Seaford Harvey remembers a time when lignum vitae was a familiar feature of the landscape across St Catherine, with the short, compact trees and their distinctive bluish-purple blooms growing in abundance throughout the parish. When he started making wood carvings more than three decades ago, the dense, durable timber of the lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale) was his material of choice, and he would source it from vendors who readily traded the prized logs. 

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 largely moved on without them. Forced from their home after Melissa ravaged Providence, St Elizabeth, Mervin and Avis Jones now spend their days at their daughter's house in Avon Park, St Catherine, far removed from the life they once knew. With no income and few possessions salvaged from the storm, the elderly couple say each day is a struggle to maintain hope.

The Court of Appeal has overturned a finding of professional misconduct against attorney-at-law and Portland Eastern Member of Parliament Isat Buchanan, which arose from comments he made about the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) in 2020. Then DPP Paula Llewellyn was the complainant.

CAIRO (AP): The United States and Iran appear to be closing in on a deal to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz. US and Iranian negotiators on Thursday reached a tentative agreement to extend the ceasefire in the three-month-old war by 60 days and start a new round of talks on Iran's nuclear programme, according to a US official familiar with the matter. Iran did not immediately confirm any deal.  US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday evening confirmed there was a tentative agreement, but said it was unclear if President Donald Trump would approve it.

The Supreme Court has dismissed an application by the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) seeking disclosure of an unpublished Integrity Commission (IC) report into alleged corruption and irregularities at the agency. But the court has granted the authority leave to challenge the decision in the Court of Appeal. The ruling, handed down on Friday, deepens a legal and constitutional dispute that has simultaneously gripped Parliament, where the report, submitted on March 30, remains untabled more than seven weeks after its delivery to the presiding officers.

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 humbug, an inconvenience [and] an intrusion on the exercise of their functions”.  The assertion, he explained, is based on 50 years of experience working with people across the civil service and statutory agencies.

In the next five years, the Earth is overwhelmingly likely to surge again and again past the international climate threshold set as safe and shatter its hottest-year record along the way, according to new United Nations climate projections.

Nearly three million Cubans experience water shortages every day because of a severe oil shortage that government officials blame on a US. energy blockade, authorities said late Wednesday during a roundtable discussion regarding the impact of the ongoing blockade.

Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Jason Russell is urging the Government to fully finance and expand the JamaicaEye surveillance programme, arguing that the burden of strengthening the island’s CCTV network should no longer rest heavily on private citizens and businesses.

Political commentators say the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM’s) latest condemnation of the United States’ economic and fuel blockade on Cuba is an attempt to keep the deepening humanitarian crisis in the country at the forefront of minds.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Jamaican medical students who continue to study in Cuba do so at their «own volition», even as it continues to monitor the situation in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean country.

Despite evidence that digital payments can drive business growth, only eight per cent of small merchants in Jamaica use point-of-sale (POS) systems, with the country averaging 11 POS terminals per 1,000 inhabitants.

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” triggered grave concern among some members of a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.

Three of the country's largest business groups have endorsed Major (Ret’d) Antony Anderson's appointment to head the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA), the special-purpose body intended to fast-track major infrastructure and recovery projects following Hurricane Melissa.  

Former Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin has accused the Government of crippling investigations into fatal police shootings by repeatedly delaying the full deployment of body-worn cameras during high-risk operations. Lewin charged that the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) is routinely being left with little or no evidence to challenge police accounts after controversial fatal shootings.

The church cannot afford to preach praise while ignoring pain, especially for children grappling with anxiety, depression and grief, says Christian minister Romane Sohan.

With the start of the Atlantic hurricane season only days away, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has urged Jamaicans to begin preparations at once, rather than waiting until a storm threatens the island, to prune trees and clear drains. Invoking the devastation of Hurricane Melissa as a cautionary tale, Holness warned against complacency and said preparedness must be an immediate priority. He was speaking on Monday (Labour Day) at the Lewis Town Early Childhood Institution in Brompton, St Elizabeth.

A Labour Day partnership between the Sagicor Foundation and the Jill Stewart MoBay City Run charity has helped restore critical farming facilities at Maldon High School in upper St James, an institution still recovering from the impact of Hurricane Melissa.

The trial of a businessman who cops claim was among a group of armed thugs who engaged them in a fierce gun battle in 2023 collapsed in court yesterday after a number of crucial admissions by police witnesses.

Hanover Custos Lennox Anderson-Jackson has labelled the observance of Labour Day as a powerful symbol of service, sacrifice, nation building, and community spirit, and he wants Jamaicans to treat it with the utmost seriousness and not just as another holiday.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness on Tuesday confirmed that the Western Children’s Hospital in Montego Bay, St James, wouldill be named in honour of former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who conceptualised the facility. Holness made the declaration on Tuesday during a ceremony at 1F North Street in downtown Kingston where the main building of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security was renamed the Portia Simpson-Miller Building during Workers’ Week observances.

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 health.

Jamaica is battling ageing infrastructure – a side effect of being among the earliest Caribbean nations to begin large-scale development – compounded by decades of maintenance neglect, according to Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness. Speaking at Sabina Park, whose restoration was identified as one of this year’s two flagship National Labour Day projects, Holness said the Government will, in the coming years, have to embark on a massive infrastructural renewal drive targeting public infrastructure, including waterways, sewage systems, and other amenities.

A Labour Day project by the Portmore Municipal Corporation to continue construction of sidewalks along Municipal Boulevard and extending to Braeton Parkway was hampered on Monday by a shortage of cement. Portmore Mayor Leon Thomas, who has been spearheading the project that began three years ago, said the rapid development taking place along Braeton Parkway has made the sidewalk expansion a priority. However, he explained that the municipality was unable to complete more extensive work on Monday because of the difficulties sourcing cement. 

Cops faced with making split-second decisions in highly charged incidents have been urged by Jamaica’s police chief to show “emotional maturity”, become “deliberate thinkers”, and act professionally. Further, Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake has urged the men and women under his command not to be daunted by criticisms and the “psychological burden” of decisions they are required to make “in fractions of seconds on a roadside, in a volatile and hostile crowd, during a domestic dispute, or in the face of imminent danger”. 

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 nonsense” while ignoring the broader scale of the Government’s recovery effort. “Sometimes you have things that are common sense and sometimes you have things that are common nonsense,” he said on Monday at the Lewis Town Early Childhood Institution in St Elizabeth, as one of two Labour Day national projects unfolded.

The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) has announced the nominees for its 41st Annual Awards, recognising organisations and entrepreneurs that are strengthening operations and advancing performance within this environment. The announcement was made at the official launch event on May 14, recognising nominees spanning multiple industries and business sizes across Jamaica’s private sector. 

Jamaica is among eight countries from across the globe joining a new United Kingdom (UK)-led International Coalition to End Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), reinforcing global efforts to ensure women and girls can live free from violence, abuse and fear.

MBJ Airports Limited (MBJ), operator of the Sangster International Airport (SIA), recently hosted its fourth annual Customer Experience Excellence Awards, a spirited evening of recognition, laughter, and well-deserved applause for the individuals and organisations who deliver Jamaica's first impression to the millions who visit the country. 

Two weeks after 71-year-old 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 to hope that the men will be found alive. Bajjo, of Henry Morgan Boulevard in Port Royal, Kingston, and Ricketts, of Morgan Boulevard in the same community, were reported missing after departing Jamaica on May 9 aboard the 42-foot vessel.

Taxpayers will be left footing the bill for nearly a year of unearned salary and benefits after the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) abruptly cut ties with its director of legal services, citing a “loss of confidence”. In a May 18, 2026, letter seen by The Sunday Gleaner, NSWMA Executive Director Audley Gordon told Alecia Thomas that her April 2024 to April 2027 contract had been terminated.

Jonathan Grant High School food and nutrition teacher Sanjay Stephenson does not consider himself an emotional man. But two Thursdays ago, he could not hold back tears as his grade 10 students surprised him with a celebration of gratitude, honouring the positive impact he has had on their lives, inside and outside the classroom. 

In John 16:21, Jesus uses the powerful image of a mother whose joy surpasses her pain in preparation for delivery of her baby. “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.”  Mother’s Day brings back different sentiments and memories for different people.