Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. Minus 28, with a wind chill reaching minus 53.
Those were the numbers in one city, Minneapolis, as the polar vortex blasted through the Midwest, and overnight temperatures are expected to go still lower. Much of the region has come to a standstill. At least seven deaths have been connected to the cold weather system.
This 3-D model shows how the vortex works. Above, looking out over frigid Chicago.
There were moments of strange beauty, like the frigid mist rising from Lake Michigan, and also oddities: “frost quakes” may have hit Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois. Here’s our roundup of the day’s weather reporting.
People in Chicago who work in extreme cold offered us their tips for survival: Ditch the denim, wear rubber gloves and never stop moving. We also have guidance on how to avoid frostbite and hypothermia.
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2. Top officials from the U. S. and China sat down for trade talks that administration officials described as exponentially more complicated than anything the White House has tackled to date.
Here’s what to watch during this critical round of negotiations, which ends Thursday. There is little expectation that the issues before them will be resolved by March 2, when President Trump says he will raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports.
Separately, Foxconn, the giant Taiwan-based company, said it was rethinking the focus of a $10 billion display-making factory in Wisconsin because of “new realities” in the global marketplace.
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3. President Trump called his top intelligence leaders “naive” a day after they briefed Congress and directly contradicted Mr. Trump’s rosier appraisal of threats facing the U. S.
In a series of tweets, Mr. Trump insisted that the Islamic State’s control in parts of Iraq and Syria “will soon be destroyed” and that there was a “decent chance of Denuclearization” in North Korea. “Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school,” he wrote.
Above from left, the F. B. I. director, Christopher Wray; the C. I. A. director, Gina Haspel; and the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats.
Separately, more veterans will be able to choose private health care under new Trump administration rules.
