At least two people have been killed following an explosion at a shopping mall during Tuesday’s 6.8-magnitude earthquake in southern Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture.

Rescuers working at the scene overnight had taken eight people out of the Aeon Mall Kumamoto shopping centre, and two women in their 20s were confirmed dead.

Another person was reported to be in cardiopulmonary arrest and five others were injured, but in stable condition.

Power was knocked out to thousands of homes on Tuesday, while around 300,000 people were instructed to go to evacuation centres.

Around 180 people are reportedly being treated for injuries following the disaster.

The earthquake caused powerful shaking and a tsunami warning was issued for Kyushu’s south-western coastlines, though it was later lifted.

Prime minister Sanae Takaichi said officials were evaluating reports of collapsed buildings, fires, damaged roads and bridges, and power outages.

Public broadcaster NHK showed burning and collapsed buildings, large cracks in roads, including an elevated highway, and a derailed freight train.

Mobile phone services were disrupted in some areas and around 48,300 homes lost electricity.

At least 13 people dead in earthquake as search continues for missing

Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi said 13 people have died after a powerful earthquake and subsequent tremors rocked the Kyushu region.

Kyodo News said a hospital in the city of Yatsushiro took in about 40 people with injuries and about 50 others were taken to a hospital in Kumamoto city.

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“There are people who are still waiting to be rescued, and it’s a race against time,” Takaichi said. “We will go all out to find and rescue as many people as we can.”

Takaichi offered her condolences to the victims and sympathy to their relatives, while urging those affected by the quake to take care of themselves under the hot weather.

Shweta Sharma29 July 2026 03:52

Japanese mall explosion caught on car dashcam

Harriette Boucher29 July 2026 03:00

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ICYMI: Around 3,600 military personnel dispatched to Kumamoto

Around 3,600 military personnel were sent to Kumamoto yesterday to help emergency service efforts, which continued through the night.

It comes as workers urgently try to rescue the dozens of people who thought to be trapped in the Aeon Mall shopping centre in Kashima Town.

Prime minister Sanae Takaichi said: “The government will work tirelessly through the night to swiftly assess the overall damage situation and carry out emergency disaster response measures, starting with the rescue and lifesaving of those affected.

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“At the same time, we will ensure the reliable delivery of essential supplies such as food and water, as well as simple air conditioners and power vehicles for heatstroke prevention, utilising push-type support where appropriate, and strive to secure a safe and suitable evacuation environment.”

Harriette Boucher29 July 2026 02:00

Where a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Japan

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Harriette Boucher29 July 2026 01:00

Is it safe to travel to Japan? Latest advice after deadly earthquake disrupts flights and trains

As of Tuesday afternoon, the FCDO has warned travellers: “A large earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture on 28 July 2026. There are reports of disruption to air and rail services.

“Train lines in Kyushu have been suspended and flights to and from Kumamoto airport have been disrupted. Earthquake aftershocks may also continue.”

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General FCDO safety advice for Japan warns that the country sits “in a major earthquake zone”.

Travellers are told to “take note of instructions in hotel rooms and at train stations and follow the advice of local authorities” in the event of a disaster.

Per FlightRadar24, hundreds of flights to and from Japan are currently delayed following the earthquake, including at Kumamoto airport and Fukuoka airport on the island of Kyushu.

Harriette Boucher29 July 2026 00:00

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Harriette Boucher28 July 2026 23:00

Two women dead following Aeon Mall explosion

The explosion at Aeon shopping centre has killed at least two people, according to local media.

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Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that two women in their 20s died, while five others were injured in the disaster.

This follows an earlier report from Kumamoto City’s Disaster Management Division, which said that 10 people were missing.

Harriette Boucher28 July 2026 22:28

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Kumamoto residents urged to avoid tap water

Residents of Kumamoto has been told not to drink the tap water.

The government said cloudy water had been seen in parts of the city and it was inspecting water supply facilities.

Electricity was cut to about 48,300 households in Kumamoto Prefecture following the powerful earthquake, according to Kyushu Electric Power.

Harriette Boucher28 July 2026 22:07

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A history of Japan’s largest quakes

Japan was rocked by a powerful 6.8 earthquake today, which is thought to have killed several people.

Residents in Kumamoto said the shake reminded them of the 2016 disaster that left 278 people dead across the prefecture and surrounding areas.

Around 20 per cent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater take place in Japan and up to 2,000 quakes are felt by people each year.

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These are some of the largest earthquakes that have struck Japan in the last 15 years:

• On March 16, 2022, a magnitude-7.4 earthquake jolted the coast off Fukushima again, leaving three dead, more than 200 injured and ​reviving memories of the quake and tsunami that crippled the ​Pacific coast ⁠region just over a decade earlier.

• On February 13, 2021, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Fukushima in eastern Japan, injuring dozens of people and ​triggering widespread power outages ​in Greater Tokyo.

• On September 6, 2018, a 6.7-magnitude earthquake ‌paralysed ⁠Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, killing more than 40 people, triggering landslides and knocking out power to its 5.3 million residents.

• On June 18, ​2018, a magnitude-6.1 earthquake in Osaka, Japan’s second-biggest metropolis, killed four people, injured hundreds ​more and halted factory lines in an industrial area.

• On ​April 16, 2016, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Kumamoto, the scene of Tuesday’s temblor, killing more than 270 people, including some caught in landslides and heavy rain in the aftermath.

• On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami ⁠struck northeast Japan, killing nearly 20,000 people and causing a meltdown at the ​Fukushima nuclear power plant, leading to the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Harriette Boucher28 July 2026 22:00

Aeon Mall mall explosion thought to be triggered by gas leak

The explosion at Aeon Mall shopping centre is believed to have been triggered by a gas leak at the building, according to Japan’s NHK national television.

Tuesday’s earthquake collapsed the second floor of the Aeon Mall shopping centre and has trapped an unknown number of people there.

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Emergency services have pulled four people out with injuries, while 10 others were unaccounted for, the Kumamoto prefectural emergency response team said.

It said the extent of the damage was still being investigated as the search and rescue effort continued.

Harriette Boucher28 July 2026 21:42

Dominick Anthony Occhicone has been put to death in the same day as another inmate, nearly four decades after carrying out a brutal double murder at an ex-girlfriend’s home

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A Florida man has become the oldest person to be executed in the US state’s history after receiving a lethal injection at the age of 80.

Dominick Anthony Occhicone was put to death for the 1986 double murder of Raymond and Martha Artzner, the parents of his ex-girlfriend, Anita Gerrety.

He becomes the state’s 12th person to be put to death for 2026, and the second in one calendar day in Florida.

His death comes nearly four decades following his brutal crime. At around 3am on June 10, 1986, Occhicone knocked on the door of his ex’s parents’ Pasco County home. As per court records, he wished to rekindle their relationship. He left when Anita threatened to call the sheriff.

He returned an hour later and this time, he came with lethal intent. Anita’s father Raymond tried to call the sheriff’s office, but the phone line had been cut at the junction box, prosecutors said.

Occhicone then shot Anita’s father Raymond in the face. As per the Herald-Tribune, Occhicone then broke through a locked door and chased his ex through the house, but she was able to get outside with her daughter, she later testified.

She heard gunshots ring out behind her and her mother, Martha Artzner, was later found dead.

Raymond Artzner lived long enough to tell deputies who shot him but died at the hospital, prosecutors said. Occhicone did not deny the evidence later in court, but argued the shootings were not premeditated. He was not believed by a jury of his peers, and has been on death row ever since.

But now, 40 years after the brutal revenge slaying of his ex’s parents, Occhicone’s execution has finally gone ahead after forward after the Florida Supreme Court unanimously rejected all of his final appeals earlier on in the week.

Occhicone therefore became the oldest person executed in modern history in Florida and the second-oldest put to death in the US after the 2018 execution of Walter Moody, who was executed at age 83.

Occhicone’s death came six hours after the execution of 68-year-old James Duckett at noon.

Duckett, a former policeman died by lethal injection for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee while he was working as an cop in central Florida in 1987. He was 11th inmate to be executed by the state in 2026. When asked, he declined to make a final statement and instead chose to respond with “no sir” when asked.

Four minutes later, he was shaken by a prison warden who also shouted Duckett’s name and found to be unresponsive. He was confirmed dead shortly thereafter on Tuesday in the wake of a lethal injection cocktail of three drugs at Florida state prison near Starke.

The double executions day is Florida’s first since 1964, when Blake Emmett and Dawson Sie were both executed in the electric chair. The last time any state carried out two executions in one day was back in 2017, when Arkansas held back-to-back executions.

Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has made his state’s death chamber the busiest in the US as the end of his final term approaches. DeSantis has previously said too many families have waited too long to see justice, hence the uptick in lethal injections. Nationwide, the death penalty had been on the decline for more than 20 years. That number has now tracked back upwards behind the increased pace set in Florida. Since 2025, Florida has carried out nearly half the state executions across the US.

The user was desperate to know: Are birds ‘secretly professional rappers who co-wrote most of Jay Z’s albums’?

‘I could try to find the bird and interview it,’ they explained, ‘but I think that might be hard because it’s clearly a celebrity.’

Another wondered how they could ‘truly’ transform into a nine-tailed fox, a spirit in ancient Japanese mythology. A third wanted to be called ‘crude’ things which we can’t really publish here.

The above were just three of the hundreds of conversations between real people and the AI chatbot Claude that could be discovered on Google.

Reddit users unearthed the raft of chats on Saturday by using a site-specific term on search engines that limits what results pop up.

Some 755 messages could be searched online across dozens of search results pages, according to a repository on the coding platform GitHub.

The chat logs Metro saw were eye-opening, to say the least. One conversation involved Claude fact-checking someone who thought that climate change, caused by humans burning fossil fuels, does not exist.

A user asked Claude to help them invent a new word – they landed on ‘transtill’ – while another asked to play cards with the bot (Claude won).

In a nearly 20,000-word-long chat, a person asked Claude if it is ‘situationally aware’, later telling the algorithm that they ‘feel bad’ for it.

As of Tuesday evening, a test search by Metro on Google, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo and Brave returned no results with the trick.

Does this mean all Claude chats are public?

No, neither are private conversations being leaked or hacked.

Instead, Claude lets users ‘share’ some parts of all of a conversation, which gives them a unique URL.

‘Once a chat has been shared, anyone with the link can view the chat snapshot,’ Claude says.

‘The chat snapshot includes all messages that were sent prior to sharing the chat, including any artifacts.’

A box at the top of every conversation will say that it is a ‘copy of a chat between Claude’ and the first name of the user.

Claude users can go to Settings > Privacy > Shared chats to keep their conversations private.

Anthropic, the AI startup behind the Claude chatbot, told Metro that shareable links to chats are ‘not guessable or discoverable’.

‘We give people control over sharing their Claude conversations publicly, and in keeping with our privacy principles, we do not share chat directories or sitemaps with search engines like Google,’ the company added.

If users post these links on a forum or social media platform, however, Google’s web crawlers, which index websites, may have caught them.

A link sent privately to someone stays out of search.

Inside each chat log’s code is a tiny message that tells search engines to leave them alone, called a robots.txt file.

But as Google’s developer guide, says, this file isn’t a sure-fire way to keep a web page buried; instead, it recommends sites try ‘noindex’.

When Metro peeked inside some of the previously Google-able Claude chat logs, they did not contain this tag.

Google said: ‘Neither Google nor any other search engine controls what pages are made public on the web, and these pages were indexed across many search engines.

‘We give site owners clear controls to decide whether pages can be crawled or indexed, and we always respect those directives.’

An almost identical issue with ChatGPT happened last year, when 4,500 ‘shared’ ChatGPT chat logs were found to be accessible if Googled.

Owner OpenAI tightened its data control policies in response, so search engines could not pick up the shareable links as easily.

Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot within the social media platform X, also saw some 300,000 chat logs viewable with a quick Google search.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

MORE: Tech boss whose company was hacked by rogue OpenAI bot warns ‘game has changed’

MORE: Music platform hit with 90,000 AI-generated tracks every day – can you spot them?

MORE: The clever new tech that could make AI look stupid

The couple had been arguing over what was in the boxes just a day after the wife gave birth following a pregnancy she denied – the couple have three living children

A man has found the remains of five babies stuffed into cardboard boxes.

The horrific discoveries were made at a house in France’s Provence region on Monday, July 29. The man and his wife cannot be named for legal reasons.

The couple had been arguing over what was in the boxes just a day after giving birth following a pregnancy she denied. This was the the third time she had denied being pregnant, according to media reports.

The woman began suffering from abdominal pains and went to hospital while her husband stayed behind.

According to reports from the Daily Mail, a source said the man “looked inside the cardboard boxes they had been arguing over – that’s when he found the five dead babies”.

The source said they were all “decomposing, and had been around for quite a while”.

The husband notified police who are now investigating the incident.

The couple have three living children, aged eight, twelve and the newborn.

Medical examinations will determine the exact nature of the remains, as well as the circumstances and date of their deaths, with the first forensic examinations, including autopsies carried out today (Wednesday, July 29).

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No arrests have been made connection with the case.

The case has drawn parallels to several other newborn murder cases in the country.

In March, a French court jailed a 44-year-old woman for 25 years over the deaths of two of her newborn babies, who police found in the family freezer.

In 2018, a court sentenced a woman to eight years in prison for drowning five of her new-born babies and freezing their bodies.

In 2015, a 45-year-old nursing assistant from northern France confessed to killing her eight newborns at birth and hiding their bodies. The murders were committed between 1989 and 2006, by suffocating eight of her children shortly after giving birth.

Behind the scenes of BBC Breakfast in recent days, there have been plenty of smiles.

Mainly on the faces of the programme’s editor Richard Frediani and his ‘boys’ club’ – since they learned that long-time presenter Naga Munchetty, who earned a salary of £364,999 in her role, was to leave after 17 years on the sofa.

For Frediani, who was temporarily suspended last year following allegations of bullying, had finally won the war against Naga.

In the end, sources tell me, it was an ultimatum for BBC bosses between keeping the presenter or her editor, nicknamed ‘Fredi’.

Their feud, which began when Frediani joined the breakfast programme in 2019, worsened after Naga was seen to be standing up for lower-ranking staff as she watched them being belittled and ‘trampled over’ by Team Frediani.

But while the editor was reportedly widely despised by his junior troop, he was ‘well in’ with the top brass.

Indeed, it was announced yesterday that Naga, 51, is moving to Radio 5 Live where she will host the breakfast show for five days a week. Frediani remains in post.

It has not been an easy few years for the BBC Breakfast show, which Naga co-hosted with Charlie Stayt. Naga’s departure follows an internal investigation in 2025 into her behaviour, also concerning complaints of bullying, over a three-year period. 

She was accused of bullying a female colleague and making a ‘wildly unprofessional’ off-air sex joke that left a co-worker ‘humiliated’. Following the investigation, Naga remained in her job at the BBC.

Meanwhile, in 2020 I first revealed that less than a year into his reign as editor, Frediani had been accused of bullying his staff.

For years since I have heard from staff complaining about his alleged behaviour and, in June 2025, it was said that he had taken an extended period of leave after an internal review of bullying and misconduct allegations was opened.

While Naga was cleared, the sight of her boss also returning to the show after his own investigation – in which at least one complaint was upheld – was, I’m told, ‘untenable’ for her.

‘It was a war zone at Breakfast and Naga lost her battle with the man in charge, her own boss, who didn’t seem to like being taken on,’ one BBC insider told me, shortly after the news of her new role was made public by the Radio Five Live press office.

‘[Naga] was a far more interesting story than Fredi – he didn’t make headlines, she did. Reams of headlines appeared making her out to be a total monster – but “scapegoat” is probably more accurate.

‘At the end of the day, there wasn’t a smoking gun to sack Naga but it’s for the best she doesn’t host Breakfast any more, it was all getting very tricky for everyone involved.

‘What absolutely hasn’t gone unnoticed among Naga’s gang is that the woman has gone, the man is still in situ. Classic. We’ve had Jermaine Jenas texting women filthy, sexual messages, MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace treated junior staff abhorrently and Wynne Evans used the vilest sexual terms in the workplace, yet look at the abuse Naga got.’

Naga has her critics and in the past 18 months since reports of her alleged behaviour have come to light, I’ve heard a mixed bag of insider reports, writes Katie Hind

Of course, Naga has her critics and in the past 18 months since reports of her alleged behaviour have come to light, I’ve heard a mixed bag of insider reports.

Last year, when her co-star Sally Nugent showed off her ‘glow-up’ which became something of a national talking point, it was claimed that Naga made a nasty comment about her sidekick’s new look.

‘We’re meant to be serious journalists, not trying to look like we’re presenting This Morning,’ she supposedly told Sally.

And then there was Geri Halliwell-Horner, the former Spice Girl who found herself on the receiving end of Naga’s acidic tongue during a live interview in which the host pointed her finger at the singer. The BBC later apologised.

Then came ‘toast-gate’ when Naga reportedly reprimanded a BBC Breakfast intern for incorrectly spreading Marmite on her toast and also complained that it ‘needed to be a little bit burnt, but not too much’.

‘A lot of what Naga does is in jest, some of it isn’t,’ says my BBC source. ‘The perception, frankly, is that she is nasty but a lot of this is her manner and often for show.

‘She will take no s***, that was part of the problem.’

BBC insiders describe Naga’s new job, which will begin in January next year, as ‘a great one’.

They also point out that she will be hosting it alone, and, unlike Breakfast on television, it will be five days a week instead of three. Nor will she host the show on a Saturday as she did on BBC Breakfast.

BBC insiders describe Naga’s new job, which begins in January next year, as ‘a great one’. They also point out that she will be hosting it alone, and it will be five days a week instead of three

Naga may also be able to host some shows from London rather than be in Salford full-time, meaning that she will be closer to her home in Dulwich, south-east London.

However, in a statement released yesterday, Naga carefully worded her comments about her exit, giving no mention of her fallout with her former editor.

She said: ‘It has been a privilege to be part of the BBC Breakfast TV team for the past 17 years, working alongside an incredibly talented and hard-working group of journalists who are not only outstanding colleagues but also great friends.

‘Presenting a flagship programme on 5 Live is an opportunity that was simply too good to pass up. It will take a huge amount of work and require 100 per cent of my focus and energy, and I’m really looking forward to throwing myself into the role.’

Later in the day, she shared the news on BBC Radio 5 Live where she told the channel’s listeners that she was ‘very excited’ to join the flagship show. ‘Change is as good as a rest,’ she giggled but, again, she kept schtum on the chaos behind the scenes at Breakfast.

There has been no word from Frediani over her departure but John McAndrew, the BBC’s director of live and daily news, paid tribute to Naga, writing that she will be ‘hugely missed by the millions of viewers who’ve welcomed her into their homes each week’.

So far there has been no word from Charlie Stayt, Naga’s long-serving co-anchor who has often been on the end of her snarling eye rolls and sarcastic comments.

There is no suggestion yet that he is likely to follow Naga off the red Breakfast sofa.

‘He tried his best not to get involved in it all, he’s basically Switzerland – neutral,’ a source told me.

‘He is beloved by the rank and file but has not many allies in the creepy mid-management class but he loved Naga really and enjoyed the sport of hosting with her. Even he will miss her.’

Keeping your house cool during a heatwave can be a challenge – but there are plenty of simple cooling tips to beat the heat without a fan or air conditioning

When temperatures climb, maintaining a comfortable home environment can seem like a daunting challenge. Heatwaves can transform your property into what feels like an oven, particularly if you lack air conditioning or wish to avoid the additional energy expenses associated with running fans continuously.

The encouraging news is that numerous straightforward, practical methods exist to keep indoor areas cooler during periods of extreme heat. Many of these approaches can be put into action within minutes using items you likely already possess.

From preventing sunlight entry to maximising natural airflow, these sensible strategies can help you combat the heat without depending on costly equipment.

1. Closing curtains and blinds

When sunshine appears, our instinct before venturing outdoors is often to draw back our curtains at home and allow the glorious rays to stream through. However, this can actually increase the temperature inside your property, reports the Express.

To maintain a cooler home, close your blinds, curtains and shutters throughout the day to prevent direct sunlight from entering and stop heat from accumulating indoors. If you’re relying on curtains, opt for lighter fabrics whenever possible, as thick, heavy materials tend to trap heat and make rooms feel warmer.

“Do this early on in the day, long before temperatures peak. You may also wish to consider using a reflective surface at windows, such as a reflective window film, external foil screens or budget-friendly tin foil, to bounce the heat away,” reported home experts at Country Living.

2. Natural ventilation

As evening approaches, daytime temperatures start to fall. During the summer months, this typically happens after 8pm.

Home experts recommend taking advantage of this period to air out your property. They shared: “While you seal everything shut during the day, these are the times to fling open the window (and doors when awake), especially those upstairs, to flush out the hot air and let in the cool air.”

Where possible, opening windows on opposite sides of the house to create a cross-breeze will help cool things down further.

3. Make one room cool

According to the Red Cross, keeping your entire house cool is no easy feat. Instead, it is advisable to designate a particular area or select one or two rooms to maintain at a cooler temperature.

They warned: “Keep windows covered and shut and close doors to stop warm air entering.”

They added: “Try to avoid, or spend as little time in as possible, rooms that will be hard to keep cool, like a kitchen where heat is generated by appliances and cooking devices, or rooms with large windows where the sun is shining.”

Should you choose to use an electric fan, it is important to operate it efficiently to avoid wasting energy. Here is what to do, according to watchdog Which?:

• Don’t turn it on unless you’re in the room, as it wastes energy and doesn’t cool your room.
• If it’s colder outside than in, then place your fan by your window. But if it is hot, then avoid placing fans near windows.
• If it is too hot, try to place a bowl or glass of ice under your fan – this will act like an air conditioner.

Zack Polanski insisted he has not ‘done anything wrong’ after the Green Party leader shared a photograph of a man wearing a T-shirt which Reform claims ‘incites the murder of Nigel Farage‘.

Mr Polanski, 43, said he made an ‘inadvertent mistake’ but will not apologise for the post, which he shared to his 713,000 followers on Instagram on Monday.

The image featured a man wearing a black T-shirt with the message, ‘We’re only making plans for Nigel’ and an image of a guillotine.

Mr Farage called for his political opponent to be arrested on Monday, while Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf accused the Green leader of ‘inciting murder’. The party confirmed it had reported Mr Polanski to police.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the force was ‘conducting inquiries’ and took ‘reports of this nature extremely seriously’.

In his first interview since the scandal erupted, Mr Polanski told BBC Newsnight that the police had not been in contact with him, adding he ‘didn’t pay enough attention to the T-shirt’ and was ‘horrified’ by its ‘dangerous message’.

The Green Party leader said during the programme on Tuesday night: ‘This was not my post, it was a collaboration from a photographer.

‘It had 20 images and I just didn’t look carefully enough and I accepted it.

Mr Polanski told BBC Newsnight that the police had not been in contact with him, adding he  was ‘horrified’ by the T-shirt’s ‘dangerous message’

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for his political opponent to be arrested on Monday

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‘As soon as I was aware of what happened, I unaccepted it and took it down.

‘I think it would be odd for the police to speak to me about that because I think it’s quite obvious that I’ve not done anything wrong other than making an inadvertent mistake.

‘That being said, if the police do want to talk to me, of course I’m very happy to co-operate.’

Mr Polanski said he would not be apologising to Mr Farage, adding: ‘If I’d done it deliberately, I’d be apologising.

‘But because this was a mistake, I think the important thing is that I point out it’s a mistake, that I also make sure that I condemn political violence, and also crucially, I make a commitment to be better on my social media.’

He added: ‘I believe in authenticity, and I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong here. I’ve made a mistake, but it wasn’t a purposeful mistake.

‘It’d be very easy to apologise, but actually I think it would be false. And if nothing else, I’m always going to stand by my convictions.

‘If Nigel Farage wants to apologise for all the times that he’s put other people in danger, then I’ll be happy to make an apology.’

Mr Polanski refused seven times when asked by presenter Victoria Derbyshire if he would say sorry for to Mr Farage. 

Mr Polanski also revealed he is yet to pay any outstanding council tax bill he owes.

He said his local council has yet to tell him whether he faces a bill for unpaid tax, but added: ‘I want to pay it as soon as I can, if I have to pay anything.’

A Reform UK (RUK) source told BBC Newsnight: ‘It’s truly astonishing and quite frankly sickening that Zack Polanski won’t apologise.

‘He admits it was wrong. He admits it’s dangerous, but he still refuses to apologise.

‘Mr Polanski is not fit to lead a national political party.’

Asked about the row on Tuesday, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said there was ‘a duty on all politicians to be careful about what they post’, especially in light of the death of former MP and RUK spokesman Ann Widdecombe earlier this month.

Mr McFadden told Sky News people could ‘make mistakes’ and it was for the police to decide if any action was needed.

He added: ‘It’s not the first time Zack Polanski has done something like this.’

On Monday night, Lord Walney, the Government’s former adviser on political violence, was among the voices calling out Mr Polanski’s actions, and described the  post as ‘sickening’.

Lord Walney told the Daily Mail: ‘There must be serious consequences for Zack Polanski after he shared material implying the assassination of another politician.

‘This would be sickening and unacceptable at any time but it is even more serious in the present environment in which a senior Reform member has been brutally killed.

‘The Green Party must be barred from participating alongside mainstream parties if it fails to take action against its leader.’

Manchester-based Sabcat Printing, which was selling the T-shirt for £20, listed it as ‘a cryptic design for difficult times’. It has since removed the item from its website

Nigel Farage has called for Zack Polanski to be arrested after the Green Party leader shared a photograph of a man wearing a T-shirt ‘planning his decapitation’

A Green Party spokesman said on Monday that the now-deleted post had appeared as part of a social media ‘collaboration’.

They said: ‘After attending a public event, Zack accepted a request to collaborate on a post with several images.

‘Once this image was brought to his attention he immediately unshared the post. He unequivocally does not support this type of dangerous message.’

Following the furore, Sabcat Printing, based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, removed the T-shirt design from its website.

Sold for £20, the business listed the clothing item as ‘a cryptic design for difficult times’.

It is thought the shirt references a 1979 song title by English rock band XTC, but the addition of a guillotine suggests a darker statement. 

The company added in the now-deleted description: ‘Who could Nigel be? And why the guillotine? Whether it’s a nod to the XTC classic or a sharper bit of political satire, this design is for those who prefer their statements with a side of mystery.’

By late on Monday evening the T-shirt had been removed from the company’s website.

Mr Polanski has previously run into trouble over his use of social media.

In May, he apologised for sharing a post criticising the police response to the Golders Green stabbings, saying he had done so ‘in haste’.

Last week Badenoch wrote to the prime minister saying he should rule out tax rises or increased borrowing to fund social care reform.

A Conservative spokesman said Andrew would attend in Badenoch’s place and was ready to work with Labour on measures that improved social care – provided they were not reliant on tax rises and borrowing.

“Social care is vital to protecting the most vulnerable in our society,” he said.

“Any changes must be backed by a clear, credible and fully costed plan that delivers better care for the public and value for taxpayers.

“Andy Burnham and Labour cannot rely on vague promises of reform without a clear plan for implementation and detail on what will happen when.”

Sir Ed said on X that he would attend the meeting by Zoom as he was with his family in France and had a disabled son who needed “24/7 care”.

“I’m hopeful this call may prove to be the first step towards fixing our broken care service,” he added.

He has previously said he was ready to do “whatever I can to find a real and lasting consensus on social care” but pointed out there had already been 22 failed attempts at reforming social care since 1997.

“To see the 23rd effort work, we need to do things differently,” he said.

“My party has been pushing for cross-party talks on care for years, because it is the only way to build a solution that actually works.

“For carers and for our country, nothing matters more, so I look forward to meeting the prime minister tomorrow to begin these talks.”

He added his priorities were to put family carers at the heart of any proposals, and ensure no-one lost their home or life savings on catastrophic care costs.

Complaining of the snub, Reform leader Nigel Farage said far from leaving politics aside, Burnham had “chosen to ignore the party that led over 300 national opinion polls and represents thousands of councillors and millions of Britons across the country”.

He accused the prime minister of “conspiring behind closed doors with the failed political establishment”.

Green leader Zack Polanski, asked on Newsnight whether he should have been invited, said: “That’s a case for the prime minister. Actually, I think it’s positive he’s inviting opposition leaders at all.

“I would like to be there, of course I would, I’d encourage the prime minister to extend that invitation… The point here, though, is not politicians’ personal egos, the point is adult social care is a ticking time bomb.”

Adult social care provides state support to help people live more independently, including assistance at home.

Unlike the NHS, social care is not free at the point of use. In England and Northern Ireland, people with savings worth more than £23,250 are not entitled to help with care costs from their council.

In Wales and Scotland, different rules apply in terms of eligibility.

August’s video game line-up includes a new Marvel fighting game, a dream Star Wars/XCOM crossover, and a rare non-Pokémon game from Game Freak.

While we are currently in the midst of the typical summer drought of big video game releases, July still saw a handful of significant titles, particularly from Nintendo and Microsoft.

The former launched Rhythm Paradise Groove as its final (for now) Switch 1 game and a new Splatoon spin-off, Splatoon Raiders, for Switch 2. Microsoft, meanwhile, launched its long-awaited Halo: Combat Evolved remake and an excellent Doom: The Dark Ages expansion, although both were severely undermined by the awful Xbox layoffs at the beginning of the month.

Things will remain quiet until September, which stands to have the opposite problem, but August is not without a handful of interesting new releases. Plus, you can look forward to some new announcements at the end of the month, at Gamescom Opening Night Live on August 25.

Beast Of Reincarnation

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC

Before Pokémon Winds and Waves next year, Game Freak is releasing a very different kind of role-playing game and not even for Nintendo consoles. Although you do still get a cute animal companion for the adventure.

Beast Of Reincarnation’s post-apocalyptic setting and real-time sword combat bring to mind games like Monster Hunter and Wild Hearts, but you can also command a large dog to assist you with special moves.

Game Freak’s non-Pokémon projects have always been hit-or-miss but if nothing else, Beast Of Reincarnation shows the studio has the skills to make graphically beautiful games.

Release date: August 4

Big Walk

PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC

After the deservedly viral sensation that was Untitled Goose Game, Australian developer House House’s next project is lacking in obnoxious waterfowl but does have the potential to be the next big friendslop game.

Big Walk is primarily a co-op game where you and up to seven friends must explore a vast open world and solve puzzles… or just hang out and enjoy the vibes.

It features a proximity chat system, where the further away someone is the quieter they become, so the game offers alternative tools for communicating with your friends from a distance, like a megaphone or signal flares.

Release date: August 4

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls

PlayStation 5 and PC

There’ll probably never be a new Marvel Vs. Capcom game, but Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls from Guilty Gear studio Arc System Works stands to be the next best thing.

A 4v4 tag fighter that infuses the Marvel universe with an anime aesthetic, it had an open beta recently; although the PC version suffered from widespread performance issues that Arc System Works had to apologise for.

The game is set to launch with 20 characters, but it already has four more planned as DLC, with the first confirmed to be Cyclops of the X-Men, specifically Phoenix Cyclops from when he was possessed by the Phoenix Force in the comics.

Release date: August 6

Grounded 2

PlayStation 5

Of all of Obsidian Entertainment’s 2025 releases, Grounded 2’s early access launch was the only one deemed a success by Microsoft and now it’s coming to PlayStation 5.

Much like the first Grounded, this is a Honey, I Shrunk The Kids inspired survival game, although instead of someone’s garden, you must fend for yourself in an entire park, scavenging for resources and fighting off insects – although some insects now serve as ridable mounts.

The PlayStation 5 early access launch also coincides with the Into The Abyss update, which will be available across all platforms and opens up a new pond area and underwater exploration.

Release date: August 11

The Sinking City 2

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC

In 2019, Ukrainian studio Frogwares broke away from its frequent Sherlock Holmes games to take a stab at adapting the works of H. P. Lovecraft, with open world detective/survival horror game The Sinking City.

Frogwares has spent the years since working on more Sherlock Holmes games and dealing with the Russia-Ukraine war but, after a successful crowdfunding effort, it’s heading back to Lovecraft with The Sinking City 2.

The sequel promises a new setting of 1920s era Arkham (the real-life city in Maine, not the asylum in Batman), which has been impacted by a supernatural flood that will see rising water levels cut off areas as the game progresses.

Release date: August 18

Mortal Shell 2

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC

In the endless sea of Dark Souls clones, 2020’s Mortal Shell stands out as one of our personal favourites thanks to its more approachable, beginner friendly design and novel shell mechanic, where you possess different dead bodies that offer their own perks.

So, we were pleasantly surprised to see a sequel, Mortal Shell 2, be announced at last year’s Summer Game Fest, which promises more of a horror focus and far more gun combat than you’d expect from a Soulslike.

Considering the first Mortal Shell was only the debut release of developer Cold Symmetry, we’re confident of the sequel’s chances, although hopefully it will offer more original ideas to help it truly break out from FromSoftware’s shadow.

Release date: August 20

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC

While the first Aliens: Fireteam Elite was a noble effort, with a clear love for the source material and a few neat ideas, its attempt at an Alien themed Left 4 Dead was clearly hamstrung by a small budget and bland action.

It sold well though (it was the top selling game in the UK at launch) and now developer Cold Iron Studios is back with a sequel that was announced just a couple of months ago (after it had leaked in 2024).

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 bumps the player count from three to four and promises ‘deeper team-based mechanics’ and improved character classes (including a new customisable specialist class), so hopefully it can make good on the original’s potential.

Release date: August 25

Star Wars Zero Company

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC

From one classic sci-fi franchise to another, Star Wars Zero Company is an XCOM inspired strategy game set during the events of the Clone Wars.

As the leader of the titular Zero Company, you command your own band of mercenaries through various missions with turn-based combat. There’ll be a wide variety of customisable characters to recruit, from clone troopers to astromech droids and, much like XCOM, there is permadeath – although genre newbies can disable this option if they want.

You’ll also have to juggle managing your home base and deciding which missions to complete, some of which can impact the story. As for character cameos, Anakin Skywalker himself will show up, but it remains to be seen if he’ll be friend or foe.

Release date: August 27

Resonance: A Plague Legacy

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC

This prequel to A Plague Tale: Requiem is quite the change of pace for the series, shifting from Middles Ages era France to the Greek island of Crete, but also ditching the stealth elements to be a more action-focused game.

Part of that is down to smuggler Sophia taking over as the protagonist, who is more than capable of getting up close and personal with enemies. She has no need for a slingshot, when she can deftly wield a sword and parry attacks.

The graphics are gorgeous looking , but there is so far a noticeable lack of rats, making Resonance feel even further removed from the other Plague Tale games.

Release date: August 27

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, and PC

This second collection of Metal Gear Solid games might have far fewer titles than the first one, but it does have Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots, which has been locked to the PlayStation 3 since 2008.

Additionally, the collection includes the PlayStation Portable spin-off Peace Walker (specifically the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 HD re-release) and Game Boy game Ghost Babel, which was notably absent from the last collection.

This still leaves a few games unaccounted for (perhaps for a Volume 3?) and though we welcome further behind the scenes content, Konami will no doubt continue to omit any mention of series creator Hideo Kojima.

Release date: August 27

Elden Ring Tarnished Edition

Nintendo Switch 2

Elden Ring was one of the first third party ports announced for the Switch 2 and yet it’s taken well over a year to come out. Possibly because there’s been difficulty getting it to run at an acceptable level, after an infamously poor first showing at Gamescom.

Considering the high calibre of third party Switch 2 ports like Cyberpunk 2077, FromSoftware hopefully won’t let the side down, as Nintendo fans deserve to experience the best game of 2022 in its full glory.

Aside from bundling in the equally excellent Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC, the Tarnished Edition adds two new character classes and cosmetics, although these will also be available for other platforms as paid DLC.

Release date: August 28

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YAME, Japan (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said 13 people have been found dead after a powerful quake shook part of southwestern Japan and rescue work was continuing Wednesday morning for the missing.

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu late Tuesday afternoon.

“There are people who are still waiting to be rescued, and it’s a race against time,” Takaichi said. “We will go all out to find and rescue as many people as we can.”

Takaichi offered her condolences to the victims and sympathy to their relatives, while urging those affected by the quake to take care of themselves under the hot weather.

Japan’s Self Defense Forces joined rescue workers in the search and rescue operations at a badly damaged shopping mall and were delivering water, food and other necessities to the hard-hit areas, she said.

The quake collapsed the second floor of the Aeon Mall in Kashima Town, trapping people, according to the fire department in the prefectural capital of Kumamoto.

A chimney collapsed at the Nippon Paper Industries Co.’s Yatsushiro factory, trapping people under the debris, the Kumamoto emergency team said.

The affected area is about 900 kilometers (540 miles) southwest of Tokyo.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said major public facilities or infrastructure were not damaged, and the Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities were found at three nearby nuclear power plants.

Kyodo News said a hospital in the city of Yatsushiro took in about 40 people with injuries and about 50 others were taken to a hospital in Kumamoto city.

Many major manufacturers in Kyushu suspended operations Tuesday but found no major damage and planned to resume work Wednesday.

The runway at Aso Kumamoto Airport was closed, with no immediate word on when it would resume operations.

A train derailed and fell on its side at Yatsushiro station, and stone walls were damaged at Kumamoto Castle, a main tourist destination that was badly damaged in the 2016 quake and is still being repaired, Kyodo said.

“The shaking reminded me of the Kumamoto quake (10 years ago) and I was frightened,” said Hiroki Shimoda, an official at Mifune town hall, who saw roof tiles of nearby homes crash to the ground. Kumamoto was hit with a deadly quake in 2016 that killed at least 50 people.

Shinji Kiyomoto with the Japan Meteorological Agency urged residents to be cautious over the next two to three days due to potential aftershocks.