Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

We're not leaving NATO. We're not leaving.... We may move a couple thousand troops from one country to another, but this has always been the case," Rubio said, playing down speculation that redeployments signal a broader shift.

On Sunday evening, she performed like an athlete insistent on leaving no room for doubt. Kok leveraged two years of total sprint dominance into the first Olympic gold medal of her career. She blew away the field in the women's 500m in an Olympic-record time of 36.49sec with the kind of controlled, furious circuit that has made her a three-time world champion at the distance at 25 years old.

Through the early years of our careers, Europe was emerging from the shadow of the cold war. Governments of all political colours chose to take what was known as the peace dividend investing in public services and reducing spending on defence. That was an understandable choice at the time. Now it's clear that the threats we face demand a step change in our defence and security.

The United States' top diplomat Marco Rubio traveled to Eastern Europe on Sunday for talks with the conservative leaders of Hungary and Slovakia, both of whom are aligned with US President Donald Trump. The visit comes a day after Rubio, who is also Trump's national security advisor, urged Europeans to defend Western civilization in a speech at the Munich Security Conference.

Henry McGowan was last week found not guilty of his father's murder by reason of insanity When Henry McGowan disembarked a flight from London at Dublin Airport shortly before 11pm on November 11, 2024, he should have been unmissable in his big pink coat. The wealthy 31-year-old American, who worked for a tech firm in New York, had quit his job and come to Europe.

Since 1979, there have been just two school shootings carried out by teenage females in the United States, claiming a total of four lives. There have been none in Canada. So the news, as reported by RTÉ's Morning ­Ireland last Wednesday, that a woman had shot dead eight people in a Canadian school was shockingly historic for two reasons.

Andy's searching for answers and he didn't get it from the first team he picked and he is looking for players that can add a bit more to the mix. So he is searching for answers and you have to when you are in the middle of a rebuild. Those answers don't come easy. It's not like doing a multiplication table.

The former Presidential hopeful also denied she had a more modest handbag ready in the event she did receive a presidential nomination Conservative campaigner Maria Steen has said the controversial handbag she carried during her concession speech for the Presidency did not cost close to the estimates circulating at the time. In September, the qualified barrister and architect spoke to reporters outside Leinster House sporting an expensive blue Hermès bag, which drew criticism from some commentators as being out of touch.

Wreaths were laid by members of the Dublin Fire Brigade, An Garda Siochana, the National Ambulance Service and the Irish army veterans. Claire Bird, the wife of the late broadcaster and supporter of the Stardust families Charlie Bird, also laid a wreath. Dublin Fire Brigade sirens were heard before the firefighters' pipe band played The Dawning Of The Day and Amazing Grace. A 48-second silence was held during the ceremony, before a minute's silence was held at the end.

TESERO, Italy -- Norway's Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo has won a ninth gold medal in cross-country skiing, setting a Winter Games record, at the Milan Cortina Olympics. The 29‑year‑old anchored Sunday's 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay in the men's competition for his fourth gold at the 2026 Games.

Women have effectively been working for free for the first month and a half of the year compared to men, said the TUC's general secretary, Paul Nowak. Imagine turning up to work every single day and not getting paid. That's the reality of the gender pay gap. In 2026 that should be unthinkable. With the cost of living still biting hard, women simply can't afford to keep losing out. They deserve their fair share.

Since cutting the overseas aid budget to fund higher defence spending losing the excellent Anneliese Dodds in the process Labour has had little to say on the subject, aside from the fact that 0.3% of national income is the new normal. But despite the cuts, Foreign Office sources insist that behind the scenes there is a renewed commitment to winning the argument for the impact and benefits of international development.

Hungary is no stranger to extremely polarized election campaigns. For decades now, Victor Orban has whether in government or in the opposition followed the same playbook: Starting months ahead of the polls, he has run campaigns that suggest the very survival of the Hungarian nation is at stake. In these campaigns, he styles himself as the only one who can save Hungary and its people from evil and the threat of destruction at the hands of the country's enemies.

The previous Thursday, Andy Farrell had gone public in questioning their "fight" and "intent" in their opening game of the Six Nations.

The 62nd Munich Security Conference opened on 13 February 2026 in Munich, Germany, and this year's gathering feels different from past editions. For decades, Munich was about jets, troops, and treaties. Today, cyber and AI are no longer peripheral; they are part of the architecture of security itself. Cyber risks, digital infrastructure, and emerging technologies like AI now sit alongside tanks and treaties on the agenda as European leaders try to make sense of a world where digital threats and geopolitical tensions are deeply intertwined.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reassured a nervous Europe on Saturday that Washington wants to "revitalise" the transatlantic alliance. "We do not seek to separate, but to revitalise an old friendship and renew the greatest civilisation in human history," Rubio said. "What we want is a reinvigorated alliance." Rubio stressed that the US and Europe "belong together" and must act as partners to defend shared values.

Perhaps a more telling stat is the last five meetings between the two teams. Ireland have all of them. The last time they played here they ran out 36-0 winners. The time before that it was 33-7. The time before that was 57-6. However, the Italians ran them close last season and were it not for a Dan Sheehan hat-trick, they might have lost.

We were told by the Ireland camp last week that it would be disingenuous to say the team are in decline. After they white-knuckled their way to a narrow home win against Italy, it would be disingenuous to suggest they are not.

Do you remember a time in your city in Spain when bar and restaurant terraces were not packed with locals having fun (except for during the Covid-19 lockdown, of course)? No matter how tight finances are, Spaniards always seem to have the money for eating and drinking out. Some would say this carpe diem attitude is to be admired rather than sniffed at. After all, it goes hand in hand with the much-admired Spanish lifestyle - outdoors, in the company of others, enjoying the moment.