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The Tribune

‘WHY SECRECY ON HIRING EX-CCA VP?’

Minnis questions Davis govt on hire of Liu as ‘special envoy to China’

By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter jrussell@trbunemedia.net

FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis has questioned the Davis administration’s secrecy surrounding hiring Daniel Liu, former senior vice-president of China Construction America (CCA), as a “special envoy to China”.

Mr Liu, who was prominently mentioned in a New York State Supreme Court ruling that found the Chinese state-owned contractor “actively worked to curry favour with the Bahamian government,” said in his biography that he was appointed as a

GB WOMAN MURDERED ON TURKS AND CAICOS ISLAND

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama resi-

Another confict turns deadly

Mrs Williams was residing in Turks and Caicos Islands, where she owned a business, according to her sister, Anasica. Her death is being classiﬁed as the TCI’s 42nd murder.

Relatives are preparing

dents are reeling after one of their own, Aiesha Clark Williams, 47, was murdered in Turks & Caicos last week –– one year after her husband was fatally shot on the same island. The news has devastated her family and many in the Hunters community, where she is from.

KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

‘Top-Up Tax won’t

be burden to Bahamians’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune News Editor rrolle@tribunemedia.net

ELECTED ofﬁcials debated a bill to introduce a new corporate tax aimed at multi-national corporations with annual revenues exceeding $800 million.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax Bill 2024 is projected to generate up to $140 million in revenue, supporting the

government’s policy agenda without burdening Bahamian-owned businesses or individuals.

The tax is part of a global initiative led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to establish a minimum 15 percent tax rate on multinational corporations operating across multiple jurisdictions.

In introducing the legislation, Mr Davis stressed that

S WEE T ING C ALLS TA BLED LOC AL govt bill ‘pivotal milestone’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune News Editor rrolle@tribunemedia.net

WORKS and Local Government Minister Clay Sweeting tabled the longawaited Local Government Bill in the House of Assembly Tuesday, marking what he called a “pivotal milestone” to modernise the country’s approach to local governance. The bill does nothing for New Providence, despite the Progressive Liberal

Party’s promise to introduce local government to the island. Nonetheless, it expands ﬁnancial independence and enhances public involvement across Family Island local governments. It builds on the existing Local Government Act of 1996, which established a framework for local governance through District Councils and Town Committees, but

Photo: Nikia Charlton

Young GB man allegedly takes his own life

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter

A YOUNG man who suffered from mental illness and was reported missing earlier this week by his father was discovered on

Wednesday after allegedly taking his own life.

The body of Wayne Rolle Jr, 28, was found in an abandoned building in Eight Mile Rock. Police reports indicate that the 28-year-old male resident of Jones Town was

discovered hanging from a wire inside a vacant building situated on Queens Highway around 12.20pm on Wednesday. Wayne Rolle Sr said that his son battled with mental illness and had attempted suicide on two previous

occasions.

“I lost my son today,” he said. “It was his third time attempting suicide. This time he succeeded.”

Mr Rolle said the last time he saw his son was on Tuesday morning after leaving for work.

“I had no sign that he would do this,” he said. “I last spoke with him when I was going to work that morning at 8:30am Tuesday. We ﬁst bumped, and I told him I would see him when I get off.”

According to the father, Wayne Jr was receiving counselling and had been attending a doctor and receiving therapy once a month.

He described his only son as a reserved young man with a quiet demeanour.

“He was very quiet from since he was a child. He always stayed to himself; he was never in any trouble,” he recalled.

“He was my best friend,” Mr Rolle said, describing the close bond between them. He also added that his son did not have friends and often stayed at home around the family.

Wayne Jr lived with his father and would come straight home after work.

He had been missing since noon on Tuesday – a day before his body was found. The family tried to support Wayne Jr through his mental health challenges.

“We tried to get him counselling. He went to a doctor once a month and did therapy once a month,” Mr Rolle said.

His son’s 28th birthday was on September 19. Mr Rolle believes that some people don’t understand that mental illness is a sickness just like any other disease.

“They don’t understand that it is a sickness like cancer. They would say, ‘oh, he is crazy,’ you know. But it is an illness - a sickness of the mind.”

Mr Rolle said his young daughter is devastated by her brother’s death. “She is taking it hard; she is not saying much but has cried a lot,” he said.

“It really don’t feel real. But I thank God I had 28 years with him,” he said.

WAYNE Rolle Jr (left) with his father Wayne Rolle (right) and grandfather is Kenley Martin (centre).

Photo: Vandyke Hepburn

Another conﬂict turns deadly

Asked about concerns over rising crime in the area, considering police were called to the same location two nights earlier, Supt Robinson said: “We have initiatives going on in this area, walkabouts, community checks, and we have a number of operations going on at this time. There’s no concerns at this time of the rising crime.”

MP for Bain and Grants Town Wayde Watson, who said he visited both recent crime scenes, commented on the impact of the incidents.

“One case, it was an uncle and a nephew, and the other case is two friends,” he said. “It’s just based on conflict, and as a result of that, we end up with two murders in two weeks, so we want to say to the young men, find alternative ways to resolve conflict, and it’s a sad situation.”

He added: “Everybody is grieving because it’s a tightknit community, and these persons are really, really close, so it’s difﬁcult, and you’re sympathetic.”

Mr Watson emphasised that up to four families have been affected by the violence.

GB woman murdered on Turks and Caicos Island

everybody is grieving,” said Mrs Williams’ sister. “Right now, we are still in the dark, and so I am travelling there to get more information about that.”

Aiesha reportedly survived a previous incident last year when her husband was gunned down in TCI. She returned to Grand Bahama for a brief time before going back to Provo. Up until a few weeks ago, Aiesha had told a friend on Facebook that she was still seeking justice for her husband’s murder.

Magnetic Media, a Caribbean news outlet, reported last year that

Aiesha’s husband, Bahamian Jevanio Williams, was shot on August 23, 2023. The couple was reportedly pelted with gunshots while sitting in their truck. They were both injured, but Jevanio died on August 25. The pair was described as the “brains and brawn” behind G&A Juicy Juicy Burgers.

Some people took to social media this week, expressing sadness upon learning of Mrs Williams’s death. One Facebook post read, “Now you can rest, y’all back together,” accompanied by photos of Mrs Williams and her husband.

Erica Wright, a cousin, was still trying to process

the news.

“The family is not coping well at all,” she said. “I honestly still trying to get myself composed and get myself together.

“I am not in any position to even talk about it because it is still so fresh. It is too much right now; I don’t have the strength and

the will to even go there.” When contacted on Wednesday, police ofﬁcials in Grand Bahama were not aware of any report regarding Williams’s death in the TCI.

Alice McGregor, a Hunters native, said the community is reeling over the news.

POLICE at the scene where a man who was shot collapsed and died yesterday.

Photos: Nikia Charlton

from page one

AIESHA and her husband Javanio Williams

AIESHA Clark Williams.

Cooper: Social media video on crime political and misleading

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM Minister

and Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper spoke out against a video that he said featured a “disturbing and misleading mishmash” of past reports intended to harm the country’s reputation and deter tourists this Fall and winter season.

He said Bahamians created the video to suggest an impending travel advisory similar to the one issued by the United States earlier this year.

“It is evident this was crafted for political purposes, not to inform, but to discredit our nation’s reputation and mislead prospective visitors. What is most troubling about this is that our intelligence suggests that this was done by Bahamians,” Mr Cooper said in the House of Assembly.

The video’s origins are unclear. However, it claims that The Bahamas is “quickly becoming the most violent nation per capita in the hemisphere under the Davis administration.”

Mr Cooper questioned the motives behind the video, saying: “What kind of Bahamian, for political or whatever reasons, is willing to hurt their own economy and the livelihoods of their very families for cheap political points?”

Twenty-one murders in January prompted the

United States to issue a travel advisory urging citizens to exercise increased caution. Major US news outlets reported on this advisory, sparking concerns among tourists. Canada also issued a travel advisory, urging its citizens to “exercise a high degree of caution” in The Bahamas due to high crime rates, particularly in Freeport and Nassau.

Following the US advisory, the Ministry of Tourism launched a campaign to counter negative perceptions and encourage tourism, spending nearly $10 million on this effort.

Mr Cooper underscored the importance of protecting the tourism industry as The Bahamas heads into a “record-breaking winter season” with strong booking numbers.

“To anyone who had a hand in creating or promoting or circulating this video, let me be clear: this is a fool’s errand,” he said. “Jeopardizing our number one industry for political gain is as reckless as it is irresponsible. It is, in effect, biting the hands that feed you. Tourism is the economic lifeblood of The Bahamas, and notwithstanding our best efforts to diversify, it will continue to be so in all of our lifetimes.

“It supports thousands of families, fuels our businesses, and sustains entire communities. For any political actor to attempt

shame the government of the day by undermining the single most important sector in our economy shows disregard for the

‘Top-Up Tax won’t be burden to Bahamians’

the tax would not affect local Bahamian businesses. “If you do not own a multinational entity making € 750 million or more, this tax does not apply to you,” he said.

Mr Davis argued that the new tax would ensure large multinationals pay a fair share of the revenues they generate in The Bahamas, adding that such a policy was aligned with both fairness and compliance with international standards.

He said the bill forms part of the government’s recent push to increase tax compliance and close

enforcement gaps that have seen some property owners evade tax obligations.

Referencing recent measures in property tax collection, Mr Davis noted that approximately 70 percent of outstanding real property taxes are owed by second homeowners, most of whom are non-Bahamians.

He cited the current administration’s record in collecting unpaid taxes and pointed to the contrast with previous governments, saying that in prior years, “many of these second homeowners” had not paid their tax obligations.

The Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax aligns with the OECD’s global standards for a 15 percent corporate tax on large multinational companies.

Mr Davis highlighted The Bahamas’ active participation in shaping this policy, saying that the country’s representation on relevant international bodies, including a UN committee, underscores its commitment to fair tax standards.

Mr Davis also emphasised that the government held a public consultation process from August to September to gather feedback from stakeholders

and industry observers. He noted that responses were supportive, with the general sentiment that the new tax would not negatively impact The Bahamas’ ﬁnancial services sector. The bill includes measures to simplify tax administration and facilitate compliance, including provisions that align reporting and payment requirements with OECD guidelines. The legislation also grants the Financial Secretary investigative powers, allowing tax authorities to require documents for assessing tax liability and enabling penalties for non-compliance.

Mr Davis noted that

Sweeting call S tabled local govt bill ‘pivotal mileS tone’

faced limitations in funding autonomy and public engagement.

One of the primary distinctions in the 2024 legislation is the level of ﬁnancial autonomy it grants local councils. While the 1996 Act relied heavily on central government allocations, the new bill outlines broader ﬁscal powers, allowing councils to generate revenue through local taxes, fees, and grants. Under the bill, councils can retain funds generated locally.

Another key difference in the new bill is its emphasis on public participation. While the 1996 Act set up councils to represent community interests, it did not mandate regular mechanisms for direct resident involvement in decision-making.

The 2024 bill requires local councils to hold town meetings and consultations to ensure that community members have a say in local governance. The 2024 bill also introduces more rigorous accountability measures. The updated legislation mandates regular audits of local council ﬁnances and operations, with the results made accessible to the public.

Mr Sweeting said over time, the system established under the 1996 bill regressed, causing the “recentralising of statutory responsibilities and the diminishing of powers of local authorities.”

He said a Local Government Act Review Committee consisting of local government practitioners was appointed in 2022 and canvassed all 33 districts throughout the Family

Islands to get feedback.

He said concerns include the “noticeable recentralisation of statutory powers by central government agencies” and “the diminishing of the importance and functionality of local government authorities in the Family Islands.”

He said other concerns related to training for practitioners, remuneration, ﬁscal responsibility and the disconnect between central and local government authorities.

“It is safe to say that all of the aforementioned concerns and more have been addressed in the bill that we have before us today,” he said.

He added that the powers of local government authorities would be restored concerning building control, road trafﬁc, town planning, port, and hotel licensing, with some powers

expanded.

“Within this bill,” he said, “they will be in a position to legally receive funds and donations and to levy fees or taxes for the use of public spaces. These fees or taxes will be prescribed by the minister and all funds will be placed in an account to be used for the further development of local communities. These funds are subject to ﬁnancial regulations to ensure transparency and accountability.”

some

are under consideration, including for investment funds and insurance companies, due to the unique structure of their operations. He said the tax reforms

COMPOSITE photo depicts back and forth between DPM chester Cooper and Opposition leader Michael Pintard.

Photo: Chappell Whyms Jr

The Tribune Limited

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Publisher/Editor 1903-1914

PICTURE OF THE DAY

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Publisher/Editor 1919-1972

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Publisher/Editor 1972-

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If Liu indeed was hired, tell us why

THE ruling in the Baha Mar court case that saw $1.6bn being awarded to Sarkis Izmirlian in his battle with China Construction America (CCA) has raised plenty of questions.

Some of those were raised yesterday in the House of Assembly by former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.

Dr Minnis was speaking following a report in The Tribune about the appointment of former CCA senior vice-president Daniel Liu to a role with the Bahamian government.

The report noted that Mr Liu had been appointed as a “special envoy” by the Davis administration.

Who said this? Well, Mr Liu himself. His biography was listed in a brochure for an entity named SilverStar Management Group Company. Mr Liu is listed as its president and managing director. He is also listed as having been “ofﬁcially approved from Bahamas government as ‘special envoy to China’.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said different. When asked by Tribune Business, he said “No, he’s not the special envoy to China. No, that’s not correct.”

He added: “He may have a designation from time to time as a ‘special envoy’ but not special envoy to China. He’s a special envoy, but not to China. I believe the way special envoy works is when a senior government ofﬁcial requires someone to be utilised from time to time that happens, so he can call himself that but not to China. That’s the issue.”

Dr Minnis was right to have questions after that bundle of confusion.

He asked in the House for the government to clarify matters – including why the details of Mr Liu’s hiring are being kept from the public. He wanted to know why Mr Liu was appointed to the envoy role and who authorised it.

Let us just be clear here – if Mr Liu is working as a special envoy for the government, then he is working for you. He would be a public servant. There would be no reason for details of his appointment to be shrouded in any mystery whatsoever.

Dr Minnis also pointed out a previous Tribune Business report – with Mr Liu asking the son of then Prime Minister Perry Christie’s top policy adviser to intervene over the number of Bahamian construction workers at the Pointe. Emails were revealed in the New York State Supreme Court with Mr Liu making an urgent request for help within days of Sir Baltron Bethel altering the wording of an agreement to make clear that The Pointe’s 70/30 labour ratio in favour of Bahamians applied to construction workers only.

For Dr Minnis, this led to a simple question – what is Mr Liu’s relationship with the PLP?

He also asked whether Mr Liu is a Bahamian citizen and what were the circumstances of that citizenship grant if so. Does he have a diplomatic passport? Has he been vetted by police?

These are all straightforward questions about a public servant. There should be no reason not to give any answers. If Mr Liu has a simple envoy role, then it should be simple enough to reveal when he was appointed, the details of his role, the circumstances as requested by Dr Minnis, and so on.

And now it has been raised in Parliament, the answer should be given to Parliament.

It’s as simple as that.

Unless, of course, answers are not given.

Then the main question becomes “Why not?”

Mr Liu works for you. Let us hear what he does for the nation.

Govt must fght abuse of women

EDITOR, The Tribune.

IN today’s paper, Tuesday 5th November 2024, there contained a disturbing story on the front page about a female hotel employee that was stabbed at the resort by a male known to her. Violence against women, especially intimate partner violence, is a devastating violation of dignity and autonomy that affects countless women and families in The Bahamas. This persistent form of violence not only inﬂicts profound physical and emotional harm but also perpetuates cycles of trauma, fear, and inequality. It is imperative that governments take deliberate, comprehensive steps to address and prevent intimate partner violence. Rushing through the

Protection Against Violence Act is not enough. This administration has failed to implement the support systems and resources provided for in the Act. In short, they have yet to give the Act the teeth it needs to take a bite out of domestic violence.

In order to challenge cultural norms and stereotypes that enable abuse, victims must have access to safe spaces, mental health resources, and economic support to regain their independence and well-being. Law enforcement, healthcare providers, educators, and community leaders must also be trained to recognise, intervene, and support victims effectively.

To tackle this crisis, we must demand that this

Issues over arrest of David Cash

EDITOR, The Tribune. THE story in The Tribune on 4th November 2024 of the arrest in Freeport of Attorney David Cash on Saturday 2nd November and his being charged with disorderly conduct raises, to my mind, some interesting but disturbing constitutional and legal issues.

government, while they sit in the chair, work together with organisations towards a Bahamas where every woman is safe, respected, and empowered. Together, we must build a culture that refuses to tolerate violence in any form and commits to nurturing equality, empathy, and accountability. But this government’s continued indifference will not help us to create lasting change that honors the rights of all people, especially women, and fosters a safer, more equitable Bahamas. We deserve better! We deserve a government willing to take all possible steps to protect its citizens.

SENATOR MICHELA BARNETT ELLIS Nassau, November 5, 2024.

1) Is there now a policeimposed limit on the number of lawyers that can visit or represent a defendant while in custody?: While Article 20(2) (d) of the Bahamas Constitution speaks to a criminal defendant being permitted to defend him or her self “by a legal representative of his own choice”, many defendants nowadays are and have been represented by more than one lawyer. In any event, the Constitution makes clear that it is the defendant’s choice as to who is his lawyer (or lawyers), not that of any police ofﬁcer.

2) Who or what is the defendant’s “lawyer of record” at the arrest and/or charging stage of a criminal investigation?: There is no mention in the Criminal Procedure Code or any other statute of a so-called “lawyer of record” so the question arises as to where this title or designation comes from and how is it obtained or applied while a defendant is still in custody? The fact that one attorney visits and speaks to a defendant while in custody does not, so far as I am aware, make that attorney the “lawyer of

record” to the exclusion of any other attorney as the defendant is free to have as many attorneys of his or her choice as he or she wants to represent them. It may well be that the defendant’s family chooses a lawyer but, after speaking to that lawyer, the defendant decides he or she wants someone else. Under this mistaken rationale, the ﬁrst lawyer is the “lawyer of record” according to the police and the defendant cannot see or speak another lawyer of his or her choosing. The “lawyer of record” business does not arise until the defendant is formally charged in court and one or more attorneys put their name on the court’s record as representing that person. Even so, that action is not etched in stone as lawyers may drop out of a case or the defendant may hire other lawyers in replacement. If there were any doubts about Mr Cash’s statement that he had come to Freeport to see his client, in my opinion the prudent police ofﬁcer would have gone to the defendant and enquired from her whether Mr Cash was in fact her attorney in addition to or in replacement of the “lawyer of record”.

3) Has the Commissioner of Police authorised the police in Freeport or Grand Bahama or anywhere else in The Bahamas to have

different processes and procedures from those that apply In New Providence?: As far as I am aware, the Royal Bahamas Police Force is one organisation operating under one set of laws, rules, regulations, policies and procedures and they supposedly carry out their duties under those documents the same way In Freeport as they do in Nassau. Mr Cash’s account of what happened in the newspaper report creates the impression that the police in Freeport operate differently from their colleagues in Nassau. If that is so, then the police need to clarify for lawyers and for the public whether this is in fact the case and whether lawyers and the public can expect different treatment in Freeport or any where else from what they receive in Nassau. In situations such as this, I am reminded of the Latin quotation “Quis custodiet ispos custodes?”, which literally means “Who will watch the watchmen themselves?” The Bahamas Bar Association needs to weigh-in on this matter with the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney-General and get clariﬁcation or a position paper so that there are no repeats of this type of incident when more than a second or other attorney endeavors to visit a person while in custody at the request of the person or their family.

VINCENT WALLACE WHITFIELD Nassau, November 5, 2024.

Have a cool, fun, interesting, amazing photo? Have it featured here in The Tribune’s picture of the day! Email your high quality image to pictureoftheday@tribunemedia.net

CHIMO carries his dog Lou as he walks through the muddy streets after the floods in in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain yesterday.

Photo: Emilio Morenatti/AP

‘Why secrecy on hiring ex-CCA

“special envoy to China” by the Davis administration in 2023. The revelation was detailed in a 16-page brochure for SilverStar Management Group Company, where Mr Liu serves as president and managing director.

Allies of Mr Izmirlian, Baha Mar’s original developer, expressed concerns about Mr Liu’s appointment, questioning whether he has been rewarded by the government for his role in the dispute despite a recent New York court ruling that found CCA committed multiple frauds and breaches of contracts.

In the House of Assembly, Dr Minnis pressed the government to clarify why details of Mr Liu’s hiring are being kept from the public. He asked why Mr Liu was appointed a special envoy and who authorised the position.

Dr Minnis referred to a

December 2022 Tribune

Business report, which revealed that Mr Liu had asked the son of Perry Christie’s top policy adviser to intervene when his father proposed changing The Pointe’s Heads of Agreement over how many Bahamian construction workers would be employed. E-mails tabled in the New York State Supreme Court revealed that Mr Liu made an urgent request for help within days of Sir Baltron Bethel altering the agreement’s wording to make clear that The Pointe’s 70:30 labour ratio in favour of Bahamians applied to construction workers only.

Highlighting the need for transparency, Dr Minnis asked: “What exactly is Daniel Liu’s special relationship to the PLP? What key PLP ﬁgures did he or does he have relationships within the Christie Administration and the Davis Administration, including

current and former cabinet ministers?”

CCA has faced controversy following a recent US ruling, where New York State Supreme Court Judge Andrew Borrok found CCA acted in bad faith, contributing to Baha Mar’s 2015 bankruptcy. Judge Borrok condemned the construction delays and described them as “an absolute sham and shakedown.”

He noted that a $2.3m payment from CCA to Notarc Management Group — a company run by Leslie Miller, son of Sir Bethel — was intended to “curry favour” with the Bahamian government during the Baha Mar dispute.

In response to the ruling, CCA secured an “emergency stay” on Monday after failing to obtain the nearly $2 billion bond required by New York Supreme Court rules for an “automatic stay.” Dr Minnis questioned Mr Liu’s involvement in

the Baha Mar project and urged Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis to address questions about Mr Liu’s status, whether he is a Bahamian citizen and, if so, under what circumstances was he granted

citizenship. Dr Minnis also questioned whether Mr Liu had a diplomatic passport and if the Security and Intelligence Branch had vetted him for the role. Dr Minnis called on Mr Davis to disclose his

involvement in

appointment and the terms of his contract, including his salary. He reiterated

call for a full investigation into issues related to

Mar under the Christie administration.

SHIVER TO REMAIN IN PRIS ON AFTER BAIL APPEAL LOS T

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

LINDSAY Shiver, an American woman accused of conspiring with two men in Abaco to kill her husband, will remain in custody after the Court of Appeal reserved its decision on a judge’s ruling to revoke her bail. Shiver, 37, was remanded to prison in late October after Senior Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson revoked her bail, citing repeated violations of bail conditions and her involvement in pretrial publicity. Her co-accused, Terrance Bethel, was also remanded due to alleged bail breaches. Their lawyers challenged the judge’s decision, arguing it was based on a misinterpretation of the bail conditions.

Damian Gomez, KC, who represents Shiver, disputed the claim that his client violated the conditions of her release by leaving her mandated location in Alabama multiple times without the court’s approval. He said the judge erred in interpreting the word “residence” as not being allowed to take short trips away from her mother’s home.

He added that a shortterm rental for a weekend does not constitute a change of residence, as it was temporary.

In response, Justice Jon Isaacs told Mr Gomez that applying a civil interpretation of the word “residence” was irrelevant. “Mr Gomez, when the judge said that you are to reside, it means that that is where she is to stay,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that

she is to go off on a jaunt for a month elsewhere.”

Justice Milton Evans added: “I think the difﬁculty you faced, Mr Gomez, is the duration. It would have been one thing if she had just gone shopping that morning and drove back home, but back at home that evening, but when you go for 30 days, it changes things.”

Mr Gomez also challenged the allegations of his client’s involvement in pretrial publicity.

He acknowledged her appearance on Good Morning America, but said he was informed that she did not discuss the case.

He claimed “she merely appeared on the ﬁlm”.

The attorney further argued that an embargo agreement had been sought to prevent the television station from publishing any

information she may have provided until after the criminal proceedings.

“That in itself shows that she did not intend to breach the peace by publishing her private affairs, nor to inﬂuence any jury pool because she was speciﬁcally saying to ABC News, while I will give those materials, you are not to publish them,” Mr Gomez argued.

He also contended that the judge’s decision to revoke Shiver’s bail for safety reasons seemed “excessive.”

Justice Grant-Thompson had said in revoking Shiver’s bail, she was also “taking her out of harm’s way”, citing a report that her boyfriend tried to “choke and suffocate her with a pillow in Alabama.”

Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Cordell Frazier, argued that the judge

Woman testiﬁes ex-boyfriend threatened her with death and stabbed her in head

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff

Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A WOMAN testiﬁed that her ex-boyfriend sent her a message saying, “You ga dead,” before he came home and stabbed her in the head.

The man, Niko Smith, was charged with causing harm to his former girlfriend of 11 years, Chiquia Rolle. He pleaded not guilty before Senior Magistrate Algernon Allen.

This latest charge adds to two existing counts of assault with a dangerous instrument and damage.

The incident reportedly occurred on September 22, 2024, when Smith is alleged to have assaulted Ms Rolle with a box cutter.

The alleged victim said the two lived together for a year with three children.

Ms Rolle claimed that on the day in question, she received a message from

Mr Smith about a gas tank. She returned home and then contacted him, which allegedly led to an argument. Later, while she was cooking, Mr Smith allegedly came home around 4 pm and they argued again. He had told her to take $50 from his jacket, but when she used it at the grocery store, he demanded it back. He left, and they continued arguing over the phone, which ultimately led her, she claimed, to decide to end the relationship.

Later that evening, the victim claimed Mr Smith came home in a rage, banging on the door. She told her son to let him in, and he entered the house angrily. She alleged that after getting food, he threw it into the neighbour’s yard and stumbled back inside. Ms Rolle, in a room talking to her mother, decided to call the police, explaining that

she feared for her safety, saying, “When he’s in a rage, he puts his hands on me.”

She claimed that Mr Smith then tried to grab her phone, attacking her as she held it against her chest. She said he punched her in the head repeatedly until she was so exhausted that she struck him with the phone.

Ms Rolle claimed that during their struggle, Mr Smith fell, but staggered back up as the children cried in the corner. She alleged that he then drew an object resembling a pocket knife and came at her, stabbing the headboard before injuring the back of her head. She said he was on top of her, and as she tried to get away, he swung the object again, injuring her hand.

A male neighbour entered into the house through the open door and reportedly asked, “Boy,

what are you doing to this girl?” Ms Rolle said Mr Smith told him to leave, but the neighbour refused.

At that point, Mr Smith allegedly ran out the back of the apartment, while Ms Rolle, feeling weak, moved to the steps and fell after throwing an item at him. The neighbour informed her he was calling the police.

When the police arrived, they attempted to take her statement, but she was in pain and needed an ambulance, which took her to the Princess Margaret Hospital.

Under cross-examination, Ms Rolle said Mr Smith appeared intoxicated. She also disclosed that minutes before he arrived, he allegedly texted her, “You gone dead.” She admitted she didn’t see him cut her during the incident.

The matter was adjourned to December 18.

was correct in revoking the appellants’ bail and urged the appellate judges to dismiss their application.

“What we say is that had you been in compliance with the bail condition to reside at your mom’s place and not be residing with your boyfriend, who now is attempting to kill you, then we wouldn’t be in this place,” Ms Frazier added.

Shiver, 37, Bethel, and Faron Newbold Jr, 29, were charged last year with conspiracy to commit murder.

Authorities allege the trio plotted to kill Shiver’s husband, Robert Shiver, on July 16, 2023, after uncovering the scheme during a separate investigation in Guana Cay. Justice Grant-Thompson initially granted Shiver $100,000 bail under strict conditions, including electronic monitoring, an 8pm

to 6am curfew, a 100ft distance from the complainant and witnesses, and a restriction on foreign travel without court approval.

In December, the court varied her bail conditions, allowing her to travel to the United States but forcing her not to enter Georgia, where her husband lives, unless to engage in custody and divorce proceedings.

As for Bethel, his bail conditions varied in June so he could move to Treasure Cove in New Providence. However, prosecutors said he did not follow the rules for signing in at a police station.

However, Bethel’s attorney, Ian Cargill, claimed that his client’s bail variation was never executed, preventing him from signing in at the Elizabeth police station.

M AN PLEAD S NOT GUILTY TO THREAT S OF DEATH

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A MAN pleaded not guilty in the Magistrate’s Court for threatening another man.

Michelet Vill appeared before Senior Magistrate Algernon Allen charged with threats of death. It is alleged that Vill threatened Marco Gomez at Super Value, Nassau Street, on September 26, 2024. He was granted $1,000 bail and was cautioned not to contact the victim. Vill is due back in court on January 28.

JAMAICAN NATIONAL CHARGED WITH A SS AULTING A WOMAN

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A JAMAICAN national pleaded not guilty in the Magistrate’s Court to assaulting a woman.

Rohan Williamson appeared before Senior

Magistrate Algernon Allen and was granted $1,500 bail after allegedly assaulting Jade Curry on November 1. The magistrate cautioned him to have no contact with the complainant. Mr Williamson is due back in court January 28.

Mr Liu’s

his

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Racism is entrenched in the soil of America

“Racism is deep in the soil.” - Anonymous WHITE privilege is born from the visceral certainty that white people are inherently superior as a matter of birth. God supposedly made them superior. This privilege exists in both major political parties in the US.

But the Republican Party today is the bedrock of such privilege. The historic switch came with the passage of civil rights legislation advanced by President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat.

The passage of this legislation upended electoral politics, resulting in the exodus of Southern whites and the majority of white voters from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

The Centre for American Progress reports: “The national exit polls have broken out their survey results by racial group since 1976, and since that year, the Republican nominee for president has received, on average, 54.8 percent of the white vote, while the Democratic nominee has garnered an average of 40.6 percent.

The report continues: “The highest percentage secured by a Republican was the 66 percent won by Ronald Reagan in his landslide re-election in 1984; the lowest Democratic number was Walter Mondale’s 34 percent in that same election.

“Jimmy Carter received the largest percentage of white votes for a Democrat with 48 percent in 1976; George HW Bush received the lowest at 41 percent in 1992 when Ross Perot ran, splitting the white vote and dropping Bush from the 60 percent white share he received in 1988.”

Democratic candidates for president consistently fail to win a majority of white voters because the Republican Party is unabashedly and proudly the greater defender of white privilege.

All racism, especially apartheid systems, is based on the belief that all members of a particular group are inferior to all members of another group, which is demonstrably untrue.

A good friend described a compelling insight which seized him during his ﬁrst year of undergraduate studies in biological anthropology.

His professor, Jonathan Friedlander, noted in class: “The differences between individuals is always greater than the differences between groups.” This basic fact destroys any statement about all of the members of a particular group. The friend observed that Friedlander’s seemingly throwaway line forever forced him to look at people as individuals instead of as

members of any group with ﬁxed characteristics. He also notes that were he the beneﬁciary of white privilege that he might have not been so easily inclined to accept what the professor stated.

In order to justify slavery, it was necessary to declare all people of African descent as inferior and therefore only suited to a life of servitude.

It was also necessary to declare that even one drop of African blood made the individual inferior because one could not allow any such hybrid to be regarded as equal or superior in any way.

Unfortunately, the belief system also required the hybrid to be regarded as superior within their race because of being “nearer my god to thee”.

The beneﬁciaries of white privilege are so certain of their superiority that they are often shocked when a black individual outperforms a white individual.

A story is retold of a black father who was stunned by the awe in which his “very dark-skinned daughter” was held when she broke US and National Collegiate Athletic Association records.

When the record was broken it shook many in attendance at the competition, who were convinced that “black people can’t swim as well as white people”. Eventually, his daughter’s record was beaten – by another a woman of African-American descent.

A Bahamian friend who lived in the United States for many years recalls at ﬁrst being proud, then bemused, then disgusted when told by white Americans how well he spoke English.

The story is but another example of the conceit of

“...I had to go on to say to him that you failed to realise that America made the black man’s colour a stigma.”

white privilege, that while there may be a few exceptional black people, whites in general are inherently more intelligent, more capable, more moral and more humane than black people.

The best antidote to this conceit are men like Donald Trump, who save for his white privilege and super wealthy background, might be just another failed and not particularly intelligent huckster, with a certain feral mindset.

But in America, his outsized privilege helped to elevate him to the highest ofﬁce in the land. White membership has its privileges.

It is the sort of American exceptionalism that exposes the reality show of “the land of the free and the home of the brave” built through the genocide of native peoples and the holocaust of slavery in order to ingrain and guarantee white privilege.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, also often grew exasperated by whites asking him to explain aspects of racism of which the questioners beneﬁtted but refused to or could not see.

In a speech entitled, “The Other America”, King articulated the diabolical legacy of whites having had their knees and institutions on the necks, bodies and souls of black people from the inception of the white supremacist enterprise of the United States: “I remember the other day I was on a plane and a man starting talking with me and he said I’m sympathetic toward what you’re trying to do, but I just feel that you people don’t do enough for yourself and then he went on to say that my problem is, my concern is that I know of other

ethnic groups, many of the ethnic groups that came to this country and they had problems just as negroes and yet they did the job for themselves, they lifted themselves by their own bootstraps.

“Why is it that negroes can’t do that? And I looked at him and I tried to talk as understanding as possible but I said to him, it does not help the negro for unfeeling, sensitive white people to say that other ethnic groups that came to the country maybe a hundred or a hundred and ﬁfty years voluntarily have gotten ahead of them and he was brought here in chains involuntarily almost three hundred and ﬁfty years ago.”

Dr King continued: “I said it doesn’t help him to be told that and then I went on to say to this gentlemen that he failed to recognise that no other ethnic group has been enslaved on American soil. Then I had to go on to say to him that you failed to realise that America made the black man’s colour a stigma.”

A good number of white people who ask for so-called explanations as to what is going on, know full well the bounty of white privilege they enjoy. The calls for explanations are oftentimes self-serving, condescending, an attempt to placate and a denial of responsibility for the attitudes and structures which dominate.

In his “The Other America” sermon, King further explained the economic legacy of black slavery: “While white America refused to do anything for the black man at this point, during that very period, the nation, through an act of Congress, was giving away millions of acres of land in the west and

mid-west, which meant that it was willing to undergird its white peasants from Europe with an economic ﬂaw.

“Not only did they give the land, they built land grant colleges for them to learn how to farm.

“Not only that it provided county agents to further their expertise in farming and went beyond this and came to the point of providing low interest rates for these persons so that they could mechanise their farms, and today many of these persons are being paid millions of dollars a year in federal subsidies not to farm and these are so often the very people saying to the black man that he must lift himself by his own bootstraps…

“Senator Eastland, incidentally, who says this all the time gets a hundred and twenty-ﬁve thousand dollars a year, not to farm on various areas of his plantation down in Mississippi.

“And yet he feels that we must do everything for ourselves. Well that appears to me to be a kind of socialism for the rich and rugged hard individualistic capitalism for the poor.”

Racism is entrenched in the soil and soul of America. It permeates, poisons everything. From the toxic soil extend mighty trees of racist privilege with subterranean and aerial roots, enormous trunks, insidious tentacles, and “strange fruit”, of which Billie Holiday famously sang:

“Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swingin’, In the southern breeze.

Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees.”

Middle East and Ukraine wars

ﬁrst hurdles for Trump presidency

SEVERAL couples had gathered on Election Night outside Washington, DC. Most of them were committed Democrats; a few described themselves as independent, and one still identiﬁed as Republican. They had maintained long friendships with each other over many presidential elections, through kids’ school and parents getting sick and dying. Through a couple of divorces and remarriages.

A now lengthy tradition had grown among this group over many years: One couple, with a large basement family room and a big screen television, would host an Election Night party. The others would bring sandwiches and beer and wine.

In 2016, the prevailing sentiment in the group strongly favored Hillary Clinton, and her downfall that night was a genuine shock. Several of the couples had heard that Clinton was in trouble in the weeks before the election, but had scoffed at the idea of Donald Trump somehow winning the presidency.

Four years later, two couples simply couldn’t stand the notion of gathering as usual; they could not face the prospect of another dispiriting evening, even with good friends. But the rest endured another nervy several hours of watching TV hosts trying to recycle the same news for hours and hours, ﬁnally giving up around midnight with the prospect of another wrenching defeat.

In 2020, the group had become unanimous in supporting Joe Biden over Trump. Each couple had its own reasons, but everyone left the party with a feeling of dread. Then by the following morning, the tide had turned and Biden was headed for victory.

On the night before last, most of the group had reassembled, once again united in their opposition to Trump and in their conﬁdent feeling that the US would elect its ﬁrst-ever female president.

The major TV and cable networks all now have their own “numbers nerds” who breathlessly analyse the election returns from around the country. These statistics experts are called upon to carry much of the election coverage, and since election news is often revealed at pre-set intervals with little information available between the intervals, the experts often repeat themselves.

On Tuesday, Kamala Harris raced out to a good start in several of the eastern states where everyone agreed the election would be decided. 8:00 came and went. 9:00, then 10:00. The tide was turning. Analysts at liberal-leaning media outlets slowed down. There were fewer cutaways to Democratic gatherings. Trump supporters sensed their candidate might be on the verge of a stunning victory. Shortly after midnight, the last stragglers had left the neighbourhood party, with long faces and a palpable sense of dread. The New York Times election tracker at 12.25am handicapped Trump’s chances of victory at 91 percent. He seemed to be on track to win a majority if not all of the seven “swing states” that almost everyone had predicted would determine the winner.

As the friends hugged and shook hands, a few reminded the group that a similar scenario had played out four years ago. The picture also looked bleak then as midnight approached, but by dawn the next day, Biden had somehow caught and was passing Trump. No one felt that was likely Tuesday, though, as they departed for their now solemn, quiet homes. Lightning would not strike twice.

What looked after midnight like certain defeat for Harris was somehow less surprising than Clinton’s shocking loss in 2016. It was profoundly discouraging. Meanwhile, would

STATESIDE

Wednesday morning bring a miraculous turnabout, or simply conﬁrm what seemed at midnight to be inevitable?

At 1.21am, Fox News called the election for Trump. Perhaps still smarting for their disloyalty four years ago when the network was the ﬁrst to correctly call Arizona for Biden, essentially closing the door on Trump’s re-election bid, Fox was right out front for Trump this time.

In fact, when Trump appeared before his ebullient supporters around 2:25 a.m. claiming victory, neither NBC nor CNN had called the election for him, though both networks admitted that Harris had no practical path to election after she lost Pennsylvania.

With Trump on stage were his many family members, senior members of his campaign party apparatus, Vice President-elect JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose future as lower house leader still hung in the balance in the middle of this consequential night even as Republicans rather emphatically recaptured control of the US Senate.

Analysts at the major networks worked on through the night to make their points about why the election had gone the way it did. But by 4.00, after Trump had declared victory and no one really argued with him on the networks, those same networks still had not declared that he actually won this election.

It’s quite unlikely that Trump won’t remember this in his new term.

Trump lavished praise on eccentric billionaire Elon Musk and campaign manager Susie Wiles. The new president-elect seemed at times almost subdued as he basked in the glow of yet another widely unexpected electoral victory. He vowed to seal off America’s southern border, and somehow, watching him, this commitment seemed very likely to be realised.

The American economy is now recovering pretty well from the ravages of the COVID pandemic and associated inﬂation, so Trump won’t necessarily have to wade right into that issue.

It will quickly emerge as a major irony that this nativist, isolationist, tradition-smashing re-elected president will need, perhaps most urgently of all the tasks that await him, to deal with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Will he make a deal with Vladimir Putin to end the Ukraine war on terms he and Vance have occasionally outlined during and even before this campaign?

Will he be able to rein in Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu, who just ﬁred his defence minister who was perhaps his greatest domestic political rival and who seems determined to once and for all eliminate the security threats posed by Hamas and Hezbollah by whatever means necessary.

As events unfolded on this momentous Election Night in America, a parallel came to mind. In January 1981, at the end of Jimmy Carter’s ﬁrst and only term in ofﬁce, Iran’s theocratic leaders still held hostage members of the American Embassy in Tehran after overrunning the embassy in the previous year.

A rescue attempt authorised by Carter ﬁzzled embarrassingly. The US, to itself perhaps more than to most others around the world, looked weak and powerless to do anything to get back its hostages. As if to repudiate and ridicule the American president, the Iranians pointedly waited until Ronald Reagan had defeated Carter and taken the oath of ofﬁce before releasing the hostages.

Reagan was thus launched on an eight-year run in the White House that is still widely regarded as successful because he directed the US to victory over the former Soviet Union and was able to end a Cold War with Moscow that had lasted for nearly two generations.

Now, with Joe Biden consigned to perhaps the greatest irrelevance and fundamental fecklessness of any president since Carter, America is once again seemingly powerless to persuade Middle Eastern leaders to take the steps necessary to return hostages, both to the US and to Israel.

As experts pore over what happened on Tuesday and try to make sense of it all Trump, like Reagan, will have an opportunity to break the two major international impasses that have hamstrung Biden’s foreign policy.

If Trump can indeed persuade Netanyahu to declare victory in his bloody feuds with Hezbollah and Hamas and negotiate for a durable cease ﬁre, he will be seen, not undeservedly, as a hero.

He’ll need to be much

careful with Putin and Ukraine. Abandoning Ukraine or appearing to do so will not be a good look for a president for whom it is unusually important to project personal power. But if Trump can take whatever situation in Eastern Europe that is bequeathed to him by Biden and negotiate a truce that America’s European allies, Putin and Congress can all accept, he will deserve all the credit he will have earned.

more

Back at home again in Washington and the White House, Trump will be carefully scrutinised as he sorts through his personnel and policy options. The bet (and hope) here is that in his zeal to ensure a Reagan-like legacy, he will reﬂect more thoughtfulness than is presently expected of him.

with Charlie Harper

REPUBLICAN presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center yesterday in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Photo: Evan Vucci/AP

Tourism opens new artisan incubation centre on Shirley Street

By KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

THE Tourism Development Corporation has announced an expansion of its tourism incubator centres following the launch of its pilot site on Shirley

Street.

New centres are slated for Grand Bahama’s Royal Towers on the Mall Drive and Exuma to enhance Bahamian entrepreneurship and elevating visitor experiences with all-local vendors. The incubation centre,

launched in March, is an initiative to provide Bahamian artisans with a platform to display and sell products that celebrate the country’s rich culture and heritage. At Wednesday’s open house, members of the public were welcomed to explore

offerings from 12 local vendors.

Ian Ferguson, Executive Director and CEO of the Tourism Development Corporation, described the centre as a “beautiful mix” of local art, straw work, books by over 200 Bahamian authors, and

more. He encouraged Bahamians to support their artisans with the holiday season approaching, urging locals to “come into their pocketbooks” to help sustain Bahamian talent.

“This is our opportunity to provide 12 authentically Bahamian brands, the opportunity to display their authentic Bahamian craft,” Mr Ferguson said.

“You will see that it is a wide beautiful mix of creative art to straw work to wonderful things that children can enjoy.”

Parliamentarians joined the deputy prime minister in exploring the vendors on display. Mr Cooper expressed to them that “we’re not just talking the talk, we’re walking the walk.” He explained that part of the $2 per passenger Tourism Development Levy funds these centres,

GOVERNMENT NOTICCE GOVERNMENT N OTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

COMMONWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS

New Providence

IN THE MATTER OF THE PLANNING AND SUBDIVISION ACT, 2010 AND IN THE MATTER OF SUBDIVISION & DEVELOPMENT APPEAL BOARD RULES, 2011

The below-listed APPELLANTS and interested members of the PUBLIC are hereby notified of a sitting of the Subdivision and Development Appeals Board on Wednesday, the 13th day of November, 2024, commencing at 1:00 p.m., at the Hearing Room, located in the Aventura Plaza on Bethel Avenue and John F. Kennedy Drive, New Providence.

This hearing is subject also to postponement in the event of the issue of any Bahamas Government Hurricane alert for the Island of New Providence.

The following APPEALS will be heard as stated below:

1. APPEAL No. 15 of 2023 – Appeal by CEDRIC PARKER & Co. (Khalil Parker) by Notice of Appeal dated 6h day of November, 2023

APPEALING: Decision of the Town Planning Committee made on 22nd day of February 2022 under the Town Planning Application SPA/8/2021 granting Site Plan Application Approval, Balmoral Condominium, New Providence.

2. APPEAL No. 18 of 2023 – Appeal by DWAYNE MORTIMER and MICHAEL DIGGISS by Notice of Appeal dated 6h day of December, 2023

APPEALING: Decision of the Town Planning Committee made on 24th October, 2023 under the Town Planning Application SPA/8/2021 –refusing the application for proposed condo hotel, Balmoral, New Providence.

CURRENT HEALTH PROTOCOLS AND SOCIAL DISTANCING SHALL BE ENFORCED

PARTIES MAY CONTACT: Ms. Valencia Wilson, Secretary to the Board, for a schedule of proposed hearing times for the respective appeals and to collect Appeal Records or for other information at the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board Office located at Aventura Plaza, corner of Bethel Avenue & John F. Kennedy Drive, New Providence, Bahamas Telephone: (242) 422 3427 or (242) 323 1813 Email: valenciawilson@bahamas.gov.bs

Dated 31st day of October, 2024.

MR. R. DAWSON MALONE CHAIRMAN

SUBDIVISION & DEVELOPMENT APPEAL BOARD

SUBDIVISION AND DEVELOPMENT APPEAL BOARD

Aventura Plaza

Bethel Avenue and John F. Kennedy Drive New Providence, The Bahamas

demonstrating progress in advancing local business.

“We will advance the attractiveness of the port and the destination when our guests can find authentically Bahamianmade goods and they can experience our art, our culture, our heritage — things that they can buy and see and do in Nassau that they can’t see anywhere else,” Mr Cooper said. “It’s really what is going to improve, really the charm of this destination.”

Mr Cooper emphasised plans to expand the centres rapidly and urged Bahamians to “buy-in” and support this growing initiative. “This is only the beginning,” he added. “We want people to know what we’re doing. And most importantly, we want them to come and shop.”

TOURISM Minister Chester Cooper plays the saw with a sidewalk band near the new Incubator Centre for Artisans on Shirley Street during the official opening yesterday.

Photos: Nikia Charlton

TRUMP WINS WHI T E HOUSE IN POLIT ICAL

ROOT ED IN APPEALS TO FRUST RAT ED VOT ERS

WASHINGTON Associated Press

DONALD Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the US Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.

With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. He won Michigan on Wednesday afternoon, sweeping the “blue wall” along with Pennsylvania — the onetime Democrat-leaning, swing states that all went for Trump in 2016 before ﬂipping to President Joe Biden in 2020.

His Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, called Trump on Wednesday afternoon to concede the race and congratulate him. A short time later, Biden also called Trump to congratulate him and to invite the president-elect to the White House, formally kicking off the transition ahead of Inauguration Day, the White House said. Biden also called Harris.

Foreign leaders called Trump too, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The victory validates Trump’s bare-knuckles approach to politics. He had attacked Harris in deeply personal – often misogynistic and racist – terms as he pushed an apocalyptic picture of a country overrun by violent migrants. The coarse rhetoric, paired with an image of hypermasculinity, resonated with angry voters – particularly men – in a deeply polarized nation.

“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president,” Trump told throngs of cheering supporters in Florida even before his victory was conﬁrmed.

In state after state, Trump outperformed what he did in the 2020 election while Harris failed to do as well as Joe Biden did in winning the presidency four years ago. Upon taking ofﬁce again, Trump will work with a Senate that will now be in Republican hands, while control of the House hadn’t been determined.

“We’ve been through so much together, and today you showed up in record numbers to deliver a victory,” Trump said. “This was something special and we’re going to pay you back,” he said.

The US stock market, Elon Musk’s Tesla, banks and bitcoin all stormed higher Wednesday, as investors looked favourably on a smooth election and Trump returning to the White House. In his second term, Trump has vowed to pursue an agenda centred on dramatically reshaping the federal government and pursuing retribution against his perceived enemies.

The results cap a historically tumultuous and competitive election season that included two assassination attempts targeting Trump and a shift to a new Democratic nominee just a month before the party’s convention. Trump will inherit a range of challenges when he assumes ofﬁce on Jan. 20, including heightened political polarization and global crises that are testing America’s inﬂuence abroad.

His win against Harris, the ﬁrst woman of colour to lead a major party ticket, marks the second time he has defeated a female rival in a general election. Harris, the current vice president, rose to the top of the ticket after Biden exited the race amid alarm about his advanced age. Despite an initial surge of energy around her campaign, she struggled during a compressed timeline to convince disillusioned voters that she represented a break from an unpopular administration.

The vice president, who has not appeared publicly since the race was called,

was set to speak Wednesday afternoon at Howard University, where her supporters gathered Tuesday night for a watch party while the results were still in doubt.

Trump is the first former president to return to power since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election. He is the first person convicted of a felony to be elected president and, at 78, is the oldest person elected to the office. His vice president, 40-yearold Ohio Sen. JD Vance, will become the highest-ranking member of the millennial generation in the US government.

There will be far fewer checks on Trump when he returns to the White House. He has plans to swiftly enact a sweeping agenda that would transform nearly every aspect of American government. His GOP critics in Congress have largely been defeated or retired. Federal courts are now ﬁlled with judges he appointed. The US Supreme Court, which includes three Trumpappointed justices, issued a ruling this year affording presidents broad immunity from prosecution.

Trump’s language and behaviour during the campaign sparked growing warnings from Democrats and some Republicans about shocks to democracy that his return to power would bring. He repeatedly praised strongman leaders, warned that he would deploy the military to target political opponents he labelled the “enemy from within,” threatened to take action against news organizations for unfavourable coverage and suggested suspending the Constitution.

Some who served in his White House, including Vice President Mike Pence and John Kelly, Trump’s longestserving chief of staff, either declined to endorse him or issued dire public warnings about his return.

While Harris focused much of her initial message around themes of joy, Trump channelled a powerful sense of anger and resentment among voters.

He seized on frustrations over high prices and fears about crime and migrants who illegally entered the country on Biden’s watch. He also highlighted wars in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to cast Democrats as presiding over – and encouraging – a world in chaos.

It was a formula Trump perfected in 2016, when he cast himself as the only person who could ﬁx the country’s problems, often borrowing language from dictators.

“In 2016, I declared I am your voice. Today I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” he said in March 2023. This campaign often veered into the absurd, with Trump amplifying bizarre and disproven rumours that migrants were stealing and eating pet cats and dogs in an Ohio town. At one point, he kicked off a rally with a detailed story about the legendary golfer Arnold Palmer in which he praised his genitalia.

One deﬁning moment came in July when a gunman opened ﬁre at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A

bullet grazed Trump’s ear and killed a supporter. His face streaked with blood, Trump stood and raised his ﬁst in the air, shouting “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Weeks later, a second assassination attempt was thwarted after a Secret Service agent spotted the barrel of a gun poking through the greenery while Trump was playing golf.

Trump’s return to the White House seemed unlikely when he left Washington in early 2021 as a diminished ﬁgure whose lies about his defeat sparked a

violent insurrection at the US Capitol. He was so isolated then that few outside of his family bothered to attend the send-off he organized for himself at Andrews Air Force Base, complete with a 21-gun salute.

Democrats who controlled the US House quickly impeached him for his role in the insurrection, making him the only president to be impeached twice. He was acquitted by the Senate, where many Republicans argued that he no longer posed a threat because he

had left ofﬁce. But from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump – aided by some elected Republicans – worked to maintain his political relevance. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who then led his party in the US House, visited Trump soon after he left ofﬁce, essentially validating his continued role in the party. As the 2022 midterm election approached, Trump used the power of his endorsement to assert himself as the unquestioned leader of the party. His preferred candidates almost always won their primaries, but some went on to defeat in elections that Republicans viewed as within their grasp. Those disappointing results were driven in part by a backlash to the Supreme Court ruling that revoked a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, a decision aided by Trump-appointed justices. The midterm election prompted questions within the GOP about whether Trump should remain the party’s leader.

But if Trump’s future was in doubt, that changed in 2023 when he faced a wave of state and federal indictments for his role in the insurrection, his handling of classiﬁed information and election interference. He

used the charges to portray himself as the victim of an overreaching government, an argument that resonated with a GOP base that was increasingly sceptical – if not outright hostile – to institutions and established power structures.

As he prepares to return to the White House, Trump has vowed to swiftly enact a radical agenda that would transform nearly every aspect of American government. That includes plans to launch the largest deportation effort in the nation’s history, to use the Justice Department to punish his enemies, to dramatically expand the use of tariffs and to again pursue a zero-sum approach to foreign policy that threatens to upend longstanding foreign alliances, including the NATO pact.

When he arrived in Washington 2017, Trump knew little about the levers of federal power. His agenda was stymied by Congress and the courts, as well as senior staff members who took it upon themselves to serve as guardrails.

This time, Trump has said he would surround himself with loyalists who will enact his agenda, no questions asked, and who will arrive with hundreds of draft executive orders, legislative proposals and in-depth policy papers in hand.

REPUBLICAN presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, yesterday, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP

HARRIS SAYS NATION MUST ACCEPT ELECTION RESULTS and that ‘sometimes the fight takes a while’

WASHINGTON Associated Press

FACED with a sweeping rejection by American voters, Kamala Harris conceded the presidential election to Donald Trump on Wednesday and encouraged supporters to continue ﬁghting for their vision of the country.

The Democratic vice president said the battle would continue “in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square.”

“Sometimes the ﬁght takes a while,” she said at Howard University, her alma mater, where she had hoped to make a victory speech after the election.

“That doesn’t mean we won’t win.”

Harris’ decisive defeat

shattered hopes that she could rescue Democrats’ chances after President Joe Biden’s reelection effort stalled and she replaced him at the top of the ticket.

She trailed in every battleground state to Trump, a Republican whom she described as an existential danger to the country’s

foundational institutions. And Trump appeared on track to win the popular vote for the ﬁrst time in his three campaigns for the White House — even after two impeachments, felony convictions and his attempt

to overturn his previous election loss.

Despite her stark warnings about Trump, Harris reached for optimism on Wednesday.

“It is OK to feel sad and disappointed, but please

ENVIRONMENTALIST: SAMPSON CAY DEVELOPMENT

‘ill s ited’ fo the e mas

Dear Editor

I want to express concerns regarding the proposed Yntegra Group high-density development targeting the pristine and extremely sensitive East Sampson Cay, in the Exuma Cays. Turtlegrass Resort, a small sustainable development, located on Big Sampson Cay engaged my services as an environmental consultant since their product started in 2023. They have their approvals and were well underway with construction when they learned of this massive development, which represents an existential threat to Turtlegrass Resort’s guest experience.

As an environmental professional with 35-plus years of experience, I have reviewed many development projects, such as the one proposed by the Yntegra Group.

In my professional opinion, the EIA for this project does not adequately address the threats to the island’s signifcant biodiversity and untouched habitats. Specifcally, the EIA does not address the severe impact of allowing dredging directly through a 15-acre seagrass meadow in the north bay of East Sampson Cay.

The Bahamas is a global advocate for the protection and conservation of seagrass ecosystems, demonstrating bold leadership to safeguard these essential habitats. Local conservation initiatives have positioned The Bahamas as a leader in blue carbon research and marine conservation. It is imperative to continue these efforts by recognizing the importance of the seagrass meadows at Sampson Cay, which would be destroyed if dredging is permitted.

The proposed development conficts with principles The Bahamas has championed on the world stage. Protecting these seagrass meadows including those around Sampson Cay, not only preserves local ecosystems but reinforces the nation’s commitment to global climate change mitigation and marine biodiversity conservation. As The Prime Minister continues to champion seagrass conservation on the global stage, it is crucial to preserve these ecosystems at home to ensure our commitment to climate resilience and conserving our marine habitats.

Based on my extensive knowledge of the Exuma Cays, I fnd it diffcult or impossible to envision how the impacts of the mega-resort that Yntegra proposes can be mitigated in the Exumas. There is no possibility of affecting environmental mitigation and offsets in the Sampson Cay environs. Both BRON and the Developer acknowledged this, confrming that this high-density, high-impact development should be scaled back or considered for another better-suited area.

The Yntegra group has a partnership

with Rosewood to manage this project once completed. During a recent public presentation, they proudly referenced Rosewood’s pledge of Commitment to Sustainability. Rosewood commits to “value the Earth’s Resources and demonstrate environmental sustainability” and “be noble stewards of nature and proactively seek ways to conduct our business in a manner that puts environmental responsibility and sustainability at the forefront of our business objectives.” By participating in the Yntegra project on East Sampson Cay, Rosewood would fully violate its sustainability pledge. The Yntegra EIA and their project plans do not refect this vow of sustainability.

I strongly recommend that the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection carefully considers the scale of this development. DEPP must weigh the potential environmental threats to this already fragile ecosystem. The claim by the developers that this project would be a low-impact development in all phases could not be further from the truth and its approval in its current format should constitute a breach of public trust in the environmental regulatory process. Allowing dredging in the north bay would be an environmental disaster and tragedy.

I am also addressing a recent Nassau Guardian editorial referencing tourism and economic benefts versus protecting the environment. The editorial suggested that the environmental community while defending the environment was against economic development.

Many environmental professionals fully understand and appreciate economic development, but not at the expense of our environment. The environment is our stock in trade and key leverage to ensure sustainability. Comparing the Yntegra Project with large-scale developments in New Providence is an unfortunate misalignment. This Yntegra Project, located somewhere that could absorb its signifcant environmental impact, could be justifable. In Sampson Cay, however, the development is out of scale and out of place. The destruction that would be brought to the environment there would be unsustainable, irreversible, and permanent.

There is no way—despite the promised economic impact—any of us should accept and seek to justify this as acceptable. I reiterate this development is ill-suited for this sensitive location.

Eric Carey ONE Consultants

know it’s going to be OK,” she told supporters as some of them wiped tears from their eyes.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, was in the audience with his family. So were Reps. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, and Barbara Lee, both from Harris’ home state of California.

Before her speech, Harris called Trump to congratulate him on his victory. She told the crowd that “we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power,” an implicit reference to Trump’s unwillingness to do the same four years ago.

After Trump lost to Biden, he directed his supporters to march on the US Capitol, leading to a violent insurrection that interrupted the ceremonial certiﬁcation of the election results.

Now Harris is expected to oversee the same certiﬁcation process to ﬁnalize Trump’s victory as voters

brush off concerns about the future of American democracy and return the former Republican president to the White House. Biden plans to address the election results on Thursday. The White House said he spoke with Harris and Trump on Wednesday, and he invited the president-elect to meet with him soon.

David Plouffe, a top Harris adviser, said campaign staffers “left it all on the ﬁeld for their country.”

“We dug out of a deep hole but not enough,” he said. “A devastating loss.”

Harris became the Democratic candidate after Biden, who was already struggling to convince voters that he could serve as president until he was 86 years old, stumbled badly in his June 27 debate with Trump.

He dropped out of the race on July 21 and endorsed his vice president, who swiftly uniﬁed the Democratic Party around her candidacy. It was a remarkable twist of fate for Harris. Four years earlier, her own presidential campaign had ﬂamed out and revealed the political limitations of someone once dubbed “the female Barack Obama.”

Even though Biden chose Harris as his running mate, she languished in the role after taking ofﬁce as the ﬁrst woman, Black person or person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president.

Some Democrats started writing her off when they pondered the party’s future after Biden. But Harris found fresh purpose after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, and she became the White House’s leading advocate for abortion rights. Harris also made a more

concerted effort to network with local politicians, business leaders and cultural ﬁgures, forging connections that could serve her down the road. The moment arrived sooner than she anticipated, and she was catapulted into the presidential race with Biden’s departure only a month before the Democratic National Convention.

Harris instantly reset the terms of the contest with Trump. She was 18 years younger and a former courtroom prosecutor going up against the ﬁrst major presidential candidate convicted of crimes. Her candidacy energized Democrats who feared they were destined for defeat with Biden at the top of the ticket.

But she also faced steep odds from the beginning. She inherited Biden’s political operation with just 107 days until the end of the election, and she faced a restless electorate that was eager for change.

Although Harris pitched “a new way forward,” she struggled to meaningfully differentiate herself from the unpopular sitting president. In addition, she had limited time to introduce herself to sceptical voters, who never cast a ballot for her in a presidential primary.

Democrats now face the prospect of picking up the pieces during a second Trump presidency, and it’s unclear what role Harris will play in her party’s future.

“The work of protecting America from the impacts of a Trump Presidency starts now,” wrote Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’ campaign chair, in a letter to staff. “I know the Vice President isn’t ﬁnished in this ﬁght, and I know the very people on this email are also going to be leaders in this collective mission.”

VICE President Kamala Harris delivers a concession speech for the 2024 presidential election on the campus of Howard University in Washington, yesterday.

Photo: Ben Curtis/AP

SPORTS

DON’T BLINK HOME RUN DERBY RETURNS

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Don’t Blink Home Run Derby in Paradise dubbed the “Greatest Show on the Sand” continues to grow and expand at an astronomical rate. The fourday event, which begins on Wednesday, December 11, is returning to the sporting paradise for the seventh year and this time with a new partner.

The Don’t Blink Home Run Derby announced its partnership with the Baha Mar Resort yesterday ahead of the baseball festivities which will run from December 11-14.

Todd Isaacs Jr, cofounder of Don’t Blink Home Run Derby in Paradise, was thrilled to partner with the Baha Mar Resort as the “Greatest Show on the Sand” continues to evolve.

“Today we are happy to announce our new partnership with Baha Mar and Grand Hyatt. Together we will continue to revolutionize and make sure baseball in The Bahamas is experienced by our guests and fans that will grace our shores… I want to thank the entire Baha Mar and Grand Hyatt family for partnering with us to continue to create unforgettable experiences here in The Bahamas,” he said.

“This year marks a celebration. A celebration of success of the past six years and here is a sample of what we have been able

to accomplish because of all of you. We have created the one and only event and experience of its kind in the world. Baseball is not played on a beach anywhere. What we have created for us here in The Bahamas and for the sport of baseball is gonna change the trajectory for how our sport is experienced, attended and how our sport is given to the world,” he said.

Robert ‘Sandy’ Sands, senior vice president of the government and community relations at Baha Mar, said the resort was grateful to align with Don’t Blink Home Run Derby. “Baha Mar believes deeply in sustainability, being a part of anything that can perpetuate anything positive for a long period of time. It is no secret that we believe strongly in sports tourism as one of the drivers for helping us as an industry and as a country to continue to grow and sustain our tourism business. Baha Mar is fast becoming the venue for many international sports related events. Don’t Blink Home Run Derby just adds to the menu of sports related events that will continue to propel The Bahamas and Bahamas tourism as one of the preeminent tourism destinations in the region,” he said.

He added that both parties have similar views and goals in terms of community outreach as well as creating economic opportunities for the youth.

“We are proud to be a new partner in this very important sports thrust. We look forward to seven more years of continued partnership… I think collectively together we will help to grow this event and we want to offer you our sincerest congratulations not only for the event in December but also for the years to come,” he said.

The baseball extravaganza, which is geared toward showcasing the best talents in baseball, will commence with a kids camp on December 11 at the Andre Rodgers National Baseball Stadium.

This year will include a celebrity-studded golf tournament on Thursday, December 12 at the Royal Blue Golf Course at Baha Mar.

Two highly competitive showcases will follow at the Andre Rodgers National Baseball Stadium.

The ﬁrst event of the evening will be a high school showcase game with minority baseball prospects which will feature local players and players from overseas.

The second event will be a celebrity softball game that will bring out the old and new generation of ball players.

The main attraction of the week will be the Don’t Blink Home Run Derby to be staged on Saturday, December 14, on Montague Beach.

BUDDY, KLAY PICK UP WINS IN WEDNESDAY ACTION

By TENAJH SWEETING

Sports Reporter

BAHAMIAN sharpshooters

Chavano “Buddy” Hield and Klay Thompson both picked up victories on Wednesday night in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

“Buddy” and the Warriors upset the (7-2) Boston Celtics 118-112 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The victory placed Golden State at 7-1 for the season and at the second spot in the stacked Western Conference. Hield, who has been on a tear as of late, posted 16 points, 6 rebounds and a dime. He knocked down 6-for-11

ﬁeld goals and 4-for-7 threes in 29 minutes.

Steph Curry led the team in scoring with 27 points, seven boards and nine assists in 34 minutes. It was just his second game back from an ankle injury. The Mavericks outplayed the Chicago Bulls 119-99 last night at the American Airlines Centre in Dallas, Texas. Thompson scored 13 points, grabbed six rebounds and made 5-of10 ﬁeld goals in 25 minutes.

Warriors vs Celtics Hield checked into the game at the 5:58 mark and a few seconds later splashed a two-pointer off a Curry

assist. The Warriors trailed 14-7 during this point.

The Grand Bahamian sharpshooter made two of his four threes during this period but the Warriors still trailed 24-19 after one.

The tide shifted in Golden State’s favour in the second period as the Celtics struggled to generate offence without the services of Jaylen Brown. Moses Moody put up the ﬁnal ﬁve points for the Warriors in the second period to give the team a 51-40 double digit advantage at the break.

During the third period, Tatum managed to help the Celtics to close in 74-70 but Buddy extended the lead

SEE PAGE 19

SANDS-MOULTRIE: WE CAN HAVE MORE DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMMES

By TENAJH SWEETING Tribune Sports Reporter tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

WOMEN’S National Basketball Association (WNBA) pro Jonquel “JJ” Jones made Bahamian history as the ﬁrst woman to successfully win a WNBA Finals MVP and WNBA championship with the New York Liberty’s 3-2 series win against the Minnesota Lynx in October. With that being said, Jones’ recent accomplishments have ignited

discussions about what can be done to enhance the girls’ and women’s basketball programmes in the country.

Anastacia SandsMoultrie, who serves as president of the New Providence Women’s Basketball Association and as a head coach at St Augustine’s College (SAC), weighed in on the topic with her thoughts.

“We can have more developmental programmes for them starting from the

SEE PAGE 17

NEW York Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr, pictured here after hitting a home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the ﬁrst inning in Game 5 of the baseball World Series, is conﬁrmed to take part in

the Don’t Blink Home Run Derby.

Photo: Godofredo A Vásquez/AP

Don’t Blink home run derby returns

Bahamian professional baseball players will go head-to-head against baseball players representing the world.

Players conﬁrmed to participate in the tournament includes Roman Anthony, Ji Hwan Bae, Termarr Johnson, Willy Adames, Mark Vientos, Trey Lipscomb, Michael Harris II, Lawrence Butler, Cam Collier, Nick Gordon, Juan Hillman, Touki Toussaint, Triston McKenzie, Dom Smith, Richie Palacios, Josh Palacios, and Bahamian MLB pro Jasrado “Jazz” Chisholm Jr. Lucius Fox, co-founder of Don’t Blink Home Run Derby, thanked the Players Alliance as well as Minority

Baseball Prospects for their contributions to the event in recent years.

“We started at Freedom Farm and some kids that play at Freedom Farm did not have the necessary equipment but had the talent. They didn’t have the funds but they had the talent to make it to the major league one day. With the help of Players Alliance, we were able to donate over $200,000 in equipment to Freedom Farm and other young ball players on the island who can now get that ball, glove or bat to become the next Jazz Chisholm, Lucius Fox or Todd Isaacs. I want to thank Edwin Jackson and the Players Alliance again for believing in us and taking the

time to just show love to our island,” he said.

Fox added that partnerships with Players Alliance and Minority Baseball Prospects are very beneﬁcial in helping to showcase baseball talent.

“We are pleased to partner with them and have our showcase here. It is so important for us to have an international showcase because when we were coming up we were begging for scouts to come to the island. We would die to just show what we had in front of college coaches, major league scouts just to chase our dream so for them to come down and partner with us to help our kids… that is important to us,” he said.

Alex Weech, representing Minority Baseball

Prospects, gave special credit to the Don’t Blink Home Run Derby cofounders for putting on the successful showcase for the past six years.

“I just wanna thank Lucius, Todd and Don’t Blink because I think we became family since our ﬁrst event. We appreciate the opportunity to come around and bring some of the best United States players and tie them with some of the best players in the world and in The Bahamas… I think this is one of the biggest and best showcases in the country by far,” he said.

“We are glad to partner again with Don’t Blink… We are excited and glad to make it to year two. Next year in 2025, we plan on extending and doing a

tournament and some different events,” he said.

Edwin Jackson, representing Players Alliance, also echoed these sentiments in his remarks about the December showcase.

“We deﬁnitely want to thank Prime Minister Davis, the entire sports Ministry and the people of Nassau for the hospitality, the talent and support of the game. We want to thank Don’t Blink for all of the hard work you all are doing…What we are doing is really creating a tunnel for our youth to really prosper and do big things in life. I think it is very special and we are very honoured to be a part of that,” he said.

Miami Marlins third baseman (minors) Breyias Dean emerged victorious at the sixth edition of the

Don’t Blink Home Run Derby in Paradise. He took the win over Will Benson, of the Cincinnati Reds, 8-7 in the ﬁnal showdown.

This year’s event will be sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism & Aviation, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, Aliv, The Players Alliance, A Sure Win, Bahamas Waste, Global Sun Integration Management, Cuba Libre, Proscape, Triple A Marine, Heritage Seafood, National Sports Authority, Prime Shipping, Family Medicine Centre, M&E Limited, Dunkin’ Donuts, Lightbourne Trading Company, Baoilco Ltd, The Erris Group, Tropical Gyros, Fincastle Media Group and Happy Healing Home Care.

CHIEFS’ MAHOMES PRACTICING AS USUAL TWO DAYS AFTER TWEAKING HIS ANKLE

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer

CHIEFS quarterback Patrick Mahomes practiced as usual Wednesday and plans to be ready for this weekend’s game against the Broncos, two days after tweaking his left ankle while throwing a touchdown pass in a win over the Buccaneers. Mahomes was rolling to his right and thinking about running for a ﬁrst down as the Chiefs were trying to rally in the second half against Tampa Bay on Monday night. He suddenly saw Samaje Perine coming open and ﬂicked a pass to him in the end zone, just as his ankle caught in the soggy turf of Arrowhead Stadium and sent a sharp pain rocketing through it.

Mahomes lay on the sideline for a moment before he was helped partway across the ﬁeld, then trotted without any assistance the rest of the way to the Kansas City sideline. He was examined there but did not miss a play, eventually helping the Chiefs to another touchdown in regulation and the winning drive in overtime for a 30-24 victory over the Bucs.

“It’s doing good,” Mahomes said of his ankle Wednesday.

“Obviously went on a little bit of a roll. It’s a little sore. But I’m able to move around and looking forward to getting out in practice and seeing how I can push it as the week goes on.”

Mahomes has plenty of experience nursing ankle injuries.

The most high-proﬁle one occurred during the playoffs two seasons ago, and he needed every bit of help recovering in time to face the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Mahomes tweaked it again in the ﬁrst half but returned to lead the Chiefs to victory.

“We won’t have to back off,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said of the two-time NFL MVP. “He manages it. He stays on top of it.”

That process began immediately after Monday night’s game, then continued at home — every day made more important by the fact that Kansas City is facing the Broncos on a short week Sunday.

Mahomes was in the practice facility early Tuesday to watch game ﬁlm and get additional treatment, and he was ready for the ﬁrst practice of the week Wednesday.

“You can only do so much,” Mahomes said. “It was pretty late getting some stuff in the training room after the game, getting some

stuff to take home. Stuff you can put on overnight to reduce swelling. You come in early in the morning — it was a long day of watching ﬁlm and getting treatment, and preparing yourself for a short week.”

In other injury news, Reid said wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster still would not practice as he nurses a hamstring injury that has kept him out of most of the past three games. Defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton also was out with a bruised knee.

Reid also had no update on Charles Omenihu and Isiah Pacheco, both of whom the Chiefs hope to get back for the stretch run. Omenihu tore the ACL in his right knee in their AFC title win over Baltimore and had surgery in February, and he has spent the entire season on the physically unable-to-perform list. Pacheco has been out since Week 2, when he fractured his ﬁbula in a win over Cincinnati and landed on injured reserve following surgery.

The Chiefs have been able to overcome a host of injuries — including devastating ones to Rashee Rice and Marquise Brown that thinned out their wide receiver corps — by making some savvy moves in the front ofﬁce.

Kansas City traded for Patriots defensive end Joshua Uche just before the deadline, and he made his debut as a pass-rushing specialist in Monday night’s win over the Buccaneers. The Chiefs also signed Kareem Hunt after Pacheco’s injury, and their one-time star has delivered: He has logged at least 21 carries in each of the last four games, scoring touchdowns in all of them, and has twice eclipsed 100 yards, including the winning two-yard TD plunge in overtime against Tampa Bay.

Perhaps none of the moves has been as highproﬁle as the Chiefs’ trade with Tennessee for DeAndre Hopkins, though. The three-time All-Pro wide receiver practiced just two days before playing a limited role in a win in Las Vegas. Then, he logged a full week of work and showed out Monday night, catching eight passes for 86 yards and two scores against the Bucs.

“You just continue to get him more and more comfortable in the offense,” Mahomes said. “We move him around and let him do what he’s special at, and that’s catching the football and winning those one-onone matchups.”

KANSAS City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is helped off the ﬁeld after injury against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the second half of an NFL football game, on Monday.

Photo: Ed Zurga/AP

College football picks: Hoosiers, fourth among Big Ten teams in playoff rankings, biding their time

By ERIC OLSON AP College Football Writer

ONE of the nitpicks about the ﬁrst College Football Playoff rankings was that the committee undervalued Indiana.

The Hoosiers’ No 8 ranking — they’re in the same spot in the Associated Press Top 25 poll — puts them fourth among Big Ten teams behind No 1 Oregon, No 2 Ohio State and No 6 Penn State.

If the season ended today, Indiana would be in the 12-team bracket as the No 9 seed. The Hoosier faithful would argue they merit a higher seed. Indiana is unbeaten, and the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions each have a loss. The Hoosiers have won all nine of their games by at least 14 points and they’ve outscored their opponents by a combined 419-123.

The knock against them is their schedule, ranked 103rd strongest by ESPN. They’ve played no teams in the AP Top 25. Six of their nine opponents went into this week with losing records, one is 4-4 and two are 5-4.

First-year coach Curt Cignetti, in comments before the CFP rankings were released, seemed OK biding his time.

The Hoosiers host Michigan, another of those 5-4 teams, on Saturday. Then, after a week off, they go to Ohio State for what would be one of the season’s most anticipated games if they

get past the Wolverines.

“Every week presents its own new set of circumstances and so there’s a lot of that going on this week,” Cignetti said of the noise around his program. “I’m aware of it. But to get kind of caught up on that and lose your focus would be the kiss of death.”

The picks, with Associated Press poll rankings and lines from BetMGM Sportsbook:

Maryland at No 1 Oregon (minus 25 1/2) No one except Ohio State has come within three touchdowns of the Ducks since the ﬁrst week of September. Maryland is playing a regular-season game on the West Coast for the ﬁrst time in 15 years.

Pick: Oregon 48-20.

No 2 Georgia at No 16 Mississippi (plus 2 1/2) QB Jaxson Dart has the hot hand, and disruptive LB Suntarine Perkins leads an Ole Miss pass rush that’s racked up an FBSbest 41 sacks. Since Week 5, no FBS quarterback has thrown more interceptions than the Bulldogs’ Carson Beck (8).

Pick: Mississippi 31-28.

Purdue at No 3 Ohio State (minus 37 1/2) Buckeyes have scored 20 and 21 points in their last two games and are due to break out. They’ve outscored Purdue 100-38 in two meetings since they were upset in West Lafayette in

2018.

Pick: Ohio State 49-10.

No 4 Miami (minus 11 1/2) at Georgia Tech

Hurricanes have lost three of their last ﬁve against the Yellow Jackets, but those teams didn’t have Cam Ward. The Georgia Tech offense is coming off its worst two games of the season.

Pick: Miami 33-21.

Florida (plus 21 1/2) at No 5 Texas

Florida freshman QB DJ Lagway left last week’s game against Georgia with a hamstring injury, leaving his status uncertain for his return to his home state. Texas is coming off an open date.

Pick: Texas 35-17.

Washington at No 6 Penn State (minus 13 1/2)

The Nittany Lions have some pent-up frustration to release after losing another one to Ohio State. This is Washington’s fourth road game, and third in the Eastern time zone, since Sept. 27.

Pick: Penn State 42-24.

Mississippi State at No 7 Tennessee (minus 23 1/2)

The Vols’ Nico Iamaleava played his best game in weeks against Kentucky, and the stage is set for him to put up some huge numbers against a defense that’s allowed SEC opponents to complete 78% of their passes for 318 yards per game.

Pick: Tennessee 38-10.

Michigan (plus 14 1/2) at No 8 Indiana

Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke was sharp in his return from thumb surgery, and the Wolverines just don’t have enough offense. Hoosiers should be 10-0 when they go to Ohio State.

Pick: Indiana 30-20.

No 9 BYU (minus 4) at Utah Cougars lost nine in a row in this rivalry before winning 26-17 at home last year. They haven’t won in Salt Lake City since 2006.

Pick: BYU 27-16.

Florida State at No 10

Notre Dame (minus 25 1/2)

The last time these teams met, in 2021, FSU backup QB McKenzie Milton put a scare into the ninth-ranked Irish, who squandered an 18-point lead before winning 41-38 in overtime. Don’t expect the Seminoles to put up the same ﬁght this time.

Pick: Notre Dame 37-10.

No 11 Alabama at No 14

LSU (plus 3)

These are two teams battling for spots on the playoff bracket. Alabama would be in it now; LSU would be close. Both are coming off open dates. Tigers get the edge in a night game in Death Valley.

Pick: LSU 28-27.

Nevada at No 12 Boise

State (minus 24 1/2)

National rushing leader

Ashton Jeanty of Boise State averaged 4.3 yards per carry his last two games, about half his season average. This is an opportunity to jump-start his fading Heisman Trophy campaign.

Pick: Boise State 49-21.

No 17 Iowa State (minus 3) vs. Kansas The Cyclones have gotten off to slow starts in their past four games, and it caught up to them last week when Texas Tech handed them their ﬁrst loss. Kansas has won last two meetings. This one’s at Arrowhead Stadium.

Pick: Iowa State 31-24.

No 18 Army (minus 5 1/2) at North Texas Army QB Bryson Daily, who missed last week’s win over Air Force because of an undisclosed injury, is trending toward a return. The Mean Green average 41 points per game.

Pick: Army 42-27.

No 19 Clemson at Virginia Tech (plus 6 1/2)

The Tigers lost control of their destiny in the ACC with last week’s home loss to Louisville. They’ve won six straight against the Hokies since 2007, but Virginia Tech has proved to be a tough out this season.

Pick: Clemson 28-24.

Utah State at No 20

Washington State (minus 20 1/2)

Cougars have won three straight, and dual-threat John Mateer is the best

under-the-radar quarterback in the country. Utah State ranks 133rd out of 134 FBS teams in scoring defense.

Pick: Washington State 45-21.

No 21 Colorado at Texas Tech (plus 3 1/2) Buffaloes come out of their open date having won ﬁve of six, bowl eligible and in the thick of the Big 12 race. The Red Raiders showed moxie last week, driving for the winning touchdown against Iowa State after losing the lead with just over 2 minutes left.

Pick: Colorado 35-34.

Virginia at No 23 Pittsburgh (minus 7 1/2) Pittsburgh got embarrassed at SMU in its ﬁrst loss and looks to rebound. Virginia is in the meat of its schedule and has lost three in a row.

Pick: Pittsburgh 34-24.

South Carolina (minus 3 1/2) at No 24 Vanderbilt Gamecocks are better than their 5-3 record indicates, and they’ve got momentum from a 24-point win over what was a top-10 Texas A&M team. Vanderbilt plays everybody close. Pick: South Carolina 27-21.

AP predictions scorecard Last week: Straight-up — 12-3; Against spread — 8-7. Season: Straight-up — 151-39; Against spread — 98-91.

SANDS-MOULTRIE: WE CAN HAVE MORE DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMMES

from page 15

mini level and our focus has to be on development and not only just one time at the high school or night league level. It has to be across the board. In my view and opinion, there is no development in the high schools. I am looking at some teams and the coaches are just in it for the money. The girls are not developing and the skill level isn’t there,” she said. The NPWBA president emphasised that it is

important to place the same emphasis on the women’s programmes that is placed on the men’s programmes in addition to adequate funding.

“If we can just get that up and running and take our time like we do with the guys and put it into females I think we can get a whole lot more done. Also, in terms of funding we do not get that much funding even though you may ask you get denied most times to assist with females,” she said. The 2024 WNBA champion and Finals MVP made

it to the WNBA Finals four times before having a successful breakthrough to end the season. She advanced to the big dance twice with the Connecticut Sun and made another two trips with the New York Liberty. Despite reaching the pinnacle of WNBA success, Jones had to leave Holmes Rock during her early teen years to pursue her dream of having a successful pro career. According to SandsMoultrie, women’s basketball in the country can experience

more success if there were ample facilities for young ladies to train at on a consistent basis.

“Basketball needs facilities. We can count Sir Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium out because there is always something going on at Sir Kendal and you can never get it for what it was actually built for. We need more facilities around and more parks. You can even close in some parks so even when it rains people can still go outdoors and still workout,” she said.

The SAC senior girls

head coach said there needs to be more interest from young ladies in the sport as well but she believes that Jones’ historic feat will serve as a conﬁdence booster across the board.

“That is a conﬁdence booster right there for them. We have to get them more into female college basketball and the WNBA because they will watch more of the NBA and the men’s league. I think this year in the WNBA has set a precedent in terms of what females can do in basketball

not just here in The Bahamas but in the world,” she said.

Jones intends to make a direct impact on girl’s and women’s basketball with her Liberty teammates in upcoming weeks.

The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture (MOYSC) will host two motorcades on New Providence and Grand Bahama on November 16 and 18 respectively.

The decorated WNBA pro will also host workshops and clinics on both islands during this time.

INDIANA quarterback Kurtis Rourke looks to throw during the ﬁrst half of an NCAA college football game against Michigan State, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in East Lansing, Mich.

Photo: Al Goldis/AP

Barcelona, Inter and upstart Brest

win again in Champions League

By GRAHAM DUNBAR

AP Sports Writer

BARCELONA and Inter Milan won again in the Champions League on Wednesday though both former title holders are looking up in the standings toward upstart newcomer Brest.

Aston Villa started the week atop the 36-team table but its winning run ended after a bizarre penalty was awarded when defender Tyrone Mings picked up the ball in the area at Club Brugge, resulting in a 1-0 loss that sent the English club plummeting to eighth place.

Paris Saint-Germain, in its ﬁrst season without Kylian Mbappé, trails far behind in 25th after Atletico Madrid scored in stoppage time to seal a 2-1 win for the Spanish team at Parc des Princes.

Barcelona’s blistering scoring form continued in a 5-2 win at Red Star Belgrade — a seventh straight win since the start of October at a rate of four goals per game. Robert Lewandowski scored twice and has 21 this season.

Inter Milan stiﬂed Arsenal in a 1-0 win at San Siro sealed by Hakan Çalhano lu’s penalty in ﬁrsthalf stoppage time.

Inter is unbeaten on 10 points and in ﬁfth place, one below Brest which won 2-1 at Sparta Prague. The French debutant looks sure to advance to the knockout phase starting in February.

Atalanta won 2-0 at Stuttgart to stay unbeaten on eight points and Salzburg got its ﬁrst goals and points in a 3-1 win at Feyenoord.

Bayern Munich won 1-0 at home to Benﬁca in a game that was delayed 15 minutes by crowd congestion and then was played

in a muted atmosphere because of a medical incident for a fan.

Shakhtar Donetsk playmaker Heorhiy Sudakov had a ﬁne assist and an even better goal in a 2-1 win for the Ukrainian champion against Young Boys. Shakhtar’s No 10 showed why he is expected to be the club’s next big-money sale. Liverpool, which on Tuesday routed Bayer Leverkusen 4-0, leads the

standings at the midway point of the eight-round programme. Liverpool is the only team with four straight wins, while ﬁve teams have four losses. They are Leipzig, Sturm Graz, Young Boys, Red Star and Slovan Bratislava.

Two Italian teams – Inter Milan and Atalanta – have yet to concede a goal in four games. Another Italian side, Bologna, is the only

team with no goals scored.

Bizarre penalty against Villa

Villa had led the standings in the new leaguephase format after three straight wins without conceding a goal — and it took a bizarre incident before goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez was eventually beaten.

Mings was punished for picking up the ball when Martínez seemed to restart play with a goal kick passed forward to his teammate. Mings walked a couple steps to gather the ball with his left hand and returned to place it in the six-yard box.

“It’s the biggest mistake I witnessed in my career,” Villa coach Unai Emery said. “It has only happened one time in all my life. Today.”

Brugge captain Hans Vanaken placed the 52nd-minute spot-kick to Martínez’s left as the World Cup-winning Argentina goalkeeper dived to his right.

Bayern and Dinamo

POLICE ofﬁcers and paramedics carry a stretcher down the stands during a medical emergency during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Bayern Munich and SL

in Munich, Germany, on Wednesday. It was later conﬁrmed that a fan died while being transported to hospital. Bayern fans did not sing or chant during the game out of respect for the fan.

Next up

The ﬁfth round in three weeks’ time has perhaps the stellar attraction of 144 games in the league phase:

It was the standout result of the inaugural week of the new Champions League in September: Bayern Munich 9, Dinamo Zagreb 2. It was the ﬁrst time a team had scored nine times in a game in the 32-year Champions League era, and Dinamo ﬁred its coach two days later. Since then? Bayern lost twice, including a 4-1 rout at Barcelona, and Dinamo won twice. At the end of play Wednesday, Bayern was 17th on six points, one place below Dinamo on seven. If those placings hold until January, they meet again twice more in the knockout playoffs round.

Liverpool vs. Real Madrid. That game on Nov 27 is a rematch of the 2022 and 2018 ﬁnals, both won by Madrid, and the 1981 European Cup title match that Liverpool won. There is another

BARCELONA’S ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI, right, celebrates after scoring during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Red Star and Barcelona at the Rajko Mitic Stadium in Belgrade, Serbia, on Wednesday, November 6.

Photo: Darko Vojinovic/AP

INTER Milan’s Hakan Calhanoglu, left, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side’s opening goal during a Champions League opening phase soccer match between Inter Milan and Arsenal at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024.

Photo: Luca Bruno/AP

BRUGGE’s goalkeeper Simon Mignolet celebrates after the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Club Brugge and Aston Villa at Jan Breydelstadion in Bruges, Belgium, Wednesday, Nov 6, 2024. Brugge won the match 1-0. Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

Benﬁca,

Photo: Matthias Schrader/AP

Buddy, Klay pick up wins in Wednesday action

from page 15

to seven (77-70) with a big three at the 2:25 mark.

Despite that, the Celtics were just behind by 1 (8281) after three quarters of play. The ﬁnal quarter came down to the wire for both teams.

The Warriors held a 115-112 lead and forward Draymond Green cashed in a free throw with 11 seconds remaining. Warriors newcomer Kyle Anderson was fouled at the 2.4 seconds mark and connected on two freebies for the win. GSW outrebounded Boston 53 to 47 in the narrow victory.

Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 32 points in the loss.

Mavericks vs Bulls

The 2024 Western Conference champions nearly shot 50 per cent in Wednesday’s contest to defeat the Bulls.

Dallas held the Bulls to 41.9 per cent shooting while lighting it up for 48.4 per cent on ﬁeld goals.

After getting out to a 24-11 early in the ﬁrst period, the Mavs were ahead just 32-24 to start the second quarter.

Former OKC Thunder Josh Giddey helped the Bulls to shave the margin down to 6 (43-37) with 5:55 on the clock but Dallas

closed out the half in the driver’s seat 56-45.

The game got away from the Bulls in the third period. Thompson helped the Mavs to pile on the points with an open three at the 8:46 mark.

The Mavs were in charge 69-45 during this mark and never looked back the rest of the way.

Point guard Luka Doncic led all scorers with 27 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds.

Dallas now sits at 5-3 for the season in the Western Conference.

The Mavs will return to action on Friday night versus the Phoenix Suns at 7:30pm. The Warriors will face the red hot Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday as well at 7:30pm.

GOLDEN State Warriors guard Buddy Hield dunks the ball during the ﬁrst half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, on Monday.

Photo: Terrance Williams/AP

Honoured for work to map out the nation

JERMAINE JOHNSON NAMED EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR

JERMAINE Johnson quietly goes about mapping vital areas and collecting data from the Bahamian landscape, but his work speaks volumes. He is a GIS Technician II for Bahamas National Geographic Information Systems (BNGIS) within the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MENR).

The Geographic Information (GIS data) he collects is vital, because it supports government decision-making. He performs spatial collection using Global Positioning System (GPS) and other advanced technology tools, and helps create metadata. His work must be accurate as he handles massive amounts of data, and he must edit and interpret that data for the beneﬁt of Bahamians.

‘Just like climate, the GIS ﬁeld is active and fast-evolving, which gives me the opportunity to work with the latest technology - such as drones, remote sensing, and advanced spatial analysis software.’

Jermaine excels in

collaborative environments. He encourages team members to think creatively while maintaining clarity in everyday operations. Despite his naturally quiet demeanor, Jermaine’s efforts did not go unnoticed. The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources named him Employee of the Year 2024/2025. He explained the importance of his work: “As GIS Techs, we use GPS devices and mobile GIS apps to capture the exact location and attributes of key features - like boundaries, infrastructure,or environmental elements. Depending on the nature of the data needed, we may also take photos or use drones for aerial imagery. Other projects may allow for additional data from sensors, such as air or water

quality, and sometimes notes or local insights are gathered to provide context. As the data is collected we always ensure the quality of the data by checking for accuracy and completeness in real time, and we troubleshoot any issues that may come up, making any necessary adjustments to the method used for the collection.”

Jermaine thoroughly enjoys his work, noting that with climate change

becoming the focal point over the recent years, GIS has become a high demand across multiple industries - from urban planning and environmental management to emergency response and public health.

“It gives me the chance to have a different work day each day,” he said.

“Just like climate, the GIS ﬁeld is active and fastevolving, which gives me the opportunity to work with the latest technology

- such as drones, remote sensing, and advanced spatial analysis software. This pushes me to have more analytical and critical thinking skills. It also allows me to enjoy a variety of ofﬁces as the collection of data may vary from working in a traditional cubical to driving an ATV through the rough terrain of our islands.”

Jermaine has ten years of experience in project management, relationship building, and IT systems across government, technology, and human resources sectors. He holds a postgraduate diploma in human resources management, a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems, and a certificate in hospitality and tourism management. He is committed to high performance standards and consistently strives to deliver quality results. His resourcefulness and solution-oriented mindset enable him to align outcomes with organisational goals and client needs, whether in fast-paced or slower environments. With a blend of technical expertise and a commitment to excellence, Jermaine Johnson continues to make significant contributions to the fields of project management and IT within the government sector. His ability to foster collaboration and innovate processes positions him as a valuable asset that the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources values, deeming him as an example of professionalism that others could follow, especially during his time as Employee of the Year.

JERMAINE Johnson has been named employee of the year by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

Senator calls potential evictions from shelter ‘heartbreaking’

AN OPPOSITION Sena-

tor has spoken out after a protest was held by residents due to be evicted from the Poinciana Inn shelter.

A blind woman, a mother of six, and a dialysis patient pleaded for more time at the Poinciana Inn, a temporary shelter from where they face imminent eviction.

The group, along with others, gathered outside the shelter on Monday, holding signs to protest their

situation.

Cherely Kelly, assistant director of the Ministry of Social Services responsible for temporary shelters, told reporters that as a shortterm facility, residents are expected to stay for a maximum of three months.

Assistant director Kelly said some residents have been in the shelter for as long as two years.

Shelter administrator Dawn Darling emphasised that the facility has an exit strategy to help residents

transition out and achieve self-sufﬁciency.

FNM Senator Maxine Seymour called the plea from those facing eviction “heartbreaking”.

She said: “While the Davis administration pats itself on the back, claiming a vibrant economy, increased tourism arrivals and a generally growing economic environment, the reports from the ground do not support those assertions.

“The plea from persons facing eviction from the

Social Services Shelter is heartbreaking and I call upon the government to hear their cry. What are they suppose to do now that they are faced with the possibility of being homeless by the end of the week?”

She added: “A compassionate society cannot set arbitrary limits on shelter assistance without also ensuring safe, sustainable housing solutions for those in crisis. It is my considered view that the government should and must address

these needs. Single mothers and their children cannot be left in limbo, counting on programmes that may take years to provide real, measurable support.

“I urge this administration to prioritise tangible, caring and immediate alternate solutions to assist these women and children in genuine need, through no fault of their own.

“This is a time for action, not rhetoric. If the government would simply consider reducing its travel budget,

its consultancy budget or its retiree rehiring budget, quite possibly additional resources can be freed up to help ﬁnd alternative accommodation for vulnerable families rather than leaving them with no place to turn.

“The Opposition stands ready to work with the government and community partners to create a more effective, humane approach to shelter and housing assistance, one that honors the dignity and needs of every Bahamian family.”

Second Sunday hot meals at Moseff House

BAHAMAS Feeding

Network volunteers and Moseff House Ministry will partner for a highly anticipated community gathering, providing words of encouragement and hundreds of hot meals on November 10 at the little cottage called Moseff House on Fox Hill Road.

The event will be the second in a new series of second Sunday of the month feedings, reviving a popular pre-Covid tradition of volunteers prepping, cooking and plating piping hot lunches packed with nutrition and served with love.

The Sunday feedings add a second day of the week to the partnering organisations’ work to ease the pain of hunger. Moseff House Ministry has been funding Thursday feedings for the past year.

When the initial Sunday feeding was held in October, it once again brought together a community, united in prayer in a church without walls and united in need for a meal that would stave off the hunger that for many is a daily struggle.

The kitchen in the little cottage, the outdoor grills, the bustling volunteers this time were joined by a group of young people wanting to give back. Volunteers stirred and hauled huge vats of peas ’n rice. Others gently turned wellmarinated chicken on the grill. Neighbours gathered,

openly grateful.

“This is wonderful,” said Sean Perigord. “There ain’ no shame in this. I got $4 in my pocket, now I got food and I can use the $4 to put gas in the car.”

Volunteers knit together the sturdy fabric of the two non-proﬁts, BFN and Moseff House. People like Liz, who has been helping feed the hungry for 18 years, even before the feeding network was a dream.

She shows up at 4 am on feeding days to help prep the dozens of chickens, season the peas ‘n rice, marinate the beets. A few hours later, she heads to her day job at a nearby primary school, and at the end of the school day, she’s back at BFN.

People like Recina Ferguson Scully or Scully as everyone calls her, the woman known as the heart and soul of the Bahamas Feeding Network, a retired teacher who discovered her real passion is taking care of those who would go to bed hungry if she could not ﬁnd something for them or their family to eat.

“This, feeding people, knowing they will not go to bed hungry, is what I love,” says Scully, between the hugs she is getting and giving others.

Many of the volunteers have been with BFN since it started in 2013 with a dozen churches and feeding organisations as beneﬁciaries. Now there are more

than 100 and BFN has provided over four million meals.

“These are the people who make it possible, the compassionate volunteers who cook on Thursdays and now one Sunday a month and pack groceries and ﬁeld calls from the sick and hungry all week,” said Dianne Bingham, Moseff House trustee. “We could not do what we do without them. More importantly, without them The Bahamas would be a far harder place for the needy.” BFN executive director Nicolette Archer added praise for the volunteers.

“While we work hard every day to raise funds to keep the feeding going and ease the pain of hunger, the volunteers work hard to deliver the food parcels, the coupons, pour their energy into creating hot meals,” said Archer.

For many, the resumption of Sunday hot meals and the presence of former BFN executive director Philip Smith, now a board member and executive chairman of the Agricultural Development Organization, made it feel like old times.

Said one recipient holding a bag ﬁlled with six meals to take to family and friends, “Thank God for Bahamas Feeding Network and this place (Moseff House) and the rest of the good people in the world. No matter how bad it gets, it makes you believe.”

PICTURED are participants at the ﬁrst event held at Moseff House on October 13.

Photos: Cay Photography/DPA

Sir Ian Winder awarded ‘Super Lion’ honour

THE Chancellor Hall

Super Lions Banquet, an esteemed event celebrating the achievements of distinguished alumni of Chancellor Hall, University of the West Indies (UWI), proudly awarded the prestigious “Super Lion Award” to Sir Ian Winder, Chief Justice of The Bahamas, for his outstanding contributions to the legal profession and society.

Sir Ian Winder, a Chancellorite who began his journey at UWI in 1988, has made signiﬁcant strides in the judicial landscape of The Bahamas and the broader Caribbean.

With an impressive career spanning several decades, Sir Ian has held numerous positions of inﬂuence, including Crown Counsel in the Attorney General’s Ofﬁce, Partner at Davis & Co, and Judge of the Court of Appeal in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

His dedication culminated in his appointment as Chief Justice of The Bahamas in 2022, a role in which he has brought unparalleled dedication and commitment to justice.

Reﬂecting on his time at UWI, Sir Ian credits the values instilled at

Chancellor Hall for shaping his career and life. Known to his peers during his orientation days as “Ben Johnson,” Sir Ian embraced the hall’s traditions, forming lasting connections and values that guided his ascent in the legal fraternity. His academic journey at UWI included earning an LLB with honours and later an LLM in Commercial and Corporate Law, underscoring his deep commitment to academic and professional excellence.

Sir Ian, in his reply, noted, “At the end of orientation we all had an appreciation for how special Chancellor Hall was; the rich history and traditions we had to preserve. On campus Chancellor Manz led all aspects of campus life – academics, student governance and sports. As a ‘foreign’ student, I developed a deep sense of regionalism and unwavering love for the Caribbean… and lifelong friendships continue.”

Sir Ian’s accolades extend beyond his title of Chief Justice. Knighted by King Charles III for his service to the Bahamian legal system, he is also a recipient of the Smokey Joe Award from the Eugene Dupuch

Law School and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of The Bahamas. He currently serves as Chairman of the Court Services Council and the Judicial and Legal Services Commission in The Bahamas and holds memberships in several international legal organizations, including the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute and the International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Professionals.

The Super Lion Award acknowledges alumni who have demonstrated excellence and made signiﬁcant impacts locally and internationally, embodying Chancellor Hall’s commitment to producing transformative leaders in all ﬁelds. Sir Ian joins an elite group of past awardees who continue to inspire future generations.

The Chancellor Hall Super Lions Banquet took place at the Mona Visitors Lodge, UWI Mona Campus, where attendees from across the Caribbean gathered to celebrate Chancellor Hall’s legacy of excellence and honour Sir Ian’s monumental achievements.

C&W FOUNDATION HOSTS ANNUAL FUNDRAISING GALA

THE Cable & Wireless

Charitable Foundation

(CWCF) recently hosted its annual fundraising gala, bringing together partners, supporters, and stakeholders for a memorable evening celebrating community empowerment and digital inclusion across the Caribbean.

The event, which took place aboard the SeaFair Luxury Yacht in Miami, helped raise vital funds to support impactful programs, including the JUMP initiative, which equips thousands of Caribbean families with subsidised internet connectivity, devices, and digital skills training.

“Tonight is more than just a gathering; it is a collective movement to uplift communities across the region. Through our JUMP program, we have already connected over 4,000 families, breaking down barriers to technology, and opening new possibilities for the next generation. This evening’s support will help us expand these initiatives, ensuring that every family has access to the resources they need to thrive,” said Inge Smidts, chief executive ofﬁcer, C&W Communications.

Guests were joined by world-class athletes and Olympians from across the Caribbean who lent their support to the effort. These included ﬁve-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica and compatriots Shericka

Jackson, Wayne Pinnock and Charokee Young; and Devynne Charlton of The Bahamas, the world record holder in the 60-meter hurdles.

Rosario Veras, executive director of the CWCF, highlighted the spirit of partnership driving the Foundation’s mission.

“Our progress would not be possible without the support of our incredible partners, each contributing to a larger vision of a digitally inclusive Caribbean. From the generous contributions of our sponsors to the dedication of our volunteers, tonight we unite with a shared commitment to bridge the digital divide,” she said.

The important work of the Flow Foundation in Jamaica was also highlighted with a special tribute in recognition of 20 years of unbroken community support.

“For 20 years, the Flow Foundation has been a proud supporter of community-focused initiatives, and it has become a beacon of hope and opportunity in Jamaica, driving initiatives that foster greater digital inclusion, education, and community empowerment. Their impact has been truly transformative, and tonight we celebrate their extraordinary contributions,” said Smidts.

Smidts and Veras presented Stephen Price, general manager of Flow Jamaica, with a special token of appreciation

for the work of the Flow Foundation.

“For two decades now, Flow Jamaica has been committed to empowering communities and making a meaningful impact. This honour represents the dedication of everyone involved – from our team members to our partners and supporters. Together, we are building a more connected and inclusive Jamaica, and I am grateful for the continued support that allows us to bring digital opportunities and essential resources to families across the island,” said Price.

The gala’s programme also included a preview of an exclusive fashion showcase by Caribbean designer Yas González.

SUPER Lion awardees, including Sir Ian Winder, right.

SUPER Lion awardee Sir Ian Winder, Chief Justice of The Bahamas, receives his award from fellow Super Lion Professor Trevor Munroe.