A leading conservationist in South Africa, charged with smuggling rhino horns worth $14m (£10m), has insisted he has "nothing to hide".

In a statement, John Hume, the former owner of what is thought to be the world's largest rhino farm, denied allegations that he trafficked the horns from South Africa to South East Asia.

The 83-year-old Mr Hume and five others, including a lawyer and a game reserve manager, have appeared in court on 55 charges, including theft, money laundering and fraud.

The group was allegedly part of an international rhino horn trafficking syndicate between 2017 and 2024, prosecutors said.

Mr Hume and his co-defendants are accused of smuggling more than 960 horns, obtaining permits to sell them locally, when the true intention was to export the horns to South East Asia, where they are used in traditional medicine.

The sale of rhino horns is legal between citizens in South Africa, but exporting them is not allowed.

The accused appeared in a magistrate's court in the capital city Pretoria on Tuesday and were granted bail. They did not enter a plea - this is not required in South Africa during an initial court appearance.

Mr Hume, however, proclaimed his innocence in a statement.

"I have nothing to hide and have fully cooperated with investigators for years," he said.

"I categorically reject the allegations against me and maintain that I have never acted unlawfully. I am confident that, once the facts are tested in court, I will be vindicated and my innocence confirmed."

Mr Hume's former farm, Platinum Rhino, was home to approximately 2,000 southern white rhinos.

He sold the farm in 2023, saying he could no longer continue to support the rhinos, which he had been breeding for over two decades.

Mr Hume was born in Zimbabwe and raised on a sheep farm. He made a living developing holiday resorts, before turning his hand to conservation in the 1990s.

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Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

The Danish government has announced it will abolish a 25% sales tax on books, in an effort to combat a "reading crisis".

The tax is is one of the highest in the world. Culture Minister Jacob Engel-Schmidt says he hopes scrapping it will lead to more books flying off the shelves.

The measure is expected to cost about 330 million kroner ($50m, £38m) a year.

Data from the OECD, an intergovernmental think tank, shows that a quarter of Danish 15-year-olds cannot understand a simple text.

"The reading crisis has unfortunately been spreading in recent years," said Engel-Schmidt. He added that he was "incredibly proud" of the move to scrap the tax.

He said "massive money should be spent on investing in the consumption and culture" of the Danish people.

In Finland, Sweden and Norway - which also have a standard Value Added Tax (VAT) of 25% like Denmark - the VAT on books is 14%, 6% and 0% respectively. In the UK, books are also VAT-free.

Surveys have shown declining levels of reading and comprehension among Danish teenagers, said Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, vice-chair of the government's working group on literature.

Younger children can easily improve their reading skills "but at 15 the ability to understand a text is pretty important", he told the BBC.

The numbers were "pretty shocking," he said, referring to the OECD research.

Young people struggle with reading because they have "so many options" and can be "easily distracted".

He said removing VAT on books was not a complete solution, but it would make books "more accessible".

The government's working group on literature also looked into ways to export Danish literature, the digitalisation of the book market and the impact on authors' pay.

A controversy has broken out in Germany about whether a trans right-wing extremist should serve a prison sentence in a women's or a men's facility.

In July 2023, Marla-Svenja Liebich was sentenced by the Halle District Court in Saxon-Anhalt to a total of one year and six months in prison without parole for extreme right incitement to hatred, defamation, and insult.

Liebich appealed against her sentence and lost.

At the time she was known as Sven Liebich. German media reports say Liebich used to be a member of a neo-Nazi group called Blood and Honour.

At the end of 2024, Liebich had her gender entry in official records changed from male to female. She also changed her first name.

The basis for this was Germany's Self-Determination Act, which had just come into force and strengthened the rights of transgender people. The Act allows people to change their gender marker and first name through a simple declaration at a registry office, instead of a judicial ruling.

German media have questioned whether Liebich's change was serious.

"Whether the change is serious is doubtful," wrote Der Spiegel. "Liebich has been known for years for her right-wing extremist views and has also made queerphobic statements in the past."

Liebich has taken legal action against media outlets for what she considers to be false representations of her gender identity.

A complaint against Spiegel to the Press Council was unanimously rejected by the Council as unfounded. Spiegel said the letter said it was likely that Liebich "made the change of civil status in an abusive manner in order to provoke and embarrass the state".

Liebich will shortly begin her prison term.

The Chief Public Prosecutor in Halle, Dennis Cernota told German public broadcaster MDR in Saxony-Anhalt that Liebich would serve her prison sentence at the Chemnitz women's prison.

Liebich confirmed this in a post on X. "I will begin my prison sentence as scheduled," she said. "On August 29, 2025, at 10pm, I will arrive at the Chemnitz correctional facility with my suitcases."

A decision on where to place Liebich will then be made at the start of incarceration. The chief public prosecutor said the prison administration would decide whether Liebich could pose a threat to security and order, which could lead to her transfer to another jail.

Meanwhile German media report that Liebich has recently lost another case, against journalist Julian Reichelt at Berlin Regional Court.

Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Nius, posted on X in July: "Anyone who follows the reporting on neo-Nazi Sven Liebich can only come to one conclusion: The traffic-light coalition government has managed, by law, to force almost the entire German media landscape to tell untruths and make grotesquely false claims. Sven Liebich is not a woman."

Die Welt said the court's Second Civil Chamber decided to reject Liebich's application for a preliminary injunction, saying it was unfounded.

Firefighters in Oregon are racing to save the Doerner Fir - one of the world's tallest and oldest trees - from a fire that has been burning since Saturday.

The giant fir, more than 325ft (99m) tall and estimated to be over 450 years old, has already lost about 50ft to the blaze, which may jeopardise its standing in global height rankings, officials say.

With more hot and dry weather forecast along Oregon's Coast Range, firefighters are struggling to put the fire out.

Officials have discussed some unconventional ways to put out the blaze including building scaffolding to reach and suppress flames higher up the tree.

The cause of the blaze remains unknown, though lightening has been ruled out.

On Tuesday, an infrared drone found no active flames or smoke at the top of the tree, but it detected heat inside a cavity in the trunk some 280 ft high, federal Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Megan Harper told the BBC.

Ms Harper told ABC News that the fire may impact the tree's standing in global height rankings.

"We've lost about 50 ft of it, just from fire and pieces falling out," she said, noting that the 50 ft were lost through the top burning. "So I don't know where it'll stand after this, but it's still a magnificent tree."

She also said there was not a risk of the tree fully burning down.

"The tree is so big, it's got so much mass that it would take a while for it to burn all the way through the tree," she said.

The Coos Forest Protective Association has said helicopter bucket drops have reduced fire activity near the top, while sprinklers and containment lines have been set up around the base. A helicopter remains on standby.

The High Court's decision to block a hotel in Epping from accommodating asylum seekers will not suddenly end their use nationwide.

But could it be a gateway for similar decisions elsewhere?

Individual councils may try to use the decision to stop the use of asylum hotels in their area, which could be a headache for the Home Office.

There is also a question, in the words of the government's own lawyers, of whether the ruling risks causing "further violent protests around other asylum accommodation".

Monday's ruling partly came down to a sense of community - and how it had been potentially impacted in Epping by what the council said was unlawful activity by the hotel, which its owners denied.

In short, the council argued the hotel had breached local planning controls by changing its use, and that in turn had led to events that changed the area: unlawful protests, fear of crime, concerns for 1,800 children going to school from September.

Mr Justice Eyre's conclusions took those concerns into account. He said that lawful protests that had happened in the town could never be a "veto" on how to apply planning rules.

But he added that the council's evidence was that the hotel's alleged unlawful use had affected what is known as "amenity" - that is, the generally-understood quality or character of an area or community.

"[Local] Fear of crime resulting from the use of the Bell, the need to address lawful protests and the consequences of the actions taken to address unlawful activity are relevant factors in support of interim relief," said the judge.

In other words, the council showed him some limited evidence of impact, rather that just a fear of impact, and that justified a temporary injunction to prevent irreparable harm.

If other councils want to use the ruling, they can't just knock on the court's doors to ask that asylum seekers are removed from a hotel because they fear protests.

The judge made clear there has to be some evidence of harm.

If they can show protests have caused clear harm, they might have a chance.

And that's what worries the Home Office.

If the on-off protests continue, peppered around the country, there could be many more cases like Epping as ministers try to meet their commitment to end hotel use by the end of the Parliament.

What are the government's alternatives?

The current housing strategy has evolved piecemeal.

The national "dispersal" plan places asylum seekers in private accommodation around the UK - the hotels are on top.

Critics say that local councils, schools and GPs are not properly warned and some of the poorest people in each community end up in competition with the Home Office for the cheapest private renting.

All governments have turned to ad hoc solutions - including under the Conservatives the Bibi Stockholm barge once moored in Dorset and temporarily-converted military sites, such as Napier barracks in Folkestone, Kent.

Both were criticised as unsuitable and ill-thought out.

Officials have at times looked at buying old student halls. That would be closer to French and Spanish local reception centres, run by independent organisations on behalf of government.

The only plan never tried at scale is a network of purpose-built accommodation centres - or "camps" as some would prefer them to be.

Germany created this kind of basic dormitory-style accommodation designed to accommodate people for up to 18 months with essentials like healthcare and education.

Twenty years ago, Tony Blair's government began working on such a plan but it was later dropped aid local opposition at the first potential sites, but also because asylum numbers were coming under control.

How did we get here?

There are about 32,000 asylum seekers in hotel accommodation across the UK in around 210 hotels.

That's down from a peak of 56,000 in 400 hotels before the general election.

Those hotels are being used because there has been an unprecedented backlog in the number of people waiting for a decision on their claim for asylum.

In 2014, 87 out of 100 asylum applicants got a decision on their future within six months.

Those people were either being settled and had permission to pay their own way by getting a job, or they were facing removal from the UK.

By 2021, that decision rate was down to six out of 100.

The backlog was growing largely because the Home Office scrapped a target in 2018 for how quickly to process cases.

The end of the pandemic led to global rush in movements, and the UK began seeing more and more arrivals as people smugglers built a trade on the English Channel.

The backlog hit of 132,000 cases by 2022, according to official figures. The Home Office was running out of its standard supply of private accommodation and began buying up more and more hotel space.

The management of all of this was further complicated when in 2023, the last government stopped processing applications from people arriving in small boats, hoping it would send some of them to Rwanda instead.

All of this is now costing around £5.4bn a year - twice as much as the bill in 2021-22.

That brings us to the legal battles.

In 2022 a string of councils attempted to prevent hotels being used by the Home Office. They largely failed.

In one case, Ipswich Borough Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council had argued that hotels in their patches were being illegally changed into hostels - pretty complex issues relating to local planning controls.

Those local authorities and others were seen off by the Home Office and its contractors because the courts legally took into account the bigger national picture.

Ministers have a duty imposed by Parliament to safely house asylum seekers awaiting a decision and the evidence showed they had few good options.

Great Yarmouth successfully blocked the use of hotels on its seafront, saying that breached its local tourism plan - but that was fact-specific and of little legal use to other concerned councils.

Pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive GCSE, BTec Tech Awards and other Level 2 results on Thursday.

The GCSE pass rate is expected to be broadly similar to 2024, after years of flux during the Covid pandemic.

Last year, it fell for a third year running.

College bosses have warned there could be more competition for students getting their GCSE results to find places at sixth forms this year, because of their growing popularity and an increase in the population size at that age group.

Bill Watkin, head of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said some had managed to increase capacity and would have spare places, but added that others are "almost certainly going to have to turn some young people away because they are oversubscribed".

• Your full guide to GCSE results day, including how to appeal grades
• The 9-1 GCSE grade boundaries explained
• What is a BTec and how are they marked?
• What is a T-level and what are the grades worth?

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said competition to get into top sixth forms "will be fiercer than ever", adding that fears over VAT being added to private school fees may drive more families to seek out places in the state sector.

But Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders' union, said there was a "wide range" of other options for teenagers, such as school sixth forms and further education colleges.

About 170,000 students are due to get results for BTec Tech Awards, BTec Firsts and BTec Level 2 Technical courses, while about 110,000 will receive results for Cambridge Nationals.

The pass rate for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams in Scotland rose across the board this month.

Top A-level results rose again last week – with 28.3% of all grades across England, Wales and Northern Ireland marked at A* or A.

One pupil waiting for her results, Jaya, says she wants to become a dentist and hopes she'll get the grades she needs to start A-levels at Scarborough College next month.

Most pupils getting results this week were in Year 6 when the first Covid lockdown was announced in March 2020, and started secondary school learning in "bubbles".

Jaya, a pupil at St Augustine's Catholic School in Scarborough, said it was bittersweet to be leaving the friends that she met during the Covid pandemic.

"I think when I first came in Year 7 I was probably really nervous," she said.

"I have found my people, my friends, and they have helped me become more confident."

Last year, 67.6% of all GCSE entries were graded 4/C or above.

Regional divides grew in England, with the difference between pass rates in the highest- and lowest-performing regions widening.

This is the second year that grading has returned to pre-pandemic standards across all three nations.

The proportion of GCSE passes rose in 2020 and 2021 when exams were cancelled and results were based on teachers' assessments.

That was followed by a phased effort to bring them back down to 2019 levels.

The return of grading to 2019 standards for a second year running means there will be less emphasis on how grades compare to standards before Covid, and more on how they compare to last year.

In England, pupils who don't get at least a grade 4 in GCSE English and maths are required to continue studying for it alongside their next course, whether it's A-levels, a T-level, or something else.

The Department for Education (DfE) says pupils should retake the exam when they - and their school or college - think they are ready.

GCSE English and maths resits take place in November and May or June.

• How to handle results day stress when you're neurodivergent
• Do gifts and cash rewards help to boost exam grades?
• What is an apprenticeship and how well are they paid?

Most pupils go into their school or college to collect their results, but this year tens of thousands will be sent their results in an app.

The DfE is trialling the Education Record app with 95,000 students in Manchester and the West Midlands, ahead of a national rollout.

Ministers said they hoped it would save money for college admissions teams, while school leaders said students and schools would need "seamless support" to ensure the app works properly.

Students involved in the pilot will still be able to go to school to get their paper results.

Additional reporting by Hayley Clarke and Emily Doughty

The government is preparing to take control of the UK's third largest steelworks in a bid to save the business and protect 1,500 jobs.

Managers have been lined up to take over Speciality Steels UK (SSUK) in South Yorkshire which is owned by Liberty Steel, a court heard.

The future of the company, which uses scrap metal to manufacture steel, has been uncertain for some time and it could be wound up over its large pile of unpaid debts.

It comes after ministers seized control of British Steel, in Scunthorpe, earlier this year to prevent the last plant in the UK producing virgin steel from closing.

SSUK is home to the UK's only electric arc furnaces which are more energy efficient and are thought to be pivotal in the industry's energy transition.

But the company has faced financial troubles for sometime and has been unable to buy the scrap metal needed to produce steel after Liberty Steel's main lender collapsed and unpaid debts mounted.

A High Court judge is set to decide the fate of SSUK.

Creditors owed hundreds of millions of pounds petitioned a court to force the company into liquidation so that Liberty Steel's assets can be sold to pay the debts owed.

Lawyers for its creditors are attempting to convince the courts the government will stand behind the business. On Tuesday, a letter was presented to the court from the government detailing that it would step in to take over the steelworks.

But lawyers for Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of GFG Alliance which owns Liberty, sought an adjournment to allow him to complete an administration process for the company to then be sold, without the need for any government intervention.

Mr Gupta, whose firm owns a collection of businesses in energy, trading and steel, employing thousands of people in the UK, has faced scrutiny since GFG's main lender Greensill Capital collapsed in 2021.

Sources close to the steel tycoon have confirmed reports that negotiations with investment giant Blackrock were ongoing to provide new funding to buy the business out of a managed or "pre-pack" administration.

The judge on Tuesday expressed reservations saying there was no certainty as to what would happen to the company after the compulsory liquidation the creditors were demanding.

"What happens to trading after the magic words are uttered?" he asked, referring to the formal granting of a winding up petition. "There is simply too much at stake."

The case has been adjourned and referred to the High Court.

Unappealing choices

While the government is a supporter of steel, it is not a big fan of Mr Gupta and has rejected his repeated appeals for direct government support.

So the choice now is an unappealing one.

Allow Mr Gupta to try and keep control though an administration – at considerable cost to the lenders whose loans would be largely written off - but zero cost to the government.

Or help his creditors recover what is left of their money by taking on a loss-making steel plant for however long it takes for a buyer to be found and the sale proceeds dished out.

The government has been contacted by the BBC for comment.

Liberty Steel said it believed its "commercial solution backed by major private capital provides the best outcome for the business, its employees and all stakeholders concerned without cost to UK taxpayers or unnecessary uncertainty".

A government intervention in Scunthorpe in 2019 cost the Treasury £600m during the 10 months it took to find Chinese buyer Jingye and since April, the government is back running day to day operations after it accused Jingye of planning to shut down its furnaces.

The government has said its looking for a commercial partner but that nationalisation of the plant is the most likely option.

Police investigating the death of French streamer Raphaël Graven say they have interviewed a number of people and seized equipment and videos.

Raphaël Graven, also known as Jeanpormanove, was known for videos on the platform Kick in which he endured apparent violence and humiliation.

He was found dead at a residence in a village north of the southern French city of Nice on Monday.

On Tuesday, French government minister Clara Chappaz described Mr Graven's death as an "absolute horror", adding he had been "humiliated" for months.

She confirmed a judicial investigation was under way.

Damien Martinelli, the local prosecutor, Nice who is in charge of the investigation, said in a statement that an autopsy would take place on Thursday.

The prosecutor also said that "people present at the time of the death have been questioned by police, but at this stage these interviews did not provide any guidance as to the causes of the death".

The statement continued: "Equipment and videos have been seized as part of the investigation in order to clarify the events that occurred prior to the death and which may have contributed to it."

Mr Graven was known for his extreme online challenges.

The 46-year-old had been subject to bouts of violence and sleep deprivation during streams, and died in his sleep during a live broadcast, local media reported.

Parallel to the investigation into Mr Graven's death is another ongoing probe by police in Nice which started 8 months ago into an alleged "deliberate violent act" against "vulnerable people" that have ended up as videos on the internet.

That investigation, which began in December 2024, was prompted by a report by French outlet Mediapart into videos Mr Graven appeared in.

As part of this investigation, Raphael Graven and another streamer, known as Coudoux - who appeared to be both victims of the violence and humiliation - were spoken to by the police earlier this year.

They both "firmly denied being victims of violence, stating that these acts were part of a staging aimed at 'creating a buzz' to make money", the prosecutor said.

"Both stated that they had never been injured, were completely free to move and make their own decisions, and refused to be examined by a doctor or a psychiatrist," the prosecutor added.

A spokesperson for Kick - a live-streaming platform similar to Twitch, on which users can broadcast content and interact with other users in real-time - previously told the BBC the company was "urgently reviewing" circumstances around the streamer's death.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of Jeanpormanove and extend our condolences to his family, friends and community," they said.

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A key takeaway from the summit in Alaska is that Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly wants to freeze the war in Ukraine along its current front line in return for the surrender of the rest of Donetsk region.

Russia holds about 70% of the region (oblast), including the regional capital of the same name, after more than a decade of fighting in which Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk have been the bleeding heart of the conflict.

For Russia to gain all of Donetsk would cement its internationally unrecognised claim to the oblast as well as avoiding further heavy military losses.

For Ukraine to withdraw from western Donetsk would mean the grievous loss not just of land, with the prospect of a new exodus of refugees, but the fall of a bulwark against any future Russian advance.

Here we look at why the territory matters so much.

What does Ukraine still control?

According to an estimate by Reuters news agency, Ukraine still holds about 6,600 sq km (2,548 sq miles) of territory in Donetsk.

About a quarter of a million people remain there, local officials said recently.

Major urban centres include Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, Kostyantynivka and Druzhkivka.

It forms part of Ukraine's main industrial region, the Donbas (Donets Basin), though its economy has been devastated by the war.

"The reality is these resources likely will not be able to be accessed for arguably a decade at least because of the [land] mines..." Dr Marnie Howlett, departmental lecturer in Russian and East European Politics at the University of Oxford, told Reuters.

"These lands have been completely destroyed, these cities completely flattened."

• Resignation and betrayal: What handing Donbas to Putin would mean for Ukraine
• Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia
• What security guarantees for Ukraine would actually mean

Where is the territory's military value?

A recent report by the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) describes a "fortress belt" running 50km (31 miles) through western Donetsk.

"Ukraine has spent the last 11 years pouring time, money, and effort into reinforcing the fortress belt and establishing significant defense industrial and defensive infrastructure," it writes.

Reports from the region speak of trenches, bunkers, minefields, anti-tank obstacles and barbed wire.

Russian forces attacking in the direction of Pokrovsk "are engaged in an effort to seize it that would likely take several years to complete", the ISW argues.

Fortifications are certainly part of the Ukrainian defence but so is the topography.

"The terrain is fairly defensible, particularly the Chasiv Yar height which has been underpinning the Ukrainian line," Nick Reynolds, Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), tells BBC News.

However, he adds: "If you look at the topography of the Donbas, eastern Ukraine in general, overall the terrain doesn't really favour the Ukrainians."

"The city of Donetsk is high ground. It's all downhill as you go west, which isn't great for the Ukrainians in terms of running defensive operations.

"That's not just about drawing in for the close fight or difficulties going up and down hill, a lot of it is also about observation and thus the ability to co-ordinate artillery fires and other forms of fire support without putting drones up.

"Likewise bits of high ground are better for radio wave propagation, better for co-ordination of drones."

Chasiv Yar, which the Russians recently claimed to have captured, "is one of the last bits of high ground the Ukrainians control", he says.

Intelligence via satellite imagery, whether provided by Ukraine's international partners or commercial, is very important, Reynolds notes, "but it is not the same as being able directly to co-ordinate one's own tactical missions".

Does the Russian military need all of Donetsk?

Western Donetsk is just a small part of a front line stretching some 1,100km but it has seen some of the fiercest Russian attacks this summer.

But were Moscow to channel its ground forces in any different direction, it is doubtful whether they would make any better progress.

"In the south, the front line in Zaporizhzhia is now very similar to the one in the Donbas, so that would be just fighting through extensive defensive positions as well," says Reynolds.

"The Russians face the same problem trying to bash through in the north, so they certainly wouldn't be pushing on an open door."

Would Ukraine be able to rebuild its defences further west?

In theory, in the event of a peace deal, the Ukrainians could move their line back further west.

There would, of course, be the issue of unfavourable terrain, and building deep defences would take time, even with the help of civilian contractors not having to work under fire.

But theory is one thing and Rusi's land warfare research fellow cannot see the Ukrainian military giving up western Donetsk without a fight.

"Even if the Trump administration tries to use ongoing US support or security guarantees as leverage," Nick Reynolds says, "based on previous Russian behaviour, based on the explicitly transactional approach that the US administration has taken, it is hard to see how the Ukrainian government would want to give up that territory."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country will reject any Russian proposal to give up the Donbas region in exchange for a ceasefire, arguing that the eastern territory could be used as a springboard for future attacks.

The entire US-Mexico border wall will be painted black to make it hotter and harder to climb, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said, crediting the idea to Donald Trump.

While domestic detentions and deportations have been the primary focus of the current immigration crackdown, Trump's policy bill passed earlier this summer also allocated $46m (£34m) for additional wall construction.

About a half mile (0.8km) of wall is going up each day along the nearly 2,000 mile (3,218km) border, according to Noem.

The number of border crossings has plummeted in recent months, and the Trump administration says sweeping arrests and detentions are acting as a deterrent to illegal migration.

Speaking to reporters along a section of the border in New Mexico, Noem said on Tuesday that the black paint was "specifically at the request of the president".

"[He] understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when something is painted black it gets even warmer and it will make it even harder for people to climb," she added.

Border Patrol officials also say that black paint will help prevent the wall from rusting.

Additionally, Noem said the administration is planning to install more "waterborne infrastructure" along the Rio Grande, which makes up more than half of the border between the two countries.

While Noem did not provide any more details on those projects, Texas authorities have previously installed floating barriers - large orange buoys - and fortified riverbank fencing guarded by state troopers, local police officers and the Texas National Guard along parts of the river.

Crossings and detentions of undocumented immigrants have plummeted since Trump returned to the office, with record lows of approximately 4,600 in July and 6,000 in June - a 92% year-on-year reduction.

During the Biden administration, detentions sometimes spiked to averages of 6,000 per day.

Earlier in August, Noem said that a total of 1.6m undocumented immigrants have left the US during the first 200 days of the Trump administration, although she did not specify how many have been deported and how many left on their own.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier in August that a total of 300,000 undocumented immigrants had been detained in the interior of the US since January.

While the administration continues to say it is prioritising those with criminal histories, immigration advocates have warned that many with no criminal charges or only minor infractions have been caught up in the sweeps.

White House officials also contend that increased border security and mass deportations have been deterrents, saying they are the primary reason for plummeting figures at the US-Mexico border.

A prominent South African MP fired shots to fend off a violent attack by a gang on him and two of his colleagues in Cape Town.

Ian Cameron - along with two other members of parliament's police committee, Lisa Schickerling and Nicholas Gotsell - were returning from a work trip when their vehicle was ambushed in the township of Philippi on Tuesday.

The assailants smashed the car's windows with bricks, injuring Cameron and Gotsell.

Cameron, whose teeth were broken, retaliated by opening fire, injuring one of the attackers.

Police said two teenagers, aged 16 and 18, have been arrested as they investigate a case of attempted murder and attempted hijacking.

Crime is a major problem in South Africa and the country has one of the highest murder rates in the world.

One of the suspects was apprehended while seeking medical treatment at a hospital on Tuesday while another was arrested on a farm early Wednesday, police said, adding that a search is under way for a third suspect.

Cameron, who chairs the police committee, told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that they were returning from an unannounced visit to a police academy in Philippi when "the first brick came through [the window]" on the driver's side and hit him in the face.

• South Africa minister under fire over racial slur
• Tears and outrage as accused in pig farm murder walks free

Cameron said that while he was trying to fend off his attacker, he saw his colleagues also face a barrage of attacks from the other assailants.

"I realised that if we don't do something, then this can go really bad. So I did my best to act in self-defence with my firearm and then we sped off to the closest secure location," he added.

In South Africa, it is legal to carry a firearm, so long as you have a licence.

Cameron, who was seen with a cut lip in the interview, said some of his teeth had been broken, while Gotsell had to be briefly hospitalised after he was hit on the head.

Gotsell, speaking after being discharged from hospital, praised Cameron, saying he "acted with such bravery".

All three MPs are members of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the second-biggest party in South Africa's coalition government.

The party said the attack showed how "out-of-control" crime is in South Africa.

More BBC stories on South Africa:

• Top cop shakes South Africa with explosive allegations about his boss
• On the hunt for the fugitive linked to illegal South African gold mine
• Caught in the crossfire - the victims of Cape Town's gang warfare

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

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The Trump administration has revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former US officials, accusing them of politicising intelligence for partisan or personal gain.

In a memo posted on social media, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard directed several national security agency heads to immediately strip the officials of their clearances, stating the move was ordered by President Donald Trump.

The officials include several national security staffers who served under former Democratic presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

Gabbard offered no evidence to support the accusations in the memo.

Security clearances grant access to sensitive government information, and some former officials retain them to advise successors. Some private sector jobs such as those in defence and aerospace can require access to security clearances as a pre-condition for employment.

It remains unclear whether all 37 individuals listed in the memo still held active clearances.

Gabbard said Trump ordered the revocations because the officials "abused the public trust by politicizing and manipulating intelligence, leaking classified intelligence without authorization, and or committing intentional egregious violations of tradecraft standards".

"Being entrusted with a security clearance is a privilege, not a right," Gabbard wrote on X. "Those in the Intelligence Community who betray their oath to the Constitution and put their own interests ahead of the interests of the American people have broken the sacred trust they promised to uphold."

The memo did not lay out specific charges against specific individuals.

This is not the first time the Trump administration has revoked security clearances for intelligence officials. The administration has previously revoked clearances of Biden, his Vice-President Kamala Harris, and former lawmakers involved in investigations of the 6 January Capitol riot.

In recent weeks, Gabbard has led the charge against intelligence officials under former President Barack Obama who concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections, which Trump won.

Trump and Gabbard have described the intelligence community's assessment as a "treasonous conspiracy" to undermine the president's electoral success.

Democrats have dismissed the moves as a political distraction, and accused the White House of deflecting attention from unpopular policies and Trump's alleged ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction," a spokesman for Obama said last month.

A former priest accused of abusing members of a church group he led has been found guilty of 17 counts of indecent assault against nine women.

Chris Brain, 68, was head of the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), an influential evangelical movement based in Sheffield in the 1980s and 1990s.

Brain, of Wilmslow, in Cheshire, was convicted of the charges following a trial at Inner London Crown Court.

He was found not guilty of another 15 charges of indecent assault, while jurors are continuing to deliberate on a further four counts of indecent assault and one charge of rape.

Wearing a black suit with a black tie, Brain showed no emotion as the jury foreman delivered the verdicts.

The jury are expected to return to court on Thursday to continue their deliberations on the remaining counts.

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The High Court's decision to block a hotel in Epping from accommodating asylum seekers will not suddenly end their use nationwide.

But could it be a gateway for similar decisions elsewhere?

Individual councils may try to use the decision to stop the use of asylum hotels in their area, which could be a headache for the Home Office.

There is also a question, in the words of the government's own lawyers, of whether the ruling risks causing "further violent protests around other asylum accommodation".

Monday's ruling partly came down to a sense of community - and how it had been potentially impacted in Epping by what the council said was unlawful activity by the hotel, which its owners denied.

In short, the council argued the hotel had breached local planning controls by changing its use, and that in turn had led to events that changed the area: unlawful protests, fear of crime, concerns for 1,800 children going to school from September.

Mr Justice Eyre's conclusions took those concerns into account. He said that lawful protests that had happened in the town could never be a "veto" on how to apply planning rules.

But he added that the council's evidence was that the hotel's alleged unlawful use had affected what is known as "amenity" - that is, the generally-understood quality or character of an area or community.

"[Local] Fear of crime resulting from the use of the Bell, the need to address lawful protests and the consequences of the actions taken to address unlawful activity are relevant factors in support of interim relief," said the judge.

In other words, the council showed him some limited evidence of impact, rather that just a fear of impact, and that justified a temporary injunction to prevent irreparable harm.

If other councils want to use the ruling, they can't just knock on the court's doors to ask that asylum seekers are removed from a hotel because they fear protests.

The judge made clear there has to be some evidence of harm.

If they can show protests have caused clear harm, they might have a chance.

And that's what worries the Home Office.

If the on-off protests continue, peppered around the country, there could be many more cases like Epping as ministers try to meet their commitment to end hotel use by the end of the Parliament.

What are the government's alternatives?

The current housing strategy has evolved piecemeal.

The national "dispersal" plan places asylum seekers in private accommodation around the UK - the hotels are on top.

Critics say that local councils, schools and GPs are not properly warned and some of the poorest people in each community end up in competition with the Home Office for the cheapest private renting.

All governments have turned to ad hoc solutions - including under the Conservatives the Bibi Stockholm barge once moored in Dorset and temporarily-converted military sites, such as Napier barracks in Folkestone, Kent.

Both were criticised as unsuitable and ill-thought out.

Officials have at times looked at buying old student halls. That would be closer to French and Spanish local reception centres, run by independent organisations on behalf of government.

The only plan never tried at scale is a network of purpose-built accommodation centres - or "camps" as some would prefer them to be.

Germany created this kind of basic dormitory-style accommodation designed to accommodate people for up to 18 months with essentials like healthcare and education.

Twenty years ago, Tony Blair's government began working on such a plan but it was later dropped aid local opposition at the first potential sites, but also because asylum numbers were coming under control.

How did we get here?

There are about 32,000 asylum seekers in hotel accommodation across the UK in around 210 hotels.

That's down from a peak of 56,000 in 400 hotels before the general election.

Those hotels are being used because there has been an unprecedented backlog in the number of people waiting for a decision on their claim for asylum.

In 2014, 87 out of 100 asylum applicants got a decision on their future within six months.

Those people were either being settled and had permission to pay their own way by getting a job, or they were facing removal from the UK.

By 2021, that decision rate was down to six out of 100.

The backlog was growing largely because the Home Office scrapped a target in 2018 for how quickly to process cases.

The end of the pandemic led to global rush in movements, and the UK began seeing more and more arrivals as people smugglers built a trade on the English Channel.

The backlog hit of 132,000 cases by 2022, according to official figures. The Home Office was running out of its standard supply of private accommodation and began buying up more and more hotel space.

The management of all of this was further complicated when in 2023, the last government stopped processing applications from people arriving in small boats, hoping it would send some of them to Rwanda instead.

All of this is now costing around £5.4bn a year - twice as much as the bill in 2021-22.

That brings us to the legal battles.

In 2022 a string of councils attempted to prevent hotels being used by the Home Office. They largely failed.

In one case, Ipswich Borough Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council had argued that hotels in their patches were being illegally changed into hostels - pretty complex issues relating to local planning controls.

Those local authorities and others were seen off by the Home Office and its contractors because the courts legally took into account the bigger national picture.

Ministers have a duty imposed by Parliament to safely house asylum seekers awaiting a decision and the evidence showed they had few good options.

Great Yarmouth successfully blocked the use of hotels on its seafront, saying that breached its local tourism plan - but that was fact-specific and of little legal use to other concerned councils.

The cost of everyday food items from instant coffee to beef and fruit juices has continued to rise.

The latest inflation data shows food and non-alcoholic drink prices rose 4.9% in the year to July, the highest annual rate of food and drink inflation since February 2024.

So why is this? And are there any signs these price rises in supermarkets, restaurants and cafes could ease soon?

One contributing factor is the climate.

Drought in the UK has meant that crop yields were lower this year, while extreme weather in other countries has raised the wholesale prices of goods like coffee beans and cocoa.

A bad harvest means good crops are "worth more money", according to one farmer.

Lewis Clare, who produces organic oats and pigs on his 160-acre farm near Manchester, said: "The weather is going to be driving costs up."

"I hate to say I think it's going to go up even more," he added.

"This year has been a problem. It's been incredibly dry, the crops and yields have been terrible."

Global events like the war in Ukraine also affect supply chains and push prices up.

Mr Clare said he used to produce eggs but had to remodel his business after Russia invaded Ukraine.

"Whether it's some kind of extreme weather event or something dramatic like the war in Ukraine, the farmers are the first to feel it, because we are at the frontline, and then it sort of trickles down through to the consumer six to 18 months down the line," he said.

Business owners have also had to grapple with a rise in the minimum wage, as well as higher employer National Insurance Contributions.

Jane Matthews, operations director of the Ice Cream Farm in Cheshire, said her business is constantly having to absorb rising costs, from payroll to food to energy.

"We're being squeezed on all corners," she told BBC News. But, she added, the company was conscious that "customers' budgets are also squeezed."

She said the company felt it had no choice but to pass on these costs to their customers.

"You've got to make these decisions now so you can keep going, [otherwise] you might not to be able to employ more people or [have to] close certain things during the year."

Research published on Tuesday showed that many people are cutting back on fast food and casual dining, replacing it with smaller treats like coffee or a bar of chocolate.

Ms Matthews said she had noticed this through the number of picnics on the farm.

"People might bring a basic picnic and supplement it with a bag of chips for the kids," she said.

"So we've embraced that ... in the hope that they will still spend here."

'Inflation makes everything more expensive'

For many families, the weekly supermarket shop is the most obvious indicator that the cost of living is still going up, especially when the cost of everyday staples is rising.

Rapid rises in food prices hit low-income families the hardest, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank.

Lalitha Try, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, said that low-income families spend a greater portion of their money on food, so they are more sensitive to price rises at the supermarket.

People and families with a higher income have options if they want to cut back, such as switching to own-brand products, but lower-income households are often already doing that, so there are "less choices to make", she said.

Consumer trends

Danni Hewson, the head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said consumer trends were also a factor, as demand for high protein meals had also helped drive up the price of beef.

Even then, households with higher incomes were not immune to the rising inflation, she said.

"Most people live to their means, so they may have a car payment, a chunky mortgage, or pay private school fees, and all of those things are what equates to their standard of living they're used to enjoying," she said.

"But inflation makes everything more expensive and at some point even people on chunky salaries are having to ask questions about how far their money will stretch and what they might have to give up or change in order to keep the bills in check."

Scientists have developed a honeybee "superfood" that could protect the animals against the threats of climate change and habitat loss.

Bee colonies that ate the supplement during trials had up to 15 times more baby bees that grew to adulthood.

Honeybees are a vital part of food production and contribute to pollinating 70% of leading global crops.

"This technological breakthrough provides all the nutrients bees need to survive, meaning we can continue to feed them even when there's not enough pollen," senior author Professor Geraldine Wright at the University of Oxford told BBC News.

"It really is a huge accomplishment," she says.

Honeybees globally are facing severe declines, due to nutrient deficiencies, viral diseases, climate change and other factors. In the US, annual colony losses have ranged between 40-50% in the last decade and are expected to increase.

Beekeepers in the UK have faced serious challenges too.

Nick Mensikov, chair of the Cardiff, Vale and Valleys Beekeepers Association, told BBC News that he lost 75% of his colonies last winter and that this has been seen across South Wales.

"Although the hives have all been full of food, the bees have just dwindled. Most of the bees survived through January, February, and then they just vanished," he says.

Honeybees feed on pollen and nectar from flowers that contain the nutrients, including lipids called sterols that are necessary for their development.

They make honey in hives, which becomes their food source over winter when flowers have stopped producing pollen.

When beekeepers take out honey to sell, or, increasingly, when there isn't enough pollen available, they give the insects supplementary food.

But that food is made up of protein flour, sugar and water, and has always lacked the nutrients bees require. It is like humans eating a diet without carbohydrates, amino acids, or other vital nutrients.

Sterol has always proved very difficult to manufacture, but Prof Wright has led a group of scientists for 15 years to identify which exact sterols bees need and how engineer them.

In the lab at Oxford, PhD student Jennifer Chennells showed us small clear boxes of honeybees in an incubator that she feeds with different foods she has made.

She uses kitchen equipment you could find at home to make the raw ingredients, and rolls out glossy, white tubes of food.

"We put ingredients into what's like a cookie dough, with different proteins, fats, different amounts of carbohydrate, and the micronutrients that bees need. It's to try to work out what they like best and what's best for them," she says.

She pushes the tubes inside the boxes and bees nibble at the mixture.

It's in this lab that, using gene editing, Prof Wright's team successfully made a yeast that can produce the six sterols that bees need.

"It's a huge breakthrough. When my student was able to engineer the yeast to create the sterols, she sent me a picture of the chromatogram that was a result of the work," she says, referring to a chart of the substance structure.

"I still have it on the wall of my office," she explains.

The "superfood" was fed to bees in the lab's hives for three months.

The results showed that colonies fed the food had up to 15 times more baby bees that made it to adulthood.

"When the bees have a complete nutrition they should be healthier and less susceptible to disease," Prof Wright says.

Prof Wright says the food would be particularly useful during summers like this one when flowering plants appear to have stopped producing early.

"It's really important in years when the summer came early and bees will not have sufficient pollen and nectar to make it through the winter," she says.

"The more months that they go without pollen, the more nutritional stress that they will face, which means that the beekeepers will have greater losses of those bees over winter," she explains.

Larger-scale trials are now needed to assess the long-term impacts of the food on honeybee health, but the supplement could be available to beekeepers and farmers within two years.

The study was led by University of Oxford, working with Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, University of Greenwich, and the Technical University of Denmark.

The research is published in the journal Nature.