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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Power was restored to more homes and businesses Thursday in states hit by a deadly blast of winter that overwhelmed the electrical grid and left millions shivering in the cold this week. But the crisis was far from over in parts of the South, where many people still lacked safe drinking water.

In Texas on Thursday, about 325,000 homes and businesses remained without power, down from about 3 million a day earlier, though utility officials said limited rolling blackouts were still possible.

DALLAS (AP) — Ashley Archer, a pregnant, 33-year-old Texas financial adviser, and her husband have been cautious about the coronavirus. They work from home, go out mostly just to get groceries and wear masks whenever they are in public.

But when a friend lost power amid the winter storms that have left millions of Texans without heat in freezing temperatures, the couple had to make a decision: Should they take on additional risk to help someone in need?

Archer said they didn’t hesitate. They took her husband’s best friend into their suburban Dallas home.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 18 (APP): The number of Syrians who lack access to sufficient food has reached a record 12.4 million, or nearly 60 per cent of the population, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Wednesday, citing “alarming” new national data.

Economic crisis, job losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, and soaring food prices have added to the plight of people who have been displaced and worn down by a decade of conflict, ythe Rome-based United Nations (UN) agency said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing first-time applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but the labor market is steadily recovering as additional fiscal stimulus and falling COVID-19 cases allow more services businesses to reopen.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 861,000 for the week ended Feb. 13, compared to 848,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 765,000 applications in the latest week.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the United States intends to pay over 200 million U.S. dollars in assessed and current obligations to the World Health Organization (WHO) by the end of this month.

"This is a key step forward in fulfilling our financial obligations as a WHO member," Blinken said in his remarks to a virtual UN Security Council briefing on COVID-19.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is escalating a political war within his own party that could undermine the Republican push to fight President Joe Biden’s agenda and ultimately return the party to power.

A day after blistering Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican, as a “dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack,” Trump repeated his baseless claim on Wednesday that he was the rightful winner of the November election in a series of interviews with conservative outlets after nearly a month of self-imposed silence.

WASHINGTON (AP) — By the thousands, U.S. service members are refusing or putting off the COVID-19 vaccine as frustrated commanders scramble to knock down internet rumors and find the right pitch that will persuade troops to get the shot.

Some Army units are seeing as few as one-third agree to the vaccine. Military leaders searching for answers believe they have identified one potential convincer: an imminent deployment. Navy sailors on ships heading out to sea last week, for example, were choosing to take the shot at rates exceeding 80% to 90%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is in a political firestorm over how and when to get more schools open amid the coronavirus pandemic, with Republicans seizing on confusion surrounding Biden’s goal to reopen a majority of schools within his first 100 days to paint the president as beholden to teachers’ unions at the expense of American families.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Deadly weather will be hitting the U.S. more often, and America had better get better at dealing with it, experts said as Texas and other states battled winter storms that blew past the worst-case planning of utilities, governments and millions of shivering citizens.

This week’s storms — with more still heading east — fit a pattern of worsening extremes under climate change and demonstrate anew that local, state and federal officials have failed to do nearly enough to prepare for greater and more dangerous weather.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Millions of Americans endured another frigid day without electricity or heat in the aftermath of a deadly winter storm as utility crews raced to restore power before another blast of snow and ice sowed more chaos in places least equipped to deal with it.