World
US states hit by extreme drought face more water cuts
For the second yr in a row, the US states of Arizona and Nevada will face cuts within the quantity of water they’ll draw from the Colorado River because the Western United States endures an excessive drought, federal officers have introduced.
The cuts deliberate for subsequent yr will drive states to make important selections about the place to cut back consumption and whether or not to prioritise rising cities or agricultural areas.
They may even place state officers beneath renewed strain to plan for a warmer, drier future and a rising inhabitants. Mexico will face cuts, as effectively.
“We’re taking steps to guard the 40 million individuals who rely on the Colorado River for his or her lives and livelihoods,” mentioned Camille Touton, US commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation.
The river offers water throughout seven states and in Mexico and helps feed an agricultural trade valued at $15bn a yr. Cities and farms are anxiously awaiting official estimates of the river’s future water ranges that can decide the extent and scope of cuts to their water provide.
That’s not all. Along with these already-agreed-to cuts, the Bureau of Reclamation mentioned on Tuesday that states had missed a deadline to suggest at the least 15 p.c extra cuts wanted to maintain water ranges on the river’s storage reservoirs from dropping much more.
For instance, officers have predicted that water ranges at Lake Mead, the nation’s largest artifical reservoir, will plummet additional. The lake is at the moment lower than 1 / 4 full. “The states collectively haven’t recognized and adopted particular actions of adequate magnitude that might stabilize the system,” Touton mentioned.
After placing final yr’s burden on the agricultural trade, Arizona officers must resolve whether or not to unfold extra ache to rising cities that depend on the river. The cuts usually are not anticipated to have a tangible impact on Nevada, which has already applied the area’s most aggressive conservation insurance policies, together with grass bans and rebate programmes.
Whereas the Bureau of Reclamation is “very targeted on simply getting via this to subsequent yr”, any cutbacks will seemingly should be in place far longer, mentioned College of Oxford hydrologist Kevin Wheeler.
“What contribution the science makes is, it’s fairly clear that these reductions simply should have to remain in place till the drought has ended or we realise they really should worsen and the cuts should get deeper,” he mentioned.
The cuts are primarily based on a plan the seven states in addition to Mexico signed in 2019 to assist preserve reservoir ranges. Beneath that plan, the quantity of water allotted to states will depend on the water ranges at Lake Mead.
Final yr, the lake fell low sufficient for the federal authorities to declare a first-ever water scarcity within the area, triggering necessary cuts for Arizona and Nevada in addition to Mexico in 2022.
Officers count on the falling lake ranges to set off extra cuts to Nevada, Arizona and Mexico subsequent yr. States with increased precedence water rights usually are not anticipated to see cuts.
Reservoir ranges have been falling for years — and quicker than specialists predicted — because of 22 years of drought worsened by local weather change and overuse of the river.
Scorching temperatures and fewer melting snow within the spring have lowered the quantity of water flowing from the Rocky Mountains, the place the river originates earlier than it snakes 2,334km (1,450 miles) southwest and into the Gulf of California.
Already, extraordinary steps have been taken this yr to maintain water in Lake Powell, the opposite massive Colorado River reservoir, which sits upstream of Lake Mead and straddles the Arizona-Utah border. Water from the lake runs via Glen Canyon Dam, which produces sufficient electrical energy to energy between 1 million and 1.5 million properties every year.
After water ranges at Lake Powell reached ranges low sufficient to threaten hydropower manufacturing, federal officers mentioned they’d maintain again an extra 480,000 acre-feet (greater than 156 billion gallons or 592 million cubic metres) of water to make sure the dam might nonetheless produce vitality. That water would usually course to Lake Mead.
Beneath Tuesday’s reductions, Arizona will lose barely extra water than it did this yr, when 18 p.c of its provide was minimize. In 2023, it can lose an extra 3 p.c, an mixture 21 p.c discount from its preliminary allocation.
Mexico will lose 7 p.c of the 1.5 million acre-feet it receives every year from the river. Final yr, it misplaced about 5 p.c. The water is a lifeline for northern desert cities together with Tijuana and a big farm trade within the Mexicali Valley, simply south of the border from California’s Imperial Valley.
Nevada additionally will lose water — about 8 p.c of its provide — however most residents won’t really feel the results as a result of the state recycles the vast majority of its water used indoors and doesn’t use its full allocation. Final yr, the state misplaced 7 p.c.
World
Barack Obama to Campaign for Kamala Harris Leading up to Election, Washington Post Reports
World
Israeli military kills 250 Hezbollah terrorists since start of limited ground operation in Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces announced Friday that 250 Hezbollah terrorists, including nearly two dozen commanders, have been killed since the beginning of its limited ground operation in southern Lebanon.
“Approximately 250 terrorists have been eliminated by land and air, and more than 2,000 military targets have been attacked, including terrorist elements and facilities, military buildings, weapons depots, missile platforms, and the like,” IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X.
“As part of this operation, the forces were able to eliminate terrorists who were entrenched in buildings and positions adjacent to the separation fence and prevent Hezbollah terrorists from approaching the fence, with the aim of removing the threat to the residents of the north of [Israel],” Adraee continued.
“During the operation, the forces also found warehouses of combat equipment, missile launchers that were ready to be launched, and Hezbollah explosive devices that the terrorists had left behind,” he added.
8 ISRAELI SOLDIERS KILLED IN LEBANON AS NETANYAHU SAYS IDF ENGAGED IN ‘TOUGH WAR’ WITH HEZBOLLAH
Among the Hezbollah terrorists that have been killed are five battalion commanders, 10 company commanders and six platoon commanders, according to the IDF.
The announcement comes as the IDF said Friday that two of its soldiers have died “during combat in northern Israel.”
ISRAELI MILITARY SAYS REGULAR INFANTRY, ARMORED UNITS JOINING LIMITED GROUND OPERATION IN SOUTHERN LEBANON
On Wednesday, the IDF said eight troops were killed during fighting in southern Lebanon.
“I would like to send my deepest condolences to the families of our heroes who fell today in Lebanon,” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message. “May God avenge their death. May their memory be of blessing.”
“We are in the middle of a tough war against Iran’s axis of evil, which seeks to destroy us. This will not happen — because we will stand together, and with God’s help — we will win together,” Netanyahu added. “We will return our hostages in the south, we will return our residents in the north, we will guarantee the eternity of Israel.”
Fox News’ Yael Rotem-Kuriel contributed to this report.
World
EU-Morocco trade deals in Western Sahara ruled invalid, Rabat claims ‘bias’
Morocco slams ECJ ruling that said the people of Western Sahara were not consulted before the 2019 deals were signed.
The European Union’s top court has confirmed an earlier ruling cancelling trade deals that allow Morocco to export fish and farm products to the EU from the disputed Western Sahara region, a move Morocco slammed as “blatant political bias”.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Friday ruled that the European Commission breached the right of people in Western Sahara to self-determination by concluding trade deals with Morocco.
The Commission said it would examine the ECJ judgement in detail, while Morocco condemned it.
The ruling contained legal errors and “suspicious factual mistakes”, Morocco’s foreign ministry said in a statement, urging the European Council, the Commission and member states to uphold their commitments and preserve the assets of the partnership with Morocco.
Western Sahara, a tract of desert the size of Britain, has been the scene of Africa’s longest-running territorial dispute since colonial power Spain left in 1975 and Morocco annexed the territory.
The Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state in Western Sahara, hailed the verdict as an “historic victory” for the area’s Sahrawi people.
Friday’s decision is the final ruling after several appeals by the Commission, the EU’s executive arm. The bloc signed fishing and agriculture agreements with Morocco in 2019 that also covered products from the Western Sahara.
“The consent of the people of Western Sahara to the implementation … is a condition for the validity of the decisions by which the [EU] Council approved those agreements on behalf of the European Union,” the court said.
It said a consultation process that took place had not involved “the people of Western Sahara but the inhabitants who are currently present in that territory, irrespective of whether or not they belong to the people of Western Sahara”.
The court also ruled that melons and tomatoes produced in Western Sahara must now have their origin labelled as such.
“Labelling must indicate Western Sahara alone as the country of origin of those goods, to the exclusion of any reference to Morocco, so as to avoid misleading consumers,” it said.
‘Historic victory’
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said the European Commission was analysing the ruling and reiterated that the bloc highly valued its “long-standing, wide-ranging and deep” strategic partnership with Morocco.
“The EU firmly intends to preserve and continue strengthening close relations with Morocco,” she said in a joint statement with EU foreign affairs boss Josep Borrell.
Welcoming the ECJ ruling, Oubi Bouchraya, the Polisario’s representative to the United Nations in Switzerland, said, “It is a historic victory for the Sahrawi people that confirms the wrongdoings of the EU and Morocco and confirms the permanent sovereignty of the Sahrawi people over their natural resources,” the Reuters news agency reported.
“It is the most eloquent response to the last unilateral position of France and others,” Bouchraya added.
Western powers, including the United States in 2020, and most recently France, have backed Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory, angering Algeria.
Thousands of Sahrawi refugees have been stuck in limbo, living in desert camps in Tindouf, Algeria.
The UN brokered a ceasefire in 1991 ending a war between Morocco and the Polisario, but failed to organise a referendum due to disagreements about who should vote.
In its recent resolutions, the UN Security Council has urged the parties to seek a mutually acceptable political solution to the conflict.
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