Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist. I'm your host, Aurera Ogmbi.

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

A decade of low interest rates encouraged people to put a lot of faith in risky assets

from Bitcoin to junk ones and with all this hype came a speculation fueled bubble in

the market. But now that big bubble has popped. Or has it?

And European streets once buzzed with petite cars such as the Mini, the Beetle and the

Fiat 500. Well, prepare to see fewer of them. It seems that people on the continent are

falling out of love with their teeny weeny cars.

But first. Over the weekend, wildfires raged in Spain's Canary Islands and in Croatia.

In the Greek capital of Athens, the Acropolis was closed as temperatures rose into the

high thirties, with a number of tourists sent to hospital showing signs of heat exposure.

The heat is very intense and there's a lot of people. I hope hopefully no one will suffer

any illness, but it was very intense.

And 16 Italian cities were on red alert over the searing heat.

The current record for the highest temperature ever reached in Europe, 48.8 degrees Celsius,

was set in Sicily in 2021. Forecasters are predicting that this week, it may be exceeded.

Meanwhile, in America, there's a similar pattern emerging.

Forecasters expect parts of California and Arizona to reach all time high temperatures.

The National Weather Service says roughly 111 million people are under heat advisories.

Those alerts span roughly 2,000 miles from Oregon to Louisiana.

California's Death Valley, one of the world's hottest places, is predicted to hit 54 degrees Celsius,

approaching the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth.

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