Category Archives: Georgia

Luke Kornet says Atlanta Hawks’ theme night with strip club Magic City objectifies women

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  • Club is popular with athletes and rappers

  • Kornet says night helps objectify women

San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet has called on the Atlanta Hawks to abandon their collaboration with a famous strip club.

Magic City is an Atlanta institution and been mentioned in a string of hip-hop records, as well as hosting rappers such as Drake, Lil Yachty, Migos, Jack Harlow and Future. It is also popular with athletes: past visitors have included Michael Jordan, while MLS’s Atlanta United celebrated their title at the club in 2018. The club gained widespread attention in 2020 when the Los Angeles Clippers’ Lou Williams visited the club after leaving the NBA’s quarantine bubble during the Covid pandemic.

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Son of rapper Lil Jon drowned after ingesting hallucinogenic mushrooms

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Body of Nathan Smith, known professionally as DJ Young Slade, was found in pond north of Atlanta in February

The son of the rapper Lil Jon drowned after ingesting hallucinogenic mushrooms, officials in the US state of Georgia said.

The body of Nathan Smith, known professionally as DJ Young Slade, was found in a pond north of Atlanta in early February.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign from office effective January 2026

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Georgia representative had said she had received death threats and was called a ‘traitor’ by Trump over Epstein vote

Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Friday evening she will be resigning from office effective 25 January.

The Republican congresswoman who was denounced by Donald Trump over her support for the release of the Epstein files, explained her decision in a 10-minute social media video posted on X.

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Pregnant British teen accused of drug-smuggling moved to baby unit in Georgian prison

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Mother of Bella May Culley, 19, awaiting sentencing on Monday, says conditions have improved after transfer to new jail

A pregnant British teenager accused of drug-smuggling has been moved to a mother and baby unit in a Georgian prison, her mother said.

Bella May Culley, 19, who is reported to be eight months pregnant, was arrested at Tbilisi airport in May.

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Trump justice department seeks 2020 election records from Georgia county

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Request to Fulton county underscores determination to revive president’s falsehoods about election he lost

The justice department on Thursday asked election officials in Fulton county, Georgia, to turn over records related to the 2020 election, a request that underscores how the administration is trying to revive one of the president’s biggest falsehoods about the election he lost five years ago.

Investigators have cleared Fulton county of malfeasance in 2020. Nonetheless, a Republican majority on the board voted to reopen the investigation last year. On the night of the 2024 presidential election, the board voted to subpoena a slew of documents. This summer, the board passed a resolution asking the justice department to intervene and help them get the documents. The subpoenas issued last year seek records related to voter lists, chain of custody forms, ballot images, security seals and ballot scanner paperwork.

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Fears over higher rates as Georgia moves to provide more electricity for AI datacenters

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State’s Republican-led public service commission to decide on power expansion and prices, as Democrats vie for voice

Georgia is facing the largest demand for electricity in its history, driven by nation-leading datacenter construction.

The Georgia Power company has made an unprecedented bid to the agency that oversees the utility for about 10 additional gigawatts of energy in the coming years – enough to power 8.3m homes, at an estimated cost of nearly $16bn, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.

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Georgia’s prime minister announces crackdown on dissent after Tbilisi protests

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Irakli Kobakhidze accused EU ambassador of supporting ‘attempt to overthrow constitutional order’

Georgia’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, has announced a sweeping crackdown on dissent, accusing demonstrators who tried to storm the presidential palace of aiming to topple his government and blaming the European Union for interference in his country.

Kobakhidze levelled his allegations a day after protesters attempted to breach the presidential palace as local elections were being held. They were stopped by riot police using pepper spray and water cannon.

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Palestinian American denied slot at DNC competing for Georgia governor: ‘We’re trying to rebuild the coalition’

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Ruwa Romman is ‘running to build a movement’ and ‘restoring civic ethos of being involved in the government’

Ruwa Romman, the first Palestinian-American elected to state-level office in Georgia, was fighting for a speaking slot a year ago at the Democratic national convention, hoping to draw attention to concerns among progressive voters about the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

On Monday, she announced her candidacy for governor in Georgia – looking for a different kind of attention.

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Owner of Georgian broadcaster called country’s ‘propaganda megaphone’ is based in London

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Exclusive: Imedi TV owner denies criticism by EU disinformation monitor and says it is editorially independent

On Pont Street in Belgravia in central London, on the first floor of a handsome Edwardian townhouse, sitting above the royal green awning of the Jeroboams wine shop, is an office. There are no obvious signs for it beyond a little note next to the intercom. When buzzed this week, no one appeared at the door.

This is the registered office of Hunnewell Partners, which describes itself as an “entrepreneurial private equity and litigation funding practice”.

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Georgia supreme court ends Fani Willis bid to reverse removal from Trump case

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Election interference case in limbo as court declines to hear appeal against disqualification of Fulton county prosecutor

The Georgia supreme court on Tuesday declined to hear Fani Willis’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling disqualifying the Fulton county prosecutor from prosecuting Donald Trump’s election interference case.

In a 4-3 decision, the state’s highest court let stand the lower court order disqualifying Willis from the racketeering and election interference case that initially snagged 19 defendants, including Donald Trump, in 2023.

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Former aide to de facto leader of Georgia being held as ‘personal prisoner’, mother claims

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Marina Ramazashvili says son, Giorgi Bachiashvili, was the victim of a ‘vendetta’ by billionaire politician

The mother of a jailed former aide to Bidzina Ivanishvili has accused the de facto leader of Georgia of treating her son as his “personal prisoner” as she appealed to the west for help.

Marina Ramazashvili, a renowned ophthalmologist in Georgia, said Giorgi Bachiashvili, who has allegedly been beaten in his prison cell, was the victim of a “vendetta” waged by the billionaire politician.

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Politicians in at least 51 countries used anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric during elections, NGO finds

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Rights group also finds rise in openly gay, bisexual and transgender people running for office in 36 countries

Politicians in at least 51 countries used homophobic or transphobic rhetoric during elections last year, from depicting LGBTQ+ identity as a foreign threat to condemning “gender ideology”, according to a new study of 60 countries and the EU.

However, there were also gains for LGBTQ+ representation in some countries. Openly gay, bisexual and transgender people ran for office in at least 36 countries, including for the first time in Botswana, Namibia and Romania – albeit unsuccessfully – according to the report by Outright International. The number of LGBTQ+ elected officials doubled to at least 233 in Brazil.

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300 South Koreans detained at Hyundai plant in US to be released, says Seoul

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Footage of raid by US immigration officials showed detained workers in handcuffs and with chains around their ankles

South Korea announced on Sunday that the roughly 300 of its nationals detained during an immigration raid in Georgia would be released and flown home, as the sudden detention of workers appeared to strain the longstanding diplomatic and economic relationship between the two nations.

Nearly 500 workers, among them at least 300 South Koreans and at least 23 Mexicans, were arrested at the Hyundai-LG battery plant in the city of Ellabell on Thursday.

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At least 475 workers detained in major Ice raid at US Hyundai factory

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South Korea concerned after hundreds were arrested at Georgia work site making batteries for Hyundai and Kia cars

Hundreds of workers at a factory being built in Georgia to make car batteries for Hyundai and Kia electric vehicles were detained in a huge raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) on Thursday that stopped construction.

The facility is part of what would be the biggest industrial investment in the state’s history and had been hailed as a huge boost for the economy by Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp.

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Georgian MP who accused west of ‘blackmail’ appointed security chief as report warns of autocratic takeover

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Mamuka Mdinaradze appointed as study says his Georgian Dream party has consolidated control

A Georgian Dream MP who criticised the west over a “policy of blackmail and threats” has been appointed to lead the country’s security services as an authoritative report warned of an autocratic takeover.

Mamuka Mdinaradze, who was the parliamentary majority leader for the ruling party, was confirmed on Wednesday as head of the country’s powerful state security service.

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Fulton county election board faces $10,000 a day fine for not appointing Republicans

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Democrats voted against appointing two candidates known for election denialism and voter registration challenges

The Fulton county commission in Georgia will be fined $10,000 a day for violating a court order to appoint two Republicans associated with Trump-aligned groups pushing voter fraud conspiracies to the county’s election board.

The county charter states that commissioners “shall” appoint two Republicans and two Democrats nominated by their respective county party chairperson, for two-year terms. When commissioners rejected the nomination by Fulton county’s Republican party chair, the superior court judge David Emerson issued an order requiring the board to appoint them.

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Atlanta CDC gunman believed Covid vaccine made him suicidal, official says

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Shooter, a 30-year-old man who died during violence, fired dozens of rounds into buildings and killed police officer

A Georgia man who opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta on Friday, shooting dozens of rounds into four buildings and killing a police officer, had blamed a Covid-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press on Saturday.

The 30-year-old gunman, identified by the Georgia bureau of investigation as Patrick Joseph White, tried to get into the CDC’s headquarters but was stopped by guards before driving to a CVS across the street and opening fire, the official said. White died during Friday’s violence.

The suspect’s father contacted police and said his son was upset about the death of his dog, and had also become fixated on the Covid-19 vaccine, an official said.

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Shooter in custody after five soldiers shot on Georgia military base, army says

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Parts of base had been on lockdown earlier after shooter was reported, as base says all five were moved to hospital

Five soldiers were shot and wounded on Wednesday on the Fort Stewart military base in south-east Georgia before the shooter was taken into custody.

Parts of the base had been locked down earlier on Wednesday after a shooter was reported on the sprawling army post, a spokesperson said.

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Eastern US swelters from heatwave as high temperatures affect half of country

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Heat and humidity are stretching east from the Mississippi River valley, and some areas could see heat indices of 120F

The eastern half of the US is facing a significant heatwave, with more than 185 million people under warnings due to intense and widespread heat conditions on Monday.

The south-east is likely to endure the most dangerous temperatures as the extreme heat spread across the region on Monday, spanning from the Carolinas through Florida. In these areas, heat index values (how hot it feels once humidity is accounted for) are forecast to range between 105 and 113F (40.5 to 45C).

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Family sues after funeral home sends son’s brain in unmarked leaking box

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Remains of Timothy Garlington shipped from Georgia funeral home to another in Pennsylvania

Two funeral homes allegedly gave grieving parents their deceased son’s brain in a box, which began to smell, leaked into their car and got on the father’s hands when he moved it, according to an updated lawsuit filed this week.

The father, Lawrence Butler, said the discovery was overwhelming at a news conference on Thursday, leaving a horrific memory that mars the other memories of a “good young man”, their son, Timothy Garlington.

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