Exploring the evolving landscape of Bermuda’s hospitality and tourism industry
In this episode of Think Pink, host Jasmine Patterson speaks with JP Martens – a seasoned hotelier and the driving force behind Grotto Bay Beach Resort and Spa. They discuss the evolution of Bermuda’s hospitality industry, the challenges faced, and the opportunities for growth.
Mr. Martens shares insights on the importance of investing in tourism, the impact of renovations, and the importance of a happy workforce.
The attack on Sunday was Australia’s worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years, and is being investigated as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community
International News via Reuters:
Indian police said on Tuesday that the dead gunman in Australia’s Bondi beach shooting incident, Sajid Akram, was originally from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad but had limited contact with his family in India.
The attack on Sunday was Australia’s worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years, and is being investigated as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.
The death toll stands at 16, including one of the gunmen, identified by police as 50-year old Sajid Akram, who was shot by police. The man’s 24-year-old son and alleged accomplice, identified by local media as Naveed Akram, was in critical condition in hospital after also being shot.
“The family members have expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalisation,” Telangana state police said in a statement.
Hyderabad is the capital of Telangana state.
Australian police said both men had travelled to the Philippines last month, the father on an Indian passport and the son was on an Australian one.
The purpose of the trip is under investigation, officials said, adding it was not conclusive they were linked to any terrorist group or whether they received training in that country.
Telangana police said the factors that led to the radicalisation of the two gunmen “appear to have no connection with India or any local influence in Telangana”.
In its statement on Tuesday, Telangana police said Sajid Akram visited India on six occasions, mainly for family-related reasons, since he migrated to Australia in 1998.
There was no “adverse record” on him before he left India, the statement added.
Reporting by Rishika Sadam, writing by Tanvi Mehta; Editing by YP Rajesh
The proposal marks a major expansion of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
International News via Reuters:
The European Union plans to extend its carbon border levy to cover car parts, refrigerators and washing machines, draft documents seen by Reuters on Tuesday showed, in a bid to close loopholes that the bloc feared would allow foreign manufacturers to dodge climate costs.
The proposal marks a major expansion of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which from January will start charging importers for the emissions embedded in steel, cement and other high-carbon products brought into the EU.
“The proposal will extend the scope of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to address the risk of carbon leakage for products further down the value chain of the steel and aluminium products currently in CBAM’s scope,” said the draft European Commission proposal, due for publication on Wednesday.
Construction products for bridges, power transformers and cables and farming machinery would also be covered by the levy, the draft plans showed.
The EU chose the new products based on their exposure to “carbon leakage”, or the risk that industries would relocate outside Europe to avoid the region’s strict climate policies.
EXPANSION AIMS TO STOP CLIMATE POLICY EVASION
The EU carbon border levy aims to shield Europe’s industries from cheaper, high-emission imports and push manufacturers worldwide toward cleaner production. The existing policy has prompted criticism from trading partners including China, India and South Africa, who say it unfairly penalises emerging economies’ industries.
A second draft Commission proposal, seen by Reuters, showed the EU plans to use 25% of the revenue collected by the carbon border levy to compensate European manufacturers over 2028-2029 for higher costs they face as a result of the carbon border fee on imports.
The EU expects the carbon border tariff to generate 2.1 billion euros ($2.47 billion) in revenue by 2030.
Industries would only be eligible for this support if they are investing in cleaning up the carbon footprint of their manufacturing, the draft said.
The proposal responds to demands from industries that the EU compensate European exporters to help them compete in foreign markets where rivals do not pay CO2 costs.
However, the draft proposal did not specify that the fund will target exporters. Some EU officials have expressed concern that a rebate or subsidy for exporters would flout WTO rules. The EU has said its CBAM is fully WTO-compliant.
A Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the draft, which could still change before it is published.
($1 = 0.8505 euros)
Reporting by Kate Abnett, Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Louise Heavens
The S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 52.1 in its preliminary measure for December from 51.2 in November
International News via Reuters:
British businesses appear to be emerging from months of worry about tax increases in finance minister Rachel Reeves’ budget in late November, a closely watched survey of the private sector showed on Tuesday.
The S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 52.1 in its preliminary measure for December from 51.2 in November, above all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists but still below its long-term average.
The improvement contrasted with a slowdown in a similar set of surveys for the euro zone.
The British PMI represented the first comprehensive gauge of the private sector since Reeves announced 26 billion pounds ($35 billion) in tax increases in her budget on November 26 but delayed the introduction of most of them and spared employers the kind of hit they took in her first budget last year.
“Firms seem reassured that the drag on demand will be less severe than feared, helped by most of the tightening being pushed down the line,” Jake Finney, senior economist at PwC, said. “The one caveat is that job losses remain widespread, and it is unclear whether hiring will pick up now.”
The value of the pound edged up against the dollar and the euro after the PMI was published. Government bond prices fell but there was no change to expectations among investors that the Bank of England will cut interest rates on Thursday.
SURVEY POINTS TO JUST 0.1% GDP GROWTH IN Q4
Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said the survey implied economic growth of only 0.1% in the fourth quarter.
“It’s a big relief that business confidence has not slumped in a repeat of last year’s post-budget gloom,” Williamson said.
“However, the overall pace of output and demand growth remains lacklustre, and the expansion is still very dependent on technology and financial services activity, with many other parts of the economy struggling to grow or in decline.”
The PMI’s overall reading and one for the dominant services sector were both the highest in two months, while the measure of manufacturing was the strongest in 15 months.
New work grew at the fastest pace since October last year and the survey’s measure of expectations for the 12 months ahead rose to its second-highest level in more than a year albeit still below the long-term average.
New work from abroad rose after falling for 13 months and backlogs edged up for the first time in almost three years as suppliers struggled to respond to the pickup in demand.
BUSINESSES KEEP CUTTING STAFF, JOB MARKET WEAK
But staffing levels were cut again as employers responded to the higher costs of hiring which went up earlier in April due to a tax increase ordered by Reeves.
Earlier on Tuesday, official data showed the jobs market weakened with the jobless rate hitting its highest since 2021, payrolled employment falling and private-sector wage growth rising at the slowest pace in almost five years.
Inflation pressures increased in the PMI with the prices of inputs – including labour costs – accelerating for the second month in a row while prices charged by firms also went up after touching a five-year low in November.
($1 = 0.7460 pounds)
Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Hugh Lawson
The militaries of the Southeast Asian neighbours are clashing at several locations on their 817-km (508 mile) land border, both have said, with no signs of abatement, despite international efforts to negotiate a ceasefire
International News via Reuters:
Thailand is working out how to repatriate up to 6,000 citizens unable to return home through a major border crossing in Cambodia closed as fighting along the contested border extended into a second week, authorities said on Tuesday.
The militaries of the Southeast Asian neighbours are clashing at several locations on their 817-km (508 mile) land border, both have said, with no signs of abatement, despite international efforts to negotiate a ceasefire.
Cambodia’s closure of its checkpoint in the city of Poipet has prevented the return of thousands of Thai workers gathered there amid fighting that has displaced more than half a million people and killed nearly 40 on both sides since last Monday.
Hun Sen, Cambodia’s influential former leader, has said the closure aimed to protect civilians from what he called indiscriminate firing by Thai forces in the area.
But checkpoints were open in areas free of fighting and air travel was unrestricted, he added.
In Bangkok on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said Thais in Poipet could seek help to arrange air travel home from the consulate in the city of Siem Reap, the gateway to the Angkor Wat temple complex.
It urged others still in Cambodia to contact officials if they needed to leave.
Efforts to end the fighting have included calls from U.S. President Donald Trump, who also brokered a halt to a five-day conflict in July by using trade negotiations as leverage.
“The army said there has been continuous fighting across the border line. The situation is still in flux,” said Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman of the Thai defence ministry, with fighting reported in eight border provinces.
Cambodia’s forces would “continue to stand strong, brave and steadfast in their fight against the aggressor,” its defence ministry said.
There was no international pressure for a ceasefire, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told journalists in response to a question.
“No one is pressuring us. Who is pressuring whom? I don’t know,” he said, but did not answer a query whether Trump was using the threat of tariff measures to pressure Thailand to stop the conflict.
Thailand is now preparing plans to cut off shipments of fuel into Cambodia, defence ministry spokesman Surasant said.
It is tasking maritime enforcement authorities with controlling Thai-registered vessels that might be delivering gasoline and even weapons to support Cambodia’s armed forces, as an issue of “primary concern” for the Thai public, he added.
The neighbours have long disputed sections of the frontier, but the scale and intensity of the latest clashes, stretching from forested inland areas near the Laos border to coastal provinces, are unprecedented in recent history.
Each side blames the other for starting the fighting.
Malaysia will host a special meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers next week as the regional bloc tries to re-establish the ceasefire.
Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Chayut Setboonsarng; Writing by John Mair; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
The UK’s blue-chip FTSE 100 fell 0.3% by 1022 GMT after closing 1% higher in the previous session, while the midcap FTSE 250 index was largely unchanged
International News via Reuters:
London’s FTSE 100 slipped on Tuesday, weighed by losses in energy and defence stocks, while investors assessed fresh jobs data that reinforced expectations for an interest rate cut by the Bank of England later in the week.
The UK’s blue-chip FTSE 100 fell 0.3% by 1022 GMT after closing 1% higher in the previous session, while the midcap FTSE 250 index was largely unchanged.
Energy stocks fell 1.1%, tracking a fall in oil prices as prospects for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal appeared to strengthen, raising expectations of a potential easing of sanctions.
The Aerospace and Defence index declined 1.8% following talks of a potential Ukraine peace deal. Britain’s biggest listed defence companies – Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, and Babcock were down between 1.4% and 4.1%.
U.S. officials said on Monday Ukraine could receive security guarantees modelled on NATO’s Article 5 mutual defence pledge under a proposed peace deal with Russia.
On the flip side, precious metals and miners jumped 1.4%, while travel-focussed index added 0.9%. At least 17 sectors were trading in the green.
Meanwhile, Britain’s unemployment rate hit its highest since the start of 2021 and private sector pay growth was the weakest in nearly five years in the run-up to finance minister Rachel Reeves’ annual budget last month.
The weak jobs data added to expectations that the Bank of England will cut rates on Thursday to support a faltering economy.
Among individual stocks, IG Group rose 5.6% after the online trading platform said it expects to deliver revenue growth around the mid-point of its guided range in 2026.
Serica Energy rose 2.71% after the company said it had agreed to acquire a portfolio of Southern North Sea assets from Spirit Energy.
Across the Atlantic, investors stayed cautious ahead of a slate of U.S. data, including the jobs report, that may help gauge the trajectory for Federal Reserve policy next year.
Wall Street futures were trading lower.
Reporting by Tharuniyaa Lakshmi and Nikhil Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo
Britain’s British Broadcasting Corporation said on Tuesday it will fight a lawsuit filed by U.S. President Donald Trump over edited clips of a speech
International News via Reuters:
Britain’s British Broadcasting Corporation said on Tuesday it will fight a lawsuit filed by U.S. President Donald Trump over edited clips of a speech that made it appear he directed supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” a BBC spokesperson said.
Reporting by Sarah Young, writing by Sam Tabahriti; editing by William James
Electronic market-makers have flourished in the past decade, using algorithms and computing power to deliver faster pricing to capture rising trading volumes across assets
International News via Reuters:
Britain’s financial regulator is reviewing capital requirements for specialist trading firms such as Citadel Securities, Jane Street and XTX, citing a “real opportunity” to make rules more proportionate and enhance the UK’s competitiveness.
Electronic market-makers have flourished in the past decade, using algorithms and computing power to deliver faster pricing to capture rising trading volumes across assets, and gain market share from banks limited by post-financial crisis rules.
The current regime for calculating market risk capital was inherited from the European Union and designed for large, systemically important banks, an official at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) told Reuters. Updating or replacing it could free up capital for trading firms, the regulator said.
“We want to ensure that the requirements are proportionate to the risk of harm,” Mark Francis, interim director of wholesale sell-side, said. “It’s not a race to the bottom on capital requirements.”
Britain’s ruling Labour Party wants regulators to cut red tape to aid weak economic growth, and the government has sought to use some of its post-Brexit freedoms to support London’s competitiveness as a global financial centre.
MARKET MAKERS HANDLE HUGE VOLUMES OF TRADES
Most of the biggest market-making names, which include Ken Griffin’s Citadel, Virtu Financial and Susquehanna, are U.S.-based, but London-based XTX, founded by billionaire mathematician Alex Gerko, has emerged as a major player in foreign exchange markets.
XTX employs just 250 staff but reports $250 billion in trading volumes daily, according to its website, and made profits of more than 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) in 2024.
Jane Street says it operates on more than 200 electronic exchanges and other venues, while Citadel Securities handles $654 billion a day in trades including a third of all U.S.-listed retail volume.
These mostly privately held firms recruit mathematicians, geophysicists and machine-learning experts to price and trade financial instruments. Their researchers and traders can earn huge sums of money, often far more than at banks.
The FCA on Tuesday published a paper seeking views on how to reform the existing mandatory requirements for calculating market risk capital for investment firms.
OPTIONS ON THE TABLE
Market risk capital rules are designed to ensure firms can handle losses when prices move unexpectedly. Applied system-wide, they help keep financial markets stable.
Revamp options range from tweaking the existing EU-aligned rules to an overhaul of the regime that could see the UK aligned with the U.S. “net risk rules” approach, or using an internal model to calculate minimum requirements.
“We do think that a more proportionate approach does have the potential to remove unnecessary barriers for existing firms, potentially for new ones too,” Francis said.
Chirag Tyagi, the FCA’s head of department, Financial Resilience, said technology in the market-making industry was evolving rapidly “so you might have new products coming in.”
“For example, some firms are now entering into tokenization and crypto assets and that gives rise to different types of market risks, so we want to future-proof our rules to the extent they can,” Tyagi added.
($1 = 0.7484 pounds)
Reporting by Phoebe Seers and Tommy Reggiori WilkesEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Bernadette Baum
The 4.6-km Algarve International circuit in the country’s south last hosted the Portuguese Grand Prix in 2020 and 2021, both seasons impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with stand-in venues
International News via Reuters:
Formula One will return to Portugal’s Portimao circuit in 2027 and 2028 after the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort drops off the calendar.
Formula One announced a two-year deal in a statement on Tuesday.
The 4.6-km Algarve International circuit in the country’s south last hosted the Portuguese Grand Prix in 2020 and 2021, both seasons impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with stand-in venues.
In 2020 seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton took his 92nd career win at Portimao, breaking the record previously held by Michael Schumacher. Hamilton also won in 2021.
“The interest and demand to host a Formula One Grand Prix is the highest that it has ever been,” said Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali, thanking the Portuguese government and local authorities.
The financial terms of the deal were not announced.
“Hosting the Grand Prix in the Algarve reinforces our regional development strategy, enhancing the value of the territories and creating opportunities for local economies,” said Economy Minister Manuel Castro Almeida.
Portugal first hosted a grand prix in Porto in 1958, with subsequent races at Monsanto and Estoril near Lisbon. The late Brazilian great Ayrton Senna took his first grand prix pole and win at the latter circuit in 1985.
Formula One announced last year that Zandvoort, a home race for four-times world champion Max Verstappen, would drop off the calendar after 2026.
The championship already features a record 24 races and Domenicali has spoken of European rounds alternating to allow others to come in.
Belgium’s race at Spa-Francorchamps is due to be dropped in 2028 and 2030 as part of a contract extension to 2031 announced last January.
Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London; editing by Alex Richardson and Mark Heinrich
The Ministry of Public Works and Environment is advising the motoring public of two separate traffic matters that may impact travel in the coming days.
Firstly, Curving Avenue in Pembroke Parish will be closed on Sunday, 21 December 2025, from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., to accommodate the Christmas on the Curve community event.
The road closure, which was originally scheduled for 30 November and postponed due to inclement weather, will affect the section between King Street and 17 Curving Avenue.
Representatives of the Church of God of Prophecy will manage traffic controls. Motorists are advised to avoid the area and instead use Parsons Road and Happy Valley Road as alternative routes.
For further information, please refer to the attached original Road Traffic Notice PDF.
Aggregate transport to impact key roads
Secondly, the Ministry advises that from Wednesday, 17 December through Saturday, 20 December 2025, the transportation of aggregate material will take place between Penno’s Wharf, St. George’s and the Government Quarry, Hamilton Parish.
These operations are scheduled to occur daily between 7.30 a.m. and 9.00 p.m., involving a high volume of Government and contractor trucks. Motorists should anticipate increased activity along Blue Hole Hill roundabout, the Causeway, Kindley Field Road, and Mullet Bay Road during these dates.
Members of the public are urged to plan accordingly and exercise caution when travelling in the affected areas.
The funding aims to support upgrades to facilities
Premier David Burt presented presented Capital Development Grants totaling $1.5 million to 26 local community and sports clubs at a cheque presentation ceremony held at St. Paul’s AME Centennial Hall.
Premier Burt was joined by the Minister of Tourism & Transport, Culture and Sport Owen Darrell, members of the Cabinet, local MPs for the Community Clubs, and Senators to celebrate the awarding of these grants.
Cheques were presented to the following clubs:
Government Statement:
Premier David Burt delivered brief remarks in which he said, “In our 2017 Election Manifesto, this Government promised to provide support to community and sporting clubs, enabling them to make much-needed upgrades to their facilities. We recognise and value the critical contributions that clubs like yours make to Bermuda, whether by fostering athletic development, building community spirit, or providing safe and inclusive spaces for the growth and development of our youth.”
The first round of Capital Development Grants were awarded between 2020-2022 in which the Government awarded over $1 million to 23 community clubs.
During the 2025/26 Budget statement, the Premier announced that $1 million had been allocated for a new round of grants to support local clubs. In a recent sitting of the House of Assembly, the Premier announced that an additional $500,000 had been allocated for Capital Development Grants, bringing the total support to $1.5 million.
The Premier continued, “We are in the season of giving, and it is a privilege to be able to give this support to our local clubs, in light of the vital role that all of your organisations play in the social fabric of our island. I am proud to lead a Government that follows through on such promises at every opportunity.”
A total of 26 clubs were presented with cheques today, with a 27th club recently approved for a Capital Development Grant. The total allocation of $1.5 million has been awarded to Community Clubs.
The Government will remain in contact with Community Clubs regarding their upgrades and repairs, and conduct regular checks on the progress of works to ensure that the awarded funds are spent appropriately.
The Premier concluded his remarks by thanking community club, “Thank you for your continued service and dedication to our community.”
