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Thank you for following our coverage of wildfires in the Mediterranean and extreme weather across the world.

We're bringing our live updates to an end for now.

Here's a quick recap of some of the key developments on Friday:

• Weather conditions improved along the Croatian coast and in Sicily, allowing firefighters to bring blazes under control there
• Wildfire control improved across Greece, too. Although the risk of fire was still officially categorised as "very high" for several regions, this was an improvement from "extreme danger" throughout the past week. Blazes have been brought under control on Rhodes and Corfu.
• An exclusion zone remained in place around an ammunition depot at an air base in central Greece. There were explosions there on Thursday because of wildfires but evacuations ensured no one was hurt
• A new fire was reported in Italy near the border with France. Water-bomber planes quickly responded
• A "dangerous" heatwave is affecting up to 200 million people in the eastern United States
• An investigation is under way in the Philippines into the deaths of at least 27 people, who died when a boat overturned during a typhoon.

The big takeaway today seems to be that the immediate emergency is easing across much of Europe.

Fingers crossed, next week will not be dominated by stories of tourists fleeing wildfires.

However, everyone agrees the last 10 days feel like a turning point.

As experts have pointed out elsewhere in these pages, we cannot escape climate change - even if we're from the UK, our holidays will be impacted. And the countries where our food comes from.

So what should happen in future summers, if more of them will face this sort of disruption to our plans?

Chris Haslam, travel writer at The Times, suggested the timings of the school holidays could change to avoid families being restricted to travelling in the hottest months.

"We need to change the school holiday system so people can go in the spring and autumn, so people can avoid these ridiculous mid-summer temperatures," he said.

Would you support such a change? And others to help us adapt to the heat?

Read more from our feature on what could happen next...

US power generators will likely burn a record amount of natural gas for a second day in a row today, the hottest day so far this summer, as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners amid a brutal heatwave.

As we reported earlier in our 4.10pm post, "dangerous" levels of heat are forecast for much of the eastern United States.

Meteorologists said Friday will be the hottest day of the summer so far in the lower 48 states of the US - and the second hottest on record.

To keep providing air conditioners with electricity, data provider Refinitiv forecast power generators would burn about 52.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas on Friday, which would top the current record of 52.3 bcfd on Thursday and recent highs of 50.3 bcfd on 14 July and 49.6 bcfd on 20 July, 2022.

One billion cubic feet of gas is usually enough to supply about five million US homes for a day.

Despite the extreme heat, however, no US grid operators have taken more extreme actions to manage supply and demand - like calls for conservation or rotating outages - and none were projecting that power use would break all-time highs this week.

In Texas, however, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state's grid operator, did forecast that demand would set new records next week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday as the heatwave lingers.

Watching the chaos of wildfires across the Mediterranean has been a surreal experience for most of us here in the UK.

That's because, despite some scorching sunshine earlier in the summer, July has pretty much been a washout.

Perhaps the extreme heat endured by those elsewhere should make us more grateful for the drizzle in good old Blighty.

But rain in July still feels a disappointment.

I'm sorry to say our latest Sky News weather forecast remains disheartening.

Low pressure to the northwest of the UK will result in plenty of showers over the next few days, along with some more persistent rain at times.

The only silver lining on Saturday is that some parts of the country will stay dry through much of the day and temperatures in the warmer spots will reach 24C.

Read the full UK forecast below...

As we told you earlier, London's Labour mayor has won a High Court battle with several Conservative councils on his ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) plan.

Sadiq Khan will go ahead with expanding the ULEZ to London's outer boroughs in August. It will see older, more polluting cars charged a daily fee for travel in the capital - to discourage pollution, with the intention of achieving cleaner air in the capital.

Mr Khan has faced pressure from his own Labour party leader - Sir Keir Starmer - after the policy was blamed for Labour's failure to win the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election earlier this month.

Speaking to Sky News earlier, Mr Khan pointed out most Londoners were not affected by the ULEZ change and pledged more help for those who would be impacted by the expansion.

Pope Francis has urged governments to do more to fight climate change and protect "our common home" as improving weather conditions helped firefighters contain wildfires in Greece, Italy and other countries in southern Europe.

Francis, who has been outspoken on environmental issues, sent a telegram of condolences to Greece, where wildfires killed five people over the past week, including the pilots of a water-dropping aircraft.

The pontiff noted successive heatwaves have exacerbated the dangers of the summer fire season. 

He offered his prayers for firefighters and emergency personnel in particular.

"(I hope) that the risks to our common home, exacerbated by the present climate crisis, will spur all people to renew their efforts to care for the gift of creation, for the sake of future generations," Francis said.

"If it goes on like this, these vacation destinations will have no future in the long term."

These were the words of German health minister, Karl Lauterbach, in a social media post earlier this month.

He described a heatwave he experienced on a trip to Italy as "spectacular" and cast doubt on being able to holiday there if extreme weather continues.

The comments irritated Italians, especially those reliant on tourism.

Today, Mr Lauterbach has tried to explain what he meant.

He told reporters in Berlin he was not warning against vacations in southern Europe and plans to visit Italy again himself.

"Of course, it is more difficult now for the southern countries to organise heat protection in such a way that it is also accessible for every tourist, but I think those countries will know exactly what they have to do," he said.

The mother of a woman who died when an overloaded ferry capsized in the Philippines has called for "justice" as she demands to know who was responsible for the incident.

Glenda Aparentado, whose 24-year-old daughter Denice was killed when the vessel flipped over near the capital of Manila, said: "I want to know who should be held accountable for what happened."

Her husband Domingo said he raced to the scene when he heard news of the ferry's capsizing - but found his daughter's body in the water.

"I tried everything I could but she died," he said.

Ms Aparentado has criticised the coastguard inspectors who allowed the ferry to sail while overcrowded with passengers.

"In this kind of situation, the coastguard shouldn't allow travel when there are strong gusts of wind," she added.

As we've been reporting, at least 27 people died in the tragedy during Typhoon Doksuri in east Asia.

Typhoon Doksuri has lashed parts of the Philippines, Taiwan, and China this week, killing dozens of people and leaving a trail of destruction.

The powerful storm has caused landslides, floods and widespread power outages, with schools and businesses forced to shut.

China has issued its highest warning for a typhoon, cancelling flights and railway transport for passengers.

"Dangerous" heat is set to "engulf" much of the eastern half of the US over the next 24 hours - and some areas could clock their hottest temperatures so far this year, forecasters have said.

The US National Weather Service has warned sizzling heat will spread from the Midwest to some locations in the northeast and mid-Atlantic today and into tomorrow.

Overnight temperatures could remain above 80F (26.7C) in places, it said.

But the "dangerous heat" will peak before Sunday, when "cooler and more comfortable" conditions will return.

It comes as nearly 200 million people in the US - around 60% - are currently under a heat advisory or flood warning or watch. 

Yesterday, Joe Biden announced new measures to protect Americans from extreme temperatures. Here's a reminder of what they were:

• The US president said he directed the Labour Department to increase enforcement of heat-safety violations and inspections in high-risk workplaces, such as construction and agriculture sites;

• It will also issue a hazard alert to tell employers what they should do to protect workers, ensure employees are aware of their rights and highlight steps the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has to try to ensure worker safety;

• Biden's administration will invest up to $7 million to improve weather forecasts, plus $152 million to boost drinking water infrastructure and climate resilience in California, Colorado and Washington.