The beekeepers rise early. They've come a long way to spend the winter months in the electric yellow mustard fields of Assam, and they have to make the trip worth it.

At dawn, they eat a simple breakfast and won't eat again until dusk. They'll spend all day checking the hives, smoking them to disperse the bees so they can collect thick golden honeycombs to be sold overseas.

A record snow drought with unprecedented heat is hitting most of the American West, depleting future water supplies, making it more vulnerable to wildfires and hurting winter tourism and recreation.

Scientists say snow cover and snow depth are both at the lowest levels they've seen in decades, while at least 67 Western weather stations have measured their warmest December through early February on record. Normal snow cover this time of year should be about 460,000 square miles — about the size of California, Utah, Idaho and Montana — but this year it's only California-sized, about 155,000 square miles, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The European Parliament Tuesday gave its final approval to an ambitious target for cutting EU greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, a key milestone towards the bloc's goal of becoming carbon neutral by mid-century.

Lawmakers voted by 413 to 226 in favour of a 90-percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels -- with flexibility to allow carbon credits bought outside the 27-nation EU to help reach the goal.

Prolonged drought has left millions of people struggling to find food and water in parts of northern Kenya, where livestock deaths have deepened the crisis for pastoral communities.

The northeastern regions, including areas near the Somali border, are among the hardest hit after repeated failed rainy seasons.

More than 140,000 people were evacuated from their homes in northwestern Morocco as heavy rainfall and water releases from overfilled dams led to flooding, the Interior Ministry said. Stormy weather also disrupted maritime traffic between Morocco and Spain.

Torrential rains and water releases from overfilled dams raised water levels in recent days in rivers such as Loukkous, triggering floods in several towns, including Ksar El Kebir, according to residents and local media.

A woman in Spain who was swept up by a swollen river remained missing Friday as Storm Leonardo pummelled the Iberian Peninsula.

The woman, 45, was reported missing after she fell into a river in the country's southern Malaga province on Wednesday while trying to rescue her dog. Air and canine units have been deployed to find her, Spanish police and local authorities said Friday.

A tropical storm set off flooding and a landslide in the southern Philippines, leaving at least four people dead, displacing more than 6,000 and trapping residents in houses in two flooded villages, officials said Friday.

Tropical Storm Penha slammed ashore onto the southeastern province of Surigao del Sur from the Pacific late Thursday. It was last tracked Friday around noon off central Bohol province with sustained winds of up to 55 kilometers (34 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 70 kph (43mph), according to forecasters.

Spanish rescuers on Thursday desperately searched for a woman missing after a new storm hit the Iberian peninsula while Portugal warned of a heightened flood risk after several months' worth of rain fell in a few hours.

One death has already been confirmed in Portugal from the seventh storm to hit the peninsula this year. Portugal has barely recovered from a battering by rain and winds last week that killed five people, injured hundreds and left tens of thousands without power.

If you want healthy food, experts say to eat what's local, organic and in-season. Those foods benefit the planet too, because they are less taxing on the soil and they don't travel as far.

It doesn't get more local, organic and in-season than a backyard vegetable garden.

Chronic exposure to pollution from wildfires has been linked to tens of thousands of deaths annually in the United States, according to a new study.

The paper, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, found that from 2006 to 2020, long-term exposure to tiny particulates from wildfire smoke contributed to an average of 24,100 deaths a year in the lower 48 states.