Unseasonably warm conditions kick off Tuesday. The morning will be cool and clear but a quick warming trend arrives and brings temperatures into the 70s for most of the area! Ventura will be the warmest with some places in the upper 70s and low 80s, head out to the beaches! Winds are still up to advisory levels in Ventura through 2pm, so if headed out, be aware it'll be blustery. Gusts could near 40mph at times, some of the strongest gusts will be closer to lunch before dying down. High Surf remains through 9am in San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara County beaches. Use caution but enjoy as the waters calm right in time for the heat to crank up.

The mini heatwave peaks Wednesday for most areas. Highs rise into the mid 70s and 80s for the coverage zone. This is the best day to head out to the beach and soak up the warmth while it lasts! Winds will be strong at times, but less impactful than previous days. Some Wind Advisories may be extended. Skies remain bright and clear, grab those sunglasses and head out.

We continue with the Santa Ana winds pattern Tuesday and Friday. These days will be rinse and repeat with clear skies, and above average temperatures. We begin a cooldown into the weekend as high pressure moves out of the area and winds switch. Expect a northwesterly push and more marine clouds to come with it into next week. Highs will drop back to 50s and 60s.

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By Alexandra Banner, CNN

Wall Street rallied on Monday as investors appeared to shrug off the Justice Department’s investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Still, experts warn that the criminal probe may unsettle stocks and spark volatility.

Here’s what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day.

1⃣ Tariffs

President Donald Trump said countries that do business with Iran will face a new 25% tariff, a move aimed at increasing pressure on Tehran amid a wave of anti-government protests. The announcement could mean goods from China — a major trading partner of both Iran and the US — would be significantly more expensive to import. The tariffs could also deal a major blow to India, which is already reeling from existing American levies. At the same time, Trump has floated the possibility of US military intervention to “rescue” anti-government protesters in Iran, hundreds of whom have been killed. A communications shutdown imposed by authorities on Thursday has largely cut Iranians off from the outside world, further isolating the country during the unrest.

2⃣ ICE operations

Minnesota and Illinois are suing the Trump administration over the president’s unprecedented immigration operations. “We have watched in horror as unchecked federal agents have aggressively assaulted and terrorized our communities and neighborhoods in Illinois, undermining Constitutional rights and threatening public safety,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement Monday. “This has to stop; it just has to stop,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison also said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit. Both Minnesota and Illinois are seeking an injunction to halt ICE operations in their states as officials criticize stepped-up enforcement actions in Democratic strongholds like Chicago and the Twin Cities.

3⃣ Transgender athletes

The Supreme Court will hear two cases today examining whether states can bar transgender women from competing on female sports teams. It is one of the most closely watched disputes of the justices’ current term, centering on whether the restrictions violate federal anti-bias statutes or the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. This comes as President Trump has moved to punish institutions that are inclusive of trans athletes — in some cases by threatening their federal funding. Opponents argue that transgender women retain unfair physical advantages after puberty that would deprive cisgender women of opportunities to succeed. Trans athletes and advocates, in turn, point to a lack of consistent, conclusive research to support this claim.

4⃣ Synagogue fire

Authorities have arrested a suspect who confessed to setting fire to a prominent Jackson, Mississippi, synagogue because of its “Jewish ties.” The suspect allegedly ignited Beth Israel Congregation — the state’s largest and oldest Jewish house of worship — early Saturday using gasoline, causing heavy damage to the structure, according to the FBI. Prosecutors say the arsonist could face up to 20 yea

By Lisa Eadicicco, CNN

Las Vegas (CNN) — Amazon doesn’t just want Alexa to know you. It wants her to remember things about you, like a close friend or family member would.

That’s the driving philosophy behind the vision for Alexa’s future, which Amazon executives detailed in conversations with CNN at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week.

Amazon is hoping to recapture the excitement that Alexa garnered upon its launch in 2014: a novel, mainstream, easy-to-use voice assistant for the home.

Alexa proved highly popular and sparked a resurgence in voice assistants. But then, in 2022, the release of ChatGPT brought artificial intelligence to the mainstream. Amazon was caught flat-footed and has spent the last couple of years revamping its product strategy to catch up.

After saying in 2023 that a more personal and conversational version of its assistant was coming, Amazon finally launched Alexa+ in 2025. To get ahead, it’ll have to prove that Alexa+ isn’t the same assistant from 12 years ago.

“There are tens of millions of people that want to turn on their coffee makers in the morning using Alexa, and that’s rad…(but) that’s not what changes the world,” Amazon devices and services chief Panos Panay said in an interview with CNN. “What does, though, is that context between these devices.”

Alexa+ is important for Amazon because AI is being hailed as the next major computing platform. Amazon already missed the boat on mobile — largely ceding that territory to Google and Apple — and its upgraded virtual helper signals an effort to avoid repeating history.

Making Alexa stand out

Amazon’s new Alexa website, launched last week, echoes the web browsers that OpenAI and AI startup Perplexity created in a bid to make their AI chatbots integral to how people use the web. With Alexa.com, those who sign up for early access to Alexa+ can chat with Amazon’s assistant online and continue those conversations on other devices — like Amazon Echo and the Alexa app.

But Amazon isn’t interested in racing to develop the most cutting-edge AI model, according to Panay. Instead, it’s focused on coming up with products that apply AI to the real world by leveraging context from Amazon’s devices and services.

Apple is taking a similar approach with its upcoming version of Siri, which will be powered in part by Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology, both companies announced Monday. The new Siri was announced in 2024 and has yet to launch.

Panay outlined an example that he says differentiates Amazon’s assistant from ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini: When he told Alexa he needed a new harness for his dog, the assistant had options waiting for him on his Echo Show device at home by the time he was done taking his pet for a walk.

In another example, Panay described a time when he and his family couldn’t agree on a restaurant for dinner. He asked Alexa for the top five places they wanted to eat the last time they were searching for a restaurant. Alexa pointed out the restaurants within those five that they had already been to, provided similar recommendations and offered to book a reservation.

Google and OpenAI are pursuing a very similar direction; both Gemini and ChatGPT can remember context from previous conversations. And Google says it can perform tasks like finding tickets to sporting events, booking restaurants and calling stores to see if an item is in stock on a user’s behalf.

But Panay insists Alexa is more personal than competing chatbots or search tools, saying Alexa’s memory combined with its abili

By Chris Isidore, CNN

(CNN) — Tesla’s robotaxi service has been mostly hypothetical so far, but it’s certainly taking the company’s shareholders for a real ride.

Tesla debuted its ride-hailing service using cars with its so-called full self-driving (FSD) tech in Austin, Texas, in June. At the rollout, CEO Elon Musk announced the ambitious goal of serving half the US population by the end of the year.

But by October, that target was reduced to eight to 10 metro areas. And at the start of 2026, robotaxis are available in just two locations — Austin and the San Francisco Bay area — and a company employee needs to be along for the ride in both.

Tesla did not respond to CNN questions about its service.

Shares of Tesla (TSLA), meanwhile, have climbed more than 50% since June to a record-high on Musk’s big promises. Musk previously said the service would greatly change the financial outlook for Tesla, making it the most valuable company on the planet.

But its main source of revenue — electric vehicle (EV) sales — is sputtering, falling by a record 9% in 2025. That makes 2026 a critical year for Tesla. The company must start to live up to its bold promises on robotaxis, or risk losing much of those gains.

“I think in the next six months there’s a reckoning coming for Tesla,” said Ross Gerber, an early Tesla investor and CEO of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki. He’s now a prominent critic of Musk.

“I think once analysts realize that all these (robotaxi) numbers are fantastical and sales (of cars) are still going down, then Tesla’s got a big problem,” Gerber added.

Robotaxi promises, EV struggles

American buyers rushed to buy EVs before a $7,500 tax credit expired on October 1, helping to lift Tesla’s global sales to a record in the third quarter of 2025.

But EV sales plunged soon after. Overall, US sales fell nearly 50% between the third and fourth quarters, according to Cox Automotive.

That left Tesla’s global car sales down 16% in the same period, and lower for the second straight year. That’s a stunning turnaround for a company that at one time had seen nearly 50% increases in sales each year.

Tesla’s problems went beyond the end of a tax credit. There was backlash to Musk’s political activities and involvement in the Trump administration, as well as increased competition, especially from China. Chinese automaker BYD even overtook Tesla as the world’s largest seller of EVs despite not selling in the United States.

That makes Musk’s robotaxi hopes so critical. But overpromising is a long tradition of the CEO, who had said the robotaxi service was on the verge of launching since 2019.

And Tesla is falling further behind the offerings of other companies, like Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google parent Alphabet.

Waymo said it provided 14 million fully autonomous paid rides without any employees aboard in 2025, totaling 20 million over the past five years. Meanwhile, Tesla has yet to offer a single fully autonomous robotaxi ride. The Waymo service is also available in five metro areas: Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco.

Yet Waymo’s clear market advantage has not deterred Wall Street optimism for Tesla’s robotaxi service.

“I believe we will have 30 cities for the robotaxis in 2026,” said Dan Ives, analyst for Wedbush Securities and a Tesla bull. “You need to use a brick-by-brick process to build out the most important of growth in Tesla’s history.”

Such bullish assessments seem to discount a less-than-ideal initial rollout. The Austin service has reported eight accidents to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, even with employees in the car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is also conducting a number of i

By Jack Guy, CNN

(CNN) — Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the United States, has apologized for continuing his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in the wake of the latter’s conviction.

Mandelson, who was fired from his ambassadorial role in September over his ties to the disgraced financier, had faced criticism for offering a limited apology on Sunday over system failures that had let down Epstein’s victims.

But on Monday he offered a fuller apology in a statement sent to the BBC’s “Newsnight” program.

“Yesterday, I did not want to be held responsible for his (Epstein’s) crimes of which I was ignorant, not indifferent, because of the lies he told me and so many others,” said Mandelson, who is currently on a leave of absence from his position as a lawmaker in the UK’s House of Lords.

“I was wrong to believe him following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologize unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered.”

In September, US lawmakers released a “birthday book,” compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, in which the veteran Labour party politician had penned a handwritten note describing Epstein as “my best pal.”

The scandal snowballed after Bloomberg published a trove of emails between Mandelson and Epstein, in which Mandelson expressed support for his friend and offered to discuss his infamous 2008 Florida case with his political contacts.

During an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Mandelson refused to apologize for maintaining their friendship after Epstein had pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges and served 13 months in prison following a controversial plea deal.

“I want to apologize to those women for a system that refused to hear their voices and did not give them the protection they were entitled to expect,” he said.

“That system gave him protection and not them. If I had known, if I was in any way complicit or culpable, of course I would apologize for it. But I was not culpable, I was not knowledgeable of what he was doing,” he said.

Mandelson also claimed he was “kept separate” from Epstein’s sexual activities becase he is gay.

However, his statement on Monday showed more sensitivity to Epstein’s victims.

“I was never culpable or complicit in his crimes. Like everyone else I learned the actual truth about him after his death,” said Mandelson.

“But his victims did know what he was doing, their voices were not heard and I am sorry I was amongst those who believed him over them,” he added.

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CNN’s Christian Edwards contributed to this report.

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