the copa libertadores final — has been postponed after the boca juniors team bus was attacked by rival fans in buenos aires. they were due to play river plate. theresa may has written an open letter to the british public, urging people to back her brexit deal. the plan was finalised with the european commission president, jean—claude juncker, in brussels ahead of a historic summit on sunday. but it faces widespread opposition in the british parliament. police in paris have used tear gas and water cannon to disperse tens—of—thousands of protesters calling for an end to fuel tax rises. protests by a grassroots movement identified by their hi—vizjackets have been held across france for the second weekend running. the search is on for missing footage of sir david attenborough — first aired on the bbc almost 50 years ago. staff at the royal institution are asking the public to look in their attics for any recordings

of their christmas science lectures — including those by sir david — after realising 31 broadcasts are missing from their collection. our media and arts correspondent, david sillito, reports. we will have a little protein dance. carl sagan, in1977, doing the protein dance. very good. can you get a different note on it? christopher zeeman and the science of music. heart rate 126 — you must be calming down, robert. how do you feel now, compared to before? great. these lectures have been a christmas tradition since 1825, and were first broadcast on the bbc in 1936. but not all of them have survived in the archive. some of david attenborough's lectures from 1973 have gone missing. there are also gaps in ‘66,

‘67, ‘69, ‘70 and ‘71. the royal institution was to put all of these televised lectures online, and is asking the public if they have copies of the missing programmes hidden in a loft or stored in a garage. they were television's first ever science programme, and they are hoping that some of their technologically inclined viewers might be able to help them complete the full collection. now on bbc news, our world asks — who cares about israel's thai workers? every year, thousands of people come from thailand to work in israel, hoping to build a better life for their families back home. but what they find when they get here can be shocking. for more than a year, we have been investigating the treatment of thai labourers working on israel's farms.

their labour helps to produce fruit and veg sold across the globe, but they are anxious their work is damaging their health. and many deaths amongst the workers remain uninvestigated. in this film, we will be asking who cares about israel's thai workers. they call it the land of milk

and honey, a country rich in history and one of the world's wealthiest nations. despite being half desert, israel grows millions of tons of fruit and vegetables every year and exports to europe and russia, a modern miracle of hydro—engineering and an industry reliant on migrant workers. but everything is not as it seems. i am a journalist with bbc‘s thai service in london. just over a year ago, i started to get worrying messages

from thai workers in israel that were telling me that they were being abused and exploited. being from thailand myself, i wanted to find out what was happening. we are starting our investigation in southern israel after a tip—off about a farm not far from gaza. agriculture in israel is organised into hundreds of gated communities, called moshavs. and each moshav contains dozens of farms and farmhouses. so this moshav, this actually looks nice here. big trees, colourful flowers, nice houses. this is the home of a well—established farming family on the moshav.

the thai workers they employ live just a stone's throw away. 15 workers share this wooden hut. this accommodation isn't temporary. the work here isn't seasonal. these are the only homes these young men and women will know in israel. somkat was 29 we met him. like most of the workers here, he's from the north—east of thailand. he had left his village three years before because his parents and his wife were often going without food. he's agreed to show me around. many of these labouring jobs used to be done by palestinians, but not anymore. somkiet is in israel as part of an official government scheme. he is one of 25,000 thai nationals

working and living here. this type of accommodation is sadly not unusual. workers here tell me that temperatures inside can reach more than a0 degrees and they are scared that at any point, the whole thing could collapse on top of them. we asked somkiet‘s boss for an interview. he refused. but he told us later that since our visit, he has made some improvements to the workers‘ home. investigating the lives of thai workers on israel's farms is not easy. no answer. there is a climate of fear. few people will talk to us on camera. but over 1a months we visited more than 50 farms and spoke to hundreds of workers to get to the truth.

we are heading to a small moshav called paran in the deep south of the country. there are several cowsheds on paran. the animals seem well housed. the workers, less so. we have agreed to hide this worker's real identity because he is frightened. he has lived here behind the cowshed for a year. like many of the other workers,

he told us that if he was caught speaking out he would be sacked and leftjobless and homeless in a foreign land. the fear is palpable, and it wasn't long until i understood why. we have just arrived at a moshav. we asked the shopkeeper inside to contact the farmers and tell them that we wanted to meet. over the phone, we told them were making a bbc documentary. he told us to leave the moshav immediately otherwise he would call his friends to come and break our bones.

agriculture in israel is a multibillion—pound industry. it's hard work, but for those farmers who make a success of it, the benefits are easy to see. this is the most beautiful moshav we saw and it's built on revenue from grapes. we have come to take a closer look at one of the farms. this man has lived here for 20 years. he says he employs three workers and was keen to show me where they live. then something strange happens. he wouldn't let us take our cameras

into his back house. what he didn't know at this point was five months ago we had already filmed inside and this is what we found. a man sleeping in what appeared to be a makeshift bedroom complete with kitchen and it is alljust metres away from the chemical shed. although he won't let us film inside the warehouse today, i did manage to take a look and the man we had seen sleeping there five months earlier was still there. we asked about him. thai workers are allowed to stay in israel for a maximum of five years.

during their stay, they are entitled to expect a reasonable level of comfort and safety. according to the workers handbook, they should be provided with suitable housing including at least four square metres of sleeping space, personal cupboards, bedding, heating, ventilation, everything is laid out in black and white. in the dozens of farms we saw, there weren't many examples of good practice but we did see some places that measured up. these homes are on moshavs in israel's central arabah district. they are solid — no rotten walls, or leaking ceilings here. the workers are employed

by a date farmer who has a very different take on the situation. what i see in my place and other places in israel, the place is very good and after three months, the place is a disaster. this is not the farmer, this is the worker — he need to care about this place he sleep. he doesn't care. you see the kitchen, i show you. it looks disgusting! his staff seemed to be safe. they are paid fairly and they live on this idyllic farm but not many are this fortunate. just when i thought i had seen it all, another tip—off. these homes became known to us as cardboard city

and it's easy to see why. workers here are sleeping in rooms made out of packing boxes. but right now, that is the least of our problems. the owner of this farm confirmed to me via his lawyer that he hadn't been able to pay his workers due to financial problems. he refused other requests for an interview. a few months later,

the workers told me they did eventually get paid, but only half of what they were expecting. with very few farmers willing to speak to us, i have come to tel aviv to take our findings to avshalom vilan of the israeli farmers federation. there are problems but looking at the big picture, more or less the system is working. when there is problem, they can tell us, they can call the embassy, they can do this. we showed mr vilan our footage of cardboard city. i don't know where is the place. if those other conditions, they have to complain. it is against the law. nobody will support such a kind of condition and people that break the law, they have to pay for it. so far, workers have

told me they are underpaid, overworked, intimidated and live in squalor. but the story doesn't end there. spraying pesticides without proper protection seems to be common. we happened upon this worker going about his daily work and his boss had no problem with us filming. israel's use of pesticides is amongst the highest in the world.

long—term low—level exposure has been linked to respiratory and neurological illness. and this is why the rules are so strict. workers should wear a mask with filters as well as special boots and clothes. but a recent online survey of over 150 workers found that fewer than 50% had received protective equipment. i've been sent videos on facebook which appear to show thai workers on a number of farms across the country spraying chemicals without safety equipment. these men, who wish to remain anonymous, work on a pomegranate farm. they claim that protective spraying has made them so ill that they have, at times, been frightened for their lives.

from spraying chemicals to living standards on pay, thai workers on israel's farms are protected by a range of laws. from spraying chemicals to living standards on pay, thai workers on israel's farms are protected by a range of laws. but from what i've seen, that's little comfort. i went to see a representative of kav la0ved, an israeli ngo which supports migrant workers in the country. just because there is law doesn't mean people follow it. when inspectors come to check and complain, they don't come with a translator. the inspectorjust goes to speak with the employer and the employer will show in the way that he wants it to be seen. the israeli government did not want to give us

an interview but the ministry of labour told us 400 inspections are carried out every year and interpreters are available. many investigations have been launched into pay and working hours. 200 fines have been issued totalling more than £3 million. a finaljourney in the north of the country where we made our saddest discovery yet. these friends had gathered to say goodbye to be wicha, a colleague who died suddenlyjust a few days before, despite the farmer's attempts at resuscitation. monks have arrived to perform a cleansing ceremony. wicha was 45 years old.

he had been working on a tomato farm for the last two years. 0n the night of the 9th of october 2017, he went to bed in this room and never woke up. he is not the only worker to have lost his life.

since the thai—israel agreement began in 2012, there have been more than 170 deaths. and many of those, like his, are unexplained. the thai embassy in israel told us medical postmortem examinations are not carried out on thai workers. it took more than a month for wicha's body to arrive back in thailand. he won't be building the farm he dreamt of, or helping his wife through her treatment for cancer. thai workers are the backbone of israel's agricultural industry but their existence here is precarious. they rely on their bosses for food, shelter and work. so is it any wonder they are scared to demand thai workers are the backbone of israel's agricultural industry but their existence here is precarious. they rely on their bosses

for food, shelter and work. so is it any wonder they are scared to demand their rights? as i leave this country, i am reminded of the old saying: you don't bite the hand that feeds you. i think there is kind of an approach or attitude among the workers themselves that they are being seen by the farmers as actually tools, not as people came here to work, but those tools to provide the work. they are not humans with needs that can be harmed. nobody cared enough. hello, thanks forjoining me.

in the short term, no big changes to our weather. that will come, but it won't arrive until the middle part of the week. as far as sunday's concerned, actually, for most of us it's looking decent enough, and pretty good as well across the south of the country, where recently we've had a lot of cloud and some rain too. now, here's the big picture across the continent. a lot of blue, so that means that the air‘s still cold, and it's coming out of eastern parts of europe and also scandinavia. but that will change, as i say. by the time we get to around about tuesday, wednesday, milder air starts to arrive off the atlantic. here's the early hours of sunday morning. temperatures will be above freezing in bigger towns and cities, two degrees, say, in edinburgh, around about six or seven in the south. but we will have pockets of frost here and there, especially where we will have seen clearer skies overnight, and that's probably across western scotland and northern ireland. now, sunday itself at times will be cloudy, so not promising clear blue skies, and in fact you might even need your umbrella from time to time

in the north—west of the country. there could be a few showers here, carried by that easterly wind, but in the south a better day. temperatures will get up to around eight degrees in london, so still pretty chilly, and only six celsius expected in edinburgh. now, here's the big picture on monday. now, you'll notice a big low pressure sitting out there in the atlantic. it is heading our way, but it won't reach us until monday night, early hours of tuesday, it'll reach western parts of the uk. so monday still a quiet day — in fact, very little wind first thing in the morning on monday. there'll be some mist and fog around. quite tricky driving conditions, maybe, out in the countryside first thing on monday, particularly around say western and central areas of the uk. but the day itself is going to be fairly decent, and still chilly. temperatures will be no higher than around six again in edinburgh, seven maybe in liverpool, possibly getting up to around ten degrees in plymouth. and then monday night into tuesday, we start to see a change. that big low in the atlantic starts whooshing in much milder air,

much, much milder air, in our direction. but with that, you can see a lot of arrows here, so that means stronger winds — in fact, risk of gales on the way. and it is a big area of low pressure, with smaller lows even running around it, and these could be responsible for bringing some very strong winds to some parts of the country during the course of the week. so we're keeping an eye on next week. there'll be a fair bit of rain on our way, but look at that. look at those temperatures — 1a degrees celsius. but remember, gale—force winds, potentially, almost anywhere in the uk. that's it from me, bye—bye. welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: violence forces the postponement of one of south america's biggest football matches — after the boca juniors team bus is attacked in buenos aires. theresa may prepares for the historic eu summit that's set to approve the draft brexit withdrawal deal — she's written an open letter to the nation urging the british people to get behind the agreement. riot police in paris fire

tear gas and watercannon at demonstrators protesting overfuel prices. and trying to gain a new insight into the red planet — the latest nasa probe is set to touch down on mars. hello and welcome to bbc news. i'm reged ahmad.