11302023 NEWS AND SPORT

OBITUARIES THURSDAY $5.50 Bundle McCombos 6pc Nuggets McChicken McDouble

HIGH 80ºF LOW 71ºF

CARS! CARS!

The Tribune

CLASSIFIEDS TRADER

Established 1903

L AT E S T

N E W S

O N

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

Biggest And Best!

Volume: 121 No.8, November 30, 2023

THE PEOPLE’S PAPER: PRICE–$1

DEADLY OUTCOME WARNING OVER BAIL s @)F ) COULD TURN BACK TIME ) WOULDN T LET MY BROTHER GET BAIL s -ONITOR COMPANY DETAILS ALERT SYSTEM FOR POLICE OFlCERS s #ARLOS 2EID SAYS CURFEW STIPULATIONS NOT BEING ENFORCED

By EARYEL BOWLEG AND LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporters IF Carlisa Davis could rewind time, she wouldn’t let her older brother get bail.

Elvardo Deveaux was 19 when he allegedly killed a man on Maxwell Lane and 22 when he was fatally shot on Milton Street.

After two years on remand, he was released from prison on bail in 2020, excited to taste freedom and eager to see the daughter that came when he was locked up.

“He used to talk to her on the phone, but ain’t nothing like holding your own child in your hands,” Ms Davis SEE PAGE FIVE

A MAN on bail for murder was shot and killed in Nassau Village on November 15.

NYGARD COURT ACTION KILLED Funeral chief court win SALE OF $10M UNION WHARF in stolen auto loan case

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net PETER Nygard scuttled the $10m sale of a prominent Bay Street property that could play a vital role in downtown Nassau’s rebirth, a Supreme Court judge has revealed.

The fallen ex-Lyford Cay resident, who was earlier this month found guilty on four counts of sexual assault by a

Toronto jury, has effectively left Union Wharf’s owner, ‘holding the bag’ despite the trio being awarded a collective $567,019 in damages and costs over the affair, which they are now tasked with collecting despite that the one-time fashion mogul likely has zero assets left in The Bahamas following the seizure and disposal of his former Nygard Cay property.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A FUNERAL home principal has won a partial victory in her legal appeal over a case where Bank of The Bahamas extended a combined $74,000 in auto loans despite knowing one vehicle was stolen.

The Court of Appeal, in a unanimous verdict, ruled on Tuesday that Denalee

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

Penn-Mackey, Evergreen Mortuary’s principal, will not get extra time to challenge the initial Supreme Court verdict in favour of the BISX-listed institution because she has “no prospects of success” and the delay is “inexcusable”; however, the Court of Appeal was more receptive to reinstate her claim against the vehicle’s seller.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

PAGE 2, Thursday, November 30, 2023

THE TRIBUNE

Amendments to Anti-Doping in Sports Act to match international standards

By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter jrussell@tribunemedia.net REGULATIONS for athletes who want to use

prohibited substances for therapeutic reasons are being tightened under a new amendment to the AntiDoping in Sports Act. The goal is to bring the

law in line with international standards.

The Anti-Doping in Sports (Amendment) Bill 2023 changes several definitions concerning doping for

sports people and support personnel, defining which organisations are involved, such as the World Anti-Doping Agency.

It also reinforces

regulations on therapeutic uses for medicine and details the measures that athletes must take to ensure they meet international standards.

The bill says the Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) allows an athlete with a medical condition to use a prohibited substance or method only if the conditions set in the International Standard by the World AntiDoping Agency are met.

If an athlete were granted a TUE by their national antidoping organisation for the substance in question, and the exemption meets the criteria of the International Standard for exemptions, the International Federation is then required to recognise it.

The International Federation can also consider that the TUE doesn’t meet the criteria and refuse to recognise it. The federation must then notify the athlete and the athlete’s National AntiDoping Organisation about the reason for refusal.

“Where the Athlete does not already have a Therapeutic Use Exemption granted by their National Anti-Doping Organisation for the substance or method in question, the athlete must apply directly to the athlete’s International Federation for a Therapeutic Use Exemption as soon as the need arises,” The Anti-Doping in Sports (Amendment) Bill says.

The bill adds: “Where the International Federation grants the athlete’s application, it must notify not only the Athlete but also the Athlete’s National AntiDoping Organisation, and if the National Anti-Doping Organisation considers

that the Therapeutic Use Exemption does not meet the criteria set out in the International Standard for Therapeutic Use Exemptions, it has twenty-one days from such notification to refer the matter to World Anti-Doping Agency for review.”

However, if the National Anti-Doping Organisation does not refer the matter to the World Anti-Doping Agency for review, the Therapeutic Use Exemption granted by the International Federation becomes valid for national-level Competition.

The bill also stated the consequences of antidoping rule violations for athletes, including - disqualification, ineligibility, provisional suspension, financial consequences, and public disclosure.

Additionally, the bill defined tampering as “intentional conduct which subverts the doping control process.”

Tampering could be applicable if the athlete offers or accepts a bribe to perform or fails to perform an act, falsifies documents submitted to an anti-doping organisation or Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee or hearing panel, or any other similar intentional attempted interference with any aspect of doping control.

The amendment would prohibit the minister responsible for sports promotion and relations with sporting organisations from having any direct or indirect operational involvement in the management or operations of The Bahamas Anti-Doping Commission.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, November 30, 2023, PAGE 3

Hanna Martin: We’re trying very hard to make schools a safe environment “However, we will see what has to be done, what do we learn from this incident...”

MINISTER of Education Glenys Hanna Martin speaking in the House of Assembly yesterday.

Photo: Dante Carrer

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net AFTER a student stabbed another student on Tuesday, Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin said officials are

working “very hard to” create a “harmonious, synergistic environment for young people”.

“We have the police on the campus,” she said yesterday.

“Searches are conducted. I think students

cooperate in ensuring that there’s a safe environment. So we’re trying very hard. I think that when you consider we have 150 plus schools, we are managing the situation, I think as well as can be expected.”

“However, this incident has occurred, and we will now go back to see what has to be done, what do we learn from this incident that allows us to ensure safety as we move forward.”

Mrs Hanna Martin said

an 11th grade student stabbed a 16-year-old student near CR Walker Senior High School’s campus on Tuesday.

Police had reported that on Tuesday after 1pm, a 16-year-old student was attacked and stabbed by two

students, ages 17 and 15.

Officers from the Mobile Division arrested both suspects on the school’s premises. The victim sustained stab wounds to his lower back and is listed in stable condition.

Bahamas Bar supports Johnson’s leaked letter sent to Chief Justice

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Bar Association president came out in support of former Immigration Minister Elsworth Johnson after concerns Mr Johnson wrote to Chief Justice Ian Winder about a senior magistrate were leaked, allegedly prompting the judge to complain to the police.

Police then reportedly contacted Mr Johnson.

The Tribune understands that in a leaked October 6 letter to Chief Justice Winder, Mr Johnson discussed the findings of a 2020 Office of the Auditor General report on the Magistrate’s Court, which found irregularities and inconsistencies concerning two courts.

Reports about Mr Johnson’s letter later appeared on Bahamaspress.

During a press conference yesterday, Mr Parker said police became involved, allegedly after the magistrate complained to authorities.

Officers reportedly contacted Mr Johnson regarding his letter of complaint and invited him to a police station. He declined to go.

“This is not about inhibiting anyone who feels they

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

ELSWORTH JOHNSON are a victim of crime from making the appropriate representation to the appropriate authority,” Mr Parker said yesterday.

“Even though in this instance, as Mr Johnson indicated, he was not arrested, the very fact that a police officer picked up

a phone to call him about something demonstrates that they cognised something and acted upon it.

It is very important that police do their investigatory work and do not disturb private citizens in their ordinary lives before they come to a position that

there is something worth investigating.”

“It is integral to our system of justice that no

one feels intimidated in holding any officer of the court to account, be they an attorney, judicial officer, or a member of court staff.”

The 2020 auditor general report said: “Most notably, a counselling institution was used more than others for defendants who were granted conditional discharge and ordered to attend counselling at an institution of his choice for various offences.”

“Further to our interviews and information received from stakeholders, our findings revealed that they were not given options to choose the counselling institution of their choice.”

The report also noted cases where court clerks were collecting cash on behalf of a counselling institution, recommending that this cease.

It added that family members felt pressured to enrol, paying between $750 to $1500 at the end of the defendant’s court proceedings.

PAGE 4, Thursday, November 30, 2023

THE TRIBUNE

Judge to summon employer to court after claim that juror would be made to use vacation time during Gibson trial

Enjoy the Ease of Bank Top Ups How to Load a SandDollar Wallet with a Local Bank Transfer Log into your online banking account or mobile banking app and initiate a domestic payment or a transfer to another local bank.

Some banks will require you to first set up the wallet as a new payee or recipient.

Enter the wallet’s 12-digit top up address as the account number, and select Savings as the account type, Central Bank of The Bahamas as the bank and SandDollar as the branch.

The branch is sometimes displayed as SandDollar Top Up or Central Bank of The Bahamas SandDollar. The branch code or transit number used for SandDollar transfers is 12000.

Input the amount you want to send to the wallet, and complete the transfer.

If your bank offers more than one delivery option for transfers, do not select urgent or priority delivery. Local bank transfers to SandDollar wallets are processed through The Bahamas Automated Clearing House network and are processed within one business day.

Load a SandDollar wallet with a bank transfer at little to no cost!

Available on the original SandDollar wallet issued by the Central Bank and SunCash wallets only All other SandDollar-enabled wallets are expected to update their system for easy bank top ups soon.

Got Questions?

Contact Us. 302-9880 or sdau@centralbankbahamas.com

ADRIAN GIBSON

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net A SUPREME Court Judge has summoned a major employer to court for reportedly telling their employee, a sitting juror in Adrian Gibson’s corruption trial, that their time off for jury duty will count as vacation leave.

Justice Cheryl GrantThompson announced she would issue the summons to the employer during what was supposed to be the continuation of Gibson’s trial yesterday.

The judge said she was sending for an employer she did not name to emphasise that they can’t force an employee to use vacation leave while on jury duty, saying this would be “unacceptable”.

Gibson is on trial for allegedly failing to declare his interest in the WSC contracts awarded to various companies.

However, proceedings were cut short yesterday after the defence objected to a new witness being called to give testimony.

Mr Gibson and his co-accused –– Elwood

Donaldson Jr, Peaches Farquharson, Rashae Gibson, Joan Knowles and Jerome Missick –– face 98 charges altogether, including conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, fraud, receiving and money laundering.

Damian Gomez, KC, Murrio Ducille, KC, Bryan Bastian, Raphael Moxey, Christina Galanos, Ian Cargill and Donald Saunders represent the defendants.

Meanwhile, Cordell Frazier, Cashena Thompson, Karine MacVean and Rashied Edgecombe are the Crown’s prosecutors.

‘Mother’ Pratt exPected to return FROM LEAVE SOON AS DARLING FILLS IN

By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter jrussell@tribunemedia.net Government House has announced that Governor-General Cynthia “Mother” Pratt is on leave and is expected to return to her duty soon.

This announcement comes after incorrect posts circulated on social media saying Mrs Pratt

had been admitted to the hospital in the United States.

“It was today announced from Government House that Her Excellency The Most Honourable Cynthia A. Pratt, Governor-General is on leave and is currently in The Bahamas,” the Office of the Governor General said in a press statement on Tuesday.

“It is anticipated that she will return to duty shortly.

During Her Excellency’s leave, Ms Ruby Ann Darling was appointed as Deputy to the Governor-General.”

In September, Cynthia “Mother” Pratt was sworn in as the 12th Governor General of The Bahamas as she spoke of the need to “support the weak, and lift up the fallen”.

MAN ORDERED TO DRUG COUNSELLING AFTER GUILTY PLEA TO STEALING FROM HEART CENTRE

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net A MAN was ordered to attend drug counselling for six months after admitting to stealing a car battery outside the Bahamas Heart Centre last week.

Magistrate Algernon Allen, Jr, charged Ranardo Arana, 43, with stealing, damage, disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest.

Arana was accused of

stealing a $130 car battery from Celestine Dorsett while her vehicle was parked at the Bahamas Heart Centre on Collins Avenue on November 24.

In the process of removing the battery, Arana damaged the vehicle’s battery terminals.

Later that day, on Collins Avenue, Arana resisted arrest by PC 4459 Seymour for drunken behaviour.

After pleading guilty to the charges and

apologising for his actions, Arana admitted to being intoxicated at the time of his arrest and having a drinking problem.

In view of this, the magistrate granted him a conditional discharge, ordering him to attend a six month drug counselling course for alcohol abuse.

Should he fail to attend counselling, he will face a three-month prison term.

He is expected to return to court for a report on May 28, 2024.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, November 30, 2023, PAGE 5

Deadly outcome warning over bail from page one like holding your own child in your hands,” Ms Davis recalled in an interview.

Her brother had fears.

Would someone retaliate against him? Would he get a job with an ankle bracelet?

He was, Ms Davis said, compliant with his bail conditions, including his curfew, and often spent time with his daughter at night.

“It was so hard for her because before she goes to sleep, every night they would play, and that’s how she would fall asleep,” she said.

In June 2022, Mr Deveaux became part of one of the most significant crime statistics in The Bahamas: men killed while on bail for serious crimes.

Forty-two per cent of murder victims in 2023 fall in this category, according to Carlos Reid, a consultant in the Ministry of National Security. Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander has described bail for serious crimes as a death sentence.

Some relatives of people killed on bail have told The Tribune they don’t regret their role as sureties, insisting their loved ones should never be indefinitely deprived of their freedom, no matter the risks.

“For people out there who rush to say go on bail, ain’t nothing in the road for you,” said Ms Davis. “Just sit up and do your time because the minute you come out, you

might be coming out to your death and don’t even know.”

Yesterday, the House of Assembly passed legislation to increase the number of Supreme Court judges from 20 to 25, hoping to reduce the backlog of cases, which causes the delays that help so many get bail.

However, the rate at which people on bail are killed has also put the spotlight on the system that monitors them.

Mr Reid accused Metro Security Solution, the company providing the service, of being ineffective.

“The potential that the system has is not being maximised to a point where it can be used as a crime-fighting device,” he said on Tuesday.

“If the court is saying that they’re putting stipulations where they have a curfew, then why are they not being enforced?

“The police are saying that they can’t enforce it because they’re not getting notification from the monitoring company.”

Former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis also expressed concerns about the monitoring system in the House of Assembly yesterday, saying operators need better technology to detect tampering and ways to quickly alert authorities.

“I’ve been advised last week, and I don’t want to go into details, but a member who had an ankle bracelet was wandering all over the place, yet his bracelet showed that he was at home relaxing,”

ANKLE monitor device and its charger.

he said. “When the police checked, the bracelet was resting on the bureau in the young man’s home while he was all over doing whatever he chose to do.”

Despite the criticism, people are repeatedly charged in court for failing to charge their electronic monitoring devices or violating curfew.

Orion Bethell, president of Metro Security Solution, said the system is designed to automatically send SMS messages to police officers when someone breaches their bail.

“If somebody was to make any violation, whether it be curfew or whatever it is, we would get an alert in about 20 seconds, and what we will do is we will take that information and we will collect the evidence, pile it up in a report, and we will give that to the police,” he said.

“Let’s just say you broke curfew this morning. We will notify the police this morning.”

He said the company updates the Ministry of National Security every two days and 85 per cent of people wearing ankle bracelets comply with bail conditions.

He said sometimes – such as in the case of George Seymour, who was killed in August –– police fail to respond to their notifications.

He said Metro officials notified police that Seymour had broken his curfew but officers did not respond.

“I remember all these

ELVARDO DEVEAUX names because these are people who could have been alive if somebody could care enough to go do something,” he said.

“We had sent a report to the police on August 17 to say that George Seymour was breaking curfew. They did not take action. Three days later, he was killed at Charms nightclub, breaking curfew again.”

PAGE 6, Thursday, November 30, 2023

The Tribune Limited

THE TRIBUNE

PICTURE OF THE DAY

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

LEON E. H. DUPUCH,

Publisher/Editor 1903-1914

SIR ETIENNE DUPUCH,

Kt., O.B.E., K.M., K.C.S.G., (Hon.) LL.D., D.Litt .

Publisher/Editor 1919-1972 Contributing Editor 1972-1991

RT HON EILEEN DUPUCH CARRON,

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

Published daily Monday to Friday

Shirley & Deveaux Streets, Nassau, Bahamas N3207 TELEPHONES News & General Information Advertising Manager Circulation Department Nassau fax Freeport, Grand Bahama Freeport fax

(242) 322-2350 (242) 502-2394 (242) 502-2386 (242) 328-2398 (242)-352-6608 (242) 352-9348

WEBSITE, TWITTER & FACEBOOK www.tribune242.com

@tribune242

tribune news network

Concerning that Davis was shocked by IMF report WHEN Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis declared himself in yesterday’s Tribune to be “shocked” by a conclusion from the International Monetary Fund over the country’s deficit, it needs to be considered in light of how government actually works.

Mr Davis was asked by The Tribune about the news that the IMF had concluded that government spending would outpace revenue by about three times the amount forecast.

He said: “I’m shocked by that because they met with me and never raised those matters.”

Mr Davis added that he had been busy and was not aware of the IMF’s position – reported in The Tribune on Tuesday – until our reporter asked him about it on Tuesday night.

There are many things that are startling about this – but perhaps most notable is that routinely the IMF will send the report to the government before it is published.

Now, governments get many reports – but some get added to the stack and some have matters come screeching to a halt to deal with them. A report by the IMF on the state of the economy is not just something that will land on the Prime Minister’s desk for him to deal with at his leisure – it will be pored over across government, by the Ministry of Finance, by the Office of the Prime Minister.

Such a report contains endorsements and criticisms alike for policies – and it is never something to be ignored. It will also never be neglected by good reporters, so the government cannot hope that it will be passed by without notice.

Mr Davis might well be busy – but what about the rest of his advisers?

Surely someone might have noticed the hole poked in the government’s financial numbers and raised it to the attention of the rest of the administration.

If Mr Davis is not being disingenuous – and we have no reason to believe so – then what does that say for the team around him who did not point out the IMF’s conclusion if he was too busy to read it himself?

After all, the hole we are talking about is sizeable – a deficit of $380m rather than the $131m forecast. A couple hundred million here, a couple hundred million there and soon we’re talking real money.

Reports on matters such as this should be received with urgency and examined with diligence – so nothing should come as a surprise about it. Certainly, one would hope that the Prime Minister – who also carries the title of Minister of Finance – would not be blindsided by a reporter with apparently more knowledge on the issue.

One would think if that was the case then the Prime Minister would be raising questions with his advisers about what else he has not been briefed about – and what else might have been missed.

There is good news elsewhere in the economy – the recovery after COVID goes on, with the surge in tourist numbers showing no sign of abating.

But it is worrisome to think that the government’s hand is not as tightly on the tiller as it should be. If the IMF’s reports can somehow slip past scrutiny, what else is being lost in the mix?

A WORKER is seen decorating the Christmas Tree at Parliament Square yesterday.

Photo: Dante Carrer

DeSantis an existential threat?

EDITOR, The Tribune.

GOV. Ron DeSantis, while giving one of his weird incoherent campaign rants, threatened to “Flatten the Bahamas”.

He made this statement while attempting to compare the Commonwealth of the Bahamas to what is happening in Gaza.

“And I think to myself as Governor of Florida, if we had, if someone in the Bahamas was launching missiles into Fort Lauderdale, we would not accept that for a minute, we would go in and flatten them in no time certain”.

As a Bahamian citizen of the Bahamas, I find those words quite disturbing. It may appear to some that this small individual may have been speaking hypothetically, but having a good grasp on the character of the person he has convinced me. I understand there’s nothing hypothetical about them.

To speak such violent rhetoric about a nation of people whose history is woven throughout the history of America, is repulsive. Therefore, it is my moral responsibility to address what appears to be the mental sickness of Mr. DeSantis.

Mr. DeSantis: “The Racists no longer think you are a racist”; they’ve since become convinced. And, as the racist I accept you to be, I understand your words were coded language for how you view a predominantlydark skinned nation of

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net people, for which, you have no issue exterminating, if that power rested with you. Perhaps; it is descriptive language for how you view a people without considering the thousands of teenagers, toddlers, women, and babies that reside there.

It is a language spoken in arrogance by a bullish agent of the American government who assumes that he has the authority, due to his size, strength, and military apparatus to trample on those he considers to be weak. It is the language of one who considers himself tall, while others are on their knees. It is the language, Mr. DeSantis, of a devil speaking his quiet thoughts out loud.

Mr. DeSantis; with all of your ivy-league education, I understand your willingness to suppress knowledge and truth, because to accept things as they are would attempt to compel people, such as yourself, to change.

And, I’m aware of how comfortably-racist you are, with your stubborn unwillingness to become better. Therefore, for you, it defeats the purpose of even trying. However; if you knew your history, or study them, rather than banning them, you will learn that the people of the Bahamas, and the

wider Caribbean, had built the state of Florida for people like you to enjoy. Just as it was for the United States; from the labour of “Black” Caribbean bodies, the State of Florida came.

The people of the Bahamas are not the Ku Klux Klan, or any of the barbaric savage groups that are responsible for the destruction of humanity.

We are not a people that sit around plotting genocides of innocent people.

We share no disdain, or hatred, nor grudge for the people of Florida. Practically $0.85 cents of every tourist dollar that enters our shores, is returned to the economy of the State of Florida.

To imagine within your limited ability to think rationally, the Bahamas, with a total population of less than 400k people, with practically no military apparatus to wage war, waging war on a monstrous super power such as America, of which she is an ally, is grotesque at best.

But, more importantly, Ron, what does it say about a nation that takes great comfort in its willingness to commit genocide by “flattening” tiny harmless countries like the Bahamas?

That speaks volumes to the abhorrence of America as a nation than it says about you the person!

DENO P ELLIS Nassau, Bahamas November 30, 2023

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, November 30, 2023, PAGE 7

Quarterly inspections of prisons outlined in newly tabled Detention Regulation bill

By LETRE SWEETING Tribune Staff Reporter lsweeting@tribunemedia.net UNDER detention regulations tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday, a review committee would visit detention facilities quarterly to inspect premises, administrative procedures and the treatment of detainees, including food served, complaints made and requests.

The committee, to be comprised of no fewer than 10 people appointed every

three years by the immigration minister, would be required to investigate and report instances where force or restraint is used against a detainee.

Immigration Minister Alfred Sears tabled the regulations, noting the Detention Centre had been operational for almost 20 years without such rules.

The bill’s emergence coincides with a visit to this country from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which is assessing the detention situation here. The group will

HOUSE PASSES BILLS THAT LOOK TO IMPROVE THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

By LETRE SWEETING Tribune Staff Reporter lsweeting@tribunemedia.net THE House of Assembly passed a group of bills to improve the judicial system.

The bills would provide better remuneration and pension for judges and increase the number of judges from 20 to 25.

A court services council independent of the executive would be established, devolving power away from the central government.

Legislators argued the bills would improve operations and working conditions at all court levels.

The bills include amendments to the Supreme Court Act, the Judges Remuneration and Pensions Act, the Magistrates Act, the Coroners Act, and the Court of Appeal Act. The Court Services Bill was also passed.

The court services council would oversee administration and court services for the courts, appointing support staff, remitting payments and pensions to judicial officers and managing the council’s real and personal property investments.

The goal, Housing and Urban Renewal Minister Keith Bell said, is ensuring there is no interference or appearance of interference from the executive in court operations.

“Hardly a week goes by without some form of criticism being levied at the judicial processes in this country,” he said.

“Today, for the first time in our history, a Bahamian government is moving to essentially sever executive control over court facilities and management.

Currently, the government is responsible for the upkeep of court premises and other support services.

However, this has led to many challenging scenarios making the court appear dependent on the executive and legislative government.”

The council will be responsible for monitoring the Court of Appeal,

the Supreme Court, the Coroners Court and the Magistrates Court.

Mr Bell said increasing the number of judges will better support judicial officers.

“On the civil side, we have seen a number of landmark divorce cases and complex civil cases,” he said. “So these cases require more and more judicial time and has resulted in unacceptable delays. I am advised that trial dates before the Supreme Court are more than 12 months away. As a matter of fact, there’s one that’s been given in 2025.

That means that justices have no available dates next year.

“On the criminal side, serious offences are tried before the Supreme Court for decades. Both governments have recognized that the time required for matters to be determined by our criminal court is far too long. These delays have led to suspects being granted bail and the consequential cries from citizens against bail while ignoring the underlying issues which are associated with bail.

“Criminal cases must be tried in a more timely manner, or suspects will be entitled to bail. The only way to reduce the number of persons on bail is to increase the number of trials and convictions.”

The proposed Judges’ Remuneration and Pensions Amendment Bill 2023 would facilitate repayment or payment of pension and gratuity on qualified holders of judicial offices.

“The reality is, the salaries paid to our judicial officers do not correspond to requirements of the office, and successive governments have relied on appealing to the desire of persons to serve in order to fill appointments,” Mr Bell said. “While this strategy has been somewhat successful, it cannot be recommended for significant financial sacrifice to be a prerequisite to serve one’s country as a judicial officer.”

hold a press conference on December 8.

Mr Sears described the absence of regulations as a “critical omission which makes The Bahamas open to international criticism and potential legal challenges.”

“These regulations will also govern procedures at the family detention centres for women and children,” he said.

“For the first time, detainees will be given a written manual in their own language that will outline the rights to be

enforced and the responsibilities to be taken by detainees throughout their stay. Interpreters are provided for detainees to facilitate proceedings.”

Mr Sears claimed even though detention centres have lacked regulations, the facilities have been running humanely and properly.

The regulations mandate that officers operate in the best possible way where children are concerned and not form close personal relationships with detainees. Use of reasonable

physical force should only be permitted in cases of self-harm, prevention of destruction of property or escape.

Furthermore, no individual should be admitted for detention without proper orders issued, such as a removal order, a detention order, a deportation order, a warrant of arrest, or other legal authority indicating grounds for detention.

Detainees can retain all their personal belongings except cash, electronics, and other valuables, which must be confiscated for

safekeeping.

Detainees must take a bath, and a same-sex officer must be present. Detainees are also entitled to three nutritious and edible meals daily at regular intervals.

Concessions for religion and education should be available.

Mr Sears said in the future, his ministry would critically review the standard operating procedural manuals for each unit within the Department of Immigration, starting with enforcement and investigation.

PAGE 8, Thursday, November 30, 2023

THE TRIBUNE

ACCUSED OF MURDER DURING Henry Kissinger, secretary MAN ARMED ROBBERY LOSES BAIL APPEAL of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford, dies at 100

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN accused of killing someone during an armed robbery earlier this year had his latest bail application rejected by the Court of Appeal.

Leroy Estime, 27, made an extension of time application to appeal his bail

WASHINGTON Associated Press FORMER Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravelly voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, his consulting firm said. He was 100.

With his gruff yet commanding presence and behind-the-scenes manipulation of power, Kissinger exerted uncommon influence on global affairs under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, earning both vilification and the Nobel Peace Prize. Decades later, his name still provoked impassioned debate over foreign policy landmarks long past.

Kissinger’s power grew during the turmoil of Watergate, when the politically attuned diplomat assumed a role akin to co-president to the weakened Nixon.

A Jew who fled Nazi Germany with his family in his teens, Kissinger in his later years cultivated the reputation of respected statesman, giving speeches, offering advice to Republicans and Democrats alike and managing a global consulting business. He turned up in President Donald Trump’s White House on multiple occasions. But Nixon-era documents and tapes, as they trickled out over the years, brought revelations — many in Kissinger’s own words — that sometimes cast him in a harsh light.

Never without his detractors, Kissinger after he left government was dogged by critics who argued that he should be called to account for his policies on Southeast Asia and support of

denial.

Estime is charged with murder and attempted armed robbery. He, and an accomplice, is accused of killing 38-year-old Escaniel Doudou in a botched robbery on February 25.

Ciji Smith-Curry represented the accused.

After rejecting his bail extension appeal, Justice Barnett told the defendant

he was within his rights to reapply for bail before the Supreme Court. However if he is once again denied bail, Estime was informed that he could appeal the decision within the statutory period.

Until bail is granted, Estime will remain on remand at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

MAN GRANTED BAIL AFTER ALLEGEDLY BEING FOUND IN POSSESSION OF SUBMACHINE GUN

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE HENRY KISSINGER repressive regimes in Latin America.

For eight restless years — first as national security adviser, later as secretary of state, and for a time in the middle holding both titles — Kissinger ranged across the breadth of major foreign policy issues. He conducted the first “shuttle diplomacy” in the quest for Middle East peace. He used secret channels to pursue ties between the United States and China, ending decades of isolation and mutual hostility.

He initiated the Paris negotiations that ultimately provided a face-saving means — a “decent interval,” he called it — to get the United States out of a costly war in Vietnam. Two years later, Saigon fell to the communists.

And he pursued a policy of detente with the Soviet Union that led to arms control agreements and raised the possibility that the tensions of the Cold War and its nuclear threat did not have to last forever.

At age 99, he was still out on tour for his book on leadership. Asked in July 2022 interview with ABC whether he wished he could take back any of his decisions, Kissinger demurred, saying: “I’ve been thinking about

these problems all my life.

It’s my hobby as well as my occupation. And so the recommendations I made were the best of which I was then capable.”

Even then, he had mixed thoughts on Nixon’s record, saying “his foreign policy has held up and he was quite effective in domestic policy” while allowing that the disgraced president had “permitted himself to be involved in a number of steps that were inappropriate for a president.”

As Kissinger turned 100 in May 2023, his son David wrote in The Washington Post that his father’s centenary “might have an air of inevitability for anyone familiar with his force of character and love of historical symbolism. Not only has he outlived most of his peers, eminent detractors and students, but he has also remained indefatigably active throughout his 90s.”

Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born in the Bavarian city of Fuerth on May 27, 1923, the son of a schoolteacher.

His family left Nazi Germany in 1938 and settled in Manhattan, where Heinz changed his name to Henry.

Kissinger had two children, Elizabeth and David, from his first marriage.

A MAN was granted bail yesterday after he was accused of being found with a loaded submachine gun in his home last week.

Magistrate Lennox

Coleby charged Orlando Jermaine, 33, with possession of a prohibited weapon and possession of ammunition with intent to supply.

Officers reportedly arrested Jermaine at his residence on Darling Lane on the afternoon of

November 26 after police found a black Mac-10 submachine gun and 26 rounds of 9mm ammunition.

After entering a notguilty plea to the charges, his bail was set at $9,500 with one surety.

Jermaine’s trial in this matter is set for January 24.

BAIL GRANTED TO MAN WHO WAS ACCUSED OF INJURING WOMAN DURING A DOMESTIC DISPUTE

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net A MAN was granted bail yesterday after he allegedly injured a woman during a domestic dispute last week.

Magistrate Raquel Whyms charged Nathaniel

Ferguson, 29, with causing harm.

Ferguson is accused of injuring Latoya Smith during a fight at his residence on Rosalind Street on November 21.

Following his not-guilty plea, he was granted $1,500 bail with one or two

sureties. Under the conditions of his bail, Ferguson must sign in at the Nassau Street Police Station every Monday. The magistrate further warned him not to interfere with the complainant or witnesses.

Ferguson’s trial begins on February 2, 2024.

A fitting memorial for the Jubilee?

PAGE 10, Thursday, November 30, 2023

BUILDINGS and monuments are more than physical structures. They may also serve as memorials, as extensions of the soul, as commemorative landscapes recalling certain events and histories, summoning new generations to inscribe their stories on a living tradition or history.

St Anselm’s Parish in Fox Hill, is one of the more beautiful and well-designed churches in the modern Bahamas. Bathed in mystical and natural light and a Bahamas ethos, it is suffused with the lifeblood of salvation history, Scripture, and the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Community.

It blends that community’s traditions with Bahamian symbols. St Anselm’s website instructs: “The placement of blue green tiles around the church’s interior represents

the waters which connect our islands. These waters unite us with the world and with our ancestors’ pathways to The Bahamas. The navy

THE TRIBUNE

to aquamarine represents movement from darkness to light. Water is the primary symbol used in the Baptism.

“The baptismal font, ambry, altar, ambo and the tabernacle’s base are made of natural materials, including marble, conch shells, and whelks. The shells represent ‘discarded’ individuals – the elderly, sick, addicts and others – whom we overlook and who are able to contribute as well as transform their lives and the lives of others.

“The yellow, gold and cream color rs and wood trims represent the sun and Jesus’s declaration that He is the Light of the world. Sand is represented by the beige walls and tiles, as well as the pink marble tiles.”

Designed and crafted by Antonius Roberts, the crucifix, comprising the corpus mounted on the cross, is

ST ANSELM’S PARISH - FOX HILL suspended in midair at the center of the church, above the altar, the focal point of worship.

The Jesus Christ figure is Afrocentric, his extended arms welcoming all. The cross is made of woman’s tongue tree, the body of Madeira, and the insignia INRI, is made from a piece of left over lignum vitae (tree of life) used to make a staff for Pope Saint John Paul II when he visited The Bahamas.

The new worship space is octagonal, the Biblical number representing eternity, “the new creation, and of Christ leading His people to eternal life.” There is a seamless blend of the old and new sacred spaces.

In 1933, the cornerstone was laid for the first church built on the existing property.

Two years later, in 1935, the church building was consecrated. Ninety years later, this Roman Catholic community of faith continues its witness as a part of Bahamian history.

Why is St Anselm’s such a beautiful space? What lessons can other churches and public authorities learn from its design and construction?

What lessons can we learn about passing on our history through our built heritage?

The conceptualization and realisation of St Anselm’s took several years of prayerful discernment, parish input and consensus, consideration of various design elements, and the diversity of gifts of members of the parish.

It was not rushed. It was meticulously and lovingly brought to life with tremendous detailed work, conceptually and materially.

It involved a process of mindfull deliberation.

Leadership and vision were required. It came in the person of the late Monsignor Preston Moss, who was deeply imbued with a sense of our shared indigenous roots and the indwelling of his Christian faith and Roman Catholic spirit.

Monsignor Moss fashioned a team that included Bahamian and international design talent. It was a collective mission born of gifts in areas such as liturgy, church architecture, construction, visual artistry, engineering, fundraising and others.

Leadership, vision, humility, team work, a sense of history, curiosity, ingenuity, and boldness of spirit were admixed and poured into the structure along with other concrete material that will withstand hurricanes and other tests of time and

history.

It is a template we might emulate to create new state structures including a 50th anniversary of independence monument. Can our leaders summon such desire, imagination and will?

In 1943, Sir Winston Churchill spoke in the House of Commons on replacing the bombed-out Commons chamber. He averred: “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us. Having dwelt and served for more than 40 years in the late Chamber, and having derived very great pleasure and advantage therefrom, I, naturally, should like to see it restored in all essentials to its old form, convenience and dignity.”

Churchill was a racist and an imperialist. He had little regard, and indeed contempt, for those colonised by the British. But he had a clear and articulate sense of what it meant to be English and, at times, British, though the two identities are not necessarily synonymous.

He appreciated how state buildings, public monuments and other structures mold public consciousness and history, infusing successive generations with meaning and a sense of place and purpose. The grandeur of such structures help to build and to inspire a people.

After nearly 300 years of parliamentary government, though not full democracy; approaching 60 years of majority rule; and after 50 years as a sovereign country, we have failed to erect a modern parliamentary complex. Recall, we are the third oldest parliamentary system in the hemisphere.

This is not solely an indictment of our political leadership. It equally represents a collective and tragic failure of our public consciousness and sense of nationhood. While we often boast of being Bahamian, it is too often an empty and bogus bravado.

Many of our elite, including political leaders, appear to lack a deeper sense of national identity. There is a poverty of imagination that stalks the country.

There is a profound emptiness and lack in many at this 50th anniversary of independence. Many were content with parties and festivities but do not ache or groan for something more substantial to commemorate this milestone.

For many years, the Central Bank has wanted to relocate from its present site,

the cornerstone of which was laid in 1973. Despite a national competition for the design of a new complex, resulting in an impressive and modern sand dollar design, and despite the completion of various contracts and other works, the project has been halted.

Next door to where the new bank would have been erected, helping to beautify and enliven the City, the United States has almost completed a new embassy.

We should be embarrassed that a foreign government is erecting such a complex, while we have failed to build any major new state buildings downtown such as a supreme court, parliament, cabinet office or central bank complex. But most of us are indifferent and unmoved by this glaring failure.

We are content and apathetic because we lack a sense of deeper nationhood and history. We do not have a lack of resources required to build such edifices. We have a deep-seated lack of purpose, which is inimical to democratic flourishing.

The late Robert Maynard Hutchins was an education philosopher and served as Dean of Yale Law School and later as President and Chancellor of the prestigious University of Chicago.

He issued this warning about democracy: “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”

It appears that many in political leadership do not truly understand and value our history beyond using it for tactical gain and rhetorical flourish.

Did no one in the Cabinet or others involved at the highest levels of planning consider the need to commemorate or memorialise the 50th anniversary beyond certain festivities?

What about renaming New Providence Highway, or another thoroughfare, Jubilee Highway? What about an oral history project for the Jubilee? What about releasing a new three dollar bill decorated with works from Bahamian artists as commemorative souvenirs? What about a sculpture placed on the grounds of Government House?

We still have time if there is the desire to create a monument. A proposal: As have other countries, we should launch a public competition to create a Jubilee memorial.

An independent commission or entity should vet proposals and issue contracts so that any such monument is free of unnecessary political entanglements and related issues that bog down and bloat government projects and contracts.

How likely are we to create such a public monument? We will see. The failure or ability to erect such a monument will be a test of who we are at this 50th anniversary of independence. The proverbial jury of history is out. One wonders what verdict will be rendered by future generations if we fail.

Polls showing young and black voters may abandon Democrats THE TRIBUNE

“OH my God!” a veteran pundit exclaimed. “Look at this!” She pointed to a recent copy of the New York Times with the following headline: “Why Biden’s weakness among young voters should be taken seriously.”

In this and other recent media articles, journalists and commentators have often returned to the theme that while young voters are very often liberal and support Democrats, there is apprehension in party ranks that in 2024 these recently enfranchised voters will abandon Biden and stay away from the polls.

It’s just one of many trends that should concern Biden.

Recent public opinion polling does show that there are several reasons for the president’s falling status with young voters. Among them are his advanced age; his hardline stance on the Hamas-Israeli War; higher consumer prices, and his really, really long tenure as an elected official in the federal government.

Maybe the polls aren’t asking questions in a way that makes starkly clear the alternative to voting for Biden. Maybe opinion samplers don’t inquire if young voters have been listening to Donald Trump’s plans for a second presidential administration. Or maybe the risk is real. Perhaps many voters feel that both candidates are flawed, and that exercising their right to vote is too much trouble, not worth their time.

And it isn’t just young people among traditional Democratic constituency groups who are showing

Thursday, November 30, 2023, PAGE 11

STATESIDE with Charlie Harper signs of indifference. Consider another recent headline, this time from the Washington Post: “Trump needs just one thing from black voters next year.”

That thing would be for them to not vote at all.

The author of that commentary postulates that one of the most traditionally loyal blue voting blocs in the country may also be considering simply staying home next November. African-Americans arguably gave a much-needed, even essential, boost to then-candidate Joe Biden’s flagging campaign in the South Carolina presidential primary in 2020; now, recent surveys suggest they may be less enthused this time around.

In support of this thesis, the columnist cites the following data: “In 2016, black voter turnout in a presidential election declined for the first time in 20 years. At 59.6 percent, it was seven percentage points below the 2012 level, the highest decline ever recorded for black voter participation in a presidential election.”

It is true that in 2012, voters returned Barack Obama to office for a second term. His ethnicity certainly drove the black vote in America.

But four years later, the Democratic candidate was

Hillary Clinton. She was regarded as a friend of African-Americans and their interests. She was also the wife of Bill Clinton, often dubbed “the first black president” because of his strong, consistent cultural and political affiliation with African-Americans and support of issues that were important to them.

Still, it can be argued that Hillary Clinton would have won election in 2016 if black Americans had turned out as they had four years earlier, especially in battleground states that swung the election for Trump.

Here are the numbers.

Trump carried Michigan by 11,000 votes in 2016.

277,000 black voters did not cast their ballot. Trump won in Wisconsin by a margin of 27,000 votes. 93,000 black voters stayed home.

Trump won by 200,000 votes in Georgia, but over 530,000 African-American registered voters didn’t participate in the election. And in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, the number of absentee black voters easily surpassed the margin by which Trump prevailed.

It’s early in this election cycle. Things can, and always do, change before Election Day. But the potential disinterest in and/or defection from

Biden’s re-election bid by black Americans and young voters is a big, worrisome sign for America’s incumbent chief executive.

Inflation and discouraging job prospects are almost certainly among the major factors in disengagement by these two vital Democratic constituencies.

These two critical groups likely won’t vote for Trump in any significant numbers.

That’s not so much the problem. The problem is that they may stay home and not vote at all, as evidently happened seven years ago.

In the aftermath of the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton was criticized for what appeared to be her electioneve complacency. Despite warning signs, she didn’t rush to states like Wisconsin in an effort to rally loyal supporters.

To his credit, Biden seems well aware of the threat to his re-election posed by the potential failure of young people and AfricanAmericans to go to the polls and vote. For example, the current administration’s dogged efforts to institute broader student loan forgiveness are obviously popular among recent graduates. And despite Biden’s failure to gain the authority to more broadly apply this policy, thousands of

PRESIDENT Joe Biden speaks to reporters on Nov. 26, 2023, in Nantucket, Mass. The Biden administration has told Israel that it must operate with far greater precision in southern Gaza if it renews a ground campaign aimed at eradicating the Hamas militant group.

Photo: Stephanie Scarbrough/AP younger voters have nonetheless benefited from the president’s determination.

That’s a pocketbook issue for newer voters, and it should encourage them to vote in November. But at the same time, while Biden has made many gestures to the black community such as moving up the South Carolina primary in the Democratic calendar for next year and successfully nominating black female candidates for vice-president and Supreme Court justice, stubbornly high prices for consumer goods seem to have blunted African-American enthusiasm for this administration.

Disaffection among key Democratic constituencies as a key factor in GOP electoral prospects for next year

is not lost on Republican strategists and operatives.

Efforts by Republicandominated state legislatures to restrict and suppress voting among minorities and younger voters were headline material all over the country in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

Those efforts haven’t ceased. And political mischief will now intensify as the election draws closer.

It’s long been an article of faith among American political commentators that if high numbers of voters across the political spectrum turn out to vote, Democratic candidates are most likely to benefit. Ensuring that happens might just be Biden’s biggest challenge in the next 12 months.

Political trends favour right wing leaders - a worry for Biden Meantime, there’s yet another worry for the beleaguered American president.

This concerns the possibility that political trends in Europe today are an indicator of what’s to come in the future for the United States. As Trump correctly boasted in 2016, Britain’s exit from the European Union (“Brexit”) did indeed foreshadow Trump’s own electoral triumph that year.

Recent election results in Europe suggest another shift to the right may be underway, and this also does not bode well for Biden and his Democratic allies.

The most recent example of Europe’s rightward drift came in the Netherlands, where an ultraconservative movement led by Geert Wilders finished first in recent parliamentary elections. Since the Dutch, like many sensible European

nations, benefit from a sometimes fractious but ultimately representative parliamentary system of government, Wilders will need to seek governing coalition partners, and that will dilute his overall influence.

But Wilders and his allies ran successfully on a stridently anti-European Union, anti-Muslim and broadly anti-immigration platform. And they are not the only recently successful political group to do so. The Dems in Washington worry that this trend will serve as prologue for Trump’s success, just as it did in 2016.

According to published analysis quoted by the mainstream press, such right-wing groups as Wilders’ have become significant political factors in most European Union nations, even when they are not in a position to lead a governing coalition.

Helping to drive this political success are factors

PARTY LEADER OF THE PARTY FOR FREEDOM GEERT WILDERS such as high inflation, surg- in Ukraine and the sense America for the Middle ing migration from the that the traditional political East and Africa, it’s easy to Middle East and Africa, ruling class has failed. see why Democratic stratethe ongoing ominous war If you substitute Central gists are concerned. These

are also among the most important causes for voter discontent in the US. Many readers will recognise the name of French National Party Marine Le Pen, who has already run for president of France three times and may well do so again in a couple of years. Her right-wing views on immigration have long garnered headlines, and there is some evidence that such views are becoming more “mainstream.”

Similarly, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni espouses many of the same policies that have proven popular in Holland and France – and she has been welcomed by Biden at the White House. Viktor Orban in Hungary represents a rougher version of similar policies. There have been reports that Swedish rightwingers are gaining traction in national politics there.

Biden would do well to pay close attention.

PAGE 12, Thursday, November 30, 2023

THE TRIBUNE

CONSERVATION GROUP CALLS ON GOVT TO JOIN TREATY TO STOP AND REDUCE USAGE OF FOSSIL FUELS

430

DE CE M BE R

HOLIDAY REBATES

20 23

SPEND SANDDOLLARS, GET SANDDOLLARS BACK SANDDOLLAR ACCEPTED HERE

A.I.D. (WULFF ROAD AND MALL AT MARATHON ONLY) BRISTOL WINES & SPIRITS COMMONWEALTH FABRICS CBS BAHAMAS (IN-STORE ONLY) DC TECHNOLOGY HIS FASHION FUSION SUPERPLEX SUPER VALUE SOLOMON’S AND FRESH MARKET SHAYNE’S THE SHOE DEPOT AND MORE! GRAND BAHAMA & FAMILY ISLAND MERCHANTS INCLUDED.

REDEEM YOUR REBATE ONLINE OR IN PERSON VIEW MORE INFORMATION AT WWW.SANDDOLLAR.BS/REBATE

RECEIPTS $50 OR MORE

$10 BACK RECEIPTS $100 OR MORE

$25 BACK

PROOF OF SANDDOLLAR PAYMENT REQUIRED (STORE RECEIPT AND DIGITAL WALLET TRANSACTION RECORD). PURCHASE MUST BE WITHIN THE LAST 30 DAYS. REBATES LIMITED TO FOUR PER CUSTOMER. ADDITIONAL RULES MAY APPLY.

CONSERVATION advocates are calling on the government of The Bahamas to join Pacific Island nations, as well as Antigua and Barbuda, among other jurisdictions, international entities and prominent individuals, in endorsing the initiative for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This petition comes as the Davis administration is representing the country at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference (COP28), beginning this week in Dubai. Our Islands, Our Future’s (OIOF) Chris Wilke and Rashema Ingraham are attending as well.

OIOF reiterated its praise for Mr Davis’ statement two years ago following COP26 that he was “not minded” to allow oil drilling in Bahamian waters. The group urged Mr Davis to announce his government’s endorsement of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative to the world before the end of COP28.

This global civil society initiative aims to stop fossil fuel exploration and expansion and urgently phase out existing production while supporting a just transition to renewable energy. Its objectives are in line with the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement.

The treaty has been endorsed by the Vatican, the World Health Organization, the European Parliament, Nobel laureates, academics, researchers, activists, and a growing list of governments and individual lawmakers.

Closer to home, Antigua and Barbuda is the first island nation in the region to endorse the treaty.

OIOF is a grassroots coalition advocating for a permanent ban on oil exploration activities in The

CLIFTON Pier power station which utilises HFO. Bahamas, urges The Bahamas government to endorse the treaty and claim a place at the forefront of this progressive conservation movement.

The coalition maintains that this leadership is in the best interest of The Bahamas in countering the existential threat of climate change to our islands and waters.

“The Davis administration has made several commendable commitments to environmental protection and resource conservation in the face of climate-driven threats to the local economy and our way of life,” noted Casuarina McKinney, Executive Director of BREEF, a founding member of OIOF. “It’s difficult to imagine a better way to solidify this dedication than by declaring support for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to protect our precious natural resources and preserve our coastal communities.”

Rashema Ingraham, of Waterkeepers Bahamas, another OIOF founding member, said: “This treaty is crucial for the future of The Bahamas, a coastal nation where the various threats from oil exploration and extraction could have a catastrophic impact. We have already seen this with

the terrible Equinor oil spill in Grand Bahama and the recent spill in Exuma. The country also dodged a serious bullet when a recent attempt to drill an offshore oil well failed. We call upon our government to do everything possible to ensure that such a situation never arises again.”

Chris Wilke, of Waterkeepers Alliance, also an OIOF founding member, noted that the treaty’s focus on renewable energy dovetails well with the government’s recent signing of an agreement with the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency for the development of an Integrated Resource and Resilience Plan to aid in the efficient integration of renewable energy across the country.

“OIOF commends the Davis administration for its climate leadership and commitment to renewable energy goals,” he said. “We believe the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty is the perfect next step, and we encourage the government of The Bahamas to take its rightful place among world leaders in protecting global waterways and communities from climate disaster.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, November 30, 2023, PAGE 13

Last planned release of hostages in Gaza begins, as mediators aim to extend Israel-Hamas truce GAZA STRIP Associated Press

INTERNATIONAL mediators on Wednesday worked to extend the truce in Gaza, encouraging Hamas militants to keep freeing hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and further relief from Israel’s air and ground offensive.

The cease-fire will otherwise end within a day.

Two Russian-Israeli women freed by Hamas entered Israel Wednesday evening, the military said.

The release was expected to be followed by the swap of 10 more hostages in Gaza for 30 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Israel has welcomed the release of dozens of hostages in recent days and says it will maintain the truce if Hamas keeps freeing captives. Still, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underscored on Wednesday that Israel will resume its campaign to eliminate Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for 16 years and orchestrated the deadly attack on Israel that triggered the war “After this phase of returning our abductees is exhausted, will Israel return to fighting? So my answer is an unequivocal yes,” he said. “There is no way we are not going back to fighting until the end.”

He spoke ahead of a visit to the region planned this week by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to press for further extensions of the truce and hostage releases.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops killed two Palestinian boys — an 8-year-old an a 15-year-old — during a raid on the town of Jenin, Palestinian health officials said. Security footage showed a group of boys in the street who start to run, except for one who falls to the ground, bleeding.

The Israeli military said its troops fired on people who threw explosives at them, but did not specify it was referring to the boys, who are not seen throwing anything. Separately, the military said its troops killed two Islamic Jihad militants during the raid.

Weeks of heavy bombardment and a ground invasion demolished vast swaths of Gaza and killed thousands of Palestinians.

But it seems to have had little effect on Hamas’ rule, evidenced by its ability to conduct complex negotiations, enforce the cease-fire among other armed groups, and orchestrate the release of hostages. Hamas leaders, including Yehya Sinwar, have likely relocated to the south.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are now crammed into southern Gaza, with some three-quarters of them driven from their homes. The truce has led to a frenzied rush to obtain supplies to feed their families as aid enters in greater, but still insufficient, amounts. Hanging over

PALESTINIAN children sell sweets in front of the rubble of a destroyed building in Jebaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, on the fifth day of the temporary ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.

Photo: Mohammed Hajjar/AP of Israeli troops nearby, everyone is the fear that differentiate between civil- resist.

A total of 63 Israelis, Mattar said. ians and combatants. fighting will soon resume.

The toll is likely much including dual nationals, An Israeli ground invaIn the south, the truce sion of the south will likely higher, as officials have only have been freed during the has allowed more aid to bring an escalating cost sporadically updated the six-day truce, most of whom be delivered from Egypt, in Palestinian lives and count since Nov. 11 due to appear physically well but up to 200 trucks a day. But destruction that the United the breakdown of services shaken. Another 20 hos- aid officials say it is not States, Israel’s main ally, in the north. The ministry tages — 19 Thais and one enough, given that most says thousands more people Filipino — have also been now depend on outside could be unwilling to bear.

The Biden administra- are missing and feared dead released. Before the cease- aid. Overwhelmed UN-run fire, Hamas released four shelters house more than 1 tion has told Israel that if it under the rubble.

Israel says 77 of its sol- hostages, and the Israeli million displaced people, launches an offensive in the south, it must operate with diers have been killed in the army rescued one. Two with many sleeping outground offensive. It claims others were found dead in side in cold, rainy weather. far greater precision.

“How far both sides will to have killed thousands of Gaza.

At a distribution centre So far, most of the in Rafah, large crowds line be prepared to go in trad- militants, without providing 180 Palestinians freed daily up for newly arrived ing hostages and prisoners evidence.

The plight of the cap- from Israeli prisons have bags of flour. But supplies for the pause is about to be tested, but the pres- tives and shock from the been teenagers accused run out quickly before sures and incentives for Oct. 7 attack have galva- of throwing stones and many can get their share. both to stick with it are at nized Israeli support for the firebombs during confron“We’ve been searchthe moment stronger than war. But Netanyahu is also tations with Israeli forces. ing for bread for our the incentives to go back under pressure to bring the Several were women con- children,” said one to war,” Martin Indyk, a hostages home and could victed by Israeli military woman in line, Nawal Abu former US ambassador to find it difficult to resume courts of attempting to Namous. “Every day, we the offensive if there’s a attack soldiers.

Israel, wrote on X. come here … we spend Palestinians have cele- money on transportaThe cease-fire is due to prospect for more releases.

Before Wednesday’s hos- brated the release of people tion to get here, just to go end at some point after tage releases, Israel said they see as having resisted home with nothing.”

Wednesday’s exchange.

Diaa Rashwan, head of around 160 hostages were Israel’s decades-long miliSome markets and shops Egypt’s state information still being held in Gaza — tary occupation of lands have reopened, but prices services, said negotiations 126 men and 35 women; they want for a future state. for the few items in stock For Palestinians in Gaza, have made progress and four under the age of 18, have skyrocketed. Winter that it is “highly likely” and 10 over the age of 75. the truce’s calm has been an extension will be Each side so far has been overwhelmed by the search clothes are unavailable. announced Wednesday. releasing women and chil- for aid and by horror as One clothes shop owner they see the extent of in Deir al-Balah told The Egypt, Qatar and the dren for the swaps.

Associated Press that he An Israeli official destruction.

U.S. have led mediation In the north, residents hates opening his doors in the original cease-fire involved in hostage negoand a two-day extension tiations said efforts were described entire residen- in the morning, knowing focused on a two-day truce tial blocks levelled to the he’ll spend most of the announced Monday.

The war began with extension for the release of ground in Gaza City and day apologizing to customHamas’ Oct. 7 attack into all remaining women and surrounding areas. The ers for not having winter smell of decomposing items. southern Israel, in which children held by Hamas.

The head of the World Until that happens, a fur- bodies trapped under colit killed over 1,200 people, Organization, mostly civilians. The mili- ther extension for release of lapsed buildings fills the Health tants kidnapped some 240 civilian males and soldiers air, said Mohmmed Mattar, Tedros Adhanom Ghesaid some people back into Gaza, would not be considered, a 29-year-old resident of breyesus, including babies, chil- he said. He estimated that Gaza City who along with 111,000 people have resdren, women, soldiers, there are “several dozen” other volunteers searches piratory infections and have diarrhea, older adults and Thai farm soldiers in Hamas captivity, for the dead under rubble 75,000 more than half of them most of them males. The or left in the streets. labourers.

They have found and under 5 years old. “More Israel’s bombing cam- official spoke on condition paign and ground invasion of anonymity because nego- buried 46 so far during the people could die from distruce, he said. Most were ease than bombings.” in Gaza have killed more tiations were ongoing.

“We are fed up,” said For men — and espe- unidentified. More bodies than 13,300 Palestinians, roughly two-thirds of cially soldiers — Hamas remain inside rubble but Omar al-Darawi, who them women and minors, is expected to push for can’t be reached without works at the overwhelmed according to the Health comparable releases of Pal- heavy equipment, or are Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital Ministry in Hamas-ruled estinian men or prominent left on streets that are in central Gaza. “We want Gaza, which does not detainees, a deal Israel may unapproachable because this war to stop.”

Five journalists shot within one day in Mexico, officials confirm MEXICO CITY Associated Press MEXICO’S president said Wednesday that two of four news photographers who were shot Tuesday are in serious condition, as prosecutors confirmed that a fifth journalist was shot and wounded the same day.

The four photojournalists were shot near a military barracks in the southern Guerrero state after they returned from a crime scene.

They had been covering one of the many homicides that occur on a near-daily basis in the violence-wracked city of Chilpancingo.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said “we must regret this,” referring to the shooting, but did not offer any information on a possible motive in the attack.

Another shooting Tuesday in the neighbouring state of Michoacan wounded reporter Maynor Ramón Ramírez, bringing the number of victims to five and marking one of the largest one-day tolls of media workers in a decade.

Ramírez suffered several gunshot wounds along with a companion in the city of Apatzingan, the newspaper ABC of Michoacan said, The attacks came days after three journalists were abducted and held for days in Taxco, also in Guerrero state. They were later released, and there was no information on the motive for their abduction.

Guerrero has been the scene of deadly turf battles between around a dozen drug gangs and cartels. Michoacan has suffered similar turf battles between the Jalisco cartel and local gangs.

The shootings and abductions on Tuesday mark some of the largest mass attacks on reporters in one place in Mexico since one day in early 2012, when the bodies of three news photographers were found dumped in plastic bags in a canal in the Gulf coast city of Veracruz. Those killings were blamed on the oncepowerful Zetas drug cartel.

Earlier this month, a photographer for a newspaper in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez was found shot to death in his car. His death was the fifth instance of a journalist being killed in Mexico so far in 2023.

In the past five years alone, the Committee to Protect Journalists documented the killings of at least 54 journalists in Mexico.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

SPORTS PAGE 14

NFL, Page 17

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Bahamas suffers 2-1 loss to USVI

By TENAJH SWEETING Tribune Sports Reporter tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

T

he Bahamas senior women’s national soccer team wrapped up their Road to CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup experience with a 2-1 loss to the US Virgin Islands (USVI) in a home game at the Roscow AL Davies Soccer Field yesterday.

It was the first time in decades the home team fielded a national women’s team. Despite their efforts, the team finished with a 0-1-3 win/draw/loss record in League C, Group C for the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup qualifiers.

On Wednesday, the USVI women’s national team looked to earn their first win of the qualifiers against The Bahamas.

In their previous match against the home team, both clubs finished in a 0-0 draw at the Bethlehem Soccer Complex in October. However, the visiting team wasted no time in

SEE PAGE 18

US Virgin Islands earn their first win

GLORY IN THE WIN COLUMN: The US Virgin Islands senior women’s national soccer team earned their first win of the Road to CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup against The Bahamas 2-1 yesterday at the Roscow AL Davies Soccer Field.

Photo by Moise Amisial

YOUTH FLAG FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS ALL SET FOR SATURDAY

By TENAJH SWEETING Tribune Sports Reporter tsweeting@tribunemedia.net THE 2023 Bahamas Youth Flag Football League (BYFFL) playoffs and championships are set to begin this Saturday across the various age divisions on the playing fields opposite the original Thomas A Robinson national stadium.

After five competitive weeks of flag football action, coaches and players will have a chance to reap the benefits of their efforts this weekend.

The playoffs kick off at 11am and championships at 2:30pm for the 6-9, 10-13 and 14-17 age groups and will be exciting, according to BYFFL programme director Jayson Clarke.

In his brief reflection of the BYFFL regular season, he said this has been one of the most successful ones since their start in 2015.

“This has been our largest, most successful and definitely the most competitive season we have ever hosted since our inception in 2015. I am very pleased with what I have seen throughout this season as it seems as if the league has

SEE PAGE 15

LAKERS BOUNCE BACK TO ROUT DETROIT

JERALD CARROLL CAPTURES JUNIOR TENNIS DOUBLES TITLE IN JAMAICA

By LARRY LAGE AP Sports Writer

THE BAHAMAS Lawn Tennis Association sends congratulations to Bahamian Jerald Carroll who won the ITF Juniors Doubles in Jamaica this month. Jerald and partner Jose Coello from Mexico won in straights sets 6-2, 6-4. Jerald also made it to the quarterfinals in singles in this tournament, losing to American Mark Mcela in two competitive sets 6-7(3), 4-6. Jerald has been performing well on the junior circuit. He also made it to the J30 Doubles finals in the Bahamas this summer with fellow Bahamian Jackson Mactaggart.

PAGE 19

DETROIT (AP) — LeBron James, coming off a career-high 44-point loss at Philadelphia, and his Los Angeles Lakers teammates were very loose during pregame warmups.

Perhaps they sensed it would be an easy night to bounce back.

And, they were right.

D’Angelo Russell scored a season-high 35 points, Anthony Davis had 28 and James 25 to help Los Angeles beat Detroit 133-107 last night for the Pistons’

SEE PAGE 15

BAHAMAS WASTE CELEBRATES NINE-YEAR PARTNERSHIP WITH NASSAU ROWING CLUB BAHAMAS Waste continues to celebrate its nine-year partnership with Nassau Rowing Club, through a renewed commitment to ensuring the organisation’s sanitation needs are met year-round.

At the club’s Lake Cunningham site, Bahamas Waste has provided public toilet or “portapotty” facilities, in addition to waste bins for the club’s members and guests, with frequent servicing free of charge.

Since 2011, Nassau Rowing Club has impacted lives throughout the country, particularly in New Providence, introducing young Bahamians to the sport of rowing which can unlock life-changing opportunities including educational scholarships.

The club operates six

ROWERS enjoy the water at the Nassau Rowing Club’s Lake Cunningham site.

“So, what Bahamas days a week at Lake Cunningham and has over 50 Waste has come in and members, starting from done is basically make it as young as six-years-old. so that we can operate a “Historically, we’ve facility that is more-oroperated in people’s less self-contained, not backyards and places having to infringe on where we didn’t have the hospitality of others access to bathroom facili- more so than we already ties,” says Kyle Chea, do.”

“Everyone needs to president of the Nassau go to the bathroom and Rowing Club.

should have the ability to do it in a sanitary way.

So, until we get to the point where we can have four walls and running water, Bahamas Waste has basically given us a self-contained facility and we’re thankful.”

Over the past year the club has been focused on getting more public high school students involved, recently introducing 250 C.R. Walker Senior High students to the sport and into row boats.

By May of next year, the club aims to expose more than 1,000 government school students to rowing machines and hopefully recruit some of them into their Opportunities & Access Rowing Squad (OARS).

OARS removes as many barriers as possible

SEE PAGE 18

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, November 30, 2023, PAGE 15

Jokic’s triple-double lifts Nuggets past Rockets 134-124 in Murray’s return

By CRAIG MEYER Associated Press DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic had 32 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds, Michael Porter Jr. scored a season-high 30 points and the Denver Nuggets rolled past the Houston Rockets 134-124 last night in Jamal Murray’s return from a hamstring injury.

Murray scored 16 points after missing Denver’s past 11 games. After starting 6-1 with Murray available, the Nuggets were just 6-5 without their point guard.

It was the third consecutive win for the NBA champion Nuggets, who had lost four of five before their current streak.

Jokic, who was sidelined with a lower back injury in a win Monday at the Los Angeles Clippers, recorded his seventh triple-double of the season.

Entering the night, all other NBA players had combined for just eight

triple-doubles.

Denver had lost twice to the Rockets in November, including a 19-point loss in Houston five days earlier. The Nuggets improved their NBA-best home record to 9-0 while dropping the Rockets to 0-7 on the road.

While Murray returned, Denver was without forward Aaron Gordon, who missed his third consecutive game with a strained right heel.

Welcomed with a roaring “He’s back!” from the public address announcer and a hearty ovation from the home crowd before tip-off, Murray came down awkwardly after missing a contested shot at the rim two minutes into the game and walked gingerly back to the bench after a Nuggets timeout.

He returned to the game after the timeout, though, and sank a deep 3-pointer on Denver’s next possession.

After that initial scare, his team had little reason to worry the rest of the night.

Led by 12 points from Porter, the Nuggets scored a season-high 41 points in the first quarter and led by as many as 19 in the period.

Denver never trailed and led by double digits for all but the opening 4:16.

Jalen Green paced the Rockets with 26 points, 18 in a third quarter in which he made all six of his field goals and all four of his 3s. .

PELICANS 124, 76ERS 114 NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Zion Williamson scored 33 points and New Orleans beat a Philadelphia squad playing without All-Star center Joel Embiid.

Embiid was ruled out shortly before tip-off because of an illness, forcing Philadelphia to manage without its leading scorer, who is averaging 32 points this season and also gives the Sixers a formidable defensive presence in the

paint. Williamson cashed in on the 7-foot Embiid’s absence, dominating around the basket as he made 11 of his 12 shots.

RAPTORS 112, SUNS 105 TORONTO (AP) — Scottie Barnes scored 23 points, Pascal Siakam had 22 and Toronto ended Phoenix’s winning streak at seven.

Kevin Durant scored 11 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter for Phoenix after missing two games because of a sore foot, while fellow star Devin Booker had only eight points.

The Suns lost for the first time since a November 12 at home against Oklahoma City.

Booker, who beat the New York Knicks on Sunday night with a 3-pointer with 1.7 seconds left, missed a 3 that would have tied it with 50 seconds remaining.

Booker shot 2 for 12, going 0 for 4 on 3-pointers.

NUGGETS centre Nikola Jokic, left, goes up for a basket over Rockets centre Jock Landale and forward Jabari Smith Jr., right, in the first half last night in Denver.

(AP Photo/David Zalubowski) MAGIC 139, WIZARDS 120 ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Franz Wagner scored 31 points, Cole Anthony added 25 and Orlando beat Washington for its eighth straight victory.

Jalen Suggs had 22 points for the Magic, who were eliminated from the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament by a tiebreaker Tuesday night. Their win streak is one short of the franchise record set in 1994 and matched twice in this century.

Kyle Kuzma led Washington with 24 points. Deni Avdija added 22 and Jordan Poole scored 19.

The Magic shot 60.7 % overall and made 17 of 27 from 3-point range in the opener of a two-game series. The teams play again Friday in Orlando.

LEBRON JAMES AND LAKERS BOUNCE BACK TO ROUT PISTONS 133-107 FROM PAGE 14 franchise-record 15th straight loss. Lakers coach Darvin Ham could see and hear that James was ready to lead the way before the game even started.

“He understands the energy he gives off,” Ham said.

James was smiling and joking with teammates while getting shots off in warmups, but simply shrugged off the observation.

“I’m pretty much always like that,” he said. “I have a lot of energy to give.”

The Lakers led 38-24 after the opening quarter, shooting 60% to Detroit’s 36%.

Even though there were three quarters left, the outcome seemed certain against an offensively challenged team that doesn’t play stingy defence and is a league-worst 2-16.

“This group struggles with adversity,” Pistons coach Monty Williams said.

The Pistons have had a lot of it.

Detroit broke the franchise record after sharing it with three teams that had 14-game skids during the 2021-22, 1993-94 and 197980 seasons.

“My job is to help our guys fight through this,” said Williams, who is in his first season after leading Phoenix and New Orleans.

“I told our guys, one way you gain this respect in this game and in life is when you’re going through a tough time, and you hang in there.”

Detroit’s Cade Cunningham had 15 points, reserve Isaiah Livers scored 14, Isaiah Stewart had 12 points and rookie Ausar Thompson added 12 points.

The Pistons’ problems started on defence.

“The resistance in the pick-and-roll coverage, the

LOS Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) attempts a layup as Detroit Pistons centre Isaiah Stewart (28) defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game last night in Detroit.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

resistance to start the game just wasn’t there against D’Angelo,” Williams said.

James said “a lot” had to change Monday night after Los Angeles’ 138-94 loss to the 76ers in the most-lopsided loss of his career, and

YOUTH FLAG FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS, CHAMPIONSHIPS ALL SET FOR THIS SATURDAY FROM PAGE 14 kind of caught fire. The word has gotten out and flag football is definitely taking off,” Clarke said.

With regards to playoff matchups, the games get underway with the 10-13 division up first on the schedule.

Team Munroe, who finished fourth in the standings with a 2-6-0 (win/ loss/draw record), are set to take on the 0-8-0 Team Allen at 11:30am.

The winner of this game will face Team Kevin, who ended the regular season atop the standings with a 6-0-2 record.

At noon, the thirdseeded Team Moss will battle against the secondseeded Team Dawkins.

The next age group up on the schedule is the 6-9 division, the youngest group of players, who Clarke offered high praises to for their progression during the regular season. “There has been

significant growth in the play styles, particularly in that 6-9 age bracket.

Their grasp of the concept of the game has grown significantly to the point where we have already identified a 9U travelling competition team which is something we have never done before,” he said.

For the 9U division, the 3-5-2 Team Sheldeen will prepare for the lower seeded Team Dawkins, who finished with a 2-5-3 record, at 12:30pm.

The winner of this round will have their work cut out for them against Team Inne, who finished atop the division’s standings with a 6-1-3 record.

The programme director said the younger competitors are up to par and can compete at the international level which makes for great matchups on Saturday.

“We are really excited and happy about them being in the playoffs. The 6-9 age group will be the

GRIZZLIES 105, JAZZ 91 MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Jaren Jackson Jr. had 20 points and six blocks, David Roddy added 19 points and Memphis defeated Utah for its first home win of the season.

Desmond Bane added 17 for Memphis, which snapped a four-game losing streak.

Ziaire Williams finished with 15 points. Derrick Rose had 14 points and nine assists.

John Collins led the Jazz with 17 points, while Jordan Clarkson and Simone Fontecchio each added 12. Utah was hindered by shooting 38% for the night, while committing 17 turnovers.

Memphis, which was 35-6 at home last season, had lost its first eight home games this year.

featured championship game this weekend, that shows how much we think about that group and how much we pride ourselves on the younger kids,” he said.

Team D’Angelo, the top squad in the 14-17 division, will look to take care of business against the last ranked Team Allen at 1:00pm.

The match is followed by competition between the 2-3-1 Team Chavar and 3-2-1 Team Munroe.

Overall, the BYFFL programme director said he is ready to see the competition level in the playoffs and after the championships wrap up they have future plans to develop the skills of younger players going into the 2024 calendar year.

As previously mentioned, the playoffs begin at 11am and the championship games at 2:30pm.

Tickets are priced at $5 for adults and kids under 12 are free.

it was facing the right opponent to rebound against.

“We responded well,” James said. “We played a lot better.”

The Lakers started strong with Russell and Davis both scoring in double figures in

the first quarter and despite having a huge lead for much of the game, they did not coast with a comfortable cushion.

“D’Lo and AD got us started out with the hot streak they had in the first

SPORTS CALENDAR BEST OF THE BEST REGATTA Venue: Montagu Foreshore Date: November 30 - December 3 Thursday (On Sea) E Class - 8:30am C Class- 10:30am B Class- 12:30pm A Class- 3:30pm BAHAMAS YOUTH FLAG FOOTBALL LEAGUE Championships Venue: Playing fields opposite original Thomas A Robinson national stadium Date: December 2 11:30am - Team Allen vs. Team Munroe (Age 10 - 13)

quarter, and we all picked it up off of that,” James said.

Los Angeles’ top three scorers did more than make shots. Russell had nine assists, Davis grabbed 16 rebounds and James had eight rebounds and four assists.

Christian Wood had 12 points and rookie Jalen Hood-Schifino, who didn’t score in his NBA debut in the previous game, scored 10 points.

Since the Pistons improved to 2-1 on October 28, they have not won a game with a young team that was expected to improve after winning an NBA-low 17 games last season.

“We’ve got to get the feeling we had the first week of the season,” Williams said.

UP NEXT Lakers: At Oklahoma City tonight.

Pistons: At New York tonight.

Nov 2023

Noon - Team Moss vs. Team Dawkins (Age 10 - 13) 12:30pm - Team Dawkins vs. Team Sheldeen) (Age 6 - 9) 1:00pm - Team Allen vs. Team Deangelo (Age 14 - 17) 1:30pm - Winner of Team Allen/ Team Munroe vs. Team Kevin (Age 10 - 13) 2:00pm - Team Chavar vs. Team Munroe (Age 14 - 17) 2:30pm - BYFFL Championships for all ages NEW PROVIDENCE PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS SPORTS ASSOCIATION Softball and Baseball The NPPPSSA softball/baseball championships conclude on Friday.

Venue: Baillou Hills Sporting Complex Date: November 27-December 1

PAGE 16, Thursday, November 30, 2023

THE TRIBUNE

BAHAMAS FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION

Mingoes demolish Cavalier 10-1 behind two hat tricks UB SLATED TO PLAY WESTERN WARRIORS 3PM SUNDAY

UNIVERSITY of The Bahamas Mingoes midfielder Kevin Thomas (blue 17) reacts to completing his hat trick against Cavalier FC.

UB midfielders Kevin Thomas (blue 17) and Ronaldo Green (blue 21) reacts to Thomas completing his hat trick against Cavalier FC. THE University of The Bahamas soccer team couldn’t help but score against The Cavalier Football Club Sunday in Bahamas Football Association action at The Roscow A.L. Davies Field.

The UB Mingoes now sport a 2-0-1 record in BFA play after the 10-1 win that included two hat tricks midfielders Ronaldo Green and Kevin Thomas.

Thomas couldn’t wait to score for The Mingoes and found the net in the second minute of the match to give the side an early start.

Five minutes later at the seven minute mark, O’Bryan Hinds found the net aswell to put The Mingoes up 2-0.

Midfielder Ronaldo Green had back to back goals, including a penalty, at the 18th and 22nd minutes to give The Mingoes a 4-0 lead.

Thomas scored again on a pass from Stanley Grand Pierre in the 28th minute for his second goal and The Mingoes 5-0 lead.

Grand Pierre didn’t want to be left out and got his own goal at the 30th minute and The Mingoes took the commanding 6-0 lead.

Grand Pierre assisted on five goals as well for The Mingoes.

Thomas completed his hat trick in the 40th minute off a pass from Green to go up 7-0 and they carried that to the half.

UB midfielder Stanley Grand Pierre (blue 10) UB midfielder Stanley Grand Pierre (blue 10) moves the ball against Cavalier FC. moves the ball against Cavalier FC.

Photos courtesy of UB Athletics

UB Mingoes midfielder Stanley Grand Pierre (blue 10) moves the ball against Cavalier FC. Coming out of the half, that match against Western Mingoes skipper Marlon Warriors,” he said. “We Barnes scored to give the were able to finish a lot of side the 8-0 lead in the 57th the chances we had out minute. there today and I think that Cavalier was able to score is something we build on three minutes later but it heading into that match.” was not enough for the side.

He added the team didn’t Jovial Forbes scored his finish on many opportunifirst goal as a Mingoe in the ties as well. “I think the 77th minute and Green got team took a very casual another score for the Min- approach to the game and goes for the 10-1 win. that allowed them to have a Green said the match few opportunities,” he said. was a great tune up as the “We had to wake up and side gets ready for what he play the game when coach called the biggest match told us to do our jobs.” of the season - Western The Mingoes are schedWarriors. uled to play The Western “This win gives us a lot Warriors 3pm Sunday at of confidence heading in Roscow A.L. Davies Field.

UB midfielder Stanley Grand Pierre (blue 10) moves the ball against Cavalier FC.

ARSENAL HITS 6 AND ADVANCES IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, MAN UNITED AGAIN SCORES 3 YET STAYS IN LAST PLACE

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer GENEVA (AP) — Arsenal scored six to advance in the Champions League as a group winner yesterday and Manchester United stayed last in its group despite again scoring three times away from home.

Arsenal’s 6-0 rout of Lens ensured second-place PSV Eindhoven also advanced from Group B to the round of 16. PSV’s second-half rally to win 3-2 at Sevilla was clinched by United States forward Ricardo Pepi in stoppage time.

There are now 12 confirmed teams in the round of 16 draw on December 18 and Man United is in serious danger of missing out.

The three-time European champion led by two goals after 18 minutes at Galatasaray and 3-2 early in the second half but was pegged back again in a wild 3-3 draw.

United only does topsyturvy road games in Europe this season after 4-3 losses at group winner Bayern Munich and second-place Copenhagen.

“As a team, we have to learn from it because we are conceding too many goals and it is unnecessary and avoidable,” United manager Erik ten Hag said.

A hat trick of three-goal games on their travels has brought just a single point back for ten Hag’s players, who need to beat Bayern at Old Trafford in two weeks’ time.

Only four other Champions League teams this season have scored more than United’s 12-goal total and they all top their groups and have advanced to the knockout phase.

Real Madrid is one of them after a 4-2 win over second-place Napoli ensured the record 14-time champion will finish atop Group C. Teams that top their standings are seeded in the round of 16 draw on December 18 and avoid other group winners like defending champion Manchester City. Teams also cannot be drawn against an opponent from their own country.

Bayern drew 0-0 with Copenhagen, one of two games with no goals on a night when the other six games delivered 31.

Real Sociedad was held 0-0 by Salzburg to set up a last-game showdown with second-place Inter Milan at San Siro for the top spot in Group D. Both Sociedad and Inter already advanced three weeks ago.

Inter produced the night’s other second-half fightback

ARSENAL’S GABRIEL JESUS, second left, duels for the ball with Lens’ Massadio Haidara, left, during the Champions League Group B soccer match between Arsenal and Lens, at Emirates stadium, in London, yesterday.

(AP Photo/Kin Cheung) in a 3-3 draw at Benfica, four goals in four Champi- could have expected this,” which wasted a three-goal ons League games for his Ancelotti said. “He’s got lead at halftime earned new club and provided an to improve his Spanish but

by João Mario’s hat trick assist for Joselu in stop- as I always say — nobody’s against his former club. page time. “Bellingham is a perfect.”

Braga drew 1-1 with gift to football, not just this ONANA ERRORS Union Berlin and can still club,” Madrid coach Carlo Andre Onana’s goaladvance by winning at Ancelotti said. “The world’s keeping errors have cost Napoli on December 12. delighted to see a guy with Manchester United in HAIL JUDE this talent, potential, prom- losses at Bayern and at Jude Bellingham was a ise and hopefully, he’ll just home to Galatasaray, and standout again for Real continue as he is.” almost led to another defeat Madrid in what is becomBellingham now has Wednesday in Istanbul. ing the 20-year-old England scored 15 goals in his first For each of Hakim star’s routine excellence this 16 matches with Madrid Ziyech’s two goals from season. wearing the No. 5 shirt of free kicks, Onana’s posiBellingham scored the great Zinedine Zidane. tional play or handling Madrid’s second goal “Bellingham has sur- could be faulted. “We win against Napoli to make it prised everyone. No one and lose together,” Ten

Hag said when asked about Onana who he also coached at Ajax.

“He is OK. As I said, it is not about individuals. Of course, individual errors in football can make a difference and you take responsibility for it but it is always about the team.”

PLAYING FOR THIRD Third place in a Champions League ensures European games into the new year, albeit in the second-tier Europa League.

The eight third-place teams when group play ends in two weeks’ time enter the knockout playoff round against runners-up in Europa League groups.

Those pairings are drawn on December 18.

Man United could end up third even if it beats Bayern on December 12, the same night Copenhagen hosts Galatasaray.

Salzburg needs only a draw at home to Benfica in two weeks to clinch third place in Group D Europa League title holder Sevilla can rise off the bottom of Group B by winning at Lens on December 12 and getting back into the competition it won seven times in the past 18 seasons. Winning the Europa title also is a ticket back to the Champions League next season.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, November 30, 2023, PAGE 17

COMMANDERS

Pro Picks: Cowboys TO FACE DOLPHINS THEIR will keep rolling but the AND NFL-BEST Seahawks will avoid a rout OFFENCE

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Sports Writer

By ROB MAADDI AP Pro Football Writer DAK Prescott is rolling and so are the Dallas Cowboys.

The Cowboys (8-3) enter tonight’s game against Seattle (6-5) with three straight wins by a combined margin of 127-47.

They’ve won seven games this season by at least 20 points. Prescott has thrown for 300-plus yards and three or more touchdowns four times in the past five games.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks are skidding.

They’ve lost three of four, including lopsided games against Baltimore and San Francisco. Geno Smith and the offence are struggling over that span, scoring just three TDs as a unit.

In a week that features seven road favourites, this one is the second-biggest spread.

The Cowboys are 9-point favourites, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

Home teams are just 23-35 against the spread on Thursday nights since 2020.

Pro Picks expects Seattle to avoid a double-digit loss.

COWBOYS, 26-18 KANSAS CITY at GREEN BAY Line: Chiefs minus 6 Patrick Mahomes plays his first game at Lambeau Field and the Chiefs (8-3) could take over the No. 1 seed in the AFC with a win. Jordan Love and the Packers (5-6) have won three of four to climb into the wild-card race.

BEST BET: CHIEFS, 27-16 SAN FRANCISCO at PHILADELPHIA Line: 49ers minus 2 1/2 Somehow the Eagles (10-1) are home underdogs coming off impressive comeback wins against Buffalo and Kansas City.

The 49ers (8-3) aim to avenge a blowout loss in the NFC title game.

UPSET SPECIAL: EAGLES, 26-24 LOS ANGELES CHARGERS at NEW ENGLAND Line: Chargers minus 6 If Bill Belichick is coaching next year, his best option might be the Chargers (4-7). So, he should be extra motivated to lead the Patriots (2-9) to a victory and help improve Los Angeles’ draft positioning.

CHARGERS, 24-13 ARIZONA at PITTSBURGH Line: Steelers minus 5 1/2 The Steelers (7-4) offence finally got going last week after offensive coordinator Matt Canada was fired. The Cardinals (2-10) have averaged just 11.1 points on the road this season.

STEELERS, 23-16

DALLAS Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott warms up before an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders Thursday, November 23, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez) DENVER at HOUSTON Line: Texans minus 3 1/2 A five-game winning streak has the Broncos (6-5) in the AFC playoff picture. The Texans (6-5) are right there thanks to quarterback C.J. Stroud’s impressive rookie season.

He’ll be without starting left guard Tytus Howard, who suffered a season-ending injury.

BRONCOS, 19-17 DETROIT at NEW ORLEANS Line: Lions minus 4 1/2 The Lions (8-3) aim to rebound from a Thanksgiving loss to the Packers.

The Saints (5-6) have lost two in a row, but are in the chase for the division title in the weak NFC South.

Behind QB Jared Goff, the Lions are 14-8 against the spread after losing the previous game.

LIONS, 27-20 INDIANAPOLIS at TENNESSEE Line: Colts minus 1 1/2 Colts QB Gardner Minshew has won three straight games for the first time in his career, but Indianapolis (6-5) won’t have RB Jonathan Taylor. The Titans (4-7) are 7-3 as a home underdog since 2021 under coach Mike Vrabel.

TITANS, 20-17 ATLANTA at NEW YORK JETS Line: Falcons minus 3 Getting Aaron Rodgers back at practice should motivate the Jets (4-7) to win so he would have reason to return in a few weeks.

The Falcons (5-6) lead the NFC South after

snapping a three-game losing streak. Atlanta has only covered the spread six times in its past 22 games.

JETS, 13-12 MIAMI at WASHINGTON Line: Dolphins minus 9 1/2 Tua Tagovailoa and the high-flying Dolphins (8-3) will still have zero wins against winning teams after this game.

Tagovailoa is under .500 against the spread on the road in his career.

The Commanders (4-8) are coming off a beatdown in Dallas and looking to avoid another embarrassment.

DOLPHINS, 30-22

CAROLINA at TAMPA BAY Line: Buccaneers minus 5 1/2 Maybe a new coach will inspire the Panthers (1-10).

They’re facing a team that could be in the market for a new coach, too. Bucs QB Baker Mayfield is 13-24-1 against the spread as a favorite.

BUCCANEERS, 23-20 CLEVELAND at LOS ANGELES RAMS Line: Rams minus 3 1/2 The rebuilding Rams (5-6) are a wild-card contender with a new playmaker in RB Kyren Williams. Joe Flacco could be starting for the Browns (7-4) with Dorian

Thompson-Robinson in concussion protocol.

Cleveland’s stingy defence gave up 169 yards on the ground in a loss at Denver last week.

RAMS, 17-16 CINCINNATI at JACKSONVILLE Line: Jaguars minus 8 1/2 The Jaguars (8-3) make their first appearance on “Monday Night Football” since 2011. Coach Doug Pederson is a prime-time king. He’s 21-8 in night games, the best record for any head coach over the past 20 years.

The Bengals (5-6) continue life without Joe Burrow.

JAGUARS, 26-16

ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Twelve games and eight losses into a season that has slipped away from the Washington Commanders, Ron Rivera made the move he felt necessary to try to turn things around by firing defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio. Owner Josh Harris approved the move, which saved Rivera’s job for now.

Rivera is taking over the defensive play-calling duties — an adjustment for the veteran coach and his team just in time to host the AFC East-leading Miami Dolphins and their NFL-best offence.

Rivera wants the defence, which ranks 29th of 32 teams and gave up 431 yards Thursday in a 45-10 loss at Dallas, to play faster. It’s on him to make that happen.

“It’s most certainly different and just takes a little bit to get used to,” said Rivera, who last did this with Carolina in 2018 when he fired defensive coordinator Eric Washington. “The biggest thing is just paying attention and watching the game tape and really just taking the notes from each game that we’ve had this year. I think it’s just a matter of getting a sense and a feel for what our guys do best, and that will come as each game unfolds.”

In preparation for their game against the Dolphins, players practiced with helmets yesterday — a departure from previous weeks — to get used to Rivera calling the plays.

Already, the retired linebacker is making his voice heard.

“It’s exciting seeing coach be hands-on and more involved with the defence,” defensive tackle Jonathan Allen said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how we respond.”

After three full seasons and more than half of another with Del Rio in charge, defenders acknowledged it’s weird not having him and defensive backs coach Brent Vieselmeyer on the practice field. But it’s not surprising Rivera made the moves after the Commanders allowed 290-plus yards in 11 of 12 games and more than 30 points seven times.

“We could be as good as we want to be, but this league it’s not about potential, it’s about production,” cornerback Kendall Fuller said. “It’s just about us going out there, executing and making the plays that we need to make to win football games.”

Fuller said it’s incumbent on him and his teammates to make good on the plays Rivera calls. To read and react faster, the defence will be simplified from what Del Rio was running.

49ers and Eagles head into NFC title game rematch with a focus

By JOSH DUBOW AP Pro Football Writer THE Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers haven’t let last season’s postseason disappointment become a hangover in 2023.

Both teams head into Sunday’s rematch of last season’s NFC title game with a chance to turn those recent failures into success.

Philadelphia, coming off a Super Bowl loss last season to Kansas City, is the fourth Super Bowl runnerup to start the following season 10-1 or better, joining the 1991 Bills, the 1975 Vikings and the undefeated Dolphins in 1972.

The goal for Philadelphia (10-1) is to match those 1972 Dolphins, one of three teams to win the Super Bowl the year after losing the title game.

Dallas did it the previous season with a win over

Miami, and the Patriots did it in 2018, after losing to the Eagles the year before.

The Eagles are the fourth team in NFL history to win at least 10 of their first 11 games in back-to-back seasons.

They joined the Colts (2005-06), Dolphins (197273) and Bears (1941-42).

The Niners have two years of playoff close calls hanging over them, losing the NFC championship game in 2021 to the Rams and last season to the Eagles.

San Francisco has won three straight games to improve to 8-3 and will try to become the fourth team to follow two straight conference title game losses with a Super Bowl crown.

The Patriots did it in 2014, the Niners in 1995 and the Raiders in 1976.

The Eagles and 49ers are currently the top two

49ERS wide receiver Ronnie Bell (10) recovers a punt return fumble by Seahawks running back DeeJay Dallas November 23.

(AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) seeds in the NFC, setting the stage for a rare possible NFC title game rematch.

The Niners were involved the only other times it happened, playing Dallas three straight years from 1992-94 and in back-to-back seasons in 1971-72.

It has happened five times in the AFC, including last season when the Chiefs

hosted the Bengals for a second straight season.

PLAYOFF PUSH For the sixth consecutive season, a team will go from having a losing record after 11 games to making the playoffs.

With all four teams in the NFC South having losing records, led by Atlanta and New Orleans at 5-6,

the winner of that division will raise the total of playoff teams that had a losing record after 11 games to at least 20 in the past 20 seasons.

At least one team with a losing record after 11 games has made the playoffs in 17 of the past 19 seasons, with both Jacksonville and Tampa Bay doing it last season. Philadelphia did it in 2018, 2019 and 2021, while Chicago and Washington pulled off the feat in 2020. The last season it didn’t happen was 2017.

Other teams with losing records in the mix for a playoff spot this season are Green Bay (5-6) and the Rams (5-6), who are within a half-game of the final wild-card spot in the NFC. Eight teams enter Week 13 with at least eight wins, tied for the most with that many wins at this point of the season since the 2002

realignment. It also happened in 2003, 2019 and 2020.

SCORING SLUMP The last two losses by the New England Patriots sure can’t be blamed on their defence.

New England followed up a 10-6 loss to Indianapolis in Germany with a 10-7 defeat against the New York Giants on Sunday, becoming the sixth team in the Super Bowl era to lose back-to-back games when allowing 10 points or fewer in each game.

The Patriots were the previous team to do that in 1993, with the other four instances coming in the lower-scoring era of the 1970s.

New England had gone 77-0 with Tom Brady at quarterback when allowing 10 or fewer points in a game during the regular season or playoffs.

PAGE 18, Thursday, November 30, 2023

THE TRIBUNE

Bahamas ladies suffer 2-1 loss to USVI

OLYMPICS: PARIS ANGERS CRITICS WITH PLANS TO RESTRICT TRAFFIC

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press

THE BAHAMAS senior women’s national soccer team wrapped up their Road to CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup experience with a 2-1 loss to the US Virgin Islands (USVI) in a home game at the Roscow AL Davies Soccer Field yesterday.

US VIRGIN ISLANDS EARN THEIR FIRST WIN OF THE CONCACAF GOLD CUP QUALIFIERS FROM PAGE 14 scoring their first goal of the contest as Mackiesh Taylor sent the ball past The Bahamas’ goalkeeper Kendi Outten at the 16th minute.

Ricqea Bain, head coach of the senior women’s national team, gave some insight on how the match got away from The Bahamas.

“The game was a little sketchy when we first started. We came out with plan A then we tried plan B and it started to work but we started to rely too much on it. We had some opportunities that we were unable to put away but we were able to get one,” Bain said.

The lone goal for The Bahamas was scored by midfielder Kenyonique Thompson. She capitalised on a rebound off the USVI’s goalkeeper Levania Lawrence and sank the eqauliser to the back of the net at the 31st minute of the game. It was her first international goal and it gave the team some momentum on home soil to even the score 1-1.

Thompson shared what it felt like to score the goal for The Bahamas.

“It felt good the last time that I played I knew we had a lot of opportunities to score a goal so this goal felt so good and the team deserved this. We fell short in the end. We have a lot of work to do but it’s a start,” she said.

She continued to say that it was a stepping stone in the right direction and was proud of the entire team for their hard work.

The momentum garnered by Thompson quickly went away three minutes later as the visiting team’s Bianca Canizio got the edge on Outten to make the score 2-1 at the 34th minute.

IN THE WIN COLUMN: The US Virgin Islands senior women’s national soccer team earned their first win of the Road to CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup against The Bahamas 2-1 yesterday at the Roscow AL Davies Soccer Field. Here, they can be seen celebrating together after their hard-fought victory.

Photos by Moise Amisial After halftime, both teams remained scoreless with The Bahamas trying tirelessly to earn another goal but were unsuccessful.

The 2-1 win marked the first victory for the USVI women’s national football team in the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup qualifiers standings for League C, Group C. They now have 4 points and a 1-1-1 record.

Jorge Zavala, head coach of USVI, talked about how it felt to see his team perform well in the away game. “I am super excited I thought they played their hearts out today. I am super proud of the effort they put forward. It has been a long training camp in the sense of trying to prepare for this match so we are super excited that we came here and got a W,” the head coach said.

Despite The Bahamas being eliminated from qualification

ON THE MIC: Auset Gibbs, of the US Virgin Islands senior women’s national soccer team, told reporters how it felt to earn their first win against The Bahamas. for

the

CONCACAF

Women’s Gold Cup, Bain

acknowledged that the team has made significant progress although they had some setbacks along the way.

“The results did not really show all the hard work and dedication we put into the game. We had good movements across the field, we had some shots but unfortunately the keeper got the best of us,” “My hope for the team is that we have more opportunities to play.

Our downfall as a team is the lack of games. As an entire unit we rarely get a chance because some are in the USA and Freeport.

The more matches we get the better the team can get but unfortunately this tournament is every four years but we look to work towards it,” the head coach said.

The qualifying stage of the Road to CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup wraps up on December 5.

PARIS (AP) — Stay, enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime show. That was the message from organisers of the Paris Olympics yesterday as they sought to reassure the French capital’s residents that security measures and traffic restrictions won’t make their lives nightmarish during the July 26 to August 11 event and the Paralympic Games that follow.

But critics, including some in the Senate, were displeased by plans to require motorists to apply online for a QR code to access traffic-restricted zones of Paris during the Games. Senators complained that lawmakers had not been consulted.

Nathalie Goulet, a senator from Normandy, likened the proposal to ID papers that France’s Nazi occupiers imposed in World War II. The Senate announced that Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez would appear before senators today and be asked to explain the security measures around the event.

Nuñez, speaking to journalists, defended the planned QR code as legal and justified. He insisted that traffic restrictions would be kept to the necessary minimum and suggested that he’d been expecting criticism.

“One can always be the little ugly duckling who sulks in the corner. We know we’ll have lots of those,” the police chief said.

The traffic restrictions and other security measures detailed yesterday

by Nuñez in a newspaper interview and a subsequent news conference will be concentrated on Olympic competition routes and venues, some of them installed in the heart of Paris, and won’t be generalised across the capital.

Pedestrians and cyclists won’t need the QR code to get around, but motor vehicles and motorbikes will need it to get past some police checkpoints.

Some Metro stations will be closed. But Nuñez said the general aim is to create as little economic impact as possible and for shops, restaurants and museums to remain accessible.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the security shouldn’t cause Parisians to flee and described the city’s first Olympic Games in a century as a gift for its residents.

“Should people leave Paris? Well no,” she said.

“At a time when the whole world is a bit depressed, with wars and conflicts, we will be the place that hosts the first big fraternal event, thanks to sport, after the COVID (pandemic),” she said.

“We are giving ourselves a collective present.”

BAHAMAS WASTE CELEBRATES NINE-YEAR PARTNERSHIP WITH NASSAU ROWING CLUB FROM PAGE 14 for promising athletes to participate in rowing, a shuttle provides round trip transport from C.R. Walker to Lake Cunningham, swimming lessons are provided at no cost, and donated clothing is

TO ADVERTISE TODAY IN THE TRIBUNE CALL @ 502-2394

provided from donors and friends in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Chea said with more colleges and universities interested in recruiting young rowers, Nassau Rowing Club has been seeking to get more high school students involved to potentially introduce them to more scholarship opportunities.

“Rowing has one of the lowest applicant-to-scholarship ratios across the NCAA, which makes it highly attractive, coupled with our deep relationships with several head and associate head coaches at

ROWERS enjoy the water at the Nassau Rowing Club’s Lake Cunningham site. leading programmes across the United States,” Chea said.

“We’re focusing on recruiting Bahamian

students, primarily from government schools, underprivileged backgrounds, who are usually the most at risk. If we can find enough

young Bahamians who can meet the baseline athletic standard, they can work to meet the baseline academic standard, while we

can then provide an additional avenue for them to get scholarship aid through athletics. So, through the sport we’re really trying to change lives.”

“Nassau Rowing Club, for years, has been doing such a great job throughout the community, and we’ve been truly impressed,” said Bahamas Waste Managing director Francisco de Cardenas.

“The work the club continues to do with the youth of our country is admirable and one that must be celebrated. So, we look forward to supporting them in their venture, in whatever way we can.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, November 30, 2023, PAGE 19

JUNIOR tennis ace Tatyana Madu, of Grand Bahama

Tatyana Madu performs well to earn award for November

By TENAJH SWEETING Tribune Sports Reporter tsweeting@tribunemedia.net GRAND Bahama native Tatyana Madu has turned in top performances in November to make her the Tribune Sports Player of the Month. The newest Tribune Sports section segment recognises the collective showings of athletes (male and female) across all sporting disciplines for each month.

Madu has once again proven herself to be a stellar junior performer in tennis during the month of November. She put on a show at the U14 Junkanoo Bowl where she claimed two titles at the Central American and Caribbean Tennis Confederation (COTECC) event.

top ranked Madu a challenge but her efforts did not move the needle for the Bahamian junior player.

Madu collected a relatively comfortable win in set one 6-0 and followed it up with a 6-3 victory in set two to claim one of her two titles at the event.

Ironically, Madu teamed up with her finals opponent Bain to add another championship trophy to her collection in the girls’ doubles. The duo matched up with fellow Bahamians Sarai Clarke and Marina Bostwick and bested them in straight sets. Madu and Bain knocked off the Bahamians 6-0, 6-1.

With another title within her reach, Madu and her partner did not disappoint.

Fluonia and Bahamian Briana Houlgrave did eve-

TATYANA Madu

The 14-year-old’s first championship at the junior tournament was earned in the girls’ singles action.

Madu was ranked number one in the event and never dropped a set versus any of her opponents leading up to her finals victory.

In the quarterfinals, she matched up against fellow Bahamian Vonteneke Rolle who she dropped in straight sets 6-0, 6-0.

She then advanced to the semifinals against Curaçao’s Keziah Fluonia.

The latter gave Madu stiff competition in the first set but it was not enough. The newly-crowned Player of the Month defeated Fluonia 7-6(3), 6-1 to move on to her final opponent of the singles event.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Makeda Bain was determined to at least give the

rything they could to stop Bain and Madu but ultimately came up short in the finals. The winning tandem fell in set one 6-7(5) and recovered in set two 7-6(6).

In the final tiebreaker, Madu and Bain completed the job, winning 10-4 to earn the former her second trophy of the tournament.

Her performance during this stretch in November made her the second athlete to be named Tribune Sports Player of the Month.

OCTOBER RECAP In October, Jonquel ‘JJ’ Jones was awarded the honours for her dominance in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) playoffs and finals for the New York Liberty.

Stay tuned for December’s Tribune Sports Player of the Month.

To Publish your Financials and

Legal Notices Call: 502-2394