Past and present staff of The Gleaner gathered on Thursday evening at 7 North Street in downtown Kingston for a symbolic farewell to a building that has stood for decades as one of the country’s most recognisable media landmarks. Perched on the rooftop of the iconic premises, journalists, editors, retirees, and support staff looked out over the city as they marked the closing chapter of a site sold as part of a wider rationalisation exercise by the RJRGLEANER Communications Group.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding has drawn a sharp distinction between the agreement signed by Dr Peter Phillips in 2004 and one inked just days ago by Deputy Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang, calling the former a routine national security arrangement, while slamming as “unprecedented” the other, which he says turns Jamaica into a dumping ground for migrants.

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 the Caribbean if confirmed to the diplomatic post.

WESTERN BUREAU: As part of an ongoing effort to solidify its bilateral trading partnership with Ghana, Jamaica will be sending a trade mission to the African country next month to seek out additional avenues for investment. Speaking on Wednesday’s final day of the 11th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, in Montego Bay, St James, Foreign Affair and Foreign Trade Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith outlined details of the upcoming trade mission. 

WESTERN BUREAU:  Jamaicans in the Diaspora are being encouraged to invest in Jamaica’s expanding private real estate market, with Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness arguing that their homeownership can help stimulate economic growth while creating opportunities for more affordable housing for locals through the National Housing Trust (NHT).

WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaicans are being cautioned to dismiss any notion that artificial intelligence [AI] will take over their jobs, and should instead learn to treat the technology as a tool to help them become more productive in the workforce. Trevor Forrest, senior adviser in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), told delegates at the 11th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, in Montego Bay, St James that it would be logistically harmful to completely replace human workers with AI.

Between 2013 and 2022, Cabinet Minister Dr Andrew Wheatley had approximately $164 million in assets that were disproportionate to his lawful sources of income over the nine-year period, an investigation by Jamaica’s main anti-corruption body has revealed.

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 third-country nationals (TCNs).  The note, sent to the Jamaican Government, said former Ambassador to the US and Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Efficiency, Innovation, and Digital Transformation Audrey Marks made the proposal.

WESTERN BUREAU: As the world continues to monitor the current Ebola crisis in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the St James Health Department is reminding the public that persons who disobey established quarantine protocols can be fined up to $1 million.

WESTERN BUREAU: Opposition Leader Mark Golding is calling for the Jamaican Diaspora to be formally integrated into the nation’s governance structure, arguing that their expertise and resources should be harnessed at the highest levels of decision-making, including serving on boards.

WESTERN BUREAU: Greater international cooperation in combating organised crime is being urged by Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, who, yesterday, reiterated that the threat is taking root in the Jamaican Diaspora through illicit networks involved in lottery scamming and firearms trafficking.

 A public official, who was a no-show yesterday at a meeting of the parliamentary committee examining governance and procurement issues flagged at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), could face a criminal charge that carries a maximum penalty of $200.

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 nationals.

For many students, science can seem intimidating — a subject of complex formulas, unfamiliar terms and difficult ideas. For Donnell Dunkley, however, it represents something quite different: curiosity, discovery and opportunity. 

Efforts to expand Jamaica’s avocado (pear) industry gathered momentum last week as stakeholders in Clarendon launched a festival intended to spur rural development and exports.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Tanisha Ellison, Jamaica’s security attaché at the embassy in Washington, DC, has become the first Jamaican to graduate from the Inter-American Defense College (IADC). She joined 63 senior officials from across the Americas at a ceremony held at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) on June 12.

Western Bureau Matthew Samuda, minister of water, climate change and the environment, has described backyard pit latrines in high water-table communities as among the greatest environmental risks to Jamaica’s groundwater supply.

Western Bureau: Tiana Shantae Dinham, Jamaica’s 2026 Rhodes Scholar from Maryland in Hanover, was honoured at a civic ceremony in Bustamante Square in Lucea on Friday. Family, friends, and members of the wider community gathered to celebrate her success.

The Supreme Court has shut the door on a fresh bid for bail by Constable Marlando Rowe, ruling that he cannot relitigate bail decisions that have already been challenged even up to the Privy Council, Jamaica’s final appellate court. The Clarendon lawman was among six persons charged in a multimillion-dollar smishing scam involving an elderly bank customer in 2024, after US$5,500 (about J$840,000) was transferred from the complainant's account to his.

NEW YORK: Blue Mahoe Capital Caribbean, a US-based special-purpose company, has been given a partial green light by NASDAQ to begin taking steps to be listed on the stock exchange. An initial application to NASDAQ by Blue Mahoe to become a non-accredited investor was accepted by the stock entity.

Jamaicans Sir Patrick Vernon and Dame Beverley Lindsay are among the honourees on King Charles’ 2026 birthday list. Vernon, who currently serves on the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council for United Kingdom (UK) South, was honoured for his contribution to racial equity, health equity and to social justice. Lindsay was honoured for her service to the West Midlands and to charity.

The Government’s announcement that it will be exploring the possibility of imposing a social media ban for children age 16 and under is being applauded by child advocates and education professionals, who say it would be a vital step in protecting young people from harmful online content and behaviour.

Kingston and Washington are expected to begin talks on an agreement first pitched by a senior Jamaican government official that could see the island accepting up to 10,000 non-Jamaicans being deported from the United States. A document from the United States Embassy in Kingston, seen by The Gleaner, outlines the operational framework for the proposed Third-Country Nationals (TCN) agreement, which has triggered controversy in several countries that have entered into similar arrangements with Washington.

Two St Ann homeowners have lost their bid for a larger payout after the Supreme Court upheld a $12-million compensation award for property acquired by the Government to facilitate the construction of Phase 2A of the Highway 2000 project.

WESTERN BUREAU: The St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) last Thursday opened Montego Bay’s first automated car park, the first facility of its type in western Jamaica, allowing motorists who traverse the western city a location where they can park their vehicles using a modernised technological system.

The planned $58-million refurbishment of the Cross Keys Full Service Health Clinic in Manchester under the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ Operation Refresh programme has been hit by funding challenges, delaying completion and disrupting activities at the community centre where services are currently being provided.

Two members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) lost their lives, while three others were left nursing injuries following separate incidents across the island over the weekend. The incidents, which occurred in different parishes, have cast a pall over the force as investigations continue.

WESTERN BUREAU: A call has been made for Jamaicans at home and abroad to unite as a global community, speak out against injustices taking place internationally, and help strengthen their homeland. Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the suffragan bishop of Dover and Bishop in Canterbury of the Church of England, made the appeal while delivering the keynote sermon during a service held yesterday at Calvary Baptist Church in Montego Bay, St James, marking the start of this week's 11th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference.

Your relationships are key to your resilience and your progress at work. Thriving at your job becomes so much easier, and long-lasting, when you do it in the context of community. I am not speaking so much about your friends or accountability partners. I am speaking about relationships at work. 

You are at the eve of your miracle. That is why things are getting extremely rough. Don’t give up now, please. Push on! You are about to break forth. Yes, most divinely appointed projects, dreams, visions and lives go through stages of extreme frustration. At times, it will seem as if that project will never be achieved.

Social protections as a gospel imperative ought to inform the praxis of Christian theology. We must weep and cry out for those who continue to suffer in a system that finds itself returning $770 million of the $1 billion (set aside for the Government’s Solidarity Programme) for debt reduction.

A partnership between New Broughton Primary School and the Cross Keys Branch Library in Manchester is producing encouraging results in improving children’s reading levels. The modest library building is tucked away from the town square on the road leading to New Broughton. Although traditionally associated with reading and research, the facility has evolved into a multi-purpose community resource centre, functioning as a computer café, homework centre, and a research and printing hub.

When a rare but deadly rodent-borne virus struck passengers on a cruise ship and seemed to be spreading, there were no treatments for those who fell ill and no vaccines to protect others. That was the case even though it wasn’t a novel germ that the world had never seen before, like the virus that caused the coronavirus pandemic.

Across Jamaica, service stations are increasingly serving as social gathering spots and informal taxi hubs, attracting crowds far beyond their intended purpose and raising concerns about public safety. As people congregate to socialise, await transportation or conduct business amid fuel pumps and heavy vehicular traffic, safety advocates warn that the combination of large crowds, moving vehicles and flammable fuels creates risks with potentially serious consequences.

A motorist who fled the scene of a deadly accident in Ocho Rios, St Ann, on Saturday morning was handed over to the police hours later. Reports are that the motorist was driving along Main Street about 6:10 a.m., when he lost control of the white 2014 Toyota Mark X, which ran across the roadway, mounted the sidewalk and mowed down a pedestrian before slamming into a utility pole.