A look at the weekend’s events with reporter Grae Minors and sports reporter Earl Basden
Minister Hayward to represent Bermuda at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2025
The Minister will also hold key bilateral meetings with multiple government delegations
International news via Reuters:
The Hon. Jason P. Hayward, JP, MP, Minister of Economy and Labour, is set to represent Bermuda at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) from June 2 – 4, 2025, in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. This prestigious global gathering will unite thousands of entrepreneurs, policymakers, investors, and ecosystem builders from over 200 countries, focusing on the theme “Building One Global Entrepreneurship Ecosystem.”
Minister Hayward will actively participate in the Startup Nations Ministerial, an exclusive platform where government leaders and international experts share insights and innovative policy approaches to stimulate entrepreneurial activity, economic growth, and job creation. This ministerial summit will feature representatives from over 25 nations, including Argentina, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uruguay, alongside insights from leading global policy experts from OECD, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Startup Genome.
Minister Hayward remarked, “Bermuda’s participation in the Global Entrepreneurship Congress underscores our commitment to fostering an environment where entrepreneurs thrive. Engaging with global counterparts provides Bermuda the opportunity to share our successes, learn from best practices internationally, and continue enhancing our policies and programs to support sustainable entrepreneurial growth.”
The Minister will also hold key bilateral meetings with government delegations from Ghana, Nigeria, and the UN Trade and Development representatives. These meetings aim to build stronger international relationships, explore avenues for collaboration, and leverage global expertise to further Bermuda’s economic development.
Alongside Minister Hayward, Bermuda’s delegation, including Director of Workforce Development Malika Cartwright and BEDC’s Director of Communications and Development Jamillah Lodge, will utilize this global platform to highlight the island’s achievements through the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation’s (BEDC) programs, including the Enterprise Bermuda Incubator (EBI) and Accelerator (EBA), the extensive support provided to Economic Empowerment Zones (EEZs), Approved Residential Schemes (ARS) and impactful financial assistance initiatives. In addition, the Minister will highlight innovative Government policies like the Global Entrepreneur Work Permit. These efforts collectively reinforce Bermuda’s role as an attractive and dynamic location for entrepreneurship and innovation.
“Our engagement at GEC 2025 will strengthen Bermuda’s position as a leader in supporting innovative entrepreneurial ecosystems,” said Minister Hayward. “By exchanging knowledge and fostering international partnerships, we aim to ensure that Bermuda’s entrepreneurial sector continues to drive economic diversification, resilience, and prosperity.”
Minister Darrell to deliver keynote at Premier Caribbean Week events in New York
Meeting of the Council of Tourism Ministers and Commissioners will be held tomorrow
Bermuda Government update via press release:
The Minister of Tourism & Transport, Culture & Sport, the Hon. Owen Darrell, JP, MP, will headline two flagship events during the Caribbean Week in New York 2025, hosted by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) from 1–6 June under the theme “Caribbean Resilience: Crafting Tomorrow’s Tourism.”
Minister Darrell has been invited to serve as the keynote speaker at the Caribbean Next-Gen Showcase on Tuesday, 3 June, and the Caribbean Media Awards Breakfast on Wednesday, 4 June. His participation underscores Bermuda’s leadership in sustainable tourism and its commitment to regional innovation and youth engagement.
Speaking ahead of his visit, Minister Darrell shared, “It is an honour to represent Bermuda at such an esteemed gathering of Caribbean tourism leaders. Our shared future relies on empowering young innovators, celebrating excellence in media, and forging strategic partnerships that promote resilience and inclusivity across the region. I look forward to exchanging ideas and highlighting Bermuda’s contributions to a more sustainable and dynamic Caribbean tourism landscape.”
The Caribbean Next-Gen Showcase is a vibrant platform where tertiary-level students from CTO member states present visionary business proposals aimed at positioning tourism as a driver of economic transformation. The event challenges youth to integrate tourism with sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and cultural heritage, with a sharp focus on sustainability, entrepreneurship, and measurable community impact. Minister Darrell’s opening address will set the tone for this inaugural initiative, designed to catalyse regional development through intergenerational collaboration.
The Caribbean Media Awards Breakfast, set for the following morning, celebrates excellence in regional and international journalism. It honours media professionals who have significantly advanced the Caribbean’s image and narrative across digital, broadcast, and print platforms. Minister Darrell will deliver the keynote at this prestigious gathering, which draws tourism officials, industry leaders, media partners, and content creators committed to authentic Caribbean storytelling.
In addition, the Meeting of the Council of Tourism Ministers and Commissioners will be held on Monday, 2 June, which is an assembly organized by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), bringing together senior tourism officials from member countries and territories. These meetings serve as a platform for regional leaders to discuss and coordinate strategies aimed at enhancing the Caribbean’s tourism sector. The Minister will highlight the numerous accomplishments in Bermuda’s tourism industry.
All events are expected to attract regional ministers, commissioners, business leaders, development partners, and members of the diaspora.
Poland votes in tight presidential race between pro-EU and nationalist visions
Parliament holds most power in Poland, but the president can veto legislation
International news via Reuters:
Poland was voting on Sunday in a tight presidential election that will determine whether the country cements its place in the mainstream of the European Union or turns toward Donald Trump-style nationalism.
Both Rafal Trzaskowski of ruling centrists Civic Coalition (KO) and his rival Karol Nawrocki, backed by nationalists Law and Justice (PiS), are hoping to mobilize their supporters and clinch the race. Trzaskowski had a narrow lead in pre-election opinion polls, but the difference was within the margin of error.Voting was due to end at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT), with exit polls published soon afterwards. The electoral commission says it hopes final results will be announced on Monday morning or early afternoon.
Parliament holds most power in Poland, but the president can veto legislation, so the vote is being watched closely in neighbouring Ukraine, as well as in Russia, the U.S. and across the EU.
Both candidates agree on the need to spend heavily on defence, as U.S. President Trump is demanding from Europe, and to continue supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s three-year-old invasion.
But while Trzaskowski sees Ukraine’s future membership of NATO as essential for Poland’s security, Nawrocki has recently said he would not ratify it as president as this could draw the alliance into a war with Russia.
Trzaskowski says strong relations with both Brussels and Washington are essential for Poland’s security, but Nawrocki, who met Trump in the White House in May, prioritises relations with the United States.
Turnout stood at 24.8% at noon, the head of the electoral commission, Sylwester Marciniak, told reporters on Sunday. That compared with 24.7% at the same stage of voting in the second round of the presidential election in 2020, when final turnout was at 68.2%.
“The most important thing is foreign policy,” said IT specialist Robert Kepczynski, 53, who was voting in Warsaw. “We can’t look both ways, to the U.S. and the EU – and looking only to the U.S. for help is short-sighted.”
Economist Maria Luczynska, 73, said that going to vote made her emotional. “(The election) is important because this is how we decide our future. What country my daughter, my grandchildren will live in.”
If Nawrocki wins, he is likely to follow a similar path to outgoing President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally who has used his veto power to block the government’s efforts to undo the previous PiS administration’s judicial reforms, which the EU says undermined the independence of the courts.
Coming around a year and a half since Prime Minister Donald Tusk took office, the vote provides the toughest test yet of support for his broad coalition government, with Nawrocki presenting the ballot as a referendum on its actions.
In 2023, huge queues outside polling stations in large cities forced some to stay open later than planned. Analysts said that high participation by younger, liberal, urban Poles was crucial in securing a majority for Tusk.
Trzaskowski is hoping that such scenes will be repeated on Sunday.
“Encourage everyone, so that as many Poles as possible vote in the presidential election,” he told a rally in Wloclawek, central Poland, on Friday.
Nawrocki, who draws inspiration from Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, told supporters in Biala Podlaska in the country’s east that “these elections could be decided by single votes”.
SOCIAL ISSUES
The two candidates also differ on social issues, with Trzaskowski favouring the liberalisation of abortion laws and introduction of civil partnerships for LGBT couples, while Nawrocki says predominantly Catholic Poland should reject such moves.
The first round of the election on May 18 saw a surge in support for the anti-establishment far-right, suggesting that the KO-PiS duopoly that has dominated Polish politics for a generation may be starting to fracture.
Nevertheless, after a tumultuous campaign in which Nawrocki in particular faced a slew of negative media reports about his alleged past conduct, once again candidates representing the two main parties are facing off in the second round.
PiS has traditionally enjoyed high support in small towns and rural areas, especially in the south and east. These areas are typically more socially conservative than larger cities and poorer, creating a sense of exclusion that PiS has tapped into.
“They want to build a Poland for the elites,” Nawrocki told voters in Biala Podlaska, referring to his opponents from KO.
KO, meanwhile, campaigns on a pro-European centrist agenda that appeals to more liberal-minded Poles who mainly live in cities or bigger towns.
Trzaskowski took heart from the turnout at a rally in Ciechanow, central Poland.
“Looking at this mobilisation, I see how much hope you have – hope in a future in which Poland plays a leading role in the European Union,” he said.
Reporting by Alan Charlish and Kuba AtezyckiEditing by Philippa Fletcher, Sophie Walker and Frances Kerry
(VIDEO) Two dead and 500 arrested in France during PSG win celebrations
The interior ministry on Sunday reported hundreds of fires, including more than 200 vehicles burned
International news via Reuters:
More than 500 people were arrested by police during the Champions League final celebrations in France, and two people were reported dead and 192 injured, the interior ministry said as further festivities were planned on Sunday.
Wild celebrations erupted across the French capital and beyond on Saturday night after Paris St Germain crushed Italian opponents Inter Milan to win the Champions League for the first time.
The interior ministry’s provisional assessment on Sunday morning was that 559 people had been arrested, including 491 in Paris, which led to 320 people being placed in police custody, 254 of them in Paris.
There was one fatal accident when a young man in his twenties died in a collision with a vehicle, police chief Laurent Nunez told reporters, while in the southwestern city of Dax, a 17-year-old died from stab wounds, French media reported.
“A judicial investigation will determine whether or not it (the fatality in Paris) can be linked to the celebrations. At this stage, it appears to be connected to the festivities,” Nunez said.
On the boutique-lined Champs Elysees avenue, bus shelters were smashed and projectiles hurled at riot police, who fired tear gas and water cannon to push back surging crowds as thousands of supporters who descended on the area.
The interior ministry on Sunday reported hundreds of fires, including more than 200 vehicles burned. Some 22 members of the security forces and seven firefighters were harmed.
Nunez warned that more skirmishes could occur on Sunday as PSG will parade on the Champs Elysees before celebrating the title with their fans at the Parc des Princes stadium.
“We’re at halftime, so to speak, as this afternoon we have the parade taking place on the Champs Elysees,” Nunez said.
“Only those attending the parade will be allowed on site. A maximum attendance of just over 100,000 people has been set — beyond that, no-one else will be allowed in.
“This evening, there will be a celebration at the Parc des Princes as well. We also expect gatherings around the Place de la Porte de Saint Cloud, and we will respond in the same measured but firm way should there be any attempts to block the ring road, attack law enforcement, or cause further damage.”
Paris had deployed 5,400 officers in anticipation of celebrations following a PSG win, Nunez had said on Friday.
Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro and Julien Pretot; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and David Holmes
Lutnick downplays impact of tariff court ruling on US, EU talks
Trump in late May threatened 50% tariffs on all European goods by July 9
International news via Reuters:
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick downplayed the impact of legal uncertainty around U.S. tariffs on negotiations with the European Union during an interview with Fox News Sunday, saying talks were ongoing.
Lutnick was asked about a Reuters report quoting an unnamed EU official close to negotiations who said the legal uncertainty of the tariffs in the U.S. gave the E.U. “extra leverage.”
“You can’t listen to silly people making silly comments,” Lutnick said. “All of the countries that are negotiating with us understand the power of Donald Trump and his ability to protect the American worker.”
A U.S. trade court blocked most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs in a sweeping ruling last week that found the president overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board duties on imports from U.S. trading partners. A U.S. federal appeals court paused that ruling a day later, allowing the tariffs to go into effect while it considered an appeal by the Trump administration.
Lutnick said the ruling “maybe cost us a week, but then everybody came right back to the table.”
Trump in late May threatened 50% tariffs on all European goods by June 1 but days later delayed the effective date to July 9 to allow for time to negotiate.
Trump also said on Friday that he would increase tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to 50% from 25%, leading the European Commission on Saturday to say it could consider countermeasures.
Speaking on ABC News’ ‘This Week,’ White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said the U.S. needed to protect its steel industry for national security reasons in light of economic rival China’s steel production.
“We have to show strength,” Hassett said. “We have to have a steel industry that’s ready for American defense.”
Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Caitlin Webber in Washington
Blood test-guided treatment with AstraZeneca pill cut risk of breast cancer progression, study finds
No new side effects were reported; few patients from either group dropped out from side effects
International news via Reuters:
Treating breast cancer patients with AstraZeneca’s experimental pill camizestrant at the first sign of resistance to standard treatments cut the risk of disease progression or death by half, a finding that could change the way such cancers are treated, cancer experts said on Sunday.
The results, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, mark the first use of a blood test called a liquid biopsy to indicate the need for a change in treatment in women with a common form of breast cancer, even before tumor growth can be detected on imaging.
The early switch approach in women with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer resulted in a 56% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death, said Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky, an oncologist at Valley-Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Care and an ASCO breast cancer expert.
“When patients progress on scans, we’re already behind,” Teplinsky said at a media briefing. She said an early switch approach, before disease progression, allows doctors “to essentially stay ahead of the curve.”
Camizestrant is not yet FDA-approved, but Teplinsky believes the data will likely result in a new treatment paradigm.
The trial involved 3,256 patients with advanced hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, the most common type in which hormones such as estrogen fuel cancer growth. These cancers lack high levels of HER2, another cancer driver.
Women in the trial had at least six months of treatment with aromatase inhibitors that block hormones fueling the cancer, as well as targeted drugs called CDK4/6 inhibitors such as Novartis’ Kisqali, Pfizer’s Ibrance or Lilly’s Verzenio, which block an enzyme that fuels cancer growth.
About 40% of patients treated with aromatase inhibitors develop mutations in the estrogen receptor 1 gene called ESR1 mutations, a sign of early drug resistance.
Camizestrant and similar drugs called Selective Estrogen Receptor Degraders (SERDS) block estrogen receptor signaling in cancer cells.
In the trial, researchers used blood tests to look for ESR1 mutations until 315 patients were identified. They were randomly assigned to either switch to camizestrant plus the CDK4/6 inhibitor (157 patients) or continue with standard treatment plus a placebo (158 patients).
The researchers found that it took 16 months for the disease to progress in women who got camizestrant, compared with 9.2 months in those who continued on standard therapy, a statistically significant difference in progression-free survival.
No new side effects were reported and few patients from either group dropped out due to side effects.
“This is going to be very impactful for our patients,” said Dr. Hope Rugo, head of breast medical oncology at City of Hope in Duarte, California. The question, she said, is how do doctors incorporate the testing into clinical practice.
Separately, adding AstraZeneca’s immunotherapy durvalumab to standard treatment before and after surgery in patients with early-stage stomach and esophageal cancers helped extend the time patients had without cancer progression or recurrence compared to chemotherapy alone.
The global study of nearly 950 patients tested durvalumab, sold under the brand Imfinzi, in combination with a chemotherapy regimen called FLOT given around the time of initial cancer surgery.
Patients in the durvalumab plus FLOT arm experienced a 29% better event-free survival than those who received the chemotherapy regimen.
“We demonstrate that immunotherapy works in early-stage disease, which is great,” lead study author Dr. Yelena Jarnigan of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York told reporters at the meeting.
“We did not see any new safety signals, so this will change practice for our patients, which is exciting to see.”
Both studies were published on Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama
(VIDEO) EU threatens countermeasures over Trump’s steel tariffs hike
Canada’s United Steelworkers union called the tariffs a direct attack on Canadian industries
International news via Reuters:
The European Commission said on Saturday that Europe was prepared to retaliate against President Donald Trump’s plan to double tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, raising the prospect of an escalating trade fight between two of the world’s largest economic powers.
Trump’s announcement on Friday that he would increase tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to 50% from 25%, intensifies his global trade war and came just hours after he accused China of violating an agreement with the U.S. to mutually roll back levies and trade restrictions for critical minerals.
The European Commission said it “strongly” regrets Trump’s plan to increase tariffs, adding it “undermines ongoing efforts to reach a negotiated solution.”
“This decision adds further uncertainty to the global economy and increases costs for consumers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic,” a European Commission spokesperson said, adding that “the (European Union) is prepared to impose countermeasures.”
The spokesperson noted that the European Union had paused its countermeasures to create space for continued negotiations.
“The European Commission is currently finalising consultations on expanded countermeasures. If no mutually acceptable solution is reached, both existing and additional EU measures will automatically take effect on 14 July — or earlier, if circumstances require,” the spokesperson added.
Trump announced the higher tariffs just outside Pittsburgh, where he was talking up an agreement between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel. Trump said the $14.9 billion deal, like the tariff increase, will help keep jobs for steel workers in the U.S.
He later posted on social media that the increased tariff would also apply to aluminum products and that it would take effect on Wednesday.
The planned U.S. move ratchets up pressure on global steel producers, and has sparked protests from trading partners around the world.
Canada’s Chamber of Commerce quickly denounced the tariff hike as “antithetical to North American economic security.”
“Unwinding the efficient, competitive and reliable cross-border supply chains like we have in steel and aluminum comes at a great cost to both countries,” Candace Laing, president of the chamber, said in a statement.
Canada’s United Steelworkers union on Saturday called the move a direct attack on Canadian industries and workers.
Australia’s centre-left government also condemned the tariff increase, with Trade Minister Don Farrell calling it “unjustified and not the act of a friend.”
The U.S. is the world’s largest steel importer, excluding the European Union, with a total of 26.2 million tons of imported steel in 2024, according to the Department of Commerce. As a result, the new tariffs will likely increase steel prices across the board, hitting industry and consumers alike.
Steel and aluminum tariffs were among the earliest put into effect by Trump when he returned to office in January. The tariffs of 25% on most steel and aluminum imported to the U.S. went into effect in March, and he had briefly threatened a 50% levy on Canadian steel but ultimately backed off.
Reporting by Lili Bayer; Writing by John Kruzel; Editing by Don Durfee and Saad Sayeed
UK faces choice next week between health and other spending, IFS think tank warns
Non-investment public spending is intended to rise by 1.2% a year on top of inflation
International news via Reuters:
British finance minister Rachel Reeves’ key decision in next week’s multi-year spending review will be how much to spend on healthcare versus other public services, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said on Sunday.
Reeves is due to set out day-to-day spending limits for other government departments on June 11 which will run through to the end of March 2029 – almost until the end of the Labour government’s expected term in office.
Britain has held periodic government spending reviews since 1998, but this is the first since 2015 to cover multiple years, other than one in 2021 focused on the COVID pandemic.
The non-partisan IFS said this spending review could prove to be “one of the most significant domestic policy events” for the current Labour government.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement in February that defence spending would reach 2.5% of national income by 2027 had already used the room for further growth in public investment created in Reeves’ October budget, it said.
“Simultaneously prioritising additional investments in public services, net zero and growth-friendly areas … will be impossible,” said Bee Boileau, a research economist at the IFS.
Non-investment public spending is intended to rise by 1.2% a year on top of inflation between 2026-27 and 2028-29, according to budget plans which Reeves set out in October – half the pace of spending growth in the current and previous financial year.
The IFS sees no scope for this to be topped up, as Reeves’ budget rules leave almost no room for extra borrowing and tax rises are now limited to her annual budget statement.
This forces Reeves and Starmer to choose between the demands of the public healthcare system – plagued by long waiting times and a slump in productivity since the COVID-19 pandemic – and other stretched areas.
In past spending reviews, annual health care spending has typically risen 2 percentage points faster than total spending.
If that happened this time – equivalent to an annual increase of 3.4% – spending in other departments would have to fall by 1% a year in real terms, the IFS forecast.
Raising healthcare spending at roughly the same pace as other areas – a 1.2% rise – would only just keep pace with an ageing population and not allow any reversal of recent years’ deterioration in service quality, the IFS said.
Spending cuts could be achieved by scaling back services provided by the state, reducing public-sector employment or real-terms cuts in public-sector pay, it added.
But it warned the government needed to be specific about how it planned to make cuts, or risk financial markets losing confidence in its ability to keep borrowing under control.
The review does not cover spending on pensions or other benefits, which the government is tackling separately.
Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Andy Bruce
China accuses US’s Hegseth of ‘vilifying’ remarks at security forum
China’s foreign ministry told the United States not to “play with fire” on the question of Taiwan
International news via Reuters:
China has protested to the United States against “vilifying” remarks made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the foreign ministry said on Sunday, while accusing it of deliberately ignoring calls for peace from regional nations.
China has objected to Hegseth calling it a threat in the Indo-Pacific, the ministry added, describing his comments at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday as “deplorable”.
“Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a ‘threat’,” the ministry said on its website.
“The United States has deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea and kept stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific, which are turning the region into a powder keg,” it added in the statement.
China’s defence ministry also weighed in, saying the U.S. is “accustomed to using” the forum to “stoke disputes, sow discord and seek selfish interests”.
“China’s armed forces will work with other countries in the region to oppose hegemonism harming the Asia-Pacific region,” ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said in a statement posted on the ministry’s WeChat account.
Hegseth had urged allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including key security partner Australia, to spend more on defence after warning of the “real and potentially imminent” threat from China.
Asked about the call to boost defence spending, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government had pledged an extra A$10 billion ($6 billion) to defence.
“What we’ll do is we’ll determine our defence policy,” he told reporters on Sunday, a transcript of his remarks showed.
As part of Washington’s longstanding defence ties with the Philippines, the U.S. military this year deployed Typhon launchers that can fire missiles to hit targets in both China and Russia from the island of Luzon.
China and the Philippines contest sovereignty over some islands and atolls in the South China Sea, with growing maritime run-ins between their coast guards as both vie to patrol the waters.
China’s delegation at the forum said “external intervention” was the biggest risk for stability in the South China Sea, saying the country had shown “goodwill and restraint” through talks on the issue.
“Some foreign powers have sent warplanes and warships to the South China Sea for so-called ‘freedom of navigation,'” the state-backed Global Times newspaper cited Senior Colonel Zhang Chi from the PLA National Defence University as saying.
Such actions infringed China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, he added.
The United States, Australia, Japan and the Philippines have conducted joint maritime operations in the busy waterway.
China claims nearly all the South China Sea, including parts of the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
In 2016, an international arbitration tribunal ruled Beijing’s expansive claim had no basis in international law, however.
China’s foreign ministry also told the United States not to “play with fire” on the question of Taiwan.
Any attempt by China to conquer Taiwan “would result in devastating consequences”, Hegseth said in his speech to Asia’s premier forum for defence leaders, military officials and diplomats.
China has vowed to “reunify” with the separately governed island, by force if necessary. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
($1=1.5550 Australian dollars)
Reporting by Liz Lee and Bu Shi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
Indonesia quarry collapse kills 19, search continues for victims trapped under rubble
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said it would investigate the cause of the collapse
International news via Reuters:
A rock collapse at a quarry at Cirebon in West Java province has killed 19 people, injured eight and there are six still missing, local police said on Sunday.
Indonesian search and rescue agency Basarnas said authorities continued their search on Sunday for people trapped in the rubble after the collapse on Friday.
Police said they had named two suspects for environmental law violations and for not providing safety equipment and for negligence.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said in a statement it would investigate the cause of the collapse and conduct an assessment to identify any potential further landslides.
Cirebon Regency is prone to soil movement, especially when precipitation is above normal, while the area of the collapse has a cliff slope, the chief of the ministry’s geological agency, Muhammad Wafid, said in the statement.
Wafid said the undercutting method used in the open mining area and the steep slope may also have played a role in the collapse.
“While carrying out evacuation and search efforts, (rescuers) must pay attention to the weather and steep slopes, and not carry out activities during and after heavy rain, because this area still has the potential for further landslides that could hit or bury officers,” Wafid said.
The site of Friday’s collapse in Cirebon is dangerous and “does not meet safety standards for workers”, West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi posted on Instagram.
Reporting by Bernadette Christina in Jakarta; Editing by William Mallard and Jane Merriman
(VIDEO) Vehicle fire in Sandy’s
Authorities confirming fire was set with malicious intent
Bermuda Police Service update via press release:
Around 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 31, 2025, police received a report of a vehicle fire in the area of the former Arnold’s Supermarket in Sandys.
Police along with Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service (BFRS) responded and upon arrival observed a minibus fully engulfed.
The flames were eventually extinguished by BFRS staff and a subsequent investigation confirmed the fire was maliciously set.
This matter is now under investigation and anyone with information, or who may have seen any suspicious persons or activity in the area prior to or, shortly after the fire was first seen, is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Seymour Foote on 717-2282 or via email at, sfoote@bps.bm
You may also call the main police number 295-0011 or 211. Alternatively, please use the community reporting portal at portal.police.bm
