if you're a working family on a low income, or in the gig economy or you work part—time, then your choices are really limited. we're a lifeline. without us, they would, you know, really struggle. for many families, tough times have got tougher, with no breakfrom the rising costs over the summer holidays. elaine dunkley, bbc news, in birmingham. french officials trying to rescue a beluga whale trapped in the river seine have tested a new strategy — a vitamin cocktail. the visibly malnourished beluga was first spotted on tuesday and has swum upriver to within 70 kilometres of paris. rescuers say it has so far refused their offerings of fish, either because it lacks energy or is sick. they hope that the vitamin injection will stimulate its appetite and help it to make the 160km return journey to the english channel, where it can swim back to its arctic habitat.

now it's time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello there. once again, it has been a dry day for the vast majority of the uk and it will stay that way in the next few days at least. we're going to find a bit more cloud across scotland and some rain approaching the far north—west later tonight, but otherwise with clear skies and light winds temperatures will fall away to around 11 or 12 degrees. there are some much warmer nights to come later in the week as temperatures continue to climb. but it's a dry story for most of us again on monday, the rain again is in the highlands and islands where it's been for the past few weeks. elsewhere, dry. nothing more than some fair weather cloud. many places, blue skies, light winds. it will be a little bit cooler, probably, around some coastal areas with some sea breezes, but temperatures continuing to rise inland, getting close to 30 degrees in the london area on monday afternoon. temperatures will continue to climb through the rest of the week, particularly

across england and wales. heatwave conditions developing in many places here, and by friday we could be hitting 36 degrees in the south.

hello, this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley, and these are the headlines... after a weekend of heavy violence between israel and palestinian militants, hopes are high of a possible ceasefire following the deaths of at least 31 palestinians. the two conservative party leadership contenders vying to be the next prime minister outline how they plan to help people cope with the rising cost of living, but former prime minister gordon brown says much more action is needed. nearly 170,000 tonnes of grain and sunflower oil leave on a second convoy of ships out of ukaine after russia's blockade caused global shortages. warnings that millions of children in england could go hungry this summer because councils have

reduced or scrapped free school meal vouchers over the school holidays. and artefacts forcibly removed from benin city during a british military incursion in 1897 will be returned to nigeria by a london museum. now on bbc news, shrimps, saris and guns. faarea masud investigates how the demand for shrimp is destroying land that women have farmed for centuries in bangladesh. along the coastlines and riverbeds of rural bangladesh, thousands of hectares where rice was once grown have been converted into intensive shrimp farms, catering to a multibillion—dollar global industry.

since the explosion of the industry in the 805, when the world's appetite for this luxury food grew, there have been increasing allegations of violence and land grabbing by criminal gangs. i've come to bangladesh to hear first—hand about the hidden abuses in the industry and the detrimental effect of saltwater shrimp farms on these women's health and livelihoods. poor people are being exploited by the rich and powerful and poverty is not being eradicated. these shrimp are so expensive, and poor people can't even dream of buying them.

it's taken me years to gain exclusive access to the working conditions of this remote, often secretive community. now these women farmers are fighting back to protect their rights. frozen shrimp exports are worth about $500 million to the bangladeshi economy. after garments, seafood is the country's biggest export. most of it's sold to europe.

baby shrimp are caught from rivers and waterways and hatcheries, and then brought to these shrimp farms where they're cultivated to full size. most of these shrimp farms are along the coastal beds and riverbeds of bangladesh, where there is a plentiful supply of water. but environmentalists and local communities are telling me that fish farms leave the area weak and vulnerable. the land can no longer withstand the effect of cyclones and typhoons, which bangladesh experiences regularly. as we travelled to the south—west coast, the effects of saltwater toxicity on the farms was clear. we were surrounded by cracked and grey coastline, which as we saw using aerial cameras, stretched for miles. local wildlife had disappeared. the landscape is gutted and divided into rough

rectangles known as polders, low—lying tracts of land surrounded by embankments. many of the people farming in this area in the polders live below the poverty line. i began myjourney in polder 23, where there are currently ongoing problems. here, the land is barren and muddy. well, this lady has just told me that, because of problems of saltwater exposure, she has actually had to have surgery. in fact, many of the women here have said they had all kinds of related problems to the exposure to salt. many of the women say they have

complained to local shrimp farm owners and the local authorities about the health issues they are experiencing, but they say their complaints aren't being listened to. these coastal areas are overseen by local union councils. the chairman of one such council told me that these days,

violence in these shrimp farms is not on the same scale as a few decades ago, and that any complaints are dealt with through a more collaborative system. over in polder 29, i heard about the history of intensive shrimp farming, which included allegations of violent conduct by men with guns. since many shrimp farm bosses live in the cities, far away from the remote coastal areas, they would send local agents or local contacts to maintain the affairs of the shrimp farms. their methods, say local witnesses, got out of hand. during prolonged campaigns, local farmers said these men would intimidate them into converting their rice land into intensive shrimp farms.

i heard similar stories in some of the other areas i visited. and when did this happen?

the police didn't respond to our request for comment on the weapons involved in the shrimp industry, but khushi kabir, from the non—governmental organisation called nijera kori, or "do it yourselves," told me about the history of guns in the industry. they used to be armed. now they are less armed.

they were very violent before, because they had gotten away with it in the past, so they thought they could get away with it, but, because of all the noises we were making at all the levels, arms, etc has gone down considerably. now what they use is manipulation. iasked people, especially at the village level, you know you are risking your life, you know you are going to get killed? and yet you resist. and they said, we have nothing else to lose. they had to fight a lot, so did we, but the fact that we don't give up, and i always say that you only lose when you give up, i think that is what empowers the people in the area to feel that they can live their life the way they wish to. and they don't have to be intimidated by goons, thugs or people who are in power. slowly, a resistance began against the encroaching intensive shrimp farms.

the revolutionary spark originated in polder 22, where we travel to next. amidst the grey, infertile shrimp land, it remains a shining victorious patch of green. it was here in 1990 where a local farmer was brutally shot dead. her name was karunamoi sardar. she had little formal education, but she had heard from neighbouring communities about the detrimental effect that saltwater from shrimp farms had on poor communities like hers. this memorial behind me was erected to commemorate her and the beginning of the women farmer's movement to protect their rights. i have come here to speak

to her family about her legacy.

what legacy has she left for women? sometimes the women are negatively referred to as "water bandits." i asked him what his responses to rumours that his mother and herfollowers were also violent.

the bangladeshi government department, the ministry of fisheries, responded and said any complaint of harassment or violation of labour laws reported in shrimp industries are dealt with together with local administration. it added that it welcomed more detail on people we spoke with in order to resolve any cases. the slow progress in reducing violence in the shrimp industry has led to grassroots do—it—yourself collectives. kripa goldar led one of the key struggles. she and her colleagues go from village to village re—enacting their fight in short theatrical plays. they each play themselves.

it is a way of directly educating their community who often cannot read or have no access to media.

in an effort to see where the money to fund this industry is coming from, i tried to trace the global shrimp supply chain. i go to a fish depot, where all of the small shrimp farmers sell their shrimp to factories and then they are sold on to export to foreign countries. but it was impossible to trace where all the shrimp here were coming from. it was an informal bazaar. piles of shrimp poured from unmarked baskets for brokers to sell on to the highest bidder. shrimp were brought in on carts with no license plates, crates full of shrimp had travelled along unmarked roads through off—map villages and a few impromptu ponds. several species of shrimp were often piled onto the same mat and after a chaotic verbal bidding process a buyer could walk off without showing any papers.

consider that it is from depots like this that most of the world receives its bangladeshi shrimp. it is a very murky supply chain to verify in any meaningful way. and there is sometimes a problem with drinking water supply in those areas as a result of the saltwater proliferating in the area.

what solutions would you propose to improve that condition for the farms? whilst bangladeshi shrimp exporters like shyamul push for growth in the industry, the country's law is also at work. environmental lawyer rizwana hassan has been fighting cases around saltwater shrimp farms for years. a substantial amount of agricultural land owned by the poorfarmers are being forcibly grabbed by shrimp cultivators, but for the government it is export earning, but it is actually earning by a few. totally damaging the traditional

livelihood earning of millions. the shrimp are so expensive that poor people cannot even dream of buying them and meeting their protein intake demand. saltwater shrimp farms have many female workers and they have complained to me about things like skin issues and ongoing health issues. what has been your experience of having to handle those cases or those issues? the local people protesting against the undue interest of the outsiders, undue interest which are protected by local lawmakers and national level policymakers. local people come into conflict with these outsiders and one way of suppressing people is to kill them or to threaten them with tactics so that they do not really open their mouth anymore and they do not get organised any further.

and when you see that your land is underwater and you have no chance of getting it back, you are forced to work in the shrimp industry. bangladeshi's department of fisheries said in a statement that more than 250,000 rural families are dependent on shrimp farming for their livelihoods. it is said that most of the people employed in shrimp cultivation in bangladesh are marginalised people who live in coastal areas and are victims of climate change, sea level rise, saline water intrusion and loss of livelihood. it added that for a decade or more these people have been maintaining high global standards and that the government conducts awareness activities, training, formation of trade unions and that it supports arbitration processes based on labour rules and social compliances. but not all of bangladesh's shrimp

farms are problematic, of course. successful efforts to conserve the nearby mangrove forest have led to akash�*s shrimp farms having healthier water for both shrimp and farmer. the collective strength of these women has led to some victories against an encroaching multibillion—dollar industry. the women of polder 22 enjoy rich harvests of vegetables, rice and fruit.

women sing

hello there. it's fair to say that rainfall has not been distributed evenly across the uk in the last five weeks or so. in hampshire, where there is a hosepipe ban in force at the moment, we've had no rain in odiham since the start ofjuly, whereas in the highlands there's been almost ten inches of rain, and we've seen a few spots of rain and drizzle today in western scotland. that's why the temperatures here have been a bit lower, but on the whole a warmer afternoon than it was yesterday with temperatures widely into the mid 20s across england and wales in the sunshine. overnight tonight, we'll have clear skies in many places. we'll see a little more rain approaching the far north—west of scotland by the end of the night. but ahead of it, those temperatures will fall away to around 11 or 12 degrees. there are some much warmer nights on the way later on in the week. this is how we start the week, though, and we've got some rain and, again, it's in the highlands and islands of scotland, but elsewhere it's going to be dry — nothing more than some fair weather cloud.

and for many it's going to be blue skies, light winds, temperatures continuing to rise. a little bit cooler around the coast with some sea breezes, but inland temperatures getting close to 29 degrees in the south—east of england. and those temperatures will continue to climb through the rest of the week, particularly across england and wales, where we're likely to move into heatwave conditions. those temperatures are climbing to 36 degrees probably in southern parts of england by friday. and the heat is building underneath this large area of high pressure. it's a familiar story. we've got some weak weather fronts just running into the far north—west of scotland, hence the rain that we've got here. but even that will tend to get pushed away, i think, on tuesday with sunshine developing across more of scotland. and it's going to be a sunny day for northern ireland and across england and wales, and those temperatures continue to rise. we've got the mid 20s in eastern parts of scotland, very warm here, approaching 30 degrees, though, ithink, in birmingham and cardiff. and looking further into the week, those temperatures continue to rise. even across scotland and northern ireland, we're looking at the mid 20s

at least, but the highest temperatures are going to be across england and wales. this is where we're going to move into those heatwave conditions with temperatures getting up as high as 30—35 degrees in some places. so the heat is building underneath an area of high pressure. we've still got high pressure keeping it dry by the end of the week. the only change really is that stronger wind, but that's bringing in the heat from the near continent.

israel says it's killed two commanders after what it called an immediate threat. six palestinian children are among the dead in gaza. israel's reported to have now agreed to a truce. we'll have the latest. also on the programme — archie battersbee�*s family call for an inquiry into his care a day after he died following the withdrawal of life support. a bbc news investigation reveals dozens of english councils have cut back on holiday food vouchers for children

on free school meals.