Matt Gaetz said he fell victim to a ‘smear’ campaign that dredged up old and discredited allegations in his first interview since withdrawing his name from consideration as Donald Trump’s attorney general. And he revealed he will not be returning to Congress next year despite having been re-elected to the seat he vacated. Instead, he told The Charlie Kirk Show, he will now work to recruit the talent that could help underpin the new Trump administration.

Conor McGregor has broken his silence after losing his 𝑠e𝑥ual assault case – where he was told he must pay the woman who accused him of raping her in a hotel six years ago €250,000. McGregor, 36, faced an accusation that he ‘brutally raped and battered’ Nikita Hand, 35, at a hotel in south Dublin in December 2018. The MMA fighter previously told the court he had consensual 𝑠e𝑥 with Ms Hand, also known as Nikita Ni Laimhin, at the Beacon Hotel. He denied causing bruising to the plaintiff.

The heir to a £230million pie company fortune has been found guilty of murdering his best friend on Christmas Eve. Dylan Thomas, 23, stabbed William Bush, also 23, in the rented home the pair shared in Llandaff, Cardiff, on December 24 last year. Mr Bush was found dead in the newly-built house, owned by Thomas’s grandfather Sir Stanley Thomas, a Welsh tycoon behind a business empire including Peter’s Pies.

Sex criminal Rolf Harris moved his fortune out of his own name to prevent it going to his victims in compensation payments, MailOnline has learned. Harris’s will was published this week revealing that his assets were £438,802 at his death but after expenses were removed the net value of his estate was zero. But MailOnline has learned that he only left nothing because more than £1million that had been in his name for years was recently earmarked to go to relatives instead.

A journalist who was visited by police for allegedly stirring up racial hatred with a social media post made last year, will not be charged, the force has said. Es𝑠e𝑥 Police has today dropped its investigation into Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson over a tweet that was posted, and then quickly deleted, in November 2023. It comes after the force was advised by Crown Prosecution Service lawyers that it’s case failed to meet the evidential test.

President-elect Donald Trump reacted to the news that his nominee for attorney general former Rep. Matt Gaetz suddenly withdrew his name from consideration. ‘I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect.’ Gaetz, a unequivocal supporter of President Trump, had earned respect from the president-elect despite the salacious allegations that followed him.

Jay Leno has sparked a wild conspiracy theory after suffering a 60-foot fall down a hill that left him with significant bruising to the left side of his face, an eyepatch and a broken wrist. Despite revealing that his injuries were sustained during his nasty tumble while staying at a Hampton Inn, social media users began speculating that the 74-year-old comedian, whose net worth is estimated to be around $450 million, might be lying. Some conspiracy theorists on X (previously known as Twitter) shared a number of unsubstantiated theories that he was the victim of loan sharks, the mafia or someone he has ‘dirt on.’

A year on from the failed Voice referendum, the value of acknowledgement of country ceremonies are again being widely debated in Australia. But no one expected such a ceremony would be performed by an Australian government delegation in the Azerbaijan, 13,230km from Sydney, which has been dubbed ‘a complete farce’. Most Australians probably couldn’t find Azerbaijan on a map – it’s a former Soviet republic, partly in Asia and partly in Europe – but that didn’t stop delegate Dr Clare Anderson from performing an acknowledgement of country there to a near empty-room.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will soon have a new powerful job assisting the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by billionaire Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer plans to create a Congressional subcommittee chaired by the firebrand Republican from Georgia. Greene confirmed the ‘big news,’ writing on X that she’ll be working closely with Trump’s top allies.