Queen guitarist Brian May has joined dozens of anti-badger cull protesters on a night walk through one of the controversial pilot areas. The culling in Gloucestershire and Somerset aims to tackle tuberculosis in cattle by killing 5,000 badgers.
The costs of carrying out the culling are being borne by the farmers. Cage trapping and shooting would cost £2,500 per square kilometre per year, and shooting free-running badgers would cost £300 per square kilometre per year.
The Environment Department estimates culling will cost farmers an average of £1,000 per square kilometre per year, which for the west Gloucestershire cull would come to £1.2 million over the four-year period and in west Somerset would be £1 million.
The monitoring, licensing and policing costs will be met by the taxpayer and come to £3.2 million for each pilot area. The policing costs alone are expected to be in the region of £2 million for each pilot cull.
The Democratic presidential candidate may also have shown his cards on his choice of running mate.
The US president also shared a post on Twitter accusing Dr Anthony Fauci of misleading the public over hydroxychloroquine.
Fears over an impending second wave of coronavirus dominates Wednesday’s front pages.