U.S. officials for the first time on Monday declared an official water shortage for the massive Lake Mead reservoir, triggering supply cuts to parts of the drought-stricken Southwest, as 10 Western governors appealed for federal drought disaster aid.

The number of earthquakes rattling the U.S. shale patch is growing exponentially as producers pump massive amounts of dirty water from their oil and gas wells back underground.

Five states in the region accounted for 30% of U.S. job growth in manufacturing over three years, adding more than 100,000 jobs.

The B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in Britain, is now the source of most new coronavirus infections in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.