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Volume: 118 No.122, May 20, 2021

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It’s so very hard...they just kill him

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE mother of the teenager who was fatally stabbed during an altercation at school on Tuesday said when she first got a call from officials to head to the hospital, she had no idea her child had been killed.

Speaking to The Tribune from her home yesterday, SEE PAGE THREE

MARIE-JEANNE GUSTAVE, mother of Kenm Paul, who died after a stabbing at school on Tuesday. Photo: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune staff

NYGARD LAWYERS SUE COVID CASES ON RISE HIM FOR $14 MILLION AMONG YOUNGSTERS

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THREE Bahamian attorneys have acted to prevent Peter Nygard fleeing The Bahamas without paying a collective $14m legal bill for representing him in multiple court cases.

The trio, two of whom are an ex-Cabinet minister and former MP, are all seeking Supreme Court injunctions to prevent the accused sex trafficker from abandoning The Bahamas and themselves - by taking

the multi-million dollar proceeds generated from selling his former Nygard Cay home and other real estate assets out of the jurisdiction without settling his debts.

Algernon Allen and Keod Smith, together with Carlton Martin, all allege that the troubled fashion designer has paid “no more” than 5 percent on separate seven-figure legal bills due to them. This is despite Mr Smith asserting, in his March 31, 2021, statement of claim that Mr Nygard could realise as much as

$84m from selling off his remaining Bahamian property assets.

Besides alleging that Nygard Cay is “presently being sold” for $59m, Mr Smith and his two colleagues all placed a $25m valuation on Bay Street’s Union Wharf property while claiming that it was “believed to be beneficially owned” by the embattled Canadian tycoon who remains jailed in his homeland as he bids to fight extradition to New York over sex trafficking and other charges.

SEE BUSINESS SECTION

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH officials are troubled by the trend of children catching COVID19 at a greater rate than they did during the first and second waves, Health Minister Renward Wells said yesterday.

He was making the case in the House of Assembly for why the state of emergency and emergency powers order must be extended.

He revealed that the Bahamas now has a COVID-19 positivity rate of 15 percent, notably higher than the internationally recognised standard of keeping the rate below five percent.

He also discussed the extent of vaccine hesitancy in the country, noting that even among healthcare workers––the first group invited to be vaccinated–– fewer than 50 percent have come forward for a jab to date.

“During the first wave,”

CURFEW TIGHTENS ON FAMILY ISLANDS

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced yesterday the daily curfew in Andros, the Berry Islands and Cat Island will be 8pm to 5am starting today out of concern for the COVID-19 situation on those islands.

“Health teams are headed to these islands for outbreak investigations

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.

Photo: Ulric Woodside/BIS and vaccination teams will also be deployed to these

islands,” he said.

“Any other additional measures will be announced depending on the findings of the investigation team and these recommendations will be made in the coming week.”

Dr Minnis said changes will be made to Grand Bahama’s daily curfew soon as the island “appears to be turning a corner”.

His comments came during a debate in the

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE FOUR

he said, “40 years and older contributed to the greatest share of the national COVID-19 burden. In the second wave, this shifted to those who were 49 years or younger. At this point in the third wave, we are seeing COVID-19 infections in the very young and the adolescent population and they are being hospitalised.

“Notably, during the entire first and second waves, COVID-19 cases among those 0 to 9 years represented only one SEE PAGE FOUR

FRONT PORCH

THE PANDEMIC, RESPONSIBLE FREEDOM AND THE COMMON GOOD

PAGE EIGHT

PAGE 2, Thursday, May 20, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

MORE THAN 100 APPLY TO HAVE CRIMINAL RECORDS EXPUNGED

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

ABOVE: Chairman of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Committee Paul Farquharson.

LEFT: Darius Taylor Photos: Racardo Thomas

MORE than 100 Bahamians have applied to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Committee so far for the year seeking to get their criminal records expunged, the committee’s chairman Paul Farquharson said yesterday.

Nineteen of those applicants have since had their records wiped clean.

“We had 123 applicants so far,” Mr Farquharson told reporters at the Ministry of National Security.

“In Grand Bahama, you have 25 applications. In Bimini, we’ve got eight and in Exuma, we have one. (For the) grant of expungement out of that lot—19 applications. We have deferred 24 to the

PERRY Mortimer with Chairman of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Committee Paul Farquharson.

Prerogative of Mercy and other things that go with we have deferred for coun- travelling and business.” selling, four applicants,” he Yesterday’s exercise added. comes as more and more “The committee felt first-time offenders seek that by having heard a clean slate, with the those applicants, we felt number of people applying that they needed further to the rehabilitative comcounselling before the mittee said to be increasing committee could make a “by the day”. final determination.”

Earlier this month, Mr Mr Farquharson’s Farquharson told The Tribcomments came after une the group was currently he presented business- reviewing some 60 applicaman Perry Mortimer with tions from Bahamians. his instruments for the Several applicants met expungement of his record. with committee memThe 54-year-old was bers yesterday during an convicted of possession interview exercise held at of dangerous drugs with the Ministry of National intent to supply after offic- Security. ers found him with six Darius Taylor, 30, was grams of marijuana 19 one of them. He told The years ago.

Tribune he applied to the Having been burdened committee last year after with a criminal record he was charged in 2015 for almost two decades, with possession of an unliMr Mortimer said he was censed firearm. grateful to finally feel The father-of-one described his experience in prison as being horrible, saying he wouldn’t wish the ordeal on his worst enemy.

“It was hell. It caused me to miss all the simple things in life,” he said. “That ain’t no good place for nobody in the world to go. You had to (defecate) in front of people in the bucket and that’s already cruel. You have to get stripped naked, that’s your pride gone and then they talk to you any kind of how and feeding you what they want (to) feed you. I wouldn’t send no one there.”

Mr Taylor said after he was released from prison, the first thing he touched was “a rock”.

“I wanted to see how a rock feels again,” he said.

Mr Taylor said since then, his life has taken a drastic U-turn and added that his main focus right now is just bettering himself for his family. He currently lives in Abaco and is a construction worker.

“I applied (to the committee) so I could get a ATTORNEY and youth advobetter job to provide for cate Tavarrie Smith. my family and to open up certain doors that were “free” and thanked God closed to me by me having for how far He has brought this bad record,” he said. him.

Under the Rehabilitation “I’m just going to thank of Offenders Act (Amendthe Father, thank the ment) 2015, people who committee and thank eve- have committed murder, rybody for almost 20 years, manslaughter, treason, I’m free and that’s like a armed robbery, rape or burden off me. Maybe 20 possession dangerous drugs or 30 years from now when with the intent to supply history is written… maybe 10 pounds of marijuana my grandchildren or great or two pounds of cocaine grandchildren will say well cannot have their records ‘he messed up, but he got expunged. himself together,’” he said.

But after five years most Speaking on the negative others are eligible if they impact a criminal record are first-time offenders could have on one’s life, the or were younger than 21 54-year-old said that being at the time of their first convicted can stagnate an conviction. individual due to missed These offences can also opportunities. be considered by the PreBecause of this, he urged rogative of Mercy. young Bahamians to stay “Our young people need focused and not become second chances, sometimes involved in crime. they need third and fourth “It has an impact because and fifth chances and that sometimes you can’t travel is what the role of the comso it affects your business mittee is – to assess these and it affects the potential cases independently,” said for your business because attorney and youth advoyou’re limited to meeting cate Tavarrie Smith at people, you’re limited to yesterday’s event. exposures, different con“I want to encourage ventions abroad because of young people out there, the (issue) you’re involved if you fall within that catin so that right there, for egory of having your a lot of young people, is records expunged, please really a challenge,” Mr reach out to the committee Mortimer told reporters. and make the application.

“And sometimes the Come and speak with them potential of excelling in life and see how best they can becomes limited because assist you because our they can’t go much further young people need to have in terms of expanding their records cleaned. They need education, their contacts, to be able to have jobs and connections and all of the to go off to school.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, May 20, 2021, PAGE 3

It’s so very hard...they just kill him FROM PAGE ONE Marie-Jeanne Gustave was visibly grief stricken as she recalled the first time the school called her about her “quiet” 15-year-old son, Kenm Paul. It was a call that delivered some devastating news.

The 11th grader and another student were stabbed on Tuesday at Government High School. Kenm died while the other was taken to the hospital and is listed in serious condition. The deceased’s brother, Stanley Paul, said the 15-year-old’s close friend was the other student injured.

The mother revealed that when she was contacted by school officials, they informed her that something had happened to him, however the seriousness of the situation was not conveyed at that moment.

“I feel very very bad. This is my last son,” she said with tears in her eyes, shortly after viewing her son’s body.

“I love him very much. I can’t explain to you how I feel now. It is very hard for me. . .they just kill him.”

She said the day of the incident, the school’s principal called her at work asking if she was Kenm’s mother.

“She said they want me to go by the hospital,” the teen’s mother said.

“I catch the bus and I go there.

When I reached the hospital, the security let me inside. When I reached inside, I met somebody, must be the school people, she was waiting for me.

“Since I reach, she called the principal, she said ‘Kenm mummy reach.’ After that she stayed a couple minutes with me and she gone. I see a nurse come from inside the room and I questioned her and I say ‘I’m Kenm Paul’s mummy. The school called me to come (to) the hospital. They say something happened to Kenm.’

“I asked her if I could see him, she said no I can’t see him and I said ‘Can you tell me what happened please?’ She said Kenm okay. She said nothing happened Kenm okay. “….Nobody can tell me nothing.

I don’t know if he still living or if he still in the hospital room. When I start crying, one (person came out) and she asked me if my son is the dark one. I said yes and she said the dark one died.”

Kenm’s brother is saddened that he did not get to see his younger sibling before he left for school on that fateful day.

“I only saw him that night before and every morning mostly he comes knocking on my door and asks me to get some cologne for him to go to school, but he ain’t ask me that morning,” Mr Paul said.

“He ain’t even come knock on my door that morning. He just gone.”

He remembered his brother as a “good person” and made it clear the 15-year-old was not in a gang.

He said Kenm had dreams of studying overseas and playing sports.

“He was hard-headed and he was rebellious and he was a hot head, but he wouldn’t bother no one unless you bother him,” Mr Paul said.

FNM RATIFIES TWO MORE CANDIDATES

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

MARIE-Jeanne Gustave speaks yesterday.

Yesterday, National Security Minister Marvin Dames noted that the perpetrators have not been turned in, despite police speaking to parents and other relatives.

Asked what he would say to the parents who have not turned in the suspected assailants, Mr Paul said: “The only good thing I could say is they (are) wrong. They are wrong for what they are doing. That’s if

they know where the children is, for real they are wrong for what they doing.”

He is now focused on supporting his mother through this difficult time.

“I have to be strong because if I don’t be strong, my mummy is all I have, and I can’t lose two people in the same year so I have to stay strong so I can help comfort her.”

LLOYD HITS BACK AT CRITICISM AFTER SCHOOL STABBING

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minister Jeffrey Lloyd yesterday hit out at criticisms from parents of students at Government High School in the wake of a boy’s fatal stabbing, calling the accusations he heard on Tuesday “one heap of rubbish”.

At a press conference at the school yesterday, attended by National Security Minister Marvin Dames and other officials, Mr Lloyd defended educators saying they are not the ones who “manufacture violence” on school campuses.

GHS was placed on lockdown after two teens were stabbed by fellow students; one boy died as a result and another remains in hospital.

After the attack, parents became irate outside the school’s gates lamenting safety concerns and a lack of information about who had been injured.

Yesterday, Mr Lloyd, who spent years working with atrisk young men, defended educators.

“We have been called by God for this occasion, for this time, for this re ason for this assignment to impart to our beloved young people and to invite them to life is who we are as educators.

But over the years, now going into my near 40th year, we have to become more than that….we’re counsellors. We take money out of our own pockets and assist our children, who we regard as our children … and yet with all due regard I listened to the parents outside yesterday afternoon talking one heap of rubbish. Accusing us, you and me. We do not manufacture violence on these wonderful campuses.

“We do not teach violence, in fact we bring respect and stand in the place of places that have been a gap in the lives of these children— (who) have been neglected or abandoned….you see it over and over again and they’re angry because they feel disrespected by the people from whom they should be respected, their parents, their family, and their friends and so we dear educators are the repository of their anger on these campuses.”

He highlighted how it has been a challenging year in education due to the coronavirus pandemic and thanked educators for

NATIONAL Security Minister Marvin Dames at Government High School.

EDUCATION Minister Jeffrey Lloyd speaks at Government High School yesterday.

PHOTOS: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune staff their work especially when so and you love doing it back in schools, to provide dealing with parents in because you are an educa- more training and resources regards to children’s school tor and you’ve been called for security officers, to instal attendance.

by God to do this. So we cameras in school common “We’ve had to go from don’t deserve no blame and areas and to purchase metal face-to-face to virtual and accusations. We have gone detectors for each school, then to hybrid (instruc- beyond the call of duty,” Mr among other suggestions. tion). It’s not been easy and Lloyd said.

The high school’s prinyou have done it my dear For his part, Mr Dames cipal, Eloise Whyms, told beloved faculty and staff,” lamented that the suspects reporters of the safety he said. had not been turned in yet, measures in place at the “You’ve done it and even though people know school. done it excellently. I thank who they are.

“What occurred yesteryou and congratulate you “You had this incident. day we did not know,” she and yet this is what makes You know who the perpe- said. “We didn’t prepare for trators are because they it. What we do on a regular are juveniles themselves basis as students come into and students but yet today the school each morning at as we are gathered here, the student gate they are no one has come forth thoroughly searched from with those young men,” head to toe.

Mr Dames said. “No one “We do our metal has turned them over to detecting and we do evethe police today and I am rything—bag searches, very aware that police whatever—so when we let would have spoken to par- them through the gate for ents and would’ve spoken the day we are assured of to other relatives and still their safety…… That is just today they’re not in police one isolated incident and custody. we will bounce back.” “….It speaks to a bigger She said the school has problem. It’s okay for us to had partnerships with police be angry. It’s okay for us to in the past to help with be sad. It’s okay for us to security concerns, however GOVERNMENT High School ask these tough questions, she does not think a police principal Eloise Whyms. but at the end of the day presence is needed on the the fundamental question is campus every day. me annoyed. We are being what are we doing about it?

“I want to clarify that accused and blamed. All of How can we move from this the presence, in terms of this we do. “You all go into place to a better place? a police, here every day, these communities, looking “This one incident is a I really don’t think that’s for children, call them on reflection of the challenges necessary. Honestly I don’t. the phone, ‘Why aren’t you we face throughout our You know we have police in school?’ And the parents communities. The ques- that come by from time to (are) giving you some lame, tion is not what’s going on time and see how we are some nonsensical excuse. on our school campuses doing. We are a phone call ‘Oh well he ain’t wake up because this is a singular away from the Grove. I call this morning. Oh well we incident but what is really that our station and if you went to bed late last night is a microcosm of what’s were doing your records oh whatever.’ taking place throughout you would see over the “I said from the begin- our society and the fact that years that the challenges ning. I’ve said all my life. each of us bear a responsi- that Government High Education is everyone’s bility and until we come to faced, they had dropped.” business. Nobody can take acknowledge that fact this As for Tuesday’s attack, a pass. We in the Minis- spiral will continue.”

Ms Whyms said it happened try of Education, you here Yesterday, Bahamas quickly. on this campus, you are Union of Teachers presi“It was not a fight where doing extraordinarily well dent Belinda Wilson called whatever was done was and you’ve always done for officials to put police done very quickly and they

ran off the scene because on a lunch break there’s seven administrators here and we are stationed in different locations of the school.

There was nothing alerting, a lot of noise or something that caused persons to just say something is going on like that.”

Asked what alerted them, she replied: “My administrator, who is nearest to that point, as he stands and he observed when he turned like that he saw a young man running with a knife.”

The deceased teen has been identified as 15-yearold Kenm Paul.

THE Free National Movement ratified two more candidates for the next general election on Tuesday, leaving just four seats left to be filled.

Two of those remaining seats, Killarney and Carmichael, will go to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and Deputy Prime Minister Desmond Bannister, the current MPs. The seats the FNM ratified Tuesday night include Quinton Percentie in Englerston and Maxine Seymour in Seabreeze.

FNM MP Lanisha Rolle is the current representative for Seabreeze. However, she resigned from Cabinet in February after matters pertaining to the Ministry of Youth, Sports & Culture were brought to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ attention.

In her resignation letter to Governor General Sir C A Smith, Mrs Rolle said she remained committed to serving out the remainder of her term as the Seabreeze MP. However, she was not expected to receive a nomination to represent the party in the next election.

The FNM’s statement said: “Maxine Seymore is a trained communications professional who has experience across several industries such as health, small business and government. She currently serves as a director at one of the nation’s leading health and life insurers while helping the youth in her community.

In Parliament, she will bring new ideas to the forefront and will help the Minnis administration advance transparency and accountability in government.

“A man of faith, Quintin Percentie is an inspiration to his community who he serves passionately. In Parliament, he will bring the same intensity to advancing the FNM’s agenda to create jobs, advance education and continue revamping our infrastructure for generations to come.

“Each candidate will bring fresh ideas and a commitment to serving as a voice for all Bahamians. The Bahamas will overcome the pandemic, and together, we will keep moving our nation forward for our children and grandchildren.”

The Progressive Liberal Party, meanwhile, has ratified 38 of 39 candidates for the next election, including seven last week.

PAGE 4, Thursday, May 20, 2021

CARICOM, LATIN AMERICAN NATIONS ‘FRONT OF MIND’ WITH REGARDS TO US VACCINES

By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net

A UNITED States official said the Biden administration has not made a final decision yet on which countries will benefit from America’s promised vaccine sharing but stressed the COVID19 situation in CARICOM and Latin American nations has been “front of mind”.

Gayle E Smith, coordinator for global COVID response and health security at the US Department of State, hosted a telephone press briefing yesterday discussing the US government’s support of global COVID-19 vaccinations.

This comes after President Joe Biden’s announcement to share 20 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines with other countries in addition to the 60 million doses already committed.

“The situation across the CARICOM countries and Latin America has been front of mind for the United States given that this is indeed in our hemisphere,” Ms Smith said.

“We are looking at all regions given the constraints in vaccine supply literally everywhere.

Honour “We have not made final decisions but I can tell you that we are looking closely at every region and that we are well aware of, and I have the honour of meeting with several representatives of CARICOM, of the acute need in fact on or near our borders.”

If these vaccines are deployed to this region, they may not come directly from the US government as President Biden has overseen a heavy donation to the World Health Organization’s COVAX Facility since taking office.

The US is a leading partner to COVAX and the vaccines might be distributed to The Bahamas and other countries through that machinery.

Ms Smith, the former administrator of USAID under President Obama, said the US is working very closely with COVAX. “We are consulting closely with COVAX, which as you know is the largest vaccine delivery platform in the world and that is focused on low income and low middle income countries,” she said.

“And, with our partners, in order to initiate a process where we start to get the global coverage we need, we are very strong supporters of COVAX. “The president made a $2 billion contribution shortly after taking office, which puts us out front as the primary donor.

“We are in very close touch with them on a regular basis, coordinating with them, and of course

we look at COVAX as an absolutely critical and essential platform for allocation.

“Vaccines are the tools for public health.

“They are the means for bringing this pandemic to an end.

“We do not see them as or intend to use as means for influence or pressure and our decisions will be made on the basis of need, public health data and again collaboration with key partners, including COVAX.” In total, the US has committed to sharing 80 million vaccine doses with other countries.

Strategy “So that means we are going to be putting 80 million additional vaccines into the mix, making up the largest sharer of vaccines thus far,” Ms Smith continued. “Now that’s only one part of our strategy on vaccines. I think as we all know, supply is a very big issue and we need many more vaccines for countries all over the world.

“To that end we are working with producers on increasing the supplies and also on the supply chain.

The component parts that make up the vaccine are in shortage in some cases so we are working to increase that production so supplies increase.

“Another way we are working to increase supplies is through our Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to make investments in manufacturing sites around the world with an injection of capital that can increase supply over the short and medium term.”

Just days after a Chinese official in The Bahamas criticised the US for “hoarding” vaccinations and “doing very little” to assist other countries, Ms Smith pointed out ways in which the US is helping various nations.

“The vaccine strategy is part of a broader strategy for the United States.

“As you know it’s critical to ensure that there is both vaccine uptake, but also diagnostics, testing, therapeutics and other supplies are available,” she said.

“We are pushing out over a billion dollars increasing our support for that effort and at the same time providing humanitarian assistance, not only for countries where we are seeing a surge, but more broadly to people all over the world who have felt the impact of this pandemic on their economic livelihood, their wellbeing and their health.”

Ms Smith served on the National Security Council for both President Obama and President Clinton.

Prior to the State Department, her most recent role was president and CEO of the ONE Campaign, which fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, primarily in Africa.

THE TRIBUNE

COVID CASES ON RISE AMONG YOUNGSTERS FROM PAGE ONE percent of the total cumulative cases for each respective wave. Already at this point in the third wave those ages 0 to 9 years account for 106 or three percent of 3rd wave COVID-19 cases.”

Mr Wells said this increase is likely because of variants, the presence of which are suspected based on the screening of positive samples at the National Reference Laboratory. Officials are still awaiting test results of samples sent outside the country to confirm the presence of variants.

Mr Wells said in view of the impact COVID-19 is starting to have on younger residents, the government “has moved with urgency” to secure Pfizer vaccine doses, as it is the only vaccine approved for emergency use in people under 18. He did not say whether the government’s efforts have borne fruit as yet.

Mr Wells said of the 11,278 confirmed cases in the Bahamas, 33.1 percent are attributable to the third wave. However, officials have not indicated the exact date at which the third wave began. Mr Wells also said 24 percent of the country’s 221 COVID-19 deaths came during the third wave.

“Last week, the average COVID-19 bed capacity rate reached a high of almost 70 percent,” he said.

“This figure is 10 percentage points higher than the previous week. COVID19 bed capacity is further challenged by the issue of COVID-19 boarders. These are persons who remain in hospital when they no longer require hospital care for COVID-19. Most are persons who are no longer received by the long-term care homes from which they came and others are well enough for home isolation, but social and environmental circumstances at their place of residence are not conducive

MINISTER of Health Renward Wells speaks in the House of Assembly yesterday.

ULRIC Woodside/ BIS Photos

for safe isolation.”

Mr Wells said there are 15 boarders taking up acute care COVID-19 beds in the healthcare system. He said the “health care system is severely challenged and stretched at its seams.”

“Hospitalisations are increasing and health worker fatigue is increasing,” he said.

“The positivity rate is also increasing. From the beginning of April, our positive rate has reflected a steady increase and now stands at 15 percent.”

With officials continuing to stress that vaccines are the way out of the pandemic, Mr Wells described taking the vaccine as “the moral thing to do”.

“At Mark 12:30, we are encouraged to love God and to love our neighbour,” he said.

“If we love God and appreciate life, we will do all we can to stay alive and stay well. Getting the vaccine will increase the likelihood of this outcome. Further, when we take the vaccine, we not

only protect ourselves, but are protecting our family and other persons around us also…Yes, getting vaccinated shows love for God and love for our neighbour.”

Mr Wells said over 40,000 people have taken a vaccine to date—about ten percent of the country.

“Vaccine hesitancy no doubt is contributing to these numbers in the country,” he said.

He said 15.4 percent of uniform branch services members have taken the vaccine today—1,199 out of 7,770.

Among those 60 years and older, 6,339 of 28,630 people have taken the vaccine, the equivalent of 22.1 percent.

“Among all healthcare workers, clinical and nonclinical, 2,626 of 5,771—45.5 percent have been vaccinated,” Mr Wells said.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis also encouraged residents to get vaccinated during his contribution to the debate on the resolution to extend the state of

FROM PAGE ONE

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.

ULRIC Woodside/BIS Photos

House of Assembly yesterday on a resolution to extend the country’s state of emergency and emergency powers order.

Governor General Sir Cornelius Smith declared another state of emergency for the country that took effect on May 14, citing low vaccination numbers and the third wave of cases in New Providence and Grand Bahama.

The question of whether the government would declare another state of emergency or implement a new statutory framework had hovered over the country as the deadline for the end of the previous state of emergency neared.

Dr Minnis said yesterday: “When the time is appropriate, guided by our public health experts, we will move to a new regime outside the current emergency measures. That time is closer than many realise.

Common sense public health rules will remain. However, this regime will be, in time, phased out.”

Dr Minnis praised his administration’s handling of the pandemic.

“We issued out $32.5 million for food assistance to ensure that all of our people were well fed,” he said. “We issued out $44 million to private sector businesses to ensure that staff employment was retained, and we issued out about $118 million for unemployment assistance to ensure our people got assistance.

We do not have the power to print or to borrow $3.3 billion.”

Dr Minnis and Progressive Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis repeatedly clashed during the former’s speech. Among other things, they disagreed on whether Mr Davis attended meetings with

emergency.

“Vaccinations work in dramatically reducing the risk of severe diseases and death,” he said.

“Countries such as Israel and the United Kingdom have demonstrated the effectiveness of mass vaccinations.

“Both countries are world leaders in COVID-19 vaccinations. Consequently, their case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths have fallen dramatically. Both countries are moving to broader reopening of their economies and societies, and we need a larger number of Bahamians to take the vaccine in order to help end the emergency phase of the pandemic in our country.

“The vaccines (are) onshore and more coming, we are at the stage where individual choices will carry great consequences.”

The latest report from the Ministry of Health notes that 43 new COVID-19 cases were recorded on Tuesday, bringing the nation’s total to 11,321.

CURFEW TIGHTENS ON FAMILY ISLANDS the government’s task force and whether Mr Davis supported the administration’s vaccination rollout.

After his speech in Parliament, Mr Davis released a statement blaming government incompetence for the rise in COVID-19 cases on Cat Island.

“A small number of Cat Islanders were experiencing symptoms and took COVID tests,” he said.

“They quarantined as they awaited their results.

“As you know, quarantine is not easy for those who need to take care of their families or find a way to earn a living during this economic crisis. But they did it, as so many Bahamians have over these long months.

“What happened next is hard to believe: the government sent back the wrong test results, showing that everyone in the group was negative. So they ended their quarantine. A few days later the mistake was revealed – some in the group were in fact positive. But by then it was too late. Subsequent testing indicated that out of a group of 23 people, 17 of them were COVID positive. That’s an off-the-charts 73 percent positive rate.

“Nearly a year and a half into this pandemic, how can this kind of mistake happen?

“The system and protocols should make it impossible for the wrong test results to be given on a whole batch of tests.

“This is basic. Giving people accurate results is a matter of life and death.”

BOOKING APPOINTMENTS FOR SECOND VACCINE DOSE THE National COVID19 Vaccine Consultative Committee has advised that all people who received an email notification of a second dose appointment immediately after receiving their first dose are still required to book an appointment online at vax. gov.bs.

This applies to all first dose recipients.

To calculate the appropriate time to receive your second dose, please visit opm.gov.bs/vaccine and enter the date of the first dose in the free calculator provided, the committee said.

It is recommended that there is a minimum of eight weeks between the first and second doses of the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine.

Persons who received a second dose appointment that is more than

seven weeks from the first dose are now able to go online and book an earlier appointment date.

The administration of first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine continues on New Providence and Grand Bahama.

To make an appointment online visit vax.gov. bs or visit one of the walkup sites at the Kendal G L Isaacs Gym, Baha Mar, Church of God of Prophecy on East St and St Anselm’s Church Hall on Bernard Rd.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, May 20, 2021, PAGE 5

SIX MONTHS IN PRISON FOR FALSIFIED COVID TEST RESULTS

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 33-YEAR-OLD man who tried to use falsified COVID-19 test results to travel to Grand Bahama was yesterday sentenced to six months in prison.

Estherry Augustin was arrested after he presented a fraudulent negative Bonaventure Medical Lab COVID-19 RT PCR test to an official at Lynden Pindling International Airport on May 15.

He pleaded guilty to possessing and uttering a forged document during his hearing before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis.

The court was told that Augustin presented himself to a COVID ambassador and was asked to show his COVID test. He handed over his black phone which had a copy of the document indicating negative results. The court heard that a closer examination of the document revealed several discrepancies that aroused the suspicion of the ambassador.

When she asked Augustin to produce the original email that would contain the results, he could not do so. As a result, she contacted police who later arrested the accused. When he was questioned in police custody, he admitted to the offence and said he did it because he was in a rush to get back to Grand Bahama.

Yesterday, Augustin said he lived in Grand Bahama but came to Nassau to attend the funeral of his girlfriend’s father. He said he bought the fake test for $120 because he was rushing to go back to his three daughters in Freeport and he knew he would not be able to get a legitimate test on the weekend.

In response, Magistrate Rolle Davis said the court was of the view that it had to protect society from this type of behaviour as he could have potentially put many lives at risk if he had actually had the virus.

As a result, he accepted his guilty plea and sentenced Augustin to six months in prison.

He said it was important to deter any would-be offenders who may have had intentions to break the law in a similar manner.

FAMILY SUING FOR $10M AFTER CRUISE TO THE BAHAMAS ON SUPER YACHT THE family of a Canadian billionaire is suing a super yacht company for $10 million after claiming they were left “violently ill” and subject to false imprisonment by the “odorous, ill-tempered British captain” of their luxury cruise to The Bahamas.

Two lawsuits related to the matter have been filed in Florida.

The yacht, named the Dream, was chartered by billionaire hockey team owner Eugene Melnyk and his girlfriend.

The lawsuits were filed on behalf of Mr Melnyk’s girlfriend, Sharilyne Anderson, and his mother, Vera.

Ms Anderson and Ms Melnyk are each seeking $5m.

“After requesting a change in the route the suit claims the captain ‘appeared angry and resentful that a charterer would deem to intrude on his alleged specialised knowledge, experience, and authority,” the British Daily Mail reported.

“But Chris Fertig, an attorney for the yacht company, said the change

Two lawsuits are filed in Florida was ‘a physical impossibility’, adding: ‘It would have been nice had the boat been able to go the inland route. But you can’t. I think he [the captain] did his best. You know, they all were safe.

The boat is safe.’ The area Melnyk and his family had requested to travel through has depths of between 2.4 and 6.4 meters, data shows; the yacht has a draught of 3.6 meters.”

The family set sail on the yacht on December 22.

“The 12-passenger yacht is described online as ‘luxury’ with an ‘opulent interior and unique on-board lifestyle’ which ‘accommodates the needs of the most discerning guest.’ But Melnyk’s loved ones claim in their suits the captain – named as Captain Niel Heselton – was ‘odorous, ill-tempered, curt and dismissive’ with passengers.

It also alleges he was ‘outright angry and abusive to the crew’. They say they

suffered ‘panic attacks’ and ‘abuse’ as a result.

The lawsuit also states that the captain ‘was easily flustered and overwhelmed and seemed completely unfamiliar with the area, the crew or the vessel’.

After requesting the route change the suit claims the captain “sought instead to punish the charterer and his party for their insolence through intentionally piloting the yacht into the open ocean.’’

“That led to a ‘harrowing 10 to 15-hour ordeal’ in which the couple ‘became violently ill, vomiting throughout the night’, according to the suit.

“And after picking up passengers - including Melnyk’s mother, Vera, - the suit claims the problems continued with guests suffering ‘violent bouts of vomiting and

illness’.

The suit adds: ‘The passengers were again subjected to hours of rough sailing, some having to crawl on all fours to be able to safely walk the decks of the ship.

“The seas were so rough that an improperly secured deck chair on the upper deck of the vessel crashed into the glass partition above the dining area, raining down shards of broken glass that narrowly missed the guests but caused severe emotional distress over the likelihood of being injured.’

According to the lawsuit, the captain allegedly insisted on sailing back to Nassau instead of letting everyone off on Exuma on the day the trip was supposed to end, sparking claims of false imprisonment.

The passengers said this led to “panic attacks, trauma, fear of death by drowning and fear of boarding vessels of any kind.”

and focus our planting in areas where there were previously adult mangroves,” Mr Lewis stated.

Mr Lewis said they decided to plant along creek edges where there is more nutrition, like at Romer Creek, which allows red mangroves to grow to adult size and produce seeds.

He believes that the seedlings produced will be swept into adjacent areas where there are dwarf red mangroves that are stunted and rarely produce seeds.

Mr Lewis said Roemer Creek, which is a few miles northeast of Crown Haven, Abaco, is the perfect area for replanting.

“Importantly, that area had previous living adult mangroves because of how the channel is set up and is a high-nutrient area that allows them to get to adult size and reseed.

“And with the channel being adjacent to it is a good way for dispersal of seeds to the surrounding area. Once the seeds drop with the current going to

channel it will disperse seeds to a wide area,” he stated.

In Abaco, mangrove restoration has also started.

Mr Lewis said BTT plans on doing more planting, especially this year and over the next three to five years.

“We are doing some work this summer. Abaco is the

next big step and we will be focusing on an area on the west side of Abaco, which is a very large area called the Marls,” he said.

BTT is a science-based non-profit organisation based in the US. It has working partnerships with the Bahamas National Trust; Friends of the Environment,

a grassroots NGO in Abaco; and MANG, a clothing retail company that does a lot of mangrove restoration work in Florida.

More information about the project can be found at http://www.bonefishtarpontrust.org/btt-events/ mangrove-restoration-project/

Captain

‘GREAT SUCCESS’ AS MANGROVE RESTORATION GETS UNDERWAY

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FOR SALE

MANGROVE restoration is underway in Grand Bahama and Abaco, where replanting events have taken place, bringing the total number of mangroves planted to over 10,000.

Justin Lewis, of the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, Bahamas initiative manager, reported that the Northern Bahamas Mangrove Restoration Project completed its latest planting of some 4,113 mangrove seedlings in Roemer Creek, East Grand Bahama.

The event held on Saturday, May 8, was hailed as “a great success.”

“The mangrove restoration planting event went excellently,” he said.

“We had 60 people in attendance, and it was truly a collaborative effort.”

There were students, teachers, scientists, NGOs, government officials, bonefish guides, and community members planting mangroves to help kickstart recovery after the destruction of Hurricane Dorian.

According to Mr Lewis, about 40,000 acres of mangroves were destroyed and damaged on Grand Bahama and Abaco.

The BTT, along with the University of Alabama,

conducted detailed surveys in GB and Abaco.

It was found that 73 percent of the mangroves in GB, or about 22,000 acres, were destroyed or damaged. In Abaco, about 40 percent, or 20,000 acres were impacted.

“So, in total it is over 40,000 acres of mangroves in the Northern Bahamas that got destroyed,” Mr Lewis said.

That type of destruction is very rare, he explained.

“Usually what happens with mangroves’ death after a storm, it is very patchy and there are areas adjacent to the impacted areas that can reseed, but in this case, it is so vast that reseeding naturally will take an extremely long time.

“And so that is why we jumped in to help kick start and help ‘Mother Nature’ along.”

Mr Lewis said the seedlings will generally catch in a month.

“They will start growing immediately and once we plant them, their roots will start to expand and stabilise,” he added.

The seedlings will get to adult size within three to five years and will start to reseed on their own in surrounding areas, he said.

“We are not trying to replace every mangrove that was lost, but instead trying to kick start recovery

JOE FARRINGTON ROAD PROPERTY DESCRIPTION: Vacant Land PROPERTY SIZE: 10,801 sq. ft.

LOCATION: Traveling east on Joe Farrington Road from Sea Breeze, Pass Marigold Farm corner and said property is the 5th on the right.

APPRAISAL VALUE: $140,000.00

INTERESTED PARTIES SHOULD CONTACT: IAN SYMONETTE 397-6940 OR 376-1343 OR DISTRESSED.PROPERTIES@COMBANKLTD.COM

PAGE 6, Thursday, May 20, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

The Tribune Limited NULLIUS ADDICTUS JURARE IN VERBA MAGISTRI “Being Bound to Swear to The Dogmas of No Master”

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Publisher/Editor 1903-1914

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Kt., O.B.E., K.M., K.C.S.G., (Hon.) LL.D., D.Litt .

Publisher/Editor 1919-1972 Contributing Editor 1972-1991

EILEEN DUPUCH CARRON,

C.M.G., M.S., B.A., LL.B. Publisher/Editor 1972-

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HIV/AIDS vaccine: Why don’t we have one after 37 years?

By RONALD C. DESROSIERS, University of Miami Smallpox has been eradicated from the face of the Earth following a highly effective, worldwide vaccination campaign.

Paralytic poliomyelitis is no longer a problem in the U.S. because of development and use of effective vaccines against the poliovirus. In current times, millions of lives have been saved because of rapid deployment of effective vaccines against COVID-19. And yet, it has been 37 years since HIV was discovered as the cause of AIDS, and there is no vaccine. Here I will describe the difficulties facing development of an effective vaccine against HIV/ AIDS. I am a professor of pathology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. My laboratory is credited with the discovery of the monkey virus called SIV, or simian immunodeficiency virus.

SIV is the close monkey relative of the virus that causes AIDS in humans – HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus. My research has contributed importantly to the understanding of the mechanisms by which HIV causes disease and to vaccine development efforts.

HIV VACCINE DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS HAVE COME UP SHORT Vaccines have unquestionably been society’s most potent weapon against viral diseases of medical importance. When the new disease AIDS burst onto the scene in the early 1980s and the virus that caused it was discovered in 1983-84, it was only natural to think that the research community would be able to develop a vaccine for it.

At a now famous press conference in 1984 announcing HIV as the cause of AIDS, then U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler predicted that a vaccine would be available in two years. Well, it is now 37 years later and there is no vaccine. The rapidity of COVID-19 vaccine development and distribution puts the lack of an HIV vaccine in stark contrast. The problem is not failure of government. The problem is not lack of spending. The difficulty lies in the HIV virus itself. In particular, this includes the remarkable HIV strain diversity and the immune evasion strategies of the virus.

So far there have been five large-scale Phase 3 vaccine efficacy trials against HIV, each at a cost of over US$100 million. The first three of these failed quite convincingly; no protection against acquisition of HIV infection, no lowering of viral loads in those who did become infected. In fact, in the third of these trials, the STEP trial, there was a statistically significant higher frequency of infection in individuals who had been vaccinated.

The fourth trial, the controversial Thai RV144 trial, initially reported a marginal degree of successful protection against the acquisition of HIV infection among vaccinated individuals. However, a subsequent statistical analysis reported that there was less than a 78% chance that the protection against acquisition was real.

A fifth vaccine trial, the HVTN 702 trial, was ordered to confirm and extend the results of the RV144 trial. The HVTN702 trial was halted early because of futility. No protection against acquisition. No lowering of viral load. Ouch.

THE COMPLEXITY OF HIV What is the problem? The biological properties that HIV has evolved make development of a successful vaccine very, very difficult. What are those properties?

First and foremost is the continuous unrelenting virus replication. Once HIV gets its foot in the door, it’s “gotcha.”

Many vaccines do not protect absolutely against the acquisition of an infection, but they are able to severely limit the replication of the virus and any illness that might result. For a vaccine to be effective against HIV, it will likely need to provide an absolute sterilising barrier and not just limit viral replication.

HIV has evolved an ability to generate and to tolerate many mutations in its genetic information. The consequence of this is an enormous amount of variation among strains of the virus not only from one individual to another but even within

a single individual. Let’s use influenza for a comparison. Everyone knows that people need to get revaccinated against influenza virus each season because of season-to-season variability in the influenza strain that is circulating. Well, the variability of HIV within a single infected individual exceeds the entire worldwide sequence variability in the influenza virus during an entire season.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO PUT INTO A VACCINE TO COVER THIS EXTENT OF STRAIN VARIABILITY? HIV has also evolved an incredible ability to shield itself from recognition by antibodies. Enveloped viruses such as coronaviruses and herpes viruses encode a structure on their surface that each virus uses to gain entry into a cell. This structure is called a “glycoprotein,” meaning that it is composed of both sugars and protein. But the HIV envelope glycoprotein is extreme. It is the most heavily sugared protein of all viruses in all 22 families.

More than half the weight is sugar. And the virus has figured out a way, meaning the virus has evolved by natural selection, to use these sugars as shields to protect itself from recognition by antibodies that the infected host is trying to make. The host cell adds these sugars and then views them as self.

These properties have important consequences relevant for vaccine development efforts.

The antibodies that an HIV-infected person makes typically have only very weak neutralising activity against the virus. Furthermore, these antibodies are very strain-specific; they will neutralise the strain with which the individual is infected but not the thousands and thousands of other strains circulating in the population. Researchers know how to elicit antibodies that will neutralise one strain, but not antibodies with an ability to protect against the thousands and thousands of strains circulating in the population. That’s a major problem for vaccine development efforts.

HIV is continually evolving within a single infected individual to stay one step ahead of the immune responses. The host elicits a particular immune response that attacks the virus. This puts selective pressure on the virus, and through natural selection a mutated virus variant appears that is no longer recognised by the individual’s immune system. The result is continuous unrelenting viral replication.

So, should we researchers give up? No, we shouldn’t. One approach researchers are trying in animal models in a couple of laboratories is to use herpes viruses as vectors to deliver the AIDS virus proteins. The herpes virus family is of the “persistent” category. Once infected with a herpes virus, you are infected for life.

And immune responses persist not just as memory but in a continually active fashion.

Success of this approach, however, will still depend on figuring out how to elicit the breadth of immune responses that will allow coverage against the vast complexity of HIV sequences circulating in the population.

Another approach is to go after protective immunity from a different angle.

Although the vast majority of HIVinfected individuals make antibodies with weak, strain-specific neutralising activity, some rare individuals do make antibodies with potent neutralising activity against a broad range of HIV isolates. These antibodies are rare and highly unusual, but we scientists do have them in our possession.

Also, scientists have recently figured out a way to achieve protective levels of these antibodies for life from a single administration. For life! This delivery depends on a viral vector, a vector called adeno-associated virus. When the vector is administered to muscle, muscle cells become factories that continuously produce the potent broadly neutralising antibodies. Researchers have recently documented continuous production for six and a half years in a monkey.

We are making progress. We must not give up. theconversation.com

Politicization of sports is against the spirit of the Olympic charter EDITOR, The Tribune CHINA as the host country has been steadily advancing preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Paralympic Winter Games, which will open in Beijing and adjacent Zhangjiakou on February 4, 2022 as scheduled. So far the construction of all competition venues has been completed.

The organization and operation of venues, provision of services and publicity and cultural activities have all been proceeding in an orderly manner. Test runs have been conducted for snow and ice events to make sure that all the elements involved in the competition will properly fall in place.

Providing a stage for fair competition among athletes all over the world, the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics are great

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net events for all countries and are eagerly-awaited by winter sports fans of all countries. The solid progress of preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics has been recognized by the international community in general, and the International Olympic Committee in particular. With their support and the support of sports teams all over the world, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics will surely be a splendid event celebrating the Olympic spirit and our common humanity.

The Olympic Charter clearly provides for the independence and political neutrality of the Olympic Movement. The

politicization of sports is against the spirit of the Olympic Charter and against the interests of athletes from all countries and the international Olympic cause. Many governments, the International Olympic Committee, and National Olympic Committees including the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee have expressed clear opposition to this wrong approach.

The attempt to interfere, hinder, and disrupt the preparations and the holding of the Beijing Winter Olympics by a few politicians in a small handful of countries out of ideological prejudices will not get any support and will never succeed.

Yours MR. YIN HAIGANG, Counsellor and Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy regarding 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Crystal Cruise lines to Spanish Wells EDITOR, The Tribune.

I would greatly appreciate it if you would allow me space in the opinion/editorial section of your newspaper to state the following: In an April 12 report in a local daily, Crystal Cruise line’s corporate manager, Kevin Jones, said that their predominantly wealthy, elderly passengers had “no interest in crawling the island” of Harbour Island.

However, according to a recent letter to tour operators based in Spanish Wells, those passengers are now interested in crawling around Spanish Wells, specifically St George’s Cay. In the invite to accept bids, Crystal Cruise lines explains its intentions to ferry its passengers from Egg Island, where it will dock, to St George’s Cay. Like Harbour Island, Spanish Wells lacks the infrastructure to accommodate such a ship, and the island would be devastated by its pollution and other environmental destruction.

According to a New York Times 2003 report, Monterey, California, banned the Crystal Harmony for dumping nearly 37,000 gallons of wastewater in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Despite a signed agreement to never dump waste in United States’ waters, the cruise line did it anyway. The ship’s owner was Crystal Cruises, which did not report the dumping until four months later. Why did this take so long? The ship’s spokesperson reportedly said: “There was no requirement to report it.”

How flippant. Do we expect anything more if Crystal Cruises are allowed to visit Bahamian shores? Why take that chance.

For our communities, our precious ecosystem, and marine life, Crystal Cruises is a threat to our livelihood. Why then is Crystal Cruise lines so intent on “crawling the island?”

In my opinion the Genting Group, which owns and operates Crystal Cruise lines, does not care about Bahamians, our islands, our livelihoods, our marine life, or our future.

They care about one thing—their profits.

Profits over people.

Like the dredging of our coral reef in Bimini so that a cruise ship could anchor near the island, Genting Group deserted the project mid-way, but the damage was already done. We can expect the same careless raping of our seabed if we allow cruise ships to desecrate our waters.

Spanish Wells cannot bounce back from the environmental ramifications of the cruise industry’s negligence, nor can we afford the erosion of our coral reefs when climate change and rising sea levels threatened our tiny islands.

For our families and future generations, we are refusing the entry of Crystal Cruise lines, in our opinion a serial rapist of marine habitat.

LAUREN ALBURY Resident, Spanish Wells, May 19, 2021.

THE TRIBUNE

WOMAN ARRESTED FOR BEGGING IS DISCHARGED

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAGISTRATE yesterday discharged a woman who was arrested for begging in a public place.

Angelica Lundy, 34, was charged with vagrancy after she was caught asking people for money in Super Wash’s Carmichael Road location on May 17.

She admitted the offence when she appeared before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis.

The court was told that around 4.30pm that day, officers on mobile patrol in the western area of Carmichael arrested and cautioned Lundy, who gave no fixed address, in reference to vagrancy and loitering. The prosecution said that during her interview with police, the accused could not give a satisfactory account for her whereabouts that day. As a result, she was charged.

Yesterday, Lundy told the magistrate she went to the wash house because she wasn’t working, and God told her to ask for a job.

She said when she did, the employees working there told her no, right before a man asked her if she was going to rob the laundromat. Lundy said after she told the gentlemen no, she was arrested.

After listening to her explanation, Magistrate Rolle Davis asked Lundy if she had a fixed address.

When she told him she resided with her elderly grandmother, he warned her to stay out of trouble and dismissed her case.

MAN CHARGED WITH RAPE

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A 28-YEAR-OLD man was charged in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday with rape.

John Pratt appeared before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt after he was accused of having sex with a 35-yearold woman without her consent on May 11.

Due to the nature of the offence, he was not required to enter a plea and the case was adjourned to July 14 for service of a voluntary bill of indictment (VBI).

Pratt was remanded into custody until that time.

He has a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.

Thursday, May 20, 2021, PAGE 7

Officers testify about human trafficking investigation

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE trial of a man and woman who were accused of conspiring to sexually exploit two teenage girls through human trafficking opened before the Chief Magistrate yesterday.

In March, Jamalaya Roberts, 40, and Shamika Rolle, 28, were each charged with two counts of conspiracy to engage in human trafficking and transporting a person for the purpose of exploiting their prostitution.

Rolle was further charged with two additional counts of the latter offence.

According to court dockets, it is alleged that the pair between February 1 and March 4, at New Providence, conspired to engage in the trafficking of two 16-year-old girls.

The accused are also accused of conspiring to engage in the transportation

of the teens in the country “for the purpose of prostitution”.

The prosecution said Rolle also transported the young girls for the “purpose of their exploitation” within that same timeframe.

At their second court appearance that same month, the Department of Public Prosecutions brought additional charges against the pair.

This time, the Crown also accused Rolle of creating nude video recordings of the two 16-year-old girls on one of their mobile devices while at the Smith’s Motel and distributing nude video images of the minors onto the internet sometime between February 28 and March 4.

Both accused were further charged with intentionally and unlawfully possessing the nude video images of the teenagers within that same timeframe.

At the time, Roberts and

Rolle denied all of the allegations and their case was adjourned for trial.

Yesterday, two officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force submitted photographic evidence and spoke about the roles they each played in the investigation.

The first officer, Detective Corporal Rudolph Sweeting said he took 12 photographs of an “alleged human trafficking scene” on Armbrister Close on March 21.

He said he visited the duplex apartment with another officer and a male suspect around 11.50 on the night in question.

He said while there, he received certain information from another officer, and as a result, photographed the exterior and interior of the whitetrimmed green apartment building.

The court was told that the photo album submitted by Officer Sweeting

included pictures of the building’s front door, living room, bathroom and studio.

When cross-examined by Robert and Rolle’s attorney, Ian Cargill, Cpl Sweeting said the apartment was the residence of the male suspect who accompanied him and the other officer to the duplex that night.

When asked if he was led or shown anything that could be suspected to be semen, blood, or any other substance of forensic value, he replied “no”. He also said neither defendant was present when the photos were taken.

Detective Sergeant Austin Bowles was the second officer to take the stand.

During his testimony, he said he spoke with a police inspector who pointed out a grey vehicle and asked him to photograph it.

He said the eight pictures he snapped of the car’s interior and exterior were then

compiled on a CD to present in court. Sgt Bowles said on March 20, he saw and spoke to another officer who gave him instructions and handed over two tubes of blood samples bearing the name Jamalaya Roberts.

He said the samples were later submitted to the lab in reference to a DNA. At the beginning of the proceedings yesterday, Mr Cargill informed the court that Rolle, who is currently pregnant, was not feeling well and wanted to see a doctor.

As a result, after taking the evidence of the two officers, Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt adjourned the case.

She said in the circumstances, she would give Rolle a letter from the court requesting that she be seen by a physician “as soon as reasonably practicable”.

The case is expected to resume tomorrow at noon.

Man acquitted of rape is awarded $767,000 in damages

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A FORMER food store manager who was acquitted of rape was recently awarded $767,000 in damages after he sued the government for malicious prosecution and unlawful arrest.

Rod Andrew Bethel earned $75,000 a year as a manager at the former City Market in Harbour Bay Shopping Centre, until he was accused of raping a woman in November 2009.

It was not until 2017, after Justice Gregory Hilton ruled that there was “no sufficient evidence to connect” Bethel to the rape charge, that he was acquitted of the offence.

Four months later, Bethel sued the Commissioner of Police for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment and filed a suit against the Attorney General for malicious prosecution.

On March 19, Justice Diane Stuart granted judgment in favour of Bethel who requested that the interest awarded should be paid from the date that the cause of action arose.

According to court documents,

ROD Andrew Bethel

both parties chose to “forego” a hearing and instead offered written submissions in “support of their respective positions”.

In her ruling on interest posted online last week, Justice Stewart noted that Bethel cited the Civil Procedure Act when he argued that the court “almost always exercises its discretion to award interest from any period and for such time as it deems up to judgment”.

“The plaintiff submitted that interest should be calculated on each week’s loss of income from the week he lost his job to the date of the trial, specifically $75,000 per annum or $6,250 per month from November 15, 2009, to April 15, 2017, at the interest rate of 8.25 percent,” she said.

“He also sought the same for loss of wages or alternatively, to add up the loss every six months and allow interest on the total every six months until trial.

“He also contended that the legal fees were vouched as a special damage in the amount of $10,000.

“Therefore, interest on them should run from the date of the filing of the writ of summons to trial.”

Meanwhile, the defendants contended that interest should be awarded at the “statutory rate of 6.25 percent per annum, from the date of judgment to payment”.

Justice Stewart said their argument was based on their position that Bethel’s case involved “tort and constitutional relief which should be calculated from the day of the judgment”.

She also said the Crown asserted that the delays in the

proceedings were not “entirely their fault.”

In her decision she stated: “Prejudgment interest may be awarded to put parties into the position that they would have been in had the cause of action not arisen.

“It has been established, however, that prejudgment interest should not be awarded in respect of loss of future earnings/loss of earning capacity or estimated repairs which constitute future loss.

“The rationale behind these findings is that because the award of interest is to attempt to place a party in a pre-action position, the loss would not have existed at the date of the cause of action. “...Interest is therefore awarded on the damages assessed as follows: $697,000 at 2.5 percent annum from the date of the issuance of the writ of summons to the date of judgment; $60,000 at 2.5 percent annum from the date of the issuance writ of summons to the date of judgment. Interest is awarded post judgment on the full judgment debt at the statutory rate of 6.25 percent until payment. I make no further order as to costs.”

PAGE 8, Thursday, May 20, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

The pandemic, responsible freedom and the common good

FREEDOM is often narrowly defined, especially notions of personal freedom and autonomy.

Communitarian cultures and nations enjoy a more expansive appreciation and articulation of freedom.

These cultures understand that all freedoms exist within a broader moral universe and collective context, that the exercise of freedom affects family, friends and neighbours, as well as fellow-citizens we will never meet.

Individuals sometimes refer to “my freedom”, often failing to appreciate a society mostly dominated by such thinking is doomed to collective and moral failure if we do not correspondingly and deeply appreciate our responsibilities and obligations to others, including acquaintances and moral strangers.

Relatedly, many young people often speak of “my truth”, as if they are uniquely the possessors of a certain truth. It would be more accurate to speak of “my opinions, feelings or thoughts”, which may not be true, accurate or factual.

If an individual spoke of “my science, my mathematics, my meteorology”, this would be deemed comical.

Humans are social animals, requiring community and a sense of the collective in order to survive and to flourish through the division of labour and the orderly working of societies.

State failure often results from the inability of legitimate authorities to enforce laws and norms which promote necessary cooperation.

One of the unique purposes of government is to mediate between competing interests in the promotion of the greater good. Left to ourselves, selfishness, not altruism, is a part of our human condition and sinfulness.

The failure of the state to regulate competing interests and “freedoms” may result in dangerous monopolies, collapsing infrastructure, chaotic transportation networks, poor health and safety standards, the abuse of minorities, inequities in

health care and education and the existential threat of climate change.

Left on our own to mediate roads and traffic networks absent traffic signs, signals, police and customs, there would be even more road rage, death and anarchy.

RULES Try to drive in some global cities and one immediately recognizes the need for rules and regulations, which are in our personal and collective interests.

The tobacco giants famously used the notion of personal freedom as they were advertising to induce customers, including younger people, to

“One of the unique purposes of government is to mediate between competing interests in the promotion of the greater good.

Left to ourselves, selfishness, not altruism, is a part of our human condition and sinfulness.” purchase products filled with carcinogens and nicotine.

In the United States, menthol was often targeted to black Americans.

Thankfully, on April 29 of this year the US Food and Drug Administration finally announced a rule banning menthol cigarettes.

‘WHILE employees should not be forced to take a COVID-19 vaccine, vaccinated and unvaccinated customers should not have their health endangered by those who refuse to be vaccinated.’

Of note, the Centres for Disease Control note that though African Americans typically start smoking cigarettes at an older age and typically smoke fewer, “they are more likely to die from smoking-related diseases than whites.”

Many of those who opposed the ban on cigarette smoking in public places argued they had the freedom to smoke. They did. But not when they were putting the health of others at risk. Freedom without limits is a danger to individuals and societies.

Just as maximizing profits can harm societies and destroy the environment, maximizing personal freedoms can lead to disorder and dysfunction when the needs of all are truncated in the interests of the few.

The American form of capitalism is different than more balanced forms found in much of Europe and parts of Asia.

In the United States, corporate and private greed often outstrip the common good, resulting in vast and dangerous inequity in the richest country in human history.

Though COVID-19 is promiscuous in whom it attacks, the pandemic has

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been unequal in terms of those who have died and in exposing health-care and economic inequality.

Time reported: “Perhaps no facet of inequality has grown more dramatically than wealth.

The 15 richest Americans have become over $400 billion richer since the markets bottomed out in March 2020.

“Meanwhile, a yearlong bull market—triggered by the CARES Act’s passage at the market trough and supported since then by a series of government rescues – has added roughly $4.8 trillion of wealth to the richest one percent of American households.

“More comprehensive measures, which include real estate and privately held companies, report that the richest one percent of Americans gained over $7 trillion of wealth from the end of March to the end of December 2020.”

HYPOCRITES Many Americans claim to dislike so-called big government except when they are getting social benefits or benefitting from largesse in terms of contracts, grants, massive tax breaks, subsidies and favours.

The degree of corporate welfare and subsidies in America is staggering, hypocritical and well-documented.

Yet, many of the corporate beneficiaries often decry social welfare benefits and so-called cheats, especially when the beneficiaries are minorities and the poor. Some humorists have ribbed that many in corporate boardrooms like socialist-style benefits for themselves but near unbridled capitalism for the poor. The former want the government to give them bootstraps or subsidies to manufacture the boots, often overseas with poorly-paid workers, which they then advertise and sell to the global poor, often making outrageous profits.

Just as American capitalism is built on a more ruggedly individualistic and less communitarian ethos, so too the often skinny and often anaemic concept of freedom in America.

America’s rabid gun culture is suffused with all manner of founding mythologies and history, including a belief that guns are a natural extension of certain freedoms requiring few limits.

This has resulted in an endemically violent society married to a Christian nationalism that often makes guns seem like a weapon ordained by God against certain infidels or the government, foreigners, blacks and others who seek to supposedly despoil white privilege.

Most of the developed

world have more restrictions on guns and many fewer deaths and mass shootings.

These societies appreciate that gun ownership must be viewed and regulated in the context of public health and safety and the protection of fellow-citizens.

In America this moral code is flipped, with the individual, especially in the arena of guns, taking precedence over the common good. This mindset has resulted in a blood-soaked culture of death and violence.

The Bahamas remains in many ways a more communitarian society than America. But over the last several decades our communitarianism is atrophying because we are affected and in some ways infected by Ameri-

“It is a reasonable and sensible practice to allow the vaccinated to enjoy indoor dining along with other vaccinated customers and employees. This will also apply to entertainment venues, travel, potentially religious and other public gatherings.” can notions of personal freedom.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a sense of freedom built on selfabsorption, a lessening of the importance of shared responsibility, and personal responsibility tied to a broader sense of the common good. There is also a greater selfishness often connected to materialist greed.

COMMON WELFARE During the pandemic, many have enjoyed a national sense of the common good in terms of receiving food for more than a year, along with unemployment assistance, business loans, assistance and grants, rental assistance and other forms of the common welfare a good and decent society renders to those in need.

Yet, when asked to abide by health measures and/ or to take a vaccine to help protect others and to promote herd immunity, many have balked, turned inward and argued vociferously about personal choice, as some argued when smoking bans were being instituted.

Had the state argued that those in need during the pandemic were on their own, many would have decried this as a moral failure. But when invited to a certain moral

reciprocity toward others, many cried foul.

It is a form of selfabsorption and moral immaturity to rely on the common good when in need but fail to proactively help the common good by receiving a vaccine that is overwhelmingly safe and that will help to reduce ill-health and death, while enabling the greater reopening of the economy.

When an individual goes to a restaurant to eat, one expects health and safety standards such as clean bathrooms, proper dining and cooking facilities and an eatery generally free of rodents or vermin.

The state and the business owner has an obligation to ensure the health of customers is not adversely affected by restaurant workers. Customers would not want to be served by an employee suffering from a bad cold, flu, tuberculosis or some other easily transmittable disease.

Likewise, the state and restaurateurs should protect others from the transmission of COVID19.

While employees should not be forced to take a COVID-19 vaccine, vaccinated and unvaccinated customers should not have their health endangered by those who refuse to be vaccinated. The latter similarly deserve to have their rights and freedom protected.

It is a reasonable and sensible practice to allow the vaccinated to enjoy indoor dining along with other vaccinated customers and employees. This will also apply to entertainment venues, travel, potentially religious and other public gatherings.

Likewise, as societies reopen, those who refuse to be vaccinated cannot reasonably or intelligently argue they are being discriminated against while putting others at risk because of their personal choice. The unvaccinated do not have a right or the freedom to endanger others. They have a responsibility to ensure that their choices do not adversely affect others.

Their freedoms are no more sacrosanct than other citizens who choose to protect themselves, their loved ones and others in the general population.

The unvaccinated also have no right to endanger other unvaccinated individuals. Freedom is not the personal preserve of those who ignore science, medical advice and reasonable precautions necessary to protect the greater good and themselves and their family, friends, colleagues and neighbours.

Freedom is a moral responsibility that bears in mind and respects the needs, the health and safety and the human dignity of others.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, May 20, 2021, PAGE 9

Biden’s quickly discovered there’s a whole world of problems to deal with W

orld events probably aren’t unfolding as American President Joe Biden hoped when he took office, but after eight years as Vice President and several more as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he can’t be too surprised at the recent turn of events.

Biden always knew the world wasn’t going to pause while the US settles in after a presidential transition.

But he surely hoped for fewer distractions abroad as he continues to pursue his very ambitious public health and economic recovery agenda at home.

Biden’s initial avowed foreign policy plan was to focus on China, the principal American rival on the world stage. While

US President Joe Biden. (AP) Beijing’s tightening grip on Hong Kong and reports of increased refugee flow from that city and mainland China to Taiwan have fuelled some added USChina tension, several more traditional flash points overseas have flared at the State Department and National Security Council recently.

An unfortunate decision by a half dozen Israeli police to enter one of Islam’s most holy sites during Ramadan and disable loud speakers during evening prayers has ignited the worst fighting in years between Israel and its Palestinian neighbours and subjects.

Seizing world headlines once again, Middle East violence has claimed at least 145 people in Gaza and erupted in a wave

of mob attacks in mixed Arab-Jewish cities in Israel.

Downtrodden Gaza has turned into a humanitarian crisis as public health conditions continue to deteriorate.

There have been military assaults and casualties along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

While a wider full-scale war still seems unlikely, America and its President have been once again thrust into the centre of things.

Biden reportedly spent much of last weekend on the phone with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and various Palestinian leaders, trying as have many of his predecessors to broker a ceasefire that would lead to a durable peace in the region. Few expect quick success.

Playing the game O DDITIES in the schedule of American political elections can sometimes elevate an otherwise relatively obscure state to temporary national prominence.

The best examples of this are the quadrennial New Hampshire “first in the nation” presidential primary election and the outdated political party caucuses in Iowa that help lead off American presidential campaigns.

Virginia and New Jersey share a similar if less well-known distinction. In the year following American presidential elections, these two states elect their governors to four-year terms. Since the two states elect their governors in an odd-numbered year when there are no regularly scheduled congressional elections, these two states are closely watched. Look for this to continue this November.

In heavily Democratic New Jersey, incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy is running for re-election and should be favoured despite some glitches in his state’s COVID vaccine rollout.

In currently majority Democratic Virginia, on the other hand, a significant contest is developing. Virginia’s state constitution prohibits governors from running to succeed themselves. But after a term out of office, they can get back in the game.

That’s what Terry McAuliffe has done.

Once best known as a prolific fundraiser for and confidante to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, McAuliffe was a very popular governor from 2013-17 and is favoured to win the Democratic nomination next month.

The Republican nominee is more intriguing. Once-red Virginia has not elected a statewide Republican candidate in 12 years.

While GOP gerrymandering in the state capitol has maintained several Republican House seats for over a decade, far-right zealots have seized control of the party nominating process. The result has been a succession of debilitating statewide defeats.

A wealthy venture capitalist and political novice named Glenn Youngkin has just won the GOP nomination to oppose McAuliffe this fall. His path to the nomination is interesting because he is trying to walk the same political tightrope Republican candidates will face in coming years in every competitive state in the country.

On the one hand, a potential candidate must demonstrate enough loyalty and even fealty to Donald Trump to stave off any challenge from someone seeking to prove even greater obeisance to the former President. But Trump is generally unpopular in Virginia, so candidates like Youngkin must stay in his orbit long enough to get nominated by a party base still loyal to Trump, but then pivot to the centre in hopes of winning a general election.

Here’s how Youngkin has succeeded so far. During the nomination struggle

GLENN Youngkin. (AP) against several other Trump-aligned candidates, he touted his support for Trump and embraced the Big Lie that crucial irregularities marred and perhaps invalidated the November 2020 general election.

Youngkin’s appeals to Trump voters got more explicit just before the nominating convention when he barnstormed the state with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and appeared on TV with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, who despite (or is it because of?) his consistently outrageous embrace of conspiracy theory-based nonsense has climbed to the summit of cable news popularity.

“Listen to what Tucker Carlson and I have to say about the liberal takeover of our schools in Virginia,” Youngkin tweeted four days before the convention, along with a video clip of his appearance. “Vote for me for governor on Saturday (May 8) and we’ll stop the left’s attack on our children’s education, our Pledge of Allegiance, & our Commonwealth.”

After winning the nomination, Youngkin was rewarded with the following endorsement from Trump: “Glenn (Youngkin) is pro-Business, proSecond Amendment (guns), pro-Veterans, pro-America. He knows how to make Virginia’s economy rip-roaring, and he has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”

But nominee Youngkin almost immediately began to pivot away from Trump. His campaign acknowledged to reporters that a video in which Youngkin touted praise he had received from Trump for working on a China trade deal had been removed from his YouTube page, claiming improbably that it was only because of the need to highlight other videos that are aimed at introducing him to voters.

No one who is paying attention believes that. Youngkin is trying to do what Republican candidates in many states will need to do next year: Win over Trump supporters in his own party to gain the nomination, then move steadily away from them in an attempt to actually get elected.

Observers expect many similar manoeuvers in the weeks and months to come. But the tightrope act will continue. Youngkin must be sure not to aggravate the mercurial Trump, who has often loudly disavowed one-time allies. The nation will be closely watching to see how this political newcomer does in November.

Biden also faces fissures within his own party about the appropriate US response to recent Israeli actions.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, the US Embassy was forced last week to issue the following notice: “Reduction of Consular Services – Effective May 12, US Embassy Moscow will reduce consular services offered to include only emergency US citizen services and a very limited number of emergency immigrant visas. These service reductions are necessary due to the Russian government’s April 23 notification of its intention to prohibit US Mission Russia from employing foreign nationals in any capacity.

Non-immigrant visa processing for non-diplomatic travel will cease.”

Imagine the American Embassy on Queen Street issuing such a statement.

How would South Florida merchants survive without their Bahamian customers?

In imposing these tough new rules, Russian President Putin is deliberately ratcheting up tensions with Washington. He knows withdrawing Russian nationals from embassy service will limit and largely hobble the embassy staff as it tries to fulfil its responsibilities. The former KGB boss seems quite comfortable in returning to his familiar adversarial role toward the Americans.

And Washington knows all too well how this narrative unfolds. Thirty five years ago, under President Ronald Reagan, a group of conservatives serving on an intelligence advisory board

succeeded in forcing the State Department to fire all its locally-engaged staff as security risks in the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries.

Their replacements were mostly Americans with language ability, but the unique perspective of employees who are from the local community was lost. It took years for the various embassies to regain their footing.

American Democratic Presidents are often elected in the expectation they will focus on domestic ills, and Biden is certainly no exception. He must be gnashing his teeth and impatiently pacing in the Oval Office as his time and attention are increasingly forced toward foreign issues.

But he knows it all goes with the job.

PAGE 10, Thursday, May 20, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

‘What’s Going On’ at 50 – Marvin Gaye’s Motown classic as relevant today as it was in 1971

By TYINA STEPTOE Associate Professor of History, University of Arizona

MOTOWN wasn’t really known for its politically conscious music. Then came “What’s Going On.” Released on May 21, 1971, at the height of the Vietnam War, Marvin Gaye’s album became a monster, spawning three hit singles on its way to becoming Motown’s bestselling album to date. The album also marked a turning point for Motown and for Marvin Gaye as an artist.

As a scholar of race and culture in the US and the host of the weekly radio show “Soul Stories,” I am struck by how many of the themes Gaye explores remain as relevant today as they were when he first wrote about them 50 years ago.

GAYE’S EVOLUTION Some of the songs on the album speak directly to the state of the world in the early 1970s.

The title track, with its timeless lyric “war is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate,” condemned the nation’s involvement in Vietnam.

But the song provides an insight into the evolution of Gaye’s music to encompass overtly political themes.

“What’s Going On” contrasts with his earlier work from the Vietnam War era that presents a different perspective.

For example, “Soldier’s Plea,” the first single from Gaye’s second album, “That Stubborn Kinda Fellow” in 1962, offers a decidedly romantic view of war: While I’m away, darling how often do you think of me?

Remember, I’m over here, fighting to keep us free Just be my little girl and always be true And I’ll be a faithful soldier boy to you “Soldier’s Plea” fits neatly into Motown’s early business model.

Both Berry Gordy – who founded Tamla Records in 1959 and then incorporated it as the Motown Record Co. a year later – and the songwriters he brought in mostly avoided political content.

Motown singers such as Mary Wells, The Supremes and The Temptations were to be, as the label liked to say, the “Sound of Young America,” not political activists. Gordy told Time magazine in 2020: “I never wanted Motown to be a mouthpiece for civil rights.”

While song lyrics did not explicitly mention

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the ongoing civil rights protests emerging across the nation in the 1960s, Motown didn’t entirely ignore racial politics. The label released the spokenword album “The Great March to Freedom” on the same day as the March on Washington – Aug. 28, 1963. The release commemorated the Walk to Freedom, a Detroit mass march from earlier that summer, and featured a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. Motown also created the Black Forum label, which released other political speeches by King, such as his 1967 “Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam,” and Stokely Carmichael’s song “Free Huey!” pleading for the release of fellow Black Power leader Huey Newton in 1970. The label also released albums of poetry by Amiri Baraka, Elaine Brown, Langston Hughes and Margaret Danner.

By and large, though, early releases on the Motown label were restricted to the apolitical.

But the world had changed by 1971. The freedom struggle had taken a more radical turn with the emergence of the Black Power movement, the Chicano Movement, the Young Lords and the American Indian Movement. The first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, focused attention on the emerging US environmental movement. Meanwhile, anti-war activists protested the draft, escalating violence, and the sight of body bags returning from Vietnam.

The US musical soundscape shifted alongside these political, social and economic transformations.

Art and politics merged through 1969’s Woodstock festival. Meanwhile, Black Power-driven messages started to emanate from the soul and gospel music distributed by the Stax label in Memphis and a host of other musicians who offered searing

critiques of US imperialism such as Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield and Gil Scott-Heron.

HOLLERING LOVE ACROSS THE NATION Alongside this political shift came internal pressure in Motown to give artists more agency over their own output.

As Motown performers matured artistically, some felt stifled by Gordy’s model and demanded more artistic control.

Gaye produced “What’s Going On” himself – a revolutionary act at Motown.

The result is a painfully beautiful protest album from first track to last.

The opening lines of the album are sung softly, yet urgently: “Mother, mother, there’s far too many of you crying/ Brother, brother, brother, there’s far too many of you dying.”

Lyrics grapple with the effects of the war on families and the lives of young men sent overseas. The next song follows one of those young men home to a nation grappling with an unemployment rate of six percent. “Can’t find no work, can’t find no job, my friend,” Gaye laments on “What’s Happening Brother.”

The album’s final track conveys frustration: “Makes me wanna holler how they do my life … this ain’t living, this ain’t living.”

In between, we have everything from an exploration of faith to the environmentalist anthem “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” concluding with the refrain “How much more abuse from man can she [the earth] stand?”

Yet “What’s Going On” expresses hope.

Gaye repeats the affirmation “right on” – a phrase distinctly grounded in black urban vernacular – throughout the album and on a song bearing that name. We first hear this phrase on the title track, “What’s Going

On.” Gaye affirms “Right on, brother” to men who respond in kind at different points in the song. The call and response communicates a sense of shared concern, shared struggle, and shared redemption – an ethos Gaye took from the gospel tradition that informs his musicality.

This call and response is repeated in “Wholy Holy,” with Gaye utilizing a multitracking technique to layer two versions of his own vocals: We can conquer (yes we can) hate forever (oh Lord) Wholy (wholy holy, wholy holy) We can rock the world’s foundation Everybody together, together in wholy (wholy holy) We’ll holler love, love, love across the nation STILL A HIT Gordy was initially reluctant to embrace Gaye’s new direction. But Motown could not ignore the album’s success. The title track reached the top spot on Billboard’s R&B chart and peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100. The album remained on the charts for 58 weeks.

Gaye’s classic album still resonates with audiences on its 50th anniversary.

The environmental messages of “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” are just as germane today as 1971, as are the powerful statements on race, war and poverty on other tracks.

As someone who teaches courses on the history of music in the United States, I’ve noticed that most of my students immediately recognize songs from “What’s Going On” – an album released decades before they were born.

In a nation where people continue to protest white supremacy, endless wars, environmental damage, police brutality and poverty, “What’s Going On” remains as relevant as ever. theconversation.com

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, May 20, 2021, PAGE 11

COLONIAL PIPELINE CONFIRMS IT PAID $4.4M TO HACKERS

ISRAEL’S NETANYAHU ‘DETERMINED’ TO CONTINUE GAZA OPERATION

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ The Associated Press

PALESTINIANS inspect the damage of a destroyed house that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday. (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)

By FARES AKRAM AND JOSEPH KRAUSS ASSOCIATED PRESS GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday to press ahead with a fierce military offensive in the Gaza Strip, pushing back against calls from the United States to wind down the operation that has left hundreds dead.

Netanyahu’s tough comments marked the first public rift between the two close allies since the fighting began last week and could complicate international efforts to reach a cease-fire. His pushback also plunges the pair into a difficult early test of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Israel continued to pound Hamas targets in Gaza with airstrikes, while Palestinian militants bombarded Israel with rocket fire throughout the day.

In another sign of potential escalation, militants in Lebanon fired a rocket barrage into northern Israel.

After a visit to military headquarters, Netanyahu said he appreciated “the support of the American president,” but he said Israel would push ahead to return “calm and security” to Israeli citizens.

He said he was “determined to continue this operation until its aim is met.”

He spoke shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden told Netanyahu that he expected “a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire,” the White House said.

Biden had previously avoided pressing Israel more directly and publicly for a cease-fire with Gaza’s Hamas militant rulers. But pressure has been building for Biden to intervene more forcefully as other diplomatic efforts gather strength.

Egyptian negotiators have also been working to halt the

fighting, and an Egyptian diplomat said top officials were waiting for Israel’s response to a cease-fire offer. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, a top Hamas official, told the Lebanese station Mayadeen TV that he expected a ceasefire in a day or two.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he would fly to the region Thursday for talks with Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the foreign ministers of Slovakia and the Czech Republic would join him after being invited “to express their solidarity and support” for Israel.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military said it was widening its strikes on militant targets in southern Gaza to blunt continuing rocket fire from Hamas. At least nine people were killed Wednesday in the Gaza Strip.

The current round of fighting between Israel and Hamas began May 10, when the militant group fired long-range rockets toward Jerusalem after days of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a flashpoint site sacred to Jews and Muslims.

Heavy-handed police tactics at the compound and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers had inflamed tensions.

Since then, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes that it says have targeted Hamas’ infrastructure, and Hamas and other militant groups embedded in residential areas have fired some 4,000 rockets at Israeli cities, with hundreds falling short and most of the rest intercepted or landing in open areas.

At least 227 Palestinians have been killed, including

64 children and 38 women, with 1,620 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not break the numbers down into fighters and civilians.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad say at least 20 of their fighters have been killed, while Israel says the number is at least 130.

Some 58,000 Palestinians have fled their homes.

Twelve people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and a soldier,

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (AP) have been killed.

The rockets fired by militants in Lebanon into northern Israel threatened to open up a new front in the fighting. The rocket attack, which drew Israeli artillery fire in response but did not cause any injuries, raised the possibility of dragging Israel into renewed conflict with the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to its north.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, and Hezbollah, which fought a monthlong war against Israel in 2006, has stayed out of the fighting for now.

The rockets were widely believed to be fired by Palestinian factions based in south Lebanon.

But they cannot operate without Hezbollah’s tacit consent, and the barrage appears to be carefully calibrated to send a political message that the group, which has tens of thousands of missiles, could join the battle at any time.

Israel considers Hezbollah to be its most formidable threat and has threatened widespread destruction in Lebanon if war were to erupt.

In Gaza, one of the Israeli airstrikes destroyed the home of an extended family.

Residents surveyed the piles of bricks, concrete and other debris that had once been the home of 40 members of al-Astal family in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. They said a warning missile struck the building five minutes before the airstrike, allowing everyone to escape.

Ahmed al-Astal, a university professor, described a scene of panic, with men, women and children racing out of the building.

“We had just gotten down to the street, breathless, when the devastating bombardment came,” he said. “They left nothing but destruction, the children’s cries filling the street. ... This is happening, and there is no one to help us.”

Another strike in nearby Deir al-Balah killed a man, his wife and their 2-yearold daughter, witnesses said.

Iyad Salha, a brother of the man who was killed, said the family had just sat down for lunch when the missile hit.

Among those killed Wednesday were a reporter for Hamas-run Al-Aqsa radio and two people who died when warning missiles crashed into their apartment.

The Israeli military said it was striking a militant tunnel network in southern Gaza, with 52 aircraft hitting 40 underground targets.

Military officials, meanwhile, said a mysterious

explosion that killed eight members of a Palestinian family on the first day of the fighting was caused by a misfired rocket from Gaza. “This wasn’t an Israeli attack,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman.

Since the fighting began, Gaza’s infrastructure, already weakened by a 14-year blockade, has rapidly deteriorated.

Medical supplies, water and fuel for electricity are running low in the territory, on which Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after Hamas seized power in 2007.

Israeli attacks have damaged at least 18 hospitals and clinics and destroyed one health facility, the World Health Organization said.

Nearly half of all essential drugs have run out.

Among the buildings leveled by Israeli airstrikes was one housing The Associated Press’ Gaza office and those of other media outlets.

Netanyahu has alleged that Hamas military intelligence was operating in the building.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Israel had given the U.S. information about the bombing, without elaborating.

The AP has called for an independent investigation.

The news organization’s president, Gary Pruitt, has said the AP had no indication Hamas was present in the building.

The fighting, the worst since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, has ignited protests around the world and inspired Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories to call a general strike Tuesday.

It was a rare collective action that spanned boundaries central to decades of failed peace efforts. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for their future state.

REPUBLICAN LEADERS TURN AGAINST BIPARTISAN JANUARY 6 COMMISSION

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Republicans in Congress are working to stop the formation of an independent commission into the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, aligning themselves with former President Donald Trump ahead of a Wednesday House vote on the proposal.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday morning that he will oppose the legislation to create the panel, joining House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who announced Tuesday that he won’t support it. Both men claimed the bill was partisan, even though membership of the proposed commission would be evenly split between the parties.

McConnell’s announcement — which came just one day after he said he was “open” to the bill — is a blow to Democrats who say an independent, bipartisan investigation of the violent siege is crucial to prevent it from happening again. While the legislation is poised to pass the House, it will be harder for Democrats to win the 10 Republican votes they need in the Senate without McConnell’s backing.

But even as most Republicans were expected to follow McCarthy’s lead and vote against the bill, few of those who were opposed spoke on the House floor as debate

began. And a handful of Republicans who support it spoke forcefully.

“This is about facts — it’s not partisan politics,” said New York Rep. John Katko, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee who negotiated the legislation with Democrats. He said “the American people and the Capitol Police deserve answers, and action as soon as possible to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.”

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., said that Jan. 6 “is going to haunt this institution for a long, long time” and that a commission is necessary to find the truth about

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what happened. He said he “heard the shouts, saw the flash-bangs, smelled the gas on that sorry day.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed to force a vote on the bill once the House passes it.

He charged that Republicans are “caving” to Trump, who encouraged his supporters to head to Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 to stop the counting of the electoral votes and overturn his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

Schumer said that Republicans are trying to “sabotage the commission” and are “drunk” off Trump’s baseless claim that the election was stolen from him. That

false assertion, repeated by the mob as the rioters broke into the Capitol, has been rebuked by numerous courts, bipartisan election officials across the country and Trump’s own attorney general.

Trump released a statement Tuesday night urging Republicans to oppose the commission. He called it a “Democrat trap.”

McConnell’s and McCarthy’s opposition comes as some in the GOP are increasingly downplaying the violence of Jan. 6, when rioters brutally beat police, broke in through windows and doors and hunted for lawmakers. Four of the

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rioters died, including a woman who was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber.

A Capitol Police officer collapsed and died after engaging with the protesters, and two officers took their own lives in the days after.

NEW YORK (AP) — The operator of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline confirmed it paid $4.4 million to a gang of hackers who broke into its computer systems.

Colonial Pipeline said Wednesday that after it learned of the May 7 ransomware attack, the company took its pipeline system offline and needed to do everything in its power to restart it quickly and safely, and made the decision then to pay the ransom.

“This decision was not made lightly,” but it was one that had to be made, a company spokesman said. “Tens of millions of Americans rely on Colonial – hospitals, emergency medical services, law enforcement agencies, fire departments, airports, truck drivers and the traveling public.”

Colonial Pipeline’s CEO, Joseph Blount, told The Wall Street Journal he authorised the payment because the company didn’t know the extent of the damage and wasn’t sure how long it would take to bring the pipeline’s systems back.

Payments The FBI discourages making ransom payments to ransomware attackers, because paying encourages criminal networks around the globe who have hit thousands of businesses and health care systems in the U.S. in the past year alone.

But many victims of ransomware attacks, where hackers demand large sums of money to decrypt stolen data or to prevent it from being leaked online, opt to pay.

“I know that’s a highly controversial decision,” Blount told the Journal.

“But it was the right thing to do for the country.”

Blount said Colonial paid the ransom in consultation with experts who previously dealt with the group behind the attacks, DarkSide, which rents out its ransomware to partners to carry out the actual attacks.

Multiple sources had confirmed to The Associated Press that Colonial Pipeline had paid the criminals who committed the cyberattack a ransom of nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency for the software decryption key required to unscramble their data network.

A ransom payment of 75 Bitcoin was paid the day after the criminals locked up Colonial’s corporate network, according to Tom Robinson, co-founder of the cryptocurrency-tracking firm Elliptic.

Prior to Robinson’s blog post, two people briefed on the case had confirmed the payment amount to AP.

PAGE 12, Thursday, May 20, 2021

COLONIAL PIPELINE CONFIRMS IT PAID $4.4M TO HACKERS

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The operator of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline confirmed it paid $4.4 million to a gang of hackers who broke into its computer systems.

Colonial Pipeline said Wednesday that after it learned of the May 7 ransomware attack, the company took its pipeline system offline and needed to do everything in its power to restart it quickly and safely, and made the decision then to pay the ransom.

“This decision was not made lightly,” but it was one that had to be made, a company spokesman said. “Tens of millions of Americans rely on Colonial – hospitals, emergency medical services, law enforcement agencies, fire departments, airports, truck drivers and the traveling public.”

Colonial Pipeline’s CEO, Joseph Blount, told The Wall Street Journal he authorised the payment because the company didn’t know the extent of the damage and wasn’t sure how long it would take to bring the pipeline’s systems back.

Payments The FBI discourages making ransom payments to ransomware attackers, because paying encourages criminal networks around the globe who have hit thousands of businesses and health care systems in the U.S. in the past year alone. But many victims of ransomware attacks, where hackers demand large sums of money to decrypt stolen data or to prevent it from being leaked online, opt to pay.

“I know that’s a highly controversial decision,” Blount told the Journal.

“But it was the right thing to do for the country.”

Blount said Colonial paid the ransom in consultation with experts who previously dealt with the group behind the attacks, DarkSide, which rents out its ransomware to partners to carry out the actual attacks.

Multiple sources had confirmed to The Associated Press that Colonial Pipeline had paid the criminals who committed the cyberattack a ransom of nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency for the software decryption key required to unscramble their data network.

A ransom payment of 75 Bitcoin was paid the day after the criminals locked up Colonial’s corporate network, according to Tom Robinson, co-founder of the cryptocurrency-tracking firm Elliptic. Prior to Robinson’s blog post, two people briefed on the case had confirmed the payment amount to AP. Blount told the Journal the attack was discovered around 5:30 a.m. on May 7. It took Colonial about an hour to shut down the pipeline, which has 260 delivery points across 13 states and Washington, D.C., Blount said. That helped prevent the infection from potentially migrating to the pipeline’s operational controls. But there are lingering issues.

Blount said Colonial is still unable to bill customers following an outage of that system.

The pipeline system delivers about 45% of the gasoline consumed on the East Coast, and Colonial, which is based in Alpharetta, Georgia, halted fuel supplies for nearly a week. That led to panic-buying and shortages at gas stations from Washington, D.C. to Florida.

Colonial restarted its pipeline a week ago, but it took time to resume a full delivery schedule, and the panic-buying led to gasoline shortages. More than 9,500 gas stations were out of fuel on Wednesday, including half of the gas stations in D.C. and 40% of stations in North Carolina, according to Gasbuddy. com, which tracks fuel prices and station outages.

THE TRIBUNE

ISRAEL’S NETANYAHU ‘DETERMINED’ TO CONTINUE GAZA OPERATION

PALESTINIANS inspect the damage of a destroyed house that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday. (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)

By FARES AKRAM AND JOSEPH KRAUSS ASSOCIATED PRESS GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday to press ahead with a fierce military offensive in the Gaza Strip, pushing back against calls from the United States to wind down the operation that has left hundreds dead.

Netanyahu’s tough comments marked the first public rift between the two close allies since the fighting began last week and could complicate international efforts to reach a cease-fire. His pushback also plunges the pair into a difficult early test of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Israel continued to pound Hamas targets in Gaza with airstrikes, while Palestinian militants bombarded Israel with rocket fire throughout the day. In another sign of potential escalation, militants in Lebanon fired a rocket barrage into northern Israel.

After a visit to military headquarters, Netanyahu said he appreciated “the support of the American president,” but he said Israel would push ahead to return “calm and security” to Israeli citizens.

He said he was “determined to continue this operation until its aim is met.”

He spoke shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden told Netanyahu that he expected “a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire,” the White House said.

Biden had previously avoided pressing Israel more directly and publicly for a cease-fire with Gaza’s Hamas militant rulers. But pressure has been building for Biden to intervene more forcefully as other diplomatic efforts gather strength.

Egyptian negotiators have also been working to halt the fighting, and an Egyptian diplomat said top officials were

waiting for Israel’s response to a cease-fire offer. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, a top Hamas official, told the Lebanese station Mayadeen TV that he expected a ceasefire in a day or two.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he would fly to the region Thursday for talks with Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the foreign ministers of Slovakia and the Czech Republic would join him after being invited “to express their solidarity and support” for Israel.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military said it was widening its strikes on militant targets in southern Gaza to blunt continuing rocket fire from Hamas. At least nine people were killed Wednesday in the Gaza Strip.

have been killed, including 64 children and 38 women, with 1,620 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not break the numbers down into fighters and civilians.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad say at least 20 of their fighters have been killed, while Israel says the number is at least 130.

Some 58,000 Palestinians have fled their homes.

Twelve people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy, a

Fighting The current round of fighting between Israel and Hamas began May 10, when the militant group fired long-range rockets toward Jerusalem after days of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a flashpoint site sacred to Jews and Muslims.

Heavy-handed police tactics at the compound and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers had inflamed tensions.

Since then, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes that it says have targeted Hamas’ infrastructure, and Hamas and other militant groups embedded in residential areas have fired some 4,000 rockets at Israeli cities, with hundreds falling short and most of the rest intercepted or landing in open areas.

At least 227 Palestinians

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (AP) 16-year-old girl and a soldier, have been killed.

The rockets fired by militants in Lebanon into northern Israel threatened to open up a new front in the fighting. The rocket attack, which drew Israeli artillery fire in response but did not cause any injuries, raised the possibility of dragging Israel into renewed conflict with the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to its north.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, and Hezbollah, which fought a monthlong war against Israel in 2006, has stayed out of the fighting for now. The rockets were widely believed to be fired by Palestinian factions based in south Lebanon.

But they cannot operate

without Hezbollah’s tacit consent, and the barrage appears to be carefully calibrated to send a political message that the group, which has tens of thousands of missiles, could join the battle at any time. Israel considers Hezbollah to be its most formidable threat and has threatened widespread destruction in Lebanon if war were to erupt.

In Gaza, one of the Israeli airstrikes destroyed the home of an extended family.

Residents surveyed the piles of bricks, concrete and other debris that had once been the home of 40 members of al-Astal family in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. They said a warning missile struck the building five minutes before the airstrike, allowing everyone to escape.

Ahmed al-Astal, a university professor, described a scene of panic, with men, women and children racing out of the building.

“We had just gotten down to the street, breathless, when the devastating bombardment came,” he said. “They left nothing but destruction, the children’s cries filling the street. ... This is happening, and there is no one to help us.”

Another strike in nearby Deir al-Balah killed a man, his wife and their 2-yearold daughter, witnesses said.

Iyad Salha, a brother of the man who was killed, said the family had just sat down for lunch when the missile hit.

Among those killed Wednesday were a reporter for Hamas-run Al-Aqsa radio and two people who died when warning missiles crashed into their apartment.

The Israeli military said it was striking a militant tunnel network in southern Gaza, with 52 aircraft hitting 40 underground targets.

Military officials, meanwhile, said a mysterious explosion that killed eight members of a Palestinian

family on the first day of the fighting was caused by a misfired rocket from Gaza. “This wasn’t an Israeli attack,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman.

Since the fighting began, Gaza’s infrastructure, already weakened by a 14-year blockade, has rapidly deteriorated.

Medical supplies, water and fuel for electricity are running low in the territory, on which Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after Hamas seized power in 2007.

Israeli attacks have damaged at least 18 hospitals and clinics and destroyed one health facility, the World Health Organization said.

Nearly half of all essential drugs have run out.

Airstrikes Among the buildings leveled by Israeli airstrikes was one housing The Associated Press’ Gaza office and those of other media outlets.

Netanyahu has alleged that Hamas military intelligence was operating in the building.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Israel had given the U.S. information about the bombing, without elaborating.

The AP has called for an independent investigation.

The news organization’s president, Gary Pruitt, has said the AP had no indication Hamas was present in the building.

The fighting, the worst since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, has ignited protests around the world and inspired Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories to call a general strike Tuesday. It was a rare collective action that spanned boundaries central to decades of failed peace efforts.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for their future state.

REPUBLICAN LEADERS TURN AGAINST BIPARTISAN JANUARY 6 COMMISSION

By MARY CLARE JALONICK ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Republicans in Congress are working to stop the formation of an independent commission into the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, aligning themselves with former President Donald Trump ahead of a Wednesday House vote on the proposal.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday morning that he will oppose the legislation to create the panel, joining House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who announced Tuesday that he won’t support it. Both men claimed the bill was partisan, even though membership of the proposed commission would be evenly split between the parties.

McConnell’s announcement — which came just one day after he said he was “open” to the bill — is a blow to Democrats who say an independent, bipartisan investigation of the violent siege is crucial to prevent it from happening again. While the legislation is poised to pass the House, it will be harder for Democrats to win the 10 Republican votes they need in the Senate without McConnell’s backing.

But even as most Republicans were expected to follow McCarthy’s lead and vote against the bill, few of those who were opposed spoke on the House floor as debate began. And a handful of Republicans who support it spoke forcefully.

“This is about facts — it’s not partisan politics,” said New York Rep. John Katko, the top Republican on

SENATE Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) the House Homeland Security Committee who negotiated the legislation with Democrats. He said “the American people and the Capitol Police deserve answers, and action as soon as possible to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.”

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., said that Jan. 6 “is going to haunt this institution for a long, long time” and that a commission is necessary to find the truth about what happened. He said he “heard the shouts, saw the flashbangs, smelled the gas on that sorry day.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed to force a vote on the bill once the House passes it. He charged that Republicans are “caving” to Trump, who encouraged

his supporters to head to Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 to stop the counting of the electoral votes and overturn his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

Schumer said that Republicans are trying to “sabotage the commission” and are “drunk” off Trump’s baseless claim that the election was stolen from him. That false assertion, repeated by the mob as the rioters broke into the Capitol, has been rebuked by numerous courts, bipartisan election officials across the country and Trump’s own attorney general.

Trump released a statement Tuesday night urging Republicans to oppose the commission. He called it a “Democrat trap.”

McConnell’s and McCarthy’s opposition comes as some in the GOP are increasingly downplaying the violence of Jan. 6, when rioters brutally beat police, broke in through windows and doors and hunted for lawmakers. Four of the rioters died, including a woman who was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber. A Capitol Police officer collapsed and died after engaging with the protesters, and two officers took their own lives in the days after.

The vote is also emerging as yet another test of Republican loyalty to Trump, whose grip on the party remains strong despite his election defeat. House Republicans booted Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from their leadership last week for her criticism of Trump’s false claims, installing a Trump loyalist in her place. Cheney, in turn, suggested to ABC News that a commission could subpoena McCarthy because he spoke to Trump

during the insurrection.

The two GOP leaders’ positions will almost certainly mean fewer Republicans will support the commission, as most in the party are still loath to upset Trump. But the votes in the House and Senate are also exposing expose divisions in the party.

Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt recommended that his colleagues oppose the commission. Blunt, the top Republican on the Senate Rules Committee, is working on a bipartisan report with his Democratic colleagues that will include recommendations for security upgrades. He said an independent investigation would take too long and “frankly, I don’t think there are that many gaps to be filled in on what happened on Jan. 6, as it relates to building security.”

Other Senate Republicans support the commission. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said Tuesday that given the violent attack, “we should understand what mistakes were made and how we could prevent them from happening again.”

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said he doesn’t agree with McConnell that the bill is slanted toward Democrats and “I’m inclined to support it.”

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, said that she supports the idea of a commission but that the House bill would need adjustments. She echoed McConnell’s concerns that the chair of the commission, who will be appointed by Democrats, would have more power to hire staff. The bill directs the chair to hire employees “in consultation with” the vice chair, who would be appointed by Republicans.