New Yorkers and millions of others in the Northeast have faced flash floods for the second time in two weeks as severe thunderstorms and torrential downpours slammed the East Coast.

Some workers in NY and New Jersey were sent home early Thursday afternoon ahead of the evening commute. Heavy rain and thunderstorms kept travelers grounded. Hundreds of flights both in and out of Newark, LaGuardia, and JFK airports were cancelled or delayed. One death was reported after a child was trapped in a storm drain in Mount Airy, Maryland, according to the Carroll County fire chief.

Meanwhile, wildfires continued to burn in Spain and Portugal as temperatures are set to rise further across the Iberian Peninsula. Spain's meteorology service AEMET predicted that temperatures in central and southern Spain could exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) by Sunday.

In China, authorities relocated more than 280,000 people in Shanghai and its surrounding regions and hundreds of flights and ferry operations were cancelled as Typhoon Co-May made landfall. The storm hit China on the same day when one of the strongest ever recorded struck off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, triggering widespread tsunami warnings everywhere from Japan to the US and Australia.

And finally, in the UK, Sadiq Khan has threatened legal action against the government, warning that a hugely controversial third runway at Heathrow will have a "severe impact" in terms of noise and air pollution – and will leave Britain's climate targets in jeopardy.

Storm clouds hover near Central Park ahead of torrential downpours affecting millions (Getty)

The quiet rebellion against fashion's social media algorithms

By Caroline Garland

The next generation of hurricane forecasters could be sharks

By Julia Musto

What happens right before lightning strikes? Scientists have solved the mystery

By Julia Musto

Stuti's must reads

Last week I flagged that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled governments could be violating international law if they fail to act on climate change in a landmark judgement for international law and environmental justice.

But what does that actually mean in practice? And how will it affect legal cases all over the world? Here I try to answer those questions, with the help of some experts.

My colleague Caroline Garland has been at the forefront of a brilliant series for The Independent, called Fashion Reimagined.

In this piece she speaks to sustainable fashion leaders about the stories your clothes can tell – of hands that stitched, fields that grew fibres or the journeys they took across continents before landing in your arms.

One of Caroline's other pieces is featured in the weekly briefing above – and is well worth checking out. She's also conducting a short survey to explore how our relationship with nature affects our fashion habits, and whether social media plays a role in shaping our choices You can participate in here.

CLIMATE IN NUMBERS

2 billion

That's the number of people lacking safe drinking water globally. As climate change makes rains more temperamental, and groundwater levels decline, the global water desalination industry is set for a boom period.

Read more

The Independent has launched a project to investigate the impact of foreign aid cuts on the developing world. The project receives funding from the Gates Foundation. All of the journalism is editorially independent.

FEATURED

UK aid cuts will leave millions of African women without life-saving healthcare

By Kavinya E Makau

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