Climate Change & Environment
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Fires engulf Turkey's Mediterranean coast as government declares 2 disaster zones

New wildfires broke out on Turkey's Mediterranean coast Friday, as the government declared two western provinces in the country to be disaster zones.

Images showed flames and smoke billowing into the sky close to high-rise apartment buildings in Antalya, where local and foreign visitors flock during the summer months.

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Heavy storms in north Vietnam kill 1 as Wipha weakens into tropical depression

Heavy storms in northern Vietnam left one person dead and another missing, police said Wednesday, as Wipha weakened from a tropical storm into a depression.

A 59-year-old man was killed in Nghe An province when a tree fell on his house on Sunday before the storm made landfall, police said. Nghe An, which stretches from the coast to the mountainous Laos border, was among the areas hit hardest by heavy rain and floods. Another woman was swept away by floodwaters and remains missing. Four other people were injured.

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For hope on climate change, UN chief is putting his faith in market forces

For nearly a decade United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been using science to warn about evermore dangerous climate change in increasingly urgent tones. Now he's enlisting something seemingly more important to the world's powerful: Money.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Guterres hailed the power of market forces in what he repeatedly called "a battle" to save the planet. He pointed to two new UN reports showing the plummeting cost of solar and wind power and the growing generation and capacity of those green energy sources. He warned those who cling to fossil fuels that they could go broke doing it.

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Global climate action at stake in UN top court's biggest ever decision

The UN's highest court is handing down a historic opinion on climate change Wednesday, a decision that could set a legal benchmark for action around the globe to the climate crisis.

After years of lobbying by vulnerable island nations who fear they could disappear under rising sea waters, the U.N. General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice in 2023 for an advisory opinion, a non-binding but important basis for international obligations.

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Bees have some ways to cope with warming Earth, but researchers fear for their future

Sweat covers Isaac Barnes's face under his beekeeper's veil as he hauls boxes of honeycomb from his hives to his truck. It's a workout in what feels like a sauna as the late-morning June temperatures rise.

Though Barnes was hot, his bees were even hotter. Their body temperatures can be up to 27 degrees Fahrenheit (about 15 Celsius) higher than the air around them. As global temperatures rise under climate change, scientists are trying to better understand the effects on managed and wild bees as they pollinate crops, gather nectar, make honey and reproduce.

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Iran's capital and surrounding province will shut for a day due to heat wave

Iranian government offices, banks and businesses in the capital province of Tehran will shut down on Wednesday due to an intense heat wave and the need to conserve energy, state-run media reported.

With temperatures in the capital exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), the government has advised citizens to stay indoors during peak heat hours.

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As Spaniards summer at Barcelona beaches, some worry about coastline erosion

Ana García rents a shack at a beach just north of Barcelona every year, spending two months there in the summer with her daughter. But García fears summers by the sea in Montgat, about a 30-minute drive from central Barcelona, eventually could be numbered.

Storms and sea level rise driven by climate change are eroding the man-made beaches in metropolitan Barcelona, with the sea swallowing swathes of coastline every year, authorities say. Compared to natural coastlines, man-made beaches erode faster. Montgat's coastline has eroded especially fast, locals and authorities say.

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221 monsoon-related deaths in Pakistan since late June

Pakistan's disaster agency on Tuesday said 221 people have been killed and more than 500 others injured in incidents linked to nearly a month of heavy monsoon rains.

"Since June 26 up to July 21, 221 people have lost their lives, including 104 children and 40 women," a spokesperson from the national disaster management agency told AFP.

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Trump tariff pressure pushes Asia toward American LNG at cost of climate goals

Asian countries are offering to buy more U.S. liquefied natural gas in negotiations with the Trump administration as a way to alleviate tensions over U.S. trade deficits and forestall higher tariffs. Analysts warn that strategy could undermine those countries' long-term climate ambitions and energy security.

Buying more U.S. LNG has topped the list of concessions Asian countries have offered in talks with Washington over President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on foreign goods. Vietnam's Prime Minister underlined the need to buy more of the super-chilled fuel in a government meeting, and the government signed a deal in May with an American company to develop a gas import hub. JERA, Japan's largest power generator, signed new 20-year contracts last month to purchase up to 5.5 million metric tons of U.S. gas annually starting around 2030.

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At least 4 dead and 1,300 evacuated after heavy rain in South Korea

Two days of heavy downpours in South Korea have killed at least four people and forced more than 1,300 others to evacuate, officials said Thursday.

One person was killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul, during heavy rain on Wednesday, the Interior and Safety Ministry said.

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