Catalonia

Surveying the hills covered with near bone-dry pines stretching to the Pyrenees in the distance, Asier Larraaga has reason to be on guard. This part of northeast Spain is, like large swaths of the Mediterranean country, braced for wildfires due to the lethal combination of a prolonged drought, record-high temperatures and increasingly dense woods unable to adapt to a fast-changing climate. Larraaga is one of the top fire analysts for the firefighters of Catalonia charged with safeguarding the region's homes and landscapes. While grateful that some desperately needed rain has finally fallen in recent weeks, he is ready for the worst unless July and August buck Spain's historic trend of being the hottest and driest months of the year. If we have a normal summer and conditions of low humidity combined with high temperatures, then we will see fires that quickly expand beyond our extinction capacity. And for areas where it has not rained in May and this month, we could see these types

EU has neither the tools nor the will to tackle separatist crisis in Spain

The Catalan parliament passed a measure in September officially announcing its plan to hold a referendum on October 1

Catalonia, which is roughly the size of Belgium and home to around 7.5 million people

Catalonia, a 7.5-mn population with its own language and customs, has long demanded greater autonomy