Puerto Rico to go for the gold in men’s basketball

The Puerto Rico men’s basketball team clinched a spot in the Olympics, defeating Lithuania on Sunday in San Juan 79-68. The Puerto Rican squad is one of 12 countries to qualify for the Paris games. Puerto Rico joins a field that includes Brazil, Greece and Spain—which also qualified on Sunday—as well as France, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Serbia, South Sudan and the U.S. The Puerto Rican team is led by NBA stars Jose Alvarado, Tremont Waters and Davon Reed. Meanwhile, it was announced that track and field star Jasmine Camacho-Quinn will carry the Puerto Rican flag during the opening ceremonies in Paris. Camacho-Quinn is the defending gold medalist in the women’s 100-meter hurdles.

New report warns of rising seas, climate change

A new study finds that Puerto Rico is one of the areas in the U.S. most affected by climate change and paints a grim picture of how rising sea levels will impact the Island. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) analyzed 1,700 communities in the U.S. and determined that the Island has at least 325 critical infrastructure assets that are threatened by rising sea levels. This number of at-risk assets will rise rapidly over the next few decades, the report found. By 2050, the number of critical infrastructure assets in Puerto Rico at risk of disruptive flooding is expected to increase by more than 55 percent– and will then undergo a massive 18-fold increase by the turn of the next century. The Island ranks seventh for infrastructure at risk of disruptive flooding by 2100. Among the assets most likely to experience disruptive flooding are residential buildings and industrial contamination sites.

Non-binding status vote to be held in November, governor announces

Puerto Rico’s governor announced last week that a non-binding plebiscite regarding the Island’s future status will appear on the November general election ballot. A 2020 law allows the current governor to call for a status referendum. Island voters will choose between three options: statehood, independence, or independence with free association. This would be the seventh time that Puerto Ricans will vote to determine their political relationship with the United States. The ballot measure is similar to the options called for under the Puerto Rico Status Act, which passed the U.S. House in 2022 but stalled in the Senate. The last referendum was held in November 2020.