Heavy rains lashed much of central Vietnam on Friday and caused flooding in parts of the historic city of Hue, a day after floods and landslides hit the coastal port city of Danang. Troops were mobilized and amphibious armored vehicles readied for rescue operations, state media reported.

More rainfall was forecast through Sunday morning and authorities warned that continued downpours could trigger flash floods and landslides in mountainous areas and flooding in low-lying communities.

Heavy rains drenched Chile's capital and the surrounding region Thursday, triggering mudslides that swept cars through streets, flooded homes, forced residents to evacuate and injured at least six people, authorities said.

President José Antonio Kast declared a state of emergency for Las Condes, a wealthy suburb east of Santiago, giving government agencies more power to respond as torrential rains turned key roads into impassable waterways. The district's mayor, Catalina San Martín, said 14.4 centimeters (5.7 inches) of rain had fallen in recent days — about nine times the average October rainfall — leaving the area "totally saturated."

The super El Niño has been a nonstop machine cranking out tropical storms that have seemingly rolled through the Pacific region like rush-hour traffic. Now, it's the U.S. Gulf Coast's turn.

One of the strongest El Niño years on record meant a quiet first four months of the Atlantic hurricane season, but that's no longer the case. Tropical Storm Isaias, which formed Wednesday, is expected to gain hurricane strength by Thursday before moving onshore. If that happens, it would tie a 121-year-old record for the latest-forming initial hurricane of the Atlantic season. That mark was set on Oct. 8, 1905, according to the National Weather Service.

When the decades-long civil war that forced Samantha Pushpakumara from his village in north-central Sri Lanka ended, he was finally able to return home to a life of farming that he thought would give his family a stable future. That was until the rains didn't come.

Sri Lanka has been mired in drought for months, leading to severe water shortages that have left reservoirs dry and strained farming communities that depend on seasonal monsoons. Making matters worse, temperatures in many parts of the country have been higher than usual and high humidity has exacerbated the heat stress.

The International Monetary Fund is preparing to offer support to countries exposed to the effects of El Nino, the organization's director Kristalina Georgieva told AFP on Wednesday, expressing concern about food security.

COP31 opens in the Turkish city of Antalya on November 9 as countries grapple with record global temperatures, mounting climate damage and growing pressure to accelerate the shift away from planet-heating fossil fuels.

The Plan International charity said Monday that global warming has increased the risk of child marriages, teenage pregnancies and violence against girls.

World powers are flying delegates to the Pacific to haggle over the fight against global warming, and to see the plight of island nations surrounded by a rising ocean.

A wind turbine described by its developer as the world's tallest now rises 365 meters (1,197 feet) above the sparsely populated landscape of eastern Germany, surpassing the height of the Eiffel Tower.

The colossal turbine has been built at an existing wind farm in Lusatia, southeast of Berlin. Once a major center of lignite mining, the region has increasingly turned to renewable energy in recent years. The prototype reached its full height this week and is due to be inaugurated in mid-November.

Spring has finally arrived in the Southern Hemisphere and, in Chile, even the desert is blossoming.

Known as the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, a massive portion of the Atacama Desert has been covered in flowers after the El Niño weather pattern brought heavy rains to the region earlier this year. The unusually large amount of water allowed millions of seeds and bulbs to sprout and bloom, many of them after remaining dormant for decades.