A report by the World Wildlife Fund shows illegal purchases of wildlife online are growing in Myanmar in a threat both to public health and to endangered species.

The report issued Friday found that enforcement of bans on such transactions has weakened amid political turmoil following a 2021 military takeover.

Mexican and American officials have met amid disagreements about an electrical power reform that seeks to limit foreign-built renewable energy plants and grant a majority market share to Mexico's state-owned power utility.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador met with U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry, but the Mexican leader appeared unwilling to budge on the proposal, which is currently stuck in Mexico's Congress.

The head of the United Nations has announced the appointment of an expert panel led by Canada's former environment minister to scrutinize whether companies' efforts to curb climate change are credible or mere " greenwashing."

Recent years have seen an explosion of pledges by businesses — including oil companies — to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to "net zero" amid consumer expectations that corporations bear part of the burden of cutting pollution. But environmental campaigners say many such plans are at best unclear, at worst designed to make companies look good when they are actually fueling global warming.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has compiled a handbook for tackling the world's interconnected environmental crises, with contributions from leading scientists and writers.

Penguin Random House has announced that "The Climate Book" will be published in Britain in October.

Severe storms that included at least two confirmed tornadoes have injured several people, damaged homes and businesses and downed power lines in Mississippi and Tennessee after they spread damage in Arkansas, Missouri and Texas overnight before moving to the Deep South.

No deaths had been reported from the storms as of Wednesday evening, officials said.

The rare one-horned rhinos that roam Kaziranga National Park in northeastern India have been increasing in numbers, thanks to stronger police efforts against poaching and artificial mud platforms that keep the animals safe from floods.

Those successful conservation efforts helped raise the park's rhino population by 200 in the past four years, census figures released by park authorities this week showed.

As Germany scrambles to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, the pungent fumes from the manure and other organic waste in Peter Kaim's farm could be part of the solution.

Environmentalists are criticizing slow progress at a U.N.-backed meeting of nearly all the world's countries toward beefing up protections for biodiversity on Earth, ahead of a crucial meeting expected later this year in China where delegates could sign a global agreement.

A total of 195 countries — but not the United States — which are parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity wrapped up a two-week meeting Tuesday that aimed to make progress toward a deal to prevent the loss of biodiversity and avoid the extinction of many vulnerable species. It also addresses the emergence of pathogens like the coronavirus, which damage both lives and livelihoods.

The European Union warned consumers to stop using their clothes like disposable facial tissues and said Wednesday that it plans to counter the polluting use of trendy fast fashion.

New rules proposed by the EU's executive arm call for a mandatory minimum use of recycled fibers by 2030 and would ban the destruction of many unsold products. The European Commission rules also seek to contain the release of microplastics and improve global labor conditions in the garment industry.

The 29-year-old Monira Khatun was devastated after her husband abandoned her suddenly. She returned to her father only to face another blow: He died soon after, leaving her to shoulder three other family members' care. Without any work, she was worried about how she would feed them.

"I lost everything. There was darkness all around," Khatun said. "My parents' home was gone to the river for erosion, we had no land to cultivate."