KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s crumbling public transportation system has come under fresh fire from opposition transport spokesman Mikael Phillips, who has placed full blame for the sector’s chaotic state on the national Transport Authority during recent parliamentary proceedings. Speaking on May 13 as part of the annual Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives, Phillips laid out a scathing critique of the regulatory body’s policy choices and the ruling administration’s stalled reform efforts, backed by official licensing data that lays bare the scale of unplanned expansion. Phillips zeroed in on the dramatic surge in issued transit licenses over the past nine years, a growth he argues has not been matched by even basic investment in supporting infrastructure. From 2016 to 2025, the total number of taxi licenses nationwide more than doubled, jumping from just under 14,000 to nearly 28,000. Broken down by region and license class, the expansion is even starker: In the densely populated Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR), the number of active Hackney carriage licenses surged 225 percent, climbing from 1,600 in 2016 to 5,200 this year. Route taxi licenses have also skyrocketed, growing 168 percent nationwide to hit 20,275, with the KMTR seeing its own Route taxi count jump from 363 to 2,466 over the same period. “Consider the sheer absurdity of doubling taxi licenses… while providing no meaningful parking facilities or logistical support,” Phillips told lawmakers. He characterized the unregulated expansion as the most clear-cut example of systemic government negligence, arguing that the policy intentionally created the crippling congestion and widespread operational disorder that now clog every major urban center across Jamaica. The opposition spokesman stressed he does not condone the rule-breaking widespread across the public transit sector, but emphasized that systemic failures from top regulators are the root cause of the current chaos. For years, the current administration has promised to table amending legislation to update the outdated Transport Authority Act, but Phillips noted that the bill has yet to be introduced, a delay he calls a defining example of the government’s legislative lethargy and consistent failure to deliver meaningful policy reform. Going a step further, Phillips accused the Transport Authority of operating solely as a revenue-generating body with zero commitment to improving service quality for Jamaican commuters. Beyond the stalled legislative reform, license growth has not been paired with any expansion of much-needed parking infrastructure, any rationalization of the disjointed existing network, or any coherent long-term strategic plan for the country’s public transit sector as a whole. This failure, he argues, has created the daily chaos visible across every Jamaican town: operators and commuters are packed into overcrowded vehicles in conditions Phillips compared to the inhumane Middle Passage of the transatlantic slave trade, reducing transit users to second-class treatment in their own country. Phillips also touched on the growing frequency of violent clashes between law enforcement officers and transit operators, noting that these confrontations put commuters at unnecessary risk and project an image of widespread public disorder to both Jamaicans and international visitors. He closed by reiterating that the overwhelming majority of the current systemic chaos stems directly from the critical deficit in parking infrastructure. Rules of the road cannot be fairly enforced in an environment where there is nowhere legal for operators to park, he said, placing full responsibility for the crisis firmly at the feet of the current government and its regulatory arm.
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Powerful 6.0 earthquake rattles Eastern Caribbean
A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook multiple island nations and territories across the eastern Caribbean region early Saturday, according to regional correspondents. The seismic event sent tremors across a wide swathe of the Caribbean archipelago, touching 16 distinct areas including the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Venezuela, Caribbean Netherlands, Saint Barthélemy, Antigua and Barbuda, and Anguilla.
Geological measurements placed the quake’s epicenter approximately 43.5 miles off the coast of Codrington, a small village located on Barbuda, one half of the dual-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda. The tremor struck at approximately 10:50 a.m. local time, prompting widespread alerts across the region.
In updated official statements following the event, authorities confirmed that no casualties or structural damage have been reported across any of the affected areas. Additionally, regional disaster management agencies have ruled out any risk of a tsunami triggered by the earthquake, easing public concerns over secondary coastal hazards.
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Manchester City beat Chelsea 1-0 to win FA Cup
LONDON, UK – In a tense, tightly-contested FA Cup final played at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, Manchester City claimed a hard-fought 1-0 win over Chelsea, lifting the iconic trophy and securing a historic domestic cup double for the club. The only goal of the match came in the 72nd minute from Antoine Semenyo, who found the back of the net to break the deadlock between the two Premier League sides. The win marks a significant milestone for Manchester City, who entered this year’s final having fallen short in their last two appearances in the title match, ending their streak of consecutive FA Cup final defeats. This result cements City’s status as the dominant domestic side in English football this season, pairing their FA Cup triumph with their earlier League Cup victory to complete the domestic cup double. This story is developing and more details will be published as they become available.
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Family hands in St James murder suspect
In ST MARY, Jamaica, a 31-year-old man who had been a fugitive for more than two weeks in the fatal investigation of his American girlfriend has turned himself in to local law enforcement, following coordinated intervention from his family that secured a peaceful handover on Friday, May 15. Dane Watson had evaded police custody since April 29, the day 42-year-old Melissa Sammoth, a resident of New York, was admitted to Cornwall Regional Hospital with multiple severe injuries. Medical staff later confirmed Sammoth’s death after efforts to treat her were unsuccessful. According to official police accounts, Watson personally transported Sammoth to the hospital’s emergency care facility before fleeing the scene immediately after dropping her off. Investigators had spent weeks tracing the suspect’s movements, working from the theory that he had left his original parish and was hiding out in the tight-knit Gayle community within St Mary. As pressure from the manhunt mounted, Watson grew concerned for his own personal safety and reached out to his family members to arrange a peaceful surrender. His relatives immediately contacted the Gayle division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force to open negotiations, and after careful coordination between family representatives and investigating officers, Watson was formally transferred into police custody without incident. The suspect remains behind bars as detectives continue working to piece together a full timeline of the events leading up to Sammoth’s death, including potential motives and the exact sequence of actions that left her with fatal injuries. Because of Sammoth’s status as an American citizen from New York, the high-profile case has attracted scrutiny from both domestic Jamaican audiences and international observers, with law enforcement prioritizing a thorough, transparent investigation to resolve all unanswered questions surrounding the incident.
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Over 100 Haitians deported from The Bahamas
NASSAU, Bahamas — The Bahamas’ national immigration agency has carried out a large-scale deportation operation, sending 107 Haitian migrants back to their home country as part of the government’s sustained crackdown on violations of national immigration regulations. In an official public statement released after the operation, the Department of Immigration outlined details of the repatriation, noting that the group deported included 22 adult women and five minor children. Authorities confirmed that the majority of the deported individuals had remained in the Bahamas beyond the timeframe allowed by their entry permits, while others were taken into custody after entering the country without proper authorization.
The repatriation flight, operated by Bahamas’ national carrier Bahamasair, departed from the Lynden Pindling International Airport in the capital Nassau. Department officials emphasized that all established public health and security protocols were strictly implemented throughout the entire deportation process, prioritizing the safety and health of both immigration officers overseeing the operation and the migrants being deported. Upon landing in Haiti, the 107 migrants will undergo standard entry processing by Haitian immigration officials. The five underage girls in the group will be transferred to Haiti’s national child welfare services for further care and support, per arrangements between the two countries’ authorities.
This large operation was not the only immigration enforcement action Bahamian authorities took this week. Just days earlier, the department completed a second deportation that involved 15 foreign nationals from a range of countries across the globe. Among that smaller group were three Jamaican citizens, two Colombians, two Mexicans, two Peruvians, two Romanians, one Cuban, one Ecuadorian, one additional Haitian, and one Moldovan national, all of whom had been found to be in violation of Bahamas immigration rules.
The Department of Immigration reiterated that these ongoing enforcement operations are a core part of the government’s commitment to upholding the country’s immigration laws and maintaining order along its borders. It called on members of the Bahamian public to actively support these efforts by reporting any suspected immigration violations to the relevant authorities, reinforcing the message that compliance with national entry and residency rules is a shared responsibility.
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Euro falls against the dollar amid Middle East crisis
Geopolitical gridlock in the Middle East has pulled the euro lower against the U.S. dollar, with the shared currency closing out the week down 0.35% at $1.1629 as surging crude oil prices compound market volatility. As of 3:00 PM GMT on Friday, the euro traded at $1.1629, marking a clear drop from its $1.1680 closing level recorded in the prior trading session. Official data from the European Central Bank reflected this downward shift, with the ECB’s official reference rate for the euro falling to $1.1628 from $1.1702 the day before.
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The «El Niño» phenomenon would emerge between May and July 2026 and extend until February 2027
Two leading climate forecasting bodies have raised a high-confidence alert that a new El Niño event will develop in the Pacific Ocean by mid-2026, with researchers and United Nations agencies warning that the climate phenomenon could exacerbate existing food insecurity and push millions of already vulnerable people deeper into crisis across the Americas.
El Niño, defined as a sustained abnormal warming of Pacific Ocean surface waters that reshapes global weather patterns, has an 82 percent probability of emerging between May and July 2026, according to an official forecast released Thursday by the U.S. National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center (NWS-CPC). The agency added that there is an even higher 96 percent chance that El Niño will persist through the 2026–2027 winter in the Northern Hemisphere, lasting until at least February 2027.
Forecasters at NWS-CPC trace the expected development of the event to two key current oceanic and atmospheric conditions: record-warm temperatures in the equatorial Pacific’s subsurface layers, and unusual low-level westerly wind patterns across the western equatorial Pacific that have already spread to the central and east-central Pacific.
While the high probability of El Niño’s arrival is clear, forecasters have noted that its final intensity remains uncertain. The strongest recorded El Niño events all exhibited robust ocean-atmosphere coupling during the Northern Hemisphere summer, a key precursor that has yet to be confirmed for the 2026 event. Even if a strong event does develop, forecasters emphasize that intensity does not guarantee extreme impacts—it only raises the likelihood of disruptive weather outcomes.
The alert has already been circulated by national meteorological leaders across the Americas, including Gloria Ceballos, director of the Dominican National Institute of Meteorology (Indomet), who shared the forecast with the public via her official X social media account.
Beyond climate forecasting, three major United Nations food security agencies have warned that the impending El Niño poses substantial risks to vulnerable populations across the region, at a time when the climate crisis and global price hikes have already stretched livelihoods thin. Ahead of the forecast, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and World Food Programme (WFP) convened discussions on early preparedness, proactive intervention, and long-term resilience building to counter extreme weather shocks.
Current regional data underscores the depth of pre-existing vulnerability: across the Americas, more than 33 million people already face chronic hunger, 167 million experience moderate to severe food insecurity, and over 181 million cannot afford nutritionally adequate diets. The region also bears 22 percent of global economic losses from agriculture-related disasters, totaling more than $713 billion in cumulative damage.
In a joint warning, the three agencies stated that El Niño will likely worsen this precarious situation. The phenomenon is expected to worsen drought conditions across Central America’s Dry Corridor, an already poverty-stricken arid region that is extremely susceptible to climate shocks, while also disrupting rainfall and temperature patterns across the entire hemisphere. These disruptions could push tens of thousands more vulnerable families into food insecurity and chronic poverty, the agencies warned, stressing the urgent need for early action to mitigate harm.
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No vaccine for latest Ebola outbreak, DRC warns as as toll hits 80
KINSHASA, DR Congo – A newly declared Ebola outbreak in the northeastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has triggered urgent international public health alarm, driven by a particularly dangerous strain with no approved vaccine or targeted treatment and a death rate that can climb as high as 50 percent, the country’s health minister announced Saturday.
Speaking at a press briefing in the national capital Kinshasa, Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba confirmed that the outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain, a variant first documented in 2007 that currently lacks any licensed immunization or specific antiviral therapy. Unlike the more common Zaire Ebola strain – identified in 1976, which has a higher 60 to 90 percent fatality rate but benefits from existing authorized vaccines – the Bundibugyo variant leaves health responders with far fewer tools to contain transmission and treat infected patients.
Updated official figures released Saturday put the death toll at 80, up from the 65 fatalities reported publicly just 24 hours earlier. Out of 246 total suspected cases recorded so far, authorities have already recorded one death outside DRC’s borders: a 59-year-old Congolese national who died in the Ugandan capital Kampala earlier this week, following admission for Ebola-like symptoms. Ugandan health ministry officials confirmed late Friday that post-mortem testing identified the Bundibugyo strain as the cause of death, and the victim’s remains were repatriated to DRC the same day.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the new outbreak Friday, noting it is centered in DRC’s Ituri province, a northeastern region that shares porous borders with both Uganda and South Sudan. Public health experts warn that frequent unregulated cross-border population movement in the affected area dramatically increases the risk of the outbreak spreading beyond DRC’s borders, amplifying the global public health threat.
According to Minister Kamba, the outbreak’s index case – or patient zero – was a nurse who first presented to a health facility in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, on April 24 with classic Ebola symptoms: high fever, internal and external bleeding, and vomiting. This marks the 17th recorded Ebola outbreak to hit the DRC since the virus was first discovered, and the acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jay Bhattacharya, characterized the event as a large-scale outbreak that requires immediate coordinated action.
Ebola is a deadly viral hemorrhagic fever believed to originate in fruit bat populations, spreading between humans through direct contact with infected bodily fluids or contaminated biological materials. Symptoms only develop after an incubation period that can last up to 21 days, and infected people only become contagious once symptoms appear. In severe cases, the virus causes widespread organ failure and uncontrolled bleeding, with historical mortality rates ranging from 25 percent to 90 percent depending on the strain and access to care.
Over the past 50 years, Ebola outbreaks across Africa have killed roughly 15,000 people, even as medical research has delivered new vaccines and treatments for the most common Zaire strain. DRC’s last outbreak, declared in August 2023 in the country’s central region, killed 34 people before it was declared fully contained in December 2023. The deadliest Ebola outbreak in DRC’s history, recorded between 2018 and 2020, claimed nearly 2,300 lives.
The World Health Organization has already sounded the alarm over the unfolding crisis, noting deep uncertainty around the scope of community transmission and the inherent severity of the disease. The agency is moving quickly to deploy critical supplies, planning to airlift roughly five tonnes of medical equipment including personal protective equipment and infection prevention gear from Kinshasa to the affected region. Even with this urgent response, logistical challenges remain steep: DRC is home to more than 100 million people, spans an area four times the size of France, and suffers from extremely underdeveloped transportation and communications infrastructure that complicates rapid large-scale public health action.
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Collision between train and bus kills at least 8 in Bangkok
On a Saturday afternoon in central Bangkok, a devastating collision between a freight train and a passenger bus left at least eight people dead and 35 others injured, two of whom are in critical condition, according to senior Thai law enforcement officials speaking to Agence France-Presse.
The crash, which occurred at a busy downtown level crossing that sees tens of thousands of vehicles pass through daily, triggered an immediate intense blaze that engulfed the entire bus. Social media footage captured moments before the impact shows the freight train traveling at a moderate speed toward the crossing, before striking the bus that was on the tracks. Flames spread across the vehicle almost instantly, leaving first responders scrambling to contain the inferno.
By the time emergency crews arrived, firefighters had fully extinguished the fire, leaving nothing but a charred, hollowed-out shell of the bus. Rescue personnel and law enforcement quickly cordoned off the entire collision site, moving pedestrians and bystanders away from the danger zone while investigators began their on-site examination to determine the root cause of the crash.
Witnesses described a scene of chaos and terror that unfolded in moments. An unnamed witness who was waiting at the crossing in their own car told Royal Thai Police TV that the impact was sudden and disorienting. “I’m still in shock. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise and something hit my car, pushing it away. Then I saw the bus stuck to the train and flames everywhere. I was terrified,” the witness said. Another witness, who was at the intersection with her daughter, told Thai public broadcaster Thai PBS that she fled the area immediately, too shaken to look back for potential survivors.
Following the incident, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ordered a full official investigation into the crash, according to an official statement released by his office. Investigators are currently working to confirm whether factors including signal failure, bus driver error, or inadequate crossing safety measures contributed to the fatal collision.
This deadly crash has renewed long-running public focus on Thailand’s persistent crisis of road and rail transport safety. The Southeast Asian nation consistently ranks among the countries with the highest rates of fatal traffic accidents globally, a problem widely attributed to systemic issues including widespread speeding, drunk driving, and lax enforcement of existing traffic and safety regulations.
This crash is far from an isolated incident. In January of this year, the collapse of a construction crane onto a moving passenger train in northeastern Thailand killed 32 people and injured dozens more. Just three years ago, a collision between a freight train and a pickup truck at a eastern Thailand crossing left eight people dead. In 2020, another train-bus collision killed 18 people when the bus was carrying passengers bound for a religious ceremony.
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Maldives rescue diver dies in search for missing Italians
The Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives, one of the world’s most coveted luxury diving destinations, is reeling from its deadliest recorded diving incident after a rescue diver participating in the search for four missing Italian divers died on Saturday, marking the fifth fatality in the tragedy. The chain of events began on May 14, when a group of five Italian divers set out from a liveaboard dive vessel for an excursion off Vaavu Atoll, and failed to surface as scheduled.
By the end of that first day, search teams had recovered only one of the divers’ bodies, leaving four still unaccounted for deep in local waters. When rescue operations entered their third consecutive day on Saturday, Staff Sergeant Mohamed Mahudhy, a diver with the Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF), surfaced from his search mission in critical condition. He was rushed immediately to a local medical facility for emergency care, but succumbed to his condition shortly after arrival, the MNDF confirmed in an official public statement.
The victims of the initial incident have been identified by Italy’s University of Genoa: a senior marine biology professor, her daughter, and two early-career researchers from the institution. Italy’s foreign ministry has already formally confirmed that all five Italian divers involved in the outing are dead. The one recovered body was found trapped in an underwater cave at 60 meters – double the maximum permitted diving depth of 30 meters set by Maldivian safety regulations. Government officials have launched a full formal investigation to determine why the group exceeded this official depth limit, and what broader safety failures contributed to the disaster.
Hours before the rescue diver’s death was announced, Maldivian tourism authorities took immediate regulatory action: they suspended the operating license of the MV Duke of York, the 36-meter luxury liveaboard that hosted the Italian expedition, indefinitely. The suspension will remain in place until the full investigation into the incident concludes. The vessel, which is designed to host up to 25 passengers on multi-day diving itineraries, is a popular option for divers exploring the Maldives’ remote coral atolls.
Made up of more than 1,100 low-lying coral islands spread across 800 kilometers of the Indian Ocean along the equator, the Maldives has built its $3 billion tourism industry around its reputation for pristine reefs and world-class diving. While water sports and diving-related fatalities are statistically rare in the South Asian nation, a small number of deadly diving incidents have been recorded over the past five years. This current disaster is the deadliest diving accident in the country’s modern tourism history, and is already prompting scrutiny of safety protocols for liveaboard dive operations across the archipelago.