AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EST

FBI Director Kash Patel and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said the Guard members were hospitalized in critical condition. Bowser said they were victims of a ”targeted shooting.”

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey initially said the troops had died, but later walked back the statement to say his office was “receiving conflicting reports" about their condition. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to questions about the attack and the condition of the troops.

A suspect who was in custody also was shot and had wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The Trump administration quickly ordered 500 more National Guard members to Washington following the shooting. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said President Donald Trump asked him to send the extra soldiers.

Georgia case against Trump dropped, ending efforts to punish president over 2020 election aftermath

ATLANTA (AP) — A judge on Wednesday dismissed the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others after the prosecutor who took over the case said he would not pursue the charges, ending the last effort to punish the president in the courts for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over the case earlier this month from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was removed over an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case.

After Skandalakis' filing, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued an order dismissing the case in its entirety.

The case began nearly five years ago, when Willis made public her intent to investigate whether illegal attempts were made to influence the state’s 2020 election. That included a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump was recorded urging Georgia’s secretary of state to help find the votes needed to overturn his loss in the critical swing state.

It was the most wide-ranging of four criminal cases brought against Trump in 2023. The resources and manpower required to pursue such a sprawling case made it unsurprising that other prosecutors declined to take it on after Willis' removal.

Judges allow North Carolina to use a map drawn in bid to give Republicans another US House seat

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal three-judge panel on Wednesday allowed North Carolina to use a redrawn congressional map aimed at flipping a seat to Republicans as part of President Donald Trump’s multistate redistricting campaign ahead of the 2026 elections.

The new map takes aim at North Carolina’s only swing seat, currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis, an African American who represents more than 20 counties in the state’s northeast. The 1st District has been represented by Black members of Congress continuously for more than 30 years.

The three-judge panel denied the preliminary injunction requests after a hearing in Winston-Salem in mid-November. The day after the hearing, the same judges separately upheld several other redrawn U.S. House districts that GOP state lawmakers initially enacted in 2023. They were first used in the 2024 elections, contributing to Republicans gaining three more congressional seats.

North Carolina is one of several states this year in which Trump has broken with more than a century of political tradition in directing the GOP to redraw maps in the middle of the decade — without courts requiring it — to avoid losing control of Congress in next year’s midterms.

Democrats need to gain just three seats to win control of the House and impede Trump’s agenda. Besides North Carolina, Republican-led legislatures or commissions in Texas, Missouri, and Ohio all have adopted new districts designed to boost Republicans’ chances in next year’s elections.

Government push to unseal court records offers clues about what could be in the Epstein files

NEW YORK (AP) — As the Justice Department gets ready to release its files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, a court battle over sealed documents in Maxwell’s criminal case is offering clues about what could be in those files.

Government lawyers asked a judge on Wednesday to allow the release of a wide range of records from Maxwell’s case, including search warrants, financial records, survivor interview notes, electronic device data and material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida.

Those records, among others, are subject to secrecy orders that the Justice Department wants lifted as it works to comply with a new law mandating the public release of Epstein and Maxwell investigative materials.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump last week.

The Justice Department submitted the list a day after U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer in New York ordered the government to specify what materials it plans to publicly release from Maxwell’s case.

Kremlin confirms US envoy will visit as talks on ending war in Ukraine gain momentum

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A senior Kremlin official confirmed Wednesday that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to visit Moscow next week as efforts pick up speed to find a consensus on ending the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.

But Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, insisted that Kremlin officials haven’t officially received the initial U.S. peace proposal, although they have acknowledged that they have seen a copy obtained through back channels. Representatives of the United States, Russia and Ukraine held talks earlier this week in the United Arab Emirates.

“Contact is ongoing, including via telephone, but no one has yet sat down at a roundtable and discussed this point by point. That hasn’t happened,” Ushakov told Russian state media.

Ukrainian officials didn’t confirm whether U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who in recent weeks has played a high-profile role in the peace efforts, would be in Kyiv in the coming days, as U.S. President Donald Trump indicated Tuesday.

Trump’s plan for ending the war became public last week, setting off diplomatic maneuvering. The initial version appeared heavily slanted toward Russian demands for halting Moscow's invasion of its neighbor.

Pushing an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, Trump looks to his Gaza ceasefire playbook

LONDON (AP) — President Donald Trump's efforts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war closely mirrors the tactics he used to end two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas: bold terms that favor one side, deadlines for the combatants and vague outlines for what comes next. The details — enforcing the terms, guaranteeing security, who pays for rebuilding — matter less.

“You know what the deadline is to me? When it's over.” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday.

The formula has worked so far in the tense Middle East, though its long-term viability remains in question. Trump got his moment to claim credit for “peace” in the region from the podium of the Israeli parliament. Even there, he made clear that next on his priority list was resolving the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

“Maybe we set out like a 20-point peace proposal, just like we did in Gaza,” U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy adviser in a phone call the day after Trump's speech, on Oct. 14. A recording of that call leaked to Bloomberg News.

They did just that, issuing a 28-point plan heavily tilted toward Russia's interests that set off alarms in Europe, which had not been consulted. Trump insisted Ukraine had until Nov. 27 — Thanksgiving in the U.S. — to accept it.

3 arrested in Hong Kong, as a high-rise fire leaves at least 44 dead and 279 reported missing

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in years burned through the night, leaving at least 44 people dead and 279 reported missing with rescuers still pulling residents from blazing high-rise apartment buildings into the morning.

Several local media outlets reported that police had arrested three men on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with fire which began Wednesday afternoon in a housing complex in Tai Po district, a suburb in the New Territories. By Thursday morning local time, the fire was yet to be put out and rescues continued with the death toll reaching 44.

Hundreds of residents were evacuated as the fire spread across seven of the eight buildings in the complex. At least 29 others remained hospitalized. Bright flames and smoke shot out of windows as night fell.

Authorities said earlier that investigators would be looking into factors including whether material on the exterior walls of high-rise buildings met fire resistance standards, as the rapid spread of the fire was unusual. Director of Fire Services Andy Yeung said officers had found foam sheets that are highly flammable.

Officials said the fire started on the external scaffolding of one of the buildings, a 32-story tower, and later spread to inside the building and then to nearby buildings, likely aided by windy conditions.

Israel returns 15 more Palestinian bodies to Gaza as first phase of ceasefire nears end

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel handed over the bodies of 15 Palestinians on Wednesday, a day after Hamas returned the remains of an Israeli hostage. This is the latest exchange as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire reached last month, whose first phase is winding down even as violence continues in Palestinian territories.

The remains of two hostages, one Israeli and a Thai national who were abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel that ignited the war, are still to be returned.

Hamas said it's committed to handing them over even though the recovery is made difficult by widespread destruction in Gaza, while Israel has accused the militants of stalling after the last living hostages were released on Oct. 13 during the most urgent phase of the ceasefire.

Turkish, Qatari and Egyptian mediators met in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss the second phase of the ceasefire.

That is expected to include deploying an armed International Stabilization Force, tasked with ensuring the disarmament of Hamas, a key demand of Israel, and developing an international body to govern Gaza and oversee reconstruction.

Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau appear on state television saying they have seized power

BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau (AP) — Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau appeared on state television Wednesday saying they have seized power in the country, following reports of gunshots near the presidential palace, three days after national elections. The president told French media he had been deposed and arrested.

It is the latest of several coups in recent years in West Africa.

“The High Military Command for the re-establishment of national and public order decides to immediately depose the president of the republic, to suspend, until new orders, all of the institutions of the republic of Guinea-Bissau," spokesperson Dinis N’Tchama said in a statement.

He said they acted in response to the "discovery of an ongoing plan” that he said aimed to destabilize the country by attempting to “manipulate electoral results."

The “scheme was set up by some national politicians with the participation of a well-known drug lord, and domestic and foreign nationals,” N'Tchama asserted, and gave no details.

Gratitude and doubt: The effects of the shutdown linger as families prepare for Thanksgiving

She had it figured down to the last dollar. The looming insurance payment, balanced against the hard-earned paycheck. The cost of keeping her children fed, covered mostly with government SNAP assistance. And when Shelby Williams reviewed the family budget for November, she told herself that this month would truly be one for giving thanks.

After living with her parents for more than two years, Williams and her two children were finally moving into an apartment of their own in her hometown of Reeds Spring, Missouri. They would celebrate with a Thanksgiving meal made by the kids, the grandparents joining them at the table.

The funds for the needed groceries were all lined up — until the federal government shut down on Oct. 1.

Now Washington is running again. But as Americans prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday, the relieved gratitude of families in Williams’ community, and the many others still recovering from the suspension of government paychecks and food assistance during the 43-day shutdown, is tempered by lingering stress and economic insecurity.

“I’m thankful for my children and my job, and I’m thankful for SNAP because it supplies food,” said Williams, 32, who works as a paraprofessional in an elementary school. “But … with the way the world is, with the financial strain, it is hard to be thankful.”