JUNIOR JUNKNAOO: Prime Minister Philip Davis and former Prime Minister Perry Christie review the children as they performed at the annual junior Junkanoo parade on Bay Street on Thursday 29 January 2026. Our photo of the week. Photo by Kemuel Stubbs Bahamas Information Services
Every day you wake up in this world where power is the only fact, you wonder what next lord. The United States president announced to the world last week that he wants Iran to succumb to a deal on nuclear arms with a deadline unnamed but he said that time was running out. He amassed an armada he said that he intended if Iran did not make a deal to put their lights out.
This is not an idle threat since the same playbook was used on Venezuela. He ended up kidnapping their President and taking him to trial in a district in New York that he said was phony and politically motivated when he was indicted by that district.
Also during the past week, the United States president declared that Cuba, a state that has no viable threat to the United States, was declared to be a threat. Then he announced that tariffs would be imposed on any country that exported goods to the United States that did trade with Cuba in oil.
Remember he declared that he thought that his now Secretary of State could one day be President of Cuba.
These are interesting times and they say, we should all wish to live in interesting times. The net result though is interesting times or not, all his friend and allies are shaking in fear at the whimsical nature of all of this.
So much for the international rules based order.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 31 January 2026 up to midnight: 943,759;
Number of hits for the month of January ending Saturday 31st January 2026 up to midnight: 943,759;
Number of hits for the year 2026 up to Saturday 31st January 2026 up to midnight: 4,191,988
People in Cuba have no food, no medicine, no electricity, no oil, no cash. The United States has imposed such a strict embargo on Cuba that they do not know which way to turn. Each week, there is some new measure that is designed to strangle the government in Cuba. The fact is that it does not affect the government. It does affect the people. What is happening to the Cuban people is criminal. Last week the announcement was made that Mexico is to cut off oil supplies to the island at the behest of the Americans. There are also to be tariffs on any country that imports their good to the US if they trade with Cuba. You already know the threats made to our medical infrastructure in The Bahamas because of the relationship with Cuban doctors. This is a national security threat for us in The Bahamas. This does not matter to the politicians who have imposed these sanctions though.
The CARICOM Heads of Government meeting will take place in St Kitts from 24 to 26 February 2026. This should be very interesting. On the face of it CARICOM is split down the middle, with three countries safely within the United States orbit and others afraid to do anything other can capitulate to the policies of the United States even though, those policies are wrong. Countries have been forced to accept refugees from other countries that they would not normally accept into their small societies on pain of banning their citizens from entering the United States or other sanctions like tariffs on their goods entering the United States. Poor Trinidad and Tobago that has run out of oil is so supplicant now they agreed even to the killing of their own fishermen on the high seas in the United States policy of killing suspected drug traffickers. Two families in Trinidad are now suing the United States government for their acts of aggression and death against their relatives. The latest is the declaration by the United States that Cuba is a national security threat to them. Cuba is not a national security threat to them, nor was Venezuela. The US has stopped the Venezuelans from sending oil to Cuba and it appears they now have also stopped Mexico from sending oil to Cuba. They have threatened every country that trades with Cuba with tariffs on their goods entering the United States. The aim is to starve this brave country into submission for ideological reasons. Cuba has been a friend to the CARICOM region. It will be interesting to see if any country in CARICOM will step up and speak up for Cuba.
The Cabinet of The Bahamas led by the Prime Minister Philip Davis went to Grand Bahama and held a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 27 January 2026. The Prime Minister made several major announcements: the start of the new international airport, the purchase of the power company, the Norwegian Cruise Lines new port and the progress on the redevelopment of the Grand Lucayan Hotel. The words were hardly out his mouth before Emera, the Canadian owned company, that is hostile to Bahamians and The Bahamas government, claimed that the announcement was premature, even though they had signed off on a memorandum of understanding about the issues days before the announcement and it is clear that they want out because they do not have the capital to continue. Rather than stay silent they issued a notice to their employees that predictably made its way to the press claiming at the Government had gone public before it was appropriate to do so. Bah humbug. There is always a Scrooge around to ruin things. Predictably, the press had the right FNM headlines the next morning, namely that the Prime Minister had misspoken. The facts are clear though the power company is changing hands to the government from the owners in Grand Bahama, despite the naysaying of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce. Bahamians will soon get the benefit of the lower prices that are available in Nassau for power.
With the passing of James Rolle, the stalwart councilor from the Carmichael Constituency who carried us through many a general election, and the list every week of the stalwarts who have been with us for ages, there is a panic in the PLP that too many are dying. The fact is the people who are stalwart councilors are at an age when they are at an end of life in most cases. There have also been some sudden deaths as well. What this all means is that time is passing and the party has to renew itself. The question is where is the next generation of leadership coming from. Everyone is now looking at the next crop of MPs and suggesting that there is going to be a fight just after the general election between two people who shall remain nameless. The party has to be concerned that the philosophy of the party is protected and the ideological positon and grounding is safe. As we plot to win we must keep an eye on the future.
The panic ensued last Sunday this time. Michael Pintard, the talk too much Leader of the Opposition, called a press conference. He was anticipating the fact that the Prime Minister was going to Freeport to make some major announcements. The idea was to forestall those announcements by challenging the PLP’s record with trash talk. The problem with Michael Pintard is that he thinks he can outtalk anyone with his words but there are some stubborn facts. One of them is that he sat in the Cabinet of Hubert Minnis and did nothing to help Grand Bahama in four and a half years in governing. His words did not stop the Prime Minister. It made them more relevant than ever. There is economic progress in Grand Bahama under the PLP. That did not stop the naysaying by Michael Pintard the next day. We say again facts are stubborn: the new airport is coming, there is a new cruise port, the Grand Lucayan development is also coming and the power company will soon be in the hands of the Bahamian people with cheaper electricity.
PLP cadres have been asked to get ready. Time is short. Just reading the tea leaves as the PLP gets all its candidates lined up and the FNM does the same, we know that a general election is about to be called. If we were betting people, we wouldn’t put any money down on anything past May. That means that we are out of time.
The Man of the Year 2025 for JCN is Chester Cooper, the Deputy Prime Minister. The award was presented by the Jones Communication Network on Friday 30 January 2026 by the CEO of the company in the presence of Prime Minister Philip Davis and Governor General Dame Cynthia Pratt. This is the second time he has won the award. The first time was 2021 in a joint win with Attorney John Wilson.
From Facebook:
I joined Ian Poitier, its director and founder of CAPAS, the Bahamas new schol for the performing arts. Prime Minister Philip Davis and Mrs Davis headlined the event with Cabinet colleagues.
Fred Mitchell MP
Fox Hill
29 January 2026
Meeting with the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell and Kate Forbes, President of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on a visit to Nassau on Friday 30 January 2026.
From Facebook:
With the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Kate Forbes with the Dean of the Hon Consular Corps Max Gibson and Mrs Gibson , Ambassador Claudio Lins of Brazil, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Erica Lewis of the U S Embassy, Chinese Ambassador Yan Jiarong, British High Commissioner Smitta Rosetti at the Consular Corps luncheon at Sapodillas at West Bay Street.
Fred Mitchell MP
Fox Hill
30 January 2026
From Facebook:
We walked thru Blueberry Hill Road thru the Fox Hill Road thru Timothy Lane and Armbrister Street led by Hon Lisa Rahming and Sonia Kemp with Supt Elvis Miller and Asp Jermaine Adderley and Rev Diana Francis and Lillimae Longly of Urban Renewal. 29 January 2026
Fred Mitchell
MP Fox Hill
From Facebook:
We were pleased to be joined by Zane Lightbourne MP for Yamacraw and Minister for the Environment, one of our future leaders of the PLP. Keno Wong from St Anne’s visited as well with the Rt Hon Rev Dr Philip Rahming, Pastor Emeritus of Rehoboth Ministries in Fox Hill and author of the national pledge. It was an action packed meeting.
Fred Mitchell MP
Fox Hill
28 January 2026