An NPP communications guy named Awal Mohammed went on JoyNews and basically flipped the script on why WASSCE results tanked this year. Math scores absolutely cratered, with only about half of the 461,000 test takers managing to pass, and that's the worst it's been in four years. English dropped to 69 percent, while Social Studies fell hard from 71 percent down to just 56 percent.
Here's where it gets weird. Everyone figured stricter proctoring caused the mess, but Awal's saying the opposite actually happened. He pointed out that back when results were better, WAEC had to withhold exams from 314 schools for cheating suspicions, and this year that number dropped to 185. His whole argument is that monitoring got more relaxed, not tougher...
St. Lucia Labour Party looks set to run the government again after early tallies showed them crushing the United Workers Party by roughly 8,000 votes while officials kept counting ballots. The preliminary numbers had SLP sitting at 27,156 against UWP's 19,009 across the 17-constituency race that pulled about 44 candidates plus eight independents.
Prime Minister Philip J Pierre apparently held his Castries East seat while UWP boss Allen Chastanet locked down Micoud South, and former PM Stephenson King grabbed Castries North as an independent. Regional observer teams from CARICOM and OAS monitored the whole thing after polls ran through the standard hours.
Final seat declarations were still getting verified by returning officers, but...
Jamaica's murder count might drop below 700 cases for the first time in nearly four decades after Prime Minister Andrew Holness told everyone his government dropped over 90 billion dollars into security forces since taking power. The PM gave props to police and soldiers who stayed active during Hurricane Melissa instead of hiding inside stations, and he credited sustained funding plus policy backing for driving violent crime numbers down by 42 percent compared to last year.
Holness talked up how police stations became community hubs after the hurricane wrecked towns across the island, with residents showing up for phone charging, internet access, and aid distribution. He pushed citizens to keep supporting law enforcement while...
Trinidad's PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar went nuclear on the opposition after they started freaking out about American radar gear spinning at the Tobago airport. She straight-up accused the People's National Movement of taking drug cartel money and pushing anti-US talking points, while PNM's Tobago leader, Ancil Dennis, called the whole setup suspicious. Defence officials held emergency meetings after the Chief Secretary admitted he had zero clue the equipment got installed, and Washington parked a nuclear carrier plus marines nearby for counter-narcotics operations.
Persad-Bissessar admitted she personally asked for the temporary radar system but kept it quiet because announcing surveillance upgrades to drug runners seemed...
A bunch of international lenders just dropped a massive aid package worth $6.7 billion to help Jamaica bounce back from Hurricane Melissa's destruction. The coalition includes CAF, CDB, IDB Group, IMF, and World Bank, throwing in emergency cash, sovereign loans, grants, and private sector money over the next three years. Prime Minister Andrew Holness is meeting with these finance reps to hammer out the details.
Jamaica already grabbed $662 million through its disaster risk setup before this new package arrived. The country got hit with $8.8 billion in total damage, and rebuilding requires serious long-term investment plans. The new support breaks down with CAF offering up to $1 billion, IDB dropping another billion, World Bank adding...
Haiti just became ground zero for cocaine trafficking after cops grabbed over a thousand kilos near Île de la Tortue in their biggest bust since the 90s. The UN says armed gangs basically run the smuggling corridors between South America and the US while collecting tolls from boats and moving drugs with zero pushback. Belgian authorities even seized more than a metric ton of cocaine that came through Haitian ports, and Jamaican intel points to guns-for-drugs swaps happening with gang networks.
UNODC is scrambling to help the coast guard patrol heavily trafficked routes while setting up specialized courts to handle money laundering cases. The trafficking operations overlap with migrant smuggling, and criminal groups from the Bahamas and...
The Caribbean health alliance overseeing HIV programs is pushing back against major funding cuts threatening treatment access across the region. Dr. Wendy Telgt Emanuelson from PANCAP said financial shortfalls could wreck prevention programs and medicine availability, but Caribbean nations refuse to lose ground after hitting elimination milestones for mother-to-child transmission.
The director emphasized previous victories like meeting treatment targets and called out the need for better supply chains, plus community empowerment to stretch resources. She told people living with HIV that support stays solid despite budget pressures.
PANCAP pledged to keep building on decades of progress rather than watching gains disappear.
Jamaica lost Dorothy Pine-McLarty, the groundbreaking lawyer who ran the Electoral Commission and spent decades pushing democratic reforms forward. Prime Minister Andrew Holness dropped a tribute confirming her death and calling out her barrier-smashing career that made her the first female partner at Myers, Fletcher & Gordon back in the 70s, before she led their London office.
Pine-McLarty joined the Electoral Advisory Committee and became the first woman to chair the ECJ while overseeing multiple parliamentary cycles, local elections, and voter ID modernization projects. The government gave her the Order of Jamaica honor for her contributions before she retired. Holness sent condolences to everyone touched by her work in law and...
Common Man's Party guy Mubarak Munyagwa is threatening mass deportations of foreign business owners if he wins the presidency. The candidate told supporters in Hoima that overseas investors running small-scale operations need to get kicked out because they undercut Ugandan entrepreneurs who can't compete with their prices on phones, soap, and other basic merchandise.
Munyagwa wants foreigners partnering with locals instead of directly hawking goods, and he plans to overhaul immigration rules to limit who gets in. His platform promises bigger oil revenue shares for Bunyoro residents plus better funding spread across health care, schools, roads, power grids, and farming sectors. Local business owners backed his position, saying foreign...
