‘Conflict of interest’ concern over CUC’s renewable energy bid links – Cayman Compass

Concerns have been raised over conflicts of interest for Grand Cayman’s monopoly utility company CUC as the island attempts to accelerate its transition to renewable energy.

Monopoly Transmission & Distribution Grid

The Ombudsman – Cayman’s public sector complaints watchdog – has flagged potential challenges with the bid process for large-scale solar projects.

“It appears that one bidder (CUC), which already holds a monopoly position in terms of the sale of electricity, is co-designing the specifications of the request for proposal for an upcoming bidding process, in which they, themselves, will be an interested party,” Ombudsman Sharon Roulstone wrote in a hearing decision on a related freedom of information dispute.

“In my mind, this has the appearance of a conflict of interest.”

https://www.caymancompass.com/2024/02/13/conflict-of-interest-concern-over-cucs-renewable-energy-bid-links/

Dutch Court Moves to Block Export of Fighter Jet Parts to Israel

A court in the Netherlands on Monday ordered the Dutch government to stop exporting parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel, a move that reflected mounting alarm over the heavy civilian toll of Israel’s war in Gaza but was unlikely to have an immediate effect on the military campaign.

The Netherlands hosts a warehouse of U.S.-owned F-35 parts that are exported to countries that operate the fighters.
https://nyti.ms/3wf9ctg

Western narcissism and support for genocidal Israel go hand in hand

It takes a special kind of narcissism for a world leader to declare himself a 50-year-long adherent to a white supremacist ideology that excuses apartheid, settler-colonialism, and genocide and then to turn to the greatness of the US and all its “possibilities”, as if the US has only been sprinkling pixie dust around the world and not intervening with brutal military and economic power over the past 130 years.

(https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/2/11/western-narcissism-and-support-for-genocidal-israel-go-hand-in-hand)