Summer heat scorched Texas and the Southwest on Wednesday, pushing Phoenix to nearly 90 consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures and putting millions of people under excessive heat warnings.

Meanwhile, energy demand in Texas hit an unofficial all-time high Tuesday, according to data from the state's grid operator.

Floodwaters have stranded hundreds of thousands of people in India's northeast and neighboring Bangladesh's eastern region, causing at least 15 deaths as rescuers struggled to reach those who needed help, officials and media reports said Thursday.

At least 11 people were killed and thousands displaced from homes as floods and mudslides have ravaged India's northeastern Tripura state, bordering Bangladesh, since Wednesday.

An ambitious plan to build a massive solar farm in remote northern Australia that would transmit energy by submarine cable to Singapore is a step closer after the Australian government granted environmental approvals for the 30 billion Australian dollar ($19 billion) project Wednesday.

Australian company Sun Cable plans to build a 12,400-hectare solar farm and transport electricity to the northern Australian city of Darwin via an 800-kilometer (497-mile) overhead transmission line, then on to large-scale industrial customers in Singapore through a 4,300-kilometer (2,672-mile) submarine cable.

Tens of thousands of customers remained without power across Puerto Rico, a week after Ernesto swiped the U.S. territory as a tropical storm. Authorities pledged to restore electricity to everyone by the weekend.

The National Weather Service issued yet another excessive heat advisory, warning of "dangerously hot and humid conditions."

Storm-battered residents in the western Alaska village of Napakiak were preparing for the third storm in a week Tuesday, days after a minister had to use a front loader to free people from flooded homes.

Napakiak, a Yup'ik village of about 350 residents in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, was flooded Sunday after heavy rains swelled the Kuskokwim River.

Approvals for new coal-fired power plants in China dropped sharply in the first half of this year, according to an analysis released Tuesday, after a flurry of permits in the previous two years raised concern about the government's commitment to limiting climate change.

A review of project documents by Greenpeace East Asia found that 14 new coal plants were approved from January to June with a total capacity of 10.3 gigawatts, down 80% from 50.4 gigawatts in the first half of last year.

Tropical storm Jongdari moved toward South Korea's coast on Tuesday, prompting officials to shut roads and parks as the country braced for strong winds and rain.

As of 6:30 p.m., Jongdari was 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of the southern island of Jeju and headed north at 33 kph (20 mph) while packing 65 kph (40 mph) winds. It was forecast to weaken around midnight, hours before making landfall near the western city of Seosan.

Ernesto picked up strength as a hurricane early Monday as it headed farther out in the Atlantic toward easternmost Canada, but the storm is expected to stay offshore, causing powerful swells, dangerous surf and rip currents along the U.S. East Coast, the National Hurricane Center said.

Ernesto's maximum sustained winds increased Monday to near 80 mph (129 kph), with higher gusts, the hurricane center said. It is expected to weaken and become a post-tropical storm on Tuesday, the center said.

California's largest wildfire this year has been significantly tamed as the state's initially fierce fire season has, at least temporarily, fallen into a relative calm.

The Park Fire was 53% contained Monday after scorching nearly 671 square miles (1,738 square kilometers) in several northern counties, destroying 637 structures and damaging 49 as it became the state's fourth-largest wildfire on record.

The Mediterranean Sea reached its highest temperature on record Thursday, Spanish researchers told AFP on Friday, breaking the record from July 2023.

"The maximum sea surface temperature record was broken in the Mediterranean Sea yesterday... with a daily median of 28.90C," Spain's leading institute of marine sciences said.