Atlanta News First

Listen to one of the most remarkable diplomatic exchanges ever recorded in the Oval Office between President Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The head of the New Georgia Project abruptly announced his resignation this week after a series of layoffs rocked the voting rights organization founded by former state lawmaker Stacey Abrams. Also: President Donald Trump and Elon Musk continue their Department of Government Efficiency efforts to streamline the federal government, and the effects are being felt across the nation, including Georgia. Also: Kelly Loeffler named head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the U.S. House approves Trump's GOP spending package, and the chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court has resigned. All of this and more from Digital Producer Tim Darnell and Atlanta News First anchor Rick Folbaum in the Feb. 26, 2025, edition of Political Update.

Laken Riley was a 22-year former UGA nursing student whose body was found on campus after her friends reported her missing on the morning of Feb. 22, 2024. Late last year, Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another in connection to Riley’s death.

Atlanta News First looks back at that tragic day and its lasting impact.

On Feb. 22, 2024, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student went for a morning run ... and never came back. The murder of Laken Riley - and the subsequent conviction of Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan immigrant who was in the U.S. illegally - tranformed the nation's political spectrum. The issue of illegal immigration became one of the cornerstones in Donald Trump's ultimately successful quest to reclaim the White House, and the subsequent Laken Riley Act was the first law passed out of the new Congress and the first law signed by the newly elected 47th U.S. president. Attorney and political analyst Madeline Summerville was a speechwriter in the Georgia State Senate at the time of Riley's murder, and she reflects on the horrible crime and its subsequent impact on the 2024 presidential election.

A Delta Air Lines flight was involved in a crash at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Officials said it happened upon landing as the flight was coming in from Minneapolis. Eighty people were on board the flight, and three were taken to the hospital with critical injuries — including a child. 

The office of the inspector general became ground zero in Atlanta this week when the city's chief corruption investigator, Shannon Manigault, abruptly resigned. Besides sending the city's political spectrum into shockwaves, the crisis mirrored President Donald Trump's and Elon Musk's investigation into federal government waste and its workforce. Also: Gov. Brian Kemp comments on President Trump's proposed tariffs as he continues his efforts to recruit international businesses to Georgia.

Forty years after the historic Quality Basic Education Act, Georgia lawmakers are again struggling to meet the demands of a good education in the state's public school systems. Also: President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are turning their Department of Government Efficiency efforts toward the U.S. Department of Education, and Georgia congressman Buddy Carter has officially introduced a bill in Congress authorizing the 47th president to buy the world's largest island and renamed Greenland to 'Red, White and Blueland.'

Georgia lawmakers are tackling the controversy over transgender women and girls participating in women and girls' sports. Also, a bill introduced in the state legislature is designed to provide more safety measures for students in Georgia schools, while the issue of immigration and deportations continues making national headlines.

President Donald Trump will sign the Laken Riley Act on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, marking his new administration's first step toward immigration reform. At the same time, federal immigration authorities are conducting raids that are arresting alleged criminals who have entered the U.S. illegally. Also, the White House has temporarily suspended all federal grants, and Atlanta continues to deal with the death of an unhoused man who was killed during a city cleanup of homeless encampments. Atlanta News First' digital producer Tim Darnell and anchor and journalist Rick Folbaum cover all of the latest topics in the latest episode of Political Update on Atlanta News First.