Jamaica Gleaner
CAMP TRAGEDY
OVERCOME BY grief, Shackera Crowl could not bring herself to walk the final few steps to look at her son’s lifeless body on the beach. Instead, the heartbroken mother, who turned back in tears, is left demanding answers as she struggles to cope with...
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GANJA FARMERS RAIL OVER RAIDS
DESPITE MORE than a decade of reforms aimed at legitimising Jamaica’s cannabis industry, traditional ganja farmers continue to face harassment and heavyhanded police raids, according to the head of the Ganja Growers and Producers Association of...
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HIGH STAKES
FORTY YEARS after the infamous ‘Hand of God’ incident, the stage is now set for another England-argentina showdown as the second semi-final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup takes the spotlight today. Expectation is high at the British High Commission in...
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Diaspora gears up for Jamaica 64 events
AS JAMAICANS across the diaspora in the United States prepare to celebrate the island’s 64th year of Independence, a series of activities, including church services, flag-raising ceremonies and galas, are planned to mark the occasion. In Washington,...
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LOUD LIFE, QUIET GOODBYE
AS TRIBUTES continue for Dean Peart – the gregarious brother of former House Speaker Michael Peart and son of former Member of Parliament Ernest Peart – his death yesterday marked the end of two-thirds of the Peart dynasty in representational politics....
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‘NO WITCH HUNT’
FOR YEARS, Parliament’s Ethics Committee has largely operated outside the public eye, quietly examining matters ranging from conflicts of interest to allegations of misconduct involving legislators. Marlene Malahoo Forte wants Jamaicans to see that...
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JUDGE REJECTS SEX PAIN CLAIM
APOLICEMAN who sought $16 million, claiming that a 2015 motor vehicle collision left him with injuries, recurring discomfort, and pain after sexual intercourse, has been awarded $3 million in general damages by the Supreme Court. The award was made to...
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CALL FOR IC SHIFT
GOVERNMENT MINISTER Matthew Samuda has floated a recommendation for the Financial Investigations Division (FID) to be given the mandate to review or examine the statutory declarations of members of parliament (MPS) instead of the Integrity Commission...
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VINDICATION FOR VAZ
ENERGY MINISTER Daryl Vaz yesterday welcomed the settlement of a defamation lawsuit between himself and People’s National Party (PNP) General Secretary Dayton Campbell, describing it as vindication from what he called a “politically orchestrated...
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Argentina supporters Shanieka Young (foreground) and Odane Duffus
celebrating the South American team’s first goal during a watch party for the 2026 FIFA World Cup match between Argentina and Egypt in Trench Town, Kingston 12, on Tuesday. Argentina won the match 3-2 to advance to the quarter-finals.
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REGIONAL ROW
A MAJOR diplomatic rift has opened within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leadership amid the reappointment of Secretary General Dr Carla Barnett, with Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-bissessar insisting that the matter be brought to...
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GOLDEN LEGACY
LEAVING A lasting legacy and playing a significant role in taking Jamaica’s track and field to dizzying heights, Stephen ‘Franno’ Francis is being remembered with superlatives by his peers, athletes, track and field fans, administrators and the...
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PIG FARMERS SQUEAL
FOR WESTMORELAND pig farmer Michael Murphy, the numbers no longer add up. Every month, he must find $100,000 to repay a loan. Every week, he spends roughly $300,000 on feed alone. Yet the price he receives for his pigs has remained virtually unchanged...
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PUSH FOR US INQUIRY INTO DEPORTEE DEAL
A JAMAICAN-AMERICAN advocate has formally requested that members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation launch an inquiry into the third-country nationals (TCN) agreement signed between Jamaica and the United States (US). In a letter sent to federal...
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A small school’s big day
DESPITE HAVING just nine graduates this year, Grove Primary and Infant School in St Andrew marked the occasion in style, with the establishment of a scholarship fund by a past student and the merging of its prizegiving function into the commencement...
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‘I CAN’T DICTATE US POLICY’
CABINET MINISTER Audrey Marks has denied proposing the controversial deal under which Jamaica would receive up to 10,000 third-country nationals (TCNS) from the United States (US). Marks said media reports have conflated the TCN Memorandum of...
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‘Crisis of confidence’
A CALL for greater government accountability drew hundreds of people to Cross Roads, St Andrew, on Tuesday as the Advocates Network for Jamaicans staged a rally highlighting a range of national concerns, from the handling of Hurricane Melissa relief...
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Building tomorrow’s innovators
CAMPERDOWN PRIMARY and Infant School teacher Duval Ebanks envisions a classroom of the future equipped with sensory technology that creates an interactive and sustainable learning environment for his students. A space where facial recognition opens...
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GRIM FINDS
WITHIN DAYS of each other, Jamaicans have been confronted with a series of grim discoveries: decomposed bodies in rivers, bushes and remote communities; skeletal remains hidden in vegetation; and victims whose disappearances ended in tragedy. The...
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VINDICATED AFTER DEATH
TWELVE YEARS ago, Claudia Edwards-Bethel told The Gleaner she was in hiding. The Jamaican mother, who had accused a senior Bahamian immigration officer of rape after what began as an immigration arrest, said she feared for her life and pleaded with...
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Bigger than football
AT LEAST two of Jamaica’s national footballers support Belgian football star Jérémy Doku’s decision to leave his World Cup team camp in the United States to travel to London for the birth of his first child. His decision sparked a firestorm, dividing...
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Graduation fanfare for resilient Adrianna
FOUR YEARS after a devastating fire at her then Westmoreland home killed her twin brothers and left her with life-threatening burns, 16-year-old Adrianna Laing was among the proud graduating class at the Maggotty High School, in St Elizabeth,...
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VILLAINS MAKE POKER PLAYS
FOR YEARS, police have warned that unregulated gambling or gaming machines – popularly known as ‘poker boxes’– were becoming a magnet for criminal activity. Today, as the authorities move to formalise and regulate Jamaica’s rapidly expanding gaming...
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‘DEFECTIVE DECISION’
AN INDEPENDENT legal opinion out of Trinidad and Tobago has described the controversial reappointment of CARICOM Secretary-general Dr Carla Barnett as procedurally flawed, and legally void. The conclusion was made in a 48-page document authored by...
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‘It was nothing to be nervous about’
ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD JASSONIA Beadle, head girl of Park Mountain Primary and Infant School in St Elizabeth, is Jamaica’s top performer in the 2026 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination, having attained the highest national score among primary school...
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‘WE DON’T WANT IT’
GROWING UNEASE over the controversial third-country nationals (TCN) agreement between Jamaica and the United States (US) has triggered pushback from trade union leaders, amid fears that the island could become a holding ground for undocumented...
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HANDS-ON DADS
Paternity leave reshaping fatherhood in Jamaica Fathers in different seasons Jamaican fathers in agriculture shaping families’ future
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PUBLIC BEACH WARNING
A GROWING call for Jamaicans to be allowed to enjoy public beaches free of charge is bringing sharp focus to urgent maintenance concerns, including the need for lifeguards and sanitary facilities, which could seriously affect day-to-day operations at...
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CHINA WATCH
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S nominee for United States Ambassador to Jamaica has pledged to strengthen security cooperation with Kingston, intensify efforts to combat lottery scamming and drug trafficking, and push back against China’s growing influence in...
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OFF THE MARK
A DIPLOMATIC note from the United States (US) Embassy in Kingston has stated that a Cabinet minister proposed a controversial deal to Washington that would have had Jamaica“receive” up to 10,000 thirdcountry nationals (TCNS). The note, sent to the...
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DEPORTEE DEAL DRAWS FIRE
THE DR Andrew Holness administration is facing pressure to justify Jamaica’s involvement in a controversial United States (US) deportee arrangement as political analysts raise questions about the country’s role as a transit point for third-country...
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DEPORTEE DEAL
KINGSTON AND Washington are expected to begin talks on an agreement first pitched by a senior Jamaican government official that could see the island accepting up to 10,000 non-Jamaicans being deported from the United States. A document from the United...
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‘NO MAN IS AN ISLAND’
WESTERN BUREAU: A CALL has been made for Jamaicans at home and abroad to unite as a global community, speak out against injustices taking place internationally, and help strengthen their homeland. Reverend Rose Hudson-wilkin, the suffragan bishop of...
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That long, dark night
TWO FRIDAYS ago, as you know, the lights went out in a nationwide power outage. The first comfort to register its disapproval at about 8:00 p.m. was the bedside fan as it faded away. Then the overhead fan. Then a palpable yet unwanted wave of...
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HOUSING SCAM WARNING
WITH FRAUDULENT social media accounts increasingly advertising homes and even purporting to offer National Housing Trust (NHT) houses for sale, members of the public are being urged to verify agents and property listings before parting with money or...
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Harrison calls for urgency in school repairs
LASONJA HARRISON, the president-elect of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), on Thursday expressed disappointment with the current state of some of the schools in western Jamaica, which were impacted by Hurricane Melissa. “When I go around to the...
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FOOTBALL FIESTA
THE 2026 FIFA World Cup begins with two fixtures in Mexico on Friday against the backdrop of political firestorms, accusations of exorbitant ticket price-gouging, severe US travel restrictions, geopolitical fallout from the United States, Israel-iran...
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US CLAWS BACK CITIZENSHIP
A JAMAICAN man is among 17 naturalised United States (US) citizens targeted by the Trump administration for denaturalisation proceedings. According to the US Department of Justice, the Jamaican national, who has not been identified, was convicted of...
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BYLES BOWS OUT ON A HIGH
FOR RICHARD Byles, the night was not simply about recognition. It was a moment of reflection on a lifetime spent helping to steer Jamaica through some of its most challenging economic periods. The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) governor was named the 2025...
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‘I HAD NO SYMPTOMS’
DEPUTY PRIME Minister and Minister of National Security and Peace Dr Horace Chang had just completed another gruelling election campaign. The veteran politician, known for his demanding schedule and relentless work ethic, felt well. There was no chest...
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BACK ON MAP
PRIME MINISTER Dr Andrew Holness has declared that Jamaica can no longer afford a public bureaucracy that delays critical infrastructure projects for years, arguing that excessive procedures are driving up costs and placing unnecessary burdens on...
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CHANG DEFENDS DALLING Security minister backs FLA leadership after IC report
NATIONAL SECURITY Minister Dr Horace Chang has come to the defence of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) Shane Dalling after the opposition People’s National Party called for his resignation in the wake of a report...
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BROWN SUES FLA
BUSINESSMAN KENT Brown is pursuing nearly $9 million in damages against the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA), alleging that the agency’s failure to issue renewal certificates after approving his licences led to the collapse of his firearmsrelated...
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GHOST SALES
AN INTEGRITY Commission (IC) probe has exposed severe Firearm Licensing Authority data manipulation, revealing that an employee falsified electronic records to target a prominent licensed dealer when he, among other things, logged that a dead man had...
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SHOW OF FORCE
AFORMER senior CARICOM official sees the docking of one of the world’s largest warships, the USS Nimitz, in Jamaican waters on Monday as a tactic by the Donald Trump Administration to “intimidate” Cubans. The Government on Monday welcomed the arrival...
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MP wants water issues settled before new hospital opens
ST JAMES Central Member of Parliament (MP) Heroy Clarke wants the water shortage issues currently affecting Appleton Hall and surrounding areas to be resolved before the new Western Children and Adolescent Hospital is official opened. Clarke, who was...
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FORGOTTEN VICTIMS
BEFORE HURRICANE Melissa, they had a home, a livelihood, friends of their own age and a sense of normalcy. Seven months later, all that remains is each other, a weathered couch and an ageing handheld radio through which they follow a world that has...
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SCRUTINY GAP
PUBLIC OFFICIALS in Jamaica do not “instinctively” embrace oversight and monitoring, former Prime Minister Bruce Golding has asserted. Golding, who served as prime minister between 2007 and 2011, said oversight and monitoring for some officials “is a...
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LABOUR LAW TENSION
MONTEGO BAY Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) President Jason Russell is pushing for changes to Jamaica’s labour laws, arguing that some regulations are too rigid for small businesses and place an unfair burden on micro and small...
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Gov’t pockets 70% of $1b allocated to poor under Solidarity Programme
A REVELATION by Dione Jennings, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, that about 77 per cent, or $$770 million, of the $1 billion set aside for the Government’s Solidarity Programme has been“returned for debt reduction”...
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HARSH REALITY Jamaican medical students in Cuba plead for help amid deepening crisis
DESPITE HAVANA’S reported assurances of normalcy, a crippling infrastructure collapse has left Jamaican medical students in Cuba facing severe hardships, including the reduction in teaching sessions, threatening both their career training and mental...
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‘COMMON NONSENSE’
PRIME MINISTER Dr Andrew Holness has pushed back against mounting criticism over more than $1 billion in hurricane donations that remained largely unspent months after Hurricane Melissa, accusing critics of promoting what he described as “common...
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‘BOAT NEVER DELIVERED’
TWO WEEKS after 71-yearold boat captain Reuben Bajjo and 22-year-old seaman Mikael Ricketts mysteriously vanished, allegedly at sea and while aboard the vessel M/V Black Pearl, distraught relatives say they remain desperate for answers and are clinging...
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PRIVACY CRY
THE GOVERNMENT has moved to court to prevent the Integrity Commission from compelling the Ministry of Health and Wellness to produce eight employment files as part of its investigation into alleged corruption linked to the Jamaica-Cuba Eye Care...
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Spacex launch disrupts Jamaica airspace; Jetblue flight forced to turn back
A KINGSTON-BOUND Jetblue flight was forced to return to Miami while several other international services were delayed or left overnight in Jamaica on Friday as temporary airspace restrictions linked to a Spacex Starship launch again disrupted Caribbean...
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BAILOUT PLEA
TRANSPORT OPERATORS in the tourism sector are complaining that mounting debt, prolonged hotel closures, and growing competition from ride-sharing companies are pushing thousands of contract carriage drivers towards economic collapse in the aftermath of...
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TECH TAKES THE WHEEL
WITH MORE than 1.1 million motor vehicle registrations processed online, Audrey Marks, the minister with responsibility for efficiency, innovation and digital transformation in the Office of the Prime Minister, is hailing the achievement as reflecting...
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CONSCIENCE CRISIS
DESPITE JAMAICA’S economic progress, successive generations have failed to implement the social reforms needed to improve the lives of all Jamaicans, businessman Howard Mitchell has asserted. His remarks come amid findings highlighted yesterday from...
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FEAR & FURY
TENSIONS FLARED in Granville, St James, on Monday as angry residents mounted fiery roadblocks to protest the fatal police shooting of 45-year-old Latoya‘buju’bulgin under controversial circumstances. By the time The Gleaner arrived in the community...
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Beaches launches US$1B Caribbean expansion
THE OFFICIAL opening of Treasure Beach Village at Beaches Resorts in the Turks and Caicos Islands on Saturday marked the first major step in a planned Us$1-billion expansion for the Jamaicanowned hospitality brand. The investment will see Beaches...
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FLA STICKS UP HOUSE
A REPORT on an Integrity Commission investigation into alleged corruption and irregularities at the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) remains untabled in Parliament six weeks after its submission amid a legal challenge by the gun regulator in the...
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CHAIRLOADS OF GUNS
A JAMAICAN music producer has pleaded guilty in the United States (US) to smuggling dozens of firearms and ammunition to Jamaica by concealing the weapons inside furniture shipments, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of...
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SHELTER CRISIS
BLACK RIVER Mayor Richard Solomon says St Elizabeth remains dangerously unprepared for the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins in another two weeks, with more than half of its emergency shelters left unusable after Hurricane Melissa’s destruction...
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A MOTHER’S NIGHTMARE
A 13-YEAR-OLD Excelsior High School student re‑ mains in a coma at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) after she was stabbed while trying to inter‑ vene in a violent domestic dispute in Bayshore Park in the vicinity of Harbour View, St Andrew, on...
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Relief red flag
FOUR MONTHS after Category 5 Hurricane Melissa left a path of destruction, particularly across southern and western Jamaica, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) had spent only $26 million, or 1.8 per cent of the $1.44...
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BEYOND AID
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is seeking to rebrand its relationship with Jamaica, signalling a shift away from traditional donor-recipient dynamics to a partnership of potential amid a crumbling global order. Speaking against the backdrop of recovery...
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A run for moms
FOR ALICIA Robinson, the best Mother’s Day gift this year was not flowers or jewellery, but crossing the finish line of the inaugural Run For Mom 5K beside her daughter, Renee Robinson, as they made their way through and around the streets of Tivoli...
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‘CALL THE COPS’
THE HORRIFYING news came from the suspected killer’s mother. On the other end of the line, the woman’s breathy, raspy voice told stunned relatives in New York that Melissa Kerry Samnath had been killed while on vacation in Jamaica. As the family...
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SPEED SELLS JAMAICA
WITH CLOSE to 54 million Youtube subscribers, Internet sensation Ishowspeed has turned his visit to Jamaica into a global spectacle, giving the island major visibility among younger travellers. The American content creator, whose Caribbean tour has...
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VIRAL CRIME
CONCERNS ARE growing over the use of social media platform Tiktok as a marketplace for the sale of endangered Jamaican species, with conservation biologist Damion Whyte urging the authorities to make every effort to find and prosecute individuals who...
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Fraud case fallout
THE TWO law-enforcement agencies that investigated a multimillion-dollar fraud at Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) nine years ago are now in the process of consulting the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) after the case against the...
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Viral teachers, REAL BOUNDARIES
FOR A growing number of Jamaican educators, the classroom is no longer limited to the physical space, but extends to their social media feed where their teaching expertise and experience become content for an engaged online audience comprising...
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NINE-YEAR NIGHTMARE
FIVE WOMEN who were arrested and charged nine years ago in connection with a multimillion-dollar fraud, which the authorities said was uncovered at Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ), were exonerated yesterday, ending a case plagued by nearly three dozen...
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Bond sealed at Old Harbour Bay as Jamaica marks 180 years since arrival of East Indians
A SYMBOLIC unveiling of a renovated monument at Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine, on Sunday marked 180 years since the arrival of the first East Indians to Jamaica, reinforcing a shared history rooted in resilience, adaptation and cultural exchange. The...
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VIRTUAL SHIFT $240
Rising fuel prices are forcing schools to brace for a possible return to online learning, with at least one Kingston institution already preparing as the Middle East war persists. Last month, Wolmer’s Boys’ School issued a questionnaire to parents and...
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DT: THE PERFECT SHIP’S CAPTAIN
TRIBUTES FLOODED the airwaves on Thursday as stunned colleagues, listeners, and relatives saluted broadcaster Daniel ‘DT’ Thompson, who passed away after falling ill earlier this week. For 28 years, the St Elizabeth native’s smooth, rich, and velvety...
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