By Matthew J. Friedman, Shimon Prokupecz, Rachel Clarke, CNN

(CNN) — After 9 days of testimony and calling 35 witnesses to the stand, the state on Tuesday rested its case against Adrian Gonzales, the former Uvalde school police officer who was first on scene at the Robb Elementary massacre in 2022, but Texas prosecutors say failed to delay or stop the killer.

Gonzales has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child endangerment or abandonment, one count for each of the 19 children who were killed and 10 who survived. It is only the second case ever brought against a school police officer for allegedly failing to act during an active shooter situation.

The attack remains one of the deadliest US school shootings, a continuing scourge that has spurred security measures in classrooms across America.

Through the testimony of teachers and parents, among others, prosecutors tried to show Gonzales was told a description of the gunman and where he was headed and had enough time to act.

They called the only surviving teacher from inside the room with the gunman, who showed his scars to the jury; the parents of children who were killed or wounded, who gave tearful and emotional testimony; medical experts, who described in disturbing detail how the gunman’s high-powered rifle obliterated the bodies of 9- and 10-year-olds; and a therapist, who testified about the psychological damage suffered by survivors.

Prosecutors also called several law enforcement officers who responded to the scene, showing some of their body camera footage that captured Gonzales, and others who testified as experts on active shooter response protocols.

The state’s final witness, a former Texas Ranger who created an animation of the first arriving officer’s movements, took more than four hours of intense cross-examination.

Gonzales’s defense attorney probed for inconsistencies in the former Ranger’s timeline and repeatedly questioned the actions of officers other than Gonzales as they arrived on the scene and whether they could have stopped the shooter.

The questioning drew repeated objections from prosecutors, and the judge admonished both sides for speaking to each other across the courtroom instead of directing objections to him.

Gonzales seemed mostly stoic while sitting at the defense table wi

By Nadeen Ebrahim, Eyad Kourdi, CNN

(CNN) — Syrian forces are hunting ISIS fugitives after dozens escaped from a prison in northeastern Syria, the interior ministry said, as the government moves to take territory from Kurdish fighters.

Of the 120 who escaped, 81 have been captured, the ministry said Tuesday, adding that “intensive security efforts continue to track down the rest.”

Meanwhile, the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a former US ally in the fight against ISIS, accused the US-led coalition of failing to come to its aid after it was pushed out of much of the territory it controlled in the country. On Tuesday, the SDF announced its withdrawal from a vast detention camp holding tens of thousands of ISIS-linked civilians, citing “international indifference.”

Syrian state media said US President Donald Trump spoke earlier with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to endorse Syria’s territorial integrity.

Here’s what we know about the prison break and the ongoing fighting in Syria.

What’s happening in northeastern Syria?

Detainees escaped from al-Shaddadi Prison on Monday as government forces wrested control of the area from the SDF, which had been the US’ main local partner in the fight against ISIS that began in 2015. The SDF and the government accused each other of releasing the prisoners.

SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami told Kurdish news site Rudaw that around 1,500 ISIS members had escaped, “including both foreign and Syrian nationals,” accusing government-linked armed groups of releasing them.

CNN cannot independently verify the number of detainees that were inside the prison, nor how many escaped. The SDF said Monday that al-Shaddadi prison held “thousands” of ISIS detainees.

On Tuesday, it accused government forces of besieging al-Aqtaan Prison, north of Raqqa, which holds ISIS detainees, and cutting off water supplies, holding the government responsible for “any humanitarian or security repercussions.”

Later, the SDF said it withdrew from Al-Hol camp, which holds tens of thousands of ISIS-linked families, due to “international indifference” to ISIS and “the failure of the international community to assume its responsibilities in addressing this serious matter.”

Syria’s ministry of defense said the SDF abandoned Al-Hol, “effectively allowing those held inside to leave,” and that it was ready to take over the camp as well as ISIS prisons. In a separate statement, the government said it had informed the US about the situation and accused the SDF of attempting to “export a new security crisis in the area.”

The defense ministry pledged that its forces will not enter Kurdish villages as it takes Kurdish-held territory in Syria.

United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said last year that Al-Hol, along with Al-Roj camp, houses over 40,000 displaced people, many of whom have ties to ISIS.

Why is this happening?

The Kurdish SDF feels abandoned by the US as Washington strengthens ties with the al-Sharaa government, which has pledged to reassert central control over all of Syria and opposes regional autonomy for religious or ethnic minorities.

Over the weekend, the Syrian military, aided by tribal militias, drove Kurdish forces out of large swaths of northeastern Syria that the SDF had controlled for more than a decade.

After the territorial gains, al-Sharaa said Sunday that an agreement had been reached with the SDF to end the fighting. Despite the ceasefire, both sides reported further clashes on Monday.

The SDF had been Washington’s partner in Syria, but the US drawdown from the country in 2019 left t

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By Meteorologist Chris Dolce, CNN

(CNN) — A major winter storm — the season’s most extreme so far — is set to lash the eastern half of the United States with damaging ice and heavy snow late this week. It’s all being fed by a brutal blast of Arctic air that’s bringing the season’s coldest air to date.

“A wide-ranging winter storm will produce great swaths of heavy snow, sleet and treacherous freezing rain from the Southern Rockies/Plains and Mid-South starting Friday and shifting toward the East Coast through Sunday,” the Weather Prediction Center warned Tuesday morning.

The storm will begin to intensify in the Plains on Friday. Its wintry mess of snow, sleet and freezing rain could stretch more than 1,000 miles from Oklahoma and northern Texas to North Carolina and Virginia by Saturday night.

Major travel disruption on roads and at airports is a given across a widespread area from the Southern and Central Plains to the East Coast. Of particular concern is the freezing rain, which could lead to damaging ice buildups in addition to making travel impossible in a worst-case scenario.

Even a quarter- to half-inch thick coating of ice is enough to bring down trees and power lines. Portions of the South from northern and eastern Texas into the lower-Mississippi Valley, northern Georgia and parts of the Carolinas are at greatest risk for significant icing based on the current forecast. Travel could be brought to a standstill across major cities even with smaller amounts of ice.

To the north of the storm’s ice zone, snow totals will likely top half a foot over an area that could stretch from Oklahoma to the mid-Atlantic.

Snow and some ice will likely break out from northern Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas to the lower-Mississippi Valley on Friday and Friday night. From there, the sprawling wintry mess of snow, sleet and freezing rain will impact much of the South, mid-Mississippi and Ohio valleys and the mid-Atlantic this weekend.

Snow could last into Monday along parts of the East Coast, depending on long the storm takes to finally exit out to sea.

However, the track of this storm and how it interacts with the blast of cold air is still somewhat uncertain and that will make a big difference when it comes to snow and ice totals in any one location. Those details will come into better focus over the next couple of days.

One thing that’s for certain: Brutal cold is on the way for millions, and any snow and ice that accumulates will not melt quickly. That means any impacts could last into early next week for areas that see significant snow and ice totals.

Coldest air of winter inbound

The Arctic invasion that will feed this winter storm arrives in the Midwest and Plains Thursday into Friday and will then spread into the South and East this weekend. Dozens of locations could approach their coldest daily high temperatures on record, especially on Saturday.

Temperatures will be around 30 degrees below average by Friday in parts of the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and northern Illinois. That’s significant since mid-to-late January is when average temperatures are already at their lowest level for many locations east of the Rockies.

Thermometers in the Twin Cities will likely remain below zero all day on Friday and lows both that morning and Saturday might bottom out near minus 20 degrees. Chicago could see at least two consecutive mornings with subzero low temperatures.

Dangerously cold wind chills are also expected. The upper Midwest will see them fall between 30 and 50 degrees below zero. Frostbite on exposed skin can occur in as little as 10 minutes when wind chills are this cold.

The worst of the cold will push into parts of the South while also spre