Category Archives: Georgia

Germany proposes giving EU candidate countries observer status at summits

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Roadmap for expansion suggests integrating countries such as Ukraine into sections of EU before negotiations are complete

Germany has proposed a detailed and innovative roadmap to expand the EU that would give candidate countries such as Ukraine early benefits including observer status at leaders’ summits in Brussels before full membership.

The proposals by the foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, amount to an offer of integrating candidate countries into sections of the EU long before technical negotiations for membership, which can drag on for years, are completed.

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Movement against Georgia’s ‘Cop City’ plans occupation and ‘week of action’

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‘Block Cop City’ plans non-violent march onto site of police center and a week of panels and screenings aimed at Black audiences

The movement against the police and fire department training center known as “Cop City” is planning two events for the coming weeks in and near Atlanta, Georgia – including a first-ever, non-violent protest march onto the project’s construction site.

The action, planned for 13 November and aimed at occupying the Cop City site for a day, could draw a thousand or more people from across the county. This would make it the largest protest to date at the location. The other event is a Black-led “week of action” the week before, aimed at Black audiences.

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Fossil fuel firms spent millions on US lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest bills

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About 60% of oil and gas operations protected from protest due to money spent on lobbying, says Greenpeace USA report

Fossil fuel companies have spent millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign donations to state lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest laws – which now shield about 60% of US gas and oil operations from protest and civil disobedience, according to a new report from Greenpeace USA.

Eighteen states including Montana, Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, West Virginia and the Dakotas have enacted sweeping anti-protest laws which boost penalties for trespass near so-called critical infrastructure, that make it far riskier for communities to oppose pipelines and other fossil fuel projects that threaten their land, water and the global climate.

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US man killed by police ‘triggered’ after wrongful imprisonment, family say

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Relatives suspect Leonard Cure, 53, resisted traffic-stop arrest because of toll of 16 years in prison for crime he did not commit

The relatives of Leonard Cure, a Black man fatally shot earlier this week at point-blank range by a Georgia deputy during a traffic stop, said they suspect he resisted arrest because of psychological trauma from spending 16 years imprisoned in Florida for an armed robbery he did not commit.

A video was released on Wednesday by a sheriff that showed Cure, who had been released and exonerated in 2020, being shot after grabbing the officer by the neck and forcing his head backward during the traffic stop on Monday.

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Georgia refuses to release evidence from police shooting of Cop City activist

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Experts say decision not to make evidence available to family of Manuel Paez Terán or public sets ‘frightening’ precedent

The state of Georgia is refusing to release evidence tied to the police shooting and killing of an activist protesting a police and fire department training center known as “Cop City”, prompting concern from police accountability experts who say this sets a “frightening” precedent .

District attorney George Christian released a 31-page report earlier this month concluding that the 18 January shooting of Manuel Paez Terán, or “Tortuguita”, was “objectively reasonable”. Paez Terán was one of a small group of “forest defenders” camping in a wooded public park to protest Cop City, planned for a separate part of the forest south-east of Atlanta, Georgia, less than a mile away. Dozens of officers from multiple agencies raided the park; the state claims Paez Terán fired a gun first, prompting six officers to shoot the activist. The activist sustained 57 gunshot wounds and died nearly instantly.

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Shot 14 times, no charges for police: family’s grief over death of Cop City activist

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Manuel Paez Terán, known as ‘Tortuguita’ was isolated and alone as police shot him dead – and his family and friends say the full story is being kept from them

Manuel Paez Terán’s last word was: “Help.” It wasn’t spoken; it was sent by text. From another location in the same forest where Paez Terán – or “Tortuguita”– was camping in a tent, someone texted back: “What do you need?”

Seconds later, Tortuguita – Spanish for “Little Turtle”– was dead. Six Georgia state patrol troopers shot Paez Terán with at least 14 bullets, leaving 57 wounds. The 26-year-old had been sleeping in tents and tree houses in a public park for months, along with dozens of other “forest defenders” in protest against a $90m police and fire department training center known as “Cop City”, planned for another part of the forest less than a mile away.

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Jimmy Carter: tributes pour in as ex-president celebrates 99th birthday

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Accolades include messages from world leaders and pop culture figures, many focusing on his four decades of humanitarian work

The former US president Jimmy Carter will celebrate his 99th birthday on Sunday by putting off watching church services online and instead celebrating with his wife, Rosalynn, and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Plains, Georgia.

The gathering will take place in the same one-story house where the Carters lived before he was elected to the Georgia Senate in 1962.

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Seven months after entering hospice care Jimmy Carter visits peanut festival

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Former US president, who has been in ill health for several years, is set to turn 99 on 1 October

Former president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, have made a surprise appearance at a peanut festival in their Georgia home town, the Carter Center wrote in a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The former president, who was also once a peanut farmer, and his wife are seen in a video riding through the Plains Peanut Festival in a black SUV.

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US judge rejects Mark Meadows’ request to move Georgia case to federal court

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Ruling means the prosecution of Meadows brought by the Fulton county district stays in the superior court of Atlanta

A federal judge denied a request from former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to transfer his Georgia 2020 election interference case from state to federal court on the basis that some of the charged conduct was within the scope of his official duties.

The ruling from US district judge Steve Jones on Friday means the prosecution of Meadows brought by the Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis stays in superior court in Atlanta, unless Meadows appeals and the decision is reversed by the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit.

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Mark Meadows loses bid to transfer Georgia election interference case to federal court – as it happened

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Meadows faces two felony charges, including racketeering and solicitation of a violation of oath by a public officer

Lindsey Graham’s name appeared early as Donald Trump’s attempts to stay in the White House began shortly after his re-election defeat in November 2020.

Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger told the press that the South Carolina senator had called him to ask if it was possible to throw away mail-in ballots in counties crucial to Joe Biden’s win in Georgia. From the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino’s report at the time:

Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has said that Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was possible to invalidate legally cast ballots after Donald Trump was narrowly defeated in the state.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Raffensperger said that his fellow Republican, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, questioned him about the state’s signature-matching law and asked whether political bias might have played a role in counties where poll workers accepted higher rates of mismatched signatures. According to Raffensperger, Graham then asked whether he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in these counties.

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Atlanta police arrest five activists chained to bulldozer at ‘Cop City’ site

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Activists entered open gate where trees are being cleared two days after state attorney general indicted 61 people under Rico law

Atlanta police arrested five activists, including two clergy members, on Thursday after the activists chained themselves to a bulldozer at the construction site for “Cop City”, a huge police and fire department training center being built in a forest south-east of Atlanta.

The activists entered an open gate around 9am local time where trees are being cleared and land is being graded for the training center, which would occupy a footprint of 170 acres if completed according to plans. Two Unitarian Universalist church clergy members hung a sign on the bulldozer saying: “Stop work.”

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Mark Meadows pleads not guilty in Georgia 2020 election indictment

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The former Trump chief of staff joins 18 other co-defendants in pleading not guilty to illegal scheme to overturn election results

Mark Meadows, the former Trump White House chief of staff, has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of participating in an illegal scheme to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia and will not appear in court in Atlanta this week.

Scott McAfee, the Fulton county superior court judge, had scheduled arraignment hearings for Wednesday for Meadows, former president Donald Trump and the other 17 people charged last month in a sprawling indictment. By midday Tuesday, all of the defendants had filed paperwork pleading not guilty in filings with the court and waived their rights to an arraignment hearing.

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Cop City protesters charged with racketeering as Georgia takes hard line

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Some of 61 defendants charged also face money laundering and domestic terrorism charges for environmental protests

Dozens of activists who oppose a controversial police and fire training facility in Georgia known as Cop City have been charged with racketeering, appearing to confirm fears from civil rights groups that prosecutors are stepping up an aggressive pursuit of environmental protesters.

A total of 61 people – most not from Georgia – were indicted for violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act last week, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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Georgia’s ruling party seeks to impeach president over EU visits

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Salome Zourabichvili’s meetings in Berlin and Brussels violated constitution, party leader says

Georgia’s ruling party is seeking to impeach the president over her visits to the EU, which it said were made against the will of the government, the local news agency Interpress has reported.

Salome Zourabichvili met the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in Berlin on Thursday and the European Council president, Charles Michel, in Brussels on Friday to drum up support for Georgia’s campaign to receive EU candidate status.

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Weather tracker: Hurricane Idalia leaves trail of damage in Florida

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Category 3 storm causes extensive flooding in south-east US, while heavy rain and winds also hit France and Italy

Hurricane Idalia struck northern Florida on Wednesday, bringing damaging winds and torrential rain. It made landfall near Keaton Beach on Florida’s Big Bend during the morning as a high-end category 3 hurricane, bringing sustained winds speeds near 125mph (200km/h) and a storm surge of 16ft along Florida’s north-west coastline.

Due to very warm sea surface temperatures, the storm strengthened rapidly over the Gulf of Mexico to category 4 status, before weakening to category 3 as it made landfall. It brought extensive flooding as it passed through and damaged power lines, leaving thousands without electricity.

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Hurricane Idalia brings intense flooding to Carolinas as Floridians count cost – live

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More than 50,000 customers in Carolinas still without power despite category 3 tempest weakening to tropical storm

Joe Biden signed a major disaster declaration for Florida following Hurricane Idalia.

The declaration provides the state with federal resources to support clean up, rescue, and more in response to the tropical storm.

The White House shares the following: “This morning, President Biden called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to convey that he has signed a Major Disaster Declaration and ordered all available federal resources to help with the continued response to Tropical Storm Idalia.

The President reiterated that the people of Florida have his full support as they recover from the storm

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Hurricane Idalia leaves trail of floods and wreckage in south-eastern US

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Tropical storm moves into Atlantic but torrential rain and inland flooding still likely in North Carolina, officials warn

Recovery efforts were under way in four states on Thursday as the remains of Hurricane Idalia, still a tropical storm with 60mph winds, moved into the Atlantic off the coast of the Carolinas.

Crews were sifting through wreckage across North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, where the storm came ashore on Wednesday as a category 3 hurricane with gusts of 160mph and sent a surge of seawater up to 16ft high inland through vulnerable coastal areas.

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Hurricane Idalia: Georgia declares state of emergency as severe flooding and storm surges hit south-eastern US – live

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The eye of Hurricane Idalia made landfall along the coast of the Florida Big Bend near Keaton Beach around 7.45am Eastern time, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm’s maximum sustained winds were near 125 mph.

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Judge rules against Rudy Giuliani in Georgia election workers’ defamation suit – as it happened

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Trump’s former attorney ordered to pay attorneys’ fees of $89,172.50 for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss

Jury selection will begin on 5 September in the contempt of Congress trial of Peter Navarro, a former White House aide to Donald Trump.

Navarro was indicted last year after failing to comply with two subpoenas from the bipartisan congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack. He attempted to argue that executive privilege concerns prevented him from cooperating with the panel, but a federal judge ruled against that defense today.

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Trump co-defendant Sidney Powell pleads not guilty in election subversion case – as it happened

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Congress is on recess, but when they return to work on 5 September, House Republicans appear determined to open impeachment proceedings again Joe Biden, CNN reports.

It is sure to be a fraught process for the GOP, and almost certain not to result in the president’s removal from office, since the Democratic majority is unlikely to vote for Biden’s conviction.

But leadership recognizes that the entire House Republican conference is not yet sold on the politically risky idea of impeachment. That’s why one of the biggest lingering questions – and something Republicans have been discussing in recent weeks – is whether they would need to hold a floor vote to formally authorize their inquiry, sources say. There is no constitutional requirement that they do so, and Republicans do not currently have the 218 votes needed to open an impeachment inquiry.

Skipping the formal vote, which would be a tough one for many of the party’s more vulnerable and moderate members, would allow Republicans to get the ball rolling on an inquiry while giving leadership more time to convince the rest of the conference to get on board with impeachment. During former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, House Democrats ended up voting to both formalize their inquiry and set parameters for the process after initially holding off on doing so amid divisions within their ranks.

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