Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit will likely need a lung transplant as her health has worsened in recent months, the country's royal household has said.

The princess, 52, was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018. The degenerative disease creates scar tissue that stiffens the lungs making it difficult to breathe and for oxygen to enter the bloodstream.

Tests in autumn showed "a clear worsening" of her health, the palace said on Friday. "We are reaching the point where a lung transplant will be necessary," Are Martin Holm, head of respiratory medicine at Oslo University Hospital, said.

Princess Mette-Marit told public broadcaster NRK that her illness had developed "faster than I'd hoped".

No decision has been taken yet on whether she will be placed on the transplant waiting list, Dr Holm said. The palace said her doctors had started the process towards an evaluation for lung transplant surgery.

In Norway, there are usually between 20 and 40 patients on the waiting list for a lung transplant and Princess Mette-Marit will not be given preferential treatment if she is placed on the list, local media reports.

Although she is not yet on a donor list, Dr Holm said her heathcare team was "undertaking the necessary preparations to ensure that [a transplant] will be possible when the time comes".

The palace said Princess Mette-Marit had "an increasing need" for rest and a targeted exercise regimen.

However, she had "expressed a strong interest in continuing to carry out her duties", it added in a statement on Friday. Her royal duties and engagements will adapted to her ongoing health issues.

Holm described pulmonary fibrosis to reporters as a "dangerous disease" that often could not be seen because it depended on how sick an individual was.

At rest, they might be able to breathe normally, Holm explained, but when they exert themselves - through exercise, for example - their lungs "can no longer keep up".

Princess Mette-Marit's husband, Prince Haakon, Norway's future king, sat beside her for an interview with NRK, in which he explained that she may appear "perfectly fine" when sitting still, but said he had noticed her struggling more with breathing.

He also said she had less energy and was getting ill more often.

Hiking or skiing together - activities the pair enjoy - were no longer possible, the crown prince added.

The thought of the transplant alone had been demanding, Mette-Marit said, as she knew it will involve risks.

A successful transplant hinges on several factors, including finding the right match and ensuring the body does not reject the new organ.

Transplant is seen as a last resort, Dr Holm explained, telling reporters that individuals must be significantly ill and have a limited life expectancy before a lung transplant can be deemed appropriate.

News of the princess' deteriorating health comes months after her eldest son was charged with 32 offences, including four counts of rape.

Marius Borg Høiby, 28, denies the most serious accusations against him, but plans to plead guilty to some lesser charges when the trial begins, his lawyer Petar Sekulic told news agency Reuters in August.

Mr Høiby is the stepson of the heir to the Norwegian throne, but does not have any royal title or official duties.

A Uganda prison officer has been sacked for criticising the government on TikTok, in a rare move authorities said amounted to "gross indiscipline".

Lawrence Ampe had been under investigation over social media posts accusing senior government officials of corruption, human rights abuses and mistreatment of lower-ranking prison officers.

"The standing orders don't allow a public officer to participate in politics, which he is doing even now," prisons spokesman Frank Baine told the BBC, saying Ampe was sacked for "politicking in the wrong forum".

The opposition has condemned the move, describing it as evidence of "systemic oppression" and double standards within the security sector.

The officer shared the dismissal letter on his TikTok account with the caption: "I'm finally out free to support truth."

In another video, Ampe urged Ugandans not to worry about how he would survive without a job, saying: "What we are doing is not all about money but about liberating our nation."

He said he was using his TikTok account, which has more than 100,000 followers, to expose senior government officials who are involved in corruption and misusing their power, and to tell Ugandans how to love their country.

The officer has also used his social media accounts to promote election campaign videos for opposition leader Bobi Wine, a pop star-turned-politician, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu.

Bobi Wine is seeking to unseat President Yoweri Museveni in the 15 January elections, as the long-serving leader aims to extend his nearly 40-year rule.

In a statement, the Prisons Council said it had "resolved to dismiss" Ampe last Tuesday and ordered him to hand over all state property in his possession.

Mr Baine said Uganda's laws did not allow public servants to participate in politics.

"We have put him in the right forum to do his politicking," the prisons spokesman told the BBC, adding that Ampe did not show remorse when he appeared before the Prisons Council.

The BBC has reached out to Ampe for comment.

Last month, the Uganda Prisons Service said it was investigating Ampe for his self-made TikTok videos on various subjects, cautioning officers against using social media to express political opinions.

It cited laws that prohibited public officers from communicating with the media on "issues related to work or official policy" without permission from authorising seniors.

‎Despite the warning, Ampe reportedly continued uploading political videos, leading to further disciplinary proceedings.

Bobi Wine defended Ampe, saying he was using social media to "expose corruption, abuse of power, oppression of lower ranking officers and other evils within the Uganda Prisons Service".

He said the officer's dismissal reflected double standards, noting that other security officials, particularly in the military, routinely appear in the media expressing partisan support for President Museveni's leadership without facing disciplinary action.

The government has previously been accused of restricting people's ability to criticise the actions of the state or its officials.

The US government in a 2023 report said Uganda had restricted internet freedom through the use of criminal punishments.

Rights groups also regularly denounce the Ugandan authorities over violations of human rights and the freedom of expression.

Last July, a 24-year-old man was sentenced to six years in prison for insulting the president and the first family on a TikTok video. He had pleaded guilty and asked for forgiveness.

More about Uganda from the BBC:

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

Young people will be hit hardest by successive governments' failure to focus on financial and societal challenges caused by an ageing population, a House of Lords report has suggested.

They will need to plan and prepare to work longer and save more from a much earlier age, the economic affairs committee said.

The report also found that the crisis in adult social care "remains a scandal" which needs to be addressed urgently.

Committee chair Lord Wood of Anfield told the BBC it was a "struggle to find where in government" there was a focus on ageing and the "transformational effects" it was going to have on people.

"Ageing is something that we're just watching happening", he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, adding: "We know that adaptation is the way forward".

Policies governments have used to address the impact of declining fertility and rising life expectancy in the UK - raising the state pension age or increasing immigration for example - were not adequate solutions on their own, the report said.

Getting more people in their 50s and 60s to stay in or return to work "is key", the committee said, and the government must prioritise incentives to do so.

It also said an ageing population will need more care workers, leaving fewer workers for other parts of the economy.

There is "widespread ignorance" of how much it costs to retire, it said, and the government should consider an education campaign - as well as finding out if the UK's financial services sector is equipped to provide for the population as it ages.

Lord Wood said that the government and financial services industry needs to devise "more innovative ways of getting younger people to think about lives frankly they can't conceive of at the moment - when they're in their eighties and early nineties."

"There's a long time for them to be financially planning for at a time when we know young people are doing less financial planning," he added.

"Raising the state pension age, which saves the government money, but increases pensioner poverty as many people have already stopped working by their sixties, is a red herring.

"To successfully confront this challenge, the approach to financial management of today's and tomorrow's young people will need to change."

TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance has signed a deal with investors to run its business in the US.

But what does this mean for the over 170 million Americans (or so the social media platform claims) who use the app?

The key may lie in how TikTok's recommendation algorithm - the powerful system that curates the platform's For You Page to predict content you might watch - is managed when it changes hands.

Social media industry expert Matt Navarra told the BBC the question will not be whether TikTok survives, but "what version of TikTok survives".

'Safer' but 'less relevant'

Currently, TikTok's system depends on huge amounts of global data and feedback loops, which can change recommendations in an instant.

Under the terms of the deal TikTok's algorithm, which will be licensed by investor Oracle, is set to be retrained on American user data.

Mr Navarra said this could leave the app feeling "safer and sturdier" but also leaving it at a risk of "becoming less culturally essential" as a result.

"TikTok's power has always come from feeling slightly out of control - weird, niche, uncomfortable, sometimes politically sharp content for anyone else or before it goes anywhere else," he said.

"If you start smoothing those edges, you don't just change moderation. I think you change its relevance."

Matching ByteDance's algorithm

Whether the US version will differ from the TikTok so many know and use already may also depend on if it gets "all the new features, security updates and platform improvements" as soon as the international version does, tech journalist Will Guyatt told the BBC.

And computing expert Kokil Jaidka from the National University of Singapore said she expected the things that make the platform popular - such as its short videos and shopping - are likely to "stay intact" as these features are not dependent on the algorithm.

She said the changes might be more subtle and gradual, depending on if the narrower data inputs of the "siloed" US version can match the app's global reach.

"If TikTok is operating with a licensed or partially diluted version of its recommendation algorithm, some of the system's blind spots may start to matter more," she said.

For users, she said this means in practice the US algorithm may "lag in personalisation" and take longer to adapt to viral content.

To experiment or behave?

Oracle is TikTok's longtime cloud computing partner in the United States, and is chaired by Larry Ellison, an ally of President Trump.

Another foreign entity, MGX - an Abu-Dhabi government investment fund - will join it along with private equity firm Silver Lake as the main incoming investors.

Pressure from these investors may also add to the US app feeling "blander" said Mr Navarra.

"I think the real test won't be whether the users leave," he said.

"It will be whether TikTok still feels the place the internet goes to experiment - or if it becomes the place it goes to behave."

Additional reporting by Peter Hoskins.

Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.