Severe weather threat, including tornadoes, continues for millions of Americans
Weather map (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 70 million Americans are under a severe weather threat heading into the weekend, including the possibility of tornadoes in the central United States, after deadly storms swept through Oklahoma.
A storm system is bringing rain, snow, ice and severe weather from the Rockies to the Upper Midwest and across much of the Plains on Friday.
The severe storm threat stretches from Dallas to Milwaukee, including Des Moines, Iowa, St. Louis and Oklahoma City. Strong winds, hail, and brief tornadoes are all possible.
A large area stretching from far northeast Texas to southwest Iowa is under an enhanced threat, with tornadoes and very large hail as the main concerns.
The greatest tornado threat on Friday is from far northeastern Texas to just south of Springfield, Missouri. Tornado watches are in effect across six states into Friday night — Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa.
A large and “extremely dangerous” tornado was also detected in southern Michigan, south of Kalamazoo, on Friday afternoon. There were multiple reports of “significant damage” in Three Rivers, according to the National Weather Service.
Heavy downpours, especially in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, could also result in localized flash flooding.
The governor of Missouri declared a state of emergency on Friday “in preparation for potentially dangerous severe weather forecasted across the state,” including the threat of damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes, his office said.
The threat comes after seven reported tornadoes and golf ball-sized hail impacted parts of west Texas and Oklahoma. A mother and daughter were killed in Major County, Oklahoma, on Thursday night after severe weather swept through the area, according to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt. They were found dead in a vehicle that appeared to have tornado damage, authorities told ABC Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO.
Elsewhere, winter weather advisories are also in effect Friday from Colorado to Minnesota for the cold side of the storm with snow and ice. Denver could see 2 to 4 inches of snow.
Icy conditions are expected across parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska and Minnesota, with heavy rain forecast to move through the upper Midwest through Friday night.
To the South, widespread severe weather is possible through late Friday from Texas to Wisconsin.
Luigi Mangione attends 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. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione could stand trial by the end of the year, the judge in his federal case said Friday at a hearing in a Manhattan courtroom that was filled with Mangione’s supporters.
Mangione was back in federal court, where the defense presented arguments seeking to dismiss the death penalty counts against him if he is convicted of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk in 2024.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett did not rule on the death penalty question at the conclusion of the hearing, but suggested that if the death penalty remains on the table, jury selection would begin in early September, and the trial would commence sometime in December or January.
If the death penalty is excluded, the judge suggested the trial could start in September.
She set a date for the next hearing on Jan. 30.
Judge Garnett also ruled Friday that Mangione’s backpack was lawfully seized by police when Mangione was apprehended in a Pennsylvania McDonalds’s five days after the shooting.
Two women who flew in from Sicily and came straight from the airport were among those in the courtroom gallery, which was filled with Mangione’s supporters, mostly young women. Many of them were wearing green, the color that has come to represent advocacy for Mangione.
“We have a full house here today,” Judge Garnett said at the outset of the hearing. “It is very important that decorum be maintained.”
The appearance of Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to federal charges, follows a three-week hearing in state court during which Mangione sought to convince the judge in his state case to exclude some of the critical evidence police said they found in his backpack, including writings and the alleged murder weapon. The judge has yet to issue a ruling.
Judge Garnett, in issuing her ruling on the legality of the backpack’s seizure, said, “I don’t think it’s really disputed that if you’re arrested in a public place, the police are supposed to safeguard your personal property.”
Garnett said she does not need to schedule a hearing to determine whether to exclude evidence taken from the backpack, but that she reserves the right to reconsider that decision. She has yet to rule on what, if anything, should be suppressed.
“The Government searched the contents of the defendant’s notebook pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant that expressly covered, among other things, handwritten materials, including notebook entries, contained within the defendant’s backpack,” prosecutor Sean Buckley argued in an earlier court filing.
“To the extent that the defendant now seeks to challenge the validity of the Government’s warrant — an argument the defendant similarly did not make in either his moving or reply papers — that argument would also fail on the merits because the warrant, which disclosed the initial search of the defendant’s backpack by the Altoona Police Department, was supported by ample probable cause,” wrote Buckley.
Paresh Patel, a lawyer from Maryland who recently joined Mangione’s defense team, argued stalking “fails to qualify as a crime of violence” and therefore cannot be the predicate to make Mangione eligible for the death penalty.
Mangione entered the courtroom with his ankles shackled but his hands free. Unlike his recent appearance in state court, when he wore slacks and blazer, Mangione was dressed in a beige smock and pants and a white long-sleeve T-shirt as he took a seat at the defense table between defense attorneys Karen and Mark Agnifilo.
Earlier this week, prosecutors disputed a defense claim that Mangione should not face the death penalty because of a purported conflict of interest by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The defense said Bondi is continuing to benefit from a 401k established while she worked at the lobbying firm Ballard Partners, which represents UnitedHealthcare.
Prosecutors said Ballard has made no contributions to her retirement plan since her Senate confirmation as attorney general, and argued that she stands to gain nothing from a “capital outcome” in the Mangione case.
“There is simply no factual basis for the assertion that outside corporate interests influenced the Attorney General’s charging decision in any fashion. The defendant’s insinuations otherwise rest on an inaccurate financial narrative,” Buckley wrote in a court filing.
US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media outside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, April 13, 2026. Trump is highlighting the “No Tax on Tips” policy, which allows eligible workers to deduct qualified tips from their federal income taxes as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. (Photographer: Salwan Georges/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(PALM BEACH, Fla.) — Mike Tyson, Tony Robbins, and President Donald Trump walk into Mar-a-Lago.
It’s not the setup to a joke — it’s a pitch to investors.
On Saturday, all three men and 297 of the top holders of Trump’s meme coin, called $TRUMP, are expected to convene for what organizers call “the most exclusive crypto & business conference in the world” at Trump’s Florida estate — the second such bid to boost interest in Trump’s digital asset since his return to office.
The event website warns that “no gifts will be accepted,” but some attendees, by virtue of their investment in the coin, will have already spent millions of dollars — much of which flows directly to the Trump family — for the privilege of potentially lunching with the president.
Critics have panned the event as a brazen pay-for-play opportunity, accusing Trump of attempting to personally profit by selling access to the presidency.
In a letter transmitted earlier this month to the event organizer, longtime Trump friend Bill Zanker, a group of Senate Democrats sought records tied to the event, stating that “it is essential that Congress fully understand the extent to which President Trump and his family are profiting off of his cryptocurrency ventures.”
Zanker did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
President Trump launched his meme coin — a type of digital currency that’s often based on an internet meme — in January 2025, just days before his inauguration. The coin’s value initially soared to more than $44 before plummeting almost immediately.
Last May, in a bid to reinvigorate interest in the coin, Trump announced plans for an “intimate private dinner” at his golf club in Virginia. Hundreds of investors attended the event, where Trump spoke briefly and handed out gold watches to a subset of attendees, many of whom traveled from overseas and remained anonymous until arriving in person at the event.
The 2025 event in Virginia helped bolster the coin’s value for a time, but interest in the currency again tapered off. By early March 2026, its value dipped below $3, meaning that an investor who purchased $10,000 worth of Trump coins at its peak would have been left with assets worth less than $700.
Last month, when Trump announced plans for the Mar-a-Lago gala, the coin’s value climbed above $4 before settling back below $3, according to CoinGecko data.
On-chain trading activity analyzed by the cryptocurrency data firm Nansen shows that the coin generated roughly $1.35 billion in trading volume on decentralized platforms across 2.74 million transactions ahead of the gala. The Trump family earns a fee from each of those transactions, according to its website, but the structure of those transaction fees remains opaque.
Notably, the volume of tokens bought and sold ahead of the Mar-a-Lago gala remained almost entirely flat, “suggesting wallets may be flipping for leaderboard points rather than building long term positions,” said Jake Kennis, an analyst at Nansen.
At the upcoming event, top investors will receive Trump-branded watches, colognes, posters and a VIP reception with the president, according to the event website. Like the event last May, the identities of these investors are hidden behind pseudonyms or a series of letters and numbers. Attendees will hear keynote addresses from Tyson, Robbins and other business executives.
Buried in the event fine print, organizers say that “President Trump may not be able to attend” — and in fact the White House has said the president plans to attend the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington later that evening.
Critics say these events are just one way in which the president has used the office of the presidency to line his own pockets. His family business has struck several real estate licensing deals around the world over the past year, most notably in the Persian Gulf region, and he has lent his name and likeness to myriad merchandise, including watches, spirits, sneakers, Bibles, guitars and fragrances.
One year into his second administration, Trump’s personal wealth has ballooned to more than $6 billion, according to Forbes. Despite the fact that his meme coin has lost more than 94% of its value since its all-time high early last year, the transaction fees on trades for the currency has generated nearly $400 million for the president, Forbes reported.
Trump and the White House have repeatedly and forcefully denied that his private business interests create a conflict of interest.
“The President is working to secure GOOD deals for the American people, not for himself,” a White House spokesperson said when Trump held his earlier meme coin event. “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public — which is why they overwhelmingly reelected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media.”
(SAN FRANCISCO) — A young mountain lion has been spotted prowling the streets of downtown San Francisco as officials have warned people in the area to take caution.
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management issued an alert late Monday evening saying that the mountain lion was spotted in the Pacific Heights neighborhood near the intersection of Octavia Street and Pacific Avenue, just north of Lafayette Park.
One man walking his dogs, who spoke to ABC News’ San Francisco station KGO, said says he’ll be avoiding Lafayette Park for now.
“We love to see things like this like so much wildlife in the city. But a little bit concerned because you know little puppies. So we are not coming in until we know everything is safe,” said Manuel Cases, San Francisco resident.
City officials said, “if you see the mountain lion, slowly back away, do not run” and urged people to contact San Francisco’s Animal Care & Control if they see or come into contact with the animal.
