Some residents, business owners and environmentalists questioned whether authorities reacted quickly enough to contain one of the largest oil spills in recent California history, caused by a suspected leak in an underwater pipeline that fouled the sands of famed Huntington Beach and could keep the beaches there closed for weeks or longer.

Booms were deployed on the ocean surface Sunday to try to contain the oil while divers sought to determine where and why the leak occurred. On land, there was a race to find animals harmed by the oil and to keep the spill from harming any more sensitive marshland.

The death toll from Cyclone Shaheen rose to five Monday while other fishermen from Iran remained missing as the storm moved further inland into Oman and weakened.

Authorities in Oman said they found the body of a man who disappeared when floodwaters swept him away from his vehicle. On Sunday as the storm made landfall, they said a child similarly drowned and two foreigners from Asia died in a landslide.

Haydee Rodriguez has just set free a sloth named Maruja 58 in a forested area outside Caracas and is watching her get settled.

Environmentalists have chained themselves to giant excavators in an effort to halt the expansion of a vast open-pit coal mine in western Germany.

More than 20 climate activists clambered onto the diggers in the Garzweiler lignite mine in the early hours of Friday. Eight have since been removed, police said.

Wildfires have destroyed nearly 50,000 homes in California alone in the last five years, and scientists say global warming is only making things worse.

While much attention is focused on managing overgrown forests, fire managers say it's equally crucial to increase the fire resistance of homes and the area immediately around them, known as "defensible space."

California's reservoirs are so dry from a historic drought that regulators warned Thursday it's possible the state's water agencies won't get anything from them next year, a frightening possibility that could force mandatory restrictions for residents.

California has a system of giant lakes called reservoirs that store water during the state's rainy and snowy winter months. Most of the water comes from snow that melts in the Sierra Nevada mountains and fills rivers and streams in the spring.

Authorities sandbagged low-lying areas in the Thai capital and checked pumping stations Thursday along the Chao Phraya River in preparation for possible flooding as dams upstream, swollen by heavy rains, were forced to release water as a precaution.

Flooding in the northern and central regions has already displaced thousands. Seven people have died and one woman is missing.

The land on which Audrey Trufant Salvant's home sits in the small Louisiana town of Ironton has become an island in a sea of mud and snake-infested marsh grass. Nearby houses are disconnected from their foundations, a refrigerator is lodged sideways in a tree, and dozens of caskets and tombs from two nearby cemeteries are strewn across lawns for blocks. The entire town is without power and running water.

A month after Hurricane Ida roared ashore with 150-mph (241-kph) winds, communities all along the state's southeastern coast — Ironton, Grand Isle, Houma, Lafitte and Barataria — are still suffering from the devastating effects of the Category 4 storm.

The surface of Spain's La Palma island is continuing to expand as lava from a volcano flows into the Atlantic Ocean and hardens when it comes into contact with the water, European Union scientists said Thursday.

Copernicus, the European Union's Earth observation program, said Thursday that its satellite imagery showed a D-shaped tongue of molten rock building up on the island's western shore measured 338 hectares (835 acres) by the end of Wednesday.

Droughts that cause leaves to turn brown and wither before they can reach peak color. Heat waves prompting leaves to fall before autumn even arrives. Extreme weather events like hurricanes that strip trees of their leaves altogether.

For a cheery autumnal activity, leaf peeping is facing some serious threats from the era of climate change.