this is bbc news, the headlines: the man suspected of attacking author sir salman rushdie has been charged with attempted murder and assault. hadi matar, of newjersey, pleaded not guilty. the writer remains on a ventilator in hospital. he's been subject to islamist death threats since 1988 following publication of his novel "the satanic verses". french firefighters have been tackling wildfires raging across the country, including a very large blaze near the south—western city of bordeaux. fire crews are exahusted from the unrelenting heat that has driven the worst wildfires for decades. experts say the extreme conditions are being driven by climate change. droughts have been declared in eight areas of england. the environment agency in the uk says that after the driest summer in nearly 50 years, it

would take "weeks' worth of rain" to replenish water sources, while experts warn england's drought could last into the next year. now on bbc news, return of the tigers. in 2010, the himalayan nation of nepal was one of 13 countries to commit to doubling its wild tiger populations by 2022. nepal is now the only country to have achieved that goal. tigers are making a remarkable comeback here in nepal. their numbers more than doubling in the last ten years. tigers are the majestic creatures. being assigned in the protection duties, it's an honour, you know, it's a privilege. it's a small victory in a battle to bring them back from the brink of extinction.

it is definitely something to be celebrated. it does not come without the cost. the common area that the tiger and prey species and humanity shares is so tight, the community lives in terror. there has been an increase in tiger attacks on humans. more number of tigers and more number of people, definitely there is going to be conflict. so it is going to be a challenging job for us to, you know, maintain peace between two species.

chanting private pinky adhikari has been newly stationed at bardiya national park in western nepal. herjob here is to protect the park's endangered elephants, rhinos, and tigers.

after morning exercise, her unit heads off on patrol. we've been given rare access to go with them. one of the key factors of nepal's success has been strong enforcement against poaching and that's involved the military. armed units like this one patrol across the park daily. her unit's captain is ayushjung bahadur rana. tigers are the majestic

creatures. there are two types of feeling when you come in head to head with them. it is "oh my god, what a majestic creature is that!" and the otherfeeling is "oh my god, am i dead?" so that's the type of feeling you get when you encounter when you encounter a tiger. so being assigned in the protection duties, it's an honour. it's a privilege to be part of something that is really big, you know. so what are you looking for on this patrol? i mean, like, we're looking for any illegal encroachment of people or domestic animals. these are the basic things that we look at while we're on patrol. do you have the power to shoot? 0nly — only if we have any life—threatening encounters with the wild animals or it is the poachers. but that is the last resort. that is the last thing we would want to do. just outside the national park,

indigenous leader bhadai tharu patrols his community forest. it's part of a key corridor that allows tigers to move between protected areas in nepal and neighbouring india. this used to be a grazing area for cattle but was reforested by bhadai's community. he was cutting grass

here in the forest with over 100 other people when a tiger attacked. he lost his left eye.

singing this whole area used to be a royal hunting ground. this is a land whose people have always lived under the menace of marauding tiger. when queen elizabeth visited the country in 1961, she took part in a tiger hunt. and, yes, there was a tiger.

king mahendra had fulfilled a time honoured obligation of a host in nepal and provided the royal party with a tiger to shoot. but there was more hunting to come. the next prey was a rhino. the rhino was also killed. hunting, poaching, and habitat loss has pushed tigers towards extinction. and that was the end of another animal. since the beginning of the 20th century, their numbers globally have dropped by more than 95%. but here in nepal there are signs of a remarkable recovery. the rangers are taking part in a nationwide tiger census. over 800 camera pairs have been

hidden across the park. you just installed this camera. how long will you keep it here for? so you are going to be having over 1,000 hours of footage look at? and when you're analysing the footage, how do you make sure that your count is accurate? with fewer than 4,000

while tigers left in the world, every tiger counts. the census results show that tiger numbers here in nepal have more than doubled in the last ten years. the area where tigers were once hunted is now being managed so that they can recover and thrive. this grassland is cut and burnt and there's man—made waterholes here. it's to attract the deer, the tigers' main prey. before this area became a national park there was a village here. bishnu shrestra is the chief warden of bardiya national park. it's a better environment for tigers. yes, yes. more spaces, more tiger numbers.

and you're also looking at water sources, increasing water sources on the national park. yes. until now we have created 180 water ponds here. 50 water pond is with solar. is there a chance that with these interventions that you're pushing the tiger population beyond what's sustainable for the size of the park? no. we are creating many water pool and grassland, particularly for the prey species and the tiger. we now have sufficient space and prey density in the park, so we are managing the tigers in a sustainable way. that evening we see signs of the return of the tiger close to where we're sleeping. just behind our camp, fresh tiger footprints have been found in the sand here.

we think they are from an adult female tiger — we saw a lot of deer last night on the grassland and there's water here, so the footprints in the sand here lead all the way to the water. this camp is run by conservationist manoj gautam. it is definitely something to be celebrated. it does not come without a cost. and it has been costing the lives of people and so much more. the common area that the tigers and prey species and humanity shares is so tight. we head out into the villages just outside the park's boundaries, into the communities that live with the tigers.

here in these villages, the lives of humans and tigers are intertwined. some in the community live off the tourism industry that's built around the park. others have to take the risk of entering the jungle for their livelihood. samjhana lost her mother—in—law in a tiger attack last year.

she was deep inside the national park, cutting grass for their cow. samjhana heard the story from those who were there. the government pays around us$8,000 in compensation to tiger victims' families. but because samjhana's mother—in—law was inside the national park, she has been told she doesn't qualify for it. she is still fighting for some kind of financial help to put towards her boys' education.

this is the tiger that is believed to have killed her mother—in—law and two other people. now behind bars in kathmandu zoo. right now the national park is actively trying to increase the tiger population, how do you feel about that? protests broke out injune after a leopard attacked villagers, a week after a woman was killed by a tiger.

the community demanding authorities do more to protect them. the protests turned violent. police opened fire on the crowd, killing an 18—year—old girl and injuring others, sparking further outrage. the community lives in terror. so there is a price that the community has paid for the world to rejoice with the news that nepal has successfully doubled its tiger numbers. when a tiger kills a human, authorities track them down and take them captive. 16 people have been killed by a tiger in nepal in the last 12 months.

one of the tigers now in captivity is being held behind the chief warden�*s office. this tiger killed one or two men in the last year in the rajipurarea, so we captured and kept in this tiger holding cage. how do you know it's the right tiger? we closely monitor through camera in the incident area, after identification, we captured and put it in holding cage. do you do that because there is pressure from the community? or is there a real threat that once a tiger has killed a human, that they will attack again? there is a chance to attack the human again, by the tiger, if the tiger killed one person previously. so this tiger has been here for one year now, you can see it's not happy about being in captivity. what is the long—term plan for this tiger?

we have ordered a satellite collar for this tiger. after consultation with our department we will do something regarding his release. bhadai tharu calls a meeting of his community protection unit.

this is a generation that will have to navigate the return of the tigers. susila, who is also part of the community protection unit, run this after—school class. susila also worked as a tour guide and the national park. you have to see

tigers in the wild to fully appreciate them, she says. so we head back into the park together. looking for tiger and leopard, this is the track that they will come to the river to drink. and sometimes we get also elephant. susila takes us to a spot near the river. and after hours of waiting, a tiger suddenly appears. it is magnificent to see a male tiger walking along here, one of over 100 tigers now here in bardiya national park, part of a growing tiger population here in nepal.

it is definitely something to be celebrated, because as we know everywhere around the world, the conservation stories that we often get to read are loudly depressing, and the number of species we are losing on a daily basis, the habitat loss that we see every day. and nepal brings a freshness to the arena of conservation. music and chanting. they have participated in this, they have rejoiced in the success as well, and they are paying with their lives and terror, and that i think needs to be acknowledged more. and if it is not acknowledged the world cannot come together to find a solution for that. despite what happened to her mother—in—law, samjhana continues to risk entering the national park.

for the soldiers, the challenge is to keep the peace. we are the mediators, so it's our duty to bring peace between two species. and so it's the both — i would say the protection of the tiger is our responsibility, but at the same time protection of civilians is also our main responsibility.

hello. it is hot and it is dry and in some parts of the uk it feels like it's been hot and dry for quite a sustained time now. when will we start to see that changing? in terms of the heat, that will begin to ease into the new week. but in terms of rainfall, that is going to be rather more sporadic to arrive. extreme heat is set to persist across much of england and parts of wales through the remainder of the weekend and the amber warning stands until we get

to the end of sunday here. we will continue with sunshine beating down across much of the uk on sunday, resulting in some areas being a hotter day than saturday. this area of low pressure to the south pulling air from the continent across from the east, particularly into england and wales. a weak weather front tries to get into scotland and northern ireland, introducing some cooler air. it does look like it will result in some pretty intense thunderstorms crossing northern ireland and scotland through the course of sunday and the temperatures here will begin to ease back. but we're still looking at the mid 30s widely across england and wales. 0vernight sunday into monday, the showers get particularly lively across the northern half of the uk for scotland, for northern ireland and northern england, localised, but intense downpours perhaps in some areas causing some flash flooding. a little cooler here, mid—teens. we're still looking at 20 degrees, though, overnight, sunday into monday. through monday daytime, however, we will see this area

of low pressure in the atlantic trying to get closer in to the uk. that does mean we're anticipating showers becoming more widespread across the western side of the uk through monday and some pretty heavy and persistent rain for scotland and northern ireland. it is considerably cooler here by then, but still temperatures close if not touching 30 degrees across some parts of eastern england. the chance of showers here fairly slim. by tuesday, that probability of seeing some showers will start to increase, however, as the low pressure works its way a little further east. but these are showers that we're talking about, so it does mean that some areas will locally see heavy downpours. a few miles down the road, you may get nothing in the way of rain, but certainly across england and wales, as we see more cloud arriving and more unsettled weather and a change in wind direction, the temperatures do start to return to values closer to average for the time of year. wednesday, with low pressure to the south of the uk it looks like if anything, showers are possibly more of a given, particularly for southern areas of england and wales where scotland and northern ireland i think

will be drier if somewhat cloudy. so it could be wednesday that we finally see some meaningful rain across parts of england and wales and temperatures by then are around average for the time of year. a little on the cool side at 15 degrees in aberdeen through the middle of the week. for the end of the week, high pressure again close by in the atlantic, starting to try and settle things down. thursday still looks like there's a chance of another top up of rain for scotland and northern ireland and some isolated showers drifting across into eastern england. but still, again, some areas, for example, the north midlands, parts of northern england not seeing anything in the way of meaningful rain through the course of the week as they slip between the cracks in those weather systems. and then by next weekend, it looks like high pressure will try and build again from the atlantic. at the same time, heat looks like it will start to build again across southern europe. and if we are sat on the easterly winds around that high, it could mean we see temperatures rising yet again as we look

into the following week.

hello. this is bbc news. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: the man suspected of stabbing author salman rushdie pleads not guilty to attempted murder and assault. fires, drought and heatwaves. we report from france, where exhausted fire crews have spent weeks battling wildfires. the ground around me is smoking. there is smouldering embers hue which very easily can be whipped up into yet another fire. one person is killed and dozens injured when high winds cause parts of a stage to collapse at a dance music festival in spain. and child poverty seen up close. researchers attach body cameras to children to assess the level of deprivation in new zealand.