The son of infamous drug lord “El Chapo” has appeared in court for the first time since being extradited to the US from Mexico.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez denied drug and money laundering when he appeared at a Chicago court on Monday – three days after he was brought to the US.
Guzman Lopez, 33, and his three brothers – collectively known as “Los Chapitos” – inherited their father’s empire after he was convicted of murder and drug charges in 2019.
The brothers inherited their father’s multibillion-dollar empire when he was incarcerated, allegedly steering it into synthetic drugs including methamphetamine and the powerful opioidfentanyl, which has been blamed for killing almost 200 people in the US every day.
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Who are the Mexican drug cartels?
Guzman Lopez, known as “The Mouse”, and his siblings were all indicted by US prosecutors in April amid claims they produced huge amounts of fentanyl and sold the drug at its lowest price.
They operated a huge international trafficking operation that saw drugs transported to the US via airplane, submarines, fishing boats and rail cars, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, it is alleged.
The brothers all deny the allegations and claim they are the “victims of persecution” and “scapegoats”.
“We have never produced, manufactured or commercialised fentanyl nor any of its derivatives,” they said in a statement.
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The extradition of Guzman Lopez is “testament to the significance of the ongoing co-operation between the American and Mexican governments on countering narcotics and other vital challenges,” US Homeland Security advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall said.
Guzman Lopez was captured by Mexican security forces in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, in northwest Mexico, in January.
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His arrest sparked a wave of violence leading to the deaths of 30 people, including 10 military personnel, with the Mexican army deploying Black Hawk helicopter gunships in a shoot-out against the cartel’s truck-mounted 50-caliber machine guns.
Cartel gunmen hit two military aircraft, forcing them to land.
They also sent gunmen to the city’s airport, where both military and civilian aircraft were targeted.
Officials attempted to detain Guzman Lopez in Culiacan in 2019 but were forced to abandon their operation after similar violence unfolded.
Mexico’s President Andrez Manuel Lopez Obrador personally ordered his release after hundreds of cartel members overwhelmed security forces.
El Chapo escaped prison in Mexicotwice before he was finally arrested and extradited to the US in 2017, ahead of his conviction at a federal court in Brooklyn.
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2:46
Hear Trump and his lawyer discuss hush money
The court also heard a recording of a conversation between Mr Trump and Mr Cohen over hush money said to have been paid to another woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who he also allegedly had an affair with.
Mr Cohen suggests in the recording setting up another company to repay David Pecker – who said he provided the $150,000 to cover up the story.
The former National Enquirer boss previously testified he bought the story to keep it hidden and eventually decided against seeking reimbursement.
Later in the recording, Mr Trump can be heard suggesting the $150,000 might be better off being paid in cash.
Mr Cohen told the court this was to “avoid any type of paper transaction”.
The 57-year-old – who once said he would take a bullet for Mr Trump – worked for him for nearly a decade.
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He pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law in 2018 over the Stormy Daniels payment and was jailed, but at the time prosecutors did not bring charges against Mr Trump.
Mr Cohen’s credibility is in the sights of defence lawyers as he has previously admitted lying under oath.
Mr Trump – who will take on Joe Biden in his bid to become president again in November – is unlikely to face a custodial sentence if found guilty.
His other cases are potentially more damaging but mired in delays.
They concern allegations of keeping stacks of secret documents after leaving office and trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. He denies the claims.
A livestream portal between Dublin and New York was temporarily shut down after “inappropriate behaviour” in the Irish capital.
Thousands of people have visited the two-way portal, which allows people on either side to see and interact with each other.
And while there have been a number of wholesome moments – including Irish dancing and even a proposal – a handful of people have behaved “inappropriately”, Dublin City Council has said.
Videos on social media have shown people on the Irish side flashing body parts, and displaying images of 9/11 and swear words on phone screens.
A woman was also escorted away by police after being seen grinding against the portal.
In a statement issued on Monday evening, a spokesperson for Dublin City Council said “technical solutions” to address this are being implemented in the next 24 hours.
“We will continue to monitor the situation over the coming days with our partners in New York to ensure that Portals continue to deliver a positive experience for both cities and the world,” they said.
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“The team at portals.org and partners are still working on improving the software for better stability and to prepare for Portals to expand to more locations on Earth.
“Those works are being done mostly at night and during those hours, the livestream might be paused.”
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Dublin City Council noted there has been an increase in footfall since the Portal was unveiled in north Dublin, facing O’Connell Street. The New York portal is at the busy Manhattan junction of Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street.
“The overwhelming majority of interactions are positive,” the spokesperson added. “We have seen families and friends unite, dancing moves being shared as well as new friendships being made. There was even a successful marriage proposal.
“The Portal offers a window to other cities and is connecting people and cultures in a unique manner – what we are seeing between Dublin and NY is reflective of a wider narrative of cultural behaviour.”
The Portals Organisation said: “We do not intend to suggest people to interact with Portals in any particular way – our goal is to open a window between far away places and cultures that allows people to interact freely with one another.
“We encourage people to be respectful and from our position as observers, we see that the absolute majority of experiences is on the bright side.”
In an earlier statement, they confirmed the livestream had been paused so they could “update the software used on the Portal”.
The new version of the ChatGPT AI chatbot has been unveiled and offers near-instant results across text, vision and audio, according to its maker.
OpenAI said it was much better at understanding visuals and sounds than previous versions.
It offers the prospect of real-time ‘conversations’ with the chatbot, including the ability to interrupt its answers.
The firm says it “accepts as input any combination of text, audio, and image and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs”.
GPT-4o is to be rolled out over the next few weeks amid a battle by tech firms to develop ever-more advanced artificial intelligence tools.
Monday’s announcement showed tasks such as real-time language translation; using its vision capability to solve a maths question on a piece of paper, and to guide a blind person around London.
GPT-4o can respond to audio in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which the company says is similar to human response time.
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To try to ease concerns over bias, fairness and misinformation, the Microsoft-backed company says the new version has undergone extensive testing by 70 external experts.
It comes after Google earlier this year had a major PR blunder over images generated by its Gemini AI system.
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GPT-4o model will be free, but premium ‘Plus’ users get a greater capacity limit for messages.
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