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Volume: 119 No.133, June 2, 2022

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ALL’S GOING WELL - BUT IS IT REALLY? ‘WE’RE ON OUR WAY’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Prime Minister yesterday asserted that The Bahamas is “making up for lost time” with his government attracting $2bn in investments since it was elected to office eight-and-a-half months.

However, Kwasi Thompson, former minister of state for finance in the Minnis administration, sought to portray a very different picture of the administration’s record by accusing it of “the height of fiscal irresponsibility” through adopting revised targets in the 2022-2023 Budget.

BUDGET COVERAGE - SEE PAGES 2,3,4 AND BUSINESS SECTION

‘WHAT SHOULD WE BELIEVE?

PUPILS STABBED IN SCHOOL FIGHT TWO students were stabbed during an argument on the AF Adderley Junior High School campus.

Superintendent Audley Peters yesterday confirmed the incident happened on Tuesday.

“Two students were injured. They were taken to the hospital and subsequently they were taken to the station to be interviewed. Charges are pending to determine who’s at fault,” he told The

AF Adderley Junior High School.

Tribune.

Asked about the seriousness of the injuries, Supt Peters replied: “From what

I understand, they were treated and discharged.”

In March, a 13-yearold boy was charged with attempted murder in the wake of another school incident. Police were later stationed at some school campuses after the attack, among them CH Reeves Junior High, Government High School, RM Bailey Senior High, CC Sweeting Senior High, CV Bethel Senior High School and SEE PAGE TEN

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

THE NEXT EDITION OF THE TRIBUNE WILL BE ON TUESDAY AFTER THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND

PAGE 2, Thursday, June 2, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

Architect draws up plans for fire-hit stalls

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE AREA at Potter’s Cay dock where some stalls burned down in April last year.

AGRICULTURE, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs Minister Clay Sweeting said his ministry has contracted an architect to design three stalls for Potter’s Cay Dock vendors who were affected by a fire last year “You may recall that on 11th April, 2021, there was a fire on Potter’s Cay and six stalls were totally destroyed,” Mr Sweeting said in the House of Assembly yesterday. “My ministry has been in meetings with the vendors to ensure that the funds donated and placed at FYP to assist with the rebuilding of those stalls are utilised by those affected vendors.”

“I am pleased to advise that my Ministry contracted the service of an architect and the Ministry of Works & Utilities to design three stalls which can accommodate future expansion. Vendors will be able to select from the fully approved plans.”

According to the minister, nearly $100,000 have been donated by private donors to assist vendors with their rebuilding efforts.

He said: “Madam Speaker, the funds in the amount of $97,235.28 which were donated by a private donor and deposited to FYP Builders Mall have been placed in accounts created for each affected (stall owner) and once the approved plans are available, they can commence building. Each account has the amount of $16,205.88.”

“Madam Speaker, it should be noted that all vendors on Potter’s Cay are responsible for the construction of their stalls, hence the owners of the stalls affected by fire will be required to reconstruct their stalls in accordance with this previously established policy.

“We intend to refurbish

the bathrooms at Potter’s Cay with up to date, modern equipment. There would be automatic toilets and bowls which are handsfree to support COVID–19 protocols.”

As it relates to lighting concerns in the area, he said officials were addressing the issue.

“Madam Speaker, we believe that the lighting is insufficient at Potters Cay and will address it by adding more streetlights to the area and at the same time ensure that vendors have access to electricity, which would eliminate the use of generators,” he said.

“We have recently appointed a Manager of Potter’s Cay who will monitor the area and support our initiatives to develop and modernise it. My ministry will continue with auditing of stalls to ensure that there is proper administration at Potter’s Cay. Through proper supervision, we want to ensure that lease rental fees are paid up to date. This would offset some of the costs that we incur to provide the necessary government services at Potter’s Cay Mr Sweeting also spoke about his ministry’s plans to improve infrastructure at Arawak cay.

“With respect to Arawak Cay/Fish Fry, we have refurbished the restrooms with u ​p-to-date modernised equipment. There are automatic toilets and bowls which are hands-free again, designed to support COVID–19 protocols. With the assistance of the Ministry of Works and Utilities, other government agencies and corporations, we also intend to provide speed bumps and additional lighting to the parking lot and surrounding areas.”

He continued: “We also intend to address the issue of subleasing and offer new leases to vendors. We intend to address the backlog of lease rental fees.”

PRIVATE LIABILITIES ‘SETTLED’

BY NEW FINANCIAL YEAR ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder says private financial liabilities owed by the government should be settled going into the new fiscal year.

“I want to thank the Ministry of Finance for cooperating with the Attorney General’s Office in addressing this vexing issue of aged arrears that is owed to Bahamians in the private sector,” he said yesterday.

“Upon coming to office there was an outstanding $17.7m in judgments that were owed with our budget allocation for that completely extinguished already.

“The Ministry of Finance has worked with

us in re-allocating funds so that total is down to $12.2m.

“You will note that last week when bills were tabled in the communication by the Prime Minister on the budget he alluded that there’s a supplemental budget... that is intended to re-allocate funds from this fiscal year to pay a certain arrears that we met in place. He would’ve mentioned Water and Sewerage for example - legal settlements is one of that.

“So, we fully anticipate for the first time in probably decades, maybe since an independence, Bahamas private settlements will be extinguished going into the new fiscal year.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, June 2, 2022, PAGE 3

Davis: $2bn investments approved by government

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net PRIME Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis has revealed his administration has approved over $2bn in investments since assuming office last year.

In his budget communication in the House of Assembly yesterday Mr Davis said the investment - which he did not detail would allow for additional revenue growth and more economic opportunities for the Bahamian people.

The Prime Minister said since being elected to office, his administration has worked hard “to lay down a strong foundation for change across our islands.”

Pointing to the government’s decision to remove the COVID-19 emergency orders, reopen the economy and relaunch projects, Mr Davis told MPs the country’s future is already looking brighter under the direction of his administration.

“We have approved over $2 billion in new investments in just the last eight months. That’s a lot of new opportunities and revenue coming our way. But I want to emphasize that we have a new way of doing business,” he said.

“First, it is important to us to attract major, topquality investments in the Family Islands, as opposed to more Nassau-centric efforts in the past. Second, we are working hard to make sure new investments have a positive and meaningful impact on the community in which they’re located.

“We’re looking at past

agreements, too, and a new compliance unit within the Bahamas Investment Authority will ensure that promises made to local communities will be promises kept. This is not an adversarial process; we are just committed to making sure that promises made to Bahamians on paper actually materialise in our communities as real and tangible benefits.”

Mr Davis said under previous administrations, concessions offered to investors have sometimes exceeded the economic benefits of the country.

However, he was adamant that “no more will this be the case”.

He continued: “When we evaluate new investments, we are also paying attention, not just to direct employment, but to spin-off opportunities for Bahamian entrepreneurs. We’re also seeking compliance with transfer of knowledge programmes, which are designed to ensure Bahamians are trained to hold skilled labour positions currently held by foreigners.”

Speaking on his administration’s efforts to promote Family island development, Mr Davis said one particular innovation he is most excited about is the creation of a Family Island Development Trust Fund, which is a sub-fund of the National Infrastructure Fund.

“We have allocated ten per cent of overall revenue collected in the Family Islands, from property tax and road traffic fees, for this fund,” he said. “The $200m will aid our efforts to make immediate and significant improvements to Family

Island infrastructure,” he said.

“We also propose to leverage aviation-related revenue to create a fund for aviation infrastructure, which – combined with the Family Island Development Trust – will accelerate the reconstruction of Family Island airports.”

He also assured the fund will not be exclusively controlled by central government, though he said several ministers, including the Minister of Finance, would oversee the fund supported by the appropriate technical officers.

Mr Davis continued: “The legislative framework to accommodate the Family Island Infrastructure Fund already exists in the Sovereign Fund Act. Later this year, we will select a financial advisor to lead the first round of fund raising for the Fund.”

“These funds will be used for building or maintaining infrastructure in the Family Islands, including roads, seawalls, landfill sites, and any public infrastructure critical to development.

The Fund will also be a source of funding to local government districts, allowing them to purchase the capital equipment needed to ensure that the infrastructure is properly maintained.”

This comes as the country is grappling with COVID’s impact along with the inflation.

Yesterday, Mr Davis reiterated that three key priorities for his administration in the upcoming fiscal period include bringing relief to Bahamians

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis making his contribution to the Budget debate yesterday.

Photo: Donavan McIntosh/ Tribune Staff struggling with inflation, stimulating job creation and strengthening the nation’s security.

Relief measures announced by the government include increased social assistance, minimum wage increases for the public service and duty reductions on several food items and construction materials among other things.

“These measures reflect our belief that it’s important to help Bahamians right now, despite the very serious fiscal restraints we face,” he said. “None of these measures are a magic bullet. But they will help.

We are moving in the right direction.”

deeper in debt. And we aren’t only paying for past hurricanes,” Mr Davis added, “when our country borrows money, and creditors look at our ability to pay it back, they price in our climate risk and our vulnerability to future hurricanes.“ “They know what the scientists know, which is the real likelihood that Dorian is no longer a once in a generation storm.

Warming seas means hurricanes will be both more frequent and more intense.

So, the money we borrow to recover after each storm is more expensive because of storms that haven’t even formed yet.”

Saying it’s not right when small island developing states “pays a heavy price for the carbon emissions” of the world’s largest nations, Mr Davis called for countries in the region to come together to lobby for change.

“It is not right that our debt grows more expensive when they fail to make enough progress meeting emissions targets. It is not right that we are caught in this terrible cycle of tragedy followed by deeper indebtedness,” the Prime Minister said.

“It is not right that we face an existential threat from rising seas. So what can we do about it? Well, one thing’s for sure: This is not something that can be solved if we pretend it isn’t happening. And this is not something that we can solve alone. Other countries are in a similar position.

“If we come together – and only if we come together - we can begin to hold the world’s largest carbon emitters accountable for promises made, but not kept. We can work to create financing mechanisms and opportunities for recovery and resilience, and we can be at the table when climate policies are made.”

The Prime Minister has been among the leading voices with regards to climate change, often travelling to various countries to attend special conferences to speak about the issue.

“My job is to fight for all

of us,” he said. “We have only been in office eight months, but our leadership on this issue is already being recognised.”

Prime Minister Davis also said he doesn’t agree with his predecessor’s “home

alone policy,” adding “home alone means The Bahamas doesn’t have a voice.“ “We are stronger, Madam Speaker, when we stand together with other countries on the frontline of climate change.”

$4.2BN IN HURRICANE DAMAGES

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas has suffered more than $4.2bn in damages and losses as a result of hurricanes over the last seven years, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis revealed yesterday as he called for more to be done to fight against climate change.

Recognising yesterday as the first day of the 2022 hurricane season, Mr Davis recalled the impacts of Hurricane Dorian and other storms that passed over The Bahamas in recent years.

“Today marks the official start of hurricane season, and, as always, the communities impacted by Dorian are on my mind,” he told parliamentarians during his budget communication.

“During Dorian, there were some Bahamians, far too many, who lost everything and everyone precious to them. In these cases, we feel acutely the limits of what we can do.

We can move people into new homes. We cannot heal broken hearts. Hurricane Dorian caused more than $3.4 billion in damages and losses -$3.4 billion.

“And before Dorian in 2019, there was Irma in 2017, and before Irma, there was Matthew, in 2016, and before Matthew, there was Joaquin in 2015. In the seven years since Joaquin, our country has suffered more than $4.2 billion in damage and losses. $4.2 billion, in just seven years.”

Prime Minister Davis said the nation’s debt only widens when hurricanes hit, leaving devastation in its wake. This, he added, is why countries like The Bahamas need support through financing to build climate resilience.

He also revealed his administration is working to strengthen the nation’s hurricane resilience by making a new building code and added that officials have agreed to renew an insurance with CCRIF (Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility).

“Each hurricane causes terrible destruction, and each hurricane leaves us

PAGE 4, Thursday, June 2, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

THOMPSON SLAMS GOVT ‘FISCAL IRRESPONSIBILITY’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A FORMER Cabinet minister yesterday accused the Government of “the height of fiscal irresponsibility” with the Budget’s projected deficit forecast to overshoot by some $149m targets set just four months ago.

Kwasi Thompson, exminister of state for finance in the Minnis administration, slammed its successor for “significant divergence” from the goals set out in January’s Fiscal Strategy Report as it unveiled changes to revenue, spending and deficit targets for the 2022-2023 fiscal year set to begin on July 1.

Asserting that this was “wholly against the letter and the spirit of the Fiscal Responsibility Act”, Mr Thompson zeroed in on the revised fiscal deficit which is now projected to equal $564m or 4.3 percent of national gross domestic product (GDP). The deficit measures by how much the Government’s spending exceeds its revenue income, and the east Grand Bahama MP argued that the $564m was a major change to the $415.2m forecast at end-January.

“This government has made a significant

divergence from the Fiscal Strategy Report’s 2021 deficit target of $415.2m to a Budget target of $564m.

They told Parliament the fiscal deficit would be 3 percent of GDP, now it is 4 percent of GDP. That increase of $148.8m represents a 36 percent increase over the target that you told Parliament and you told the Bahamian people.

“This is wholly against the letter and the spirit of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The Fiscal Responsibility Act was established to ensure that all governments lay out their fiscal plans and fiscal targets, and only diverge from these targets under exceptional negative circumstances, such as natural disasters or severe economic shocks.”

This would have been triggered by Hurricane Dorian and the fall-out from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asserting that none of these criteria were now present, Mr Thompson accused the Government of “simply ignoring” the law as set out by the Fiscal Responsibility Act and breaching its own fiscal objectives in the Fiscal Strategy Report.

However, both Senator Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, and Simon Wilson, the Ministry

of Finance’s financial secretary, have justified the revised Budget numbers as compared to those in the Fiscal Strategy Report on the basis that the economy is rebounding much faster than anticipated from the effects of COVID-19 now it has re-opened further.

This, they added, has prompted the Government to adjust its forecasts as more information on the economy becomes available. And Mr Wilson told this newspaper that the projected $564m deficit does not account for, or include, potential revenue windfalls such as the $100m that the Davis administration is due to receive if it sells the Grand Lucayan hotel.

Yet Mr Thompson said: “By their own account - and by the information they have provided - the revenues are over-performing. The economy is doing better than expected thanks to the highly effective policies left in place by the former FNM government. So with the economy doing better than expected, and with revenues doing better than expected, we should have seen a Budget where the target deficit is lower than what was in the Fiscal Strategy Report.

“Instead, contrary to the requirements of the

Fiscal Responsibility Act, the Government is coming in with a higher deficit number. This administration is not taking its fiscal responsibility seriously. The Fiscal Responsibility Act lays out the only acceptable reasons for diverging from fiscal targets. None of these situations prevail today that warrant such an exception.

“If the Government chooses to ignore the Fiscal Responsibility Act - the same act they supported and quoted often while in Opposition - it wholly undermines their credibility and, of course, it puts our credit ratings in jeopardy for no good reason.

And when our credit rating falls, our borrowing costs go up and Bahamian taxpayers everywhere pay the price for their fiscal irresponsibility.”

Mr Thompson said “the really worrisome part” is the Government’s decision to exceed the Fiscal Strategy Report’s spending projections. Recurrent or fixed-cost spending, which goes on the likes of civil service salaries, wages, emoluments and rent, was forecast at end-January 2022 to be $2.698bn in the upcoming 2022-2023 fiscal year. However, that has been revised upwards by $300m to $2.997bn.

The former minister explained that this was

especially concerning when set against revenue forecasts that he branded “sheer fantasy”. He added: “Show us the data that forms the basis for your revenue projections. Tell us how you will collect $1.4bn in VAT, $500m more than last year, without significant new tax measures...

“The Fiscal Strategy Report is not just a guide, but it has the force of law in the fiscal targets and objectives. The PLP budget has a material and significant difference from the Fiscal Strategy Report. How can we believe what you say?

You presented a Fiscal Strategy Report and, in the first year, you are unable or unwilling to abide by it.”

Rather than reduce the public service wage bill to $568m, as shown in the Fiscal Strategy Report, Mr Thompson said the 2022-2023 Budget was now expanding this by $56m compared to the outlay for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. And the Government has also temporarily shelved plans to slash subsidies to stateowned enterprises (SOEs), which are set to increase by almost $31m year-over-year in the upcoming 2022-2023 Budget year.

The Davis administration’s Fiscal Strategy

Report, released just four months prior in January 2022, had committed the Government to pursuing plans left in place by its predecessor that were targeting a $100m cut in these subsidies to the likes of Bahamasair and the Water & Sewerage Corporation “over the medium-term horizon”.

But the Davis administration is increasing total taxpayer subsidies to them in the upcoming 2022-2023 fiscal year by 7 percent to $457.183m compared to the $426.202m forecast for the current Budget cycle. Of the latter figure, some $398.251m had already been advanced as at end-March 2022.

Taxpayer funding is thus going in the opposite direction to the cost savings drive pledged in the Fiscal Strategy Report. Most of the increase is directed to three agencies: The Public Hospitals Authority ($9m to $232.456m); the Bahamas Public Parks and Beaches Authority ($8.8m to $24m); and the Water & Sewerage Corporation ($8m to $32m).

“What you have done is increase the allocations to state-owned enterprises.

Clearly, your commitment to begin reform of state-owned enterprises was only hot air,” Mr Thompson said yesterday.

the 2022/2023 budget with respect to recurrent expenditure, my Ministry has been proposed an allocation of $27,498,086.00 which includes subventions to BAIC (Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation) $5,000,000.00; BAMSI (Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Insititute), $6,476,088.00, an increase of $250,000.

This demonstrates our commitment to education in agriculture and marine Resources,” Mr Sweeting said in his budget communication.

“We cannot say that we are committed to food security, and we do not translate that into educating the youth and re-educating people who want to get into agriculture.

Additionally, BAHFSA

(Bahamas Agricultural Food Safety Authority) will receive $504,000. For the Department of Agriculture, $5,522,159 has been proposed and for the Department of Marine Resources, $2,802,091 and the Department of Local Government, $26,200,058.00.”

“Madam Speaker, the proposed capital allocation is $4,766,446.00 which includes: food security capital development of $1,000,000.00, other capital initiatives include: the construction of two slaughterhouses, one in New Providence (replacement) and one in Eleuthera (and) construction of additional office space – Department of Marine Resources, purchase of a vessel - Andros, and the construction of an

administration building at GRAC.” With regard to the food security, the minister added: “$6,149,000.00 is proposed for my ministry to support our initiatives and projects related to the government’s food security agenda.”

He also revealed that some $500,000 will be given in direct support for farmers, adding that locals can also expect to receive indirect assistance from the Davis administration.

“There will be duty free exemptions for farmers and fishermen on equipment parts,” he added. “For example, to purchase a Caterpillar fuel pump kit costs $7,000 in the United States, to import it, a farmer/fisherman will have to pay 45 per cent duty and 10 per cent Vat. The farmer/fisherman would pay $3,850 in duties and Vat bringing the part value up to $10,850 to

repair their equipment.”

“This Davis/Cooper administration realises that again, a holistic approach must be made in order to have a real tangible effect on food security and lowering the cost of production for farmers and fishermen.

This duty-free initiative will now be a direct savings to the farmer and the part imported will now only cost $7,700.00.”

“This administration is committed to eliminating the cost of duty on all such parts for repairs, considering that Farmers and Fishermen already have duty free concessions for the upfront purchase of equipment and vehicles for their businesses this is an added bonus and real time savings to these hardworking men and women who will move the country forward.”

He also revealed planned

concessions for poultry farmers, noting the industry as an important one, considering high food costs in the country.

“We believe that low hanging fruit such as poultry can provide an almost immediate catalyst to stimulate food production in the country,” the Central and South Eleuthera MP said.

“We have a plan, detailed in part in the budget, to attract the best technology and processes to develop a full-scale poultry production operation. This includes a series of concessions that will be available. These concessions include land concessions (BAIC and the Ministry of Agriculture have thousands of acres for agricultural development) as well as electricity rate concessions to producers and direct cash subsidies, as found in this budget, for the support of poultry farmers and producers.”

“Realistically, the timeframe to grow this sector of the economy will take another six to twelve months to see its full potential realized. In the interim, the Prime Minister in his wisdom, has also provided for the reduction of duties on many food items, including poultry and eggs. It is our sincere hope that these savings as outlined in the budget will be passed on to the consumers.”

$6M ALLOCATED FOR FOOD SECURITY INITIATIVES

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE government is allocating over $6m to support its food security initiatives, according to Agriculture and Marine Resources Minister Clay Sweeting.

Mr Sweeting told the House of Assembly that over $27m has been budgeted for his ministry for the upcoming fiscal period and also detailed how the funds will be spent through his various departments.

Of the $27m allocated, he said much of it will go towards subventions to several government agencies, while adding that over $6m has been budgeted to strengthen the country’s food security.

“Madam Speaker, for

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, June 2, 2022, PAGE 5

Nation ‘must be prepared’ for monkeypox outbreak

By JEFFARAH GIBSON Tribune Features Writer jgibson@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas must be on alert and prepared to take rapid action for an inevitable outbreak of monkeypox, according to a Pan American Health Organization official.

In a virtual press briefing yesterday, PAHO director Dr Carissa Etienne re-emphasized the stress currently placed on health systems in the region due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said healthcare facilities now are also faced with the threat of other health matters. “Our health systems are still recovering from the disruptions brought by the pandemic

and they are facing another surge of cases coupled with a growing number of health events, including monkey pox, viral hepatitis and other respiratory infections,” she said.

Earlier last month, cases of monkeypox have been reported to WHO from 12 countries that are not endemic for monkeypox virus, across three WHO regions.

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing, however, reported cases thus far have no established travel links to endemic areas.

Dr Ciro Ugarte, Director of Health Emergencies/ PAHO, said member states should be alert and activate action plans for minimising spread. “What we know about this virus and the

mode of transmission is this outbreak is containable,” he said. “Rapid action must be taken before the virus can be allowed to establish itself in most endemic and non-endemic contexts. Let us learn from the eradication of small pox and from emerging diseases must be urgently consider this evolving event.”

He said countries should be on alert for individuals presenting dermatological symptoms, including a rash as well as a fever, enlarged lymph nodes, headache, back pain, aches or fatigue.

“It is extremely important for the countries to also inform healthcare workers on these initial signals and take all the precautions from the beginning

so the patient will be properly alerted.

“It is our common and community benefit to early identify those persons and if one person has those symptoms you must look for healthcare. This must be stopped at its earliest stages. We do not have to let it establish in the countries,” Dr Ugarte said.

On Monday, The Ministry of Health and Wellness assured the public there are no confirmed cases of monkeypox in the country.

In a press release posted on their Facebook page yesterday, the ministry noted the National Disease Surveillance Unit is monitoring an individual who arrived in The Bahamas last weekend with a travel history of

locations where outbreaks have occurred.

“That individual has been placed in isolation and samples have been obtained for processing. The male who is in his mid-30s has had significant resolution of his signs and symptoms. His only known contact is his wife, who is not showing any signs of monkeypox,” the release said. “The ministry has issued an Epo Alert which has been sent to physicians across the country to continue surveillance for any persons who may present with signs and symptoms of monkeypox.”

The release indicated symptoms of monkeypox include skin rash, fever, headache, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and

exhaustion. Symptoms can last for two to four weeks.

“The death rate associated with the disease is low ranging between three to six percent of persons infected.

Any person who feels that he/she has these symptoms is asked to practice health and safety protocols (physical distancing, wearing of face masks and hand sanitisation) and contact their primary care physician or nearest public health clinic for evaluation at the earliest opportunity.

“To date, the WHO has confirmed that nearly 200 cases of monkeypox have been reported in more than 20 countries worldwide. The disease is being described as ‘containable’ by the World Health Organisation.”

UB PRESIDENT HAILS GRADUATES AT NORTHERN CAMPUS

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS University president Dr Rodney Smith commended the 40-plus graduates of the Class of 2022 for surviving these past years to complete their studies at UB North, while enduring the challenges caused by Hurricane Dorian and the COVID pandemic.

“You have shown what it means to flourish in the face of adversity,” he told graduates of the 34th Spring Commencement exercise held at the Convention Centre at the Grand Lucayan Resort yesterday.

“You students endured obstacles and hardship over the past few years – first, the devastating blow

of Hurricane Dorian and followed by a two-year and counting of the crippling effect of a global pandemic.”

The theme for this year’s Spring commencement was “We Survived Now We Thrive Succeeding Against the Odds.”

Some 40 students received degrees.

Dr Smith told graduates: “Today is a red-letter day for all of us. Graduating class of 2022, you have made history. You are among the first faceto-face graduating class after a global pandemic that caused the world to stand still. If there is one thing you take away from the experiences over the past 32 months, it should be that we must all thrive to develop unshakable faith in the outcome of

every situation of our lives, knowing God is in absolute control.”

He stressed that they must be grateful for every experience because it has taught them a valuable lesson that was part of the preparation along the journey to their ultimate divine purpose.

“The world is changing, and everyone is a part of that change. Take the next step with an open mind as you continue the magnificent journey called life and being human. You are taking the next step toward creating a better world,” he said.

During his address, Dr Ian Strachan, president of UB North, paused in a moment silence for the more than 800 Bahamians who lost their lives due to the COVID pandemic.

“We give thanks for the lives they lived and thanks for lives we now have,” he said. “Our theme reminds us that survival is better than the alternative, but that is not enough in the long term. All of us are here because we survived. Our new mandate, however, is to thrive.”

“We survived the most deadly disease outbreak in 100 years, and that’s after we survived the most deadly storm in 100 years,” said Dr Strachan.

He emphasised that because of Dorian and COVID, we have received some scars and now have testimonies to share.

Dr Strachan said: “UB North survived against all odds, and I believe we will see UB North thrive at its downtown campus in years to come, in its programnes,

through our faculty and our energetic students pursuing degrees in entrepreneurship, computer science, environmental and marine science, operation management, and more.”

Dr Strachan said the future is bright for UB North.

Also speaking at the commencement, TV host, speaker and author Anastarcia Palacious told graduates that today is just the start of their journey to something great.

“Remember, it is just the beginning,” she said. “It is not so much the degree, but the skill set learned in the degree. It is the authenticity, it is the continuous work on your mind, the right friendships and partnerships - that is what will transform GB.” Mrs Palacious told them

not to take their degree for granted.

“Use it as a stepping stone to not just rebuild GB, but transform GB. Nothing is impossible with God. There is nothing you cannot do,” she stressed.

“This is a new time. We do not need the Freeport of old, we need a Freeport of new. And you get to be the ones to make it happen,” she said.

Ms Palacious encouraged graduates to continue their education by investing in seminars, workshops, and conferences. She also said they should give service to their communities by joining organisations such as Toastmasters, Rotary, Kiwanis, Red Cross or Pilots. She said it will open doors for them as it has for her.

PAGE 6, Thursday, June 2, 2022

The Tribune Limited

THE TRIBUNE

PICTURE OF THE DAY

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

Publisher/Editor 1903-1914

LEON E. H. DUPUCH,

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

SIR ETIENNE DUPUCH,

Publisher/Editor 1919-1972 Contributing Editor 1972-1991

EILEEN DUPUCH CARRON,

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California report on slave reparations THE SLAVERY reparations movement hit a watershed moment Wednesday with the release of an exhaustive report detailing California’s role in perpetuating discrimination against African Americans, a major step toward educating the public and setting the stage for an official government apology and case for financial restitution.

The 500-page document lays out the harm suffered by descendants of enslaved people even today, long after slavery was abolished in the 19th century, through discriminatory laws and actions in all facets of life, from housing and education to employment and the legal system.

Longtime reparations advocate Justin Hansford, who is a law professor at Howard University and director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center in Washington called the moment exciting and monumental.

“To have an official detail of these histories coming from the state is important,” he said. “I know a lot of people say we don’t need to keep doing studies, but the reality is until it comes from some source that people think is objective, then it is going to be harder to convince everybody of some of the inequalities described.”

The report comes at a time when school boards and states across the US are banning books or restricting what can be taught in classrooms, with parents and lawmakers largely opposed to topics of sexuality, gender identity or race. State lawmakers have tried to bar schools from teaching the “1619 Project,” a New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning report that reframes American history with enslaved people at its heart.

California is headed in the opposite direction, said Adam Laats, a historian at Binghamton University who called the document remarkable in its unflinching account, including detailing how police officers and district attorneys in the Los Angeles of a century ago were members of or had ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

“Who children should learn are the main actors in the story of us as a nation has always been a real lightning rod,” he said.

Gov Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the two-year task force in 2020, making California the only state to move ahead with a study and plan.

Cities and universities have taken up the cause, with the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, becoming the first city to make reparations available to black residents last year.

On Wednesday, Newsom issued a statement praising California for leading the country on a long overdue discussion of racial justice and equity. The state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office is assisting the task force, said, “California was not a passive actor in perpetuating these harms.”

A similar effort is underway to delve into what Newsom has called California’s dark history of violence, mistreatment and neglect of Native Americans. The report by the Truth and Healing Council, due in 2025, could include recommendations for reparations. Many tribes across the country have sought to acquire their ancestral land and co-manage public land.

The African American reparations task force, which began meeting in June 2021, will release a comprehensive reparations plan next year. The committee voted in March to limit reparations to the descendants of African Americans living in the US in the 19th century, overruling advocates who wanted to expand compensation to all black people in the US. “Four hundred years of discrimination has resulted in an enormous and persistent wealth gap between black and white Americans,” said the report by the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.

“These effects of slavery continue to be embedded in American society today and have never been sufficiently remedied. The governments of the United States and the State of California have

never apologised to or compensated African Americans for these harms.”

California is home to the fifth-largest black population in the US, after Texas, Florida, Georgia and New York, the report said. An estimated 2.8 million Black people live in California, although it is unclear how many are eligible for direct compensation.

African Americans make up less than 6% of California’s population yet they are overrepresented in jails, youth detention centers and prisons. About 28% of people imprisoned in California are black and in 2019, 36% of minors ordered into state juvenile detention facilities were African Americans, according to the report.

Black Californians earn less and and are more likely to be poor than white residents. In 2018, black residents earned on average just under $54,000 compared to $87,000 for white Californians.

“We don’t own homes and if you look at why there’s such a huge disparity between African Americans and white Americans and our ability to hold onto and sustain wealth, it’s because we don’t own homes,” said Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a task force member.

The task force’s sweeping initial recommendations include prison system reforms. Inmates should not be forced to work and if they do, they must be paid fair market wages. Inmates should also be allowed to vote and people with felony convictions should serve on juries.

The group recommends creating a state-subsidised mortgage programme to guarantee low rates for qualifying African American applicants, free health care, free tuition to California colleges and universities and scholarships to African American high school graduates to cover four years of undergraduate education.

The committee also calls for a Cabinet-level secretary position to oversee an African American Affairs agency with branches for civic engagement, education, social services, cultural affairs and legal affairs. It would help people research and document their lineage to a 19th-century ancestor so they could qualify for financial restitution.

People opposed to paying reparations argue that California did not have plantations or Jim Crow era laws as in the South.

But the interim report spells out how California, despite being “free”, perpetuated harms that have compounded over generations.

It noted that Missouri native Basil Campbell was purchased for $1,200 and forced to move to California’s Yolo County in 1854, leaving behind his wife and two sons. Campbell eventually paid off his purchase price, married and became a landowner. But when his sons petitioned for a portion of his estate after his death, a California judge ruled that marriage between two enslaved people “is not a marriage relation”.

More recently, it said, the home of Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin was assessed at a much lower price because it was located in a primarily Black part of upscale Marin County, where African Americans were forced to live starting in World War II. The report should offer other cities and states — and ultimately the federal government — a blueprint for seeking reparations, members said. Over the next year, the task force will take on the difficult task of crafting an apology and creating a reparations plan to compensate for and stop the harm.

“The big question is: What are they going to do with it? The danger here is that everyone reads it and nods their heads and waits on the task force to initiate the response,” said Hansford, the law professor.

“We need to have universities, local governments, businesses and others working together to do their part to address... the recommendations offered in the report.”

By JANIE HAR, Associated Press

STUDENTS from Shea High School walk out to protest the nation’s gun policies in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, yesterday. Organiser Zachary Pinto, 17, said his fellow students told him they were frustrated, angry and in pain after the last week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. He led students to a rally at city hall where they were then joined by other local high school students.

Photo: David Goldman/AP

Happy Platinum Jubilee EDITOR, The Tribune.

WHAT an achievement.

Something most of us can only aspire to and look on in awe. Her Majesty The Queen is celebrating a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth.

Since her accession to the throne on her father’s death in February 1952 and her coronation on June 2, 1953 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has been a constant presence in her role as our shared Head of State. Her Majesty has made several visits to The Bahamas, including a State Visit with many other world leaders during the 1985 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

I know that here in The Bahamas she has many admirers. Lots of people tell me stories of meeting The Queen on her visits to these beautiful islands.

Either brief meetings, or more in-depth conversations, she has formed

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net personal bonds with Bahamian citizens.

Proudly represented by the Governors General over the past 50 years, including my near neighbour Dame Marguerite Pindling and other iconic figures of Bahamian public life, who have made the link with their dedicated service here in The Bahamas.

This year, as it is a special occasion, it will be my pleasure to formally mark the Platinum Jubilee with His Excellency Sir Cornelius Smith. We will do so in the traditional style of the events held in Buckingham Palace Garden, which recognise the work of volunteers, community leaders and public servants. There is so much good work that goes on to support young people and vulnerable communities and protect the environment that we have good reason to thank them and celebrate.

There is lots of scope to have fun with this anniversary. In my country over the extended four-day weekend, we will celebrate this remarkable milestone and Her Majesty’s reign with an extensive programme of public events. These celebrations will include a Birthday Parade, a lighting of Platinum Jubilee Beacons, a Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Platinum Jubilee Pageant.

I know that here in The Bahamas Rotary will light a Jubilee beacon as part of a Commonwealth-wide exercise and many people have told me of their plans for afternoon teas and community breakfasts and other celebrations.

At this joyful time, I hope your readers can agree that we wish our 96-year-old monarch all the very best for her Platinum Jubilee year. Happy anniversary Your Majesty!

SARAH DICKSON British High Commissioner May 30, 2022.

Response to China allegations EDITOR, The Tribune.

THIS letter to The Tribune editor is regarding a report in The Tribune’s May 30th issue raising questions about Chinese products and technologies.

Politically motivated economic suppression goes nowhere.

In recent years, frequent allegations were made regarding the security of Chinese made information technology products and questions raised as to whether users could have their personal data fully protected.

All these allegations seem to come from one source and share one characteristic: No evidence has ever been produced to substantiate these claims. Nor do those who make those allegations feel obligated to produce any evidence.

China is a staunch defender of cyber security.

The Chinese government never supports any activities by Chinese companies that are detrimental to the lawful security interests

of other countries, nor is there any law or regulation in China that requires the installation of so-called “back doors” in Chinese companies.

Over the years, Chinese companies, which provide high-quality and inexpensive products and services well attuned to the needs of developed as well as developing countries, have maintained a solid track record on information network security. No Chinese company has ever been associated with network security incidents such as what Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks revealed, or with any cyber surveillance programmes such as Prism.

Take Huawei as an example. In the past 30 years, Huawei has built more than 1,500 networks in more than 170 countries and regions, partnering with 228 Fortune Global 500 companies and serving more than three billion people around the world. No country has come up with any evidence of Huawei products having back doors.

It is abundantly clear that the sustained smear campaign targeting Chinese companies is politically motivated and aimed at peddling fear and undermining the competitive edge of Chinese companies.

These efforts will never succeed. Chinese companies will continue to survive and thrive in the global marketplace.

People around the world deserve access to safe, reliable and affordable information technology. We hope countries will take an objective and impartial stand and come to their own independent judgments. We call on all countries, including our Caribbean partners to work together to foster a free, open and safe cyberspace and uphold a fair, just, open and non-discriminatory business environment for the benefit of our peoples.

COUNSELLOR CUI WEI Chinese Embassy Spokesman Nassau, June 1, 2022.

THE TRIBUNE

Marijuana legislation ‘by end of summer’ ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder says legislation for marijuana legalisation should be concluded by the end of the summer.

He gave an update to reporters yesterday on the sidelines of a community legal aid project press conference.

“Our external council who’s been working with us on the legislation is working hand-in-hand with law reform. Now since the budget exercise is now concluding with respect to legislative events that’s back on stream and they have specific recommendations on how we should address it. Law reform is in the process of amending the legislation that was in place to address those concerns so that is back in process.

There was a slight delay because of a shift in priorities but we’re certain, again by the end of the summer, that legislation should be concluded.”

The government said it

would introduce a “regulatory framework” for the cannabis industry and to expunge the records of young people convicted of minor offences related to use of the drug as part of its five-year legislative agenda.

Communications director in the Office of the Prime Minister, Latrae Rahming, announced in January that the Davis administration is expected to bring legislation for a cannabis industry in the first quarter of this year.

In 2020, then Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis promised to have the relevant bill brought to Parliament by January 2021.

In May 2021, then-Attorney General Carl Bethel said once approved by Cabinet, marijuana legislation would be introduced to Parliament before the end of the budget year. Again, that did not happen.

Meanwhile, Mr Pinder noted that work continues on the nationalisation act

to bring that to Cabinet by the end of the summer. Successive governments have sought to address the disparities between men and women passing on Bahamian citizenship to their children in two failed constitutional referendums.

“We should expect to see that this summer,” he said when asked about the draft citizenship legislation. “Certainly as you can appreciate law reform has been working feverishly with respect to the legislation for the budget and get that legislation in place so we can advance the budget in time, but we’re certainly working on the nationalisation act to bring that to Cabinet.”

Asked for a specific month in the summer for the legislation, he replied: “Well, it all depends on the demands of law reform, right. I think that we have advanced it before the budget before we had to shift to provide more focus

on the bills that are being debated by the Prime Minister starting today, but I don’t see it taking more than a couple months to actually finalise.

“We are looking at what was done before, but as you would know that dealt with nationalisation, that dealt with asylum, that dealt with the Department of Immigration in general. So we’re pulling it apart then doing the reform to that so we do have the basis of the legislation in place... Within two to three months, we should be able to have that final before Cabinet.”

Successive governments have sought to address the disparities in men and women passing on Bahamian citizenship in two failed constitutional referendums. The Attorney General has previously said the Davis administration intends to address the issue through legislation instead of holding another referendum.

Thursday, June 2, 2022, PAGE 7

ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder.

LEGAL AID PROJECT LAUNCHED BY EUGENE DUPUCH LAW SCHOOL THE Eugene Dupuch Law School (EDLS) has partnered with the Attorney General’s Office, The Bahamas Bar Association and The Caribbean Agency for Justice Solutions (the Agency) to launch a Community-Based Legal Aid Project (CLAP).

Tonya Bastian Galanis, principal of EDLS, said the primary purpose of the project is to increase access to justice for members of the public by making legal advice and services more accessible.

“So what makes this project different from any other legal project? We will be

leveraging technology and highlighting the increasing importance of technology in the legal profession and two this CLAP project will be mobile in nature and so the mobility of the clinic in our communities will be distinguishing it from other legal aid programmes,” she said yesterday.

Nicole Sutherland King, director of the Legal Aid Clinic at EDLS, said: “I think it is very important that when we consider our access to justice we remember what are the elements.

It’s not simply enough that we have in place laws and legal systems, but we need

to ensure that our citizenry are aware of their rights and they recognise that the problems that they’re facing may have legal remedies.

“Once they recognise there’s a legal remedy we need to ensure that we empower them so that they can self help when that is an option and so that they know how to navigate the legal system. Finally, we want to ensure that they can receive the assistance of professionals, of legal counsel when that is necessary to ensure that they are not prejudiced in any way in the pursuit of that remedy and so that is the goal of CLAP.”

She added that another step is going take their offices to various communities.

Furthermore, they are also going to put together teams of volunteer attorneys, paralegals, law students, IT persons and persons with administrative skills. This team will put together and go into communities to address some of the issues identified in advance. Virtual consultations also will be facilitated.

There will be a launch in mid-June. They also hoped to roll out a pilot programme in the Centreville community “So we’re piloting for

three months here in New Providence.

Once we worked out all of the kinks because it is virtual. Once we have our volunteer data populated and worked out all of the kinks there’s nothing to prevent us continuing beginning September, October, November,” the director said.

Attorney General Ryan Pinder said: “The government has through Attorney General’s Office, obtained approval from Cabinet, and identified and come to an agreement to acquire a mobile home that has been utilised in professional work space ready. Its been

utilised for architects and engineers in Hurricane Dorian relief throughout Grand Bahama and Abaco became available and we thought it was a tremendous opportunity to acquire that mobile home and have it outfitted as a mobile legal office to where we could have the legal aid clinic through its in house staff, but also through volunteers and with the students that are in the law school to be able to go into the communities and into the communities that most need it to provide access to justice to Bahamians by and large.”

PAGE 8, Thursday, June 2, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

CHINA’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, second left, is welcomed on the tarmac by officials on his arrival in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, on Tuesday. Photo: Marian Kupu/ABC via AP BEGINNING last week, China’s Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi embarked on an unprecedented ten-day tour with a delegation of 20 to ten Pacific Island countries with which the People’s Republic has diplomatic relations.

The tour, which ends this week, includes: The Solomon Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Niue and Federated States of Micronesia.

The states not visited – Tuvalu, Palau, the Marshall Islands and Nauru – maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

During the tour, the Minister met his counterparts in a virtual joint meeting. His first such meeting with the group of foreign ministers took place in October last year. China is expending considerable foreign policy energy in the region.

Foreign ministers of world powers rarely undertake such long tours of smaller powers. What does the mission by Minister Wang suggest about China’s geopolitical and geoeconomic ambitions in the Pacific and globally?

What does it portend for other regions, including the small island developing states of the Caribbean,

including The Bahamas?

China is an increasingly confident world power in competition globally with the United States and, regionally, with powers like Australia in the Pacific.

The rivalry between the world’s two largest powers will continue to grow, with other countries having to carefully negotiate their relations and interests with both.

Both America and China have international and domestic strengths and weaknesses that will buttress and delimit their reach and appeal depending on the regions and countries in which their rivalry will play out over the coming decades.

ARROGANT

Great powers have always sought to protect their land and maritime borders and project their power in their regions. The notion by the American policy elites that it is legitimate for the US to project its power but that China should limit their projection of power is arrogant and ahistorical.

To solely or mostly frame the US-China rivalry as merely a competition between democracy and

GEOPOLITICAL LESSONS FROM PACIFIC ISLAND STATES

autocracy is simplistic.

Global power is Nation-states have always measured in more than milhad to negotiate relations itary hardware, though such with larger powers, most power should not be underrecently during the Cold estimated as is evidenced in War and the intense super- the war in the Ukraine. The power rivalry between United States remains the the Soviet Union and world’s leading power on many fronts, the United and is likely States.

‘Why hasn’t the to remain Even so for some today, with United States time. the Russia developed a Still, ecoFederation a somewhat similar nomic and lesser power, soft power countries like approach to the will conIndia, South Caribbean, which tinue to play Africa and would be happy to a significant other African role in geostates, Israel receive more than politics. India and other American tourists? sent vaccines countries, The Caribbean to the Carhave had ibbean and to take into often seems to be The Bahaaccount cer- an afterthought mas before tain national and at the whim the US. The interests of the vagaries fellow-Comduring monwealth the war in of American country also Ukraine. domestic politics responded Further, with assisover the dec- and the interests tance after ades to come, of ideologues Hurricane how will in Congress.’

Dorian.

India project Though its regional power and interests beyond small in terms of land mass the subcontinent? Of note, and population, the Pacific India will surpass China in Island states have vast marpopulation size as the latter itime areas and resources, faces demographic challenges making them appealing because of an ageing popula- partners to China, Australia and the United States. tion and lower birth rate.

IMPORTANCE

The states are of special geographic importance to a China seeking to extend it security and military reach in the Pacific, just as the United States has historically considered Latin America and the Caribbean in its “backyard”, a term at which the region has bristled for centuries.

As far back as 1815, US President John Adams dismissively declared: “The people of South America are the most ignorant, the most bigoted, the most superstitious of all the Roman Catholics in Christendom – [attempts to establish democracy in the region] always appeared to me as absurd as similar plans would be to establish democracies among the birds, beasts and fishes.”

Few American Presidents and foreign policy elites in the executive and congressional branches have had an enlightened foreign policy toward the Caribbean and Latin America, which the economic, political and military elites in the US mostly viewed with racist and greedy intent and as security buffers.

The brutal ignorance and military interventions in the region have often soured relations with states in the Americas, including bloody interventions in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

With China having gained tremendous economic influence in the Americas, the United States will have to contend with the former’s reach and ambition. China has become the largest trading partner “for South America collectively (and for all of Latin America if Mexico is excluded)”.

China has also invested heavily in the Caribbean, with a strong diplomatic presence and economic investments in infrastructure and other areas, while the United States seems at times to take the region for granted.

When an ambassadorial post goes vacant, China rapidly appoints new ambassadors to Caribbean capitals. Because of the lengthy appointment process for ambassadors in the US, countries like The Bahamas have not had a

US ambassador for years.

China built a new embassy in The Bahamas years ago, with the United States finally catching up with its new large complex in downtown Nassau.

Some observers often view the United States as mostly interested in a security agenda with The Bahamas, and less interested in promoting infrastructural and economic investments, for which we have at critical junctures had to turn to China for funding.

Whereas China has a long-term foreign policy and economic relations vision for the Caribbean, the United States often seems unfocused, devoid for decades of a vision for the small island developing states in the region.

US Vice President Kamala Harris has visited various Central American states to promote new economic partnerships and investments. Concerned about the violence in the region and the surge of immigrants, the US is working to stimulate various Central American economies.

Why hasn’t the United States developed a somewhat similar approach to the Caribbean, which would be happy to receive more than American tourists?

The Caribbean often seems to be an afterthought and at the whim of the vagaries of American domestic politics and the interests of ideologues in Congress.

During his first year in office Joe Biden sought to recast the historic relations between the American superpower and the region.

He will host the US’s 2022 Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles June 6-10.

Biden has stated of the region: “It’s not America’s backyard, everything south of the Mexican border is America’s front yard. And we’re equal people. We don’t dictate what happens in any other part of that – or this continent or the South American continent.”

RHETORIC

This is good rhetoric but unconvincing. In a piece in Foreign Exchange, entitled, “America’s Front Yard”, historian and Associate Professor at Arizona State University, Alex Aviña offers: “Of course, the crux of the problem remains even with the so-called metaphorical upgrade. Backyard or front yard, Latin America remains subject to the US ‘homeowner’ who imagines its chauvinistic regional interests as shared universal values; a homeowner who tends to pay close attention mostly in relation to the perceived ‘infiltration’ of threatening outside forces...

“The implication, particularly when contextualised with years of ‘new Cold War with China’ rhetoric, is that the East Asian country is trespassing in an exclusive US sphere of influence deemed to be the legitimate, necessary and properly hierarchical order of things.”

Before he and his party were recently ousted in the Australian general election, former Prime Minister Scott Morrison once referred to the Pacific as Australia’s “backyard”.

The country’s new Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who is of Asian descent, have vowed to upgrade Australia’s relations with the Pacific Island States and with the regional grouping, the Pacific Islands Forum, comprising 18 members and

akin to Caricom in various aspects.

The forum was founded in 1971 and its members include: Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

During the Chinese Foreign Minister’s tour and days after their election as Australia’s new government, Wong flew to Suva, Fiji’s capital, to meet with Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who said he had a “wonderful meeting” with Wong.

Mr Bainimarama met with the foreign ministers of China and Australia in the same week. He and the other Pacific Island leaders want good relationships with all of the major powers.

There is considerable diversity among the island states, including in how they approach their national interests. But they share common threats.

David Panuelo is President of the Federated States of Micronesia, with a small population of approximately 100,000. The western Pacific country has four states, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae, comprising 607 islands, with a combined land area of 271 square miles.

President Panuelo has warned his fellow regional leaders that their main interests are the global climate emergency, which is submerging their countries; the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the ravages on limited health care infrastructure; and the global cost of living crisis, especially for highly importdependent countries.

He insists he does not want his country engulfed by the geopolitical rivalry of the major powers as the region faces the threats to their existence, mostly caused by these very powers.

The small island states in the Pacific Island Forum, like Caricom members, are facing similar challenges, even as the United States and China compete for political, economic and security cum military influence.

The leaders of the small Pacific states work diligently to achieve consensus, especially in response to climate change. They are tired of being taken for granted.

They want their national and collective interests to be taken more seriously.

They do not simply want to be pawns in a geopolitical struggle between larger powers.

What lessons might Caribbean and Pacific small island states learn from each other in how to negotiate the evolving world order? What is the long-term strategy of The Bahamas for its foreign and diplomatic relations? What do we need to do to better promote our interests on the world stage and in collaboration with Caricom?

THE TRIBUNE

When - if ever - is it going to stop?

Thursday, June 2, 2022, PAGE 9

FLOWERS and candles are placed around crosses at a memorial outside Robb Elementary School to honour the victims killed in this week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Photo: Jae C Hong/AP IS horrific gun violence Republican congressman shooting at each other in the US even newsworthy who represents the inner- recently. “I am very angry,” anymore? One can reasoncity Buffalo area where a he told reporters. “Six teenably wonder what will be supermarket shooting hor- agers were shot last night required for American legrified the nation two weeks in what we believe was an islators to enact meaningful ago, declared he would now altercation between other gun control laws. support some gun control teenagers. And once again, Last week, an 18-yearmeasures. Perhaps he will. I’m standing here in front of old managed to enter an He too is up for re-election you talking about our comelementary school in the in November. munity’s youth getting shot. town of Uvalde, Texas, with Charlie Harper According to a website That’s outrageous and it has a town of some 15,000 archive that tracks shoot- to stop. It’s ridiculous that I The outcry was so great for the NRA, whose influ- so vividly on display at ings in the United States, even need to publicly state located in the hill country wheelchair-bound ence has ebbed in recent Uvalde. Abbott is up for re- there were at least 14 “mass that guns have no place in along highway 90, midway that statesmanlike-look- years under the accumulat- election this fall, opposed shootings” in the country the hands of our kids.” between San Antonio and but the Rio Grande border ing Texas governor Greg ing weight of astounding by one-time El Paso con- over the recent Memorial The current dreadtown of Del Rio. The Abbott cancelled a per- incompetence and outright gressman and liberal media Day weekend, from early ful cycle of gun violence gunman proceeded to sonal appearance at the corruption in its internal darling Beto O’Rourke.

Saturday to late Monday. inflicted on kids and adults Meantime, in Wash- The archive defines a mass by kids and adults began murder 19 children and National Rifle Association’s management. It was a bad some senate shooting as an incident with the shootings and two adults. The pathos of annual meeting in Hou- day for Abbott, a retro- ington, the scene was overwhelm- ston to return to Uvalde to grade reactionary whose Democrats made hopeful in which “four or more murder of 13 people at ing. Local police and explain the misstatements policies typify the calcifica- noises about assault weap- people are shot or killed, Columbine High School security officials responded he had made on the facts of tion in America’s second ons bans, raising age limits not including the shooter.” in Colorado 23 years ago. in a grossly inadequate and the case in an earlier press most populous state. As for firearms purchases and At least nine people were Etched in our memories governor, he ultimately other measures that seem killed in the shootings, with are mass murders at Sandy possibly cowardly fashion conference.

It was a bad day for the bears responsibility for the to command overwhelming more than 60 injured. Busi- Hook elementary school in and are being justifiably gun lobby. It was a bad day law enforcement failures public support everywhere ness as usual? pilloried.

Connecticut in 2012, Marexcept in the US Senate, In Chattanooga, Ten- jorie Stoneham Douglas where the so far unattain- nessee, mayor Tim Kelly high school near Orlando able total of 60 votes is publicly lost his composure in 2018 and now the Uvalde needed for passage. The after a group of kids started tragedy. Enough, already.

STATESIDE

FORGET COVID, ALL EYES ON MONKEYPOX JUST when we might be finally seeing some real light at the end of the long tunnel of COVID-19, here comes monkeypox.

Between May 13 and 24, at least 16 countries in Europe and North America including the US and UK, as well as Australia and Israel, reported monkeypox cases.

National Geographic magazine’s website quotes British health official Andrea McCollum on raising the alarm at the new outbreak: “We’ve never really seen this type of spread from monkeypox before,” she said, “so this is particularly concerning.”

Normally prevalent in West Africa, monkeypox triggers flu-like symptoms followed by a rash on the face which can spread to

other parts of the body.

These symptoms generally disappear within a few weeks, but can occasionally be fatal. The smallpox virus, which was eradicated in 1979 and is a close relative of monkeypox, was much deadlier, killing 30 percent of those infected.

One big reason for escalating monkeypox cases is actually the elimination of smallpox. But researchers have shown that the discontinued smallpox vaccine is actually very effective against monkeypox.

“Monkeypox is very different from COVID,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the World Health Organization. “Transmission is really happening from close physical contact, skin-to-skin contact.”

Monkeypox, unlike COVID-19 which circulates via tiny air-borne droplets, doesn’t spread as easily.

Given the nature of the current outbreak, epidemiologists and virologists are trying to understand if there’s enhanced person-toperson transmission of this virus. They’re also reportedly trying to determine whether the monkeypox virus is a sexually transmitted disease.

So far, it seems clear that monkeypox isn’t likely to become the worldwide scourge that COVID has been. Still, it’s a cause for concern. At least we can be reassured international health authorities seem to be on top of the situation, and no one is denying its potential dangers.

THE tradition-rich historic champion franchises Boston Celtics in basketball and Real Madrid in soccer both added to their glittering records over the weekend. In the process, they broke hearts all over England and South Florida.

If you were watching the tense decisive seventh game of the NBA’s Eastern Conference play-off final between the Celtics and the Heat on Sunday evening, didn’t you wonder if Miami’s Jimmy Butler would somehow manage to win the game for the injuryriddled local favourites? In nearly wiping out a 13-point deficit with less than four minutes remaining, the Heat reeled off 11 straight points as Boston collapsed in disarray. Then Butler drove down and took an open three-point shot that hit the front rim and bounced away. End of the line for the Heat. Now the Celtics face Golden State in the finals. The Warriors will be appropriately and heavily favoured.

The biggest, match in worldwide soccer so far this year was played on Saturday. The final of soccer’s most glamorous and consequential club competition was moved from

St Petersburg to the Paris suburb of St Denis by soccer’s governing body as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Liverpool and 13-time champions Real Madrid were the contestants in this European Champions League final, and Madrid won 1-0. Critics of soccer often grouse that there isn’t enough scoring, so perhaps such a low score line might signify a boring contest.

Not this time. The Reds from northwest England applied their customary full-court press from the start. German manager Juergen Klopp employs a blitzkrieg attacking style with fleet, adroit forwards and perhaps the best tandem of attacking wingbacks in the game to create confusion and opportunities for scoring in front of the opponent’s beleaguered goal. That’s how this game unfolded, but Madrid’s Belgian goalie Thibault Courtois, a Premier League veteran, parried every Liverpool thrust and was the game’s MVP. An incisive counterattacking goal

by Real’s newest Brazilian superstar Vinicius Jr. clinched the victory, which extended Real Madrid’s record-setting championship record in this top

competition.

Liverpool had been tipped to win the “quadruple,” including the Champions League, Premier League and the two English club competitions.

In the end, Manchester City edged out the Reds for the domestic league title and they won only the two lesser English club competitions. Now soccer is essentially off for ten weeks or so until everyone starts back up in August.

But very much like with American football, baseball and basketball, the off-season transfer season will occupy the summer months and fans’ interest.

And the Premier League on Monday got another premium American club owner, as the sale of Chelsea was finally approved to a group headed by the partowner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. This sale, for over $5 billion, was mandated by the British government due to the previous Russian owner’s ties to Vladimir Putin. So now Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea are Americanowned among England’s “Top Six” clubs. And by the way, these same wealthy teams finished in the top six places in the season just concluded.

TEARS AND TRIUMPH

PAGE 10, Thursday, June 2, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

PUPILS STABBED Sacrilege trial hears IN SCHOOL FIGHT testimony from officers from page one Doris Johnson Senior High.

National Security Minister Wayne Munroe had said previously that he is prepared to station police officers within schools to

strengthen safety.

In April, the Royal Bahamas Police Force and education officials held a special forum at the school to caution students about the dangers of gangs and violence as part of efforts to improve safety of students.

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net TWO OFFICERS testified in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday at a man’s ongoing sacrilege trial for breaking into a church last year.

Rudy Sands was present in court before Magistrate Kendra Kelly as D/C Alexis Scott and Inspector Rosenell Butler gave evidence connecting him to a break-in at Evangelistic Temple on Collins Avenue sometime between November 29–30

last year.

During D/C Scott’s testimony, she said that at around 1.30pm on November 30 as part of CSI she canvassed the upstairs southern bathroom of the church’s administrative building.

There she observed a missing bathroom windowpane and a smeared handprint on the bathroom wall.

She then photographed the room and took latent fingerprints from the scene which she labeled with the complainant’s name, her police ID and the date.

Later at the Criminal Records office the fingerprints were scanned and the images from the camera transferred to a disc and enlarged.

This signed CD with the case number attached was presented in court and entered into evidence.

Inspector Butler of the Criminal Records Office and certified finger and handprint identification specialist then spoke of her part in investigations, starting on December 1.

She walked the court through the similarities in the accused’s handprints and those from the scene contained in the CD. After explaining that no two individuals have the same fingerprints the inspector presented the finger and handprint impression cards to the court. These were also entered into evidence.

Upon completion of the officers’ testimonies the court found there was sufficient evidence to proceed with the case against Sands.

With his case proceeding the accused elected to take the stand to speak in his own defence when his trial continues on June 13.

TWO ACCUSED AFTER WOMAN PUNCHED

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

TWO MEN were charged in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday with punching a woman and stealing nearly $1,000 worth of her property.

Dexter Kerr, 23, and Emmanuel Bonaby, 28, represented by Ian Cargill, faced Magistrate Kendra Kelly on charges of causing harm and stealing.

On May 27 in New Providence, the accused are alleged to have punched Christal Davis in the mouth. According to an official hospital form, this attack resulted in Davis suffering a lacerated lip.

During this same incident, Kerr and Bonaby are also accused of stealing $925 worth of property from Davis. These items included a gold chain, a Samsung galaxy phone, a blue Alcatel phone, a

battery pack and a tan coloured purse.

In court, both accused pleaded not guilty to all charges against them and elected to continue the matter in the Magistrate’s Court.

Despite Kerr’s antecedent for a 2020 threats of death charge, there was no objection to bail for either of the accused.

Kerr’s bail was set at $6,000 while Bonaby’s was set at $5,000, both with one or two sureties.

Under the conditions of their bail, the accused are expected to sign in at the Cable Beach police station every Friday/Wednesday by 6pm.

Magistrate Kelly warned the accused that they are not to have contact with the complainant or any witnesses in this case upon their release.

Their trial is set for August 26.

COUNSELLING FOR DRUGS

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was ordered to attend six months of drug counselling yesterday as part of a conditional discharge.

Emerson Johnson, 25, appeared before Magistrate Shaka Serville on a charge of possession of dangerous drugs.

On May 29 in New Providence, Johnson was arrested after being found with 1 gram of Indian

Hemp.

In court, he pleaded guilty to the charge.

In view of the relatively small quantity of drugs, Magistrate Serville granted him a conditional discharge.

Johnson is expected to attend drug counselling at CCAC for six months.

Should the accused default on the conditions of his discharge he will face a $250 fine.

Johnson is expected to return to court on December 2 for review of his counselling.

$2,000 BAIL OVER THREATS

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Court Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was granted $2,000 bail in Magistrate’s Court yesterday for issuing threats of harm.

Travis Knowles, 41, appeared before Magistrate Kendra Kelly

accused of threatening to harm Charles McKinney. In court, the accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.

With no objections to bail, he was released on $2,000 bail with one or two sureties.

Johnson’s trial is scheduled for July 5.

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, June 2, 2022, PAGE 11

SUPERMARKET GUNMAN FACES TERROR CHARGE BUFFALO, New York Associated Press

THE white 18-year-old man accused of fatally shooting ten black people at a Buffalo supermarket was charged Wednesday by a grand jury with domestic terrorism motivated by hate and ten counts of firstdegree murder.

Payton Gendron, who has been in custody since the May 14 shooting, is scheduled to be arraigned today in Erie County Court.

The 25-count indictment also contains charges of murder and attempted murder as a hate crime and weapons possession.

Gendron had previously been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting, which also injured three people. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors told a judge on May 20 the grand jury had voted to indict Gendron but did not disclose charges, saying proceedings were ongoing.

The domestic terrorism charge accuses Gendron of killing “because of the perceived race and/or colour” of his victims.

Former Gov Andrew Cuomo proposed the domestic terrorism hate crime law in August 2019, in the wake of a mass shooting targeting Mexicans at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas. The measure, dubbed the “Josef Neumann Hate Crimes Domestic Terrorism Act” after an attack at a rabbi’s home in Munsey, New York, took effect in 2020.

The charge, Domestic Acts of Terrorism Motivated by Hate in the First Degree, is punishable with a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

Murder charges were filed for each of the victims, who ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included eight shoppers, the store security guard and a church deacon who drove shoppers to and from the store with their groceries.

The gunman, carrying an AR-15-style rifle he had recently purchased, opened fire on Saturday afternoon shoppers at the only supermarket in the predominantly black neighbourhood.

FUNERAL FOR UVALDE TEACHER AND HUSBAND UVALDE, Texas Associated Press

MOURNERS gathered yesterday at a Catholic church to say goodbye to Robb Elementary School teacher Irma Garcia — who died in the shooting at the Uvalde, Texas, grade school — and her husband, Joe — who died two days later from a heart attack.

Nineteen children and two teachers — Garcia and her co-teacher, 44-year-old Eva Mireles — were killed May 24 when an 18-yearold gunman burst into their classroom. The litany of visitations, funerals and burials began on Monday and will continue into mid-June.

At Sacred Heart Catholic Church yesterday, twin black hearses carrying the coffins of the Garcias arrived in a procession led by police and civilian motorcycle riders.

Covered by flowers, the two closed caskets were borne by pallbearers past a phalanx of police in uniforms and priests in white robes.

Some sobbed throughout the service in which Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller offered thanks for Irma Garcia’s dedication. He listed the names of the slain schoolchildren several times throughout the homily.

“Because you were there with them,” he said. “You did what you would have

done with your own children. You took care of them until your last breath.”

Irma, 48, was finishing up her 23rd year as a teacher at Robb Elementary. In a letter posted on the school’s website at the beginning of the school year, Garcia told her students that she and Joe had four children — a Marine, a college student, a high school student and a seventh grader.

Most of the readings during yesterday’s service and the homily were in English, with García-Siller offering some words in Spanish.

“We are all hurting,” he said. “In the midst of so much, please, please people need comfort, people need you… Let us all foster a culture of peace.”

Joe, 50, collapsed and died after dropping off flowers at his wife’s memorial. The couple would have been married 25 years on June 28 His obituary noted that he and Irma “began their relationship in high school and it flourished into a love that was beautiful and kind”.

Another funeral yesterday was for ten-year-old Jose Flores Jr, also at Sacred Heart. He made the honour roll and received a certificate on May 24, hours before the shooting. His father told CNN that his son loved baseball and video games and “was always full of energy”.

THE US and Germany pledged yesterday to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons it has long desired for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery, as Russian forces closed in on capturing a key city in the east.

Germany said it will supply Ukraine with up-todate anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, while the US announced it will provide four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition.

The US is trying to help

Ukraine fend off the Russians without triggering a wider war in Europe. The Pentagon said it received assurances that Ukraine will not fire the new rockets into Russian territory.

The Kremlin accused the US of “pouring fuel on the fire”.

The announcements came as a regional governor said Russian forces now control 80 percent of Sievierodonetsk, a city that is key to Moscow’s efforts to complete its capture of the Donbas.

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ACTOR Johnny Depp waves to supporters as he departs the Fairfax County Courthouse on Friday.

Photo: Craig Hudson/AP

Depp awarded $10m, Heard $2m in libel case FAIRFAX, Virginia Associated Press

A JURY awarded Johnny Depp more than $10m yesterday in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, vindicating his stance that Heard fabricated claims that she was abused by Depp before and during their brief marriage.

The jury also found Heard was defamed by a lawyer for Depp who accused her of creating a detailed hoax that included roughing up their apartment to look worse for police.

The jury awarded her $2m in damages.

The verdicts bring an end to a televised trial that Depp had hoped would help restore his reputation, though it turned into a spectacle of a vicious marriage. Throughout the trial, fans — overwhelmingly on Depp’s side — lined up overnight for coveted courtroom seats. Spectators who couldn’t get in gathered on the street to cheer Depp and jeer Heard whenever they appeared outside.

Heard, who was stoic in the courtroom as the verdict was read, said she was heartbroken.

“I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It’s a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be

AMBER Heard reacts as the verdict is read in the courtroom in the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, yesterday. publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously,’’ she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account.

Depp, who was not inside the courtroom yesterday, sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”. His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.

The jury found in Depp’s favour on all three of his claims relating to specific statements in the 2018 piece.

In evaluating Heard’s counterclaims, jurors considered three statements in which a lawyer for Depp called her allegations a hoax. They found she was defamed by one of them, in which the lawyer claimed that she and friends “spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight”, and called police.

The jury found Depp should receive $10m in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages, but the judge said state law caps punitive damages at $350,000, meaning Depp was awarded $10.35m.

While the case was ostensibly about libel, most of the testimony focused on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia — where Depp was shooting a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel — in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.

Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser, though Heard’s attorneys highlighted years-old text messages Depp sent apologising to Heard for his behaviour as well as profane texts he sent to a friend in which Depp said he wanted to kill Heard and defile her dead body.

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SPORTS PAGE 12

THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2022

‘Jazz’ Chisholm Jr hits home run, drives in four

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

SEE PAGE 17

SENIOR MEN’S NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM BACK ON PITCH

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

A

fter two hitless games since his return from a hamstring injury, Jasrado “Jazz” Chisholm Jr was the catalyst of a Miami Marlins offensive explosion in the first game of yesterday’s double header.

Chisholm drove in the first four runs of the Marlins 14-1 win over the Colorado Rockies in game one yesterday at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado.

He finished 2-5 with four RBI. Chisholm got the scoring going with his RBI single in the second inning.

He followed with his eighth home run of the season in the fourth inning to give the Marlins a 4-0 lead.

After missing four games with a hamstring injury, Chisholm returned on May 29 in a 6-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves in the series finale at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia.

On May 30 the Marlins’ offence again struggled in a 7-1 loss to the Rockies in the opening game of the series.

Worlds, page 18

MIAMI Marlins’ Jazz Chisholm Jr gestures to Avisail Garcia after he hit an RBI-single off Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Antonio Senzatela in the fourth inning of the first game of a baseball doubleheader yesterday in Denver.

(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

THE Bahamas Football Association’s senior men’s national team returns to the pitch this weekend to kickoff the second edition of the CONCACAF Nations League.

Team Bahamas will open League B play when they face St Vincent and the Grenadines at 3pm in the Thomas A Robinson Stadium in the first of its four Nations League matches this month.

In match two, The Bahamas will travel to Trinidad and Tobago to take on the hosts at Hadley Crawford Stadium on June 6 at 8pm.

On June 10, the venue shifts back to the Thomas A Robinson Stadium when The Bahamas hosts Nicaragua at 5pm.

They complete the home and away series against Nicaragua on June 13 at 8pm at the Nicaraguan National Stadium.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has the 1-0 upper-hand in the all-time

SEE PAGE 16

ANTOAN RICHARDSON DISCUSSES COACHING ROLE WITH GIANTS

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net ANTOAN Richardson’s San Francisco Giants are once again expected to battle for a National League postseason spot and the club’s first base coach detailed his decision to accept the post in addition to the appeal of the Giants organisation in his recent media availability.

“I think it’s everybody’s desire to work together for a common goal. We see it on a daly basis and it really feels like a family,” he said.

“From the clubhouse to the baseball ops to the entire organisation. I really appreciate the family

aspect. I always talk about the Bahamas being a community and that’s the part I enjoy about the Giants.”

The Giants are currently 27-21 on the season, third in the NL West.

They open a three-game set against Jazz Chisholm and the Miami Marlins tonight at 6:40pm local time.

The franchise’s first base coach is currently serving in his second year in the role.

“It’s a lot of reminding them of game situation, I think my job is just to be a reminder,” he said.

“They know what to do, and it’s just a matter of nudging them a bit to remember ‘hey if this happens we’re going to look

do this’ remember to pick up [Mark Hallberg] at third base’ and let’s just find a way to help our team by getting to the next base.”

Richardson has also been privy to several moments this season where he had an opportunity to witness players record their first major league hits.

“It’s pretty cool, what I try to do in those moments is encourage the player to take it in because you don’t get to experience it again,” he said.

“I know sometimes as a young player you get excited and move on to the next play but I just like to remind them to take a

SEE PAGE 14

Bale bids farewell to Real Madrid, honoured by queen

By TALES AZZONI and ROB HARRIS AP Sports Writers MADRID (AP) — Gareth Bale bid farewell to Real Madrid and earned another honour yesterday — this time from Queen Elizabeth II. The five-time Champions League winner, whose Madrid contract expires this month after nine years, was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

The announcement of the honour for services to football and charity, which coincides with celebrations of the 96-year-old monarch’s Platinum Jubilee, came while Bale is on international duty with Wales.

The 32-year-old forward will be hoping to lead Wales to its first World Cup since 1958 on Sunday in a playoff final against Ukraine in Cardiff.

He’s also looking for a new club after confirming earlier yesterday that his

GARETH Bale time at Madrid is over. There was no prospect of him earning a new contract

SEE PAGE 16

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, June 2, 2022, PAGE 13

Swiatek win streak to 33 in Paris, reminds Pegula of Barty

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer PARIS (AP) — Jessica Pegula reached the French Open quarterfinals before running into can’tseem-to-lose Iga Swiatek on Wednesday. And four months ago, at the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, Pegula reached the Australian Open quarterfinals before running into eventual champion Ash Barty.

Two majors, two strong runs, two meetings with the No. 1 player at the time. So Pegula, a 28-year-old from New York, can offer a bit of a unique perspective on what it’s like to face both Swiatek and Barty, who retired in March at age 25.

Swiatek, who replaced Barty atop the WTA rankings, benefited from the chair umpire’s no-call on a double bounce that gave her a first-set service break during a key five-game run and moved into the semifinals at Roland Garros by beating Pegula 6-3, 6-2 to extend her winning streak to 33 matches.

Swiatek’s run is the longest on tour since Serena Williams won 34 in a row in 2013.

“To be honest, she kind of plays like a guy. And, I mean that as, Ash was a similar way, where they don’t play like a typical girl where they hit kind of flat and the ball kind of goes through the court. She plays a little more unorthodox in the fact that she has, like, a really heavy forehand,” Pegula said about Swiatek, “but at the same time she

also likes to step in and take it really early, and I think clay gives her more time, and I think it makes her forehand even harder to deal with.”

Swiatek plays No. 20 Daria Kasatkina in one women’s semifinal Thursday, when the other will be No. 18 Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old American, against unseeded Martina Trevisan, a 28-year-old from Italy.

Gauff and her partner, Pegula, are also into the semifinals in women’s doubles.

Of the last four women in singles, only Swiatek has previously participated in the semifinals of a major tournament, losing at that stage at the Australian Open in January and taking the title at the 2020 French Open when she was ranked outside the top 50.

“This year it’s a little bit different, because I’m not an underdog,” she said, “and everything has changed, honestly.”

Kasatkina beat No. 29 Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 7-6 (5) in a match between two Russian players who will not be allowed to compete at Wimbledon later this month because of that country’s invasion of Ukraine. They combined for 75 unforced errors, 50

by Kudermetova.

“It was a roller coaster,” said Kasatkina, who hadn’t reached a major quarterfinal in four years.

In the men’s quarterfinals Wednesday, 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic got to the French Open semifinals for the first time

POLAND’s Iga Swiatek stretches to return the ball to Jessica Pegula of the U.S. during their quarterfinal match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium yesterday in Paris.

(AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias) by hitting 33 aces to defeat No. 7 Andrey Rublev 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (10-2) in 4 hours, 10 minutes.

The 20th-seeded Cilic, who is 33, now takes on the eighth-seeded Casper Ruud on Friday for a berth in the final. Ruud, a 23-year-old from Norway, reached his first Grand Slam semifinal by beating 19-year-old Dane Holger Rune 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 in the last quarterfinal.

A day after her 21st birthday, Swiatek was not at her dominant best against the 11th-seeded Pegula, whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s

Buffalo Sabres. As usual for most of this season, Swiatek was good enough to end up on the right side of the scoreline.

She has not lost a match since February, winning her past five tournaments.

The persistent pressure applied to opponents is another similarity Pegula sees between Swiatek and Barty.

“You get those few chances and you kind of feel it weighing on you that if you don’t take advantage of it, you’re like, ‘Shoot, my chance was gone, and now I have to work so hard to either hold serve or get

back in this game’ or whatever it was,” Pegula said.

“Mentally, that’s also what they do so well and what I’ve been trying to do better.”

On a sunny afternoon at Court Philippe Chatrier, with the temperature above 70 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Celsius), Swiatek’s start was so-so for the second match in a row, although she did wind up with nearly twice as many winners as Pegula, 30 to 16. “I feel like the ball is flying a little bit faster,” Swiatek said, “so I had to adjust to that, for sure.”

She trailed 3-2 in the opening set, and it was 3-all

when she earned a break point while Pegula served.

Pegula tried a drop shot, and Swiatek ran to it, reaching out to flip the ball over the net at an impossible angle.

Pegula could not get to that response, and the point went to Swiatek, giving her a 4-3 edge.

But, as Pegula later saw on a replay on the overhead videoboard, it should not have: The ball landed a second time on Swiatek’s side of the net before going off her racket.

Chair umpire Emmanuel Joseph should have ruled the point belonged to Pegula, but he didn’t notice the double bounce; unlike at some other tournaments, officials at the French Open can’t consult video.

“I was like, ‘There’s no freaking way she got that.’

I was like, ‘Seriously?!’”

Pegula said at her news conference.

“I looked at (Joseph) and he didn’t call it. You can’t say anything. And the problem is, once they make their decision, you can’t go back and change it.”

From there, Swiatek wouldn’t drop another game until she led by a set and 1-0 in the second. In all, she took 10 of the last 12 games.

When a reporter mentioned that double bounce, Swiatek seemed to stifle a smile, as if she had anticipated the question.

“If it was two bounces, then I’m sorry,” she said, noting: “These moments are pretty tricky, because it’s all on the umpire.”

CILIC’S 33 ACES PUT HIM IN 1ST FRENCH OPEN SEMI AT AGE 33

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer PARIS (AP) — Marin Cilic is 33, nearly eight seasons past his one Grand Slam title at the 2014 U.S. Open — and, until Wednesday, more than four full years removed from his most recent trip to the semifinals of a major tournament.

If he keeps serving like this, there’s no reason to think about quitting tennis anytime soon.

Cilic delivered 33 aces to get to the final four at the French Open for the first time, edging No. 7 seed Andrey Rublev 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (10-2) on Wednesday in a 4-hour, 10-minute test of strength and will. “Andrey played incredibly well. One had to go down,” the 20th-seeded Cilic said, “and today was my day.”

The Croatian is the fifth active man to complete a full set of at least one semifinal run at all four Slam events, joining Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, each of whom has been ranked No. 1 and won multiple majors.

Cilic was the runner-up to Federer at Wimbledon in 2017 and the Australian Open in 2018; the latter had been Cilic’s most recent trip to a Slam semifinal.

On Friday, Cilic will take on No. 8 Casper Ruud for a spot in the final. The other men’s semifinal is 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal, who eliminated Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals, against No. 3 Alexander Zverev.

Ruud, a 23-year-old from Norway, beat Rune, a 19-year-old from Denmark, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 to get to his first Grand Slam semifinal.

Their match got a bit testy, with Ruud telling Rune he didn’t appreciate him questioning an obvious officiating call.

“I told him, ‘What, do you need to check every mark?’ and he told me to be quiet. I asked him, ‘Maybe that’s not the greatest thing to tell your opponent to be quiet when I’m talking to you?’

And he said it once more. So that was all that happened. And I didn’t exchange any more words with him after this,” Ruud said.

“So that’s what he wants to say and behave? That’s up to him.”

Rune confirmed Ruud’s account of their interaction.

Rune had never won a Grand Slam match until last week.

“Obviously disappointed that I couldn’t do better today. But still I have to look at the two weeks — it was great,” Rune said. “I mean,

CROATIA’s Marin Cilic celebrates winning his quarterfinal match against Russia’s Andrey Rublev in five sets at the French Open tennis tournament yesterday.

(AP Photo/Michel Euler) I played some good matches. A lot of positives to take.”

Cilic might be a decade older than his next opponent, but he feels good these days.

When he had a physical exam at the end of 2021, he said, his doctor told him: “Your body’s like 25.”

Continued Cilic: “Don’t tell my wife I’m saying this, (but) I might be playing another 10 years.”

All kidding aside, he said: “How long? We’ll see. But definitely

French Open lookahead: Gauff-Trevisan, Swiatek-Kasatkina PARIS (AP) — LOOKAHEAD TO TODAY American teenager Coco Gauff will try to reach her first Grand Slam final when she faces Martina Trevisan of Italy in the semifinals at Roland Garros.

The 18-year-old Gauff is seeded 18th at the French Open, where she lost in the quarterfinals a year ago.

The 28-year-old Trevisan is ranked 59th. The other women’s semifinal Thursday is top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland against 20th-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia.

Swiatek has won her past 33 matches, the longest streak on the women’s tour since Serena Williams put together a 34-match run in 2013. Swiatek is the only member of the final

four who ever has been this far at any Grand Slam tournament.

She won the 2020 French Open and then lost in the semifinals at the Australian Open this January.

THURSDAY’S FORECAST Partly cloudy. High of 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 Celsius).

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS Women’s Quarterfinals: No. 1 Iga Swiatek beat No. 11 Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-2; No. 20 Daria Kasatkina beat No. 29 Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 7-6 (5).

Men’s Quarterfinals: No. 20 Marin Cilic beat No. 7 Andrey Rublev 5-7, 6-3 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (10); No. 8 Casper Ruud beat Holger Rune 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3.

STAT OF THE DAY 33 — Consecutive matches won by Iga Swiatek, the longest streak in women’s tennis since Serena Williams had a 34-match run that ended in 2013.

QUOTE OF THE DAY “I’m feeling great on the court, enjoying myself, being me, playing my own game. It’s paying off, and just, you know, enjoying the run.” — Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, who is into the semifinals at the French Open for the first time. That makes him the fifth active man to have reached at least that round at each of the four major tournaments, alongside Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

three, four years, if I can be competitive like this.”

He dropped Rublev’s career mark in major quarterfinals to 0-5.

That was thanks in part to Cilic’s overwhelming ability to strike serves and groundstrokes for winners — 88 in all, more than twice as many as Rublev’s total of 35.

“It was hard emotionally, because he played some games very well,” Cilic said. “When you play this long, there’s always be

some ups and down, so I had to keep my focus.”

Rublev twice displayed good sportsmanship.

He indicated early in the tiebreaker that one of Cilic’s strokes was indeed in and, earlier at 1-all in the fifth set, volunteering to replay a point after Cilic complained that a shot that was called out had touched a line.

As part of an agreement among the four Grand Slam hosts to standardize one element of the sport, this is the first time the French Open has used a tiebreaker in fifth sets of men’s matches — and third sets of women’s matches.

Cilic ran away with the firstto-10 format against Rublev, collecting the match’s last nine points after trailing 2-1 in the tiebreaker.

The 6-foot-6 (1.98 metre) Cilic has one of the biggest serves on tour, and he delivered them at up to 133 mph (214 kph) on Wednesday, with an average speed of 123 mph (199 kph).

He came up with three aces in the tiebreaker.

“Almost all the important points he was winning with his serve,” Rublev said, “and was really, really tough to read or to return.”

PAGE 14, Thursday, June 2, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

Rockets guard Jalen Green partners with new Asian league

By JOHN PYE AP Sports Writer BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Before Jalen Green joined the Houston Rockets, becoming the highest-drafted Asian American player in the NBA, he’d already experienced close up how passionate the people of the Philippines were about the game he loved to play.

It’s part of the reason he’s partnering with the new East Asia Super League as an ambassador, joining the likes of Baron Davis, Metta World Peace and Shane Battier.

The eight-team, panregional league will launch in October and feature the winners and runnersup from the Japanese, South Korean and Philippines leagues as well as the

HOWARD SCORES 22 POINTS DREAM BEAT LYNX 84-76 COLLEGE PARK, Ga. (AP) — Rhyne Howard scored 22 points, Kristy Wallace made five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 18 points and the Atlanta Dream beat the Minnesota Lynx 84-76 last night.

Wallace, a rookie from Baylor, entered with just five 3-pointers on the season. She finished 5 of 6 from long range to help Atlanta go 12 for 28.

Erica Wheeler and Aari McDonald each scored 13 points for Atlanta (6-3).

Monique Billings had 10 points and nine rebounds.

Wheeler also had nine of the Dream’s 21 assists on 33 made baskets.

Atlanta forced Minnesota into 24 turnovers as Aari McDonald had seven steals.

Kayla McBride scored 20 points and Sylvia Fowles had 16 points and 20 rebounds for Minnesota (2-8), which sits in last place in the WNBA standings.

Nikolina Milic added 14 points.

Atlanta led 43-37 at halftime behind 12 points from Howard.

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Taiwanese champions and the Bay Area Dragons, a roster of players from across greater China based in Manil a for Season 1.

Green, who grew up in California with his Filipino mother, Bree Purganan, already had a big following before he was selected second overall in the draft and made the NBA’s AllRookie team for 2021-22.

He played for the U.S. in junior international tournaments, and he got a glimpse of the game in the Philippines during a trip to Manila in 2019.

“The love and support from the Philippines ... that experience opened my eyes to just how much basketball means to the country,” Green said. “In the Philippines, they call me ‘idol.’”

That could make him the next big thing.

The country’s most legendary sporting export, former world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao, is a big basketball fan and has met with Green.

“He’s a competitor, and the sport isn’t just a career to him, it’s his way of life,” Green said of the lessons he’s taking from Pacquiao’s approach to professional sport. “That’s the type of mindset you must have to be the best at what you do.

That’s the ultimate goal, to be the best.”

The Rockets already have a big fan base in Asia, with the eight seasons that Yao Ming spent with Houston raising the sport’s profile exponentially in China.

The domestic leagues have grown, and now the home-and-away regional league will further enhance

HOUSTON Rockets guard Jalen Green (0) dunks over Sacramento Kings forwards Harrison Barnes and Trey Lyles (41) during the first half of an NBA basketball game on April 1 in Houston. Green will become an ambassador for the East Asia Super League in a bid to promote basketball in the region.

(AP Photo/Michael Wyke) basketball’s development in the world’s most heavily populated continent.

“I want to be an inspiration for the next generation of hoopers in Asia and elevate the game in the region,” Green said. “I see East Asia Super League as the gateway for Asian players to make it to the NBA. “It’s going to bring

a different dynamic to the region ... this is something Asian basketball needs to get to the next level.”

East Asia Super League chief executive Matt Beyer said the collaboration with Green, who will feature in marketing, behind-thescenes content and make appearances, would be “highly synergistic.”

‘We from the 242’

“Jalen Green is the top Asian heritage NBA star and holds a deep understanding of the marketplace, while being loved by fans in Asia,” Beyer said.

“He also cares deeply about the sport and believes that helping elevate the game in Asia is part of his legacy.

(He) now has a new way do that.”

ANTOAN FROM PAGE 12

moment, embrace it and try to hold on to the moment because it’s not going to happen again.”

Last year, the Giants concluded the regular season 107-55 on the year and earned the team’s first division title since 2012. They advanced to the postseason for the first time since 2016 when they advanced to the NLDS before an elimination at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The 107 wins for the Giants established a new franchise record and also clinched the home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The previous record was 106 wins in the 1904 season. The 2021 season represented a complete turnaround for the Giants who missed the postseason a year ago in the 2020 regular season finale.

Richardson previously served as an outfield coordinator before he joined the major league club at first base.

“When I was done playing I thought I was done with the sport but I had a passion for coaching youth. I was in The Bahamas, got involved, started a non non-profit to give back.

During that time I got a few calls about getting back into the game, but the thing I dreaded the most was being away from my family. I had done it since I was 14. It wasn’t a hard transition in the sense that I love working with people. I’m still learning, I’m still growing, we have an awesome coaching staff I get to learn from daily so it’s just been a really cool experience,” Richardson said.

“I just wanted to be in a position to help the organisation so at the time when I took this role here I was still a field coordinator in the minor leagues. It was a tough decision, I remember going back and Kyle Haynes our farm director and trying to get some assistance with that process. At that time the move was the best for the organisation.”

As he prepares for another series against Chisholm and the Marlins, he discusses the role the group of professional players currently serve as ambassadors of the country and the game.

“We’re a close knit community, we’re just really rooting for each other and trying to push the sport forward,” he said. “Over the past 5-10 years it has grown a lot in the Bahamas and from a youth standpoint we have a booming youth baseball programme now so I’m excited to see where we grow over the next couple of years.”

Despite recording his first career hit against Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw and scoring a run on Derek Jeter’s final RBI, Richardson said his most memorable moment on the field was the opportunity to share the field with other Bahamians. “In 2016 I got an opportunity to play in the World Baseball Classic Qualifiers with a lot of other Bahamian professional baseball players,” he said. “Got to take the field with Jazz and some of the other prospects we see HEAD-TO-HEAD - Antoan Richardson, right, and the San Francisco Giants are currently 27-21 on the coming through the system now, that was one of season, third in the NL West. They open a three-game set against Jasrado “Jazz” Chisholm Jr and the Miami the moments I really cherish and I haven’t forMarlins 6:40pm tonight local time. gotten about that one.”

PANTHERS’ PRACTICE FACILITY DEAD AFTER CHAPTER 11 FILING

By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer THE Carolina Panthers’ proposed $800 million practice facility project in Rock Hill, South Carolina, is officially dead after team owner David Tepper’s real estate company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware last night.

Tepper, who made billions in hedge funds, is the NFL’s wealthiest owner.

The filing will not affect the NFL’s Panthers or Major League Soccer’s Charlotte FC in any way.

It’s unclear at this point what will happen to the half-built practice facility.

Tepper has invested more than $175 million into the facility, which is located about 25 miles south of the team’s current downtown stadium and headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. GT Real Estate Holdings, LLC (GTRE),

a Delaware limited liability company, announced to The Associated Press in a statement late Wednesday night that is has begun a court-led financial restructuring process in Delaware to effect an orderly winddown of the project. The action follows the termination and rescission of the agreements with the City of Rock Hill that related to the project, which GTRE previously announced.

GTRE also announced that it has received a commitment for $20 million in financing from DT Sports Holding, LLC, subject to court approval, which will allow the company to fund a process to address its legitimate creditor claims, as well as to preserve, protect and enhance the Rock Hill site for the benefit of all stakeholders.

“In recent weeks, GTRE has been confronted with various claims, some valid and some not, from

vendors, contractors and other third parties, including York County, SC,” GT Real Estate Holdings said in a statement. “GTRE is taking this action to ensure legitimate claims are processed as fairly and expeditiously as possible under a court supervised process, and to achieve the project’s orderly and safe wind-down. GTRE intends to resolve its legitimate obligations.”

Attempts to contact the City of Rock Hill late Wednesday night were unsuccessful.

The Panthers announced on April 19 they had terminated their agreement with the City of Rock Hill, South Carolina.

The bankruptcy ends a bitter back-and-forth public disagreement between Tepper and the city of Rock Hill.

Tepper’s company said it negotiated with the city for more than a year, warning

them in March they had 30 days or the Panthers would pull out. They said in a statement in April that is “unfortunate that some recently decided to conduct a misguided, destructive public relations campaign to obscure their failures.”

Rock Hill officials responded to the announcement, saying the Panthers’ announcement was “misleading and erroneous” and that they embraced the Panthers, welcomed their headquarters to South Carolina and “did everything to make this project a success and has not defaulted on any of our obligations.”

“It was and remains our intention to continue negotiating in good faith while protecting the interests of our taxpayers,” the City of Rock Hill had said. “In fact, in the past few weeks we have attempted to meet with the Panthers on numerous occasions to no avail.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, June 2, 2022, PAGE 15

Warriors and Celtics built Finals teams through draft

By JOSH DUBOW AP Sports Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When Steve Kerr looks at the way the Boston Celtics built a championship-calibre team he sees plenty of similarities to how his Golden State Warriors got to the NBA Finals in 2015.

Boston built a core through the draft by taking Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum during a four-year span from 2014-17 and added the necessary pieces to get over the hump this year to make it to the Finals.

Waiting for the Celtics in Game 1 tonight will be Kerr’s Warriors, who are making their sixth trip in eight years led by the homegrown core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

“Traditionally, this is how it’s supposed to work in the NBA,” Kerr said.

“If you look over the years, you grow a team through the draft, you take your lumps through the playoffs, you climb up and then you get to the Finals.

Our team was built somewhat the same way. ... I think that’s good for the sport.”

That approach bucks a growing trend around the league of megastar movement as teams have tried to build more through free agency and trades than in the draft.

Both teams have eight players on the roster acquired originally in the draft and this is the first Finals since Chicago-Utah in 1998, according to ESPN, when the top three playoff scorers from both teams made their NBA debuts with their current teams.

CELTICS head coach Ime Udoka speaks to the media during NBA basketball practice in San Francisco yesterday. The Golden State Warriors are scheduled to host the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday.

GOLDEN State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr speaks to members of the media during NBA basketball practice. The Warriors are scheduled to host the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Finals tonight.

(AP Photos/Jed Jacobsohn)

The similarities between the teams isn’t complete, with the biggest discrepancy being experience. Led

by Curry, Thompson and Green, the Warriors have a total of 123 games played in the Finals on their roster compared to none for the Celtics, who lost in the Eastern Conference finals three times in the previous five years.

“There are obviously nerves and adrenaline and anxiety and nerves — like everything in terms of the emotions of playing at this stage,” Curry said about his first Finals appearance. “That first game is sometimes all over the place because of that. And once you settle in, it does become about basketball, like it normally is.”

Celtics coach Ime Udoka, who was an assistant on two teams that went to the Finals in San Antonio, isn’t

the Cavs the following year.

Toronto’s Nick Nurse also won it in his first year as an NBA coach against the Warriors in 2019.

Before that, the only firstyear NBA coaches to win the Finals were Pat Riley (1982 Lakers) and Paul Westhead (1980 Lakers).

Eddie Gottlieb won the first title ever in the NBA’s precursor, the BAA, in 1947 for the Warriors.

INSPIRATION Golden State owner Joe Lacob was a minority owner of the Celtics before taking over the downtrodden Warriors in 2010. At the time, he said he hoped the Warriors could rival the success of franchises like the Celtics and Lakers.

“We were trying to change the direction of this franchise at the time,” Lacob said. “So the first thing you have to do is set goals.”

overly concerned, citing the experience his top players have gotten in the postseason in recent years.

Boston won two Game 7s just to get here this season, beating defending champion Milwaukee at home in the second round and winning at Miami in the conference final.

“I think once you get out of the initial media circus and the intensity and how everything is much more exaggerated, obviously it’s not much different when you get on the court,” he said.

FIRST-YEAR COACH Udoka is the fifth coach since 2015 to make the Finals in his first year as an NBA head coach, with three of the previous four winning it all. Kerr beat Cleveland’s David Blatt in a battle of first-year NBA coaches in the 2015 Finals and then lost to Ty Lue and

With a chance at a fourth title in Golden State’s sixth trip to the Finals in the past eight years, Lacob’s lofty goals have become a reality but he’s far from satisfied.

“It’ll take a lot of years of ownership to even come close to what the Celtics have achieved in terms of all the fantastic decades of success,” Lacob said.

HOME COOKING Curry said early in the playoffs that he wanted the Warriors to find an identity at Chase Center in the 3-year-old arena’s first playoff run. Golden State has done that, winning all nine games at home and outscoring the opposition by 14.6 points per game. The Warriors are the fifth team to go 9-0 or better at home leading into the Finals.

Both these teams have had success on the road, with Boston winning seven of nine games away from

WARRIORS’ NEW HOME PROVES TO BE TOUGH VENUE FOR VISITORS

By JOSH DUBOW AP Sports Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — From the memorable “We Believe” playoff run in 2007 to the early days of this current Golden State dynasty, the ear-shattering environment at old Oracle Arena provided a major boost to the Warriors.

While the fancy new digs across the bay in San Francisco might not match the noise level at the arena in Oakland nicknamed “Roaracle,” Chase Center is really starting to feel like home for the Warriors in its third season.

“Every single night, I get chills when I walk into the arena,” Warriors owner Joe Lacob said. “I literally get chills. I love it. I love basketball. I’ve loved it all my life. For over 50 years, I’ve been going to games. I’ve been to every arena in the world. To me, there is no better arena in the world than this Chase Center. It just needs the experiences like this one to kind of give it that history which Oracle had. ... We love this building, our players love this building, our partners love this building. And it’s showing up pretty, pretty well.”

The Warriors have won all nine games this postseason at Chase Center, including clinching victories in each round over Denver, Memphis and Dallas. It’s their second-longest home winning streak in a single postseason, behind their 10-0 mark in 2017, and just the fifth time in NBA history that a team has gone 9-0 or better leading into the Finals.

Golden State has outscored the opposition by 14.6 points per game at home, the best in the league this postseason, as the loud crowd and comfortable environment has proved beneficial.

“Being able to start at home is huge, especially in the playoffs, even in the Finals,” guard Jordan Poole

STREAMERS fill Chase Stadium after the Golden State Warriors defeated the Dallas Mavericks at Chase Center in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals on May 20 in San Francisco.

(Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP) said. “We have our home crowd, our home routine, the same thing we do practice wise. Just continue to try to take care of business at home, as we’ve done all playoffs.”

It took time for Chase Center to establish itself

after the Warriors moved there following the 2018-19 season.

With some of the longtime fans from Oakland priced out of more expensive new arena in place of newer fans without the same lifelong attachment to

the franchise, the environment struggled to match the old one across the bay.

Other circumstances didn’t help the cause either.

Golden State had the worst record in the NBA that first season as stars like Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry missed most of it.

The team fared better last season but played most of it in an empty arena because of the COVID-19 pandemic before having small crowds by the end of the season.

But the arena has been full this season and now is hosting its first truly meaningful games this postseason. Early in this playoff run, Curry said the Warriors were still “trying to find (Chase Center’s) identity.”

“After two years of not having fans (always), you can really tell the difference now when you have a full crowd and it’s going crazy,”

big man Kevon Looney said.

“I’m glad that the Chase Center is rocking like this and the fans have been really giving us this extra boost.”

Playing on the road is far from a daunting task for the Celtics, who are coming off a Game 7 win in the Eastern Conference finals at Miami after staving off elimination in the second round with a Game 6 win at Milwaukee.

In all, Boston has won seven of nine games on the road during these playoffs, beating the Nets and Bucks twice each and the Heat three times.

They are the fourth team to win seven games before the Finals at an opponent’s arena, joining the 2017 Cavaliers, who lost to the Warriors in the Finals that season and the 1981 and ‘95 Rockets.

home so far and the Warriors having won at least one road game in a record 26 straight playoff series.

INJURY REPORT The Warriors finished last round without three key players — Andre Iguodala (neck), Gary Payton II (left elbow) and Otto Porter Jr. (left foot) — who could provide needed defensive help on the wings against Tatum and Brown.

All three have been able to practice this week and are listed as questionable for Game 1.

Iguodala has missed the last 12 games, Payton has been out for nine and Porter sat out the final two games of the Western Conference finals.

The Celtics are dealing with a significant injury of their own with center Robert Williams III hampered by left knee inflammation.

Williams played the final four games against the Heat but didn’t look at his best. He is listed as questionable.

Smart is also questionable but expected to play with a sprained right ankle that is getting better.

MARQUETTE’S JUSTIN LEWIS STAYING IN NBA DRAFT MILWAUKEE (AP) — Justin Lewis has decided to remain in the NBA draft rather than return to Marquette for the 2022-23 season.

The 6-foot-7 forward issued a social media post saying, “Thank you Marquette,” on Wednesday, which marked the NCAA deadline for players who had entered the draft to withdraw from consideration and maintain their college eligibility.

Lewis had announced April 12 he was declaring for the draft and hiring an agent but was maintaining his eligibility throughout the process. His announcement clarifies his plans to stay in the draft rather than play for Marquette next season.

Lewis earned first-team, all-Big East honors from the league’s coaches and was named the conference’s most improved player last season. He ranked third in the Big East in scoring (16.8) and fourth in rebounding (7.9) while helping Marquette go 19-13 with an NCAA Tournament first-round loss to eventual runner-up North Carolina.

He had 7.8 points and 5.4 rebounds per game as a freshman in 2020-21.

PAGE 16, Thursday, June 2, 2022

SOCCER

FROM PAGE 12 series with the Bahamas, after a Shandel Samuel double helped pace the team to a 3-2 victory at the 2007 Caribbean Cup. In the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2019, The Bahamas earned promotion when they won Group C. They finished 3-0-1 against Bonaire and The British Virgin Islands to total 10 points.

Suiting up for The Bahamas on the defensive line are Lesly St.

THE TRIBUNE Fleur, Jean Francois, Troy Pinder, Evelt Julmis, Kenaz Swain, Derrick Ferguson and Quinton Carey.

Playing the midfield positions are Alexiou Cartwright, Roen Davis, Michael Massey, Nathan Wells, Christopher Rahming, William Bayles, Marcel Joseph, Logan Russell and Nicolas Lopez.

Looking to put the ball in the back of the net in the forward positions are Wood Julmis, Jordin Wilson and Omari Bain.

The custodians between the goal posts are Julio Jemison, Ian Lowe, and Vance Wheaton. Nesly Jean is the head coach.

Jean will be assisted by Kevin Davies and Avery Kemp, and Larry Minns is team manager.

In preparation for the Nations League, The Bahamas hosted a pair of friendly matches with the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“Over the two days, it was really good,” said Bahamas head coach Nesly Jean.

“We really put on the match to see how the team would look going into the games on June 3.

“We tried new players just coming on the team and using some different formations. They’re buying into what we’re trying to do

and hopefully by June 3, we will be ready to go.”

The Bahamas will also be represented on the pitch by Evens Julmis who received his first Nations League appointment as a referee.

Julmis has been appointed by CONCACAF to the 4th referee position for the League B, Group B match Haiti vs Bermuda in Bermuda on June 4.

A product of the Bahamas Referee Academy and having attended the CONCACAF Referee Academy, Julmis has five years of refereeing experience.

Ukraine beats Scotland 3-1 in World Cup qualifying playoff

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Ukraine’s emotion-filled quest to qualify for the World Cup amid an ongoing war moved past the first hurdle with a 3-1 win over Scotland on Wednesday in a pulsating playoff semifinal.

Now the team needs just one more win to reach Qatar.

Veteran captain Andriy Yarmolenko lifted his nation by scoring a deft lobbed goal in the 33rd minute and then helped set up Roman Yaremchuk’s header in the 49th to make it 2-0.

Ukraine dominated for much of a deserved win but had to resist a Scotland revival as risk-filled attacks brought a goal in the 79th

by Callum McGregor, before Ukraine substitute Artem Dovbyk broke clear to score with the last kick of the game.

Dovbyk led teammates toward the corner of the stadium to share the celebration with 3,000 Ukraine fans in the 51,000 crowd, applauding each other with hands raised high above their heads.

Ukraine coach Oleksandr Petrakov said the win was for “the armed forces in the trenches and in the hospitals, who give their last drop of blood, those in Ukraine who suffer every day.”

Now Ukraine moves on to face Wales on Sunday with a place at the World Cup at stake.

The winner in Cardiff will go to Qatar in November to play in a group against England, the United States and Iran.

Ukraine put in a slick display despite using six starters who had not played

FANS celebrate after Ukraine’s Andriy Yarmolenko scored the opening goal in a World Cup 2022 qualifying play-off soccer match between Ukraine and Scotland at a bar in Kyiv, Ukraine, yesterday.

(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) a competitive game of any 67th-minute header inex- before the game he came the restriction on movekind since December. plicably wide from close from Toronto with friends ment by offering fans the Most of Ukraine’s squad range. to support the players who possibility to stay there play for home-based clubs Ukraine is riding a wave “need to show the people until 5 a.m., when the whose league was shut of global goodwill as the of Ukraine that we are curfew ends. down after Russia’s inva- victim of Russian aggres- warriors.”

Police swung by the bar sion, and the playoff in sion and its players’ intense “It’s not only about in a patrol car a few minGlasgow was postponed in motivation to reward the football,” said Yaroslav utes before kickoff, asking March. FIFA and Scotland nation with a place on Grygorenko, who trave- fans who had gathered outagreed to give the Ukrain- soccer’s biggest stage was led from Amsterdam. “It’s side to go down into the ian team a fair chance to clear. The Ukrainian play- important to be on the top drinking hole’s basement prepare for games that ers all walked onto the field of the discussions here in rooms, because of an airhave become a focus of each with a blue and yellow Europe, to not let (people) raid warning. national identity and pride. national flag draped on forget what is happening in Oleksii Safin, 40, who Scotland lacked the their shoulders.

Ukraine.” works as a voice actor, class needed and its wait The warm welcome Scotland-born Alex stood with his right hand for World Cup soccer now saw Ukraine’s national Demianczuk wore a kilt in over his heart as he belted extends beyond the 24 anthem “Shche ne vmerla Ukrainian yellow and blue out the national anthem. years since it went to the Ukrainas” applauded colors and wanted his par- He and other support1998 tournament. loudly by Scotland fans. ents’ nation to advance. ers erupted in celebration “I am suffering, the Many of those same fans Ukraine playing at the when Ukraine scored first. coaching staff are suffer- stayed after the game to World Cup, he said, would But the war raging in the ing and more than anybody salute their victorious be “something that’s really east of the country wasn’t the players are suffer- opponents off the field. going to get on (Russian forgotten. “It looks like we ing,” Scotland coach Steve “Also I give my gratitude President Vladimir) Putin’s are having lots of fun but, Clarke said. “The best to the people of Scotland nerves.” actually, we are not,” Safin team won the game.”

— an amazing, hospitable In Kyiv, fans determined said. “We are trying to look Ukraine’s win could have place,” Petrakov said. to get together to see the normal, as far as we can, been sealed sooner but Some of the Ukrainian match had the war-time but we still remember what for saves early and often fans had traveled far and night-time curfew to con- is going on out in the east. by 39-year-old Scotland had made plans to stay in tend with, which kicked in “It’s a good fight, just goalkeeper Craig Gordon. Britain for the decisive at 11 p.m. local time, before like the fight that we have When the Scots chased a playoff Sunday. the start of the second half. right now with the Rusway back into the game, George Butromeyev The Beer & Meet bar in sians,” Safin said. “We can John McGinn placed a told The Associated Press downtown Kyiv got around show that we can do it.”

BALE

FROM PAGE 12 at the Spanish champions, having fallen out of favour at the team that signed him for a thenworld record fee of 100 million euros (now $107 million) in 2013 from Tottenham.

Although British football’s most decorated export, Bale could not consistently perform to his potential in Madrid and received harsh treatment from sections of fans and the media.

But Bale struck a positive note in his farewell message.

“I arrived here nine years ago as a young man who wanted to realize my dream of playing for Real Madrid,” he said in a letter posted on Twitter. “To wear the pristine white kit, to wear the crest on my

chest, to play at the Santiago Bernabéu, to win titles and to be part of what it’s so famous for, to win the Champions League.

“I can now look back, reflect and say with honesty that this dream became a reality and much, much more.”

Bale scored in two Champions League finals, including a magnificent bicycle kick in the 2018 win over Liverpool. But he did not feature in Saturday’s win over Liverpool in Paris that earned him a fifth European Cup. “Together we were able to create some moments that will live forever in the history of this club and football,” Bale said. “It has been an honor.”

Overall, he helped Madrid win 19 trophies, including three Spanish titles and four Club World Cups.

He spent last season away back at Tottenham, although the loan move couldn’t reignite his career in Spain.

“Real Madrid would like to express its sincere gratitude and affection to Gareth Bale, a player who will forever be part of the club’s legacy,” the club said. “Real Madrid is and always will be his home, and we would like to wish him and all his family the best of luck for the future.”

Bale was booed the few times he got to play this season, and was even jeered by some during the team’s title celebrations after it won the Champions League a record-extending 14th time last week.

“I write this message to say thank you to all my teammates, past and present, my managers, the back room staff and to the fans

that supported me,” he said, not touching on his feuds.

He has long been at odds with Madrid fans who felt he didn’t make the club a priority and instead focused on Wales’ national team.

He once posed grinning for a photo celebrating a big win for his national team, holding up a Welsh flag with the words “Wales. Golf.

Madrid. In That Order.”

Earlier this year, Bale spoke out against the psychological harm that professional athletes can receive from the media after a leading Spanish sports daily published a column entitled “The Welsh Parasite.” Bale accused the media of “encouraging anger and disappointment in fans” during a season when he made only seven appearances and scored one goal for Madrid.

MESSI INSPIRES ARGENTINA TO 3-0 FINALISSIMA WIN OVER ITALY

By ROB HARRIS AP Global Soccer Writer LONDON (AP) — Energized at Wembley by Lionel Messi’s assists, Argentina’s players threw their superstar teammate in the air after he inspired them to a second title in a year.

National team success is finally coming for the seventime Ballon d’Or winner, late in his trophy-filled club career.

Argentina collected the first Finalissima trophy on Wednesday by beating Italy 3-0 in a meeting of the South American and European champions, with Messi having helped Argentina win the Copa America last July for his first major title with the national team.

And judging by the two assists on his recordextending 161st Argentina appearance, there is no sign of the 34-year-old Messi slowing down with the chance to win a first World Cup title later this year.

“What we experienced here was beautiful,” Messi said. “We knew it was going to be a nice game and a nice setting in which to be champions.”

The opener was created

by Messi’s solo brilliance taking him past Giovanni Di Lorenzo and the Argentina captain squared for Lautaro Martínez to slot past goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 28th minute.

Martínez turned creator in first-half stoppage time by threading a pass through for Ángel Di María to chip Donnarumma, having got past Giorgio Chiellini. The 37-year-old Italy captain came off at halftime of his 117th and final international appearance.

The win was wrapped up in the fourth minute of stoppage time with Messi gaining possession on the halfway line and rampaging to the edge of the penalty area where he evaded Di Lorenzo’s challenge to set up the substitute Paulo Dybala to strike low into the net.

It sealed a second trophy success at Wembley for Messi after the 2011 Champions League win with Barcelona over Manchester United. As they celebrated on the Wembley field, the Argentines threw Messi in the the air before catching him.

It was a painful return for the Italians to Wembley Stadium where they won Euro 2020 last year and as they face up to a second successive failure to qualify for the World Cup. Argentina will head to Qatar in November with another trophy — one created as part of a UEFACONMEBOL partnership that challenges the global supremacy of FIFA. The choice of London as the location for the game was vindicated by more than 87,000 packing into Wembley, with UEFA picking the stadium despite the unrest at the Euro 2020 final caused by England fans.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, June 2, 2022, PAGE 17

MARLINS’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. follows the flight of his three-run home run off Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Antonio Senzatela.

Chisholm Jr hits home run, drives in four FROM PAGE 12 Chisholm still leads the Marlins in several categories with a .276 average, 31 RBI, 22 runs, four triples and seven stolen bases. He ranks second on the team with eight home runs and is third with 38 hits and seven doubles.

Chisholm also missed 16 games of his rookie season with a left hamstring strain.

The Marlins travel to San Francisco to open their three game series against the Giants at Oracle Park.

First pitch is set for 6:40pm local time.

JAZZ Chisholm Jr follows the flight of his three-run home run off Rockies starting pitcher Antonio Senzatela in the fourth inning of the first game of yesterday’s baseball doubleheader in Denver.

(AP Photos/ David Zalubowski)

MIAMI Marlins’ Bryan De La Cruz, left, congratulates Jazz Chisholm Jr as he crosses home plate after hitting a three-run home run off Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Antonio Senzatela in the fourth inning of the first game of a baseball doubleheader yesterday in Denver.

PAGE 18, Thursday, June 2, 2022

THE TRIBUNE

Athletes gearing up with the world championships looming

By ANNE M PETERSON AP Sports Writer EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Ryan Crouser can think of no better place to set the shot put world record -again -- than at home.

The Oregon native and two-time Olympic gold medallist is among the elite athletes eyeing the world outdoor championships this summer in Eugene.

Crouser won the shot put at the Prefontaine Classic

last weekend at Hayward Field, the same stadium where he set the world record in the event last summer. And it’s the same place he’ll attempt to best his own mark this summer — competing first at the

national championships and then at the worlds.

Eugene is gearing up for international track and field’s biggest event outside the Olympics, scheduled for July 15-24 in the city known as Track Town.

Crouser, who won the silver medal at the last world championships in Doha, couldn’t hide his excitement over competing in his home state. It is the first time the worlds will be held on U.S. soil.

“For once we’ll finally be at home for the first time in the history of the world championships, and secondly, for me personally, growing up here in Oregon, my state high school meets, has always been at Hayward Field, even NCAA championships, everything,” Crouser said. “The culmination of my season has always been the pinnacle at Hayward Field.”

Crouser, who set the shot put world record at the Olympic trials at Hayward last year with a throw of 76 feet, 8 1/4 inches (23.37 metres), won the Prefontaine Classic with a static start — meaning no windup — throw of 75-6 1/4 (23.01 metres).

The Pre provided just a snapshot of what the worlds will bring to Eugene this summer. The stadium on the University of Oregon campus underwent a $270 million makeover starting in 2018 in anticipation of the event, which was pushed back from 2021 to this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But first, many of the sport’s biggest stars will have to earn their spot at worlds by finishing well at national championships.

The U.S. event is set for June 23-26 at Hayward.

JAMAICA’s Elaine Thompson-Herah poses for photos following her win in the women’s 100 metres during the Prefontaine Classic track and field meet on Saturday, May 28 in Eugene, Oregon.

(AP Photo/Amanda Loman) American sprinter Trayvon Bromell will be one of those athletes vying for a spot at worlds — and a bit of redemption.

Bromell won the 100 metres at the U.S. Olympic trials last summer. He was widely expected to do well in Tokyo — especially after Usain Bolt declared him the man to beat. But Bromell failed to advance to the Olympic final.

This year he wants to show he can rise to the occasion.

“I overcame a lot of things in the offseason, I took a lot of things into consideration. I got a sports psychologist to work on my mental state. Right now I’m just trying to win everything,” Bromell said.

Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah, who won gold in both the 100 and 200, as well as the 4x100 relay in Tokyo, is recovering from a shoulder injury but feels she should be ready for her country’s national championships later this month.

“I am a fighter, and every champion has something that they’re fighting or going through. We’re putting our bodies through something that hasn’t been

done before, but it’s my job and I’m just fighting and doing what I love,” she said.

Thompson-Herah has her aim on Florence GriffithJoyner’s world record time of 10.49 seconds, which has stood for 34 years. Thompson-Herah’s personal best is 10.54, set last year in Eugene.

For Crouser, 29, the worlds will be a chance to honour his late grandfather. Crouser comes from a family of throwers: His father Mitch was a discus thrower, his uncle Brian and cousin Sam were accomplished javelin throwers.

But it was his grandfather Larry who introduced him to the shot put. Larry Crouser passed away shortly before the Tokyo Games.

“He always said, ‘Once you get to the comp, the hay is in the barn.’ The preparation is where you win meets,” Crouser said.

“In the next six, seven weeks, it will be day-by-day focus on preparing myself the best I can for the world championships, so when I walk out onto that field I know I did everything to the best of my ability to prepare myself for that moment.”