Black Immigrant Daily News

~ The Leeward Islands Geothermal and Digital Interconnexion Hub Project and it’s benefits to Country Sint Maarten/St Martin ~

From our French-side correspondentMARIGOT — The Geothermal and Digital Interconnexion Hub Project for Leeward Islands is a project that is co-finance by the European funding agency Interreg Caraibes. As of 2022, the project is in the pre-feasibility stage with a total available budget of 2.9 million euros to be used before December 2023.

The pre-feasibility stage examines the potential for geothermal energy within the Leeward Islands and an inter-island digital network public partnership.

“Thus far, the heads of governments of Sint Maarten/St. Martin, Anguilla, St Barths, Antiqua, Saba, Sint Eustatius and the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis  have expressed their political will for the goals of this project”, said Omar Morales who is the project lead of EU Funds at the Collective of Saint Martin.

The Overseas Collective of Saint Martin and Unite Caribbean[1] are co-project leads ensuring steering committees meetings, financial reporting to the donors and other management aspects of the project, in addition, the overseas collective of Saint Martin explores the digital inter–island connection pre-feasibility as it observes studies of network and economic research, technical assistance needed and a governance road map.

Teranov is a French-based company that focuses on the development of geothermal energy in the Latin and Caribbean Region.[2] This company is responsible for the preliminary assessment of the geothermal resource in the islands of Saba, St Eustatius and St Kitts. On the other hand, EDF[3] which is based in Guadeloupe is responsible for the electrical interconnection pre-feasibility study, in particular, research in Geochemistry, Geology and Geo Physics.

“In regards to European Union trans-border funding agencies such as Interreg Caraibes; it’s vital that Governmental Institutions, Non-Profit Organizations and private entities focus on the development of a multi-disciplinary team that has the same common goal. This multi-disciplinary team is comprised of industry experts and in-country partners to research, design and implement such a regional project,” Omar Morales explained.

After, the prefeasibility stage, the project further goes into the feasibility and geothermal plant constructions and digital connection of fiber optics between the territorial partners. The financing of these stages ought to be determine. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is seen as a viable co-funding option, according to Omar Morales.

Sint Maarten’s Government and utility company has a big role to play in the redefining of the national energy landscape. The community should also be considered a key stakeholder. Geothermal energy has the distinction of having higher availability when compared to wind, solar and hydro forms of energy and can be delivered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and is less vulnerable to hurricanes and high winds. It is arguably a viable option for Sint Maarten/St. Martin.

Imagine, a Sint Maarten experiencing a category 5 hurricane as IRMA again with a public partnership agreement with the Leeward Islands in providing geothermal energy; we can experience less intermittent energy or even load shedding. Through, geothermal energy we will become a more resilient country. Depending solely on fossil fuels and its unpredictable costs will only further worsen our overall quality of life.

On the other hand, there is a potential business model for geothermal energy. The tourism sector is one of the largest consumers of energy. The Government of Sint Maarten, for instance, can sell energy to the cruise ships at the dock. The plug in and pay business model provides cruise ships with other energy source from which government can receive a payment. It’s a win-win situation. There is economic growth relationship with geothermal energy as it can provide a competitive advantage for a country’s economy.

Furthermore, an inter-island partnership agreement for geothermal energy and a digital fiber optic ecosystem has the potential to bring down energy cost and internet cost as the expense can be spread across all territorial partners. “Developmental projects such as the Leeward Island Geothermal and Digital Interconnexion Hub Project can provide countries with economies of scale. Hence, it is vital to ensure that key stakeholders are fully engaged in all phases of this project as means to obtain milestones for resilience, other sources of energy and improved digital ecosystems,“ Omar Morales said.

As a country, we need to advocate for the potential of Geothermal Energy and digital inter-island connection in country Sint Maarten by questioning our members of parliament and future politicians. The cost of living is going up and we need to improve our quality of life. We cannot miss out on such an opportunity for our country. The opportunity is here and now.

[1] https://unite-caribbean.com/en/

[2] Accueil (teranov.com)

[3] Accueil EDF Guadeloupe EDF Guadeloupe

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See related articles in our EDF archives

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LONDON — The World Health Organization says it’s holding an open forum to rename the disease monkeypox, after some critics raised concerns the name could be derogatory or have racist connotations.

In a statement Friday, the U.N. health agency said it has also renamed two families, or clades, of the virus, using Roman numerals instead of geographic areas, to avoid stigmatization. The version of the disease formerly known as the Congo Basin will now be known as Clade one or I and the West Africa clade will be known as Clade two or II.

WHO said the decision was made following a meeting of scientists this week and in line with current best practices for naming diseases, which aims to “avoid causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, and minimize any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare.”

Numerous other diseases, including Japanese encephalitis, Marburg virus, Spanish influenza and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome have been named after the geographic areas where they first arose or were identified. WHO has not publicly suggested changing any of those names.

Monkeypox was first named in 1958 when research monkeys in Denmark were observed to have a “pox-like” disease, although they are not thought to be the animal reservoir.

WHO said it was also opening a way for the public to suggest new names for monkeypox, but did not say when any new name would be announced.

To date, there have been more than 31,000 cases of monkeypox identified globally since May, with the majority of those beyond Africa. Monkeypox has been endemic in parts of central and west Africa for decades and was not known to trigger large outbreaks beyond the continent until May.

WHO declared the global spread of monkeypox to be an international emergency in July and the U.S. declared its own epidemic to be a national emergency earlier this month.

Outside of Africa, 98% of cases are in men who have sex with men. With only a limited global supply of vaccines, authorities are racing to stop monkeypox before it becomes entrenched as a new disease.

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Results for examinations offered by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC(R)) will be available for students online on Monday, September 5, 2022.

In a press release, CXC stated that it has been working assiduously at completing the Marking and Grading process for the timely release of this year’s examination results. Consistent with the announced schedule for release during the last week of August or the first week of September.

Available from September 5, will be the preliminary results for the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination(R) (CAPE(R)), Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate(R) (CSEC(R)) and Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence(R) (CCSLC(R)).

Candidates can access their preliminary results online at https://www.cxc.org/student-results.

Regional Ministries of Education will receive the preliminary results on Thursday, September 1, 2022, to review and provide feedback as necessary, in preparation for a joint meeting of Ministries on Friday, September 2, 2022.

In instances where requests for early release of results were made, preliminary results will also be made available to universities at the same time as the Ministries of Education, to facilitate the matriculation of candidates.

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The FBI recovered “top secret” and even more sensitive documents from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to court papers released Friday after a federal judge unsealed the warrant that authorized the sudden, unprecedented search this week.

A property receipt unsealed by the court shows FBI agents took 11 sets of classified records from the estate during a search on Monday.

The seized records include some marked not only top secret but also “sensitive compartmented information,” a special category meant to protect the nation’s most important secrets that if revealed publicly could cause “exceptionally grave” damage to US interests. The court records did not provide specific details about the information the documents might contain.

The warrant says federal agents were investigating potential violations of three different federal laws, including one that governs gathering, transmitting or losing defence information under the Espionage Act. The other statutes address the concealment, mutilation or removal of records and the destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations.

The property receipt also shows federal agents collected other potential presidential records, including the order pardoning Trump ally Roger Stone, a “leatherbound box of documents,” and information about the “President of France.” A binder of photos, a handwritten note, “miscellaneous secret documents” and “miscellaneous confidential documents” were also seized in the search.

Trump’s attorney, Christina Bobb, who was present at Mar-a-Lago when the agents conducted the search, signed two property receipts — one that was two pages long and another that is a single page.

In a statement earlier Friday, Trump claimed that the documents seized by agents were “all declassified,” and argued that he would have turned them over if the Justice Department had asked.

While incumbent presidents generally have the power to declassify information, that authority lapses as soon as they leave office and it was not clear if the documents in question have ever been declassified. And even an incumbent’s powers to declassify may be limited regarding secrets dealing with nuclear weapons programs, covert operations and operatives, and some data shared with allies.

Trump kept possession of the documents despite multiple requests from agencies, including the National Archives, to turn over presidential records in accordance with federal law.

The Mar-a-Lago search warrant served Monday was part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into the discovery of classified White House records recovered from Trump’s home earlier this year. The Archives had asked the department to investigate after saying 15 boxes of records it retrieved from the estate included classified records.

It remains unclear whether the Justice Department moved forward with the warrant simply as a means to retrieve the records or as part of a wider criminal investigation or attempt to prosecute the former president. Multiple federal laws govern the handling of classified information, with both criminal and civil penalties, as well as presidential records.

US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the same judge who signed off on the search warrant, unsealed the warrant and property receipt Friday at the request of the Justice Department after Attorney General Merrick Garland declared there was “substantial public interest in this matter,” and Trump said he backed the warrant’s “immediate” release. The Justice Department told the judge Friday afternoon that Trump’s lawyers did not object to the proposal to make it public.

In messages posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, “Not only will I not oppose the release of documents… I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents.”

The Justice Department’s request was striking because such warrants traditionally remain sealed during a pending investigation. But the department appeared to recognize that its silence since the search had created a vacuum for bitter verbal attacks by Trump and his allies, and felt that the public was entitled to the FBI’s side about what prompted Monday’s action at the former president’s home.

“The public’s clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favour of unsealing,” said a motion filed in federal court in Florida on Thursday.

The information was released as Trump prepares for another run for the White House. During his 2016 campaign, he pointed frequently to an FBI investigation into his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, over whether she mishandled classified information.

To obtain a search warrant, federal authorities must prove to a judge that probable cause exists to believe that a crime was committed. Garland said he personally approved the warrant, a decision he said the department did not take lightly given that standard practice where possible is to select less intrusive tactics than a search of one’s home.

In this case, according to a person familiar with the matter, there was substantial engagement with Trump and his representatives prior to the search warrant, including a subpoena for records and a visit to Mar-a-Lago a couple of months ago by FBI and Justice Department officials to assess how the documents were stored. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

FBI and Justice Department policy caution against discussing ongoing investigations, both to protect the integrity of the inquiries and to avoid unfairly maligning someone who is being scrutinized but winds up ultimately not being charged. That’s especially true in the case of search warrants, where supporting court papers are routinely kept secret as the investigation proceeds.

In this case, though, Garland cited the fact that Trump himself had provided the first public confirmation of the FBI search, “as is his right.” The Justice Department, in its new filing, also said that disclosing information about it now would not harm the court’s functions.

The Justice Department under Garland has been leery of public statements about politically charged investigations, or of confirming to what extent it might be investigating Trump as part of a broader probe into the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The department has tried to avoid being seen as injecting itself into presidential politics, as happened in 2016 when then-FBI Director James Comey made an unusual public statement announcing that the FBI would not be recommending criminal charges against Clinton regarding her handling of email — and when he spoke up again just over a week before the election to notify Congress that the probe was being effectively reopened because of the discovery of new emails.

The attorney general also condemned verbal attacks on FBI and Justice Department personnel over the search. Some Republican allies of Trump have called for the FBI to be defunded. Large numbers of Trump supporters have called for the warrant to be released hoping it will show that Trump was unfairly targeted.

“I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” Garland said of federal law enforcement agents, calling them “dedicated, patriotic public servants.”

Earlier Thursday, an armed man wearing body armour tried to breach a security screening area at an FBI field office in Ohio, then fled and was later killed after a standoff with law enforcement. A law enforcement official briefed on the matter identified the man as Ricky Shiffer and said he is believed to have been in Washington in the days leading up to the attack on the Capitol and may have been there on the day it took place.

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Saturday’s Reggae Trophy at Caymanas Park pits Ian Parsard’s stablemates, imported JORDON REIGN’S and last year’s classic-winning filly, SHE’S A WONDER, in a speed duel at five furlongs straight.

JORDON REIGN’s is aiming at a third win in three months, having started his run with a 7-1 upset victory at six and a half furlongs in which SHE’S A WONDER was the favourite but weakened into fifth place after dueling LURE OF LUCY on the lead.

After that June 18 come-from-behind win, JORDON REIGN’s returned July 16 to easily beat LURE OF LUCY for the second consecutive race, clocking 1:12.3 at six furlongs in an open allowance/graded stakes event.

SHE’S A WONDER also returned as a winner but against the lower class, overnight allowance, on July 30, making all to beat United States-bred THE GOOD WITCH at seven and a half furlongs.

Though she was an impressive winner, SHE’S A WONDER really had no speed to test her, finishing clear of THE GOOD WITCH, who is yet to win locally from five starts.

JORDON REIGN’s is proven at five furlongs straight, twice clocking 58.3 at the distance, his only loss at the trip being a fourth-place finish behind NUCLEAR NOON in which he bled.

Dick Cardenas partners JORDON REIGN’s whereas leading rider Dane Dawkins replaces Reyan Lewis aboard SHE’S A WONDER.

CAYMANAS PARK TIPS

Race 1 – 1100mThe nextbigthing (4)

Race 2 – 1400m Purposely (3)

Race 3 -1100mRun Jaya Run (1)

—-Race 4 – 1000m StFresh Cash (4)

Race 5 – 1100mLala Diva (6)

Race 6 -1100mThegoodlife (9)

Race 7 – 1600mShe’s My Destiny (4)

Race 8 – 1000m RdFunometer (10)

Race 9 – 1000m StJordon Reign’s (5)

Race 9 – 1000m StMidnight Blue (4)

BET OF THE DAY

Race 7 – 1600mShe’s My Destiny (4)

Race 8 – 1000m RdFunometer (10)

Race 9 – 1000m StJordon Reign’s (5)

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