08012023 NEWS AND SPORT

WITNESS: DEANGELO RAISED HANDS IN AIR

Crowd shouted that man shot by police did not have a gun

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

TWO men testified about the chaos that consumed Masons Addition after police killed Deangelo Evans in 2018 and the crowd’s scepticism about officers’ claim that the 20-year-old had a gun.

Edmund Lee and Dwight Johnson testified in the Coroners Court yesterday, one a cousin and the other

a friend who allegedly accompanied Evans before he was killed.

Mr Lee lives across the street from where Evans was shot on Sandy Lane. He said he was cooking breakfast on May 27, 2018, when he saw Evans and Mr Johnson walk down McCullough Corner. He said he soon heard gunshots; his wife told him that Evans had been shot.

MINNIS CONCERNED AS 19 PASSP ORTS ARE MISSING

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune NEws Editor rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE temporary misplacement of 19 passports at the Passport Office has sparked a police investigation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

Before the ministry’s statement was released, former Prime Minister Dr

Hubert Minnis questioned whether something untoward happened.

“I’m very concerned that passports within the Passport Office were missing last week,” Dr Minnis told The Tribune. “What is the government doing to protect the national treasure? Will we have

Mitchell defends BA h AMA s’ efforts on sMuggling

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell defended the country’s efforts to counter human smuggling after an American newspaper highlighted the problem.

activity gaining prominence in The Bahamas, following periods of drug and alcohol

VOTES FOR VIOLENCE BILLBUT SAYS IT IS NOT ENOUGH

By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter jrussell@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard said although his party supported the passage of the Protection Against Violence Bill last week, it believes the legislation is inadequate.

“We didn’t want to be on the wrong side of history that opposed any measure that was fighting violence in the country,” he said yesterday. “The desired impacts,

Atl A ntis’ tone SOFTENS ON RCI BEACH PROJECT QUESTIONS

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

Post’s journalists spoke of alleged smugglers who claimed that getting involved in human

smug-

a voice note yesterday, Mr Mitchell said the por-

are facts involved like the fact of

ROYAL Caribbean International is nearing completion of its efforts to satisfy the requirements to have its Paradise Island Beach Club project fully approved.

RCI hosted a public consultation event in June.

Diane Phillips, RCI’s public relations representative in The Bahamas, said yesterday the company is finished answering questions related to the project’s environmental

FNM

Pastors versus politicians on the basketball court

PASTORS and politicians went head to head on the basketball court on Sunday as part of the Peace on da Streets Basketball Classic. The politicians team included participants such as Minister of Agriculture Clay Sweeting, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg and Minister of State for Education Zane Lightbourne, while Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis encouraged from the sidelines. The event was held at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium. See SPORTS - PAGE 12 for story.

Photos: Austin Fernander

Witness: Deangelo raised hands in air

After running to see what happened, Mr Lee said that he saw Evans lying face down on the road between a light pole and a wall with police officers Corporal Wright and Inspector Wilson standing nearby with their guns drawn. When Mr Lee tried to confront the officers about what happened, they refused to answer. He then allegedly heard someone in the crowd shout that Evans was unarmed.

“Deangelo was laying on the floor,” Mr Evans said.

“I saw his red jacket laying on the floor. I went out the front gate, called his name. He tried to get up. Only his shoulders get up. He

fell back to the floor and stretch out his foot. This time I walked slowly. I was approaching the officers.

I asked them: ‘What happened?’ I get no response from them. I walked closer and closer slowly. As I reach him, I put my front to them and my back to the wall. I looked at Deangelo. He was bleeding. I kneel down to the floor beside him, and I zipped open his jackets, put the jackets down to his shoulders. I asked them again: ‘What happened? We need to call him an ambulance.’ I still get no response from them.”

“In a matter of seconds, no longer than two minutes, people started to come to the scene. My cousin, Gramico, he came

to assist with Deangelo. The crowd start to draw closer, lot of people start coming in. I heard somebody in the crowd say: ‘This little bey ain’t had no gun’.

I heard one of the officers say: ‘Then what this is?’ I looked at that officer. He wasn’t at the position that he was when I came out of the gate. At this time, he was behind the jeep. I looked at him, I saw a gun beneath his foot.”

Under cross-examination from Quintin Percentie, who represents Evans’ estate alongside Ryzard Humes, Mr Lee said after Inspector Wilson changed position with the gun underneath him, he heard someone in the crowd say the officer “put that there”.

Mr Lee said that after

other officers arrived ten to fifteen minutes later, Inspector Wilson picked up the gun underneath his foot and left in a jeep.

Dwight Johnson testified that he saw Evans exit a shop just before the shooting. He said he and the deceased were walking down McCullough Corner when two officers in a dark jeep approached them with their guns drawn. He recalled an officer saying, “Y’all around here doing stupidness” as the pair surrendered and put their hands above their heads.

Mr Johnson said that an officer with a pistol in his right hand aimed at the back of his head searched him with his left hand. The other officer, carrying what

he called a machine gun, escorted Evans across the street while the deceased still had his hands in the air.

Mr Johnson claimed that the officer pushed his head forward when he tried to look behind him to see what was happening with Evans.

Mr Johnson said after Evans was shot, he ran away to the home of Evans’ parents, where he cried before returning later to the scene.

Mr Johnson told Attorney Humes he was not treated like a suspect when he returned to the scene. He said he was arrested later that day at the hospital.

Meanwhile, PC Deneko Major testified that around 9.50am that day, as a mobile

division member, he was responding to an armed robbery call in Masons Addition when he heard gunshots. When he arrived on Sandy Lane, he said he saw two officers near Evans as the body lay on the ground surrounded by a hostile crowd of around 70 to 100 people.

Major also said he saw Inspector Wilson standing near Evans with a firearm under his foot. During cross-examination, Mr Humes said he was focused on the safety of officers and preserving the scene.

K Melvern Rolle represents the two officers in the case: Corporal Wright and Inspector Wilson. Patrick Sweeting is marshalling the evidence.

Mitchell defends Baha M as’ efforts on s Muggling

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our geography, the fact that people use the country to smuggle people to the United States,” he said. “Pieces of this nature, in my view, always come off as exaggerated to the point of the absurd.

“The piece is simply not balanced enough in that it does not give credit or sufficient credit to a small country with limited resources. There is no way, shape or form, countenance is the smuggling of people to the United States of America.”

Mr Davis said human smuggling in The Bahamas is a structural issue given the country’s location between the United States and Haiti.

“We have a tourist economy which must balance ease of entry as against immigration controls and there’s every indication that The Bahamas is fully cognisant of the public policy on smuggling and on trafficking of persons and we

adhere to all the international agreements,” he said.

Meanwhile, Royal Bahamas Defence Force Commodore Raymond King acknowledged that human smuggling remains a vexing issue in the country. He said while interception of migrant vessels has been successful sometimes, it remains challenging to locate human smugglers.

“The challenge exists with Haitian migrants identifying the actual captain of the vessels despite the interrogation methods and profiling techniques,” he said. “Similar circumstances with the Cubans; much easier with the mixed migration in the Northern Bahamas because it’s usually a sole Bahamian onboard the vessels.”

He said efforts are made to “interrogate cell phones found in migrant possessions,” but migrants throw most phones away at sea when authorities discover them.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell defended the country’s efforts to counter human smuggling after an American newspaper highlighted the problem.

Minnis concerned as 19 passports are Missing froM Mofa

from page one

similar problems and accusations to what happened in immigration?”

The ministry’s statement said the misplacement of 19 passports was “treated with the gravity it deserves,

given the importance and sensitivity of these documents”.

The ministry said the passports were never removed from the building.

“In our pursuit of transparency and accountability, we have involved law

enforcement,” the ministry said. “The incident is under an active police investigation. We are cooperating fully with the authorities to ensure a comprehensive investigation is done.”

paramount. We are continuously striving to maintain and enhance the trust our citizens place in us. We want to reassure the public that we have stringent security measures in place, which are currently under review to enhance our security protocols further.”

THE temporary misplacement of 19 passports at the Passport Office has sparked a police investigation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Before the ministry’s statement was released, former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis questioned whether something untoward happened.

FNM votes for violence billbut says it is not enough

specifically gender-based impacts, won’t be enormous because the bill is ill-conceived, but with any measure designed to fight violence of any form, we will be on the right side of history. The point the government missed is that your whole strategy on how to fight genderbased violence depends on your understanding of the definition of it. If you think it’s just like all kinds of violence, you’ll miss the mark when it comes to sensitivity training, for example.”

In a statement yesterday, Mr Pintard said the FNM supports legislation that seeks to solve violence issues. However, he said the party is concerned the bill is being pushed in place of the Gender-Based Violence Bill without adequate input from stakeholders.

“The Gender-Based Violence Bill has been widely consulted upon,” he said. “Numerous individuals and organisations have contributed to the discussion for more than a decade, and we are deeply disturbed that the collective work of so many has apparently been discarded in large measure by this PLP administration with little to no explanation as to why.”

“The new bill clearly

is dramatically smaller in scope and to date most stakeholders are unaware of what has been removed from the 2016 bill.”

Mr Pintard said the administration aimed to pass the bill before the 13th Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministerial meeting in August. In May, Mr Davis’ wife, Ann Marie Davis, said she hoped the bill would be passed before the commonwealth

meeting.

“The nature of the bill,” Mr Pintard said, “inclusive of its name, falls short of the standards set in the global community for a bill that addresses genderbased violence according to some stakeholders, most especially Marion Bethel, the vice chairperson and rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Committee on Women & Girls Rights.”

YOUTH FORUM TACKLES THE RISE OF MICROTRA FFICKING AND UNDERAGE DRINKING

By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter jrussell@tribunemedia.net

UNDERAGE drinking and micro-trafficking of illegal substances are on the rise, according to Bahamas National Drug Council Director Dr Novia T Carter-Lookie.

Caribbean countries that participated in discussions of prevention and illicit trading of drugs.

“This administration does not take dissent or criticisms well. Most often, they savage those with opposing views, or they dismiss them as a small interest group whose ‘fringe views’ should not be taken so seriously that it derails the governments’ agenda and timetable.”

In defending the bill last week, Mr Davis said the changes capture efforts to broaden its impact.

“Our major concerns are we’ve seen an increase in microtrafficking, which is the sale and use of illegal substances in the country and even in terms of the use of alcohol by underage minors,” Dr Carter-Lookie said. “And so, what we’ve done is, we’ve developed a lot of programmes in our communities and in our schools to meet those needs. So, we’ve developed programmes that deal with not only just saying no to drugs, but we’ve strengthened skills against violence prevention, we’ve done some work with bullying prevention. And we’ve done a lot of work with anger and stress management.”

Dr Carter-Lookie’s comments to reporters came on the sidelines of the 2nd Annual Caribbean Youth Forum, which focused on drug use prevention. The event also included 13 English-speaking

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said there are “many cases” of drug addiction in The Bahamas. He noted that people are poly-drug users in some cases, meaning they abuse several substances. He said officials are keeping an eye on the rise of fentanyl.

“Dr Allen clearly spoke about two or three individuals who died as a result of fentanyl,” he said. “Some of them were Bahamian students in the United States. But we need to sound the alarm here. Prevention is better than cure and we need to equip our young people with the tools necessary to say no to drugs.”

“We are going to be discussing fentanyl and the dangers of fentanyl and equip young people on how to go back to their respective communities and countries to address this issue with fentanyl that is now showing its ugly head in the Caribbean.”

Other illicit drugs that officials have seen in use are cocaine, methamphetamine, and the abuse of prescription drugs.

SHANTY BLAZE CONTAINED TO ONE S TRUCTURE THAT HAD 15 ROOMS, NO INJURIES REPORTED

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

SEVERAL people were left homeless last night after a fire ripped through a shanty town off Joe Farrington Road.

Shortly after 8.50pm last night, police were

notified of a fire at Cool Acres off Sandilands Village Road.

Director of Fire Services

Chief Superintendent Kendrick Morris told reporters a single-story wooden structure was destroyed as a result of the fire.

“The flame has been extinguished with no

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that CLAUDIN LAURISTON of Treasure Cay Abaco, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 1st day of August, 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

injuries,” he said. CSP Morris was unable to confirm the cause of the fire. However, he estimated that the structure had about 15 rooms. Onlookers gathered as firefighters attempted to extinguish the fire. Residents declined to speak with the media.

NOTICE is hereby given that WINDY SAINTVIL of of Home Stead Street, New Providence, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 25th day of July, 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that LUBINS GUSTAVE of Fox Hill South, New Providence, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 1st day of August, 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL

The Public is hereby advised that I, TROY JAMINE NABRICO ROKER of P.O Box F43317, Freeport, Grand Bahama, Bahamas intend to change my name to TROY JAMINE NABRICO BROWN If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Chief Passport Offcer, P.O.Box N-742, Nassau, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

$100.00 per box

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard said although his party supported the passage of the Protection Against Violence Bill last week, it believes the legislation is inadequate.

FIRE personnel extinguish the flames at a shanty town in the Joe Farrington Road area, containing the spread.

Photos: Austin Fernander

Sentence appeal upheld for woman in murder conspiracy

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune News Editor

THE Privy Council has asked the Court of Appeal to re-sentence a woman found guilty of conspiracy with others to murder

O’Neil Marshall.

However, the judges rejected the woman’s request to overturn her guilty conviction. Marshall was murdered

sometime between April 30, 2016, and May 1, 2016, while he was in a witness protection programme to give evidence in a murder trial involving a notorious gang leader. During her police interview, Caryn Moss admitted she knew Marshall and was aware of a plot to murder him. She alleged three people approached her around December 2025 to be

involved in the plot. Although she said she let Marshall know the men were looking for him, she did not end contact with the men. She said on April 30, 2016, one of the men who approached her to kill Marshall dropped her at the airport to pick up office keys. She said during the drive, he threatened her. She said the man devised a plan that would allow him

to kill Marshall. As fulfilment of the plan, she took Marshall to the end of a dead-end road where he was eventually killed.

She told police she knew he would be killed once she took him through Yorkshire Street.

She was found guilty in the Supreme Court. Both the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council upheld her conviction.

However, the Privy Council’s judges found that lower courts should have considered the “degree of coercion” the woman experienced in acting the way she did.

The board noted there was evidence the woman had been subjected to a death threat which she thought was legitimate.

“It ought to have been considered either as an extenuating

Atlantis’ tone softens on RCI beach project questions

impact and is preparing to publish its responses online.

“Once everything has been published,” she said, “it will be reviewed by DEPP and then the application is considered. Then we wait and see.”

She said she did not anticipate a project approval delay, but could not give a timeline.

Meanwhile, Vaughn Roberts, Atlantis’ senior vice-president of government affairs and special projects, struck a softer tone discussing the project yesterday than in the past.

Atlantis had been one of the project’s staunchest critics.

“We,” Mr Roberts said yesterday, “have definitely been able to cause Royal Caribbean to think carefully about the project and to really fine-tune the project in a way that I think it’s going to end up being a win for the destination.

He did not specify how Atlantis got RCI to change or fine-tune its project.

“We never had an opposing position,” he said.

“Just so important what we offer at Atlantis and how we live is protected.

“As planned project — planned development projects — actually just takes considered approach with respect to the environment.”

circumstance potentially justifying a sentence outside the range of 30-60 years’ imprisonment or as an additional mitigating factor to be taken into account in determining where this case fell within that range,” the board wrote. Accordingly, the Court of Appeal is expected to consider the matter and give the woman a shorter sentence.

State Recognized Funeral Service for

The President of The Bahamas Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention, REV. DR. LLOYD C. SMITH, 74

a resident of Saffron Hills, West Bay Street & formerly of Abaco, will be held at Mount Horeb Baptist Cathedral, Sandy Port, on Friday, August 4, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. Officiating will be Bishop Carrington S. Pinder, assisted by Other Ministers of the Gospel. Interment follows in Lakeview Memorial Gardens, John F. Kennedy Drive.

Left to cherish his memories are, Wife of 52 years: Minister Linda Smith; Brother: Feaster Smith Sisters: Athream, Nichole, Jacqueline Smith; Brothers-In-law: Colin Wright, Christopher Wright, (Sonia) Berne Wright, (Tanya) Kendal Wright, Robert Wright, Edward Wright, Mervin Wright (Violet); Sisters-In-law: Buena Wright, Anita Ramsey, Susan Cargill, (Dr. Patrick) Kimberly Thurston, (Mitchell) Bridgette Williams (Lester); Numerous Nieces and Nephews, Grand Daughters: Meltisha Smith, Alisha Smith; Grand Sons: Trevor Smith Jr., Travon Smith, Trevin Smith; Great Grand Daughters: Treasure Brown, Saya Smith, Anaya Smith. Other Relatives and Friends: Akisha Smith, Blythe & Stephanie Duncanson, Barton Duncanson, Rev. Dr. Gilbert Smith, Bishop Michael & Dr. Hilda Symonette, Dr. Anthony Carroll & Rev. Cheryl Carroll, Rev. Dr. Alonzo Hinsey, and Rev. Jessie Hinsey, Bishop Stanley Ferguson & Rev. Irene Ferguson, Rev. Robert Colebrook & Rev. Tonia Colebrook, Rev. Dr. Michael J. Symonette, Bishop Carrington Pinder & Rev. Sabrina Pinder, Bishop Lockwood Deleveaux & Rev. Florence Deleveaux, Rev. Dr. Leroy Major & Mrs. Curlean Major, Rev. Theodore Dorsett & Sis. Sandra Dorsett, Bishop Delton Fernander & Min. Calpernia Fernander, Bishop Arnold Josey & Elder Vernita Josey, Bishop David Braynen, Rev Hartman Nixon & Min. Laverne Nixon, Bishop Victor Cooper & Min. Frances Cooper, Rev. Dewitt Hutchinson & Mrs. Hutchinson, Rev. Dr. Wilton Strachan & Mrs. Strachan, Rev. Dr. Roscoe Rolle & Min. Yvonne Rolle, Rev. Isolene Rolle, Rev. Adam Brown & family, Rev. E. John Newton & Family, Rev. Dr. Philip McPhee & Rev. Charlene McPhee, Rev. Dr. William Thompson. Rev. Dr. Diana Francis, Bishop Gloria Ferguson National Baptist Convention USA, CBF, Bahamas National Baptist Convention, Mount Horeb Baptist Church, Independent Baptist Association , Morning Star Baptist Association, Zion United Baptist Convention, Bahamas Baptist Association, Bahamas Baptist Union, Faculty and students of Jordan Prince William High School, and Charles Saunders High School.

Friends may pay their last respects at The William Thompson Baptist Auditorium, Jean Street, on Thursday from 12:30 p.m. -5:00 p.m.

VAUGHN ROBERTS

The Tribune Limited

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Defend against criminals, not criticism

IN THIS column last week, we considered an article published by the Washington Post on human smuggling in The Bahamas – the government has now caught up.

As we said last week, many of the points in the article will be familiar to Tribune readers - starting with the incident in July last year in which at least 17 Haitians died when a boat set off from the Sand Trap area near Arawak Cay but overturned in rough seas.

The article went on to speak to a relative of one of the victims who died on that voyage – as well as to anonymous individuals who said they were smugglers and talked of the money that could be made from the illegal activity.

Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell has lambasted the Post for its reporting, saying that “pieces of this nature in my view always come off as exaggerated to the point of the absurd”.

Mr Mitchell made the criticism in a voice note yesterday, though he was light on detail when it came to what he actually objected to in the article.

In fact, he went on in the voice note to acknowledge our location, between Haiti to the south of us and “the rich country to the north of us called the United States and we’re caught in between”.

He said the article was “simply not balanced enough in that it does not give credit or sufficient credit to a small country with limited resources”.

Now, take your pick here – is smuggling not a major problem, and the article is exaggerating it, or is it a big enough problem that we struggle to tackle it due to limited resources? If indeed the article is exaggerating the situation, let us hear exactly how.

Perhaps we should pay closer attention to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Commodore, Raymond King, instead – who notes that while we intercept migrant vessels, we do indeed have trouble locating the human smugglers themselves.

He notes how cell phones are usually thrown into the sea if boats are at risk of interception, and there are challenges with identifying the captain on board Haitian and Cuban vessels.

Human smuggling of course is a major operation – and those piloting the vessels may well not be the same people as making the arrangements to bring the migrants to the ship. This can be crime at a major level.

So Mr Mitchell may seek to dismiss concerns raised by the article over human smuggling – but there is a very real and substantial level of crime that is taking place. Failing to take it seriously may be exactly the kind of thing that leads to articles such as this in the first place.

Bear in mind what one of the purported smugglers said in the article:

“The game is easy to get in, once you get a boat and have a place to put people. If you don’t have a boat, you get money up front to buy a boat.”

If indeed the game is easy to get into, that suggests it is pervasive to some extent. A network exists. It is easy to find the connections, it would seem, to become a smuggler. That does not happen in isolation.

So while of course there is the common reaction to defend our nation against criticism, we should in truth be defending our nation against criminals.

If some feel it is easy to get into crime, let us make it difficult. If people think being a smuggler can be acceptable enough to talk openly about it, let us shun such people from our society.

We know such smuggling exists. We hear often of such boats being intercepted. What we need to hear more of is the criminals behind such networks being arrested. Our marines are doing their best to stop the boats, they deserve support to find the masterminds and put them before the courts.

This is a crime that continues to pay for those at the top of the chain – and that is something we should never allow.

Te f rst three nails may be in

EDITOR, The Tribune.

The naked truth makes us uncomfortable. Politics aside, Prime Minister Davis seems to be a decent and compassionate human being. But he has a problem. He is too nice for politics. His party was swept into power by a tidal wave of popular enthusiasm, and truth be told, in just two short years he might have subconsciously driven the first three nails in his own political coffin.

The first nail was driven when he failed to dismiss Mrs Glenys Hanna-Martin for openly disagreeing with a cabinet decision, which in my opinion was a breach of protocol under the West Minster system of governance. Mrs Hanna-Martin is a capable and competent minister, but, in my opinion, she should have been removed notwithstanding.

The second nail was driven when he did not remove Mr Kirk Cornish MP for North Abaco for his reckless and “chest- pounding” remarks, declaring himself prime minister of Abaco. Political grandstanding serves no purpose, and even as a newcomer to politics, Mr Cornish should have known better.

Prime Minister drove the third nail when he did not remove Mr Keith Bell for the two blunders he made as minister of immigration. Firstly, for conducting a swearing-in ceremony at a funeral and secondly, for releasing the Chinese nationals who were discovered on the British Colonial Hilton premises.

Mr Davis might have rebuked these ministers privately, but what we see or hear in public is far more impressionable, and could serve as a deterrent

to similar activities moving forward. Get tough!

Someone once said that politics is the art of the possible, meaning that in politics, a person would do what he thinks he can get away with.

Mr Davis does not need me to advise him. I would only venture to say that nice Prime ministers do not seem to fare too well in our culture of politics.

Longevity in politics requires a degree of ruthlessness. The prime minister seems too hesitant to wield the political axe, unlike a few others before, but this must change if he hopes to keep those with runaway ambitions in check, and if he hopes to remain the master of his own political house.

ZEPHANIAH BURROWS Nassau, July 29, 2023.

EDITOR, The Tribune.

IT IS a sad phenomenon to see how many iconic Bahamians, living and dead, would have either voluntarily removed themselves from frontline politics, either voluntarily or by a natural death, and still seek to have a meaningful role in the administration of the nation. A recent case in point is where a former Minister of Immigration under the late great and almost irreplaceable Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, the Hon Loftus Archibald Roker, castigated the current administration of the Most Honorable Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, MP, KC as ‘leaderless’.

I believe that his remarks were generated by the events surrounding the Hon Keith Bell (PLPCarmichael), Minister of Immigration & Labour in the execution of his portfolio. As a citizen, Mr Roker is fully entitled to his views. In so expressing them, however, it is incumbent that all of us do so in a coherent and sensible manner.

Where is the evidence that the Davis administration knew of the events, in advance, that are alleged to have occurred on Minister Bell’s watch? There is no way that the PM could have or would have known that

Bell was going to administer the oath of citizenship while attending a funeral. The ‘release’ of several Chinese nationals who were detained by the Department of Immigration could not have been known in advance by the PM. It is beyond the political pale for any Prime Minister de jure to ‘know’ in advance what could or might be done by any minister at any given time. This applies to Mr Davis. Whatever it is admitted or alleged to have been done by Minister Bell are all totally legal and within his permit. Full stop. It is clear, however, that the optics do not look too good.

I am certain that the PM will look into all of the matters therein and put in place protocols to ensure that there are no further incidences of a similar nature going forward.

When Roker held sway and relevancy politically, he blared out that ‘corruption was rocking the PLP to it’s foundation’ without ever publicly producing any evidence. Neither did he, to my knowledge, ever

resign from cabinet. He did develop a reputation for being tough on immigration matters, but what did it accomplish in the long run? He has had his time and opportunity to effect and implement policy. His chances at becoming leader of the PLP were never credible much less serious. Now, in the midst of an immigration/migration crisis he is able to fix his mouth to suggest that The Bahamas ‘lacks’ leadership? Had he and others been effective we might not now be going through this debate and expending precious parliamentary time on what might now be a non-issue, in my opinion.

Yes, while most living Bahamians remember Mr Roker with a degree of respect, he was never, in my view, a people’s person. Brave on the other hand has ascended to the top of the leadership totem pole. The other phenomenon is to witness the hard work which living icons expend to remain relevant. Brave is the epitome of good and solid leadership. Is Roker seeking to remain relevant and/or the PM’s attention?

LIGHTNING strikes in the distance as a thunderstorm passes over downtown Kansas City, Missouri Sunday.

Photo: Charlie Riedel/AP

More needed to stop ‘epidemic of sexual abuse against children’

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas is experiencing an “epidemic of sexual abuse against children in our country,” Rise Bahamas claimed yesterday. Government, they said, was not doing enough to address the problem.

“Child protection has not been a priority of this or previous governments, as demonstrated by the

fact that it took nine years after our repeated calls to enact Marco’s Alert,” the advocacy group said in a statement yesterday.

“This latest attack on a nine-year-old girl was described as a sexual assault, which we think is very vague. Was the child kissed by the man, fondled, made to perform sexual acts, raped or otherwise?”

The young girl was reportedly playing with friends outside her home

on Saturday evening when a man in a white Nissan Skyline told her to get in his vehicle. It was claimed that he took her to an unknown location and assaulted her.

Police said they have arrested a 42-year-old man from Summerset Estate in connection with the incident.

Rise Bahamas said: “Our www.change.org/childprotection242 petition calls for the government to:

BAIL SET AT $50K FOR MAN ON $1.2M COCAINE POSSESSION WITH INTENT TO SUPPLY CHARGE

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was granted $50,000 bail after police allegedly found him with $1.22m worth of cocaine that it was said he was trying to smuggle out of the country last month.

Acting Chief Magistrate

Roberto Reckley charged

Feraud Bain, 34, and Hialeah Florida resident Carlos Delgado, 48, with

possession of dangerous drugs with intent to supply, conspiracy to possess dangerous drugs with intent to supply and conspiracy to export dangerous drugs.

The pair allegedly had 134.4lb (61kg) of cocaine which police discovered in a drug bust in New Providence on July 24.

The allegedly confiscated drugs had an estimated street value of $1.22m. The accused pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Bain was granted $50,000 bail and ordered to sign in at East Street South Police Station every Wednesday and Saturday by 6pm. He must also be fitted with an electronic monitoring device.

Delgado was denied bail because he had no status in the country. He will remain on remand at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services until the trial begins on November 7.

ONE MONTH PRISON FOR MOTHER ON CHILD NEGLECT CHARGE AFTER A BANDONING DAUGHTER LAST MONTH

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MOTHER was sentenced to one month in prison after neglecting her four-year-old daughter last month.

The 45-year-old woman, whose name is being withheld to protect the child’s

identity, was charged with cruelty to children before Senior Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans.

The defendant is said to have abandoned her young daughter on July 5, causing her unnecessary suffering.

After pleading guilty, the accused was sentenced to one month at the Bahamas

Department of Correctional Services. She was also ordered to attend parent counselling at the Department of Social Services.

The court is awaiting a report from social services to determine if she will regain custody of her child. She will go to court for the report on October 19.

Implement mandatory minimum sentences for crimes against children. (For example, the penalty for rape is up to life imprisonment, but we rarely see sentences of more than a few years. This would change that).”

“Mandate psychological evaluation, intervention and treatment for those convicted of crimes against children (to prevent reoffending), amend the Sex Offender Registry based on suggestions Rise Bahamas

has submitted, including making the list public, retroactive, and adding first time offenders to the list.”

“Table ‘Bella’s Bill’ in Parliament –– our proposed amendment to Section 63 of the Child Protection Act that would expand the categories of stewards of children that are mandated to report suspected child abuse.”

The group said it “won’t rest” until every child feels safe in the country.

“There should be widespread public service announcements on this topic and parents need to make children more aware of what behaviours are inappropriate of adults who may be strangers, or people known to them,” the statement continued. “Rise Bahamas will continue to call upon all that will listen to do our part in making our country a place that is safe for every child residing here.”

IN NEW PROVIDENCE INVESTIGATING TWO HIT-AND-RUNS THAT LEFT ONE WOMAN DEAD

P OLICE

By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter jrussell@tribunemedia.net

POLICE in New Providence are investigating two hit-and-run incidents - with a woman dying of her injuries in one incident.

In the first incident, a male pedestrian was struck by a vehicle on Sunday.

According to reports, shortly before 11pm, a male pedestrian was attempting to cross East Street in the area of Andros Avenue when the driver of a vehicle struck him and fled the scene. The victim was taken to the hospital by EMS, where he is listed in critical condition.

In the second incident,

a woman died after she was struck by a vehicle yesterday. Police said sometime around 12.20am on Monday, a female pedestrian was on the southern side of Wulff Road near Palm Beach Street when she was struck by the driver of a red Honda travelling west on Wulff Road.

GOVERNOR GENERAL, Sir Cornelius Smith (centre), was presented two books from Dr Showalter Johnson (right), writer of The Crown Age of The Kingdom and The Algorithm of Leadership, July 27, 2023 at the Office of the Governor General. In attendance was Jeffrey Lloyd.

Photo: Patrice Johnson/BIS

Sister cities - Nassau and Ghana

A SISTER City Agreement between Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas and Princess Town, Ahanta, Ghana, will form long-needed, direct connections between Africa and the people of its Diaspora born in The Bahamas. It will serve to strengthen cultural, social and economic ties for the people of both countries.

This historic occasion took place in the Ahanta area in the Western region of Ghana in late June. It was a part of the Bahamas Independence Secretariat’s calendar of events, denoting its national significance in efforts to commemorate the Golden Jubilee.

The Sister City Agreement, according to officials from both sides, would pave the way for Bahamians and the Ahanta people of Princess Town (also known as Pokesu) to exchange culture, education, and trade to promote peace and unity.

Political leaders and elders in Ghana gathered to commemorate the occasion, which Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis attended, along with Government officials, including the Minister for Grand Bahama, Ginger Moxey. Representing the Ahanta, Minister for the Western Region, Kobby Okyere Darko-Mensah and the Municipal Chief Executive of Ahanta West, John Agyare were among the dignitaries present. A number of Caribbean leaders were also present for the occasion, including Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, and Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Everard Gonsalves.

Face to Face

By FELICITY DARVILLE

This significant event was sparked by the work of Christopher E Davis, who leads Sankofa Flamingo, a group dedicated to opening the eyes of Bahamians, reminding them to reach back and get their history with Africa. Only by developing strong roots with the motherland, says members of Sankofa Flamingo, can

The Baha-

roots of Junkanoo - The Bahamas’ grandest cultural expression. Junkanoo, and similar festivals throughout the Caribbean, bear strong semblance to Ghana’s popular Western Regional fancy dressing festival known as Ankos.

mas continue to succeed as an independent nation for another 50 years and more.

For years while Christopher worked at the Pompey Museum of Slavery & Emancipation, he engaged in deep research on Africa. In doing so, he found the

These festivals were made to celebrate the safety of the Ahanta people thanks to their fearless kings and warriors, who protected them during the time of slavery and invasion from countries like Portugal and Belgium. Christopher discovered that the majority of the slave ships that first berthed in the Bahamas were from Princess Town in Ahanta. This indicated that the blood of the Ahanta runs through the veins of many Bahamians. With this in mind, the members of Sankofa Flamingo began to live out their purpose, travelling to Africa and making vital connections with the Ahanta people. They were welcomed with open arms. Christopher was crowned by the Ahanta as “Nana Safohene Gyan Kwa II” meaning “Chief Commander of the Army to the great King Nana Baidoo Bonsoe”.

According to Ahanta

history, Nana Safohene Gyan Kwa I fought the slave trade until his final breath. His bravery finds new meaning as centuries later, the descendants of people stolen from Africa, come back to Ghana to honor his legacy.

A series of community meetings, elder reasonings, council conclaves were held with Christopher - Nana Safohene Gyan Kwa II, who was honored in a coronation ceremony in 2002. He and members of Sankofa Flamingo are paving the way for more Bahamians to trace their roots to Ahanta. Members include Ohemaa Safohema Tamara Davis; Ohemaa Safochereba Angelique McKay; Safo Dr Michael Pateman; Safo Robin Lightbourne; and Safo Oswald “Ras Copper” White.

In May, Christopher’s years of research and hard work culminated in the release of a revolutionary text in the context of Bahamian history. “Black Rinse, A New Perspective on the History of the African Diaspora in The Bahamas” is a historical treasure that connects many dots between Africa and The Bahamas. It fills gaping holes in Bahamian history, left by a lack of information or misinformation about Africa.

Black Rinse offers perspectives on Maroonage, or communities of escapees; the Inter-American Slave

Trade and the complicity of West Africans; as well as the roots of Junkanoo dating back to the early 18th century. “Most Africans in The Bahamas are deprived of any meaningful history since independence,” Christopher said. He added: “The book began as a unique project to give an unapologetic view of the African/ black perspective of history. Much of it is a compilation of research done at the Antiquities, Monuments and Museum Corporation (AMMC) and expounded much further in what was supposed to be my free time. The book’s goal is not only to take a more in-depth look at African Historiography in The Bahamas, but also to see how it relates to the wider African Diaspora.

To my surprise, over my years of research, there has been no shortage of information, anecdotes and incidents that reveal a much different story than the British apologist narrative spoonfed to Bahamians across generations. This book does not attempt to sugarcoat or hide any bias in perspectives regarding the African Diaspora in The Bahamas. However, with the scale titled so heavily to the side of British adulation, a black rinse is needed. My solemn hope is that it will inspire Africans in The Bahamas to look further

and reveal our truth.”

During the Sister City Signing, Christopher presented Black Rinse to Prime Minister Mia Mottley and other dignitaries, who commended him on the achievement. The Sister City Signing was spurred by his passion and those of Sankofa Flamingo, as resulted in the establishment of official ties that only stand to benefit Bahamians and the Ahanta people of Ghana in the future.

The Ahanta West Municipality, where Princess Town is located, is in the Western Region of Ghana. Agona Nkwanta is its capital. According to Ghana’s 2021 population Census, about 153,140 dwell in this region. The municipality has abundant natural resources, making it economically significant for Ghana. The Ahanta are among the biggest oil palm and rubber producers in the country. Oil, gold, and quarry stones are currently being explored in this mineral-rich area. Ahanta West is also known for its Kumdum and Ankos festivals, and people flock to the area from all over the world to participate.

The University of The Bahamas’ Harry C Moore Library currently has “Black Rinse, A New Perspective on the History of the African Diaspora in The Bahamas”

repository.

in its

CHRISTOPHER Davis stands with his father, Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis and a high ranking Military Official of Ghana at the sister city agreement signing between Nassau and Princess Town.

CHRISTOPHER E DAVIS, who was crowned ‘Nana Safohene Gyan Kwa II’ by the Ahanta people of Ghana, with his wife, Tamara Davis, crowned ‘Ohemaa Safohema’ at their wedding; with their son, CE Adeshina Brave Davis, crowned ‘Jan Kwaw III’. They are photographed along with their parents, Mr Douglas E Scavella and Mrs Muriette Scavella, and Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis and Mrs Davis, Office of the Spouse, crowned ‘Ohemaa’.

CHRISTOPHER Davis’ book ‘Black Rinse’

CHRISTOPHER Davis presents an autographed copy of his book Black Rinse to Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley at the Sister City Signing between Nassau, The Bahamas and Princess Town, Ghana in June 2023.

CHRISTOPHER DAVIS, speaks with Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Everard Gonsalves during the Sister City Signing Agreement between Nassau and Princess Town.

Growth of woke extremism concerning as seen in the ‘de-banking’ of Farage

THERE can be no doubt about what to cover in this week’s column. In Britain, woke extremism is becoming more widespread and a major example of it has just come to light in the shape of Coutts & Co, a British private bank in London, which has recently cancelled, for political reasons, the account of one of its most well-known clients. Coutts is famous for handling the banking needs of wealthy individuals.

What would have been unthinkable in Britain, even in recent years, has happened. Despite being a private bank, Coutts’s parent bank, the National Westminster (generally known as Nat West) is partly owned by the government. It has become evident that Coutts and other UK banks are now closing the accounts of those of their customers whose political views they disagree with.

This is shocking and hard to believe. It should send a chill down the spines of

The Peter Young column

the whole nation as well as those who traditionally look up to Britain as a beacon of democracy and an exemplar of free speech and respect for the rule of law, a nation that used to be a land that cherished freedom but whose essential liberties are now under threat from the woke

revolution that is trying to impose its ideology on Britain’s way of life. What is more, to the patriotic man in the street, it will appear strange that this is happening under a Conservative government.

There is, of course, endless debate about the meaning of woke and how it should be applied to different aspects of Britain’s national activity and discourse. Some maintain it has replaced political correctness and define it as a state of being aware - especially of social problems such as racism and inequality - and being alert to racial prejudice and discrimination; and it recognises the need for greater knowledge and understanding in order to be able to challenge injustice.

All that is surely admirable. But critics say that those who make it their business to pursue ‘wokery’ pose all too often as champions of tolerance while in reality acting as leftwing zealots who resort

to bullying in demanding submission to their dogma which brooks no argument or counter view on an issue. Many in the UK believe that wokeness has taken over corporations, universities, banking, the arts, the media and public institutions like the National Trust. They suggest that too many UK firms have failed to stand up to woke extremism and have allowed it to become their official creed. Critics consider the woke movement amounts to a determined assault on the Western way of life because it attempts to crush free speech by defining and relating it to the perception of issues by a limited number of people or a particular segment of society. But varied opinions in open debate should be respected, in the face of resistance on the part of extremists.

had earlier quoted a source at the bank saying that his account was closed for failing to meet minimum wealth thresholds.

After the internal Coutts documents were made public, the NatWest CEO revealed she had been this source and admitted the information she had provided was incorrect. Since, for banks, the need for client confidentiality is sacrosanct - and that she had anyway lied about the position - she was forced to resign, admitting “a serious error of judgement”.

Given the lack of interest of the average American in foreign affairs, perhaps it should come as no surprise that, as far as I have been able to see, there has only been limited coverage in the US media of last week’s military coup in Niger, a land-locked former French colony with a population of some 25 million situated immediately north of Nigeria.

But this development is important for various reasons, not least the growing presence of Islamist insurgent groups in the turbulent Sahel region of Africa and the effect a new military leadership may have on Russia’s presence there.

As it happens, my wife and I have a personal interest in Niger. In the 1990s, we were part of a small group on an expedition to the Sahara when our vehicles were suddenly attacked by a mob in an isolated village. The motivation was presumably robbery or worse. Although separated from one another and with people climbing on to our Landrovers, we all managed to escape without injury by driving quickly into the surrounding bush, after which we regrouped unscathed but badly shaken up. So we survived. But in more recent times, we could not even have attempted such a trip as the whole region has been taken over by militant Islamists – not least the group in Northern Nigeria called Boko Haram that has received considerable publicity – and travel in the area is no longer safe.

Niger gained its independence from France in 1960. It is a key part of the Sahel region which is a belt of land south of the Sahara desert stretching from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and is regarded as a volatile and unstable part of the world where democracy

July marks 70 years since fighting in the Korean War came to an end. It is the anniversary of the armistice or cease-fire agreement in 1953 – though no peace treaty was ever signed - that ended some three years of fighting in what many call “the Forgotten War”. It acquired this name because it was inevitably overshadowed by the Second World War that was finally brought to a close in 1945 and then by the Cold War. But there is a widespread commitment amongst so many people, who with their families were horribly affected in one way or another by what some call one of the most harrowing conflicts of the 20th century, to commemorate the huge sacrifice of the allied Armed Forces in the Korean War.

is in retreat. The region is plagued by Islamic and alQaeda jihadists who control large swathes of territory even though it is dominated by military regimes which govern the neighbouring countries of Mali and Burkina Faso. Niger is rich in uranium, providing seven per cent of global supplies but has one of the lowest standards of living in the world. Strategically, it hosts French and US military bases. For France, it has been a regional military headquarters since the country’s withdrawal from Mali last year.

Following Niger’s military coup, which was the country’s fifth since Independence, General Abdourahamane Tchiani declared himself the nation’s new leader and announced that the reason for the overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been detained, was a lack of security, economic woes and corruption.

Niger matters because during the last few years it has been an example of relative democratic stability in the midst of activity by jihadists and military governments and as a key Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants. As the only democratic country amidst a whole area of Africa run by the military - and with the ousted president working closely with both regional and Western nations against the militants - it was a bulwark against further disorder and the spread of Russian influence in the region. Now, there is concern in the West about which countries the new military regime will align with after their military counterparts in Mali and Burkina Faso pivoted towards Russia.

International reaction to the coup has been predictable. France, the European

Today is not the time or place to analyse the events that led to communist North Korea invading South Korea in 1950. But the newlyestablished United Nations became actively involved by supplying combat troops to support South Korea, with the US providing a majority of the forces though some 16 other countries also supplied fighting units. President Truman explained his decision to send troops by stating that “if South Korea fell, the Communists would attack other nations, resulting in World War 3.” Casualties were high, with 37,000 Americans losing their lives and many British and Commonwealth forces also killed or wounded. It is estimated that more than half a million North Korean and Chinese troops were killed

Union and the US have refused to recognise the coup leaders, and France, as the former colonial power, has sternly condemned the military takeover and called for restoration of constitutional order and the democratically elected government. The EU has suspended all security cooperation and budgetary aid, and the African Union has called on Niger’s army to return to base. The US has declared its “unflagging support” for President Bazoum and warned those detaining him that hundreds of millions of dollars of assistance are at risk, with the State Department labelling Niger not only as a key partner in the fight against the insurgents but also as the linchpin for stability in the Sahel and a reliable counter-terrorism partner against various Islamist groups linked to either the Islamic State or al-Qaeda. Only Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, who are on the ground in the region, has reportedly described the coup as a triumph.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that leaders of countries in West Africa under their regional grouping of ECOWAS have declared zero tolerance of coups. ECOWAS has declared a no-fly zone over the country and closed its borders; and it has threatened military action against Niger’s junta after giving it one week to reinstate President Bazoum. But the new military leaders have responded that they will resist any “plan of aggression against Niger by regional or Western powers”. Given Africa’s long history of coups and unsatisfactory attempts by outsiders to intervene, many will hope that any immediate military action bringing further destruction and loss of life can be avoided.

WEST SHOULD MONITOR ACTIVITY IN SAHEL REGION OF AFRICA R EMEM B ERING THE END OF THE FORGOTTEN WAR

while South Korean forces also suffered heavy casualties and countless numbers of civilians in South Korea died or sustained injury. After battle lines in the war eventually remained stable, the conflict became a stalemate with neither side ending up with full control of the Korean peninsula. Since hostilities ceased, Korea has remained divided along the demilitarised zone on the 38th parallel with both the North and the South claiming to be the legitimate government of the whole country – and most analysts agree that there remains little or no prospect of reunification. The two parts of Korea are still technically at war – and US forces and UN representatives are still in South Korea with the goal of preventing another conflict.

Be that as it may and whatever view one may take of the issue, a row has developed over Coutts closing the account of Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and leading advocate of Brexit, without providing a reason. This has developed into a scandal that is engulfing Coutts and NatWest. They have been plunged into turmoil since it has emerged from internal Coutts documents subsequently obtained by Mr Farage that his account had been cancelled because his political views did not “align with” those of Coutts.

The facts, briefly, are that Mr Farage claimed that he had been ditched by Britain’s most prestigious bank because of his political views. However, the BBC

The CEO also apologised for “deeply inappropriate comments” in papers prepared for internal consideration by Coutts about Mr Farage being “xenophobic” and “racist” and said that these did not reflect the view of the bank. Soon after, the CEO of Coutts also resigned. He explained that it was “right that I bear ultimate responsibility for the handling of Mr Farage’s case,” saying that “we have fallen below the bank’s high standards of personal service”. But what poor judgement these highlypaid executives showed, not only in allowing such a practice to take place but also without thinking through the implications and likely repercussions of dismissing such a prominent person as Nigel Farage who already had a public platform and was likely to bring the matter to wider attention.

To many, Coutts must have been aware that introducing this sort of political element was wrong which may be why they changed tack so quickly when their action came to light. This makes their actions all the

more outrageous because, in closing Mr Farage’s account on the grounds of his political views, the bank was acting like the arm of an authoritarian regime against a dissident. Moreover, what is worse is that it has now become clear that other UK banks are acting in the same way. People classified as “politically exposed persons” are also being “de-banked”and the incidence of this appears to be wider than people had realised. No bank should have the right to monitor the political or social views of its clients and take disciplinary action against any so-called heretic who refuses to comply with the current orthodoxy. Banks should not be policing people’s views and second-guessing society in such a way, and the political or social beliefs of their clients should be none of their business.

Nonetheless, one potentially positive outcome of the current debacle is that Mr Farage’s case has attracted support from all sides of the political spectrum in Britain. Reportedly, the government are already considering strengthening the law on free speech and undertaking a review of the banks’ treatment of their clients including imposition of stricter rules about closing customers’ accounts – and some commentators are even suggesting that those who indulge in such high-handed and arrogant behaviour could even lose their licences.

This story is so serious that it may run and run. If so, I hope to revert to it in due course.

38 trainees complete certification of protected areas management course

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

Trainees completed

the Protected Areas

Managers Enforcement Training Course 2023 yesterday after a two-week joint workshop. The training was held in conjunction with Blue Nature Alliance, BahWEN, the Department of Environmental

Planning and Protection, the Department of Forestry, and the Department of Marine Resources.

The programme provided trainees with vital training from the participating agencies to facilitate proper management of The Bahamas’ natural resources and protected areas. There were 38-course participants.

Police Superintendent

Audley Peters congratulated graduates, reminding them of their responsibility to maintain the country’s natural resources.

“You today, have been empowered to help maintain the resources that are in place, particularly for the student who is coming out of sixth grade going into seventh grade and needs to have an appreciation of the forests, the

plants, the fauna,” he said.

“If there’s none for them to enjoy, then think about what it would be like for them.

“They’ll be using AI to tell them what aloe is or what the spiny lobster is. But you now have the skills and the knowledge to enforce the laws that are on your books and to be able to leave a legacy for the young persons who are coming behind.”

Dr Rhianna Neely, director of environmental planning and protection, expressed confidence in the graduates’ abilities to perform.

Lakeisha AndersonRolle, Bahamas National Trust Executive Director, acknowledged the importance of the programme, with this year being the first official launch.

“There is power in numbers and certainly

strength in partnerships,” she said. “And it is the BNT’s commitment to continue working with all the respective agencies present as we will certainly play our part in making sure there is support to be able to come together on an annual basis to ensure that all of our resource management agencies benefit from this training opportunity.”

CLIMATE CHANGE ONLY PARTIALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR RECORD BREAKING HEAT

BETWEEN the recordbreaking global heat and extreme downpours, it’s hard to ignore that something unusual is going on with the weather in 2023.

People have been quick to blame climate change –and they’re right, to a point: Human-caused global warming does play the biggest role. A recent study determined that the weekslong heat wave in Texas and Mexico that started in June 2023 would have been virtually impossible without it.

However, the extremes this year are sharper than anthropogenic global warming alone would be expected to cause. Human activities that release greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere have been increasing temperatures gradually, at an average of 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit (0.1 Celsius) per decade.

Three additional natural factors are also helping drive up global temperatures and fuel disasters this year: El Niño, solar fluctuations and a massive underwater volcanic eruption.

Unfortunately, these factors are combining in a way that is exacerbating global warming. Still worse, we can expect unusually high temperatures to continue through at least 2025, which means even more extreme weather in the near future.

How El Niño is involved

El Niño is a climate phenomenon that occurs every few years when surface water in the tropical Pacific reverses direction and heats up. That warms the atmosphere above, which influences temperatures and weather patterns around the globe.

Essentially, the atmosphere borrows heat out of the Pacific, and global temperatures increase slightly.

This happened in 2016, the time of the last strong El Niño. Global temperatures increased by about 0.25 F (0.14 C) on average, making 2016 the warmest year on record. A weak El Niño also occurred in 20192020, contributing to 2020 becoming the world’s second-warmest year.

El Niño’s opposite, La Niña, involves cooler-than-usual Pacific currents flowing westward,

absorbing heat out of the atmosphere, which cools the globe. The world just came out of three straight years of La Niña, meaning we’re experiencing an even greater temperature swing.

Based on increasing Pacific sea surface temperatures in mid-2023, climate modeling now suggests a 90% chance that Earth is headed toward its first strong El Niño since 2016.

Combined with the steady human-induced warming, Earth may soon again be breaking its annual temperature records. June 2023 was the hottest in modern record. July saw global records for the hottest days and a large number of regional records, including an incomprehensible heat index of 152 F (67 C) in Iran.

Solar fluctuations

The Sun may seem to shine at a constant rate, but it is a seething, churning ball of plasma whose radiating energy changes over many different time scales.

The Sun is slowly heating up and in half a billion years will boil away Earth’s oceans. On human time scales, however, the Sun’s energy output varies only slightly, about 1 part in 1,000, over a repeating 11-year cycle. The peaks of this cycle are too small for us to notice at a daily level, but they affect Earth’s climate systems.

Rapid convection within our Sun both generates a strong magnetic field aligned with its spin axis and causes this field to fully flip and reverse every 11 years. This is what causes the 11-year cycle in emitted solar radiation.

Earth’s temperature increase during a solar maximum, compared with average solar output, is only about 0.09 F (0.05 C), roughly a third of a large El Niño. The opposite happens during a solar minimum. However, unlike the variable and unpredictable El Niño changes, the 11-year solar cycle is comparatively regular, consistent and predictable.

The last solar cycle hit its minimum in 2020, reducing the effect of the modest 2020 El Niño. The current solar cycle has already surpassed the peak of the

relatively weak previous cycle (which was in 2014) and will peak in 2025, with the Sun’s energy output increasing until then.

A massive volcanic eruption

Volcanic eruptions can also significantly affect global climates. They usually do this by lowering global temperatures when erupted sulfate aerosols shield and block a portion of incoming sunlight – but not always.

In an unusual twist, the largest volcanic eruption of the 21st century so far, the 2022 eruption of Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai is having a warming and not cooling effect.

The eruption released an unusually small amount of cooling sulfate aerosols but an enormous amount of water vapor. The molten magma exploded underwater, vaporising a huge volume of ocean water that erupted like a geyser high into the atmosphere. Water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas, and the

eruption may end up warming Earth’s surface by about 0.06 F (0.035 C), according to one estimate. Unlike the cooling sulfate aerosols, which are actually tiny droplets of sulfuric acid that fall out of the atmosphere within one to two years, water vapor is a gas that can stay in the atmosphere for many years. The warming impact of the Tonga volcano is expected to last for at least five years. Underlying it all: Global warming

All of this comes on top of anthropogenic, or human-caused, global warming. Humans have raised global average temperatures by about 2 F (1.1 C) since 1900 by releasing large volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. For example, humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 50%, primarily through combustion of fossil fuels in vehicles and power plants. The warming from

greenhouse gases is actually greater than 2 F (1.1 C), but it has been masked by other human factors that have a cooling effect, such as air pollution.

If human impacts were the only factors, each successive year would set a new record as the hottest year ever, but that doesn’t happen. The year 2016 was the warmest so far, in large part because of the last large El Niño. What does this mean for the future?

The next couple of years could be very rough.

If a strong El Niño develops over the next year, combined with the solar maximum and the effects of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption, Earth’s temperatures would likely soar to uncharted highs. According to climate modeling, this would likely mean even more heat waves, forest fires, flash floods and other extreme weather events. Both weather and climate forecasts have become very

reliable in recent years, benefiting from vast amounts of data from Earth-orbiting satellites and enormous supercomputing power for forecasting the flow and interactions of heat and water among the complex components of the ocean, land and atmosphere.

Unfortunately, climate modeling shows that as temperatures continue to increase, weather events get more extreme.

There is now a greater than 50 percent chance that Earth’s global temperature will reach 2.7 F (1.5 C) above pre-industrial times by the year 2028, at least temporarily, increasing the risk of triggering climate tipping points with even greater human impacts. Because of the unfortunate timing of several parts of the climate system, it seems that the odds are not in our favour.

WHILE some seek refuge from the heat in air-conditioned buildings, some are looking for relief at the beach.

Phot: Serjan Midili

TRAINEE S receiving certificates for completing the Protected Areas Managers Enforcement Training Course 2023 after a two-week joint workshop.

Photo: Mosie A misial

Trump could soon be indicted in Georgia

ATLANTA

Associated Press

A GEORGIA pros-

ecutor is expected to seek a grand jury indictment in the coming weeks in her investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and his Republican allies to overturn the thenpresident’s 2020 election loss.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began investigating more than two years ago, shortly after a recording was released of a January 2021 phone call Trump made to Georgia’s secretary of state.

Willis has strongly hinted that any indictment would come between Monday and Aug. 18. One of two grand juries seated July 11 is expected to hear the case.

If Trump is indicted by a Georgia grand jury, it would add to a growing list of legal troubles as he campaigns for president. Trump is set to go to trial in New York in March to face state charges related to hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign. And he has another trial scheduled for May on federal charges related to his handling of classified documents. He has pleaded not guilty in those cases.

The Justice Department is also investigating Trump’s role in trying to halt the certification of 2020 election results in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol. Trump said he’s been told he’s a target of that investigation, which likely has some overlap with the one in Georgia.

An attempt by Trump to derail the Georgia case suffered a setback on Monday when a judge rejected his request to bar Willis from prosecuting him and to toss out the final report of an investigative special grand jury that had been seated to aid the investigation. A similar motion to be heard by a different judge is set for a hearing next week.

Details of the Georgia investigation that have become public have fed speculation that Willis, a Democrat, is building a case under the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which would allow her to charge numerous people in a potentially wide-ranging scheme.

Here are six investigative threads Willis and her team have explored:

THE PHONE CALLS

The Georgia investigation was prompted by the Jan. 2, 2021, phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican. Trump suggested the state’s top elections official could help “find” the votes needed to put him ahead of Democrat Joe Biden in the state.

“All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump is heard saying on a recording of the call, which was leaked to news outlets. “Because we won

Brain fog and other long COVID symptoms are the focus of new small treatment studies

the state.”

Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong and has repeatedly said the call was “perfect.”

Trump also called other top state officials in his quest to overturn his 2020 election loss, including Gov. Brian Kemp, then-House Speaker David Ralston, Attorney General Chris Carr and the top investigator in the secretary of state’s office.

US Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, also called Raffensperger shortly after the November election. Raffensperger said at the time that Graham asked whether he had the power to reject certain absentee ballots, which Raffensperger has said he interpreted as a suggestion to toss out legally cast votes.

Graham has denied wrongdoing, saying he just wanted to learn about the signature verification process.

FAKE ELECTORS

Biden won Georgia by a margin of fewer than 12,000 votes. Just over a month after the election, on Dec. 14, 2020, a group 16 Georgia Democratic electors met in the Senate chamber at the state Capitol to cast the state’s Electoral College votes for him. They each marked paper ballots that were counted and confirmed by a voice roll call.

That day, in a committee meeting room at the Capitol, 16 prominent Georgia Republicans — a lawmaker, activists and party officials — met to sign a certificate falsely stating that Trump had won and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. They sent that certificate to the National Archives and the US Senate.

Georgia was one of seven battleground states that Trump lost where Republican fake electors signed and submitted similar certificates.

Trump allies in the US House and Senate used those certificates to argue for delaying or blocking the certification of the election during a joint session of Congress.

Prosecutors in Fulton County have said in court filings that they believe Trump associates worked with state Republicans to coordinate and execute the plan.

The multi-state effort was ultimately unsuccessful. Despite public pressure from Trump and his supporters, then-Vice President Mike Pence refused on Jan. 6, 2021, to introduce the unofficial pro-Trump electors. After the attack on the US Capitol put a violent halt to the certification process, lawmakers certified Biden’s win in the early hours of Jan. 7, 2021.

At least eight of the fake electors have since reached immunity deals with Willis’ team. And a judge last summer barred Willis from prosecuting another one, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, because of a conflict of interest.

FALSE CLAIMS OF ELECTION FRAUD

Republican state lawmakers held several hearings at the Georgia Capitol in December 2020 to examine alleged problems with the November election. During those meetings, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies made unproven claims of widespread election fraud.

They alleged that election workers tallying absentee ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta had told outside observers to leave and then pulled out “suitcases” of unlawful ballots and began scanning them. The Trump allies played clips of surveillance video from the arena to support their allegations. State and federal officials investigated and said there was no evidence of election fraud at the site.

Some Trump allies also said thousands of people who were ineligible — including people convicted of felonies, people under the age of 18, people who had voted in another state — had cast votes in Georgia. The secretary of state’s office has debunked those claims.

ALLEGED ATTEMPTS TO PRESSURE ELECTION WORKER

Two of the election workers seen in the State Farm Arena surveillance video, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, said they faced relentless harassment online and in person as a result of the allegations made by Trump and his allies.

Giuliani last week conceded that statements he made about the two election workers were false.

In a bizarre episode detailed by prosecutors in court filings, a woman travelled from Chicago to Georgia and met with Freeman on Jan. 4, 2021. The woman initially said she wanted to help Freeman but then warned that Freeman could go to prison and tried to pressure her into falsely confessing to committing election fraud, prosecutors wrote in court filings last year.

ELECTION EQUIPMENT ACCESSED

Trump-allied lawyer Sidney Powell and others hired a computer forensics team to copy data and software on election equipment in Coffee County, some 200 miles (322 kilometres) southeast of Atlanta, according to invoices, emails, security video and deposition testimony produced in response to subpoenas in a long-running lawsuit.

The county Republican Party chair at the time — who also served as a fake elector — greeted them when they arrived at the local elections office on Jan. 7, 2021, and some county elections officials were also on hand during the daylong visit. The secretary of state’s office has said this amounted to “alleged unauthorized access” of election equipment and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into it at the secretary of state’s request.

Two other men who have been active in efforts to question the 2020 election results also visited Coffee County later that month and spent hours inside.

US ATTORNEY RESIGNATION

US Attorney BJay Pak, the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta, abruptly resigned two days after Trump called Raffensperger and a day after a recording of that call was made public. During that conversation, Trump called Pak a “never-Trumper,” implying that he didn’t support the president.

In December 2020, thenUS. Attorney General William Barr asked Pak to investigate allegations by Giuliani and other Trump allies of widespread election fraud. Pak, who had been appointed by Trump in 2017, reported back that he had found no evidence of such fraud.

In August 2021, Pak told the US Senate Judiciary Committee, which was investigating Trump’s postelection actions, that he resigned on Jan. 4, 2021, after learning from Department of Justice officials that Trump did not believe enough was being done to investigate allegations of election fraud and wanted him gone as US attorney.

THIS undated, colorized electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, indicated in yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, indicated in blue/pink, cultured in a laboratory

Associated Press

THE National Institutes of Health is beginning a handful of studies to test possible treatments for long COVID, an anxiously awaited step in US efforts against the mysterious condition that afflicts millions.

Monday’s announcement from the NIH’s $1.15 billion RECOVER project comes amid frustration from patients who’ve struggled for months or even years with sometimes-disabling health problems — with no proven treatments and only a smattering of rigorous studies to test potential ones.

“This is a year or two late and smaller in scope than one would hope but nevertheless it’s a step in the right direction,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University in St. Louis, who isn’t involved with NIH’s project but whose own research highlighted long COVID’s toll. Getting answers is critical, he added, because “there’s a lot of people out there exploiting patients’ vulnerability” with unproven therapies.

Scientists don’t yet know what causes long COVID, the catchall term for about 200 widely varying symptoms. Between 10% and 30% of people are estimated to have experienced some form of long COVID after recovering from a coronavirus infection, a risk that has dropped somewhat since early in the pandemic.

“If I get 10 people, I get 10 answers of what long COVID really is,” US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said.

That’s why so far the RECOVER initiative has tracked 24,000 patients in observational studies to help define the most common and burdensome symptoms –- findings that now are shaping multipronged treatment trials. The first two will look at:

— Whether taking up to 25 days of Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid could ease long COVID, because of a theory that some live coronavirus, or its remnants, may hide in the body and trigger the disorder. Normally Paxlovid is used when people first get infected and for just five days.

— Treatments for “brain fog” and other cognitive problems. They include Posit Science Corp’s BrainHQ cognitive training program, another called PASC-Cognitive Recovery by New York City’s Mount Sinai Health System, and a Soterix Medical device that electrically stimulates brain circuits.

Two additional studies will open in the coming months. One will test treatments for sleep problems. The other will target problems with the autonomic nervous system — which controls unconscious functions like breathing and heartbeat — including the disorder called POTS.

A more controversial study of exercise intolerance and fatigue also is planned, with NIH seeking input from some patient groups worried that exercise may do more harm than good for certain long COVID sufferers.

The trials are enrolling 300 to 900 adult participants for now but have the potential to grow. Unlike typical experiments that test one treatment at a time, these more flexible “platform studies” will let NIH add additional potential therapies on a rolling basis.

“We can rapidly pivot,” Dr. Amy Patterson with the NIH explained. A failing treatment can be dropped without ending the entire trial and “if something promising comes on the horizon, we can plug it in.”

The flexibility could be key, according to Dr Anthony Komaroff, a Harvard researcher who isn’t involved with the NIH program but has long studied a similarly mysterious disorder known as chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/ CFS. For example, he said, the Paxlovid study “makes all sorts of sense,” but if a 25-day dose shows only hints of working, researchers could extend the test to a longer course instead of starting from scratch.

Komaroff also said that he understands people’s frustration over the wait for these treatment trials, but believes NIH appropriately waited “until some clues came in about the underlying biology,” adding: “You’ve got to have targets.”

Photo: NIAID-RML/AP

A GEORGIA prosecutor is expected to seek a grand jury indictment in the coming weeks in her investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the former president’s 2020 election loss.

Photo: Matt Rourke/AP

Carlos Reid and Pastors beat up the Politicians

FROM PAGE 16

it came down to the wire and all my life I’ve been waiting for this moment,” said Reid, a former basketball player turned pastor/ preacher/teacher/motivator.

“I think it was the anointing that made the difference.”

Reid finished with a game high 13 points, while Pastor Don Clarke added 11, Jeffery Rolle had four for the Pastors, who was coached by Pastor Dave Burrows.

Leonardo Lightbourne scored nine, Opposition deputy leader Shanendon Cartwright had seven and Quinton Lightbourne chipped in with six for the Politicians, who was coached by Prime Minister Philip Davis and also featured Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg, who didn’t score.

Sweeting, the Member of Parliament for Central and South Eleuthera and the Minister of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs, scored his only three points on his big basket to go into overtime, but he admitted that he played his best.

“The goal was to win and also do my best. Pastor Reid played a good game and I had hoped we would be able to shut him down but we didn’t,” Sweeting said. “The Politicians brought their A game and left it all on the court.

“From last year our loss was so bad and indicative of a group of people who weren’t a team. This year, we showed the spectators and the nation that the Politicians are a team. While we didn’t win the game, we put up a great fight and showed Pastor Reid that we didn’t come to play. We are a force

Portugal defender Ana Borges said her team will be prepared.

“This is the stage where we want to be. It’s against these teams that we want to play because we’re going to learn and grow from them,” Borges said. “Not saying anything about the other team, but if we weren’t prepared for this challenge, we wouldn’t be playing football.”

CHINA vs ENGLAND

England is in very good shape headed into its Group D finale against China, needing only a draw

to be reckoned with and next year we’re coming for the whole hog.”

The game was tied 8-8 at the end of the first quarter before the Politicians took a slim 15-14 margin at the break. Coming out of the locker room, the Pastors went up 20-19 at the end of the third before the Politicians tied it at the end of regulation.

Among those in attendance was National Basketball Association centre Deandre Ayton of the Phoenix Suns. Ayton is preparing to travel this week with the men’s national team to the Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Santiago de Estero, Argentina, August 14-20.

The Peace on da Street tournament got started on Monday night at the Michael ``Scooter’ Reid Basketball Courts at the Hope Center.

But after being rained out the next three days, organisers were able to complete the games using three courts on Friday and Saturday.

“We had some challenges this week with the weather. That was God’s doing,” Reid said. “We can’t control that, but overall, I think we had an awesome experience. A lot of people enjoyed it.”

With the tournament now complete, Reid said their focus will be on putting together a softball tournament before the end of the year for high school teams that will conclude with another showdown between the Politicians and the Pastors.

“In our country, we are suffering in a lot of ways. Every other day, you are hearing about somebody

tonight in Adelaide, Australia, to win the group and advance to the round of 16.

Even a loss would be OK and push England through as group winners so long as Denmark doesn’t beat Haiti. If Denmark won and England lost, the group winner would be decided by FIFA tiebreakers.

England edged out a 1-0 victory over Haiti to open the tournament, then beat Denmark by the same score. China lost 1-0 to Denmark in the opener but rebounded with a 1-0 win over Haiti and is now trying to keep its streak intact of advancing out of group play in all eight of its World Cup appearances.

It will be a tough task: China can advance to the round of 16 if the Chinese beat England. But if Denmark beats Haiti, coupled with a China win, then FIFA tiebreakers would come into a play. A loss would mean China’s only chance at advancing would be if Haiti beat Denmark.

getting killed,” said Reid, a long-time advocate for youth reform in the country through his Peace on da Street organisation.

England and China meet for just the fifth time, but first since a 2-1 China victory in 2015.

England has scored in each of its last 15 matches at the Women’s World Cup for a tally of 25 goals since 2015. A goal against China would make England the first team to score in 16 consecutive matches in the tournament. China is looking to win consecutive World Cup games for the first time since 1999.

VIETNAM vs NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands wants to win every match in the Women’s World Cup but none more so than today’s game against Vietnam.a

At stake: avoiding Sweden in the knockout round. The Dutch, the tournament runner-up in 2019, need only a win or a draw in the Group E match played in Dunedin, New Zealand. And even a loss would be OK so long as the United States beats Portugal

“We have to create enough outlets to give people light moments and we accomplished that in this basketball game, so we

in a game being played simultaneously.

But the Netherlands has mapped out the tournament and wants no part of Sweden anytime soon.

“The first aim is always to win and get to the last 16 and then after that if we can score goals we will, of course,” Dutch coach Andries Jonker said. “But looking at our colleagues from the U.S. and Portugal, we’ve noticed it’s not all that easy. We’ve never shown any kind of arrogance, but if we get chances to score goals we will. We would prefer to play against the number two in this group and not Sweden.”

The Netherlands are tied with the United States for the top spot in the group after playing to a 1-1 draw against the Americans and a 1-0 win over Portugal.

Vietnam has already been eliminated from its first Women’s World Cup following losses to the United States and Portugal. Vietnam has lost its last five

just have to continue doing that.”

While there’s a lot of work being done in the communities, Reid said

internationals by a combined score of 18-1.

“The Netherlands tries to have as many goals as possible, and I have to say we are at a low level,” Vietnam coach Mai Duc Chung said.

“If we compare with Asia, we’re still at a low level. So if we compare with the world, we are still quite behind. It is a success for us already. In the past two matches we have tried our best. Great effort already.”

HAITI vs DENMARK

First-time Women’s World Cup participant Haiti would like to stick around a bit longer but needs a miracle in the Group D finale against Denmark to have any shot to advance.

Haiti needs to beat Denmark in the match played today in Perth, Australia, and hope England beats China.

If both those things happen, Haiti’s only chance would still come down to FIFA’s tiebreaker system. It’s very long odds for Haiti, which has played better in

there’s still a lot more to be done to fulfil God’s mandate in being one another’s brother’s keepers and looking out for each other.

this tournament than its 0-2 record shows. Haiti held both England and China to one goal each in the first two matches.

Haiti is on a six-game losing streak headed into what is probably its final game of this tournament.

Denmark, meanwhile, is trying to advance to the group stage for the first time since 1995. Denmark was a 1-0 winner over China to start the tournament, then lost 1-0 to England and heads into the game tied for second in the group with China with three points each.

A win over Haiti pushes Denmark through to the next round so long as England doesn’t lose to China. That scenario would put tiebreakers into play. The Danes, in the tournament for the first time since 2007, can also get through with a draw, but again, only if England beats China. Denmark has won five of its last seven international matches.

PRIME Minister Philip Davis and Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg with the Politicians basketball team.

APOSTLE Carlos Reid celebrating his Pastors’ victory over the Politicians.

APOSTLE Carlos Reid reacts after his Pastors team scored against the Politicians.

Photo: Austin Fernander/Tribune Staff

PRIME Minister Philip Davis shares a happy moment with Opposition deputy leader Shanendon Cartwright as Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg looks on.

Photos: Dominique Fernander

Domnick Bridgewater and ‘Kino’ Burrows post big game

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

BEFORE they head off for their national team duties for the Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament, guard Domnick Bridgewater and centre Jaraun ‘Kino’ Burrows left their mark on the Bahamas Basketball Federqtion’s Summer of Thunder Tournament.

The duo, who are playing professional basketball in France and represented the champions Eleuthera Adventurers in the 6th Bahamas Games, combined for 72 points as the Raw Talent Elite nipped the Virginia Military Institute 94-93 on Sunday at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

In the first game of the tournament, Bridgewatger erupted for a game high 47 points, including three clutch free throws with just 24 seconds left to push Raw Talent up 94-91 and finished with three rebounds, three assists and as many steals.

Burrows powered down inside for 25 points with five assists, three rebounds, a pair of block shots and a steal.

Jordan Wilson helped out with seven points, seven rebounds, three steals and block and both Van Hutchinson Jr (eight rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block) and Richard Lowe added four points.

Virginia Military had a more balanced scoring attack with six players in double figures, led by Taeshaud Jackson II scoring 15 points with 12 rebounds and a pair of assists, steals and blocks.

Burrows, whose team is being coached by Jeffery Hendfield and his father James Burrows, said they

wanted to make a statement early in the tournament that will run for the next few weeks with teams from the United States playing against local teams.

“It’s awesome. We opened up last year with the win and we had aspirations to come out again this year and set the tone for the rest of the Bahamian teams,” Burrows said.

“We want the college teams to know that when they come here, they will be tested and not push us over. So I feel we have put together a very versatile roster of professional, college and high school players.”

Despite the fact that he and Bridgewater will be leaving this week for the Bahamas training camp in Puerto Rico from August 4-10 before they head over to Argentina for the PreOlympic Qualifier from August 14-20, Burrows said he always dreamed about competing at the Olympics.

“When I didn’t get that opportunity to run track in the Olympics, I never thought that we would have a realistic chance in my lifetime to do it in basketball,” said Burrows, now considered the elder statesman of the team that will include four NBA players DeAndre Ayton, Chavano ‘Buddy’ Hield, Kai Jones and now Eric Gordon, of Bahamian descent.

“But shoutout to LJ Rose (team manager), Moses Johnson (assistant coach) and all the other guys behind the scene that put in the work to get this type of workforce to represent the country.”

Coming in as a leader, Burrows said this is a very solid team on paper, but the job for coach Chris DeMarco and his staff is

Toastmasters to honour Yolett McPhee-McCuin

FROM

took a break from her trip in Italy. “I felt great about it and it’s ironic that it’s going to be in the Bahamas. So I will end up getting a free flight home. I appreciate that. It’s always good when you can come home.”

As for the award, McPhee-McCuin said it’s listed pretty high on her achievements because she didn’t “expect it” and it showed that there is a “variety” because she’s not just a basketball coach, but she can make an impact in her community.

“It just allows me to continue to expand on my experience and my résumé and my legacy, so I’m excited about it. I’ve also been very active in the community. I’ve already had one in Mississippi and I will announce one (today) that I will have in Grand Bahama.”

McPhee-McCiuin, the first Bahamian female player to earn a division one basketball scholarship, coached the Lady Rebels to their first Sweet 16 with a 25-9 win-loss record last season as they made their third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Ole Miss rewarded her with a new contract deal that runs through the 202627 season. McPhee-McCuin will make $1,035,000 in 2024, joining 11 other

college coaches in pulling in a seven-figure salary.

While she’s happy to have been “paid” for her efforts, McPhee-McCuin noted that the work is just beginning in their quest to continue their path to success at the NCAA level.

It begins in Rome where McPhee-McCuin said they will play three games against Team SlammersIska in Rome, Spanish Select team in Florence and the Italian Select team on the coast of Naples, before they head back to the United States.

As she looks ahead to the team, McPhee-McCuin said she’s looking forward to integrating Collins into the flow of things with the Rebels women’s team.

“Rhema is going to be a star. It really depends on how we want to go with her freshman season,” McPheeMcCuin said. “It’s a little too early to say what that will be.

“But I can tell you one thing, she’s going to be a star. She’s going to be a big time player. I could see her representing the country in the future for sure.”

The Bahamian public will get an opportunity to see McPhee-McCuin coach Collins and the rest of the Rebels when they return home for the Battle 4 Atlantis in November at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island. “We’re

to make it a cohesive team coming out of their training camp in Puerto Rico where they will play a few scrimmage games.

“In that short amount of time, we have put together a team that can be a contender for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France,” Burrows said. “With this being our 50th year of our Independence, it’s exciting for what we are calling the ‘Bahamian Dream Team.’

“It’s exciting. It’s great for the culture, it’s a great inspiration for the kids and

it’s powerful for a nation to see that we are coming together with our best to be one of the top teams in the world.”

Only time will tell how well they can gel together and get the job done. It’s just about going out there and showing it,” Burrows said. “Hopefully we can get through this qualifying round and get to the big stage. That is the dream. We just hope to make it a reality.”

Meanwhile, while the men’s national team is

heading off, the Summer of Thunder Tournament continues today at 6pm when the Virginia Military will be back in action against the Pirates.

Raw Talent, without the services of Burrows and Bridgewater, will take on Creighton University, which includes Bahamian Frederick King in the feature game on Friday at 6 pm at Atlantis.

Additionally, at 2 pm, BC Zalgiris Kaunas are slated to play the University of South Carolina.

THE 29th edition of the annual AID Claycourt Tennis Championships will be held again at the Gym Tennis Club in Winton Meadows, New Providence, August 12-26.

The “AID”, as the tournament is commonly known, is the most popular event on the local tennis calendar and will offer singles and doubles competition in 10 categories, gentlemen’s and ladies’ open singles and doubles, gentlemen’s and ladies 35-and-over singles and doubles and mixed doubles.

Additionally, boys and girls U16 singles divisions will be held for our younger tennis players.

“The gym is again happy to host this amazing tournament and we are grateful to AID for their usual generous sponsorship,” said Eddie Carter, the president of the Gym Tennis Club and the tournament director.

AID president Jason Watson said they are delighted to be able to continue to sponsor the event. “We look forward to the keen competition and camaraderie the tournament is known for,” Watson said.

“AID is once again delighted to partner with the Gym Tennis Club in hosting this important, national tournament. We look forward to a great fortnight of spirited competition.”

All entrants will receive the usual goody-bag of souvenir items, attractive trophies and other prizes will also be awarded to all winners and runners-up.

The entry deadline is Wednesday, August 9 at 6pm and the draws for all divisions will take place at the Gym Tennis Club the following day, Thursday, August 10 at 6pm.

Entries can be returned by email to aidclaycourts@hotmail.com or delivered to the Gym Tennis Club before that time. Participants may enter a maximum of three events.

Entry fees are $20 for each singles and $10 per player for each doubles with juniors paying half price for all events.

Ceilings with Coach Yo, she advocates for child development through education and athletics.

McPhee-McCuin has been featured in major publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Athletic. She has also been a featured speaker with organisations such as CBS Sports, NIKE, NCAA, The Wall Street Journal, and Toastmasters International. A native of The Bahamas, McPhee-McCuin and her husband, Kelly McCuin, have two daughters, Yasmine and Yuri. Toastmasters International’s most prestigious award, the Golden Gavel, has been presented annually since 1959. It recognises an individual distinguished in the fields of communication and leadership.

looking forward to it,” said McPhee-McCuin, whose Lady Rebels played in an exhibition series at the same venue last November.

Toastmasters International, sending the information out on McPhee-McCuin, noted that throughout her coaching career, she impacted

CURTIS AND WILSON WIN AWARDS

FROM PAGE

every community in which she coached, emphasizing an importance on community engagement, both through service and via dialogue with fans and supporters. She puts an emphasis on teaching, developing and inspiring through character-building and leadership, as best

displayed by her trademark motto #NoCeilings, which serves as a rallying cry within her.

#NoCeilings emphasizes living life without limits, especially to young women, focusing on what can be achieved on the court and in life. Through her non-profit foundation, No

To learn more about Toastmasters’ 2023 International Convention, August 16-19, and obtain a complete schedule of events, including the opening ceremonies, education sessions, and the World Championship of Public Speaking®, visit toastmasters.org/Convention. The International Convention will be a hybrid event and the public is invited to attend in-person or online.

JARAUN Burrows and Nardo Bridgewater representing Eleuthera in the 6th Bahamas Games.

COACH Yolett McPhee-McCuin and her Ole Miss Lady Rebels basketball team in Italy.

and second outside hitter. His teammate Mark Blake was the first middle blocker. Donald Kameron of Trinidad and Tobago was best setter and best scorer, Raygid Isenia second middle blocker.

The Bahamas women, coached by Jason Saunders and Glenn Rolle, finished fifth in the tournament. And the men, coached by Lloyd Davis and Tonny Simon, were fourth overall, losing out to Trinidad & Tobago 3-1 (25, 25-19, 20-25, 25-18) in the bronze-medal game.

Walker shuts down ‘Jazz’ and Marlins to become majors first pitcher with 12 wins

MIAMI (AP) — Taijuan

Walker threw 6 2/3 solid innings and became the first pitcher in the major leagues with 12 wins as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Miami Marlins 4-2 in the opener of their four-game series last night.

Walker (12-4) allowed two runs and six hits while striking out four to win his eighth decision.

Alec Bohm doubled, singled and had two walks and an RBI for the Phillies (5749), who moved a half game ahead of the Marlins for the third NL wild-card spot.

Miami’s Luis Arraez had three singles and increased his major league-leading batting average to .381.

The Marlins activated Jasrado “Jazz” Chisholm Jr from the injured list and optioned OF-INF Garrett Hampson to Triple-A Jacksonville. Chisholm started and doubled, walked and stole a base in his first game since July 2.

Bryson Stott hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly off Tanner Scott (4-4) with the bases loaded in the seventh that gave Philadelphia a 3-2 lead.

Scott allowed a leadoff walk to Kyle Schwarber and Bohm’s double. Bryce Harper then grounded out to drawn-in third baseman Jean Segura and J.T. Realmuto was intentionally

walked before Stott lifted a drive to medium left that scored Schwarber.

Philadelphia padded the lead on Bohm’s run-scoring single in the eighth.

Matt Strahm and Jeff Hoffman followed Walker and got the next four outs before Craig Kimbrel closed with a perfect ninth for his 18th save.

Jorge Soler ended a 12-game homerless drought with a two-run shot in the first that put Miami ahead 2-0. The 415-foot blast was Soler’s 25th of the season and first since July 14.

Marlins starter Edward Cabrera walked six in three-plus innings, prompting his removal after 76 pitches. Cabrera allowed two runs and two hits.

Steven Okert inherited two runners when he relieved Cabrera in the fourth and allowed Johan

CHISHOLM JR RETURNS

Rojas’ game-tying two-run double.

CRUCIAL STRETCH

The next three weeks could provide a telling sign if the Marlins can remain in wild-card contention.

Beginning with Monday’s series opener, the Marlins will have a stretch of 19 consecutive games against division leaders and wildcard contenders. After the Phillies’ fourgame set, Miami has series against Texas, Cincinnati, the New York Yankees, Houston and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

TRAINER’S

ROOM

Phillies: OF Nick Castellanos was given the game off. Castellanos is on an 8-for-65 skid and hitting .123 in 16 games since the All-Star break. ... LHP José Alvarado (left elbow inflammation) is scheduled to throw off the mound Tuesday.

Marlins: LHP Andrew Nardi (left triceps inflammation) had relief outings in consecutive days over the weekend at Triple-A Jacksonville before returning to Miami on Monday.

UP NEXT

LHP Ranger Suárez (7-5, 4.22) will start the second game of the series for the Phillies today while the Marlins will go with RHP Sandy Alcantara (4-9, 4.46).

ANGELS SLUG 3 SOLO HOME RUNS, BEAT MLB-LEADING BRAVES 4-1

ATLANTA (AP) —

Luis Rengifo, Randal Grichuk and Chad Wallach hit solo homers off Charlie Morton, Chase Silseth won his second straight start and the Los Angeles Angels cooled off the major league-leading Atlanta Braves with a 4-1 victory on Monday night.

Matt Olson’s NL-best 36th homer and major league-leading 89th RBI made it 2-1 in the fifth, helping the Braves join the 2019 Minnesota Twins as the only teams with 200

long balls before August.

Atlanta began the game with 31 more homers than the Los Angeles Dodgers, the No. 2 team. Los Angeles two-way star Shohei Ohtani went 2 for 3 and was robbed of a three-run homer by center fielder Michael Harris II in the ninth.

Silseth (3-1) started in place of Griffin Channing, who was scratched with what Channing described as “general soreness. Making his third major league start, Silseth gave up three hits

and one run in five innings as the Angels won for the 10th time in 13 games. Morton (10-9) lost his third straight start, allowing six hits and three runs in six innings.

RAYS 5, YANKEES 1

NEW YORK (AP) — Tyler Glasnow pitched seven strong innings and Tampa Bay hit four early homers off spot starter Jhony Brito to beat New York.

Brandon Lowe launched a two-run drive in the first

and Wander Franco added a solo shot in the third before Isaac Paredes and Josh Lowe went back-toback in the fourth.

Glasnow (5-3) allowed three hits and struck out eight for Tampa Bay, which is behind first-place Baltimore in the AL East and leading the wild-card standings. Robert Stephenson and Pete Fairbanks finished the three-hitter.

Brito (4-5) was called up from the minors earlier in the day to start in place of Domingo Germán, who was

scratched because of discomfort in his armpit that prevented him from playing catch Sunday. Germán entered out of the bullpen in the fifth and worked five scoreless innings of two-hit ball.

Jake Bauers homered in the second for the last-place Yankees (55-51).

NATIONALS 5,

BREWERS 3

WASHINGTON (AP)

— Joey Meneses homered and drove in three runs, and Washington handed

Milwaukee its fourth straight loss.

Lane Thomas had a pair of RBI singles for Washington, which has won seven of 11 overall and eight of its last nine at home.

Joey Wiemer homered for the Brewers, who are chasing first-place Cincinnati in the NL Central.

Jordan Weems (2-0) recorded the final out of the seventh and earned the win.

Kyle Finnegan picked up his 15th save.

Washington went ahead in the seventh with three

STREET LEGENDS SUMMER BASKETBALL CHAMPIONS GATORS GET FUSION TREAT

with

Centerville/Mason Addition Gators and the Pinewood Gardens Gators emerging as the champions. Both teams got a treat as

and Gomo Campbell for Centreville, treated the players to an outing at Fusion. The event was coordinated by Wilton Russell under the theme Street Legends “Bridging the Gap” Constituency vs Constituency. The 10-week Summer Basketball League was deemed a success.

MIAMI Marlins’ Jasrado “Jazz” Chisholm Jr, right, reacts after hitting a double during the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies last night in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

PHILLIES starting pitcher Taijuan Walker throws during the first inning last night. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

FULL SCHOLARSHIP FOR TIMOTHY

GRAND Bahama student Timothy Kemp has been awarded a full scholarship from Coca-Cola.

Timothy was the tenth recipient of the Carleton Williams Carribbean Bottling Company (CBC) Scholarship and said the opportunity will give him the chance to exceed academically and one day help his parents.

He said: “I understand and appreciate the significance of receiving the Carleton Williams Caribbean Bottling Company Scholarship, as this would help me to excel in life and in all that I do.

“I am a hard-working, diligent and persistent individual and this scholarship opportunity would give me the chance to be an exceeding intellectual and help my parents, just as they’ve helped me.”

Timothy is a recent graduate of Walter Parker Primary School and plans to attend Tabernacle Baptist Christian Academy next school year. In June, he completed a solo interview with a full panel of interviewers selected by Caribbean Bottling Company (CBC).

The scholarship was established to both celebrate Carleton Williams’ contribution to Caribbean Bottling Company (CBC), and to continue his legacy of investing in the community.

The academic scholarship rotates annually between New Providence and Grand Bahama to one child graduating from a public primary school seeking attendance to a private high school.

Shannavieve Wallace, Timothy’s mother, said she was appreciative to CBC for selecting her son as this years recipient. She added that she is confident that he will make her proud.

She said: “It is with a profound and unique mixture of joy, gratitude, pride, excitement and privilege, that we the Kemp Family capitalise on this opportunity to express cordial thanks and appreciation to CBC for electing our son Timothy Kemp as this year’s recipient of the Carleton Williams Scholarship. We are extremely confident that he will make us all very proud.”

Jadrian Turnquest, marketing manager at CBC, said the company is pleased to play a role in the life and success of its recipients.

He said: “It is with great pleasure that CBC continues the Carleton Williams Caribbean Bottling Company Scholarship, and we are pleased to honor our tenth recipient – Timothy Kemp who is an outstanding young man with infinite potential, and we are pleased to play a role in their lives and wish them continued success.”

30 YEARS OF EDUCATION

ALBANIA Christian Academy celebrates its 30th this year and recently held its K4 Pre-school graduation under the Theme, “Building strong educational foundations for 30 years.”

The graduation ceremony ushered the young students into the next phase of their educational careers.

Koi Wilkinson was named Most Outstanding Graduate and Suri Bridgewater and Deborah Destinasse received Honours.

Setting sail for the future

By FAY SIMMONS jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

LJM Maritime Academy held its graduation ceremony for 70 students on Saturday.

Valedictorian Ricardo Rahming encouraged his fellow cadets to remember their responsibilities ad “guardians of the ocean” as they being the next stage of their seafaring.

He said: “Let us not forget the responsibility that comes with being mariners, we are guardians of the ocean entrusted with protecting the marine environment, promoting safe navigation and upholding the highest standard of professionalism.”

President Dr Brendamae Cleare noted that the students have benefited significantly from grants, sponsorships and partnerships during their tenure at the institution.

She said: “Our students have been the recipients of their generosity as they prepare themselves for the next phases of their professional and personal lives.

“Graduates, you owe a debt of gratitude to those who provided moral support, scholarship funding, birthing opportunities, financial support for conferences, attendance, promotional events, and part time work experience.”

Mr Rahming said donor funding has allowed him to embark on his travels at sea, venturing out as far as Russia. He added that a strong family background and being dedicated to studying daily has given him the “edge” to becoming valedictorian.

He said: “My experience

of LJM has been a challenge and it’s also been an uplifting moment. I started off from rating, that’s the lowest, and I grew gradually went up. Due to the contribution from the donors I was able to go to sea, travelling near and as far as Russia.”

“Dr Cleare has really built me up because I wasn’t always this person, but I’m well rooted with family and my mother has instilled in me some guidelines and rules to operate . So being here I just tried to study every day. That was more than one of my main goals. I have the motto, when someone’s sleeping, you’re working and that’s I believe that gave me the edge.”

Mr Rahming plans to continue his education and training abroad and return to The Bahamas as an officer.

He said: “I just finished up CMU, Caribbean Maritime University in Jamaica. I’ll be graduating November to obtain my Bachelor’s

and from there, hopefully, by September, I’ll pass my COC which will make me an officer and I’ll return back to Campbell shipping an officer.”

Devard Campbell, engine graduate, said graduation has been a “long time coming” as he was stuck at sea during the COVID pandemic. He added that he also benefited from the generosity of donors.

He said: “I started off in 2018 September, came straight from high school, I had plans abroad to college but I ended up in the Bahamas at LJM. I was happily awarded the scholarship from the BMCC, from LJM and from Campbells Shipping, they gave me a scholarship to go on board.

“I sailed for 14 months, I was stuck due to COVID but I made it through I pushed and now we’re at graduation. Its been a long time coming.”

Mr Campbell is planning to continue his educational journey and said he was thankful to have made it thus far. He said: “I’m now just finishing up CMU in September or November. But now, I’m here, we had graduation, it’s a good time, I’m thankful.”

Nineteen of the graduates will be embarking on internships. Fifty-four graduates were present for the ceremony, while the others were still on their journeys at sea.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

CHRISTINA Adderley is recent engine graduate of the LJM Maritime Academy. Christina hails from Eleuthera and was always enchanted by the water and the cruise ships in the local harbour. She enjoys reading, fixing cars, traveling, learning new languages, assisting her father in his welding workshop and is always looking to expand her engineering knowledge.

Christina would like to one day work as a marine engineer onboard.

A fun fact about her is that she is a triplet.

• Do you know a student you’d like to nominate for Student Spotlight? Email details to jsimmons@ tribunemedia.net.

BLAINE BULLARD, of Caribbean Bottling Company Grand Bahama, with Timothy Kemp and his parents Shannavieve Wallace and Neville Kemp Jr.

CLOCKWISE from above, Koi Wilkinson, Deborah Destinassse and Suri Bridgewater.

LJM Maritime Academy held its graduation ceremony for 70 students on Saturday.

Photos: Austin Fernander

SPORTS

16

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

I

t was one of those moments that organiser Apostle Carlos Reid said every basketball player only dreams about.Holding onto a wind and a prayer with the game on the line after Clay Sweeting sent it into overtime at 26-26 with a three-pointer, Reid responded with a pair of three-pointers in a 6-3 run to seal a 32-29 victory.

It was the marquee match-up on Family Night to bring the curtain down on the annual Peace on da Street Basketball Tournament on Sunday night inside the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

“We live for big games and to be honest, last year I wanted the game to come down to the wire. This year

SEE PAGE 12

THE PASTORS celebratinig their victory over the Politicians as the curtains came down on the annual Peace on da Street Basketball Tournament at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

TOASTMASTERS SET TO HONOUR COACH YOLETT MCPHEE-MCCUIN

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

COACH Yolett

McPhee-McCuin, currently on a tour of Italy with her University of Mississippi Lady Rebels basketball programme, including Bahamian rookie Rhema Collins, said she’s excited to be returning home for the 2023 Golden Gala Award on August 18.

McPhee-McCuin, a native of Grand Bahama, will be honoured by Toastmasters International for turning the Ole Miss women’s basketball programme into national prominence under her leadership since 2018.

McPhee-McCuin, a former high school and college point guard, will

JANNELL CURTIS AND KYLE WILSON WIN TOP AWARDS

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE the Bahamas won’t be returning home with any men or ladies’ team medals from the XVII Cazova Caribbean Senior Championships in Paramaribo, Suriname, two players were awarded individual trophies for their performances.

During the awards ceremony at the Anthony Nesty Sports Hall on Sunday, Jannell Curtis claimed the best server award for the women, while Kyle Wilson was selected as best outside hitter and best scorer for the men.

Mychael Vernon, who was named the Most Valuable Player after helping her team win the title over Trinidad & Tobago, was also the best receiver and outside hitter. Her teammates Keshan Livingston was the best setter, Sashalee Thomas was best opposite player and Anesia Edwards was the second best middle player.

accept the award and address attendees during a presentation at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar Resort and Convention Center in Nassau.

She joins an illustrious list of Golden Gavel honourees, including Dr Kenneth H Blanchard, Dr Joyce Brothers, Les Brown, Debbi Fields, Walter Cronkite, Stephen Covey, John C Maxwell, Anthony (Tony) Robbins and Zig Ziglar.

“I was definitely honoured, for sure, to receive the award. They caught me by surprise because I didn’t know that Toastmasters had the award and that they would think about honouring me,” stated McPhee-McCuin, as she

SEE PAGE 13

US needs win or draw to avoid risk of elimination in Women’s World Cup

By JENNA FRYER AP National Writer

But after an underwhelming draw against the Netherlands, there’s a real chance the Americans could be eliminated in group play for the first time in tournament history.

The US plays Portugal in the third and final match of Group E play, and if Portugal pulls off an upset today at Eden Park in Auckland, the Americans could be in big trouble.

The United States needs to either win or draw against Portugal, one of eight teams playing in its first World Cup, to ensure the Americans continue to play in this tournament. “I think we feel like we have

to win everything all the time,” said American star Megan Rapinoe.

“That’s the expectation for ourselves. That’s the expectation playing for US national team. It’s just kind of like, ‘Why would you come into the World Cup if you don’t think that you should win it, and if you don’t think that you can win it?’”

The United States sits atop the group after a 3-0 victory over Vietnam in the tournament opener, and a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands last Thursday in Wellington.

The Dutch are tied with the US on points, but the Americans have the tiebreaker on goals scored.

Portugal lost to the Dutch in its opener but then beat Vietnam 2-0.

So if the Portuguese beat the United States, they’ll move on, and the Americans would then need Vietnam to beat the Dutch

UNITED States’ head coach Vlatko Andonovski gestures to Julie Ertz, left, following the Women’s World Cup Group E soccer match against the Netherlands on July 27. (AP Photo/Andrew Cornaga)

in Dunedin — while keeping their advantage on goal differential — to advance.

“One thing is for sure, that we have a job to do and that’s first and foremost to take care of our game, so our main focus right now it our performance, our team, and Portugal,” U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski said.

“What happens on the

other side is something we can’t control. We have to stay focused on the things we can control.”

Portugal could use a swarming defense to try to prevent the United States from scoring the way Vietnam — unsuccessfully — played the Americans in the opener.

SEE PAGE 12

Ketura Margaret of Suriname received the award for second best outside hitter, and Tennelle Chapman-Goodluck was handed the award for first best middle blocker. Three players of runner-up Trinidad and Tobago also received awards. Cheyenne Chin Choy as best digger and best libero, Krystle Esdelle as best scorer.

Suriname opposite Zefanio Breinburg was selected as the men’s MVP after his team won the championship match defending their title against 10-time champion Barbados 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 29-27, 23-25, 17-15) and he had an average of 18 points during the tournament.

Breinburg was also the best opposite player. His teammates Anferney Schmeltz was handed the award for best digger and best libero, Keven Sporkslede received best receiver award.

Ryck Webb of Jamaica was recognised for best

SEE PAGE 13

HAMLIN PUTS ASIDE FEAR, PRACTICES IN PADS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE CARDIAC ARREST

PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP)

— Of the thousands of emotions — trepidation among them — running through Damar Hamlin’s head yesterday while pulling on his pads for practice for the first time at training camp, the one that ultimately won out was joy.

For everything the Buffalo Bills safety has overcome in seven months since going into cardiac arrest during a game and needing to be resuscitated on the field, Hamlin leaned on his faith in God and himself, along with the support from his family and teammates, to take another step toward resuming his playing career.

“This is just a another milestone on the journey — might be one of the biggest ones,” Hamlin said after practice. “I made the choice

to play. But I’m processing a thousand emotions. I’m not afraid to say that it crosses my mind of being a little scared here and there,” he added. “My faith is stronger than any fear. That’s what I want to preach up here. And that’s the message I want to spread on to the world that as long as your faith is stronger than your fear, you can get through anything.”

Though Hamlin was cleared to resume practicing in mid-April, he did so wearing a helmet and shorts with his teammates through their spring sessions and first four days of training camp, as mandated by NFL rules. The magnitude of the Bills’ first day in pads wasn’t lost on Hamlin, given it marked the first time he was in full uniform since collapsing on the field on January 2 after making what appeared to be a routine tackle.

Photo: Dominique Fernander

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — The United States arrived at the Women’s World Cup as the favourite to win an unprecedented third consecutive title.

WILSON, left, and Curtis.

RHEMA Collins and coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin representing the Bahamas at Ole Miss.