Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Combing through satellite images to gauge a state's defense capabilities is the stuff of old school spycraft.

The new school is this. Those images are now free online, and communities of sleuths are finding all manner of information that was once top secret.

And the name Murder Hornet is certainly evocative.

The threat that these invasive creatures present in America isn't to humans, but to the humble honeybee.

That is still worrisome, and the way they take down their prey is nothing short of gruesome.

First up, though... Across the Mediterranean, wildfires are consuming the landscape.

Viewed from the air, the northern part of the Greek island of Evia near Athens is a uniform

ruined brown.

The smoke has forced Athenians indoors.

Thousands of people on the island have fled.

Childhood memories are burned right now.

I used to run in this forest.

I used to recycle.

We used to go for and collect fruits. Now everything is gone.

Other European states are sending in support on the ground and in the air where Greece's water bombing campaign has been lacking.

Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis apologized for his government's failure to contain the blazes.

We have a debt to shield the country against the reality of climate change, he said.

I'm not looking for excuses.

The problem is bigger than Greece, a lot bigger.

From Italy to Algeria, Morocco to Lebanon, the whole of the Mediterranean and beyond

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