‘Hell de Janeiro’: scorching heat highlights Brazil’s glaring inequality

It felt like 58.5C in Rio on Tuesday - and the soaring, indeed dangerous, temperatures are hitting the poorest hardest

The start of summer in the southern hemisphere is still a month away, but Brazil has already experienced its eighth heatwave of the year so far, as temperatures soar to dangerously high levels.

Large swathes of the country were put under red alert this week by Inmet, the national meteorological institute, which warned of risks to health and even life" as temperatures stayed at least five degrees Celsius above average for more than five days.