In a first-of-its kind move, Hawaii lawmakers are ready to hike a tax imposed on travelers staying in hotels, vacation rentals and other short-term accommodations and earmark the new money for programs to cope with a warming planet.

State leaders say they'll use the funds for projects like replenishing sand on eroding beaches, helping homeowners install hurricane clips on their roofs and removing invasive grasses like those that fueled the deadly wildfire that destroyed Lahaina two years ago.

A decade ago, Scott Osborn would have eagerly told prospective vineyard owners looking to join the wine industry to "jump into it."

Now, his message is different.

Storms with lightning and hail and at least one observed tornado were moving through the upper Midwest on Monday with the potential for strong tornadoes.

The National Weather Service said the highest risks — a 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 — were in portions of southern Minnesota, including the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, northern Iowa and western Wisconsin. Forecasters had expected two rounds of severe weather, with the possibility of tornadoes in the EF-2 range or greater.

The Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, when the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces. But millions of people still face daily battles with its chemical legacy.

Nguyen Thanh Hai, 34, is one of millions with disabilities linked to Agent Orange. Born with severe developmental challenges, it's a struggle for him to complete tasks others take for granted: buttoning the blue shirt he wears to a special school in Da Nang, practicing the alphabet, drawing shapes or forming simple sentences.

Behind the remains of a town scorched by fire, the foothills are lush with new green and filled with birdsong.

Wildlife is returning to the Eaton Fire burn area and scientists are closely tracking it four months after the Los Angeles area wildfires tore through the Angeles National Forest and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in Altadena.

Cyprus will receive free-of-charge portable desalination plants from the United Arab Emirates to cover the tourism-reliant island nation's water needs this summer as reservoir deposits are nearly depleted, officials said Thursday.

Agriculture and Environment Minister Maria Panayiotou told the state broadcaster that the UAE agreed to provide Cyprus, at no cost, an undetermined number of desalination plants that will produce a combined 15,000 cubic meters (530,000 cubic feet) of potable water daily.

Harmful bleaching of the world's coral has grown to include 84% of the ocean's reefs in the most intense event of its kind in recorded history, the International Coral Reef Initiative announced Wednesday.

It's the fourth global bleaching event since 1998, and has now surpassed bleaching from 2014-17 that hit some two-thirds of reefs, said the ICRI, a mix of more than 100 governments, non-governmental organizations and others. And it's not clear when the current crisis, which began in 2023 and is blamed on warming oceans, will end.

A fast-moving wildfire burning in New Jersey on Tuesday forced thousands of people to evacuate and closed a stretch of a major highway.

The Garden State Parkway, one of New Jersey's busiest highways, was closed between Barnegat and Lacey townships, according to the New Jersey Fire Service.

A slow-moving, active storm system brought heavy rain, large hail and tornadoes to parts of Texas and Oklahoma and left three people dead as severe weather warnings Sunday continue to threaten parts of the south-central and Midwest U.S.

On Easter Sunday, communities in Texas and Oklahoma were beginning to assess the damage wreaked by tornadoes. There were 17 reported events Saturday, according to Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center. Five were confirmed in south-central Oklahoma, including one that inflicted substantial damage on a small town that was still recovering from a March tornado.

The Everglades is more than just swamps, fan boats and alligators and restoration efforts impact more than the land between Florida's east and west coasts.

Florida Bay, a body of water located between the southern end of mainland Florida and the Florida Keys, makes up about a third of Everglades National Park.