Politics
Winter storm kills dozens as cold lingers in central and eastern US
- Winter storm kills at least 38 people across 14 states.
- 550,000 homes, businesses left without electricity.
- Almost 200m Americans to remain winter cold till Feb 1.
At least 38 people across 14 states had died as of Tuesday from a powerful winter storm that left much of the central and eastern US gripped by snow, ice, and below-freezing temperatures, according to local officials and news reports.
The storm started to develop on Friday and dumped snow across a large region over the weekend. The snow snarled road traffic and led to widespread flight cancellations and power outages before subsiding Monday, leaving behind bitter cold that is expected to linger.
By Tuesday, cities were mobilising emergency responders and resources to ensure that residents, particularly homeless people, were safe, even as more than 550,000 homes and businesses across the country lacked electricity.
10 of the storm’s fatal victims were in New York City, where temperatures were the coldest they had been in eight years, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference on Tuesday, when the low hit 8 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the 10 victims were found outside, it was not clear whether they were homeless. Mamdani told reporters Monday that some of the dead “had had interactions with our shelter system in the past. It is still too early to share a broader diagnosis or a cause of death.”
New York City postponed from this week until early February an annual count of its homeless population required by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“Outreach workers should be focused on bringing New Yorkers inside, not on data collection,” Mamdani said. “Here is the bottom line, New York City: Extreme weather is not a personal failure.”
Around 500 of the more than 4,000 homeless people estimated to live in the city’s streets and subway have been placed in shelters since January 19, Mamdani said.
Outreach workers were checking every two hours on 350 homeless people who are at particular risk due to underlying medical conditions.
In Nashville, Tennessee, a city of about 680,000 where more than 135,000 homes and businesses remain without power, the temperature is expected to drop to 6 degrees Fahrenheit by Wednesday morning with below-zero wind chills.
“Let’s be clear about what this is,” Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said at a Tuesday press conference. “It is a historic ice storm.”
Nashville officials said about 1,400 homeless people had filled all three of the city’s homeless shelters and two overflow shelters, with police and firefighters working overtime and emergency workers checking the streets.
The Nashville Rescue Mission, a homeless charity that feeds, clothes and offers shelter year-round, typically might have about 400 people a night, but in the cold snap that number has swollen to about 7,000.
“We’re always full, but we never turn anyone away,” an attendant who was not authorised to speak to reporters, so did not give a name told Reuters by telephone.
“When the weather is bad, people come in out of the cold.”
Fatalities
Across the country, storm-related causes of death ranged from hypothermia and exposure to cardiac incidents while clearing snow.
In Bonham, Texas, about 55 miles northeast of Dallas, three young boys died after falling in an ice pond over the weekend, though the exact circumstances were unclear, according to the local fire department.
Several hours away in Austin, Texas, a person died of apparent hypothermia while trying to shelter at an abandoned gas station, authorities said. Other hypothermia deaths were reported from Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Michigan, local media reported.
Almost 200 million Americans remain under some form of winter cold warning at least through February 1.
Forecasters are watching for another possible winter storm to impact the eastern US this weekend, said David Roth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre.
- France blocks airspace for military flights carrying supplies to Israel.
- Italy denies US aircraft landing permission at Sicily air base.
- Spain closes airspace to US planes involved in Iran strikes.
France and Italy have pushed back against some US-Israeli military operations, sources said on Tuesday, as US President Donald Trump criticised Nato allies in Europe as unhelpful in the month-long war in Iran, highlighting divisions.
The decisions came against a backdrop of tensions between Washington and key partners over the war. Earlier this month, Trump called longtime Nato allies “cowards” over their lack of support. On Tuesday, he slammed countries that did not help in the US-Israeli strikes.
France says no
Trump accused France of blocking aircraft carrying military supplies to Israel from flying over its territory, writing on Truth Social that France had been “VERY UNHELPFUL”.
The French presidency said it was surprised by the post and said its decision was consistent with France’s policy since the conflict began.
A Western diplomat and two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier that the refusal, which happened at the weekend, was the first time France had done this since the start of the conflict on February 28.
The sources said Israel had wanted to use France’s airspace to transport US weapons to be used in the war against Iran.
Israel’s defence ministry accused France of actively obstructing the transfer of munitions to Israel, according to a statement.
It said the French ban was imposed despite prior coordination and assurances that the munitions were intended solely for use against Iran, adding that the effort was critical to European security.
The ministry said Israel would cut all defence procurement from France and would have no new engagement with the French military. French arms sales to Israel are relatively small, and it was unclear whether the move would affect French troops serving with UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
Italy denies permission
Italy last week denied permission for US military aircraft to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily before heading to the Middle East, sources said.
According to the Corriere della Sera daily, which first reported the news, “some US bombers” had been due to land at the base in eastern Sicily before flying on to the Middle East.
Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto later denied any rift with Washington or any change in policy. He posted a message on X to say that US airbases remained active, but that Washington needed special permission for uses outside existing agreements.
Spain is most vocal against war
Meanwhile, Spain defended its decision to fully close its airspace to US planes involved in attacks on Iran.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been among the most vocal critics of the US and Israeli strikes and Defence Minister Margarita Robles said Spain will only allow for the use of its bases for the collective defence of Nato allies.
Trump also singled out Britain as being unhelpful, just as Buckingham Palace confirmed King Charles and Queen Camilla will pay a state visit to the US in late April.
He wrote on Truth Social: “All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the US, we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.”
The United States, France, Italy, Spain and Britain are all Nato members, as is Germany, which hosts Ramstein, the largest US base in Europe.
Germany said early in the war there were no restrictions on the US using the base, though the issue has been debated after President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he believed the war was illegal.
Iran’s Army says its air defense forces have shot down an American MQ-9 unmanned strategic aircraft over the country’s central city of Isfahan and a LUCAS drone over Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf.
In a statement on Tuesday, Iran’s Army said that Isfahan air defenses managed to successfully shoot and destroy a US-made MQ-9 Reaper, which belonged to the American-Israeli aggressors, over the city in the early hours of the day.
MQ-9 is an unmanned aerial vehicle designed for long-endurance surveillance.
In a separate statement, Iran’s Army said that its air defenses also managed to shoot and destroy a Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) over Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf at 10:30 a.m. local time.
The LUCAS drones are made in the United States but they are in fact a reverse-engineered copy of the kamikaze Iranian drone called Shahed.
With the latest interceptions, the number of hostile drones destroyed by the Iranian Armed Forces’ integrated air defense network since the beginning of the ongoing US-Israeli war of aggression has reached 147.
The United States and Israel started a fresh round of aerial aggression on Iran on February 28, some eight months after they carried out unprovoked attacks on the country.
The attacks led to the martyrdom of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, as well as military commanders.
Hundreds of civilians, including women and children, have also been killed in the war so far.
Iran began to swiftly retaliate against the strikes by launching barrages of ballistic missile and drone attacks on the Israeli-occupied territories as well as on US bases in regional countries.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has warned 18 major US companies, including tech giants, that their offices and properties in the region will come under attack as they have assisted US-Israeli terror operations inside Iran by providing espionage services.
The IRGC said in a Tuesday statement that these companies should expect Iran’s reprisal attacks starting at 20:00 Iran time on April 1, adding that their offices in the region will be “annihilated.”
The list released by the IRGC included big tech names such as Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, as well as major hardware suppliers like HP, Intel, IBM, and Cisco.
Other major brands included Tesla, Nvidia, Oracle, JP Morgan, and Boeing.
The IRGC described those companies as espionage entities associated with the warmongering government of the United States, saying their artificial intelligence (AI) and internet communication technology (ICT) services have been the main elements in designing terror operations and tracing assassination targets by the US and Israel inside Iran.
It stated that the US government and its Israeli allies had ignored Iran’s repeated calls to stop terror operations in the country and had carried out a new targeted terror attack earlier on Tuesday, killing a number of Iranian citizens.
“In response to this terrorist operation, henceforth, the main institutions involved in terrorist activities will be considered legitimate targets,” the IRGC said.
“We advise employees of these institutions to immediately leave their workplaces to protect their lives. Residents within a one-kilometer radius of these terrorist companies across all countries in the region are also urged to evacuate and move to safe locations.”
Dozens of senior Iranian political and military officials and their family members have been assassinated in the ongoing US-Israeli aggression against Iran that began in late February.
Iran has vowed to avenge the assassinations by targeting elements that have been influential in the attacks.
Europe pushes back on some US military operations as concerns over Iran war mount
Severe storms, tornadoes to hit US as April begins
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