SPEECH BY HE THE GOVERNOR AT HER SWEARING IN CEREMONY
Your Honour Mr Speaker, Your Ladyship the Chief Justice, Honourable Premier, Honourable Leader of the Opposition, Your Excellency the Deputy Governor,
Honourable Attorney General, Honourable Ministers, Honourable Members of this House, former Members of the House, Commissioner of Police, and ladies and
gentlemen of these beautiful islands, Good morning.
Mr Speaker may I first thank you for the opportunity to address this House. Your Ladyship for administering the oath. Honourable Premier and Honourable Leader of
the Opposition for your kind welcome remarks and Her Excellency the Deputy Governor for your admirable and dedicated service as Acting Governor over the last
three months.
Thank you all for your presence here today to bear witness to my swearing-in as the 16th Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands. It is a great honour, which I have
pledged to serve, in sincerity, the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands, working with your elected representatives in support of all areas of the nation’s life.
In this resolve, I will seek to protect the well-being of all and work to support the advancement of national development of the Turks and Caicos Islands for a more
sustainable and prosperous future.
During the last six months, since my appointment was announced, I had the welcome opportunity to meet Mr Speaker, the Hon. Premier, Her Excellency the Deputy
Governor, Hon. Attorney General, the Hon. Ministers of Immigration and Health; the Commissioner of Police and a number of government officials. In March 2023, I also
had the opportunity to attend the Northern Caribbean Security Summit as part of the TCI delegation, where I spent a valuable three days discussing critical issues of
national security with leads from a number of partner agencies.
I am glad to now be here and look forward to spending much of my first ten days visiting each of your constituencies to meet as many people as possible.
As I make my way through every inhabited island, I will listen and hope to begin to appreciate your rich and multifarious societies; to witness with my own eyes the beauty
and diversity of each of the islands; and to learn about the gains and challenges these bring.
I am grateful to elected members for facilitating the tours, which are a key priority for me. I am sure each constituency is unique and only through meeting as many of you
as possible, can I begin to understand your respective concerns and ambitions for the islands and how I must shape my Governorship?
My previous role taught me much about the issues and challenges the Caribbean Territories face, our relationship with the United Kingdom and the region.
I will build on that experience to deliver the constitutional responsibility I now come to bear.
I am acutely aware of some of the issues on your minds, in particular national security, social development, the Constitution and the economy. My meetings with elected
representatives, communities, officials and bodies, over this coming month, will equip me with what I need to help focus my priorities to serve best the interests of the Turks
and Caicos Islands.
Tackling the present challenge, of ensuring the safety of these precious islands requires, now more than ever, a strong relationship between the police, partner
agencies and the communities that they serve. I will be working closely with all involved, including international partners, to address the stark levels of criminality and
much-needed justice reforms to tackle this.
Through partnership and by ensuring the rule of law prevails, we can ensure appropriate protections, continue to welcome visitors and reassure investors that
these islands remain safe and prosperous.
The Archbishop of Canterbury said during the Coronation ceremony of King Charles III:
‘We crown a King to serve. The King of Kings, Jesus Christ was anointed not to be
served, but to serve. He creates the unchangeable law of good authority that with the
privilege of power comes the duty to serve.’
As I embark on my Governorship, I will seek to serve firmly the interests of the Turks
and Caicos Islands and commit to taking forward my duties with humility, integrity, and
openness.
May God bless these beautiful nature islands Turks and Caicos, and all those who
call it home.
Texas airport worker dies after being sucked into Delta plane engine Published
An airport employee has died after being sucked into a passenger plane engine in Texas.
Officials said that the worker was "ingested" into the engine of a Delta plane that was taxiing towards its gate with one engine turned on.
The worker's employers say an initial investigation shows the incident was unrelated to safety procedures, but it is unclear how it happened.
A government agency is also carrying out an investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it had been in contact with Delta Air Lines and was "in the information-gathering process at this point."
The plane, an Airbus A319, arrived at San Antonio on Friday night from Los Angeles International Airport.
Officials have not yet named the employee of Unifi Aviation, which Delta Air Lines contracts for ground crew operations,
"From our initial investigation, this incident was unrelated to Unifi's operational processes, safety procedures, and policies," the company said.
A Delta spokesperson said the airline was "heartbroken" to grieve the loss of an "aviation family member's life".
"Our hearts and full support are with their family, friends, and loved ones during this difficult time."
The airline also told local broadcaster KENS 5 that it was working with authorities "as they begin their investigation".
On Wednesday, regional airline Piedmont was fined $15,625 (£12,285) by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for the death of a ground crew worker six months earlier in a similar incident in Alabama.
"Proper training and enforcement of safety procedures could have prevented this tragedy," OSHA said.
Source- BBC
Man who brutally attacked daughter’s mom takes plea deal
A man who attacked his estranged girlfriend while she held their infant daughter took a plea deal on Thursday.
Ray Sands pleaded guilty to attempted murder and exposing a child to grievous harm when he appeared before Senior Justice Bernard Turner.
He received concurrent sentences of 15 years and four years in prison. Sands has already spent one year and seven months in custody because he was not granted bail.
Prosecutors say that on November 15, 2021, Sands went to Peatra Curry’s Key West Street home, ostensibly to see their daughter.
He attacked Curry after she rebuffed his attempts at reconciliation. Sands headbutted Curry and stabbed her about the body while she held their daughter.
Onlookers intervened and stopped the initial attack and took the child into the home.
However, Sands returned and knocked Curry down with his car and ran over her as she lay on the ground.
Curry has partially recovered from the brutal attack, but she’s in need of surgery to repair her back.
Sands, who remained unrepentant, said that Curry had ruined his life.
The judge told Sands that he thought he would have availed himself of the opportunity to apologize to Curry.
He said that Curry was not in any way responsible for the events of that day. Turner said Curry was left to raise their child while recovering for the rest of her life.
Outside of court, Sands once again told Curry that she had “ruined” his life.
Sands was represented by Joel Seymour and Bradford McKenzie was the prosecutor.
Source- The Nassau Guardian
UK Supermarkets under pressure to explain high prices
Supermarket executives will be questioned by MPs on Tuesday over why food prices are still rising as some wholesale costs are falling.
The UK's biggest grocers - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, and Morrisons - will face a parliamentary committee examining the cost of a weekly shop.
The price of goods continues to grow but not as steeply as in recent months, according to the latest figures.
Food inflation reached 14.6% in June, the British Retail Consortium said.
That is down from 15.4% in the year to May, but it does not mean prices are falling, just that they are rising at a slower pace.
British Retail Consortium chief executive Helen Dickinson said: "If the current situation continues, food inflation should drop to single digits later this year."
However, food prices remain a key reason why the overall rate of inflation in the UK remains stubbornly high.
And with many hard-pressed households also facing rising rents or mortgage costs, there is pressure on the supermarkets to defend the high cost of shopping.
On Tuesday, MPs will grill senior supermarket bosses about food and fuel price inflation, asking if prices will come down this year.
Politicians, trades unionists and the governor of the Bank of England have all questioned why prices on supermarket shelves have not fallen as rapidly as the cost of some ingredients such as wheat.
They have suggested that retailers may be failing to pass on savings and are banking the profit instead.
The Competition and Markets Authority is examining the issue.
Supermarkets deny they are profiteering from high prices and claim their profits are being squeezed.
The grocers say they are cutting prices where they can, arguing that falls in commodity prices take time to filter through to the consumer.
Most of the big chains have recently introduced high-profile price cuts to staples, with Sainsbury's on Monday the latest to announce it was investing £15m to reduce the cost of basics such as rice, pasta, and chicken.
Tesco, Morrisons, M&S, Aldi and Lidl have all reduced prices on basic foods such as bread, milk, and butter in the past few months.
However, some items such as milk and eggs remain relatively expensive compared to pre-Covid prices.
"These latest price cuts will help reassure customers that we will continue to pass on savings as soon as we see the wholesale price of food fall," said Rhian Bartlett, food commercial director at Sainsbury's, and one of the executives due to appear before MPs on Tuesday.
As well as pointing to recent price cuts, the executives are likely to tell the committee that not all commodities have been falling in price, said Ged Futter, a retail analyst, and former senior buying manager at Asda.
"Yes, prices have come down for some things, but other things have gone up like sugar, potatoes [and] chocolate," he said.
Wheat, which has fallen in price on global markets, is largely supplied by UK growers, and food manufacturers will still be buying last year's crop at last year's prices, Mr. Futter said.
"They won't get a new price until they get into a new contract. Just because prices have gone down globally that doesn't mean the price here goes down immediately," he said.
Similarly, cheese sold today has been made with milk bought up to 12 months ago, so won't reflect recent falls in milk prices, he said.
Jamie Keeble, co-founder of sausage and burger maker Heck which supplies most of the major supermarkets, told the BBC's Today program that the price of pork was expected to remain high for the next 18 months.
He said the only way supermarkets could lower their prices was by asking suppliers to cut costs, but he added: "We're certainly not in the position to start giving cost decreases on our products.
"At the end of the day, [the supermarkets] are going to have to take a cut in their margins if they really want to lower the prices on the shelf, that's the only way to do it."
The British Retail Consortium has previously said there is typically a three- to nine-month lag for price falls to be reflected in shops.
Mr. Futter thinks supermarket executives will point to other costs affecting food retail, from rising wages to the added charges related to Brexit, such as veterinary certificates.
A study by academics at the London School of Economics last month found nearly a third of food price inflation since 2019 was due to Brexit.
Source- BBC
West Ham reject Manchester City's £90m bid for captain
West Ham have rejected a bid of £90m from Treble winners Manchester City for captain Declan Rice.
City's offer was thought to have included an £80m initial payment but is short of the £100m the Hammers want.
Arsenal are expected to make a third bid for the 24-year-old England midfielder.
The Gunners' second proposal of an initial £75m in four payments, plus £15m in add-ons, was turned down by West Ham last week.
Rice's contract with the Hammers expires in 2024, although it has the option for a one-year extension until the summer of 2025.
Following the club's Europa Conference League victory over Fiorentina earlier this month, chairman David Sullivan said he was "99%" sure Rice would leave West Ham this summer.
Although they have lined up Chelsea's Mateo Kovacic in a £25m deal, the loss of Ilkay Gundogan to Barcelona means City manager Pep Guardiola is keen to bolster his midfield options, with Rice viewed as the ideal candidate.
Source- BBC
BET Awards 2023: The winners list
The BET Awards, known as "culture's biggest night," aired Sunday night live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, honoring notable names in music, film, sports and entertainment.
Here is the list of awards announced during the broadcast:
Best Female Hip Hop Artist
Latto
Video Director of the Year
Teyana “Spike Tey” Taylor
Best New Artist
Coco Jones
Viewer’s Choice Award
"Break My Soul," Beyoncé
Best International Act
Burna Boy (Nigeria)
BET Her
"Break My Soul," Beyoncé
Lifetime Achievement Award
Busta Rhymes
Source- ABC
Facebook owner launches virtual reality subscription service
Facebook owner Meta has launched a virtual reality (VR) subscription service as it tries to make that part of its business profitable.
Meta says paying users will get access to two new games a month.
For the first three months of the year, the parent company of Instagram saw a $4bn (£3.1bn) loss in its VR unit.
Meta faces competition from firms including technology giant Apple, which unveiled its highly anticipated mixed-reality headset this month.
On Monday, the company said the Meta Quest+ service, which costs $7.99 a month or $59.99 for an annual subscription, was compatible with its Quest 2, Quest Pro, and upcoming Quest 3 headsets.
In 2021, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg unveiled plans to build a "metaverse" - an online world where people can play games, work and communicate in a virtual environment, often using VR headsets.
"Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we're building towards," Mr Zuckerberg said.
In February last year, Meta unveiled several ambitious artificial intelligence projects, and Mr. Zuckerberg described AI as "the key to unlocking the metaverse".
The company reported a profit of $5.7bn for the first three months of this year, surpassing market expectations.
However, its Reality Labs division, which produces VR headsets and other products, reported a net loss of $4bn for the period.
Earlier this month, Apple unveiled its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, in its first major hardware launch in almost a decade.
Apple's headset, which will be released early next year in the US, will be priced at $3,499.
That is considerably more than other headsets currently available in the market. Meta's VR headsets are priced between $299.99 and $999.99.
Source- BBC
Traffic Cops' Jobs Changing as Some Cities Ban Minor Traffic Stops
American roads are changing. Whether it's the challenging public discussion about the best way for police officers to conduct traffic stops or the rise in traffic fatalities during the pandemic, things are different out there. That's why, from Michigan to New York, strategies to make roads safer for everyone are changing, too.
In Michigan, the Ann Arbor City Council voted 9–0 earlier this month to propose a new law that would reduce police officers’ ability to pull someone over for "minor offenses." The proposed Driving Equality Ordinance draws a line between routine traffic stops and eventual incarceration outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). The council's proposed solution is to take away an officer's right to pull someone over for minor offenses such as a cracked windshield.
The stakes for these pretextual stops can also be higher than being locked up, too. "The harms of traffic stops are not equally felt," the proposal reads. "More than a quarter of people killed in traffic stops are Black, despite Black people making up only 12 percent of the population." The proposal also notes that stops for minor offenses "are disproportionately carried out against people of color and return negligible public safety benefits."
"When you get pulled over, you have to wonder if I did something wrong or am I being profiled," the founding chairperson of Ann Arbor’s Independent Police Oversight Commission, Lisa Jackson, told local ABC 7 News.
A final vote on the proposed law is scheduled for early July. Bigger cities, including Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, have passed similar legislation in recent years, as Bloomberg has reported.
Over in Washington, D.C., the city’s Department of Transportation has a different idea to reduce the number of traffic deaths, crashes, and other traffic violations. In partnership with The Lab @ D.C. (a part of the city government), the city will send text messages and physical mail to drivers who have had some sort of traffic citation or violation. The customized messages are meant to get drivers to think about their actions and will reference details about the driver’s vehicle, the violations it has been connected to in the past, and a warning that the vehicle is at higher risk of a crash than others because of this history.
According to the Washington Post, one of the mailers includes the text: "Someone in your household is driving dangerously. Your vehicle has a history of speeding and/or running red lights and this is placing the drivers and passengers of your vehicle at a high risk of getting into a crash."
The city created a list of 100,000 high-risk drivers, and a subset of these people will get the text or mail messages (or both). Drivers can opt out of the messages after the first one. During the 12-month program, the DOT and The Lab will then see which category of drivers, if any, see any noticeable improvements.
"The goal is to create awareness, regardless of whether or not anybody has signed off for specific alerts," The Lab director Sam Quinney told the Post.
Source- Car and Driver
Jennifer Lawrence says 'It really is hard to make a comedy where you're not offending people'
In No Hard Feelings, she plays Maddie, a broke Uber driver who responds to an advert from two parents looking for a woman to date - and sleep with - their introverted teenage son.
While it's rated a 15 in the UK, the film is an R in the US - which means anyone under the age of 17 would need to be accompanied by an adult to see it in the cinema - and is being billed as the return of R rated comedies to theatres.
Lawrence told Sky News she thinks the world needs comedy at the moment - and if audiences find some of the content offensive, then maybe that's a good thing.
"I think it's time for just a good old-fashioned laugh," she said. "And it really is hard to make a comedy where you're not offending people. Everybody in some sense will be offended by this film - you're welcome."
Lawrence's co-star Andrew Barth Feldman - who plays Percy, the teenager Maddie is being paid to seduce - agrees.
"We need to be able to engage with being offended," he said. "There was and is like a big overcorrect because we realized there were so many things that we were joking about that we shouldn't be... and I think this movie does a really good job of continuing to push limits while still engaging with the conversation that the things that these people are doing are wrong, and not a good idea."
"Something we learned from the old-time comedies is mean comedy is not really funny," Lawrence added. "You know, making somebody feel bad about themselves - other than me making fun of me. But the way that we did it is fine, we figured it out."
Lawrence had been looking for the chance to explore her funny side on screen for a while. "I was definitely always open to a comedy," she said. "I wouldn't say I was like: 'I really want my character to try to have sex with a young person', but I just read it and it was the funniest thing I'd ever read."
No Hard Feelings was actually inspired by a real advert on the US listings site Craigslist, which Lawrence and writer/director Gene Stupnitsky found themselves discussing over dinner one night.
"He showed me the Craigslist ad and we were just laughing about it," she said. "Our whole dinner was just talking about the kind of people who would write the ad - and so that's kind of in my mind where I thought he would go with the movie."
But rather than the parents, the film focuses on Maddie and Percy - the teenage son of an overprotective mother and father, who seemingly has no interest in dating.
While Percy's an extreme case, Barth Feldman found plenty to relate to in the character.
"My generation - and we see this so much with Percy - we're the first generation that was born with iPhones in our hands," he said. "And so there is just a sense of compulsion and fear and comparison that is so constant with us.
"[Percy] is stuck in this bubble - the world outside is all on his phone and his parents want to bubble-wrap him and he hates it, but it's safe for him; but he needs to break out, he needs to learn that he can make his own decisions and truthfully, put the phone down for a little bit."
No Hard Feelings isn't the only film Lawrence has been promoting lately, having also appeared at the Cannes film festival in May for the documentary Bread And Roses, which she co-produced.
The film looks at the women living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan and is something of a passion project for Lawrence.
"You watch it on the news and you know that it's just going to eventually fade out of the news and I didn't want these women's lives to just be a quick story that everybody forgets about," she said. "So I spoke to my producing partner about how to get cameras in a Taliban-run Afghanistan, and we found Sahra Mani, who is an Afghan filmmaker, and we told her this is what we want to do.
"Obviously it was extremely dangerous for her and for the three women that participated... and thanks to Sahra and these amazing women's courage, we have this footage that hopefully will explain and put more light on women's suffrage in Afghanistan, which is just unbelievable."
Source- Sky News
Amazon accused of tricking Prime customers
The US has accused Amazon of tricking customers into signing up for automatically renewing Prime subscriptions and making it difficult to cancel.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the country's consumer rights watchdog, made the claims in a lawsuit.
It cited allegedly "manipulative" website designs.
Amazon rejected the charges, calling them "false on the facts and the law".
More than 200 million people subscribe to Prime globally. The service, which offers shipping perks, access to streaming movies, and more, costs $139 a year or $14.99 monthly in the US and £95 per year in the UK.
The FTC said Amazon used website designs that pushed customers into agreeing to enroll in Prime and have the subscription automatically renewed as they were making purchases.
The company attempted to make it difficult for users to opt out of auto-enrolment because "those changes would also negatively affect Amazon's bottom line", the agency alleged in the complaint, filed in federal court in Seattle.
It also said Amazon put customers seeking to cancel through a cumbersome "four-page, six-click, fifteen option" process, which the FTC said was known internally as "Iliad" in a nod to the Greek epic about the "long, arduous Trojan War".
Though Amazon altered the cancellation process shortly before the lawsuit was filed, the FTC said the company's tactics broke laws aimed at protecting shoppers.
"Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money," FTC Chair Lina Khan said.
The FTC is seeking a court order to force Amazon to change its practices, as well as financial penalties of an unspecified amount.
Amazon said it had been in the middle of discussing the issues with the agency when the lawsuit was filed without notice.
"The truth is that customers love Prime, and by design, we make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership," the company said.
The FTC has repeatedly warned online firms against using "dark patterns" to manipulate shoppers.
It had been investigating Amazon's Prime program since 2021.
It said the company had attempted to delay the probe on multiple occasions, including by refusing to deliver documents in a timely manner.
Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, a senior analyst at Insider Intelligence analyst said the FTC was "making an example of Amazon".
"It's quite common for companies to make it more difficult to cancel an account than it is to create one," she said.
Source- BBC