Incident revealed after civil court found MMA fighter had assaulted Nikita Hand in December 2018
A gang of masked men broke into the home of a woman who had taken a civil case against the mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor that accused him of raping her, it can now be revealed.
The incident was referred to at the start of the court case in Dublin but could not be reported until now as it emerged during legal discussion while the jury were not present.
Continue reading...The terrorist group has been looking to be active this holiday season, with online chatter about attacks increasing
Amid a presidential campaign with foreign policy discussions more focused on the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon, the Islamic State stayed under the radar while calling on supporters and operatives to attack Americans on election day.
The FBI thwarted a serious plot in Oklahoma City only weeks before the vote, prompting a similar public reaction to news involving the terror group that has become customary of late: is the Islamic State a renewed threat?
Continue reading...Among sweeping rightwing electoral victories across the globe, the ‘big loser of the elections has been climate’
An unprecedented year of elections around the world has underscored a sobering trend – in many countries the commitment to act on the climate crisis has either stalled or is eroding, even as disasters and record temperatures continue to mount.
So far 2024, called the “biggest election year in human history” by the United Nations with around half the world’s population heading to the polls, there have been major wins for Donald Trump, the US president-elect who calls the climate crisis “a big hoax”; the climate-skeptic right in European Union elections; and Vladimir Putin, who won another term and has endured sanctions to maintain Russia’s robust oil and gas exports.
Continue reading...Salary of at least £153,000 offered by Cabinet Office for ‘principal adviser’ to prime minister
Ministers are hiring a new EU negotiator as Keir Starmer seeks to reset Britain’s relationship with Europe.
The post, worth at least £153,000 a year and advertised by the Cabinet Office, would act as a representative for all of the UK’s dealings with the bloc.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage here
Continue reading...While Putin conducts his missile diplomacy, restrictions around the use of long-range weapons may help Kyiv
In Kyiv, as autumn turns fast turns to winter, Ukrainians in the government describe a vacuum before the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House on 20 January that will be filled by more war as both sides jockey for advantage. “Trump has said he wants to end the war within 24 hours. Nobody is more interested in this topic than Ukraine,” a senior official told the Guardian.
“But the problem is, for the moment, everything is just speculation. Will it be the first peace plan, the second plan, the first variant, the 10th variant?” they said. Ukraine is in “a difficult but not catastrophic position” and has little choice but to fight on and perhaps show Trump that backing Kyiv is not a losing bet.
Continue reading...Conservationists failed to capture elusive insects this summer, so Kristina Kenda offered to step in
When British conservationists flew to Slovenia this summer hoping to catch enough singing cicadas to reintroduce the species to the New Forest, the grasshopper-sized insects proved impossible to locate, flying elusively at great height between trees.
Now a 12-year-old girl has offered to save the Species Recovery Trust’s reintroduction project. Kristina Kenda, the daughter of the Airbnb hosts who accommodated the trust’s director, Dom Price, and conservation officer Holly Stanworth in the summer summer, will put out special nets to hopefully catch enough cicadas to re-establish a British population.
Continue reading...Woman who has become a feminist hero says she is ‘determined to change society’, as trial approaches its end
More than a hundred women formed a line and applauded as Gisèle Pelicot left the courtroom of the French mass rape trial this week. Pelicot, whose husband has admitted drugging her and inviting dozens of strangers into her bedroom to rape her for a decade, thanked supporters, putting a hand to her heart.
She would, she told the court, now go for walk. “I heal by hours and hours of walking – it’s a way to protect myself. That and my psychologist, music and chocolate … Everyone has their own therapy for suffering.”
Continue reading...British suppliers source from South Africa and South America as Spanish farmers struggle to harvest and ship
Some British retailers and wholesalers have been forced to switch to sourcing oranges from South Africa and South America early after last month’s catastrophic floods in eastern Spain left farmers struggling to harvest and ship their crops.
Companies in the UK have moved to buying fruit from the southern hemisphere several weeks earlier than in a typical year to prevent gaps emerging on supermarket shelves and amid fears over the quality of Spanish produce.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, read our full report:
Russia’s use of an experimental hypersonic missile to hit Ukraine was a “terrible escalation” in the war, German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Friday.
The deployment of the new weapon showed “how dangerous this war is”, Scholz said in a speech, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). He added:
That (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has now also used a medium-range missile to strike Ukrainian territory is a terrible escalation.”
Continue reading...Ukrainian president calls testing of nuclear-capable weapon on his country’s territory an ‘international crime’
Vladimir Putin has vowed to launch more strikes using an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile as Ukraine decried the testing of the nuclear-capable weapon on its territory as an “international crime”.
Speaking at a defence conference on Friday, Putin contested US claims that Russia possessed only a “handful” of the high-speed ballistic missiles, saying that the military had enough to continue to test them in “combat conditions” and would put them into serial production.
Continue reading...McGregor ordered to pay nearly €250,000 in damages to Nikita Hand after he was accused of 2018 assault
A jury at a civil trial at Ireland’s high court has found that the Irish martial arts fighter Conor McGregor assaulted a woman who had accused him of raping her at a hotel in Dublin in December 2018.
McGregor was ordered pay nearly €250,000 (£210,000) in damages to Nikita Hand, who is also known as Nikita Ní Laimhín.
Continue reading...Former German chancellor says politics should govern the social balance between powerful and ordinary citizens
Angela Merkel, who in her new memoir raises fears for the western democratic order with Donald Trump as US president, has also expressed deep concerns about the outsized role to be played in Trump’s administration by Elon Musk.
The former German chancellor, who during Trump’s first term was given by some observers the designation of “leader of the free world” usually reserved for US presidents, said 16 years in power had taught her that business and political interests must be kept in fine balance.
Continue reading...Kremlin dispatched weapons as payment for 10,000 troops deployed to support war in Ukraine, says South Korean official
Russia has sent air defence missiles and other military technology to North Korea in return for the deployment of troops from the North to support the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, intelligence officials in South Korea have said.
The shipments were the latest expression of a deepening alliance that allies and enemies fear could fuel the escalation of the war in Ukraine, geopolitical tensions in Asia, and potentially even global nuclear arms proliferation.
Continue reading...Government protests ‘unfriendly and inappropriate’ comments by French president caught on camera
Haiti’s government has summoned the French ambassador to the country to protest about “unfriendly and inappropriate” comments from Emmanuel Macron, who was caught on camera calling the country’s leaders “morons”.
The French president had on Wednesday described the decision of the Caribbean country’s transitional presidential council to oust the prime minister earlier this month amid an escalation in gang warfare as “completely dumb”.
Continue reading...Chancellor’s popular rival says he is unavailable to stand, leaving Scholz as the default candidate
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will be nominated as the candidate to lead his Social Democratic party (SPD) into the February general election after his more popular defence minister, Boris Pistorius, pulled out of the race.
After weeks of calls for a change at the top of the ticket, Pistorius released a video on Thursday in which he said he was “not available” to stand as the SPD flag-bearer in the snap election triggered after Scholz sacked his finance minister, Christian Lindner, imploding the three-year-old ruling coalition.
Continue reading...Viktor Orbán says he will not enforce ICC decision that requires court members to detain Israeli PM if he enters their country
Hungary’s illiberal prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has said he will invite his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to visit in defiance of an international criminal court arrest warrant, as world leaders split over the ICC’s momentous decision.
The world’s highest criminal court issued warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Masri, commonly known as Mohammed Deif, who is believed to be dead, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Continue reading...Thieves fired shots and took parts of 1904 work by goldsmith Joseph Chaumet from Hiéron Museum
Armed robbers snatched jewels worth millions from a work by the famed Parisian goldsmith Joseph Chaumet classed as a national treasure, in a brazen heist at a French museum.
The thieves arrived on motorbikes at the Hiéron Museum in Paray-le-Monial, in central France, at about 4pm local time on Thursday. Three entered the building and one stood guard outside, said the local mayor, Jean-Marc Nesme.
Continue reading...Petrostate’s rebuke comes as Saudi Arabia and allies try to derail transition promise made at climate talks last year
The world must stand behind a historic resolution made last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”, the United Arab Emirates has said, in a powerful intervention into a damaging row over climate action.
The petrostate’s stance will be seen as as a sharp rebuke to its neighbour and close ally Saudi Arabia, which had been trying to unpick the global commitment at UN climate talks in Azerbaijan this week.
Continue reading...UN secretary general António Guterres’s spokesperson says Russia’s use of a new ballistic missile is ‘yet another … worrying development’. This blog is now closed
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has issued a statement on X after Vladimir Putin said Russian forces had hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new experimental mid-range ballistic missile.
The Russian leader has “admitted” to taking a step “toward escalating and expanding this war” by using a new ballistic missile on Ukraine, Zelenskyy wrote.
Putin struck our city of Dnipro, one of Ukraine’s largest cities. This is a clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war — a cynical violation of the UN Charter by Russia.
Putin alone started this war—an entirely unprovoked war — and he is doing everything to prolong it, now for over a thousand days.
Continue reading...