WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
NHS reform, Typhoon Yagi, and the positive effects of medical clowns

 
today's health story

NHS must 'reform or die', PM to say

What happened 
Keir Starmer will warn that the NHS has to "reform or die" after a critical review found that the health service was still missing key targets for treatment and had been hugely weakened by under-investment.

Who said what
Long waits at hospitals, GPs and mental health services are leading to many thousands of unnecessary deaths and have ruptured "the social contract between the NHS and the people", according to a study by Lord Ara Darzi, which was commissioned by Labour when it came to power. The report presents a "stark picture of a health service", said the BBC.

In a speech today the prime minister will respond to the review by promising "the biggest reimagining" of the health service since it was formed, with a new 10-year plan to be published in the coming months.

What next? 
Lord Darzi's review is "bleak but not terminal", said The Times. NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor welcomed the report saying: "The government has taken the first necessary step in diagnosing the problem and the task now is to move to identifying the prescription."

In his 10-year plan the PM will propose three key areas of reform: transitioning to a digital NHS, moving more care from hospitals to communities and focusing efforts on prevention over sickness.

 
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today's international story

Typhoon Yagi kills more than 150 in Vietnam

What happened
Typhoon Yagi has battered Vietnam, killing at least 155 people and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes.

Who said what
"This is the worst flood I have seen in 30 years," Hanoi resident Tran Le Quyen, 42, told Reuters yesterday.

Storms like Typhoon Yagi are "getting stronger due to climate change, primarily because warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel the storms", said Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

What next?
The disruptions threaten global supply chains as Vietnam hosts large multinationals that ship mostly to the United States, Europe and other developed nations. Samsung exports about half of its smartphones from Vietnam.

Some schools in Hanoi will be closed for the rest of the week due to flood concerns while thousands of residents living in low-lying areas have been evacuated, according to state media. At least 141 people are still missing, said Vietnamese state broadcaster VTV.

 
 
Today's industry story

Port Talbot steelworks confirms mass job losses

What happened
About 2,500 jobs are set to be lost at the Port Talbot steelworks despite the government providing £500 million of taxpayer aid to help Britain’s largest steel producer.

Who said what
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said yesterday that the new agreement "does what previous deals failed to do – give hope for the future of steelmaking in south Wales".

But steel unions described the deal as a “tragic missed opportunity” and raised questions about "whether the UK's transition to a low-carbon economy will come at the immediate cost of huge job losses in the country's industrial heartlands", said the Financial Times.

One union leader told the paper: "It's unbelievable that a Labour government would sacrifice thousands of jobs just to cut a tiny fraction, 1.5 per cent of UK emissions."

What next?
Under the new deal those at threat of losing their job will now receive improved redundancy packages. The money provided by the government to Tata Steel will go towards the construction of a greener electric arc furnace at the site.

 
 

It's not all bad

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission has set a new record, sending four commercial astronauts 870 miles above Earth – the furthest humans have travelled in more than 50 years. Led by businessman Jared Isaacman, the mission aims to gather data on human health during deep space travel and includes a planned spacewalk. It is the first of three missions designed to pave the way for SpaceX's future crewed flights to the Moon and Mars while also raising $250 million for St Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.

 
 
under the radar

Do medical clowns really work?

New research into the positive effects medical clowns can have on children with pneumonia has added to the growing body of evidence suggesting laughter and joy are key ingredients in a patient's recovery – even among adults.

The team at Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, Israel randomly assigned 26 children and teenagers, aged between 2 and 18, to be visited by medical clowns for 15 minutes, twice a day, for up to two days after they arrived at the centre. Another control group of 25 children and teenagers received the same care, but were not visited by clowns.

The results, presented at the European Respiratory Society congress in Vienna and published in New Scientist, revealed that those children visited by clowns stayed at the centre an average of 44 hours, compared to 70 hours for those without visits. Likewise, children visited by a clown only needed two days of intravenous antibiotics treatment compared to three days in the control group.

The researchers also noted a "significant" decrease in respiratory rate, heart rate and inflammatory markers in the group that saw a clown.

The practice of medical clowning, while "not a standardised interaction", helps to "alleviate stress and anxiety, improves psychological adjustment to the hospital environment and allows patients to better participate in treatment plans", which "in turn helps children to recuperate faster", said Dr Karin Yaacoby-Bianu, who led the trial.

"Laughter and humour may also have direct physiological benefits by lowering respiratory and heart rates, reducing air trapping, modulating hormones and enhancing the immune function," she concluded.

 
 
on this day

12 September 1940

Four teenage boys discovered the entrance to the Lascaux Cave complex in southwestern France – and its spectacular examples of Palaeolithic art. But their estimated age of 17,000 years was dwarfed by a 51,000-year-old painting of a pig discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in July: the earliest example of figurative art ever found.

 
 
Today's newspapers

The Guardian says a major report on the health service is a "scathing indictment of the Conservatives' 14-year stewardship of the NHS". The Telegraph describes the findings as "damning". The i paper says Labour's proposed reforms will mark the health service's biggest overhaul since its creation and the Daily Express notes Keir's Starmer's warning that the NHS must "reform or die". Donald Trump's campaign is "reeling" following his "poor" performance at the first debate against presidential rival Kamala Harris, says the Financial Times. 

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Volley collie

Footvolley, a cross between football and volleyball, has an unlikely star: a three-year-old border collie. Floki has become "something of an internet sensation in Brazil", said The Associated Press. He "sparks wonder among bystanders" on the beaches of footvolley mecca Rio de Janeiro for his command of the difficult sport, and boasts hundreds of thousands of followers on social media. His owner, Brasilia-based footvolley coach Gustavo Rodrigues, said Floki "does things that even some professionals don't do".

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Harriet Marsden, Jamie Timson, Sorcha Bradley and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Christopher Furlong / Getty Images; Nhac Nguyen / AFP via Getty Images; Geoff Caddick / AFP via Getty Images; Hristo Rusev / NurPhoto via Getty Images.