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The US Border Patrol commander famed for reveling in aggressive, televised immigration crackdowns, and some federal agents were expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday as the White House sought to stem fallout over the second fatal shooting of a protester in a month.The imminent exit of Gregory Bovino, known for his military-style outfits and phalanxes of masked agents, was reported by US media as President Donald Trump’s new envoy Tom Homan was due to meet Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.Homan, the top US border security official, brings a less confrontational communication style and his appointment as Trump’s new point man for Minneapolis underlines the Republican president’s scramble to contain the political crisis.In another possible sign of deescalation, Frey announced, without giving details, that “some federal agents” will be leaving the Minnesota city.Protesters, braving sub-zero weather, were due to gather outside the state legislature later Tuesday.The shooting death at point blank range of 37-year-old protester Alex Pretti on Saturday sparked outrage nationwide, even among some of Trump’s usually ultra-loyal Republican allies in Congress.Former Democratic president Joe Biden on Tuesday said the situation “betrays our most basic values as Americans.” Former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have also spoken out.Pretti, shot multiple times after being knocked to the ground, was the second US citizen killed by immigration officers in Minneapolis this month, turning the city into ground zero of national tensions over Trump’s mass deportation policies.Protester Renee Good, a mother of three, was shot by an agent at point blank range in her car on January 7.The killings capped months of escalating violence in which masked, unidentified, and heavily armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Border Patrol agents have grabbed people suspected of violating immigration laws off the streets.The roving units are the spearhead for Trump’s vow to deport hundreds of thousands of people who are in the country illegally. But while the policy was initially popular, the chaotic and violent implementation is causing uproar.Despite multiple videos clearly showing that Pretti posed no threat, top officials initially claimed he had been intending to kill federal agents and described him as a “domestic terrorist.” Trump himself amplified the conspiracy theory on social media before retreating on Monday with a more conciliatory message.Concern over the violence and the attempt to blame Pretti for his death quickly spread to Washington.Republican Senator Rand Paul said Tuesday that agents involved in the Pretti shooting should be put “immediately” on administrative leave. Centrist Democratic Senator John Fetterman — who rarely criticizes Trump — said “grossly incompetent” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should be fired.The turmoil could even result in suspension of wide swaths of US government funding with Democrats threatening to block approval of routine spending bills up for votes in the Senate later this week.- Protestors feel vindicated -At a demonstration in Minneapolis on Monday, locals expressed relief that ICE was expected to scale down.”It’s a vindication to some degree. We have a lot of fear around what kind of violence and reprisals might come as they leave,” protester Kyle Wagner told AFP.”Our neighborhoods and communities have been brutalized by them, so any decrease in the numbers and the severity is just a huge relief to the community that’s been suffering for months now.”Jasmine Nelson, who was also at the demonstration, said she was inspired by locals coming together to protest the killings.”It’s really beautiful to see everyone get together like this and fight against these injustices,” she said.On another front, a federal judge in Minneapolis heard arguments on Monday about whether the deployment of federal officers violates the state of Minnesota’s sovereignty.In addition, the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, was ordered to appear in a Minnesota federal court on Friday over a case of a man challenging his detention by the agency.

Consumer confidence in the United States plunged in January to its lowest level since 2014, survey data showed Tuesday, as American households continue to fret about inflation and elevated costs of living.The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index slumped by 9.7 points from December to 84.5, with consumers growing more cautious about major spending decisions.A consumption slowdown — if it took hold — would hit at the key driver of the world’s biggest economy, with consumer spending accounting for more than two-thirds of US GDP.The new data comes as US President Donald Trump struggles to reverse voters’ negative feelings about the economy ahead of the critical midterm elections in November — in which his Republican Party risks losing control of Congress.”Confidence collapsed in January, as consumer concerns about both the present situation and expectations for the future deepened,” said the research group’s chief economist Dana Peterson.She added that all five components of the index worsened, driving the overall level to its lowest since May 2014 — “surpassing its Covid-19 pandemic depths.”While the Conference Board survey data on expectations has diverged from spending patterns in the past, economist Oliver Allen of Pantheon Macroeconomics said: “We’d be surprised if its recent deterioration proves to be an entirely false signal.”This is “particularly given the recent stagnation in real incomes and the already rock-bottom personal saving rate,” he said in a note.In January, net views on current business conditions “dwindled to just barely positive,” while perceptions of employment conditions also weakened, The Conference Board said.Meanwhile, consumers tended to be pessimistic about factors influencing the economy.”The low hiring rate is a problem,” said Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long.”Layer on top of that a lot of geopolitical uncertainty over Venezuela, Greenland and the Federal Reserve, and Americans continue to be frustrated with the economy,” she added.Peterson of The Conference Board flagged that “references to prices and inflation, oil and gas prices, and food and grocery prices remained elevated.””Mentions of tariffs and trade, politics, and the labor market also rose in January, and references to health/insurance and war edged higher,” she said.Consumers increasingly indicated that they were not planning on big-ticket purchases in the next six months as well, suggesting that they are becoming more selective in their spending.”Used cars, furniture, TVs, and smartphones remained the most popular within their categories for future purchases,” according to The Conference Board.

Mexico’s exports climbed 7.6 percent in 2025, despite its auto, steel and aluminum sectors being swept up in US President Donald Trump’s tariffs blitz, according to figures released Tuesday.Over 80 percent of Mexico’s exports, which totalled $664.8 billion, went to the neighboring United States, according to statistics released by national statistics agency INEGI.Latin America’s second-biggest economy, which is part of a free-trade agreement with the United States and Canada, has so far largely managed to avoid bilateral US tariffs.But its steel and aluminum have been hit by levies on US imports of the metals of up to 50 percent.Its key auto and auto parts sectors also face tariffs of 25 percent on goods that do not fall under the USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada) trade agreement.While Mexico’s manufacturing exports grew 9.8 percent last year, its auto exports were down by 4.2 percent.The country’s imports also rose last year, but at a slower pace — 4.4 percent — than exports, resulting in a trade surplus of $771 million.Under pressure from Trump, Mexico has hiked tariffs on China, its second-largest trading partner after the United States.Trump accuses Chinese producers of using Mexico as a tariffs-free backdoor into the United States.Sheinbaum’s decision to implement tariffs of up to 50 percent on some Chinese goods from January 1 was widely seen as a concession to her powerful northern counterpart ahead of a review of the USMCA deal set for the fist half of 2026.Mexico has also increased levies on imports from other countries with which it does not have a trade deal, including South Korea, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan and Brazil.

Jury selection begins Tuesday for a landmark trial that could establish a legal precedent on whether social media companies deliberately designed their platforms to addict children.The case being heard in a California state court in Los Angeles is being called a “bellwether” proceeding because its outcome could set the tone for a tidal wave of similar litigation across the United States.Defendants in the suit are Alphabet, ByteDance and Meta, the tech titans behind YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.Meta co-founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is slated to be called as a witness during the trial.Social media firms are accused in hundreds of lawsuits of addicting young users to content that has led to depression, eating disorders, psychiatric hospitalization and even suicide.Lawyers for the plaintiffs are explicitly borrowing strategies used in the 1990s and 2000s against the tobacco industry, which faced a similar onslaught of lawsuits arguing that companies sold a harmful product.The trial before Judge Carolyn Kuhl is expected to start next week after a jury is selected.It focuses on allegations that a 19-year-old woman identified by the initials K.G.M. suffered severe mental harm because she was addicted to social media.”This is the first time that a social media company has ever had to face a jury for harming kids,” Social Media Victims Law Center founder Matthew Bergman, whose team is involved in more than 1,000 such cases, told AFP.The center is a legal organization dedicated to holding social media companies accountable for harms allegedly caused to young people online.”The fact that now K.G.M. and her family get to stand in a courtroom equal to the largest, most powerful and wealthy companies in the world is, in and of itself, a very significant victory,” Bergman said.Internet titans have argued that they are shielded by Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act, which frees them of responsibility for what social media users post.However, this case argues those firms are culpable for business models designed to hold people’s attention and to promote content that winds up harming their mental health.”The allegations in these complaints are simply not true,” said Jose Castaneda, a YouTube spokesperson.”Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work,” he added.Meta and TikTok have also rejected the allegations.Snapchat last week confirmed that it made a deal to avoid the trial. The terms were not disclosed.Lawsuits, including some brought by school districts, accusing social media platforms of practices endangering young users are also making their way through federal court in Northern California and state courts across the country.

US First Lady Melania Trump made a rare political intervention Tuesday as she called for “unity” after federal agents killed two people during immigration raids in Minneapolis. But in an interview to promote the release of her self-titled documentary this week, the Slovenian-born former model still appeared to put the blame on demonstrators by calling for them to “protest in peace.”Her husband, President Donald Trump, has sought to pivot amid a growing backlash over the killing on Saturday of Alex Pretti, the second person shot dead by immigration agents in Minneapolis this month. “We need to unify. I’m calling for unity,” Melania told “Fox and Friends” when asked for her message about the shootings and the protests in Minneapolis.The 55-year-old added that President Trump had a “great call” with the Democratic governor of Minnesota and mayor of Minneapolis “and they are working together to make it peaceful and without riots.””I’m against the violence, so please, if we protest, protest in peace, and we need to unify in these times,” she said, speaking against a backdrop of the logo for her movie “Melania.”Melania Trump held a screening of her new Amazon movie at the White House on Saturday, hours after Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, died from multiple gunshots wounds.The movie has its premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington — recently renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center by a board handpicked by the Republican president — on Thursday.It is released in cinemas on Friday. Reports put Amazon’s licensing deal for the film at around $40 million.Top Trump officials initially called Pretti a “terrorist” and “assassin,” but the White House distanced itself from that language on Monday as footage emerged showing that the victim was shot after agents had already removed a sidearm from him. 

The flagship of the French Navy, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, on Tuesday set course for the Atlantic, the defence ministry said, after the United States and Europe butted heads over Greenland.On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron is to meet the leaders of Denmark and Greenland in Paris, his office said.European powers rallied together when US President Donald Trump this month undermined the transatlantic alliance by threatening to seize the autonomous Danish territory.Greenland is strategically located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean.The French defence ministry did not specify where the Charles de Gaulle was being deployed. But sources familiar with the matter told AFP that the aircraft carrier was heading to the North Atlantic, which has been at the heart of the geopolitical tensions.”The naval air group has set sail from the Toulon naval base to take part in Orion 26, a large-scale joint and allied exercise,” the French defence ministry said.”Conducted over the coming weeks in the Atlantic zone — a strategic area for the defence of European interests — this exercise will bring together French forces alongside their regional allies and partners.”The carrier strike group includes the aircraft carrier and its aircraft, as well as various escort and support vessels, such as an air-defence frigate, a supply ship and an attack submarine. None of the sources questioned by AFP said how far north in the North Atlantic the carrier strike group would go.Russian submarines from the Northern Fleet or the Baltic Fleet regularly go through the North Atlantic Ocean.Trump had this month threatened to seize Greenland and impose tariffs on any European countries — including France, Germany and Britain — that opposed him. After European pushback, he later backed down on the threat to take the territory by military force.NATO chief Mark Rutte warned on Monday that Europe cannot defend itself without the United States. But France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot hit back, posting on X that “Europeans can and must take responsibility for their own security”.

“One Battle After Another” and “Sinners” led the shortlist Tuesday of films competing at Britain’s BAFTA awards next month, ahead of the Oscars in mid-March in which both also dominate the nominations.”One Battle After Another”, an offbeat thriller set against a wild backdrop of radical violence, immigration raids and white supremacists, earned 14 BAFTA nods, including for the coveted best film award.Vampire period music-infused horror film “Sinners” followed close behind with 13 and will also vie for best film, less than a week after it smashed the all-time Oscars record for nominations with 16 selections.”One Battle After Another” enters the Oscars best film race in second place after it garnered 13 nods in the Academy shortlist for the March 15 awards to be held in Hollywood.The BAFTAs, the highlight of the annual British film calendar, will be held in London on February 22, three weeks before the Oscars.This year’s selection process stood out for “bold storytelling and unique takes” on everything from the geopolitical landscape to more personal stories, BAFTA CEO Jane Millichip, told AFP.”A lot of filmmakers have not pulled their punches on quite big subjects,” she said, noting in particular “Sinners”, “One Battle After Another” and “Bugonia”.But she also commended “a group of really intimate, and personal films” including “Hamnet”, “I Swear” and “Sentimental Value”.”Hamnet”, a period drama in which William Shakespeare and his wife struggle to cope with the loss of their son in plague-ravaged Elizabethan England, secured 11 BAFTA nominations and will also compete for best film.Timothee Chalamet’s ping-pong drama “Marty Supreme” also snagged 11 nods, including in the best film category, while Norwegian dramedy “Sentimental Value” bagged eight nominations and is the final of the five BAFTA best film contenders.Although “Sinners” topped the Oscars nominations, “One Battle” was still strongly favoured in this year’s awards season, having won almost every precursor prize so far this awards season.It reigned supreme at the Golden Globes earlier this month, winning best comedy, best director, best screenplay and best supporting actress, while “Hamnet” sprung a surprise by taking best drama film, beating out “Sinners”.- ‘Really rich year’ -At the BAFTAs, Yorgos Lanthimos (“Bugonia”), Chloe Zhao (“Hamnet”), Josh Safdie (“Marty Supreme”), Paul Thomas Anderson (“One Battle After Another”), Joachim Trier (“Sentimental Value”) and Ryan Coogler (“Sinners”) will compete for best director. The leading actor shortlist features Leonardo DiCaprio (“One Battle After Another”), Michael B. Jordan (“Sinners”), Chalamet (“Marty Supreme”), Ethan Hawke (“Blue Moon”), Jesse Plemons (“Bugonia”) and Robert Aramayo (“I Swear”). As with the Oscars, Paul Mescal missed out on a nomination for his “Hamnet” performance.Meanwhile, Oscar contender Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”), Emma Stone (“Bugonia”), Chase Infiniti (“One Battle After Another”), Kate Hudson (“Song Sung Blue”), Renate Reinsve (“Sentimental Value”) and Rose Byrne (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”) will vie for the leading actress gong.”I Swear” — based on a true story about a Scottish man whose life was irrevocably changed by Tourette’s syndrome — was the most nominated British film, with five nods.”It’s a really rich year and a fantastic year for British talents too,” Millichip said.

Hours after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators ended their first round of peace talks in the United Arab Emirates last Friday, Russian forces pummelled Ukraine with hundreds of drones and missiles.The bombardment knocked out lighting and heating to Ukrainians in freezing temperatures, but it also sent a signal, according to Kyiv, of Russia’s true intention: to fight on.”Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote, as emergency services surveyed the destruction. The talks brokered by the United States are the latest diplomatic initiative in the brutal war launched by Russia nearly four years ago — all of which have failed to end the fighting.Announcing the fresh talks last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a key warning. Putin, he said, “really doesn’t want” peace.- ‘Endurance of our people’ -Zelensky has said for months that Russia must be forced into real negotiations through biting sanctions on it and accumulated battlefield losses.The two sides are in deadlock primarily over the fate of strategic eastern Ukrainian territory. Russia says Ukraine’s forces must withdraw. Kyiv refuses.Zelensky’s scepticism over whether Russia genuinely wants to end the war through talks is widespread among Ukrainians, who have suffered years of relentless assaults that have displaced million and killed tens of thousands.”It’s all just a show for the public. Russia will not sign any agreements. We must prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Kyiv resident Petro told AFP.”These negotiations don’t even give us any hope for the better. Our only hope is in the endurance of our people,” another resident, Iryna Berehova, 48, said.Previous rounds of talks since Moscow invaded — in Turkey multiple times, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Belarus — have seen no let up in the killing or Russian bombardments.This time, scepticism in Ukraine extends not only to the Russians, but to the American mediators.Since returning the White House last year, Donald Trump has on multiple occasions voiced pro-Kremlin talking points and a willingness to give concessions to Putin.Polling shows Ukrainians have gradually lost faith in the United States as a reliable broker. One survey found 74 percent said Trump was bad for their country.More than just the format of the negotiations, the two sides remain far apart on what a potential deal would look like.”There won’t be any quick, concrete or effective results now or in the near future, because the positions are fundamentally different,” Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said on state-run television.Russia is demanding that Ukrainian forces withdraw from Donbas, an industrial region in the east that has suffered the worst of fighting and was partially controlled by Russian forces before the full-scale invasion.- ‘Hit a dead end’ -But this is a politically and militarily fraught prospect for Ukrainians who believe Russia will continue its attacks anyway.Zelensky is seeking robust security guarantees from allies to deter future attacks from Moscow’s army.”If the Russians insist on discussing only the Donbas issue and the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donbas, and the Americans agree to that, then — after a while — the talks will hit a dead end,” Fesenko, the analyst, added.The Kremlin has said the talks were held in a “constructive spirit” but cautioned that there was still “significant work ahead”.A source in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP that negotiators were still engaging with the talks despite this widespread belief that Moscow wants to keep fighting.The hope is that Trump will see that Russia is the obstacle to peace, not Ukraine, lose patience with Putin, and then “we will get more weapons”, the source said.With the next round of talks expected later this week, there are some that still hold out hope.Ruslan, a 35-year-old Ukrainian soldier in the central Ukrainian city of Pavlograd, is one of them.”Everyone has been waiting for this,” he told AFP in the mining town that Russian forces are inching towards.”It’s not realistic to beat the Russians on the front line, so we have to come to some kind of agreement. The military understands this,” he added.

Some federal immigration agents will leave Minneapolis Tuesday, the city’s mayor said, as US President Donald Trump struck a conciliatory note after nationwide outrage over the killings of two American citizens.Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a post on social media platform X that “some federal agents” will begin leaving the city, but did not provide specifics of how many.”I will continue pushing for the rest involved in this operation to go,” Frey added.Frey said he spoke with Trump on Monday, adding: “The president agreed the present situation can’t continue.”The White House was scrambling as video of the latest shooting went viral, prompting street protests, criticism from former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and, increasingly, from within Trump’s Republican Party.In a marked change of tone, Trump said he had sent his top border enforcer Tom Homan — whom the president described as “tough but fair” — to Minneapolis on Monday.Homan “will report directly to me,” Trump wrote on his TruthSocial platform.Homan’s appointment came as US media reported that controversial Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino will be leaving Minneapolis, though the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has vehemently denied he has been “relieved of his duties,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on X.McLaughlin added that Bovino “is a key part of the President’s team and a great American.”White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said “nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed.”She also expressed sorrow over the death of Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse who was gunned down on Saturday at point blank range by immigration officers, while protesting in Minneapolis.Earlier, the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem portrayed Pretti’s killing as an act of self-defense, initially claiming — against all evidence — that he approached agents brandishing a handgun, intent on a “massacre.”The New York Times reported that Trump held an almost two-hour meeting Monday evening with Noem, who has favored aggressive immigration raids.- ‘Huge relief’ -At a demonstration in Minneapolis on Monday, locals expressed relief that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were leaving.”It’s a vindication to some degree. We have a lot of fear around what kind of violence and reprisals might come as they leave,” protester Kyle Wagner told AFP.”Our neighborhoods and communities have been brutalized by them, so any decrease in the numbers and the severity is just a huge relief to the community that’s been suffering for months now.”Jasmine Nelson, who was also at the demonstration, said she was inspired by locals coming together to protest the killings.”It’s really beautiful to see everyone get together like this and fight against these injustices,” she said.Trump said he had sent his top border enforcer Tom Homan to Minneapolis on Monday, saying that he “will report directly to me.”- DHS denies Bovino ouster -Despite his recent moves, there was no sign Trump was retreating from the broader, hardline policy of sending heavily armed, masked and unidentified ICE agents into Democratic-run cities.There remain “hundreds of thousands” of “the worst illegal aliens” left to deport, Leavitt said.Campaigning against illegal immigration helped Trump get elected in 2024, but daily videos of violent masked agents, and multiple reports of people being targeted despite flimsy evidence, have sent Trump’s approval ratings plummeting.Minneapolis has become ground zero in the turmoil — with huge rallies to protest an ICE agent’s killing of protester Renee Good January 7 still going ahead on Friday despite freezing conditions.Like Pretti, Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and US citizen, was shot at close range.- Race against shutdown -Opening a new front in the crisis, a federal judge in Minneapolis heard arguments on Monday about  whether the deployment of federal officers violates the state of Minnesota’s sovereignty.In a separate hearing, a judge was considering a request to force federal officials to preserve evidence in the killing of Pretti, saying she would rule quickly.Pressure is also mounting in Congress, where Democrats are threatening to hold up funding for the US government unless immigration enforcement agencies are reformed.Monday’s shift in White House messaging came as Republicans — who rarely criticize their 79-year-old party leader in public — began to express alarm, including House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.Republican Chris Madel sent shockwaves when he dropped out of the running for Minnesota’s upcoming governor race to replace Walz, saying he could not remain a member of a party inflicting “retribution on the citizens of our state.”

More than half a million Americans woke up without power Tuesday, as freezing temperatures gripped swathes of the country in a monster storm that has killed at least 30 people.A frigid, life-threatening Arctic air mass could delay recovery as municipalities from New Mexico to Maine tried to dig out following the storm, which dropped a vicious cocktail of heavy snow and wind, along with freezing rain and sleet.Forecasters warned that much of the northern half of the country will see temperatures that are “continuously below freezing through February 1,” the National Weather Service said in an X post.It added that “record low temperatures” hit southern states, which are unaccustomed to intense winter weather.While skies began clearing in parts of the country, relentless snowfall in the northeast meant parts of Connecticut saw over 22 inches (56 cm) of snow, with more than 16 inches (40.6 cm) recorded in Boston, Massachusetts.- Deadly plane crash -The storm was linked to at least 30 deaths, according to a compilation of state government and local media reports, with causes including hypothermia as well as accidents related to traffic, sledding, ATVs and snowplows.Seven people were killed when the small plane they were traveling in crashed while taking off in a snowstorm in Bangor, Maine, the Federal Aviation Administration said.One man in New Jersey was found in the snow unresponsive with a shovel in his hand.In New York City, eight more people were found dead amid plummeting temperatures, and an investigation to determine the causes was underway. It was not known if all of these fatalities were storm-related.Electricity began blinking back on across the south but as of Tuesday morning more than 540,000 customers remained without it, according to the tracking site Poweroutage.com.Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana in the south were especially impacted.More than 9,000 flights were disrupted, as the storm paralyzed transportation across the country.”We don’t know if we are going to make it or not. We’ve been here since Sunday,” Alan Vazquez told AFP at Dallas–Fort Worth airport in Texas.Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell told journalists that trees were continuing to fall under the weight of encrusted ice across the Tennessee capital city, sometimes knocking out power that had already been restored.Nashville and other municipalities across the country were establishing emergency warming shelters.NWS meteorologist Allison Santorelli told AFP this storm recovery was particularly arduous because so many states were impacted — meaning northern states with more winter supplies were unable to share their resources with less-prepared southern regions.”A lot of those locations don’t have the means or the resources to clean up after these events,” she said. “We’re particularly concerned about the folks in those areas that are without power right now.”- Polar vortex -The snowfall and biting icy pellets that pummeled cities left impassable roads along with canceled buses, trains and flights — thousands of departures and arrivals were scrapped over the weekend.The storm system was 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 pouring 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.Dave Radell, a NWS meteorologist based in New York, told AFP that the character of this storm’s snow was “very dry” and “fluffy,” meaning the wind could lash it around with ease, impeding roadway-clearing efforts and visibility.”That makes it even more challenging,” he said.