tv BBC News BBC News March 31, 2024 6:45pm-7:01pm BST
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david miller hitting the winning runs as they move up to fourth in the table. a reminder of our top story before we go. another twist in the title race, as the latest leg unfolded at the etihad and at anfield. liverpool managed to come from behind to beat brighton.. danny welbeck with cracking opener for them. butjurgen klopp's side hit back through luis diaz — and then mo salah in the second half. and manchester city and arsenal played out a goalless draw in a game of few clear cut chances, a cagey affair between the pair. so it's liverpool who are top of the premier league tonight. that's all from sportsday. carnauba wax is a product you may not have heard of, but you have almost certainly consumed it 7 its added to sweets to stop them melting,
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to pills to make them easier to swallow and as a thickener in lipstick and mascara. harvesting the wax from palm trees in brazil is an industry in which, according to brazilian authorities, companies are failing to improve working conditions. last year, more than 3,000 workers across all industries were rescued from situations including forced labour and degrading work conditions 7 which is a ill—year high. in brazilian law, this can amount to slavery—like conditions. the bbc was given exclusive access to a raid with the federal police on a carnauba wax plantation. katy watson has this report from the state of piaui, in north—eastern brazil. we're heading to a farm where authorities suspect workers are being exploited. nobody knows we're coming. they want to catch the culprits red—handed. we find the workers sheltering from the midday sun. "who's in charge here?", the lead investigator asks.
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one by one, the men are interviewed. the boss is nowhere to be seen. it's so hot. we stop for a bit because otherwise the sun would kill us. we can only cope with so much. lunch is chicken feet and rice. people here are famished. so this is one of the water canisters that's being used. it says "for prescription only", so clearly had some kind of medicine in here before. but this is what's used as a drinking canister now. pierre—louis is the biggest producer of carnauba wax. its harvesting provides a livelihood to hundreds of thousands of people in one of brazil's poorest states. it's difficult work. the trees are thorny, the heat exhausting, and the risks of being injured are high. the inspector shows me more breaches of labour laws at the accommodation block. the low ceilings. broken electricity sockets. bare rooms. the boss shows up and has been
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slapped with a fine of $30,000. this is the third time he's been caught breaking the rules. he's not apologetic. the government needs to give small producers like me more of a chance. i have been fighting to survive for some time now. the cost of producing this work are more than what i receive. edmilson wouldn't go on the record about who he sells to. this is very common, says dulaney. the level of informality in the industry is problematic and makes it impossible to trace from producer to buyer. in 2016, the state, concerned with the number of workers they were rescuing in difficult conditions, asked the top five biggest wax processing companies to sign an agreement committing themselves to improving the supply chain and ending this informality. the bbc was shown the client list of the region's biggest wax processor. they include big companies like l'0real. according to prosecutors, producers found to have employed workers in conditions analogous
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to slave labour say they sold wax to brazil series even after the company said they'd improve the supply chain. but it's hard to prove because there isn't a paper trail. brazil cyrus told the bbc that it only works with suppliers that can prove they comply with labour laws. l'0real says it, too, is committed to ethical sourcing and has implemented an audit programme with its suppliers to ensure due diligence. the investigator, though, says despite those promises, nothing changes. in the 11 years she's been rescuing workers in this industry, the supply chain has consistently been impossible to trace. the precariousness comes from the top down. there is what we call deliberate blindness. it's comfortable for the industry not to see the problems because they don't need to act. they don't need to invest. they don't need to pay. it's an unequal power balance between producers on the ground and the financially powerful businesses further afield and in the carnauba wax industry, many benefit from that divide.
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katie watson, bbc news. millions of workers in the uk will see their pay increase tomorrow as more people become eligible for the national living wage. previously, you had to be 23 years old to qualify, but that's been reduced to 21. it has been just over £10 an hour — just over $12. it's going up to just over £11 an hour. our business correspondent marc ashdown has the details. barista sam loves hisjob, but after paying his essential bills he's often left with just a few hundred pounds a month to live on. pay rises just help him stay afloat. i think they balance, because obviously everything else goes up in price so it sort of evens out every single year. maybe for, like, a month you'll be like, "0oh, i've got money this month!" and then it'lljust be, like — the next month will be a bit of a rough one. workers across the uk in some of the lowest—paid jobs are about to get a boost in their pay. from tomorrow, the national living
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wage is going up from £10112 an hour to £11.44 an hour. that's an increase of 9.8%. the age at which a worker qualifies has also been reduced from 23 to 21 years old. the treasury says a full—time worker should be paid about £1,800 extra over one year. this is the largest increase in a minimum wage in cash terms and the first time it's gone up by more than a pound in one go, and it reflects, really, the strength in pay growth across the economy — which looks set to continue. minimum wage levels for workers aged between 16 and 21 will also rise. the lobby group uk hospitality says taken across all the pay scales, businesses could be having to find an increase of 17%. got significant cost headwinds they're facing into, notjust wages, but energy, food price inflation, and the cost of living pressures. so there's a perfect storm going on here, and on top of this, a 17% increase in their wage bill. charities want to see more businesses sign up to the so—called real living wage, which sets minimum
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pay at a higher rate. but tomorrow's increase will give a pay boost to millions of workers. mark ashdown, bbc news. supporters of india's main opposition alliance are holding a major rally in the capital ahead of next month's general election. it's the first meeting since the arrest of the chief minister of delhi, arvind kejriwal, on corruption charges ten days ago. 0pposition parties accuse the governing bjp of using investigative agencies to detain their leaders and prevent them from campaigning. the government denies this. 0ur south asia editor anbarasan ethirajan has more. 0pposition supporters have gathered here and they are coming from delhi and other neighbouring states near the capital city. now they are calling for the release of the delhi chief minister. he was taken into custody ten days ago on corruption charges, which he denies.
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major leaders are addressing this rally, saying that india's democracy and constitution should be saved, and that is the motive of this major rally here. the congress party says its bank accounts have been frozen and they have been asked to pay more than $200 million in fines for allegedly violating tax rules. but the government denies any political motive behind this action, saying the law will take its own course. india's elections are due to start on 19th april and will be held in several phases. the campaign is going across the country for this mammoth exercise, but what the opposition is saying is that there is no level playing field. for example, they accuse the election commission of being biased towards the governing bjp and they said that investigating
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agencies are being used to cripple them, to stifle dissent, to prevent them from campaigning. however, the governing bjp denies these charges and the mammoth exercise of india's general election, in which prime minister mahendra modi is seeking a third straight term, is starting on 19th april. 30 years after it first hit our screens, gladiators is still proving to be a hit with tv audiences. an average of eight million viewers tuned in to the reboot of the 1990s show over the last 11 weeks. our culture reporter, noor nanji, has been looking into its success. gladiators theme music. the moment of victory. after weeks of gruelling challenges, finlay anderson and marie—louise nicholson finally got their hands on the prestigious trophy. contender, ready! gladiators, ready!
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the final showdown saw the contenders take on the tried and tested challenges against the gladiators. commentator: and here he goes! at the end, finlay and marie—louise went head—to—head with their rivals, running up the iconic travelator to the finish line. analysts say keeping the original format from the �*90s has been key to the show�*s success. what it's done, it's created a lot of nostalgia for those who might be in their 30s or 40s and remember watching it the first time around, so they watch it, alongside their kids, who are watching it for the very first time. it will cause tv commissioners to come back to the drawing board and think of maybe more shows that will bring everyone around together. and this is not the end, with a second series of gladiators now confirmed. noor nanji, bbc news. now the weather, with tomasz schafernaker. hello there. well, this easter weekend,
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the amount of sunshine we had across the uk varied quite a bit. some of us didn't have any sunshine at all. if you look at the satellite picture, you can see the thicker cloud across parts of england and wales and the brighter skies earlier on across scotland and northern ireland, all part of a much larger rugged area of cloud shrouding many parts of europe. it's a big area of low pressure that's dominating the continent right now. and in the next few days, we are expecting a fair amount of rain. smaller areas of low pressure will come sweeping our way. and with that, outbreaks of rain and at times some strong winds. but it won't be raining all the time. there will be some fair weather in between these weather systems. hello there. so the forecast then — through the early hours, we have some rain across the south
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of the uk, maybe some cracks of thunder. also, this easterly breeze drags in rain bearing cloud into parts of northern england. so quite wet in yorkshire overnight. the temperatures early on monday, 5 in aberdeen, about 7 or 8 in the south. so no huge contrasts across the uk. so easter monday itself then. well, rain at times, that's the headline. but there'll be some sunshine too. i think the thickest of the cloud with the most persistent outbreaks of rain will be across northern england, perhaps around the northwest here, merseyside, the irish sea into eastern areas of northern ireland. either side of that, drier and brighter — i say drier, there will be showers breaking out across southern england. some of them could be thundery, but sunshine in between too. the forecast for tuesday shows that weather front moving northwards, kind of fizzling away, but still damp here. and then the next weather system sweeps into southwestern areas of the uk and then later in the day that rain will track northwards and eastwards across the uk. and here it is on wednesday. in its wake, showers are expected across the bulk of england and wales, and that easterly breeze there in the north of scotland keeping things fairly chilly. for our friends in stornoway, only 7 degrees — even colder
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i will also go through very quickly and i will be back to my duties as fast as possible. a group ofjournalists are among the casualties of an israeli air strike close to a hospital in central gaza. the idf says it hit a command centre used by islamichhad fighters. king charles has attended an easter service in windsor — followed by a walkabout to greet crowds. it's his most significant public appearance since being diagnosed with cancer. pope francis pleads for peace in his easter message. he's been meeting worshippers after easter sunday mass — as thousands gather in st peter's square. polls have closed in turkey, where president erdogan is hoping his party can regain control of key urban areas. hello.
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