election. and a bbc undercover investigation exposes a fertility scam fuelling a black market trade in babies in nigeria. hello. i'm martine croxall. nearly 200 flood warnings are in place across the uk after storm bert battered britain this weekend. wales�* first minister, eluned morgan, has described the disruption caused as "absolutely devastating". hundreds of homes remain underwater and many roads have been turned into rivers as a result of the torrential downpours with some areas seeing more than a month's rain in the past 48 hours. vincent mcaviney reports. pontypridd was only under a yellow weather warning, but over the weekend it was one of the parts of the uk where storm bert dumped more

than 80% of november's expected rainfall in less than 48 hours, passing the record set by storm dennis in 2020 in some areas. it's been more than enough for the river taff to burst its banks again, flooding up to 300 homes and commercial properties across this county. a major incident was declared in parts of south wales with standing water, fallen trees and landslides closing a number of roads. council leaders are alarmed they weren't given stronger warnings about bert. i am really surprised we did not have an amber last night. and when you consider the amount of rain that came today and the flooding we've seen, i'm amazed there hasn't been a red warning either. so that is something certainly, as a local authority, we'll be raising directly with the met office. the welsh first minister believes climate change means there are difficult choices to be made. climate change is going to impact on us, and there will come a point when it will be too difficult

for us to protect every home in the country. but clearly we want to put the support in place if we're able to do that for the people impacted. in north wales, after a multi—agency search operation, the body of 75 year old brian perry was located in the area of gower road. mr perry had gone missing on saturday whilst walking his dog near the river conway. for this family living near wrexham, firefighters had to evacuate them from their home. the flood has just come down and there's a tree crashed through the wall of the house at the top side. it's devastating to see. national resources wales, i hold you responsible. where the hell are you? come and do something about this. in the worcestershire town of tenbury wells, the speed at which floodwaters can advance was on full display. coupled with the melting snow, rising river levels have resulted in more than 100 flood warnings across the uk.

in west yorkshire, ii—month—old baby luka had a narrow escape with his father after their vehicle started to become submerged. whilst i was on the phone to the emergency services, water started rising into the car so i thought i need to get me and my son out of here. so i've climbed out of the driver's seat, ran round to his side, unstrapped him and got him out as quick as i could. and i'd say the water was about chest—high, so i was holding him up as high as i could, running out of the water. as storm bert finally clears from the north east, there's quieter weather to follow for many. for residents in affected communities, they are once again faced with the unenviable task of not only cleaning up, but also getting more funding to reinforce defences to stop it from happening again. vincent mcavennie, bbc news.

with more than 99% of the votes counted in the first round of romania's presidential election, a far—right, pro—russia candidate has taken the lead. calin georgescu has an unassailable lead of more than 300,000 votes. he has no political party, and is known as the tiktok candidate after he used the social media platform to galvanise his support by calling for an end to aid for ukraine. only a few dozen votes separate the next two candidates, let's speak to our central europe correspondent, nick thorpe who is in western hungary. what is the appeal of this candidate?— candidate? well, he is an interesting _ candidate? well, he is an interesting candidate, - candidate? well, he is an interesting candidate, as| candidate? well, he is an . interesting candidate, as you say, he's really come from nowhere though he has experience and has been recommended before as a potential technocratic prime minister, though he never got very far with that. it talks about, his main message i suppose is restoring the dignity of romania and giving

romania a voice in the world. when he was asked in an interview once, is he broke the eu, pro—nato, pro—russia? he said he is pro—romanian, so not much content of what he is actually for or the details of how he would influence romania. romania is a presidential democracy, the president has a lot of control and power and influence. not as much as in france for example, but he can for example veto bills passed by parliament and can strongly influence in the country's foreign policy, so really an enormous surprise here. the big question now is who will face him in the run—off in two weeks' time and that race is still very close with votes still very close with votes still being counted.- still very close with votes still being counted. and who do --eole still being counted. and who do peeple had _ still being counted. and who do peeple had to _ still being counted. and who do people had to choose _ still being counted. and who do people had to choose from? - people had to choose from? well, exactly, this will be the

difficult thing. there are two candidates really who could potentially face calin georgescu in the run—off. marcel ciolacu who is the current prime minister of romania, a social democrat albeit a right—wing, nationalist figure in his own right, and elena lasconi, she is of the save romanian union and wouldn't be a much more leftist candidate. —— would be. which ever gets through, the dilemma for romanians is which would effectively be the lesser evil, how to prevent calin georgescu winning. at the same time calin georgescu seems likely to gather more votes from another nationalist, george simeon, who came forth in this election but also managed to get 1.2 million votes. and in the immediate aftermath of this and remarkable result late sunday night, mr simeon urged his supporters to back calin georgescu in the second round so it could be a very interesting results. i suppose

it demonstrates _ interesting results. i suppose it demonstrates the - interesting results. i suppose| it demonstrates the increasing power of social media in elections, notjust here but in other parts of the world. that's right. what calin georgescu seems to have achieved or one of the ways he has managed to publicise himself, because he was basically unknown in romanian arejust a few basically unknown in romanian are just a few months ago, he has managed to as it were crack the algorithm so anyone who searched for his rivals' names in this election or even certain keywords, immediately his name came up and that build a kind of tsunami of support for him. 2.1 million votes already. for him. 2.1 million votes already-— already. cracking the algorithm, _ already. cracking the algorithm, that's - already. cracking the l algorithm, that's what already. cracking the - algorithm, that's what we are all after i suppose in the end! nick thorpe in western hungary, thank you very much. a bbc africa eye undercover investigation has exposed a fertility scam fuelling a black—market trade in babies in nigeria. doctors convince patients desperate to have a child that they suffer from a rare condition known as a

"cryptic pregnancy". after paying large sums of money, they are handed babies which could only have been trafficked. yemisi adegoke reports. sirens. we're on a raid. these police say they're cracking down on brothels and child trafficking. the doors have padlocks on them. the police have been trying to kick them in, but they haven't been able to just yet. it's a really sort of maze of a house. lots of different rooms, lots of different compartments. the authorities say they're worried some of these brothels could be fuelling a lucrative fertility scam that's taking hold. it's called cryptic pregnancy. the term is a recognised medical condition, but its use has been hijacked by sophisticated fraudsters in parts of nigeria, in a scam that preys on desperate couples struggling with fertility and supports an underground trade in newborn babies. the woman is convinced that if she visits a cryptic nurse or a doctor, she's going to get an injection, a tablet or a solution that she will drink.

and after she goes home, she sleeps with her husband, she's going to get pregnant. my colleagues have spent months investigating this. the scammers convince women they're pregnant and only they can deliver the baby. incredibly, they claim the woman could be pregnant for years, while they wait for a rare and expensive drug to bring on the birth. your doctor will call you and say, "come and give birth today." bbc africa eye went undercover for over a year to expose one woman running the scam. she's known as doctor ruth. for many of the people that come here, this is not their first time. some have given birth to their first and second child through us. her so—called treatment costs an initial us$200 and consists of either an injection or a powder. if you want to do a sex selection, you need to take an injection.

a month later, doctor ruth tells our undercover reporter that she's pregnant. but an official pregnancy test confirms that this is not true. doctor ruth has not responded to the allegations we've put to her. many of the women who go through the scam end up with a child, and they insist they have given birth. some say they are given an injection and told to push. others say they wake up with a caesarian—like incision. but where are the children really coming from? crypto pregnancy cannot exist without child trafficking. anybody that tells you you will have a child through crypto pregnancy is a liar. you are going to be given another person's child, a trafficked child. adobe, not her real name,

was found pregnant and trapped in a facility running the scam. had she not been rescued, her baby would have ended up with another woman. i wouldn't have seen my baby. it would have broken my heart. until attitudes towards infertility change in nigeria, countless more children and women will continue to fall victim to scams like this. yemisi adegoke, bbc news, southeastern nigeria. let's speak to our correspondent yemisi adegoke who is in abuja. when did you hear about the scam and how did you find out it was linked to baby trafficking? soi so i first heard about this scam around 2017, there was a doctor tweeting about his experience with the patient and it sounded completely outlandish to me, i couldn't believe it. unbeknownst to me, my colleagues that you see in the film were also looking into this. they were infiltrating

whatsapp and facebook groups where information about this scam is being shared. the link to trafficking came a little bit later because the biggest question around this issue was where are these babies coming from? in the film we see a woman who says she was pregnant for over a year, she did a dna test with that child and it came back negative but she was insistent the dna would later changed to reflect that of her and her husband, so we knew some of these babies, you know, biologically they are not matching and we suspected they were coming from baby factories and brothels. it was the commission for women's affairs who we see in the film that really made that link. she has been doing raids of brothels, baby factories, and was able to tie all that together for us that babies who were being born from this scam are linked to trafficking. i from this scam are linked to trafficking-— from this scam are linked to trafficking. i have got to ask, what do you _ trafficking. i have got to ask, what do you mean _ trafficking. i have got to ask, what do you mean baby - what do you mean baby factories?—

factories? it's a facility where young, - factories? it's a facility l where young, vulnerable factories? it's a facility - where young, vulnerable girls are held and when they give birth, their babies are sold on. some young women when they go there, they go by choice. well, i guess the choice is arguable but they have the knowledge of what is happening there and others are held against their will but they go there and their children will be sent on. 50 there and their children will be sent on.— there and their children will be sent on. ., . , ., be sent on. so how many women have been _ be sent on. so how many women have been duped _ be sent on. so how many women have been duped like _ be sent on. so how many women have been duped like this? - be sent on. so how many women have been duped like this? howl have been duped like this? how difficult is it to get them to talk to you?— talk to you? it's difficult to know exact _ talk to you? it's difficult to know exact numbers. - talk to you? it's difficult to know exact numbers. this| talk to you? it's difficult to i know exact numbers. this is talk to you? it's difficult to . know exact numbers. this is a secretive and underground scam. what we can say is that in our film in the clinic our reporters went to, there were dozens of women there and this sort of clinic is happening every week. one of the most difficult parts of this film was getting the women to trust us. it's one of the reason all the women we spoke to are anonymous. there is shame and

embarrassment that they fell for the scam. it took a lot of conversations with these women and the team to ensure and reassure them that we are not out here to mark or ridicule, we really want to understand the nature of this scam and try to safeguard other women from falling victim to it.— falling victim to it. what is beinu falling victim to it. what is being done _ falling victim to it. what is being done to _ falling victim to it. what is being done to combat - falling victim to it. what is being done to combat it, l being done to combat it, briefly if you would? in being done to combat it, briefly if you would?- briefly if you would? in a number _ briefly if you would? in a number state _ briefly if you would? in a number state which - briefly if you would? in a number state which is i briefly if you would? in a l number state which is one briefly if you would? i�*i —. number state which is one of the places we focus on, the government is taking this quite seriously. the commissioner of women's affairs has overseen dozens of raids to try to clamp down on this, but beyond government action there needs to be a lot more education around this issue. there also needs to be real work to undo some of the stigma attached to infertility. that's one of the reasons this scam runs rampant, so there needs to be a whole re—education about pregnancy and making it more socially acceptable to adopt and find other means to become parents so people don't continue

falling for this.— falling for this. yemisi adegoke. _ falling for this. yemisi adegoke, thank - falling for this. yemisi adegoke, thank you. | and, you can watch the full bbc africa eye investigation, nigeria's miracle baby scammers, on bbc iplayer if you're in the uk or on the bbc africa youtube channel. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

let's return to our lead story, with nearly 200 flood warnings across the uk in the aftermath of storm bert. let'sjoin across the uk in the aftermath of storm bert. let's join our correspondent in tenbury wells in worcestershire where people really seemed to get taken by surprise with what happened at there, steve?— surprise with what happened at there, steve? yes, the clean-up is really starting here. _ there, steve? yes, the clean-up is really starting here. it's - is really starting here. it's been a miserable 20 hours or so. the hardware store behind me is pushing out all the silt

from inside. you can see here on the road all of the mud that came in yesterday. they are clearing it up now but behind me is the remains of what was the wall holding back the water from the broke and the water was so high and there is so much pressure behind it that the wall collapsed and it sent huge amounts of water along market street here, flooding the homes and businesses as well. and it happened in 20, 30 seconds. unfortunately this is a market town that is well used to flooding if you can get used to flooding if you can get used to such a thing, the third time they have been flooded this year and this was the worst one of course, but all up the street here are businesses with lots of water in. in the hair salon here, it tells a story really. all of the christmas decorations are out here. they are absolutely devastated in there. yesterday a tractor for some reason drove down the centre of the street causing a

wave and it caused some windows to smash. you might see the window there on the hair salon which meant more water was going inside the shops. people cannot get good insurance any so they are forced to just clean up, and this isjust one month before christmas when they should be doing good business as well. there is a plan for a major flood business as well. there is a plan for a majorflood defence scheme here, but the costs have been rising and it now costs around £30 million. we spoke to the environment agency earlier who say the