Janet Silvera/Gleaner Writer

Barbados’ prime minister, Mia Mottley, estimated that across the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, these platforms earned US$11.6 billion a year.
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

Regional leaders to arrive, tour hurricane-hit west today

WESTERN BUREAU: A team of Caribbean leaders, joined by officials from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is expected to arrive in the island this morning to tour hurricane-ravaged communities…
Senna Summerbell (left) and Christopher Issa accepting the winning trophy as the first Jamaicans drivers to win a European Drivers Championship.
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

Ja drivers make history in Italy

WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica’s motorsport community is celebrating a landmark achievement after race car drivers Senna Summerbell and Christopher Issa made history in Italy this past weekend, becoming the…
Merris Green from Westgreen/Catherine Hall in Montego Bay, St James, explains how floodwaters from Hurricane Melissa swept through her house destroying all her furnishings.
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

STRATEGIC SHIFT REQUIRED

WESTERN BUREAU: As three rivers and storm surge buried Catherine Hall and Westgreen under mud and debris, tempers flared this week as residents demanded urgent national intervention, saying repeated…
Actor Tyrese Gibson (left) dances with the Iberostar team, which included entertainment manager at JOIA Rose Hall by Iberostar, Deivy Noel (right), and the entertainment dance group in the background.
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

Iberostar reopens in high spirits, welcomes Tyrese Gibson on relief mission

WESTERN BUREAU: Two weeks after Hurricane Melissa battered Jamaica’s tourism belt, the Iberostar Rose Hall complex in Montego Bay, St James, roared back to life on Monday, welcoming its first new…
AT TOP: Pastor Alexander Wurm and his 22-year-old daughter Serena.
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

‘He was a hero!’

WESTERN BUREAU: The Caribbean relief community is hailing the Cayman Islands-based missionary Alexander Wurm as a true hero, a man whose final flight embodied selfless love and service to Jamaica.
Dozens of people wait to purchase fuel from the Thrifty gas station along the Bogue road in Montego Bay, St James, on November 2.
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

‘Reopen, even if it’s not perfect’

WESTERN BUREAU: There aren’t enough vendors to serve the crowds of foodies who still converge nightly on the Fort Street jerk chicken strip, as Montego Bay slowly claws its way back to normality after…
Collen Gager, mayor of Falmouth.
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

Falmouth’s popular Bend-Down Market to reopen Wednesday

WESTERN BUREAU: Falmouth’s popular Bend-Down Market is on course to reopen on Wednesday, just under two weeks after Hurricane Melissa tore through the historic town, leaving widespread destruction.…
Minister of Local Government, Desmond McKenzie (2nd left) and Mayor of Falmouth, Collen Gager (right front) tour the town of Falmouth with other technocrats in the government and vendors displaced by Hurricane Melissa.
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

McKenzie: Falmouth devastation as bad as Black River

WESTERN BUREAU: The devastation in Falmouth, Trelawny, rivals that of Black River, St Elizabeth, according to Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie, who described…
Dozens queue up for cash at Scotiabank ATM in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay, the tourism capital of the island.
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

JHTA allocates $10 million to aid tourism workers hit by Melissa

WESTERN BUREAU: When Hurricane Melissa tore across Jamaica as a Category Five storm on October 28, thousands of tourism workers were left homeless, jobless, and uncertain. Now, the Jamaica Hotel and…