New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has tackled his first major test since he was sworn into office, readying the city for a historic winter storm that dropped more than a foot of snow in some areas over the weekend.

Winter Storm Fern, which forecasters predicted could affect more than 230 million people across the country, brought heavy snowfall, damaging ice, and below-freezing temperatures to a number of states over the past few days. The inclement weather led to thousands of canceled flights, as well as power outages that affected more than 1 million people. More than a dozen people died during the storm, including seven in New York City. The deaths in New York City are still under investigation.

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“It is still too early to share a broader diagnosis or a cause of death,” Mamdani said during a press conference. But, he continued, “We haven’t seen this kind of cold for eight years, and it is debilitating.”

Read more: ‘A Politics of No Translation.’ Zohran Mamdani on His Unlikely Rise

The storm was the first significant weather event in the city since Mamdani succeeded former mayor Eric Adams on Jan. 1. And, according to many residents and prominent local figures, Mamdani proved up to the task of handling it.

Here’s how the new mayor responded to the storm.

What steps did Mamdani take to prepare for the storm?

In the days leading up to the storm’s arrival in New York City, Mamdani held several press briefings, appeared on multiple news networks, and posted many videos on his social media platforms to keep the public updated on the forecast and how the city was preparing for the anticipated storm. He urged New Yorkers to stay home on Sunday, when the worst of the storm was expected to blow through the city—and he did so with some humor.

“I can think of no better excuse for New Yorkers to stay home, take a long nap, or take advantage of our public library’s offer of free access to Heated Rivalry on e-book or audiobook for anyone with a library card,” he said during a press conference on Sunday.

Under his leadership, the city opened 10 warming centers across all five boroughs for residents who needed a safe and warm space. And staffers at the Department of Homeless Services “relaxed intake procedures” and conducted “intensified outreach across all five boroughs,” in an effort to connect people who are unhoused with shelter and warming centers, the city said.

The city also set up an informational hotline of sorts—residents could stay up-to-date on the storm and the city’s response by texting NOTIFYNYC to 692-692. 

Read more: ‘Historic’ Storm Leaves Several Dead, Thousands of Flights Canceled, and a Million Without Power

Department of Sanitation workers started pre-salting streets, highways, and bike lanes on Friday, before the worst of the storm hit. The city said the department would deploy about 2,000 workers on 12-hour shifts, and that it would be plowing streets with 700 salt spreaders and more than 2,000 plows. Thousands of the department’s trucks were converted into snow plows, according to Mamdani. The mayor said that crews would begin salting neighborhoods in every borough as soon as snow started falling, and that plows would start rolling out in the city once there was more than 2 inches of snow on the ground.

The mayor also advised families that the inclement weather might force New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) to shift to remote learning on Monday—and ultimately, he and the NYCPS chancellor decided on Sunday to make that call.

“As snowfall begins to blanket our city and conditions become hazardous, closing school buildings is a necessary step to keep New Yorkers safe,” Mamdani said in a press release. “Over the past week, my administration has prepared for this moment—ensuring devices are in hand, families are informed and educators are ready to welcome students online. Our school system, and our city, is prepared to weather this storm together.”

Mamdani also repeatedly reminded New Yorkers to call 311 if they saw anyone who needed assistance during the storm.

“We will get through this storm the way we always do—by looking out for one another,” he said in a press release on Saturday.

What local groups and leaders have said about Mamdani’s handling of the storm

Overall, the response to Mamdani’s handling of the storm was fairly positive.

A video of Mamdani shoveling snow in Brooklyn to help a driver whose car appeared to be stuck in the snow circulated on social media over the weekend, generating praise from some users.

“Wow—that’s hand on leadership!” the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn said when reposting the video on X. “Thank you @NYCMayor for being out on the streets ensuring that the city is moving.” The following day, the group went on to thank the Department of Sanitation for the “great job in clearing the streets, and continuing to clear them,” as well as Mamdani’s administration for its “close cooperation, checking in that all OK (in addition to mayor’s personal visits and assisting those stranded).”

The new mayor even received approving nods from some of his critics.

“Credit where due, looks like @NYCMayor is handling this storm very well so far,” Benny Polatseck, an aide to Adams who has criticized Mamdani in the past, said in a post on X on Sunday. Polatseck, though, later posted on X on Monday afternoon that he was “hearing from some outer borough folks that they haven’t seen a plow truck yet,” asking people to share their experiences. The city has created a website that gives residents real-time updates on whether their street has been plowed yet.

The city’s response to the storm wasn’t without hiccups. Some families told Gothamist they had issues accessing remote learning for their kids on Monday, although school officials said that there was a “smooth start to the day” and that the majority of students and teachers were able to access the portal.

Julie Menin, the City Council speaker, praised the city’s response, while also pointing out some flaws.

“There are areas where emergency response has been stretched and needs to improve, and the Council will be closely engaged in addressing those gaps,” she said in a statement to the New York Times. “But the scale of the effort today reflects how seriously our essential workers take public safety, and the crews on the ground deserve real credit and gratitude from the millions of New Yorkers who rely on them.”

Federal health care workers condemned the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents, accusing the department of causing a “growing public health crisis.”

“We cannot pursue our mission to improve the health and well-being of all Americans while DHS agents are murdering, assaulting, and terrorizing people who call this country home,” a coalition of current and former Health and Human Services (HHS) staffers wrote in a letter released by the group Save HHS on Monday. 

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The letter writers said they had been “deeply shaken” by what they described as the “execution” of Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis who they called “our colleague.” Multiple videos of the incident show Pretti attempting to help a female protestor who was being pushed by a federal agent. A Border Patrol agent then sprays Pretti in the face with a substance and a larger group of agents pins him to the ground. Not long after that point, the fatal shooting occurs: multiple gunshots can be heard and officers move away, leaving Pretti motionless on the ground.

Read more: Alex Pretti, Man Shot By Federal Agents in Minneapolis, Wanted to ‘Make a Difference’

Aryn Backus, a founder of the National Public Health Coalition—the organization behind  the Save HHS initiative—and a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employee, tells TIME that both documented and undocumented Minnesotans are skipping medical appointments, keeping their children out of school, and staying away from grocery stores out of fear of being prosecuted by federal agents, which she says is contributing to a health crisis. 

“Even if they’re not afraid of potentially being deported, they’re afraid that they could be assaulted by ICE, just for being out and about or for expressing their First Amendment right,” Backus says. “And when people are afraid, they’re not safe and they’re not healthy.”

She adds that the health community, including current and former HHS employees, is angered, frustrated, and shocked by Pretti’s shooting, but that the concerns being raised about the killing on both sides of the political aisle make her believe change is imminent. 

“There does seem to be a little bit more hope because the response from this has seemed to be bigger, and in some cases, a little bit more bipartisan than some other events that have happened over the past year. So even though it’s a really dark and frustrating time, I’m hopeful that maybe something will change.”

Pretti’s death follows the shooting of another Minneapolis resident by an ICE officer just weeks earlier. Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and U.S. citizen, was shot by an immigration officer on Jan. 7 in her car while attempting to drive away from the scene of a protest against the agency. Her death has sparked demonstrations in Minnesota and beyond. On Friday, a day before Pretti’s shooting, thousands took to the streets in mass protests in the heart of Minneapolis. 

Save HHS laid out specific demands in its letter. The organization called for members of Congress to halt ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations “until these agencies justify their activities to Congress and the American people.” It also demanded that Congress refuse ICE and CBP funding until both agencies “immediately halt the invasion of American cities,” agree to being investigated, and adopt new protocols “that do not violate the Constitution.”

The demands come as the Senate is set to vote this week on an appropriations bill including $64.4 billion in DHS funding—$10 billion of which would go to ICE—that key Democrats have vowed to oppose following Pretti’s shooting. The legislation needs 60 votes to pass, meaning some Democrats would need to join Republicans’ narrow 53-seat majority to approve it. And with federal funding for the government set to expire at the week’s end, the growing opposition to the measure has increased the likelihood of a partial government shutdown. 

“Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the D.H.S. funding bill is included,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, calling the events in Minnesota “unacceptable.”  

Save HHS expressed concern that a potential shutdown could threaten public health by prompting the Administration to furlough staffers in a number of positions. 

“If the bill fails to pass by January 30, many of us will be placed in unpaid furlough status and barred from providing essential services that support the health and well-being of the American people,” the letter states. 

But, it added, “We believe ICE and CBP are a greater threat to the health of our nation than the lapse of HHS services.”

The Trump Administration has sought to defend federal immigration agents in the wake of Good and Pretti’s shootings and portray the killings as acts of self-defense. But witnesses and video of the incidents have contradicted federal officials’ accounts. Several congressional Republicans have joined Democrats in calling for an investigation into Pretti’s shooting

Amid the bipartisan backlash, Trump has deployed White House border czar Tom Homan to oversee federal immigration operations in the area, the President announced on Monday. Trump said in a Truth Social post that he would have Homan call Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who the President said was “on a similar wavelength” to himself. 

President Donald Trump attempted to quell growing bipartisan backlash to his immigration crackdown on Monday following a second fatal shooting by a federal agent in Minneapolis in just over two weeks.

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The President announced on Truth Social that he was dispatching his border czar, Tom Homan, to Minneapolis, where he will manage Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the city.

He added that Homan, who is considered a proponent of targeted immigration enforcement over the kind of sweeping street grabs that have been a flashpoint for violence in Minneapolis, “has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there.”

Read more: Support for Abolishing ICE Is Surging Among Republicans

Separately, Trump said he had a “very good” call with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and they were now on a “similar wavelength” regarding immigration enforcement in the city. Walz’s office said in its readout of the same call that Trump had expressed an openness to reducing the number of federal agents deployed.

The apparent shift in tone from Trump comes as he faces mounting pressure over a spate of violence linked to his Administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was killed by a Border Patrol agent as he took part in a protest in Minneapolis on Saturday morning. His death came just over two weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a poet and mother of three, also by a federal immigration agent. 

A city on fire

Minneapolis was already convulsed by protests over Good’s killing in the days before Pretti’s death. Minutes later, the scene of his shooting became a battleground between protesters and federal agents as the city exploded in anger again.

By Saturday evening, the shooting had developed into a political crisis for Trump. In Washington, D.C., Senate Democrats who had previously been reluctant to block funding for ICE now threatened a partial government shutdown rather than pass another spending bill that would give the agency $10 billion more in funding. Several Republicans were calling for an investigation into the shooting.

The anger was fueled not just by the shooting itself, but by the Trump Administration’s handling of its aftermath. Trump and his top officials quickly tried to pin the blame on Pretti, labelling him an instigator and suggesting he had attacked the agents who killed him, despite multiple videos clearly showing otherwise.  

“This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go — What is that all about?” Trump posted soon after the shooting. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in its initial statement on the killing that Pretti “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun,” and “violently resisted,” suggesting that he wanted to “massacre law enforcement.”  

At a press conference in the hours after the shooting, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem suggested Pretti wanted “to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” 

Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino claimed that Pretti had approached agents with a handgun, had “violently resisted, and intended to “massacre law enforcement.” 

In several social media posts, White House senior adviser Stephen Miller described Pretti as an “assassin” and a “domestic terrorist” who “tried to murder federal agents.” Vice President J.D. Vance reposted Miller’s characterization of Pretti as an “assassin” on X.

But multiple videos of the incident, released by witnesses to the shooting in the hours after, clearly contradicted those accounts.

They show Pretti holding a phone, not a gun, when an agent approaches him and other protesters and squirts pepper spray in their faces. When Pretti moves to help another protester who has been sprayed, he is tackled and pulled to the ground, where he is struck repeatedly. 

Soon after, one shot rings out, then several more in quick succession. 

In total, at least 10 shots appear to have been fired within five seconds—including several after Pretti is lying motionless on the floor. 

The backlash 

The reaction to Pretti’s killing was more forceful than the one that followed Renee Good’s— compounded by it. On Saturday, responding to a wave of anger from his party, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would oppose a government spending bill that includes $64.4 billion in funding for DHS, of which $10 billionis earmarked for ICE.

“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling—and unacceptable in any American city,” Schumer, who represents New York, said on Saturday evening. He added that “because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE.”

Before the weekend, Schumer and other Senate Democrats had signaled that they had wanted to avoid a shutdown and the bill looked likely to pass in the Senate. But Pretti’s killing at the hands of a Border Patrol agent, after being pepper-sprayed and shot several times on the ground, prompted a wave of anger in the party.  

The shooting prompted rare statements of condemnation from former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Obama, whom Trump succeeded in 2017, called Pretti’s killing a “heartbreaking tragedy.” In a statement with his wife Michelle posted on X on Sunday, he said Trump and officials in his Administration “seem eager to escalate the situation” instead of “trying to impose some semblance of discipline and accountability over the agents they’ve deployed.”

Several Republicans, too, broke ranks with their party to call for an investigation into the shooting, among them Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas and Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. 

Cassidy, who serves on the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, described the events in Minneapolis as “incredibly disturbing” and said the “credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake” following the shooting. 

Ricketts, who is a staunch supporter of Trump, called for a “prioritized, transparent investigation into this incident,” describing the shooting as “horrifying”.

Sen. Rand Paul, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent letters to the heads of ICE, Border Patrol, and Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Monday, inviting them to a hearing on Feb. 12. The Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, New York Rep. Andrew Garbarino, requested a similar hearing over the weekend.

Walking back 

By Sunday, Trump appeared to have realized that Minneapolis represented a political crisis. Successive polls have shown his approval rating on immigration plummeting. A YouGov poll taken after the killing of Pretti showed support for abolishing ICE at record highs—with more supporting abolition than opposing it—and nearly 20% of Republicans in favor of shuttering the agency.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he declined to give his backing to the officer who killed Pretti, and said his Administration was “reviewing everything” to do with the incident. 

He also suggested for the first time that he might be looking for a way out of Minneapolis. 

“At some point we will leave. We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job,” he said, without offering a timeline.

On Monday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt distanced Trump from Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem’s description of Pretti, saying she had “not heard the president characterize” Pretti as a domestic terrorist.

Trump and Walz had been heavily critical of each other in recent weeks.

“What’s the plan, Donald Trump? What is the plan?” Walz said during a news conference on Sunday. “What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state? If fear, violence and chaos is what you wanted from us, then you clearly underestimated the people of this state and nation.”

But on Monday, his office said in a statement that the two had a “productive call” in which Trump agreed to “look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.”

Trump said: “I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future.”

In the wake of the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal agents amid the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, voters’ support for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is spiking—including among President Donald Trump’s own party.

A new YouGov poll taken on Saturday, the day of Pretti’s fatal shooting, showed 19 percent of Republicans and 48 percent of American adults across the political spectrum voicing support for abolishing ICE.

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That marks a notable shift from when YouGov pollsters asked the same question last June, as Trump was ramping up his immigration crackdown. At that time only 9 percent of Republicans and 27 percent of Americans overall backed abolishing ICE. Support for shuttering the agency has also surged among independents, with 47 percent backing its elimination in the Saturday poll compared to 25 percent in June.

Read More: What Minnesota Tells Us About America’s Future

Good and Pretti’s fatal shootings have heightened scrutiny of the aggressive tactics being used by federal immigration agents under Trump’s second Administration. Following Pretti’s killing, several congressional Republicans have joined Democrats in calling for an investigation into the incident.

Other recent polls have shown support declining for how Trump is carrying out the mass deportation effort that he successfully campaigned on in 2024 as ICE’s operations in the interior U.S. come under fire.

A New York Times/Siena poll conducted from January 12 to 17, after Good’s killing on January 7, found that a majority of voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of several issues—immigration included—and ​​49 percent said the country was worse off than a year ago, compared with 32 percent who said it was better off.

Regarding immigration specifically, 58 percent of respondents disapproved of how Trump was handling the issue, up from 52 percent in a previous Times/Siena poll conducted in September. A larger portion of around half of respondents backed the Administration’s deportation of illegal immigrants and the President’s handling of the U.S.’s southern border in the recent poll. But the reality of ICE’s enforcement tactics drew censure from most Americans: 61 percent—including 19 percent of Republicans, compared to 94 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of independents—said that ICE tactics had “gone too far.”

Trump attacked the Times/Siena poll on Truth Social the day it was released, calling the results “fake” and “heavily skewed toward Democrats.” (Among the registered voters who responded to the poll, 45 percent identified as Democrats or Democratic-leaning compared to 44 percent who identified as Republicans or Republican-leaning.)  In a separate post, he said that “Fake and Fraudulent Polling should be, virtually, a criminal offense.” 

Yet, the poll is part of a larger trend of surveys that have documented growing disapproval of ICE’s tactics, especially after Good’s deadly shooting, which sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the country, and follows a longer decline in support for Trump’s handling of immigration.

A poll conducted for CNN by SSRS from January 9 to 12 found that 56 percent of respondents said that the shooting was an “inappropriate use of force” by federal officers, and 51 percent said that ICE enforcement actions were making cities less safe rather than safer. More than half of independent respondents were among those who said that ICE enforcement was making cities less safe. And while a majority of Republicans—56 percent—said the shooting represented an appropriate use of force, 21 percent said it was an inappropriate use of force, with 7 percent saying it was inappropriate but an isolated incident and 14 percent saying it was both inappropriate and reflected a bigger problem with ICE’s operations. 

Another survey, taken by Ipsos January 16 to 18, similarly found that 52 percent of Americans felt Good’s shooting marked an excessive use of force, including 19 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of independents.

And a separate poll by Quinnipiac conducted from January 8 to 12 found that 57 percent of registered voters disapproved of ICE’s handling of immigration enforcement, including 64 percent of  independents and 12 percent of Republicans.

Backing for Trump’s broader handling of immigration had also been falling for months even before the recent shootings, according to a number of polls. Recent approval numbers on the issue differ markedly from polling taken in the weeks after Trump took office last year. A Pew Research Center survey taken last February, for instance, found that 59 percent of U.S. adults said they approved of Trump increasing efforts to deport people. In December, in contrast, Pew found that 53 percent of Americans said he was doing “too much” to deport illegal immigrants, with that sentiment rising among both Democrat sand Republicans.

That approval of Trump’s immigration agenda was already waning by the spring and summer. An Ipsos poll from April 2025 found Americans slightly more disapproving (53 percent) than approving (46 percent) of his handling of immigration.

President Trump announced on Monday that he was dispatching border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis that evening, amid a bipartisan outcry over the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti and signs that the Administration may be open to pulling back federal law enforcement efforts in the city.

Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump’s first term, will report directly to Trump, according to Trump’s announcement on Truth Social. 

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In another post, Trump said he has directed Homan to give Minnesota Governor Tim Walz a call, and the Administration is looking for “any and all Criminals” that the state has in possession.

“The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I!” Trump wrote. The tone of Trump’s second post suggested a thawing in his relationship with Walz, after weeks of the two men publicly criticizing each other.

In a similarly reconciliatory tone, Walz said in a statement that he and Trump would look into reducing the number of agents in Minnesota and work with the state in a “more coordinated fashion” during a “productive conversation.” Trump also agreed to talk to DHS to allow the state authority to conduct an independent investigation into the shooting of Pretti.

Read more: How a Partial Government Shutdown Over ICE Would Impact Immigration Enforcement

The White House tells TIME in a statement that Homan would be managing ICE operations on the ground in Minnesota and coordinating with others on ongoing fraud investigations. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during the press briefing that Homan will be the “main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis,” while Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino will remain in charge of Customs and Border Protection.

The news comes as Trump has been less quick to defend the agents involved in the Pretti shooting than high-ranking Administration officials. In an interview on Sunday with the Wall Street Journal, Trump declined to say whether the federal agents who shot Pretti acted appropriately, only saying the administration is investigating the matter. 

“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” Trump said. 

The Administration is scrambling to contain the fallout from Minneapolis, where Pretti’s death was the second high-profile killing by federal agents in just over two weeks, and comes amid other confrontations that have drawn outrage. On Wednesday, two ICE agents were pictured aiming a canister of pepper at a protester’s face while he was pinned down. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the incident “should alarm every American.”

Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets over the weekend to protest against the federal agents’ presence in the Twin Cities, as the legality of the deployment of federal agents is contested in court. On Monday, a federal judge is hearing arguments on whether the immigration operation in Minnesota violates the Constitution. The judge will then deliberate whether the operation should be halted, at least temporarily.   

Up through Pretti’s death this weekend, Bovino was and seen as the face of the immigration operations in Minnesota. On Sunday, Bovino doubled down on his defense of officers who shot Pretti, telling CNN that the officers are the victims of the incident, and that Pretti, who was legally carrying a firearm, was not entitled to the Second Amendment rights.

“Those rights don’t count when you riot and assault, delay, obstruct and impede law enforcement officers and, most especially, when you mean to do that beforehand,” he says.

As Minneapolis reels after a second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen at the hands of federal agents, some Republicans have joined their Democrat colleagues in calling for a full, urgent investigation into what happened.

Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse at a VA hospital, was shot on Saturday morning after being surrounded by Border Patrol agents amid ongoing protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city. Videos of his final moments, showing him being sprayed with a substance and pinned down to the ground, have since gone viral. 

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a statement stating Pretti had “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told press that Pretti was believed to be a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry. Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff of policy and homeland security adviser, referred to Pretti as a “would-be assassin.” In the videos circulating online, Pretti is not seen holding the handgun during his interactions with the federal agents.

Trump, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, appeared to criticize Pretti for bringing a handgun to the protest. “I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” Trump said, before adding: “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”

The President said his Administration is “reviewing everything and will come out with a determination” about the fatal shooting. On Monday morning, Trump followed up by announcing he is sending his border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota. “Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” he said.

Trump previously lashed out via social media at the Democratic leadership of Minnesota and appeared to refer to the shooting as a “cover-up” for the ongoing fraud investigations taking place in the state.

He also suggested Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had “called off” local police. “It is stated that many of these police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves,” he claimed. “The Mayor and the Governor are inciting insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.”

Making reference to Renee Good, another 37-year-old U.S. citizen who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, Trump placed the blame on Democrats, claiming: “Tragically, two American Citizens have lost their lives as a result of this Democrat ensued chaos.”

Walz has said America is at an “inflection point” following the fatal shooting of Pretti and asked Americans to “set aside the political side of it and go back and ground in the humanity of this.” The former Vice Presidential candidate also repeated his request for Trump to “pull his 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another American in the street.”

Late Monday morning, Trump suggested progress had been made in communications between himself and Walz. He said the two had shared “a very good call” and claimed they “seemed to be on a similar wavelength.” Trump hinted at a bipartisan approach to the next steps in Minneapolis, stating his intention for Homan to make contact with Walz as he arrives in his state.

Meanwhile, Democrats over the weekend indicated they are willing to enact a partial government shutdown, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said his party would oppose a funding bill that would allocate over $64.4 billion to the DHS, including around $10 billion for ICE.

Despite Trump’s previous remarks blaming Democrats for the “chaos” in Minneapolis, a growing number of lawmakers within his own party have splintered from his rhetoric. They are instead calling for a “transparent” investigation into the latest Minneapolis shooting and a hard look into the tactics being used by federal agents.

Here are some of the Republicans who are taking that stance:

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska

Lisa Murkowski, who is part of a bipartisan effort alongside Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire to introduce a bill to block Trump from taking over Greenland, has called for a “comprehensive, independent investigation” in order to “rebuild trust.”

She said the fatal shooting “should raise serious questions within the Administration about the adequacy of immigration-enforcement training and the instructions officers are given on carrying out their mission.”

Distancing herself from the DHS and Trump’s focus on Pretti carrying a handgun, she argued: “Carrying a firearm does not justify federal agents killing an American—especially, as video footage appears to show, after the victim had been disarmed.”

Urging Congressional committees “to hold hearings and do their oversight work,” she finished her statement by warning that “ICE agents do not have carte blanche in carrying out their duties.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana

Bill Cassidy, who serves on the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, described the events in Minneapolis as “incredibly disturbing” and said the “credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake” following the shooting. 

“There must be a full joint federal and state investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth,” he urged, echoing Walz’s assertion that the state must be involved in any official reviews of the incident.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine

Susan Collins, chair of the Appropriations Committee, issued a statement calling for the “tragic” shooting to be “thoroughly and transparently investigated to determine whether or not excessive force was used in a situation that may have been able to be diffused without violence.”

Joining the growing number of Republicans to raise concerns about ICE training, she said the shooting “further underscores the importance of equipping federal law enforcement agents with training and body cameras for their safety and the safety of the public.”

Collins implored protesters “not to interfere” with ICE operations, while reminding officers of “the public’s right to protest and the highly charged situation they now face.”

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina

Thom Tillis called for a “thorough and impartial” investigation into the incident and stepped away from issuing blame at Democratic leadership.

He said a full investigation is the “basic standard that law enforcement and the American people expect following any officer-involved shooting” and urged for transparency between “federal, state, and local law enforcement.”

Emphasizing the necessity for the investigation to be carried out uninterrupted, he said: “Any Administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins are doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump’s legacy.”

Tillis, who announced last year that he will not seek reelection after a series of high-profile clashes with the President, has opposed the Trump Administration on several key issues as of late.

Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska

“The nation witnessed a horrifying situation this weekend,” said Pete Ricketts.

The lawmaker stated that his “support for funding ICE remains the same” and argued the enforcement of immigration laws “makes our streets safe” and “protects our national security.” However, he noted that America must “maintain [its] core values as a nation, including the right to protest and assemble.”

“I expect a prioritized, transparent investigation into this incident,” he said, joining several of his colleagues. 

Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas

Michael McCaul said he is “troubled by the events that have unfolded in Minneapolis” and said a “thorough investigation is necessary—both to get to the bottom of these incidents and to maintain Americans’ confidence in our justice system.”

“I look forward to hearing from DHS officials about what happened here and how we can prevent further escalation in the future,” he said, urging “both sides” to turn down the temperature.

Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma 

Kevin Stitt called the shooting of Pretti a “real tragedy” and argued that Trump is “getting bad advice” on immigration.

“Americans don’t like what they’re seeing right now,” he told CNN, in response to the latest fatal shooting. “What’s the goal right now? Is it to deport every single non-U.S. citizen? I don’t think that’s what Americans want. We have to stop politicizing this”

Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania

Dave McCormick echoed Trump’s rhetoric about Democrats, accusing Minnesota’s politicians of “fueling a dangerous situation.”

He also expressed his support for immigration enforcement, however he called for a review into what happened in Minneapolis and urged for law enforcement that coincides with public safety.

“We need a full investigation into the tragedy in Minneapolis. We need all the facts. We must enforce our laws in a way that protects the public while maintaining its trust,” he said. “This gives our law enforcement officers the best chance to succeed in their difficult mission.”

Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont 

Phil Scott called the killing in Minneapolis unacceptable. 

“At best, these federal immigration operations are a complete failure of coordination of acceptable public safety and law enforcement practices, training, and leadership,” he said. “At worst, it’s a deliberate federal intimidation and incitement of American citizens that’s resulting in the murder of Americans. Again, enough is enough.”

The Governor called on Trump to “pause these operations, de-escalate the situation, and reset the federal government’s focus on truly criminal illegal immigrants.”

Senate Democrats said they would block a funding bill that includes tens of billions for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after federal agents fatally shot another person in Minneapolis on Saturday, a move that looks likely to cause a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.

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Reacting to a wave of anger from his party over the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would oppose the package that includes $64.4 billion in funding for the DHS, $10 billion of which is earmarked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling—and unacceptable in any American city,” Schumer, who represents New York, said on Saturday evening. He added that “because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE.”

Read more: Why Democrats Fought the ICE Funding Bill—and Why It Passed Anyway

The bill was passed in the House of Representatives on Thursday with few changes after seven Democrats joined with nearly all Republicans to send the package to the Senate and keep the government open past Jan. 30.

Despite a growing national backlash over the actions of immigration agents in the wake of the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, the seven Democrats—many of them in swing districts—backed the bill, citing the potential damaging effects of a shutdown.

Before the weekend, Schumer and other Senate Democrats had signaled that they had wanted to avoid a shutdown and the bill looked likely to pass in the Senate. But Pretti’s killing at the hands of a Border Patrol agent, after being pepper-sprayed and shot several times on the ground, prompted a wave of anger in the party.  

Republicans need seven Democratic votes to reach the 60 they need to pass the bill, but several Senate Democrats who previously voted with Republicans to avoid shutdowns, or had indicated they would support the legislation, said they would no longer vote for it.

“Enough is enough,” said Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat from Nevada who voted against her party to end the government shutdown in November last year. “I have the responsibility to hold the Trump administration accountable when I see abuses of power.”

Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico used the same language in announcing his opposition to the bill. 

“Enough is enough. I will not vote to fund the lawlessness of DHS, not by itself and not packaged with other funding bills. We need MAJOR reforms at DHS, and we need them now,” he wrote on X.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington had argued in favor of the legislation before Saturday, but shifted her position after the shooting. 

“Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face zero consequences,” she wrote Saturday. “The DHS bill needs to be split off from the larger funding package before the Senate — Republicans must work with us to do that. I will continue fighting to rein in DHS and ICE.”

Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, another one of the eight Democrats who voted to end the shutdown in November, said she wouldn’t support the DHS measure.

“The Trump Administration and Kristi Noem are putting undertrained, combative federal agents on the streets with no accountability,” Cortez Masto said in a statement on social media. “This is clearly not about keeping Americans safe, it’s brutalizing U.S. citizens and law-abiding immigrants. I will not support the current Homeland Security funding bill.”

Read More: Photos of Minneapolis Protests As City Erupts in Anger Over Killing By Federal Agent

Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, Peter Welch of Vermont, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, and Brian Schatz of Hawaii all also vowed to vote no.

Independent Maine Sen. Angus King said on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday that he would not vote for an ICE package but that “we don’t have to have a shutdown.”

Schumer’s announcement came hours after authorities identified the person killed by federal authorities in Minneapolis as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis, who wanted to “make a difference in this world,” according to his father. His killing marked the second by federal agents in just over two weeks, after Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother of three.

Senate Republicans are now scrambling to avoid a shutdown. Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins told the New York Times she was “exploring all options.”

“We have five other bills that are really vital, and I’m relatively confident they would pass,” she said.

The bill covers around $1.3 trillion in annual spending, and its failure would mean some parts of the government would have to shut down.

Although the move marks a shift in the Democratic Party’s willingness to block funding for ICE, the agency is sitting on tens of billions of dollars from President Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed last year—$14 billion of which was to be allocated to deportation efforts.

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More than 1 million people have been left without power and at least 13 people have died during a massive winter storm that has sown chaos across the South and the Midwest and is now barreling toward the East Coast.

Over 200 million people across the country were under some kind of weather alert as of Sunday morning. Power outages mostly affected homes in the South, including in Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky, where large snowfall is rare. Parts of the U.S. experienced dangerously low wind chills in the minus-20s to minus-30s as Arctic air pushed south. Copenhagen, New York, saw record-breaking temperatures of -49°F, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Sunday.

The storm’s dangerous mixture of heavy snow, sleet, ice, and bitter cold threatens to trap millions indoors for days. Travel has been severely disrupted, with more than 16,000 scheduled flights canceled from Saturday through Monday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. On Sunday, around 11,000 flights were canceled—the most in a single day since the COVID-19 pandemic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in the D.C. area canceled all flights on Sunday, and New York’s LaGuardia Airport has reopened after closing on Sunday afternoon, although no flights are expected to take off or land until Monday morning.

Read more: People Are Panic Buying for the Winter Storm. An Expert Explains Why We Do It

President Donald Trump described the storm as “historic” on Saturday and said he had approved federal disaster declarations for several states—including South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia. 

By late Saturday afternoon, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that 17 states and the District of Columbia had declared weather emergencies.

“We just ask that everyone would be smart – stay home if possible,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said.

By Sunday morning, the storm began to hit New England and much of the eastern third of the United States. The National Weather Service (NWS) expects up to 20 inches of snow across New England, while some places, including Boston, could see more. More than a dozen states have already seen more than a foot of snow, according to NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center. Bonito Lake in New Mexico saw 31 inches of snow, Crested Butte in Colorado saw 23 inches, and Clintonville in Pennsylvania saw 20. Extreme cold conditions are expected to linger for days.

Experts warn the storm could become particularly dangerous due to the freezing temperatures forecast to follow closely behind it. As snow turns to sleet and freezing rain, roads could be coated with ice, and powerlines could freeze.

“In the wake of the storm, communities from the Southern Plains to the Northeast will contend with bitterly cold temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills,” the NWS said in its early Sunday morning update. “This will cause prolonged hazardous travel and infrastructure impacts.”

At least 13 people across the country have died in possible connection to the storm. Two people died in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, one in Austin, Texas, one in Emporia, Kansas, one in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and three people died in Tennessee—one in Crockett, one in Haywood, and another in Obion. The causes of death in most cases are still under investigation.

At least five more people were found dead outside in New York City, according to local officials, as feels-like temperatures dropped into the negatives—a season low for the area—and local leaders called for residents to stay home and to take precautions. Warming centers opened across the five boroughs, and other city governments have listed local recreation centers and buildings to serve as heated shelters.

Zohran Mamdani, tackling his first major weather event as NYC Mayor, announced a remote learning day for the city’s schools “to keep everyone safe from hazardous weather conditions.”

“While we do not yet know their causes of death, there is no more powerful reminder of the dangers of the extreme cold, and how vulnerable how many of our neighbors are, especially homeless New Yorkers,” Mamdani said at a news conference on Sunday.

He added on social media that his teams were “scouring the streets, offering shelter to homeless New Yorkers, and helping bring people inside.”

From Atlanta to Washington D.C. to Boston, transit authorities spent much of the weekend before the storm salting roads, sidewalks, and routes, while urging residents to stay home Sunday.

Philadelphia’s public transit, the SEPTA, said in a news release that “it is possible that some services will be entirely suspended” as ice might impact infrastructure, while Atlanta’s MARTA said that the only bus routes available Sunday would be “lifeline routes” that provide direct service to medical facilities and emergency rooms.

—Miranda Jeyaretnam contributed reporting.

As many as 30,000 people could have been killed in the streets of Iran on Jan. 8 and 9 alone, two senior officials of the country’s Ministry of Health told TIME—indicating a dramatic surge in the death toll. So many people were slaughtered by Iranian security services on that Thursday and Friday, it overwhelmed the state’s capacity to dispose of the dead. Stocks of body bags were exhausted, the officials said, and eighteen-wheel semi-trailers replaced ambulances.

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The government’s internal count of the dead, not previously revealed, far surpasses the toll of 3,117 announced on Jan. 21 by regime hardliners who report directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (Ministries report to the elected President.) The 30,000 figure is also far beyond tallies being compiled by activists methodically assigning names to the dead. As of Saturday, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it had confirmed 5,459 deaths and is investigating 17,031 more.

TIME has been unable to independently verify these figures.

The Health Ministry’s two-day figure roughly aligns with a count gathered by physicians and first responders, and also shared with TIME. That surreptitious tally of deaths recorded by hospitals stood at 30,304 as of Friday, according to Dr. Amir Parasta, a German-Iranian eye surgeon who prepared a report of the data. Parasta said that number does not reflect protest-related deaths of people registered at military hospitals, whose bodies were taken directly to morgues, or that happened in locales the inquiry did not reach. Iran’s National Security Council has said protests took place in around 4,000 locations across the country.

“We are getting closer to reality,” Dr. Parasta said. “But I guess the real figures are still way higher.”

That appears to be the reality implicit in the government’s internal figure of more than 30,000 deaths in two days. A slaughter on that scale, in the space of 48 hours, had experts on mass killing groping for comparisons.

“Most spasms of killing are not from shootings,” said Les Roberts, a professor at Columbia University who specializes in the epidemiology of violent death. “In Aleppo [Syria] and in Fallujah [Iraq], when spasms of death this high have occurred over a few days, it involved mostly explosives with some shooting.”

The only parallel offered by online databases occurred in the Holocaust. On the outskirts of Kyiv on Sept. 29 and 30, 1941, Nazi death squads executed 33,000 Ukrainian Jews by gunshot in a ravine known as Babyn Yar.

In Iran, the killing fields extended across the country where, since Dec. 28, hundreds of thousands of citizens had assembled in the streets chanting first, for relief from an economy in freefall, and soon for the downfall of the Islamic regime. During the first week, security forces confronted some demonstrations, using mostly non-lethal force, but with officials also offering conciliatory language, the regime response was uncertain. That changed during the weekend commencing Jan. 8. Protests peaked, as opposition groups, including Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former shah, urged people to join the throngs, and U.S. President Donald Trump repeated vows to protect them, though no help arrived.

Witnesses say millions were in the streets when authorities shut down the internet and all other communications with the outside world. Rooftop snipers and trucks mounted with heavy machine guns opened fire, according to eyewitnesses and cell phone footage. On Friday, Jan. 9, an official of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned on state television to anyone venturing into the streets, “if … a bullet hits you, don’t complain.”

It took days for the reality to penetrate the internet blackout. Images of the bloodied bodies trickled out via illicit Starlink satellite internet connections. The task of counting the dead was hampered, however, because the authorities had also cut off lines of communications inside Iran. The first firm information came from a Tehran doctor who told TIME that just six hospitals in the capital had recorded at least 217 protester deaths after Thursday’s assault. Health care workers in Iran estimated at least 16,500 protesters had been killed by Jan. 10, according to an earlier report by Dr. Parasta in Munich. Friday’s update built on that research, he said.

“I am genuinely impressed by how quickly this work was pulled together under extremely constrained and risky conditions,” said Paul B. Spiegel, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University International School of Health. Like Roberts, he expressed wariness of extrapolating from the figures provided by hospitals. 

Roberts, who traveled into war zones to research civilian death rates in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo, said, “the 30,000 verified deaths are almost certainly an underestimate.”

The emergence of the Ministry of Health numbers appears to confirm that—while underscoring the stakes for both Iranians and a regime that, in 1979, came to power when a sitting government was confronted by millions of people demanding its downfall.

On Friday, Jan. 9, Sahba Rashtian, an aspiring animation artist, joined friends on the streets in Isfahan, a city in central Iran famous for its beauty. “Before anyone started chanting,” a friend told TIME, “Sahba was seen collapsed on the ground. Her sister noticed blood on her hand.”

Sahba died on an operating table at a nearby hospital. She was 23.

“She always joked about her beautiful name,” her friend said. “She’d laugh and say, ‘Sahba means wine, and I am forbidden in the Islamic Republic.’”

At the burial, the friend said, religious rites were barred, and Rashtian’s father wore white. 

“Congratulations,” he told mourners, according to the friend. “My daughter became a martyr on the path to freedom.”

The man fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday morning has been identified as 37-year-old Alex Pretti.   

Pretti was an intensive care unit nurse at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis, the city where he lived. He was a keen outdoorsman and biked trails near his home. 

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Pretti’s father, Michael, said he wanted to “make a difference in this world.”

“Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital,” he said in a statement shared with several media outlets. 

“Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact,” he added. 

Multiple videos of Saturday’s shooting show Border Patrol agents spraying Pretti with a substance and pinning him to the ground before the shooting. Moments before the confronation, Pretti was attempting to help a woman protester who was being pushed by a federal agent.

Pretti’s family said he had been motivated to join the protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the killing of another Minneapolis resident, 37-year-old mother of three, Renee Nicole Good, by a federal agent just over two weeks ago.

Read more: Federal Agents Kill Another Person in Minneapolis Immigration Crackdown

“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” Michael Pretti told the Associated Press. “He felt that doing the protesting was a way to express that, you know, his care for others.”

He said he had a conversation with his son earlier this month in which he told him to be careful while protesting.

“We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” Michael Pretti said. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”

At a news conference on Saturday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti was a “lawful gun owner” with a permit to carry a firearm in public and only had a few parking tickets.

Dr. Dimitri Drekonja, a former colleague of Pretti’s at the VA Hospital, described him as “a kind person who lived to help.”

“He had such a great attitude. We’d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together,” Drekonja said in a post on BlueSky. “Will never happen now,” he added. 

Born in Illinois, Pretti graduated from Preble High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 2006. He went on to receive a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in 2011, before attaining a nursing license. 

Pretti was devoted to his patients at the VA hospital. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents professional employees affiliated with the Minneapolis VA Hospital, said Pretti “dedicated his life to serving American veterans.”

“While details of the incident are still emerging, one fact is already clear: this tragedy did not happen in a vacuum. It is the direct result of an administration that has chosen reckless policy, inflammatory rhetoric, and manufactured crisis over responsible leadership and de-escalation,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said in a statement.

After watching coverage of the shooting on the news, Mac Randolph recognized Pretti as the man who cared for his father, Terry Randolph, during his final days in December 2024.

“He spent three, four days in the ICU and explained everything that would happen when they turned off the oxygen,” he told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “He was as compassionate a person as you could be.”

After his father passed, Randolph said Pretti took his father, an Air Force veteran, on an “honorary walk” around the facility on his gurney, draped in an American flag.

“You could see that it wasn’t the first time he had done that,” he said.

Randolph said he felt compelled to share a video on social media in which Pretti reads a final tribute to his father, Terry, who passed away at 77-years-old.

“Today, we remember that freedom is not free,” Pretti says in the video. “We have to work at it, nurture it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it.”

Minutes after federal agents killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday morning, the second fatal shooting by immigration authorities in the city in as many weeks, dozens of protesters arrived at the scene.

A tense stand-off ensued with immigration agents who had cordoned off the intersection. Demonstrators called the agents “Nazis” and told them to “go home.” The agents responded by mocking the protesters.

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Just a day earlier, tens of thousands of Minnesotans had filled the same city’s streets in a mass protest against the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown in the state and the killing of Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother of three, by an immigration officer less than two miles away from Saturday’s shooting. 

Read more: Federal Agents Kill Another Person in Minneapolis Immigration Crackdown

Organizers estimated that 50,000 people attended the “Ice Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth and Freedom” demonstration, organized by community leaders, clergy members, and labor unions.

Those demonstrations passed peacefully, but on Saturday, protesters clashed with federal agents for hours as the city convulsed with anger over the killing of Pretti. Federal agents fired tear gas, flash bang grenades and pepper balls.

By the afternoon, protests had taken over the intersection where the shooting had taken place and turned it into a makeshift memorial to Pretti.

Pretti was a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who worked at the Veterans Affairs in Minneapolis. His family said he was motivated to join protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis after the killing of Renne Good on Jan. 7.

He was killed after being pepper-sprayed and tackled to the ground by Border Patrol agents on Saturday morning. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Pretti was armed and “violently resisted,” but video of the incident shared by bystanders later contradicted that claim.

As a potentially historic winter storm has already knocked out power to 112,000 homes and warnings are in place for some 140 million Americans, many in the storm’s path have rushed to stores to stock up on supplies.

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Images of shelves stripped bare at stores across the country have found their way to social media as the storm started to sweep its way east from Texas on Saturday morning, with freezing rain and snow reports in Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Read More: How to Prepare for a Winter Storm Power Outage

Images of Trader Joe’s stores in Washington, D.C., and Chelsea, New York City, show empty aisles. Meanwhile, further south, grocery stores in Charlotte, North Carolina, saw an influx of customers stocking up on water, non-perishable food items and canned goods, as well as batteries. Locals in the area reported that water was sold out at their Harris Teeter.

But are people right to stock up, or is this another case of unwarranted panic buying? And what is the difference between being prepared and being paranoid?

Hersh Shefrin, professor of behavioral finance at Santa Clara University, says that this phenomenon is not uncommon in the face of a major weather event or high-stress situation.

“It is certainly reasonable to stock up for a few days,” he says, but once the buying is driven by a “fight or flight” emotional response, that’s when it transforms into panic buying.

“There’s a difference between emergency preparedness and panic buying,” Shefrin tells TIME. “So I think that what we would like in an ideal world is that when there’s an impending storm, that people engage in reasonable, sensible emergency preparedness, but when fear takes over, then people become focused on worst-case scenarios.”

Panic buying can be heavily influenced by other people, he says. 

“When people start to panic buy, their impulses take over,” he continues. “So, if they’re in a shop and they see that there’s some item that wasn’t on their shopping list, but they just see that the stock of a certain item is going low, they [might] think, ‘Oh, I better get that before they’re all gone.’”

Shefrin says the best way to prevent actual shortages is for consumers to stop and not let their emotions take over.

Behavioral scientist Ravi Dhar, a professor at Yale University, says that the “inherent uncertainty” of the storm’s severity this weekend leads people to try to control what they can.

“People tend to be overly risk-averse and have a desire for control rather than hysteria,” Dhar tells TIME. He says that the “risk of running out feels worse than overspending,” as people can rationalize to themselves that they need the goods later. 

“The salience in the media…and constant weather alerts on apps makes the event seem more scary psychologically,” he adds, arguing that people then react to emotions instead of the probabilities of harm, especially as the media continues to use words including “historic” to describe the storm.

Recent instances of panic buying include during the COVID-19 pandemic, and those stories of toilet paper shortages are still salient in Americans’ minds, Sherafin adds. In 2020, consumers also raced to stock up on cleaning products, disinfectants and hand sanitizers, as well as face masks.

A man was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday morning, the second fatal shooting in just over two weeks by federal authorities in the city.

The incident follows the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by a federal agent less than three miles away, and comes as the city was already convulsed by mass protests calling for an end to the surge of immigration agents in the state.

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The victim was named as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and intensive care unit nurse who treated veterans. His family said he was motivated to join protests after Good’s killing.

Several videos of the shooting show an altercation taking place around 9 am when a woman protester was pushed to the ground by a Border Patrol agent. When Pretti attempts to stand between the agent and the woman, the agent pepper-sprays him in the face. More agents join the fray and tackle Pretti to the ground as he is disoriented. As a group of agents restrain Pretti on the ground, one emerges from the melee with a gun, and soon after, a shot rings out, then several more in quick succession. At least 10 shots were fired in around five seconds, including several as Pretti lay motionless on the ground.

Read more: Minnesotans Shutter Businesses and Call Off Work in Economic Blackout Day to Protest ICE

President Donald Trump responded to the shooting in a lengthy post on Truth Social that called immigration agents “patriots” and claimed they were in Minneapolis because of “massive Monetary Fraud” and “Illegal Criminals that were allowed to infiltrate the State.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon that Pretti had not been in trouble with the police before.

“The only interaction that we are aware of with law enforcement has been for traffic tickets and we believe he is a lawfully gun owner with a permit to carry,” O’Hara said.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gave a detailed account of the shooting in a statement that was contradicted by several videos shot by bystanders at the scene. The agency said it was carrying out a “targeted operation” when an individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, pictures of which it shared with the media. It said officers attempted to disarm the man, but he “violently resisted.”

“Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots. Medics on scene immediately delivered medical aid to the subject but was pronounced dead at the scene,” the statement continued. It added: “[T]his looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

But several videos showing the lead-up to the fatal shooting show Pretti filming a group of Border Patrol officers with his phone in his right hand, with his left hand empty. The video shows an agent pepper-spraying Pretti in the face and, together with several other officers, dragging him to the ground. That is when the fatal shooting occurs.

Read more: Fatal ICE Shooting Sparks Scrutiny of Killings in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

The incident is the latest in a series of shootings in which the DHS claims the victim was threatening the life of an agent, only for video evidence to later contradict the claim. After the shooting of Renee Good, the DHS accused her of “attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism,” only for video evidence to show her turning her car away, and the agent positioned to the side of her vehicle when he fired the fatal shot.

Several other federal officials gave accounts of events that were similarly inaccurate to those given by DHS.

Pretti’s parents, Michael and Susan Pretti, found out about the death of their son when they were called by an Associated Press reporter. As of Saturday evening, the family had still not heard from anyone at a federal law enforcement agency about their son’s death, according to the AP.

In a statement released to the media, the family criticised the “sickening lies told about our son by the administration.”

“Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed,” the statement said.

Saturday’s shooting prompted a wave of anger from local politicians, many of whom have been calling for the Trump Administration to bring an end to its immigration surge following weeks of violent encounters with Minnesotans, including the use of pepper spray and the arrest of peaceful protesters.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz described the shooting as “sickening” and called on President Trump to end his immigration crackdown in the state.

“I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening,” Walz said in a post on X.

“The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.”

Later, he urged people protesting the shooting to do so peacefully.

“We want peace, they want chaos,” the governor said of the federal government. “We cannot and will not give them what they want.”

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said: To the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress who have stood silent: Get ICE out of our state NOW.

O’Hara, in his press conference, called for greater discipline from the estimated 3,000 federal immigration agents in the city.

“Our demand today is for those federal agencies that are operating in our city to do so with the same discipline, humanity and integrity that effective law enforcement in this country demands,” he said.

A few hundred protesters gathered at the scene of the shooting in south Minneapolis by noon, where they scuffled with federal agents who had blocked off the intersection. Protesters screamed “I smell Nazis” at the federal agents and shouted at them to “go home.”

The agents deployed tear gas and used pepper-spray as they fought running battles with protesters.

The shooting comes a day after thousands took to the streets across Minnesota on Friday, closing down businesses and calling out of work in a mass protest against the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown in the state.

The “Ice Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth and Freedom” demonstration, organized by community leaders, members of the clergy, and labor unions, called for a “no work, no school, no shopping” economic blackout.

Trump, in his Saturday afternoon post, accused Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Governor Walz of “inciting Insurrection.”

“Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers? The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves — Not an easy thing to do!” he wrote.

As night fell across Minneapolis, many residents set out candles in their windows to memorialize Pretti. Several vigils were held across the city. A New York Times reporter visited one at Painter Park, near Pretti’s home, where more than 100 people gathered with candles and sang the opening lines to ‘This Little Light of Mine.’

Crime rates are dropping across the U.S, in some cases reaching their lowest levels in decades. 

Data from 40 American cities shows a decrease in crime across 11 out of 13 categories of offenses last year compared to 2024, the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) found in a new analysis released on Thursday. Nine of those offenses, ranging from shoplifting to carjacking to aggravated assault, declined by 10% or more. 

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The homicide rate fell 21% in 35 cities which provided data for the crime, accounting for 922 fewer deaths. And the report predicted that the rate will drop even further, to four per every 100,000 residents, when the FBI releases nationwide data for jurisdictions of all sizes. That would represent the lowest homicide rate since 1900 and the largest percentage drop in homicides in any single year on record. 

President Donald Trump has taken credit for falling crime rates around the country, citing his immigration crackdown and deployment of the National Guard in cities across the U.S. since he began his second presidential term. 

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel highlighted the CCJ report’s findings on Thursday and credited the Administration for the decrease in overall crime. 

“Media gymnastics can’t hide the reality that this administration brought law and order back, and Americans are safer because of it,” he wrote in a post on X. He also pointed to statistics from what he called the “FBI’s historic year” that credited the agency with disrupting 1,800 gangs, seizing 2,000+ kilograms of fentanyl, and increasing violent crime arrests by 100% in 2025, among other achievements.

Data shows, however, that there has been a steady decline in crime since a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that rates were already falling before Trump returned to office—including in cities the Administration has targeted in its immigration and crime crackdowns. Experts tell TIME that the drop recorded last year is part of this larger trend and can be attributed to a kaleidoscope of factors, none of which can singularly or definitively account for the decline. 

“We see very confident claims of credit in abundance, but scarce hard evidence to back them up,” CCJ president and CEO Adam Gelb tells TIME. He stresses that disaggregating all the contributing factors that act against crime to create a coherent explanation for the data is an “impossibly difficult” task. 

“The remarkable consistency in the magnitude of the decline across the country really suggests that everything’s happening at the macro level,” he added, pointing to “broader changes in society and culture and technology that are exerting enormous influence on what’s happening at the local level.”

Here’s what you should know about the recent data, and what factors experts believe could be contributing to the decline.

Last year’s decline in crime

The CCJ report found that homicide rates decreased from 2024 to 2025 in 31 out of the 35 cities evaluated, with Denver, Omaha, Nebraska, and Washington seeing declines of 40% or more. Little Rock, Arkansas, marked the biggest outlier in the broader trend, seeing a 16% increase in homicides.

In addition to the steep decline in homicides, the report found that there were 9% fewer reports of aggravated assault, 22% fewer gun assaults, 23% fewer robberies, and 2% fewer incidents of domestic violence.

Violent crime in 2025 was overall at or below its levels in 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report. 

Cities saw 25% fewer homicides than in 2019, with the largest drop—of 36%—occurring in the cities that had the highest homicide rates before the pandemic. Robberies fell 36% in the evaluated cities from their 2019 levels, and carjackings 29%.

Beyond violent crimes, other categories of offenses also saw declines last year compared to 2024, including a 27% decrease in motor vehicle thefts, a 17% drop in residential burglaries, and a 10% decline in shoplifting. 

Drug offenses were the only category that saw an increase in 2025 from the previous year, rising 7%. But they were still down a notable 19% from 2019 levels. 

Rebounding from the pandemic

Data shows that the steady drop in crime recorded in the last three years follows a widespread spike in rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“When COVID hit, and the world shut down, we basically turned off the water with respect to prevention and intervention strategies,” says Alexis Piquero, the former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics appointed by President Joe Biden and a professor of criminology at the University of Miami. “And then it took about two or three years for the water to be turned back on. Then it starts dripping a little bit. And now ‘25 and into ‘26 the water now is at full blast.” 

John Roman, the director of the Center on Public Safety and Justice at the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago, tells TIME that the loss of local government jobs as a result of the pandemic crippled communities’ abilities to prevent crime, but that local government jobs have since grown past pre-pandemic levels. 

“We actually have more local government employees now that we’ve ever had and crime is at the lowest level it’s been since 1960 and I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” he says, noting that those in such positions, like teachers, counselors, clinicians, and local police officers, are “the people who most directly work with young adults and adolescents who are at the greatest risk of committing a crime or being the victim of a crime.”

He asserts that the most influential factor in reducing crime was the allocation of federal funds that led to the proliferation of such jobs, specifically crediting the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package that provided hundreds of billions in relief funds to state and local governments, among other provisions. 

“I do think that there’s a policy argument that the American Rescue Plan is probably the most important federal legislation in the years since the pandemic,” says Patrick Sharkey, a Princeton University professor of sociology who founded AmericanViolence.org, calling the measure the “strongest and most effective investment in federal funding” in his lifetime. “I think it has gone unrecognized how incredibly effective it was in stabilizing communities and stabilizing local government … It’s not very visible how important these resources are, but they play an enormous role in just making sure that communities don’t fall apart.”

These federal investments are essential for crime reduction programs at the local, neighborhood level that combat community violence, such as after-school, employment, and education programs, Piquero stresses to TIME.

Barring another pandemic-level predicament, he expects these drops in crime to continue with the continued federal support trickling down to local jurisdictions. 

“We’re much safer now than we’ve been in the last, certainly six years, and certainly since the height of the crack trade in the 1980s and in the strife and unrest of the 60s,” he adds “So I’m very I’m optimistic, but it’s also not the time to take our foot off the pedal right now.”

Shifts in technology and culture 

Outside of more trackable factors like federal funding, Gelb, CCJ’s president, believes a host of other contributors have worked together to reduce crime rates. 

Among them, he contends, is technology. 

From the growing frequency of cameras outside of homes and businesses; to more advanced criminal justice surveillance techniques and interconnected databases; to digital wallets, which have made cash robberies less common, Gelb says the increasingly technological world is causing crime to falter. 

He adds that the now ever-present role of tech is also leading to “rising youth independence,” with young people isolating themselves more rather than “carousing” with their friends. He notes that young people often co-offend in instances of violent crime.

He also attributes the falling crime rates to cultural and social influences, namely a decline in alcohol consumption and a slowing of the opioid epidemic. Increased police presence, taking guns off the streets, and local community violence intervention programs are other factors contributing to the steep drop, he says.

Trump’s role

Though Trump has taken credit for reducing overall crime in 2025, rates were already declining before he returned to office last January, and experts say it’s at best too soon to tell if his Administration has played a notable role in the drop—and that it could be outright false to attribute the change to his crackdown.

Gelb acknowledges that the increased presence of federal agents could be contributing to lower rates of crime.

But, he says, “This level of deployment and these types of tactics are unprecedented. So even if we had good research about general deterrence, it wouldn’t necessarily apply here because of the unprecedented nature of this federal deployment.”

Piquero notes that crime has also trended down in cities and areas where the National Guard has not been deployed and ICE operations have not been ramped up.

“We’re in the fourth year of a crime decline, and the National Guardian and ICE deployments have really been something that’s only happened over the last six months. It’s hard to link the two at this point,” Roman added. “It’s clear that the crime decline was fully developed before any of those deployments happened.”

Sharkey, meanwhile, believes there’s no correlation between the ramped up federal presence in cities and the decrease in crime rates at all.

“It would be ridiculous to argue that federal presence in cities played any role,” he tells TIME. “This started in 2023. So that argument is nonsensical.”

ICE’s detention of five-year-old preschooler Liam Ramos in the Minneapolis area on Tuesday has sparked questions about the legality of federal immigration agents detaining children—and what happens when they do.

Ramos, one of four students in the Columbia Heights Public School District who have recently been detained amid the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown in the area, is far from the only child who has been taken into ICE custody in the past year. An analysis of ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project showed at least 3,800 children have been detained by the agency under the second Trump Administration, over 500 of whom were under the age of five.

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Read more: Why Democrats Fought the ICE Funding Bill—and Why It Passed Anyway

So what happens after an immigrant child gets detained by ICE? TIME spoke to a former ICE official and a legal expert to better understand the policies underlying the deportation operations in Minneapolis and nationwide. 

Can ICE agents legally detain children without a warrant?

According to the ICE website, officers and agents are allowed to briefly detain or arrest anyone if they have any “reasonable suspicion” that the people who they approached are immigrants who came to the country illegally. The officers often do not need a judicial warrant to make an arrest. 

In September, the Supreme Court allowed ICE to stop people because of their race, the language that they speak, the way they dress, the location they are in, or the line of work they are in, pausing a lower court ruling that had barred such actions.

What is a detained immigrant parent allowed to do to take care of their children? 

In July, DHS issued a Detained Parents Directive, which ensures that detained parents are able to identify a caretaker for their children while they are in detainment. The directive also said parents in detention facilities cannot be deported if they need to participate in family court, child welfare, or guardianship proceedings. 

In practice, however, identifying another caretaker for the children of detained parents can be difficult. Parents who are subject to detainment can choose to take the children with them if they can’t find an alternative caretaker. 

“One of the issues that’s been coming up repeatedly is that they are not considering parents who are undocumented, or other relatives who are undocumented, to be a placement for these children,” says Sarah Mehta, deputy director of policy and government affairs for the Equality Division at the ACLU. “So, you are seeing more kids go into detention, even though there are plenty of other options for them.”

Why were Liam Ramos’ family transferred to Texas?

When parents decide to take their children with them to a detention facility, ICE needs to transfer the family to South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilly, Texas, the only facility in the United States that can house immigrant families who are waiting for their deportation proceedings. 

Currently, the facility can hold up to 2,600 individuals, and it is split between family units and single adult females. The family detention facility operated under several prior Administrations as well, until the Biden Administration ended it. Now, the new Trump Administration has restarted it, the former official says. 

According to a court-mandated agreement known as the Flores Settlement Agreement, children are not allowed to be held in detention facilities for more than 20 days, although Mehta alleges that the government has been violating the Flores Settlement “left and right.”

“There’s been thousands of kids that have been held beyond 20 days, some of them held for several months, which is a violation of the law,” Mehta adds. 

How often do ICE agents arrest and detain children under the age of 18 without their parents? 

Very rarely do ICE agents arrest immigrant children alone, according to the former ICE official who worked under the Biden Administration. A child without a parent or legal guardian is classified as an unaccompanied minor, and must, by law, be transferred by ICE to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) under the Department of Health and Human Services. The ORR will help unaccompanied children find their family members. 

In reality, the government has been trying to prevent lawyers from going to see kids by both canceling different contracts and creating other types of hurdles, Mehta says. 

“As kids are in prolonged detention, it’s going to be even harder for them to find lawyers. and even harder for them to get representation,” she says. 

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Minnesota on Friday, closing down businesses and calling out of work in a mass protest against the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown in the state.

The “Ice Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth and Freedom” demonstration, organized by community leaders, members of the clergy, and labor unions, called for a “no work, no school, no shopping” economic blackout.

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“Minnesotans are coming together in moral reflection and action to stand together against the actions of the federal government against the state of Minnesota,” a website for the movement reads. “There will be a unified, statewide pause in daily economic activity. Instead, Minnesotans will spend time with family, neighbors, and their community to show Minnesota’s moral heart and collective economic power.” 

A large march began Friday afternoon from the Downtown Commons in Minneapolis toward the Target Center arena, where a rally was scheduled to be held. Bishop Dwayne Royster, the executive director of Faith in Action, which co-organized Friday’s movement, says that organizers were expecting more than 20,000 people to be on the ground standing in solidarity at the rally.

“We are not sitting on the sidelines, and we’re not going to be idly standing within the four walls of our congregations, but we’re speaking truth to power by our very actions today,” Royster tells TIME while driving to the Target Center with other clergy members. “Let me be clear that not only has Minneapolis and Minnesota come together, but they’re calling the nation together as well.” 

Protests have spread in Minnesota and across the country in the wake of an ICE officer shooting and killing Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother of three, in Minneapolis. The Trump Administration has defended the shooting as an act of “self-defense.” But video of the incident appears to contradict federal officials’ accounts, and the incident has inflamed outrage over the Administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics. On Tuesday, ICE officers detained a five-year-old boy named Liam Conejo Ramos, along with his father, in a Minneapolis suburb and transported them to a detention center in Texas, sparking further scrutiny and backlash against the crackdown.

The movement behind Friday’s protests is demanding that ICE vacate Minnesota; that the officer who killed Good be held legally accountable; that no additional funding be given to ICE in the upcoming congressional budget; and that the agency be investigated for “human and Constitutional violations of Americans and our neighbors.”

The group is also calling for Minnesotan businesses to refuse entry and service to ICE officers moving forward.

Amid the ongoing demonstrations, around 100 clergy members were arrested without incident in at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on Friday during a protest calling on airlines to stop cooperating with deportation flights. 

Hundreds of Minnesota businesses also shuttered on Friday.

The owner of Gold Room Restaurant and Lounge in Central Minneapolis, Nabil, who wished to not provide his last name to preserve his anonymity, was among those who closed his doors in line with the day of protests, though he provided food to protestors free of charge.

Nabil tells TIME that his business, along with others, has been hurt as a result of ICE’s presence as people are more afraid to be out on the streets. 

On Friday, however, “a lot of different people are out. I mean, all different races, all different ages,” he says, adding that the streets were “packed” amid the protests.

“I think it represents that classic phrase: ‘United you stand, and divided you fall,’” he says. “It’s a beautiful thing to see.”

President Donald Trump, who has long expressed skepticism of the scientific consensus on climate change, again brushed aside concerns on Friday by falsely implying that the massive winter storm set to hit much of the U.S. this weekend contradicts the evidence that the planet is getting warmer.

“Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States. Rarely seen anything like it before,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. “Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???”

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The storm is forecasted to bring damaging ice, heavy snowfall, and gusty winds that could impact more than 230 million people across the country from Friday through Monday. At least 14 states, as well as Washington, D.C., have declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm, which has been named Winter Storm Fern by The Weather Channel. The coming inclement weather has raised alarms about dangerous cold, prolonged power outages, and travel disruptions, with forecasters warning that the storm could prove catastrophic.

Read More: How To Stay Safe and Warm In Extreme Cold Weather

But the idea that brutal winter conditions of this kind mean that climate change isn’t happening, as Trump suggested, is a misconception.

“As a proud ‘environmental insurrectionist,’ it’s frustrating to have to explain this every winter,” says Christopher Callahan, a professor of climate science at Indiana University Bloomington. “The Earth still has seasons, and we’re going to have winter weather no matter what happens with climate change.”

As Callahan explains, the planet is titled on its axis, which is why we get seasons—there are periods of the year when the northern hemisphere is facing away from the sun, which is when that hemisphere experiences winter, while the southern hemisphere experiences summer. And even amid climate change, the Earth still has day-to-day weather events.

“Because climate change is ultimately a longer-term phenomenon, you can have blips around that trend; you can have ups and downs around a longer-term increase in temperature,” Callahan says. “So it’s totally reasonable for us to still have individual storms or individual weather events even though, overall, the planet’s climate is warming.” 

Experts agree that, on average, climate change is leading to shorter and milder winters. Research also indicates that climate change can make some extreme weather events—including heat waves, heavy rainfall, severe floods, droughts, extreme wildfires, and hurricanes—more intense and more frequent. Some experts have hypothesized that climate change may be making winter storms more intense as well, though there’s still a “genuine scientific debate” on that, according to Callahan.

But what scientists do agree on, he says, is that, as the planet’s atmosphere gets warmer, it carries more moisture, which leads to more precipitation being released, including snow.“For every degree warmer, you get about 7% more moisture holding capacity in the air, and so we certainly see this happening in summer (with) extreme rain,” Callahan says. “So you could imagine situations in which winter storms have more precipitation and, therefore, more snow than they did before.”

Nearly 230 million Americans are bracing for a severe winter storm that is forecast to bring dangerous ice, snow, and extreme cold to much of the country over the weekend, with at least 16 states and Washington, D.C., declaring a state of emergency by Saturday morning.

The storm brought snow to northern Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas overnight on Friday and is expected to impact regions spanning more than 2,000 miles, from New Mexico to Maine.

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By Saturday morning, 68,000 were without power, according to the Associated Press, with about 27,600 of those in Texas, and more than 30 states were under a National Weather Service watch, warning, or advisory.

The anticipated heavy snowfall, ice, and harsh winds threaten power outages in several states, potentially leaving many without heat, while frozen-over roads could cut off driving routes for days.

Even a number of areas that are not forecasted to get much—or any—snow amid the storm are set to experience dangerously cold temperatures. Over 50 million people are bracing for extreme cold in cities such as Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, and Houston.

The coming inclement weather has sparked widespread warnings and scrambles to prepare. More than 9,000 flights were canceled by Saturday morning, and several airlines have issued advisories for travelers, offering to waive change fees. Footage shared on social media showed storm-preppers emptying shelves at grocery stores to stock up before the snow begins to fall. And states of emergency have been declared in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

Read more: How To Stay Safe and Warm In Extreme Cold Weather

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has also begun preparing for the storm and deployed response teams and resources including generators, thousands of meals, and water to several states. The agency, which has terminated around 300 disaster workers so far in the new year, has also halted the ongoing firings ahead of the weekend storm.

Here’s where and how the storm is expected to hit.

Southern States

The storm is set to impact the South first, hitting states including New Mexico, Texas, and part of Louisiana on Friday and Saturday before moving north. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a state of emergency on Tuesday and activated several emergency response resources to support weather response operations. 

“As temperatures could drop below freezing and regions of Texas face snow, ice, and freezing rain, it is crucial that Texans remain weather-aware, check DriveTexas.org before traveling, and heed the guidance of state and local officials,” Abbott said. The Texas Department of Public Safety announced it has begun treating roads with brine on Wednesday ahead of the storm. 

Dallas and Fort Worth in Texas are forecasted to be hit with severe ice accumulation on Saturday and into Sunday, as are much of Interstates 20 and 30. Other cities including Houston, Waco, and Austin may also be hit by icy conditions.

“Significant ice accumulation on power lines and tree limbs may cause widespread and long-lasting power outages. Expect power outages and tree damage due to the ice. Travel could be impossible,” wrote the Fort Worth Weather Service on Friday.

Read more: How to Prepare for a Winter Storm Power Outage

Oklahoma is set to be hit hard Friday night through Saturday night, with heavy snowfall in the north and more ice accumulation in the south. Oklahoma City is expected to receive six to 10 inches of snow and glazes of ice that will likely make travel dangerous. Extreme cold is anticipated to follow the storm and linger into the following week.

In Arkansas, heavy snow is forecasted to hit the northern portion of the state and ice the southern part. The capital of Little Rock, which sits at the dividing line in the center of the state, could experience a combination of both. Snow is expected to develop beginning Friday night, with compromised driving conditions lasting into Sunday. An ice storm warning is in place in southeastern Arkansas, which faces the threat of long-lasting power outages.

A stretch of land extending from northern Louisiana through Mississippi and into northern Alabama is set to be hit hard by ice, with accumulation potentially reaching one inch. Such ice accretion can add significant stress to power lines and tree branches and lead to outages that leave residents without heat for days. 

Several inches of snow are also expected on early Saturday in Tennessee. “Travel will be extremely dangerous, near impossible this weekend. Please take this seriously and prepare now,” the Memphis Weather Service posted on Thursday.

Georgia, which issued a state of emergency on Thursday that will be in place for a week, has mobilized 500 National Guardsmen to assist with storm preparations. A Winter Storm Watch from the National Weather Service includes most of North Georgia and the Atlanta area warns of significant ice accumulation up to three-quarters of an inch, potentially impacting roads, bridges, and power lines. Snow and sleet are predicted to be much less severe than other states, with an inch or less expected. 

Snow is forecasted to begin early Saturday morning in Kentucky, where forecasts predict up to 14 inches of snow. In Louisville, wind chills are expected to drop as low as -11 degrees.

The Midwest

The storm is forecasted to move from Southern states up through the Midwest, hitting parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio Friday into Saturday.

Most of Ohio is expected to receive snowfall, with some parts of the state—including Cincinnati, Chardon, Canton, Akron, and Wooster—slated to get up to or even more than 10 inches by the end of Sunday night.

Central Illinois is expected to be hit with two rounds of snowfall: the first on Saturday morning and the second beginning Sunday morning and going through the evening. Chicago is forecasted to get up to four inches, with other areas like Decatur, Mattoon, and Effingham expected to get over eight or even 10 inches. 

Read more: Could Your Flight Be Canceled Amid This Weekend’s Brutal Winter Storm?

Kansas, which declared a state of emergency on Friday morning, is anticipating similar conditions, with winter storms predicted to begin on Friday and last through Sunday. The National Weather Service forecasted that temperatures across the state would dip into the negatives and negative teens when accounting for wind chill. 

Missouri is also expected to get snow from around noon on Friday through Sunday afternoon. 

“There is high confidence (85-95% chance) that at least 2-4 inches of snow will be seen across southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas,” the National Weather Service of Springfield posted. “There is still some uncertainty in the potential upper-end amounts, but a reasonable worst case scenario is upwards of 10-12+ inches.”

The Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic

North Carolina will bear the brunt of the storm on Saturday evening through Sunday night, as cities including Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham are bracing for major ice events. Parts of South Carolina are also set to face potentially dangerous ice accumulation. 

Moving up to Virginia, there are expected to be wintry conditions across most of the state starting Saturday night, with snow accumulation of up to six inches, along with sleet, freezing rain, and wind. The wider Washington, D.C., area is anticipated to experience similar conditions, seeing up to 10 inches of snow. The storm is expected to end in the capital by Monday morning, although roads and sidewalks could remain dangerous as temperatures will likely remain below freezing. 

Parts of Pennsylvania will also be hit particularly hard, where in the west portion of the state, forecasts also say there could be 10 to 15 inches of snow. In some parts of the state, the snow could fall an inch per hour on Sunday afternoon.

Further north in New York, conditions are set to be similar to those in D.C., with a heavy period of snowfall followed by a changeover to ice on Sunday. Eight to 12 inches of snow could hit the Big Apple by Sunday afternoon, after which point sleet is expected to take over. There may be a chance of light snowfall again on Monday morning. 

“Our state of emergency that is now in effect allows us to literally go in the streets of New York if they call and need our assistance with plowing or whatever they may need,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said, advising New Yorkers to “stay at home as much as possible.”

Further North

Snowfall is expected in northern states, including Massachusetts, beginning Sunday morning and lasting through Monday evening. New Hampshire is also expected to get snowfall on Sunday and all day on Monday. Maine will receive snow, late Sunday into Monday as well, with the highest snowfall expected in the southern part of the state.

In Boston, there could be up to 18 inches of snow by Monday morning, with even higher amounts possible in locales outside the city, notably in the west. The state is expecting school closures on Monday. 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has condemned President Donald Trump‘s false claims that non-American NATO troops “stayed a little back” from the front line during the war in Afghanistan.

“I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and, frankly, appalling,” said Starmer on Friday, adding he was not surprised the comments had caused “such hurt” across the country.

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Starmer paid tribute to the “457 [members] of our armed services who lost their lives in Afghanistan” and vowed to never forget the sacrifice they made to the United Kingdom. He also paid respect to the many more who were injured, “some with life-changing” injuries.

When told that some are calling for an apology from Trump, the U.K. Prime Minister appeared to be in agreement, although he stopped short of telling the President to apologize.

“If I had misspoken in that way, or said those words, I would certainly apologize,” he said.

As he did earlier in the week when denouncing Trump’s tariffs threat, Starmer doubled down on the importance of the “very close relationship” between the U.K. and U.S., but said it’s because of that alliance that the U.K. “fought alongside the Americans for our values in Afghanistan.”

According to British veterans charity Help for Heroes, around 3,486 troops among the coalition forces died in the Afghanistan war. Over 2,300 of those were members of the U.S. armed forces.

TIME has reached out to the White House for comment.

Read More: Starmer Breaks With Trump Over ‘Completely Wrong’ Greenland Tariff Threats and Urges Avoiding a Trade War

During an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump said he was unsure if NATO would be there to support the U.S. if it were needed.

“We’ve never needed them, we have never really asked anything of them. You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,” he claimed.

Trump has repeatedly aired his grievances with NATO and recently refused to ruled out leaving the alliance over his contentious push to annex Greenland.

NATO’s Article 5, in which all members consider “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all,” has only been activated once, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in the U.S. in 2001.

Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, after 9/11, pledged to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the U.S. in its response to the al-Qaida attacks. British troops went on to play a role in the Afghanistan war until their withdrawal in 2014. The U.S. stayed on until August 2021.

Blair, who was recently appointed to serve on the Executive Board overseeing Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace, responded to the President’s remarks on Friday, although he didn’t mention Trump by name.

A spokesperson for the former Labour Party leader told TIME via email: “Tony Blair knows—and will always remember with deep gratitude—the enormous contribution and sacrifice British troops made in Afghanistan on the front line of the fight against terrorism, following the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.”

Read More: Trump Refuses to Rule Out Leaving NATO Over Greenland Tussle—Can He Legally Do That?

Many British lawmakers issued stronger statements, directly denouncing Trump’s false claims.

British Defence Secretary John Healey said: “The U.K. and NATO allies answered the U.S. call. Those British troops should be remembered for who they were: heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation.”

Alistair Carns, the U.K. Minister of State for the Armed Forces who himself served five tours in Afghanistan, referred to Trump’s claims as “utterly ridiculous.”

“Many courageous and honorable service personnel from many nations fought on the front line,” he said. “We shed blood, sweat, and tears together. And not everybody came home.”

He later shared a video of himself serving on the front line in Afghanistan.

Leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, called Trump’s remarks “flat-out nonsense” and said the sacrifice of NATO troops deserves “respect not denigration.” 

Earlier on Friday, Downing Street had said that Trump was “wrong to diminish the role of troops, including British forces.”

Prince Harry, who returned to the U.K. this week to give evidence in his case against Associated Newspapers Limited, remembered how “allies answered [the] call” in support of the U.S.

“Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost. Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect, as we all remain united and loyal to the defence of diplomacy and peace,” he is quoted as saying.

Outside of the U.K., other NATO allies also took a firm stance against Trump’s remarks.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk recalled a ceremony he attended in 2011 that paid tribute to five Polish soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan.

“The American officers who accompanied me then told me that America would never forget the Polish heroes,” he said. “Perhaps they will remind President Trump of that fact.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney issued a stern response after President Donald Trump told Davos attendees that “Canada lives because of the United States.”

In a filmed address delivered upon his return to Québec City on Thursday, Carney—who also attended the World Economic Forum in Switzerland—firmly stated: “Canada does not live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian.”

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Arguing that diversity is “a strength, not a weakness,” Carney maintained that Canada is “the greatest country in the world to be a regular person” and said you don’t need to be rich, “have a certain color,” or “worship a certain God” in order to thrive.

Although he celebrated the long-standing partnership between the U.S. and Canada, Carney emphasized: “We are masters in our home, this is our own country, it’s our future, the choice is up to us.”

Trump later rescinded his invitation for Canada to join his Gaza Board of Peace, which he unveiled in Davos on Thursday, after Carney had left the annual forum.

“Please let this letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time,” Trump said via Truth Social. (Carney announced earlier in the week that he had received an invitation to join the Board of Peace, but did not confirm if he intended to accept.)

Trump had previously lashed out at Canada during his Davos address on Wednesday, accusing the country of getting “a lot of freebies” from the U.S. and saying they should be “grateful.”

“I watched your Prime Minister yesterday, he wasn’t so grateful,” Trump told the audience, referencing the speech Carney had delivered the day before.

Although Carney didn’t mention Trump by name, there appeared to be pointed references to the U.S. President throughout his own poignant address.

In a bold statement that prompted much discussion, Carney said the old world order is “not coming back.” Encouraging people not to “mourn” the way things used to be, he advised that “nostalgia is not a strategy.”

Carney also urged middle powers to stand up for themselves, accusing “great powers” of using economic pressure to yield results.

“More recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited,” he said.

This came after Trump threatened to tariff European allies until Denmark agrees to sell Greenland to the U.S.—a threat he has since walked back on.

Read More: Zelensky Publicly Rebukes Europe, Urges Leaders to ‘Act Now’ in Withering Davos Address

Carney campaigned against Trump’s global tariff threats last year during his country’s general election. His platform also strongly opposed Trump’s annexation threats toward Canada.

Trump frequently—and publicly—expressed his desire to annex Canada and have it become the “51st state” upon returning to the White House. Both Carney and his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, stood firm that the annexation of Canada is not something they would allow to happen. During Trudeau’s tenure, Trump took to referring to him as “Governor Trudeau” rather than recognizing him as the Prime Minister of Canada.

Carney and Trump have worked on building a better working relationship, and have even shared jovial moments in front of the world press.

In October, when Trump mistakenly referred to Carney as a “President,” Carney joked: “I’m glad you upgraded me to President.” To which Trump responded with: “At least I didn’t say Governor!”

However, as Carney has since expressed Canada’s full support to Greenland and Denmark maintaining their “Arctic sovereignty,” and amid tense disagreements over tariff threats, the relationship between the two leaders has become strained once more.