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.”

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.”

President Donald Trump is once again floating the idea of running for another term.

“RECORD NUMBERS ALL OVER THE PLACE! SHOULD I TRY FOR A FOURTH TERM?” he wrote on Truth Social on Thursday evening.

The Constitution prohibits Trump from serving another term; the 22nd Amendment reads: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”

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But Trump and his allies have repeatedly suggested the possibility of him running for office again. Last year, the Trump Organization started selling hats that say “Trump 2028” and t-shirts that say “Trump 2028 (Rewrite the Rules).”

In October, the President told reporters that he “would love to” run for another term. When reporters questioned if he was ruling out the idea, he replied, “Am I not ruling it out? I mean, you’ll have to tell me.” Just days before that, his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who has supported the idea of Trump serving another term, told The Economist that there is a “plan” to get around the 22nd Amendment. Bannon didn’t share what the plan entailed, but said there are “many different alternatives” and the details would be shared “at the appropriate time.”

The President has also previously falsely suggested that a hypothetical “third term” would actually be his “fourth term.” Last year, he told reporters that “in a way,” a third term would be a “fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.” Trump has repeatedly spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being “stolen” from him.

Despite Trump’s claim that he’s receiving “record numbers all over the place,” his approval rating is underwater—though he continues to receive strong support from his base. Only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of his performance in his second term, according to an AP-NORC poll from earlier this month. A majority of voters—56%—disapprove of how he has addressed several major issues, including the economy, immigration, managing the federal government, and the cost of living, according to a New York Times-Siena poll released on Thursday. And about 49% of respondents in the Times-Siena poll said that they believed the U.S. was worse off than it was a year ago, before Trump was sworn in for a second term. Less than a third felt that the country was faring better.

Trump railed against the Times-Siena poll on social media, saying that he would include the poll in his “lawsuit against The Failing New York Times” and claiming, without providing evidence, that the results were “fake.”

With a brutal winter storm expected to hit much of the U.S. this weekend, disruptions to air travel are all but inevitable.

The storm could affect more than 230 million people across the country in the coming days. Some regions could experience “damaging ice and heavy snow,” making traveling dangerous, according to The Weather Channel, which has dubbed the storm Winter Storm Fern. And a potentially devastating ice storm could cause power outages and crush trees. At least 14 states—Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia—in addition to Washington, D.C., have declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the storm.

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Thursday that its weather and air traffic experts “are tracking this weekend’s winter storm to keep flights safe,” and advised travelers to keep up-to-date on the status of their flights. Airlines are bracing for disruptions, and several have already issued advisories for their customers, offering to waive the costs associated with changing their flights.

Here’s what to know about Winter Storm Fern and how it could affect your travel plans.

Where is Winter Storm Fern expected to hit—and when?

The storm is expected to reach parts of the South, Midwest, and Northeast as soon as Friday and last through Monday, according to The Weather Channel. The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued winter storm alerts for many cities across the country, including Dallas, Houston, Nashville, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

Snow, sleet, and freezing rain could hit parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, and Mississippi on Friday. By Saturday, a combination of snow, sleet, and ice could reach parts of Louisiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and New Mexico. Similar conditions could affect the Great Lakes region and the Northeast on Sunday.

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

Parts of the Northeast, including New England, could continue experiencing some lingering snow and gusty winds into Monday.

How could the winter storm affect flights this weekend?

The conditions that Winter Storm Fern is expected to bring—gusty winds, ice, snow, and rain—can all impact air travel. The FAA warned on Friday that strong winds could “slow flights” in Boston, New York, Newark, and Philadelphia, and that low clouds could lead to delays at airports in Atlanta, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, San Francisco, and SeaTac. As of Friday evening, there had already been more than 3,000 flight delays within, into, or out of the U.S., and more than 600 cancellations so far in the day, according to the flight-tracking platform FlightAware.

More than 3,000 flights were canceled through Sunday, as of Friday afternoon, FOX Weather reported. On Friday, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Denver saw the highest number of air travel delays, and Dallas, Chicago, and Oklahoma City saw the highest number of cancellations, according to FOX Weather.

Southwest Airlines warned its customers that flights may be delayed, diverted, or canceled in or out of a number of cities, including Atlanta, Indianapolis, Memphis, and Raleigh. The airline also said that eligible customers with flights to, from, or through any of those cities can change their travel plans without the change in airfare cost.

American Airlines said that people traveling to, through, or from any of 35 cities likely to be affected by Winter Storm Fern—including Albany, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia—can change their trips, with the fees waived, if they meet certain conditions.

JetBlue also said it would waive the change and cancellation fees for eligible customers who are traveling this Saturday through Monday to or from one of 11 cities, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Providence.

How can you check if your flight is in the winter storm’s path?

Check your airline’s website or app to see if it has mentioned any anticipated impacts to your flight this weekend. You can also look up the forecast each day leading up to your flight, to see if the storm’s path could intersect with that of your flight.

On the day you’re traveling, make sure to check the status of your flight before you leave for the airport. You can also check FlightAware to see how many flight disruptions the airport you’re flying into or out of is experiencing to get an idea of how the weather is affecting air travel there that day.

What steps can travelers take now to prepare?

If your travel plans are flexible, you may want to consider changing them. Since many airlines have waived the fees associated with changing flights, you—most likely—wouldn’t have to pay extra to rebook your flight for a later date.

More than a month has passed since the deadline for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all its files related to the investigations into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And while the department has publicly shared thousands of documents since that date, those releases account for only a fraction of the materials it has in its possession—leaving the vast majority of the so-called “Epstein files” still unreleased.

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in November, the DOJ was required to release all the Epstein files by Dec. 19. The department began releasing materials that day, but the Trump Administration admitted that it wouldn’t share all the documents by the deadline, claiming that the scale of redactions needed to protect victims’ identities would delay the full release. Since then, the department has released a few batches of documents related to the Epstein case. But it has been weeks since the most recent of those batches was made public, and earlier this month, top DOJ officials revealed that more than two million documents have yet to be shared, meaning that less than 1% of the Epstein files have been released.

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Read more: What Is—and Isn’t—in the Newly Released Epstein Files

The partial releases—and the heavy redactions made to many of the documents that have been made public—have sparked outcry from politicians, survivors of Epstein’s abuse, and the public. Days after the December deadline, lawmakers threatened to take action against the Trump Administration for not releasing all the documents in the case, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slamming the DOJ for what he called a “blatant disregard of the law.”

Here’s what to know about the latest developments in the situation.

Federal judge rejects request for an independent monitor

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California—the two lawmakers who co-wrote the Epstein Files Transparency Act—requested an independent expert to ensure that the DOJ complied with the federal law and released all its Epstein materials. But on Wednesday, a federal judge denied the request, saying that he didn’t have the jurisdiction to oversee the DOJ in this matter.

The judge, though, said that the issues that Massie and Khanna raised were “undeniably important and timely.” And he said that the two members of Congress could file a separate lawsuit to request an independent expert, and could use “the tools available to Congress” if they wanted additional oversight on the DOJ’s handling of the case.

“They raise legitimate concerns about whether D.O.J. is faithfully complying with federal law,” the judge said in his ruling.

Both lawmakers signaled that they would keep pushing for all the files to be made public in statements to media outlets following the ruling.

“We will continue to use every legal option to ensure the files are released and the survivors see justice,” Khanna said.

What lawmakers are saying about the delay in the release

Many lawmakers have continued to express their frustration that the DOJ hasn’t released all the files related to Epstein despite the deadline set by the law. Schumer, who introduced a resolution last month calling on the Senate to take legal action against the Trump Administration over the issue, again condemned the DOJ on Wednesday.

“It’s been 33 DAYS since Trump DOJ broke the law and failed to release all the Epstein files,” Schumer said in a post on X. “The DOJ admits it has released less than 1% of the total files. The silence from congressional Republicans is deafening.”

Other lawmakers, though, have dialed back their outrage. Although nearly all congressional Republicans voted in support of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, some have recently said they don’t consider the release to be a primary issue anymore.

“I don’t give a rip about Epstein,” Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said last week. 

“Like, there’s so many other things we need to be working on,” she continued. “I’ve done what I had to do for Epstein. Talk to somebody else about that. It’s no longer in my hands.”

Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who serves as the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters last week that he believes the DOJ “is cooperating.”

“They are turning over documents,” he said. “We would all like for them to turn documents over quicker, but at the end of the day, they are complying.”

A separate probe into Epstein is ongoing in the House

The House Oversight Committee is planning to depose Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate, on Feb. 9, Comer said on Wednesday. The news comes months after Maxwell was subpoenaed by the committee, in July, as part of its inquiry into Epstein.

Maxwell’s lawyers said she would plead the Fifth if she sat for a deposition, Comer told POLITICO in November. The February deposition will be a closed session.

The announcement of Maxwell’s upcoming deposition comes the same day that the House Oversight Committee voted to recommend holding former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress, after the couple last week refused to testify in the committee’s investigation despite being subpoenaed to do so as well.

Read more: House Committee Votes to Hold the Clintons in Contempt in Epstein Probe

In a letter to Comer, the Clintons’ lawyers said that the subpoenas they received “are invalid and legally unenforceable, untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers.” Their lawyers said that the couple has “already provided the limited information they possess about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the committee.”

Multiple files previously released by the DOJ have contained Bill Clinton’s name and photos, as well as those of other well-known figures with ties to Epstein. But Bill Clinton has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and said he never went to the late sex offender’s island.

In a personal letter sent to Comer last week, the Clintons criticized the chairman’s handling of the Epstein case, including for not doing more to compel the DOJ to release the remaining documents. They said that Comer has the “immense power to target anyone and subject them to closed door interrogation and more,” but claimed that his priorities in the panel’s inquiry “have prevented progress in discovering the facts about the government’s role.”

Speaking to the committee on Wednesday, Comer insisted that the Clintons’ testimony is “critical to understanding Epstein’s sex trafficking network and the ways he sought to curry favor and influence to shield himself from scrutiny,” adding that their testimony could also help Congress determine how to strengthen laws aimed at combatting human trafficking. 

“The committee does not take this action likely, but subpoenas are not mere suggestions; they carry the force of law and require compliance,” Comer said. “Today, the Clintons must be held accountable for their actions.”

People across the country walked out of school and work on Tuesday afternoon as part of a nationwide walkout to protest the Trump Administration.

Dubbed the “Free America Walkout,” the protest took place on the anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. The movement is protesting the actions Trump has taken since returning to office, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, National Guard deployments, and threats to transgender rights.

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“One year into Trump’s second regime, we face an escalating fascist threat,” the Free America website reads. “It is time for our communities to escalate as well. On January 20 at 2 PM local time, we will walk out of work, school, and commerce. We will withhold our labor, our participation, and our consent. A free America begins the moment we refuse to cooperate. This is not a request. This is a rupture. This is a protest and a promise. In the face of fascism, we will be ungovernable.”

The Women’s March, one of the organizing partners behind the walkout, shared a video on X of the protest beginning in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday afternoon, as well as photos of a similar demonstration in Brooklyn, New York, in which protesters can be seen holding “Free America” signs.

“This is what democracy looks like,” the Women’s March wrote on X. “This is what fighting fascism looks like.”

The Women’s March also shared a video of a walkout in Oklahoma City, writing on X, “Red state. Real resistance. Feminists and their allies are walking out on fascism.” And the account posted photos of protesters in Minnesota, some of whom can be seen carrying signs that said, “ICE out for good” and “Do your job Congress.”

“Minnesotans walked out today. In the face of weeks of dehumanizing rhetoric by the right. In the face of weeks of violent and unlawful attacks by ICE agents. In the aftermath of the tragic murder of Renee Good. In freezing temperatures,” the Women’s March wrote on X. “They organize. They fight back. They walk out. We stand with Minnesota.”

Earlier this month, Renee Nicole Good—a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother of three—was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Trump Administration officials have accused Good of attempting to run over the agent with her car, claiming the shooting was an act of “self-defense.” But videos of the incident appear to contradict that characterization, and local leaders have strongly disputed the Administration’s portrayal. Good’s death sparked widespread outrage, and ignited protests in Minneapolis and across the country—from major cities to small-town America—over the Trump Administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.

About 4 in 10 Americans approve of the President’s performance in his second term thus far, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted earlier this month. That’s roughly the same approval rating that Trump received at the start and end of his first term, though there were periods where that number fluctuated, according to AP-NORC data. Approval of his policies in different areas varied, however. The most recent poll—which was conducted after the fatal shooting of Good—found that only 38% of Americans approve of how the President is addressing immigration issues, a double-digit decline from the 49% who approved of his immigration policies in March.