Latest News

Released prisoners, in a bus, are welcomed by family members and colleagues after they left Insein Prison in Yangon, Myanmar.
January 5, 2026

Government releases more than 6,100 prisoners on independence anniversary

BANGKOK (AP) Myanmar’s military government granted amnesty to more than 6,100 prisoners and reduced other inmates’ sentences Sunday to mark the 78th anniversary of the country’s independence from…
A photo of sunflowers Missi Dowd-Figueroa once grew on her property is projected onto her palms as she poses for a portrait at her rebuilding site in Altadena, California.
January 5, 2026

An LA-area resident sows sunflowers where her home once stood

ALTADENA (AP) Missi Dowd-Figueroa brought life back to the fire-ravaged plot where her home once stood – one sunflower at a time. The registered nurse and mother of three lost her 1898 farm-style…
Letters
January 5, 2026

Letter of the Day | Don’t expand close-in-age exemption, educate the children

THE EDITOR, Madam: Mickel Jackson, of Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), recently called for decriminalising consensual sex between minors. She went on to show stats , inadvertently, that though the law…
President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach, Florida.
January 5, 2026

Editorial | No one is safe

After months of escalating pressure on his government, few people could claim to be genuinely shocked by America’s bombing of Venezuela and the seizure of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. What…
Firefighters cry as they attend a memorial march in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, to honour victims of devastating fire in Le Constellation bar.
January 5, 2026

Hundreds march in silence to honour victims of bar fire that left 40 dead

CRANS-MONTANA (AP) Hundreds marched in silence Sunday to honour the victims of the New Year’s Eve fire at a bar in the Swiss Alpine resort of Crans-Montana, which left 40 dead and many severely…
Letters
January 5, 2026

Consider targeted approach to church assistance

THE EDITOR, Madam: The Government’s announcement of a J$75 million allocation to churches for hurricane recovery has generated considerable public debate. Many people are arguing that churches, as…
Letters
January 5, 2026

Barbados calls to us

THE EDITOR, Madam: I am writing with reference to Tony Deyal’s column about Barbados in The Gleaner. It was genuinely exciting to revisit the country through his words. Having visited Barbados…
Priscilla Duhaney.
January 5, 2026

Hear the Children’s Cry want voice in talks on decriminalising sex between minors

Priscilla Duhaney, attorney and spokesperson for Hear the Children’s Cry, is expressing hope that the child-rights advocacy group will be invited to Parliament to air its opposition to proposals that…
From left: Mark Smith, immediate past president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA); Mark Malabver, president of the JTA; and Evelyn Tugwell, retired JTA western regional officer, cut the ribbon to reopen the JTA’s Western Regional Office in Mon
January 5, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

‘If not now, when?’

WESTERN BUREAU: President of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Mark Malabver says the long-running dispute over teachers’ salaries and conditions of service is not simply an industrial issue but…