While it took just over a year for the global COVID death toll to hit 2.5 million, the next 2.5 million deaths were recorded over the past eight months as the highly contagious delta variant spread around the world.

Governor Andy Beshear said there could be 80 or more people dead, as many people remain missing after a series of severe storms ripped through the state over the weekend. Thousands remain without heat or water.

Philippine authorities now say at least 388 people have been killed by Typhoon Rai, which hit the country nearly two weeks ago. Disease outbreaks are adding to the woes of local residents.

Madagascar's state disaster relief agency says at least 80 people have died after Cyclone Batsirai hit the island at the weekend, with most deaths occurring in a single area.

The death toll from heavy rains and mudslides in the city of Petropolis in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state has risen to 104, authorities said late Wednesday, Feb. 16. At least 54 homes have been destroyed and 370 people are being housed in shelters, according to a report by the Brazilian news portal G1.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to help the victims of devastating east coast floods on Wednesday, as the death toll rose to 259 from heavy rains that washed out roads and disrupted shipping in one of Africa's busiest ports.

A government official says flooding in KwaZulu-Natal province has caused the deaths of 259 people. Many people are still missing and thousands of others have been displaced.

Thousands have been displaced and scores are missing in what is considered to be one of the worst natural disasters on record. South Africa's weather service is warning of even more heavy rains.

The death toll from protests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has risen to 22. People in the DR Congo's east are angry with the UN's MONUSCO mission for failing to keep them safe.

The death toll in torrential floods in the US state of Kentucky continued to rise days after floods began. The flooding has swamped towns across the Appalachian mountain region of the central eastern United States.

The number of victims of wildfires in Algeria has risen to 26 from eight reported earlier, the country's interior minister said on Wednesday

Security forces are still trying to retake the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu, a venue popular with lawmakers and government officials, following an overnight siege.