Environment

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Amanda has killed at least seven people in El Salvador as heavy rains made rivers overflow, flooded city streets and produced landslides, Interior Minister Mario Duran said on Sunday. “We’ve seen people asking for help, asking for the government. We haven’t deployed everywhere, the situation is overwhelming,” said Duran.

(Reuters) – Washington state has confirmed its third sighting of an Asian giant hornet, dubbed the “murder hornet,” indicating the invasive, predatory insect has survived the winter in the U.S. Northwest, state agriculture officials said on Friday. The stinging hornet, which can grow as large as 2-1/2 inches (6.4 cm) in length, could potentially pose

HAVANA/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ken Hutton is worried Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas where he lives is far from rebuilt after being devastated by Hurricane Dorian last year yet he is bracing for another hurricane season in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. FILE PHOTO: A man walks among the debris of his house

FILE PHOTO: A woman runs on a nearly empty street in the coronavirus outbreak near the Treasury Department in Washington, U.S. March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department has released rules guiding how companies use a federal tax credit designed to spur investment in carbon capture and sequestration projects. The

BEIJING (Reuters) – China intends to impose restrictions on expansion of solar equipment production to tackle overcapacity in the industry in the face of falling domestic installations, a draft plan issued by the country’s industrial ministry showed on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Employees row a boat as they examine solar panel boards at a pond in

FILE PHOTO: The logo of the United Nations is seen on the outside of their headquarters in New York, September 15, 2013. REUTERS/Carlo (Reuters) – The United Nations has delayed until late 2021 a crucial climate summit that had been scheduled for Britain this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Thursday. Billed

(Reuters) – Tropical Depression Bertha is expected to dissipate by Thursday night, with heavy rainfall spreading across Western North Carolina and Southwest Virginia into West Virginia, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Bertha is located about 40 miles (65 km) west of Greensboro, North Carolina, packing maximum sustained winds of 30 miles per hour

(Reuters) – Bertha, the second named storm this Atlantic hurricane season, has weakened to a tropical depression but was still expected to bring heavy rain and possibly life-threatening flash floods to parts of the Carolinas and Virginia, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Wednesday. The tropical depression, which now packed maximum sustained winds

KAMPALA (Reuters) – The quality of Uganda’s coffee crop may decline in the coming months as heavy rains across the east African nation have reduced the amount of sunshine necessary for bean drying, an industry official told Reuters on Wednesday. Uganda is Africa’s largest exporter of coffee followed by Ethiopia and grows mostly robusta variety.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A new wave of locust attacks has alarmed India’s farmers and experts warn of extensive crop losses if authorities fail to curb fast-spreading swarms by June when monsoon rains spur rice, cane, corn, cotton and soybean sowing. Desert locusts have engulfed around 35,000 hectares in India’s seven heartland states, threatening some

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Eight European countries have urged the European Union to include natural gas in future funding, as the bloc’s executive prepares to unveil its plan for a green economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. FILE PHOTO: A European flag is seen outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 6, 2019. REUTERS/Yves

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was undaunted by an earthquake that struck the capital Wellington on Monday while she was doing a live TV interview, and calmly continued with the programme. FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians walk across a road in front of the New Zealand parliament building known as the Beehive in

KOLKATA/DHAKA (Reuters) – A powerful cyclone that tore through India’s eastern state of West Bengal this week has caused a damage of 1 trillion rupees ($13 billion) to infrastructure and crops, state officials said. A man walks with his bicycle under an uprooted tree after Cyclone Amphan made its landfall, in South 24 Parganas district,

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles called on the government to push through further deregulation of environmental policy while people are distracted by the coronavirus pandemic, in a video the Supreme Court ordered released on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Brazil’s Environment Minister Ricardo Salles looks on during a ceremony to sign a memorandum of

SANTIAGO/LIMA (Reuters) – Indigenous leaders are calling for help to stop oil companies drilling in the headwaters of the Amazon river in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, warning that encroaching on their homelands would destroy a bulwark against climate change. In video shared with Reuters on International Day for Biological Diversity on Friday, communities

KOLKATA/DHAKA (Reuters) – Several thousand people have been left homeless after the most powerful cyclone in more than a decade hit India and Bangladesh this week, officials said, as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the area on Friday and pledged aid. Cyclone Amphan killed at least 96 people, officials said after it swept in