The third U.N. Ocean Conference opened Monday as pressure mounts for nations to turn decades of promises into real protection for the sea.

"The fight for the ocean is at the heart of the yearslong battles we've been waging — for biodiversity, for climate, for our environment and for our health," said French President Emmanuel Macron, delivering the keynote address.

Tropical Storm Barbara gradually weakened Tuesday as it continued heading northwest away from land after earlier strengthening to a hurricane. The storm marked the first hurricane of the eastern Pacific hurricane season.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said swells generated by the storm system will affect portions of the coast of southwestern and west-central Mexico, as well as the southernmost portions of Baja California, on Tuesday. Those swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

A blistering heat wave is sweeping across northern India with temperatures soaring above the normal, disrupting daily life and raising health concerns.

The mercury shot up to 47.3 C (117 F) in Sri Ganganagar, a desert city in the northwestern state of Rajasthan on Monday , according to the Indian Meteorological Department.

The population of emperor penguins in one part of Antarctica appears to be declining faster than previously thought, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery released Tuesday.

The estimated population of 16 penguin colonies — visible in satellite photos taken between 2009 and 2024 – had declined 22% during that period mainly because of climate change that's shrinking the amount of available sea ice. It's unclear whether this drop is seen across the continent, scientists said.

One person has died after severe weather tore through parts of the central U.S., including heavy rain in Dallas, a tornado that touched down in the Kansas City area and flash flooding in Kansas that forced firefighters to rescue dozens of people, including stranded motorists.

A Dallas man died Wednesday after his vehicle became stuck in high water, authorities said. He was in one of two cars submerged under a bridge on Interstate 635, the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department said. Dallas police said officers were able to rescue one driver, and the body of the other driver was recovered by Dallas-Fire Rescue.

As severe storms once again soak, twist and pelt the nation's midsection, a team of dozens of scientists is driving into them to study one of the nation's costliest but least-appreciated weather dangers: Hail.

Hail rarely kills, but it hammers roofs, cars and crops to the tune of $10 billion a year in damage in the U.S. So in one of the few federally funded science studies remaining after Trump administration cuts, teams from several universities are observing storms from the inside and seeing how the hail forms. Project ICECHIP has already collected and dissected hail the size of small cantaloupes, along with ice balls of all sizes and shapes.

While images of wildfires capture their ferocity, data can provide insight into how bad a fire season is.

Such is the case with two graphics, powered by satellite data, that showcase a Canadian wildfire season off to a wild — and scary — start.

Severe storms in southern Germany forced a Ryanair flight to make an emergency landing late Wednesday after violent turbulence injured nine people on board, German police said in a statement Thursday.

The flight, traveling from Berlin to Milan with 179 passengers and six crew members, encountered turbulence so intense around 8:30 p.m. that the pilot was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Memmingen Airport in Bavaria. Eight passengers and one crew member were hurt.

Top Trump administration officials — fresh off touring one of the country's largest oil fields in the Alaska Arctic — headlined an energy conference led by the state's Republican governor on Tuesday that environmentalists criticized as promoting new oil and gas drilling and turning away from the climate crisis.

Several dozen protesters were outside Gov. Mike Dunleavy's annual Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in Anchorage, where U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin were featured speakers. The federal officials were continuing a multiday trip aimed at highlighting President Donald Trump's push to expand oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in the state.

Mount Etna, the volcano that towers over eastern Sicily, has again captivated the world with a spectacular show, spewing smoke and high into the sky.

But the defining event of Monday's eruption was the more rare pyroclastic flow from the southwestern crater not visible from a distance.