Category Archives: Georgia

Kenyan government halts baobab exports to Georgia after outcry

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President orders Ministry of Environment and Forestry to launch investigation over contractor’s licence for removing trees

The Kenyan government has halted the transportation and export of Kilifi baobabs to Georgia and ordered an investigation into how a foreign contractor received permission to transport the ancient trees out of the country.

Kenya’s president, William Ruto, ordered the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to investigate whether Georgy Gvasaliya had the proper licence to take the trees out of Kenya under the Nagoya protocol, an international agreement that governs the conditions for the export of genetic resources, which has been incorporated into Kenyan law.

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Herschel Walker accuser comes forward with fresh relationship claims

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Woman who says she was pressured into abortion by Republican Senate hopeful presents unseen letters, audio and diary entries

The second woman to allege that she was pressured into having an abortion by Herschel Walker, the Republican nominee in Georgia’s hotly contested US Senate race, on Tuesday presented previously unseen letters, audio recordings and pages of her personal diary that she said were evidence of their relationship, which he has denied.

At a press conference in Los Angeles organized by her lawyer, Gloria Allred, the anonymous woman known only as Jane Doe came forward anew with a raft of fresh materials. She said she was doing so because when she first aired her allegations last month “and told the truth, he denied that he knew that I existed”.

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Herschel Walker says in rambling speech he wants to be ‘werewolf, not vampire’

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Republican Senate candidate for Georgia rehashes plot of late-night movie and considers merits of both creatures

In a campaign speech on Wednesday, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Georgia, Herschel Walker, told supporters: “I don’t want to be a vampire any more. I want to be a werewolf.”

The remark was the latest controversial or outright bizarre intervention from the former football star who like other candidates endorsed by Donald Trump struggled to overcome his Democratic opponent in the midterm elections.

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Deadline extended for 1,000 absentee Georgia voters who didn’t receive ballots

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ACLU of Georgia, SPLC and Dechert LLP had filed an emergency lawsuit urging election officials to extend deadline

A judge has agreed to extend the deadline to return absentee ballots for voters in a suburban Atlanta county who didn’t receive their ballots because election officials failed to mail them.

The move came after the ACLU of Georgia, Southern Poverty Law Center and Dechert LLP joined forces to file an emergency lawsuit urging officials to extend the deadline for these voters to return their ballots.

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Georgia governor debate: Kemp silent on question over harsher abortion restrictions

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Republican Brian Kemp and Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams spar in final gubernatorial debate before midterms

In the final televised debate with Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams before their November election, Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, refused to say whether he would support harsher abortion restrictions if re-elected to a second term and if fellow Republicans dominating the state legislature sent them to his desk.

At WSB-TV’s Channel 2 Action debate Sunday, Kemp, a Republican, said it was not his “desire to go move the needle any further” on abortion restrictions in Georgia, adding that he would look into additional restrictions passed by state lawmakers “when the time comes.” Kemp at a previous debate had said he “would not” support new abortion limits.

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Second woman says Herschel Walker pressured her to have abortion

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Lawyer Gloria Allred introduces woman as Jane Doe who alleges anti-abortion candidate drove her to a clinic in the 1990s

Another woman has claimed that Herschel Walker pressured her into having an abortion and drove her to a clinic to obtain one.

On Wednesday, lawyer Gloria Allred – who has represented numerous alleged victims of sexual misconduct and assault – introduced to reporters a woman who alleges Walker, the anti-abortion Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, took her to an abortion clinic to have an abortion in the 1990s.

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Early voters in Georgia face obstacles under state’s new election law

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Unlimited challenges to eligibility and poorly trained poll workers cause frustration in key gubernatorial and US Senate contests

Jennifer Jones, a Morehouse School of Medicine PhD student, showed up to her precinct in Fulton county, Georgia, on the second day of early voting for the midterm elections. She was excited to cast her ballot for her chosen candidates in the gubernatorial and Senate races, Stacey Abrams and Senator Raphael Warnock. However, when she reached the check-in station at the polling site, she was informed that she would be unable to cast a regular ballot because her validity as a voter was challenged.

“When I handed in my ID, the poll worker said I was being challenged,” said Jones. “They said I had to complete a provisional ballot, but I wasn’t really comfortable doing that, so I didn’t get to cast my ballot that day.”

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Georgia Senate contender Herschel Walker fails to show for key debate – live

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Major retailers will begin selling hearing aids over the counter without a prescription and at a much lower cost, as part of a new Biden administration rule that take effect today.

“Starting today, hearings aids are now on store shelves across the country — for thousands of dollars less than they previously cost,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Monday.

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Abrams denies accusation she refused to recognize Kemp as winner in 2018

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‘I acknowledged it repeatedly,’ says Georgia gubernatorial nominee who faces Kemp rematch, but insists voter suppression is an issue

Democratic organizer Stacey Abrams on Sunday pushed back on the accusation that she refused to acknowledge Brian Kemp as the winner of Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial election, the same politician she is once again competing with for the governor’s mansion.

On Fox News Sunday, host Shannon Bream played a 2019 speech in which Abrams said “we won”, but Abrams said the clip was taken out of context.

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Woman who said Herschel Walker paid for abortion also has child with him – report

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Unnamed woman conceived another child with Republican Senate candidate years after the abortion, according to Daily Beast

A woman who said Herschel Walker paid for her abortion in 2009 is the mother of one of his children, according to a new report, undercutting the Georgia Republican Senate candidate’s claim to not know who she was.

The Daily Beast, which first reported the abortion, said it had agreed not to reveal details of the woman’s identity.

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Herschel Walker: anti-abortion Senate nominee denies media report he paid for abortion in 2009

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Republican candidate for US Senate in Georgia who has vehemently opposed abortion rights denies a media report he paid for an abortion for an anonymous former girlfriend in 2009, describing it as ‘a flat out lie’

A Republican nominee for the US Senate, who strongly opposes abortion rights, has denied a Daily Beast report that he paid for an abortion for a former girlfriend in 2009. Herschel Walker, a former American football player who is running for the US Senate in Georgia, called the accusation a “flat-out lie” and says he will sue the news outlet for defamation.

The Daily Beast published claims from a woman who says Walker paid for her abortion when they were dating. The woman, who was not named, claimed the allegation was supported by a receipt showing a $575 payment for the procedure, along with a get-well card, purportedly from Walker.

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She’s Georgia’s great blue hope – but can Stacey Abrams win a crucial race?

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Georgia in focus: Despite being hailed as architect of Georgia’s political transformation, Abrams is still an underdog in her rematch with Brian Kemp

Stacey Abrams was a high school senior the first time she was invited to the Georgia governor’s mansion. It was for a ceremony honoring the state’s class valedictorians, and Abrams was her school’s top academic achiever. At the time, her family did not own a car, so Abrams and her parents rode the bus from their working-class suburb to the stately mansion in downtown Atlanta.

When they arrived, Abrams recalls a guard emerging from the security booth. Eyeing the bus, he told them: “This is a private event. You don’t belong here.” Never mind that her invitation was tucked into her mother’s handbag or that her name was second on the list of invitees.

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The ‘all-out’ effort to overcome Georgia’s new restrictive voting bill

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SB202 is forcing officials and voting rights groups to use every resource to ensure elections run smoothly

In 2021, the Election Integrity Act sent shockwaves across Georgia as citizens learned of new restrictions, such as curbing the way churches could provide pizza and water to voters. However, there are much broader effects of the bill being felt across the state as communities across Georgia prepare for midterm elections, the first major election since the signing of the controversial bill.

The 98-page bill, also called SB202, impacts a litany of election elements ranging from voter ID laws to the distance at which food and water can be distributed to voters waiting in line. Election officials say they are being forced to use every resource at their disposal to navigate the bill and ensure this election season runs smoothly. But there is widespread concern that the new law will create fresh barriers to voters of color and the changing Georgia electorate.

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Border queues build as people flee Russia to escape Putin’s call-up

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Miles-long traffic jams form as Russia’s neighbours debate whether to welcome those trying to avoid military draft

Long lines of vehicles continue to form at Russia’s border crossings on the second day full day of Vladimir Putin’s military mobilisation, with some men waiting over 24 hours as western leaders disagree over whether Europe should welcome those fleeing the call-up to fight in Ukraine.

The Russian president’s decision to announce the first mobilisation since the second world war has led to a rush among men of military age to leave the country, likely sparking a new, possibly unprecedented brain drain in the coming days and weeks.

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Of all the legal threats Trump is facing, is this the one that could take him down?

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The quiet workings of a Georgia grand jury hearing evidence of election fraud could represent the ex-president’s greatest danger

Donald Trump’s lawyers are earning their keep.

The former president’s attorneys have raced to put out one fire after another in recent months as they defend Trump from investigations into the squirrelling away of secret documents at Mar-a-Lago, his part in the storming of the Capitol during his last days in office, and twin probes into his business dealings in New York.

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US supreme court backs Black voters challenging Georgia election rules

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Ruling comes as plaintiffs say current Georgia public service commission election system discriminates against Black voters

Black voters challenging Georgia’s method of electing members to the state’s public service commission scored a preliminary US supreme court order in their favor late Friday.

The decision came after conflicting rulings from lower courts earlier this month, offering up a rare example of the supreme court’s 6-3 conservative majority’s siding with voters over state officials.

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Rudy Giuliani informed he is target of criminal investigation in Georgia

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The former New York mayor has been identified as a key figure in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 election

Donald Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani is a target of the criminal investigation in Georgia that has been examining efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in that state by the former president and his allies, a source briefed on the matter confirmed on Monday.

The move to designate Giuliani, 78, as a target – as opposed to a subject – raises the legal stakes for the ex-New York mayor, identified as a key figure in the attempt to reverse the former president’s electoral defeat to Joe Biden in the state.

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Ahmaud Arbery’s hometown unveils street signs honoring his memory

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Officials designated a 2.7-mile stretch in Brunswick, Georgia, as Honorary Ahmaud Arbery Street, vowing to never forget his death

A crowd of dozens chanted on a sweltering street corner Tuesday as Ahmaud Arbery’s hometown unveiled new street signs honoring the young Black man who was murdered after being chased by three white men and shot in a nearby Georgia neighborhood – a crime local officials vowed to never forget.

Arbery’s parents joined the memorialization the day after the men responsible for their son’s death received stiff prison sentences in US district court for committing federal hate crimes.

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Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers sentenced to life in prison for federal hate crime

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Travis and Greg McMichael were also sentenced earlier this year to life without parole in a Georgia state court for the murder

The white father and son convicted of murder in Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting after they chased him through a Georgia neighborhood were sentenced Monday to life in prison for committing a federal hate crime.

Travis McMichael, 36, and Greg McMichael, 66, received their sentences from US district court judge Lisa Godbey Wood in the port city of Brunswick. The punishment is largely symbolic – the McMichaels were sentenced earlier this year to life without parole in a Georgia state court for 25-year-old Arbery’s murder.

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Georgia monument dubbed ‘America’s Stonehenge’ damaged by explosives

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Attack turned one of four granite panels of structure, which some conservative Christians regard as satanic, into rubble


A rural Georgia monument that some conservative Christians have criticized as satanic and that others have dubbed “America’s Stonehenge” was bombed before dawn on Wednesday in an attack that turned one of its four granite panels into rubble.

The Georgia Guidestones monument near Elberton was damaged by an explosive device, the Georgia bureau of investigation said. The Elbert county emergency management agency said the explosion was seen on video cameras shortly after 4am. Pictures and aerial video show the destroyed panel on the ground.

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