Event has been a major fixture on both the sporting and social calendar
Kendal Trott spoke with World Rugby Classic Events Director Ronan Kane, who told us what spectators can expect and the excitement surrounding the return of this longstanding sporting tradition.
Year-ahead expectations, which tend to be influenced by moves in short-term inflation and energy prices, decreased to 4.2% from 4.5%
International News via Reuters:
The British public’s expectations for future inflation fell for the first time in two months in October, though this was unlikely to stop the Bank of England hiking rates next week, analysts at Citi said on Thursday.
Expectations for inflation in five or more years’ time, which are closely watched by the Bank of England, fell to 4% from 4.3% in September, according to a survey from US bank Citi and pollsters YouGov published on Thursday.
Year-ahead expectations, which tend to be influenced by moves in short-term inflation and energy prices, decreased to 4.2% from 4.5%.
Citi said there was little obvious explanation for the drop, given the rise in oil and gas prices continued in October and tensions remained high in the Iran war, keeping inflation risks high.
“For monetary policy, a one-month easing in household inflation expectations is unlikely on its own to have an impact on the Bank of England’s reaction function,” it added.
“We would expect the MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) to treat October’s data as encouraging at the margin rather than as grounds for a substantive change in direction.”
Investors expect a quarter-point rate hike from the BoE next Thursday, a move Citi said seems “all but guaranteed”, with another move likely during the first quarter of next year.
Reporting by Yoruk Bahceli, editing by William James
The Bermuda Pilot Gig Club’s Bermuda International Gig (BIG) Regatta got under way on Wednesday with a full day of racing in windy, challenging conditions at the Somers Medical Mixer. Thirty-one crews from Bermuda, the UK, Ireland and the US are competing, with 210 rowers including coxes.
Sunday’s racing was cancelled for safety because of gale-force winds, but the visiting crews made the most of the wait. Regatta week opened on Saturday with a welcome reception, where old friends caught up, and every crew received a goodie bag. On Sunday, crews explored the town of St George’s and took shelter at Moongate Brewery, where the Regatta Committee hosted lunch, dinner and games. On Monday and Tuesday, crews explored Bermuda, and a few braved the chance of rain to get out on the water for practice and relocation rows.
Wednesday’s racing ran from 9am to 5pm. In the Ladies Final, Sargasso Sirens (River Teign) took first place ahead of Bermuda Tri-Angels, with Looe and Lyme Regis third. In the Men’s Final, Oar-rite (River Teign) finished first, followed by Rame and St Goran, with St Michael’s third.
Bermuda crews had plenty to celebrate. A combination crew of Dirty Oars plus Sassy Strokes won the Ladies Plate Final, Able Seamen won the Men’s Plate Final, and Salt, Sand & Stone, a crew drawn from Exmouth, Portland and Bermuda, won the Ladies 3rd Bracket Final.
Chris Hardy, BIG Regatta Chairperson: “Our rowers have taken everything the last few days have thrown at them (some rain and lots of wind), and the quality of the racing today in those conditions was superb. Our visitors have told us how welcome they feel, and Bermuda has been looking after them whatever the weather.”
The regatta is supported by the Bermuda Tourism Authority, Chubb, Somers Medical and Somers Dermatology, Walkers and Resolution Life. The Bermuda Tourism Authority’s backing is helping to build Bermuda as a world-class rowing destination, bringing crews and supporters from overseas to stay, spend and see the island. The club also thanks Moongate Brewery for its hospitality, as well as its dedicated volunteers and event committee.
Racing resumes on Saturday 31 October at Spanish Point Boat Club, from 9am to 5pm, with the Chubb Central Challenge. Spectators are welcome and encouraged to bring their Bermuda Spiri
At approximately 3:10 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, Police and Emergency Medical Services personnel, were dispatched to a two vehicle road traffic collision involving a private motor car and a rental car, at the junction of South Road and Knapton Hill, Smith’s.
It appears the rental car was exiting Knapton Hill onto South Road, when the driver, a male visitor to the island, failed to stop in compliance with the traffic sign at the junction.
This resulted in a collision with the private car which was being driven east, along South Shore Road.
Neither the female driver of the motorcar nor her three passengers, all minors, were injured.
The driver of the rental car sustained a minor hand injury. His passenger who is also visiting, was left with minor abrasions and complained of chest pain. He was transported by ambulance to King Edward VII Memorial, where he was attended to and discharged.
Both vehicles were extensively damaged.
The roadway remained closed, with traffic diversions in place, for just under three hours, while the collision scene was forensically processed.
An investigation into this incident has now begun and anyone with information is asked to make contact with Police constable Lisa-Nichole Tucker on 717-2454, or via email, ltucker@bps.bm
Statement by Linda Smith, Shadow Minister of Seniors, Environment & Sustainability
One Bermuda Alliance MP Linda Smith is calling on the Regulatory Authority to update regulations pertaining to standards of engagement required from telecom companies communicating with their customers on issues affecting service.
She says it is not acceptable for those providing essential services to hide behind AI personalities and apps to isolate customers from information on the status of services they are paying for.
Ms. Smith says the inability to access internet service goes beyond being inconvenient: “Internet is the connection point for vital everyday access to multiple services including banking, bill paying, home security, government information, booking and managing medical and other appointments, access to television and news, travel and general contact with the outside world.”
She adds that since moving to fibre optic, landline telephone services, which used to operate separately from the internet, now requires internet supply.
“In Bermuda the cost of the internet is amongst the most expensive in the world, which makes it even more unacceptable for service providers to hide behind technology that subjects customers to one-way, stressful techno spirals in order to report service outages and try to get information about service restoration.”
Ms. Smith says there needs to be appropriate service standards that ensure customer outage reports are confirmed – as received. There should also be access to locally based, human customer service representatives whose job it is to answer the phone and provide timely and accurate service information.
“I believe we have reached a point where service standards need to be updated to reflect present experiences and protect customers from being deliberately ignored.
“Upwards of 25% of our population are senior citizens, many of whom are themselves isolated and rely on limited know-how to access internet for entertainment, information, services and contact with family and friends. Certainly, it cannot be morally acceptable to make access for them more difficult to navigate and completely impersonal. Nor should customers be expected to physically travel to the office of the service provider to get information and answers. That is not progress. Bermuda deserves better. I hope that the RA will see fit to take this on.”
The ECB is set to keep interest rates on hold in a well-telegraphed decision that is likely to be overshadowed by questions about France and ECB President Christine Lagarde’s own future
International News via Reuters:
The euro was steady on Thursday ahead of a policy decision from the European Central Bank, where the focus will fall on the outlook for inflation and the bond-market turmoil in France, while the dollar wobbled after the Federal Reserve tempered bets on rate hikes next year.
The ECB is set to keep interest rates on hold in a well-telegraphed decision that is likely to be overshadowed by questions about France and ECB President Christine Lagarde’s own future.
The euro was steady on the day around $1.1148, but is still down 2% this month against the dollar and around 2.5% against the pound.
As a result, investors are betting heavily against the euro, having built up their biggest short position in a decade — currently worth $18.89 billion, according to weekly data from a US regulator.
With positioning leaning so heavily in one direction, the scope for a bounce higher in the euro is fairly large right now, IG chief market strategist Chris Beauchamp said.
“Given the moves (in the euro) you’ve seen against sterling and against the dollar, it’s very much one way, and there’s bound to be a few people feeling a bit nervous,” he said.
He said should Lagarde take a tough stance on inflation, that could boost the currency. Traders may price in a greater probability of a rate hike in December, where the chances are around 82%, or of a second sooner than April, which is what money markets currently reflect.
“If the ECB can edge the Fed out slightly in rhetoric today and really bang the drum for (rate hikes), then I think you could see a lot of people just caught a little bit offside,” Beauchamp said.
Another two rate hikes by this time next year could make for a “winter of discontent” for the euro zone, which is already battling high energy prices and increasing stagflation risks, according to Rushabh Amin, portfolio manager for the multi-asset team at Allspring Global Investments.
Worries about France’s ability to tackle its huge debt burden have hurt French government bonds and raised concern about other heavily indebted euro-area countries, weighing on the euro, which is down 5.1% against the dollar this year.
FED LEAVES RATES UNCHANGED
The Fed, meanwhile, opted to delay any changes to borrowing costs until after next week’s midterm election, which came with an upgraded assessment of an economy that the central bank now says is growing at a “strong pace”.
That, along with the confidence expressed by Fed Chair Kevin Warsh that inflation can be lowered to the 2% target without having to “throw sand in the gears” and slow growth or raise unemployment, pushed traders to rein in bets for rate hikes in 2027.
The dollar steadied on Thursday, after retreating from a two-week high the day before. The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against a basket of six others, was at 102.2.
The 2-year note yield, which typically tracks Fed rate expectations, was down 4 basis points on the day at 4.695%, extending the decline that began after Warsh’s press conference.
Warsh also said the central bank would begin setting aside one of its eight regular policy meetings next year and two in 2028 to discuss major issues facing the institution and would not use them to consider changes in monetary policy.
Attention is also on the Bank of Japan, which concludes a two-day meeting on Friday and is expected to keep rates steady. The Japanese yen was a touch weaker, leaving the dollar up 0.1% at 158 yen.
The New Zealand dollar dipped on Thursday by 0.18% to 0.5615 per dollar, having slumped nearly 2% following the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s surprise decision on Wednesday to keep rates at 2.75%.
Additional reporting by Li Gu in Shanghai and Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Kate Mayberry, Lincoln Feast, Alex Richardson, Aidan Lewis
On Friday, 30 October 2026, the Cashiers’ Desks located on the 2nd Floor of the Dame Lois Browne Evans Building will be closed during the period 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Arrangements should be made to make any payments between the hours of 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. or after 3:00 p.m.
On Friday, 30 October 2026, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal Registry, Magistrates’ Court Reception Desk and Family Support Office located on the 3rd Floor of Dame Lois Browne Evans Building will close for the lunch period at 1:00 p.m. and will reopen at 3:00 p.m. Arrangements should be made to file documents between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. or after 3:00 p.m.
The finance minister did not make a clear commitment on whether welfare spending would fall before the next election, due no later than mid-2029
International News via Reuters:
British finance minister John Healey said the government would lower its spending on welfare benefits as he sought to address one of the big public spending challenges that remain after his first budget announcement.
Asked by the BBC in an interview broadcast on Thursday whether welfare spending would be cut before the next election, Healey said: “We have to bring the benefits bill down. You don’t do that by crude cuts.”
The finance minister did not make a clear commitment on whether welfare spending would fall before the next election, due no later than mid-2029.
Healey announced his first major set of tax and spending plans on Wednesday which offered some short-term support for households hit by the surge in energy prices and raised taxes on banks, savers and landlords to help pay for it.
But the budget did not address some long-term issues facing the public finances, including the growing bill for welfare spending on pensioners and working-age people in poor health, which is set to cost more than 11% of the country’s economic output this year.
The opposition Conservative Party and some bond investors have homed in on rising spending on social benefits as a symbol of misplaced government priorities and a lack of will in the Labour Party to lower borrowing.
However, markets have reacted broadly favourably to Healey’s budget and on Thursday 10-year government borrowing costs had fallen to a four-week low.
Healey said Britain had to prevent the spending from getting ever bigger and he focused on the problem of unemployment among young people.
“This system is unsustainable. I’ve been clear about that,” he told the BBC. “I feel a moral duty to deal with these youngsters that … have been written off by previous governments.”
A government review into young people who are not in employment, education or vocational training is due to be published next month and another review into the disability benefits system is being finalised.
Healey also drew criticism from the left-leaning Resolution Foundation for spreading too thinly his flagship spending measure – a £100 ($133) reduction in energy bills for 20 million households.
“Even those families receiving help (will be) facing higher energy bills than they did during the last energy price shock,” Resolution Foundation chief executive Ruth Curtice said.
Typical annual energy bills this financial year are set to rise to £1,750 a year after government support, 4% higher than when they last peaked after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the think tank said.
($1 = 0.7503 pounds)
Writing by William Schomberg and David Milliken
Thirty-five of the 100 Senate seats and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are being contested next Tuesday
International News via Reuters:
Neither man is on the ballot but Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic former President Barack Obama took prominent roles on the campaign trail on Wednesday, with less than a week to go before congressional races that could shift the balance of power in Washington.
While Trump has been on a weeks-long campaign blitz that has underlined Republican concerns about losing control of Congress for the final two years of his presidency, Obama had kept a relatively low public profile until the past week, during which he has delivered blistering speeches criticizing Trump.
Thirty-five of the 100 Senate seats and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are being contested next Tuesday. Nonpartisan analysts generally favor Democrats’ chances of capturing a majority in the House, with the contest for the Senate seen as very close.
On Wednesday, Obama appeared in Morrow, Georgia, near Atlanta, where he urged voters to support Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, who faces a challenge from Representative Mike Collins, a Republican.
While delivering the standard Democratic critique of Trump for imposing tariffs and going to war in Iran, Obama also said America’s values were on the ballot, as he recalled the vision of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who is buried in Atlanta.
“There is a moral component to the choices we face right now,” Obama said.
“We are not going to fix the system that’s broken, we’re not going to unrig our economy, so long as we’ve got a culture where anything goes, where people in the highest offices of the land think it’s OK to lie and cheat and bully, if we continue to have a culture where money is deemed the only measure of our worth,” Obama said.
Trump’s public approval rating has fallen to a near record low, with Americans increasingly sour on the high cost of living and the Iran war, but he remains an animating force in the party and has campaigned hard to increase Republican turnout.
Americans have been voting for weeks, with 40 million ballots already cast, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab. A total of 45.9 million Americans voted early in the last midterm elections in 2022.
Addressing a rally inside a modest college gymnasium in the Ohio town of Chillicothe, the president appeared with Senator Jon Husted of Ohio as he faces a challenge from Democratic former Senator Sherrod Brown.
Trump attacked Brown for supporting immigration policies the president said had overwhelmed Springfield, Ohio, with Haitian migrants. “The town went to hell,” he said.
Trump spread false claims during the 2024 presidential campaign that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating cats and dogs, allegations local officials repeatedly said were untrue.
TRUMP FACES PROTESTERS
Enthusiastic crowds have cheered Trump at rallies throughout the campaign, but hundreds of protesters lined Trump’s motorcade route in rural Chillicothe, raising banners that read, “Republican against Trump,” “Grab them by the ballot” and “GOP: Guardians of pedophiles.”
During the rally, protesters interrupted Trump several times, including at least one who shouted about deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I threw Jeffrey Epstein the hell out of Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said in response.
Trump and Epstein socialized in the 1990s and early 2000s, but Trump has said they later had a falling out and that he barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Justice Department releases from the Epstein files have included references to Trump, as well as many other prominent figures. The department has cautioned that some materials contain allegations that were unverified or uncorroborated.
Protesters have interrupted Trump at virtually all his recent rallies. He typically accuses them of being paid protesters as they are carted off by security.
In Cleveland on Saturday, Obama poked fun at Trump’s taste in interior decorating, saying, “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” a chain of casual dining restaurants.
Trump defended his White House decor and said Obama left the property deteriorated.
“The White House, I think, is the number one symbol of our country, and we can’t have a White House with broken windows, with broken stone that hasn’t been painted in 30 years,” Trump said in Ohio.
ALASKA, MICHIGAN RACES
Democrats will need to pick up seats in traditionally Republican-leaning states such as Ohio, Iowa or Alaska to overcome the current 53-47 Republican majority in the Senate.
The New York Times reported that aides to Mary Peltola, the Senate Democratic nominee in Alaska, worked with the campaign’s lawyers and senior staff at Senate Democrats’ campaign arm to recruit two candidates who are on the ballot and could siphon votes from incumbent Republican US Senator Dan Sullivan.
Representatives for Peltola did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Mary Peltola should resign from the race. I think she should be criminally prosecuted for what she did,” Trump told reporters before departing for Ohio.
In Michigan, where Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed are locked in a tight race for the Senate seat being vacated by Democratic Senator Gary Peters, both campaigns are relying on high-profile allies to energize supporters and boost turnout.
Rogers spent the day campaigning with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on a four-stop bus tour culminating in Imlay City, a small community northeast of Detroit. El-Sayed, meanwhile, was scheduled to join Peters and fellow Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin for an evening canvassing rally in Downriver, southwest of Detroit.
Reporting by Bo Erickson in Chillicothe; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Jacob Bogage in Washington, Jarrett Renshaw in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticutt, and Michael S. Derby and Dawn Kopecki in New York; Writing by Jonathan Spicer and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell, Donna Bryson and Stephen Coates
Five young Bermudians mount impressive fightback in tricky winds to rise up leaderboard in Punta del Este
Five of Bermuda’s six young sailors produced an impressive collective fightback on Wednesday, surging up the leaderboard during a challenging day of racing at the 54th Optimist South American Championship in Punta del Este.
Tricky wind conditions in Maldonado Bay restricted the 180-boat fleet to a single completed race, taking the regatta series to three races with Argentina’s Tomás Calvo emerging as the overall leader.
The shifting breezes played into the hands of the Bermudian contingent, sparked by an inspired showing from Alfie Jansma. Starting the day 156th, Jansma crossed the line seventh to leap 45 places up the standings into 111th overall on 106 points.
Jesse Savage gained 29 spots to move into 66th after taking ninth on the water, while Rex Henagulph rebounded from opening-day penalty setbacks to finish tenth, lifting himself 16 places into 48th.
Heath Meyers remains Bermuda’s front-runner, placing 16th to rise to 33rd on 44 points. Elaine Jones, the sole female sailor in the delegation, crossed 29th to climb 14 spots to 132nd, while Aaron Riker slipped to 151st after placing 53rd.
Lagarde will step down on February 7, giving current European Union leaders time to pick her successor before a French presidential election that polls show far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is favoured to win
International News via Reuters:
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde resigned on Thursday, ending months of speculation about her future just as Europe enters a period of rising economic volatility and divisive electoral politics, particularly in her native France.
Lagarde will step down on February 7, giving current European Union leaders time to pick her successor before a French presidential election that polls show far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is favoured to win.
The move comes as the ECB battles inflation risks from an Iran war-driven oil shock while a sharp rise in bond yields, especially in France, threatens to dampen growth.
“I leave this institution with a sense of good work done and an ECB that is fit for the future,” Lagarde, 70, said in a short video shared on social media.
A source with direct knowledge of the matter said Lagarde, a former French finance minister and head of the International Monetary Fund, had resigned so she could weigh in on political matters in France and globally. As ECB president, she was expected to remain neutral to safeguard the institution’s independence.
THE ‘WRONG SIGNAL’ OR ‘SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY’?
Markus Ferber, a German member of the European parliament for the centre-right European People’s Party, said Lagarde’s early resignation sent “the wrong signal” given high inflation, nervous bond markets and looming elections.
“If the impression arises that such a departure is timed around national elections, it damages trust in an institution that must stand above any domestic political calculation,” Ferber, who sits on the parliamentary committee that will confirm Lagarde’s successor, said.
By contrast, Marcel Fratzscher, president of German think-tank DIW, said Lagarde was showing “a strong sense of responsibility towards Europe”.
“By leaving office early, Christine Lagarde gives European governments and institutions an opportunity to appoint a successor who will safeguard European values and protect the ECB’s independence,” he told Reuters.
Lagarde has not addressed such matters directly. She has said she would not be a candidate for the French presidency but would advocate for pro-European values in her home country “in whichever capacity” she deemed most efficient.
European Council President Antonio Costa said the process to find Lagarde’s successor would begin immediately.
The appointment is likely to be part of a broader package of top ECB jobs involving the executive board seat of Isabel Schnabel, who will leave in early January, and chief economist Philip Lane, due to depart in May.
COMPETENT CANDIDATES REASSURE MARKETS
The former central bank governors of the Netherlands and Spain, Klaas Knot and Pablo Hernandez de Cos, are widely seen as frontrunners to replace Lagarde.
“The rumoured successors are both very competent, well established central bankers, so for markets, it won’t matter too much,” Piet Haines Christiansen, an economist at Danske Bank, said.
Financial markets showed little reaction to the announcement, with some analysts noting the ECB had now built a reputation that outlived any of its leaders.
“The ECB is now quite well established, the market is familiar with the way it operates,” Goldman Sachs’ head of Fixed Income Macro Investing Simon Dangoor said. “Our view is that institutional behaviour is likely to outlast Lagarde, and be quite similar, whoever takes over.”
Lagarde’s term was scheduled to run until the end of October 2027 but speculation about an early departure had been mounting for months, with the World Economic Forum seen as a likely destination. The WEF declined to comment.
RATE HIKES AND BOND TURMOIL
Lagarde’s resignation comes just as the ECB is in the middle of a rate-hiking cycle aimed at preventing an oil-price shock linked to the Iran war from feeding into other prices and wages.
But it must also contend with a surge in government bond yields — especially in debt-laden France — that has pushed up borrowing costs for households and businesses and which Lagarde has said will curb growth and inflation.
Caught between persistent inflation fuelled by a renewed surge in energy costs and deteriorating financing conditions, the ECB is widely expected to keep its deposit rate at 2.5% on Thursday while signalling that another increase, potentially as soon as December, remains likely.
“There is likely a low bar to another hike in December, given the likelihood of another upward revision of the ECB’s inflation forecast due to higher energy prices,” Oliver Rakau at Oxford Economics said.
The ECB is due to announce its interest rate decision at 1315 GMT on Thursday, followed by Lagarde’s regular press conference at 1345 GMT.
Money markets are currently pricing another three rate increases from the ECB by the end of next year, which would take the deposit rate to 3.25%, a level that is widely seen as restricting economic growth.
Additional reporting by Klaus Lauer in Berlin; Editing by Catherine Evans, Sam Holmes and Toby Chopra
The Ministry of Public Works and Environment advises the public that the InEvo Re 10K Run and 5K Walk will take place on Sunday, 1 November 2026, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
The event will begin near the intersection of Dundonald Street and Cedar Avenue, with participants travelling along portions of Cedar Avenue, Marsh Folly Road, Palmetto Road, Dock Hill, North Shore Road, Black Watch Pass and, for the 10K race, Spanish Point Road, before returning to the finish near the Masters Home Centre parking lot.
There will be no road closures for this event. Police officers and race marshals will direct traffic along the route, and motorists are asked to exercise caution, follow all traffic-control instructions and be mindful of race participants.
The Ministry encourages the motoring public’s full cooperation and apologises for any inconvenience that may result.
