Author: WTX News

What happened in 2024 – Global elections, assassinations, flooding and football heartbreak 2024 In Review: We look at the first half of the year 2024 will be remembered as a year of politics. People in more than 60 countries (almost 50% of the world’s population) headed to the polls this year, from the UK to India to the US and beyond, politics dominated the news in 2024 and history was made. Donald Trump was re-elected as US president – after almost being assassinated, the UK saw its first Labour Prime Minister back in No 10 after more than a decade…

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defence Forces, was killed by a bomb in Moscow on Tuesday. The device, hidden in a scooter, exploded as Kirillov and an assistant left an apartment building in southeast Moscow, about four miles from the Kremlin.  

A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck near Vanuatu’s capital, Port Vila, causing significant damage to buildings and infrastructure. The quake, recorded at 12:47 PM local time (01:47 GMT) at a depth of 57.1km, initially triggered a tsunami alert, which has since been lifted.

Medically supervised injecting facility ‘a leap of faith’ for Dublin community It’s the only building in Ireland where you will have to show you have illegal drugs in order to get in. Those with the drugs are breaking the law outside the building, but once they step inside — they are not. This is the twilight zone that the country’s first ever medically supervised injecting centre will operate in when it starts this week. As detailed in the panel, it has been a long — and difficult — journey. “When a person comes in, they’ll have to present the drugs…

Almost 40 years ago, A23a broke away from the Antarctic ice shelf, the iceberg hung on the sea floor for decades and was later caught in circulating ocean currents. Now the giant is free again. The world’s largest iceberg is on its way north, decades after breaking off from the Antarctic ice shelf, according to the British Antarctic Survey. The iceberg, scientifically known as A23a, broke away from the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 1986. However, it remained stuck to the sea floor for decades. After breaking away in 2000, it remained trapped in circulating ocean currents – with…

South Korea’s constitutional court has begun impeachment proceedings against President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was suspended after declaring martial law and triggering nationwide chaos. Parliament impeached Yoon last Saturday, leaving Prime Minister Han Duck-soo as acting president during the trial.

Cyclone Chido has wreaked havoc on Mayotte, a French Indian Ocean territory, with wind speeds exceeding 225 km/h (140 mph), flattening settlements and leaving hundreds feared dead. Rescue teams, including reinforcements from France, are working tirelessly to locate survivors amid widespread destruction and severe shortages of food, water, and shelter.

Israel announced plans to shut its Dublin embassy, accusing Ireland’s government of “extreme anti-Israel policies.” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar criticised Ireland for supporting South Africa’s legal action at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which accuses Israel of “genocide.”  

  AIB All-Ireland Club SHC semi-final Sarsfields (Cork) 0-18 Sleacht Neill (Derry) 0-17 ONE of those moments when time stands still. The spectators held their breath when Sleacht Neill, a point behind with injury-time running out, created their best goal chance of a breathless game. It seemed all Mark McGuigan had to do was to hit the target to book the Derry and Ulster champions’ passage to a first-ever All-Ireland final. McGuigan, on the edge of the square, pulled on the ball as the ‘keeper rushed off his line but the sliothar flashed over the bar instead of into the…

Parents who work jobs with unsociable hours like gardaí and nurses are facing limited childcare options and face having to give up working altogether if they cannot rely on the likes of grandparents to mind their kids when in work, a new study has found. The research published by the Department of Children found that many parents felt guilt at having to rely on their own parents to provide childcare while those living in rural areas particularly face difficulties when it comes to arranging childcare. Although only a small-scale study, it found that creches and childminders were often not an…

South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo, moved on Sunday to reassure the country’s allies and calm financial markets a day after President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and suspended from his duties over a martial law attempt.

South Korean law enforcement authorities will request that impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol appear for questioning this week over his short-lived martial law decree.

Ireland sent over one million tonnes of waste abroad in 2022 because it lacked the capacity to treat it here, and the amount of waste generated each year in the country has grown by over 20% in the last decade. Publishing the latest statistics, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that Ireland’s recycling rate has not improved over the last 10 years and that it is time to move away from a “wasteful linear economy”. “Current measures to prevent waste, to promote reuse and to encourage recycling are not enough to meet mandatory municipal waste and plastic packaging targets,” the…

Brazil’s federal police arrested former defence minister Braga Netto on Saturday on suspicion of obstructing the investigation into 2022’s alleged attempt to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s inauguration.

The extent of unexploded ordnance littering Syria will be “massive” and poses a particular threat to children returning to the country, a landmine-clearing leader has warned.

South Korea’s opposition leader urged the Constitutional Court to rule swiftly on a bid to remove President Yoon Suk Yeol from office, the day after parliament voted to impeach him over a short-lived attempt to impose martial law.

A storm caused serious damage in the French overseas territory of Mayotte. Numerous houses are destroyed and many people are injured. The authorities assume several deaths. In the French overseas territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, several people have died as a result of cyclone “Chido”. There have been deaths, said France’s acting Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, but it is not yet possible to say how many. It may take days before an exact number can be given. Retailleau spoke of a dramatic situation. All precarious housing was destroyed by the cyclone. The area was devastated. The mayor of…

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed at least 35 Palestinians, including 12 individuals guarding aid trucks, according to medics and Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence authority. The guards were reportedly protecting lorries carrying flour to UN warehouses in southern Gaza, which have been targeted by violent theft amid severe food shortages.

University College Cork (UCC) looks set to record a €7m surplus less than a year after it posted an €8m deficit.Details of the remarkable financial turnaround were outlined to university staff at a town-hall style briefing by UCC president Professor John O’Halloran on Thursday.A cost cutting plan, an unexpected increase in income, and the government’s budget announcement of multi-annual funding for universities all contributed to the turnaround.In a statement, UCC confirmed that staff were informed of draft financial results “which indicate that the university has returned to a surplus” for the financial year to September 2024. Staff were told the draft…

Opposition leader John Draman Mahama’s win in last weekend’s presidential election in Ghanais a significant milestone in African politics. Ghana’s Electoral Commission confirmed late on Monday that with vote counting complete, 66-year-old Mahama’s party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had scored around 56% of the ballots cast in the West African country. Mahama’s victory against Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, the candidate running for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), rejuvenated opposition parties in Africa seeking change, showing that change is not only possible but attainable. After eight years with the NPP in power, Mahama’s victory further inspires opposition groups across Africa after earlier in the year, incumbent…

There is nothing futuristic about the age of artificial intelligence; it has already begun. In 2024, AI won two Nobel Prizes, one given to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for laying its foundations and the other given to Demis Hassabis, John Jumper and David Baker for applying it to biology. The five largest companies in the world are all technology companies. The company that designs AI chips, Nvidia, has multiplied its value 27 times over the past five years. But ChatGPT is only two years old, and the AI applications are still prototypes, yet millions of people are already using…

David Puttnam, the renowned film producer, educator, and environmentalist, has said equipping school teachers with strong digital literacy skills is key to ensuring our young children have the ability to make sound judgements on social media. Mr Puttnam this week received an honorary doctorate at University College Cork (UCC) along with actor Jeremy Irons, Chernobyl activist Adi Roche, and national rowing coach Dominic Casey. For Puttnam, who has lived in Skibbereen in West Cork with his wife Patsy since 1998, the award was special. “Over the years, I’ve had quite a number of honorary degrees. But what’s different and special…

Niger cut ties with another Western actor on Thursday, as it suspended BBC radio for three months after it reported that jihadists had killed 90 Nigerien soldiers on Wednesday, adding the British media outlet to a list of Western media deemed guilty of spreading “erroneous information”. Niger suspends BBC for 'spreading false news' in report on jihadist attack

A former Syrian military official who oversaw a prison where alleged human rights abuses took place has been charged with several counts of torture after being arrested in July for visa fraud charges, authorities said Thursday. Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, who oversaw Syria’s infamous Adra Prison from 2005 to 2008 under recently ousted President Bashar Assad, was charged by a federal grand jury with several counts of torture and conspiracy to commit torture. “It’s a huge step toward justice,” said Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the US-based Syrian Emergency Task Force. “Samir Ousman al-Sheikh’s trial will reiterate that the United States…

The letter from the National Iwi Chairs Forum, representing over 80 tribal leaders, appeals to the King to ensure the New Zealand government upholds its commitments under the Treaty of Waitangi, the country’s founding document.