Hollywood stars used red carpet appearances at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday to denounce the killing of an American protester who was shot dead on the streets of Minneapolis by federal immigration agents.Actress Olivia Wilde, who was in Park City, Utah, for the premiere of “The Invite,” said the death of a second protester in just three weeks at the hands of federal agents was “unfathomable.””I can’t believe that we’re watching people get murdered in the street,” she told AFP.”These brave Americans who have stepped out to protest the injustice of these ICE quote/unquote ‘officers,’ and watching them be murdered — it’s unfathomable. We cannot normalize it.”Wilde’s comments come after the killing of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, who died after being pinned to the ground and shot multiple times by federal agents.Pretti’s death came weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed Renee Good, also 37, in her car in the city.Wilde, who wore an “ICE OUT” badge, said the US government violence against people exercising their right to free expression was “un-American.””We may have a government that is somehow trying to make excuses for it and legitimize it, but we (Americans) don’t.”Fellow actress Natalie Portman, who was promoting “The Gallerist,” got emotional as she described her feelings over a “horrible day.””What is happening in our country is just obscene,” she told AFP in Park City.”What (President Donald) Trump and (Homeland Security Secretary) Kristi Noem and ICE are doing to our citizens and to undocumented people is outrageous and needs to end.”

A massive winter storm headed towards the northeast United States on Sunday after sweeping across much of the country, threatening tens of millions of Americans with blackouts, transportation 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 with snow and freezing rain 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 drive and walk on for the foreseeable future,” the National Weather Service (NWS) said.Snowfall was reported across the central United States, including Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, where some spots already recorded eight inches (20 centimeters) on the ground by Saturday night, the NWS said.Shoppers stripped supermarket shelves as the weather service forecast huge snowfall in some areas and possibly “catastrophic” ice accumulations.Transportation 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 swath” of snowfall from Colorado to Maine.About 14,000 flights in and out of the United States had been canceled over the weekend, with thousands more 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 21F (-6C).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.More than 180,000 US customers were without power as of early Sunday morning, according to tracking site poweroutage.us, with about 45,000 reported in Texas and about 67,000 in neighboring Louisiana.Speaking at the Washington headquarters of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem urged Americans impacted by the weather to “be smart, stay home if possible, take care of your family members, check on your neighbors and continue to work with your local officials.”US 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!”- Polar vortex -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.Scientists say the increasing frequency of such disruptions of the polar vortex may be linked to climate change, though the debate is not settled and natural variability plays a role.But Trump — who scoffs at climate change science and has rolled back green energy policies — questioned how the cold front fit into broader climate shifts.”WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???” the Republican leader posted on Truth Social.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.- ‘Five or six minutes’ -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 neighbors.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 -50F (-45C).Such temperatures can cause frostbite within minutes. 

In a coffee shop in Greenland’s capital Nuuk, Lykke Lynge looked fondly at her four kids as they sipped their hot chocolate, seemingly oblivious to the world’s convulsions.Since Donald Trump returned to the White House last year with a renewed ambition to seize Greenland, international politics has intruded into the Arctic island’s households. Dictated by the more or less threatening pronouncements of the US president, it has been an unsettling experience for some people here — but everyone is trying to reassure their children.Lynge, a 42-year-old lawyer, relied on her Christian faith. “There’s a lot of turmoil in the world,” she said. “But even if we love our country, we have even higher values that allow us to sleep soundly and not be afraid,” she said.As early as January 27, 2025, one week after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Greenlandic authorities published a guide entitled “How to talk to children in times of uncertainty?””When somebody says they will come to take our country or they will bomb us or something, then of course children will get very scared because they cannot navigate for themselves in all this news,” said Tina Dam, chief programme officer for Unicef in the Danish territory.- Unanswerable questions -This guide — to which the UN agency for children contributed — recommends parents remain calm and open, listen to their children and be sensitive to their feelings, and limit their own news consumption. As in many parts of the world, social media, particularly TikTok, has become the primary source of information for young people.Today, children have access to a lot of information not meant for them, said Dam — “and definitely not appropriate for their age”, she added.”So that’s why we need to be aware of that as adults and be protective about our children and be able to talk with our children about the things they hear — because the rhetoric is quite aggressive.”But reassuring children is difficult when you do not have the answers to many of the questions yourself.Arnakkuluk Jo Kleist, a 41-year-old consultant, said she talked a lot with her 13-year-old daughter, Manumina. The teenager is also immersed in TikTok videos but “doesn’t seem very nervous, luckily, as much as maybe we are”, she added.”Sometimes there are questions she’s asking — about what if this happens — that I don’t have any answers to” — because no one actually has the answer to such questions, she said.- ‘Dear Donald Trump’ -The Arctic territory’s Inuit culture also helped, said Kleist.”We have a history and we have conditions in our country where sometimes things happen and we are used to being in situations that are out of our control,” said Kleist.”We try to adapt to it and say, well, what can I do in this situation?”Some Greenlandic children and teenagers are also using social media to get their message out to the world.Seven-year-old Marley and his 14-year-old sister Mila were behind a viral video viewed more than two million times on Instagram — the equivalent of 35 times the population of Greenland.Serious in subject but lighthearted in tone, the boy addresses the American president.”Dear Donald Trump, I have a message for you: you are making Greenlandic kids scared.”Accompanied by hard stares, some serious finger-wagging and mostly straight faces, he and his sister go on to tell Trump: “Greenland is not for sale.””It’s a way to cope,” his mother, Paninnguaq Heilmann-Sigurdsen, told AFP of the video. “It’s kid-friendly, but also serious.”I think it’s a balance between this is very serious, but also, this is with kids.”