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China Accuses US Official Of “Malicious” Attack Over Guyana Infrastructure Criticism

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By Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Weds. Sept. 2, 2026: China’s embassy in Guyana has sharply rejected criticism from a US State Department official over Chinese-built infrastructure projects in the country, calling the remarks “malicious” and politically motivated, in a diplomatic exchange unfolding as bilateral China-Guyana trade approaches $2.9 billion.

The dispute began after Juan Pablo Segura, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, used his personal account on X to criticize Chinese state-owned companies operating across Latin America and the Caribbean, citing “a costly, poorly built, and failing hydroelectric dam in Ecuador,” “abandoned construction projects and corrupt efforts to manipulate bidding processes in Peru,” and an airport project in Guyana he said “was plagued by more than a decade of construction delays and cost overruns.”

“Our region is riddled with projects led by Chinese State-owned companies such as the Sinohydro Corporation and China Railway Group Limited where corners were cut, contracts were broken, governments saddled with debt, and the local environment suffered,” Segura wrote.

The Chinese Embassy responded forcefully. “We have noted that a certain U.S. State Department official recently used his personal social media account to smear and attack projects undertaken by Chinese companies in Guyana,” a spokesperson said. “Such remarks disregard the facts and constitute political manipulation and malicious smears against normal China-Guyana economic and trade cooperation.”

The embassy pointed instead to delays plaguing Guyana’s Gas-to-Energy project, being built by American firm Lindsayca Guyana Inc. The company was awarded a $759 million contract to deliver 300 megawatts of electricity by the end of 2024, but has repeatedly missed its deadlines, with the project now expected to deliver only a fraction of that power by the end of 2026, a delay the embassy said has cost Guyana multiple millions of dollars as the country’s electricity demand continues to grow.

China defends its record

The embassy defended Chinese companies’ contributions to Guyana’s development, citing the Bharrat Jagdeo Demerara River Bridge, the China-Guyana Friendship Joe Vieira Park, and six regional hospitals as examples that have “helped to improve infrastructure, create jobs and support economic and social development, earning broad recognition across Guyanese society.”

The embassy also pushed back on the broader implications of Segura’s remarks, arguing Guyana should be free to choose its own development partners without outside pressure. “A true friend is not someone who stands at a distance and tells you who you should or should not work with,” the spokesperson said. “A certain country might be better served by reflecting on itself rather than pointing fingers at others.”

“Guyana and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have every right to choose their own partners and pursue the path of development that works best for them, free from outside interference,” the spokesperson added.

Rapidly expanding trade ties

The exchange comes as economic ties between Guyana and China continue to grow quickly. Chinese Ambassador to Guyana Yang Yang said earlier this year that bilateral trade between the two countries surged to nearly $2.9 billion in 2025, more than doubling within a year and cementing China’s position as one of Guyana’s major trading partners.

Yang said the relationship has entered a “fast track” of development under President Irfaan Ali and Chinese President Xi Jinping, pointing to the completion of the Demerara River Bridge, which she called a “Bridge of Friendship and Development,” and the six Chinese-built regional hospitals as flagship symbols of cooperation under Beijing’s “Health Silk Road” initiative. She also noted more than 200 Guyanese professionals traveled to China for training programs in 2025.

“Facts have shown, and will continue to show, that China is a trustworthy friend and partner of Guyana, and that Chinese companies are important participants in and contributors to Guyana’s development,” the embassy spokesperson said.

Juan Pablo Segura

The response came after US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Juan Pablo Segura referred to an airport in Guyana that was affected by “more than a decade of construction delays and cost overruns.” Segura grouped the project with troubled developments in Ecuador and Peru, arguing that some Chinese-backed infrastructure projects in the region have involved broken contracts, increased public debt and poor construction practices.

However, the US official’s social media statement was a political assessment rather than an independent audit of the airport project.

The original contract was signed in November 2011 between Guyana’s then PPP/C government and China Harbour Engineering Company for US$138 million. Guyana was expected to contribute a further US$12 million, bringing the initial project value to approximately US$150 million.

The original plan included a new terminal building, an extended runway and expanded passenger-boarding and apron facilities. Construction was expected to be completed within 32 months. When the APNU+AFC coalition entered office in 2015, the project was already behind schedule. Then Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson said only about nine per cent of the work had been completed, while the new administration also faced a US$46 million contractual dispute with the Chinese company.

The APNU+AFC government subsequently altered the project’s scope to keep it within the existing financial limit. Plans for an entirely new terminal were replaced with renovations to the existing building and construction of a smaller arrivals terminal. The runway design and other facilities were also revised.

Those decisions later became part of a political dispute over why Guyana received an airport that differed substantially from the one outlined in the original agreement. When the PPP/C returned to office in 2020, it demanded that the Chinese contractor undertake additional work and correct outstanding defects.

China Harbour later agreed to finance approximately US$9 million in additional work at no further cost to Guyana. Major works reached practical completion in June 2022, almost a decade after construction began. Segura’s remarks come amid growing competition between Washington and Beijing for economic influence in Guyana and the wider Caribbean, where Chinese financing and companies have played a major role in infrastructure development. 

NewsAmericasNow will continue tracking developments in Guyana’s international partnerships.

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Jamaican Author Marlon James Releases New Novel

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By Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Sept. 3, 2026: Jamaican author Marlon James has released what he calls his most personal novel yet, “The Disappearers,” a 600-page epic drawing on his own closeted youth in Kingston – and it has already earned him a second Man Booker Prize nomination.

The 600-plus-page novel, out on Sept. 1st from Riverhead, centers on a brutal attack on a group of gay men rehearsing a play in 1980s Kingston, and follows the survivors as they begin to disappear in the years after. James told the New York Times the book was inspired by a rumor he heard in his youth about an attack on a queer safe space that was never officially confirmed, the kind of violence against marginalized people that often goes unspoken out of fear.

James, 55, grew up gay and closeted in Kingston through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, a period when Jamaica broadly rejected homosexuality. He told the Times he began writing partly to navigate school bullying, eventually studying literature at the University of the West Indies before working years in advertising and design. He published his first novel, “John Crow’s Devil,” in 2005, following it with “The Book of Night Women” in 2009 and his breakout, Booker Prize-winning “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” in 2015. James currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

According to the Times, James said the idea for “The Disappearers” came after he had already come out publicly and settled into life in the U.S., giving him the freedom to revisit the Jamaica he’d left behind out of fear. He described the novel as confronting “the story I was not allowed to live.”

To research the book, James interviewed nearly 20 people across Kingston about gay Jamaican life, past and present, telling the Times he expected to hear only horror stories but instead found comedy and defiance. He also conducted archival research at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York and traveled to London to research a chapter set in the city’s secret gay bars of the 1940s.

James finished the manuscript in December 2025 after working on it for months with his editor at Riverhead, according to the Times. The book was formally completed in July 2026 and was nominated for the 2026 Booker Prize shortly after, a moment James described to the paper as confirmation that the novel’s vulnerable characters “mean something to other people.”

Booker Prize judges called it “among Marlon James’s most ambitious and history-making works, a novel that examines territory Caribbean literature has rarely dared to occupy.”

“Beginning in late 1980s Kingston, it follows eight male actors rehearsing what is billed as Jamaica’s first openly gay play. When the men become victims of brutal homophobic violence, the novel shifts register: in the years that follow, one survivor sets out to investigate the fates of the others, and what begins as a theatrical story becomes something closer to a reckoning, he judges added. “James is a singular literary talent. His dialogue is sharp and propulsive, his phrasing is poetic, visceral and capable of moving from the painful to the darkly hilarious within a single exchange. The Disappearers could be read as a long overdue, clear-eyed confrontation with Jamaican homophobia: unflinching in its honesty, but written with the full complexity and love of someone who knows the place and its contradictions from the inside.”

The Times Dwight Garner writes: “It’s also an AIDS novel, a book about dying alone. (The disappearing acts of gay men are one of the title’s many meanings.) We follow one urbane Jamaican man named Havelock Titus back in time to Oxford University, where he studied and became a sexual chew toy for a set of patrician cads. He speaks of “malice” in old dining halls. He was at the doomed rehearsal and is ashamed that he ran away. He was an early AIDS patient. He recalls the days when a man could get hacked to death for wearing eye shadow.”

NewsAmericasNow will continue covering major literary milestones from the Caribbean diaspora.

Haitian Honors Student Kills Self After ICE Ankle Monitor Bullying At Wright State University

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By Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Sept. 2, 2026: A 20-year-old Haitian honors student who had just begun his first semester at Wright State University has died by suicide, his family says, after classmates taunted him over an ICE ankle monitor he was required to wear following the Supreme Court’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.

Pierre Damas Bel, an honors graduate of Springfield High School in Ohio and a former JROTC member who emigrated from Haiti in 2024, had planned to study neuroscience, play soccer, and eventually attend medical school, according to reporting by Capital B. He had celebrated the milestone on Instagram before classes began, according to the outlet.

In the weeks before starting college, Bel was fitted with a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ankle monitor tied to his immigration status. In a July Instagram post cited by Capital B, Bel wrote that he had come to the country to pursue his education, not to commit a crime, and described carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation he never imagined experiencing.

According to Capital B, family members and immigrant-rights advocates say Wright State students taunted Bel about the monitor during his first days on campus. On Monday morning, his father, Pierre Ronal Bel, said in a handwritten statement that his son called home saying he wasn’t feeling okay mentally because of the bullying, and that he told him to come home so they could talk.

Hours later, police arrived at the family’s door to report that Bel had entered westbound traffic on Interstate 70 and was struck by a tractor-trailer. His family says he died by suicide.

ANKLE MONITOR

Bel’s ankle monitor came after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way in June for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Haitians, a status that had allowed recipients to legally live and work in the country while conditions in Haiti remained in crisis. Since June, according to Capital B, the administration has directly called for Haitian immigrants to be equipped with ankle monitors and has resumed deportation flights to Haiti.

Springfield is home to an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian residents, many of whom fled political violence and economic collapse in Haiti. The city drew national attention in 2024 after false claims that Haitian residents were eating pets spread online and were amplified by then-vice presidential candidate JD Vance, contributing to heightened harassment and suspicion toward the community since.

Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance in Ohio, said in a statement reported by Capital B that Bel’s death was among the most tragic outcomes of the administration’s policies toward the Haitian community, and that the administration bears full responsibility for a young man who told his father he could no longer bear the stigma of the monitor.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, called Bel’s death a “horrible, horrible tragedy” and described the decision to end TPS for Springfield’s Haitian residents as “misguided and wrong,” according to Capital B.

Community members gathered at the Bel family’s home Monday evening to offer support, and residents across Springfield have mobilized to stand with their Haitian neighbors and call on ICE to halt intensified enforcement actions targeting the community.

WRIGHT REACTS

Wright State President Sue Wright expressed her condolences in a statement on Tuesday: “We are heartbroken by this devastating loss. Pierre was an active honors student who was passionate about soccer and was already actively engaged in his classes and the campus community. The University mourns the death of Pierre and extends our deepest condolences to his family, friends and loved ones during this unimaginably difficult time.”

The school added in the statement that counseling and support services are available to students, faculty and staff. WSU said later Tuesday that it “has no confirmed information regarding complaints or investigations into bullying related to the student.”

Before attending Wright State, Bel was recruited by Wittenberg University. The Wittenberg University Men’s Soccer Team posted the following statement on Facebook. “It is with deepest sadness that we announce the loss of one of our own, Pierre Damas Bel, a freshman recruit from Springfield, who tragically passed away earlier today in a traffic accident. Tagged with an ankle monitor by ICE just days before preseason training began, Pierre was no longer able to play. So he chose to pursue his academic goals at near by Wright State. May he rest in peace.”

A vigil has been planned to remember Bel for today, Sept. 2nd, at 6 p.m. at Columbus City Hall.

DHS REACTS

US DHS released this statement: “ICE can confirm that Ohio State Highway Patrol notified the agency on August 31 regarding the death of Pierre Damas Bel, a non-detained illegal alien from Haiti. The circumstances of his death remain under investigation by OSHP. ICE does not comment on the cause of death while that investigation is pending, and we will not speculate about unverified claims regarding other individuals.

“On March 5, 2024, Bel applied for admission into the United States at the Gateway Port of Entry via CBP One appointment, and he was released into the country by the Biden administration. On July 29, 2026, ICE placed him on alternatives to detention program with an ankle monitor while he continued in his immigration proceedings.

“No one is required to stay in the United States illegally and wear a monitor. Illegal aliens have a lawful, voluntary option: they can self-deport through the CBP Home app. Eligible participants receive a government-arranged flight home, a $2,600 exit bonus after departure is confirmed, and forgiveness of civil failure-to-depart fines. Remaining in the country illegally, while fighting removal, is a choice. Leaving with a free flight home and $2,600 is also a choice. ICE will continue to use detention or alternatives to detention as needed those illegal aliens who stay in violation of the law.”

NewsAmericasNow will continue following developments affecting Haitian TPS holders in Springfield and across the country. Reporting from Capital B contributed to this story.

Two US Navy Warships Arrive At Guantanamo, Cuba

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By Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Sept. 2, 2026: Two US Navy littoral combat ships have arrived at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, the latest sign of escalating US military pressure on the island.

The USS Billings docked first as part of its scheduled Caribbean deployment, followed by the USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul, which departed Naval Base Mayport, Florida on August 27th and arrived at Guantanamo Monday, according to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay’s social media announcements. Both vessels are designed for shallow coastal-water operations; the Navy describes the littoral combat ship class as addressing threats from coastal mines, terrorism, and stealth submarines while maintaining freedom of navigation through continuous maritime presence.

THE ARRIVAL

The arrivals follow months of unprecedented diplomatic and military maneuvers between Washington and Havana. In May, CIA Director John Ratcliffe met in Havana with senior Cuban interior ministry officials, delivering a message from the Trump administration that a “window of opportunity” would not remain open indefinitely. Days later, SOUTHCOM commander General Francis L. Donovan met at the Guantanamo base perimeter with Cuban General Roberto Legrá Sotolongo, marking what CiberCuba described as the first such meeting between the two commands in recent times.

In mid-June, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth visited Guantanamo and warned Cuba against acquiring weapons capable of reaching the base or US territory, saying “the future of Cuba is in the hands of its leadership” and that the Pentagon would consider “every possible option” in any contingency.

The military buildup extends beyond Guantanamo. Puerto Rico’s Roosevelt Roads naval base is now operating at full capacity with more than 8,100 troops conducting exercises under SOUTHCOM’s Operation Southern Lance, a deployment with a projected $79 million investment, CiberCuba reported.

ABOUT THE SHIPS

The USS Billings LCS 15, a Freedom-variant littoral combat ship (LCS), is the 8th Freedom-variant LCS, integrating new technology and capabilities to support current and future operations from deep water to the littoral. The LCS platform is a highly maneuverable, lethal, and adaptable shipdesigned to support focused missions, including mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, and surface warfare. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay is a vital U.S. military base in Cuba, serving as a key operational and logistics hub for maritime security, humanitarian aid, and joint operations.

The USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul LCS 21 is a Freedom-class littoral combat ship and is the 11th ship in the U.S. Navy’s family of modern vessels that maneuver in shallow coastal waters. The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) network counters threats of coastal mines, terrorism, and stealth submarines. The ship preserves our nation’s freedom of navigation across the globe through an innovative combination of ship design and construction, crew skills and training, and operational programs that create continuous maritime presence and protection.

CUBA

Within Cuban exile circles, figures including José Daniel Ferrer and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara have expressed support for military action against the government, and an independent digital survey in May, with more than 42,000 responses, found 60.9% support for direct US military intervention, with 58% of responses geolocated from the island, according to CiberCuba.

Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel promised in March what he called “impregnable resistance” against any military action, while Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla has rejected characterizations of Cuba as a threat to US national security.

The USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul is scheduled to next participate in UNITAS 2026, the 67th edition of a multilateral naval exercise involving 24 nations, off the coast of Lima, Peru, beginning September 10.

NewsAmericasNow will continue tracking developments in US-Cuba relations. Reporting from CiberCuba contributed to this story.

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Trinidadian Immigrant Accuses Clark County, Nevada Of Discrimination In EEOC Filing

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Exclusive – By News Americas Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Aug. 31, 2026: A Trinidadian immigrant has filed a discrimination charge against Clark County, Nevada, alleging she was stripped of her responsibilities and questioned about her immigration status after a 2025 promotion.

Cristle Ramey, who has worked for Clark County since 2023 and was promoted to Office Services Manager in April 2025, filed the charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Nevada Equal Rights Commission on August 26, alleging national origin discrimination, disability discrimination, and retaliation. “I am not asking the public to determine that my allegations are true,” Ramey told News Americas exclusively. “I am asking for the facts to be examined.”

Cristle Ramey says she was stripped of her role and questioned about her immigration status after a 2025 promotion; the county says it cannot comment on personnel matters

Clark County has not yet filed its formal response to the EEOC charge. This article presents Ramey’s allegations and personal account; it does not represent a finding by the EEOC or any court, and the matter remains under active investigation.

The Trinidadian Immigrant’s record with the county

Ramey said that before the events behind her charge, she focused heavily on improving administrative operations within Real Property Management. She said she redesigned the department’s invoicing process and the project closeout form, and personally worked through a backlog of completed capital improvement projects that had remained open in the county’s system, work she believes returned approximately $13 million in dormant public funds to availability. She also said she volunteered as an election team lead, at the department’s food bank, and as a volunteer ambassador encouraging colleagues to get involved in county initiatives.

What she says happened after her promotion

According to her charge, the harassment began in March 2025, when she says co-workers and management subjected her to unequal treatment, including comments about her accent and appearance. She said she reported a hostile work environment to the county in May 2025 and filed additional complaints to HR that September, but that no corrective action was taken.

Ramey said that after her promotion, she was excluded from meetings and decisions affecting her role, denied access to information and resources, and not given the training or support needed to manage her staff. “I experienced what I believe was a continuing pattern of bullying, harassment, exclusion, undermining and interference with my ability to perform the role I had been assigned,” she said.

On December 11, 2025, according to the charge, the Director of Real Property Management questioned her about her immigration status, despite her employment eligibility already being established through the county’s hiring process. She said the question came after she had already filed internal complaints through HR and the county’s Office of Diversity. “I cannot speak to the Director’s intent, and I do not want to speculate about it publicly,” she said.

Ramey disclosed a disability to the county on February 10, 2026, according to the charge. She said that afterward, her job duties and staff were stripped away and given to other employees. In May 2026, both her union and the county’s Office of Diversity filed grievances on her behalf, the charge states. She received written discipline on June 3, and on August 20, she was not selected for a lateral Office Services Manager position in the county’s Finance department, following what she describes as a discriminatory interview process.

Why she’s speaking out

“For many Caribbean nationals, immigrants and foreign nationals working in the United States, the American dream is built on the belief that hard work, integrity, education and perseverance can create opportunities for advancement,” Ramey said. “My experience has been an eye opener to the possibility that being both a high-performing professional and a foreign national can, in the wrong environment, make someone a target rather than protect them from mistreatment.”

“I welcome an independent, unbiased review of the facts,” she said. “If that review ultimately determines that my interpretation of events is incorrect, I am prepared to accept that determination.”

Clarke County Reaction

Reached for comment, Clark County declined to address the specific allegations. “Thank you for your inquiry, however the County is unable to comment on personnel matters,” Jennifer Cooper, the county’s chief communications and strategy officer, said in a statement to NewsAmericas Now.

This story is developing. The EEOC investigation remains ongoing. NewsAmericas Now will continue to follow the case.

Caribbean Education – Before The Bell Rings – Knowing The Caribbean Child, Changing The Learning

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By Teacher Kishma Isaac

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Sun. August 30, 2026: The most important thing in Caribbean education in a Caribbean classroom may be the thing a teacher has not yet discovered. Behind a student’s name on the register is a world of family, culture, language, experience, aspiration, and circumstance. Some of it is visible. Much of it is not. In a region shaped by migration, economic pressures, climate uncertainty, digital acceleration, changing family structures, and an increasingly connected world, teaching well requires more than knowing the curriculum. It requires knowing something about the person who will encounter it. A teacher’s understanding of the learner influences the examples chosen, the expectations established, the responses to behavior, the partnerships formed with families, and the opportunities created for participation. Knowing students is therefore not an accessory to teaching. It is part of the craft itself.

The Caribbean child does not arrive culturally empty. Students enter school with stories, music, sport, faith, humor, family knowledge, local history, language, creativity, and the resourcefulness of communities accustomed to making much from little. These are intellectual resources. When teachers connect legitimate elements of students’ lived worlds to rigorous academic work, relevance becomes a pathway rather than a slogan. This requires cultural responsiveness without romanticizing culture or lowering standards. It also requires a clear view of human dignity. If each child bears the image of God, then no student should be reduced to a grade, a behavior, a stereotype, or a perceived limitation. A quiet learner may be thinking deeply. A restless learner may need another entry point. A student struggling academically may possess strengths that conventional assessment has yet to reveal.

Understanding becomes valuable when it changes decisions. CONTENT + LEARNER + CONTEXT = DESIGN. What must students learn? What do we know about these particular learners? What features of their circumstances might influence the learning? Those answers can reshape examples, questions, grouping, pacing, differentiation, and assessment. They can also sharpen classroom management. Rather than treating behavior as an isolated event, teachers can notice patterns, investigate before assuming, and respond while preserving expectations. Family partnership can follow the same discipline: ASK → LISTEN → ALIGN → FOLLOW THROUGH. Three low-burden practices make the approach practical: greet students intentionally at the door, ask one meaningful question each week, and use NOTICE → NAME → ASK → ACT → FOLLOW UP to convert observation into purposeful action.

The aim is not to collect interesting facts about students. It is to develop better professional judgment. A five-minute learner profile can surface strengths, interests, aspirations, and challenges. An Interest and Hobbies Map can reveal authentic connections between curriculum and students’ worlds. An Observation and Check-In Grid can bring together student voice, teacher observation, and learning evidence. Yet information about a child carries responsibility. Use it to understand, never to label. Separate evidence from assumption. Ask before concluding. Support without quietly reducing the standard. Most importantly, let what students reveal influence what happens next. Listening becomes educationally meaningful when it produces a wiser decision, a different response, or a better learning experience.

The evidence of knowing a learner is ultimately found in changed practice. A teacher redesigns a lesson because she has discovered how her students connect with an idea. Another recognizes a behavioral pattern early enough to prevent escalation. Another hears a parent’s perspective and revises her approach. Another notices the student who has become remarkably good at going unseen. None requires a spectacular intervention. Each begins with attention, followed by judgment, action, and follow-through. Caribbean education needs teachers who can hold cultural understanding alongside academic rigor, technology alongside humanity, and high expectations alongside intelligent support. That work begins before the lesson plan, before the first question, before the bell rings. Know the Caribbean child. Change the learning.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Teacher Kishma Isaac is an author, values-based advocate, mentor to young people, mother, community leader, and educator with more than 18 years of teaching experience. Her work brings together educational practice, empowerment, human dignity, and youth development, with a particular commitment to creating learning environments in which Caribbean young people are understood, challenged, supported, and prepared to flourish.

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International Diplomat Of The Year Award For Jamaica’s Honorary Consul In Philadelphia

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By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, CHERRY HILL, N.J., Sun. August 30, 2026: Jamaica’s Honorary Consul in Philadelphia, Christopher Chaplin, is set to receive the International Diplomat of the Year Award at a major celebration marking America’s 250th anniversary in New Jersey next month.

Chaplin will be honored during the America’s 250 Years of Independence Celebration Gala, hosted by International Stop the Violence Alliance, Inc. on Saturday, September 12, 2026, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Cherry Hill. According to organizers, Chaplin is being recognized for his service in strengthening “international understanding, community connection, and cross-cultural collaboration.”

The recognition places the Jamaican representative among a distinguished group of public officials, law enforcement leaders, community advocates and sports figures who will be honored during the event. As Jamaica’s Honorary Consul in Philadelphia, Chaplin represents an important connection between Jamaica and its diaspora in the region, while helping foster ties between the Caribbean nation and communities in the United States.

America 250 Celebration

The gala is being staged as the United States observes its 250th anniversary and is expected to bring together international diplomats, elected officials, public-safety executives, educators, community leaders and professional sports figures. “America’s 250th anniversary calls us to honor more than our history. It calls us to recognize the people who carry the nation’s values forward every day,” said Dr. Stephné R. Coney, founder and CEO of International Stop the Violence Alliance. “This gala will bring together remarkable leaders whose lives demonstrate courage, achievement, resilience, and a deep commitment to the communities they serve.”

An international component will feature representatives from various countries presenting their national flags, highlighting the cultural diversity of the United States. The September 12 event also coincides with National Women in Law Enforcement Day.

Distinguished Honorees

Chaplin will be honored alongside several prominent American leaders.

Colonel Geoffrey D. Noble, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address, while Acting Colonel Jeanne Hengemuhle, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, will receive the Chief Louis “Lou” Cannon Medal.

U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey will receive the Rosa Parks Medal, while former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey will receive the National Reentry Leadership and Community Reintegration Award.

Former New Jersey Nets forward and NBA veteran Bobby Simmons will receive the Distinguished Professional Basketball Achievement Award.

Jacob Gillison, a former aide to the late Congressman John Lewis, will receive the Congressman John R. Lewis Medal, while Cynthia M.A. Butler-McIntyre, the 24th National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., will receive the Congresswoman Barbara C. Jordan Medal.

The evening will also recognize women in law enforcement, educators and community leaders for their contributions to public safety, mentorship and stronger communities. Doors open at 5 p.m., with the formal gala beginning at 6 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

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60 Years Later, Businesses On Notting Hill Carnival Route Are Boarding Up For Europe’s Biggest Caribbean Celebration

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By NAN Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, LONDON, England, Fri. August 28, 2026: As Notting Hill Carnival marks its 60th anniversary this weekend, an estimated 2 million people are expected to descend on West London for what remains Europe’s largest street festival, and once again, local businesses along the route are boarding up their windows before the celebration even begins.

The precaution isn’t new, but it remains striking for an event rooted in joyful Caribbean cultural celebration since its founding in 1966. Shops, bars and restaurants across Notting Hill, Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Grove have been advised to consider boarding up windows and installing temporary security fencing ahead of the weekend, with organizers, local authorities and the Metropolitan Police running resident and business drop-in sessions throughout July to prepare the area.

A new layer of security

Storefronts and residential buildings are boarded up with wooden and metal panels in the Notting Hill neighborhood of London, United Kingdom, on August 27, 2026, as business owners and residents take precautionary security measures ahead of the annual Notting Hill Carnival. Renowned as Europe’s largest street festival celebrating Caribbean culture and heritage, the massive two-day event is scheduled to take place on August 30-31, drawing hundreds of thousands of revellers to the area. (Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

This year’s carnival arrives with its most extensive security operation yet. The Notting Hill Carnival will take place in London August 29-31. The carnival attracts over one million attendees across three days and requires a large police presence due to the prospect of increased crime. Last year’s edition saw  2 murders, 8 stabbings, and 349 arrests: 72 for possession of an offensive weapon, 1 for possession of a firearm, 13 arrests for sexual offenses, 53 for assaults on emergency workers, and 61 police officers were assaulted over the weekend event. Fifty-five officers were assaulted. In the past two years, the Metropolitan Police have reported arrests for bladed weapon violations, stabbings, and assaults on police officers and members of the public. Historically, violence and arrests occur most frequently during the afternoon and evening portions of the carnival.

The Metropolitan Police Federation, representing 30,000 rank-and-file officers, has produced a hard-hitting 24-page dossier documenting what their members really think about their safety at the Notting Hill Carnival. Based on astonishingly candid quotes and comments from front-line officers who have worked at the annual event, survey results, newspaper cuttings from the last 10 years, and crime statistics from the Carnival.

Simon Hill, Deputy General Secretary of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: “For years we have made it known that officers don’t like the event. But we had no tangible evidence to support that.”

“I felt it was important to get some concrete evidence, to hear the views of officers who work Notting Hill Carnival so we could truly understand what they think of the event and whether they enjoy policing it,” he added. “We chose to focus our survey on the Notting Hill Carnival rather than another large-scale event because of the consistent volume of assaults reported by officers after the event every year. Officers also work approximately 30 to 40 hours over the two days, which can have a significant impact on their well-being. We are also extremely concerned about the public who attend the event being victims of crime that officers feel powerless to prevent due to the sheer number of attendees and crimes committed. No other event in London has this combination or level of issues for officers.”

Other comments received from officers in the Federation survey include:

• “Punched, kicked, hit with objects including bottles. Spat at and sexually assaulted.”

• “It is a dangerous environment with no concern for officer safety.”

• “As an ethnic minority, I often feel anxious about policing carnival.”

• “I would rather crawl naked through broken glass.”

• “I dread this event every year, it gets more violent each time. How many more officers have to get injured or innocent members of the public killed before anything is done?”

In response, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that live facial recognition and number plate recognition technology will be deployed for the first time this year, aimed at identifying wanted individuals before and during the festival. Last year’s use of similar technology helped identify nearly 100 people of interest and led to 61 arrests.

“We have taken full control but we are fully supported by the Metropolitan Police Service as well,” carnival chief executive Matthew Phillip told the BBC, calling the new measures “a massive step” for the event. Ironically, the US Embassy in the UK has put out a warning to “avoid afternoon and evening portions of the carnival.”

A celebration that endures regardless

None of the security preparation has diminished the scale or spirit of the celebration itself. Saturday’s Panorama steel pan competition, Sunday’s J’Ouvert starting around 6 a.m., and Monday’s Adults’ Parade, running from late morning into evening, will once again transform the streets into a vivid display of Caribbean masquerade, sound systems and culture, drawing visitors from across the UK and around the world now six decades running.

NewsAmericasNow will continue covering Notting Hill Carnival and Caribbean cultural celebrations across the diaspora.

The Illegal Slave Trafficker’s Son Who Became The World’s First Guyana Born Black International Footballer

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By NAN Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Fri. August 27, 2026: New historical evidence reveals a British company illegally trafficked enslaved Africans into Guyana 40 years after Britain banned the practice, while the same man running that operation later fathered a son with a local Guyanese woman, a son who would go on to become the first Black man ever to captain a national football team.

An 1847 letter unearthed by author Malik Al Nasir for his book Searching for My Slave Roots shows Peter Miller Watson, who managed Sandbach, Tinne and Company’s interests in Demerara, informing the firm’s Liverpool office that a ship called the Parker had arrived carrying “115 adult males, 86 adult females, 82 under 14 years, and 41 under 4 years,” describing them as “cargo” and attributing deaths during the voyage to “the wretched state in which they had lived ashore,” language Al Nasir says makes clear these were people illegally trafficked from Africa, not liberated or indentured laborers.

The irony history nearly erased

Nine years after that letter, in 1856, Watson fathered a son, Andrew, with a Guyanese woman named Hannah Rose. Andrew Watson would go on to become the world’s first Black international footballer, born in Guyana, or then British Guiana, captaining Scotland to a 6-1 victory over England in 1881, still England’s heaviest home defeat in history, and becoming the first Black man to win a major domestic cup and the first Black football administrator. Watson won three international caps for Scotland. His first cap came against England in London on 12 March 1881, in which he captained the side. A few days later, Scotland played Wales and won 5–1, with Watson captaining Scotland again.

Watson’s last cap came against England in Glasgow on 11 March 1882. This was a 5–1 victory again to Scotland. Watson moved to London in the summer of 1882, which effectively ended his international career as the SFA only picked players based in Scotland at this time.

The next non-white person to receive a full international cap for Scotland was Paul Wilson in 1975. The next black person selected to play for Scotland after Andrew Watson was Nigel Quashie in 2004, 123 years later. He also became the first non-white player to score for the Scotland senior team.

The son of a man illegally trafficking enslaved Africans into Guyana would grow up to shatter a color barrier in the sport that continues to matter today. History largely forgot both stories until now.

Compensation for the enslavers, not the enslaved

By the time of the 1847 letter, Sandbach Tinne, run by the Sandbach and Tinne families alongside relatives in the Gladstone family (father of British Prime Minister William Gladstone), had already collected compensation worth millions in today’s money for the “loss” of the people they’d previously enslaved, before the same operation kept trafficking new victims illegally. Sandbach Tinne received the second-largest aggregate compensation payout in the entire scheme. British taxpayers only finished paying off the debt used to fund those compensation payments in 2015, meaning generations of ordinary Britons paid for slaveholders’ losses long after the people actually enslaved, and their descendants, received nothing.

“John Gladstone… got the biggest single individual payout, while Sandbach Tinne got the second largest on aggregate, both were among architects of the compensation scheme,” Al Nasir said. An 1823 uprising by enslaved abolitionists in Demerara, a pivotal moment in the fight against slavery, began on a plantation owned by that same Gladstone family.

A new research project, and an old debt still unresolved

The discovery has prompted a new research initiative, Overwriting-Underwriting, launching at the Museum of Liverpool, examining the financial networks that sustained slavery and its aftermath. Descendants of both the Sandbach and Gladstone families have since apologized for their ancestors’ roles.

For Guyana, and the wider Caribbean, the timing lands squarely inside an active regional reckoning: CARICOM’s ongoing reparations push, and renewed attention to how thoroughly Britain compensated enslavers while leaving the enslaved, and their descendants for generations after, with nothing at all.

NewsAmericasNow will continue tracking developments in the Caribbean’s reparations movement.

RELATED: As Africa And The Caribbean Demand Reparations, A New Book Shows The British Crown Was The Architect – Not Just A Bystander

A Painting Made For The Dominican Republic Just Got Ripped Off Its Embassy Wall For Being “Too Woke”

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By NAN Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Thurs. August 27, 2026: A painting the U.S. government commissioned specifically to honor Dominican art and artists has been torn down from the American Embassy in Santo Domingo, and the State Department now wants to sell it.

“Young Artists After Siamesas 1960,” by acclaimed Us-born artist Kehinde Wiley, best known for painting Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait, depicts four Dominican models against a floral backdrop. It wasn’t a generic import: Wiley spent two years studying the work of Dominican modernists Celeste Woss y Gil and Gilberto Hernández Ortega, collaborating directly with art students from Santo Domingo’s Facultad de Artes and the Altos de Chavón School of Design to create it. Taxpayers funded the commission in 2013, and the State Department itself awarded Wiley its Medal of Arts in 2015 specifically “for his longtime contributions to Art in Embassies and cultural diplomacy.” Wiley is a renowned artist who has firmly situated himself within art history’s portrait painting tradition. As a contemporary descendant of a long line of portraitists, including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian, Ingres, among others, Wileyengages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic, and the sublime in his representation of urban Black and Brown men found throughout the world.

Torn down and covered in a flag

FLASHBACK – Visitors view the official portraits of former president Barack Obama by artist Kehinde Wiley and former first lady Michelle Obama by Amy Sherald at The Art Institute of Chicago on June 18, 2021, in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago is the first stop of the Obama Portraits Tour, organized by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and running from June 2021 through May 2022. Other scheduled stops on the tour include New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Houston. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Last week, embassy staff removed the painting, but not before draping it in a tarp printed with an American flag first. Erin Scavino, director of the Art in Embassies program, called it “very woke” and “aesthetically terrifying” in a podcast interview, adding, “It was by the gentleman who did Obama’s portrait.” U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Leah Campos celebrated the removal on social media with a video set to the rock anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” writing that the painting represented “globalist and woke ideologies.” Neither official explained what was actually objectionable about the artwork itself.

Asked directly about the painting’s content, a State Department spokeswoman instead pointed to unrelated 2023 comments Wiley had made about a different, separate painting, and to sexual assault accusations Wiley has publicly denied. “The work of an individual with such violent and racist words and depictions has no place in the America First State Department,” the spokeswoman said, confirming the department is now exploring whether it can legally sell the piece.

A program built for exactly this

Virginia Shore, who ran the Art in Embassies acquisitions program from 2000 to 2017 and commissioned the Wiley piece, pushed back directly. “Calling this woke is difficult for me to understand,” she said. “This is a program validated and financially backed under Bush. There is a science of building trust and empathy across borders.” The Art in Embassies program dates to the Kennedy administration in 1963, created specifically to foster cultural diplomacy through art reflecting the countries embassies serve, exactly what a two-years-in-the-making painting made with and for Dominican artists represents.

There’s no precedent for the government selling an existing embassy artwork, according to Shore. A smaller Wiley painting sold at auction in 2024 for nearly $845,000.

Part of a pattern

The Dominican painting’s removal isn’t an isolated incident. Scavino has claimed credit for pushing out an ambassador in Bucharest, Romania, over what she called “satanic baby art,” though that departure was officially reported as a planned retirement. She also appointed a friend with no curatorial experience to run the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, bypassing normal selection procedures, and organized a Washington exhibition this July built around nearly 70 versions of the American flag.

For a piece specifically created to honor Dominican art, Dominican artists, and Dominican cultural identity, on the walls of the embassy meant to represent America to the Dominican Republic, its removal raises an obvious question: what, exactly, about honoring the Dominican Republic’s own artistic heritage was considered un-American in the first place?

NewsAmericasNow will continue tracking cultural and diplomatic developments affecting the Caribbean.