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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...

Mayor Bill de Blasio paid tribute to Colin Powell, who died Monday from COVID-19 complications, saying the Harlem-born first black secretary of state exemplified the best of the Big Apple and made New Yorkers “very proud.” “General Powell served this nation with just tremendous distinction,” he said Monday morning during his daily press briefing, held remotely in City Hall. De Blasio noted Powell’s “absolute classic New York City story” of being born to Jamaican immigrants, growing up in Harlem and The Bronx and graduating from Morris High School before attending City College of New York. “Just an absolute great example...

A Georgia Democrat has been slammed for saying she would rather keep a Confederate statue than raise a monument to black conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. State Rep. Donna McLeod, who is also black and was born in Jamaica, told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution she strongly opposes the idea of a statue for the conservative justice, who was appointed to the court in 1991 amid allegations of sexual harassment. McLeod is so against the proposal that she would prefer to leave standing monuments to the likes of Confederate soldiers and slave owners, she said. 'I'd rather them keep a Confederate...

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, the pioneering reggae artist, producer and songwriter, has died at the age of 85. Jamaican media outlets reported the musician passed away in hospital in Lucea, a town located on the northwest part of the island. In a series of tweets, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness remembered the reggae icon. "Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s' development of dub music with his early adoption of studio effects to create new instrumentals of existing reggae tracks,” Holness noted. “He has worked with and produced for various artistes, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Congos, Adrian Sherwood,...

LGBT activists are cheering Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s announcement that he will reverse an order from President Donald Trump and put up “pride” flags at U.S. Embassies around the world. Outfront magazine reported on the development: The Biden administration is off to a hopeful start, as Secretary of State nominee, Antony Blinken, has confirmed a recommitment to LGBTQ rights. In a memo from July 2020, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper released a list of flags permitted to be displayed at U.S. military bases. Missing from the list was the LGBTQ pride flag, which Esper compared to the confederate...

Some Jamaicans are beginning to actively demand the removal of the rainbow “pride flag” from the US Embassy in Kingston. A TV news report out of the Caribbean island nation features interviews with protesters who object to the flag as a symbol of cultural imperialism, specifically as a hostility to Christianity and the Jamaican way of life. “You have to understand what that multicolored flag represents,” said a spokeswoman for the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society. “It represents normalizing perverse sexual behaviors and lifestyle choices, behaviors and lifestyles that lead to disease and death. Our Christian duty is to...

Concerned Jamaicans protested and demanded that the US Embassyin Kingston Jamaica, remove the LGBTQ Pride flag hoisted on its grounds. The group says it is not only goes against articles in the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, but is a form of cultural imperialism. “Cultural Imperialism,” was the phrase on most of the placards broadly refers to the exercise of domination in cultural relationships. In such cases, the values, practices; and meaning of a powerful foreign culture are imposed upon one or more native cultures. Phillipa Davies, Advocacy Officer at the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society says the Pride...

The evidence that we are in the midst of a ska revival is plentiful. ­Indie-punk phenomenon Jeff Rosenstock managed a critical hit with “Ska Dream,” a reimagining of his 2020 album “No Dream.” The genre thrives online, where the Ska Tune Network has more than 200,000 subscribers and ska cover versions rake in the views, including a version of Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” by Los Angeles band the Interrupters that has 5 million and counting. This year sees the release of two major books, one a 400-page oral history of American ska and the other a spirited defense of the...

The TrialSite Community Network has expanded to Jamaica, as a community member shared a recent letter authored by a number of Jamaican physicians and submitted an open letter to government health officials. Why? To bring attention to accumulating data indicating the role ivermectin can play in fighting the pandemic. Read the letter below.Dr. Christopher Tufton, MinisterDr. J. Bissasor-McKenzie, Chief Medical OfficerMs. Cynthia Lewis-Graham, Director, Standards & Regulation, Ministry of Health and Wellness10 – 16 Grenada WayKingston 5Dear Colleagues,The undersigned respectfully submits the following open letter to you and your team at the Ministry.First, we express our appreciation for your untiring...

<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 cave entrance. (Chris Grooms) You may not give a pile of bat poop gathered over 4,300 years a second look – but to a group of scientists, it's provided an intriguing insight into how bat diets and therefore climate conditions have shifted over thousands of years. Taller than the average man (2 meters or 6-and-a-half feet), the pile of poop (also known as guano) records history in clear layers, much like sediments under a lake. By analyzing the layers back through time, the scientists have been able to figure out changes in the diets of the bats that have...