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VOLUME:117 No.239, NOVEMBER 9TH, 2020

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WHAT COMES NEXT AFTER BIDEN VICTORY? PAGE NINE PAGES

EASING THE PAIN PM declares lockdown worked to halt second wave so eases controls

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net A 50 percent decrease in new COVID-19 infections over the last four weeks coupled with a 68 percent drop in virus-related hospital cases since mid-October has prompted the relaxation of various restrictions in New Providence and Abaco.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced yesterday that the most recent data has put The Bahamas’ national COVID-19 positivity rate at 16 percent. This is a 44.8 percent reduction from the week just before the tougher measures were put in place.

These rates have continuously decreased and just yesterday the rate of positivity was 5.7 percent,

Dr Minins said. Calling the marked decreases in both New Providence and Abaco “good progress”, Dr Minnis said the new revised measures will begin today.

The relaxed measures include the lifting of the weekend 24-hour curfew.

Moving forward, the curfew on Saturdays and Sundays will now be from 6pm to 5am.

The weekday curfew, previously 8pm to 5am, will move to 9pm to 5am.

This curfew will also apply to Grand Bahama on weekdays and weekends.

Despite the news, Dr Minnis reminded Bahamians that restrictions would be loosened and tightened according to COVID-19 case trends, adding this was the time for cautious optimism.

WHILE New Providence and Abaco have reduced the number of new cases, the island of Eleuthera has not had the same success, sparking more strict measures for the mainland, where 117 cases have been recorded.

In Eleuthera where residents have not followed COVID-19 preventative measures, a daily curfew and weekend lockdowns will be enforced. During the week, from Monday to Friday, a daily curfew will be in effect from 6pm to 5am on the island. Commercial activity will only continue during non-curfew hours.

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

WOMAN IN FAILED BID TO FIGHT JAIL DEAL

SEE PAGE FOUR

“A Ministry of Health medical team travelled to Eleuthera last week to assess the COVID-19 situation on the island. As of Saturday, November 7, a total of 117 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been recorded on the island,” Dr Minnis said.

All districts in Eleuthera have recorded cases of COVID-19, with South Eleuthera having the greatest proportion of cases with 37.8 percent; followed by North Eleuthera with 29.7 percent.

Central Eleuthera has 24.4 percent of cases.

He continued: “Health officials have reported that a number of COVID-19 cases have been linked to SEE PAGE FOUR

$65M EXUMA AIRPORT PROJECT TO START DEC THE Government’s top aviation official yesterday said we “definitely want to break ground” on Exuma’s $65m airport redevelopment early next month as part of a wider $165m Family Island upgrade.

Algernon Cargill, director of aviation, told Tribune Business officials were now waiting on the Government to approve the preferred contractor for a project that will increase the airport’s terminal from the present 2,000sq ft to some 60,000 sq ft.

Exuma, together with ongoing upgrades to the Great Harbour Cay airport in the Berry Islands, represent the first steps in a wider overhaul that is designed to transform key Out Island airports into true tourism “gateways” and links/ hubs to other parts of The Bahamas.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

...BUT ELEUTHERA PAYS THE PRICE FOR IGNORING RULES

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

HO&USE

THE PEOPLE’S PAPER: $1

NEVER TO FORGET

A ROYAL Bahamas Defence Force marine stands guard as the force marks Remembrance Day to honour veterans of the First World War and Second World War yesterday. See page two for more.

FINLAYSONS CHASED OVER MARATANI DEBT

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeal has rejected the Finlaysons’ bid to use the COVID19 pandemic to halt a US financier’s pursuit over a multi-million dollar debt owed on a luxury yacht.

Attorneys for Garet ‘Tiger’ Finlayson, and his son, Mark, had argued their clients would be placed at a “disadvantage” if

THE MARATANI YACHT cross-examination of Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation’s main witness was allowed to proceed via

video link.

Judith Smith, representing the well-known father-and-son businessman duo, alleged this would occur because “there is a sensory dilution in video-conferencing” whereas Robert Hughes, Caterpillar’s US east coast manager, had already appeared in the Supreme Court in Freeport to give his initial testimony.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeal has upheld the 18-year manslaughter sentence of a woman who fatally stabbed her boyfriend in 2016.

Ashley McKenzie was accused of killing Andrew Mackey on August 24, 2016. According to initial police reports, shortly after midnight on the day in question, police were called to a house on Ida Street in reference to a fatal stabbing incident. At the time, police said a woman alleged that she stabbed her boyfriend during an argument.

McKenzie was initially charged with murder. However, when the evidence was heard during the proceedings, the appellant SEE PAGE THREE

INSIGHT COVID AND OBESITY THE DEADLY CONNECTION

PAGE 12

PAGE 2, Monday, November 9, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

Paying tribute to veterans of world wars DEFENCE Force Commander Commodore Raymond King along with the Officers and Marines of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force yesterday joined the world in commemorating veterans of World Wars I and II on Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day is a day recognised by The Bahamas and countries throughout the British colonies to memorialise the

veterans who served during World Wars I and II in the British Army. This annual ceremony, which is observed the nearest Sunday to November 11, marks the culmination of activities showcased by members of the British Legion-Bahamas Branch (BLBB).

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which has affected services throughout the world, the

usual church service at Christ Church Cathedral to remember the men and women who served during the two World Wars was cancelled.

This year, members of the British Legion-Bahamas Branch along with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force will attend a scaleddown wreath-laying ceremony at the Veterans War Cemetery, Infant View Road tomorrow.

‘I HEARD GUNSHOTS THAT KILLED DWIGHT’

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net A RELATIVE of a 17-year-old boy who was shot dead last Wednesday said she heard gunshots moments before learning the teen had been killed.

Four others were injured in the shooting incident on Peter Street on Wednesday evening.

While authorities did not officially identify the victim, his stepsister Frenada Knowles confirmed to The Tribune that he is Dwight Williams Jr. According to police, at around 7pm, they were alerted to gunshots in the area via ShotSpotter.

Officers responded to the scene and their investigations revealed that a group of men were standing in front of a residence, when a small Japanese vehicle approached and stopped.

Police said two males exited the vehicle armed with handguns and both men fired in the direction of the group.

Mr Williams died at the scene. The four others were transported to hospital and were said be receiving treatment for their injuries.

Ms Knowles told The Tribune her stepbrother, who had just graduated this year, had gone to order food.

“On Wednesday night, I was home through the other side - inside then when

DWIGHT WILLIAMS JR I hear the gunshots. My friends come ran across,” she said.

“They come and tell me ‘Your brother dead’. I gone run and see if that’s my brother and I saw him.

I had run back to call he mummy. And when after I gone back over there, they put the yellow tape round.”

His stepsister described their relationship as close and said they often played video games together. She said the last time they had contact was when they were playing a game of Call of Duty.

The victim’s death has left the family “hurting” and the teen’s mother is not sleeping well, Ms Knowles said, adding that Mr Williams was planning to look for a job to take care of his family.

Following Mr Williams’ death, another man was stabbed to death on Thursday morning on Joe Farrington Road. The suspect fled the scene. The victim died later in hospital.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, November 9, 2020, PAGE 3

MINNIS SENDS CONGRATULATIONS TO BIDEN ON ELECTION VICTORY PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis extended congratulations to United States President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday, saying he is confident The Bahamas’ long-standing relationship with the US will be strengthened.

Dr Minnis also congratulated Senator Kamala Harris as Vice-President-elect.

“The Bahamas and the United States have enjoyed long-standing, warm, friendly and historic relations,” said the Prime Minister in a letter to President-Elect Biden.

“I extend my very best wishes to you for a successful administration and I am very confident that the warm and friendly relations existing between

our two governments and peoples will not only continue but will be further strengthened.”

Progressive Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis also offered congratulations to the pair after their win.

“On behalf of the Progressive Liberal Party, I extend warm congratulations to Joseph Biden

on his election victory as the 46th President of the United States,” Mr Davis said in a statement issued Saturday.

“We also extend warm congratulations and pay tribute to Vice-Presidentelect Kamala Harris, for making history as both the first woman and person of colour to be elected to that high office.

“In voting in such record numbers, we applaud the American people for re-affirming the democratic ideals of Thomas Jefferson, and recognise that the will of the people has been freely and fully expressed.

“The Progressive Liberal Party looks forward to working with the new administration on a

number of national and regional issues of mutual concern and interest,” the opposition leader said.

Up to press time, President Trump has still refused to concede the election, using delays in processing the vote in some states “to falsely allege voter fraud and argue that his rival was trying to seize power” AP reported.

BNT: No measures needed to reduce shark population THE Bahamas National Trust says it does not believe measures are needed to reduce shark conservation, adding the shark attraction industry brings in more than $100 million a year.

BNT said, however, it agrees more studies and public education are needed on shark and turtle conservation, along with “reasonable solutions” to help protect both people and the marine resources “that we need for our very own survival”.

BNT released a statement on Saturday in response to comments Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest made last week about shark and turtle protection.

BNT said while it “understands the concerns expressed by fishermen about shark interactions while fishing, spearfishing and diving,” there is “no scientific research that supports an increase in shark populations” in The Bahamas.

“Fishing and spearfishing are acts that attract predators,” BNT’s release said. “With more humans increasingly going in the ocean and doing certain activities that will attract sharks, shark-human encounters will increase.

“The BNT is in alignment with the DPM that more studies need to be conducted about the population of sharks and turtles in The Bahamas, likewise for all species.”

Eric Carey, BNT’s executive director, said he reached out to Mr

Turnquest to get a better understanding of what he was intending to convey in his statements.

“While the BNT doesn’t feel it is necessary to reduce conservation measures put in place to protect sharks, we agree with the DPM that we need to conduct more studies and do a better job of engaging fishermen so that we get a clear understanding of what they are experiencing,” Mr Carey said.

Sharks became fully protected in 2011, with 243,000 square miles of the Bahamian archipelago turned into a shark sanctuary. As a result, it is illegal to catch or harm any shark in The Bahamas.

BNT said The Bahamas is the “shark diving” capital of the world, with the marine animal bringing in an estimated $114 million to the country every year as people travel here to dive, film and interact with sharks.

The conservation agency said sharks play a crucial role in maintaining the balance of marine life from which humans benefit, especially in The Bahamas.

It added that sharks help to keep marine animal populations healthy by removing the sick and injured, and by promoting greater fish diversity and healthier coral reefs.

BNT also pushed back against Mr Turnquest’s comments about sea turtles feeding on conch, saying their impact on the species’ population is minimal. BNT also said green sea turtles are necessary in keeping

seagrass beds healthy.

“Healthy seagrass beds are crucial in supporting conch populations, which feed on the algae found on seagrass. The reality is that while sea turtles do naturally feed on conch, without sea turtles, the seagrass beds crucial to the survival of conch would not be healthy, and thus conch would be in even greater trouble. So, both species depend on each other for their long-term survival.

Loggerhead turtles feed on the queen conch, but only at certain life stages.

“The impact of sea turtles on conch populations is therefore minimal, and more importantly this is a part of maintaining nature’s balance. It is important to note that while there may have been some recovery in local populations, sea turtles remain critically endangered across their range and are some of the most endangered animals in the world.

“Their importance to the culture, economy, and environment of The Bahamas is the reason why sharks and turtles were formally protected by the government.

“More public education on the importance of sharks and sea turtles is needed and we have to come up with reasonable solutions to help protect both people as well as these resources that we need for our very own survival.

“It is important that the government, conservation organizations, fishermen, and the public continue to work together to ensure that conservation

JUST WHEN WE GET THE ALL CLEAR TO GO BACK TO THE BEACHES WHAT DO WE FIND HAS BEEN SWIMMING AROUND OFFSHORE - A GREAT WHITE SHARK

Florida’s scariest snowbird paid a visit to the state just in time for its winter tourist season — a 2,000-pound, 15-foot great white shark.

A research group started tracking the female shark in Nova Scotia last year.

Within the last few days, the shark’s tracker pinged off the coast of Vero Beach, the Bahamas, and Key Largo, according to scientists.

The shark, named Unama’ki, was still enjoying cool waters off Nova Scotia in August, according to the nonprofit Ocearch which has been tracking the shark.

Unama’ki, which means “Land of the fog” in Mi’kmaq, the language of the indigenous people of Nova Scotia.

The shark appeared to be making a similar journey as two other large female great whites. Researchers also think that Unama’ki could be pregnant.

Scientists are hoping that she could lead them to her birthplace.

Unama’ki is one of the largest sharks Ocearch has tagged in the North Atlantic, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The largest was a 16-foot female tagged in 2012. benefits people and the environment.”

As he spoke in the House of Assembly about a constituent who is recovering from a recent shark attack while spearfishing, Mr Turnquest said while the country is protecting sharks, they are now encroaching on fishing areas used by fishermen who are at risk of attack.

He also said sea turtles, another protected marine animal, are now feeding on the country’s already limited conch supply.

“This is an issue that I think we’re going to have to address at some point because fishermen have continuously put the point to me that as we protect the shark and as we protect the turtle, they are now

becoming a nuisance and a danger to fishermen,” the East Grand Bahama MP said.

“As the fishermen try to catch the fish with a line, (a) shark comes and takes them. They dive, they are at risk of being injured.

The turtles (are) eating the conch and the lobster.

So it’s becoming quite a challenge.”

ETA BRINGS FLOODING AND FALLEN TREES POWER GOES OUT

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

TROPICAL Storm Eta brought strong winds, flooding, sea swells and fallen trees to the northwest Bahamas, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said yesterday.

Storm conditions are expected to continue this morning as Eta moves towards Florida.

The National Emergency Management Agency activated shelters on Grand Bahama, Abaco, Bimini, the Berry Islands, Andros, New Providence and Eleuthera as of 8am yesterday due to a tropical storm warning being in effect for these islands.

A tropical storm alert was also in place for the Central Bahamas, including Exuma, Cat Island, Long Island, San Salvador and Rum Cay. This means tropical storm conditions in these areas could be felt within 60 hours.

“Over the past 48 hours, the director of NEMA, Captain Stephen Russell, has been in constant contact with Family Island administrators in the Northwest Bahamas to ensure that their communities are prepared for the storm,” Dr Minnis said during a national address.

“NEMA-designated shelters on the islands of Grand Bahama, Abaco, Bimini, the Berry Islands, Andros, New Providence and Eleuthera were opened as of 8am, today. Preliminary reports from the affected islands are of flooding, rendering roads impassable in some areas, high winds, gusty conditions, sea

A BAHAMAS flag flutters above the flood waters... just.

Photo: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff swells and some fallen trees.”

He said the Glass Window Bridge in Eleuthera had been closed due to sea surge.

So far, there have been no reports of injuries or incidents as a result of the weather, Dr Minnis said.

In New Providence the heavy rains produced localised flooding in areas normally affected when heavy rains hit the island.

One report of damage claimed a roof had fallen in on a patient at Princess Margaret Hospital. However, The Tribune understands this was not as a result of water damage but caused by the patient himself who was in custody and trying to make his escape when the ceiling came down on him.

Chief Meteorological Officer Mary Butler Butler said bad weather is expected today as the storm continues its trek towards Florida.

“During the course of the day, the centre of the storm should move closer to Andros and by tomorrow, which would be Monday, we’ll see it moving closer to Bimini before it moves into the Gulf before it moves over the (Florida) keys, the South Florida Keys into the Gulf…..

It will be into the Gulf by Tuesday,” the weather official said.

She added that the forecast indicates as the storm nears the Florida Keys it will strengthen into a Category One hurricane.

On Abaco, which is still recovering from Hurricane Dorian, Senior Deputy Island Administrator Terrece BootleLaing said there were no reports of anybody registering yet to shelters, but he said that will be monitored throughout the day.

“We expect for persons to not be (in) trailer homes or in tents...we know persons for sure still living in those conditions,” she said.

“We anticipate that a few persons may need to go to our shelter, in particular in Central Abaco. That’s where our main focus is to make sure shelters are available for persons there.

“We don’t anticipate very high numbers. If 20 persons make their way to shelters that would be in range of our expectation or a slightly lower, but we’ll monitor it to see what the situation is, how persons are feeling, and whether or not they would’ve taken advantage of our activated shelter.”

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

HUNDREDS of families were left without power in New Providence for about six hours yesterday as Bahamas Power and Light grappled with “feeder trips”.

In a post on its Facebook page yesterday morning, BPL said it was aware of outages affecting parts of the island and apologised for the inconvenience.

BPL said Blair Estates, portions of Eastern Road, Deal’s Heights, High Vista, Mt Vernon, Melvarc Subdivision, Premier Subdivision, Jerome Ave & side streets, AID, Marathon Road from Wulff Rd to Robinson Road, a portion of Marathon Estates, Cable Bahamas, a portion of the Prince Charles Shopping Centre, Gleniston Gardens, Hillside Park, Sea Breeze, East park Estate, and surrounding areas had no power due to feeder trips.

“At this time no estimate on restoration is available,” BPL said initially.

Yesterday afternoon, the public power provider said some areas had been restored including Cable Bahamas, a portion of Prince Charles Shopping Centre, Gleniston Gardens, Hillside Park, Sea Breeze, Prince Charles Dr, East Park Estate, and the surrounding area.

“Emergency maintenance was being conducted to the transformers supplying these areas.

Updates will follow as more information is available,” BPL said.

At 6pm, there had been no further statement leaving it unclear which areas had been reconnected.

Customers sounded off about their dissatisfaction as their power was off for about six hours and the inconvenience this caused. Hundreds of irate comments were left under BPL’s Facebook post.

WOMAN IN FAILED BID TO FIGHT JAIL DEAL from page one

decided to plead guilty to manslaughter. After she did this, her counsel and the lawyer representing the Crown discussed possible sentences and came to the

agreement that an 18-year sentence was an appropriate punishment for the offence.

According to a judgment posted on the Court of Appeal’s website, the trial judge accepted the recommendation made by McKenzie’s attorney and

the Crown’s lawyer.

Still, the appellant attempted to appeal her sentence after arguing the punishment handed down to her was unduly harsh.

Last month, Justices Sir Michael Barnett, Jon Isaacs, and Maureen Crane-Scott

affirmed McKenzie’s conviction after ruling the sentence was “not inconsistent with the authorities with respect to sentencing for manslaughter”.

In his judgment Sir Michael stated: “The 18 years is not unduly harsh, as it was

the sentence that was communicated to the intended appellant through her lawyer and the Crown’s lawyer to the court as being appropriate.

“In those circumstances, we take the view that the intended appellant cannot now come to the Court of

Appeal, after having agreed to the 18 years, to now say that the 18 years is unduly harsh. In the circumstances, we deny the application for extension of time, because the appeal is out of time, and we affirm the conviction and the sentence”.

PAGE 4, Monday, November 9, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

ANTIGEN TEST EVENTUALLY ‘ONLY FOR SYMPTOMATIC PEOPLE’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

CHIEF Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan said she expects tourism officials to eventually use the rapid antigen test in the way required by the country’s health protocol – that is, only on symptomatic people.

During a press conference on Friday, Dr

McMillan was asked how secure should residents feel about results of the antigen test that travellers are required to take five days after arriving in the country since the test is not believed to be useful in diagnosing asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers.

“The protocol does speak to utilising the test in symptomatic persons,” she said. “In our collaboration with tourism, we would’ve

shared our protocol so we anticipate that the protocol will be utilised as per the recommendations in the national protocol. Once it is utilised in that way, then we can feel very secure in what the results are.

“The reason we have protocols that are based on international guidelines is to provide security so long and short, the protocol that we would’ve agreed upon in the national EOC speaks

TOTAL CASES

TOTAL DEATHS

NEWLY CONFIRMED CASES FRIDAY 20 CASES

LATEST DEATHS

6,967 154

NEW PROVIDENCE GRAND BAHAMA ABACO EXUMA

10 7 2 1

THURSDAY

• 60-year-old woman from New Providence on November 7 • 58-year-old man from New Providence on November 7 • 66-year-old man from New Providence on November 6

31 CASES

NEW PROVIDENCE GRAND BAHAMA ELEUTHERA ABACO EXUMA

HOSPITALISED

37,965

56

to two antigen tests for emergency use: the SD Biosensor and the Abbot PanBIO rapid antigen tests.

“The only drawback of the test,” he said, “is that there are currently no published studies of rapid antigen test performance in asymptomatic populations.”

Health officials are trying to boost their capacity to police the use of the antigen tests, with Dr McMillan acknowledging that officials have received reports about unauthorised use of the tests in Eleuthera.

“The team that was on the ground in Eleuthera (last week) brought some concerns to our attention and we are actively seeking to investigate what is happening on that island,” she said in response to a question from The Tribune.

“As it relates to the protocol, we would have had capable and competent lab personnel actually work on putting together that protocol and that has been approved at the national level by the EOC and certainly that is something we would be in a position to provide (more widely) and as we move forward with the validation and verification and quality assurance measures that were mentioned earlier, all of those pieces will come together for us to be able to ensure that these unconfirmed instances diminish and actually ideally not occur.”

Mr Wells said any antigen tests used in this country must meet four criteria.

“The test should be administered by trained healthcare providers, undergo local validation before use, be performed with continuous quality assurance and applicable biosafety precautions and be performed by a facility that has been certified by the Health Care Facilities Board,” he said.

Mr Wells also revealed on Friday that the National COVID-19 Ethics Committee has approved the SalivaDirect test for evaluation in a pilot programme in New Providence and some Family Islands.

The study, which he said will target asymptomatic carriers, will see consenting participants swabbed as normal while a saliva sample is simultaneously obtained from them.

“This way we can compare the results and measure the accuracy of the saliva-based method against the swab method,” he said. “This pilot is anticipated to proceed during November. The National Reference Laboratory will present its findings and recommendations as it relates to the performance of and potential future use of the SalivaDirect Test.”

The saliva test produces results far quicker than the antigen tests already in operation.

from page one

knew we had to intervene to slow the spread of the virus and save Bahamian lives. We do not like putting in place restrictions. However, our main priorities are the health and safety of the Bahamian people.

“We are not afraid of making the tough decisions to protect you.”

He continued: “As we emerge out of this second wave, let us be cautiously optimistic and let us continue to be careful. We are opening up. But if we stop following the public health advice, virus cases will increase again and we may end up back under restrictions.”

In New Providence and Abaco, the retail sector, including pharmacies, may resume in-store services

Monday to Saturday following the protocols prepared by the Bahamas Federation of Retailers and certified by the Ministry of Health.

On Saturdays, food stores may open to the public and can restock on Sundays.

Outdoor dining is also permitted to resume at restaurants and at fish fries, Monday to Saturday.

On Sundays, only drivethru and take away food services are permitted.

However, hotels may conduct indoor dining, Dr Minnis said.

Beaches and parks will now be open on Saturdays and Sundays from 5am to 6pm.

The new measures take effect today and do not apply to Spanish Wells and Harbour Island.

virus on the island.

“The health team has recommended the closure of all bars. As a result of this recommendation, all bars and restaurants connected to bars are to be closed. Residents should not operate bars from their residences. All private and public social gatherings are prohibited,” the prime minister also said.

Additionally, indoor church services are not permitted and in-person classroom instruction of students is also prohibited.

Both may occur by virtual means only.

Funerals can have a maximum of ten people at the graveside, excluding the officiant and caretakers.

Weddings are to be a maximum of ten people, excluding the officiant, but

receptions and repasts are prohibited.

Health officials will continue to closely monitor the COVID- 19 situation on Eleuthera, Dr Minnis said.

To reduce the spread on Eleuthera, Dr Minnis urged residents there to go back to the measures that worked for them in the past, so that the island could reopen various areas as safely and as quickly as possible.

The Royal Bahamas Defence Force, Dr Minnis said, is on alert and in place to ensure that vessels do not flee Eleuthera in violation of the Emergency Powers Orders.

Additional police resources have been deployed to ensure enforcement of measures put in place to protect the residents of Eleuthera.

EASING THE PAIN

15 7 6 1 2

TOTAL TESTS

to use of the antigen test in certain circumstances and we anticipate that tourism, as we move forward, will be actually using it in that way.”

Currently, all travellers – whether they are symptomatic or not – are required to take the rapid antigen test five days after arriving in the country. Some health officials now fear that this practice will create a false sense of security about the COVID-19 status of travellers.

During his speech on Friday, Health Minister Renward Wells discussed the Ministry of Health’s protocol and use of the antigen test.

He said: “Although the RT PCR test remains the gold standard in-country to diagnose COVID-19, selected rapid antigen tests are now being incorporated in our protocol to detect an acute infection of COVID-19 in patients who are experiencing symptoms.

Despite being less sensitive than the RT-PCR test, rapid antigen testing is relatively inexpensive and provides rapid results.

“This type of testing has the potential to provide wider access to COVID-19 testing at an acceptable turnaround time when there is limited access to RT-PCR.” He added that the World Health Organisation has granted authorisation

CASES IN ICU

4

RECOVERED

4,943

Death Notice For

G. David Roberts, 80

He also lashed out at critics of the government’s COVID-19 protocols.

“As I have mentioned to you before, during the pandemic we will go through cycles of tightening and loosening restrictions,” Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said in a televised national address yesterday.

“When case numbers go up, we have to tighten the rules to save lives. When those numbers go down, we loosen restrictions so Bahamians may get back to work and resume more normal lives. The measures we put in place to combat the second wave have worked.

“Some criticised us for acting aggressively, but we

ELEUTHERA PAYS PRICE FOR IGNORING RULES from page one

The family of the late G. David Roberts announces his passing at his residence on October 29, 2020. He is survived by Stephanie, his wife of 50 years, his children and their spouses, Brent (Patti), Tisha (Monte) Schwartz, Gavin (Peddi), Shayna (Matt) Klein. Grandchildren: Aidan, Tristan and Cassidy; Isabella, Anika, and Ariana; Seth and Austin; Hunter and Sophia. Brother: John of Somerset, U.K. Aunts: Ernestine (Teenie) Jones and Alice Jones. Sisters-in-law: Anita Osman, Pamela Burnside and Carol Jones of Saskatoon, Canada. Nephews and nieces: Kent and Meg Osman, Mark Osman and Jamie Allen, Darryl and Sarah Osman; Ebony and Tom Dickinson; Orchid Burnside; Deanna Knowles. Grand nephews and nieces: Aya Osman, Zachary Osman, and Tobias Dickinson.

Numerous relatives: Marina D’Aguilar, Dayne and Linda D’Aguilar, Dionisio and Saskia D’Aguilar and family; Sandra and Malcolm Clague and family; Alan Benjamin and family; The Benjamin family; Kim Chappelle and the Melnechuck family; Barbara Albury and family; Joan Thompson and family; The Thompson family; Phyllis and Basil Knowles; The Stuart family; Dottie Rae, Joanna and Mike Lothian, Margaret and Peter Carey and families; Jay Mills and family; Dianne and Allan Harvey and family; The Jones family.

Godchildren: Juliette Phillpot and Dancyn Tynes.

Numerous Friends: John and Lorraine Phillpot and family; Maitland and Daphne Cates; Shirley and Roy Rodgers and family; Doreen and Kevin Marche and family; Virginia and Bernard Curry; Don and Arlene Clarke and family; Norma Sasso; Norma Chemaly; Stan and Dennie Burnside and family; Julia and Wayman Burnside; Emily and Jimmy McIbor, Jimmy Curry, Monica and Bob Schwartz; Ginny and Dick Klein; Richard and Sue Poad; Rev Patrick Adderley; Dean Harry Bain; Rev Chitan Thompson; June and Hugh Sands; Judy Higgs; JeRome Miller and the Cathedral Coffee Hour Group; Andrea Knowles and family; Marina Trotman; Danny Tynes; Remilda Sweeting and family; Richard and Mary Parks and family; Sandra Sherman and family; Andre and Dale Albury; The J.S. Johnson family, Sonia Muir and Exilien (Jeffrey) Paul.

Special thanks is extended to Dr Dean Tseretopoulos, Dr Ian Kelly, and Dr Tanya Mortemore.

May he rest in peace.

The family would like to thank all the persons who telephoned, sent prayers and positive wishes during David’s illness. These precious memories have strengthened us during this difficult time.

Persons wishing to make a donation in David’s memory may do so to The Cancer Society of The Bahamas.

bars. Additionally, the current increase in cases on Eleuthera has been linked to a funeral held two weeks ago. Health officials also reported that there appears to be minimal to no adherence to public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“I am advised that some concerned residents of Eleuthera have called for more restrictive measures to be put in place to arrest the spread of COVID-19.

“After its visit to and assessment of mainland Eleuthera, health officials have made a number of recommendations geared toward slowing and controlling the transmission of the

EMPLOYERS DON’T HAVE RIGHT TO MEDICAL RECORDS

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Renward Wells said employers do not have the legal right to request medical records of employees without their written consent.

During a press conference on Friday, he said this matter is among the “emerging concerns from the workplace” in the COVID-19 crisis.

He said employees have advised government officials that “some employers have asked them for proof that they can return to work if they were infected

with COVID-19; and some have gone a step further and request employees to provide their medical records for their supervisor’s review.”

He said: “An employer does not have the right to demand to see the results of an employee’s COVID-19 test without the employee’s expressed written consent.

However, the employer can request a letter from the Minister of Health that verifies that the employee has been cleared to return to work.

“It is recommended that once the Ministry of Health has cleared a person from quarantine or isolation, no further testing is required

for them to attend work.

In such cases, an employee is issued a letter advising of their suitability to return to work. Such a letter will have a coat of arms, a file reference number, a valid signature from the physician in the national surveillance unit as the designee of the chief medical officer.”

Mr Wells added: “More than ever, there is a need to follow the COVID-19 preventative measures.

New information also reveals that where possible, COVID-19 preventative measures should be applied in combination with other preventive measures.”

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, November 9, 2020, PAGE 5

Medics upset association not consulted on travellers

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE Medical Association of The Bahamas is “disappointed” that the body was not consulted regarding the country’s newly adopted COVID19 screening strategy for incoming international travellers.

The group does not support the decision to eliminate rapid antigen testing (RAT) at ports of entry.

MAB’s logic rests on an anticipation that cases will again increase in the country as worldwide COVID-19 cases continue to trend upward.

Government officials recently scrapped the idea of rapid antigen testing at ports of entry, saying the science does not support it being an effective screening tool at the border.

In a press statement, MAB President Dr Marcus Cooper said while doctors understand the economic necessity of the decision to restart tourism, it is important the government not only institute strict measures to mitigate

a resurgence of cases, but prepare for any potential consequences that may arise.

As a result, MAB made several recommendations including RAT administration at points of entry. It said the same mode of testing for returning citizens and residents should be adopted.

Further on the fifth day of their travel, mandatory quarantines should be instituted until results from a second RAT can be confirmed, MAB has suggested.

“We are disappointed that the association was not engaged when a strategy for testing was being considered, particularly when the negative outcomes of such decision’s rests squarely on our shoulders,” Dr Cooper said in a statement.

“Nonetheless, we are ready and committed to caring for those with and without COVID-19 during these challenging times.

“We have only just begun to recover from the exponential increase in cases that stretched our healthcare facilities and medical professionals to its limits, after the relaxation

of travel restrictions in July.

“As we reopen our borders, it is clear that the United States and many other countries are seeing record numbers of new COVID-19 cases every day.

The MAB anticipates that we too will see an increase in cases after welcoming international travellers to our shores.

“While we understand the economic necessity of this decision, it is important that the government not only institute strict measures to mitigate a resurgence of cases in (the) country, but prepare for any potential consequences that may arise. We cannot afford to lower our guard.

A robust and stringent testing policy for all persons entering the country seems prudent as we ‘test the waters’ again.”

Dr Cooper said the body is aware that the World Health Organisation does not recommend RAT as a screening tool for asymptomatic travellers at ports of entry, but the gold standard COVID-19 RT-PCR is not a practical test to perform in this setting.

“It is clear, however, that

some form of screening is required to identify those persons who may have been exposed since performing the initial RT-PCR test prior to travel.

“Given the absence of a more suitable alternative and knowing that the RAT is unlikely to achieve the desired results as proposed, the MAB does not support the elimination of the rapid antigen test at the point of entry as it is likely to be the only COVID-19 screening test performed after entry, where testing is guaranteed.

“Any suspected improvement in test performance that is assumed to occur on day five of travel is likely to be offset by the inability to enforce compliance.”

MAB recommended the RAT test for all visitors upon entering The Bahamas and also on the fifth day of their travel.

As an alternative, travellers may forgo testing on day five by providing a second negative COVID19 RT-PCR test result at their expense.

“The MAB further recommends the RAT test for all returning citizens and residents upon entry and on

the fifth day of their return in addition to mandatory quarantine until the second negative RAT test results can be confirmed.

“Likewise, returning citizens and residents may forgo testing on day five by providing a second negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test result at their expense. The request for a mandatory quarantine for returning citizens and residents stems from our experience that suggests the risk of community spread is highest when those who live and work among us have recently travelled.”

It also strongly recommended a more intensive campaign focused on preventative measures and health promotion.

“We agree that most are aware of the need for face masks, hand hygiene and social distancing but attention to other general health measures appears to be lacking. This includes a healthy diet, exercise, and immune boosting vitamins and supplements such as vitamin D, vitamin C and zinc.”

This should also go hand in hand with the strengthening of the country’s

healthcare system in anticipation of a resurgence of cases, MAB said.

“The Public Hospitals Authority must increase its capacity outside of the tertiary care centres, to accommodate and isolate large numbers of COVID19 cases should they present.

“The South Beach Clinic should be equipped and staffed to function at full capacity. There should be an abundance of personal protective equipment as well as supplies and resources to increase COVID-19 RT PCR testing.

“The PHA must test all hospital admissions to reduce the number of hospital related infections that occur on the open wards.

Staff should be tested regularly, and policies adopted to reduce the unnecessary quarantining of providers which cripples the ability to provide adequate care to those with and without COVID-19. The relocation of some ambulatory hospital-based services may also be required to provide persons suffering from non-COVID-19 illnesses, uninterrupted access to care.”

Shortly after Dr Minnis’ address, Official Opposition Leader Philip “Brave” Davis criticised the Killarney MP for failing to reveal that COVID-19 testing is down while touting a decline in recorded cases.

Dr Minnis spoke of the decline as he lifted some restrictions in New Providence and Abaco.

The Progressive Liberal Party leader said: “On Sunday evening, the competent Authority took credit for a decline in COVID cases, while failing to disclose that the number of tests conducted daily has also fallen.

“Yesterday, The Bahamas conducted 345 tests.

Experts at the Harvard Global Health Institute recommend a daily minimum of 600 or more tests for a population our size.

“Everyone is relieved that some of the restrictions are lifted – for this week, at least. But it is only because the competent authority’s

July reopening plan was weak and full of holes that lockdowns and curfews were required in the first place.

“He wants praise for lifting restrictions, but no scrutiny about why they were needed. The competent authority did not have a strong testing, tracing and isolation policy in place, and a few cases predictably turned into a few thousand.

Many of our Caribbean neighbours have fared much better.

“He is much more comfortable admonishing Bahamians about their behaviour, and much less inclined to examine his own,” Mr Davis said.

“Minnis congratulated himself for his willingness to take tough measures against the business community. He should not be so pleased with himself.

His lockdowns and curfews, which have indeed crushed many small Bahamian-owned businesses,

were a sign of a failed COVID policy, not a sign of strength. Lockdowns are a blunt instrument, necessary when you don’t have enough testing in place to keep up with COVID spread.”

Mr Davis said the PLP was concerned that some of the same “mistakes” committed months ago were once again happening.

“We urge him to surge resources now and increase testing for Bahamians. A strong COVID plan now would end the threat of lockdowns and curfews.

“The competent authority keeps warning Bahamians to get used to loosening and tightening restrictions – but he should spend time talking to our tourism partners and to local businesses, all of whom are suffering from the uncertainty created by his weak, zig-zagging COVID policy,” Mr Davis said.

MORE THAN 2,800 CALLS TO REPORT COVID INFRACTIONS

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

SINCE the establishment of the COVID-19 Command Centre in August, more than 2,888 calls have been received to report various Emergency Powers Orders infractions, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis revealed yesterday.

In a nationally televised address, he said eight out of ten calls made to the centre were to report businesses where mask and social distancing protocols were not followed.

To date, statistics reflect that 67 percent of citations issued by the COVID-19 Enforcement Unit referred to the failure to wear masks away from a residence, and 27 percent referred to breach of curfew.

This excludes the COVID-19 Enforcement Unit’s immediate shutdown of social gatherings and business establishments found in breach of the COVID-19 Emergency Powers Orders.

“As part of our COVID-19 response, the COVID-19 Enforcement Unit has dispatched

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis personnel to follow-up on reports of mass social gathering and incidents on isolated breaches,” Dr Minnis said.

“Eight out of ten calls made to the COVID-19 Enforcement Unit’s hotline were related to various business establishments of individuals not wearing masks or social distancing.

“I once again ask all businesses establishments to ensure that your employees and customers are abiding

by health measures. If we work together to do this, we will be able to keep various areas of the economy open. It is in all of our best interest to follow the health measures.

“It is better for business and it is better for the country at large.”

He said the number of calls to the unit has been steadily increasing in recent weeks for breaches of the 24-hour weekend lockdown.

CURRENT VISA VALID FOR DELAYED FLIGHTS ALL travelers whose flights were cancelled yesterday due to bad weather will be able to return home on their current travel health visa, the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation said last night.

The statement came in response to a video circulating on social media claiming some Bahamians have issues returning home from South Florida because of difficulties in obtaining a new Bahamas travel health visa after flight delays.

Yesterday, Lynden Pindling International Airport said flights were suspended at noon on Sunday due to the impact of Tropical Storm Eta. Flights are slated to resume this morning at 7am.

Travellers were advised to contact their respective airlines for updates as a result of the storm.

“It is the ministry’s understanding that flight delays due to inclement weather have resulted in expiry of the COVID-19 RT-PCR test results of some travellers,” the ministry said.

“In its response to this situation, the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation has made accommodations for this contingency: all travellers to The Bahamas, whose flights were cancelled today (November 8, 2020), due to the inclement weather, will be able to use their current Bahamas travel health visa

to return home.”

The ministry said a hardworking team will accommodate all travellers who have “legitimate requests for deviations from the current travel requirements”.

“No traveller will ever be required to pay any additional cost for either the test or the travel health visa because of circumstances beyond their control,” the ministry added.

All travellers entering The Bahamas must be in possession of a negative COVID-19 RT PCR test taken within five days of their arrival in The Bahamas.

Yesterday the ministry said some citizens and residents making short trips out of the country are taking the required COVID-19 RT-PCR test in The Bahamas prior to travel abroad with the intention to use the test taken in The Bahamas to meet the travel protocols for the return home.

“Clearly, no COVID-19 RT- PCR test performed in The Bahamas can be used to re-enter The Bahamas,” officials said.

This comes after Progressive Liberal Party Chairman Fred Mitchell called on the government to waive the travel health visa fee for Bahamians returning home from abroad.

In a statement released

yesterday, Mr Mitchell noted the reports on social media that some Bahamian travellers were stuck in Florida.

“The PLP has pointed out the problems with charging Bahamians coming home 40 dollars to do so. The Prime Minister sought to cover himself by saying that Bahamians ought to have enough money for taking the COVID-19 test and paying for the visa. It was an insensitive comment to make.

“Clearly in many cases the visa and the test have expired and in these budgetary times, who would have budgeted for it twice?

The fee should be waived for all Bahamians,” Mr Mitchell said.

In order to enter the country, travellers must present a negative COVID19 RT PCR test, that is no older than five days prior to date of arrival. Travellers must also obtain a travel health visa, which costs $40 for Bahamian residents or visitors staying less than five days. The visa costs $60 for visitors staying more than five days. The cost of the visa factors in a rapid antigen test that travellers must take on day five of their trip.

Travel health insurance is also factored into the visa cost. The insurance, which becomes mandatory on November 14, is provided by a private insurer.

Private Funeral Service For Retired Nursing Officer Elizabeth Alexandra Rolle, 72

of #18 Student Avenue will be held at 11:00 a.m., on Wednesday, November 11th, 2020 at Western Cemetery, Nassau Street. Officiating will be Pastor Lynden Williams.

Left to cherish her memory are her sons: Oran and Edwin Rolle; daughters: Kim Valente and Nahkeisha Williams; two daughters-in-law: Selinea Rolle and Darnell Rolle; two sons-in-law: Riccardo Valente and Corey Williams; numerous grandchildren and one great-grandchild: Aiiyah Molo; brothers: Patrick, Reginald and David Turnquest; sisters: Angela and Janet Turnquest, Carmel Charles, Joyce Quant and Karen Lightbourne; two sisters-in-law: Geleta and Juliet Turnquest; brother-in-law: Irvin Lightbourne; aunt: Mildred Wood; numerous nieces, nephews, godchildren and a host of other family and friends including: the Turnquest family, Rolle family, Ruby Murdock and family, Katherine Bethel and family, the family of the late Mizpah Bostfield, Mavis Chea and family, Long Island family and friends, the Major family, Dr. Ida-Mae Hanna, the Adventist Health Professionals, the Mackay family, Nurse Mary Sturrup-Ferguson, Nurse Gina Gibson-Rolle, Nurse Curlene Burrows, Nurse Elizabeth Grant, Judy Rolle, Sister Finlayson, Irma Sands, Robert Johnson, Coralee Deveaux and family, Members of the New Englerston Seventh Day Adventist Church, including Pastor Lynden Williams, Pastor Edward St. Fleur and Elder Andrew Hanna, The Nurses Association of The Bahamas, and other family and friends too numerous to mention; Special thanks to: Dr. Frederick Smith and staff at Doctors Hospital West and Cedar Crest Funeral Home.

Relatives and friends may pay their respects at Cedar Crest Funeral Home and Crematorium Ltd, Robinson and Baillou Hill Roads on Tuesday from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m.

PAGE 6, Monday, November 9, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

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Rules inconsistencies still maddening THE news about the end of the weekend lockdown might be good news – at least as long as it doesn’t reverse the downward trend of new COVID19 cases – but it remains maddeningly inconsistent in many ways.

Take for example the difference in curfew hours. The weekday curfew nudges an hour later to 9pm, while the weekend curfew will be 6pm. Why the difference?

Outdoor dining will be permitted from Monday to Saturday – but drivethrough and takeaway only on Sunday.

Why the difference?

Hotels, meanwhile, can conduct indoor dining. Is COVID-19 somehow magically absent from hotels?

Some previous inconsistencies get levelled out – so people can go inside a pharmacy again, rather than the pharmacy having to operate curb-side only, even if it’s right next door to a supermarket whose doors remained open.

Beaches and parks are again open on weekends, rather than just during the weekday.

Eleuthera, meanwhile, gets extra measures after a surge in cases there – after reportedly residents did not follow preventative measures.

Whether they did or not, their position now, with a greater clampdown being brought into place, is a caution to us all.

Just because the rules are being relaxed in places doesn’t mean we should be any less careful about protecting our health.

Use the measures we have been told about over and over – wearing masks, washing hands, keeping distance and so on – or else we will face a slide back into a more strict lockdown.

A great deal of the measures that keep us all safe are simply a matter of courtesy. Show respect to the rules out of courtesy to others – and hope that they will do the same for you. There’s no need to squeeze past someone in the store, rather step back and say “after you”. There’s no point in wearing a mask under your chin, so pull it up and

cover your nose and mouth for the sake of everyone.

At least those steps have remained consistent – and we all know them and should be able to follow them, even if the government measures elsewhere can be somewhat baffling.

Tackle obesity

In this column in August, we wrote about how our past failings in healthcare have been coming back to haunt us – and another article in today’s Tribune reinforces that.

New studies have shown the extra impact from COVID-19 on patients who are obese. Nearly three-quarters of nurses hospitalised, according to the US study, have been obese. Another study showed that obesity could interfere with the effectiveness of a vaccine.

The Bahamas has its own problem with obesity. As noted last year by former Health Minister Dr Duane Sands, The Bahamas has been named the sixth most obese country in the world.

More than 70 percent of the population is overweight. That’s more than two out of every three people in the country.

So what are we doing about it? Current Minister of Health Renward Wells has not seemed to signal any action, but isn’t it about time we took preventative measures to help the whole nation?

These are difficult times – but there are steps that could be taken. How about some money to invest in classes for managers of care homes, for example, to ensure healthier meals are served in such settings.

And how about a renewed public campaign giving people useful information about how to cut their intake and eat more healthily.

Fighting COVID-19 can be about more than just testing and isolation – it can be about getting the nation healthier along the way too. Think of the bigger picture, it’ll be better for all of us in the long run.

Atheist nation EDITOR, The Tribune.

IT’S really sad that the Christian community has nothing better to do but to suggest who is or is not an atheist. Perhaps these Christians should read Matthew 7:1 or Matthew 7:21.

In other words, “Mind ya own bizness”!

Of course, this is a matter of the tail wagging the dog.... blame someone else for the problems within the Church then no one will notice that the Church is a failure. In the 70s when the numbers were down it was because of Rastafari. In the 80s when the numbers were down it was because of the

gays, AIDS and HIV. Numbers are down again and the Church isn’t making money the way it used to make so, “Let’s blame the atheists”.

The Church needs to realise: the Rastafarians didn’t put up with Church foolishness, the gays didn’t put up with Church foolishness and neither will the atheists. Times are a-changing.

The Laws of the Land, the Constitution and the House of Parliament are all above biblical laws. (Oh btw, the pre-amble to the Constitution is worthless... it’s there to keep the hypocrites happy).

Instead of blaming atheists for the state of this

Christian Nation, the Christian community should be building a tent hospital to rival the Samaritan’s Purse.

We don’t need another tent church, we need a hospital funded by the trillions of dollars the Christian community is making from its congregation, members, recruits.

It’s time to get moving.

These breakfast, lunch and dinner hand-outs aren’t cutting it and blaming atheists for the Church’s shortcomings is a waste of time.

Put up or shut up!

NINO ESTEBAN Nassau, November 3, 2020.

GB solution EDITOR, The Tribune.

I READ in your paper that the business community do not have any ideas to improve the economy of Grand Bahama. There is a very simple solution.

Grand Bahama is the closest Caribbean island

to the frozen north, make it a cheap and easy tourist destination.

To fly to Freeport from the frozen north requires flying somewhere else first, expensive and time-consuming.

Toronto to Freeport one stop $440can.

Toronto to Fort Lauderdale same distance $250can.

Freeport airport should benefit all the people of Grand Bahama.

PRESTON BAGGOTT Grand Bahama, October 25, 2020.

It’s not about you, Mr Mitchell EDITOR, The Tribune.

BECAUSE of his decades of service to this country Darrell Erwin Rolle was deserving in death of the full glorious tribute and sendoff we typically give.

And in any other year but 2020 he would have gotten it.

A quiet and unassuming man from Lowe Sound, Andros, Rolle was the loyal soldier who saluted and then diligently carried out the duties assigned to him. If he didn’t want to do so, nobody ever knew. He played his cards close to his vest.

He hailed from an enterprising family who valued hard work and self-reliance.

Rolle’s death at the peak of a coronavirus lockdown was a shock. He had soldiered on after losing his late wife Beryl, and never once complained about anything.

He was a lifelong PLP and stalwart councilor, a high priest in the party. He believed that all political parties and politicians have their season and no doubt, even in retirement, he would have been in Brave Davis’s war room at the next election.

When he campaigned in Andros during his days on the trail, Rolle would rather cancel a rally when inclement weather threatened than risk anyone to “catch a check” in the pouring rain.

Yet somehow, we are to believe that Rolle would be happy over the potential to put hundreds of mourners in the cross-hairs of the coronavirus by having a big church funeral just to satisfy the taphophiles in his party.

It is hard to imagine that his children, his family and those who knew him in a personal and non-official capacity would want to have on their conscience that

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net even one person got coronavirus as a direct result of paying respect to their fallen father, grandfather, brother and friend.

It was especially disconcerting to hear PLP Chairman Fred Mitchell, a man who knew Rolle better and longer than most, using the occasion of his capacitylimited funeral to lob cheap political shots.

It boggled the mind to hear him castigate the Prime Minister for refusing to allow an exemption to the social gathering protocols to enable a packed church and crowded graveside of mourners for Rolle.

This is the same Mitchell whose party leader successfully recovered from Covid. There are other Bahamians still recovering from Covid.

No matter what Covid policy the government promulgates, Mitchell is against it before the Prime Minister announces it.

Mitchell had an unlikely ally in his metaphorical foxhole. He associated himself with the strangest of bedfellows, his arch nemesis Hubert Ingraham who, for reasons known only to himself, castigated Rolle’s Covid-driven funeral restrictions.

Always one to telegraph his politics in Bletchley Park level Morse code, Ingraham didn’t have to poke the wasp nest at this time. But “stickand-move” is a dance he knows well, and Mitchell just couldn’t resist cavorting in Ingraham’s scrap gang.

A PLP-turned-FNMturned-PLP Mitchell has a long love-hate relationship with the former FNM Prime Minister who rescued him from political purgatory in 1992 putting him in frontline

politics for the first time as a senator.

The current Prime Minister was widely criticised for relaxing protocol to allow mourners to attend the funeral of Dr. Philip “Slimey” Thompson.

Although only a small number of mourners were allowed to attend, hundreds turned up at the church then joined a junkanoo rush-out to the graveyard and the burial.

It became a Covid superspreader event and yet another example to the Prime Minister that we don’t always do what we promise.

The rules to slow Covid are masks AND physical distancing but some Bahamians hear masks OR physical distancing.

While the loss in human life from Covid is incalculable, the financial burden we now assume for the hundreds of unexpected hospitalizations and potential at-home care for those victims of Covid will add tens of millions to the national budget deficit.

All Bahamians were called to sacrifice this year.

We all know someone who died this year and had less mourners at their funeral than a yard fowl has teeth.

Weddings were postponed.

Life events put on hold.

Increased funeral-going by politicians is an early indication that the election silly season is drawing near.

Some do it for the visibility from the living more so than to pay respect to the dead.

If Mitchell and others want to honour Darrell Rolle they should emulate his humility and take to heart the advice that the old-timers in Fresh Creek give to city-slickers from Nassau: Be sure to taste your words before you spit them out.

THE GRADUATE Nassau, November 8, 2020.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, November 9, 2020, PAGE 7

Oil dump suspects in court

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net TWO men accused of illegal oil dumping in the Barbary Beach area were arraigned in the Freeport Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

Richard Antonio Levy Jr, 25, of Hanna Hill, Eight Mile Rock; and Morrison Nelson, 26, of No 10 Tahiti Drive, Freeport, appeared in Court Three before Magistrate Charlton Smith.

They were represented by Attorney Carlson Shurland, who was assisted by Paco Deal.

The men were charged with discharging a hazardous substance in the environment contrary to the Environmental Planning and Protection Act. It is alleged that between January 2019 and October 2020, Mr Levy and Mr Nelson while being concerned together discharged a hazardous substance – oil – into the environment on Elton Lane at Barbary Beach.

Both men pleaded not guilty to the charges.

According to reports, on October 21, police became aware of a video circulating on social media regarding indiscriminate dumping of oil in the area of Barbary Beach and launched an investigation.

During the arraignment, Mr Shurland argued that the court did not have jurisdiction to charge his clients under the new Environmental Planning and Protection Act, which became statue law on December 2019, replacing the Environmental Protection Act. “If the matter is alleged to have happened January 2019 through December 2019 it falls under the Environmental Protection Act, and anything after December 2019 and October 2020 would fall under the new act, the Environmental Planning and Protection Act,” he said.

He also argued that in the particulars the period of time the offence is alleged to have occurred is too broad and does not provide his clients the ability for an

RICHARD Antonio Levy Jr, left, and Morrison Nelson outside court.

Photos: Vandyke Hepburn alibi. “The period of time is almost two years,” he argued.

Ashley Carroll of the Attorney General’s Office countered that the court does have jurisdiction to charge the accused men under the new act that replaced the old Act. On the issue raised by Mr Shurland concerning his client’s ability for alibi, she said that it was premature at this

BURGLAR JAILED FOR BAR BREAK-IN

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 38-YEAR-OLD man who broke into a bar and stole an assortment of items was sentenced to nine months in prison on Friday.

Police said Jimmy Thompson broke into Almond Tree Bar sometime between September 16 and 17 and stole $1,959 worth of items, including a Samsung TV, a laptop and several packs of Grabba Leaf.

He pleaded guilty to shop breaking and stealing during a hearing before Assistant Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain.

During his arraignment, he was charged alongside Brandon Glinton, who was accused of dishonestly receiving the Samsung TV around the time the device was reported stolen. He also admitted to the offence brought against him.

The prosecution said the complainant told police that someone had broken into the bar and stolen an assortment of items. As a result of the complaint, an investigation was launched.

This led to the arrest of both Thompson and Glinton who were subsequently charged with the offences.

When given an opportunity to speak, Thompson alleged he was beaten while in police custody. He claimed he was assaulted with a “rusty cutlass” and had a bag placed over his head. Thompson also told the magistrate he had a three-year-old daughter and was the sole caretaker of his household. The accused said his little girl hadn’t eaten for the week because he had been arrested on his way to the shop.

During his plea in mitigation, Glinton told Magistrate Swain he made a “terrible error in judgement” when he received the stolen television. He claimed his current work status was “barely maintaining his family” and said he only committed the offence after he saw an opportunity to get a TV for his son. He insisted he had no idea the device was stolen until officers came to his house that day.

As a result, after listening to their explanations, Magistrate Swain accepted the defendants’ guilty pleas and sentenced Thompson to nine months at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services. Glinton on the other hand was fined $500 or three months behind bars.

FINED $800 FOR BREAKING CHURCH WINDOW AND PASTORS’ WINDSHIELD

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 27-YEAR-OLD man who broke a church window and the windshield of a pastor’s car during a traffic dispute was fined $800 and ordered to pay for the property he damaged.

Courtney Thompson was accused of damaging one of the church windows of Ever Changing Lives Ministry and the windshield of the pastor’s car on November 2. The prosecution argued the accused also harmed another man at the time of the incident.

He pleaded guilty to one count each of damage and causing harm during a hearing before Assistant Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain on Friday.

The court heard Thompson had been involved in a traffic accident. At the time of the incident, an argument ensued and the accused attacked one of the other drivers involved. The

prosecution said Thompson threw bottles during the altercation, which resulted in the church window and car windshield being damaged.

During the arraignment, Thompson’s attorney told the magistrate his client had no previous convictions.

He also noted Thompson pleaded guilty at his first opportunity and insisted the accused was remorseful for his actions.

As a result, Magistrate Swain fined the accused $300 or 30 days in prison for causing damage. She also ordered him to reimburse the pastor for the broken church window and car windshield. Thompson was also fined another $500 or two months in prison for causing harm and ordered to compensate the man he attacked $500. Magistrate Swain said if he failed to compensate his victims he could risk spending an additional 30 days on remand for each count.

stage, and that the prosecution has a duty to bring evidence before the court during trial.

The prosecution did not object to bail. The men have no antecedents and are currently employed.

Magistrate Smith granted the men $4,000 bail with one surety.

The case was adjourned to February 2, 2021 in Court One.

MAN WHO THREATENED TO KILL GIVEN TWO MONTHS IN PRISON

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 41-year-old man who punched one man in the face and threatened to kill another man in two separate incidents was sentenced to two months in prison on Friday.

Police arrested Olando Miller after John and Karen Williams told officers Miller threatened to kill them on July 3.

During his arraignment before Assistant Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain, Miller was also accused of assaulting Cedric Johnson on November 4.

He denied threatening to kill Ms Williams four months ago, but pleaded guilty to threatening Mr Williams and assaulting Mr Johnson.

During the hearing, Miller told the magistrate he threatened to kill Mr Williams because they had a “little running on”. He also claimed he punched Mr Johnson in his mouth, because he had told him to stay off his farm but he wouldn’t listen.

After listening to his explanations, Magistrate Swain sentenced the defendant to two months in prison. Since Miller denied threatening Ms Williams, Magistrate Swain adjourned that matter for trial on January 19.

On Friday, another man appeared before the magistrate for a similar offence.

Emmanuel Knowles, 31, was accused of assaulting his girlfriend and damaging her vehicle on November 3.

The court heard when Knowles’ girlfriend came home around 9.15pm on the night in question, the defendant asked her where she had been. The prosecution said when Knowles’ girlfriend failed to respond, he beat her about her body in a jealous rage, and damaged her Honda Accord vehicle.

After pleading guilty to the offences, Knowles told Magistrate Swain his actions were a “crime of passion”. He claimed he had problems with his girlfriend coming home after curfew hours and had gotten agitated at that point in time.

He was subsequently fined $1,100 for the offences.

He was further ordered to compensate his girlfriend for her damaged car and assaulting her. If Knowles fails to pay the fines, he will spend three months in custody. Magistrate Swain also said if the defendant does not compensate his girlfriend, he could risk spending an additional 30 days on remand.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS

SOOTHING PLATITUDES WHICH SKIRT OVER REALITIES ISN’T GOING TO GET THE JOB DONE

By MALCOLM STRACHAN PRESIDENT-Elect Joe Biden’s path back to the White House is a story of

perseverance and triumph.

While Americans had no shortage of reasons to vote Biden, President Trump’s response to the coronavirus is likely what led to him losing the election in a close

race. Many pundits have discussed the early delay in responding to the pandemic in what looks to be the final nail in the coffin of Donald Trump’s political career.

Already making

Graveside Service For Mrs. Danielle Yvette McQueen, 51 will be held at Lake View Memorial Gardens, John F. Kennedy Drive, Nassau, The Bahamas on Thursday, 12th November, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. Officiating will be Father Glen C. Nixon.

Danielle is pre-deceased by her Dad, Wynton Augustus “Doc” Isaacs Sr. She is survived by her Three Children: Rayne and Christelle ‘Pinky’ McQueen, and Dante Fowler; One Granddaughter: Kayla McQueen; Mother: Yvonne Cecile Major-Isaacs; Four Brothers and their families: Wynton Jr. 'Dinty' - Joi, Tyson, Taiisha, Vincent, Whitney, Wynter and Skyy Isaacs; Deron and Ida - Soula Lightbourne, Tanya Gibson, Patricia Lockhart, Ossha Cleare, Alyssandra and Alexis Isaacs; Harold 'Dale' - Daren, Destiny, Savvy, Dyvine, Devin and Destyne Isaacs; Daryle 'Lumpy' and Dr. Dellareece - Darian (South Carolina, USA) and Daryle II Isaacs, Whitley Cargill; Aunts: Paulette Rolle, Kaye Arahna, Teddie Woods, Harolene Fernander-Walker, Christine and Carnetta Major; Uncles: Rex, Marcian 'Chuck' and Paul Major, Wellington Rolle, Donald Arahna; Cousins: Tanya Campbell and family, Dion James and family, Charlene and Allyson Major and family, Shalon Albury and family, Philip Humes and family, Delano Arahna and family, Okeva, Antonio and Antoine Rolle and family, Phylicia Hanna and family, Jamaal Major, Michelle Jones and family, Alicia Fernander and family, Cardello Major and family, Tamara Adderley and family, Magnol, Edgar Sr., Paulette, Gloren, and Maulese Walker, Sue Kemp, Edgar Walker Jr. and family, Frankie Walker and family, Nicola and Mark Walker, Ricardo Thompson, Derick, Dwayne and Vaughan Johnson, Margo Wilson, Suzette Sweeting and family, Shanelle and family, Phillip and Tara Kemp and family, Mark Campbell and family, Atura Campbell and family; Other Relatives and Friends: Patrice Huyler, Natasha Nouguez, Staff of MSC Shipping (Nassau and Freeport) especially her sisters Fredricka Smith, Lakeisha Roker and Paxton Fernander; the Women of Valor (Order of Eastern Stars) including Chantiqua Cooper, Carlisa Fowler, Talnesya Johnson, Malinda Brown, Tanarje Hunt, Lynette Johnson, Shiniqua Basden, Sheneece Ferguson, Shirley Evans, McRettina Johnson, Kishnell Cooper and Kay Bryant; SAC Class of 1986, Earl, Marici, and Jacinta Thompson and family, Chippingham family, Christopher McQueen, Matthew Fowler and family, Delarese Maycock, Crystal Knowles, Ghandi Levarity, Delarese Bowe, Karen Adderley, Dedrie Woods and family, and a host of other relatives, friends and acquaintances too numerous to mention. We apologize if your name was omitted as it was not intentional. Special Thanks to Ms. Ernestine Rolle of MSC Shipping, Nursing Officer Kaylor Douglas and the Staff Of PMH, Sr. TCN Jenniemae Stuart, Javaro Kemp and the Staff at Sweeting's Funeral Home, Father Glen Nixon and Members of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral.

COVID-19 his first order As millions of Ameriof business, Biden will be cans want to know what’s announcing his taskforce the first step towards healtoday. Certainly, whatever ing, with our survival plan he comes up with will intertwined with their vitalhave great implications for ity, we also want to know The Bahamas. where The Bahamas factors It makes sense that after in all of this. being the subject of mulCurrently, the focus here tiple travel advisories we is to reopen the economy would want to appear as and prevent the spread of if we have the coronavi- COVID-19. One of the rus under control with major frustrations with the the country reopened for government is the lack of business. widespread testing.

Last week, Minister of Wells’ predecessor, Dr Health Renward Wells’ Duane Sands, is a propotouting of the “rapid nent for widespread testing decline” in coronavirus and has not been shy about cases, however, is an over- criticising the government simplification of the facts. now that he is out of the A decrease in Cabinet.

And testing over the while some past few weeks Due to would say that is the reason for challenges in he is acting in his the decline. A our testing own self-interest, confirmed coroit doesn’t change navirus case is regime, the fact that it is as a result of many people true. someone testing who are Back in June, positive by way the Elizabeth of an RT-PCR asymptomatic MP said: “Let test. Due to chal- or have mild me say it catelenges in our symptoms gorically, without testing regime, a robust and conmany people never get sistent ability to who are asymp- tested. Add in test and definitomatic or have the financial tively screen, mild symptoms isolate and track, never get tested. hurdle of not if we take our Add in the finan- being able to eye off the ball cial hurdle of afford it, and and lessen our not being able to vigilance, we afford it, and we we understand can and should understand why why the health expect a second the health miniswave of COVIDminister is ter is soothing us 19 in The with platitudes. soothing Bahamas. If that However, he us with happens, I dread must also be even considercareful that we platitudes. ing the potential don’t get the economic peril.” wrong message.

If he only knew.

Playing politics with this And now, as the counvirus will be traumatic to try tries to climb out of an entire population. Just economic ruin swimming look at the vitriol people against the tide of a second developed for Trump this wave, it would seem the year alone. Last week, for government would like us four days straight, infec- all to feel good about where tions in the US exceeded we’re at. However, political the 130,000 mark. Based charades won’t do us any on their election results, good. We know the counthe odds would say that at try needs to open and we least 75 million Americans accept that. However, this believe President Trump’s “out of sight, out of mind” initial response to the virus approach to fighting this is squarely to blame. virus will be much more harmful in the long run if kept up. It has already done an enormous amount of damage to our economy and has drastically reduced our options as to how we get it up and running again.

Authors of a paper posted on the World Economic Forum’s website discussing the potential for universal testing to bring the pandemic to an end in a matter of months believe widespread screening is the key. It makes

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perfect sense. That said, it has been reported that it’s quite possible the government may be considering taking this step as they are apparently discussing the implementation of rapid immunodiagnostic salivabased tests. As these types of testing kits are a fraction of what it costs to have an RT-PCR tests conducted, this is something the government should be looking to adopt if the science supports it.

As cost has also been a major impediment to citizens getting tested until their condition is in a severe state, if the government was able to administer free testing of all citizens, we can benefit from a much more targeted approach.

Those who cannot afford to pay a few hundred dollars for a test are left in a precarious position. As a means of helping those citizens, it would have been good to see the government make steps to include COVID-19 testing in our national health insurance coverage as well. However, at the time of publication, coronavirus testing is not listed as being covered on their website.

Without a doubt, the lack of political will to ensure every Bahamian can be tested has been evident throughout this pandemic.

It has not stopped others from calling for it to happen. In addition to civil society, Opposition Leader Philip Davis has also been a staunch advocate for widespread testing, as he should be if he intends to find favour with the people heading into the next election in 2022. Going further, however, using his platform to present a case for how it could be done is what will move the needle.

Among our achievements, having the worst coronavirus response in the English-speaking Caribbean is one we’re certainly not proud of. Wells, a former athlete, should know that taking shortcuts isn’t the way to win against this pandemic. He was selected as Minnis’ man because the Prime Minister believes he can get the job done. To this end, rather than giving us platitudes, give us a plan for how we can test our people, isolate the infected, stop the spread and hold our ground until a vaccine becomes available.

Then, implement it.

After that - then would we have something to celebrate.

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

The American public has had its say and for the first time in a generation denied a sitting President a second term President Donald Trump’s tenure lasted just four years, but in that time he dragged policy on an array of key issues in a dramatic new direction.

Joe Biden’s victory presents an opportunity to reset the White House agenda and put it on a different course.Three scholars discuss what a Biden presidency may have in store in three key areas: race, the Supreme Court and foreign policy.

Racism, policing and Black Lives Matter protests

By Brian Purnell, Bowdoin College The next four years under a Biden administration will likely see improvements in racial justice. But to many, it will be a low bar to clear: President Donald Trump downplayed racist violence, egged on right-wing extremists and described Black Lives Matter as a “symbol of hate” during his four-year tenure.

Indeed, according to polls, most Americans agree that race relations have deteriorated under Trump.

Still, Biden is in some ways an unlikely President to advance a progressive racial agenda. In the 1970s, he opposed busing plans and stymied school desegregation efforts in Delaware, his home state. And in the mid-1990s he championed a federal Crime Bill that made incarceration rates for black people worse. He bungled the hearings that brought Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court by allowing Republican senators to dismiss Anita Hill’s damning testimony of Thomas’ sexual harassment and by failing to allow other black women to testify.

But that was then.

During the 2020 campaign, President-elect Biden consistently spoke about problems stemming from systemic racism. Many voters will be hoping his actions over the next four years must match his campaign words.

One area the Biden administration will surely address is policing and racial justice. The Justice Department can bring accountability to police reform by returning to practices the Obama administration put in place to monitor and reform police departments, such as the use of consent degrees.

More difficult reforms require redressing how mass incarceration caused widespread voter disenfranchisement in Black American and Latino communities.

“My administration will incentivize states to automatically restore voting rights for individuals convicted of felonies once they have served their sentences,” Biden told The Washington Post.

The killing of George Floyd earlier this year reinvigorated talk of addressing systemic racial discrimination through fundamental changes in how police departments hold officers accountable for misconduct and excessive force. It is unclear how far President-elect Biden will walk down this road. But evoking the words of the late civil rights icon and Congressman John Lewis, he at least suggested at the Democratic National Convention that America was ready to do the hard work of “rooting out systemic racism”.

Biden can help address how Americans think about and deal with unexamined racial biases through reversing the previous administration’s executive order banning anti-racism training and workshops. In so doing, Biden can build on psychological research on bias to make American workplaces, schools and government agencies equitable, just places.

Making progress fighting systemic racism will be a slow, uphill battle.

A more immediate benefit to communities of colour could come through Biden’s COVID-19 pandemic response – the Trump administration’s failure to stanch the spread of the coronavirus has led to deaths and economic consequences that have disproportionately fallen on racial and ethnic minorities.

On matters of race relations in the US, most Americans would agree the era of Trump saw the picture worsen. The good news for Biden as President is there is nowhere to go but up.

The Supreme Court Morgan Marietta, University of Massachusetts Lowell Despite the fact American voters have given Democrats control of the presidency, the conservative Supreme Court will continue to rule on the nature and extent of constitutional rights.

These liberties are considered by the court to be “beyond the reach of majorities,” meaning they are intended to be immune from the changing beliefs of the electorate.

However, appointees of Democrats and Republicans tend to have very different views on which rights the Constitution protects and which are left to majority rule.

The dominant judicial philosophy of the conservative majority – originalism – sees rights as powerful but limited. The protection of rights recognized explicitly by the Constitution, such as the freedoms of religion, speech and press and the freedom to bear arms, will likely grow stronger over the next four years. But the protection of expansive rights that the court has found in the phrase “due process of law” in the 14th Amendment, including privacy or reproductive rights, may well contract.

The Biden administration will probably not agree with the court’s future rulings on voting rights, gay rights, religious rights or the rights of non-citizens. Ditto for any rulings on abortion, guns, the death penalty and immigration. But there is little President-elect Biden can do to control the independent judiciary.

Unhappy with what a strong conservative majority on the court may do – including possibly overturning the Affordable Care Act – many Democrats have advocated radical approaches to altering what the court looks like and how it operates, though Biden himself has not stated a clear position.

Suggested options include term limits, adding a retirement age, stripping the jurisdiction of the court for specific federal legislation, or increasing the size of the court. This strategy is known historically as court packing.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg opposed expanding the court, telling NPR in 2019 that “if anything would make the court look partisan, it would be … one side saying, ‘When we’re in power, we’re going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to’.”

The Constitution does not establish the number of justices on the court, instead leaving that to Congress. The number has been set at nine since the 1800s, but Congress could pass a law expanding the number of justices to 11 or 13, creating two or four new seats.

However, this requires agreement by both houses of Congress.

The GOP seems likely to maintain a narrow control of the Senate. A 50/50 split is possible, but that won’t be clear until January when Georgia holds two run-off elections. Any of the proposed reforms of the court will be difficult, if not impossible, to pass under a divided Congress.

This leaves the Biden administration hoping for retirements that would gradually shift the ideological balance of the court.

INSIGHT

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020 PAGE 9

SO, NOW ALL THE SHOUTING’S OVER WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM BIDEN’S PRESIDENCY? One of the most likely may be Justice Clarence Thomas, who is 72 and the longest-serving member of the current court. Samuel Alito is 70 and Chief Justice John Roberts is 65. In other professions, that may sound like people soon to retire, but at the Supreme Court that is less likely. With the other three conservative justices in their 40s or 50s, the Biden administration may be fully at odds with the court for some time to come.

Foreign policy and defence Neta Crawford, Boston University President-elect Biden has signalled he will do three things to reset US foreign policy.

First, Biden will change the tone of US foreign relations. The Democratic Party platform called its section on military foreign policy “renewing American leadership” and emphasized diplomacy as a “tool of first resort”.

Biden seems to sincerely believe in diplomacy and is intent on repairing relations with US allies that have been damaged over the last four years. Conversely, while Trump was, some say, too friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him a “terrific person,” Biden will likely take a harder line with Russia, at least rhetorically.

This change in tone will also likely include rejoining some of the treaties and international agreements that the United States abandoned under the Trump administration. The most important of these include the Paris Climate

Agreement, which the US officially withdrew from on Nov. 4, and restoring funding to the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

If the US is to extend the New START nuclear weapons treaty, the arms control deal with Russia due to expire in February, the incoming Biden administration would likely have to work with the outgoing administration on an extension. Biden has also signalled a willingness to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal jettisoned by Trump, if and when the Iranians return to the limits on nuclear infrastructure imposed by the agreement.

Second, in contrast to the large increases in military spending under Trump, President-elect Biden may make modest cuts in the US military budget. Although he has said that cuts are not “inevitable” under his presidency, Biden has

hinted at a smaller military presence overseas and is likely to change some priorities at the Pentagon by, for instance, emphasizing high-tech weapons. If the Senate – which must ratify any treaties – flips to Democrats’ control, the Biden administration may take more ambitious steps in nuclear arms control by pursuing deeper cuts with Russia and ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Third, the Biden administration will likely continue some Bush, Obama and Trump foreign policy priorities. Specifically, while a Biden administration will seek to end the war in Afghanistan, the administration will keep a focus on defeating the Islamic State and al-Qaida. Biden has said that he would reduce the current 5,200 US forces in Afghanistan to 1,500-2,000 troops operating in the region in

a counterterrorism role.

The Biden administration is likely to continue the massive nuclear weapons modernization and air and naval equipment modernization programmes begun under the Obama administration and accelerated and expanded under Trump, if only because they are popular with members of Congress who see the jobs they provide in their states.

And like the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations, the Biden administration will prioritize the economic and military threats it believes are posed by China. But, consistent with its emphasis on diplomacy, the Biden administration will likely also work more to constrain China through diplomatic engagement and by working with US allies in the region.

• Originally published in theconversation.com

PAGE 8 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

Open doors after months of the Abaco Rebuild IT’S now over a year since Hurricane Dorian devastated Abaco and the long rebuilding programme began.

Here’s Insight’s latest update supplied by abacobuzz. com on what’s open for visitors and residents on the island.

HOPE TOWN, ELBOW CAY

Abaco Inn is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

242.816.1114 . Rooms and Villas are available to rent.

Cap’n Jack’s Closed.

Opening Date TBA. Hope Town Inn & Marina office@hopetownmarina.com) dockage is available for boats. Water is available on the dock and electricity. Mooring balls are also available. Opening date to be announced shortly.

Firefly Sunset Resort open for lunch and dinner.

2b/2b Villas are available with a three night minimum.

On Da Beach Bar & Grill open for Lunch and Dinner, Turtle Hill Villas are available for rent.

Willie’s Kitchen & Bar – open 242.802.5754 for breakfast, lunch and dinner Tiffany’s Treats Home open. 242-554-9830 Abaco Pure Water - call for delivery 242.475.0946 Ice and water Drinking water and Ice bags available for purchase at LVA, Willie’s, as well as Vernon’s Grocery.

Captain Plug’s Adventures (Stafford Patterson) 242.577.0273 – open Islandboy Excursions 242.808.1789, islandboyexcursions@gmail.com – open Cat’s Paw Boat Rental – 242.577.0517- open Hope Town Boat Charters - Hope Town Boat Charters - Call 242 577 7309 Lighthouse Marina Fuel Dock is Open Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday from 8:00am - 1:00pm Local Boy Fishing Charters - open G&L Ferry running 242.577.0611. Charter and schedule. .

Elbow Cay Cart Rentals – open Hope Town Cart Rentals – open Island Cart Rentals – open (242) 577-0317 info@ islandcartrentals.com Lighthouse Cart Rentals – open (242) 475-2625 rabby111482@yahoo.com Getaway Cart Rentals – open (242) 357-6672,

getawaycarts@yahoo.com Abaco Inn Gift Shop - open Hope Town Canvas hopetowncanvas@gmail. com Open, Bicycles available for rent

GREEN TURTLE CAY

Business Highlight: Bluff House, Tranquil Turtle Beach Bar to be open by Christmas and should have a couple of villas available for rent. Homeowners are using this opportunity to upgrade their beautiful 2and 3-bedroom villas with new furniture and appliances along with fixing the roofs and fresh paint. We will have the two 1 bedroom villas available by Christmas. The rebuild of the 40 slip marina was started and then halted in a mutual decision with Sunset Marine, which is doing the rebuild, and the ownership due to a strong looking hurricane season, but will resume by the 1st of November and to be open by early spring.

Green Turtle Club – fully open 443.912.5839

Harvey’s Island Grill – Harvey’s has no indoor dining for the foreseeable future. A small convenience store Turtley Convenient in their old dining area.

Leeward Yacht Club Green Turtle Cay, Abaco, Bahamas - for sale.

McIntosh’s Restaurant and Bakery open 8am -3pm serving breakfast and lunch.

Dinner is served from 5pm8pm. Open seven days a week.

Pineapple’s Bar & Grill Open every day for drinks and snacks Turtle Crawl Café open 242.727.4129 Arawak Adventures open island hoping or fishing charters 242.577,4394, dcfar821@gmail.com Brendal’s Dive Centre & Water Sports open D&P Cart Rentals- open for golf cart and bike rentals Green Turtle Cay Ferries- open Harbour View Cart Rentals - open Kool Karts- open Plymouth Rock Liquors and Café. Open Roberts Hardware – open Sea Side Cart Rentals

NOTICE TO SHAREHOLDERS

The Board of Directors of Finance Corporation of Bahamas Limited hereby notifies its Shareholders that a dividend payment of five cents (5 cents) per Ordinary share in respect of Q3 2020 results will be paid on 23rd November, 2020 to all Shareholders of record as at 16th November, 2020.

Corporate Secretary

®/™ Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under licence.

- open Sunset Marine and Boat Rental - open Sid’s Groceries - open The Thirsty Turtle - open 100% BPL power

GREAT GUANA CAY

Grabbers Bar, Grill – Dining, open Wed-Sunday, lunch and dinner, Call, and order: 242 365 5133 Nipper’s Beach Bar & Grill - rebuilding Orchid Bay Yacht Club and Marina is open for serving fuel Monday - Friday, 7am – 4pm and Saturdays 7am – 12pm. One dock is finished. Power is back on.

Marina office is open for ice, gift shop items, check out, etc. The restaurant opening date tba.

Mama’s Take Away local Bahamian Food, open, call to order: 242 475 1007, 242 813 8981 Dive Guana – open Donna’s Golf Cart Rentals - open 242-577-4283 Fig Tree Wine & Spirits - Open Monday -Saturday 6am-4pm Guana Cay Grocery Store Open Monday – Saturday 8:30 am – 5:30 pm Cracker P’s For Sale Down Deep Fishing Charters – open Lubbers Bakery – open Lubbers Landing - slowly coming back Laurie Schreiner Real Estate Professional- open.

MARSH HARBOUR

Abaco Beach Resort – fully open Calypso Hills Hideaways is open, hotel, restaurant and car rentals.

Island Breezes - open Color’s by the Sea - opens up at the end Nov. Outdoor, harbour side restaurant Greta’s Café –open, breakfast and lunch only, inside security at the Airport Jib Room - open - new dock, state of the art food truck Nancy’s Seaside Restaurant, Sandy Point open.

242.475.9413 Wally’s Restaurant reopening 2021 Abacays-Carib-Freight Inter-Island Freight Service connecting the mainland of Abaco and the Cays.

Abaco Gas 242.551.5248 Abaco Groceries is open 242.577.2014 or 242.577.1260 Abaco Hardware is open Abaco Neem products available! order online Abaco Signs, Printing, &

Embroidery is open Abaco Shopping plaza, 15 units. Major anchor tenants 75 percent occupied back up generator. parking facilities hurricane impact windows and doors completion set for end November Abaco Island Pharmacy - open Abaco Health Services - open Agape Family Dental Centre is open. For appointments what’s app 242 825 3691 Aliv, Marsh Harbour - across from Abaco Hardware Batelco main road Maxwells plaza Bahamas Power and Light 9:30-3 call 242.302.1413 and 242.302.1516 BTC Maxwell’ plaza The Chemist Shoppe (prescription service) open in Maxwell’s Caribbean Veterinary Centre - Dr Hanna WhatsApp or call 242.821.3647 Commonwealth Bank Bahamas - sub branch at Maxwell’s Supermarket!

Cruise Abaco – Opened November 1 Frederick’s Agency is open, temporary location inside Maxwells, call 242 818 1011Maxwell’s Supermarket & Home Store Maxwell’s Supermarket & Home Store Integrated Medical Centre Monday - Saturday, 9am-3pm, Dr. Charite Jason’s Trucking - 242 359 6720 pick up and delivery service in Marsh Harbour Jimmy’s Wine and Spirits - Open Monday- Saturday 10am - 6pm 242-603-2629 M&R Electric 242.475.1672 or 242.577.0313 serving all cays Paint Place - opening January 2021 REV CableBahamas subbranch at Maxwell’s, RBC mobile banking unit - government building , construction is beginning on a new state-of-the-art digitally-enabled branch to serve Marsh Harbour and communities in the Abacos.

Taxi Service: Peter Pratt 242 825 9325 Donna’s Taxi Service 242.475.7766 Taxi Service Fabian 242.477.5699

MAN-O-WAR

Café Hibiscus is open 3 days a week and will be back open full time

by Thanksgiving, phone number 242.825.8966 MOW Heritage Museum and Coffee Shop - coffee shop is open.

Albury’s Sail Shop - The sail shop is open in the temporary location across the street from the its original location - while the new sail shop is being rebuilt.

Joe’s Studio 242.577.0338 Joes studio is open - hours vary, but will open for customers at any time.

Russell’s Convenient Store – Open Monday - Saturday 9am to 3pm and 6pm to 8pm and Sundays are 5:30- 9pm.

MoW grocery, MoW hardware, and Edwin’s Boat Yard are all open and functioning normally, fuel sales available 3-5 pm daily x-sat/sun

NO NAME CAY

Big O’s 242.577.9008

is

open.

SOUTH ABACO

The Blackfly Lodge (Schooner Bay) is open for guests. For booking details please click or call June Russell 242.577.5577 The Sandpiper Inn statement: “The situation re the pandemic remains very uncertain and fluid with changes at the drop of a hat. This uncertainty has made it difficult to set a time of re-opening and as such we have decided not to reopen before February 1. 2021” Pete’s Pub & Gallery will open Friday, Saturday and Sunday mid November, Art show - December 19, save the date!

The Abaco Club on Winding Bay – currently only open to Members and Homeowners.

The Delphi Club - officially open as of November 1 - Call 242.577.1698 Oeisha‘s Resort, Sandy Point 242.577.0230. Rooms available.

Da Bush ‘N Da Beach, Nature Tours & Taxi Service .242 825 3427 or 242 829 3322

TREASURE CAY

Abaco Tours & Activities Bahama Beach Club projected re-opening date March 2021 Café Le Florence - open Treasure Cay Rubis Gas station is open Vehicle & Vessel Gas & Diesel Cold Beverages. Open daily 8am-4pm

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

INSIGHT

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020 PAGE 9

Democracy, not autocracy must prevail World View

By SIR RONALD SANDERS

DEMOCRACY, including free and fair elections, is under siege in the Western Hemisphere, including now in the United States. But the country that cries out for immediate vigilance is Bolivia.

Even though elections, held on October 18, gave overwhelming and convincing victory to the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) and its leader, Luis Arce, right wing groups have organised protests demanding that the results be annulled by military intervention. These protests are being encouraged by the interim government which remains in office until November 8.

The interim government was installed by the military when the October 2019 elections were overturned with the help of governments in North and South America opposed to former President Evo Morales’ socialist stance. These same governments funded and manned the OAS election observation mission and audit team that, questionably, pronounced the elections rigged.

In previous commentaries, I underlined the resentment of MAS by the light-skinned descendants of Europeans who back the Civic Community (CC) party that forms the interim government. MAS is mainly the party of the indigenous people.

The current protesters are being mobilised by the Santa Cruz civic committee (CCPSC), which was in the forefront of demonstrations insisting on the annulment of the October 2019 elections. The protestors might have secured more official support for their current protests were it not for the fact that, in light of the overwhelming victory of MAS and Luis Arce, the OAS and other electoral observation missions were constrained to declare the elections free and fair.

Nonetheless, the demonstrations are gathering steam, fortified by strikes called by the CCPSC on the eve of Arce’s swearing-in as President. The President of the CCPSC, Rómulo Calv, has planned “staggered strikes” to block roads and organise crowds of demonstrators.

Far-right groups have also engaged in violence and are openly demanding military intervention to overturn the elections and to abort Arce’s swearing-in.

On November 1, Arce called on the interim government to act against protesters demanding military intervention to prevent his inauguration. He was supported by the country’s Ombudsman, Nadia Cruz, who called for immediate legal action to be taken.

The calls were treated with scant regard, encouraging the organisation of even more protests.

It was indicative of the abuse of power in the OAS that a meeting of the body’s Permanent Council was summoned on November 5 to give the interim government’s foreign minister and her Ambassador to the OAS an opportunity to make political speeches that did not condemn the

violent demonstrations or the calls to overturn the election results.

Even more alarming was the support, expressed by some governments, for the interim regime and their justification for the annulment of last year’s elections.

The OAS meeting underscored that some governments in the Americas, including those claiming liberal credentials, remain insistent on undermining other governments that do not bend to their will. At the same time, governments that deserve condemnation for their autocratic actions, have escaped censure.

The silence of the OAS and many governments in the hemisphere about events in Bolivia is contributing to the undermining of democracy and democratic principles that they claim to uphold. The absence of condemnation of the acts of violence by groups demanding that legitimate elections be overturned, is causing the supporters of MAS to take action to protect themselves.

MAS supporters are mounting counter-protests.

Violent clashes have so far largely been avoided, but the death of a mining union leader, Orlando Gutiérrez, on 28 October, allegedly from injuries sustained in a beating by far-right protesters, has served to escalate turmoil.

The scene is being set for continuing unrest in Bolivia and for placing Luis Arce’s Presidency in jeopardy. The same governments that are now silent while the far-right groups in Bolivia incite and commit violence against the MAS and its indigenous supporters, will undoubtedly condemn him should he take action to stop them.

It remains doubtful where the military stands in all this. In the protests surrounding the 2019 elections, it did nothing to stop violent protests by the farright. In contrast, when MAS supporters protested the interim government’s continuous delay of promised elections, the police and army stood by while “shock groups”, organised by fascists, brutally attacked them. It has to be hoped that the military will stand by their constitutional duty.

Bolivia is blighted by the problem that has beset the countries of South America

YOUR

BOLIVIA’s new president Luis Arce, centre, and Vice President David Choquehuanca, left, stand on the balcony of the presidential palace on their inauguration day in La Paz, Bolivia, yesterday.

Photo: Jorge Mamani/AP for centuries, and that is the sense by a privileged elitist group that they are entitled to run the country for their own benefit, keeping their booted heel on the backs of the poor indigenous people.

Those elitist groups have traditionally formed lucrative alliances with foreign governments, corporations, and banks – all of which have exploited these countries, enriching, and empowering themselves.

It is time for democracy, the rule of law, and the rights of the majority, freely expressed in general elections, to triumph over autocracy and privileged interests. Bolivia’s elected President must not only be sworn-in, but his government should be given the chance to function democratically in the interest of all the people of Bolivia.

And governments in the Caribbean, which have emerged from the struggles of slavery and exploitation, should support democracy in Bolivia. History summons such Caribbean support.

• Responses and previous commentaries: www.sirronaldsanders.com

CHOICE FOR THE FAMILY WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/JOYFM1019

PAGE 8 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

COVID HAS PROVED IT - OBESITY IS PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE

By CATE VARNEY Clinician Physician, University of Virginia

THE COVID-19 pandemic has thrust the obesity epidemic once again into the spotlight, revealing that obesity is no longer a disease that harms just in the long run but one that can have acutely devastating effects. New studies and information confirm doctors’ suspicion that this virus takes advantage of a disease that the current US health care system is unable to get under control.

In most recent news, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 73 percent of nurses who have been hospitalized from COVID-19 had obesity. In addition, a recent study found obesity could interfere with the effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine.

I am an obesity specialist and clinical physician working on the front lines of obesity in primary care at the University of Virginia Health System. In the past, I often found myself warning my patients that obesity could take years off their life. Now, more than ever, this warning has become verifiable.

MORE DAMAGE THAN BELIEVED

Initially physicians believed that having obesity increased only your risk of getting sicker from COVID-19, not your chance of being infected in the first place. Now, newer analysis shows that not only does obesity increase your risk of being sicker and dying from COVID-19; obesity increases your risk of getting infected in the first place.

In March 2020, observational studies noted hypertension, diabetes and coronary artery disease as the most common other conditions – or co-morbidities – in patients with more severe COVID-19 disease.

But it was the editors of Obesity journal who first raised the alarm on April 1 this year that obesity would likely prove to be an independent risk factor for more severe effects of COVID-19 infection.

Additionally, two studies including nearly 10,000 patients have shown that patients who have both COVID-19 and obesity

have a higher risk of death at days 21 and 45 compared with patients with a normal body mass index, or BMI. And a study published in September reported higher rates of obesity in COVID-19 patients who are critically ill and require intubation.

It is becoming overwhelmingly evident from these studies and others that those with obesity are facing a clear and present danger.

STIGMA AND LACK OF UNDERSTANDING

Obesity is an interesting disease. It is one that many physicians talk about, often in frustration that their patients cannot prevent or reverse it with the oversimplified treatment plan that we have been taught in our initial training: “Eat less and exercise more”.

It is also a disease that causes problems physically, such as sleep apnea and joint pain. It also affects one’s mind and spirit due to

societal and medical professionals’ bias against those with obesity. It can even adversely affect the size of your pay cheque. Can you imagine the outcry if the headline read “Patients with high blood pressure earn less”?

We doctors and researchers have understood for quite some time the longterm consequences of excess weight and obesity.

We currently recognize that obesity is associated with at least 236 medical diagnoses, including 13 types of cancer.

Obesity can decrease one’s lifespan by up to eight years.

Despite knowing this, US physicians are not prepared to prevent and reverse obesity. In a recently published survey, only 10 percent of medical school deans and curriculum experts feel their students were “very prepared” in regards to obesity management. Half of the medical schools responded that expanding obesity education was a low priority or not a priority. An average of 10 hours total was reported as dedicated

to obesity education during their entire training in medical school.

And doctors sometimes don’t know how or when to prescribe medications for patients with obesity.

For example, eight FDAapproved weight loss medications are on the market, but only two percent of eligible patients receive prescriptions for them from their physicians.

WHAT GOES ON IN THE BODY

So, here we are, with a collision of the obesity epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. And a question I find patients asking me more and more: How does obesity create more severe disease and complication from COVID-19 infection?

There are many answers; let’s start with structure.

Excess adipose tissue, which stores fat, creates a mechanical compression in patients with obesity. This limits their ability to take in and completely release a full breath of air.

Breathing takes more work in a patient with obesity. It creates restrictive lung disease and, in the more serious cases, leads to hypoventilation syndrome which can cause a person to have too little oxygen in their blood.

And then there is function. Obesity results in an excess of adipose tissue, or what we colloquially call “fat”. Over the years, scientists have learned that adipose tissue is harmful in and of itself. One may say adipose tissue acts as an endocrine organ all its own. It releases multiple hormones and molecules that lead to a chronic state of inflammation in patients with obesity.

When the body is in a constant state of low-grade inflammation, it releases cytokines, proteins that fight inflammation. They keep the body on guard, simmering and ready to fight disease. That’s all well and good when they are kept in check by other systems and cells. When they are chronically released, however, an imbalance can

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occur that causes injury to the body. Think of it like a small but contained wildfire. It’s dangerous, but it’s not burning the entire forest.

COVID-19 causes the body to create another cytokine wildfire. When a person who is obese has COVID-19, two small cytokine wildfires come together, leading to the raging fire of inflammation that damages the lungs even more so than patients with normal BMI. Additionally, this chronic state of inflammation can lead to something called endothelial dysfunction. In this condition, instead of opening up, blood vessels close down and constrict, further decreasing oxygen to the tissues.

In addition, increased adipose tissue may have more ACE-2, the enzyme that allows the coronavirus to invade cells and begin to damage them. A recent study has shown an association of increased ACE-2 in adipose tissue rather than lung tissue. This finding further strengthens the hypothesis that obesity plays a major role in more serious COVID-19 infections. So in theory, if you have more adipose tissue, the virus can bind to and invade more cells, causing higher viral loads that stay around longer, which can make the infection more severe and prolong recovery.

ACE-2 can be helpful in counteracting inflammation, but if it otherwise bound to COVID-19, it cannot assist with this.

The novel SARS COVID-19 virus has forced the medical profession to face the reality that many US physicians inherently know. When it comes to prevention of chronic diseases such as obesity, the US health care system is not performing well. Many insurers reward physicians by meeting metrics of treating the effects of obesity rather than preventing it or treating the disease itself.

Physicians are reimbursed, for example, for helping patients with Type 2 diabetes to attain a certain A1C level, or a set blood pressure goal.

I believe it is time to educate physicians and provide them with resources to combat obesity. Physicians can no longer deny that obesity, one of the strongest predictors for COVID-19 and at least 236 other medical conditions, must become public enemy number one.

• Originally published on theconversation.com

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, November 9, 2020, PAGE 13

Biden wins - and gets to work on pandemic WILMINGTON, Delaware Associated Press DEMOCRAT Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States on Saturday and offered himself to the nation as a leader who “seeks not to divide, but to unify” a country gripped by a historic pandemic and a confluence of economic and social turmoil.

“I sought this office to restore the soul of America,” Biden said in a prime-time victory speech not far from his Delaware home, “and to make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home.”

Biden crossed the winning threshold of 270 Electoral College votes with a win in Pennsylvania.

His victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed processing.

Trump refused to concede, threatening further legal action on ballot counting. But Biden used his acceptance speech as an olive branch to those who did not vote for him, telling Trump voters that he understood their disappointment but adding, “Let’s give each other a chance.”

“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, to lower the temperature, to see each other again, to listen to each other again, to make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy,” he said. “We are not enemies. We are Americans.”

Biden, 77, staked his candidacy less on any distinctive political ideology than on galvanising a broad coalition of voters around the notion that Trump posed an existential threat to American democracy. The strategy, as well as an appeal to Americans fatigued by Trump’s disruptions and wanting a return

PRESIDENT-elect Joe Biden speaking on Saturday in Wilmington, Delaware.

Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP to a more traditional presi- bombastic, all-caps tweet in his administration. dency, proved effective and which he falsely declared, Biden named a former resulted in pivotal victories “I WON THE ELEC- surgeon general, Dr Vivek in Michigan and Wiscon- TION, GOT 71,000,000 Murthy, and a former Food sin as well as Pennsylvania, LEGAL VOTES.” Twitter and Drug Administraonetime Democratic bas- immediately flagged it as tion commissioner, David tions that had flipped to misleading.

Kessler, as co-chairs of a Trump has pointed to coronavirus working group Trump in 2016.

Biden’s victory was a delays in processing the set to get started, with other repudiation of Trump’s vote in some states to allege members expected to be divisive leadership and the with no evidence that there announced today. president-elect now inherits was fraud and to argue that Transition team officials a deeply polarised nation his rival was trying to seize said that also this week grappling with founda- power — an extraordinary Biden will launch his agency tional questions of racial charge by a sitting presi- review teams, the group of justice and economic fair- dent trying to sow doubt transition staffers that have ness while in the grips of a about a bedrock democratic access to key agencies in the virus that has killed more process. current administration to Trump is the first incum- ease the transfer of power. than 236,000 Americans and reshaped the norms of bent president to lose The teams will collect and reelection since Republican review information such as everyday life.

Nonetheless, Trump was George HW Bush in 1992. budgetary and staffing deciHe was golfing at his Vir- sions, pending regulations not giving up.

Departing from long- ginia country club when he and other work in progress standing democratic lost the race. from current staff at the President-elect Biden departments to help Biden’s tradition and signaling a yesterday he team prepare to transipotentially turbulent trans- signaled fer of power, he issued a plans to move quickly to tion. White House officials combative statement saying build out his government, would not comment on his campaign would take focusing first on the raging whether they would coopunspecified legal actions. pandemic that will likely erate with Biden’s team on And he followed up with a dominate the early days of the review.

“People want the country to move forward,” said Kate Bedingfield, Biden deputy campaign manager, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press, and see Biden and Vice Presidentelect Kamala Harris “have the opportunity to do the work, to get the virus under control and to get our economy back together.”

It’s unclear for now whether President Donald Trump and his administration will cooperate. He has yet to acknowledge Biden’s victory and has pledged to mount legal challenges in several closely contested states that decided the race.

Biden adviser Jen Psaki pressed for the Trumpappointed head of the General Services Administration to quickly recognize Biden as the presidentelect, which would free up money for the transition and clear the way for Biden’s team to begin putting in place the transition process at agencies.

“America’s national security and economic interests depend on the federal government signaling clearly and swiftly that the United States government will respect the will of the American people and engage in a smooth and peaceful transfer of power,” Psaki said in a Twitter posting.

A GSA official said yesterday that step had not been taken yet.

A bipartisan group of administration officials from the Barack Obama, George W Bush, and Bill Clinton administrations on Sunday called on the Trump administration to move forward “to immediately begin the post-election transition process”. “This was a hard-fought campaign, but history is replete with examples of presidents who emerged from such campaigns to graciously assist their successors,” members of the Center for Presidential Transition advisory board said in a statement.

HARRIS PAYS TRIBUTE TO BLACK WOMEN VICE PRESIDENTELECT Kamala Harris on Saturday paid tribute to the women, particularly Black women, whose shoulders she stands on as she shatters barriers that have kept mostly white men entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for more than two centuries.

“Tonight I reflect on their struggle, their determination and the strength of their vision to see what can be unburdened by what has been,” Harris said, wearing a white suit in tribute to women’s suffrage. She called it a testament to President-elect Joe Biden’s character that “he had the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country, and select a woman and his vice president.”

“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” Harris said in her first post-election address to the nation.

The 56-year-old California senator, also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency, represents the multiculturalism that defines America but is largely absent from Washington’s power centers. Her Black identity has allowed her to speak in personal terms in a year of reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism. As the highest-ranking woman ever elected in American government, her victory gives hope to women who were devastated by Hillary Clinton’s defeat four years ago.

Harris told little children to “dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourselves in a way that others may not simply because they’re never seen it before.” After Biden’s speech, she was joined on stage by her family, including her two grandnieces who wore white dresses.

Harris often framed her

candidacy as part of the legacy of pioneering Black women who came before her, including educator Mary McLeod Bethune, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and Rep Shirley Chisholm, the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s presidential nomination, in 1972.

She paid tribute to Black women “who are too often overlooked but so often prove they are the backbone of our democracy”.

Despite the excitement surrounding Harris, she and Biden face steep challenges, including a pandemic that has taken a disproportionate toll on people of color, and a series of police killings of Black Americans that have deepened racial tensions. Harris’ past work as a prosecutor has prompted skepticism among progressives and young voters who are looking to her to back sweeping institutional change.

VICE President-elect Kamala Harris speaks on Saturday in Wilmington, Delaware.

Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP

ALEX TREBEK

JEOPARDY HOST TREBEK DIES, AGED 80 LOS ANGELES Associated Press ALEX Trebek, who presided over the beloved quiz show “Jeopardy!” for more than 30 years with dapper charm and a touch of schoolmaster strictness, died Sunday. He was 80.

Trebek, who announced in 2019 that he had advanced pancreatic cancer, died at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by family and friends, “Jeopardy!” studio Sony said.

The Canadian-born host, who made a point of informing fans about his health directly, spoke in a calm, even tone as he revealed his illness and hope for a cure in a video posted March 6, 2019.

In the video, Trebek said he was joining the 50,000 other Americans who receive such a diagnosis each year and that he recognised that the prognosis was not encouraging.

But Trebek said he intended to fight it and keep working, even joking that he needed to beat the disease because his “Jeopardy!” contract ran for three more years. Less than a week later, he opened the show with a message acknowledging the outpouring of kind words and prayers he’d received.

“Thanks to the — believe it or not — hundreds of thousands of people who have sent in tweets, texts, emails, cards and letters wishing me well,” Trebek said. “I’m a lucky guy.”

ETA EXPECTED TO HIT FLORIDA AS HURRICANE HAVANA Associated Press A STRENGTHENING Tropical Storm Eta sliced across Cuba on Sunday and was aimed at the southern tip of Florida, where officials braced for a storm that could hit at hurricane force after leaving scores of dead and over 100 missing in Mexico and Central America.

The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said declared hurricane and storm surge warnings for the Keys from Ocean Reef to the Dry Tortugas, including Florida Bay, with the storm having been expected to reach that area by last night or early this morning.

Florida officials closed beaches, ports and COVID testing sites, shut down public transportation and urged residents to stay off the street. Several shelters also opened in Miami and the Florida Keys for residents in mobile homes and low lying areas.