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T R I B U N E 2 4 2 . C O M

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Volume: 118 No.166, July 26, 2021

THE PEOPLE’S PAPER: PRICE–$1

NURSES - DON’T TRY TO FORCE JAB ON US

INSIGHT SPECIAL GANGLAND GENERAL: THE GRIM REAPER IS WAITING

As hospitals buckle under surge of cases, mandatory vaccines meet opposition

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net CHIEF Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan’s assertion that mandatory vaccines for healthcare workers is under consideration was yesterday criticised even though vaccine hesitancy particularly among medical workers continues to be a challenge.

Many in the sector remain hesitant to receive the shot at a time when 93 people are in hospital battling COVID-19 and cases are surging across the country.

The resurgence has led to a strain on public health facilities and the reimposition of harsher restrictions in New Providence, Grand Bahama along with North and Central Eleuthera, including Harbour Island.

As a result, recommendations have been put forward to consider making vaccinations mandatory for healthcare workers, Dr McMillan said Friday.

“I do not have the exact percentage, but we recognise the need for that grouping to be on board with vaccinations and in SEE PAGE THREE

NATIONAL ADDRESS TO DETAIL NEW MEASURES PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis is expected to address the country at 8pm Wednesday regarding his administration’s continued fight against COVID-19.

Dr Minnis will announce a series of measures to assist with care of people in hospital with COVID-19, steps to limit the further spread of the virus and an update on the country’s efforts to secure more vaccines.

The announcement comes as two additional deaths, and 100 new cases of the virus were recorded Friday.

The fatalities, a 66-yearold man and a 44-year-old man, who were residents of New Providence.

There have now been 282 deaths because of COVID-19.

Eighty of the new virus cases were in New Providence, seven in Grand Bahama and Abaco had five.

Bimini & Cat Cay recorded four new cases while Eleuthera and Exuma both recorded two new cases each.

SEE PAGE THREE

DANCING DEANDRE BAHAMIAN basketball star Deandre Ayton of the Phoenix Suns returned home on Friday after playing in the 2021 NBA championship finals - complete with a Junkanoo welcome.

Photo: Kemuel Stubbs/BIS

WATCHDOG ORDERS TV AD TO BE PULLED THE Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority has ordered Cable Bahamas Limited to immediately cease and desist from broadcasting a political advertisement of Progressive Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis.

In a letter dated July 23,

URCA’s CEO J Carlton Smith said the authority had opened a full investigation into a complaint lodged regarding the ad referring to the PLP and its leader.

The probe falls in line with the watchdog’s content code.

SEE PAGE FOUR

COURT AWARDS EX-PLP MP PINDER JUST $1,900

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AN EX-PLP MP has won just two percent of his $84,420 legal claim against the Government for what he described as “the most humiliating episode of my professional career”.

Former Marathon MP Ron Pinder also slammed a civil service appointments culture used “to play games with people’s lives” when giving evidence before the Industrial Tribunal to support his wrongful and/or unfair dismissal claim.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

WAS SAMMY SHOT BY MISTAKE? MORE BPL

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net THE former girlfriend of a man who was shot and killed in the Carmichael area on Friday night believes he was a victim of mistaken identity.

While officials have not yet released the man’s name, Magalie Petit-Blanc, the mother of the victim’s

SAMMY PIERRE two-year-old child, said he is 23-year-old Sammy Pierre.

His death has shocked everyone who knew him, she said.

Police said they were called to a shooting incident that occurred on Montgomery Avenue, Flamingo Gardens shortly after 10pm Friday.

Upon their arrival, they found an unresponsive adult male lying on the

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE TWO

BLACKOUT MISERY BAHAMAS Power and Light Company has blamed an issue at its Blue Hills station for an electricity outage that hit numerous communities yesterday.

SEE PAGE FIVE

PAGE 2, Monday, July 26, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Was Sammy shot by mistake?

MAGALIE PETIT-BLANC, the mother of Sammy Pierre’s two-yearold child, speaking to The Tribune.

Photo: Racardo Thomas/Tribune Staff from page one western side of the street with apparent gunshot wounds.

When Emergency Medical Services visited the scene, they examined the body and pronounced the man lifeless.

“Initial investigations revealed that the victim was walking along Montgomery Avenue when he was approached by a lone gunman who discharged the weapon in his direction, fatally wounding him,” police reported. “The suspect fled the scene on foot in an unknown direction”.

When The Tribune yesterday visited the scene, Ms Petit-Blanc said she was heartbroken upon hearing the news of her ex-boyfriend’s death.

Speaking through an interpreter, the young mother said Mr Pierre was adopted and “didn’t really have any family” in the country. She also described him as a “fun person” who adored his daughter.

“He came here earlier that day before he got killed,” she continued. “He was chilling and he was dancing, drinking and playing with his little girl. When it was time for him to go home, he rest her down and she was crying because she wanted to go with him, but he told her ‘No I cannot carry you because I have to go to work in the morning.’

“So that night he walked by himself, and he went home and on his way

home, a lady around here came running and she say: ‘Sammy get shot! Y’all hear Sammy get shot?’ So, when I heard that, I leave my daughter in the house, and I ran to go by the scene. Then we heard Sammy dead.

I was crying and rolling because they say Sammy got kill”.

Ms Petit-Blanc insisted Pierre “did not bother anybody”. She added that his unexpected death was not sitting well with her because “two to one”, it was caused by “mistaken identity”.

“Sammy was adopted.

He don’t really have no family over here and he don’t bother nobody,” she insisted. “I’m taking it hard even though I’m taking care of my daughter alone, because at the end of the day, Sammy was a good dad. He was actually giving his little girl love. He took her places where she had never been and he’d come for her and carry her to the mall, carry her for food and play.

Ms Petit-Blanc said Mr Pierre’s death was “shocking” everybody who knew him because he was not a “troublesome person”.

“If he run on with you, he’ll run on with you and then he’ll walk off and then the next day he’ll talk to you,” she said. “He don’t hold no beef with nobody. I don’t think he was targeted for any reason, it probably was mistaken identity. He’s a fun person. He liked to dance, he liked to drink – that was all him. He was a people’s person,” she said.

CHURCH: WE DON’T ENDORSE FNM USE OF PROPERTY FOR POLITICS

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net THE Archdiocese of Nassau has distanced itself from a photograph of Free National Movement supporters at its Cat Island property, saying it does not authorise the use of its property for partisan purposes.

“It has come to the attention of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nassau that a group of partisan political supporters have used the Hermitage on Mt Alvernia (Como Hill), Cat Island, without permission as the backdrop of a political campaign video,” the archdiocese said in a statement.

“The Archdiocese has made access to The Hermitage, an important religious site for Roman Catholics in The Bahamas and beyond, freely available to the public. However, the Roman Catholic

Archdiocese of Nassau is a non-partisan religious organisation and does not authorise the use of its property for partisan political purposes. All such usage should cease with immediate effect.”

An FNM spokesman denied yesterday that party members were filming a campaign video with the Hermitage as backdrop.

The spokesman said party members had a walkabout in the area with the FNM’s candidate for Cat Island.

“A crew of them had never been to Mr Alvernia. When they went up there they took a picture as people who were excited and having fun. It was not planned or set up,” he said.

Senator Felicia Knowles is the FNM’s candidate for Rum Cay, Cat Island and San Salvador. Progressive Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis is the longtime MP for the constituency.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 26, 2021, PAGE 3

Nurses - don’t try to force jab on us from page one our discussions, I would say deliberations in the health EOC (Emergency Operations Centre), a recommendation would have been put forward for consideration of mandatory vaccinations of healthcare workers because of the significance of that group,” Dr McMillan said during a Ministry of Health press conference.

“Now, there are other things that must be considered because that grouping is the grouping that influences whether or not others, we recommend that you have a healthcare with your provider, so we have to work closely with the health provider grouping to understand their concerns…so that’s something we’re working on now and I’m sure we’ll be in a position to update”.

Yesterday, Bahamas Nurses Union president Amancha Williams criticised the suggestion insisting the decision to take the jab should be a personal choice.

Asked how she felt about the possibility of vaccinations being made mandatory for healthcare workers, Ms Williams said health officials could not make a decision like that without “consulting the union”.

“I disagree with Dr McMillan 100 percent because the choice is theirs,” she told The Tribune.

“My response to (the suggestion) is that they should provide persons in the various institutions with information as well

HOSPITALISATIONS REACH 100 SIXTY-two new COVID-19 cases were recorded Saturday, according to the Ministry of Health.

The number of hospitalisations also increased to 100.

On Friday, the number of COVID-19 hospital cases was 93.

Data released Sunday said 49 of those cases were in New Providence, three cases were in both Grand Bahama and Abaco and one in Bimini and Cat Cay. There were also six new cases in Eleuthera.

Officials said three deaths were also under investigation.

The number of recorded COVID-19 cases now stands at 14,119, with 1,455 active cases. as campaign in the various institutions to educate nurses. They should also respect the opinions and decisions of each nurse.

You cannot make that mandatory”.

Ms Williams said while she does not have a problem with healthcare workers getting vaccinated, she has an issue with the “techniques, method and strategies” the ministry is trying to use to encourage it.

She noted many people have apprehensions about the vaccines. She said she believed those “fears and psychological myths” needed to be relieved and addressed through educational campaigns.

“How do I make you not afraid to swim? I take baby steps with you right?...It’s the same thing,” she stated.

“At the end of the day (if vaccines become mandatory for healthcare workers) then the whole law has to change. If you make it mandatory for the healthcare workers, what do you think will happen in the hotels? What do you think is going to happen in different places and shops?

People will lose their jobs.

And when you look at the population in terms of how many people are vaccinated, the percentage is not very high, and the nurses will only be 0.55 of that population of 100 percent”.

Ms Williams said if medical professionals did not believe in the health ministry’s system, it showed they were not giving them enough information.

“As an individual sitting on the block, if I hear you say the nurses, doctors and the healthcare workers are not vaccinated, to me, I’m going to ask the question ‘Why don’t they believe in what you’re doing? So why would I want to tell the public that the nurses are not vaccinated and I’m campaigning to vaccinate my country?” she questioned.

“Do you see any education going on? So that tells you they’re losing the fight.

Nurses will do what they have to do, but they can’t give us an experimental job. You can’t tell me to put something experimental in my body…It’s a choice”.

Ms Williams insisted the Ministry could not make the vaccine mandatory because they were not

CHIEF Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan at Friday’s press conference. to work. The nurses aren’t imposing coronavirus vac- difference?

“In the United States, going out there infectcinations on other medical professionals in any other hospitals with 5,000 work- ing the patients you know. ers don’t have all of their Ninety-nine percent of the places in the world.

“It is a right,” she stated. workers vaccinated. You nurses are infected by the “Do they make it manda- think they’re firing them? patients. The CDC (Centory that everybody has to No, they’re asking them tres for Disease Control take blood when religious to take precautions (like) and Prevention) states people do not believe in wear your mask and wash that and the WHO (World Organisation) taking blood? Do they your hands with soap and Health make that mandatory to they’re telling them if they states that,” Ms Williams save their lives? What is the have any issues don’t come said.

DAVIS SAYS GOVT LACKS PLAN TO PROTECT COUNTRY

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL ADDRESS TO DETAIL NEW MEASURES

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis has accused the Minnis administration of failing to provide leadership or a plan to protect the country as newer strains of COVID-19 affect public health.

Following Health Minister Renward Wells’ announcement on Friday of the reintroduction of harsher restrictions in New Providence, Grand Bahama, North and Central Eleuthera beginning today at 5am, Mr Davis said the measures will not stop the spread of the virus.

The restrictions include tighter curfew hours, limitations on social gatherings and changes to travel guidelines.

“With cases, hospitalisations and deaths rising, Minnis sends out his inept Minister of Health to announce a mess of disruptive new Emergency Orders that micromanage Bahamians’ lives but will not stop the spread of the virus,” Mr Davis said in a statement released over the weekend.

“The new rules restricting private gatherings to five persons ‘provided that guests are vaccinated’ has been met with ridicule and disbelief from the public.

Amidst a rising wave of robberies and murders, will the police be going doorto-door to count hands and check vaccination status?

“If a neighbour visits a family of five, that gathering violates the latest Emergency Orders, even though all of them would be permitted to go to the gym together. No one thinks that makes any sense – and that’s only the start of the contradictions.

“It’s the worst of all worlds: heavy-handed rules which hurt Bahamians without stopping the transmission of the virus.

from page one In a statement yesterday from the Office of the Prime Minister, Dr Minnis said: “The COVID-19 pandemic is the worst crisis in our country’s modern history. Throughout, the government has instituted a variety of measures,

focusing on saving lives and livelihoods.

“As the fight continues, we must remain focused on prevention, preparedness and the future.”

OPM said the prime minister is focused on implementing policies that protect Bahamians while allowing commerce

to continue in a safe and responsible manner.

The country’s economy has shown substantial gains on the road to recovery in recent months, the statement said, continuing that Dr Minnis seeks to ensure that while acting to save lives Bahamians are able to earn a living.

Children cannot swim or play basketball outside, but they can go to a movie inside.”

Mr Davis said Dr Minnis has failed to secure enough vaccines and to expand testing to “stay ahead of outbreaks”.

A day before the new restrictions were announced, 110 additional cases of COVID-19 were recorded while one more virus-related death was recorded on Friday.

Meanwhile, 100 cases were recorded on Friday along with deaths of a 66-year-old and 44-year-old New Providence men.

Two hundred and eightytwo people have now died from the virus and 14,057 cases have been confirmed to date, 1,351 of which are still active.

Ninety-three people were hospitalised as of July 22, 11 of whom are in the intensive care unit.

On Friday, Mr Wells lamented the uptick in both virus-related cases, hospitalisations and deaths as “concerning”, saying the influx of infections has placed a great strain on the nation’s healthcare system.

Noting that COVID-19 preventative measures are meant to protect and not harm, Mr Wells announced the reimposition of a number of former restrictions, which he said came based on the recommendations of health officials.

Beginning Monday at 5am, Mr Wells said the

curfew on New Providence, Grand Bahama, North and South Eleuthera – including Harbour Island – will go back to 10pm to 5am.

Individuals travelling from those islands are also required to undergo a RT-PCR test. However, the rule will not apply to fully vaccinated people.

On New Providence and Grand Bahama, church services will be limited to one hour and only allowed at 33 percent capacity. Funeral or cremation services are not allowed but graveside services will be permitted with a maximum of 30 people.

This excludes the officiant and funeral workers at those services. No funeral repasts are permitted, however.

Weddings are allowed indoors and outdoors, but not exceeding 30 people.

Mr Wells added: “As regards to restaurants, dining is restricted to outdoor and takeaways services, and it is encouraged that there be no loitering of groups outside restaurants or at fish fries.

These restrictions, however, do not apply to hotel properties.”

“No spas will be opened.

This includes massages, waxing, threading and facials. For all islands of The Bahamas, private gatherings will be restricted to five persons provided that the individuals are vaccinated.”

Mr Wells also announced limitations for campaigning activities, saying all team

members must be fully vaccinated and are limited to groups of five.

“I know you have COVID fatigue,” Mr Wells told Bahamians.

“You are tired of wearing a mask, not hugging a close family member or friend and staying home to prevent contracting the virus.

However, we must remain disciplined. This global pandemic is not over as cases continue to rise globally and nationally.”

Mr Wells said proof that the pandemic is far from over can be seen in the rise of COVID-19 deaths and hospitalisations. According to the health minister, hospital admissions in this third

wave have been notably higher than what was seen in previous waves. He reiterated that most people in hospital have not been fully vaccinated against the virus.

He also renewed appeals for people to collect stored bodies at Princess Margaret Hospital’s morgue, saying the facility has reached beyond its capacity.

“The Rand Laboratory commonly referred to as ‘the morgue’ at PMH can house some 73 deceased persons,” Mr Wells said at Friday’s press conference.

“However, today it holds 225 bodies. That is three times its capacity. Although two refrigerated containers are holding demised bodies outside the morgue, PMH no longer has space.”

“The public is advised that if the deceased bodies are not claimed promptly, the Government reserves the right to take legal action to remove and intern the unclaimed bodies to provide space for those who have recently passed away,” he added.

Meanwhile, for her part, Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan called for a stricter adherence to

public health measures and warned that giving recommendations for full COVID-19 lockdowns are not off the table.

“Certainly, we deliberate every week where we are and full lockdowns are always a consideration of recommendation if we believe that will be the way and the only way to get our hands around what we are in but there are also considerations around full lockdowns as it relates to where our country is,” Dr McMillan said. “But we monitor these things on a daily basis, and we have ad hoc EOCs and should that be necessary we will make further recommendations if that means a lockdown, we will have to do it.”

However, it is not clear if the recent spike of cases will cause government officials to reconsider extending the emergency orders which are set to end August 13.

Asked if health officials recommend the government to extend it, Dr McMillan said: “Should the EOC be tasked with that consideration we will make an appropriate recommendation.”

PAGE 4, Monday, July 26, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Hospital in expansion talks amid criticism for conditions

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net THE Public Hospitals Authority yesterday announced it is “in talks” with international partners to expand the Princess Margaret Hospital’s Special Pathogen Unit amid criticism over the alleged housing conditions of COVID-19 patients at the medical facility.

Over the weekend, a video showing patients lying on gurneys in a corridor of PMH while rain poured through the roof onto the porch just feet away, sparked much public outrage after making its rounds on social media.

In another clip, a woman could be heard describing the conditions at the hospital as “crazy” and calling on Health Minister Renward Wells to intervene.

In the two-minute audio clip, the woman said she was a Bahamian citizen who paid her taxes. She also said she did not care how “overflowing” the hospital was, they should not treat dogs the way they were treating the people that had COVID at the facility.

“My mother called me 4 o’clock this morning crying saying that she’s getting wet up on the porch,” she said in the recording.

“She call for the nurse to move her from the water

(but) everybody playing stupid like they don’t know what’s going on. She already have an ammonia. I went there yesterday, she cried and called me to bring her a cup of tea. I said ‘Mummy they can’t make you tea to the hospital? No tea, no hot water, it’s crazy man.

People is pay tax dollars.

In this Bahamaland we getting charged VAT. Why is it that you can’t have a proper facility to house the people man? You don’t have them outside like that, they’re human beings, they’re not animals”.

Before the clip ends, the woman could be heard pleading with Mr Wells to “help the people at the hospital”.

“Something needs to be done,” she insisted. “You don’t treat animals the way you’re treating the people”.

On Saturday, the Coalition of Independents Deputy Leader Maria Daxon was arrested after she recorded a video outside PMH’s main entrance, criticising the government for failing to build a temporary hundred bed hospital to host sick Bahamians.

In her livestream, which has also resulted in several views, Mrs Daxon said she visited the hospital to “address the horrid conditions sick Bahamians were enduring at PMH”.

Although she was asked to

leave the premises by security, she insisted it was the “taxpayer’s building”. The following day, COI leader Lincoln Bain live streamed another video in front of the Wulff Road Police station where Mrs Daxon was being released from custody. Mr Bain claimed she had been detained after defending her niece from a security guard who tried to confront the young lady while they were recording at PMH. In a statement yesterday, the PHA and PMH said they were aware of photos and a video circulating on social media portraying the west porch area of the Critical Care Block being battered by rain early Saturday morning.

They stated the area identified in the viral footage was the triage site for the Accident & Emergency Department. They added that all patients arriving for care at the Emergency Department were screened for COVID-19 as part of PMH’s prevention measures.

“During the rainstorm early Saturday morning, patients in the Triage area were relocated from the West Porch Area to the North Porch Area for temporary shelter from the weather,” according to the statement.

“Subsequently, those

patients were relocated to the General Practice Clinic area in the Ambulatory Block. The Critical Care Block Food Court and its exterior porch areas were designated as the Triage site for COVID-19 screening for the PMH Emergency Department since March of 2020”.

According to the PHA, patients who are being screened for COVID-19 are held in the exterior porch areas, while COVID19 positive patients are admitted and transferred to either the Special Pathogens Unit, the Legacy Unit or Doctor’s Hospital West.

The Authority also noted that PMH has maintained that it has reached its capacity for COVID-19 positive admissions, even as it continues to see a daily intake of new cases.

“As recently as Friday, July 23, Hospital Administrator Mary Lightbourne Walker in a Ministry of Health Press Conference advised that there were 50 COVID-19 positive patients admitted, some 11 of whom were awaiting transfer from the Emergency Department for in-patient care. Hospital officials are in talks with international partners to expand the hospital’s Special Pathogen Unit for the care of COVID-19 patients.

“The PHA and PMH has

AN IMAGE from video as rain comes pouring in at PMH. The statement cona very strict policy restrict“The Public ing visitation which is in tinued: place to protect patients Hospitals Authority and and staff to avoid the spread Princess Margaret Hospiof the COVID-19 virus. The tal salutes our hardworking capturing of photographs and dedicated staff who and videos of patients or continue to care for staff without permission; patients in the fight against and incidents of verbal and/ this deadly pandemic. We or physical abuse will not thank the public for its ongoing support and combe tolerated”.

The Authority said they pliance with COVID-19 also wanted to remind the prevention protocols at public that the Emergency our public hospitals. The Department is only accept- public is further advised to ing emergency cases. They follow all announcements said persons in need of and public advisories from care for non-medical emer- the Ministry of Health and gencies should visit their Public Hospitals Authority doctor’s office or commu- regarding Health and Hosnity clinic. pital Services”.

WATCHDOG ORDERS TV AD TO BE PULLED from page one PLP Mitchell the ad abusive”

chairman Fred last week called “defamatory and and threatened

that CBL would be sued if the ad were not pulled.

He also called for URCA’s intervention.

The Free National Movement has stayed silent on whether it was responsible

for the ad.

However, an FNM spokesman said party lawyers are looking into the matter.

The order to halt the ad was contained in an

URCA letter which read: “Further, URCA considers that the risk of serious and irreparable harm to the complainants in this matter warrants the issues of an interim order pursuant to section 96 of the Comms Act and paragraph 10.11 of the Content Code.

“As such, URCA has issued an interim order to CBL in this matter, the effect of which requires CBL to immediately cease and desist from broadcasting the advertisement regarding the Hon Phillip E “Brave” Davis and the Progressive Liberal Party unless and until further notified in writing by URCA.” A formal complaint was filed with URCA by McKinney, Turner & Co Counsel and Attorney-atLaw on behalf of Mr Davis and the PLP against CBL on July 20.

The complaint alleged that since July 12 and onward, CBL broadcast political advertisements on

multiple cable TV channels and other media platforms via REVMedia, which defamed both the party and Mr Davis.

Further, the allegation states that CBL failed and/ or refused to clearly identify the political ad where possible at the beginning and automatically at the end as of a political nature.

It was neither made clear that the ad came on behalf of a specified candidate or organisation and/or that it has been paid for by any party.

The order said: “URCA considers that the alleged conduct by CBL and Be Alive as set out under Section 2 above may be, inter alia, in breach of paragraph 6.8(1) and 6.6 of the Conduct Code, respectively.

“Having regard to CBL’s widespread advertisement reach throughout The Bahamas and potentially beyond, URCA further considers the alleged conduct, as set out under Section 2 above to be of sufficient urgency to

warrant the issuance of this interim order due to the risk of serious and irreparable damage to the character and reputation of the Hon Phillip E “Brave” Davis, QC, MP Leader of the Opposition and the Progressive Liberal Party if the conduct is not immediately addressed.”

It said the particulars of the likely serious and irreparable damage include without limitation the temporal or material loss to the character and reputation of Mr Davis and/or the PLP and if permitted the political advertisements may establish a precedent and legitimate expectation for other licensed broadcasters that would be contrary to the underlying principles for broadcasting in The Bahamas regarding tastes of standards and decency.

Failure to comply with the order could force URCA to take serious action including revocation of CBL’s licence among other things, the order noted.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 26, 2021, PAGE 5

BPL Abaco restoration ‘advanced’

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net BAHAMAS Power and Light Company is at the advanced stage of their restoration efforts in Abaco post Hurricane Dorian, according to chief operating officer Ian Pratt.

Speaking to reporters after a tour of their Wilson City Power Station facilities Friday, Mr Pratt said about 63 percent of its customer base on the island has had power restored since the deadly hurricane devastated it in September 2019.

With over $40m invested in restoration efforts, Mr Pratt said the company has restored power supply to more than 5,700 of its 9,000 customers there.

Still, he admitted there remained several buildings and structures that were unable to receive power at the moment as they were in “various stages of reconstruction”.

“We are at an advanced stage in the restoration efforts here in Abaco,” Mr Pratt said. “The team on the ground focused initially on repairing and bringing back services to the south of the islands for a number of reasons. One: the lines in that area had limited damage and two: the customer base in that area also experienced limited damage and so they could have come back more quickly than anyone else.

“Subsequent to that, we moved to the north for some of the same reasons and we worked from Crown Haven down to Cooper’s Town to get that area restored and then came the arduous task of restoring the central portion of Abaco where most of the damage occurred.”

BPL workers estimated that pole loss in the Marsh Harbour and Treasure Cay areas is about 85-percent. He said in view of this fact, it took “a great deal of time” to bring in the required materials and equipment in order execute the necessary repairs.

“Where we are right now, about 63 percent of the customer base is back,” he continued “There are a number of buildings and structures that cannot receive power right now and are at various stages of reconstruction and so as they are ready, they would make their application to the Ministry of Works for the relevant electrical installation approvals and occupancy certificates, bring them to us and we get them connected as quickly as possible”.

Mr Pratt said for the last few months, BPL has been connecting about 225 customers per month

MORE BPL BLACKOUT MISERY from page one While the power provider said service restoration would come in about two hours, there were many customers who reported weathering the extreme heat without service for longer periods of time – in some instances for over five hours.

Some customers also questioned whether the issue could be attributed to load shedding.

Areas affected included Millennium Gardens, Little Blair, Fox Hill, High on average. He also said they had a number of their larger consumers that have not been able to return as yet, which has affected what their peak load and unit generated numbers look like at the moment.

“On that side of things, we’re about 50-percent of our peak demand,” he explained. “At our highest point in Abaco we were doing about 27-megawatts.

We’re about 13.5 at present and that’s because a number of our large entities like Abaco Towns, one of the hotels along the waterfront, and other commercial consumers along the East Bay street area who received significant damage, they have not been able to come back yet.

As it relates to concerns about reliability issues on the island, Mr Pratt pointed out the fact that the process is focused on “restoring the distribution systems and making power safely available as quickly as possible”.

He said the company is currently restoring the transmission network, which is necessary to “improve the efficient release of power” from the station to other areas. Mr Pratt said “additional protection” among other things were aimed at improving reliability.

On Friday, BPL’s chairman, Donovan Moxey, said the company has been working with the government and other agencies “to build Abaco back better and stronger”.

“We learned a lot about the infrastructure that we had in place initially and we really thought long and hard about how we bring this island back in a way that would be sustainable and build in a certain level of redundancy in order for us to be able to bounce back from other storms,” he stated.

“And so what we’ve done here in Abaco is we’ve essentially built in a strong state of the art transmission line that’s going to the north of Marsh Harbour, all the way into Crown Haven.

Vista, Mount Vernon, Kool Acres, Pinewood Gardens and Garden Hills #3 among others.

“Due to an issue at the Blue Hills station, a number of customers have had their service interrupted,” BPL wrote on its Facebook page.

“We apologise for the inconvenience and are working diligently to resolve the issue. We estimate two hours for restoration. Thank you for your patience.”

Scores of BPL customers registered their frustration with the energy supplier on the company’s Facebook page.

And what we’ve also done coming out of Wilson City, is actually built in two transmission lines to build in redundancy for power”.

Mr Moxey said Abaco has become the “proving ground” for what the company hopes to do in other islands as it relates to constructing renewable energy micro grids.

“Working with the IDB (and) the Office of the Prime Minister, we’ve essentially identified five locations that we deem our critical infrastructure locations that we’re putting in these renewable energy micro grids,” he said.

“And the thought process here is that in the event that there is another storm that comes through this island, these are the critical infrastructure that will bring back fairly quickly given the fact that you have micro grids that run on renewable energy…Abaco for us is serving as a model as to how we need to build infrastructure in order to be able to attain a certain level of resiliency moving forward”.

Elaborating on the upcoming transmission projects, Mr Pratt also said BPL is building a dual circuit line on steel poles going from Marsh Harbour all the way up to the north of the island to help bolster “resiliency and the hardening of their networks”.

“All of our transmission infrastructure is going in on what we call storm standard which will certainly be much more resilient than what was here previously which was more of a distribution standard,” he explained. “And that’s really because of the vintage of the infrastructure that was here at the time.

So, what we’re focused on right now is working through the transmission network reconstruction… so the instant something happens they will know what’s happening which is a great advancement over where we were prior to the storm”.

As it relates to BPL’s solar sites, Mr Pratt said

TRIBUTES PAID TO SANDRA MOORE THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Free National Movement and the Progressive Liberal Party have led tributes to Sandra Moore, the wife of FNM founding father Maurice Moore who died yesterday.

Mr Moore is the Bahamas’ Ambassador designate to the Central American countries.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Mrs Moore as a “devoted, longstanding member of the Anglican Church of the Good Shephard in Grand Bahama, where she also served as Lay Reader.

“Amongst her numerous activities and social outreach in the Anglican community, Mrs Moore was a member and past President of the Anglican Church Women, one of the coordinators of the Joshua Generation group that focused on youth and a member of Good Shephard’s choir,” the ministry said. Mrs Moore worked for some 45 years with the General Brokers and Agents Insurance Agency, in Freeport Grand Bahama. All who were acquainted with Mrs Moore knew her to be a lovely and kind soul with a passion for God. She touched positively the lives of all who met her. She will be sorely missed.”

The FNM called Mrs Moore an “inspiration and

example to us all.”

“No matter the situation she held a positive approach and maintained her support for her husband, family, party and country. A woman who publicly and privately displayed Christian values and witness,” the party said in a statement.

PLP chairman Fred Mitchell said Mrs Moore was an outstanding

professional in Grand Bahama for decades.

“She was a committed family woman and without hesitation she took on the role as wife of a political and diplomat and her love for country and people proved a perfect fit,” he said. “I spoke to Mr Moore today and conveyed our condolences and fond personal memories of his dear wife.”

they are currently at the derisking stages where they are looking at locations and ensuring the equipment is safe to install in the given areas.

“So, the government administration building, the hospital and the clinics, those are some of the sites we are targeting and what those micro grids will do is disconnect from the network if there is a power loss and keep power supply to those individual locations to make sure that government services and local government administrative services (along with) our health services, airport, etc, are still in operation”.

Mr Pratt also said the company is focusing on returning lighting to the streets of Abaco. He said their plan is to restore about 1,000 lights a month, which he estimates will take them until November to complete. He also said he did not foresee the solar project being completed before the end of next year.

“Wilson City is a 48-megawatt plant, and it was originally designed and installed in order to take care of the need at the time as well as new areas that we knew were being constructed at the time,” he explained. “The load at peak is 27-megawatts so this station is well able to meet that demand and more”.

BPL reconstruction work in Abaco in 2019.

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PAGE 6, Monday, July 26, 2021

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The debate over mandatory vaccination SHOULD vaccination be mandatory?

That was a possibility raised for healthcare workers on Friday, with Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan saying that it is under consideration.

Nursing union chief Dr Amancha Williams was quick in her response, saying: “I disagree with Dr McMillan 100 percent.”

There’s no room for middle ground in that debate, it seems.

Ms Williams said vaccinations could not be made mandatory because vaccinations are not being imposed on other medical professionals anywhere else in the world.

She said: “In the United States, hospitals with 5,000 workers don’t have all of their workers vaccinated. You think they’re firing them? No, they’re asking them to take precautions (like) wear your mask and wash your hands with soap and they’re telling them if they have any issues don’t come to work.”

However, last week, the American Hospital Association called for all health workers to be vaccinated, saying: “The AHA also supports hospitals and health systems that adopt mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies for health care personnel.”

The dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health even argued in a Washington Post opinion article that the Hippocratic oath taken by medical personnel “demands” that health workers get vaccinated.

New York City is requiring all health care workers at city-run hospitals or clinics to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing, while Arizona health business Banner Health announced last week it would impose a mandate.

Trinity Health, a Catholic system in 22 states, earlier this month became one of the first major groups to decide it would mandate innoculations.

The examples go on, but it’s clear – this isn’t just an issue we’re wrestling with here at home. It’s also not a new discussion – several US health organisations have required the flu vaccine for years, as well as other vaccinations.

Hospital leaders themselves worry about the possibility of unvaccinated members of staff spreading the infection, possibly to some of the sickest patients in their care, and there are questions about who should look after those patients who might have suppressed

immune systems or who are especially vulnerable to the effects of COVID. Is it fair to the staff who are vaccinated, for example, to have to be moved to cover areas of the hospital so unvaccinated staff will only deal with those who are less vulnerable?

In the midst of all this, we have Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis preparing for another national address on how to tackle the increasing spread of COVID19 that we are facing right here, right now.

These aren’t philosophical questions about how to handle this – this is a matter staff are having to deal with right now, in hospitals that are bursting at the seams with COVID patients.

Dr Minnis seems set on a course that doesn’t involve limiting the economy’s bounce back – or curtailing the habits of visitors to our country. How to do that while also limiting the spread of the virus is a challenge that is far from easy to meet.

Just as he has to win the hearts and minds of the public to play their part in the fight against the virus, so too do health leaders need to win over the workers who care for patients. The vaccination is the best way forward – but not everyone is convinced yet to take that step. That is the biggest challenge we face – and one we have to overcome.

Life of crime We strongly suggest you read the lead story in today’s Insight.

There is a lot of talk about how to deal with rising crime on our streets. Talk of heavier punishments as a deterrent. Talk of how to clamp down on gangs.

Insight today lets readers hear a voice from the streets – one man who tells our reporter that we are in the middle of an all-out war, and that he is saying his goodbyes now.

Some people think the death penalty would change matters in our country, but these people are already living under the threat of a death penalty every day, delivered from a gun in a drive-by shooting rather than in a prison courtyard delivered by the gavel of a judge.

So read today’s article, and consider the streets as they really are. There is no solution offered here, just a clear-eyed view of the problems we really face.

Fake polls and reality EDITOR, The Tribune.

WE the people gave Minnis and the then opposition FNM a massive victory in May, 2017. We were allured by the many, now bogus, promises made by them plus we were dead tired of brother Christie. Since being elected it is to be admitted that back-to-back events, the hurricanes and now the ongoing pandemic created grave difficulties for the incoming government. It is how it reacted to and dealt with the effects that has now turned many Bahamians off with the PM and his halting administration.

With scheduled general elections just around the corner, any number of so called polls are popping up like flies out of the woodwork. They have all, so far, polled according to them that Bahamians prefer Dr Minnis over the erstwhile Hon Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, QC (PLP-Cat Island), Leader of the official opposition. The margin is slim and I wonder if these polls

are based on scientific data or willy-nilly?

In addition it is not likely that the authors of these socalled polls have spoken to persons residing in the inner city and suburbs of New Providence where the bulk of the unwashed masses live; work and hang out under the trees and in the watering holes. They say that they used the telephone to poll persons.

Well tons of Bahamians here in New Providence do not have access to land based telephones so how did the pollsters reach out to them?

Did they or their associates actually walk the streets one-on-one?

If they had done the above they would easily have come to the stark conclusions that a large number of potential voters are eager for the PM to call general elections and to get rid of this administration at the earliest opportunity.

Minnis did not cause any of the hurricanes nor did he invite the pandemic in.

Politics is a brutal business and so with the accolades for the good you have the

condemnation and personal blame for the bad.

Fake polling as opposed to reality on the ground is a threat to democracy.

There is no way under the Sun that Minnis could out poll “Brave”. The former is now loathed while “Brave” is seen as the Prime Minister in waiting. A seasoned and successful businessman; a distinguished Queen’s Counsel; a man who has compassion; a heart and a soul when compared to the incumbent PM is head and shoulders above him.

I am not a serious betting person, but if I were to bet I would bet that “Brave”, in any scientific and reality based polling would politically slaughter Minnis with one hand tied behind his back. The cry in 2017 was: “Rock with Doc.” We don’t hear much of that drivel any more. Now the cry is: “Throw some political rocks at Doc” My, my what a difference a day makes.

ORTLAND H BODIE Jr Nassau, July 25, 2021.

Minnis has failed - but he’s not alone EDITOR, The Tribune.

LET me state from the outset that I don’t tote water for the Free National Movement (FNM) or Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis. Minnis is obviously the whipping boy of the media and opposition forces, over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020. We appear to be in what Ministry of Health officials have dubbed the third wave.

COVID-19 cases are rising sharply on New Providence and Grand Bahama and the Princess Margaret Hospital is nearing capacity limits with COVID-19 patients.

Moreover, unvaccinated Bahamians are wary of taking either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines, with so many conspiracies circulating on YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp about Bill Gates and Dr Anthony Fauci.

The Bahamas can no longer resort to complete lockdowns and a shutting down of the economy.

Unfortunately, we’ve already maxed out financially. Reading the dailies, Minnis is incessantly being raked over the hot coals, with armchair quarterbacks and pseudo epidemiologists pointing out his missteps in the COVID-19 pandemic, from a policy standpoint.

I have been extremely critical of the Minnis administration. However, I don’t believe any other administration could’ve possibly done any better than what this government has done, considering the limited resources of this small developing country that produces absolutely nothing. Bahamians seem to expect the same results as First World countries.

Interestingly, none of these critics have offered any viable, pragmatic options in handling the pandemic. The reason I believe this is so is because there simply isn’t any. Listening to the critics of this beleaguered

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net FNM administration, you would think that what The Bahamas is currently experiencing is unique.

The media has failed to consistently point out that virtually every other nation in the world today is grappling with COVID19, particularly the Delta variant. Bahamians must discard their parochial mindset and develop an international outlook. In Florida, there were 46,603 new COVID-19 infections between the seventh and fifteenth of July. Hospitals in Jacksonville are nearing capacity limits, similar to what is occurring on New Providence. To underscore the dire situation in Florida, the vaccinated Attorney General Ashley Moody contracted COVID-19 recently. In the entire United States, health officials are reporting that there are 30,000 new cases each day, owing to the Delta variant. In Israel, the first country to achieve herd immunity, with 60 percent of the population of 9.3 million receiving at least one shot of a vaccine, new COVID-19 infections are surging. In France, there were 18,181 new infections in a 24-hour period this month. President Emmanuel Macron has put in place a policy that calls for French residents to obtain a COVID health pass for leisure venues. Try this in The Bahamas and Bahamians would be screaming discrimination. Europe has already surpassed 50 million COVID-19 confirmed cases, as the Delta variant continues to take a massive toll on the continent. The entire continent of Africa is also struggling with the coronavirus, while half of Australia’s population is in lockdown mode. Had this been in The Bahamas, the media would have accused Australian Prime Minister

Scott Morrison of mismanaging the COVID-19 crisis.

Meanwhile in Brazil, there were 54,517 new COVID-19 infections and 1,424 casualties recorded on July 20. Brazil has recorded a total of 19.5 million confirmed cases and 546,000 deaths. In Indonesia, there has been 73,582 deaths and 2.8 million confirmed cases.

COVID-19 has also taken a toll on other Southeastern Asian nations, such as Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar. Even Russia is being overwhelmed with COVID-19 new infections and deaths. Again, if you read the local dailies or listen to the local media, you would think that The Bahamas is the only country struggling to contain the COVID-19 crisis. If First World countries such as Australia and the United States are struggling with the pandemic, why are we surprised that The Bahamas is struggling also? I am not attempting to exonerate the Minnis administration, mind you. But in criticizing this administration or any other government, you must be fair. If you feel that a change in government will make you feel better, then go right ahead. If the Progressive Liberal Party can somehow pull a rabbit out of the hat by doing something no other government in the world has been able to achieve, even with better resources and scientists at their disposal, then go right ahead and support the party. Personally, I have no horse in this race.

Whoever will be the next government will not change the COVID-19 situation.

This COVID-19 pandemic is way bigger than Bahamian politics.

Admittedly, this FNM government has failed to curtail the virus. But then again, so has every other government around the world.

KEVIN EVANS Freeport, Grand Bahama, July 22, 2021.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 26, 2021, PAGE 7

‘Comedian urged crowd to throw mace out of Parliament’

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A POLICE officer on Friday claimed local comedian Wellington Roberts, Jr, used a megaphone to encourage a crowd of people to “throw the mace out of the House of Assembly” during a protest at Parliament last year.

The entertainer was arrested in October 2020, when furloughed Atlantis workers seeking severance pay organised a demonstration on Bay Street. At the time, Roberts, Jr, was accused of inciting a riot and behaving in a disorderly manner.

He denied the allegations when he first appeared before Magistrate Samuel McKinney and the case was adjourned for trial.

The comedian was granted $3,000 bail by a judge in the Supreme Court in the interim.

When Sergeant Steven Duncombe took the stand on Friday, he said he was working the 8am-4pm shift at the time of the protest.

He said the demonstration was headed by Adrian Francis as part of the “Enough Movement” and consisted of about 100 persons. Sgt Duncombe said he was one of the officers posted on Parliament Street to monitor the crowd. He said that during the protest, a group of people were shouting slogans like: “Minnis gat to go!” He added that “in the midst of the crowd” was Roberts, who was holding a megaphone in his hand.

“He was encouraging the crowd to stand up for their rights,” Sgt Duncombe

testified. “He shouted in the megaphone: ‘The Queen is in charge of the country, and she is in London.’ He then told the crowd they should throw the mace out of the House of Assembly again while the House was in session (before) proceeding toward the House of Assembly (while) instructing the crowd to follow him.”

The officer said when a chief officer attempted to arrest Roberts, Jr, he did not comply with the demands given to him and began to behave in a disorderly fashion.

He said this was when he and another officer were given instructions to help detain the comedian, who was subsequently taken to the Central police station for “safe keeping”.

Attorney K Melvin Munroe is representing Roberts.

When Mr Munroe asked Sgt Duncombe why his client was the only one that was arrested during the demonstration, the officer told him “once you cut off the head, the body dies”.

Sgt Duncombe said on the day of the protest, the crowd was “hostile, very angry and kind of fed up,” which made him feel like they could “possibly riot at any moment.” He said after they arrested Roberts, the crowd dispersed.

“I put it to you that the accused never incited a riot,” Mr Munroe continued in his cross-examination.

“There wasn’t a riot because he was arrested,” Sgt Duncombe replied.

The case continues on August 30.

COOLIN OFF’ FTER ROW COSTS N COOL

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A MAN who claimed he violated his bail conditions because he left his residence to “cool down” after getting into an argument with his girlfriend was on Friday fined $2,500.

Police arrested Lynden Williams after they found him outside his residence around 12.30am on July 21.

Prosecutors said the accused had been released on bail by a judge in the Supreme Court on condition he remained in his residence between the hours of 10pm-5am.

During the hearing, Williams admitted the offence.

He also told the magistrate he only left his residence after his assigned curfew

because he and his “lady friend” got into an argument and he left the home to sleep in his car.

He added he wanted to “get a smoke to calm himself down” so he tried to go to a shop that was “two minutes away” but was stopped and arrested by officers on his way there.

After listening to his explanation, Magistrate McKinney noted the maximum penalty that could be imposed for violating bail was $50,000 or two years in prison. Still, he said he considered the fact Williams pleaded guilty at his earliest opportunity and did not waste the court’s time.

As a result, he fined him $2,500 or six months at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

SECOND MAN ACCUSED OF INDEPENDENCE KILLING

TEVIN Bethel pictured outside court on Friday.

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A SECOND man was charged on Friday with murder in connection with the shooting of a man at a local car wash over the Independence holiday weekend.

Tevin Bethel appeared before Magistrate Samuel McKinney charged with the death of Michael Thompson, Jr, on July 12.

He was arraigned days after

Stephen Davis was accused of the same crime.

According to initial police reports, police were called to a shooting incident at a car wash on East Street.

Upon their arrival, they were directed to the body of a male lying on the ground under a shelter with apparent gunshot wounds.

When Emergency Medical Services visited the scene and examined the body, they pronounced the victim lifeless. Police said initial investigations revealed that an armed man had

Photo: Racardo Thomas/Tribune Staff pulled up to the car wash in a small vehicle and discharged the weapon in the direction of a number of people who were gathered under the shelter, fatally injuring the victim.

Due to the nature of the offence, Davis was not required to enter a plea and the case was adjourned to September 24 for service of a voluntary service of indictment (VBI).

In the meantime, he was denied bail and remanded into custody.

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

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS

MONDAY, JULY 26, 2021

‘Look at me! Can’t you see the Grim Reaper beside me?’

THE SCENE of a recent homicide in Ridgeland Park.

Photo: Racardo Thomas/Tribune Staff

By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net A GANG “general” has given The Tribune an insight into the background behind the recent spate of killings which have left the blood of young men running in our streets.

“Ghost”, as he calls himself, first spoke to The Tribune some months ago and at the time seemed full of confidence and bravado.

This time he was anxious, edgy, slightly remorseful, claiming to be a wanted man.

Now in his mid-thirties, Ghost has been in the “game” for the past 20 years having been recruited into a drug dealing, gun -running gang when he attended a private high school. He said he was raised in the church, but needed something else in his life. He wanted to know that he mattered and most importantly he wanted to be feared.

It’s no longer about money and power for him, instead it’s a game of survival. He has one daughter who he says he does not want to go down the road he chose.

“I know I am going to die soon,” said Ghost. “Look at me! Can’t you see the Grim Reaper beside me?

Word is already out that I am a wanted man. That is out there on the street. So consider this my last will and testament.

“I want to send this message to my mother. This is my last will and testament, Mommy. Take care of my baby and make sure she don’t take the road I did.

Pray for me Mommy! You were right, I could have

done better, but I’m in too deep now. I have to finish what was started!”

What had changed in recent months? Why was he no so resigned to the face someone wants to kill him?

“You have no idea what is happening, do you?”

Ghost asked. “We are in the middle of an all-out war. These niggas not playing on this road. Someone from Kemp Road is going to take me out. I know it is coming! I’m saying my goodbyes now. They coming for me! You hear me? Write that!

“When they come for me and do what they gatta do, the kings and generals will rise up from the south and flatten Kemp Road. That will be a human tsunami, trust me. There will be no peace on Kemp Road until every last one of those generals are dead. Not much of them are left now because plenty damage was done there, but they still functioning and they are coming for me. I am at peace and ready for it because I know it’s coming.”

Asked what the war was about, Ghost said it is about the supremacy, drugs and respect. He said war comes when “generals” are disrespected.

In our first intereviw Ghost became extremely agitated when he was asked if he ever killed anyone. He had accused The Tribune of trying to trap him into saying ‘yes’.

This time Ghost was more forthcoming. He admitted to killing people and seemed somewhat remorseful for it or it could have been the fact he feels he is going to die soon.

Constantly looking over there were several organhis shoulder, Ghost seemed ized meetings with gang resigned in his thoughts. local gang leaders that CapHe said he could not relax tain Road felt were ignored during the interview as by the authorities. The it was not safe. Two men gang leaders had sought who waited on him beside help in bringing peace in a nearby car paced back their communities. and forth seemingly on the Captain Rolle said the lookout. country is now seeing the “I have killed a lot of full manifestation of the men,” he said. “I admit it. fears of those gang leaders I did! May their souls rest - the rise of “the soulless in peace. I know they will young men”. have a lot to In the past say when they ‘We are in the Ghost said see me on the his mother other side. I middle of an alltold him he did what I did out war. These had no soul, and there’s before niggas not playing just no coming she kicked back from it. on this road. him out of the Karma is a Someone from family home. bitch and I He continued know I will get Kemp Road is on about the going to take me mine soon. violence to “This world out. I know it is come. was never “It’s only meant for us coming! I’m saying going to get to stay in for- my goodbyes now. worse,” he ever. It’s my They coming for said.

“The time now. It police don’t will be some- me! You hear police us, you one else time me? Write that!’ know. They after me. We are reactionare not meant ary! The come to get comfortable here. when we already dead.

Each soldier has to watch You ask me the question if their back because in this I trust the man beside me war there is not much … if he could be the police. warning. I know they are Police don’t infiltrate no coming for me, but when gangs in Bahamas. They Ghost came for them, they come after we done dead never knew I was coming.” and say ‘investigations will Some time back Captain ensue’. That’s what they do.

Godfrey G Rolle, RBDF I told you this before.

(Rtrd.) and former Ambas“How we know where to sador to The Republic of go. Trackers are on every Haiti, wrote a letter to the marked man’s car. All we Tribune’s editor, lamenting have to do is follow where the horrible state of gang that tracker goes and… violence in our country.

BANG!!! We sneak one!

During his tenure - 2007- This is now a common 2012 - as the first Director sense game and we have to of the National Anti-Drug be one step ahead of everySecretariat within the Min- one. No one has time to be istry of National Security, following people around

for days to see patterns and stuff like that. We get it over with it in one night.”

Right after this, a discussion was had about the possibility of coming clean and going to the police to save his life. Ghost said before doing that he would rather stand in Kemp Road where his enemies are and whistle.

“So you want me to be a snitch?” he said. “I must run to the man (police) with news like a lil bitch? That’s what you saying? I would never do that! I might as well be a girl like you if I do that. Before I do that I might as well show up and stand in Kemp Road and whistle to them to come out and kill me.

“There is no integrity in pimping off any man. I must go to the man and say ‘so and so them trying to kill me and this where they hide their dope’? You must be joking, woman. What kind of man do you take me for?

At that point he took off his mask and tam exposing his weather worn, but very handsome, face. He laughed heartily while looking around cautiously and continued on.

“No!” he said. “We deal with our own matters. No police! Why you asking me about gang hot spots?

You want to ride through?

These streets are nothing to play with. You’ll better pray your curfew stays in place because the war is going to get worst and people who not involved need to be indoors.

“These hot spot areas as you call them are Kemp Road, East Street, Elizabeth

Estates, Fox Hill and so on.

People like to run on about Ridgeland Park going to shed blood because some man nephew got shot. The thing is these guys in jail.

Their power run out long time. The ones out here are who people need to fear and worry about. This thing about running things from jail is a myth. That played out long time.

“The generals are on their own curfew now. Everyone trying to stay inside to duck the Grim Reaper.

No partying! No posting whereabouts. No stray woman! This only works for a time and then the Grim Reaper finds you.”

After he completed tales of the Grim Reaper, one of the lookout men yelled Ghost’s name and warned him to wrap up the interview. He stood up, walked around for a bit and then sat back down to continue.

“I want you to know I don’t fear death,” Ghost said. “I will prolong its arrival, but I don’t fear it.

All will die in the end. We are not getting out of this life alive … none of us. I am taking care of my affairs, but I say my prayers every night and wait.”

With that said, Ghost got up, asked for a parting hug that was declined and then disappeared into the heavily tinted car he arrived in. His fate is unknown, but clearly he is willing to embrace whatever it is. He has resigned himself to the life he has been living for the past 20 years and will ride it out to the bitter end.

Sadly he shares the same mindset with many young, Bahamian men.

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

INSIGHT

Public mistrust of the Health Ministry’s leadership continues to prove a fatal mistake

By MALCOLM STRACHAN IT CAN be easy for people to believe the times are not perilous. Perhaps it’s the freedom to travel to places that are either faring better in terms of vaccinations, or whose people are apt to take more risk.

It may also be the fatigue of living under such strict confinement for 16 months wears you down to the point of carelessness.

Nobody knows how an entire population checks these boxes, but the reality is crystal clear in the numbers. So far for the month of July, there have been 1,046 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and staggering increases in hospitalisations and deaths.

We want badly to be able to move freely and put this pandemic behind us.

Politicians likewise want to campaign and pursue political activities heading into an impending election. Vaccines are terribly needed, but the public largely mistrusts the vaccines and our leaders should be engendering confidence in the populace to take their shots.

As a matter of fact, the discussion on vaccines globally has been unable to just be a straightforward discussion on a public health basis. Unfortunately, this is in large part a result of those who sit atop the public health authorities around the world. Because they are elected officials, how some citizens view vaccines depends on how they view the figurehead promoting it. Certainly, the record time rollout of the vaccines has done its fair

‘It is important and it’s the responsibility of the health team and the health educators and policymakers to ensure that there is an educational plan and that we point people in the right direction in terms of where they can get accurate and credible information.’

Dr Nikkiah Forbes share to create hysteria. But that has not been as much an impediment to adoption as the public’s refusal to trust those responsible for setting the policies that guide the procurement and implementation of vaccination programmes.

As a case in point, as well as the US was doing at the start of the year with respect to vaccinating Americans, they have screeched to a halt. At the peak of its rollout, in mid-April 3.5 million shots were being administered daily, but this incredible effort soon became a tale of halves. Month after month shots fell by half from May through July.

What people studying this phenomenon closely

are finding out is this is a result of the fracture of two Americas caused by the previous administration.

Supporters of the former President still refuse to take shots. But that half of the population is mainly being ravaged by the Delta variant and plunging the US back into the pandemic.

Here at home, Bahamians simply do not trust the Minister of Health, as he is not viewed as having the Bahamian people’s best interest primarily at heart.

Moreover, the widely held view of him as a “company man” may serve the Prime Minister well, for he has time and again shown his loyalty. However, disorganised priorities are leading to more bodies filling the

morgue and ailing patients in hospital beds.

The situation is not viable if we plan to get through this pandemic with much fewer casualties.

There is a certain irony when we consider how health officials speak from within the tent of government compared with when they’re on the outside.

Examples of this are seen in the former Minister of Health, Dr Duane Sands, whose candour has been appreciated outside of Cabinet. Similarly, the same can be said about Director of the National HIV/AIDS and Infectious Diseases Programme Dr Nikkiah Forbes.

Talking with the media last week on the state of our worsening COVID-19 battle, she said: “We have to say, ‘OK, what is the reason why people are hesitant?’

“And there is a myriad of reasons. Some people want more information. Some people are making up their minds. Some people want to hear more about the safety data. Some people want questions answered about how safety was paramount although the vaccine development was accelerated.

“And so, it is important and it’s the responsibility of the health team and the health educators and policymakers to ensure that there is an educational plan and that we point people in the right direction in terms of where they can get accurate and credible information.”

MONDAY, JULY 26, 2021 PAGE 9 MINISTER of Health Renward Wells

The sobriety of her commentary last week pointing out the dire nature of the situation we’re in impacts us differently when we don’t feel what’s being said is shrouded with ulterior motives.

It is quite unfortunate we cannot get this same feeling when politicians speak.

The reality is these discussions are not happening on a government-led national forum is because they are not politically expedient. But what continues to be disheartening is how within the year and some months of this pandemic, globally, we can point to many instances where political expedience has been prioritised over public health.

Somewhere along the lines of the ascension of regular men and women into frontline politics, they forget what it was like to be the common man, and the fact they stand on the shoulders of their brothers and sisters, presuming to know what’s

best for an entire group of people without consultation or consideration.

Finally, vaccines are arriving imminently, as reported by Health Minister Wells during the long-awaited Ministry of Health COVID-19 update on Friday. However, failing to state how many doses we’re getting in total and how many doses are needed to move us to a safer juncture only affirms the government is reluctant to show its hand. Even if this is being done for political selfpreservation, this is not the way to win an election.

Hopefully, there aren’t any delays and vaccinations can ramp up quickly because the trend COVID has taken this year has become progressively worse month after month.

COVID-19 will indubitably be the nail in the coffin of a political campaign run.

Whether it’s the Progressive Liberal Party’s or the Free National Movement’s remains to be seen.

PAGE 10 MONDAY, JULY 26, 2021

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

In praise of a black Caribbean woman World View

By SIR RONALD SANDERS

CARICOM should be was not called to focus on proud of the success of a the outstanding role of Caribbean woman who was the director. But, it was at the centre of the effort inevitable that she would to manage the COVID-19 be singled out, for withpandemic in Latin America out the guidance, technical and the Caribbean. expertise and provision of Dominican-born Dr equipment to 37 countries Carissa Etienne, the in Latin America and the director of the Pan-Amer- Caribbean, COVID-19 ican Health Organisation would have infected many (PAHO), deserves the more than the millions that greatest admiration and it has. It would also have respect of all killed more than the 37 nations of Conscious that the hundreds of Latin America the populations thousands that and the Caribit did. bean that she of Caribbean It is not often and her team countries are that the compiloted through too small to petence of a the impact of woman is comallow them the pandemic. plemented and It was good to bargain even more rare to see her being effectively for if the woman praised, at a is black. But it meeting of the supplies of the happened on OAS Perma- vaccines at an July 21. nent Council affordable price, In my own on July 21, by remarks at the the Secretary- Dr Etienne meeting, I stated General of and her team the countries of the OAS, Luis at PAHO have the Caribbean Almagro, and were greatly many delega- again taken aided by the tions that spoke up cudgels on guidance proat a special behalf of the vided by PAHO session of the experts and Caribbean and by the medical organisation’s Permanent other deprived equipment the Council. organization countries in The meetsupplied. ing was called Latin America.

In truth, the to discuss the majority of implementation of a reso- countries in the world were lution on “The Equitable ill-prepared for a pandemic Distribution of COVID- of any kind, let alone one 19 Vaccines” that Antigua that moved with the swiftand Barbuda had drafted ness and deadly impact of and negotiated to adop- COVID-19. tion in February 2021. It The figures, given by

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Dr Etienne at the meeting underscored the unpreparedness of all our countries.

Seventy-five million cases in our hemisphere and two million deaths are frightening figures and evidences the fact that our region was one of the worst affected in the world.

While progress has undoubtedly been made in the production of several vaccines that can help to suppress and contain the virus, much of the world, including many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean remain deprived of much needed vaccines.

CARICOM countries and other developing nations ought not to have been placed in the untenable situation in which they have to beg for vaccines to save their people from the deathly coronavirus.

This point was emphasized by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Antigua and Barbuda, E Paul “Chet” Greene at the meeting.

He said, “If this pandemic has taught the world a single salutary lesson, it is that humanity should never

again experience conditions in which a few countries use their wealth to purchase almost all the vaccines produced, leaving the majority of nations in dire straits”.

“While we are grateful that countries, such as the United States, are making quantities of their oversupply available to nations in need, the point is that this situation should not have occurred.

“Nations ought not to have to plead for vaccines to save the lives of their people, or to spare their economies the harmful impact of a pandemic.”

Developing countries are forced to beg for vaccines because of two circumstances. First, a few rich countries purchased more than 70 per cent of the total vaccines produced by the major pharmaceutical companies. In some cases, these countries bought as much as three times the quantity of vaccines needed to vaccinate all their people. They left the rest of the world floundering.

Second, while vaccines against this lethal virus and its variants should

DR CARISSA ETIENNE, director of have been a success the Pan-American global good, would proHealth Organisation. available to vide more all mankind, vaccines on it became a a reliable and commodity to predictable be sold on combasis to Caribmercial terms to the bean countries. largest and richest purchasPAHO believes that ers, ignoring the needs of these negotiations are close many citizens of our one to completion and vaccines planet. The pharmaceutical could be available by the companies left people quite last quarter of 2021. literally dying for vaccines.

The Caribbean and Latin Conscious that the America owe much to the populations of Caribbean dedication and resourcecountries are too small fulness of PAHO – and to allow them to bargain particularly to the black, effectively for supplies of Caribbean woman at the the vaccines at an afford- centre of its operations – able price, Dr Etienne and Dr Carissa F Etienne. her team at PAHO have again taken up cudgels on • Responses and previbehalf of the Caribbean ous commentaries: www. and other deprived coun- sirronaldsanders.com tries in Latin America.

Through its Revolving (The writer is Antigua Fund for Access to Vac- and Barbuda’s Ambassador cines, which can buy in to the United States and the much larger quantities Organization of American than individual countries, States. He is also a Senior PAHO has engaged variFellow at the Institute of ous manufacturers, whose Commonwealth Studies at COVID-19 vaccines have the University of London been approved by the and Massey College in the World Health OrganizaUniversity of Toronto. The tion, to negotiate supply, views expressed are entirely delivery and costs. PAHO’s his own).

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

INSIGHT

MONDAY, JULY 26, 2021 PAGE 11

MARINE biologists, scientists and professional divers representing the Bahamas National Trust and other local organisations investigated damage to the seabed in the Northern Berry Islands after concerns over cruise ships there - but is a disease linked to wastewater from cruise ships having an effect on our coral reefs?

Are cruise ships killing our coral?

NEW research suggests a deadly disease affecting coral reefs in The Bahamas may be linked to wastewater from cruise ships.

Coral reefs provide an important ecosystem for aquatic life and protect coastal areas by reducing the power of waves hitting the coast.

Long-term monitoring of coral reefs of Grand Bahama and New Providence has shown declines in coral cover associated with hurricanes, bleaching events, and local threats, researchers say.

However a peer-reviewed study in the journal Frontiers of Marine Science said the greatest declines in coral populations in The Bahamas over the past decade may be attributed to the recent introduction of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD).

The disease was spotted among local corals in 2019 and quickly spread in a few months. Researchers from the Perry Institute for Marine Science began studying Bahamian reefs in 2019 and found “spatial patterns of mortality and infection rates for the most vulnerable species were greatest

close to international com- in infection and mortalmercial shipping ports” on ity rates with distance both Grand Bahama and compared to sites west New Providence. of the port, where nearly Researchers said this the entire coastline was suggests SCTLD has been affected by SCTLD. Tempresent in those locations poral analyses showed an for a longer time, and the increase in recent mortalproportion of healthy colo- ity and a decrease in active nies increased with distance infection for most species from the port. on both islands, “For Grand ‘The researchers but little Bahama, there say it is likely the change in the was also a sigproportion of nificant effect disease arrived healthy corals, of depth, with in The Bahamas suggesting shallow reefs by commercial some degree having a higher of resistance to proportion of shipping. The the disease. colonies that study says early “Because was infected detection is key Freeport and or experienced Nassau are recent mortal- and preventing the two largity,” the study the spread of est container notes. ports in The the disease to The Bahamas and other islands researchers are over 200 say it is likely via vessel traffic km apart with the disease multiple islands arrived in The is important.’ between them Bahamas by where SCTLD commercial shipping. The has not yet been reported, study says early detection it is probable that SCTLD is key and preventing the arrived in The Bahamas spread of the disease to via commercial shipping, other islands via vessel traf- followed by rapid spread fic is important. within islands via local cur“For New Providence, rents and other vectors. sites to the east of the Results from this study port saw a sharp decline stress the need for early

detection and suggest that preventing the spread of the disease between islands via vessel traffic is of utmost importance.”

The researchers note how SCTLD was observed in corals in Grand Bahama and New Providence in 2019 and became a widespread occurrence across at least two thirds of the reef area in 2020, indicating a “rapid” spread of the disease.

“In the case of Grand Bahama, SCTLD was not detected in AGRRA surveys in October 2019 but was widespread at several of the same sites five months later and was reported in photo monitoring at nearby sites as early as November 2019, only a month after AGRRA assessment,” the study notes.

“Dive operators later recalled seeing corals dying off Freeport during the summer of 2019, but this was unreported. This is consistent with spatial patterns observed in this study where reefs closest to the port of Freeport had the greatest proportion of infected colonies or recent mortality and greater proportions of

healthy colonies farther away.

“The same spatial pattern with respect to reefs close to commercial shipping ports was seen for New Providence and suggests that shipping may be the vector responsible for introducing SCTLD to The Bahamas.

During March 2020 surveys off Grand Bahama and a subsequent visit in April 2021, large tanker ships off Freeport were observed to be pumping out large quantities of water, suggesting that the practice of releasing ballast water on site may be common.

“If ballast water was taken on board in a port area where SCTLD was present and not exchanged in open water away from reefs as required in The Bahamas, ballast water may have been the means by which SCTLD reached the Grand Bahama area some time in 2019. This hypothesis is further supported by the fact that no SCTLD has been reported in The Bahamas from reefs closer to Florida, which have been affected by SCTLD for five years or more (eg, Bimini).

Even in Grand Bahama, which is only 100 km from

Florida, the reefs to the west that were closest to Florida had lower infection or mortality rates than those closer to the port of Freeport.”

The researchers say an alternative, but “less likely”, hypothesis that may explain this pattern is that SCTLD may not have originated close to the port on either island, but corals there may have been more vulnerable to the disease due to pollution, nutrients, or other environmental conditions.

Krista Sherman, senior scientist at the Perry Institute and a co-author of the recently published paper, told the UK Guardian about the research: “The disease is spread along about 75km of reef tract, about 46 miles – so for Grand Bahama that is a large structure of reef.

We’re talking about mostly covering the entire southern coastline of the island.”

Infection rates in the most affected coral species is 45.6 percent on Grand Bahama and 23.1 percent infected on New Providence and recent mortality rates are 31.5 percent and 42.7 percent respectively.

PAGE 12, Monday, July 26, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

ROBERT “Bob” Moses, a director of the Mississippi Summer Project and organiser for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) answers questions about Freedom Summer in 1964 during a national youth summit hosted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson, Miss. Moses, a civil rights activist who endured beatings and jail while leading Black voter registration drives in the American South during the 1960s and later helped improve minority education in math yesterday in Hollywood, Fla. He was 86.

Photo: Rogelio V Solis/AP

1960s civil rights activist Robert Moses has died

Associated Press

R

OBERT Parris Moses, a civil rights activist who was shot at and endured beatings and jail while leading Black voter registration drives in the American South during the 1960s and later helped improve minority education in math, has died. He was 86.

Moses, who was widely referred to as Bob, worked to dismantle segregation as the Mississippi field director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement and was central to the 1964 “Freedom Summer” in which hundreds of students went to the South to register voters.

Moses started his “second chapter in civil rights work” by founding in 1982 the Algebra Project thanks to a MacArthur Fellowship.

The project included a curriculum Moses developed to help struggling students succeed in math.

Ben Moynihan, the director of operations for the Algebra Project, said he had talked with Moses’ wife, Dr Janet Moses, and she said her husband had passed away yesterday

morning in Hollywood, Florida. Information was not given as to the cause of death.

“Bob Moses was a giant, a strategist at the core of the civil rights movement.

Through his life’s work, he bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice, making our world a better place,” said the head of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson.

Moses was born in Harlem, New York, on January 23, 1935, two months after a race riot left three dead and injured 60 in the neighborhood. His grandfather, William Henry Moses, has been a prominent Southern Baptist preacher and a supporter of Marcus Garvey, a Black nationalist leader at the turn of the century.

But like many Black families, the Moses family moved north from the South during the Great Migration. Once in Harlem, his family sold milk from a Black-owned cooperative to help supplement the household income, according to “Robert Parris Moses: A Life in Civil Rights and Leadership at the Grassroots”, by Laura Visser-Maessen.

While attending Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, he became a Rhodes

Scholar and was deeply influenced by the work of French philosopher Albert Camus and his ideas of rationality and moral purity for social change. Moses then took part in a Quakersponsored trip to Europe and solidified his beliefs that change came from the bottom up before earning a master’s in philosophy at Harvard University.

Moses didn’t spend much time in the Deep South until he went on a recruiting trip in 1960 to “see the movement for myself”. He sought out the Rev Martin Luther King, Jr’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta but found little activity in the office and soon turned his attention to SNCC. “I was taught about the denial of the right to vote behind the Iron Curtain in Europe,” Moses later said.

“I never knew that there was (the) denial of the right to vote behind a Cotton Curtain here in the United States.”

The young civil rights advocate tried to register Black people to vote in Mississippi’s rural Amite County where he was beaten and arrested. When he tried to file charges against a white assailant, an all-white jury acquitted the

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man and a judge provided protection to Moses to the county line so he could leave.

In 1963, he and two other activists — James Travis and Randolph Blackwell — were driving in Greenwood, Mississippi, when someone opened fire on them and the 20-year-old Travis was hit. In a press release from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Moses described how bullets whizzed around them and how Moses took the wheel when Travis was struck and stopped the car.

“We all were within inches of being killed,” Moses said in the 1963 press release.

A reoccurring theme in Moses’ life and work was the need to listen and work with the local populations where activists were trying to effect change, whether that was registering Black voters in some of the most staunchly anti-integration parts of Mississippi or years later working with students and teachers to come up with ways to improve math knowledge.

In an interview with the National Visionary Leadership Project, he talked about the need for civil rights workers to earn the trust of the local population

in Mississippi in order to effect change.

“You had to earn the right for the Black population in Mississippi to decide that they were going to work with you because why should they risk everything to work with you if you were somebody or a collection of people who were just not serious?” he said.

He later helped organise the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which sought to challenge the all-white Democratic delegation from Mississippi in 1964. But President Lyndon Johnson prevented the group of rebel Democrats from voting in the convention and instead let Jim Crow southerners remain, drawing national attention.

Disillusioned with white liberal reaction to the civil rights movement, Moses soon began taking part in demonstrations against the Vietnam War then cut off all relationships with whites, even former SNCC members.

Moses worked as a teacher in Tanzania, Africa, returned to Harvard to earn a doctorate in philosophy and taught high school math in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He later taught math in Jackson, Mississippi, while commuting

back and forth to Massachusetts on the weekends.

The press-shy Moses started his “second chapter in civil rights work” by founding in 1982 the Algebra Project using money he received through the MacArthur Foundation Fellows programme — often referred to as “genius” grants — to improve math literacy among underserved populations. Ben Moynihan from the Algebra Project said Moses saw the work of improving mathematics literacy as an extension of the civil rights work he had started in the 1960s.

“Bob really saw the issue of giving hope to young people through access to mathematics literacy.... as a citizenship issue, as critical as the right to vote has been,” Moynihan said.

Historian Taylor Branch, whose “Parting the Waters” won the Pulitzer Prize, said Moses’ leadership embodied a paradox.

“Aside from having attracted the same sort of adoration among young people in the movement that Martin Luther King did in adults,” Branch said, “Moses represented a separate conception of leadership” as arising from and being carried on by “ordinary people”.

PELOSI APPOINTS 2ND GOP CRITIC OF TRUMP TO JAN 6 COMMITTEE WASHINGTON Associated Press HOUSE Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday named a second Republican critic of Donald Trump, Rep Adam Kinzinger, pictured, to a special committee investigating the Capitol riot and pledged that the Democratic-majority panel will “get to the truth”. Kinzinger said he “humbly accepted” the appointment even as his party’s leadership is boycotting the inquiry.

With the committee set to hold its first meeting, hearing from police officers who battled the rioters, Pelosi said it was imperative to learn what happened on Jan 6, when insurrectionists disrupted the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory, and why the violent siege took place.

That mission, she said, must be pursued in a bipartisan manner to ensure “such an attack can never happen again”.

Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, will bring “great patriotism to the committee’s mission: to find the facts and protect our Democracy,” she said in a statement.

He joins Rep Liz Cheney of Wyoming, as the two committee’s Republicans, both selected by the leader of the opposition party. Kinzinger and Cheney were among the ten House Republicans

to vote for Trump’s second impeachment. They were the only two Republicans who voted last month to form the special committee.

“For months, lies and conspiracy theories have been spread, threatening our self-governance,” Kinzinger said in a statement. “For months, I have said that the American people deserve transparency and truth on how and why thousands showed up to attack our democracy.”

“I will work diligently to ensure we get to the truth and hold those responsible for the attack fully accountable,” he said.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has said the GOP will not participate after Pelosi, D-Calif, refused to accept two of the members he picked.

McCarthy, R-Calif, has said the committee was a “sham process” and withdrew his five members when Pelosi rejected two of them,

Reps Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio.

Both voted on Jan 6 against certifying Biden’s election victory over Trump and both are outspoken allies of the former president.

In a statement Sunday, McCarthy said Pelosi’s decision to reject his picks and appoint members “who share her preconceived narrative will not yield a serious investigation” and is intended “to satisfy her political objectives”.

Kinzinger and Cheney have faulted Trump as a factor in spurring the insurrection with his persistently false claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” due to voting fraud.

In recent weeks, Kinzinger has suggested he would be open to serving on the committee, despite threats from McCarthy that Republicans who accept a spot could be stripped of their regular committee assignments as retaliation for participating.

“It’s clear that Pelosi only wants members on this committee who will stick to her talking points and stick to her narrative. That’s why she’s picked the group that she’s already picked,” Banks said on “Fox News Sunday”.

He said that “anyone that she asks to be on this committee, from this point moving forward, will be stuck to her -- her narrative, to her point of view. There won’t be another side.”

SPORTS PAGE 13

MONDAY, JULY 26, 2021

MAKE WITH THE MUSCLES

SEE PAGE 14

EVANS FLIES THE FLAG BUT FALLS SHORT OF FINAL

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net CO-FLAG bearer Joanna Evans made a splash in her signature event at the 2020 Olympic Games, but it was short of her getting into the final.

After carrying the flag with fellow Grand Bahamian Donald Thomas during the official opening ceremony on Friday night at the Olympic Stadium, came back on Sunday in the first of her two events in the second of four heats of the women’s 400m freestyle at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Evans, one of two Bahamians competing in swimming at the games, placed second in a time of four minutes and 07.50 seconds behind Julia Hassler from Lie, who won in 4:06.98.

However, Hassler and Evans finished 12th and 13th overall as they both missed out on an opportunity to crack the top eight for the final today.

The eighth and final spot went to China’s Muhan Tang in 4:04.07. American Kathleen Ledecky in the fastest qualifying time of 4:00.45.

“Today was a solid first swim, not quite as fast as I’d hoped, but that’s the nature of the sport,” said

JOANNA Evans with Donald Thomas and the Bahamian flag.

Evans, who went into the watching collegian Izaak race on lane five with a Bastian make his Olymnational record personal pic debut in the men’s best time of 2:07.33.

100m breaststroke on With her first event Saturday, Evans said she’s under her belt after looking forward to a new

day today when she will get back into the pool to swim in heat three of the 200m freestyle – her second and final event of the games.

“It’s been a long day with everything and now I’m just making sure to refuel and get some rest before my next event,” said Evans, who had to

I WOULDN’T TR DE THIS FOR NYTHIN ’

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net COLLEGIAN Izaak Bastian said he’s getting the hang of being an Olympian, although his debut at the 2020 Games in Tokyo, Japan was a little more than he had anticipated.

Bastian, competing in the third of seven heats at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, clocked 1:01.87 for eighth place in his heat, won by Matti Fin Mattson of Finland in 1:00.02.

“It wasn’t my best time, but I took a lot of good experienced away from it,” said Bastian, who went into the event with a national record lifetime best of 1:00.87.

“I can’t complain. It wasn’t my best race, but it was a great experience overall and I wouldn’t trade it in for anything else in the world.”

Except for the time after he did splits of 28.86 in his first 50m and came back

and touched the wall in 33.01 for his final 50m to complete the event in 40th overall.

“I think I just need to let the nerves go and go a little more and enjoy the ride,” he said of the whole experience as an Olympian. “I was a little nervous before my race, but I feel like I now know what I’m walking into and so hopefully I can go out there and swim much faster.”

The 20-year-old student of Florida State University in Tallahassee adds this experience to his appearance at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2019; the World Championships in Guanghua, Korea in 2019 and twice at the World Junior Championships in Budapest, Hungary in 2019 and Indianapolis, Indiana in 2017.

“It already feel special because most people don’t make it this far in the sport,” said Bastian of

his latest feat. “So to make it here and to be a part of something special is great for me.”

On Tuesday, Bastian will be back in the pool to compete in his final event in the 200m breaststroke where he will swim out of heat three in lane five with a national record seeded time of 2:15.14.

Bastian is one of two Bahamians competing in swimming for the Bahamas at the games. The other is Joanna Evans, who was cobearer of the flag during the opening ceremony on Friday night at the Olympic Stadium and participant in the women’s 200 and 400m freestytle events.

The Athletics competition at the Olympic Stadium, featuring 14 Bahamians, will begin on Saturday, July 31. It’s the only other discipline other than swimming that the Bahamas is participating in at the games that wrap up on August 8.

IZAAK Bastian at the start of his race.

undergo a doping procedure following her initial race.

The 23-year-old graduate of the University of Texas admitted that it was something different in not having any fans in the stands.

“Obviously, it is a little more quiet than usual, but the teams are doing a good job of cheering for people, so there’s a good atmosphere,” she stressed.

As for the honour of carrying the flag with Donald during the opening ceremony, Evans said it was special.

“Donald is a decorated athlete, so to be able to carry the flag alongside him was such an honor,” she stated.

At her initial appearance at the games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016, Evans participated in the 400/800m freestyle where she fell short of advancing to the final. She’s eager to see well she can do in the shorter combo this time around.

Thomas, along with the other 13 members of Team Bahamas athletic team, will begin competition on Saturday, July 31 at the Olympic Stadium.

Athletics is the only other discipline the Bahamas is participating in at these games that will wrap up on August 8.

PAGE 14, Monday, July 26, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

THE BAHAMAS Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation held a screening for competitors aiming to make the Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding Championship Team at J-Line Fitness.

Photos: Racardo Thomas/Tribune Staff

Hopefuls seek to muscle way onto the team

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net WITHOUT an actual show to fall back on because of the restrictions imposed by Covid-19, the Bahamas Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation staged a screening for competitors wishing to make the Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding Championship team.

After the process on Saturday at J-Line Fitness, the federation selected a seven-member team, consisting of two female and five male to travel to San Salvador, El Salvador next month. They are novice Ashley Sturrup, Fania Joseph, Kaif Young, Gemo Smith, Wellington Wallace, novice Terrion Kemp and Jason Johnson.

According to federation president Joel Stubbs, who headed the judging panel at the selection process along with his executives and national coach Raymond Tucker,

there are two other persons pend- new talent available and the great ing before the team head off to physique improvements from the the championships, scheduled for various athletes that had the opporAugust 12-16th. tunities to showcase Stubbs said they are ‘These athletes last year but did not grateful for the athletes came prepared finish well. that showed up on Sat“Hopefully, this urday with the intent as if they were year will bring greater to follow their fitness at the Nationals success for them in dreams and to be a part championship, capturing the gold in of the trials for Team their respective catready to take the egories,” he said. “We Bahamas.

“These athletes stage by storm, will continue over came prepared as showing great the next few weeks if they were at the leading into the chamNationals champion- shapes, with pionship, to share our ship, ready to take the muscle fullness, knowledge, our expestage by storm, show- detail and rience and lend our ing great shapes, with assistance as veterans muscle fullness, detail condition along to ensure that these and condition along with beautiful athletes plateau and with beautiful posing reach their highest posing attire attire and poses,” he potential.” and poses.’ said.

Although they won’t With the financial have any novice or support from the Ministry of Youth, national championships this year Sports and Culture, Stubbs said in New Providence or Grand they will be able to showcase the Bahama, Stubbs encouraged the

public at large and those who are physically fit to prepare themselves to come and showcase their talent on the local stage and hopefully escalate to the international stage in representation for the Bahamas.

“Thank you all for the support given to this federation and especially to these athletes who have sacrificed month after month in the trenches preparing for greatness,” he stressed.

“Let us all continue to be encouraged.”

FANIA Joseph in action at the event, right.

OFFICIALS at the bodybuilding event at J-Line Fitness.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 26, 2021, PAGE 15

Jones: Let’s set our sights on Paris

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net WHILE Team Bahamas is in the midst of competition in swimming and athletics at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Kai Jones became the second Bahamian NBA player to lend his voice to the growing sentiment that Bahamas basketball could join the other disciplines at the Paris 2024 Games.

Jones, who is set to become the third active Bahamian player in the NBA when he hears his named called at the NBA Draft on July 29, touted The Bahamas’ potential with his addition to the cornerstones of Sacramento Kings guard Buddy Hield and Phoenix Suns centre Deandre Ayton.

“It’ll be in 2024, by that time I’ll be 23, a grown man, I’m going to be a problem.

By that time Ayton is going to get better, Buddy is going to get better so I think we will be an issue for real and hopefully, Klay [Thompson] is going to be able to play,” Jones told reporters in his Pre-Draft day we are going to have a solid team man we are going to have more than enough to qualify and even medal at the Olympics for sure.”

Jones said the enthusiasm behind the national team programme has grown in recent years with success at the international level.

Both Hield and Ayton have participated at the national team level, but have yet to do so simultaneously.

In 2018, Hield wore the national jersey in two games as part of the first round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers 2019 where he averaged 20 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. In 2016, Ayton donned the national team uniform at the Centrobasket Championships where he averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds per game.

“It’s been awesome seeing the enthusiasm grow, seeing the fan base grow, people are starting to pay more attention to the NBA and to the players,” Jones said, “You can tell it’s really inspiring to the kids back home so it’s been awesome because it was inspiring to me.”

Hield recently appeared on Yahoo Sports’ Posted Up Podcast with Chris Haynes and discussed the current window of opportunity the country has with elite talent at the pro and collegiate levels.

“With our generation, it started off with me then Deandre [Ayton] got drafted, now we have Kai Jones coming up, guys like Sammy Hunter at Ole Miss, guys are getting the opportunity they just have to put the work in. You have me, Deandre, Kai, Klay [Thompson] is half Bahamian, Eric Gordon is half Bahamian, so hopefully, one of these years - and I know Klay and Eric are locked into team USA - and I know Deandre has been busy, it’s been bad timing, but hopefully, we can make a run at the Olympics one of these years,” Hield said, “Coming from The Bahamas that would be great for our country. The goal is always to win a gold medal, but just for our country to get to the Olympics would be a great accomplishment.”

With draft night just days away and his official NBA dream on the brink of coming to fruition, Jones said he relishes his role as an inspiration to the younger group of Bahamian basketball players.

“In The Bahamas the support is huge, I feel it every day. Every time I post I’m in the gym I have Young Bahamian kids hit me up and ask me questions. I always try to reach out to them, it keeps me going too as a motivating

factor because I just want to show them that with hard work, consistency and having a warrior’s spirit you can conquer anything and do anything that you want to do,” he said, “I understand that I am inspiring the people coming after me so it’s really huge for me having fans from The Bahamas because I love my people.”

The former Texas Longhorns first gained notoriety on the international scene when he participated at the 2017 Basketball Without Borders camp in Nassau.

“I had a kid on my team from Argentina. I had a kid on my team from Jamaica, a kid on my team from Canada, so it was really cool just to have that experience and gain some new perspective by talking to guys and girls from all over the world. And then basketball wise I was competing with some of the best players of my age from around the globe so it was a really fun time.”

Also present at the camp was Illinois centre Kofi Cockburn of Jamaica, Oregon guard Addison Patterson of Canada and TCU guard Francisco Farabello of Argentina.

“I grew a lot at that camp. Gained a lot of confidence because I felt like, especially after making (the) all-star team that gave me the confidence to know that I can do it - I can play with these guys,” Jones said, “What I would say one thing that stuck with me was a guy named Eugene Park he was a scout - and he works with the NBA right now, he invited me to camp a couple of years later, but he said to me ‘I had some of the highest upside of anybody there’ - just to hear that from him, it just motivated me to keep working. Now, I can do it for sure. I can make it to the NBA, it’s just a matter of when. So I just

continue to put in work that really stuck with me.”

The 6’11” Jones has added several pounds of muscle to his now 225 pound frame. In his sophomore season with the Longhorns, he averaged 8.8 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. He shot 57 percent from the field and 39 percent from three point range.

His standout season was

recognised by the Big 12 as he was named the conference’s Sixth Man of the Year and became the first Texas Longhorns player in programme history to earn the award.

The NBA Draft is scheduled for July 29 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York and televised nationally by ESPN. The NBA has invited

Jones to the “Green Room” on Draft night, so anticipation is building to hear his name called early in the process.

“I’m really excited, I just can’t wait to be in the Green Room and love out my dream in New York.

The whole family is going to be there,” Jones said, “It’s a huge blessing and I’m just really excited for it.”

MUNROE MAKES DEBUT IN DOMINICAN SUMMER LEAGUE

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net KRISTIN Munroe made his professional debut in the Dominican Summer League over the weekend and gave the Los Angeles Angels an early look at the productivity he hopes to bring to the organisation.

Munroe went 3-4 with four RBI and scored two runs in a 14-0 win for his DSL Angels over the DSL Marlins Saturday afternoon.

The 16-year-old infielder played first base, hit sixth in the lineup and in his first plate appearance, drove in his first pro RBI with his double to right field in the second inning.

His RBI single in the fifth inning gave the Angels a 6-0 lead and he followed with a two-RBI double in the sixth.

Munroe is the latest Bahamian player to join the Angels organisation following D’Shawn Knowles (No.8) and Trent Deveaux (No.20) who are both in the club’s Top 30 Prospect List according to MLB Pipeline.

Also in the DSL, Adari Grant continues his offensive efficiency at the plate for the St. Louis Cardinals.

A day after his first pro home run, Grant extended his hit streak to five games

CHAVEZ YOUNG, left, and Kristin Munroe. to help his DSL Cardinals Blue to an 8-6 win over the DSL Rockies.

The 17-year-old shortstop finished 1-5 and scored two runs with two stolen bases. After an 0-6 start over the first two games of the season, Grant has followed with five hits over the course of the next five games.

Grant hit the first home run of his professional career in the first matchup against the Rockies on July 22.

Playing second base and hitting leadoff, Grant hit his solo shot in the third inning.

In AA Baseball, Chavez Young had a productive five-game set for his New Hampshire Fisher Cats at

home against the Reading Fightin Phils.

The Toronto Blue Jays No.29 prospect, Young hit .307 (4-13) with four hits, two home-runs, 10 total bases, six RBI, six runs In game one, Young hit his second home run of the season went 1-3 with 3 RBI with two runs scored in a 9-8 loss. Young’s solo shot

came in the eighth inning but New Hampshire was unable to complete a late rally.

Game two was another clost 7-6 loss for the Fisher Cats, but Young finished 2-4 witn an RBI and one run scored.

Young hit his third homerun of the season in game three and this time the

Fisher Cats successfully rallied with four runs in the ninth for a 7-6 win. His solo shot came in the third inning and he finished 1-4 with one RBI and scored two runs.

A 23-year-old outfielder, he spent his offseason with the Canberra Cavalry in the Australian Baseball League. He hit .217 with a .467 OPS, five hits, two runs, one RBI, five total bases and two stolen bases.

In his last full season of baseball, Young appeared in 111 games in 2019 with the Lansing Lugnuts in Single A-Advanced baseball. He hit .247 with 99 hits and 43 RBI. He also had an .669 OPS, slugged .354 with 24 stolen bases, 53 runs scored, 17 doubles, four triples, and six home runs. In 2018, Young led the Lugnuts in batting average, runs scored, and stolen bases. Defensively, playing in centre and right field, he totaled 15 outfield assists along with 290 putouts and a .984 fielding percentage.

He was named a Midwest League All-Star.

Young was also called up to Spring Training prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and in his short time there, impressed the Blue Jays’ front office in the Grapefruit League both on the field and to move up the rankings and entered the top 30 on the prospect list.

PAGE 16, Monday, July 26, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

OSAKA: I FEEL A LITTLE BIT OUT OF MY BODY TOKYO Associated Press NAOMI Osaka is back playing, still winning, and also talking to the media again.

The Japanese superstar who lit the Olympic cauldron defeated 52nd-ranked Zheng Saisai of China 6-1, 6-4 on Sunday in her first match in nearly two months.

Osaka hadn’t played since she withdrew from the French Open in May to take a mental health break, revealing that she has dealt with depression. She then sat out Wimbledon.

Osaka stopped to talk with reporters afterward, having said in Paris that she experiences “huge waves of anxiety” before meeting with the media and that she would be skipping news conferences.

“More than anything else I’m just focused on playing tennis,” Osaka said. “The Olympics has been a dream of mine since I was a kid so I feel like the break that I took was very needed. I feel definitely a little bit refreshed and I’m happy again.”

She added that she was “happy” that reporters were asking her questions, then added: “I feel a little bit out of my body right now.”

“There’s nothing wrong

with my body, I just felt really nervous,” Osaka said. “I haven’t played since France so there were definitely some things that I did a bit wrong but I think I can improve in the matches that I continue playing.”

The second-ranked Osaka was sharp from the start, serving an ace down the T on the opening point of the match and and racing out to a 5-0 lead.

Wearing a bright red dress and a red visor and with her hair styled in redand-white braids to match the colors of the Japanese flag stitched onto the left side of her chest, Osaka served six aces in all and produced 25 winners to Zheng’s 10.

When it was over, Osaka bowed to Zheng and waved her racket to the mostly empty stadium, which contained about 100 people — nearly all of them support staff or media.

Osaka’s match was originally scheduled to open the tournament on Saturday but then was pushed back a day before her starring role in Friday’s opening ceremony.

“I feel very very proud,” Osaka said, revealing that Olympic organisers asked her to handle the cauldron honors back in March.

“When I lit the flame I was super honored,” she added. “I think that’s a

NAOMI OSAKA, of Japan, plays against Saisai Zheng, of China, yesterday. position that you dream about and not anyone can do it so for me when they asked me if I wanted to I was very surprised but very honored and I’m just very happy to be here and very happy to play — especially in Tokyo.”

Osaka will next face 50thranked Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland.

On a good day for the host country, 2016 bronze medalist Kei Nishikori beat fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-4.

For other top players in the tennis tournament at the Tokyo Games, it wasn’t so straightforward.

Top-ranked Ash Barty was upset by 48th-ranked Spanish opponent Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-4, 6-3 and two-time defending gold medalist Andy Murray withdrew from singles because of a right quad strain.

Both still remain in the doubles competition.

Barty won with Australian partner Storm Sanders on Saturday while Murray and British partner Joe Salisbury beat the secondseeded French team of Pierre-Hughes Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.

Barty’s singles defeat came 15 days after she won Wimbledon for her second Grand Slam title.

She struggled with a whopping 55 unforced errors to Sorribes Tormo’s 13 and got in only 54 percent of her first serves compared to her opponent’s 83 percent.

“I never really felt comfortable out there and wasn’t able to play the match on my terms,” Barty said. “The key to my game is serving well and I wasn’t able to do that today. I was a bit erratic and made too

many errors.”

Murray pulled out shortly ahead of his scheduled opener against ninth-seeded Felix AugerAliassime of Canada on Center Court.

“I am really disappointed at having to withdraw but the medical staff have advised me against playing in both events, so I have made the difficult decision to withdraw from the singles and focus on playing doubles with Joe,” Murray said.

It’s the latest setback for the 34-year-old Murray after only recently returning to the tour from a threemonth absence because of a groin problem. He has also had serious issues with a bad hip that wound up requiring two operations.

Murray has a total of three Olympic medals. He also won a silver in mixed

Photo: Seth Wenig/AP doubles at the 2012 London Games with Laura Robson.

Heat and humidity were issues again with the temperature rising to 91 degrees F and the sun baking the hard courts at Ariake Tennis Park.

Also advancing was Wimbledon finalist Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, No 3 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, No 4 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, No 7 Gabrine Muguruza of Spain and No 10 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.

Carla Suarez Navarro, the Spaniard who plans to retire this year, beat Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 6-4, 6-1 for her first victory since recovering from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Camila Giorgi of Italy eliminated Jennifer Brady, the American who was this year’s Australian Open finalist, 6-3, 6-2.

WHO GOT THE OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS YESTERDAY? A ROUNDUP of gold medals from Sunday, July 25, at the Tokyo Games: ARCHERY WOMEN’S TEAM A contingent led by An San captured South Korea’s ninth straight women’s archery team gold medal at the Tokyo Games.

The country hasn’t lost since the women’s team event was added to the Olympic program at the 1988 Seoul Games.

An is fresh off a win in the Olympic debut of the mixed team competition. She combined with Kang Chae Young and Jang Minhee to beat the Russian Olympic Committee by a final score of 6-0 in tricky wind conditions at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field.

Jang secured the win with a “9” on her final arrow.

The bronze medal went to Germany after a 5-1 win over Belarus.

CYCLING WOMEN’S ROAD RACE Anna Kiesenhofer of Austria pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Olympic road race, making an early breakaway stick as the powerhouse Dutch team gave chase to win the gold at the Tokyo Games on Sunday.

The heavily favored Dutch team, featuring the past two Olympic champions, nearly brought back Kiesenhofer on the final circuits at Fuji International Speedway. But the time difference proved too much and they were left racing for silver and bronze.

Annemiek van Vleuten bounced back from an early crash to escape a reduced pack in the closing kilometers to salvage a silver for the Netherlands. Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy won a sprint for the bronze medal.

DIVING WOMEN’S SYNCHRONIZED 3M SPRINGBOARD FINAL China won the first diving gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics.

Shi Tingmao and Wang Han romped to victory in the women’s 3-meter synchronized springboard event with 326.40 points, starting what is expected to be another dominating performance by Chinese divers at these games. They have won 37 of 48 gold medals at the last seven Olympics.

Jennifer Abel and Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu of Canada took the silver at 300.78. The bronze went to Germany’s Lena Hentschel

and Tina Punzel with 284.97.

The United States duo of Alison Gibson and Krysta Palmer finished last in the eight-team field.

FENCING WOMEN’S FOIL INDIVIDUAL Lee Kiefer has earned the third gold medal for the United States at the Games by beating defending champion Inna Deriglazova of Russia 15-13 in the women’s foil final.

Kiefer is a four-time NCAA champion at Notre Dame. She ripped off her mask after the final point and shouted “Oh my God!” She placed fifth at the 2012 London Games and was 10th at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. It’s the third Olympic gold for the US fencing team. Mariel Zagunis won in saber at the 2004 and 2008 Games.

Kiefer is also a medical student at the University of Kentucky.

MEN’S EPEE INDIVIDUAL Romain Cannone won France’s first gold medal of the Tokyo Games by beating Gergely Siklosi of Hungary 15-10 in the men’s epee final.

Cannone led 14-9 after two periods in the firstto-15 match and ended it quickly in the third. The 24-year-old Cannone was born in France but grew up in the United States and attended Sacred Heart University. He returned to France in 2016 to boost his chances of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics.

Igor Reizlin of Ukraine won the bronze with a 15-12 victory over Andrea Santarelli of Italy.

JUDO WOMEN’S 52-KILOGRAM Uta Abe won Japan’s second judo gold medal at its home Olympics, beating France’s Amandine Buchard by ippon in the women’s 52-kilogram final at the Budokan.

Abe’s gold-medal victory followed Naohisa Takato’s on Saturday.

The 21-year-old Uta Abe is one of the biggest stars in Japan’s homegrown martial art, and this Olympic victory will only increase her stature in the sport. She has won two world championships, including the 2019 title at the Budokan.

Uta qualified for the Tokyo Games over a year ago.

Italy’s Odette Giuffrida and Britain’s Chelsie Giles won the bronze medals at

women’s 52 kg.

MEN’S 66-KILOGRAM Hifumi Abe has won Japan’s third judo gold medal at its home Olympics with an ippon victory over Georgia’s Vazha Margvelashvili. He joins his younger sister among Japan’s gold medalists in the country’s beloved homegrown martial art.

Hifumi Abe triumphed in men’s 66 kilograms shortly after Uta Abe claimed her own first gold medal in the women’s 52-kilogram division at the Budokan.

Hifumi is a two-time world champion who had to win a grueling, 24-minute bout against teammate Joshiro Maruyama last December simply for the right to represent Japan at these Olympics. He won four straight bouts Sunday, including three by ippon.

Uta beat France’s Amandine Buchard to win her own first Olympic gold.

Brazil’s Daniel Cargnin and South Korea’s An Baul won bronze at men’s 66kg.

SHOOTING WOMEN’S 10-METER AIR PISTOL Russian shooter Vitalina Batsarashkina won gold in women’s 10-meter air pistol at the Tokyo Olympics, five years after taking silver at the Rio Games Batsarashkina shot an Olympic-record 240.3 points, finishing 0.9 ahead of Bulgaria’s Antoaneta Kostadinova.

China’s Jian Ranxin took bronze after matching Greece’s Anna Korakaki’s three-year-old record of 587 points to lead qualifying.

Georgia’s Nina Salukvadze made history by becoming the first athlete to compete in nine Olympics and announced her retirement to Russian media after failing to qualify for the finals.

MEN’S 10-METER AIR RIFLE William Shaner won gold men’s 10-meter air rifle Sunday.

The 20-year-old Shaner qualified third and was steady in the finals at his first Olympics, finishing with an Olympic-record 251.6 points. Sheng Lihao, a Chinese 16-year-old with little international experience, took silver and countryman Yang Haoran earned bronze.

Shaner was one of the top youth shooters in the country and has already had a decorated career at the University of Kentucky, finishing second at the NCAA

individual championships and team gold in consecutive seasons. He also was a first-team All-American as a freshman.

SKATEBOARDING Japan’s Yuto Horigome won the first-ever skateboarding competition at the Olympic Games, taking gold in men’s street in the city where he learned to skate as a kid and where his sport is often frowned upon.

The first ever skateboarding silver went to Brazilian Kelvin Hoefler, who used to sleep with his board when he fell in love with skating as a kid.

American skater Jagger Eaton took bronze, the Arizonan adapting best among the Americans to the heat at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo.

SWIMMING MEN’S 400M INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY Chase Kalisz won the first American medal of the Tokyo Games, taking gold in the men’s 400-meter individual medley.

Jay Litherland made it a 1-2 finish for the powerhouse US team, rallying on the freestyle leg to take the silver. Brendon Smith of Australia claimed the bronze.

Kalisz, a protege and former training partner of Olympic great Michael Phelps, touched first in 4 minutes, 9.42 seconds.

Litherland was next in 4:10.28, just ahead of Smith (4:10.38).

MEN’S 400M FREESTYLE Swimmer Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia was the surprise winner in the men’s 400-meter freestyle.

Australia’s Jack McLoughlin settled for silver after leading much of the race, and Kieran Smith grabbed another Olympic medal for the Americans.

It is the third swimming medal for the US after Chase Kalisz won the first American medal of the Tokyo Games, taking gold Sunday in the men’s 400meter individual medley.

Jay Litherland won the silver on the same race, rallying on the freestyle leg to take the silver.

WOMEN’S 400M INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY Yui Ohashi won Japan’s first swimming gold medal of the Tokyo Games at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

With a dazzling breaststroke leg, Ohashi romped to victory in the women’s 400-meter individual

medley, touching first in 4 minutes, 32.08 seconds.

Her performance made up for the disappointment of the previous night, when gold medal favorite Daiya Seto didn’t advance to the final of the men’s 400 individual medley.

The United States continued to pile up medals, with Emma Weyant taking silver and Hali Flickinger the bronze. The Americans have earned five of a possible nine medals from the first three swimming finals, including a gold by Chase Kalisz in the men’s 400 individual medley.

WOMEN’S 4x100M FREESTYLE RELAY Australia has set the first swimming world record of the Tokyo Games in the women’s 4x-100-meter freestyle relay.

The Aussies touched in 3 minutes, 29.69 seconds, breaking the mark 3:30.05 that they set in 2018.

The winning team included sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell, who took the lead and anchor legs.

They were joined by Meg Harris and Emma McKeon.

Canada was second in 3:32.78, while the American took their sixth medal of the night with a bronze in 3:32.81. Simone Manuel swam the anchor leg for the US. TAEKWONDO 57 KILOGRAMS Anastasija Zolotic won the United States’ first gold medal in women’s taekwondo by beating Russian athlete Tatiana Minina 25-17 to claim the featherweight division title.

The 18-year-old Zolotic lets out a primal scream as she pulls on her helmet before each round. The Largo, Florida, native has been telling friends and family since early childhood that she would be an Olympic champion and she needed only one trip to the Games to make it happen.

Zolotic and Minina had a high-scoring first round and a tactical second but Zolotic picked apart her Russian opponent in the third with two-point body kicks after nursing a one-point lead into the final round.

Zolotic was only the fourth American to reach an Olympic taekwondo final and only the second woman. Steven Lopez won the US team’s only two previous Olympic golds in taekwondo.

68 KILOGRAMS Ulugbek Rashitov won Uzbekistan’s first Olympic

taekwondo gold medal in dramatic fashion by beating Bradly Sinden of Britain.

The 19-year-old Rashitov landed a four-point turning body kick inside the final 15 seconds to turn a two-point deficit into a two-point lead and the featherweight hung on for a 34-29 victory to claim Uzbekistan’s firstever medal in taekwondo.

Rashitov is relatively inexperienced on the world stage, but his success echoes Uzbekistan’s major strides in combat sports, including the Uzbek boxing team’s breakthrough performance in Rio de Janeiro.

Sinden fell agonisingly short of becoming Britain’s first male Olympic gold medalist in taekwondo, a popular domestic sport with an impressive list of international women’s champions.

Two-time Olympic champion Jade Jones failed in her bid for a third straight gold earlier Sunday with a shocking loss to the Refugee Olympic Team’s Kimia Alizadeh.

WEIGHTLIFTING Li Fabin of China has added Olympic gold to his world title in the men’s 61-kilogram weightlifting category.

Li lifted a total 313 kilograms and was assured of victory when Eko Yuli Irawan of Indonesia failed twice on what would have been a world record 177kg clean and jerk. Li missed his own record shot at 178kg.

He earlier added a quirky touch by standing on one leg during his 166kg clean and jerk in a rarely-seen style known as the flamingo stance.

Irawan won the silver with a total 302kg. Igor Son of Kazakhstan lifted a total 294kg for bronze.

67 KILOGRAMS Chen Lijun kept China’s perfect record in weightlifting intact with a victory in the men’s 67-kilogram class.

Chen lifted 187 kilograms in the clean and jerk for a total 332 kilograms to beat Luis Javier Mosquera of Colombia by one kilogram.

Chen was in the position of either winning gold or finishing off the podium after increasing weight to beat Mosquera.

China has won all three weightlifting gold medals so far in Tokyo. Chen’s victory comes five years after cramps forced him out of the competition at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Mirko Zanni of Italy lifted 322kg for the bronze medal.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 26, 2021, PAGE 17

OLYMPICS ROUND-UP

SIMONE BILES, of the United States, reacts after performing on the uneven bars during the women’s artistic gymnastic qualifications at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Tokyo yesterday.

Photo: Gregory Bull/AP

Not even Biles can stop Russia going ahead of US TOKYO Associated Press THE trouble started early. A step out of bounds on floor exercise here. A short landing there.

Over the course of two hours yestereday, the mistakes — some almost imperceptible, some laid bare for the world to see — kept piling up, chipping away at the aura USA Gymnastics has built over the past decade. Not even the greatest of all time was immune to the realities of a sport where perfection is unattainable.

For 11 years, the Americans flirted with it, at least from a competitive standpoint, flying all over the globe, then flying back home with their suitcases stuffed with gold.

It still might happen at the Tokyo Olympics. But for the first time in a long time, it appears it won’t happen without a fight.

Russia pulled off a stunner in qualifying, posting a top score of 171.629, more than a full point ahead of the US total 170.562.

While reigning Olympic champion Simone Biles topped the all-around with teammate Sunisa Lee close behind in third, the Americans ended their session looking up at another name on the scoreboard in the team standings for the first time since the 2010 world championships.

“This was not the finals,” US high-performance director Tom Forster said. “This was getting into the finals. So this might be a great awakening for us and we’ll take advantage of it.”

China, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy and host Japan also advanced to Tuesday night’s final.

Olympic legend Oksana Chusovitina’s journey is over. The 46-year-old from Uzbekistan did not qualify during the vault final at her record eighth Olympics.

Athletes, judges and administrators rose to their feet to salute Chusovitina as she made her way off the floor. She waved to the crowd with tears in her eyes before posing for pictures with whoever wanted one.

“I’m saying goodbye to sports,” Chusovitina said. “It’s kind of mixed feelings. I’m alive, I’m happy, I’m here without any injuries, and I can stand on my own.”

Something the Americans have done in the team competition for 10 years. After going largely unchallenged over two Olympic quads, they suddenly have company.

Forster raised eyebrows following the Olympic Trials last month when he said taking the top four finishers in the all-around in rank over a squad that could potentially score a bit higher by taking a specialist didn’t matter. He reasoned sacrificing a tenth or two here or there wasn’t going to matter based on the history of blowout wins by the Americans at world championships since he took over in 2018.

“We thought it was a good order, and I still feel good about it,” Forster said, who later added, “it will all work out.”

It always has since Biles joined an already dominant program in 2013.

Everything will be reset for the finals, when the format changes to

three-up/three-count. The pressure will be greater. And the Americans have found a way to thrive under it.

Inside a largely empty Ariake Gymnastics Center, they finally faltered. At least by their towering standards.

Not even Biles was immune.

While the 24-year-old star topped the all-around with a total of 57.731 and advanced to the finals in all four events, it didn’t come easy. She backpedaled all the way off the mat following a tumbling pass on her floor exercise, then basically did the same on vault.

She responded with a solid set on uneven bars, but a spectacular beam routine ended with her temporarily reeling following her dismount, something Forster said he’s never seen her do.

Biles, who came to Japan as the face of the US Olympic movement and possibly the Games themselves, saluted the judges then walked off the podium with a smile that looked like a combination of relief, sarcasm and frustration.

There was plenty to go around.

Jordan Chiles’ relentlessly consistent run that carried her to a spot on the team ended with a major mistake on bars and a fall on beam.

Grace McCallum stepped out of bounds on floor. Lee had two of her scores (vault and floor) dropped in the team competition, though her electric bar set helped her surge into third behind Biles and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade.

The biggest bright spot for the Americans may have been the spectacular performance by Jade Carey. Competing as an individual

after earning a nominative berth through the World Cup circuit, Carey earned a spot in the vault and floor exercise finals and only missed out on the all-around due to the rules that limit finals to two athletes per country.

Carey’s decision to pursue an individual berth is symbolic of the depth the Americans have enjoyed during their rise to supremacy. Yet they no longer appear to have the market cornered on excellence.

ROC’s performance’s offered proof that the former gymnastics superpower is in the midst of a resurgence led by 21-year-old Angelina Melnikova. Even better, the Russians survived the balance beam relatively unscathed.

The 4-inch piece of wood set 4 feet off the ground has been the place where the country’s goldmedal hopes have gone to die in recent years, yet there were no major issues during qualifying. The only serious miscue came when Lilia Akhaimova fell off during the end of an acrobatic series. No biggie. The Russians were allowed to drop her score.

Things will be different in the finals, when the margin for error disappears.

While Melnikova stressed she didn’t want to forecast what might with a medal on the line, she believes what has long been a walkover for the Americans will turn into something far more compelling.

“We hope that (we win),” Melnikova said. “We’re also going to struggle and fight. We have to.

That’s the expectation for us.”

And suddenly, it looks doable.

FRANCE ENDS US 25-GAME WINNING STREAK SAITAMA, Japan Associated Press

THE final buzzer sounded and France barely celebrated.

To them, beating the United States again wasn’t really a surprise. And that might be the biggest indicator yet that the Americans — even after three consecutive Olympic gold medals — are no longer feared by other top international teams.

A 25-game Olympic winning streak for the US is over, ending Sunday when France closed the game on a 16-2 run to beat the Americans 83-76 in the Tokyo Games. Evan Fournier’s 3-pointer off a broken play with just under a minute left put France ahead for good, as the Americans simply fell apart in the final minutes.

“They are better individually,” Fournier said of the Americans, “but they can be beaten as a team.”

That’s been proven with alarming regularity in the last two years. Starting with

FRANCE’s Rudy Gobert drives past United States’ Draymond Green, left, yesterday.

Photo: Charlie Neibergall/AP France’s win over the US in the Basketball World Cup quarterfinals at China two years ago, the Americans are merely 3-5 in their last eight games with NBA players in the lineup.

The US missed its final nine shots, five of them coming in a 21-second span in the final minute shortly after Fournier — who led all scorers with 28 points — made the go-ahead 3-pointer. Rudy Gobert wildly missed a layup on

that play, but Guerschon Yabusele chased down the bouncing rebound and just before he dove into the US bench he made a desperation swipe at the ball in an effort to knock it into Fournier’s direction.

Fournier turned Yabusele’s dive into a dagger, and just like that the Americans are in Olympic trouble.

“I think that’s a little bit of hubris if you think the Americans are supposed to just roll out the balls and win,” US coach Gregg Popovich said. “We’ve got to work for it just like everybody else. And for those 40 minutes, they played better than we did.”

The Americans lost for only the sixth time in 144 games at the Olympics alltime, and fell to 53-4 in the Olympics with NBA players on the roster. The 2004 team at the Athens Games lost the other three, and won bronze. Every other US team in the era that started with the “Dream Team” in 1992 won the gold and this one still can — but it’s far from a certainty.

“When you lose a game, you’re not surprised,” Popovich said. “You’re disappointed.”

Fournier had 28 points for France, while Rudy Gobert scored 14 and Nando de Colo had 13.

Jrue Holiday had 18 points for the US, Bam Adebayo had 12, Damian Lillard 11 and Kevin Durant had 10 for the Americans — who are just 2-3 in their games this summer, the first four of them exhibitions in Las Vegas that weren’t supposed to mean much.

The Olympics, they were supposed to be different.

They weren’t. They lost, again.

“I mean, it’s great,” Gobert said. “But until we have what we want to have around our neck it doesn’t really matter.”

The idea of anyone else leaving an Olympics with gold hasn’t been all that realistic in recent years.

Now, it’s very real.

A 10-point US lead in the third quarter was wasted, and so was a 12-point barrage from Holiday in the opening

4 ½ minutes of the fourth quarter as the Americans went from six points down to start the period to six points up with 5:23 remaining.

The US lead was seven with 3:30 left. France outscored the US 16-2 from there, and the Americans missed all nine of their shots — five of them in a 21-second span on the same trip down the floor in the final minute, three of those from 3-point range.

“Evan was amazing,” France coach Vincent Collet said. “I don’t want to use big, big, big words, but he made some very big shots.”

The loss doesn’t knock the US out of medal contention, but it essentially eliminates the margin for error. The Americans play Iran on Wednesday and then the Czech Republic on Saturday in its final two Group A games; win both of those, and the US will be in the quarterfinals.

Lose another one, and the Americans might not even finish in the top eight of this 12-team tournament.

THE Australia men’s field hockey team has put on an offensive show to start the Olympics.

The No 1 team in the world rankings rolled past No 4 India 7-1 yesterday.

The outburst came a day after the Kookaburras rallied from a 3-1 deficit to defeat Japan 5-3.

“To come out and put a performance in like that after yesterday is really pleasing for us,” said Australian midfielder Flynn Ogilvie, who scored a goal.

Australian forward Blake Govers scored twice against India.

“When you score seven goals you’ve got to be pretty happy with it,” said Australia’s Daniel Beale, a midfielder who also scored a goal.

The Netherlands was trying to bounce back from a loss to Belgium on Saturday, but the Dutch nearly found themselves winless for the weekend.

South Africa, which had never placed higher than 10th at an Olympics and was ranked just 14th in the world, took a 3-0 lead in the second period. The Dutch bounced back, scoring five goals in a 25-minute span to win 5-3.

In other men’s action Sunday, New Zealand defeated Spain 4-3 and Argentina beat Japan 2-1.

In women’s play, No 3 Germany defeated defending champion Britain 2-1.

No 6 New Zealand topped No 2 Argentina 3-0 in the opener for both squads. In other women’s scores yesterday, China defeated Japan 4-3 and Australia topped Spain 3-1.

• Lee Kiefer won the third gold medal for the United States at the Tokyo Olympics and the third fencing gold in the country’s history by beating defending champion Inna Deriglazova of Russia 15-13 in the women’s foil final.

Mariel Zagunis is the only other USfencer to earn gold, winning the saber events at the 2004 and 2008 Games.

Kiefer ripped off her mask after the final point and shouted “Oh my God!” She placed fifth at the 2012 London Games and was 10th at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

A four-time NCAA champion at Notre Dame, Kiefer is now a medical student at the University of Kentucky. Her husband, Gerek Meinhardt, won bronze with the US team in foil at the 2016 Olympics.

Larisa Korobeynikova of Russia beat Alice Volpi of Italy 15-14 in the bronze match.

Romain Cannone won France’s first gold medal of the Tokyo Games moments later, beating Gergely Siklosi of Hungary 15-10 in the men’s epee final. Igor Reizlin of Ukraine won the bronze with a 15-12 victory over Andrea Santarelli of Italy.

• Anastasija Zolotic won the United States’ first gold medal in women’s taekwondo by beating Russian athlete Tatiana Minina 25-17 yesterday to claim the featherweight division title.

The 18-year-old Zolotic lets out a primal scream as she pulls on her helmet before each round. The Largo, Florida, native has been telling friends and family since early childhood that she would be an Olympic champion, and she needed only one trip to the Games to make it happen.

“My eight-year-old self was running around the school yard saying I was going to be Olympic champion but she could never have imagined what this moment is like,” Zolotic said. “It’s unbelievable. It really hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Ulugbek Rashitov won Uzbekistan’s first Olympic taekwondo gold medal in dramatic fashion by beating Bradly Sinden of Britain.

The 19-year-old Rashitov landed a four-point turning body kick inside the final 15 seconds to turn a two-point deficit into a two-point lead and the featherweight hung on for a 34-29 victory to claim Uzbekistan’s firstever medal in taekwondo.

Sinden fell agonisingly short of becoming Britain’s first male Olympic gold medalist in taekwondo.

PAGE 18, Monday, July 26, 2021

SMITH, TAYLOR POWER SHORTHANDED DODGERS PAST ROCKIES, 3-2 LOS ANGELES Associated Press WILL Smith hit a goahead home run in the eighth inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies 3-2 yesterday.

Chris Taylor added a pair of home runs and the short-handed Dodgers won consecutive games against the Rockies with just four total runs.

Smith broke a tie with the home run to left center with one out in the eighth against right-hander Carlos Estevez (2-2). It was his 14th home run of the season and his third in the seven-game homestand.

“He’s a 20-, 25-homer guy for me with a high on-base (percentage) and he’s doing exactly what we’re hoping for,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said about Smith.

“Honestly, we’ve plugged him in the middle of the order for the last year and a half and he’s only going to get better.”

Taylor hit home runs in the first and fifth innings to give him 16 on the season.

Phil Bickford (1-1) worked a scoreless inning for the victory, and Joe Kelly pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his first save.

Rockies right-hander Jon Gray dueled with Dodgers rookie right-hander Josiah Gray, with neither involved in the decision.

Elias Diaz hit a home run for the Rockies and Trevor Story had an RBI single. The Rockies did win the series opener Friday but have an MLB-low ten road victories this season.

“I think we’ve been in a lot of games with the Dodgers,” Rockies acting manager Mike Redmond said. “I mean, if you look at the overall scores, there’s a lot of games that are pretty close.

Unfortunately, the big hits are coming from them, not from us.”

Taylor led off the game for the Dodgers with a home run, but a makeshift lineup was held in check from there.

Josiah Gray gave up two runs on three hits over four innings in his first career start with four walks and six strikeouts.

The Dodgers did not have either Mookie Betts (hip) or Cody Bellinger (hamstring) in the starting lineup. Corey Seager (hand) has been out since May. The Rockies got things started early against Josiah Gray with a leadoff walk from Raimel Tapia, who stole second base. Tapia scored on Story’s two-out single to centre field.

Taylor hit his first home run to left field on Jon Gray’s fourth pitch of the game.

The Rockies took the lead in the second inning when Diaz hit his ninth home run of the season. It was his second home run of the series, with five of his nine homers coming in July. The Dodgers tied it again in the fifth on Taylor’s home run.

“The first (Taylor home run), I wouldn’t say it was a terrible pitch, it probably wasn’t the best location, but it was sharp enough,” Jon Gray said. “The second one really took me by surprise. I tried to sneak a curveball in there but he’s really seeing the ball well right now.”

The Dodgers fielded a starting lineup that included Billy McKinney in right field, Matt Beaty at first base, Zach McKinstry at second and Luke Raley in left. The foursome went 0 for 13 with two walks from McKinney.

“I’m not playing any different,” Taylor said when asked if he made an effort to lead the way amid a newlook lineup. “I think we have trust in all nine guys no matter who is in there. I’m always trying to play my best, it doesn’t matter what the lineup is. I’m just trying to get on base and it’s all extra when you’re able to drive a ball for slug.”

UP NEXT The Rockies will and send right-hander German Marquez (8-7, 3.50 ERA) to the mound Monday against the Angels in the opener of a three-game road series.

After an off day Monday, the Dodgers will have lefthander Julio Urias (12-3, 3.63) on the mound tomorrow at San Francisco to face a Giants team that won three of four at Dodger Stadium last week.

THE TRIBUNE

Alonso, McNeil lead Mets past Blue Jays 5-4 in Hill’s debut NEW YORK Associated Press RICH Hill gave the New York Mets the reliable start they were seeking. Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil took care of the rest.

Alonso homered again, McNeil broke a tie with a pinch-hit, two-run double and the Mets beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 yesterday in Hill’s successful debut.

Acquired from Tampa Bay in a trade on Friday, the 41-year-old lefty stepped right into New York’s injury-thinned rotation and delivered for the NL East leaders.

“Today was a great win and I was happy that I was able to contribute,” Hill said.

Five relievers followed him and held Toronto to one run over four innings.

Edwin Díaz struck out three in a hitless ninth, fanning cleanup batter Bo Bichette on a full-count slider with a runner on second for his 21st save.

Hill threw only 49 pitches over the first five innings and worked around three leadoff doubles, taking a four-hit shutout into the sixth before running into trouble the third time through Toronto’s powerpacked lineup.

The veteran curveballer, pitching for his 11th team in 17 major league seasons, let the first three hitters reach in the sixth and was removed. He walked off the mound with the bases loaded to a warm ovation from the Citi Field crowd of 23,675.

“It was a crazy couple days,” said Hill, whose wife and son are still in Tampa, Florida. “It’s kind of a whirlwind.”

Seth Lugo (3-1) allowed all three inherited runners to score, two on Bichette’s single, as the Blue Jays took a 3-1 lead. But then Lugo limited the damage, and Alonso tied it in the bottom half with a two-run drive off reliever Ryan Borucki.

The slugger looked at teammates with palms up as he began rounding the bases, and playfully celebrated by carrying the club’s stuffed home run horse through the dugout.

Alonso hit three homers

NEW York Mets’ Pete Alonso hits a two-run home run in the sixth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays during a baseball game yesterday in New York.

Photos: Adam Hunger/AP

NEW York Mets pitcher Rich Hill delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays yesterday in New York. to help New York take two of three in the series. He has five home runs since the All-Star break, when he repeated as Home Run Derby champion.

“I don’t know if the derby played a role in it, but he’s very, very confident right now,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said.

McNeil gave New York a 5-3 lead later in the inning and extended his hitting streak to a career-high 12 games with a shot to rightcenter off Jacob Barnes (1-2), traded by the Mets to the Blue Jays last month.

Toronto trimmed it to 5-4 in the eighth on an RBI single by Teoscar

Hernández off Trevor May, who combined with Aaron Loup to escape a basesloaded, one-out jam. Loup retired Cavan Biggio to end the inning.

JD Davis doubled for the Mets in the second and scored on Jonathan Villar’s single.

Toronto stranded nine runners, finished 14-4 in interleague play this season and fell to 2-14 against the Mets in Queens.

“It’s funny ‘cause when you see a guy like Rich Hill, it looks like you should be able to hit him. But that’s what he does,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “He’s a good pitcher

and he keeps guys off balance and he makes big pitches when he has to.”

NUMBERS GAME Hill became the secondoldest pitcher to make his Mets debut behind Hall of Fame lefty Warren Spahn, who was 43 in 1965. ... New York has used 55 players already this season, one short of the franchise record set in 2018. ... Sixteen pitchers have started a game for the Mets this year, most in the majors.

POSITIVE SIGN Toronto starter Ross Stripling rebounded from a pair of poor outings, yielding one run in five innings with six strikeouts and no walks.

“He was a lot better today,” Montoyo said.

TRAINER’S ROOM Blue Jays: Pitching coach Pete Walker said rookie RHP Alek Manoah will rejoin the rotation after throwing 60-75 pitches in a simulated game today in Florida. Manoah has been nursing a bruise on the right side of his back.

Mets: RHP Jacob deGrom (forearm tightness) threw off a mound and felt good, according to Rojas. He said deGrom is progressing, but his next step hadn’t been determined yet and no decision will be made on whether to schedule a minor league rehab assignment until the two-time Cy Young Award

winner goes “full tilt” off a mound. ... RHP Carlos Carrasco could finally be ready to join the Mets after a strong rehab start Sunday for Triple-A Syracuse. The 34-year-old Carrasco struck out six and walked none in three scoreless innings of two-hit ball against Buffalo. He threw 32 of 38 pitches for strikes following a rough outing last time out.

“Very encouraging,” Rojas said, adding that Carrasco’s next appearance could be in the majors or minors. Carrasco has been sidelined all season recovering from a hamstring injury after coming over from Cleveland in the January trade that also brought Francisco Lindor to New York. ... McNeil missed his third consecutive start because of left leg fatigue but expects to start a game in Monday’s doubleheader against Atlanta.

UP NEXT Blue Jays: RHP Thomas Hatch makes his season debut tonight at Boston against RHP Nick Pivetta (8-4, 4.37 ERA) in the opener of a four-game series.

Mets: Begin a five-game home series against Atlanta with a doubleheader Monday. RHP Marcus Stroman (7-8, 2.59) is scheduled to start the opener, with the nightcap TBD. The thirdplace Braves are five games behind the Mets.

ANOTHER ROUGH OUTING FOR DARVISH AS PADRES LOSE AT MIAMI 9-3 MIAMI Associated Press THE Padres totaled five hits against seven pitchers. They had one runner thrown out at the plate, and another erased between second and third to shortcircuit a rally. A leisurely throw to first by Manny Machado proved costly, and Yu Darvish endured another rough outing.

Not the way San Diego wanted to end a ten-game trip, especially not against a last-place team. But a 9-3 loss forced the Padres to settle for a split of their four-game series in Miami.

“We maybe left a play or two out on the field,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. “We just weren’t clean enough in a lot of areas today, and couldn’t cover up those mistakes.”

Darvish’s ERA rose for the fourth start in a row when he allowed four runs in five innings. The AllStar right-hander needed 23 pitches to get through the first, and later gave up homers to Deven Marrero and Brian Anderson.

Darvish (7-5) is 0-3 over his past four starts with an ERA of 7.32, hiking his ERA for the season to 3.27.

“It’s always about adjustments,” the veteran from Japan said through a translator. “That’s what I’m going through right now.

But I feel like I’m heading in the right direction.”

South Florida native Machado hit his 17th homer for the Padres, to the delight of his friends and family in the stands.

But with the score tied in the fifth, Marrero beat Machado’s throw from third for an infield single to

SAN Diego Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins yesterdayin Miami.

Photo: Lynne Sladky/AP spark a rally.

“Marrero did a really good job of getting down the line,” Tingler said.

“We’ve just got to be a little bit cleaner, a little bit tighter.”

Marrero then stole second and scored on Magneuris Sierra’s double, and Starling Marte followed with an RBI single for a 4-2 lead. Marte, who could be on the trading block, finished with three hits to hike his average to .303.

The Padres ran out of a threat in the sixth. They tried a double steal with Fernando Tatis Jr at second and Machado at first, but Anthony Bass stepped off

the rubber and threw to easily erase Tatis, and San Diego failed to score.

Eric Hosmer was thrown out trying to score from first on a one-out double in the second.

“We were probably a little too aggressive on the bases trying to make things happen,” Tingler said.

The Padres went 5-4 on their eventful trip, with a game in Washington interrupted because of a shooting outside the stadium, and another in Atlanta suspended until later because of rain.

Marrero had three hits, including his first home run since 2017, and Anderson

hit his fourth homer of the year — and his first since missing two months due to a shoulder injury. Darvish said he was surprised both opposite-field blows cleared the right-field fence.

“Not necessarily home run-type of velos,” Darvish said.

Miami’s Lewis Brinson added a three-run homer off Nabil Crismatt. Backup catcher Sandy León contributed a two-run double, and Sierra earned his first RBI this season in 131 at-bats.

“We came to play,” Brinson said.

Anthony Bender (2-1) allowed one run in two

innings on a bullpen day for Miami. With left-hander Trevor Rogers going on the injured list Saturday due to back spasms, manager Don Mattingly was forced to rely on relievers.

“They were solid,” he said. “They’re a tough club to match up with. But our guys did a nice job of not having that big inning.”

NL home run leader Tatís went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and a walk. Brian O’Grady hit a pinch-hit homer in the ninth for San Diego.

TRAINER’S ROOM Padres: Wil Myers was held out of the lineup because of a tight hamstring and grounded out as a pinch hitter.

DISTRACTED? A strange play involving first baseman Jesús Aguilar led to San Diego’s first run.

Aguilar failed to come up with a throw from third for an error, and after retrieving the ball, he appeared to be distracted by a fan behind him and turned toward the stands, allowing batter Tommy Pham to continue to third.

Pham then scored on Hosmer’s single.

RECORDS Miami improved to 24-23 at home. San Diego fell to 25-25 on the road.

UP NEXT Padres: After a day off today, they’ll start a twogame series tomorrow at home against Oakland.

Marlins: They’ll have a day off and then begin a two-game series in Baltimore tomorrow, with RHP Sandy Alcantara (5-9, 3.23) scheduled to start. Because of a stint on the bereavement list, Alcantara hasn’t pitched since July 16.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 26, 2021, PAGE 19

Only Tokyo could do this? Think again...

TOKYO Associated Press STAGING an Olympics during the worst pandemic in a century? There’s a widespread perception that it couldn’t happen in a better place than Japan.

A vibrant, open democracy with deep pockets, the host nation is known for its diligent execution of detailladen, large-scale projects, its technological advances, its consensus-building and world-class infrastructure.

All this, on paper, at least, gives the strong impression that Japan is one of the few places in the world that could even consider pulling off the high-stakes tightrope walk that the Tokyo Games represent.

Some in Japan aren’t buying it. “No country should hold an Olympics during a pandemic to start with. And if you absolutely must, then a more authoritarian and high-tech China or Singapore would probably be able to control COVID better,” said Koichi Nakano, a politics professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.

The bureaucratic, technological, logistical and political contortions required to execute this unprecedented feat — a massively complicated, deeply scrutinised spectacle during a time of global turmoil, death and suffering — have already put an unwelcome spotlight on the country.

Most of all, it has highlighted some embarrassing things: that much of Japan doesn’t want the Games, that the nation’s vaccine rollout was late and is only now expanding, and that many suspect the Games are being forced on the country because the International Olympic Committee needs the billions in media revenue.

The worry here isn’t that Tokyo’s organisers can’t get to the finish line without a major disaster. That seems possible, and would allow organisers to claim victory, of a kind.

The fear is that once the athletes and officials leave town, the nation that unwillingly sacrificed much for the cause of global sporting unity might be left the poorer for it, and not just in the tens of billions of dollars it has spent on the Games.

The Japanese public may see an already bad coronavirus situation become even worse; Olympics visitors here have already carried fast-spreading variants of the virus into a nation that is only approaching 25% fully vaccinated.

The Tokyo Olympics are, in one sense, a way for visitors to test for themselves some of the common perceptions about Japan that have contributed to this image of the country as the right place to play host. The results, early on in these Games, are somewhat of a mixed bag.

On the plus side, consider the airport arrivals for the thousands of Olympics participants. They showcased Japan’s ability to harness intensely organised workflow skills and bring them to bear on a specific task — in this case, protection against COVID-19 that might be brought in by a swarm of outsiders.

From the moment visitors stepped from their aircraft at Narita International Airport, they were corralled — gently, cheerfully, but in no uncertain terms firmly — into lines, then guided across the deserted airport like secondgraders heading to recess.

Barriers, some with friendly signs attached, ensured they got documents checked, forehead temperatures measured, hands sanitised and saliva extracted.

Symmetrical layouts of chairs, each meticulously numbered, greeted travelers awaiting their COVID-19 test results and Olympic credentials were validated while they waited. The next steps — immigration, customs — were equally efficient, managing to be both crisp and restrictive, but also completely amiable. You emerged from the airport a bit dizzy from all the guidance and herding, but with ego largely unbruised.

But there have also been conspicuous failures.

JAPAN’s Naomi Osaka lights the cauldron in the Olympic Stadium on Friday.

Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP After the opening ceremony ended, for instance, hundreds of people in the stadium were crammed into a corral-like pen, forced to wait cheek by jowl for hours with only a flimsy barricade separating them from curious Japanese onlookers, while dozens of empty buses idled in a line stretching for blocks, barely moving.

Japan does have some obvious advantages over other democracies when it comes to hosting these Games, such as its economic might. As the world’s thirdlargest economy, after the United States and China, it was able to spend the billions needed to orchestrate these protean games, with their mounting costs and changing demands.

Another advantage could be Japan’s well-deserved reputation for impeccable customer service. Few places in the world take as much pride in catering to visitors’ needs. It’s an open question, however, whether that real inclination toward hospitality will be tested by the extreme pressure.

A geopolitical imperative may be another big motivator. Japanese archrival China hosts next year’s Winter Games, and many nationalists here maintain that an Olympic failure is not an option amid the struggle with Beijing for influence in Asia. Yoshihide Suga, the prime minister, may also be hoping that a face-saving Games, which he can then declare successful, will help him retain power in fall elections.

And the potential holes in the argument that Japan is the perfect host nation for a pandemic Games?

Start, maybe, with leadership. It has never been clear who is in charge. Is it the city of Tokyo? The national government? The IOC? The Japanese Olympic Committee?

“This Olympics has been an all-Japan national project, but, as is often pointed out, nobody has a clear idea about who is the main organiser,” said Akio Yamaguchi, a crisis communications consultant at Tokyo-based AccessEast. “Uncertainty is the biggest risk.”

Japan has also faced a problem particular to democracies: a fierce, sometimes messy public debate about whether it was a good idea to hold the Games.

“After the postponement, we have never had a clear answer on how to host the Olympics. The focus was whether we can do it or not, instead of discussing why and how to do it,” said Yuji Ishizaka, a sports sociologist at Nara Women’s University.

“Japan is crucially bad at developing a ‘plan B.’ Japanese organisations are nearly incapable of drafting scenarios where something unexpected happens,” Ishizaka said. “There was very little planning that simulated the circumstances in 2021.”

Another possibly shaky foundation of outside confidence in Japan is its reputation as a technologically adept wonder of efficiency.

Arriving athletes and reporters “will probably realise that Japan is not as high-tech or as efficient as it has been often believed,” Nakano said. “More may then realise that it is the utter lack of accountability of the colluded political, business and media elites that ‘enabled’ Japan to hold the Olympics in spite of very negative public opinion — and quite possibly with considerable human sacrifice.”

The Tokyo Games are a Rorschach test of sorts, laying out for examination the many different ideas

about Japan as Olympic host. For now, they raise more questions than they answer.

Will virus cases and deaths spike? Will political fortunes be reversed? Will an international reputation for high-tech efficiency be exposed as not quite right?

Japan has taken a big risk, gambling that it can pull off these unprecedented Games.

Whatever the politicians and nationalists say about their success in coming days, a true answer about whether Japan really was the right place to host will have to wait until after the Olympic flame is snuffed out and the visitors leave. Only then, with some distance, will clarity arrive.

PAGE 20, Monday, July 26, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

JON RAHM, of Spain.

Photo: Gregory Bull/AP

KAWAGOE, Japan Associated Press

only player in the men’s tournament, which starts Thursday at Kasumigaseki Country Club outside of Tokyo.

This is the second positive test for Rahm in fewer than two months. He was holding a six-shot lead after three rounds at the Memorial in early June when he was informed as he was coming of the course that he had tested positive and would have to withdraw.

He came back two weeks later to win the US Open and vault to No 1 in the world. And now, Tokyo will be without the last two US Open winners; DeChambeau won it at Winged Foot in 2020.

After his win at Torrey Pines, Rahm said he was vaccinated when he tested positive at the Memorial, but still had to be quarantined because he had not been vaccinated for 14 days.

“Looking back on it, yeah, I guess I wish I would have done it (vaccination) earlier,” Rahm said then.

“But thinking on scheduling purposes and having the PGA and defending Memorial, to be honest it wasn’t in my mind.”

RAHM AND DECHAMBEAU OUT AFTER POSITIVE COVID TESTS POSITIVE COVID-19 tests knocked Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau out of the Olympic golf tournament yesterday, in a pair of surprises that reinforced the tenuous nature of holding a massive sports event during a global pandemic.

Word of Rahm’s positive test came from the Spanish Olympic committee about four hours after USA Golf delivered the same news about DeChambeau.

They are among the bestknown of the some 11,000 athletes descending on Japan for the 17-day sports festival at which negative COVID tests — but not vaccinations — are required to participate.

Spain’s Olympic federation explained that Rahm had two negative tests after leaving England, where he played in the British Open earlier this month.

But a third test that was also required came back positive.

The country said it would not seek to replace Rahm, leaving Adri Arnaus as its

UNITED States’ Bryson DeChambeau. Photo: Alastair Grant/AP