SPAIN: Heavy rain forced the suspension of rail services across north-east Catalonia including Barcelona today.

Several motorways were shut and some flights were diverted. The rainstorms follow those in Valencia which caused devastating floods and killed at least 217 people.

FRANCE: The trial of eight people charged with terrorism for alleged involvement in the 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty began today.

The teacher was killed after showing images of the Prophet Mohammed to a class in a lesson on freedom of expression. His killer Abdoullakh Anzorov was shot dead by police.

The eight are accused variously of having helped him obtain weapons and spreading information online, including Paty’s address.

TURKEY: Three elected mayors of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party were removed from office today and replaced by state appointees.

The party is a successor to the Green Left and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and like them is accused by the government of links to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The main opposition CHP accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of stealing municipalities he had failed to win at election.

INDONESIA: At least 10 people died following a volcanic eruption on the island of Flores.

The eruption at Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki at midnight today spewed ash as high as 6,500 feet into the air and hot ashes hit several villages, burning down houses including a convent of Catholic nuns, said Firman Yosef, an official at the Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki monitoring post.