Georgia’s top elections official received a phone call from Donald Trump on 2 January, 2021, with a warning that he would be taking a “big risk” declaring Joe Biden the victor weeks after then-President Trump lost the state in the 2020 presidential election. “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” then-President Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during the hour-long call, four days before a joint session of Congress convened to certify the electoral college results – a ceremony violently interrupted by a mob of Mr Trump’s supporters. Mr Raffensperger, a Republican, told a federal courtroom on 28 August that Mr Trump’s “outreach to that extent was extraordinary.” That call is central to a sweeping racketeering indictment from state prosecutors charging Mr Trump and 18 co-defendants for their alleged criminal enterprise to keep him in power at whatever cost. Mr Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was on that call, is asking a judge to remove the case from the jurisdiction of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and into federal court. Mr Meadows also testified during the hearing on Monday. Mr Raffensperger, who was subpoenaed by Ms Willis to appear in US District Court in Atlanta, testified that he believed a call with White House would be inappropriate. “I told my deputy I don’t think this is in our best interest,” he said, according to CNN. He also said he did not initially return a call because Mr Meadows didn’t leave him a phone number. Mr Meadows sent a text message to Mr Raffensperger in December 2020 asking him to call the “White House switchboard” because his voice mailbox was full, according to messages he provided to the House select committee separately investigating the events surrounding the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021 Prosecutors played audio clips from the call during the hearing; Mr Raffensperger noted that there were no officials from the US Department of Justice or the White House counsel’s office on the call. “I thought that it was a campaign call,” Mr Raffensperger said. He also stressed that the White House nor presidential campaigns do not play any role in the state certification of election outcomes – an argument that undermines arguments from Mr Meadows and his attorneys that he was merely fulfilling his duties as part of his federal duties on behalf of the president. Asked by prosecutors whether he believed Mr Trump won the 2020 election, Mr Raffensperger said: “They lost the election.” Defending the integrity of the state’s election results and ongoing attempts to undermine them, he said: ”We spoke the truth.” Monday’s hearing comes two weeks after a Fulton County grand jury indictment presented the largest and most significant case yet facing Mr Trump and others connected to an alleged racketeering scheme in which they “knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election” to ensure he remained in power. Mr Meadows faces two counts in the sprawling 41-count indictment outlining dozens of acts that encompass the conspiracy: one count of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO statute, and one count of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. The 19 defendants were booked in Fulton County jail and released on bond last week. They are scheduled to appear in court for their arraignment hearings on 5 September. Attorneys for Mr Meadows have asked for the “prompt removal” of the case from Fulton County, citing federal law that allows US officials to remove civil or criminal trials from state court over alleged actions performed “under color” of their offices, with Mr Meadows performing such acts during his “tenure” as White House chief of staff, they wrote in court filings. Prosecutors, however, have argued that Mr Meadows was acting on behalf of the Trump campaign, performing acts that were “all ‘unquestionably political’ in nature and therefore, by definition, outside the lawful scope of his authority” as chief of staff. “Even if the defendant somehow had been acting as authorized under federal law (rather than directly contrary to it), that authority would be negated by the evidence of his ‘personal interest, malice, actual criminal intent,’” they wrote. Read More Trump handed two key court dates as bid to delay trials until after election falls apart - latest Mark Meadows grilled on witness stand over Trump’s Georgia call to ‘find’ votes and false election claims Who is Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who could take down Trump Trump has raised more than $7m off of his Georgia mug shot Trump made life hell for two Black women election workers. He will have to answer for it in court

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The Nobel Peace Prize has been to imprisoned activist Narges Mohammadi for fighting oppression of women in Iran and broader human rights and freedom for all. The Nobel committee's decision to award the prize to Mohammadi comes after more than a year of protests in Iran spearheaded by women. They were sparked in September 2022 after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old, died in the custody of Iran's morality police. The unrest rapidly spread across the country, with demands ranging from more freedoms to an overthrow of the state. “She fights for women against systematic discrimination and oppression,” the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, said in announcing the prize in Oslo. Ms Reiss-Andersen said that Mohammadi supports the struggle for women to live "full and dignified lives". Hailing Mohammadi as a "freedom fighter", Ms Reiss-Andersen said, started her speech by saying, in Farsi, the words for "woman, life, freedom" - one of the slogans of the protests. Images of Iranian women defiantly setting their headscarves on fire and chanting the phrase spread around the world. Mohammadi was behind bars as the protests grew nationwide, sparking one of the most-intense challenges ever to Iran's theocracy since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. More than 500 people were killed in a heavy security crackdown while more than 22,000 others have been arrested. In piece for The New York Times from behind bars, Mohammadi wrote: "What the government may not understand is that the more of us they lock up, the stronger we become". Ms Reiss-Andersen said the peace prize award also recognised the hundreds of thousands of people who have demonstrated against Iranian discrimination and oppression of women. "This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran, with its undisputed leader, Narges Mohammadi," she said. "Only by embracing equal rights for all can the world achieve the fraternity between nations that [prize founder] Alfred Nobel sought to promote," she said. Authorities arrested Mohammadi in November after she attended a memorial for a victim of 2019 protests that started over a rise in fuel prices but morphed into a broader show of dissent that was crushed by security forces in another bloody crackdown. Mohammadi is currently serving multiple sentences in Tehran's Evin Prison amounting to about 12 years imprisonment, according to the Front Line Defenders rights organisation. Charges against her – which the international community have decried – include spreading propaganda against the state. Mohammadi has a long history of imprisonment, harsh sentences and international calls for reviews of her case. "If the Iranian authorities make the right decision, they will release her so that she can be present to receive this honour, which is what we primarily hope for," Ms Reiss-Andersen said. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said he award highlights the courage of Mohammadi and women like her. "We've seen their courage and determination in the face of reprisals, intimidation, violence and detention," spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell said. "[Women] been harassed for what they do or don't wear. There are increasingly stringent legal, social and economic measures against them. This really is something that highlights the courage and determination of the women of Iran and how they are an inspiration to the world." Mohammedi is the 19th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second Iranian woman, after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi won the award in 2003. Before being jailed, Mohammadi was vice president of the banned Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. Ebadi founded the centre. Ebadi left Iran after the disputed re-election of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 that touched off unprecedented protests and harsh crackdowns by authorities. In 2018, Mohammadi, an engineer, was awarded the 2018 Andrei Sakharov Prize. According to the will of Alfred Nobel, the prize should be awarded to the person "who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses". Previous winners of the prize – which can be awarded to individuals or organisations – include Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Aung San Suu Kyi and the United Nations. In recent years there has been a broad interpretation of that declaration in Nobel’s will. Last year’s prize was won by human rights activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, in what was seen as a strong rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of his invasion of Ukraine, which used Belarus as a staging post. Unlike the other Nobel prizes that are selected and announced in Stockholm, Nobel decreed that the peace prize be decided and awarded in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee. The independent panel is appointed by the Norwegian parliament. This year, the committee received 351 nominations — 259 for individuals and 92 for organisations. People who can make nominations include former Nobel Peace Prize winners, members of the committee, heads of states, members of parliaments and professors of political science, history and international law. The prizes are handed out at awards ceremonies in December in Oslo and Stockholm. They carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (about £820,000). 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