Republican senator Ted Cruz has been criticised for flying to Cancún while millions of his constituents in Texas were left to endure power outages and freezing temperatures.

After photographs of him on a flight to the Mexican tourist resort went viral, Cruz described the trip as "obviously a mistake".

He claimed that his daughters had asked to take a trip with friends, and he had accompanied them, "wanting to be a good dad".

Cruz had urged Texans to stay home as a snowstorm swept through the state, leaving millions without power.

Tadhg Hickey and Helen Vaughan discussed this and more of the stories making the news in The Week Trending.