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Conor McGregor has spoken out after losing a civil rape case as a feminist march was held in Dublin.The MMA fighter was accused of raping Nikita Hand, who was awarded €248,603 (£206,000) in damages on Friday after a jury at Dublin's High Court found McGregor assaulted her in a Dublin hotel in 2018. Image: Nikita Hand. Pic: PA Posting on social media, the 36-year-old said: "I know I made mistakes".It comes as hundreds of people in Dublin staged a demonstration in "utter solidarity" with Ms Hand.Posting on X, McGregor said: "People want to hear from me, I needed time. I know I made mistakes. Six years ago, I should have never responded to her outreaches. I should have shut the party down. I should never have stepped out on th...

Two Britons are believed to be among more than a dozen people missing after a boat sank in the Red Sea off the Egyptian coast.The yacht, called Sea Story, had 44 people on board, including 31 tourists of varying nationalities and 13 crew.Authorities are searching for 16 people, including 12 foreign nationals and four Egyptians, the governor of the Red Sea region said, adding that 28 other people had been rescued.Preliminary reports suggested a sudden large wave struck the vessel, capsizing it within about five minutes, governor Amr Hanafi said."Some passengers were in their cabins, which is why they were unable to escape," he added in a statement. Image: Survivors rescued from the Sea Story in Marsa Alam. Pic: STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock ...

Twelve British soldiers were injured in a major traffic pile-up in Estonia, close to the border with Russia, local media have reported.Eight of the troops - part of a major NATO mission to deter Russian aggression - were airlifted back to the UK for hospital treatment on Sunday after the incident, which happened in snowy conditions on Friday, it is understood. Five of these personnel have since been discharged with three still being kept in the military wing of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.The crash happened at an intersection at around 5pm on Friday when the troops were travelling in three minibuses back to their base at Tapa. Two civilian cars, driven by Estonians, are thought to have collided, triggering a chain reaction, with four other vehicles - comprising the three...

A motion has been filed to drop the charges against Donald Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 US presidential election result.Mr Trump was first indicted on four felonies in August 2023: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The president-elect pleaded not guilty to all charges and the case was then put on hold for months as Mr Trump's team argued he could not be prosecuted. Image: Special Counsel Jack Smith. Pic: Reuters Image: Donald Trump supporters storm the US Capitol On Monday, prosecutors working wit...

A man who repeatedly drugged his wife unconscious and invited strangers to rape her for years should be given the maximum 20-year sentence in prison, French prosecutors have said.Dominique Pelicot, 71, has confessed to all the charges and admitted to mixing sedatives into her food and drink so he and others he recruited online could sexually assault her. He previously told the court: "I am a rapist just like all the others in this room."Some 50 other men are also on trial for allegedly participating in the attacks on Gisele Pelicot, 71, who waived her right to anonymity and insisted the trial in southern France was held in public to shame her attackers.Prosecutor Laure Chabaud has asked the panel of judges for the maximum possible penalty for aggravated rape, 20 years, for Ms Pelicot's ex-...

There was something desperately oppressive that came with being in Tbilisi today.Perhaps it was the sight of hundreds of police officers, massed together and lurking in packs, waiting for something to happen. Maybe it was the dark clouds that poured rain over the streets. But most likely it was the sense that this is a city, and a country, that is uncomfortable with itself. That Georgia is a nation in turmoil. Image: Protests continue in Georgia, where many are convinced their nation is led by imposters A month after its general election, this is a country where many still seethe, convinced that their votes were negated by corruption and that their nation is now led by imposters.Georgian Dream may have been announced as the...

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald says she will demand a referendum on Irish unity in her first phone call with Sir Keir Starmer if she wins Ireland's general election.In the second of our leader interviews, she told Sky News she would also be able to strike the right balance in dealings with US President-elect Donald Trump because women "naturally multi-task". Ms McDonald, who describes Friday's poll as "an historic opportunity" to elect Ireland's first female prime minister (taoiseach), expects a vote on Irish reunification to take place by 2030. Image: Ms McDonald with Ace Gilbert, two, and his mother Chloe Gilbert in Dublin She said: "I think that the process of reunification has to be at the heart of government."Obvio...

Warning: This article contains references to suicideOn Friday this week, MPs will debate if England and Wales should legalise assisted dying. The proposed legislation restricts it to adults with six months or less to live.Canada introduced assisted dying in 2016 for adults with a terminal illness. In 2021, it was extended to people with no terminal illness and the disabled.On 17 March 2027, anyone with a serious mental health problem will also be eligible. Campaigners in Canada argue that the programme, known as MAID [medical assistance in dying], has gone too far.Orlando Da Silva has struggled with crippling depression since he was a nine-year-old boy. The high-flying Ontario lawyer is 56 years old now and has tried to take his own life a number of times. ...

A far-right and little-known NATO critic has won the first round of Romania's presidential election after polls predicted he would win less than 10% of the vote.Calin Georgescu, an independent candidate, won with a 22.95% share, seeing off the incumbent prime minister Marcel Ciolacu of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), who had been the clear favourite to win the first round. Mr Georgescu, 62, will face off against reformist Elena Lasconi of the centre-right Save Romania Union in a run-off on 8 December. She won 19.17% of the vote.It is the first time in Romania's 35-year post-communist history that the leftist PSD has not had a candidate in the second round of a presidential race. Image: Elena Lasconi, the Save Romania Union party candidate f...

More than 30 pilot whales that washed up on a beachfront in New Zealand have been safely returned to the ocean by hundreds of people who lifted them on sheets.The whales stranded themselves on Ruakaka Beach near the city of Whangarei in New Zealand's north on Sunday, before conservation workers and members of the public helped return them to the water. Four of the pilot whales died, New Zealand's conservation agency said.A Maori cultural ceremony for the three adult whales and one calf that died took place on Monday, while a rescue team continued to monitor the water for more of the marine mammals. Image: Rescuers rope off an area around a dead pilot whale. Pic: AP Image: Res...