Approvals for new coal-fired power plants in China dropped sharply in the first half of this year, according to an analysis released Tuesday, after a flurry of permits in the previous two years raised concern about the government's commitment to limiting climate change.

A review of project documents by Greenpeace East Asia found that 14 new coal plants were approved from January to June with a total capacity of 10.3 gigawatts, down 80% from 50.4 gigawatts in the first half of last year.

Tropical storm Jongdari moved toward South Korea's coast on Tuesday, prompting officials to shut roads and parks as the country braced for strong winds and rain.

As of 6:30 p.m., Jongdari was 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of the southern island of Jeju and headed north at 33 kph (20 mph) while packing 65 kph (40 mph) winds. It was forecast to weaken around midnight, hours before making landfall near the western city of Seosan.

Ernesto picked up strength as a hurricane early Monday as it headed farther out in the Atlantic toward easternmost Canada, but the storm is expected to stay offshore, causing powerful swells, dangerous surf and rip currents along the U.S. East Coast, the National Hurricane Center said.

Ernesto's maximum sustained winds increased Monday to near 80 mph (129 kph), with higher gusts, the hurricane center said. It is expected to weaken and become a post-tropical storm on Tuesday, the center said.

California's largest wildfire this year has been significantly tamed as the state's initially fierce fire season has, at least temporarily, fallen into a relative calm.

The Park Fire was 53% contained Monday after scorching nearly 671 square miles (1,738 square kilometers) in several northern counties, destroying 637 structures and damaging 49 as it became the state's fourth-largest wildfire on record.

The Mediterranean Sea reached its highest temperature on record Thursday, Spanish researchers told AFP on Friday, breaking the record from July 2023.

"The maximum sea surface temperature record was broken in the Mediterranean Sea yesterday... with a daily median of 28.90C," Spain's leading institute of marine sciences said.

The smell of fuel wafts from storage tanks to Dovi Sonny's apartment -- a long-time irritant, and now a major worry after Hezbollah revealed that the facility in northern Israel was in its sights.

Sonny, 66, has no idea what would happen should a rocket hit one of the towering circular containers about 100 meters (yards) from his building in Haifa.

Tropical Storm Ernesto battered the northeast Caribbean on Tuesday as it took aim at Puerto Rico, where officials shuttered schools and government agencies.

The storm was located about 300 miles (480 kilometers) east-southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday morning. It had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) and was moving west at 18 mph (30 kph).

Firefighters in Greece battled scattered fires as Tuesday broke, hoping to contain the remains of the major wildfire that burned into the northern suburbs of Athens, triggering evacuations and leaving at least one person dead.

With strong winds that had fanned the flames on Sunday and Monday dying down overnight, the fire department said the fire no longer had any active, advancing fronts and firefighters were concentrating their efforts on extinguishing the flames in hundreds of slow-burning areas.

A slow-moving storm has been dumping intense rains on northern Japan, swelling rivers, sending residents to shelters and disrupting traffic during a Japanese Buddhist holiday week.

The storm was once Typhoon Maria but has weakened, with winds now blowing up to 72 kph (45 mph). It made landfall near Ofunato City in Iwate prefecture Monday morning and was expected to cut across the Tohoku region as it moved northwest at 20 kph (12 mph), according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

A major forest fire was raging out of control on the northern fringes of the Greek capital Monday, triggering numerous evacuation orders for Athens suburbs and outlying areas as strong winds hampered the efforts of hundreds of firefighters and dozens of water-dropping planes.

The blaze that began Sunday afternoon was racing through pine forests left tinder-dry by repeated heat waves this summer. June and July of this year were the hottest months ever recorded in Greece, which also recorded its warmest winter ever.