Read the daily news to learn English

EU bids to finalise new Russia sanctions amid discontent from some member states – Europe live

Firefighters continued to battle huge blazes in Spain and France on Wednesday, with the risk of more wildfires very high across much of Spain even as a major one raging in its central Guadalajara province receded, allowing ⁠some residents to return home, Reuters reported. In France, where ⁠two firefighters died on Tuesday as their truck was engulfed in flames in the southwest region of Gironde, authorities urged people to avoid using barbecues in areas hit by heatwaves. They stressed that nine out of 10 wildfires start, accidentally or not, as a result of human activity, Reuters said. Meanwhile, in the western Balkans, the danger ⁠has shifted from heatwaves to hailstorms, with several people injured in North Macedonia and eastern Kosovo. Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent and scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing the intensity of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, while also creating conditions for sudden, destructive storms.

Opposition parties shut down Indian parliament in solidarity with ‘cockroach’ protests

India’s opposition parties have shut down parliament in a protest calling for the resignation of the education minister, in solidarity with the new youth-led “cockroach” movement. Opposition politicians, led by the Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, gathered outside the parliament building in Delhi on Wednesday, many dressed in black and waving placards calling on Dharmendra Pradhan to quit. Inside the parliament chamber, proceedings were suspended after opposition figures demanded that Narendra Modi’s ruling government address the police violence against young people at a protest on Monday, and the scandals that have engulfed crucial exams. The previous day, Gandhi had been briefly detained by police after staging a sit-in outside Modi’s residence, accusing the prime minister of “destroying the future of India’s youth”. Gandhi’s sister, Priyanka, a senior Congress party strategist, was also briefly detained on Tuesday. Police confirmed they were later released. The opposition protests at parliament were in support of a new mass youth movement, known as the Cockroach Janata party (CJP), that began as a satirical online joke but has grown into a significant political challenge to the Modi government. On Monday, the CJP held one of the biggest anti-government protests in years. Dozens of people were injured after police used teargas and baton charges against the demonstrators. More than 1,000 people remained camped out at the CJP’s protest site in central Delhi on Wednesday despite the gruelling heat and humidity. Many of the protesters had travelled for miles to be there and vowed they would not move until the education minister had resigned and the Modi government listened to their demands. Food deliveries sent by supporters – some ordered from abroad – have continued to arrive, keeping the protesters well fed on biryani, pizza, rice and dal. Morale remained high as slogans and songs rang out across the site. “In the country where people had forgotten how to ask questions, in the country where criticising the government was considered treason – we have now awakened that country,” said CJP spokesman Ashutosh Ranka, to loud cheers from the crowd. The CJP’s demands for changes to the education system and the resignation of Pradhan arose after repeated scandals over testing, but it has grown into a larger movement giving voice to the frustration’s of India’s youth. It was estimated that more than 50,000 people had protested in Delhi on Monday, even though the police denied them permission to march on parliament. It began as a peaceful demonstration, but by late afternoon police began to clash with the protesters. Police said 60 civilians and 118 police personnel had been injured, and they accused protesters of instigating the clashes. But organisers condemned the “high-handedness” of the authorities and said hundreds of peaceful protesters had been injured by the police, including at least one woman now on a ventilator in intensive care from her injuries. Amnesty International have accused Delhi police of using police excessive force. India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear a petition alleging police brutality against the protesters. Congress accused the Modi government of refusing to address the issues of the students and the alleged “brutality unleashed on students” in parliament. “The government doesn’t want to take any accountability, nor does it want to have a debate on it in parliament,” said Gandhi. Protests supporting the CJP movement were also held in Mumbai and Bengaluru, drawing hundreds of people. Modi has not commented directly on the protests, but the education minister, who had dismissed the CJP protesters as a “B-team of terrorists”, took a more conciliatory tone in his first comments since Monday’s protests. In a social media post, Pradhan said: “We owe them [students] answers, reforms and accountability. That is exactly what our government remains committed to delivering. He added: “The students of India deserve far better than being treated as props in a political campaign,” he said, referring to Gandhi’s protest. Several key opposition parties have come out in support of the students’ movement and condemned the police violence against Monday’s protest. Sandeep Dikshit, a senior leader of the Congress party, said: “What happened yesterday is our constitution got trampled upon. After that, no self-respecting politician or citizen can stand aside.”

‘It’s truly hell here’: airstrikes, repression and water shortages become ‘new normal’ for Iranians

As US airstrikes hit port and inland cities in Iran, and Tehran strikes at the US’s Middle East allies, the escalating conflict has left many Iranians fearing that, amid war and a worsening human rights crisis, they remain trapped in a cycle of violence and repression with no way out. Bandar Abbas, on the strait of Hormuz and the headquarters of the Iranian navy, has been hit by strikes every night since the latest escalation began nearly two weeks ago. Soroush*, a writer based in the city who secretly publishes a newsletter documenting human rights violations in Iran, described a “new normal” for its residents. “We need to accept this could just be our new reality now and it’s worked because we are less afraid as each day goes on,” the 37-year-old said. “We are less afraid of the future because we are now forced to accept this is the new normal. There’s no one coming to save us from the bombs or the regime’s bullets. Our brains have tricked us into making peace with this new reality.” For those living near the port, loud explosions followed by prolonged power cuts have become the norm over the past week. Mehnaz*, 39, depends on the internet for her work and says she was already struggling with the government-imposed internet shutdown, which has severely affected her earnings. “We always had power cuts, but the hours have now extended and I fear I can’t rely on my online work any more. The war is far from the end and daily life is becoming harder under the bombs, power cuts and internet shutdowns. It’s truly hell here,” she said. Another port city reportedly struck by the US this week was Jask. State media claimed US strikes hit 100 civilian vessels and that an attack on the Bonji desalination plant left 20 villages without drinking water. Moein*, a resident of Jask, said that although the water supply had been restored, residents were in panic and scrambling to prepare for a long-running war. “That’s just it. The heat is rising and if we lack water supply due to these attacks, we will die of heat exhaustion and thirst. Supply is back now, but we are now making sure to prepare for future attacks and we have to save as much water as we can.” A strike in June on water facilities in the coastal city of Sirik also reportedly left thousands of residents rationing water and struggling with daily chores. Nik Kowsar, a US-based Iranian journalist and water issues analyst, said the war was having a severe impact on civilians – and such concerns did not equate to support for the country’s rulers. “Iranians can despise the regime and want the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] dismantled while still being horrified by attacks that leave ordinary families without water, electricity, medicine or income,” he said. “Attacking desalination plants in Iran’s hot and dry south is particularly dangerous. When temperatures climb above 40C, losing access to drinking water can quickly become a matter of life and death. Bombing the infrastructure people rely on will not make Iranians embrace those carrying out the attacks. It may weaken the government, but ordinary people pay the immediate price, and the country is left with damage that could take years to repair,” adds Kowsar. Others who spoke to the Guardian highlighted Iran’s dire human rights situation, with at least 400 people reportedly executed since the beginning of this year, including teenagers, foreign nationals, protesters and former political prisoners. According to the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, hundreds more are believed to be facing capital punishment. “The US government will now take revenge for its personnel killed by the regime and the regime will in retaliation pick up more teenagers and hang them in revenge for the killing of [Ali] Khamenei,” Soroush said. “This is just the beginning of more Iranian lives being on the line either for the US or the regime. I am deeply saddened and feel helpless.” * Names have been changed

Wednesday briefing: How Trump’s Iran gamble has produced a crisis reshaping the global order

Good morning. Within two hours of entering No 10 on Monday afternoon, Andy Burnham had his first call with Donald Trump. After chit-chatting about the football (both agreed England had an “excellent tournament”) and Manchester (our new prime minister invited the president to visit the city Trump once described as a “town”), they got on to far trickier territory: the strait of Hormuz. The US has attacked Iran for the eleventh consecutive night, hitting aircraft hangars and drone storage sites across the country. It came after Iran launched retaliatory strikes on US air bases and neighbouring Gulf states, which have accused it of deliberately targeting desalination plants that are essential to life in the region. Each side now claims it is preventing the other from gaining control over the strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil was shipped before the war began. Vessels carrying crucial shipments of oil, gas and fertiliser remain at a standstill. “Operation Epic Fury” started with the aim of regime change. Since then, its objective has morphed into reopening the strait and undoing the damage caused by the US and Israel’s decision to start the war. The president drastically underestimated Iran’s capacity for enduring pain, and is now trying to bomb his way out of a conflict that he created. For today’s First Edition, I spoke to Vali Nasr, professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies and author of Iran’s Grand Strategy, about the war over the world’s most critical bottleneck. That’s after the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Andy Burnham is under mounting pressure to explain how he will pay for his policy pledges as he implored his new cabinet to examine “all possible ways” to tackle the cost of living crisis. UK news | A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of the former MP and Reform UK spokesperson Ann Widdecombe. Joshua Kerry, 28, is accused of killing the former Conservative minister at her home in Haytor, Devon, by hitting her on the head with a hammer 21 times. Middle East | The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, told the Senate the US-Israel war on Iran had cost $37.5bn so far, as he faced lawmakers furious over the conflict’s soaring price tag and the deaths last week of three American service members. Climate crisis | About 23 million people will be banned from using hosepipes by this weekend, as England and Wales moves closer to drought status. Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and offered a “prominent position” to the defence minister he sacked last week in a move that sparked nationwide protests. In depth: ‘In his mind, this was a legacy-building transformation’ “I’m not going to start wars,” Donald Trump told voters on election night in 2024. His decision to bomb Iran on 28 February in partnership with Benjamin Netanyahu was astonishing both in its aggression and its audacious break with this promise. Trump did nothing to prepare the US for war, gave seemingly no thought to the fact that Iran would inevitably hold the strait hostage if it came under attack, and resorted to contradictory explanations for his decision. In the war’s early days, he described “what we did in Venezuela” as a model for what he hoped to achieve. “He thought he would go down in history as the American president who had resolved the Iran problem,” Nasr told me. “In his mind, this was a legacy-building transformation that would be quick and cost-free.” That has proven a fatal miscalculation. Pete Hegseth, the US self-styled “secretary of war”, said the early US strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, had “cut off the head of the snake.” But regime change is now a distant prospect. Trump underestimated the resilience of the Iranian regime and overestimated the power of protests against it. After just five months, his misadventure is as unpopular with American voters as the Vietnam war was six years in. It could yet escalate into a wider regional conflict, with the Houthis threatening a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia. Even Trump – whose private firm, The Trump Organization, is at work on a skyscraper in Dubai – won’t be insulated from the consequences of this violence. *** What happened to the ceasefire? The memorandum of understanding, a vague, short document that the US and Iran signed on 17 June, gave a brief respite from the strikes and (supposedly) initiated a 60-day negotiation period in which time both sides could reach permanent agreement on – among other things – the future of the strait. But it broke down when Iran fired on three commercial tankers that had used a shipping lane close to the shores of Oman, rather than a route off the Iranian coast approved by Tehran. “When ceasefires are violated, you have two options; either react to preserve the ceasefire, or use the violation as an excuse to end it,” Nasr says. Trump went with the latter option, calling Iran’s leaders “scum” and declaring the ceasefire “over” earlier this month. This week, the US energy secretary Chris Wright said the US mission had shifted towards ensuring oil shipments could move through the strait. It’s worth remembering that the strait had never been closed for an extended period. Before 28 February, ships had been sailing through it without obstruction. The US is now framing the potential of a return to this old status quo as a victory. Iran and the US are still negotiating, and Tehran has signalled its desire to permanently control the strait, including by charging tolls on passing vessels. “The US is now in a situation where it either has a long, protracted war, which would keep the strait closed, or keeps escalating to the next level with the hope of knocking Iran out,” Nasr says. *** A serious misjudgment There are signs that Trump and Netanyahu seriously misjudged the likelihood that Iran would seize control of the strait. In an interview earlier this year, Netanyahu admitted “the problem of the Hormuz strait became understood as the war went on.” As our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour wrote at the time, in a piece suggesting the consequences of Trump’s excursion could prove greater than the Vietnam war, this was an “astonishing admission.” The closure of the strait is the type of doomsday scenario that previous administrations, and most Iran experts, would have considered. But the US government now has very few Iran experts, because Trump has instead chosen to surround himself with a royal court of loyalists. Nate Swanson, a former state department representative on Trump’s Iran negotiating team, was forced out earlier this year after far-right activist Laura Loomer accused him of disloyalty. “Folks who’ve watched this Iranian system … would have told [Trump]: ‘They’re not businessmen from New York. They’re made of a different type of DNA’,” Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, recently told Guardian US political correspondent, Robert Tait. *** Consequences, consequences Inflation caused by rising oil prices is making everyday life more expensive and hiking the costs of borrowing for governments (including Burnham’s here in the UK). If there is no agreement until 2027, some are predicting global growth could fall by 1.3%, if not more. Europe may be uniquely exposed: since the Russia-Ukraine war, the continent has turned towards the Middle East for its gas, particularly to Qatar, which has had to slow production during the conflict. We could be facing a winter of shortages, bringing to mind the 1970s oil crisis, when the British government enforced power cuts to conserve energy supplies. *** Who’s in charge of the sea? Many of Trump’s proposed solutions to the conflict seem to have been thought up on the spot. He briefly suggested that the US could charge tolls on ships entering the strait in exchange for safe passage, despite European leaders and even Marco Rubio, his own secretary of state, having previously said these would be incompatible with international law. The fact the US and Iran have even proposed such tolls is a sign of the wilful disregard for international law that has become a defining feature of this conflict (notably, Iran, the US and Israel are among a small handful of nations that don’t ratify the UN convention on the laws of the sea). Freedom of navigation is a cornerstone of international law: without it, shipping starts to resemble a protection racket, where nations extract fees from passing vessels. Some experts now worry that other shipping routes could become more militarised, as coastal nations watching Iran use the strait as the ultimate bargaining chip try to take advantage of other important waterways. “A lot of other countries that feel they’re like Iran, and could use passageways as a deterrent” Nasr says. “If nations like the US and Israel can attack your country at any time, you’re going to resort to whatever you can in order to protect yourself.” What else we’ve been enjoying This thoughtful piece by Alice Lassman on how Gen Z has outsourced intimacy to AI reflects conversations I’ve been having with younger pals lately. Libby Ed Miliband was trying to start a green energy revolution in Britain. Now he’s at the Foreign Office, what happens to that agenda? I enjoyed reading this piece by Fiona Harvey, which has some answers. Hettie “It’s a crime that alters your whole reality.” Anna Moore on the impact of crime, here on the survivor-led campaign to end drug-facilitated sexual rape. Libby If (like me) you feel creeped out by reading about Meta’s new “smartglasses”, which allow wearers to film people without their consent, it’s worth reading this piece by Gaby Hinsliff. Hettie Herald writer Neil Mackay makes a powerful argument that the future health of the Scottish independence movement depends on Burnham’s success or failure in Westminster. Libby Sport Cycling | Remco Evenepoel took back-to-back stage wins in the Tour de France, and eroded some of Tadej Pogacar’s overall lead, with victory in the stage 16 time trial from Evian to Thonon-les-Bains. Tennis | The French Open has become the first grand slam tournament to offer players a share of the event’s revenue in a significant step forward in the row over prize money. Football | La Liga’s president, Javier Tebas, has accused Fifa of “destroying the football industry” and called for its president, Gianni Infantino, to quit. The front pages “Burnham implores cabinet to find ways to tackle cost of living crisis”, is the Guardian’s front page today, the Times writes “Burnham signals cuts to pay for spending pledges”, and the i Paper’s take is “Cost of living, cost of living, cost of living”. The Mail asks “Who’s going to pay the bill for Andy’s largesse?” and the FT has “Burnham backs away from rise in tax allowance ‘to show fiscal discipline’”. Elsewhere, the Telegraph leads on “Pc Harper’s killers set for early release”. The Mirror, Sun, Metro and Express all splash on details from court with variations of “Ann ‘hit 21 times with hammer’”. The Latest US soldiers killed: has Trump lost control of Iran war? The US has carried out a fresh round of strikes against Iran, after three US soldiers were killed in action. The Pentagon has also admitted that nearly 100 US service members have been injured over the last two weeks, as Tehran launched a wave of reprisals to the tenth consecutive nights of attacks, even as peace talks mediated by Pakistan continue. Lucy Hough speaks to senior international correspondent, Julian Borger. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Yotam Maron, a key organiser in the Occupy Wall Street movement which spawned a global network in 2011, has worked on multiple social movements since then. He identifies a “politics of powerlessness” which too often hobbles them, mistaking “a healthy distrust of institutional power for a failure to build a strong, coherent strategy for political change”. Since then, he founded the Wildfire Project, a training organisation for grassroots groups to counter that misplaced internal logic and argues now, even with Democrat socialists in the ascendancy across some parts of the US, that people power must continue to be built through movements not elected politicians. 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

Wreckage of 1952 Pan Am plane crash that changed air safety found near Puerto Rico

Searchers have found the wreckage of a Pan Am flight that plunged into the ocean off Puerto Rico in 1952, in an accident that killed 52 people and led to the passenger safety briefings given on modern-day commercial flights. The Clipper Endeavor went down when two engines failed shortly after takeoff. The 17 passengers and crew who survived told investigators everyone lived through the splashdown but panic set in as many passengers struggled to find life vests and the crew struggled to pull out life rafts. Within minutes the plane sank. Thirty-nine bodies were never recovered. Explorers found the wreckage of the DC-4 in June when a robotic sonar drone located the fuselage and tail in 600 metres of water. “This one became a catalyst, and it helped drive safety steps forward of better flotation equipment and the preflight briefings,” said aviation safety expert John Cox, a pilot and founder of Safety Operating Systems. “So this is one stepping stone along the path to what we today enjoy as aviation safety. It was a rallying cry at the time.” The disaster led to sweeping aviation reforms; today, before takeoff, flight attendants instruct passengers about exit locations and where life vests are located and how to inflate them. In 2019 the crash caught the attention of Russ Matthews, president of the Air/Sea Heritage Foundation, when he saw an article about a luggage tag from the flight washing ashore in Florida. He said the historical significance of the Clipper Endeavor prompted him to dig deeper. That led to years of searching through the Pan Am and Coast Guard archives looking for clues about the crash site. Reports from the Civil Aeronautics Board, which was the predecessor to the Federal Aviation Administration, also helped. The key to finding the wreckage was found in records in Puerto Rico from a hearing that was held on the crash, and a map estimating the location of the crash that was done by air force pilots training in the area who witnessed the crash. Tony Romeo, CEO of the undersea exploration firm Deep Sea Vision, said he joined the effort when one of his ships was in the Puerto Rico area carrying an advanced underwater drone with the right sensors. Deep Sea Vision previously led an unsuccessful six-month search for Amelia Earhart’s plane. Matthews’ group combined its research with weather data from the time of the crash to produce a search map covering 10 square nautical miles. The drone found the wreckage on its first pass. The discovery could offer new hope to families who lost loved ones in ocean crashes like flight MH370, the Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared 12 years ago with 269 people on board. The search for the Clipper Endeavor will be featured in a future episode of the Discovery Channel show Expedition Unknown.

Iran’s foreign minister describes moment of attack that killed Khamenei

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has described how he was pulled from the rubble of a leadership compound after the US-Israeli airstrike that killed the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war, and has survived since by constantly moving around the capital, Tehran, by car. In an interview with the Iranian journalist Javad Mogouyi, Araghchi confirmed Israel and the US had accurate intelligence on the location of Khamenei and other officials, enabling them to target Iran’s senior leadership. He said he had yet to meet the country’s new leader, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, but said his appointment sent “a very important message to the world that there would be no change in the regime’s policies and ideals”. Speaking to Mogouyi before the resumption of all-out hostilities 10 days ago, Araghchi said he had always doubted that negotiations with the US earlier this year would work, but said they had been necessary, even if there was only a 10% chance of success – not least to ensure there was no room for doubt that Iran had pursued diplomacy. “No one would be able to tell us that it was our fault,” he said. In the interview published online on Sunday, Araghchi confirmed that Iran had offered the US a deal on its nuclear programme in the final round of talks in Geneva, but said Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, told him the following day that the mood in Washington had suddenly become more bellicose. The joint US-Israeli strikes began shortly after 9am the next day, when senior officials had gathered for meetings at the ministry of intelligence, the strategic council on foreign policy, and the defence council. “What matters, in my view, is the fact that Israel had intelligence about these meetings,” Araghchi said, adding: “This may point to a security gap that probably still exists. This needs to be fixed.” Araghchi was reporting back to Khamenei’s deputy chief of staff, Ali Asghar Hijazi, when the building was shaken by three blasts within seconds – each closer than the last, he said. “The third explosion was almost next to our building. The section where Mr Hijazi’s office was located was directly hit, and the left side of the building was completely destroyed.” Hijazi’s secretary was killed instantly, but Araghchi and Hijazi escaped the full force of the detonation. “We were on the other side of the building, and after the explosion, the ceiling, walls, and everything collapsed on us. I grabbed Mr Hijazi’s hand, and we made our way through the beams and boards and pieces of wood, hearing the cries for help. Water was pouring from the ceiling. Everything was wrecked. We eventually got out, and I saw that various parts of the compound had been targeted.” Araghchi was rushed to the foreign ministry by a passerby since his official car had been hit. “For three days we were cut off from everything trying to find out who was alive and who had been martyred,” he said. “The enemy thought they could paralyse us by targeting leadership, but they failed.” Araghchi said Iran had been prepared for such an attack, and had already drawn up plans to close the strategic strait of Hormuz if the supreme leader was targeted. The codename for such a scenario was “Code 110”, a reference to the clause of Iran’s constitution that lays out the supreme leader’s powers. Araghchi said the US had decided to attack because it believed Iran’s government had been weakened abroad by blows to its proxies in Syria and Lebanon, and at home by economic protests – the speed and scale of which he admitted had surprised him. Araghchi said regional governments had counselled Donald Trump against war, saying that attacking Iran would not be as easy as the US raid on Venezuela to abduct the then president, Nicolás Maduro. “Iran is different. Its support is a several-thousand-year civilisation, combined with Shia thought and beliefs about martyrdom. When these combine, they create something that cannot be easily defeated,” he said. He told Mogouyi that Iran had warned neighbouring governments that any attack would be met with retaliation against targets in the region. “If Israel hits our nuclear facilities, we will hit theirs. Our missiles do not reach America, so we will hit their bases, which are unfortunately in your countries. If they hit our oil facilities, we will ensure that nobody in the region can sell oil,” he said. He also said warnings to the Turkish government had prompted Ankara to shut down Trump’s plan to encourage a Kurdish revolt from Iraq into Iran. Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, “talked to the Americans and adopted a very firm position in this regard. A series of efforts foiled this plot,” Araghchi said. He added that Iran was working to exacerbate divisions between the US and Israel. “There are sometimes conflicts of objectives and positions which can be played with,” he said, without giving details. Araghchi said that after Israel’s 12-day bombing campaign against his country in 2025, Iran had improved its missile capabilities, reducing the time needed to reactivate a base after an attack from 10–15 hours to 35–40 minutes. Discussing the choice of diplomacy or war, Araghchi said: “We do not fight unless the cost of not fighting is higher than the cost of fighting.”

Japan records its first ‘cruelly hot day’ as cities swelter in 40-degree heat

Japan logged its first official kokushobi or “cruelly hot day” on Tuesday since the new term for when temperatures top 40 degrees Celsius was introduced in April. The Japan Meteorological Agency coined the new designation to warn the public of the heat dangers of days that were once freak weather events but have now become more common. The central Japan cities of Gujo and Tajimi in Gifu prefecture, along with Toyota in Aichi prefecture, all hit 40C. Gujo’s 40C and Toyota’s 40.1C were all-time highs recorded at their respective weather stations. Across 914 weather stations nationwide, 278 registered temperatures exceeding 35C or moshobi – “extremely hot days,” the highest level of warning until the recent introduction of the new terminology. Days over 25C are called natsubi or “summer days”, while those exceeding 30C are known as manatsubi – “true summer days.” On Monday, a man in his 40s was found dead on a street in Sanjo, Niigata prefecture, while another in his 70s died in Kanagawa, southwest of Tokyo. Both are believed to have succumbed to the heat. Heatstroke deaths topped 2,000 for the first time in 2024, while more than 100,000 people were taken to hospital last year between the beginning of May and late September, according to the fire and disaster management agency. The rising heat is affecting many aspects of Japanese life – including yields and the quality of rice, a staple. In response, farmers are planting more heat-tolerant varieties, while some are switching to crops such as avocado that have not traditionally been grown at scale in Japan. Impacts are also being seen in sport, with the most high-profile being the restructuring of the hugely popular koshien national high school baseball tournament. Played in the sweltering heat of August, the games have been split into morning and evening sessions since 2024 to reduce the chances of heatstroke for both players and spectators. Meanwhile, office workers are being encouraged to wear shorts on hot summer days, the latest relaxing of Japan’s buttoned-down corporate culture as part of “Cool Biz” measures to reduce electricity consumption through lower use of airconditioning. Previous initiatives have encouraged “salarymen” to shed jackets and ties, and wear short-sleeved shirts but this year’s expected scorching summer has prompted calls for another level of casualness. Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike announced the new clothing recommendations for office wear which also include polo shirts, T-shirts and trainers where appropriate, against the backdrop of expected high temperatures and a “challenging outlook for electricity supply”. A study by the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) and Tokyo’s Waseda University in 2025 found that without drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, school sports will become unplayable outdoors by the 2060s. Average summer temperatures in Japan have risen about 1.3C over the past 100 years, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). Both 2023 and 2024 were the hottest years since records began in 1898, but last year saw those levels surpassed again. The summer of 2025 was 2.4C above the average of the previous three decades, with 132 weather stations logging their highest ever average heat and a new all-time Japanese high of 41.8C at Isesaki, Gunma, north of Tokyo, on 5 August.