south africa is to increase to 25,000 the number of troops deployed in response to widespread violence sparked by the jailing of former presidentjacob zuma. the zulu king said six days of unrest had brought shame on the entire country. more than 70 people have been killed. the pop singer britney spears has secured the right to choose her own lawyer — as she tries to end the 13—year—long conservatorship that controls her personal and business affairs. the approval comes three weeks after the singer made an emotional address in which she called the existing arrangement abusive. the spanish islands of ibiza, majorca and menorca will be moved to the british government's amber travel list — which means that people who are currently there on holiday, and haven't yet been fully vaccinated, will have to self—isolate when they return. now on bbc news — hardtalk.

welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. measured by the number of murders, mexico is the most dangerous country in the world to be a journalist. eight were killed last year, and countless more suffered threats, intimidation and violence. my guest, one of mexico's most prominentjournalists, lydia cacho, is, after decades of assault, death threats and at least one assassination attempt, currently in exile for her own safety. her particularfocus is the violence done to women in mexico and the failure of those in power to make good on promises of protection. so, can encourage overcome injustice? lydia cacho in spain, welcome to hardtalk.

hello, welcome, thank you, thank you so much. it's a great pleasure to have you on the show, lydia. i describe you as being in spain because you are currently living in a form of self—imposed exile from your home country, mexico, for your own personal safety. i just wonder if that situation has in any way changed your commitment to the work you do on human rights inside mexico. well, it has only made my work a little more difficult, because i'm still doing interviews and investigating different criminal networks in latin america and here

in europe, so that and covid, the pandemic, has made work a little more difficult, but it won't stop me, for sure. describe to me your mind—set. i call it a form of exile. are you absolutely determined in your own mind to go home? will you go home? yes, i hope i can go home when it's safe. i'm very aware of the real danger that i'm in right now. the dea agents that are investigating my case and different interpol agents and europol agents have told me that if i go back to mexico right now, i will be assassinated for sure, because there are hit men waiting for me that had been paid and went into my home two years ago.

so i am brave, but i'm not stupid, so i won't risk it. and i'm going to wait until it's safe to go back but i won't stop investigating and being a journalist. right. well, i do want to talk in detail about the case you refer to, perhaps the main reason why your life is under threat in mexico. but before we get to that, i just want to take you back to the beginnings of your journalistic career. what made you, as a young woman, gravitate to this work that you have done for so long now, looking into the sort of darkest corners of mexican society and culture? you must have known from the very beginning that that was going to be dangerous work. yes, idid. it was a little more than 30 years ago that i began doing journalism in quintana roo, a mexican state south of the country. it's where cancun is and most

people know it by cancun. and when i started investigating violence against women, what i wanted to talk about was violence against children, sexual violence, and not only perpetrated by their parents or their grandfathers or teachers or priests in the community, but they also wanted to talk about sexual violence perpetrated by tourists that went to cancun back then. and nobody was talking about that. and when i began this investigation, i was sort of prepared, because my mother was a feminist and she was also a psychologist and an activist, and she taught me how to get into activism on women's rights, so you could say i was feminist since i was 15 years old. so when i began doing my

investigations when i was 25, i was ready to understand the phenomena linked to tourism, what later came to be known as sexual tourism. but back then nobody was talking about that. so the first time somebody put a gun in my head because of an article i wrote was 25 years ago. that was when i knew that talking about violence against women was really dangerous. and not only were you an investigative journalist who wanted to uncover the truth, and i don't want to be intrusive about it, but you were also personally a victim, weren't you? because as a very young journalist, you've been open and frank about the fact that you were assaulted and raped. and for some people, that might have put them off digging deeper into this dark world, but for you it didn't. well, i don't know, i have to thank my mother that really helped me,

and all my family that were with me at the time. i was attacked physically and sexually back then because of some of my journalistic work. and, you know, ijust went through it, and i decided to write an article about what happened to me because i've always believed that sexual violence has a stigma on the victims, and it is time for us to say, "i do not deserve this." and it was a form of punishment for what i do. so i'm open about it because i have nothing to be ashamed of. the ones that should be ashamed are the rapists, not me. so, yes, ijust kept going. indeed. now, then, in 2004, 2005, you publicised, through a great deal of investigative work, a shocking story in cancun, this tourist resort on the mexican coast. it involved a paedophile ring, the suffering of a large number

of children who were being sexually abused, and at the heart of it was a local businessman who ultimately was locked up for a very long time. but when you started uncovering that case, and ultimately you wrote a book about it in 2005, did you appreciate just how many powerful interests you were going to upset? yes, actually, i did, because when i began covering this case, i had a tv programme back then, and i talked about it and then the very next day this man, jean succar kuri, who's now paying a sentence of 112 years in prison, he called me using his own name and told me that he was going to kill me if i pursued the case, if i kept on investigating and

talking about him. so i did know, and while i investigated him, ifound out there were senators, priests, bankers and very, very powerful businessmen from different countries that were involved in this international ring of child pornography. they were buying the children for $3,000 to be brought to cancun and be sexually abused and make pornography with them. so i knew it was an international network, and i kept talking about it, and i talked to my family and i told them this is going to be really dangerous, and i told my husband back then, my ex—husband, and, you know, ijust knew i had to do it. because it is actually the biggest criminal network ever investigated in mexico regarding child pornography and child abuse, and that is something that had to be done.

and your book caused a real stir inside mexico. and as you say, the businessman at the heart of this ring, mr succar kuri, was ultimately locked up for more than 100 years. but then, afterwards, other parts of the story started to unfold. for example, there was the tapes of phone calls involving a governor of a state in mexico, farfrom cancun, and a powerful businessman in mexico, who on these tapes appeared to be discussing you and the fact that you were to be detained and, well, let's say physically assaulted, for your work on this case. and that became a very crucial part of the story, and it affected your life for many years afterwards. absolutely. before the tapes came out, i was kidnapped by the police, by a group of policemen.

they accused me of libel, and after one year after being injail and tortured by them, i was able to prove that i was innocent, that there was no libel at all. and then i sued them back, there was a criminal case against them. and that is why right now they are arrested, they have been arrested, my torturers have been arrested, so i've been fighting them for 16 years for torturing me and persecuting me because of my journalistic work. now, it's interesting you say you've been fighting this fight for more than 15 years. what does that tell us about mexico's system? the fact that we had powerful evidence from these phone tapes of important people who appeared to be implicated in a plot to detain you and physically assault you,

and yet for many, many years, nothing happened. and at the same time, we were seeing journalists being threatened, intimidated and murdered every month, every year, inside mexico. what conclusions were you drawing at that time about the inability of the state to protect journalists like you? well, the fact that the inability of the state to protect anyone from crime, or a journalist, in particular, has a lot to do with the high level of impunity. in mexico, 98% of all crimes go unpunished. and what my case had demonstrated for everyone to understand is how these criminal networks are really linked to political power. but maybe, lydia cacho, things are changing in mexico because the two individuals

you have been talking about, the big businessman, mr nacif, and the former governor, mr marin, are both now facing charges for their alleged involvement in you being detained and tortured, as you put it. they vehemently deny those charges and those charges are going to be tested in court. so, maybe, that is one indication that, in the last couple of years, mexico has begun to change and to take these issues seriously. yes, yes, it certainly is. although it took a big effort on the part of article 19 organisation from london, in mexico, that helped me bring my case to international courts... ..and to the inter—american court in washington, in orderfor the mexican

government to react. so the international pressure has been key to solving this case and to getting these men arrested by interpol, because we have enough evidence to prove them guilty and, of course, they will have to defend themselves, but i'm sure i'm going to win. mm—hm. well, we obviously can't say whether you're going to win or not, but what does seem clear is that your story is emblematic of something much deeper in mexico. at the beginning, i referred to mexico being the world's most dangerous country for journalists. i believe last year eight journalists were murdered. do you think that many of your fellow journalists, in your home country, are simply too frightened to continue the sort of investigative work that you have been doing over the past two decade? absolutely. one of the...effects

of impunity in mexico, after all this violence, against journalists in particular, and human rights activists, has a lot to do with self—censorship. some of my colleagues, which i admire, have survived violence and kidnapping and other crimes. theyjust stop investigating because they cannot cope with it. it's not easy to do it. you really need a big network in order for you to feel safe and you need mental health... ..and many things in order to, you know, survive this pressure. it's a lot of pressure. manyjournalists might look at you and think, "my god, lydia cacho is crazy. "to go public in the way that she has "actually just increases the risk that she lives under" and of course, in the end, you had to flee the country. do you in any way regret embracing publicity? some would even say embracing celebrity in the way you have?

no, i do not, because when you fight the powers that be, that i've been fighting, you really have to be open and talk about it because some of my best friends, five have them have been assassinated in mexico. and before they were killed, they told me they had all these death threats, and they did amazing work as journalists, and they didn't want to go out in the open because they kept saying thatjournalists should not be the news, you know? we should cover them. and i understand that and i wish i could do that because it's more important to me, but in this case, i am sure i wouldn't be alive if i didn't go out and... ..tell the world what was happening and who were after me and selling little girls and boys in mexico. so, you know, the celebrity thing, ifind it ridiculous, but it is the result of what happens when

you go out in the open. 0n the other hand, what i do, as a journalist, has inspired a lot of young journalists, so i think that itjust... it'sjust important to keep on going... yes. but how much do you feel the loss, lydia, the loss of the ability to go deep... you know, undercover, in a sense, to expose the stories that you have exposed in the past? now, if you're in mexico, you have to travel with protection, with armed guards, you can't be the journalist that you once were, any more, can you? no, no, ican�*t, right now, especially, i can't. but two years, two and a half years ago, even when i had armed guards protecting me, i would escape them a couple of times in order to go investigate. and yes, certainly, i had to dress up in certain cases when i'm investigating organised crime, but i keep

doing it, i have my...ways. i'm a very good reporter, in that case! let's talk a little bit, if we may, about mexico's political leadership and president andres manuel lopez 0brador, amlo, as many people call him. he came to power pledging to do more to protectjournalists, to protect human rights and to take on organised crime. i just wonder how you would judge him because, in recent months, he's actually been quite critical of some human rights groups for being anti—mexican and being in cahoots with the opposition to him, inside the country. do you believe he is making good on his promises? i don't, i do not believe he is making good. i think that he's the most honest president that we have ever had in mexico, for sure, but he is attacking journalists every day, every day he does that publicly and he's attacking human rights activists.

he has a sense of self that is enormous and he's so worried about any criticism and if a journalist investigates and criticises the system or any specific group of corrupted politicians that are linked to him, he immediately decides to defend them, and accuses everyone to try to organise a coup against him. in that sense, amlo has a lot of good things, for sure, but he also is acting like one of these presidents from the �*70s and he's absolutely convinced that america and... ..some international organisations are after him and trying to organise a coup against his government. i think he's absolutely wrong about that, and he's making a lot of mistakes because of that fear that he has.

i'm just looking at the arc of your career, lydia, and i'm wondering if you've changed your mind about the best way to engineer change in mexico, because, obviously, for decades, you were front and centre, you were a journalist, but in recent years, you've spent an awful lot of time on more human rights campaigning and activism. you're involved with various different human rights groups in mexico, you were a very strong and loud supporter, for example, of the decision by women's groups in mexico to undertake a strike, not so very long ago, a strike to publicise violence against women. do you think that kind of direct action, at the moment, in mexico, is more powerful than your investigative journalism? well, i don't. what i think... i've been a feminist since i was a teenager, as i told you before, so being a human rights activist is my way of being a citizen in mexico,

of being active about it, and then, journalism is my profession and i think they work pretty well together, and you know... ..because being an activist allows me to get in contact with many people, to understand different social movements, to learn more about human rights, then i bring that knowledge to myjournalistic work and the same way round, because when i write books and they translate them, and i travel around the world with them, and i talk about the cases i investigate, i find out how my books are affecting, possibly, a lot of people, helping them understand certain phenomena, like violence against women and femicide and child pornography or human trafficking. so, i combine them. do you think there is any danger that you could be portrayed, by some, in mexico, is becoming anti—mexican? it's interesting that president 0brador criticised

the us state department report which asked... well, demanded that mexico do more to protectjournalists and he implied that this was, in some ways, becoming a nationalist battle to protect mexico's honour. you support the us when it demands more protection for human rights in mexico. is there a danger that some might see you as becoming anti—mexican? well, they might, they are entitled to their opinion, but i am nothing but pro—mexican in the sense that i defy... spend all my life defending mexican people, with my work, so i really don't mind. i don't worry about that. i don't worry about criticism. and it's a big final thought to have, but how do you go about changing culture and society in mexico?

and i'm thinking here about the degree to which you and many others point to statistics, the violence against women, the so—called femicide which is a shocking phenomenon in mexico, with 1,000 women per year, roughly, being killed simply for their gender. how do you go about changing that? we have created shelters for women, so before they are attacked, when they know they're in danger, they have a safe place to go because the state is not protecting women at all. they're not investing into protection and education on gender issues, and they're not persecuting the violent men and women that are attacking them or selling them. so it's a lot of things — it's education on one hand, justice, persecuting justice, you know, every time we... ..are able to make... ..to win a case on violence against women or children, what we do is we show the way

to deal with it. we know there are a lot of civil servants that are good people that are doing the right thing in a very corrupted environment, so we talk about corruption. we explain how it works. and i thinkjournalism is a great lantern to shed light into all these issues. just before we end, you said to me quite clearly you want to go back to mexico, you intend to when it's safe. do you think it ever will be, for you? well, i can only hope so, because all my family lives there and i really miss my family, so i wish i can go there. but i will be clever about it and i want to be safe. i don't want to be a martyr or a victim. i am just a survivor of violence as many, many people in my country.

lydia cacho, we thank you very much for joining us on hardtalk. thank you. thank you so much, stephen. hello there. sunshine did wonders for the temperatures on wednesday. aberdeenshire, one of the places that got above 25 degrees with scenes like this. lots of southern england saw similar temperatures as well. and over the next few days with more sunshine on the way those temperatures could have a little further to climb. it may be up into the high 20s and parts of the south over the weekend.

but it's not all about sunshine, this is the earlier satellite picture from wednesday. you can see this cloud that has spilt in across scotland and northern ireland, that working down into england and wales as well. so a lot of places having a fair amount of cloud through thursday, maybe even given the odd light shower in eastern england. but that cloud will tend to break. we will see spells of sunshine. i think the best of those across parts of northern england, northern ireland and a good part of scotland. and in the sunniest places, temperatures will get up to 25, maybe 26 degrees. but some eastern parts of england will be affected by a keen breeze, and that will feed more cloud in across east anglia and the southeast once again. as we head through thursday night into friday. at the same time, cloud will tumble in from the northwest, but in between a slice of clear sky and a mild start to friday morning. now, through friday, this area of high pressure continues to establish itself. that means mainly settled conditions, but we do have a frontal system close to the north of scotland, so the closer you are to that frontal system the more cloud you are likely to see. northern and western scotland, parts of northern ireland

as well, quite breezy, quite cloudy maybe with the odd spot of drizzle. cloud first thing towards the southeast, that will tend to clear for most places friday. it will bring plentiful sunshine and temperatures well up into the middle 20s celsius. and then we get on into saturday. again, more cloud up towards the northwest of scotland. some light and patchy rain is possible in the northwest highlands, but further south it is largely fine with plenty of sunshine and temperatures likely to peak at 27 degrees. but those temperatures could climb even further by sunday. this area of high pressure is still with us into the second half of the weekend. this frontal system still with us in the north as well, and that may reinvigorate a little through the day. so we could see some slightly more widespread and heavier rain into the far northwest of scotland later. but elsewhere, some good spells of sunshine, and in the south we are looking at highs of 29 degrees.

that's all from me for now.

this is bbc news, i'm ben boulos with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. burned—out buildings and looting mark the sixth day of chaos in south africa. more than 70 are dead, and the crisis is growing. britney spears wins the right to choose her own lawyer — as she tries to end the 13—year—long arrangement that controls her personal and business affairs. unbelievably bad — former president george w bush delivers his verdict on the us pull—out from afghanistan. and jadon sancho speaks out — the england footballer says hate will never win — after receiving online racist abuse, over his missed penalty in the euros final.