Just for Laughs starts tonight and runs through Monday, at the Hamilton Princess
A weekend full of laughter is promised as Just for Laughs Bermuda returns, hosted once again by perennial favourite and honorary islander, Alonzo Bodden. This year’s lineup features top international talent, including Orlando Leyba from America’s Got Talent and Dan Tiernan, winner of BBC’s New Comedian of the Year.
Bermuda’s own Jonathan Young will make his 13th appearance, and Ivan Decker from Canada, a Juno Award winner for Best Comedy Album, returns for his third Bermuda performance.
Running from tonight through Monday at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club, the event is also offering a special Black Friday sale on tickets. We spoke to Chief Chuckler at Just for Laughs Bermuda, Richard Simon.
Government details east end infrastructure project
A major infrastructure upgrade is on the way for the East End, with the Government detailing its plans to build a new swing bridge in St. George’s.
The bridge, which will replace the ageing structure that currently links St. George’s to the mainland, is to be constructed adjacent to the existing bridge.
Government cites benefits for tourism, the fishing activity, ferry resilience in adverse weather, and super-yacht growth.
Qian Dickinson sat down today with Jache Adams, Minister of Public Works and Environment to flesh out the vision.
The Sapphire Veil 2025 is an event created by Skye Kermode, offering a calming experience within the natural beauty of Devil’s Hole Grotto. Guests gather to take in the soothing tones of nature and enjoy a relaxing atmosphere.
Taking place every Tuesday evening, the experience invites participants to feed the turtles, enjoy the tranquil setting, unwind and reconnect. Kendal Trott spoke to Skye Kermode about the project.
Residents are being reminded to submit feedback before the December 5 deadline
The Department of Planning reminds the public that its survey on the use of alternative construction materials and techniques in Bermuda is still open. As these methods become more common, the Department is seeking community feedback to help assess their long-term impact on the island’s visual character and to guide future policy decisions.
The survey is available on the Department of Planning’s website at www.planning.gov.bm and on its official Facebook page. Members of the public are encouraged to share their views before the survey closes on 5 December 2025.
For further information or assistance accessing the survey link, please contact the Department at 297-7756.
It was the ninth coup in West and Central Africa in five years and continued a pattern of instability in Guinea-Bissau
International News via Reuters:
Guinea-Bissau’s military installed Major-General General Horta Inta-a as transitional president on Thursday, a day after soldiers toppled the civilian leadership in a swift power grab made before the results of a weekend election could be announced.
It was the ninth coup in West and Central Africa in five years and continued a pattern of instability in Guinea-Bissau, a notorious cocaine transport hub with a long history of military interventions in politics.
The self-styled “High Military Command for the Restoration of Order” announced in a televised statement on Wednesday that they had ousted President Umaro Sissoco Embalo. They said the move came in response to a destabilisation plan involving politicians and drug barons, without going into more detail.
Wearing a military uniform and flanked by other military officials, Inta-a made his first public appearance as leader at a ceremony broadcast Thursday on state television. He said the coup was necessary to stave off a plot by “narcotraffickers” to “capture Guinean democracy” and said the transition would last one year, beginning immediately.
At a swearing-in ceremony later on Thursday, he named Major-General Tomas Djassi as army chief of staff.
The takeover came a day before provisional results were due to be announced in the race between Embalo and Fernando Dias, a 47-year-old political newcomer who had emerged as Embalo’s top challenger in the presidential vote.
Before the coup announcement, gunfire rang out in the capital Bissau for about an hour on Wednesday near the electoral commission headquarters and presidential palace.
Embalo called French media to say he had been deposed.
An army statement dated Thursday said Embalo and other top officials were “under the control of the High Military Command”.
CONDEMNATION OF THE COUP
African Union chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf condemned the coup in a statement, and called for the release of Embalo “and all detained officials.”
Heads of state from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS also condemned the coup and later held a virtual meeting to discuss the situation, according to a post on X.
Screen grabs shared with the post showed several regional leaders participating, including the presidents of Nigeria, Senegal and Liberia, as well as the AU’s Youssouf.
Central Bissau was mostly quiet on Thursday, with soldiers on the streets and many residents staying indoors, even after the overnight curfew lifted. Businesses and banks were closed.
“I’m very concerned about the prevailing situation,” Julio Goncalves, a 30-year-old professor and Bissau resident, said.
“No pharmacy is open. If somebody is sick how can he buy medicine or go to the hospital?”
‘FALSE COUP ATTEMPT’
Before Inta-a’s presidency was announced, Dias accused Embalo in a video statement of staging a “false coup attempt” to derail the election because he feared he would lose.
In a statement to Reuters on Thursday, the coalition backing Dias demanded that authorities be allowed to release results from Sunday’s presidential election.
The coalition also called for the release of former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira, who was detained on Wednesday, according to relatives and security sources.
Security forces used tear gas to break up a small protest outside the building where Pereira is said to be held. They also broke up a gathering near Dias’s home on the outskirts of Bissau and live rounds were fired, witnesses said.
There were no reports of casualties related to the violence on Wednesday or Thursday.
COUP-PRONE NARCOTICS HUB
Guinea-Bissau is a small coastal nation between Senegal and Guinea and a transit point for cocaine heading from South America to Europe. Under Embalo’s administration, the cocaine trade appeared to boom.
Another coup is unlikely to change that, said Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo, director of the Observatory of Illicit Economies in West Africa, which tracks the cocaine trade.
“Major traffickers financed electoral campaigns in these elections. There is no sign the impact of cocaine on politics and governance in Bissau will decrease,” she said.
The country had been shaken by at least nine coups and attempted coups between 1974, when it gained independence from Portugal, and 2020, when Embalo took office.
ELECTION OBSERVERS UNACCOUNTED FOR
Election observers from the African Union and ECOWAS issued a joint statement on Wednesday calling for the immediate release of arrested election officials.
Nigerian former President Goodluck Jonathan, who had been observing the vote as part of the West African Elders Forum, was not reachable on Thursday and his whereabouts unknown, ECOWAS spokesperson Joel Ahofodji told Reuters.
Nigeria’s foreign ministry said the safety of election observers should be guaranteed. “We warn that those behind this act will be held accountable for their actions,” a statement said.
Reporting by Alberto Dabo; Additional reporting by Robbie Corey-Boulet, Bate Felix and Ayen Deng Bior in Dakar, Alphonso Toweh in Monrovia and Camillus Eboh in Abuja; Writing by Ayen Deng Bior and Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Ros Rusell and Andrew Heavens
Investigators seized numerous electronic devices from the suspect’s house in Washington state, including cellphones, laptops, and iPads
International News via Reuters:
The FBI searched multiple properties in Washington state and San Diego on Thursday in what officials said was a terrorism probe into an Afghan national suspected of shooting two National Guard members, who remained in critical condition.
Investigators seized numerous electronic devices from the suspect’s house in Washington state, including cellphones, laptops, and iPads, and interviewed the suspect’s relatives, FBI Director Kash Patel told a news conference in Washington, D.C.
U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro identified the two wounded Guard members as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24.
Pirro said the suspect ambushed the Guard members while they were patrolling near the White House on Wednesday afternoon. Armed with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, he shot one member who fell and then shot again before firing multiple times at the second member.
SUSPECT WORKED WITH U.S. FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News the U.S. government planned to bring terrorism charges against the gunman and seek a sentence of life in prison “at a minimum.”
At her briefing, Pirro said the gunman faces three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and a charge of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
He could be charged with murder in the first degree if either of the Guard members does not survive their injuries, she said.
Patel described the shootings as a “heinous act of terrorism,” but neither he nor Pirro offered a possible motive.
The assailant appeared to have acted alone, said Jeff Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.
The suspect has been identified by authorities as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who lived in Washington state with his wife and five children.
Lakanwal, who was wounded in an exchange of gunfire before he was arrested, had been involved with U.S. partner forces during the war in Afghanistan, Patel said.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe told Fox News and the New York Times that Lakanwal had worked with CIA-backed local units in Afghanistan.
“He drove his vehicle cross-country from the state of Washington with the intended target of coming to our nation’s capital,” Pirro told the news conference.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program to resettle thousands of Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the Afghanistan war and feared reprisals from Taliban forces who seized control after the U.S. withdrawal there.
President Donald Trump, who was at his Florida resort at the time of the attack, released a video statement late on Wednesday calling the shooting “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror.”
It was unclear if the shooting would lead to changes to how the Guard operates in cities. Members typically patrol in small groups, including on foot, mostly armed with pistols.
LAKANWAL APPROVED FOR U.S. ASYLUM THIS YEAR
Trump said his administration would “re-examine” all Afghans who came to the U.S. during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Pirro and Patel blamed the Biden administration for improperly vetting Lakanwal, although they offered no evidence to support this assertion.
A Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Lakanwal applied for asylum in December 2024 and was approved on April 23 this year, three months after Trump took office. Lakanwal, who resided in Washington state, had no known criminal history, the official said.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said on Wednesday it had halted processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely, “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”
VANCE DEFENDS IMMIGRATION POLICY
Vice President JD Vance, who was in Kentucky on Wednesday, said on social media that the shooting proved the Trump administration’s immigration policy was justified.
“We must redouble our efforts to deport people with no right to be in our country,” he said.
Critics of the administration’s immigration policy say it has employed harsh and illegal tactics and swept up immigrants indiscriminately, including many with no criminal history and others in the U.S. legally.
The two Guard members from West Virginia were part of a militarized law enforcement mission ordered by Trump in August and challenged in court by Washington, D.C., officials. Trump ordered 500 more troops to be deployed in the capital in the wake of the shooting, joining about 2,200 already in the city as part of the president’s immigration and crime crackdown targeting Democratic-led cities.
Trump, a Republican, has suggested repeatedly that crime has disappeared from the capital as a result of the deployment, an assertion at odds with the police department’s official crime statistics.
Reporting by Leah Douglas, Jana Winter, Phil Stewart, Ted Hesson, Lucia Mutikani, Jasper Ward and Tim Reid; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Jeff Mason, Steve Gorman; Writing by Julia Harte and Rod Nickel; Editing by Ross Colvin and Deepa Babington
Greene said policymakers typically would look through measures that only led to a one-off fall in inflation rather than caused year-on-year falls in prices
International News via Reuters:
British government measures to lower households’ energy bills by 150 pounds ($199) a year may help lower the public’s inflation expectations but the policy implication is unclear, Bank of England policymaker Megan Greene said on Thursday.
Greene said policymakers typically would look through measures that only led to a one-off fall in inflation rather than caused year-on-year falls in prices.
But elevated household inflation expectations meant it would be helpful for the BoE if the measure did shift households’ expectations for future inflation lower, she said at a London conference hosted by Irish financial services company Goodbody.
Greene voted against the BoE’s last quarter-point rate cut in August and earlier this month she said she did not think current interest rates of 4% were “meaningfully restrictive” and that she remained concerned about future wage growth.
On Wednesday, finance minister Rachel Reeves set out 26 billion pounds ($34 billion) of tax rises in her annual budget.
Government forecasters estimate her measures will lower inflation by 0.4 percentage points in the next financial year but add 0.1 percentage points to price growth in the two years after.
Financial markets price in a more than 90% chance of a quarter-point BoE rate cut on December 18 after the Monetary Policy Committee’s next meeting and then one or two further rate cuts in 2026, according to LSEG data on Thursday.
($1 = 0.7555 pounds)
Reporting by David Milliken, Editing by Sam Tabahriti
The civil aviation authority late on Wednesday revoked permits for Iberia, TAP, Avianca, Latam Colombia, Turkish Airlines and Gol
International News via Reuters:
Venezuela revoked operating rights for six major international airlines that had suspended flights to the country following a warning from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
The civil aviation authority late on Wednesday revoked permits for Iberia, TAP, Avianca, Latam Colombia, Turkish Airlines and Gol, which further reduces connectivity with the South American nation and fulfills revocation threats made earlier this week.
Colombia, Brazil and Spain, whose airlines are affected by the decision, are among the countries with the largest Venezuelan populations.
ESCALATING VENEZUELA-US TENSIONS
Caracas, in a statement, said the carriers had “joined actions of state terrorism promoted by the United States” by “unilaterally” halting commercial flights.
Last week, the U.S. aviation regulator warned major airlines of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela due to a “worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around” the country.
Caracas said the FAA has no jurisdiction over its airspace.
The U.S. military has been deploying forces to the Caribbean for months amid worsening relations with Venezuela, to combat what it has portrayed as President Nicolas Maduro’s role in supplying illegal drugs that have killed Americans.
Maduro has denied the accusations and says U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to oust him.
In a statement on Monday, the International Air Transport Association said Venezuelan authorities had given international airlines a 48-hour deadline to resume flights, or risk losing their rights to fly to the country.
THE AIRLINES RESPOND
Several international airlines had canceled flights to Venezuela in recent days, ignoring Caracas’s deadline.
Iberia said it wished to restart flights to Venezuela as soon as full safety conditions were met.
Avianca announced its intention to reschedule canceled flights to Caracas for December 5 in a Wednesday statement. The company declined to comment on the restrictions imposed by Venezuela.
Portuguese Foreign Affairs Minister Paulo Rangel called Venezuela’s decision to revoke the airlines’ operating rights “totally disproportionate.” He said the European nation – headquarters of carrier TAP – had tried through its embassy in Caracas to persuade Venezuelan authorities to reinstate operating rights.
Air Europa and Plus Ultra had suspended flights but did not have their permits revoked.
International airline Copa and its Wingo unit continue to operate in Venezuela, as do domestic airlines flying to Colombia, Panama and Curacao.
Reporting by Jesus Calero; additional reporting by Corina Pons, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Kylie Madry; Editing by Kevin Buckland, Clarence Fernandez and Bill Berkrot
Jamaica’s Mount Pleasant FA secured a narrow 1-0 first-leg advantage over Universidad O&M FC in the 2025 Concacaf Caribbean Cup Final, a match played in the Dominican Republic that featured Bermudian FIFA list Assistant Referee, Clinton Hayward, among the officials.
The decisive goal came early at Estadio Cibao FC. Kimoni Bailey put Mount Pleasant into the lead in the 8th minute, capitalizing on a corner kick delivered by Gadail Irving.
Mount Pleasant’s goalkeeper, Tafari Chambers, secured a clean sheet, while the Dominican Republic club’s goalkeeper, Iraitz Gelbentzu, made several key saves, including denying Lamar Walker in the 37th minute, ensuring the margin remained slim.
Bermuda’s FIFA list Assistant Referee Clinton Hayward was on duty for the match, continuing his regular presence at high-level Concacaf fixtures.
Mount Pleasant FA will now look to defend their slim lead in the Second Leg, scheduled for next Tuesday at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica.
Bermuda’s Beach Volleyball National Team is set for its final international appearance of the season, with the Bermuda Volleyball Association (BVA) selecting Benjamin Barnett and Brandon Sousa to compete at the 16th stage of the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Tour in Managua, Nicaragua, from November 28th to 30th, 2025.
While both athletes bring valuable NORCECA experience, this tournament marks the first opportunity for Barnett and Sousa to compete together this year. Barnett earned a silver medal at the ECVA Men’s Championships earlier this year, while Sousa is a seasoned competitor on both the ECVA and NORCECA circuits.
Head Coach Mark Hamilton expressed his enthusiasm, saying, “I’m excited to see the team working towards a strong finish and closing out a successful season.”
The Bermudian pair has trained with the Men’s National Team since February. They will face high-level opponents from across the region, including teams from Canada, Cuba, the United States, and Mexico.
Barnett shared his excitement about the reunion: “It’s my first tournament with Brandon in two years, and I’m really looking forward to applying what we’ve learned in that time.” Sousa added, “We are focused on ending the season on a high note and continuing to raise the profile of Bermuda Volleyball.”
The Managua stop is the penultimate tournament on the 2025 NORCECA calendar.
Day four of the Caribbean Area Squash Association’s (CASA) Senior Championships in Guyana saw the Men’s and Veterans’ teams start their team campaigns with dominant victories, while the Women’s team faced expected challenges due to limited squad numbers.
The Bermuda Men’s Team started emphatically, securing a 12-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago. Taylor Carrick, Noah Browne, Anaya Smith, and D’vario Thompson all secured straight-sets victories.
The Bermuda Men’s Veterans also began with a spectacular 9-0 clean sweep against the Cayman Islands, with Stephen Smith, Hadleigh Farrer, and Peter Drury all winning 3-0. However, the Veterans faced a setback in their second fixture, going down 9-3 to Barbados, despite Farrer pulling back points with a hard-fought 3-2 victory.
The Bermuda Women’s team, fielding only three players, faced a major hurdle. In their opener against hosts Guyana, Bermuda went down 20-1, with Melina Turk earning the team’s solitary point by taking a set. The team then suffered a heavy 15-0 defeat against Barbados. The women will continue to battle despite the challenge posed by their limited squad size.
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