At least 26 people are reported to have died in powerful storms across the United States.
The number of fatalities increased after eight people died in a highway pile-up caused by a dust storm in Sherman County, Kansas on Friday. At least 50 vehicles were involved.
Car crashes during a dust storm also killed three people in Amarillo, Texas.
Authorities in Missouri say 12 people died after tornadoes struck the state, with another three deaths reported in Arkansas.
Image: Destroyed houses in Florissant, Missouri. Pic: Reuters
Image: A store selling car parts is torn apart in Cave City, Arkansas. Pic: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/AP
Image: The scene of one of the fatal crashes in Austin, Texas on Friday. Pic: AP
Around 108 million people remain under widespread wind, flash flooding and wildfire alerts in central and southern US states. Hundreds of thousands of households are also without power.
Tornado warnings are in place in parts of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Indiana, and Kentucky as a massive storm system moves across the country.
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Many areas across southern states are, or will soon be, dealing with widespread flash flooding, the National Weather Service warned. It added that the flooding could turn deadly.
In Butler County, Missouri, on the border with Arkansas, local coroner Jim Akers said the man and his wife were sleeping when the tornado struck.
Image: Tim Scott is hugged by a friend outside what is left of his home in Wayne County, Missouri. Pic: AP
Image: Another home destroyed – this one in Florissant, Missouri. Pic: Reuters
Rescuers were able to pull the woman from the debris – but could not save the man whose mobile home was ripped apart.
“It was unrecognisable as a home. Just a debris field,” he said, describing the scene. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.”
Large vehicles were also pictured overturned across the state.
Image: A truck topples over after a severe storm near Ozark County, Missouri. Pic: Missouri State Highway Patrol/AP
Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders warned the recovery could take months after surveying damage from an EF3 tornado in Cave City, in the north of the state.
A storm ranked as EF3, on a scale of one to five, requires wind speeds of between 136-165mph (218-265kph).
Hail the size of baseballs
“It’s hard to look at this level of devastation and not be heartbroken,” she said. “It’s a whole other world when you see it up close and personal.”
Winds gusting up to 80mph (130kph) were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier places to the south.
Hail was also a hazard, some the size of baseballs were reported in Christian County, the US weather service said.
Fatal pile-ups during dust storms
In the Texas city of Amarillo, three people were killed in car crashes caused by a dust storm on Friday, according to the state’s public safety department.
One of the deaths happened after three lorries collided with four other vehicles in Palmer County, Bovina’s fire chief Cesar Marquez said. Another occurred after a pile-up of an estimated 38 cars.
Image: The crash scene in Austin, Texas. Pic: AP
Image: Footage from police dashcam shows the intensity of the dust storm in Kansas. Pic: Kansas Highway Patrol (Hays)
Image: West of Amarillo in Texas, a driver captures footage of another dust storm
“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” public safety department sergeant Cindy Barkley said, calling the near-zero visibility a nightmare. “We couldn’t tell that they were all together until the dust kind of settled.”
Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state. Nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed, said governor Kevin Stitt.
Three deaths happened due to storm damage in Independence County, Arkansas on Friday night, with a further 29 people injured across eight different counties, authorities said.
More than 260,000 households are without power in midwestern and southern states, according to the monitoring website PowerOutage.us.
The Storm Prediction Center at the National Weather Service issued an update on Sunday, warning of a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms.
The warning covers an area from the extreme southeastern part of Mississippi, across much of Alabama, into western Georgia and the western Florida panhandle.
Donald Trump will speak to Vladimir Putin by phone later today – with the White House saying “we’ve never been closer to a peace deal” in Ukraine.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president said he would be speaking to his Russian counterpart on Tuesday morning – adding: “Many elements of a Final Agreement have been agreed to, but much remains.
“Thousands of young soldiers, and others, are being killed. Each week brings 2,500 soldier deaths, from both sides, and it must end NOW.”
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After crunch talks in Saudi Arabia between US and Ukrainian diplomats, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that Kyiv would accept a 30-day pause in fighting if Russia committed to it as well.
Since then, Mr Putin has said he agrees fighting in Ukraine should end – but warned “lots of questions” remain over the proposed ceasefire.
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‘We have to keep pressure on Putin’
It comes as Ukraine’s air defence units said they shot down 90 of 174 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack on Monday.
Russiahas been attacking the Odesa region with drones and missiles on a daily basis for three weeks, the air force said – adding that 70 other drones were disrupted in the attack.
Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper added a civilian was injured during the strikes, which damaged a kindergarten, a house, a shop and a car.
Biden children’s security detail revoked
In other developments, Mr Trump said on Truth Social that he is “immediately” revoking Secret Service protection that was being given to Joe Biden’s children.
He claimed 18 agents were assigned to Hunter Biden’s protective detail while in South Africa this week – and added Ashley Biden had 13 agents assigned to her detail who “will be taken off the list”.
Mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor has met Donald Trump in the Oval Office after complaining about Ireland’s “illegal immigration racket”.
The 36-year-old told Mr Trump that his work ethic was “inspiring”, with the two men sharing jovial comments about the fighter’s suit and a map featuring the Gulf of Mexico labelled as the Gulf of America.
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In comments made in the White House briefing room before the meeting during the St. Patrick’s Day visit, he said he was visiting the White House to “raise the issues the people of Ireland face”.
“What is going on in Ireland is a travesty,” he said. “Our government is the government of zero action with zero accountability.”
Image: Trump and McGregor meeting in the Oval Office. Pic: X/@MargoMartin47
McGregor warned “Ireland is at the cusp of potentially losing its Irishness” due to the “illegal immigration racket”.
“Ireland and America, we are siblings. We consider America our big sibling. So it’s important for Ireland to be a peaceful, prosperous country for 40 million Irish Americans to have a place to visit, [to] come back to their home.
“So we wish for our relationship with the United States to continue, and we wish to be taken care of by the big bro. The United States should look after its little bro. And that’s how we feel,” McGregor said.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who appeared alongside McGregor in the briefing room, said: “We couldn’t think of a better guest to have with us on St. Patrick’s Day.”
At a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin last week, Mr Trump said McGregor was his favourite Irish person partly because “he’s got the best tattoos I’ve ever seen”.
Image: UFC fighter Conor McGregor speaks with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at his side during a visit to the White House in Washington. Pic: Reuters
But Mr Martin and deputy prime minister Simon Harris have been critical of today’s Trump-McGregor meeting.
In a post on X, Mr Martin said: “McGregor’s remarks are wrong, and do not reflect the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, or the views of the people of Ireland.”
Meanwhile, Mr Harris said that McGregor was not in the US to represent Ireland and did not speak for the people of Ireland, and “has no mandate to”.
In exclusive comments made to Sky News’ David Blevinsabout Mr Martin’s comments,McGregor said: “Shame on him for saying that, speaking down on an Irish man.”
He added: “Every metric available to us has shown that the government of Ireland has failed the people of Ireland.”
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Mr Trump is well known for his support of Ultimate Fighting Championship, which McGregor is best known for competing in, and attended bouts during the 2024 presidential campaign.
McGregor is a controversial figure in Ireland after a woman who accused him of raping her won her civil case and was awarded more than £200,000 in damages.
Tesco was among the retailers that stopped selling alcohol brands linked to McGregor after Nikita Hand was awarded €248,603 (£206,000) after a jury found McGregor assaulted her in a hotel in 2018.
McGregor is appealing against the outcome of the civil case.
McGregor also pleaded guilty to assaulting a man in a Dublin pub in 2019 and has been subject to several other allegations of assault and sexual assault.
His social media posts were also linked to the 2023 Dublin riots. Irish police were reportedly investigating McGregor’s posts for alleged incitement to hatred in relation to the riots.
McGregor, nicknamed the Notorious, rose to worldwide prominence for winning several UFC championships.
Two astronauts stuck in space for more than nine months have left the International Space Station on their 17-hour journey back to Earth.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted off to the ISS on 5 June, and were meant to be up there for just eight days.
They were testing out Boeing’s long-awaited Starliner, a ship designed to rival SpaceX’s Crew Dragon that is currently used to ferry astronauts into space.
Image: NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Pic: NASA Johnson
But by the time they docked at the ISS, the Starliner had suffered major problems – with five helium leaks, five dead manoeuvring thrusters and a propellant valve that failed to close completely.
It returned to Earth without them, after it was decided the astronauts would be safer waiting in orbit.
Since then, the two US Navy veterans have completed spacewalks, experiments and even helped sort out the plumbing onboard.
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The astronauts have repeatedly said they have enjoyed the mission, with Ms Williams describing the space station as her “happy place”.
“Every day is interesting because we’re up in space and it’s a lot of fun,” she said earlier this month, although she added the waiting was likely hard for family members on the ground.
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Stranded astronauts answer questions
The SpaceX vehicle that will take them home arrived at the space station in September, carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, along with two empty seats.
Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams then stuck around so that the other two astronauts could complete their mission, although their return was once more delayed because of problems with the SpaceX rocket that was going to bring them back.
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Watch lift-off of SpaceX rocket crew swap
The crew replacing them all arrived at the ISS on Sunday, with hugs shared all around.
A ship’s bell, long used to welcome new crewmates to the space station, was rung as NASA’s Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, JAXA’s Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos’s Kirill Peskov came aboard.
The long-awaited crew is expected to splashdown off the coast of Florida at around 10pm GMT on Tuesday, after a 17-hour trip.
The group was planning to come back on Wednesday but “favourable” weather conditions meant their return could be brought forward by one day.