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The U.S. saw vivid northern lights as far south as Florida — and more could be coming
The aurora borealis lit up the night sky over Monroe, Wis., on Tuesday night. The northern lights were visible as far south as Alabama and Florida
Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Geomagnetic storms brought the northern lights to much of the U.S. on Tuesday night, painting the sky in vibrant hues of green and pink.
The Aurora Borealis was spotted in a large swath of states, including Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Washington state. Northern lights were visible as far south as parts of Florida and Alabama, a relatively rare occurrence that highlights the severity of this week’s storms.
“Well, we had activity tonight — a lot of geomagnetic storm activity,” Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center, said in a video on X.
The aurora borealis glows above rural Monroe County, Wis., as a strong geomagnetic storm from recent solar activity pushes the northern lights unusually far south on Wednesday.
Jeremy Hogan/Getty Images
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Jeremy Hogan/Getty Images
A geomagnetic storm happens when charged particles from the sun’s atmosphere interact with the Earth’s magnetic field. In addition to creating dazzling displays of color, such storms can disrupt technology on Earth, from satellites and GPS to radio communications and the power grid.
Tuesday’s activity was the result of a phenomenon called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), massive blasts of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s outer atmosphere that grow in size as they hurtle towards Earth.
Two CMEs arrived on Earth on Tuesday, Dahl said.
The aurora borealis lights up the night sky east of Denver on Tuesday.
Trevor Hughes/USA TODAY Network via Reuters
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Trevor Hughes/USA TODAY Network via Reuters
The resulting storm reached G4 levels, the second-highest on NOAA’s five-step scale, and created a magnetic field that was “not only eight times stronger than what’s normal but … also favorable for continued activity,” Dahl said in a later update.
Forecasters are awaiting a third and final CME, which they expect will arrive on Earth at midday Wednesday and be even stronger than the previous two.
“That was the most energetic and strongest of this activity out there in space,” Dahl said. “It was traveling significantly faster than these other two, and we think that’s going to pack even a stronger punch than what we’ve already experienced.”
The Space Weather Prediction Center says the aurora may become visible “over much of the northern half of the country, and maybe as far south as Alabama to northern California.”
The Met Office, the U.K.’s national weather service, says the aurora may also be visible over parts of Britain on Wednesday night, though it is likely to be obscured by cloud cover — as was the case in Michigan on Tuesday.
Luckily, Americans in northern states won’t have to wait long for another chance to get a glimpse.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center “aurora viewline forecast” shows the swath of the northern U.S. in which the northern lights might be visible on Wednesday.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center
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NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center
How to see (and photograph!) the northern lights
A dark setting is essential to see the aurora, so it’s important to get away from light pollution if you want a good glimpse of the northern lights. It’ll be easiest to see between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time, according to NOAA.
A person watches the northern lights over Hulah Lake in northern Oklahoma on Tuesday.
Andy Dossett/USA TODAY Network via Reuters
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Andy Dossett/USA TODAY Network via Reuters
It is difficult to predict the exact timing and location of the northern lights, but you can sign up for different services that alert you when an aurora may be visible in your area. For example, a citizen science platform called Aurorasaurus allows users to report when and where they see an aurora, and gives estimates on how visible an aurora is in a given area.
Another option is an app called My Aurora Forecast & Alerts, available for download on both iOS and Android devices. This is a location-based app that gives viewing probability and forecasts.
Smartphone cameras are better at capturing the full array of an aurora than our naked eye, so be sure to go out with your phone to view a fuller spectrum of colors. If your phone camera has a night mode option, it’s best to switch it on when photographing the northern lights. You can also switch your phone camera to manual mode and adjust the exposure settings to get the perfect picture.
The aurora brightens the sky over Putnam Lake in Patterson, N.Y., on Tuesday.
Frank Becerra Jr./USA TODAY Network via Reuters
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Frank Becerra Jr./USA TODAY Network via Reuters
Why we are seeing more northern lights
Auroras have been happening more frequently in the United States for a while, and will continue to do so for several months. This influx of shimmering colors comes because the sun is reaching the peak of its 11-year cycle and, therefore, its solar maximum. The solar maximum causes solar eruptions, and this increase of activity brings ions, or electrically charged particles, closer to Earth. This stream of particles is known as the solar wind.
As solar winds get closer to Earth, the charged particles collide with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. When they collide, light is emitted. The light emits at various wavelengths, creating a colorful display throughout the night sky.
When the sun is at its solar maximum, the number of solar eruptions increases, which is why there are more auroras in the sky. Usually, this activity only takes place near the Arctic Circle, but since solar activity is strong right now, viewing areas have expanded to other regions, like the Midwest.
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Manhattan Building’s Columns Buckled Beneath New Addition, Images Show
At least two structural columns buckled and failed in a 37-story office tower in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, prompting evacuations of nearby streets and buildings. While city officials asserted that the tower was in no danger of collapsing completely, outside engineers said further failures in the structure could not be ruled out.
A pair of columns that failed completely were part of the tower’s existing structure. A New York Times review of images and videos from inside the building has found that several floors were added atop these columns.
City officials said in a news conference on Tuesday that the building was continuing to move, while they simultaneously assured the city that the building would not suffer “total collapse.” “The way this building is constructed, it’s a steel-frame building,” John Esposito, a chief in the Fire Department in New York, said at the afternoon news conference. “So, it would not be a total collapse. It would be more of a localized collapse.” Still, he said, “that remains our concern, that it’s moved.”
Engineers said that the movement itself was cause for concern. In a properly designed steel building, they said, loads should redistribute quickly to surviving structural supports if columns failed.
Joe DiPompeo, a former president of the Structural Engineering Institute at the American Society of Civil Engineers, said that if the structure had been overloaded, he would expect any movement “to happen very quickly,” rather than gradually.
“Generally when a column buckles, it’s a sudden failure,” Mr. DiPompeo said. He said that a full collapse remained unlikely given the redundancies built into the building codes.
Engineers often refer to the most dangerous possibility as a progressive collapse, a process in which structures near the initial failure become overstressed and also fail, potentially bringing down the building if the sequence continues. While unlikely, it cannot be ruled out, Mr. DiPompeo said.
Footage recorded from inside the building shows at least two structural columns appear to have failed completely, Mr. DiPompeo said. Other nonstructural, interior walls — or at least the metal “studs” that were in place to hold them up — also appear to have deformed.
“The only way that really happens is if the floor above them dropped. It looks like the floor above could have dropped a foot or two, which is obviously not a good situation,” Mr. DiPompeo said.
The 37-story building is in the process of being converted from office space into residential units. Four new floors and a large vertical portion were added onto the existing building in recent months. The vertical portion consists of a stack of over a dozen new floors cantilevered out over the existing building below.
Engineers said that there was nothing inherently wrong with adding residential floors or the cantilevered section above the columns that failed, as long as the original structure and the modifications had properly accounted for the added weight and wind loads.
“The cantilever alone doesn’t change anything,” Mr. DiPompeo said, but it does put additional load on the columns underneath — a factor that should have been reflected in the design.
Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of MetroLoft, the developer overseeing the conversion, said on Tuesday that “this incident is nothing more than a typical construction mishap.”
He said two columns near the northwest corner of the tower had bent under the weight of additions to the building above, most likely because those columns had not been properly reinforced, though he said an investigation would determine the cause. The rest of the columns, he said, “picked up the weight.” He estimated the affected floors above the failed columns had sagged by a maximum of four inches.
Mr. Berman said that he expected the problems to be fixed and the project to be completed with, at most, a slight delay.
On Tuesday evening, installation of temporary shoring was set to begin shortly, in order to help stabilize the 20th and 21st floors of the building.
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DOJ warns of criminal charges for state election officials if noncitizens vote
The Justice Department sent letters warning election officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia that they could face criminal prosecution over noncitizen voting, a spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday.
The letters, signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads up the department’s Civil Rights Division, give states five days to explain how they will comply with federal voter eligibility laws and how they will maintain “clean voter lists.”
“The Department sent these letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.
Noncitizen voting in federal elections is extremely rare, but Trump and his administration have falsely portrayed it as a widespread issue.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar and Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson are among those who said they received the letters from the Justice Department.
The letters say state election officers “could be criminally prosecuted for aiding and abetting” noncitizen voting. They further specify that any election officer who knowingly retains noncitizens on a statewide voting registration list or who facilitates noncitizens’ receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability.
“An intentional act that is aimed at diluting the votes of citizens could also constitute a violation” of federal law, the letters said.
Henderson wrote on social media that the threats constitute “truly bizarre behavior.”
“Got another love letter this morning from the DOJ sprinkled throughout with threats of criminal prosecution,” she wrote. “I’m sure I’m not the only chief election officer of a state who is being targeted for following state and federal laws by resisting DOJ’s demands for private voter data that have thus far been ruled illegal by at least a dozen courts.”
The letters are the latest move in the Justice Department’s campaign to assert more federal control over state elections.
While some states have complied with the administration’s demands that they hand over voter roll data, the Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for resisting. So far, 11 different federal courts have dismissed the Justice Department’s efforts to seize voter rolls.
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Reigning champion Argentina escapes with remarkable World Cup victory over Egypt
Lionel Messi #10 of Argentina celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during their World Cup match against Egypt in Atlanta on Tuesday.
Elsa/Getty Images
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Elsa/Getty Images
They looked beaten. And out. Argentina, the defending World Cup champion and No. 1-ranked team, was down 2-0 late against Egypt.

Then, in a span of 13 remarkable minutes, Argentina scored not once, not twice, but three times, capping a comeback for the ages and leaving Egypt stunned and shellshocked.
For much of the game in Atlanta, Egypt was in control, hobbling Argentina early. The Egyptian attack began almost immediately with a stunning header goal delivered by Yasser Ibrahim in the 15th minute. After that, Egypt’s defense closed ranks, making it practically impossible for Argentina to equalize.
It was downhill from there for the Argentines: team captain Lionel Messi failed to convert a penalty kick, and in the 67th minute, Egypt got a second goal from Mostafa Ziko (after an earlier Egyptian goal had been disallowed after a video review). It looked like Argentina was finished. On the brink of elimination.
But no one told the Argentine players that.
In the 79th minute, Lionel Messi began doing his thing. He fired a cross near the Egyptian goal, and Cristian Romero headed it in. Messi was not done. Four minutes later, he powered a shot past the Egyptian keeper. It was his eighth goal of this tournament, the most of any player. The score was 2-2.
Then, in stoppage time, yet another Argentina header and another goal, this time from Enzo Fernandez.
“This is the World Cup for you,” said Messi after the game. “It wasn’t easy to come back from two goals down. But as I always say, this group never gives up. We always try to fight until the end.”
French referee François Letexier speaks with Egypt forward Mohamed Salah during the World Cup Round of 16 match between Argentina and Egypt in Atlanta.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
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Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
Afterward, Egypt coach Hossam Hassan complained about the French referee and the officiating. “I am not convinced. I am not convinced with this outcome. I’m not convinced with the way things unfolded during this match,” said Hassan in a post-match news conference. “We have been treated unfairly today. We have suffered injustice.”
“We would have deserved to earn this win, but we are leaving with honor, with pride, regardless of this defeat,” said Hossan.
African soccer teams have been the stars of this World Cup. Morocco has yet to lose a game. Cape Verde qualified for the first time in its history and stymied Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia. Argentina barely beat them in a nail-biter of a match.
For Egypt, getting this far in the tournament is historic in itself: it’s the first time the team has made it this far. For Argentina, it was a terrifying yet relieving victory: several players, including Messi himself, cried after the game.
Next, they move to the quarterfinals and will play the winner of today’s Switzerland-Colombia match.
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