Thursday’s Top Stories: Covid-19 inquiry to hear from bereaved families and Sinn Féin pushes for removal of judge convicted of sexual assaults

Jeffrey Epstein: Documents naming associates of sex offender unsealed

Numerous court documents identifying associates of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were made public on Wednesday.

Some of the high-profile names in the court documents include Prince Andrew, the former US president Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson and David Copperfield.

These associates’ just-unsealed names were contained in court documents filed as part of Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell; the documents include excerpts of depositions and motions in this case. The British socialite was convicted in December 2021 of sex trafficking and similar charges for procuring teen girls for disgraced financier Epstein.

Top News Stories

• Inquiry into Ireland’s handling of Covid-19 pandemic to hear from families of those who died: A new inquiry into the State’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to hear from frontline health workers and families who lost loved ones, but there may not be an entitlement to privilege if allegations against named individuals are made.
• Sinn Féin pushes for removal of judge convicted of sexual assaults: Sinn Féin has asked the State’s judicial oversight body if it has any role in disciplining or impeaching a Circuit Court judge convicted of sexual assault last month.
• Wolves would all be shot if they were reintroduced in Ireland, says Green Minister: Ireland’s ecosystem “isn’t yet capable of coping with wolves” and “they’d all be shot” if they were reintroduced, Green Party Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity Pippa Hackett has said. Her remarks come amid a EU debate over the protection of wolves on the continent.
• Former Ballsbridge nursing home to accommodate 220 asylum seekers: A vacant former nursing home in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 will reopen in the coming days as a 220-bed emergency accommodation facility for asylum seekers, the Department of Integration has confirmed.
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News from around the World

• Russia and Ukraine stage major prisoner exchange: Ukraine and Russia on Wednesday announced their first exchange of prisoners of war in nearly five months, with more than 200 freed by each side after what both said was a complex negotiation involving mediation by the United Arab Emirates.

The Big Read

• Dave Hannigan: US sports talk bloviators delight in blaming Taylor Swift for Travis Kelce’s dip in form: There is a shouty corner of the American sports television universe where (mostly) men make huge sums of money offering outrageous opinions specifically designed to generate viral videos and clickbait. Some of the tiresome guff they may well believe, most of it, any discerning person can see, they are spouting to provoke and antagonise. Controversy for controversy’s sake in an obvious grift that is a daily race to the bottom of a very lucrative barrel. Skip Bayless, who earns $8 million (€7.3 million) a year spewing ludicrous, ill-founded critiques of players like LeBron James, last week trained his blunderbuss on Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end and boyfriend of Taylor Swift.

The best from Opinion

• Alex Kane: Jeffrey Donaldson destroyed David Trimble. Is he about to do the same to himself?
• Newton Emerson: Dublin should have taken more care to avoid a public row with London
• Finn McRedmond: Emojis were already a generational minefield. Now they’re a legal one

Today's Business

• Karlin Lillington: You think last year was big for data protection? Brace yourself for 2024: For anybody trying to peer into the next business year and imagine what it may bring, the fast-shifting technology sector is generally one of the most difficult to make predictions about. Just cast your mind back over 2023 to one single explosive event. Many industry watchers thought artificial intelligence was advancing in notable ways, but who could have envisaged the seismic repercussions last year after a small company called OpenAI quietly released an AI chatbot called ChatGPT at the close of 2022?

Top Sports news

• Luke Humphries denies teenager Luke Littler World Championship glory: Luke Littler’s historic World Championship dream ended after he lost in the final to Luke Humphries.

Picture of the Day

Culture and Life & Style Highlights

• A 2024 resolution for culture lovers - get physical: If you’re contemplating a list of cultural resolutions for 2024, may I suggest this one: get physical. No need to send your mind into the gutter, as I’m talking here about buying records. (Or if you’re a film fan too, why not get back to Blu Rays and DVDs, or aim for paperbacks if you’re a book nut?) It’s become even clearer to me in the past year that when you’re a buyer of records, whether on CD or vinyl, you’re creating an irreplaceable archive of your life in music, writes Aoife Barry.

Video & Podcast Highlights

• In the News: Could Ryan Tubridy be the new Terry Wogan?

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