Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 9 Aug 2012

Charlotte Dujardin, riding Valegro, earned Team GB its 23rd gold medal today, her second of the Olympics and the country's first in two days. Open-water swimmer Keri-Ann Payne, who had been tipped for gold, missed out on a medal for the 10km race. Boxer Nicola Adams started the day guaranteed to win at least silver - and takes gold if she beats Ren Cancan of China.

Hopes that the UK might be able to manufacture its way out of recession were dashed today when new figures showed the country's trade deficit at a 15-year high of £4.3bn. The gap was created by a 4.6 per cent month-on-month fall in the value of UK exports to the rest of the world. While turmoil in the eurozone is partly to blame, much of the fall in demand came from the rest of the world.

The boyfriend of the missing girl Tia Sharp's grandmother, Christine, has returned home after being questioned yesterday by police. The ex-con was the last person to see the 12-year-old on Friday, though reports differ over whether he walked her to a station as she left her grandmother's house or not. Stuart Hazell is 37 years old.

The infamous Victor Conte, jailed in 2005 for supplying top athletes with banned steroids through his sports nutrition company Balco, including UK sprinter Dwain Chambers, is in London and has told The Times that doping is still rife in sport, claiming that "six out of ten" competitors use banned substances in training.

Israel has welcomed the Egyptian government's crackdown on Islamist militants in the Sinai region who earlier this week shot dead 16 Egyptian border guards and drove a stolen armoured vehicle over the border into Israel. Egypt has launched operations in the lawless region from the air and ground, with permission of its neighbour.