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 deposit could power 400,000 clean-energy car batteries. There’s just one roadblock: a rare, fragile species of buckwheat, which for a mine might mean extinction.

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

Despite the pandemic, it was a record-setting year for the world’s wealthiest- with a $5 trillion surge in wealth and an unprecedented number of new billionaires.