Sweden has created two $1 million prizes for solutions to feed billions of people, as climate change threatens the world's food supply and a growing population requires sustainable food systems, organizers said Thursday.

Under a warm morning sun scores of weary soldiers stare as millions of yellow locusts rise into the northern Ugandan sky, despite hours spent spraying vegetation with chemicals in an attempt to kill them.

Among the damage inflicted by Storm Ciara's fierce winds and torrential rain across Europe last week was 675 million euros ($731 million) covered by insurers in Germany, the financial firms' federation said Tuesday.

Britain on Monday began to clear up after Storm Dennis battered the country over the weekend, leading the government's weather agency to issue a rare "danger to life" warning amid widespread flooding and high winds.

Extinction Rebellion activists on Saturday blocked traffic outside London Fashion Week to protest against the fashion industry's "exploitation" of the environment. 

Consumer representatives and car giant Volkswagen each blamed the other Friday for a breakdown in talks over a settlement for 400,000 German customers in the firm's "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal.

Dams near Sydney overflowed Thursday after days of torrential rain, as Australia braced for more storms expected to bring dangerous flash flooding to the country's east.

Recent downpours have brought relief to areas ravaged by bushfires and drought -- as well as chaos and destruction to towns and cities along the eastern seaboard.

With the aim of going carbon neutral by 2025, Copenhagen faces a challenge as it prepares to host Euro 2020 matches -- with the accompanying excesses -- while minimizing the climate impact. 

The global cost of air pollution caused by fossil fuels is US$8 billion a day, or roughly 3.3 percent of the world's GDP, an environmental research group said Wednesday.

The findings from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Greenpeace Southeast Asia are the first to assess the global cost of air pollution specifically from burning oil, gas and coal. 

Indigenous protests against a new pipeline in westernmost Canada scaled up across the country on Tuesday with major train disruptions, port blockades and sit-ins at government offices.