Ten passengers were hurt, three seriously, when they tried to escape a train that became caught up in a sweeping wildfire north-west of Valencia in eastern Spain. The fire near Bejís has been whipped up by fierce winds, leaving several firefighters running for their lives. The passengers were on a service from Valencia to Zaragoza in the north when the fire brought the train to a halt. The train driver asked passengers to stay on board, but some panicked. As he prepared to reverse the train, which had left Valencia late on Tuesday afternoon with 48 passengers on board, some broke windows in an attempt to escape as the flames drew close. Some of those who fled suffered burns and one was airlifted to hospital for treatment in Valencia. Those with the worst burns were a 58-year-old woman and a girl aged 15, Spanish reports said. No-one who stayed on the train was hurt.(BBC)…[+]

US President Joe Biden has signed a $700bn (£579bn) bill that aims to fight climate change and healthcare costs while raising taxes mainly on the rich. The act includes measures to make good on decades of congressional promises to curb the price of prescription drugs. The final version is more modest in scope than the $3.5tn package first envisaged by Democrats. A flagship of Mr Biden’s agenda, the bill could provide a boost ahead of the mid-term elections. Voters casting their ballots in November will decide whether Mr Biden’s Democrats retain control of Congress for two more years. The president hailed the bill as he signed it on Tuesday as the “final piece” of his domestic agenda.(BBC)…[+]

Israeli and German leaders have expressed outrage after the Palestinian president accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against his people. Mahmoud Abbas made the claim during a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Tuesday. Mr Scholz said nothing at the time, but later called the president’s comments “intolerable and unacceptable”. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Mr Abbas’s accusation was “not only a moral disgrace, but a monstrous lie”. “Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, including one and a half million Jewish children,” he tweeted. “History will never forgive him.” Following the criticism, Mr Abbas reaffirmed in a statement that “the Holocaust is the most heinous crime in modern human history”.

A group of 38 migrants, including a heavily pregnant woman, have been found stranded on a tiny, unnamed island along the Turkish-Greek border. The 22 men, nine women and seven children say they have been on the Evros river islet since mid-July.  After being located on Monday, they were taken to mainland Greece. The country’s migration minister said the group were all in a “very good condition” and the pregnant woman had been taken to hospital as a precaution. However, at least one child died on the isl et, which is near the Greek town of Lavara, according to the group and human rights agencies. Greek police have yet to confirm this. There had been some uncertainty over the group’s location and therefore over whether Turkey or Greece should have stepped in to help. Greek authorities initially said the people – who police say all identify themselves as Syrian – were in Turkish territory.(BBC)…[+]

The body of an Indian soldier who went missing in the Himalayas 38 years ago has been found. Chandrashekhar Harbola and 19 colleagues were caught in an avalanche during a patrolling operation in the Siachen glacier along the India-Pakistan border in 1984. Fifteen bodies were recovered later but five remained missing. Siachen is the world’s highest battlefield and soldiers from both countries die in storms and avalanches. The army unit that spotted Harbola’s body also found another one but it was yet to be identified, PTI news agency reported. Harbola’s family, who live in Haldwani district in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, said the discovery would give them closure. A funeral with full military honours has been planned in his village.(BBC)…[+]

The Academy has apologised to Sacheen Littlefeather, a Native American activist and actress booed off stage at the Oscars nearly 50 years ago. She appeared on live TV in 1973 to refuse an Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando, who had won the best actor prize for The Godfather. Brando rejected the award because of misrepresentation of Native Americans by the US film industry. The Academy said Littlefeather endured “unwarranted and unjustified” abuse. “I never thought I’d live to see the day I would be hearing this,” she told the Hollywood Reporter. Littlefeather, then 26, was heckled and shunned by the entertainment industry following her brief speech at the awards. Her speech was, organisers said, the first political statement at the televised ceremony – beginning a trend which continues to this day.

Government officials in Ecuador have blamed a deadly explosion in the port city of Guayaquil on organised crime. At least five people were killed and 26 more injured in the blast on Sunday. Ecuador’s interior minister said it was a “declaration of war” by criminal gangs against the government. The Andean country, which is used as a cocaine smuggling route from neighbouring Peru and Colombia, has seen a sharp rise in murders and gang-related crime recently. A state of emergency has been declared in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s most populous city and an important trade hub. It is the fourth emergency to be declared in Ecuador since October because of gang violence.

Eight houses and two cars were destroyed in the early morning blast, according to the National Risk and Emergency Management Service. Pictures from the scene show the front of houses ripped off and cars smeared in blood with their windows blown in. At a news conference late on Sunday, officials said the attack was directed at two men who go under the aliases of Cucaracha and Junior and are linked to Los Tiguerones, one of the leading crime gangs in Ecuador.(BBC)…[+]

The results of Kenya’s much-awaited presidential election will be known shortly, the electoral body has announced. Preparations for the declaration are underway at the national tallying centre in the country’s capital, Nairobi. Deputy President William Ruto has a narrow lead over ex-Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the latest count. Kenyans have been waiting anxiously for six days for the results. Supporters of both of the main candidates, dressed in party colours and in celebratory mood, have gathered at various centres across the country to wait for the announcement. Mr Ruto and two other presidential candidates have arrived at the culture centre at Bomas where the event is being held. It is however unclear if Mr Odinga, who was also invited by the the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), would attend the event.(BBC)…[+]

Attempts to rescue 10 men from a flooded mine in Mexico have been delayed after the water levels in three shafts rose suddenly on Sunday. The miners became trapped on 3 August when a wall in a tunnel collapsed and water from an adjacent chamber gushed into the three shafts. Officials say the water has to drop to a depth of 1.5m (5ft) to allow rescuers to enter the shafts safely. But on Sunday, it suddenly rose again to more than 20m. The governor of Coahuila state, where the coal mine is located, said the water was probably flowing into the shafts from a nearby disused mine. Governor Miguel Riquelme said engineers were trying to find the source of the leak so they can block it. More than 200 million litres have been pumped from the shafts so far, but the rescue work has been hampered by a number of setbacks. Last week, a special underwater drone carrying a camera was lowered into one of the shafts. Relatives of the miners had hoped the drone would provide them with long-awaited news on their loved ones, from whom there has been no sign of life since the accident 12 days ago.(BBC)…[+]

Former German leader Gerhard Schroeder, criticised for his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, is suing Germany’s parliament. Mr Schroeder, whose office and staff have been suspended, is suing over the removal of some post-retirement perks. His lawyer told German news agency DPA on Friday that he had filed a suit with the Berlin administrative court. The Bundestag said it was yet to receive the suit and could not comment further. In its decision to strip him of the perks, the budget committee responsible concluded that Mr Schroeder, 78, “no longer upholds the continuing obligations of his office”. But speaking to public broadcaster NDR on Friday, his lawyer Michael Nagel said the decision to suspend Mr Schroeder’s taxpayer-funded office was “contrary to the rule of law”.(BBC)…[+]