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Unprecedented protests sweep Georgia after government scraps EU bid

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Unprecedented protests sweep Georgia after government scraps EU bid


A string of top officials including the Georgian ambassadors to Italy, the Netherlands and Lithuania have resigned in protest at the move, as well as Deputy Foreign Minister Temur Janjali.

“What we see is this resistance has really gone beyond previous public demonstrations,” said Tinatin Akhvlediani, a senior researcher with the EU foreign policy unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies. “The ruling Georgian Dream party is in trouble because it’s difficult to see how they can justify making this announcement given widespread support for joining the EU, and it looks like they will use all their forces to silence people.”

On Saturday night, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili — who has previously accused Georgian Dream of rigging October’s parliamentary elections — insisted the government had “no mandate” to stay in power. The unrest, she said, “is not a revolution, it is stability,” and called for the EU to step in to oversee a new round of voting.

In a resolution passed on Thursday, the European Parliament agreed that the election had been “neither free nor fair,” echoing concerns from international election observers who warned the process had been marred by intimidation and vote buying. Georgian Dream was returned to power with a sizeable majority despite growing concerns over its break with the EU — and broad public support for joining the bloc.

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Speaking to POLITICO, Nathalie Louiseau, a French MEP and vice-chair of the EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association, said the bloc’s new leadership — foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, incoming European Council President Antonio Costa and enlargement boss Marta Kos — need to rise to meet the challenge. “I would strongly encourage them to go to Tbilisi, meet with the President and the protesters, and ask for new elections,” Louiseau said.

EU officials announced in July that Georgia’s membership application had been frozen after the ruling party introduced a string of Russian-style legislation, branding Western-backed NGOs as ‘foreign agents’ and cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights. Authorities used force to dispel crowds protesting against the rules, deploying tear gas and batons, while opposition figures were detained and beaten.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Georgian Dream politicians and police chiefs over the violence.

The U.N.’s special rapporteur on freedom of assembly, Gina Romero, said reports of police violence over the weekend were “disturbing” and called on Georgian Dream “to respect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.”





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Florida Georgia Line reunites onstage for first time in 4 years after split

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Florida Georgia Line reunites onstage for first time in 4 years after split


Florida Georgia Line is back — at least for one night.

Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley shocked fans Thursday night when the duo reunited onstage for the first time since they split in 2022.

The surprise moment went down at Broken Bow Records’ annual late-night bash during Country Radio Seminar in Nashville.

Florida Georgia Line performs during Country Radio Seminar in Nashville on Thursday, March 19, 2026. Amy Harris/Invision/AP
It was Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley’s first performance together since August 2022. Amy Harris/Invision/AP

The pair performed “You Make It Easy,” the hit they co-wrote with Morgan Wallen and Jordan Schmidt that Jason Aldean took all the way to No. 1 in 2018. Aldean was being honored at the event.

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At one point onstage, Hubbard referred to Kelley as his “brother,” a telling sign that the duo may finally be on better terms after years of speculation about their relationship.

The Grammy-nominated pair announced their plans for an indefinite hiatus in February 2022 before calling it quits after their final show that August.

Despite rumors of bad blood, Hubbard recently insisted the split was never as dramatic as fans believed.

“This only became big and dramatic on the internet,” he said on a December 2025 episode of the “Human School” podcast. “There’s not a good guy, bad guy in this equation. There’s not a right or a wrong. Everyone wants to do that on the Internet. They want to say, ‘right, wrong, good guy, bad guy. Team BK, Team T-Hub.’ It’s not even like that.”

The duo came together to honor Jason Aldean at the event. Amy Harris/Invision/AP
The pair performed “You Make It Easy” and Hubbard referred to Kelley as his “brother.” Amy Harris/Invision/AP

The singer explained the breakup ultimately came down to creative differences, with Kelley allegedly wanting to pursue a solo career while still keeping the group going — something Hubbard said he wasn’t on board with.

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“BK stuck to his convictions and led with his gut and decided to make a decision based on his passion,” Hubbard said. “I set a boundary that I wasn’t willing to cross and it is what it is. We both accepted it way before the internet accepted it.”

Still, the distance took a toll.

“I hadn’t spoken to BK a lot in the last couple years,” Hubbard went on to admit. “But we’re going on a hike … I miss the guy that I was partners with for 10 years. I miss my old roommate, my best man on my wedding.”

On March 3, Hubbard and Kelley had reunited offstage for a family ski trip in Idaho — alongside their wives Hayley and Brittney.

“Proof that God’s timing is always better than ours,” Brittney Kelley wrote on Instagram. “This week was about healing, laughter, and remembering the “why” that brought us together in the first place.

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“We left with peace about the past and a reminder that redemption is real and the future is bright.”

On Thursday night, Aldean had shown up expecting to play a song and leave, but was blindsided when a backdrop dropped to reveal more than two dozen No. 1 plaques, celebrating his milestone of 31 chart-topping hits.

Artists including Travis Tritt took the stage to honor Aldean, with Tritt performing “Night Train,” while others joined in throughout the night.



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Georgia woman charged with murder after police say she took pills to induce abortion

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Georgia woman charged with murder after police say she took pills to induce abortion


A 31-year-old Georgia woman has been charged with murder by police who say she took pills to induce an illegal abortion.

If state prosecutors decide to move forward with the murder charge brought by local police against Alexia Moore, her case would be one of the first instances of a woman being charged for terminating a pregnancy in Georgia since it passed a 2019 law banning most abortions.

The arrest warrant charging Moore with murder uses language that echoes the law, saying police determined that Moore had been pregnant beyond six weeks “based on the medical staff’s knowledge that the baby had a beating heart and was struggling to breathe”.

“No one should be criminalized for having an abortion,” Dana Sussman, senior vice-president of the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice said in a statement, calling Moore’s case “an unprecedented murder charge for an alleged abortion”.

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Court records say Moore arrived at a hospital on 30 December complaining of abdominal pain. She told medical workers that she had taken misoprostol, a drug used in medication abortions, and the opioid painkiller oxycodone, according to an arrest warrant obtained by police in Kingsland, about 100 miles (160km) south of Savannah.

The fetus survived for about an hour after being delivered at the hospital, the warrant says. The police investigator obtaining the warrant wrote that Moore told the nursing staff: “I know my infant is suffering, because I am the one who did the abortion. I want her to die.”

Georgia bans abortion after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected. That’s generally at about six weeks’ gestation – before many women know they’re pregnant.

Moore has been jailed in coastal Camden county since 4 March on charges of murder and illegal drug possession, according to online jail records.

Moore’s mother said she had no immediate comment when reached by phone on Thursday. A spokesperson for the Georgia Public Defender Council confirmed that one of its attorneys is representing Moore but made no further comment.

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Court records show Moore’s attorney has filed legal motions seeking bond and a speedy trial. A court hearing was scheduled for Monday.

Ultimately, the decision on whether to prosecute Moore for murder will be left to Keith Higgins, the district attorney for the Brunswick judicial circuit, who would first have to obtain an indictment from a grand jury. Higgins did not immediately return phone and email messages.

The drugs misoprostol and mifepristone together are approved for terminating pregnancies during the first 10 weeks of gestation by the US Food and Drug Administration. Misoprostol can also be used alone if mifepristone is not available. It’s also used off-label for abortion in the second trimester.



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How Georgia manufactured the peach state myth

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How Georgia manufactured the peach state myth


Peaches are one of America’s most recognizable fruits. In the US, hundreds of thousands of tons are produced each year, and the fruit is closely tied to one place in particular: Georgia.

The Georgia peach is on license plates, road signs, and even county names. But today, the state doesn’t grow the most peaches. Not even close.

This video explores how peaches became a state symbol, how that reputation spread through active mythmaking, and why the Georgia peach identity has lasted even as the industry changed.

Read more about the history of the Georgia peach:

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This video is presented by Stonyfield Organics. Stonyfield Organics doesn’t have a say in our editorial decisions, but they make videos like this one possible.



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