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Two moms from Kentucky are speaking out after they were drugged and raped in the Bahamas after the US issued a travel warning for the vacation hotspot. Longtime friends Amber Shearer and Dongayla Dobson said their first kid-free vacation ended with a traumatic, broad-daylight assault when they decided to go to the beach after the Carnival cruise ship they were on docked at the island country. Now they’re warning other women. The moms were relaxing on a Grand Bahama beach when a resort staffer offered them a two-for-one drink deal ... they soon felt like the drinks were much stronger...

The U.S. government has raised its travel alert level for Jamaica amid a spate of murders in the Caribbean nation, urging Americans to reconsider visiting the island "due to crime and [unreliable] medical services." The State Department announced the change, to its Level 3 travel advisory, for Jamaica just a few days after it issued a warning about the Bahamas, which remained at a Level 2 advisory, urging Americans to "exercise increased caution," despite a series of murders there.

Think twice about a tropical getaway to the Caribbean this winter. The U.S. embassy in the Bahamas has released a security warning and travel advisory that the island nation is currently unsafe for tourists amidst 18 murders — “primarily” motivated by gang violence — in January alone. Safety concerns have reached a point of severity where U.S. officials say people shouldn’t even try to “physically resist” being robbed. “Murders have occurred at all hours including in broad daylight on the streets,” the embassy wrote in a release, also recommending the use of “extreme caution” on the eastern side of the...

The military aircraft that brought Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Jamaica for a family vacation had a maintenance issue prior to his planned return to Canada this week, prompting a second plane to be flown to the Caribbean island ... The Conservatives are calling on the interim conflict of interest and ethics commissioner to launch a probe into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s holiday in Jamaica. Opposition parties were already criticizing Trudeau earlier this week for spending his holiday at an oceanfront villa in Jamaica at no cost, as first reported by the National Post. Rooms go for about $9,300 per...

The judge presiding over former President Trump’s multiple charges related to his attempts to legally challenge the 2020 presidential election comes from a family with a history of Marxist revolutionary activities in Jamaica. The judge’s family history was reported recently by the New York Post. Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, appointed by President Obama, is the grandchild of Frank Hill. Hill was a communist revolutionary in Jamaica who, along with his brother Ken, was briefly incarcerated by the British governor of the island during WWII due to suspicions of “subversive activities,” the report notes. Frank Hill is the father of Noelle...

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is assigned to the January 6 case against former President Donald Trump, is related to some of the “most influential” Jamaican Marxists. Special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump on four counts related to his alleged effort to steal the 2020 election at the beginning of the month. Interestingly, the Article III Project revealed that Chutkan has family ties with the top Marxist revolutionaries in Jamaica. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1962, Chutkan’s grandfather, Frank Hill, and great uncle, Ken Hill, played a key role in founding Jamaica’s People’s National Party (PNP). Ken Hill was...

A UK man on vacation with his family in Jamaica died after attempting to partake in a challenge that involved drinking all 21 cocktails featured on a bar’s menu. Timothy Southern had finished 12 of the menu’s various cocktails when he returned to his hotel room at the Royal Decameron Club Caribbean in Saint Ann, where he later died, ITV News reported. A pathologist in Kingston said the 53-year-old Staffordshire man’s cause of death was “acute gastroenteritis due to alcohol consumption.” Staffordshire-area coroner Emma Serrano ruled his death was alcohol-related, the outlet reported.

A British father died in Jamaica after attempting a challenge at a hotel pool bar to try and drink all 21 cocktails on the menu, an inquest has heard. Timothy Southern, from Lichfield, Staffordshire, had drunk 12 of the cocktails when he went to his room at the Royal Decameron Club Caribbean, in Saint Ann. The 53-year-old was on holiday with his sister, children, and other relatives when tragedy struck in May, 2022. Loved-ones rushed to Timothy's room after the alarm was raised. One of them told his inquest: 'He was on his back choking. I put him in the...

"Disrespectful, entitled, unappreciative" Controversy has erupted around a video by the owner of Rustic Mountain Living, a Jamaican cottage rental business. The woman says she will no longer allow short-term rentals for black Americans.

The owner said she rents to people from all over the world but has had difficulty with most of her Black American clientele. She categorized them as “disrespectful, entitled, unappreciative” and said the reason they are is that they have been spoiled and given too much “free sh*t” in America. She complained that they “start fights with each other” late at night and said they expected the same treatment in Jamaica that they receive in America, “They think that they can come to Jamaica and can get the same free shit here, and they are nasty about it.” She continued...

Booking photos of Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman taken on May 30, 2020. In a dramatic hearing on Thursday, a federal judge sentenced a corporate attorney who firebombed a police car during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests to a year in jail, arguing that his prestigious education — boarding school, Princeton, a law degree from New York University — should have rendered him a peacekeeper, not an instigator. “You’re not one of the oppressed. You’re one of the privileged,” senior Eastern District of New York Judge Brian Cogan told Colinford Mattis, even as he expressed admiration for what the...

For many bands, they can labour away for years developing and reshaping their sound to reach what they deem artistic perfection – most never reach this eutopia. This, however, was never a worry for post-punk’s artful vampires, Bauhaus. With their cavernous, magical debut single, ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, they knew they had hit the nail on the head; everything after was a bonus. In 1978, Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, Kevin Haskins and David J formed Bauhaus with the aim of bringing a sinister and more artistic edge to punk. They would employ the vibrations of glam, psychedelia, dub and prog-rock to...

A white DePaul University professor mocked her black Jamaican-born colleague Jason D. Hill, claiming he came from a “shit-hole” country after Hill wrote an op-ed expressing support for the state of Israel. The smear may be shocking to some but it’s just another day on an American university campus nowadays. To the academic Left, supporting Israel is arguably the worst thing anyone can do. Backing the Jewish state is an unforgivable sin in their eyes. To these people, saying anything good about Israel is a crime against humanity. They believe that perpetrators of such thought crimes need to be...

SKA, one of the musical genres Jamaica has gifted the world, will be celebrated today, July 1, International Reggae Day. Conceptualiser of the virtual celebration of Jamaican music Andrea Davis told the Jamaica Observer that the decision to celebrate ska this year was taken in a bid to pay homage to the genre which is celebrating 60 years, just like Jamaican Independence and spawned so much of the success that the country’s music has had on the world scene. “There is a big ska market all over the globe. It is very much a vibrant genre, even if it is...

Today is International Reggae Day. An annual global celebration of Jamaican music and culture, it is this year being celebrated under the theme ‘60 years of ska music’. Here are 15 songs the organisers want you to add to your playlist. 1. My Boy Lollipop — Millie Small 2. Eastern Standard Time — Don Drummond 3. Guns of Navarone — The Skatalites Headlines Delivered to Your Inbox Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters. 4. Forward March — Derrick Morgan 5. I’ll Never Grow Old — The Maytals 6. Ska War — The Maytals 7. Easy Snapping —...

Vice President Kamala Harris went viral once again, this time for remarks she made during a White House event alongside Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness. During Wednesday's event, Harris and Holness touted relations between the U.S. and Jamaica and offered highlights of what was discussed in their meeting. However, the vice president raised eyebrows when she attempted to explain how the U.S. was going to assist the Caribbean nation from the negative impacts of the pandemic. "We also recognize just as it has been in the United States, for Jamaica, one of the issues that has been presented as an...

Prince William expressed his "profound sorrow" over slavery and Britain's role in it during a speech he delivered in Jamaica on Wednesday night. "I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened," the Duke of Cambridge said during a dinner hosted by the Governor General of Jamaica at King's House in Kingston, Jamaica. "While the pain runs deep, Jamaica continues to forge its future with determination, courage and fortitude," William continued. "The strength and shared sense of purpose of the Jamaican people, represented in your flag and motto, celebrate an invincible spirit." Prince...

Robbie Shakespeare, one half of the powerhouse rhythm duo of Sly and Robbie, has died. A close associate confirmed his passing to The Gleaner a short while ago. Shakespeare had reportedly been ailing for some time and had undergone surgery related to his kidneys. He was living overseas and was in hospital in Florida. In July last year, he placed at Number 17 on 'The 50 Greatest Bassists of All Time list', compiled by the prestigious Rolling Stone magazine. Headlines Delivered to Your Inbox Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters. When The Gleaner reached out to the...

Winsome Sears delivered a patriotic speech as she claimed victory in her race to become the first woman and woman of color to be elected Virginia's lieutenant governor. "I'm telling you that what you are looking at is the American dream," Sears said during her victory speech. Sears, a Marine Corps veteran, claimed victory in a speech early Wednesday morning and was met by a crowd chanting, "Winsome! Winsome! Winsome!" "When I joined the Marine Corps, I was still a Jamaican. But this country had done so much for me, I was willing, willing, to die for this country," Sears...

A TWISTED cult leader facing murder charges over a human sacrifice ritual has been killed in a police car crash. Self-styled prophet His Excellency Dr Kevin O Smith died alongside a detective, while two other officers were seriously hurt. The 39-year-old, whose sinister influence over British churchgoers was exposed by The Sun last week, was in a police convoy, being taken to be charged with murder, when his car overturned. Smith, under investigation after two people had their throats slit at his church, was cut out of the wreckage but pronounced dead in hospital. Last week, The Sun told how...