Customers of the Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Bank (ECAB) have been unable to complete routine transactions across the institution’s entire automated teller machine network after an unplanned outage hit the system this week, the bank has confirmed. In a public statement addressing the service disruption, ECAB shared that its in-house technical team has been deployed full-time to diagnose and resolve the root cause of the outage, with the top priority being bringing all ATM terminals back online as quickly as possible. Until full service is restored, the bank is directing all customers seeking to access cash or complete account transactions to visit one of its five physical branch locations, which remain fully operational. These in-branch facilities are situated at Coolidge, Redcliffe Street, High Street, Woods Mall, and Dockyard respectively. ECAB has issued a formal apology to its customer base for the inconvenience caused by the unexpected outage, and expressed gratitude for clients’ understanding and patience as the technical team works through the issue. Notably, the regional financial institution has not yet released any details regarding what triggered the network outage, nor has it provided a concrete estimated timeline for when customers can expect full ATM functionality to be restored.
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Platform launched to connect young people with opportunities
A 20-year-old Vincentian educator and technology specialist, Noah Horne, has turned a personal frustration into a transformative digital solution for young people across St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with the official launch of YouthLink SVG, a homegrown platform that aggregates scattered youth opportunities in one accessible, user-friendly hub.
Unveiled to the public on Saturday, YouthLink SVG consolidates a wide range of opportunities including full and part-time jobs, academic scholarships, professional internships, skills training programs, project grants, youth competitions, volunteer placements, and community events into a single centralized interface. As of its launch, the platform already hosts more than 70 vetted opportunities sourced from local, regional, and international partner organizations.
The concept for YouthLink emerged directly from Horne’s own post-graduation experience. After completing his computer science degree at the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College (SVGCC) in 2024, Horne began his search for professional opportunities and quickly discovered that openings were dispersed across dozens of disjointed platforms – from independent Facebook pages and organizational websites to scattered social media accounts. Without constant scrolling across multiple channels, young people risked missing life-changing opportunities entirely if they did not see a posting during its narrow window of visibility.
This challenge was not a new observation for Horne. Even during his secondary school years, he noticed that most peers had little awareness of available scholarships and development opportunities, let alone guidance on where to find them or how to meet eligibility requirements. “Instead of young people having to search through ten different pages every day, I wanted there to be one place where they could go and see what opportunities are available to them,” Horne explained of his core motivation for building the platform.
Horne’s path to developing YouthLink builds on a long history of engagement with technology and innovation, cultivated from an early age. Raised in the community of South Rivers, he was encouraged by his parents to pursue technology-focused learning opportunities from childhood. In 2017, he participated in a STEM summer program where he deepened his skills in computer systems and game development. Just one year later, while studying in Form 2, Horne and his cousin Myles Jones claimed first prize at a national technology competition hosted by the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) for their app Agri Marketplace, a digital tool designed to connect local farmers directly with buyers.
His professional and educational journey continued with computer science studies at SVGCC, specialized training in web application development through an Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) digital skills scholarship, and a role as an educator at Mountain View Adventist Academy. While working at the academy, he founded the institution’s first Tech Club and mentored student teams that went on to win national robotics competitions in 2025 and 2026.
In 2026, Horne returned to NTRC’s annual iCode784 competition alongside partner Jadiel Billingy, competing under the team name “The Mandem”. Six of the nine applications the pair submitted advanced to the competition’s top 10, and their project EcoTrack SVG earned them second place overall. The team collaboration eventually evolved into The Mandem, a local technology enterprise that offers mobile device repair services and custom digital solutions for clients across St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
By early 2026, Horne had finalized plans to develop and launch YouthLink SVG as a public resource. Ahead of the official unveiling, he presented a working demo of the platform to key institutional partners, including the Youth Agriculture Support Improvement Project (YASIP) through the Zero Hunger Trust Fund, and received overwhelmingly positive and encouraging feedback that shaped the platform’s final iteration.
YouthLink SVG is designed with both young users and opportunity providers in mind. For job and opportunity seekers, the platform offers robust tools to search, filter, save, and share relevant openings. For registered organizations, the platform allows free creation of organizational profiles, publishing and management of opportunity listings, with standard posting currently offered at no cost. Partner organizations can also activate YouthLink’s built-in application system, which enables applicants to submit resumes, CVs, and all required supporting documents directly through the platform, streamlining the entire recruitment and selection process.
Listings on the platform fall into two clear categories: opportunities posted directly by registered partner organizations, and openings curated from legitimate public sources, which are clearly labeled as “publicly sourced” for full transparency.
Today, Horne is actively encouraging young Vincentians to sign up for the platform and explore available opportunities, while inviting businesses, government agencies, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations, youth groups, and other opportunity providers to register and post their openings on the hub. “The opportunity that changes your life might already exist. Sometimes the problem is simply knowing that it’s there. That’s the gap I want YouthLink to help close,” Horne said of the platform’s mission.
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Up to 50 Antigua and Barbuda Delegates Could Receive EC$430 for Commonwealth People’s Forum
A new funding initiative has been launched to expand access to the 2026 Commonwealth People’s Forum, with up to 50 local delegates from Antigua and Barbuda set to receive financial support to offset their participation costs. The program is a joint effort between the Commonwealth Foundation and the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, backing the three-day international gathering scheduled to take place from November 2 to 4 at the American University of Antigua (AUA).
Eligibility for the stipend is open exclusively to residents of Antigua and Barbuda, with priority given to civil society leaders, grassroots advocates, and community organizers working across the nation. Tertiary students based in the country are also invited to submit applications for the funding opportunity. Each selected delegate will receive a one-time contribution of EC$430, a sum designed to remove financial barriers that would otherwise prevent interested community representatives from attending the high-level forum. According to the Commonwealth Foundation, the support aims to ensure diverse voices from small island states can contribute meaningfully to global discussions hosted at the event.
To secure the stipend, successful applicants must complete two mandatory steps: finalize their official registration for the Commonwealth People’s Forum and obtain accreditation for the concurrent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) by the September 30 deadline. Awardees are also required to attend all three days of scheduled forum programming, with stipend disbursement scheduled to take place on the final day of the event, November 4.
The Commonwealth People’s Forum is a recurring civil society gathering held in parallel with CHOGM, which brings together non-state actors, community representatives, and stakeholder groups from all 56 member states of the Commonwealth. The 2026 agenda covers a broad range of pressing global and regional issues, including freedom of expression, climate and environmental justice, equitable economic inclusion, responsible artificial intelligence governance, sustainable blue economy development, and global health financing.
The Commonwealth Foundation has issued a note of caution to prospective applicants: submitting an expression of interest does not automatically guarantee a spot at the event. Final acceptance is contingent on remaining venue capacity and successful completion of the full accreditation process, the organization confirmed. All relevant resources, including event registration forms, eligibility criteria, and full program details, are now available online for interested applicants.
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Canada : New aid to Haiti of $25.4 million
On the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 22, 2026, a high-stakes bilateral meeting brought together Haitian Foreign Minister Raina Forbin and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand to address the cascading crises gripping Haiti and coordinate international support for the Caribbean nation. The gathering offered a critical platform for the two top diplomats to review the most pressing challenges facing Haiti, from the urgent task of reestablishing nationwide security and laying the groundwork for upcoming democratic elections to alleviating the country’s worsening humanitarian emergency. A central focus of the talks was clarifying how Canada can sustain its backing for the Haitian government’s ongoing efforts to pull the country back from instability. In a key announcement during the meeting, Minister Anand unveiled that Canada will allocate $25.4 million in fresh development aid to bolster three core priority areas in Haiti: security infrastructure, democratic governance, and community-level resilience to ongoing conflict. This new funding package will be directed toward multiple targeted initiatives: it will support campaigns to crack down on systemic corruption and transnational organized crime, expand programs to stop criminal gangs from recruiting vulnerable youth, strengthen support systems and interventions for survivors of gender-based violence, and fund local grassroots peacebuilding projects led by communities across the country. Responding to the announcement, Minister Forbin extended a formal welcome to the new aid package and conveyed the Haitian government’s deep gratitude for Canada’s long-standing solidarity with the Haitian people amid their ongoing struggles. Beyond the new funding announcement, the conversation also centered on the urgent need to revitalize the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) and ensure the unit is fully deployed across high-risk areas of Haiti, as part of broader efforts to ramp up the country’s security response to gang violence. Minister Forbin stressed that sustained international partnership support remains indispensable to Haiti’s efforts to restore full security and establish the stable conditions needed for long-term national recovery and development. The meeting concluded with both Haiti and Canada reaffirming their shared commitment to maintaining open, regular dialogue and deepening bilateral cooperation, with a particular focus on advancing security sector reform, shoring up national institutional stability, and delivering tangible improvements to the daily living conditions of all Haitian people.
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UWI Five Islands Guild Congratulates Elena Etinoff on Essay Competition Win
A promising young scholar from The University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus has earned top honors in a prominent national essay competition focused on reparations, drawing praise from her campus’ student governing body.
Elena Etinoff secured first place in the university-level division of the 2026 Essay Competition hosted by the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission, an achievement celebrated publicly by the UWI Five Islands Campus Guild of Students.
Competing as the official representative of her institution, Etinoff impressed judges with her submission titled “From Chains to Change: Reflecting on the Past, Projecting a Just Future.” In its congratulatory statement, the Guild of Students emphasized the nuanced perspective woven throughout Etinoff’s work. The winning text balances rigorous critical reflection on the historical harms of chattel slavery with forward-looking vision, outlining a path toward a more just and equitable society for people of Caribbean descent.
“We are proud to see our students using their voices, knowledge and ideas to contribute to important conversations,” the Guild shared in its official statement. The student body organization extended its warm congratulations to Etinoff on her outstanding accomplishment, while issuing a heartfelt encouragement to continue advancing meaningful dialogue around reparations and racial justice, urging her to “keep the fight alive.”
The competition itself, focused on centering local and student-led engagement with the ongoing global movement for Caribbean reparations, provides a platform for emerging scholars to contribute their perspectives to a conversation that carries profound social and political weight for Antigua and Barbuda and the wider Caribbean region.
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Concacaf Nations League : D-1 Haiti vs Trinidad and Tobago (schedule)
One day out from their opening group stage fixture of the 2026–2027 CONCACAF Nations League, Haiti’s senior men’s national football team, nicknamed the Grenadiers, is preparing to take the pitch against Trinidad and Tobago at Kingston’s Sabina Park on September 24. All of Haiti’s opening group matches are being hosted away from home in Jamaica due to ongoing domestic instability, marking an unusual start to the team’s regional campaign. This edition of the CONCACAF Nations League doubles as the official qualification pathway for the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the premier regional men’s football tournament scheduled to take place in summer 2027, adding high stakes to every group stage fixture.
The Grenadiers enter this campaign with a newly restructured technical staff headed by Spanish head coach David Badia. Badia will be supported by two assistant coaches: Marc Chervaz, a Swiss football strategist, and fellow Spanish coach Alberto Vásquez. A notable addition to the staff that has drawn excitement from Haitian football supporters is Cameroonian former international goalkeeper Idriss Kameni, who takes on the role of goalkeeping coach for the side. Kameni’s decades of top-flight and international experience have been cited as a major asset for developing Haiti’s current generation of shot-stoppers.
Following the opening match against Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti will remain in Kingston for their second group fixture against Costa Rica on September 27. The team will then hit the road for two away matches: first against the Dominican Republic on October 1 (kickoff scheduled for 8:00 PM local time, with the host venue still to be confirmed), followed by a rematch against Costa Rica in Costa Rica on October 4, kicking off at 6:00 PM local time, where the venue also remains to be finalized.
If the Grenadiers advance out of the group stage, the quarter-final round of the competition will kick off in November 2026, with the tournament’s final round scheduled for March 2027. All advancing teams will secure their spot in the 2027 Gold Cup, making every group stage match critical for Haiti as they aim to return to the region’s top tournament. Fans can access the full official squad list for the Grenadiers’ Nations League campaign and additional background on Badia’s appointment through publicly available football news sources from Haiti.
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Skerrit and Francis pay tribute to Desiree John, wife of former PM, following her death
The small Caribbean nation of Dominica is in mourning this week following the death of Desiree John, 78, the widow of Patrick John — the country’s first prime minister after it achieved independence in 1978. Mrs. John passed away on Tuesday, September 22, while receiving treatment in the intensive care unit of Dominica-Friendship Hospital. As of Wednesday, no official cause of death has been released to the public.
Top political figures from across Dominica’s partisan divide have stepped forward to honor her legacy and offer condolences to her grieving family. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, speaking from the floor of Parliament, opened the legislative session with reflections on Mrs. John’s unrecognized contributions to Dominica during the critical early years of the nation’s statehood.
Though Desiree John never held an official appointed or elected position in government, Skerrit emphasized that her steady support for her husband during his tenure in national leadership represented an important contribution to the country’s development during one of the most pivotal periods of its modern history. Patrick John, popularly known across the country by his nickname “PJ,” led the Dominica Labour Party and served as the nation’s first prime minister following independence from the United Kingdom. He passed away in July 2021 at the age of 83.
Opposition United Progressive Party leader Joshua Francis also issued a formal statement on the party’s behalf, extending heartfelt sympathy to the entire John family. Francis echoed Skerrit’s framing of Mrs. John’s life as deeply connected to the defining moments of Dominica’s post-independence journey, praising her personal character and commitment to her loved ones.
“Mrs. John leaves behind a legacy of quiet strength, resilience, devotion to family, and steadfastness through some of the defining moments of our nation’s journey,” Francis wrote in his statement. He extended condolences to her children, grandchildren, extended relatives, and close friends, noting that the entire nation of Dominica joins the family in mourning her loss. Francis closed his statement by expressing hope that cherished memories of Mrs. John would bring the family comfort in this difficult time, adding, “May her soul rest in eternal peace.”
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Drainage officials looking into Husbands Gardens ‘pool’ – MP
For months, long-term residents of the Husbands Gardens community in St James South, Barbados, have been living with a public health and safety hazard that was created by a poorly planned government drainage project – and they are finally getting official attention for their complaints. Local Member of Parliament Sandra Husbands confirmed that the island’s Drainage Unit has launched a formal assessment of the problematic trench, dug earlier this year at the junction of Pelican Avenue and First Avenue East, after a steady stream of grievances from area residents.
The 34-year local resident Henderson Greaves told reporters that the project was launched without any warning or community input, after government officials received separate complaints of chronic flooding on nearby Independence Drive. Per the official explanation provided to Greaves, the catchment trench was intended to divert floodwater away from the higher-elevation Independence Drive neighborhood. But Greaves, a long-time observer of local drainage patterns, says this explanation makes no geographic sense. He points out that Independence Drive sits on elevated land far above the location of the new trench, meaning floodwater from lower areas could never naturally drain uphill to the higher street.
Greaves argues that the root of past flooding in the area is not related to Independence Drive at all. He recalls extreme weather events that saw as much as nine inches of rain fall in just four hours in recent years, when an existing well located east of First Avenue overflowed its banks, sending excess water cascading into the lower-lying Husbands Gardens neighborhood. Long-standing natural drainage routes, he says, already directed excess water to three existing local wells that had handled stormwater reliably for decades without major issues.
Today, the improperly designed trench has become a stagnant pond, held in place by a layer of clay beneath the soil that prevents absorption, creating what Greaves describes as an unintentional man-made aquarium. Worse, he says, construction work blocked the entrance to a natural cave that previously helped divert excess water away from the area, and the drainage grate designed to move water out of the catchment sits far above the current water level, rendering it useless. Before the trench was dug, Greaves says, this green space was a beloved community spot: children played on the open ground, locals gathered for shade under mature almond trees, and a nearby resident grazed sheep on the upper slopes. Greaves and his neighbor had even kept the area cleared after the cleaning contract for the site expired and the National Conservation Commission never assigned a new crew to maintain the green space.
The stagnant water has also created an ideal breeding ground for culex mosquitoes, a health risk that long-time 36-year resident Alfred Butcher has attempted to mitigate on his own, occasionally pouring oil into the water to limit larval development. But his small-scale efforts, he says, barely make a dent in the problem. Like Greaves, Butcher questions the logic of altering a natural, functional drainage system that had worked for decades to direct water into local wells. “They got a well that was in operation and was taking off the water. They decided, well, somehow they don’t want the water going to the well, so I don’t know what is the purpose of the well,” Butcher said.
Residents say roughly 40 truckloads of soil were removed to create the catchment, and they are demanding a simple solution: backfill the unnecessary trench, restore the original drainage routes that direct water to the existing functional wells, unblock the cave entrance that was closed during construction, and clean up the damaged green space to return it to community use.
For months, residents say their complaints went in circles between government agencies, with each department disclaiming responsibility for the problematic project. “Everybody says it’s not their responsibility. So it don’t come under Housing, don’t come on under NCC. We don’t know who’s responsible,” Butcher explained, noting that sporadic maintenance visits have become far too rare to address the ongoing hazard.
Now, after MP Husbands elevated the complaints to the Drainage Unit, technical officers have already completed an initial site visit to examine why the trench is not draining properly and map the source of the standing water. Husbands told Barbados TODAY that assessors have returned to their offices to evaluate potential technical fixes for the issue, and will share their recommended plan with her office once the assessment is finalized. The local representative says she shares residents’ desire to see the hazard resolved as quickly as possible for the safety of the entire Husbands Gardens community.
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Met Office Says Low-Pressure System No Immediate Threat to Antigua and Barbuda
Meteorological officials in Antigua and Barbuda have issued an updated tropical weather outlook confirming that a newly developed low-pressure system churning in the far eastern stretches of the tropical Atlantic carries no immediate risk to the twin-island nation.
Released at 8 a.m. local time on Wednesday, the official advisory from the Antigua and Barbuda Meteorological Service pinpoints the newly formed low-pressure zone roughly 600 miles southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands, off the western coast of Africa. According to lead forecasters, the system has the potential to strengthen into a short-lived tropical depression as it moves across open Atlantic waters sometime between Thursday and Friday.
Current climate models project that the disturbance has a 30% probability of organizing into a named tropical cyclone within the next 48 hours, with that likelihood rising slightly to 40% over the full seven-day forecast window. Beyond this emerging system, the national weather service is also keeping a close watch on the residual remnants of former Tropical Storm Fay, which is currently drifting across the Atlantic basin.
Forecasters note that while monitoring continues, significant redevelopment of Fay is deemed highly unlikely. Meteorological data gives the former storm just a 20% chance of regenerating into a cyclonic system over both the 48-hour and seven-day forecasting periods. Repeating a key takeaway for residents and marine stakeholders, the Antigua and Barbuda Meteorological Service stressed that neither of the two active weather systems currently poses any immediate danger to Antigua and Barbuda or its surrounding territorial waters.
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Jelani Moses takes on Guinness violin endurance record
A young Grenadian multi-instrumentalist is gearing up to make history this October, as he sets out to claim one of the Guinness World Records’ most physically demanding musical titles: the longest continuous violin playing marathon.
Twenty-three-year-old Jelani Moses, a native of La Mode in St Patrick, will kick off his grueling attempt at 8 a.m. on October 24 at Plains Playing Field, with a goal to play straight through until October 26 — which also marks his 24th birthday. The current official record stands at 40 hours, 5 minutes, and 6 seconds, set by Indian musician Ravi Chandulal Kotadiya back in May 2024, a mark Moses is determined to surpass.
Moses confirmed that his application to attempt the record has already received full approval from Guinness World Records (GWR), and he has been provided with the official rulebook governing the challenge. Under GWR regulations, participants are permitted just 5 minutes of rest for every completed hour of playing, and these rest minutes can be accumulated over the course of the attempt. To maximize his playing time, Moses plans to log 24 consecutive hours of performance before taking a total 90-minute accumulated break, which he will split between bathroom stops and mandatory health check-ins.
Every second of the attempt will be rigorously documented to meet GWR’s strict verification standards. The event will feature continuous multi-camera video recording with backup storage, a prominently displayed public clock, independent third-party observers, official timing sheets, and written activity logs. No on-site GWR adjudicator will be present during the attempt; instead, the local organizing team will submit the full compiled evidence package to GWR headquarters for official review once the attempt concludes.
Months of intentional preparation have preceded the big event, with Moses building up his endurance through progressively longer practice sessions. He gradually increased his playing time from 12 hours, to 16 hours, and eventually capped his training at 24-hour practice blocks. To boost his physical and mental stamina, he has also supplemented his musical practice with regular swimming, bodyweight training including push-ups and planks, and daily meditation to build focus.
Moses’ connection to music began when he started formal training at age 8 at the St Andrew’s Learning Centre in Prairie. By 16, he was already teaching music at the same institution, before going on to advance his musical studies in London and Trinidad. Now a self-employed musician fluent in more than 10 instruments, Moses has stepped back from all social media for the past eight months to dedicate all his energy to preparing for the record attempt. Beyond his personal challenge, he remains committed to music education advocacy: he currently volunteers as a music teacher at three special education schools across Grenada (Victoria, Grenville, and South St George), and is in the process of launching the Jelani Moses Music Foundation, which will provide free instruments and training to Grenadian students after his record attempt is complete.
The attempt is being paired with a public community event titled UNBROKEN Saturday Night, which will run from 8 p.m. on October 24 to 3 a.m. on October 25 for patrons aged 18 and older. The event will feature a lineup of popular local soca artistes ranging from Muddy to Dash, who will perform alongside Moses as he maintains his violin playing streak. Organizer and master of ceremonies Keith “PQ” Mark noted that the event will bring the high-energy vibe of Grenada’s iconic Monday Night Mas to Plains Playing Field, with Moses providing accompaniment for each guest performer. After the Saturday night event wraps up, the violin marathon will continue through Sunday, which will be dedicated almost entirely to solo performances from Moses.
Pulling off the multi-day attempt requires a team of roughly 30 supporting staff, including rotating MCs, videographers, and medical personnel. Organizers are still recruiting additional independent observers to meet GWR requirements, with a particular call for public servants and retired police officers to fill the roles.
For Moses, the attempt is about far more than just claiming a world record. It is rooted in a lifelong commitment to discipline, and a mission to inspire other young Grenadians to chase their biggest dreams, regardless of their small-island background. He credits his mother, Pamela Moses, with instilling his core mindset: the family mantra that “there’s no such thing as quitting” in the Moses name. Pamela Moses emphasized that the months of preparation included full medical clearance for her son, and a medical team will be on-site to monitor his vital signs throughout the entire attempt.
If he succeeds, Moses will carve his name into the official Guinness World Records book. But his larger goal, he says, is to prove to young people across Grenada that even from a small island nation, they can compete and excel on the global stage.