Georgia prosecutor drops election interference case against Trump, others
President Donald Trump speaks to the media aboard Air Force One on November 25, 2025 in flight en route to Florida. The Trumps are traveling to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday. (Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The new prosecutor chosen to take over the Fulton County election interference case against President Donald Trump and others has requested that the criminal case be dismissed.
“In my professional judgment, the citizens of Georgia are not served by pursuing this case in full for another five to ten years,” wrote Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty in August 2023 to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
The charges, which were brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis following Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to win the state, allege that the defendants solicited state leaders throughout the country, harassed and misled a Georgia election worker, and pushed phony claims that the election was stolen, all in an effort for Trump to remain in power despite his election loss.
Defendants Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Scott Hall took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Willis was subsequently disqualified from the case following accusations of impropriety regarding her relationship with a fellow prosecutor, leaving a council of Georgia attorneys to assign an independent prosecutor to take over the case and determine its fate.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Patrick Brady, a New York City firefighter, had a “medical episode” while battling a five-alarm fire in Brooklyn on Saturday and later died at the hospital, officials said.
Brady, 42, was an 11-year veteran of the department, FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker said in a joint press release with Mayor Eric Adams.
“Firefighter Patrick Brady gave his life protecting the city we all love; there is no sacrifice that is more selfless than the actions that took place this evening,” Adams said in a statement.
Brady had been battling a fire on the roof of 9407 Kings Highway in Brooklyn on Saturday when he had a “medical episode” and went into cardiac arrest, the department said. He was treated on the scene and then rushed to Brookdale hospital, where he later died, officials said.
“A resident of Queens, he is survived by his wife, Kara, and his two brothers, Jimmy and Brian, who are both FDNY Firefighters,” the department said. Other members of his family, including cousins and uncles, are also FDNY Firefighters, according to the department.
“This family is a firefighter family,” Adams said during a somber press conference held at Brookdale hospital in Brooklyn early Sunday morning.
“They’ve been dedicated to protecting the lives of New Yorkers, and we will all cherish Patrick’s memory,” Adams added.
The remains of a home that collapsed due to erosion from a glacial outburst flood into the Mendenhall River in Juneau, Alaska, Aug. 8, 2023. Christopher S. Miller/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(ALASKA) — First responders in Alaska have conducted dozens of rescues after the remnants of Typhoon Halong fueled a powerful storm that battered the region and washed away several homes.
The remnants of Halong — which originated in the northern Philippine Sea on October 5 — intensified the widespread significant weather impacts and massive flooding to the western regions of Alaska Saturday night into Sunday.
Powerful wind gusts and significant coastal flooding were the main impacts from the storm as it swept up across Alaska’s west coast into early Monday morning. Numerous locations across western Alaska reported wind gusts of 40 mph to 60 mph, with isolated gusts topping 70 mph.
Major, and in some cases destructive, coastal flooding hit some communities along the coast as water levels were more than 6 feet above normal high tide levels at times.
Multiple homes were swept away in low-lying coastal towns along the Bering Sea and in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan said in a statement.
At least eight homes in the town of Kipnuk were pushed off their foundations, and at least four homes in the town of Kwigillingok were inundated by the flooding, according to Alaska State Troopers.
“Both communities experienced strong winds and heavy flooding overnight, which caused significant damage,” state troopers said in a statement.
In Kipnuk, 172 people stayed at a community shelter overnight Saturday after water levels reached 6.6 feet above the highest tides, according to a press release from the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Water levels reached 6.3 feet above the highest tides in Kwigillingok, where 100 people were sheltered overnight, state officials said.
Several communities elsewhere were impacted by high winds and coastal sea surge, which damaged power and communication systems as well as roads, boardwalks and homes, according to state officials.
In the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, intense winds and high water were reported in Bethel, Napaskiak, Napakiak and other communities, officials said.
At least 51 people — mostly from Kwigillingok and Kipnuk — were rescued from the floodwaters, according to Alaska State Troopers. At least three people were still missing as of Monday morning, police said.
No fatalities have been reported.
Lingering coastal flooding impacts were expected through Monday, even though the storm has passed. The storm also brought heavy mountain snow to northwestern Alaska before exiting.
Communities across the state have been in peril from floodwaters in recent years.
In 2023, a glacier lake outburst on the Mendenhall Glacier — located about 12 miles north of Juneau, Alaska, destroyed homes situated along the Mendenhall River.
The river surpassed record flood stages in 2024 and this past August, prompting evacuations and damaging hundreds of homes.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued an emergency declaration on Thursday, expanding it to include additional regions on Sunday, including Yupiit, Pribilof Island and the Lower Kuskokwim Regional Educational Attendance Areas.
“Every effort will be made to help those hit by this storm,” Dunleavy said in a statement. “Help is on the way.”
Sullivan has been in contact with acting FEMA Director David Richardson, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and local, tribal and state officials since Saturday, in anticipation of the storm, he said.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard have also deployed choppers to the region to provide medical support, search-and-rescue operations and to deliver supplies, Sullivan said. The impacted regions are among the most remote in the country.
“We are all praying for the safety of everyone in Western Alaska,” Sullivan said.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker speaks at a news conference October 06, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. Scott Olson/Getty Images
(CHICAGO) — As members of the Texas National Guard boarded a plane on Monday, as state and city leaders in Illinois were holding a news conference asking them to stay away from Chicago.
It was not immediately clear when the Guardsmen would arrive in Chicago. Texas Gov. Abbott on Monday shared a photo on social media showing the state’s “elite” National Guard boarding a plane — but he did not say where they were headed.
“Illinois will not let the Trump administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said. “We will use every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab because military troops should not be used against American communities.”
Earlier in the day, Abbott had replied to Pritzker on social media, saying, “I fully authorized the President to call up 400 members of the Texas National Guard to ensure safety for federal officials.”
The state and city of Chicago filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to block the federalization and deployment of the National Guard.
The foundational principle separating the military from domestic affairs is “in peril” as Trump seeks to deploy the National Guard to cities across the country, lawyers for Illinois and Chicago wrote in a lawsuit.
“Let me be clear, Donald Trump is using our service members as political props and as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,” Pritzker said during a news conference.
To support his point, Pritzker played a video of an ICE raid conducted last week on an apartment complex in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, which he claimed was filmed by federal authorities with high-definition cameras for social media purposes. He said it was the same video Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on social media on Saturday.
“They brought Black Hawk military helicopters and more than 100 agents in full tactical gear,” Pritzker said.
He added, “In the dead of night and seemingly for the cameras, armed federal agents emerged from the Black Hawk helicopters, rappelling onto the roof of that apartment building.”
The governor alleged the Trump administration is following a playbook to “cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters at them. Why? To create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act so that he can send military troops to our city,” Pritzker said.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, Trump said he did not yet see the need to use the Insurrection Act, but “if I had to enact it, I’d do it, if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.”
