More than 73,000 people have fled emergency conditions at home for Florida since Hurricane Maria devastated the US territory in the Caribbean.

An excessive heat warning has been issued in California through Wednesday as the state bakes under extreme temperatures that are shattering records.

The U.S. government should manage risks posed by climate change that could cost it tens of billions of dollars more per year by mid-century, a congressional report published Tuesday said.

But such steps seem in doubt under President Donald Trump, who has dismissed climate change as a "hoax," moved to pull the U.S. out of a global climate agreement and rolled back environmental regulations.

Ambassador Christina Lassen, Head of the Delegation of the European Union, launched on Tuesday in Horsh Beirut the National Air Quality Monitoring Network, a press release said.

The world faces a "dark future" if it fails to tackle climate change and inequality, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde warned on Tuesday.

A non-partisan federal watchdog says climate change is already costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year, with those costs expected to rise as devastating storms, floods, wildfires and droughts become more frequent in the coming decades.

A Government Accountability Office report released Monday said the federal government has spent more than $350 billion over the last decade on disaster assistance programs and losses from flood and crop insurance. That tally does not include the massive toll from this year's wildfires and three major hurricanes, expected to be among the most costly in the nation's history.

Tourists on a crowded, sun-drenched beach in the Cypriot resort of Ayia Napa tossed drinks cans into recycling bins as a record-breaking holiday season drew to a close.

A powerful typhoon left five dead, one missing and scores injured in Japan Monday, moving northward off the Pacific coast after millions struggled to the polls for a national election.

A powerful typhoon was bearing down on Japan Saturday, a day ahead of national elections, with experts predicting severe winds and heavy rains as the country goes to the polls.

Environmental pollution — from filthy air to contaminated water — is killing more people every year than all war and violence in the world. More than smoking, hunger or natural disasters. More than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

One out of every six premature deaths in the world in 2015 — about 9 million — could be attributed to disease from toxic exposure, according to a major study released Thursday in the Lancet medical journal. The financial cost from pollution-related death, sickness and welfare is equally massive, the report says, costing some $4.6 trillion in annual losses — or about 6.2 percent of the global economy.