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17 Heat Records Broken in Japan

People cross a street on a hot day in Tokyo on August 4, 2025. (AFP)
People cross a street on a hot day in Tokyo on August 4, 2025. (AFP)
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17 Heat Records Broken in Japan

People cross a street on a hot day in Tokyo on August 4, 2025. (AFP)
People cross a street on a hot day in Tokyo on August 4, 2025. (AFP)

Seventeen heat records were broken in Japan on Monday, the weather agency said, after the country sweltered through its hottest ever June and July.

Heatwaves are becoming more intense and frequent worldwide because of human-caused climate change, scientists say, and Japan is no exception.

The city of Komatsu, in the central region of Ishikawa, saw a new record of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

Toyama city in Toyama prefecture, also in the central region, hit 39.8C (103F), the highest temperature since records began, according to the JMA.

Fifteen other locations across cities and towns soared to new highs between 35.7C (96F) and 39.8C, added the JMA, which monitors temperatures at more than 900 points in Japan.

On July 30, Japan experienced its highest recorded temperature, a sizzling 41.2C (106F) in the western region of Hyogo.

The rainy season ended about three weeks earlier than usual in western regions of Japan, another record.

With low levels of rainfall and heat, several dams in the northern region were almost empty, the land ministry said, with farmers worried that a water shortage and extreme heat could result in a poor harvest.

Experts warn Japan's beloved cherry trees are blooming earlier due to the warmer climate, or sometimes not fully blossoming because autumns and winters are not cold enough to trigger flowering.

The famous snowcap of Mount Fuji was absent for the longest recorded period last year, not appearing until early November, compared with the average of early October.

Japan this year had its hottest June and July since data collection began in 1898, with the weather agency warning of further "severe heat" in the months ahead.

The speed of temperature increases across the world is not uniform.

Of the continents, Europe has seen the fastest warming per decade since 1990, followed closely by Asia, according to global data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

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Astronomers Spot White Dwarf Star Creating a Colorful Shockwave

The central square image, taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, shows shock waves around the dead star RXJ0528+2838. (European Southern Observatory (ESO)/K. Ilkiewicz and S. Scaringi et al./Handout via Reuters)
The central square image, taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, shows shock waves around the dead star RXJ0528+2838. (European Southern Observatory (ESO)/K. Ilkiewicz and S. Scaringi et al./Handout via Reuters)
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Astronomers Spot White Dwarf Star Creating a Colorful Shockwave

The central square image, taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, shows shock waves around the dead star RXJ0528+2838. (European Southern Observatory (ESO)/K. Ilkiewicz and S. Scaringi et al./Handout via Reuters)
The central square image, taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, shows shock waves around the dead star RXJ0528+2838. (European Southern Observatory (ESO)/K. Ilkiewicz and S. Scaringi et al./Handout via Reuters)

Astronomers have observed a white dwarf - a highly compact Earth-sized stellar ember - that is creating a colorful shockwave as it moves through space, leaving them searching for an explanation.

The highly magnetized white dwarf is gravitationally bound to another star in what is called a binary system. The white dwarf is siphoning gas from its companion as the two orbit close to each other. The system is located in the Milky Way about 730 light-years from Earth - relatively nearby in cosmic terms - in the constellation Auriga.

A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

The shockwave - more specifically a bow shock - caused by the white dwarf was observed using the European Southern Observatory's Chile-based Very Large Telescope. The shockwave was seen in an image released by the scientists glowing in various colors produced when material flowing outward from the white dwarf collided with interstellar gas.

"A shockwave ‌is created when ‌fast-moving material plows into surrounding gas, suddenly compressing and heating it. A ‌bow shock ⁠is the curved ‌shock front that forms when an object moves rapidly through space, similar to the wave in front of a boat moving through water," said astrophysicist Simone Scaringi of Durham University in England, co-lead author of the study published on Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

"The colors come from interstellar gas that is being heated and excited by the shock. Different chemical elements glow at specific colors when this happens," Scaringi added.

In this shockwave, a red hue represented hydrogen, green represented nitrogen and blue represented oxygen residing in interstellar space.

A handful of other white dwarfs have been observed creating shockwaves. But all of those were ⁠surrounded by disks of gas siphoned from a binary partner. Although this white dwarf is siphoning gas from its companion, it lacks any such disk and ‌is releasing gas into space for unknown reasons.

White dwarfs are among the ‍universe's most compact objects, though not as dense as ‍black holes.

Stars with up to eight times the mass of the sun appear destined to end up as ‍a white dwarf. They eventually burn up all the hydrogen they use as fuel. Gravity then causes them to collapse and blow off their outer layers in a "red giant" stage, eventually leaving behind a compact core - the white dwarf.

"There are plenty of white dwarfs out there, as these are the most common endpoints of stellar evolution," Scaringi said.

The sun appears fated to end its existence as a white dwarf, billions of years from now.

This white dwarf has a mass comparable to the sun contained in a body slightly larger than Earth. Its binary companion is ⁠a type of low-mass star called a red dwarf that is about a tenth the mass of the sun and thousands of times less luminous. It orbits the white dwarf every 80 minutes, with the two extremely close to each other - approximately the distance between the moon and Earth.

The gravitational strength of the white dwarf is pulling gas off the red dwarf. This siphoned material is being pulled into the white dwarf along its strong magnetic field, eventually landing at its magnetic poles. While this process releases energy and radiation, it cannot account for the outflow of material needed to produce the observed shockwave, Scaringi said.

"Every mechanism with outflowing gas we have considered does not explain our observation, and we still remain puzzled by this system, which is why this result is so interesting and exciting," Scaringi said.

"The shape and length of the (shockwave) structure show that this process has been ongoing for at least about 1,000 years, making it long-lived rather than a one-off event," Scaringi added.

The ‌researchers took note of the aesthetics of the colorful shockwave.

"Beyond the science, it's a striking reminder that space is not empty or static as we may naively imagine it: it's dynamic and sculpted by motion and energy," Scaringi said.

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Australian Firefighters Warn of ‘High-Risk’ Bushfire Season

Country Fire Authority (CFA) crew fill up tankers in the bushfire affected town of Ruffy, Victoria, Australia, 12 January 2026. (EPA)
Country Fire Authority (CFA) crew fill up tankers in the bushfire affected town of Ruffy, Victoria, Australia, 12 January 2026. (EPA)
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Australian Firefighters Warn of ‘High-Risk’ Bushfire Season

Country Fire Authority (CFA) crew fill up tankers in the bushfire affected town of Ruffy, Victoria, Australia, 12 January 2026. (EPA)
Country Fire Authority (CFA) crew fill up tankers in the bushfire affected town of Ruffy, Victoria, Australia, 12 January 2026. (EPA)

Australian firefighters warned people on Monday to prepare for more bushfires in a "high-risk" summer, after blazes killed one person and incinerated more than 350 buildings in the southeast.

Weather conditions have eased since strong winds and temperatures topping 40C fed dozens of wildfires in southeastern Australia's Victoria, which declared a state of disaster on Saturday.

But officials said 12 major fires were still burning across the state.

Country Fire Authority chief officer Jason Heffernan said another "heating event" was expected towards the end of January, though its intensity was uncertain.

"We are early in the high-risk weather season," Heffernan told a news conference.

"There's been a lot of fire in the landscape. Much work will be done between now and then to contain these fires," he said.

"Whilst we join with community in the rebuilding and the relief and recovery of the fires that have been, we need to turn our minds to the fires that could be as the season continues."

More than 350 structures -- including over 65 homes -- have been lost so far in the state, officials said, with the number likely to rise as fire damage is assessed.

One person died in a fire near the town of Longwood, about two hours' drive north of state capital Melbourne, police say.

Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch said weather conditions had become more favorable for firefighters.

"But that doesn't mean that the risk is over," he said.

"Whilst the conditions are easing in some parts of the state, even the slightest of winds are still causing those fires to move around."

High temperatures and dry winds combined last week to form some of the most dangerous bushfire conditions since the "Black Summer" blazes.

The Black Summer bushfires raged across Australia's eastern seaboard from late 2019 to early 2020, razing millions of hectares, destroying thousands of homes and blanketing cities in noxious smoke.

Australia's climate has warmed by an average of 1.51C since 1910, researchers have found, fueling increasingly frequent extreme weather patterns over both land and sea.

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Some Supplements Can Make Your Medication Less Effective

Some vitamin and mineral supplements can interfere with absorption of medications (Oklahoma State University) 
Some vitamin and mineral supplements can interfere with absorption of medications (Oklahoma State University) 
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Some Supplements Can Make Your Medication Less Effective

Some vitamin and mineral supplements can interfere with absorption of medications (Oklahoma State University) 
Some vitamin and mineral supplements can interfere with absorption of medications (Oklahoma State University) 

Health experts warned that some supplements can interact with certain medications and reduce their effectiveness, according to Eating Well website.

While these supplements are usually sold over-the-counter, taking them without asking a health care provider can have dangerous impact on your health.

Naturopathic doctor Jacob Wolf said that for instance, some vitamin and mineral supplements can interfere with absorption of medications.

Other supplements can bind with medications, preventing the drug from being utilized in the body, or they may be metabolized by the same or similar pathways as medications, explains Wolf. That can have a dangerous impact on your health.

Top offenders include calcium, magnesium, iron, fiber, activated charcoal and vitamins C and K.

Minerals like calcium, magnesium and iron can bind with medications, especially levothyroxine, a drug used to treat hypothyroidism, said Wolf.

“This can impact how levothyroxine is utilized in the body, adversely affecting treatment,” he explained.

These minerals can also interact with antibiotics in the tetracycline and fluoroquinolone class, said pharmacist Amanda Corbett.

Taking these mineral supplements at the same time as antibiotics may reduce the bioavailability of the antibiotic, creating risks like bacterial resistance or ineffective treatment.

And while scientists affirm fiber is an important nutrient for digestive regularity, healthy cholesterol levels and blood sugar management, supplementing isn’t always a great idea, as large doses can impact the absorption of certain medications.

Fiber-rich foods are a cornerstone of blood sugar management, even for those taking blood sugar–lowering medications, like metformin.

Fiber may also impair the effectiveness of other drugs, including digoxin (which treats certain heart conditions) and levothyroxine for hypothyroidism, Wolf said.

Therefore, if you do choose to take a fiber supplement, Wolf recommended speaking with your health care provider about spacing out your fiber and medication doses.

As for activated charcoal, it is a form of carbon that is used in the emergency room to treat the ingestion of toxic drugs and poisons.

“Activated charcoal acts like a sponge and can bind to many medications. It is best to completely avoid activated charcoal if on any life-critical medication,” said Wolf.

For Vitamin C, it is an important antioxidant that protects cells from free radical damage and supports proper immune system function.

However, if you are undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer, experts strongly caution against taking vitamin C supplements.

“Vitamin C can lead to certain chemotherapies being less effective or ineffective in treating cancer,” said Corbett.

Vitamin E, another antioxidant, can also interfere with chemotherapy’s effectiveness.

If taking Vitamin K, which is a fat-soluble vitamin that helps blood clot and shores up bone health, you should know that it can reduce the effectiveness of a blood-thinning medication called warfarin (Coumadin).

That, in turn, can make blood more likely to clot, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

If you are taking warfarin, you don’t necessarily need to avoid vitamin K, but it is critical to keep the amount you consume—from both foods and supplements—consistent to avoid clotting problems.

Experts advise that to take supplements safely, consult with your health care provider.

Many supplements can interact with medications, and so it’s critical to connect with your prescribing health care provider to make sure that the supplements you’re taking play nice with your medications.

Also, look for those that have been independently tested in a laboratory, recommended Corbett.

Experts say you should also know how much to take. Supplement dosages are listed on the label, but they aren’t standardized.

That means they can vary from product to product, and may far exceed safe levels.