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After more than two decades of suspended formal collaboration, Jamaica and Ghana have officially restarted their structured bilateral partnership through the reactivation of their Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation, a framework designed to drive collective progress across seven key sectors: public health, national defense, bilateral trade, air transportation, cultural exchange, and education. The third plenary session of the revived commission wrapped up in Accra, Ghana’s capital, on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, capping four days of intensive bilateral talks with the signing of two binding Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) focused explicitly on health and defense cooperation.

Speaking following the conclusion of the session, Jamaica’s Foreign Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith emphasized that the reactivated commission lays a durable, structured foundation for deepening ties between the two nations, which share deep historical and cultural connections. “Jamaica and Ghana have returned to this cooperation mechanism with a refreshed, shared purpose,” Johnson Smith noted. “After more than 20 years of inactivity, this commission gives us the formal structure to translate our shared history and mutual goodwill into tangible outcomes that improve the lives of people in both our countries.”

The two new signed agreements put this renewed commitment into practical action, covering a wide range of specific collaborative priorities. In the health sector, the partnership will open pathways for the recruitment of skilled Ghanaian health professionals to Jamaica and facilitate cross-border knowledge sharing to strengthen health systems in both nations. For defense and security, the agreement outlines cooperation on disaster response coordination, military engineering capacity building, enhanced maritime security, and joint countermeasures to combat transnational criminal threats.

The signing ceremony was attended by senior official delegates from both governments, including Jamaica’s Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton and Ghana’s Minister of Health Kwabena Mintah Akandoh. Technical working groups from both sides contributed to months of pre-session negotiations, which were co-chaired by Ambassador Symone Betton Nayo of Jamaica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and Ambassador Harold Adlai Agyeman of Ghana’s foreign ministry. The session itself closed a 20-year gap in the commission’s formal work, bringing the bilateral partnership back into regular, structured operation.

Beyond the newly signed MoUs, delegates from both nations reached consensus on a broad forward cooperation agenda spanning health, defense, culture, education, air services, trade and investment. This new phase of engagement will be followed by a Jamaican export and business mission to Ghana scheduled for July 2026, which will deepen economic ties between the two markets. The mission will be led by Jamaica’s Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Senator Aubyn Hill, and will include private sector delegates from more than 38 Jamaican companies across multiple industries.

Foreign Minister Johnson Smith and her Ghanaian counterpart Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa have also committed to advancing regular biennial political consultations between the two countries’ foreign ministries to ensure continuous alignment on shared priorities. During her visit to Accra for the session, Johnson Smith was accompanied by a full Jamaican delegation including Jamaica’s High Commissioner to Ghana Lincoln Downer, Honorary Consul Okatakyie Boakye Danquah Ababio, Jo-Anne Archibald (Principal Director of Jamaica’s Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport), and technical staff from both Jamaica’s foreign affairs and health ministries.

HAVANA, CUBA – In a sharp escalation of long-standing tensions between Washington and Havana, the United States announced a new round of sanctions Thursday targeting Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, his immediate family, senior members of the influential Castro political dynasty, and key state entities, marking the latest aggressive move against the island’s communist government.

The expanded sanctions list includes the son and grandson of former Cuban President Raul Castro, who stepped down from official office years ago but still retains significant behind-the-scenes political influence across the country. Alongside Diaz-Canel, his wife and stepson were also sanctioned, as was Cuba’s Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and multiple other state-linked organizations.

Cuba has operated under a sweeping US trade embargo for more than six decades, dating back to 1962. But in the final months of his first presidential term, then-President Donald Trump drastically intensified American pressure, slashing the island’s access to critical fuel supplies and openly floating the possibility of seizing control of the territory.

The Trump administration justified the escalating measures by claiming Cuba’s communist government poses a direct national security threat to the United States. Following the US-backed ousting of Venezuelan socialist leader Nicolas Maduro in January and the rollout of a harsh new pressure campaign against Iran, Trump repeatedly signaled Cuba would be the next target for regime change.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Trump alluded to this timeline, saying: “We’ll take care of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and as soon as that’s done, on our way back, we’ll just make a little brief stop over.” Despite this open threat, he denied the new sanctions – which came shortly after the US issued a murder indictment against Raul Castro and blacklisted a military-controlled conglomerate that dominates much of Cuba’s economy – were designed to force a rapid collapse of the Cuban government.

Washington had already placed travel bans on Diaz-Canel and his family barring entry to the US the previous year.

In a post on the social platform X, Diaz-Canel pushed back against the new measures, accusing Trump of seeking to “strengthen the blockade and scenario of conflict between Cuba and the United States.” He vowed that the Cuban people would “resist the imperialist onslaught.” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez echoed this defiance, describing the sanctions as “vile” and affirming they would only be met with “greater unity and determination from our people.”

Trump framed the US actions as a push for improved conditions for ordinary Cubans, telling reporters at the White House that he simply wants Cuba to become “a nicely run country that can feed its people.” He added, “But the country is starving, and it’s got no energy, it’s got no oil, it’s got no money, it’s got nothing.” Even as he criticized the government, Trump mused about the island’s potential, noting that Cuba is “a beautiful piece of land” and adding, “You could have beautiful resorts.”

The punitive fuel embargo imposed by the US in January has already sparked a severe humanitarian crisis across Cuba. Without access to diesel for backup generators that prop up the island’s crumbling national power grid, communities face daily blackouts that can stretch up to 22 hours, and widespread tap water shortages have followed. Most public and private transport has ground to a near halt, and critical shortages of food and prescription medication have left the country dependent on emergency aid shipments from allies including Mexico and China.

On the same day the new sanctions were announced, the United Nations’ top representative on the island warned that the already unfolding humanitarian emergency, combined with the start of the annual Caribbean hurricane season, creates an “explosive cocktail” of risk for vulnerable communities. Much of eastern Cuba is still undergoing reconstruction after Hurricane Melissa caused catastrophic damage across the region in October of the previous year.

KINGSTON, Jamaica – As Jamaica enters the annual Atlantic hurricane season, the country’s Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie has unveiled a multi-pronged investment package to strengthen the island’s emergency disaster preparedness infrastructure, headlined by a fresh $60 million allocation to upgrade existing emergency shelters across the nation’s 14 parishes. McKenzie made the announcement Wednesday during his address to the 2026/27 Sectoral Debate in Jamaica’s House of Representatives, outlining that the new funding will immediately go toward upgrading conditions in municipal-run emergency shelters islandwide. The allocation will be used by local municipal corporations to procure essential comfort items including new blankets, cots, and bedding to improve living conditions for residents forced to evacuate their homes during storm events. Describing the funding as the first major preparedness investment released as the hurricane season gets underway, McKenzie emphasized the government’s commitment to keeping vulnerable communities safe through proactive infrastructure investment. Beyond the immediate upgrade funding, McKenzie outlined a transformative new long-term strategy for emergency shelter management that shifts away from Jamaica’s historical practice of activating scattered small venues during storm events. Going forward, the government will construct purpose-built large-scale regional emergency shelters in three high-risk parishes, designed to accommodate hundreds of evacuees in safe, comfortable conditions. The first three purpose-built shelters will be located in the parishes of Clarendon, St Elizabeth, and Westmoreland, with a total estimated project cost of $1 billion. Each facility will span roughly 10,000 square feet and have capacity to house up to 700 evacuees at full occupancy. Unlike ad-hoc emergency shelters that are repurposed from schools or community centers, these new facilities will be engineered to withstand severe hurricanes and earthquakes, fitted with modern energy-efficient systems, and include year-round usable community amenities that benefit local residents even when no emergency is declared. McKenzie also provided a progress update on a separate permanent housing project for displaced shelter residents in Shrewsbury, Westmoreland, a community that has faced repeated displacement from extreme weather. He confirmed that 10 of the 16 reinforced concrete foundations required for the new permanent housing units have already been completed. The prefabricated housing units themselves are currently held by the Jamaica Defence Force and are scheduled to be transported to the site in the near future. Once construction is fully completed, all pre-registered displaced residents will move into the new government-provided housing units, resolving long-term displacement issues for the affected community. To further strengthen front-line disaster response capacity ahead of the full peak of hurricane season, McKenzie announced that 200 young Jamaican workers will be deployed to the Social Development Commission and local municipal corporations starting July 1. The young workers will serve across the entire duration of the 2026 hurricane season, working alongside local disaster coordinators to streamline shelter preparedness, run public outreach campaigns to inform residents of evacuation protocols, and boost overall municipal disaster response capacity across the island. The package of investments and reforms marks one of the most comprehensive overhauls of Jamaica’s emergency shelter system in recent years, as the country faces growing risks from more intense extreme weather linked to climate change.