(NEW YORK) — A dangerous and unprecedented heat wave is hitting the West, with temperatures reaching 25-to-40 degrees above normal across the region.
A dozen cities recorded all-time record March temperatures on Wednesday, including 105 degrees in Palm Springs, California; 102 degrees in Phoenix, Arizona; and 94 degrees in Las Vegas.
Heat alerts are in place for 40 million Americans in the West through the weekend.
With temperatures expected to reach between 96 and 109 degrees for a widespread area over multiple days — and during a time of high tourism to the Desert Southwest — the heat may turn deadly.
The heat will spread east through the week. By Friday, the record highs may reach Texas, Nebraska and Oklahoma, and by Sunday, daily record highs could stretch from Los Angeles to Memphis, Tennessee.
The heat and dry weather could also increase the risk of wildfires. Red flag warnings are in place for parts of Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska, where wind gusts could reach 30 to 45 mph.
Extreme heat is considered the deadliest weather-related hazard in the U.S., according to the Fifth National Climate Assessment. About 2,000 Americans die each year on average from extreme heat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Click here for what to know about staying safe in the heat.
Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student and Palestinian activist, who was arrested by US immigration authorities in mid-April 2025, attends the inauguration ceremony at City Hall in New York, United States, on January 1, 2026. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — For the second time in a little more than a week, attorneys have announced that an immigration court has terminated deportation proceedings against a pro-Palestinian student after Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed they posed a threat to foreign policy.
According to a letter filed in court, attorneys for Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student who was detained at his naturalization interview in April, a judge has found that the Department of Homeland Security “did not meet its burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence” that he is removable.
It comes after an immigration court terminated removal proceedings against Tufts University Ph.D. student Rümeysa Öztürk. Her attorneys announced the order in a letter to the federal judge overseeing the case challenging her detention on Feb. 9.
For Mahdawi’s case, immigration judge Nina Froes appears to have based her decision on the finding that DHS failed to authenticate a memo allegedly signed by Rubio claiming Mahdawi was a threat to U.S. foreign policy.
Mahdawi’s attorneys have argued that, like other pro-Palestinian demonstrators, organizers and students, he was being targeted for his constitutionally protected speech.
Öztürk, like Mahdawi, was also labeled a foreign policy risk by Rubio in a memo.
Both cases can be appealed by the Trump administration, so their habeas petitions will likely continue to play out in federal court.
“I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government’s attempts to trample on due process,” Mahdawi said in a statement. “This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice.”
“In a climate where dissent is increasingly met with intimidation and detention, today’s ruling renews hope that due process still applies and that no agency stands above the Constitution,” he added.
In response to a request for comment about both cases, the Department of Homeland Security sent a previous statement about Mahdawi and said: “It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. No activist judge, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that.”
Mahdawi was detained in Vermont last spring during his citizenship interview. Arguing that he should continue to be detained, lawyers for the Trump administration pointed to a 2015 FBI investigation, in which a gun shop owner alleged that Mahdawi had claimed to have built machine guns in the West Bank to kill Jews.
However, the FBI closed that investigation and Mahdawi was never charged with any crime, a point a federal judge highlighted when he ordered Mahdawi’s release.
In response to the government’s allegations against him, Mahdawi and his lawyers have firmly refuted allegations that he ever threatened Israelis or those of the Jewish faith. He told ABC News he has been advocating for peace and protesting against the war in Gaza.
“So for them to accuse me of this is not going to work, because I am a person who actually has condemned antisemitism,” Mahdawi said. “And I believe that the fight against antisemitism and the fight to free Palestine go hand in hand, because, as Martin Luther King said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Öztürk was detained in March by masked federal agents, and the arrest was captured on camera. Attorneys representing her said she was targeted, like other high-profile arrests of students, for her Pro-Palestinian views, specifically, for co-authoring an Op-Ed in the student paper in March 2024 calling on the school’s administration to take steps to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”
A federal judge ordered her release in May.
“Today, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system’s flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the U.S. government,” Öztürk said in a statement on Feb. 9. “Though the pain that I and thousands of other women wrongfully imprisoned by ICE have faced cannot be undone, it is heartening to know that some justice can prevail after all.”
(NEW YORK) — A 2.3 magnitude earthquake struck about half a mile west of Sleepy Hollow, New York, on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed.
The earthquake struck at 10:18 a.m. ET.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 18, 2025 in New York City. (Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione should stand trial in State Supreme Court in New York starting July 1, at least three months ahead of when the accused killer could stand trial in federal court, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a letter Wednesday.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges stemming from the assassination-style killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan in December 2024.
Federal judge Margaret Garnett said Mangione would stand trial in October if she eliminates the death penalty as a possible sentence, as the defense has sought. Otherwise, she said at a hearing last week, Mangione would stand trial in January. Either way, she set jury selection for Sept. 8.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office said there are “significant state interests” in putting Mangione on trial sooner.
“This heinous crime happened in midtown Manhattan, one of the busiest commercial areas in this County and spread fear and shock throughout Manhattan. New York State unquestionably has a deep interest in, upholding the fundamental right to life, maintaining public order, and delivering justice for a murder committed in its jurisdiction,” assistant district attorney Joel Seidemann wrote.
“Federal law supports our request that we proceed first and our right to a speedy resolution of this case would be severely compromised should the federal trial proceed first,” he said.
Judge Gregory Carro, the judge for the state case, is weighing a defense request to suppress evidence pulled from Mangione’s backpack, including the alleged murder weapon, a notebook and writings. After a three-week hearing, the judge said he would accept written submissions by March and issue a ruling in May.
The district attorney’s office told Carro the case is otherwise ready for trial.
“It is entirely natural then that the state case would proceed to trial prior to the federal case,” Seidemann’s letter said. “And, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York has said that it expects the State case to proceed to trial first.”
Mangione has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his return to New York from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested at an Altoona McDonald’s following a five-day manhunt.
Defense attorneys have said police waited too long to read Mangione his rights and unlawfully searched his backpack without a warrant. Prosecutors have argued the Altoona police officers were justified in searching the bag because the search pertained to a lawful arrest.
