chore: bumped gradle versions

[timcadman]

Summary

• Gradle 8.8 → 8.14.4
• se.patrikerdes.use-latest-versions 0.2.18 → 0.2.19
• com.github.ben-manes.versions 0.51.0 → 0.53.0
• com.github.node-gradle.node 7.0.2 → 7.1.0
• Replaced com.palantir.docker plugin (unmaintained, incompatible with Gradle 8.12+) with simple Exec tasks that call docker build and docker push directly

How to test

• Build passes (./gradlew clean build)
• ./gradlew docker builds the Docker image successfully
• Application starts
• Release tests pass (./release-test.R)
• CI pipeline passes (validates dockerPush task still works)

[sonarqubecloud]

Quality Gate passed

Issues
0 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
0.0% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud