Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has defended his Government’s extension of legislation to draw down a further $57 billion from the National Housing Trust (NHT) for budget support, arguing that this will not impair the state agency’s ability to deliver benefits to contributors.

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 from the Integrity Commission (IC) on the operations of the entity.

The country’s independent fiscal monitor has raised concerns that more than $57 billion that were programmed by the central Government and several self-financing public sector bodies for capital works projects in the last financial year were unspent.

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 firearms-related businesses.  The lawsuit was filed in March 2022 and a defence from the FLA in 2023. A hearing date has not yet ben set.

Jamaica has been elected to the executive committee of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), securing a prominent role in shaping regional gender policy over the next three years.

Drone technology, robotics, and esports recently took centre stage at Jamaica House as Jamaica Drone Soccer delivered a live demonstration highlighting new opportunities for STEM education, innovation, and youth development.

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 purchased ammunition.

As cyber threats grow more sophisticated and artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the digital landscape, organisations worldwide face a persistent shortage of cybersecurity talent, according to Fortinet’s 2026 Global Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report.

WESTERN BUREAU:  Once boundaries are determined through an upcoming survey, about 150 residents of Rose Heights in St James Central are set to receive land titles, formalising ownership of the properties they occupy. The announcement was made by Heroy Clarke, member of parliament for the area, at his Constituency Development Fund (CDF) consultation meeting at Cornwall College in Montego Bay last Thursday.

Justices of the peace (JPs) are being asked to play a greater role in helping suspended and displaced students reintegrate into the education system based on reports from school-safety officials that too many children are being pushed out of school without the requisite support to resolve conflicts.

A man who led a woman to believe that they were in a committed relationship lost out on half a share in her St Elizabeth home and motor vehicle after he cheated and fathered a baby during their nearly three-year relationship. Leandy Clarke was, last month, ordered by the Supreme Court to transfer his 50 per cent share in both the property and the motor vehicle within three weeks after the court declared his former partner, Deena Keniston, the sole legal and beneficial owner of both assets.

Jamaica’s long-standing partnership with the United States (US) was on display on Monday with the arrival of US Navy aircraft carrier, USS Nimitz in Kingston. “There’s not a better symbol of the security cooperation between the US and Jamaica and our work in maritime security than this incredible ship being here today," said US Chargé d’Affaires Scott Renner. Stretching nearly 1,100 feet in length, 252 feet in width, and rising as high as a 23-storey building, the 51-year-old aircraft carrier is among the fastest ships in the US Navy, capable of speeds of around 30 knots. 

Deputy Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang returned to his roots last Friday and opened a new state-of-the-art computer laboratory at the New Roads Primary School in Westmoreland, the institution he attended as a child. The facility, which was funded through Chang's personal resources, is equipped with desktop computers and Internet connectivity, including Starlink service installed with assistance from the Universal Service Fund (USF).

A former 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 of the aircraft carrier to Kingston, calling it a symbol of the long-standing bilateral relationship between Jamaica and the United States. The warship is expected to remain in the island until June 5.

Jamaica’s senior citizens now have a new opportunity to stay active while building and maintaining social connections following Friday’s official launch of the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ (MOHW) Park Walker Initiative for Older Adults in Montego Bay, St James.

 To combat this, the school’s administration pivoted, the principal later revealed in a February follow-up with The Gleaner, to pathway coaching, reduced class sizes, and restricted curriculum choices to focus heavily on foundational literacy and numeracy.

A Virgin Atlantic flight carrying 241 passengers and 12 crew from London Heathrow to Montego Bay was forced to divert to Shannon, Ireland, on Saturday night after a “technical issue” developed during the flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Jamaican attorney-at-law Yushaine Morgan, who was among the passengers, told The Gleaner that he heard a “loud bang” about three hours into the flight. 

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 speaking during Thursday’s Constituency Development Fund consultation meeting at Cornwall College in Montego Bay, said the water supply challenges in the area, which is already complicated by an outdated pump in Appleton Hall, will worsen once the medical facility, which is located on the grounds of the Mount Salem-based Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), is opened.

Convicted serial killer Kemar Thompson, whose bloody 2014 crime spree claimed eight lives in three separate incidents across St Catherine, will remain behind bars for at least 66 years and seven months before parole considerations.

Raw sewage running through yards. Roads so broken, ambulances struggle to enter. Residents forced to wait up to six weeks for garbage collection. Entire sections of the community plunged into darkness without electricity or streetlights. For the people of Whitehall in Negril, Westmoreland, these are not isolated inconveniences. Residents say they are daily realities in a community they claim has been abandoned by the very agencies responsible for its development.

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.