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Volume: 123 No. 175, Thursday, August 6, 2026

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GARDINER HIT WITH NEW DRUG CHARGES A ‘priority target who will be held accountable for his crimes’ - US Attorney

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Chief Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net CONVICTED drug trafficker Jonathan Gardiner has been indicted in Georgia over an alleged conspiracy to move massive quantities of cocaine from The Bahamas into the United States, including shipments prosecutors say could exceed 2,000 kilograms at a time.

Each shipment had an estimated street value of upwards of $120 million.

US Attorney Theodore S

Hertzberg described Gardiner, operating out of The Bahamas, as a ‘recidivist felon, alleged high-level drug trafficker, and priority target,’ adding that he ‘will be held accountable for his crimes.”

The new indictment said he used various aliases including ‘Player,’ ‘Progress,’ and Doctor.’

Jae W. Chung, Special Agent in charge of the DEA Atlanta Field Division said: “International cocaine trafficking fuels addiction, violence, and organzed criminal activity

JONATHAN ERIC GARDINER that impacts communities across the United States.”

CHARGED - SEE PAGE FIVE Photos show Cordearo Moss before (left) and after corrective surgery.

Court awards woman $39,000 Grand Bahama man gets $100k after catching fire at restaurant surgery on legs after decades of pain

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune News Editor rrolle@tribunemedia.net A WOMAN who suffered second-degree burns when her clothing caught fire as a flaming dish was prepared or presented during a class reunion at

Sapodilla restaurant has been awarded $39,515.86 in damages.

She had sought $150,932.

Registrar Renaldo Toote awarded Cherelle Cartwright $20,000 for physical pain, suffering and loss of amenity, $10,000 for psychiatric injury and $9,515.86

in special damages arising from the July 2016 incident.

Sapodilla of West Bay Ltd was also ordered to pay Ms Cartwright $17,562 in legal costs, along with pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.

INJURY - SEE PAGE THREE

By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter jrussell@tribunemedia.net

CORDEARO Moss endured pain with nearly every step for more than two decades, ridicule from classmates who called him “crab man” and “Mr

Krabs”, and the stares of strangers that sometimes made him afraid to leave home.

The 38-year-old Grand Bahama resident believed his severely bowed legs would define the rest of his life. He skipped his prom and high school graduation,

withdrew from social activities and struggled with ordinary experiences such as shopping and travelling, all while living with a condition doctors had failed to identify during his childhood.

SURGERY - SEE PAGE THREE

Anniversary trip marred

by Bimini shark attack

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

PHOTO of a shark taken by John Schweizer’s wife Marcy during their trip.

AN American tourist celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary was bitten by a shark during a snorkelling excursion in Bimini after tour operators assured participants the animals would keep their distance.

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

John Schweizer suffered injuries to his shin and hand during the final day of a family vacation and required 30 stitches before being transferred from his cruise ship to a hospital in Miami.

American news station Gulf Coast NBC reported SHARK - SEE PAGE SEVEN

PAGE 2, Thursday, August 6, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

62 Haitian nationals returned to Haiti on Bahamasair in latest repatriation exercise

62 HAITIAN migrants board a Bahamasair flight returning them to Haiti yesterday in the latest repatriation excercise. Minister of Immigration and National Insurance Darron Pickstock spoke to media during the exercise.

Photos: Shawn Hanna

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Four Haitian nationals denied bail over $541k drug bust

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net FOUR Haitian nationals accused of importing more than $500,000 worth of cocaine and marijuana into The Bahamas near Norman’s Cay, Exuma, last week were denied bail.

Prosecutors allege Mike Presume, 39, Jerry Mezidor, 35, Claude Jean, 49, and Rene Joseph, 49, were aboard a white vessel when they were found with 26lbs of cocaine and 21lbs of marijuana at sea around 8am on

July 27.

Police and Royal Bahamas Defence Force officers allegedly found the drugs in backpacks while searching the vessel.

The cocaine has an estimated street value of $520,000, while the marijuana is valued at $21,000.

The men were each charged with two counts of possession of dangerous drugs with intent to supply, conspiracy to possess dangerous drugs with intent to supply, importation of dangerous drugs and conspiracy to import dangerous

drugs.

With the assistance of a Creole interpreter, the four accused pleaded not guilty to all charges before Senior Magistrate Raquel Whyms.

Inspector 2257 Wilkinson, the prosecutor, objected to bail, citing the defendants’ lack of status in the country and the risk that they could flee.

Magistrate Whyms denied bail and remanded the men to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Their trial is scheduled to begin on December 9.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2026, PAGE 3

Grand Bahama man legs fixed after $100k surgery SURGERY from page one Last month, Mr Moss saw his legs straightened after undergoing a total bilateral knee replacement at Health City Cayman Islands, giving him the prospect of walking, travelling and eventually playing with his future children without the limitations that had followed him since he was 13.

The operation cost about $100,000 and was performed overseas after Mr Moss said he was told the type of knee replacement he needed was unavailable in The Bahamas.

His transformation has since reached millions of people. A video posted to Cord & Bee Moss, the TikTok page he shares with his wife, Bianka Moss, had attracted more than 3.2 million views up to press time.

The couple has more than 30,000 followers.

Mr Moss said he is still struggling to comprehend that the operation finally happened.

His problems began when he was about 13.

He had previously lived a normal childhood, walking to school and playing basketball with friends, before waking one morning barely able to walk.

Sharp pain travelled through his legs, forcing him to hold on to walls to avoid falling.

His parents took him to a doctor, but X-rays showed no abnormalities and physicians could not identify the cause of the pain. He was prescribed painkillers.

Over the following months, Mr Moss watched his legs gradually curve outwards.

An orthopaedic specialist later prescribed braces that he was required to wear at night in an attempt to straighten his legs, but Mr Moss said the pain made them unbearable.

“I would wake up through the night and take them off,” he said. “So, the braces really never did nothing for me because it was too painful. My parents never really had the funds to do any surgery or anything like that, so that’s what happened until I was

Cadearo Moss as a teen.

Cadearo before surgery.

Cadearo after surgery. an adult.”

His condition also made school difficult.

Mr Moss said he endured relentless bullying at Eight Mile Rock High School and was called “crab man” and “Mr Krabs” because of the shape of his legs.

He said he eventually confronted one of his tormentors after becoming tired of the abuse.

“I actually walked from home with a block in my bag, walked inside the classroom, drop it on his head.

It’s like people started to respect me after that.”

Although the bullying stopped, Mr Moss said the damage to his confidence continued. He avoided social activities with relatives and friends and did not attend his high school graduation or prom.

The condition also affected routine parts of adult life. He struggled to go grocery shopping, travel or appear in public because of the attention his legs attracted.

Mr Moss said there were days when he felt confident enough to go out and others when he preferred to remain at home.

“People tend to stare, people tend to talk,” he said. “You’d be looking at the person, they looking you in your face and they talking about you.”

Despite his physical and emotional struggles, Mr Moss built a career after leaving school.

He initially worked as an electrician assistant, which he described as a positive experience despite the pain caused by some tasks. He later worked with his stepfather in auto body repairs and now operates his own business repairing vehicles and importing cars from auctions.

His health journey changed significantly after he married his wife in 2016.

Mrs Moss was the first person to suspect that his condition involved more than ordinary bowed legs and began researching possible explanations.

“She was like, ‘this can’t just be normal bow legs, it has to be something else wrong,” Mr Moss said. “’It’s obviously something that can be fixed.’ So she started to do some research.”

In 2022, the couple visited a doctor in New Providence who diagnosed him with Blount’s disease.

Mr Moss said the diagnosis initially brought relief because it gave a name to

Cadearo with his wife Bianka. the condition and renewed hope that it could be corrected.

“I felt like now we could find someone who could do the correction, and I could have a possible chance at doing normal daily activities again,” he said.

That optimism was soon tempered when he was told the required knee replacement was not available locally.

“That was kind of disappointing,” he said.

He and his wife then found Health City Cayman Islands, but the approximately $100,000 cost of the procedure left them searching for financial assistance.

Mr Moss said they wrote to several government ministries, organisations and Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville seeking help.

He said the Ministry of Health covered a portion of the surgery. The couple also launched a GoFundMe campaign, although most of the assistance came through personal donations.

“Especially coming like up until the days of the week before the surgery, people really started to send funds around that time,” he said. “I think they realised this actually gonna happen.”

Mr Moss said a weightloss journey had already helped rebuild some of his confidence before surgery.

Cadearo and wife Bianka after his knee replacement surgery.

Cadearo uses a wlaker to get around after his knee replacement surgery.

Mrs Moss, a photographer and videographer, later encouraged him to document their life together and his medical journey online.

He said the response since the operation has been overwhelmingly supportive, with messages arriving from people around the world.

Although some viewers claimed there was no

difference in his legs, he said he ignores the doubters.

Now recovering, Mr Moss said he is looking forward to taking long walks, jumping, travelling with his wife and living without the restrictions that shaped much of his adolescence and adulthood. He also hopes one day to play and run with his future children.

Sapodilla ordered to pay $39k over burn injuries INJURY from page one Ms Cartwright attended a class reunion at Sapodilla Fine Dining Restaurant on West Bay Street on July 16, 2016, when a server accidentally ignited her clothing during the preparation or presentation of a flaming dish.

She suffered partial-thickness second-degree burns to her right thigh and leg, affecting about five percent of her body, and was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive affective disorder.

Ms Cartwright obtained a default judgment against the restaurant in March 2022, establishing its liability. The proceedings before Registrar Toote concerned how much compensation she should receive.

Ms Cartwright sought $58,625 for physical pain, suffering and loss of amenity, $73,700 for psychiatric injury and $18,607.24 in special damages.

The restaurant argued that her case was materially overstated and proposed a general damages award of between $15,000 and $20,000, together with only those special damages that were strictly proved.

Registrar Toote accepted medical evidence that Ms Cartwright suffered a five percent partial-thickness burn to her right thigh and leg. However, he found that the evidence did not establish burns to her face, hair, wrist, midriff or other parts

of her body.

He accepted that the incident was sudden and frightening, that her clothing caught fire and that she perceived the flames as extensive, but said those factors did not enlarge the medically proven physical injuries.

The wounds healed by late July 2016, Ms Cartwright had a normal gait

by August 31, 2016, and no surgery was required. Her remaining physical injuries were pigmentation changes and a soft, flat scar.

Registrar Toote said the burn caused pain, distress, temporary restriction of movement and embarrassment because of the residual pigmentation, but did not result in permanent functional impairment.

He awarded $20,000 for the physical injuries.

The court also accepted that Ms Cartwright developed post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive affective disorder and underwent therapy for about five months.

However, Registrar Toote found that she did not prove that the psychiatric disorders continued after she was discharged from treatment in 2017.

There was no later psychiatric report, evidence of continued treatment or medication, or medical opinion showing that the post-traumatic stress disorder or depression persisted.

He accepted that Ms Cartwright remained fearful of open flames and that the fear affected her comfort in

certain environments, but said the evidence did not justify treating the psychiatric injury as chronic, severe or continuing.

He awarded $10,000 for psychiatric injury.

Registrar Toote also rejected the argument that the full $18,607.24 claimed in special damages should be treated as admitted because Sapodilla did not file a reply to Ms Cartwright’s amended statement of claim.

He said the assessment hearing proceeded on the basis that each item remained disputed and had to be proved.

The court allowed $4,365.86 in medical, psychiatric and medical-report expenses.

Ms Cartwright also claimed $7,900 in lost earnings from musical performances she was unable to attend while recovering.

The court accepted evidence that she had scheduled engagements and lost a genuine opportunity to earn income.

However, there were no contracts, invoices, receipts, deposit records or bank statements showing how much she would have personally earned, as opposed to the gross value of the engagements.

Registrar Toote discounted the claim and awarded $5,000.

He disallowed a proposed $1,932 course of laser treatment because the claim was not supported by sufficient medical evidence showing the procedure

was necessary rather than cosmetically desirable, was likely to be effective or would probably be undertaken.

The court also rejected claims for $2,850 in previous attorney’s fees, $600 for loose-fitting clothing, $100 for transportation and $60 for a meal.

Registrar Toote awarded $150 for the dress damaged in the fire, despite Ms

Cartwright not proving its purchase price, age, condition or precise value.

He ordered pre-judgment interest of two percent on the damages and post-judgment interest of 6.25 percent until the award is paid.

Ms Cartwright submitted a legal costs schedule seeking $38,995.

However, Registrar Toote applied a 60 percent

reduction to the professional charges because Sapodilla succeeded in substantially reducing the damages sought, defeating several special-damages claims and securing a discount on the lost-earnings claim.

He awarded Ms Cartwright $15,720 in professional charges, $1,572 in value added tax and $270 in disbursements, for total costs of $17,562.

PAGE 4, Thursday, August 6, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

Former PM calls BPL power conservation plea ‘insulting’

By KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter kcampbell@tribunemedia.net FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis branded Bahamas Power and Light’s energy conservation advice “insulting” yesterday, accusing the utility of being detached from the realities of ordinary Bahamians enduring prolonged outages.

Dr Minnis said BPL’s focus on swimming pool pumps, electric vehicle charging and large televisions reflected the lifestyles of wealthier residents rather than people struggling through repeated power cuts.

“It was insulting for them to talk about pools, electrical vehicles, TV size,” Dr Minnis said. “They have to be joking. It shows that they are out of touch with reality, because those in the inner city, they have no pool. They’re trying to get a vehicle to move around.

They just want the cheapest vehicle they can get.”

His comments followed a press conference on Tuesday at which BPL executives appealed for customers to reduce electricity use during peak periods as the utility sought to manage an overstretched grid.

BPL urged customers to limit the use of high-consumption equipment, including swimming pool pumps and electric vehicle chargers. Executives also said the growing number of larger televisions and other household electronics had

contributed to increased demand.

Dr Minnis said the message amounted to asking Bahamians to restrict basic household activities.

“They’re basically asking us indirectly: ‘Don’t turn your TV on, Don’t increase the size of your TV, Don’t charge your cell, Don’t drive electrical vehicle,’” he said.

He was particularly critical of the reference to swimming pools, arguing that only a small proportion of Bahamians owned them.

“How many people in the city have any pool to talk about monitoring the pump house?” Dr Minnis asked.

“Growing up in Bain Town, we never had any pool.

Growing up in The Grove, we never had any pool.

Farm Road, no pool. Then you talk about Centerville or Mason’s Addition, no pool. You go in Fort Charlotte, no pool. Englerston, no pool. So who are they talking to? Obviously not to the common man.”

Dr Minnis also argued that successive governments had encouraged the adoption of electric vehicles and said BPL should have prepared the grid for the additional demand.

“They knew for years that government was leaning towards electrical vehicles, so you didn’t prepare,” Dr Minnis said.

Dr Minnis said BPL should conduct audits across the company to identify and address its problems instead of asking customers to inconvenience themselves.

He recalled that when his administration took office in 2017, it encountered load shedding and later ordered additional generators.

“When you walked into the generator rooms, I mean, I could not believe it,” Dr Minnis said. “There was at least one to two inches of oil thick on the floors, and those were the conditions those individuals were working.”

He said he was surprised BPL engineers had not complained about the conditions and claimed the generators had not been properly maintained.

“There’s usually a manufacturer’s guideline that states when generators should be maintained,” Dr Minnis said. “What they should be producing, showing us the maintenance guideline, then showing us that you’ve been following that.”

Dr Minnis said BPL should explain how it would compensate customers for spoiled food, damaged appliances and the loss of other household necessities during outages.

He dismissed the proposed $8.50 rebate as inadequate, saying the amount “can only buy two pack of peanuts”.

“Tell the Bahamian people what they’re gonna do in terms of compensation for the spoilage, the food loss, the refrigerator destruction, the stove, the TV, the microwave, etc.

That’s what people want to hear, and what’s important to me,” Dr Minnis said

FORMER PM DR HUBERT MINNIS

Minnis says weak enforcement of laws putting lives at risk

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Chief Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis has criticised what he described as weak enforcement of the country's laws, arguing that failures to enforce laws relating to immigration, animal control and aviation are putting lives at risk.

Dr Minnis made the frank comments in an opinion piece sent to The Tribune yesterday.

He said his concern is not with the country's legislative framework, but with the government's failure to enforce the laws already on the books.

Addressing the issue of dangerous dogs, Dr Minnis pointed to several widely reported attacks, claiming The Bahamas has a stray dog problem.

The latest incident involved a nine-year-old American boy who was seriously injured after being mauled by a pack of dogs.

The dog's owner was later sentenced to one year in

A pack of stray potcakes seen in New Providence. prison in connection with the attack.

Dr Minnis said animals should not be allowed to roam freely, noting that existing laws give authorities the power to address the problem.

He said stray dogs should

be removed by the relevant agencies, while pet dogs found roaming unrestrained should also be captured.

"We are shocked when there is another dog attack.

We shouldn't be. As long as we do not enforce the laws, there will be more."

Turning to aviation, Dr Minnis said Bahamians and visitors deserve safe air travel, but warned that the country “would not reach the goal” while "air hackers" continue to operate unchecked.

Air hackers are unlicensed operators who transport passengers by plane, often to Family Islands not served by commercial airlines.

"This is a dangerous practice. Some of these planes

have crashed in the past leading to lives being lost.

The Bahamas has allowed this practice to exist or far too long. " "There should be a massive crackdown on air hacking. Only licensed and approved air providers should transport people via air in The Bahamas. We are putting the lives of Bahamians and visitors at risk by allowing this dangerous practice to occur."

On immigration, the

former prime minister said the problem “significantly results from a similar lack of law enforcement.”

He pointed to what he described as illegal practices of hiring undocumented migrants and the construction of structures on private property without proper permits or unauthorised electricity connections.

“Yet, over the decades we have inadequately enforced the laws when it comes to shantytowns. We have also not consistently gone after people and businesses who hire illegal immigrants.”

“Not pursuing enforcement of these laws has made it easier for illegal immigrants to stay in The Bahamas. It has also attracted more to come here.”

He urged the government to redouble efforts to prosecute people who hire undocumented immigrants, saying the tougher measure could help deter illegal migration to The Bahamas.

He also called for increased police patrols and greater focus on traffic violations, saying lives could be saved through stricter enforcement of speed limits and the use of breathalyser tests to identify impaired drivers.

Man denied bail over injuring two with a knife and cutlass attacks

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net A MAN accused of seriously injuring two people with a knife and cutlass on Moore Avenue was denied bail yesterday.

Prosecutors allege Anphany “Penn” Knowles assaulted and seriously injured Kendal Pratt with a cutlass during an altercation on July 28.

Knowles allegedly assaulted and seriously injured Jean Joseph with a knife at the same location on August 2.

He pleaded not guilty to two counts each of grievous harm and assault with a dangerous instrument before Deputy Chief Magistrate Shaka Serville.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Kendrick Bauld, the prosecutor, objected to bail, citing the seriousness of the

offences and the risk to public safety if Knowles were released.

Knowles argued that he was a suitable candidate for bail, but Magistrate Serville denied the application and remanded him to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

The magistrate informed Knowles of his right to apply for bail in the Supreme Court.

His trial is scheduled to begin on September 7.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2026, PAGE 5

Convicted trafficker faces massive new US cocaine charges CHARGED from page one The new charges deepen Gardiner’s legal troubles as he awaits trial in New York on separate cocaine and firearms conspiracy allegations linked to a wider case accusing Bahamian law enforcement officers and other officials of helping traf-

supplying more than 2,000 kilograms of cocaine at a time.

“Operating from The Bahamas, Gardiner allegedly coordinated the delivery of massive quantities of cocaine into the Northern District of Georgia and elsewhere,” said the DEA press release.

The indictment alleges Gardiner conspired with

in court documents filed in his New York case.

Dunn, who lived a life of luxury in a mansion outside of Atlanta, is alleged to be the leader of the Georgia drug trafficking organisation, while Deas is also named as a participant.

They are among 20 defendants charged in connection with the alleged

Deas were incarcerated at the same federal prison in Florida in 2007 and 2008 while serving sentences connected to drug trafficking and money laundering offences.

Steven N Schrank, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Georgia and Alabama, said Gardiner’s arrest underscored the agency’s pursuit

JONATHAN ERIC GARDINER If Gardiner is convicted, prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of proceeds

Charles ‘Silk’ Dunn above and his mansion pictured below.

Excerpts from from a Drog Enforcement Agency report released yesterday on Federal cocaine charges faced by Jonathan Eric Gardiner. fickers use the country as a transit point.

The indictment, unsealed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, charges Gardiner, from Long Island, with conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute.

US prosecutors allege the conspiracy operated from at least December 2022 to May 2026 and involved large shipments delivered to drug trafficking organisations that distributed cocaine across several states after it arrived in metropolitan Atlanta.

According to the DEA, Gardiner was capable of

Charles “Silk” Dunn, Ernest Mordeau “Shorty” Deas, Afiba Small John “Feebs”, Brittney Hicks and others to import at least five kilograms of cocaine into the United States.

Gardiner is also accused of conspiring with the same group to possess at least five kilograms of cocaine with intent to distribute between December 2022 and May 2026.

He is expected to appear in the Northern District of Georgia at a later date.

The Tribune revealed Gardiner’s alleged connection to the Georgia trafficking organisation in June after several of its alleged members emerged

Georgia scheme. Thirteen have pleaded guilty, although Dunn and Deas are not among them.

In a May 15 affidavit, a DEA special agent identified two alleged Gardiner co-conspirators only as “CC-1” and “CC-2”. The Tribune later confirmed them as Dunn and Deas through its review of the affidavits and related court records.

The same affidavit alleges that a senior Bahamian political figure, identified only as “Politician-1”, discussed a $30m narcotics shipment inside Parliament.

Court documents previously reported by The Tribune say Gardiner and

Dominican national denied bail over forged passport

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net A MAN from the Dominican Republic accused of fraudulently obtaining a Bahamian passport was denied bail yesterday.

Prosecutors allege Ronald Antonio Dominguez Peralta, 36, uttered a forged naturalisation certificate bearing his name at the Passport Office on November 14, 2023.

Peralta allegedly obtained a Bahamian passport in his name by fraud on November 17, 2023.

He later allegedly presented the forged passport to a Bahamas Immigration border control officer on December 24, 2023.

Peralta was charged with two counts each of possession of a forged document, uttering a forged document and fraud by false pretences.

He pleaded not guilty

to all charges before Senior Magistrate Raquel Whyms.

Inspector 2257 Wilkinson, the prosecutor, objected to bail, citing Peralta’s lack of status in the country and the risk that he could flee.

Magistrate Whyms denied bail and remanded Peralta to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

His trial is scheduled to begin on November 21.

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of transnational criminal organisations.

He said the department remained committed to dismantling trafficking networks that threatened communities, regardless of where those allegedly responsible operated.

allegedly obtained from the offences and property used to commit or facilitate the alleged crimes.

They are also seeking a money judgment equal to the value of proceeds generated by the alleged trafficking.

The indictment says that if assets subject to forfeiture cannot be located or have been transferred or sold, prosecutors will seek other property belonging to Gardiner up to the value of the forfeitable assets.

The Georgia indictment follows Gardiner’s arrest on Election Day after an aircraft carrying him from Marsh Harbour, Abaco, to Grand Bahama crashed off the Florida coast.

Gardiner and the other survivors were rescued by the US military in international waters and flown to Florida, where he was arrested.

He was subsequently taken to New York and charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and firearms-related offences. He has denied those allegations.

Defence filings say the $30,000 Gardiner was carrying when the aircraft crashed was “campaign related cash being transported on the day of a national election.”

The filings also revealed that about $20,000 in Bahamian currency had been withdrawn a day earlier, on May 11, from a business account in the name of Top Notch Builders. A withdrawal notice was submitted as evidence.

Gardiner’s New York case links him to the November 2024 indictment of former police chief superintendent Elvis Curtis and 12 others.

That indictment accuses Bahamian officials, including law enforcement officers, of helping facilitate drug trafficking operations.

US prosecutors allege traffickers used The Bahamas as a transit point to move large quantities of cocaine into the United States with the assistance of Bahamian officials.

Only one defendant has admitted his role in that alleged plot so far: former Royal Bahamas Defence Force officer Darrin Alexander Roker, 51.

PAGE 6, Thursday, August 6, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

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

LEON E. H. DUPUCH,

Publisher/Editor 1903-1914

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Publisher/Editor 1919-1972 Contributing Editor 1972-1991

RT HON EILEEN DUPUCH CARRON,

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

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The Bahamas is for Bahamians A law is only as good as how well it is enforced. No matter how finely crafted a law might be, if it is not enforced, it might as well not exist at all.

The trouble is that if we selectively enforce one law over another, we start choosing who does and does not get prosecuted. Thankfully, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell has decided to put a particular focus on positions held by foreign workers, saying, “It’s always interesting to go to hotels and find foreign labour in management positions.” He is right.

We could have sworn there was an established process one must go through when applying for or renewing a work permit. Part of that process involves demonstrating that a recruitment drive occurred and that a suitable candidate has not been found. Unless, of course, employees are being sourced by employment agencies for hotel properties.

All the same, we wholeheartedly agree with Minister Mitchell that “foreigners should not be allowed to plan Bahamians out of our country.”

The Ministry of Labour does not need to tour a business to verify who has non-Bahamians on staff. After all, if they have applied for a work permit, a person’s details should be right there in the Department of Immigration.

However, businesses cannot sit idle. If no applicants have come forward, it is only right that a company be able to hire someone on a work permit.

But the planning starts long before the hiring process begins. It begins in our schools, making sure children are getting the right education. It begins in our Labour Ministry ensuring we do all we can to match local talent with open vacancies.

Mr Mitchell is correct in identifying it as an issue that needs to be addressed. As he points out, “major investments are required in roads, new hotels, construction and training,

in energy, garbage collection and the environment.” However, purchasing water, liquor, food and artwork from foreign vendors at the expense of Bahamians needs to be banned.

The conversation must also turn to the subject of potcakes roaming the streets. Former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis made some curious decisions over the years that led to him being ousted first from office, then from the FNM, and finally from his seat as an MP in the last election.

But he is incorrect when pointing out the weak enforcement of laws following an attack on a nine-yearold American boy by a pack of dogs.

Frankly, it is ironic for Dr Minnis to criticise anyone for an issue that has largely remained the same since he was the Prime Minister.

There have of course been considerable efforts by organisations such as the Bahamas Humane Society, the Grand Bahama Humane Society, BAARK and other groups to tackle such issues, one part of which has been a drive to neuter animals so we do not see so many strays on our streets.

Often, we have all seen heavily pregnant dogs roaming around or surrounded by young pups, all of which go on to become wandering strays themselves. Worse still, we have all seen a stray dog obviously suffering from a serious injury, struggling to survive. We frequently hear comments from visitors, who bring an outside perspective to note how terrible it is to see so many animals suffering on the streets. It is, without doubt, an area in which The Bahamas needs to improve.

Governments have come and gone, and the law still keeps getting ignored. So while we agree that if you are going to have a law, you should make sure you enforce the law, perhaps we should start at the very top. After all, if the leaders of the country are unencumbered by the rule of law, is it any surprise that others do the same?

Why not end VAT on electric bills?

EDITOR, The Tribune. jsimmons@tribunemedia.net reported that Prime Minister Philip Davis KC yesterday said he has asked Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) to examine whether it can provide further financial relief to customers following Wednesday night’s islandwide disruption to homes and businesses across New Providence.

It was more that strange that PM Davis would ask the already financially strapped, and seemingly on the ropes BPL, if it could help those customers financially, following Wednesday night’s island wide disruption last week.

I guess the Prime Minister doesn’t pay his own electricity bills, so he doesn’t know that he could immediately, with a stroke of his own pen, end VAT

on electricity bills for those lucky enough to pay it.

And if BPL pays VAT on fuel, he could end that and allow BPL to reduce the cost of electricity to consumers. This is basic stuff for a Government. It’s what Governments do.

Do it, Mr Davis! Do it like Nike!

BRUCE RAINE Nassau, August 5, 2026.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

The darkness covering our nation - call for renewal EDITOR, The Tribune.

THE darkness that continues to cover our country is evident in many forms—from constant power outages, social challenges, rising violence, and growing uncertainty to heartbreaking tragedies affecting our workplaces, streets, communities, waters, and skies. These realities should not be ignored or accepted as normal. While we must address the practical and national issues before us, we must also recognise that the deeper struggle we face is not merely physical; it is a spiritual battle.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers...” (Ephesians 6:12 KJV).

Jesus told us, “Ye are the light of the world...

Let your light so shine before men.”

(Matthew 5:14,16 KJV). That responsibility begins with every one of us, but it is especially important for those entrusted with leadership.

Over the years, I have interacted with many leaders and individuals in positions of influence—in churches, schools, politics, banks, and organisations.

One lesson stands out: effective leaders genuinely care about the people they serve. They

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net listen, they unite, they lead with humility, and they place the needs of others above their own.

Jesus said, “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.”

(Matthew 20:27 KJV).

Sadly, too often it seems our nation’s leaders are divided. When personal agendas become more important than the people, it is the citizens who bear the burden.

Leadership should never be about position, power, or personal gain; it should be about service, responsibility, and improving the lives of those entrusted to our care.

The same principle applies everywhere. A pastor who shepherds every member with humility and compassion builds a stronger church. A principal who values every member of staff and creates an environment where people feel respected builds a stronger school. A banker who takes the time to understand and support the financial goals and dreams of clients helps build stronger families and communities. A politician who listens to the

concerns of citizens and works for the good of the people strengthens the nation. Organisation that genuinely cares about people created stronger communities.

“Righteousness exalted a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”

(Proverbs 14:34 KJV).

Our Bahamas needs more than better policies—we need God’s direction. We need leaders with humble hearts, wisdom, integrity, and a genuine desire to serve.

Most of all, we need to return to God. His promise still stands: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face... then will I hear from heaven... and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV).

May we pray for our leaders. May we pray for our communities. May we pray for our families. And may the Light of Christ drive away every darkness that seeks to cover our beloved Bahama Land.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”

(Psalm 33:12 KJV).

God bless The Bahamas.

KENYA ALTIER MCINTOSH-TAYLOR Nassau, July 31, 2026.

Is developer going to take public road?

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I AM a seriously concerned Eleutheran. Myles Ahead Ltd is holding a Town Hall Meeting on the August 6th, 2026 and although, many don’t seem to realise what is going on, it is clear that Mr James Lyle and his company intend to take the public road way named Haynes Avenue that runs through the middle of Governors Harbor to the beach.

Myles Ahead Ltd and Mr James Lyle is, pretending to be an environmentally minded group in the name of protecting the sand dunes.

When this is clearly not the case, if they really cared about the environment and were truly environmentally minded, they would encourage the public road at Haynes Ave to be opened for the use of the public so that the public does not have to interfere with the dunes at all.

On all plans of the area prior to Myles Ahead’s arrival, Haynes Ave is clearly visible. So the question is why is it not on Myles Ahead’s plan of the area??

The deed to James Lyle shows that he owns all land except the land that forms the part of Haynes Avenue

to the sea. The description of the land James Lyle, the British Billionaire purchased leaves out Haynes Ave that belongs to us, the people.

To further advance the pretense Mr James Lyle and Myles Ahead Ltd are litigating in the name of the dunes; to ensure there is no one in their way. But is this really their place to do so? When Mr Lyle first launched his efforts to commandeer the public right of way in the name of dune restoration; he had security and put up fences and private property signs. How is it that these people come to The Bahamas and are aided by our own people to steal, block and stop the use of our beaches by Bahamians.

Why does it seem that I am the only person who is outraged by this?

I was on the scene when the local government had him and his people told that where the dunes are is a Public Beach Access!

And for that I am grateful But why didn’t the local government reopen Haynes Avenue to the beach if the concern was truly environmental. IF the concern is the deterioration of sand dunes why not just reopen the Public Road that Club Med had the exclusive use

of up to 2003.

This would certainly be the most environmentally sound way to protect the sand dunes.

But most of all why??…

Please tell me and all Eleutheran’s Why??

Is it that Myles Ahead Ltd and Mr James Lyle have removed the roadway from all plans they have had prepared and approved?

Is this an effort to take Haynes Avenue leading to the beach over time?

Is this the Land grab that Myles Ahead Ltd has been warning the people of Eleuthera about while being the ones actually grabbing the land. Is it because they can’t imagine sharing the space with the local? Is it because they can’t imagine sharing the Beach with the People who Own it?

Wake up Governor’s Harbor! make your voices heard as this is a blatant serious, outright effort on the part of this developer Myles Ahead Ltd and Mr James Lyle to smile in your face while stabbing you in the back.

LW CONCERNED ELEUTHERAN Eleuthera August 2, 2026.

What is legal status of foreign agents in country?

EDITOR, The Tribune.

ON Tuesday July 14, 2026 around 10:03 am. While at Frederick Street next to the buses that operate on the routes 10b & 12b.

I observed this man cladded in blue dickies overalls, that was wearing it half down, but his tee shirt was the usual short sleeves used by the police, he was shaved to reflect the Vandyke style bald headed, his complexion favored racial parentage, looked like a latino type, carried a navy blue carry on with red linings and for a time he stood near to one of the new 12B. jitney bus (I am wondering, if this could be the same DEA-agent who claimed a plan to entrap a Bahamian legislator, because if it is, he should be arrested on suspicion of attempted bribery? This person stood out, his demeanor was that of a badge, this gave me the belief that our sovereignty was under attack, being violated foreign element?

For definitely and here it is I suspect, wanting to hear his speech, but here you have an American DEA or whoever working, gathering information without the accompaniment of the local police, whether plainclothes officers, but as I studied him, this man as the specific revealed, as the drivers spoke, this man was looking right into their grills without fail. And obviously, doing it against Bahamian law. No wonder as it has been said that for three (3) years the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA & its agents), conducted their secret investigations on Bahamian soil without the legal, lawful authority, protection, knowledge of the government, and in the end, they were led by US agents, masterminds, after manufacturing their clandestine, covert, hugger-mugger, private, secret, sneak, sneaky, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover, underground, underhanded clamorous assault on The

Bahamas.** the Bahamas Targets into the trap, entrap, any number of Bahamians without lawful authority, inter alia?

The Bahamas government can move with haste, assigning the appropriate intelligence officers downtown, expressly Frederick Street north at the buses for West Bay Street, to see who this, or those individuals might be, where is his authority, Bahamas Government Issued Granting The permission to gather information on Bahamians, how many of them and were they from the US Embassy Nassau, acting on instructions for whom? **And the US State Department, Washington DC-being-inthe-loop? For it would have been different, if he were looking into activities of Americans traveling on the Cruise Ships? I need not say more.

FRANK GILBERT Nassau, July 14, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2026, PAGE 7

Reparations committee expands global and local campaigns

By KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter kcampbell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas’ reparations committee has expanded its campaign at home and abroad, stepping up public education and joining regional and international efforts to build support for reparatory justice.

Bahamas National Reparations Committee chair Dr Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean said its work over the past year included community outreach in The Bahamas, engagement in the United Kingdom and participation in conferences in Ghana and Togo.

The campaign remains at the advocacy stage, however, with no agreement or timetable for Britain or other former colonial powers to provide reparations.

CARICOM approved a revised reparations

manifesto last month, while its reparations commission returned to Britain in July for public education, civil-society engagement and efforts to strengthen international partnerships.

The regional campaign also received a boost in March when the United Nations General Assembly declared the trafficking and racialised enslavement of Africans the gravest crime against humanity. The resolution did not require countries to provide compensation.

Following this year’s Emancipation Day observances, Dr Campbell-Dean said the Bahamian committee had intensified its education, awareness and advocacy efforts.

Its activities included co-hosting a Bahamas at Sunrise programme examining reparations through health, climate change and youth engagement.

The committee also organised a free heritage tour of the Pompey Museum, the 66 Steps, Bethlehem Cemetery and Bethel Baptist Church, highlighting the sites’ connections to emancipation in The Bahamas.

Dr Campbell-Dean said public awareness had increased, although considerably more work was needed before reparations became a regular subject of national discussion.

“I think definitely that the public is more aware of the reparations movement,” she said. “Granted, there is still a lot of work to be done into really making reparations a topic - a household topic - but I think that there are more and more people that don’t just kind of laugh it away as a silly begging notion.”

She said more Bahamians, particularly younger people, were beginning to regard reparations as “a

real movement, a real possibility, and a real act of justice that could benefit our community”.

Dr Campbell-Dean represented The Bahamas as a member of the CARICOM Reparations Commission during a visit to the United Kingdom last November.

She said commission members later returned to Britain, where activities included an event at the House of Commons involving UK MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy and engagement with Anglican clergy.

The Church Commissioners for England has committed £100m between 2023 and 2031 in response to the historic links between one of its predecessor funds and African chattel enslavement.

However, the Church Commissioners has said the initiative is intended to promote healing, justice and repair and is not reparations payable to descendants of enslaved people.

Dr Campbell-Dean also attended the Next Steps Conference in Ghana in June, where she served on a technical expert committee drafting a reparations resolution. She also gave a presentation at the ninth Pan-African Congress in Togo.

She highlighted CARICOM’s revised Ten-Point Plan, approved at last month’s Heads of Government meeting in St Lucia after review by the Prime Ministerial Subcommittee on Reparations.

The revised manifesto expands the regional framework to include gender and climate justice.

Dr Campbell-Dean said one of the new points recognises the additional labour borne by women during the trafficking and enslavement of Africans and considers how the legacy of slavery contributes to present-day social problems.

She rejected as ahistorical remarks by former UK

home secretary and MP Suella Braverman suggesting Britain’s former colonies should pay reparations to the UK because of British investment in infrastructure and governance.

“We understand how ahistorical those statements are, but also recognise that those statements are being made because they’re feeling the pressure of the reparations movement, not just in the Caribbean but globally,” Dr Campbell-Dean said.

Despite maintaining that reparations were a matter of when rather than if, she acknowledged it remained impossible to predict when governments such as the United Kingdom would formally agree to them.

“The work of the reparations committee is to plant the seed,” she said.

“We might not sit under the shade of the tree of reparations or eat from the fruit, but we’re definitely putting in the work so that those trees do bear fruit one day.”

American tourist bitten by a shark while visiting Bimini BAHAMAS SIGNS ON TO REGIONAL HEALTHCARE ALLIANCE WITH FUNDING DETAILS UNCLEAR

SHARK from page one that Mr Schweizer and his wife were marking their anniversary with a family trip when they joined the excursion.

He said participants could see large sharks in the water but were told the animals would move deeper once swimmers entered.

“You could see the sharks,” Mr Schweizer said. “They were big, and they said, ‘Don’t worry, the sharks, once you jump in like a cannonball, some big noise, they go deeper, they won’t bother you.’”

Mr Schweizer said he was instead struck suddenly and immediately realised he had been bitten.

“I got hit pretty hard, you know, either pulled me down or pushed me up. My wife yelled at me to quit fooling around. I knew it was a shark.

If you ever got bitten by a large dog, you would know it’s very, it hits you hard and quick,” he said.

He was taken back to the cruise ship, where an emergency room doctor treated him for three hours.

Mr Schweizer received 26 stitches to his shin and another four to his hand before being transferred to a Miami hospital for further treatment.

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

PHOTO showing John Schweizer (pictured left) waiting in a golf cart on Bimini after being bitten by a shark.

He was later discharged and returned home, where neighbours dressed as sharks in an effort to lift his spirits.

“It’s a good story. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world that’s not great. It’s a feel-good story, and I’m happy to be part of it,” he said.

Mr Schweizer said the attack had changed at least one aspect of his future travel plans.

“I’m not going to swim with sharks anymore,” he

said.

The incident follows a shark attack in late June involving 12-year-old Parker Roll of Texas, who was bitten while swimming off Staniel Cay, Exuma, during a family trip.

Parker told Good Morning America he was “lucky to be alive” after a shark clamped onto him while he and his brother, Jack, were in the water during a tour of the Exuma Cays.

FORMER RBDF MARINE FACES NEW INDECENT ASSAULT CASE

Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

His trial on that charge is scheduled to begin on November 9.

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net A FORMER Royal Bahamas Defence Force marine accused of indecently assaulting his ex-girlfriend over the Emancipation Day holiday weekend was denied bail yesterday.

The same defendant is awaiting trial for allegedly abusing seven male cadets at a Rangers camp in Eleuthera last summer.

Prosecutors allege Yahshua Prevail Cox, 27, inappropriately touched a 21-year-old woman in New Providence on August 1.

Cox pleaded not guilty to indecent assault before Magistrate Abigail Farrington.

He appeared calm during his arraignment.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Kendrick Bauld, the prosecutor, objected to bail, citing Cox’s pending court matters of a similar nature. ASP Bauld also argued that Cox posed a high risk of reoffending if released.

Cox is awaiting trial on eight counts of cruelty to children and two counts of indecent assault.

He allegedly sexually and physically abused cadets aged 11 to 19 in Eleuthera between June 30 and July 19, 2025.

The allegations include physical assaults, the forced consumption of toilet water and sexually inappropriate behaviour by a supervising officer at the camp.

Cox allegedly forced a 14-year-old male cadet to masturbate in the presence of his peers and deprived him of sleep, causing him unnecessary suffering.

He is further alleged to have abused four other males, aged 11, 13, 15 and 19, during the same period.

Cox also allegedly inappropriately touched and mistreated boys aged 15 and 16 between July 1 and 19.

Magistrate Farrington denied Cox bail on the latest charge and remanded him to the

THE Bahamas has joined a regional healthcare alliance intended to coordinate technical support and financing for primary care reform.

However, officials have not disclosed what specific projects, funding or timetable will result from the arrangement.

The country became the 12th nation and the first CARICOM member state to join the Alliance for Primary Health Care in the Americas after the Ministry of Health and Wellness signed a memorandum of understanding with the Pan American Health Organization, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank yesterday.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said the agreement would bring technical expertise, investment and innovation into closer alignment with the country’s national health priorities and help accelerate the transformation of the healthcare system through a primary healthcare approach.

However, no amount of financing for The Bahamas was announced, and officials did not identify any new clinics, services or programmes that would be delivered under the agreement. They also did

not say when the mechanisms outlined in the memorandum would be implemented or when patients could expect to see results.

Dr Darville said participation in the alliance would allow The Bahamas to work more closely with PAHO, the IDB and the World Bank and draw on international expertise and healthcare solutions used elsewhere in the Americas.

“Ultimately, this collaboration is about ensuring that every Bahamian can access timely, quality healthcare services and receive preventative services before illnesses become severe or advance,” Dr Darville said.

He said the Ministry of Health was ready to implement the mechanisms outlined in the agreement, but did not detail what those mechanisms were.

PAHO Director Dr Jarbas Barbosa described the signing as an important milestone for The Bahamas and the region.

He said the alliance was created by PAHO, the IDB and the World Bank to place primary healthcare at the centre of health system reform through coordinated technical cooperation, policy discussions and financing.

Dr Barbosa said the initiative had supported the

alignment of more than $1bn in health system investments across participating countries. He did not say whether any portion of that investment would be available to The Bahamas.

He said the agreement would help improve access to healthcare across the archipelago and support innovative and resilient community-based services for Family Island residents.

IDB Chief of Operations for The Bahamas Steven Collins said primary healthcare was the foundation of a strong, people-centred health system and highlighted projects already being supported by the bank.

He said the government was investing in the construction and upgrading of clinics on several Family Islands and expanding telehealth services to improve access in remote communities.

“These investments are about much more than buildings,” Mr Collins said. “They represent a commitment to ensuring that every Bahamian has access to quality healthcare, no matter where they live.”

Officials did not clarify whether those existing projects would now form part of the alliance’s work or whether separate initiatives would be developed under the memorandum.

PAGE 8, Thursday, August 6, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

Simon • Front Porch

The cannibalisation

of our stopover business

world that have cruise ports continue to seek a balance, because of the effects of overtourism to their destinations caused by large numbers of cruise passengers.

Unlike stopovers visitors, US citizens do not need a passport to travel to The Bahamas on “closed-loop itineraries, ie, cruises departing from and returning to the exact same US port.”

According to the US Department of State, there are approximately 145 million US citizens without passports. The Bahamas is open to a much larger market of Americans by way of cruises, especially because of our proximity to the US. Historically, retail stores, hair braiders, straw vendors, taxi and tour drivers, and others, have benefited from the cruise business. Still, there have also historically

while improving our tourism product, including downtown Nassau? The cruise lines have taken advantage of our neglect, bad policies, and failures in tourism.

Today, a major contention is the number of private islands or enclaves we have agreed to lease to the cruise lines.

This journal reported in

nibalization by those cruise lines engaged in a new form of colonialism in tourism.

Consider a number of fairly recent comments by cruise executives. A Royal Caribbean executive noted in an interview with Travelhost: “Perfect Day at CocoCay continues to perform exceptionally well, and we are reaching important milestones on Royal Beach Club Paradise

cruise on these modern ships and visited their private islands and compared the quality and price of the experience, begins to understand why converting Bahamas stopovers to cruises has been relatively easy.

Minister Hanna Martin is on the right track with her focus on product improvement and greater Bahamian ownership of tourism. But she

must realize that her task is considerably bigger and more complex.

The minister noted in her recent national budget presentation: “... We will establish curated vendor markets and pop-up commercial zones to give Bahamian makers, food vendors and artisans a permanent, organized presence downtown.”

This is well and good. But is it enough?

Hanna Martin rightly

Product improvements enhance the condition of our country generally to the benefit of visitors and residents and they distribute visitor spending more widely. To illustrate how we are viewed by others, one cruise executive was moved to

els

Island opening in 2025 and the Royal Beach Club in Cozumel, Mexico opening in 2026. These new experiences uniquely position us to continue taking share from land-based alternatives.”

At the March/April 2024 Seatrade Cruise Global conference, cruise executives stated that cruise lines are not competing against each other.

They are mostly competing against land-based vacations.

The lines are boasting of their superior value in lodgings, entertainment, restaurants, and gambling. And they are using their private islands to press their competitive advantage.

This is all good and wonderful for cruise lines.

What are the effects, however, on tourism and stopover visitors in The Bahamas?

Why do we boast of so many cruise passengers, when millions never the leave the ships or millions only disembarks on a private island?

While the Ministry of Tourism was seeking to convert cruise passengers to stopover visitors, cruise executives were boasting about their success in accomplishing just the opposite.

From the perspective of the economy of The Bahamas, they were converting high value stopovers to low value cruise passengers.

Anyone who has taken a

wyler/pex

failed to do in our tourism and economic strategies to grow stopover visitors,

2023: “In 2020, while in opposition, it was reported that Prime Minister Philip...

Davis declared that a PLP government would cancel any lease granted to RCI for Crown land to develop its beach club project. However, after the Progressive Liberal Party won the 2021 general election, officials said Mr Davis was seeking a compromise in the Crown land row.”

Why did the PLP change its mind on the project?

In opposition, now-Tourism Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin called the proposal “hare-brained” and suggested it would take food out of the mouth of Bahamian entrepreneurs.

She pressed that cruise passengers should instead support local tour and taxi drivers and small businesses inside of isolating in a private enclave.

After the PLP came to power and reversed its stance, many believed that Hanna Martin breached cabinet protocol to repeat her opposition to the project. Her view, shared by many, is that The Bahamas had gone far enough in granting permission to cruise lines for private enclaves.

Now in the chair, the daughter of Arthur and Beryl Hanna has a progressive and nationalist opportunity and obligation to protect the country from the further can-

icius Datt

been concerns and contention about the effects of mass cruising.

This includes air pollution and ocean dumping of sewage, gray water, and bilge waste. Cruise line executives have taken advantage of Caribbean destinations by dividing and conquering small-island state governments when it came to a host of concessions.

How have we been complicit?

What have we

Photo: Vin

CRUISING plays a role in our tourism mix. There is a sensible economic and social position between those who wish to near completely ban cruises and those who rejoice at gangbuster numbers that provide limited economic gains.

Countries around the

describe their private island as “The Bahamas without the mess.”

Minister Hanna Martin has a complex of interconnected challenges to address: the quality of our tourism product on multiple levels; the need to boost stopover visitors to grow our economy and quality jobs; and the cannibalisation of our tourism economy by cruise lines.

Photo: Ben Prater/pexels She will have many began her new post by allies. But she will also focusing on improving the have powerful domestic product. The Bahamas is not and international pushback a destination with scores of from private and narrower all-inclusives, where visitors interests bent on preserving disappear behind a security and advancing their bigwall on arrival and emerge sized slices of the proverbial after several days to go to the economic pie. Hers is a airport. Our visitors, for the responsibility and fight her most part, are free to roam late father well-understood and enjoy experiences across as a nationalist and cabinet various islands. minister.

Nauru, the world’s 3rd-smallest country, changes its name to Naoero

By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The Pacific Island country of Nauru has changed its name to the Republic of Naoero, its president said, matching the spelling and pronunciation in the national language.

The country’s international code will change from NRU to NRO and its people will be known as dei-Naoero instead of Nauruan. Commonly known abroad by the pronunciation of Now-roo, the new name is spoken as Now-ero.

The move would return the remote South Pacific island nation to its traditional name, a statement posted Thursday to the government’s Facebook account said. The country became known internationally as Nauru only because its local name was difficult for foreigners to pronounce and was a matter of convenience rather than one of choice, according to an earlier government statement.

“This proposed change seeks to more faithfully honour our nation’s heritage, our language, and our identity,” President David Adeang said when he proposed the move to Parliament in January. The suggested constitutional amendment has been endorsed by

lawmakers in the requisite two rounds of voting, though it wasn't immediately clear if the document had been formally amended.

With 12,000 residents, Nauru is the world’s third-smallest country by population size, after Tuvalu and Vatican City. The tiny coral limestone atoll was colonized by Germany and later administered by Australia before becoming an independent republic in 1968.

It has faced tumultuous circumstances, with phosphate mining creating huge wealth on the island in the 1970s before the industry collapsed, bringing Nauru to the brink of economic ruin in the 1990s.

Now, the country is one of the world's most at risk from rising seas due to climate change, prompting the government to seek overseas investment through a paid citizenship program intended to fund the movement of people and infrastructure away from the encroaching ocean.

The name change indicated “the beginning of renewed national pride,” Adeang said in his latest announcement.

When his government last voted for the move in May, the president announced a referendum to confirm it.

The government said in last week’s statement that after “extensive discussions,” lawmakers had decided a public vote wasn’t needed.

“While a referendum is intended to determine the will of the people, the name Naoero has never been lost, but rather waiting to be fully embraced,” the statement said.

The designation “is already the identity of the people, is on the national coat of arms, and spoken in the community; and importantly is allowed by the Constitution,” it added.

The move makes the country the latest to signal a shift away from a colonial past by changing its name. The tiny African kingdom of Eswatini reverted to its historic name from Swaziland in 2018. Other countries have sought the switch as a sort of rebrand, as Turkey did when Ankara asked the United Nations in 2022 to begin calling the country Türkiye, which the nation had long gone by at home.

Nauru's decision will prompt the renaming of its national aircraft and ships. The government was already seeking to have other countries and international institutions recognize the shift, its statement said.

The website of the United Nations records the country by its new name, noting the government had requested it be changed in June. Australia and New Zealand’s foreign ministries as well as the U.S. and Chinese embassies in the region also designate the country as Naoero on their websites.

Nauru President David Adeang speaks at the opening ceremony of Boao Forum of Asia, in Boao in southern China’s Hainan province on Thursday, March 28, 2024.

AP Photo/Tian Macleod Ji, File

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2026, PAGE 9

PAGE 10, Thursday, August 6, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

Charlie Harper • Stateside

The Ragin’ Cajun and his wild predictions about Trump DO YOU remember James Carville?

Maybe you’ve seen his photo more recently than you’ve read his name. He’s often pictured scrunched down in a chair, hat pulled down over his forehead, a smirking frown on his face.

He’s a proud Louisianan, and speaks with a sharp southern twang, often sprinkling his remarks with caustic sarcasm.

At his peak, which was some time ago, Carville was widely known for being a staunch liberal who was happily married to Mary Matalin, a Yankee from the north who is an unabashedly conservative supporter and stalwart Republican political operative. Even 35 years ago, the US political scene was so polarized that this marriage of two political pros from opposite sides of the spectrum was much commented upon.

Carville has been around professional politics for over 40 years, earning his reputation in campaigns in Louisiana, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky and Georgia. He rose to prominence around 1990 by masterminding a successful Pennsylvania race for the US Senate against an opposing candidate who was heavily favoured.

This brought Carville to the attention of Arkansas governor Bill Clinton, who eventually named Carville manager of his own successful upstart 1992 campaign for president.

Matalin, meanwhile, was working in a senior role for President George HW Bush as he sought reelection, and her marriage to Carville in 1993 was a sensation. The two are still together, though Matalin has quietly been in the publishing business and mostly out of the public eye for 10 years.

Carville, on the other hand, crops up occasionally in the world of punditry.

He most recently made the headlines most pundits seek with some wild-sounding predictions he issued more than four months ago.

Back in March, Carville garnered lots of attention with the confident assertion on a podcast that President Trump will resign in frustration after losing in the upcoming November midterm elections. According to Fox News and other news outlets, the self-styled ‘Ragin Cagun’ said "what I'm going to talk about is the possibility of resignation, because he doesn't know

how much his life is getting ready to change after November."

Carville’s notion is that the Democrats, despite a relatively weak effort to recover from their 2024 disastrous electoral performance, persistently poor national organizational efforts and a relatively weak fundraising showing so far, will overcome GOP gerrymandering successes and roll to a decisive victory in recapturing control of the US House of Representatives in November.

The pundit also forecast a successful Democratic effort to regain control of the US Senate,

e Hill

Th Photo:

though this still seems like a long shot. The Senate lineup of seats to be contested this year simply does not line up well for the Dems, and despite the sagging popularity of president Trump, and the widespread disgust with a pliant Republican-controlled Congress that continues to give the president most of what he wants, the GOP is very likely to retain a slim majority in the Senate.

Anyhow, Carville predicted in March that Trump would lose Congress and would “of course” be impeached for a third time by a Democratic-controlled House.

"He'll still be president in November," Carville said. "But his power is going to just ebb out. By Thanksgiving, this guy has still got two years to go. He's lost the whole public opinion. He's lost the whole Senate. He's lost the House. The lobbyists are going to start cutting deals on the other side.

"And I think the guy is just soft, and it's going to feel horrible when you get hit like he's going to get hit. I think, I think he just gets JD Vance

where he is after November, he might just walk away."

There is a relatively recent precedent for a beleaguered president resigning in the middle of a second term as president and successfully seeking a full pardon from his successor, who would be current vice-president JD Vance.

Just over half a century ago, US President Richard Nixon resigned in favour of his vice president, former Michigan

to pardon him, and I think there's a good chance he just says ‘s---' and just walks away.

‘It ain't worth it. That's the best I can do,’" Carville speculated that Trump might say. The pundit added that "I don't think Trump is tough enough to tough this out."

Carville’s podcast partner Al Hunt agreed, speculating that if Trump does choose to resign, he would seek to get some sort of deal from Vance to ensure he would not face prosecution after he leaves office.

Carville responded that "after being where he has been, with such total control of his own party and the immediate environment around him, I don't think he's physically or mentally capable of doing it — of sticking it out. I just think he's fat, lazy and deteriorating. And to the extent that he can see

congressman Gerald Ford.

Dogged by a devastating accumulation of evidence that he had condoned or even directed blatant ‘dirty political tricks’ against his overmatched Democratic opponent George McGovern in 1972 in what became known as the Watergate scandal, and then consistently lying and obfuscating to conceal his actions, Nixon

realized that support for his continuing in office was hemorrhaging support almost daily.

“I have never been a quitter," he told a rapt television audience in August 1974.

"To leave office before my term is completed is contrary to every instinct in my body." But Nixon said that he had decided to put "the interests of America first."

Conceding that he did not have the votes in Congress to escape impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate, Nixon said that "to continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the

great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home."

"By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America," he said. "I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that

events prove that if some of my judgments were wrong -and some were wrong -- they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interests of the nation."

Further, he said he was leaving "with no bitterness" toward those who had opposed him.

"So let us all now join together in affirming that common commitment and in helping our new President succeed for the benefit of all Americans," Nixon said.

A photo of Nixon, at the top step of Air Force One and en route from Washington DC to a temporary political exile in his native California, waving a bittersweet goodbye to the nation’s capital, is one of the iconic images of that era.

Back to today. Most observers now put little credence in Carville’s startling assertions from March. But Trump can hardly be positive about the position he now occupies.

Few people seem to still endorse his war against Iran, with most commentators (including several from the political right) joining a broad consensus that there is no face-saving way out of this deepening morass for the US – and for its president.

Trump’s persistence in apparently seeking to join the list of top ten richest men by means of extensive corporate graft at the expense of the US taxpayer is becoming more widely acknowledged.

And his indifference to the ravages of inflation of average Americans has become increasingly intolerable, even to his most loyal supporters.

Maybe he should consider the ‘Carville option.’

But if he does, hoping that he will do so as graciously as Nixon once did seems extraordinarily improbable.

And there’s another aspect to this that’s worth noting.

When Nixon did resign, Gerald Ford, in one of his very first actions as president, issued to his predecessor a sweeping general pardon.

Ford clearly acted to heal the wounds caused by Nixon’s erratic and illegal behavior. But historians generally agree that from the moment he issued the pardon, Ford’s presidency was doomed.

President Ford could never dispel the taint from that one act, and lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Gene-edited beagles may offer a future option for people with dog allergies

By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN AP Science Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Matt Walker couldn’t pet a dog without sneezing — until he and other scientists used a gene editing technique to produce a hypoallergenic beagle named Bailey.

Now, he can feed Bailey spoons of peanut butter while she lies on his lap and play fetch with her in Central Park. His allergies didn't go away: Bailey's saliva and hair no longer contain a key allergy-causing protein.

“The feeling right now is sort of a mix of relief and awe and gratitude that it worked,” said Walker, a geneticist. His company, Kindred Companion Sciences, created Bailey and her twin Alfie using a Nobel Prize-winning technique called CRISPR. It'll take years before the millions who suffer from dog-related allergies can walk into a pet store and buy a pooch like Alfie or Bailey.

Scientists have to monitor the long-term health effects of the genetic tweak, and find ways to commercialize the approach to make it affordable. And experts not involved with the effort say it could hurt shelter and rescue animals waiting to be adopted.

“It opens the door to a lot more people being able to own pets. On the negative side, it may discourage people from trying to use strays

and unwanted animals that are not engineered to be allergy-free,” said bioethicist Arthur Caplan with New York University's Grossman School of Medicine.

Researchers have tried to create hypoallergenic pets before, mostly using cloning. But this led to sicker pups that were too genetically similar. Two years ago, researchers used CRISPR to reduce levels of an allergy-causing protein in a cat named Alsik. But it's not yet clear whether this technique is safe to be tested on other cats.

Dogs that shed less, like poodles, are often thought of as hypoallergenic. But these pups still produce allergy-causing proteins that end up in their saliva, hair and dander, so they can still make people sniffly.

To create Alfie and Bailey, scientists started in the lab. They edited the genetic code inside dog skin cells, switching off the main gene responsible for producing allergy-causing proteins. Then they transferred the edited genetic code into eggs that went into a beagle surrogate that gave birth to two healthy female pups in September 2024. Scientists tested their saliva and fur and didn’t find signs of the allergy-causing protein.

They also performed an allergy test, pricking Walker's skin with extracts from Alfie and Bailey's saliva and dander. His skin reacted to samples from a poodle and goldendoodle, but not from the beagles.

The research, published Wednesday in the CRISPR Journal, is the first time such an approach has been tried successfully in dogs.

Walker says all dogs have the same allergy-causing gene that was edited in Alfie and Bailey. Kindred Companion Sciences hopes MATT and Maggie Walker pose for a photo with their gene-edited hypoallergenic beagle, to test the techBailey, in New York on Aug. 4, 2026. nique on other dogs and service AP Photo/Mary Conlon animals to see if they can breed an how effective or broadly useful this over a year and says she's become a allergy-free line could be for stopping dog allergy in member of the family. of pups beyond beagles.

Future research should test the humans,” said SoRelle, who had no Despite being a lifelong dog gene-edited hypoallergenic dogs role in the study. lover, his allergies kept him away Bailey lives with Walker in New from pups growing up. Even breeds on more people with pet allergies to be sure they can soothe symp- York, and Alfie lives in Florida with that were supposed to be more toms across a broader swath of the another Kindred scientist. The edit hypoallergenic, like his family's human population, said Dr. Jeff made to their genes is rare but does goldendoodle, gave him itchy eyes SoRelle, a pathologist at Univer- occur naturally in some dogs, so and painful rashes. sity of Texas Southwestern Medical Walker said it's unlikely to have any But he and Bailey can play tugnegative effects on the pups. But it of-war together in his living room, Center.

Since the switched-off gene is the will still be important to monitor and she snuggles at his feet to commain — but not the only — aller- them at routine vet visits and make fort him when he’s sick. gy-causing culprit in dogs that was sure they stay healthy.

“It feels just amazing to get to Walker has had Bailey for a little have a dog,” Walker said. tested, “we don't exactly know just

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2026, PAGE 11

Op Ed: BPL’s ‘same old excuses’

fail to mask grid flaws

By S Timothy Roberts Tribune Editor

Under pressure, you do not rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training.

- Anonymous military training principle

expect these unseen systems to do their job. A complete blackout means multiple layers of safety failed at the exact same time.

Certainly there is antiquated equipment throughout the system, from the power grid, to the transformers, substations and generation.

This certainly is a part of the problem. Even if all components are properly serviced and maintained there would be a point at which upgrades and replacements become

IN management of crisis preparation and training are key to mitigating outright disaster.

As another saying goes, ‘those who fail to plan, plan to fail.’

It can be said without controversy that Bahamas Power and Light Company(BPL) - formerly Bahamas Electricity Company (BEC) - can be said to be the worst run govt corporation in our history.

They often set low expectations and fail to even reach them.

That’s not to say that there are no brilliant workers and that everything is completely awful.

There are a good many talented and dedicated individuals that work the various departments of BPL, but whether the company is hamstrung by legacy debt, bad practices or government ineptitude in solving the core issues, their efforts are overshadowed by the failure to provide efficient ILLUSTRATION: grid failure without mitigating systems and reliable electricity to the necessary. country.

It, however, has been long-susThe latest Island-wide blackout highlights a key problem in the pected that maintenance, especially electrical grid, which is seen on with regards to generation, has not other islands as well. There should been faithfully carried out, and the be no way that a single point of fail- system failures that could possibly ure (or even two points of failure) be avoided become inevitable. Add to that the reuse and repurposing of take out the entire grid.

There is no way around this par- old equipment across the country ticular issue. A lightning strike, a also reduces reliability. blown transformer, or a failed genReasons or excuses? erator should not plunge the entire Over the past year, BPL has island into darkness. cited several primary reasons for major power outages How a power grid should be affecting New Providesigned The first rule of grid design is dence and the Family redundancy. Engineers call this Islands. These reasons the N minus 1 rule. The grid must range from severe handle the loss of its largest single weather and aging component without dropping power infrastructure to grid modernization growing to customers.

If a 15 megawatt transformer pains.

Throughout the late catches fire, the system should automatically route the electricity spring and summer through parallel wires and spare of 2026, the ongoing transformers. You build the system $130 million transmiswith extra capacity so the remain- sion and distribution ing equipment can carry the burden. upgrade by the BahaThe second layer of defense mas Grid Company involves protective relays and cir- (BGC) emerged as a cuit breakers. These devices act as major factor in wideheavy duty switches. They moni- spread outages on Providence. tor the electricity flowing through New the wires. When a fire or a short To facilitate foundacircuit happens, the electrical cur- tional upgrades safely, rent spikes to dangerous levels, the circuits were taken relays detect this spike in millisec- offline.

Simultaneously, onds and open the breakers. claimed the This action completely discon- BPL nects the burning equipment from island experienced an heatthe healthy parts of the grid. By unseasonable trapping the fault in a small zone, wave in May 2026, electricity you prevent the voltage drop from driving dragging down the main power demand to levels usually seen in late August plants.

Sometimes the damage is too or September. This severe for extra wires to handle. If combination of "peak a major generator trips offline, the system demand" and grid suddenly lacks enough elec- reduced network flextricity to serve everyone. Before the ibility (due to offline triggered entire system collapses under the circuits) circuit weight of the demand, automated widespread overloads, tripped gensystems step in.

They intentionally shut off power erators, and exposed to small blocks of neighbourhoods. hidden system faults.

Officials noted that You sacrifice power to 5 or 10 modernisation percent of the island to keep the the frequency stable for the other 90 work had been delayed by eight weeks due to percent.

If an entire island goes dark from the tragic March 2026 one substation fire, you know these murder of Cody Casprotections failed, if they exist at tillo, a Pike Electric employee working on all.

The circuit breakers failed to the project, forcing the open, the backup equipment was critical infrastructure already broken, or the automated work to continue into systems reacted too slowly. When the extreme heat of the you boot up a custom PC build or summer.

Aging infrastructure just want to keep the lights on for your family here in Nassau, you remains a significant

vulnerability as most recently highlighted in the Blue Hills Substation Explosion on July 30. An islandwide blackout on New Providence was triggered by a flashover and the subsequent explosion of a 15MVA transformer at the Blue Hills Primary substation.

BPL suspected the explosion was caused by an underground cable fault, though the BPL Board later issued a press release citing an extraordinary lightning strike

units suffered mechanical malfunctions within days of each other, requiring replacement units to be shipped in under poor weather conditions.

Aside from the lightning strike that the BPL Board blamed for the July 30th Blue Hills transformer explosion, lightning storms were repeatedly cited by BPL for causing cable faults, damaging high-voltage equipment, and necessitating the shutdown of power stations (to

that damaged the critical interface between generation and transmission.

In late July 2026, a major generating unit at the Wilson City Power Station in Abaco tripped offline.

Restoration was severely delayed by additional problems with the station's uninterruptible power supply system and the main transformer tripping.

Also in October 2025, Crooked Island suffered a major, extended outage after two power generation

protect grounded equipment) across New Providence and Abaco during the current summer.

Also worth noting is a September 2025 microburst on southeast New Providence caused extensive damage, requiring high-voltage pole replacements. BPL has also cited overgrown vegetation interfering with power lines as the cause for several localized outages.

On the Family Islands, specific technical failures have led to significant blackouts. For example,

a major blackout during the Cat Island Rake 'N' Scrape festival in June 2026 was blamed on a generation shortfall involving problems with the CI1 generation unit's turbocharger and the CI2 breaker.

What mitigation is being done now?

The question raised by the frequency of problems comes down to, ‘what has the government and BPL actively done to mitigate these excessive and avoidable outages to the consumers?’

Weather is no new phenomenon and countries worldwide weather storms (outside of major disasters) without widespread outages. Why are we different?

While we, as a country, tend to punch above our weight, we are for better or worse, still a third world country, we have the capability of doing better.

What we may lack in expertise we can hire out to ensure from generation to distribution is working well.

We can ensure the failsafe equipment is in working order. While we appreciate the upgrades being carried out now, plans can be made to minimize the impacts to the consumer’s electricity.

We are at a point where these same old excuses for major outages are not acceptable. They are not new problems.

They are certainly decades old.

It is time for the government to ensure professionals (local or foreign) ensure the grid is designed to be resilient, mitigating against single points of failure, and generation shortfalls. The system needs to be designed for the future to account for electric vehicles and more developments.

This is what progress would look like. Not just promises, but action that results in something better; something all Bahamians deserve.

PAGE 12, Thursday, August 6, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

World News

August's total solar eclipse will sweep over Spain, Iceland and Greenland

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer FOR the first time in more than a century, a total solar eclipse is coming to mainland Spain with an even longer encore next summer.

Toss in a crescendoing meteor shower and a sixplanet parade on the same day, and the heavens will be overflowing with awe.

Daytime darkness will descend Aug. 12 across the Iberian Peninsula close to sunset — plus slivers of Greenland and Iceland — as the sun, moon and Earth align perfectly in the sky.

Starting near the North Pole before tracking south, totality will last up to two minutes and 18 seconds, an appetiser for an even longer solar show next year — a 6 ½-minute extravaganza that will sweep from Spain to North Africa and the Middle East.

It will take 1 ½ hours for the umbra, or the moon's sun-blocking shadow, to race along the 5,130-mile (8,260-kilometre) course, most of it over an empty Atlantic. Maximum totality will occur off Iceland's west coast. By the time it reaches

a small patch of Portugal and then Spain with its massive crowds, totality will have dwindled to a minute or so. The spectacle will end in the Mediterranean.

ECLIPSE CHASERS GEAR UP FOR THE SOLAR SPECTACLE Hundreds of millions more on the sidelines are in for a treat as well.

A partial eclipse will delight as far away as Alaska and Siberia, enveloping Canada, the northern U.S., and much of Europe and West Africa.

The closer to totality's course, the more the sun will vanish behind the moon – 94% coverage in Dublin and FILE - This image provided by NASA and captured by the Artemis II crew from lunar orbit, April 6, 2026, shows the Moon eclipsing the Sun. Photo: NASA/ AP, File 83% in Oslo, Norway. Montreal will see an 18% bite out of the sun, tapering to 9% in New York and 2% in Norfolk, Virginia.

Special eclipse glasses are crucial. Even if a morsel of sun is showing.

Adding to the cosmic wonder, the day begins with six of our neighbouring planets forming an arc in the sky before dawn and ends with the Perseid meteor shower peaking after nightfall under the new moon.

Streaking meteors could photobomb totality, with some of the brighter planets and stars visible in the background.

Eclipse mapmaker Michael Zeiler is chasing an even more elusive interloper: the northern lights.

For his 13th total solar eclipse, Zeiler will be on a cruise ship in a Greenland fjord, sailing as a guest lecturer. He'll point a video camera toward the north to capture any aurora forming during totality. A massive outburst from the sun would be the icing on his eclipse cake.

"What gets me excited is viewing rare phenomena," Zeiler said in an email.

He's not the only one revved up.

SEE WHO'S HOSTING SOLAR ECLIPSE WATCH PARTIES AND SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS The European Space Agency will host a live webcast from Spain's Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre and a public celebration in Leon. NASA will provide its own coverage, as will the Italian-based Virtual Telescope Project and others.

"For me, it's not just a scientific moment. It's not just an incredible alignment of heavenly bodies. It's also a very human moment," said ESA's director of science Carole Mundell. "It's a real human connection between us with our feet planted on the Earth and the cosmos."

Two of ESA's space telescopes will observe the eclipsed sun and its corona, or outer atmosphere.

Proba-3, the space agency's artificial eclipse-making satellite duo, will be in the wrong part of its orbit during totality as seen from Earth, but will try to sneak in some before-and-after shots.

U.S. college research teams are also pitching in, launching more than 60 high-altitude balloons from Spain and Iceland to study Earth's atmosphere and other changes during the

eclipse when the temperature momentarily drops.

They launched 10 times as many balloons during the 2024 total solar eclipse that captivated North America.

"A couple of minutes isn't a lot of time, but it's still plenty to affect the atmosphere and to make that cold, dark shadow of the moon on Earth," said Montana State University's Angela Des Jardins, who leads the NASA-funded balloon project.

Southwest Research Institute's Amir Caspi also expects a scientific bonanza from his study aboard a NASA high-altitude plane.

Four cameras will record the corona in nine wavelengths as the jet chases the eclipse at 460 mph (740 kph), extending totality to nearly three minutes in the air. Caspi anticipates thousands of images gathered from each camera during those precious 180 seconds.

"It's true the eclipse is short, but it's still incredibly valuable," he said.

AND THERE'S MORE TO COME An exceptionally long total solar eclipse is in store for 2027, yielding nearly three times more observation time.

The southern tip of Spain will take centre stage on Aug. 2, 2027, with up to six minutes and 23 seconds of totality extending into Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia.

Then on Jan. 26, 2028, a ring-of-fire eclipse will round out Spain's celestial trifecta — "a lucky coincidence," according to ESA's Mundell.

It's all the more extraordinary considering Spain's last full solar eclipse — not counting the Canary Islands — occurred two days before the Titanic's sinking in 1912. Because that rare hybrid eclipse toggled between a ring-of-fire and just a few seconds of totality for Spain, some consider 1905 for the country's last pull-out-all-the-stops solar eclipse.

The Royal Observatory of Belgium's Andrei Zhukov can't get enough of them regardless of their length or origin. His Proba-3 science mission has created more than 60 simulated total solar eclipses over the past two years, with the longest lasting five hours and 38 minutes from two satellites flying in formation.

"We're looking forward to more eclipses," Zhukov said, "natural or artificial."

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2026, PAGE 13

World News

At colleges, the AI boom means everyone wants to dabble in computer science

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH AP Education Writer WITH no background in coding, Faith Maeba, a psychology major, was reluctant when her mother first suggested she enrol in classes on artificial intelligence.

But the senior at Virginia Commonwealth University began to see it differently as she looked into graduate psychology programs that explore human behaviour in the workplace, which is quickly being upended by machine learning. Maeba, 21, is now pursuing a minor in AI. "It's giving me an edge and standing out," she said.

Hiring has cooled for entry-level software developers — work increasingly done by AI agents — and college enrollment in computer and information science programs has been declining. Yet at campuses across the country, many professors are finding themselves busier than ever teaching students from a range of majors about artificial intelligence.

Colleges are responding to changes in student demand, but they also recognise that new graduates — regardless of their field — are facing questions about their AI skills from potential employers.

"We have to democratise it," said Peter Stone, the chair of computer science at the University of Texas at Austin, who recently developed an introductory course on AI essentials for noncomputer science majors.

"In the same way that everybody needs some degree of math, reading and writing, I think everybody needs a degree of AI literacy," he said.

Schools like VCU are standing up AI minors targeting students outside computer science. There's a new AI graduation requirement at Purdue University. In freshman writing classes, Harvard University is teaching students how large language models work, plus exploring AI topics such as copyright and disinformation. And Ohio State University has an AI fluency requirement that includes hands-on workshops.

Meanwhile, AI-focused undergraduate and even graduate degrees are proliferating.

Computer science faculty pivot to teach non-majors At Northwestern University, noncomputer science majors had interest in taking classes in the department even before ChatGPT launched in 2022, but sometimes there wasn't enough room, said Samir Khuller, the chair for computer science. That's because computer science, then seen as a golden ticket to a high-paying job, was exploding in popularity.

But recently, the number of incoming computer science majors has started to shrink. Now Northwestern's computer science staff, which had doubled in size to meet the demand, is teaching more students from other majors. The school, which already has a popular AI minor, is adding an AI major. It's also streamlining prerequisites to make it easier for nonmajors to take an AI or machine learning class.

"Overall, classes are going to be a lot more accessible moving forward," Khuller said. The department is so busy, he's trying to hire three more computer science professors.

Among other changes across the university, Northwestern's Bienen School of Music is offering a certificate in music and artificial intelligence.

Nationwide, enrollment in computer and information sciences continued falling this spring, down more than 8% at fouryear institutions from the spring of 2025, according to the latest data from the National Student

Faith Maeba, a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, shares an assignment she completed assignment for her Practical AI Synthesis course at her home, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Stafford, Va. Photo: Moriah Ratner/AP

Clearinghouse Research Center, a dip that came as job postings for software developers dropped.

Interest in attaining at least a bare-bones understanding in computer science — and particularly AI-enhanced coding — has exploded across different majors. Music students, for instance, are discovering tools that can easily do tasks such as editing or generating drum tracks.

At Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, assistant music professor Benjamin Guerrero is co-teaching a class next year with a computer scientist. Musicians, artists, theatre and digital media majors will learn alongside math, computer science and electrical engineering students. The goal, he said, is to create people who can work at the intersection of art and technology.

"In my mind, AI is no more disruptive than the record player, the radio, the metronome, the synthesiser or the computer," said Guerrero, who has helped organisations including the National Association for Music Education develop plans to incorporate AI. Even before this latest surge in interest, STEM majors — like physicists and biologists — often took computer science classes to learn how to code for dataheavy research. But the learning curve was steep until new AI tools came along, said Murtaza Ali, a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington whose research focuses on computer science education.

Yet, he said, AI also is stirring anxiety. The concern, he said, is that even if the AI is just being used to write code, it's going to encroach so much that eventually some college graduates won't understand the basic concepts in their field.

"When you ask the AI to do it for you, on the surface it might just seem it is writing the code," he said. "But under the hood, it's actually also doing the understanding of the task for you."

AI has prompted unusually fast changes in course offerings Despite those concerns, the pace of change is remarkable for a sector infamous for moving slowly, said Paul LeBlanc, a visiting scholar at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, who studies AI's impact on higher education.

"It's impossible to keep up with the technology, but that's true for every organisation in the world right now," said LeBlanc, formerly president of Southern New Hampshire University, a prominent player in online degrees.

Community colleges that want to offer non-credit classes are able to move especially fast, because the approval process is less cumbersome. One in suburban Kansas City recently

offered a non-credit "vibe-coding" class to teach nontechies to create working software.

"What AI does is shrink that distance between a complete novice and an expert," said Grant Carlson, program coordinator for workforce development and continuing education at Johnson County Community College. The Kansas City-area college also offers an AI certificate and is making plans to tailor AI classes to specific occupations, such as human resources and medical careers.

At VCU, it used to take a year and a half to design a course and get it approved for students to take, said Andrew Arroyo, senior vice provost of academic affairs.

"Now we're doing things really in a matter of months and in some cases weeks," Arroyo said. An online graduate certificate program in applied AI is being added this year, he said.

More than simply creating programs, professors must try to prepare students for widely differing goals for using AI in their careers.

In courses for VCU's AI minor, Althea Pappas said she's exploring AI not to use in her career, but to help her answer philosophical questions.

"What happens when we create actual life, or how do we even make that distinction?" asked Pappas, a music composition major entering her sophomore year.

Meanwhile, what fascinates aspiring neurologist Makenzie Stovall is the idea that AI is trying to emulate the brain — an organ whose inner workings continue to leave researchers dumbfounded.

"If I am going to try to make people's brains the best it can be, well, then," the 20-year-old VCU biology major asked, "why not study AI?"

PAGE 14, Thursday, August 6, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

World News

Moroccan families seek missing loved ones after the migrant surge to Spain’s Ceuta

By AKRAM OUBACHIR Associated Press MOTHERS, fathers, brothers, sisters and friends gather along the Moroccan side of the border with the Spanish territory of Ceuta, scanning for familiar faces.

Each returning migrant is met with the question: Have you seen my son? My daughter? My brother?

Authorities say all but a few thousand of the 72,000 migrants who crossed into Ceuta in recent days have since returned to Morocco.

Some families were relieved to welcome them home.

Others were disappointed that the migration attempt failed.

Other families still wait desperately for news.

Families hold up photos of the missing The surge to Ceuta was largely driven by poverty and fuelled by online rumours that the border was open, triggering a crisis resonating across Europe.

More than 80 people died on both sides of the border, according to authorities, as people swam or climbed fences in the attempt.

Nearly all of the migrants who survived were expelled

by Spanish authorities or

returned voluntarily after seeing they were unwelcome. Many of those who made it back borrowed phones from strangers to reassure anxious relatives because they had lost or abandoned their phones in the journey.

As the first migrants trickled back to Morocco, an Associated Press reporter watched families hold up printed photographs of missing relatives, stopping returnees one by one in hopes that someone might recognize a face.

The migrants studied each picture, offering what reassurance they could, often saying only that they hoped the missing person was safe.

“I have been looking for my son for five days now,” said Ibtissam Chari, whose son Rayan crossed with friends after hearing that the border had opened. “He called me when he arrived, and since then I haven’t heard anything from him.”

Another woman stood silently facing the border.

She said she has heard nothing from her 12-year-old son, who crossed into Ceuta with his older brother. Only the older one has returned.

“I have nothing else to do but come here and wait,”

PEOPLE walk on a beach as they attempt to cross from the Moroccan northern town of Fnideq to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Friday, July 31, 2026.

Photo: AP said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her children. “I spend all my days here. I will come back tomorrow again.”

Facebook groups that helped the crossing seek the missing An estimated 1,000 of the few thousand migrants estimated to remain in Ceuta are minors. Spanish security forces are not authorized by law to expel them, and their fate is uncertain.

It remains unclear whether all of the dead have been found or returned to Morocco. Local newspapers and a source at the morgue in

RECORD HEAT WAVE IMPACTS PEOPLE AND ANIMALS IN JAPAN AND KOREAN PENINSULA

Tetouan, the largest Moroccan city near Ceuta, said the facility had received more than a dozen bodies. Journalists were not allowed to enter.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

Meanwhile, Moroccan authorities have welded shut the small opening in the border fence that had

been opened to allow many returning migrants to re-enter the country.

Facebook groups that had circulated videos showing where to swim and tracking Spanish and Moroccan patrols have now taken on a different purpose. Families post photos there of missing relatives, hoping someone has seen them.

“If anyone has seen this girl in Ceuta or Castillejos, please let us know. Her family is going crazy,” one user, Hiba Nakaax, wrote in the Facebook group Fnideq Bab Sebta.

Some parents hope their children try again for Europe Migration has long been woven into the aspirations of many young Moroccans. Poverty and youth unemployment remain high, particularly in inland regions that have not shared in the economic gains seen along parts of the coast.

For many, Europe

represents the possibility of work, stability and a different future. Last year’s youth-led Gen Z protests in Morocco reflected growing frustration over inequality and the quality of public services.

Some parents knew their children intended to make the journey.

After returning from Ceuta, 26-year-old Othmane El Merzoug was barefoot and hungry and desperate to communicate with his family. He asked to borrowed an AP reporter’s phone to call his father in the Moroccan city of Salé.

“Dad, I’ve returned from Ceuta. They didn’t allow me to stay,” he said over speakerphone. His father promised to send money to get him home.

A traumatized 17-yearold from Taounate, Mohamed Chakor, also asked to borrow a phone to call his father, who asked for help in finding other ways to reach Europe.

Scientists certain a wayward SpaceX rocket slammed into the moon as predicted

By HYUNG-JIN KIM and MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press FANS fainting at a baseball park. Lions dying at a zoo. A woman taking shelter in a car found dead. A doctor advising people to eat dog meat to promote stamina.

The scenes caused by a record heat wave in Northeast Asia illustrate how extreme temperatures have gripped South Korea, North Korea and Japan.

In most of South Korea, a major heat wave advisory was in place Wednesday as temperatures in densely populated greater Seoul, home to 20 million people, and adjacent areas soared as high as 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit).

North Korean authorities have issued a heat wave advisory in many areas and called for people to take safety steps to avoid heat-related health problems.

Japan’s anti-disaster agency reported more than 18,000 people with heat stroke symptoms were transported to hospitals during the week of July 20 to 26.

South Korea heat is a ‘national disaster’ Since mid-May in South Korea, about 2,220 people have been diagnosed with heat-related illnesses and 19 have died, according to a report from Interior and Safety Ministry. About 17,140 livestock, such as chickens, ducks and pigs, and about 160,000 farmed fishes also have died.

On Sunday, the southeastern city of Yangsan saw temperatures reaching 42.5 Celsius (108.5 Fahrenheit), the highest figure recorded since weather observation began in Korea in 1904.

In a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, President Lee Jae Myung instructed officials to view the ongoing heat wave as “a national disaster” and make all-out efforts to protect lives.

On Tuesday night, a spectator in his 20s collapsed while watching a baseball game between SSG Landers and LG Twins at

VISITORS holding umbrellas to avoid sunshine leave the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday.

Photo: Ahn Young-joon/AP a stadium in Incheon city, west of Seoul. Emergency personnel administered CPR and transported him to a hospital, halting the game for about 10 minutes.

Another fan in his 20s fell unconscious and received treatment at the stadium after the game, according to the Korea Baseball Organization, which announced Wednesday that all 10 games scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday were cancelled and would be rescheduled.

North Korean hospital official recommends cooling food Min Son Yong, deputy director of the internal medicine department at Pyongyang General Hospital, told North Korea’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Sunday that people should eat dog meat and fish porridge to supplement protein to beat the heat.

Euphemistically known as “dangogi,” or sweet meat, dog meat has long been considered a stamina food in North Korea and is traditionally eaten during the hottest time of the year.

Min also recommended watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes, mung beans and ginger to cool down, the newspaper reported.

Dog meat also has been eaten in China, Vietnam and African countries, as well as in South Korea, which plans to formally ban slaughtering, breeding or selling dog meat for human consumption beginning next year.

Humans and animals suffer in Japan heat Japan’s Environment Ministry issued a heat stroke alert for most of the western and southern Japan on Wednesday. While temperatures in the Tokyo region temporarily fell this week, intense heat continued to hit southern Japan.

In the southwestern city of Kumamoto, relief and cleanup work continued following a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on July 28 that killed 38 people, including a woman in her 70s who developed heat stroke while taking shelter in a car. More than 43,000 households were still without water on Wednesday.

Three lions have died at a Tokyo zoo, with a number of their animal peers developing apparent heatstroke symptoms.

Tama Zoological Park said, Mugi, a 3-year-old female lion, developed a loss of appetite on July 19 and was unable to stand the following day. Suspecting heat problem, zoo keepers provided ventilation and a water sprinkler to cool her down. The lion eventually died on July 28 despite treatment with subcutaneous fluid, liver tonics and vitamins, the zoo said.

Two other female lions, Ichigo, 11, and Luena, 15, also died within a few days, the zoo said.

Autopsies showed dehydration and multiple organ failure in all three animals and officials say they believe heat was the cause of the health problems.

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A SPACEX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A with a payload of a pair of lunar landers at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Jan. 15, 2025.

Photo: John Raoux/AP

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer A SPACEX rocket that launched a pair of lunar landers slammed into the moon as predicted on Wednesday after drifting off course for the past year, scientists reported.

Although no one observed the actual 5,400mph (8,700-kph) collision, a telescope in Chile spotted what astronomers have identified as the debris plume resulting from the crash. Space tracking experts said it was inevitable that the leftover rocket segment plowed into the moon.

It’s the latest instance of lunar litter, a problem that many fear could worsen as the US and China race to put astronauts on the moon. In 2022, a Chinese rocket unintentionally hit the moon following a lunar mission, and many more stray rocket pieces likely struck the moon in decades past without scientists’ knowledge.

SpaceX’s Julianna Scheiman said this week that the company is working with NASA to avoid future wrecks, stressing that this projected crash was not deliberate. A combination of solar activity and gravity accidentally put it on a collision course with the moon, she said.

Boston University’s Carl Schmidt said he is “100% certain” that his team’s observations revealed signs of the lunar crash.

The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope detected a stream of sodium and lithium stretching for miles (tens of kilometres) into space for at least five to 10 minutes following the

impact, he added.

“We don’t have images of the impact” but there’s telescope evidence, Schmidt said in an email.

Even before signs of the debris plume were spotted by the telescope in Chile, retired astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell noted that observations of the dead 4-ton upper stage on Tuesday night showed it heading straight for the moon. The anticipated crash site was a dusty, barren patch near Einstein Crater on the moon’s sunlit western limb — near the edge of the near and far sides, which is especially difficult to observe from Earth.

“There’s no doubt in my mind” that the rocket “is now in teeny, little pieces scattered over the moon near Einstein Crater,” McDowell told The Associated Press.

“As a physicist, I know that what goes up must come down,” he added.

Stargazers knew it would be difficult, if not impossible, from the ground to see the plume of dust and rock ejected from the resulting crater, let alone the flash of light from the impact.

Orbiting spacecraft had the best chance of witnessing anything — or at least observing the crater after the fact.

Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek was among those aiming his telescope at the moon at the appointed time, but he came up empty.

“We knew this would be a long shot,” Langbroek said.

Like McDowell, Langbroek said he had “no doubt” the rocket met its doom.

Visual confirmation,

McDowell noted, will have to wait for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to fly over the crash scene and send back photos of the impact crater. The space agency doesn’t expect that to happen until next week.

The Falcon rocket’s upper stage — a fat cylinder more than 40 feet (12 meters) long — hoisted two private lunar landers from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 15, 2025. It ended up adrift after putting Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and ispace’s Resilience on course for the moon. Resilience wrecked, but Blue Ghost aced its touchdown, becoming the first private spacecraft to do so.

The moon is the new go-to destination in space, with NASA envisioning a stampede of robotic craft over the next several years to form the foundation for a sustainable lunar base.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will provide the lunar landers for NASA’s Artemis astronauts.

Musk’s Starship is making steady progress in test flights from Texas.

Bezos’ Blue Moon lander has yet to launch. One or both landers will take part in next year’s Artemis III, a docking rehearsal in orbit around Earth. A lunar touchdown by astronauts — the first since NASA’s Apollo moonshots — could follow as soon as 2028.

“Things are going to get a lot busier near the moon,” McDowell said. “At that point an impact like this on the lunar surface plowing up huge amounts of dust going for hundreds of miles around is not going to be acceptable.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, August 6, 2026, PAGE 15

Neil Ellis and Randy Rolle deliver relief to six Bimini families affected by recent fire

ALMOST $10,000 in relief items donated by Bishop Neil Ellis and the Member of Parliament for Bimini and the Berry Islands Randy Rolle, both sons of the soil. These items will bring relief to the six families impacted by the recent fire on Bimini that destroyed their homes.

PAGE 16, Thursday, August 6, 2026

LONG-STANDING EMPLOYEES OF THE JUDICIARY HONOURED IN A SERVICE AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE

OVER 60 persons representing the staff of the Office of the Judiciary were honoured on Friday, at Government House for long-standing service of up to over 40 years. Governor General Dame Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt presented awards and plaques, along with Sir Ian Winder, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of The Bahamas and Justice Milton Evans, President of the Court of Appeal. The awards were given in categories marking the number of years served. In his speech, Chief Justice Sir Ian Winder lauded the awardees for their hard work and dedication in the day-to-day functions of the Judiciary Office, noting that they are the true backbone of how the courts of The Bahamas operate. Justice Milton Evans in closing said he is grateful for the work ethic of the persons being honoured.

Photos: Mark Ford/AP

THE TRIBUNE