By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, May 26 (Reuters) – Ride-share drivers for app-based companies such as Uber and Lyft have unionized in Massachusetts, forming what state officials and labor leaders said was the first officially recognized organization in the U.S. to represent such gig workers.

The newly formed App Drivers Union received certification from the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations on Friday to represent nearly 70,000 ride-share drivers operating as independent contractors in the state.

“It changes the game for ride-share workers across this country,” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat, said at a rally with drivers and labor activists in Boston on Tuesday.

The certification occurred after voters in November 2024 approved a ballot measure that created a novel framework to allow drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft to organize and bargain collectively over pay and benefits.

That vote followed a years-long, nationwide battle over whether ride-share drivers should be considered independent contractors or employees entitled to benefits and wage protections.

Drivers for Uber and Lyft do not have the right to organize under the National Labor Relations Act, a federal law that covers only traditional employees.

But under the state law, drivers could form a union after collecting signatures from at least 25% of active drivers in Massachusetts – a condition that was met by union supporters. The union is backed by 32BJ SEIU, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

“The workers who built these billion-dollar corporations deserve a union contract and a seat at the table,” IAM President Brian Bryant said at Tuesday’s rally.

He and other union leaders held up Massachusetts as a key labor victory as unionization efforts mount in other states.

In California, ride-share drivers gained the right to unionize under legislation signed into law in October by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom. Similar legislation is pending in Illinois.

Lyft and Uber did not campaign against the Massachusetts ballot measure. Lyft said on Tuesday it was committed to engaging in good faith as the Massachusetts process moves forward. 

“Lyft does well when drivers do well, and we’ll stay focused on helping drivers succeed while keeping rideshare affordable and dependable for everyone who counts on it,” Lyft said in a statement.

Uber did not respond to a request for comment.

In the months before the 2024 vote, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell secured a settlement with Uber and Lyft requiring them to adopt a $32.50 hourly minimum pay standard for Massachusetts drivers and pay $175 million to resolve claims they had improperly treated drivers as independent contractors, rather than employees, under state law.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) – Nuclear power company Oklo said on Tuesday it was one of five companies to have been picked by the U.S. Energy Department for advanced talks on taking Cold War-era plutonium, a dangerous fissile material, for potential use as nuclear reactor fuel.

Reuters reported last year that the Trump administration plans to make about 20 metric tons of Cold War-era plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads available to U.S. power companies as a potential fuel for reactors.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order about a year ago ordering the U.S. government to halt much of a program to dilute and dispose of surplus plutonium, and instead provide it as a fuel for advanced nuclear technologies.

The Energy Department holds surplus U.S. plutonium, which has a half-life of 24,000 years and must be handled with protective gear, at heavily guarded weapons facilities in states including South Carolina, Texas and New Mexico. 

Oklo, whose stock price was up more than 7% in late morning trading to $70.73 per share, said it plans to develop the fuel with newcleo, a European company that aims to build high-tech nuclear reactors.

In a statement, Oklo said newcleo would bring fuel experience and potential project capital, subject to agreements, approvals and U.S. security and safeguards requirements.

“This program creates a pathway to use existing surplus material as bridge fuel for advanced reactors to bring more reactors online sooner,” said Oklo co-founder and CEO Jacob DeWitte. “Material that has been set aside for disposal can instead be converted into fuel to produce electricity.”

Stefano Buono, newcleo’s CEO and founder, said using the plutonium as fuel would reduce U.S. nuclear liabilities.

Democratic U.S. lawmakers have urged Trump to cancel his plan to make surplus plutonium available as a fuel, saying it represents a proliferation risk and involves enough plutonium to make 2,000 atomic bombs.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright was on Oklo’s board of directors before joining Trump’s cabinet. His department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the talks or on how the material would be kept safe.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Alexander Smith and Paul Simao)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence declined slightly this month as gas prices stayed high and inflation remained elevated, a sharp contrast to soaring stock prices hover near record levels.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index slipped 0.7 points to 93.1 in May, the first decline after three months of gains. The measure hasn’t fallen as much this year as other gauges of consumer attitudes, but it has been stuck at a low level since the pandemic. Before COVID-19, it regularly reached 130.

A separate gauge of consumer sentiment released last week by the University of Michigan fell to a record low this month. Soaring gas and food costs have worsened inflation that is outpacing the average growth in paychecks, reducing most Americans’ purchasing power. Americans have soured on President Trump’s economic policies, polls show, potentially creating problems for Republicans heading into the midterm elections.

Consumer sentiment is mostly gloomy even as the economy is still growing and the unemployment rate has stayed low. Some economists argue that the gap reflects inequality in a “K-shaped” economy, with higher-income Americans benefitting from rising stock prices and still spending while lower-income households struggle.

Tuesday’s consumer confidence survey showed that confidence grew among households with incomes at or above $100,000, while it fell for most others.

“The prospect of higher prices and faster inflation continues to loom over confidence readings with many households taking a more cautious approach to purchases this year,” Ben Ayers, Nationwide senior economist, said.

There were some positive signs, Ayers noted: Americans’ expectations for growth six months in the future improved, potentially a sign they expect the Iran war to be over by then.

Still, Americans’ outlook on the job market worsened slightly. The proportion of respondents who said jobs are “plentiful” dropped to 25.5%, the lowest in three years. At the same time, just 18.6% said jobs were “hard to get,” the smallest percentage since October. The findings reflect the “low-hire, low-fire” job market that has made it harder for those out of work to obtain new jobs.

Gas prices have soared to a nationwide average of $4.49 a gallon from $2.98 just before the war began at the end of February, and have been at or above $4.50 a gallon for nearly all of May.

This month, the Conference Board added special questions to its survey, which found rising prices have caused most Americans to change their spending habits. Two-thirds of respondents said they are cutting back spending in response to the increases, with most of those reducing overall purchases and delaying more expensive acquisitions.

Many consumers are also planning to economize on clothes, shoes, hobby items, and toys and games, the survey found.

Inflation jumped to 3.8% in April, the highest in three years and far above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. In addition to more expensive gas, grocery prices have also started rising more quickly, likely driven by higher shipping costs. Beef prices have also risen sharply, as drought and other factors have reduced cattle herds.

The higher prices are reducing Americans’ average inflation-adjusted incomes. Average hourly earnings, adjusted for price changes, shrank in April from a year earlier for the first time in three years.

Other data also suggests consumers have grown more cautious amid rising prices. Adjusted for inflation, retail sales actually declined in April, after a solid increase in March.

And the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell to a record-low 44.8 in May, its third straight decline, as a majority of respondents said rising prices were hurting their personal finances.

Federal judges on Tuesday blocked Alabama’s plan to use a congressional map that could give Republicans an advantage in a key U.S. House race in the midterm elections.

A three-judge panel in the state’s long-running redistricting case issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the state from switching maps, ruling that the Republican-backed plan “intentionally discriminated based on race” by including only one Black-majority district. The judges instead required Alabama to continue using a court-ordered map in place for the 2024 elections that includes two districts where Black residents compose a majority or close to it.

“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the judges wrote.

The ruling is a setback for Republicans, who want to use a map for the November midterms that would give the GOP a chance to reclaim the seat now held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, said the state will immediately appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He contended the judges had no basis for their decision to block what he described as a “blandly unobjectionable congressional map.”

“Know this — in my mind, it is not a matter of whether we win this case, only when,” Marshall said.

Figures said he is pleased with the ruling, adding: “This is a significant step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go before this fight is settled.”

The court order is the latest development in the twisting legal and political saga following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Black-majority district in Louisiana and weakened the federal Voting Rights Act. That ruling has led Republicans in several Southern states, including Alabama, to take steps to reshape voting districts with large minority populations that have elected Democrats.

The redistricting frenzy is part of a broader push by President Donald Trump to try to hold on to Republicans’ slim House majority in the November elections.

The three-judge panel in 2023 ruled that a map drawn by Republican state lawmakers intentionally diluted the voting power of Black citizens. The court said the state, which is about 27% Black, should have two districts where Black voters are the majority or close to it. The court-selected map was used in 2024.

After the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Louisiana case, Alabama officials moved to implement the 2023 state-drawn map. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority agreed to lift the injunction that had blocked the map’s use and sent the case back to the three-judge panel for reconsideration in light of the Louisiana ruling.

In the meantime, voters cast ballots in Alabama’s May 11 primaries, and Republican Gov. Kay Ivey set new special primaries for Aug. 11 in four congressional districts affected by the map switch.

Upon further review, the judicial panel said there was “undisputed evidence” of intentional racial discrimination. It said the special congressional primaries should instead proceed under the previous court-approved districts.

The decision to temporarily block the map switch came after a seven-hour hearing Friday in which judges sharply questioned state lawyers about the timeline and the impact of the Louisiana ruling.

Using the same districts that had been in place for the previous election would prevent “an expensive, aggressive, and perhaps logistically impossible voter reassignment effort,” the judges wrote.

“Candidate and voter confusion is troublesome and warrants significant consideration, but we do not see that a preliminary injunction will worsen it. To the contrary, we expect a preliminary injunction to lessen it,” the judges said.

Deuel Ross, director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said the court ruling “again vindicated the constitutional rights of voters in the Black Belt, and our clients look forward to voting under a fair map this fall.”

Other states also have considered adjustments to their primary elections to allow time for congressional redistricting after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision affecting the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana’s congressional primaries, scheduled for May 16, were postponed until later this summer by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry so that state lawmakers could consider a new U.S. House map that would eliminate a majority-Black district.

In South Carolina, the Republican-led legislature is considering a plan that could throw out the votes from its June 9 congressional primary and instead hold a new primary in August under revised districts that could improve Republicans’ chances of winning an additional seat.

Tennessee also moved quickly to enact new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court’s ruling, carving up a Black-majority district based in Memphis that had elected the state’s only Democratic representative. The new map gives Republicans a chance to sweep all nine of the state’s seats. As part of the plan, Tennessee temporarily reopened the candidate qualifying period for its August congressional primaries, allowing new candidates to enter the race and existing ones to either switch districts or drop out.

Since Trump first urged Texas to redraw its U.S. House districts last summer, about a half-dozen Republican-led states have enacted new voting districts, though some still face legal challenges. Democrats countered with new districts in California and also expect to gain a seat from new court-imposed districts in Utah.

President Donald Trump insists a peace deal is close on this 88th day of the Iran war, but Iran on Tuesday denounced U.S. airstrikes as a sign of “bad faith and unreliability” as negotiations continue. Meanwhile, state media in Lebanon reports that Israel has killed 12 more people in another strike. Iran has demanded that any deal must include an end to hostilities in Lebanon and Gaza.

In Washington, the president has a medical checkup on his schedule, and the redistricting war also continues — the Congressional Black Caucus is urging corporate America to get involved to save voting rights, ending a collective retreat during Trump’s second presidency. in Texas, the Trump-backed, scandal-plagued Ken Paxton is favored over Sen. John Cornyn in Tuesday’s GOP primary runoff election.

The Latest:

The federal judges’ ruling says Republicans “intentionally discriminated based on race” by redrawing the state’s House map to remove a Black-majority district.

“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the judges wrote.

Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, described the GOP-drawn map as “blandly unobjectionable” and said Alabama will immediately appeal.

“Know this — in my mind, it is not a matter of whether we win this case, only when,” Marshall said.

Republicans in several Southern states, including Alabama, have sought to reshape voting districts with large minority populations that have elected Democrats following the Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down a Black-majority district in Louisiana and weakened the federal Voting Rights Act.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says talks with Iran on extending a ceasefire and re-opening the Strait of Hormuz will take several more days.

Speaking to reporters before leaving India on Tuesday after the U.S. launched new strikes against Iran in the south despite the ceasefire, Rubio said there is “a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document.”

“So, it’ll take a few days,” he said. He added that Trump would not accept a bad deal and said the critical point at the moment is reopening the Strait of Hormuz without Iran being allowed to charge a toll for ships to pass through the crucial waterway.

“The straits need to be open, unimpeded, without tolls,” he said.

Anna Gomez wakes up every morning and checks her phone to see if Trump has fired her yet.

The sole Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission is urging urge media companies fight back against efforts to silence free speech. In an extraordinary four-page letter to Josh D’Amaro, the CEO of Disney, which is the parent company to ABC, Gomez described the FCC’s “sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control” against the company under Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump ally.

She noted probes touching on diversity practices, ABC’s moderation of a 2024 presidential debate, guest bookings on “The View” and calls for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired. She said the FCC’s move for early reviews of ABC’s local broadcast licenses is “the most egregious assault on the First Amendment this FCC has taken to date.”

▶ Read more from her Q&A with the AP

The Iranians will return each night to a base in Tijuana, Mexico, after their U.S. group stage matches, President Claudia Sheinbaum has confirmed.

Sheinbaum said at a news conference Monday that she was told by a FIFA representative that the U.S. was reluctant to have the Iranian soccer team spend time in the U.S. outside the stadiums while the war launched by the U.S. and Israel continues.

“The United States doesn’t want the Iranian national team to stay overnight in the United States,” Sheinbaum said. A FIFA representative then asked, “Can they stay overnight in Mexico?” “And we said, ‘Yes, no problem. We have no issue with that’,” she said.

A U.S. State Department statement Monday said Trump made it clear the Iranian team is welcome to participate. The statement did not address where the team might stay, or Sheinbaum’s comments.

Israel’s military clashed with Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants Tuesday along the strategic Litani River in Lebanon as Israeli troops tried to push farther north, just three days before Lebanese and Israeli military delegations are set to meet for direct talks in Washington.

A previously reached ceasefire appears more nominal by the day, complicating efforts at a broader peace in the Iran war, as Tehran wants an end to the fighting to include Lebanon. Israel says it will not withdraw until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat to residents of its northern towns. Hezbollah has vowed to continue fighting until Israel stops its daily airstrikes and withdraws its troops from Lebanon.

▶ Read more:

A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll in April found that less than half of U.S. adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively.

“I think concern for the president’s physical health is probably at an all-time high, and I think advanced physical age is the No. 1 concern,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as a White House physician under Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Kuhlman said a complete physical would include advanced heart testing, screening for common cancers and a cognitive assessment. The White House has not disclosed what Trump’s checkups will entail.

“President Trump is the sharpest and most accessible President in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement.

U.S. consumer confidence declined slightly as gas prices remained at or above a national average of $4.50 a gallon in May and inflation remained elevated, a sharp contrast to soaring stock prices that have neared record levels.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index slipped 0.7 points to 93.1 in May, the first decline after three months of gains.

The index follows a separate gauge of consumer sentiment compiled by the University of Michigan, which fell to a record low this month. Spikes in gas prices as well as higher food costs have worsened inflation, which has outpaced the growth in average paychecks in recent months, reducing most Americans’ purchasing power. Polls show Americans have soured on Trump’s economic policies, which could harm Republicans in this year’s elections.

Iran on Tuesday denounced U.S. strikes a day earlier as a sign of “bad faith and unreliability” as negotiations continue toward a possible deal to end the war.

The U.S. military said it acted with restraint in defensively targeting missile launch sites and boats placing mines. Iran’s foreign ministry called the strikes a ceasefire violation and warned that “The Islamic Republic of Iran will leave no act of aggression unanswered.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Tuesday said it had shot down and deterred drones and a fighter jet that entered its airspace, according to Iran’s official Mizan news agency, which did not say when this happened.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf went to Qatar as part of the talks. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Center said an explosion was reported Tuesday morning aboard a tanker in the Gulf of Oman. No one was injured and there was no immediate information on the cause.

The new congressional map would give Republicans an advantage in a key House race this November. But the preliminary injunction issued by a three-judge panel requires the state, at least for now, to instead use the same court-ordered districts under which congressional representatives were elected in 2024.

Lawyers representing Black voters argued that Alabama’s map intentionally discriminates against Black voters and that trying to change lines in the middle of an election year creates chaos.

The state could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Republicans want to use a new map that will give the GOP a chance to reclaim the seat now held by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures.

The price for a barrel of U.S crude oil fell 3.8% to $92.99 on Tuesday after resuming trading following the Memorial Day holiday, and U.S. stocks were catching up to others around the world that climbed after Trump said Iran talks were “proceeding nicely.”

The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq composite all rose Tuesday to near their all-time highs even though fighting continued in the Mideast and the U.S. military said it struck Iranian missile launch sites and boats placing mines on Monday. Markets have rallied in the past on hopes for a coming end to the war with Iran, only to see the conflict drag on, causing painful inflation around the world.

The Congressional Black Caucus is calling on major U.S. corporations to oppose Republican-led redistricting efforts that seek to eliminate majority-Black U.S. House districts.

Their letter sent Tuesday urges more than 250 companies to condemn “coordinated efforts to silence Black voices at the ballot box.” Some had cosigned their own message to Congress five years ago urging lawmakers to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, a Democratic proposal to restore and update the Voting Rights Act.

That 2021 coalition, Business for Voting Rights, included Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, Salesforce, Target, PayPal, Intel and Starbucks.

“Corporations that have profited from Black consumers, relied on Black workers, and amassed wealth in part from Black communities cannot look away while Black political power is dismantled in plain sight,” the caucus chair, Rep. Yvette Clarke, said in an interview.

The White House said Trump would participate in a greeting with service members and hospital staff before he spends hours being examined by a team of doctors.

It is the Republican president’s fourth publicly disclosed medical exam since he returned to office in January 2025, and it comes as the nearly 80-year-old Trump tries to project strength going into November elections that will test his sway with voters.

The White House says the visit is an annual preventive medical and dental checkup. Trump was last at Walter Reed in October and also had a physical there in April 2025.

Last July, the White House said he’d been diagnosed with a condition common in older adults that causes blood to pool in his veins, causing the swollen ankles seen in some photos of Trump.

The White House also has blamed handshaking for visible bruising on Trump’s hands.

There’s no law requiring these disclosures and the degree of transparency varies.

Presidents for decades have released medical test results to try to reassure the public that they are up to the high-pressure job.

But the president signs off on what is released, which raises questions about what isn’t being shared.

Trump’s past medical reports have been criticized for offering scant detail and including statistics that some medical experts eyed with skepticism.

It will be several hours before the White House releases any information about Tuesday’s exam.

▶ Read more:

May 26 (Reuters) – Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will discuss whether COVID-19 vaccines should be updated to target the latest circulating XFG subvariant for the 2026-27 immunization campaign, according to documents filed on Tuesday.

While the COVID variants continue to be derived from the JN.1 virus variant, new subvariants such as NB.1.8.1 and XFG have emerged since May last year, the agency said.

The World Health Organization recommended earlier this month that vaccine manufacturers target the monovalent LP.8.1 strain or other currently circulating variants such as XFG or NB.1.8.1.

The FDA advisory panel is set to vote on the updated formulation for COVID shots on Thursday.

The agency had toughened requirements for COVID ​vaccine use under former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and vaccine chief Vinay Prasad, including measures like asking for large, placebo-controlled trials in the 50-to-64 age group for it to be included in recommendations.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had last year removed its broad recommendation for the shots, calling for consultation with a healthcare provider first.

The FDA had recommended that COVID shots for the 2025-26 period target LP.8.1 – a subvariant of the JN.1 strain.

CDC data showed the XFG subvariant was estimated to account for a majority of cases in the United States over a four-week period up to April 11.

Three COVID shots have been authorized for use in the U.S.: Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s messenger-RNA-based vaccines, as well as Novavax’s protein-based shot that takes longer to manufacture.

Novavax licensed its COVID vaccine to French drugmaker Sanofi in 2024 in a deal worth at least $1.2 billion. Sanofi, along with Pfizer and Moderna, is set to make a presentation to the advisory committee.

The vaccine manufacturers have indicated that they are prepared to produce an XFG vaccine for the 2026-27 vaccination season, the FDA said.

(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)

WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Tuesday pushed back to October 21 the trial of former FBI Director James Comey over a social media post of seashells that prosecutors allege was a threat to President Donald Trump, according to a court document.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Louise Wood Flanagan came after Comey’s lawyers said they expected to file “multiple motions on constitutional grounds” seeking to have the case thrown out before a trial. Those filings are due to be submitted in July. 

The trial, which is scheduled to take place in New Bern, North Carolina, had initially been set to begin in July. 

Prosecutors have charged Comey with threatening harm to the president and transmitting a threat across state lines. The case arises from a May 2025 social media post by Comey showing seashells arranged to form the numbers “86 47.” Trump is the 47th U.S. president and “86” is a slang term originating in the restaurant industry that can mean to run out of something or to “get rid of.”

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, editing by Michelle Nichols )

As the Colorado River and its once massive reservoirs shrink from overuse and climate change, officials are faced with a decision that pits conservation against ratepayer costs for electricity.

To fight off predators of the humpback chub, a threatened fish native to the river, Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona would need to do what is known as a “cool mix flow,” where cold water is released from deep in its reservoir to cool the river below. But there are no hydropower turbines in the cool, deep section, so significant power generation would be lost.

The proposal comes after the worst snowpack on record for the Colorado River Basin, relied upon by farmers, industries, wildlife and more than 40 million people in seven U.S. states, tribal nations and Mexico. It also comes as those states fail to reach a long-term agreement on how to share the river’s dwindling resources beyond this year, when the guidelines expire.

“There is a limited water supply. It’s getting even lower. And with that, a lot of hard decisions need to be made,” said John Berggren, regional policy manager for the environmental nonprofit Western Resource Advocates.

Utilities that buy this hydropower say the cool water releases would be costly because they would have to spend millions to buy alternative energy and would increase financial hardship for customers. But supporters say that without cool releases, the warm waters projected downstream this summer would allow non-native predatory fish to spawn, further threatening the humpback chub, and would destroy a world-famous trout fishery nearby.

The Bureau of Reclamation, which is expected to announce a decision in the next couple of weeks, said in a statement that it is weighing several factors including the ecological health of the river and the hydropower production of the dam. The Interior Department, which oversees the bureau, declined to comment. If the cool water release is approved, it would likely happen from June to October through jet tubes, bypassing the turbines near the warmer surface.

Lake Powell, one of two massive reservoirs on the Colorado River, is just 23% full after decades of overuse and evaporation of water as average temperatures rise because of climate change. A record low inflow is expected this summer. With such a low reservoir, warm water near the surface gets sucked through the generators and sent downstream.

Smallmouth bass, introduced in Lake Powell in the 1980s for sport fishing, live at that warm surface, and also get sucked through the hydropower generators and into the river below. That’s a problem for the humpback chub and other federally protected fish in the Grand Canyon, a 278-mile (447-kilometer) stretch farther south on the river that’s world-famous for its geologic formations. A recent study shows that roughly half the bass survive the generators. If the river below is warm enough, they spawn.

Smallmouth bass already feast on humpback chub in the river’s upper section, where agencies spend millions of dollars annually to keep the intruders in check. Native fish have been safer below Glen Canyon Dam because it blocks the path to the Grand Canyon — but that may not be true for long.

Water temperatures just downstream of the dam are expected to shatter records set in 2022, when smallmouth bass were first found there. Officials project that water will consistently exceed 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 Celsius) by mid-June due to the warm water being pulled in from Lake Powell. Any higher than that, and non-native predatory fish that pass through the dam could reproduce.

Officials say cool water releases from Lake Powell in 2024 and 2025 successfully prevented spawning.

It’s critical to consider the cost of not doing the cool mix, Heather Whitlaw, field supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said during a recent meeting on managing the issue. “We are certainly just giving up on the future for any kind of recovery for humpback chub and all of the other pieces of the system that rely on those cooler water temperatures.”

With no long-term solution to keep the predators from passing through the dam, withholding cool water would force officials to rely solely on manually removing them downstream.

Utilities reliant on hydropower from federal generators are worried.

If the cool water releases are approved, it could mean bypassing about half the generation at Glen Canyon Dam, forcing utilities to buy power elsewhere that would likely be more expensive, according to the Utah utility group Heber Light & Power.

“We keep hearing comments that we must continue Cool Mix because the cost of not doing it will be even greater,” the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association, which represents about 155 customers who buy federal hydropower generated from the river and opposes the releases, said this month in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “We would like to understand what remediation would consistently cost more than $20 to $30 (million) per year.”

The association said the releases are not a sustainable solution to prevent smallmouth bass from reproducing and threaten a critical fund used to operate, maintain and invest in hydropower and transmission facilities.

During the cool water releases in 2024, nearly 900,000 acre-feet of water bypassed the generators, costing $19 million in replacement energy costs, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. It’s unclear how much water would bypass the generators this year, although the cost to replace it is anticipated to be around $25 million — roughly the total cost to hydropower users from the prior two years.

The ongoing loss of hydropower due to Lake Powell’s decline has brought challenges to Heber Light & Power as the population grows, said Emily Brandt, the utility’s energy resource manager. The overall decline has led to rate hikes the past five years.

Ann Moulton, who lives in Heber City, has seen her residential electricity bill from Heber Light & Power steadily rise. Her bill this April was $125.98, up from $103.24 and $86.14 for the same month in the previous two years. That’s impacting her budget, she said.

Other customers are struggling to pay. So far this year, the utility has seen a jump in late payments over the past two years, from 10% to 12%.

Brandt said the utility supports caring for fish, “but this particular experiment seems unnecessary.”

“We’re already seeing reduced generation from drought, and now we’re seeing even further reduced generation because of this environmental experiment,” Brandt said.

Dave Foster still remembers the 2022 trout die-off in Marble Canyon, a remote stretch of river between the dam and the start of the Grand Canyon. Warm water killed nearly half the rainbow trout the world-renowned fishery relies on, said Foster, who has been working on or around that stretch of river since age 13.

He and other guides are still recovering from the die-off, he said, as “the population has simply not rebounded.” But cool water releases in recent years have offset more negative impacts, and more this year would get them through the fall and winter.

Foster has warned customers booking trips after mid-June that he might cancel if the water gets too warm, which can stress fish. Without cool water releases this year, “that’s it for the trout fishery,” he said. “There’s no ambiguity about it. It will destroy it.”

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

By Courtney Rozen

WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday proposed asking federal employees to sign non-disclosure agreements with the goal of preventing them from sharing confidential information with journalists. 

The Office of Personnel Management, the human resources office for the U.S. government, released a draft non-disclosure agreement designed for federal agencies to use with new and existing employees. Under the draft agreement, the administration could pursue civil and criminal penalties against employees who violate it. The U.S. government would be entitled to all “royalties” that employees receive from disclosing information that violates the agreement, according to the draft. The OPM did not immediately offer further explanation.

The draft form is the latest step in the president’s effort to exert more control over U.S. government workers and the flow of information to the public.

“This move is rooted in concerns that unauthorized disclosures of sensitive government information are disrupting agency operations and eroding trust across government,” said OPM spokesperson McLaurine Pinover in an email to Reuters. 

Former government employees would need “written permission from an authorized agency official” to speak to journalists about information the Trump administration deems “confidential” after leaving their jobs, according to the draft. Former employees who violate that rule could be subject to civil and criminal penalties, according to the draft. 

Federal law prohibits government retaliation against federal workers who disclose fraud, abuse and misconduct in their workplaces to internal government watchdogs and Congress. The NDA would not apply to those disclosures, according to the draft agreement.

Since taking office for the second time, Trump has waged an aggressive campaign against news outlets and media figures he sees as too critical of him. He has filed lawsuits against news outlets, dismissed coverage as “fake news,” and personally attacked journalists. His administration banned the Associated Press from the White ​House press pool and restricted reporters’ access at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. military, among other moves.

(Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Rod Nickel)

May 26 (Reuters) – State Department Counselor Michael Needham, a longtime aide to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has been promoted to the post of assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

In the post, Needham would serve along with Rubio, who is President Donald Trump’s acting national security adviser as well as the top U.S. diplomat.

Needham was chief of staff to Rubio in the U.S. Senate, and before that, served as chief executive of Heritage Action for America, a grassroots group dedicated to promoting conservative values and policies.

At the State Department, he recently participated when Rubio hosted the first direct talks between Israel and Lebanon in decades.

Axios first reported the appointment.

(Reporting by Anusha Shah in BengaluruEditing by Bernadette Baum)