Sustainable Switch Climate Focus: Wildfires raze the Mediterranean as storms hit Asia

Firefighters have been battling multiple wildfires across Turkey and Cyprus that have scorched swathes of land, forcing the evacuation of towns and villages.
At least six separate wildfires were burning across Turkey, and Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli warned that strong winds and blazing heat were creating extremely dangerous conditions.
Firefighters were killed while battling a fire in the central Eskisehir province, Yumakli said, adding that 14 others were injured. Fanned by strong winds, the fire later spread to another central province, Afyonkarahisar.
Over in Cyprus, two people were killed and hundreds evacuated as a massive wildfire tore through the island’s south, destroying homes and threatening communities amid an intense heatwave.
At least 100 square kilometres (39 square miles) were razed to the ground in a wine-producing region north of the city of Limassol after the blaze broke out around midday on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, heavy rains triggered by tropical storm Wipha have caused severe flooding in the central Vietnamese province of Nghe An, killing at least three people with one more missing.
With a long coastline facing the South China Sea, Vietnam is prone to typhoons that often cause deadly floods and mudslides. Wipha is the first major storm to hit the country this year.
In the Philippines, Wipha has intensified already torrential monsoon rains, triggering knee- to waist-deep flooding across parts of the country and forcing a second day of school closures, flight cancellations and the suspension of government work.
Thousands of families remain in evacuation centres as relentless rains, which swept through the country's north last week, continue to batter the country.
In South Korea, President Lee Jae Myung declared six districts special disaster zones after days of torrential rains left a trail of destruction in parts of the country.
Around 19 people have died and nine were still missing in South Korea, while 2,549 people were displaced, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.
Storms in northern China have dumped nearly a year's worth of rain on the city of Baoding, forcing more than 19,000 people to flee their homes, the national forecaster said on Friday.
Rainfall in Yi, in the western part of Baoding, reached 447.4 mm in the 24 hours leading up to early Friday morning, breaking new records at several meteorological stations in Hebei Province, where Baoding is located.