A snowstorm will sweep across Minnesota on Tuesday afternoon dumping as much as 8 inches of snow in some spots and creating hazardous travel conditions in areas such as southern Minnesota, where high winds will cause blowing snow.

“We’ll have a potent little clipper system beginning to move in roughly midday with flakes as early as 11 a.m. and the heart of the system will hit by two o’clock at the latest,” said Tyler Hasenstein, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Twin Cities.

The system, coming in from west to east, will move across the entire state and then begin swooping toward the southeast later in the day.

Snowfall rates are expected to be as much as one to two inches an hour with a total that may reach 6-8 inches of snow overall. The majority of the snow will be in northern Minnesota, from St. Cloud to Duluth, but those as far south as Mankato will also see snow.

More of a concern than the snow in the southeast parts of the state are high winds, which could create blizzard conditions, he said.

“If you are in those areas, travel will be difficult because of blowing snow,” he said, noting the winds will kick up snow from Granite Falls to Mankato and further south in the afternoon.

Southern portions of the Twin Cities metro could see a mix of snow and rain and some freezing rain.

“The Twin Cities will see periods of a wintery mix of all three types that will trend toward mainly snow,” he said.

The storm system will move through the state “pretty quickly” he said. By 6 a.m. Wednesday there will be light snow continuing but it should end by noon.

The average highs this time of year are in the upper 20s and Tuesday will see a high of 33 degrees.

“It will be one of the warmer days over the past few weeks but the trade off is that it comes with the snow.”

Hasenstein said there is another chance for light snow showers beginning Thursday morning through the afternoon and then most of Friday before the snow ends. Thursday through Friday will bring between up to an inch of snow, he said, similar to what was expected Monday evening.

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By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he would allow Nvidia to sell an advanced type of computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China.

There have been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips to be sold to China as it could help the country better compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities, but there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.

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The chip, known as the H200, is not Nvidia’s most advanced product. Those chips, called Blackwell and the upcoming Rubin, were not part of what Trump approved.

Trump said on social media that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping about his decision and “President Xi responded positively!”

“This policy will support American Jobs, strengthen U.S. Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers,” Trump said in his post.

Trump said the Commerce Department was “finalizing the details” for other chipmakers such as AMD and Intel to sell their technologies abroad.

The approval of the licenses to sell Nvidia H200 chips reflects the increasing power and close relationship that the company’s founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, enjoys with the president. But there have been concerns that China will find ways to use the chips to develop its own AI products in ways that could pose national security risks for the U.S., a primary concern of the Biden administration that sought to limit exports.

Nvidia has a market cap of $4.5 trillion and Trump’s announcement appeared to drive the stock slightly higher in after hours trading.

By DANIELLA MATAR and STEPHEN WHYNO, Associated Press

MILAN (AP) — Hockey, one of the premier events at the Winter Olympics and one that is welcoming NHL players back for the first time in more than a decade, will take place on ice that is shorter than NHL-regulation size.

Men’s and women’s games at two arenas will be played in rinks that are 60 meters long by 26 meters wide, or 196.85-by-85.3 feet. NHL dimensions are 200 by 85 feet, so the Olympic ice will be slightly wider and more than 3 feet shorter.

The International Ice Hockey Federation approved the Milan rinks, which fit one of the governing body’s standard sizes and was used by the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators for two games in Stockholm in November.

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The IIHF shifted to the NHL dimensions at the Olympics beginning in 2018 and used again in 2022. The 2026 Games in February mark the first time NHL players will be at the Olympics since 2014 in Sochi.

The IIHF on Monday confirmed the different size was in place in Milan without explanation.

“While these dimensions differ slightly from a typical NHL rink, they are consistent with IIHF regulations, match the rink size used at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and are fully consistent with the dimensions the NHL requires as part of its Global Series Game arena specifications,” the federation said. “All involved, the IIHF, the Organizing Committee, NHL, NHLPA, IOC and the relevant venue authorities agree that the differences in rink specifications are insignificant, and should not impact either the safety or quality of game play.”

Olympic hockey had been played on international ice of 60 by 30 meters (196.85 by 98.4 feet) in 1998, 2006 and 2014, with a slight variation in Salt Lake City in 2002. It was played on NHL-sized ice in Vancouver in 2010 because of the existing arenas.

“It’s the same for every team, and I think that’s the bottom line,” Finland men’s hockey general manager Jere Lehtinen told The Associated Press. “Our coaches, maybe it’s more interesting and something you need to pay attention more.”

Canada general manager Doug Armstrong first brought up the ice being slightly off from NHL regulation size on a podcast in early September and then discussed it again in October. National federations have been aware of the specs for quite some time; Canada assistant coach Peter DeBoer broached the topic recently on a radio show, raising questions about why it’s not NHL-sized ice.

The ice dimensions will be the same in both hockey arenas in February: the main arena that is still being built and the smaller, temporary venue that is situated inside an exhibition center.

Construction at the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena — the new, 16,000-seat venue on the outskirts of Milan — is going down to the wire and organizers told The AP that there was “no plan B.”

A test event had to be moved to the Rho Ice Hockey Arena and new test events at the main venue aren’t scheduled until Jan. 9-11, less than a month before the first puck is dropped. Workers on Friday were still putting the finishing touches to the venue in Rho, just three days before the start of the IIHF Group B Under 20 World Championship that will serve as a test event.

“We’re aware that they’re behind schedule a little bit, but we’re all assuming that that’ll all be taken care of,” Canada men’s assistant coach Bruce Cassidy said last week.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has brought up logistics concerns repeatedly. At the league’s annual fall Board of Governors meeting in October, he said: “We are constrained in what we can and can’t do, request and demand and if it reached a certain point, we’ll have to deal with it. But I’m not speculating, and we’ve been constantly assured by the IOC and the IIHF that it will be OK.”

The men’s Olympic hockey tournament is scheduled from Feb. 11-22. The women’s tournament runs from Feb. 5-19.

Whyno reported from New York.

By ALI SWENSON and NICKY FORSTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of Americans signing up for Affordable Care Act health insurance for 2026 is moderately higher than it was at a similar time last year, initial new federal data shows, even as subsidies set to expire at the end of 2025 will make the coverage more expensive for many.

Seen at face value, the data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services seems to defy predictions that many Americans facing pricier plans would drop out of marketplace coverage altogether next year. But experts caution that the numbers are an incomplete snapshot of total enrollment, which could still show a decline by the end of the open enrollment period.

“Overall, it’s just too early to know what any of this means,” said Jason Levitis, a senior fellow in the health policy division at the Urban Institute.

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The data released Friday shows that by day 29 of the window for Americans to shop for Affordable Care Act plans this year, nearly 5.8 million people had picked one. That’s nearly 400,000 more enrollments than by day 30 of the open enrollment period last year.

Meanwhile, this year’s enrollment numbers are about 1.5 million lower than the 7.3 million or so people who had signed up 32 days into the open enrollment period two years ago, showing there is some fluctuation year to year in when people sign up for coverage.

In most states, for Americans who want coverage to start Jan. 1, the window to shop for Affordable Care Act coverage began Nov. 1 and ends Dec. 15. People who want their coverage to start later can continue to select plans through Jan. 15.

Five years ago, about 12 million people selected an Affordable Care Act plan. Enhanced tax credits were introduced the following year and four years later enrollment had doubled to over 24 million. Today, millions of people benefit from the enhanced subsidies — and if they expire as expected in the new year, the average person who receives a subsidy will see their annual premiums more than double, according to health care research nonprofit KFF.

The tax credits have been at the heart of fierce discussions in Congress in recent weeks, with Democrats insisting that they be extended to help Americans with rising health costs. The Senate is expected to vote this week on a Democratic proposal to extend the subsidies without major changes. But Republicans in charge have already rejected that proposal, and hopes for any extension are diminishing with many Republicans opposed.

Experts said there are various potential explanations for this year’s enrollment numbers tracking higher so far, including that Affordable Care Act health insurance has been prominent in the news as Congress debates a solution to the expiring subsidies.

Another factor is that older, sicker people tend to choose their health plans earlier in the enrollment period because they know they will purchase coverage regardless of the cost. Americans on the fence about canceling, meanwhile, could be considering their options or waiting to see whether Congress comes to a last-minute extension of the expiring subsidies.

Levitis of the Urban Institute noted that people may be swapping higher-tier plans for less expensive ones that have pricier deductibles and only later canceling, which could be causing a delay in the impact of the expiring subsidies on enrollment.

“All of this stuff takes a while to diffuse through the system,” he said.

Joe Antos, a health economist at the business-oriented American Enterprise Institute, said Republicans will likely try to prop up the latest data as evidence that expiring subsidies won’t have a negative impact on people being able to afford health coverage.

But “that’s not going to change what politicians in red states know,” Antos said, noting that many Republicans in vulnerable U.S. House districts are aware they could face backlash from working-class constituents next year if an extension is not reached.