Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta where Martin Luther King once preached, has won one of the two runoff elections for the US Senate in Georgia, putting the Democrats within striking distance of taking control of the upper chamber. The result puts the Democrats just one seat away from gaining control of the Senate.
Julian Assange will remain in jail as he continues to fight against extradition to the USA. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said there were substantial grounds to believe he would abscond. On Monday, she ruled the Wikileaks founder cannot be extradited to the USA because he might kill himself. He’s been held in prison since 2019, after hiding for seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy to avoid extradition.
In a sweeping crackdown on opposition, police in Hong Kong on Wednesday arrested more than 50 pro-democracy figures for allegedly violating the stringent new national security law, according to political parties and local media. Those arrested on suspicion of subversion included U.S. citizen John Clancey, an attorney and human rights advocate at the Ho Tse Wai & Partners law firm in Hong Kong.
A white police officer has been cleared in the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. District attorney Michael Graveley decided not to charge officer Rusten Sheskey over the incident, which left Mr Blake paralyzed after he was shot in the back. Mr Graveley said the officer had the right to self defense, after officials said there was a knife in the car Mr Blake was trying to get into.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his five-year economic plan had failed to meet its goals “on almost every sector” as he kicked off a congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, state media KCNA reported on Wednesday. The rare political gathering, which Kim last hosted in 2016, has drawn international attention as he is expected to unveil a new five-year economic plan and address inter-Korean ties and foreign policy.