kristimazan (kristinamaz)

The jury in the Conor McGregor trial have been told it does not matter if they "loathe" him. Remy Farrell SC, representing the Irish mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, began his closing argument at Dublin High Court on Tuesday. Dublin woman Nikita Hand has accused the sportsman of rape after a Christmas night out in December 2018. He denies all allegations. The trial is a civil case in Dublin High Court after the Director of Public Prosecutions in Ireland refused to charge Mr McGregor criminally. Mr Farrell told the jury that "what is important is the evidence". "The case is not about a hot take, or what colour writers in newspapers say its about, it doesn't get reduced to one soundbite, it's about evidence and nothing but the evidence," he said. He told the jury that their opinions on Mr McGregor did not matter.

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Last month, Ellen Konyak was shocked to discover that a 19th-Century skull from the north-eastern Indian state of Nagaland was up for auction in the UK. The horned skull of a Naga tribesman was among thousands of items that European colonial administrators had collected from the state. Konyak, a member of the Naga Forum for Reconciliation (NFR) which is making efforts to bring these human remains back home, says the news of the auction disturbed her. “To see that people are still auctioning our ancestral human remains in the 21st Century was shocking,” she said. “It was very insensitive and deeply hurtful.” The Swan at Tetsworth, the UK-based antique centre that put the skull on auction, advertised it as part of their “Curious Collector Sale”, valued between £3,500 ($4,490) and £4,000 ($5,132). Alongside the skull - which is from a Belgian collection – the sale listed shrunken heads from the Jivaro people of South America and skulls from the Ekoi people of West Africa.

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Crowds of birdwatchers flocked to a quiet cul-de-sac after a rare sighting of a species perched on a garden washing line. The report of the scarlet tanager in Shelf, near Halifax, is believed to be the first time one of the birds has been sighted in Yorkshire. The stocky songbird normally travels between the eastern United States and lowland South American forests twice a year. One twitcher who made an early morning journey from London described catching a glimpse of the creature as "exhilarating". Dozens of birdwatchers assembled along the street after initial reports that the bird had been sighted were shared online and on social media.

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A new trove of sunken Nazi ships has emerged in the River Danube, following a blistering summer drought that caused water levels to drop, according to new reporting by Reuters. The German vessels, still decked out with explosives, were discovered by the Serbian town of Prahovo. Hundreds of miles up the river, receding water revealed four other ships by Hungary's Danube-Drava National Park. This set of vessels was from before 1950, the outlet said. This isn't the first time ships have cropped up in the River Danube, Europe's second-longest river at 1,770 miles. Perennial droughts and heat waves have led to drastic drops in water levels each year, exposing German ships while simultaneously threatening the drinking supply and frustrating navigators weaving their way down the water route that stretches from the Black Forest in southwestern Germany to the Black Sea in eastern Romania.

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The disappearance of France Under-18 international Medhi Narjissi was partly caused by a poorly organised recovery session, an investigation by the country's rugby federation has concluded. Narjissi, 17, was swept away while taking part in a session organised by the team's management in the sea off Cape Town in South Africa in August. The FFR said that warning signs on the beach were ignored or missed and that the supervision of the session was "poorly controlled". "The decision to organise a recovery session in the water on Dias Beach was taken without considering the dangerousness of the site, in particular rip currents, waves and rocks," the FFR said. It says it is exploring the possibility of taking action against the officials in charge of the France Under-18 team at the time. The FFR interviewed all the staff present at the session and some of the players involved.

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It’s been an eventful few days for Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill, who was handcuffed and detained by Miami-Dade Police shortly before his team’s opening game Sunday. The detention was just temporary, and Hill later scored a stellar 80-yard touchdown in a close win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. He celebrated the score by putting his arms behind his back with his wrists together – a cheeky nod to his pregame incident. But off the field, the detention – as well as police interactions with two other Dolphins players – has led to a public back-and-forth between the NFL team and local police and has renewed the debate over how law enforcement handles traffic stops and interacts with members of the public.

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​​​​Benfica have opened talks with Atlético Madrid about re-signing João Félix. They sold him five years ago for £114m and now hope to get him back for just £12.7m.

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