Twin Cities, brace for slop. The National Weather Service in Chanhassen has issued a winter weather advisory that runs from noon Tuesday through 6 a.m. Wednesday and calls for heavy winds and mixed precipitation, as in a rotating mix of snow and freezing rain well into the night.

When all is said and done Wednesday, as much as 4 to 7 inches of snow could accumulate, especially along Interstate 94. Given slippery roads and wind gusts of up to 30 to 40 miles per hour, travel is expected to be difficult from Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning. Metro Mobility and other transit service providers are encouraging passengers to expect delays and consider rescheduling their rides.

“When extreme winter conditions exist, it is always safest to stay where you are,” reads a statement from Metro Mobility.

West St. Paul declares snow emergency

The city of West St. Paul has called a pre-emptive snow emergency that will begin at 2 a.m. Wednesday.

To avoid being towed, avoid parking after 2 a.m. on snow emergency routes such as Annapolis, Butler, Stryker, Thompson and Wentworth until they have been fully plowed.

Heaviest snow forecast along, north of I-94

According to the National Weather Service, the heaviest snow is likely along and north of I-94, where “a narrow band of 4 to 7 inches of snow is possible.” South of I-94, snowfall totals could be lower. Wednesday’s high temperature could reach 24 degrees, a relative sauna compared to the coming weekend.

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After the snow, rain and wind comes the cold.

There’s a 30% chance of snow during the day Thursday, when high temperatures will be around 17 degrees, and a 50% chance of snow Thursday night. By Friday, afternoon temperatures could fall to around 4 degrees, and the high on Saturday is expected to be 1 degree.

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japan issued a megaquake advisory Tuesday after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck off the eastern coast of Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of Japan’s main island of Honshu, and just south of the northern island of Hokkaido. Damage from this quake was modest — 34 mostly mild injuries and some damage to roads and buildings.

Officials said the advisory is not a prediction and the probability of a magnitude 8 or larger quake is only about 1%. But there’s hope the advisory will serve as a wake-up call for a quake that could have the devastation of the 2011 disaster that killed nearly 20,000 people and destroyed a nuclear plant.

There’s said to be an increased risk of a subsequent, magnitude-8 or larger quake within the next week. Officials are urging residents, especially along coastal areas, to be well prepared so they can grab an emergency bag and run as soon as possible if a bigger quake hits.

This advisory seemed mindful compared with another advisory last year. The southern half of Japan’s Pacific coastline received a “Nankai Trough” megaquake advisory in the summer of 2024, but the ambiguity of that warning led to panic buying of emergency food, event cancellations and business closures.

People cover the broken glasses with a blue sheet at a beauty salon in Hachinohe, Aomori prefecture, northern Japan Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, following a powerful earthquake on late Monday. (Kazuki Kozaki/Kyodo News via AP)

A megaquake advisory for Japan’s northeastern coast

The Japan Meteorological Agency says Monday’s powerful quake temporarily increased potential risks in the regions of Hokkaido and the Sanriku coast. That’s where the Pacific Plate beneath Japan forms the two trenches — the Japan Trench and Chishima Trench — that have caused many large quakes in the past.

Experts say the deadly quake and tsunami in 2011 was caused by movement associated with the Japan Trench. It spans from off the eastern coast of Chiba to Aomori, and the Chishima Trench goes from the eastern coast of Hokkaido to the northern islands and the Kurils.

In explaining the advisory, the JMA said the magnitude 9.0 quake on March 11, 2011, that devastated large swaths of Japan’s northern coast occurred two days after a magnitude 7.3 temblor that occurred at the Japan Trench off the eastern coast of Iwate, one of the hardest-hit areas in that disaster as well as in Monday’s quake.

The 2011 quake caused a tsunami that battered northern coastal towns in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. The tsunami, which topped 15 meters (50 feet) in some areas, slammed into and destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. That created deep fears of radiation that linger to this day.

A man clears the debris from a powerful earthquake at a commercial facility in Hachinohe, Aomori prefecture, northern Japan Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (Ren Onuma/Kyodo News via AP)

A megaquake could cause a 98-foot tsunami and kill nearly 200,000

Another offshore megaquake in the Hokkaido-Sanriku area could cause up to a 30-meter (98-foot) tsunami in the region, kill as many as 199,000 people, destroy up to 220,000 houses and buildings, and cause estimated economic damages of up to 31 trillion yen ($198 billion), according to an estimate by the government. It says as many as 42,000 people could suffer from hypothermia in the winter.

The areas covered by the advisory extend across 182 municipalities from Hokkaido to Chiba Prefecture.

Japan’s separate advisory for an even more damaging megaquake stemming from the Nankai Trough, which affects the southern half of Japan’s Pacific coast, was activated for the first time last August after a magnitude 7.1 quake occurred off the eastern coast of Miyazaki.

In a 2013 damage estimate for a possible Nankai Trough megaquake, the government said a magnitude 9.1 quake could generate a tsunami exceeding 10 meters (33 feet) within minutes, killing as many as 323,000 people, destroying more than 2 million buildings and causing economic damage exceeding 200 trillion yen ($1.28 trillion) in the region.

Officials call on people to be calm and prepared

Officials are stressing that the latest advisory has no prediction for any megaquake happening at any specific time or location, a Cabinet official for disaster prevention, Tsukasa Morikubo, told a news conference early Tuesday. He called on residents to be cautious and prepared while continuing their daily activity and work.

Officials urge people to keep an emergency bag containing a few days’ worth of daily necessities along with shoes and helmets. People in the region are also advised to discuss evacuation procedures with family members and sleep in day clothes, not in pajamas, so they can flee immediately. Furniture should also be fixed to the floor or the wall.

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The designated municipalities explained the advisory on their websites and started inspecting stocks of relief goods and equipment to be used at evacuation centers.

Iwaki City in Fukushima urged residents to register for emergency emails, while officials in the town of Oarai in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, inspected wireless communication devices.

Japan’s first megaquake advisory in August of last year contained a lot of scientific jargon. It worried and baffled many across the country. Some towns closed beaches and canceled annual events, disappointing many travelers during Japan’s Buddhist holidays.

Many people postponed planned trips and rushed to stock up on rice, dried noodles, bottled water and portable toilets, leaving shelves empty at many supermarkets in western Japan and even Tokyo, which is outside of the at-risk area.

By LEAH WILLINGHAM and KATHY McCORMACK, Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge has allowed a Tufts University student from Turkey to resume research and teaching while she deals with the consequences of having her visa revoked by the Trump administration, leading to six weeks of detention.

The arrest of Rümeysa Öztürk, a PhD student studying children’s relationship to social media, was among the first as the Trump administration began targeting foreign-born students and activists involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy. She had co-authored an op-ed criticizing her university’s response to Israel and the war in Gaza. Caught on video in March outside her Somerville residence, immigration enforcement officers took her away in an unmarked vehicle.

Öztürk has been out of a Louisiana immigrant detention center since May and back on the Tufts campus. But she’s been unable to teach or participate in research as part of her studies because of the termination of her record in the government’s database of foreign students studying temporarily in the U.S.

In her ruling Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper wrote that Öztürk is likely to succeed on claims that the termination was “arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law and in violation of the First Amendment.”

Government argued that termination was legal

The government’s lawyers unsuccessfully argued that the Boston federal court lacked jurisdiction and that Öztürk’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System record (SEVIS) record was terminated legally after her visa was revoked, making her eligible for removal proceedings.

“There’s no statute or regulation that’s been violated by the termination of the SEVIS record in this case,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter said during a hearing last week. The Associated Press sent an email Tuesday seeking comment from Sauter on whether the government plans to appeal.

In a statement, Öztürk, who plans to graduate next year, said while she is grateful for the court’s decision, she feels “a great deal of grief” for the education she has been “arbitrarily denied as a scholar and a woman in my final year of doctoral studies.”

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“I hope one day we can create a world where everyone uses education to learn, connect, civically engage and benefit others — rather than criminalize and punish those whose opinions differ from our own,” said Öztürk, who is still challenging her arrest and detention.

The then-30-year-old was one of four students who wrote the opinion piece in the campus newspaper. It criticized the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Öztürk, who is Muslim, was meeting friends in March for iftar, a meal that breaks a fast at sunset during Ramadan, according to her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai. Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, her lawyers said. The government asserted that terminating her SEVIS record two hours after her arrest was a proper way of informing Tufts University about her visa revocation.

A State Department memo said Öztürk’s visa was revoked following an assessment that her actions “‘may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization’ including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.”

Öztürk running out of time to pursue teaching, research goals

Without her SEVIS status reinstated, Öztürk said she couldn’t qualify as a paid research assistant and couldn’t fully reintegrate into academic life at Tufts.

“We have a strange kind of legal gaslighting here, where the government claims it’s just a tinkering in a database, but this is really something that has a daily impact on Ms. Öztürk’s life,” her attorney, Adriana Lafaille of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said in court.

“We are running out of time to make this right. Each day that goes by is a day that she is being prevented from doing the work that she loves in the graduate program that she came here to be part of. Each day that this happens is a day that the government is allowed to continue to punish her for her protected speech.”

Öztürk, meanwhile, has maintained a full course load and fulfilled all requirements to maintain her lawful student status, which the government hasn’t terminated, her lawyer said.

Record created to collect information on international students

SEVIS is mandated by Congress in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 and administered by the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement “to collect information relating to nonimmigrant foreign students” and “use such information to carry out the enforcement functions of” ICE.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, when a SEVIS record is terminated, a student loses all on and/ or off-campus employment authorization and allows ICE agents to investigate to “confirm the departure of the student.”

McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Opponents of Missouri’s new congressional map submitted thousands of petition signatures Tuesday calling for a statewide referendum on a redistricting plan backed by President Donald Trump as part of his quest to hold on to a slim Republican majority in next year’s elections.

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Organizers of the petition drive said they turned in more than 300,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office — well more than the roughly 110,000 needed to suspend the new U.S. House districts from taking effect until a public vote can be held next year.

The signatures must still be formally verified by local election authorities and Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, who has argued the referendum is unconstitutional. But if the signatures hold up, the referendum could create a significant obstacle for Republicans who hope the new districts could help them win a currently Democratic-held seat in the Kansas City area in the November election.

State law automatically sets referendum votes for the November election, unless the General Assembly approves an earlier date during its regular session that begins in January.

Redistricting typically happens once a decade, after each census. But the national political parties are engaged in an unusual mid-decade redistricting battle after Trump urged Republican-led states to reshape House voting districts to their advantage. The Republican president is trying to avert a historical tendency for the incumbent’s party to lose seats in midterm elections.

Each House seat could be crucial, because Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to win control of the chamber and impede Trump’s agenda.

Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians, stands alongside boxes of petition signatures submitted Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, to the secretary of state’s office in Jefferson City, Mo. calling for a referendum election on new U.S. House districts approved by the Missouri legislature. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb)

Redistricting is spreading through states

Texas was the first to respond to Trump’s call by passing a new congressional map that could help Republicans win five additional seats. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way last week for the new districts to be used in the 2026 elections.

Republicans could gain one seat each under new maps passed in Missouri and North Carolina and have an improved chance at taking two additional seats under a new Ohio congressional map. In Indiana, senators are considering a proposal this week that also could help Republicans win two additional seats.

Democrats scored a victory in California, where voters in November approved a new Democratic-drawn congressional map that could help the party win five additional seats. Democrats could gain a seat in Utah under new congressional districts imposed by a judge.

But Republicans are challenging both states’ measures in court. And Utah lawmakers are meeting in a special session Tuesday to consider delaying the candidate filing deadline to allow more time for the legal challenge.

Virginia Democrats have also taken a first step toward mid-decade redistricting, with additional votes expected in the new year.

Missouri referendum sparks intense battle

The group sponsoring Missouri’s referendum campaign, People Not Politicians, has raised about $5 million, coming mostly from out-of-state organizations opposed to the new map. National Republican-aligned groups have countered with more than $2 million for a committee supporting the new map.

Republicans have tried to thwart the referendum in numerous ways.

Organizations supporting the Republican redistricting have attempted to pay people up to $30,000 to quit gathering petition signatures, according to a lawsuit filed by Advanced Micro Targeting Inc., a company hired by People Not Politicians.

Hoskins, the secretary of state, contends he cannot legally count about 100,000 petition signatures gathered in the one-month span between legislative passage of the redistricting bill and his approval of the referendum petition’s format, but can only count those gathered after that.

Hoskins also wrote a ballot summary stating the new map “repeals Missouri’s existing gerrymandered congressional plan … and better reflects statewide voting patterns.” That’s the opposite of what referendum backers contends it does, and People Not Politicians is challenging that wording in court.

Meanwhile, Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Hoskins and the General Assembly asserting that congressional redistricting legislation cannot be subject to a referendum. Although a federal judge dismissed that suit Monday, the judge noted that Hoskins has “the power to declare the petition unconstitutional himself,” which would likely trigger a new court case.

Missouri’s restricting effort already has sparked an intense court battle. Lawsuits by opponents challenge the legality of Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe’s special session proclamation, assert that mid-decade redistricting isn’t allowed under Missouri’s constitution, and claim the new districts run afoul of requirements to be compact, contiguous and equally populated.

It’s been more than a century since Missouri last held a referendum on a congressional redistricting plan. In 1922, the U.S. House districts approved by the Republican-led legislature were defeated by nearly 62% of the statewide vote.