Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 28 Aug 2018

1. May promises investment boost for Africa

Theresa May is in South Africa today, where she is expected to say that by 2022 she wants the UK to overtake the US to become the G7’s biggest investor in African countries. Leading a trade delegation on a three-day tour of the continent, May is to say she is “unashamed” that the UK wants something in return for its aid spending.

2. Trump bows to pressure to honour McCain

US President Donald Trump yesterday reversed his refusal to issue a statement honouring John McCain, the Republican senator who died on Saturday from brain cancer. He also agreed to return flags at the White House to half-mast until McCain is buried, having raised them after just one day.

3. Immigration rules have doubled since 2010

The UK’s visa system is becoming unworkably complex, senior judges and lawyers have told The Guardian. Rules on visas now run to 375,000 words, up from 145,000 when Theresa May became home secretary.

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4. Trump trails ‘incredible’ trade deal with Mexico

Donald Trump has said the US and Mexico have reached common ground as they renegotiate their trade relations, saying they will now reach an “incredible” deal. Talks have been going on for 12 months after Trump said the existing Nafta pact between Mexico, the US and Canada was “terrible”. Canada is to rejoin the talks today.

5. Boy of 9 ‘killed himself over homophobic bullying’

The mother of a nine-year-old boy who committed suicide at home in Denver, Colorado, last week says he had suffered homophobic bullying after realising he was gay and deciding to tell his classmates at elementary school. Leia Pierce said her son Jamel had started the fourth grade at Joe Shoemaker Elementary School on Monday.

6. Air pollution causes ‘huge reduction in intelligence’

Air pollution is already known to cause health problems, with 95% of the global population breathing toxic air. Now new research carried out in China reveals that it also causes a reduction in intelligence. The study found the average impact of living in polluted areas in China was equivalent to losing one year of education.

7. London’s most expensive pint selling for £22.50

A London pub is selling what is believed to be the UK’s most expensive draught beer. A pint of American-brewed Speedway Stout costs £22.50, five times the average cost of ale. The black, syrupy beer is flavoured with Hawaiian Blue Mountain coffee, among other expensive ingredients. A third of a pint is available for £7.50.

8. US bishop gets $2.3m, five-bed retirement home

A retiring Catholic bishop in San Jose, California, has admitted parishioners will be upset the Church has bought him a $2.3m (£1.8m), five-bedroom retirement home in Silicon Valley. Patrick J McGrath, 73, wrote in 2016 there was no “moral justification” for housing inequality. His new home boasts a “grand-sized chef’s kitchen”.

9. Australian Madame Tussauds gives up on PMs

The waxworks museum Madame Tussauds in Sydney, Australia, has caused amusement by saying it is giving up on making sculptures of Australian prime ministers, because they change too often. The country has had five in five years. A figure of Malcolm Turnbull was abandoned incomplete when he lost his job last week.

10. Briefing: who murdered Jill Dando?

The murder of Jill Dando remains one of the UK’s most puzzling unsolved crimes. The former Crimewatch reporter was killed by a single bullet fired at her head as she reached the front door of her house in west London, on 26 April 1999.

Barry George, a convicted sex offender, was found guilty of killing the 37-year-old presenter in July 2001, but was acquitted six years later after gun residue found on him during the forensic investigation was discredited.

Who killed Jill Dando? The theories behind her murder