WESTERN BUREAU: After more than a decade of legislative preparation and repeated anticipation, Jamaica has issued its first casino operator's licence, clearing the way for casino gaming to become a reality at the Princess Grand Jamaica Resort in Green Island, Hanover. The Casino Gaming Commission (CGC) announced today that it has granted the country's inaugural casino gaming operator's licence to Adamas Grand Casino Limited, marking what officials describe as a historic milestone in the development of Jamaica's regulated casino gaming industry.

Senior Advisor/Elder of the Repair Campaign Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Jamaica's Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley have been invited by the Government of Ghana to serve on the newly established Global Advisory Council on Reparatory Justice. The council is expected to provide high-level political guidance and strategic leadership on reparatory justice while strengthening cooperation between Africa, the African diaspora – including the Caribbean – and partner institutions.

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) is scrambling to assuage donors and international partners who contributed more than $1.4 billion to the SupportJamaica.gov.jm website that the platform is owned by the Government and not Amber, a private company which developed the platform.

The Opposition has accused the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) of usurping the role of municipal corporations (MCs) by effectively deciding which entertainment events receive permits, depriving cash-strapped councils of a major revenue stream. But the police have rejected the claim. At a press conference yesterday, Councillor Scean Barnswell, minority leader of the Clarendon Municipal Corporation, accused the police of increasingly blocking approvals for places of amusement, despite municipal corporations having the legal authority to issue the permits.

WESTERN BUREAU: As Rita Marley celebrated her 80th birthday in Montego Bay, St James, on Sunday, an Anglican church in Barbados drew an overflowing congregation for what organisers described as the Caribbean’s first Bob Marley Emancipation Mass.

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 to guide potential state regulation of social media use for minors. Of the 1,027 adult participants asked to indicate the kinds of negative encounters minors in their care have been exposed to, 16.5 per cent said sexual content, while 9.1 per cent said unwanted sexual messages or grooming.

GEORGETOWN (AP): Police in Guyana have filed murder charges against the captain and two crew members of a state ferry that capsized, killing more than 70 people, with 30 passengers still missing. Accused are Captain Kevin Price, 40, chief mate Rondell Dwayne Roberts, 42, and cargo superintendent Delon Granderson, 33. They appeared in court yesterday morning but were not required to enter pleas. No attorneys were present for them.

When Monique Holder chose agricultural science in high school, she was not choosing between practical skills and academic achievement. Unknowingly, she was preparing herself for both. Today, the former St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) student is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences at Northern Caribbean University (NCU), where she will begin her second year in September. Earlier this year, she was named the education ministry’s 2025 TVET Student of the Year, earning a two-year scholarship.

For over eight decades, credit unions have been making meaningful contributions to Jamaicans through education. In keeping with this tradition, they have opened their bursary and scholarship application periods to run from July to August. The credit union movement opens its Credit Union Bursary and Tertiary Scholarship programme, offering non-repayable funds to students entering high schools as well as scholarships to university and college students pursuing their degrees.

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) is still yet to submit signed documents to the auditor general confirming that the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) received $34 million in donated roofing materials. The revelation was made on Tuesday during a meeting of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), where members continued for a second week a review of the auditor general’s Hurricane Melissa Relief Initiative Audit report.

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 flight last week. The Gleaner understands that Williams was detained after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) ruled that he should be charged with murder in connection with an incident that allegedly occurred while he was a serving member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

NEW YORK: Oliver Mair, who has served as Jamaica’s consul general in Miami, Florida, for the past seven years, has been tapped to be the new consul general in New York. Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Senator Kamina Johnson-Smith made the announcement in a news release on Monday. Mair is expected to assume his new role by mid-August. Speaking with The Gleaner, he thanked his fellow Jamaicans in the Southern United States for their unwavering support during his Miami posting, adding that he is looking forward to his new appointment.

WESTERN BUREAU: As Jamaicans prepare to celebrate Emancipendence 2026, outspoken Seventh-day Adventist pastor Charles Brevitt is challenging the nation to pursue a new kind of emancipation – one that frees citizens from violence, moral decay, greed and spiritual complacency. “We need a new kind of emancipation,” said Brevitt, while delivering the sermon at the St James Municipal Corporation’s Emancipation and Independence Church Service, held at the Norwood Seventh-day Adventist Church on Saturday.

A senior health official is warning that critically low blood supplies at the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) are putting lives at risk, with current stocks at just half the level needed to meet demand. In a candid interview with The Gleaner on Monday, Dr Kamille West-Mitchell, director of the NBTS, said the shortage means some patients are being denied urgently needed blood transfusions. “Every day or night or weekend, there is somebody who needs it and did not get it because we don’t have it,” she said.

Former police Constable Joel Lewis was left disappointed after the Privy Council ruled that his challenge to the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s refusal to re-enlist him three years ago raised no arguable point of law. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in a decision last month, refused Lewis’ permission to appeal, ending his attempt to overturn the decision that prevented him from pursuing judicial review of his discharge from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

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 flight last week. The Gleaner understands that Williams was detained after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) ruled that he should be charged with murder in connection with an incident that allegedly occurred while he was a serving member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

GEORGETOWN (AP) — Guyana's government on Sunday appointed a group of international experts to investigate the recent sinking of a state ferry that killed dozens of passengers in the country's worst maritime disaster on record. The 87-year-old MV Barima capsized in Atlantic waters on June 18 after it departed the capital, Georgetown, en route to Port Kaituma, an Indigenous community near Venezuela.

One week after a damaging audio recording became public, in which the voices of two alleged People’s National Party (PNP) officials could be heard discussing ways to discredit Major General Antony Anderson in his role as head of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA), the party has broken its silence on the matter. The issue was the first item on the agenda at a meeting of the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) on Sunday. The meeting is usually the last such gathering before the party’s annual conference in September, provided there is a conference.

Jamaica has taken what is being described as a step towards transforming healthcare for its ageing population with the official opening of the first state-operated Golden Care geriatric clinic, a specialised service signalling the beginning of a new model of healthcare for older Jamaicans. Located at the Claremont Centre of Excellence in St Ann, the clinic is being hailed as the first tangible outcome of the government’s commitment to building a health system better equipped to meet the needs of the country’s rapidly growing elderly population.

CMC: A Jamaican woman who was on the United States (US) Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Most Wanted Fraudster list has been extradited from Jamaica to face charges arising from an alleged scheme to fraudulently obtain more than US$32 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds. Forty-one-year-old Elaine Angene Escoe was returned to South Florida on Saturday after being apprehended in Jamaica following a joint investigation by US and Jamaican law-enforcement authorities.

WESTERN BUREAU: 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 takes Caribbean education backwards. For nearly half a century, the SBA has been a cornerstone of Caribbean secondary education, challenging students to research, analyse and apply what they have learnt beyond the confines of an examination room.

Forget the stereotype that artificial intelligence is only for the young. Inside a classroom at Excelsior Community College last week, nearly 20 retirees were creating posters, restoring decades-old photographs, planning vegan menus and even giving AI instructions to remove a husband’s beard – all part of a programme designed to help senior citizens confidently navigate the digital age. John Falconer arrived on the first day curious about artificial intelligence. Three days later, he was convinced it had opened “a horizon” of possibilities.

WESTERN BUREAU: The neatly made bed occupies one side of the kitchen at the Mt Matthews Church of the Nazarene in Logwood, Shrewsbury, Westmoreland. On the other are cupboards, pots and cooking utensils. It is an unlikely bedroom, but for the past nine months, it has been home to 71-year-old Edgar Bruce, whose house collapsed during the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

Mary Jane’s* 12-year-old 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 United States, had built a US$80,000 nest egg by 2021 to cover her future medical needs. She began exploring short-term investments as a way to increase her savings and that’s when a friend introduced her to Delta Capital Partners, Jane recounted during an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last Wednesday.

Have you ever prayed for healing with great faith, only to wonder why the answer seemed to take so long? Waiting can be one of the hardest parts of the Christian life. We often celebrate testimonies of immediate breakthrough, but many people carry desires that have gone unanswered for weeks, months or even years. If that’s your story, you’re not alone.

At least three schools in St Mary and Portland are scrambling to complete critical repairs ahead of the 2026-2027 academic year after suffering structural damage during the passage of Hurricane Melissa last year. St Mary Technical High’s sixth-form building was ravaged by the Category 5 storm, which not only ripped off the roof but also caused structural damage and destroyed furniture and other assets.

Forget the stereotype that artificial intelligence is only for the young. Inside a classroom at Excelsior Community College last week, nearly 20 retirees were creating posters, restoring decades-old photographs, planning vegan menus and even giving AI instructions to remove a husband’s beard – all part of a programme designed to help senior citizens confidently navigate the digital age. John Falconer arrived on the first day curious about artificial intelligence. Three days later, he was convinced it had opened “a horizon” of possibilities.

WESTERN BUREAU: The neatly made bed occupies one side of the kitchen at the Mt Matthews Church of the Nazarene in Logwood, Shrewsbury, Westmoreland. On the other are cupboards, pots and cooking utensils. It is an unlikely bedroom, but for the past nine months, it has been home to 71-year-old Edgar Bruce, whose house collapsed during the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

Mary Jane’s* 12-year-old 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 United States, had built a US$80,000 nest egg by 2021 to cover her future medical needs. She began exploring short-term investments as a way to increase her savings and that’s when a friend introduced her to Delta Capital Partners, Jane recounted during an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last Wednesday.

As Jamaica and the wider Caribbean continue to attract attention from across the world, many are interested in the next step of the region’s development. Students enrolled in the Oxbridge Institute for Advanced Studies have sought to weigh in on what should be the region’s focus in the years to come.

As Jamaica and the wider Caribbean continue to attract attention from across the world, many are interested in the next step of the region’s development. Students enrolled in the Oxbridge Institute for Advanced Studies have sought to weigh in on what should be the region’s focus in the years to come.

As Jamaica and the wider Caribbean continue to attract attention from across the world, many are interested in the next step in the region’s development. Students enrolled in the Oxbridge Institute for Advanced Studies have sought to weigh in on what should be the region’s focus in the years to come.

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 Year and Nursing Student of the Year Awards. The ceremony, held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, formed part of the NAJ’s 80th anniversary celebrations and was held under the theme: “Our Nurses. Our Future. Empowered Nurses Save Lives.”

Police in western Jamaica say they are preparing for the anticipated deportation of a once-reputed area leader from Flanker in Montego Bay, St James, insisting that his expected return to the island will not derail the significant gains made in reducing violent crime across Area One over the past decade.