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The light cut out twice while we were writing this newsletter. Twice. We’re taking that as a sign this week's Tings Tough story is right on time. Also inside: $265 million vanished from a government fund, and the explanation so far isn't cutting it.

Let's get into it.

A little over $265 million just disappeared from a government investment fund in three months, and the explanation so far isn't cutting it.

Here's the timeline: the National Investment Fund (NIF) held $265.3 million as of December 2025. By the end of March 2026, that balance had dropped to $200,000. Not a typo. A quarter of a billion dollars, gone, in a single quarter.

FNM Leader Michael Pintard sent a six-page letter to Finance Minister Michael Halkitis on August 6, asking who authorized the withdrawal, what legal authority was used, and where the money actually went. He's since doubled down publicly, saying the opposition simply doesn't buy the government's explanation.

OPM Director of Communications Latrae Rahming responded on X, saying the Ministry of Finance confirmed the funds were primarily used for the government's airport infrastructure program, work that's already been publicly announced. He pointed to the National Investment Funds Act, 2022, which set up a five-member Board of Governors, including a Central Bank representative, and requires reporting on the fund's financial position and withdrawals. Rahming's line to the opposition: wait for the fund's statutory report instead of drawing conclusions early.

Pintard isn't waiting. He says the government hasn't shown how it legally moved money into the fund in the first place, let alone how it moved money out. He's also pointing out that no one has broken down which airports got funded or for what, and that the NIF was pitched to Bahamians as a sovereign-wealth-style fund built on international transparency standards, the kind with a board, a mandate, and rules about how money comes and goes.

Worth noting: since the Act passed four years ago, the NIF has never had regular public reporting. This fight is the first time most Bahamians are hearing the fund held this kind of money at all.

Pintard says he's taking it to the Public Accounts Committee next and is now getting legal advice on what else can force the government's hand.

The bottom line: the money could’ve gone toward real airport work. But pointing to a law that requires reporting isn't the same as actually reporting, and "wait for the statutory report" is a big ask when that report has never once shown up on time in four years. Make up your own mind on this one.

School soon opens back up so let’s see how many of y’all need to go back with the kids.

Solve this dead easy BGCSE question:

Simplify this equation: (28x⁵y⁷) ÷ (7x²y³)

Check the bottom of the newsletter for the answer.

As bad as BPL bills have been this summer, they'd be worse without a fuel hedge that's been quietly absorbing some of the blow. That hedge expires at the end of this year.

Just so you know… a fuel hedge is basically BPL locking in oil prices ahead of time, like pre-paying for gas at today's price instead of gambling on what it costs next month. When global oil prices spike, BPL doesn't feel the full hit, and neither do you.

The Inter-American Development Bank's latest Caribbean Economics Quarterly puts it plainly: BPL's fuel hedging program has shielded Bahamian households from volatile oil prices, keeping electricity costs in check even as the rest of the region got hit harder. But that protection only runs through December 2026. If Brent crude stays above $65 a barrel and there's no renewed or widened hedge in place, the IDB says the full cost hit lands in 2027, and it calls this the single biggest medium-term economic risk facing the country.

To be fair, the broader picture isn't bad. The Bahamas grew an estimated 3.8% in 2025, its fourth straight year of above-trend growth, beating the IMF's own forecast. The government posted its smallest overall deficit in 25 years, and inflation is expected to ease to 1.8% in 2026, well below the regional average of 6.6%, partly because the hedge has kept energy costs from spiraling.

🏥 NHI Sees a 44% Jump in HIV Patients Seeking Care. Breathe, it's not what it sounds like. NHI logged 354 HIV/AIDS cases among beneficiaries in 2025, but officials say that's people getting care for the first time, not new infections. Actual new diagnoses fell to 142, and 96% of Bahamians living with HIV already know their status.

💰 NHI Is Growing Fast, and Running Low on Cash. Beneficiaries are pushing 165,000, roughly half the country, but growth has outpaced the funding. NHI's own CEO admits being 100% government-funded isn't sustainable. On the table: sin taxes on gaming, sugary drinks, cigarettes, plus a long-shelved payroll "employer mandate." Watch your paycheck.

🔌 EV Owners Say Don't Blame Us for the Blackouts. Bahamas Grid Company execs pointed at rising EV charger use as a strain on the grid. Easy Car Sales wasn't having it, noting there are only about 2,500 EVs on Bahamian roads, each using roughly what a water heater does. The real issue: a 50-60-year-old grid.

⚡ BGC Admits It's Running a 20th-Century Grid on 21st-Century Demand. The company's racing to grow its technical workforce, aiming for 160-180 transmission and distribution staff, up from about 100, while patching aging cables and substations that keep failing. The new transmission backbone holds up fine. Everything older doesn't.

🤖 Meta's AI Went Rogue and Launched an Actual Cyberattack. During a security test, one of Meta's AI models got internet access it wasn't supposed to have and launched an unprompted attack on another company. Similar things happened with OpenAI and Anthropic models during the same testing round, prompting OpenAI to call it a "watershed moment" and slow down research to shore up guardrails.

🇺🇸 Trump Signs Two New Executive Orders on Birthright Citizenship. The orders aim to limit automatic citizenship for children of foreign embassy staff and so-called "birth tourism," after the Supreme Court struck down his earlier attempt in June. The ACLU says it'll fight this one too, calling it dead on arrival.

✈️ Jetstar Will Now Charge You to Use the Overhead Bin. Starting next year, the Australian budget airline wants at least $18 for carry-on bags stowed overhead, with some long routes running as high as $194 one way. Small under-seat bags still fly free. Jetstar says it'll speed up boarding; only 20% of surveyed customers are buying that explanation.

🍔 Burger King Just Took Back Second Place From Wendy's. BK posted an 8.5% jump in US same-store sales last quarter, riding a Whopper revamp to five straight quarters of growth while Wendy's sales have shrunk for six quarters running. McDonald's, meanwhile, still owns the throne with roughly 48% of the market, even after quietly replacing its US chief this week.

⛳ LIV Golf Has Found a New Investor to Keep It Alive. CEO Scott O'Neil confirmed fresh backing to carry the league past this season, after Saudi Arabia pulled its funding back in April. No name attached to the new money yet.

In its final days, The Reef tried everything to stay afloat. New menus. New management. Even a promise they got rid of all the rats (for real this time).

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— The Bay Street Brief Team