USA

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Attorneys for convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh want a new trial, accusing the court clerk of improperly influencing the jury and betraying her oath of office for money and fame.

They’ve accused the court clerk at his double murder trial of telling jurors not to trust him when he testified in his own defense, having private conversations with the jury foreperson and pressuring jurors to come to a quick verdict.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A state judiciary disciplinary panel has rejected several complaints lodged against Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz that alleged she violated the judicial code of ethics for comments she made during the campaign. It’s a setback to Republicans who argued those remarks could warrant impeachment.

Protasiewicz on Tuesday released a letter from the Wisconsin Judicial Commission informing her that “several complaints” regarding comments she had made during the campaign had been dismissed without action.

ATLANTA (AP) — Sixty-one people have been indicted in Georgia on racketeering charges following a long-running state investigation into protests against a planned police and firefighter training facility in the Atlanta area that critics call “Cop City.”

In the sweeping indictment released Tuesday, Republican Attorney General Chris Carr alleged the defendants are “militant anarchists” who supported a violent movement that prosecutors trace to the widespread 2020 racial justice protests.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced Tuesday to 22 years in prison for orchestrating his far-right extremist group’s attack on the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to stop the transfer of presidential power after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

Tarrio’s sentence is the longest so far among more than 1,100 Capitol riot cases, topping the 18-year sentences that Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and one-time Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean each received after juries convicted them of seditious conspiracy and other charges.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 04 (APP): The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and 64 humanitarian and national civil society organizations Monday appealed for $1 billion to provide essential aid and protection to more than 1.8 million people fleeing the ongoing conflict in Sudan, who are expected to arrive in five neighbouring countries by the end of 2023.

Since the crisis began when rival military groups clashed in mid-April, projections of growing numbers of people trying to escape fighting have sharply spiked upwards.

WASHINGTON , Sep 04 (APP): Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Masood Khan, Monday discussed the issue of water resource management with US Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury in Albuquerque, the largest city in the U.S. state of New Mexico.

Ms. Stansbury considers water as ground zero for climate change and has extensive experience in the field of water resources.

PHILADELPHIA, Sept 4 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday took shots at his likely 2024 rival, Donald Trump, in a Labor Day speech aimed at shoring up support in Pennsylvania, a state he needs to win next year to retain the White House.

A self-described champion of labor unions, Biden addressed union workers in Philadelphia as he sought to explain his economic policies to a public worried about the economy, despite easing inflation and low unemployment levels.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Floridians are struggling to recover from Category 3 Hurricane Idalia and the following floods as tension spirals over U.S. President Joe Biden's survey of the damage in Florida, without meeting the state's Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of his 2024 presidential rivals.

On Saturday, Biden and his wife toured areas damaged by the storm in Live Oak, met residents, and thanked emergency responders.

ANDERSON, S.C. (AP) — A microphone in hand, Sen. Tim Scott left the podium at a recent barbecue event in South Carolina and made his way through tables draped in red, white and blue as attendees finished plates of pulled pork and baked beans.

As he talked about his campaign, Scott passed Casey DeSantis, the first lady of Florida, who looked ahead at the empty stage from which she would soon speak. She was there in place of her husband, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was overseeing the response to Hurricane Idalia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will deepen her outreach to Southeast Asia this week at an international summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she’ll try to erase doubts about U.S. commitment to the region stirred by President Joe Biden’s absence.