Latest news with #Caribbean-based
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Iconic Caribbean all-inclusive beach resort to close
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways All-inclusive resorts have been drawing vacationers to unwind in paradise in the Caribbean since the 1960s, and today their appeal is stronger than ever as travelers prioritize both value and worry-free luxury. Long sought-after by couples seeking luxurious beach getaways, Jamaica is home to some of the top all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, including some renowned options designed for the whole family. Related: How cruisers can stay safe in cruise ports with travel advisories But unfortunately for many families who travel to the vibrant island to make memories together on its white-sand shores, one of Jamaica's most beloved all-inclusive resorts for families is now set to close. Interestingly, the resort hasn't always been a family-friendly establishment. In the 1960s, it was one of Hugh Hefner's Playboy Club hotels, but was later reimagined as one of the first family-focused all-inclusive resorts. 💵💰Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter💰💵 Now, the property is on the verge of yet another transformation. Beaches Resorts is expanding in Turks and Caicos and other destinations, despite closing in Ocho Rios. Image source: Beaches Resorts Beaches Ocho Rios to close its doors May 31 For more than 20 years, Sandals Resorts has operated the popular Ocho Rios resort under its family-focused Beaches brand, but the property owner has decided that it's time for the storied retreat to begin a new chapter. 'For years, Beaches Ocho Rios has been a place where families laughed together, where the littlest guests took their first steps in soft sand, and where kids, parents, and grandparents came together to make incredible memories. It has been an honor to be part of your stories, and we know this place will always hold a special spot in your hearts — just as it does in ours,' Beaches wrote in a closing announcement posted to the resort's website. Beaches Ocho Rios is not owned by Sandals, unlike the Caribbean-based company's 17 adults-only Sandals resorts and two other family-focused Beaches resorts. 'Unlike the others in our portfolio, Beaches Ocho Rios is owned by a third party and the resort's owners are planning a major renovation,' the company explained. More on luxury travel: Beaches Ocho Rios will close on May 31 and is no longer accepting new reservations for guests at this time. 'However, for those with upcoming reservations at Beaches Ocho Rios, rest assured —we've got you covered. Our team will be in touch with exclusive options to ensure your next Beaches vacation is just as amazing as you've always dreamed,' the company promised. Beaches brand expanding in other parts of the Caribbean Despite the end of the Beaches Ocho Rios era, the family all-inclusive vacation brand is focused on growth. The company recently announced plans to double its footprint within the next five years, with new resorts in development in other parts of Jamaica and the Caribbean. 'With a one-billion-dollar investment in luxury family travel across the Caribbean, Beaches Resorts is growing, giving you more places to make unforgettable memories,' the company explained in the Beaches Ocho Rios closing announcement. New Beaches resort destinations in development include: Treasure Beach Village at Beaches Turks & Caicos – a brand-new village of the family all-inclusive resort, opening in spring 2026 Beaches Runaway Bay on Jamaica's North Coast Beaches Barbados – Beaches debut property on the island of Barbados, set to break ground in late 2025 Beaches Exuma in The Bahamas – the brand's first Bahamas resort will be developed on 500 acres in the Out Islands Related: Falloff in US travel is sending luxury tourists to this Canadian city Additionally, Beaches recently expanded its flagship Jamaica resort, Beaches Negril. Along with its all-inclusive luxury and pristine Caribbean destinations, Beaches is known for its signature family-friendly inclusions like Caribbean Adventures with Sesame Street, kids' camps and water parks.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
84% of world's coral reefs struck by worst bleaching event in history
April 23 (UPI) -- More than 80% of the world's coral reefs fell victim to harmful bleaching and is now in "uncharted territory" with the worst global bleaching event in recorded history. The coral reef system in at least 82 nations and other territories have been exposed to enough heart to turn at least 84% of the world's coral white since the global event started last year in January, according to data by the U.S. government's Coral Reef Watch. "Reefs have not encountered this before," said Dr. Britta Schaffelke of the Australian Institute of Marine Science and coordinator of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, adding it was "unprecedented" and now the most intense event of its kind ever recorded. When water is too warm, coral will expel the algae -- otherwise known as zooxanthellae -- living in their tissues which causes the coral to turn completely white, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. During coral bleaching events, environmental stress like temperature change will trigger a breakup of the symbiotic relationship between coral and algae, which is now spreading like a wildfire to corals across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans and killing countless coral habitats. Otherwise known as the "rainforests of the sea," coral supports biodiversity and about a third of all marine species and at least a billion people. Although corals can recover from bleaching if temperatures are less extreme, past surveys have indicated a bleak picture of widespread global coral elimination. NOAA said last April that the world's oceans were undergoing the fourth global coral bleaching event on record and its second in the last 10 years as scientists in Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean raised alarm bells that summer over extreme bleaching in the northern hemisphere. Scientists further describe a "graveyard of dead corals" in Australia's northern Great Barrier Reef following 2024's bleaching event that caused about 40% of its coral life to die in one spot to its south. In Florida, where divers worked to save the Sunshine State's coral reefs, an average of one in five corals were lost and on Mexico's Pacific side, one area lost nearly 93% of its corals. But while warming water temps -- a result of climate change -- are a primary driver, newer research suggests that nitrogen pollution is the main cause of coral bleaching in Florida. Meanwhile, almost a quarter of corals were killed by heat last year in the middle of the Indian Ocean in the remote Chagos Islands. "Bleaching is always eerie -- as if a silent snowfall has descended on the reef," said Melanie McField, founder of the Caribbean-based Healthy Reefs for Health People initiative. "There is usually an absence of fluttering fish and an absence of the vibrant colors on the reef. It's an ashen pallor and stillness in what should be a rowdy vibrant reefscape." The report came as U.S. President Donald Trump has taken steps to boost fossil fuel production and a rollback of clean energy programs. "World leaders need to really commit to reduce fossil fuels and increase investments in clean energies and make it a reality," said Dr. Valeria Pizarro, a senior coral scientist at the Perry Institute for Marine Science working on reefs in the Bahamas and Caribbean Sea. The small island nation of Palau in the western Pacific experienced intense marine heatwaves in 1998, 2010 and 2017, but interestingly, each successive event led to less coral bleaching. However, scientific consensus is that ultimately the future of coral reefs will depend on a rapid reduction of carbon emissions which runs counter to Trump administration policy. "We need them to stop having it on paper and on the news, we need it to be real," Pizarro said.
Arab Times
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Arab Times
US seizes Venezuelan president's plane held in Dominican Republic
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Feb 8, (AP): The Trump administration on Thursday seized a second plane belonging to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro 's government that is currently in the Dominican Republic. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio watched as American officials affixed the seizure warrant to the plane during a visit to Santo Domingo, the last stop of his five-nation tour of Latin America. Carrying out the seizure required that Rubio sign off on a waiver to a freeze that President Donald Trump imposed on foreign aid to pay more than $230,000 in storage and maintenance fees, according to a State Department document obtained by The Associated Press. It also required approval by the US Department of Justice, which said the plane was used by a Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company facing sanctions. An investigation showed the company bought the plane in the US in 2017, sent it to Venezuela and it was serviced multiple times using American parts, the department said. The plane is a Dassault Falcon 200 that has been used by Maduro and top aides, including his vice president and defense minister, to travel the world, including visits to Greece, Turkey, Russia and Cuba, in what Washington says are violations of US sanctions, according to the State Department. The seizure of the plane comes just a week after President Donald Trump's envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, visited Caracas and met with Maduro to discuss the repatriation of Venezuelan nationals who illegally entered the United States. Grenell returned with six Americans who had been detained in Venezuela. The US seized another of Maduro's planes from the Dominican Republic in September 2024. At the time, the U.S. Justice Department said Maduro associates in late 2022 and early 2023 used a Caribbean-based shell company to hide their involvement in the purchase of the plane - a Dassault Falcon 900EX valued at $13 million - from a company in Florida. Related to Rubio's first stop on his trip, he said Thursday that he was "not confused' about the status of an agreement about eliminating fees for U.S. warships to transit the Panama Canal and understood that Panama has to follow a legal process to take the step.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US seizes Venezuelan president's plane held in Dominican Republic during Rubio visit
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday seized a second plane belonging to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro 's government that is currently in the Dominican Republic. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio watched as American officials affixed the seizure warrant to the plane during a visit to Santo Domingo, the last stop of his five-nation tour of Latin America. Carrying out the seizure required that Rubio sign off on a waiver to a freeze that President Donald Trump imposed on foreign aid to pay more than $230,000 in storage and maintenance fees, according to a State Department document obtained by The Associated Press. It also required approval by the U.S. Department of Justice, which said the plane was used by a Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company facing sanctions. An investigation showed the company bought the plane in the U.S. in 2017, sent it to Venezuela and it was serviced multiple times using American parts, the department said. The plane is a Dassault Falcon 200 that has been used by Maduro and top aides, including his vice president and defense minister, to travel the world, including visits to Greece, Turkey, Russia and Cuba, in what Washington says are violations of U.S. sanctions, according to the State Department. The seizure of the plane comes just a week after President Donald Trump's envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, visited Caracas and met with Maduro to discuss the repatriation of Venezuelan nationals who illegally entered the United States. Grenell returned with six Americans who had been detained in Venezuela. The U.S. seized another of Maduro's planes from the Dominican Republic in September 2024. At the time, the U.S. Justice Department said Maduro associates in late 2022 and early 2023 used a Caribbean-based shell company to hide their involvement in the purchase of the plane — a Dassault Falcon 900EX valued at $13 million — from a company in Florida. Related to Rubio's first stop on his trip, he said Thursday that he was 'not confused' about the status of an agreement about eliminating fees for U.S. warships to transit the Panama Canal and understood that Panama has to follow a legal process to take the step. 'They're a democratically elected government. They have rules. They have laws. They're going to follow their process,' he said. It comes after the U.S. State Department said late Wednesday on X that the Panamanians had agreed to waive the fees. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino later denied that, saying Thursday he had told U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a day earlier that he could neither set the fees to transit the canal nor exempt anyone from them and that he was surprised by the U.S. State Department's statement suggesting otherwise. The fees had been one focus of President Donald Trump's complaints about the canal, which he has threatened to retake from Panama unless Panama severely limits Chinese influence in the area. Given that the U.S. has a treaty obligation to protect the canal, Rubio said, 'I find it absurd that we would have to pay fees to transit a zone that we are obligated to protect in a time of conflict.' ___ Associated Press writer Alma Solís in Panama City contributed to this report. Matthew Lee, The Associated Press
Boston Globe
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
US seizes Venezuelan president's plane held in Dominican Republic during Rubio visit
It also required approval by the US Department of Justice, which said the plane was used by a Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company facing sanctions. An investigation showed the company bought the plane in the US in 2017, sent it to Venezuela and it was serviced multiple times using American parts, the department said. The plane is a Dassault Falcon 200 that has been used by Maduro and top aides, including his vice president and defense minister, to travel the world, including visits to Greece, Turkey, Russia and Cuba, in what Washington says are violations of US sanctions, according to the State Department. Advertisement The seizure of the plane comes just a week after President Donald Trump's envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, visited Caracas and met with Maduro to discuss the repatriation of Venezuelan nationals who illegally entered the United States. Grenell returned with six Americans who had been detained in Venezuela. The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (center right) walks with Edwin F. Lopez, the attaché for DHS Homeland Security Investigations, as they walk toward a seized Venezuelan government airplane at La Isabela International Airport. Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press At the time, the US Justice Department said Maduro associates in late 2022 and early 2023 used a Caribbean-based shell company to hide their involvement in the purchase of the plane — a Dassault Falcon 900EX valued at $13 million — from a company in Florida. Related to Rubio's first stop on his trip, he said Thursday that he was 'not confused' about the status of an agreement about eliminating fees for US warships to transit the Panama Canal and understood that Panama has to follow a legal process to take the step. Advertisement 'They're a democratically elected government. They have rules. They have laws. They're going to follow their process,' he said. It comes after the US State Department said late Wednesday on X that the Panamanians had agreed to waive the fees. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino later denied that, saying Thursday he had told US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a day earlier that he could neither set the fees to transit the canal nor exempt anyone from them and that he was surprised by the U.S. State Department's statement suggesting otherwise. The fees had been one focus of President Donald Trump's complaints about the canal, which he has threatened to retake from Panama unless Panama severely limits Chinese influence in the area. Given that the US has a treaty obligation to protect the canal, Rubio said, 'I find it absurd that we would have to pay fees to transit a zone that we are obligated to protect in a time of conflict.' Associated Press writer Alma Solís in Panama City contributed to this report.
