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Historic relay record falls as Bermuda swimmers shine at BASA Fall Meet

Bermuda Broadcasting Newsdesk
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Historic relay record falls as Bermuda swimmers shine at BASA Fall Meet

A 23-year-old national record tumbled at the BASA Pool as Bermuda’s elite swimmers delivered a series of commanding performances at the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association Fall Meet.

The standout moment came in the Men’s 15 & Over 200m Short Course Medley Relay, where Connor Hupman, Sam Williamson, Logan Jones, and Noah Maranzana combined to rewrite the history books.

The quartet clocked a blistering 1:46.01, slicing more than two seconds off the previous standard of 1:48.17, which had stood since Ronald Cowen, Graham Smith, Michael O’Connor, and Roy-Allan Burch set the mark at the 2003 Island Games.

Individual honours brought drama of their own, none more gripping than a family duel in the Men’s 15 & Over 50m Freestyle. Gabe Maranzana edged out brother Noah by just seven-hundredths of a second, touching the wall in 24.70 to Noah’s 24.77, while Noah Fulton placed third in 27.90.

Madelyn Moore underlined her pedigree in the Women’s 15 & Over 50m Freestyle, easing to an emphatic victory in 26.36 ahead of Lila Connolly (30.85) and Violet Smith (31.52).

Fresh from relay glory, Sam Williamson doubled up in style with a dominant display in the Men’s 200m Freestyle. His 1:55.94 saw him finish comfortably clear of Gianluca Bortoli (2:13.88) and Fulton (2:15.74).

Fulton rebounded later in the session to claim the Men’s 100m Individual Medley crown in 1:09.85, fending off Bortoli (1:12.83) and Thomas Twilley (1:17.93).

In breaststroke action, Katherine Wheddon secured top spot in the Women’s 15 & Over 100m in 1:21.76, while Evelyn Fahy paced the Girls’ 13–14 category with a winning time of 1:31.56.

Burch-Waldron wonder strike in vain as overseas contingent suffer narrow defeat

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Burch-Waldron wonder strike in vain as overseas contingent suffer narrow defeat

Bermuda’s footballers, K’Shaela Burch-Waldron, Aaliyah Nolan, and manager Khano Smith all fell to single-goal losses across England and the United States, this weekend.

Bermuda international Burch-Waldron supplied the individual highlight of the weekend, pulling Sutton United Women level with a stunning long-range strike on the stroke of half-time away to Newhaven in the London & South East Regional Football League Premier Division.

However, the hosts struck again after the break at Fort Road to seal a 2-1 win.

There was similar heartache in the FA Women’s National League Division One Midlands, where Bermudian duo Aaliyah Nolan and Trinae Edwards featured in Barnsley Women’s 1-0 defeat to Leafield Athletic Ladies at Castle Vale Stadium.

Across the Atlantic in the USL Championship, Khano Smith’s Rhode Island FC were edged out 1-0 by Detroit City FC in a bruising, defense-dominated clash at Keyworth Stadium.

Despite the road defeat, favourable results elsewhere keep Rhode Island firmly in control of their playoff destiny, needing a win against Loudoun United FC on Wednesday to punch their postseason ticket.

Tennessee execution survivor Christa Pike released from hospital, returned to prison

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Tennessee execution survivor Christa Pike released from hospital, returned to prison

Pike was discharged from a local hospital and is now at the Debra  K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she has been housed for more than 30 years

FILE PHOTO: A picture taken on December 4, 2007 shows death row inmate Christa Pike entering a Knox County Criminal Court in Knoxville, Tennessee, US., obtained by Reuters on September 30, 2026. J. Miles Cary/ Knoxville News Sentinel/USA TODAY NETWORK via REUTERS/File Photo

International News via Reuters:

Death row inmate Christa Pike was released from a US hospital on Saturday and sent back to prison where she will continue receiving medical care following her botched execution attempt in Tennessee, her attorneys said.

Pike was discharged from a local hospital and is now at the Debra  K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she has been housed for more than 30 years, said attorneys Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen from Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, and Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason from the Tennessee Office of the Post Conviction Defender in a joint release.  

Pike, sentenced to death for a 1995 murder, awoke “angry and confused” in the hospital this week with a long recuperation ahead after surviving the attempted execution on September 30, her lawyers said on Wednesday. They previously believed she could be brain-dead.

Pike, 50, had been taken from the execution chamber to a Nashville hospital, unconscious, critically ill and ‌with severe arm injuries after two injections failed to kill her at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. 

A Tennessee judge this week ordered state officials to preserve all evidence related to their failed attempt to execute her, a development one of her lawyers called the “first of many steps to preserve and enforce her constitutional rights.”

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended all executions for the rest of the year while investigators look in to the botched execution of Pike and a similar failure involving Tony Carruthers in May, when prison officials were unable to set up intravenous ​lines.

Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Matthew Lewis

UN refugee agency’s funding shortfall is impacting refugees worldwide, its chief says

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UN refugee agency’s funding shortfall is impacting refugees worldwide, its chief says

UNHCR has secured only $3 billion, or 35% of the $8.5 billion in funding it requires for 2026

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Barham Salih addresses the United Nations Security Council, at the UN headquarters in New York City, US, September 25, 2026. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

International News via Reuters:

Deep funding shortfalls are forcing the UN refugee agency to make painful cuts across its humanitarian operations worldwide, and there are limits to how much restructuring can offset shrinking donor support, its chief said on Monday.

UNHCR has secured only $3 billion, or 35% of the $8.5 billion in funding it requires for 2026, High Commissioner Barham Salih told the agency’s executive committee at a meeting in Geneva.

The shortfall follows aid cuts by countries including the United States under President Donald Trump ​at a time of record global displacement.

Funding for next year remains uncertain although the expected figure of around $2.68 billion could improve after a UNHCR donor pledging conference in December, Salih said. 

UNHCR has launched one of its largest restructurings in the agency’s history because of the budget squeeze, with Salih saying its workforce had been reduced since 2024 from 20,000 employees to just under 12,000.

“Protection has a floor. Below it, the system does not simply become smaller. The protection we can provide begins to fail,” he said.

Salih cautioned that restructuring could not compensate indefinitely for lower funding, and that the funding crisis was already having tangible consequences for refugees and humanitarian partners.

“There is a difference between doing more with less and being asked to do the impossible,” he said.

JOB CUTS

UNHCR is seeking to preserve frontline operations by cutting jobs at its Geneva headquarters and worldwide regional offices, with 88% of staff remaining outside headquarters, Salih said.

About 95% of the staff doing protection work, such as registering refugees and providing legal assistance, and helping refugees find longer-term solutions, such as returning home safely, have been retained in field locations, he said. 

He cited several examples of programmes under threat. 

In Chad, he said, insufficient funding risks disrupting specialised medical care and legal assistance for more than 50,000 survivors of conflict-related sexual violence who fled neighbouring Sudan. 

In Ethiopia, refugee registration had been suspended for tens of thousands of refugees from South Sudan and Eritrea, he said.

Colombia has raised concerns on behalf of Latin American countries that their region is being disproportionately impacted. 

The Americas, which include the US, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, face a budget reduction of 32% in 2027 compared to this year, or about $485 million — the largest budget reduction of any region — while the number of forcibly displaced and stateless people in the Americas is projected to increase by 4% to about 24.5 million people in 2027, Salih said.

Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by Timothy Heritage

Pound treads water as dollar holds firm

Bermuda Broadcasting Newsdesk
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Pound treads water as dollar holds firm

The pound was last flat at $1.324, but strengthened against the euro, which fell 0.14% to a low of 84.49 pence, matching last week’s 16-month trough

International News via Reuters:

The pound held steady against the dollar on Monday, ahead of public appearances by a number of Bank of England officials, while investor wariness over developments in the Middle East kept volatility in check.

The oil price reversed earlier losses and rose above $105 a barrel after attacks on Saudi Arabia and uncertainty over comments from US President Donald Trump over an energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia that surprised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and on which Russia declined to comment.

US consumer price data due later in the week could help steer expectations for where US interest rates end the year, which, in turn, could affect expectations for other central banks, such as the BoE, that are also grappling with inflation stemming from the war in the Middle East.

The pound was last flat at $1.324, but strengthened against the euro, which fell 0.14% to a low of 84.49 pence, matching last week’s 16-month trough, as concern mounted about the risk to the broader euro zone from the intense pressure on French bonds.

“Markets are yet to focus on the upcoming UK Budget, which in any event poses far smaller challenges than the French one. Accordingly, the pound was among the key beneficiaries from the widening in French spreads lately,” Barclays strategists said in a note.

Sterling has been fairly range-bound for much of the past couple of weeks, hemmed in by uncertainty ahead of this month’s UK budget, but also by the strength in the dollar. 

Money markets show traders are attaching roughly a 90% chance of the BoE raising rates at its next meeting on November 5 and expect it to deliver a series of hikes during 2027 that would bring the base rate to 4.75% in a year’s time, from 3.75% now. Economists polled by Reuters expect no change to UK interest rates until later in 2027, with the next shift likely to be a cut. 

This week brings a raft of commentary from various BoE officials, culminating in Governor Andrew Bailey’s appearance at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok this week. 

Monetary Policy Committee members Sarah Breeden and Catherine Mann speak at different events later on Monday, while Megan Greene and chief economist Huw Pill speak later in the week. 

On the political front, Prime Minister Andy Burnham will tell parliament on Monday that Britain must consider a new, closer relationship with the European Union, saying a new post-Brexit deal with the bloc could boost growth and help control immigration.

Reporting by Amanda Cooper. Editing by Mark Potter

UK stocks advance on banking-sector strength

Bermuda Broadcasting Newsdesk
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UK stocks advance on banking-sector strength

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index rose 0.58% to 10,614.30 points by 1044 GMT, while the midcap FTSE 250 climbed 0.21%

Financial markets data and information are displayed around an LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) branded cube inside the LSEG headquarters in Paternoster Square, London, Britain, September 8, 2026. REUTERS/Toby Melville

International News via Reuters:

Britain’s FTSE 100 inched up on Thursday, with financial stocks providing support ahead of key US inflation data and UK GDP figures this week that could offer fresh insight into the economic outlook.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index rose 0.58% to 10,614.30 points by 1044 GMT, while the midcap FTSE 250 climbed 0.21%.

• Oil prices slip 0.7% to $104.50 a barrel; US President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine agreed to halt attacks on each other’s energy facilities [O/R]

• Financial heavyweight HSBC Holdings is shifting pay to performance-based bonuses from fixed salaries, Bloomberg reported

• Financial stocks among top gainers: HSBC Holdings, Standard Life, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, NatWest, Standard Chartered gain between 1.2 and 1.9%

• Limiting the gains, exhibitions group Informa fall 3%, telecom services company Vodafone slip 1.4%

• Shares of recruiter Hays dip 6.7% to their lowest since August 6 after 14th straight net fee drop

• BP plans to restart production at its Na Kika and Thunder Horse platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, three days after suspending due to Hurricane Isaias

• Data analytics and consulting company GlobalData rise 3.9% after the Times reported founder and CEO Mike Danson is considering a sale of its core divisions

• Investors looked to US inflation data due later this week that could offer clues on the Federal Reserve’s policy path

• Market participants also looked ahead to UK GDP estimates for August, due later on Thursday, for further clues on the economy’s health

• Attention was also on Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden’s speech for indications on the interest-rate trajectory

Reporting by Darshan Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das

Man injured in Sunday morning shooting

Bermuda Broadcasting Newsdesk
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Man injured in Sunday morning shooting

Police Statement:

At approximately 1:35 a.m. on Sunday, October 11, 2026, police officers were dispatched to a reported firearms incident at a residence in Hamilton Parish.

Upon arrival at that location, officers were informed that unknown subjects shot into a window at the residence, injuring one occupant.

The victim was transported by ambulance to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, where at last check, he was receiving treatment for a serious head wound.

An investigation into this matter has now commenced. We are particularly interested in speaking with residents of Lynwood Drive,  Midland Heights, Radnor Drive and surrounding areas and anyone  who may have observed any suspicious activity in those areas prior to or, after the shooting occurred.

Those of you with Ring Cameras or other CCTV devices are urged to please check to see whether they may have captured suspicious persons or activity shortly before or after this incident.

Residents, of these areas, or anyone with information that could help progress this investigation, are asked to call Acting Detective Inspector Anneka Donawa of Serious Crime Unit  on 717-2250 or via e-mail at adonawa@bps.bm.

‘Hug someone you love – you don’t know when it’s the last time’

Gary Foster Skelton
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‘Hug someone you love – you don’t know when it’s the last time’

A close relative of the two Bermudians who were on the air ambulance that disappeared last weekend, spoke poignantly of what they mean to his family

Gavin Smith, nephew of LaVonne Bean and cousin to Sergio Lottimore, gave an emotional address to the crowd at White Hill Field on Saturday.

Hundreds had gathered for a prayer vigil in support of the family of the two Bermudians who were lost, along with four Canadian crew members, when an air ambulance disappeared on Saturday, October 3rd.

At the end of an evening of prayers and music, organized by the West End Ministerial Alliance, Mr Smith stepped onto the stage. He said that he hadn’t planned to speak, and thanked those in attendance.

“This has been hard”, he said. “It was shocking and amazing to see how the world was behind us, and I just want to say thank you for keeping Aunt LaVonne and Sergio in your hearts, and for coming out tonight.

“For those who didn’t know Aunt LaVonne, she really was the heart of our family… She looked out for the eldest and the youngest, and she was a real link, intergenerationally, that will be missed and lost.”

Mr Smith spoke of his Aunt’s faith, saying that she had found the Lord “for real”, and that her communication with him “would always be leading with Jesus Christ, who she knew personally.”

Speaking of his cousin, Mr Smith said “Sergio was an incredible young man. He was younger than me, but he was a hero to me… taking care of his family in every way that he could.”

He spoke of Mr Lottimore’s strength of spirit, and that at first the family thought “Sergio can make it through this.”

As the days went on, however, Mr Smith said “it just become this horrible reality…

“I didn’t want my cousin out there in the water, fighting to come back to us when he served his purpose.”

Mr Smith said that Sergio “was here for a short time but he impacted so many lives.”

Mr Smith once again thanked the attendees on behalf of the family, and added, “hug someone you love, because you never know… it might be the last time.”

Bermudian mother and son Marilyn Lavonne Bean and Sergio Wayne Lottimore were on a Latitude Air Ambulance flight from Bermuda to Boston, which left the island around 12:40am on Saturday October 3rd.

The aircraft reported electrical difficulties sometime after 1am, after which it descended rapidly, and contact with air traffic control was lost south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.

Canadian Pilots Captain Philip Gregory Childerhose and First Officer Thomas Henry Farquhar were also lost in the tragedy, as were flight nurse Sarah Jane Paton, and respiratory therapist Jolene Beth Weir.

The U.S. Coast Guard found debris in the ocean south of Nantucket, but suspended the search on Sunday night.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has deployed a team to lead the investigation into the incident, with assistance from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

LIVE: Vigil for air ambulance tragedy

Bermuda Broadcasting Newsdesk
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LIVE: Vigil for air ambulance tragedy

A prayer vigil is being held at White Hill Field in Sandy’s, in remembrance of those lost in the air ambulance tragedy on October 3rd, and in support of their families and loved ones.

Trailblazer first woman police officer celebrated at Senior’s Tea

Jasmine Patterson
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Trailblazer first woman police officer celebrated at Senior’s Tea

The Bermuda Police Service hosts its annual Senior’s Tea event at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club for retired police officers and seniors

Darrin Simons, Commissioner of the Bermuda Police and Na’imah Astwood, Deputy Commissioner present former police officer Jean Vickers with a bouquet of flowers.

Trailblazing retiree Jean Vickers, the island’s first woman officer was honoured on Friday for her service to the community.


Police Week 2026 wrapped with their annual Seniors Tea event drawing over 400 attendees to the Hamilton Princess and Beach Club.

Here’s more.

Wells strikes as Luton cruise, but mixed fortunes for Bermuda contingent

Bermuda Broadcasting Newsdesk
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Wells strikes as Luton cruise, but mixed fortunes for Bermuda contingent

Nahki Wells was on the scoresheet as Luton Town romped to a 4-1 victory at Wycombe Wanderers, headlining an eventful weekend for Bermuda’s footballers across the English pyramid.

The veteran frontman claimed the Hatters’ third to seal a commanding away display, though compatriot Nathan Trott had less joy in the Championship as Cardiff City slipped to a 2-1 defeat at Blackburn Rovers.

Further down the divisions, Milan Butterfield helped Halesowen Town secure a gritty 1-1 draw at Kettering, while Jutorre Burgess remained an unused substitute in Harborough Town’s 1-0 win over Southport. In the Southern League, Willie Clemons featured as Leiston played out a 0-0 stalemate at Racing Club Warwick.

It proved a tough afternoon elsewhere: Reggie Lambe’s Ipswich Wanderers fell 2-1 to Woodbridge Town, a scoreline matched by Binfield against Bognor Regis with Brighton Morrison starting and CJ Fubler benched.

Meanwhile, Daizhari Tucker’s Worcester Raiders were edged out 1-0 by Weymouth.

Bermuda Tonight – October 9

Bermuda Broadcasting Newsdesk
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Bermuda Tonight – October 9
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