Category Archives: Georgia

One person killed and at least four injured in shooting in midtown Atlanta

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Police are actively searching for the suspect and additional victims after incident inside building in commercial area

One person was fatally shot and at least four injured on Wednesday in a shooting in a midtown Atlanta building, police said.

Atlanta police, who were still searching for the suspect on Wednesday afternoon, said there had been no additional shots fired since the initial shooting unfolded just after 12.30pm in a waiting room on the 11th floor of the Northside Hospital in midtown Atlanta, a commercial area with office buildings and high-rise apartments.

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‘They don’t know how they are viewed here’: Russians in Georgia revive old tension

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Russians in Tbilisi often arrive unaware of historical sensitivities and simmering hostility

As midnight approached on a recent Saturday evening in Tbilisi, the animated chatter and joyous shouting on the city’s central Rustaveli Avenue was almost all taking place in Russian.

A married couple from Rostov-on-Don headed home from dinner; passing them, a group of friends from St Petersburg were off for a late drink with some acquaintances from Moscow.

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Prosecutor in Trump-Georgia case says charging decisions to come in summer

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Fani Willis, investigating whether Trump illegally meddled in 2020 election, urges ‘heightened security’ for when decision is made

The prosecutor in Atlanta investigating whether Donald Trump and his allies illegally meddled in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia said on Monday she expects to announce charging decisions in the case this summer and urged “heightened security”.

Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis wrote in a letter to local sheriff Pat Labat that she expects to announce the decisions some time between 11 July and 1 September. She said she wanted to give Labat time to coordinate with local, state and federal agencies “to ensure that our law enforcement community is ready to protect the public”.

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‘Cop City’ activist’s official autopsy reveals more than 50 bullet wounds

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No gunpowder residue found on Manuel Paez Terán, who was alleged to have fired first in fatal confrontation with Georgia police

Official autopsy results for Manuel Paez Terán, an environmental activist police shot and killed three months ago during a raid in a Georgia public park near the planned site of a police and fire department training center, do little to advance the state’s version of events, including the notion that the activist shot first, wounding an officer.

Paez Terán, or “Tortuguita”, was one of the “forest defenders” camped throughout the public park less than a mile away from the planned center, known as “Cop City”, when dozens of officers entered the South River Forest south-east of Atlanta, Georgia, on 18 January.

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Claims of crime expose rift in Georgia’s pro-Trump fake elector group

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Admission reveals potentially major fracture in the group as prosecutors near the end of their investigation

A new legal filing has exposed a potentially major fracture among a group of so-called “fake electors” in Georgia, who sought to aid Donald Trump in overturning the 2020 election results in a scheme now under criminal investigation.

According to a court document filed on Tuesday, a group of people involved in the scheme recently told state prosecutors that another one of the fake electors committed crimes that they were not involved in.

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Gaunt and ghostly, Georgia’s jailed ex-president nears death in hospital

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Mikheil Saakashvili warned of Putin’s ambitions 15 years ago. Now he tells of torture by a regime that panders to Moscow

Locked up in a Tbilisi hospital, Mikheil Saakashvili is slowly wasting away.

“I am asking to be transferred to Poland, as it is crystal clear that in Georgian hospital I will die,” Georgia’s former president wrote in response to questions from the Observer last week. His answers were scrawled in blue ballpoint pen on sheets of paper, passed to his lawyers.

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Man found dead eaten by bed bugs in Atlanta jail, lawyer says

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Family of Lashawn Thompson call for criminal investigation after his death in custody in filthy jail cell

An Atlanta man died in a local jail after being eaten alive by bed bugs, alleges a lawyer representing the man’s family.

The family of Lashawn Thompson, 35, is calling for a criminal investigation into Thompson’s death and for the closure and replacement of a local jail after alleging that Thompson died in custody from bed bugs in a squalid jail cell.

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Majority-Black town fights to stop land being seized for gravel quarry rail link

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Residents of Sparta, Georgia, are trying to stop the Sandersville railroad and its influential owners from building a spur to a quarry

A majority-Black rural community in Georgia is battling to stop a railroad company from seizing private land for a new train line they say will cause environmental and economic harms.

Residents of Sparta, a poor community of 1,300 people located a hundred miles south-east of Atlanta, are opposing the construction of a rail spur that would connect a local quarry to the main train line, enabling the gravel company to vastly expand mining that already causes dust, debris and noise pollution.

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Two tigers briefly missing after Georgia zoo damaged by tornado

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The Pine Mountain Animal Safari lost two of its big cats after it sustained weather damage, but found them a few hours later

Two tigers briefly went missing from a Georgia zoo after a tornado struck the state on Saturday night and damaged the facility’s infrastructure.

In a Facebook post on Sunday morning, the Troup county’s sheriff’s office announced that it received a report from the Pine Mountain Animal Safari that a “tiger … is unaccounted for inside the park”.

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Why did protesters in Georgia oppose the ‘Russian law’ bill?

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Critics of withdrawn ‘foreign agents’ bill feared it would undercut bid for EU membership

Thousands of people took to the streets in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, this week after parliament backed a draft law which critics, who called it a “Russian law”, said would limit press freedom and undercut Georgia’s efforts to become a candidate for EU membership.

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Georgia drops bill on ‘foreign agents’ after two nights of violent protests

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After criticism law was similar to Russian legislation used to stifle dissent, ruling party says it will withdraw bill

Georgia’s ruling party has said it will drop its bill on “foreign agents” after fierce opposition culminated in two nights of violent protests and criticism that the draft law would limit press freedom and undercut the country’s efforts to become a candidate for EU membership.

The Georgian Dream party said in a statement it would “unconditionally withdraw the bill we supported without any reservations”. It cited the need to reduce “confrontation” in society.

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Protesters and police clash in Georgia for second day over ‘foreign agents’ law

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Police fire teargas at protesters rallying against ‘Russian law’ critics say could harm efforts to join EU

Police in the Georgian capital Tbilisi used tear gas, water cannon and stun grenades late on Wednesday as they moved to break up the second straight day of protests against a “foreign agents” law which critics say would limit press freedom and undercut the country’s efforts to become a candidate for EU membership.

Thousands of people clashed with police o taken to the streets of Georgia’s capital for a second day to rally against a “foreign agents” law that critics say would limit press freedom and undercut the country’s efforts to become a candidate for EU membership.

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Police use water cannon in Georgia to disperse protests at ‘authoritarian’ law

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Critics of ‘foreign agents’ law say it could dash Tbilisi’s hopes of joining the European Union

Police in the former Soviet state of Georgia have used water cannon and teargas in an attempt to disperse thousands of people who rallied on Tuesday night after parliament gave its initial backing to a draft law on “foreign agents” which critics say represents an authoritarian shift.

Some protesters threw petrol bombs and stones at police in the centre of the capital Tbilisi, as demonstrators warned that the draft law could hurt the south Caucasus country’s hopes of EU membership.

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Activists and groups gear up for week of action against Georgia’s ‘Cop City’

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Protest comes less than two months after police shot dead activist defending forest under threat by proposed project

A broad range of individuals and activist organizations, from a local rabbi to Black Voters Matter, Atlanta-area residents and people from across the US, are gearing up for a “week of action” this week to defend a forest south-east of the city in Georgia, as part of a movement protesting a project dubbed “Cop City”.

The protest comes less than two months after police shot and killed activist, Manuel Paez Terán, or “Tortuguita”, one of dozens camped in the forest. The fatal shooting of an environmental protester, the first of its kind in US history, raised the movement’s profile nationally and internationally.

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Remains found in car in creek identified as US student who went missing in 1976

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Ford Pinto found in Alabama belonged to Kyle Clinkscales, 22, who disappeared nearly 50 years ago

Skeletal remains inside a car discovered in a creek a little more than a year ago belonged to an Auburn University student who had disappeared in 1976, authorities have confirmed, closing the book on a missing person case that had puzzled investigators for nearly five decades.

Kyle Clinkscales, 22, was last seen alive at a bar where he worked in his home town of LaGrange, Georgia, on the night of 27 January 1976. He was planning to drive back to school in Alabama about 35 miles away in his white 1974 Ford Pinto, but he never arrived.

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‘He’s an inspiration’: tributes pour in after Jimmy Carter enters hospice care

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Oldest living US president opted to spend his ‘remaining time’ at home, statement by the Carter Center says

Tributes continue to be made to the former US president Jimmy Carter, after the announcement that the 98-year-old has entered hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, instead of receiving “additional” medical treatment.

Raphael Warnock, the Democratic Georgia senator, said: “Across life’s seasons, President Jimmy Carter, a man of great faith, has walked with God. In this tender time of transitioning, God is surely walking with him.”

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Atlanta residents take fight over $90m ‘Cop City’ police training site to city hall

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Petition to Fulton county superior court seeks halt to building work while appeal against huge police training center is ruled on

Recent mornings at South River Forest, south-east of Atlanta, have begun with workers driving tractors around, clearing paths and felling trees, guarded by more than 100 police officers.

The workers are taking the first steps in building an 85-acre, $90m police and fire department training center planned for the land, called “Cop City” by activists.

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Biden says three objects shot down over US ‘most likely’ private, and not more Chinese spy balloons – as it happened

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The special grand jury empaneled in the Georgia’s Fulton county worried that at least one of the 75 witnesses it heard from may have lied under oath, according to portions of their report released today.

They also determined “by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election,” the jurors wrote in the report’s introduction, which was released along with its conclusion and a brief chapter outlining the perjury concerns.

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Findings in Georgia Trump report could be enough to bring criminal charges

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The partial release of the grand jury report signals the investigation already contains legitimate evidence of perjury

The release of a portion of the Fulton county special purpose grand jury’s report marks a new step toward potential criminal charges holding Donald Trump and his allies accountable for election interference.

Georgia was crucial in the 2020 presidential election, providing a key victory for Joe Biden and drawing the intense focus of Trump and his backers.

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Georgia grand jury report on Trump election pressure to be partially released

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Judge ruled certain sections will be made public this week, including one involving witnesses who may have lied under oath

Portions of a Georgia grand jury’s report on whether Donald Trump and allies committed crimes when they tried to overturn the 2020 election will be made public this week, but the entirety of the report will remain secret until the Fulton county prosecutor decides whether to bring charges, a judge ruled on Monday.

The sections that will be made public are the report’s introduction, conclusion and a section discussing whether some of the witnesses who testified before the special purpose grand jury lied under oath. The section does not identify which witnesses may have lied.

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