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In 1999, radiologist Nicola Strickland went on a holiday to the Caribbean island of Tobago, a tropical paradise complete with idyllic, deserted beaches. On her first morning there, she went foraging for shells and corals in the white sand, but the holiday quickly took a turn for the worse. Scattered amongst the coconuts and mangoes on the beach, Strickland and her friend found some sweet-smelling green fruit that looked much like small crabapples. Both foolishly decided to take a bite. Within moments the pleasantly sweet flavor was overwhelmed by a peppery, burning feeling and an excruciating tightness in the throat...

It’s getting harder to find a Caribbean cruise itinerary that doesn’t include a stop on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Do Not Travel” list. Over the past few weeks, the list of popular Caribbean cruise ports given the CDC’s dreaded Level 4 designation has ballooned. Countries with a Level 4 travel health notice are deemed to have a “very high risk” of Covid-19 with a “Do Not Travel” recommendation for Americans. The Caribbean islands at Level 4 now include: Aruba, the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Curacao, Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St. Barts, St. Kitts and Nevis,...

Royal Caribbean’s much-anticipated newest ship, Odyssey of the Seas, has embarked from Fort Lauderdale on a two-night test cruise, in preparation for its first cruise on July 31. The 4,198-passenger ship, a Quantum Ultra class with new features and restaurants that have yet to be enjoyed by U.S. passengers, left Port Everglades on Monday, July 19. When it starts its revenue cruises, Odyssey will sail on six- and eight-night Caribbean itineraries. The test cruise is required by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because Royal Caribbean is allowing families onboard, and therefore not committing to require that 95...

<p>Reggae music became popular in the late 1960s, when young people were excited about it and gravitated to the new sound. The artists were mainly grass-roots people who used their voices to articulate a message and communicate to the masses. Old-time reggae lyrics described life events in the Caribbean culture to which most people could relate.</p>

The majority of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is without power and covered in ash on April 11, 2021, following another explosive event at La Soufriere volcano. Volcanic ash is rising up to 16 km (52 000 feet) above sea level and extending up to 3 000 km (1 850 miles), especially to the ENE but becomes rather diffuse, the Washington VAAC reported at 00:59 UTC on April 11. The National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) is urging residents with respiratory problems to take necessary precautions to remain safe and healthy and drivers to be careful on the roads which have...

La Soufrière volcano is located on the largest island of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines chain, the country's National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) said. "Explosive eruption at La Soufrière," NEMO tweeted. "Ash plumes up to 20,000 feet headed East," it added. St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves on Thursday declared a disaster alert prompted by a change in the eruptive activity at the La Soufrière volcano, NEMO said. The island was placed on red alert, meaning an eruption was "imminent now," NEMO said. "Please leave the red zone immediately. La Soufrière has erupted. Ash fall recorded...

The president of the Dominican Republic has announced plans to build a fence along its border with Haiti, which extends for about 380km (236 miles). Luis Abinader said the barrier would help curb illegal immigration, drugs and the flow of stolen vehicles between the two countries, which share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Mr Abinader said work on the barrier would start later this year. Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere. Relations between the two neighbours have been historically difficult. Mr Abinader said the barrier in some "conflictive" sections would include a double-fence along with...

Residents of St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been told to remain alert after a Caribbean volcano came back to life. La Soufrière is the highest point in St. Vincent and is located near the northern tip of the country but remained dormant for decades before beginning to spew ash on Tuesday this week, AP reported. Steam, gas, and a volcanic dome formed by lava that reached the earth's surface could also be seen above the volcano, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). The country's government, which consists of a chain of islands home to more than...

China may be abusing telecoms' vulnerabilities to spy on Americans’ cellphones through Caribbean phone networks, according to a new report. “No one in the industry wants the public to know the severity of ongoing surveillance attacks,” Gary Miller, a former tech security executive, told the Guardian in a new report published Tuesday. “I want the public to know about it.” Miller based his findings on years spent examining threat reports and signaling traffic between foreign and domestic mobile operators. He told the paper that China may have used Caribbean networks to do the job – Barbados, in particular. At issue...

NEW YORK, NY - From September 21 to September 24, President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton will virtually convene members of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Action Network – leaders from business, government, and civil society – to drive action on resilience efforts in the Caribbean. The Action Network's efforts started in 2018 in direct response to Hurricanes Maria and Irma and have been revamped to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.

Wealthy Americans aren’t just fleeing big cities for rural communities amid the virus pandemic, social unrest, and surge in violent crime; some of these folks are leaving the country until the dust settles. Citizenship advisers, government agencies, and real estate developers are pointing out a surge in inbound migration flow of Americans to countries in the Caribbean Sea ahead of the US presidential election. Forbes spoke with Mohammed Asaria, whose Range Developments is constructing six new Senses resorts in Grenada, said Americans are flocking to the Caribbean as a means to ‘hideout’ from the socio-economic implosion stateside. “You’ve got the...

Bill Clinton denies visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s private island Former President Bill Clinton denied ever visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island in a statement Friday — a day after allegations that he had been there with two “young girls” surfaced in newly unsealed court documents. “The story keeps changing, the facts don’t. President Clinton has never been to the island,” Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña tweeted Friday. In a statement to Newsweek, Ureña added that Clinton had not spoken to Epstein in more that a decade before sex trafficking allegations were lodged at him. On Thursday, statements that Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre...

The wife of an aristocrat who flew more than 30 times on Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’ private jet has stepped down from her role at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Clare Hazell raised thousands of pounds for the charity by hosting a classic car show each year at her family’s sprawling Elveden Estate in Norfolk. The Mail on Sunday last month revealed that the interior designer – who became the Countess of Iveagh in 2001 when she married Edward Guinness, 4th Earl of Iveagh and a member of the brewing dynasty – had repeatedly travelled...

Pirates or no pirates, the islands of the Caribbean were settled and resettled by at least three successive waves of colonists from the American mainland, according to a new study. The examination of ancient DNA from 93 islanders who lived between 400 and 3200 years ago reveals a complex population history and ties to broader, inter-continental human expansions in both North and South America, according to an international research team... The Caribbean was one of the last regions in the Americas to be settled. Archaeological evidence suggests the first residents arrived about 8000 years ago, and that 3000 years later...

One soldier was killed in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Sunday, local media reported, when police officers shot up an army headquarters in a violent escalation of protests demanding better working conditions for police. Police officers exchanged gunfire with soldiers for hours after their protest halted near the national palace. It was unclear which side started firing first. Hundreds of supporters joined dozens of police officers, some in street clothes and others wearing police uniforms and face masks, as they advanced towards the palace in a protest demanding better pay. At least three police officers and one serviceman were...

Potters at Maya cities on the Caribbean side of Central America fused volcanic ash with local limestone to form household and ceremonial pottery, because the ash made their ceramics easier to fire. The distinctive recipe was a hallmark of the Late Classic Period from A.D. 600 to 900, Ford said. With thousands of people living in cities such as El Pilar and Tikal, the Mayan potters burned through several tons of volcanic ash every year, Ford has estimated. But no one can figure out where the ash came from. The mystery begins with the fact that there just aren't any...

——Why We Wrote This—— How to counter invasive species, a common, and often intractable, problem? One entrepreneur’s clever approach offers lessons in finding solutions in the unlikeliest of places. If you can’t beat them, eat them. That is the common wisdom of many scientists, conservationists, and fishermen who dream of ridding the western Atlantic of invasive lionfish, a stunning aquarium fish that, when introduced in the wild, dominates and destroys reef ecosystems. However, catching lionfish has never been simple; they are not easily targeted by line or net fishing. Now, a surprising new invention may bring lionfish hunting to the...

AN ASTEROID which came crashing into Earth and NASA had no idea it was coming reiterates the need to keep a closer eye on the sky in case a massive space rock comes hurtling towards our planet. A small asteroid shot towards Earth at 14.9 kilometres per second, and NASA admitted it did not know it was coming. The space rock known as 2019 MO was just three metres wide and exploded when it hit the planet’s atmosphere on 22 July above the Caribbean, but the way it approached unexpectedly reaffirms the need for more eyes on the sky. NASA...

When several Democratic presidential candidates answered questions in Spanish during the debates in Miami on Wednesday and Thursday, it was a clear overture to the Latino voting bloc — a message of inclusiveness from a party that needs strong turnout to win the White House in 2020. But for some in the growing Caribbean-American community of South Florida, it came across as a snub. “They never mention black immigrants,” said Francesca Menes, a 34-year-old of Haitian descent who in December resigned from her post as treasurer for the Florida Democratic Party. “They make us feel invisible,” Menes said of the...

While a number of Caribbean destinations struggle, resorts in the Bahamas are bouncing back from a tough period, attracting vacationers, gamblers and sun worshipers. Hotel occupancy in the Bahamas in the first half of 2019 was up 19% from a year earlier, according to hotel-data firm STR. Revenue per available room, a popular industry metric, was up 27% to $231. Nearby destinations’ rates have fallen or stayed flat. In part, the strong Bahamas numbers reflect the emergence of the $4.2 billion, 2,300-room Baha Mar resort and casino, which officially opened last year after falling more than two years behind schedule...