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jili777 casino jili777 Several of Trump's Cabinet picks — and Trump himself — have been accused of sexual misconductNikita Hand said the Dec. 9, 2018, assault after a night of partying left her heavily bruised and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. McGregor testified that he never forced the woman to do anything against her will and said she fabricated the allegations after the two had consensual sex. His lawyer had called Hand a gold digger. The fighter, once the face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship but now past his prime, shook his head as the jury of eight women and four men found him liable for assault after deliberating about six hours in the High Court in Dublin. He was mobbed by cameras as he left court but did not comment. He later said on the social platform X that he would appeal the verdict and the "modest award." Hand's voice cracked and her hands trembled as she read a statement outside the courthouse, saying she would never forget what happened to her but would now be able to move on with her life. She thanked her family, partner, friends, jurors, the judge and all the supporters that had reached out to her online, but particularly her daughter. "She has given me so much strength and courage over the last six years throughout this nightmare to keep on pushing forward for justice," she said. "I want to show (her) and every other girl and boy that you can stand up for yourself if something happens to you, no matter who the person is, and justice will be served." The Associated Press generally does not name alleged victims of sexual violence unless they come forward publicly, as Hand has done. Under Irish law, she did not have the anonymity she would have been granted in a criminal proceeding and was named publicly throughout the trial. Her lawyer told jurors that McGregor was angry about a fight he had lost in Las Vegas two months earlier and took it out on his client. "He's not a man, he's a coward," attorney John Gordon said in his closing speech. "A devious coward and you should treat him for what he is." Gordon said his client never pretended to be a saint and was only looking to have fun when she sent McGregor a message through Instagram after attending a Christmas party. He said Hand knew McGregor socially and that they had grown up in the same area. She said he picked her and a friend up in a car and shared cocaine with them, which McGregor admitted in court, on the way to the Beacon Hotel. Hand said she told McGregor she didn't want to have sex with him and that she was menstruating. She said she told him "no" as he started kissing her but he eventually pinned her to a bed and she couldn't move. McGregor put her in a chokehold and later told her, "now you know how I felt in the octagon where I tapped out three times," referring to a UFC match when he had to admit defeat, she said. Hand had to take several breaks in emotional testimony over three days. She said McGregor threatened to kill her during the encounter and she feared she would never see her young daughter again. Eventually, he let go of her. "I remember saying I was sorry, as I felt that I did something wrong and I wanted to reassure him that I wouldn't tell anyone so he wouldn't hurt me again," she testified. She said she then let him do what he wanted and he had sex with her. A paramedic who examined Hand the next day testified that she had never before seen someone with that intensity of bruising. A doctor told jurors Hand had multiple injuries. Hand said the trauma of the attack had left her unable to work as a hairdresser, she fell behind on her mortgage and had to move out of her house. Police investigated the woman's complaint but prosecutors declined to bring charges, saying there was insufficient evidence and a conviction was unlikely. McGregor, in his post on X, said he was disappointed jurors didn't see all the evidence prosecutors had reviewed. He testified that the two had athletic and vigorous sex, but that it was not rough. He said "she never said 'no' or stopped" and testified that everything she said was a lie. "It is a full blown lie among many lies," he said when asked about the chokehold allegation. "How anyone could believe that me, as a prideful person, would highlight my shortcomings." McGregor's lawyer told jurors they had to set aside their animus toward the fighter. "You may have an active dislike of him, some of you may even loathe him – there is no point pretending that the situation might be otherwise," attorney Remy Farrell said. "I'm not asking you to invite him to Sunday brunch." The defense said the woman never told investigators McGregor threatened her life. They also showed surveillance video in court that they said appeared to show the woman kiss McGregor's arm and hug him after they left the hotel room. Farrell said she looked "happy, happy, happy." McGregor said he was "beyond petrified" when first questioned by police and read them a prepared statement. On the advice of his lawyer, he refused to answer more than 100 follow-up questions. The jury ruled against Hand in a case she brought against one of McGregor's friends, James Lawrence, whom she accused of having sex with her in the hotel without consent.

Immigration is one of the hot-button topics of this general election and six candidates from across the political spectrum debated Ireland’s response to a surge in immigration in recent years. The immigration issue was debated by Justice Minister Helen McEntee, Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman, Fianna Fáil’s James Browne, Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín, Independent Ireland’s Michael Fitzmaurice and Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy on RTÉ’s Upfront with Katie Hannon . There was fiery debate over the previous government’s handling of the influx of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion in 2022, along with the increase of asylum seekers from many other countries worldwide. There was criticism for government parties for their “out-of step” supports for Ukrainian refugees which created a “pull factor”, according to Peadar Tóibin. James Browne countered this by saying the government acted with “humanity” and Helen McEntee said the cuts in supports for Ukrainians were instituted along with EU partners. Roderic O’Gorman, in a fiery exchange with Matt Carthy accused Sinn Féin of “walking away from Ukraine” after Mr Carthy suggested Ukrainians living in Ireland should be processed through the International Protection once the temporary protection measures that allow them to live in Ireland are ended, which his party would advocate for at an EU level. O’Gorman blasted it as a “crazy idea”. McEntee insisted that “immigration is a good thing for this country” and that Ireland needs inward migration to fill many posts as the country was at full employment. The government ministers rejected assertions that they were “asleep at the wheel” over sustainably managing migration. The Fine Gael deputy leader said inward migration is needed to ensure increased housing delivery, essential services in healthcare, and other sectors. She defended the current immigration system as rules-based. Ms McEntee said: “If somebody is coming and applying for a work permit, the job has to be there. “If somebody is coming in here as a student, we’re very clear that you are coming to study, that you are not coming here to work, that you’re not coming to use the study visa.” She added that “by and large” most people agree that migration has been a positive for the country. Mr Tóibín said there was “no doubt” that many migrants make really positive contributions to Ireland. However, the opposition politician accused the Government of being “asleep at the wheel” by not keeping immigration at what he characterised as sustainable levels. Mr Tóibín said “we have to start looking at” how many permits are provided to non-essential workers and said: “we have sleepwalked into non-sustainability”, while adding that there are 500,000 adults living with their parents due to a lack of housing. Integration minister and Green leader Roderic O’Gorman said blocking off links to other countries would be “fundamentally a wrong approach for an open economy” like Ireland. He accused Mr Tóibín of having a “deeply divisive” proposal. James Browne, who is the junior minister in the Department of Justice, said the country’s economy is “booming” in ICT and foreign direct investment. He added: “Shutting down effectively any work permit coming for foreign direct investment will be absolutely, I think, counterproductive and, quite frankly, hypocritical as well. “We do need people coming into this country. It’s at full employment and it helps our economy and our society to grow.” Michael Fitzmaurice of Independent Ireland said most people have “no problems whatsoever” on people coming in on permits. However, he said there is a problem around the “complicated permit system”. Mr Carthy said there was an “irony” in doctors and nurses who qualified here having emigrated to the “far side of the globe” over a lack of affordable housing in Ireland. Mr Carthy said the Government was overseeing crises in housing, health and migration. “What we want to do is put in place a system of rules that are clearly understood and clearly enforced that ensures that there is confidence for everyone involved.” He added: “We need to have a managed migration system that ensures that those sectors that need employees are able to access them in a way that doesn’t actually burden the overstretched services that we have, that doesn’t actually add to our housing crisis that we already have. “So we have to be cognisant of all of that and recognise the value of people who are coming here and maintaining our health services and other essential services.” Mr Fitzmaurice criticised the government for “creating divides” across communities in Ireland due to the level of supports given to some and not others and touched on the student housing crisis and claimed universities in Ireland are attracting students from outside the EEA, who have to pay higher fees, to “subsidise their finances” but this in turn creates more pressure on the housing market. While the debate raged on, it was confirmed an accommodation centre for asylum seekers at Kilbride Military camp in Co Wicklow caught fire. There were no injuries reported and an investigation was ongoing into the cause of the blaze, believed to have originated in a canteen.West Palm Beach (US), Dec 27 (AP) An online spat between factions of Donald Trump's supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in his political movement into public display, previewing the fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House. The rift laid bare the tensions between the newest flank of Trump's movement — wealthy members of the tech world including billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more highly skilled workers in their industry — and people in Trump's Make America Great Again base who championed his hardline immigration policies. The debate touched off this week when Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump's selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the US. Loomer declared the stance to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves. Much of the debate played out on the social media network X, which Musk owns. Loomer's comments sparked a back-and-forth with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks, whom Trump has tapped to be the “White House A.I. and Crypto Czar." Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with finding ways to cut the federal government, weighed in, defending the tech industry's need to bring in foreign workers. It bloomed into a larger debate with more figures from the hard-right weighing in about the need to hire US workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Trump's world and what his political movement stands for. Trump has not yet weighed in on the rift, and his presidential transition team did not respond to a message seeking comment. Musk, the world's richest man who has grown remarkably close to the president-elect, was a central figure in the debate, not only for his stature in Trump's movement but his stance on the tech industry's hiring of foreign workers. Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut US citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded. Born in South Africa, Musk was once on an a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry's need to bring in foreign workers. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent," he said in a post. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Trump's own positions over the years have reflected the divide in his movement. His tough immigration policies, including his pledge for a mass deportation, were central to his winning presidential campaign. He has focused on immigrants who come into the US illegally but he has also sought curbs on legal immigration, including family-based visas. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” for US workers. After he became president, Trump in 2017 issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, which directed Cabinet members to suggest changes to ensure H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers. Trump's businesses, however, have hired foreign workers, including waiters and cooks at his Mar-a-Lago club, and his social media company behind his Truth Social app has used the the H-1B programme for highly skilled workers. During his 2024 campaign for president, as he made immigration his signature issue, Trump said immigrants in the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country" and promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history. But in a sharp departure from his usual alarmist message around immigration generally, Trump told a podcast this year that he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from US colleges. “I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country," he told the “All-In" podcast with people from the venture capital and technology world. Those comments came on the cusp of Trump's budding alliance with tech industry figures, but he did not make the idea a regular part of his campaign message or detail any plans to pursue such changes. (AP) PY PY (This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)

Editorial Roundup: United States

Engineering researchers develop revolutionary diamond fabrication technologyZuby Ejiofor delivered an early Christmas present to St. John's in the form of a buzzer-beating shot to keep the Red Storm's winning streak alive. St. John's (10-2) beat Providence at the horn back on Dec. 20 to win its fifth straight game and move to 2-0 in the Big East. Back on its campus in New York, St. John's will face Delaware on Saturday for one last tune-up before returning to conference action. In the Red Storm's first true road game of the season, Providence led most of the way before Ejiofor and RJ Luis Jr. steered the comeback. Ejiofor made a jumper in the lane in the final second to secure a 72-70 win. Coach Rick Pitino saw evidence that his team had grown from the start of the season. The Red Storm's two losses came on a double-overtime buzzer-beater against Baylor and by three points versus Georgia. "I think they're mentally maturing," Pitino told the New York Post. "Three weeks ago, with missing all those free throws, all those shots, we lose by 12 to 16 points. But they're maturing mentally and getting tougher because (that night) we didn't have it offensively, and they still found a way to win on the road in a tough environment." Ejiofor had 19 points and 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. On a team stacked with talent, he and Luis have been the main catalysts. Luis averages 17.0 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, and Ejiofor provides 14.6 points and a team-best 7.8 rebounds per contest. Ejiofor's game-winner came on an offensive board and second-chance look. "My philosophy is, and Coach says, every shot is essentially my rebound," Ejiofor said. "I have pride in getting my team a second chance, and that's exactly what I did." Delaware (7-5) has had a quiet month, with two of its three wins coming against non-Division I teams. But its other win in that time was a 93-80 romp against rival Delaware State on Dec. 3. That night, the Blue Hens shot a red-hot 17-of-31 from 3-point range. The 17 makes were one shy of tying the program record. Cavan Reilly (five 3-pointers) led them that night with 20 points, but three other starters also buried three triples. "That's what I envisioned out of this group," coach Martin Ingelsby told the Delaware News Journal, "to have multiple weapons." Delaware would love to rediscover that shooting touch. It made just 6 of 21 shots from deep in a 72-64 loss to Saint Peter's on Dec. 20. John Camden paces Delaware with 14.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Four other players average double-figure scoring: Niels Lane (13.7), Reilly (12.9), Erik Timko (12.4) and Izaiah Pasha (10.7). --Field Level Media

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