Asia

"India's annual monsoon rains covered the entire country on Tuesday, six days ahead of the usual time of arrival, the state-run weather department said, although rain totals are still 7% below average so far this season."

"The putrid smell of burning garbage wafts for miles from the landfill on the outskirts of Jammu in a potentially toxic miasma fed by the plastics, industrial, medical and other waste generated by a city of some 740,000 people. But a handful of waste pickers ignore both the fumes and suffocating heat to sort through the rubbish, seeking anything they can sell to earn at best the equivalent of $4 a day."

"Too hot, too dry, too wet; as extreme weather threatens food security, the race is on to get new seed varieties in the ground"

"A group of the world’s last wild horses have returned to their native Kazakhstan after an absence of about 200 years. ... The wild horses, known as Przewalski’s horses, once roamed the vast steppe grasslands of central Asia, where horses are believed to have been first domesticated about 5,500 years ago."

"Aita Prasad Gurung dangled off a cliff in Nepal, carefully manipulating a long pole with a blade at its end to cut away chunks of honeycomb after Himalayan bees fled the fumes from a fire set to drive them from their homes."

"In the factory where Aysha Talukder Tanisa stitches jeans and children's clothes for Western brands, the cooling system has been no match for Bangladesh's longest heatwave in 70 years. "Some of us - mostly girls - fall sick, vomiting or swooning due to the boiling heat," the 22-year-old told Context by phone from Ashulia, a town near the capital, Dhaka."