AUTAZES, Brazil, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Hundreds of dredging rafts operated by illegal miners have gathered in a gold rush on the Madeira River, a major tributary of the Amazon, floating hundreds of miles as state and federal authorities dispute who is responsible for stopping them.

The flotilla of rafts equipped with pumps are moored together in lines that nearly stretch across the vast Madeira, and a Reuters witness spotted plumes of exhaust indicating they are vacuuming the riverbed for gold.

“We counted no less than 300 rafts. They’ve been there at least two weeks and the government has done nothing,” said Greenpeace Brazil activist Danicley Aguiar.

The gold rush, triggered by rumors that someone had found gold there, began as world leaders gathered for a United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, where Brazil vowed it had stepped up protection of the Amazon rainforest. read more

However, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has weakened environmental enforcement since taking office in 2019, turning a blind eye to invasions of protected public and indigenous lands by illegal loggers, cattle ranchers and wildcat gold miners.

The Madeira flows some 2,000 miles (3,300 kilometers) from its source in Bolivia through the rainforest in Brazil and into the Amazon River.

The dredging rafts have floated downriver from the Humaita area, where there has been a surge in illegal gold mining, and were last seen some 400 miles (650 km) away in Autazes, a municipal district southeast of Manaus.

A spokesperson for Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama said the illegal dredging on the Madeira river was the responsibility not of the federal government but of Amazonas state and its environmental agency IPAAM.

The IPAAM said in a statement that the rafts anchored on the river were under federal jurisdiction, so the National Mining Agency (ANM) was responsible for licensing and it was up to the federal police to see if any crimes had been committed. River traffic and pollution was the Navy’s area, IPAAM said.

The ANM said it did not fall under their purview as they only oversaw legal mining, while criminal activity was a matter for the police and courts.

The Federal police said it was looking at the best way to deal with the problem and prevent environmental damage.

“It’s a free-for-all. None of the authorities are doing anything to stop illegal mining, which has become a epidemic in the Amazon,” Aguiar of Greenpeace Brazil said.

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TAPACHULA, Mexico, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Thousands of migrants in southern Mexico have accepted a government offer to quit a U.S.-bound caravan in exchange for Mexican visas, officials said on Tuesday night.

The caravan is one of two large groups of migrants, many from Central America and the Caribbean, that left the southern city of Tapachula in recent weeks to embark on foot on the long journey north toward the U.S. border with families including young children.

The caravan migrants who left Tapachula last week accepted a government proposal to “begin the process that will allow them to regularize their legal status,” according to a joint statement from the interior ministry and national migration institute.

By Tuesday, this group had progressed as far as the town of Mapastepec in the southern state of Chiapas, under the guidance of caravan organizer Luis Garcia Villagran from advocacy group Pueblo Sin Fronteras.

Garcia told Reuters that most of the migrants in the caravan had accepted the offer and officials would eventually bus them out of Chiapas, distributing them across 10 states. The government statement, however, listed nine states.

In exchange for the deal, the organizers agreed not to assemble more caravans in future, a Mexican migration official said later, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Caravan organizer Garcia denied that such a deal had been made, and the statement made no mention of it.

Migrants have repeatedly expressed skepticism about receiving documentation regularizing them in Mexico, and organizers say another caravan is already about to depart from Tapachula, a major migrant massing point close to the border with Guatemala.

Earlier, Garcia said the decision to offer transportation and visas to migrants was positive, after Tapachula had turned into a “prison” for migrants left stranded while waiting for paperwork that would let them freely transit the country.

The Mexican migration official said an earlier group of migrants from Haiti and Honduras were taken to Guanajuato state about 1,000 km (620 miles) away on Tuesday.

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Guardian- British and French leaders have traded accusations after at least 27 people died trying to cross the Channel in the deadliest incident since the current migration crisis began.

In a phone call with Boris Johnson on Wednesday night, French president Emmanuel Macron stressed “the shared responsibility” of France and the UK, and told Johnson he expected full cooperation and that the situation would not be used “for political purposes”, the Élysée said.

Thirty-four people were believed to be on the boat when it sank on Wednesday, leading to what the International Organisation for Migration said was the biggest single loss of life in the Channel since it began collecting data in 2014. Two survivors are in intensive care.

The British prime minister renewed calls for France to agree to joint police patrols along the Channel coast, and said Wednesday’s incident highlighted how efforts by French authorities to patrol their beaches “haven’t been enough”.

“We’ve had difficulties persuading some of our partners, particularly the French, to do things in a way that we think the situation deserves,” he said on Wednesday. “I understand the difficulties that all countries face, but what we want now is to do more together – and that’s the offer we are making.”

The French have previously resisted UK offers to send police and Border Force agents to mount joint patrols amid concerns about the implications for national sovereignty.

Macron also called for an emergency meeting of European government ministers and an immediate funding boost for the EU’s border agency, Frontex. France’s government is holding an emergency meeting on Thursday morning to discuss next steps.

Dinghy deaths tragedy brings home our hostility to the world’s desperate

“France will not let the Channel become a cemetery,” Macron said.

The French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, called for coordination with the UK, saying “the response must also come from Great Britain”.

The House of Commons is set to hold a debate on “the numbers of migrants arriving in the United Kingdom illegally by boat” just before midday on Thursday, according to a recently released parliamentary schedule.

Speaking on Newsnight, immigration compliance minister Tom Pursglove confirmed Johnson had renewed a previous offer for UK police and Border Force officers to take part in joint patrols with the French, and said the last incident showed the two countries needed to deepen their cooperation.

“The prime minister and President Macron have had exactly that discussion this evening. That is something that I am very keen to see happen,” he said. “It is the case that in the past we have offered to host and to help with joint patrols. I think that could be invaluable in helping to address this issue. I really do hope that the French will reconsider that offer.”

A spokesperson for Johnson said the two leaders had agreed to the urgency of stepping up joint efforts to prevent the deadly crossings. They also highlighted the importance of working closely with Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as other countries across the continent.

The mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, said it was the British who were to blame and called on Johnson to “face up to his responsibilities”. “The British government is to blame. I believe that Boris Johnson has, for the past year-and-a-half, cynically chosen to blame France,” she said, according to French media reports.

The Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong. Human traffickers typically overload the dinghies, leaving them barely afloat and at the mercy of waves as they try to reach British shores.

Both countries cooperate to stem migration across the Channel but also accuse each other of not doing enough – and the issue is often used by politicians on both sides pushing an anti-migration agenda.

Why Channel tragedy is unlikely to soften Tory approach

Darmanin told a news conference in Calais those who died in Wednesday’s tragedy included five women and a girl. He said the boat that sank had been “very frail”, and compared it to “a pool you blow up in your garden”.

He said 34 people were believed to have been on before it sank and it was not clear what country the victims originally came from.

Four suspected traffickers have been arrested, two of whom later appeared in court, he said.

Refugee charities called on the government to save lives by opening safe routes for asylum seekers to apply to come to the UK without taking to the sea.

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “How many tragedies like this must we see before the government fundamentally changes its approach by committing to an ambitious expansion of safe routes for those men, women and children in desperate need of protection?

“Every day, people are forced to flee their homes through no fault of their own. Now is the time to end the cruel and ineffective tactic of seeking to punish or push away those who try and find safety in our country.”

An emergency search was sparked at about 2pm on Wednesday when a fishing boat sounded the alarm after spotting several people at sea off the coast of France.

The latest deaths follow others reported but unverified in the Channel in recent weeks, amid a record number of people attempting the crossing. On 11 November, a total of 1,185 people arrived in England by boat, the most in a single day.

More than 25,700 people have made the dangerous journey to the UK in small boats this year – three times the total for the whole of 2020, according to official figures.

It was widely expected that the number of crossings would reduce in the winter. Instead, bigger boats have been used to bring people to the UK in greater numbers.

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Channel deaths: UK calls for smuggler crackdown after 27 people drown

By Dulcie Lee
BBC News

The post At Least 27 Migrants Drown in Channel: UK, France Trade Accusations After Tragedy, Call for Action on Smugglers appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

Germany is poised to pass the mark of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 this week, a sombre milestone that several of its neighbours crossed months ago but which Western Europe’s most populous nation had hoped to avoid.

Discipline, a robust health care system and the rollout of multiple vaccines — one of them homegrown — were meant to stave off a winter surge of the kind that hit Germany last year.

In practice, Germans faced a confusing array of pandemic rules, lax enforcement and a national election — followed by a drawn-out government transition during which senior politicians dangled the prospect of further lifting restrictions even as the infection rate rose.

“Nobody had the guts to take the lead and announce unpopular measures,” said Uwe Janssens, who heads the intensive care department at the St. Antonius hospital in Eschweiler, west of Cologne.

“This lack of leadership is the reason we are here now,” he said.

Doctors like Janssens are bracing for an influx of coronavirus patients as confirmed cases hit fresh daily highs that experts say is also being fueled by vaccine sceptics.

Resistance to getting the shot — including the one developed by German company BioNTech together with US partner Pfizer — remains strong among a sizeable minority of the country. Vaccination rates have stalled at 68 per cent of the population, far short of the 75 per cent or higher than the government had aimed for.

“We’ve increasingly got younger people in intensive care,” said Janssens. “The amount of time they’re treated is significantly longer and it blocks intensive care beds for a longer period.”

Older people who got vaccinated early in 2021 are also seeing their immunity wear off, making them vulnerable to serious illness again, he said. Echoing problems seen during the initial vaccine rollout, authorities have struggled to meet demand for boosters even as they tried to encourage holdouts to get their first shot.

Some German politicians are suggesting it’s time to consider a vaccine mandate, either for specific professions or for the population as a whole. Austria took that step last week, announcing COVID-19 shots will become compulsory for all starting in February after seeing a similar reluctance to get vaccinated fuel fresh outbreaks and hospitalizations.

Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel said in June that she didn’t favor such a measure. Signaling a possible shift in position, Merkel summoned leaders from the three parties negotiating to form the next government for talks Tuesday at the chancellery to discuss the pandemic situation.

Merkel’s likely successor, current Finance Minister Olaf Scholz of the center-left Social Democrats, has refused to be drawn on whether he would back compulsory COVID-19 shots.

Together with the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, his party recently passed a law that replaces the existing legal foundations for pandemic restrictions with narrower measures, starting Wednesday. These include a requirement for workers to provide their employers with proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative test. But the change also makes it harder for Germany’s 16 governors to impose hard lockdowns without getting approval from state assemblies.

Getting those majorities may be particularly tricky in states where case numbers are highest. A recent study found infection rates are higher in areas where the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is strongest. The party has campaigned against pandemic restrictions and polls show its supporters take a sharply negative view of vaccine mandates, compared to the rest of the voting population.

While AfD is not expected to win any of Germany’s four regional elections next year, experts say political campaigns can distract from tough topics like tackling the pandemic.

“Often the focus is on things that will drive voting, rather than unpopular decisions,” said Catherine Smallwood, a coronavirus expert at the World Health Organization’s office for Europe.

“That can contribute to the virus spreading if measures and decision-making are not taken in a timely and … concrete manner as they as they have to be,” Smallwood said in a recent interview.

Germany’s disease control agency on reported a record 66,884 newly confirmed cases Wednesday, and 335 deaths. The total death toll from COVID-19 stood at 99,768 since the start of the pandemic, the Robert Koch Institute said. German weekly Die Zeit, which conducts its own count based on local health authority figures, said the 100,000 threshold had already been passed.

Meanwhile, health authorities in five eastern states and Bavaria have activated an emergency system to coordinate the distribution of 80 seriously ill patients to other parts of the country. Earlier this month, two patients were taken from southern Germany to Italy for treatment, a significant change from last year, when Italian patients were being sent to German hospitals.

Germany boasted almost four times as many intensive care beds per capita as Italy had then, a factor that experts say was key to the low German death toll at the time.

Since January, Germany has had to cut its ICU capacity by 4,000 beds due to lack of staff, many of whom have quit because of the pressure they endured earlier in the pandemic.

“It’s hard for people to cope with this, physically and psychologically,” Janssens said of the situation doctors and nurses face in the coming months.

“We’ll survive, somehow,” he added.

The World Health Organization’s European office warned this week that availability of hospital beds will again decide how well the region copes with the expected rise in cases over the coming months — along with vaccination rates.

Based on current trends, Europe could see another 700,000 deaths reported across the 53-nation region by next spring, with 49 countries expected to see “high or extreme stress in intensive care units,” the agency said Tuesday.

By DANIEL NIEMANN and FRANK JORDANS Associated Press

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Fauci: Standard for full vax ‘could change’

© Julia Nikhinson

Top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci said changing the definition of what qualifies a person as fully vaccinated to include a booster shot is “on the table.”

“Right now, officially, fully vaccinated equals two shots of the mRNA and one shot of the J&J, but without a doubt that could change,” Fauci said in an interview for the upcoming Reuters Next conference, Reuters reported.

“That’s on the table for discussion,” he added.

The consideration comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that booster shots can be given to anyone above the age of 18.

“We’d like to get as many people who were originally vaccinated with the first regimen boosted,” Fauci said, adding he hopes to see an “overwhelming majority” get the booster shot.

Proof of full vaccination has been required by many venues across the country and in some major cities has been required for dining in at restaurants.

Fauci’s comments to Reuters also come as COVID-19 cases are beginning to rise again in the U.S. In response to the increase, he also recently warned against “prematurely” dropping mask mandates.

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W.H.O. WARNS EUROPE OF ‘FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY’

The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending that the public in Europe practice social distancing and masking, regardless of their vaccination status, as case rates skyrocket there, according to CNBC.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that parts of Europe have fallen into a “false sense of security,” believing there is no risk of COVID-19 to the vaccinated and that the danger of infection has passed, even as Europe has become the “epicenter of the pandemic,” reports CNBC.

“Even if you’re vaccinated, continue to take precautions to prevent becoming infected yourself, and to infecting someone else who could die,” Tedros said, according to CNBC. “That means wearing a mask, maintaining distance, avoiding crowds and meeting others outside if you can, or in a well-ventilated space inside.”

Some European countries — such as Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovakia and the Czech Republic — have this week reported their highest daily COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic.
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What the world could learn from Israel’s Covid-19 vaccine booster rollout

By Hadas Gold, CNN

Jerusalem (CNN)When it comes to Covid-19, it seems where Israel leads, the rest of the world follows. For almost a year, the country has offered other nations a glimpse into the pandemic’s future.

Israel has been at the forefront of vaccination rollouts for adults and teenagers, pioneered a vaccine passport and, in recent months, has spearheaded the use of booster shots.

At the end of July, the country began offering boosters to those over the age of 60; since late August, boosters have been available to anyone over the age of 16, five months after their second dose of the vaccine.

Now, a person is not considered fully vaccinated in Israel until they have received a third dose of the vaccine, once they are eligible for it.

More than three months on, Israeli health officials say the data is clear: Booster shots helped bring down the fourth wave of the virus that swept the country in August and September.

At its peak, that wave saw more than 8,000 new Covid-19 cases per day, and more than 500 people hospitalized at a time in serious condition.

The current seven-day average is running at between 450 and 500 cases a day, and there are 129 people hospitalized in serious condition with the virus.

The data highlights stark differences between those with the vaccine — and the booster — and those without: On many days over the past month, more than 75% of positive cases were among the unvaccinated, according to data from the health ministry.

Among those hospitalized with Covid-19 it is even clearer: Israeli officials say in October the rate of people over the age of 60 in serious condition who had only had two doses of the vaccine was 5 times that of those with three shots.

And although the caseload has declined overall since then, the differences remain: On Sunday, there were four times as many people over the age of 60 in serious condition who had only had two shots, compared to those considered fully vaccinated with three doses, according to the health ministry.

Lessons from Israel

Elderly residents wait to receive their third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a medical center in Tel Aviv on August 2.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has cited such data as a reason why he thinks it will soon be recommended that everyone get boosters once they’re eligible.

“If you look strictly at the data from Israel, it’s very clear that the differences in immunity waning is much more profound in the elderly, but it goes across the board,” Fauci told NBC last week.

The lesson from Israel is one that more and more nations are taking on, particularly as cases rise to troubling levels in parts of Europe.

Germany is recommending a third dose of the vaccine for everyone over the age of 18, and in the UK, boosters are available to everyone over 40 as of this week.

In France, demand for booster shots skyrocketed after President Emmanuel Macron announced that a third dose would be required to revalidate the “pass sanitaire,” or health pass, which is required on public transport and to enter a variety of public and private spaces.

And in the United States, boosters are now authorized for everyone over 18.

Health experts say the rollout of booster shots across many Western nations highlights the inequity of vaccine deployment in other parts of the world.

In the UK, 88% of people over the age of 12 have had their first dose of the vaccine; 80% have had two doses, and 26% have already had a booster shot, data from November 20 shows.

By contrast, only 10% of people in African countries have had a first dose, on average, according to Our World In Data; only 7% of Africa is fully vaccinated, the data shows.

Fifth wave fears

But the news from Israel is not all good: Though case numbers have fallen since September, the decline has plateaued. And, even more concerning, the R-rate — the average number of people infected by each person with Covid-19 — is back above 1, according to health ministry data — a worrying sign that the virus may be spreading again.

Health experts, such as Professor Eran Segal from Israel’s Weizmann Institute, say it is too early to tell whether the country is entering a fifth wave of the virus. But they point to the fact that almost 1.5 million people who have had two doses of the vaccine have not gone back for their booster shot.

“There are more people whose vaccine has faded over time, when compared to the number of new vaccinations and boosters, which has led to a slow decrease in the total [population’s] immunity,” Segal tweeted last week.

Now Israel is working on holding back that potential fifth wave: Officials are encouraging the unvaccinated to get their shots, and those who are eligible for booster doses to get them. They are also getting children vaccinated, and keeping up with preventative measures.

Many of Israel’s new infections are among children aged five to 11, according to Israeli health officials. A campaign to vaccinate that age group began on Monday.

“About 50% of our daily infections are occurring in that age group of below 11,” Dr. Ran Balicer, chairman of Israel’s Covid-19 National Expert Advisory Panel, told CNN last Friday. “We think this vaccination campaign could actually turn the tide and perhaps bring us back to a downslope if we have a good uptick [in vaccinations], as we hope that we will.”

But even with a highly vaccinated population, health experts say it is vital that anti-Covid measures stay in place, especially during winter, as activities move indoors.

Nachman Ash, director general of Israel’s Public Health Ministry, told Israel’s Channel 13 part of the reason for the uptick in cases is people not adhering to rules like mask-wearing.

“The enforcement is not sufficient,” Ash said. “And I see the public is becoming relaxed as time passes and the infection rate goes down, so people are less careful. Therefore yes, we have to increase the enforcement.”

Balicer warned that ignoring the waning immunity of those who have had two doses of the vaccine “may, in fact, put people at risk with false reassurance.”

“There is no single magic bullet that would suffice to assure surge prevention, especially in winter time,” Balicer said. “It is a combination of measures: Indoor masks, population behavior, indoor event restrictions and green certificates, and an effective booster campaign.

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By Monique Washington 

Residents of Jessups Village were startled late this afternoon when they heard a bang close to the beach which turned out to be an explosion.

The Observer understands that sometime before 4:00 pm, the kitchen at Paradise Beach Viila caught on fire. Residents in Jessups report that they heard a loud pop while others said that they felt their home shake.

The wooden structure was completely burnt.

The Kitchen at Paradise Beach is located on the beach. At this time the cause of the fire and injuries caused is unknown.

More to this story as it becomes available.

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BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Jurors on Wednesday convicted the three white men charged in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, the Black man who was chased and fatally shot while running through their neighborhood in an attack that became part of the larger national reckoning on racial injustice.

The jury deliberated for about 10 hours before convicting Greg McMichael, son Travis McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, who all face minimum sentences of life in prison. It is up to the judge to decide whether that comes with or without the possibility of parole.

Travis McMichael stood for the verdict, his lawyer’s arm around his shoulder. At one point, McMichael lowered his head to his chest. After the verdicts were read, as he stood to leave, he mouthed “love you” to his mother, who was in the courtroom.

Greg McMichael hung his head when the judge read his first guilty verdict. Robbie Bryan bit his lip.

Moments after the verdicts were announced, Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr., was seen crying and hugging supporters outside the courtroom.

“He didn’t do nothing,” the father said, “but run and dream.”

Ben Crump, attorney for Arbery’s father, spoke outside the courthouse, saying repeatedly, “The spirit of Ahmaud defeated the lynch mob.”

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, thanked the crowd gathered for the verdict and said she did not think she would see this day.

“It’s been a long fight. It’s been a hard fight. But God is good,” she said. Of her son, she said, “He will now rest in peace.”

The McMichaels grabbed guns and jumped in a pickup truck to pursue the 25-year-old after seeing him running outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick in February 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own pickup and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery.

The father and son told police they suspected Arbery was a fleeing burglar. But the prosecution argued that the men provoked the fatal confrontation and that there was no evidence Arbery had committed crimes in the neighborhood.

“We commend the courage and bravery of this jury to say that what happened on Feb. 23, 2020, to Ahmaud Arbery — the hunting and killing of Ahmaud Arbery — it was not only morally wrong but legally wrong, and we are thankful for that,” said Latonia Hines, Cobb County executive assistant district attorney.

Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski added: “The jury system works in this country, and when you present the truth to people and they see it, they will do the right thing.”

Travis McMichaels’ attorneys said both he and his father feel that they did the right thing, and that they believed the video would help their case. But they also said the McMichaels regret that Arbery got killed.

“I can tell you honestly, these men are sorry for what happened to Ahmaud Arbery,” attorney Jason Sheffield said. “They are sorry he’s dead. They are sorry for the tragedy that happened because of the choices they made to go out there and try to stop him.”

They planned to appeal.

Bryan’s attorney, Kevin Gough, said his team was “disappointed with the verdict, but we respect it.” He planned to file new legal motions after Thanksgiving.

Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley did not immediately schedule a sentencing date, saying that he wanted to give both sides time to prepare.

Though prosecutors did not argue that racism motivated the killing, federal authorities have charged them with hate crimes, alleging that they chased and killed Arbery because he was Black. That case is scheduled to go to trial in February.

The disproportionately white jury received the case around midday Tuesday.

Soon after returning to court Wednesday morning, the jury sent a note to the judge asking to view two versions of the shooting video — the original and one that investigators enhanced to reduce shadows — three times apiece.

Jurors returned to the courtroom to see the videos and listen again the 911 call one of the defendants made from the bed of a pickup truck about 30 seconds before the shooting.

On the 911 call the jury reviewed, Greg McMichael tells an operator: “I’m out here in Satilla Shores. There’s a Black male running down the street.”

He then starts shouting, apparently as Arbery is running toward the McMichael’s idling truck with Bryan’s truck coming up behind him: “Stop right there! Damn it, stop! Travis!” Gunshots can be heard a few second later.

Full Coverage: Death of Ahmaud Arbery

The graphic video death leaked online two months later, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case, quickly arresting the three men. Each of them is charged with murder and other crimes.

Defense attorneys contend the McMichaels were attempting a legal citizen’s arrest when they set off after Arbery, seeking to detain and question him as a suspected burglar after he was seen running from a nearby home under construction.

Travis McMichael testified that he shot Arbery in self-defense, saying the running man turned and attacked with his fists while running past the idling truck where Travis McMichael stood with his shotgun.

Prosecutors said there was no evidence Arbery had committed crimes in the defendants’ neighborhood. He had enrolled at a technical college and was preparing to study to become an electrician like his uncles.

Shaun Seals, a 32-year-old lifelong Brunswick resident, rushed to the courthouse to join the crowd cheering the verdict.

“We just came out to witness history,” said Seals, pushing his 10-month-old daughter in a stroller.

Seals, who is Black, called the convictions a victory not just for his community but for the nation.

“It’s not going to heal most of the wounds” from a long history of inequality, he said. “But it’s a start and shows people are trying.”

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BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, November 24, 2021 (MMS-SKN) — Former champion team Unity Domino Club and Mansion Domino Club ensured there would be no third game in the best-of-three semi-finals when on Tuesday November 23 they powered their way into the finals of the 26th edition of Constituency Number Seven Dr the Hon Timothy Harris Domino League.

Not making it into the finals were defending champion team, Tabernacle Domino Club, which fell at the hands of Mansion Domino Club, and Sylvers Domino Club felled by Unity Domino Club in classic supercharged games played at the new Lodge-Ottley’s Community Centre.

Former champion team Unity, out to reclaim the coveted crown beat Sylvers 14-9, while Mansion brought an end to defending champion Tabernacle’s chance to retain the title won last year by beating them 13-8.

When the semi-finalists first met on Thursday November 18, Unity beat Sylvers 14-8 and the scores were not very different in the second of the best-of-three semi-final games when the former champion team beat the new entrant into the league’s semi-finals Sylvers 14-9, other than the drama and pure energy put in by Unity players.

The game started with Unity leading 4-0 before Sylvers earned a single game. When the game got to 5-2 in favour of Unity, Simeon ‘Cuban’ Liburd and Davin Henry playing on Table Two managed 100 points before Sylvers could earn a single point, to earn a bonus game and move the scores to 7-2.

Sylvers, the only team captained by a female, fought back and levelled the scores at 7-7 but before they could celebrate, Unity went three up to 10-7 in their favour. Even before Sylvers players could even organise themselves, they got hit by two 0-100 games as Bernard Wilson and Everton Boon for Unity on Table 1 raced to 100 points, and before even the scorer could write on the scoreboard, on Table 2 Captain Desmond ‘Fergie’ Rawlins and Antonio ‘Mash’ Phillip reported a 100-0 win that gave Unity the commanding 12-8 lead.

With Unity needing only one game to sail into the finals, Sylvers grabbed one game on Table Two to have the points at 12-9 in Unity’s favour. Captain Rawlins of Unity, this time playing with Davin Henry raced to 100 points before Sylvers players realised what was happening to them, which left former champion team with the 14-9 win at 10:22 p.m. which assured them a place in the finals.

In the second semi-final game, defending champion Tabernacle started with promise by grabbing the first game, and when leading 4-3, Cremoy Aggard and Thomas Henderson on Table Two won a bonus game to allow Mansion take a 5-4 lead. Before Tabernacle knew that they had been hit, the same pair of Aggard and Henderson raced to a follow-up 100-0 win to earn them another bonus game for a 7-4 lead.

At one time Mansion led 10-5, but Tabernacle reduced the deficit to 10-8 in favour of Mansion, after which Mansion upped their game and won another three games, with Calvin Farrell and Cremoy Aggard taking the final wining game at 10:47 p.m. for the overall 13-8 win.

According to the league’s Public Relations Officer, Allington Berridge, former champion team Unity Domino Club will meet Mansion Domino Club for the first best-of-three games final encounter on Tuesday November 30 at the same venue. No date, as at the time of going to press, had been set yet for the third/fourth place clash between Tabernacle Domino Club and Sylvers Domino Club.

Constituency Number Seven Dr the Hon Timothy Harris Domino League, which is the longest running such league in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, is sponsored by Prime Minister and Area Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher Seven (Bellevue to Ottley’s), Dr the Hon Timothy Harris.

In the meantime, domino action continues tonight Wednesday November 24 with Best of Rest round robin eliminations, where Phillips Domino Club will be coming up against Unstoppable Domino Club, while tomorrow Thursday Phillips Domino Club will be facing Saddlers Domino Club.

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Government of Antigua and Barbuda
Office of the Prime Minister

Caricom Chair Expresses Condolences At Passing Of Sir James Mitchell

St John’s, 23 November…  The Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister Gaston Browne, has expressed deepest sympathy at the passing of Sir James ‘Son’ Mitchell, the former Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Prime Minister Browne telephoned Dr Ralph Gonsalves this morning to convey the condolences of the Caribbean Community’s  Heads of Government to the nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines on the death of one of their iconic figures.

The CARICOM Chair recalled that Sir James has served for 16 years as Prime Minister of his country and during that time was an active regionalist, promoting several initiatives for the deepening of integration in the region.

Prime Minister Browne also noted that Sir James had been an active advocate of the idea of a political union of the countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States in the early 1980s.

“The region has lost a true champion of our CARICOM integration and a significant figure in advancing the region’s causes in the global community.  We join the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines, especially the people of the island of Bequia where he was born and in which he spent his happiest times”, Prime Minister Brown concluded.

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