European leaders were meeting Monday to discuss growing competition in the Arctic, where global warming is opening new shipping routes, governments are vying for vast natural resources and a Russian military buildup is heightening security concerns.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen were among leaders expected for the European Arctic Summit in Rovaniemi, Finland, a city perhaps best known for its Santa Claus village.

On a beach of a small Greek island in the Ionian Sea,  tourists frolick in the azure waters like most visitors do in the popular Mediterranean country at this time of year.

A Japanese military transport ship docked on the island of Borneo on Thursday as part of a disaster relief mission to help fight wildfires in Indonesia that are causing a toxic haze impacting people's health in other countries.

Japan deployed 300 crew members, landing ship JS Kunisaki and three CH-47 helicopters, which arrived in Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.

The EU climate monitor said Thursday that August was the hottest single month ever recorded globally and that summer in western Europe was the warmest it had measured.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service said global average air temperatures in August were 16.96C -- surpassing by 0.01C the previous high set in July 2023 -- and that western Europe endured its "warmest summer on record".

For centuries, French and Italian mountain communities on the flanks of Western Europe's highest peak have gazed upon seemingly eternal glaciers and snow that gave the colossus its name: Mont Blanc, the white mountain.

But climate warming is dismantling the picture at alarming speed.

Schools in the capital of Indonesia's South Sumatra province switched to remote learning Wednesday as worsening haze from forest and peatland fires pushed air pollution to unhealthy levels, adding to disruptions that have already affected more than 1.4 million students across the country, officials said.

Indonesia has been plagued by forest and land fires for decades but an intensifying El Nino pattern and a prolonged dry season made the impact of the fires especially dire this year. Toxic haze and smoke have spread far beyond Indonesia's borders in Southeast Asia, creating a regional health crisis.

The mountain section whose collapse triggered fatal floods in Nepal and China on August 26 had experienced unprecedented heat for the time of year, meteorological data analyzed by a researcher shows.

Average temperatures on the mountain glacier at an altitude of 5,200 meters (17,060 feet) were estimated at around five degrees Celsius between August 21 and 26.

The world's most endangered tigers have started a family in Greece, offering hope for a predator that is rapidly vanishing from the wild.

Three 2-month-old Sumatran tiger cubs received identification microchips and their first vaccinations Tuesday at a zoo near Athens, as part of a global effort to build a backup population.

Rescuers in Nepal pulled two workers alive from an underground tunnel at a hydropower plant Friday, raising hopes of reaching dozens of others believed to be trapped nine days after deadly floods swept away villages and submerged the Himalayan region in mud and debris.

Search teams first heard voices from inside the tunnel in the morning, allowing them to locate the two men, Nepalese lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane said. Images showed a rescuer carrying one of the workers, covered in mud, on his back, while soldiers on either side helped.

Malaysia declared an emergency Friday in a town in Sarawak state on Borneo Island after air pollution breached the country's emergency-level threshold linked to fires in neighboring Indonesia.

The Air Pollutant Index in Serian, a small agricultural town of just under 90,000 near the border of Indonesia's Kalimantan province, surged to 521 on Friday, according to Malaysia's environment department. Sarawak's much-larger capital, Kuching, also showed a hazardous reading of 311.