Giuliani turns himself in on Georgia 2020 election charges after bond is set at $150,000

Giuliani turns himself in on Georgia 2020 election charges after bond is set at $150,000
Rudy Giuliani exits US District Court after attending a hearing in a defamation suit related to the 2020 US presidential election results, Washington, US, May 19, 2023. (Reuters)
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Updated 23 August 2023
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Giuliani turns himself in on Georgia 2020 election charges after bond is set at $150,000

Giuliani turns himself in on Georgia 2020 election charges after bond is set at $150,000
  • Former New York City mayor, celebrated as ‘America’s mayor’ for his leadership after 9/11, is charged with Trump and 17 other people
  • Giuliani, 79, is accused of spearheading Trump’s efforts to compel state lawmakers in Georgia and other closely contested states to ignore the will of voters

ATLANTA: Rudy Giuliani surrendered to authorities in Georgia on Wednesday on charges alleging he acted as former President Donald Trump’s chief co-conspirator in a plot to subvert the 2020 election.
The former New York City mayor, celebrated as “America’s mayor” for his leadership after 9/11, is charged with Trump and 17 other people under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. His bond has been set at $150,000, second only to Trump’s $200,000
Jail records showed he was booked Wednesday afternoon.
Giuliani, 79, is accused of spearheading Trump’s efforts to compel state lawmakers in Georgia and other closely contested states to ignore the will of voters and illegally appoint electoral college electors favorable to Trump.
Georgia was one of several key states Trump lost by slim margins, prompting the Republican and his allies to proclaim, without evidence, that the election was rigged in favor of his Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Giuliani is charged with making false statements and soliciting false testimony, conspiring to create phony paperwork and asking state lawmakers to violate their oath of office to appoint an alternate slate of pro-Trump electors.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said that, if convicted, Giuliani will be sentenced to prison.
Giuliani has denied wrongdoing, arguing he had a right to raise questions about what he believed to be election fraud. He has called the indictment “an affront to American democracy” and an “out and out assault on the First Amendment.”
“I’m feeling very, very good about it because I feel like I am defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United States attorney,” Giuliani told reporters as he left his apartment in New York on Wednesday, adding that he is “fighting for justice” and has been since he first started representing Trump.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
ATLANTA: Rudy Giuliani is expected to turn himself in at a jail in Atlanta on Wednesday on charges related to efforts to overturn then-President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
The former New York mayor was indicted last week along with Trump and 17 others. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said they participated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to subvert the will of the voters after the Republican president lost to Democrat Joe Biden in November 2020.
Giuliani faces charges related to his work as a lawyer for Trump after the general election. At a meeting Wednesday with Willis’ team, Giuliani’s bond was set at $150,000, an attorney for Giuliani told The Associated Press. That’s higher than any of the defendants so far, except for Trump whose bond has been set at $200,000.
“I’m feeling very, very good about it because I feel like I am defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United States attorney,” Giuliani told reporters as he left his apartment in New York on Wednesday, adding that he is “fighting for justice” and has been since he first started representing Trump.
Trump, the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, has said he plans to turn himself in at the Fulton County Jail on Thursday. He and his allies have characterized the investigation as politically motivated and have heavily criticized Willis, a Democrat.
Giuliani criticized the indictment of lawyers who had worked for Trump and said the justice system was being politicized. He also highlighted the fact that some of the people indicted are not household names.
“Donald Trump told you this: They weren’t just coming for him or me,” Giuliani said. “Now they’ve indicted people in this case I don’t even know who they are. These are just regular people making a normal living.”
Willis has set a deadline of noon on Friday for the people indicted last week in the election subversion case to turn themselves in. Her team has been negotiating bond amounts and conditions with the lawyers for the defendants before they surrender at the jail.
A $100,000 bond was set Wednesday for Trump-allied lawyer Sidney Powell, one of several people accused in a breach of voting equipment in rural Coffee County, in south Georgia. Misty Hampton, who was the Coffee County elections director when the breach happened, had her bond set at $10,000.
David Shafer, who’s a former Georgia Republican Party chair and served as one of 16 fake electors for Trump, and Cathy Latham, who’s accused in the Coffee County breach and was also a fake elector, turned themselves in early Wednesday morning. Also surrendering Wednesday were lawyers Ray Smith and Kenneth Chesebro, who prosecutors said helped organize the fake electors meeting at the state Capitol in December 2020.
Attorney John Eastman, who pushed a plan to keep Trump in power, and Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who was accused of participating in a breach of election equipment in Coffee County, turned themselves in Tuesday.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office has said it will release booking photos at 4 p.m. each day, but Shafer appeared to post his on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, just after 7 a.m. Wednesday with the message, “Good morning! #NewProfilePicture.”
While Republicans in Georgia and elsewhere are calling for Willis to be punished for indicting Trump, a group of Black pastors and community activists gathered outside the state capitol in Atlanta Wednesday to pray for and proclaim their support for the Democratic prosecutor.
Bishop Reginald Jackson, who leads Georgia’s African Methodist Episcopal churches, said that Willis is under attack “as a result of her courage and determination.”


Biden says ‘not confident’ of peaceful transfer if Trump loses

Biden says ‘not confident’ of peaceful transfer if Trump loses
Updated 8 sec ago
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Biden says ‘not confident’ of peaceful transfer if Trump loses

Biden says ‘not confident’ of peaceful transfer if Trump loses

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said an interview with CBS he is “not confident at all” there will be a peaceful transfer of power to Kamala Harris if Donald Trump loses November’s election, according to an extract broadcast Wednesday.

“If Trump loses, I’m not confident at all,” Biden told the US network in the interview, which was due to air fully on Sunday. “He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously. He means it — all the stuff about ‘if we lose there’ll be a bloodbath.’“


What is behind the UK’s summer of discontent and riots?

What is behind the UK’s summer of discontent and riots?
Updated 15 min 23 sec ago
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What is behind the UK’s summer of discontent and riots?

What is behind the UK’s summer of discontent and riots?
  • A mass stabbing in Stockport sparked nationwide disorder, fuelled by the far-right and white working class grievance
  • Social media, thuggery, and uncontrolled immigration have all been tapped as potential triggers for the violence

LONDON: Riots have gripped England and Northern Ireland over the past week amid a cloud of misinformation and perceived government failings. Commentators are divided, however, over the root causes beyond assertions of “far-right thuggery.”

Not since 2011, when the police shooting of a black man sparked days of nationwide riots, has the UK witnessed scenes of such violence, with crowds of people tearing through shops, torching cars, targeting mosques, and even setting fire to hotels hosting asylum seekers.

Everyone from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to the world’s second richest man, Elon Musk — who likened the scenes unfolding in the UK to a civil war — has weighed in on what caused the riots and what they might mean for the country.

Responding to the attempted arson on Sunday of a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where asylum seekers were being housed pending a decision on their status, Starmer said the rioters would face the “full force of the law.”

“I guarantee you’ll regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves,” he said at a press briefing. “This is not a protest, it is organized, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets or online.”

Such has been the severity of the damage caused to communities and the number of injuries to police officers that the director of public prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, has said some of those arrested could face charges of terrorism.

Speaking to the BBC, Parkinson said: “Where you have organized groups planning activity for the purposes of advancing an ideology and planning really, really serious disruption, then yes, we will consider terrorism offenses.

“Yes, we are willing to look at terrorism offenses, and I am aware of at least one instance where that is happening.”

Sources who spoke to Arab News did not disagree with assertions that the violence was anything more than “violent thuggery.” However, they warned against dismissing the need to examine underlying societal issues.

One source, who works in education and asked not to be identified, said the disorder has come on the back of an election campaign that tapped into legitimate concerns by seeking to blame the country’s ills on the purported negative effects of mass immigration.

“Mix this with misinformation surrounding the identity of the murderer of girls which served as the riots’ catalyst, and what you are seeing is chickens coming home to roost,” the source said.

Opinion

This section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)

An attack on a children’s dance and yoga workshop at a community center in Southport, north of Liverpool, on July 29, saw three girls killed and 10 other people — eight of whom are children — injured, allegedly by a 17-year-old.

Because of the suspect’s age, police were legally obliged to withhold his identity, inadvertently creating a vacuum that was quickly filled by false information circulated on social media that claimed the suspect was a Muslim who had arrived in the country illegally.

The spread of false information was not helped by the chiming in of online influencers who themselves regularly post anti-immigration, anti-Muslim sentiment to boost a political agenda.

Zouhir Al-Shimale, head of research at Valent Projects, a UK-based firm that uses artificial intelligence to combat disinformation, said identifying the root causes of the riots may prove difficult, as there has been a blend of deliberate manipulation by those pushing an anti-immigrant agenda and widespread bot activity.

“Since Aug. 3, accounts and networks linked to Reform UK have been massively active on X and Facebook with claims of two-tier policing,” Al-Shimale told Arab News, referring to a right-wing political party that made gains in the recent general election.

“They are pouring a lot of resources into this to test certain lines and narratives and see what sticks, but essentially suggesting that the police are allowing Muslim thugs to run riot while they target ‘white patriots’ who are simply angry about the ‘state of their nation.’”

Suggestions of two-tier policing have focused on purported “soft handling” by police over “left-wing, pro-Palestine” marches that have occurred weekly in London since Oct. 7, and earlier Black Lives Matter rallies.

Based on the scale of disorder alone, the comparison is a poor one. A recent pro-Palestine march of up to 10,000 people led to three police officers being injured. By contrast, the roughly 750 people who rioted in Rotherham on Sunday left at least 12 officers injured.

Opposition to the riots is near-universal across every section of the public, according to poll data from YouGov, with Reform UK voters being the only group showing any substantive levels of support, at 21 percent.

Even this is a clear minority, with three-quarters of Reform voters (76 percent) opposed to the riots. Support among other voters is far lower — only 9 percent of Conservatives, 3 percent of Labour voters and 1 percent of Liberal Democrats favor the disorder.

INNUMBERS

• 400 People arrested after six days of riots in parts of England and Northern Ireland.

• 6,000 Police officers mobilized nationwide to deal with further expected unrest.

Nevertheless, there are sympathies with the ideas that are fueling the riots and the far-right groups, like the English Defence League, which are thought to be orchestrating the violence.

Indeed, legal immigration to the UK has risen dramatically over the past 30 years, while illegal arrivals across the English Channel have continued despite the previous government’s pledge to “stop the boats.”

The latest estimates on migration from the Office for National Statistics suggest that in 2023, some 1.2 million people migrated into the UK while 532,000 people emigrated, leaving a net migration figure of 685,000.

Around 29,000 people were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats in 2023, down from 46,000 in 2022, although the overall number of small boat arrivals has increased substantially since 2018.

According to the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, the share of workers employed in the UK who were born abroad has steadily increased over the past two decades, rising from 9 percent of the employed workforce in the first quarter of 2004 (2.6 million) to 21 percent in the first quarter of 2024 (6.8 million).

It found that migrant men were more likely to be employed than UK-born men, but among women, migrants were less likely to be in employment.

Although asylum seekers are not allowed to work, nor do they receive a house or substantial welfare payments while their applications are reviewed, a section of the public in the UK fears the needs of new arrivals are being placed ahead of their own, while the racial composition of their communities changes around them.

Despite this, voter behavior in the UK’s recent general election suggests immigration is not a priority issue for most. “A much better (though still imperfect) indicator is a national election,” Noah Carl, a sociologist and right-wing commentator, wrote in a recent piece for Aporia Magazine.

“Britain held one just a few weeks ago, and the results provide little basis for saying ‘the English’ have ‘had enough’ of mass immigration. Fifty-six percent of white people voted for left-wing or progressive parties, and another 26 percent voted for the Conservatives (a de-facto pro-migration party). Only 16 percent supported Reform.

“In fact, the share of white people supporting left-wing or progressive parties increased from 2019. I say this as someone with broadly restrictionist views.

“Now, you might claim the situation has changed since the election, owing to the rioting in Leeds, the stabbing in Southport and other incidents. But it hasn’t really changed.

“Before the most recent election, white British people had already been subjected to Islamist terrorism, grooming gangs, BLM riots, the ‘decolonization’ movement, accusations of ‘white privilege,’ etc. Yet they still chose to vote overwhelmingly for pro-migration parties.

“Although polling suggests most Britons do want immigration reduced, they apparently care more about issues like the cost of living, housing and the NHS.”

Many commentators have therefore placed much of the blame on social media platforms for acting as an accelerant for the violence, while rioters whipped up by misinformation seek to emulate the disorder seen elsewhere in the country and fed to their smartphones.

Some of the blame, however, may also rest with the pervading political discourse in the UK today.

Paul Reilly, senior lecturer in communications, media and democracy at the University of Glasgow, said one underlying cause may be the absence of accountability for social media platforms in allowing misinformation to spread. But he also pointed to another group.

“I would argue political commentators, influencers and politicians have played a key role in this by creating toxic political discourse around migration,” Reilly told Arab News.

“Social media platforms could do better on removing hate speech and misinformation. But they aren’t treated as publishers and held accountable for content they host. I would expect debate over temporary shutdowns of online platforms during civil unrest as a viable policy.”

Nonetheless, Reilly has also challenged the assertion of Southport MP Patrick Hurley that the violence playing out was solely down to “lies and propaganda” spread on social media.

Instead, citing his research into social media’s role in political unrest in Northern Ireland, he says that while online platforms have been used to share rumors and misinformation, that have inflamed tensions, such online activity has tended to “follow rather than precede riots.”

Writing in The Conversation, he said: “If political leaders are serious about avoiding further violence, they should start by moderating their own language.”

However, he added: “It is expedient for politicians to blame online platforms rather than acknowledge their role in producing a toxic political discourse in relation to asylum seekers and immigration.”

One legal researcher, who asked not to be named, told Arab News the riots were a symptom of failures to address widening wealth inequalities, which had created a space for misinformation to spread.

“It is simply a replication of what we have seen time and time again with the cutting of public services. Amid an absence of government accountability, the population will look for someone to blame,” the person said.

“If there’s one bright spark, those coming out to clean up after the rioters seem to represent a far higher portion of the affected communities, indicating that for a government who cares, there is still buy-in for a better tomorrow.”
 

 


Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna canceled over Islamist attack plot, say organizers

Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna canceled over Islamist attack plot, say organizers
Updated 07 August 2024
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Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna canceled over Islamist attack plot, say organizers

Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna canceled over Islamist attack plot, say organizers
  • A 19-year-old main suspect was arrested in Ternitz, south of Vienna, and the second person in the Austrian capital

VIENNA: Organizers of three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna this week called them off on Wednesday after officials announced arrests over an apparent plot to launch an attack on an event in the Vienna area such as the concerts.

Swift was scheduled to play at the Austrian capital’s Ernst Happel Stadium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Event organizer Barracuda Music said in a post on its Instagram channel late Wednesday that “we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety.”

A 19-year-old main suspect was arrested in Ternitz, south of Vienna, and the second person in the Austrian capital.

Franz Ruf, the public security director at Austria’s interior ministry, said that authorities were aware of “preparatory actions” for a possible attack “and also that there is a focus by the 19-year-old perpetrator on the Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna,” the Austria Press Agency reported.

Ruf said the 19-year-old had pledged an oath of allegiance to Daesh.

The Austrian citizen is believed to have become radicalized on the internet. Ruf said that chemical substances were secured and were being evaluated. He didn't give more details.

Swift had concerts scheduled at Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as part of her Eras Tour.

Security measures for the concerts will be stepped up. Ruf said that there would be a special focus among other things on entry checks and concertgoers should plan a bit more time.

Vienna police chief Gerhard Pürstl said that, while any concrete danger had been minimized, an abstract risk justified raising security.

More to follow...


Humza Yousaf unsure of future in UK after violent rioting

Humza Yousaf unsure of future in UK after violent rioting
Updated 07 August 2024
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Humza Yousaf unsure of future in UK after violent rioting

Humza Yousaf unsure of future in UK after violent rioting
  • ‘I have, for some time, really worried about the rise of Islamophobia,’ says former Scottish first minister

LONDON: Scotland’s former first minister, a Muslim, has spoken of his family’s uncertain future in the UK following a week of rioting across the border in England by far-right groups.

Humza Yousaf, who resigned as first minister in May, was the first member of a minority group to lead a devolved government in the UK, Sky News reported.

He was also the first Muslim to lead a major UK political party.

Amid violent disorder across towns and cities in England, Yousaf said that rising Islamophobia had left him debating his family’s future in “Scotland or the UK, or indeed in Europe and the West.”

He told “The News Agents” podcast: “Born in Scotland, raised in Scotland, educated in Scotland, just welcomed my third child here in Scotland, was the leader of the Scottish government for just over a year, leader of the Scottish National Party. You cut me open, I’m about as Scottish as you come.

“But the truth of the matter is, I don’t know whether the future for me and my wife and my three children is going to be here in Scotland or the UK, or indeed in Europe and the West, because I have, for some time, really worried about the rise of Islamophobia.”

Yousaf added that Islamophobia was driving the rise of far-right groups, whose members in the UK are targeting “people who are black, who are Asian, who are Muslim.”

The MSP for Glasgow Pollok added: “That, again, comes back to some of the language that’s been used far too often in our politics about people not adopting our values.

“Scotland is the country I love. I don’t want to go — let me just make that abundantly clear.”

Despite the rioting taking place across the border in England, Scotland is “not immune from racism or Islamophobia,” Yousaf said.

He also referred to former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a Muslim, as minority success stories.

However, that “strong history and heritage of multiculturalism” is “quite literally … going up in flames,” Yousaf added.

Scottish First Minister John Swinney this week vowed to prevent rioting in Scotland.

He also met representatives from Scotland’s Muslim community at Edinburgh Central Mosque.

He said: “There is no place in Scotland for hatred of any kind, and each of us has a responsibility to confront racism and religious prejudice wherever and whenever it appears.

“People will always try to divide us — and it is imperative in these moments that we come together even stronger to stand defiant.”


Paris Olympics food donations seek to help needy, contribute to sustainability and set an example

Paris Olympics food donations seek to help needy, contribute to sustainability and set an example
Updated 07 August 2024
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Paris Olympics food donations seek to help needy, contribute to sustainability and set an example

Paris Olympics food donations seek to help needy, contribute to sustainability and set an example
  • Food that goes uneaten at the Games — by the athletes, the spectators and the workers — is helping those in need around the French capital
  • Paris 2024 organizers have long said the Games would be more environmentally friendly, including reusable dishes in the main restaurant at the athletes’ village

PARIS: It is quite literally the food of champions. Paris Olympics organizers are determined that it not go to waste.
Food that goes uneaten at the Games — by the athletes, the spectators and the workers — is helping those in need around the French capital, part of an effort to cut down on waste and contribute to organizers’ commitment to sustainability.
Paris 2024 organizers have long said the Games would be more environmentally friendly, including reusable dishes in the main restaurant at the athletes’ village, greener construction and seats in venues made from recycled materials. In addition to helping those in need, organizers also hope the food donations will set an example for other Olympics and major events to follow.
“This is part of the legacy that we’ve been working on since the beginning,” said Georgina Grenon, who oversees the Paris Games’ effort to reduce its carbon footprint by half compared to London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. “We’ve been working to try to change the way in which these Games are organized, both for us but also for other events. And food waste is one of those things.”
Food waste is a source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and even though it’s not a huge source of emissions for the Olympics, Grenon said organizers “thought it was important to be particularly exemplary on this and lead the way on showing how to do it and showing it is possible.”
They’ve tried to reduce food waste both preventively, when the menus were being drawn up, and during the Games — signing an agreement with three groups so that uneaten food is collected and redistributed.
About 40,000 meals are served each day during the Games to thousands of athletes from more than 200 countries and territories in the Olympic village. While a few have complained publicly, others have raved about the food, including about the fact that it’s all free. Organizers have said they quickly addressed complaints about the lack of some foods.
Valerie de Margerie is president of Le Chainon Manquant, which translates to The Missing Link, one of the groups that is receiving food from the Olympic sites. She said the donations help address a pressing need because there are 10 million people in France who don’t have enough to eat. At the same time, she said, the country wastes 10 million tons of food each year.
“That’s the challenge, it’s to say that we cannot continue to allow our trash cans overflow with quality products while there are people nearby who are unable to feed themselves adequately,” she said.
Her organization has collected uneaten food from the Roland Garros tennis stadium since 2014, and since expanded that to other sites — including Bercy Arena, Stade de France, and other sites now being used for the Olympics. The logistics of collecting the food can be a bit complicated, particularly because many items are perishable and need to be consumed within days — or sometimes even the same day.
With 100 volunteers taken on to help during the Games, de Margerie’s group goes to Olympic sites at 6 a.m. and then, within hours, gets the food to other charities that distribute to people in need, including families, people who live in the streets, students and others.
They collect unsold sandwiches and salads, caterers’ food for Olympic guests and also uneaten canteen food cooked for Games workers. They have gathered about 9 tons of food so far, about 20 percent of it fruit. After the closing ceremony, they’ll also collect uneaten raw foods that won’t keep until the Paralympic Games that start Aug. 28.
One of the other groups, the Banque Alimentaire de Paris et d’Ile-de-France, a food bank serving Paris and the surrounding area, sends vans to Olympic sites, including the athletes’ village, late each night to collect leftover food. They bring it back to warehouses where volunteers work until the early hours of the morning sorting the haul. On a recent night, they returned with shredded carrots and apple slices, tubs of fruit salad, microwaveable prepared dishes and hummus.
By Tuesday, the food bank had collected 30 tons of food from Olympic sites since the beginning of the Games, said Nicolas Dubois, who’s in charge of the organization’s warehouse in suburban Gennevilliers.
Some of the bounty collected by the food bank was brought to a grocery store in Epinay-sur-Seine, a northern suburb of Paris, that sells food at deeply discounted prices.
“We take advantage of this place because it helps us, it helps us enormously,” said Jeanne Musaga, 64, who gets 900 euros ($984) a month in retirement payments, 500 euros ($547) of which goes to pay her rent.
“For those of us who don’t earn much, for a family that’s suffering, we come here to get food for the month,” she said. “Instead of buying from an expensive shop, we pay less here.”