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As PM confirms full re-opening, he begs - don’t go overseas By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis urged residents yesterday not to travel overseas for nonessential travel and outlined revised rules for entry to the country. He said that, beginning July 7, PCR COVID-19 tests that have negative results must be taken no later than seven days prior to the date of arrival, scrapping the previous policy requiring that tests be no later than ten days old. He said ten day old tests will be accepted until July 7. “We have made the window of time for testing shorter for the protection of
HOW COULD ANYONE SHOOT HER?
Bahamians and residents,” he said during a national address. He said Bahamians and residents returning to the country from countries where they cannot obtain a PCR test must show that the test is unavailable and will be subjected to mandatory quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. He also said Bahamians and residents returning to the country after 72 hours or less are not required to produce a negative test result but can be tested in the country at their own cost. “Because of the difficulty in obtaining a PCR COVID-19 test result within three days, SEE PAGE THREE
BEACHES BACK IN BUSINESS - BUT ABUSE IT AND LOSE IT By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced that people who fail to wear masks in public will be fined $200 or face one month imprisonment as the Royal Bahamas Police Force forms a new COVID19 enforcement unit to ensure compliance with his emergency orders. During a national address yesterday, he also warned beaches, which reopen in New Providence, Paradise Island, Grand Bahama and Bimini today, will be immediately closed if there are mass gatherings. Groups
of more than five on public beaches are prohibited, he said. “Masks are to be worn by all persons, Bahamians, residents and visitors, entering and exiting our beaches,” he said. “Please be reminded, gatherings on the beaches of more than five persons are strictly prohibited. This will result in a fine under the emergency orders. Our enforcement teams will be monitoring this risk closely. Mass gatherings may result in the immediate closure of the respective beach. Additionally, depending on the results of the beaches’ SEE PAGE THREE
HOME
MOODY’S WARN COVID IMPACT WILL REMAIN BEYOND 2024
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
BAHAMIAN economic output will not recover to pre-COVID-19 levels “until after 2024”, Moody’s has warned, in an illustration of the economic devastation unleashed by the pandemic. The rating agency, in a “credit opinion” that accompanied its decision to cut The Bahamas’ creditworthiness by two notches to “junk” status, is forecasting that the economy will take up to five years to recover from this year’s 16 percent to 20 percent contraction. Moody’s also warned the crisis, complete with its tourism and economic shutdown, has inflicted “lasting deterioration” on The Bahamas’ national debt burden. FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS
‘DOWNGRADE SHOWS GOVT POLICIES ARE NOT VIABLE’
By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
TWO-year-old Da’Nyla Roberts is in critical condition in hospital after she was shot by gunmen in Eleuthera on Saturday night Full story - Page 4
PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party deputy leader Chester Cooper has condemned the government for not heeding warnings when Moody’s placed the country under review for downgrade in April. The international credit rating agency had predicted the Bahamian economy would shrink by eight percent this year. The agency has now forecast the economy will shrink between 16 percent and 20 percent. A two-notch downgrade and a negative outlook was placed on The Bahamas, stripping the nation of its investment grade status with both Moody’s and Standard & Poor (S&P). SEE PAGE SEVEN
ROLLE DEFENDS POLICE KILLING PROBES Don’t By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net
POLICE Commissioner Paul Rolle said he has “every confidence” in how police-involved killings are investigated despite calls for an independent body to investigate the matters. Commissioner Rolle said the Coroner’s Court is responsible for investigating the killings and that
COMMISSIONER: Paul Rolle nothing is done involving fatal shootings unless the coroner is present. Coroner Jeanine Weech-Gomez,
however, has denied that her body is responsible for investigating such events. Before jurors decided last year that police unlawfully killed 22-year-old Osworth Rolle, she told them: “We have no special task force to investigate an officer in a police-involved shooting. In this jurisdiction, if there is a fatal police shooting, it is the police who will investigate the police.”
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THE TRIBUNE
Blaze destroys $500,000 boat
ACCORDING to reports, a 66ft fiberglass Sunseeker motor vessel called Vanish was docked at the marina in Harbour Island on Saturday when it caught fire. The party of five on board all got off safely. By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
PUBLIC NOTICE ½ DAY OFFICE CLOSURE Leno would like to advise the Public that our office will be closed at 1pm on July 1st, 2020 to celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary.
extinguish the flames but to no avail, police said. Video footage and pictures showed the blaze consuming the vessel, sending up plumes of dark smoke at the marina. One image showed onlookers watching while efforts were being made to extinguish the blaze. The boat is thought to have been worth in excess of $500,000. On the ground in Harbour Island, Assistant Commissioner Solomon Cash confirmed to The Tribune yesterday those individuals who were on board the vessel were able to get off the boat and swim
POLICE are investigating the circumstances surrounding a boat fire near Valentines Resort and Marina in Harbour Island on Saturday. A party of five was on board the boat when it became engulfed in flames, however no one was injured, police said. According to reports, a 66ft fiberglass Sunseeker motor vessel called Vanish was docked at the marina when it caught fire around 12.35pm on Saturday. Officers responded and tried to
to safety. “The fire report came to the attention of the police some time yesterday afternoon. Since the information, we dispatched a team from fire services from New Providence on the island who are currently doing comprehensive investigation,” he said. “We don’t have any suspicion as to whether it’s arson or not at this time…… The boat was completely destroyed by fire and it’s submerged in the water.” Last October, a gas station on the island erupted in flames and at least two buildings were destroyed in the blaze.
POLICE FIND BODY OF MAN IN A VAN By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
the weekend showing the man’s body, with his leg hanging out of the vehicle. ABACO police discov- Chief Superintendent Wenered the body of an adult dell Smith of the Abaco man in a van on Saturday Division told The Tribune bBesut!ne afternoon. police received The Triyesterday However, the BiggestaAnd report about a body of a ne bu TheBiggTestinriAnd Bescharge officer of the black male at the Crossing t! island said foulOBITS play is not Dock in Marsh Harbour INSIDE suspected at this time, but sometime around h3.45pm. une T e eeTrikebnd an autopsy will be carried EMS pronounced W out to determine the cause the man dead at the scene. of death. He added: “There were atch the A video surfaced over no physical Wfilm signs - everyto the
body as it relates to injury or trauma…the body was then taken from there and secured at the morgue at Marsh Harbour. “The investigation is ongoing and the body will be flown out to Nassau at some point for an autopsy for us to determine a cause of death. “We still do not have a positive identification of the deceased male but we’re working to get that.”
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OH, AND THERE’S AN ELITE WATER LIST TOO
es Revealed: Nam list and on the eliteowed what they
not be officials could T to press time. reached up By AVA TURNQUES to sources Reporter of According .net Tribune Chief matter, as tribunemedia close to the Wells has since aturnquest@ Mr Progres- Monday his accounts FOUR former Cabinet paid $9,000 on balParty an outstanding ARNOLD sive Liberal more than with $8,600. FORBES ministers owedat Bahamas ance of some also said as $62,023 The source Forbes was one $20,000 each Mr Light, with Power and in arrears of Monday the company former minister as of July, in talks with balance over settle the Mr for some $60,000 a list obtained to three-month period. a according to PLP Mount by The Tribune.and Collec- Forbes, former MP, was appointed The Credit 2015, listing of Moriah in January the tions Department and board to Cabinet served as MPs, senators the period and previouslythe Bahamas for chairman of and Industrial members revealed 31, ending July State Minister Agricultural . that former of Works Corporation the “do not Others on are: former in the Ministry owed BPL list disconnect” Arnold Forbes Health Dr of $62,023.14. by The Minister former Tall The list obtained delin- Perry Gomez, Leslie Miller, Tribune contains of six Pines MP Youth Minister of former quent accounts Cabinet minis- former Johnson, Dion former PLP PLP MPs, Dr Danny Village MP ters, two former Tourism DR DANIEL entities, and Nassau , two private Cabinet min- Smith, former JOHNSON Obie Wilchcombe one sitting $24,413 Town MP Minister South Beach MP and former ister: Bamboo Hamilton State Renward Wells. who owed Cleola of Mr Wells, $3,703.96 at former Minister Damian Affairs $9,277.07 and locations - for Legal two separatetotal – did not Gomez. SEE PAGE EIGHT $12,981.03 in yesterwant to comment other former day, and the
T By AVA TURNQUES Reporter t Tribune Chief ibunemedia.ne aturnquest@tr Sewerage WATER and Chairman Corporation yesterday Adrian Gibson existence the confirmed disconnect” of a “do not by scores list populatedthe governof elites at utility owned to ment he pledged provider as on initiate a crackdown accounts. delinquent told The Mr Gibson l “confidentia Tribune the 221accounts, list” held total of with a combined the period $175,000 for2017. ending June he plans He said that corporathe to direct all persons tion to notify arrears owing excessive or face debts to resolve n. disconnectio a list confi“There is the Long dential list,” Island MP said. think would “In fact, I s corporation that all the year or two, in over the last and more particularly year, there May of thisclose attenhas been that list by tion paid to t with the managemen changing the a view to lists usually way those operate. this con“As it stands, a number has fidential list on it, and of persons it’s being really and trulypersons by used to notify or letters. call courtesy that as the I can say toothe corporachairman of to direct tion I am going owing that all personswho are excessive arrears EIGHT SEE PAGE at the end of
DR PERRY GOMEZ $24,498
LESLIE MILLER $42,219
DION SMITH $9,275
RENWARD WELLS $12,980
BPL WHO RUNS is quite willCRUNCH DAY OVER utilityto operator from it “walk away”
e Staff
W. Carey/Tribun
win landslideCHRISTI E AS HE
ing By NEIL HARTNELL Editor $25m, five-year maximum t contract et Tribune Business ibunemedia.n BPL managemen nhartnell@tr and Minnis if the board wish it to go. on Power & BAHAMAS board will administrati which will The meeting,PowerSecure Light’s (BPL) by meeting” hold a “crunch e today, be attendedand their attorneys key with PowerSecurlikely crit- executives is viewed as the from the US, with the outcome whether the to determining whethermake and ical in decidingas manager. sides will “kiss latter remainsTribune Busi- two separate. up” or Multiple - SEE BUSINESS yesterday US FULL STORY ness sources that the confirmed
HUMILIATION FORAFTER 4O YEARS LOSES HIS SEAT
seats: Encaptured four Island and Cat were spent under to South Aners’ dollars administration. glerston; 1,900 votes and San Salvador; Christie the win with is evidence 2017 the as well as Exuma DORSETT Mr Christie’s 1,875. He said if there”, the new dros VIRGIL ELECTION Islands. By SANCHESKAReporter to the unofBy KHRISNA Reporter seat, Fox According the the Ragged of “criminality et Tribune Staff from the Parwill allow SPEAK An additional being reDeputy Chief bunemedia.n ficial results Registration government course. THE PEOPLE nemedia.net sdorsett@tri PAGE 4 was still its kvirgil@tribu his Hill, law to take to press time. and liamentary , Mr Chipman after ON’ decounted up his parMoments DNA ‘TO GO PAGE 5 IN a surprisingat the Departmentout of 12 pollas the na- This marked the worst in AFTER leadinglandslide defeat party won seven maiden speech MinLOSE humbling leader, Dr Prime Min- ing divisions in the former ty to a stunning feat for a governing Mr tion’s next PLP BIG NAMESPAGE 7 dealing a parapolls, outgoing that under recent history. victory and to the ProgresChristie lost PLP stronghold, while will nis promised victory came MPS ister Perry Bahamians The FNM’s won five. lysing blow Party last night, years the Centreville his watch, YOUR PROJECTED his seat in last night by Christie a rocky five PAGE 9 to fear from Mr Christie sive Liberal challengIn 2012, have nothing , pointing to despite conPrime Minister constituency representing included two SO FAR incoming declared after said that Dr Minnis’ leadership, won the Centreville the government RESULTS 14 he eighth votes Minnis 40 25 the which PAGE than n, Dr Hubert more of a fracstituency for time with have abused victimisatio tional” “im- es to the area for to unofthat those who trust “have continued reports ultimately consecutive He defeated is “unconstitu MORE COVERAGE of years, according party and the post “wrong”. PAGES 2-18 positions 2,950 votes. moral” and to unofficial tured to fear”. ficial results. candidate Ella removal from has held Opsomething to thousands of According able his at the Mr Christie 1977 and the FNM’s of the Official FNM was Speaking by 1,349 votes at the Q House today. results, the stunning defeat of leader in the House of won all the Lewis the seat since a pledged that jubilant supporterslast night, ment Mr Christie leader of Dr Minnis on will give to pull off securing a mas- position has been Liberal Party time. polling division in E Sports Centre but one administrati Terrance of the PLP, constituencies. Assembly. a long fought National MoveProgressive 39 “This was victory is not the Free also announced his General a 2012. 1997. it sive 34 of ry Regthe Auditor since released but Prime leader he as resources ment the former is yours,” Although The Parliamenta did battle, loss, be sworn in The about the his seat to that he will fourth prime Bastianto probe how taxpay- istration Department re- mine - the victory thousands Minister lost Movement statement did not speak full election last Dr Minnis told on the carThe Bahamas’ at Govern- needs Christie not release 5pm Free National packed with the and po- Mr minister at SEE PAGE SIX sults last night, in from the of FNMs (FNM) candidate Reece nival grounds. people’s time numbers coming litical newcomer agency around “This is the and I who secured government from the and I am your servant Chipman, 11pm. However it apSEE PAGE THREE unofficial numbers, the PLP only of the conpeared that “The outcome trust according to vention did not inspireBahalast Mark Humes in the results, said coming afor confidence but that’s sweeping defeat residents unofficial it is “obvious” mian electorate think that I ROLLE have stood behind us now and they night ter Fort Charlotte By RASHAD Reporter told him party would winning the the party has a wonderful repeatedly lead- the Tribune Staff stand the any a better chance rebuild and emedia.net could not he been victori- opportunity to rrolle@tribun of the country per- election had itself,” he said. leadership for for- ership despite their ous in the PLP’sadding that reengineer longer, him. AS HE called SEE PAGE SIX RASPBERRY Minister Perry sonal affection for was pro- race in January, made a mistake” mer Prime who ICED TEA “the party resign as leader Mr Sears, Mr Christie. Free NaChristie to Liberal in choosing to lose to the Al- jected Movement’s (FNM) of the Progressive last night, the tional Party (PLP) said he saw fred Sears
DAMIAN GOMEZ OBIE $3,413 WILCHCOMBE CLEOLA $4,911 HAMILTON they owed $6,118 list and the amount since that date. disconnect” BPL “do not made or further debt incurred named on the NINE individualsdo not include any payments July. The sums
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safeas well as of homicides A DORSETT guarding the residents By SANCHESKReporter in Fox Hill. et Tribune Staff walkabout bunemedia.n During a Acting prepared. live national sdorsett@tri er Fox Hill on Tuesday, ROLLE During a Ferguson Commission his office By RASHAD Reporter ACTING Fergu- Commissioner and address from Dr Minnis Tribune Staff Anti-Gang of Police Anthony emedia.net yesterday said the Inveslast night, Maria is rrolle@tribun Tracing and announced dev- son establishment of two Firearms Unit will operate fore- said: “Hurricane the potentially Bahamas tigation WITH we the DetecMaria another hurricane that separate Royal anti-crime out of the Central the cast for Hurricane Force storm to pass astating monitor.” (CDU) while projecting the Baha- must carefully Though most Police aimed at eliminating tive Unit SEE PAGE 11 units the counHe added: near the Southeast in Prime spared was morning, gang activity the number of mas Friday Hubert Minnis of the Bahamas try, reducing Minister Dr of those SEE PAGE TWO and is urging residents be vigilant islands to
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Dr Hubert MinPRIME Minister Kendera Woodside, nis meeting murdered Eugene the mother of
this Yes I feel for y our countries.than I can say.” more ensure has a responsibilit one mother said he will Each citizen information Dr Minnis provided to and whatever that forward. medical attention is is pregnant. the composure. said he felt the fam- has we must bring among us.” who after feel live Dr Minnis Mrs Woodside, the grieving and days makes me Three These criminals who emphasised country’s he “You can see of those pushed the ily’s pain. “What through,” Mrs Minnis, that her appearis that most during murder that violent crime into ROLLE she’s going someI, even worse By RASHAD Reporter not a pain “I assured her that the family the yard, struggle with spotlight yet again, them was doctor, to will have we see in Tribune Staff ance before called on women said. today (Friday) we to look the national as a medical emedia.net acute. rrolle@tribun come my my years political move,one day this week time her pain remained live a life, medical personnel she’s pregand comforting cried. “He ain’t even to wear blackfor murder victims. Dr THE hugs her because sure that Prime Minister wife God,” Mrs Woodsidegive my upon after in mourning I’m calling words of I have to make infant are and his a baby. I could my really nant. “As a mother, Hubert Minnis couldn’t answer “He’s right now just for because I this,” her and her unborn will also make take all mothers can stop Patricia Minnis that consumed breath be right here. They well and we sure the to believe mothers who was tearful both ts to make the questions yesterday as babyheart out my body. arrangemen Minnis, personnel who Mrs They Woodside sons said medical my eightKendera have our on a only son. for her son, killed times. “We birth and as they necessary her and see her “This my my daughter too after she grieved of them at from the safety who was still with look almost shoot (the house) with would’ve delivered most knowing we cradle basis to ensure infant.” year-old Eugene, men we are to me with regular they inside four days ago. people ain’t tell- and What they do to my family? so they are closer patients,” Dr becomeWe have to speakshould of her and her unborn PAGE TWO SEE former them. these me. son are my “Why st by pro- them. I think all women week they do to us? carry me? I they bringing my we ain’ one day this ing me they she cried between What Minnis, a gynaecologi “The message “Why they wear black what’s happening in a baby.” tried to right now?” fession, said. the entire Bahamas 29 years, He’s Dr Minnis and mourn Eugene’s Rose- live screams as must send to this alone. Tonio Woodside, family at theirEugene wife even is the police can’t fight console the consoled his home where on father, struggled to maintain bud Road a stray bullet as he was shot by did his homework. he Monday as
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he told Parto In June, cost the ROLLE such liament of By RASHAD Bahamians $10,149,738. by the Carib- Tribune Staff Reporter so alarmed Action Task rrolle@tribunemedia.net increases was comes after bean Financial draft The revision more than By NEIL HARTNELL Editor Rolle, minForce’s (CFATF) BRENSIL et Tribune Business services he included that were not The Bahamas ibunemedia.n report on his staff ister of public nhartnell@tr 1,700 workers Gen- that he instructedaddressing and National Insurance, in his original count. December Progressive THE Attorneyslammed to begin work on June. Amid the said between 2017, the criticism May flaws from early eral yesterday by Liberal Party’sadministrablasted the 2016 and in the nation’s the ballooned Mr Bethel deficiencies adminis- public purse laundering of the of the Minnisof its firings anti-money former Christie to tackle $16,532,738 because on’s tion because “entirely unacfailing administrati regime as SEE PAGE SIX they had tration for with the Christie public service ceptable”, warning “in great known weaknesses hiring of new that period. Bahamas urgency. The during put necessary BUSINESS workers danger”. told Trib- FULL STORY - SEE Carl Bethelhe had been une Business
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A DORSETT By SANCHESKReporter et Tribune Staff bunemedia.n sdorsett@tri
TERS yesFIREFIGH a large blaze terday battled Providence at the New three weeks Landfill, nearly a massive that after tackling city dump fire at the nearly a month. burned for Charge of Fire Officer in Chief SuperinServices, Evans said tendent Walter is “not confire the the current any way to this nected” in and at previous blazedo not know officials time the fire. Howwhat caused t Minister ever Environmen told rehe Kenred Dorsett the site that in at porters “sabotage” said suspected the fire. He relation to the team he “instructed”to have the of firefighters “before and blaze extinguished day” today nomination Baha Mar’s certainly before Friday. opening on started shortly The blaze and Wednesday after 3am officEvans said Chief Supt battle the fire to but ers expect day another for at least wind is a “huge” he said the factor. SEE PAGE SIX
INVESTIGATION
ROBERTS: PEET A ‘POLITICAL ENEMY’ FOR ANDROS BID
medical treatment. SIVE Liberal were obtaineda from a ther’s PROGRES The emails Bradley EMAILS leaked following of China Con- by The Tribune Party Chairmanout at his highdata breach (CCA) Roberts lashed story in December of CCA struction America’s colleague Vinthat from the breach former party night, accusservers show2013, Jerome lighting by a San Francisco cent Peet last North Anto servers China Construction as early as was seeking ing the former Islands MP hacker. Fitzgerald of dollars eventually paid 24 bitcoins dros and Berry enemy” $24,000) secure millions trucking, and (the equivalent of of being a “political an independin brokerage, to their servat Baha who mounted because he to have access it aplimousine contracts showing a resat in Cabinet ers restored; however, ent campaigna nomination forwarded leaked emails Mar while he of Educathat emails ONE of the Education, Sciwas denied party. Minister of as the Minister and Tech- pears relating to personnel quest from or d, Jerome Fitzgerald. from the governing tion, Science Tribune has to, to PLP supcompromise ence and Technology Speaking at CCA were in The nology, The a rally in North officials at Baha Limolink at top for porters agent despite were not learned. night, Mr Robwhich his Bahamas. You are encourcontradict the saying they hack at from Andros last is war” as faThe emails this week de- Mar clientele with a reference by the if erts said “this writes, “I limousine company was vote aged to get of Viacom Minister, who his office to concerned the crowd toPerry Mr Fitzgerald matime. the president feel free he urged Dr nied ever using to himself the an email dated May 18, am aware that interior arrive miliar. with regard the you wish. Please In for incumbent that a vote “Also Izmirlian terials have began to really we direct contracts me personally adding business from the mul- 2013, sent to Mr the to contact with contact Gomez, hotel. I would or his family resort. is a vote for be limousine meet with or have your agents Mr Fitzgerald, Cur- for the for Mr Peet Movement. it if we couldbro- are ready to he ti-billion dollar - the Pro- by our Managing Porter, Shelly appreciate anytime,” Free National Mr Porter Mr Fitzgerald Party MP QuentinAlarice Fill copied, appointed your official your people SEE PAGE SIX directly.” and his 2013.” Liberal Director tis 1st writes. gressive we really ker for June - appears also Mr Fitzgerald indicates a request TWO & THREE “As indicated cusSEE PAGES for Marathon start brokerage $20,000 He then makesfor limouto highend for readiness to only cater are the official to be requesting Baha Mar’s and trucking services and of Mr Izmirlian and at Baha Mar, a month from Sarkis Mar project re- sine services the level of tomers Baha developer the of exoriginal as he touted the brokers citing the Izmirlian, were necessary remain for the property. penses that cost of his fa- cord to cover the ealthcare
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Christie denies claims on spending AS PROM SEASO
FORMER PM TELLS OF LAST TALK WITH NOTTAGE
WELLS By RICARDO Reporter Tribune Staff nemedia.net rwells@tribu G concern ADMITTIN Bernard Notin over what Dr have battled last tage may his isolation during Prime Minisdays, former yesterday for ter Perry Christie admiration the expressed forth by the effort put security to former national the build-up minister in election. the May general from his Breaking away since being public silence office in hisof a voted out last month, toric fashion ChrisMr his visibly troubled portions of his tie detailed with last conversation and longfriend childhood colleague on time political Thursday. Centreville The former Nottage as Dr MP saw “fought tehis someone who throughout naciously” he loved and life for thosetrait he said he a their supported, to up saw on display . last conversation PAGE SIX SEE
IS • FORMER PM BY DAVIS TRIBUTE TO LEGACY OF ‘DISAPPOINTED’ FNM ALLEGATIONS COLLEAGUE • SAYS GOVT DID NOTHING WRONGT OVER $8M PAYOU • CALLS FOR REVIEW OF DOCUMENTS
ROLLE By RASHAD Reporter Tribune Staff emedia.net rrolle@tribun Nottage’s DR Bernard forever be will “footprints the Bahamian etched on tal landscape” developmen work as a forthrough his of the Bahamer president of Athletic mas Association s, the Bahamas Association , the Medical Association and as a Union afMinDoctors’ consumer FORMER Prime reminister for health and to accept the ister Perry Christie a defeat, was as I did when I fairs, education, Opposifor it arrears, into pictured yesterday. W. national security, who was in sponsibility response to “Brave” Photo: Terrel airport tenant described recent resigned,” he said in Leader Philip levelled e Staff tion as the criticism recent Carey/Tribun on from accusations Mr Christie in Davis said Wednesday. questions on 71, died administrati e spending, misfea- moves made by the government pandering at his administration Dr Nottage, the Cleveby a party of irresponsibl WELLS at a “misstep” thought By RICARDO Reporter Wednesday He will receive sance and cronyism. that weeks. never any he was “disap- to its base. acceptmaintained Tribune Staff “There was land Clinic. He also said allegations being in arrangenemedia.net that I was degree relating Mr Christie by the rwells@tribu gova state funeral announced, documents s would on my part y for any Per- pointed”around by the new be a review of irrements to ing responsibilit Prime Minister tossed matters that to these two controversie the press secof criminality, on of any FORMER according to Office of the yesterday condemned ernment concerning last term as absolve his administratithat much whatsoeverspending and the notion for the just ry Christie administra- transpired during his is prove retary sponsible bare’ and Minnis Anthony is as noth- that ‘the cupboard is wrongdoing efforts by the his government in Prime Minister, prime minister.at accusations from of the FNM’s rhetoric slogans.” tion to portray as he challenged Newbold. “political political slogans.” Hitting back Minnis adminislight, SEE PAGE SIX ing more than challenges I have the SEE PAGE THREE a negative leader to carry out a members of the controvergovern“One of the the nation’s te examination of the who led the $8m to tration concerning of more thanclean up as the person led the government “dispassiona sial pay out ment and who record”. interview at one vendor for hurricane $1.2m to an During a lengthy write off of home on Thurshis and the his Cable Beach hristie defended
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traditions. just a short ROLLE “Earlier today,present ParBy RASHAD Reporter the while ago, Tribune Staff officially disemedia.net liament was Christie said. rrolle@tribun Mr of Perry solved,”seat in the House “Every PRIME Minister the prover- Assembly is now vacant. the to you, Christie rang morning, “It is now left beloved bial bell yesterday that the 2017 citizenry of our who will announcing be held on nation, to decide in the next election willMay 10. fill those seats In doWednesday, address, givof Assembly. His televisedOffice of the House you will also be dethe ing so, en live at the came mowho will form Prime Minister, Commis- ciding of the BahaPolice government five years. ments after Greenslade, for the next that mosioner Ellison as provost mas “You will make in what ns in his capacity decision proclamatio pray marshal, readHouse of As- mentous hope and elecfair outside the Governor Gen- I earnestly and be free Pin- will following a spirited sembly from Marguerite Let tions eral Dame Parliament. peaceful campaign. dling dissolving said he is but the forthcoming Mr Christie election will us contestwith all the vigour confident the and will fol- elections fair at our command.” be free and and peaceful SEE PAGE TWO low a spirited is consistent campaign that political with this country’s
TERED 170,000 HAVE REGIS NG DAY AHEAD OF POLLI
with correctnow engaged the voter ROLLE ing and editing it of its By RASHAD Reporter register, ridding Tribune Staff ised errors. emedia.net much-public enough staff to rrolle@tribun “We have “We 170,000 peo- do this,” Mr Hall said.certiJUST over sure it’s to vote have to make after tople have registered 10 general elec- fied some 14 daysdate.” for the May ry Com(Tuesday’s) tion, Parliamenta Hall said day’s accordance with the In Elections missioner Sherlyn ry pubParliamenta yesterday. what he de- Act, Mr Hall will give of This follows election in a “mad rush” notice of the week, statscribed as to vote lic this of newspapers people registering place in conthe last day ing the date, times when on Monday, and registration. 172,000 peo- stituencies papers must be There were to vote in the nomination delivered. ple registeredelection. SEE PAGE THREE 2012 general ry Regis The Parliamenta Department istration
THE ELECTION
race is under
ARCHER PLP IS OMAR CONVICTED ARCHDEACON SAYS ITS LIFE’ OVER THREATS ‘FIGHTING FOR
way - as pictured
MINNIS CALLS FOR ON DECK ALL HANDS VIRGIL
in this cartoon
from Jamaal
Rolle.
host JOHNSON Deal” with By LAMECH Reporter “The Real By KHRISNA Reporter A BROWN Ortland Bodie, Archdeaet Tribune Staff Deputy Chief bunemedia.n By SANCHESK said this elecnemedia.net Reporter con Palacious “difficult” for ljohnson@tri kvirgil@tribu et Tribune Staff Sr was tion will be and the FNM Move- sdorsett@tribunemedia.n of OMAR Archer both the PLP is no FREE National convicted Dr Hubert N Archdea- and at this point there how yesterday senment Leader to harm a ANGLICA gauge said said the threatening way to “properlygo.” Minnis yesterday“all hands con James Palacious officer through need that the Progres- the results will came one ior police his social media FNM will vote the Pro- yesterday Party appears a post to two years ago. His comments on deck” to Party gov- sive Liberal its life” Deputy Prime nearly he to be “fighting for neither day after Phillip “Brave” page 45-year-old Nassau gressive Liberal of office as that The ernment out Day, May and predicted party nor the Ministerpredicted that the Village resident appeared Davis heralded Election seats in the SEE PAGE SEVEN Movement that will bring the governing will win 30 10, as a day Free Nationalseats in next PLP SEE PAGE TWO 30 change. spoke dur- will wingeneral election. at month’s Dr Minnis on conference as a guest ing a press Appearing SEE PAGE THREE
THE TRIBUNE from page one Bahamians and residents returning home from a trip abroad over a period of 72 hours or less are exempted from having to provide a PCR COVID-19 negative test result to re-enter the country. However, these travellers will have to quarantine for two weeks upon their return home. In both instances, the period of quarantine time may be reduced if the traveler opts to take a COVID-19 test upon arrival in The Bahamas and the result is negative. The traveler will be responsible for the cost of the test,” he said. Progressive Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis criticised Dr Minnis’ address, saying the country got “self-promotion and puffery, FNM rally talk and politics” instead of an exit strategy from the state of emergency. Mr Davis said: “Right now (the prime minister) proposes to open this economy with the virus raging in Florida. It is clear that the economy must be opened but it also clear that what is required is an unambiguous plan for fully protecting the Bahamian people when the economy is opened. It appears to us that the prime minister has simply gotten drunk with the power of the proclamations and is enjoying the use of dictatorial powers so much he simply cannot and will not let go.” Although international travel will resume on Wednesday, attractions and excursion tours can only reopen on July 13 while straw vendors and Jet Ski operators can resume operations on on July 27. This week’s reopening of the country’s borders comes as the United States continues to see a spike in COVID-19 cases. Cases have surged in Florida for instance, a state where many Bahamians travel for quick getaways. Critics have asked the Minnis administration to reconsider reopening the country’s borders in light of this increased risk. “We are reopening because we must carefully balance the health, economic and social needs of our people in order to secure our country in the medium and long-term,” Dr Minnis said yesterday, as he touted the country’s success in keeping COVID-19 rates
Monday, June 29, 2020, PAGE 3
As PM confirms full re-opening, he begs - don’t go overseas
PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis low. “We have to reopen to get more Bahamians back to work and to get businesses and the economy back to work. Like a number of other countries, we are reopening because we have been successful in arresting the community spread of COVID-19 in The Bahamas. “Because we acted boldly and firmly, we are able to reopen our society
and economy in a safer manner than many other jurisdictions, which are now suffering great loss of life, scores of deaths, hospitalisations and greater uncertainty.” Even as he outlined policies for reopening of the country’s borders, Dr Minnis strongly urged people not to travel overseas. “If you are thinking of travelling for
non-essential or nonemergency reasons, please, I beg you, stay at home at this time,” he said. “Please stay at home. A number of the cities and areas Bahamians and residents like to frequent in neighbouring countries and cities are experiencing a dramatic rise in COVID19 cases. Many of these are hotspots where this very contagious virus is
BEACHES BACK IN BUSINESS - BUT ABUSE IT AND LOSE IT
from page one
monitoring during this upcoming week, we will make a determination on whether the beaches will remain opened or closed on the Independence holiday weekend. These measures are for the ongoing protection and safety of Bahamians and residents.” Gyms and outdoor group exercises will be allowed to resume on Wednesday. Dr Minnis said masks will not be required during exercise. “However, persons must wear their masks up to the point that they are about to begin exercising and immediately after they have completed their exercise routines. Additionally, they must have their masks visibly and easily identifiable on their person during their exercise routines,” he said. It is an offence for businesses to allow people entry to their establishments without a mask. The fines include $500 for the first offence and $1,000 for the second offence. For a third offence, the businesses could be temporarily closed or required to pay more fines. Dr Minnis reiterated the importance of observing social distancing guidelines. “This virus spreads human to human through close contact when an infected person spews respiratory droplets,” he said. “Let me say that in more direct words: If you stand close to someone without a mask covering your mouth and nose, and they have no mask on, they could expel
the virus as they talk to you. By wearing a proper face covering we protect one another. It is a sign that we are our brother’s and sister’s keepers. Many people who spread this virus are asymptomatic. “This means they look
healthy and do not have symptoms. They are not coughing or sneezing. They do not have fevers. But they may be shedding the virus and cause other people to get sick. If you are in close contact with asymptomatic
people and they don’t have on a mask or face covering, and nor do you, you could catch the virus from them. “We must wear our masks and face covering properly. Your mask is supposed to cover your nose and mouth. It is supposed to cover your nose and mouth for the entire time you are out. It is unacceptable for you to have your mask over your mouth and not your nose. It is even more unacceptable for you to have your mask just over your chin. I have seen Bahamians openly gather in groups talking and hanging out without their masks once they get out of stores and businesses. “We all have to do better than this.”
widespread. If you travel to these areas and go to malls, shops, restaurants and other establishments you might catch the virus. You could bring the virus home and community spread could start again. Let me be as clear as I can: your actions can damage the health of others and your actions could help worsen our economy if we have to lockdown again.”
The country’s COVID19 count stands at 104. A new confirmed case has not been reported for 14 days, Dr Minnis said yesterday, adding that is has been 53 days since a case was recorded on Grand Bahama and 43 days since a case was recorded on Bimini. There have been 11 COVID-19 related deaths. Editorial View - Page 6
PAGE 4, Monday, June 29, 2020
THE TRIBUNE
Two-year-old girl in critical condition after she was shot while being held in her grandmother’s arms By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net A FAMILY is desperately appealing for blood donations for a two-year-old girl left in critical condition after she was shot by gunmen in Eleuthera on Saturday night. A relative has identified the child as Da’Nyla Roberts. According to police, officers at the Governor’s Harbour station received reports of a shooting shortly before 10pm at Baby Johnson Lane in Hatchet Bay. Officers who arrived on the scene discovered a toddler suffering from gunshot wounds to the lower abdomen. Initial reports noted that a woman was sitting on the porch of her residence holding her grandchild, when a vehicle approached
the residence and three men exited. One of the men, “after making a comment produced a handgun and discharged it in her direction and left,” police said. Moments later, the grandmother discovered that her granddaughter had been shot. The child was airlifted to New Providence for treatment. Police said two male suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident and are assisting them with the investigation into the matter. The little girl’s aunt, Daneyell Roberts told The Tribune the family’s emotions went “from 0 to 100” when the relatives received the call of her niece being hit by one of the bullets. “They were saying at first it was a flesh wound… they were indicating they had her stable, they sedated
her,” Ms Roberts said. “They flew her out on the emergency flight. She had surgery that night. “After coming out of surgery this morning, I believed it was around between 5-5.30, she had internal organ damage to her lung, her spleen, her kidney, her liver and her bowels. They’re saying she’s going to make it but it’s going to be a long recovery time and we’re asking for O+ blood.” The toddler was born in New Providence but spent most of her life in Gregory Town and partially in Hatchet Bay, her aunt said. The two-year-old splits her time between her mother and father’s families as a part of a joint custody agreement. “The Saturday (that) just went - she was due to go back to her mother. So, her mother picked her up around the scheduled time
between 9.30-10 o’clock. She picked her (up) and took her into Hatchet Bay,” her aunt recalled. Ms Roberts explained both parents are in in Nassau with their daughter but due to COVID-19, they’re not allowed to spend as much time visiting her in hospital as they would like. The Eleuthera shooting happened three weeks after a 10-year-old girl died in hospital due to gunshot wounds. Lorencia Simmons Walkes, 10, died on Sunday June 7, more than a week after she was shot in the Carmichael area. The fifth grader attended Sybil Strachan Primary School. She was among three people shot on May 29, after occupants of a gold coloured vehicle approached a group in front of a home at Belville Circle off Iguana Way shortly after 1pm, police said. Three men exited the car with firearms and fired gunshots at the group, according to police. Anyone with information on these incidents is asked to call police at 5029991/2 or Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS. Editorial View - Page 6
A RELATIVE identified the child as Da’Nyla Roberts
THE TRIBUNE
Monday, June 29, 2020, PAGE 5
MAN ADMITS ASSAULTING MOTHER OF HIS CHILDREN
from page one Commissioner Rolle was asked if there is a need for an independent body nearly two weeks after police killed three men off Cowpen Road. At the scene of that shooting, the police chief said an officer had been “ambushed” by a gunman inside a car, prompting police to fire at the the men. “There is an independent body in the Coroner’s Court that is responsible for investigating all policeinvolved killings but we in law enforcement, we assist the coroner in taking statements, collecting evidence,” he said on Friday. “When an officer collects any evidence for example on a crime scene and he seals it, he doesn’t see that any more until it gets in court. Persons who give police statements will appear before the coroner and the coroner is going to be doing the investigation and that is going to be made up of members of the public so any suggestion that the officer takes a statement and they disagree with, the coroner has that prerogative. “Furthermore, any member of the public who has information regarding an incident could feel free to go and see the coroner and they have police officers assigned to the coroner to do it. When they have a coroner’s inquest, the officers involved must appear, it’s a public hearing by members of the public.” Commissioner Rolle said the coroner is present when evidence is collected and secured at scenes. “I have every confidence in (the system),” he said. “Whenever an incident happens, we call the coroner, we don’t do anything until the coroner arrives. Nothing is done. The coroner is there overseeing and giving instructions. The evidence is submitted to the lab and it’s a chain of custody, so it goes to an exhibit officer and the exhibit persons there, they are a mix of police and civilian persons and it’s analysed and the report doesn’t come back to me, the report goes to the coroner. So the longest we would keep a file is about two days and so the pathologist report, the death certificate, doesn’t come to the commissioner, that goes to the coroner. I don’t know what it says, I wouldn’t know until there’s a hearing, that’s when I find out.” The commissioner made his comments to reporters after marking the completion of a tactical policing and defensive drivers course involving police, customs and immigration officers. During his address to the attendees, he said: “You
By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
POLICE Commissioner Paul Rolle
Rolle has ‘every confidence’ in how policeinvolved killings are investigated were trained in physical fitness and agility as you need to be physically fit to perform your tasks. You were trained and certified in emergency medical so that you would be able to render first aid should it become necessary in your daily duties. You were retrained in justifiable force and harm. I need you to always be mindful of your limitations in the use of force. We serve an ever aware and watching public that expect us to protect them and not to abuse our powers in dealing with them.” Commissioner Rolle told the course participants firearms and lethal force should be a last resort and “only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public cooperation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular
occasion for achieving a police objective.” He said the RBPF has received 800 cameras and that officers will be trained in how to use them when the country’s borders reopen. He said officials are examining policies pertaining to the publication of footage from body cameras. “If it’s a matter for court, then we’ll go to court, if it’s something where we need the public’s assistance, then we’ll release it to the media the same way we do now,” he said. Commissioner Rolle also said he is exploring less lethal weapon options like tasers and body wrap technologies to reduce incidents of fatal encounters between police and suspects. “I have approached a company in the US already, a couple of them. Just yesterday I got a communication from a local company and have asked Assistant Commissioner (Craig) Stubbs and the executive team to arrange a meeting to get a
demonstration so we are actively looking for alternatives, we don’t want to in every instance resort to lethal force so while we explore this whole idea of using tasers but of course with using tasers, every time a person is tased they have to be taken to the hospital, EMS has to come and they have to be treated so there’s also an inherent danger in that. I mean it’s less lethal and it’s an option that we are looking at,” he said. Asked when he expects movement on the embrace of less lethal weapons, he said: “Depending on how soon the vendors can get the information to me and then I have then to approach Cabinet. I’m not only trying to get them, but I have to get feedback from all the other professionals as well with the use of tasers and you talk about the degree of injury and what is happening in other jurisdictions and how that is turning out.”
MAN FINED FOR VIOLATING NATIONAL CURFEW By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A 28-YEAR-OLD man was fined $500 in the Magistrate’s Court on Friday for violating the national curfew and lying to a police officer. Jackson Durogene appeared before Magistrate Kara Turnquest-Deveaux after officers found him on Eneas Street around 2.13am on June 25. He
pleaded guilty and was fined $350 or one month at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services. During the hearing, Durogene was also charged with deceiving a public officer. He admitted to committing the offence and was further fined $150 or one month at BDCS. Both sentences were ordered to run concurrently. Prosecutor Kenny Thompson said officers
on mobile patrol observed Durogene on the road. He said when the defendant noticed the officers, he “quickly walked” into a nearby yard. When the officers questioned Durogene, he identified himself as Jackson Carey. Still, he could not give a satisfactory account for why he was outdoors. Sgt McKenzie said when the officers conducted a background check, they
discovered the defendant’s last name was Durogene and not Carey. As a result, he was arrested and taken to the Southern Police Station. During an interview with police there, he told officers that he was “going through things with his wife” and claimed that the two of them had got into a fight so he was staying at his cousin’s house who lived through Eneas Street.
WINDSHIELD IS SHATTERED PAIR CHARGED WITH THEFT By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A MAN shattered his cousin’s windshield during an argument, a court heard on Friday. Tyrone Taylor, 26, was charged with damage in Magistrate’s Court after he admitted to shattering his cousin’s windshield last week. Taylor pleaded guilty to causing $567.28 worth of damage to David Wildgoose’s 2010 Honda Accord on June 22 during his arraignment before Magistrate Kara Turnquest-Deveaux. The court heard that Mr Wildgoose told police Taylor had thrown a rock at his car while they were having an argument. During the hearing, Taylor told the magistrate he had gone to his grandmother’s apartment to
warm up food that night. He claimed while he was there, Mr Wildgoose “flew up” in his face “for nothing” and kept telling him that the “curfew was coming soon so he needed to hurry up and get from around here”. Taylor said at the time, he felt like it was not Mr Wildgoose’s place to tell him to leave since it was his grandmother’s residence. He claimed that he broke Mr Wildgoose’s windshield after Mr Wildgoose punched him in his eye. As a result, Magistrate Turnquest-Deveaux fined Taylor $300 for committing the offence. She also ordered the defendant to compensate Mr Wildgoose for the damage to his windshield and warned him that if he failed to do so, he would spend six months at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.
By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net TWO men were charged in Magistrate’s court on Friday with stealing an assortment of cleaning supplies from the company for which they worked. Jo-Delvano Archer, 35, and Emmanuel Kemp, 23, appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes charged with stealing by reason of employment after they were accused of stealing five cases of pine scented cleaner, six cases of Ensueno fabric softener, 13 cases of Flash cleaner, and 10 bags of Ruth laundry detergent from the Bahamas Warehouse Agency on June 9. The items had a combined value of $583.23. Archer pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined $500. He was also ordered to compensate the company
$583.23 for the stolen goods. If he fails to do so, he will spend six months at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services. Kemp on the other hand, denied the allegation and had his case adjourned to October 7 for trial. According to prosecutor Lincoln McKenzie, the Bahamas Warehouse Agency’s manager reported that Archer had supplies to deliver to Super Wash but when the defendant returned, he discovered that some of the items that were intended to be delivered to the laundromat were missing. He was subsequently arrested and taken to a station, where he admitted to the offence. Archer was represented by Jomo Campbell who said his client had fallen “victim to the pressures of life” because his partner had just given birth to twins.
A MAN admitted to assaulting and threatening the mother of his children during a court hearing on Friday. Maxwell Saunders was ordered to complete 50 hours of community service after appearing before Magistrate Kara TurnquestDeveaux on Friday. Prosecutor Kenny Thompson said the complainant told police that Saunders came to her window, on the left side of the house, and woke her up. She said Saunders told her he knew she didn’t sleep at the house the night before and demanded she come outside to speak with him. Sgt Thompson said when the complainant refused to comply, Saunders entered the house and shouted “Don’t let me jick you in your neck (and) whoever come around here who you dealing with (sic).” The complainant told police that when she didn’t respond to Saunders’ threats, he punched her in her head and left cheek, causing her pain. As a result of her complaint, an investigation was launched and Saunders
was subsequently arrested. During an interview at a nearby station, he admitted to going to the complainant’s residence that morning, but said he went there to get clothes for their children. Saunders told the magistrate he was a “law abiding citizen and a single parent who was trying to do right for his children”. He also claimed he had experiences with people calling him to come pick up his children because their mother wasn’t there and said that the situation had only escalated because he and the complainant had “never come up with an agreement with what to do with their children.” Stating that he just wanted to get the incident behind him, he “apologised for the situation” and insisted he was an “honest man”. After listening to his explanation, Magistrate Turnquest-Deveaux said she would not impose a custodial sentence and instead order Saunders to complete 50 hours of community service. Still, she warned him that if he failed to do so, he would spend one month at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.
JAMAICAN ACCUSED OF UNDERAGE SEX By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A JAMAICAN man was arraigned in Magistrate’s Court on Friday accused of unlawful sex last month with a minor. Tralavae Andrews, 19, appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes charged with one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a
14-year-old girl sometime between May 1 and 31. He was not required to enter a plea and the case was adjourned to November 2 for service of a voluntary bill of indictment. Bail was denied and he was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services in the interim. He has a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.
PAGE 6, Monday, June 29, 2020
THE TRIBUNE
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Safe to come in but not to go out? THERE was a contradiction at the heart of Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ national address yesterday. On one hand, he is opening the doors of the country to visitors – even those from locations where COVID-19 is still running rampant. On the other, he urged Bahamians not to travel to those locations. Is it safe for people to come from those hotspots? Open the doors! Is it safe to go to those hotspots? Don’t do it! Let’s be honest, this is all about the money and the economy. For a tourism destination with casinos for visitors, we are asking people to place their bets and take a gamble, and hoping that the house will win. Our biggest tourism market is the United States – which racked up another 36,113 cases yesterday. Florida alone had another 9,585 new cases on Saturday, and the state has just short of 100,000 people currently infected with active cases. So when the Prime Minister warns of travel to these hotspots, saying “If you travel to these areas and go to malls, shops, restaurants and other establishments you might catch the virus”, well, that’s the same places people are coming from to visit us. Sure, they’ll need to have taken a test to show they haven’t got the virus – but they may well catch it between the test date and the flight. Even at the airport, perhaps – with Orlando International Airport having had more than half of the employees who took a test showing positive.
Why are we reopening in the face of that? The PM gives the answer: “We have to reopen to get more Bahamians back to work and to get businesses and the economy back to work.” In short, we need the money. So what do we do? We take what we’ve learned these past months and we keep doing it. You know the drill by now. Wear your mask. Wash your hands. Keep your physical distance. When someone ignores those precautions, tell them to take a step back, or take a step back yourself. Minimise as much as possible the chances for that virus to make the leap from them to you. Grocery store staff have been on the frontline through all this, and now hotel staff will be joining them on the frontline. We urge them all to stay as safe as possible – and urge their managers to ensure every measure is taken to help them to stay safe. Jitney drivers, you too will have to be vigilant and not overcrowd the buses. Another $1.25 won’t help you if you get pulled over for having too full a bus, and it won’t help anyone if a whole bus gets infected. In the ideal world, our neighbours would have control of the virus before we opened the doors to them. It seems clear this is far from the ideal world. We are putting our faith in pieces of paper showing a negative test, and staying six feet apart so we don’t end up six feet under. This is no happy ending to our COVID-19 story. It could all be just beginning.
No room for these monsters WHAT manner of monster pulled the trigger that left two-year-old Da’Nyla Roberts in hospital? She was shot as she sat in her grandmother’s arms on her porch. The gunman raised his weapon and opened fire on a grandmother with a baby in her arms. Who could do that? This is nothing less than evil. Let there be no place for this kind of monster in The Bahamas. Whoever the gunman is, people know him. Two people were arrested on the scene, but how did the gunman reach the stage
where he thought this was acceptable? Who are the people who forgave him the ills that led him to this, that made him think this was the right action? He should be ashamed, and he should be shamed by those around him. This incident should be a cause of public horror – and perhaps cause some who might follow the gunman down this path to reconsider and try to turn their lives around. And say a prayer for Da’Nyla. Her aunt says she is expected to survive – but those prayers will be very welcome.
Alarm bells ringing EDITOR, The Tribune THE alarm bells are ringing loud and clear. The USA, which is the most powerful nation in the world, has a crisis. The COVID-19 virus is out of control in many US states including Texas and Florida, both major hubs for international travel to The Bahamas. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top US infectious disease expert, has warned Americans of a “disturbing surge.”
Seven US states are showing record numbers of COVID-19 related hospital admissions, and some hospitals are reporting that they are almost at full capacity. Why then is The Bahamas opening its borders on July 1, 2020, and inviting the COVID-19 virus to our islands? Tests are supposedly not 100% reliable, and even if they were, someone that tests negative today may be positive by the time they arrive in The Bahamas.
There is a madness that is taking place, as people seem to be defying logic and acting as if there is no longer a threat from the COVID-19 virus. A health crisis is threatening our country and will engulf it like a Tsunami if we open up on July 1, 2020. If there is a major outbreak there will be no high ground for the Bahamian people to run to. WORRIED CITIZEN Nassau, June 27, 2020
Let the games begin EDITOR, The Tribune ACCORDING to our minister of tourism it would appear that we may very soon be welcoming visitors from the US and from Europe to our shores at the drop of a hat. No quarantine, no negative test results. So what now is the point of continuing
with our current preventative measures? Why not just release the people from quarantine who have not already escaped, open up all the bars and churches and let the games begin. CHRISTINA SMITH Nassau, June 2, 2020.
Marley called it mental slavery EDITOR, The Tribune AMERICAN hegemony and cultural domination looms large all over the world, nowhere more so than here in the Caribbean. In our region, no country can claim a closer physical and cultural relationship with the US than us. Yet somehow, miraculously, the obdurate writer Kevan Evans, wants us to believe that when it comes to race relations we exist here in a vacuum, impervious to the earth-shaking demands for equality taking place next door. He posits that because our fight for racial justice was not as bloody as the Americans, somehow, we have arrived at the holy grail of racial egalitarianism. It appears that Evans stubbornly refuses to evolve beyond the time when black people were referred to as negro. Nobody is proclaiming that Negro Lives Matter. Tellingly, he didn’t demur in referring to white Bahamians as such instead of using the similarly outdated term “caucasian”. While few countries practice the level of inequality in their criminal justice system quite like the Americans, we are not above admonishment for incidents where our police have violated the rights of some citizens, ignoring the constitutional guarantee that all are innocent until proven guilty in court. Recently a judge upbraided our police for shooting a fleeing suspect and another judge chastised the police for violating another man’s constitutional rights (presumably to freedom of speech and from unreasonable arrest). These were not racial injustice in the classic definition, but we can neither prove nor disprove any role that indifference to one’s own race may have played in contaminating the minds of the officers involved. Evans gave us an example of how a key fallacy of our home-grown racism still informs too many minds today. He criticised an internet blogger who posted a picture of the white oligarchs who
LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net controlled economic and political life here prior to the 1960s. This simple telling of history is somehow “race baiting” in Evan’s fertile mind. Evans exalts the oligarchs as “highly accomplished” for obviously benefitting from their genealogical connections, exclusive access to power and white privilege. Few politicians gave up their day jobs back then and most amassed great wealth from government contracts, political favours, cronyism and special consideration that were only available to them. Doesn’t take genius to get rich if someone gives you exclusivity in your chosen business. Then, in another sign of his ignorance of history, Evans states that the Free National Movement, “merged” with the UBP of the oligarchs. No such thing happened. The night the late Jimmy Shepherd invited friends to his house to form the FNM, there wasn’t a UBP politician in sight, nor would they have been welcomed past Shepherd’s front gate. UBP members and patrons are Bahamian and therefore entitled to support any party they want. A few joined the PLP and even those that didn’t, prospered under the PLP in ways they never imagined. So, having set up business courtesy of friends in high places, Evans wants us to now be grateful that these white oligarchs employ blacks. There is nothing altruistic on their part. They get richer and further endow their progeny in the bargain. Not content with grossly misrepresenting the situation at home, Evans then serves up a despicable homily on the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US, which now belongs to the world. He labels the female cofounders of the movement feminists, as if feminism is bad and only women could be feminists. He even speculates on the sexuality of one of them as if that has
anything to do with their fight for justice. Evans fails to grasp the inescapable fact that the white supporters and street protestors of BLM, now greatly outnumber black proponents. Achieving that was as shrewd as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s strategy to get white people to support the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Then, as now, change happens when a majority of the people demands it. Evans became apologist-in-chief for the UBP, trivialising the racial injustices that they condoned here as simply “some form of institutionalised racism”. An uncodified colour bar prevented blacks from many jobs. More perverse is that a mental “shade-ofblack” bar still exists today in many areas and is often meted out by blacks against blacks. A syndrome the late Bob Marley called mental slavery. Because it permeates so much of society, it must be viewed as institutionalised and systemic. The BLM message is just as poignant to get blacks to recognise their self-worth, as it is for those racist cops in the US who demean and snuff out black lives. Not all blacks in the US will suffer the blows or even the knee of racist police, but that doesn’t exempt them from suffering at the hands of a racist system. The very fact that black American parents have to instruct their children to act like subservient vassals if confronted by the police should be proof to all that the BLM movement is pivotal. The precept that total obedience to the police is required from blacks contrasts sharply with the proclamation of their constitutional rights that whites lecture police about when they get stopped, with often no consequences attending. When a black man’s life depends on his sacrificing his dignity to appease a rogue racist cop, that is certainly proof that Black Lives must Matter to all races. THE GRADUATE Nassau, June 28, 2020.
THE TRIBUNE
Monday, June 29, 2020, PAGE 7
FISHING HOLE ROAD CAUSEWAY REOPENED AT LAST By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis officially opened the Fishing Hole Road causeway in Grand Bahama on Friday, marking the end to what he called a long and difficult chapter for Grand Bahama residents. The causeway connects West and East Grand Bahama and is the main access route between West Grand Bahama communities and Freeport. The original causeway was built in 1957 but Dr Minnis explained that devastating storm surges of past hurricanes caused large sections of the road to be washed away and made daily commuting difficult for motorists. Before giving official remarks, Dr Minnis attacked opposition leader Philip “Brave” Davis and other members of the opposition who visited the
FROM the left: Minister of State for Grand Bahama, Kwasi Thompson; Parliamentary Secretary Pakesia Parker-Edgecombe; CEO of All Bahamas Construction Company, Wolfgang Geiger; Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis; Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Iram Lewis; Minister of Works Desmond Bannister. Photo: Yontalay Bowe/BIS causeway on Thursday. “What I saw yesterday, the leader of the opposition and the opposition as a new low, never seen in the history of The Bahamas, an opposition leader touring a facility and declaring that they are officially opening the bridge, never in the history,” he said.
“We are in the new norm and they are taking us to a new low.” In 2015, under the former Christie administration a contract was awarded to All Bahamas Construction to replace the Fishing Hole Road embankment with a raised causeway. Dr Minnis explained what caused
a delay in the project’s completion. Dr Minnis said: “With the change of scopes the project required additional funding. The situation was exacerbated, due to the combination of a number of events, including but not limited to the delays and devastation caused by
the past three major hurricanes, including Matthew in October 2016, Irma in 2017, and most recently Dorian in September 2019. Unfortunately residents were left to suffer through very difficult driving conditions. Prior to Hurricane Dorian, the Fishing Hole Road Bridge was substantially completed and
authorities were planning to officially open the bridge in September of 2019. Even though, Hurricane Dorian did not affect the concrete bridge structure which was a testament to the quality of the work, the approach asphalt roads and side slopes were destroyed. After witnessing the affect of Hurricane Dorian we decided to replace the asphalt roads with 8” thick reinforced concrete rigid pavement, and the side slopes and shoulders with 6” thick concrete making the whole structure more integral and climate resilient for future storm events.” Dr Minnis said residents now have a “modern designed, resilient, concrete Trestle Bridge, spanning 900ft across the Hawksbill Creek with a life span of 50 years, sitting 12 feet above the mean sea level, and able to withstand hurricanes up to Category Five intensity.” The total cost of construction is $9.2m, he said.
Davis criticises Minnis over hotel redundancies
By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net
PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party Leader Philip “Brave” Davis has attacked Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis for the “heartless and mean-spirited” way in which redundancies are being handled at the Grand Lucayan hotel. He called on the Minnis administration to say what relief laid-off workers will receive. Tribune Business reported last week that the process of permanently laying-off workers at the resort
has began as the property’s sale to the ITM Group/ Royal Caribbean joint venture nears completion. The layoffs will be phased-in over several weeks. “It has come to my attention that the government has made a unilateral decision to release the staff at the Grand Lucayan Hotel in Grand Bahama,” Mr Davis said in a statement. “I remind the prime minister that he went to great lengths to convince the country that one of his primary reasons for his government’s purchase of
‘DOWNGRADE SHOWS GOVT POLICIES ARE NOT VIABLE’ from page one Mr Cooper said on Friday that Moody’s action was not totally unexpected. “Moody’s warned in April when we were placed under review that we would be downgraded if they did not see a credible fiscal and economic policy response from the government. They clearly did not,” said Mr Cooper. “While we did experience the economic shock stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, it is clear that the response has not met the challenge before us. Its response to Dorian was similarly anaemic and slow. We see a pattern when it comes to this administration responding to crises. “We warned them to take progressive steps early to mitigate the fallout from COVID-19, but this administration did not. We warned them about taking action quickly for filling financing needs, but this administration dithered. “It is telling that Moody’s itself questions if the government will even be able to adequately fulfil its financing need.” The deputy leader noted the impact on taxpayers with an increase in the costs of debt servicing, and making borrowing more difficult and more expensive. Mr Cooper called it “a triple whammy” for The Bahamas to be downgraded two notches and given a negative outlook. He said the party urged the government to address structural impediments to growth such as the cost of energy, the ease of doing business, a more robust regime to encourage foreign direct investment and stimulate domestic investments. Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Leader Arinthia Komolafe also said the downgrade was no
PLP’S Chester Cooper surprise, adding “the FNM’s administration fiscal experiment is a failure in the face of Moody’s downgrade”. She criticised both the PLP and FNM as the path to non-investment grade or junk status was paved by administrations led by both parties. “We did not get here overnight,” she said. “Our rating got progressively worse and the proverbial chickens have come home to roost. It is common knowledge that our sovereign rating was downgraded three times under the previous FNM administration and four times under the PLP administration between the years 2007 and 2017. “The current administration inherited an economy rated as junk bond status by Standard & Poor’s and a notch above junk status based on Moody’s rating,” she said. She added: “While COVID-19 and Hurricane Dorian dealt major blows to the Bahamian economy, it is disingenuous to suggest that our junk bond status was as a direct result of these two crises. This is a culmination and manifestation of ill-advised fiscal policies and economic policies, failure to diversify the economy, reluctance to conduct comprehensive tax reform, and failure to address structural defects in our economy.”
this hotel was to protect those hotel jobs there. His claim has not materialised. “I am empathetic to the plight of those displaced workers and others in the industry, but I am very disappointed with the heartless and mean-spirited manner in which the prime minister is conducting this redundancy exercise. Just (last) week, both chambers of the House concluded exhaustive and lively debate on the upcoming fiscal budget and as critical as Grand Bahama is, at no time was this labour issue ever raised. “I am further advised
that both the tourism minister, responsible for the hotel at Cabinet level and the Bahamas Hotel Managerial Association executives were also not engaged and left in the dark about discussions that led to these layoffs. This is regrettable. The Bahamas Hotel Managerial Association executives are not unreasonable, unyielding and inflexible people, but they need and expect a partner in the government who is firstly respectful of them and who consults with and listens to stakeholders with a view
PLP leader Philip Davis
to reaching a consensus in the best interest of all concerned. I concur with their basic expectations. “The unions are not asking the prime minister to work miracles, but at the very least, they expect him to act in good faith and with deference. As the government still has vacant possession of this property, the prime minister must say how the government intends to avoid further assist deterioration until the sale is concluded and what relief is being offered to the displaced hotel workers,” Mr Davis said.
THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS
MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020
We can’t stay closed for ever but now isn’t the time to roll the dice
By Malcolm Strachan
AS WE stand on the doorstep of the day of reckoning, anxiety is in the air. On one hand, many Bahamians are ready to get back to a place that can be considered normal. On the other, those taking a considered approach to the government’s decision to reopen the country
are deeply uneasy. As we think about our loved ones and other citizens – those with compromised immune systems in particular - it is frightening to witness the coronavirus uptick continue with record-shattering force in the US. And while America continues to get battered daily with rising COVID19 cases, their leadership remains tone-deaf and ignorant to the facts.
With another single-day record being smashed as this was written - the US had more than 47,000 new cases on Friday, following two consecutive days of hitting new highs. Just as disconcerting, Florida is one of 13 states that have set their own records in COVID-19 cases over the past week and a half. Nonetheless, with options looking as clear as mud, we press on.
With Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar noting pre-pandemic levels will likely not return for another 18-24 months, what other choice we have? On top of that, our good friends at Moody’s made the decision to downgrade the country to junk status. And if any of that was not bad enough, another 1,200 Bahamians are about to become unemployed on the heels of Baha Mar’s
announcement of a 20 percent staff cut. People, we are in dire straits. And the reality is we literally cannot afford to keep the country closed another moment. But the scary thing about COVID19 is although you can’t see its effects outside of the physical toll it exacts on a person’s health, what it can do to an economy is much more devastating because you don’t need to catch the virus to be severely injured by it. Unfortunately, reopening the country will not save us in the long haul, as all it does is provide a buffer. If what is happening right next door to us is any indication of what to expect once travel resumes, this will likely be a short-lived experience. Can you imagine what a coronavirus spread would look like in our local hospitality industry? We’re talking about the majority of the private sector labour force whom, in most cases, live in densely populated communities, being sent home to quarantine for the mere threat of the virus. Let us not forget how 200 healthcare workers were asked to self-isolate at home for two weeks following a scare at the Princess Margaret Hospital. At least, in that instance, our tourism product was largely unhampered. We can’t be too certain, though, that we would be able to say the same if, God forbid, a Bahamian employee becomes infected and we are unable to figure out who “Patient Zero” is. Such a scenario could very well portray the image to the world that people travelling to The Bahamas are at risk – the absolute last kind of press we need. International headlines would surely push a stake through the heart of our economy. But at least we would have reopened the country, right? Seriously, what sense does it make to reopen without the proper safeguards in place? Even with accepting we have few alternatives, given we are so
incredibly tourism dependent, much more should be taken into consideration. We may not be able to take as bold a stance as the UK did by putting an outright ban on US inbound travel. However, we should be considering such measures for COVID-19 hotspots. And to the extent that neuters our tourism marketing, perhaps this calls for innovation and incentivising people from other regions minimally impacted by the virus to visit the country. What we shouldn’t do is walk into what is right in front of us – doomsday. I caution you – do not write off such warnings as gloom and doom, pessimism, mischief making and the like. If done haphazardly, we are guaranteed to set ourselves back eons in the fight against this pandemic and all our sacrifice would have been for naught. Nothing has significantly changed with regard to our capacity to withstand our healthcare system being over-run with COVID-19 cases. Further, our ability to keep cases down prior to reopening was done in a controlled environment and should not be looked upon as an indicator of future success. Additionally, two weeks was not nearly enough time to simulate what the Bahamas COVID-19 service model should look like, as it has been seemingly taking place in a vacuum. Allowing operators to come up with their own coronavirus modifications in silos makes it apparent that we are not harnessing the opportunity to become a destination known for its tourism experience in a COVID-19 world. Baha Mar not being on board with opening on Wednesday is the proof that we simply aren’t ready. This move is being done out of desperation. And while that is certainly understandable, given the circumstances, the risks unless we are pleasantly surprised - will likely far outweigh the reward. All said, I sincerely hope that I am made a fool.
EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net
INSIGHT
MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020 PAGE 9
Rotary’s putting the ‘R’ in Dorian recovery By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT ts-cartwright @tribunemedia.net ROTARY International to spend approximately $10 million on the recovery of the island of Abaco, immediate past president, Barry Rassin has told The Tribune. Along with the $10 million comes a promise of Rotary staying with Abaconians until their lives return to some semblance of normalcy. “A disaster comes in parts,” the Rotarian explained. “First there is ‘Immediate Relief’. Rotary Clubs in this country were unbelievable. They all stepped up to provide immediate relief. We worked with the airport, with registering individuals, we were on the boats that went to Abaco to bring in the evacuees. Each club adopted a shelter in the early days so they could help the shelter with whatever they needed like food and supplies. “We moved evacuees from place to place to make sure they were getting what they needed and raised funds. Freeport is a little different because they are a separate district than us, but we work very closely together. Freeport also has a Rotary water plant that is only used for emergencies. Rotary raised the money to build it. It is only for emergencies so we do not compete with anyone. After Dorian, we had the first water that people could drink on the island. The Rotarians distributed that water. People would come to the plant with bottles and we would fill them up with water. I think they were producing 15,000 gallons per day.” Many Abaconians have complained bitterly, saying that any assistance given them, comes from the private sector or foreign entities. They want more from government and think what has been done so far is not enough. Rotary International includes 45,000 clubs in 200 countries around the world. Its mission is “World Understanding” and
“Peace”. Rotary focuses on projects in areas like, education, water sanitation, economic and community development and disease prevention, donating at least $400 million per annum. Mr Rassin said because of Freeport Rotary Clubs’ connections with Florida’s Rotary Clubs, over 250 tons of supplies were brought in to assist Freeport. The Disaster Relief Authority is aware of the good work Rotary International has done on the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama. “Once we got past the immediate relief we started on long term repairs,” he continued. “There were several projects. They started helping the fishermen get their boats back. All the boats got washed on land. We purchased 30 engines for them to put on the boats, so the fishermen could go back to work and start rebuilding the economy. That was $189,000.” He noted the Rotary Foundation which covers the world, has been extremely supportive with anything related to Hurricane Dorian’s disaster recovery and COVID-19. He explained how money is made by Rotary to fund disasters such as Hurricane Dorian. “We are able to take some of the money we have raised, then go to some country and get them to match what we get,” Mr Rassin said. “For example if we have $10,00 we can get another country to match that with $10,00 then we go to our Rotary Foundation to match both of them. So we can turn that $10,000 into $40,000 and that’s what we want to do to fund the projects in Abaco. “The other big project in Freeport; they have been repairing roofs. So they would go from community to community to see which residents need help. What they did was select a community leader and put him in charge and then let him find people in the community to help repair the houses. So it was, ‘we will buy the supplies and you will provide the labor’ and they started repairing house after house. That was
a priority and they are still working on that. They have done dozens of roofs. We also had donations of tiles from Rotary in Florida as well.” Rotary International has partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and purchased two recreational vehicles which just arrived in The Bahamas last week. One of the vehicles is for Abaco and the other for Grand Bahama. “The UNDP will put experts in building construction into those vehicles and they will go from community to community to help the residents know what they need to get their houses repaired,” said Mr Rassin explaining what the vehicles are for. “They will help them with building codes, help with what suppliers are available or help with inspectors and whatever else they need. United Nations will operate and maintain the vehicles and when they no longer need them, then we can use them for the next disaster. We are trying to think long term as an organization.” Turning his attention to Abaco, Mr Rassin said, sometime after the Dorian disaster, Rotary realized Abaco needed water. “They had one plant going which one of the international agencies put there,” he said. “So we partnered with a few local groups like Pure H20 and we now have a portable reverse osmosis water plant in Treasure Cay. That enables us to distribute 10,000 gallons of water per day. So the water plant, like the vehicles, is portable and when they no longer need it we can use it for next disaster.” Rotary has partnered with a group called the “Idea Foundation”, led by Will Tomlinson, to purchase $100,000 worth of food for Abaconians, under the guidance of a nutritionist. Rotary also took charge of seventeen children who lived in an Abaco orphanage destroyed by Hurricane Dorian. The children were transported to the Ranfurly Home and Rotary donated some $100,000 to the home along with twenty-six beds. Mr Rassin said Rotary
replaced the roof for the lighthouse keeper’s quarters at the Elbow Reef Lighthouse. The service club donated 60 generators to Abaconians, and a 60KW generator to power a building that houses a community centre. Mr Rassin said Rotary’s intent now is to repair schools and build shelters on the devastated island. “We most definitely want to be a partner with building the shelters,” he said. “You
have to look at all aspects of the community. That’s what I like about Rotary; we are not going to focus on just one thing. Schools are very important. So I want to make sure every school there is made whole. I just need the Disaster Relief Ministry to tell us and then we can adopt a few schools. I can go to Rotary in countries around the world and say, ‘I’ve got school X and I need $200,000 to $400,000’ and they will help.”
Rotary is in talks with the Chamber of Commerce, for a possible partnership in projects to restore Abaco. And, Doctors Hospital has been in conversations with Abaco authorities to find a way to assist with health services especially in Treasure Cay. Summing up the plight of Abaconians, Mr Rassin said it’s going to take a lot to rebuild Abaco, but it can be achieved if everyone steps in and assists.
PAGE 10 MONDAY, JUNE 29, 22020
INSIGHT
EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net
The number of cases are skyrocketing and, to put it bluntly, reopening as planned will cost lives LINES of cars wait at a coronavirus testing site outside of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida banned alcohol consumption at its bars on Friday as its daily confirmed coronavirus cases neared 9,000, a record that is almost double the previous mark set just two days ago.
A Bahamian resident in the US signals a warning for us all AS A concerned Bahamian citizen living in one of the southern states in the United States currently experiencing an unprecedented spike in COVID cases, I am deeply worried about the potential consequences of The Bahamas opening its borders to international tourists, which is scheduled to begin on Wednesday. I want to preface this by saying how impressed I have been with the Bahamian government’s response to this crisis since the outbreak hit this hemisphere a few months ago. I have been filled with pride to see the leader of The Bahamas display his belief in science, wear a mask and bravely impose social distancing measures, unpopular as they may be. That being said, I believe the government will be making a grave mistake if Americans and other foreign nationals are allowed to travel to The Bahamas from July 1 and onward. I can tell you, as someone living in one of the top five cities of case growth in the entire United States, that there is no way to guarantee that The Bahamas will continue to enjoy the impressively low case numbers it now has if tourists are allowed back in so soon. The case numbers and hospitalisations in the US are hitting new record highs on a daily basis, and we all know that, because the US is currently only testing about 25 percent of its population, these numbers only reflect a portion of those who are actually carrying the virus. On a daily basis, I see Americans refuse to wear masks and instead go about their business ignoring social distance recommendations. I am willing to bet they will not change this behaviour when on vacation in The Bahamas. Yes, there are protocols in place, such as the requirement of a negative test. But to have the window that the test must have been taken within the last seven days greatly reduces the efficacy of this measure. Let’s play out a possible scenario. Say Jane Doe wants to travel to The Bahamas in a week’s time, so she decides to be tested. (Let’s keep in mind now that test results in the US often take two to five days to be returned in the first place.) So Jane gets in her car and goes to a drivethrough testing centre and is swabbed for the virus. And let’s say that, unbeknownst to Jane at this time, she is, in fact, negative for the virus. Unless she immediately goes home after testing and strictly self-isolates for the next six days until her flight, there is no way to guarantee she will remain negative for the virus when she arrives in The Bahamas. If she does not go home immediately after being tested and instead does some very simple things such as stopping to get gas, or popping into the foodstore to pick something up
for dinner, or paying a visit to a friend, it is possible and, as the case numbers imply, increasingly likely that Jane Doe could become exposed to the virus. In this scenario, it is possible to be tested, and then become positive for the virus even before getting your test results back! And the test results would read negative, because Jane would have been exposed after her test. Not to mention the possibilities of exposure that are inherent in the very process of travel! There is simply no way to guarantee the virus will not come into The Bahamas with the current protocol in place and given that the number of cases are skyrocketing currently, it is extremely likely that it will. There is simply far too much room for error. And these errors, to put it bluntly, will cost lives. The state I currently live in made the fatal mistake of reopening too soon. Many hard-working Americans were put in the position of having to make the unthinkably difficult decision between their pay cheque and their health. Now hospitalizations have tripled with the number of available ICU beds dwindling and the leadership is struggling to save face and with their tail between their legs, ordering businesses to close once again. I believe The Bahamas will go through this same sad and, frankly, embarrassing sequence of events if the borders are opened under the current protocols. I know many Bahamian people are suffering and that keeping the borders closed a bit longer will require that the government continue to extend extra support to those who need it. I know this is not a simple thing to request. But it is precisely for the handling of complex challenges such as this that our government exists. I humbly ask that the government reconsider making the same mistake of reopening too fast and without stricter protocols. The Bahamas has the unique opportunity - due to the incredible work that has been done by the government and the Bahamian people as a whole - to soon be a COVID-free country. You have the opportunity to be recognized on a global scale as a leader in the fight against the deadly disease that has affected everyone on this planet. Why squander this unique opportunity? Why ruin all the hard work that every single Bahamian has contributed to in creating a country where this unpredictable and deadly virus is on the brink of being eradicated? Now, I am not suggesting The Bahamian government operate based on fear. To the contrary, I am suggesting the government be brave enough to look at the numbers and the science and put the health of the Bahamian people first. The government of the US has failed to do this, and those of us here are paying for it dearly.
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T
HERE have been unhelpful and destructive attacks by leading members and zealous supporters of the APNU-AFC caretaker government in Guyana against all with whose position they disagree. The targets are international organisations, CARICOM Heads of Government, other governments that have been major partners with Guyana and their diplomatic representatives. All these institutions, governments and their representatives have urged the political parties in Guyana to accept an undertaking they solemnly gave. That undertaking was to accept a national recount of the votes cast at the March 2 general elections as the basis for the election result. Apart from its paid lobbyist in Washington, Bart Fisher - who succeeded in printing an Opinion in the obscure publication Washington Examiner research has not revealed any credible supporters of the belligerent stand that APNU-AFC has adopted of rejecting the national recount which President David Granger helped to initiate and to which he said he would be bound. The APNU-AFC stand is unfortunate. The party, or at least its two main components, the Peoples National Congress and the Working Peoples Alliance, have legitimate places in the political life of Guyana. These are places that should be preserved, because every country needs political parties that offer ideas for good governance and hold themselves ready to form a government at the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box. These parties also need the recognition of the Caribbean and international community that they are democratic entities, prepared to advance their ideas vigorously and ready to accept the judgement of the electorates. They squander the respect and the encouragement of the regional and international community when they resort to slurs and calumny against Heads of Government and institutions as the only defence for refusing to accept a transparent and fully supervised recount that does not suit them. The recent assaults on Barbados’ Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, as Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is loathsome. Ms Mottley carried out her duty to member states of CARICOM, including the nation of Guyana and to the Charter of Civil Society of which Guyana is a signatory. She expressed “sadness” over events in Guyana that have caused the result of an election, held more than three months ago, not to be declared and she repeated that the report of the CARICOM scrutineers “reflects the result of the recount process as certified by the
INSIGHT
MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020 PAGE 11
CCJ offers parties in Guyana pathway to the rule of law election has gone on long enough. The process in Guyana must be brought to an end, based on the results of the national recount, and with respect for the will of the majority of the electorate”. The justices of the CCJ offer that conclusive opportunity. They held a lengthy case management session on June 25, with all the parties concerned except the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, who discarded the CARICOM report of the recount and invalidated more than 115,000 votes. He chose not to make a submission or be represented by counsel, and therefore not to be questioned by the court when the case is heard. They will begin hearings, after written submissions, on July 1. The CCJ hearing and, eventual decision, will give the parties in Guyana a chance to adhere to the rule of law, behave lawfully and salvage their own and the country’s standing. They should take it.
BARBADOS’ Prime Minister, Mia Mottley very staff of the Guyana Elections Commission and witnessed by representatives of political parties”. Nothing Prime Minister Mottley said was untrue. Therefore, it is distressing that President Granger was encouraged to say her statement “appears to be designed to exert undue pressure on the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)”. To impute to Prime Minister Mottley such a disreputable motive is unacceptable and unjust. The CCJ has been brought into this matter as Guyana’s final appellate Court. The opposition, Peoples Progressive Party (PPC/C) and others are appealing a decision of the Guyana Court of Appeal, which ordered an interpretation of the words ‘more valid votes are cast’ and a stay of its decision for three days. The applicants claim the decision was wrong for many reasons, including that the Court of Appeal did not have the jurisdiction to hear and determine the Notice of Motion. The APNU-AFC has been adamant that the CCJ has no jurisdiction to hear the case, claiming the Guyana Court of Appeal’s decision is final.
Not content with making legal arguments to the CCJ to establish their case, zealots of the APNUAFC turned to broadening their attacks to include the President of the CCJ, Adrian Saunders. In a webpage constructed for political propaganda with an undisclosed writer, they claim St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister, Ralph Gonsalves, the longest serving Head of Government in the region who led his country to election to a non-permanent seat of the UN Security Council, is biased against them and that Justice Saunders will be influenced by his friendship with Gonsalves to rule against the APNU-AFC surrogate in the case. The attack on Justice Saunders is reprehensible as it is baseless. In the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Saunders twice found against cases in which Gonsalves was the lead attorney. Further, Saunders’ judicial independence is recognised internationally, including by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on whose advisory board he serves. Justice Saunders will also be accompanied in
the hearing by at least five other distinguished judges whose reputations are equally untainted. Fortunately, those who were convinced the judges of the Guyana Court of Appeal were compromised by familial and other links,
did not similarly indulge in casting aspersions on their judicial integrity. Luis Almagro, the Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States, summed up this sorry tale when he declared: “It is undeniable that this
The writer is Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and the Organisation of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are entirely his own. Responses and previous commentaries: www. sirronaldsanders.com
PAGE 12, Monday, June 29, 2020
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TRUMP TWEETS VIDEO WITH ‘WHITE POWER’ CHANT, THEN DELETES IT FLORIDA Associated Press
PRESIDENT Donald Trump yesterday tweeted approvingly of a video showing one of his supporters chanting “white power,” a racist slogan associated with white supremacists. He later deleted the tweet and the White House said the president had not heard “the one statement” on the video. The video appeared to have been taken at The Villages, a Florida retirement community, and showed dueling demonstrations between Trump supporters and opponents. “Thank you to the great people
of The Villages,” Trump tweeted. Moments into the video clip he shared, a man driving a golf cart displaying pro-Trump signs and flags shouts ‘white power.” The video also shows anti-Trump protesters shouting “Nazi,” “racist,” and profanities at the Trump backers. “There’s no question’’ that Trump should not have retweeted the video and “he should just take it down,” said Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate. “I think it’s indefensible,” he added. Shortly afterward, Trump deleted the tweet that shared the video. White House spokesman
Judd Deere said in a statement that “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.” Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, condemned Trump. “We’re in a battle for the soul of the nation — and the President has picked a side. But make no mistake: it’s a battle we will win,” the former vice president tweeted. Trump has been directing his reelection message at the same group of disaffected, largely white voters who backed him for years
ago. In doing so, he has stoked racial divisions in the country at a time when tensions are already high. He also has played into antiimmigrant anxieties by falsely claiming that people who have settled in this country commit crimes at greater rates than those who were born in the U.S. • THE Rolling Stones are threatening President Trump with legal action for using their songs at his rallies despite cease-anddesist directives. The Stones said iyesterday that their legal team is working with music rights organization BMI to stop use of their material in Trump’s reelection campaign.
“The BMI have notified the Trump campaign on behalf of the Stones that the unauthorized use of their songs will constitute a breach of its licensing agreement,’’ the Stones said. “If Donald Trump disregards the exclusion and persists, then he would face a lawsuit for breaking the embargo and playing music that has not been licensed.’’ The Rolling Stones’ 1969 classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was played at the close of Trump’s recent rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma — an indoor event criticised for its potential to spread the coronavirus.
SUMMER MAY DECIDE FATE IN VACCINE RACE WASHINGTON Associated Press
LEFT: A lifeguard keeps watch over a packed beach in California; top: Workers collect coffins at the La Recoleta cemetery in Santiago, Chile; below: Health workers arrive to administer a medical camp in a slum in Mumbai, India. India is the fourth hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic in the world after the US, Russia and Brazil.
Surge in US as global cases hits 10 million WASHINGTON Associated Press
WORLDWIDE confirmed coronavirus infections hit the 10 million mark yesterday. While concern in the US has focused on big states like Texas, Arizona and Florida reporting thousands of new cases a day, rural states are also seeing infection surges, including in Kansas, where livestock outnumber people. The US handling of the outbreak has drawn concern from abroad. The European Union seems almost certain to bar Americans from traveling to the bloc in the short term as it draws up new travel rules to be announced shortly. The infection surges prompted Vice President Mike Pence to call off campaign events in Florida and Arizona, although he will still travel to those states and to Texas this week to meet with their Republican governors. Those three governors have come under criticism for aggressively reopening their economies after virus lockdowns despite increasing infections in their states.
VICE President Mike Pence After confirmed daily infections in the US hit an all-time high of 40,000 on Friday, Texas and Florida reversed course and closed down bars in their states again. Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey reversed himself and allowed cities and counties to require face masks in public even though he hasn’t been seen wearing one. “This is not a sprint, this is a marathon,” said Dr Lisa Goldberg, director of the emergency department of Tucson Medical
Center in Arizona. “In fact, it’s an ultra-marathon.” US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar stressed that “the window is closing” for the U.S. to take action to effectively curb the coronavirus. Azar pointed to a recent spike in infections, particularly in the South. He says people have “to act responsibly” by social distancing and wearing face masks, especially “in these hot zones.” Azar argued that the US is in a better position than two months ago in fighting the virus because it is conducting more testing and has therapeutics available to treat COVID-19. But he acknowledged that hospitalizations and deaths could increase in the next few weeks. Globally, confirmed COVID-19 cases passed the 10 million mark and confirmed deaths neared half a million, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University, with the US, Brazil, Russia and India having the most cases. The US also has the highest virus death toll in the world at over 125,000. Experts say all those figures
significantly undercount the true toll of the pandemic, due to limited testing and missed mild cases. U.S. government experts last week estimated the US alone could have had 20 million cases. Workplace infection worries increased after Tyson Foods announced that 371 employees at its chicken processing plant in the southwestern corner of Missouri have tested positive for COVID-19. In the state of Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee put a hold on plans to move counties to the fourth phase of his reopening plan as cases continue to increase. But in Hawaii, the city of Honolulu announced that campgrounds will reopen for the first time in three months with limited permits to ensure social distancing. Britain’s government, meanwhile, is considering whether a local lockdown is needed for the English city of Leicester amid reports about a spike in COVID-19 among its Asian community. It would be Britain’s first local lockdown. “We have seen flare-ups across the country in recent weeks,” said Home Secretary Priti Patel.
PEOPLE on six continents already are getting jabs in the arm as the race for a COVID-19 vaccine enters a defining summer, with even bigger studies poised to prove if any shot really works -- and maybe offer a reality check. Already British and Chinese researchers are chasing the coronavirus beyond their borders, testing potential vaccines in Brazil and the United Arab Emirates because there are too few new infections at home to get clear answers. The US is set to open the largest trials -- 30,000 people to test a government-created shot starting in July, followed about a month later with another 30,000 expected to test a British one. Those likely will be divided among Americans and volunteers in other countries such as Brazil or South Africa, Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told The Associated Press. While he’s optimistic, “we’ve been burned before,” Fauci cautioned. Multiple successes, in multiple parts of the world, are vital. “This isn’t a race of who gets there first. This is, get as many approved, safe and effective vaccines as you possibly can,” Fauci said. Vaccine experts say it’s time to set public expectations. Many scientists don’t expect a coronavirus vaccine to be nearly as protective as the measles shot. If the best COVID-19 vaccine is only 50% effective, “that’s still to me a great vaccine,” said Dr. Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania. “We need to start having this conversation now,” so people won’t be surprised, he added. And for all the government promises of stockpiling doses in hopes of starting vaccinations by year’s end, here’s the catch: Even if a shot pans out -- and it’s one that your country stockpiled -- only some high-risk people, such as essential workers, go to the front of a very long line.
DR Anthony Fauci
SPORTS SECTION E
MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020
WILSON, PAGE 17
Gardiner wins 300m, falls short of Brown’s record By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net ahamian world 400 metre champion Steven Gardiner sprung out of the COVID-19 lockdown with a victory in the 300 metres as he chased the Bahamian male national record on Saturday in San Juan, Florida. At the annual B3R Sports Invitational, Gardiner ran out of lane five of the six-lane track to easily win the race in 31.95, falling short of Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown’s national record of 31.91 that he posted in 2007 in Osaka, Japan. Asa Guevara of Trinidad & Tobago came in second in 32.55 and Quintaveon Poole of the United States was third in 33.44. Also in the race was Bahamian Kinard Rolle, who is now training with Gardiner in Florida. Rolle, a 22-year-old 2019 graduate from Purdue University, was fourth in 34.35. “It was pretty good to have him there. Hopefully he can get better,” Gardiner said of Rolle, also a quarter-miler who has ran a personal best of 46.86 and 21.39 in the 200m. As for his own performance, 24-year-old Gardiner said it wasn’t what he expected, but he was glad to have been able to compete, considering the long lay-off because of the coronavirus. “I felt pretty good because my training went very well,” said Gardiner of his sessions with coach Gary Evans. “It was my first run for the year, so I felt pretty good. “It was a normal run. I just hope that it can help me to keep going. It’s something to gauge my performance, so I was really happy that I got to compete. Despite the lockdown and curfews imposed in Florida since March, Gardiner said he’s in pretty good shape and he enjoyed the experience and he’s looking forward to the rest of the season. Evans said it’s not expected to be a long season for Gardiner, who will be back at the same meet this weekend when he continues his assault on Brown’s record. “Our season was so long for us last year, leaving Doha in September and then having to prepare for the Olympics this year,” Evans said. “That was a crazy plan to do Doha so late in the season and come right back for the Olympics. “So it was a blessing in disguise that the Olympics are postponed until next year. Now we can recuperate our body and get back on a perfect schedule once he takes his break in September and comes back in November to try and bring the gold back home for the Bahamas again.” With most of their training confined to the grass during the height of COVID-19, Evans said Gardiner was only able to get on the track about three weeks ago and
B
STEVEN GARDINER, of the Bahamas, was a finalist for the World Athletics’ Male Athlete of the Year at the gala awards ceremony in Monaco in November. The 24-year-old is aiming to break the Bahamian male national 300 metre record set by Chris “Fireman” Brown. Coach Gary Evans shares the special moment. even then their time was limited to just two days a week. “He’s a freak of nature,” said Evans about Gardiner’s ability to strive in any condition. “I couldn’t believe the time he ran, especially because we didn’t do the type of speed work to get him ready for it.” The track, according to Evans, was a short one with tight bends, which made it more difficult for Gardiner to stretch out his 6-foot, 5-inch frame. But he said because there are no more major events this year, they will use the time to pursue the 300m record. “At some point, we will let him go after the
300 and the 800m records,” said Evans of Gardiner, who currently holds both the 200 and 400m national records. “It’s just a matter of when we will be able to go after the 800m. “We’re not going to put it out there and say we are going for it. For the 300m, this would be a good year for us to go after it because there’s really no major meets, so we will play with it and go for it.” Gardiner, who was a finalist for the World Athletics’ Male Athlete of the Year at the gala awards ceremony in Monaco in November, lowered his men’s national 400m record to 43.48 in winning the
400m title at the World Championships in Doha on October 4. The Abaco native, who started his career in the 200m under the guidance of coach Anthony Williams in Moores Island, established the national record in the 200m at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational in Coral Gables, Florida on April 7, 2018. “Before we had this interruption, he was ready to run this year,” said Evans about Gardiner’s preparation in the pre-COVID-19 stage up to March. “We’re not going to do too much more because we might be facing another shutdown in Florida.”
DAVIS, FED CUP FINALS PUSHED TO 2021 BECAUSE OF PANDEMIC LONDON (AP) — The Davis Cup and Fed Cup finals have been scrapped for 2020 by the International Tennis Federation because of the coronavirus pandemic, and both competitions will resume next year. The Davis Cup men’s competition was supposed to have qualifying matches for future finals this September and the 2020 finals in November. Now the World Group I and World Group II preliminary matches will be played next March or September, with the finals to be held in Madrid during the week of November 22, 2021. The ITF said the 18 nations that already qualified for the 2020 finals will keep those spots in 2021. The Fed Cup women’s event was supposed to stage its finals indoors in April, but that was postponed because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Now the ITF is holding those finals April 13-18, 2021, in Budapest, Hungary — and similar to the Davis Cup, the 12 teams that qualified for 2020 will be in the field. “The challenges in hosting a mass gathering of this size at an indoor venue are considerable, both in the current and the anticipated climate,” the ITF said in a statement. All sanctioned tennis competition has been on hold since March and the professional tours are aiming to return in August. But various exhibitions have been taking place, including a series organised by Novak Djokovic that had people in the stands and zero social distancing — and the No. 1-ranked Serb was one of four players who tested positive for the coronavirus. Other sports around the world have resumed play without spectators — the US Open Grand Slam tennis tournament is scheduled to begin August 31 behind closed doors — but the ITF wants to sell tickets for the Fed Cup finals. “Hosting the competition without fans was not considered a desirable option, given the unique atmosphere created by national supporters,” the ITF said. Following the lead of the Davis Cup, which debuted its new finals format in 2019, the ITF is using a new “World Cup of Tennis” format for the Fed Cup.
Candidates to vie for presidency of the BLTA By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net FORMER female national team member Dyphany Mortier has assembled a group of enthusiastic candidates that will join her in her bid to win the presidency of the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association. Mortier and her team, known as ‘Tennis Bahamas Love the Game,’ will take on incumbent Council Member/Junior Development coach Perry Newton and his ‘Bahamas Stability Tennis’ team during the election of officers on Saturday at the National Tennis Centre from 3-6pm. “For all of us, we’ve been watching for the past
several years, what’s been happening,” said Mortier, who represented the Bahamas on several Fed Cup teams and obtained a full tennis scholarship to first Arkansas State University, NCAA Division I Tennis and then to Barton College, where she graduated magna cum laude (with great distinction). “We go out on the court and the activity, the participation and the level of play has been steadily declining. At one point, whenever the Bahamas walked onto a court in any international competition, they knew our team was going to be very competitive and so they were afraid of us. We had players who participated in events. Now we have one or two players and there’s no
PERRY NEWTON
DYPHANY MORTIER
more players behind them,” she said. If elected as the new president, Mortier said her administration will focus on a more vibrant grass root programme to be able to attract more players into the association. She noted that all of the candidates on her team have benefitted
from their roles in tennis to become the pros in their fields that they are today. “All of us came from grass root tennis,” said Mortier, a product of the South Beach tennis programme. “That’s why our team is built that way. The diversity of our team was deliberate because we don’t
want to leave anyone out. We want to ensure that all of the voices are heard.” Calling it the most dynamic and diversified team assembled, Mortier said Dentry Mortimer, first vice president candidate, Kweku Symonette, second vice president candidate, Jeff Moncur, treasurer candidate, former president Derron Donaldson, assistant treasurer candidate, Kendria Ferguson, secretary candidate, Chanelle E Sands, assistant secretary candidate and council members Robie Isaacs, Brezile Hamilton, Kevin Major Jr and Philip Major Jr, all have something special to bring to the table. Mortimer, a former member of the Davis Cup team and now a coach, said
it’s a wonderful team to be a part of. “We hope to get a lot of support from all ages of tennis because of the different generation of persons on the board,” projected Mortimer, who came out of the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex programme. “It’s going to be a new era into the tennis community. It’s planning a new seed. “For so long, tennis has been at a standstill. I think it’s time for a new era and we hope to bring that to the forefront once we are elected. I think we have to go back and tap into the over the hill communities to get them more involved in the sport. I think we have to tap into those communities so that we can get the best talent and develop them.”
PAGE 14, Monday, June 29, 2020
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How Germany did it: completing the soccer season in Europe By JAMES ELLINGWORTH AP Sports Writer DÜSSELDORF, Germany (AP) — There was a trophy, there were medals and there were commemorative T-shirts. Only the fans were missing as Bayern Munich celebrated its title Saturday and the Bundesliga breathed a sigh of relief. The restart plan worked. “This isn’t the Bundesliga that we wanted or that we love, but it was the only Bundesliga that was possible,” league CEO Christian Seifert said. When the Bundesliga restarted on May 16, it was more than a month ahead of other major European leagues. The June 27 finish leaves Bayern Munich and Leipzig with weeks of free time before the Champions League returns in August. The Bundesliga’s virus testing and medical protocols formed a blueprint for other leagues and sports around the world. Unlike most other European countries, Germany also restarted the women’s league, won by Wolfsburg. A SEASON LIKE NO OTHER The games were eerie as players’ shouts echoed off empty concrete terraces and the colourful fan displays were gone. Borussia Dortmund set the tone on the first day back when its players lined up to salute the empty “Yellow Wall,” usually one of Europe’s loudest and best known fan section. The results were much like any other recent season. Bayern recovered from early-season troubles to win its eighth straight title with two games to spare, then held a muted
party in private without players’ families and the usual beer-throwing antics. Dortmund fought hard with an exciting young team, but fell short. The coronavirus brought pain to some players, at least indirectly. Injuries were more common after the long break from training and second-division club Dynamo Dresden had to play eight games in 22 days after positive coronavirus tests delayed its return to action. “Do you think that anyone in the league spent a single second thinking about what’s going on in our heads?” Dresden player Chris Löwe said in a tearful, expletive-filled televised interview railing against the German league last week. Now Bayern and Leipzig face weeks without games before the Champions League resumes in August, though Bayern still has a cup final on July 4 against Bayer Leverkusen. There is also a two-leg promotionrelegation playoff that has yet to be played. VIRUS TESTING Almost immediately after suspending the league on March 13, Germany quietly began preparing for the restart. It helped that Germany was a world leader in ramping up its coronavirus testing. That meant that the league could use as many as 25,000 coronavirus tests to finish the season without putting a serious dent in the country’s testing capability. The deputy head of Germany’s main public health body was opposed, saying tests should be saved only for people suspected of having the virus. At one stage the restart looked in doubt after positive tests for players or
rules and watched at home, as shown by record audiences for broadcaster Sky on the first weekend back. Bayern’s title win also didn’t prompt the kind of street partying seen in England after Liverpool’s long-awaited championship.
MUNICH’s team captain Manuel Neuer lifts the trophy after the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and FC Bayern Munich in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Saturday. Bayern wins the 8th straight Bundesliga title. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Pool Photo via AP) staff at first-division club Cologne and second-division teams Dresden and Erzgebirge Aue. Polls consistently showed most Germans were opposed to the restart. Detailed planning by the league for testing and training helped convince key politicians. The league has stopped publishing testing figures though no top-division team has reported an infection since the league resumed. The only confirmed case of a player missing a Bundesliga game because of coronavirus was when veteran Werder Bremen striker Claudio Pizarro was quarantined following a positive test for his daughter, as he later told the local Weser Kurier newspaper. He was not found to have the virus.
INJURIES ABOUND The restart was accompanied by a rash of minor injuries, mostly strains of players’ soft tissue. That left Borussia Dortmund fielding a less-than-ideal starting lineup in it’s title-deciding 1-0 loss to Bayern when Jadon Sancho and Emre Can were only fit enough to come off the bench as substitutes. Bundesliga players spent less time training at home than their counterparts in England or Spain because of Germany’s quick move to socially distanced training in groups. Some used the break to shake off injuries and return fully fit. Top scorer Robert Lewandowski, his Bayern teammate Kingsley Coman and Leipzig midfielder Kevin Kampl all made an impact after returning to fitness in the spring.
OBEDIENT FANS German police, like those in England and elsewhere, feared fans would gather around stadiums and spread the coronavirus. When Dortmund hosted local rival Schalke on the first day back on May 16, a few curious locals in club colours wandered by but soon left. A group of about 10 Polish warehouse workers constituted the largest crowd as they posed for photos in front of a club logo and played keep-ups with a ball. There was no repeat from the Bundesliga’s brief experiment with emptystadium games before the shutdown, when hundreds of Borussia Mönchengladbach supporters chanted outside their team’s stadium during a win over Cologne. Instead, German fans have mostly followed the
TV RIGHTS FALL Germany found itself leading the way commercially too. It was the first big European league trying to limit the financial damage to its TV deals during the pandemic. Nearly two decades of soaring TV rights values ground to a halt with the new domestic broadcast packages signed Monday worth 4.4 billion euros ($5 billion) over four seasons from 2021-25. That’s about 60 million euros ($67.7 million) less per season than the current agreement. Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said other leagues will soon feel the pain. “If you look at the problems that are still unresolved with the TV broadcasters in, for example, England, Italy or Spain, then we can still be very satisfied here in Germany,” Rummenigge said Tuesday in a video on the club’s LinkedIn page. Italy’s Serie A expects to launch a TV rights tender in September for the period 2021-24. The English Premier League and Spanish league are both heading into talks on new domestic TV rights cycles from 2022. Dividing a smaller TVrights deal between the same number of teams is causing tension in Germany. Many smaller clubs want a more even split and fewer advantages for teams who finish high up the table.
Klopp, the eccentric who put Liverpool back on its perch By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer JURGEN Klopp was two months into his tenure as Liverpool manager when he strode onto the Anfield turf, cajoled his players into lining up with him at the edge of the penalty area, and made them thank fans in The Kop with an armswinging salute. The team had just scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to salvage a 2-2 draw against lowly West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League. It was hardly a result worthy of such a reaction, and was invariably the subject of widespread ridicule. Yet it was typical of Klopp: maverick, unconventional, passionate, but also calculated. “Liiiiverpool, Liiiiverpool,” the Kopites chanted back, a bond seemingly already forged with a bespectacled, cap-wearing, bearded German manager who was about to make them dream again. Four-and-a-half years later, Klopp has attained legendary status in this port city as the man who returned Liverpool to the top of the English game after a 30-year wait, securing a 19th league title. A man whose name will be slotted alongside those of other managerial greats at Anfield — Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Kenny Dalglish. Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Manchester City on Thursday allowed Liverpool to clinch its first league championship since 1990, ending one of the most unforeseen droughts in British sports. European champion, world club champion, and now Premier League champion. All in the space of 13
LIVERPOOL’s manager Jurgen Klopp stands on the pitch before the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace at Anfield Stadium in Liverpool, England, on June 24. (Shaun Botterill/Pool via AP) months and all under the watchful eye of an eccentric who has turned Liverpool from a thrilling yet brittle team into a cold-blooded, trophy-winning juggernaut. More than that, Klopp has managed to achieve the nearly impossible in an era of increasing soccer tribalism: he is almost universally liked. Ask fans of Manchester United and Manchester City what they think about the man who has relegated
their teams to Premier League also-rans this season and they’ll most likely speak of their respect and admiration for him. It is easy to see why — and not just because of his infectious energy and passion on the touchline and his clear player-management skills. “No disrespect to the other managers before him, but I felt it from day one when he came in the door,” Liverpool captain Jordan
Henderson said about Klopp. “He just changed everything and everyone followed him.” In interviews and news conferences, Klopp is equally at home making jokes as he is talking politics and current affairs. He was one of the few Premier League managers to divulge his views about Brexit — “there was not one time in history where division creates success,” he told one interviewer — and he did
so in a calm and thoughtful manner. He holds strident opinions on player welfare, even if that means openly criticising governing bodies in the process. “As long as nothing changes I will say something all the time,” Klopp said this year, describing himself mockingly as ‘The Moaner from Liverpool.’ “It’s because it’s about the players, not one second about me.”
Klopp is also fun, his loud laugh and flashing grin — made even more stark after having his teeth whitened in late 2017 — now a staple part of a Premier League weekend. “The best word I can say to describe this is: BOOM!” he said, looking straight into the TV camera and with a broad grin, after Liverpool beat Man City in March 2016. The reaction has turned into a meme. How different it all would have been if he’d decided to join Man United, with whom he held talks in 2014 according to his biographer, Raphael Honigstein. Instead, a year later, he chose Liverpool as his next step after leaving Borussia Dortmund, a German club that has working-class roots, a strong heritage and a passionate fan base — just like the team he was about to join as the replacement for Brendan Rodgers. He has proved a perfect fit, and far from “The Normal One” tag he gave himself at his presentation at Anfield in October 2015 in reference to Jose Mourinho’s self-styled “Special One” description. Klopp already had charisma and an aura about him from his time at Dortmund from 2008-15 — with his quirky appearance and one-liners, he was regarded as one of European soccer’s great personalities — and also brought his trademark “heavy metal football” to Merseyside. While that saw Liverpool challenge City as the most watchable team in England across 2017 and ‘18, it is only since Klopp tempered his gung-ho style that the Reds have been capable of going toe-to-toe with City in terms of results.
THE TRIBUNE
Monday, June 29, 2020, PAGE 15
DUSTIN JOHNSON WINS TRAVELERS TO EXTEND CAREER-LONG SEASON STREAK By PAT EATON-ROBB AP Sports Writer CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — Dustin Johnson won the Travelers Championship yesterday to end a long drought and extend his career-long season victory streak to 13. Johnson closed with a 3-under 67 for a one-stroke victory over Kevin Streelman at fan-free TPC River Highlands. Johnson last won in Mexico City in March 2019. “I’m definitely proud of myself for continuing the streak and I want to keep it going,” Johnson said. “It was a long time between wins, though, and, so, hopefully it won’t be that long for the next one.” Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus each won in 17 consecutive years. Johnson failed to win in 2014, but is given credit for winning in the 2013-14 season from his victory in the fall of 2013 in Shanghai. The tour changed to a wraparound season in 2013. Johnson tapped in for par on the par-4 18th, raised his ball to acknowledge the smattering of applause from course workers, officials and reporters, the only inperson witnesses allowed because of the coronavirus pandemic. He
finished at 19-under pitch didn’t make it to 261 for his 21st PGA the green, and he hit Tour title. the second to 4 feet to Streelman also shot save par. 67. “It was lucky, but Streelman, who a still had to made a made seven straight good up-and-down to birdies to win at TPC make par,” he said. River Highlands in Mackenzie Hughes, 2014, had a 37-foot who shot a first-round birdie try on 18 that 60, had a 67 to tie for ended up just short third with 23-year-old and right. Will Gordon at 17 He was two strokes under. Hughes made behind Johnson on 48-foot birdie putt on the 17th fairway when 17, which he started the weather horn DUSTIN Johnson reacts well left of the hole blew for an hour-long after sinking his putt on and watched as turned the 15th green during the right to the flag. He storm delay. Johnson came out final round of the Travelers finished the round of the delay and hit Championship yesterday. with a much straighter (AP Photo/ 43-foot birdie putt on his tee shot on 16 into Frank Franklin II) 18. a greenside bunker. His second shot went Gordon, who had well past the hole and made bogey no status on either the PGA Tour to cut his lead to a stroke. or the Korn Ferry Tour, had seven “I’ve had a few missed cuts, so to birdies in a 64. The finish was come back and finish a solo second just enough to give him a special is nice, but to to be that close and temporary card and unlimited perform and be right there, I’m exemptions for the rest of the just a little disappointed right season. now,” Streelman said. His lone bogey came on 17, Johnson was at 19 under when and briefly dropped him to fourth his tee shot on the par-4 15th went place. left and came inches from going “I knew the higher the better, into the signature lake that sur- so I was watching the leaderboard rounds the finishing holes. His first coming in,” he said.
Johnson started the day two strokes behind Brendon Todd, and took the lead after three straight birdies put him at 20 under after 10 holes. Todd shot a 75 to tie for 11th at 13 under. He made a 7 on the par-4 12th. Bryson DeChambeau shot a 68 to tie for sixth at 15 under. Top-ranked Rory McIlroy tied for 11th at 13 under after a 67. “There’s been some really good stuff in there, but then just some really stupid mistakes,” he said. Phil Mickelson, playing his first tournament since turning 50, followed up his opening rounds of 64 and 63 with two 71s to finish at 11 under. “I’m looking at this week as progress,” he said. “Certainly the goal is to win golf tournaments, but keep in mind I’ve missed a bunch of cuts. I haven’t played to the level I’ve wanted to, and this week I came in and had a lot of great finds. I hit a lot of good shots, hit a lot of good tee shots. My misses were much better.” There were seven COVID19-related withdrawals from the Connecticut event, with two positive tests among players. Cameron Champ withdrew Tuesday and Denny McCarthy had a positive test on Friday.
MICHEL PLATINI NOW A FORMAL SUSPECT IN SWISS CASE By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer GENEVA (AP) — French soccer great Michel Platini has been formally placed under investigation in Switzerland in relation to a $2 million payment he got from FIFA in 2011. Swiss federal prosecutors this month extended their open criminal proceedings into then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s role in the payment to include Platini, according to a document seen Friday by The Associated Press. Platini, who was the president of European soccer body UEFA at the time, is suspected of being
an accomplice to criminal mismanagement, misappropriation and forgery, the document states. The former France national team captain submitted invoices to FIFA in January 2011 seeking payment for an uncontracted salary when working as a presidential adviser in Blatter’s first term, from 1998-2002. He was paid the next month. Five different courts and tribunals — including the FIFA ethics committee, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the European Court of Human Rights — have ruled against Platini since Swiss prosecutors revealed the allegation in September 2015. Platini and Blatter, who were both banned by
Join Us! EX-BOXING CHAMP DURÁN TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19 PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán (above), who held world championships in four weight classes during his more than threedecade career, has tested positive for the coronavirus but has had only mild symptoms so far, one of his sons said last week. Robin Durán said his 69-year-old father was tested after going to a private hospital with cold symptoms. “At the moment he’s not having symptoms beyond a cold. We’ll be passing on more information over the days,” the son wrote on his Instagram account. He said he decided to take his father to a hospital as a precaution, because one of his lungs hasn’t functioned at full capacity since a car crash in Argentina in 2001, an accident that led the boxer to retire. Durán, who had the nickname “Hands of Stone” as a boxer from 1968 to 2001, is a sports icon in Panama and Latin America. Beyond winning his four championship belts, he is remembered for his resounding victory over American boxing idol Sugar Ray Leonard in Montreal in 1980. Months later, they met in a rematch and Durán withdrew in the middle of a fight with the famous phrase “No mas”— “No more.”
FIFA, deny wrongdoing and have not been charged by Swiss prosecutors. The Swiss attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Platini’s four-year ban expired in October and he has been planning to return to the sport. The long-standing allegation was revived two years after Platini said Swiss prosecutors told him he had been cleared of wrongdoing. However, a new prosecutor was appointed to lead some investigations last year in the wider Swiss probe of corruption allegations in international soccer that began in 2014. Prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand’s name appears on official
documents relating to Platini’s case that have been seen by the AP. Hildbrand also extended criminal proceedings against Blatter this month for suspected criminal mismanagement to include a $1 million loan FIFA made to the Trinidad and Tobago soccer federation in 2010. That money went into the control of then-FIFA vice president Jack Warner, who was campaigning in the Caribbean nation’s general election at the time. Warner has since been banned by FIFA and is fighting extradition to the United States, where he was indicted on financial corruption charges five years ago.
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SOURCE: PATRIOTS SIGN QB CAM NEWTON TO REPLACE BRADY By JIMMY GOLEN AP Sports Writer BOSTON (AP) — The New England Patriots have reached an agreement with free-agent quarterback Cam Newton, bringing in the 2015 NFL Most Valuable Player to help the team move on from three-time MVP Tom Brady, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press. The one-year deal is worth up to $7.5 million with incentives, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss it publicly. A Patriots spokesman said the team had nothing to announce last night. The signing was first reported by ESPN. The Patriots had been heading to training camp with 2019 fourth-round draft choice Jarrett Stidham as the heir apparent to Brady, who led the team to six Super Bowl championships since 2001 but signed with Tampa Bay this offseason. Stidham appeared in three games last season, completing two passes for 14 yards with one interception. The only other experienced quarterback on the defending AFC East champions’ roster was 34-year-old Brian Hoyer, who has started 38 games in an 11-year career with seven NFL teams, including the Patriots twice. The Panthers released Newton on March 24 following nine seasons, a move that saved the team $19.1 million under the NFL salary cap. The 31-yearold Newton was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft after leading Auburn to a national championship and winning the Heisman Trophy. He helped the Panthers reach the playoffs four times, including the Super Bowl in 2015.
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Most athletes true to word in dates with drug testers By PAT GRAHAM and EDDIE PELLS AP Sports Writers IT is almost as easy as sending a text. Open an app on the cell phone, type in a few words, click a box or two. To really make the system work, though, athletes have to be where they say they’ll be at the time they say they’ll be there. Lately, some high-profile names in track and field have been making a mess of what’s supposed to be a simple process of letting drug testers know where they will be for one hour each day. World champions Christian Coleman and Salwa Eid Naser could miss the Olympics for what are known in the antidoping world as whereabouts failures — the failure to be where they said they’d be when testers came calling, unannounced, to collect a urine or blood sample. It’s part of a system of nonotice, out-of-competition testing that is considered the best deterrent to illicit drug use in sports. Other recent cases — one involving a British hammer thrower who said he was fishing when he really went to see his mom, another involving a Russian high jumper whose whereabouts forms were forged by team officials — have only heightened the feeling that a routine piece of bookkeeping can be anything but that. They’ve also placed the taint of doping on athletes who haven’t tested positive, but are accused of breaking the rules, nonetheless. The cluster of recent cases runs contrary to the reality that most athletes have very little problem keeping their whereabouts information current, then
being where they say they’ll be. Since early 2001, when the US Anti-Doping Agency’s whereabouts system began, there have been 21 whereabouts sanctions out of 175,000 completed tests. That’s 0.00012 per cent. USADA said it finds athletes 88 per cent of the time on the first try. Global numbers tell the same story. In 2018, for instance, there were a total of 34 whereabouts violations among a worldwide pool of between 20,000 and 30,000 athletes (the number changes from season to season), virtually all of whom are tested multiple times during a single year. “Just respect the hour slot, be where you need to be,” British race walker Tom Bosworth told The Associated Press in an email, referencing a time he interrupted his beach vacation to wait in a hotel for testers. “If athletes are missing more than three, then simply for respect and integrity of sport, they shouldn’t be anywhere near the top level of sport.” Coleman is face-to-face with that possibility. The 100-metre world champion has been battling the whereabouts system for more than a year now. His latest incident, made public this month, came December 9, when he said he was out Christmas shopping when testers arrived at his residence. It marked his third infraction in a 12-month period, which drew a provisional suspension that threatens his eligibility for next year’s rescheduled Tokyo Games. Coleman’s latest case brought a flurry of Monday morning quarterbacking from the track world, much of it on social media. American distance runner Kara Goucher, long
SALWA EID NASER, of Bahrain, celebrates after winning gold in the women’s 400-meter final at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, on October 3, 2019. (AP)
US’ Christian Coleman wins the 100m at the Prefontaine Classic June 30, 2019. (AP)
The whereabouts system came under a uniform global protocol in 2009. Since then, it has become more streamlined with each passing year. These days, virtually all athletes have access to an online portal or an app on their cell phone that allows them to input and update their whereabouts data. The phone apps allow athletes to opt-in for daily reminders about the information they’ve provided. “The expectation is that if an athlete has a first strike, he or she will be doing more than what’s necessary to make sure they don’t have a second one,” said Stuart Kemp, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s expert on whereabouts. “And if they get a second one, that should be a real wake-up call.” After his latest missed test, Coleman lashed out on social media, arguing the situation could have been avoided had testers simply called him, as they had done in the past. But calling an athlete is not required. And, Kemp says, the calls are not designed to give athletes a last chance. “It’s more about validating that they’re really not where
they said they were going to be,” he said. Coleman isn’t the only athlete whose Olympic hopes are in limbo. Naser won the 400 metres at world championships last year, running the fastest time since 1985, but more recently was suspended for a series of whereabouts failures, three of which occurred before the championships. It led some to wonder why, with three strikes already on her record, she was allowed to race at worlds. The Athletics Integrity Unit, which is prosecuting the case on behalf of World Athletics, has offered little insight, other than to say the investigation was ongoing when worlds began and that after a fourth whereabouts failure in January, she was provisionally suspended. In many respects, whereabouts issues aren’t unlike other aspects of the anti-doping world: The application of the rules are often only as good as the anti-doping agencies that enforce them. On the one hand, the curious instance of Scottish hammer thrower Mark Dry has drawn
an outspoken advocate for clean sport, posted on Twitter her “ Top 3 tips on how to not miss a doping test: “ “1. YOU pick your guaranteed window. Pick an hour you KNOW you’ll be home. (Ex: 6AM). 2. Set a recurring daily alarm 15 minutes before your hour window. 3. Hire someone to call you everyday before your window. You’re welcome,” Goucher wrote. Many athletes meticulously plan their itinerary weeks in advance. Since her kids get up early, US distance runner Stephanie Bruce makes sure she’s available at 6am. If she has an early-morning workout, she changes the time. Athletes can also be tested outside their primary window, which is why they give detailed accounts for the day (5am to 11pm). If, for example, Bruce goes on a long training run, she will record that so everyone knows she will be difficult to reach during that block. Bruce said she was tested 10 times in 2019. “And I haven’t won a medal. I haven’t made an Olympic team,” she said. “It shows they’re doing their job.”
attention because of the UK Anti-Doping Agency’s dogged pursuit of a case that seemed an example of nothing more than a slight mistake. The UKAD sought a tampering charge, which brought with it a four-year doping ban. Most whereabouts violations result in two-year bans or less. On the other hand, the Russian track federation, already suspended for a cheating scheme that ensnared the country’s entire Olympic programme, acknowledged this year that it had forged whereabouts documents for top high jumper Danil Lysenko. The revelation led to the resignation of the federation’s president and penalties for other leaders, along with a $5 million fine. In a different twist on the whereabouts issue in Russia, a WADA report in 2016 said foreign testers, who ran the country’s antidoping programme while Russia’s agency was under suspension, were unable to reach athletes training in “closed” cities where outsiders aren’t allowed. It contributed to 23 missed tests, 111 whereabouts failures and 736 tests that were declined or canceled. The latest headlines haven’t involved any allegations of state-sponsored corruption. Still, with the cases piling up, the obvious question — one Coleman seems to be asking as his Olympic hopes have become imperiled — is whether there could be a better way. Answer: At this point, no. “It’s a necessary part of ensuring a level playing field,” USADA CEO Travis Tygart said. “If there were any other way, we certainly would be pushing for it. But there’s not.”
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Monday, June 29, 2020, PAGE 17
Jamal Wilson 3rd in ‘Italy vs Rest of World’ By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net AS he shows signs that he’s ready to compete coming out of the country’s COVID-19 lockdown, high jumper Jamal Wilson is asking the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture to reconsider the reduction in subvention for athletes. In a virtual competition dubbed “Italy versus the rest of the World” on Friday on the home soils of the respective competitors, Wilson picked up a third place behind the Italian duo of Stefano Sottile and Gianmarco Tamberi. Wilson, with his veteran coach Ronald Cartwright monitoring his performance in the practice meet, said it’s important that athletes are treated fairly in the Bahamas for the contribution they make to the promotion of the country. “I heard about the 20 per cent cut in our subvention, but I wished that we didn’t have to come to this,” Wilson stated. “As a fellow athlete that lives and trains in the Bahamas and has to go through the daily routine as everybody else, I understand why the money had to be taken away. “Yes, Hurricane Dorian took place and we are going through a pandemic and we haven’t been able to do anything with our economy for about three months, but how could you take something away from us that we really need without any explanation.” Although he understands that there has to be some adjustments
to the subvention given to athletes to train, Wilson said he’s concerned with the fact that there is nothing to compensate for it. “We want to bring home medals for the Bahamas, but if my money is being taken away, money that I need badly and the facilities ain’t in place, what should I do as an athlete now?” he asked. “At this current level in my life where I am ranked as one of the top high jumpers in the world, indoors and outdoors, having recently won a Commonwealth Games medal and won multiple medals at the CAC level, why am I getting cut for what I am getting.” Not one to complain about funding, Wilson said he wants people not only to look at them as athletes, but as Bahamians who have a voice and who need to be heard. “We want to see things get better, but we don’t feel it should get better at our expense,” he stressed. “We are fighting hard to keep the country in the forefront when we put the Bahamas on our chest to compete. “Anytime we win a medal, that’s a proud moment because it’s not just our medal, but it’s a medal for the country. When you are out there working so hard to put the Bahamas on the map in a live global event, it’s hard to hear that you are getting cut 20 per cent. Why should I fight so hard for a country that is not fighting for me.” During the virtual competition on Friday, Wilson competed at the Thomas A Robinson National
HIGH jumper Jamal Wilson (above) is asking the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture to reconsider the reduction in subvention for athletes. Stadium where he cleared 2.18 metres or 7-feet, 1 3/4-inches to earn seven points for third place. Sottile, competing in Italy, won the title with 2.21m (7-3) over compatriot Tamberi, the former World Indoor champion who was second with the same height. “The concept that we did with the meet was not for it to be a major competition,” Wilson explained. “This was just something to get us ready for the upcoming season. “We treated it like a practice session. If you know anything about track and field, we know that it’s very difficult to do what you do in the high jump in
practice what you do in competition. There’s no crowd out there and our legs are heavy because we are in practice form.” Looking at the results, Wilson said the performances were sort of even across the board, so he was content with his accomplishment, although he would have preferred to win. “I wanted to lift our country in the COVID-19 experience,” he said. “But it was a fun event that I developed with Gianmarco Tamberi. I thought it was a success because we got a lot of viewers. “We got the World Athletics to come on board and help us with the live screen. The footage is done by Vinco, a live steaming company out of the United Kingdom with Alex Seftel providing the commentary. “At the end of the day, we were successful with our endeavour,” Wilson said. “The main goal is for us to get ready for the upcoming season. We are having a competition here from July 31 to August 1, so it’s my job to get ready for the rest of the season.” While he will open up here at home with the Bahamas Association of Athletic Association’s meet at the end of July, Wilson is also preparing to travel to Europe to compete in August. His agent Caroline Feith booked his first international meet in Leverkusen, Germany, on August 16. Then he will head to Stockholm for the first Diamond League meeting on August 23. “If it all goes well, I should be entering Europe in the middle of August,” Wilson noted. “Yes, I
am concerned about the travel, but whatever happens, I will accept the circumstances and deal with whatever comes in front of me.” One of the challenges he’s anticipating is not competing in front of the customary large crowd in the packed facilities as was the case in pre-COVID-19. “Some people strive on different things. Some people can go in and compete without the crowd and then you have others who have to compete with the crowd,” Wilson said. “So it’s going to be very interesting. We don’t know what to expect. We just hope that everything goes well. We don’t want the spread of this virus to go any further, so whatever it takes to help keep it safe and everybody can come out and enjoy the show, we can make this happen.” Another issue that Wilson will have to deal with is taking the COVID-19 testing before he can enter the various countries, so he’s hoping that he can follow the guidelines imposed by the health officials so that he can stay healthy. Prior to the COVID-19 sports shutdown, Wilson was one of six Bahamians qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games, which have been postponed. The big event is now set to be held July 23 to August 8, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. The 31-year-old Wilson did 2.30m (7-6 1/2) at the T-Bird Flyers meet in January and then went to Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, where he posted his lifetime achievement of 2.33m (7-7 3/4).
NBA coming soon - 10 things to know By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer THE deals are done. The NBA is coming back. The season will resume on July 30 at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Florida. • Here are 10 things to know about the restarted season: THE RACE FOR 8 There are six teams in the race for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference — Memphis, Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Antonio and Phoenix. (Technically, Dallas is also in that race, though the Mavericks need only one win and one Memphis loss to clinch no worse than the No. 7 spot.) There are seven games where those six teams will go head-to-head, including four featuring the Pelicans — who play Sacramento twice, Memphis once and San Antonio once. The other games: Sacramento vs. San Antonio, Memphis vs. San Antonio and Portland vs. Memphis. Phoenix doesn’t play any of the other five teams in the race for eighth. The Grizzlies start with a 3 1/2-game lead over Portland, New Orleans and Sacramento, along with a four-game edge on San Antonio. Unless the Grizzlies open up space on all four of those clubs, it seems likely that there will be a best-of-two play-in series for the final spot in the West playoffs and a probable first-round matchup with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. The play-in games will take place if the ninth-place team in either conference is within four games of eighth when the seeding round ends. In the East, it’s a bit simpler. No. 7 Brooklyn is six games ahead of Washington and No. 8 Orlando is 5-1/2 games clear of the Wizards
in the race to clinch a berth and avoid a play-in series. None of those teams can move past the No. 7 spot on the East bracket. MAGIC NUMBERS Milwaukee needs a combination of two wins or Toronto losses to clinch the No. 1 seed in the East. The Lakers need a combination of three wins or Los Angeles Clippers losses to clinch the No. 1 spot out West. Denver also has a mathematical chance at the No. 1 seed out West — but would need to go 8-0 and have the Lakers go 0-8 for that to happen. Most of the races at Disney will be for seeding. Milwaukee cannot finish lower than No. 2 in the East and Toronto needs only one win to be assured of a top-four seed. The West can still see some shakeups, with four games separating second place from sixth place and only 2 1/2 games separating fourth place from seventh. HEAT CHECK Miami had a league-high eight games remaining against the eight teams that didn’t qualify for the Disney restart. Now the Heat will have a fight on their hands just to hang onto the No. 4 spot in the East. Miami plays Boston, Denver, Indiana twice, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Toronto and Phoenix in the seeding games. That schedule ranks harder than Indiana’s or Philadelphia’s — the Pacers and 76ers both will head to Disney two games behind the Heat in the East standings. Orlando and the Lakers both saw seven games against the eight Disneynon-qualifiers cancelled, tied for second-most in the league behind Miami. Memphis had the fewest such games lost, with just one — a matchup against New York.
A SIGN marking the entrance to ESPN’s Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World is seen Wednesday, June 3, in Kissimmee, Florida. The NBA has told the National Basketball Players Association that it will present a 22-team plan for restarting the season at Disney. (AP) HOME ON THE ROAD All 22 teams will be staying at the Disney campus for the rest of their seasons. Yes, that includes the Orlando Magic — whose home arena is about 20 miles from Disney World. The Magic simply see it as doing their part to make the restart happen. “We appreciate the leadership of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, our longtime partner, Disney, and our local leaders in this unprecedented time,” Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins said. “We look forward to providing assistance as needed in restarting the NBA season in Orlando, while using our collective platform to drive meaningful social impact.” SPEAKING OF ROAD Philadelphia was the NBA’s best home team this season, going 29-2 — on pace to be the second-best home record in a season in franchise history. The 1949-50 Syracuse Nationals were better, going 36-2 at the State Fair Coliseum
in the franchise’s inaugural season. Problem is, the 76ers won’t be playing in Philly again until next season. Philadelphia went just 10-24 on the road in the regular season, the secondworst road mark of the 22 teams that will be playing at Disney. Only Washington (8-24) was worse. If the 76ers are going to go deep in these playoffs, they’ll need to figure out how to win without the raucous Wells Fargo Center advantage. THEY WILL BE MISSED Milwaukee has the NBA’s best record, and one of the reasons the Bucks hold that mark right now is because of how good they were against the eight teams (Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, New York, Minnesota and Golden State) that didn’t qualify for the Disney restart. The Bucks were 22-0 against those eight teams — one of three NBA teams
to go unbeaten against that group. Oklahoma City was 15-0 and the Lakers were 12-0. Toronto and Boston were both 19-1 and Utah was 15-1. Only one remaining team had a losing record against those eight clubs: San Antonio went 7-8. LAKER BREAK The schedule means that the Lakers won’t play a back-to-back-to-back after all. The Lakers would have played home games on April 7, 8 and 9 against Golden State, Chicago and the Clippers — the last of those coming because a game that was scheduled to be played shortly after Kobe Bryant’s death was moved until later in the season. HELLO, AGAIN For 26 players on the rosters of the 22 teams, Disney is going to look familiar. They played there in college. The Disney campus plays host to the Orlando Invitational over Thanksgiving,
and some alumni of that event are headed back there now for NBA contests. Among them: Heat teammates Jimmy Butler (Marquette, 2009) and Kelly Olynyk (Gonzaga, 2012), Portland’s Zach Collins (Gonzaga, 2016), Washington’s Rui Hachimura (Gonzaga, 2016), Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton (Texas A&M, 2010), Indiana’s Edmond Sumner (Xavier, 2015), Phoenix’s Kelly Oubre Jr. (Kansas, 2014) and Boston’s Marcus Smart (Oklahoma State, 2013). And lest we forget, the Lopez brothers — Milwaukee teammates Brook Lopez and Robin Lopez — are huge Disney fans, and have made their affinity for the place very well-known in recent weeks. NO 3’S RECORD For the first time in eight seasons, the league record for total 3-pointers made won’t get broken. It was on pace to be smashed. NBA teams have combined for 23,560 3-pointers made so far this season, which is already the fourthmost of any season in league history. The league was on pace for 29,844 3-pointers, which is 1,889 more than the record of 27,955 set last season. STATE OF BASKETBALL Florida — the Sunshine State — will be the epicentre of basketball this summer. While the NBA is headed to Disney, the WNBA season is also scheduled to begin next month and be headquartered in Bradenton, Florida. That’s about 100 miles from where the NBA will be playing. The WNBA plan is for its players to be housed at the IMG Academy, with games to be played at the nearby Feld Entertainment Center.
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