we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. phone rings the promise is an instant loan. the reality is a nightmare.

across india, at least 60 people have taken their own lives after being abused and blackmailed by loan apps. bbc eye investigations goes undercover to reveal the scam that's plaguing india... ..and to expose the people making money from misery, fear and shame.

this is how the trap is set. you get a message saying you've been approved for an instant loan. all you have to do is download the app, accept the terms and conditions... ..and the money is yours. what you don't know is you're already in the trap. the app is extracting all your personal information — your id cards, your photos and videos... ..the names and numbers of yourfamily, your colleagues, yourfriends. that's when the extortion begins. my name is poonam agarwal. i am an investigative reporter. last year, i began to hear stories about people scammed by loan apps.

most victims are too ashamed to talk, but one wanted to warn of the dangers of the trap. bhoomi moved from loan app to loan app, borrowing one loan to pay another, often getting 30 or a0 calls a day.

eventually, she paid them off. but one app, asan loan, kept calling. asan loan had photoshopped bhoomi's face onto this porn image and sent it to every contact on her phone.

i'm getting too...

it had been hard to find a victim willing to talk. it was even harder to find a perpetrator. eventually, though, i got in touch with a young guy, rohan — not his real name — who had worked recovering money for loan apps.

to expose the scam, i needed evidence. so, i asked rohan to wear a secret camera and take us inside a call centre. rohan is going inside majesty legal. lock beeps this delhi—based company doesn't give out loans. it calls borrowers on behalf of the loan apps to chase payments. most calls are polite.

but if you don't pay on time, things start to get nasty. rohan had gathered crucial evidence of abuse, but some of his colleagues were getting suspicious.

it wasn't safe to send rohan back, but now he told me about another call centre — a place in noida — where the abuse was said to be even worse. they were recruiting agents, and rohan applied for a job. while rohan was undercover, i was still trying to find out who had harassed bhoomi to the brink of suicide. we had heard that many of these apps are owned by chinese investors, but we could find no name or address. the app just said asan loan. eventually, ifound a name for the man running asan loan... ..parshuram takve. takve had a facebook page... ..and a chinese wife

named liang tian tian. he also had a criminal record. takve had been running debt recovery for multiple loan apps. complaints had piled up — extortion, blackmail, the use of obscene images. in december 2020, he had been arrested and released on bail. the facebook account was locked, and the man had vanished. but in pune, ifound someone who used to work for parshuram takve. takve was running recovery

for many loan apps. and then the worst happened — customers began taking their own lives.

we know of at least three people who killed themselves after being shamed by takve�*s recovery agents. they aren't just numbers. they all had a name, a family and a future. in telangana, ifound the parents of one of them... ..a 24—year—old woman called mounika. he sobs quietly

she sobs quietly

was there no limit to the misery the loan apps would inflict? it made me even more determined to expose the people profiting from the trap. then, i got a call from rohan. he had been accepted for thejob at the call centre in noida.

ahlers louis lock beeps this is the callflex corporation, a call centre that recovers money for loan apps, including one called paysense. most calls are respectful. but, just like in the first call centre, if you fail to pay, the tone changes. if you still don't pay, the threats begin.

rohan�*s new colleagues were brazen about the tactics they used. after three weeks filming secretly inside the call centre, rohan met me in a park.

so, rohan arranged a meeting with the manager. he went with another undercover reporter posing as an investor. they asked vishal chaurasia to explain exactly how loan recovery works.

abuse was effective, but even more powerful was shame. the manager had distilled the scam to its essence — call centres recover money for loan apps by threatening to destroy people's lives.

breaking news coming in — when it comes to the crackdown on chinese loan apps, that's our top focus on the bulletin. the indian authorities were starting to crack down on the loan apps. in april 2022, parshuram takve and his chinese wife were charged with extortion, intimidation and abetment of suicide. by the end of the year, they were on the run.

behind takve, there's a whole web of companies. parshuram takve was the director of four businesses. his chinese wife, liang tian tian, gave her name to the largest, jiyaliang, which recovered money for predatory loan apps. some of those loan apps were set up or supported by two chinese—owned companies. behind both of them was a mysterious businessman called li xiang. li xiang kept himself well hidden. we found nothing online — no social media accounts and no photos. but the money trail led to one city — hong kong. here, we found a phone number linked to one of his employees. posing as investors, we asked if he could set up

a meeting with li xiang. phone rings hello? ni hao. hey, hey. li xiang, ni hao. hao. . ni hao. li xiang was quick to tell us about his fintech and loan app businesses in india. then li xiang made the key admission — his companies, controlled from hong kong, harvest indians�* contacts and exploit them to recover loans. their recovery plan is precise.

finally, we had a face for li xiang... ..and evidence that he was profiting from the misery of ordinary people. parshuram takve used extortion, intimidation and fear in order to recover money. at least some of that money ended up in the accounts of this man.

when i started this investigation, i never imagined the misery i would find. at least 60 indians, many of them very young, have killed themselves after being blackmailed and shamed by the loan apps. it was heartbreaking. but despite the suffering, the scam continues. a year after parshuram takve went on the run, his app, asan loan, is still trading, still abusing, still destroying lives. in mumbai, though, bhoomi was starting to rebuild hers.

hello there. once again, the weather is going to make the headlines over the next few days. we have another named storm following on from storm babet. this time it's ciaran, expected to arrive wednesday night into thursday. yes, damaging gusts of winds, but more importantly, widespread heavy rain falling on already saturated ground. that could cause some issues. before that, though, we've got an amber weather warning that remains in force until 9:00 this morning. we're likely to see this relentless feed of wet weather, with that easterly winds. so a further 70—100 millimetres of rainfall where we've already seen some flooding. so there could be some further issues this morning. we'll also see some wet weather as well spilling across parts of north west england, down through lincolnshire, east midlands, over into the london area. south of that slightly brighter skies for a time, but by the end of the afternoon, more wet weather starting to push into the south west where we had flooding at the weekend. scotland drier with some

sunshine coming through, a few isolated showers, cooler here, 7—9 degrees elsewhere, 12—15 celsius. so that wet weather will arrive during the early hours of wednesday morning and pushing its way steadily north. and as it bumps into that cold air on the leading edge, there will be some snow for a time. it will be a pretty wet affair on wednesday, and windy with it across scotland. elsewhere, it's a case of sunny spells and scattered showers. and temperatures, similar story, we're looking at around 7—15 degrees. let's take a look at storm ciaran, then. expected to intensify quite rapidly during the early hours of thursday morning. now, the position of this low still potentially subject to change, but basically circulating around that low we've got that weather front once again, feed of relentless rain across eastern scotland, northern ireland and southern coastal counties as well. and in addition to that, it's the strength of the winds that's a cause for concern. widespread gusts 50—60 miles an hour inland, on exposed channel coast,

80—90 mile an hour, maybe even stronger close to the channel isles. so we really do need to keep a close eye on the weather story wednesday in to thursday. even once that storm has cleared through, it stays pretty unsettled with further outbreaks of rain into the weekend.

live from washington,

this is bbc news. calls for a ceasefire are calls for israel to surrender to hamas. the prime minister says this is a time for war. plus, children caught up in conflict. how the humanitarian situation in gaza is affecting the youngest and most vulnerable. us kingdoms reschenthaler of the storming of an airport in douglaston. an angry crowd was seeking outjews. iam sumi i am sumi somaskanda. good to have us. it is really forces have us. it is really forces have cut off one of the main road running north to south as part of the expanded ground operations against hamas. witnesses have reported seeing tanks and bulldozers on the highway that connects gaza city to the rest of the territory. amid international course for a ceasefire in gaza, israeli

prayer minister bijman netanyahu says that would