Eyewitness footage has captured Hurricane Melissa causing widespread damage to homes and infrastructure across Jamaica. People walk along a road during the passing of Hurricane Melissa in Rocky Point, Jamaica. The predicted path of Hurricane Melissa which will significantly weaken as it makes its way across the Atlantic. [ In pictures: Hurricane Melissa hits Cuba after causing chaos in JamaicaOpens in new window ]“Our country has been ravaged by Hurricane Melissa but we will rebuild and we will do so even better than before,” Mr Holness said early on Wednesday. Residents are evacuated from Playa Siboney to safe locations ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Melissa, in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, on Tuesday.

The High Court has granted an interim injunction restraining Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) from dismissing a business manager. Anita Little’s role is in relation to managing and administering the waiting list for CHI spinal surgeries, on a salary of about €76,500. She claims she was dismissed for serious misconduct following instructions to suspend the names of 10 patients from the waiting list. On Tuesday, Mr Justice Brian Cregan granted Richard Kean SC, for Ms Little, interim injunctions restraining CHI from dismissing her or advertising her post as vacant pending further order. She said she went out on sick leave for work-related stress and last February she was told a formal complaint had been made against her by Ms Ní Fhlathartaigh.

US military officials involved with US president Donald Trump’s expanding operations in Latin America have been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, three US officials say, a development that raises new questions about a military build-up that Venezuela fears may lead to an invasion. The step is highly unusual, given that US military officials are already required to shield national security secrets from public view, and comes as lawmakers in Congress say they are being kept in the dark about key aspects of the mission. The Pentagon has not explained why such firepower is required for the counter-narcotics operations. He told Pentagon staff they must obtain permission before interacting with members of Congress, according to an October 15th memo. The claims, however, have raised concerns that the U.S. military might be tasked with carrying out attacks in both countries.

However, as we embrace its benefits, we must pause and ask: Are we empowering students or outsourcing the skills we aim to cultivate? As universities adopt AI, we must continue to revisit the question: Are we empowering students or outsourcing the skills we aim to cultivate? In embracing AI, we must not sacrifice skills that define us, including our language, critical thought, and capacity to question. The future of education and society depends on our ability to preserve human skills as we adapt to technological change. Universities must equip students with the skills to responsibly apply AI, while government-supported upskilling and reskilling initiatives ensure today’s workforce remains competitive.

Viewers at home will have had much the same reaction as the celebrity faithful – including Stephen Fry, Kate Garraway, Charlotte Church, Nick Mohammed and Celia Imrie – blunder about, unable to flush out even a single traitor. If ever you wanted a reminder that even mildly famous people are nothing like the rest of us, then Celebrity Traitors has proved it, with scary tassels attached. The answer, we may conclude from Celebrity Traitors, is that they are surrounded by glad-handers and wellwishers. She was a normal person parachuted into a celebrity world, and goodness, could you tell. Celebrity Traitors continues on BBC One on Wednesday and Thursday at 9pm

Having never met John Collison it is hard to know what to make of the decision by the technology billionaire to enter the national debate on our inability to get things done. [ John Collison of Stripe: Ireland is going backwards. John Collison is not his brother’s keeper but sticking with the biblical aphorisms: by his friends shall you know him. Taoiseach Micheál Martin with Stripe co-founder John Collison at the opening of Stripe's new Dublin Headquarters earlier this year. But he seems to have missed a fundamental truth about Irish politics which is that the last thing a successful Irish politician wants is to be responsible for anything.

Photograph: Alan BetsonRTÉ recorded a €5.5 million surplus in 2024, compared to a €9.1 million deficit in 2023 according to its latest accounts. A drop in licence fee revenues following the payments controversy which engulfed RTÉ in 2023 contributed to the deficit that year. Earlier this year it emerged that the State missed its target for social homes in 2024 by almost 20 per cent with some 10,596 delivered last year. Some 1,757 new social homes were delivered in April, May and June, including 1,443 new-build homes, 162 acquisitions and 152 homes delivered through leasing programmes. The latest Social Housing Construction Status Report shows a pipeline of 26,684 social homes at various stages of design and construction as of the end of June, including 11,557 social homes on-site.

Ireland players look on during the Haka before last year's Test at the Aviva Stadium. Ireland had the All Blacks rattled in the first Test, but they let them off the hook. Defeat was agony, but it felt like a turning point, the day Ireland realised they could compete with New Zealand. Captain Rory Best speaks to the Ireland team after their win over the All Blacks in Soldier Field in November 2016. The World Cup draw takes place in December, and trying to stay in the top four rankings has shaped the way Ireland approached this block of matches.

Hadush Kebatu was wrongly freed from England's Chelmsford prison instead of being taken to an immigration detention centre. Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA WireHadush Kebatu has arrived in Ethiopia after being deported from the UK with no right to return, the British Home Office has confirmed. The Ethiopian national was wrongly freed from Chelmsford prison on Friday morning instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre. I would like to thank the police for rapidly bringing Mr Kebatu into custody and the public for their vigilance. “I have pulled every lever to deport Mr Kebatu and remove him off British soil.

New Toyota Corolla conceptYet if it was, it would herald a vast leap in terms of styling and finish for the hugely popular car. Then there’s a new-look Lexus LS concept—this time shown as a crossover. Lexus LS ConceptLexus LS ConceptWhy six wheels? That craftsmanship is typified by the finish of the Century concept crossover, coated in 60 hand-applied layers of paint. From the humble Corolla to the luxury Century, Toyota shows its imagination stretches from the everyday to the extraordinary.

Ms McGee, known as May, died peacefully at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin on Tuesday, surrounded by her family. Their second and third pregnancies had been complicated by severe cerebral thrombosis and Ms McGee had also suffered a stroke and temporary paralysis. This August, aged 81, a mosaic was unveiled in Ms McGee’s honour in her hometown of Skerries, Co Dublin. To think you had all that fuss years ago,” Ms McGee said of the change. [ Woman’s landmark case overturning ban on contraception started ‘social revolution’, says Supreme Court judgeOpens in new window ]

References to a united Ireland, as can be judged in recent weeks in Belfast’s newspapers and radio stations if less so in Dublin, are increasingly difficult to avoid. Serious players across these islands – and well beyond – realise that intensive and open governmental preparation cannot be deferred forever. Northern Ireland does not need the chaos of a reactive referendum flowing from the unintended consequences of narrow English nationalism. [ In a united Ireland, should everyone be given a choice of Irish, British or dual identity?Opens in new window ]There is a well-founded desire not to mess this up. It would be a foolish public servant, for example, who ignored the evidential signs of these times on this island.

A record number of people spoiled their vote in the presidential election, with close to 13 per cent of the total ballot deemed invalid. The Irish Times conducted a call-out to hear from readers who had spoiled their vote, chosen not to vote or had voted for Jim Gavin as a “protest” vote. It didn’t feel like the right thing to do – but nothing Government or most of the Opposition parties did was right either – so Maria Steen got my number 1. Miriam, Dublin/LondonCurrently living in London, I still retain my vote, and I flew back to “spoil the vote”. Brighid, DublinI feel, and have felt, for quite some time as if I am invisible to the Irish political classes as a single middle-aged, middle-class woman.

Photograph: iStockThe Court of Appeal (CoA) has overturned a High Court decision which found an Irish jeans manufacturer had, since 1979, “dishonestly and wrongfully” copied the “Diesel” trademark of the popular Italian clothing brand. The Supreme Court has since upheld a 2001 High Court decision refusing Montex’s registration. On Tuesday, Ms Justice Niamh Hyland, on behalf of the three-judge court, overturned Mr Justice Cregan’s decision and allowed the Montex appeal. She said the question as to the proprietorship of the mark was decided by the High Court in 2001. Ms Justice Hyland said as the Supreme Court had already upheld that High Court decision meant the matter had already been decided.

Micheál Martin’s leadership has been under pressure before, but the Fianna Fáil leader has rarely been so vulnerable as he is now. And the monumental screw-up of the Jim Gavin presidential candidacy has left TDs and grassroots alike seething. [ Maybe some of us are just not meant to be presidentOpens in new window ]That is not, however, to say that Martin’s leadership is in its last days. The man most talked about as the successor to Martin is the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan. Speaking to RTÉ at lunchtime on Monday, Wexford-Wicklow TD Malcolm Byrne was critical of the party leadership but shied away from joining any putative rebellion.