equally recognise that technology presents opportunities ‘to us that were not available to our fathers and grandfathers 30 and 60 years ago.

‘And to that extent, therefore, how do we use that technology in the case of goods to appropriately market and tell the story, and in the case of services, to deliver the services more efficiently to the customer who may be global and who can truly benefit from it?

‘From legal services, we have the whole market of the Commonwealth of those countries that are based on the common law, but we seem to believe that we only have a small market locally.’

Mottley said that small market locally is then held on zealously ‘such that things that ought to be the subject of modern reform are ignored’ making particular reference to the reform of land transactions, which continues to be a major economic drag in this region with respect to the timelines and the capacity ‘to be able to prove what we need to prove in order for efficiency to attach itself and confidence to attach itself to those transactions’.

Mottley said in a very real sense, ‘part and parcel of what we have been seeing in this region and globally in a post-COVID environment is a determination to recover losses in the shortest possible time without understanding that that excessive, egregious behaviour has also the capacity to recreate the bubble that we saw 100 years ago when it led to the stock market crashes’.

She warned that if the Caribbean continues along that path they would find the system broken ‘and then you can get it all for nothing, largely because too far east is always west again and if we seek to be able to extract that which cannot be sustained, then the only inevitable outcome is likely to be failure’.

Countries in the Americas, including the Caribbean, have made progress in policies, health services and monitoring to support healthy aging, but gaps in financing, implementation and long-term care remain, according to the 2026 midterm review of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Aging (2021-2030).

The findings were presented Tuesday during a webinar organised by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), as the region undergoes a major demographic shift. ‘We need to ask how to respond to a growing population of older persons and what kind of society we want to build in the face of demographic change,’ said Simone Cecchini, Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre (CELADE)-Population Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Through 2030, PAHO will continue supporting Member States and facilitating cooperation among countries to accelerate progress across the four action areas, with a focus on sustained action, clear goals, financing, monitoring, and accountability.

According to PAHO by 2050, at least 26.6 per cent of the population-306 million people-is projected to be aged 60 or older. A person reaching the age of 60 in the Americas today can expect approximately 23 more years of life, but only about 16 of those years will be in full health. This seven-year gap is the widest of any World Health Organization (WHO) region, compared to the global average of a gap of 5.5 years.

‘Knowing where we are is the basis for concentrating efforts, resources and partnerships between now and 2030. It allows us to identify which policies are producing change, which groups are being left behind and which capacities we need to strengthen,’ said Dr. Suzanne Serruya, Chief of PAHO’s Life Course, Women’s and Children’s Health Unit.

Conducted by the WHO with support from its regional offices, including PAHO, the survey tracks 10 progress indicators and the decade’s four action areas: combatting ageism, creating age-friendly environments, providing integrated care, and ensuring access to long-term care.

In the Americas, 28 of 37 countries and territories participated in the survey. Among responding countries, the proportion with national policies covering long-term care rose from 61 per cent in 2020 to 88 per cent last year.

Twenty-three countries reported laws addressing abuse of older persons, while 20 had provisions against age-based discrimination. In addition, 71 per cent reported primary health care systems organized to support integrated care for older people, compared with 60 per cent globally.

Despite these advances, gaps remain between policy commitments and the resources, capacity, and services needed to implement them. Only five countries report adequate resources for age-friendly environments, and just four monitor their age-friendly programmes. WHO’s Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) approach is implemented in primary care in four countries, while seven have legislation recognizing informal carers – including unpaid family members – and providing support.

During the webinar on the findings and priorities for the years ahead, Suriname presented legislative and policy advances to combat ageism; Fundación MÁS in Chile shared its work strengthening age-friendly communities through government-civil society; and Costa Rica presented efforts to integrate ICOPE into adult daycare centers. WHO also provided an update on the global standards for long-term care.

The discussions identified priorities for the second half of the decade, including better measurement of ageism; increased financing and evaluation of age-friendly environments; stronger person-centered care and health and care workforce competencies; and expanded access to quality long-term care coordinated across health and social protection systems. Participants also emphasized the meaningful participation of older persons in designing and evaluating the policies and programs that affect them.

One year after for Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries agreed to free movement under enhanced cooperation, they are reporting just over 900 nationals have been granted indefinite stay in the participating countries.

Barbados, Belize, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in their report say that the regime is operational and is facilitating increased mobility, employment and access to specified services for CARICOM nationals of the four participating member states.

‘The experience of these four participating member states demonstrates that free movement works. Their progress, lessons and emerging best practices provide a roadmap for other member states who are preparing to join Free Movement allowed by CARICOM Heads of Government under Enhanced Cooperation,’ said Ambassador Wayne McCook, the Assistant Secretary-General, CARICOM Single Market and Trade, at the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat.

He said CARICOM’s commitment to ensuring that the regime is accessible, predictable and responsive to the needs of Community nationals as implementation moves into its second year.

The free movement arrangement among the four began on October 1, 2025 allowing their nationals to enter and remain indefinitely in those countries, work without a work permit and access specified services in accordance with national arrangements.

The move was intended to speed up participation in the wider CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the 15-member regional integration grouping.

‘By implementing the full free movement regime, these four countries have agreed to grant their nationals the right to enter, leave and re-enter, move freely, reside, work and remain indefinitely in the receiving member state, without the need for a work or residency permit,’ the CARICOM Secretariat said then.

It added that the other member states participating in the CSME will continue to operate free movement under the existing Regimes (Skills, Services, Business Establishment and general facilitation of travel),

The Secretariat in a report on Tuesday said that there is confirmation that all four participating member states have introduced or advanced legislative, administrative and institutional measures to facilitate entry, residence, employment and access to specified contingent rights.

It said Barbados processed 918 applications during the period 1 October to 31 July 2026, and that ‘implementation has generally proceeded smoothly, supported by inter-agency coordination and public-information activities’.

In the case of Belize, which granted free movement status to 146 beneficiaries, of that number, nine subsequently registered with the Social Security Board.

The Secretariat said Dominica has processed five applications, while St. Vincent and the Grenadines has facilitated seven applications.

‘This makes a total of 939 persons processed, some of whom were already residing in the member states before 1 October 2025,’ the Secretariat said.

It said that while the first year has demonstrated meaningful progress, ‘implementation reports also identify areas requiring further attention across participating member states, particularly in registration, data collection and management, monitoring and reporting, public awareness and stakeholder sensitisation’.

The following is the CANANews and SPORTS Schedule for Tuesday, October 6, 2026.

BRIDGETOWN – Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley came to the official opening of the of the Caribbean Investment Forum (CIF2026) on Tuesday with her shopping list of what investments are needed in order to stimulate socio-economic growth in the region.

WASHINGTON – Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is projected to have economic growth of 2.2 per cent this year, broadly in line with the rate of 2.4 per cent recorded in 2025, according to the World Bank Group’s Latin America and the Caribbean Economic Update.

GEORGETOWN – The Guyana Development Bank began operations here with the Irfaan Ali government saying that it is a key commitment to expanding access to financing for entrepreneurs and small businesses across the country.

PORT OF SPAIN -Trinidad and Tobago’s Energy and Energy Industries Minister, Dr Roodal Moonilal, has described as ‘unfortunate the decision of the Canadian-based fertiliser giant, Nutrien Ltd to shut down its Trinidad Nitrogen operations at the Point Lisas Facility here following an extensive review of strategic alternatives and engagement with relevant stakeholders.

PORT OF SPAIN – The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has dismissed a legal challenge by Maya representatives who had sought to determine whether parts of the proposed Maya Customary Land Tenure Bill complied with the 2015 agreement recognising Maya customary land rights.

SPORTS:

LUCKNOW – West Indies were dismissed for 171 in 19.1 overs after being sent in by India in the opening T20I at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has dismissed a legal challenge by Maya representatives who had sought to determine whether parts of the proposed Maya Customary Land Tenure Bill complied with the 2015 agreement recognising Maya customary land rights.

The Maya Leaders Alliance, Toledo Alcaldes Association and representatives of Maya villages had asked the CCJ, the country’s highest and final court, to review six provisions in the draft legislation, arguing that they could undermine rights recognised in the 2015 Consent Order.

But the Trinidad-based CCJ in its ruling noted ‘that it ought not to intervene at this point in the way asked for by the Appellants, and would instead encourage the parties to continue the consultative process’.

It said that this would help ‘develop the legislative, administrative and/or other measures necessary to create an effective mechanism to identify and protect the property and other rights arising from Maya customary land tenure, in accordance with Maya customary laws and land tenure practices’.

The CCJ said that there is a further consideration, which explains why it declined to resume an interventionist role.

‘Since the 2015 judgment and Consent Order, this Court retained a hands-on monitoring role over implementation, an unprecedented and purposeful choice made so that the promise of the judgment would be translated into practical lived reality.

‘Through that supervision, the Court guided the parties to map, demarcate and secure titles, to build institutions capable of respecting customary governance, and to ensure that development decisions affecting Maya lands would be taken lawfully and with genuine consultation.’

The CCJ said that the supervisory phase was brought to a close in October 2025 and that the Court being satisfied that the core elements of implementation had taken root and that its supervisory role had achieved its purpose.

‘Implementation remains an ongoing task, belonging now to the institutions and communities of Belize and guided by the mechanisms that have been established. The rights affirmed in 2015 are not museum pieces, they are tools for dignity, development and peaceful coexistence.

‘We affirm those sentiments today as we did then. The collaborative process to which the definition of the tenure was remitted is now underway, and it should be given every allowance to complete its journey,’ the CCJ ruled.

The CCJ said there would be no order as to costs.

The 2015 Consent Order recognised that Maya customary land tenure exists in Belize and gives rise to constitutionally protected property rights. It also required Government to develop measures to identify and protect those rights in consultation with the Maya people.

The spokesperson for the Maya Leaders Alliance, Cristina Coc, said she does not regard the ruling as a ‘setback’ and that the ‘government is now more firmly on notice that it needs to adhere to the relevant standards and not just exercise its imaginations.

‘And I think that the justices, particularly Justice Jamadar made it clear to them that this is not just about you imagining what Maya customary land tenure is. It exists. There’s a system there. Who best to know that system than the people who practice it themselves? And it’s a fact,’ she said.

The St, Vincent and the Grenadines Tuesday announced the closure of all schools on the island, as heavy rains have caused widespread flooding and landslides.

Several houses have been damaged, and flooding and landslides were reported across the island as a tropical wave dumped 130.2mm (5.2 inches) of rain on the country in a 24 hour period. National Security Minister St Clair Leacock, who also has responsibility for the public service , has advised that public sector workers are required to report to work on Tuesday.

The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Meteorological Services said that the heavy rains are associated with a tropical wave which is ‘crossing the islands’ and the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) indicating that it has received reports of heavy rains, with flooding and landslides affecting areas including Buccament, South Rivers, Kingstown and Marriaqua.

The Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Innovation, Digital Transformation and Information said that ‘all schools will remain closed today’ and is encouraging ‘students, parents and guardians to continue monitoring official updates and to prioritise safety’.

The lone electricity provider, VINLEC said it is aware of outages currently affecting several communities and that ‘our teams are working to assess faults and restore supply.

‘However, landslides, flooding and blocked roads are making access to some affected areas difficult at this time. As a result, restoration may take longer than usual,’ VINLEC said, adding that it will continue restoration efforts as soon as areas can be safely accessed.

‘We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and thank customers for their patience and understanding as we work under these challenging conditions,’ it added.

The Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) has cancelled out patients clinic on Tuesday ‘due to heavu rainfall and flooding’