At least 34 dead following Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake beneath Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan.

The Japan Meteorological Agency recorded a Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake at a depth of about 10 km, beneath Kumamoto Prefecture on Kyūshū Island, slightly before 4.30 pm Japan Standard Time (slightly before 7.30 am GMT) on Tuesday 28 July 2026. At least 34 people have died following this event, and many more are still missing, most of them within a shopping centre which collapsed during the Earthquake, and where an explosion occurred about an hour later, probably due to a broken gas main. The Earthquake was felt across western Japan, and more than 100 aftershocks have been recorded since the original event.

The approximate location of the 28 July 2026 Kumamoto Prefectiure Earthquake. USGS.

Around 30 000 households lost power following the event, and around 80 000 have lost water supplies. More than 1000 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters, while civil engineers make safe their residences. Managing this evacuation is proving to be particularly difficult, as many evacuation centres have also lost electricity and water suppliers. The area is currently also suffering from a heatwave, with temperatures reaching as high as 39°C, and around 30% of those evacuated have been described as elderly and vulnerable to the heat.

A collapsed building in the city of Yatsushiro in Kumamoto Prefecture following the 28 July 2026 Earthquake. Hiro Komae/AP.

Japan has a complex tectonic environment with four plates underlying parts of the Islands; in addition to the Pacific in the east and the Othorsk in the North, there are the Philipine Plate to the south and the Eurasian Plate to the West. Kyūshū Island lies at the northeast end of the Ryukyu Island Arc, which sits on top of the boundary between the Eurasian and Philippine Plates. The Philippine Plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian Plate, in the Ryukyo Trench, to the Southeast of the Islands. This is not a smooth process, with the two plates continuously sticking together then breaking apart as the pressure builds up, leading to frequent Earthquakes in the region.

The movement of the Pacific and Philippine Plates beneath eastern Honshū. Laurent Jolivet/Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans/Sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement.

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UNESCO adds three new sites to its World Heritage List.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has added seven new sites to its World Heritage List, which is made up of sites deemed to be of natural or cultural significance which gives them outstanding universal significance for mankind, according to a press release issued on 26 July 2026. All three of these sites have additionally been placed on the World Heritage in Danger list of sites which are facing imminent threats due to Human or natural causes. In addition, three sites already on the World Heritage List have also been placed on the World Heritage in Danger list.

The first new site added to the World Heritage List is the Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape in South Sudan; this is the first site in South Sudan to be added to the World Heritage List. This area comprises two National Parks, Boma and Badingilo, which are contiguous with one another, currently managed by African Parks on behalf of the South Sudanese government. The parks lie in the White Nile catchment area, and are home to the world's largest Mammal migration, with over six million Antelope trasversing the area each year, as well as being an important part of the migrant Bird route between Southern Africa and Europe. The area is a biodiversity hotspot of global significance, as well as being home to a number of ethnic groups with their own unique cultural and linguistic heritage, who have acted as custodians of this landscape.

An Antelope migration in the Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape. African Parks.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has identified the Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape as facing a number of serious threats, including infrastructure development, commercial poaching, and wildlife trafficking and trade, while at the same time lacks meaningful protection from the South Sudanese government, which is under-financed and has a weak infrastructure, with the country suffering from a poor security situation. For these reasons the Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape has been placed on the World Heritage in Danger list.

Traditional herders within the Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape. African Parks.

The second new addition to the World Heritage List is the Mount Amel Castles sites in Lebanon. This site compromises a series of five castles across southern Lebanon, built during the Crusader Period on strategic high ground sites, and subsequently used by the Ayyubids, Mamluks, and later powers. These are Qalaat al-Chakif, or Beaufort Castle, dominating the Litani River valley from a strategic ridge, Qalaat Tibnin, or Toron Castle, on a mountain overlooking the road from Tyre to Damascus, Qalaat Chakra, or Dubieh Castle, in the Chakra agricultural region, Qalaat Deir Kifa, or Maron Castle, on an isolated hill overlooking the route from Lebanon towards Galilee and Jerusalem, and Qalaat Chama’, on a hill overlooking the coastal plain near Tyre.

Qalaat Tibnin, or Toron Castle, in 2006. T Dakroub/Wikimedia Commons.

In November 2024 the Mount Amel Castles were given 'enhanced protection status by the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, a status which grants access to the Fund for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, as well helping to make applications for other forms of international assistance. However, since that time the sites have suffered heavy damage due to the ongoing conflict in the region, and are now considered to be in jeopardy of complete destruction, prompting the World Heritage Committee to move the sites to both the World Heritage List and the World Heritage in Danger list as a way to highlight the risk of losing these sites.

Qalaat al-Chakif, or Beaufort Castle. UNESCO.

The third new site added to the World Heritage List is the Palestinian village of Sebastia in the Nablus Governate of the State of Palestine. This is a site of significant archaeological heritage, having been inhabited since at least the ninth century BC, when it served as the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, and has since been occupied by Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Hellenistic Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamluks, and Ottomans. The village was the site of a fortified town associated with Herod the Great during the Roman period, and  was a Throne Village (administrative centre governed by local leaders) during the Ottoman period. It is considered to be the burial place of St John the Baptist.

A Roman theatre in the Palestinian village of Sebastia. Wikimedia Commons.

The site has been chosen for inclusion on the World Heritage List and the World Heritage in Danger list both because it is threatened by the ongoing conflict in the region, and also because it is threatened with expropriation, with half the site, including many privately owned propertied, earmarked to become part of the proposed Shomron National Park, a development which would allow access to the site only from Israel, excluding many Palestinians who have worked as traditional guides at the site. This project sits alongside plans for the expansion of Jewish settlements in the region, again almost certainly at the detriment of the local Palestinian population.

Roman ruins on the hilltop site near Sebastia. Jason Burke/The Guardian.

The first site already on the World Heritage List which is being additionally added to the World Heritage in Danger list is the Tauric Chersonese, an ancient city on the Crimean Peninsula founded by Ionian Greeks in the sixth century BC, and subsequently occupied by Megarian Greeks, the Pontic Empire, the Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Empire, before being abandoned in the fourteenth century. Although Crimea is part of Ukraine, it has been occupied by Russia since 2014, with no apparent plan for its protection, conservation, or management. The site is currently monitored remotely by UNITAR/UNOSAT, which has revealed significant degradation of the site, due to construction and large-scale excavation at the site. The World Heritage Committee believes there is a significant danger of the illicit trafficking of cultural property from the Crimea.

The ruins of Chersonesos, Crimea, in 2009. Dmitry Mottl/Wikimedia Commons.

The second site from the World Heritage List added to the World Heritage in Danger list is the Historic Inner City of Paramaribo in Suriname, a former Dutch colonial town from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries planted on the northern coast of tropical South America. At the moment, original and highly characteristic street plan of the historic centre remains intact, with buildings that illustrate the gradual fusion of Dutch architectural influence with traditional local techniques and materials. However, the World Heritage Committee feels that the new National Assembly hall and the Yogh parking garage detract from the property’s historic urban landscape and result in a significant loss of its authenticity and integrity, that constitute a threat to the site's outstanding universal value.

Houses in the Historic Inner City of Paramaribo in Suriname. Ron Van Oers/UNESCO.

The final site to be added to the World Heritage in Danger list is the city of Tyre in Lebanon. This site has been occupied since the Bronze Age, but rose to prominence as a major Phoenician city-state between ninth and sixth centuries BC, and was subsequently occupied by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Hellenic Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Early Muslims, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans, Egyptians, and French, prior to Lebanon gaining independence in 1943. As such, the city is home to numerous archaeological sites of great significance, with those of the Roman Period being particularly spectacular. 

Roman ruins at Tyre on the coast of Lebanon. Véronique Dauge/UNESCO.

Like the Mount Amel Castles, the city of Tyre is threatened by the ongoing conflict in southern Lebanon, and while the World Heritage Committee commends Lebanon for its efforts to protect Tyre, they also feel that the historic sites are now directly threatened by the conflict.

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Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) makes its closest approach to the Earth.

Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) will make its closest approach to the Earth on Sunday 26 July 2026, when it will reach a distance of 3.45 AU (i.e 3.45 times the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), or 515 426 942 km from us. At this time it will be in the constellation of Lyra, which is above the horizon permanently in much of the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year, but invisible from most of the Southern Hemisphere. The comet will have an apparent optical magnitude of 13.9, meaning it will be hard to spot without a fairly good telescope to observe it. Furthermore, the closest approach comes three days before the Full Moon on Wednesday 29 July, so there is likely to be considerable light interference.

The approximate positions and orbits of the C/2024 J3 (ATLAS), the Earth, and selected planets of the Solar System on 26 July 2026. JPL Small Body Database.

Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) was discovered on 3 May 2024 by scientists at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile. The name C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) implies that it is a Comet (C/), that it was the 3rd comet (3) discovered in the first half of May 2024 (period 2024 J), and that it was discovered by the ATLAS sky survey.

An image of C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) taken on 10 July 2026, when it was a Magnitude 18.7 object in the constellation of Cygnus, taken from Gahberg in Austria. Günter Kerschhuber.

Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) is a Parabolic Comet, which is to say a comet that was disrupted from an orbit in the Oort Cloud, and is passing through the Inner Solar System on a parabolic orbit that will probably not bring it back again. This parabolic trajectory is tilted at an angle of 75.6° to the plain of the Solar System, and will bring it at its closest to 3.87 AU from the Sun, on 25 November this year. C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) is not expected to pass close to any planets.

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At least eight dead following landslide in Chongqing, China.

Eight people are known to have died and thirty four people are missing following a landslide in Pengshui County in the Chongqing Municipality of China on Friday 17 July 2026. The incident took place at about 9.10 am local time, and caused about 18 000 m³ of rock and soil (including boulders up to 3000 m³) to shift, burying ten residential buildings. Around 1100 people have been evacuated from the area around the incident, with water, electricity, and gas supplies cut off from buildings within 1 km of the landslide as a precaution. Around 800 rescue workers have been deployed to the site, with ten people dug out of the rubble so far, two of whom are described as being in a serious condition in hospital.

The scene of a landslide which killed at least eight people in Chongqing, China, on 17 July 2026. AFP.

The incident happened during heavy rains associated with the summer monsoon, with 192 mm of rain falling overnight before the landslide. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall. 

However, local authorities have also noted that the area where the landslide occurred is noted for its 'unpredictable' geology, with the Wujiang River cutting through uplifted an karst (eroded limestone) terrain with steep-sided valleys and many cliffs prone to major rockfalls. 

Rescue workers surveying the site of the 17 July 2026 Chongqing landslide from a nearby bridge. Andy Wong/Associated Press.

Chongqing has a subtropical climate with a rainy season running from mid April to mid October, though rain falls year round. Rainfall is typically highest in June when the area often receives over 200 mm of rainfall. July is drier, but typically still has over 180 mm of rain. Prior to Human settlement, the area was largely covered by forests, with a cool temperate deciduous forest during the last Pleistocene glaciation being replaced by a broad-leafed evergreen forest in the Holocene. However, Chongquing is now one of the most densely populated areas of China, which has led to the loss of much of this forest, the roots of which would have helped to bind soils on steep-sided slopes, leaving areas such as the Wujiang River valleys exposed to heightened landslide risks, and often heavily populated.

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