‘Grocery discounts should not be universal’
OBA Leader Robert King says it makes no sense to give discounts to wealthy Islanders
The cost of living .. arguably the most pressing, hot-button issue for many Bermudians.
The PLP Government has put forward a number of initiatives, under the Affordable Bermuda Agenda, including a 20% reduction on prices for essential goods, starting on November the 1st.
So what’s the Opposition’s take?
Here’s the first part of Qian Dickinson’s interview with newly-elected OBA Leader Robert King.
Young archers head to Caribbean Development Championship
The National Archery Association of Bermuda has unveiled its team for the seventh Caribbean Development Championship, set to take place in Trinidad from October 23rd to 26th.
Trinidad is preparing to host a record 260 archers from across the region for an event designed to introduce young talent to the excitement of international competition.
Bermuda’s promising squad includes:
- Recurve Under 15 Women’s: Sophia Davidge and Aurora Bowers
- Recurve Under 15 Developmental Men’s: Braeden Fraser
- Barebow Developmental Men’s: Damon Watson
Led by Coach Bernard Wade III, many of these Bermudian athletes are set to experience their first regional competition. Their participation highlights the growing enthusiasm for archery on the island and provides a crucial development opportunity against their Caribbean counterparts.
WTO backs EU in frozen fries tariff dispute with Colombia
EU had already won an initial case in December 2022 over whether the anti-dumping duties of between 3% and 8% on frozen fries from November 2018 breached global trading rules
International News via Reuters:
The World Trade Organization backed the European Union on Thursday in a case against import duties applied by Colombia to frozen fries from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
The European Union had already won an initial case in December 2022 over whether the anti-dumping duties of between 3% and 8% on frozen fries from November 2018 breached global trading rules.
Thursday’s finding that Colombia had not complied with the earlier ruling opens the door for the European Union to win the right to retaliate, although Colombia may first appeal.
While small in monetary terms, the dispute holds symbolic importance particularly for Belgium, which says it invented the “French” fry.
The EU exported 23 million euros ($26.8 million) worth of frozen fries to Colombia in 2016, before Colombia started the process of setting the tariff. The duties affected 85% of EU exports of frozen fries to Colombia.
The initial WTO panel ruling found fault in the way in which Colombian authorities calculated the tariffs.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Editing by Kirsten Donovan
NBA’s Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier among dozens arrested in sweeping illegal gambling probe
The schemes – one of them focused on insider sports betting and another that rigged poker games nationwide – spanned years and involved tens of millions of dollars in illicit gains
International News via Reuters:
Chauncey Billups, an NBA Hall of Fame player and head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and Terry Rozier, a guard with the Miami Heat, are among more than 30 people charged on Thursday in connection with two separate but related federal gambling investigations that involved the league and organized crime.
The schemes – one of them focused on insider sports betting and another that rigged poker games nationwide – spanned years and involved tens of millions of dollars in illicit gains from wire fraud, money laundering, extortion and gambling, FBI Director Kash Patel said at a press conference in Brooklyn on Thursday.
Rozier was one of several National Basketball Association insiders who provided non-public information about how they would perform to their criminal partners, who in turn used straw bettors to place multiple bets based on the tips, authorities said.
In March 2023, for instance, Rozier told associates in advance he would leave a game early with a supposed injury, allowing them to profit when he did not reach his expected statistical totals for the game, officials said.
“This is the insider trading saga for the NBA,” Patel said.
Billups was charged in a separate case with helping to rig poker games to defraud unknowing players who were lured to the games with the promise of playing against celebrities, officials said. The defendants employed sophisticated technology, including fraudulent card shufflers and x-ray tables.
That scheme also involved the Bonano, Gambino, Lucchese and Genovese organized crime families in New York, which took a cut of the profits, used extortion and robbery to collect unpaid debts and laundered proceeds through cryptocurrency and other means, according to prosecutors.
While the arrests stemmed from two separate indictments, a handful of defendants were charged in both cases, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said, including former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones.
Representatives of the Heat, the Blazers and the NBA did not immediately answer requests for comment.
Rozier’s lawyer, James Trusty, said prosecutors “appear to be taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case.”
The arrests are likely to increase scrutiny of the relationship between online sportsbooks and professional sports leagues, which have reaped the benefits of a massive expansion in legalized betting even as they have also sought to assure fans and gamblers that the integrity of their gameplay remains unaffected.
Some lawmakers have expressed concern about the proliferation of bets that could be most easily manipulated by players, such as prop bets, in which bettors can wager on whether an individual player will hit or miss specific statistical totals in a given game.
Several players in the “Big Four” North American men’s leagues – the NBA, the National Football League, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League – have faced punishment for gambling in recent years.
Former NBA player Jontay Porter was banned from the league for life and pleaded guilty in 2024 after he was accused of manipulating his performance to help associates win wagers on his play, a case that officials said was linked to Thursday’s indictment.
Pete Rose, Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader, was barred for life from MLB in 1989 after he was caught betting on games while he was the manager of the Cincinnati Reds. After repeated calls from U.S. President Donald Trump, Rose was posthumously removed from MLB’s permanently ineligible list earlier this year, making him eligible for the Hall of Fame.
Billups, 49, is in his fifth year as Portland’s head coach. He played for seven teams during his NBA career and won a championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, when he was named Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals.
He was expected to make an initial court appearance later on Thursday in Portland.
Rozier, 31, is in his 11th NBA season and has averaged 13.9 points a game in his career. He had been under scrutiny for a a March 2023 game after several online sports books flagged an unusual number of bets that he would go under his projected stats for the day. He left the game after only nine minutes, citing an injury.
He was arrested in Orlando, Florida, where the Heat played the Magic on Wednesday night, and was expected to appear in court there on Thursday afternoon.
Reporting by Julia Harte, Joseph Ax, Maria Tsvetkova, Jack Queen and Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty
Berntsson battles back to lead Gold Cup after penalty drama
Defending champion Johnie Berntsson of Sweden surged up the leaderboard on Day Two of the 2025 Bermuda Gold Cup, recovering from a slow start to share the lead with Switzerland’s Eric Monnin.
Berntsson achieved a flawless day, winning all four of his races, but his victory over the USA’s Chris Poole was the highlight, described by Berntsson as a “penalty-packed race.”
“It was two penalties each and good, fun racing,” Berntsson stated after a fierce battle that saw penalties handed out in both the pre-start and during the racing, showcasing the intense nature of the World Match Racing Tour event.
At the halfway stage of the double round robin, the standings are incredibly tight, with six skippers now within a single point of the leaders. France’s Ian Garreta claimed a crucial scalp by defeating previously undefeated Monnin, leaving the competition wide open.
In the Aspen Bermuda Women’s Match Racing Regatta, the expected rivalry is taking shape. Sweden’s Anna Östling and defending champion Pauline Courtois of France are looking down on the rest of the field. Courtois bounced back from a disappointing Day One with a perfect three wins, while Östling also went three-from-three, including a remarkable comeback win over the USA’s Nicole Breault. “We never give up and that is one of the things we are good at,” Östling said.
New deal fuses energy and tourism sectors
Partnership, signed by Wayne Caines, seeks to advance sustainable energy use and enhance climate resilience across the Caribbean region
Wayne M. Caines, Chairman of the Board of Directors and President and CEO of Bermuda Electric Light Company signs MOU with CHTA. Photo: CARILEC
The Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC) and the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), along with its affiliate, the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST), have signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at strengthening collaboration between the Caribbean’s energy and tourism sectors.
The MOU was signed on Monday, October 20, 2025, at the commencement of the annual CARILEC Resilient Energy Community (CAREC) Conference and Exhibition, held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. This groundbreaking partnership seeks to advance sustainable energy use, promote renewable energy adoption, and enhance climate resilience across the Caribbean’s tourism and hospitality industry. The MOU underscores both sectors’ shared commitment to ensuring a sustainable and secure energy future for the Caribbean region, while supporting the region’s economic growth and environmental stewardship.
The agreement provides a framework for cooperation in five key areas, namely, knowledge sharing and research, policy and regulatory improvements, disaster resilience, membership exchanges and cross-promotions, and capacity building and workforce development. The MOU fully aligns with CARILEC’s vision of “working together to realize a sustainable energy future for people of the Caribbean.”
CARILEC has also expanded its membership categories to include Large Commercial Prosumers; businesses, and institutions operating a minimum of 20 kW of grid-connected generation capacity under self-generation and feed-in frameworks/compensation programs for excess electricity sent to the grid by these renewable energy systems. Through this initiative, tourism operators and other self-generating enterprises are now eligible for membership within the association and can now contribute directly to regional dialogue, share their experiences, and help inform policies that support cleaner, more resilient, and economically viable energy systems across the Caribbean.
Signing the MOU for CARILEC was Mr. Wayne M. Caines, Chairman of the Board of Directors and President and CEO of Bermuda Electric Light Company. Speaking at the signing, Dr. Cletus Bertin, Executive Director of CARILEC, highlighted the importance of the collaboration, “Energy and tourism are two pillars of Caribbean development. Through this partnership, we are bridging these sectors to create opportunities for real, tangible progress in renewable energy deployment, energy efficiency, and disaster resilience, ensuring that the Caribbean remains both competitive and sustainable.”
Mr. Sanovnik Destang, President of the CHTA, emphasized the shared responsibility to build a resilient future, “Tourism and energy may seem like separate worlds, but they are deeply connected. Hotels and resorts are among the largest energy users in our region, while utilities are essential partners in our growth and resilience…Across our destinations, we see progress; solar and wind projects in Aruba and Barbados, geothermal development in Dominica, and policy reforms in Saint Lucia that are helping modernize our energy framework and encourage renewable investment. Yet renewable energy still provides less than three percent of tourism’s power use. That must change. By combining tourism’s innovation with CARILEC’s technical expertise, we can lower costs, cut emissions, and strengthen resilience in the tourism sector.”
The MOU provides for the establishment of a Joint Working Group composed of representatives from each organization and sector, to develop annual work plans, oversee implementation, and review progress. It will remain in effect for three years, renewable by mutual agreement.
Ultimately, this alliance empowers Caribbean utilities and tourism stakeholders to work together toward a cleaner, more resilient, and energy-efficient future that strengthens sustainable economic growth and competitiveness across the region.
Some UK bond market players look under-prepared for crisis, BoE policymaker warns
Tighter regulation of banking since then had led risk-taking to shift to less-regulated hedge funds and money market funds based outside Britain, he said
International News via Reuters:
Some businesses that operate in the British government bond market have made only limited preparations for a future crisis, potentially increasing the need for a bailout, Bank of England policymaker Jonathan Hall warned on Thursday.
Hall, an external member of the BoE’s Financial Policy Committee and former fund manager and Goldman Sachs partner, said there was a risk of a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis where the public had to bail out banks to avoid an even bigger financial crash.
Tighter regulation of banking since then had led risk-taking to shift to less-regulated hedge funds and money market funds based outside Britain, he said.
“There are non-bank financial institutions who are increasingly important to the functioning of systemic markets like gilts but are outside of the UK regulatory perimeter and have low levels of self-insurance,” Hall said in a speech to the Confederation of British Industry.
“If the public perceives that a market intervention ends up supporting these firms in stress, then the public outcry seen in the global financial crisis could be repeated but targeted against these non-banks,” he added.
On Tuesday, BoE Governor Andrew Bailey said the recent collapses of U.S. auto parts maker First Brands had echoes of the start of the global financial crisis. The BoE has also warned that AI speculation was pushing up share prices in a way similar to the dotcom bubble at the start of the millennium.
“Pricing is quite optimistic,” Hall said.
BOE INTERVENED IN BOND MARKET IN 2022
The BoE bought 19.3 billion pounds ($25.9 billion) of British government debt in 2022 after bond prices slumped after Prime Minister Liz Truss’ budget proposals. Hall said it was justifiable at the time as it was not reasonable to have expected funds to prepare for such a big move.
Since then, Hall said the BoE had taken measures to design market support mechanisms that only helped non-bank firms which were well regulated – such as pension funds, liability-driven investment funds and insurers.
But that would not always be sufficient in a crisis, and the next approach was to ensure that any BoE intervention was priced and timed in a way that excessively risky firms failed before the BoE intervened, he added.
However, continued international cooperation was also needed to ensure foreign businesses active in British markets were appropriately regulated, he said.
“It would be worrying if this important work to build resilience were threatened by reduced global cooperation, as this would unfairly shift the cost of insurance from overseas firms to UK institutions and the UK public,” he said.
($1 = 0.7451 pounds)
Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Toby Chopra
King Charles and Pope Leo pray together in a 500-year first
Although Charles has met the last three popes, and Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI travelled to Britain, their previous encounters never included joint prayers
International News via Reuters:
Britain’s King Charles and Pope Leo prayed together in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel on Thursday, in the first joint worship including an English monarch and a Catholic pontiff since King Henry VIII broke away from Rome in 1534.
Latin chants and English prayers echoed through the chapel, where Leo was elected the first U.S. pope by the world’s Catholic cardinals six months ago in front of frescoes by Michelangelo depicting Christ delivering the Last Judgment.
Charles, supreme governor of the Church of England, was seated at the pope’s left near the altar of the chapel as Leo and Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell led a service that featured the Sistine Chapel Choir and two royal choirs.
Although Charles has met the last three popes, and Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI travelled to Britain, their previous encounters never included joint prayers.
VISIT TO THE VATICAN IS ‘A HEALING’ OF TURBULENT HISTORY
The King and Queen Camilla are on a state visit to the Vatican marking the closening ties between the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion, five centuries after their turbulent separation.
“There is a strong sense that this moment in the extraordinary setting of the Sistine Chapel offers a kind of healing of history,” Anglican Rev. James Hawkey, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, told Reuters.
“This would have been impossible just a generation ago,” he said. “It represents how far our churches have come over the last 60 years of dialogue.”
Cottrell, the Anglican Archbishop of York, stood in at the Sistine Chapel service for Sarah Mullally. She was recently announced as the first woman to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, but will not take the role until next year.
The split between the Catholic Church and the Church of England was formalized in 1534, after Pope Clement VII refused to annul King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
Henry’s desire for a male heir — and a new wife who might provide one — was the immediate catalyst, but other factors were also at play, involving the English crown’s seizure of church assets and the growth of Protestant ideas in England.
As England swung between Catholicism and Protestantism during the reigns of Henry’s daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I, hundreds of Catholics and Protestants were executed for their faith, often burned at the stake.
CHARLES TO RECEIVE SPECIAL TITLE, SEAT AT BASILICA
Charles and Camilla, who visited the Vatican earlier this year to see Pope Francis, also had a private meeting with Leo on Thursday morning. At home in Britain, Charles’ disgraced brother Prince Andrew is engulfed in a deepening crisis over abuse allegations and his ties with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The King will travel in the afternoon to Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of Catholicism’s four most venerated churches, where Leo has approved giving him a new title of “Royal Confrater”, or brother, at the connected abbey.
Charles will also be gifted a special seat in the apse of the basilica. The wooden chair, reserved in the future for use only by British monarchs, is decorated with the king’s coat of arms and the ecumenical motto “Ut unum sint” (That they may be one).
Bishop Anthony Ball, the official Anglican representative to the Vatican, said the honours “show the commitment that both of our Churches have to working for a shared future.”
Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday that Charles had also approved two British honours for Leo: making him the “Papal Confrater” of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle and conferring on him the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.
ANGLICAN-CATHOLIC TIES IMPROVING SINCE 1960s
The Church of England is one of 46 autonomous churches across some 165 countries that together form the Anglican Communion.
The Catholic Church, which has 1.4 billion members, and the Anglican Communion, with 85 million members, have been improving their ties since the 1960s.
The teachings of the two traditions align on many major issues, but the Catholic Church does not ordain women and generally does not allow priests to marry.
Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Alexandra Hudson
Bermuda netball team clinches double victory in Caribbean thriller
Bermuda has made a strong, undefeated start to the Battle of the Isles Netball Tournament in the Caribbean, securing two dominant victories on the opening day.
Their first match was a demonstration of resilience against co-hosts St Maarten. Bermuda trailed for the first half, facing a seven-goal deficit at one stage. However, a stunning second-half turnaround saw them surge back to win comfortably, 42-30.
Building on that momentum, Bermuda secured a comprehensive second victory later in the day, defeating St Eustatius with an emphatic 59-29 scoreline.
The scoring effort against St Eustatius was led by Jahkenya Trott with 27 goals, ably supported by Zakiyah Durham who added 20 goals, and Kezhari Knight with 12. Bermuda now looks ahead to the rest of the tournament with a perfect record.
Double penalty drama sets up Dudley Eve Final
The final of the Dudley Eve Trophy is confirmed, following a night of unbearable tension at Bernard Park where both semi-finals were decided by a penalty shootout. The final will feature the Devonshire Cougars against the St. George’s Colts.
In the first semi-final, the Devonshire Cougars took the lead through Chamari Burns in the 41st minute against PHC Zebras. The Cougars looked set for victory until Enrique Russell scored a dramatic equaliser two minutes into injury time, forcing the shootout. The Cougars held their nerve, winning the kicks 4-3 to advance.
The nightcap between the Dandy Town Hornets and the St. George’s Colts was a scoreless affair, sending the second match straight to penalties. The St. George’s Colts proved clinical from the spot, dominating the shootout 4-1 to secure their place in the final.
Suspected drug packages wash ashore
Police recover bundles; forensic tests and regional probe underway
The Bermuda Police Service (BPS) is investigating after multiple packages of suspected controlled drugs were found floating offshore and washed up along sections of Bermuda’s coastline.
According to the BPS, several reports from members of the public prompted responses from Community Patrol Officers, the Coast Guard, and the Drugs Unit. The recovered packages have been seized and secured as evidence. Preliminary examinations indicate the contents are consistent with illegal narcotics, and the bundles will undergo forensic testing to confirm their composition and possible origin.
Detective Chief Inspector Jason Smith, head of the BPS Drugs Unit, said, “We are actively investigating how these packages came to be in Bermuda’s waters and whether they are linked to any maritime activity or regional drug trafficking operations. We are liaising with our local and international partners to determine the source and potential destination of these drugs.”
Police are urging the public not to touch, move, or open any suspicious packages found on beaches or in the water. Instead, people should immediately contact:
- Main police number: 295-0011
- Non-emergency reporting: 211
- BPS Community Reporting Portal: https://portal.bps.bm
- Anonymous tips: Crime Stoppers Bermuda 800-8477
The investigation is ongoing, and further updates will be provided when available.
