An early bird El Nino has officially formed, likely to be strong, warp weather worldwide and give an already warming Earth an extra kick of natural heat, meteorologists announced.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Thursday issued an El Nino advisory, announcing the arrival of the climatic condition. It may not quite be like the others.

U.N. investigators are compiling evidence on the development and use of chemical weapons by Islamic State extremists in Iraq after they seized about a third of the country in 2014, and are advancing work on the militant group's gender-based violence and crimes against children, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Christians and Yazidis, the head of the investigative team said Wednesday.

Christian Ritscher told the U.N. Security Council that survivors of a March 2016 chemical attack against Taza Khurmatu, a mainly Shia Turkmen town south of Kirkuk in northeast Iraq, were still deeply impacted when he visited earlier this year.

The sound of children and music echoed down a narrow basement hallway in Israel as they scrambled in a pool of balls, climbed on a jungle gym, munched popcorn and laughed.

The atmosphere changed suddenly on that Saturday last month, as at least a dozen religious men appeared and blocked the entrance, accusing the indoor playground of desecrating the Jewish sabbath by opening for business. Angry parents confronted them, scuffles broke out and in an instant, the center in this mixed city had become a flashpoint symbol of a larger battle between secular and religious Jews in Israel.

The Israeli army said on Thursday that it demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian involved in twin bombings in Jerusalem that killed two and wounded at least 18 others in November.

Israeli authorities arrested Islam Faroukh in December on suspicion of carrying out the bombings, part of a more than year-long surge in violence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The prosecutor leading an investigation into a horrific knife attack in a French Alpine town says four children aged between 22 months and 3 years suffered life-threatening wounds and that two adults also were injured.

The prosecutor said the attacker's motives remain unknown but do not appear to be terrorism-related.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the flood-hit region of Kherson on Thursday to evaluate response to damage caused by a dam breach.

The Ukrainian leader wrote on his Telegram account that he was helping assess efforts to evacuate civilians, provide them with drinking water and other support, and try to stanch vast environmental damage.

Intense Canadian wildfires are blanketing the northeastern U.S. in a dystopian haze, turning the air acrid, the sky yellowish gray and prompting warnings for vulnerable populations to stay inside.

Karim Benzema has become the latest soccer star to move to Saudi Arabia after signing with the national champion Al-Ittihad on Tuesday.

Benzema, who left Real Madrid after 14 years and 648 games, is set to play against his former Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, who joined Al-Nassr in January.

The Turkish lira tumbled to a fresh record low Wednesday, extending its slide against the U.S. dollar since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan started his third term.

The lira weakened by around 7% on Wednesday, hitting 23.16 against the dollar. The decline took the currency's loss since the appointment of Erdogan's new government to more than 8%. The currency has weakened by around 20% since the start of the year.

As shelling from Russia's war on Ukraine echoed overhead, dozens of evacuees on an island in the Dnieper River scurried onto the tops of military trucks or into rafts to flee rising floodwaters caused by a dam breach upstream.

The unnerving bark of dogs left behind further soured the mood of those ferried to safety. A woman in one raft clutched the head of her despondent daughter. A stalled military truck stuck in swelling waters raised the panic level as Red Cross teams tried to manage an orderly evacuation.