By BECKY BOHRER

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The aurora could be visible across Canada and much of the northern tier of U.S. states — and possibly further south — Monday night following a major disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field, a forecast shows.

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The forecast, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, comes amid intense geomagnetic and solar radiation storms, said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the center.

Geomagnetic storms that can lead to vivid northern lights also can interfere with satellite operations, GPS communications and other infrastructure, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Dahl said the current storm isn’t expected to become much weaker until sometime Tuesday.

In November, solar storms brought vibrant auroras to parts of Europe including Hungary and the United Kingdom, and as far south in the United States as Kansas, Colorado and Texas.

Northern lights illuminate the cloud cover over Rushmere St. Andrew, Ipswich, England, Monday Jan. 19, 2026. (Joe Pickover/PA via AP)

Solar radiation storms can affect objects in space and certain types of communications systems, but Dahl said astronauts at the international space station currently are not at risk. The intensity of this storm has not been seen in more than two decades, he said.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge refused Monday to temporarily block the Trump administration from enforcing a new policy requiring a week’s notice before members of Congress can visit immigration detention facilities.

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U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., concluded that the Department of Homeland Security didn’t violate an earlier court order when it reimposed a seven-day notice requirement for congressional oversight visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.

Cobb said she wasn’t ruling on whether the new policy passes legal muster. Rather, she said, plaintiffs’ attorneys representing several Democratic members of Congress used the wrong “procedural vehicle” to challenge it. The judge also concluded that the Jan. 8 policy is a new agency action that isn’t subject to her prior order in the plaintiffs’ favor.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers asked Cobb to intervene after three Democratic members of Congress from Minnesota were blocked from visiting an ICE facility near Minneapolis earlier this month — three days after an ICE officer shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Last month, Cobb temporarily blocked an administration oversight visit policy. She ruled Dec. 17 that it is likely illegal for ICE to demand a week’s notice from members of Congress seeking to visit and observe conditions in ICE facilities.

A day after Good’s death, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed a new memorandum reinstating another seven-day notice requirement. Plaintiffs’ lawyers said DHS didn’t disclose the latest policy until after U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig initially were turned away from an ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building.

On Monday, Cobb ruled that the new policy is similar but different than the one announced in June 2025.

“The Court emphasizes that it denies Plaintiffs’ motion only because it is not the proper avenue to challenge Defendants’ January 8, 2026 memorandum and the policy stated therein, rather than based on any kind of finding that the policy is lawful,” she wrote.

Twelve other Democratic members of Congress sued in Washington to challenge ICE’s amended visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities. Their lawsuit accused Republican President Donald Trump’s administration of obstructing congressional oversight of the centers during its nationwide surge in immigration enforcement operations.

A law bars DHS from using appropriated general funds to prevent members of Congress from entering DHS facilities for oversight purposes. Plaintiffs’ attorneys from the Democracy Forward Foundation said the administration hasn’t shown that none of those funds are being used to implement the latest notice policy.

“Appropriations are not a game. They are a law,” plaintiffs’ attorney Christine Coogle said during a hearing Wednesday.

Justice Department attorney Amber Richer said the Jan. 8 policy signed by Noem is distinct from the policies that Cobb suspended last month.

“This is really a challenge to a new policy,” Richer said.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys said the matter is urgent because members of Congress are negotiating funding for DHS and ICE for the next fiscal year with DHS’s annual appropriations due to expire Jan. 30.

“This is a critical moment for oversight, and members of Congress must be able to conduct oversight at ICE detention facilities, without notice, to obtain urgent and essential information for ongoing funding negotiations,” the lawyers wrote.

Government attorneys have said it’s merely speculative for the legislators to be concerned that conditions in ICE facilities change over the course of a week. But the judge rejected those arguments last month.

“The changing conditions within ICE facilities means that it is likely impossible for a Member of Congress to reconstruct the conditions at a facility on the day that they initially sought to enter,” wrote Cobb, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.

The New York Stock Exchange is working on a digital platform that would enable investors to trade digital tokens around the clock.

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The platform would be separate from the NYSE itself, which operates only on weekdays, and allow for instant settlement of transactions, orders sized in dollar amounts and stablecoin-based funding, NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange said Monday.

Tokenization uses blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies to create digital tokens as stand-ins for things like stocks, bonds, real estate or even fractional ownership of a piece of art that can be traded like crypto by virtually anyone, anywhere at any time. Stablecoins, which are a type of cryptocurrency typically bought and sold for $1, have helped fuel the appetite to tokenize other financial assets.

Assuming it meets regulatory scrutiny, the platform would power a new NYSE venue that would support trading of tokenized versions of company shares, the exchange said.

The development of the platform is part of Intercontinental Exchange’s bid to broaden its transaction clearing capabilities to handle 24/7 trading of tokenized securities and, potentially, the integration of tokenized collateral.

Intercontinental Exchange said it’s working with Citigroup, Bank of New York Mellon and other lenders to support tokenized deposits across the company’s six clearinghouses around the globe.

A veterinary technician at the University of Minnesota’s equine hospital stole morphine from vials, diluted the painkiller with saline and sealed them back up, charges allege.

As a result, horses treated at the Falcon Heights hospital during a two-week span last summer likely did not receive the pain relief they needed and “therefore, likely experienced unnecessary physical pain,” according to a criminal complaint charging the technician with three felonies.

The 28-year-old, from Circle Pines, was charged Friday in Ramsey County District Court by summons with theft, theft by swindle and procuring a fifth-degree controlled substance. She was placed on administrative leave from her job on Aug. 5 and later fired, the complaint says. She declined a formal interview with law enforcement.

An attorney is not listed in court case file and she was not reached Monday to respond to the allegations.

According to the complaint, hospital staff contacted law enforcement on July 31 after a vet tech and surgeon discovered that a vial of morphine from the hospital’s secure medication dispensing system was empty, even though it appeared unopened. Security caps on other morphine vials appeared to have a glue-like substance on them.

A review of the system’s user transaction reports showed that the Circle Pines woman accessed the morphine drawer 35 times between July 6 and July 21, a number that was significantly higher compared to her peers. No one else accessed the drawer during that time, besides pharmacy staff during three inventory checks, the complaint says.

Meanwhile, hospital records showed she was not assigned to treat patients with morphine during the 15-day timeframe “and therefore, had no reason to be accessing morphine,” the complaint says.

In all but one instance, the records showed, the veterinary technician generically coded her access to the morphine as “Surgery” instead of to a specific patient, which is the common practice. She then later coded them as “Cancelled,” according to the complaint.

The remaining transaction was tied to an equine patient named “Reggie,” who was never prescribed morphine and did not receive it, despite a bill that said otherwise, the complaint continued.

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When the investigation began, the dispensing system contained 29 vials of morphine. Last month, the FDA’s Forensic Chemistry Center reported that testing on all of them showed evidence of tampering — punctures and glue on stopper tops — and that the morphine was diluted by approximately 87% to 97%.

During an Aug. 5 interview with hospital administration, the woman denied making the 35 morphine transactions and said someone must have used her unique personal identification number without her knowledge to access the system. Records, however, showed she used her fingerprint to access the system for each of them, the complaint says.

According to the complaint, staff told investigators the woman has a history of painful medical issues that required narcotic pain medications for treatment.