A tornado tore through the southern US state of Alabama on Sunday, killing 23 people, uprooting trees and causing "catastrophic" damage to buildings and roads, a local sheriff said. 

Declaring climate change the nation's most pressing issue, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee launched his 2020 Democratic presidential bid on Friday with a promise to refocus American government and society.

"It is time for our nation to set a new priority," Inslee told supporters gathered at a solar panel business in Seattle. "This is truly our moment. It is our moment to solve America's most daunting challenge and make it the first, foremost and paramount duty of the United States ... to defeat climate change."

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg who has sparked school strikes worldwide against global warming joined thousands of students in Hamburg Friday, urging them to stay angry and fight for change.

Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) made the environment one of its main campaign themes in 2018.

From a container wafts the sweetly pungent odor of coffee grounds which, far from being discarded as waste, are being lucratively recycled to produce oyster mushrooms.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 hit Ecuador Friday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.

The quake struck before dawn in Ecuador's eastern Amazon region 17 kilometers (10 miles) from the town of Montalvo near the border with Peru, the US Geological Survey said.

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who has inspired pupils worldwide to boycott classes, urged the European Union on Thursday to double its ambition for greenhouse gas cuts.

Cyclone Oma intensified to a damaging category three storm, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said Wednesday, warning that it could bring severe weather to the continent after hitting the Pacific Islands.

A convoy of big trucks from Canada's oil producing regions rolled into the capital Ottawa Tuesday as hundreds of people including "yellow vest" activists rallied in protest at government curbs on pipeline construction.

The viability of a key river that feeds into Australia's biggest water system is under threat if poor conditions that killed millions of fish are not improved within six months, scientists warned Monday.