France sweltered under its hottest day on record this week, with temperatures in the southern city of Montpellier hitting 47.3°C. The mercury rose even higher in the shade of the Paris Metro, where commuters fainted.
The heatwave has exposed a stark divide: those with air conditioning and those without. In the UK, the government activated its emergency heatwave plan for the first time this summer, but critics say the strategy ignores the working class. Unions warn that a lack of cooling in factories and warehouses is a health and safety scandal.
'In this heat, bread dough overproofs in an hour,' said a baker from Manchester. 'But we can't afford to install AC when energy bills are through the roof.' The price of bread is expected to rise as crops wither across Europe.
The heatwave is a crisis of the real economy: it hits the poorest hardest, in their wages, their homes, and their lunchboxes.
