The UK Conservatives hoped Rishi Sunak would stabilise the party and country when they made him leader following his predecessors' chaotic tenures. Instead, he has led them to the brink of electoral wipeout.The party's MPs installed the 44-year-old former financier in October 2022, after Liz Truss's 49-day premiership imploded when spooked markets moved against her tax-slashing plans.Sunak succeeded to a point in stabilising the country's economy, but failed to stop bitter Tory infighting, or to make a dent in the persistent polling lead held by the opposition Labour Party.Buoyed by rare pieces of economic good news, Sunak called the July 4 election in late May, despite not having to face the voters until early 2025.He hoped the shock announcement would catch right-wingers Reform UK by surprise, and Labour's 20-point polling lead would shrink during the campaign.But Sunak's campaign has lurched from one disaster to another.By far the most damaging was Sunak's decision to leave early from D-Day commemoration events in France, provoking unilateral outrage and alienating the right wing whose votes he desperately needs.Now they look set to vote en masse for Reform, led by Brexit talisman Nigel Farage.He also had to apologise after Conservative candidates and the party's campaign chief were put under investigation over alleged bets placed on the date of the election before it was called.All of which has left Sunak cutting an increasingly frustrated figure, shorn of the bullish rhetoric of the early campaign but still insisting the election result is not a foregone conclusion.- 'Dishy Rishi' -The privately wealthy Sunak struggled to connect with regular voters hit hard by a cost-of-living crisis.He was roundly mocked for suggesting he had an austere childhood because his family did not have satellite television, and his interactions with voters have often seemed awkward.His current difficulties are a far cry from his rapid rise to power, becoming Britain's youngest prime minister of modern times at age 42, as well as the first of South Asian descent.The observant Hindu was born in Southampton on England's south coast on May 12, 1980, to a family doctor father and a mother who ran a local pharmacy.Sunak's grandparents were from Punjab in northern India and emigrated from eastern Africa in the 1960s, arriving in Britain with "very little", he has said.Sunak was educated at the exclusive private Winchester College, then Oxford and Stanford universities.During his Tory leadership bid, a video emerged of a 21-year-old Sunak talking about his friends."I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper-class, I have friends who are, you know, working-class," he says, before adding quickly: "Well, not working-class."After making millions in finance, Sunak won the safe and overwhelmingly white Conservative seat of Richmond in Yorkshire, northern England, in 2015.His Instagram-friendly profile earned him the media nickname of "Dishy Rishi".An early backer of Brexit, he took over as finance minister in February 2020 -- a baptism of fire as the Covid pandemic erupted.The details-oriented policy wonk was forced to craft an enormous economic support package at breakneck speed, which he regularly touts as one of his proudest achievements in politics.- Wealthy wife -The pandemic sullied his squeaky clean reputation, though, after he received a police fine for breaching Covid rules by joining a birthday gathering for then-prime minister Boris Johnson at Downing Street.Sunak also faced difficult questions about the tax affairs of his wife Akshata Murty, whose father Narayana Murthy is the billionaire co-founder of IT giant Infosys.In early 2022, newspapers reported she had non-domiciled status, meaning she had not been paying UK taxes on her Infosys returns.The news hit Sunak's approval ratings and Murty announced that she would pay UK taxes on her global income.The Sunaks met while studying in California and have two young daughters, plus a photogenic dog.He insists his own family's experience, and that of his wife, are a "very Conservative" story of hard work and aspiration.In July 2022, Sunak quit as finance minister, helping to trigger Johnson's resignation after one scandal too many and public anger at the government's Covid response.Many Tories have never forgiven him and have harped against his leadership from the sidelines.He insists only he has a "clear plan" backed by "bold action" to change Britain but voters look set to limit his time in office to less than two years.

Japan's top court ruled on Wednesday that a defunct eugenics law under which thousands of people were forcibly sterilised between 1948 and 1996 was unconstitutional, local media reported.The Supreme Court also ruled that a 20-year statute of limitations on compensation claims could not be applied, a major victory for victims who have endured decades of suffering.Japan's government acknowledges that around 16,500 people were forcibly sterilised under the eugenics law that was in place between 1948 and 1996.The law allowed doctors to sterilise people with inheritable intellectual disabilities to "prevent the generation of poor quality descendants".Another 8,500 people were sterilised with their consent, according to authorities, although lawyers say even those cases were likely "de facto forced" because of the pressure individuals faced.A 1953 government notice said physical restraint, anaesthesia and even "deception" could be used for the operations."I've spent an agonising 66 years because of the government surgery. I want my life back that I was robbed of," victim Saburo Kita, who uses a pseudonym, said before Wednesday's ruling.Kita was convinced to undergo a vasectomy when he was 14 at a facility housing troubled children. He only confided what had happened to his wife shortly before she died in 2013."Only when the government faces up to what it did and takes responsibility will I be able to accept my life, even just a little," Kita, now 81, told a news conference last year.- Apology -The number of operations in Japan slowed to a trickle in the 1980s and 1990s before the law was scrapped in 1996.That dark history was thrust back under the spotlight in 2018 when a woman in her 60s sued the government over a procedure she had undergone at age 15, opening the floodgates for similar lawsuits.The government, for its part, "wholeheartedly" apologised after legislation was passed in 2019 stipulating a lump-sum payment of 3.2 million yen (around $20,000 today) per victim.However, survivors say that was too little to match the severity of their suffering and took their fight to court.Regional courts have mostly agreed in recent years that the eugenics law constituted a violation of Japan's constitution.However, judges have been divided on whether claims are valid beyond the 20-year statute of limitations.Some have said that applying such limitations was extremely cruel and unfair, ordering the state to pay damages. But others dismissed cases, saying the window for pursuing damages had closed."The ruling will hopefully pave the way for active steps to be taken by the government to eliminate the kind of eugenic mentality that it created," Kita's lawyer, Naoto Sekiya, told AFP before Wednesday's ruling.

Survivors of India's deadliest stampede in over a decade on Wednesday recalled the horror of being crushed at a vastly overcrowded Hindu religious gathering that left 121 people dead.A police report said more than 250,000 people attended the event in northern India's Uttar Pradesh state, more than triple the 80,000 organisers had permission for.On Wednesday morning, hours after the event, discarded clothing and lost shoes were scattered across the muddy site, an open field alongside a highway.People fell on top of each other as they tumbled down a slope into a water-logged ditch, witnesses said."Everyone -- the entire crowd, including women and children -- all left from the event site at once," said police officer Sheela Maurya, 50, who had been on duty Tuesday as a popular Hindu preacher delivered a sermon."There wasn't enough space, and everyone just fell on top of each other."Almost all of the dead were women, along with seven children killed and one man.Officials suggested the stampede was triggered when worshippers tried to gather soil from the footsteps of the preacher, while others blamed a dust storm for sparking panic.Some fainted from the force of the crowd, before falling and being trampled upon, unable to move.The Uttar Pradesh's state disaster management centre, the Office of the Relief Commissioner, released a list of the dead on Wednesday morning.It said 121 people had been killed.- 'Crushed' -Maurya, who had been on duty since early morning on Tuesday in the sweltering humid heat at the preacher's ceremony, was among the injured."I tried to help some women, but even I fainted and was crushed under the crowd," she told AFP."I don't know, but someone pulled me out, and I don't remember much."Deadly incidents are common at places of worship during major religious festivals in India, the biggest of which prompt millions of devotees to make pilgrimages to holy sites."The main highway next to the field was packed with people and vehicles for kilometres, there were far too many people here," said Hori Lal, 45, who lives in Phulrai Mughalgadi village, near the site of the stampede."Once people started falling to the side and getting crushed, there was just chaos."Chaitra V., divisional commissioner of Aligarh city in Uttar Pradesh state, initially said panic began when "attendees were exiting the venue when a dust storm blinded their vision, leading to a melee".But Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh told reporters after visiting the site that worshippers had scrambled to get close to the preacher."I am told that people rushed to touch his feet and tried to collect soil, and a stampede took place," Singh said, according to the Indian Express daily."Many people fell in a nearby drain".Maurya said she had worked at several political rallies and large events in the past but had "never seen such huge numbers"."It was very hot, even I fell there and I survived with great difficulty", she added.- 'Heart-rending' -At dawn on Wednesday, four unidentified bodies lay on the floor of a makeshift morgue at the hospital in the nearby town of Hathras.Ram Nivas, 35, a farmer, said he was searching for his sister-in-law Rumla, 54, who was missing after the crush."We haven't been able to find her anywhere," Nivas said, adding he had visited all the nearby hospitals throughout the night."We just hope she's still alive," he said quietly. "Maybe just lost."In the hospital's emergency ward, Sandeep Kumar, 29, sat next to his injured sister, Shikha Kumar, 22."After the event ended, everyone wanted to exit quickly, and that is what led to the stampede," Sandeep said."She saw people fainting, getting crushed."Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced compensation of $2,400 to the next of kin of those who died and $600 to those injured in the "tragic incident".President Droupadi Murmu said the deaths were "heart-rending" and offered her "deepest condolences".Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is also a Hindu monk, expressed his condolences to the relatives of those killed and ordered an investigation into the deaths, his office said.Religious gatherings in India have a grim track record of deadly incidents caused by poor crowd management and safety lapses.In 2008, 224 pilgrims were killed and more than 400 were injured in a stampede at a hilltop temple in the northern city of Jodhpur.