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Volume: 119 No.67, February 28, 2022

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PINTARD: SORRY FOR MISTAKES WE MADE

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard has apologised to Bahamians who were hurt by decisions of the Minnis administration, saying: “We did not get everything right.”

His comment came as the FNM wrapped up its three-day convention at Atlantis on Friday night after Shanendon Cartwright and Dr Duane Sands were elected deputy leader and chairman of the party respectively and dozens of others were elected to various posts.

Mr Pintard struck notes of unity in his speech and criticised the Progressive Liberal Party for hypocrisy, failing to follow financial

laws and victimisation.

“Some folks,” he said, “are feeling some type of way about us so as we celebrate all that we accomplished, and it has been much, under Prime Minister Ingraham it has been much, under Prime Minister Minnis it has been much, but let’s also acknowledge that we made some decisions that resonate in entirely the wrong way with many, many Bahamians.

“Some of you sitting in here were left vulnerable in the public service, had no idea that the PLP would behave in the manner they said they had abandoned. I want to say I regret that we made some of those decisions and you were hurt and we apologise to every

THE Davis administration plans to expedite any plan to buffer increased gasoline prices that may come as a result of the Russian Ukrainian war, according to press secretary Clint Watson.

He was asked whether there were plans to speed up initiatives to procure oil from Saudi Arabia, as was recently announced.

TWO MORE MEN ADDED TO CRIME DEATH TOLL

A RELATIVE of one of two men killed in separate incidents on Thursday said the family is reeling from the tragedy.

Dominic Todd identified his nephew Renoldo Burrows, 28, as one of two men shot at Pond Court, in the Black Village community.

Police said a report came into the police control room before 11pm about a shooting.

SEE PAGE SEVEN

SEE PAGE TWO

Last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said prices at the pump could increase to as much as $8 per gallon because of the conflict.

“We’re going to fast track any opportunity that we can find to be able to buffer what could possibly be happening in our country,” Mr Watson said on Friday during an Office of the Prime Minister press briefing.

SEE PAGE FIVE

SEE PAGE 12

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

GOVT WILL TRY TO CUSHION GAS RISES

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

1.30AM LATEST: PUTIN RAISES NUCLEAR THREAT AS FIGHTING IN UKRAINE GOES ON

SIZE DOES MATTER - FOR PROPERTIES

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

FNM leader Michael Pintard with the party’s new chairman, Dr Duane Sands, on stage at the last night of the party’s convention on Friday.

Photos: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

AUDITOR TO PROBE CRISIS SPENDING

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

AUDITOR General Terrance Bastian says his office is in the beginning steps of looking into the former Minnis administration’s pandemic spending, particularly the food programme.

He stressed that during an Office of the Prime Minister’s press briefing Friday that it was a “must” to probe government expenditure at the height of the virus outbreak.

Last month, Financial

TERRANCE BASTIAN Secretary Simon Wilson said finance experts had been challenged in gleaning the necessary information

to determine a true picture of the former Minnis administration’s COVID-19 emergency spending.

However, Mr Bastian noted in response to a question from The Tribune during the briefing that his office has already started to gather files in relation to the issue.

“Yeah, that’s a must,” he said when asked if there were plans to look into pandemic spending.

“We are looking at it as I stand here. We’ve been requesting information

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE FOUR

AN ARCHITECT’S blunder has ensnared a Paradise Island project in legal battles and prompted a Supreme Court judge to call for the Condominium Act’s reform.

Legal documents reveal how several sales at the One Ocean condo project, have become embroiled in bitter court fights over the size of the unit involved.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

INSIGHT WHO IS LETTING PEOPLE RIDE RINGS AROUND OUR PLANNING REGULATIONS? SEE PAGE EIGHT

PAGE 2, Monday, February 28, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

Pintard: sorry for mistakes we made from page one Bahamian who has been hurt by any decision that we had made. I believe that the decisions came out of a place in our heart where often we thought the right decision was being made.

But nevertheless the consequences are real for you.

“And so we don’t hold you responsible for us being in opposition. No, you made a decision that you felt was in your interest, whether it was to vote against us or to stay home from voting. Our job is to hear and feel the response of the Bahamian people and make a determination that we will make adjustments where adjustments are required. We did not get everything right and we should be honest and say it.”

Mr Pintard has been particularly focused on the firings and terminations of contracts under the PLP administration.

“Here is a government that has the notion that anyone who was hired in the last four and a half years

THE NEW deputy leader of the FNM Shanendon Cartwright and new chairman Dr Duane Sands share a hug. must be FNM so it’s perfectly okay to fire them,” he said.

“We have some ministers (who) will come on television, they sound exceptionally smooth and eloquent, but at the end of the day the story they tell does not resemble the truth.

In Urban Renewal it is a naked attempt to replace one group of Bahamians with another group of Bahamians.”

Mr Pintard also contrasted the FNM’s culture with the PLP’s culture.

“We are distinctly

different from them. There is a culture that’s different and so it’s important for us not to demonise our brothers and sisters from the Progressive Liberal Party.

They are good people just like us. But there is a culture of entitlement, there’s a culture where some of you have told us heart wrenching stories of sitting at your desk and a minister of state can attack you while you at your desk with a verbal barrage that I cannot repeat here or in private. We are different because I can’t think of an administration, past or the most recent one, that would tolerate a Member of the Parliament behaving in that way.”

As for his own future, Mr Pintard said he will serve the party only for as long as members want him to do so.

“I will serve at your pleasure for as long as you would have me and rest assured, the day you make the determination you don’t want me I wouldn’t be fighting tooth and nail, left right and centre, east, west, north and south to hold on,” he said.

FNM leading Michael Pintard speaking during the last night of convention.

Photos: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

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THE TRIBUNE

Monday, February 28, 2022, PAGE 3

LEADER of the FNM Michael Pintard with the new deputy leader, Shanendon Cartwright, and the new chairman, Dr Duane Sands share the stage during the last night of convention.

Photos: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

Wins for Sands and Cartwright

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

SHANENDON Cartwright and Dr Duane Sands won the headline races at the Free National Movement’s convention on Friday, completing the party’s leadership team as the FNM recovers from last year’s devastating general election loss.

According to unofficial results, Mr Cartwright won the deputy leadership race with 332 votes, while his opponent Adrian White received 101 votes.

Dr Sands, meanwhile, won 183 votes in the race for chairman, while Elsworth Johnson received 169 and Michael Foulkes 83.

Mr Cartwright’s candidacy got a boost after he won St Barnabas, an innercity constituency, in an election won by the Progressive Liberal Party. His feat brought attention to what supporters say is his conciliatory and hands-on approach to constituency

SUPPORTERS at the final night of the FNM convention. representation. associations so they can In the chairmanship race build and flourish,” he said. that featured two prominent “We have to also convene former Minnis administra- a conclave to look at our tion cabinet ministers, Dr defeat in September and Sands held off Mr Johnson look forensically at what and told The Tribune after- went wrong.” wards that he is jubilant and Mr Cartwright said the ready to get to work.

FNM’s convention results “I think the first thing is mark a resurgence in the to take stock of our situa- party. tion at headquarters and A total of 101 people begin the process of build- offered themselves for ing on what we had there party positions at the to make it more responsible FNM’s three-day convento the needs of community tion, which ends tonight.

DR Duane Sands celebrating after he is announced as the new chairman of the FNM.

THE NEW deputy leader of the FNM Shanendon Cartwright.

FORMER Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and former Deputy Prime Minister Desmond Bannister during the final night of convention.

THE FINAL night of the FNM convention.

FNM LEADER: PUBLIC ‘DISAPPOINTED’ WITH GOVT ON MARITAL RAPE

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard says he believes the public has been “disappointed” by government’s response to the issue of marital rape.

Speaking on the sidelines of a good governance symposium on Friday, Mr Pintard restated his position that a woman reserves the right to make a decision on who “she shares her body with and under what circumstances”.

He said: “If a woman, single or married, believes that her life is at risk, she reserves the right, even with her husband, to indicate that she’s not prepared to be intimate and, of course, any legislation you put in place has to balance against a woman being violated at the same time the odd few who might utilise such legislation to gain retribution against somebody she believes is gaining an advantage whether (it’s) in

divorce proceedings or custody hearings, etc. So, there has to be balance.

“It is amazing to me that this matter is not being given some degree of priority because of gender violence in general. Not just sexual violence, financial violence where a woman, because she is in a financially vulnerable position, is minded to stay in a toxic and potentially deadly environment in order to survive or to feed her children. So, I think this really is not a women’s issue. This is really a human issue and we should get on with the issue of dealing with it.”

FNM senator Michela Barnett-Ellis said on Wednesday night that government was sending too many “confusing” messages on the issue of marital rape.

She went on to urge the Davis administration to “do the right thing” and criminalise the act.

The prime minister told reporters earlier this week that “rape is rape” and it was possible that the issue of marital rape could be

dealt with legislatively by his administration during this term in office Asked if he was disappointed that government was not being direct on the matter, Mr Pintard said he thinks the public is disappointed.

“I think the public has very significant concerns that this and other matters policy makers have

kicked down the road and each of these issues that are raised that are pretty clear and straightforward.

We ought to deal with it and move on to the next issue. Bahamian people are frustrated. They’ve been frustrated with all sides because we take an inordinate amount of time to address straightforward matters,” he said.

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PAGE 4, Monday, February 28, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

BRINGING MEALS TO MOUNT PLEASANT

HANDS For Hunger hosted a community market in Mount Pleasant Village on Saturday to provide food for those who needed it.

The non-profit group distributed 250 grocery bags full of fresh produce and foods with nutritional value to the community.

“We understand that with the food price increases, many Bahamians are not able to afford healthy nutritious food,” a Hands for Hunger spokesperson said. “We hope that our community markets will make a difference.”

LONDON ROLLE, Jay Donavon Rolle, Precious Fortune and Thompson Jason Knowles handing out groceries in Mount Pleasant Village on Saturday.

Cooper says administration is ‘government of transparency’

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net DEPUTY Prime Minister Chester Cooper said “this government of transparency” is committed to political reforms with a legislative agenda that includes the implementation of campaign finance legislation and electoral reforms.

While speaking at a Good Governance Symposium, the Exuma and Ragged Island MP also said

the Davis-Cooper administration will fully implement the Freedom of Information Act. “I am pleased to say that this government is committed to strict observance of and enhancements to the Public Disclosure Act which is built on the principles of accountability and transparency,” he said.

“Our government has also pledged to advance the implementation of the Freedom of

Information Act to create an atmosphere of access to information where it is needed unless that information is restricted by specific rules. We will ensure the full eventual full implementation of the Freedom of Information Act which was advanced by a previous Progressive Liberal Party administration and supported by the previous administration.

We will advance this. It has been a lot of talk for too long and I will tell you

our administration is committed to advancing to fruition.”

He added: “This government of transparency is committed to political reforms with a legislative agenda that includes the full implementation of campaign finance reforms and electoral reforms.”

In November 2021, it was indicated the Davis administration plans to amend the Public Disclosure Act to include campaign finance reform with a view of

prosecuting those “who run afoul of the law,” according to Economic Affairs Minister Michael Halkitis.

Mr Halkitis told senators at the time: “We understand that it’s not just important for the rule of law to be observed but it also must be seen to be observed.

Many members of the public feel that the application of justice depends on the socio-economic background of the accused.

“Whether there is truth to this or not, it’s

problematic that members of our society feel this way and we are putting in place the framework to ensure that when those at the top break the rules, they are held accountable.

“Our anti-corruption legislation will enforce higher standards of conduct for officials. Senior officials will be called on to lead by example. This idea that there are different rules for the political class and the common man must be done away with.”

AUDITOR TO PROBE CRISIS SPENDING from page one

JOB OPPORTUNITY

from the beginning such as we have some files in office now that we would’ve requested on the food programme.

“So, we are checking into it and it’s our duty to make sure we know exactly how the money is spent so we are looking at that, some of that.”

Asked if there was anything in particular that was a concern, he said: “No, I don’t have anything to report now if it’s a particular concern we just want to make sure that everything is OK.” Mr Bastian also spoke about compliance with his office by ministries, saying

it had improved.

However, he said people should be held accountable in instances where it is found that rules were not followed.

“I think there is a word that’s called accountability,” Mr Bastian said. “A part of the role of the auditor general is to ensure that we get good governance and it’s going to trickle down where I get to accountability.

“Good governance means that there must be transparency and accountability. Accountability would mean that if someone is responsible for doing something they’re commended and if they’re responsible for doing something that they should not do they get

what they need to get.

“I think when we make people accountable, I think we get more results so accountability, in other words, if there is a penalty the penalty can be enforced.”

As far as penalties are concerned, he said, the Office of the Auditor General can only make recommendations.

Additionally, he said several entities were in the final stages of audits including civil aviation, the port department, Met office, Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute and some others.

An audit of the Bahamas Customs Department was expected to be completed Friday.

‘PHASED RETURN TO NORMAL’ FOR PMH THE Princess Margaret Hospital has commenced a phased return to normal hospital services while continuing to ensure the safety of patients and staff in the current COVID19 environment.

The following specialty clinics have employed a hybrid model of faceto-face and virtual appointments effective February 21: medical clinic; surgical clinic; orthopaedic clinic; infectious disease clinic; chest clinic; paediatric clinic; ENT clinic;

gynaecology clinic; dental clinic; ophthalmology clinic; oncology clinic; and the Agape (Family Medicine) Clinic.

Patients requiring appointments to these clinics should e-mail a copy of the referral or discharge letter to appointments @ pmh.phabahamas.org or send via WhatsApp a clear copy of the referral or discharge letter to telephone number (242) 808.9972.

PMH also said that visitations will begin effective today as follows: limited

visitors list for ICU and NICU will continue; paediatrics visitations will be limited to mother and father only, one visitor at a time; on general wards, two visitors are permitted for clients aged 65 and above, one visitor at a time with a 15-minute time limit, with one of those visitors being the legal next of kin.

Visitors will be managed via the Critical Care Block entrance where they will be required to check in and obtain their passes. Visiting hours are 6pm to 8pm daily.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, February 28, 2022, PAGE 5

Davis to speak on Ukraine issue

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis is attending a senior regional conference this week where he will raise issues related to the impact of Russia’s invasion on Ukraine and China’s presence in the region.

Mr Davis also intends to speak on climate change and monetising carbon credits.

His delegation attending the 33rd Inter-Sessional Meeting of Conference of Heads of Government in the Caribbean Community at San Pedro Town, Ambergris Cay, left the country yesterday.

The group includes Foreign Affairs and Public Service Minister Fred Mitchell, Minister of Grand Bahama Ginger Moxey, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation John Pinder II, and High Commissioner to CARICOM Leslia Miller-Brice.

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis.

“On the agenda is agriculture policy for the whole Caribbean that deals specifically with the poultry industry,” Mr Davis said yesterday in a pre-flight interview with press secretary Clint Watson. “Something that we need to re-engage in The Bahamas because at one time we were almost self-sufficient in (the) poultry industry.

“We (will) also talk about the tourism policy for the Caribbean, particularly post-pandemic.

That is on the agenda and you may or may not know The Bahamas is the chair of the tourism sector for the whole Caribbean. So, we’re very active in those discussions.

“I intend also to raise the issue of climate change that is always on the periphery

but I think we need to bring that to the forefront particularly with what has been happening in the issue of carbon credits. How we reduce it, how we monetise it particularly for the Caribbean region, which is the region that has the largest carbon sink in the world.

So, I think we need to come up with a policy amongst ourselves to be able to monetise that. That’s something high on my agenda.

“In addition, as you are aware with the outbreak of war in Ukraine. No doubt that’s not on the agenda because no one expected it but as a periphery and any other business I intend to raise it to see how it impacts the Caribbean and particularly The Bahamas and how we could put up defences to avoid the escalating costs on inflation to our products that our people would be impacted by. We’re only hearing about the rise in gas prices and the consequential effects of that like higher electricity. So, we have to sit down and talk about how we could best

deal with these issues.

“We also have on the periphery the issue of the China-CARICOM relationship, which too we’ll have some discussions over and see whether we could come up with one policy with respect to our relationship with China. The idea and the view of CARICOM leaders is that we should strengthen it so there will be some discussions on that and balance the interest of the Americans and the other persons who may have some concerns about their presence in the region.”

Mr Davis said The Bahamas’ attendance at CARICOM was with a view to gain the support of other countries in the region that face similar issues.

“First of all, they must recognise that just as they say no man is an island, no country is an island, particularly in this day and age of what I call the information age, technological age where most of the host of these technological advances do not reside in

the Caribbean.

“So, we are very vulnerable as a region and therefore the more together, the stronger we are. So, that is the key to us as a unit to bring to bear our collective energies, our ideas, thoughts and there is a lot of commonality between the islands in the jurisdictions and we need to understand that together we are stronger and that is the message that The Bahamian people ought to appreciate. That The Bahamas alone will not be able to do it. Trinidad or Barbados or Jamaica alone could not do it, but together we could strive in the international arena.

“Particularly it is very important for us in particular being a consumptive nation as we are and still trying to catch up with developing other industries to make ourselves sufficient in those industries,” Mr Davis said.

The delegation will return to The Bahamas on Friday.

themselves in vulnerable positions. The government has reduced VAT to ensure that the overall cost of goods services are lowered.

We believe this is working and we continue to look at the possibility as laid out in our Blueprint for Change to look at improving and increasing the minimum wage.”

His comments came the day after Senator Darren Henfield spoke about the invasion’s impact and criticised the Davis administration’s decision to reinstate VAT on breadbasket items.

He made the comments during the Free National Movement’s convention on Thursday night.

“Early this morning (Thursday), Russia

launched a long-threatened attack on Ukraine, which has the potential to evolve into all-out war in Europe,” Mr Henfield said last week.

“Conflict in Europe will be felt here at home and elsewhere in the world.

This is why in Parliament last week we indicated that the cost of food we eat in country, which is admittedly driven by external events, is just too high and is primarily driven by events beyond our control. Inflation is now at a 40-year high. Shipping costs are almost prohibitive.

The price of fuel will likely increase, and we will pay the price.

“These are among the reasons why we in the FNM so strongly opposed the government’s determination to reinstate VAT on

breadbasket items, which low-income families and small businesses all across this country depend on for their daily sustenance. We begged the PLP to wait for things to settle down a bit before taxing food that the families to keep pace with rising prices in our country.

“We say again to the government of The Bahamas it’s not too late for you to reverse your decision to tax the local sale of medicines and medicinal drugs, baby food, female supplies, and the breadbasket, which we had previously in this FNM government zero-rated. We also implore the government to take concrete steps to ease the impacts of these confluence of events upon the lives of Bahamians.”

COOPER: GOVT RAMPING UP SOCIAL SERVICES INITIATIVES

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

AS the government plans to ramp up its social services initiatives in anticipation of implications due to the ongoing war in Europe, officials want to ensure that the ministry responsible for assistance has a sufficient budget to help people in need.

This is according to Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper on Friday, who foreshadowed what the government believes will be a domino effect of Russia’s

invasion of Ukraine.

A government minister has already expressed concerns that the price at the pump could go as high as $8 per gallon due to the crisis.

Mr Cooper told the media that the issue of increasing prices and inflation is something that the government has been contending with for “some time”.

He said: “It is driven by supply chain disruptions mainly in our key markets where we get goods and services from. For example in the USA, they’ve had difficulties hiring truck drivers

and where there is this kind of scarcity, prices will ultimately go up. If you look at this very simple example, if you can’t find a worker you will pay more to get that worker and this is what has happened in many industries. This is really the cause of the price increases that we’re seeing and expect this to continue short to medium-term.

“The government is ramping up its social services initiatives to ensure that social services is able to support persons in need. We are committed to providing relief to those who find

there will affect every one of your pockets and so it is important for The Bahamas to make its stance clear so that we can do our part in preventing anything from happening. We’re a part of the global community that wants to do that, so that no one has to experience more hardships at a very difficult time already.

“So, we will do whatever we need to do to ensure that we can safeguard our people from any of the unnecessary.”

Mr Watson also commented on the government’s efforts to procure child doses of the COVID19 vaccine, adding that officials in the Ministry of Health and Wellness were discussing how to retain nurses who continuously seek more lucrative opportunities abroad. “(We are) still trying,” Mr Watson said of The Bahamas receiving vaccines for children ages five to 11. “It is one of the most difficult things that we are finding ourselves in because of the demand and those vaccines.

“It’s also one of the agenda items at CARICOM because the region is having the same kind of challenge and so I suspect one of the

things that will probably come out of CARICOM meeting is a regional bloc moving forward and trying to get vaccines for the region and then distributing them regionally because the world always deals with greater numbers and if we come together perhaps our numbers together may be able to get some attention.”

Regarding nurses in the country, he said: “It’s been a challenge for decades trying to retain nurses. We simply cannot compete with what the bigger countries like the US are offering nurses.

They’re offering them great deals, great packages, great opportunities and it’s hard to keep and retain people when they’re going for greater opportunities.”

He added: “One of the things that we did because of the shortage during the pandemic is, of course, source nurses from Cuba who are working here and are looking well in the system, but that’s not sustainable.

“And what we’re doing is trying to find ways and what we need to do to keep nurses (at) home. That’s the first (thing). Second (thing) is how do we incentivise people who are studying nursing to stay at home.”

GOVT WILL TRY TO CUSHION GAS RISES from page one

“I think that it’s unconscionable to imagine $8 at the pump and so we’re going to do what we can as an administration to ensure that Bahamians hopefully never have to realise that.

“I think what you would have heard from the minister would have been the possibilities of what could happen. We don’t want it to happen. If we have a part to play in it, we will do what we can.”

He also responded to critics of The Bahamas’ public position against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“I saw there were people who criticised when the Minister of Foreign Affairs issued a statement and that’s not unusual. For people who don’t understand what’s happening at Foreign Affairs that’s normal, particularly when you are a part of the United Nations,” Mr Watson said.

“You’re required to take certain stands and positions as a country and to make your case public and known. So, it’s not The Bahamas getting in somebody else’s business and on the other hand it is our business. Because what happens

PAGE 6, Monday, February 28, 2022

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Pintard says sorry, but for what exactly?

SORRY, as the song goes, seems to be the hardest word.

And yet here we have the new FNM leader, Michael Pintard, apologising to Bahamians hurt by the decisions of the Minnis administration.

He said: “I want to say I regret that we made some of those decisions and you were hurt and we apologise to every Bahamian who has been hurt by any decision that we had made. I believe that the decisions came out of a place in our heart where often we thought the right decision was being made. But nevertheless the consequences are real for you.”

He added: “We did not get everything right and we should be honest and say it.”

All well and good, perhaps, but we should consider this apology in light of two things. First, Mr Pintard didn’t specify what any of those decisions were. It was a catch-all apology that could be interpreted as being sorry for whatever upset any particular individual.

Secondly, where was this man saying that some of these actions were wrong while in office?

He may say now that while in office “we made some decisions that resonate in entirely the wrong way with many, many Bahamians” but was he speaking out against them when he had the power to do something about that?

Of course the answer may be that he abided by collective Cabinet responsibility while in office – but if he felt strongly enough about decisions that were made he could have stepped away from Cabinet. He did not.

Others who did argue against decisions made by former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis at the time found themselves excluded or penalised. Travis Robinson, Vaughn Miller and Frederick McAlpine voted against the government increase in VAT, for example, and

were fired from their posts as a result.

The Westminster rules required them to be removed from their posts – but they spoke up at the time and they took their consequences.

So was Mr Pintard opposed to decisions at the time, or is he just apologising having seen the consequences in the form of the FNM being booted out of office? Had the party won, would he similarly be saying sorry?

To be fair to Mr Pintard, he has previously talked of mistakes made by the FNM in office. He called the Oban debacle a “rookie mistake”, calling the billion-dollar deal “a clumsy execution of a ceremonial signing”.

In June last year during his speech on the 2021/22 budget, Mr Pintard made clear he doesn’t support every decision his party had made and noted that more could have been done in response to events such as Hurricane Dorian.

So this isn’t just a mea culpa after the fact, and he has previously said that in office he has “raised concerns about approaches taken”. But it’s his party now, so why not be more specific? For those feeling let down by the FNM, do they look at his all-purpose apology now and wonder “Does he mean me? Or someone else?”

Referring to his own future on Friday, Mr Pintard said he would serve for as long as the party would have him, but added “rest assured, the day you make the determination you don’t want me I wouldn’t be fighting tooth and nail, left, right and centre, east, west, north and south to hold on”.

Who is he suggesting was doing that?

His predecessor in the role of party leader? Or perhaps someone in his new team going forward? Mr Pintard, spell it out – just as perhaps more people would have appreciated you spelling out the decisions you had problems with while in office. Don’t be shy.

The terror remembered EDITOR, The Tribune.

LONG ago in Hungary my father John lived a life of challenges. Never had he experienced freedom or the ability to express himself fully as Magyar Land was oppressed by The Soviet.

Then came the Hungarian Revolution and a call to all young people in the land to stand up and be counted for their motherland.

John stood up and took on this challenge, fighting Hungarian Communist agents and their masters.

Students, working

people and those of rural land threw molotov cocktails at Russian tanks and invaders.

Many of John’s comrades and neighbours fell to Russian bullets as the might of Russia fell upon this wonderous land.

He was wounded in fights and left for dead, but arose to fight and live again.

The fight was over and the time upon all to decide “should I Stay or should I go”.

The Soviet Russian juggernaut had won the day and only by fleeing could John and his Wife survive.

Going to Austria to internment camps they had the chance to decide where to relocate and begin their lives anew.

New Zealand, Australia, Canada or America offered too. The image of the Canadian Rockies filled his mind and so they claimed their lot to Canadian Freedom and a life of toil, benefit and freedom divine.

Thank you, Canada, for your friendship, opportunities and promise.

STEVEN KASZAB Bradford, Ontario.

February 25, 2022.

Protect the property owners EDITOR, The Tribune.

I COMPLETELY agree with Sam Duncombe when she raises the question: “Why are we paying taxes when our homes are not protected…?”

How can people be allowed to set up a tourist pig business in the tranquil village of Adelaide without first obtaining the approval of the residents and property owners, who

are the stakeholders in the area?

I don’t care how careful someone is about disposing the fecal matter on the beach, it’s just plain nasty and I’m sure traces of it get worked into the sand. Lord forbid if an infant comes into contact with it and puts their fingers into their mouths.

Perhaps the person(s) who allowed for this loud intrusion into a quiet

residential area should have a pig farm foisted next door to their home?

Who makes these decisions and how are they persuaded?

Property owners have invested in their area and ought to be protected and respected.

SOOIE Nassau, February 24, 2022

PEOPLE walk down the boulevard Strasse des 17 Juni ahead of a rally against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in Berlin, Germany, yesterday.

Photo: Markus Schreiber/AP

Haitian candidate on Ukraine EDITOR, The Tribune.

ON THURSDAY, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military forces and missiles in Ukraine. A few hours later, a Haitian political leader Werley Nortreus has said he wants the Caribbean nations to stay away from Ukraine’s ongoing crisis to protect the Caribbean territories.

In recent days, Russia and Ukraine have been in conflict because the Russian president wanted to protect his territory from Ukraine. Several sources have confirmed that Russia doesn’t want other nations to join in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a speech that he announced a military operation in Ukraine, and he also said that countries that interfere with Russian actions will face “consequences you have never seen,” Russian

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net media outlets announced.

“To anyone who would consider interfering from outside: If you do, you will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history,” said President Putin.

On Thursday, rising Haitian political leader Werley says he does not want the Caribbean nations to join Russia and Ukraine’s ongoing crisis in order to protect the Caribbean territories as the Russian President Putin already warned that nations that join Ukraine will face consequences that they have never seen before. “There has been a conflict between Russia and Ukraine for some time.

Russian President Putin has warned other nations.

What is happening is not small, which is why I want

Haiti and other nations in the Caribbean to stay away from this. In fact, Haitians know that Haiti has no military and nuclear forces to fight with other countries. It makes sense for the Caribbean nations to stay away from such war”, said Werley.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, many countries in the world spoke to President Putin by telephone.

Countries such as India, Turkey, Brazil, Iran, and many others claimed that they are ready to respond to any nations that attack Russia. “I am warning and advised Caribbean countries to stay away from such chaos because it will not be good for the future of Caribbean countries if they ever attack the Caribbean, which will lead to World War III”, said Werley.

GERLIN OLIN Haiti February 25, 2022

Hopefully the end of NATO EDITOR, The Tribune.

SINCE 1989, NATO has had no good reason to exist.

In the halcyon years of the 1990s, which certain euphoric westerners hailed as the “end of history”, US and European politicians assured an alcoholic Boris Yeltsin that the alliance would expand no further east to menace his country and would somehow morph into a feel-good club of peaceniks, uniting east and west in a Eurasian heartland that has spawned most global violence since the 1500s.

But it quickly betrayed these undertakings to Russia, bombing Serbia mercilessly and relying on the good services of the CIA to turn Russia’s neighbours, one after another, into instruments of encirclement, advancing confrontation under the guise of “democracy”. The 2014 coup in Ukraine was perhaps a bridge too far.

It also ventured outside its North Atlantic base, reducing Libya (the African country with the highest Human Development Index in 2010) into a jihadist cesspool with open slave markets. Its sponsors now enjoy unfettered access to Libyan oil.

Most recently, it considered admitting Colombia to membership (coincidentally, of course, to its subtle desire to ‘regime change’ neighbouring Venezuela and take its oil).

All the while it has burdened the US taxpayer with a disproportionate bill for its adventures abroad, none of which has remotely answered the daily needs of the American people.

Donald Trump’s realisation of this was a rare redeeming quality.

In the years since 1989 (the year of Tianaman Square and the fall of the Berlin Wall) China has moved from the 10th to the second (and arguably

the first) global economy in size. Meanwhile, the demonised Mr Putin has more than doubled his countrymen’s wealth per capita and moved Russians into the “High Human Development” category for the first time in their history – a fact you won’t learn from MSNBC, CNN or even the BBC. Meanwhile, the west has floundered and stagnated, its middle class shrinking as its military industrial complex (and the corrupt politicians that it employs) are enriched by the endless militarism it advances under an umbrella of propaganda and lies.

It is time for NATO to go gently into that good night.

If Mr Putin does not expose its weakness and hasten that eventuality, then Mr Xi (its obvious next target) surely will. Good riddance.

ANDREW ALLEN Nassau, February 25, 2022.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, February 28, 2022, PAGE 7

US MAN FINED FOR MARIJUANA POSSESSION

By PAVEL BAILEY

TRIBUTES left at the scene of the Pond Court shooting on Thursday.

TWO MORE MEN ADDED TO CRIME DEATH TOLL from page one

Superintendent Audley Peters said two men were sitting under a tree when a vehicle approached. Two gunmen got out of the car and shot them.

One of the men died at the scene while the other victim was taken to hospital in serious condition.

Mr Todd said he was not in the area when his nephew was shot as he was at work when he got the news.

He said Mr Burrows also has a twin sibling.

The family is “extremely hurt” by the killing, he said as he urged young people to solve conflicts without violence.

“I’ve been working around younger people for many years,” he said.

“I try to encourage the young persons to not go about doing things that were unnecessary. Sometimes when you have to think before you do anything but sometimes reactions are quicker than what we have to say.

“Sometimes we need to continue to show more love, more respect...community is very powerful.”

Another man was killed earlier on Thursday.

Supt Peters said police were called to the scene of a shooting on Blue Hill Road, south of Cowpen Road, around 7pm.

Responding officers found a man’s body lying on the western side of the street. He was unresponsive and appeared to have been shot.

The initial investigation has revealed a man was walking along the street when the occupant/s of a small Japanese-model vehicle approached him.

A man with a handgun got out of the car and fired shots at the victim, Supt Peters said.

EMS pronounced him dead at the scene. The victim’s identity was not released up to press time.

Anyone with information on either incident is asked to call police at 502-9991, the nearest police station, or Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS.

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Photos: Racardo Thomas/Tribune Staff

AN American was fined for marijuana possession on Friday. Cory Griffin, 38, of Detroit, Michigan appeared before Senior Magistrate Samuel McKinney to answer to drug charges after his arrest on February 24.

The court was told while he was attempting to leave the country from LPIA his bag was searched by authorities who uncovered suspected drugs.

The drugs were later confirmed to be five grams of Indian hemp with an estimated worth of $50. Griffin admitted the offence and said he believed smoking marijuana was legal in The Bahamas as in his home state of Michigan. He was fined $400.

Another man also appeared before Magistrate McKinney on drug charges.

Raymone Gardiner, 32, of Jackson Street, faced two counts of possession of dangerous drugs with intent to supply after being arrested on February 23 in New Providence when police found two separate package, later confirmed to be Indian hemp with a weight of 4oz and 28g respectively.

Gardiner pleaded not guilty to both counts.

Magistrate McKinney granted the defendant bail at $1,000 with one suretor.

Gardiner’s case was adjourned to May 3.

DISNEY CREW MEMBER HIT FELLOW WORKER

By PAVEL BAILEY

DOMINIC Todd said the family of Renoldo Burrows was “extremely hurt” after the fatal shooting on Thursday.

A CREW member on a Disney cruise ship docked at Castaway Cay was charged with causing harm on Friday.

Vincent Mancao, 40, appeared before Senior Magistrate Samuel McKinney after another crew member, Andy Pineda, accused him of attacking him on February 22.

Mancao pleaded guilty to the charge against him, however, he explained to the court he never intended to harm Pineda and only wanted to confront him for teasing him on the job.

He told the court he was in distress after his coworkers teased him for not getting his work done right and that in his stressedout state, he accidentally started hitting the complainant in the face. After this incident, Mancao was turned over to authorities on the mainland.

Mancao expressed remorse over the incident and sought to make amends with his crew mate.

Magistrate McKinney ordered Mancao to pay Pineda $300 in compensation for the incident and also ordered him to pay the court a fine of $500 or spend three months in prison for the charge.

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022

FROM top, social media pictures showing the planned King’s College School and images posted this weekend from Beyond Da Village Pig Experience and Da Pig Beach.

Who is letting these people ride rings round our planning laws?

By MALCOLM STRACHAN

school Mr Nsouli has been involved with – in fact there have been dozens around the world. One of those is A PECULIAR story the Brookfield School in caught the eye last week. Kenya, where a dispute A planning row has sprung with parents emerged over up over two “swimming school fees during COVID with the pigs” attractions in in 2020. The school had Adelaide Village. moved to virtual learning The oddity is that appli- and parents wanted fees cations for the land use of reduced, and won a court one, Beyond Da Village hearing to get fees reduced Pig Experience, and a Town by half. During a Zoom Planning decision for the meeting, he then demanded other, Da Pig parents pay the Beach, are still ‘The idea that full 50 percent being considfee allowed by development ered, it would the court on seem, despite could get the same day the attractions underway or the students being open for involved would without full business and be cut off. He busily bring- planning approval then agreed ing tourists in is curious, to to extend that by bus to the deadline to say the least, frustration the end of the of residents and residents of week if parents caught in the Adelaide are not agreed to end middle and negotiations the only ones wondering and drop the how this can to be raising lawsuit. be happen- questions. In He even ing in an area said he would Western New designated as have 40 residential.

Providence, there rather percent of the The idea are also concerns school populathat develoption paying 100 ment could over land percent of the get under- clearance that tuition fee than way without appears to have full attendance full planning at 100 perapproval is already started cent paying 40 curious, to say for a new school percent. That the least, and doesn’t sound residents of which aims to like putting the Adelaide are open there.’ child first. not the only Notably, he said it was ones to be raising questions.

In Western New Provi- only Kenyan parents comdence, there are also plaining. Imagine if that concerns over land clear- same situation happened ance that appears to have here and someone said it already started for a new was only Bahamian parents school which aims to open complaining.

In this column at the end there.

King’s College School has of January, I hailed the arrived on the scene with- work of Bahamian educaout any particular demand tors as the country paid from parents for another tribute to Rev Charles W school, and the proposed Saunders, noting how he site is already seeing pre- saw a need to extend secliminary work, it would ondary education for all young people in The Bahaseem.

There are more concerns mas regardless of social about King’s College than class or colour, and became the first president of the just clearing land, however.

The group setting up Bahamas Baptist College the school is the Inspired when it was formed in 1988.

There has long been a group, and the founder of that group is Nadim Nsouli, resistance in The Bahamas who has attracted unset- to open our doors and let international companies tling headlines elsewhere.

This is not the first come marching in. We shop

at Bahamian-owned businesses with Bahamians at the helm, not chains with Walmart branding – so why would we open our doors to a school run by foreigners?

There are talented educators right here – as I noted last month, one of the leading contenders to take over the presidency of the University of The Bahamas is a Bahamian, Dr Ian Strachan.

And our schools have produced leading lights in the fields of medicine, politics – even Bahamians working with NASA. So as word spreads of this new school on the block – and the potentially divisive nature of the group’s founder – there were legitimate concerns raised.

A Zoom meeting was to be held by the developer, but that became a meeting in person for invited guests only. So, if people had questions, they have yet to be given the opportunity to pose them and receive answers.

Still, it is curious this school would appear with very little fanfare, work would seem to be getting underway and there is little to be found out about it.

What planning approvals have been given so far?

Which approvals remain to be given?

There appears to be significant finance behind the project – as you’d expect for a group with more than 60 schools around the world – so you wouldn’t think the government would be shy to talk about a scheme that would presumably deliver significant numbers of jobs in construction and then ongoing jobs for teaching and support staff. As an international project, how many work permits is the business seeking for its teachers? Or is it looking to recruit locally?

Many of these are simple questions the Zoom meeting might have resolved.

Will another be arranged?

Who knows, nothing has been seen so far.

But for those reading of businesses opening without full planning approval in Adelaide Village, it is not encouraging to see work beginning when so many queries remain.

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

INSIGHT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022 PAGE 9

The sum of many A COMMON saying, widely attributed to ancient African cultures, asserts that it takes a village to raise a child. This responsibility is made infinitely more onerous when just a single parent is involved in the process.

Recognising this, author Ann Douglas added it also takes a village to support that child’s parent. Unfortunately, too many children in The Bahamas do not have the benefit of the “village” experience. For others, especially those facing physical or emotional challenges, even with both parents at home, the task is a daily challenge rife with peaks and valleys.

The six-year-old patient featured in today’s report is an exceptional example of how a community of loved ones can band together and make miracles happen.

Everything she has become can be attributed to the love and support of her mother, grandparents, aunt, teachers, doctors, therapists and a relentlessly close network of friends and family.

Her mother became pregnant with her at the age of 33. In the second trimester of her pregnancy, she was hospitalised with a urinary tract infection and soon thereafter she began experiencing rapid and severe heart palpitations. At times the throbbing became so intense she thought her chest would explode. She’d panic and gasp uncontrollably, afraid she couldn’t catch the next breath. That dramatic reaction led to a chronic cough, causing her to take time off from work.

She was placed on a nebuliser twice a day to control her symptoms At 36 weeks, she delivered her first and only child; a daughter weighing five pounds. Despite the baby’s small size, initially everything appeared normal.

Then at age two months, she noticed that her daughter, while laying on her back, would constantly lean to the right. After that she began to analyze her more closely and soon noted when her daughter cried, the right side didn’t move in proportion to her left contralateral side. The deficiency was so subtle that even her paediatrician didn’t notice or appreciate what was happening.

At age of four months, her mother took her back to her paediatrician, showing the physician how her daughter’s right hand always remained clenched.

They both knew diagnostic testing would be necessary but there was a justifiable reluctance by the doctor to administer the required anaesthesia for an MRI until she turned six months.

By then the entire rightside deficit, including her tone and grip, was much more pronounced. The baby was unable to sit-up without falling over and results of the MRI revealed she had a left temporoparietal porencephalic cyst of the brain. At that point she was referred to

By DR KENNETH D KEMP

‘A COMMON saying, widely attributed to ancient African cultures, asserts that it takes a village to raise a child.’

a paediatric neurologist at the world-renowned Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami.

Given its close proximity to The Bahamas and the fact it was named after its founder Jack Nicklaus, the golf icon who designed the course at Baha Mar, going there gave her an admittedly strange sense of comfort and familiarity.

There, her daughter was diagnosed with congenital porencephaly and rightsided spastic hemiparesis.

In layman’s terms, this baby had suffered a stroke while in the womb and developed a brain cyst that had resulted in the entire right side of her body being completely paralysed.

It was a shocking blow to her entire family but one that finally justified her mother’s unwavering and months-long desperate search for answers. She had a right to be concerned. Her daughter had an extremely rare condition and from then forward that protective modus operandi instilled in every mother went into overdrive. She enrolled her daughter in an intense and long-term physical therapy regimen but the first three years were quite challenging to say the least. Her daughter was prone to suffer with seizures and she had urinary problems because of her weakened bladder.

There was a constant fear she’d need to have a catheter inserted, which was distressing because of her increased risk of developing bladder infections.

Fortunately, over the years, she began to reach several developmental milestones and with the help of her amazing 71-year-old Bahamian physical therapist and her 36-year-old occupational therapist, she learned how to walk with the use of an upper and lower extremity brace.

Today, her daughter is in grade one at a private school with a grade point average of 3.9. Her grandmother drops her to school every day and picks her back up, which she refers to as their special quality time.

She also has her aunt and uncle who love her unconditionally and her teachers have become an extended part of her family. Because she attends school and is now able to walk with the use of a brace, she was denied financial assistance

by Social Services.

Even if she were eligible, she would only be entitled to $120 per month, which couldn’t cover the cost of one therapy session. Her mother specifically wanted this emphasised about her daughter’s story in hopes that the criteria will someday change and make life easier for other young mothers facing similar circumstances.

Fortunately, her daughter is on her insurance plan and her family has also repeatedly helped to defray many of her financial constraints.

She and her mother share a special bond. Every night, from when this patient was two years old, they’d talk about their day. She would

tell her daughter that she’s beautiful and smart and she encouraged her to be strong, reinforcing the mantra that a weak mind yields a weak body. Now when adults stare at her, rather than holding her head down and crying, she yells back without verbal provocation that she had a stroke but she’s still smart.

It was proof these nightly

positive affirmations were working. Her mom also wants her daughter to be as independent as possible, encouraging her to attend birthday parties and to use the monkey bar at the neighbourhood playground.

She has a scooter, rides a bike with assistance and is adamant her daughter participates in physical education at school.

Unfortunately, the patient suffered a setback when she contracted COVID-19 earlier this year. Her vision was temporarily distorted. Also, because there was delay in her being able to have therapy, she developed rigid lower extremity contractures and her wrist drop and lack of grip intensified. But over the years, her mother has learned that despite all the challenges, her daughter, who is scheduled to have surgery next month to address her muscle contractures, is a survivor. She is excited about the surgery, filled with the hope that she’ll someday be able to walk without her brace.

Today, she wants to be a preacher, a scientist and a rapper. Years after it was first stated, the old African proverb that no child grows up in a single home remains incontrovertibly true. She is the sum of the many people in her life and the greatest testament of their love. She’s funny, extraordinarily lovable and with each passing year and a strong community at her back, she becomes infinitely more poised to change the world. Ask her what she thinks about her condition and she will tell you honestly that she knows God is using her to show the world that miracles are possible.

Nicknamed ‘The Prince of Podiatry’, Dr Kenneth D Kemp is the founder and medical director of Bahamas Foot and Ankle located in Caves Village, Western New Providence. He served as the deputy chairman for the Health Council for five years and he currently sits on the board of directors for the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation in his role as co-vice-chairman.

PAGE 10 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022

INSIGHT

WHY DO PROJECTS WITHER ON THE DEVELOPMENT GRAPEVINE?

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis during his visit to Dubai.

By FREDERICK SMITH, QC MASTER winemakers know that producing a grand vintage depends on more than just the raw materials. No matter how lush the soil, how old and precious the vines, how ideal the weather in a given year, if you wait too long to harvest, the grapes will wither and die on the vine.

In wine as in life, timing is everything.

In The Bahamas, we possess in abundance the raw materials necessary to achieve tourism greatness: stunning limpid waters, outstanding white-sand beaches, resplendent coral reefs and teeming marine life, a climate that is the envy of the world. We are further blessed with all the requisite conditions in terms of geography, political stability and regulatory flexibility for a host of other lucrative industries to thrive. We bring millions to our shores each year and promote The Bahamas as a great place to invest.

So, why do so many projects continue to wither and die on the development grapevine? Perhaps it is because we have been too lucky, too blessed. Maybe the raw materials and natural advantages we enjoy have spoiled Bahamians – or at least, those Bahamians at the top. Perhaps we have been cursed by not having to struggle quite enough.

I say this because, while other nations in the region exert themselves mightily to attract new foreign direct investment, our elite flaunt an attitude of entitlement, assuming developers will continue to appear out of the woodwork, hat in hand, begging for the chance to give us money and create jobs. Where our Caribbean neighbours empower their people in ownership roles in the largest industries, we do the opposite by making it illegal, with Exchange control laws, for Bahamians to own one share in all the publicly traded investors that come here, or worse still allow companies like Emera (G B Power) to claw back all the shares once owned by Bahamians.

We are contented with a trickle-down approach that sees Bahamians relegated to the role of perpetual wage labourers, because the salaries at a given hotel or industrial facility are deemed generally “good enough” to allow people to scrape by, so politicians can

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

avoid the inconvenience of unceremoniously from our civil unrest. vine, only to spring up in the Meanwhile, our poli- generous soils of another, ticians just love to be competing jurisdiction. flattered and feted by invesWhat investors and all of tors, made to feel as if they these politicians and power are the gatekeepers, the brokers and lawyers and patricians, the local aristoc- facilitators and hookerracy. Would-be developers uppers don’t seem to must bow down and kiss understand is at the end of the “ring of power”, to the day, in any event, each the delight of puffed-up project must go through the ministers and obdurate ordinary statutory regulacivil servants. In return, tory processes and agencies we promise a developer which are already – approthe world – and without priately and correctly fail, proceed to severely and necessarily – quite under-deliver. numerous.

Our corporate lawyers Oh, irony of ironies, how love to feel like big power I miss the good old days brokers, top level facilita- where an investor would be tors for both the developers taken once or twice to the and the politicians. They Prime Minister and a select too relish the song and few in the Pindling adminisdance of protocol, the pro- tration, and walk away with cedural and policy foreplay, an “approval in principle” the ceremonial pilgrimage letter. Basically a gentleto the Office of the Prime man’s handshake.

Minister.

Then, like now, applicaAll of which is com- tions would still have to be pletely unnecessary, mostly made to the statutory agenillegal, and culminates in a cies. The Executive branch nefarious document called of Government must learn “Heads of agreement”, that it cannot get around which – most investors don’t the laws passed by Parliaknow – isn’t ment which really worth ‘I urge the current creates the the paper administration once real regulait’s written tors. This is on.

Devel- again, to allow the the proper, opers are GBPA to be the legal process. made to jump One Stop Shop for The through the current, Freeport and to hoops and superfluous navigate the cut away all of the nonsense obstacles put additional layers of only leads in place by to investor central government fictitious confrustration, structs like legislation and extraordithe National policy red tape nary and Economic unnecessary which have been Council expense, (NEC), the strangling Freeport bad-mouthBahamas since 1969.’ ing of The Investment Bahamas Authority internationally, name(BIA), and until recently blame-gaming, the Bahamas Environment, calling, gamesmanship Science and Technology political (BEST) Commission, all of and perpetual torture for which are made-up, pretend the real regulators who are non-entities whose deci- often without the proper sions are meaningless in the human resources, without eyes of the law, and whose the proper technical supapproval is totally unneces- port, without the political sary for any development to support to make their roles as legislated by Parliaproceed.

For decades, we have ment meaningful, effective entwined ourselves in more and efficient. All it does and more illegal, non-stat- is waste valuable Cabinet utory, parallel dimension time and investor money. procedures of a political Of course, it also leads to and arbitrary nature, often the lawyers making a great terrifying developers both deal more money, which may be a clue to the londomestic and foreign.

So, the ripe, juicy grapes gevity of this farce, given of many a promising invest- that in all administrations, ment remain unpicked, the Cabinet is stuffed with slowly strangled by the rav- lawyers.

Why not just stop enous, ravelling weeds of invasive red tape, until they this charade of magieither wither and die (as did cal Heads of Agreements the $1bn Tractebel LNG and fake approvals from plant in Freeport) falling “shadow” entities which

mean nothing in law, and which can therefore move the yardstick as they see fit, tormenting and discouraging the investor who cannot understand the ever-shifting ground rules, while opening up a wide and sordid space for all manner of bribery, extortion and solicitation? That is, of course, unless an administration actually wants to pass all of this puffery into law, in which case they should just do so.

If our politicians really want Heads of Agreements to have teeth, then Parliament should pass an Act creating a template Heads of Agreement providing legal comfort to an investor, domestic or international, holding both the investor and Government accountable to expectations and conditions agreed upon. Parliament can create enforceable Heads of Agreements. How simple and transparent would this be!

We did this in 1955 with the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, which created a One Stop Shop, that is the Grand Bahama Port Authority, which, before political interference and discrimination in the late 60s and early 70s, gave birth to the Magic City.

I urge the current administration once again, to allow the GBPA to be the One Stop Shop for Freeport and to cut away all of the additional layers of central government legislation and policy red tape which have been strangling Freeport since 1969. It goes without saying, that at the same time, the GBPA must be held accountable to be the developer and responsible local government administrator of Freeport as it successfully was originally and as it can be again. This is a very simple fix.

If no such Act is to be passed, why not just have the investor, whether domestic or international, meet as appropriate with some of the relevant Ministers so they can get some comfort, understand the legal process, have a rational roadmap and appreciate clearly what they need to do to achieve approval?

Then sensible lawyers can guide the investor from application to application, meeting the transparent and rational demands of the real regulators, having their project adjudged on its merits, improving the

legitimacy of any project according to the formulas, factors and dictates Parliament has set for any particular permit.

Time and again, Save the Bays, Responsible Development for Abaco, reEarth, and other such advocacy groups have proven, to the frustration of government and developers alike, that unless there is compliance with the statutory prerequisites, projects are doomed to being harried, harassed, litigated against and forced to fight devilish rearguard actions to stay alive given that most are being financed, most have project deadlines and timelines, and most are publicly traded companies these days.

Multiple layers of safeguards, both official and civilian, are in place. There is nothing to fear from following the law as it is.

Instead, Heads of Agreements have become more and more secretive, longer and longer, with more and more complicated language, with more and more promises and with more and more convoluted ways to try and get around the statutory regimes. The long foreplay is what takes so long and what creates so many false expectations for investors and what disappoints so tremendously at every step of the way.

It is the sound of one hand clapping! For the investor, it is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. I cry shame on the politicians and lawyers who rejoice in playing these games.

I have railed against Heads of Agreements for decades although, driven by clients’ instructions at times, I too have had to kneel and prostate myself and walk the yellow brick road, participating in this thoroughly ridiculous Wizard of Oz dramatic production at the Office of the Prime Minister, sitting for days and days drafting meaningless, non-binding Heads of Agreements. Never are the promises therein kept, never are the timelines maintained, never are the regulators sufficiently empowered to be able to do their jobs as efficiently and effectively as they could. Worse still, never are the developers held accountable.

What is the result of all of this for a place like Freeport, with the infrastructure for at minimum 250,000 people and all the necessary conditions for an economic

explosion?

While the political pantomime continues in Nassau, the once-glorious Magic City is itself withering and dying, its abandoned highrises and deserted highways crumbling to dust. For the most part, the imaginary gatekeepers, for example most BIA directors, never studied Freeport to see what investment opportunities were on offer.

It was recently claimed Middle Eastern investors have no interest in Grand Bahama. The response should be to invite them to high level meetings and make them aware of the amazing untapped potential, offer to amend the Hawksbill Creek agreement as necessary and roll out the red carpet. We could have Aladdin’s carpet flying over the Magic City – and this goes not just for my Bedouin brothers, but also Chinese, Koreans, Taiwanese, European, American, and Latin American investors.

So many people love The Bahamas but are put off by our backward way of doing things. No investor wants to be dropped into an ever-shifting maze of confusion and told to find their own way out. It’s time to change our investment environment and to say what we mean, mean what we say and put it into effect through the regulatory regimes enacted by Parliament, not through political strongmen posing as Harry Houdini and promising to wave the magic wand and make all an investor’s dreams come true. Overpromising and underdelivering, over and over again.

Developers: Don’t be sidetracked by empty promises and vacuous public statements; there is no magic wand. No project can happen without the necessary legal permits and approvals.

My brother lawyer, fellow Queen’s Counsellor, and now Prime Minister, Mr Davis: I urge you to cause new wine to spring forth from what is today a forgotten, but still tried and tested formula for investment success in The Bahamas.

Let us nurture the roots of our abundant vines so that they bring forth beautiful grapes that explode into a delicious vintage of opportunity for both Bahamians and international investors, and importantly, send my Bedouin brothers to Freeport!

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

INSIGHT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022 PAGE 11

The world will pay a high price for Russian aggression World View

By SIR RONALD SANDERS

THE invasion by the Disruption of its food proRussian Federation of the duction and supply would sovereign state of Ukraine cause not only food shorthas been roundly con- ages but also an increase in demned by most countries the cost of food globally as of the world.

Europe seeks other sources However, Venezuelan of supply. Third, oil and President, Nicolas Maduro, gas prices would increase announced his support of as action is taken against it. Had President Maduro Russia by stopping its sales stopped short at his state- of oil to Europe. Europe, ment that: “We repudiate too, would have to buy oil and reject all plans to sur- in the same markets as Carround Russia militarily ibbean countries, forcing up and strategically. Russia prices at a time when the has to be respected as all region is barely beginning the peoples of the world to recover from the adverse have to be respected,” that effects of the COVID-19 would have been, at least, Pandemic. No sector would understood to be ideologi- be spared and especially cal and strategic support affected would be tourism, in his Government’s inter- the supply of energy and est. But, by swiftly and water, and food production. unequivocally supporting The US has tried and the Russian invasion of failed to convince large oil Ukraine, which is a clear producers, such as Saudi violation of the basic tenets Arabia, to pump more oil of the UN Charter and to cater for Europe’s needs. international law, President But long before the hosMaduro raises questions. tilities in Ukraine, Russia It is to be hoped that had already tied up a deal the Venezuelan govern- with member states of the ment does not regard the Organization of the PetroRussian aggression against leum Exporting Countries Ukraine - in violation of (OPEC) not to increase oil Article 2, paragraph 4 of production in order to keep the United Nations Charter prices at a high level.

- as encourWhat was agement ‘When this crisis began happening for simi- to loom, there was, in Ukraine lar action was, thereagainst its in some Caribbean fore, always neighbours. circles, the view that a peril to the In this countries of the region world comconnecmunity. The tion, the should stay-out of person who Caribbean “the white boys war”. knew this Community best was UN However, as I have (CARICOM) Secretaryargued in previous countries General, were right to commentaries, any António issue a stateGuterres. ment in the march by the Russian He told the immediate government into UN speaftermath of Ukraine and any cial general the Russian assembly invasion of attempt to annex parts meeting on Ukraine that of it by recognition of 23 Februthe “hostili- break-away regions ary that ties against “Our world Ukraine go within it, would have is facing a counter to grave repercussions for moment of the prin- the world, including peril”, and ciples of even as the respect for the Caribbean.’

Russian govsovereignty, ernment had territorial integrity, and the already indicated its intenprohibition on the threat or tion to launch a military use of force, and the peace- offensive against Ukraine, ful resolution of disputes, he said: “If the conflict in which are the bedrock of Ukraine expands, the world this Community”. All coun- could see a scale and severtries should understand that ity of need unseen for many CARICOM countries are years”. small states that depend These circumstances now on the rule of international face the world. It is unlikely law, including the illegality that the Russian Federation of aggression and the prohi- President, Vladimir Putin, bition of the threat or use of will heed the urgings to stop force in disputes. the hostilities and withdraw At the time of writing, troops from Ukraine immeboth the United Nations diately. It is also unlikely and the Organization of American States (OAS) are working on issuing strong resolutions, condemning not only the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but also the earlier recognition, on February 21, by the Russian government of two provinces of Ukraine - Donetsk and Luhansk - regions of Ukraine as a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and inconsistent with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

When this crisis began to loom, there was, in some Caribbean circles, the view that countries of the region should stay-out of “the white boys war”.

However, as I have argued in previous commentaries, any march by the Russian government into Ukraine and any attempt to annex parts of it by recognition of break-away regions within it, would have grave repercussions for the world, including the Caribbean.

First, it would embolden governments with contentions with their neighbours, territorial and otherwise, to act in a similar fashion.

The consequence would be to create hostilities and instability in almost every region of the world.

Second, Ukraine is the bread-basket of Europe.

AN ARMORED personnel carrier burns and damaged light utility vehicles stand abandoned after fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine, yesterday.

Photo: Marienko Andrew/AP that even though it is a violation of international law and the UN Charter, that he will drop his recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk which are part of the Ukraine. He will regard these as bargaining chips with the member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Union (EU).

This situation will therefore continue for some time while bargaining takes place both behind the scenes and in public. NATO and EU countries are not without leverage of their own. Apart from what British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, called a “barrage” of sanctions, coming from the US, the EU and the UK, there are other ways in which Russia could be isolated. The sanctions on Russian oil companies and banks are already in place, putting pressure on Russia’s economy about which its own people will eventually complain.

In the meantime, the global community will pay a high price for Russia’s violation of the principles of international law that have, largely, underpinned peace and protected small states.

That’s why, CARICOM was right to speak out as it did. CARICOM leaders were safeguarding the interest of Caribbean people.

• Responses and previous commentaries: www. sirronaldsanders.com (The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States of America and the Organisation of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto.)

PAGE 12, Monday, February 28, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

UKRAINE NEWS IN BRIEF • THE US for the first time has approved the direct delivery of Stinger missiles to Ukraine as part of a package approved by the White House on Friday.

The exact timing of delivery is not known, but officials say the US is currently working on the logistics of the shipment.

The officials agreed to discuss the development only if not quoted by name.

The decision comes on the heels of Germany’s announcement that it will send 500 Stinger missiles and other weapons and supplies to Ukraine.

The high-speed Stingers are very accurate and are used to shoot down helicopters and other aircraft.

Ukrainian officials have been asking for more of the powerful weapons.

Estonia has also been providing Ukraine with Stingers since January, and in order to do that had to get US permission.

• Canada will send an additional $25m worth of defensive military equipment to Ukraine in an effort to help the country defend against Russia’s invasion.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says the equipment includes helmets, body armor, gas masks and night-vision gear.

She says it will be routed through Poland to get there as quickly as possible.

Defence Minister Anita Anand says Canada will offer up cybersecurity experts who can help Ukraine “defend its networks against cyber attacks that are increasingly forming part of modern-day warfare.”

• The UN Security Council has voted for the 193-member General Assembly to hold an emergency session on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine today.

The vote yesterday to authorise an emergency meeting was 11 in favour, Russia opposed, and China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining. That was the exact same vote on a resolution on Friday demanding that Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops. But in that case, Russia used its veto and the resolution was defeated.

• The US Embassy in Moscow urged American citizens in Russia to think about leaving the country immediately yesterday, as some airlines halt flights there and some countries close their skies to Russian aircraft.

“US citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available,” the Embassy said in a statement on its website.

• New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order yesterday Sunday forbidding her state from doing business with Russia. The order includes canceling its investments in Russia.

During a press conference in Albany, the governor said her state would also welcome refugees from the besieged country. Hochul said New York is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the United States.

“If you need a place to stay, you want to come over here, we will help you become integrated into our community,” she said.

• As Russian troops draw closer to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv’s mayor is both filled with pride over his citizens’ spirit and anxious about how long they can hold out.

In an interview yesterday, after a grueling night of Russian attacks on the outskirts of the city, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said there were no plans to evacuate civilians if Russian troops managed to take Kyiv.

“We can’t do that, because all ways are blocked,” he said. “Right now we are encircled.”

When Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Thursday, the city of 2.8 million people initially reacted with concern but also a measure of self-possession.

However, nerves started fraying when grocery stores began closing and the city’s famously deep subway system turned its stations into bomb shelters.

The mayor confirmed to the AP that nine civilians in Kyiv had been killed so far, including one child.

A CONVOY of military trucks parked in a street in Mykolaivka, Donetsk region, the territory controlled by pro-Russian militants, in eastern Ukraine, yesterday.

Putin puts nuclear forces on high alert KYIV, Ukraine Associated Press PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin dramatically escalated East-West tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert on Sunday, while Ukraine’s embattled leader agreed to talks with Moscow as Putin’s troops and tanks drove deeper into the country, closing in around the capital.

Citing “aggressive statements”

by NATO and tough financial sanctions, Putin issued a directive to increase the readiness of Russia’s nuclear weapons, raising fears that the invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear war, whether by design or mistake.

The Russian leader is “potentially putting in play forces that, if there’s a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous,” said a senior US defence official.

Putin’s directive came as Russian forces encountered strong resistance from Ukraine defenders. Moscow has so far failed to win full control of Ukraine’s airspace, despite advances across the country. US officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult, and slower, than the Kremlin envisioned, though that could change as Moscow adapts.

Amid the mounting tensions, Western nations said they would tighten sanctions and buy and deliver weapons for Ukraine, including Stinger missiles for shooting down helicopters and other aircraft.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, meanwhile, announced plans for a meeting with a Russian delegation at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the meeting would take place, nor what the Kremlin was ultimately seeking, either in those potential talks on the border or, more broadly, from its war in Ukraine.

Western officials believe Putin wants to overthrow Ukraine’s government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscow’s Cold War-era influence.

The fast-moving developments came as scattered fighting was reported in Kyiv. Battles also broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country’s south came under assault from Russian forces.

By late Sunday, Russian forces had taken Berdyansk, a Ukrainian city of 100,000 on the Azov Sea coast, according to Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Zelenskyy’s office. Russian troops also made advances toward Kherson, another city in the south of Ukraine, while Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov that is considered a prime Russian target, is “hanging on”, Arestovich said.

With Russian troops closing in around Kyiv, a city of almost three million, the mayor of the capital expressed doubt that civilians could be evacuated. Authorities

A DAMAGED and burned military vehicle is seen after fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine, yesterday. The city authorities said that Ukrainian forces engaged in fighting with Russian troops that entered the country’s second-largest city yesterday.

Photo: Marienko Andrew/AP have been handing out weapons to anyone willing to defend the city.

Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs.

In Mariupol, where Ukrainians were trying to fend off attack, a medical team at a city hospital desperately tried to revive a sixyear-old girl in unicorn pajamas who was mortally wounded in Russian shelling.

During the rescue attempt, a doctor in blue medical scrubs, pumping oxygen into the girl, looked directly into the Associated Press video camera capturing the scene.

“Show this to Putin,” he said angrily. “The eyes of this child, and crying doctors.”

Their resuscitation efforts failed, and the girl lay dead on a gurney, her jacket spattered with blood.

Nearly 560 miles away, Faina Bystritska was under threat in the city of Chernihiv.

“I wish I had never lived to see this,” said Bystritska, an 87-yearold Jewish survivor of World War II. She said sirens blare almost constantly in the city, about 90 miles from Kyiv.

Chernihiv residents have been told not to switch on any lights “so we don’t draw their attention,” said Bystritska, who has been living in a hallway, away from any windows, so she could better protect herself.

“The window glass constantly shakes, and there is this constant thundering noise,” she said.

Meanwhile, the top official in the European Union outlined plans by the 27-nation bloc to close its airspace to Russian airlines and buy weapons for Ukraine. The EU will also ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The US also stepped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine, announcing it will send Stinger missiles as part of a package approved by the White House on Friday. Germany likewise plans to send 500 Stingers and other military supplies.

Also, the 193-member UN General Assembly scheduled an emergency session today on Russia’s invasion.

Putin, in ordering the nuclear alert, cited not only statements by NATO members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including Putin himself.

“Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country,” Putin said in televised comments.

US defence officials would not disclose their current nuclear alert level except to say that the military is prepared all times to defend its homeland and allies.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC that Putin is resorting to the pattern he used in the weeks before the invasion, “which is to manufacture threats that don’t exist in order to justify

further aggression”.

The practical meaning of Putin’s order was not immediately clear.

Russia and the United States typically have land- and submarinebased nuclear forces that are on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not.

If Putin is arming or otherwise raising the nuclear combat readiness of his bombers, or if he is ordering more ballistic missile submarines to sea, then the US might feel compelled to respond in kind, said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear analyst at the Federation of American Scientists.

Earlier on Sunday, Kyiv was eerily quiet after explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one airport.

A main boulevard was practically deserted as a strict curfew kept people off the streets. Authorities warned that anyone venturing out without a pass would be considered a Russian saboteur.

Terrified residents hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault. Food and medicine were running low, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

“Right now, the most important question is to defend our country,” Klitschko said.

In downtown Kharkiv, 86-yearold Olena Dudnik said she and her husband were nearly thrown from their bed by the pressure blast of a nearby explosion.

SPORTS PAGE 13

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022

Bahamas split games in FIBA World Cup qualifying

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

T

eam Bahamas split the pair of games in the second window of FIBA Americas World Cup 2023 qualifiers.

The Bahamas won 86-76 over the US Virgin Islands on Saturday night and lost 90-65 to The Dominican Republic last night at the Palacio de los Deportes in the Dominican Republic.

The win over the USVI was the second win for The Bahamas in the history of World Cup qualification, following a 2019 win over the Dominican Republic.

Head coach Moses Johnson said a shorthanded team gave a valiant effort facing a difficult back-to-back.

“From this window on to the next we just have to stay together. We need to build on the successes we had in this window,” he said. “We saw some good things in this window that we can build on and we know where we fell short.

We are going to work on those things, we are going to make those adjustments and come back even stronger for the summer window.”

In the win over UVSI, Willis Mackey Jr led four Bahamian players in double figures with 25 points and 10 rebounds.

Mychel Thompson scored 19 with six rebounds and five assists, Danrad Knowles had 14 points and seven rebounds, Tavario Miller had 14 points and

MYCHEL Thompson eight rebounds, while Travis Munnings had six points, nine rebounds and 11 assists. “My goal is never to just score, I’m just trying to impact the game the best way I can,” Mackey said. “I was taking what the defence gave me. A lot of times they were backing off and I wasn’t hesitating, I was just shooting.”

Johnson added: “I think we executed when we needed to. Guys really stuck together through adversity.

Everybody played a role, whether guys were on the floor or were on the bench encouraging but we executed down the stretch and that’s what counted most.”

In the loss to The Dominican Republic, Munnings was the leading scorer with 16 points, nine rebounds and six assists, Miller had 14 points and six rebounds, Thompson had 10 points and seven rebounds and Knowles scored 12.

“I feel like we competed and we played really hard, but unfortunately we didn’t have enough,” Munnings said. “Some of these guys are not really used to playing back-to-backs, I can tell they were really tired but

DANRAD Knowles

WILLIS Mackey Jr

TRAVIS Munnings

TAVARIO Miller

they gave it 100 percent and they competed to the best of their abilities but we are really just looking forward to getting better moving forward.”

Johnson added: “We were outrebounded, we lost the battle with points off turnovers, the rebounds led to an advantage in second-chance points. We just didn’t have enough legs.

We got off to a great start, but as the game went on, legs wore down, guys were fatigued. We were undermanned and I’m so proud of these guys that they fought ‘til the end, they didn’t give up, they gave it all that they had and that’s all that we can ask for as a coaching staff.”

Johnson was assisted by John-Marc Nutt and Steve

Barnes. The team manager was Elvardo Kemp, Alicia Greene was the athletic trainer and Rodney Wilson was the head of the delegation.

Team Bahamas was drawn into Group C alongside Canada, The Dominican Republic and The US Virgin Islands.

Canada leads the group at 4-0, The Dominican Republic is 3-1, The Bahamas is 1-3 and the Virgin Islands are 0-4.

In November’s first window, The Bahamas suffered a 115-73 loss to Canada in the first game of a back-to-back in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Dominick Bridgewater led the Bahamas with 13 points, David Nesbitt

scored 12, Thompson scored 11 and JR Cadot finished with nine.

Canada took a decisive 113-77 win in the second game.

Nesbitt led The Bahamas with 18 points, Munnings had 10 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Thompson and Bridgewater each finished with 12 points.

In the third and final window, Bahamas will have its 2nd matchup against The USVI on July 1, 2022, and will conclude with the 2nd matchup against The Dominican Republic on July 4, 2022.

Sixteen teams will compete in the Americas region, vying for seven spots.

The top three teams from each group will qualify for the second round of qualifiers.

In the second round, the 12 teams that qualified will be divided into two groups of six. Subsequently, the three best teams from each group, and the fourthplaced team, will qualify to the World Cup. The FIBA World Cup 2023 is scheduled for August 25 to September 10 in multiple countries for the first time - Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

A total of 80 countries are left vying to be among the 32 teams at the 2023 World Cup. The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 will qualify teams directly for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games or through four FIBA Olympic qualifying tournaments.

Buddy, Page 15

MLB LOCKOUT TALKS RECESS, WILL RESUME TODAY AS THE DEADLINE NEARS

By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer JUPITER, Florida (AP) — Negotiators for lockedout players and owners recessed their talks until this morning, the day Major League Baseball had set as a deadline to salvage March 31 openers.

The sides held a series of short and more frequent meetings that stretched into last night before saying they would resume in the morning.

MLB says that if there is not a deal by the end of today, there will not be enough training time to start the season as scheduled and play 162 games.

Teams and owners narrowed some differences Friday and Saturday.

Entering the 88th day of the work stoppage they were still far apart on big issues that include luxury tax thresholds and rates, the size of the new bonus pool for pre-arbitration players and minimum salaries.

Some of those issues were in play during negotiations in which management wants the union’s agreement to expand the postseason from 10 teams to 14, two more than players have thus far been willing to accept.

Between 1pm and 6:30pm yesterday, Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem made four walks from the offices in the main part of Roger Dean Stadium to the area

SEE PAGE 16

Ayton scores 23 but Suns fall to surging Jazz, 118-114

By DAVID BRANDT AP Sports Writer PHOENIX (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 26 points, Rudy Gobert added 16 points and 14 rebounds and the Utah Jazz stayed hot with a 118-114 victory over the Phoenix Suns yesterday.

Utah has won eight of its past nine games and improved to 38-22. Phoenix — which still has the best record in the NBA at 49-12 — has lost back-to-back games for the first time in two months.

Utah’s been a little inconsistent this season, but is playing well now that its deep roster is mostly healthy. Jordan Clarkson had 22 points on 10-of-17 shooting — part of the Utah

second unit that played well and outscored Phoenix’s bench 43-11.

The Jazz used an 16-3 run late in the third quarter to take a 94-89 advantage heading into the fourth quarter. It stayed tight throughout most of the final minutes but the Jazz were able to keep their lead, helped by Mitchell’s banked-in 3-pointer with 1:50 remaining that put them up 10.

The Jazz shot 17 of 40 (42.5%) from 3-point range.

Mitchell made six of them.

Devin Booker led Phoenix with 30 points. Cameron Johnson and Deandre Ayton each added 23. Phoenix had a chance to tie the game in the final second, but Jae Crowder threw the ball out of bounds.

SUNS centre Deandre Ayton rebounds the ball last night against the Utah Jazz in Phoenix.

(AP Photo/Matt York) Phoenix has played its Chris Paul, who broke his regular season. The Suns past three games with- thumb on February 16 and have a 1-2 record in those out All-Star point guard could be out the rest of the games. The Suns rallied for

SWIMMERS QUALIFY FOR CARIFTA

WOODSIDE AND CAPERS EXTEND WINNING STREAK

By RENALDO DORSETT Woodside finished with 13 Tribune Sports Reporter points and eight rebounds rdorsett@tribunemedia.net to earn Subway Player of the Game honours.

DIANGELO WoodAfter an 0-4 start to the side and his Cape Breton season, the five-game win Capers concluded the streak pulled the Capers home portion of their from the basement of the Atlantic University AUS standings to above Sport regular season and .500 at 7-6. extended their win streak The Capers have three to five games. games remaining in the Woodside had a per- regular season - on the fect shooting day from road against the UNB the field and finished with Red Bombers before eight points in the Capers’ a back-to-back against 90-85 win over the Memo- league leaders Shamar rial Seahawks last night Burrows and the Dalhouat Sullivan Fieldhouse in sie Tigers.

Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Woodside’s 13-point The win concluded the night was his first doubleweekend series sweep digit scoring effort since over the Seahawks October 24 in a loss to after Saturday night’s UNB. He opened the 90-82 win. In game one, season with 12 points

a 60-56 halftime lead after trailing for much of the second quarter. Ayton had 17 points on 8 of 10 shooting beore the break while Mitchell scored 11 for the Jazz.

TIP-INS Jazz: G Rudy Gay played yesterday after missing the previous six games with right knee soreness and a non-COVID illness. ...

Suns: Made 10 of their first 11 shots, scoring 24 points in the first six minutes of the first quarter. ...

G Aaron Holiday returned after missing one game with a sprained ankle. ... Welcomed their 18th straight sellout crowd to the Footprint Center.

UP NEXT Suns: Host Portland on Wednesday night.

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WOODSIDE and 11 rebounds in a win over UPEI, 15 points in a loss to Dalhousie, and 10 points and eight rebounds against UNB. In his first year with the programme, after stints with the Holland College Hurricanes and Mount Allison Mounties, Woodside is averaging 6.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.

SWIMMERS qualified for the CARIFTA Games during the Blue Waves 2022 Invitational at the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex where the Barracudas Swim Club emerged as the overall winners on Saturday.

In winning the girls’ division with 495 points, the Barracudas added 255 from the boys’ division for their overall total of 755. Mako Swim Club came in second overall with 624, including 321 in the girls and 303 in the boys, both in second place.

Host Blue Waves got third in the girls with 253 and won the boys with 311 for their overall total of 564 for third place. The meet also attracted teams from

Grand Bahama and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

One of those visiting competitors, Tajhari Williams - a 14-year-old from Turks and Caicos Aquatics who won the 13-14 boys’ high point trophy with 46 over his nearest rival Anish Roy of Mako Aquatics Club - said he was happy to be in the Bahamas competing in the event with the rest of his team-mates.

“I felt great because I was able to achieve the qualifying times to go to CARIFTA,” said Williams, who did 1:08.21 in the 100m backstroke to surpass the standard of 1:09.28. “It feels exhilarating to be here and to be competing in this meet.”

The other high point winners were Isabella Munroe of Mako Aquatics Club with 63 points for the girls 8-and-under, Asher Bastian

of the Mantas Swim & Water Polo Club-with 56 in the boys 8-and-under, Alissa Ferguson of the Barracudas Swim Club with 59 in the girls 9-10, Christon Joseph of the Blue Waves Swim Club with 60 in the boys 9-10, Lelah Lewis of the YMCA WaveRunners with 40 in the girls 11-12.

In addition, other high point winners were Dijon Simmons of the Blue Waves Swim Club with 51 in the boys 11-12, Zarria Watson of the Black Marlins Swim Club with 51 in the girls 13-14, Mia Sastre of the Black Marlins Swim Club with 42 in the girls 15-17, Reis Knowles, also of the Black Marlins Swim Club with 46 in the boys 15-17 and Joshua Murray of the Black Marlins Swim Club with 61 in the open men’s

SEE PAGE 14

PAGE 14, Monday, February 28, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

SWIMMERS QUALIFY FOR CARIFTA FROM PAGE 13 division.

Simmons, who had a close battle against Jayden Davis of the Provo Aquatics Club (48) and Lenin Hamilton of the Turks And Caicos Aquatics (47), said he was very surprised with his accomplishment.

“I feel good,” said Simmons, a 12-year-old seventh grader at St Anne’s School who turned in three qualifying performances to add his name to those who are eligible to make the trip to Barbados for his initial appearance at CARIFTA. “I’m looking forward to getting better in all of my events.”

Having made two consecutive appearances at CARIFTA before she qualified as well in 2020 and 2021, only to watch as the meet was postponed because of COVID-19, Sastre said she’s eager to get back in competition against her Caribbean rivals.

“Overall, it was very exhausting, but I came through with the top girl award in the 15-17 category,” said Sastre, a 16-year-old 12th grader at Blake Academy Home School. “It was very tough and stressful because I swam in seven events, but I still made it, so it was good.”

Sastre previously qualified for CARIFTA in three events, but she noted that

without such long intervals between meets because of the COVID-19 restrictions in place, she still managed to perform at a high standard. “I want to go to CARIFTA and swim at my best and come through for my country,” said Sastre as she looks ahead to her return to CARIFTA. Trailing Sastre in the points standings were Kyana Higgs of the Barracudas Swim Club and Delaney Mizell of the Lyford Swim Club, both with 36.

During the meet, there were a number of qualifiers for CARIFTA. Lelah Lewis clocked 31,81 and Saleste Gibson of the Barracudas did 31.83 as they both dipped under the girls 11-12 50m butterfly qualifying time of 43.40.

Jayden Davis of the PAC clocked 30.40 in the boys 11-12 50m butterfly to surpass the standard of 31.19.

Caleb Ferguson of AAC did 27.31 in the boys 13-14 50m butterfly where the standard is 28.51.

Christin-Alyssa Clarke of the Barracudas did 1:18.95 in the girls 11-12 100m backstroke with the standard set at 1:19.01.

Dijon Simmons of BWSC did 1:16.28 in the boys 11-12 100m backstroke ro surpass the standard of 1:17.04.

Kyana Higgs of the Barracuda’s clocked 5:33.81 in the girls 15-17 400m individual medley to go under the

standard of 5:54.59. And in the boys 11-12 50m breaststroke, Will Farrington of the Barracuda’s did 37.57 to match the standard, while Katie Goulandris of LSC clocked 36.61 to achieve her qualifying standard in the girls 15-17 50m breaststroke of 37.65.

Reis Knowles of BMSC came through in 31.47 in the boys 15-17 50m breaststroke to surpass the standard of 32.09.

Lelah Lewis of WAV-UN did 2:46.25 in the girls 11-12 200m !M to surpass the standard of 2:49.63 and in the boys 11-12 200m IM, Dijon Simmons’ time of 2:42.79 surpassed the standard of 2:44.06.

Kyana Higgs, the lone competitor in the girls 15-17 200m butterfly, did 2:35.06 to go under the standard of 2:46.08 and Donald Saunders, the lone competitor in the boys 13-14 200m butterfly, swum 2:20.21 as he also attained the standard of 2:55.69.

Three competitors attained the standard of 1:21.41 in the boys 11-12 100m freestyle as Noah Knowles of the WAVE-BA won in 1:02.95, followed by Lenin Hamilton of TCIA in 1:02.97 and Jayden Davis of PAC in 1:02.98.

Lelah Lewis of WAVUNBA won the girls 11-12 400m freestyle in 5:11.00 to surpass the standard of 5:12.42. Her team-mate Seannia Norville-Smith

HIGH point winners with their awards. clocked 4:51.88 in the girls 15-17 400m freestyle, surpassing the standard of 4:53.10.

Barracudas’ Will Farrington got another standard in the boys 11-12 400m freestyle with his time of 4:58.46. The standard was 5:06.39. And his team-mate Jack Barr did 4:25.14 in the boys’ 15-17 400m freestyle to surpass the standard of 4:27.36.

MAC’s Elie Theberge clocked 33.57 in the girls 13-14 50m backstroke to dip under the standard of 33.60 and Kyana Higgs got another standard in the girls 15-17 50m backstroke with her time of 32.61 to surpass the standard of 32.88.

BWSC’s Dijon Simmons clocked 33.33 to surpass the boys 11-12 50m backstroke’s standard of 33.92 and in the

Photo courtesy of Dru Hepburn

boys 13-14 50m backstroke, both Anish Roy of MAC (30.60) and Caleb Ferguson of AAC (31.15) went under the standard of 31.32.

Barracudas’ David Singh’s time of 3:00.12 in the 11-12 200m breaststroke surpassed the standard of 3:00.12.

And his team-mate Rhanishka Gibbs did 1:07.61 to surpass the standard of 1:10.31 in the girls 15-17 100m butterfly.

Donald Saunders of LIT did 1:02.33 to surpass the standard of 1:04.76 in the boys 13-14 100m butterfly and in the boys 11-12 200m freestyle, WAVE-BA’s Noah Knowles did 2:30.99 to surpass the standard of 2:21.53.

In the girls 13-14 100m breaststroke, the standard was 1:24.92 and MAC’s

Tia- Isabella Adderley did 1:22.65. In the girls 15-17 200m backstroke, Kyana Higgs did 2:37.79 to surpass the standard of 2:44.20.

A pair of competitors attained boys 11-12 200m backstroke of 2:47.67 as David Singh of BSC won in 2:42.88 and Dijon Simmons of BWSC trailed in 2:44.59.

Two competitors also qualified in the girls 15-17 50m freestyle as Delaney Mizell of LSC won in 27.27 and Rhanishka Gibbs of BSC was the runner-up in 27.27. Lenin Hamilton of TCIA clocked 28.06 and Jayden Davis of PAC did 28.45 as they also dipped under the boys 11-12 50m freestyle of 28.59 and Caleb Ferguson (AAC) did 25.41 in the boys 13-14 50m freestyle to go under the standard of 26.25.

LIVERPOOL BEATS CHELSEA 11-10 ON PENALTIES TO WIN LEAGUE CUP SHREYAS IYER LONDON (AP) — Liverpool won its first domestic final in a decade by beating Chelsea 11-10 on penalties to clinch the League Cup yesterday.

All 10 penalties had been scored before it was down to the goalkeepers to take their turn and Kepa Arrizabalaga missed after Liverpool counterpart Caoimhin Kelleher had netted.

Kepa had been brought off the bench as a penalties specialist just as the clock hit 120 minutes at the end of extra time, replacing Edouard Mendy whose saves had kept the final locked at 0-0.

The move paid off for manager Thomas Tuchel in the UEFA Super Cup in August but this time there was no trophy for Chelsea to add to the Champions League and Club World Cup titles won in the last year.

Unlike Chelsea, Liverpool did allow the 23-year-old Kelleher to keep his place as goalkeeper in the cup competitions rather than inserting the first-choice Alisson Becker for the final.

“In professional football there should be space

LEADS INDIA TO 3-0 T20 SWEEP OVER SRI LANKA

LIVERPOOL players celebrate with the trophy after winning the English League Cup final soccer match between Chelsea and Liverpool at Wembley stadium in London yesterday. Liverpool won a penalty shootout 11-10 after the match ended tied 0-0.

(AP Photo/Alastair Grant) for sentiment,” Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp said. “He is a young boy, we ask him to do a lot, he starts playing in the competition and then we get to the final and I tell him he cannot play?

“I am two things, a football manager and a human being, and the human being won this time and it is so nice that it paid off.

He deserves it.”

Liverpool’s last domestic cup final success was the 2012 League Cup under Kenny Dalglish. Liverpool

has won the Champions League in 2019 and Premier League in 2020 under Klopp. The game opened with a pre-match show of solidarity to the people of Ukraine after the invasion by Russia, with applause around Wembley as the blue and yellow of Ukraine appeared on stadium screens. “Some of the videos and clips you see are frightening but hopefully it will end soon and we can all have peace,” said Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson.

“We stand together for Ukraine because what is happening is awful.”

The war has put a sharp spotlight on Chelsea’s Russian owner Roman Abramovich, whose ongoing ownership of the west London club has been criticized by British politicians.

PREMIER LEAGUE GAME In the day’s only Premier League game, Tomas Soucek boosted West Ham’s push for a Champions League spot by

clinching a 1-0 victory over Wolverhampton.

West Ham had slipped down to sixth in the league before the game, having taken just five points from its previous five matches, but bounced back against Bruno Lage’s side to move above Arsenal into fifth place.

Manchester United is only two points ahead in the fourth and final Champions League qualification spot. Wolves is five points behind West Ham in eighth place.

AUGUSTA ON HIS MIND: STRAKA RALLIES TO WIN THE HONDA CLASSIC

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Sports Writer PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Sepp Straka is going back to Georgia in a few weeks.

He’s headed to the Masters, after pulling off a huge comeback to win the Honda Classic.

Straka, down by five shots entering the final round, tapped in for birdie in the rain on the final hole and ended up beating Shane Lowry by one shot to become the first Austrian winner in PGA Tour history. He shot a 4-under 66 yesterday to finish at 10 under and earn $1.44 million.

Lowry shot his third consecutive round of 67, his 9 under total for the week coming up one short.

First-round leader Kurt Kitayama (68) was alone in third at 8 under, and Daniel Berger — who led by six shots with 19 holes left in the tournament — simply fell apart Sunday, his round of 74 leaving him 7 under for the week and three shots behind Straka.

Lowry needed to make a 45-footer for birdie on the final hole to force a playoff.

It missed, and with that, the

Honda had a new champion — one who came into the week ranked No. 176 in the world, has never been higher than No. 129 on that list, and whose claim to fame as a pro probably was being the first round leader at the Tokyo Olympics last summer.

He’s a PGA Tour winner now.

“The third round, I definitely didn’t have my best stuff,” Straka said. “I just hung in there and grinded out a good round. I hit the ball really nice today and really could take advantage.”

The victory ensures that Straka — who played his college golf at Georgia — will play the Masters in April. His wife took a flight in to be at the course on Sunday, just in case, and Straka hadn’t even seen her until he got to the practice green before teeing off.

They’ll have quite a bit to celebrate, after Straka matched the biggest comefrom-behind win this season. Luke List was also down by five entering the final round at San Diego last month.

Berger needed a miracle at the end, and it didn’t happen. His second shot

SEPP Straka lines his putt on the eighth green during the final round of the Honda Classic golf tournamen yesterday.

(AP Photo/ Marta Lavandier) at the par-5 18th went into the water, and with that his hopes were officially gone.

Lowry also trailed by five shots entering the day; that deficit was gone after just five holes.

The undoing for Berger truly began Saturday when he went to the 18th tee with a six-shot lead, then made bogey. Still, the fiveshot lead through 54 holes matched the biggest in Honda history and for a hometown guy the ingredients were in place for a memorable win.

Sunday had different ideas. He was paired with Lowry for the final round, and it didn’t take long for the leaderboard to considerably tighten.

Lowry made birdie on the first; the lead was down to four. Berger put a tee ball into the pine straw on the par-5 third, then had a ball buried in the sand of a greenside bunker and made double-bogey 7 to see the lead trimmed to two.

Lowry tapped in for birdie at the fourth. Lead down to one. Berger threeputted from 60 feet on the fifth for bogey. The lead was gone. And when Berger missed a 15-footer for par at the sixth, Lowry was suddenly up by one.

Straka was in the group five shots back to start the day, then made bogey on the opening hole. But slowly and steadily, he clawed back — a birdie on the par-4 ninth got him to 7 under, followed by another birdie on the 14th.

A 20-footer on the 16th pulled him into a tie. That’s when weather decided to show up, too.

As if the finish needed more drama, it simply started pouring as the final groups were finishing.

Kitayama and Straka were camped out on the 18th fairway, neither wanting to emerge from under their umbrellas to play their second shots into the par-5 finishing hole.

Both eventually did, each hitting to about 50 feet and setting up eagle putts. Straka two-putted, then waited to see if Lowry could get to 10 under.

He couldn’t. And Straka is on his way back to Georgia.

DIVOTS: Cameron Young shot the round of the day, a 5-under 65 on Sunday, moving him from tied for 56th entering the day to tied for 16th at the end. It may be enough to get him into the Players, the Match Play and if his world ranking hits the top 50 in a few more weeks, possibly the Masters.

Lee Hodges played his second shot out of the sand on the par-3 15th with a putter, rolling it across the green and toward a hazard.

He wound up making double-bogey. ... Andrew Kozan, who waited until Saturday morning to play his final hole of the second round and ensure he made the cut, finished tied for 30th and earned $43,133.

DHARAMSALA, India (AP) — Shreyas Iyer struck his third consecutive half-century as India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets in their third and final Twenty20 cricket game yesterday to sweep the series 3-0.

Iyer followed up his scores of 57 not out and an undefeated 74 in the first two games with 73 not out off 45 balls as India finished on 148-4 in 16.5 overs with 19 balls to spare.

Sri Lanka had won the toss and opted to bat, with Dasun Shanakar’s 74 not out off 38 balls helping the visitors recover to 146-5 after a shaky start.

Iyer’s total of 204 runs in the three-match series helped India wrap up a third consecutive T20 series sweep. India had previously beaten West Indies and New Zealand by the same margin.

This was India’s 12th consecutive win in T20 cricket, equalling Afghanistan’s record winning streak in the shortest format.

Shreyas Iyer was named man of the match and series.

“All three knocks have been special,” he said.

“The outfield was fast (Sunday) and I tried to hit the gaps. It has been a roller coaster journey after my injury. It requires only one ball to get into form.”

Chasing 147, India made a slow start after losing Rohit Sharma (5) cheaply.

Sanju Samson (18) opened the innings in Ishan Kishan’s absence. He was caught behind in the seventh over after adding 45 runs for the second wicket with Shreyas Iyer.

Lahiru Kumara (2-39) then struck twice, including the removal of Deepak Hooda (21), as India was reduced to 103-4.

But Iyer was immaculate in his run scoring and never let the pressure creep up.

He reached his sixth T20 half-century off 29 deliveries. Overall, he finished with nine fours and a six.

The two teams will now compete in a two-test series. The first test starts on March 4 in Mohali.

With the series already decided, India made wholesale changes to their playing eleven, resting Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, February 28, 2022, PAGE 15

Pacers’ Buddy Hield cans 21 in big win over Celtics

By MICHAEL MAROT AP Sports Writer INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle knew his team needed to work hard for quality shots.

Oshae Brissett and Chavano “Buddy” Hield made sure they did.

Brissett scored 27 points on a career-high six 3-pointers and Hield finished with 11 of his 21 points during the final eight minutes to help the Indiana Pacers beat the Boston Celtics 128-107 yesterday.

“It was important for us to play with pace and play randomly and play with an unselfish spirit to get shots,” Carlisle said. “So letting our guys play was a really important thing for our guys tonight.”

The Pacers delivered their best performance since reshaping the roster with three trade-week deals. They decimated one of the league’s top defences by making 17 3s, just two short of their season high, to earn their second win in 10 games and their second win over an Eastern Conference foe since December 17. Tyrese Haliburton had 22 points and nine assists for Indiana.

Jayson Tatum finished with 24 points and Jaylen

Brown scored 23 as the Celtics’ seven-game road winning streak ended.

Boston had won five straight in the series and three in a row at Indiana.

But on Sunday, the Celtics couldn’t slow down the Pacers’ long-range shooters.

“We didn’t come out as physical as we wanted to and it allowed them to get in a rhythm and it kind of snowballed on us,” Boston coach Ime Udoka said.

“Those guys were walking into 3s and a guy like Brissett started making some but they’ve got good 3-point shooters.”

Three of them — Brissett, Chris Duarte and Hield — combined for five straight 3s late in the first half, and when Hield capped the 15-5 run, Indiana led 59-46. Boston never completely recovered.

Indiana led 66-55 at the half and, after extending the lead to 19 early in the third, fended off a charge that got Boston within 83-76 with 3:46 left in the quarter. Indiana then rebuilt a 93-82 lead.

When the Celtics closed within 99-92 early in fourth, Hield scored five straight and Indiana closed it out from there.

“We got to it them and they were flying around

PACERS guard Chavano “Buddy” Hield (24) goes to the basket against Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) during the first half yesterday in Indianapolis.

(AP Photo/Darron Cummings) and everyone kind of flowed to it,” Haliburton said when asked about Brissett and Hield. “And that kind of set the tone.”

CLIPPERS 99, ROCKETS 98 HOUSTON (AP) — Reggie Jackson scored 26 points, including three key points down the stretch to lead the Los Angeles Clippers to a 99-98 victory over the Houston Rockets last night to open a two-game series.

Jackson’s jumper with about 90 seconds left put the Clippers up 97-95.

Garrison Mathews had 17 points for Houston, and Dennis Schroder added 11 points, 10 assists and eight

rebounds. The Rockets have lost nine straight and 13 of 14.

MAVERICS 107, WARRIORS 101 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Luka Doncic made two free throws with 7.9 seconds left on the way to 34 points and Dallas came back from 21 down in the third quarter to stun Golden State.

Spencer Dinwiddie scored 10 of his 24 points in the final period for Dallas.

Stephen Curry hit a 3-pointer with 10 seconds remaining and had 27 points and 10 assists in his first game at home since earning All-Star Game MVP honours, but

the Warriors couldn’t do enough right on either end during crunch time as Dallas hit all the big shots.

Doncic went 10 for 21 from the floor in the first of two matchups in five days between a pair of topfive NBA defences - No. 1 Golden State and the fifthranked Mavericks.

Dinwiddie scored five straight points midway through the fourth that got Dallas to 93-90.

Golden State’s Klay Thompson sat out with an illness after missing practice Saturday.

PISTONS 127, HORNETS 126 (Overtime) CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Kelly Olynyk made a fadeaway jumper from the baseline at the overtime buzzer and Detroit beat Charlotte for the first time nearly 4 1/2 years.

Saddiq Bey had 28 points and eight rebounds for Detroit, Jerami Grant added 26 points and Olynyk finished with 20 points and eight rebounds.

The Pistons had lost 15 games to the Hornets since their last win on October 18, 2017.

Terry Rozier had 33 points for Charlotte.

The Hornets are 0-6 in overtime.

Irving scores season-high 38 points, Nets beat Bucks MILWAUKEE (AP) — Kyrie Irving scored a season-high 38 points and the Brooklyn Nets stopped their recent slide by beating the slumping Milwaukee Bucks 126-123 on Saturday night.

Bruce Brown made a 3-pointer to put the Nets ahead for good 118-116 with 1:38 left.

Brooklyn ended a two-game skid and won for just the third time in 16 games. Milwaukee has dropped four of its last five.

The Bucks had one last chance with 2.1 seconds and no timeouts remaining. Wesley Matthews threw a long inbounds pass to Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had a clean look at a game-tying 3-point attempt that bounced off the rim.

Bobby Portis had 30 points and 12 rebounds for the Bucks.

Antetokounmpo had 29 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. Khris Middleton added 25 points.

GRIZZLIES 116, BULLS 110 CHICAGO (AP) — Ja Morant scored a career-high 46 points and Memphis hung on to beat DeMar DeRozan and Chicago.

The Grizzlies hung on after letting a 17-point lead shrink to one and came away with the win after losing two in a row. They also stopped Chicago’s six-game winning streak.

Morant surpassed his previous high of 44 points. He scored 20 points in the third quarter and made 15 of 28 shots.

Steven Adams added 12 points and a season-high 21 rebounds, and the Grizzlies frustrated DeRozan even though the fivetime All-Star scored 31 points.

That gave DeRozan 10 straight 30-point games, the longest such streak by a Bulls player since Michael Jordan did it in 10

NETS’ Kyrie Irving shoots past Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo during the first half on Saturday in Milwaukee.

(AP Photo/Morry Gash) straight from Dec. 25, 1990, to Jayson Tatum had 26 points and Jan. 14, 1991. But he was 10 of 29 11 rebounds and Boston beat from the field, ending his NBA- Detroit. record run of eight games of The Celtics have won 11 of 12 scoring at least 35 while shooting games, the blemish a 112-111 50% or better. home loss to Detroit on Feb. 16.

CAVALIERS 92, Cade Cunningham led Detroit WIZARDS 86 with 25 points. Pistons guard CLEVELAND (AP) — Lauri Hamadou Diallo was ejected in Markkanen scored 23 points, and the second quarter for pushing All-Star center Jarrett Allen had official Suyash Mehta when they 18 points and 14 rebounds and nearly collided in transition.

Cleveland beat Washington.

HEAT 133, Washington matched the largSPURS 129 est lead of the game at 84-75 on MIAMI (AP) — Bam Adebayo Daniel Gafford’s follow shot with scored a season-high 36 points, 6:39 remaining, but Cleveland Tyler Herro added 27 off the answered with 12 straight points, bench and Miami overcame an capped by two free throws by early 16-point deficit to beat San Allen to pull in front for good.

Antonio.

Kyle Kuzma made a careerJimmy Butler scored 27 points high eight 3-pointers and scored in 30 minutes to help East34 points for Washington. ern Conference-leading Miami CELTICS 113, improve to 40-21. Butler didn’t PISTONS 104 play in the fourth quarter.

DETROIT (AP) — Jaylen Spurs coach Gregg Popovich Brown scored 27 points, and remained at 1,334 regular-season

wins, one victory behind Don Nelson — one of his former bosses — on the NBA’s career list.

Devin Vassell had a career-high 22 points for the Spurs.

HAWKS 127, RAPTORS 100 ATLANTA (AP) — Trae Young returned to his All-Star form by scoring 41 points and Atlanta rode a dominant third quarter to rout Toronto.

Young was 17 of 24 from the field, 6 of 6 from the line and had 11 assists in his strong bounceback game. He shot only 3 of 17 from the field in Atlanta’s 112108 loss at Chicago on Thursday night, his first game after starting in the All-Star Game.

Young rebounded by making his first four shots against the Raptors in his fifth game of the season scoring more than 40 points. He set a career high with 56 points at Portland on Jan. 3.

Fred VanVleet led Toronto with 24 points and nine assists after being listed as questionable with right knee soreness. Precious Achiuwa added a season-high 21 points.

NUGGETS 115, KINGS 110 DENVER (AP) — Monte Morris hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 28 seconds left, Nikola Jokic had 18 points, 11 assists and 10 rebound and Denver.

It was Jokic’s 16th triple-double of the season and the 73rd of his career. His rebound with 19 seconds remaining finished the triple-double and helped Denver to its second win over the Kings in three nights. He spent most of the night battling Domantas Sabonis, who finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds. De’Aaron Fox had 26 points and 10 assists for Sacramento.

EARLY MADNESS: TOP 6 TEAMS LOSE ON SAME DAY FOR 1ST TIME

By JOHN MARSHALL AP Basketball Writer THE madness arrived early this year.

An unpredictable college basketball season took an unprecedented turn Saturday, when the top six and seven of the top 10 teams lost.

Gonzaga, Arizona, Auburn, Purdue, Kansas and Kentucky all went down, marking the first time in AP poll era (1948– 49) that the top six teams lost on the same day. No. 9 Texas Tech also lost, setting another record for most top-10 teams losing in one day.

Only No. 7 Duke and No. 10 Baylor won, the Bears over the fifth-ranked Jayhawks. No. 8 Villanova avoided the carnage by default — the Wildcats don’t play again until Tuesday.

And while the upper echelon was being taken down, the other 10 teams in the AP Top 25 that played Saturday won.

“In all my years I have never ever seen a day in hoops like today,” tweeted ESPN analyst Dick Vitale, who is off the airwaves while undergoing cancer treatment.

The pandemonium shouldn’t have been much of a surprise the way this college basketball season has gone so far.

Gonzaga has had three stints at No. 1 totalling six weeks, including the past two.

Baylor spent five weeks at No. 1, Auburn had a three-week run and Duke made a brief top-ranked appearance.

And that’s just the top line. The AP Top 25 has been a jumble all season, with teams trading places

like short track NASCAR racing.

Poll voters will have to make some tough choices to make today. Same for the NCAA Tournament selection committee in two weeks.

“We didn’t get help per se in our league because we didn’t take care of business, but on the national scale, we got huge help today because of the teams that we’re fighting with for the higher seed, we all lost,” Kansas coach Bill Self said after an 80-70 loss to Baylor. “So I mean, we won’t drop much, if any, I wouldn’t think.”

The top-tier carnage began with Michigan State’s 68-65 win over No. 4 Purdue in East Lansing, Michigan. The Spartans had lost five of six to plummet out of the AP Top 25, but they outlasted the Boilermakers to give coach

Tom Izzo his 662nd win, matching Indiana’s Bob Knight for most at a Big Ten school.

Arkansas coach Eric Musselman has the Muss Bus headed into the right direction at the right time and the 18th-ranked Razorbacks picked up one of their biggest wins of the season, knocking off No. 6 Kentucky 75-73. Arkansas, which reached the Elite Eight last season, has won 13 of 14 and likely will jump in Monday’s poll.

No. 17 Tennessee was next, proving ThompsonBoling Arena is a house of horrors for visiting teams, going on a 17-2 run to beat No. 3 Auburn 67-62. The Vols are 15-0 at home this season.

Down in Texas, TCU rallied from an 11-point deficit to take down No. 9 Texas Tech 69-66 to boost its NCAA Tournament hopes.

After Baylor’s win over Kansas, Colorado pushed around No. 2 Arizona for a 79-63 win. It was the Wildcats’ most lopsided loss of the season — of three — and matched the highest-ranked opponent the Buffaloes have ever beaten.

No. 23 Saint Mary’s provided the capper to the carnage, putting a stick in the spokes of top-ranked Gonzaga’s bid for a perfect West Coast Conference season. The Gaels went on the type of run the Zags normally make, scoring 16 straight points on the way to a 67-57 victory that sent the fans in Moraga, California, streaming onto the floor. “It’s kind of life in late February and early March, especially on the road,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said.

The madness has already started. March could be maniacal.

EMBIID, HARDEN HELP 76ERS BEAT KNICKS 125-109 NEW YORK (AP) — Joel Embiid scored 37 points and made a career and NBA season-high 23 free throws, James Harden had 29 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds, and the Philadelphia 76ers made it two straight wins with their new duo by beating the New York Knicks 125-109 yesterday.

The 76ers made 39 free throws, most in the NBA this season, and almost all their work to break open a close game midway through the fourth quarter came from the line.

Embiid finished 23 of 27 on free throws and the NBA’s leading scorer added nine rebounds.

After a powerful performance in a 133-102 win at Minnesota on Friday in Harden’s 76ers debut, this one became a grind-it-out game that the 76ers handled better. It was tied at 100 in the fourth, but Philadelphia pulled away by scoring 10 of its next 12 at the line. Embiid made six free throws, Harden four, and the only 76ers basket during that stretch came when Harden fed Embiid on the fast break.

Harden added five steals and matched his season best in assists.

RJ Barrett and Evan Fournier each scored 24 points for the Knicks. They have lost five straight and nine of 10.

GALLOWAY, EX-NBA STAR JOHNSON LEAD US OVER MEXICO IN REMATCH

By NOAH TRISTER AP Sports Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Even without a roster full of current NBA stars, the United States breezed through this World Cup qualifying window.

It hasn’t always been that easy.

Langston Galloway scored 16 points and former pro standout Joe Johnson added 14 to lift the US to an 89-67 win over Mexico yesterday in qualifying for next year’s World Cup. The Americans avenged their lone loss of this qualifying round, routing the previously unbeaten Mexican team in a game that wasn’t close after the first few minutes.

The US led 48-21 at halftime. “We started this camp with Mexico on our heart.

They humbled us in Mexico, and we were ready to play against them,” coach Jim Boylen said. “They beat us from the 3-point line down there, and they beat us bad, and so I have to give our guys credit. They came prepared.”

With the NBA season taking place at the same time as these qualifying games, most of the US players came from the G League. Still, all the Americans (3-1) need to do is avoid finishing last in their four-team group to advance to the next round of qualifying.

They would be assured of that if Puerto Rico defeated Cuba later yesterday.

During the first qualifying window — at Mexico in November — the US beat Cuba by five and lost 97-88 to Mexico.

The American roster changed significantly for this window, and the US won both games in Washington comfortably.

The Americans beat Puerto Rico 93-76 on Thursday night. The next qualifying window is in July.

“The first window was very difficult. Cuba gave us a heck of a game. We were down in the last five minutes,” Boylen said.

PAGE 16, Monday, February 28, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

Nadal beats Norrie in Acapulco for his 91st career title

By CARLOS RODRIGUEZ AP Sports Writer ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Rafael Nadal said earlier in the week that he wasn’t aware of his career statistics. Now, he might want to have a look at them.

The 35-year-old Spaniard defeated Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday to win the Mexican Open and extend his career-best start for a season to 15-0 as he won his 91st ATP title.

Nadal, who won his third title in 2022, including the Australian Open for his record 21st Grand Slam singles title, is three victories from tying Ivan Lendl’s total of 94 for third place for most championships in the Open Era. Jimmy Connors leads with 109 and Roger Federer has 103.

“At the end of the day I´ve always said that this kind of records needs to be measured once your career is over,” said Nadal.

“Today the most important thing is that I have won a prestigious tournament.”

The Mexican Open is an ATP 500-level tournament played on hard courts and this year four of the top-five players in the world started in the draw — Daniil Medvedev (2), Alexander Zverev (3), Stefanos Tsitsipas (4) and Nadal (5).

Medvedev, who will rise to No. 1 in the rankings today, lost to Nadal in the semifinals. Zverev was thrown out of the tournament for violently smashing his racket on the umpire’s chair moments after losing a doubles match, while

MLB

FROM PAGE 13

where players caucus in the Cardinals clubhouse building beyond the rightfield wall. Max Scherzer, Andrew Miller and Marcus Semien attended the talks, a smaller group than in recent days, along with union head Tony Clark and chief negotiator Bruce Meyer. Scherzer, who lives nearby, left in late afternoon but may return.

MLB executive vice president Morgan Sword, senior vice president Patrick Houlihan and vice president Reed MacPhail also met with the union, a trio of the officials familiar with the many of the details of the intricate collective bargaining agreement. The expired contract numbered 359 pages plus separate deals covering benefits, joint drug rules and dealing with domestic violence allegations.

Baseball’s ninth work stoppage started December 2. Spring training games were to have begun Saturday and have been cancelled through March 7.

MLB began the day offering to raise the luxury tax threshold from $210 million last season to $214 million this year, increasing it to $220 million by 2026.

Teams also want higher tax rates, which the union says tend to act like a salary cap.

Players had asked for a $245 million threshold this year, rising to $273 million by the final season.

The union wanted to expand the players with at least two seasons of major league service and less than three to the top 35%, up from the 22% cutoff in place since 2013.

The union proposed the pre-arbitration pool to have $115 million distributed to 150 players and management proposed $20 million be split among 30.

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WORLD JUDO BODY SUSPENDS PUTIN AS ITS HONORARY PRESIDENT

SPAIN’S RAFAEL NADAL, also top right, celebrates after defeating Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the final match at the Mexican Open tennis tournament in Acapulco, Mexico, on Saturday.

(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) Tsitsipas lost to Norrie in the other semifinal. “(Acapulco) is a tournament that started with five of the top six players in the world, it was complicated, and I ended up taking the victory,” added Nadal. “Looking back, a few weeks ago this would have looked impossible, it´s amazing how things can change in such a short span, from not being able to practice and now to be where I am today.”

The Spaniard won for the fourth time in

Acapulco (2005, 2013 and 2020) where he is a fan favourite. He won his first title in Mexico when he was 18 and holds the record for the youngest winner in tournament history as well as the oldest at 35.

“It´s been a long career, the first time I came here everything was new for me and after all these years you start to appreciate more each victory than when you were an 18-yearold boy,” said Nadal.

The Spaniard said that his body is holding up

well and is eager to play at Indian Wells, California, in a couple of weeks.

Norrie, who was on an eight-game winning streak, was trying to become the first British man to win the Mexican Open in its 29-year history.

“I played against him before, so I had an idea on how to play him, but I gave him a couple of easy points and he gave me nothing,” said Norrie.

“It was little bit of lack of concentration, and I gave him the match.”

At the start of the match, Nadal had a break in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead and went on to win the first set in 51 minutes.

In the second set, Nadal had a break in the first game, but Norrie returned it and appeared to be back into the match, but the Spaniard added breaks in the fifth and seventh games to take home the trophy.

In the doubles final, Feliciano Lopez and Tsitsipas defeated Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer 7-5, 6-4.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Vladimir Putin temporarily lost his most senior official position in world sports yesterday.

The International Judo Federation cited “the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine” for suspending Putin’s honorary president status.

The Russian president is a keen judoka and attended the sport at the 2012 London Olympics.

The IJF is rare among Olympic sports bodies for using the word “war” to describe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ordered by Putin on Thursday. Others have used phrases such as “escalation of conflict.”

A Kremlin-supporting oligarch and longtime friend of Putin, Arkady Rotenberg, remains on the IJF executive committee as “development manager.”

Ukraine invasion puts Russia’s elite sports status at risk

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer RUSSIA spent upwards of $50 billion to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, then concocted the most elaborate doping scheme in history — all to cement its standing as a global sports superpower.

The country’s invasion of Ukraine, coming on the heels of yet another drug scandal that consumed the Beijing Olympics earlier this month, could serve to undermine an athletic dynasty tarnished by cheating and deception, and often countered with only tepid pushback from international sports leaders.

If a further reckoning comes, it would damage Russia’s ability to host events domestically and dominate them abroad. It would deliver a financial and a psychological blow.

And it would compromise the image that President Vladimir Putin and leaders before him have tried to cultivate — one of a prosperous country fortified by strong athletes who beat their international opponents in the games people play.

Edwin Moses, the American gold-medal hurdler who had a key role in sorting through the Russian scandals, recalled trying to explain Moscow’s point of view to anti-doping leaders.

“One thing I was always trying to get across to them was, ‘You don’t understand how important sports are to them,’” Moses said.

“And I’d tell them, ‘You don’t understand how far they’re willing to go to corrupt it.’”

In addition to widespread condemnation from Western governments, Russia’s move into Ukraine was largely disparaged by major sports organisations, including the International Olympic Committee.

A MAN walks past the Russian Olympic Committee building in Moscow, Russia.

(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) A number of federations, They combined to win 32 including skiing, curling medals, the second-biggest and Formula 1, pulled pre- haul at the Games. mier events out of Russia.

Every bit as notable was European soccer’s govern- that Putin attended the ing body UEFA led the opening ceremony with way when it relocated this IOC leader Thomas Bach spring’s Champions League at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest final from St Petersburg to stadium. It was a show of Paris. The International defiance: Putin was there, Biathlon Union banned while the US and some of Russia from its events. its allies refused to send The largest conglomerate diplomats to protest Chiof them all, the IOC, con- na’s human rights record. demned the invasion.

It also underscored how One economics professor Putin was in good enough estimated the financial loss standing with the IOC to be of the Champions League present despite the ban. final could be in the tens of “In Putin’s mind right millions of dollars, a frac- now, Russia will be at the tion of what Russia might Olympics again” three forfeit from all the relo- years from now in Paris, cated events. But, he said, said Paul Massaro, a senior money is a small part of policy adviser to Congress what motivates Putin. who works on issues involv“He’s in it for the prestige ing sports and international and power,” said Victor A corruption. “But I’m not Matheson of College of the sure he totally appreciates Holy Cross in Worcester, what a paradigm shift he’s Mass.. “The real thing here created. I don’t want to be is that this is a big blow to eating these words, but I his ego. He loves being in actually think Russia could charge of things.” be banned this time.”

Russia’s power in the The Russian government world sports community is has portrayed the doping most sharply defined by its investigations as politically relationship with the IOC. driven by the West.

Even though Putin’s counThe IOC’s recent contry officially was banned demnation of Moscow over from the Beijing Games, it Ukraine focused on the fielded a team of more than breach of the “Olympic 200 athletes competing Truce,” a UN-sanctioned as members of the “Rus- call for world peace that sian Olympic Committee.” remains in play until March

20, seven days after the close of the Paralympic Games in Beijing.

Despite the rhetoric, Bach would have to reverse years of precedent in his relatively soft treatment of Russia in the country’s long-running doping scandals. What steps he takes to back up the IOC’s most recent show of displeasure will shape Russia’s role in world sports for the next decade or longer.

Potentially working against the country was the sordid doping case involving 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva that consumed the Beijing Games.

She tested positive for using a banned heart medication, and the result wasn’t announced by antidoping officials until after she’d won gold as part of the team competition, even though the sample was taken weeks earlier.

That put Bach in the rare position of openly criticising Russia, a move that, in turn, brought a rebuke from the Kremlin.

The Olympic movement, and international sports in general, have tolerated far worse from Russia, and before that, the Soviet Union.

Moses told of travelling to the Soviet Union in the late 1980s — long before anti-doping rules had been globally codified — to try to work out a drug-fighting agreement with Soviets.

“Their reason for setting up a (anti-doping) lab was completely different from our reason,” Moses said.

“We tried to put a lid on doping. They tried to make sure they didn’t get caught. It was the prestige of those athletes winning gold medals. They wanted it, and those athletes would become national heroes and treasures.”

Before the IOC’s next move, there will be other

signals, besides relocating events, about how world sports deals with Russia.

Norwegian politician Linda Helleland, a former vice president at the World Anti-Doping Agency and longtime critic of Russia, said she will promote a policy at the Council of Europe that urges sports organisations to exclude Russian athletes from international competitions.

Upcoming events include next month’s world figure skating championships, World Cup soccer qualifying this spring and the world track and field championships in Oregon in July.

World Athletics is unique in that it has taken a tough stance in the Russian doping saga since 2015.

Russia has been limited to only a handful of athletes at recent major championships, and that is not expected to change before summer.

“We now witness brutal actions in the Ukraine. We can’t let Russia get away with it again with no consequences,” Helleland said.

The biggest test, however, will be how the IOC responds to Russia’s eligibility for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

Putin’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine both came directly after the close of the Winter Olympics, with Russia enjoying success on the playing field and a long gap before its next appearance on sports’ biggest international stage.

“We’ve been giving him a free pass for over a decade, so why would Putin not think he could get away with this?” Massaro said.

“Of course the Olympics are part of this.

“And here we are again, and this time, he’s crossed the Rubicon in the most profound way.”

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, February 28, 2022, PAGE 17

WORLD JUNIOR TENNIS PRE-QUALIFIER: UNDER-14 BOYS 2ND OVERALL, GIRLS 6TH

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net AFTER taking an unblemished record into the final, the Bahamas boys’ under-14 team fell a little bit short against Guatemala in the Pre- Qualifying World Junior Tennis tournament in El Salvador.

Coming off an impressive 2-1 win over the Dominican Republic in their semi-final playoff game on Friday, the team, coached by Bradley Bain, put in a gallant effort, but it wasn’t enough to prevail over Guatemala.

The Bahamas’ boys ended up in second place out of a field of 13 nations.

William McCartney, playing in the first match of the day, lost 7-5, 6-2 in one hour and 40 minutes to Gianluigi Martini, while Jackson Mactaggart played the other single and fell 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2 in a 2hr:20m marathon three-set thriller to Ronaldo Cotom.

And in the doubles, the pair of Mactaggart and Jerald Carroll won 6-4, 6-3 over Martini and Mateo Herrarte in 1hr:10m.

The girls, coached by Paula Whitfield, finished in sixth place after losing 3-0 to Honduras on Friday.

In that match, Sarai Clarke dropped a 7-5, 6-0 decision to Arianna Kafati and Breann Ferguson lost to Alyssa Sucrovich 6-2, 7-6 (8), both in 1hr:30m.

Clarke and Ferguson teamed up in doubles, but they lost 7-5, 6-1 to the team of Sucrovich and Ana Belen Alvarado in 1hr:22m.

The Bahamas’ girls finished

sixth out of a field of nine countries.

For the boys’ team, it was the second time that they have advanced to the final match.

The first time came in 2016 when Artie Johnson coached the team of Jacobi Bain, Denali Nottage and Kofi Bain to the final.

This year’s team won Group C before they advanced to the playoffs.

Bain said it was their hope of going all the way and becoming the first Bahamian team to earn a berth into the World Tennis Finals in Mexico in April.

“We were right in the match,” Bain said.

“The kids were frustrated and we didn’t stick with the game plan and when they started making mistakes, it was all downhill.”

Bain noted that McCartney opened up a 5-2 lead in the first set of his match, but couldn’t close the door.

He noted that he tried to win the match rather than taking the next point.

“You can’t get to the next match before the match is over,” Bain pointed out.

“You have to stay there and work your way through each point and remain your focus and remember what got you there and continue to do it.”

After working so hard in the first set, Bain said McCartney just didn’t have the strength to prevail in the second set.

As for Mactaggart, Bain said he was right in the match as well.

“He played well. He won the first set, but in the second set, he was down 5-1

EURO BACKLASH AS FIFA REFUSES TO EXPEL RUSSIA FROM FOOTBALL

By ROB HARRIS AP Global Soccer Writer LONDON (AP) — FIFA drew a swift backlash from European nations for not immediately expelling Russia from World Cup qualifying yesterday and only ordering the country to play without its flag and anthem at neutral venues under the name of its federation — the Football Union of Russia.

Protesting against FIFA’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Poland said it would still refuse to play the country in a World Cup playoff semifinal, which is scheduled for March 24.

“Today’s FIFA decision is totally unacceptable,” Polish football federation president Cezary Kulesza tweeted.

“We are not interested in participating in this game of appearances. Our stance remains intact: Polish National Team will NOT PLAY with Russia, no matter what the name of the team is.”

The unanimous ruling by the FIFA Bureau, featuring the six regional football confederation presidents, said the Russian flag and anthem can’t be associated with the team playing as “Football Union of Russia (RFU).”

“FIFA will continue its ongoing dialogue with the IOC, UEFA and other sport organisations to determine any additional measures or sanctions,” FIFA said in a statement, “including a potential exclusion from competitions, that shall be applied in the near future should the situation not be improving rapidly.”

The decision adopts the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling before the invasion of Ukraine, punishing Russia’s cover-up of the investigation into statesponsored doping.

It meant the Russians had to compete at the last two Olympics as the ROC team.

FIFA had stalled implementing the ban on Russia competing under the country’s name until a potential qualification the World Cup.

The winner of the RussiaPoland playoff is due to host Sweden or the Czech Republic on March 29 to decide who advances to the November 21 to December 18 World Cup in Qatar.

Swedish federation president Karl-Erik Nilsson, the senior UEFA vice president, told the website Fotbollskanalen that he was not satisfied with the FIFA decision with a “sharper stance” expected.

The Czechs said the FIFA compromise did not change their decision not to play Russia.

FIFA said it had engaged with the three associations and would remain in “close contact to seek to find appropriate and acceptable solutions together.”

Separately, the English Football Association announced that its national teams would refuse to play Russia for the “foreseeable future.” Russia has qualified for the Women’s European Championship which is being hosted by England in June.

The English FA said the decision was taken “out of solidarity with the Ukraine and to wholeheartedly condemn the atrocities being committed by the Russian leadership.”

The RFU’s president is Aleksandr Dyukov, who is chief executive of a subsidiary of state-owned energy giant Gazprom and also sits on the UEFA executive committee.

In France, the football federation president Noël Le Graët told the Le Parisien daily yesterday that he was leaning toward excluding Russia from the World Cup. “The world of sport, and in particular football, cannot remain neutral,” said Le Graët, who sits on the ruling FIFA Council and has recently been a close ally of the governing body’s president, Gianni Infantino.

A strict reading of FIFA’s World Cup regulations would even make the Polish, Swedish and Czech federations liable to disciplinary action and having to pay fines and compensation if they wouldn’t play Russia.

and serving and I told him to just try to break him, but he didn’t and he lost.

“In the third set, he started off holding serve, but after he got break, he didn’t have the energy or the fight to come back.

“When you’re up, somehow you find the energy, but when you’re down in a tight match, it’s just hard to come back in a tight match.”

Bain said the doubles team played extremely well and if they had exerted that type of energy in the singles, the outcome would have been reversed and the team could have been preparing for the World Tennis Final.

Despite the loss, Bain said he was pleased with their performances, but he was able to point out the things they all have to work on as they move forward.

He said he made his recommendations to the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association.

The BLTA, headed by Perry Newton, congratulated the team on their splendid participation in the tournament in El Salvador.

“We are also appreciative of coaches Bain and Whitfield,” the BLTA said.

“The Bahamas was well represented at this regional event and we are proud of our team. The future of tennis is bright.”

BAHAMAS’ under-14 team, from left to right, of coach Bradley Bain, Jerald Carroll, William McCartney and Jackson Mactaggart.