By Lauren Kent, Yumi Asada, CNN

(CNN) — A three-meter (9.8-foot) tsunami warning has been issued for Japan after a strong 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the northeastern coast, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency and the US Geological Survey.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a three-meter tsunami warning for the Iwate prefecture and parts of Hokkaido and Aomori. In other areas of northeastern Japan, it issued an advisory, estimating a tsunami of up to one meter (3.3 feet).

The US Tsunami Warning System reported that the magnitude of the earthquake off the east coast of Honshu, Japan, was 7.4. The tsunami threat was issued at 8:52 UTC (4:52 a.m. ET). Japan’s national agency revised its figure up to 7.5 magnitude, although it’s unclear why there is a discrepancy in the numbers.

CNN’s producer on the ground in Tokyo reported feeling the building they were in shake for about seven minutes.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has urged residents in affected areas to evacuate immediately and said the government had set up an emergency task force.

“Residents in areas where tsunami warnings have been issued should immediately evacuate to higher ground or safer locations such as evacuation buildings,” Takaichi told reporters on Monday, according to the national broadcaster NHK.

Authorities are doing their “utmost to assess the damage, implement emergency disaster response measures such as search and rescue operations, and provide timely and accurate information to the public,” Takaichi said. “At this time, we are still confirming the extent of human and material damage, but we will receive detailed reports shortly and proceed with disaster response efforts.”

So far, observations of tsunami waves are all well below the warning level that was issued. One 0.8-meter (2.6-foot) tsunami has struck Kuji Port in Iwate Prefecture, where NHK has reported the water is still rising. Another 0.4-meter (1.3-foot) tsunami hit Miyako Port in Iwate Prefecture.

The operator of the bullet train service that runs between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori station said the train had been suspended due to a power outage caused by the earthquake, NHK reported. Train services have also been suspended between Akita Station and Morioka Station in northern Japan.

Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. It lies on the Ring of Fire, an area of intense seismic and volcanic activity on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. The worst quake in recent Japanese history was the 9.1-magnitude Tohoku earthquake in 2011, which triggered a major tsunami and nuclear disaster.

This is a developing story and has been updated.

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CNN’s meteorologists Brandon Miller and Monica Garrett contributed to this report.

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By Bryan Mena, CNN

(CNN) — Kevin Warsh has spent years criticizing the Federal Reserve for doing too much. More recently, he has suggested it may need to do the opposite.

That tension will be front and center Tuesday at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, delivering the first real test of how President Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell could reshape monetary policy at a time when the global economy is already facing seismic shifts.

Warsh’s past comments suggest he wants a leaner, more disciplined Fed, one that places greater emphasis on restraint, and less on communication and the broader powers the Fed assumed in the years after the 2008 global financial crisis, specifically the massive expansion and use of the central bank’s balance sheet.

The hearing will give Warsh, who served as the youngest-ever Fed governor, from 2006 to 2011, the opportunity to reaffirm those plans.

It will also allow him to telegraph his view on what the US-Israeli war with Iran may mean for interest rates this year — whether the Fed should be cutting rates to support a flailing economy, hiking them to battle energy-related inflation, or staying on hold to monitor the global economic fallout.

Before nominating Warsh in late January, Trump said he fully expects whomever he picks to push for lower borrowing costs. However, the Fed is an independent, self-funded institution that sets monetary policy outside of any political influence. It’s a norm that Warsh would be expected to uphold.

Warsh and the balance sheet

The biggest question for Warsh is how he plans to continue reducing the Fed’s $6.7 trillion portfolio — a feat many investors say might be difficult to pull off without sparking a destabilizing credit squeeze.

During the Great Recession under former Chair Ben Bernanke, the Fed made massive purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities in an experiment to boost the economy’s sluggish recovery at the time. Investors say it was a reasonable response to the financial meltdown of 2008, but the central bank’s three additional rounds of large-scale asset purchases were much more controversial. By the mid-2010s, the balance sheet became an integral part of the Fed’s artillery to fight economic crises, and it began to leave a deep footprint in the financial system, too.

The Fed’s balance sheet swelled again during the pandemic recession, as central bankers acted decisively to stabilize markets and soften the blow to the US economy. By May 2022, the portfolio reached nearly $9 trillion, then it began to gradually shrink as the Fed acted to tame inflation by removing that stimulus from the economy, in addition to hiking rates.

The Fed late last year announced it finished letting the assets on its portfolio expire and roll off, thereby shrinking its total holdings. But around that same time, Warsh said those efforts weren’t enough. He said continuing to shrink the balance sheet can be the key to lower borrowing costs.

“The Fed’s bloated balance sheet, designed to support the biggest firms in a bygone crisis era, can be reduced significantly,” he wrote in an opinion piece published November in The Wall Street Journal. “That largesse can be redeployed in the form of lower interest rates to support households and small and medium-size businesses.”

One way Warsh could make good on that promise is by coordinating with the Treasury Department on the Fed’s asset purchases, in what some have described as a new Treasury-Fed Accord, though Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rejected that idea last month.

Warsh and rate cuts

While Warsh’s views on Fed policy have done a complete 180, Wall Street still widely expects him to try to figure out an argument fo

By Renée Rigdon, Ethan Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — Virginia Democrats hope the new congressional map they’re asking voters to approve Tuesday will flip four Republican House districts, delivering 10 of 11 seats in a state former Vice President Kamala Harris won with just 52% of the vote in 2024.

Here’s how they drew it up.

The plan dramatically reworks entire sections of the state, slicing up deep blue districts in the Washington, DC, suburbs and around Richmond, and creates a new district running along the Blue Ridge Mountains that connects liberal cities.

Virginia’s current map, which was drawn by a pair of court-appointed redistricting experts in 2021, is compact and produced six districts that lean towards Democrats, four that lean towards Republicans, and one which is highly competitive. Opponents of Tuesday’s referendum have run ads noting that Gov. Abigail Spanberger and former President Barack Obama backed nonpartisan redistricting then.

The proposed map is a jagged puzzle specifically drawn to help Democrats win as many seats as possible.

The vote is just the latest volley in a redistricting battle that kicked off last year, when Republicans redrew Texas’ map with the goal of flipping five Democratic seats. Spanberger and Obama now argue the new map is necessary to counter President Donald Trump’s push for new Republican seats.

After some internal disagreement over how aggressively to draw their new map, Democratic leaders in Virginia took a maximalist approach. The resulting map creates several seats that appear more competitive than the new Republican-leaning districts drawn in Texas.

While Texas Republicans drew a map where none of their targeted seats voted for Trump by less than 10 percentage points in 2024, five of the districts on the proposed Virginia map supported Harris by single digits.

Northern Virginia and the ‘lobster’

Heavily Democratic northern Virginia would be carved into five separate districts, with districts that pinwheel from outside Washington to hoover up conservative rural areas of the state. The new 7th starts in northern Virginia and stretches so far that it splits in half to avoid picking up more Democratic turf around Charlottesville that can go into a different district. The result resembles a lobster with a long skinny tail and two wide claws.

College towns

The proposed 6th District runs alongside the Blue Ridge Parkway through central Virginia, connecting Democratic towns from James Madison University in Harrisonburg to Charlottesville, home of the University of Virginia, to Lynchburg (including the very not-Democratic Liberty University) through Roanoke to Blacksburg, home of Virginia Tech.

Harris won this prospective district by just 3 points, a far more competitive district than any of the ones Texas Republicans designed to flip their way.

Richmond area

Under Virginia’s current map, the Richmond area is largely contained in the 4th District, which reaches down from the capital to the North Carolina border and voted for Harris by 32 points.

The proposed map splits part of the Richmond area into the 5th District, resulting in one district that voted for Harris by 16 points and one that supported her by nine.

Norfolk

The subtlest change is in the Norfolk region, around the highly competitive 2nd District. The proposed map shifts the district from one which was a virtual tie at the presidential level in 2024 into a dist

Por Ivana Kottasová, Daria Tarasova-Markina y Victoria Butenko, CNN

La escena es tan antigua como la propia guerra. Dos soldados, con las manos en alto, rindiéndose y siguiendo cuidadosamente las órdenes que les grita la otra parte.

Solo que en este caso no había captores humanos a la vista. En su lugar, los dos rusos se estaban entregando a robots terrestres y drones ucranianos controlados por un operador desde la seguridad de una posición a kilómetros de la línea del frente.

Este es el futuro de la guerra… y está ocurriendo ahora.

“La posición fue tomada sin que se disparara un solo tiro”, dijo a CNN Mykola “Makar” Zinkevych, comandante de la unidad ucraniana que llevó a cabo la misión.

Zinkevych, que sirve en la unidad “NC13” de la Tercera Brigada de Asalto Separada de Ucrania, encargada de sistemas robóticos de ataque basados en tierra, dijo que la operación del verano pasado fue la primera vez en la historia en que una posición enemiga fue asaltada y se tomaron prisioneros mediante robots terrestres y drones sin la participación de infantería. Es una afirmación difícil de corroborar, pero subraya el orgullo de Kyiv por su tecnología.

Desde entonces, las misiones en las que los robots sustituyen a los soldados humanos se han convertido en el pan de cada día de la unidad.

Los cielos sobre las líneas del frente en Ucrania llevan años repletos de drones, lo que supone una grave amenaza para la infantería. Como resultado, los ucranianos comenzaron a experimentar con drones terrestres —vehículos controlados a distancia que se desplazan sobre ruedas o orugas— y con sistemas robóticos de tierra. Al principio se usaban sobre todo para evacuar heridos y reabastecer a las tropas, pero cada vez más también para llevar a cabo misiones de asalto en combate.

Los drones terrestres son mucho más difíciles de detectar e interceptar que los vehículos militares más grandes. En comparación con sus homólogos aéreos, pueden operar en cualquier condición meteorológica y transportar cargas útiles mucho mayores.

También son más resistentes y tienen una vida útil de batería mucho más larga. A finales del año pasado, el Tercer Cuerpo de Ejército —del que forma parte la Tercera Brigada de Asalto Separada— dijo que un solo robot terrestre equipado con una ametralladora había logrado frenar un avance ruso durante 45 días, necesitando solo mantenimiento ligero y una recarga de batería cada dos días.

“Debemos entender que nunca tendremos más personal, y nunca tendremos una ventaja numérica sobre el enemigo”, dijo Zinkevych, subrayando que Rusia cuenta con una fuerza militar mucho mayor. “Así que necesitamos lograr esa ventaja mediante la tecnología”.

El objetivo actual, dijo, era reemplazar este año a un tercio de la infantería con drones y robots.

El presidente de Ucrania, Volodymyr Zelensky, dijo el martes que drones y robots habían realizado más de 22.000 misiones solo en los últimos tres meses. “Se salvaron vidas más de 22.000 veces cuando un robot entró en las zonas más peligrosas en lugar de un guerrero”, dijo Zelensky en un discurso en el que destacó los éxitos de la industria ucraniana de tecnología militar.

Robert Tollast, experto en guerra terrestre del Royal United Services Institute, un centro británico de estudios sobre defensa y seguridad, dijo que los nuevos avances en Ucrania “alimentarán un intenso debate sobre si estos robots son o no el futuro de la guerra”.

Señaló que es probable que los drones terrestres tengan dificultades para mantener territorio, comparándolo con usar tanques sin apoyo de infantería. Pero ahora “están salvando regularmente la vida de soldados en evacuaciones de heridos, misiones peligrosas de reabastecimiento, desminado y, cada vez más, en combate”, dijo.

“Esto es crucial en una guerra e

By Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) — Eight children, ranging in age from just 3 to 11 years old, were killed early Sunday morning in Shreveport, Louisiana, in a shocking act of violence that marks the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in more than two years.

A father, identified as 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, fatally shot his seven children and a cousin, and critically wounded two women, including his wife, in a rampage across at least two locations before sunrise.

After the shooting, which authorities described as “domestic in nature,” the gunman fled the area in a carjacked vehicle and was pursued by police, later being shot and killed by officers.

The Caddo Parish Coroner’s office identified the victims as Jayla Elkins, 3; Shayla Elkins, 5; Kayla Pugh, 6; Layla Pugh, 7; Markaydon Pugh, 10; Sariahh Snow, 11; Khedarrion Snow, 6; and Braylon Snow, 5.

As the shooting unfolded, some children tried to escape out the back door, said state Rep. Tammy Phelps during a news conference with other city officials. A 13-year-old boy escaped from the roof and was injured, police said.

Much about the circumstances and the motive of the shooting remains unclear.

“This is a tragic situation, maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had in Shreveport,” Mayor Tom Arceneaux said in a news conference.

As police continue to piece together what led to the massacre, here’s what we know so far.

How the shooting unfolded

Police first responded to reports of shots fired in the Cedar Grove community of Shreveport, a northwestern Louisiana city with about 180,000 residents, just after 6 a.m. local time Sunday morning, according to Shreveport Police Cpl. Chris Bordelon.

Police believe Elkins first shot his wife at a residence on Harrison Street. Then he went to another home on West 79th St., where he shot the eight children and the other woman, the mother of the eighth child killed.

Elkins’ wife sustained “very serious injuries,” Bordelon told CNN affiliate KSLA. The other woman has “life threatening injuries,” he added.

Arceneaux told CNN the gunman is believed to have had a relationship with the two women.

The 13-year-old boy who jumped off the building’s roof and was injured has “some broken bones,” but is expected to recover, according to Bordelon.

“We’re just very thankful he was able to get away,” Bordelon said.

A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said her security camera captured video of what appears to be the gunman fleeing and running towards a tire shop.

Armed with a rifle, Elkins carjacked a vehicle and led police on a chase into the next parish, Bordelon said. Police shot and killed the gunman in Bossier Parish, the department said on Facebook.

“Officers located the stolen vehicle and initiated a pursuit. The pursuit continued into Bossier Parish, where officers ultimately engaged the suspect. Officers were forced to discharge their department-issued firearms, neutralizing the suspect, who was pronounced deceased at the scene,” Shreveport police said.

The shooting is the deadliest in the US since January 2024, when a 23-year-old man shot eight people, most of them his relatives, in a Chicago suburb.

There have been at least 114 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which like CNN defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot,