28/01/2026

WEDNESDAY | JAN 28, 2026

9

US digs out of deadly snowstorm

o Extreme cold grips millions

NEW YORK: Perilously cold temperatures threatened millions of Americans in the wake of a sprawling winter storm that left at least 23 people dead as it knocked out power and paralysed transport services. A frigid, life-threatening Arctic air mass could delay recovery as municipalities from New Mexico to Maine tried to dig out following the storm, which dropped a vicious cocktail of heavy snow and wind, along with freezing rain and sleet. Forecasters warned that much of the northern half of the country will see temperatures that are “below freezing through Feb 1”, and “record low temperatures tonight across the South are particularly dangerous in the wake of the weekend winter storm with many still without power,” the National Weather Service said. While skies began clearing in parts the country, relentless snowfall in the northeast meant parts of Connecticut saw over 56cm of snow, with more than 40.6cm recorded in Boston, Massachusetts. The storm was linked to at least 23 deaths, according to a compilation of state government and local media reports, with causes including hypothermia as well as accidents related to traffic, sledding, ATVs and snowplows. One man was found in the snow unresponsive with a shovel in his hand. In New York City, eight more people were found dead amid plummeting temperatures, and an investigation to determine the MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said yesterday that Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Donbas region was the path to peace. “Donbas withdrawal is the path to peace for Ukraine,”Dmitriev said on X. Russia controls about 90% of the Donbas region and Putin has repeatedly said that if Ukraine does not give up the rest, then Russia will take it by force US links security guarantees for Ukraine to peace deal ceding Donbas, Financial Times reported. The Trump administration has also signalled to Ukraine that US security guarantees depend on Kyiv agreeing to a peace deal likely requiring it to cede the Donbas region to Russia. Washington has indicated it could offer Ukraine more weapons to strengthen its peacetime army if Kyiv agreed to withdraw forces from the parts of the eastern region it controls, the Financial Times reported. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that a US document on security guarantees for Ukraine was “100% ready” and Kyiv is now awaiting a time and place for it to be signed. Zelensky has consistently said Russian

causes was underway. It was not known if all of these fatalities were storm-related. Electricity began blinking back on across the south but as of Monday evening well over 550,000 customers remained without it, according to the tracking site Poweroutage.com . Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, southern states unaccustomed to intense winter weather, were especially impacted. About 190 million people in the United States were under some form of extreme cold alert, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. The Great Lakes region’s residents woke up to extreme temperatures that could cause frostbite on exposed skin within minutes. In parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the NWS reported early Monday morning temperatures as low as -30.6ºC, with windchills exacerbating the bite. Over the weekend nearly half of the states in the contiguous US received at least a foot of snow (30.5cm), and in many cases far more. The NWS said New Mexico’s Bonito Lake accumulated the highest US total over the weekend with 78.7cm. Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell told journalists that trees were continuing to fall under the weight of encrusted ice across the Tennessee capital city, sometimes knocking out power that had already been restored. Nashville and other municipalities were establishing emergency warming shelters. that Ukraine’s territorial integrity must be upheld in any peace deal to end the war. Ukraine is increasingly uncertain whether Washington will commit to security guarantees, a senior Ukrainian official told the Financial Times , saying the US “stops each time the security guarantees can be signed”. In Odesa, Russian forces killed two people and wounded nearly two dozen others, including two children and a pregnant woman, in separate attacks, Ukrainian officials said yesterday. A married couple aged 45 and 48 were killed in Sloviansk in the eastern Donetsk region, a key prize for the Kremlin, which has concentrated its firepower there. Their 20-year-old son survived the attack in the region the Kremlin claims to have annexed, local prosecutors said. A drone barrage wounded nearly two dozen people in the southern city of Odesa, the governor said. The Black Sea city key for Ukrainian exports has been pummelled routinely by Russian forces since they invaded Ukraine nearly four years ago. The governor said Russia had launched more than 50 attack drones on the region, damaging dozens of residential buildings, a church and schools. – Reuters/AFP

A St Louis resident jump-starts a car on a snow-covered residential street. – REUTERSPIC

NWS Allison Santorelli said this storm recovery was particularly arduous because so many states were affected: meaning northern states with more winter supplies were unable to share their resources with less-prepared southern regions. “A lot of those locations don’t have the means or the resources to clean up after these events,” she said. “We’re particularly concerned about the folk in those areas that are without power right now.” At least 20 states and the capital meteorologist

Washington were under states of emergency to deploy emergency personnel and resources. The snowfall and biting icy pellets that pummelled cities left impassable roads along with cancelled buses, trains and flights. The storm system was 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 pouring across North America. – AFP

ISRAEL SEEKS NEW SECURITY DEAL LONDON: Israel is preparing for talks with the Trump administration on a new 10-year security deal, seeking to extend US military support even as Israeli leaders signal they are planning for a future with reduced American cash grants, the Financial Times reported. Gil Pinchas, speaking to the FT before stepping down as chief financial adviser to Israel’s military and Defence Ministry, said Israel would seek to prioritise joint military and defence projects over cash handouts in talks that he expected to take place in the coming weeks. – Reuters LAST GAZA HOSTAGE REMAINS RETURNED TEL AVIV: Israeli forces brought home on Monday the remains of Ran Gvili, the last hostage held in Gaza. Gunmen took 251 hostages on Oct 7, 2023 and the process of returning them has dragged over the course of the ensuing war in a series of ceasefire and prisoner swap deals as well as efforts to rescue them. The most recent set of hostage handovers was part of the ceasefire deal that took effect on Oct 10, aiming to halt more than two years of fighting that has devastated the Palestinian territory. – AFP CELEBS URGE CITIZENS TO VOICE OUT WASHINGTON: Singer Katy Perry and other celebrities have called for citizens to contact lawmakers and speak out against the shooting deaths of two US citizens in Minnesota. Perry asked her Instagram followers to write to their senators and urge them to oppose funding for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Singer Billie Eilish urged others to raise their voices. The National Basketball Players Association said players “can no longer remain silent”. – Reuters

BR I E F S

Donbas key to Ukraine peace

Rescuers and Odesa municipal employees work at the site of an apartment building hit on Monday night. – REUTERSPIC