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Touting the 200 million COVID-19 shots administered since he took office, President Joe Biden said he is looking into sending excess doses abroad. His administration is under pressure to do more to improve global vaccine equity, including supporting a campaign to waive vaccine patents. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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This week the Biden administration is promoting a plan to boost electric bus production, proposing $45 billion spending to reduce American-made bus emissions to zero by 2030. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all charges Tuesday in the death of George Floyd nearly a year ago. Chauvin had been charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
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Women’s rights leaders in Afghanistan and human rights advocates are expressing concern the hard-fought gains of the past 20 years are under threat from a potentially resurgent Taliban when U.S. and coalition troops depart later this year. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports on the determination of many to defend those rights.
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Minneapolis and other US cities are bracing for possible unrest as the trial of a white former police officer accused of murdering a black man enters its final phase.  Mike O’Sullivan reports.
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Former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, a liberal icon who lost the most lopsided presidential elections after bluntly telling voters to expect a tax increase if he won, died Monday. He was 93. The death of the former U.S. senator, ambassador and Minnesota attorney general was announced in a statement from his family. No cause was cited. Mondale followed the trail blazed by his political mentor, Hubert H. Humphrey, from Minnesota politics to the U.S. Senate and the vice presidency, serving under Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. His own try for the White House, in 1984, came at the zenith of Ronald Reagan’s popularity. Mondale’s selection of Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York as his running mate made him the first major-party presidential nominee to put a woman on the ticket, but his declaration that he would raise taxes helped define the race. FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale and his running mate, Geraldine Ferraro, wave as they leave an afternoon rally in Portland, Ore., Sept. 5, 1984.On Election Day, he carried only his home state and the District of Columbia. The electoral vote was 525-13 for Reagan — the biggest landslide in the Electoral College since Franklin Roosevelt defeated Alf Landon in 1936. (Sen. George McGovern got 17 electoral votes in his 1972 defeat, winning Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.) “I did my best,” Mondale said the day after the election and blamed no one but himself. “I think you know I’ve never really warmed up to television,” he said. “In fairness to television, it never really warmed up to me.” Years later, Mondale said his campaign message had proved to be the right one. “History has vindicated me, that we would have to raise taxes,” he said. “It was very unpopular, but it was undeniably correct.” In 2002, state and national Democrats looked to Mondale when Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., was killed in a plane crash less than two weeks before Election Day. Mondale agreed to stand in for Wellstone, and early polls showed him with a lead over the Republican candidate, Norm Coleman. But the 53-year-old Coleman, emphasizing his youth and vigor, out-hustled the then-74-year-old Mondale in an intense six-day campaign. Mondale was also hurt by a partisan memorial service for Wellstone, in which thousands of Democrats booed Republican politicians in attendance. One speaker pleaded: “We are begging you to help us win this election for Paul Wellstone.” Polls showed the service put off independents and cost Mondale votes. Coleman won by 3 percentage points. “The eulogizers were the ones hurt the most,” Mondale said after the election. “It doesn’t justify it, but we all make mistakes. Can’t we now find it in our hearts to forgive them and go on?” It was a particularly bitter defeat for Mondale, who even after his loss to Reagan had taken solace in his perfect record in Minnesota. “One of the things I’m most proud of,” he said in 1987, “is that not once in my public career did I ever lose an election in Minnesota.” Years after the 2002 defeat, Mondale returned to the Senate to stand beside Democrat Al Franken in 2009 when he was sworn in to replace Coleman after a drawn-out recount and court battle. Mondale started his career in Washington in 1964, when he was appointed to the Senate to replace Humphrey, who had resigned to become vice president. Mondale was elected to a full six-year term with about 54% of the vote in 1966, although Democrats lost the governorship and suffered other election setbacks. In 1972, Mondale won another Senate term with nearly 57% of the vote. His Senate career was marked by advocacy of social issues such as education, housing, migrant workers and child nutrition. Like Humphrey, he was an outspoken supporter of civil rights. Mondale tested the waters for a presidential bid in 1974 but ultimately decided against it. “Basically I found I did not have the overwhelming desire to be president, which is essential for the kind of campaign that is required,” he said in November 1974. FILE – President Jimmy Carter embraces Vice President Walter Mondale on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Jan. 7, 1978.In 1976, Carter chose Mondale as No. 2 on his ticket and went on to unseat Gerald Ford. As vice president, Mondale had a close relationship with Carter. He was the first vice president to occupy an office in the White House, rather than in a building across the street. Mondale traveled extensively on Carter’s behalf and advised him on domestic and foreign affairs. While he lacked Humphrey’s charisma, Mondale had a droll sense of humor. When he dropped out of the 1976 presidential sweepstakes, he said, “I don’t want to spend the next two years in Holiday Inns.” Reminded of that shortly before he was picked as Carter’s running mate, Mondale said, “I’ve checked and found that they’re all redecorated, and they’re marvelous places to stay.” FILE – President Jimmy Carter, right, and Rosalynn Carter, second from right, pose with Vice President Walter Mondale and wife, Joan Mondale, left, following Carter’s inauguration in the White House, Jan. 21, 1977.Mondale never backed away from his liberal principles. “I think that the country more than ever needs progressive values,” Mondale said in 1989. The son of a Methodist minister and a music teacher, Walter Frederick Mondale was born Jan. 5, 1928, in tiny Ceylon, Minnesota, and grew up in several small southern Minnesota towns. He was only 20 when he served as a congressional district manager for Humphrey’s successful Senate campaign in 1948. His education, interrupted by a two-year stint in the Army, culminated with a law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1956. Mondale began a law practice in Minneapolis and ran the successful 1958 gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Orville Freeman, who appointed Mondale state attorney general in 1960. Mondale was elected attorney general in the fall of 1960 and was reelected in 1962. As attorney general, Mondale moved quickly into civil rights, antitrust and consumer protection cases. He was the first Minnesota attorney general to make consumer protection a campaign issue. After his White House years, Mondale served from 1993-96 as President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Japan, fighting for U.S. access to markets ranging from cars to cellular phones. He helped avert a trade war in June 1995 over autos and auto parts, persuading Japanese officials to give American automakers more access to Japanese dealers and pushing Japanese carmakers to buy U.S. parts. Mondale kept his ties to the Clintons. In 2008, he endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, switching his allegiance only after Barack Obama sealed the nomination. Mondale and his wife, Joan Adams Mondale, were married in 1955. During his vice presidency, she pushed for more government support of the arts and gained the nickname “Joan of Art.” She had minored in art in college and worked at museums in Boston and Minneapolis. The couple had two sons, Ted and William, and a daughter, Eleanor. Eleanor Mondale became a broadcast journalist and TV host, with credits including “CBS This Morning” and programs with E! Entertainment Television. Ted Mondale served six years in the Minnesota Senate and made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1998. William Mondale served for a time as an assistant attorney general. Joan Mondale died in 2014 at age 83 after an extended illness. 
 
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Jurors in the U.S. state of Minnesota are set to hear closing arguments Monday in the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of George Floyd. Derek Chauvin’s defense wrapped up two days of questioning witnesses last week after two weeks of the prosecution presenting its case. After hearing final arguments from each side, the jurors will be isolated until they reach a verdict. Prosecutors argued that Chauvin, who is white, caused Floyd’s death by kneeling on his neck. Floyd, who is African American, was accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill, and bystander video of the police response last May sparked widespread protests in the United States and other parts of the world against police brutality and racial inequality.WATCH: Chauvin trialSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 8 MB480p | 11 MB540p | 14 MB720p | 30 MB1080p | 58 MBOriginal | 70 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioChauvin declined to take the witness stand during the trial. His defense lawyers argued Chauvin acted reasonably against a suspect who was struggling, and that Floyd died because of an underlying heart condition and drug use. If convicted of the most serious charge against him, second-degree murder, Chauvin could face up to 40 years in prison, though state guidelines suggest a sentence of about 12 years for such a charge. The same issues raised by Floyd’s death came to the forefront in the community again about a week ago when a now-resigned police officer in a Minneapolis suburb killed a 20-year-old African American man during a traffic stop. 
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Allies of jailed Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny announced nationwide protests for this Wednesday — after the opposition figure’s family and personal doctors released blood analysis results that suggested Navalny was at high risk of cardiac arrest or kidney failure barring immediate care.
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At least three people were killed Sunday in a shooting at an Austin, Texas, apartment complex, authorities said.Austin police, calling the situation “an active shooting incident,” said they were searching for a suspect.”While a suspect is still at large, it appears this is a domestic situation that is isolated and there is no risk to the general public,” Austin police said on Twitter.The shooting occurred near a popular shopping area in the northwest part of the city, which is the capital of Texas.Police know the identity of the gunman, according to a report by KVUE-TV in Austin.Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services Department said three adults were dead at the scene of the shooting, which was reported shortly before noon, local time.”No additional patients have been reported or located at this time,” the department said on Twitter about an hour after the incident was first reported.Police urged residents to avoid the area.
 
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No one can say with any certainty what will happen in Afghanistan once U.S. President Joe Biden withdraws the remaining 2,500 to 3,500 U.S. troops by September 11 to end the country’s longest war, a top White House official said Sunday.”I can’t make any guarantees about what will happen inside the country. No one can,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told the “Fox News Sunday” show.”All the United States could do is provide the Afghan security forces, the Afghan government and the Afghan people resources and capabilities, training and equipping their forces, providing assistance to their government,” he said. “We have done that and now it is time for American troops to come home and the Afghan people to step up to defend their own country.”Biden’s decision to withdraw the remaining troops has drawn a mixed reaction in Washington. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called it a grave mistake and “a retreat in the face of an enemy.” Senator Lindsey Graham said it was “dumber than dirt and devilishly dangerous.” Even some Democrats were concerned by the decision, including Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who worried the U.S. may “lost what we were seeking to achieve.”
But other lawmakers say it was long past time for the U.S. to withdraw the troops it sent to Afghanistan to defeat the al-Qaida terrorists who masterminded and carried out the September 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. that killed nearly 3,000 people. But critics of Biden’s decision to withdraw troops 20 years later say it could lead to creation of a new terrorist haven in Afghanistan.Uncertainty Surrounds US Pullout From AfghanistanPentagon says that planners are still working out the details and a brief surge is possible to ensure a safe, orderly withdrawalAsked in a separate interview on CNN whether the U.S. “won the war” in Afghanistan, Sullivan replied that the U.S. had “achieved its objective” by degrading the presence of al-Qaida and killing al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in a 2011 mission in Pakistan.He said the U.S. troop withdrawal now was a recognition that the U.S. needs to “focus on the battle of the next 20 years, not the last 20 years.”Sullivan, in the Fox News interview, was asked whether the U.S. was risking a repeat of what happened in Iraq in 2011, where Islamic State militants seized territory after U.S. troops withdrew. Then-President Barack Obama sent troops back into Iraq, but Sullivan said Biden had no intention of sending American forces back to Afghanistan once they are withdrawn.As he announced his decision to withdraw U.S. troops, Biden said the United States would monitor any terrorist threats in Afghanistan and keep substantial assets in the region. “He has no intention of taking our eye off the ball,” Sullivan said. “We have the capacity, from repositioning our capabilities over the horizon, to continue to suppress the terrorist threat in Afghanistan.”But CIA Director William Burns told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week that with the departure of U.S. troops, America’s ability to collect intelligence and act against extremist threats in Afghanistan will be diminished.A United Nations report in January said there were as many as 500 al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan.
 
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The manmade lakes that store water supplying millions of people in the U.S. West and Mexico are projected to shrink to historic lows in the coming months, dropping to levels that could trigger the federal government’s first official shortage declaration and prompt cuts in Arizona and Nevada.The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released 24-month projections this week forecasting that less Colorado River water will cascade down from the Rocky Mountains through Lake Powell and Lake Mead and into the arid deserts of the U.S. Southwest and the Gulf of California. Water levels in the two lakes are expected to plummet low enough for the agency to declare an official shortage for the first time, threatening the supply of Colorado River water that growing cities and farms rely on.It comes as climate change means less snowpack flows into the river and its tributaries, and hotter temperatures parch soil and cause more river water to evaporate as it streams through the drought-plagued American West.The agency’s models project Lake Mead will fall below 1,075 feet (328 meters) for the first time in June 2021. That’s the level that prompts a shortage declaration under agreements negotiated by seven states that rely on Colorado River water: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.August projectionsThe April projections, however, will not have binding impact. Federal officials regularly issue long-term projections but use those released each August to make decisions about how to allocate river water. If projections don’t improve by then, the Bureau of Reclamation will declare a Level 1 shortage condition. The cuts would be implemented in January.Arizona, Nevada and Mexico have voluntarily given up water under a drought contingency plan for the river signed in 2019. A shortage declaration would subject the two U.S. states to their first mandatory reductions. Both rely on the Colorado River more than any other water source, and Arizona stands to lose roughly one-third of its supply.Water agency officials say they’re confident their preparation measures, including conservation and seeking out alternative sources, would allow them to withstand cuts if the drought lingers as expected.”The study, while significant, is not a surprise. It reflects the impacts of the dry and warm conditions across the Colorado River Basin this year, as well as the effects of a prolonged drought that has impacted the Colorado River water supply,” officials from the Arizona Department of Water Resources and Central Arizona Project said in a joint statement.’Straws’ for drawing waterIn Nevada, the agency that supplies water to most of the state has constructed “straws” to draw water from farther down in Lake Mead as its levels fall. It also has created a credit system where it can bank recycled water back into the reservoir without having it count toward its allocation.Colby Pellegrino, director of water resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, reassured customers that those preparation measures would insulate them from the effects of cuts. But she warned that more action was needed.”It is incumbent upon all users of the Colorado River to find ways to conserve,” Pellegrino said in a statement.The Bureau of Reclamation also projected that Lake Mead will drop to the point they worried in the past could threaten electricity generation at Hoover Dam. The hydropower serves millions of customers in Arizona, California and Nevada.To prepare for a future with less water, the bureau has spent 10 years replacing parts of five of the dam’s 17 turbines that rotate to generate power. Len Schilling, a dam manager with the bureau, said the addition of wide-head turbines allow the dam to operate more efficiently at lower water levels. He said the turbines will be able to generate power almost to a point called “deadpool,” when there won’t be enough water for the dam to function.Less water means less powerBut Schilling noted that less water moving through Hoover Dam means less hydropower to go around.”As the elevation declines at the lake, then our ability to produce power declines as well because we have less water pushing on the turbines,” he said.The hydropower costs substantially less than the energy sold on the wholesale electricity market because the government charges customers only for the cost of producing it and maintaining the dam.Lincoln County Power District General Manager Dave Luttrell said infrastructure updates, less hydropower from Hoover Dam and supplemental power from other sources like natural gas raised costs and alarmed customers in his rural Nevada district.”Rural economies in Arizona and Nevada live and die by the hydropower that is produced at Hoover Dam. It might not be a big deal to NV Energy,” he said of Nevada’s largest utility. “It might be a decimal point to Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power. But for Lincoln County, it adds huge impact.”
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Several longtime pro-democracy advocates on Friday learned their fate for organizing one of Hong Kong’s largest-ever street protests during the height of anti-government demonstrations.Nine pro-democracy activists, including media mogul Jimmy Lai, 73, and former lawmakers Lee Cheuk-yan, 64, Leung Kwok-hung, 65, Cyd Ho, 66, and Au Nok-hin, 33, were jailed after being found guilty this month of involvement in an August 2019 march that attracted hundreds of thousands of protesters.District Judge Amanda Woodcock of Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Magistrates Court also suspended sentencing for four other activists because of their age and accomplishments, according to The Associated Press.Lai, who was Pro-democracy activist Martin Lee, center, walks out from a court after receiving a suspended sentence in Hong Kong, April 16, 2021.The four remaining activists — “father of democracy” Martin Lee, 82, Margaret Ng, 73, Albert Ho, 69, and Leung Yiu-chung, 67 — received suspended sentences.Former Democratic Party lawmaker Emily Lau, who was at the court for the sentencing, told VOA that it was a “very, very bad day for Hong Kong.””So many people who have fought for democracy and human rights and rule of law for so many years have been given such heavy jail sentences for engaging in peaceful and nonviolent protests,” she said. “It’s very, very sad. But we know everybody, including judges and the government, are under a lot of pressure from Beijing, and they really want to teach Hong Kong people a lesson.”Lau said the length of sentences didn’t come as a surprise, as they were notably longer than they had been for activists charged with illegal assembly.”We know times have changed,” said Lau. “Beijing is breathing down on us very heavily, and everybody feels the pressure.”Hong Kong Activists Feel Pressure as Chinese Authorities Approach Relatives in Mainland China Organizer of student political group is latest activist under threat of violating the National Security Law  
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Nigerian authorities are stepping up efforts to vaccinate more people against COVID-19 after a slow rollout blamed on misinformation. Authorities aim to vaccinate over 80 million Nigerians by year’s end but are running far behind schedule. 
An Abuja vaccination center, which opened March 16, one week after Nigeria’s official vaccine rollout, vaccinates between 50 and 100 people daily. It is one of many vaccination locations in the Nigerian capital. Abuja resident Olu Agunbiade visited the center to get his first shot and says receiving the vaccine makes him feel safer.  “I can venture out into the world with a form of protection,” he told VOA. “I know that doesn’t mean I can’t still contract COVID, but at least I have antibodies, I can fight it.”  Nigeria received about 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine early last month.  Authorities say they will vaccine around 80 million people by the end of the year, but so far, only about 1 million have received shots. Although authorities say more Nigerians are now getting vaccinated, Abuja Primary Healthcare Board Executive Secretary Ndeyo Iwot says vaccine hesitancy and misinformation about the coronavirus are to blame for the low numbers.  “There’s a very big problem. Now start from the beginning, how many people even believed that we have the pandemic here? And now you want to bring vaccine for what they did not believe in the first instance? We have a lot of work to do,” Iwot says.    As workaround, authorities are trying to increase vaccine awareness in communities, villages, and marketplaces.   Despite this, though, citizens like Richard Uka insist they will not get the vaccine. “To be sincere, I don’t think this is necessary, to me it’s not necessary,” Uka told VOA. “And I believe that in Nigeria nothing works. How do you think that that vaccine works or how do we know that it works?” Nigeria needs to vaccinate about 150 million citizens by next year to attain herd immunity.  Iwot, though, says getting adequate doses of vaccines may prove difficult.  “Looking at the pandemic situation in Europe, India and the U.S.A. and the U.K., some of them are experiencing the third and fourth spikes now and India that was giving us is also having spikes now. So many of the dosages they have will be consumed there,” Iwot told VOA.Very few African countries are able to manufacture the coronavirus vaccines, creating heavy dependence on foreign manufacturers.  The World Health Organization says the continent has so far received less than 2% of the global 690 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines. 
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Cities in two Midwestern U.S. states — Minnesota and Illinois — had braced Thursday for a night of unrest that did not materialize.  Peaceful protesters did, however, take to the streets in an on-edge Minneapolis suburb and in Chicago to demonstrate against police shootings of young males of color.  
 
Demonstrators in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, gathered in front of the police station Thursday to protest the shooting Sunday of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, who was bi-racial and the father of a 1-year old son.  Wright was pulled over on a traffic stop by Officer Kim Potter.  
 
Potter said she thought she had pulled her Taser to use on Wright, but instead pulled her gun. She has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, but protesters want Potter, who is white, to face more serious charges.    
 
Earlier Thursday, Chicago police released the body camera footage of the officer who shot Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Hispanic boy, in March. Several protests sprang up in Chicago after the footage was released. In one of the protests, demonstrators marched to the headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Police, but none of the demonstrations erupted into violence.
 
In a portion of the Chicago video, a police officer can be heard saying, “Hey show me your ******* hands, drop it, drop it.”   The boy appears to drop something and then as he turns and puts his hand up, he is shot and then falls to the ground. Police say the officer was in a life-threatening situation.  
 
Chicago’s police accountability office had said it could not release the video because the victim was a minor but released it after numerous requests.  Chicago has a history of suppressing police videos.  
 
In Brooklyn Center protesters have demonstrated in front of the police station every night since Wright’s shooting, with police sometimes using rubber bullets and gas grenades in skirmishes with protesters.  
 
Brooklyn Center is a suburb of Minneapolis where George Floyd, a Black man, died last year after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes.  Chauvin’s trial is currently underway in Minneapolis. 
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Multiple people were shot at a Fedex facility in Indianapolis in the midwestern U.S. state of Indiana late Thursday, and the suspected gunman killed himself, police said.When police arrived, officers observed an active shooting scene at the facility, Indianapolis police spokesperson Genae Cook told reporters early Friday.Cook confirmed multiple people were shot but did not give a specific number. She added that the gunman has died and the public is not believed to be in immediate danger.Fedex released a statement early Friday saying it is cooperating with authorities and working to get more information.“We are aware of the tragic shooting at our FedEx Ground facility near the Indianapolis airport. Safety is our top priority, and our thoughts are with all those who are affected,” the statement said.Live video from news outlets at the scene showed crime scene tape in the parking lot outside the facility.A witness who said he works at the facility told WISH-TV that he saw a man with a gun after hearing several gunshots.“I saw a man with a submachine gun of some sort, an automatic rifle, and he was firing in the open,” Jeremiah Miller said.Another man told WTTV that his niece was sitting in her car in the driver’s seat when the gunfire erupted, and she was wounded.“She got shot on her left arm,” said Parminder Singh. “She’s fine, she’s in the hospital now.”He said his niece did not know the shooter.
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The United States is taking action to punish Russia for various “harmful foreign activities,” including cyberattacks, election meddling and aggression in the Crimea region.
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It has been 30 years or so since residents in New Mexico’s largest city last saw their stretch of the Rio Grande go dry. There’s a possibility it could happen again this summer. Federal water managers released their annual operating plan for the Rio Grande on Thursday, and it doesn’t look good. Flows have been meager so far this year because of below-average snowpack in the mountains along the Colorado-New Mexico border that feed the river. Spring precipitation has done little to fill the void. Reservoirs are at a fraction of their capacity and continue to shrink. There is no opportunity to replenish them because the provisions of a water-sharing agreement with Texas prevent New Mexico from storing water upstream. That means the drought-stricken state has no extra water in the bank to fall back on, as it has had in previous years. Matters are further complicated because of extremely low soil moisture levels. That, along with warm temperatures, means much of the melting snow will be absorbed or evaporate before it reaches the river. The Rio Grande flows just south of Bernalillo, N.M., April 13, 2021.”Just low dismal numbers all around,” Ed Kandl, a hydrologist with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, said during a virtual meeting that included representatives from municipalities, tribal governments, irrigation districts, state agencies and a rafting company.  The Rio Grande is one of North America’s longest rivers and a major water source for millions of people and thousands of square miles of farmland in New Mexico, Texas and Mexico. The Bureau of Reclamation warned Thursday that a stellar monsoon season would be the only saving grace, but the odds of that happening are slim.  The Pecos River, which delivers water to parts of eastern New Mexico and West Texas, is in a similar situation, and federal officials recently issued a report indicating that releases on the Colorado River — which feeds several Western states — will continue to be limited because of the lack of water flowing into Lake Powell. So aside from residents in Albuquerque seeing sandbars take over the Rio Grande, farmers in central and southern New Mexico will have a shorter growing season with less water for crops.  It also means less water for the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. Plans already are being made for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to rescue fish from drying portions of the river. The rescue missions have become a regular practice in recent years. Near the small agricultural community of San Acacia, officials predicted that river drying would start in June and likely last through November, barring any relief from summer rains.  Last year was also tough, but officials said 2021 will likely mark one of the worst since the 1950s. They said the state’s largest reservoir — Elephant Butte in southern New Mexico — could drop to just 3% of capacity. Carolyn Donnelly, the bureau’s water operations supervisor for the area, said contractors will be monitoring the river for drying as far north as Albuquerque, and managers will try to stretch what little water they have as far as it can go. 
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