In tonight’s news at 7pm…
- Minister tells BELCO to reduce emissions
- Real-time bus and ferry tracking on Shorelink app
- Warning about online fraud using former MP’s image
- Interview with College president – one year in
Bermuda Tonight – 5 August 2025
Bermuda College to temporarily house workforce development office
Dr. David Sam, the new college president marked one year in the role
One year on, the Bermuda College has had Dr. David Sam at the helm steering the tertiary instituition towards the future.
Dr. Sam says he has managed to help the College find a sense of stability following the change in leadership plus a number of improvements to infrastructure and course enrolment processes.
He tells us he hopes the temporary relocation of the Department of Workforce Development to the Paget site will help boost student career training uptake.
Registration to enroll in the upcoming fall semester at the Bermuda College is open until August 22nd.
We start by asking Dr. Sam how is enrolment going so far for the new semester?
Hayward tells BELCO to reduce emissions
Pembroke MP Jason Hayward is ‘standing in solidarity’ with the power station’s neighbours
Find a solution to BELCO emissions – and find it fast.
Area MP Jason Hayward this week stating his support of Pembroke residents whose properties are in the pollution zone around the North Power Station.
Residents sent BELCO and the MP series of photos showing black deposits and brown smears in June and July, and cited fumes that sometimes make it difficult to go outside.
Jason Hayward, also Minister of Economy & Labour, said via a press statement that he is “deeply concerned by the ongoing environmental disturbances affecting our community”.
He continues, “I stand in solidarity with the residents who have voiced their frustrations and urge BELCO to accelerate the implementation of a long-term solution that eliminates these harmful emissions.
“Environmental justice is not optional—it is a fundamental right… I encourage all residents to remain vocal and vigilant”.
MP Hayward also calls on BELCO to engage more frequently and transparently with residents, to restore and clean damaged properties, and guarantee access to clean drinking water.
Issues with fallout and emissions have been ongoing since the North Power Station came online in 2020.
BELCO president Wayne Caines previously said this is because the new engines were “optimised” for liquid natural gas – a fuel source that has never been permitted in Bermuda, and prohibited by the Regulatory Authority in the 2019 Integrated Resource Plan.
BELCO submitted its proposal for the next IRP last October, including some scenarios with LNG. The RA recently advised that there will be more public consultation on alternative energy proposals, and further analysis, before a final IRP is published.
All the same, in a letter to MP Hayward dated July 1st this year, BELCO’s Nadir Wade cited multiple steps they have taken to mitigate pollution from the NPS – including starting up engines with cleaner fuel, installing odour filters, and reducing the size of emission particles.
Despite this, some area residents continue to feel that there has been no significant change to fallout or emissions.
Mr Wade’s letter cited independent tests that show the drinking water and air quality meeting the standards of the World Health Organization and United States Environmental Protection Agency.
He also said BELCO’s location has been industrially zoned for more than a century, and cited the unique challenge of operating where residential areas have “developed around our
pre-existing industrial operations over the decades”.
Responding to Bermuda Broadcasting today, Mr Wade said BELCO takes the concerns of neighbouring residents seriously, and in July they painted roofs, washed cars and power-washed properties following reports that 15 homes had been impacted by emissions.
Mr Wade continues, quote: “We will continue to listen, take action to improve our operations and mitigate any impacts. If any property owner believes they have been impacted by BELCO operations, they should contact the OHSE team by visiting the website belco.bm or calling 295-5111.”
Press Statement by Pembroke Central MP, Jason Hayward
As the elected representative for the people of Pembroke Central, I am deeply concerned by the ongoing environmental disturbances affecting our community, particularly those stemming from emissions and soot deposits believed to be originating from BELCO operations.
On the dates of July 20, 21 and 22, 2025, residents reported a significant accumulation of soot on their properties, this is in addition to reported incidents in June. These recurring incidents are not only disruptive but also distressing, as they compromise the cleanliness of homes and the well-being of families.
I stand in solidarity with the residents who have voiced their frustrations and urge BELCO to accelerate the implementation of a long-term solution that eliminates these harmful emissions. The health and safety of our community must be prioritized without delay.
Furthermore, I call on BELCO to:
• Engage more transparently and frequently with affected residents, ensuring their concerns are heard and addressed.
• Restore damaged property and provide support for cleaning efforts where soot accumulation has occurred.
• Guarantee access to clean drinking water and take proactive steps to prevent any contamination risks.
Environmental justice is not optional—it is a fundamental right. I will continue to advocate for accountability and action, and I encourage all residents to remain vocal and vigilant, so that we ensure our community remains a safe and healthy place to live.
BELCO response from Managing Director, Nadir Wade
“Bermuda Electric Light Company Limited (“BELCO”) has been serving Bermuda reliably for over 119 years and continues to support approximately 36,000 customers island wide.
As Bermuda’s electricity provider, we recognise that our operations may impact the lives of residents living next to land that is zoned for industrial operations. In July BELCO was notified that 15 homes experienced impacts related to emissions. We responded swiftly to mitigate those impacted customers including painting roofs, washing cars, and power-washing properties. We’ve been working over the past several years to balance providing Bermuda with reliable electricity production while being better neighbours. The concerns of our immediate neigbours are understandable, and we continue to take them very seriously.
Since the commissioning of the North Power Station, we have actively communicated with nearby residents, including the Bermuda Clean Air Coalition. We engage in regular walkabouts and direct meetings, including participating twice in Constituency 17’s Saturday morning clinics to discuss residents’ concerns, and send letters to the community as recently as last week. We are committed to transparency and responsiveness and want our neighbours to know that remediation efforts are in place and ongoing.
Bermuda’s long‑term energy strategy contemplates electricity production from alternative fuel sources as a transition away from Bermuda’s reliance on heavy fuel oil to produce electricity on island. Any transition to an alternative fuel source would aim to reduce emissions and soot fallout.
Our phased mitigation efforts—which include technical upgrades to engines, odour control enhancements, filtration improvements, and operational adjustments—have resulted in significant reductions in fallout and odour incidents. These efforts are ongoing and are being optimised continuously.
BELCO’s management and Occupational Health, Safety & Environment (OHSE) teams engage in open dialogue with neighbours and are responsive to their concerns. The Company also remediates any impacts on neighbouring properties as quickly as possible.
Detailed information and progress updates are accessible via our website. We will continue to listen, take action to improve our operations and mitigate any impacts.
If any property owner believes they have been impacted by BELCO operations, they should contact the OHSE team by visiting the website belco.bm or calling 295-5111.”
US proposes new drone rules that could lead to Starbucks, Amazon deliveries
Under current rules, operators need to get individual waivers or exemptions to use drones without visual line of sight
International News via Reuters:
The U.S. Transportation Department is proposing new rules to speed deployment of drones beyond the visual line of sight of operators, a key change needed to advance commercial uses like package deliveries.
“We are going to unleash American drone dominance,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Under current rules, operators need to get individual waivers or exemptions to use drones without visual line of sight. The department said eliminating those requirements “will significantly expand the use-case for drone technologies in areas like: manufacturing, farming, energy production, filmmaking, and the movement of products including lifesaving medications.”
The proposal includes new requirements for manufacturers, operators, and drone traffic-management services to keep drones safely separated from other drones and airplanes.
“It’s going to change the way that people and products move throughout our airspace… so you may change the way you get your Amazon package, you may get a Starbucks cup of coffee from a drone,” Duffy said.
“Industry needs this rule to make sure they can use this technology that’s going to allow them to do business more efficiently and effectively.”
Amazon resumed testing drone deliveries earlier this year at two locations in Texas and Arizona. Amazon has a goal of delivering 500 million packages annually by drone by the end of 2030.
Under the proposal, operations would occur at or below 400 feet above ground from pre-designated locations approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Operators would identify boundaries and approximate
daily flights and takeoff, landing and loading areas and ensure procedures if communications with drones are lost.
Drones would yield to all manned aircraft
broadcasting their position and not interfere with operations at airports.
The Transportation Security Administration would require
flight coordinators and others to obtain security threat assessments and a fingerprint-based criminal history records check.
Lawmakers and many state officials have raised concerns about drones being used to target high-profile U.S. events like the FIFA World Cup.
Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International CEO Michael Robbins praised the risk-based proposal as “a critical step toward enabling drone operations that will enhance safety, transform commercial services, and strengthen public safety with drones as a force multiplier.”
Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Franklin Paul and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
Australia regulator says YouTube, others ‘turning a blind eye’ to child abuse material
The Australian government decided last week to include YouTube in its world-first social media ban for teenagers
International News via Reuters:
Australia’s internet watchdog has said the world’s biggest social media firms are still “turning a blind eye” to online child sex abuse material on their platforms, and said YouTube in particular had been unresponsive to its enquiries.
In a report released on Wednesday, the eSafety Commissioner said YouTube, along with Apple, failed to track the number of user reports it received of child sex abuse appearing on their platforms and also could not say how long it took them to respond to such reports.
The Australian government decided last week to include YouTube in its world-first social media ban for teenagers, following eSafety’s advice to overturn its planned exemption for the Alphabet-owned Google’s video-sharing site.
“When left to their own devices, these companies aren’t prioritising the protection of children and are seemingly turning a blind eye to crimes occurring on their services,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement.
“No other consumer-facing industry would be given the licence to operate by enabling such heinous crimes against children on their premises, or services.”
Google has said previously that abuse material has no place on its platforms and that it uses a range of industry-standard techniques to identify and remove such material. Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, three of the biggest platforms with more than 3 billion users worldwide – says it prohibits graphic videos.
The eSafety Commissioner, an office set up to protect internet users, has mandated Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Skype, Snap and WhatsApp to report on the measures they take to address child exploitation and abuse material in Australia.
The report on their responses so far found a “range of safety deficiencies on their services which increases the risk that child sexual exploitation and abuse material and activity appear on the services”.
Safety gaps included failures to detect and prevent livestreaming of the material or block links to known child abuse material, as well as inadequate reporting mechanisms.
It said platforms were also not using “hash-matching” technology on all parts of their services to identify images of child sexual abuse by checking them against a database. Google has said before that its anti-abuse measures include hash-matching technology and artificial intelligence.
The Australian regulator said some providers had not made improvements to address these safety gaps on their services despite it putting them on notice in previous years.
“In the case of Apple services and Google’s YouTube, they didn’t even answer our questions about how many user reports they received about child sexual abuse on their services or details of how many trust and safety personnel Apple and Google have on-staff,” Inman Grant said.
Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Hugh Lawson
Real-time bus tracking: Does it work?
A closer look at the Government’s public transport app and its new real-time tracking feature
Getting around Bermuda just got a little easier.
As of today, passengers can track buses and ferries in real time using the Shorelink App, available on iOS and Android.
It’s all part of Phase 2 of the Government’s Digital Fare Media Project.
WATCH below as our reporter Alisa Bernardo put the new upgrade to the test in Flatts today.
Britain’s Sainsbury’s shakes up leadership team
Last month, Sainsbury’s reported better-than-expected first quarter sales
International News via Reuters:
Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Officer Simon Roberts has reshuffled the leadership team of Britain’s second-largest supermarket group after a key lieutenant quit to become the boss of homeware retailer Dunelm.
Clodagh Moriarty, Sainsbury’s chief retail and technology officer, resigned last month and will become Dunelm’s CEO in October. She had been seen by some analysts as a possible successor to Roberts, Sainsbury’s CEO since 2020.
Sainsbury’s, which with a UK grocery market share of 15% trails only Tesco, said on Tuesday that Tracey Clements will join the operating board next month with the newly created role of chief retail, logistics and supply officer. She previously worked for Tesco, drugstore chain Boots and oil major BP.
In other changes, Chief Marketing, Data and Sustainability officer Mark Given will take on responsibility for technology by becoming chief technology, marketing and data officer.
Chief Commercial Officer Rhian Bartlett will see her role expanded to take on sustainability, becoming chief commercial and sustainability officer with a remit to embed sustainability “at the heart of commercial decision making”.
Last month, Sainsbury’s reported better-than-expected first quarter sales, benefiting from warm weather and a disruption at rival Marks & Spencer. Its shares are up 8% so far this year.
Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise
Inflation remained at just below 2% in March
Today, the Ministry of Economy and Labour released the Department of Statistics’ March 2025 Consumer Price Index (attached).
In summary, consumers paid 1.9 per cent more in March 2025 than a year ago for the basket of goods and services included in the Consumer Price Index [CPI]. This level of inflation was unchanged from the February 2025 annual inflation rate. Some highlights for March 2024 to March 2025 include:
- The Rent division increased 2.3 per cent.
- The Health & Personal Care division rose 3.0 per cent.
- The Transport & Foreign Travel division increased 2.3 per cent.
- The Food division rose 2.0 per cent.
- The Education, Recreation, Entertainment & Reading division rose 1.2 per cent.
Between February 2025 and March 2025, the average cost of goods and services increased 0.1 per cent. Additional areas of note between February 2025 and March 2025 were as follows:
- The Transport & Foreign Travel division increased 0.5 per cent.
- The Education, Recreation, Entertainment & Reading division increased 0.2 per cent.
- The Rent division rose 0.1 per cent.
- The Food division increased 0.1 per cent.
*Note: The Government measures the annual and monthly inflation rates. Annual changes are from the same month last year, and monthly changes are from month to month. The March 2025 Consumer Price Index is available online at https://www.gov.bm/consumer-price-index.
Event will honour former Deputy Premier
Walter Roban to be recognised for 17 years’ service as an MP
Walter Roban Image: Bermuda Broadcasting Co.
PLP press release:
Party (PLP) Constituency 15 Executive and Members are proud to host a special celebration in honour of former Minister and Deputy Premier, The Hon. Walter H. Roban, JP, recognising his outstanding 17 years of dedicated service as the Member of Parliament for Pembroke East.
The celebration will take place on Sunday, August 10th, at the CedarBridge Academy Cafeteria, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
We invite the community to join us in paying tribute to Mr. Roban’s steadfast leadership and lifelong commitment to the people of Pembroke East and the broader Bermudian public.
This event presents an opportunity for residents, friends, and supporters to express their gratitude for his tireless efforts and lasting impact on our community and country.
Ticket Information:
General Admission: $65
Patron Ticket: $100
All proceeds will go toward supporting ongoing community initiatives and future projects within Pembroke East.
Let us come together to honour Walter Roban’s legacy of public service, leadership, and labour. Your presence will help us make this a fitting and memorable celebration for a true champion of the people.
US Coast Guard says Titan submersible’s design a primary factor in implosion
The implosion was preventable, the chair of the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation said
International News via Reuters:
A U.S. Coast Guard investigative board concluded Tuesday that the “inadequate design” of the Titan submersible was a primary contributing factor in its implosion in 2023 that left five people dead.
The Titan was on a tourist expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic – a British passenger liner that sank in 1912, killing at least 1,500 on board – when it lost contact with its support vessel during descent. Its remains were found four days later, littering the seabed about 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the bow of the Titanic wreck.
The implosion was preventable, the chair of the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation, Jason Neubauer, said as a 300-page report was released following a two-year probe.
“There is a need for stronger oversight and clear options for operators who are exploring new concepts outside of the existing regulatory framework,” he said in a statement.
A media spokesperson at OceanGate, the U.S.-based company that managed the tourist submersible and suspended all operations after the incident, was not immediately available for comment.
The board determined that the primary contributing factors were OceanGate’s “inadequate design, certification, maintenance and inspection process for the Titan.”
It also cited “a toxic workplace culture at OceanGate,” an inadequate regulatory framework for submersibles and other novel vessels, and an ineffective whistleblower process.
The report added “for several years preceding the incident, OceanGate leveraged intimidation tactics, allowances for scientific operations, and the company’s favorable reputation to evade regulatory scrutiny.”
The board found that OceanGate failed to investigate and address known hull anomalies following its 2022 Titanic expedition. It said data from Titan’s real-time monitoring system should have been analyzed and acted on during that expedition.
It also criticized OceanGate for failing to properly store the Titan before the 2023 Titanic expedition.
Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Bernadette Baum
Tourism: Where’s the plan for investment?
OBA pinpoints where funds should be directed to boost visitor numbers
Dwayne Robinson: “Government must do its part to ensure the success of the National Tourism Plan; the experience must match the marketing.”
Statement from Shadow Tourism Minister Dwayne Robinson:
The One Bermuda Alliance welcomes the recently announced changes to be implemented by the Bermuda Tourism Authority and the imminent search for a new CEO.
The commitment to restructuring and re-organizing will provide a glimmer of optimism and hopefully show tangible results.
Now that the Bermuda Tourism Authority has publicly pledged to get itself back on the right track, where is the Government’s plan for the necessary financial investment to support the growth of our tourism industry?
There was very little mention of tourism between the last two throne speeches, which I raised as a concern previously. The tourism investment orders passed by the Government in the previous session are going to provide much needed additions to our tourism product and have been supported by the OBA in the house. However, tourism investment orders alone while waiting for Fairmont Southampton to re-open is not a comprehensive plan to support the growth of our tourism industry.
The Government should:
– Invest in our meetings, incentives, conference, and exhibitions infrastructure to boost business tourism;
– Attract additional hotel developers to Bermuda to increase our bed capacity on top of Fairmont Southampton;
– Properly maintain our amenities such as beaches, public bathrooms, railways, and roads.
Expand our sports tourism opportunities;
– Start producing a separate investment plan that supports the National Tourism Plan managed by the BTA.
One of the most cited issues by hotels is transportation, which has also frustrated the Bermudian public. Multiple members of the industry have come forward with their suggested fixes to the issues plaguing transportation which shows a willingness from stakeholders to remedy the issues.
However, the Minister has yet to come forward with a comprehensive plan of his own to address the woes of transport. With no set date for the Ridesharing Legislation to be brought before the House of Assembly, the Minister cannot simply sit on his hands.
Now is the time to work with the transport operators you currently have, to provide a short-term solution, while a longer-term collaborative solution is developed.
If this is currently ongoing it would be excellent for the Minister of Tourism, Transport, Culture, & Sport to provide a public progress update to the people of Bermuda. The Bermuda Tourism Authority can attract tourists to our shores but if we aren’t investing in our tourism product, how can we ensure that our tourist have a top tier experience and become repeat visitors? Government must do its part to ensure the success of the National Tourism Plan; the experience must match the marketing.
