A TRADE union leader yesterday asserted that “a promise is a comfort to a fool” as “nothing in writing” has been received following a “rushed” late November meeting with the Prime Minister.
Dr Charelle Lockhart, the Consultant Physicians Staff Association (CPSA) president, said she sat in on a “rushed meeting” with Philip Davis KC on November 22 concerning the lack of health insurance for members, plus issues about clocking in and out for work in the public health facilities including the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH).
While Dr Lockhart added that Mr Davis agreed with many of ideas shared by the union, she is still waiting on a promised follow-up and written confirmation
that he backs the CPSA’s position, adding: “We are waiting to get that in writing before we celebrate.
“So we had meetings but a promise is a comfort to a fool, if you ask me. If nothing is in writing, and we have nothing in writing from the Prime Minister... We had a meeting where we exchanged some ideas verbally. There were some fundamental and key things for us that he agreed with us on. However, we have none of that in writing and we have not had a follow up with him.
“He said that we would follow up within a week, and I understand that he is super busy and some other things came up that is challenging the Government, I get it. But we have had nothing in writing and, in order for us to resume negotiations, we need to have the Prime Minister’s thoughts in writing because they’re going to tell us they
didn’t hear nothing from the Prime Minister.”
Dr Lockhart said she sent an e-mail on November 28 to Mr Davis, and copied Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, Obie Ferguson on it, requesting acknowledgement.
“Nobody has acknowledged receipt of my letter,”
Dr Lockhart said.
“I don’t have an acknowledgment and so I sent that letter on the 28 and I sent a follow-up email to his permanent secretary today, asking for acknowledgement and for him to kind of remind the Prime Minister to take a look at our letter and to give some kind of response.
“We’re putting our confidence in the Prime Minister that the things that we agreed upon in that meeting, that was held with his team as well as Mr Ferguson and us, that those things will be upheld and that we would have a
Chamber chief: ‘I have to believe’ in GB Power plan
By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter
jsimmons@tribunemedia.net
THE Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce’s president yesterday said he is expecting businesses to enjoy the traditional “boost in activity” over the Christmas holiday with several already starting their promotions.
“I expect we get will get a boost in activity over the Christmas holiday. Businesses that tend to be more involved are pushing to attract customers with some initiatives on the ground,
and I expect something to happen,” said Mr Carey. He added that he is optimistic for 2025 with several projects targeted at Grand Bahama well underway, and said he is “confident” the $2bn investments promised by the Davis administration will be delivered despite ongoing friction with the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA). “I really look forward to some of the things that are promised starting to happen. There’s a lot of promising things that I see, and I’m very confident that things are going to move even with the nuances of
the Government and the Port Authority and their little fight,” said Mr Carey.
“I think people are ready, and I think they’re willing to do their part to make things go, so I’m excited about the possibilities, and I think 2025 is going to really be different, notwithstanding some calamity, but I really expect things to be going for Grand Bahama in 2025.”
Grand Bahama Power Company’s top executive, Dave McGregor told Tribune Business last week, that the utility’s largest generation unit, whose repeated mechanical failures were
mangrove forests and coral reefs, the latter of which was exposed to a “devastating mass bleaching event” in summer 2023 that took just a few weeks.
“Because the Bahamian economy is heavily reliant on tourism, the country is especially vulnerable to the growing intensity of tropical cyclones and storm surges,” The Bahamas argued in its written submissions.
“Thirty-four percent of tourism-related businesses in New Providence and Paradise Island are located in a Category One storm surge zone, putting them at risk when a Category One storm hits.
“More than 83 percent of those businesses are located in a Category Five storm surge zone. It is currently estimated that extreme weather events caused by climate change will cause a loss of up to 9 percent of The Bahamas’ GDP (gross domestic product) annually by 2030, and a 34 percent loss in coastal value in a 50-year timeframe.”
The Bahamas’ low-lying nature makes it “extremely susceptible to the effects of sea level rise”, and the Government’s written submissions to the ICJ argued: “Alarmingly, it is estimated that global mean sea level will rise between 0.43 to 0.84 metres by 2100, which would spell disaster for The Bahamas.
“In comparison to neighbouring island nations, The Bahamas confronts ‘by far’ the greatest proportional threat from sea level rise given that 32 percent of its land, 25 percent of its population and 13 percent of its Internet infrastructure are less than 0.5 metres above sea level....
“Coastal erosion and flooding caused by rising sea levels poses another serious threat. The Bahamas is predicted to suffer the largest loss of shore in the Caribbean region by 2050, estimated at between 55 percent to 59 percent. It is also estimated that by 2100 there will be a total loss of all sandy beaches in the country.”
Pointing to the economic consequences for the tourism-dependent Bahamas, the Government added: “This loss of the coastline will have significant adverse socio-economic and cultural consequences for the Bahamian people. For example, the natural harbours along waterfronts are the site for major commercial developments, such as shops, high-scale hotels and residential buildings.
“There are ‘serious economic and social implications’ for the tourism sector which constitutes more than 50 percent of GDP, and for communities where the coastline becomes uninhabitable due to sea level rise. It is currently predicted that even one metre of sea level rise would place 36 percent of major tourism properties, 38 percent of airports, 14 percent of road networks and 90 percent of seaports at risk.
“In addition, up to 51 percent of tourism-related properties in New Providence and Paradise Island would be vulnerable to a Category One storm and up to 90 percent to a Category Five storm in a one-metre of sea level rise scenario,” it warned.
“Coastal inundation and loss will also have adverse effects on cultural heritage and the way of life of the Bahamian people, who will invariably be deprived of the traditional, economic and recreational uses of their coastal territory.”
The environmental fall-out also threatens to negatively impact a fisheries industry which generates $80m in annual foreign currency export earnings plus is estimated to have a $500m value or economic impact from recreational fishing alone.
Turning to seagrass meadows specifically, The Bahamas warned: “These organisms constitute important carbon sinks, and crucially support biodiversity, water quality, fisheries and coastal protection, along with providing recreational and cultural value. The Bahamas holds
follow-up from his team, hopefully before the end of this week, because this would be week number two.
“And so we’re positively awaiting something in writing. Having nothing in writing still leaves us in limbo as if we did not have the meeting.” The CPSA’s previous industrial agreement ended in 2021, “and the administration changed somewhere in between there.”
Ms Lockhart added that they received a “final offer” from Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, ending the negotiations, which they did not agree to. “Our understanding of negotiations is that you talk until you come to an agreement,” she said. “Both sides. And that was not done.”
According to Hinsey McKenzie, the Bahamas Air Traffic Controllers Union’s (BATCU)
largely responsible for the load shedding and electricity outages that plagued Grand Bahama over the summer months, is set to return to service before Christmas after undergoing extensive repairs in Florida.
Mr McGregor, GB Power’s president as well as Caribbean chief operating officer for Emera, the Canadian utility giant and its 100 percent owner, added that it is now “revisiting” its electricity generation plan to make sure all eventualities are covered in time for summer 2025’s peak load demand as he conceded “there’s a lot of work to do” to ensure sustained reliability.
Mr Carey said he believes GB Power is “deadly serious” about ensuring it has enough generation capacity to avoid a repeat of the frequent outages experienced
value of about $3.2m per square mile per year.
the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem in the ocean, covering an estimated area of 67,000−92,500 square kilometres.
“Bahamian seagrass can store between 35.7m and 3.9bm megagrams of carbon and between 103 and 123 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. The Bahamas is thus viewed as ‘a global hot spot of seagrass distribution and blue carbon pool’, and is one of only 13 countries that incorporate seagrass in their Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement.
“In fact, seagrass ecosystems in The Bahamas have been recognised as playing a critical role in climate change mitigation. However, seagrass has been declining globally at a rate of 1 to 2 percent per year, partially due to climate change. The evidence suggests that carbon capture has been decreasing in The Bahamas since the 1980s, reducing coastal protection against sea level rise and hurricanes,” it added.
“The absorption of atmospheric carbon by seagrass beds and mangroves is also of economic significance to The Bahamas. Seagrass beds are an important basis of the Blue Carbon Credits, a programme enabling entities to offset their carbon emissions by purchasing blue carbon credits equivalent to stocks of carbon dioxide sequestered in seagrass beds in The Bahamas.
“It is anticipated that Blue Carbon Credits on the open market can generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year in critical revenue to The Bahamas. The destruction of seagrass beds in The Bahamas will put this opportunity at risk.”
As for mangroves, which also capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, The Bahamas said: “The Bahamas is home to some of the largest mangrove ecosystems in the Caribbean, with the total estimated at 612,000 acres. They are a tourist attraction and are a source of provisions to locals, with an estimated
president, there has been progress on their grievances with the expectation that the access road to the control tower at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) will be moved to a new agreed-upon location starting “at least by six months from now”. This comes after a November 22 meeting with the Government leading to the shared view between TUC president, Mr Ferguson, and Mr Mckenzie that a strike is unlikely. “The agreed location is after you pass the water tanks or the osmosis plant on JFK West heading towards the Airport Industrial Park. The access road will go in between Runway 14 and Runway 10,” Mr McKenzie said.
According to Mr McKenzie, the access road as it is now is a “safety concern”. He explained: “The access road was built in the landing zone too close to the
this year. He speculated that the utility was not adequately funded by its parent to undergo all the necessary projects, but is confident it will resolve its issues.
“They’ve said it. I have to believe it, but they are business people, they’re not playing. I think maybe their parent isn’t funding them the way they ought to be funded to do all the stuff they need to do, but I believe they’re deadly serious about turning the corner,” said Mr Carey.
“The fact is that they’re trying. I believe that they will, by and large, resolve the problem. And it has to be, because the first quarter is going to grow and we’re going to need the power.”
Mr Carey said that with several major investment projects such as Carnival Cruise Line’s $600m Celebration Cay private
“However, these ecosystems are also under attack from the deleterious impacts of climate-induced changes to the weather and the marine environment. For example, over 90 percent of viable mangroves have been lost in The Bahamas due to an extreme weather event, with 73.8 percent of mangrove ecosystems in Grand Bahama and 40.1 percent in Abaco classified as ‘[d]amaged’ or ‘[d]estroyed’” due to Hurricane Dorian.
Summing up, The Bahamas told the ICJ: “The picture described above is desperately bleak. It makes clear that The Bahamas faces an existential and catastrophic threat from the impacts of climate change.
runway. It is a safety concern and cannot pass an ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) audit. During night time and bad weather, when controllers drive that road with high beam light it can affect pilot vision when aircraft are landing.
“When you drive on that road your vehicle insurance ceases. So if you get into an accident with another company vehicle or an aircraft, you have no insurance coverage. Every company is supposed to have insurance coverage to operate on airside but recently a controller got into an accident on that road but no one wants to take responsibility. I hope I was able to clarify the issue with the access road.”
As it pertains to other concerns the union had, Mr McKenzie said they have been dealt with at the same meeting.
port set to begin operations next year, along with construction on Weller Development’s Six Senses resort and the Grand Bahama Shipyard’s $665m dock expansion, there is a need for more power generation.
He added that another pharmaceutical manufacturer may eventually decide to purchase the former PharmaChem Technologies site and that, too, will increase the demand on GB Power. “We’re going to be demanding more power,” said Mr Carey. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with PharmaChem, but I truly believe that at some point another player is going to come in, and the bottom line is it’s going to be more demand, and I believe they’re going to get ready for that.”
Governance reformers: Police chief’s ‘bribe call’ not sufficient
effective in the long-term and need to be supported by the necessary systems and legal frameworks that give anti-corruption ‘whistleblowers’ confidence their identities will be safeguarded, they will be protected from retribution and the information supplied will be investigated in the proper and confidential way.
And, while backing many of the reforms outlined by Mr Fernander as well as the commissioner’s reminder that corruption-related woes extend far beyond the police force, Mr Aubry said several of the measures discussed - such as civilian oversight of the Royal Bahamas Police Force - are nothing new and have been suggested many times in recent years.
Pointing out that a reactive, knee-jerk approach is unlikely to produce sustained long-term solutions, the ORG chief added that The Bahamas has seemingly missed numerous
opportunities to get ahead of events such as last week’s US federal indictment through fully implementing and enacting reforms such as the Integrity Commission and Ombudsman. Mr Fernander, in his address, identified the ‘payto-play’ culture that is rife through many public sector agencies when it comes to companies and individuals seeking the necessary permits and approvals required for them to move forward.
Referring to a recent Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report, whose findings were disclosed in Tribune Business, the police commissioner said: “Unfortunately, corruption in our country goes beyond law enforcement. According to a recent IDB report, nearly three-quarters of Bahamian firms admitted to paying bribes to obtain permits or access basic public services.
“This report is a damning indictment, not just of the systems we’ve allowed to fester, but of the culture we’ve let grow in our
country. I’m asking you now: if you’ve ever been asked to pay a bribe, come forward, no matter how big or small. We need to know whether it was for a permit, a favour or to make something happen faster.
“The sooner people start speaking up, the sooner we can start breaking the cycle. The IDB report confirms what we already know: Corruption has become normalised in too many corners of our society. It will take all of us working together to change it. This approach is about creating a system in which honesty has a chance to flourish, and wrongdoing has no place to hide. A fairer, more just society benefits everyone.”
Mr Aubry, agreeing with the sentiments voiced by the police commissioner, told Tribune Business: “That’s the root of the problem; this thing being ingrained in the culture. Because the change needs to be systemic, when it’s done proactively it has a better shot at sticking, but when it’s done in response to something like
this the solutions tend to be situational
“This requires a whole of society approach so we can start bringing to bear the resources of all sectors.” Mr Fernander on Sunday night gave “full support” to the Government’s proposal for independent civilian oversight of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, but Mr Aubry said such recommendations had been made from at least 2020-2021 when he was on the body currently responsible for this.
And he recalled that weaknesses and deficiencies with the police complaints and corruption branch were identified in a United Nations report back in 2018. The ORG chief urged The Bahamas to be proactive, rather than be reactive and forced to take action in response to events, if anticorruption and integrity reforms are to take root and gain buy-in from the majority of Bahamians.
“Where these reports do come up, we recognise them as opportunities to take action before we get
to these crux points where something happens or we are in the midst of a highlypoliticised case,” Mr Aubry told this newspaper. “We’ve had many opportunities to do so and it should not be seen, because we’ve hit the wall, that we need to do something.
“I think the note about the culture is important. You and I have talked about it before, because of the potential incidents and how hard it is to track these things when they happen, but there’s also the perception [of corruption]. We know that in 2018 Transparency International referenced The Bahamas as the top in the Caribbean for paying bribes without even being asked.
“That definitely indicates a problem with the environment where this is the way things are done. That definitely creates a vulnerability where people take advantage of the system. It’s something we have to work against across the entirety of government and all sectors.”
NYGARD LEGACY FAILS TO HALT $11.9M UNION WHARF SALE
contact said of the Union Wharf deal. “It’s much better for it to be developed rather than have it sitting there as it has been for all these years.” The property occupies prime waterfront real estate overlooking Nassau Harbour, thus representing an opportunity for retail, commercial or highend residential real estate and condo development.
The real property tax debt will now be eliminated from the sales proceeds. While Mr Martin’s interest is protected, he will now have to prove that Mr Nygard, developer of the infamous Nygard Cay retreat on New Providence’s western tip, does indeed have a beneficial ownership interest in Galaxy Group, the entity that sold Union Wharf. Galaxy Group is understood to deny that Mr Nygard, now serving an 11-year sentence in a Canadian prison after being found guilty of sexually assaulting four women and currently fighting extradition to the US, was ever a beneficial owner of itself and Union Wharf.
And legal documents obtained by Tribune Business reveal accusations by Galaxy Group that Mr Martin has allegedly interfered with Union Wharf’s sale via multiple means,
including encouraging a Junkanoo group to ignore an “order to vacate” and remain on a portion of the downtown property. It is also claimed that he sought to dissuade Buena Vista Properties from going through with the deal by alleging there were title issues.
“The claimant sought to interfere with the sale by encouraging one of the occupants of the property, Roots Junkanoo Ltd, to disregard the notice to vacate the Union Wharf property served on Roots by Galaxy, and to remain on the Union Wharf property as the Union Wharf property belonged to Mr Nygard and they had his permission to remain there,” Galaxy Group alleged of Mr Martin.
“Galaxy had to go to the cost and expense of obtaining an order in the Magistrate’s Court, requiring Roots to vacate the Union Wharf property, so that the sale of the property could proceed and Galaxy would be in a position to give vacant possession as required to complete the sale.
“Even after the Order was obtained requiring Roots to vacate the property, the claimant continued to interfere by appealing the Magistrate’s ruling. Galaxy was eventually able
to get the Roots appeal struck out.” However, Galaxy Group alleged that Mr Martin’s efforts to obstruct and block Union Wharf’s sale were not finished.
“After the Roots appeal was struck out, the claimant, through his attorneys, wrote several letters to Buena Vista Properties Nassau Ltd seeking to persuade them that Galaxy’s title was encumbered by an equitable charge over the Union Wharf property with respect to the default judgment,” the Union Wharf vendor said in its October 21, 2024, defence and counter-claim.
Galaxy Group, in its counter-claim, is seeking damages from Mr Martin for “fraud” and “slander of title”. It is asserting: “The claimant [Mr Martin] has maliciously published false statements to the attorneys for Buena Vista Properties Nassau Ltd and others that disparage Galaxy’s title to the Union Wharf property.
“The false statements include the representation that the claimant has an equitable charge over the Union Wharf property and that Mr Nygard is the beneficial owner of the Union Wharf property. The said false statements were published by the claimant knowing that they were untrue or recklessly not
“The commercial building is located in close proximity to the Freeport
On the 28th November 2024 we gave out food but we didn’t give out care. Looking around our streets, especially Potter’s Cay and in front of the hospital you will see naked men and women.
Organization like the Salvation Army, the Church, the Rehabilitation Centre, the businesses, the police and the civil service department need to do more.
The Humane Society shows more care for the dogs on the streets. We show no care to our brothers and sisters. We must do better in this country. I am calling on the Minister of The Department of Social Services, Urban Renewal and all other NGO’s to help and assist persons who are in need.
We must love our neighbours as we love ourselves.
Sincerely,
Andria Dames
caring whether they were true or false, and with the intention of disparaging Galaxy’s title and preventing the sale of the Union Wharf property by Galaxy.”
The now-former Union Wharf owner continued:
“Galaxy has suffered loss and damage, and is likely to suffer further loss and damage as a result of the claimant’s fraud and slander of title in that the sale of the Union Wharf property has been delayed and Galaxy has had to incur cost and expense in order to defend its title against the claimant’s disparagement and slander.
“And to procure the removal of Roots from the Union Wharf property, and to prevent the Union Wharf property being sold by the Department of Inland Revenue by public auction to settle outstanding real property taxes owed on the Union Wharf property, which said taxes were to be settled out of the proceeds of sale of the Union Wharf property.”
Union Wharf was sold to Galaxy Group by CIBC Caribbean (Bahamas) on April 17, 2015. Justice Fitzcharles, in her original October 8, 2024, ruling as the “duty” judge that weekend, said Mr Martin had sought an injunction to halt the Union Wharf sale and prevent Galaxy Group
Container Port which is a transshipment hub of The Americas. This unique commercial warehouse with high ceilings and 12 loading bays is 440 feet by 183 feet for a total of 80,520 square feet of warehouse space and approximately 6,000 square feet of office space,” James Sarles Realty added.
“On the ground level entrance is the lobby, cafeteria, lunch room, locker room, additional storage, male and female bathrooms and multiple offices with warehouse views. The upper level has a reception area, executive board room, computer room, lunch room and two executive offices. The building is a solid concrete structure
from disposing of its interest in the underlying real estate.
“Galaxy states that it is the owner of the property and the Nygard Foundation is the 100 percent owner of the shares of Galaxy Group Ltd,” she noted. “If Galaxy Group Ltd does not sell the property, the Department of Inland Revenue will do so by public auction in short course.”
With Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson having previously approved Union Wharf’s sale after Mr Nygard failed to “follow through” with his own rival ownership claim, Justice Fitzcharles added that Galaxy Group “wishes to sell the same post-haste as the sale will be for substantially more than can be fetched in a public auction by the Department of Inland Revenue.
“The projected purchase price for the sale of the property to Buena Vista Properties is $11.9m. Mr Martin has a judgment against Peter Nygard in the amount of $2.856m plus interest. As at May 27, 2024, the amount due to Mr Martin with interest was $3.185m. Mr Martin claims that Mr Nygard is the beneficial owner of the property ,” Justice Fitzcharles wrote and, as a result, he has an “equitable interest” in it.
and is elevated for flood protection.”
The Associated Grocers/ International Distributors investment was intended to signal Freeport’s potential as a logistics hub and distribution centre, with the ultimate goal of creating a free trade zone similar to Panama’s Colon hub and fulfilling the city’s Hawksbill Creek Agreement potential. However, this never took off and the building has sat practically unused for many years with many investors looking at it but unable to establish sustainable businesses there. The Sea Air Business Centre was developed as a 50/50 joint venture between Hutchison Whampoa and the Grand
As for Mr Fernander’s call for persons to step forward if they have been solicited for bribes, Mr Aubry said: “I think it’s an important call but I think we have to build a system that incentivises people to do the right thing when they are not being asked, and we have to figure out a way to integrate the many pieces of legislation and frameworks we already have in place.
“To just put out a call now is probably too simple to provide a long-term solution.” He added that to root out, and eliminate, corruption The Bahamas needs to commit itself to a longterm approach that does not change and lasts well beyond just one government administration.
The ORG chief also pointed out that, given Trinidad & Tobago and its million-strong population had struggled with working out how best to protect whistleblowers, this issue is likely to be even more acute in The Bahamas with just 400,000 persons.
“He states that Galaxy Group has denied Mr Nygard’s beneficial ownership of the property and has therefore refused to recognise his charge on the property,” she added. “Mr Martin’s position is that the sale ought to be stopped until he is able to prove that Mr Nygard owns the property so that he may then appoint a receiver and take control of any sale of the property in order to realise assets to satisfy the debt due to him.”
Justice Fitzcharles said that granting Mr Martin his injunction could result in the Buena Vista Properties deal being scuppered, and “a substantial purchase price from a willing and able buyer” being lost. She added that the Department of Inland Revenue could also sell Union Wharf being sold for a much lower price to recover past due taxes, while Mr Martin’s claim that $11.9m was “an undervalue” is not supported. She thus ruled that $3.185m be set aside from the sales proceeds to cover Mr Martin’s claim. And the latter was ordered to “give an undertaking in damages to compensate” Galaxy Group should he lose his Nygard ownership claim. The judge also restrained the Department of Inland Revenue from seizing and selling-off the property to allow the sale to Buena Vista Properties to proceed.
Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) Port Group Ltd affiliate, with the former enjoying Board and management control.
“It’s really Hutchison Whampoa that owns that,” one source said of the Sea Air Business Centre, adding that they understood the Associated Grocers/ International Distributors property has been placed back on the market after a previous deal fell through.
“That’s the most valuable property in Freeport,” they said. “People don’t understand what I mean, but if Hutchison did what they were supposed to have done that would have been the Colon area of The Bahamas.”
AG: Unchecked climate change to make Bahamas ‘uninhabitable’
resources and displacement of vulnerable communities.
By 2050, The Bahamas is projected to lose nearly 60 percent of its shoreline, the largest loss of land in the Caribbean region. By 2100, we will lose all our sandy beaches. All because warning signs were ignored for generations.”
Presenting slides that showed the projected impact of flooding from storm surges and heavy rainfall on New Providence, Mr Pinder added:
“The slides show the grave impact of flooding that would be caused by storm surge with one metre of sea level rise because of the impact of a hurricane.
“In a Category Three storm, more than 50 percent of the island will be flooded.
A Category Five hurricane on our nation’s capital will result in nearly the entire island under water. This is our reality. We need action now. The Bahamas is at
risk of being uninhabitable due to the severe impacts caused by the historical and present neglect of regulatory enforcement.
“The world knows exactly what needs to be done and the industrial countries have neglected it for decades in the interest of profits. It’s time for these polluters to pay. The IPCC (Intergovernmental panel on climate change) has been telling us for years that the only way to stop the warming of the planet is to make deep, rapid and sustained cuts in global GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions,” he added.
“The world needs to reach net zero emissions by 2050, which requires that we cut GHG emissions by at least 43 percent in the next five years. Industrial states need to take urgent action now and provide reparations for their decades of neglect.” However, that goal appears even more open to question given Donald Trump’s election,
his focus on renewed fossil fuel production, and the climate deniers nominated for his administration.
Mr Pinder, though, reiterated that The Bahamas is particularly vulnerable to the more frequent and powerful hurricanes being fuelled by hotter seas and general global warming.
“In 2021, the Climate Risk Index ranked The Bahamas third in the world for most affected by weather-related events. All of our islands, all of my people are at risk,” he warned. Recalling the $3.4bn in estimated economic losses and damages inflicted by Hurricane Dorian, a sum equal to about 25 percent of annual Bahamian economic output, the Attorney General added: “Our more populated islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama were particularly hard hit. Seventy-five percent of dwellings on Abaco were damaged, and nearly onethird were completely destroyed....
“Second, The Bahamas is a big ocean state which relies heavily on the resources of the ocean [that] have been under acute threat from climate change. The ‘blue economy’ accounts for over 40 percent of our economy. Oceans are absorbing a large amount of GHG emissions from the atmosphere, becoming warmer and more acidic.
“This leads to the destruction of critical ecosystems including coral reefs, mangrove forests, seagrass and fish stock. That, in turn, affects our peoples’ livelihoods, reduces biodiversity and has ripple effects throughout ecosystems which lose their protective properties. Who is going to retrain our fishermen when the fish are gone? What is going to replace our tourism industry when the reefs and beaches are gone?” he asked.
“The Bahamas’ seagrass and mangroves are critical carbon sinks, mitigating
Cyber Monday shoppers expected to set a record on the year’s biggest day for online shopping
By HALELUYA HADERO and WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writers
CONSUMERS in the United States are scouring the internet for online deals as they look to take advantage of the postThanksgiving shopping marathon with Cyber Monday.
Even though e-commerce is now part and parcel of many people's regular routines and the holiday shopping season, Cyber Monday — a term coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation — has become the biggest online shopping day of the year, thanks to the deals and the hype the industry has created to fuel it.
Adobe Analytics, which tracks online shopping, expects consumers to spend a record $13.2 billion on Monday, 6.1% more than
last year. That would make it the season's — and the year's — biggest — shopping day for e-commerce. Online spending is expected to peak between the hours of 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Monday night, per Adobe — reaching an estimated $15.7 million spent every minute. For several major retailers, a Cyber Monday sale is a dayslong event that began over the Thanksgiving weekend. Amazon kicked off its sales event right after midnight Pacific time on Saturday. Target's two days of discount offers on its website and app began overnight Sunday. Walmart rolled out its Cyber Monday offers for Walmart+ members on Sunday afternoon and opened it up to all customers three hours later, at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Consumer spending for Cyber Week — the five major shopping days
between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday — provides a strong indication of how much shoppers are willing to spend for the holidays.
Many U.S. consumers continue to experience sticker shock following the period of post-pandemic inflation, which left prices for many goods and services higher than they were three years ago. But retail sales nonetheless have remained strong, and the economy has kept growing at a healthy pace. At the same time, credit card debt and delinquencies have been rising. More shoppers than ever are also on track to use "buy now, pay later" plans this holiday season, which allows them to delay payments on holiday decor, gifts and other items.
Many economist have also warned that Presidentelect Donald Trump's plan to impose tariffs next year
on foreign goods coming into the United States would lead to higher prices on everything from food to clothing to automobiles.
The National Retail Federation expects holiday shoppers to spend more this year both in stores and online than last year. But the pace of spending growth will slow slightly, the trade group said, growing 2.5% to 3.5% — compared to 3.9% in 2023. A clear sense of consumer spending patterns during the holiday season won't emerge until the government releases sales data for the period. But some preliminary data from other sources shows some encouraging signs for retailers.
Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, notes that discounts from Thanksgiving onward have "exceeded expectations" — and online spending throughout Cyber
Delaware judge reaffirms ruling that invalidated massive Tesla pay package for Elon Musk
By RANDALL CHASE AP Business Writer
A DELAWARE judge has reaffirmed her ruling that Tesla must revoke Elon Musk's multibilliondollar pay package Chancellor Kathaleen
St. Jude McCormick on Monday denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla's corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package.
McCormick also rejected an equally unprecedented and massive fee request by plaintiff attorneys, who argued that they were entitled to legal fees in the form of Tesla stock valued at more than $5 billion. The judge said the attorneys were entitled to a fee award of $345 million.
The rulings came in a lawsuit filed by a Tesla stockholder who challenged Musk's 2018 compensation package.
McCormick concluded in January that Musk engineered the landmark pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent. The compensation package initially carried a potential
maximum value of about $56 billion, but that sum has fluctuated over the years based on Tesla's stock price. Following the court ruling, Tesla shareholders met in June and ratified Musk's 2018 pay package for a second time, again by an overwhelming margin.
Defense attorneys then argued that the second vote makes clear that Tesla shareholders, with full knowledge of the flaws in the 2018 process that McCormick pointed out, were adamant that Musk is entitled to the pay package. They asked the judge to vacate her order directing Tesla to rescind the pay package.
McCormick, who seemed skeptical of the defense arguments during an August hearing, said in Monday's ruling that those arguments were fatally flawed.
"The large and talented group of defense firms got creative with the ratification argument, but their unprecedented theories go against multiple strains of settled law," McCormick wrote in a 103-page opinion.
The judge noted, among other things, that a stockholder vote standing alone cannot ratify
a conflicted-controller transaction.
"Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here due to multiple, material misstatements in the proxy statement," she added.
Meanwhile, McCormick found that the $5.6 billion fee request by the shareholder's attorneys, which at one time approached $7 billion based on Tesla's trading price, went too far.
"In a case about excessive compensation, that was a bold ask," McCormick wrote.
Attorneys for the Tesla shareholder argue that their work resulted in the "massive" benefit of returning shares to Tesla that otherwise would have gone to Musk and diluted the stock held by other Tesla investors. They value that benefit at $51.4 billion, using the difference between the stock price at the time of McCormick's January ruling and the strike price of some 304 million stock options granted to Musk.
While finding that the methodology used to calculate the fee request was sound, the judge noted that the Delaware's Supreme Court has noted that fee
the impacts of a warming planet. The Bahamas has 40 percent of the world’s seagrass. These vital climate mitigation assets are being destroyed at an alarming rate.
“Seagrass in The Bahamas has declined by 1-2 percent each year, and extreme weather events have destroyed over 90 percent of viable mangroves, all because industrial countries have ignored their obligations. We are currently witnessing the largest ever recorded mass coral bleaching event. The Bahamas is home to 5 percent of the world’s coral reefs and the world’s third-longest barrier reef.”
Mr Pinder demanded that every country “do everything possible to stabilise our climate system” with all major emitters of greenhouse gases slashing their output. “Otherwise my people’s suffering will continue to increase,” he added.
“The devastation is undeniable. If we continue our
Week is on track to cross a record $40 billion mark combined.
U.S. shoppers spent $10.8 billion online on Black Friday, a 10.2% increase over last year, according to Adobe Analytics. That's also more than double what consumers spent in 2017, when Black Friday pulled in roughly $5 billion in online sales. Consumers also spent a record $6.1 billion online on Thanksgiving Day, Adobe said. And on Saturday and Sunday, shoppers spent another $10.9 billion online, up 5.8% over last year.
Adobe reported Monday that as of 6:30 p.m. ET, shoppers had spent $8.7 billion on the online shopping holiday. When the final tally is in, Adobe expects consumers will have spent between $13.2 billion and $13.5 billion for the day,
current path, my country will cease to exist. And then, I ask you: Who will take my people? We are not just speaking of numbers or projections; we are speaking of lives, cultures and histories at risk of being erased. Let us act boldly and decisively - for my people, and for all people.” Arguing that developed countries have an obligation to provide financial and technical assistance to climate-vulnerable states such as The Bahamas, the Attorney General added of the fall-out: “In The Bahamas we see it in the mental health of our citizens. We see it in the repairing of roads, utilities and infrastructure. We see it in the lost work days, learning loss among our children, and it is a revolving door of preparation, impact and recovery.”
making Cyber Monday the biggest online shopping day of the year__and of all time, Adobe said. Meanwhile, software company Salesforce, which also tracks online shopping, estimated that Black Friday online sales totaled $17.5 billion in the U.S. and $74.4 billion globally. And Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks in-person and online spending, reported that overall Black Friday sales excluding automotive rose 3.4% from a year ago. The retail sales indicator, which is not adjusted for inflation, showed online sales jumped by double digits, while in-store purchase rose a modest 0.7%. E-commerce platform Shopify said its merchants raked in a record $5 billion in sales worldwide on Black Friday.
NOTICE
TRIUNFO LIMITED
In Voluntary Liquidation
award guidelines "must yield to the greater policy concern of preventing windfalls to counsel."
"The fee award here must yield in this way, because $5.6 billion is a windfall no matter the methodology used to justify it," McCormick wrote. A fee award of $345 million, she said, was "an appropriate sum to reward a total victory."
Notice is hereby given that in accordance with Section 138(4) of the International Business Companies Act. 2000, TRIUNFO LIMITED is in dissolution as of November 29, 2024.
International Liquidator Services Ltd. situated at 3rd Floor Whitfield Tower, 4792 Coney Drive, Belize City, Belize is the Liquidator.
ELON Musk speaks at a campaign rally, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York.
Photo:Evan Vucci/AP
Can AI chatbots
make your holiday shopping easier?
By HALELUYA HADERO Associated Press
TIRED of thinking about what gifts to get everyone this year? Artificial intelligence chatbots might help, but don't expect them to do all the work or always give you the right answers.
Anyone scouring the internet for Cyber Monday deals is likely going to encounter more conversational iterations of the chatbots that some retailers and e-commerce sites have built to provide shoppers with enhanced customer service.
Some companies have integrated models infused with newer generative AI technologies, allowing shoppers to seek advice by asking naturally phrased questions like "What's the best wireless speaker?"
Retailers hope consumers use these chatbots, which are typically called shopping assistants - as virtual companions that help them discover or compare products. Prior chatbots were mostly used for taskoriented functions such as helping customers track down online orders or
return ones that didn't meet expectations. Amazon, the king of online retail, has said its customers have been questioning Rufus - the generative AI- powered shopping assistant it launched this year - for information such as whether a specific coffee maker is easy to clean, or what recommendations it has for a lawn game for a child's birthday party. And Rufus, which is available for holiday shoppers in the U.S. and some other countries, is not the only shopping assistant out there. A select number of Walmart shoppers will have access this year to a similar chatbot the nation's largest retailer is testing in a few product categories, including toys and electronics.
Perplexity AI added something new to the AI chat-shopping world last month by rolling out a feature on its AI-powered search engine that enables users to ask a question like "What's the best women's leather boots?" and then receive specific product results that the San
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Francisco-based company says are not sponsored.
"It has been adopted at pretty incredible scale," Mike Mallazzo, an analyst and writer at retail research media company Future Commerce, said.
Retailers with websites and e-commerce companies started paying more attention to chatbots when use of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence text chatbot made by the company OpenAI, went mainstream in late 2022, sparking public and business interest in the generative AI technology that powers the tool.
Victoria's Secret, IKEA, Instacart and the Canadian retailer Ssense are among other companies experimenting with chatbots, some of which use technology from OpenAI.
Even before the improved chatbots, online retailers were creating product recommendations based on a customer's prior purchases or search history. Amazon was at the forefront of having recommendations on its platform, so Rufus' ability to provide some is not particularly groundbreaking.
But Rajiv Mehta, the vice president of search and conversational shopping at Amazon, said the company is able to offer more helpful recommendations now by programming Rufus to ask clarifying or follow-up questions. Customers are also using Rufus to look for deals, some of which are personalized, Mehta said.
To be sure, chatbots are prone to hallucinations, so Rufus and most of the tools like it can get things wrong.
Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of e-commerce intelligence firm Marketplace Pulse, wrote in a November blog post that his firm tested Rufus by requesting gaming TV recommendations. The chatbot's response included
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products that were not TVs. When asked for the least expensive options, Rufus came back with suggestions that weren't the cheapest, Kaziukenas said.
An Associated Press reporter recently asked Rufus to give some gift recommendations for a brother. The chatbot quickly spit out a few ideas for "thoughtful gifts," ranging from a T-shirt and a keychain with charms to a bolder suggestion: a multifunctional knife engraved with the phrase "BEST BROTHER EVER."
After a 5-minute written conversation, Rufus offered more tailored suggestions - a few Barcelona soccer jerseys sold by third-party sellers. But it wasn't able to say which seller offered the lowest price. When asked during another search for a price comparison on a popular skin serum, Rufus showed the product's prediscounted price instead of its present one. "Rufus is constantly learning," Amazon's Mehta said during an interview. Shop AI, a chatbot that Canadian e-commerce company Shopify launched last year, can also help shoppers discover new products by asking its own questions, such as soliciting details about an intended gift recipient or features the buyer wants to avoid. Shop AI has trouble, however, recommending specific products or identifying the lowest-priced item in a product category.
The limitations show the technology is still in its infancy and has a long way to go before it becomes as useful as the retail industry - and many shoppers - wish it could be.
To truly transform the shopping experience, shopping assistants will "need to be deeply personalized" and be able - on their own - to remember a customer's order history, product preferences and purchasing habits, consulting giant McKinsey & Company said in an August report.
Amazon has noted that Rufus' answers are based on information contained in product listings, community Q&As and customer reviews, which would include the fake reviews that are used to boost or diminish sales for products on its marketplace.
The large language model that powers the chatbot was also trained on the company's entire catalog and some public information on the web, Trishul Chilimbi, an Amazon vice president who oversees AI research, wrote in the electrical engineering magazine IEEE Spectrum in October.
But its unclear how Amazon and other companies are weighting different training components - such as reviews - in their recommendations, or how exactly the shopping assistants come up with them, according to Nicole Greene, an analyst at management consulting firm Gartner.
Perplexity AI's new shopping feature allows users to enter search queries such as "best phone case" and to receive answers derived from various sources, including Amazon and other retailers, such as Best Buy. Perplexity also invited retailers to share data about their products and said those that do would have an increased chance of having their items recommended to shoppers.
But Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, suggested in a recent interview with Fortune magazine that he didn't know how the new shopping feature recommended products to customers. But in an interview with the AP, Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko pushed back on that characterization, saying Srinivas' comment "was probably taken out of context."
The context, he said, is that with generative AI technology "You can't know in advance exactly what the output will be just based off of knowing what the inputs" are from the training materials.
AMAZON’s generative AI-powered shopping assistant, known as Rufus, appears on a computer monitor in this photo taken on Dec. 1, 2024, in New York. Photo:Peter Morgan/AP
