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VOLUME:116 No.135, JULY 9TH, 2019

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WOMAN: THE GREAT DEBATE OVER ARIEL THE MERMAID

Hot Mix offered to raise $750m loan

Company linked with Symonette family would have been key in projects

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A COMPANY partowned by Brent Symonette’s family offered to raise up to $750m in cheap British government loans to fund critical infrastructure works in The Bahamas.

Documents obtained by Tribune Business suggest that if Bahamas Hot Mix’s proposal, made to both the Christie and Minnis administrations, had been accepted it would have given the company a lock over development projects it specialises in - roads, airport runways, and water and sewerage systems.

The first offer to raise

APPS WHICH HELP VISUALLY IMPAIRED AT AIRPORTS

SEE PAGE NINE

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

TRANSPORT and Local Government Minister Renward Wells yesterday said the future of the General Post Office will ultimately be decided by the next general election.

Mr Wells told The Tribune it was obvious the decision to lease the Town Centre Mall from a sitting Cabinet minister will be an election issue, adding

Bahamians will voice their support or dissent at the polls. His comments come as Progressive Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis described the debacle as a “crisis of trust”, adding a vote of no confidence would take place in a “functioning government where public trust was valued”.

Former Cabinet minister Brent Symonette has a 50 percent stake in the mall, and last week revealed SEE PAGE SIX

YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS

TECHNOLOGY

massive “concessionary loans” through the UK government’s export credit guarantee scheme was made in February 2017 just months before the general election. No progress appears to have been made with the Christie administration, and it was left for its successor to assess the offer.

Bahamas Hot Mix then rolled out the same financing model eight months later as part of a joint venture proposal to take over the redevelopment of Exuma and North Eleuthera airports via a “25-year concession” in partnership with fixed-based operator, Odyssey Aviation.

FACE-TO-FACE

POST OFFICE DEAL WILL HIT ELECTION

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

INSIDE TODAY

DON’T WORRY, FOLKS - IT’S DRY TOMORROW FLOODING on Bay Street yesterday may have caused concerns ahead of Independence celebrations but the forecast for tomorrow is better. Let’s hope it’s right. Photo: Donavan McIntosh

FELICIA FIGHTING TO PROTECT VULNERABLE YOUNG WOMEN SEE PAGE EIGHT

GOLD FIASCO - DON’T BLAME US

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net THE government is not to blame for the failure of a teenage water polo team to complete a weekend regional tournament, Algernon Cargill, president of the Bahamas Aquatics Federation, said yesterday.

His comment came after Bahamians reacted with outrage on social media at news that the country’s under-18 boys water polo

ALGERNON CARGILL team, competing at the 28th Central American and Caribbean Amateur

Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) in Barbados last week, lacked funding to stay and contest the gold medal match and had to withdraw from the tournament. The withdrawal was reported by the Nassau Guardian. One Facebook user wrote: “This must be fake news because (Governor General) CA Smith got a ridiculous $9,000 a month house rental being paid for with our taxed dollars (sic).”

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE THREE

HAVE A GREAT INDEPENDENCE DAY - WE’LL SEE YOU ON THURSDAY...

PAGE 2, Tuesday, July 9, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

TURNQUEST PROMISES TO SUPPORT GB BUSINESS

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest said the government is committed to facilitating the ease of doing business in Grand Bahama.

He spoke after the owners of an air-cargo business, which has operated in Freeport for some 20 years, said they are closing up shop over air freight fees.

Tribune Business reported on Monday that GB Express has issued a notice to its customers telling them that the implementation of new Customs laws related to air freight has made it too

costly and difficult for the company to continue its air courier service between the island and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The company has been providing daily air-courier services for 22 years here, and employs around eight to 10 persons in Freeport.

In a notice to customers, the company said that it would close and cease all operations on July 31.

The Tribune attempted to contact Bob Clutter, a pilot and co-owner of GB Express, at the company’s Florida office, however, he could not be reached for comments up to press time on Monday. In response to the letter in circulation regarding the closure of GB Express, Mr Turnquest

said that the company has served the people and business community in Grand Bahama for many years, and its departure would certainly be missed.

“We wish Mr and Mrs Clutter and their partners well in their retirement and thank them for their service to our island,” he said yesterday.

Mr Turnquest, the minister of finance, explained that with regards to the Customs Department, the government remains committed to the ease of doing business in Grand Bahama and throughout The Bahamas.

“We are working with the business community, the courier industry and the wider

community to facilitate the ease of cross-broader trade with a focus on compliance and professionalism,” he said.

He noted that the move to the Department of Customs’ ‘single window’ or the Click2Clear platform, once fully launched later this summer, will facilitate ease of customs procedures and interaction with the general public and business community, making cross broader trade more cost effective and efficient.

According to the notice posted

by GB Express, the cost to meet the demands of Bahamas customs duty has been impacting the air cargo business. “The times have changed, especially the customs

laws, and their application at air freight has made it impractical to operate an air courier service.

Since we are not set up to operate through the harbour, I am left with two options – shut down the air service and start sea service or close down GB Express Ltd,” the document signed by Mr Clutter, and other senior executives noted.

“The cost of meeting the demands of customs has priced the product beyond the reach of the Bahamian citizen and GB cannot continue absorbing this cost. With customs’ direction in the future it is only going to be more difficult to operate in Freeport, therefore, I feel the best business decision I can make is to close the doors.”

LEFT: the wreckage of an Augusta SPA helicopter is recovered off the coast of Grand Cay. Right: the helicopter of billionaire Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.

Cline helicopter almost identical to model which crashed in UK

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net THE helicopter that crashed last week in Bahamian waters, killing seven, was nearly identical to a craft that crashed less than a year ago in the United Kingdom and resulted in the deaths of five people, including a pilot and four passengers from the Leicester City Football Club.

On October 27, 2018, an

AgustaWestland AW169 chopper crashed shortly after take-off from the King Power Stadium, home of the football club.

Among those killed was billionaire club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. UK investigators blamed the crash on a loss of yaw control owing to a failure of the tail rotor control linkage.

The European Aviation Safety Agency subsequently issued an airworthiness directive demanding checks of

tails on all AgustaWestland AW169 helicopters as a precautionary measure. That directive was identical to one the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration issued in 2018 concerning the helicopter model involved in last week’s crash, the AgustaWestland AW139.

After receiving reports of concerns that the thickness of the gearbox housing “does not conform to its type design,” the FAA issued a directive

requiring inspections of tail rotor gearboxes. The FAA said the action is “intended to detect and correct an unsafe condition on these products,” specifically a crack in housing that could “result in the failure of the tail gear rotor transmission and loss of helicopter control.”

According to Business Jet traveller, a magazine that publishes editorials on aviation matters, the AW169 was designed to be similar to the AW139, allowing pilots trained on

one aircraft to easily transition to the other.

Thursday’s crashed killed American billionaire Chris Cline, a 60-year-old American coal tycoon, his 22-year-old daughter Kameron and five other people, including the pilot.

The helicopter, registration number N32CC, departed Big Grand Cay in the Abacos at around 2am on July 4 for Fort Lauderdale to take one of the guests to hospital for an unspecified medical emergency.

The other victims are

Brittney Layne Searson of Palm Beach, Florida; Jillian Nicole Clarke of Los Angeles, California; David Jude of Kentucky; Delaney Wykle of Washington, DC; and the pilot, Geoffrey Lee Painter of Barnestaple, United Kingdom.

It is suspected the chopper crashed minutes after takeoff. However, it was not until 12 hours later that the helicopter was reported missing.

A flight plan for the flight was filed in Palm Beach, The Tribune understands.

BPL BEGINS TO RELEASE ITS LOAD SHEDDING SCHEDULE

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net BAHAMAS Power & Light began releasing a schedule of power cuts yesterday as part of its load shedding exercises.

Numerous areas of New Providence were impacted by the scheduled cuts, from Lyford Cay in the west to Yamacraw Hill Road in the east. The outages were scheduled to take place in two-hour rotations.

Among the institutions expected to be impacted last night, according to

BPL’s list, was Princess Margaret Hospital. However Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said PMH has excellent generators.

BPL previously resisted calls to release a schedule of power cuts, insisting there is a safety issue around doing so.

However, this position was not supported either publicly or privately

by Police Commissioner Anthony Ferguson.

Asked about the matter last month, Mr Ferguson told the press: “I really don’t want to comment on any kind of thing that

involves something in a different lane. I can tell you that members of the (RBPF) are up and about.

They are doing their jobs and we will continue to do that. That’s as much as I will say in respect to that.”

Unable to provide reliable service, BPL has attracted the ire of thousands of residents this summer. Some have complained about losing power for more than four hours in a day. Although BPL is in the process of installing its Aggreko rental units, it has not yet brought all units online.

CONVICTS SEE CHARGES WITHDRAWN

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

TWO men who previously stood trial over two separate murders have been discharged from allegedly causing harm to a fellow inmate at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services last year.

Jahmaro “Bingy” Edgecombe and Anthony “Peanut” Bethel were both

charged with causing harm to William Etienne on October 9, 2018 while at the Fox Hill facility.

Edgecombe was convicted in April of murdering Kenyari Lightbourne in his Woods Alley neighbourhood three years ago. Bethel is awaiting his second trial over allegations he murdered 21-year-old Georgette Rahming on May 26, 2015. Etienne, meanwhile, is charged with

murdering Alvin Strachan in an East Street web shop in August of last year.

Yesterday, Edgecombe and Bethel were due to stand trial over the allegations.

However, prosecutor Sgt Bridgette Strapp indicated the Crown’s intent to withdraw the charges pursuant to Section 230 2(b)2 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Thus, Senior Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans discharged the pair of the offence.

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, July 9, 2019, PAGE 3

Don’t blame govt for gold fiasco, says sports chief

THE BAHAMAS’ U-18 boys water polo team, competing at the 28th Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation in Barbados, didn’t have the funds to stay and contest the gold medal match. from page one Mr Cargill told The Tribune the water polo team should not have played the tournament if it couldn’t remain to the end.

“What I’m disappointed about,” he said, “is to read through social media comments to the fact that the water polo team was unable to stay for the gold medal game because of lack of funding or lack of support from either the federation or the government. That comment is false and malicious for many reasons.

The water polo division of Bahamas Aquatics made their own travel plans.

“Initially the Bahamas Aquatics Federation had made a decision not to compete in water polo at CCCAN but because the parents wanted their athletes to participate they set about raising funds for water polo and fell short.

Although we had earmarked our funding for

the Junior Pan American Games, we nonetheless contributed towards CCCAN but at no time did the water polo division of Bahamas Aquatics discuss with us or, I can say, the government that they were going to water polo and would not be able to compete for the gold medal game because they could not afford to stay another day.

“I say that because just as we contributed $4,000, if it cost another $1,000 or so to stay for the gold medal game, we would’ve done that - but to blame the government or to blame Bahamas Aquatics I think is false and malicious and it misrepresents what actually happened. Water polo made their own travel plans, they finalised their own arrangements and obviously there had to be error in their plans or a schedule change but to blame anyone other than themselves for what transpired I think is not representative of what Bahamas Aquatics is all

about. So when I return to The Bahamas from Korea I obviously have to meet with all the leaders to first of all speak to them about these comments because I’m very disappointed as the president of Bahamas Aquatics that these comments were made or used to say that the federation or government or any other group has some role to play in the team not being able to play in the gold medal game.”

Mr Cargill said it is especially difficult raising funds for water polo events from corporate donors as compared to swimming events.

Nonetheless, The Tribune understands the federation has not received subvention from the government for the past two years.

Mr Cargill said both the government and corporate donors should provide more funding to sport federations. He said despite the wide success of The Bahamas at Carifta games, the federation still has to hustle for funding. He

WATER polo boys in action, noted The Bahamas has been awarded the chance to host next year’s CCCSAN event and he hopes the government will provide financial aid to help make this happen.

The Minnis administration has been accused before of being stingy when it comes to funding sports in The Bahamas. In 2017, the administration cancelled the popular IAAF World Relays event, causing many to be disappointed.

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENTATOR REMANDED

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

SOCIAL media commentator Gorman Bannister was remanded to prison yesterday over allegations he intentionally defamed ex-Cabinet minister Tennyson Wells in a series of voice notes.

When he was arraigned before Senior Magistrate Derrence Rolle-Davis yesterday, Bannister, 65, denied allegations he distributed voice notes on Facebook and/or WhatsApp on May 2, 2018, which made damaging claims about Mr Wells and his wife, Stephanie.

Nonetheless, the Crown claims Bannister made those posts about Mr and Mrs Wells in a bid to defame their character, thereby subjecting them to “general hatred, contempt or ridicule”.

Bannister also pleaded not guilty to one count of misuse of the telecommunications system. It is alleged that sometime between January and this month, he posted more than 30 images and words on his Facebook pages “Black Belt Leaks”, “Black Belt News”, and “Gorman Bannister” via electronic devices, a mobile phone and/or personal computer, in a bid to depict Oswald Poitier as a homosexual; to suggest the man is a paedophile; to show a personal image and video of his residence; to make degrading comment about Mr Poitier’s parents; and to suggest that Mr Poitier “just kill himself”.

And, the Crown alleges, claims were posted to Mr Poitier’s “annoyance”.

Given Bannister’s not guilty pleas, the matters

POLICE INVESTIGATE SUSPECTED DROWNING POLICE are investigating an alleged drowning incident that left a man dead.

According to a police report, shortly after 3pm on Sunday a group of people were swimming at Jaws Beach, in western New Providence, when they noticed

a male who appeared unresponsive, floating in the water. The male was pulled from the water and CPR rendered until paramedics arrived, however he was pronounced dead a short time later. An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death.

were adjourned to September 17 for trial. For the misuse of the telecommunications system charge, Bannister was granted $1,500 bail with one suretor. However, given the nature of the first two counts of intentional libel,

bail was denied and he was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDCS) in the interim. He has a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail. Bannister is represented by attorney Roberto Reckley.

Concerns about aquatics funding goes beyond this administration, however.

Earlier in 2017, Elvis Burrows, an Olympian and a national record holder in swimming events, wrote a letter to former Prime Minister Perry Christie, who was in office at the time, complaining that the federation has “mysteriously lost its funding over the last year.”

“We have tried to contact the Ministry of Sports on numerous occasions

only to be continuously ignored,” Mr Burrows said in 2017. “That funding was the very reason that our athletes were able to train at the standard which allowed us to compete on the world stage.”

Nonetheless, Picewell Forbes, shadow minister for that ministry, said in a statement yesterday that the water polo controversy is the “kind of neglect that would never happen under a PLP government. This is disgraceful when you have an FNM government that can literally find millions of dollars for international travel with bloated delegations, on campaigning in the Family Islands and on food for the Office of the Prime Minister. The PLP has repeatedly accused the FNM of abandoning our athletes and not having a plan for local sports development. This debacle in Barbados over this past weekend is proof of this abandonment.”

Editorial View - Page 4

PAGE 4, Tuesday, July 9, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

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

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What opportunities are we missing out on?

THE bid by Bahamas Hot Mix to raise up to $750m in cheap British government loans is certainly an eyecatching one.

Not once but twice did the company – one of the foremost in its field in The Bahamas – try to access British loans that would have strengthened its hand in sealing projects here on our shores.

The idea is quite clever – the company used its British subsidiary, BHM Construction International (UK) Ltd, to qualify for financing from UK Export Finance.

That is a fund in place to help British companies compete internationally for the services and products they offer. For BHM, their UK division would qualify them for funds that could be used back here in The Bahamas by the parent company.

Of course, in return for securing such investment, BHM was hoping to be chosen as the main contractor on any infrastructure projects financed by the proposal.

As it is, both the current FNM and the previous PLP governments passed on the proposed projects – but here’s a question.

Why did it take an individual business to go and seek out such funds if they are available? If money is available in a pot that can be used for projects here in The Bahamas, why isn’t the government themselves going and lining it up for businesses that qualify here?

It’s no small sum that BHM lined up - $750m could make a huge difference

in a host of projects. Surely the Ministry of Finance ought to know about such available funds, and how Bahamian companies might be able to make use of them.

If it takes a UK-based company to be able to apply for them, then the government should be encouraging local companies to open UK subsidiaries to access such funding.

Did the Embassy in the UK know about BHM’s approach and assist them in the process? If not, ought they not to know about such opportunities and strive to both make Bahamas businesses aware of them and support them each step of the way?

In short, are we missing a trick? One that BHM did not miss.

And if we’re missing this trick, what others are passing us by? Are there opportunities for our students? Our young entrepreneurs?

For many, the focus from this news will be the expectation that BHM might have had that in the wake of gaining such funding, it would have had the lion’s share of construction work. BHM could have further cornered the market should this have gone ahead. It didn’t, for whatever reason, but that won’t stop people who use BHM as a political punching bag taking it for another round.

But perhaps what we should be looking at is what else is out there that could help our businesses – and just why it is that it’s a company that found this opportunity, instead of the government forging a path to help us all.

Young athletes have been let down IT MUST have been heart-breaking.

The nation’s under-18 boys water polo team took part at the 28th Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation in Barbados last week – and the boys shone.

So good were they that they reached the final. A gold medal was in their sights. And then… it wasn’t. The team did not have the funds to stay another day – so home they came, unable to stay and contest the gold medal.

Algernon Cargill, president of the Bahamas Aquatics Federation, is full of bluster saying the government is not to blame for the boys’ early return.

Shadow minister for sports Picewell Forbes is also quick to point fingers for the premature end. Neither one’s comments will help the boys turn back time so they can compete.

So rather than get tangled up in the blame game, let’s welcome the returning team as the gold medal heroes they might have been. Let’s celebrate them regardless. Bring them to Government House. Bring them to the PM’s office.

Let’s applaud them at this year’s Independence events.

And then let us make sure this never happens to them – or any other athlete - ever again.

Traffic men have their own power EDITOR, The Tribune TUESDAY around 11am Nassau went dark - the whole island did not have any electricity but the Royal Bahamas Police, Traffic Division must had have a generator and in their eyes nothing changed and it would seem that they did not consider their presence at junctions controlled by traffic lights could need some assistance? Kudos to ASP Mark Stubbs.

Marathon Johnson everyone knows when the lights fail that is a scrummage - total chaos…were there any traffic police?

AFTER Tribune Business reported Clearing Banks Association’s chairman Gowon Bowe admitting the industry “can do better” in pushing for lower debit card fees, thus aiding the drive for a cashless society – readers responded on tribune242.com.

DWW posted this: “How about the almost 9% costs to deposit a US$ cheque to a B$ account? Family sent a birthday gift of a US$100 cheque. When it cleared

There should have been immediately at least one traffic police officer at every junction with traffic lights….was it because it is 100 degrees outside? Was it because the Traffic Division was not told by HQ? Was it business as usual?

BP&L story as to the truck hitting the wooden transmission pole…boy that truck must have hit that 100ft high pole mighty hard and was very lucky it did not break. Imagine then…days without electricity. Go look the grid wires have a considerable distance between each other for a flash, wires actually toughing, as a result

the account there was only $90 left. URCA? hello? anyone? crickets!”

Observer2 said: “There is zero incentive for the Commercial banking consortium or the Government to reduce debit card fees from 3% of every

of wires crossing is quite a story.

Well BP&L and the PM taking credit for the idea that big business should be allowed to run their generators - I remember a letter to The Tribune a year or so ago on that…must be the mail finally got to OPM and BP&L Head office and someone read it!

Police needing that shooting alert system… absolutely no need a waste of $1.6 million cancel the order, Minister. Social takes care of that, instantly.

ABRAHAM MOSS Nassau July 5, 2019 transaction to 5 cents – which is the cost in the US. “On a $100 transaction the bank takes $3 and the government takes 36 cents. Why would they cut such a massive profit which they divided to Canada and the government take in VAT to support their bloated payroll?

“The costs are hidden from the public because it is taken from the merchants. The country suffers as merchants prefer cash which increases robberies.”

A PM who is as unfit for office as Mr Symonette EDITOR, The Tribune IN THE run up to the 2017 General Election, the media and the public at large were whipped into a frenzy by a supposed conflict of interest that was exposed in email exchanges between then Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald and Sarkis Izmirlian, the original Baha Mar developer. In the emails, Mr. Fitzgerald enquired after his father’s company’s application for a contract with the resort.

In England, the relevant rule for Ministerial conduct for conflicts of interests is clear: where a Minister self-deals on behalf of himself or a family member in an area which falls within his portfolio and / or exercises ministerial discretion to benefit himself, he is in conflict. In this instance, Minister Fitzgerald was discussing a matter that was not in any way related to his portfolio (Education) and any collective discretionary power he may have had over Mr. Izmirlian had already been exercised years before in the latter’s favour. In fact, the resort was already built.

In other words, the “conflict of interests” was pure fiction, a red herring dreamed up by the Bahamian media and sold shamelessly to an ignorant population. In the UK, it would not even have made the news. In The Bahamas, hardly anything else made the news for a week or so.

Moreover, as I pointed out at the time (and was, of course, ignored in the antiPLP frenzy) the attempt to paint Mr. Fitzgerald’s conduct as a “conflict of interest” relied on a narrative that would make ministerial government unworkable in any society, much less one as small as

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net The Bahamas. That narrative proposes that any minister cannot speak on his own or a family member’s behalf on any business matter with any person who depends on the license of the cabinet. It would place a Minister who argues about a fare with a (licenced) taxi cab driver in the exact same position of ‘conflict’ as Mr. Fitzgerald. In a country where EVERYBODY depends on Cabinet discretion to conduct business, it is an utterly ridiculous proposition.

Fast forward to 2019.

Today we have a minister involved in a genuine conflict of interest. So genuine that the minister, shortly after resigning (not because of the conflict, he says) got on television and boldly described how he and the Prime Minister discussed the need to “deal with” the conflict of interests by a House Resolution. They also discussed contractual price, available space and the state of the building (a Volkswagen, rather than a Rolls Royce).

All of this directly contradicts the wording of the very resolution itself, which is prefaced: “Whereas one of the beneficial owners…. is a serving Cabinet Minister who did not take part in the discussions leading to the decision to accept the offer…” In fact, in the Minister’s televised version, the matter seems not to have come to cabinet, nor to any kind of tendering process, but to have been concluded entirely in a private telephone call.

Miraculously, the media have had so little to say about this most blatant

instance of public malfeasance that the headlines suggest just another week in summer (shark attacks, power outages, etc.). Malcolm Strachan, who had so much to say (mostly wrong) about the Fitzgerald affair, used his Tribune column on Monday to basically shrug off the affair on the perverse grounds that there are non-white oligarchs too.

As for the Minister himself, he has employed the ultimate weapon of mass distraction to spin his way out of the public crosshairs: race. Mr. Symonette is not new to this tactic, having once before deflected questions about his own character into a broad ‘discussion’ about perhaps the most boring, bottomless (and irrelevant) subject on earth. It’s like Richard Nixon arguing that Watergate should lead not to a trial, but to a national discussion on whether the country is ready for a two-term Capricorn president. A total insult to the intelligence.

Having seen this side of Minister Symonette before, Bahamians should ignore the nonsense about race and stay focused on one thing: the first time, Mr. Ingraham dismissed him, isolating the party from complicity. This time, the Prime Minister, who seems to have orchestrated the whole thing and ‘waived’ the conflict by invoking party discipline, has clearly shown himself as unfit for office as Mr. Symonette. If we had a halfway fair media (or if the PLP were in power), this is the only message that would be resonating today.

ANDREW ALLEN Nassau, July 8, 2019.

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, July 9, 2019, PAGE 5

‘ENFORCING BUILDING CODES HELPS COUNTER CLIMATE CHANGE’

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net DEPUTY Prime Minster K Peter Turnquest yesterday said maintaining and enforcing building codes is a key way the government is attempting to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Speaking on the sidelines of the CFAL Budget Pass held at the Baha Mar Convention Centre, Mr Turnquest also listed building sea walls and replanting mangroves as further efforts on the government’s part.

When asked if enough is being done to prepare for the effects of climate change, Mr Turnquest noted this is a pressing matter for Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis. He also called for a partnership between countries to find a solution to this issue.

“This is a particular focus (of) the prime minister, it’s coming up more and more in international conversations, in particular in this region and all small island states, to try and figure out how to combat this,” he said. “As you know this, we are affected mostly by this dramatic change but we are the least contributors to it. So it’s really a partnership that needs to happen between the developing states and the small island states to find a solution.

“From the international community’s point of view and the multilateral agencies’, they’re focused on resilience, building climate resilience into our infrastructure. Ensuring that as we move forward, that new construction meets the current technical standards that withstands the… more stronger storms we’re

seeing these days. For the Bahamas, we’ve always had a very resilient building code. We do have some infrastructure that is not up to that standard, having been built prior to (strict codes) and we have to see how we can enforce or harden those. But nonetheless the limited resources we have we’re going to continue be vulnerable for some time yet to come.”

Mr Turnquest also said climate change is a “longterm problem” and underscored the need to leverage relationships and funds to help prepare the country.

“On the part of the government itself, we are building seawalls we are replanting some of the soft defences: the mangroves and (those) kinds of things to try and cushion as much as we can the effects,” the

deputy prime minister continued. “But nonetheless it is a long-term problem that we recognise and that we are trying to be creative and to leverage our relationships and our participation in these international agencies to try and come up with sustainable solutions. And to leverage resources.

“Because again, there’s only so much we can afford to do ourselves. Leveraging some of these resources from funds and other participants to help us to again build our hard infrastructure defences as well as our soft infrastructure to as best we can. But again the key is in ensuring that we maintain our building codes.

“There is some effort underway with the Ministry of Works as I understand it to improve the building codes and those are key to minimising the amount

of damage that happens.

Because we all know, it’s not if, it’s when.”

In March, Iram Lewis, parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Public Works, noted a large number of hurricane-damaged homes are built by construction companies that fail to comply with the country’s building code.

He also revealed that much of the government’s post-hurricane resources were being consumed by roof repairs to homes that were either not insured or under-insured.

Mr Turnquest also delivered the keynote address at yesterday’s CFAL event, which furthered discussions on the national budget with stakeholders. He noted adding a budget conference to the annual calendar will make an “important difference’ to public discourse.

He also noted the three major ways this budget is unique, saying it is the first to adhere to the legally mandated fiscal targets set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2018, to fully adopted the new Chart of Accounts (COA) and “be compliant with internationally recognised government finance statistics standards, and the first that “required ministries to take a new approach to budget planning, highlighting our transition to programme budgeting in the public sector”.

He noted the the deficit projected for this budget year will end up being the “lowest” the Bahamas has seen in 10 years, and “with its corresponding ratio marking the lowest deficit to GDP ratio this country has seen in almost two decades”.

Looking back doesn’t help, says deputy PM on issue of reparations

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net “LOOKING backwards doesn’t help you win a race,” Deputy Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest said yesterday when asked his thoughts on calls for reparations for black Bahamians.

In an interview with The Tribune, Mr Turnquest said reparations are not at the top of the list items the government is “concerned about”, adding the Minnis administration is instead focused on developing the economy and “empowering people”.

Mr Turnquest’s remarks add to the current national discourse on the intersections of race and class in The Bahamas in the aftermath of comments made by former Cabinet minister Brent Symonette who suggested he faced political barriers and attacks due to his skin colour.

Mr Symonette, who resigned as Minister of Financial Services, Trade and Immigration last week, suggested the country was not ready for a white prime minister and reiterated his call for a national discussion on race and wealth in politics. According to former Minister of State on Legal Affairs Damian Gomez he believes that conversation should start with reparations.

Mr Turnquest, however, disagrees. “So, I’ve heard this whole thing about reparations and while it is (an) interesting concept, I don’t think anybody around the world yet has figured out how that exactly works,” Mr Turnquest said.

“Who are you seeking reparations from, on what basis, what is enough, how do you value that… so, again, it’s not at the top of our list of items to be concerned about.

“We’re much more focused on trying to build an economy to move the country from where it is today. Again, this whole idea that somebody’s done us wrong…or somebody owes us something is a thought that we don’t want to necessarily encourage.

“We have the ability, we have invested in education in this country, invested in opportunities for Bahamians to be able to stand on their own two feet and to go forward and to be successful.

“And we much rather, at least I would much rather, put our efforts towards that, to empowering people, to improve their circumstance.

Despite what the start may have been, it’s how you finish.

“And I believe that we have the tools to move ourselves forward on our own without looking backward…as any athlete

DEPUTY Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest would tell you: looking backwards doesn’t help you win a race.

“So again, for me, it’s about going forward and ensuring that we put in place the structures and the opportunity for Bahamians to be successful.”

In March 2014, the Christie administration formed a National Reparations Committee to

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

establish the moral, ethical, and legal case for the payment of repatriations by the former colonial European countries.

When asked if this current government has any plans to revamp this committee, Mr Turnquest said that’s a question for the prime minister.

During Friday’s National Pride Day ceremony,

Governor General Cornelius A Smith called for Bahamians to “reject” the things that stir up division if they want to “preserve” the country’s legacy of hospitality.

Mr Smith said Bahamians should strive to be on one accord and reject “divisiveness” that stems from “race, culture (and) creed”.

PAGE 6, Tuesday, July 9, 2019 from page one that Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis called him personally to negotiate the deal. The Office of the Prime Minister has refused to divulge the date of that call, or whether it took place prior to a Cabinet discussion, telling The Tribune it is a matter of confidentiality.

Mr Wells was asked whether the government had given any consideration to a permanent location for the facility, currently housed at the Town Centre Mall on a five-year lease.

“We will look at where the post office is currently,” Mr Wells said, “whether it’s meeting the needs of the Bahamian people. We will do the assessment over three years to see whether services are being delivered, if the Bahamian people are pleased with the new location. If there is another decision that needs to be taken, then we will go from there.”

Mr Wells was asked whether the government intended to rent the location indefinitely.

Mr Wells said: “We didn’t say that. Right now we have a five year lease and that’s where it is. We are going to be looking at the operations and assessing it. We will be getting back to the Bahamian people. We will have to put that to the Bahamian people and the Bahamian people will be able to make that decision because we

THE TRIBUNE

Post Office deal will hit election - Wells RENWARD WELLS, Minister of Transport and Local Government, left, and, right, Brent Symonette.

have an election coming up before the lease is up. We have an election coming up in three years.

“Obviously this is going to be an election issue that folks are going to talk about,” Mr Wells continued.

“At the end of the day the Bahamian people will make the ultimate decision.

We made the best decision in the interest of workers of the post office, and the Bahamian people. The ultimate assessment is going to be a general election.”

The resolution tabled in Parliament in October last year stated the government’s intent to rent 75,000 square feet of space in the mall at a cost of $12

per square foot - which amounts to $4.5m over the five-year life span of the lease.

Mr Wells confirmed yesterday the lease agreement remains unsigned as the government is reportedly still deliberating over the square footage, particularly the lease of additional storage space.

Officials at the post office have asked for an additional 1,600 sq ft, according to Mr Wells, who said the lease will be signed once that is finalised.

Combined with the 56,000 sq ft currently occupied by the General Post Office, the total sq footage of the lease will be 57,600.

Mr Wells did not comment on calls by the Official Opposition and the Democratic National Alliance for Dr Minnis to resign alongside a full disclosure on the matter.

Yesterday, Mr Davis said: “It is difficult to imagine how the prime minister can continue to lead the government effectively. With his misrepresentations to the House of Assembly, and multiple deals benefitting members of his inner political circle, he has lost the trust of the public.”

Mr Davis added: “It is likely that members of the prime minister’s political party prefer to keep him in place, rather than see him resign or fall to a no confidence vote. Many of them are putting politics, not country, first.

“Some of them care only about their continued ability to pull his puppet strings to their own benefit,” he added. “This may be the political reality, but it does not in any way justify the unethical behaviour that has led to this crisis of trust.”

Symonette’s admission ‘regrettable’, says Watson

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net FORMER Deputy Prime Minister Frank Watson yesterday called Brent Symonette’s admission over the circumstances that led to the lease of Town Centre Mall “regrettable”.

However, the senior FNM member told The Tribune he believed the government made the right choice, adding he suspected public ire over the matter went deeper than the lease agreement.

“The whole issue has become a football between the two political parties,” Mr Watson said. “On the face of it, I think they did the right thing, made the right steps. I can’t think of a better place or better building, everything ought to be what is in the best interest of the country.

“You’re always going to have some people with money that will have a stake but do we have the public suffer because we don’t want to make the decision?”

He also said: “The PLP had in mind that building, the FNM came and continued the negotiation. I just don’t think that building in itself is the cause of all this

hoorah in the public. I think it’s more stuff underpinning this adding fuel to the fire.

“I thought Symonette could have handled himself a little better when he talked, with himself, I think he created some of the stuff that’s floating up to the top.

“But I don’t have a problem (with the lease).”

Amid calls from the official opposition for a vote of no confidence in Parliament over the issue, one sitting Cabinet minister said the revelation that Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis called Mr Symonette to negotiate the lease of his building was “nothing new”.

The Cabinet minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity, argued there was no way the matter could have been discussed in a Cabinet session - excluding Mr Symonette - without first asking the senior FNM if he would accept the offer.

“Every parliamentary secretary knows this,” said the minister yesterday.

“People are trying to make a political problem about something that was legal.

The FNM went through the process, now if you don’t like the process then you can agitate for change.”

The Cabinet minister continued: “Some are being very sanctimonious,

and hypocritical. If the Bahamian people in their wisdom have arrived at a state and a place where they believe no politician should have no contract with no government entity, then let’s change it. But these things have happened and do happen.”

The resolution to rent the mall stated: “…One of the beneficial of owners of the Town Centre Mall is a serving Cabinet minister who did not take part in the discussion leading to the decision to accept the offer to lease portions of the building.”

The Cabinet minister insisted the government followed the legal and appropriate process by bringing a resolution to Parliament to allow for full debate, and with Mr Symonette fully disclosing his interests.

However, Mr Symonette’s revelation on a local talk show of his phone call with Dr Minnis to discuss the terms of the lease of Town Centre Mall has given new legs to claims of conflict of interest that have haunted the government’s engagement of companies with ties to his family or himself.

Attorney Wayne Munroe yesterday called for Dr

FORMER Deputy Prime Minister Frank Watson Minnis and Mr Symonette to be questioned by police over the circumstances that preceded the government’s decision to table the resolution in the House of Assembly.

The Office of the Prime Minister has called the allegations Dr Minnis would personally and unilaterally negotiate the lease agreement “nonsensical”, but refused to confirm the date of that phone call as a matter of confidentiality.

Mr Symonette, who has a 50 percent stake in the property and resigned from Cabinet last week, said he discussed “the whole question of conflict of interest” during that call, and was informed of the decision to table a resolution in Parliament.

When the resolution was tabled in October last year, the government’s previous post office partner revealed he had been left exposed to a near $4m loss.

Scott Godet had agreed to a public-private partnership (PPP) with the former Christie administration to construct a new main post office at the Independence Drive Shopping Plaza, but the Minnis administration ultimately decided to relocate the main facility on the opposite side of the roundabout at the Town Centre Mall.

Ahead of the 2017 general election, Mr Symonette suggested the mall would have been a more costeffective option than the plaza.

In a Guardian Business article, printed April 12, 2017, Mr Symonette said:

“It would be interesting to compare dollar for dollar what they are giving.

“I would imagine, you are going to find, they are going to spend more on renovating the building than it would have cost them to go into the Town Centre Mall,” Mr Symonette was quoted in the article.

“There would have been more parking. It would have been ready a lot earlier. It probably would have been more cost effective.”

According to the Guardian Business article, Mr Symonette argued that more details concerning the PPP would have been disclosed if there was an enacted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

In another Guardian interview, printed in October last year, Mr Symonette said: “I was not part of the general discussion, so I do not know what the general plans are for the post office as we speak, the current general plans.

“I am aware of what the PLP proposal was,” Mr Symonette was quoted in the article, “because I was part of that regiment where they drew extensive plans for Town Centre Mall.”

The resolution to lease the Town Centre Mall was passed on October 24, 2018 with the support of 22 MPs. Free National Movement MPs Frederick McAlpine, Vaughn Miller, Reece Chipman, and Travis Robinson voted against the resolution alongside the four opposition members.

Eight MPs were absent during the vote, and Mr Symonette abstained.

Yesterday, Mr Robinson said he had “no comment” but some of his colleagues said they felt their stance had been vindicated.

“It proves we were on the right side of history,” Mr Miller said, “we did the right thing. My position on record was that I would only support it if (Mr Symonette) resigned and joined the back bench with us. Certainly it gives you the feeling of vindication.

But it’s minuscule, it’s just a matter of doing the right thing, what I knew to be right and to not be compromised with that.

“There is somethings that’s bigger than a party.

It has to be for the national good for the country and setting the right examples so that others who succeed us would have some examples to go by, to see that some stood for what was right.”

Mr Miller said he hoped Dr Minnis addresses the matter as soon as possible as the revelations were “astonishing, unbelievable”.

For his part, Mr Chipman said he hoped his administration could regroup and recommit to altruistic principles of good governance in the spirit of the country’s independence.

“It is never vindication when you are a part of a team,” Mr Chipman said, “where a pattern of inconsistencies of the interpretation of communication seems to overshadow intended good works.”

Mr Chipman continued: “I can only hope and pray that for the sake of my administration, we regroup and recommit to where meritocracy, pragmatism and honesty become the order of the day, for the betterment of our people and our country.”

For his part, Mr McAlpine said: “We’ve been proclaiming this from day one. We’ve been proven to be correct, without us having to say anything there is a self-admission by the former minister himself.

“I think what’s more important is this,” Mr McAlpine said, “whether or not that call to the former minister came prior to a Cabinet meeting, which would then mean the decision was made without a Cabinet decision and appears as if it was a oneman decision.

“That’s not good for democracy in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.”

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, July 9, 2019, PAGE 7

$1.8m contracts signed for PMH

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Dr Duane Sands.

CONTRACTS worth nearly $1.8m were signed yesterday for work at Princess Margaret Hospital to correct damage caused by periods of “neglect” of hospital equipment and infrastructure.

One agreement will allow for a complete turnkey service to supply, install and commission two Smart AD065 chill water systems for PMH’s Critical Care Block and another covers phase two of roof repairs.

Caribbean International A/C Services Limited was awarded the $1,151,622.08 contract for air conditioning works, while Ringo & Sons Construction and General Maintenance’s contract is valued at $632,576.00.

Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said yesterday it was a shock to officials to discover serious issues with the Critical Care Block’s chilling system as it was a fairly new facility only commissioned in early 2015.

Speaking for the Public Hospitals Authority, Chairman Julian Rolle spoke of the board’s unwavering support for phased improvements to the infrastructure and services of the authority, including PMH. “Beginning in 2017, my ministry along with the board of directors of the PHA committed to charting a sustainable course for the future development and improvement of services across the institutions of the PHA and where appropriate we would commit to

the investments necessary to arrest and ameliorate the effects of years of wear and tear, uneven maintenance and, in some instances, periods of neglect on the infrastructure, equipment and physical plants of our public hospitals,” Dr Sands said during the signing at PHA’s Fourth Terrace corporate office.

He also said on Monday: “Today we will sign a contract for a complete turnkey service for the supply, installation and commissioning of two Smart AD065 chill water systems for the high VAC in the Princess Margaret Hospital’s Critical Care Block.

“The $1,151,622.08 contract has been awarded to Caribbean International A/C Services Limited and will take approximately five to six months to complete, inclusive of construction time for the new system.

“This upgrade will alleviate cooling issues experienced in the past in the hospital’s Critical Care Block and its surrounding areas, capping an intensive series of remedial initiatives undertaken by PMH to repair and restore our air conditioning system.

“The second contract we will sign provides for the completion of phase two roof repairs at the Princess Margaret Hospital. This contract, which is valued at $632,576, is awarded to Ringo & Sons Construction and General Maintenance.

Phase one roof repairs were undertaken in 2018 and you may recall, Ringo & Sons successfully completed the phase one works to the satisfaction of all concerned.

“Phase two will include

the removal of the existing metal roofing panels and substrate from some 20,000 sq ft of the hospital roof, to be replaced with hurricane zone rated panels and substrate. These works will largely complete major capital works at the Princess Margaret Hospital for 2019; and represent a significant step in the right direction with respect to the sustainable redevelopment of the hospital.”

Dr Sands told reporters yesterday all of the work is expected to be external and will not affect day-to-day

operations of the hospital.

“So chiller one is essentially dead, we’re functioning on a replaced chiller and two are kinda struggling to survive. What we are going to do is put in a rental unit next week, which will give us an additional 200 tonnes.

That along with chiller four and the replaced chiller should carry us until the brand new chillers are put in place. Then with the appropriate maintenance and security we expect that we can put this problem behind us once and for all,” the minister explained.

‘DECISION ON NHI CATASTROPHIC CARE EXPANSION STILL SIX MONTHS AWAY’ WHILE stressing the government’s commitment to fully implement National Health Insurance, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said it will be another six months before a decision is made about when the scheme can be expanded to include catastrophic care.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Dr Sands was non-committal on whether the expansion would take place in 2021 as he stated last month.

He said Cabinet did not agree to escalate to highcost care but to defer the additional services to a later date.

Presently, around 55,000 people are receiving primary care services through NHI. “Six months from now we will revisit this and make a determination as to when we could expand

to catastrophic care,” said Dr Sands. “I believe that it remains something that the public finds appealing.

“There is no question that given the issue of cookouts and paying for these expensive services - especially in light of the scourge of non-communicable diseases - heart disease is expensive; cancer is expensive, accessing certain sophisticated health services is expensive. At the same time solidarity in shared expenses is something that requires a contribution from the public and the public, while they are happy to have additional services, are not so happy to pay for it.”

He suggested NHI was not a priority due to more important issues.

“So the discussion has been the incremental increase in services provided through National Health Insurance specifically the addition of high cost of catastrophic

coverage that would be an obligatory increase in cost (and) depending on who you speak to anywhere between $60m or $100m or thereabout.

“We would have decided not to add any new taxes this fiscal year. The discussion has continued about when NHI would increase the services provided and what I would have said in my budget contribution is that we would delay for about six months any additional discussion or decision on the incremental ramping up of services provided through NHI. “In the meantime, primary care services continue.”

He added: “We would have made a commitment in our manifesto 2017 that this is something that we are committed to. Bear in mind that there are many things that we would like to do.

“We as an administration would have been criticised

about the expansion of scholarships for UB and here it is it’s happening at a significant investment by the Bahamian public.

“As we expand these services, they come with a price tag and so while we may not be able to do it this week or this month it doesn’t mean that we have separated ourselves from the goal to get it done.”

The catastrophic care phase of NHI was initially to be launched in July 2020.

The National Health Insurance Authority’s latest proposition to fund NHI said the programme will be funded by contributions from businesses.

It estimated the annual premium per employee would be $1,000 per year or $84 per month.

Employees earning more than $66,667 will pay the entire premium.

FOR SALE

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

FAITH GARDENS SUBDIVISION PROPERTY DESCRIPTION: Multi Family Residential PROPERTY SIZE: 7,800 sq. ft.

ACCOMMODATION: Consists of two-two bedrooms, one bathroom, living/dining room, kitchen, laundry, closet and porch.

LOCATION: Traveling east along Cleveland Boulevard from Faith Avenue, turn on to the last corner on the right, heading south the subject is the 19th lot on the left.

APPRAISAL VALUE: $227,000.00

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

PAGE 8, Tuesday, July 9, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

W Felicia fighting to help

HEN Felicia was just 16-years-old, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She knew she was too young and that life would never be the same. She was born in a two-parent home and she considered her life stable until the age of 10, when her parents got divorced.

“From when my parents very dramatic divorce started, it affected me,” Felicia admits. “It was hard on me as a young girl… and very confusing. Verbal abuse, instability and rejection from both sides of my family led me to run away from home. I ran to what gave me a sense of peace even though it was toxic... street life. Eventually, I was bought before the courts and labelled ‘uncontrollable’. After I became a young mother, I struggled to change my life. With no support from my child’s father and lack of support from my family, it was tough. Many days I missed school because I didn’t have the baby items or the financial support I needed. I managed to endure through a series of relationships with older men who came to my relief but then they ended up in abuse, STDs and unwanted pregnancy.”

This is the storyline of hundreds of girls all over the country. For Felicia, this was all of 25 years ago but today in our society the story is still the same.

Knowing that 71 percent of the Bahamian society is made up of single parent homes, that 63 percent are spearheaded by women and that these statistics have been the norm for nearly three generations, Felicia decided to do something about it – she formed Teen Life Skills organisation.

Felicia knows the path to becoming a teen mother is one anyone can take, from any background and any social strata. For her, she was a thriving private school student attending Queen’s College and swimming in the Baraccuda swim club. She spent almost all of her primary school life there but in grade six, her parents’ divorce resulted in her having to leave before her final year was complete. She attended Stephen Dillet Primary and after graduation, she returned to Queen’s College for Junior High. However, the instability returned and she only completed one semester before being “bounced around” from school to school including Academia, Government High and LW Young.

young women from falling through the cracks in the system

Then Felicia fell pregnant.

She ended up attending PACE school for pregnant girls. She graduated from that programme and was lucky enough to be able to go back to school. She attended DW Davis where she graduated in 1999. She had always aspired to be a doctor but because of all the bumps in the road, she was not able to focus on her dream and ended up becoming a teen mom instead.

“I tried to do things the right way and seek out a public service that would give me assistance,” she explained.

“After about eight weeks of trying, I was denied assistance. They said I didn’t need the services. I was devastated. I refused to go back to the old way of doing things just to make ends meet. I vowed that whenever I got on my feet, I would assist other young mothers fighting to change their outcome. As time went on, I got a job in the hotel with the help of my grandmother. Over the years working in the hospitality industry, I still had the burning desire to further my education. It was very difficult. From the Bahamas Hotel Training College to the College of the Bahamas, I was in and out college life for about 12 years trying to find my niche.”

Fast forward to today, Felicia (nee Campbell) has a Bachelor’s degree in Christian Counselling and a Master’s degree in Organisational Leadership from New Covenant University

in Jacksonville, Florida. Her first child was by a “former gang member turned drunken master”. Today, she has a loving husband, Stephon Carey with whom she had another child.

After the birth of her second child, she looked at her two beautiful daughters and remembered her vow to help others.

She started mentoring young girls through the CHANJED mentorship programme. She went on to attend the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture’s Youth Leadership Certification Programme. It was then that Felicia says she was “inspired by the Holy Spirit” to start her own programme. After sharing her path to teen pregnancy, her church family at Bahamas Harvest Church, as well as Ministry officials John Darville and Cherrylee Pinder, encouraged her to start an organisation that would “serve the real needs of young parents”. By March of 2018, Teen Life Skills Services (TLS) was born.

“I am passionate about serving young parents, young mothers in particular who are facing gender based violence, poverty, human trafficking or are fighting for a fresh start,” said Felicia.

“I believe that all youth matter - that includes young parents. Despite the negative risk factors young parents face, once the right support is made available to them, they can succeed.

My aim is to serve those who have fallen through the cracks and to remind them

Junior Competitive Coach and Learn To Swim Coordinator Club Overview The Barracuda Swim Club (BSC) is a parent run organization, established in 1972. It is a non-profit, well-established, long-standing, fully functioning organization, with a history of excellence. The BSC is dedicated to building and improving our nation and people, particularly the youth, through the sport of swimming.

The BSC is committed to the development of each individual swimmer’s physical fitness, self-discipline, self-confidence, competence in water safety, proficiency in competitive swimming strokes, determination for distinction and best efforts, sportsmanship, and quality of character.

Position Summary The Junior Competitive Coach and Learn to Swim Coordinator will be responsible for the development and delivery of the junior competitive and learn to swim programs. You will be responsible for the delivery of coaching sessions and oversight of all LTS operations which include swimmer placement and staff management.

The Junior Competitive Coach and Learn to Swim Coordinator (under the direction of the Head Coach and Senior Assistant Coach) will lead and foster systematic growth from the learn to swim program to the competitive program while working within the Team Mission, Vision, and Values.

Minimum Requirements 1. 3 years Coaching experience 2. ASCA-2 certification or equivalent, and CPR and basic first-aid certifications.

3. Thorough knowledge of FINA rules, regulations, best practices, strategies, and techniques related to the sport of swimming and the training of swimmers.

4. Sound and effective coaching techniques and skills for all four strokes, starts and turns

TOP: Felicia at the Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations headquarters, New York City; Right: Felicia and her daughters Marrisa and Zuri support her mom, Ivy Campbell, as she received her doctorate degree. of Jeremiah 29… they have a purpose. They can still dream big knowing they have support on their freshstart journey.”

Felicia knows teen parents need all the support they can get. Even now, 25 years after becoming a teen mom, there are still people in her life who will remind her of how she lived her life back then. She alluded to the United Nation’s 2013 spotlight on “motherhood in childhood” and the call for governments, churches, organisations and individuals to put mechanisms in place to support young parents. She also pointed out the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child and the mandate for children to be afforded proper health and education services. TLS, she said, can play an important role in Bahamian society, advocating for these young parents who face “falling through the cracks”.

“In the last five years, I have noticed that a lot of mothers under the age of 24 have repeated pregnancies,” she said.

“They are often in violent situations. They and their children are at risk of injury and even death.

We need to empower our young mothers to become more independent, literate and socially well-rounded.

They need to know that even though they may have been put in a situation such as young parenthood, either voluntarily or involuntarily (in the case of rape, abuse and molestation) that they rise above the challenge. As

women we need to impart knowledge to other young women going through similar situations and help avoid such tragedy and trauma.

This is why is started TLS. “Teen pregnancy is nothing new. Teen pregnancy is currently down a bit, but I believe opinion abortions are on the rise. Young mothers are subjecting themselves to this because they don’t want to face the stigma and without support, men will abuse them even more. A lot of young persons don’t use family planning. They need to know their rights… their sexual rights and we need to build awareness, letting them know they have support if they go down the road of teen pregnancy.”

Although she cannot confirm it, Felicia believes abortions are on the rise because there is a rise in HIV and STD statistics in young Bahamians, but there are fewer pregnancies or in some cases, the pregnancies are not coming to full term.

The age of sexual consent, she said, should be raised from 16 to 18: “A 16-yearold still cannot go to clinic to receive any type of medical attention unless parents are there. So it doesn’t make sense that they could give consent for sex but cannot go and get medical assistance they need such as birth control without their parents being present.”

TLS is seeking to change that by educating young parents, particularly those between the ages of 14 and 25. Felicia said it was terrifying when she first started

TLS, because it meant exposing her past. However, she has found it made her more relatable to young mothers.

In the past years and three months, TLS has assisted 70 young parents and 95 percent of them are young mothers. TLS has hosted several Community Cares initiatives in Nassau and has worked with the PACE school in Grand Bahama. Her non-governmental organisation (NGO) has grown to include a number of dedicated volunteers who have helped with providing baby items, counselling and moral support to mothers enrolled in skill building programmes. TLS has made such an impact that the NGO received the 2018/2019 Minister’s Cup for Youth Organisational Excellence. Felicia has even travelled to New York to the UN headquarters and has represented the Bahamas with a contingent from the Ministry of Social Services at the Commission on the Status of Women, where she sat in sessions which focused on single mothers.

“Another reason I started TLS Services is to be the person I needed 25 years ago,” Felicia shared.

TLS is currently hosting a “Baby and Back to School Drive” to raise funds and goods for young parents. Pampers and wipes, gently used baby clothing and school supplies are being collected. For more information, email teenlifeskills242@gmail.com or call Felicia Campbell-Carey at 456-4071.

Competitive Compensation Package Please submit Cover Letter and Resume to: swim@thebarracudaswimclub.com Further Inquires Call (242)376-9313 Application Deadline Friday, July 12th, 2019

FELICIA receives a National Youth Award from then Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling and Minister of Social Services Frankie Campbell

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, July 9, 2019, PAGE 9

FLYING BLIND:

TECHTALK

APPS HELP THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED NAVIGATE AIRPORT

By KRISTEN DE GROOT Associated Press

NAVIGATING airports can be tricky. They’re loud, crowded and not always laid out intuitively.

They’re even more challenging for visually impaired people.

Chieko Asakawa knows those challenges firsthand, and she has also devised a remedy.

Asakawa has been blind since she was 14 and is now an IBM Fellow and a professor in Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. This spring, she and other researchers at Carnegie Mellon launched a navigation app for Pittsburgh International Airport that provides turn-by-turn audio instructions to users on how to get to their destination, be it a departure gate, restaurant or restroom.

Pittsburgh is one of a growing number of airports around the globe to provide wayfinding apps. The Pittsburgh app, called NavCog, was first used at the Carnegie Mellon campus and works almost like an indoor GPS. “Independence is very important,” she said. “Technology has been helping us to be more independent and this is one of the examples. We still have a lot of challenges, but we will keep working to make it easier.”

Typically, visually impaired travelers arrive at the Pittsburgh airport and request an escort, Asakawa said, but escorts aren’t available until passengers check in. So they must reach the counter on their own.

The escort brings passengers to their gate and leaves, she said. For Asakawa, if she wanted a coffee, or if the flight was delayed, it was very difficult to manage, and very often she’d just be stranded at the gate.

With NavCog, she can get up and find the gift shop or coffee shop or even just wander around a bit, she said. The app is up and running and free to download.

It works with the help of hundreds of Bluetooth beacons installed inside

CHIEKO Asakawa using the airport wayfinding app that she and her team at Carnegie Mellon University to navigate through Pittsburgh International Airside terminal in Imperial, Pa. before boarding a flight to Japan. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar/File) the airport to wirelessly communicate a user’s location.

Users put in where they are going; for example, Gate A3. The app gives users audio instructions like “walk 20 feet and turn left” and gets them to their destination. The app lets users know what stores they might be passing, giving them a better sense of their surroundings, and shopping options.

It relies on a map of the terminal that has been annotated with the locations of restrooms, restaurants, gates, entrances and ticketing counters.

Ten legally blind people tested the app using an iPhone 8, traversing the terminal’s large open spaces, escalators and moving walkways with few errors. Most users were able to reach the ticketing counter in three minutes, traverse the terminal in about six minutes, go from the gate to a restroom in a minute and go from the gate to a restaurant in about four minutes, the researchers said.

Carnegie Mellon and the airport

have partnered in developing new systems and technologies for enhancing traveler experiences and airport operations. The technology is tested at the university’s on-site lab at the airport.

Commitment “Part of our commitment to the public includes making sure our airport works for everyone, particularly as we modernise our facility for the future,” said airport CEO Christina Cassotis.

The city is building a new airport terminal, slated to open in 2023, and incorporating the latest technology is a top priority, she said.

Dozens of airports, including Philadelphia International, offer free use of a service called Aira, where users connect with an “agent” either by using glasses equipped with a camera or through a smartphone app that accesses the user’s camera.

Agents look at the footage and

help relay what they see to the user, getting them where they need to go. The service is typically subscription-based and can be used at home or at work, but participating airports pay the fees for users on site.

Louisville International in Kentucky installed an app similar to NavCog in 2017, created by the American Printing House for the Blind, a company that develops products for the visually impaired.

Brian Charlson, with the American Council of the Blind, has been involved in wayfinding for over 30 years and has seen a number of airports and train stations try different technological approaches to make their spaces easier to navigate for the visually impaired. The NavCog app, he said, is a useful mashup of systems he’s seen over the years.

He cautions, though, that the blind population is older and has a high unemployment rate, so many don’t have access to smartphones, meaning such apps might be inaccessible.

Having options is always beneficial for the visually impaired, said John McInerney, interim CEO of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind.

“The apps can be very helpful,” McInerney said.

“The whole idea is that you would not have to depend on a person to help you.

“But even today, that’s still a pretty good option.”

WIMBLEDON REWORKS AI TECH TO REDUCE BIAS IN GAME HIGHLIGHTS

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — Efforts to make artificial intelligence fairer now extend to Wimbledon’s courts.

The All England Club, which hosts the famed British tennis event, is adding technology enhancements at this year’s tournament aimed at eliminating bias from computer generated video highlights.

The club has already been using AI to go through hours of footage and automatically pick out the best shots from matches played on its 18 courts. The AI chooses the moments based on criteria including whether a player does a fist pump and how much the audience cheers after a point. Fans can then watch the assembled videos online and players can use them to review their performance.

For this year’s tournament, which runs until

STAFF monitor game data and work on match analysis at an operations room during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London. (AP Photo/Kelvin Chan) July 19, the AI has been tweaked to balance out any favouritism shown to a player who gestures more or has a louder fan base.

The goal is to make sure an equally skilled yet more

reserved opponent gets similar exposure.

“Just because you don’t pump your fist doesn’t mean it’s not a good shot,” said Sam Seddon, a client executive at IBM, the

club’s technology provider.

Tech bias has come into focus lately amid growing awareness that artificial intelligence systems aren’t neutral tools but reflect society because

they’re programmed by humans. Other, more serious examples include facial recognition that misidentifies darker-skinned people and financial algorithms that charge higher interest rates to Latino and black borrowers. Some U.S. lawmakers are calling for tighter scrutiny that includes subjecting big companies to an “algorithmic accountability” test of their high-risk AI systems.

Seddon said IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence system scans video footage and scores it on crowd cheering, player gestures and how important each point is, to give matches an “excitement ranking” to find the best clips.

Those scores are now adjusted to smooth out any bias because otherwise “you could potentially have a situation whereby not all of the best moments of a match are identified,” Seddon said.

• DOZENS of city employees in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler will use selfdriving vehicles at work in partnership with Waymo, an autonomous vehicle company.

The partnership will begin this month as Chandler evaluates whether using the autonomous vehicles cuts costs to maintain and operate its vehicle fleet and makes employees more productive, The Arizona Republic reported.

Officials say the programme will last at least a year.

Chandler has been a leader on testing autonomous vehicles in metro Phoenix.

Waymo, formerly known as the Google self-driving car project, has been testing its autonomous vehicles in the area since 2016. Waymo has an operations centre in Chandler and is opening a technical service centre in Mesa this year.

The partnership will let employees use the Waymo app to schedule rides to work meetings within the company’s service area. The rides will be charged to employees’ purchasing cards, the city said.

“We’ve worked closely with Waymo for the past several years, and it’s a natural progression to utilise their technology,” Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke said. “We’re proud to have another innovative first with this partnership to explore increased productivity and cost savings related to our motor pool fleet.”

Several dozen employees will participate, but Waymo says it wants the programme to keep growing.

“We’re thrilled that city employees will now be able to ride in Waymo vehicles to get around for work,” said Dezbah Hatathli, policy and community manager for Waymo in Chandler.

“Our hope is that this collaboration allows the city to realise its goal of reducing its vehicle fleet and lowering costs.”

The Waymo partnership is the first of its kind with a city government but not the company’s first partnership with a government in metro Phoenix, the newspaper reported.

Valley Metro and Waymo teamed up last year to get transit riders from their houses or workplaces to the nearest light rail or bus station.

The two-year pilot programme began with a controlled group of Valley Metro and Phoenix employees.

• JAGUAR Land Rover says it will manufacture a range of electric cars in the U.K., a boost to an industry braced for turmoil ahead of Britain’s departure from the European Union.

The all-electric version of the Jaguar XJ sedan will be made at the firm’s factory in Castle Bromwich, in central England. The plant will close for six weeks so new equipment can be installed.

CEO Ralf Speth said last week that the “future of future of mobility is electric,” and that the company is committed to making the next generation of zero-emission vehicles in the U.K. The decision comes during a time of great anxiety for the auto industry in the U.K., which is struggling with uncertainties over Brexit as well as global issues buffeting the sector.

PAGE 10, Tuesday, July 9, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

No retrial as man has 42-year murder sentence quashed

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net A MAN has had his more than 40-year sentence for murdering someone he called a friend over five

years ago quashed by the Court of Appeal.

The court set aside Deangelo Johnson’s 42-year sentence for murdering 19-year-old James Farrington in March of 2014.

No retrial was ordered

as the “nature of the evidence” was “inadequate” as a result of which the case should have ended at the no-case submission stage, the court ruled.

At trial, the Crown’s case was that sometime between

7pm and 9pm on March 8, 2014, Farrington was riding a bicycle on Milton Street when Johnson was waiting for him near a shortcut on Milton Street armed with a handgun. When Farrington rode past him, Johnson ran after him and shot at him, hitting him.

Farrington consequently fell from his bicycle. Afterwards, Johnson ran through a shortcut in the direction of his home, the prosecution argued.

The principle eyewitness, Dayton Bethel, was in the area of the incident sometime between 8 or 9 o’clock and heard about nine or ten gunshots. He said he saw four men running through the Bargain City shortcut. Those men, he said, ran and disappeared into a yard where he lost sight of them.

Nonetheless, Mr Bethel said he was able to see the men for about 15 to 20 seconds at a distance of about 45 feet. He said there wasn’t really anything obstructing his view of the men and that there was light in the area from the nearby Bargain City and Our Lady’s Catholic Church.

Mr Bethel said he recognised two of the four men as people he knew all of his life, one of whom was Johnson and who had a black gun in his hand. Mr Bethel said that was the only gun he saw. He further stated that all four of the men were wearing black, and that the two men he was able to recognise were both wearing hoodies.

Mr Bethel later identified Johnson on an identification parade.

Meanwhile, Johnson gave sworn evidence and denied the offence. He said he was at home at the time of the incident waiting for his

cousin to cut her birthday cake. He also said he told the police where he was at the investigate stage of the case and provided them with an alibi.

Johnson further asserted that he and Farrington were friends and that he was thus unable to fathom why Mr Bethel would lie on him.

Johnson called one witness, Phillipa Rolle, to testify in support of his alibi. She gave evidence that Johnson was inside of a house and when she was about to cut her birthday cake, gunshots were heard.

Nonetheless, Johnson was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison on June 27, 2016.

On appeal, Johnson’s attorney Roberto Reckley asserted the trial judge should have taken the case from the jury at the close of the Crown’s case as there was insufficient evidence of identification of his client.

Mr Reckley contended that taken at its highest, the Crown’s case was that his client was seen running with a gun in his hand after shots were heard. There was no identification linking Johnson to Farrington’s murder.

However, Crown attorney Racquel Whymms charged that the trial judge was in fact correct to send the case to the jury. Ms Whymms further asserted that there was sufficient evidence of identification, borne entirely out of Mr Bethel’s evidence.

However, the appellate judges found that the Crown’s assertions “do not address satisfactorily, the central issue of identification”.

Firstly, the appellate judges said no evidence was led from Mr Bethel on how recently he had seen

Johnson, and for how long, beyond saying he knew him his whole life. Additionally, the appellate judges noted that Bethel’s identification of Johnson placed him in the area of the shooting only.

To that end, the appellate judges said there was no evidence to distinguish the men who were seen on Milton Street from the four men seen running through the shortcut on Deveaux Street. Thus, the judges said that evidence was “an invitation for the jury to speculate about who did the shooting, who did not and whether they were all in it together”.

Furthermore, the appellate judges noted that Mr Bethel said that the two persons he identified out of the four—one of whom was Johnson—“had on hoodies”. However, the judges said there was no clarification of Mr Bethel’s evidence that the men “had on hoodies”. Additionally, there was no suggestion that the hoodies were not covering the heads of the men he saw.

The appellate judges further noted that when asked about obstructions to his view of Johnson, he replied “not really”, and when asked to clarify what he meant, he spoke about the lighting and the time of day.

“For these reasons we are of the view that the quality of the identification evidence was inadequate and the case should have been withdrawn from the jury at the close of the prosecution’s case…,” the appellate judges said. “(Johnson’s) appeal is allowed, and the conviction and sentence in the court below quashed. Having regard to the nature of the evidence in this matter we do not order a retrial.”

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, July 9, 2019, PAGE 11

‘LGBTI COMMUNITY MARGINALISED BY CHURCH AND STATE’

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE LGBTI community’s silence over the years has allowed it to become marginalised by the state and church, according to Pride Bahamas organisers.

But having been pushed to the sidelines this position is no longer accepted by younger generations who plan a series of events to shift cultural attitudes.

Spokeswoman Alexus D’Marco told The Tribune said the planned 2020 Pride parade will not be a celebration of decadence but education and awareness.

She said the success of next year’s event is critical to

repairing a lingering international stigma against The Bahamas as a homophobic country and pushed back against propaganda that the event would be staged in the downtown area.

The group intends to use private and inclusive safe spaces to host an opening ceremony and flag-raising and a series of other events under the theme: “The Rebirth of Pride Bahamas Centering LGBTIQA people in the Bahamas’ Future”.

It’s a nod at previous attempts to host a national celebration that fell flat due to lack of support.

“We call it the rebirth because everything is timing,” Ms D’Marco said, “it takes community. I think

the organisers last time didn’t have community.

People were so in fear of who they are, but there is a new generation that is free and open and not afraid to tell you – ‘this is who I am’.

We can respect people’s identity, it is okay to still be in the closet. But we have persons who are leaders in our community who identify as LGBTI.” Ms D’Marco continued: “If I can’t host a pride (event) in my country, but I can go to another county and be prominent in those celebrations, be a grand marshal, then we have a problem. The world stage is recognising the work we are doing with other Caribbean countries.

“Jamaica known for its

homophobia, and violence, and it is on its seventh year of pride. Barbados is in their second, Guyana on its second. The Bahamas has decriminalised same-sex relations since 1991, but countries who have not decriminalised are bold enough and hosting pride where they can be killed for that.

“Our community has sat back for too long and became invisible by the church, by people in government – (some) who even identify as LGBTI. The state has an obligation to protect all citizens, so if we assemble the state has an obligation to protect us.”

Ms D’Marco also called for the administrators of Facebook groups and social media platforms to stop

FORT Charlotte Community Centre Camp Believe opened yesterday. Top left is Alfred Sears.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

using LGBTI issues to bait their audience and increase engagement.

She pointed to the damaging impact of the protest to US comedienne Rosie O’Donnell’s gay family cruise, which was met with scores of angry protestors when it docked in Nassau in July 2004, to the country’s human rights profile.

“Pride is not just for people who identify as LGBTI,” she said, “it’s for allies also and you don’t have to be LGBTI to be a part of pride because you have donors, corporations the LGBTI community are also consumers, tourism.

There is a lot of LGBTI people who are unsure about The Bahamas

because of the Rosie O’Donnell cruise. They still feel the backlash from that and are thinking we’re this homophobic country.

“We’re trying to raise the human rights profile of The Bahamas. This is one way we’re going to raise the profile, not just with pride but through the OAS (Organisation of American States), the consultations with the government.

“It’s a shifting in the culture and attitudes of the LGBTI community in The Bahamas and the attitudes toward LGBTI community.

This is not a parade of decadence, that’s not what it is for us, this is to educate our decision-makers, gatekeepers, and families as to who we are as human beings.”

PAGE 12, Tuesday, July 9, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

TODDLER DIES IN FALL FROM CRUISE SHIP IN PUERTO RICO SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Associated Press

A ONE-YEAR-OLD GIRL apparently slipped from her grandfather’s hands and fell to her death from the 11th story of a cruise ship docked in Puerto Rico.

Police Sgt. Nelson Sotelo said that the family of Chloe Wiegand will remain in the US territory until the investigation is complete.

He said officers have not been able to interview any relatives yet.

“They’re in shock,” he said.

Authorities said the girl was travelling with her parents, two siblings and two sets of

grandparents aboard the Freedom of the Seas, which docked in Puerto Rico on Sunday after a weeklong trip through the Caribbean.

Sotelo said the toddler’s maternal grandfather, Salvatore Anello of Valparaiso, Indiana, is under investigation. He said the rest of the family is from Granger, Indiana.

The South Bend Police Department said in a statement that the girl was the daughter of Officer Alan Wiegand and asked “the community to pray for the entire Wiegand family as they grieve and to respect their privacy.”

The police chief of South Bend, Indiana, Scott Ruszkowski, disputed the statement issued by Puerto Rico police that the girl was being held out of a window in an interview with WSBT television.

Puerto Rico Ports Authority spokesman José Carmona told the AP that the family was gathered in or near a dining hall on the 11th floor and that the grandfather sat the toddler on the edge of a window.

He said officials are investigating whether the window was already opened or if someone had opened it.

THE FREEDOM of the Seas cruise ship

FINANCIER CHARGED WITH MOLESTING DOZENS OF YOUNG GIRLS

MEMBERS of the United States women’s soccer team, winners of a fourth Women’s World Cup, with the trophy after arriving at Newark Airport yesterday

NEW YORK Associated Press

Trump will ‘no longer deal’ with UK envoy LONDON Associated Press

PRESIDENT Donald Trump threatened to cut off contact with Britain’s ambassador to the United States yesterday after leaked diplomatic cables revealed the envoy called the Trump administration “dysfunctional” and “inept”.

The US leader tweeted about Ambassador Kim Darroch a day after a British newspaper published the diplomat’s unflattering assessments of the current administration in Washington. “I do not know the Ambassador, but he is not liked or well thought of within the US. We will no longer deal with him,” Trump wrote.

The documents have created awkwardness between two countries that are longtime allies. British officials said they were hunting for the culprit behind the leak, which was both an embarrassment to Prime Minister Theresa May’s government and a major breach of diplomatic

PRESIDENT Donald Trump security. Darroch has served as Britain’s envoy to Washington since 2016, and the cables cover a period from 2017 to recent weeks.

In the leaked documents he called the Trump administration’s policy toward Iran “incoherent,” said the president might be indebted to “dodgy Russians” and raised doubts about whether the White House “will ever look competent.”

“We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” one missive said.

The documents were intended for senior UK ministers and civil servants. Government officials think the mole will be found among British politicians or officials, not foreign governments or hackers.

“I’ve seen nothing to suggest hostile state actors were involved,” said May’s spokesman, James Slack.

Some UK diplomatic cables go to more than 100 recipients, though more sensitive messages have a smaller distribution list.

The inquiry is being led by civil servants in the Cabinet Office, and Slack said police would only be called in “if evidence of criminality is found”.

But Conservative U.K. lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, who chairs Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said he had written to the chief

of London’s Metropolitan Police asking for a criminal investigation into the leak.

It’s possible the leaker could be charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act, which bars public servants from making “damaging” disclosures of classified material.

Breaching the act carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, though prosecutions are rare.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said there would be “very serious consequences” if the culprit was caught.

Amid the trans-Atlantic strain, Trump renewed his criticism of the outgoing prime minister’s handling of Britain’s stalled departure from the European Union. “I have been very critical about the way the UK and Prime Minister Theresa May handled Brexit,” he tweeted.

“What a mess she and her representatives have created. I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way.”

IN A startling reversal of fortune, billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was charged yesterday with sexually abusing dozens of underage girls in a case brought more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors to dispose of nearly identical allegations.

The 66-year-old hedge fund manager who once socialised with some of the world’s most powerful people was charged in a newly unsealed federal indictment with sex trafficking and conspiracy during the early 2000s.

The case sets the stage for another #MeToo-era trial fraught with questions of wealth and influence.

Prosecutors said the evidence against Epstein included a “vast trove” of hundreds or even thousands of lewd photographs of young women or girls, discovered in a weekend search of his New York City mansion. Authorities also found papers and phone records corroborating the alleged crimes, and a massage room still set up the way accusers said it appeared, prosecutors said.

Epstein, who was arrested on Saturday as he arrived in the US from Paris aboard his private jet, was brought into court yesterday in a blue jail uniform, his hair disheveled, and pleaded not guilty. He was jailed for a bail hearing next Monday, when prosecutors plan to argue that the rich world traveler might flee if released.

His lawyers argued that the sex-crime allegations had been settled in 2008 with a plea agreement in Florida that was overseen

by Alexander Acosta, who was the US attorney in Miami at the time and is now Trump’s labor secretary.

“This is ancient stuff,” Epstein attorney Reid Weingarten said in court.

IRAN BREACHES KEY URANIUM UN RIGHTS CHIEF ‘APPALLED’ BY ENRICHMENT LIMIT IN NUCLEAR DEAL CONDITIONS IN US FOR MIGRANTS TEHRAN, Iran Associated Press

IRAN yesterday began enriching uranium to 4.5%, just breaking the limit set by its nuclear deal with world powers, while it is still seeking a way for Europe to help it bypass US sanctions amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The acknowledgement by the spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows that the Islamic Republic trying to increase pressure on those still in the 2015 nuclear deal. It also comes just days after Iran acknowledged breaking the 300-kilogram limit on its low-enriched uranium stockpile, another term of the accord.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, confirmed that Iran surpassed the enrichment threshold.

Experts warn that higher enrichment and a growing stockpile could begin to narrow the one-year

IRAN’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi window Iran would need to have enough material for an atomic weapon, something Iran denies it wants but the deal prevented. While the steps now taken by Iran remain quickly reversible, Europe so far has struggled to respond.

There are fears that a miscalculation in the crisis could explode into open conflict. President Donald Trump, who withdrew the US from the nuclear deal over a year ago and re-imposed crippling economic sanctions on Iran, nearly bombed the country last month after Tehran shot down a U.S. military

surveillance drone. Even China, engaged in delicate trade negotiations with the White House, openly criticised America’s policy toward Iran.

“What I want to emphasise is that the maximum pressure the US imposes on Iran is the root cause of the crisis in the Iranian nuclear issue,” said Geng Shuang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman. “It has been proven that unilateral bullying is creating more problems and greater crises on a global scale.”

Trump warned that “Iran better be careful.” He didn’t elaborate on what actions the US might consider but told reporters: “Iran’s doing a lot of bad things.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Iran appreciated the efforts of some nations to save the deal, but offered a jaded tone on whether Tehran trusted anyone in the negotiations.

“We have no hope nor trust in anyone, nor any country, but the door of diplomacy is open,” Mousavi said.

GENEVA Associated Press

THE United Nations’ human rights chief said Monday she was “appalled” by the conditions migrants and refugees face in U.S. detention facilities, intensifying a challenge to the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said children stopped by border agents should never be held in immigration detention facilities or separated from their families, and detention should not be the norm for adults, either.

“Any deprivation of liberty of adult migrants and refugees should be a measure of last resort,” the U.N. commissioner said, appealing for “non-custodial alternatives.”

A spokeswoman for the UN human rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, said Bachelet decided to speak out more forcefully than before after the U.S.

MIGRANT children eat a meal provided by United in Christ Ministry of Los Fresnos, Texas, Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general issued a report last week warning of dangerous conditions in US immigration detention facilities.

Many migrants and refugees set off on “perilous journeys with their children in search of protection and dignity and away from violence and hunger,” Bachelet said in a statement.

“When they finally believe they have arrived in safety, they may find themselves separated from their loved ones and locked in undignified conditions,” she added.

President Donald Trump said that migrants were coming from “unbelievable poverty” and “those are people that are very happy with what’s going on because, relatively speaking, they’re in much better shape right now” in U.S. custody.

He went on to praise the work of the Border Patrol and other law enforcement officers on the US-Mexico border, saying, “it’s incredible what they’re doing.

They’ve had to become nurses. They’ve had to become janitors.”