Yosemite National Park is closed through Friday because of impacts from the winter storm, including heavy snowfall and heavy trees. The National Park Service announced Thursday that the park is closed and that visitors with lodging reservations may still enter the park through Highway 140 at the Arch Rock entrance. Since Monday, Yosemite Valley and the park has received about 4 feet of snow and up to 52 inches in some areas, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford.
Heavy rains and strong winds continued to batter parts of Spain and Portugal on Friday, causing at least one death, forcing the evacuation of more than 7,000 people and prompting calls to postpone the second-round of Portugal's presidential election. Storm Leonardo, which has lashed the Iberian peninsula this week, has led the Portuguese government to extend the current state of calamity in 69 municipalities until the middle of February.
It was 26.1C as the sun rose on Tuesday over the small Victorian town of Ouyen, the Mallee town of 1,170 people whose forecast high of 49C would break the state's temperature record of 48.8C set in Hopetoun on Black Saturday in 2009. The area has not recorded a drop of rainfall all January, and only 13.6mm in December. The fire danger rating on Tuesday was extreme.
President Daniel Chapo has canceled his trip to Davos because of severe flooding in Mozambique that has damaged infrastructure and affected hundreds of thousands of people. Chapo published a Facebook post late on Sunday saying that the country was going through "a tough time." "As President of the Republic, our place is with our people. We maintain our commitment to investment and international partners, but the absolute priority at this moment is to save lives," he wrote.
Wildfires raging across central and southern Chile have killed at least 15 people, scorched thousands of hectares of forest and destroyed scores of homes, authorities said, as the South American country swelters under a heatwave. Chile's president, Gabriel Boric, declared a state of catastrophe in the country's central Biobio region and the neighbouring Nuble region, about 500km (300 miles) south of Santiago, the capital.
Australia's east coast is being smashed by summer storms as residents are told to evacuate. An emergency warning was in place for Sydney's northern beaches on Sunday morning, with residents at Narrabeen Lagoon and surrounds told to leave. More than a dozen people have been rescued across Sydney, with cars submerged and homes flooded. At Great Mackerel Beach, in the northern beaches, a landslide damaged numerous homes with at least one woman injured.
Published On 5 Jan 20265 Jan 2026 Israel's military launched attacks on what it described as Hezbollah and Hamas targets in Lebanon after issuing evacuation orders for four villages in the country's east and south. An Israeli army spokesperson said earlier it was planning air strikes on Hezbollah and Hamas military infrastructure in the villages of Hammara and Ain el-Tineh in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and Kfar Hatta and Aanan in the south.
Russian forces shelled the town of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine's Donetsk region, killing one person, an official said. The deadly attack came a day after an attack in Druzhkivka killed another person and wounded four, according to the Ukrinform news agency. Russian forces also launched waves of attacks on the Black Sea ports of Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk in Ukraine's Odesa region, hitting two Panama-flagged civilian vessels Emmakris III and Captain Karam as they approached to load wheat, the Ukrainian navy said. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said that oil storage tanks were also hit in the port attacks.
But first there will likely be a bit more precipitation. The National Weather Service predicts 1 to 1½ inches of rain will fall on Los Angeles County's coasts and valleys between midnight and noon on Friday, with 1½ inches to 4 inches in the mountains. Coastal and valley temperatures are anticipated to peak in the high 50s and low 60s, and snowfall is expected at elevations above 6,000 feet.
PA Media A fire that destroyed a warehouse in west London has been brought under control overnight, London Fire Brigade (LFB) says. The two-storey building on Bridge Road, Southall, caught fire shortly before 09:00 GMT on Tuesday and was later declared a major incident as it was believed fireworks may have been stored inside. A residential block and three nearby schools were evacuated as a precaution, although residents were able to return home on Tuesday evening and the schools are due to reopen.
Severe rainfall caused destructive flooding in southern Thailand, leaving the tourist city of Hat Yai waist-deep underwater and prompting the government to declare a state of emergency in Songkhla province on Tuesday. Officials said at least 13 people have been killed across four flood-hit provinces. How is Thailand responding to the floods? Also on Tuesday, Thailand prepared to deploy a naval flotilla of 14 boats and the aircraft carrier Chakri Naruebet,
At least 41 people have been killed across six provinces since Sunday, while the search was continuing for nine others, the environment ministry said on Thursday. More than 52,000 houses were flooded, and nearly 62,000 people were evacuated from their homes, while several major roads remained blocked due to landslides, and one million customers were left without electricity. A suspension bridge on the Da Nhim River in Lam Dong province was swept away on Thursday morning, the VietnamNet newspaper reported.
Rescuers were trying to reach people stranded in homes or on rooftops in central and southern Vietnam on Thursday, as the government said that 41 people had died in the latest round of flooding and landslides, following weeks of heavy rains. Coastal cities ranging from Hoi An to the tourist destination of Nha Trang to the south were among the worst hit.
Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, said the army's situation has significantly worsened in parts of the southeastern Zaporizhia region amid fierce fighting with Russian forces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that he had received an update from Syrskii, which conveyed that the situation remains difficult in the Zaporizhia region, as well as in the direction of the embattled city of Pokrovsk. Zaporizhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said that a Russian drone attack killed a 56-year-old man in the Polohivskyi district. Also in Zaporizhia, the Kushuhum Village Council announced in a post on the Telegram messaging app that families with children must begin mandatory evacuations from the area.
