f you missed the blood moon total lunar eclipse on March 13 into March 14, you may have another chance to see an eclipse event later this month. On March 29, people in parts of the Northern Hemisphere will be able to see a partial solar eclipse. Though perhaps not as enticing as the April 2024 total solar eclipse—in which Americans had the opportunity to see the sun fully overtaken by the moon, casting parts of the country in darkness—the partial solar eclipse will allow some viewers to see the moon block up to 93% of the sun, according to Space.com. What is a partial solar eclipse? Similar to a total solar eclipse, during a partial solar eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and the Earth. But unlike a total eclipse, the three celestial bodies are not completely lined up, and thus the moon will only block parts of the sun to viewers on Earth. To those in the eclipse’s path, the sun appears somewhat like a crescent. Partial solar eclipses occur, on average, two times per year, according to the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco, California. When is the next partial solar eclipse? The next partial solar eclipse, the first of this year, will occur on March 29. According to NASA, the partial eclipse will have already started by sunrise in the Americas, while in western Europe and northwest Africa, it will begin mid-to-late morning. In eastern Europe and northern Asia, people can witness the eclipse in the afternoon and early evening. Grottoes bear the enduring touch of Tang Branded Content Grottoes bear the enduring touch of Tang By China Daily Where will the next partial solar eclipse be visible? The partial solar eclipse in March will cast a shadow across vast portions of the world, though different areas will be able to see different percentages of the sun covered. According to Timeanddate.com, while over 800 million people will be in the path of the eclipse, only 44,800 people will be able to see at least 90% of the sun be covered by the moon. Per NASA, viewers will see a partial solar eclipse in sections of North America, Europe, Africa, northern Asia, small parts of South America, throughout Greenland and Iceland, as well as parts of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Some of the spots whereby the eclipse will encounter the largest coverage include Halifax, Canada, where an estimated 83% of the sun will be covered at around 7 a.m. local time. In Portland, Maine, 64% of the sun will likely be covered at around 6 a.m. Meanwhile, in Nuuk, Greenland, 87% of the sun is set to be covered between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Is it safe to look at a partial solar eclipse? Since the sun is never fully covered, viewers must always look at a partial solar eclipse while wearing protective glasses. Safe solar viewing glasses are different from normal sunglasses—they tend to be thousands of times darker. Without protective gear, looking directly at an eclipse can cause serious damage or scarring to the eyes. “Solar retinopathy is a photochemical injury to your retina,” Dr. Nicole Bajic, a surgical ophthalmologist at the Cleveland Clinic, previously told TIME via email. A good place to buy safe solar viewing glasses, that meet the standard necessary to safely view an eclipse event, is through the American Astronomical Society’s (AAS) trusted vendor list, Richard Fienberg, project manager at AAS’ Solar Eclipse Task Force, told TIME in 2024. “There are companies selling eclipse glasses under false pretenses. The two most likely false pretenses are the glasses have not actually been tested properly and shown to be safe, or the glasses are made in China but printed with information that says they're made in America,” he said. If you have old glasses from a previous eclipse event, Feinberg said that these may still be usable, but they should be checked for holes and tears to ensure they meet the safety standard. Viewers can also use an indirect viewing method, like a pinhole projector, in order to indirectly see the eclipse occur through shadows, but this must be done with care.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) who has vowed to address chronic illnesses by making changes to the country’s food supply, recently told food companies that one of the Trump Administration’s goals is to remove artificial dyes from food products. The news comes just a few months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the use of one dye, Red Dye No. 3, in food and ingested drugs—a move that predated Kennedy’s new role. Consumer advocates and some health experts have expressed concerns over other types of dyes as well, and at least a dozen states are considering bills that would prohibit certain dyes. Advertisement Artificial food dyes, which add colors to food and drink products, have generated much debate among researchers and experts over whether they’re healthy for people to consume. Here’s what to know about the issue. Why was Red 3 banned by the FDA? In 1990, the FDA prohibited Red 3 from being used in cosmetics and topical drugs, in light of research that found the dye caused cancer in male rats. Federal rules mandate that the agency ban food additives that have been found to cause cancer in animals or humans, so consumer and health advocates encouraged the FDA to ban Red 3 in foods as well. But it was only in January that the agency took that step. In its announcement about the decision, the FDA clarified that the way Red 3 causes cancer in male rats “does not occur in humans,” adding that “studies in other animals and in humans did not show these effects.”

Before President Trump chastised Gov. Janet Mills of Maine at the White House last month, and before his administration started investigating Maine’s education system, the seeds of their conflict over transgender athletes had been planted by a state legislator. Representative Laurel Libby, a Republican from Auburn, Maine, had posted on Facebook about a transgender athlete who won a high school pole-vaulting competition. Her critical post, which named and included photos of the student athlete, went viral. About a month later, the fallout has included funding cuts at the University of Maine and a finding by the Trump administration that the state had violated federal law by allowing transgender athletes to compete on two high school teams. The Democratic-controlled Legislature has censured Ms. Libby. And people on both sides of the issue have experienced a complex surge of emotions about Maine suddenly landing in the cross hairs of Mr. Trump. “We’re not often in the center of controversy here, and it’s a little bit of a shock that it’s happened so quickly,” said Keegan Tripp, a junior at the University of Maine and the president of its student body. “We have students afraid for themselves, for their friends — their academics, research, financial situations — and all of this fear is so brand-new.” When the Trump administration issued an executive order on Feb. 5 barring transgender women from women’s sports, Ms. Libby, a 43-year-old mother of five, saw an opportunity to amplify her own position on the matter.After she took to social media to criticize her state for standing by its policy, she said in an interview, she received a tip about a transgender high school student in Maine who was set to compete in a girls’ track event last month. When the student came in first, Ms. Libby posted two photos: one showing the student on the medal podium last year, after competing on the boys’ team and placing fifth, and another taken after the student won the girls’ competition. Ms. Libby’s post circulated widely on conservative social media. Democratic state lawmakers called it bullying; Ms. Libby appeared on Fox News to discuss her refusal to delete it. As the story seized national headlines, Mr. Trump turned his own attention to Maine. When he singled out Ms. Mills at a White House meeting with governors on Feb. 21, telling her that she had “better comply” with his executive order, her response was icy. “See you in court,” Ms. Mills told him. Within days, the administration concluded that the state’s Education Department had failed to comply with Title IX, the civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs, including school sports. It also notified the University of Maine that it was discontinuing $4.5 million in federal funding for its Sea Grant program, which supports marine science education and research. Ms. Libby was also facing consequences. After she had refused to delete her Facebook post about the student athlete, or to issue an apology, the Maine House voted narrowly to censure her for actions it deemed “reprehensible,” barring her from voting or speaking on the House floor. “I think we can all agree that our kids deserve better than to be used as political fodder for internet bullies,” Ryan Fecteau, the House speaker, wrote in an opinion piece in The Bangor Daily News before the vote. “It isn’t just cruel or meanspirited to take advantage of a minor in this way. It can also be downright dangerous.” Ms. Libby called the criticism “a red herring” that Democrats were using to avoid real policy debate. She filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in federal court, claiming that the censure had violated her First Amendment rights by punishing her for a Facebook post that was “constitutionally protected speech on a matter of public concern.” The narrowly split Maine Legislature reflects the divisions among the state’s 1.4 million residents. Kamala Harris won in Maine in last year’s election, with 52 percent of votes, but 45 percent of voters supported Mr. Trump. Ms. Mills’s clash with the president deepened feelings about her on both sides, ratcheting up tensions that spilled into view at recent protests outside the State House in Augusta. Mike Dees, 56, of Skowhegan, said he brought his 11-year-old daughter, Julia, to a “March Against Mills” this month because she had played softball against a team with a transgender player who outhit everyone else on the field. Mr. Dees said he thought that Ms. Mills should be impeached. Theresa Weichmann, 59, of West Gardiner, said that while the issue had not come up in her community that she knew of, she believed that parents and school boards were being pressured into accepting transgender athletes on girls’ teams. “This should have been squashed years ago,” she said.Ms. Mills, 77, is term-limited, and her second term ends next year. She declined an interview request but has said that she intends to fight cuts to Maine’s federal funding. A portion of the University of Maine’s lost Sea Grant funding has since been restored, a spokeswoman said, and negotiations are underway to try and save the rest. Asked by reporters recently about her run-in at the White House, Ms. Mills said the State Legislature is the appropriate place to consider changes to Maine’s policies on transgender athletes. “You don’t change it by executive order or by wishing it differently,” she said. “It’s worthy of a debate — a full democratic debate.” At the anti-Mills march two weeks ago, counterprotesters draped a banner with the slogan “We’re Here, We’re Queer, Get Used to It!” on a white picket fence across the street from the demonstration. They included Doug Emerson, 67, of Portland, who said he was gay and worried that the Trump administration’s recent rhetoric and actions could lead to increased violence against L.G.B.T.Q. people or anyone “who looks other.” “Our gay kids are going to be so much more marginalized and bullied,” Mr. Emerson said. “They’ll live in fear.” Polling suggests that most Americans agree with Ms. Libby. A poll in January by The New York Times and Ipsos found that nearly all Republicans and 67 percent of Democrats believe transgender women should not play women’s sports. Since 2020, 25 states have passed laws barring transgender athletes from joining teams aligned with their gender identities. Maine legislators moved in the opposite direction, updating a state law in 2021 to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. In compliance with that law, the Maine Principals Association, which oversees interscholastic athletics, allows transgender students to join teams of either gender. Among the 151 public and private high schools that the association oversees statewide, there are two transgender girls currently competing on girls’ teams, according to a spokesman for the association. Ms. Libby said she believes the actual number is larger — and that even one would be too many. “Any young lady getting displaced by a biological male on a podium is unacceptable,” she said. “I ran track and cross country in college, and I can empathize with these girls, walking into a competition thinking you have a shot of winning, and then finding out a biological male is competing, and the outcome is guaranteed.” On the snow-covered flagship campus of the University of Maine in Orono last week, several students said they had felt empowered by Ms. Mills’s feisty response to Mr. Trump, even as they also feel their campus increasingly at risk of losing federal funding that supports their research, campus jobs and financial aid. “Yes, it put us as a target,” said Gracie Gebel, 19, a sophomore political science major who helped organize a pro-Palestinian demonstration in front of the Fogler Library on March 7. “But you have to be a target if you’re going to protest.” For her part, Ms. Libby said she had no regrets about drawing the attention of the Trump administration, and the costs that Maine may bear as a result. Another Republican legislator has filed a bill that would bar transgender student-athletes in the state from women’s sports, but Ms. Libby sees little chance of it passing. “The only way we get a fair playing field is by federal action,” she said.

Severe thunderstorms intensified and impacted much of the Midwest region on Friday and into Saturday, with more instances of extreme weather expected throughout the weekend. In an update shared on Saturday morning, the National Weather Service warned that an "outbreak of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms [are] expected over parts of the Deep South and Tennessee Valley today into tonight." With a vast swath of the U.S. experiencing extreme weather, and storm warnings in place across various states, American Red Cross and other organizations are encouraging people to prepare themselves. “If you're prepared in advance, you're going to be more comfortable to respond when an emergency does happen. You'll be in the know of what needs to get done,” Stephanie Fox, media relations lead at American Red Cross, tells TIME. Amid rising concerns, here are the best ways to prepare for a storm. Secure your home Before a storm, try to trim trees and cut down branches near your home. By removing branches that are likely to break or fall during a storm, you can prevent them from damaging homes, vehicles, power lines, or causing injuries. Further, it can help prevent a tree from becoming uprooted and falling during a storm, and makes the cleanup post-storm less chaotic. Beyond trees outside the home, the National Weather Service suggests that those preparing for a storm “secure loose objects, close windows and doors, and move any valuable objects inside or under a sturdy structure.” Effort to stay updated Those within an affected-area of a severe storm can stay updated with the forecasted storm, its intensity and movement through multiple avenues, whether that be through NOAA Weather Radio, The Emergency Alert System (EAS), or their local weather channel. Oftentimes, communities have specific ways to send warnings, from outdoor sirens to alerts via smartphones. By learning how your community alerts residents to severe incoming weather—including warnings for storms and tornados tornados—you can make sure you stay updated in real-time. Fox notes that people need to make sure their updates do not just go off during the day, but at night too. “People don't always consider that they need to have something that's going to wake them up,” she says, adding that the NOAA Weather Radio is programmed to emit “a very loud buzzing noise that will absolutely wake up a household in the event that a warning is issued.” Advertisement Clean your gutters During a storm, you want your gutters to move as much water as possible, as easily as possible. The best way to ensure this is to clean your gutters prior to the storm hitting, in order to prevent water build-up during the weather event—at which point it likely wouldn’t be safe to go outside and clear any blockages. Water build-up can cause damage to home roofs, and create leaks and structural damage to your home. Build an emergency kit To prepare for a storm—and the days after a storm passes, in which necessities like electricity may still be out—it’s a good idea to build an emergency kit to help you and your loved ones power through. A disaster supply kit includes basic items that your household may need. Advertisement According to Ready.gov, a national public service campaign formed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) dedicated to educating Americans to prepare for and mitigate emergencies, a disaster kit should include water, food, a flashlight, a first aid kit, a mask, garbage bags, a whistle, a can opener, a cell phone with extra chargers and batteries, and more. You can read the full list here. After assembling the kit, Ready.gov recommends keeping canned food in a dry place and storing boxed food in tightly closed plastic or metal containers in order to ensure they remain edible, should a severe weather event or disaster strike. They also recommend keeping a kit in your car, in case you ever become stranded. Per Fox, it’s vital to have a “stay-at-home kit” that allows a household to navigate about two weeks in the house under emergency circumstances, and then a “to-go kit” that people can use if they have to evacuate, which should have enough resources to cover three-to-five days. Locate the nearest shelter According to the CDC, one way to prepare yourself in the event of severe thunderstorms is to locate your nearest shelters ahead of time and map out the safest routes to reach them. “If [people] live in mobile homes or campers, those are not safe when we get these types of outbreaks,” Fox says. “So it's really important for folks to identify if they have a community shelter. Maybe they can visit friends or family overnight.” The idea is to be out of harm’s way when the peak of the threat is expected. According to Randy Bowers, meteorologist at the National Weather Service, this also means planning for which room in your shelter or home will best protect you in the event of a bad storm—especially as large hail storms mean people should stay away from windows. “[The safest room] is usually the lower floor of your house. If you have a basement, that's ideal. But if you don't, then [aim for] the lower floor in an interior room,” he says. “The idea is to put as many walls between you and the weather outside as you possibly can, and to stay away from windows.” Make your pets a part of the plan If you have animals or pets, Fox says that they should be embedded in your family’s emergency plan. Make sure their carriers and leashes are accessible, so that when a severe storm—or other emergency— hits, pets can be evacuated with ease, if needed. “If they have any prescription medications, make sure you have an extra supply in your emergency kit—extra food, toys, just anything that your pet may need if you have to be confined to your home for a period of time, or if you have to evacuate,” she says. Fox also recommends making sure that pets are kept inside during storms, in case they get “spooked” by thunder and try to run away. Advertisement Consider buying surge protectors According to FEMA’s preparedness sheet for thunderstorms, lightning, and hail, buying surge protectors, lightning rods, or a lightning protection system can help protect your home’s appliances and electronic devices in the event of lightning strikes during the storm. Bowers says this can be a part of a “long-term plan,” and is something to think about especially if you currently live in, or are moving to, an area prone to storms.

On March 14, Dr. Mehmet Oz will answer questions from members of the Senate Finance Committee in his confirmation hearing to lead the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Oz is an unusual combination of a high-achieving doctor—he has an Ivy-League pedigree and was a heart surgeon at Columbia University for decades—and a TV personality who hosted a daytime talk show for 13 seasons. He’s also courted controversy over endorsements of what many experts view as questionable products and remedies. It's not the typical background for a head of CMS, which generally includes a heavy focus on health policy. Advertisement Here's what to know about Oz and his position on everything from Medicare to supplements during his years in the public eye. Oz’s medical background Oz was on the faculty of Columbia University, earning some renown as a skilled heart transplant surgeon who was part of the first published study, in 2001, reporting on the benefits of mechanical hearts in treating heart failure. He earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also completed an MBA. He went to Columbia for his medical residency and remained to join the faculty, where he spent the rest of his medical career. Oz earned notoriety for his then-unorthodox views on medical treatment, such as allowing his patients to receive massage and spiritual interventions to help their recovery. His untraditional views attracted the attention of health journalists eager to hear more about the quick-talking, engaging surgeon who wasn’t afraid of discussing such unprecedented strategies. Advertisement Grottoes bear the enduring touch of Tang Branded Content Grottoes bear the enduring touch of Tang By China Daily His fame-making Oprah appearance Unlike many academics, Oz felt comfortable in the spotlight and seemed to have a knack for distilling complicated medical jargon and ideas into language that was easy for people without medical expertise to understand. He gained fame, for example, as a guest on Oprah in 2014 when he spoke about bowel movements. “It should sound like a diver from Acapulco hits the water,” he told a skeptical Oprah about how feces should land in the toilet. He also informed viewers that their stool should be shaped like the letter "S." Read More: What to Know About Marty Makary, Trump’s Pick to Lead the FDA In following episodes, he brought the same straight-talk to educating people about keeping their hearts healthy, bringing cadaver hearts to shock people into seeing the differences between hearts damaged by smoking and healthy ones. The Dr. Oz Show: Celebrity and controversy The popularity of his appearances led Oprah to support his own talk show focused on health issues, which ran from 2009 to 2022. Oz built on his medical knowledge and engaging way of communicating to discuss everything from how to keep hearts healthy to good nutrition and trendy supplements. His unique ability to tackle embarrassing health topics even led to a parody on Saturday Night Live in 2011.

By now, most people have reached a resigned acceptance when it comes to COVID-19. We accept that we’re probably going to get infected at some point during respiratory disease season—and that when we do, we’ll feel sick for a couple of days, and then get over it. But what if you could avoid getting COVID-19 altogether? That’s the potential promise of a new study on a drug made by Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi. At a scientific conference in San Francisco, researchers reported that their drug, ensitrelvir, helped prevent people who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 from testing positive for the disease. Advertisement There is currently no drug approved to prevent COVID-19, but ensitrelvir is already approved in Japan as a treatment for COVID-19. It reduces hospitalizations for COVID-19 among people at the highest risk of complications; for the less vulnerable, it cuts down on the number of days they're sick with symptoms. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering the drug for fast-track approval as a way to prevent COVID-19, based on this latest study presented at the Conference of Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. (The study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.) Researchers studied more than 2,300 people age 12 and older who didn't have COVID-19 but lived with someone who had tested positive at the time of the study. They were then randomly assigned to receive either ensitrelvir or placebo pills for five days. Everyone in the study began taking their pills once a day within three days of when their housemate first reported symptoms of COVID-19.

Dozens of fires across Oklahoma have destroyed nearly 300 structures and burned close to 200,000 acres, Gov. Kevin Stitt said Saturday morning, as dangerous fire conditions persisted from Texas to Nebraska. The fires were fueled by low humidity, dry vegetation and hurricane-force winds that threatened areas from the Texas Panhandle all the way to Iowa. On Saturday morning, Oklahomans were still assessing the damage, but videos on social media showed houses consumed by flames in parts of Stillwater, Okla., a university town of about 50,000 people. Governor Stitt said the fires had destroyed at least 293 structures and led to the death of one person in a vehicle. Some fires were still smoldering on Saturday morning, officials said. Governor Stitt declared a state of emergency for 12 counties on Saturday. More than 150 wildfires were burning in the early morning hours of Saturday in Oklahoma alone, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. So many fires had erupted around the state that the usual system of mutual aid hadn’t been available Friday night, said Clay Abercrombie, the mayor of Mannford, Okla. “So it was kind of, to each his own,” Mr. Abercrombie said.Mark Goeller, director of Oklahoma Forestry Services, called the disaster “historic.” In 40 years with the agency, he said, he had “never seen anything as bad as what we saw yesterday.” For the governor, the loss was personal: He lost a farmhouse near Luther, not far from Oklahoma City, the state capital. Fierce winds on Friday grounded aerial firefighting tools, including the “super scooper” planes that can drop thousands of gallons of water onto a blaze. On Saturday, they were preparing to fly, said Keith Merckx, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Forestry Services. It may take days to assess the damage, he added. Emergency crews in both Oklahoma and Texas were scrambling to keep up with all the blazes popping up across the map. The largest fire, the 840 Road fire in western Oklahoma near the Texas border, had burned nearly 30,000 acres as of Saturday morning and was 0 percent contained, according to Oklahoma Forestry Services. The service warned that while Saturday’s conditions were better, a red flag warning remained in effect in parts of the Panhandle and western Oklahoma. “New wildfire activity will continue to occur compounded by a tremendous workload containing the active fires,” the service wrote in a Saturday morning update. Phillip Ware, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Norman, Okla., said that gusts of up to 80 miles per hour in some places roared across plains where grass and shrubs have not yet begun to grow and turn green. Editors’ Picks His Life Savings Were Mailed to Him by Paper Check. Now, It’s Gone. Is There a Least Bad Alcohol? Help! How Do I Make Sense of All These Trends? “A lot of the vegetation is still dormant, which makes it very susceptible to fire,” he said. Stillwater, around 45 miles north of Oklahoma City, issued a mandatory evacuation order Friday night for a zone that covered several square miles. There were active blazes in that area, including structural fires, the Stillwater Emergency Management Agency said on Facebook. It did not elaborate on what kind of structures. Stillwater is home to Oklahoma State University, which canceled the baseball, softball and tennis events that had been scheduled for Saturday. Early Saturday morning, mandatory evacuation orders were lifted in parts of the city, allowing some residents to return home. A strong storm driving gusty winds and dry air across a parched landscape was fueling dangerous fire conditions across a wide swath of the country, from eastern New Mexico and Colorado to parts of the Midwest. Forecasters warned that more outbreaks appeared likely over the weekend. In Camden County, Mo., in the center of the state, officials said a fire had destroyed about 30 structures, with damage assessments ongoing. The authorities were urging people to stay off the roads as clouds of thick, red dirt and even thicker clouds of billowing dust severely limited visibility. Martín Gomez, 28, a truck driver, was forced to pull over at a truck stop in Canyon, Texas, because of the danger, he said. “My family really doesn’t want me to travel in this,” he said, “but I have to make this delivery.”In the region around Lubbock and Amarillo in Texas, Highway Patrol officials reported more than three dozen car crashes. Preliminary reports showed that at least four people had died in crashes around Amarillo, according to Sgt. Cindy Barkley with the Texas Department of Public Safety. Images on social media showed a dystopian view of the area. Emergency workers were confronting a heavy dust storm as they went car by car looking for anyone trapped inside. A man making one of the videos could be heard saying, “You want to go to Mars? This is Mars.” Roughly 38,000 customers were without power across northern Texas and parts of Oklahoma on Saturday morning, according to poweroutage.us. The authorities warned that rolling blackouts were a possibility to prevent fires caused by downed power lines. Angela Morland, the owner of Cactus Inn & RV Parking in McLean, Texas, a motel built in the 1950s, said in a phone interview that she had been ordered to evacuate with her guests on Friday afternoon. She was staying in the basement of a Methodist church about 20 miles away. Many people had gotten rooms at her motel to seek refuge from the highway winds. “Go east,” Ms. Morland, 57, said she told her guests when she learned they had to leave. Ms. Morland said she could smell the fire when she packed into her vehicle with her dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback named Stella, and a stranger. She said about 50 other evacuees were staying with her in the church basement. “I was frightened,” she said. Alanreed, another small community in Gray County, about 60 miles east of Amarillo, was also advised to evacuate on Friday because of the threat of fire, said Dustin Miller, an emergency management spokesman for the city of Pampa, the county seat. He said that wind gusts in the area had reached 101 miles per hour, diminishing visibility and making travel treacherous. “It’s dying down slowly, but not enough,” Mr. Miller said. He said there were no injuries or property damage reported as of Friday afternoon in the county. But at least two semi-trucks had flipped over on Interstate 40. Officials had been anticipating the fierce storms. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas directed the Division of Emergency Management to deploy all necessary resources to the affected areas ahead of the wildfires. The Panhandle, a sparsely populated area, is no stranger to fire disasters. A year ago, downed power lines ignited a wildfire known as the Smokehouse Creek fire, which burned more than a million acres, consuming houses, scorching vast ranch lands and killing livestock. It was the largest blaze on record in Texas.

The organizers of the New York City Half Marathon insist that they love the Manhattan Bridge. But they are forsaking it. The 13.1-mile race on Sunday morning will take the Brooklyn Bridge. The runners will stream onto the Manhattan-bound lower roadway, not the wooden-planked pedestrian walkway on the upper level. It will be the first time that a race has gone over that bridge, according to the city Department of Transportation. The new route is “anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute faster,” said Ted Metellus, the race director for New York Road Runners, which organizes the Half. The runners will not have to cope with a couple of uphills on the way to the bridge — and the Brooklyn Bridge is flatter than the Manhattan Bridge, he said. So everyone — all 27,000-plus entrants — will set a personal record, because no one has run that course before. Why is New York Road Runners making the change? Construction in Lower Manhattan, according to Metellus — specifically, a part of the $1.45 billion Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency Project, which is intended to protect against flooding as water levels rise with climate change. The massive project has made the section of the New York City Half’s usual route, from the Manhattan Bridge to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, impassable for runners. Drivers would probably say the same. Only one lane on South Street is open during the day. And the bike lane has been closed completely. The runners will start at Prospect Park, the same as always. They will run along Flatbush Avenue, the same as always — until just before Mile 4, when they will make a left turn onto Tillary Street and, a block or so later, a right onto what the city calls Brooklyn Bridge Boulevard, the elbow-shaped thoroughfare leading to the span. There are other ways to get there, but “Tillary made the most sense,” Metellus said. “It’s a wide intersection. It’s big enough to clear the athletes safely, get them onto the bridge Manhattan-bound.” The change will put the runners onto the F.D.R. about a mile south of where the Manhattan Bridge would have. Of the 27,000-plus entrants, 23,000 or so might notice the difference. New York Road Runners says that more than 4,200 will be running their first half marathon. The four defending champions have signed up: Abel Kipchumba of Kenya and Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal of Norway in the men’s and women’s open, and Geert Schipper of the Netherlands and Susannah Scaroni of the United States in the men’s and women’s wheelchair divisions. Also running will be Conner Mantz, who broke the American men’s record in the half marathon with 59:17 at the Houston Half Marathon in January. Kipchumba’s time in the New York City Half last year was 1 minute 10 seconds faster. When it became clear that the route had to be changed, New York Road Runners worked up “seven or eight variations of courses,” Metellus said. “The Brooklyn Bridge was going to be our last option because we wanted to keep the sanctity of the course, which was having us go over the Manhattan Bridge.” Will the runners move back to the Manhattan Bridge in 2026? Metellus called that “the million-dollar question.” He said the construction was scheduled to continue for at least 10 months. “So we’ll see where that plays into what decisions are made about where to go next year,” he said. One of the awards in the New York City Half is the Commissioner’s Cup, based on the times of the top three runners from each of the city departments and offices that enter. Last year — as Ydanis Rodriguez, the transportation commissioner, noted — his department’s top three finishers were second, behind the top three from the Police Department and ahead of the top three from the Fire Department. The commissioners of city agencies serve as honorary captains, and while Rodriguez is not running, the entrants from his department include Joshua Benson, a deputy commissioner whose portfolio includes the city’s speed cameras. They measure the speed of cars, not runners.

Department of Homeland Security officials searched two dorm rooms at Columbia University, days after the immigration authorities arrested and moved to deport a pro-Palestinian activist and recent graduate of the university. Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, said in a note to students and staff late Thursday that the officials had presented federal search warrants for private areas of the university. She added that no one was detained and nothing was taken, and did not specify the target of the warrants. “I am writing heartbroken to inform you that we had federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) in two university residences tonight,” Dr. Armstrong wrote. She added that Columbia made every effort to ensure the safety of its students, faculty and staff. The search occurred after the Trump administration said that Columbia would have to make major changes in its student discipline and admissions processes before it would begin talks on reinstating $400 million in government grants and contracts that it canceled last week. The government said it pulled the funding over the university’s failure to protect Jewish students from harassment as pro-Palestinian protests spread on campus last year over the war in Gaza. Some of the demonstrations included chants, signs and literature that expressed support for the Hamas-led terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Mahmoud Khalil, who recently completed a graduate program at Columbia and is a permanent resident of the United States, played a prominent role in the pro-Palestinian student movement at the university. The Trump administration has said that Mr. Khalil, who is of Palestinian heritage, is a national security threat. It has also accused him of participating in antisemitic activities, though officials have not accused him of having any contact with Hamas. He is being held in a detention center in Louisiana. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. Columbia declined to comment beyond Dr. Armstrong’s letter.

The University of Minnesota, which President Trump’s Justice Department is scrutinizing for its handling of antisemitism on campus, largely barred itself on Friday from issuing official statements about “matters of public concern or public interest.” The policy, in the works for months, was not a direct response to the Trump administration’s February announcement that it would investigate whether Minnesota and nine other universities had failed to protect Jewish students and faculty from discrimination. But Friday’s vote by the board of regents nevertheless fit into the scramble by universities to undercut accusations that they have supported, or downplayed, antisemitic behavior or political activity. Schools have come under fierce Republican criticism over their responses to protests over the war in Gaza. Campuses have seen bitter debates over defining antisemitism and the threshold for when political expression is intolerant or discriminatory, with university leaders often looking for a balance between allowing free speech and avoiding Washington’s potential ire. Under Minnesota’s new policy, statements from the university — including ones from divisions like colleges and departments — about public issues will be forbidden unless the president determines the subject has “an actual or potential impact on the mission and operations of the university.” The university senate, which includes students, faculty members and other workers, opposed the plan, and in early January, a university task force had urged a narrower approach. Critics have questioned whether the policy violates the First Amendment and argued that it grants excessive power to Minnesota’s president. But during a raucous meeting on Friday in Minneapolis — the session went into recess twice because of protesters — regents voted, 9 to 3, to approve the policy. “The university is not, and should not be, in the business of taking positions on these critical and controversial matters of public concern,” said Janie S. Mayeron, the board’s chair. “Individuals can do that. The university, its leaders and units should not.” Another regent, Robyn J. Gulley, said she had received hundreds of messages ahead of Friday’s vote, with the feedback “largely” opposing the proposal. “The First Amendment protects not only free speech, but the right to association,” Ms. Gulley said before she voted against the proposal. “There is probably nowhere in the world that that is more important than in universities, where it is not only the right but the obligation of students, faculty, staff to speak” about their areas of research and expertise. The notion of “institutional neutrality” is not unique to Minnesota, where the new policy will cover five campuses, including the flagship in Minneapolis. Since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, at least 140 colleges have adopted such policies, according to a report released Tuesday by the Heterodox Academy, a nonprofit that has been critical of progressivism on college campuses. Before the attack, the report said, only eight schools had neutrality policies. The last few weeks have put new pressure on Minnesota, with the university among the schools that Justice Department antisemitism investigators said they would visit to weigh “whether remedial action is warranted.” The department has not detailed why Minnesota made its list. Although Richard W. Painter, a Minnesota law professor who was the White House’s top ethics lawyer for part of George W. Bush’s presidency, told the Department of Education in 2023 about possible antisemitism at the university, he has speculated that the Justice Department’s interest may carry a political motive. Tim Walz, who was the Democratic nominee for vice president in last year’s election, is Minnesota’s governor, and the district of Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who has been a steadfast critic of Mr. Trump and Israel, includes Minnesota’s main campus. Minnesota said in a statement that it was “confident in our approach to combating hate and bias on our campus, and we will always fully cooperate with any review related to these topics.” In addition to Minnesota, the Justice Department is examining Columbia University; George Washington University; Harvard University; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of Southern California. But some misgivings about Minnesota, which contended with a protest encampment last spring, predate Mr. Trump’s return to power. In December 2023, for example, Mr. Painter and a former regent, Michael D. Hsu, complained to the Department of Education that the College of Liberal Arts had allowed departments to use official websites for statements that were critical of Israel. A website Mr. Hsu and Mr. Painter cited — featuring a statement by the gender, women and sexuality studies faculty — endorsed the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and called for “dismantling Israel’s apartheid system.” (After the statement’s publication, a disclaimer was added to note that it did “not reflect the position of the University of Minnesota.”) It was not clear how much Friday’s vote would ease Washington’s skepticism of Minnesota. Some other universities that recently embraced institutional neutrality still ended up under investigation by the Trump administration, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and Southern California.