US heat dome grips 40 million under extreme warnings

A sprawling heat dome has pushed heat indexes well above 100°F across a band stretching from Minnesota down to Mississippi and west into southern California, with at least 40 million Americans under extreme heat warnings for a second straight day. Europe is simultaneously battling unprecedented wildfires, with France and Spain deploying thousands of firefighters and hundreds of tourists evacuated by boat from the Italian resort town of Peschici on the Adriatic coast. The compounding crises are adding fresh pressure to the global energy market already strained by the US-Iran conflict.