Jamaica Gleaner

‘Our grief must become action’

JAMAICANS ARE being challenged to break the culture of silence surrounding the abuse of children, with Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert, minister of state in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, declaring that communities often see the warning...

MILLIONS DOWN THE DRAIN

$50m research push as Gov’t invests in health talent

THE GOVERNMENT is investing $50 million in healthcare research while spending an av- erage of $500 million annually to train healthcare workers in areas where there are critical shortages, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has...

BUSINESSES GUTTED

A MASSIVE fire ripped through a section of the business district along Hagley Park Road in St Andrew on Thursday, flattening at least three buildings in its wake. The fire reportedly started some time after 11 a.m. in the repairs section of the...

SENIOR COPS TARGETED IN COCAINE PROBE

NEARLY A dozen high-ranking policemen and soldiers are the targets of a widening narcotics investigation linked to the seizure of cocaine from a police storage facility in January, which has drawn the attention of Jamaica’s international...

PENSION PAIN

YEARS AFTER retiring from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), two former district constables say they are still without their full pensions, leaving them in financial distress and demanding answers. Derrick Foster told The Gleaner he spent 36 years...

CHILDREN ABANDONED

FOUR OF the five children abandoned at the Spanish Town Hospital in St Catherine have spent their entire lives at the facility, a situation Chief Executive Officer Jacqueline Ellis says is unacceptable. The latest child – a male who is one and a half...

Reading renaissance

GRACE BASTON, the lead implementer behind the Grade Seven Academy Reading initiative at Holy Trinity High School in Kingston, could not be more pleased with the latest findings from the third student-administered assessment of grade-eight students this...

NOT EXPELLED BUT ... LEFT IN LIMBO

AST Catherine woman has been left worrying about the fate of her grandsons after she and the family was asked to find another school for the two cousins, who administrators at Enid Bennett High School have described as among the institution’s most...

In the classroom, six days a week…

THEY STARTED with mathematics. Then students wanted Spanish, English, science, information technology and social studies. Soon, four weekdays were not enough. “Miss, we’re ready,” they told their educators. Saturday was added. Then Sunday. What...

BLAKE’S GRADE-ONE SWEEP

KEMOY BLAKE, the technical drawing teacher at Winston Jones High School in Manchester, is used to his students achieving high passes in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination. But in his eight years at the school, this was the...

BATTERED SCHOOLS, RESILIENT RESULTS

BEFORE BEVERLEY Feare could prepare her students for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations, she first had to find them. Hurricane Melissa had torn through the communities served by Maud Mcleod High School in eastern...

TEACHERS BALK

UNRESOLVED ISSUES surrounding their uniform allowance and a graduate policy for educators pursuing further studies were among the main concerns raised by delegates on Tuesday as the Jamaica Teachers’ Association rejected the Government’s wage...

Principals do the math as CXC releases results today

PRINCIPALS ACROSS Jamaica are hopeful that the strategies employed to improve their students’ mathematics performance will pay off when this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination results are released later today. Dr...

DEAL OR NO DEAL

THE GOVERNMENT has made an improved offer on key components of the 28-point claim from the Jamaica Teachers’ association (JTA), which will be placed before delegates for a decision early this week. Mark Malabver, president of the JTA, told The Gleaner...

‘BRUTAL’

RETIRED REAL estate investor and shareholder in New Falmouth Resorts Limited Marcia Ann Chisholm has expressed strong disapproval of last week’s bulldozing of homes in Cooper’s Pen, Trelawny, insisting that her late father would have opposed the...

‘HUMANITARIAN CRISIS’

PRIME MINISTER Dr Andrew Holness has described Monday’s mass demolition at Cooper’s Pen in Trelawny as a “humanitarian crisis”, declaring that neither he, his ministers nor the constituency’s member of parliament (MP) had prior knowledge of the...

EVICTION CRY

AN ELDERLY St Elizabeth man is appealing for the intervention of Justice Minister Delroy Chuck after a court ordered him to vacate land he has lived on for 41 years by Sunday, insisting that he is not a squatter. A disheartened William Phillips, 75,...

‘Cold ground was my bed last night’

ON TUESDAY night, Shane ‘Biggs’ Ricketts, whose house was demolished in Cooper’s Pen, Trelawny, earlier that day, could not help but reflect on Bob Marley’s hit song, Talkin Blues, in which the legendary singer declared“cold ground was my bed last...

RUDE AWAKENING

RESIDENTS OF a section of Cooper’s Pen, Trelawny, were jolted from their slumber on Tuesday morning to find a demolition crew flattening their houses in a pre-dawn operation involving bulldozers, tractors, and sledgehammers. When the hours-long...

WATER LOCKDOWN

SEVERAL PARISHES will be under water prohibition orders as of this week. The National Water Commission (NWC) announced yesterday that it will issue a water prohibition notice tomorrow, with enforcement measures taking effect on August 17. The...

CCJ under scrutiny

ALLEGATIONS THAT have emerged about the operations of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) should be urgently addressed, a former senior regional diplomat has asserted. “It is not a trivial matter, and I am hoping that those responsible for the CCJ...

TRIGGER TROUBLE

JUST 22 minutes apart on July 28, two police officers in different parishes accidentally shot themselves with licensed firearms. A few days later, a policewoman was injured after her Glock pistol was discharged inside her home, an M16 rifle was...

NEVER FORGET

DISAPPOINTMENT OVER low public turnout overshadowed St Elizabeth’s Independence Day observance on Thursday, as civic and municipal leaders gathered with only a handful of residents to mark Jamaica’s 64th year of Independence. The flag-raising...

Public-sector wage deal sealed

AFTER TOUGH and sometimes stalled negotiations between the Government and unions representing public-sector workers, an agreement has been reached on wages for the threeyear period from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2028. St Patrice Ennis, president of...

BACK TO AFRICA

TWO NOTED advocates have welcomed a proposal by President John Mahama of the Republic of Ghana to create a pathway to citizenship for people of African descent, describing it as a major step toward the long-sought right of return to Africa. Reviving...

Samuels brands emancipation declaration a scam

VETERAN ATTORNEY Bert Samuels has delivered a stinging rebuke of Britain, describing the Emancipation Declaration read at midnight on July 31, 1838, as “a scam” that deceived the formerly enslaved and whose legacy, he argued, continues to shape...

‘THAT’S NOT FRIENDSHIP’

FORMER PRIME Minister Bruce Golding has renewed his criticism of the United States’ (US) approach to Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, arguing that Washington’s recent demands and policies are putting smaller states under increasing pressure and do not...

BRAKES ON FIFA FORWARD

MICHAEL RICKETTS, president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), said he is confident his directors will vote to reject FIFA President Giovanni Infantino’s ‘FIFA Forward Enterprise’ proposal when it convenes for an emergency meeting at midday...

LICENSED TO DEAL

THE GRANTING of Jamaica’s first casino gaming licence is expected to pave the way for additional integrated resort developments (IRDS), with at least three other investors, including for the proposed Hard Rock Hotel in St James, already expressing...

ONLINE SHIELD

ONE IN every four Jamaican caregivers says children under their supervision have experienced sexual exposure or grooming attempts linked to social media use. The finding formed part of a national study commissioned by the Ministry of Health & Wellness...

EX COP ARRESTED AT AIRPORT

THE INDEPENDENT Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) says it will this week provide a comprehensive account of the circumstances surrounding the arrest and murder charge laid against former policeman Odian Williams, who was removed from a departing...

‘AI NOT THE PROBLEM’

THE CARIBBEAN Examinations Council (CXC) is preparing students for “a world that no longer exists”, by scrapping traditional School-based Assessments (SBA) over artificial intelligence, says AI expert Christopher Christie, who argues that the move...

RETIREE’S US$80K BATTLE

MARY JANE’S* 12-yearold daughter has Down’s syndrome, is autistic and cognitively delayed, and will require medical care for the rest of her life. Determined to provide for her daughter’s future, the retired Jamaican entrepreneur, now living in the...

Nurses celebrated as profession marks 80 years

JAMAICA’S TOP nurses were celebrated yesterday for their commitment to patient care, leadership and professional excellence as the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ), in partnership with the LASCO Chin Foundation, staged its 2026 National Nurse of the...

FEELING FORSAKEN

THE ARREST of a Troy resident in connection with the mob killing of convicted sex offender Delroy Coke has reignited anger among residents who say the justice system failed to protect their community long before this week’s violence. Among Thursday’s...

TRAGEDY IN TROY

MERLE WILLIAMS, the maternal grandmother who raised 10-yearold Shani Coke from birth, yesterday recounted the agonising hours spent searching for the child after sending her to a nearby shop on Tuesday afternoon. At the same time, Williams’ daughter,...

PENALTIES FOR COPS

TWO POLICEMEN have been “severely reprimanded” after an internal disciplinary process concluded that their “negligence” allowed accused killer Raymond ‘Boxer’ Shaw to escape from the Kingston Central police lock-up nearly four years ago, the Jamaica...

GRAD HEARTBREAK

WHILE MANY of her classmates celebrated receiving graduation diplomas last month, 16-yearold Khadedra Worrell spent what should have been her graduation day in tears. The Holland High School student, who said she maintained an average above 80 per...

VIVA ESPAÑA!

FERRAN TORRES’ first goal of this year’s World Cup was the goal of his life, and it put Spain back atop the football world. Denying Lionel Messi a second straight title in what he has indicated would be his final World Cup match, Torres came off the...

‘A PARENT’S WORST NIGHTMARE’

THE WELFARE of an 11-year-old Jamaican girl hangs in the balance amid a bitter international custody dispute, with her mother alleging that the child, who has special needs, was wrongfully retained in Canada by her father, a naturalised Canadian...

TITAN OF THE GAME

HE WAS not merely a cricketer. He was a force of nature, a symphony of left-handed grace, a man whose very presence on a field seemed to bend the game to his will. Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, the colossus who bestrode the cricket world for two...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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....

‘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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

‘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...

‘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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

‘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...

‘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...

‘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...

HANDS-ON DADS

 Paternity leave reshaping fatherhood in Jamaica  Fathers in different seasons  Jamaican fathers in agriculture shaping families’ future

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...

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...

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...

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...