The 82-year-old will stay in overnight and has already undergone tests but spokesperson says no immediate concerns identified
The president of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, has been taken to hospital after feeling unwell.
The 82-year-old was taken for tests in Dublin on Thursday after being assessed by a doctor at his official residence in the capital, Áras an Uachtaráin.
Continue reading...Airport among targets in Port-au-Prince as Jimmy Chérizier, known as ‘Barbecue’, vows to capture top officials in PM’s absence
Heavy gunfire paralyzed Haiti’s capital on Thursday as a powerful gang leader warned he would try to capture the country’s police chief and government ministers.
The move came during the absence of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is in Kenya trying to finalize details for the deployment of a foreign armed force to Haiti to help combat gangs.
Continue reading...Attempt to stop movement through perilous rainforest leaves people stuck in two remote Caribbean towns
Migration towards the US through a perilous but increasingly well-trodden rainforest border crossing has ground to a halt after the Colombian navy arrested two boat captains for trafficking migrants.
But the attempt to stop movement through the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama has left more than 3,000 people stranded in two remote Caribbean towns, where officials fear the bottleneck could cause a public health emergency.
Continue reading...Chong Ke, from Vancouver, under investigation after allegedly using ChatGPT to cite case law – but those cases did not exist
A lawyer in Canada is under fire after the artificial intelligence chatbot use she used for legal research created “fictitious” cases, in the latest episode to expose the perils of using untested technologies in the courtroom.
The Vancouver lawyer Chong Ke, who now faces an investigation into her conduct, allegedly used ChatGPT to develop legal submissions during a child custody case at the British Columbia supreme court.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Guardian investigation for podcast series Black Box reveals names connected to app that generated nonconsensual images of underage girls around the world
The first Miriam al-Adib learned of the pictures was when she returned home from a business trip. “Mum,” said her daughter. “I want to show you something.”
The girl, 14, opened her phone to show an explicit image of herself. “It’s a shock when you see it,” said Adib, a gynaecologist in the southern Spanish town of Almendralejo and a mother of four daughters. “The image is completely realistic … If I didn’t know my daughter’s body, I would have thought that image was real.”
Continue reading...Producers say the labelling could add £250m a year to their costs, further fuelling inflation
Food industry trade bodies are discussing whether to take legal action against the government over post-Brexit plans that will require all meat and dairy products sold in the UK to be labelled as “not for EU”.
Food producers say the labelling could add £250m a year to their costs, further fuelling inflation, and they are discussing a legal challenge as a viable option if a solution with the government is not found.
Continue reading...UN-backed human rights experts decry the crackdown on dissent by President Daniel Ortega’s administration
UN-backed human rights experts have accused Nicaragua’s government of systematic human rights abuses “tantamount to crimes against humanity”, implicating a range of high-ranking officials in the government of President Daniel Ortega.
The allegations follow an investigation into the country’s expanding crackdown on political dissent. The Ortega government has gone after opponents for years, but it hit a turning point with mass protests against the government in 2018 that resulted in violent repression by authorities.
Continue reading...Coastal areas facing ‘enormous and urgent climate crisis’ as event supercharges human-caused global heating, scientists say
The current climate event known as El Niño is likely to supercharge global heating and deliver record-breaking temperatures from the Amazon to Alaska in 2024, analysis has found.
Coastal areas of India by the Bay of Bengal and by the South China Sea, as well as the Philippines and the Caribbean, are also likely to experience unprecedented heat in the period to June, the scientists said, after which El Niño may weaken.
Continue reading...Campaigners say Ineos project in Antwerp will turbocharge plastic production on a scale not seen before in Europe
The UK government is providing a €700m (£600m) guarantee for the billionaire Jim Ratcliffe to build the biggest petrochemical plant in Europe in 30 years that will turbocharge plastic production.
The huge petrochemical plant has been described as a “carbon bomb” by campaigners. Being constructed in the Belgian city of Antwerp by Ratcliffe’s company Ineos, it will bring plastic production to Europe on a scale not seen before, just as countries are trying to negotiate a binding global treaty to tackle the growing problem of plastic pollution.
Continue reading...David Shoebridge’s comments follow Guardian/Four Corners investigation that revealed Rwanda issued indictments for two men living in Australia it accused of participating in genocide
Australia’s current approach to investigating and prosecuting allegations of serious international crimes “is not working”, the Greens defence and justice spokesperson, David Shoebridge has said.
Legal experts and former prosecutors have said Australia needs a specialist investigations unit to look into allegations of international crimes such as genocide, or it risks becoming a “safe haven”.
Continue reading...Socialist leader dies after several people shot dead near party headquarters in capital of N’Djamena
The Chadian opposition politician Yaya Dillo has been killed during an exchange of fire with security forces, the state prosecutor, Oumar Mahamat Kedelaye, said.
Heavy gunfire was heard on Wednesday in the capital, N’Djamena, near the headquarters of Dillo’s opposition party, a witness said. Several people had been killed in earlier clashes near Chad’s internal security agency building.
Continue reading...Actor’s landmark address comes amid claims arts sector has shrugged off sexual abuse for decades
The actor Judith Godrèche has denounced France’s “incestuous” film industry and called for the establishment of a commission of inquiry into sexual violence in the sector as she spoke in front of senators in the upper house of parliament.
The landmark hearing – the first time an artist has spoken to the senate about sexual and gender-based violence in the French film industry – comes amid claims that the world of arts has shrugged off sexism and sexual abuse for decades.
Continue reading...Russian president threatens ‘tragic’ consequences for war interventionists during state of the nation speech
Vladimir Putin has told Nato countries that they risk provoking a nuclear war if they send troops to fight in Ukraine, in an annual state of the nation speech ramping up his threats against Europe and the US.
In a reference to Emmanuel Macron’s comments earlier this week in which he opened the door to sending European ground troops to Ukraine, the Russian president said it would lead to “tragic” consequences for the nations who decided to do that.
Continue reading...People in West Darfur’s capital still step over residue from the bodies of some of the 10,000 dead, and thousands have fled
Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state in Sudan, can feel like two cities in one. There are mass graves, abandoned armoured vehicles and homeless children, but also newly opened restaurants, bustling markets and factory-fresh Toyotas, nicknamed Kenjcanjia – meaning stolen in the local dialect – owing to their lack of registration plates.
Since war broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April last year, the city has witnessed two major massacres. Decomposing bodies lay out on the streets for up to 10 days on both occasions, their flesh eaten by dogs and chickens. Residues from the bodies of the dead remain even now, stepped over by people as they go about their daily business.
Continue reading...Lib Dem leader fears war will spread to West Bank if those pushing for more settlements are not penalised
The UK should impose sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers who have pushed for more settlements on Palestinian land, Ed Davey has argued, saying this is vital to stop the fighting in Gaza spreading to the West Bank.
The Liberal Democrat leader, who returned on Wednesday morning from a visit to Israel where he had spoken to charities, politicians and relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, said there was a risk of the prospect of a two-state solution collapsing.
Continue reading...One accused of terrorism and three of helping Chérif Chekatt procure weapons for deadly assault at Christmas market
Four menhave gone on trial today accused of involvement in the 2018 terrorist attack on Strasbourg’s Christmas market, in which a gunman killed five people and injured 11 others in an assault that was later claimed by Islamic State.
Chérif Chekatt, 29, who was born and raised in the city, opened fire with a 19th-century revolver on 11 December in the historic centre.
Continue reading...US justice department scrutinizing whether door blowout violated 2021 agreement with Boeing after two fatal plane crashes
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is giving Boeing 90 days to come up with a plan to fix quality problems and meet safety standards for building new planes, as the justice department reportedly reviews whether a mid-flight plane door panel blowout in January violated a previous settlement agreement between the company and the US government.
The FAA said on Wednesday that the directive follows meetings with top Boeing officials, including the company’s chief executive at FAA headquarters in Washington.
Continue reading...Judge Tracie Porter sides with voters who sought disqualification but delays ruling from taking effect in light of expected appeal
An Illinois state judge on Wednesday barred Donald Trump from appearing on the Illinois Republican presidential primary ballot because of his role in the attack at the US Capitol on January 6, but she delayed her ruling from taking effect in light of an expected appeal by the former US president.
The Cook county circuit judge Tracie Porter sided with Illinois voters who argued that the former president should be disqualified from the state’s March 19 primary ballot and its 5 November general election ballot for violating the anti-insurrection clause of the US constitution’s 14th amendment.
Continue reading...US district judge Aileen Cannon rejects Trump’s motion to review special counsel filing on redacting classified information
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected an attempt by Donald Trump to review a sensitive court filing submitted by special counsel prosecutors that detailed their reasons for wanting to redact some of the classified documents that would be turned over to the former president in discovery.
The attempt by Trump to access the filing was a brazen move that would have defeated the purpose of rules to protect national security in Espionage Act prosecutions and potentially thrown into disarray the scope and viability of continuing the case against Trump.
Continue reading...Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith rejects Access to Family Building Act, saying bill is ‘vast overreach full of poison pills’
Senate Democrats’ attempts to move forward a bill that would have granted Americans federal protections for in vitro fertilization access have failed.
The bill, sponsored by the Illinois Democrat Tammy Duckworth, came after a recent Alabama supreme court ruling that declared frozen embryos are children and led to the closure of multiple infertility clinics across the state.
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