At least 35 dead after Vietnam tourist boat capsizes in Ha Long Bay

At least 35 people died after a tourist boat capsized in Vietnam as rescue workers raced to find survivors ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Wipha.

The vessel with an estimated 49 people on board capsized in a sudden thunderstorm during a tour of Ha Long Bay on Saturday evening, in one of the worst accidents in the popular tourist area in recent years.

Initially, officials feared at least 38 had died in the tragedy, but this was later revised down to 35. Ten were rescued and crews are scrambling to trace four missing people.

However rescue efforts have been hampered by limited visibility hours before the typhoon, which now approaching Hong Kong, reaches land.

A 14-year-old boy was among the survivors. He was rescued four hours after being trapped in the overturned hull.

“I took a deep breath, dived, then swam up. I even shouted for help, then I was pulled up by a boat,” the boy, who had been travelling with his parents, told VietnamNet.

Most of the passengers, including about 20 children, were tourists from the Southeast Asian country’s capital city, Hanoi, local media reported.

Grieving Tran Trung Tu, 39, whose 32-year-old brother was on board, said: “My brother can swim, but I was told everything happened too fast.”

The sudden thunderstorm turned the sky dark in a matter of minutes, felling trees in the capital of Hanoi, where officials at the Noi Bai international airport said nine flights were diverted and three departures temporarily halted.

“It is the first time I have experienced an accident with so many casualties here,” said insurance agent Do Thi Thuy.

Nearly 300 rescuers, including border guards, navy personnel, police, and professional divers, were deployed to the scene. Although the sea had calmed by the time rescuers arrived, weather conditions limited visibility, making their work difficult.

The rescuers managed to retrieve the sunken boat, the government said.

A witness told AFP news agency that the sky darkened at around 2pm local time on Saturday and there were “hailstones as big as toes with torrential rain, thunderstorm and lightning”.

“I was told life vests were available, but it was too sudden,” said Do Van Hai, 42, a Halong resident. “Hopefully, the missing ones will be found soon.”

A picture showed two people sitting on top of the capsized vessel in choppy waters as rescue workers arrived to help them.

The government ordered a thorough review of all maritime safety procedures and asked officials to ensure the highest level of safety for vessels operating in the area.

Halong Bay, about 200km northeast of Hanoi, attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year. In 2011, the sinking of a tour boat in Halong Bay killed 12 people, including foreign tourists.

Last week, at least 10 people went missing after a boat capsized during bad weather off the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province. The other eight people on board were rescued after the vessel sank at around 11am local time on Monday, the national search and rescue agency said.

The doomed vessel had left Sikakap, a small town in the Mentawai Islands, for the town of Tuapejat. At least 10 government officials were among the 18 people on board, according to local reports.

Labour vows to make Britain’s rivers cleanest on record

Labour will leave Britain with the cleanest rivers on record by cutting sewage pollution from water firms in half by 2030, the environment secretary will say.

Steve Reed will promise on Sunday to make the UK’s rivers the cleanest since records began with a £104bn investment to rebuild the country’s crumbling sewage pipes.

Mr Reed will also roll out a set of strict new rules to slash pollution and a “root and branch” overhaul of the way water companies are regulated.

With a landmark report into the industry being published on Monday, the environment secretary is to promise families across the country cleaner beaches and healthier rivers.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Reed said Labour would unleash a “water revolution” in response to Sir Jon’s review.

He said leaky pipes and crumbling infrastructure has cost taxpayers tens of billions of pounds, promising the party would look to eliminate sewage pollution in rivers completely by 2035.

And, amid speculation Ofwat is to be scrapped, he said the water regulator “has failed everyone”.

Mr Reed said: “I’m making an absolute commitment, and I’m committed to delivering it.

“My intention, assuming I’m lucky enough to still be in the same job in five years’ time, I would love to sit here with you then and point to places like Windermere and see how much cleaner they are than today.”

Asked whether he would put his job on the line, he said: “Politicians come and say we’re going to do things. Of course our job should be on the line if we don’t.”

Labour’s reforms will mark the first time ministers have set a clear target for reducing sewage pollution against which they can be judged at the next election.

The package is also aimed at reducing phosphorus from treated wastewater by half by 2028 – the pollutant causes algae blooms, which are harmful to wildlife.

The pledge comes as the government faces public disgust over record sewage spills and rising bills, while tasked with turning around the poor governance of debt-ridden water firms.

Mr Reed said: “Families have watched their local rivers, coastlines and lakes suffer from record levels of pollution.

“My pledge to you: the government will halve sewage pollution from water companies by the end of the decade.”

It comes ahead of Monday morning’s publication of the Independent Water Commission’s landmark review into the ailing water sector.

The commission was set up by the UK and Welsh governments as part of their response to systemic failures in the industry, although ministers have ruled out nationalising companies.

The government will respond to the recommendations in parliament on Monday.

On Friday, the Environment Agency revealed that serious pollution incidents caused by water firms across England increased by 60 per cent last year, compared with 2023.

The watchdog said companies recorded a total of 2,801 pollution incidents in 2024, up from 2,174 in 2023.

Of these, 75 were categorised as posing “serious or persistent” harm to wildlife and human health, up from 47 last year.

Ministers have vowed a “root and branch reform” to the industry and have introduced a package of measures over the last year to cut pollution levels.

They have banned bonuses for 10 bosses this year and threatened prison sentences for law-breaking executives.

The government has also hailed plans for £104bn of investment into upgrading crumbling pipes and building new treatment works, as well as ringfencing consumer bills for upgrades instead of companies using money for shareholder payouts of executive bonuses.

Meanwhile, the Environment Agency has received a record £189m to support hundreds of enforcement officers for inspections and prosecutions, with fines from companies footing the increase in funding.

Ministers hope this will help to reach the newly announced targets on sewage pollution, which can cause harm to swimmers, loss of aquatic life, and the destruction of ecosystems.

“One of the largest infrastructure projects in England’s history will clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good,” Mr Reed said.

The new pledge also includes working with devolved governments to ban wet wipes containing plastic across the UK, continued work on pre-pipe measures, such as sustainable drainage systems, and the start of trials by water companies of nature-based solutions, such as constructed wetlands.

It comes alongside the storm overflow discharge reduction plan, which has set targets on reducing spills, including a 75 per cent reduction in discharging into high-priority sites, such as rare chalk streams, by 2035.

There is an already existing statutory target to reduce phosphorus loadings from treated wastewater by 80 per cent by 2038 against a 2020 baseline, as well as an interim goal of a 50 per cent reduction by the end of January 2028 under the environmental improvement plan.

Zelensky offers Putin fresh peace talks after weeks of Moscow’s missile strikes

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has offered Vladimir Putin fresh peace talks after weeks of relentless Russian missile attacks.

Mr Zelensky offered Moscow another round of ceasefire negotiations for next week, saying he wanted to speed up ending the conflict.

It comes after weeks of relentless Russian strikes on Ukraine, including over 300 drones and 30 missiles launched on Friday night.

“Everything should be done to achieve a ceasefire,” Mr Zelensky said in his evening address to the nation. “The Russian side should stop hiding from decisions.”

Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul over the past five months. They have agreed to swap prisoners but made no breakthroughs in ending almost three and a half years of conflict that started with Russia‘s 2022 invasion.

Mr Zelensky said Rustem Umerov, who headed the Ukrainian delegation at both talks in Istanbul, had sent the Russian side the offer to hold the meeting next week, but gave no more details.

US president Donald Trump, who has sharpened his tone against Russia in recent weeks amid worsening air strikes on Ukrainian cities, threatened harsher sanctions on Russia earlier this month if a peace deal was not reached within 50 days.

Criminals plotting mass killings to be detained earlier

Police and courts are to be given powers to deal with suspects believed to be planning mass killings, the Home Secretary has confirmed.

Yvette Cooper said the new tools will enable the criminal justice system to “close the gap” between terror suspects, who face life imprisonment for planning attacks, and non-ideological individuals.

Police will be empowered to apprehend them before attacks are carried out.

In an interview, Ms Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s State of Terror series: “There is a gap in the law around the planning of mass attacks that can be just as serious (as terrorism) in their implications for communities, their impact, the devastation that they can cause and the seriousness of the crime.

“We will tighten legislation so that that is taken as seriously as terrorism.”

She said legislation would be similar to that which allows police to arrest terror suspects for steps taken to prepare for an attack, such as research, which is not currently available without links to an ideological cause.

Ms Cooper added: “We’ve seen cases of growing numbers of teenagers potentially radicalising themselves online and seeing all kinds of extremist material online in their bedrooms.

“We have to make sure that the systems can respond while not taking our eye off the ball of the more long-standing ideological threats.”

Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana, who killed three girls at a dance class, is among the individuals who could have been covered by the legislation.

Axel Rudakubana was given a life sentence in January, with a minimum term of 52 years – one of the highest minimum terms on record – for murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29 last year.

The 18-year-old also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as well as class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.

Water sports park shut as police search for missing woman in Cheshire

A water sports park has been shut as police search for a missing woman last seen in a petrol station in Cheshire.

Cheshire Police are appealing for help from the public to find Rachel Booth, 38, who was reported missing on Saturday 19 July after last being seen in the Barnton area of Northwich.

She was last sighted at around 3.50am on Saturday at the Sandiway Garage on the A556.

She is described as 5’ 9” tall, of a slim build, with blonde hair, and is believed to be wearing black leggings and a black top.

A spokesman for Cheshire Police told the Northwhich Guardian that officers were conducting enquiries in the village of Oakmere as part of their enquiries.

A nearby water-sports park, Wildshore Delamere, said it was closed until further notice due to “ongoing police investigations in the surrounding area”.

A notice on their website read: “We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

“The incident is unrelated to Wild Shore – however we wish to help as much as possible.

“If your booking is affected by this closure, please contact our customer services team or head online to your account. We’ll be happy to arrange a refund or reschedule your session for a later date. Thank you for your understanding.”

Inspector James Wilson said: “We are currently conducting a number of enquiries to trace Rachel and we are becoming increasingly concerned for her welfare.

“Anyone who has seen Rachel since she was reported missing is asked to contact us. The same goes for anyone who has any information on her whereabouts.

“We would also like to appeal directly to Rachel to get in touch to let us know you are OK.

You can report information to Cheshire Police via 101 or through www.cheshire.police.uk/tell-us quoting IML-2136439.

When my friends were facing cancer, a community of people stepped up

When I was younger, I used to worry incessantly about my parents getting cancer. I’d lay awake at night, ruminating on what would happen to my brother and I if they did. Who would support us? Thankfully, both are still cancer-free, well into their seventies.

However, now that I’m a parent myself, I worry about my children. Many people believe that cancer only really happens to people in old age, but that’s just not true. One beloved friend’s daughter died of leukaemia in 2020, aged just five; an unthinkable horror that changed the lives of everyone who knew her and her family.

And with Macmillan Cancer Support reporting that almost 3.5 million people in the UK are living with cancer, I also worry about my friends – parents themselves, their lives touched by cancer. One friend sat me down in our favourite local café, our toddlers playing at our feet, to break the news that she was about to undergo a double mastectomy. We cried together.

Another friend, Sarah, a single parent to two teenage girls, was diagnosed with breast cancer the day before we heard that King Charles had cancer, and a month before the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, announced her own diagnosis in March last year. It seemed like cancer was everywhere.

As a result, Sarah put 2024 on hold – she missed her daughter’s last sports day and last concert at primary school and had to find a whole new way of co-ordinating family life.

“I’m lucky in some ways that my children are teenagers, so they are able to look after themselves to some degree – but I’m also a single parent, so there are some things that they can’t do, or struggle with, due to their age,” she tells me.

“I have even set up multiple alarms on our Alexa reminding them to put their packed lunches in their bags or leave for school, just in case I can’t get up.”

Sarah says she thought she knew quite a lot about cancer prior to her diagnosis, but now admits she “really didn’t”. She explains: “There are so many terms and procedures to understand – stages and grades, not to mention over 100 different chemotherapy drugs.”

Sarah tells me about the exhausting cumulative effect of chemotherapy, which she endured every three weeks during her cancer treatment: “After the very first lot, I slept for a few hours and felt much better pretty quickly. For my last rounds, I slept for 48 hours solid and even days later, I needed to have a nap in the middle of the day and was in bed by 8pm.”

Sarah’s now finished chemotherapy and, a year on from her diagnosis, is turning 50. She’s throwing a huge party to celebrate not only the birthday milestone, but getting over this “annus horriblis” – a year she couldn’t have gotten through without the people around her.

“People can do so much for us when we are unwell – and I am forever grateful,” she says. “I’ve been really overwhelmed by the support that my friends have given me; from ferrying around my children to and from after-school events and sleepovers when things get bad, to my 75-year-old neighbour mowing the lawn. One friend popped round with a huge pot of pasta sauce and I even had a gift box from a recruiter at work.”

What talking to my strong, resilient friends about their cancer journeys has made me realise most, is the power of community: for when we receive the worst news imaginable, what we need is people around us to see us through. A community of other women: friends, school mums, neighbours.

They had people willing to make them food, pick up their children, go shopping for them or to just sit with them and listen. They had support when they decided to raise money for cancer support charities, when they did fundraisers such as hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning.

It takes a village to raise a child – and that village will be with you every step of the way when you need them most.

Find out how you can help raise vital funds by hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning. Sign up now on the Macmillan website

Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). Also operating in Northern Ireland.

Labour minister ‘not at all surprised’ by Reform’s lead in the polls

Steve Reed has said he is “not at all surprised” Reform UK is consistently beating Labour in the polls.

The environment secretary said Nigel Farage’s party poll lead is a “reflection of people’s disenchantment with politics”.

“ I am not at all surprised, because we just had 14 years where people were promised so much, and all of those promises were broken,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Mr Reed said: “Through austerity, through Brexit, after the pandemic with build back better, none of it actually happened.

“The public want to see the change they actually voted for become real.”

He went on to outline Labour’s plan to leave Britain with the cleanest rivers on record by rebuilding crumbling sewage pipes and overhauling the regulation of water firms.

Reform is currently leading in the polls with 29 per cent of the vote, with Labour trailing in second place on 23 per cent.

A recent so-called mega poll by YouGov put Mr Farage’s party on course to comfortably gain the most MPs in a general election, winning 271 seats compared to Labour on 178. Reform would not have a majority, but would by far be the largest party and unseat cabinet ministers Angela Rayner, Yvette Cooper, Bridget Phillipson and Jonathan Reynolds.

Asked about the poll deficit and how Labour plans to turn it around, Mr Reed said: “This government is making change for this country, but it takes time for that to feed through.

“I’m proud of what we’re doing. I’m proud of this government and the British public will see the change they voted for over the coming months and years.”

Labour’s first year in power ended disastrously, with headlines dominated by the chaotic U-turn over Sir Keir Starmer’s planned £5bn benefit cuts.

And polling guru Sir John Curtice said Sir Keir had “the worst start for any newly elected prime minister, Labour or Conservative”.

He said Labour’s landslide victory last summer had masked vulnerabilities in the party’s support and its policies.

“Labour only won 35 per cent of the vote – the lowest share ever for a majority government. Keir Starmer was never especially popular, and the public still don’t know what he stands for,” he told Times Radio.

“The only vision he’s really presented is: ‘We’ll fix the problems the Conservatives left us.’ But it’s not clear how he wants to change the country.”

Trump live: President attacks people seeking release of Epstein files

Donald Trump has attacked those seeking the full release of files relating to the Epstein case as “troublemakers”.

The president has instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to release “pertinent” files on the criminal investigation into Epstein, “subject to Court approval.”

Late Friday afternoon, Bondi filed a motion in New York “to release grand jury transcripts associated with” the Epstein case.

But in a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “I have asked the Justice Department to release all Grand Jury testimony with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, subject only to Court Approval.

“With that being said, and even if the Court gave its full and unwavering approval, nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request. It will always be more, more, more. MAGA!”