US supreme court backs Black voters challenging Georgia election rules

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

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

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

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

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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‘There’s nowhere I feel safe’: Georgia elections workers describe how Trump upended their lives

Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, testified how Trump and his allies fueled harassment and racist threats

In powerful and emotional testimony about the sinister results of Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, a mother and daughter who were Georgia elections workers described how Trump and his allies upended their lives, fueling harassment and racist threats by claiming they were involved in voter fraud.

Testifying to the January 6 committee in Washington, Shaye Moss said she received “a lot of threats. Wishing death upon me. Telling me that I’ll be in jail with my mother and saying things like, ‘Be glad it’s 2020 and not 1920.’”

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Georgia primaries deliver blow to Trump’s grip on Republican party – live

Several candidates who supported the ex-president’s big lie of election fraud were defeated but the Maga wing also had successes

Texas Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar was still locked in a tight primary runoff race with progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros on Wednesday, but “the Squad” is already angry, regardless of the result.

New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among the most prominent of the party’s progressive wing in Congress, called out its leaders for backing the anti-abortion, pro-gun Cuellar over Cisneros.

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Five key takeaways: the US midterm elections

Races from Georgia to Texas were a litmus test of Donald Trump’s hold on the Republican party with some significant losses

Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, defeated former Senator David Perdue, who had been endorsed by Donald Trump. Perdue’s loss marked a significant defeat for Trump’s reputation as a kingmaker in the Republican party, as the former president has used the power of his endorsement to wield influence over candidates and lawmakers.

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Move over, Florida: Georgia the new battleground as Trump goes all in

Georgia has obsessed the former president since losing it to Joe Biden – will his mega-Maga candidates come out on top?

Greg Bump will not vote for Governor Brian Kemp because “he sold us out in the election”. Todd Allinger is backing Kemp because “what he’s done for the state of Georgia has been really positive”. Teresa Richmond likes Kemp too but will “probably” vote for his rival, David Perdue, because of Donald Trump’s endorsement.

The views of Republican voters in Sugar Hill in the far northern Atlanta suburbs indicate that nothing can be taken for granted in Tuesday’s primary elections in Georgia, a state that has arguably eclipsed neighboring Florida as the most pivotal battleground in American politics.

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Breakaway region of Georgia to hold referendum on joining Russia

South Ossetia, focal point of Russia-Georgia war of 2008, will decide whether to subsume itself into larger neighbour in July

Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia will hold a referendum on joining Russia on 17 July, the region’s leader announced on Friday.

“Anatoly Bibilov signed a decree on holding a referendum in the Republic of South Ossetia,” his office said in a statement, citing his people’s “historic aspiration” to join Russia.

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Delaware governor denounces police search of HBCU lacrosse bus in Georgia

John Carney says stop and search of bus carrying lacrosse team from Delaware State University ‘upsetting and concerning’

The governor of Delaware has publicly condemned authorities in Georgia who searched a bus carrying a lacrosse team from a historically Black college, in what many called an instance of racial profiling.

John Carney, a Democrat, released a statement about the incident, in which police officers searched the bus carrying the Delaware State University women’s lacrosse team after stopping the driver for a traffic violation.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for re-election, Georgia official says

Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger accepts judge’s findings and says far-right congresswoman, a Trump ally, is eligible to run

The Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has accepted a judge’s findings and said the far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for re-election.

A group of voters filed a challenge saying Greene should be barred under a seldom-invoked provision of the 14th amendment concerning insurrection, over her links to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene accused of lying in hearing in Capitol attack case

Lawyers for groups challenging Republican say text Greene sent to Meadows, released by House panel, shows she lied in testimony

Lawyers for voters seeking to bar the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress over her support for the January 6 insurrection have accused her of lying in a hearing in the case.

In a filing Friday, lawyers for groups challenging Greene said a text from the Georgia congresswoman to then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, released by the House committee investigating January 6, shows she lied in testimony.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene appears in court over attempt to bar her from Congress

Effort, brought by voters and liberal groups, to ban Republican for aiding the Capitol attack comes under the 14th amendment

The far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared in court in Georgia on Friday for a hearing in an attempt to bar her from Congress for aiding the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

A lawyer for Greene, James Bopp, tried to portray her as a “victim” of the Capitol attack, rather than an instigator.

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Police arrest man accused of killing Georgia coroner’s parents and son

Jacob Christian Muse, arrested Friday night, faces charges of malice murder for killing three people at a local gun range

Police in Georgia have arrested a man accused of killing a local coroner’s parents and son during a robbery at the family’s gun range earlier this month, according to officials.

Jacob Christian Muse, 21, faces three counts of malice murder in the 7 April shooting deaths of Luke Hawk, 19; Tommy Hawk, 75; and Evelyn Hawk, 75, which rattled their rural community about 50 miles south-west of Atlanta.

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‘They knew the Lord’: Georgia coroner finds son and parents killed at gun range

Family members of official killed in ‘senseless and tragic’ robbery and shooting in community near Atlanta

A Georgia coroner went to a shooting range owned by his family on Friday evening and found his parents and son had been shot dead in a robbery, officials said.

In a brief telephone interview with the Guardian on Sunday, Richard Hawk confirmed his 19-year-old son Luke Hawk, father Tommy Hawk and mother Evelyn Hawk were killed at the shooting range, which was owned by his father.

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Republican Senate hopeful overstated academic achievements for years

Herschel Walker, frontrunner for party nomination in Georgia, claimed to have graduated in top 1% – but never actually graduated

A Republican Senate candidate in Georgia said for years that he graduated in the top 1% of his university’s class – but actually never graduated college at all.

Herschel Walker, a former pro football player who is running as a Republican in Georgia’s US Senateprimary, has publicly stated multiple times that he graduated in the top 1% of his class at University of Georgia despite never completing his degree.

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Georgia senate passes bill limiting discussion of race in schools

‘We must teach that America is good’ says top Republican of bill banning teaching that US is ‘fundamentally racist’

The Georgia senate passed a bill on Friday that would limit discussions of race in kindergarten through 12th grade classrooms.

House Bill 1084, the “Protect Students First Act”, was approved by the Georgia senate. The measure requires local school boards and administrators to ban discrimination on the “basis of race” by limiting how race can be discussed in classrooms.

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‘Smartest one gets to the top’: Trump again praises Putin at Georgia rally

Ex-president also had warm words for Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un at event as primary races heat up before midterms elections

Donald Trump chose a rally in Georgia on Saturday night once again to praise Vladimir Putin, calling the Russian president “smart” even as he said the invasion of Ukraine amounted to a “big mistake”.

The Republican former president also had warm words for China’s president Xi Jinping and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and referred to such leaders collectively by saying: “The smartest one gets to the top.”

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Stacey Abrams made president of Earth in Star Trek cameo

Candidate for governor in Georgia and self-confessed superfan makes appearance in season four finale of Star Trek: Discovery

The Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights campaigner Stacey Abrams has been made president – of United Earth.

The honour was bestowed by the Paramount+ TV series Star Trek: Discovery, in its season four finale.

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