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.

© Dustin Chambers for The New York Times

Psilocybin-assisted therapy is legal in three states, but access has so far been limited and expensive.

© Mason Trinca for The New York Times

How some of the world’s most precise clocks missed a very small beat.

© R. Eskalis/National Institute of Standards and Technology