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America has begun the process of admitting migrants from Mexico. B

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On Monday a man attacked a woman on her porch and the 82 year old husband beat him with the 🤬 end of a shotgun both have minor injuries the wife was slashed in the forehead with a knife

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A South Carolina armed home invader who attacked a 79-year-old woman near her back door is dead after the victim's 82-year-old Vietnam War veteran husband beat him down with the butt end of a shotgun earlier this week, according to local authorities.

Herbert Parrish snatched the firearm off a wall mount after the suspect, identified as 61-year-old Harold Runnels, broke into the home with a knife, knocked his wife to the ground and slashed her forehead Monday afternoon, Columbia, S.C.-based Fox 57 reported.

He lived in a nearby mobile home community, according to WJBF-TV, and approached by knocking on the back door and asking if the couple had seen a missing dog.

HERO OF 1986 FBI SHOOTOUT ON HOW INCIDENT RESHAPED LAW ENFORCEMENT
Runnels later died at a hospital due to injuries sustained in the scuffle, according to authorities.

Aiken County Sheriff's Office Capt. Eric Abdullah, a department spokesman, said residents should call 911 immediately if they suspect their home is being broken into.

"Of course, folks have the right to defend themselves if their lives are in danger, but the best thing to do is to call for help," he told the Aiken Standard newspaper. "Every situation is going to be different. It may be a similar crime in nature, but every situation is going to be different. There's no way to accurately predict exactly what actions that any person should take if somebody is trying to invade their home. The best recourse is to think smartly and get help on the way."
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The Parrishes were not being charged. They were both treated for minor injuries but are expected to be OK.

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Elderly veteran uses butt of his shotgun to kill home intruder who attacked his wife

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An armed home invader who attacked a 79-year-old woman near her back door is dead after the victim's 82-year-old Vietnam War veteran husband beat him down with the butt end of a shotgun earlier this week, according to local authorities.

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Critics are concerned because Biden is trying to restart nuclear talks with Iran

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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others slammed the Biden administration Thursday after the White House signaled it was ready to restart diplomacy with Tehran over a nuclear deal.

The critics argued that the administration was rushing into talks with a regime that's accused of sponsoring terror attacks against U.S. forces. Others fear the Biden administration may provide Iran with sanctions relief and concessions with little shift in its nuclear program.

"The Ayatollah understands only strength. I led a response to the Iranian threat that protected the American people from its terror and supported the Jewish state of Israel," Pompeo said, according to the Washington Free Beacon. "Adopting the European Union model of accommodation ... will guarantee Iran a path to a nuclear arsenal."

Pompeo said the Trump administration -- which in 2018 withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration and other nations -- "refused" to "appease the Iranian theocracy," according to the Washington Free Beacon.
IRAQ ROCKET ATTACK KILLS CONTRACTOR, WOUNDS US SERVICE MEMBER, COALITION SAYS
His comments came after State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday that the Biden administration would "accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran's nuclear program."

Later Thursday, during an appearance on "Fox News @ Night," Pompeo responded to comments by his successor at the State Department, Secretary Antony Blinken, who claimed the U.S. was disengaged from foreign policy during the Trump administration.

"We were incredibly engaged and incredibly productive," Pompeo told host Shannon Bream.

Later, he added, "The work that we did in the Middle East -- whether it's the Abraham accords in getting multiple countries to agree to recognize Israel, or the work we did to put the Iranian regime under pressure -- those were good things for the American people. It created wealth, it created jobs here at home and it kept us more safe as well."

Bream then asked Pompeo how the Biden adminstration should properly respond to aggressive behavior from Iran.

"When the Iranians sense weakness, they'll attack," Pompeo said. "What we did is that when they came after an American, we made this very clear: Whether they attacked an American through a proxy force in Iraq, whether they attacked an American through Hezbollah in Syria, wherever it was, wherever Iran was responsible, we were going to hold the Iranians accountable. That's the kind of strength that built the deterrance model that we had with respect to Iran. I hope that this current adminsitration won't give up on that.

"We know under that under President Obama, they coddled the Iraniain regime," he contined. "They signed up for a deal that presented a pathway, a clear pathway to a nuclear weapon. When the Iranians will sense that that's the deal, they can strike, they'll continue to inflict costs on the American people.

"We can't go back. When President Biden talks about going back, the American people can't afford to go back to those policies."

He later characterized the Obama-negotiated accord with Iran as a "crappy deal" that gave Iran the notion it could "push President Obama around."

"Our [Trump] administration didn't permit that to happen," he added.

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin in an opinion piece Thursday wrote how the reignited talks came after alleged Iranian-linked Iraqi Shiite militia launched rockets at a U.S. airbase in northern Iraq on Monday. He added that the Biden administration had yet to acknowledge who was responsible -- despite the militia claiming credit.

"Other Iranian proxies, such as the Houthis in Yemen, are not rewarding Biden's more diplomatic approach with restraint - responding to outreach with new attacks on civilians," Rogin wrote. "Meanwhile, the leaders in Tehran are acting as if they have all the leverage, making demands and escalating their nuclear brinkmanship."

"Iran takes cheating on the nuclear deal to the next level, fires rockets at Americans in Erbil just days ago, then threatens to keep nuclear inspectors out, and how does Biden respond? Absolutely chokes," added Hudson Institute senior fellow Rebeccah Heinrichs, according to the Daily Wire. "And what a disastrous message to be sending to adversaries the world over."

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, also criticized the decision, saying the Biden administration needed to use the U.S. sanctions as leverage to get a broader deal that limits Iran's aggressive actions.

"It is concerning the Biden administration is already making concessions in an apparent attempt to re-enter the flawed Iran deal," said McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL: WHAT IS IT?
Still, others were optimistic in regard to the reignited talks, with U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. calling it "great news."

"But the U.S. needs to move quickly," he wrote on Twitter. "The sooner we reunite with Europe, Russia, and China on Iran policy, the sooner we can extend the Iran deal and work with these partners to curb Iran's other malevolent behavior."

The Iran nuclear deal framework - officially the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - was a historic agreement reached by Iran and several world powers, including the U.S., in 2015.
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Blinken and other senior State Department officials previously stated that in order to be granted relief from U.S. sanctions, Iran must cease its enrichment of uranium and come back into compliance with the 2015 deal, the Free Beacon reported.

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Pompeo, other critics pan Biden WH offer to restart Iran nuclear talks

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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others slammed the Biden administration Thursday after the White House signaled it was ready to restart diplomacy with Tehran over a nuclear deal. The critics argued that the administration was rushing into talks with a regime that's accused of sponsoring terror attacks against U.S.

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2 women disguised themselves as ¨grannies¨ in effort to get the second round of the covid vaccine. They failed their on their second time, but did get their first round. The women were in their 30's to 40's. Apparently they were not the only ones and many people have been misrepresenting themselves to get the vaccine.

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Those ages 65 and up are primarily eligible for the vaccine in Florida.

Two women disguised themselves as "grannies" in a failed attempt to get a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Florida health officials said.

"So yesterday, we realized a couple of young ladies came dressed up as grannies to get vaccinated for the second time," Dr. Raul Pino, the director of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, said during a press briefing Thursday. "So I don't know how they escaped the first time."

The women showed up to the Orange County Convention Center wearing bonnets, gloves and glasses -- "the whole thing," Pino said. They are in their 30s and 40s, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, which would make them ineligible to receive the vaccination outside of a health care or long-term care facility setting.

The two had valid vaccination cards from their first shot, but on their second attempt, there were issues with their driver's licenses, said Pino.

Deputies issued the two women trespass warnings after their dates of birth "did not match those they had used to register for the vaccines," the Orange County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. "The names, however, did match the registration."

The sheriff's office identified the women as Olga Monroy-Ramirez, 44, and Martha Vivian Monroy, 34.

No other law enforcement action was taken, the sheriff's office said, adding, "And we don't have any information about whether they were wearing disguises or how they were dressed."

There have been a few cases of people misrepresenting themselves to receive a dose, Pino said, adding that it's probably "higher than we suspect."

The county has increased security at the vaccination site to "deter any possible ill-intentions that someone may have," Pino said.

"This is the hottest commodity that is out there right now," the director said. "So we have to be very careful with the funds and the resources that we are provided."

Beyond health care workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities, those ages 65 and up are eligible to get the vaccine in Florida. Nearly 45% of that population has been inoculated in Orange County, officials said Thursday.

Last month, Florida started requiring proof of residency for COVID-19 vaccinations in select counties in the wake of concerns about "vaccine tourism" after eligibility was opened up to anyone age 65 and older.

The expanded eligibility resulted in long lines, with some older people even camping overnight in lawn chairs in the hopes of getting vaccinated.

As of Thursday, Florida had administered approximately 3.8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
ABC News' Will Gretsky, Kevin Kraus and Erin Schumaker contributed to this report.

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2 women dressed as 'grannies' to get COVID-19 vaccine, Florida officials say

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Those ages 65 and up are primarily eligible for the vaccine in Florida. Two women disguised themselves as "grannies" in a failed attempt to get a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Florida health officials said.

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Senator Ted Cruz left for vacation in Cancun while millions of Texans are without electricity and at least 30 dead. Cruz returned to Houston 24 hours after departing after realizing his mistake. The reaction online was unanimous. People are in disbelief that their senator decided to go on vacation in the middle of a pandemic and national weather emergency.

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One night in Cancun: Ted Cruz’s disastrous decision to go on vacation during Texas storm crisis

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Cancun-gate checked nearly every box of a scandal — and prompted a Twitter-fueled news cycle that seemed to unite a broken nation.

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This morning the power crisis in Texas is entering its fourth heat and cool day. They have been without power for sixty hours now. It's about 55 degrees inside the houses with the fire place. More than two million people in the state are without power overnight amid relentless winter storms and historically frigid temperatures. Some areas have no timeline on when power will be restored.

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This morning the power crisis in Texas entering its fourth heat and cool day we had been without power for sixty hours now it's about. 55. Inside the house. With the fire place doing more than two million customers in the state without power overnight amid relentless winter storms and historically frigid temperatures. Some areas have no timeline on when power will be restored. Officials in Galveston County seat QB this weekend over the lights come back on. Well Saturday. In the early Stuart or restoration of electrical power elk county even promised that. Texas reporting more power outages this week than during hurricane Harvey. Which devastated the Houston region and 2017 some people are sleeping in their cars to stay warm. Including this grandmother and her family. We have no Palo. I'm balancing the car and backup anything. Officials warned the dep told will rise now many people for example who are. In their homes and apartments we Maine I know the full. Count the number until we have passed this segment governor Greg Abbott says power should be restored to one million homes by tonight but more rolling blackouts are expected Tammy fear harbor outside Houston says. She hasn't had power since Sunday. We didn't lose a deep freeze in the garage full of food we lost any. Refrigerator full of food we're not able to arm function toilets we can't wash your hands we've been without water. Far more than slugging galleries in the meantime more long lines outside grocery stores which are running low on food water and firewood. We got three kids got alt plus six and nine. We try to keep the Beckett went. In cities across the state pipes are bursting a for freezing over. Feelings Melky began. Like in this home in Arlington. Houston America's fourth largest city. Urging residents Wednesday to border water. I. People lining up at a water faucet in this Houston park dipped below buckets one person seen it looked like a Third World country water outages and pressure problems also flicking hospitals forcing some to transfer features what's in the home. Travel treacherous in Austin this SU beat sliding out of control on the ice nearly hitting a woman. Moments later another vehicle on the same street spinning out of control. And now the weather threat is on the move heading into the northeast the Carolinas bracing for ice this morning for Virginia to New England. Snow.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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This morning the power crisis in Texas entering its fourth heat and cool day we had been without power for sixty hours now it's about. 55. Inside the house. With the fire place doing more than two million customers in the state without power overnight amid relentless winter storms and historically frigid temperatures.

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NASA rover touch down on Mars on Thursday the rover touch down at 3:55 pm.

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Here's what to know about the mission and how to watch Thursday's landing.

NASA's Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars Thursday afternoon, as part of one of the agency's most ambitious deep-space missions to search for signs of ancient life on the red planet.

The rover's voyage will also help pave the way for future human exploration of Mars.

Perseverance launched from the Florida coast last July, and after a seven-month journey through the cosmos, is scheduled to touch down on Mars' Jezero Crater at 3:55 p.m. ET on Thursday.

How to watch

The rover's entry, descent and landing on Mars will broadcast live on NASA's website and YouTube channel, with coverage commencing at 2:15 p.m. ET. Special Spanish language programming -- a first from NASA for a planetary landing -- kicked off at 2:30 p.m. ET.

It takes a little over 11 minutes for signals to travel from Mars to Earth, so the "live" coverage will have that delay. The riskiest portion of the mission, when the rover begins its entry on Mars (dubbed the "seven minutes of terror," according to NASA engineers), is expected to begin at around 3:38 p.m. ET.

The complexities of deep-space communications could delay when mission controllers on Earth confirm parts of Perseverance's landing, NASA said, but also noted that the rover has the ability to land safely without communications to Earth using autonomous, pre-programmed landing instructions. Additional communications, expected in the hours and days after the landing event, should provide more details on how the rover fared.

"Mars is hard and we never take success for granted," Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, said during a Tuesday news conference.

Zurbuchen added that they will land on Mars "with cameras on, so the entire world is inspired with us as we do new and tough things and demonstrate these new technologies."

"Because whether it's on the red planet or here at home on our blue marble, science can bring us together and create solutions to challenges that seem impossible at first," Zurbuchen said.

Touching down at 'the most challenging Martian terrain ever targeted for a landing'

Thursday's landing is the culmination of over a decade of work, but there is still no guarantee the landing will go smoothly -- only about 50% of all previous Mars landing attempts have succeeded, according to NASA.

Zurbuchen said in a statement that Peseverance is "focused scientifically on finding out whether there was ever any life on Mars in the past."

"To answer this question, the landing team will have its hands full getting us to Jezero Crater -- the most challenging Martian terrain ever targeted for a landing," he added.

The Jezero Crater is the site where an ancient river flowed into a lake on Mars, scientists believe, and where signs of ancient life may have been best preserved.

"The Perseverance team is putting the final touches on the complex choreography required to land in Jezero Crater," Jennifer Trosper, the deputy project manager for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. "No Mars landing is guaranteed, but we have been preparing a decade to put this rover's wheels down on the surface of Mars and get to work."

The rover is also equipped with new technology that lets it target its landing site more accurately and avoid hazards autonomously, according to NASA.

Mission goals

Perseverance -- which was named by a seventh grader who won an essay contest -- is the fifth rover NASA has sent to the red planet, and the most advanced.

The six-wheeled rover is about the size of a car and the mission duration as of now is set for at least one Martian year, or 687 Earth days.

Astrobiology is at the core of the mission's goals, and Perseverance is tasked with searching for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. It will also collect carefully selected rock and sediment samples with the goal of eventually returning them to Earth.

Moreover, the rover will collect data on the planet's geology and climate -- paving the way for eventual human exploration. There is also an experiment called MOXIE that will see whether it is possible to manufacture oxygen in the Martian atmosphere.

Perseverance also has a helicopter, dubbed "Ingenuity," that is expected to become the first aircraft to attempt a powered, controlled flight on another planet.

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Mars' Perseverance successfully touches down on Mars

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Here's what to know about the mission and how to watch Thursday's landing. NASA's Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars Thursday afternoon, as part of one of the agency's most ambitious deep-space missions to search for signs of ancient life on the red planet.

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People are beginning to get power back in Texas after the winter storm, however many Texans are under boil water advisories due to the water quality.

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While power has been restored for millions of Texans who had been without in the bitter cold, the nightmare of the devastating winter storm isn't over.

Millions don't have safe water at home, and residents looking for groceries or bottled water said they arrived to stores with bare shelves and long lines.
The latest on the storm:

President Joe Biden said Friday that he expects to sign federal disaster aid for Texas once the governor's request reaches his desk and that he planned to visit Texas next week if it was not "a burden."

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees about 90 percent of the state's energy production, said that emergency conditions were expected to end later Friday after no more outages had been needed Thursday night.

By Friday morning, more than half a million people in the United States did not have electricity - Texas topped the list with less than 200,000 power outages, according to tracking website poweroutage.us.

In Texas, more than 14 million people were under boil water orders in the wake of a winter storm that froze and burst pipes, creating chaos for water treatment facilities.

Memphis International Airport was forced to temporarily close its passenger terminal and cancel all flights because of water pressure issues.

Since Thursday, at least 46 deaths from 10 states have been weather-related, the majority in Texas.

When firefighters arrived at a fire at a San Antonio-area apartment building Thursday, their efforts were hampered by frozen hydrants. Crews had to shuttle in water to try to control the blaze, which displaced dozens.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT - which oversees about 90 percent of the state's energy production - said Friday that emergency conditions are expected to end because no more outages had been needed Thursday night.

"There is enough generation on the electric system to allow us to begin to return to more normal operating conditions," director Dan Woodfin said in a statement.

More than 14 million people were under orders Friday to boil tap water in the wake of the punishing winter weather that began a week ago and has paralyzed the state, caused frozen and burst water mains and residential pipes, and created chaos for water treatment facilities, according to a spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The state is working with the federal government to bring in mobile labs to help do the tests needed to lift those advisories.

President Joe Biden said Friday that he expects to sign federal disaster aid for Texas once the governor's request reaches his desk and that could visit Texas next week if it didn't create "a burden."

He previously offered support and resources for the state.

"Tonight, I called Governor Greg Abbott to discuss the ongoing situation in Texas and identify ways we can support the state's recovery from this storm. I made clear to the Governor that I'll work relentlessly to get his state what they need," Biden tweeted Thursday.

Abbott said he would ask Texas lawmakers to examine the state's energy pricing system as a possible culprit in widespread blackouts.

"We want to make sure that we have ongoing, adequate supplies of power at a price that makes sense," he said at a Friday news conference. "And that pricing model may have affected the ability to generate power. That's something that we need to get the to bottom of."

People in Texas have reported stripped-bare store shelves and long lines.

Princess Tensley of Houston had no water service and intermittent power. Her cousin's family is also living in the home because they had no power or water, and they tried to buy supplies at stores Thursday but had no luck.

"We only have like two cases of water left. ... So, we're trying to divide it between two families, and it's really hard," Tensley said. "We don't know what the next day is going to look like - and that's the scary part."

The city of Houston's office of emergency management tweeted early Friday that crews were working throughout the night to position pallets of water bottles for mass distribution at Delmar Stadium.

During an interview with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle on Friday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the number of people affected by power outages in the state's largest city had dropped from 1.4 million to just under 10,000.

For those without service, it is "still very real for them and very tough for them," he said.

Turner, a Democrat, added that he hasn't spoken to Abbott, a Republican, since the deadly winter storm hit the state earlier this week.

"I have not talked to the governor at any time during this crisis," Turner said. "This is an opportunity, the time for us to rally, to be supportive of one another, and we're gonna stay with it until we come through this crisis."

Texas congressional members complained in a news conference organized by the state Democratic Party that Abbott had not reached out to them for their help in getting resources to Texas, saying that added up to a failure to use all available resources to assist desperate residents.

"Every time there is a major disaster in Texas, Greg Abbott goes into hiding and he did it again this time," Castro said during a Texas Democratic Party news conference Friday.

"He had sent 1,000 National Guard folks down to the border and bragged about that all over his political pages and his website," Castro said referring to Abbott's use of guard troops on the Texas-Mexico border. "He sent 500 DPS (Department of Public Safety) troopers in the same way to the border, but hasn't shown the same effort to mobilize in this disaster."

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and Rep. Marc Veasey, both who are Black and Democrat, were on the virtual call.

"We gave water to really desperate people. They were lined up to the darkness of the night. Late in the night they were coming to get water," Jackson Lee said. "A call, a conference call by the chief of the state could have added much help to desperate cities and counties. I don't think one of us has spoken to the governor in this crisis."

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson told NBC's "TODAY" show Friday that although the rolling blackouts are over, the city will still have to address water supply issues and property damage.

"We have a long way to go in getting out of this, and our problems are just sort of beginning," he said.

Johnson warned there would be "extensive water damage" when residents returned to their homes and called on the federal government to provide financial assistance.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler told the show earlier Friday that "it feels like it's just one thing after another after another."

"We were just not prepared for these cold temperatures," he said. "We have a deregulated power system in the state, and it doesn't work."

Adler said there had been some power issues and water pressure issues at some Austin hospitals.

"It is constant hands on crews working in order to keep the hospitals open and working," he added.

Austin cook Cesar Urías, 40, helped feed his community with ingredients from a restaurant that gave away food after losing power. Urías, who had not lost power, used the chicken and bread for sandwiches, which he then offered through a Facebook post and later delivered.

"I had 12 families yesterday that had three to seven children. Some were in their cars. It was very awful," Urías said. The cook said he had hoped to make more, but ended up joining other Austin residents scrounging for slim pickings on grocery and convenience store shelves.

At points this week, more than 4 million people were without power - some for days. On Friday, less than 155,000 customers in Texas were still without electricity, according to tracking website poweroutage.us.

"We are not yet out of this, but we're closer to this challenge being behind us," Abbott said Thursday.

No residences were without electricity Thursday because of a lack of power generation, and "every available repair truck in Texas" has been dispatched to repair the downed lines and other issues causing continuing outages, the governor said.

Winter storms have left part of other states powerless, as well: Mississippi had more than 91,000 customers out and Louisiana more than 58,000.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves compared the damage to a hurricane.

"Unlike a hurricane or tornado, where the event comes furiously and then ends, this has been a slow-moving disaster. We have been in response mode, not recovery, constantly," Reeves tweeted Thursday.

In Tennessee, Memphis International Airport said it was forced to temporarily close its passenger terminal because of water pressure issues. Airlines have canceled all passenger flights for Friday, the airport said in a statement on its website.

"We will not open until at least noon tomorrow, but it could be later," airport spokesman Glen Thomas said by email Friday. "We are working on possible short-term portable restroom solutions that would help us to re-open the airport."

In Oregon, around 73,000 customers were without power Thursday night after last week's storms, utility Portland General Electric said. It expected all but 15,000 to be restored by Friday night.
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More than 245,000 people in Louisiana were affected by dozens of water outages, Gov. John Bel Edwards said. Boil water advisories affected around 1 million, he said.

In Vidalia in northeast Louisiana, Betsy Sawyer's water was cut off for part of Thursday, and she hadn't had electricity since Wednesday. She filled a bathtub with water to prepare.

"Lots of trees down," she told The Associated Press. "Everybody's scrambling, just doing their best."

Temperatures in Fort Worth, Texas, and Houston and other parts of the state are forecast to be freezing in the overnight hours until Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. That is expected to cause ice and snow that melts during the day to refreeze and create slick roads.

A warming trend was expected to bring Houston into the mid-60s by Sunday afternoon, the National Weather Service said Friday.

"We can see light at the end of the tunnel," the weather service office in Dickinson, Texas, tweeted. "One more night of below freezing temperatures at some areas, then a warm up is expected into the weekend.

The winter weather has played a role in at least 24 deaths in Texas, including six people who died in a massive pileup on a highway in Fort Worth last week. Two others died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a Houston home where people had been using a car for warmth because there was no heat.

In Arkansas, a 69-year-old man was found dead earlier this week after falling into a frozen pond while trying to rescue a calf.

In Louisiana, three people died, including a 50-year-old man who slipped on ice in Lafayette Parish and hit his head on Monday, according to the state health department. Three people died in crashes on ice- and snow-covered roads in Kentucky, officials said.

And in Kentucky, two women died from hypothermia after their residences lost power, according to Boyd County Coroner Mark Hammond. Mabel Webb's building was without power for two to three days before maintenance workers found the 77-year-old woman, he said. The other victim was described as an 86-year-old woman who had an arrhythmia and went into cardiac arrest, officials said.

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Power comes back for most in Texas, but other problems pile up

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While power has been restored for millions of Texans who had been without in the bitter cold, the nightmare of the devastating winter storm isn't over. Millions don't have safe water at home, and residents looking for groceries or bottled water said they arrived to stores with bare shelves and long lines.

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Yesterday NASA's newest rover, Perseverance, reached Mars. The goal of the mission is to search for signs of ancient life.

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Here's what to know about the mission and how to watch Thursday's landing.

NASA's Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars Thursday afternoon, as part of one of the agency's most ambitious deep-space missions to search for signs of ancient life on the red planet.

The rover's voyage will also help pave the way for future human exploration of Mars.

Perseverance launched from the Florida coast last July, and after a seven-month journey through the cosmos, is scheduled to touch down on Mars' Jezero Crater at 3:55 p.m. ET on Thursday.

How to watch

The rover's entry, descent and landing on Mars will broadcast live on NASA's website and YouTube channel, with coverage commencing at 2:15 p.m. ET. Special Spanish language programming -- a first from NASA for a planetary landing -- kicked off at 2:30 p.m. ET.

It takes a little over 11 minutes for signals to travel from Mars to Earth, so the "live" coverage will have that delay. The riskiest portion of the mission, when the rover begins its entry on Mars (dubbed the "seven minutes of terror," according to NASA engineers), is expected to begin at around 3:38 p.m. ET.

The complexities of deep-space communications could delay when mission controllers on Earth confirm parts of Perseverance's landing, NASA said, but also noted that the rover has the ability to land safely without communications to Earth using autonomous, pre-programmed landing instructions. Additional communications, expected in the hours and days after the landing event, should provide more details on how the rover fared.

"Mars is hard and we never take success for granted," Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, said during a Tuesday news conference.

Zurbuchen added that they will land on Mars "with cameras on, so the entire world is inspired with us as we do new and tough things and demonstrate these new technologies."

"Because whether it's on the red planet or here at home on our blue marble, science can bring us together and create solutions to challenges that seem impossible at first," Zurbuchen said.

Touching down at 'the most challenging Martian terrain ever targeted for a landing'

Thursday's landing is the culmination of over a decade of work, but there is still no guarantee the landing will go smoothly -- only about 50% of all previous Mars landing attempts have succeeded, according to NASA.

Zurbuchen said in a statement that Peseverance is "focused scientifically on finding out whether there was ever any life on Mars in the past."

"To answer this question, the landing team will have its hands full getting us to Jezero Crater -- the most challenging Martian terrain ever targeted for a landing," he added.

The Jezero Crater is the site where an ancient river flowed into a lake on Mars, scientists believe, and where signs of ancient life may have been best preserved.

"The Perseverance team is putting the final touches on the complex choreography required to land in Jezero Crater," Jennifer Trosper, the deputy project manager for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. "No Mars landing is guaranteed, but we have been preparing a decade to put this rover's wheels down on the surface of Mars and get to work."

The rover is also equipped with new technology that lets it target its landing site more accurately and avoid hazards autonomously, according to NASA.

Mission goals

Perseverance -- which was named by a seventh grader who won an essay contest -- is the fifth rover NASA has sent to the red planet, and the most advanced.

The six-wheeled rover is about the size of a car and the mission duration as of now is set for at least one Martian year, or 687 Earth days.

Astrobiology is at the core of the mission's goals, and Perseverance is tasked with searching for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. It will also collect carefully selected rock and sediment samples with the goal of eventually returning them to Earth.

Moreover, the rover will collect data on the planet's geology and climate -- paving the way for eventual human exploration. There is also an experiment called MOXIE that will see whether it is possible to manufacture oxygen in the Martian atmosphere.

Perseverance also has a helicopter, dubbed "Ingenuity," that is expected to become the first aircraft to attempt a powered, controlled flight on another planet.

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Mars' Perseverance successfully touches down on Mars

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Here's what to know about the mission and how to watch Thursday's landing. NASA's Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars Thursday afternoon, as part of one of the agency's most ambitious deep-space missions to search for signs of ancient life on the red planet.

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Near the border of Afghanistan A fuel tanker exploded and blew up nearly 500 vehicles with it. The government isn't saying much about it but we do know that 17 people have been confirmed severely injured.

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More than 500 vehicles burst into flames at the Afghanistan-Iranian border Saturday afternoon after a fuel truck there exploded, provincial officials told Afghanistan's TOLO News.

The blaze took place at the customs office in Islam Qala, in Afghanistan's western province of Herat.

Photos from the scene show tall flames and plumes of thick black smoke, visible even from a distance.

At least 17 people were injured and taken to the Islam Qala clinic and Herat Regional Hospital, according to Mohammad Rafiq Sherzai, spokesman for the Herat public health department. No further information is available yet on casualties.

"Everyone was terrified. They were escaping. Cars were stuck," eyewitness Khalil Ahmad told TOLO News.

Herat Gov. Waheed Qatali said officials had sought help from Iran, as the Afghan side lacked the resources to put out the huge blaze.

Iran will dispatch relief and rescue teams to the region to assist in the emergency response efforts, as requested by Herat officials, according to the Iranian state-run IRNA news agency.

Iranian state-run Press TV reported that the damage was on the Afghan side of the border and did not affect Iranian customs.

"Up to now there has been no report about damage on Dogharoon border terminal," said Omid Jahankhah, supervisor of customs offices in Iran's Razavi Khorasan province, according to Press TV.

According to Press TV, Iran is a major supplier of goods to Afghanistan and that the terminals are often packed with fuel tankers.

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international relations and national security

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500 vehicles in flames after fuel tanker explodes on Afghanistan-Iran border | CNN

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More than 500 vehicles burst into flames at the Afghanistan-Iranian border Saturday afternoon after a fuel truck there exploded, provincial officials told Afghanistan's TOLO News. The blaze took place at the customs office in Islam Qala, in Afghanistan's western province of Herat.

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Ted Cruz recently took a trip to Mexico during the winter storms. People are calling him a hypocrite because he has been criticizing politicians for traveling during the pandemic.

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vacationing during crisis: ted cruz has repeatedly slammed other politicians for it - cnnpolitics

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Ted Cruz has repeatedly slammed politicians for vacationing during crisis

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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is facing backlash for traveling to Mexico as a winter disaster ravages his home state, has repeatedly criticized politicians who vacationed or took part in leisure activities during times of crisis, a CNN KFile review finds.

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The Canadian government proposed legislation Tuesday that would allow local communities to ban handguns, but stopped short of supporting a national handgun ban.

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canada will not implement a national handgun ban

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they'll leave that up to individual communities - cnn

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Canada will not implement a national handgun ban, instead, they'll leave that up to individual communities

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The Canadian government proposed legislation Tuesday that would allow local communities to ban handguns, but stopped short of supporting a national handgun ban, which many gun control advocates had called for.