At least 68 people are known to have died in Spain’s high-speed rail disaster, with many more injured.

It took place when a train travelling from Madrid to Seville smashed into another train which had come to a halt due to a computer failure. The force pushed several carriages down an embankment.

Spain’s transport minister said the computer failure followed by human error caused the collision, which is one of the deadliest ever recorded in Europe.

The collision happened around 100 miles south of Madrid. The stationary train with 147 passengers on board, run by private rail operator Iryo, was one of several trains that had come to a halt due to the computer failure.

Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente said that operators at a centre in Madrid had then taken control, but had made an “inexplicable” decision to instruct another train to proceed again at full speed, leading it to run into the rear of the stationary train.

Survivors described harrowing scenes of passengers being thrown into the air, trapped in the wreckage and smashing windows to get out. One of the carriages caught fire. Spain’s Civil Guard said it would need DNA samples from relatives to identify some victims.

“The whole of Spain is grieving”, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said during a visit to the crash site. “Lives have been shattered, families have been torn apart, the pain is immense.”

Spain was already reeling from a high-speed rail disaster further south on the same line near Córdoba in January that killed 46 people.

Sophie Raworth presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Guy Hedgecoe.

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Up to 750 Ukrainians living in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky have been given the opportunity to evacuate as part of a temporary local ceasefire – brokered with the help of Pope Leo and US First Lady Melania Trump.

The evacuation was overseen by the Ukrainian and Russian human rights ombudsmen. But our correspondent in Kyiv tells us that some evacuees are nervous about the journey, which will take them deeper into Russian-controlled territory and into Belarus before they can re-enter Ukraine. Analysts have also said Vladimir Putin may be using this operation as a propaganda tool.

We speak to a journalist just across the river from Oleshky, in Kherson, about the dire humanitarian conditions there. And we ask our Ukraine analyst how this ceasefire fits into the wider picture of the war.

00:00 Introduction
01:51 Ukrainians’ route out of Oleshky
03:18 Is Putin using the evacuation for propaganda?
5:01 What is life like for Ukrainians in Russian-occupied Oleshky?
07:45 Allegations that Russians “cleaned up” Oleshky for the cameras
08:42 What is the situation on the ground in the Ukraine war?

The Global News Podcast brings you the best of the BBC’s news coverage and analysis from around the world. New audio episodes of the Global News Podcast are published twice a day. You can listen here: https://link.mgln.ai/GNP-YT

And you can find more of our YouTube episodes here: https://bbc.in/GlobalNewsPodcast

If you would like to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk.

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Protesters were heard slamming on bus windows following their detention during an anti-government demonstration called by The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in Delhi.

The CJP shared a video on social media showing its founder Abhijeet Dipke being detained with other leaders shortly after landing in the capital.

The movement started in May after India’s Chief Justice likened some unemployed young people to “cockroaches”.

Delhi police denied permission for the demonstration to take place, with tens of thousands of security personnel deployed and roads barricaded.

The CJP – and opposition parties – accuse Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of favouring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the way the electoral rolls are being updated.

The Election Commission and the BJP have denied this.

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Nearly 2 million hectares have been torched by wildfires in Indonesia during the country’s worst fire season in a decade. The smoke from these blazes have blanketed the region and its neighbours, such as Malaysia and Singapore, in a thick haze.

The persistent and toxic conditions have ignited protests across Indonesian cities, with demonstrators demanding President Prabowo Subianto declare the fires a national emergency.

While his government is pursuing criminal charges against companies it says are responsible for starting the fires, the blazes continue to burn.

BBC’s Liza Tambunan reports from near the frontline and explains why these wildfires — which have been supercharged by El Nino — have been so difficult to extinguish and what life is like for residents living in the smoke.

#Indonesia #wildfires #elnino #asia #BBCNews

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Subscribe to our channel here: https://bbc.in/bbcnews

For the latest news download the BBC News app or visit BBC.com/news

#BBCNews

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