A warming planet and land use changes mean more wildfires will scorch large parts of the globe in coming decades.

The U.N. weather agency has certified a 38-degree Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) reading in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk last year as the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic.

Russian emergency officials say over 830 people have been evacuated from a summer camp in the southern Urals because of a forest fire raging just half a mile away.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged authorities to strengtnen their efforts to fight wildfires in northeastern Siberia, calling the situation “unprecedented.”.

Russian authorities have expanded a state of emergency in northeast Siberia to bring in outside resources to combat wildfires that have engulfed the vast region.

Russian authorities have started to evacuate two villages in a vast region of Siberia where 155 active forest fires are burning.

Authorities say that forest fires this summer in Siberia and parts of far northeastern Russia cover an area so vast that over half of them aren't being fought at all.

YAKUTSK, Russia - A shaman on a 5,000-mile journey to "exorcise" President Vladimir Putin has been arrested by Russian armed police, a human rights organization has said. Amnesty International said Thursday that Aleksandr Gabyshev is a "Siberian shaman walking across Russia to Moscow and promising to use his magic powers to 'purge' President Vladimir Putin in 2021." Amnesty said armed and masked law enforcement officials "encircled" Gabyshev's camp near the village of Vydrino, in the Russian republic of Buyratia, and "took away the shaman" on Thursday. "Aleksandr Gabyshev, a shaman from the Russian republic of Yakutia, began his 8,000km journey to Moscow in March," Amnesty International said in a statement published online. His fate and whereabouts are still unknown," the human rights organization said in a statement published online.