09302022 NEWS, SPORT AND BUSINESS

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN contrac tors yesterday warned it is “inevitable” that Florida’s post-Hurricane Ian recon struction will hit building material prices and availa bility here as local inflation was revealed to have hit 7

percent. Leonard Sands, the Bahamian Contractors Association (BCA) presi dent, told Tribune Business that much will depend on the extent of the Category Four storm’s devastating impact plus the nature and scale of rebuilding in the so-called “Sunshine State”.

SEE BUSINESS SECTION

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

ABACO’S Chamber of Commerce president yesterday said Hurricane Ian’s devastating impact on Florida makes it “even more urgent” that the Gov ernment renew her island’s post-Dorian tax breaks in full.

Daphne DegregoryMiaoulis told Tribune Business that extending the VAT and duty exemptions on multiple construction materials has now become more vital given that the

cost of sheet rock, ply wood and other products will potentially skyrocket due to Florida’s rebuilding demands.

Building material avail ability and shortages may also become an issue given that Florida will be the “priority”, she acknowl edged, which could further setback Abaco’s own recon struction progress that has already been delayed by COVID-19 lockdowns, restrictions and post-pan demic supply chain woes.

Any spike in building material prices, which were

Storm fall-out to hit building materials

HITTING THE RIGHT NOTE

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

JUSTICE Cheryl GrantThompson has denied Adrian Gibson’s attorney’s recusal request, resulting in the MP’s trial moving for ward in her court next May.

Murrio Ducille, KC, submitted a recusal applica tion towards Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson argu ing of public perception of political bias as the case proceeded on Tuesday.

Mr Ducille raised this issue in reference to the

PM DEFENDS REMARKS IN UN ADDRESS

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has defended remarks he made at the United Nations last week regard ing the European Union blacklisting, saying the time has come for these nations to account for what they have done to countries like The Bahamas.

He told reporters that his “cry” at the UN last week was also made to ensure the body takes over the policing of the anti-monetary and antilaundering and terrorist financing regime to make it more “fair” for small island developing states.

Last week before the UN, Mr Davis, com menting on the EU blacklisting asserted that “black-governed countries also matter”.

Asked about his com ments yesterday, he doubled down on his assertions.

“What I said is that the evidence is mounting that the targeted coun tries for blacklisting or

PAGE THREE

LEGAL THREAT: PM TELLS FNM ‘BRING IT ON’

By LETRE SWEETING lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

IN response to the Free National Movement’s threat of legal action against the government over its failure to follow the Public Procurement Act, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has chal lenged the opposition to “bring it on”.

GIBSON ATTORNEY’S RECUSAL REQUEST REFUSED

impartiality to Gibson as a sitting member of the Free National Movement.

The Long Island MP faces numerous accusations of malfeasance linked to his time as executive chairman of the Water and Sewer age Corporation during the Minnis administration.

On Wednesday, FNM Leader Michael Pintard warned that the party intended to take legal action against the govern ment to initiate a judicial review targeting its refusal to follow the Act.

Mr Pintard added that he had already spoken with two attorneys and got a quote for a retainer for one of them in relation to this matter.

justice’s late husband, former MP Peter Bethell, being a member of the Progressive Liberal Party, saying it would impede her

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Gibson is alleged to have personally accrued over $1.25m through a series of cheques and wire trans fers in connection with contracts awarded to Elite Maintenance and Baha

He said the party planned to take the legal route after having tried “every avenue” to get the government to reveal this information.

Yesterday, Mr Davis addressed Mr Pintard’s

BAHAMIAN musician Chavez Parker is reaching new heights in his chosen career, as one of his compositions has been selected for a new Tyler Perry production. See Weekend section for more.

Warning that Florida’s post hurricane reconstruction will impact prices and availability in The Bahamas

ADRIAN

Abaco MP voices concern after homicide

By JADE RUSSELL jrussell@tribunemedia.net

AN Abaco MP has appealed for young men to stop the violence after a homicide was recorded on the island on Wednesday.

Kirk Cornish, North Abaco MP, told The Tribune yesterday that he was concerned about killings on the island.

According to police on Wednes day at around 11pm, officers at the Sandy Point Police Station received reports of gunshots being heard in the area of Cross ing Rock, South Abaco.

Upon the officers’ arrival, they were directed to a business near the wooden staircase, where they discovered a man’s lifeless body clad in all white with apparent gunshot injuries.

Additionally, the officers recov ered a black .9mm pistol with a magazine containing two live rounds of .9mm ammunition.

KIRK CORNISH, North Abaco MP

The victim was taken to the Marsh Harbour Clinic where he was examined by a doctor and pronounced dead.

Earlier this month, Olympian Shavez Hart was shot and killed in Abaco. The family told this newspaper the athlete was trying

to be a “peacemaker” in a fight, but unfortunately lost his life in the process.

Hart’s mother said people seem to wear guns like a “keychain” in their pockets these days, noting the killing of her son.

“This behaviour is not

consistent with what Abaco was and is about. We are a God-fear ing family-oriented community,”

Mr Cornish told The Tribune yesterday.

When asked how residents were feeling about the recent kill ings, Mr Cornish said they were very “alarmed.”

“This type of life is foreign to Abaco. I don’t feel the once peaceful island is gone. I believe like every society we have our challenges, just what is done to address them will determine where we go.”

Issues like gun violence have added to the crime activity in Abaco causing some residents to be fearful.

However, Mr Cornish said there are efforts being made to decrease crime on the island.

“I have asked law enforce ment to beef up their presence. But there is a clear and known

shortage of police, so manpower is a concern. Also, I appeal to the young men to stop, take a breath and live. Enjoy life. It is a blessing to have.”

Mr Cornish urged young men to stop killing and destroying each other.

Back in May the body of a man was discovered in Dundas Town with apparent gunshot injuries.

Officers of the Marsh Harbour Police Station received a report shortly before midnight of a man being shot in the area of the Teachers Credit Union.

When police arrived at the scene, they saw a dark-skinned man lying face-up with multi ple injuries about the body and head that were consistent with gunshots.

Police said they found five .223 live rounds of ammunition next to the victim’s body.

SHOOTING DEATH OFF JOHN F KENNEDY DRIVE

POLICE were at the scene of another homicide last night after a body was found on Theodore Lane off John F Kennedy Drive. There were few details at the time of going to press – see tribune242. com today for more. Photos: Austin Fernander

POLICE press liaison officer Chief Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings at the scene.

PM defends remarks in UN address

FROM PAGE ONE

uncooperative countries appear to be, they all, if you look at the list, you will find that they’re all small. Find that they’re vulnerable, and you all find that the EU, they were either colonies or one of EU states,” he said.

“And that suggests to me and it’s compelling evidence to suggest that black governed countries don’t appear to matter to the European Union and my cry was to ensure that the United Nations take over the policing of the anti-monetary and anti-laundering and terror ist financing regime to make it more fair for small island devel oping states like ours.”

Mr Davis asserted he is speak ing for The Bahamas and “we are being hurt by countries out side our realm.”

“The time has come for them to account for what they’re doing and doing to us. And I’m not gonna sit idly by and not make the case for our country,”

he said.

Asked if as the finance min ister he was ready to do what needs to be done in regards to tax reforms for compliance, the Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP said he just wants nations like ours to be treated fairly.

He said: “First of all, what we want to be able to do is do the same thing that the big coun tries are able to do and so if they require me to pass a bill that impacts the financial services industry — I’d like to know that they’re doing the same thing.

“Our regime is set up to suit our purpose and we are the most regulated. We’re one of the most best regulated financial jurisdictions in the world but still there appears to be this con stant, moving of the goalposts and there’s constant assault on countries like us, and I’m not gonna stand idly by without having to say anything about it. I need to let the world know.”

Yesterday, Mr Davis also

addressed the renewed criticism regarding his administration’s travel spending. The govern ment’s travel spending ignited further opposition attacks after it was revealed recently by Tribune Business that the total $11.8m outlay for the 2021-2022 fiscal year exceeded budget allo cations by 11.1 percent.

The country’s leader argued that The Bahamas cannot isolate itself and must look

outward to make relationships.

“We are a small vulnerable country and we cannot oper ate on what I call an isolationist policy. We have to engage the world - that is why we are doing well.

“We’re not doing well because we are an isolationist country. We are dependent on what’s going on around us,” he said.

“The United States, Canada and those large countries, they

could perhaps practice isolation ist policies, but we are unable to do that.

“Otherwise, we will revert to our country, our people suf fering more or being worse off then they are.

“So the issue of travel and the costs of travel - I’m not on any frolic of my own. When I’m frolicking on my own, my own funds are used.”

LEGAL THREAT: PM TELLS FNM ‘BRING IT ON’

threat while heading to a parliamentary luncheon at the Grand Ballroom of Atlantis’ Convention Centre for the 293rd anniversary of the establishment of the Par liament of The Bahamas.

Mr Davis said that just as the FNM will do what it must, so will his administration.

“Bring it on,” Mr Davis said.

“They do what they have to do. We will be correct ing the flaws of that bill and then when we do so we’ll be complying with that bill and make it more workable for our circumstance.”

Mr Davis said that the pre vious administration passed the Act for this administra tion, but not their own.

“They passed the Act in April of 2021 and they never brought it into force until September when they knew that they would not be in administration, because they knew it was an unworkable piece of legislation,” he said.

The Public Procurement Act was passed under the Minnis administration last year and requires the gov ernment to publish details of approved contracts and procurement activities within 60 days of the award of the contract.

Mr Pintard also said the FNM’s intended legal action will also seek to make public the settlements the gov ernment has reached with

people who sued the state for various reasons.

Since assuming office last year, the Davis administra tion has not complied with the reporting requirements of the current Public Procure ment Act, but instead called for the Act to be fully rewrit ten for transparency, ease of administration and the ability to be able to govern with immediate priority in instances that require it.

In May, Economic Affairs Minister Michael Halkitis told reporters the government was hoping to amend the Public Procure ment Act in the 2022/23 budget period with a view of making it “user friendly” to ensure better compliance and greater transparency.

On August 10, Mr Davis added that before the leg islation was brought to Parliament, officials would want to publish the proposed changes and seek public feedback.

Last month, Attor ney General Ryan Pinder said the Davis administra tion planned to rewrite the Public Procurement Act as opposed to amending por tions of it to allow for greater transparency and ease of administration.

At the time Mr Pinder told reporters the legislation in its current format had sev eral “material issues” that restricted the government’s ability to govern effectively.

PM TO

ON Monday, October 10, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis will deliver his first national address since being elected to office last September.

The address will be aired on all local television channels at 8pm.

According to Press Secretary Clint Watson yesterday, Mr Davis is expected to deliver an update on the way forward for the nation. He will also address matters, including the cost of living, the government’s legis lative agenda and industrial concerns.

Additionally, the prime minister will talk about his administration’s goals, where the nation is headed and explain some of the plans presently underway.

“We want to encourage all of you to tune into that to hear the prime minis ter’s first official national address,” Mr Watson said yesterday during a press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister.

He continued: “The administration is committed to ensuring that Bahami ans experience in their everyday lives a series of improvements the govern ment is undertaking, and we’ll hear more about that when the prime min ister addresses the nation on Monday, October 10th, at 8pm.”

On Wednesday, Mr Davis told Par liament that his administration has laid a strong foundation for recovery and future progress during its first year in office, while expressing con fidence that it will continue to do so

FIRST NATIONAL ADDRESS

Death Notice for

Forbes,

until all its objectives are achieved.

While outlining his administration’s performance, Mr Davis said that while much has already been accomplished by the government, there is still more to be done.

He also took shots at the former governing party’s actions in office, saying when his administration assumed power last year it found the country in a bad state.

“The country was in a dire state,” he said in the House of Assembly this week. “The economy was headed for a fiscal cliff. Two billion had been bor rowed every year for four years, with

no plausible plan for the growing debt. Hospitals remained under extreme pressure, with patients treated in parking lots, severe shortages of doc tors and nurses, and regular leaks and flooding in the buildings. Schools were still going back and forth between in-person and online learning, with thousands of students not attending classes at all.”

However, he said that over the last year, his administration has sought to correct past mistakes, help the nation recover from the COVID crisis while also bringing about transformative changes.

of Treasure Cay, Abaco, and formerly of Colony Village, died at his residence on Thursday, September 22nd, 2022.

He is survived by his wife, Sabrina Forbes; sons, Vaughn Forbes Jr. and Zion Forbes; daughters, Ravaughn and Paris Forbes; mother, Patricia Forbes; sisters, Brenda Roberts, Kathleen Maynard, Minister Patrice Bain, DeShaun Roberts, Kimberly Johnson and Danae Wallace; brothers, Alexander, Craig and Pastor Terrance Forbes; god mothers Bernadette Burrows, Manerva Edwards; and a host of other relatives and friends who will be announced at a later date.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Evergreen Mortuary located on Parkgate Road, Nassau, Bahamas.

FROM PAGE ONE

PRIME Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis speaking during yesterday’s parliamentary luncheon at Atlantis.

Photo: Austin Fernander

PRIME Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Saturday at UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

PRESS Secretary Clint Watson speaking yesterday.

Photo: Austin Fernander

Vaccines to be made available in schools

Parents to receive their vaccination consent letters in next two weeks

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

ACTING Chief Medical Officer Dr Phillip Swann said officials are making final arrangements to facili tate the administration of paediatric vaccines in schools to help increase vac cinations among children.

Dr Swann said parents will be able to receive their vaccination consent letters in the next two weeks.

“So, once we have an indication from the chil dren or parents of children at school that they want their children to receive the vaccine, then we will put a schedule together and send a team to vaccinate those children whose parents have requested that they receive the vaccine in school and I think the measure or the mandate is requesting that the guardian or parent be present during that time,” he said during a press brief ing at the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday.

Currently, children aged five to 11, are eligible to receive the paediatric Pfizer vaccines in the country.

In a recent interview with The Tribune, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said there were about 700 doses that had been administered to children at last report. He also admitted that vaccina tion rates among the group have not been going as well as officials had anticipated.

Yesterday, Dr Swann said while the uptake among children was still being determined, there was an overall concern about the slow vaccination pace in the country.

“We do remain concerned about the rate of vaccination and the fact that week over week, the numbers of newly vaccinated individuals are trending between 150 to 200 over the past two reporting periods and fully vaccinated increasing by an hour to 250 persons each week during the same period,” he added.

“Paediatric vaccines remain available and although the uptake is still being weighed as to the suc cess in the past five weeks, final arrangements are being made to facilitate the deliv ery of vaccines in school settings and we hope to have letters to parents and guard ians to grant consent within the next two weeks.

“The public is reminded that although the numbers of reported cases are not alarming, we are still in a declared pandemic and per sons are still contracting COVID-19 infection and in

some cases still dying from it so we encourage you to get vaccinated.”

The push for vaccinations comes as the country moves away from such COVID-19 restrictions as mask wearing among other measures.

Yesterday, Dr Swann addressed health officials’

“So, once we have an indication from the children or parents of children at school that they want their children to receive the vaccine, then we will put a schedule together and send a team to vaccinate those children whose parents have requested that they receive the vaccine in school and I think the measure or the mandate is requesting that the guardian or parent be present during that time.”

Dr Phillip Swann

decision to recommend further relaxations to the country’s mask mandates, saying the rationale behind the move was generally based on the need for resi dents to exercise personal responsibility.

He also said adherence to the mask mandates was “less than acceptable,” something he suggested was discussed in the health advisory com mittee’s meetings when reviewing the protocol.

“Despite this, how ever, we know there has been no increase in cases of COVID-19 recorded and hospitalisations also remained low and vaccina tion campaigns have not had the expected results despite the funds expended to research on human behaviour undertaken and the various approaches to increase uptake,” he also said.

“Whereby as a result of the foregoing, the deter mination was taken to relax the wearing of masks in some settings with the understanding that if there is a need to reinstitute the measure the recommenda tions to do so will return.”

The acting CMO also explained why officials

recommended that masks still be worn in healthcare facilities, senior care homes and classroom settings.

“In healthcare facilities, health care workers and system users are to main tain the use of masks at all times to ensure that the vul nerable are protected. This has been the case in most healthcare settings prior to COVID and persons with a cough when provided with a mask or isolated from other persons and spaces in a clinic setting or health set ting,” Dr Swann said.

“In education institu tions, the mask mandate for school or education institu tions was also retained for in class settings and these are some of the reasons why we maintained that posture.

“There were reports of increased cases of influ enza-like illnesses and not determined to be COVID19 in one or two schools that required the need for additional action of caution. There are no other settings where individuals are in such close proximity to mul tiple fixed periods of time, 60 or 90 minutes a day in closed settings.

“The vaccination levels among school aged chil dren are among the lowest. I wouldn’t even say sub optimal.

“They’re just the lowest and the same can be said to some extent to groups that work with them and there are some challenges with parents adhering to proto cols of taking children for testing when they presented symptoms of an influenzalike illness.”

In respect to mask wear ing in long-term residential facilities, Dr Swann said rec ommendations were made for workers to still abide by the protocol because “most of the residents in those facilities are immune com promised, and some of them do not actually (or) are not able to wear the masks.”

Asked yesterday about penalties for non-compliant people and how they will be policed, the acting CMO replied: “We have I think, for the most part, have not everywhere removed or rec ommended the removal of any fines associated with the non-wearing of masks and you would imagine that if you go to a healthcare facil ity, then you won’t be able to get inside unless you have a mask on.

“And in school settings, of course, it’s expected to be policed by the school system again, it’s about your safety or the safety of those you who walk in con tact with.”

Parents urged to ensure children’s immunisations are up to date

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH officials are urging parents to ensure that their children’s immu nisations are up to date, warning that they “are seeing the rise of forgot ten illnesses in developed countries” that could potentially pose a threat to The Bahamas.

Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Phillip Swann made the plea yesterday during a press confer ence at the Office of The Prime Minister where he also advised Bahami ans to continue following the recommended health measures like handwash ing and appropriate cough etiquette.

Reports

He said the ministry has already received reports of cases of influenza-like illnesses and even iden tified influenza type A (H3N2), though he noted that it was not a cause for concern as the number of confirmed cases were not high. Diseases like polio, whooping cough and mea sles are also of concern.

“So, as a reminder, the pandemic is not over. We are also entering the flu season, so we ask you to exercise the usual protective and infec tion control measures of washing hands, wearing a face mask and appropri ate cough etiquette,” the acting CMO said.

“We imagine that after the mask mandate has been lifted, there may be a rebound increase in the number of cases (or)

reported cases of acute respiratory illnesses and these may be COVID-19 or influenza or any other illness that may be tran spired or transmitted.

“However, we once again emphasise the need for personal responsibil ity and if your child or you have signs of a respir atory illness, stay at home, or keep your child at home and call your primary care provider for advice.”

In terms of immunisa tions, Dr Swann said it was especially important for parents to ensure that their children keep up with their routine vaccina tions given the resurgence of “formerly eradicated” illnesses such as polio among other diseases.

“We understand that during the past two years, there may have been a challenge with access ing these vaccines in our clinics. However, access to clinics have changed in recent weeks and we encourage persons to please ensure that your child’s immunisation is up to date,” he continued.

“We are seeing the rise of forgotten illnesses in developed countries, including parts of the world that we call source markets. Most of the working adults are immu nised and none the worse for it.

“It is the little children who are not being given an opportunity to see the routine immunisations, who are at risk for seri ous illnesses and in some cases, death. Immunised adults are immune from contracting disease, yet they can still serve as car riers and subsequently infect children and others

who have not had the ben efit of vaccines.”

He also revealed that officials have been advised that The Bahamas could experience imported cases of polio as a result of it being circulated in New York and London, “two cities with whom we have direct flights multiple times a week.”

Dr Swann added: “We have actually had an imported case of pertussis or whooping cough in the past month.”

Illnesses

“In recent memory, we’ve had cases of reported measles, and the reality is that these for merly eradicated illnesses are making a comeback because of low numbers of persons having had their child vaccinated with the same vaccines that they were vaccinated with their children.

“It is perhaps a good time to remind the public of the complications of one or two of these infections, which like other infections one cannot see on an indi vidual. Polio represents a sore throat and fever and may progress to head aches, dizziness and neck and back pain, and most severe presentations pro gress to flaccid paralysis and death.

“There is no treatment for polio, but it may be self-limiting.”

Vaccines for polio, German measles or rubella among other dis eases are available in the country free of cost, he added.

ACTING Chief Medical Officer Dr Phillip Swann. Photo: Austin Fernander

PM: SOME CONCERNS ABOUT WHETHER SUFFICIENT ACTION TAKEN AT EQUINOR SITE

By LETRE SWEETING lsweeting @ tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis acknowledged that there are some concerns about whether sufficient action was taken at the Equinor site in Grand Bahama where 55,000 barrels of oil spilled during Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

He said his administration would ensure due diligence was done.

“We are aware that there are some concerns about whether what they did was sufficient and we will be looking at it and we are right now in the process of considering an exchange of hands and when they do that, we will take a look at the consequential damage that may have been done to that area,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an event at the Atlantis resort.

He had been asked by a reporter if his administration would look into the spill, which took place when the Minnis administration was in power.

In July, East Grand Bahama MP Kwasi Thompson asked the government about the status of the possible sale of Equinor and whether it would ensure

that sufficient funds are left in place to clean up any remaining oil spill in East End.

And earlier this year, activist Joseph Darville called for more vigilance con cerning the rehabilitation of the area affected by the Equinor oil spill.

After visiting the area in January, Mr Darville expressed his concern about the treated soil in that area by Equinor.

He told The Tribune in January: “The area covered with that (treated) soil. I am wondering what they are going to do there now? Are they going to replant something in that area, possibly pine trees?”

Mr Darville said the area in question is probably about 150 acres from the roadside in the front of the plant and extends north into the forest.

“They (Equinor) took up all the ground soil, including the residual oil they were not able to suck up, and trans ported it onto their property. They were rehabilitating it; they were trying to get rid of the oil content. They brought it back and spread it out over that area, and people who frequent the area have reported to me that it smells of petro leum,” he said.

Mr Darville thinks that monitor ing was neglected by the previous administration.

Regarding another environmental incident, Attorney General Ryan Pinder said earlier this week that his minis try was preparing paperwork to “bring action” following investigations into the various agencies involved in the Exuma oil spill.

“The Office of the Attorney Gen eral has collected all of the applicable reports from the agencies, including the police, the Port Department and from DEPP (Department of Environmen tal Planning and Protection) and have gone through this in respect to potential liability,” Mr Pinder said on Wednesday.

The oil spill happened as a vessel con tracted by Sun Oil was offloading fuel to Bahamas Power and Light at George Town.

The leakage was said to have hap pened as a result of a “breach in the hose” that ran from the supply ship.

Following the incident, government officials pledged that those responsible for the spill would “pay” after investiga tions had been completed.

GRAND BAHAMA, BIMINI FARE WELL IN STORM CONDITIONS

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock @ tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama and Bimini fared well as Hur ricane Ian made landfall on Florida on Wednesday, with isolated power out ages in Grand Bahama, some roof damage to the clinic in Bimini and mini mal flooding reported.

All tropical storm warn ings and watches were lifted for the Bahamas early yesterday morning as Ian, now downgraded to a tropical storm, moved further north along the US east coast.

National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Director Cap tain Stephen Russell was pleased with the outcome for the Bahamas, particu larly the northwestern islands.

“We are pleased with how we fared with this system, which is a power ful storm that impacted the western coast of Florida and the severe damage we see coming from those areas,” he said during a press briefing. “Thank God, we have not been impacted by that system as it came across the east coast.”

Capt Russell provided official updates from the emergency response teams on Grand Bahama and Bimini.

“The only thing that stands out in Bimini is that the clinic was compromised

(Wednesday night) and persons were relocated to the administrator’s build ing,” he said.

Teams from the Defence Force, he said, are in Bimini assisting with securing the roof of the clinic to prevent any further damage to the health facility.

In terms of flooding, Capt Russell reported that central Bimini was affected due to drain problems iden tified earlier in the year.

“Reports of flooding in Alice Town and Porgy Bay areas of Bimini that is a standing problem. Early in the year when potential tropical cyclone one passed through, the minister (of works), myself, with a team from Ministry of Works, went to Bimini and looked at the drain issue there.

“And they are trying to design the system to rectify the flooding prob lem in central Bimini. It is something to do with water coming from the sea back ing onto the land, and when

RENWARD WELLS ‘NOT OPPOSED’ TO LIFTING OF MASK MANDATE

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS lmunnings @ tribunemedia.net

FORMER Health Minister Renward Wells supports the removal of the mask mandate, but regarding the COVID19 response he said the Davis administration was simply fol lowing the protocols left behind by the former Free National Movement government.

Tomorrow the country’s mask mandate will be largely relaxed with the exception of those accessing healthcare facilities, visiting senior care homes or in an indoor class room setting. The adjustments to the mask mandate were recommended by the advisory committee at the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

“Well, the mask mandate has been dropped globally in a lot of other countries,” Mr Wells told The Tribune on the sidelines of a parliamentary luncheon at Atlantis yesterday.

“The CDC in the United States had stepped away from the mask mandate so I believe that the health profes sionals here in The Bahamas would’ve made the particular recommendation, so I am not opposed to seeing the mask mandate lifted.”

Mr Wells believes that the removal of masks is the next step in opening the economy, as the spread of COVID-19 has been reduced, therefore the policies the government imple mented to prevent COVID from spreading will lift as it is a “natural evolution”.

Mr Wells was also asked his views about the Davis adminis tration’s performance one year after being elected to office.

In the House of Assembly on Wednesday, Prime Min ister Phillip “Brave” Davis praised his administration for

the work it has done since Sep tember 2021. Mr Davis said over the last year, his admin istration sought to correct past mistakes, help the nation recover from the COVID crisis while also bringing about transformative changes. He also detailed an expansive list of what he considered his gov ernment’s accomplishments to date, from ridding the country of the COVID-19 emergency orders to introducing measures to help Bahamians cope with the inflationary high cost of living.

“Well they followed all of the mandates we left in place,” Mr Wells also said. “The cur rent administration is simply following those protocols and responses that we put in place. Even the bill that was passed earlier this year was the bill that we had left in place in regard to how you manage COVID.”

According to Mr Wells, within the first six months that the current government was in office, 40 percent of the coronavirus cases were “under their watch”, whereas over a two-year span 40 percent was during the Minnis administra tion. He added that the FNM’s COVID-19 response played a pivotal role in keeping the Bahamian people safe.

“At the end of the day when we speak of our COVID response it is quite evident that the work that we would’ve done kept the Bahamian people safe,” he added. “This administration just simply moved forward with those pro tocols, as a matter of fact the only thing that they did that was in opposition or against what we did was to simply lift the curfew and allow for greater interaction with per sons in the community.”

you have hightide you have flooding in that area. So, they are devising a plan to rectify flooding issue.”

In Grand Bahama, Capt Russell reported that Island Administrator Joseph Ferguson reported power outages in the west Grand Bahama area.

“The (GB Power) team is trying to rectify the prob lem as soon as possible to restore power to the west ern Grand Bahama area,” he reported.

According to an official at GB Power, an estimated 10 to 15 percent of cus tomers on the island were affected by a power outage.

Cleopatra Russell, direc tor of communications at GB Power, reported that strong wind gusts brought down a pole at Coral Road and East Sunrise Highway caus ing power outages for a number of customers in the Ridge, Cove House, and Malibu Reef areas.

“We were able to secure

the pole late yesterday evening, and with the help of police cordoned off the street.

“We went back Thursday morning and replaced the pole and customers experi enced a brief outage during the pole replacement,” she explained.

Ms Russell reported that the western end of the island experienced an outage shortly around 3am Thursday as a result of one of the last feeder bands coming in with a substantial amount of rain and gust. She said that crews were able to address the issue and restore power shortly after noon.

The GB Power system held up pretty well, she said.

“Other than that, our system fared well. When ever there are winds in excess of 20 or 30mph gusts sometimes debris, trees or shrubbery end up in our lines. The majority of customers experienced iso lated outages as a result of the system coming in con tact with debris or trees, or maybe some loose connec tion,” she explained.

Capt Russell said a total of seven shelters were opened on Grand Bahama and Bimini. He said per sons reported to one shelter in Bimini and one in Grand Bahama.

“We had a total of 14 persons that reported to the shelter,” he stated.

The shelters were deac tivated yesterday morning.

Maintenance and Resto ration by WSC.

It is further alleged that he gained the money through bribery and then laundered it through the purchase of properties and vehicles, including those used in Gibson’s company in Long Island.

Gibson with his alleged co-conspirators — Elwood Donaldson Jr, WSC’s former general manager; Gibson’s cousin, Rashae Gibson; the MP’s former campaign man ager Joan Knowles; Peaches Farquharson and Jerome Missick — all pleaded not guilty to the 98 charges in the matter last Friday, all ranging from conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, fraud, receiving and money laundering.

In the MP’s latest court appearance, Gibson along side his co-accused were all placed in the jury box. This comes after the MP’s counsel previously raised issues with his client’s place ment in the prisoners’ dock, claiming that Gibson was being prejudiced.

With reference to this point Justice GrantThompson stated that the prisoners’ dock is where all defendants usually sit and that the MP’s place ment there was in standing with court protocol; as such he will return there during trial.

While the justice said that in future court appearances the defendants would be separated by sex for purely logistical reasons, no other alterations to the defend ants’ seating arrangements will be made.

In addressing Mr Duci lle’s recusal application, the justice noted that he had made the application on his feet and only submitted the formal letter of recusal ear lier that day. This is despite the fact he was asked to submit these documents on Tuesday and had previously stated that he would not be relying on them.

The justice reiterated that in Mr Ducille’s applica tion he asked for the case to be transferred to another court not because she was “unfit” to hear the matter, but because of perceived impartiality due to her late husband.

She further restated pros ecutor Eucal Bonamy’s, chief counsel for the direc tor of public prosecutions, earlier assertion that few judges in a small country would be allowed to hear cases if such grounds for recusal were submitted and accepted. Mr Bonamy also pointed out that it is the jury in such matters that will make ultimate judgement, not the justice.

Speaking directly on the point of her late husband, Justice Grant-Thompson stated that Bethell has been deceased for over 20 years in which time she has remarried. She also pointed out at the time of his death, Gibson was approximately 18 years old and had had no association with the late MP.

Furthermore, the justice dismissed the idea that her opinion in the matter is in any way governed by her late husband. She went on to critique the idea that a female is to be “governed” by the dominant male in her life, living or deceased, rebutting that women in this country can make their own independent decisions. As such, despite Mr Ducille’s claims to the contrary, the justice said that she has no political bias in this matter and that the average Baha mian would perceive the matter likewise.

“Therefore, the man or woman on the South Beach jitney – the modernday version of the English ‘Clapham omnibus’ would in my view find that there is no perceived bias in this case. That this judge would and could dispense justice in this matter without any appearance of bias since she has not personally been a Cabinet member, or cardcarrying member of any political party within The Bahamas,” Justice GrantThompson said in court.

While the justice accepted that personal connections can be used as a ground for recusal in judicial mat ters such motions must be carefully reviewed on a case-by-case basis and such applications should not be made frivolously. She dis missed Mr Ducille’s written submission that her court may be biased due to being appointed by the current administration. She argued that justices are appointed to the judiciary by the Gov ernor General and that attributing the appointment of justices at any time to a political party is a “disgrace ful” tactic.

The justice ended her arguments by stating that the argument that she should transfer the case due to bias has no merit and that the average Bahamian would not see any impartial ity over her late husband.

Justice Grant-Thompson thereby refused the request for recusal, and additionally dismissed Mr Ducille’s sub mission for a gag order in this case as being premature The defence will return to court on November 7 at 1pm for case management.

The trial in this matter is set for May 1 – 31, 2023.

LOVERS BEACH, Hepburn Town on Thursday.

Photo: Vandyke Hepburn

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Solar geoengineering might work, but local temperatures could keep rising for years

(THE CONVERSATION) Imagine a future where, despite efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly, parts of the world have become unbearably hot. Some governments might decide to “geo engineer” the planet by spraying substances into the upper atmosphere to form fine reflective aerosols – a process known as stratospheric aerosol injection.

Theoretically, those tiny particles would reflect a little more sunlight back to space, dampening the effects of global warming. Some people envision it having the effect of a volcanic eruption, like Mount Pinatubo in 1991, which cooled the planet by about half a degree Celsius on average for many months.

However, like that eruption, the effects could vary widely across the surface of the globe.

How quickly might you expect to notice your local temperatures falling? One year? Five years? Ten years?

What if your local temperatures seem to be going up?

As it turns out, that is exactly what could happen. While modeling studies show that stratospheric aerosol injection could stop global temperatures from increasing fur ther, our research shows that temperatures locally or regionally might continue to increase over the following few years. This insight is essential for the general public and policymakers to understand so that climate policies are evaluated fairly and interpreted based on the best available science.

• Why local temperatures might continue to rise

In an article published in the Proceed ings of the National Academy of Sciences on Sept. 27, 2022, we explore how the effec tiveness of stratospheric aerosol injection could be hidden by the natural variability of Earth’s climate.

Natural climate variability refers to variations in climate that are not driven by humans, such as chaotic, unpredictable interactions within and between the ocean, atmosphere, land and sea ice.

One example of natural climate variability is the El Niño Southern Oscillationphenomena.

During an El Niño year – or its opposite, La Niña – many parts of the world experi ence warmer or cooler conditions than they might otherwise.

These are inescapable features of Earth’s climate system.

We looked at 10 climate model simula tions that include stratospheric aerosol injection and analysed the temperatures that people might experience over a 10-year period if enough aerosols were added to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) above preindustrial levels, the U.N. Paris climate agreement goal.

We found that a substantial fraction of the Earth’s population could experience contin ued warming even as average temperatures decreased at a global scale, with as much as 55% still experiencing rising temperatures for a decade after stratospheric aerosol injection begins.

This could be true in parts of the largest

and richest countries in the world, including the United States, China, India and parts of Europe.

The very countries that have the ability to attempt stratospheric aerosol injection in the future could be those most likely to still see temperatures rise.

• Consequences are still poorly understood

Many different types of solar radiation modification have been proposed, but most experts consider stratospheric aerosol injec tion to be both the most effective and least expensive approach.

The basic idea would be to produce tiny, reflective particles in part of the strato sphere between about 12 and 16 miles (20 and 25 kilometres) in altitude – which is above where airplanes typically fly.

While some science fiction stories suggest that rockets might be used to do this, most experts think that modified aircraft would be required to distribute aerosols both high enough and consistently enough.

In 2021, the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report on the topic of solar radia tion modification, including stratospheric aerosol injection.

The report was written by a committee of climate scientists, economists, lawyers and others.

The group came to the conclusion that the U.S. should fund research on the topic. It recommended this in part because the con sequences of solar radiation modification were still poorly understood.

This lack of understanding is quite a risk, since it remains unknown what might happen if the world pursues strategies like stratospheric aerosol injection, let alone if a specific country or organisation decides to pursue these interventions by itself.

In our view, research into the poten tial consequences of stratospheric aerosol injection should include studies to examine potential changes in crop yields, shifts in global rainfall patterns or changes in criti cal regions of the Earth’s biosphere, like the Amazon rainforest. The fact is that we don’t know very well what would happen with stratospheric aerosol injection – which is why research on this topic is so critical.

• Reducing emissions is fundamental to curb climate change

We want to be absolutely clear that we are not advocating for the actual use of strato spheric aerosol injection.

The most direct way to avoid the uncer tainty of solar radiation modification strategies like stratospheric aerosol injec tion is to address the root cause of global warming.

That, as documented by many scientific studies, will require the aggressive reduction of emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

(This article is by Patrick W. Keys, Colorado State University; Curtis Bell, US Naval War College; Elizabeth A. Barnes, Colorado State University; James W. Hurrell, Colorado State University, and Noah Diffenbaugh, Stanford University for theconversation.com)

Online workshops

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Editor, when I saw this - Online workshops on Conflict Resolution, negotiation, dealing with difficult people in-person-workshops and training@adr.ca: this Fall and Winter -– I just had to stop and take note in the hope that the information could be passed on to the relevant govern ment body for action.

I am limited in ability to get it out there – I am relying on your access to the various gov ernment agencies via emails sitting in this database to be able to forward this letter about the captioned matter.

In view of the lack of skills to resolve conflicts among school age children, it is my considered opinion that the avenues mentioned in the above caption, can go a long way in helping the children with behavioral deficits? If we are able to have a complement of folk from either each school, or government body to step up for the training in the caption - this has been a God send I am persuaded and nevertheless is a worthwhile venture requiring a level of urgency to be able to partake in the course by the Stitt Feld Handy Group of Canada.

Again, thank you, editor, for indulging me with forwarding the information maybe even to the President of the Bahamas Union of Teachers (B.U.T), Mrs Belinda Wilson for action?

Editor, you continue to make The Bahamas proud of the work done daily to carry stories about matters making news throughout the Commonwealth of Bahamas, and for this I say thank you again and we Bahamians love you for your patriotism, etc, occurring in The Baha mas -that we might otherwise not have known, blessings always.

FRANK GILBERT

Nassau, September 29, 2022.

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Humour was his game, but powerful he became

EDITOR, The Tribune. Humour is the capac ity to express or perceive what’s funny, and is both a source of entertain ment and a means to cope with what is difficult and awkward. Stressful situa tions often make for good environments that nurture humour, provoking laugh ter. Whether the joke is lighthearted or absurdly provocative, humour plays an important role in form ing social bonds, releasing tension and attracting others.

You may have a favourite comedian, icons of humour. Why they are so special to us goes beyond words, but one similarity appears constantly, and that is that comedians often violate our expectations. Humor ists look to culture, political orientation and many other factors to find and weave a story of humour, to make you laugh at yourself, others and circumstances seemingly out of your control.

Well President Zelen skyy was once a comedian and actor in the Ukraine, making his nation laugh at itself for many years. Zelenskyy spent his time spinning benign violations and proposals against the Ukraine and Russia’s elites, proposing harmless yet also

threatening humour in a political satire that went far beyond his nation’s border.

The Ukrainian people have been going through a mul titude of stressful decades, living beside an Empire Building neighbour who did not hide their aggressive imperialism at all. Humour helps to relieve stress, but also to educate and strate gically point out the errors of one’s political enemies.

Russia attacked Ukraine, and everyone stopped laughing. Even to this day, while the Ukrainian Forces seem to be achieving some success on the battlefield, the President of Ukraine can make jokes. He shows willingness to take risks while making jokes, while being sensitive of how his actions and humour are perceived by friend and foe alike.

Remember that humour advertises a romantic intel ligence, a trait that often attracts one person to another. Many comedians are charismatic, attract ing others to themselves and their cause. Why is it a good thing that Presi dent Zelelnskyy is a man

of humour? Perhaps being humorous may cushion the emotional blows of a trying time such as war, terror and national siege. The Humourist can bring the family, neighbourhood and nation closer together. This man has ignited increased social support domesti cally and internationally while improving his peo ple’s ability to rethink many distressing situations into more positive opportuni ties. The humourist has the ability to develop a social radar that connects the population as a whole. Humour succeeds or fails depending on the audi ences’ preferences and sensibilities. Zelenskyy knows his people. The President shows a power ful humility to all, humility that cultivates empathy to the cause, relatedness as a nation. Humour is a dynamic tool that com municates feeling and intention. President Zelen skyy and His People intend on achieving victory.

Remember, humour is based upon conflict. Conflict tears down, trans forms and challenges its participants.

STEVEN KASZAB Bradford, Ontario, Canada, September 26, 2022.

WE ALLOW GOVT TO STRIP OUR BLESSINGS AWAY

EDITOR, The Tribune.

BAHAMIANS, God has blessed us with so much, yet we continuously allow the government to strip our blessings away from us. Are you not tired of being unemployed or employed and victim ised, Bahamian young men killing each other and feeling like robbing is the only way for their family to survive, fighting amongst ourselves instead of fighting for the government to put Bahamians first and empowering our Bahamian, illegal and unwarranted police harassment, waiting for monies owed by employers or govern ment in some form or another? Also, taxed continuously deeper into poverty, wages never meeting the cost of living standards, turned away from NIB for lack of contri butions and other reasons, looking to social services only to get meager handouts that are not truly beneficial, high electricity bills or not having electricity due to it being disconnected, not being able to pay the mortgage, losing your home, not being able to pay rent, not being able to afford food and necessities, not being able to help your elderly parents that are trying to survive on an ungodly pension.

Let’s not forget foreign nationals having access to our Crown land and we are being denied Crown land, not having access to proper health care, not being educated to reach your full potential, not having law enforcement protection, all foreign nation als having more rights and freedom than you do, subjected to extra hardship for not voting for the governing political party of the day, robbed, raped? It is profound how long the list of unfair and inhumane treatment of Bahamians is and even more profound at how much longer it can be.

Both governing parties have deliberately - in my opinion - oppressed us Bahamians

for far too long. Politicians want you to beg like peasants for the shirts, crumbs/a bag or small box of groceries and minimum wage jobs they give out. It appears that there is a system in place to not allow Bahami ans to enjoy life. We are a wealthy people; our natural resources and land gives us a wealthy title. Grab your wealthy title, so that you can get your Crown land to build your home and grow your own food, travel the world, properly educate your children and soar like an eagle; the world is your playground.

Bahamians show up in large numbers to Junkanoo, regatta, carnival, etc., whether it is raining or not. While you may have fun, these gatherings do not contribute to your quality of life. Come stand and fight for you and your children, against all injustices, poverty, corruption, oppression, suppression, etc. If your excuse is you have to work, your job may not be secured if the government continues to allow the influx of Haitian nationals. If you are afraid of being victimised, you must realise, that it appears that the government presently has you living in a system that guarantees victimisation.

Stand up so victimisation becomes a thing of the past.

Let us thank God for our blessings, take back what is ours, make history and demand the Government step down! We do not have to wait for the government to serve the remainder of their time; giving them a chance to possibly put other things in place to further oppress us. We cannot give more time for any potential dirty deals that are selling out our rights, freedom and our Bahamas.

SUPPORT BAHAMIAN Nassau, September 28, 2022.

CARS drive on a flooded street caused by Hurricane Ian Thursday, in Fort Myers, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

TWO MEN CHARGED WITH SHOPBREAKING, STEALING

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

TWO men were granted bail in Magis trate’s Court yesterday in connection with shop breaking at Potter’s Cay that resulted in the theft of $448.64 worth of alcohol.

Rashad Rolle, 26, and Ashton Sturrup, 24, both faced Assistant Chief Magistrate Subu sola Swain on charges of shopbreaking, stealing and receiving. The two are accused of

breaking into #19 TZ’s Bay View Stall at Pot ter’s Cay on September 23 between 12.30am and 4am.

There they reportedly stole $448.64 worth of an assortment of alco hol belonging to Maltese Davis.

In court both accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.

As there was no objec tion, $5,000 bail was granted to each accused by prosecutor Inspector Lincoln McKenzie.

Their trial is sched uled for December 6.

UNLAWFUL SEX CONVICTION

A 74-YEAR-OLD man was convicted of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a dependent in Grand Bahama.

Police said Norman Ferguson appeared before Justice Andrew Forbes in Freeport’s Supreme Court on Wednesday and was found guilty by a vote of 9-0 for the offence of unlawful sexual intercourse with a dependent. He was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services until November 22 for sentencing. This is in connection with a matter reported on March 10, 2019.

MAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO FIREARM CHARGES

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

AN Eleuthera man was sent to prison yesterday for the importation of firearms to the island ear lier this month.

Roberto Scavella, 23, represented by attorney K Munroe, faced Magis trate Kendra Kelly on six charges. These include possession of a firearm with intent to supply and conspiracy to import firearms, two counts of importation of firearms as well as two counts of possession of an unli censed firearm.

On September

23 in Eleuthera the accused, being con cerned with others, is accused of importing and being in possession of two black Taurus G2C 9mm pistols, serial num bers: ADE417256 and ADE423056.

In court Scavella pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Prosecutor Sergeant Vernon Pyfrom objected to him being given bail, resulting in it being denied. He was remanded to the Bahamas Depart ment of Correctional Services.

Scavella’s trial is sched uled for December 5 and 6.

Ministry seeking to repair 1,000 homes

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Social Services and Urban Development Ministry IS seeking to help repair some 1,000 homes over the next several months through its small home repair initiative, State Minister Lisa Rahming announced yesterday.

“These 1,000 homes will take us from New Provi dence, Grand Bahama, Abaco and we’re seeking to do all the family of islands who are turning in their applications and seeking help,” Ms Rahming said during a press conference at the Office of The Prime Minister yesterday.

“There are many families who, through no fault of their own, need a helping hand. People are definitely

trying their hardest to stay afloat, but can’t even save enough money to make the necessary repairs to their homes, which we have seen in travelling from home to home, neighbourhood to neighbourhood.

“Through the small home repair programme, those repairs will be made and they have been made. We hope that they will enjoy some peace of mind as the financial and emotional strain of making these repairs is lifted. It is our goal to provide Bahamians with safer, more secure homes and certainly to improve their living conditions.”

The ministry’s small home repair programme was re-launched in early May in response to hun dreds of homeowners who are hurting and in need of home restoration.

Nearly 200 homes have received repairs since the programme’s launch, according to Ms Rahming.

“That’s New Providence, Grand Bahama and the other family of islands we’ve completed. However, we had 550 contractors (who) submitted docu ments and over 800 homes have applied,” she added.

“However, because the weather is upon us, we have seen and we’ve heard persons calling in, whether it’s by way of talk show, whether it’s through the Urban Renewal or whether it’s just being frustrated, we understand and they’re saying that their applica tions have been in and their house has not been done yet but we want them to know, our resources are limited, but we are doing absolutely the best that we can.”

She also revealed that vulnerable groups like the elderly, disabled and single parent community will be given top priority for assistance.

“We have certainly estab lished internal mechanisms to prevent potential abuse and misuse of resources and to ensure equal access for all eligible applicants,” Ms Rahming continued, “and I can say that only persons who genuinely require help will benefit and help will be delivered based on need rather than connections.”

According to the state minister, some $3m has been earmarked for the initiative and $1.2m has already been spent so far.

Interested parties are encouraged to apply at one of Urban Renewal’s offices or can call the ministry’s hotline: 502- 4461.

STATE Minister of Social Services and Urban Development Lisa Rahming speaking yesterday as Charron Penn, project manager and strategic advisor Arthur Johnson look on. Photo: Austin Fernander

Did Sweden’s controversial COVID strategy pay off? In many ways it did –but it let the elderly down

(THE CONVERSA TION) As much of the world shut down early in the COVID pan demic, Sweden remained open. The country’s approach was controver sial, with some calling it “the Swedish experiment”. But almost two-and-a-half years after the pandemic began, what can we say today about the outcomes of this “experiment”?

First, let’s recap what Sweden’s strategy looked like. The country largely stuck to its pandemic plan, originally developed to be used in the event of an influenza pandemic. Instead of lockdowns, the goal was to achieve social distancing through public health recommendations.

Swedes were encour aged to work from home if possible and limit travel within the country.

In addition, people aged 70 or older were asked to limit social contact, and people with COVID symptoms were asked to self-isolate. The goal was to protect the elderly and other highrisk groups while slowing down the spread of the virus so the healthcare system wouldn’t become overwhelmed.

As the number of cases surged, some restric tions were imposed. Public events were

limited to a maximum of 50 people in March 2020, and eight people in November 2020. Visits to nursing homes were banned and upper sec ondary schools closed.

Primary schools did, however, remain open throughout the pandemic.

Face masks were not recommended for the general public during the first wave, and only in cer tain situations later in the pandemic.

During spring 2020, the reported COVID death rate in Sweden was among the highest in the world.

Neighbouring coun tries that implemented rapid lockdown meas ures, such as Norway and Denmark, were faring much better, and Sweden received harsh criti cism for its lax approach.

But defenders of the Swedish strategy claimed it would pay off in the long run, arguing that dra conian measures were not sustainable and that the pandemic was a marathon, not a sprint.

SO DID SWEDEN’S APPROACH PAY OFF?

Let’s look at excess mortality as a key exam ple. This metric takes the total number of deaths

and compares this figure with pre-pandemic levels, capturing the wider effects of the pandemic and accounting for incor rect reporting of COVID deaths.

Although Sweden was hit hard by the first wave, its total excess deaths during the first two years of the pandemic were actually among the lowest in Europe.

The decision to keep primary schools open also paid off. The incidence of severe acute COVID in children has been low, and a recent study showed that Swedish children didn’t suffer the learning loss seen in many other countries.

In this light, the Swed ish strategy has gone from being called “a disaster” and “cautionary tale” to a “Scandinavian success”. But to draw any relevant conclusions, it’s crucial we dig a little further into how Swedes navigated the pandemic.

Notably, any percep tions that people in Sweden went on with their everyday lives during the pandemic as if nothing had changed are untrue.

In a survey by Swe den’s Public Health Agency from the spring of 2020, more than 80% of Swedes reported they had adjusted their behaviour,

for example by practising social distancing, avoid ing crowds and public transport, and working from home. Aggregated mobile data confirmed that Swedes reduced their travel and mobility during the pandemic.

Swedes were not forced to take action against the spread of the virus, but they did so anyway.

This voluntary approach might not have worked everywhere, but Sweden has a history of high trust in authori ties, and people tend to comply with public health recommendations.

It’s also difficult to com pare Sweden’s results to those of countries outside of Scandinavia that have very different social and demographic conditions.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Despite the benefits of avoiding lockdown, the Swedish response was not flawless. In late 2020, the Corona Com mission, an independent committee appointed by the government to evalu ate the Swedish pandemic response, found the gov ernment and the Public Health Agency had largely failed in their ambition to

protect the elderly.

At that time, almost 90% of those who had died with COVID in Sweden were 70 or older.

Half of these people were living in a care home, and just under 30% were receiving home help services.

Indeed, numerous prob lems within elderly care in Sweden became evi dent during the pandemic.

Structural shortcomings such as insufficient staff ing levels left nursing homes unprepared and ill-equipped to handle the situation.

In its final report on the pandemic response, the Corona Commission concluded that tougher measures should have been taken early in the pandemic, such as quar antine for those returning from high-risk areas and a temporary ban on entry to Sweden.

The commission did, however, state that the no-lockdown strategy was fundamentally reason able, and that the state should never interfere with the rights and free doms of its citizens more than absolutely neces sary. The commission also supported the decision to keep primary schools open.

By comparison, the Corona Commission in

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of royal fans lined up outside Windsor Castle for the chance to pay their final respects to Queen Elizabeth II as the chapel where the late monarch was buried opened to the public Thursday for the first time since her death.

The queen’s death certificate says the 96-year-old monarch died of old age. The certificate, published by National Records of Scotland on Thursday, records that Elizabeth died at Balmoral Castle in Ballater, Scotland on Sept. 8 at 3.10 p.m. The document was signed by the queen’s daughter, Princess Anne.

Many want to visit the tomb of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. It is marked by a slab of hand-carved Belgian black marble inside the King George VI Memorial Chapel, part of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The queen’s name is inscribed on the ledger stone in brass letter inlays, alongside the names of her husband, mother and father.

Among the early arrivals was Anne Daley, 65, from Cardiff, who got to the castle at 7:30 a.m., well ahead of the 10 a.m. opening time. She was also one of the first in line as tens of thousands of people shuffled through Westminster Hall over four days to see the queen’s lying in state before her funeral.

Daley said she felt emotional think ing about the monarch’s death on Sept. 8, as well as that of her husband, Prince Philip, who died last year.

“The castle feels like empty, gloomy. Nobody’s living in it. You know, you’ve lost the queen, you’ve lost the duke, you lost the corgis,” Daly said, referring to Elizabeth’s beloved dogs. “It’s like when you’ve sold your house and all the history is gone.”

To visit the chapel, royal fans have to buy a ticket to Windsor Castle. The price for adults is 26.50 pounds ($28.75) Sunday through Friday, and 28.50 on Saturdays.

The memorial chapel sits within the walls of St. George’s Chapel, where many members of the royal family are buried. It has also been the venue for several royal weddings, including the marriage of Prince Harry to the former Meghan Markle in 2018.

Norway, one of the few countries in Europe with lower excess mortality than Sweden, concluded that although the han dling of the pandemic in Norway was generally good, children were hit hard by lockdowns and the authorities did not adequately protect them.

The focus of Sweden’s strategy was to reduce the spread of the virus, but also to consider other aspects of public health and protect freedom and fundamental rights. While the Swedish strat egy remains controversial, today most countries are taking similar approaches to the continuing pandemic.

Looking back, it seems a bit unjust that the country that followed its pre-pandemic plan was the country accused of conducting an experiment on its population. Perhaps Sweden instead should be considered the control group, while the rest of the world underwent an experiment.

(This article is by Emma Frans, Senior research specialist, C8 Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karo linska Institutet for the conversation.com)

PEOPLE queue outside at Windsor Castle and St George’s Chapel, which is reopened to public for first time since Queen Elizabeth II’s death, in Windsor, England, Thursday. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)

CUBANS SUFFER AS HURRICANE CAUSED OUTAGE DRAGS ON

By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) — Ivette Garrido hurried last week to get the 6 kilo grammes (13 pounds) of subsidised chicken allotted to her family by Cuba’s government and put it in the freezer, happy to have meat to get through Hur ricane Ian.

Now she is consider ing giving the chicken to her three dogs before it goes bad as a huge power blackout caused by the storm extends beyond two days and everything in her freezer thaws amid scorch ing temperatures.

The government has not said what percentage of the population remains without electricity, but electrical authorities said only 10% of Havana’s 2 million people had power Thursday.

“We are not having a very good time, trying to survive, to keep things from thawing,” said Gar rido, who lives with her mother and a 19-year-old daughter in the town of Cojimar on the outskirts of Havana.

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans are facing simi lar situations.

Ian crossed western Cuba on Tuesday before heading north to Florida. It initially knocked out power to a few provinces, but problems compounded and soon the power grid collapsed nationwide, affecting 11 million people, the first time a total blackout has hap pened in living memory.

The storm also left three people dead and caused still unquantified damage.

Electricity returned in some parts of Cuba on Wednesday, while it came on then shut off again in other parts.

Experts said the total blackout showed the vulnerability of Cuba’s power grid and warned that it will require time and sources — things the country doesn’t have — to fix the problem.

Authorities have prom ised to work without rest to address the issue.

A half-dozen Havana residents interviewed by The Associated Press on Thursday were tense because of the lack of electricity, which has also left them without water since electric motors power the pumps that bring water to their taps.

Many homes can’t cook because they use electric stoves following a cam paign by authorities to eliminate artisanal stoves.

“We have never been so long without electricity,” Garrido said. “They put it at 24 hours, at 36, but it’s already been more than 48. It’s criminal. Who is responsible for this?”

She has placed bottles of frozen water that had been in the freezer next to the chicken, along with some pork and sausages, to try to preserve the meat longer. A fan and television also await the return of electricity. Calls by AP to a dozen people in Cuba’s main cities — Holguín, Matanzas,Guantánamo, Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey and Santiago — found similar problems to Havana, with most reporting their neighbour hoods were still without electricity.

Authorities say the total blackout happened because of a failure in the connections between Cuba’s three regions — west, centre and east — caused by Ian’s winds.

Cuba’s power grid “was already in a critical and immuno-compromised state as a result of the deterioration of the ther moelectric plants.

The patient is now on life support,” said Jorge Piñon, director of the Center for International Energy and Environ mental Policy’s Latin America and Caribbean programme at the Univer sity of Texas.

Being interconnected “is the perfect analogy for the domino effect in which you knock down a domino and hit all the others in a chain reaction,” he said, referring to how a fault in one part of the country soon affected all of it.

Floods trap many in Florida as Ian heads to South Carolina

By ADRIANA GOMEZ-LICON Associated Press

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) — Rescue crews piloted boats and waded through inun dated streets Thursday to save thousands of Florid ians trapped amid flooded homes and shattered buildings left by Hurri cane Ian, which crossed into the Atlantic Ocean and churned toward another landfall in South Carolina.

Hours after weaken ing to a tropical storm while crossing the Florida peninsula, Ian regained hurricane strength Thursday evening after emerging over the Atlan tic Ocean. The National Hurricane Center pre dicted it would make landfall in South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane Friday.

The devastation inflicted on Florida began to come into focus a day after Ian struck as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane and one of the strongest storms ever to hit the U.S. It flooded homes on both the state’s coasts, cut off the only bridge to a bar rier island, destroyed a historic waterfront pier and knocked out electric ity to 2.67 million Florida homes and businesses — nearly a quarter of utility customers.

At least one man was confirmed dead in Florida, while two other people were reported killed in Cuba after the hurricane struck the island Tuesday.

Aerial photos from the Fort Myers area, a few miles west of where Ian struck land, showed homes ripped from their slabs and deposited among shredded wreck age. Businesses near the beach were completely razed, leaving twisted debris. Broken docks floated at odd angles beside damaged boats and fires smouldered on lots where houses once stood.

“I don’t know how anyone could have sur vived in there,” William Goodson said amid the wreckage of the mobile home park in Fort Myers Beach where he’d lived for 11 years.

The hurricane tore through the park of about 60 homes, many of them, including Goodson’s sin gle-wide home destroyed or mangled beyond repair. Wading through waistdeep water, Goodson and his son wheeled two trash cans containing what little he could salvage of his belongings — a portable air conditioner, some tools and a baseball bat.

The road into Fort Myers was littered with broken trees, boat trail ers and other debris. Cars were left abandoned in the roadway, having stalled when the storm surge flooded their engines.

“We’ve never seen storm surge of this mag nitude,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told a news con ference. “The amount of water that’s been rising,

and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing, is basi cally a 500-year flooding event.”

After leaving Florida as a tropical storm Thursday and entering the Atlan tic Ocean north of Cape Canaveral, Ian spun up into a hurricane again with winds of 75 mph (120 kph). The hurricane centre predicted it would continue to strengthen before hitting South Carolina on Friday, but still remain a Category 1 storm. A hurricane warning was issued for the South Carolina coast and extended to Cape Fear on the southeastern coast of North Carolina.

With tropical-storm force winds reaching 415 miles (667 kilometres) from its centre, Ian was forecast to shove storm surge of 5 feet (1.5 metres) into coastal areas in Georgia and the Carolinas. Rainfall of up to 8 inches (20.32 centime tres) threatened flooding from South Carolina to Virginia.

Sheriffs in southwest Florida said 911 centers were inundated by thou sands of stranded callers, some with life-threatening emergencies. The U.S. Coast Guard began rescue efforts hours before day break on barrier islands near where Ian struck, DeSantis said. More than 800 members of federal urban search-and-rescue teams were also in the area.

In the Orlando area, Orange County firefight ers used boats to reach people in a flooded neigh bourhood. A photo the department posted on Twitter showed one fire fighter carrying someone in his arms through kneedeep water. At an area nursing home, patients were carried on stretch ers across floodwaters to a waiting bus.

Among those rescued was Joseph Agboona. “We were happy to get out,” he said after grabbing two bags of possessions when water rose to the windows in his Orlando home. “It

was very, very bad.”

In Fort Myers, Valerie Bartley’s family spent desperate hours holding a dining room table against their patio door, fearing the storm raging outside “was tearing our house apart.”

“I was terrified,” Bar tley said. “What we heard was the shingles and debris from everything in the neighbourhood hitting our house.”

The storm ripped away patio screens and snapped a palm tree in the yard, Bartley said, but left the roof intact and her family unharmed.

In Fort Myers, some people left shelters to return home Thursday afternoon. Long lines formed at gas stations and a Home Depot opened, letting in a few customers at a time.

Frank Pino was near the back of the line, with about 100 people in front of him.

“I hope they leave something,” Pino said, “because I need almost everything.”

Authorities confirmed at least one Florida death — a 72-year-old man in Deltona who fell into a canal while using a hose to

drain his pool in the heavy rain, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said. Two other storm deaths were reported in Cuba.

Lee County Sheriff Car mine Marceno said his office was scrambling to respond to thousands of 911 calls in the Fort Myers area, but many roads and bridges were impassable.

Emergency crews sawed through toppled trees to reach stranded people. Many in the hardest-hit areas were unable to call for help because of electri cal and cellular outages.

A chunk of the Sanibel Causeway fell into the sea, cutting off access to the barrier island where 6,300 people live. It was unknown how many heeded orders to evacu ate, but Charlotte County Emergency Manage ment Director Patrick Fuller expressed cautious optimism.

No deaths or injuries have been confirmed in the county, and flyovers of barrier islands show “the integrity of the homes is far better than we antici pated,” Fuller said. South of Sanibel Island, the historic beach front pier in Naples was destroyed, with even the

pilings underneath torn out. “Right now, there is no pier,” said Penny Taylor, a Collier County commissioner.

In Port Charlotte, a hos pital’s emergency room flooded and fierce winds ripped away part of the roof, sending water gush ing into the intensive care unit. The sickest patients — some on ventilators — were crowded into the middle two floors as the staff prepared for storm victims to arrive, said Dr. Birgit Bodine of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital.

Ian struck Florida with 150 mph (241 kph) winds that tied it for the fifthstrongest hurricane ever to hit the U.S.

While scientists gener ally avoid blaming climate change for specific storms without detailed analysis, Ian’s watery destruction fits what scientists have predicted for a warmer world: stronger and wetter hurricanes, though not necessarily more of them.

“This business about very, very heavy rain is something we’ve expected to see because of climate change,” said MIT atmos pheric scientist Kerry Emanuel. “We’ll see more storms like Ian.”

FIRST responders with Orange County Fire Rescue use an inflatable boat to rescue a resident from a home in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Thursday, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

A MAN walks through a street among damaged homes and businesses and debris in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., on Thursday following Hurricane Ian. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

A SECTION of the Sanibel Causeway was lost due to the effects of Hurricane Ian Thursday in Fort Myers, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Harrowing film tells of Las Vegas shooting and its aftermath

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — A pair of cowboy boots that Ashley Hoff never thought she would see again helped unlock a powerful story about the worst mass shoot ing in modern U.S. history.

The resulting film, “11 Minutes,” is an inside account of the 2017 mas sacre at a country music festival in Las Vegas and, more importantly, about how it reverberated in the lives of those who were there. More than three hours long, the four-part documentary debuts Tues day on the Paramount+ streaming service.

“I’ve never felt more useful or more like the uni verse put me exactly where I was supposed to be,” said Hoff, an executive producer of “11 Minutes.”

It seems like a strange sentiment given that Hoff was at the show on Oct. 1, 2017, four rows from the stage as Jason Aldean sang “Any Ol’ Barstool.”

Hoff heard popping sounds that she and her husband, Shaun, first dismissed as fireworks — not the work of a gunman firing from a nearby hotel window.

She turned to look at her husband and saw someone just behind him struck in the face by a bullet. They alternated ducking to the ground for cover and run ning away, depending on when they could hear the gunshots.

At one point, she kicked off her cowboy boots because it was too slippery to run in them, eventually escaping the killing field where 58 people died that night, and two more later of their injuries. More than 850 people were hurt before the gunfire stopped.

Nine months later, an FBI agent was at Hoff’s door with her boots — part of a little-known unit that returns property left behind by people caught in these incidents.

Hoff, already in the film business, thought that made an intriguing subject. She was encouraged to broaden her focus through her experience with fellow sur vivors and the involvement of director Jeff Zimbal ist and veteran producers Susan Zirinsky and Terence Wrong.

Many survivors, like her self, were unhappy with media coverage of the massacre, believing there was too much focus on the gunman and that it was for gotten too soon.

“We all went back to our corners to suffer in silence,” she said.

The film takes you vividly inside the event with cell phone and police body-cam footage. The cooperation of Las Vegas police was key, bringing footage like the race to hospitals with survi vors and the moment when

a tactical unit burst into the casino hotel room where the gunman had barricaded himself.

The experiences of people like Jonathan Smith, a Black concertgoer who had felt unwelcome because of a white man’s remark wondering why he was there, and Natalie Grumet, who had just sur vived cancer, are weaved throughout the story. Both were seriously injured.

“Is it easy to watch? No, but it shouldn’t be easy to watch,” said SiriusXM host Storme Warren, who was onstage in Las Vegas that night.

“I don’t know why you would tell the story if it were easy to watch.”

Warren at first hesitated when asked to participate in the film, dealing with his own PTSD and wary because of past media cov erage. He and Aldean, who gave his first interview about Las Vegas to film makers, are important ties to the country community.

Hoff believes that her own experience that night, even though it is not included in the film, helped convince some of those involved to talk.

Searingly, the parents of Carrie Parsons, a young

woman who didn’t survive her wounds, discuss deal ing with every parent’s worst nightmare, and how their time to grieve with her body was cut short.

“They’re going to cre mate my daughter in 10 minutes,” a tearful AnnMarie Parsons recalled being told. “How do you deal with that?

After the shooting stopped, police talked of hearing the rings of cell phones as they walked among bodies still on the concert grounds, knowing there were desperate callers on the other end wanting to know if their loved ones were safe.

Beyond the concertgoers, it’s startling to see some of the first responders — often not the most emotive types — speak about how they’ve dealt with the emotional

aftermath. “I was a very angry man. Very angry,” said Brian Rogers, para medic operations chief, in the film.

Part four of “11 Min utes,” begins at dawn on Oct. 2, 2017, and focuses on some of the enduring bonds between survivors, and some of the rescuers.

It’s Hoff’s favourite part. “I do like to encourage people that there is good ness in the end, so hang in for that,” she said.

“There are extraordinary acts of courage and human beings helping human beings,” said Zirinsky, chief of the See It Now Studios production company.

“They’re just regular people. In the darkest hours, people found each other.”

Zirinsky, the former CBS News president, produced

“9/11,” perhaps the most memorable doc made in the wake of that disaster, and considers “11 Minutes” the most powerful film she’s worked on since.

While the film talks about the gunman, whose motive remains a mystery since he killed himself before police reached him, it pointedly does not mention his name. Almost militantly so: A series of audio news reports included are cut off just before the name is spoken.

It was found that the gunman had searched the internet for “how to be a social media star” in the days before the shooting. Even in death, Hoff doesn’t want to give him that wish.

The film ends with a slow crawl showing the names of those killed five years ago in Las Vegas, as well as the victims of every mass shooting since that time in the U.S. where at least four people were killed.

“I don’t call it a political statement,” Zirinsky said. “I call it a statement of reality.”

Both Hoff and her husband escaped the con cert without any gunshot wounds, although Hoff broke her arm when she slipped and fell trying to run in her cowboy boots. She didn’t notice her injury until they stopped running.

She’s fine if people take the message from her film that enough’s enough.

“We need to stop turn ing away, and we need to understand what going through this was like,” she said. “It changes a person forever.”

PERSONAL belongings and debris litter the Route 91 Harvest festival grounds across the street from the Mandalay Bay resort and casino in Las Vegas on Oct. 3, 2017, after a mass shooting Oct. 1. A new documentary, “11 Minutes,” is an inside account of the 2017 massacre at a country music concert in Las Vegas. More than three hours long, the four-part documentary debuts on the Paramount+ streaming service Tuesday. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

FILM producer Ashley Hoff at the Route 91 Harvest on Oct. 1, 2017 in Las Vegas. (Shaun Hoff via AP)

POLICE run toward the scene of the shooting near the Mandalay Bay resort and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

A WOMAN sits on a curb at the scene of the shooting.

(AP Photo/John Locher, File)

Jonquel’s ‘marathon season’ ends in FIBA WCup quarters

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Amarathon season for Jonquel Jones came to an end in the quarterfinals of the FIBA World Cup in Sydney, Australia.

Jones led Bosnia and Herzegovina in several categories on both ends of the floor but her team was eliminated following the group phase.

Jones finished with aver ages of 13.6 points, 8.8 rebounds and two assists per game on 50 percent shooting from the field.

“Praise God for keep ing me healthy during this crazy time. Man I’m so thankful for this break. Your girl didn’t have any more gas left in the tank. FIBA, WNBA for the sake of the players please try to find some common ground. These last two weeks were crazy!”

Just days after her WNBA season came to an end in the Finals, Jones returned to international play with BIH at the World Cup in Sydney, Australia.

It was the culmination of international appear ances this year highlighted by leading BIH to their historic World Cup 2022 qualification.

She was named TISSOT MVP and a member of the All-Tournament team at the World Cup Qualifying Tournament last February in Osaka, Japan when she averaged 25.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game while shooting 52 percent from the field and 44 percent from three.

Jones’ 2022 season began in Europe where she traditionally spends the offseason with Russian Pre mier League powerhouse - UMMC Ekaterinburg.

In 11 EuroLeague games, she averaged a team leading 17.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.1 blocks per game.

The Foxes were favoured to repeat as Euro League champions for the seventh consecutive year.

Jones led the club to an undefeated Euro League regular season record and the top overall seed in the league at 4-0.

Her campaign in Europe ended abruptly due to the

Russian-Ukranian conflict and Jones left the country in March. Russia has been the preferred offseason des tination of many of the

league’s stars, but many of them are opting for other locations amid Brittney Griner’s highly publi cised imprisonment in the country.

Griner was Jones’ team mate with UMMC and will play in Turkey this upcom ing offseason with CBK Mersin of the Women’s Basketball Super League.

In May, she returned to the WNBA and the Con necticut Sun to begin the 2022 season following her 2021 MVP campaign.

The 2022 season ended on a disappointing note for Jonquel Jones and her Connecticut Sun last Sunday when they were defeated by the Las Vegas Aces 78-71 in game four of the WNBA Finals.

Jones had a 2022 season to remember filled with accolades. She was named to the All-WNBA Second Team, the All Defensive Second Team, and received her fourth WNBA All-Star selection, voted a starter for a third time.

Jones led the Sun in points (14.6), rebounds (8.6) and blocks (1.2) per game. Jones hit a plethora of career milestones this season, moving into first all-time in blocks (270), third all-time in rebounds (1,633) and sixth all-time in points (2,657) in Connecti cut Sun franchise history.

LEGENDS OF BOXING SUPPORTS MEACHER MAJOR’S BID FOR FEDERATION PRESIDENT

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

MEACHER Major’s campaign to transition from the ring to local administration has begun to garner support from the wider boxing community.

The Legends of Boxing LLC, set to host their first event in The Bahamas next year, has thrown their sup port behind Major’s bid for president of the Bahamas Boxing Federation.

The organisation will host its ‘Champions in Par adise’ card in April 2023 where Major will be recog nised for his contributions to the sport and commu nity at large.

“Mr Major is an extraor dinary visionary leader whose passion and drive for boxing is astounding. The amazing work he’s doing with the youth in

The Bahamas is incred ible,” the organisation said.

“We’ve had numerous discussions, and he exem plifies what we need to help build the boxing com munity in the Bahamas,” the organisation said.

“We believe that he has what it takes to unify the sport of boxing along with our international team, locally.

“Our full support will be with him throughout this process.”

The Legends of Boxing is an international organisa tion that features boxing’s legendary fighters through exhibitions, matches and other events designed to honour their careers.

“With over 25 years of experience in sports, enter tainment, and the boxing industry. Our mission is to celebrate boxing’s historic fighters and showcase their legendary skills through

dynamic presentations, which includes live sport ing events, interviews and documentaries.”

Major and his Major Pain Boxing Club recently hosted the inaugural Frederick Sturrup Boxing Championships at the National Boxing Gymna sium on September 24.

The veteran returned to the ring briefly for an exhi bition match at the event but his long term plan is to become the new president

Canada into women’s World Cup semis for 1st time since 1986

By DOUG FEINBERG

AP Basketball Writer

SYDNEY (AP) — No one on Canada’s roster was born the last time the team won a medal at the wom en’s World Cup.

Now the Canadians are a win away from securing one for the first time since 1986, when they captured the bronze.

Kia Nurse scored 17 points to lead a balanced Canada team to a 79-60 win over Puerto Rico yes terday in the quarterfinals.

“It’s really special,” Nurse said.

“It’s been a work in progress for us and we all felt the disappointments.

Quarterfinals have been our downfall for a long time and to be able to get over that hump. ... I think

our country is continuing to get really excited about basketball in the grassroots programmes and this is just the start of what we can accomplish.”

Next up is a matchup today with the US, which beat Serbia 88-55.

“It’s always our goal to win a quarterfinal and make it to the semifinals.

The medal rounds is where we want to be,” Canada’s Bridget Carleton said.

The other semifinal will pit China against host Aus tralia. China advanced with an 85-71 win over France.

While the medal drought isn’t as long as Canada’s, China hasn’t won one since

of the Bahamas Boxing Federation.

Major is expected to challenge incumbent Vince Strachan and any other challengers when the elec tion takes place.

“I want to give the Almighty God thanks and praise for the people who have encouraged me to run for president.

“I feel now is the time to bring something new to the Bahamas as a tourism destination,” he previously told the Tribune.

“A lot of the present coaches and even coaches from the past have been complaining about what is going on and with my experience as one of the first amateur boxers to come out of Ray Minus Jr’s Champion Boxing Club and one of the profession als to retire from the sport, I know all of the ins and outs of the sport.”

One of the target areas of his platform will be the improvement of the junior and national team programmes.

“I feel our boxers could have a better chance when they compete at these international competitions and have an even smoother transition whenever they decide to turn pro like I did,” he said. “We don’t really have a junior national boxing team and we hardly have a senior national team.

“A lot of the amateur boxers have quit because they didn’t see anywhere to go. “But I feel with my connections in the United States and with the coaches I have who are willing to come to the Bahamas with their teams to compete, I feel this will be a fresh new opportunity for our amateur boxers and the coaches.”

SANDS PLEASED WITH HIS TENURE SO FAR IN NACAC

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemeddia.net

AS the North American, Central and Caribbean (NACAC) prepares for its election of officers next year, Michael Sands said he’s been pleased with his tenure so far in office.

However, while speak ing to the media during the Year in Review session yesterday at the NACAC office in the Thomas A Robinson National Sta dium, Sands declined to say whether or not he will be seeking another four-year term in office.

Since being elected on Tuesday, July 2, 2019 at the NACAC Biannual Congress at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Queretaro, Mexico, Sands said they had a very good year and he was quite pleased with the performances from the athletes in the region on the global stage.

“As the area association responsible for the athletes that we have in our system, who we refer to as the best athletes in the system, as

MANCHESTER DERBY CAN UNDERLINE UNITED’S GROWTH UNDER TEN HAG

By JAMES ROBSON AP Sports Writer

MANCHESTER, Eng land (AP) — Just two weeks into the season, Manchester City fans might have believed Pep Guar diola had pulled off his greatest act.

Never mind four Premier League titles and 11 tro phies in total since taking charge at the Etihad in 2016 — the latest crisis at rival Manchester United had his fingerprints all over it.

PAGE

Qatar confirms COVID-19 test requirements for World Cup fans

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer

GENEVA (AP) — Fans going to the World Cup in Qatar must show a negative COVID-19 test when they arrive as part of the host nation’s rules to combat COVID-19, organisers said yesterday.

All visitors aged 18 and over must also download a government-run phone application tracking peo ple’s movements and health status, called Ehteraz.

“A green Ehteraz (show ing the user does not have a confirmed case of COVID19) is required to enter any public closed indoor spaces,” World Cup organ isers said.

Visitors must be able to show a negative result from a PCR test taken in the 48 hours before arriv ing or from an official rapid

test taken within 24 hours.

The COVID-19 testing policy for visitors aged six and over is “regardless of the individual’s vaccina tion status,” the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy said in a statement.

The decisions extend throughout the World Cup the public health policies

that have been in place since September 4 for all travellers arriving in Qatar. Vaccination is not man datory for the 1.2 million expected visitors for the November 20 to Decem ber 18 tournament. In June 2021, Qatar’s government

CANADA’S NIRRA FIELDS, left, in action against Puerto Rico in the women’s Basket ball World Cup quarterfinal in Sydney, Australia, yesterday. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

PEOPLE gather around the official countdown clock showing re maining time until the kick-off of the World Cup 2022, in Doha, Qatar, on November 25, 2021. (AP)

SPORTS PAGE 11 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2022 NFL, Page 14 JONQUEL JONES, of The Bahamas, in action for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the FIBA World Cup - the team was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

WARRIORS-WIZARDS GAMES IN JAPAN TO WOO NBA FANS, SPONSORS

By YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japa

nese basketball fans will get to see NBA stars up close when the reigning league-champion Golden State Warriors take on the Washington Wizards in two preseason games.

Not surprisingly, Stephen Curry and Japanese-born Rui Hachimura will be the star attractions for each team.

And as clearly as the logo of Japanese online retailer Rakuten is splashed on Curry’s jersey, big money is riding on the NBA’s most recent foray into Japan.

Junya Ogura, senior man ager at Japanese automaker Nissan’s brand and media strategy department, thinks it’s all worth it, given the NBA’s strong appeal to the younger generation, a trend that’s backed up by market ing studies.

Nissan Motor Co., which sponsors Japanese profes sional baseball and soccer, had a high-profile deal with tennis superstar Naomi

Osaka which recently ended. This is the first time it’s sponsoring NBA games.

The tickets cost up to 420,000 yen ($2,900) each for courtside “VIP” seats.

Both Friday and Sunday games are sold out at the Saitama Super Arena. “These are the Japanese people who grew up on Michael Jordan,” said Ogura.

“We are banking on a return that will come in the future.”

The NBA has drawn 15 marketing partners to sup port the preseason games in Japan, including American Express, Hennessy, NEC and Nike, and now has 19 marketing and promotional partners in Japan.

Rakuten, which also sponsors Japanese baseball and soccer and holds the Japan Open tennis champi onships, live-streams NBA games.

“Obviously it’s about the money,” said Bob Dorf man, a San Francisco-based sports analyst at Pinna cle Advertising. “Building the fan base in Asia, and

everywhere else in the world, results in more spon sorship dollars, increased media rights and greater merchandise sales.”

The NBA may have more global appeal than other US sports, being easier to understand than football, for instance, according to Dorfman, who has worked in Japan.

“Every team has for eign-born players on their rosters, and the league’s top stars are cultural icons, trendsetters, and social

media giants. The game is cool,” he said.

That translates not only into sponsorship money but also youngsters spending on sneakers and other fashion items and merchandising.

Between 1990 and 2003, the NBA staged 12 regular-sea son games in Japan.

The last time the NBA played in Japan was in 2019, when Houston and Toronto played a pre-season game. The coronavirus pandemic had postponed their return to Japan until now. And so

the NBA is again courting Japan. A giant 3D display at a Tokyo street-crossing depicts Curry and other NBA stars as “manga,” or Japanese comic, characters.

The NBA’s Japanese-lan guage social media accounts have amassed more than 1.6 million followers.

While the players are in town, they will be taking part in various fan events.

Besides Hachimura, the NBA now has another Japanese player, Yuta Watanabe, who is with the Brooklyn Nets.

The NBA is also excited about the potential for women’s basketball.

Japanese women were the silver medallists in the last Olympics. Rui Machida, an Olympian, signed earlier this year with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. “Our fan base is growing,” said NBA Asia managing direc tor Ramez Sheikh. “There is real momentum around basketball in Japan, and it’s a real important market for the NBA.”

Wizards officials acknowledged they were

Maxey turns into star guard 76ers need to chase championship

By DAN GELSTON AP Sports Writer

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP)

— Doc Rivers was not expecting guests one day this summer when members of his staff turned up uninvited at his house with a direct demand of the Philadelphia 76ers coach: Tyrese Maxey needed an intervention.

It was true.

Maxey needed help getting out of the gym. So a pair of coaches tried to persuade Rivers to talk Maxey into slowing down.

The third-year guard found a court, a pick-up game, anywhere with a basketball in his travels this summer and hooped about every day from dawn through lunch through late nights in a never-end ing chase at professional perfection.

Yeah, Rivers said, no dice.

“It’s hard to shut a guy down like that, it really is,” Rivers said. “They’re young and you kind of let them do it.”

Who knew? The one way to get a player like Maxey to actually play less basketball was get him to training camp. Maxey laughed Wednesday as he counted the hours sequestered in the team hotel from the night before, from “like 4:30, 5 o’clock to 11 o’clock” with team mates Joel Embiid, James Harden, P.J. Tucker, Tobias Harris and others playing cards, videogames, basically bonding the way Rivers envisioned when he moved camp from team headquarters in New Jersey to the Citadel. The only way Maxey was getting close to a ball was if one showed up on a gaming console.

Alas, it was mostly Madden and FIFA.

Those games belonged to Embiid.

“They’re way too competitive in those things,” Maxey said, laugh ing. “It was fun, though.”

There are Philly sports legends with a complicated history with the city -- it was Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt, after all, who said “Philadelphia is the only city where you can experience the thrill of victory and the agony of reading about it the next day” -- but few have ignited an unbridled devotion

1994 when the Asian nation took the silver. Aus tralia is looking to win a medal in front of its home fans after beating Bel gium 86-69. Canada (5-1) and Puerto Rico were tied 4-4 before the Canadians scored the next 12 points to start a 22-7 burst to close the quarter.

The lead ballooned to 44-23 at the half. Puerto Rico couldn’t really cut into its deficit in the second half thanks in part to Nurse and the fact that Canada com mitted only four turnovers the entire game. After spending 11 months recov ering from an ACL injury, she saw her first game action in the World Cup. She had her best game of the tournament against Puerto Rico.

surprised by the big reac tion signing Hachimura drew from Japan. They sud denly saw more Japanese in the stands, tour buses started coming, and Japa nese media showed up in big numbers.

“It was all about Rui (Hachimura),” said Hunter Lochman, chief market ing officer at Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Wizards. “It’s fast-paced. It’s high scoring. It’s a great sport and it’s a global sport.”

Besides Japan, exhibi tion games are scheduled for Abu Dhabi this season. Regular-season games are being played in Paris and Mexico City.

Kyle Kuzma, a Wizards forward, said he was excited about being in Japan for the first time.

He already had sushi, planned to go shopping and was approached by a fan on the street, who gave him chopsticks.

“This is a big moment. It’s a big stage,” Kuzma said after a practice session in Tokyo yesterday.

QATAR

had suggested there would be a vaccine man date for fans at the World Cup.

Rapid antigen tests taken in the previous 24 hours before land ing in Qatar will only be accepted if they are from official medi cal centres and not self-administered.

No further tests are required in Qatar if fans do not develop symptoms of COVID-19.

Masks must be worn on public transport, includ ing the subway system that many fans will use to get to the eight stadiums in and around Doha.

Players and staff with the 32 World Cup teams will have to take rapid antigen tests every two days in Qatar, as will ref erees and match officials, FIFA said.

FIFA and the Qatari government “strongly advise all participants to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19,” soc cer’s governing body said yesterday.

from the start of a career quite like Maxey.

The smile. The field trips to Union and Phillies games. That Allen Iverson-style of leaving it all on the court on every play endeared him so much to fans to the point that his No. 0 jerseys at times at games seemed to rival those for Embiid. Sixers fans about panicked like Ben Simmons facing an open Game 7 dunk when it was hinted over the summer he could be packaged in a trade to Brooklyn for disgruntled start Kevin Durant.

Not Maxey!

He hosted a basketball camp in Philadelphia, played in an annual Philly summer basketball tourna ment (had a double-double, of course), struck the drum at a Union game and joined the Phillies broad cast booth for a game this summer.

He squeezed in those extracur riculars when he wasn’t in the gym -- or at the gym.

“No matter where I was, if I was in LA, Dallas, if I was back in Philly, I knew I was lifting four

The loss ended a great run for Puerto Rico, which advanced to the quarterfi nals for the first time in its history. The players hoped the unprecedented run could bring some joy to the island, which is recovering from Hurricane Fiona.

“The word legacy sums it up,” said Arella Guirantes, who had 19 points to lead Puerto Rico (2-4). “To leave something like that for the youth that’s coming up is bigger than any win or loss that we can have. . . . It means a lot to be a part of the beginning of a legacy. I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll be back and will be better.”

UNITED STATES 88, SERBIA 55

Alyssa Thomas had 13 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists to help the US beat Serbia. Kelsey Plum scored 17 points and A’ja

times a week and I was going to do it no matter what happened,” Maxey said.

“In Dallas, I had to go to differ ent spots because they didn’t have a lot of equipment. Sometimes I’d have to go to SMU, sometimes I had to go to where my high school coach works at. It’s just the consist ency of it, that’s my main motto.”

Does Maxey feel like he sprouted 24-inch pythons?

“I feel a little bit stronger,” Maxey said, laughing as he checked out both biceps.

The 21-year-old guard out of Kentucky was pressed into ser vice as the starting point guard last season once Simmons’ lingering holdout turned into a full-blown trade for Harden, and he averaged 35.3 minutes and 17.5 points.

He broke through in the play offs and had Sixers fans roaring “Maxey! Maxey! Maxey!” after each electrifying play in a 38-point effort against Toronto that included five 3s overall and 21 points in the third quarter of a Game 1 victory.

Wilson added 15 to lead the Americans (6-0), who will face Canada.

The Americans had run through pool play, winning by 46.2 points per game and hadn’t faced any kind of challenge. Serbia (3-2) wasn’t afraid though, going right at the US.

The Serbians scored the first basket of the game — the first time the Americans trailed in the tournament.

It was back-and-forth for the first 17 minutes, with the US failing to go on any major run.

Then, with 2:59 left in the half and the US up by five, Kahleah Copper drove to the basket and was fouled. She landed hard on her hip and was helped off the court by the US training staff. Copper, who has been a sparkplug for the US in her first tournament, didn’t return.

He followed up with 23 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in Game 2. He added 21 points in a Game 3 win the next round over Miami.

With each big basket, his Philly following only grew -- and got louder from inside the Wells Fargo Center.

His playoff performance only fuelled his motivation to hit the gym, a passion that started in the 10th grade when he joined a few friends called The Breakfast Club for 4:30am workouts and pickup games. Once he got to Kentucky, he organised the before-sun up activities.

“Everybody has their own thing,” Maxey said. “My thing is, that’s how I get a psychological advan tage over my opponent. I feel like, nobody else is getting up in the summertime at 5am when you can sleep in and do the same thing at 10, 11, 1 o’clock. I’d rather have somebody tell me you need to reel it back in than someone tell you I need to ramp back up.”

Plum replaced Cooper and hit the two free throws, starting a 12-0 run to close the half as the Americans led 50-33 at the break. Serbia didn’t challenge that deficit in the second half.

Yvonne Anderson led Serbia with 14 points.

CHINA 85, FRANCE 71 Li Meng scored 23 points and Huang Sijing added 18 to help China top France.

China (5-1) led 60-58 late in the third quarter before scoring the final six points of the period to extend the advantage to eight.

France could only get within five the rest of the way China’s run is a big turna round from 2018 when the team finished sixth.

“I remember 2018, I know this is a very strong team,” said Chinese center Han Xu, who had 13 points

and nine rebounds. “We learned a lot.”

Marine Fauthoux scored 19 points and Gabby Wil liams added 17 for France (3-3).

AUSTRALIA 86, BELGIUM 69

Cayla George scored 19 points and Marianna Tolo added 13 to lead Australia over Belgium.

With the win, Lauren Jackson has a chance to end her Hall of Fame interna tional playing career with another medal.

She led the team to its lone gold in the 2006 World Cup as well as a few silvers.

She finished with 12 points — her most so far in the tournament.

Australia (5-1) took it right at Belgium (3-3) going up 26-16 after one quarter and led by 15 at the half.

The Belgian Cats couldn’t muster much of a rally in

Qatar has recorded nearly 450,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 682 deaths from the dis ease, according to data gathered since 2020 by Johns Hopkins Univer sity in the United States.

Qatar has a population estimated to be at least 2.5 million, although only about 350,000 of those are Qatari citizens.

More than 97 per cent of the population in Qatar has had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the data states.

“Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 while in Qatar will be required to isolate in accordance with Min istry of Public Health guidelines,” World Cup organisers said.

The 2022 World Cup will be held in full-capac ity stadiums — with about 3 million tickets on sale for the 64 games — just 16 months after the European Championship was played across the continent with some sta diums only 25 percent full because of local COVID19 rules.

the final 20 minutes. Julie Allemand led Belgium with 15 points and Kyara Lin skens added 13.

Belgium was missing star forward Emma Meesse man, who was out with a left calf injury. She sat on the bench and cheered on her teammates.

While Belgium was short-handed, Australia welcomed back Bec Allen, who injured her ribs against Serbia. She missed two games, but returned for the quarterfinals playing just 2:25.

“I’m struggling. I needed to try it for myself,” an emotional Allen said. “I’m so happy for the girls. I’m happy we’re playing for a medal, it’s everything we wanted.”

PHILADELPHIA 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey poses for a photograph during media day at the team’s practice facility in Camden, NJ. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

WASHINGTON Wizards forward Rui Hachimura, of Japan, poses for a photograph during an NBA basketball media day on Septem ber 23 in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

‘Kino’ Burrows continues to assist the local players

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THROUGH his Raw Talent Sports Company, professional basketball player Jaraun ‘Kino’ Bur rows continues to open doors for more talented young Bahamians to follow in his footsteps in achieving their dreams of playing at the next level in the sport.

Burrows, who has been playing on the pro cir cuit for the past 12 years and 17 as a member of the Bahamas men’s national basketball team, formed Raw Talent Sport in the summer of 2018 and has already assisted six Baha mians, including Dominick ‘Nado’ Bridgewater, Kenny Isnord, Adam Johnson and Briontae Riley to achieve their dreams.

Today, he will be head ing back to Europe with his latest protégé, Whit field Ching, a former player with the Noble Prepara tory Academy, headed by Geno Bullard. Ching will be enrolling in the Byers Academy, one of the top professional teams in Fos-sur-Mer, France as a member of their junior Fos Provence basketball team.

“Nado went that route as a pro and two years ago, I took Demari Thompson, the 26-year-old who has gotten some worldwide opportunities to play,” Bur rows said. “He started in the academy two years ago and now everybody wants him.

“That’s the same route that I want for Whitfield. I want him to get the early opportunity to soar in France so that he can get the exposure that he needs to soar. That’s all I want to do for these kids, give them an opportunity to succeed.”

Having grown up as a track athlete, Ching said when the pandemic struck, he found himself playing more basketball with coach Bullard at Noble Prep and when the opportunity from Burrows came, he jumped on it. “I’m excited about this opportunity to go to the next side of the world to further my basketball career,” said 16-year-old Ching, who just completed the 10th grade at Noble

Prep. “This was really a sur prise for me. I didn’t really have any future plans for basketball. I was just pre paring to go back to school and complete my education. So this was really a blessing from the man above. I was glad that I was accepted into the school.”

As a 6-foot, 7-inch for ward, Ching said he’s just looking forward to further developing his skills as a basketball player.

“Noble has really pre pared me well on and off the court,” said Ching, the last of three sons born to the parentage of Chris and Claudette Ching.

“So when Kino came along, I really got to show case my skills. I am just thankful to the man above for this opportunity.”

Bullard, who has worked and helped a number of Bahamian players to obtain scholarships and to play overseas from Noble Prep, said Ching demonstrated his ability to succeed from a very young age, following in the footsteps of one of his older brothers, Christian Ching, who graduated from the academy as the head boy in 2015.

“Ching has been around us since he was seven or eight and to see him grow into his purpose, we are just fortunate to have been a part of it,” Bullard said. “I always told his parents that he’s going to be the one in their family to really excel in basketball.

“He had the time, he absorbed and he grew into the atmosphere that we created here at NPA. He knew what success was all about, watching his brother graduate with honours and go to college and obtain two degrees. So he had that inspiration. It was in his DNA when he came to Noble. He was never below a 3.0 average. He was a hard worker and because of his background, he excelled very quickly.”

Bullard said hopefully Ching can be an inspiration to the others left behind, not just at NPA, but in the Bahamas, to put in the work to be rewarded for the work ethic and having the people around them to enable them to achieve their goals.

“No one is going to give you anything in life. You have to go out there and earn it,” Bullard said.

“Whitfield has certainly earned this opportunity to go off. He’s a good role model for the younger people because he’s done it the right way.”

Bridgewater, on the other hand, just signed another deal to return to France where he will be playing in the National Division II League with the US Avi gnon/Pontet Basket after playing in the United States in a few G-League games for the National Basketball Association (NBA).

As for Ching, Burrows said this is an awesome opportunity for him to spread his wings.

“I am in tone who are the top kids in the Bahamas, but it’s been tough to watch them because they haven’t been playing that much

basketball over the past two or three years because of COVID-19,” Burrows said.

“But he went to Noble Academy and I know coach Geno Bullard very well. We came together and when we found out that this would be an awesome opportu nity for Bridgewater, it was a no brainer. We told him to pack his bags and chase his dreams and see where it will take him.”

Although he’s been busy with his organisa tion, Burrows said he’s not officially retired from playing basketball just yet. The 37-year-old forward/ centre said for the first time he didn’t have to worry about playing overseas for 10 months, come home in June and head back out in August for another season.

“I am just doing it now for the kids and once I am playing over there, I am creating the opportunities

for other young Bahamians to be able to represent the Bahamas,” he said. “This will probably be my last season playing.

“I’ve been blessed. I’ve been in so many different countries. When I go there, I have an opportunity to live there. I get a car and a house. So I see the impor tance of the exposure from where we come from and that’s why I want to show these kids that they can do the same thing to change their lives, even if they don’t get to do it like Buddy (Hield), Deandre (Ayton) and Kai (Jones), are doing in the NBA.”

During his time at home this year, Burrows spent some time developing some of the local talent that he had on display during the Bahamas Basketball Feder ation’s Summer of Thunder Tournament with his Raw Talent Sport team.

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN: 76ERS STAR EMBIID NOW US CITIZEN

By DAN GELSTON AP Sports Writer

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Joel Embiid is an American citizen.

A native of Cameroon, Embiid said he was sworn in as a citizen two weeks ago in Philadelphia. The NBA scoring champion and Philadelphia 76ers All-Star centre said his family — Embiid and his Brazilian girlfriend Anne de Paula have a young son - played a pivotal role in his decision.

“I’ve been here for a long time,” Embiid told The Associated Press yesterday at training camp at The Citadel. “My son is American. I felt like, I’m living here and it’s a blessing to be an American. So I said, why not?”

Embiid, who played college basketball for one season at Kansas, also has citizenship in France.

He said it is way too early to think about which country he could potentially represent in international basketball.

The 28-year-old Embiid averaged a career-best 30.6 points in 68 games last season. The 7-footer also averaged 11.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists in helping Phila delphia reach the Eastern Conference semifinals for the second straight year. Embiid averaged 23.6 points and 10.7 rebounds in the postseason despite playing with hand and facial injuries.

Embiid had been announced as playing out of Kansas during pregame introductions at 76ers’ home games but switched around mid season last year as being introduced from Cam eroon. He might try for a mouthful this season.

“We’re going to say Cameroon, American and French,” he said, laughing.

MARIS JR: BONDS, MCGWIRE ILLEGITIMATE, JUDGE SHOULD BE HOME RUN KING

By IAN HARRISON Associated Press

TORONTO (AP) — Roger Maris Jr considers the home run feats of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa to be illegiti mate and says Aaron Judge should be recognised as the holder of the big league season standard if the New York Yankees slugger hits No. 62.

“He should be revered for being the actual singleseason home run champ,”

Maris said after Judge hit his 61st on Wednes day night to match Roger Maris’ record-setting total with the Yankees in 1961.

“I mean, that’s really who he is if he hits 62, and I think that’s what needs to happen.

“I think baseball needs to look at the records and I think baseball should do something.”

Roger Maris, who died in 1985 at age 51, broke the record of 60 set by Babe Ruth in 1927.

you know when we look at the results, our performances at the World Championships was excel lent and there were several world records broken that could be attributed to the NACAC ath letes,” Sands said.

“We also had our NACAC Senior Championships, which was also a very successful event and we just completed our kids athlet ics programme in Santo Domingo that saw 19 member federations attend that. We are also now in the process of putting together our technical officials course. As we speak, we have five women from our region on the Gender Leadership Workshop in Poland.”

To ensure that NACAC stays on the cutting edge, Sands revealed that there are plans to host a coaches’ seminar, which will be both in person and online and there are also plans for a multi-events camp that will be staged in the southern region.

And even though they were challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic during his tenure, Sands said NACAC never stopped working and it showed in the performances of the athletes,

Maris’ mark stood until McGwire hit 70 for St Louis in 1998, and that was topped by Barry Bonds’ 73 for San Francisco in 2001.

McGwire also hit 65 in 1999, and Sammy Sosa had seasons of 66, 64 and 63 for the Chicago Cubs from 1998-2001.

McGwire admitted using steroids, while Bonds and Sosa maintained they didn’t knowingly use per formance-enhancing drugs.

Major League Baseball began drug-testing with

based on the efforts put in by the coaches who work with them.

As the representative for NACAC at the global level, Sands said he’s also looking at sit ting around the table when World Athletics, the governing body for the sport, holds its annual Council Meeting in Rome.

He will be joining World Ath letics’ Council Members Alberto Juantorena from Cuba, Abby Hoffman from Canada, and Willie Banks from the United States.

“We collaborate with each other once there’s issues on the table so that our position is representative of our member federations,” Sands said.

“So it’s been a good road, it’s been a little rough road, but it’s been fun.

“So when you are enjoying what you do, you don’t feel it, so I’m thankful to be able to occupy this position and I hope to con tinue for as long as they would have me.”

Sands, however, is also grateful to the Almighty God for saving his life during a health scare in Grand Bahama in August during the NACAC Senior Champion ships where he had to be rushed and treated at the Rand Memorial Hospital for dehydration.

penalties in 2004. The younger Maris and some of his relatives were in St Louis when McGwire hit his 62nd in 1998.

“I couldn’t be happier for him,” Maris said at the time.

Asked Wednesday whether he considers McG wire and Bonds home run totals to be illegitimate, Maris answered yes. “I do,” he said. “I think most people do.”

Maris sees Judge as a player worthy of praise.

“It was a little challenging. I didn’t realise, I guess, initially we thought at first it was a case of dehydration, heat exhaus tion, which was, but some things happen for the better,” declared Sands, who admitted that his body just slowed down abruptly.

“I must, first of all, give all the credit to the attention that I received in Grand Bahama with the doctors at the Rand and the doctors at Sunrise Medical and all of the medical persons who came to my aid in Grand Bahama to allow me to be back on my feet, feeling much stronger than I ever felt before.”

As the NACAC prepares for the elections next year, Sands said he’s looking that far ahead because there’s still a lot of work to be done and he hopes that his efforts will speak for itself so that he won’t have to go back and campaign like he did leading up to the 2019 elections.

“I think if you’re consistently doing what you’ve been elected to do, then there’s no need to scurry on later on to say ‘Am I going to run, should I run,’” he stated. “Persons have raised the ques tion, but let me put it this way.

“What I often say is that I do what I do and I like what I do and

“I can’t think of any body better that baseball can look up to than Aaron Judge,” he said.

Maris has attended every game since Judge hit No. 60 on September 20. He plans to be in the Bronx today when the Yankees open a three-game series against Baltimore and doesn’t expect to wait long for another historic homer.

“You can tell he’s back and he’s ready to go now,” Maris said. “I think it will happen in New York.

as long as persons believe that I am capable of making that contri bution, then the choice is theirs.”

Quite satisfied by his efforts, along with his general secretary Keith Joseph, and the council members, Sands said he’s confi dent that they were able to do a job that warrants the 31 full fledge members, or 36 member coun tries, to give their support for another four-year term in office.

Looking back at his tenure in office, Sands said the highlight would have been the ability to bring the NACAC Senior Cham pionships to the home of the NACAC office, albeit in Grand Bahama.

He expressed his gratitude for the Bahamas Government for partnering with NACAC to make it happen along with the Bahamas Association of Athletic Asso ciations and the people of Grand Bahama. “The championships saw the most number of athletes that participated ever, which was 415, the most number of coun tries with 28 countries, the most records broken, which was 23 and so that is attributed to all of the efforts put together collectively,” Sands said.

He also commended Bahama sair for assisting in providing a

That’s where you want it to happen, that’s where I want it to happen.

“I think the city of New York deserves it. The fans deserve it. I think it would be great for baseball if it happens in New York,” he said.

Maris had a message for Judge in their postgame meeting.

“Get to New York and hit 62 and knock the top off Yankee Stadium,” Maris recalled telling him. “It’s going to be fun.”

direct flight from Havana, Cuba to take the athletes directly to Grand Bahama and for the two chartered flights from Miami, Florida that brought in the rest of the contingent of athletes and officials from Florida.

Next year, the focus will switch to New Providence when the BAAA hosts the 50th edition of the CARIFTA Games that will coincide with the 50th Inde pendence celebrations of the Bahamas and the 50th celebra tions of CARICOM with Prime Minister Philip Davis as the chair of CARICOM.

“We would want to make this one of the best CARIFTA ever,” Sands said. “Obviously, Jamaica is not going to come lying down. The Bahamas will have its chal lenge. All of the countries will have its challenges, but I think that the BAAA in conjunction with the Bahamas Government, is having a talent search to make a huge improvement for Team Bahamas.”

Sands encouraged the Baha mian people to get ready to support NACAC, the BAAA and the athletes as the games are staged during the 2023 Easter hol iday weekend at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.

WHITFIELD CHING, NPA coach Geno Bullard and pro player and agent Kino Burrows pose above from left to right.

Bengals top Dolphins

27-15 after injured QB Tagovailoa carted off

By MITCH STACY AP Sports Writer

CINCINNATI (AP) — Joe Burrow tossed a late two-yard touchdown pass to Hayden Hurst to seal a 27-15 win for the Cincin nati Bengals over Miami in a Thursday night game marred by the horrific sight of Dolphins quarter back Tua Tagovailoa being taken off on a stretcher.

Tagovailoa was chased down and thrown to the turf by Cincinnati’s Josh Tupou with about six min utes left in the first half. He remained down for more than seven minutes before being taken to a hospital with reported head and neck injuries.

Vonn Bell’s interception of Miami backup quarter back Teddy Bridgewater — the safety’s second pick of the night — with three minutes left in the game set up the Bengals’ final drive.

Evan McPherson kicked two fourth-quarter field goals — including a 57-yarder.

Burrow was 20 for 31 for 287 yards and two touch downs as the Bengals won their second game in five days after dropping the first of the season. Tee Hig gins caught seven passes for 124 yards and a TD.

Bridgewater threw an incomplete pass on Miami’s final drive to turn the ball over on downs with 57

TEN HAG

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seconds left. Tagovailoa was 8 for 14 for 110 yards and an interception before his injury. Bridgewater finished 14 for 23 for 193 yards, a touchdown and an interception in relief.

Tyreek Hill paced the Dolphins with 10 catches for 160 yards.

CHEERS

At halftime, the Bengals added two players to their

fledgling Ring of Honour at Paycor Stadium.

Isaac Curtis is regarded as one the team’s all-time great receivers.

The four-time Pro-Bowler played in Cin cinnati in 1973-84 and still holds the Bengals record for average yards per reception (17.07).

Tackle Willie Anderson was considered one of the

The date of Guardiola’s endorsement – April 1 – only added to the intrigue.

Was this the biggest April Fool’s joke of all?

“Are you asking me if Erik ten Hag could be here? Definitely,” said Guardiola back in April when questioned about whether the Dutchman was good enough to one day be his successor at City.

At that point the race to become the next United manager was down to two. Ten Hag and Mauricio Pochettino.

Less than three weeks later, Ten Hag was appointed by United. He is the latest to be charged with the responsibility of reviving the for tunes of a club that has endured a near-decade of decline since the retirement of Alex Ferguson, which has coincided with City’s rise to the top of English football.

Ten Hag got off to a disastrous start. Back-to-back defeats to leave United rooted to the foot of the table and humiliated in a 4-0 loss to Brentford.

The City manager has pre viously been prickly when the subject of successors has been brought up. Not on this occasion – when he added that he would personally recommend Ten Hag to his sporting director, Txiki Begiristain.

“I will say it to Txiki now,” he said.

Ahead of Sunday’s first Man chester derby between Guardiola and Ten Hag, the picture is very different at Old Trafford.

United has won its last four league games — beating Liver pool and Arsenal in the process.

Victory against City would move it to within two points of the defending champion, with a game in hand, to feed the growing sense within the club that it is on the cusp of something special.

best offensive linemen of his era. Anderson played in 182 games (regular and postseason) for Cincinnati in 1996-2007 and went to the Pro Bowl four times. They join last year’s Ring of Honour inaugural class: team founder/coach Paul Brown, quarterback Ken Anderson, tackle Anthony Munoz and cornerback Ken Riley.

Of course, it’s unlikely that Guardiola’s comments had any effect on United’s decision to appoint the former Ajax coach instead of Pochettino — who was long-considered the front-runner for the job.

Instead, it was Ten Hag’s spe cific vision that convinced football director John Murtough, and chief executive Richard Arnold that he could be United’s answer to Guardiola and Liverpool man ager Jurgen Klopp, who have dominated English football over the past five years.

The 52-year-old was brutally honest in his assessment of what was required to challenge for major titles again — and that has been evidenced by a transfer spend of around $226m in his first transfer window.

Guardiola’s admiration is easily explained.

They worked together at Bayern Munich, with Ten Hag coaching the reserve team when

INJURIES Dolphins: CB Xavien Howard left in the second half after suffering a groin injury.

Bengals: TE Devin Asiasi left in the second half with an ankle injury.

UP NEXT Dolphins: At New York Jets on Sunday, October 9.

Bengals: At Baltimore on Sunday, October 9.

the Guardiola led the German giants to three straight league championships.

They are also represented by the same company – SEG Inter national – where Guardiola’s brother, Pere, is a global agent.

Ten Hag had the résumé to justify United’s interest, having won three Dutch league championships.

He also earned wider rec ognition by leading Ajax to the semifinals of the Champi ons League in 2019 — losing to Pochettino’s Tottenham.

But he represented a gamble to United, having never held a top job in one of Europe’s major leagues of England, Spain, Italy or Germany.

And there were alarming signs when his reign got off to such a bad start.

But Ten Hag quickly showed his authority — dropping captain Harry Maguire and star player Cristiano Ronaldo. Most notably,

PGA TOUR COUNTERSUIT ACCUSES LIV GOLF OF UNFAIR TACTICS

By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer

THE PGA Tour has filed a counterclaim against Saudi-funded LIV Golf accusing the rival league of inducing top players to breach PGA Tour contracts by claiming the tour could not enforce them.

The counterclaim was included in the PGA Tour’s response to the amended antitrust lawsuit filed in federal court in northern California, which included LIV Golf as a plaintiff.

Since then, eight of the 11 players who sued the PGA Tour, including Phil Mick elson, have asked to be removed from the lawsuit.

Mickelson said his involvement was no longer necessary with LIV Golf now suing the tour.

In the response to the lawsuit filed late Wednes day, the PGA Tour claims LIV Golf is asking the court to invalidate its regu lations “with the stroke of a pen” after inducing players with hundreds of millions of dollars from Saudi Ara bia’s Public Investment Fund.

The tour said the three players who are still part of the antitrust lawsuit — Talor Gooch, Peter Uihlein and Matt Jones — “want to enrich themselves in complete disregard of the promises they made to the tour” when they joined the PGA Tour.

he ordered his players to all run 13.8 kilometres in the searing heat after cancelling their day off fol lowing the loss to Brentford in August.

It was the exact extra distance Brentford’s players had run, com pared to United, in that game.

Ten Hag joined his players on that run — insisting they were all equally responsible.

That feels like a turning point in United’s season — even if these are still very early days.

But it is a measure of the new manager’s confidence in his meth ods — regardless of the size of the club or the profile of his players.

Within days, he was dubbed the “New Sheriff” by people inside the club.

On Sunday, he comes face to face with the man he has ulti mately been tasked with toppling.

Bragging rights in Manches ter will be at stake at the Etihad — but Ten Hag’s ambitions will stretch well beyond that.

WITHOUT GRINER, US USING VERSATILE POSTS STEWART AND WILSON

By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer

SYDNEY (AP) —

Without Brittney Griner’s 6-foot-8 presence to domi nate around the basket, the United States women needed to figure out how to overcome her absence.

So far, so good.

The Americans have rolled through the World Cup, beating opponents by average of 44 points per game without Griner and one of the best frontcourts ever assembled in women’s basketball.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison last month in Russia on a drug charge. President Joe Biden called the verdict in the politically charged case “unacceptable,” and US diplomats have been work ing to secure her release.

While Griner’s circum stances have weighed on the team emotionally, her absence is one of many changes to the US lineup.

The Americans are also without 6-5 Sylvia Fowles and 6-4 Tina Charles, who retired from the team after winning several gold medals — including at the Tokyo Olympics last year.

However, 6-4 Breanna Stewart and 6-5 A’ja Wilson have been able to fill the

void. They are different types of post players. Both are versatile with the ability to play inside and out, and defend all types of players.

“A’ja and I can bring them to the block or outside and that keeps the defence guessing and we have a lot of different options,” Stew art said. “We know we can give them a lot of different looks.”

Stewart, 28, and Wilson, 26, should give the US a formidable 1-2 punch for a long time — though they hope Griner will be rejoin ing them soon.

Wilson, who arrived Friday after celebrating the Las Vegas Aces’ first WNBA championship, scored 20 points in Satur day’s 77-63 win over China.

She hit 15-foot jump ers and also scored in the paint against China’s much taller lineup that featured 6-10 Han Xu. Stewart and Wilson also helped hold China about 40 points under what the coun try was averaging in the tournament.

“Stewie and I can switch defensively, which is great,” Wilson said. “Don’t get me wrong, BG and Syl are missed. I look around and am like, ‘Where is every body?’ It’s me and Stewie now. We’ve done this

before. But yeah we’re defi nitely different than some of the past players.”

Even without Griner, the US has dominated its competition in the paint, outscoring its group oppo nents by an average of 36 points. The Americans are averaging 60.8 points inside the lane, including

an eye-popping 94 against South Korea.

“It’s insane,” forward Alyssa Thomas said. “I’ve never seen any numbers like that. It’s what we are trying to do by getting the ball inside.”

The US didn’t have as much success inside in the 88-55 quarterfinal win over

Serbia, which clogged the paint and outscored the Americans 28-26 inside.

“It’s one of those things you got to live with,” Wilson said.

“Hopefully these next couple of games we can get back to owning the paint. Serbia did a great job of locking it down.”

As well as Stewart and Wilson have played, the US would love to have Griner in the lineup.

The Americans decided to honour her by not having anyone wear her No. 15 jersey at the World Cup. Brionna Jones is wearing No. 16 instead.

“We’d rather have Brittney in there for sure,” US coach Cheryl Reeve said.

“We want to put it inside as that’s the strength of USA Basketball. We will continue to have the ball inside.”

It’s not a new strategy. The US has dominated inside during World Cup play dating to the days of Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson.

It’s not just Wilson and Stewart who are contribut ing to the US run in Sydney.

Shakira Austin had 19 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in the win over Puerto Rico, and Brionna Jones added 15 points.

At 22, Austin is the youngest player on the team and is playing with the US for the first time.

“She has such great length,” Reeve said. “She’s great in the paint.”

Familiar praise coming from a coach about an American post player.

UNITED States’ A’ja Wilson lays up past Serbia’s Nevena Jovanovic, left, and Sasa Cado during their quarterfinal game at the women’s Basketball World Cup in Sydney, Australia, yesterday. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

MIAMI Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is examined during the first half of the team’s NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals last night in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

Highest inflation jump since 2019

FROM PAGE A20

Bahamas National Statisti cal Institute revealed this nation’s inflation rate hit 7 percent for the 12 months to end-July 2022.

This represented an 80 basis points increase to the 6.2 percent annualised infla tion rate to June, thereby confirming the prediction by John Rolle, the Central Bank’s governor, that price increases have yet to peak in The Bahamas.

“The monthly infla tion rate in The Bahamas, which represents the over all change in prices, saw an increase of 1.5 percent for July 2022 when compared to June 2022,” the Insti tute said. “This July 2022 increase followed a 0.5 per cent increase between the months of May and June 2022.” The 1.5 percent increase is the greatest month-over-month jump in the two-and-a-half years since January 2020, indicat ing inflation is not slowing down any time soon.

“The Consumer Price Index rose 7 per cent from this same time last year. Consumers paid more in July 2022 for prod ucts such as ‘Alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics’ as this major group registered a 4.8 per cent increase over the same period last year. On a yearly and monthly basis, price increases were seen within the ‘Recreation and culture’ group, show ing a 23 percent increase and 17.32 percent [rise] respectively.

“The ‘Hotel and Restau rant’ category also rose 3.7 percent month-over-month and 17.9 percent over this same time last year, as there was a higher demand for travel accommoda tion within this category compared to a year ear lier. On a year-over-year basis, the category of ‘Transport’, which includes gasoline, rose at a slower pace in July than in June 2022. On a monthly basis, gasoline prices were up

3.2 percent compared with June 2022.”

The reference to nar cotics likely means legal medications. And the fall in gasoline prices stems from the slow but continual decline in global oil prices. However, Florida’s post-Ian reconstruction needs may fuel further cost increases in the housing and com mercial property segments locally, although Mr Sands said Bahamian contractors will have a better under standing of the impact next week once damage assess ments are done in the US state.

He added that the “worst case scenario” for The Bahamas will be where building material prices go up and supply is limited; if transportation and logistics in Florida and the US east ern seaboard are impacted by road and rail access being lost; and if US-based suppliers determined to meet Florida’s needs first and place this nation and

the wider Caribbean on the backburner.

Agreeing that Ian’s fallout may disrupt six months of relative price stability, Mr Sands said: “They’ve not been increasing in many months. They went to a place and plateaued there. They’ve not been going up..... [since] some where between mid-March to April. We didn’t see any true increase in the month of May going to June. Things had kind of tapered off and stabilised in the marketplace.”

Speaking to what had occurred post-COVID, the BCA president added: “I think that across-the-board prices went up as much as 30 percent. In certain instances they’ve gone up 100 percent, and in certain instances they’ve gone up 50 percent. When you take that aggregate across the board, we’ve seen a 30-35 percent increase in prices for construction materials.

“The biggest price increase has been lumber.

Specialty lumber was up at least 50 percent, but common lumber - two by fours, two by sixes - those have gone up at least 100 percent. Other construction materials - sheet rock, joint compound and aggregate materials - those have gone up by 30-40 percent.”

Mr Wrinkle, meanwhile, told Tribune Business of Ian’s impacts: “It certainly appears that any little incident affects our pric ing and availability here in The Bahamas. I would be surprised if we don’t have some effects from this storm. It’s inevitable it will have some effect; to what extent, we just don’t know yet....

“I hear every contrac tor that has a project at the moment is trying to buy out their job and secure materi als. You have to have long lead times. You can’t order stuff today and expect to get it in two to four weeks. It’s 12-14 weeks. Typically a larger project will have a turnaround time of four to

Banks facing ease of business ‘scorecard’

FROM PAGE A20

operating deposit accounts with commercial banks.

“The Central Bank will use this input to develop a framework to provide a more streamlined, but still risk-based, approach to customer due diligence for businesses. As a part of our anti-money launder ing examination process we will also be introducing a segment that assesses and rates operating practices within each commercial bank that impact the ease of doing business and financial inclusion. It is expected that the scorecard produced for each institution would be published.”

Commercial bank con sumers, both retail and commercial, will likely wel come such an exercise given that many have complained for years that the industry gives less than stellar ser vice through automated

teller machines (ATMs) not working or long in-branch queues resulting from there being too few tellers.

The drive to push Bahamians to online and digital banking has caused further friction with some customer segments, while the bureaucracy and red tape associated with open ing a bank account - a process that takes far longer than in Canada or the UShas been a sore point ever since the financial services regime was overhauled in 2020 due to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklisting.

Ms Rolle, meanwhile, pledged to work with the Bahamas Association of Compliance Officers (BACO) to develop “an approval regime for com pliance officers. Draft guidelines around this framework will be issued for industry consultation”.

Elsewhere, “opera tional enhancements to the Deposit Insurance Cor poration and legislative amendments to the Baha mas Cooperative Credit Union Act” are also in the pipeline. And all existing Central Bank guidelines and guidance notes will be reviewed to ensure they align with Bahamian law and international best practice.

“By the end of the fourth quarter 2022, we expect to introduce an online portal to receive and process the suite of applications for regulatory approvals. This project is now in the pilot testing stage. Once imple mented, the portal will streamline the process of interacting with the Cen tral Bank for approvals and provide added transparency around the documentary

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL

The Public is hereby advised that I, HEATHER LOUISA JONES-HAM of Hanna Hill, Eight Mile Rock, Grand Bahama, Bahamas, intend to change my name to HEATHER LOUISA JONES. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Chief Passport Officer, P.O.Box N-742, Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

requirements for regulatory approvals,” Ms Rolle said.

“In our risk-based approach, the intensity of our supervision is tailored to the assessment of the risk that each supervised financial institution poses to the financial sector and the jurisdiction. The Cen tral Bank will therefore continue to assess whether our practices are truly aligned with a risk-based

six months with its material purchases.

“I’ve never seen prices go down,” Mr Wrinkle added. “It’s very seldom. Maybe things like plywood but, generally speaking, prices don’t reduce instan taneously. It’s a fact of life. There’s so many vari ables in pricing right now that project management has become an integral part of construction. The procurement process in construction is absolutely essential to success.

“One has to shop around, even for two by four lumber. There’s differences with every supplier and merchant. It puts an extra burden on the contractor who has to source the mate rials and price them. It’s not like running down to City Lumber and getting what you need. They may not have it, and the prices may be variable. You’ve got to be careful.”

methodology and not con veying a ‘one size fits all approach’.

“This does not diminish the fact that all supervised financial institutions are held to the same regulatory standards as appropriate. On balance, a ‘fit for pur pose’ approach will enable us to take an introspective assessment of our practices and make the necessary adjustments to ensure that The Bahamas maintains a transparent and defensible framework that meets the test of effectiveness against international standards.”

NOTICE is hereby given that TINA HERON-WATSON of Lobster Avenue, Golden Gates off Carmichael Road, 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 30th day of September, 2022 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

0.9321.26042.93.15%

0.0000.020N/M0.72%

0.1400.08017.63.25%

0.0700.000N/M0.00%

1.7600.000N/M0.00%

0.3690.26026.42.67%

0.00%

0.1400.00073.90.00%

0.1840.12019.53.35%

0.4490.22018.32.67%

0.7220.72022.24.50%

0.1020.43429.814.28%

0.4670.06022.50.57%

0.8160.54022.22.98%

NOTICE is hereby given that SRIKANTH GARIKAPARTHI of P. O. Box SS-19200, #64 Commonweath Avenue, Blair, 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 23rd day of September, 2022 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that WILBERT JUSTE of P. O. Box N-10326, Palm Beach 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 23rd day of September, 2022 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

NOTICE is hereby given that KAVITA GARIKAPARTHI of P. O. Box SS-19200, #64 Commonweath Avenue, Blair, 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 23rd day of September, 2022 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

DORIAN TAX BREAKS RENEWAL ‘EVEN MORE URGENT’ AFTER IAN

FROM

“This is no time for busi ness persons to be in limbo about a ‘yay’ or ‘nay’. We are hoping that we can have the business persons and Mr Halkitis come together. The Chamber, the brokers, the importers; we need to have a sit down meet ing with the Ministry of Finance to really come up with some solution as to how we move forward.”

Mr Halkitis, speaking at this month’s Abaco Busi ness Outlook conference, gave a strong indication that the Davis administration is leaning away from renew ing the present “blanket” post-Dorian tax exemp tions for Abaco and Grand Bahama. He asserted that the present wide-ranging concessions regime was “not optimal” and cannot “go on for ever”, hint ing that the Government may switch to a framework where tax breaks were granted on a case-by-case application basis.

The Davis administration has previously signalled it feels the existing SERZ is giving away too much revenue in tax breaks. It

reimposed VAT on con struction services, with the Ministry of Finance stating at the time that conces sions were being granted to wealthy second homeown ers who did not need them to rebuild their properties.

Ministry of Finance offi cials also subsequently said the SERZ and related tax breaks were being abused for tax evasion and other illicit purposes, with vehi cles and other expensive items imported using the VAT and duty exemptions turning up at Potter’s Cay in Nassau and other loca tions outside the Dorian hit areas.

However, Mrs Degreg ory-Miaoulis said Abaco’s private sector were push ing to meet Mr Halkitis and the Ministry of Finance “like yesterday”, with noth ing further heard about the SERZ Order or its exten sion since the Business Outlook conference.

Asked about the busi ness community’s president mood on the issue, she replied: “I would say they are anxious. They’re anx ious because they don’t know. They’re anxious to have an order so they can

plan. As a business person, if you know your conces sions are going to end on December 1, what are you going to do?

“Do I over stock on my resources? Do I overstock on those things I cannot even get? And then what do I do if they [the Govern ment] change their minds at the last minute and extend it again? Those goods are going to take another year to liquidate. It doesn’t make good business sense.

“I would say everybody is quite anxious and frus trated. Those are the terms I would use. I must add the world hopeful. Anxious, frustrated and hopeful.” Abaco and Grand Baha ma’s post-Dorian tax breaks expire in two months, and Mrs Degregory-Miaoulis added: “Two months is nothing in business plan ning. These are decisions you need to take over a minimum of three to six months.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if, for once, they were more proactive than reactive? It would definitely make a big difference; a welcome difference. Florida is obvi ously going to have a huge

demand for reconstruction that is going to put us way behind. I spoke to one busi nessman today, who said they were trying to rebuild their grocery store but they’re not going to get the concessions because what they need will not be deliv ered by December 1.

“We have no control. We have no control over the supply chain. The economic crisis the world is in, people don’t have the money, the disposable income to go out and buy everything they need in the timeframe that the Government is allowing them to do it. They have to be conscious of that. The timelines are unreasonable. Three years is nothing. It’s not a matter of time. It’s a matter of economics and supply resolution.”

Roscoe Thompson, the Marsh Harbour/Spring City township head, told Tribune Business that Flor ida’s multi-billion dollar Ian reconstruction bill should give the Government the justification it needs to extend the SERZ and its existing tax breaks frame work beyond December 1. The US state is a key source of building materials for

The Bahamas, and price increases and some supply shortages are likely to result in the Category Four storm’s aftermath.

“It’s an opportunity for the Government to really look at extending the SERZ Order because a lot of people will not be able to get what they get now,” he added. “The prices of eve rything are going to go up, and not just in Abaco but The Bahamas in general. I think it’s made kind of a good justification to extend the SERZ Order.

“I really believe the Gov ernment will now have to extend it because what Ian did to the west coast of Florida and central Flor ida, where Bahamians get a lot of building materials from, is going to put us in a bind. It’s going to affect us because Florida will be the priority, not The Baha mas. It’s the Government’s opportunity to really make themselves look good.”

However, Ken Hutton, who heads Premier Import ers’ Abaco operation, told Tribune Business that any post-Ian spike in lumber and building materials prices may be temporary

Bahamas ‘must get ahead’ of EU attack

FROM PAGE A20

the EU Council next week, and Mr Gomez branded the move as “very unfortu nate” for efforts by both the Government and private sector to market this nation and its financial sector as well-regulated jurisdiction that is both compliant and co-operative.

“My initial reaction was: ‘What? Again? What now?” he recalled upon learning of the imminent EU move. “When you look at the impact on our business, no one wants to be in this position. No one wants to take a chance that, for this kind of reason, we could lose potential business.....

“We must move quickly to get ourselves out of that category because we are simply a very compliant jurisdiction. This ‘name and shame’ business, it’s been going on for two dec ades, and every time we’ve reached where we ought to be something sets us back.

“We need to get ahead of where we are today with the requirements by these organisations. The moment we start to appreciate that we are fully compliant, we get these ratings given. We must get ahead of the stand ard, if not fully compliant. Ahead of them to show we are ahead of the standard.”

Several observers have suggested that the ulti mate goal of the EU, and fellow travellers such as the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Devel opment (OECD), is to force The Bahamas to implement income taxation - certainly the corporate variety, as per

the 15 percent minimum tax rate initiative, and possibly personal income taxation as well.

But Paul Moss, Domin ion Management Services’ president, who has advo cated that The Bahamas introduce a corporate income tax at lower than 15 percent, told Tribune Busi ness that even if the country adopted such a reform the onslaught would continue until high-tax European states force it out of the financial services business.

Backing the Prime Min ister’s recent address to the United Nations Gen eral Assembly, he added of an income tax: “I think it would mitigate the issue, but I don’t think when we implement such a tax that it’s going to stop. It’s not going to stop; it’s going to continue. Their desire is to put us out of business, and let themselves be able to flourish and not The Bahamas.”

Urging The Bahamas “to fight”, Mr Moss renewed his call for this country to seek out strength in numbers by joining with similarly-affected inter national financial centres (IFCs) and small island

developing states to coun ter the EU. Asserting that countries will simply be picked off one-by-one if they respond individually, he added: “Sometimes we give away the shop away.

“There has to be a meet ing of the minds, and all jurisdictions come together to craft a strategy to respond to it and how best they can use their leverage to stop it. We know there are billions of dollars being laundered in New York and London, and it’s so dif ficult for locals to even get an account and participate freely. They won’t stop until we get ourselves together. Once we fight and get off the list, we can relax a little bit, but they will never give up.”

EU-friendly media were this week circulating a draft conclusion detailing why The Bahamas, together with Anguilla and the Turks & Caicos Islands, are being added to the blacklist.

Dated September 22, 2022, it said: “The Bahamas facil itates offshore structures and arrangements aimed at attracting profits without real economic substance by failing to take all neces sary actions to ensure the

effective implementation of substance requirements.”

However, it acknowl edged that The Bahamas had committed to address ing concerns relating to its adherence to the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BASE) initiative, designed to prevent tax avoidance by multination als with an annual turnover that exceeds $850m.

“The Bahamas com mitted to implement the country by country mini mum standard by addressing the[OECD]inclusiveframeworkon BEPS’ recommendations in due time, so that this is reflected in the inclu sive framework Action 13 peer review report in the autumn of 2023 and/or activating country by coun try exchange relationships with all EU member states according to the agreed deadline,” the purported draft added.

Mr Gomez, meanwhile, acknowledging that the blacklisting “cannot be anything good”, added: “Naturally we must move quickly to correct the

situation. It just seems, particularly for us in the industry and those of us who take our show on the road to promote The Bahamas as a well-regu lated jurisdiction investors should be doing business in, to have this kind of reaction from the EU and OECD, it’s very unfortunate.”

Conceding that it was highly unlikely The Baha mas will escape the EU listing until 2023 at earli est, the Baker Tilly Gomez chief added that this nation must prevent investors from using it as an excuse

and not as bad as some fear. He added that lumber prices on the world mar kets, based on 1,000 board feet, were down some 72 percent compared to their March high.

“I don’t think it’s going to be good,” he acknowledged of Ian’s impact. “At the same time, I’ve been watch ing the lumber markets today and they are slightly down. The cost of lumber has gone down from $1,500 in March to $416 as of today. That’s a huge, huge difference.

“We’ll see what happens. Even if prices go up slightly, I don’t think it will be a major shift. The prices will go up, but there’s so much capacity out there that I think we’ll be OK in terms of supply. When this has happened before, there’s been a momentary shortterm tightening in terms of supply but the market alle viates itself really quickly. Prices might go up, but it won’t be a major shift. It certainly won’t go back up to $1,500 in my opinion.”

to move their business elsewhere.

“We must move quickly for those looking to for malise and finalise their business strategy, which up to now includes The Baha mas, as you don’t want to place them in a rethink mindset where they move on to a jurisdiction that is not blacklisted,” he added.

“It has to be seen that The Bahamas is doing eve rything it can. To put the blacklist on us as they have is something we have to put behind us as a jurisdiction. Let’s get on top of it and address anything seen as remotely non-compliant.”

THE WHITE SUN LTD. LIQUIDATOR’S NOTICE

Pursuant to Section 138(6) of the International Business Companies Act

NOTICE is hereby given that THE WHITE SUN LTD., a company registered under the International Business Companies Act, has been dissolved and struck off the Register as of the 21st day of September, 2022.

Sterling (Bahamas) Limited Liquidator

Real estate chief cautions over rent-to-own contracts

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMAS

Real Estate Association’s (BREA) president yes terday warned persons seeking to acquire property via rent-to-own deals to make sure they have legally watertight contracts as they are taking all the risk.

Nikki Boeuf told Trib une Business that rent-to-own contracts must be structured and vetted by an attorney because such

arrangements are not specifically dealt with in existing Bahamian law.

“It’s just the structure of the agreement needs to be clear on both sides and at the outset,” she explained. “There’s a difference between agreement for sale and a sale or sales agree ment. Normally a rental owner does not have a sales agreement until the very end.”

Mrs Boeuf warned that those on the rental side will otherwise lack “proper recourse”, and the vendor will have more legal rights because they retain title

ownership to the property until the very end. The BREA chief said it was crit ical for any deal to clearly stipulate, and record, which portion of the renter’s pay ment is treated as rent versus what is applied to the principal payment.

“I can only tell you from my perspective of what I understand as a realtor in the business, and that is that they need to decide if there are any sums of money that’s being used or perceived as rental money versus money going against the principal owed,” she added.

Bahamas takes STEP with strong presence

FROM PAGE A19

of presentations and net working opportunities.

Mr Pinder addressed The Bahamas’ ambitions to become a major force in the digital assets space, focusing on evolution of the sector’s legal and regula tory regime. “In order for a jurisdiction to be a pre-emi nent player in the digital assets industry there must be confidence of a nimble regulator, a regulatory regime that is respected worldwide and incorporates real time best practices, and a commitment of gov ernment policy to advance the growth of the industry, assuring the jurisdiction is a safe place to do business that will do what is neces sary to keep the bad actors out. I am proud to say The Bahamas is an example of

the success of the model,” he told attendees.

Among the topics dis cussed were political risk in Latin America; structuring risks and possible litiga tion outcomes; case law on trusts and Latin Ameri can families; crypto assets; and the threat of political and economic sanctions.

“This year’s event was a great success,” said John Lawrence, chief execu tive of the Bahamas-based Windermere Group of Companies and STEP Latin America conference presi dent. “The Bahamas had a strong contingent, with over 25 individuals attending as delegates, sponsors, organ isers and speakers. The gathering showcases the strength and recognition of the Bahamas financial services sector in the Latin American marketplace.”

The conference’s spon sors included the Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB) and The Winter botham Trust Company. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ financial services unit was the presenting sponsor, hosting the gala dinner.

This was the 11th STEP Latin America conference, which has thus far rotated through Panama, Mexico City, Playa del Carmen, Montevideo, Sao Paulo and Cartagena.

STEP is a professional body comprising lawyers, accountants, trustees and other practitioners who help high net worth indi viduals and families plan for their futures. It has more than 20,000 mem bers worldwide and is considered a leader in the international estate and wealth planning sector.

“For example, during an interest period, if there’s interest on the loan because really that’s what the seller is potentially providing to the ownerthey need to decide is that a rental amount or is that interest that the seller is actually retaining, and [is] separate and apart from what will be taken out of the final principal amount that remains on the books? And, more importantly, is who maintains these books.”

Those on the rental side will also be unable to borrow against the equity

in the property “because they’re not the principal owners of the title”. Mrs Boeuf added: “That title normally is with the bank. As soon as you take a loan out, you essentially give your title and your right of ownership over to the bank until such time as they give you a mortgage release that says you’ve settled on eve rything that’s outstanding.

“So the banks have the ownership until such time as you complete your loan,” she said. “It’s just quite a number of vari ables that need to be clearly looked at, established and

agreed upon on at the outset. There has to be a discussion on if there’s going to be a forfeiture and if, at some point, somebody is suddenly unable to pay for an extended period of time what then happens?

“That’s the part that I think people forget to look at. If at any stage the renter forfeits the deal, the owner ship is retained by the seller no matter how much money has been paid for or dis bursed up until that time.”

Nassau enjoys 17,000 cruise diversion boost

FROM PAGE A20

told this newspaper. “Just as the storm was leaving Florida we had 15,000 pas sengers roaming the streets of Nassau. We did have, and

will have, some additional business as a result of Fiona hitting Grand Turk. Fiona damaged Carnival’s cruise dock in Grand Turk. While they make repairs they have had to divert ships to other

ports, and Nassau is a ben eficiary of that diversion.

“Fiona specifically would have diverted the Carnival Legend, Carnival Mardi Gras and Carnival Freedom to Nassau. That would have

been from September 21 through tomorrow [today]. That would be 11,000 com bined extra passengers.”

Assessing that damage, and then assembling and mobilising a contractor to carry out highly-specialist marine construction repairs, will likely take Carnival some weeks. As a result, Mr Maura said he expected Nassau and other ports will continue to benefit from vessel diversions.

As for Ian, the Nassau Cruise Port chief said the MSC (Mediterranean Ship ping Company) Seahorse on Monday, and Virgin Cruises’ Scarlett Lady yesterday, had both been re-routed to the Bahamian capital. “Those two ships brought 6,000 to us,” he said, revealing that

four ships with a combined passenger count of 15,935 were in Nassau on Monday. A further 14,608 were on the vessels that called yesterday.

While it is uncertain whether all disembarked and spent money in the destination, Mr Maura said cruise ship berth book ings were “continuing to build” as Nassau Cruise Port comes to towards the end of its summer season - a traditionally quieter period when compared to the winter peak.

“Our bookings, if we look next week, our week runs from Friday to Thursday, so from tomorrow [today] to October 8 we will have 17 ships,” he told Tribune

Business. “When we get to the end of October, that number climbs to 30 as the winter season arrives. We’ll see a tremendous return of calls as those ships deployed in Alaska and Europe return to the Caribbean. In a month we’ll be hitting the winter season. It’s very, very, very strong.”

Reaffirming that, based on 2023 forward cruise ship bookings, Nassau will attract more than four mil lion cruise passengers next year - a higher number than the previous record year of 2019 - Mr Maura said the port is on track “to deliver more passengers than Nassau has ever seen”. He added: “You’ll begin to sense that, see it and feel it, that money being spent in downtown from November of this year.”

AMONG the attendees at the recent STEP Latin America conference in Panama City, Panama, were L-R: Ivan Hooper, chief executive of The Winterbotham Trust Company; Ryan Pinder KC, attorney general; Tanya McCartney, chief executive and executive director of The Bahamas Financial Ser vices Board; and John Lawrence, chief executive of The Windermere Group of Companies.

THE HUMAN TOUCH IN SMALL BUSINESS

More than 80 per cent of Bahamian businesses do not have the benefit of on-staff human resources profes sionals. Literally thousands of Bahamians are operating without a buffer between them and management.

Human resources is said to be the nucleus of any company. When the nucleus is strong and healthy, the firm thrives, but when the nucleus is damaged or absent, the cell ultimately dies. Some staff-related matters simply cannot go unaddressed. This week’s column shares three human resource questions facing many small businesses and seeks to provide answers.

Question 1. What is the easiest way to fire an employee?

Answer: There is never an easy way to terminate an

employee. No matter how egregious the infraction, or how much the company cannot financially support the worker, we must always remember we are dealing with human beings. The three crucial rules that must be respected when severing ties with an employee are:

a. Consult the labour laws. Know exactly where both you and the employee stand in light of any chal lenge to the company’s decision. Sometimes the employee is unfairly or wrongfully dismissed, and the company is forced to pay them thousands of dollars in compensation.

b. Communicate the mes sage with tact and precision. It becomes more painful to the team member when there are delays and the company wanders around the process. Swift and

decisive action, after deep contemplation, is always best.

c. Be as kind and respect ful as possible throughout the process. Give the employee as much as you can in terms of severance pay, references, words of advice, an exit interview and anything else that will give them closure.

Question 2. How do I keep my staff motivated without many opportunities for upward mobility?

Answer: Most small businesses do not have the luxury of hierarchal structures and managerial roles for star employees to aspire to. The small busi ness owner, then, must find ways to incentivise the dili gent employee, encouraging them to remain even in a line staff position.

Some of the ways we sug gest include:

1. Create a family envi ronment where people feel a part of the company. People do not leave what they are vested in.

2. Involve them in deci sion making. Sometimes people do not need the title; they just want the opportu nity to lead.

3. Compensate them according to their level of productivity. Give them a performance bonus as your company continues to thrive.

Question 3. How do you know when social media has become more of a dis traction than a blessing for employees?

Answer: In this digital age, no progressive com pany operates without taking advantage of tech nology, including social

media. By the same token, many employees seems engrossed in What’s App, Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets. There are any number of security controls that employers can use to ensure social media is not abused by any employee. The company’s policy manual must speak clearly to social media use, and ongoing training must be directed towards encour aging compliance. The best way to ensure employees do not over-use social media is to give them meaningful work assignments. When employees have clearly defined deliverables that they are held accountable for producing, they will find less time to be idle.

• NB: Ian R Ferguson is a talent management and organisational develop ment consultant, having

Bahamas takes STEP with strong presence

THE BAHAMAS sought to stand out at a major financial services confer ence through the presence of two Cabinet ministers and 25 executives from the private sector.

Ryan Pinder KC, the attorney general, and Michael Halkitis, minis ter of economic affairs, were both presenters at the annual Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Latin America conference

that was held last week in Panama City.

“The Bahamian gov ernment is always very enthusiastic in its support for STEP Latin Amer ica and its mission to provide opportunities for

up-skilling and networking for STEP professionals in the region,” said Mr Halki tis. “Maintaining our robust STEP membership is in alignment with our goal of maintaining our success as

a regional and global finan cial services leader.”

Trusts and estate plan ning are among the core products offered by The Bahamas’ financial services industry, whose foundations were built on private wealth

completed graduate studies with regional and interna tional universities. He has served organsations, both locally and globally, pro viding relevant solutions to their business growth and development issues. He may be contacted at tcconsult ants@coralwave.com.

management. Staged under the theme, ‘Building knowledge across borders: Advising families today and tomorrow’, the soldout conference attracted more than 375 wealth struc turing, trust and estate practitioners for two days

Today Saturday Sunday Monday

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

11:36 a.m. 3.5 5:12 a.m. 0.4 11:54 p.m. 2.8 6:05 p.m. 0.7 12:31 p.m. 3.4 6:02 a.m. 0.5 7:04 p.m. 0.9 12:51 a.m. 2.6 7:00 a.m. 0.6 1:33 p.m. 3.3 8:09 p.m. 1.0 1:58 a.m. 2.6 8:06 a.m. 0.8 2:41 p.m. 3.3 9:19 p.m. 1.0

3:10 a.m. 2.6 9:19 a.m. 0.8 3:51 p.m. 3.3 10:26 p.m. 0.9

THE TRIBUNE Friday, September 30, 2022, PAGE 19 4:21 a.m. 2.8 10:31 a.m. 0.7 4:55 p.m. 3.4 11:26 p.m. 0.7 5:25 a.m. 3.0 11:37 a.m. 0.6 5:54 p.m. 3.4

Highest inflation jump since 2019

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor

ABACO’S Chamber of Commerce president yes terday said Hurricane Ian’s devastating impact on Florida makes it “even more urgent” that the Government renew her island’s post-Dorian tax breaks in full.

Daphne Degregory-Miaou lis told Tribune Business that extending the VAT and duty exemptions on multiple con struction materials has now become more vital given that the cost of sheet rock, ply wood and other products will potentially skyrocket due to Florida’s rebuilding demands.

Building material avail ability and shortages may also become an issue given that Florida will be the “pri ority”, she acknowledged, which could further setback Abaco’s own reconstruction progress that has already been delayed by COVID-19 lockdowns, restrictions and

post-pandemic supply chain woes.

Any spike in building material prices, which were yesterday said to have “pla teaued” and levelled-off since mid-March, risks fur ther fuelling a local inflation rate that hit 7 percent for the year to July 2022. The latest Bahamas National Statisti cal Institute data, released last night, also disclosed that prices increased by 1.5 percent month-over-month compared to June 2022 (see other article on Page 1B).

Mrs Degregory-Miaoulis, meanwhile, said the Abaco Chamber and wider business community plan “to push” for a meeting with Senator Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, in a bid to persuade the Davis adminis tration to retain the present Special Economic Recovery Zone (SERZ) regime for both her island and Grand Bahama beyond its present December 1 expiration.

“Absolutely. You’re spot on,” the Chamber president replied, when asked by this

newspaper whether Ian’s cat astrophic impact on Florida had made retaining the exist ing SERZ arrangement even more important. “I just two hours ago had a conversation about this very same thing, and the urgency that this brings is even more so now to get the Government on board.

Bahamas ‘must get ahead’ of EU attack

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas “must get ahead” of the European Union’s (EU) assault, a wellknown accountant is arguing, and “address anything seen as remotely non-compliant” before new blacklisting threats emerge.

Craig A. ‘Tony’ Gomez, the Baker Tilly Gomez managing partner, told Tribune Business in a recent interview that The Bahamas must now look for ward and “move as quickly as possible” to escape the EU’s tax co-operation blacklist so that any negative impact for its financial services industry is minimised.

Criticising the “name and shame” tactics that the

27-nation bloc and other bodies have been employ ing against this nation since 2000, he added that it was also critical that The Baha mas somehow position itself “in front of the standard” that these groups will try to impose next.

The Bahamas’ latest black listing is likely to be ratified by

Banks facing ease of business ‘scorecard’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN com mercial banks will soon be subjected to a “score card” that rates how well they perform in facilitating the ease of doing business and financial inclusion, a top regulator revealed yesterday.

Karen Rolle, the Central Bank’s newly-appointed inspector of banks and trust companies, said the regu lator has partnered with the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) to address the complaints voiced by companies over the difficulties encountered

in opening “operating deposit accounts”.

The findings, she added, will be used to create a less bureaucratic but riskbased approach to Know Your Customer (KYC) due diligence that banks will conduct when on-boarding new corporate clients and setting up bank accounts for them.

Ms Rolle, in her first quar terly letter to all Central Bank licensees, said: “The Central Bank is currently engaging with the busi ness community through the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation to quan tify and address concerns around challenges faced by businesses in opening

SEE PAGE A16

Nassau enjoys 17,000 cruise diversion boost

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

DOWNTOWN Nassau and other cruise-dependent Bahamian businesses have benefited from an extra 17,000 passengers to-date being diverted to the city by hurricane devastation in Florida and the Caribbean, it was revealed yesterday.

Michael Maura, Nassau Cruise Port’s chief execu tive, told Tribune Business that Hurricane Fiona had forced Carnival Cruise Lines to divert three ships to the Bahamian capital between September 21 and today after damaging

the dock at its private port in Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos.

And Hurricane Ian’s arrival in Florida as a Cat egory Four storm, packing winds of 155 miles per hour, has forced two other cruise lines to each redi rect a vessel to Nassau this week. Their arrival was said to have more than com pensated for a cancelled Disney Cruise Line call on Wednesday, which was likely due to its Port Canav eral home port being closed due to Ian, thus disrupting its itinerary.

“We had four cruise ships in today,” Mr Maura

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN contractors yesterday warned it is “inevitable” that Florida’s post-Hurricane Ian reconstruction will hit building material prices and availability here as local inflation was revealed to have hit 7 percent.

Leonard Sands, the Bahamian Contractors Association (BCA) president, told Tribune Business that much will depend on the extent of the Category Four storm’s devastating impact plus the nature and scale of rebuilding in the so-called “Sunshine State”.

While it was currently impossible to forecast the precise impact for Bahamian construc tion costs, he acknowledged that Ian’s fall-out could fuel further increases in building mate rial prices that have otherwise “plateaued” and been relatively stable since mid-March following hikes induced by post-COVID supply chain shocks and US housing demand.

Mr Sands told this newspaper that construc tion supplies have increased by between 30-40 percent on average since The Bahamas and wider world have emerged from COVID-19 lockdowns, with products such as “common” lumber having doubled in price by 100 percent.

And Stephen Wrinkle, one of his predeces sors as BCA president, yesterday described construction pricing as “a crapshoot” and the “Wild Wild West” due to the multiple vari ables that had been causing material prices and availability to change on an almost daily basis. Once Ian’s threat to Florida emerged, he added that Bahamian contractors with existing jobs had moved rapidly to secure everything they needed for completion.

The threat of renewed building material supplies increases, sparked by Florida’s recon struction demands and associated product shortages as the state sucks up a large por tion of available supplies, emerged just as the

DAPHNE DEGREGORY-MIAOULIS

CRAIG A.’TONY’ GOMEZ