In tonight’s news at 7pm…
Bermuda’s athletes in action in Paraguay, the US, the UK and France
Team Bermuda is edging closer to the podium at the Junior Pan Am Games and Bermuda hosts its first ever national beach volleyball championships. Catch the details on these stories and more below in today’s Sports Round-Up.
Police urgently appeal for witnesses after shots were fired in broad daylight
One person has died following a broad daylight shooting on Court Street this afternoon.
Police confirmed that two other victims were injured and are currently receiving treatment at the hospital.
According to Detective Inspector Jason Smith, who spoke with media from Court Street shortly after the incident unfolded at 4.40 pm this afternoon, the severity of their injuries are unknown at this time.
Police are now urging the community to assist them in identifying two suspects who made their getaway on a motorcycle after opening fire.
Mr Smith said the suspects were traveling on a dark coloured motorcycle, believed to have come from the direction of Ewing Street, then along Court Street where the shooting took place.
Police understand they fled the scene by making a right hand turn down Dundonald Street.
The rider was said to be wearing a black helmet, a balaclava, a long sleeve blue top, grey sweatpants, and coloured boots. Meanwhile, his passenger was wearing a full face helmet and a multi-coloured top.
The scene is currently being processed by the police forensics unit.
We’ll provide more information as it becomes available.
Global warming is giving the Mediterranean region hotter, drier summers, scientists say
International News via Reuters:
Firefighters across Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and the Balkans were battling wildfires on Tuesday, with another heatwave pushing temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across parts of Europe.
Global warming is giving the Mediterranean region hotter, drier summers, scientists say, with wildfires surging each year and sometimes whipping up into “whirls”.
“We are being cooked alive, this cannot continue,” said a mayor in Portugal, Alexandre Favaios, as three fires burned.
On the outskirts of the Spanish capital Madrid, a fire killed a man working at a horse stable and reached some houses and farms but was contained by Tuesday, regional authorities said.
A man also died in a fire in Albania, while a 61-year-old Hungarian seasonal worker is suspected to have died of heat-related causes while picking fruit in Lleida, in Spain’s eastern Catalonia region.
In Montenegro’s mountainous Kuci area, northeast of the capital Podgorica, one army soldier was killed and another badly injured when a water tanker they were operating overturned, the Defence Ministry said.
In Tarifa, on the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula, beachgoers and celebrity chef Jose Andres filmed flames and black smoke on the hills above whitewashed villas.
More than 2,000 people were evacuated from there as the fire – believed to have started in eucalyptus and pine forests – spread, officials said. Helicopters doused the blaze with seawater.
Authorities in Albania, Montenegro, Germany, Spain, Italy and France issued various types of heat warnings.
In Spain, temperatures reached 44 C (111 F) in some regions, according to meteorology service AEMET, with minimal rainfall and windy conditions expected to exacerbate the fire risk.
SPANISH MILITARY HELPS
Spain’s Interior Ministry has put national services on standby, while almost 1,000 members of the armed forces are already supporting firefighting.
The country’s rail operator said trains between northwestern Galicia and Madrid were halted because of a fire.
In Spain’s largest region, Castile and Leon, more than 1,200 firefighters battled 32 wildfires on Tuesday and thousands of residents were told to leave their homes.
Meanwhile, police said it had arrested a firefighter near the walled city of Avila northwest of Madrid, who had confessed to starting a fire two weeks ago because of the potential income from work extinguishing it.
In north Portugal, more than 1,300 firefighters backed by 16 aircraft were battling three large fires. One of them, in the Vila Real area, has been burning for 10 days.
“It’s been 10 days that our population is in panic, without knowing when the fire will knock on their door,” local mayor Favaios told broadcaster RTP, pleading for more government help.
In Albania, swathes of forest and farmland have been burnt by wildfires in the past week, and 30 separate fires continue to burn stoked by strong winds.
The Defence Ministry said four army helicopters and 80 soldiers were helping firefighters. It also reported the death of a man suspected of having started in his backyard a fire that spread across a wider area.
In neighbouring Montenegro, authorities backed by helicopters from Serbia and Croatia contained a wildfire near Podgorica on Tuesday, with the capital covered by smoke. In Gornja Vrbica, residents helped firefighters stop a fire from reaching a local church and cemetery, Pobjeda daily reported.
More help was expected from Austria, Slovenia and Italy under the EU civil protection mechanism.
Dragana Vukovic, whose house in southeastern Piperi was reduced to ruins, told Reuters: “Everything that can be paid for and bought will be compensated, but the memories that burned in these four rooms and the attic cannot be compensated.”
‘OUT OF CONTROL’
In Greece at Europe’s southernmost tip, wildfires in some cases fanned by gale-force winds forced the evacuation of several villages and a hotel on the tourist islands of Zakynthos and Cephalonia in the Ionian Sea along with four other parts of the mainland.
A wildfire in the southern Greek region of Achaia forced residents of five villages near an industrial zone to flee, while 85 firefighters and 10 aircraft tried to stop a fire from reaching houses near the western Greek town of Vonitsa.
The picture was similar in Turkey where a large blaze in the northwestern province of Canakkale burned for a second day, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of residents.
Reporting by Pietro Lombardi and David Latona in Madrid, Andrei Khalip in Lisbon, Angeliki Koutantou in Athens, Fatos Bytyci in Finiq, Albania, Stevo Vasiljevic in Podgorica; writing by Aislinn Laing, Editing by Andrei Khalip, Andrew Cawthorne and Tomasz Janowski
OpenAI, Yahoo and private-equity firm Apollo Global Management have also expressed interest in Chrome
International News via Reuters:
Perplexity AI made a $34.5 billion unsolicited all-cash offer for Alphabet’s Chrome browser on Tuesday, a bid far above its own valuation as the startup reaches for the browser’s billions of users pivotal to the AI search race.
Run by Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity is no stranger to headline-grabbing offers: it made a similar one for TikTok US in January, offering to merge with the popular short-video app to resolve U.S. concerns about TikTok’s Chinese ownership.
OpenAI, Yahoo and private-equity firm Apollo Global Management have also expressed interest in Chrome as regulatory pressure threatens Google’s grip on the industry.
Google did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. The company has not offered Chrome for sale and plans to appeal a U.S. court ruling last year that found it held an unlawful monopoly in online search. The Justice Department has sought a Chrome divestiture as part of the case’s remedies.
Perplexity did not disclose on Tuesday how it plans to fund the offer. The three-year-old company has raised around $1 billion in funding so far from investors including Nvidia and Japan’s SoftBank. It was last valued at $14 billion.
Multiple funds have offered to finance the deal in full, Perplexity said, without naming the funds. Alphabet’s shares were up 1.6% in afternoon trading.
As a new generation of users turns to chatbots such as ChatGPT and Perplexity for answers, web browsers are regaining prominence as vital gateways to search traffic and prized user data, making them central to Big Tech’s AI ambitions.
Perplexity already has an AI browser, Comet, that can perform certain tasks on a user’s behalf and buying Chrome would allow it to tap the browser’s more than three billion users, giving it the heft to better compete with bigger rivals such as OpenAI. The ChatGPT parent is also working on its own AI browser.
Perplexity’s bid pledges to keep the underlying browser code called Chromium open source, invest $3 billion over two years and make no changes to Chrome’s default search engine, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters.
The company said the offer, with no equity component, would preserve user choice and ease future competition concerns.
Analysts have said Google would be unlikely to sell Chrome and would likely engage in a long legal fight to prevent that outcome, given it is crucial to the company’s AI push as it rolls out features including AI-generated search summaries, known as Overviews, to help defend its search market share.
A federal judge, Amit Mehta, is expected to issue a ruling on remedies in the Google search antitrust case sometime this month.
“Judge Mehta is a pretty orthodox guy. It’s very possible that he would hold off on requiring a sale until the appeals process is worked out and that could be a very lengthy period of time,” said Herbert Hovenkamp, professor at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
“It would go to the DC Circuit, which is skeptical of forced divestitures, and it’s possible it would even go to the Supreme Court after that. So that process could run out for a couple of years.”
Perplexity’s bid is also below the at least $50 billion value that rival search engine DuckDuckGo’s CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, suggested Chrome may command if Google was forced to sell it.
Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Devika Syamnath
Heavy police presence on-site
Bermuda Broadcasting understands that gunshots have been fired in the Court Street area.
There is a major police presence on-site.
We’ll share more details as they become available.
The charges against her range from stock fraud to bribery and illegal influence peddling
International News via Reuters:
South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee has been arrested after a court late on Tuesday issued a warrant to arrest her following accusations of graft that she denies, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Kim is South Korea’s only former first lady to be arrested, joining her husband, ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol, in jail as he faces trial, following his ouster in April, over a botched bid to impose martial law in December.
Earlier in the day, Kim, wearing a black suit, bowed as she arrived at court, but did not answer reporters’ questions or make a statement. After the hearing ended she left to await the ruling at a detention centre in Seoul, the capital, in line with customary practice.
The arrest warrant was issued by the Seoul Central District Court.
The charges against her, punishable by years in prison, range from stock fraud to bribery and illegal influence peddling that have implicated business owners, religious figures and a political power broker.
She has been accused of breaking the law over an incident in which she wore a luxury Van Cleef pendant reportedly worth more than 60 million won ($43,000) while attending a NATO summit with her husband in 2022.
The item was not listed in the couple’s financial disclosure as required by law, according to the charge.
Kim is also accused of receiving two Chanel bags together valued at 20 million won and a diamond necklace from a religious group as a bribe in return for influence favourable to its business interests.
The prosecution sought Kim’s arrest because of the risk of her destroying evidence and interfering with the investigation, a spokesperson for the special prosecutor’s team told a press briefing after Tuesday’s hearing.
The spokesperson, Oh Jeong-hee, said Kim had told prosecutors the pendant she wore was a fake bought 20 years ago in Hong Kong.
The prosecution said it was genuine, however, and given by a domestic construction company for Kim to wear at the summit, Oh said.
Kim’s lawyers did not immediately comment on Tuesday but they have previously denied the accusations against her and dismissed as groundless speculation news reports about some of the gifts she allegedly received.
Yoon is on trial on charges of insurrection, which could result in life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
The former president, who also faces charges of abuse of power among others, has denied wrongdoing and refused to attend trial hearings or be questioned by prosecutors.
($1=1,391.3000 won)
Reporting by Heejin Kim; Additional reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones, Bhargav Acharya and Jasper Ward; Editing by Ed Davies, Clarence Fernandez, Daniel Wallis and Andrea Ricci
This year’s humanitarian response plan aims to raise over $900 million, mainly from U.N. member countries
International News via Reuters:
The United Nations’ Haiti appeal for 2025 has received the lowest funding of any response plan worldwide, the organization’s humanitarian coordinator for the Caribbean nation said on Tuesday, as armed gangs continue to paralyze transport routes and fuel hunger.
This year’s humanitarian response plan aims to raise over $900 million, mainly from U.N. member countries, but is just 9.2% funded, the coordinator, Ulrika Richardson, said in a briefing marked “the lowest level of funding for any response plan in the world.”
Ukraine’s $2.63-billion appeal for this year is by comparison 38% funded, according to U.N. financial tracking data, while a $4-billion flash appeal for the Palestinian territories received $890 million, or 22% of its target.
“We have tools, but the response from the international community is just not at par with the gravity on the ground,” Richardson said.
More than 3,100 people have been killed this year in a conflict with heavily armed gangs that has pushed more than half the population into food insecurity and around 1.3 million from their homes. More than 8,000 people living in makeshift camps face famine-level hunger.
A partially-deployed U.N.-backed force led by Kenya and based on voluntary contributions, deployed a year ago but has had little effect in helping a cash-strapped police force reclaim territories.
Meanwhile, many aid organizations have had to cut back services due to the difficulty of bringing in supplies and ensuring the safety of the people they work with.
Richardson said strangling the trafficking of arms – which the U.N. estimates are largely shipped from Florida – into Haiti was key to stopping the violence, as well as sanctions against those involved in financial support of the gangs.
“Haiti can quickly spiral up again, but the violence needs to end,” she said.
Reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico City and Michelle Nichols at the United NationsEditing by Rod Nickel
Police identify man found near Fentons Drive on Sunday, no major incidents reported over the Cup Match holiday weekend according to Chief Inspector, traffic delays expected in Flatt’s due to ongoing road paving plus the latest sports news
Drivers urged to use alternative routes as single lane closure under Glebe Road Bridge remains in place until September 19
Government press release:
The Ministry of Public Works and Environment advises the motoring public that the single lane closure on Palmetto Road, underneath the Glebe Road Bridge in Pembroke Parish, will be extended to facilitate bridge repair works.
The revised closure period will run from Friday, 15 August 2025, to Friday, 19 September 2025. Working hours will be from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily. Sunrise Construction Ltd. representatives will manage traffic control, with temporary traffic lights in place.
Motorists are encouraged to avoid the area and use alternative routes via Marsh Folly Road and Bishop Spencer Road. Those travelling through the affected section should expect delays and proceed with caution.
Please refer to the attached Road Traffic Notice for further details.
Chief Inspector credits public cooperation as arrests remain low and major incidents avoided
Police have credited public cooperation and advance planning for what they describe as a largely “peaceful” Cup Match weekend.
Chief Inspector Andrew Smalling, one of the Silver Commanders for the holiday, said there were “no major incidents” and thanked the public for their role in achieving that outcome.
Chief Inspector Smalling reported a total of around 22 arrests over the weekend: eight for outstanding warrants, three involving the seizure of bladed articles, and four for impaired driving. There was also one drug importation incident.
On the issue of knives, he issued a message aimed at young people and to those who can guide them away from anti-social behaviour.
54 -year-old Jason Liburd was pronounced dead by an on call doctor at the scene on Sunday
Police today have confirmed the identity of the body of a man found in the Fentons Drive area on Sunday as 54-year-old Jason Liburd.
Mr. Liburd was pronounced dead by an on-call physician shortly after his body was found by an area resident, according to police
An autopsy will be carried out to determine the cause of his death.
Detectives told media yesterday during a news conference, that they are treating the death as suspicious.
An investigation is underway.
A BPS Family Liaison Officer has been appointed to assist Mr. Liburd’s family.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Acting Detective Inspector, Anneka Donawa, on 717-2250 or Alternatively, submit any information via the reporting portal at portal.police.bm. or call Crime Stoppers on 800-8477.
