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CHILD DIES IN HOUSE BLAZE
Three other children also severly burned as fire engulfed room
By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
A MOTHER’S desperate decision to leave her four young children in the care of a relative ended in heartbreak after a fire tore through a room of their Rupert Dean Lane home, leaving one child dead and three others critically injured.
The children, all under the age of six, suffered severe burns when a bedroom they were in caught
DAD DONATING K IDNEY TO SON in Bahamas’ first transplant
By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter
jrussell@tribunemedia.net
A GROUNDBREAK-
ING kidney transplant is set to take place today at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), where a father will donate a kidney to his son, who suffers from end-stage renal disease.
fire. The relative tasked with watching them had allegedly fallen asleep and awoke to find the room engulfed in flames. The incident has left the tight-knit community
Ministry shifts focus away from Cuba to supply needed teachers
By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
The son has reportedly been on dialysis for the past
The operation marks the country’s first-ever living donor transplant under the Public Hospitals Authority’s (PHA) newly launched Renal Transplant Programme. The names of the father and son have been withheld for privacy reasons.
THE Ministry of Education has paused its plan to recruit more than 70 teachers from Cuba, redirecting efforts toward hiring educators from the United States, Canada, and locally retired professionals to fill upcoming vacancies.
The shift follows comments by Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville, who recently said that the government is suspending recruitment agreements with Cuba pending discussions with US officials.
Education director Dominique McCartney-Russell confirmed the hold and the expanded recruitment strategy in an interview with The Tribune yesterday. She said the ministry has advertised locally and is “recruiting far and wide” to ensure schools are adequately staffed for the coming academic year.
By NE IL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
“We’re also going to
Sands: Public health concern as only two ambulances operational
By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Chief Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
ONLY two ambulances are reportedly operational in New Providence — a situation former Health Minister Dr Duane Sands called unacceptable, saying it exposes the false narrative being told about the state of public healthcare in the country.
“If you are sick, you’re having a heart attack, stroke, been shot, God help you right now, because EMS has been allowed to deteriorate to a point that is thoroughly unacceptable in New Providence,” Dr Sands told The Tribune yesterday. His concerns were echoed by National Emergency Medical Services
THE Bahamas must “take advantage” of the momentum generated by the launch of its largestever $1.067bn foreign currency bond issue to global investors, a wellknown businessman urged yesterday.
Sir Franklyn Wilson, the Arawak Homes and Sunshine Holdings chairman, told Tribune Business that this nation’s sovereign debt finance raise is “a significant event for the country” given that it will gauge capital markets confidence in the credibility and integrity of the Davis administration’s fiscal and economic revival strategy, while conceding that The Bahamas is “not out of the woods” from a long-term perspective.
THE RESIDENCE on Rupert Dean Lane where a five-year-old boy succumbed to injuries sustained in a fire that left three other young children severely burned yesterday.
Photo: Dante Carrer/Tribune Staff
Child dies in house blaze
in shock, with neighbours questioning the gaps in family support systems and grappling with the loss of a young life.
At around 12.45pm on Monday, hospital staff alerted police after the injured children were brought in for emergency treatment. One of them, a five-year-old, later succumbed to injuries.
According to initial reports, the mother had gone to a government
agency seeking help, leaving her children with a relative due to limited family support. That relative, overwhelmed and exhausted, allegedly dozed off, waking to a nightmare. Police say family members are being interviewed as part of the investigation.
Grief-stricken relatives declined to speak with the media during a gathering outside the home yesterday.
Family friend Nicole Pratt said she became alarmed when the mother called her at 4.30am — an
unusual hour. On her way to a graduation, she stopped by and learned the devastating news.
“She is a good mother to her children. She’s carrying them everywhere she go. She probably aint had no choice yesterday,” Ms Pratt said through tears, adding that the children’s grandmother suffers from Alzheimer’s and the mother had no one else to help her.
Adrian Miller, a former Bain Town resident, visited the family and described
them as overwhelmed.
“Somebody’s there talking to them, and they’re trying to do the best they could. Somebody’s at the hospital, somebody’s home,” she said.
Miller also defended the community’s commitment to child safety.
“For the most part, we look out for each other and we look out for the kids. Somebody was taking care of them. They weren’t alone, as far as I understand, but unfortunately that happened,” she said.
A neighbour remembered seeing a fire truck outside the home without sirens and firefighters entering the yard quietly.
The full extent of the tragedy only became clear the next morning. She expressed deep sympathy for the mother and questioned the absence of paternal support in such situations.
“When I had my children, I was growing up my children,” she said. “I had my mommy, I had my brothers. They had their auntie on
their daddy’s side. Where are the family from these fathers? Where the fathers, why can’t the fathers play a hand in also growing up sticking, by the mothers if they aint together.”
Chief Superintendent Sheria King confirmed an active fire investigation and said all witnesses will be interviewed. She urged parents to ensure children are left in the care of trusted adults and stressed the importance of vigilance during the summer months.
Sands: Public health concern as only two ambulances operational
(NEMS) staff, who said they have been grappling with ambulance and personnel shortages. According to workers, only one ambulance was in operation until Monday night, when a second unit was brought on stream. They said the issue is compounded by the lack of an in-house mechanic to address minor repairs before they become major failures. An EMT, who requested
anonymity due to fear of victimisation, explained that because mechanical repairs are outsourced, delays in payment from PHA often result in the work coming to a standstill after months of unpaid labour.
They also claim the situation is worsened by what they describe as a lack of urgency from the corporate office.
According to staff, management was notified weeks ago that several vehicles needed tyres and servicing, but action was only taken on Monday to replace the tyres.
One of the newer vehicles is reportedly off the road to prevent catastrophic failure because it is overdue for servicing.
Dr Sands said the ambulance shortage has already contributed to delays in the emergency department and led to long wait times.
“In New Providence, there should be eight units on the road all the time,” he said. “All week, we only had one ambulance on the road; whether that’s because you have a
maintenance issue, I believe it is a cash flow problem and that they are simply not paying for maintenance.”
He also criticised the government for highlighting major healthcare investments, like the proposed new specialty hospital and millions allocated for Grand Bahama and facility purchases, while current conditions, remain unacceptable.
EMTs have long lamented the lack of resources, highlighting ongoing fleet shortages and noting that even the newly acquired ambulances have recurring issues.
Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) managing director Aubynette Rolle acknowledged ongoing challenges with the ambulance fleet due to their heavy usage, but said efforts are being
made to address the issues.
“I cannot deny that they’re not breaking down but the minute they are having problems, we try to get them up and running and we’ve also just put together a more stringent preventative maintenance programme as well as part of our fleet management,” she told The Tribune yesterday.
Dr Rolle said PHA has reached out to private institutions for support, but they too are facing similar difficulties.
She added that while the authority is working to procure new ambulances from abroad, the process has been slow.
“They are servicing the US first before they come to us and it takes 12 to 18 months to get to us,” she said. “That’s the reality.”
THE HOME on Rupert Dean Lane where a five-year-old boy yesterday died due to injuries sustained in a fire that left three other young children severely burned yesterday.
Photo: Dante Carrer/Tribune Staff
from page one
Four vying for PLP North Eleuthera seat
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Chief Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
AT least four people are vying for the Progressive Liberal Party’s nomination in North Eleuthera ahead of the next general election.
Among the contenders are realtor Oscar McPhee, entrepreneur Calaritta Walker-Saunders, Harbour Island businessman Joseph John “JJ” Percentie and attorney Tamar Moss. Their interest follows the recent announcement by North Eleuthera MP Sylvanus Petty that he will not seek re-election, citing a personal need to “refocus, reposition and recalibrate” to prioritise his family.
Mr McPhee, 53, a former police officer turned realtor and developer, praised Mr Petty for his service but said more could be done to move the constituency forward. He attributed his decision to seek the nomination to his strong personal ties to the island, noting his grandparents were from the area and he grew up in Harbour Island. He said if selected, he would focus on youth empowerment and economic growth, and highlighted the island’s strengths, calling it one of the most “effective and efficient” in the country.
“The Bluff has the potential to become one of the greatest fishing parts there is in conjunction with Spanish Wells,” he said.
“If you create programmes, you create a yachting club, you create a total fishing program and tournaments year round that would effectively bring tourists and bring people from all over the world, you now create something that is unprecedented.”
Mr Percentie, 39, said his decision to enter frontline politics stems from a life dedicated to service and development in North Eleuthera. Both his parents are from Harbour
Bell tables legislation to combat urban decay and curb spread of liquor stores
By KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter kcampbell@tribunemedia.net
THE government is proposing a slate of legislative changes to combat urban decay, curb the unchecked spread of liquor stores, and ease the country’s ongoing housing crisis.
The measures, outlined yesterday by Minister of Housing and Urban Renewal Mr Keith Bell during the 2025/26 budget debate, aims to restore neglected neighbourhoods and restructure how housing and commercial development are regulated.
Island, and he has been re-elected to the local government three times. He said if nominated, he would champion strategic investment, prioritise economic empowerment, and lead new housing and farming efforts. Even if not chosen, he pledged his full support for the PLP and its nominee, adding: “We are one North, we are one island, we are one Bahamas.”
Mrs Walker-Saunders, a longtime Eleuthera resident and former Silver Airways employee, said her campaign is driven by a passion for people and a longstanding history of grassroots work. She
MINISTRY
played a key role in establishing the PLP’s mainland North Eleuthera branch and had previously sought the nomination but lost to Mr Petty. She remains hopeful this time around, saying that if nominated, she would focus on elder care, housing solutions, and resolving persistent documentation issues faced by many locals.
“We have a lot of persons on North Eleuthera that don’t even have a birth certificate. Some 50, almost 60 year olds don’t have a birth certificate,” she said. “They are born to Bahamian parents who are now deceased.” She also noted: “Persons who are
married many many moons ago, you know when you go and try to get their children documents together, they can’t find my marriage certificate.”
Ms Moss is also reportedly eyeing the nomination. While she lives in New Providence, she maintains roots in North Eleuthera and frequently represents residents from the area.
The chairperson of the PLP’s mainland North Eleuthera branch, Michelle Johnson, declined to comment on the nomination process or the contenders. The Tribune understands the branch is expected to meet with aspirants today.
SHIFTS FOCUS AWAY FROM CUBA TO SUPPLY NEEDED TEACHERS
Mr Bell said. In a survey of one 2,000-foot inner-city corridor, officials found 55 derelict vehicles and 33 abandoned buildings — nearly one every 63 feet.
A similar stretch turned up 54 derelict vehicles and 24 deserted buildings.
Wider surveys conducted by Urban Renewal reported 498 derelict vehicles, 306 abandoned buildings, 165 vacant lots, and 16 roadside garages across just a handful of inner-city streets.
Mr Bell emphasised that physical revitalisation is critical to the success of social upliftment efforts. The legislation, he said, will make it easier to identify problem properties, step up enforcement, and offer financial relief for those willing to restore them.
A separate set of reforms targets the concentration of liquor outlets in densely
Mr Bell said the government’s plans include amendments to the Real Property Tax Act and the Tariff Act, aimed at incentivising property owners to restore abandoned and derelict buildings. The amendments would introduce tax concessions and customs duty exemptions for renovations, part of what the government calls its “Clear-Hold-Build” strategy. “These eyesores attract crime, depress surrounding property values, and erode the spirit of communities,”
populated, economically fragile areas. Mr Bell announced that the government will amend the Business Licence Act to impose tighter regulations on the approval and location of liquor stores and bars — a problem flagged by the Urban Renewal Authority’s Street Level Survey.
“On one major commercial artery, there are 32 liquor establishments flanked by 73 abandoned buildings,” he said.
To strengthen housing access, Mr Bell outlined the Housing (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which will authorise the minister responsible for housing to draw up to 50 percent of the interest earned annually from the Mortgage Insurance Fund. The funds will be used to expand housing development without adding pressure to the Consolidated Fund.
The 2025/26 budget earmarks $5m for small home repairs, $2m for the Rentto-Own Programme, and $1.5m for the renovation of government-owned rental properties. The Bahamas Mortgage Corporation, Mr Bell noted, has already disbursed over $80m in housing loans.
In a further move to secure long-term housing funding, Mr Bell introduced the Central Bank of The Bahamas (Amendment) Bill, 2025. The bill would allow the Minister of Finance to access interest income from dormant bank accounts to finance small home repairs and hurricane readiness initiatives.
“With the amendments to the Central Bank Act now before this House, we are creating the financial architecture to support the long-term sustainability of this programme,” Mr Bell said.
The amendments are expected to be laid during the committee stage of the current budget cycle.
utilise our retired teachers. We did use about 80 of them last year, and so we’re looking to increase that number,” Mrs McCartney-Russell added.
“We’re still in discussions.”
Dr. Darville’s recent announcement reflected pressure from the US government regarding the amount of Cuban professionals’ compensation withheld by the Cuban government. A 2022 contract published by Cuba Archive
Currently, 130 Cuban teachers are employed in The Bahamas. Asked whether they will be allowed to complete their contracts, she responded: “That is our hope, but I cannot guarantee that.
showed that The Bahamas paid up to $12,000 per month per Cuban doctor, while the individuals received only $990 to $1,200, the remainder funnelled to Cuba’s state-run agency, Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos (CSMC). Bahamian government officials have not denied the veracity of that report.
CALARITTA WALKER SAUNDERS
OSCAR MCPHEE
TAMAR MOSS
JOSEPH JOHN PERCENTIE
DIRECTOR DOMINIQUE MCCARTNEY-RUSSELL
Dad donating kidney to son in Bahamas’ first transplant
three years. At a press briefing held at PMH yesterday, officials emphasised the significance of this medical milestone.
Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Michael Darville clarified that while this is not the first kidney transplant in The Bahamas — similar procedures have taken place at Doctors Hospital and PMH — this surgery represents a new era of structured public care involving local and regional collaboration.
A team of Bahamian specialists is performing the transplant in collaboration with surgeons from Trinidad and Barbados. Dr Darville said the government is committed to expanding the initiative through the broader National Transplant Programme.
He added that after consulting with local nephrologists and transplant surgeons, kidney transplants were identified as a
critical component in treating end-stage renal disease, haemodialysis, and peritoneal dialysis.
According to a STEPS survey, The Bahamas ranks highest in the region for end-stage renal disease, a troubling indicator driving the urgency of such healthcare initiatives.
In the 2025/2026 national budget, the government allocated $1.59m to the National Organ Transplant Programme, with projections to increase this to $3m in 2026/2027 and $4.5m in 2027/2028. Dr Darville noted that further funding increases may follow based on demand.
PHA managing director Aubynette Rolle said the nation’s healthcare system is evolving to meet the growing and complex needs of its citizens.
“We are building it right here in The Bahamas and, in partnership with regional expertise and global best practices, we are demonstrating that The Bahamas
can meet the growing and complex needs of our people,” Ms Rolle said.
To qualify for a transplant, patients must undergo comprehensive medical and psychological evaluations.
Dr Vantario Taylor, consultant general surgeon and a member of PHA’s transplant surgical team, stressed the importance of voluntary donor consent.
“If we get wind that they may be motivated by anything other than the kindness of their heart to donate the kidney, then they’re off the table as a donor,” he said. “A kidney transplant is a gift of life.”
An external review board and committee oversee each donor-recipient pair to ensure transparency and ethical standards.
Dr Taylor also noted that kidney removal is not uncommon, and recovery is generally swift, with patients typically discharged within a week if no complications arise.
PHA ‘cannot
By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter
jrussell@tribunemedia.net
manage’ caseload of 600 patients receiving dialysis care in last three years
THE Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) has spent over $15m in the past three years on dialysis care for approximately 600 patients, an unsustainable cost burden as kidney failure cases surge nationwide.
PHA managing director Aubynette Rolle said the government cannot manage the caseload alone, relying heavily on private healthcare providers across multiple islands.
“We are incapable of managing them within the healthcare system.
Speaking at a press briefing ahead of the country’s first living donor kidney transplant — set to take place today — Dr Rhea Thurston-Carroll, consultant transplant nephrologist and director of nephrological services at Princess Margaret Hospital, confirmed the Bahamas currently has around 600 people receiving dialysis treatment.
Therefore, we have partners on the outside who take care of patients. It’s not only New Providence – it’s in Abaco, it’s in Exuma, it’s in Grand Bahama. It’s all over. So we depend on them,” she said.
Ms Rolle stressed that the financial model is untenable. “The expense is about $15m. If we tally
today, I think we’re a little over, because that amount increases as patients get diagnosed with chronic renal disease, and are required mostly [to undergo] haemodialysis,” she sid. She added that investing in transplant infrastructure could reduce long-term costs and improve outcomes.
The PHA’s new Renal Transplant Programme aims to shift the paradigm. Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville previously noted that dialysis consumes a significant portion of the national health budget. Cases of end-stage renal disease have been rising, driven largely by diabetes and hypertension.
CONSULTANT transplant nephrologist and director of nephrology services at Princess Margaret Hospital Rhea Thurston-Carroll and consultant general and transplant surgeon Dr Vantario Taylor during a press conference at Princess Margaret Hospital to discuss a forthcoming kidney transplant surgery yesterday.
Photos: Dante Carrer/Tribune Staff
Creating space for productive meetings
CONFERENCES, workshops, retreats, and meetings are taking place every day, bringing people together to learn, explore, and produce. Organisers often focus on the content and branding of these events, expecting everything else to take care of itself. The venue, agenda, and refreshments are not the only components of a well-planned, successful meeting. It is the organiser’s responsibility to ensure that participants are comfortable and able to contribute in respectful, productive ways. Here are eight actions that can help to create a productive environment for interactive meetings:
1. Prepare participants for the environment. When planning an event, it is easy to see all of the details as obvious after working with them for so long, or even as unimportant to participants when it is assumed that everything has been taken care of for them. Still, they need to know what to expect in order to prepare adequately. It is not enough to share the name and location of the venue, for example, or to share the agenda with top-line items. People need to know more than the basics for various reasons. Where is parking, and is there a fee? Even if it is reimbursable, people to need know that they need cash or a card. How long is the walk from the parking lot to the front door, and is there a path for mobility devices? How can they find the meeting room, especially in a large venue with many rooms and different events taking place? Will other languages be accommodated? If so, how? What are the accessibility features of the space?
2. Welcome participants with enthusiasm. People should be greeted as soon as possible, and by people equipped with full information about the event. From the moment a participant arrives, they should know where they are going without having to look around or find a venue staff member to ask. Organisers and volunteers should be easily identifiable—achievable with a colour, shirt design, lanyard, or sign— and near the entrance, ready to welcome participants and direct them to the registration desk or the meeting room. These team members need to
By Alicia Wallace
remember that they are the first impression of the day. They set the tone.
3. Place clear signage in key locations. As much as people are forced to ask for more information, most people do not want to have to ask questions to get the information they need. Sometimes participants would rather not say exactly what they need or have to wait for an organizer or volunteer to be available in order to get information. Position signs along the most direct route from the entrance to the meeting room. Ensure that there is clear signage from the meeting room to the restrooms. If there is a water bottle refilling station, a health aide, a refreshments table, or other equipment and items that people will likely need to access, post signs and, where possible, include event branding so it is clear that these are for use by participants.
4. Set the tone for respectful, productive engagement. Every participant has their own values as well as their
own opinions. There is not enough time or space for all of them to be expressed at the event, and they will certainly not all be aligned. It is the role of the organisers to shape the space in a way that allows for differences while prioritising the wellbeing of those in the room which includes their ability to safely participate. This can be done by identifying shared values and/or setting community agreements which can help to guide participants’ delivery of their perspectives and ideas.
5. Train team members for their roles and at least one additional role. Even the basic roles require training, not necessarily on the functions, but on the delivery of the service. A participant’s perception of an event is shaped by all of the small interactions they have with team members before they enter the meeting room and after they leave. When participants check in for the event, they are typically giving their names and getting a name badge. What can you add to this experience? How can you make
Recommendations
1. The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings. Feminist Book Club, facilitated by Equality Bahamas and Poinciana Paper Press are meeting at 6pm to talk about Butter by Asako Yuzuki. If you were not able to obtain and read Butter, you can still join the club and meet with us next month. In its starred review of The Women Could Fly, Publishers Weekly said, “Giddings pulls off a dynamite story of a Black woman’s resistance in an oppressive dystopia. Giddings ingeniously blends her harrowing parable of an all-powerful patriarchy with insights into racial imbalances. ...This is brilliant.” We meet to discuss The Women Could Fly on July 16, at 6pm at Poinciana Paper Press, 12 Parkgate Road. Register to join Feminist Book Club at tiny.cc/fbc2025.
2. Attend The Hole in the Ocean, a talk with NELEVEN artist Sonia Farmer at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) on West Hill Street on Thursday, June 19, at 6.30pm. Farmer’s piece—a pulp painting currently on display as a part of the eleventh National Exhibition in the upstairs ballroom at the NAGB—addresses the removal of 40 tons of coral from the Andros Great Barrier Reef to build a diorama at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The event is free and open to the public.
any of the small annoyances, like a line to get to the table, less noticeable? While there may be two people at the registration desk, there could be a cross-trained person engaging people on the line, giving them event swag, offering water or juice, and letting them know what they need to have ready when they get to the front of the line so that it moves quickly. If someone is ill or needs to step away for some other reason, a team member can easily fill in because they know another job as well as they know their own. Hospitality, at an event, is everyone’s duty, so all team members should be ready to welcome, answer questions, apologize for inconveniences, resolve issues, and escalate matters as needed.
6. Identify team members to respond to emergencies. The people who hold microphones and handle registration all day are not the best people to handle emergencies. This role needs people who are readily available and do not need to be in particular place at any particular time to do anything. They need to know the staff at the venue and how to reach them quickly. They need to know the location of the
nearest medical facility and the easiest, fastest way to transport participants. This person, ideally, can drive and has access to a vehicle on event days. They have enough money to quickly make purchases, whether there is a sudden need for a printer on site or someone needs to get a bag of ice.
7. Develop a care plan for the team. Working on the organizing and logistics teams for events can be demanding and exhausting. It is easy to fall into a pattern of working very long days without breaks as events and their participants can be demanding. It is important to remember that the people working at events are people, and they need specific forms of care. Organizers need to ensure that there are people on the team whose sole responsibility is taking care of the team. They check in with team members at their stations, let them know when it is time for their breaks, keep their water bottles filled, bring them refreshments, and relieve them when they need unscheduled breaks. They ask team members how they are doing, providing a listening ear when there is frustration, and work to solve problems while team
members are at their stations. Every single person on the team, including the moderator, needs breaks. At least one of these breaks each day should be outside of the event space and without interruption by anyone on the team. A team that is well taken care of can extend a higher level a care to others and end the event in good health.
8. Be prepared for conflict. As much as we hope for events and the discussion taking place to go smoothly, there is always the possibility of conflict. Even in a room of peers, there can be disagreements that occur in ways that are disruptive. Many people have tremendous difficult disagreeing with others in respectful, non-violent ways. It is important to be able to interrupt unproductive commentary and, in particularly, hateful messaging. This does not just require bringing the exchange to an end, but making strong statements that emphasize the stated values of the convening and the rules of engagement to minimise harm and reset the conversation. There should be at least one team member who is prepare to deescalate and mediate.
Dutch govt recommends children under 15 stay off social media
THE HAGUE Associated Press
THE Dutch government advised parents on Tuesday not to have children under 15 use social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, citing psychological and physical problems among children using them, including panic attacks, depression and difficulties sleeping.
The Ministry of Health also encouraged parents to limit how long their children spend using electronic devices, keep phones and laptops out of bedrooms, and have 20 minutes of screentime followed by two hours of outside play.
The advisory “gives children the time to further develop digital resilience and media literacy,” Vincent Karremans, caretaker deputy minister for youth and sport, said in a letter to parliament. Karremans is one of several ministers who remained on after the Dutch government collapsed earlier this month
pending October elections.
Both TikTok and Instagram require users to be at least 13 years of age.
The guidelines, which are not legally binding, distinguish between “social media” sites like TikTok and Instagram and “social interaction platforms” such as messaging services WhatsApp and Signal. The social media sites have “significantly more additive design features” that
Photo: Ashley Landis
have a negative impact on children, the government said.
Children can use the messaging services from age 13, the year most Dutch children start secondary school, according to the recommendations.
Last year, Australia became the first country in the world to ban children under 16 from using social media. Denmark and France are considering
similar legislation and Sweden issued recommendations about limiting screentime for kids last year.
A group of experts, put together at the request of the Dutch parliament, found that intense screentime and social media usage can result in physical and psychological problems in children.
Dutch schools have banned students from using tablets, cell phones and smart watches, with some exceptions, such as classes on media literacy.
In May, some 1,400 doctors and child welfare experts in the Netherlands signed a public letter, calling on the government to ban children under 14 from having cell phones and restricting social media usage until age 16.
In February, Dutch Queen Máxima said that her youngest daughter, Princess Ariane, had eyesight problems from spending too much time on mobile devices.
First artifcial solar eclipses created by two European satellites
CAPE CANAVERAL Associated Press
A PAIR of European satellites have created the first artificial solar eclipses by flying in precise and fancy formation, providing hours of on-demand totality for scientists.
The European Space Agency released the eclipse pictures at the Paris Air Show on Monday. Launched late last year, the orbiting duo have churned out simulated solar eclipses since March while zooming tens of thousands of miles (kilometres) above Earth.
Flying 492 feet (150 meters) apart, one satellite blocks the sun like the moon does during a natural total solar eclipse as the other aims its telescope at the corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere that forms a crown or halo of light.
It’s an intricate, prolonged dance requiring extreme precision by the cube-shaped spacecraft, less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) in size. Their flying accuracy needs to be within a mere millimetre, the thickness of a fingernail. This meticulous positioning is achieved autonomously through GPS navigation, star trackers, lasers and radio links.
Dubbed Proba-3, the $210 million mission has generated 10 successful solar eclipses so far during the ongoing checkout phase. The longest eclipse lasted five hours, said the Royal Observatory of Belgium’s Andrei Zhukov, the lead scientist for the
orbiting corona-observing telescope. He and his team are aiming for a wondrous six hours of totality per eclipse once scientific observations begin in July. Scientists already are thrilled by the preliminary results that show the corona without the need for any special image processing, said Zhukov.
“We almost couldn’t believe our eyes,” Zhukov said in an email. “This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible.”
Zhukov anticipates an average of two solar eclipses per week being produced for a total of nearly 200 during the twoyear mission, yielding more than 1,000 hours of totality. That will be a scientific
bonanza since full solar eclipses produce just a few minutes of totality when the moon lines up perfectly between Earth and the sun — on average just once every 18 months.
The sun continues to mystify scientists, especially its corona, which is hotter than the solar surface. Coronal mass ejections result in billions of tons of plasma and magnetic fields being hurled out into space. Geomagnetic storms can result, disrupting power and communication while lighting up the night sky with auroras in unexpected locales.
While previous satellites have generated imitation solar eclipses — including the European Space Agency and NASA’s Solar
META BRINGS ADVERTISEMENTS TO WHATS APP
Associated Press
WHATSAPP said Monday that users will start seeing ads in parts of the app, as owner Meta Platforms moves to cultivate a new revenue stream by tapping the billions of people that use the messaging service.
“The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp isn’t changing, and personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to show ads,” WhatsApp said in a blog post.
It’s a big change for the company, whose founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton vowed to keep the platform free of ads when they created it in 2009.
Facebook purchased WhatsApp in 2014 and the pair left a few years later. Parent company Meta Platforms Inc. has long been trying to generate revenue from WhatsApp.
WhatsApp said ads will be targeted to users based on information like their age, the country or city where they’re located, the language they’re using, the channels they’re following in the app, and how they’re interacting with the ads they see.
WhatsApp said it won’t use personal messages, calls and groups that a user is a member of to target ads to the user.
It’s one of three advertising features that WhatsApp unveiled on Monday as it tries to monetize the app’s user base. Channels will also be able to charge users a monthly fee for subscriptions so they can get exclusive updates. And business owners will be able to pay to promote their channel’s visibility to new users. Most of Meta’s revenue comes from ads. In 2025, the Menlo Park, California-based company’s revenue totaled $164.5 billion and $160.6 billion of it came from advertising.
Orbiter and Soho observatory — the sun-blocking disk was always on the same spacecraft as the coronaobserving telescope. What makes this mission unique, Zhukov said, is that the sun-shrouding disk and telescope are on two different satellites and therefore far apart.
The distance between these two satellites will give scientists a better look at the part of the corona closest to the limb of the sun.
“We are extremely satisfied by the quality of these images, and again this is really thanks to formation flying” with unprecedented accuracy, ESA’s mission manager Damien Galano said from the Paris Air Show.
THE TIKTOK app logo is shown on an iPhone on Friday, January 17, 2025, in Houston.
THIS image provided by the European Space Agency depicts the two spacecraft of the Proba-3 mission aligning to create an eclipse to capture a coronagraph in space.
Photo: P Carril/ESA/AP
Israel says it killed top Iranian general as Trump warns people to flee country’s capital
DUBAI Associated Press
ISRAEL claimed Tuesday to have killed a top Iranian general as it traded more strikes with its longtime foe, and US President Donald Trump warned residents of Tehran to evacuate while demanding that Iran surrender without conditions.
Trump left the Group of Seven summit in Canada a day early to deal with the conflict between Israel and Iran, telling reporters on Air Force One during the flight back to Washington: “I’m not looking at a ceasefire. We’re looking at better than a ceasefire.”
When asked to explain, he said the US wanted to see “a real end” to the conflict that could involve Iran “giving up entirely.” He added: “I’m not too much in the mood to negotiate.”
Later on social media, he warned Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the US knows where he is hiding and called for Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.”
It was not clear what Trump meant by urging Iran to surrender or if he was suggesting that the country give up its nuclear ambitions.
Iran offered no immediate response to the president’s posts, but the country’s military leaders vowed that Israel would soon see more attacks.
“The operations carried out so far have been solely for the purpose of warning and deterrence,” Gen. Abdul Rahim Mousavi, the commander in chief of Iran’s army, said in a video.
“The punishment operation will be carried out soon.”
Trump’s hard line added to the uncertainty roiling the region on the fifth day of Israel’s air campaign aimed at Iran’s military and nuclear program. Residents of Tehran fled their homes in droves, and the UN nuclear watchdog for the first time said Israeli strikes on Iran’s main uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz had also damaged its main underground section, not just an above-ground facility, as previously acknowledged.
Israel says its sweeping assault is necessary to prevent its adversary from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon. The strikes have killed at least 224 people in Iran.
Iran has retaliated by launching some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel.
Iran did not immediately comment on the reported killing in Tehran of Gen. Ali Shadmani, whom Israel
described as the most senior military commander in Iran.
Shadmani was littleknown in the country before being appointed last week to a chief-of-staff-like role as head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters. That appointment followed the killing of his predecessor, Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, in an Israeli strike.
The Israeli military warned the population to stay close to shelters as Iran fired new salvos of missiles, but officials said most were intercepted. Sirens blared in southern Israel, including in the desert town of Dimona, the heart of Israel’s never-acknowledged nuclear arms program.
Iran has fired fewer missiles in each of its barrages, with just a handful launched late Tuesday. It has not explained the drop in missiles fired, but the decline comes after Israel targeted many Iranian launchers.
Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin announced a new wave of strikes on Tuesday evening as explosions and anti-aircraft fire boomed throughout Tehran, shaking buildings across the capital. The Israeli military said its warplanes had targeted 12 missile launch sites and storage facilities.
Echoing an earlier Israeli military call for some 330,000 residents of
a neighbourhood in downtown Tehran to evacuate, Trump warned on social media that “everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran.”
Tehran is one of the largest cities in the Middle East, with around 10 million people, roughly equivalent to the entire population of Israel. People have been fleeing since hostilities began.
Asked why he had urged the evacuation of Tehran, Trump said: “I just want people to be safe.”
Downtown Tehran emptied out early Tuesday, with many shops shuttered, even the ancient Grand Bazaar, which has closed only in times of crisis, such as during the 2022 anti-government protests and the coronavirus pandemic.
On the roads out of Tehran to the west, traffic stood bumper to bumper. Many middle- and upperclass Iranians were headed to the Caspian Sea, a popular getaway spot. Long lines snaked from Tehran’s gas stations.
Iranian authorities appeared to be curbing the public’s access to the outside world. Phone and internet service was disrupted, with landline phones unable to receive or dial international calls. NetBlocks, an internet monitoring group, reported that it had detected a significant drop in internet traffic from the country.
Iran, which has crippled important communications tools in past nationwide protests and during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, did not acknowledge any restrictions.
International websites appeared to be blocked, but local websites were functioning, likely signalling that Iran had turned on the so-called “halal net,” its own locally controlled version of the internet aimed at restricting what the public can see.
Iran’s state TV on Tuesday urged the public to remove the messaging app WhatsApp from their cellphones, alleging without evidence that the app gathered user information to send to Israel.
In a statement, WhatsApp said it was concerned that “these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that it believed that Israel’s first aerial attacks on Iran’s Natanz enrichment site had directly affected the facility’s underground centrifuge facility. Satellite imagery collected after Friday’s attacks showed “additional elements that indicate direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls,” the watchdog said.
The IAEA earlier reported that Israeli strikes
had destroyed an aboveground enrichment hall at Natanz and knocked out electrical equipment that powered the facility, which is 220 kilometres (135 miles) southeast of Tehran. However, most of Iran’s enrichment takes place underground to protect from airstrikes. Israel has struck Natanz repeatedly and claims to have hurt its underground facilities, which experts assess contain 10,000 centrifuges that enrich uranium up to 60%. But Tuesday’s IAEA statement marked the first time the agency has acknowledged damage there. Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, and the US and others have assessed that Tehran has not had an organized effort to pursue a nuclear weapon since 2003. But the IAEA has repeatedly warned that the country has enough enriched uranium to make several nuclear bombs should it choose to do so.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Monday that Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites have set the country’s nuclear program back a “very, very long time,” Israel has not been able to reach Iran’s Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is built deep into a mountainside.
Hitting Fordo would require the US to get involved militarily and
deploy B-2 stealth bombers to drop its bunker-busting bomb. The 30,000-pound (14,000-kilogram) GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets.
Before leaving the summit in Canada, Trump joined the other leaders in a joint statement saying that Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon” and calling for a “de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that discussions were underway on a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, but Trump shot that down in his comments on social media.
Macron “mistakenly said that I left the G7 Summit, in Canada, to go back to DC to work on a ‘cease fire’ between Israel and Iran,” Trump wrote. “Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire. Much bigger than that.” Trump posted that there were no plans to kill Khamenei “at least not for now.” Despite warning that US “patience is wearing thin,” he indicated that diplomatic talks remained an option.
He said he could send Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with the Iranians.
BRITISH lawmakers voted Tuesday to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales after a lawmaker argued that it was cruel to prosecute women for ending a pregnancy.
The House of Commons approved an amendment to a broader crime bill that would prevent women from being criminally punished under an antiquated law. Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour member of Parliament who introduced one of the amendments, said the change was needed because police have investigated more than 100 women for suspected illegal abortions over the past five years, including some who suffered natural miscarriages and stillbirths.
“This piece of legislation will only take women out of the criminal justice system because they are vulnerable and they need our help,” she said. “Just what public interest is this
serving? This is not justice, it is cruelty and it has got to end.”
The amendment passed 379-137. The House of Commons will now need to pass the crime bill, which is expected, before it goes to the House of Lords, where it can be delayed but not blocked. Under current law, doctors can legally carry out abortions in England, Scotland and Wales up to 24 weeks, and beyond that under special circumstances, such as when the life of the mother is in danger. Abortion in Northern Ireland was decriminalised in 2019. Changes in the law implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic allow women to receive abortion pills through the mail and terminate their own pregnancies at home within the first 10 weeks. That has led to a handful of widely publicized cases in which women were prosecuted for illegally obtaining abortion pills and using them to end their own pregnancies after 24
weeks or more.
Anti-abortion groups opposed the measures, arguing it would open the door to abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy.
“Unborn babies will have any remaining protection stripped away, and women will be left at the mercy of abusers,” said Alithea Williams, public policy manager for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, which describes itself as the UK’s biggest pro-life campaign group.
The debate came after recent prosecutions have galvanized support to repeal parts of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.
In one case, a mother of three was sentenced to more than two years in prison in 2023 for medically inducing an abortion about eight months into her pregnancy.
Carla Foster, 45, was released about a month later by an appeals court that reduced her sentence. Judge Victoria Sharp said
that case called for “compassion, not punishment” and there was no useful purpose in jailing her.
Last month, a jury acquitted Nicola Packer on a charge of unlawfully selfadministering poison or a noxious thing with intent to procure a miscarriage. Packer, who took abortion medicine when she was about 26 weeks pregnant, testified that she did not know she had been pregnant more than 10 weeks.
Supporters of the bill said it was a landmark reform that would keep women from going to prison for ending their pregnancy.
“At a time when we’re seeing rollbacks on reproductive rights, most notably in the United States, this crucial milestone in the fight for reproductive rights sends a powerful message that our lawmakers are standing up for women,” said Louise McCudden of
MSI Reproductive Choices.
A second amendment that would have gone even further than Antoniazzi’s proposal, barring the prosecution of medical professionals and others who help women abort their fetuses, did not get to a vote.
A competing Conservative measure that would have required an in-person appointment for a pregnant woman to get abortion pills was defeated.
LONDON Associated Press
A UNION flag is displayed outside the Houses of Parliament, in London, Thursday, May 23, 2024.
Photo: Kin Cheung/AP
SMOKE rises from an oil storage facility after it appeared to have been struck by an Israeli strike on Saturday, in Tehran, Iran, on Monday.
Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP
Sailboat built by Uriah McPhee students
BOAT builder Lloyd Sands speaks during a ceremony to mark the completion of the UMP Barracudas, a sailboat built by students of Uriah McPhee, at Uriah McPhee Primary School on Monday.
Photos: Dante Carrer/Tribune Staff