Negotiators disbanded on Friday without a plan for the basin supplying water to 40m people, thrusting the region into uncertainty

The future of the American west hung in the balance after seven states remained at a stalemate over who should bear the brunt of the enormous water cuts needed to pull the imperiled Colorado River back from the brink.

Negotiators, who have spent years trying to iron out thorny disagreements, ended their talks on Friday without a deal – one day before a critical deadline to form a plan that had been set for Saturday.

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© Photograph: Étienne Laurent/EPA

© Photograph: Étienne Laurent/EPA

© Photograph: Étienne Laurent/EPA

The states, all led by Democrats, claim the cuts were intended as retribution and will harm efforts to control H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted infections.

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San Ramon, Calif., has been rattled by dozens of small earthquakes in recent months. Even in a region used to regular shaking, it’s been a lot.

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Experts are using high-res scanners and 3-D printers to illuminate ancient ailments and injuries.

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The unexpected sighting of a waved albatross, which was thousands of miles from its typical range, earned it a label ornithologists reserve for the unexpected: an avian “vagrant.”

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There's another battle unfolding between the Federal Communications Commission and California over the state's distribution of federal Lifeline money. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is proposing new nationwide eligibility rules to counter what he calls California's practice of giving benefits to dead people.

California officials say the FCC allegations are overblown, and that there is simply "lag time between a death and account closure" rather than widespread failures in its Lifeline enrollment process. Meanwhile, the only Democratic commissioner on the FCC alleges that Carr's plan to change eligibility rules uses "cruel and punitive eligibility standards" that will raise prices on many people who are still very much alive and eligible for the program.

Carr's office said this week that the FCC will vote next month on rule changes to ensure that Lifeline money goes to "only living and lawful Americans" who meet low-income eligibility guidelines. Lifeline spends nearly $1 billion a year and gives eligible households up to $9.25 per month toward phone and Internet bills, or up to $34.25 per month in tribal areas.

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The company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, said this week that it would stop making the car, an electric pioneer in 2012, as well as the Model X.

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The tech giant has spent more than $6 million on TV ads in state capitals and Washington, with the message that data centers create jobs.

The sensors used to listen for earthquakes could help protect people from the hazards created by falling spacecraft.

A professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, he was a key contributor to a landmark paper that laid out how the universe came to look like it does today.

Bowing to pressure, the company said it would restrict X users from generating explicit images of real people in jurisdictions where such content is illegal.

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The state will examine whether xAI, which owns the social media platform X and created the A.I. chatbot Grok, violated state law.

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More large donations from wealthy Silicon Valley figures are expected as they try to marshal opposition to a proposed ballot measure that would impose a new tax on billionaires.

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Sergey Brin is joining his Google co-founder, Larry Page, in reducing ties to the state where they built their fortunes.

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It’s hard right now to be a progressive Democrat in the heart of America’s tech industry.

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Companies like Kairos Power are building new types of reactors with the encouragement of the Trump administration, but their success is far from assured.

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As enhanced subsidies expire, many Americans covered under the Affordable Care Act are having trouble paying for insurance.

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Brenna Henn had a long-term grant to study the genetic diversity of Africans and people of African descent. Then her N.I.H. funding was cut.

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It’s uncertain whether the proposal will reach the statewide ballot in November, but some billionaires like Peter Thiel and Larry Page may be unwilling to take the risk.

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