WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
Edwards' guilt, TikTok's 'Nazi problem', and the link between cholesterol and dementia

 
today's uk news story

BBC 'shocked' as Edwards pleads guilty

What happened 
The BBC said it was shocked by the "abhorrent" behaviour of its former top news presenter Huw Edwards, who yesterday pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children.

The indecent images included 22 category C images, 12 category B and seven category A – the most serious classification. The category A images were largely of children thought to be aged between 13 and 15 years old. There was also an image of a child estimated to be between seven and nine years old, said prosecutors.

Who said what
"The BBC is shocked to hear the details which have emerged in court today," said the broadcaster in a statement.

The court heard the long-time newsreader had been involved in a WhatsApp chat with an adult man from 16 December 2020 to August 2021 in which he was sent 377 explicit images, of which 41 included children.

A category A video of a young boy was sent to Edwards in August 2021. The man in WhatsApp correspondence with him said the boy was quite young looking, and that he had further illegal images. Edwards told the man not to send him any illegal images, the court heard.

What next? 
Edwards, who was arrested in November and charged last month, will be sentenced on 16 September. Police confirmed that the current charges are not linked to other claims involving the presenter that were widely reported last year.

 
 
today’s international story

Trump challenges Harris's racial identity

What happened
Donald Trump questioned Kamala Harris's race and repeated disinformation and lies during a raucous and frequently hostile town hall interview hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Convention.

Who said what
Harris "happened to turn Black", Trump said, after being asked whether the US vice president was a "DEI hire". "She was Indian all the way and all of a sudden she made a turn and became a Black woman."

The Republican presidential nominee also said he would "absolutely" pardon 6 January rioters who had assaulted police officers during the Capitol insurrection.

Trump's presence at the conference "sparked widespread backlash" from some attendees, said USA Today. His interview was "met with some boos, groans and heckling".

What next?
Footage of Trump's defence of the Capitol rioters is something that will  likely feature in "future advertising" against his campaign, said The New York Times.

The NABJ is reportedly working to schedule a session with Vice President Harris some time this month.

 
 
Today’s health story

Study links high cholesterol to dementia

What happened
Some dementia cases could be prevented if people took action to lower their cholesterol, a study has revealed.

The research, led by University College London, identified two new factors that contribute to dementia: high cholesterol and untreated sight loss in old age. These were added to a list of 12 previously known risk factors including depression, smoking and loneliness.

Who said what
The study demonstrated a causal link between addressing the "modifiable" risk factors and reducing the likelihood of developing dementia by up to 45%, said Geir Selbk, a member of The Lancet Commission on dementia prevention and research director at the Norwegian National Centre for Ageing and Health.

The authors said their findings showed that dementia does not just "hit people in a random way". Rather, people can help to determine their own fate.

What next?
As well as encouraging people to "give yourself a chance" to prevent dementia by exercising every day, the study's lead author Professor Gill Livingston also called for improved public health policies such as smoking bans and restrictions on junk food.

 
 

It's not all bad

Microbes in tree bark absorb methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as effectively as soil microbes, according to a University of Birmingham study. The study, published in Nature, involved trees in various global forests and showed methane absorption was highest in tropical forests. It had long been thought that soil was the only effective terrestrial methane absorber, but this unexpected discovery enhances the understanding of the role trees play in mitigating climate change, suggesting they can significantly reduce methane levels in the atmosphere.

 
 
under the radar

Does TikTok have a 'Nazi problem'?

TikTok has previously faced accusations of cyber-bullying, damaging children's brains and pushing Chinese propaganda, but it now faces a new claim: that it has a "Nazi problem".

Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are sharing Hitler-related propaganda and recruiting new members on TikTok, and the platform's algorithm is "promoting" the content, said Wired.

A report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) uncovered a network of 200 accounts that produced videos promoting Nazism or used Nazi symbols in their profiles.

Researchers from the global thinktank found that accounts were gathering "tens of millions of views" on the platform with messages about Holocaust denial, the glorification of Hitler and "Nazism as a solution to contemporary issues". There were also posts expressing support for white supremacist mass shooters, including footage of their crimes.

According to the report, TikTok is "failing to take down violative videos and accounts" even when the content is reported by users. In fact accounts and videos promoting Nazism are "algorithmically amplified", said the researchers, with TikTok quickly recommending such content to users engaging with similar far-right hate speech.

The ISD's findings show that "a small number of violent extremists" can "wreak havoc on large platforms due to adversarial asymmetry", said Adam Hadley, founder and executive director of Tech Against Terrorism, which "underscores the need for cross-platform threat intelligence supported by improved AI-powered content moderation".

A TikTok spokesperson said "hateful behaviour, organisations and their ideologies have no place on TikTok, and we remove more than 98% of this content before it is reported to us".

 
 
on this day

1 August 1907

Robert Baden-Powell led the first unofficial Scouts trip, taking 20 boys between the ages of 10 and 16 to Dorset's Brownsea Island for a week. They tried out fire-lighting, cooking, boat management and observation and tracking over the course of the expedition. Today the organisation has hundreds of thousands of members, with a goal to have more than 547,000 young people in Scouts by next year.

 
 
Today’s newspapers

"Guilty" says The Sun as it covers news that Huw Edwards has pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children. The Mirror leads with the headline "Huw's child abuse pics shame", while The Guardian notes that he could face jail. A Russian-linked "fake news" website "fuelled lies" that caused violent protests in Southport, says the Daily Mail. It notes that the outlet "falsely claimed" that the attacker was a migrant on an MI6 watchlist. Meanwhile, says the Financial Times, Iran is vowing to take revenge on Israel for killing Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Beach body mix-up

A woman in New Zealand called the police after spotting what she thought was a headless body on a North Island beach. "I just sort of froze and felt sick," Alice Cowdrey told Radio New Zealand. But police were able to put her mind at ease after discovering that the figure was actually a "very realistic" sex doll. Cowdrey was worried she'd wasted the officers' time, but they reassured her she had "done the right thing".

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Julia O'Driscoll and Chas Newkey-Burden.

Image credits, from top: Karwai Tang / WireImage / Getty Images; Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; Ibodvar / Getty Images; Sean Gallup / Getty Images.