Nine days before President Trump's inauguration, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi helped arrange a clandestine meeting in the Seychelles islands between Erik Prince, the founder of the security firm Blackwater and a major Trump supporter, and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin, in an apparent attempt to establish a backchannel conduit between Putin and Trump, several U.S., European, and Arab officials told The Washington Post.

The Abu Dhabi prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, agreed to broker the meeting because the United Arab Emirates, like the U.S., wants Russia to cool its relationship with Iran, officials said. Prince, who did not have a formal role with the Trump campaign or transition team, approached al-Nahyan about setting up the meeting, saying he was an unofficial Trump envoy, The Post reports. The crown prince suggested holding it in the Seychelles for privacy. While the meeting was considered positive by the UAE and Russia, they opted not to arrange any other summits between Putin's friend, who has not been identified, and Prince because of the political risk, officials said.

Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, and he regularly appeared on a radio program hosted by Stephen Bannon, Trump's chief strategist. He gave $250,000 to Trump's campaign. Blackwater became famous during the Iraq War, when guards from the firm were convicted of killing Iraqis in a public square in 2007, and Prince later sold the company. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the administration is "not aware of any meetings and Erik Prince had no role in the transition," while a testy spokesman for Prince told The Post the meeting "had nothing to do with President Trump. Why is the so-called under-resourced intelligence community messing around with surveillance of American citizens when they should be hunting terrorists?" Catherine Garcia

President Trump flew to California on Saturday to survey and discuss the massive fires still raging throughout the state. But one very, very important topic didn't come up.

While flying back to Washington Saturday night, Trump told reporters he and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom (D) didn't talk about climate change — a factor that's likely made the deadly fires far worse than expected. "We have different views but maybe not as different as people think," Trump said of his visit with Newsom, presumably because the two didn't discuss a reality that Trump doesn't quite believe in.

California is at highest risk of wildfires during the summer. But this year's fire season started earlier than usual, per The Sacramento Bee, and the worst of it came after the season typically ends with November's Camp and Woolsey fires. The Camp Fire has left 71 dead and burned 148,000 acres as of Saturday morning, per the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The Woolsey Fire is now 82 percent contained, but still left 3 dead and 98,362 acres ravaged, Cal Fire reports. And California's increasingly dry climate, made even worse by climate change, is likely to blame.

Trump conceded in a Friday interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace that climate change "contributes maybe a little bit" to harsher wildfires, but went on to say "management" and a lack of raking dry leaves were mostly to blame. After visiting an entire town destroyed by the Camp Fire on Saturday, Trump told reporters nothing changed his mind.

Watch that moment below. Kathryn Krawczyk

Democrat Andrew Gillum has officially ended his bid for Florida governor, conceding to former Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) in a Saturday Facebook video.

The progressive Tallahassee mayor was expected to be the state's first black governor, seeing as he consistently polled ahead of the President Trump-backing DeSantis. Election Day results were far tighter, and Gillum actually conceded that night after DeSantis secured 49.9 percent of the vote with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

But after reports showed votes in some Democratic strongholds, including the notorious Broward County, had not yet been counted, Gillum retracted his concession. A gap of just 34,000 votes, or 0.41 percent, between Gillum and DeSantis triggered a recount. DeSantis eventually finished with 49.6 percent of the vote to Gillum's 49.2 percent, per The New York Times.

Gillum reflected the protracted ballot-counting process in his concession video, calling for updates to Florida's voting system.

Gillum's concession comes after Trump tweeted congratulations to the Democrat for "running a tough race" Saturday morning. Florida's Senate race between current Gov. Rick Scott (R) and incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D) is still undergoing a manual recount. Kathryn Krawczyk

Elon Musk's tweets often seem like jokes. They never are.

In September, the Tesla and SpaceX founder tweeted that he'd be opening a "brick store" in about two months. "Only 10 cents a brick!" he touted. And while Musk's self-imposed due date has come and gone, The Brick Store LLC is set in stone, TechCrunch reports.

Musk has spent the past two years working on a project called The Boring Company, which literally bores holes through the Earth to create tunnels that alleviate traffic. Just Friday, The Boring Company completed a tunnel under Los Angeles that Musk has called "disturbingly long." Another tunnel to Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium is also in the works, which people will travel through on "autonomous electric skates" that travel up to 150 miles per hour, per the company's website.

But all that boring moves a lot of dirt. And with dirt, you can make bricks. That's the simple premise behind The Brick Company, which Musk started in July, per public documents obtained by TechCrunch. Bricks will be available for purchase at a brick-and-mortar shop called — what else — The Brick Store, the documents show. The Brick Store will be made of bricks and accented by "forbidding black steel security grilles," TechCrunch writes, and will be located right outside the just-completed tunnel.

Musk branded what seemed to be The Brick Store as "a watchtower" in a tweet yesterday, and announced The Boring Company was hiring "a knight to yell insults at people in a French accent" from its dirt brick facade. Please, read more at TechCrunch. Kathryn Krawczyk

About 500 Georgians have been told to evacuate their homes after a train carrying propane derailed in their small town.

"Several" railroad cars tipped off the tracks in Byromville, Georgia, which is 55 miles south of Macon, CSX Railroad tells The Associated Press. Some of the cars contained pressurized propane, prompting the county's sheriff to order anyone within half a mile of the incident to evacuate.

That radius contains "practically the whole town" of Byromville, town fire chief Brett Walls tells local CBS affiliate WMAZ. Walls put the number of derailed cars anywhere from 15 to 30, and said the propane that spilled from them was odorless. No injuries have been reported.

Check out the station's footage of the incident below. Kathryn Krawczyk

Mass shootings have hit music festivals and movie theaters. They've rocked every level of the education system. They've spared people who've gone on to be killed another day. And now, the names of those lost in America's everyday tragedy have filled a whole page in The Washington Post.

On Saturday, the Post published a scathing piece from its editorial board, condemning how "sadly — maddeningly — Congress has failed to" combat the ever-growing scourge of shootings in America. But below its argument for action was something even more moving: A list of victims who'd been killed in mass shootings since the 1999 attack at Columbine High School. The names filled an entire page in the Post's print edition. And, as the Post noted, the list was surely incomplete. Look at the whole spread below. Kathryn Krawczyk

President Trump won't stop proclaiming House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should be the next speaker of the House. And Pelosi won't stop waving those endorsements away.

In a Saturday morning tweet, Trump continued his push for Pelosi in a very Trumpian way: bragging that he could get Pelosi "as many votes as she wants" to become speaker. Trump also called out Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), a Republican who told The Buffalo News Thursday he's willing to support Pelosi, in his tweet. But when asked about Trump's endorsement — and any possible support from Republicans — Pelosi was not so kind.

Trump's endorsement comes in the wake of yet another incoming House Democrat, this time Virginia's Abigail Spanberger, saying Friday she wouldn't vote for Pelosi to become speaker. She joins 17 other Democrats who've publicly denounced Pelosi's bid, CNN reports. Pelosi met with Spanberger and several other members of her opposition on Friday, including Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), who's considering a run against Pelosi for the top role.

Just after Democrats regained the House last week, Trump similarly tweeted that he could throw a few Republican votes her way if Democrats don't pull through. Less surprisingly, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also tweeted that he "fully support[s]" Pelosi on Saturday morning. And Pelosi seems as confident as ever, with a spokesman telling The Washington Post Saturday that she'll "win the speakership with Democratic votes." Kathryn Krawczyk