Carib Scope

标签： Jamaica

牙买加

  • Kingston Creative bets on Jamaica’s next wave of innovators with ‘Createch Incubator’

    Kingston Creative bets on Jamaica’s next wave of innovators with ‘Createch Incubator’

    In a landmark move to strengthen Jamaica’s fast-growing creative economy and integrate cutting-edge technology into cultural entrepreneurship, Kingston Creative has officially launched the Createch Incubator, a four-month specialized support program tailored for early-stage creative founders. The initiative aims to empower emerging entrepreneurs across Jamaica’s cultural sectors to build purpose-driven, technology-forward businesses by combining hands-on training, expert mentorship, and expanded regional networking opportunities.

    Jamaica’s creative sector already stands as a major pillar of the national economy, contributing an estimated JMD $107 billion annually, equal to 5.1% of the country’s total gross domestic product. Against this backdrop, the Createch Incubator opens its doors to innovators across a wide spectrum of creative fields, including motion picture production, literary arts, visual arts, live performance, fashion design, handmade craft, music, and cultural festivals.

    The program is implemented through Conecta Caribbean, an initiative of the CARIBEquity Facility that receives co-funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Lab and the European Union. It forms part of a broader regional collaborative effort that unites entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs) across 15 Caribbean nations, creating a unified cross-border incubation ecosystem for early-stage ventures.

    Scheduled to run from July through November 2026, the program delivers structured training in core startup fundamentals: from identifying unmet market problems and conducting customer discovery to refining value propositions, designing scalable business models, and building long-term financial sustainability. A key distinguishing feature of Createch is its dedicated practical training in artificial intelligence and other emerging digital tools, equipping creative founders to embed innovative technology into their daily operations and long-term growth strategies.

    The program will conclude with a high-stakes Demo Day pitch competition, where select participating graduates will present their developed ventures to an audience of investors, regional ecosystem partners, and industry stakeholders. Top contenders will win grant funding to accelerate the growth of their businesses.

    Participation is completely free for all selected applicants, with a robust package of benefits included. Successful candidates gain access to one-on-one mentorship from seasoned business and creative professionals, full access to the Bridge for Billions digital entrepreneurship platform, a structured online curriculum, targeted capacity-building workshops, collaborative cohort learning sessions, and exclusive connections to a cross-regional network of fellow founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders.

    Bianca Welds, the newly appointed head of projects and partnerships at Kingston Creative, emphasized the transformative potential of the initiative. “We’re excited to be a part of the Conecta Caribbean initiative, which is helping to standardize startup training across the region,” Welds said. “Createch is the only creative industry incubator in this cohort and Jamaican creatives will benefit tremendously from the regional reach of the programme.”

    Applications for the 2026 Createch Incubator cohort are currently open to eligible early-stage creative entrepreneurs, with all submissions due by June 30, 2026.

  • Jamaica must position itself to take advantage of global advances in science and technology – Terrelonge

    Jamaica must position itself to take advantage of global advances in science and technology – Terrelonge

    MONTEGO BAY, St James — Against a backdrop of accelerating global change across technology, climate action and economic systems, Jamaica’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Alando Terrelonge has laid out a clear roadmap for the island nation: leverage stronger collaboration with its global diaspora and international partners to capitalize on worldwide advances in science, technology and sustainable development.

    Terrelonge shared his vision during opening commencement remarks at the 11th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, hosted this week at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James. He framed rapid global transformation not as a threat, but as a rare opening to drive inclusive national growth and homegrown innovation for Jamaica.

    “Across every continent, we are seeing game-changing breakthroughs in science and technology, forward-thinking new frameworks for sustainable development, and creative partnership models that are rewriting how industries operate and lifting community living standards,” Terrelonge told attendees. “These leaps forward confirm what we have long believed: progress becomes achievable when bold vision is paired with unwavering determination, and when collective action backs national ambition.”

    A core pillar of Terrelonge’s argument centered on the unique strategic value of Jamaica’s diaspora community spread across the globe. He noted that diaspora members hold unmatched potential to bridge Jamaica to global expertise, cutting-edge emerging technologies, untapped international markets and critical new investment streams. Beyond financial and technological links, he added, diaspora leaders have long served as key facilitators of cross-border knowledge sharing and expanded access to global professional and policy networks that can accelerate Jamaica’s development goals.

    Terrelonge emphasized that in an era of increasingly interconnected and complex global challenges, from climate change to economic volatility, innovation cannot thrive in isolation. Meaningful, sustained collaboration across borders and stakeholder groups is non-negotiable for countries like Jamaica to navigate shifting global realities effectively.

    “Our world is undergoing rapid, far-reaching change right now. Technological breakthroughs, economic restructuring, pressing environmental threats, and shifting social norms are all reshaping how we think, live, work, and connect with one another,” he said. “Events like the biennial diaspora conference create irreplaceable space for diverse stakeholders to come together, exchange fresh perspectives, and co-develop practical, actionable solutions to the challenges we share.”

    Moving beyond talk, Terrelonge stressed that the true success of the conference will be measured not by the volume of panels or discussions, but by the tangible action that emerges in the months after the event closes. “The insights and agreements we hammer out here should shape national policy, guide development strategy, inspire new innovation, and deliver real, measurable benefits for all Jamaican people,” he said.

    He urged every conference participant to lean into the week’s activities, including breakout discussions, skills-focused workshops, and structured networking sessions, noting that enduring, impactful partnerships are almost always built through consistent, open dialogue and collaborative problem-solving. This year’s conference runs under the overarching theme “Diaspora Partnerships: Rebuilding a More Climate-Resilient Jamaica”, aligning with global efforts to address climate vulnerability in small island developing states.

    Closing his remarks, Terrelonge expressed measured optimism that the conference will deliver on its promises: it will reinforce long-standing ties between Jamaica and its diaspora, while opening new avenues for productive engagement that benefit the island nation for years to come.

  • KSAMC ramps up effort to collect signage fees

    KSAMC ramps up effort to collect signage fees

    Local municipal authorities in Kingston and St Andrew are extending a final opportunity for Corporate Area business owners to resolve long-outstanding signage fee arrears, as the government body prepares to ramp up formal compliance enforcement across the region.

    Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaby has announced the rollout of a new multi-pronged initiative that combines on-the-ground mobile payment outstations and targeted public education campaigns, designed to boost understanding of local signage regulations and streamline access to payment services for delinquent operators.

    Speaking on the goals of the program, Swaby emphasized that the campaign is far more than a collections push: it is a proactive effort to demystify the signage regularization process, answer real-time questions from confused business owners, and clear up lingering uncertainty about what legal requirements entities must meet to operate public-facing signage. During the outreach sessions, participating businesses will be able to settle any unpaid fees on-site, if they choose to do so.

    To remove barriers to access, the mobile outstations will be set up directly at plazas and major commercial hubs across the Kingston and St Andrew municipality, bringing compliance services directly to the doorsteps of the business owners that need them. KSAMC staff will be on hand at each location to respond to inquiries, walk operators through the permit and approval process, accept new applications, and carry out preliminary on-site inspections when requested.

    Swaby stressed that the new outreach effort underscores the municipal corporation’s commitment to prioritizing public education, accessible services, and voluntary compliance before moving forward with harsher mandatory enforcement measures. Even so, he issued a clear warning: participation in the education sessions does not replace the legal requirement for businesses to bring their accounts up to date. He urged all operators located in commercial plazas and centers to address any outstanding unpaid signage obligations without delay.

    Businesses that fail to resolve their arrears will face formal enforcement action in line with local Jamaican law, Swaby confirmed. He encouraged all eligible entities to come prepared with the necessary supporting documentation to take advantage of the flexible payment and support opportunities offered during the outreach sessions.

    This new campaign builds on a previous fee amnesty effort that ran from January through March 2026, which offered delinquent businesses the chance to settle arrears at a discounted 20% rate. That discount was introduced to ease financial strain on operators that faced unexpected costs, halted operations, and increased community burdens in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in the region on October 28, 2025.

    While the earlier amnesty saw measurable success – collecting roughly $5 million in unpaid fees by March 5 – Swaby noted that a large share of non-compliant businesses have still not addressed their outstanding obligations. All entities that display public signage, regardless of whether that signage sits on public or private land, are being urged to connect with the municipal corporation and complete the steps required to regularize their operations.

    Full information on the locations and schedule of the new mobile outstations will be published to the KSAMC’s official website and social media channels in the coming days. Closing his statement, Swaby reiterated the municipal government’s straightforward call to action: engage with KSAMC representatives, get the clarity businesses need to comply, regularize public signage, and help build a safer, more organized, and business-friendly Kingston and St Andrew for all operators and community members.

  • Gang violence has killed 2,000 in Haiti so far this year — UN

    Gang violence has killed 2,000 in Haiti so far this year — UN

    GENEVA, Switzerland – At the opening of the 62nd UN Human Rights Council session on Monday, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk delivered a grim update on the spiraling security catastrophe unfolding in Haiti, confirming that more than 2,300 people have been killed in gang-related attacks since the start of the year.

    Turk told delegates from the council’s 47 member states that the violence has left an additional 1,100 people injured and nearly 100 others abducted for ransom, laying bare the catastrophic impact of unregulated gang control across the Caribbean nation. “In Haiti, gang violence has resulted in at least 2,300 deaths, 1,100 injuries and 99 kidnappings since the start of the year. The Gang Suppression Force is urgently needed and needs to operate in line with international human rights law,” Turk stated during his formal address.

    The international push to intervene in Haiti gained traction late last year, when the UN Security Council formally approved the deployment of the GSF, a multinational combined police and military task force assembled to push back against accelerating gang violence that has paralyzed state institutions and left millions of residents trapped in unsafe zones. The new force is authorized to deploy up to 5,500 personnel, replacing the previous Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support mission, which struggled to operate effectively due to chronic underfunding and insufficient resources.

    Turk used his address to press Haitian national authorities to take urgent action to address the rampant criminal activity that has gutted the country, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere which is home to roughly 12 million people. The security breakdown has also reached the highest echelons of Haiti’s security apparatus: in a recent high-profile abduction, a top Haitian police official, James Boyard – who serves as inspector general of the Haitian National Police and chief of staff to the country’s defense minister – was taken captive alongside his wife and six-year-old child.

    Unconfirmed media reports from Haiti indicate the kidnappers are demanding a ransom between $500,000 and $700,000 to release the three family members, though Haitian officials have not yet issued an official statement verifying the ransom demand.

    As the crisis deepens, the United Nations is preparing a high-profile show of solidarity with the Haitian people: UN Secretary-General António Guterres will travel to Haiti on Tuesday for a visit focused on centering the experiences of those affected by the violence. UN spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed last week that the trip will not be a procedural negotiating visit, but a trip to meet directly with Haitian men, women and children whose lives have been upended by years of gang conflict.

  • Interim injunction barring JLP councillor from going at MP granted

    Interim injunction barring JLP councillor from going at MP granted

    A Jamaican Supreme Court justice has issued an interim court order on Monday blocking a ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillor from spreading additional false and defamatory statements targeting the party’s own sitting Member of Parliament for Kingston Central, Donovan Williams.

    The temporary restraining order will remain in effect until July 13, when a judge is scheduled to review legal arguments from both sides and issue a more permanent ruling on the dispute. Confidential court documents related to the order were shared with the Jamaica Observer by an anonymous source close to the ongoing legal proceedings on the same day the injunction was granted.

    The conflict stems from an internal party rift that erupted earlier this year between Williams and Rosalie Hamilton, the JLP councillor for Kingston’s Rae Town Division — a constituency area that falls entirely within Williams’s Kingston Central parliamentary riding. The falling out prompted Hamilton to level a series of damaging allegations against Williams in a series of voice recordings shared internally.

    Hamilton has openly acknowledged sending the voice messages to a private JLP WhatsApp group for party members, but has maintained she never intended the recordings to leak to the public and spread widely across social media platforms. As tensions escalated, the councillor went as far as threatening to actively campaign against the JLP in upcoming parliamentary elections to ensure the party lost the Kingston Central seat.

    Williams formally filed his request for an injunction through his legal counsel, attorney-at-law Rodain Richardson, on March 26, nearly three months before the court’s Monday ruling. The terms of the interim injunction are broad: it explicitly bars Hamilton from creating or distributing any false or defamatory content targeting Williams, across any platform — including social media sites, messaging apps like WhatsApp, and any other public or private communication channel.

    Beyond blocking new statements, the court order also requires Hamilton, acting either personally or through any representatives or associates, to delete and retract all existing defamatory statements about Williams that have already been published or shared online. An additional supplementary order prohibits Hamilton and any connected parties from sharing any court documents, pleadings, evidence or other case-related materials on social media or any other public forum.

    This public dispute first made headlines in late March, when the Jamaica Observer published a report titled “JLP councillor unshaken by demand letter from fellow Labourite.” That initial coverage detailed that Hamilton, a long-tenured JLP official, remained undeterred despite receiving a formal legal demand letter from Williams’s legal team ahead of the injunction filing, after the defamatory voice notes leaked to social media. When approached for comment by the Observer at that time, Hamilton declined to make any public statement on the demand letter.

    Content from the leaked voice notes revealed the depth of Hamilton’s anger at Williams and the JLP. In one recording, she claimed party leadership was plotting to install a new candidate to challenge her in the upcoming JLP councillor nomination race for her seat. She rejected calls to participate in a party run-off vote, and threatened instead to run for re-election as an independent or on an alternate party ticket. “Everything is going in the media. You want a confrontation and me a go give you the confrontation. Mi a wait pon the right time,” she said in the recording.

    In another voice message, she made clear her goal to remove Williams from his parliamentary post, saying: “Mi a go campaign mek you lose. Mi ‘affi get rid a you. You mi ‘affi get rid of, mi nah ask you dat.”

    This is not the only legal action stemming from the inter-party feud: Hamilton has filed her own court action against Williams. Back in March, she submitted a cease and desist request to the court, claiming she feared for her personal safety and demanding that Williams stop all unsolicited contact with her. Williams has strongly denied ever making any unwanted contact with Hamilton, and has stated he will not be blocked from fulfilling his official duties as the elected Member of Parliament for Kingston Central.

  • MP Brown Burke joins call for more CDF money

    MP Brown Burke joins call for more CDF money

    A long-simmering debate over constituency-level development financing in Jamaica has gained new momentum, with Opposition Member of Parliament Dr. Angela Brown Burke becoming the latest lawmaker from both sides of the political aisle to push for a substantial increase to the annual Constituency Development Fund (CDF) allocation.

    Established to support community-centered human capital and infrastructure projects across the island’s 63 parliamentary constituencies, the CDF currently provides every elected representative with a fixed JMD 20 million per year to address local needs. This amount has not changed since 2012, a point Brown Burke emphasized during a recent CDF consultation held in her St. Andrew South Western constituency. When 2026 rolls around, she noted, the stagnant funding will only make the already difficult work of constituent representation far more challenging than necessary.

    Calling the current annual allocation “a drop in the bucket” that fails to keep pace with soaring living costs and growing community demands, Brown Burke argued that the existing funding structure sets lawmakers up to fail. The wide range of responsibilities assigned to CDF recipients—from supporting low-income households to upgrading public facilities—cannot reasonably be covered with the current budget, placing elected representatives in an unfair position when constituents come to them with pressing needs.

    While government guidelines often encourage MPs to pursue supplementary funding from other state agencies to fill gaps, Brown Burke dismissed that suggestion as a purely theoretical solution. Sharing her own experience with public grant programs, she recounted that after she and a local councillor sought support from the Social Development Fund years ago, staff implied that former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller had already secured enough funding for the area, a response that discouraged her from pursuing further assistance from the body. She added that other local councillors have faced similar persistent barriers when applying for funding from the CHASE Fund, leaving alternative state support largely out of reach for many constituency representatives.

    Brown Burke did acknowledge tangible support her community has received in recent months, including assistance from corporate partners and government ministries to help families displaced by severe fires in the Majesty Gardens neighborhood. She also confirmed that her appeals for additional housing support to Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness and several cabinet ministers have yielded some positive results. Even with these one-off injections of funding, however, she stressed that the base CDF allocation remains far too small to tackle ongoing critical priorities spanning social housing, welfare assistance, vocational skills training, and local economic empowerment initiatives.

    To illustrate the scale of the shortfall, Brown Burke pointed to social housing spending in her constituency: only JMD 1 million is allocated to the area’s three municipal divisions from the annual CDF budget, translating to just JMD 300,000 per division per year—a sum too small to make meaningful progress on unmet housing needs. In addition to boosting the core constituency allocation, she also called for higher salaries for CDF community officers, who carry out much of the on-the-ground work to implement local projects.

    Brown Burke’s call comes just over a month after fellow Opposition MP Natalie Neita Garvey of St. Catherine North Central publicly raised concerns about the inadequacy of the current CDF allocation. The cross-party consensus around the need for funding increases highlights growing pressure on the Holness administration to revisit the CDF funding formula, with lawmakers arguing that a revised budget is necessary to equip representatives to effectively serve their communities.

  • Greed or player health? ‘Damaging’ World Cup drinks breaks under spotlight

    Greed or player health? ‘Damaging’ World Cup drinks breaks under spotlight

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup co-hosted across North America has become the center of a growing debate, centered on a seemingly small rule change that has split players, fans, and analysts: mandatory mid-half hydration breaks. What was introduced as a measure to protect player welfare has sparked accusations of greedy commercialization, disrupted match flow, and permanent damage to soccer’s core identity at the sport’s biggest global tournament.

    Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk became one of the most high-profile critics of the policy following his side’s 2-2 draw with Japan in an air-conditioned, roofed arena in Dallas, Texas on Sunday. The Liverpool defender pointed out that the breaks consistently line up with commercial television cuts, a disruption that detracts from the viewing experience even for neutral audiences watching from home. “I was watching almost all of the games up until today, and every time going into a commercial is a bit… not really that I like it,” Van Dijk told reporters. “I think for the neutral watchers on TV it’s also not great.”

    Van Dijk’s criticism echoes widespread fan discontent across tournament host cities. On the same day as the Netherlands-Japan clash, fans in Monterrey, Mexico booed loudly when the first-half hydration pause was called during Sweden’s 5-1 win over Tunisia. Just a day later, spectators in Atlanta’s climate-controlled stadium jeered the break during Spain’s match against Cape Verde, making clear that opposition to the policy is not isolated to one region.

    FIFA’s mandate requires two three-minute hydration breaks – one midway through each half – at every World Cup match, regardless of venue conditions or ambient temperature. Even matches played in fully temperature-controlled indoor arenas, like the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium where the Netherlands faced Japan, still see play stopped for the pauses. That decision has amplified criticism from those who see the policy as driven by revenue rather than player safety.

    For United States broadcasters, the breaks create a built-in window for additional commercial advertisements – a standard practice in major American professional sports, but an unprecedented disruption to traditional soccer broadcast schedules. Leading British football journalist Henry Winter has argued that the policy is a direct assault on soccer’s traditional structure, turning a “game of two halves” into a game of four quarters, all in pursuit of additional advertising revenue.

    “the greatest sport and event was damaged for fistfuls of dollars,” Winter said, warning that if the change is accepted at the World Cup, it could soon spread to domestic leagues around the world. He called for widespread pushback, noting that UK public broadcasters the BBC and ITV have already opted not to cut to commercials during the breaks, unlike their American counterparts. “If we tolerate this, our TV games could be next,” he added.

    Beyond commercial concerns, many observers have noted that the breaks disrupt the natural rhythm of matches, and often shift momentum unexpectedly between teams. In one high-profile example, debutant side Curacao had fought back to level 1-1 against powerhouse Germany in Houston’s roofed stadium before the first hydration pause. After the break, Curacao’s early momentum vanished completely, with Germany going on to secure a lopsided 7-1 victory. Coaches frequently use the unplanned stoppage to deliver new tactical instructions, creating an additional advantage for teams that have already lost early control of a match.

    Not all voices in the tournament have opposed the policy, however. Spain manager Luis de la Fuente argued that player welfare must remain the top priority, noting that elite soccer’s extreme physical intensity makes brief rest stops beneficial for sustaining performance. “It is difficult to sustain that level of physical exertion for long periods, and I believe those breaks offer a brief respite to recharge and continue competing well,” he said.

    Even de la Fuente, though, has questioned the one-size-fits-all mandate, pointing out that temperatures vary dramatically across the 16 World Cup host cities. While some southern venues face extreme summer heat, other host locations have recorded mild temperatures in the 15 to 28 degree Celsius range this week, making mandatory stops unnecessary.

    Van Dijk echoed that view, calling for a flexible approach that adjusts to the specific conditions of each match. “If it’s really hot, obviously it would be good to put them in,” he said. “But I think you have to look at it in every game separately in my opinion.”

    FIFA has repeatedly defended the policy, rejecting accusations that it is motivated by greed, and has stressed that the breaks are intended first and foremost to protect player health. Still, the controversy shows little sign of fading, as traditionalist fans and prominent figures in the sport continue to push back against what they see as an unnecessary change to the sport they love.

  • Medical hubs bring relief to Sav, Salt Spring residents as hurricane recovery continues

    Medical hubs bring relief to Sav, Salt Spring residents as hurricane recovery continues

    In the wake of Hurricane Melissa’s destructive passage through western Jamaica, local communities are still navigating the long and difficult road to recovery. To address unmet critical health needs and compounding recovery challenges for storm-impacted populations, cross-sector community partners have launched mobile medical hubs that have already delivered care to close to 200 residents in the hardest-hit regions.

    The outreach initiative is led by Project STAR, in formal collaboration with multiple local and international health and community stakeholders. Services have been deployed directly to two high-need locations: Salt Spring in the parish of St James, and Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland.

    Official data released by Project STAR confirms that more than 50 local residents accessed care at the Salt Spring hub, while the Savanna-la-Mar site served more than 140 people, pushing the total number of beneficiaries to just under 200. Saffrey Brown, director of Project STAR, explained that the medical hubs are a core component of the organization’s broader post-disaster recovery framework, focused on lifting up vulnerable groups still struggling with the hurricane’s aftermath. Both targeted communities suffered extensive damage from severe flooding and widespread storm-related disruptions to critical infrastructure, including local healthcare facilities.

    “Every resident who attended the hubs received a full suite of primary healthcare services, ranging from one-on-one medical consultations, blood pressure screenings, blood glucose testing, and body mass index evaluations to targeted public health education,” Brown outlined. “A trained team of licensed healthcare professionals was on-site to deliver care and arrange follow-up referrals for residents requiring additional specialized treatment.”

    At the Savanna-la-Mar site alone, 136 residents registered to receive services. Women made up the large majority of attendees, with 94 female and 42 male residents accessing care. While working-age adults between 20 and 59 years old made up the largest demographic served, the initiative also extended care to 25 senior citizens and 15 children aged 12 and under. Of all registered attendees in Savanna-la-Mar, 96 completed all four recommended core health assessments, and more than 110 residents received consultations with licensed physicians. The hub also offered voluntary confidential screening for HIV and syphilis, which 32 residents opted to complete. Complementary non-medical community education sessions were led by representatives from the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the National Council on Drug Abuse, and the Restorative Justice Programme, covering topics ranging from public safety to substance abuse support.

    Felicia Kelly, chief financial officer and logistician for Integrative Clinics International (ICI), one of the partnering organizations, shared that the overwhelming unmet need created by Hurricane Melissa pushed her group to join the initiative in Westmoreland. With a team of 18 dedicated healthcare professionals, ICI led screenings for prevalent chronic conditions including hypertension and diabetes, in addition to providing general consultations and connecting residents to life-saving essential medications. “We brought our full range of resources to this community to make sure every resident can access the care and medication they need to stay healthy through this difficult recovery period,” Kelly noted.

    Beyond clinical healthcare services, the partnership also delivered critical humanitarian relief supplies to attendees, arranged through support from Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) Caribbean. The organization distributed care packages stocked with non-perishable food, personal hygiene products, and bedding, with priority distribution going to elderly and isolated residents.

    “Supporting public health and health-focused disaster recovery initiatives has been a core priority of GEM Caribbean’s Hurricane Melissa response strategy from day one,” explained Deika Morrison, executive director of GEM Caribbean. “We are grateful to Project STAR for the opportunity to collaborate on this vital work that meets so many immediate needs for our community.”

    Beneficiary residents have widely praised the outreach effort, describing it as a lifeline at a time when stable access to care remains out of reach for many. Krystal Taylor, a resident of New Market Oval in Savanna-la-Mar, shared her gratitude for the opportunity to access free clinical care and medication through the hub. “Getting free medications here today filled me with so much joy — this is real care for our community,” Taylor said. “It means the world, especially right now when so many of us are still working to get our lives back on track after the storm.”

    Brown emphasized that even as broader recovery efforts progress across western Jamaica, consistent access to affordable, basic healthcare remains one of the most pressing unmet needs for thousands of storm-affected residents. The community hub model was intentionally designed to remove common barriers to care, from transportation costs to long wait times at damaged facilities, while connecting local residents to ongoing care and support services. The initiative is part of a larger, long-term community recovery strategy that integrates healthcare access, psychosocial support, public education, and humanitarian aid to support residents as they rebuild their lives and communities in the months following the disaster.

  • MoBay adds automated car park in move towards becoming smart city

    MoBay adds automated car park in move towards becoming smart city

    MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Montego Bay’s ambition to evolve into a fully connected smart city has reached a new milestone, after the St James Municipal Corporation officially opened the city’s first automated public parking facility last Thursday. The project forms part of the municipality’s broader urban renewal and smart city development strategy, marking one of the first tangible tech-focused upgrades delivered to local residents.

    The municipal corporation invested roughly $4 million to upgrade the existing public car park on Harbour Street, replacing the legacy manual parking system with a fully digital automated framework. According to Nicholas Thompson, a representative from Innovative Core Solutions — the private firm contracted to complete the transformation — the new system eliminates paper-based processes like handwritten parking receipts, cutting administrative waste and simplifying transaction workflows.

    Under the new system, drivers receive a physical entry card upon entering the facility. When exiting, users scan their card at a payment terminal to view the calculated parking fee, then complete payment at an on-site cashier booth. Unlike the old manual system that left room for unreported parking and underpayment, Thompson noted that the automated framework closes all revenue leakage loopholes: there is no way for drivers to exit the facility without paying the full correct fee. Flexible card options are also available for daily users, monthly subscribers, and registered guests of the facility, with future upgrades already planned. Thompson added that the project team intends to roll out new features including automatic license plate recognition in the coming months to further improve efficiency.

    Speaking at the official ribbon-cutting ceremony opening the upgraded facility, Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon framed the new car park as a critical incremental step toward his administration’s long-term vision of a tech-integrated smart city. “It is these small procedural steps that feed into the whole. After enough time, we can integrate all separate systems together to build a complete smart city,” Vernon shared in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.

    Vernon explained that the automated car park is one of many small technological investments the municipality is rolling out under its urban renewal programme, all aimed at building long-term urban sustainability and improving quality of life for Montego Bay residents. He pointed to earlier smart city wins already delivered by the administration, including moving multiple municipal application services online and deploying security cameras that helped eliminate several persistent illegal dump sites across the city. The mayor also revealed that a new smart bus stop project is on track to be completed soon, emphasizing that building a smart city is a gradual, cumulative process rather than an overnight transformation.

    The Harbour Street car park automation was funded and implemented under MoBay’s STEP UP programme — short for Striving Towards Environmental Protection & Urban Preservation — an initiative focused on strengthening environmental protection standards and improving urban public order.

    Vernon shared that ahead of launching the project, the municipal corporation conducted a months-long internal review to identify underperforming revenue streams that could be upgraded to generate more consistent public income. Car parks emerged as a high-priority target for improvement, with Vernon noting that a multi-storey expansion of the Harbour Street facility remains the long-term ideal for the site.

    “Developing multi-storey car parks across Montego Bay serves two key goals: it boosts municipal revenue and helps alleviate chronic city center traffic congestion,” the mayor explained. “Right now, illegal on-street parking is a persistent problem that clogs roads and reduces local economic productivity. Better organized parking facilities will help cut congestion and lift productivity.”

    Vernon expressed confidence that the public investment in the automated car park will deliver strong long-term returns for the municipality. “When we approve municipal projects, we don’t make decisions frivolously. We carefully evaluate return on investment and long-term public value before moving forward,” he said. The mayor also confirmed that the administration has already identified additional city-owned car parks to convert to automated systems, with the municipal library car park marked as the next project to follow the Harbour Street facility. By starting small with a pilot project, the corporation can work out any implementation kinks before scaling the model across more public facilities.

  • Trump says Strait of Hormuz will be ‘completely open’ Friday

    Trump says Strait of Hormuz will be ‘completely open’ Friday

    EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — On the eve of the G7 summit hosted in France, U.S. President Donald Trump made a sweeping announcement Monday during opening remarks for bilateral negotiations with French President Emmanuel Macron: the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz will return to full, unrestricted navigation starting Friday, following a landmark agreement between the United States and Iran that brings an end to the regional conflict that had restricted commercial and military passage through the global energy bottleneck.

    The narrow waterway, which carries roughly a fifth of the world’s daily oil consumption and a large share of global liquefied natural gas trade, has been a flashpoint for regional tension for decades. Trump’s announcement comes after the United Kingdom and France had recently put forward a proposal for a coordinated multinational naval escort mission to secure the strait, a framework the U.S. leader indicated would likely not be necessary moving forward. “I don’t think we are going to need much help” to maintain open access through the passage, Trump told reporters.

    Trump added that the strait is already partially open to traffic, with de-mining operations currently underway to clear any unexploded ordnance left from the recent conflict, describing the ongoing work as “hunting” for residual explosive threats.

    Central to the new agreement, Trump emphasized, is a core commitment from Iran that it will abandon any pursuit of a nuclear weapons program. “The main thing is Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” he said, hailing the negotiated deal with the Islamic Republic.

    The announcement follows a major upheaval in Iran’s leadership: on February 28, the first day of what Trump described as a U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, the country’s long-serving Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed. In remarks Monday, Trump claimed that Washington now enjoys positive relations with Iran’s new governing establishment. “The first set (of leaders) is gone, the second set is gone, and we found the third set to be very smart… We ended up making a deal,” Trump said, declining to elaborate on which specific leaders he was referencing when describing the successive leadership transitions.

    Looking ahead, Trump expressed optimism about the future of the Middle East, saying “I think a lot of great things are going to happen in the Middle East right now.” He confirmed that U.S. Vice President JD Vance will attend the official signing ceremony for the agreement this coming Friday, though he offered no details on the location of the event.