The fires raging in the Amazon rainforest amount to an "acute emergency" and Chancellor Angela Merkel believes it should be discussed by world leaders when they meet for this weekend's G7 summit, her spokesman said Friday.

Many high-profile figures seeking to denounce the fires in the Amazon -- from Madonna and Cristiano Ronaldo to Leonardo DiCaprio and Emmanuel Macron -- have unwittingly ended up misleading millions on social media, either sharing photographs of the region that are years old or images taken in other parts of the world.

Official figures show nearly 73,000 forest fires were recorded in Brazil in the first eight months of the year, the highest number for any year since 2013. Most were in the Amazon.

"A few" people died and 12 were injured Thursday during a sudden thunderstorm that saw lightning strike a metal cross in the Tatra mountains in southern Poland, rescuers said. 

British supermarkets are starting to go "nude."

South Korea said Tuesday it would issue fines and file criminal complaints against Volkswagen and and its luxury arm, Porsche, for installing "illicit devices" that helped multiple diesel vehicles cheat pollution standards.

A fire raged out of control on the Spanish holiday island of Gran Canaria on Monday, forcing evacuations as flames rose so high even water-dropping planes could not operate in what was dubbed an "environmental tragedy."

Iceland on Sunday honors the passing of Okjokull, its first glacier lost to climate change, as scientists warn that some 400 others on the subarctic island risk the same fate. 

Amid growing alarm over accelerating extinctions, a major international conference opened in Geneva Saturday aiming to tighten rules on trade in elephant ivory and other endangered animal and plant species.

A Pacific summit has descended into tears, recriminations and shouting between pro-coal Australia and low-lying island nations facing an existential threat from climate change.

July 2019 temperatures were the hottest ever recorded globally, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Thursday, while satellite data showed polar ice shrank to its lowest levels.