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‘JUNKANOOERS WANT NJC TO RUN PARADES’
Growing rift among groups as JCNP insists its authority still intact
By RASHAD ROLLE
News Reporter
Tribune
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
A GROWING rift among Junkanoo groups has cast uncertainty over who will manage this year’s parades, with the National Junkanoo Committee (NJC) claiming majority support and the Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence (JCNP) insisting its authority remains intact.
Youth, Sports and Culture Minister Mario Bowleg said yesterday that the NJC approached him after concerns were raised about the JCNP. He said the NJC conducted a poll, claiming a 19 to 2 vote in its favour, though The Tribune was unable to independently verify those numbers. Some groups did not participate in the poll.
R ESIDENTS LEFT TRA PP ED IN HOMES AS STORM HIT
By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter
jrussell@tribunemedia.net
SCORES of
Justine Flowers said she was forced to wade through knee-deep water to get to work yesterday, only to be met with indifference from her employer.
“I have the pictures and stuff like that. But they ain’t care, they just want you come to work,” she said, explaining cars could not
to Abaco today, with officials saying this will be the final group to be accommodated from the storm-related disruptions. Bahamasair managing director Tracy Cooper said the airline was unable to bring passengers home earlier because Leonard M
By NEIL HARTNELL
By NEIL HARTNELL
and enabled
Budget goals. The Ministry of Finance, yesterday unveiling the Government’s fiscal performance for June and the full Budget year, revealed that the fiscal deficit only exceeded initial projections by 13 percent to close at $78.9m compared to the originally-targeted $69.8m.
THE LIGHTHOUSE at Paradise Island (formerly Hog Island) received damage to the top portion that houses the light during the passage of Tropical Storm Imelda. Photo: Toby Smith
Govt deploys pump truck to clear flooded areas
pass without stalling. She recalled her shoe getting stuck while trying to reach dry land and said she now has nowhere to sleep after her shift. “I cannot make it back home through that water,” she said.
Ms Flowers lives in a nine-bedroom home with her cousin, aunt and father.
Her father is immobile and her aunt suffers from diabetes, making the lack of supplies more urgent.
Although her home has been spared flooding, she said the water system is not working. Electricity was only restored on Monday night.
Another resident, Andrea Moxey, said floodwaters reached two feet outside her condo, trapping her inside with her mother and four-year-old son.
water in them, and one person did say that they tried to drive through, but their car stalled,” she said.
She added that although the water subsided from her porch by yesterday, it remained deeper elsewhere in the neighbourhood, cutting off movement.
Restored electricity has been a relief, she said, but many homes remain surrounded by water. “It’s super annoying because it’s not sanitary,” she said. “I have a baby who wants to walk up and down.”
Travis Robinson, the Free National Movement candidate for Fort Charlotte in the next general election, said he used a truck to rescue residents and has been distributing water and other supplies.
“Most of the cars in the driveway outside, have
“The water would normally recede under the road and dump into the pond area that’s in the back of the gas station,” he said, claiming the wetlands were compacted during construction and natural drainage blocked.
Disaster Risk Management Authority managing director Aaron Sargeant said pump trucks from the Ministry of Works and the Water and Sewerage Corporation were deployed to clear floodwaters. He noted that dense urban areas often lack natural runoff to absorb excess rain.
Minister of State for the Water & Sewerage Corporation Leon Lundy said water must be pumped out and disposed of elsewhere, with most being diverted near Saunders Beach. He added that the government is consulting contractors on permanent solutions to reduce flooding in vulnerable communities. TRAPPED from page one
He blamed the flooding on a major development on West Bay Street, on land earmarked for the new $290m hospital at Perpall Tract Wellfield.
FLOODING still remains in the area of Perpall Tract yesterday, leaving some residents trapped in their homes waiting relief in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Imelda Sunday.
Photos: Chappell Whyms Jr
All islands given the ‘all clear’ after tropical storm’s passage
By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net
ALL islands of The Bahamas were given the all clear yesterday after Tropical Storm Imelda swept across the country without loss of life or serious injury.
Minister of State for Disaster Risk Management
Leon Lundy confirmed the update during a press briefing, describing the outcome as “the greatest victory” of the storm.
Evacuation orders were widely followed, particularly in Abaco and Grand Bahama, where 225 people sought shelter. Dozens were housed at Central Abaco Primary, Moore’s Island Primary, Maurice Moore Primary, St George’s High, Christ the King Auditorium, and Eight Mile Rock High. In New Providence and Andros, smaller groups were also accommodated.
Several rescues were carried out, including four people in Yellow Elder and three families in Pinewood. In Ridgeland Park, one family declined evacuation after officials helped remove water from their home.
Mr Lundy praised the readiness of Bahamians, noting that the National Disaster Emergency Operations Centre and island command centres were fully activated from Saturday. He said flooding was
the greatest hazard but proactive drain clearing by the Ministry of Works limited damage.
Disaster Risk Management Authority managing director Aaron Sargeant said the storm tested upgraded emergency systems, particularly the National Disaster Alert System, which delivered warnings to mobile phones. In Abaco, residents were alerted at 5am to move to higher ground after the storm shifted course overnight.
Abaco and Grand Bahama were the hardest hit, with flooding reported along Don McKay Boulevard and Forest Drive in Abaco. Widespread power outages forced Marsh Harbour Clinic into emergency mode. Airports in Eleuthera and Abaco, including Leonard Thompson International and Treasure Cay, closed temporarily but have since reopened.
With the all clear now issued, officials are shifting to recovery. Relief supplies — food, water, tarpaulins, generators, medical kits and fuel reserves — are being deployed to affected communities. Mr Sargeant said health monitoring and psychosocial support are also priorities, stressing that lessons learned from Hurricane Dorian continue to shape recovery efforts.
Passengers accuse Bahamasair of treating passengers ‘like outside children’
Thompson International Airport in Abaco had been closed. Airport manager Stephen Pedican confirmed the facility reopened yesterday.
Imelda, now a Category
Bahamas. Mr Cooper said hundreds of passengers were affected nationwide and warned it will take weeks to calculate the financial losses.
One hurricane, caused flight cancellations, school closures and the shutdown of government offices as it swept across The
“The thing about this disturbance is that it’s kind of one of the unique ones, where it affected the whole Bahama chain, from Inagua all the way up to Freeport and so this is a lot of catching up,” he said. He added that airline
staff doubled flights to restore operations and are satisfied they will complete the rescue effort today. “I think West Palm Beach will be the only the final touch point that we have not been able to rescue the passengers. Everybody else have been taken care of,” he said. Still, frustrated passengers in Florida complained about poor communication from the airline.
Tayret Roberts, who travelled to the US for the weekend, said she was due back on Monday but her flight was cancelled. She told T he Tribune the next available flight was scheduled for Thursday and was already full. “I’m frustrated because my bags are packed and I’m ready to go home,” she said, adding that she had been unable to reach airline officials despite repeated calls.
Another passenger, Abaco resident Margo Ferguson, said the delays created financial strain. “I just had to go to the front desk again to pay for two additional nights,” she said. “I mean I understand that it’s the weather and it’s mother nature, so there’s nothing that can be done but you know they should have just sent out a general note to say, you know the flight is
cancelled, and we’ll get back to you with further information.” Some passengers, speaking anonymously, accused Bahamasair of treating Family Island travellers like “an outsider child.” Mr Cooper said a special Bahamasair jet with 138 seats will operate today from Marsh Harbour to West Palm Beach to bring the final stranded passengers home. STRANDED from page one
FLOODING is seen along St Alban’s Drive in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Imelda yesterday. Photos: Dante Carrer/Tribune Staff A FALLEN tree on Marlin Dr in Grove West in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Imelda yesterday.
Mother of Devin Isaacs fears police stopped looking for her son
By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter jrussell@tribunemedia.net
AS her son’s 18th birthday passes, the mother of missing teenager Devin Isaacs fears police have abandoned the search for him as his milestone makes the hope of reunification even more uncertain.
“Long time they give up. I don’t know if they even start looking,” said his mother, Tashana Thompson. Devin was 16 when he vanished from his home in May 2024. Four days later, police issued a Marco’s Alert. In July 2024, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander released CCTV footage showing a car parked two houses away from Devin’s home shortly after midnight. The footage captured him leaving, briefly returning, then walking off again towards Carmichael Road. Additional footage later showed him near Rubis Service Station on Carmichael
Road, heading west alone. From the outset, police suggested he may have run away, but Ms Thompson has always rejected that theory. She believes her son is being held against his will and pleaded: “If somebody have him, let him go.”
Now that Devin is legally an adult, the family’s agony has deepened. His mother worries that even if he is found, authorities may see less urgency in ensuring his return.
Ms Thompson said her last attempt to get an update from police came in September 2024 when she went to the Criminal Investigations Department missing persons unit. She said officers never came out to meet her. “I sit out there for like, 45 minutes waiting, and nobody never came out,” she said. “Three different officers called them, nobody came out.”
Asked whether she considered filing a complaint, she said it would
“I
don’t know where else
to
look, I still believe he alive and I waiting for him
to come home.”
-Tashana Thompson
be pointless because “the police always protect their officers.”
Since his disappearance, Ms Thompson and her family have searched across New Providence, chasing leads and distributing flyers. The silence has been crushing, but she refuses to give up hope.
“I don’t know where else to look,” she said. “I still believe he alive and I waiting for him to come home.”
She continues to offer a $2,000 reward for his return.
Tribunal orders officer to testify in foreman’s wrongful dismissal case
By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune News Editor rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE Industrial Tribunal has ordered a police officer to appear and produce records in the case of a former Bayside Construction and Development Limited employee who claims he was wrongfully dismissed. The ruling stems from a dispute between foreman Daxson Morris and Bayside’s owner, Andrew Wilkinson, who terminated Mr Morris in May 2023 for what he described as “gross misconduct” and “gross insubordination”.
Mr Morris, who earned $800 a week, insists he was unfairly dismissed and has filed claims for wrongful dismissal,
breach of contract, unfair dismissal, and vacation pay. The conflict escalated after an email exchange on May 8, 2023, in which Mr Wilkinson raised concerns about Mr Morris’ performance and placed him on probation. The men later met at Bayside’s office, where each accused the other of shouting and using profanity.
Mr Wilkinson claims he feared for his safety and went to the Cable Beach Police Station the following day. He said he reported the incident to PC 2420 Lee Chong, who advised him to file a “police action” rather than a formal complaint. Mr Wilkinson later dismissed Mr Morris by email on May 11, 2023.
Mr Morris has disputed this account, pointing to a September 30, 2024 police report that he says contradicts Mr Wilkinson’s version of events. He argues that any attempt to rely on Officer Chong’s testimony amounts to hearsay and would unfairly prejudice his case. However, the Tribunal found that Officer Chong’s appearance is necessary to clarify whether Mr Wilkinson did, in fact, make an informal complaint immediately after the confrontation.
Tribunal members noted that Mr Morris’ advocate had accused the company of “manufacturing” evidence, making it essential to test the credibility of Mr Wilkinson’s claims.
In its ruling, the
Tribunal said justice required allowing the officer to testify and produce any records of complaints lodged between May 8 and May 30 2023. “Clarification is necessary because it affects the merits of the dispute, namely, the weight and veracity of what Mr Wilkinson stated,” the judgment said.
The Tribunal concluded that Mr Morris would not be disadvantaged, as he would have the opportunity to cross-examine the officer at trial.
The case will now proceed to a substantive hearing, where the Tribunal will determine whether Mr Morris was wrongfully dismissed or whether Bayside was justified in terminating him for cause.
DEVIN ISAACS
A SPECIAL assembly was held at Mary Star of the Sea Catholic School to recognise Xaria Ingraham’s achievement as Junior Minister of Tourism on September 23, 2025. As the Junior Minister of Tourism, Ingraham will represent The Bahamas at the 2025 CTO Youth Congress scheduled for October 2 in Barbados. Joining family, friends and well-wishers of the 2025 Junior Minister of Tourism during the special assembly were MOTIA’s general manager/Grand Bahama Nuvolari Chotoosingh and other members from the MOTIA board along with Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Academy students and faculty.
Photos: Preston Knowles/BIS
Junkanoo split looms amid rival parade talk
SUPPORT from page one
Mr Bowleg added that the NJC already manages parades in the Family Islands and therefore has the experience and capacity to step in if needed.
Still, the minister stressed that government has not decided to let the NJC manage the parades or sanction two rival parades, calling such discussions premature.
The minister said he has submitted the NJC’s recommendation letter and report to the Attorney General for review to determine the way forward.
The dispute emerged after a note circulated across social media claimed Junkanoo could see “two shows for the price of one”, with groups split between the JCNP and NJC. The note listed groups said to be aligned with each side, but The Tribune was unable to confirm those claims up to press time.
JCNP chairman Dion Miller suggested a break among groups is likely, saying all groups will parade as part of one show even if judged separately.
“The JCNP groups will parade and the NJC groups will parade,” he said in an interview with Eyewitness News yesterday. “I suspect the NJC will have their parade, their judges and their parade management team, and the JCNP will have their judges and their parade management team as well. It’s undecided on who will parade first, but it will be one parade.”
Mr Miller suggested some of the groups breaking away did so because they repeatedly failed to meet JCNP’s qualifying standards. “Groups have not successfully competing in the past ten parades, quite a few in the number of them,” he said. “If you look at their complaints, a number of groups are saying that they have an issue with disqualification… meaning that they can’t reach the required or agreed upon number of participants, number of costumes, etc. So that is their chief complaint. I’ve also heard that they feel that they can’t be judged fairly.”
Redland Soldiers leader Philip Carey, who voted for the JCNP, described the situation as “chaos” and launched a blistering attack on the government.
“This government need to focus on what is going on right now,” Mr Carey said. “They don’t know about Junkanoo. I am fed up with them. This government doing all kind of stinking shit what they doing right now. Tell them they need to organise themself and fix themself. Tell them stay away from Junkanoo.”
The latest turmoil comes just weeks after the Davis administration released a draft National Junkanoo Authority Bill, which proposes creating a statutory body to oversee parades and funding. That bill has already drawn strong pushback from the JCNP, which accused the government of trying to strip it of its role.
Consumer Commission recovers $428,000 in customer refunds
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune News Editor
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE Consumer Protection Commission says it secured more than $428,000 in refunds for Bahamian consumers between January 2022 and September 2025.
In a report released to The Tribune, the commission said $428,659.01 was recovered on behalf of 895 consumers during the period. Officials credited increased cooperation from vendors and greater consumer engagement for the steady rise in successful resolutions.
The report showed just 52 complaints were received in 2022, resulting
in $13,500 in recoveries. By 2023, the number of complaints climbed to 192 with $33,048 returned. The largest jump came in 2024, when 444 complaints produced $243,525 in refunds. So far this year, 207 complaints have been filed, with $138,585 recovered.
The CPC, created under the Consumer Protection Act, is responsible for investigating complaints and mediating disputes between consumers and businesses. In recent years, The Tribune has reported on common issues brought before the body, including disputes with courier companies over lost or delayed packages, complaints about expired goods on supermarket shelves, and
misleading advertising. The commission has also warned of a rise in social media marketplace complaints, where buyers say sellers disappear after taking payments.
Officials have pledged to strengthen protections further under a proposed Consumer Protection Bill, which is intended to expand enforcement powers and impose tougher penalties on businesses that flout consumer rights.
The CPC said its recent recovery figures show progress in restoring confidence in the marketplace, but it continues to urge consumers to come forward when they believe they have been treated unfairly.
YOUTH, SPORTS AND CULTURE MINISTER MARIO BOWLEG
The Tribune Limited
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LEON E. H. DUPUCH
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We teach children to write, but now we must teach them to see
THE ground beneath our education system has shifted irrevocably. For generations, the cornerstone of scholarly assessment—from primary school to university—has been the written essay. The ability to structure an argument, deploy evidence, and articulate a thesis through original composition was the ultimate measure of intellectual worth. Yet, in the blink of an algorithm, generative artificial intelligence has rendered this model obsolete.
The essay is dead. When a student can prompt a machine to produce a flawless, 2,000-word treatise on Elizabethan foreign policy in under thirty seconds, the act of writing ceases to be a measure of original thought. Educators who cling to the old ways, searching for tell-tale algorithmic signatures in submissions, are fighting a futile, Luddite battle. The crucial, immediate task for British education is not to figure out how to stop the machines, but how to reorient the entire curriculum around the singular, vital skill that machines cannot yet mimic: critical, human perception. We must stop teaching young people how to write, and start teaching them how to see. The shift must be away from content production and towards relentless critique. In a world saturated with synthetic information, the value lies not in creating more noise, but in discerning signal from deception. This is particularly true in the visual domain, where the rise of image generators and deepfakes poses a profound challenge to established concepts of truth and evidence.
We are entering an era of absolute visual ambiguity. Every image, every photograph, and every piece of video footage must now be treated as potentially compromised until proven otherwise. We need a generation of digital investigators, trained not merely in media literacy, but in a deep, analytical visual literacy that allows them to interrogate the provenance, context, and structural bias encoded within pixels.
How was this image rendered? What data set was it trained on? Whose voice or perspective is silenced by this framing? These are the essential questions of the 21st-century citizen. If we fail to equip our students with the capacity to see and question the manufactured reality constantly streaming into their devices, we risk creating a populace
that is perpetually manipulable, incapa-
ble of distinguishing between fact and sophisticated fiction.
The new curriculum must elevate the conceptual and the ethical over the technical and the procedural. We must move beyond simply grading composition and begin assessing judgment. The true value of a student’s engagement with a topic will no longer be found in the quality of the final product, but in the sophistication of their engagement with the AI process.
This means teaching the ethics of prompt engineering: understanding the biases inherent in the training data and learning how to interrogate and refine the output to correct for them. It means transforming the classroom into a philosophical laboratory where students debate not the content of a machinewritten essay, but the moral, social, and cultural implications of using the machine in the first place.
Why should a human bother to compose poetry or complex prose when a generator can produce thousands of lines in an instant? The answer lies in the intrinsic, human need for struggle, creation, and self-discovery through labour. We must teach students that while AI can handle the mechanics of writing, only they can provide the genuine insight, the unique perspective, and the vulnerability that defines human thought.
The digital revolution has gifted us a unique opportunity to shed the burdensome legacy of the industrial age education model, which prized conformity and mass production. If we are brave enough to embrace this change, we can finally elevate education to its proper role: not as a factory for filling young minds with facts, but as a crucible for forging resilient, critically engaged citizens. Our failure to act now will not only render our degrees worthless but will leave a generation fundamentally unprepared for a world where nothing, especially what they see, can be taken at face value. The future of genuine, critical thought hangs in the balance.
By T.J. Thomson, Daniel
Pfurtscheller, Katharina Christ, Katharina Lobinger, and Nataliia Laba theconverstion.com
Te crisis of illegal immigration
EDITOR, The Tribune.
A CRISIS is unfolding unchecked in The Bahamas. It is the failure to acknowledge that illegal immigration is systematically dismantling the country.
We as Bahamians must cease with the polite euphemisms and the political platitudes. The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is not merely “facing challenges”. It is in the throes of a silent, accelerating crisis that threatens to unravel the very fabric of our nation.
At the heart of our mounting failures, from collapsing classrooms and stagnant wages to overwhelmed hospitals and crippled infrastructure lies one undeniable, unaddressed catalyst. The extreme epidemic of illegal immigration. To deny this direct correlation is not just intellectually dishonest, it is an act of national sabotage perpetuated by a political class more concerned with electoral comfort than with national survival.
The evidence of this collapse is not hidden in reports, it is visible on our streets, felt in our wallets, and experienced in the declining quality of life for every law-abiding Bahamian citizen. The continued, uncontrolled influx of undocumented migrants, primarily from a nation in total societal collapse, is not a side issue. It is the central cancer metastasizing through every organ of our national body, draining our resources, stifling our growth, and compromising our future.
Consider our educational system, the very foundation of our future. Our schools are not simply crowded; they are being violently overwhelmed. This is a direct consequence of demographic pressure from a population that has grown unchecked. On islands like Abaco, New Providence, Eleuthera, and Exuma, the system is at a breaking point, with demographic realities fundamentally altering the classroom environment. This isn’t about inclusivity; it is about the brutal arithmetic of finite resources.
The quality of education for Bahamian children is being deliberately compromised, their future prospects dimmed because our leaders lack the courage to enforce the laws that would allow for proper planning and resource allocation. We are failing an entire generation by refusing to protect the integrity of our educational system.
Examine our economy, the source of our prosperity. The narrative of youth unemployment and wage stagnation is a direct story of labor market distortion. How can a young Bahamian hope to secure a first job in construction,
landscaping, or hospitality when entire sectors have become addicted to illegal labor paid under the table?
This illegal workforce has created an unfair, twotiered economy. One for law-abiding businesses that pay fair wages and taxes and a shadow economy that rewards lawbreakers.
The direct result is the economic disenfranchisement of thousands of Bahamian youths, whose despair is a ticking time bomb for social stability. This is not economic competition. It is economic warfare waged against our own citizens, facilitated by state-sanctioned apathy.
Look at our infrastructure and public services, the backbone of a functional society. Our public clinics are clogged, our social services are depleted, and our utilities are strained to their limits. The proliferation of illegal shantytowns (unplanned, unregulated, and unsustainable) places a horrific burden on systems designed for a controlled population. These settlements, with their substandard sanitation, are not merely eyesores, they are direct threats to public health, creating breeding grounds for diseases that respect no immigration status.
The millions of dollars spent on emergency responses, demolitions, and crisis management for these communities are dollars stolen from projects that would benefit Bahamian taxpayers like road repairs, hospital upgrades, and national infrastructure development. Our development is lagging because our treasury is being siphoned to manage a crisis we refuse to solve.
The most poisonous effect of all is the erosion of our social cohesion and national security. The creation of a vast, marginalised underclass, including thousands of children born here into statelessness is a recipe for perpetual social friction and crime. When people have no legal pathway, no stake in society, and no hope for integration, desperation flourishes.
The political denial of this reality is gasoline poured on the smoldering embers of social unrest. It tells Bahamian citizens that their legitimate concerns are irrelevant, while simultaneously telling the undocumented population that they will never be fully accepted. This double betrayal guarantees long-term conflict and undermines the very concept of a shared national identity.
The failure of our political leadership is not one of
incompetence alone, it is a failure of moral courage. For the Prime Minister and his Cabinet to claim there is “no crisis” is to insult the intelligence of every Bahamian who lives with its consequences daily. This denial is a conscious strategy and a cowardly refusal to make difficult decisions for fear of short-term political backlash. It is a dereliction of duty of the highest order. By refusing to implement a coherent, firm, and just immigration policy, one that combines stringent border control and employer sanctions with a pragmatic pathway for certain long-term residents, they are choosing managed decline over visionary leadership.
There can be no progress on any meaningful national development goal until this foundational crisis is resolved. We cannot talk about educational excellence with overflowing, under-resourced classrooms. We cannot promise economic opportunity with a distorted labor market. We cannot ensure a healthy, safe society with overwhelmed services and unregulated communities.
We, the Bahamian people, must demand an end to the lies. We must insist on this government and anyone else that is seeking to become the next to publicly declare the crisis for what it is. It is the primary obstacle to national development.
There must be enforcement of the laws without fear or favor, targeting both illegal migrants and the Bahamian citizens who exploit them, with severe penalties for businesses that violate our labor and immigration laws.
There must be a strong commitment to a comprehensive strategy that includes robust border protection, a realistic assessment of the existing population, and a clear, finite programme to regularise certain individuals while ensuring the swift and lawful repatriation of others.
Ultimately there must be a prioritisation of the interests of Bahamian citizens in the allocation of jobs, social services, and national resources, as is the fundamental duty of any sovereign government.
The choice is no longer between growth and stagnation. It is between reclaiming our national destiny through courageous action, or passively watching our country be dismantled piece by piece by a crisis we have the power, but not the will, to control. The time for polite letters to the editor is over. The time for unwavering demand is now.
B AZZAN JOHNSON Freeport, Grand Bahama September 22, 2025.
Union leaders accuse Davis admin of downplaying unemployment problem
By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
UNION leaders are pushing back against the Davis administration’s explanation for the rise in unemployment to 10.8 percent in the first quarter of 2025, accusing officials of downplaying the scale of the problem.
Bahamas National Alliance Trade Union
Congress president Belinda Wilson called the surge in joblessness “deeply concerning,” noting that nearly 26,000 people were out of work between January and March, almost 9,000 more than at the end of last year.
Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has defended his administration amid the latest figures, attributing them to seasonal factors and more
Bahamians entering the workforce.
Youth unemployment remains the most pressing issue, with 20.9 percent of people aged 15 to 24 jobless, according to Bahamas National Statistical Institute data. Ms Wilson said this demands a national strategy. “These statistics show that there is an urgency for major programmes that are able to accommodate hundreds
if not thousands of youth simultaneously,” she said.
While Labour Minister Pia Glover-Rolle pointed to apprenticeship and training programmes, Ms Wilson insisted these are too limited to make a difference. She urged stronger collaboration between the government, tertiary institutions and industry, along with more robust enforcement of the Bahamianisation policy.
“This policy specified that a non-Bahamian who is granted a work permit for a limited time must have a Bahamian understudy,” she said.
Trade Union Congress president Obie Ferguson was more blunt, claiming foreign workers are squeezing Bahamians out of jobs. “We have about 31,000 work permits. We have a population of, what, half a million. You don’t
think something wrong with that?” he asked. Past BNSI data showed more than 14,000 new work permits were issued in 2024, the majority to men. Bahamas Contractors Association president Leonard Sands has also warned that thousands of permits are for unskilled roles such as handyman and general labour, even as young Bahamians struggle to find work.
BTC launches ‘Think Pink’ Breast Cancer Awareness initiative offering 100 free mammograms
BTC has launched its
“Think Pink” Breast Cancer Awareness initiative, offering 100 complimentary mammograms and educational resources to encourage early detection and support communities across The Bahamas.
The campaign, which coincides with Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, includes public events featuring medical professionals and survivors. At the launch, an imaging consultant from Doctors Hospital explained the differences
between mammograms and ultrasounds and addressed common concerns about discomfort. The president of Sister Sister and her team demonstrated selfbreast examinations, while survivor Yvette Williams shared her story, urging women not to ignore
MAN ACCUSED OF BREAKING INTO HOME OF HIS EX-GIRLFRIEND AND THREATENING HER WITH GUN
By KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter kcampbell@tribunemedia.net
A MAN with a long his-
tory of violent offences was denied bail yesterday after being accused of breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s home, threatening her with a gun, and facing new charges of housebreaking, assault and possession of an unlicensed firearm.
The Magistrate’s Court remanded 40-year-old Eddington Burrows to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services, setting his trial date for November 21 2025.
Prosecutors said Burrows broke into a home off Sandilands Village Road in the Treaty Avenue area shortly before 8am on September 24, where he allegedly brandished a firearm and threatened his former girlfriend, Chantel Williams.
Burrows’ lawyer urged the court to grant bail, stressing he is “cloaked with constitutional presumption of innocence,”
adding that his detention would jeopardise his job at Graycliff and his role as a father of young children. He proposed strict conditions, including electronic monitoring, curfew and exclusion zones.
However, prosecutors objected, pointing to Burrows’ record and prior conviction, and noting he is already on bail and wearing an ankle bracelet in connection with an attempted murder case set for trial in October. They argued that the seriousness of the new allegations and his risk of reoffending made him unsuitable for release.
Burrows is no stranger to the courts. In March 2023, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison after admitting to gun-butting his then-girlfriend during a 2018 attack in which she was struck in the head multiple times. His sentence was backdated to reflect more than two years spent on remand.
The following year, prosecutors alleged that
in March 2019 Burrows opened fire on the same woman and her relatives at a home on Cowpen Road while children were present, damaging property and endangering lives.
He evaded capture for 16 months before police arrested him in July 2020. Officers said he initially gave a false name but was later identified through his driver’s licence. He was subsequently charged with attempted murder, firearm offences, causing damage, and deceit of a public officer.
In a later Supreme Court bail application, judges noted Burrows’ prior conviction for grievous harm and several pending matters dating back to 2018, including possession of an unlicensed firearm, possession of ammunition with intent to supply, and threats of death. His appeal was rejected, with the court ruling that his history of violent offending and time on the run made him a flight risk.
T HREE ADULTS AND A JUVENILE CHARGED WITH POSSESSION OF FIREAR M S AND A MM UNITION
By KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter
kcampbell@tribunemedia.net
FOUR people, including a juvenile, were granted bail in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday after denying firearm and ammunition charges linked to the discovery of a rifle and 11 unfired rounds. According to court documents, Jerrianoque Roberts, 25, Denise Bowleg, in her 40s, Rodger Rolle, 26, and the juvenile were allegedly found with the weapon in New Providence on September 25 without the required
special licence. The Magistrate’s Court set bail at $6,000 for Roberts and Bowleg, each required to report to Grove Police Station on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays before 6pm, with one suretor.
Rolle, a restaurant manager, was released on $7,500 bail. He was fitted with an ankle bracelet, placed under a curfew from 7.30am to 8pm, and ordered to report to Grove Police Station on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
All four denied the charges, with the arraignment scheduled to
resume today. In a separate case, 19-year-old Christon Seymour was denied bail after being accused of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger lives during an incident on September 18. Prosecutors said the case will proceed by voluntary bill of indictment. Seymour, born on April 28, 2006, was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services. His matter is expected to continue on January 19 2026, though the court noted the date could be brought forward if preparations are completed earlier.
symptoms.
BTC marketing manager Stacey Mackey said the initiative reflects the company’s role as a responsible corporate citizen.
“We wanted to ensure that our customers have an opportunity to come out, network, talk to the
professionals and get information, as well as leave with a mammogram,” she said.
Events will continue throughout the month, with a session at BTC’s retail store in Marsh Harbour, Abaco on 2 October and another at Southwest
Plaza on 10 October.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. Health experts stress that early detection through mammograms and monthly self-examinations significantly increases survival rates.
BREAST cancer survivor Ethell Johnson shares her story at the BTC Breast Cancer Awareness initiative held at its Mall at Marathon location.
Photo: Nikia Charlton
Flotilla defies Israeli blockade
THE genocide continues in Palestine. “Israel” continues its brutality. Yesterday, soldiers detained two children in the occupied West Bank for “spying.” When people suggested they let them go because they are so young, one of the soldiers said, “I don’t care.”
The Freedom Flotilla— more than 40 civilian boats with activists, lawyers, and parliamentarians—is steadily making its way to Palestine, carrying aid for the Palestinian people. At noon on Tuesday, September 30, it was 150 nautical miles away. Last week, the flotilla was attacked by “Israel”. A boat with medical professionals and journalists will join today. International journalists have been blocked, by “Israel,” from entering Gaza for the past two years. This dedicated boat aims to deliver desperately needed medical care and provide an opportunity for international journalists to report from Gaza.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, comprised is “a grassroots people-to-people solidarity movement composed of campaigns and initiatives from different parts of the world, working together to end the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza.” It is working to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip which has significantly contributed to the humanitarian crisis, denying Palestinian people access to food, medicine, and other health needs. It also aims to educate people all over the world about Gaza and the illegal blockade that increases the suffering of the Palestinian people, making Gaza more unlivable with each passing day. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition condemns and publicises “the complicity of other governments and global actors in enabling the blockade” and “[responds] to the cry from Palestinians and Palestinian organizations in Gaza for solidarity for breaking the blockade”.
After the flotilla experienced drone attacks and radio-jamming by “Israel,” Italy and Spain sent navy ships to accompany it. On Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: “The government of Spain demands that
By Alicia Wallace
international law be complied with and that the right of its citizens to navigate the Mediterranean under safe conditions be respected.”
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said, “Italian citizens, along with members of parliament and MEPs. To ensure their safety, the foreign ministry had already notified Israeli authorities that any operation entrusted to Israeli forces must be conducted in compliance with international law and the principle of absolute caution.”
“[…]We have now gone
to a point where all of our human sensibilities are offended by the continuous and disproportionate attacks on the Palestinian people and the failure to allow access by the international community to the survivors for the provision of humanitarian aid.”
Yesterday, it was reported that Italy’s Defense Ministry would stop accompanying the flotilla at the 150 nautical mile limit to avoid “a diplomatic incident”. @globalsumudflotilla shared on Instagram that the Italian Naval Frigate
would not only abandon the flotilla, but offer those on board the “opportunity” to return to shore. They said, “This is not protection. It is sabotage.” Expressing frustration with Italy’s decision, they said “[…]It escorts us only to the point of danger, peeling us away while Israel continues to slaughter and starve the Palestinian people with impunity.”
It is now more important than ever that everyone is not only attentive to the flotilla, but visibly attentive. Follow their accounts on social media, comment to help them show up in others’ feeds, and share their posts for wider reach. We do not need to be politicians or journalist to take action.
In her speech at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley referenced the violence in Sudan and Gaza. She said, “The survivors are entitled to use the words of Bob Marley - “How can you be sitting there telling me that you care? When every time I look around the people suffer in the suffering in every way, in everywhere.[…] The real tragedy of war is that these children, when they become grandparents will still be answering the innocent questions posed by their grandchildren as to how they lost their limbs. “Granny, how did you lose your leg?” And when they answer, we run the risk that the violence and hate will be perpetuated for another two to three generations. This is NOT good.”
Mottley noted that there are multiple crises in this moment, referencing the COVID-19 pandemic and human trafficking. She explicitly stated that the “bigger more insidious crisis” is “the crisis of truth.” Without shared truth, she said, scoring political points becomes a priority and “political tribalism” is the result. Mottley pointed to the loss of trust on various levels, from neighbours to international governance. Before drawing attention to the United Nations Charter and the need to reassess values, she
talked about that way violence and hate are passed on from one generation to another, over and over again.
“It is happening now on our watch. We can and must do better to secure the peace - in the name of the children,” Mottley said. “At the very least the international community must immediately find the funding to support the children of Gaza and the children of Sudan for the next three months.
In Gaza it is $66m that is needed and $200m for Sudan. This money is mostly nutrition related, to reverse or mitigate famine and also to provide water and sanitation and health interventions.”
“A lasting peace can
never be achieved through violence; it can only be achieved through justice and dialogue - talking. And lest we forget, where others are seeking to build the peace and preserve humanity in Gaza, the international community must not condone the bombing of those states who look to facilitate peace.” Mottley continued, “The world is still in need of a reset. We must first and foremost decide whether we still agree on the same set of values that inform the Charter. As simple as it seems, this is a necessary step in any reset. For values have changed in many of our countries over the last 80 years. We cannot assume that it is business as usual.”
1. Attend the Future of Democracy Conference at University of The Bahamas. Sessions will held in the Harry C. Moore Library Auditorium from Wednesday, October 1 to Friday, October 3, and in the RBC Auditorium, Franklyn R. Wilson Graduate Center on Saturday, October 4. Sessions run from 9am to 7pm daily. On Wednesday, Equality Bahamas is presenting on Feminist Standards for Governance at 3pm and Gaynel Curry is presenting “Recognition, Justice and Development in the Democratic Process.” Thursday sessions include The Biomedical Case for Decolonization of The Bahamas” by Indira Martin and “The Right to Self-Determination, Democracy and The Bahamas in the 21st Century” by Marion Bethel. Erin Greene will present on plantation model systems in The Bahamas and Erica James will present “Plaiting Time: Contemporary Bahamian Artists and Caribbean Modern Forms” on Friday. Saturday begins with “Power of the Press: A ZineMaking DIY Publishing Workshop” with Sonia Farmer of Poinciana Paper Press at 10am. The conference will end with Ian Strachan’s “Repairing the Nation: Radical Remembering and Justice after Slavery.” The conference is free and open to the public. More information is available at fodc242.com.
2. Wine and Art has been postponed, but you can still visit a national park! Mark your calendar for the new Wine and Art dates, February 27 to March 1, 2026. More than 50 wines from around the world, 40 artists and vendors, live music, and entertainment are a big draw to the The Retreat Garden on Village Road.
3. Shakespeare in Paradise. The festival continues this week with Romeo and Juliet on Wednesday, October 1, and Friday, October 3, at 8pm in the Black Box at The Dundas on Mackey Street. Short Tales, featuring short plays, takes the stage on Wednesday, October 2 and Friday, October 3 at 8pm. Visit shakespeareinparadise.org for dates and ticket purchases.
ACTIVISTS of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, board the Madleen boat, ahead of setting sail for Gaza, departing from the Sicilian port of Catania, Italy, Sunday, 1 June, 2025.
Photo: Salvatore Cavalli /AP
Worries over food of ‘AI slop’ with push for more AI-generated videos
By MATT O’BRIEN Associated Press
IF the future of the internet looks like a constant stream of amusing videos generated by artificial intelligence, then OpenAI just placed its stake in an emerging market.
The company behind ChatGPT released its new Sora social media app on Tuesday, an attempt to draw the attention of eyeballs currently staring at short-form videos on TikTok, YouTube or Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook.
The new iPhone app taps into the appeal of being able to make a video of yourself doing just about anything that can be imagined, in styles ranging from anime to highly realistic.
But a scrolling flood of such videos taking over social media has some worried about “AI slop” that crowds out more authentic human creativity and degrades the information ecosystem.
“These things are so compelling,” said Jose Marichal, a professor of political science at California Lutheran University who studies how AI is restructuring society.
“I think what sucks you in is that they’re kind of implausible, but they’re realistic looking.”
The Sora app’s official launch video features an AI-generated version of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaking from a psychedelic forest, and later, the moon and a stadium crowded with cheering fans watching rubber duck races. He introduces the new tool before handing it off to colleagues placed in other outlandish scenarios. The app is available only on Apple devices for now, starting in the U.S. and Canada. Meta launched its own feed of AI short-form videos within its Meta AI app last week. In an Instagram post announcing the new Vibes product, Meta CEO Mark
Zuckerberg posted a carousel of AI videos, including a cartoon version of himself, an army of fuzzy, beadyeyed beings jumping around and a kitten kneading a ball of dough. Both Sora and Vibes are designed to be highly personalized, recommending new videos based on what people have already engaged with.
Marichal’s own social media feeds on TikTok and other sites are already full of such videos, from a “housecat riding a wild animal from the perspective of a doorbell camera” to fake natural disaster reports that are engaging but easily debunked. He said you can’t
blame people for being hard-wired to “want to know if something extraordinary is happening in the world.”
What’s dangerous, he said, is when they dominate what we see online.
“We need an information environment that is mostly true or that we can trust because we need to use it to make rational decisions about how to collectively govern,” he said.
If not, “we either become super, super skeptical of everything or we become super certain,” Marichal said. “We’re either the manipulated or the manipulators. And that leads us toward things that are something other than liberal democracy, other than representative democracy.”
OpenAI made some efforts to address those concerns in its announcement on Tuesday.
“Concerns about doomscrolling, addiction, isolation, and (reinforcement learning)-sloptimized feeds are top of mind,” it said in a blog post. It said it would “periodically poll users on their wellbeing” and give them options to adjust their feed, with a built-in bias to recommend posts from friends rather than strangers.
Amazon unveils new generation of AI-powered Kindle and other devices
By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO
Associated Press
ONLINE juggernaut
Amazon Inc. unveiled its next generation of Kindle, Ring and Echo devices, among other gadgets, that are all powered by artificial intelligence and connected to Alexa+, its AI-infused personal assistant, which made its debut in February.
The lineup, announced at a presentation and showcase in New York, includes new cameras for its Ring video monitoring device with a new AI facial recognition feature that allows users to register friends and family and notify them who is at the front door.
Amazon unveiled four new Echo devices revamped with Alexa+ that serve up personalized insights like whether the user left the front door unlocked after midnight. The Seattle-based company also announced a series of Alexa+-infused Fire TVs that offer more personalized searches like finding a specific scene in a movie or getting commentary about last night’s football game.
The presentation Tuesday was the first big product event for Panos Panay, who joined Amazon in 2023 to head up the company’s devices and services teams after a 19-year career at Microsoft where he served as chief product officer.
Panay told the audience of several hundred journalists and bloggers that Alexa+ and artificial intelligence are allowing technology to work “in the background when you don’t.”
Products creating subtle shifts in all our behavior, driven by AI, integrated into the hardware,” Panay said. “And flowing natural through the products themselves. Whether it’s a camera catching what you missed. Or your Fire TV updating you on a game. Or your Kindle remembering exactly where you left off.”
Here are some highlights:
A more powerfuldoorbell: Amazon has been expanding its home security features since the company bought Wi-Fi-connected cameras and doorbell maker Ring in 2018. Amazon said Tuesday that it’s infusing the device with more technology and upgraded cameras that will transform the device into a doorbell attendant and community tool for pet owners among other new uses.
Amazon said the ring cameras with retinal vision now come with 2K resolution for sharper detail and 4K resolution video. Amazon’s new AI facial recognition feature called “Familiar Faces,” allows the user to register friends and family. The smart doorbell, infused with
Alexa+, will also be able to manage deliveries and provide instructions for delivery workers among other tasks.
For pet owners, Amazon has a new feature that helps owners reunite lost dogs with their families. It works like this: A neighbor reports a lost dog in the Ring app, which would notify people nearby with a Ring camera. The cameras would then use AI to look for a possible match with the lost dog.
Ring Wired Doorbell Pro, priced at $249.99 and Wired Doorbell Plus, priced at $179.99, among other Ring cameras, will be available for pre-order on Tuesday, Amazon said. Ring’s “Search Party” for dogs will begin rolling out in November, followed by cats and other pets. And Alexa+ Greetings and Familiar Faces will be offered in December, the company said.
An updated lineup of Kindle Scribes: Amazon unveiled new versions of the Kindle Scribe that the company touts as lighter and faster and features an AI-powered notebook search. One of them includes a color screen. The new Scribes feature larger 11-inch, glare-free E Ink screens — up from 10.2 inches previously. They now weigh 400 grams compared to 433 grams for last year’s version, the company said.
Executives noted that at 5.4 millimeters thick, these new versions are thinner than the iPhone Air, which measures 5.6 millimeters.
The new versions of Scribes will allow users to access documents stored on Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, the company said.
Amazon said that later this year in the U.S., Kindle Scribe will be available starting at $499.99 and Kindle Scribe Colorsoft will be offered starting at $629.99.
New Alexa +Empowered Echo Devices:
Amazon unveiled four new Echo loud speaker devices — the Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 — that are specifically for Alexa+ and allow for more personalized experiences.
The new offering, which starts at $99.99, comes as Amazon reports that those customers with early access to Alexa+ are engaging with the personal assistant twice as much and relying on it to do tasks like booking reservations and controlling smart home devices.
The new features recognize users and churn out personalized insights such as an analysis of how they slept last night.
The company said that all four new Echo devices are available for pre-order starting Tuesday.
Associated Press
OPENAI is turning ChatGPT into a virtual merchant that can help sell goods for Etsy and Shopify as the artificial intelligence company looks for new revenue in online commerce.
ChatGPT users can now buy directly from Etsy sellers while interacting with the chatbot and will soon be able to do the same with Shopify sellers.
Competing with the likes of Amazon and Google for purchase fees from digital shopping could be a new source of money for OpenAI. The company hasn’t made a profit and has relied on investors to back the costs of building and running its powerful AI systems.
OpenAI said it is working with payments company Stripe on the technical standards that will enable purchases through the “Instant Checkout” system.
A number of payment companies have been working with AI developers on so-called AI agents that, given a credit card, could find and make purchases on a shopper’s behalf.
OpenAI said ChatGPT won’t favour these items in its product results.
“When ranking multiple merchants that sell the same product, ChatGPT considers factors like availability, price, quality, whether a merchant is the primary seller, and whether Instant Checkout is enabled, to optimise the user experience,” the company said in a statement.
CHAT GPT app icon is seen on a smartphone screen, August 4, 2025, in Chicago.
Photo: Kiichiro Sato/AP
SAM ALTMAN, CEO of OpenAI, takes his seat before a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, September 4, 2025, in Washington.
Photo: Alex Brandon/AP
Judge finds the Trump govt unconstitutionally targeted non-citizens over Gaza war protests
By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press
THE Trump admin-
istration violated the Constitution when it targeted non-US citizens for deportation solely for supporting Palestinians and criticizing Israel, a federal judged said Tuesday in a scathing ruling directly and sharply criticizing President Donald Trump and his policies as serious threats to free speech.
US District Judge William Young in Boston agreed with several university associations that the policy they described as ideological deportation violates the First Amendment as well as the Administrative Procedure Act, a law governing how federal agencies develop and issue regulations. Young also found the policy was “arbitrary or capricious because it reverses prior policy without reasoned explanation.”
“This case -– perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court –- squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do,’” Young, a nominee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, wrote.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, released a statement that didn’t directly address the ruling but said Young was “smearing and demonising federal law enforcement.”
“Our ICE law enforcement should be thanked for risking their lives every day to arrest murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists instead of vilified by sanctuary politicians,” she said. “It’s disheartening that even after the terrorist
attack and recent arrests of rioters with guns outside of ICE facilities, this judge decides to stoke the embers of hatred.”
Plaintiffs in the case welcomed the ruling.
“The Trump administration’s attempt to deport students for their political views is an assault on the Constitution and a betrayal of American values,” said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors union. “This trial exposed their true aim: to intimidate and silence anyone who dares oppose them. If we fail to fight back, Trump’s thought police won’t stop at pro-Palestinian voices—they will come for anyone who speaks out.”
The ruling came after a trial during which lawyers for the associations presented witnesses who testified that the Trump administration had launched a coordinated effort to target students and scholars who had criticized Israel or showed sympathy for Palestinians.
“Not since the McCarthy era have immigrants been the target of such intense repression for lawful political speech,” Ramya Krishnan, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, told the court. “The policy creates a cloud of fear over university communities, and it is at war with the First Amendment.”
Young will hold a separate hearing on the relief requested by the plaintiffs, which is likely to be a request that the Trump administration stop engaging in ideological deportations.
Lawyers for the Trump administration put up witnesses who testified there was no ideological deportation policy as the plaintiffs contended.
“There is no policy to revoke visas on the basis of protected speech,” Victoria Santora told the
court. “The evidence presented at this trial will show that plaintiffs are challenging nothing more than government enforcement of immigration laws.”
John Armstrong, the senior bureau official in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, testified that visa revocations were based on longstanding immigration law. Armstrong acknowledged he played a role in the visa revocation of several high-profile activists, including Rumeysa Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil, and was shown memos endorsing their removal.
Armstrong also insisted that visa revocations were not based on protected speech and rejected accusations that there was a policy of targeting someone for their ideology.
One witness testified that the campaign targeted more than 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters.
Out of the 5,000 names reviewed, investigators wrote reports on about 200 who had potentially violated US law, Peter Hatch of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations Unit testified. Until this year, Hatch said, he could not recall a student protester being referred for a visa revocation.
Among the report subjects was Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Khalil, who was released last month after 104 days in federal immigration detention. Khalil has become a symbol of Trump’s clampdown on the protests.
Another was the Tufts University student Ozturk, who was released in May from six weeks in detention after being arrested on a suburban Boston street. She said she was illegally detained following an op-ed she cowrote last year criticizing
her school’s response to the war in Gaza.
Young accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their agents of misusing their powers to target noncitizens who were proPalestinian in order to silence them and, in doing so, “intentionally denying such individuals (including the plaintiffs here) the freedom of speech that is their right.”
“Moreover, the effect of these targeted deportation proceedings continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day,” he added. Young also criticized Trump in his 161-page ruling, suggesting he supported the policy, even though he may not have authorized its operation. “The facts prove that the President himself approves truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech”
on the part of two of his senior Cabinet secretaries, he wrote. He also used his ruling to draw attention to what he sees as Trump’s broader effort to stifle dissent and attack anyone whom he disagrees while at the same time urging Americans to stand up to these threats. Referencing Reagan speaking about the fragility of freedom when he was the governor of California, Young said he believes that Trump appreciates and understands those words but fears “he has drawn from it a darker, more cynical message.”
“I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today they will not stand up, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected,” he wrote.
Pfizer agrees to lower prescription drug costs for Medicaid in a deal with Trump
By TOM MURPHY AND MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press
PFIZER has agreed to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Medicaid under a deal struck with the Trump administration, President Donald Trump said Tuesday as he promised similar deals with other drugmakers under the threat of tariffs.
Trump made the announcement at the White House alongside Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla just hours ahead of a possible government shutdown in a partisan standoff over health care and spending.
Pfizer Inc., one of the largest US drugmakers, produces the COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty and the treatment Paxlovid. Its products also include several cancer drugs, the blood thinner Eliquis and Prevnar pneumonia vaccines.
Under the deal, New York-based Pfizer will charge most-favourednation pricing to Medicaid and guarantee that pricing on newly launched drugs, Trump said. That involves matching the lowest price offered in other developed nations.
Pfizer also agreed to participate in a new website the administration plans to start called TrumpRx, which will allow people to buy drugs directly from manufacturers. Pfizer said many of its treatments will be offered at discounts that average 50% through that platform.
The agreement builds on an executive order Trump signed in May, setting a deadline for drugmakers to electively lower prices or face new limits on what the government will pay. Trump said deals with other drug companies would be coming
over the next week.
“I can’t tell you how big this is,” the president said Tuesday.
“We are turning the tide and we are reversing an unfair situation,” Bourla said.
But prescription drug pricing expert Stacie Dusetzina said it isn’t clear yet the extent of the pricing changes that will occur. The Vanderbilt University Medical Center professor noted that Pfizer is keeping specific terms of the deal confidential, and it wasn’t clear how different any new pricing levels will be from what Medicaid already pays Pfizer.
Consumers are not expected to start seeing lower prices under the Pfizer deal until 2026, according to senior administration officials who were
not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Patients in Medicaid, the state and federally funded program for people with low incomes, already pay a nominal co-payment of a few dollars to fill their prescriptions, but lower prices could help state budgets that fund the programs.
Lower drug prices also will help patients who have no insurance coverage and little leverage to negotiate better deals on what they pay. But even steep discounts of 50% found through the administration’s website could still leave patients paying hundreds of dollars a month for some prescriptions.
Drugmakers in the past couple of years have started launching websites to connect customers directly with some products, such
as obesity treatments or the blood thinner Eliquis.
But Dusetzina said selling drugs like that directly to consumers will help only a small number of people.
“Theoretically there are some who will benefit, but in general this is not a solution for lowering drug prices,” she said.
Besides committing to lowering costs, Trump said, Pfizer agreed to spend $70 billion in domestic manufacturing facilities, becoming the latest in a string of major drugmakers to announce plans to build production in the United States.
The White House did not immediately release details about the investment, but Pfizer said in a statement that the outlay would be dedicated to US research, development and capital projects in the next few
years.
Trump has been talking for months about the need to lower drug prices and to boost US drug manufacturing. To persuade companies to strike deals, Trump said he threatened to impose tariffs — a favourite tool of his to use as leverage across all areas of government — but that move could raise drug prices.
Trump said the tariff threat put the government in “a pretty good negotiating position,” and said, “This is something that most people said was not doable.”
One thing that is not doable, however, was Trump’s repeated claim that it would cut drug prices by more than 100%, “14, 15, 1,600% reductions in some cases,” he said. A 100% reduction would make the drugs free. Cuts
greater than that would essentially mean people are paid to take the drugs.
Trump sent letters in late July to executives at 17 pharmaceutical companies about changes he would like to see. Copies of the letters posted on social media note that US prices for brand-name drugs can be up to three times higher than averages elsewhere.
The letters called for drugmakers to commit by Monday to offering what Pfizer agreed to: most-favoured-nation pricing to Medicaid and new medications.
Trump also asked drugmakers to offer the lower pricing levels for drugs sold directly to consumers and businesses.
Trump has claimed that the US, with its higher drug prices, subsidizes care in other countries.
Drug prices for patients in the US can depend on a number of factors, including the competition a treatment faces and insurance coverage. Most people have coverage through work, the individual insurance market or government programs like Medicaid and Medicare, which shield them from much of the cost.
While Trump was focusing on drug costs on Tuesday, Democrats were focused on reversing Medicaid cuts in the sweeping law he signed this summer.
They were pushing for that reversal to be included in a measure to fund the government in the short term, along with an extension of tax cuts that make health insurance premiums more affordable for people who purchase coverage through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Republicans have said they won’t negotiate.
PRO-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil chants during a rally celebrating his return from immigration detention, June 22, 2025, in New York. Photo: Olga Fedorova/AP
ALBERT BOURLA, chairman and chief executive officer of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, yesterday in Washington, as from left, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy, Jr, Mehmet Oz, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and President Donald Trump, right, look on. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP
Paradise Island Lighthouse
See BUSINESS SECTION for more on the Paradise Island Lighthouse story
“My mission was to truly restore the Paradise Island Lighthouse, which would take about 18 months to do, and the Government have stalled for 14 years, including the last five years since they offered me the lease that I was approved for.”
- TOBY SMITH
PHOTOS: TOBY SMITH