A monster storm barreling across swathes of the United States has killed at least 10 people and prompted warnings to stay off the roads, mass flight cancelations and power outages, as freezing conditions persisted into Monday.As the storm dumped snow, sleet and freezing rain across the wide expanse, officials cautioned that an Arctic air mass behind the system would see temperatures fall dangerously low for days, prolonging disruptions to daily life.The US National Weather Service (NWS) told Americans to expect more of the same weather conditions into Monday morning.New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said five people were found dead outside over the weekend in freezing temperatures. While he did not confirm the deaths were weather-related, he told reporters “there is no more powerful reminder of the danger of extreme cold.”In Texas, authorities confirmed three deaths, including a 16-year-old girl killed in a sledding accident.Two people died in Louisiana from hypothermia, the southern state’s health department said.The PowerOutage.com tracking site showed more than 840,000 customers without electricity as of Sunday night, mostly in the US South where the storm intensified Saturday.In Tennessee, where a band of ice has downed power lines, more than 300,000 residential and commercial customers were without electricity, while Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia — where such storms are less common — each had over 100,000 outages.The outages are particularly dangerous as the South is being walloped by treacherous cold that the NWS warns could set records.Authorities from Texas to North Carolina and New York urged residents to stay home due to the perilous conditions.”Stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary,” Texas’s Emergency Management Division posted on X.The storm was moving Sunday into the northeast, dumping snow and sleet on heavily populated cities including Philadelphia, New York and Boston.At least 20 states and the US capital Washington have declared states of emergency.Residents in the capital Washington awoke to a blanket of several inches of snow on sidewalks and roads, followed by heavy sleet.Federal offices have been preemptively closed for Monday.Several major airports in Washington, Philadelphia and New York had nearly all flights canceled for the day.Tracking site Flightaware.com showed more than 19,000 flights into and out of the country had been scrapped since Saturday.President Donald Trump, who was riding out the storm at the White House, said on his Truth Social platform Saturday: “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 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 climatic shifts.”WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???” the Republican leader posted.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.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. 

The US military is increasing materiel deliveries and intelligence sharing with Nigeria, Africom’s deputy commander told AFP, as part of a broader American push to work with African militaries to go after Islamic State-linked militants.The Pentagon has also kept open lines of communication with militaries in the junta-led Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, Lieutenant General John Brennan said.The increased cooperation with Abuja follows Washington’s diplomatic pressure on Nigeria over jihadist violence in the country, but also as the US military is becoming “more aggressive” in pursuing IS-linked targets on the continent.Under the Trump administration, “we’ve gotten a lot more aggressive and (are) working with partners to target, kinetically, the threats, mainly ISIS,” Brennan said in an interview on the sidelines of a US-Nigeria security meeting in the Nigerian capital last week.”From Somalia to Nigeria, the problem set is connected. So we’re trying to take it apart and then provide partners with the information they need,” he added. “It’s been about more enabling partners and then providing them equipment and capabilities with less restrictions so that they can be more successful.”Last week’s inaugural US-Nigeria Joint Working Group meeting came roughly a month after the US announced surprise Christmas Day strikes on IS-linked targets in northwest Nigeria.- Diplomatic clash -Though both militaries seem keen on increased cooperation after the joint strikes, hanging over it all is diplomatic pressure by Washington over what Trump claims is the mass killing of Christians in Nigeria.Abuja and independent analysts reject that framing of Nigeria’s myriad, overlapping conflicts, which has long been used by the US religious right.Charged politics were on display at the Joint Working Group meeting in Abuja, where Allison Hooker, the number three at the State Department, pushed the Nigerian government “to protect Christians” in a speech that did not mention Muslim victims of armed groups.Africa’s most populous country is roughly evenly split between a mostly Muslim north and mostly Christian south. Though millions live peacefully side by side, religious and ethnic identity remains a sensitive topic in a country that has seen sectarian violence throughout its history.Brennan told AFP that US intelligence would not be limited to protecting Christians.He also said that following the US strikes in northwestern Sokoto state, American support going forward would focus on intelligence sharing to aid Nigerian air strikes there, as well as the northeast, where a jihadist insurgency by Boko Haram and rival breakaway ISWAP has raged since 2009.Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is “our most concerning group”, he said.Analysts have been tracking US intelligence flights over the country in recent months, though some have questioned whether air support alone can push back armed groups that thrive amid widespread poverty and state collapse in rural areas.- ‘Still collaborate’ with AES militaries -US-Nigerian cooperation going forward will involve “the whole gamut of intel sharing, sharing… tactics, techniques, and procedures, as well as enabling them to procure more equipment,” Brennan said.The initial strikes targeted militants linked to Islamic State Sahel Province, typically active in neighbouring Niger, Brennan said.Analysts have voiced concerns about ISSP’s spread from the Sahel into coastal west African countries like Nigeria.The impact of those strikes so far has been unclear, however, with local and international journalists unable to confirm militant casualties.Asked about their effectiveness, Nigerian information minister Mohammed Idris said last week it was “still a work in progress”.In the Sahel more widely, Brennan said “we still collaborate” with the junta-led governments in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which have broken away from their west African neighbours and largely shunned the West.Security cooperation has been curtailed since coups toppled civilian governments across the three countries from 2020 to 2023.”We have actually shared information with some of them to attack key terrorist targets,” he said. “We still talk to our military partners across the Sahelian states, even though it’s not official.”Brennan also said the US is not seeking to replace its bases in Niger after its troops were pushed out by the ruling junta.”We’re not in the market to create a drone base anywhere,” he said, referencing the shuttered US drone operations in Agadez. “We are much more focused on getting capability to the right place at the right time and then leaving. We don’t seek long-term basing in any of the western African countries.”