Hurricane Melissa strengthened further Tuesday as it crawled toward Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, the strongest to lash the island since recordkeeping began 174 years ago.

Hours before the storm, the Jamaican government said it had done all it could to prepare as it warned of catastrophic damage. The streets in the capital, Kingston, remained largely empty except for the lone stray dog crossing puddles and a handful of people walking briskly under tree branches waving in a stiff wind.

From the depths of Brazil's Amazon to Indonesia's rainforests, some of the world's most isolated peoples are being squeezed by roads, miners and drug traffickers — a crisis unfolding far from public view or effective state protection.

Hurricane Melissa intensified to Category 5 strength Monday as it neared Jamaica, where forecasters said it would unleash catastrophic flooding, multiple landslides and extensive infrastructure damage.

Melissa is forecast to make landfall on the island Tuesday and cross Cuba and the Bahamas through Wednesday.

Tropical Storm Melissa was stationary in the central Caribbean early Friday, with forecasters warning it could soon strengthen and brush past Jamaica as a powerful hurricane while unleashing potentially "catastrophic" flash flooding and landslides in southern Haiti.

The erratic storm was expected to drop copious rain on Jamaica and the southern regions of Haiti and the Dominican Republic through the weekend.

Conservationists and students cheered as three rescued sea turtles, endangered in this part of the world, made their way back into the ocean at a private beach in Nigeria's economic hub of Lagos.

Doctors have long known that heat puts a strain on the heart, kidneys and other organs. Those risks are exacerbated for pregnant people, as the body's processes for staying cool are altered.

Pakistani authorities are using anti-smog guns in the eastern city of Lahore for the first time this winter in a bid to combat hazardous air pollution, officials said Thursday.

The European Parliament on Thursday definitively adopted rules clamping down on pollution from the tiny pellets that constitute the building blocks of most plastic products.

The text introduces new rules to hold handling and transport firms accountable for spills of the lentil-sized pellets, called nurdles, which are used in everything from from car bumpers to salad bowls.

Artificial intelligence has caused concern for its tremendous consumption of water and power. But scientists are also experimenting with ways that AI can help people and businesses use energy more efficiently and pollute less.

Data centers needed to fuel AI accounted for about 1.5% of the world's electricity consumption last year, and those facilities' energy consumption is predicted to more than double by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. That increase could lead to burning more fossil fuels such as coal and gas, which release greenhouse gases that contribute to warming temperatures, sea level rise and extreme weather.

Tropical Storm Melissa dumped heavy rain on parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Wednesday as forecasters warned of a significant flood risk in parts of the northern Caribbean in the coming days.