Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 28 Aug 2017

1. Hospital treats 133 after gas cloud hits beach

More than 100 people have been treated in Eastbourne for the effects of a mysterious yellow haze which drifted onto the beach at Birling Gap, in East Sussex, from the English Channel. A local hospital said 133 people suffered burning eyes, vomiting and sore throats. Chemical clouds have drifted across from French factories in the past.

2. Catastrophic flooding hits Houston, Texas

Hurricane Harvey has brought flooding to the US's fourth-biggest city – Houston, Texas – described by US meteorologists as "catastrophic" and "unprecedented". Hundreds of roads are closed, hospitals have been evacuated and residents have been told to stand on their roofs and wait for rescue. One year's rain is expected to fall in one week.

3. Davis returns to Brexit negotiation table

The third round of Brexit talks resumes in Brussels today, with Brexit Secretary David Davis saying he wants to broaden the remit to include trade, despite the EU insisting that foreign citizens' rights, the Irish border and Britain's 'divorce bill' must be settled first. Both sides have said there is no prospect of a breakthrough, the BBC reports.

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4. New heart treatment 'can lower cancer risk'

Researchers say a new treatment for heart attack survivors is the biggest breakthrough since statins. Sufferers given anti-inflammatory injections have fewer future heart episodes and a lower risk of cancer, says the team led by a Boston hospital, One quarter of heart-attack sufferers currently have another within five years.

5. Labour MPs warn of soft Brexit backlash

Three senior Labour MPs have warned the party faces a backlash after it announced yesterday it favours a two- to four-year transitional arrangement for Brexit. During this period, the UK would remain within the single market and customs union, meaning it would have to accept freedom of movement – and pay into the EU budget.

6. Lorry driver due in court after M1 crash

A lorry driver is due in court today, charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving and other charges including drunk driving. Ryszard Masierak, 31, was one of the drivers involved in a crash on the M1 early on Saturday morning which left eight people dead. Another lorry driver, David Wagstaff, 53, is also charged.

7. Hunt continues war of words with Hawking

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has again accused Professor Sir Stephen Hawking, one of the world's most revered scientists, of making claims about the NHS "without any evidence at all" and being "wrong" about health policy. Hawking has accused Hunt of overseeing a drift towards a "US-style insurance system run by private companies".

8. Remains of WW2 bomber found in sea

Engineers surveying the route of a proposed underwater electricity cable in the North Sea have found wreckage believed to be of a WW2 Short Stirling heavy bomber on the sea bed. It could be one of several RAF planes which disappeared without trace while transporting supplies to the Norwegian resistance in 1944 to 1945.

9. Texas Chainsaw Massacre director dies

Horror film director Tobe Hooper has died at the age of 74, of natural causes in Los Angeles. He made his name with the 1974 shocker The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was made for less than £230,000 in six weeks but went on to be one of the most influential horror films – and to be banned in many countries including the UK.

10. Briefing: Why are so many Russian diplomats dying?

Russian ambassador Migayas Shirinskiy has become the eighth Kremlin diplomat to die since the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, sparking conspiracy theories.

Shirinsky, ambassador to Sudan, was swimming in the pool of his residence in Khartoum on Wednesday when he seemed to suffer a heart attack.

While there is no evidence to suggest his demise was suspicious, he is just the latest in a string of Russian emissaries to die unexpectedly. Foul play has been ruled out in some cases, but questions linger in others.

"That's either because the facts have changed over time, details are hard to come by, or the deaths are still under investigation," says CNN.

Why are so many Russian diplomats dying?