NEW YORK/JAMAICA –  Jamaican Americans here who had hoped to see someone of their heritage ascend to the presidency of the United States have been left “disappointed, devastated, and shocked” by the defeat of Vice-President Kamala Harris by former President Donald Trump in Tuesday’s election. Many have already began serious soul-searching over the unexpected outcome in which Harris, a daughter of a Jamaican father lost all seven battleground states where American elections are lost or won.

“I really believe this country is just not ready to elect a female for president,” Florida-based retired real estate broker Juliet Mattadeen told the Jamaica Observer. Her grief was shared by many of those who offered their views on the result in interviews with this newspaper. “I am totally shocked; it’s as if I am in a different world,” said Hyacinth Davis, a retired educator of Georgia who also attributed Harris’s gender as the big reason for her loss.  Retired New York health-care worker and founding president of the Ex-Correctional Officers Association of Jamaica, Keith Smellie, said he was “deeply disappointed and devastated” about the results, which he described as “certainly not what I anticipated”.  He added that he believed that the former president “was able to use the state of the economy and the border [immigration] issue effectively against the vice-president”.

The election result was a particularly bitter pill to swallow for Stafford Grant, head of the Jamaica Ex-Servicemen and Women Foundation. Grant, who is based in Pennsylvania, said he was “totally shocked”.

“It [result] does not reflect what we saw on the ground leading up to and during the turnout Tuesday,” said Grant, who was among several Jamaican and Caribbean nationals who formed Caribbean Americans United in Support of Harris shortly after she became her party’s presumptive nominee in July. He worries about some of the policies the former president has advocated he will be carrying out, as he believes they will be detrimental, especially to Jamaicans and other Caribbean people. “We will now have to remain more focused and use the laws where and when necessary to protect ourselves,” he argued. (Jamaicaobserver)…[+]

Photo: TRUMP… was able to use the state of the economy and the border [immigration] issue effectively against the vice-president. (Photos: AFP)

GERMANY – Germany has arrested a citizen of the United States suspected of offering intelligence on the US military to China while working for US forces in Germany, the Office of the Federal Prosecutor says. According to German prosecutors, the man, identified only as Martin D under German privacy law, was arrested in Frankfurt on Thursday. In a statement, prosecutors said he is accused of having declared himself ready to work as an agent for a foreign intelligence agency and he had “contacted Chinese officials in 2024 and offered to hand them sensitive information about the US military”. They said the accused had worked for US forces “until recently”. The investigation is being carried out “in close co-ordination” with German intelligence, prosecutors added. China and the US have not yet responded to news of the arrest. (Aljazeera)…[+]

Photo: The German and Chinese flags are seen flying at the Chancellery in Berlin. (Foto: AFP)