Three die

fighting fires

BEAVER, Utah (AP) — Three firefighters have died and two were injured while battling fires on the Colorado-Utah border. The U.S. Wildland Fire Service says they were responding to the Knowles and Gore fires on Saturday.

Wildfire activity has intensified across the Western U.S. due to hot, dry, and windy weather. The largest blaze, the Cottonwood Fire, has grown to over 146 square miles in southwest Utah. Utah’s governor declared an emergency earlier this week, and Colorado’s governor on Saturday followed suit and authorized the National Guard to help.

Conditions have been critical, with record-low snowpack and extreme drought fueling the fires.

Helicopter

crash kills 14

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — All 14 people on board were killed in Saudi Arabia when a helicopter belonging to the world’s largest oil company crashed on Sunday morning, according to the Saudi Ministry of Energy.

The accident occurred around 6 a.m. in Ras Tanura, and everyone killed was a Saudi national, the statement said. An investigation was opened into the cause of the crash.

The helicopter belonged to Aramco, which is majority-owned by Saudi Arabia.

Aramco recently has had to scramble as the Iran war disrupted oil supplies and raised prices. The company has said it successfully shifted some oil exports to a pipeline to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, which has been disrupted as Iran asserted control over the waterway.

Toll rises

in Venezuela

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — Local and international rescue teams raced against the clock to pull survivors from the rubble in Venezuela four days after two powerful earthquakes shook the northern state of La Guaira. The government reported 1,450 dead from the quakes Sunday afternoon as it faced growing criticism from Venezuelans that its response was inadequate and overshadowed by civilian-led search-and-rescue efforts.

Thousands have been reported missing. Even as the likelihood of finding people alive diminished with each passing hour, rescuers continued to free survivors from mountains of debris, offering anguished families reason to keep hopes alive.

Extreme heat

plagues Europe

BERLIN (AP) — France has reported around 1,000 additional deaths during last week’s record-breaking heat wave. Extreme temperatures also sparked wildfires in Germany and Berlin police used water cannons to cool down crowds.

Temperature records were broken across several countries as the heat wave moved east. A study from the World Weather Attribution suggests climate change made this heat wave 200 times more likely. And the head of the World Health Organization warned that Europe is now the fastest-warming continent and needs to do more to protect its citizens.