Shortages triggered by pipeline rupture drive up costs and deepen frustrations, as pressure grows on water utility
Jonathan Collazo owns two restaurants in a bustling section of San Juan, which has been plagued by water outages, severely disrupting the daily lives of residents and businesses alike.
The water scarcity is part of an escalating frustration felt by thousands of customers of Puerto Rico’s water utility over the past several months, prompting the governor to activate the national guard to distribute drinking water across the US territory. The shortages extend beyond San Juan, with sectors in municipalities including Loíza, Guaynabo, Bayamón and others experiencing interrupted service.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/13/2026 - 09:00
07/13/2026 - 08:00
As US water wars rage, a tributary of the Colorado River faces unprecedented pressure. Visitors worry how long this aquatic ‘relict’ will last
On an early morning in mid-May, a group of near strangers shoved camping gear and clothes into waterproof bags, slathered on sunscreen, and ambled into the bright-yellow rafts that would carry them down one of the last free-flowing rivers in the American west.
Unhindered by large dams or diversions, the Yampa curves across 250 miles (400km) of alpine tundras, cottonwood forests and ancient red-rock canyons, rising from Colorado’s Rocky mountains to where it joins with the Green River in Utah, much in the way it has for millions of years.
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07/13/2026 - 07:16
Proposed legal settlement over 2022 oil spill would resolve allegations that South Bow violated clean water laws
A proposed legal settlement with the US government would require the Keystone pipeline system’s operator to pay a $26.9m civil penalty over a large oil spill in Kansas in December 2022 and spend about $40m more to prevent future accidents.
The agreement would resolve allegations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Kansas that South Bow, based in Canada, violated US and state clean water laws. The rupture dumped nearly 13,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a creek running through a rural pasture in Washington county, Kansas, about 150 miles (241km) north-west of Kansas City.
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07/13/2026 - 06:27
Critics accuse ministers of failing to take control of nature crisis and leaving it to private landowners to act voluntarily
The government’s plan to protect and restore nature in England by 2030 has been condemned as “pathetic” and “completely insufficient” in the face of the spiralling environmental crisis.
The long-awaited plan published on Monday calls for landowners to voluntarily opt to protect and enhance nature, rather than creating legal protections for nature across more of the country’s land, critics say.
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07/13/2026 - 04:59
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in prison with Sepideh Kashani, who worked with husband Houman Jokar to save Asiatic cheetah
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has described the rearrest of two Iranian environmentalists, one of whom she met at Evin prison, as “unimaginably cruel and alarming”.
Husband and wife Houman Jokar and Sepideh Kashani were arrested by the ministry of intelligence at their home on 1 July. No reason has been given and their whereabouts are unknown.
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07/12/2026 - 21:57
Officials say blaze in Fontainebleau forest is of ‘exceptional scale’, with 900 homes evacuated and road and rail links hit
Europe live – latest updates
French firefighters are tackling a blaze of unprecedented scale sweeping through Fontainebleau forest south-east of Paris, as the Spanish prime minister visited the scene of a deadly wildfire in southern Spain and warned: “The climate emergency kills.”
The fire began late on Sunday afternoon in the one-time royal hunting preserve about 40 miles (60km) from the capital, which today is dotted with villages. The blaze, which is unusual in its proximity to Paris, raced across about 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of forest and was still spreading early on Monday, officials said.
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07/12/2026 - 10:30
Larger vehicles crowd our roads and are far more dangerous to pedestrians. Let’s curb them before they do even more damage
We need an Ozempic for cars. They are growing at a phenomenal rate, wreaking havoc on the roads, squeezing out smaller vehicles in car parks and endangering pedestrians.
Like ever-hungry teenagers, cars in Europe are growing, on average, a centimetre wider every two years, according to new research reported by the Guardian. And fewer than half of new cars in the UK can fit into a conventional parking space. As there is, remarkably, no width restriction for cars, no law can stop this growth until they reach the size of HGVs – that is, 2.55m wide – which are restricted.
Christian Wolmar is a transport commentator and author of The Liberation Line, the story of the railwaymen who rebuilt the railways in Europe after D-day
This article was amended on 13 July to reflect the fact that cars in Europe are growing wider on average by a centimetre every two years, not every year
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07/12/2026 - 09:26
Pair airlifted to hospital in two-hour rescue operation after Guardia Civil searched area for survivors
A British couple have been found badly burned and semi-conscious in a Spanish ravine amid deadly wildfires that have swept through the country’s Almería province, according to local media reports.
The couple were on holiday in the region and were thought to be out hiking when they were caught up in the wildfire, which has so far killed 13 people and burned more than 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres). At least 23 people are missing.
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07/12/2026 - 09:01
Woman dies after her home is swept away as heavy rainfall batters parts of state, forcing rescues and evacuations
A woman was found dead in Missouri on Saturday after heavy rainfall battered parts of the state the previous day, forcing numerous emergency rescues and evacuations, including at a summer camp with more than 200 children.
The body of Faith Gregory, who went missing in Missouri’s Crawford county after her home was swept away from its foundation, was found by volunteers late Saturday morning. Her body was discovered about 1.8 miles (3km) downstream from her residence in Huzzah creek, according to the county sheriff’s office.
Guardian staff contributed
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07/12/2026 - 09:00
Timing of Devon switchoff ‘could not be worse’, says board, as members face an estimated £2m in lost revenue
Britain’s biggest community solar project has been forced to shut for the duration of its first summer by the government’s energy system operator to avoid overloading the local grid with renewable energy.
The north Devon solar farm was ordered to shut weeks before record high temperatures across Europe led to power supply warnings, due to concerns that the large amount of rooftop solar in the area could destabilise the power grid by triggering a “thermal overload”.
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