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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.

The FBI has launched an investigation into the death of Jim Irsay, the 65-year-old owner of the Indianapolis Colts NFL team who struggled with addiction and died in May at a Beverly Hills hotel.The probe, first reported by the Washington Post, is said to include a well-known California-based doctor who allegedly provided Irsay with opioid pills and ketamine injections in his final months.The use of either to treat patients with a history of addiction is controversial. Ketamine is an anesthetic used in depression therapy but can itself be addictive. An overdose caused the death of “Friends” actor Matthew Perry in 2023.A spokesman for the Colts on Friday told AFP the club was “aware of the investigation” into Irsay’s death but had not been contacted by the FBI or been served with any subpoenas.The doctor, Harry Haroutunian, did not respond to AFP request for comment. An FBI spokeswoman could neither confirm nor or deny the existence of an investigation due to long-standing FBI policy.Irsay, a larger-than-life billionaire who inherited the Colts from his father Robert and oversaw the franchise for decades, was found dead in the swanky Beverly Hills Hotel last May.A death certificate signed by Haroutunian said the immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest, with acute pneumonia as a contributing factor. No autopsy was performed.Irsay had spoken publicly about his lifelong struggles with alcohol and substance abuse. He said he had kicked his addictions in 2002, but suffered a high-profile relapse in 2014, and was suspended for six games by the NFL.Irsay and his family set up a recovery charity called Kicking the Stigma in 2022. But according to the Post, Irsay slipped back into substance abuse the next year, and suffered at least three overdoses that were kept quiet by aides prior to his death. Police responding to the scene of Irsay’s death were told he had been suffering chronic health issues, and medical officials concluded no autopsy was necessary, the Post reported.His family also did not request an autopsy, and the club’s statement simply said Irsay had died “peacefully in his sleep.”An avid collector who spent $100 million on music, sports and other pop culture memorabilia and also enjoyed competitive power lifting, Irsay steered the Colts to a Super Bowl win in 2007.The franchise is now co-owned by his three daughters, including Carlie Irsay-Gordon, who is the Colts CEO.

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.”This shouldn’t be happening to anybody, but it absolutely should not be have been happening to children,” he said.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, with local media citing organizers as saying some 100 clergy were arrested.- ‘Being brutal’ -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 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.ICE were “not following the law, and really they’re being mean to all our neighbors here in Minnesota,” a protester who gave their name only as Aron told AFP.”They’re actually being brutal.”

Global stocks were subdued and precious metals hit new highs Friday as US President Donald Trump followed up conciliatory comments on Greenland with a fresh warning on Iran.Trump, who on Wednesday backed away from threatened tariffs on Europe over Greenland, told reporters the United States was sending a “massive fleet” toward Iran “just in case.”Gold — a safe-haven asset — pushed closer to a record $5,000 an ounce, while fellow safe haven silver also kept rising, blasting through $102 an ounce amid worries over what Trump may say next, or actually do.The dollar retreated, falling to a four-month low against the euro.Sentiment had calmed over the past two days after the US president pulled back from his threat to hit several European nations with levies because of their opposition to Washington taking over the Danish autonomous territory of Greeland.Trump has repeatedly left open the option of new military action against Iran after Washington backed and joined Israel’s 12-day war in June aimed at degrading Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.The prospect of immediate American action seemed to recede in recent days, with both sides insisting on giving diplomacy a chance.European markets sought direction in vain, Frankfurt closing just in the green as London and Paris fell on the red side of the line at the end of the week.Wall Street painted a similar picture, with the Dow retreating while the Nasdaq pushed higher. Intel plunged 17 percent after lackluster expectations on the chip maker’s earnings.Asian markets closed higher.- Powell under pressure -Trump’s latest salvo against allies revived trade war fears and uncertainty about US investment, putting downward pressure on the dollar this week.Analysts said there was no guarantee that Europe-US relations had improved durably.The US president’s willingness to threaten tariffs over any issue had rattled confidence on trading floors, boosting safe-haven metals, analysts said.Investors were also preparing for next week’s Federal Reserve meeting following economic data broadly in line with forecasts and after US prosecutors took aim at boss Jerome Powell, which has raised fears over the bank’s independence.The bank is tipped to hold interest rates steady, after cutting them in the previous three meetings.The meeting also comes as Trump considers candidates to replace Powell when the Fed chair’s term comes to an end in May.The Bank of Japan left its key interest rate unchanged ahead of a snap election next week, which could impact government spending plans.After sharp volatility in the wake of the announcement, the yen traded slightly higher.Next week’s US earnings calendar is packed with results from Apple, Microsoft, Boeing, Tesla, Meta and other corporate giants.- Key figures at around 2120 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.6 percent at 49,098.71 (close)New York – S&P 500: FLAT at 6,915.61 (close)New York – NASDAQ: UP 0.3 percent at 23,501.24 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 10,143.44 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.1 percent at 8,143.05 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.2 percent at 24,900.71 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 53,846.87 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.5 percent at 26,749.51 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 4,136.16 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1823 from $1.1755 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3636 from $1.3501Dollar/yen: DOWN at 157.00 yen from 158.41 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 86.70 pence from 87.07 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 2.9 percent at $61.07 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 2.8 percent at $65.88 per barrel

After a long legal saga, TikTok has established a majority American-owned joint venture to operate its US business, deflecting the threat of a ban over its Chinese ownership.Here is a look at the potential consequences of the deal — if any — for users and beyond:- What it means for users -Whether the 200 million users in the United States will notice any difference in their online experience remains unclear. After the deal, users don’t need to download a new app, though they were prompted to accept new terms of service covering “new types of location information” and data usage.At the heart of the ownership drama is TikTok’s powerful algorithm, which US lawmakers feared could be weaponized for data or propaganda by the Chinese government. The new ownership has promised to “retrain” the app’s magic sauce, but how that will affect the user experience is still unknown.TikTok insists that US users will maintain a “global TikTok experience,” meaning US creators can still be discovered internationally and businesses can “operate on a global scale.”However, the US-only algorithm raises questions. “There are still questions of how this new entity will interact with other versions of TikTok globally,” said Jennifer Huddleston of the CATO Institute in Washington. She also wondered about “what influence the US government may have over the algorithm and the free speech concerns that could arise from this new arrangement.”A major investor in the new entity is Larry Ellison, who is also financing his son David’s recent takeover of Paramount and bidding war to take over Warner Bros — potentially giving the family unprecedented power over US media.Creators are watching especially closely, since their popularity and income depend on the algorithm’s mysterious workings. Some have already migrated to other platforms, frustrated or anxious about the political turmoil surrounding the app.- What it means for TikTok -Before President Donald Trump took office, TikTok’s fate in the United States looked bleak. The app was even briefly switched off in its biggest market after exhausting all legal options. The political chaos has likely taken a toll on TikTok, despite Trump ultimately coming to its rescue.”TikTok remains incredibly popular in the US, but it’s facing more competition than ever, particularly from Instagram Reels,” said Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley.The algorithm that took the world by storm five years ago is no longer unique. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts now offer similar experiences, retaining engagement and attracting advertisers at comparable scale.According to Emarketer, while US TikTok users still spend more time on the app than on other social networks, that time is declining each year, “signaling that the app is struggling to keep users hooked in the way it once did.”- What it means for national security -The divestment may have satisfied the Trump administration, but whether it will satisfy the lawmakers who passed the divest-or-ban law remains to be seen, warned University of Florida media professor Andrew Selepak.”The TikTok deal has improved the privacy of exactly no one and has done nothing to improve national security,” said Kate Ruane of the Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology.ByteDance now owns just under 20 percent of the company, with the rest spread across several mainly US companies. However, John Moolenaar, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has vowed to conduct full oversight of the agreement, signaling potential trouble ahead.TikTok says key functions like e-commerce and marketing will remain tied to the global entity and that could be problematic.”I don’t know how you could accomplish e-commerce and not take data from me as an American user,” Selepak said.For Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law, “It seems like Trump has just eclipsed whatever Congress might have intended in terms of national security.”

US federal officials struggled Friday to quell growing outrage over the detention of a five-year-old boy in a massive immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, as businesses in the city shut down in protest at the ongoing raids.The superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Liam Conejo 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. Ramos was then used as “bait” by immigration officers to knock on the door of his home to draw out those inside, Zena Stenvik added.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 illegal immigrants across the country.In defiant comments Thursday, Vice President JD Vance confirmed Ramos was among those detained, but 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.The UN rights chief Volker Turk called on US authorities to end the “dehumanizing portrayal and harmful treatment of migrants and refugees.”Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro, whose constituency includes a San Antonio ICE detention center to which it was thought Ramos was taken, rejected Vance’s explanation.”My staff and I have been trying to figure out his whereabouts, make sure he’s safe, and also to demand his release by ICE,” he wrote on X.Border Patrol 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.Ramos and his father were at a “family residential center pending their immigration proceedings,” he added after alleging they entered the United States illegally and were “deportable.”Charles claimed that “agitators” with shields had gathered outside the federal facility where he was speaking, a flashpoint for anti-ICE protests.The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said dispersal orders were issued for an “unlawful protest.”Ramos’s teacher, whose name was given as Ella, called him “a bright young student.” “All I want is for him to be back here and safe,” she said in a statement Wednesday. Calls for a day of action against ICE and a general strike have been gaining traction on social media, with a demonstration expected in downtown Minneapolis on Friday.Anti-Trump group Indivisible Twin Cities called for a day of “No work. No school. No shopping” as part of a broader anti-ICE protest across the state that will include a march through downtown Minneapolis ending at the Target Center arena.Hundreds of shops, eateries and attractions closed their doors, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.Separately, protesters picketed outside Minneapolis St. Paul airport over the facility’s use for deporting those swept up in immigration raids, with organizers reporting 100 arrests.- ‘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, local 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 killing was a homicide, a classification that does not automatically mean a crime was committed. Three activists were charged with disrupting a Sunday church service with a protest accusing a pastor of working for ICE.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, which is a sanctuary city where police do not cooperate with federal immigration.Children have long been caught up in federal 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.

A massive winter storm was set to drop a mix of freezing rain and heavy snow on some 160 million Americans starting Friday, threatening to bring dangerously icy conditions.Multiple US states declared states of emergency as meteorologists said the storm would soon begin marching across much of the continental US, covering a wide swath of the country’s middle including the Rockies and Plains.It could bring “catastrophic ice accumulation,” the National Weather Service said, and could result in “long-duration power outages, extensive tree damage, and extremely dangerous or impassable travel conditions,” including in many states less accustomed to intense winter weather.The storm was expected to linger for days, shifting into the heavily populated mid-Atlantic and northeastern states while crippling daily life and ushering in a frigid air mass across the country.More than 1,800 weekend flights have already been cancelled, according to the tracker Flightaware, including many in Texas. State officials there vowed the grid that failed during a deadly winter storm five years ago and left millions without power was now better prepared.The southern state’s Republican Governor Greg Abbott told journalists Thursday the grid “has never been stronger, never been more prepared and is fully capable of handling this winter storm.”Civil and environmental engineering professor Daniel Cohan of Rice University told AFP the system was indeed better winterized than it was in 2021, and that the state also has added solar production and storage since then.The electricity authority “should have plenty of power to go around this time,” Cohan said.Warming centers were set to open in the Houston area Saturday afternoon.- Extreme cold -In New York state, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul warned of extreme cold that could make even short trips outdoors dangerous.She emphasized risks ranging from hypothermia to heart attacks while shoveling, stressing precautions like protecting pipes, using heaters safely, and checking on vulnerable neighbors. “Five or six minutes outside could literally be dangerous for your health,” she said, adding that emergency crews were fully mobilized.New York’s Zohran Mamdani was meanwhile set to face his first major test as mayor — the city famously makes early judgments of newly elected leaders based on ability to keep congested streets clear.Speaking to local television Friday, Democrat Mamdani said he was not planning to close schools Monday and that remote learning was an option — even as one student emailed the mayor’s wife and spelled out a case for a snow day.”She thought it was a good argument,” an unconvinced Mamdani chuckled.The storm is set to usher in frigid temperatures and dangerous winds that could last a week in some areas. Parts of the Upper Midwest were already experiencing wind chills forecast to hit in the range of -55F (-48C), bitter temperatures that can cause frostbite within minutes.- 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 yet settled and natural variability also plays a role.But President Donald Trump — who scoffs at climate change science and has rolled back green energy policies — wasted no time in questioning how the cold front fit into broader climate shifts.”Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???,” the Republican leader posted on his platform Truth Social.State officials were more focused on the immediate threats the powerful storm posed to residents, with at least 14 states from the south to the northeast as well as Washington DC declaring states of emergency.Political leaders across the country were encouraging people to stock up on food and dry goods, prepare first aid and supply kits and keep their vehicle gas tanks full to prevent fuel lines from freezing.In Magnolia, a municipality north of Houston, one supermarket was close to running out of bottled water as Texans bought them out.Anne Schultz said she wasn’t particularly fearful, but that preparation was still important.”If the power stays on, we should all be fine,” the 68-year-old told AFP.

Donald Trump is shaping a new world order of empires and coercion, from Venezuela to Greenland and through his newly created “Board of Peace, shattering the post-war global consensus.As the old order crumbles, AFP sought the views of ministers, advisers, lawmakers and military from across the globe.Celso Amorim, chief adviser to Brazil’s President Lula Inacio Lula da Silva, described the situation as “a very difficult moment of transition to a new order”.”But these periods of transition sometimes lead to terrible consequences,” he added.One Filipino diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no one felt able to speak out that “the emperor has no clothes”.Weng Hsiao-ling, a Taiwanese lawmaker from the main opposition Kuomintang party, said there had been a belief in “international rules”.”But Trump’s approach has broken those norms,” she said.- Geography -How the future could play out looks different from the Americas, Europe, Eurasia and South Asia.Brazil, for example, is an emerging power and member of the BRICS group of developing nations, but also located within Trump’s purported sphere of influence.Amorim said Brazil needed “to maintain and build on what’s being done”, pointing to the recent trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.It also needed to stay onside with the United States, as well as China, India and other BRICS countries, he added.”We are very much interested in maintaining good relations with the United States, let that be clear,” said Amorim. But he added: “Those relations must be based on mutual respect; they must be conducted through dialogue.”Many countries on the continent may find it difficult to find a balance and distance from American hegemony. Trump, for example, regularly threatens neighbouring Mexico.But Ricardo Monreal, parliamentary leader for the ruling Morena party, rejected the idea that Washington could make Mexico a “subordinate”.”The United States believes that Mexico’s alignment with the American empire is automatic. I don’t think it’s that simple,” he said.”The margin we have is very limited because our dependence is strong. Our proximity is unavoidable.”But I maintain that Mexico, with 110 or 120 million inhabitants, is a country that can shape the economic bloc — and that the way the United States treats Mexico is not as a partner, but as a subordinate. And I don’t think they’re going to pull that off.”- Protection -China and Russia may feel emboldened by US action under Trump but the countries threatened by their territorial ambitions still want to believe they are protected.In Taiwan, whose survival in its current political form depends largely on US support, lawmaker Wang Ting-yu, of the ruling DPP party, hopes the show of force to capture Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro will force authoritarian regimes to think twice about acts of aggression.That will be “a good thing” for Taiwan. But he added: “We need to be careful because China will learn from this kind of operation.”The Filipino diplomat said the Indo-Pacific, including the Philippines and the ASEAN bloc, was vital for the United States’ economic security, whatever happened in Greenland.”I’m not saying (Trump’s actions) don’t keep people awake at night. But there’s a level of comfort there, and we hope we’re proven right,” they added.On the South China Sea, where Beijing has designs, Filipino Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad also said he was reassured by “the surge and upscale of not only US but even allied forces in this part of the globe”.- ‘Darwinian’ -Europe enjoyed US protection from the Soviets for decades and according to some remains indispensable to Washington because of its geographical location as the gateway to Eurasia.Yet one high-ranking officer said the continent was “completely paralysed” and bogged down in debate rather than action.”The world has become very Darwinian again,” he warned. “It’s not intelligence that matters most, it’s the speed of adaptation” to the new reality.The chairman of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Armin Laschet, said the US-Europe alliance needed to be maintained “for as long as possible” — even if that means calling Trump “daddy”, like NATO chief Mark Rutte.The current state of affairs has raised questions about the effectiveness of the traditional tools of multilateralism.Colombia’s deputy foreign minister, Mauricio Jaramillo, said he was “surprised” at the lack of weighty UN reaction after Maduro’s capture.But despite criticism about its limitations, Laschet said there was “no alternative” to the world body, which emerged from the failings of the post-World War I League of Nations, and the ashes of World War II in 1945.”But today the big difference is that countries have atomic weapons that can destroy everything. So, we need to act beforehand.”

Ryan Wedding, a Canadian former Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin, has been arrested in Mexico and brought to the United States to face cocaine trafficking and murder charges, FBI chief Kash Patel announced Friday.Wedding, 44, has been on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list, and the US State Department recently offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture.”Just to tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco trafficker in modern times,” Patel said at an airport tarmac press conference in Ontario, California. “He is a modern day El Chapo. He is a modern day Pablo Escobar.””This individual and his organization in the Sinaloa Cartel poured narcotics into the streets of North America and killed too many of our youth and corrupted too many of our citizens,” he said.Patel said Wedding — whose aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant” and “Public Enemy” — was arrested in Mexico City on Thursday night.The FBI director declined to provide any details about Wedding’s capture other than to say it was an “inter-agency wide effort” that included law enforcement partners in Mexico.Patel said Wedding is believed to have been hiding in Mexico for over a decade and has been wanted on cocaine trafficking and murder charges since 2024.Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, told reporters that Wedding is expected to have an initial US court appearance on Monday morning.Wedding is accused of smuggling some 60 metric tons of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico into the United States and Canada and of “orchestrating multiple murders of victims and government witnesses,” Davis said.Davis said 36 people connected to Wedding’s alleged drug trafficking ring have been arrested and assets worth tens of millions of dollars have been seized including luxury vehicles, valuable artwork and jewelry.Seven people allegedly connected to Wedding’s cocaine smuggling operation were arrested in Canada in November, including his lawyer, Deepak Paradkar, and the United States is seeking their extradition.According to US federal prosecutors, Paradkar allegedly told Wedding that if he killed a witness in a pending criminal case against him the case would go away.The witness was shot five times in the head and killed in January 2025 at a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia, they said.Wedding competed for Canada in snowboarding at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, finishing 24th in the parallel giant slalom.