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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Saturday that federal agents deployed in Minneapolis as part of a sweeping immigration crackdown had carried out “another horrific shooting,” less than three weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good.An unconfirmed video was circulating of a person who appears to have been shot during a street disturbance, with several gunshots heard and at least one person in the vicinity wearing a vest marked “POLICE.”The city government said it was “aware of reports of another shooting involving federal law enforcement in the area of 26th Street W and Nicollet Ave” and seeking more details.”I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening,” Walz said on X. “The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.”Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to the Democratic-led city, as President Donald Trump presses his campaign to deport undocumented immigrants across the country.Minneapolis has been rocked by increasingly tense protests since federal agents shot and killed Good, a US citizen, on January 7.An autopsy concluded that the killing was a homicide, a classification that does not automatically mean a crime was committed.The officer who fired the shots that killed Good, Jonathan Ross, has neither been suspended nor charged.The detention of a five-year-old boy this week, as agents sought to arrest his father, rekindled public outrage.

A massive winter storm dumped snow and freezing rain on New Mexico and Texas Saturday as it spread across the United States towards the northeast, threatening tens of millions of Americans with blackouts, transportation chaos and bone-chilling cold.Shoppers stripped supermarket shelves as the National Weather Service forecast huge snowfall in some areas and possibly “catastrophic” ice accumulations from freezing rain.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that up to 240 million Americans could be affected by the storm. At least 16 states and the US capital Washington declared states of emergency.”Take this storm seriously, folks,” the National Weather Service said on X, predicting an “astonishingly long swath” of snowfall from New Mexico to Maine.More than 3,400 flights in and out of the United States were canceled on Saturday alone, and more than 1,100 others were delayed, according to tracker FlightAware.In Dallas, freezing rain pelted the city and temperatures plummeted to 21F (-6C).Houston Mayor John Whitmire urged residents of the country’s fourth most populous city to hunker down by late Saturday: “Be where you need to be for the next 72 hours.”Warming centers were set to open Saturday for those in need.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.Snow also hit Oklahoma and Arkansas, where some spots already recorded six inches (15 centimeters) on the ground, the NWS said.After battering the country’s southwest and central areas, the storm system was expected to hit the heavily populated mid-Atlantic and northeastern states before a frigid air mass settles in.”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 weather service said. The US federal government preemptively announced offices would be closed on Monday.”We will continue to monitor, and stay in touch with all States in the path of this storm. Stay Safe, and Stay Warm!” US President Donald Trump, who was riding out the storm in Washington, said on his Truth Social platform. – 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 National Weather Service 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’ -In New York state, Democratic 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.Professional and collegiate basketball games have been rescheduled as a result of the weather.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. 

US President Donald Trump has sparked outrage across Europe after claiming that NATO allies shied away from the front line in Afghanistan.In an interview with Fox News aired on Thursday, Trump claimed NATO had sent “some troops” but “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines”.He also repeated his suggestion that the alliance would not come to the aid of the United States if asked to do so.”I fully understand that Danish veterans have said no words can describe how much this hurts,” Danish Prime Minister Mette said Saturday on Facebook.”It is unacceptable that the American president questions the commitment of allied soldiers in Afghanistan,” she added.In the interview, Trump appeared unaware that 457 British soldiers were among NATO troops who died during the conflict in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday: “I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly, appalling, and I’m not surprised they’ve caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured.” The White House rejected Starmer’s comments and defended Trump.”President Trump is absolutely right — the United States of America has done more for NATO than any other country in the alliance has done combined,” Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement sent to AFP.Following the 9/11 attacks, Britain and a number of other allies joined the United States from 2001 in Afghanistan after it invoked NATO’s collective security clause.”Denmark is one of the NATO countries that has suffered the highest losses per capita,” the Danish prime minister underscored.The country’s population was about 5.4 million in 2003 and, according to the Danish news agency Ritzau, around 12,000 Danish soldiers and civilians had been sent to Afghanistan over the years. As well as Britain, troops from other NATO ally countries including Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Denmark also died.”Let us honour the 53 Italian soldiers who fell during the mission in Afghanistan,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in a post on X on Saturday. Meanwhile, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius recalled the “heavy price” his country paid, stressing that “our army was ready when our American allies asked for support” in 2001. “Many wounded are still suffering today from the physical and psychological consequences of that period,” he added. The Danish Veterans Association earlier said it was “at a loss for words” over Trump’s claims. “Denmark has always stood by the United States, and we have shown up in crisis zones around the world when the United States asked us to,” the association said in a statement.Danish veterans are calling for a silent march in Copenhagen on January 31 to protest Trump’s remarks.Trump’s comments follow a bruising transatlantic crisis over his threats to seize Greenland — an autonomous Danish territory — now seemingly defused. The US president on Wednesday backed away from threatened tariffs on Europe for opposing his claims on the Arctic island.

Ukraine and Russia ended two days of US-brokered direct talks on Saturday and agreed to hold more next week in Abu Dhabi, even as Kyiv accused Moscow of undermining the negotiations towards ending the war by launching fresh strikes. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the talks that “a lot was discussed, and it is important that the conversations were constructive”. He added that next round could take place “as early as next week”. On the eve of the second day of talks, Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine, cutting off millions from electricity in sub-zero temperatures. Kyiv accused Moscow of undermining the negotiations by launching yet another “night of Russian terror”.  A UAE government spokesperson said the talks, which involved top military officers from both sides, had been held in a “constructive and positive atmosphere”.But weary Kyiv residents, who had gone through yet another sleepless night, had little hope for a breakthrough. “They’ll just say that everything is fine, that again, nothing has been agreed, and again there will be rockets,” said Anastasia Tolkachov, who had to spend a night in a car park. When asked by AFP about the negotiations, another Kyiv resident, who gave only her first name, Valentina, said: “I don’t think anything will happen. We’ll just have to keep freezing a little longer, somehow.”At night, AFP journalists saw people running through the streets to find shelter as explosions lit up the capital’s sky. According to the Emirati spokesperon, the talks were held on “outstanding elements of the US-proposed peace framework as well as confidence-building measures”.According to Zelensky, “the central focus of the discussions was the possible parameters for ending the war”.  Both warring sides say the fate of territory in the eastern Donbas region is the main unresolved issue in the search for a settlement. – ‘Again and again’ -Over a million people in Kyiv and Chernigiv were left without electricity in sub-zero temperatures due to Russian strikes. About half of Kyiv’s apartment blocks were cut off from heating, Ukrainian authorities said.”This night in Kyiv, it’s really all happening again and again,” Iryna Berehova, 48, told AFP, adding: “These explosions, these sleepless nights, these worries for our children, for our safety, they are very exhausting.” “These negotiations that are taking place don’t even give us any hope for the better.” The European Union, which has sent hundreds of power generators to Ukraine, has accused Moscow of “deliberately depriving civilians of heat”.Zelensky last week declared a state of emergency in the energy sector, which has been battered by relentless Russian strikes on heat and electricity supplies. The Moscow-installed governor in the occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said a Ukrainian drone strike killed three people in an ambulance van heading to a sick man. The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and devastated large swathes of Ukraine.While diplomacy to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II has gained pace again, Moscow and Kyiv appear deadlocked over the issue of territory.- Donbas territory dispute -US President Donald Trump met Zelensky at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday and US envoy Steve Witkoff later held talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.Hours after Putin met Witkoff — and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — in Moscow, the Kremlin said its demand that Kyiv withdraw from the eastern Donbas region still stood, calling it “a very important condition”.Kyiv rejects it. “The Donbas is a key issue,” Zelensky told reporters on Friday, ahead of the talks in the UAE.Zelensky said he and Trump had agreed on post-war security guarantees in Davos.Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are last known to have met face-to-face in Istanbul last summer, in talks that ended only in deals to exchange captured soldiers.The Abu Dhabi meeting was the first time they have faced each other to talk about the Trump administration’s plan.An initial US draft drew heavy criticism in Kyiv and western Europe for hewing too closely to Moscow’s demands, while Russia rejected later versions for proposing European peacekeepers in Ukraine.Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to get full control of eastern Ukraine by force if talks fail.Trump has in the past pressured Ukraine to agree to terms that Kyiv sees as capitulation.

A US warship on Saturday made a port call at a Cambodian naval base for the first time since Chinese renovations that have raised concerns in Washington, AFP journalists saw.The United States has said Ream Naval Base, off Cambodia’s southern coast, could give China a key strategic position in the Gulf of Thailand near the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety.The littoral combat ship USS Cincinnati (LCS-20) docked Saturday morning at one of the base’s piers 150 metres (yards) away from a pair of Chinese warships.”It is our privilege and our honour to be here as the first US naval vessel to moor pierside at Ream Naval Base, and we hope this is the beginning of a longstanding tradition and friendship,” Andrew J. Recame, the ship’s commanding officer, told reporters.Cambodian leaders have repeatedly denied that the base is for use by any single foreign power, following US media reports in 2022 saying the new facilities at Ream — originally built partly with US funds — would be exclusively for the Chinese navy.Ream base said in a statement that the five-day US visit would “promote cooperation between the two countries”, and that it showed Cambodia’s “commitment in implementing an open policy, transparent and cooperation with international partners”.Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and a delegation from China’s People’s Liberation Army inaugurated the base in April last year.Hun Manet denied the new and improved facility would be for Beijing’s “exclusive” use, saying ships from other countries would be allowed to dock.Two weeks after its inauguration, two Japanese warships were the first vessels to dock at the base.Beijing has since 2022 been contributing to a revamp of the Ream Naval Base, which was originally built partly using US funds.Western concerns about the base go back as far as 2019, when The Wall Street Journal reported on a secret draft deal allowing China to dock warships there.In late 2023, Chinese warships first docked at the 363-metre (1,190-foot) pier, on Cambodia’s sole coastline in the south of the country between Thailand and Vietnam.A US warship docked in the commercial Sihanoukville port in 2024 in the first American military port call in Cambodia in eight years.On Saturday morning, AFP journalists saw two Chinese warships still docked at the base.Cambodia has long been one of China’s staunchest allies in Southeast Asia, and Beijing has extended its influence over Phnom Penh in recent years.Under former leader Hun Sen — Prime Minister Hun Manet’s father — China poured billions of dollars into infrastructure investments, while Washington’s relationship with Phnom Penh has deteriorated in recent years.

The US military will prioritize protecting the homeland and deterring China while providing “more limited” support to allies in Europe and elsewhere, a Pentagon strategy document released on Friday said.The 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS) marks a significant departure from past Pentagon policy, both in its emphasis on allies taking on increased burdens with less backing from Washington, and its softer tone on traditional foes China and Russia.”As US forces focus on homeland defense and the Indo-Pacific, our allies and partners elsewhere will take primary responsibility for their own defense with critical but more limited support from American forces,” the strategy said.The previous NDS — released under President Donald Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden — described China as Washington’s most consequential challenge and said that Russia posed an “acute threat.”The new document however urges “respectful relations” with Beijing — while making no mention of US ally Taiwan, which China claims as its territory — and describing the threat from Russia as a “persistent but manageable” one affecting NATO’s eastern members.Both the Biden and Trump strategies say homeland defense is important, but their descriptions of the threats facing the US differ significantly.The Trump administration’s NDS takes aim at the past administration for neglecting border security, saying this led to a “flood of illegal aliens” and widespread narcotics trafficking.”Border security is national security,” and the Pentagon “will therefore prioritize efforts to seal our borders, repel forms of invasion, and deport illegal aliens,” it said.- ‘Restore military dominance’ -Biden meanwhile focused on China and Russia, saying they posed “more dangerous challenges to security and safety at home” than even the threat of terrorism.The 2026 NDS also includes no mention of the dangers of climate change — which Biden’s administration had identified as an “emerging threat.”Like Trump’s national security strategy, which was released last month, the NDS elevates Latin America to the top of the US agenda.The Pentagon “will restore American military dominance in the Western Hemisphere. We will use it to protect our Homeland and our access to key terrain throughout the region,” the NDS said.The document called that the “Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” a reference to the declaration two centuries ago by the then-young United States that Latin America was off limits to rival powers.Since returning to office last year, Trump has repeatedly employed the US military in Latin America, ordering a shocking raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife, as well as strikes on more than 30 alleged drug-smuggling boats that have killed more than 100 people.Trump’s administration has provided no definitive evidence that the sunken vessels were involved in drug trafficking, and international law experts and rights groups say the strikes likely amount to extrajudicial killings as they have apparently targeted civilians who do not pose an immediate threat to the United States.

Greenland and Denmark have formed a united front to face down US President Donald Trump, momentarily setting aside the troubled history between them.The Arctic island, a Danish colony for three centuries, still has a complicated relationship with Denmark, which now rules it as an autonomous territory.Greenland’s main political parties all want independence, but disagree on how exactly to get there. Trump’s designs on the island led them to forge a coalition government in March last year.Greenland’s leaders made clear last week they had no interest in Trump’s bid to take over the vast island — an idea he pushed hard, before backing off on Wednesday after reaching what he called a framework deal on Arctic security with NATO’s secretary-general.”Greenlanders still have a lot of grievances concerning Denmark’s lack of ability to reconsider its colonial past,” said Ulrik Pram Gad, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS).”But Trump’s pressure has prompted the wide majority of the political spectrum that forms (Greenland’s) coalition government to put independence preparations — always a long-term project — aside for now,” he told AFP.”The clear European support has made this easier in the sense that the relation to Denmark feels a lot less claustrophobic when joined by others,” he added.While the main Greenland parties differ on how to achieve independence, the growing US pressure led them in March 2025 to put their differences to one side to form their coalition.Only the Naleraq party, which wants a fast track to independence, stayed in opposition.At the height of the crisis, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen made it clear that if the government had to choose between the United States and Denmark, it would choose Denmark.- Colonial past -Trump’s talk of a framework deal negotiated with NATO chief Mark Rutte prompted Denmark and Greenland to reiterate that only they can take decisions concerning them.In the last month of diplomatic back-and-forth, Greenland and Denmark have presented a united front, speaking with one voice.On January 14, Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt was in Washington alongside her Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen for talks with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.By Monday, she was in Brussels for talks with Rutte, this time with Denmark’s Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.But that unity conceals the scars of their colonial past.Greenland was a Danish colony from the early 18th century. It became a Danish territory in 1953, a full part of Denmark — before becoming an autonomous territory in 1979, a status that was strengthened in 2009.”It’s a long history. It has gone through different stages,” said Astrid Andersen, a specialist in Danish-Greenlandic relations at the Danish Institute for International Studies.”Any colonial relation is a question of domination and there have been some injustices committed.”- Forced sterilisation -Those injustices include a 1951 social experiment in which 22 Inuit children were forcibly separated from their families and prevented from speaking Greenlandic — part of bid to create a Danish-speaking elite.In 2021, the six still alive were each awarded compensation of 250,000 crowns (33,500 euros).Another dark chapter was Denmark’s efforts from the 1960s and for three decades on to reduce the birth rate in Greenland. Several thousand women and teenagers — at least 4,000 — had IUDs fitted without their consent to prevent them conceiving.Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has presented her apologies to the women concerned — nearly half of whom were unable to have children — and a compensation procedure is underway.Denmark’s social services even used controversial psychological tests to — as they saw it — evaluate if Greenlandic mothers were fit to be parents.A 2022 study showed that in metropolitan Denmark, children born to Greenlandic families were five to seven times more at risk of being placed in children’s homes than those born to Danish families.The use of such tests was only discontinued last year.The recent debate over these issues has, for the moment, been put to one side, said Andersen.”Right now I think there’s a general agreement with a few exceptions that the common opponent right now is Trump and we kind of need to face this together somehow.”

Thousands of people braved icy conditions on Friday to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and businesses closed their doors amid anger over the detention of a five-year-old migrant boy.Dozens of eateries, attraction sites and other businesses shuttered as part of a day of coordinated action to defy the weeks-long federal immigration operation underway in Minnesota.Images of an apparently terrified pre-schooler, Liam Conejo Ramos, being held by immigration officers who were seeking to arrest the boy’s father have rekindled public outrage at the federal crackdown, during which an agent shot and killed a US citizen.The superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Ramos was a preschool student, said the child and his Ecuadoran father, Adrian Conejo Arias — both asylum seekers — were taken from their driveway as they arrived home on Tuesday.Ramos was then used as “bait” by officers to draw out those inside his home, superintendent Zena Stenvik added.One protester, who declined to be named, told AFP he was marching “because if we don’t fight, we don’t win. If we don’t fight, fascism wins.”The local man held a sign reading “five-years-old, dude,” a reference to Ramos.Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to the Democratic-led city, as President Donald Trump presses his campaign to deport undocumented immigrants across the country.On a visit to Minneapolis on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance confirmed Ramos was among those detained. But he argued that agents were protecting him after his father “ran” from officers.”What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?” he said.UN human rights chief Volker Turk called on US authorities to end the “harmful treatment of migrants and refugees.”Arias, the father of the boy, was at a Texas detention facility, according to an ICE database that does not list the whereabouts of under-18s.- ‘Dealing with children’ -Border Patrol senior official Gregory Bovino defended his officers’ treatment of Ramos, telling reporters Friday: “I will say unequivocally that we are experts in dealing with children.”ICE commander Marcos Charles said Friday “my officers did everything they could to reunite him with his family” and alleged that Ramos’s family refused to open the door to him after his father left him and ran from officers.They would be detained “pending their immigration proceedings,” he added after alleging they entered the United States illegally and were “deportable.”Ramos’s teacher, whose name was given as Ella, called him “a bright young student.” In Minneapolis, where temperatures touched -23C (-9F) on Friday, protesters wrapped in hats, gloves and scarves chanted “ICE out” as part of a broader anti-ICE day of action.Separately, protesters picketed outside Minneapolis-St. Paul airport over the facility’s use for deporting those swept up in immigration raids. Methodist pastor Mariah Furness Tollgaard said in a statement that 100 members of clergy were arrested and charged with trespassing and disobeying a peace officer on Friday, while demonstrating at the airport.”As a faith leader in Minnesota, my tradition teaches that every person bears the image of God and is worthy of dignity and safety, and in this moment, all people of faith and moral conscience must stand up,” she said.- ‘Just a baby’ -Former US vice president Kamala Harris said she was “outraged” by Ramos’s detention and called him “just a baby.”Ramos is one of at least four children detained in the same Minneapolis school district this month, administrators said.Minneapolis has been rocked by increasingly tense protests since federal agents shot and killed US citizen Renee Good on January 7.An autopsy concluded that the killing was a homicide, a classification that does not automatically mean a crime was committed.The officer who fired the shots that killed Good, Jonathan Ross, has neither been suspended nor charged.Marc Prokosch, the lawyer for Ramos and his father, said they followed the law in applying for asylum in Minneapolis, a sanctuary city where police do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.Children have been caught up in immigration enforcement under both Republican and Democratic administrations.Minnesota has sought a temporary restraining order for the ICE operation in the state which, if granted by a federal judge, would pause the sweeps. There will be a hearing on the application Monday.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer Friday denounced as “insulting” President Donald Trump’s claim that troops from NATO allies avoided the front line in Afghanistan, as anger grows at the US president’s remarks.In an interview with Fox News aired on Thursday, Trump appeared unaware that 457 British soldiers were among NATO troops who died during the conflict in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.”They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan,” Trump told the US outlet, referring to NATO allies.”And they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,” he added, triggering outrage across the political divide in Britain.Trump also repeated his suggestion that NATO would not come to the aid of the US if asked to do so.In fact, following the 9/11 attacks, the UK and several European countries joined the US in Afghanistan after it invoked NATO’s collective security clause for the first and only time.Soldiers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and others also died in the conflict.”Let me start by paying tribute to 457 of our armed services who lost their lives in Afghanistan,” Starmer said in a video message.”There are many also who were injured, some with life-changing injuries, and so I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly, appalling, and I’m not surprised they’ve caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured.” He said that if he had misspoken in such a way, he “would certainly apologise”.The White House rejected Starmer’s comments and defended the president.”President Trump is absolutely right — the United States of America has done more for NATO than any other country in the alliance has done combined,” Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement sent to AFP.- ‘Heroes’ -Poland’s Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said he expected respect for Polish veterans “who have proven how much they serve this country and our commitments to allies”.Poland lost 43 soldiers in the conflict in Afghanistan.French armed forces minister Catherine Vautrin said 90 French soldiers died in Afghanistan on operations alongside NATO allies and “many others” were wounded.”We remember their sacrifice, which commands respect.”UK defence minister John Healey posted on X that the British troops who died were “heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation”.UK Armed forces minister Al Carns, who served five tours in Afghanistan, said Trump’s comments were “utterly ridiculous”.The leader of the opposition Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch, said Trump’s comments were “complete nonsense” which could weaken the NATO alliance.Even Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party and a long-time Trump supporter rebuked the American leader.”Donald Trump is wrong,” he said on X. “For 20 years our armed forces fought bravely alongside America’s in Afghanistan.” Lucy Aldridge, whose son William died aged 18 in Afghanistan, told The Mirror newspaper that Trump’s remarks were “extremely upsetting”.Mark Atkinson, Director General of the veterans’ charity, The Royal British Legion, said the service and sacrifice of British troops in Afghanistan “cannot be called into question”.Prince Harry, who undertook two frontline tours to Afghanistan with the Army Air Corps, also weighed in.”I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there,” he said.”Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost. Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.”According to official UK figures, 405 of the 457 British casualties who died in Afghanistan were killed in hostile military action.The US reportedly lost more than 2,400 soldiers.More than 150,000 UK armed forces personnel served in Afghanistan between September 2001 and August 2021, the Ministry of Defence said, making the UK the second-largest contributor to the US-led force there.

Americans stripped supermarket shelves Friday ahead of potentially “catastrophic” winter weather that threatened at least 160 million people across the country with transportation chaos, blackouts and life-threatening cold.The massive storm system was set to drop a mix of freezing rain and heavy snow starting Friday evening on its days-long march across the continental US.The storm could bring “catastrophic ice accumulation,” the National Weather Service said, potentially causing “long-duration power outages, extensive tree damage, and extremely dangerous or impassable travel conditions,” including in many states less accustomed to intense winter weather.After battering the country’s southwest and central areas, the storm system was expected to hit the heavily populated mid-Atlantic and northeastern states — stretching from New Mexico to the Eastern seaboard — before a frigid air mass settles in.More than 2,700 weekend flights have already been cancelled, according to the tracker Flightaware, including many in and outbound from Texas. State officials there vow the grid is in better shape than it was five years ago, when it failed during a deadly winter storm and left millions without power.The southern state’s Republican Governor Greg Abbott told journalists the grid “has never been stronger, never been more prepared and is fully capable of handling this winter storm.”Yet Michael Webber, a University of Texas engineering professor, warned ice accumulations would remain “a big risk” across the country — ice could amass and weigh down trees, for example, downing power lines and provoking outages.- Frostbite risk -In New York state, Democratic 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.New York’s Zohran Mamdani was set to face his first major test as mayor — the city famously makes early judgments of newly elected leaders based on winter storm response.Democrat Mamdani said remote learning Monday was an option but he was not planning to close schools — even as one student emailed his wife and urged a snow day.School districts elsewhere were preemptively announcing closures. A professional basketball game on Saturday and dozens of collegiate games were rescheduled.Even in Chicago, a city all-too-familiar with bone-chilling weather, an organization canceled their annual event that sees participants plunge into glacial Lake Michigan for charity (the after-party at a bar was still on.)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 (-46.6C).Such temperatures can cause frostbite within minutes. One Minnesota television station showed uncensored photos of the serious injury that freezes skin tissues as a warning.- 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 President Donald 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.State officials were more focused on the immediate threats the powerful storm posed. At least 16 states and Washington DC declared states of emergency to mobilize disaster response crews and resources, and many municipalities were opening warming shelters.Lines snaked out of grocery stores where stock began running thin.North of Houston, one supermarket was nearly out of bottled water.Anne Schultz said preparation was key but she wasn’t particularly afraid: “If the power stays on, we should all be fine,” the 68-year-old told AFP.The Greensboro Police Department in North Carolina meanwhile warned residents to choose wisely when hunkering down.”Please remember that whoever you hang out with on Saturday, you’re stuck with until at least Tuesday when the ice melts,” the department quipped on X.