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Rescue teams face ‘race against time’ in search for trapped survivors as death toll in Japan rises to at least 13 – live updates

Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun newspaper has been speaking to people at the Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro, where a chimney collapsed on to the site. “I never imagined something like this would happen,” said a 33-year-old man who worked at the factory. “I never thought that the chimney could collapse. I’m worried about the people inside.” He was off duty and at home when the earthquake struck, and was unharmed. The names of those rescued and those trapped have not yet been released. “Someone I know might be affected,” he said. According to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, as of 2pm local time today seven people had been rescued. Of those rescued, five have died and two were injured. The whereabouts of four people remain unknown.

Pedro Sánchez says next 12 hours will be ‘decisive’ in battle to contain wildfires – Europe live

While the situation near Madrid is gradually improving, the Spanish media are reporting that a separate fire near The Vall d’Uixó in the Castellón province is still spreading uncontrollably. RTVE reported that it remains out of control after burning nearly 10,000 hectares across 81 kilometers, forcing authorities to evacuate some 10,000 people.

Canada’s worst wildfire seasons fuel push for national emergency agency

As more than 900 wildfires burn across Canada, prompting evacuation orders and pushing Ontario into its worst wildfire season on record, officials are renewing calls for the country to develop a national wildfire strategy through the creation of a federal agency. Canada is the only G7 country that does not have a national emergency agency that is mandated to respond to wildfires. After a disastrous July for wildfires that razed First Nations communities in northeasern Ontario and sent poisonous smoke southward through the US, provincial premier Doug Ford called for a countrywide response to the wildfire threat. “We need a large national fire strategy. We seem to be going through this every single year,” Ford told reporters. In 2023, Canada’s worst wildfire season on record burned through a staggering 15m hectares of land, an area larger than England, according to the federal government. That catastrophe prompted the federal government, led then by Justin Trudeau, to consider the creation of a national disaster response agency. Yet such a body was never created. Summer 2024 was another destructive season, now the fourth worst on record. Then, 2025 ended up ranking only behind 2023 as the worst wildfire season in Canadian history, with 8.3m hectares burned. “Never in our modern record have we had three bad fire years,” said Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia. Climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, has led to warming that is fuelling calamitous fire seasons, he said. A national wildfire strategy through the creation of a federal emergency agency, he said, would help Canada be more prepared. “We definitely need one, and not just for fires, but for floods, earthquakes, hurricanes,” he said. In Canada, provinces and territories are responsible for managing wildfires and the federal government offers support as needed. That’s in contrast to the US which has the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) that organizes the national response to disasters through working with states. However, the Fema model is under threat as the Donald Trump administration has been accused of castigating the agency and politicizing disaster aid. But in principle, a group like Fema that could quickly alert provinces and territories to resources in advance would help Canada put out fires faster, said Flannigan. A June report from the Canadian senate also recommended Ottawa create a federal coordinating office for wildfires and emergency response. On Friday, the prime minister, Mark Carney, convened a cabinet-level emergency committee to organize the federal response to the wildfires, but fell short of creating a national wildfire strategy. However, Canada’s ministry of emergency management and community resilience told the Guardian it’s considering “the potential creation of a federal emergency management agency”, as it reviews feedback from recent public engagement sessions. The costs of creating such an agency would be offset by the palpable savings that come with preventing community destruction and mitigating the negative health impacts of fires, said Flannigan. “We’re going to see more fire, more smoke and more impacts…. that’s our new reality,” he said. “We’re going to have to adapt faster.”

US joins forces with Saudis to strike Tehran-backed militias in Iraq

The US military said it knocked down an Iranian missile barrage and worked with Saudi Arabia forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days. The strikes on Wednesday killed at least 20 members of a former paramilitary alliance that includes pro-Iran groups. In what Washington cast ⁠as “an attempted surprise ⁠attack” by Tehran, Iran had launched multiple ballistic missiles at US forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting. Iran’s target was a US base in Jordan, Axios cited a US official as saying. US Central Command (Centcom) said all Iranian missiles launched on Tuesday were intercepted, and the US warned any further attacks on American troops or Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure would trigger retaliatory strikes. The joint US-Saudi strikes on targets in Iraq killed at least 20 members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces and wounded others. The PMF is an Iraqi state security service that Iran has infiltrated. In a further sign that the lull in fighting could be over, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed on Wednesday to have struck and halted three “violating” oil tankers sailing an “illegal” route in the strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media reported. The price of Brent crude oil rose after news of the flare-up, hovering around $88 a barrel. Both sides had held fire over the weekend, after nearly two weeks of nightly strikes by the US on Iran, and repeated missile and drone salvoes by Tehran targeting Washington’s allies around the Gulf. Oil prices had plummeted after the weekend lull and Donald Trump said there was a “good chance” of progress in negotiations to end the war. The US and Saudi warplanes carried out strikes on Iran-backed militants in Iraq after accusing them of launching drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities in recent days. On Tuesday, the Iraqi prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, ordered security agencies to investigate the alleged attacks by militant groups, saying his country was committed to “preventing Iraqi territory from being used as a route or launching point for any attack targeting brotherly or friendly countries.” The Iraqi militias have denied any role in the drone attacks. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed groups, called the Saudi claims “fabrications” and implied that Monday’s attacks were carried out by the Houthis, who had themselves claimed to have attacked Saudi oil facilities. The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen claimed to have forced a Saudi oil tanker to turn around as part of their self-styled blockade. Last week, they announced a blockade of Saudi shipping, putting another key Middle Eastern waterway – through the Bab el-Mandeb strait leading to the Red Sea – at risk. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said a tanker reported hearing explosions while travelling in the southern Red Sea. It did not name the tanker but said the crew and vessel were safe. The Houthis also fired on at least one Saudi tanker in the Red Sea last week. Iran’s surprise attack came as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited Washington. Israel has been notably absent from the recent fighting with Iran. Netanyahu said he had an “excellent” meeting with Trump at the White House, their first sit-down since launching the war, which offered Netanyahu a chance to smooth out strains in their relationship. The closed-door meeting lasted nearly an hour and a half and was “positive and productive”, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said. It comes as both leaders face growing pressures at home. Netanyahu is up for re-election and is embattled in part because of his deteriorating relationship with Trump. Trump is under pressure to end an unpopular war that has wreaked economic havoc and driven prices higher ahead of midterm elections this November. With the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse

‘The shaking was terrifying’: stories of survival and loss emerge after Japan earthquake

“There was a voice coming from the collapsed house, and I could see a hand,” Tomohide Nagata, a volunteer firefighter, told the Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun. “One of our senior members crawled in and pulled him out. He was bleeding from the head, but I’m so glad he survived.” Nagata had heard a noise coming from one completely flattened home in the rural town of Hikawa, close to the epicentre of Tuesday’s 6.8-magnitude earthquake in southern Japan. The town was one of the areas hardest hit, with numerous older houses collapsing. Terrified of the ongoing aftershocks, many residents spent Tuesday night in their cars outside Hikawa’s town hall, where staff distributed food and drinks. At least 13 people were killed and hundreds injured when the earthquake struck the island of Kyushu. The prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said on Wednesday: “There are people who are still waiting to be rescued, and it’s a race against time. We will go all out to find and rescue as many people as we can.” Iwaoka Shigemi, 79, and his wife, Michiyo, 77, had escaped from their house and spent the night sleeping in their car in Hikawa, according to the Mainichi Shimbun. With temperatures expected to reach 35C on Wednesday, they were now worried about the risk of heatstroke. Suemi Nagata, 79, was unable to escape Hikawa by car because her garage had been destroyed but had made it to the town hall with her husband and older sister. “The lateral shaking was worse than the Kumamoto earthquake 10 years ago, and it was terrifying,” she told the town’s local newspaper. “Just to have survived with my life is something to be grateful for.” In April, the prefecture of Kumamoto commemorated the 10th anniversary of the 2016 earthquake that killed more than 275 people and caused widespread devastation. In that case, a 6.2-magnitude foreshock was followed two days later by the deadly 7-magnitude quake, something that will be on the mind of tens of thousands across Kumamoto in the week ahead. At the Kumamoto Aeon mall, which was severely damaged by what is understood to have been a gas explosion triggered by the earthquake, a number of employees had gone back inside after evacuating customers and were caught in the blast. A 16-year-old girl who got out with other shoppers moments before the explosion, told the Asahi Shimbun she “felt completely safe once she was outside”, only to be left struggling to breathe by dust and smoke. A 74-year-old man who often shopped at the mall told the Nikkei newspaper that he had just learned that an acquaintance who worked there was hurt. “I could have been caught up in it myself,” he said. Up to 30 employees were initially reported trapped inside and four remain missing. In nearby Uki City, which also experienced shaking ranked at the maximum 7 on the Japanese shindo scale, residents told of lucky escapes and heartbreaking unsuccessful rescue efforts. A woman in her 40s had managed to get to an evacuation shelter with three generations of her family after putting herself between falling furniture and her children. “I was pinned under a chest of drawers at home. I protected my children and then hurried to evacuate,” she told the Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun from Toyono elementary school, which was being used as an evacuation shelter after the ceiling of the local disaster facility fell in. On Tuesday evening as neighbours and relatives attempted to check in on each other, residents in the Asakawa district of Uki found one house flattened, with roof tiles scattered on the ground around where it had once stood. As family members looked on, a handful of volunteer firefighters attempted to rescue an elderly man trapped inside. “The man is a childhood friend of mine,” the visibly shaken 70-year-old head of the local district told the Kumamoto newspaper. “We tried to pull him out, but the aftershocks came one after another, so we had no choice but to give up.” As in Hikawa, many Uki residents slept in their cars, and local government workers handed out water and food. Unable to use the damaged disaster facility, the city set up a makeshift response headquarters in a car park. In Yatsushiro, south of Hikawa, one man’s life may have been saved by his schedule when his workplace, a single-storey wooden structure, collapsed. “It was a day off and I wasn’t at work, so I escaped with my life,” said the self-employed man, 63, who spent the night in a tent pitched in his garden. “Though I have no idea what I’ll do starting tomorrow.”

Deep breathing: the asthma clinic buried 250 metres into an Armenian salt mine

For most people, spending hours deep underground in darkness would seem an odd prescription for better health. Yet every morning, a handful of Armenians descend 250 metres beneath the earth into an active salt mine where they spend six hours in cavernous chambers carved from rock salt, hoping the air below ground will help them breathe more easily. “I tried every possible treatment, and this is the only thing that worked,” said Mikayel Torosian, an asthma sufferer visiting the clinic. “I thought it was complete rubbish before I tried it, but I am a true believer now. It saved me.” Since its opening in 1987, patients have travelled to the Soviet-era mine for an alternative treatment known as speleotherapy based on the belief that the mine’s salt-saturated, allergen-free air can alleviate respiratory diseases. But the clinic, one of the world’s only hospitals in a deep salt mine, now hangs in the balance after Armenia withdrew state funding, raising broader questions about the state’s role in supporting alternative medicine. The journey into the hospital begins with a rattling industrial lift that drops patients deep beneath a residential district on the outskirts of Yerevan. At the bottom, a maze of tunnels stretches through the rock. At first glance, the underground cavern looks more like a cold war bunker than a hospital. Behind curtains, patients nap on narrow beds. Others play billiards, pace around and perform breathing exercises or simply sit in silence, passing the hours in what might be one of the world’s most unusual medical facilities. “It looks unusual, but after a few days, people begin to enjoy the peace,” said Anush Voskanyan, a doctor who has worked at the clinic since 1989, who guided visitors through the vast chambers. Voskanyan said the idea to start the clinic emerged after doctors noticed that workers in salt mines appeared to suffer unusually low rates of respiratory illnesses despite spending their lives underground. She said researchers began studying the mines’ microclimate, eventually leading to the creation of specialised underground clinics across parts of the Soviet bloc. Voskanyan attributes the health benefits to a combination of factors: salt-rich air, year-round 19C temperatures and the absence of allergens, pollution, noise and radiation. “This is the perfect climate to live in. You basically don’t age here,” she said. Patients typically spend six hours a day underground over a three-week course of treatment. Doctors say the first week allows the body to adapt to the mine’s unique environment before the benefits gradually begin to accumulate. At its peak, thousands of patients descended into the Avan mine every year, many receiving treatment free of charge through Armenia’s healthcare system. “We used to admit 60 people at one time,” Voskanyan said, looking around largely empty chambers. “Today, there are probably five.” The clinic’s fortunes changed in 2019 when the Armenian government withdrew state funding, arguing that speleotherapy lacked sufficient scientific evidence to justify public support. Patients who once attended free of charge now have to pay for each treatment session at a cost of about £20. The decision came as Armenia began reforming its healthcare system and preparing for the introduction of universal health insurance, forcing officials to make difficult decisions about what treatments should be covered by the state. “We’re on the brink of closing down,” Voskanyan said. “We’re still operating, but just barely, and could close any day.” Voskanyan insists the treatment works, particularly for children suffering from asthma and allergies. “There have even been cases where asthma attacks stopped completely after just one course of treatment,” she said. While speleotherapy has been practised for decades across eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, relatively few large-scale studies have been conducted and most clinics have since closed down. Many respiratory specialists view it as a complementary therapy that may ease symptoms but should not replace conventional medical treatment. For supporters, however, the lack of definitive research does not negate decades of patient testimony. “If it didn’t help, I wouldn’t be coming back,” said Alvart Alihanyan, who has repeatedly returned to the clinic over the course of 10 years from Russia. For now, each morning, the lift continues its descent beneath Yerevan. Whatever the debate over its medical benefits, the mine offers something increasingly rare above ground: hours of complete silence, no wifi and a brief escape from the noise of the outside world.

Wednesday briefing: Will Zelenskyy’s domestic struggles harm his reputation on the global stage?

Good morning. Another week, another diplomatic success for Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Monday, his first meeting with Andy Burnham as PM confirmed continuity in the UK’s steadfast support for Ukraine. “We’ve got your back,” Burnham said as the pair spoke in Portsmouth. Yesterday, in Washington DC, after attending the funeral of Lindsey Graham – a once supportive Republican senator – Zelenskyy and Trump held a “positive and productive” meeting, as per the White House. Overnight, the US Senate advanced a sweeping Russian sanctions bill. Save for that somewhat shaky start in the early days of Donald 2.0, these well-executed global stage set-pieces have come to define Zelenskyy’s wartime leadership. The hundreds of billions he has secured in military, financial and humanitarian aid from the US, Europe, the UK and beyond during a period of global economic unease is remarkable. At home, however, Zelenskyy’s grasp of statecraft appears less comprehensive. Today, he returns to Kyiv to face another political crisis, with daily protests continuing in Ukraine, after the dismissal of popular defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov. And it’s not the first time one of his domestic decisions appears to have involved serious miscalculation. For today’s First Edition, we explore the challenges facing Zelenskyy on the home front and the battlefield, as Luke Harding, the Guardian’s senior international correspondent, shares the latest from Ukraine. Before that, this morning’s headlines. Five big stories UK news | Young people will be expected to engage with new support to find work, Pat McFadden has said. World news | At least 13 people have been killed after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Japan, injuring hundreds and knocking out power and water to tens of thousands. Europe news | Nearly 4,000 people have been evacuated from tourist sites on France’s Atlantic coast as the return of winds and extreme heat jeopardises firefighters’ battles to contain wildfires raging in France and Spain. US news | Donald Trump hosted back-to-back White House meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, as Ukraine seeks more firepower for its air defences and the Israeli prime minister tries to repair his strained relationship with the US president. UK news | Led By Donkeys has received compensation after a giant banner it displayed in Parliament Square saying “Yes It’s A Genocide” was seized by officials and destroyed. In depth: ‘There’s a standoff between Zelenskyy, Fedorov and civil society’ Since taking up the Ukrainian defence brief in January this year, Fedorov proved himself effective. The 35-year-old former digital transformation minister and deputy PM hit the ground running. “Fedorov is seen as a young, modernising tech-savvy reformist,” Luke tells me, from his apartment in Kyiv. “Here in Ukraine, Fedorov is believed to have cleaned up a defence ministry plagued by Soviet era practices and alleged corruption.” Fedorov upped pay and modernised contracts for infantry, and introduced more transparent processes for procurement. There have been reports he identified significant murky military overspend. He messaged Elon Musk on X to request Starlink be switched off for Russian soldiers, and Musk obliged. It was a coup for Ukraine, and massively impactful on the battlefield. And despite his short tenure, Fedorov achieved change on the frontline too. He is a proponent of data-driven, hi-tech warfare – an approach which has shifted fighting to Ukraine’s advantage. Vibes-wise, at least, the contrast between Fedorov and Oleksandr Syrskyi – Ukraine’s 61-year-old erstwhile old school army chief – couldn’t be starker. “The culture around Syrskyi was extremely deferential and rather Soviet,” Luke says. “His reputation is that of a micromanager who hadn’t adapted to the changing nature of the war, fighting with infantry in the traditional way which comes with heavy losses.” While the details remain unclear, Fedorov and Syrskyi clashed. Earlier this month, Zelenskyy announced a government reshuffle. Among the top tier changes was the removal of Fedorov, while Syrskyi remained in post. It was a curious choice. He may be popular, but Fedorov appeared (previously, at least) to pose no political threat to Zelenskyy. He was a key ally and former aide to the president, a Zelenskyy loyalist. “He’s not someone who previously had independent political ambitions,” says Luke. Now, he is emerging as a potential successor. Polling found 72% of respondents were against Fedorov’s dismissal, with only 5% for. Last week, under mounting public pressure, Zelenskyy attempted to change course. Syrskyi was sacked, and Fedorov invited back into government. It appeared the crisis was averted. Only, Fedorov has since turned down alternative senior ministerial posts, while Zelenskyy is yet to re-offer him the defence gig. “Only three positions in the state … determine the course of the war: president, defence minister and commander-in-chief,” Fedorov said in a statement. “There’s a standoff between Zelenskyy, Fedorov and civil society,” says Luke, “and it shows no signs of resolving.” *** Reforms, not scams It’s not the first time Zelenskyy – a highly skilful diplomatic operator – has made what appears to be impulsive, certainly unpopular, personnel decisions. In July 2025, a wave of protests erupted in Kyiv and other major cities, in response to the Ukrainian government’s proposals to strip two major anti-corruption bodies of their independence. Despite these demonstrations, Zelenskyy signed the bill into law, before eventually backtracking under public pressure a few months later. “It was an enormously unpopular move,” Luke says, “and a bizarre decision to make.” One of these organisations (NABU – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine) subsequently investigated Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak who was widely understood to have been pushing for the reforms. It led to his abrupt resignation. One year on, protesters in Kyiv have been returning to the very same spot to again voice concerns about Zelenskyy’s judgment. “Initially, they were chanting ‘Syrskyi out, Fedorov back’.” Syrski’s subsequent departure, and Zelenskyy’s appointment of a younger, highly rated new commander-in-chief failed to placate protesters. Last Friday, Luke joined them at the Ivan Franko Square – connected to Bankova Street, home of the Presidential office. “The message had shifted,” Luke observed. “They still sang the national anthem and want Zelenskyy to succeed, but now they’re chanting ‘reforms not scams’, and ‘the people are the power’.” *** A path to victory This comes at a significant juncture for Ukraine. Wartime martial law bans elections, so Zelenskyy has been in power since 2019, when he won a stonking majority. Despite pressure from Putin (and at times Trump) to call a fresh election, polling shows appetite is low for a pre-peacetime vote, with six million Ukrainians now based abroad, and indiscriminate Russian airstrikes posing a risk to any public gatherings. Still, reports suggest the government had explored options for holding a (ceasefire dependent) election as soon as this year, with Zelenskyy apparently negotiating with his rivals. Fedorov’s trust rating has climbed in recent weeks, overtaking Zelenskyy; it’s a trajectory worth tracking. Meanwhile, the war is rapidly changing shape. Fedorov (and Syrskyi, who created Ukraine’s standalone drone department) have shifted focus from ground to sky. Luke has just returned from meeting one drone unit, which claims to have “destroyed the majority of Russia’s air defences” with their homemade kit. “What was once Russia’s great strength – its size and strategic depth – is turning into a liability,” says Luke. “Ukraine has regained the initiative.” Russia continues to slowly advance, but at a price of 30,000 dead and wounded troops per month. “I wouldn’t say Ukraine is winning,” cautions Luke, “but it’s taking a path to victory that is more convincing than anything we’ve seen since 2022.” *** Power struggle A difficult decision now sits at the top of Zelenskyy’s in-tray: reinstate Fedorov and take the politically embarrassing hit; or stand his ground, and hope the protests peter out. “There’s a suggestion that lots of vested interests don’t want Fedorov back as it’ll hurt them financially,” says Luke. “The protesters I spoke to believe that certain people around Zelenskyy are benefiting from the old system that Fedorov was challenging. That can’t be proven, but it’s what many Ukrainians think.” Last year’s (botched) attempts to change those anti-corruption bodies adds to this suspicion. Whatever motivated the initial reshuffle, to many the Fedorov/Syrskyi debacle represents something existential. “It’s a struggle for Ukraine’s soul,” Luke says, “between a younger western, progressive and inclusive generation who want Ukraine to be in the European mould, and the Soviet-inflected, insider-oriented older guard who operate in deals and handshakes and yes, some corruption.” There is, of course, an alternative read on the public outpouring of frustration. The protests have been policed with a distinctly light-touch. Even as Russia’s violent assault continues, with UN figures showing last month as the deadliest for Ukraine’s civilians in four years, civic life continues. “It shows people understand all this isn’t just about beating Russia,” says Luke, “but constructing a decent, fair, modern, forward-looking society after victory.” What else we’ve been enjoying “Put me through to real person” is something I often find myself typing when faced with an AI customer chatbot. I was heartened to read this letter from a reader who feels the same way. Hettie The Nigel Farage soap opera continues in Clacton, ahead of next month’s vanity project byelection. For this in-depth piece, Tim Burrows spent a few days in this coastal Essex corner, perfectly capturing the mood there. Michael Elisabeth Zerofsky has written a fascinating piece for the New York Times Magazine about the ideological war consuming the Heritage Foundation, and how it got sidelined by the second Trump administration. Hettie If you, like Thomas, by email have a less-than-perfect success rate when it comes to fresh pasta rolling, these tips from professional chefs will prove invaluable. It’s all about egg-size, apparently. Michael After reading Gardiner Harris’s book No More Tears, a blistering exposé of Johnson & Johnson, I’ll never look at talcum powder in the same way. The company has been ordered to pay $5.5bn to resolve thousands of lawsuits alleging that its baby powder caused ovarian cancer. Hettie Sport Commonwealth Games | Amy Hunt settles for 100m silver, after New Zealand sprinter Zoe Hobbs won the women’s 100m in a personal best of 10.93sec, while Emmanuel Eseme surged to the men’s 100m title in 9.83. Football | The roads around the French football federation headquarters in Paris were closed off for Zinédine Zidane’s unveiling as head coach for France. Golf | As she heads to Royal Lytham as a guest of the R&A for Thursday’s start of the Women’s Open, the inaugural winner Jenny Lee Smith gives us an interview. The front pages “Burnham calls for consensus on ‘urgent’ fix for social care crisis”, is the Guardian’s top headline today. On the same issue, the Telegraph writes “Workers face new tax to fund social care”, the Times has “Shake-up of social care to lock out private firms” and the Express says “2m missing out on social care they need”. Still on politics, the Mail runs with “Burnham benefits ‘bribe’ for parents of apprentices”, the FT has “Burnham to seek private sector deals in growth push”, and Metro writes “£4k if you let your children learn a trade”. Elsewhere, the i Paper says “Fury over Fifa plan to sell off World Cup”, and on the same news the Sun writes “For sale”. The Latest Labour overtake Farage’s Reform UK in polls Labour has overtaken Reform UK this week for the first time since March last year, according to multiple polls. The ‘Burnham bounce’ comes two weeks into Andy Burnham’s tenure in No 10, during which he has made major announcements on the cost of living and localised education to reduce youth unemployment, and an announcement on social care is expected soon. Is this a turning point for the beleaguered Labour government – or simply a honeymoon for the new PM? Lucy Hough speaks to senior political correspondent, Peter Walker. Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Matthew Myerscough came to fossil hunting after he was caught in an avalanche. Revisiting his old hobby as a boy was a way to cope with stubborn memories of the accident, and the enduring panic he faced. Now, it’s opened up a world of treasures, including a dinosaur footprint and, spectacularly, a sea dragon – a marine reptile from the Jurassic period, washed up on Lavernock beach in south Wales. His recent book details his “star finds”, and illuminates the strange, underground world of fossil hunting which gave him refuge in a moment of darkness. “There’s this mindful, almost meditative state that I get into because I’m forgetting about all the other stresses and worries in life. I’m so focused on what I’m doing in that moment.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

‘The heat took him from me’: India’s death toll rises amid escalating heat crisis

The morning air was already hot and cloying when Palli Mahalaxmi rose at about 5am. It was May, and in the summer heatwave that had engulfed this corner of southern India, even night-time did not give the villagers respite. A single ceiling fan hung above Mahalaxmi, her husband and her son as they slept in a small windowless room made of thick concrete. Mahalaxmi set about preparing breakfast, and the family ate together from steel plates, just as they did every morning. Sweat dripped from their foreheads as the sun rose higher. Just before 6am, Mahalaxmi filled up her water bottle and headed out to work. As others filed out of their small, brightly painted houses on to the dusty village road, Mahalaxmi greeted them, smiling and exuberant as always. Chatting as they walked towards the fields where they would be working that morning, the women covered their faces; it would be another painfully hot day. Like many in Busabhadra, an impoverished rural village in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Mahalaxmi relied on a government scheme to provide her with work. The rural employment scheme, introduced 20 years ago, guarantees 100 days of paid work to poor households outside of cities and employs more than 80 million people across India. Though the work was tough, manual labour in fields, on construction sites and in road building for just 180 rupees a day (£1.41) was still a lifeline to 50-year-old Mahalaxmi. With her husband unable to work, a disabled son and debt from her daughter’s wedding, the scheme kept them alive. She could not afford to miss a day. That day Mahalaxmi and a group of women were digging a water reservoir by the river in rice fields with no trees to provide shade even as the temperature soared above 40C. Working alongside Mahalaxmi was her friend Parvati Purilla, 45, who recalled that the only thing anyone could speak about that day was the heat, most of them exhausted before they got to work. “The heat was terrible and that makes the work very difficult,” said Purilla. “When you drink water, you just sweat it out immediately. Sometimes we got dizzy – but what choice do we have?” It did not take long for the women to run out of drinking water. However, Mahalaxmi was not disgruntled. “She was the most active person in our group and always seemed happy,” said Purilla. “She never seemed to run out of energy and never complained of any aches or illnesses. She worked more than most of us.” By 11am, the first shift of their day was over. The women headed home, exchanging few words due to their exhaustion. Mahalaxmi did not speak when she got home, but went straight to the bedroom where she collapsed in apparent sleep. Unable to rouse her hours later, her husband, Palli Shyam Sundha Rao, rushed to find a doctor. Examining her lifeless body, the doctor concluded Mahalaxmi had died from heatstroke. “It was such a shock to all of us,” said Purilla. “She always seemed so strong. If the heat can take her like this, then it could take any of us.” The family say the government should take responsibility for her death. They have received no state help or compensation and are living on handouts from neighbours. “We are helpless without her,” said Rao. Mahalaxmi’s death is one of many thousands to have occurred as the climate crisis engulfs India and temperatures rise to increasingly dangerous, even lethal levels. Experts warn that heatwaves, which are becoming more frequent, are already reaching temperatures close to the human survivability limit; this year temperatures have risen as high as 48C in one town, and on one day in April, the world’s 50 hottest cities were all in India. Ninety percent of India’s workforce is in the informal sector with few protections against the heat. Millions of farmers, construction labourers, street vendors and security guards work outside in temperatures that regularly exceed 44C during the summer months, while women are forced to spend hours in boiling hot kitchens. The heat exposure often continues into the night, particularly in big cities, where temperatures no longer fall significantly, leading to loss of sleep and vital recovery time. Heatstroke, if untreated, has an 80% mortality rate. But in one way Mahalaxmi’s death is an anomaly; heat being the official cause. In India, the exact number of people dying from extreme heat remains unclear, and experts say the true toll is being dangerously undercounted. According to India’s official statistics, there were 460 heat-related deaths in 2024, when record-breaking heatwaves swept the country, and only 84 in 2025. By contrast, Europe – which has half the population of India’s 1.5 billion people – records an average of 175,000 heat deaths every year, according to the UN. A new report by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley recently tried to quantify India’s heat mortality, which estimated that a single day of extreme heat could cause approximately 3,400 excess deaths nationally and a five-day heatwave could kill nearly 30,000. However, Ashok Gadgil, a co-author of the report, said their research had been impeded by a deliberate attempt by the Indian government to conceal data. For more than a year, Gadgil and his co-author tried to obtain official country-wide data on deaths during India’s heatwaves, but their efforts were systematically blocked by the government at every turn. “Heat deaths are a catastrophic disaster that are avoidable, predictable, and are steadily going to get worse,” said Gadgil. In the end, they had to rely on a small pool of public data from 10 Indian cities. He acknowledged the deaths from heat in remote rural areas, where people are poorer, work out in the open, are less protected from extreme heat and have much worse access to healthcare, could be higher than their estimates. Gadgil was surprised by the backlash in India over their report, which some senior figures claimed was stirring up panic. “At least accurately measure the problem and then everyone can be alert, early warning systems can be put in place and lives will be saved,” he said. Experts say it can be difficult to declare a “heat death” from just looking at a body, and official heat death cases are notably hard to find in India. Unlike a heart attack, or drowning or a fall, lethal heatstroke does not leave a single visible marker. Instead, as the core body temperature begins to rise from extreme heat and dehydration, blood is pushed to the surface of the skin, eventually causing collapse, organ failure or a heart attack. Long-term heat exposure can also drive chronic diseases, particularly in the kidneys. Doctors across India said heat deaths were widely being recorded under other causes, particularly in rural areas where people are often unable to access medical help. In Ranganathapuram, a remote tribal village in Andhra Pradesh, the villagers are convinced the heat killed 39-year-old Nadupooru Krishnarao, who died in late May. The night before his death had been so hot that everyone slept outside under the trees, but it made little difference. By the time Krishnarao left in the morning at 7.30am, taking no water with him, to collect and chop firewood in the dry open fields, the sun was already scorching. When he returned at midday the temperature was about 45C. Neighbours heard him complain that he felt hot, dizzy and unwell. After bathing in the river, he said he still could not cool down and went inside to rest, but never got up. When paramedics came to collect his body, no questions were asked. His official cause of death was left empty on his certificate. But his wife, Rekha Naduputri, 31, says she knows: “The heat took him from me.” In India’s capital, Delhi, a recent report warned the city was suffering from an “escalating urban heat crisis”, with 76% of areas persistently heat stressed. In 2025, the “feels like” temperatures, which measures how the weather will actually feel when you step outdoors, passed 52C. Official figures of heat deaths this year are murky, but one 24-year-old man suffered heatstroke after he spent more than 20 hours on a crowded train from the eastern state of West Bengal to Delhi. He was brought to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital’s specialist unit with a body temperature of 41C. Despite efforts to cool him down, he went into lung and renal failure. He died four days later. Dr Amlendu Yadav, the head of the heatstroke unit at the hospital, said he was certain heat deaths were being undercounted. He observed that during heatwaves, the number of patients brought to the hospital already dead rose by three to five times. Many of the victims were destitute or homeless. “Their postmortem reports are submitted directly to the ministry of health, so I do not know the final conclusions,” he said. “But I do suspect that many of those additional deaths are related to heat.” Action to tackle extreme heat is being adopted in India. This year, heatwaves were finally recognised as a national disaster by the finance ministry. However, while the health ministry heat action plan does address “health risks” it does not mention mortality. The ministry of environment and national disaster management authority were contacted for comment, but did not respond. Experts and doctors have emphasised that accurate mapping of heat mortality could lead to crucial interventions and early warning systems to stop deaths happening on a mass scale. Yadav said: “Considering the pace of climate change, and the heatwaves we are seeing in Europe and even parts of the US, India could face an epidemic of heatstroke if we do not prepare ourselves in time.”