GLASGOW, Scotland – The 2026 Commonwealth Games officially got underway for Team Antigua and Barbuda on Friday, with the Caribbean nation’s delegation making their first appearance across two core sports to open the multi-sport tournament. As the competition enters its second day on Saturday, the small island nation will pin its hopes on a single athlete, with welterweight boxer Zalaan set to step into the ring as the centerpiece of the country’s Day 2 schedule.
Zalaan is scheduled to clash with Happy Ngwira of Malawi in the men’s 80-kilogram Round of 32. The preliminary bout is set to get underway at 11:45 a.m. local Scotland time inside SEC Centre Hall 5, where the boxing competition will continue to run through early-round matches across a full slate of weight categories. Saturday’s boxing lineup features Round of 32 contests for men’s 60kg and 80kg divisions, alongside Round of 16 matches in the women’s 65kg and 70kg weight classes.
While Zalaan is the only Antigua and Barbuda athlete scheduled to compete on Day Two, action across the Games’ swimming program will stay in full swing at Glasgow’s Tollcross International Swimming Centre. The day’s morning session will host qualifying heats for six individual events: the women’s 200-metre freestyle, men’s 50-metre freestyle, women’s 100-metre backstroke, men’s 100-metre butterfly, women’s 100-metre breaststroke, and men’s 400-metre freestyle. The lineup also includes para-swimming competitions and the mixed 4×100-metre freestyle relay heats. When the evening session kicks off, spectators will see semi-final races in the women’s 100-metre backstroke, men’s 50-metre freestyle and men’s 100-metre butterfly, followed by medal-deciding finals for the women’s 200-metre freestyle, men’s 50-metre backstroke and women’s 50-metre butterfly.
Looking back at Team Antigua and Barbuda’s opening day, the nation’s campaign launched with two swimmers and one boxer making their debuts. Aunjeliqué Liddie and Jadon Williez both took part in their respective qualifying heats, while Alston Ryan competed in his first ever Commonwealth Games bout in the men’s 63.5kg division.
The 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games will run through next week, with Antigua and Barbuda’s athletes working to gain momentum as the tournament progresses and competition grows tighter across all sports.
标签： Antigua and Barbuda
安提瓜和巴布达
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Antigua and Barbuda Athletes Begin Commonwealth Games Campaign in Glasgow
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Minister of Health and Ministry Staff Pay Final Respects to Former Colleague, Conie Williams
A moving funeral service was held this week to celebrate the life of Conie Williams, a former longtime employee of the Ministry of Health, where top ministry leaders, current staff, family, and friends gathered to pay their final respects.
Michael Joseph, who holds the combined portfolio of Minister of Health, Wellness, Environment and Civil Service Affairs, alongside Stacey Gregg-Paige, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, led senior officials in attendance at the service, joining the bereaved family and close friends of Williams to mourn her passing.
Dozens of current ministry employees turned out for the ceremony to demonstrate collective solidarity with the grieving family, and to reflect on the decades of committed work Williams contributed to the ministry during her tenure. Many attendees shared personal anecdotes of working alongside her, noting the positive, lasting impression she left on every team member who had the opportunity to collaborate with her.
In a meaningful gesture during the service, the ministry’s staff presented a carefully prepared, heartfelt tribute to honor their former colleague. The tribute highlighted Williams’ professional contributions to the ministry’s work, as well as the warm, memorable moments she shared with coworkers throughout her career, centering the celebration of her life rather than just mourning her loss.
Following the tribute, Minister Joseph and Permanent Secretary Gregg-Paige offered their personal and official sincere condolences to Williams’ family and all of her loved ones. The pair expressed their hope that the family would find the strength, comfort, and inner peace needed to navigate this period of profound grief.
Across the ministry, staff members continue to hold Williams’ legacy close, remembering her dedication and warm character. May her soul rest in eternal peace.
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Pastor Baltimore Calls for Faith to Remain Central to Antigua and Barbuda
At the opening of a recent Cabinet meeting in Antigua and Barbuda, Pastor Baltimore delivered a reflective address calling for a national return to spiritual and moral foundations to address pressing social ills, most notably the growing crisis of youth violence. In his remarks, the pastor drew a sharp contrast between the small island nation’s modern social landscape and the tight-knit, peaceful communities of decades past. He recalled that earlier generations of Antiguans and Barbudans built their society around core Christian values and a shared reverence for God, a foundation that fostered mutual respect, social cohesion, and widespread public order that lasted for generations. Today, however, Pastor Baltimore argued that a steady departure from these spiritual roots has opened the door to a cascade of social challenges that threaten the nation’s fabric. Beyond the alarming rise in youth violence, he pointed to widespread vandalism of public assets — from regional sporting complexes to neighborhood playgrounds — and a broad erosion of shared moral standards across society.
Pastor Baltimore acknowledged that Carnival retains its status as a vital cultural touchstone for the nation, bringing communities together and celebrating Antigua and Barbuda’s unique heritage. Even so, he emphasized that cultural celebration must not overshadow the critical work of preserving the nation’s spiritual identity, arguing that faith must remain a central organizing force in national public life. To reverse the current trajectory of social decline, he laid out a clear, collective call to action for national leaders, faith institutions, and ordinary citizens alike. At the institutional level, he urged pastors and church congregations across the country to intensify regular prayer for national stability, moral renewal, and the wellbeing of the nation’s youth. For families, he stressed the non-negotiable need to strengthen intentional parenting practices that center on instilling strong, sound moral values in young people from an early age.
The pastor further framed acts of vandalism and youth violence not as isolated misbehavior, but as visible symptoms of a deeper, unmet need for national spiritual renewal and more intentional community engagement with young people. He issued a stark warning to gathered leaders: without deliberate investment in the moral and spiritual development of Antigua and Barbuda’s younger generation, countless government social and economic development initiatives will fail to deliver their promised long-term benefits. Even as he raised urgent concerns, Pastor Baltimore offered measured praise for the Antigua and Barbuda government’s ongoing work to improve quality of life for all citizens. He encouraged elected and appointed leaders to maintain their focus on public service, rooted in integrity and genuine compassion for the communities they represent.
He added that faith leaders, churches, and local community organizers share equal responsibility for national progress, calling for cross-sector partnership to foster a culture of hope, personal discipline, and unified national identity. To close his remarks, Pastor Baltimore led the assembled Cabinet members in a formal prayer, asking for divine blessing to remain over Antigua and Barbuda. His prayer centered on a request for divine wisdom to guide Cabinet members as they craft policy and make decisions that impact all citizens and residents of the nation, and for ongoing divine protection that would bring lasting peace, security, and shared prosperity to the country.
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Minister Michael Joseph Meets with Antigua and Barbuda Emergency Medical Services Staff
In a move aligned with his promise to engage directly with every agency under his ministerial portfolio, Hon. Michael Joseph, Minister of Health, Wellness, Environment and Civil Service Affairs, held a face-to-face meeting this week with leadership and frontline staff of the Antigua and Barbuda Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
The gathering drew a full roster of senior health officials, including Permanent Secretary Stacey Gregg-Paige, EMS Director Shawn Greenidge, Deputy Directors Vermalie Brodie and Brandon Browne, as well as a cross-section of the agency’s management team and frontline personnel. This in-person consultation marked a key step in the minister’s ongoing push to better understand on-the-ground challenges across all departments he oversees.
A top priority on the meeting’s agenda was the long-debated issue of fair compensation for EMS workers. Leadership of the agency tabled a formal proposal calling for the creation of a structured, tiered salary framework that would adjust pay based on each worker’s professional credentials, cumulative years of service, and incremental career progression. The plan also aims to introduce stronger performance and training incentives for personnel who pursue advanced emergency medical credentials, including Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT) certification and specialized paramedic qualifications. Minister Joseph made clear he is open to thoroughly reviewing the proposal to assess its feasibility and alignment with government priorities.
Beyond compensation, the discussion centered on broader efforts to upgrade the nation’s emergency medical response system. Minister Joseph reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to collaborating with EMS leadership and staff to co-develop practical, actionable solutions that will improve staff well-being, boost the agency’s operational efficiency, and deliver a stronger, more reliable emergency care system for every citizen and resident of Antigua and Barbuda.
Closing the meeting, the minister extended his sincere gratitude to all attendees for their open and honest input, and publicly recognized the irreplaceable work EMS personnel carry out every day. He emphasized that their rapid, life-saving responses to emergencies across both islands form a critical backbone of the nation’s public health infrastructure.
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China-Funded Barbuda Housing Project Moves Toward Construction
A critical affordable housing initiative in Barbuda, fully financed by a grant from the People’s Republic of China, is on the cusp of breaking ground, after the project team wrapped up the vast majority of required land surveying work, an official government update has confirmed.
Maurice Merchant, Director General of Communications for Antigua and Barbuda, shared the latest progress on the Louis Hill housing development during a post-Cabinet media briefing held Thursday. He emphasized that the project is advancing at an accelerated clip, with preparatory work moving ahead of schedule in key areas.
“They are moving forward at a fast pace,” Merchant told reporters. “I know that the surveys are being conducted; the majority have been conducted at the Louis Hill facility, and so it’s a matter of mobilization.”
Beyond confirming the completion of most survey work, Merchant also confirmed that all funding for the project has been secured. The full construction grant pledged by China is already in place, removing the biggest potential barrier to launching on-site work. “The grant from the People’s Republic of China for the construction of these homes in Barbuda is already in place,” Merchant said. “It’s just a matter of mobilization and getting started.”
The official announcement of the housing project’s progress came shortly after the Antigua and Barbuda Cabinet ratified the first batch of freehold land certificates for Barbuda residents. This move is part of the national government’s landmark EC$1-an-acre land distribution program, which aims to expand land access and property ownership for local people.
At this stage, government officials have not released additional key details about the Louis Hill development, including an official construction kickoff date, the total number of residential units planned for the site, or a projected timeline for project completion.
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Antigua and Barbuda Monitoring Results of Under-16 Social Media Bans
The government of Antigua and Barbuda has announced it will not rush to implement new digital restriction legislation, instead opting to first analyze the outcomes of similar policies rolled out in other nations before making a final decision.
According to senior official Merchant, the administration is taking a deliberate, evidence-based approach to this policy question. Rather than adopting regulatory measures on digital activity without clear data, the government is prioritizing a thorough review of how comparable restrictions have functioned in jurisdictions that have already put them into place.
“What are the concrete outcomes that these countries have seen after putting their policies into effect?” Merchant stated in comments on the proposal. “Our entire process hinges on evaluating those results first, only then will we move forward with a clear determination that fits our national context.”
Beyond the review of international results, Merchant also highlighted a key practical challenge that any future digital restriction framework would face in Antigua and Barbuda: enforcing regulatory controls in the face of tech-savvy younger populations. He openly acknowledged that many young people in the country have advanced digital skills that allow them to quickly identify and work around official digital limitations, creating significant enforcement hurdles that policymakers must account for before moving forward with any new legislation.
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Government Says Existing Laws Can Address Vandalism, Focus Turns to Detection
Vandalism of public infrastructure has emerged as a persistent policy challenge for the government of Antigua and Barbuda, which has confirmed it will not pursue harsher legal penalties for offenders, instead leaning into expanded surveillance networks to catch those responsible for damaging shared community assets.
Speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing on Thursday, Director General of Communications Maurice Merchant addressed widespread public speculation around whether the national Cabinet planned to introduce stiffer fines for vandalism targeting high-traffic public spaces, including bus shelters, neighborhood playgrounds and public sporting facilities. When asked directly about potential regulatory changes, Merchant made clear that current legal frameworks already provide sufficient tools to address the issue.
“There are already regulations on the books, laws on the books, that can address these problems,” Merchant told reporters. The core barrier to holding vandals accountable, he explained, is not weak legislation but a gap in detection: authorities consistently struggle to identify the individuals responsible for damage and collect the evidence required to pursue legal action.
“It’s always a matter of detection, and hence surveillance is required,” Merchant emphasized.
In line with this strategy, the Antigua and Barbuda government is moving forward with a planned rollout of closed-circuit surveillance cameras at high-priority strategic locations across the two-island nation. The initiative has a long-term vision of expanding the network to achieve full national coverage, turning the surveillance system into both a tool for post-damage prosecution and a proactive deterrent.
“That is why the government is pushing that programme for placement of surveillance cameras at strategic locations and eventually to have the entire country blanketed for detection and also prevention,” Merchant added.
The discussion of vandalism grew out of a broader Cabinet review held Wednesday that examined youth behavior, community violence and strategies for conflict resolution. Merchant specifically highlighted repeated damage to national bus shelters, noting that Cabinet assessments point to young people as the most common perpetrators of this particular vandalism.
As of the Thursday briefing, no announcements have been made regarding new vandalism penalties or amendments to the country’s existing laws targeting damage to public property.
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Cabinet Calls for Greater Parental Involvement to Address Youth Violence
Against a rising tide of shootings and violent incidents involving teenagers and young adults, the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda has launched targeted discussions to identify evidence-based solutions to the growing public safety crisis, placing heightened focus on expanded parental engagement and systematic conflict-resolution education.
During a Thursday post-Cabinet press briefing, Director General of Communications Maurice Merchant laid out key takeaways from the lengthy deliberations held by the Cabinet on Wednesday. Merchant noted that the gathering was framed by growing public alarm over the recent string of youth-involved violence, which has pushed the issue to the top of the government’s policy agenda.
“Cabinet recognizes that this is a worrying trend,” Merchant told reporters, adding that ministers’ analysis of the root causes of youth violence found a critical gap in the conflict-resolution skills many young people possess. Unlike generations that learned to negotiate and communicate through disagreements, today’s young people often lack exposure to peaceful problem-solving strategies. When disputes arise between peers, many do not engage in constructive dialogue or rational negotiation to reach a mutually acceptable resolution. Instead, violence has become the most familiar go-to response for a large share of young people navigating conflict, Merchant explained.
The discussion opened with a meditation led by Pastor Baltimore, who opened the full Cabinet meeting by raising urgent concerns about rising youth violence, widespread vandalism, and a broader erosion of core moral values among young people across the nation.
Following this opening, Cabinet identified stronger parental involvement as a non-negotiable cornerstone of any effective intervention strategy. Merchant framed the core question guiding this line of thinking: “What role should parents play in ensuring that certain morals and certain attitudes are developed within our young people towards conflict resolution?” Under the framework ministers explored, consistent reinforcement of peaceful conflict-resolution skills must happen across every part of a young person’s life: starting in the home, continuing through school environments, and being reinforced by community institutions and programs. Only through this holistic approach can young people internalize healthy strategies to work through disagreements without resorting to harm, Merchant said.
In addition to addressing the social roots of youth violence, Cabinet also advanced discussions on a complementary security measure: expanding the network of public surveillance cameras across strategic high-traffic locations throughout Antigua and Barbuda. The expanded camera infrastructure is designed to support local law enforcement in both preventing criminal activity and solving cases when violence does occur.
At the time of the briefing, Merchant did not announce any specific new parental support programs to back up the call for greater engagement, nor did he provide a clear timeline for when new youth violence intervention measures would be finalized and rolled out to the public.
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APUA Adjusts Water Distribution Schedule as Drought Strains Plants
A devastating prolonged drought has pushed Antigua’s critical water infrastructure to the breaking point, forcing the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) to implement emergency adjustments to its national water distribution network, officials confirmed this week. At a post-Cabinet media briefing Thursday, Director General of Communications Maurice Merchant shared that while APUA’s network of reverse-osmosis desalination plants, the country’s primary source of treated drinking water during dry conditions, remain online, they are currently operating at maximum capacity to meet ongoing public demand. The relentless strain of the extended dry period has taken a heavy toll on key equipment: multiple facilities now require ongoing frequent maintenance and regular replacement of the specialized membrane modules that power the reverse-osmosis purification process, adding further operational challenges for the authority. Recognizing the severe disruption that inconsistent water access creates for residential households across the island, APUA has moved to revise its official water distribution schedule with a core goal of cutting the duration of unplanned supply outages in the hardest-hit communities. “Water is an absolute necessity, and that reality becomes even clearer when taps stop running,” Merchant noted, acknowledging the hardship placed on communities. Despite the targeted adjustments to distribution, Merchant cautioned that temporary supply interruptions will remain unavoidable as the authority carefully manages its limited available water reserves through the drought event. He urged the Antiguan public to extend patience and understanding to utility teams as they work to mitigate the crisis. Merchant emphasized that while Antigua and Barbuda has long been classified as a drought-prone nation, current dry conditions rank among the most severe that national meteorological experts have recorded in decades. The drought-related water crisis is not isolated to Antigua, he added: several other Caribbean nations and regions across the globe are grappling with similar drought-driven water scarcity challenges, underscoring the growing scope of the climate-linked event. APUA’s emergency revisions represent a proactive effort to balance limited supply with public needs while long-term adaptive measures are developed to address increasingly frequent severe drought events linked to shifting global climate patterns.
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Salvation Army, Wellness Waves Foundation Train More Than 20 Young Leaders
Over 20 young people hailing from every corner of Antigua and Barbuda have successfully crossed the finish line of a three-day immersive Youth Leadership Camp, a targeted initiative crafted to bolster their self-confidence, communication capabilities, and personal resilience. Held between July 20 and 22, the camp was brought to life through a collaborative effort between the Wellness Waves Foundation and The Salvation Army, anchored in the powerful central theme “Lead Yourself. Lead Others.”
Unlike generic youth events, this program centered its curriculum on nurturing foundational leadership aptitude while equipping attendees with practical, everyday life skills that extend far beyond the camp gates. Key skill areas included constructive conflict resolution, healthy stress management, and intentional decision-making – tools that young people can leverage in school, work, and personal interactions for years to come.
Throughout the three-day gathering, participants engaged in a dynamic mix of interactive workshops, open group dialogues, and hands-on practical exercises. The curriculum spanned a diverse range of critical topics, from core leadership development and emotional intelligence to public speaking, effective communication, building healthy relationships, mindfulness practice, personal resilience, goal-setting, and clarifying personal purpose. In a proactive addition addressing a pressing community concern, the camp also incorporated specialized training on human trafficking awareness, educating young attendees on the risks and impacts of this crime against youth.
Koren Norton, founder of the Wellness Waves Foundation, emphasized that the camp embodies the organization’s long-standing mission to prepare the next generation to step into leadership roles across Antigua and Barbuda. “This camp was all about helping our young people build actionable leadership skills, learn to navigate conflict and stress in healthy ways, and walk away with greater confidence in their own abilities,” Norton shared. “We are incredibly proud of every participant who joined this journey, and we urge every sector of our society to make intentional investments in our young people – they are our future.”
The event was coordinated by Captain Osner Lubin of The Salvation Army and Deon Grannum, Vice President of the Wellness Waves Foundation. A diverse team of facilitators contributed their expertise to the camp, including Grannum himself, Farida Isaac-Carr, representatives from the youth organization Youth Arise, Ransford Simms, Callisha Spencer, Dwayne Simon, Alverna Inniss from the national Human Trafficking Department, representatives from the Hopeful Heart Foundation, Kyle Preston, Amelia Williams, and Christal Percival.
The impactful initiative would not have been possible without broad cross-sector support from local community and corporate partners, including ACB Caribbean, the Halo Foundation, the Sandals Foundation, Turning Point Inc., Big Banana, Christos, CMC, KFC Antigua Ltd., and the Medical Benefits Scheme.
The Wellness Waves Foundation, the lead organizer of the camp, is a community-focused organization dedicated to advancing education, expanding access to mental wellness resources, and driving empowerment for women and young people. It delivers on this mission through targeted programming and strategic cross-organizational partnerships, all with the end goal of building stronger, more resilient communities across Antigua and Barbuda.