The polar vortex has returned to the U.S., and frostbite-inducing temperatures are blasting millions of Americans.

Widespread, record-breaking cold temperatures are expected from now through Friday. Numerous daily records are likely to be broken across the Plains, with some locations experiencing their coldest temperatures on record for so late in the season.

Bitter cold has descended on swathes of the US this week, as the nation faces its 10th – and coldest – polar vortex of the season. In a normal winter, you can expect to see this happen two or three times.

Andrew Lester, 86, has died after pleading guilty to the intentional shooting of Black teenager Ralph Yarl outside Lester's Kansas City home in 2023.

An 86-year-old Missouri man has died just days after pleading guilty in the 2023 shooting of Ralph Yarl, a Black honor student who rang the white man’s doorbell by mistake