By Gloria Pazmino, Katherine Koretski, CNN

(CNN) — Three days after an attempted ISIS-inspired terror attack outside his home, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood in a pre-school classroom on Staten Island to announce expanded childcare highlighting one of the key pillars of his agenda.

But Mamdani was peppered with questions about Saturday’s attack, which unfolded as counterprotesters clashed with a group of demonstrators who gathered in front of Gracie Mansion to attend a protest “against Islam.”

Mamdani, who made history as the city’s first Muslim to be elected mayor, has previously spoken out against Islamophobia and the threats he faces as one of the highest profile Muslims in the country.

“The thing that affects me more is not language that people use to describe me, but that it’s language that they use to describe so many who call this city home,” Mamdani said Tuesday when asked about the anti-Islamic demonstration. “In that protest, there is a vision of a city that does not leave room for more than a million Muslims who call this city their home, and it is a vision that I abhor.”

Every mayor of New York City since September 11, 2001, has had to deal with terrorist attacks in the city. But the response by Mamdani – whose mayoral campaign was dominated by acrimonious discourse over his support of Palestinian rights, his Muslim faith and his criticism of the Israeli government – was closely watched by critics who suggested the mayor had failed to quickly and forcefully speak out against the attacks.

Mamdani’s first public comments on the incident came Sunday afternoon, after the NYPD announced that the devices recovered from the scene Saturday were intended to cause harm.

The mayor was briefed by senior staff after the clashes began and he was in close communication with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Saturday and Sunday. Aides to the mayor said he was focused on the city’s safety given the heightened threat environment and stressed he did not want to jeopardize the investigation or speculate before law enforcement had definitive details about the suspects.

Still, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran against Mamdani in the 2025 mayoral race, suggested the mayor’s response was insufficient. Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican from Florida, accused Mamdani of “defending and protecting Muslim terrorists” in a social media post. GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina piled on, writing on social media, “New York deserves better.”

Despite the criticism, Mamdani said the weekend’s unrest was disconnected from the city’s core values and experiences of average every day New Yorkers.

“I think we do need a city that has respect for every single New Yorker, and that’s the city that I grew up in, that’s the city that I love,” Mamdani said. “I also think that oftentimes when we see these kinds of displays, they are not coming from New Yorkers. The protests that we’re speaking about, we’re talking about people who come from out of state with a vision of a city that does not match up to the one that we love and that we live in.”

A ‘heinous act of ter

By Arit John, CNN

(CNN) — Mississippi’s Senate primaries set up a general election showdown between an incumbent and a challenger she blocked from federal judgeship.

CNN projected Tuesday that Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Scott Colom, a district attorney, will win their parties’ primaries and face off in November.

The matchup comes three years after Hyde-Smith opposed former President Joe Biden’s nomination of Colom to serve as a US district court judge, a lifetime appointment. Under Senate tradition, judicial nominees typically only move forward if their home-state senators return “blue slips” approving the pick.

The state’s senior senator, Roger Wicker, approved of Colom’s nomination, as did two of the state’s past Republican governors, Haley Barbour and Phil Bryant.

Hyde-Smith said at the time she was against Colom’s nomination because of past support he received from liberal donor George Soros, who donated to a political action committee that backed his first district attorney race. She also cited his support for transgender rights – he was one of several prosecutors who signed onto a 2021 letter to “condemn the ongoing efforts to criminalize transgender people and gender-affirming healthcare across the country.”

Hyde-Smith will be heavily favored in the general election. Mississippi has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1982, when voters reelected segregationist John Stennis. President Donald Trump won the state in 2024 by 23 points, but Hyde-Smith’s races have been closer. In 2020, she beat former US Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy by 10 points, even as Trump carried the state by 17.

Democrats have been buoyed by signs they are making modest gains in the state, which has the highest percentage of Black residents in the country. The Democratic candidate lost the 2023 gubernatorial race by three points, and last year, the party picked up a handful of seats in the state legislature under new, court-ordered maps.

If elected, Colom would be the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction.

Colom, a seventh-generation Mississippi native, defeated an incumbent who’d been in office nearly 30 years in his 2015 district attorney race. He has pitched himself as a tough-on-crime Democrat and emphasized his record as a prosecutor.

Colom defeated Democrats Albert Littell and Priscilla W. Till, a distant relative of lynching victim Emmett Till, in Tuesday’s primary. Hyde-Smith fended off a primary challenge from physician Sarah Adlakha.

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Por meteorólogos Mary Gilbert y Chris Dolce, CNN

La creciente amenaza de tornados especialmente fuertes ha provocado que se emita la alerta de riesgo de tormentas eléctricas severas más alta en meses en algunas zonas del Medio Oeste de Estados Unidos.

Todo ello forma parte de una posible ola de tormentas potentes más extendida en el centro de Estados Unidos este martes, a medida que se desarrolla y se intensifica un nuevo sistema de tormentas en la región.

Se emitió una alerta de nivel 4 sobre 5 por tormentas eléctricas severas para más de 2 millones de personas en el norte de Illinois y el noroeste de Indiana, incluyendo Peoria y Bloomington, Illinois.

Aunque la ola de la semana pasada trajo consigo múltiples tornados mortales, esta es la primera vez que se emite una alerta por tormentas severas de este nivel desde el 28 de julio de 2025.

Esta zona de riesgo de nivel 4 de 5 es donde “múltiples tornados fuertes a intensos (EF2 a EF3)” podrían azotar a última hora de la tarde y por la noche, según el Centro de Predicción de Tormentas. Tornados de esta intensidad pueden destruir pisos enteros de casas bien construidas y causar daños importantes a edificios grandes.

También podrían caer granizos del tamaño de una lima o más grandes de las tormentas supercelulares que se desarrollan en este corredor, lo suficientemente grandes como para abollar coches y dañar tejados.

Estas tormentas eléctricas severas se desplazarán hacia el este durante la noche y se extenderán a más zonas de los Grandes Lagos, pero perderán parte de su intensidad por la mañana.

Daños por viento, granizo destructivo y tornados son amenazas desde Texas hasta Michigan, incluyendo áreas fuera de la zona de mayor riesgo.

El área metropolitana de Dallas-Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Chicago e Indianápolis son algunas de las ciudades que podrían ver estas poderosas tormentas.

El área desde Texas, incluyendo Dallas-Forth Worth, hasta el sur de Oklahoma también tiene un nivel 3 de 5 de riesgo alto de tormentas severas, con tormentas que se formarán a última hora de la tarde o al anochecer en el oeste de Texas y avanzarán hacia el este desde allí.

Ráfagas de viento dañinas de más de 70 mph (112 km/h) y granizo más grande que pelotas de béisbol son las principales amenazas con cualquiera de estas tormentas. También son posibles tornados y algunos podrían ser fuertes —EF2 o más intensos. Las casas móviles son destruidas y los techos pueden desprenderse de casas bien construidas en tornados de esta intensidad.

Todavía podrían estar formándose poderosas tormentas temprano en la mañana del miércoles desde el Valle Inferior de Mississippi hasta el Valle de Ohio, pero una amenaza renovada llegará en la tarde.

Existe un riesgo generalizado de nivel 2 de 5 de tormentas severas el miércoles para más de 55 millones de personas desde Texas y Louisiana hasta Pensilvania.

Vientos dañinos son la principal amenaza con cualquier tormenta el miércoles. Algunos tornados son posibles, especialmente en el Valle Inferior de Mississippi y partes de Ohio, Pensilvania y Virginia Occidental.

No se esperan tormentas severas generalizadas el jueves.

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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) Santa Barbara Police Chief Kelly Gordon read a statement of values to the Santa Barbara City Council in an effort to re-affirm its commitment to the community in the midst of Federal Immigration Enforcement Activities.

Speakers urged the council to stand with the people and do more.

They commented on the recent assault of residents.

Councilmembers have already adopted a resolution condemning aggressive and non-transparant ICE tactics.

A speaker urged the council to strengthen the past resolution.

A member of Indivisible Santa Barbara asked the council to continue the subject to improve the drafting and tone of value statement.

Your News Channel will update this issue when the council acts.

The post Santa Barbara Police Chief reads statement of values to re-affirm city’s response to Immigration Enforcement and Commitment to Community Policing appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) Santa Barbara Police Chief Kelly Gordon read a statement of values to the Santa Barbara City Council in an effort to re-affirm its commitment to the community in the midst of Federal Immigration Enforcement Activities.

Speakers urged the council to stand with the people and do more.

They commented on the recent assault of residents.

Councilmembers have already adopted a resolution condemning aggressive and non-transparant ICE tactics.

A speaker urged the council to strengthen the past resolution.

A member of Indivisible Santa Barbara asked the council to continue the subject to improve the drafting and tone of value statement.

Your News Channel will update this issue when the council acts.

The post Santa Barbara Police Chief reads statement of values to re-affirm city’s response to Immigration Enforcement and Commitment to Community Policing appeared first on News Channel 3-12.