#drought

#drought

The weather this week looks ideal, with sunny to modestly sunny skies each day, temperatures in the mid-70s to low-80s. Evening temperatures should drop to around the 60s throughout the workweek. Winds should be relatively calm, and humidity will be moderate. Things could change a bit over the coming weekend, with chances of showers increasing Saturday night into Sunday. Conditions also will remain dry.

Strong cattle prices, record beef demand, and renewed policy attention are giving the North American cattle sector reasons for optimism - but supply constraints and cross-border issues remain front and centre, says Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA). RealAgriculture's Shaun Haney was at CattleCon 2026 in Nashville, Tennessee, this week, to discuss the state of the cattle industry, trade relationships, and the policy challenges shaping the years ahead.

In 2020, Microsoft President Brad Smith announced that the company would reduce its water consumption and even become "water positive" by 2030. This means that Microsoft would replenish more water than it consumes. At the time, this goal seemed achievable, but the rapid rise of generative AI has completely changed the playing field. The construction of new data centers has accelerated, and with it the need for water for cooling.

In the slanting, late-afternoon summer sun, the fields around the small Australian town of Ouyen almost 450km north-west of Melbourne turn the colour of honey. The edges shimmer with silver, that old cruel trick of feigning water where it hasn't rained for weeks. Summer is always hot out here in the sparse, flat Mallee, but this year is shaping up to be particularly harsh.

Vail Mountain has recorded its lowest snowpack in 47 years, with just 67 inches of snow so far this season. It has been a tough season so far for many resorts located in the Rockies and out West. "We experienced one of the worst early-season snowfalls in the Western U.S. in over 30 years," Rob Katz, Chief Executive Officer, said in a press release. This has limited Vail Mountain and other resorts from opening new terrain and has decreased skier visits.

The Trump administration is pressuring Mexico with more tariffs to force its southern neighbor to settle its water debt of nearly one billion cubic meters, of which Mexico has committed to delivering 249 million before the end of January. Meanwhile, the high demand for water from the agricultural sector is forcing President Claudia Sheinbaum to perform a balancing act to avoid jeopardizing access to water for irrigation systems in the north of the country.

Air pollution has reached "alarming" levels in the Iranian capital, Tehran, leading authorities to close schools and universities and ban truck travel in the region in the latest environmental crisis to strike the Middle East nation. The Air Quality Index in Tehran and surrounding cities on November 29 climbed to between 170 and 200 -- considered to be "unhealthy" for all age groups, Iranian media reported.

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The first recorded death from West Nile virus this year in L.A. County was confirmed Friday by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The individual, whose details have been kept anonymous, was hospitalized in the San Fernando Valley for neurological illness caused by the mosquito-borne virus. In Southern California, October is the middle of mosquito season. Across Los Angeles County, 14 West Nile virus infections have been documented in 2025; half have been in the San Fernando Valley.

"We are starting to see a little bit of a tease of fall here with temperatures the last few days, topping out in the 60s, which is around where we should be for early October,"

Why has the price gone up? It's the law of supply and demand. America's beef cattle herd is the smallest in 75 years, in part because of drought. But Americans' love of hamburgers and steaks has kept demand strong until recently. In July, the U.S. Department of Agriculture continued to record a shrinking number of U.S. cattle and calves, forecasting that beef production would decline 4% over this year and another 2% in 2026.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.