18/12/2015 BBC Wales Today


18/12/2015

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Welcome to Wales Today.

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Tonight's headlines: A major review hears continuing with ?5,000

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grants for Welsh students, wherever they study,

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is not an option.

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And a ?50,000 fine for an engineering company after some

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workers were left with permanent injuries.

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Good evening.

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The status quo is not an option.

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That's according to most of the evidence heard by a major

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review of finance for Welsh students.

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At the moment, the Welsh Government makes grants of over ?5,000

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available to them, wherever they choose to study.

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The review chair says a range of suggestions for changes has been

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heard, but there isn't an easy solution.

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These English students are leaving university with a degree and an IOU

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totalling thousands of pounds.

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But Welsh students are better off.

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Faced with tuition fees of ?9,000 a year, students from

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Wales pay around ?3,800.

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The Welsh Government provides the rest, offering grants

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of more than ?5,000.

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But it is expensive, costing ?229 million

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last year alone.

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This is a made in Wales policy which demonstrates

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the benefits of devolution.

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It is five years since the then education minister,

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Leighton Andrews, announced the policy and during that time many

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have questioned its sustainability.

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Over the past 18 months Sir Ian Diamond has been

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listening to the arguments.

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His interim report found most experts believe the current funding

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arrangement has to change.

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But there is no easy solution.

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There is a debate between those who say that the public purse

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in Wales should not be paying for students to study outside

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of Wales against those who say they should.

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Our panel has received evidence on both sides of that divide and one

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of the things which is clear in my mind and what we will be

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debating and discussing further over the next couple of months will be

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what our recommendations will be in that regard.

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This issue is never far from the headlines.

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Good evening.

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It costs more than ?200 million a year.

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Tonight, questions over whether the Welsh Government's

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policy of funding Welsh university students can continue.

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Our top story, tens of millions of pounds spent every year

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on tuition fees for Welsh students studying over the border.

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A warning tonight our universities could fall behind.

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Earlier this year, the Higher Education Funding Council

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for Wales warned universities here could fall behind English

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institutions as Welsh Government money follows students

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across the border.

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More recently the body which represents Welsh universities

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said the focus should be on helping the poorest students.

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The Welsh Government says it is investing in young people

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and argues more money comes into Wales' higher education system

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than goes out.

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Today the education minister said the review panel had

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made good progress.

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Students here at Cardiff Metropolitan University are heading

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home for Christmas.

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They will be returning in January at the start of an

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Assembly election year.

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The political parties realise the issue of student finance

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is important to voters.

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They also recognise that any change to the status quo is

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unlikely to be popular, even if change is necessary.

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As they go about drafting their manifestos, they won't get any

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help from Sir Ian Diamond because he won't be publishing his

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recommendations until September, well after polling day.

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A man who stabbed his girlfriend 18 times following a row over footage

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he had of another woman in a bath has been jailed for 16 years.

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Arnel Martinez Raymundo was convicted of attempted murder

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and voyeurism after the attack in Cardiff in June.

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Drivers for Arriva Trains Wales are planning to strike

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on Monday January the 4th.

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The ASLEF union says its members are walking out in a row

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over pay and conditions.

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Arriva says it's disappointed that its drivers have

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rejected its current offer and will try to minimise any

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disruption for passengers.

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An engineering company in Merthyr Tydfil has been fined

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?50,000 after 21 of its workers suffered permanent injury

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from using vibrating power tools.

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Linde Heavy Truck Division pleaded guilty to failing to ensure

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the health and safety of its workers.

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Caroline Evans has more.

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Now closed, until 2013 this factory made trucks.

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At its height, employing 500 people here.

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But when employees began to report problems with their hands,

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it emerged that the company had been breaching the law for years.

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Today it was fined ?50,000.

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It is important that the lesson is learnt not only by the company

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but other companies doing similar work and potentially

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exposing their employees to hand and arm vibration,

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that they understand the seriousness of the risk.

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The employees were using vibrating hand tools like grinders and power

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drills for as many as six hours a day.

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The judge ruled there was no adequate risk assessment,

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hardly any training before 2011.

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21 employees were diagnosed with hand and arm vibration

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syndrome, something which is preventable but permanent

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once the damage is done.

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Across the UK, nearly two million people are at risk of it

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and it is considered serious and disabling.

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Damage can include the inability to do fine work and cold can trigger

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pain in the fingers.

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That is why one of its symptoms is known as vibration white finger,

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a condition well known among miners.

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In 1997 the mining union NACODS won a landmark judgment which paved

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the way for tens of thousands of industrial workers

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to claim compensation.

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It was a fight which began in Merthyr, led by Bleddyn Hancock.

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He says he finds it incredible that a company in this of all towns

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could be found wanting in this way.

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After all this time, it was nearly 20 years ago

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now that we won that great judgment in favour of the miners who suffered

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from this problem and we proved then that people had known

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about the issue for decades and even then there were lots of things

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employers could of done to safeguard their workers

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and really in this day it's no excuse not to take those measures

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and look after your workers.

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It's much more expensive to harm people than it is to keep them safe.

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For the men in the Merthyr factory, the condition has meant living

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with numbness, being unable to grip or do up shirt buttons.

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Sentencing, the judge said this was not a case where a company had

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put profit before safety but there had been failings over

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many years and the consequences were serious.

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The fine he said must be substantial enough

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to have an effect on management.

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The company has apologised for the breach, saying it deeply

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regrets the situation and lessons will be learned.

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National Museum Wales has been criticised by Assembly Members

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for offering a generous pension and pay-off scheme for senior

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bosses, despite being locked in a long-running pay

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dispute with staff.

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This year, it has been hit by strikes over ending "premium

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payments" to weekend staff.

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Managers said they were currently consulting on changing the pension

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and severance schemes.

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Football and Cardiff City have lost at Birmingham City tonight.

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A controversial penalty for the home side just before half time put them

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1-0 up and that's the way it stayed.

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A win would have seen the Bluebirds return to the Championship

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play-off places.

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The weekend weather forecast now, with Sue Charles.

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Good evening.

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It will remain unseasonably mild this weekend.

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Turning wet and very windy for some tomorrow.

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Brighter on Sunday but with a few showers and very blustery.

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Strong winds overnight but remaining mild because as the chart shows

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they are drawing up warm air from the Azores,

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but also feeding in weather systems from the Atlantic.

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So misty and murky overnight.

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Largely cloudy with outbreaks of rain.

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Hill fog developing and remaining exceptionally mild overnight

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at 11C to 13C.

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Rain starting to push in further west because we've got this tricky

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weather front hovering back and forth tomorrow bringing heavy

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rain at times before clearing away by Sunday.

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So tomorrow might start dry but overcast in the east but turning

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wet and windy from the West and the eastern side of the UK

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will stay drier and milder with some brightness.

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But in the West where that front lingers, persistent rain for much

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of the day.

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Strong southerly winds continuing to draw up the very mild air.

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12C in north-west Scotland.

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16C in south-east England.

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Hard to appreciate the milder conditions where it is very

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wet and windy tomorrow, especially across

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South and West Wales.

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In fact, the Met Office has a warning for a further 40 to 60

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millimetres of rain tomorrow, more possible on high ground.

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That rain will gradually move eastwards tomorrow night.

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The cold front clearing to showers and drier spells overnight.

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So behind it the air turns fresher and not quite as mild as tonight.

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Then it is more a case of drier and brighter spells on Sunday

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with a few isolated showers.

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Feeling slightly fresher but staying very windy with gales

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likely along the coast.

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So we keep the unusually mild weather through the weekend.

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Heavy rain on Saturday.

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Brighter but still windy on Sunday but another warning for heavy rain

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spreading eastwards on Monday.

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The trend looks like we will keep the mild and unsettled

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weather towards Christmas.

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We'll be back with our next update at 5:35pm tomorrow evening.

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But that is Wales Today.

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From all of us here, good night.

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