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Scorching temperatures in Europe are prompting a rethink of work-from-home rules — with some staff opting to skip the office and avoid sweaty commutes, even as others seek sanctuary in cool, air-conditioned skyscrapers. Today’s newsletter details how JPMorgan relaxed strict policies in London amid the capital’s heat wave. Also, fire officials in California explain how they are rethinking plans to safely empty hard-to-escape neighborhoods when wildfires strike. Bankers’ heat reliefBy Nil Codina Martinez, Olivia Rudgard, Claudia Cohen and Arno Schütze JPMorgan Chase & Co. has relaxed some of the finance industry’s strictest return-to-office requirements for its London staff, after the UK capital sweltered through record-high temperatures. Last month, the bank concluded that the heat wave was serious enough to merit having staff talk through work-from-home arrangements with their managers, according to a person familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. 
The City of London, UK, during a heat wave on June 25, 2026.
Photographer: Betty Laura Zapata/Bloomberg
The more flexible approach comes as Londoners have faced school closures and disruptions to public transport after temperatures reached all-time highs for June. However, there was a smaller-than-expected dent on in-office attendance, which saw a decline of just 15%, according to the person familiar. The fact that JPMorgan’s London headquarters are air-conditioned while most private homes in the UK aren’t is likely to have played a role, they said. A spokesperson for JPMorgan, which has roughly 13,000 London-based employees spread across offices in Canary Wharf and Victoria Embankment, declined to comment. 
High temperatures in Paris, France, on June 26, 2026.
Photographer: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg
“The whole infrastructure of the city would need upgrading for people and businesses to cope well in a heat wave,” says Frances Brown, global workplace sector lead at the engineering consultancy Cundall. In Paris, where the temperature soared above 40C last month, banks have been relaxing dress codes to make sure employees don’t languish in suits designed for a different climate. In the French offices of at least one global bank, employees have been given permission to turn up in shorts and T-shirts, according to a person who works at the firm’s Paris office who asked not to be identified by name. Spokespeople for the banks declined to comment.
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One after another33C (91.4F) Temperature forecast for London on Thursday, when the third heat wave of the summer is expected to peak Future heat“The stresses that we see today are only going to get worse because heat waves like this ten years from now will be over 40C” Sarah Kapnick JPMorgan’s global head of climate advisory and a former chief scientist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Escaping fiercer wildfiresBy Todd Woody On a warm summer morning, two fire officials navigate an SUV along a narrow road that switchbacks high into the hills above the town of Fairfax, California, where thickets of trees conceal hundreds of homes. When the road dead-ends, they head back down through the same hairpin turns, pointing out where a wildfire would roar into the path of fleeing vehicles. “Most communities were not designed to accommodate every resident evacuating simultaneously,” said Dan Mahoney, chief of the Ross Valley Fire Department, which serves the town of 7,500 in Marin County. “In a lot of areas, there’s only one way in and out.” 
Dan Mahoney
Photographer: Jonah Reenders/Bloomberg
With climate-exacerbated heat waves triggering blazes across the US and around the world this summer, evacuation is fast becoming an existential challenge. Firestorms now ignite without warning as temperatures soar, increasingly spreading at lightning speed into cities like Los Angeles that border wildlands. Mounting death tolls in the US, Australia, Chile and other countries over the past decade have revealed how unprepared many policymakers and residents are for such rapidly moving infernos. That’s spurred new efforts to map evacuation chokepoints and develop strategies to quickly get people to safety. That includes extensive advance planning and modeling how people react to evacuation orders. There are limits to preparation, though, in the era of megafires, according to experts. A UC Santa Barbara study published last month underscored the magnitude of the evacuation challenge, finding that 2.5 million people in the US live in small towns at high risk for wildfire but with limited escape routes. Researchers determined that fire fatalities are concentrated in such communities. Nearly 18 million more people reside in places that face a lower though growing threat of wildfire but where there’s sometimes only one way out of town.
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This week’s Zero listenThe great famine of the 1870s killed 50 million people – and El Niño was a key driver. Another El Niño phase has just begun and it’s expected to be among the strongest. There are five times as many people in 2026 as there were in the 1870s and the planet is 1.4C hotter. So are we better prepared? Bloomberg’s Akshat Rathi speaks with Mingfang Ting, professor of climate at Columbia University, about the natural phenomenon and its interaction with human-caused climate change. Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday. Extreme impacts🌡️ Europe faces its third heat wave this summer as wildfires rage ⚡ Power grids and water supplies in Europe under strain from heat 💧 Mumbai struggles to cope as record rains lash the financial hub 🌧️ Super Typhoon Bavi set to bring more heavy rain to China 🌊 China’s Xi urges “all-out” relief efforts amid deadly storms More from GreenPhoto finish
The silver-cheeked pufferfish’s powerful jaws.
Photographer: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images
A poisonous fish with jaws so powerful that they can cut through metal cans is spreading across Greek islands and wreaking havoc on the country’s fishing industry. It could be the plot of a summer horror flick, but the threat is real. Warming sea temperatures are luring the fish into Mediterranean waters at a rate that’s overwhelming Greece’s ability to fight the invasion. More from Bloomberg
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