Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest slowed by nearly half compared to the year before, according to government satellite data released Wednesday. It's the largest reduction since 2016, when officials began using the current method of measurement.

In the past 12 months, the Amazon rainforest lost 4,300 square kilometers (1,700 square miles), an area roughly the size of Rhode Island. That's a nearly 46% decrease compared to the previous period. Brazil's deforestation surveillance year runs from August 1 to July 30.

A fast-moving wildfire that swept into a Southern California hillside community this week destroyed five homes and damaged three others, authorities said Tuesday.

The flames erupted Monday afternoon and chased residents from the neighborhood in San Bernardino, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Los Angeles,

An outburst of flooding from a lake dammed by Juneau's Mendenhall Glacier damaged at least an estimated 100 homes in what has become a perennial hazard for nearby neighborhoods.

The lake formed in a basin that was left behind when a nearby glacier retreated. It fills with rainwater and snowmelt during the spring and summer and at a certain point builds enough pressure to force its way out through channels it carves beneath Mendenhall Glacier. Since 2011, the phenomenon has at times caused flooding of streets or homes near Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River.

Sea turtle strandings have ticked up at an alarming rate in New England, but now the reptiles are close to receiving a lifeline from Congress to help them stay in the water.

Congress is nearing passage of the Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance and Rehabilitation Act, which would create a new $33 million federal grant program to fund institutions around the country that rescue, rehabilitate and research stranded turtles. The aid would arrive as scientists and federal authorities are sounding the alarm that an increasing number of cold-stunned turtles are washing up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, likely as a result of climate change.

More than 120 people died of heatstroke in the Tokyo metropolitan area in July, when the nation's average temperature hit record highs and heat warnings were in effect much of the month, Japanese authorities said Tuesday.

According to the Tokyo Medical Examiner's Office, many of the 123 people who died were elderly. All but two were found dead indoors, and most were not using air conditioners despite having them installed.

Landslides and flooding have killed more than 150 people around China in the past two months as torrential rainstorms batter the region.

The search was ongoing Monday for victims of a flood and mudslide in a mountainous Tibetan area in Sichuan province that left nine people dead and 18 others unaccounted for, state media said.

The center of Hurricane Debby is expected to reach the Big Bend coast of Florida early Monday bringing potential record-setting rains, catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge as it moves slowly across the northern part of the state before stalling over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina.

Debby was located about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Cedar Key, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (120 kph). The storm was moving northeast at 10 mph (17 kph), the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Fire crews battling California's largest wildfire this year have corralled a third of the blaze aided in part by cooler weather, but a return of triple-digit temperatures could allow it to grow, fire officials said Sunday.

Cooler temperatures and increased humidity gave firefighters "a great opportunity to make some good advances" on the fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills, said Chris Vestal, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Firefighters battling California's largest wildfire of the year are preparing for treacherous conditions entering the weekend when expected thunderstorms may unleash fire-starting lightning and erratic winds that could erode progress made over the past week. Dry, hot conditions posed similar threats across the fire-stricken West.

Weather, fuels and terrain will pose challenges for the 6,000 firefighters battling the Park Fire, which has spread over 614 square miles (1,590 square kilometers) since allegedly being started by arson in a wilderness park in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley city of Chico.

On a scorching July afternoon, a municipal water truck rolls up in a cloud of dust on Liborio Mangiapane's farm in southern Sicily. Some of the precious liquid gets transferred to a smaller cistern on a tractor that Mangiapane's son will use to fill troughs for 250 cattle and sheep, but by tomorrow, all 10,000 liters from the truck will be gone.

Crippling drought from a nearly rainless year, coupled with record-high temperatures, has burned out much of the region's hay and is pushing farmers to the limit. For Mangiapane, every day is a struggle to find water, with frantic phone calls, long trips to faraway wells and long waits for municipal tankers.