East Coast Grapples with Winter Storm Aftermath, While International Tensions Simmer
The East Coast was still reeling from the effects of a powerful winter storm on Sunday, while internationally, tensions remained high in the Middle East, and preparations continued for a critical NASA mission.
A "bomb cyclone" brought blizzard-like conditions and heavy snow to the Southeast, leaving tens of thousands of homes and businesses without power after a previous icy storm that caused dozens of weather-related deaths, according to CBS News. Charlotte, North Carolina, experienced one of its heaviest snowfalls in years, with parts of the region receiving a foot or more of snow. Coastal flooding, high winds, and bitter cold remained concerns through Sunday afternoon as the storm moved off into the Atlantic, pulling away from the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Approximately 150 million people were under cold weather alerts.
Meanwhile, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers braved sub-freezing temperatures to continue a dress-rehearsal countdown for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The countdown, which began Saturday evening, was in preparation for a critical fueling test on Monday, intended to clear the way for the Artemis II mission, a flight to send four astronauts around the moon. According to CBS News, the test was delayed two days due to predicted arctic weather along Florida's Space Coast, pushing the launch of the Artemis II mission from February 6 to no earlier than February 8, Super Bowl Sunday.
Internationally, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado expressed optimism about her country's future, despite the lack of a clear timeline for new elections. Machado, whose party won the 2024 election, told "Face the Nation" that she believes a transition away from the remnants of the Maduro regime is "unstoppable." She stated that any positive change made by the interim government was due to pressure from the Trump administration but may not ultimately hold legal weight. Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said the U.S. military operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro "sent a clear message" to members of his regime who still run the South American country, "and they're starting to realize that things have changed for good."
In the Middle East, Iran's supreme leader warned that any attack on the country by the United States would spark a "regional war." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments, as quoted by the Tasnim news agency, represented the most direct threat he had made since the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group arrived in international waters off Iran, in the Persian Gulf. The warning followed President Trump's threats to intervene militarily in response to the Islamic Republic's crackdown on recent nationwide protests, according to CBS News.
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