
Over 30,000 people have been displaced by heavy rains in southeast Brazil that also killed 54 people and left 18 missing. The storms in recent days caused floods and landslides, submerging entire neighbourhoods and sending homes tumbling down hillsides in the states of Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo and Rio de Janeiro.

One in two Australians have donated money to support bushfire relief efforts, a new survey showed over the weekend, with meteorologists warning more hot and dry weather is to return after a heavy rain respite dampened many of the blazes.

At least 50 people have died in Brazil and more than 25,000 have been displaced due to widespread flooding following storms and heavy rains that have swept across the southeast of the country, authorities said on Sunday.

84% of Rockhopper chicks on Sea Lion Island have died as a result of a storm that hit the Falkland Islands on January 14/15. Strong easterly winds on the island, which lies southeast of East Falklands, launched sea spray on to the colony for more than 48 hours, to deadly effect, said owner Mickey Reeves.

By Gwynne Dyer – Donald Trump's speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday contained no surprises: half an hour of chest-thumping self-praise, although without the usual xenophobia and dog-whistle racism. It was, after all, an audience of the ultra-rich and powerful in which most of the movers and shakers were not American.

The United States' financial chief on Thursday told Swedish teen Greta Thunberg to go study before calling for a fossil fuel halt, prompting the climate campaigner to reply it doesn't “take a degree” to understand the science.

A UK/Falklands-Argentina meeting of the South Atlantic Scientific Sub-Committee scheduled for January is “unlikely” to take place, the Falklands lawmaker MLA Teslyn Barkman told Penguin News. The prospect of this happening and “taking Britain out of the comfort zone enjoyed” until now, had been advanced by Mercopress.

Soaring temperatures are set to stoke simmering bushfires in Australia's southeast on Thursday with Sydney forecast to hit 41 degrees Celsius following a few days of reprieve.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday he will create an Amazon Council to coordinate the protection and sustainable development of the world's largest rainforest.

Vale's former chief executive officer was charged with homicide for the massive dam collapse that killed more than 250 people in Brazil last January (2019). Fabio Schvartsman is the highest-profile executive facing criminal charges for Brazil's worst environmental disaster.