British fashion designer Stella McCartney is showcasing plant-based alternatives to real feathers in her latest collection, as the animal-rights campaigner takes on the "barbaric" farming of birds for clothing.

New Zealand 's annual bird election is contested by cheeky parrots, sweet songbirds and cute, puffball robins. This year's winner was a mysterious falcon that wouldn't think twice about eating them.

Heavy rain and strong winds from the former Typhoon Bualoi flooded roads, knocked off roofs and caused at least 12 deaths in central Vietnam before weakening to a tropical storm that moved Monday into Laos, state media reported.

Authorities in the Bahamas closed a majority of schools on Monday following mandatory evacuations for some islands in the archipelago as Tropical Storm Imelda was expected to drop heavy rain and unleash flooding in the northern Caribbean.

The EU's environment commissioner said on Monday she has tested positive for "toxic" forever chemicals after undergoing screening to raise awareness of the health risks linked to the man-made pollutants.

A tropical storm blew out of the central Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 10 dead, knocking down trees and power and prompting the evacuation of more than 433,000 people from landslide- and flood-prone villages long battered by typhoons.

Bualoi was the latest of back-to-back storms from the Pacific to threaten Asia. Typhoon Ragasa, one of the strongest to hit in years, caused at least 28 deaths in the northern Philippines and Taiwan, mostly drownings, before making landfall in China and dissipating on Thursday over Vietnam.

Typhoon Ragasa weakened into a tropical depression early Thursday as it entered northeastern Vietnam, but it is still expected to bring heavy rains across the country's northern provinces.

By Thursday afternoon, the typhoon's sustained winds had weakened to a maximum 55 kph (34 mph) and Ragasa was forecast to dissipate eventually while remaining a rain threat for Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia.

With China leading the way by announcing its first emission cuts, world leaders said Wednesday they are getting more serious about fighting climate change and the deadly extreme weather that comes with it.

At the United Nations' high-level climate summit, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced the world's largest carbon-polluting country would aim to cut emissions by 7% to 10% by 2035. China produces more than 31% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, and they have long been soaring.

Some countries' leaders are watching rising seas threaten to swallow their homes. Others are watching their citizens die in floods, hurricanes and heat waves, all exacerbated by climate change.

But the world U.S. President Donald Trump described in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday didn't match the one many world leaders in the audience are contending with. Nor did it align with what scientists have long been observing.

Typhoon Ragasa, one of the strongest in years, whipped waves taller than lampposts onto Hong Kong promenades and turned seas rough on the southern Chinese coast on Wednesday after leaving deadly destruction in Taiwan and the Philippines.

In Taiwan, 17 people died after floods submerged roads and carried away vehicles in one county, and 10 deaths were reported in the northern Philippines.