Black Immigrant Daily News

NEW YORK (AP) — Karen Khachanov stood on court, arms raised, basking in a rowdy crowd’s cheers after reaching his first Grand Slam semifinal at the U.S. Open. Not far away, Nick Kyrgios took out some of his frustration at the so-close-yet-so-far result on a pair of rackets.

First, shortly after the last point of his 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4 loss to Khachanov, Kyrgios cracked his piece of equipment against the ground — once, twice, three, four times. Then, for good measure, Kyrgios grabbed yet another racket out of his bag, reared back and hit that one on the sideline, too.

Nick Kyrgios, of Australia, tosses his racket as he plays Karen Khachanov, of Russia. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa).

Kyrgios could not quite follow up his victory over defending champion Daniil Medvedev at Flushing Meadows, bowing out in a high-quality, topsy-turvy quarterfinal that began Tuesday night and concluded more than 3 1/2 hours later at about 1:00 am Wednesday in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“It’s just devastating. Like, it’s heartbreaking,” said Kyrgios, a 27-year-old from Australia who was the runner-up at Wimbledon in July. “Pretty much every other tournament during the year is a waste of time, really. You should just run up and show up at a Grand Slam. That’s what you’re remembered by.”

Asked about Kyrgios’ display of disappointment, Khachanov said he saw “rackets were flying,” and added: “I feel the pain for him.”

Early in the match, two spectators were kicked out after one gave the other a haircut in the stands. By the end, the late-staying spectators were pulling for Kyrgios loudly. At one point in the fourth set, chair umpire James Keothavong pleaded: “Once again, ladies and gentlemen: Respect both the players.”

“I was prepared. I was expecting that the crowd would be more for him, that he was the favourite in their eyes,” said the No. 27-seeded Khachanov who had been 0-2 in major quarterfinals before this one against No. 23 Kyrgios.

Khachanov will face No. 5 Casper Ruud on Friday for a berth in the championship match.

“I’m really proud of myself,” Khachanov said. “I was really focused from the beginning to the end.”

Both he and Kyrgios are equipped with booming serves, and they combined for 61 aces (31 by Kyrgios). They combined for 138 total winners (75 by Kyrgios).

Two stats that were real difference-makers: Kyrgios made 58 unforced errors, Khachanov 31. And Khachanov saved 7 of 9 break points he faced.

The breakthrough at Wimbledon, and two recent victories over No. 1 Medvedev — including in the fourth round, ending his title defense — made Kyrgios a popular pick to claim his first Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows.

Khachanov was not allowed to play at Wimbledon this year after the All England Club banned all players from his country, Russia, and Belarus because of the invasion of Ukraine.

In Wednesday’s quarterfinals, it’ll be No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz vs No. 11 Jannik Sinner, and No. 9 Andrey Rublev vs No. 22 Frances Tiafoe.

None of the last eight men in the bracket has won a major title.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

…as Opposition Commissioners attempt to block release

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has voted to release documents requested by Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC, to investigate Opposition claims of rigging at the 2020 elections, notwithstanding efforts by the Opposition-nominated Commissioners to block this.

The matter came up for a vote at GECOM’s statutory meeting on Tuesday, during which the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) nominated Commissioners vehemently objected to the release of the documents.

According to People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) nominated Commissioner Manoj Narayan, the Opposition’s objections to the release of the documents were premised on reasons that include their claims that the information in the documents are contained in the election petition. According to Narayan, the Government side argued that this was not true.

People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) nominated Commissioner Manoj Narayan

Narayan said that the Opposition Commissioners also advanced the argument that GECOM is a constitutional agency and does not have to release the documents. However, Narayan noted that the Commission, as custodians of the requested documents, had no issue with cooperating with a State agency.

“The Commissioners who were appointed by the now Opposition, they were all against it. They voted against it. They did not want any of those documents to be released to the Attorney General, even though on the other side (we) argued that in the interest of fairness and transparency, we need to release those documents as requested,” Narayan said.

According to Narayan, GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh voted in favour of releasing the documents. As such, he explained that the documents will be released as soon as possible.

The Opposition nominated GECOM Commissioners are Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman, while on the Government side sits Narayan, Sase Gunraj and Clement Rohee.

Private information

Last week, Nandlall had written GECOM seeking information on how private citizens’ data was provided to it by the then ruling APNU/AFC during the controversial 2020 General and Regional Elections.

It is a first step in the direction of an investigation that the AG had previously announced would be held into how immigration and registration data of citizens ended up in the hands of APNU/AFC; data it then submitted to GECOM in an effort to discredit the voters’ list.

According to his letter addressed to GECOM Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, Nandlall noted that APNU/AFC delivered to GECOM, documents claiming to show that dead people and persons who were overseas on Election Day, voted at the elections, as well as documents to claim that there were cases of multiple voting.

Opposition-nominated Commissioners, Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman

“These allegations continue to be peddled in the public domain by leaders and representatives of the aforesaid political entity. At the time and until now, the impression conveyed is that these documents and/or data were generated by and obtained from the official lawful repository of the specific information, for example, the immigration department, the Guyana Police Force and the General Registrar’s Office.”

“It is important that the relevant State agency enquires into the source of this information, upon whose directions they were sourced and, perhaps, most importantly, to officially reconfirm their inaccuracy, for public record. In the circumstances, I hereby request a copy of these documents to initiate this process,” Nandlall wrote.

In a previous edition of his programme “Issues in the News”, Nandlall had pointed out that back in 2020, when APNU/AFC first made its erroneous claims, the PPP/C did investigations of its own. During its investigations, the PPP/C was able to find many of the persons that APNU/AFC claimed were out of the jurisdiction or dead.

In fact, at the time, many of these persons had come forward to protest against and dispute APNU/AFC’s claims. This publication published several such persons, who had been accused by the then ruling party of being either dead or out of the jurisdiction when their vote was recorded.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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UNICEF’s Eastern Caribbean representative Pieter Bult during a recent visit to Saint Lucia highlighted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, indicating that they have been hardest hit.

“I would say that children actually bear the brunt of the pandemic,” Bult asserted during an appearance on the Government Information Service (GIS) Programme Issues and Answers.

He explained that lockdowns had affected children’s mental health, their psycho-social well-being, and their education.

According to the UNICEF official, many children were unable to follow online learning.

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“I think even more than half probably were not able to follow online learning. So we have lost two years of education,” Bult noted.

In addition, he  noted that poverty had increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We noted an increase in violence – domestic violence. Families being at home, not being able to go, no livelihoods – increasing demands and pressures on households,” the UNICEF official observed.

He indicated that this impacted mental health and contributed to increased violence.

Bult said the pandemic did a lot of damage with children bearing the brunt of it.

“And this is something now, coming out of the pandemic, we really have to focus on and address,” Bult declared.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Madres y padres de la escuela superior vocacional Antolín Santos Negrón, en Comerío, denunciaron, mediante un paro, cómo afecta la falta de aire acondicionado en el plantel el proceso educativo del estudiantado, aparte de que se ve amenazada su salud, puesto que, informaron, la estructura está diseñada para operar con acondicionadores de aire.

“Las condiciones de calor en las que se encuentran los estudiantes y todo el personal que labora en la institución atentan contra la salud de los seres humanos que allí se desempeñan. De igual forma, el pobre mantenimiento que se le ofrece a los aires acondicionados ocasiona que se cree un espacio contaminado y lleno de bacterias. Somos la voz de todas y todos los que no pueden estar físicamente, pero apoyan nuestro reclamo”, establecieron en un comunicado.

El colectivo achacó a la mala gestión del Departamento de Educación (DE) las condiciones actuales de la escuela, además de que señalaron que también carecen de un maestro o maestra de inglés y personal de enfermería.

Aparte de la ventilación y el problema de reclutamiento de personal, exigieron la restauración de la cancha escolar; la exterminación de, al menos, dos plagas; y que se reestructuren ventanas y corrijan liqueos.

Puede acceder a las declaraciones en este documento: PARO-COMUNICADO DE PRENSA Escuela ANTOLIN SANTOS-COMERIO

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