"Alberta's unusually early and large fire is just the latest of many gargantuan fires on an Earth that's grown hotter with more extreme weather."

"Pregnant women who’ve traveled to Latin America and the Caribbean are advised to be tested for the Zika virus afterward. But medical researchers have discovered there’s a problem with that advice: Some diagnostic tests will return positive results even when a person hasn’t contracted Zika."

"The dismissal of Ali al-Naimi as Saudi Arabia’s oil minister puts the country’s deputy crown prince firmly in control of energy policy and makes an agreement to freeze oil production less likely when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets next month, OPEC officials said."

"Leopards are reclusive and known for their ability to adapt, traits that have led some wildlife biologists to assume that the animals remained relatively abundant in the wild. But a study published Wednesday suggests that leopards have lost as much as 75 percent of their historical range since 1750."

"The election of Donald Trump would derail the landmark agreement on climate change reached in Paris last December, the architect of the accord has warned."

"Solar power set another record-low price as renewable energy developers working in the United Arab Emirates shrugged off financial turmoil in the industry to promise projects costs that undercut even coal-fired generators."

"Aedes aegypti, the exotically named mosquito that transmits the Zika virus, defies almost everything Americans think they know about mosquitoes, which means that even experts know very little about how to control them."

"Water shortages will deliver a 'severe hit' to the economies of the Middle East, central Asia, and Africa by the middle of the century, taking double digits off their GDP, the World Bank warned on Tuesday."

"The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined a request from shareholders seeking to revive their class action lawsuit against BP claiming the British oil company misrepresented its safety procedures prior to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill."

"Verbal attacks by presidential candidates in the U.S., new security laws in Europe and increased surveillance of information are some of the new challenges journalists face today, media freedom advocates said on the eve of World Press Freedom Day."