The Biden administration on Friday restored some sanctions relief to Iran’s civil nuclear program as talks aimed at salvaging the languishing 2015 nuclear deal enter a critical phase.  

As U.S. negotiators head back to Vienna for what could be a make-or-break session, Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed several sanctions waivers related to Iran’s civilian nuclear activities. The move reverses the Trump administration’s decision to rescind them.  

The waivers are intended to entice Iran to return to compliance with the 2015 deal that it has been violating since former President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed U.S. sanctions. Iran says it is not respecting the terms of the deal because the U.S. pulled out of it first. Iran has demanded the restoration of all sanctions relief it was promised under the deal to return to compliance. 

Friday’s move lifts the sanctions threat against foreign countries and companies from Russia, China and Europe that had been cooperating with nonmilitary parts of Iran’s nuclear program under the terms of the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. 

The Trump administration had ended the “civ-nuke” waivers in May 2020 as part of its “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran that began when Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal, complaining that it was the worst diplomatic agreement ever negotiated and gave Iran a pathway to developing a bomb.  

Little progress

As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden made a U.S. return to the nuclear deal a priority and his administration has pursued that goal, but there has been little progress toward that end since he took office a year ago. Administration officials said the waivers were being restored to help push the Vienna negotiations forward. 

“The waiver with respect to these activities is designed to facilitate discussions that would help to close a deal on a mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA and lay the groundwork for Iran’s return to performance of its JCPOA commitments,” the State Department said in a notice to Congress that announced the move. 

“It is also designed to serve U.S. nonproliferation and nuclear safety interests and constrain Iran’s nuclear activities,” the department said. “It is being issued as a matter of policy discretion with these objectives in mind, and not pursuant to a commitment or as part of a quid pro quo. We are focused on working with partners and allies to counter the full range of threats that Iran poses.” 

A copy of the State Department notice and the actual waivers signed by Blinken were obtained by The Associated Press. 

The waivers permit foreign countries and companies to work on civilian projects at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power station, its Arak heavy water plant and the Tehran Research Reactor. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had revoked the waivers in May 2020, accusing Iran of “nuclear extortion” for continuing and expanding work at the sites. 

Not a ‘concession’

Critics of the nuclear deal who lobbied Trump to withdraw from it protested, arguing that even if the Biden administration wants to return to the 2015 deal it should at least demand some concessions from Iran before up front granting it sanctions relief. 

“From a negotiating perspective, they look desperate: we’ll waive sanctions before we even have a deal, just say yes to anything!” said Rich Goldberg, a vocal deal opponent who is a senior adviser to the hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 

One senior State Department official familiar with the waivers maintained that the move is not a “concession” to Iran and was being taken “in our vital national interest as well as the interest of the region and the world.” The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. 
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It was an attack that left a lasting mark on the U.S. in the waning days of its withdrawal from Afghanistan — a bombing and apparent follow-on attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul that left 13 American troops and more than 170 Afghans dead.

But a just-completed investigation by the U.S. military finds that much of what officials thought they knew about the August 26 attack at the airport’s Abbey Gate was wrong. In particular, the probe concludes that comments by senior commanders who argued it was part of a large and well-coordinated plot by the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate were misguided.

“This was not a complex attack,” Army Brigadier General Lance Curtis told reporters Friday, detailing the investigation’s findings.

“It was a single blast, and it did not have a follow-on attack,” Curtis said, still placing the blame with the group known as IS-Khorasan.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, which put U.S. forces in Kabul on heightened alert, senior U.S. commanders said there were two suicide bombers and that gunmen fired on both the crowd and U.S. troops following the explosions.

But Curtis and other military investigators now say that the evidence does not back that up, and that reports of a firefight with IS gunmen can be better explained by the nature of the bomb itself — made with about 9 kilograms (20 pounds) of military-grade explosives and ball bearings — and by the immediate response of U.S. and British troops in the vicinity of Abbey Gate.

The ball bearings, according to the investigators, created injuries that looked “remarkably similar to gunshot wounds.” And, they said, the reports of a firefight with militant gunmen likely were the result of U.S. troops on the ground hearing the echoes of warning shots fired by their colleagues within the confines of the security perimeter.

Commander of U.S. Central Command, General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, who helped oversee the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, praised the investigation, even though the conclusions differed from what he and others had said in the days following the deadly bombing.

“This was a terrible attack that resulted in tragic outcomes and a horrific loss of life, both Afghan and American,” McKenzie said. “While nothing can bring back the 11 Marines, one soldier and one sailor that we tragically lost in this attack, it is important that we fully understand what happened. Their sacrifice demands nothing less.”

Sources of evidence

Investigators said they based their findings on eyewitness testimony, video from a drone flying over the airport in the aftermath of the attack, forensic evidence and findings of medical examiners. They said, though, that they did not talk to any Afghan witnesses as U.S. troops had already left Afghanistan by the time their inquiry began.

They also emphasized that the evidence indicated all the deaths and injuries had been caused by the bomb itself, which they said was powerful enough to send shockwaves through the tightly packed crowds at Abbey Gate, spreading 50 meters from the detonation site.

“The disturbing lethality of this device was confirmed by the 58 U.S. service members who were killed and wounded despite the universal wear of body armor and helmets that did stop ball bearings that impacted them but could not prevent catastrophic injuries to areas not covered,” McKenzie said.

Military officials said the power of the explosion was also enough to cause some troops to suffer from traumatic brain injuries.

Investigators further said there was no proof that anyone was hurt or killed when U.S. and British forces fired a series of warning shots while targeting a perceived threat following the explosion. They also said the probe found no evidence that the Taliban, who at that point were coordinating with U.S. forces on airport security, knew anything of the looming attack.

Asked if there was anything the U.S. could have or should have done differently to prevent the attack, Curtis said no.

“Based on our investigation at the tactical level, this was not preventable,” he told reporters. “The [U.S. military] leaders on the ground followed the proper measures, and any time there was an imminent threat warning, they followed the proper procedures.”

Following the attack on Kabul Airport’s Abbey Gate, U.S. President Joe Biden said the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, known as IS-Khorasan, would be held responsible.

“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive,” Biden said in a nationally broadcast address. “We will hunt you down and make you pay.”

“We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose and the moment of our choosing” he said.

The Abbey Gate bombing also left the U.S. military in Afghanistan on heightened alert and possibly contributed to a botched airstrike three days later that killed as many as 10 civilians, including an aid worker and seven children.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday directly rebutted Donald Trump’s false claims that Pence somehow could have overturned the results of the 2020 election, saying that the former president was simply “wrong.”

In a speech to the conservative Federalist Society in Florida, Pence addressed Trump’s intensifying efforts this week to advance the false narrative that he could have done something to prevent Joe Biden from taking office.

“President Trump is wrong,” Pence said. “I had no right to overturn the election.”

While Pence in the past has defended his actions on January 6 and has said that he and Trump will likely never see “eye to eye” on what happened that day, the remarks Friday marked his most forceful rebuttal of Trump to date. And they come as Pence has been laying the groundwork for a potential run for president in 2024, which could put him in direct competition with his former boss, who has also been teasing a comeback run.

In a statement Tuesday, Trump said the committee investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol should instead look into “why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval.” And on Sunday, he blasted Pence, falsely declaring that “he could have overturned the Election!”

Vice presidents play only a ceremonial role in the counting of Electoral College votes, and any attempt to interfere in the count would have represented a profound break from precedent and democratic norms.

Pence, in his remarks Friday, described January 6, 2021, as “a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.”

Pence was inside the building, presiding over the joint session of Congress to certify the presidential election, when a mob of Trump’s supporters violently smashed inside, assaulting police officers and hunting down lawmakers. Pence, who had released a statement earlier that day to make clear he had no authority to overturn the will of the voters, was rushed to safety as some rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”

Pence framed his actions that day as in line with his duty as a constitutional conservative.

“The American people must know that we will always keep our oath to the Constitution, even when it would be politically expedient to do otherwise,” he told the group Friday. He noted that, under Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, “elections are conducted at the state level, not by Congress” and that “the only role of Congress with respect to the Electoral College is to open and count votes submitted and certified by the states. No more, no less.”

“Frankly there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president,” he added. “Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election. And Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.”

Pence also acknowledged the lingering anger among many in Trump’s base. But he said: “The truth is, there’s more at stake than our party or political fortunes. Men and women, if we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections — we’ll lose our country.”
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Iran is not serious about wanting a prisoner exchange with the United States and instead appears to be seeking money as part of any deal to release four Americans labeled by the U.S. as hostages of Tehran, according to informed sources.

U.S. and Iranian officials have been trying to negotiate a potential rare exchange of prisoners since last April, when they began indirect talks through mediators in Vienna to try to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran, the U.S. and other world powers.

In recent years, Iranian officials have repeatedly said they want a full exchange of prisoners in which the U.S. would release all Iranian citizens whom they describe as unjustly detained for reasons such as violations of U.S. sanctions against Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh, speaking at a January 24 news conference, said Iran could reach “lasting” agreements on the prisoner and nuclear issues in a short time “if there is a will on the [U.S.] side.”

Neither Iran nor the U.S. has published lists of Iranians under U.S. detention and prosecution.

16 names

A VOA Persian review of U.S. Justice Department databases found 16 Iranians in U.S. detention or on supervised pretrial release for proven or alleged federal crimes, mostly related to long-running U.S.-Iran tensions. The number of Iranians detained in the U.S. for non-federal offenses is unknown.

In Iran, four Iranian American dual nationals are in detention or barred from leaving the country for alleged security offenses that the U.S. says were trumped up so that Tehran could use the Americans as bargaining chips. The Biden administration, like its predecessors, has pledged to work to bring them home.

The four are businessman Siamak Namazi, who was arrested in October 2015; his father and former U.N. official Baquer Namazi, who was detained in February 2016 and granted a medical furlough from prison in 2018 but barred from leaving Iran; Morad Tahbaz, an environmentalist who was arrested in January 2018; and businessman Emad Shargi, who has been detained since December 2020.

The 16 Iranians in U.S. detention or on supervised pretrial release for federal offenses consist of eight Iranian American dual nationals, four Iranian citizens with U.S. permanent residency, and four Iranian citizens with no legal status in the U.S.

Of the eight Iranian Americans, three are serving prison sentences for violating U.S. or international sanctions against Iran: Sadr Emad-Vaez, Hassan Ali Moshir-Fatemi and Reza Olangian. A fourth, Manssor Arbabsiar, is serving a prison sentence for conspiring with Iranian officials in a foiled plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. in 2011.

Three of the other Iranian Americans are charged with U.S. sanctions violations: Faezeh Faghihi and Niloufar “Nellie” Bahadorifar, who are on supervised pretrial release, and Kambiz Attar Kashani, who is in custody pending a detention hearing after his arrest in Chicago last month. The eighth, Erfan Salmanzadeh, is in custody and undergoing a psychiatric evaluation after being charged with possessing a destructive device that exploded at his home in Texas last year.

Of the four Iranian U.S. permanent residents, three are charged with U.S. sanctions violations: Amin Hasanzadeh and Farzeneh Modarresi, who are on supervised pretrial release, and Mohammad Faghihi, who is in pretrial detention. The fourth, political commentator Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, is on supervised pretrial release and charged with acting as an unregistered Iranian agent.

Of the four Iranians with no legal status in the U.S., Mehrdad Ansari is serving a prison sentence and Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani is on supervised pretrial release, both in U.S. sanctions violation cases; Milad Rezaei Kalantari is serving a prison sentence for conspiracy to sell stolen credit card information online, and Malek Mohammad Balouchzehi is in pretrial detention on charges of conspiring to sell heroin for distribution in the U.S.

Less interest than before

A source with knowledge of the issue told VOA that Iranian officials appear less interested or engaged in securing the release of Iranians currently jailed or prosecuted in the U.S. than they did when discussing previous cases. The source requested anonymity to avoid disrupting diplomacy related to the U.S.-Iran prisoner dispute.

Iran previously obtained the release of two of its citizens from U.S. detention as part of prisoner exchange agreements with the administration of Donald Trump, who preceded President Joe Biden.

In June 2020, Trump granted an early release to Iranian American medical doctor Matteo Taerri, also known as Majid Taheri, who served 16 months in prison for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and U.S. banking laws. In exchange, Iran allowed U.S. Navy veteran Michael White to return home after detaining him for 20 months on security charges deemed bogus by the U.S.

In December 2019, Trump released Iranian scientist Masoud Soleimani, who had been detained and charged in another U.S. sanctions violation case. In return, Iran freed Chinese American historian Xiyue Wang from three years of imprisonment for what the U.S. said were false security charges. That prisoner swap happened in Zurich via Swiss mediation.

A second source — former U.S. diplomat Barry Rosen, who was held hostage in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution — told VOA that when he met with U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley and European officials in Vienna last month, he heard that Iran was looking for money in return for freeing the four Americans in its custody, rather than for the U.S. to release detained Iranians.

“The Iranian government doesn’t care about doing an exchange for their people,” Rosen said. “They think their people [detained in the U.S.] are failures and useless. Look, they want money. They are in dire straits economically and need it.”

Rosen, 77, met with the officials in Vienna while on a five-day hunger strike to press for a U.S.-Iran deal to free the four Americans and other Westerners of Iranian origin detained in Iran. He is a senior adviser to U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI).

‘Good talking point’

UANI policy director Jason Brodsky said in a separate VOA interview that Iran’s pledge to seek the release of what it describes as its oppressed citizens in the U.S. is a “good talking point” for Tehran.

“But they won’t admit that their priority is the unfreezing of Iranian assets for regime preservation, because that doesn’t sell so well, publicly,” he said.

Brodsky said Iran also appears to believe it can ask the U.S. to pay a higher price than before for the release of the four detained Iranian Americans because Tehran does not recognize their dual nationality and sees them solely as Iranian criminals whose freedom Washington seeks. The two Americans released by Iran in 2019 and 2020 were not Iranian nationals.

“If the U.S. unfreezes Iranian assets in exchange for the release of the four American hostages, that would incentivize Iran to take more Americans and other Western nationals hostage in the future,” Brodsky said.

It is unclear what the U.S. would consider giving Iran in a deal to free the four Americans. When a VOA Persian reporter raised the issue with a senior State Department official in a Monday phone briefing, the official declined to go into details, citing the sensitivity of negotiations.

“For us, this is an absolute priority to get the four back home, and we will not do anything that could complicate either the return or the treatment that they are undergoing while in Iran,” the U.S. official said.

A 2019 FBI report said it is a “long-standing” U.S. policy not to pay ransoms to hostage takers.

Guita Aryan of VOA’s Persian Service contributed to this report.
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When Madison Chock looks outside here in the Chinese capital, the U.S. Olympic ice dancer sees glimpses of herself.

“Every time I’m on the bus, I’m just looking out and studying the city and just imagining my roots are here, my ancestors are here,” says Chock, whose father is Chinese Hawaiian, with family ties to rural China. “And it’s a very cool sense of belonging in a way, to just be on the same soil that your ancestors grew up on and spent their lives on.”

She adds: “It’s really special, and China holds a really special place in my heart.”

At the Beijing Winter Games, opening Friday, it’s a homecoming of sorts for one of the world’s most sprawling diasporas — often sweet and sometimes complicated, but always a reflection of who they are, where they come from and the Olympic spirit itself.

The modern Chinese diaspora dates to the 16th century, says Richard T. Chu, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Its members have ranged from the drivers of the colonial economy and laborer workforces on land and sea, to the highly educated who moved away for a chance at greater prosperity, to the unwanted baby girls adopted internationally during the government’s one-child policy.

“The Chinese diaspora is really very diverse, to the extent to that they maintain their Chinese-ness,” Chu says. “There’s no one kind of Chinese identity because each country has a unique kind of history.”

The question of ethnic Chinese identity is an especially delicate one for athletes with roots in Hong Kong and Taiwan. U.S. women’s singles figure skater Karen Chen, whose parents immigrated from Taiwan, says she identifies as both Taiwanese and Chinese, and uses those labels loosely and interchangeably.

Taiwan, which split from the mainland after a 1949 civil war that propelled the current Chinese government into power, is an island of 24 million people off China’s east coast.

It functions in many ways like a country with its own government and military. But China claims Taiwan as its territory, and only 14 countries recognize Taiwan as a nation. Most nations of the world, including the United States, have official ties with China instead.

Chen’s self-identification is not uncommon among the Taiwanese, as many trace their heritage back to mainland China. Some 32% of the islanders identify themselves as both Chinese and Taiwanese, according to an annual survey by National Chengchi University in Taipei.

While in Beijing, she’s pledged to speak as much Mandarin as possible and is proud to give a nod to her heritage on the ice.

“My free program is to ‘Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto,’ which is such a famous and classical piece that came from China … it’s kind of a Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet,” Karen Chen says. “It definitely relates to my background.”

The many athletes of Chinese descent here at the Beijing Games represent the many variations of the diaspora: some are one, two or many generations removed; others are biracial and multicultural.

And even similar backgrounds can diverge on the Olympic stage. For example, Nathan Chen and Eileen Gu are two superstar athletes fronting the Winter Games. While both were born and raised in the U.S. by Chinese immigrants and have fond memories of spending time in their ancestral homeland, Chen is competing for the U.S. team as a medal contender in men’s singles figure skating, and Gu is the hotshot freestyle skier competing for China.

Gu has raised eyebrows for switching to the China team after training with the U.S. team, but the San Francisco native — who speaks fluent Mandarin and makes yearly trips to China with her mom — is clear-eyed about how she defines herself.

“When I’m in China, I’m Chinese,” Gu told the Olympic Channel in 2020. “When I’m in the U.S., I’m American.”

For some, the Olympics in Beijing is the first time they’ll set foot in China, an unforgettable professional accomplishment on top of a very personal milestone.

That’s the case for U.S. women’s singles figure skater Alysa Liu, whose father, Arthur Liu, also longs to visit China. The elder Liu left his home country in his 20s as a political refugee because he had protested the Communist government following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

“I so much want to go to the Games and go back to China to visit my hometown,” said Arthur Liu in a phone interview from his home base in California. “I so much want to go back to the village I grew up in, to go to the high school that I went to, the college I went to. I so much want to go and have the spicy noodles on the side of the street.”

Arthur Liu eventually settled in the Bay Area, put himself through law school and nurtured one of America’s most promising athletes. Now his Chinese American daughter is set to make her Olympic debut in the women’s singles competition. He has no qualms about her competing in the Olympics in China, and no resentment toward a home country he still loves.

Like many biracial children, Alysa Liu used to wonder why she didn’t look like her parents though she has always identified as ethnically Chinese. Arthur Liu and his then-wife, who is also Chinese, decided to have children via surrogacy and sought white egg donors because Arthur Liu saw himself as a citizen of the world and wanted biracial children.

In a culture that can be xenophobic, Arthur Liu says his daughter is warmly embraced by his home country, as Chinese fans and media consider Alysa Liu to be one of their own.

“I’m super happy the Chinese people welcome her and think highly of her,” Arthur Liu says.

The Olympics will also be the first time Josh Ho-Sang, the multiracial, multicultural Canadian ice hockey player, will visit China.

His paternal great-grandfather moved from mainland China to what is modern-day Hong Kong for business opportunities, then fell in love on vacation in Jamaica, which makes the Canadian hockey team forward one-eighth Chinese. From his mother’s side, Ho-Sang’s heritage is rooted in European, South American and Jewish cultures. For him to represent Canada as a “melting pot poster boy” is a testament to how inclusive the Olympic spirit has become.

“It really shows how far we’ve come as a society, to have these different faces representing home for everyone,” Ho-Sang says. “A hundred years ago, you would never see such diversity in each country that you see now. It’s a sign of hope and progress.” 

 
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet Friday ahead of the opening ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Olympics, in what is expected to be a show of unity amid each country’s increasingly fraught relationship with the United States.

Though Russia and China do not share a formal alliance, both countries have drawn closer in recent years as they work to counter U.S. influence.

China has been more vocal in supporting Russia, even as Moscow masses more than 100,000 troops along the border with Ukraine, raising fears of a conflict. Russia has demanded Ukraine not join NATO and wants the military alliance to pull back troops from Eastern Europe.

Analysts say Russia-China cooperation could make it harder for the United States to punish Moscow in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

An increase in U.S.-Russia hostilities could also divert the attention of U.S. President Joe Biden, who has identified China as his biggest foreign policy priority.

However, China may not welcome any major foreign policy distractions, either.

Beijing on Friday will host the opening ceremony for what will be more than two weeks of Olympic events. Perhaps even more importantly, Xi is in the midst of a crucially important season of domestic political maneuvering meant to shape what is expected to be his indefinite rule over China.

“Beijing wants stability and predictability. They will not welcome foreign turbulence,” said Ryan Hass, a China scholar at the U.S.-based Brookings Institution, in a thread on Twitter.

Xi and Putin, two strongman leaders who preside over authoritarian governments, have a long history. This will be the 38th meeting between the two men, according to Beijing.

In December, Xi said he welcomed the visit by Putin, whom he called his “old friend.” Putin was the first international leader to RSVP for the Beijing Olympics, after the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games over China’s abuses against Uyghur Muslims.

In a letter published earlier this week in China’s official Xinhua news agency, Putin slammed the U.S.-led boycott, lamenting “attempts by a number of countries to politicize sports for their selfish interests.” Putin’s letter also declared that the Russia-China partnership had entered a “new era.”

Russia and China have a long history of working together to block U.S. positions at the United Nations Security Council, where all three are veto-wielding permanent members.

Most recently, China and Russia have found common ground over Ukraine. A recent statement by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to Russia’s “legitimate security concerns” and called for an end to “Cold War mentality,” a clear reference to what it sees as U.S. foreign policy.

“The Chinese have moved progressively closer to Russian positions,” said Evan Feigenbaum, vice president for studies at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

This is a major shift from China. During Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 and its invasion of Crimea in 2014, China was “not leaning so far in toward their partnership with Russia,” Feigenbaum said, speaking at an online forum.

“The China-Russia partnership looks a lot different to an American not just defense planner but strategic thinker than it would have just six or seven years ago,” he said.

However, China has also called for a lowering of tensions over Ukraine and proposed the implementation of the Minsk agreement, a 2014-15 deal to restore peace following a flare-up of violence along the Russia-Ukraine border.

“China is in a diplomatic logjam,” Hass said. “It would face difficulties and unwelcome turbulence from a conflict in Ukraine, but at the same time it wants to preserve strong relations with Russia and it does not want to do the U.S. any favors.”  
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The U.S National Weather Service says a massive winter storm is stretching more than 3,200 kilometers from southwestern Texas to the far northeastern state of Maine, bringing ice, snow and freezing temperatures and impacting more than 110 million people.

Forecasters said the storm was bringing snow, sleet and freezing rain to Midwestern and Southern states, where temperatures were expected to be 20 to 40 degrees below average. Heavy snow was expected from the southern Rockies to northern New England, while forecasters said heavy ice buildup was likely from Texas to Pennsylvania.

The online nationwide electric power monitoring group Poweroutage.US reported more than 115,000 people were without power in Tennessee, 70,000 in Texas and more than 24,000 in Arkansas, largely because of ice accumulation.

The storm has impacted U.S. air travel nationwide. The air traffic monitoring website FlightAware.com reported 5,500 cancellations and 3,300 delays, with many concentrated in Texas.

More than 1,100 flights departing from or scheduled to arrive at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were canceled. The airport tweeted earlier that runways were being treated for snow and ice. More than 400 flights were canceled at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and more than 350 were canceled at Dallas Love Field.

Thursday’s storm was hitting almost a year after a serious ice storm struck Texas, leaving more than 2.4 million people without power, some for days. More than 140 deaths were reported last year.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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