Hurricane Dorian has gained fearsome new muscle as an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm, bearing down on the northwestern Bahamas early Saturday en route to Florida's east coast.

Millions of people in Florida, along with the state's Walt Disney World and President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, are in the potential crosshairs of the hurricane. Forecasters say Dorian, which had top sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) Friday night, will threaten the Florida peninsula late Monday or early Tuesday.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said Friday Europe has "nothing to teach" the country about preserving the environment, as data showed thousands of new fires were ignited on the first day of a burning ban. 

Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria, which has survived invasions, fires and earthquakes since it was founded by Alexander the Great more than 2,000 years ago, now faces a new menace in the form of climate change.

Rising sea levels threaten to inundate poorer neighborhoods and archaeological sites, prompting authorities to erect concrete barriers out at sea to break the tide. A severe storm in 2015 flooded large parts of the city, causing at least six deaths and the collapse of some two dozen homes, exposing weaknesses in the local infrastructure.

The same oceans that nourished human evolution are poised to unleash misery on a global scale unless the carbon pollution destabilising Earth's marine environment is brought to heel, warns a draft UN report obtained by AFP.

At least seven people were killed when a river burst its banks and flooded a village football pitch where a game was being played in south Morocco, local authorities said.

Humanity should brace itself for some serious blowback over this century and beyond from the oceans and Earth's frozen zones, known as the cryosphere, according to the draft of a major UN report obtained by AFP.

The US is ready and willing to help Brazil fight forest fires in the Amazon, an aide to President Donald Trump said Wednesday, but only if it involves working with the Brazilian government.

An abandoned oil tanker anchored off war-torn Yemen that is degrading along with its cargo could explode and cause an environmental disaster, experts said Wednesday as U.N. inspectors prepared to visit.

Italy's Stromboli volcano off the coast of Sicily erupted Wednesday, according to fire fighters who rushed to put out wildfires sparked by lava flows.

Two people were confirmed dead on Wednesday as heavy rains pounded southwest Japan, prompting flood and landslide warnings and orders for 670,000 people to seek safety.