BBC Lead Story: Covid-19 pandemic: Japan widens emergency over 'frightening' spike

Japan is extending a state of emergency in Tokyo and expanding it to new regions as the Olympic Games host faces a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Daily cases nationwide topped 10,000 for the first time on Thursday, more than a third of them in the capital.

This is the nightmare scenario of Dan (and most Japanese) - when you need to be on your game defending against Covid - you're holding the Olympic Games.

Interestingly, there's total radio-silence at the BBC about the Covid spike in the UK, where infections are averaging 30k cases per day and 80 deaths - way more than this time last year.

On a different note, watching the 5000 m running heats last night - half the field was collapsing with exhaustion on the finish line - a few didn't make it that far. That Asian humidity in summer is a serious beast. You look at the temp, it's 29-30C, sounds not too bad, but add in that humidity and it becomes dangerously hot.