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Conor McGregor must pay $250K to woman who says he raped her, civil jury rules

LONDON (AP) — A woman who claimed mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor “brutally raped and battered” her in a Dublin hotel penthouse was awarded nearly 250,000 Euros ($257,000) on Friday by a civil court jury in Ireland.

Nikita 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.

49ers rule out QB Brock Purdy, DE Nick Bosa for Packers game

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (ESPN) — Entering an important matchup with the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers will be without starting quarterback Brock Purdy and defensive end Nick Bosa.

The Niners officially ruled out Purdy (right shoulder soreness) and Bosa (left hip/oblique) Friday afternoon, just before the team was scheduled to fly to Wisconsin. Coach Kyle Shanahan announced that veteran Brandon Allen will start in place of Purdy, with Josh Dobbs available as the backup.

With Purdy and Bosa out and left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) again listed as questionable, the 5-5 Niners could be without three of their most important players in a game they desperately need to stay in the postseason hunt.

“We’re missing two good players, definitely,” Shanahan said. “But we’ve got a lot of good players out there. By no means do we not have a chance to win. We’re going to fight our tails off and expect this to be a real good game.”

While Bosa missing a game to recover has been a real possibility for the past two weeks, Purdy’s absence grew into one over the past 24 hours. Purdy was a limited participant in Wednesday’s practice, but Shanahan and the Niners believed his sore shoulder would continue to get better as the week went on.

Then Purdy was on the field for some light throwing before Thursday’s practice, but that clearly didn’t go well as he retreated to the weight room for further treatment. That apparent setback surprised the 49ers.

The writing was on the wall earlier Friday when Purdy was nowhere to be found during the portion of practice open to media.

“This is something that we didn’t think would happen early in the week,” Shanahan said. “We were fully preparing for Brock to go and got a little surprised about this yesterday.”

According to Shanahan, Purdy had an MRI on the shoulder Monday and it did not show any structural damage that would offer cause for concern that he could miss extended time. But Shanahan also said he was unsure when Purdy will be back.

“I don’t want to say there’s long-term concern,” Shanahan said. “We thought he just needed some rest and we really weren’t concerned about [him] not being good this week. But when he started up Thursday, it just surprised him, surprised us with how it felt. So, we had to shut him down. I really don’t know what to think of it. … But the way it responded this week, it’s really up in the air next week. We’ll have to see on Monday.”

Shanahan added that Purdy could not point to a specific play where he hurt the shoulder in last week’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks. But Shanahan noted that Purdy’s shoulder felt tight during the game and led to him spending more time warming in the game than he usually would.

With Purdy out, Allen is poised to make his 10th regular-season start since entering the league as a sixth-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2016. Three of those starts were for the Denver Broncos in 2019, with the other six for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2020 and 2021. He has been with the 49ers since 2023, running the scout team against the defense for much of that time.

Allen said he didn’t know until Friday that he would be starting, based on the expectation that Purdy would feel better as the week went on.

Shanahan said that despite his injury, Purdy will travel with the team to Green Bay. Bosa, however, will not. Bosa has been dealing with injuries to both hips and obliques, though the left side has been more bothersome this week.

Last week, Bosa played against Seattle despite pain in his right side but injured the left side with about nine minutes left in the third quarter. He did not return to the game and when it was over said he felt like he was “compensating” for the injury on the right side when he hurt the left.

Bosa didn’t sound very optimistic Wednesday that he’d be able to play against the Packers, saying, “It gets better every day. We’ll see.”

In addition to Bosa and Purdy, the Niners will also be without cornerback Charvarius Ward for a third straight game. Ward returned to practice this week after being away from the team to grieve the death of his 1-year-old daughter. Ward rejoined the team last weekend, but Shanahan said neither side wanted to rush anything because Ward hadn’t practiced since before the Oct. 27 game against the Dallas Cowboys.

“We were just happy to get him back in the building this week,” Shanahan said. “We don’t want to put any pressure on him by any means to get ready to play. He just wanted to get back on the field. … Hopefully he’ll be good to go next week.”

As for Williams, he played last week against the Seahawks after not practicing all week. He could do it again this week after again sitting out all three days of practice, though this time the 49ers have a long flight to Green Bay added to the mix.

Shanahan said a decision on Williams won’t be made until “right up to kickoff.” Tight end George Kittle, who missed last week with a hamstring injury, does not have a game designation and is cleared to return against the Packers.

Dillon Brooks scores a season-high 28 to lead the Rockets past the Trail Blazers 116-88

HOUSTON (AP) — Dillon Brooks scored a season-high 28 points and led the Houston Rockets to a 116-88 win over the Portland Trail Blazers in an NBA Cup game on Friday night.

Brooks matched a career-high with six 3-pointers on eight attempts, and the Rockets made 15 of 39 (38.5%) from beyond the arc.

Tari Eason scored 22 points off the bench, Jalen Green had 17 and Alperen Sengun added 14 as the Rockets won for the seventh time in eight games. Six of those wins were by double figures. Houston is 2-0 in NBA Cup play

For Portland, Deni Avdija and Shaedon Sharpe scores 13 points apiece and Toumani Camara had 11.

Portland has lost two straight games to open a four-game trip. They previously won three straight at home. The Trail Blazers are 1-1 in the in-season tournament.

Takeaways

Trail Blazers: Portland was missing two of its five leading scorers in Scoot Henderson, out for the first time with a left quad contusion, and Deandre Ayton, who remained sidelined with a deep contusion in his right index finger.

Rockets: Houston, at 12-5, has outscored opponents by 163 points through 17 games, the highest total through the first 17 games of a season in franchise history. The previous record of 131 was held by the defending champion 1996-97 Rockets, who started the season 15-2.

Key moment

The Rockets were trailing early when Eason checked in and provided a spark, scoring 12 points in an energetic 13 minutes in the first half. Eason finished with a game-best plus-minus of +33 points.

Key stat

Houston outscored Portland 23-7 in fast-break points and generated 28 points off Portland’s 21 turnovers.

Up next

The Trail Blazers and the Rockets will meet again Saturday night in Houston for the second half of a back-to-back.

People on breathing machines struggle without power after weather disasters

HOUSTON (AP) — Kimberly Rubit had one priority in mind as Hurricane Beryl ripped through Houston this summer: her severely disabled daughter.

The 63-year-old worked nonstop to prevent Mary, 42, from overheating without air conditioning, water or lights after Beryl knocked out power to their home for 10 days. At least three dozen other people suffered heat-related deaths during the extended outage.

“It was miserable,” Rubit said. “I’m sick of it.”

Electric grids have buckled more frequently and outages have become longer across the U.S. as the warming atmosphere carries more water and stirs up more destructive storms, according to an AP analysis of government data. In the Pacific Northwest this week, a “ bomb cyclone ” caused roughly half a million outages.

People with disabilities and chronic health conditions are particularly at risk when the power goes out, and many live in homes that lack the weatherizing and backup power supplies needed to better handle high temperatures and cold freezes, or can’t pay their electricity bills, said Columbia University sociomedical sciences professor Diana Hernandez, who studies energy instability in U.S. homes.

At any given time, one in three households in the U.S. is “actively trying to avoid a disconnection or contending with the aftermath of it,” Hernandez said.

In Texas, as another winter approaches, people can’t shake fears of another blackout like the one during a cold freeze in 2021 that left millions without power for days and killed more than 200 people. Despite efforts to create more resilience, a winter storm that powerful could still lead to rolling blackouts, according to ERCOT, which manages most of the state’s power grid.

Beryl also knocked out power to millions for days, sickening many in the sweltering July heat. Local and state officials showered criticism on CenterPoint Energy, Houston’s power utility, saying it should have communicated more clearly, taken more preventive measures such as tree trimming before the storm hit and repaired downed power lines more quickly. The utility’s response remains under investigation by the Texas attorney general.

CenterPoint says it is focused now on improving resiliency, customer communications and community partnerships with the one defining goal: “to build the most resilient coastal grid in the country that can better withstand the extreme weather of the future.”

Texas lawmakers, meanwhile, are debating whether assisted living facilities need more regulation. One suggestion: requiring them to have enough emergency generator fuel to power lifesaving equipment and keep indoor temperatures safe during an extended blackout, as Florida did after a scandal over hurricane-related nursing home deaths.

The legislative panel also reviewed emergency responses this month. Regulated facilities and nursing centers fared better than places such as senior communities that aren’t subject to strict oversight, according to city and state officials. This meant hundreds of apartment complexes catering to older adults, as well as private homes, were likely more susceptible to losing power and going without food.

“We’ve got to find a way to mark these facilities or get it entered into the computer dispatch systems,” said Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. “There are so many places in our own city that we have no idea until that 911 call comes in to that facility,” he said.

Texas energy companies have been required since 2003 to provide advance notice of scheduled outages to medically vulnerable households that submit a form with physician approval. But that law didn’t require the utilities to share these lists with state or local emergency management agencies.

Numerous states have similar regulatory requirements and 38 have policies aimed at preventing disconnections during extreme weather, according to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. In Colorado, medically vulnerable residents are protected from disconnection for up to 90 days. In Arkansas, utilities can’t disconnect power to people who are 65 or older if temperatures are forecast to reach above 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34 Celsius).

In Houston, Rubit and her daughter share one of the roughly 3,000 households where unreliable power can quickly spiral into a life-and-death issue because at least one person requires a medical device powered by electricity, according to public filings from CenterPoint. The utility offers such households payment plans to keep the electricity on when they fall behind on their bills.

The utility’s efforts bring little solace to community members at a Houston living center for seniors, Commons of Grace, where outages have become a haunting facet of life for more than 100 residents, said Belinda Taylor, who runs a nonprofit partnered with the managing company.

“I’m just frustrated that we didn’t get the services that we needed,” Taylor said. “It’s ridiculous that we have had to suffer.”

Sharon Burks, who lives at Commons of Grace, said it became unbearable when the power went out. She is 63 and uses a breathing machine for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which causes shortness of breath. She had to resort to her battery-powered breathing pump, which isn’t meant to be used for long periods.

“I didn’t expect anything from CenterPoint,” Burks said. “We’re always the last to get it.”

Trump picks Johns Hopkins surgeon who argued against COVID lockdowns to lead FDA

(NEW YORK) -- President Donald Trump said he wants Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns, to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"He will work under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to, among other things, properly evaluate harmful chemicals poisoning our Nation’s food supply and drugs and biologics being given to our Nation’s youth, so that we can finally address the Childhood Chronic Disease Epidemic," Trump said in his announcement.

If confirmed by the Senate, Makary's job would be to oversee the FDA's $7 billion budget and report to the health secretary. The agency oversees $3.6 trillion in food, tobacco and medical products, including some 20,000 prescription drugs on the market.

Here are three things to know about Makary:

Makary is a respected transplant surgeon who questioned his colleagues' recommendations on COVID

Makary was known during the pandemic as an experienced medical expert willing to challenge his colleagues' assumptions on COVID, although he was often criticized by his peers for cherry-picking data or omitting context.

He frequently appeared on Fox News and wrote opinion articles that questioned the value of lockdowns and masks for children. He supported the use of vaccines but opposed mandates and doubted the utility of boosters, at odds with full-throated recommendations on boosters from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among his views was that the U.S. government was underestimating the number of people who were likely immune to the virus. In early 2021, he predicted much of the country would reach "herd immunity" by that April, reducing risk of the virus dramatically.

That assumption, however, did not happen.

As restrictions eased and a new variant surfaced, virus-related deaths soared from about 4,000 a week to about 15,000 a week by September, making 2021 a deadlier year than when the pandemic began.

Makary stood by his assertion that "natural immunity" was still being underestimated by the U.S. government.

"One reason public health officials may be afraid to acknowledge the effectiveness of natural immunity is that they fear it will lead some to choose getting the infection over vaccination. That's a legitimate concern. But we can encourage all Americans to get vaccinated while still being honest about the data," he wrote a separate opinion article in The Washington Post.

He sounds a lot like RFK Jr. when talking about the 'poisoned' food supply, pesticides and ultra-processed foods.

After the pandemic, Makary began turning back to his initial focus railing against an overpriced health care system. He's long argued that the system is broken, overcharging patients and running unnecessary tests.

He also began speaking more critically about America's food system, echoing a message embraced by Trump's pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"We've got a poisoned food supply. We've got pesticides. We've got ultra-processed foods and all sorts of things that have been in the blind spots in modern medicine," Makary told Fox News this September.

Kennedy also would require Senate confirmation to get the job.

In a later interview, Makary praised Trump's decision to pick Kennedy.

"He wants to address corruption in health care and corruption in our government health agencies," he said.

He warns against 'drugging our nation's children.'

It's not clear exactly what Makary would do if confirmed as FDA commissioner, as much of his work would likely be steered by Trump and the incoming health secretary, possibly Kennedy.

But Makary has previously suggested an overhaul of FDA's "erratic" bureaucracy, which he says was too eager to approve opioids and too cautious when it came to other drugs like the COVID antiviral pill Molnupiravir.

"For too long, FDA leaders have acted like a crusty librarian who gets annoyed when someone wants to borrow a book. But then give preference to people they like," Makary wrote in a 2021 opinion article in Fox News.

More recently, he's called for a ban on cell phones on schools, and praised Kennedy for questioning the use of anti-anxiety and anti-obesity drugs in children.

"What he is really focused on is this concept that we can't keep drugging our nation's children," Makary said of Kennedy.

When asked if Kennedy can accomplish what he wants to do in four years, Makary told Fox News he'll try by bringing in more scientists and letting "them do good work."

Kennedy "is really the quintessential environmental health attorney of our era, and that may be the quintessential issue of our era," Makary said.

Some of RFK Jr.’s views are finding support in some unexpected quarters

(NEW YORK) -- Since being tapped as President-elect Donald Trump's controversial pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been criticized by medical and public health experts for his anti-vaccine history, his current vaccine skepticism, his take on the COVID-19 pandemic -- and by some for his descriptions of fluorinated water. But some of the environmental attorney's views are also receiving support from some unexpected sources.

On Wednesday, renowned food author Michael Pollan echoed those criticisms -- but offered some praise for Kennedy's criticism of the American food industry, which Kennedy has accused of propagating obesity and chronic disease.

"He's voicing a critique of the food system that is important," Pollan told ABC News, while making clear he was drawing a "strong distinction" between Kennedy's food stances and his medical advice -- and that he thinks Kennedy is a "horrible" choice for the job.

Pollan's comments join a stance taken in recent days by some prominent Democrats who have praised Kennedy for his vows to "Make America Healthy Again," in part by tackling the food industry -- while condemning him for his years working against vaccine health policies.

The comments from Pollan to ABC News came after he shared a seemingly positive article on social media about Kennedy titled, "They're lying about Robert F. Kennedy Jr." -- a move that prompted Kennedy himself to reply and suggest they work together.

"Thanks @michaelpollan!" Kennedy wrote Thursday on X. "I'd love to work with you to restore our public health agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science and Make America Healthy Again."

Asked if he would take Kennedy up on the offer, Pollan was clear: "No."

"I've got my role to play, and that's not the role," he told ABC News.

Kennedy has faced fierce criticism over his claims that vaccines are behind an "epidemic" of diseases in America, and that cavity-fighting mineral fluoride, added in small amounts to some drinking water, is "industrial waste." Pollan said Kennedy's stances on vaccines and fluoride "seem nutty" and that he was overall a "horrible" pick to lead HHS.

But Pollan -- who has authored multiple books, including several on the effects of food on the human body -- offered some praise for Kennedy for his views on ultra-processed food and the overuse of corn and soy.

"He's injected these issues into the national conversation, and I think that's a big deal," Pollan said.

He also praised Kennedy for linking the epidemic of obesity and chronic disease to agricultural policies -- a move he said is "really important."

"I'm looking for glimmers in an otherwise bleak landscape," Pollan said.

Pollan's approval of Kennedy's food stances follows similar praise from some Democrat officials.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said he was "excited by the news" that Kennedy had been appointed to lead HHS, writing on X that he was "most optimistic" about Kennedy "taking on big pharma and the corporate ag oligopoly to improve our health."

He wrote in a subsequent post that "Science must remain THE cornerstone of our nation's health policy" and said "the science-backed decision to get vaccinated improves public health and safety," but noted that he is "for a major shake-up in institutions like the FDA that have been barriers to lowering drug costs and promoting healthy food choices."

Earlier this week, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey posted a video on social media about how he has been "raising the alarm of the dangers of our current food system."

"Food in America is making us sick," Booker said in the video. Though he did not mention Kennedy by name, Kennedy reposted the video, thanking Booker for his "long history of leadership on this issue."

Asked by ABC News, Booker said he had not yet made up his mind on Kennedy's nomination, saying that Kennedy would need to go through the confirmation process and that Kennedy's stances on vaccines were "very troubling." He added he was "super skeptical of the Trump administration's efforts in any way to say that they are going to be doing things to make us more healthy."

Still, Booker added he was "happy to hear" Kennedy on some of the issues around health, saying, "There's a growing coalition in America from both sides of the aisle really demanding change. I hope, if the Trump administration is willing to do something right and positive on these issues, I'll be right there."

"When it comes to RFK, we're going to look at the totality of his record, we're going to evaluate and make a decision, but my focus is trying to block Trump from doing more damage to Americans health, like he did last time," Booker said.

Pollan, for his part, questioned just how much Trump would let Kennedy make true reforms to the food industry, should Kennedy be confirmed.

"I have my doubts about whether Trump is going to give him authority to do what he wants to do around food," Pollan said of Kennedy, who over the weekend was in a viral photo eating McDonald's with Trump and others on Trump's plane. "Whether he'll get anywhere, I have my doubts -- but I am pleased to see these issues getting talked about."

Defense rests in Daniel Penny subway chokehold trial

Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) -- The defense in the Daniel Penny manslaughter and negligent homicide case rested without their client taking the stand.

Penny is charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide in the May 2023 New York City subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man. Neely was acting erratically in a subway car when Penny put him in the deadly chokehold.

Penny, a former Marine, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The judge will hold a charging conference with the attorneys Monday to discuss his instructions to the jury.

The jury is off until after Thanksgiving, when the trial will resume with closing arguments, the judge’s instructions and deliberations.

Troup PD reaches agreement in public restroom graffiti incident

TROUP – The Troup Police Department said that the city has reached an agreement with the family of a juvenile who reportedly drew graffiti on a public restroom on Nov. 20. According to our news partner KETK, officials said they identified the juvenile while investigating the vandalized restroom at the city splash pad. Police said the youth was cooperative and remorseful. The city said the family agreed to pay for the cost of cleaning the graffiti.

Judge to make decision on releasing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs on bail next week

Photo by Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean "Diddy" Combs

(NEW YORK) -- Sean "Diddy" Combs appeared again in a New York City courtroom on Friday as he continues to fight for his release on bail in his racketeering and sex trafficking case.

Combs' lawyers argued he should be released on bail and placed on home confinement in a three-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side under 24/7 monitoring by three full-time security professionals, while prosecutors said the hip-hop impresario "cannot be trusted" to follow the rules of pretrial release.

The judge did not immediately rule but said he would have a decision next week.

The defense said it was proposing conditions "far more restrictive" than Combs faces in jail, including limiting phone calls to lawyers, restricting visitors other than lawyers and specific family members, keeping a visitor log and avoiding contact with witnesses or potential witnesses.

"If what the government is afraid of is that Mr. Combs is going to be violent toward someone, there's just zero chance of that happening," defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said.

Combs blew kisses to his family and tapped his heart as he entered federal court Friday in a beige jail smock over a white long-sleeve T-shirt. He hugged his attorneys and, once seated, turned in his chair to smile at his mother and children, who were seated in the second row.

Prosecutors reminded the judge "this is a case about violence" and argued the conditions proposed in the defense bail package fell short.

"At bottom, in order for conditions to be sufficient there has to be some level of trust that the defendant will follow them," prosecutor Christy Slavik said. "Simply put, the defendant cannot be trusted."

She also questioned the efficacy of a team of private security guards paid for by Combs.

"There is really just no separation for the defendant. You work for him. There's just no way to trust that any private security firm could do what the court requires and ensure compliance," Slavik said.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and prostitution charges.

His attorneys conceded hotel security camera video obtained by CNN depicted "physical conduct" between Combs and his ex-girlfriend Cassie but argued the video should not be used to keep Combs behind bars.

The defense argued in a filing on Thursday that prosecutors "invented" the narrative using a "manipulated version" of the video. The defense insisted the video did not depict a "freak off," the name for the sex-fueled parties allegedly held by Combs, but rather showed a domestic dispute in which Combs ran down the hall of the hotel to recover his clothes and cellphone.

"It's our defense to these charges that this was a toxic end of a loving relationship," Agnifilo said Friday.

Federal prosecutors said "it was a bit puzzling" the defense brought up the video because Combs does not dispute what it shows.

"The defendant admitted it and apologized for it in a public Instagram post. Shoving, kicking and dragging a female victim," Slavik said.

Peacock renews ‘Day of the Jackal’ after recent first season debut

Peacock just launched its thriller series Day of the Jackal on Nov. 14, but reviews and viewership have been strong enough for the streamer to renew the series, ABC Audio has confirmed.

The modern retelling of the bestselling book and classic film of the same name stars Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne as the titular assassin known as the Jackal.

Peacock announced that the co-production with Sky TV ranked #1 on the streaming service's Top 10 TV Shows chart, and its opening weekend was a top five original series debut for Peacock, according to preliminary Nielsen data.

Also starring in the series is Lashana Lynch, from Captain Marvel and the James Bond hit No Time to Die, who plays a British spy sent to hunt the killer down.

Their "thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across Europe" leaves destruction in its wake, the streamer teases.

Texas Supreme Court overturns ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in lawsuit

AUSTIN (AP) – The Texas Supreme Court on Friday overturned a lower court ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in a whistleblower lawsuit at the heart of impeachment charges brought against him in 2023.

The court on Friday said Paxton’s office does not dispute any issue in the lawsuit by four former Paxton employees and agreed to any judgment in the case.

“In a major win for the State of Texas, the state Supreme Court has sided with Attorney General Paxton against former OAG employees whose effort to prolong costly, politically-motivated litigation against the agency has wasted public resources for years,” a statement from Paxton’s office said.

An attorney for one of the plaintiffs declined immediate comment, and a second attorney did not immediately return a phone call for comment. Continue reading Texas Supreme Court overturns ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in lawsuit

Tyler man arrested for child pornography possesion

TYLER – Our news partner, KETK, reports that the Tyler Police Department said they arrested a 32-year-old Tyler man on Friday for possession or promotion of child pornography.

Thirty-two-year-old Ryan Mosely of Tyler, was arrested as the result of an investigation that Tyler PD said they started after they received information from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Mosely has been booked in the the Smith County Jail where officials said he’s being held on a $750,000 bond. Tyler PD thanked the U.S. Marshal’s Office, the Smith County District Attorney’s Office and the Smith County Sheriff’s Office.

One dead after Nacogdoches commercial vehicle crash

NACOGDOCHES – The Nacogdoches Police Department said a driver was killed when their vehicle crashed in the 2000 block of Old Tyler Road on Friday afternoon.

Our news partner, KETK, reports that the driver had already been taken out of the commercial vehicle by other motorists when when the Nacogdoches Police and Fire Departments responded to the scene. Officials said their reports indicate the vehicle was heading south on Old Tyler Road when it used the turn lane to try passing other vehicles. That’s when the vehicle left the roadway, hitting trees and rolling over. Nacogdoches PD said that the driver was declared dead at the scene by the Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace.

The vehicle was leaking diesel fuel, so the Texas Department of Transportation and a hazmat team responded to deal with the spill. Nacogdoches PD said they’re withholding the driver’s name while they work to notify their relatives.

Russia to continue testing, start mass producing new ‘Oreshnik’ missile: Putin

State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP via Getty Images

(MOSCOW) -- Russia will continue testing and start mass producing the new "Oreshnik" missile, an intermediate-range ballistic missile that was used to target Dnipro, Ukraine, this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

"We will continue testing the latest system," Putin said at a meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and representatives of the military-industrial complex. "It is necessary to establish mass production. We will assume that the decision on the serial production of this system has been made. As a matter of fact, it is practically organized."

Putin said Russia will continue testing the new Oreshnik missile system, "including in combat conditions."

"The tests were successful, I congratulate you on this. As already mentioned, we will continue these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and the nature of the security threats that are being created for Russia," Putin said.

"In addition to the Oreshnik system, several systems of this kind are currently in operation in Russia for further testing," Putin added.

Russia warned the U.S. 30 minutes before the launch of its Oreshnik missile against targets in Dnipro on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news outlet TASS.

The Ukrainian air force said it had tracked the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, along with six additional missiles, all targeting the Dnipro region. The U.S. would later specify the missile was not an ICBM, but instead a shorter-range IRBM.

The missiles were launched in about two hours, beginning at about 5 a.m. local time Thursday, and targeted businesses and critical infrastructure, but only the IRBM struck the city, Ukraine said. The six other missiles were shot down. There were no reports of casualties or significant damage, officials said.

The IRBM appeared to have been launched from the Astrakhan region, in Russia's southwest, Ukrainian military officials said. The distance from what Ukraine said was the launch point to the strike location in Dnipro is about 600 miles, a distance shorter than what an ICBM would be expected to travel.

The experimental Oreshnik missile was based on a Russian RS-26 Rubezh missile, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed Thursday during a briefing, without going into any other specific details. She also confirmed that the U.S. was notified "briefly" before the launch.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Oreshnik missile launch Thursday during his evening address, saying a "new ballistic missile was used" and calling it "a clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war."

Putin, in remarks Thursday following the missile launch, said Russia has the right to use its weapons against the military facilities of countries employing their weapons against Russia.

The missile launch arrived amid concerns that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could further escalate.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that Ukraine for the first time launched U.S.-made ATACMS missiles toward targets within Russia. An ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of Russia was struck, a U.S. official said.

The incident occurred days after U.S. President Joe Biden approved Ukraine's use of the long-range American-made MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System -- colloquially known as the ATACMS -- to hit targets in Russia's western Kursk region.

Zelenskyy would not confirm if Ukraine had used ATACMS to conduct a strike on an ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of Russia, but said Ukraine has ATACMS and "will use all of these" against Russia.

Hours after Russia said it had struck down several of the ATACMS, the Kremlin announced that Putin had updated the country's nuclear doctrine, a move that lowered the bar for Russia to respond with nuclear weapons. Russian ICBMs are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, but the IRBM fired on Thursday was not equipped with one.

Jussie Smollett’s attorney says actor was ‘harmed substantially’ by conviction

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(NEW YORK) -- Jussie Smollett's attorney said the actor was "harmed substantially" after he was found guilty of lying about a 2019 hate crime in an interview with "GMA3" following the overturning of his conviction.

The Illinois Supreme Court threw out the former "Empire" actor's conviction in a decision on Thursday after concluding that the state's prosecution was unfair due to an agreement that initially dropped the charges.

Smollett was first indicted on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report, though Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx agreed to drop the charges if he paid $10,000 and did community service. A special prosecutor later charged him again, leading to his trial and conviction.

In its decision on Thursday, the court found that the state could not bring a second prosecution against Smollett after the initial charges were dismissed, and that reneging on the agreement "would be arbitrary, unreasonable, fundamentally unfair, and a violation of the defendant's due process rights."

Tina Glandian, Smollett's attorney, told "GMA3" on Friday that they have been fighting the second prosecution from the start as "completely illegal."

"It violates numerous constitutional provisions," she said. "We've raised this numerous, numerous times before, various courts. And finally yesterday, the Supreme Court of Illinois agreed with us and said the second prosecution was barred because there was an agreement in place and the state is bound to honor its word."

The case began after the openly gay actor told police he was attacked by two men while walking on a street near his Chicago apartment early on Jan. 29, 2019. The attackers allegedly shouted racist and homophobic slurs before hitting him, pouring "an unknown chemical substance" on him and wrapping a rope around his neck.

Chicago police said Smollett's story of being the victim of an attack began to unravel when investigators tracked down two men, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who they said were seen in a security video near where Smollett claimed he was assaulted and around the same time it supposedly occurred. The Osundairo brothers told police the actor paid them $3,500 to help him orchestrate and stage the crime.

A jury convicted Smollett in December 2021 on five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct stemming from filing a false police report and lying to police, who spent more than $130,000 investigating his allegations.

Dan Webb, who was appointed by a Cook County judge to continue looking into the case after the Cook County State's Attorney's Office initially dropped all charges against the actor, said he was "disappointed" in the court's decision and noted that the ruling "has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett's innocence."

"The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury's unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct," he said in a statement.

Glandian said Smollett continues to maintain his innocence and has "vehemently denied" any participation in a hoax.

"We do believe he didn't get a fair trial, that the jury didn't hear all the evidence that should have [been] heard, that things were improperly excluded, that the jury panel was not properly put together," she said. "The Supreme Court yesterday didn't get to that issue. They said legally this was invalid. It violated his due process and they, based on that, threw out the conviction. But we still maintain that he didn't receive a fair trial."

In the wake of the case, she said Smollett has been releasing music and "continued to do what he does best."

"I think hopefully, obviously this can only help matters because he was harmed substantially after everything that happened, and of course, the convictions and the sentence that was imposed," she said.

Webb said that despite the Illinois Supreme Court's decision, the city of Chicago is still able to pursue its pending civil lawsuit against Smollett in order to recoup the investigation costs.

Glandian said she hopes the city "does the right thing" and dismisses that case.

"He's incurred substantial legal fees. He spent six days in jail, all of which now has been said by the highest court in Illinois was completely unconstitutional," Glandian said. "So for the city now to further proceed, we'll see what they do. But hopefully they dismiss that case immediately."