Rising oil prices are taking a toll on Jamaican fishermen, forcing many to make shorter trips out to sea and to increase the price of their catch to cope with the escalating fuel expenses. “It rough man. It rough pon fisherman,” 56-year-old Alton Foster told The Gleaner. “Sometime mi deh ya and mi haffi a think bad bad right ya now ‘cause mi cya manage di price a gas.”

Executive Director of the Insurance Association of Jamaica (IAJ) Everton McFarlane says players in the insurance industry are concerned about the magnitude of increase in insurance fees, in some instances as high as 100 per cent, which was approved on Thursday by the Regulations Committee of Parliament. Asked whether insurance companies are likely to pass on the increase to consumers, McFarlane told The Gleaner that it would be left up to individual entities to make that decision.

A 29th birthday celebration in Trench Town turned into a night of fear and trauma on Wednesday after police officers descended on a family gathering, detained the celebrant, and allegedly discharged high-powered weapons. Residents were left angered, shaken, and demanding answers. The incident unfolded along West Road in Federal Gardens, where relatives and friends had gathered in a yard to mark what should have been a joyful milestone. Instead, the night ended in chaos.

The music fraternity is mourning the passing of legendary singer Ernie Smith, who died on Thursday evening at a hospital in Florida. “He’s gone. He’s no longer with us,” his wife, Claudette Bailey-Smith, told The Gleaner. Earlier on Thursday, Bailey-Smith had shared that the beloved reggae and folk singer, who underwent surgery on Sunday, had been experiencing health challenges since June last year.

Shockwaves rippled through the global track and field community – particularly in Jamaica – after World Athletics (WA) on Thursday blocked the transfer of allegiance to Türkiye for 11 professional athletes in an unprecedented ruling. WA said the move, first revealed in June 2024, amounted to a coordinated state recruitment effort driven by financial inducements, with athletes lacking any genuine connection to Türkiye. The governing body argued that such arrangements undermine eligibility rules and threaten the integrity of international competition.

Nearly a year after the National School Nutrition policy was approved by the Senate, and its implementation officially launched, advocates are raising concerns over the pace of its roll-out. “Our Government will write policies, but the implementation is where the challenge happens,” Shannique Bowden, executive director of the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network (JYAN), asserted yesterday during a panel discussion at a forum on ‘Healthy Food Policies and Consumer Rights’ hosted by JYAN.

Western Bureau: With the nation now in one of the windows associated with the emergence of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), health officials are urging parents, caregivers, and educators to remain alert and proactive, even in the absence of confirmed cases.

Residents of Whitfield Town in St Andrew say they were left shaken and fearful early Wednesday morning after what they initially believed was an armed invasion, as explosions rang out and the sound of running boots echoed through sections of Bowens Road and Stephen Lane. At first light, it was confirmed that a planned police operation had taken place – one that left two men dead.

Courtney Anderson’s trip to the Half-Way Tree Court on Tuesday was supposed to end a 20-year wait for documents confirming the dismissal of a 1996 case against him — the final step needed to begin the expungement of his record. Instead, the man who walked in “with the confidence of a lion” left shaken “like a frightened rabbit”, empty-handed and facing a shocking revelation.

The removal of the fuel price cap at Petrojam, the state-owned oil refinery, will trigger an increase in the price of basic food items and some essential goods and services across several sectors, an economist has warned. The cap prevented fuel prices in Jamaica from increasing or decreasing beyond $4.50 per litre each week. It will be replaced by a new three-tiered system which will see petroleum prices being more closely aligned to global price movements, Energy Minister Daryl Vaz disclosed yesterday.

Onion farmers in Bernard Lodge, St Catherine are facing millions of dollars in losses as a glut in local production collides with continued imports, leaving acres of mature crops at risk of spoilage. More than 15 farmers in the area are now under pressure to slash prices in a bid to recover costs, even as they call for stronger protection for local agriculture.

Angella Allen was filled with excitement when she learnt during a ceremony in February that she was one of several persons selected for a $500,000 grant under a special Government-funded initiative, the Restoration of Owner or Occupant Family Shelters (ROOFS) programme. The initiative, which falls under the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS), is a $10-billion programme to repair homes that were damaged by Melissa, the powerful Category 5 hurricane that made landfall in Jamaica last October.

After several failed attempts to unearth who was at the centre of a myriad procurement breaches, missing contract documents and the misuse of the University Hospital of the West Indies’ (UHWI) tax-exempt status, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has summoned the institution’s former principals. At a meeting of the PAC yesterday in Gordon House, a request from Chairman Julian Robinson was approved for the substantive CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell, former CEO Kevin Allen, and ex-board chairman Wayne Chai Chong to be summoned to the next meeting of the committee later this month.

Economist Keenan Falconer says the more than $40 billion in tax, interest, penalties and surcharges for which the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) is liable represents approximately 15 per cent of the total stock of arrears due to Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ). At the same time, Damion Gordon, lecturer in the Department of Government at The University of the West Indies (UWI), says the tax liability issue at the UHWI points to broader concerns about oversight and accountability at the level of hospital administration, also the parent ministry.

The financial standing of the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) is now under scrutiny following revelations yesterday that the teaching institution has a ballooning tax debt amounting to tens of billions of dollars. Acting chief executive officer of the UHWI, Eric Hosin, told members of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday that the hospital owed Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) more than $40 billion in taxes. He said $18 billion of this amount is the principal sum owed and the balance represents interest and penalties.

For more than two decades, Shelley Wong has quietly but decisively shaped the teaching of French in Jamaica. Her commitment to rigour in the classroom, openness to innovation and sustained focus on student achievement have now been recognised with a French national distinction: appointment as a Knight in the Order of the Palmes Académiques.

WESTERN BUREAU: While most of the public health centres in western Jamaica have been returned to full service since the passage of Hurricane Melissa six months ago, residents of Catherine Hall in Montego Bay, St James, are appealing to the authority to speed up the restoration of their facility, which remains out of service. “The health centre is quite an important part of the community, because health is the only wealth some of us will ever have,” said Carlton Smith, a resident. “Anything involving health should always get priority attention.”

Still grappling with the physical and psychological toll of Hurricane Mellissa, schools across the worst-affected parishes are racing to ready grade-six students for the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exams, now just days away.

Investigators probing Sunday night’s shooting at the Big Wall Carnival after-party say it is still “very early days as it relates to charges”, even as eyewitness accounts, reported security gaps, and the experience of an injured American visitor intensify scrutiny on safety at major entertainment events. The event, staged for several years after the Carnival road march, was held this year at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre on Hope Road in St Andrew.

An eighth-grade student has been hospitalised with life-threatening injuries to his kidney and intestine after he was reportedly shot by a policeman during an incident his family claim was unprovoked. The 13-year-old Cedric Titus High student was on the rooftop of a bar adjoining his home in Rio Bueno, Trelawny, on Sunday night, when a uniformed cop inside the venue fired a single bullet that struck him, according to a family member.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP): Hungarian voters yesterday ousted long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power, rejecting the authoritarian policies and global far-right movement that he embodied in favour of a pro-European challenger in a bombshell election result with global repercussions.

Western Bureau: Despite the best efforts of the police and an overall decline in major crimes in the parish, Superintendent Andrew Nish, the police commander for Hanover, says there has been a slight uptick in murders over the corresponding period last year, which has prompted a new drive to blunt lawlessness. Nish, who started the year with a resolve to have Hanover reclaim the title as the nation’s safest parish, said that while the serious crime portfolio, which includes murders, shootings, rape and break-ins, continues to be an area of concern.

A 100-member-strong mission from the Jamaican-American Law Enforcement Organization (JAMLEO), comprising officers in the New York Police Department (NYPD), will arrive in Jamaica on April 26 for a three-day visit to uplift and empower students at Unity Primary School in Westmoreland. This will be the third such visit by JAMLEO to schools in Jamaica. The first visit in 2024 focused on schools in St James where they visited Mount Alvernia and Cornwall College and the second visit last year focused on Marcus Garvey Technical High School in St Ann.

For more than 150 years, the Kentucky Derby has stood as one of the most iconic and prestigious traditions in American history. Established in 1875 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, the Derby quickly became known as ‘The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports’. Yet, its significance reaches far beyond the race itself. It represents discipline, legacy, culture, and the pursuit of excellence at the highest level.

WESTERN BUREAU A diplomatic dispute within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has intensified after Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) stayed away from an emergency meeting convened to address concerns it raised about the reappointment of the regional bloc’s secretary general. Dr Terrance Drew, chairman of CARICOM and prime minister of St Kitts and Nevis, confirmed that neither T&T Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar nor any representative of the twin-island republic attended the 25th Special Emergency Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government on Saturday.

As we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is my prayer that you will receive fresh revelation of what this sacrifice means for you. This is why we have been studying blood covenants in the Bible. While it may seem like a gory topic to some, we need the perspective it offers to recognise how significant Jesus’ sacrifice was. We have been discussing the practice of Threshold Covenants.

Recently, the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis (SKN) recognised, in law, the Rastafari movement, which originated in its sister CARICOM nation of Jamaica. It was widely reported that SKN is the first Caribbean nation to officially recognise Rastafarianism.

A businessman who was acquitted of criminal charges has claimed in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit that police investigators ignored evidence that exonerated him and instead relied on “unreliable or incomplete” information. John Levy also claimed in the lawsuit that senior executives at energy company West Indies Petroleum Limited (WIPL) acted “maliciously” by making or causing complaints to be made to the police against him knowing that the allegations were false.

Local women’s health experts are urging girls and women – particularly those aged 15 to 26 and in their reproductive years – to protect themselves against the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause several diseases, including cervical, vaginal, vulvar, anal and oral cancers. Cervical cancer remains the second most common cancer affecting women in Jamaica. The ICO/IARC Information Centre on HPV and Cancer notes in its 2023 Jamaica Fact Sheet that annually, some 390 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in the island and nearly 250 deaths recorded.

A quiet shift is under way in some Jamaican schools, where long-standing rules governing how boys – especially those of African descent – wear their hair are being tested, stretched, and, in some cases, rewritten. For decades, school grooming policies have enforced a narrow standard, particularly for boys. While girls have gradually been granted more flexibility – through allowances for natural styles and, in some schools, extensions that match their hair – boys have remained tightly regulated. Now, that imbalance is drawing scrutiny from students, parents, and some educators.

WESTERN BUREAU: A man believed to have been the mastermind behind Tuesday’s murder of deejay Roger ‘Jaggy D’ Walker, a police source told The Gleaner, was shot and killed in a gunfight with the Hanover police early Friday morning. The deceased man, who was of Bamboo address on the outskirts of Hopewell, where Walker was killed, was identified by relatives as 30-year-old Romaine ‘CJ’ Humphrey.

WESTERN BUREAU: Vendors at the Charles Gordon Market in Montego Bay are once again crying foul against the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) over the market’s conditions and accusations of unfair treatment by the municipal authorities, following the confiscation of several vendors’ carts and other items on Friday morning.

An autopsy has been scheduled for April 28 to determine the cause of death of a newborn at Cornwall Regional Hospital as grieving mother Shandale Ballentine has launched a crowdfunding campaign to assist with funeral expenses for her son, Ramontay Rakai Ranger. Ballentine said the decision to seek public support came after family and friends, aware that both she and her partner are currently on unpaid leave, encouraged her to create a platform for donations. A distraught Ballentine told The Gleaner that she does not want to burn her son’s body.

Warning of the threat the ongoing Middle East conflict poses to the Caribbean’s food and economic security, Wendell Samuel, assistant secretary-general (ASG) of CARICOM, is calling for stronger regional coordination to enhance resilience, bargaining power, and capacity to absorb external shocks.

WESTERN BUREAU: Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels is accusing a church in the Hanover capital of squatting, saying the building it is occupying is owned by the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC), which needs it to establish a tourism training centre. “Right now, the building is captured by a church, and we need that building because we have plans for the youth within the parish. We are to put in place there a training centre in collaboration with the Grand Palladium Hotel and HEART/NSTA Trust,” Samuels said at Thursday’s HMC monthly meeting.