Just days before a deadly avalanche killed eight backcountry skiers near Tahoe, the guiding company leading the trip warned on social media that unstable snowpack could trigger “unpredictable avalanches.”

Blackbird Mountain Guides posted a video Sunday on Instagram cautioning that recent snow conditions around Tahoe were creating atypical layering in the snowpack — a combination that could lead to abnormal avalanche behavior.

The company was leading 15 backcountry skiers on a three-day trek to the Frog Lake Huts when they were caught in a football field-sized avalanche Tuesday near Castle Peak.

Six people survived. Eight were killed. One skier remains missing and is presumed dead as rescue efforts shift to recovery operations amid continued storm conditions and high avalanche danger.

Three of the four guides leading the trip were among those killed.

The Instagram post, published ahead of a major winter storm expected to dump several feet of snow across the Tahoe region, warned that recent dry periods followed by new snow had created a “particularly weak layer” within the snowpack.

In the video, guides on skis dig through layers of snow at Mount Rose on the Nevada side of Tahoe, identifying what they described as a “microcrust” and a layer of “sugary weak facets.” At higher elevations, they said, the crust was “almost nonexistent.”

“This weak layer could lead to some unpredictable avalanches!” text on the screen reads as a guide sifts soft snow through his fingers.

The company explained that the snowpack was forming “atypical layering” for this point in the season.

“Typically, we’d expect small amounts of faceting between big storms, but with a crust and extended dry period for the month of January into February, faceting has been a driving force in the snowpack,” the company wrote.

That layering, the post said, resulted in a “particularly weak layer.”

“As we move into a large storm cycle this week, pay close attention to places where faceting has been particularly strong — avalanches could behave abnormally, and the hazard could last longer than normal,” the company said, urging people to “use extra caution” and monitor alerts from the Sierra Avalanche Center.

The Sierra Avalanche Center had issued an avalanche warning for the central Sierra Nevada — including the Castle Peak area — at 5 a.m. Tuesday, hours before the slide. The warning, initially set to run through early Wednesday, rated avalanche danger in the region as “high,” the second-most-dangerous level below extreme. The center later extended the warning through Wednesday.

Authorities have said severe weather has complicated efforts to determine exactly what triggered the avalanche. Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said there were “great questions” about the company’s guiding decisions, though she did not elaborate.

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A red, white and blue color scheme championed by President Donald Trump will become the new look for Air Force One, the U.S. military said Thursday.

The Air Force said a “red, white, gold and dark blue paint scheme” will be used for the updated jet that is slated to serve as Air Force One as well as other, smaller jets that routinely fly other top government officials.

The military released a rendering of the new look that matches an airplane model that has been seen in the Oval Office for meetings with foreign leaders.

A model of Air Force One sits on a table as President Donald Trump meets with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Boeing is in the process of modifying two of its 747-800 aircraft that are slated to replace the existing fleet of two aging Boeing 747-200 aircraft that the president currently uses and that take on the Air Force One call sign when the president is aboard.

In 2018, Trump directed that those new jets would ditch the iconic Kennedy-era blue-and-white design for a white-and-navy color scheme. Instead, the top half of the plane would have been white, while the bottom, including the belly, would have been dark blue. A streak of dark red would have run from the cockpit to the tail. The coloring was almost identical to the exterior of Trump’s personal plane.

An Air Force review had suggested the darker colors would increase costs and delay delivery of the new jumbo jets, and President Joe Biden reversed the decision in March 2023.

Trump told reporters last month that “we want power blue, not baby blue,” referring to the current color of the aircraft.

“Everything has its time and place. We’ll be changing the colors,” Trump added.

The Air Force’s statement says a third 747-8i Boeing jet will be painted in the same colors.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally accepted a luxury Boeing 747 jet from Qatar last May for use as Air Force One despite questions about the ethics and legality of taking the expensive gift from a foreign nation.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers last June that the security modifications to the jet would cost less than $400 million but provided no details.

Environmental advocates and residents who live near proposed data centers called for a moratorium on new hyper-scale data centers and other restrictions at a Wednesday rally at the state Capitol in St. Paul.

The call for a pause in construction across the state comes as several projects — including in Becker, North Mankato and Hampton — have halted as developers cite strenuous permitting processes in Minnesota and other states making it easier for new development. On Tuesday, in what’s believed to be a first in Minnesota, the Eagan City Council approved a one-year moratorium on new projects. And in Farmington, the mayor recently resigned following a heated public debate about a proposal there.

Some projects are still on track. A 280-acre development in Rosemount for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is under construction. Hermantown city officials recently rejected citizens’ requests for further environmental scrutiny of a 200-acre site for a data center proposal, though a lawsuit is ongoing.

As of this fall, at least 13 hyper-scale data centers had been proposed across the state — most not yet under development, and some canceled. Eleanor Dolan with “Stop the Hermantown Data Center Group” estimated that there may be up to 23 now.

“In our community, we have seen how politicians signing non-disclosure agreements, how insufficient environmental reviews and powerful corporations pushing through unwanted projects on our residents causes harm,” she said.

In the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers passed a standalone “data center bill” as part of a budget deal that repealed an electricity tax exemption for data centers. The bill also upgraded existing state tax exemptions on hardware and software to until 2042 or for 35 years, whichever comes “later” — instead of until 2042 or for 20 years, whichever comes earlier.

Republican lawmakers last year tried to push pro-data center legislation, such as permitting reform, but they didn’t make it out of committee.

Sen. Jennifer McEwen, DFL-Duluth, said Wednesday she will be introducing a moratorium on new data center construction that would be in place until a comprehensive study and regulatory framework on data centers is enacted.

“It is alarming to see how these giant corporations are influencing data center-related discussions and legislation in committee, but are not showing up often in person to answer our questions,” she said.

Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, said she will be introducing legislation to prohibit the use of non-disclosure agreements for data centers. She said she’s also looking to end tax exemptions for big tech.

“The emergence and quick integration of AI against our will into our everyday lives is deeply problematic, and it’s deeply unpopular, and it is why these big tech corporations have to use NDAs to get their data centers, because if people knew they were happening … they would stop them,” she said.

Kathy Johnson, a resident of Farmington, spoke to the lack of transparency her city has seen on data centers.

“These companies see opportunity in small towns. They see limited state regulation. They see local governments without the technical resources to fully evaluate the utility-scale industrial projects,” she said.

Johnson said information about scale, noise, light, fuel storage, water consumption and more only emerged after the permitting process was well underway.

“That is not transparency, that is a predatory strategy at its best,” she said.

Johnson said Farmington residents have turned to legal action because “citizens are ignored, dismissed, overridden, and the democratic process has failed.”

Residents from other areas where data centers have been proposed joined the rally on Wednesday.

Rebecca Gilbertson, of Hermantown, said 17 resident parcels were rezoned as a result of the project there. Aubree Derksen, from Pine Island, said “Project Skyway” is projected to be a 482-acre project with a 3 million-square-foot data center.

Data centers, which support artificial intelligence, social media, online commerce and other digital applications, require large quantities of electricity and water to keep the systems running and cool.

There are few comprehensive studies on the environmental impact, but a 2024 report released by the Department of Energy found that data centers consumed about 4.4% of total U.S. electricity in 2023 and are expected to consume approximately 6.7 to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2028.

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What to know about the homeland security shutdown

Let’s stop beating around the bush: Israel’s far-right government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is spitting in America’s face and telling us it’s raining. It’s not raining. Bibi is playing President Donald Trump and American Jews for fools. And if the U.S. lets him get away with it, we are fools.

While keeping Trump focused on the Iranian missile and nuclear threat — which, though reduced, is still very real and will have to be dealt with diplomatically or militarily — Bibi is fundamentally threatening broader U.S. interests in the Middle East, not to mention the security of Jews all over the world. In what way? I cannot put it any more succinctly than Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, did.

“A violent and criminal effort is underway to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank,” he wrote in an essay in Haaretz this month. “Gangs of armed settlers persecute, harm, wound and even kill Palestinians living there. The rampages include burning olive groves, houses and cars; breaking into homes; and physically assaulting people.” He continued, “The rioters, the Jewish terrorists, storm Palestinians with hate and violence with one objective: to force them to flee from their homes. All this is done in the hopes that the land will then be prepared for Jewish settlement, en route to realizing the dream of annexing all the territories.”

Morally reckless, demographically insane

Israel’s accelerating attempts toward annexation of the West Bank and to permanently remain in the Gaza Strip — and deny Palestinians political rights in both areas — are as morally reckless and demographically insane as would be the U.S. annexing Mexico.

If it were just Israelis who were going to be hurt by the crazy fantasy that some 7 million Israeli Jews can control about 7 million Palestinian Arabs in perpetuity, I might be tempted to say that if Israel’s leaders want to commit national suicide, I can’t stop them.

But the effects will not be confined to Israel. I believe that this messianically driven endeavor will make today’s Israel permanently indistinguishable from apartheid South Africa and will have seriously detrimental implications for U.S. interests and the interests and security of Jews all over the world.

If Netanyahu’s government stays on this course, it will rip apart Jewish institutions everywhere as members of the Jewish diaspora are forced to decide whether to stand with or against an apartheid-like Israel. It will also accelerate the trend begun by Israel’s devastation of Gaza wherein growing numbers of young Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. are turning against Israel and, at the fringes, against Jews in general.

Jewish parents around the globe will soon be in a position they never dreamed of: watching their children and grandchildren learn what it’s like to be Jewish in a world where the Jewish state is a pariah state.

Iran’s a threat, but …

A poll by the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, conducted by YouGov in November, found that 51% of Republican voters younger than 45 said they preferred to support a candidate in the 2028 presidential primary who favored reducing taxpayer-funded weapon transfers to Israel. Only 27% favored a candidate who would increase or maintain weapon supplies. Democratic candidates today who do not describe Israel’s war in Gaza as a genocide face real headwinds with young progressive voters.

At the Munich Security Conference last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was asked if she thought “the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2028 elections should reevaluate military aid to Israel.” She answered, “I think that, personally, the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense. I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza.”

As I said when I began, Netanyahu has played Trump for a sucker, as well as the pro-Israel lobby led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and many other so-called American Jewish leaders. He has gotten them to focus on Iran and ignore the fact that everything he is doing in Gaza, in the West Bank and inside Israel will strain ties between the U.S. and its major Middle East allies, including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Qatar.

Yes, Iran remains a reduced but very real nuclear threat after Israeli and U.S. airstrikes hit its nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile facilities in June. It has already largely rebuilt its stock of ballistic missiles that could do real physical damage to Israel if war resumes. I take that very seriously.

Assault on rule of law

But focusing exclusively on the external threat from Iran ignores the internal threat Netanyahu’s government poses to Israel and its standing as a rule-of-law democracy and unified society. Netanyahu has been engaged in a three-year effort, even during the war in Gaza, to carry out a judicial coup that would all but eliminate the separation of powers in Israel — one that enables its Supreme Court to check the excesses of the governing political party. Is Iran responsible for that? No.

Has Iran been engaged in a relentless effort to purge or disempower Israel’s courageous, independent attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara? No, but Bibi has. That attorney general, backed by the Supreme Court, is the only thing standing in the way of further assaults on a rules-based government: the dismissal of Netanyahu’s corruption trial but also Bibi’s efforts to politicize civil service appointments and a wholesale exemption from military service for the ultra-Orthodox Jews who keep him in power.

Has Iran blocked establishment of an independent commission of inquiry into the incredible intelligence and leadership failure before Hamas’ murderous Oct. 7, 2023, invasion? No, but Bibi has. That invasion not only happened on Netanyahu’s watch but was clearly caused in part by his efforts to prove to the world that Israel could have peace with the Arab states without making peace with the Palestinians.

Hamas grew in strength thanks to Netanyahu’s long efforts to prop up Hamas with Qatari money so the Palestinian leadership would always be divided between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. That way, Bibi could tell every U.S. president that he was so sorry that he had no unified Palestinian peace partner to negotiate with.

Did Iran nominate Bibi cronies with inexperienced backgrounds to run Israel’s most important security organizations — the Shin Bet and Mossad? No, Bibi did.

What prompted Trump to publicly demand that the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, pardon Netanyahu — even before a verdict — for the corruption charges he has been indicted on? It would be a terrible blow to the rule of law in Israel. It certainly was not Iran.

Here’s what’s truly crazy

And here is what is truly crazy. Israel today has never been more militarily feared and technologically admired by its Arab neighbors, because of the blows that it dealt Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. If Netanyahu engaged in negotiations for a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority — on any reasonable terms — it would pave the way for peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

The whole neighborhood, and the whole Muslim world beyond it, would open up to Israel; Iran would be totally isolated. Israeli technology and Arab energy would create an amazing synergy for the age of artificial intelligence.

That would be a huge boon to U.S. interests. While some complications would surely persist, the Middle East would essentially be making peace under a U.S. umbrella. And the reduction in tensions between Israel and the Arab world would allow the Trump administration to do what the past several U.S. administrations have craved doing: reduce its military presence in the region and shift its focus to counterbalancing China in Asia.

Unfortunately, Bibi has other priorities.

The greatest threat

Iran is not the greatest threat to Israel as a democracy governed by the rule of law. It is not the greatest threat to U.S.-Israeli relations. It is not the greatest threat to the unity and security of Jews around the world. It is not the reason so many talented Israeli technologists, engineers and doctors are moving away. And it is not the biggest reason Israel is becoming an apartheid state not only by refusing to try anymore to create a separate Palestinian state but also by working instead to make that impossible.

That title goes to the government of messianic zealots, Arab-hating nationalists and anti-modern ultra-Orthodox Israelis put together by Netanyahu to keep himself in power.

Thomas Friedman writes a column for the New York Times.