26/01/2026

MONDAY | JAN 26, 2026

9

Massive winter storm sweeps across US

The NWS warned that heavy ice could cause “long-duration power outages, extensive tree damage, and extremely dangerous or impassable travel conditions”, including in many states less accustomed to intense winter weather. New York Governor Kathy Hochul warned residents to stay inside amid frigid conditions: “Five or six minutes outside could literally be dangerous for your health.” She stressed precautions like protecting pipes, using heaters safely and checking on vulnerable neighbours. Authorities warned of life threatening cold that could last a week post-storm, especially in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest, where wind chill lows were forecast to dip to extremes under -45C. Such temperatures can cause frostbite within minutes. – AFP

Kushner and Witkoff were due to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the official said, and were working to “determine what are the right next steps, so that we can keep the ceasefire and turn it into a long and enduring peace in Gaza”. Israeli media reports said that US Centcom chief Admiral Brad Cooper was also visiting Israel on Saturday. “Yes, I can confirm a meeting is taking place today,” Shosh Bedrosian, spokeswoman for Netanyahu’s office told AFP when asked whether Witkoff and Kusher would meet the Israeli leader in Jerusalem. Israeli media reported that the talks would also focus on the return of the remains of the last Israeli hostage still held in Gaza. Of the 251 people seized on Oct 7, 2023, only the body of Ran Gvili remains in the Palestinian territory. “We ask that the prime minister of Israel make clear to the respected envoys that anyone who truly seeks to President Donald Trump this month warned that Cuba “is ready to fall” and told Havana to “make a deal” or pay a price similar to Venezuela, whose leader Nicolas Maduro was taken to America by US forces in a Jan 3 raid that killed dozens of people. Venezuela was a key ally of Cuba and a critical supplier of oil and money, which Trump has vowed to cut off. Diaz-Canel on Saturday supervised military exercises that included a tank unit from Cuba’s armed forces. He was accompanied by General Alvaro Lopez Miera, who is the minister of the armed forces, and other high-ranking military officials. “The best way to prevent aggression is for imperialism to have Security chief Kristi Noem urged Americans affected by the weather to “be smart, stay home if possible, take care of your family, check on your neighbours, and continue to work with your local officials”. President Donald Trump, who was riding out the storm at the White House, said on his Truth Social platform: “We will continue to monitor, and stay in touch with all states in the path of this storm. Stay safe, and stay warm!” The brutal storm system is the result of a stretched polar vortex, an Arctic region of cold, low-pressure air that normally forms a relatively compact, circular system but sometimes morphs into a more oval shape, sending cold air spilling across North America. “Whatever happened to global warming???” he posted on Truth Social.

More than 4,000 flights in and out of the United States were cancelled on Saturday, with nearly as many delayed, according to tracker FlightAware. In Dallas, which has typically mild temperatures in January, freezing rain pelted the Texas city and the mercury plummeted to -6ºC. State officials vowed that the Texas power grid was in better shape than five years ago, when it failed during a deadly winter storm and left millions without power. Nearly 160,000 US customers were without power as of Saturday night, according to tracking site poweroutage.us , with around 50,000 reported in both Texas and neighbouring Louisiana. Speaking at the Washington headquarters of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland

drive and walk on for the foreseeable future,” the weather service said. Snowfall was reported across the central United States, including Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, where some spots already recorded 20cm on the ground by Saturday night. Shoppers stripped supermarket shelves as the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast huge snowfall in some areas and possibly “catastrophic” ice accumulations. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy warned that up to 240 million Americans could be affected by the storm. At least 20 states and the US capital Washington have declared states of emergency. “Take this storm seriously, folks,” the NWS said on X, predicting an “astonishingly long swathe” of snowfall from Colorado to Maine.

HOUSTON: A massive winter storm on Saturday dumped snow and freezing rain from New Mexico to North Carolina as it swept across the United States towards the northeast, threatening tens of millions of Americans with blackouts, transport chaos and bone-chilling cold. After battering the country’s southwest and central areas, the storm system began to hit the heavily populated mid-Atlantic and northeastern states as a frigid air mass settled in across the nation. “The snow/sleet impacts will linger well into next week with rounds of re-freezing that keeps surfaces icy and dangerous to both o 20 states declare emergency

Kushner, Witkoff in Israel for talks TEL AVIV: US President Donald Trump’s envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrived in Israel on Saturday, where they were set to hold talks on Gaza’s future, an American official told reporters. advance the rehabilitation of Gaza and peace in the Middle East must first bring Rani home,” the family of Gvili said in a statement. Earlier this week, US officials, including Trump, presented their vision for a “New Gaza” during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“I’m a real estate person at heart ... and I said, look at this location on the sea. Look at this beautiful piece of property. What it could be for so many people,”Trump said. His son-in-law Kushner said, “In the Middle East they build cities like this, you know for two or three million people, they build this in three years.” He called for investments of at least US$25 billion (RM100 billion) to rebuild Gaza’s destroyed infrastructure and public services. A UN and World Bank-backed estimate from February last year, when the war still had six months to run, put the cost of reconstruction at US$53 billion, while the UN Trade and Development agency in November said it could cost US$70 billion and take decades. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since Oct 10 and entered its second phase early this month. – AFP to calculate the price of attacking our country,” Diaz-Canel said in remarks broadcast on Cuban television. “And that has a lot to do with our preparation for this type of military action ... This takes on significant importance,” he said. Cuba’s National Defence Council, which is led by Diaz-Canel, recently met “with the objective of increasing and improving the level of preparedness and cohesion” among the country’s leadership, according to an official government statement. The council met to “analyse and approve the plans and measures for transitioning to a State of War”, the statement added. These military exercises are part of the country’s preparation “under the strategic concept of the War of the Entire People”, a term used by authorities for the mobilisation of civilians in the event of armed conflict. – AFP

Cuba defends military drills HAVANA: Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel defended his country’s military exercises on Saturday as a deterrent against potential aggression from the United States.

Second killing by US agents sparks uproar MINNEAPOLIS: The killing of a US citizen by federal immigration agents on Saturday – the second in Minneapolis this month – sparked new protests and impassioned demands by local leaders for the Trump administration to end its operation in the city. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pointed to a pistol and ammunition it said was discovered on Pretti. “He was there to perpetuate violence,” Homeland Security protester to the ground on the sidewalk, Pretti steps in between them and is sprayed in the face by a chemical irritant. A federal agent points a weapon at an individual taking part in a protest after agents shot and killed a resident during a scuffle to arrest him on Saturday in Minneapolis. – GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFPPIC

The agent then pulls Pretti to the ground and several officers struggle to detain him on the icy roadway. Seconds later, as an officer apparently discovers and pulls a gun from Pretti’s pants, agents open fire, also shooting his motionless body several times from a distance. Pretti’s parents in a statement circulated by US media called him a “kindhearted soul” and accused the Trump administration of telling “sickening lies” about their son. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called the shooting “horrific” and demanded state authorities lead the investigation. – AFP

Secretary Kristi Noem told a briefing, while White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller referred to Pretti as an “assassin”, in a post amplified on X by Vice-President JD Vance. However, as with Good’s death, cell phone footage of the incident raised serious questions about the federal government’s description of the incident. Video aired widely by US media, which AFP has not verified, shows Pretti filming agents in the snow lined street and directing traffic. After an agent shoves a woman

Federal agents shot dead Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, while scuffling with him on an icy roadway, less than three weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed Renee Good, also 37, in her car. The Trump administration quickly claimed, as it did after Good’s death, that Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents, even as video of the incident appeared to contradict their account.