31/07/2016 BBC Weekend News

Britain will lead the fight against modern slavery

Theresa May promised to make it her mission to help rid the world

of what she called the barbaric evil.

She will chair a new Cabinet taskforce tackling what she

said were sickening and inhuman crimes

lurking in the shadows of our country.

More than ?33 million from the aid budget will be used

to fund initiatives in nations from where people are trafficked.

Behind closed doors, on our streets and in the workplace, modern slavery

often goes undetected. But the new Prime Minister is promising to do

more to help. Theresa May led the government's campaign to tackle

slavery when she was Home Secretary. Now as Prime Minister she is keeping

it a personal focus. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph she said:

Police need to have a better understanding of what is going on in

modern slavery and what their responsibilities are in relation to

that. This is an issue that needs to be dealt with in much broader terms,

in terms of both our national immigration policy, our national

crime policy, but also international trade and development policies. Now

?33 million will be spent in countries like Nigeria to help

tackle the roots of the people trafficking trade. With accusations

it isn't being properly investigated, there will be an

assessment of the way police forces in England and Wales respond to the

crime. There could be up to 13,000 victims in the UK. The Labour Party

supports the fight against modern slavery. Slavery is closer than you

think. But it warns against cuts to the border force and local

authorities if the Prime Minister is serious about tackling the crime.

Eleanor Garnier, BBC News. With just days to go before

the start of the Olympics in Rio, the International Olympic Committee

has said a review panel will make the final decision

on which Russians can take part. The IOC had said the governing

bodies of individual sports should decide if they'd accept Russian

competitors after claims of state-sponsored doping,

but now it says the panel will make Wyre, what does this mean

for the 250 Russian athletes who have so far been

cleared to compete? It is complete confusion. The IOC

was severely criticised when it decided to pass the buck, despite

evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping in Russia.

The IOC decided each individual sport to decide which of its

competitors would appear here in Russia. Most athletes are banned. A

lot of canoeists are banned and all the weightlifters. Other sports

decided to allow Russians to compete which was severely criticised

described as a devastating blow to all clean athletes. The IOC has gone

back on itself and set up a 3-member panel to

analyse all of this has got to be done before the Games's opening

ceremony on the fifth, four days away. It is complete confusion. A

lot of Russian athletes already in Rio don't know if they can compete

or not. Thank you. A former Conservative

pensions minister has called for the scrapping of a guarantee

that state pensions Baroness Altmann said

the Government's triple-lock policy had outlived its purpose

and should be removed by 2020 The Government says there are no

plans to review the policy. Britain's 12 million pensioners have

seen their state pensions rise faster than most people over

the past six years due to a policy introduced

by the coalition government in 2010. The triple lock is a promise that

state pensions would rise every year at least as fast as wages,

the pace at which average prices are rising, or 2.5%,

whichever the higher number is. Since 2014, prices and wages have

risen by less than 2.5% a year and now one key voice says

the triple lock should be For the long-term the 2.5% does not

have any logic to it. What makes sense is to make sure

pensioners are properly protected and if we, for example,

promise to protect them by either prices or earnings,

they get the best of both and therefore they are

properly protected. They don't really need

that 2.5% underpinning. A spokesperson for the Department

for Work and Pensions said Lady Altman had no bearing on policy

and there were no plans Age UK said the triple lock

was essential to prevent the state It also said there were an estimated

1.6 million pensioners living The billionaire Sir Philip Green

could be asked to appear again before politicians over the collapse

of the retailer BHS. Revelation came from the Labour MP Frank Field who

co-chaired a cross-party investigation into the failed

retailer. He also told the BBC he is going to meet the pensions regulator

to discuss Sir Philip's claims on filling the multi-million pound

shortfall to the company's pension scheme.

Millions of people have attended an open-air Mass with the Pope

on the final day of a global Catholic youth festival

in Poland which some call the Catholic Woodstock.

Many camped out overnight in a vast field near Krakow.

Our correspondent Tom Burridge was at the Mass.

A congregation to match a big city. The Pope's pull factor brings in the

most international of crowds. People have come from all over

the world, from Australia, Pope Francis told the young audience

to dream of a world where there is no hate between different peoples.

First and foremost, this is a celebration. Think of it as a

religious kind of Glastonbury. The site is immense, stretching in all

directions as far as the eye can see. And Pope Francis, in typical

fashion, has had a very colourful message. The Pope's supporting act

last night, a 26-year-old Syrian student from Aleppo, a city

devastated by war. Everyday we lead lives that are surrounded by death

and there is no way to nobody to help. God, where are you? And the

Pope, in simple language, urged young people not to be lazy couch

potatoes. We are hearing it from the Pope. You are a couch potato, like,

OK! It makes you think and you realise you are being a couch

potato. This Catholic festival started with morning for a French

priest. The Pope has since spoken against extremism and in support of

people suffering poverty in war. Frances leaves Poland with a trail

of discussion and debate. Tom Burridge, BBC News, in Krakow.

Two cyclists have been airlifted to hospital and are in a serious

condition following separate incidents on a 100 mile race

They were due to be among thousands of amateur riders finishing

It's also the starting point for 150 of the world's top cyclists taking

part in the professional Prudential Ride Classic which starts

Yes, after all the excitement this morning, we saw those 26,000 amateur

cyclists taking off from the Olympic Park. We then heard the news that

two cyclists had been injured in two separate incidents, the first around

nine o'clock. It is understood he hit a tree and he had to be

airlifted to hospital which caused major divergences in the area, which

have since been lifted, and the race is continuing as normal. The second

was around 11 o'clock and he was airlifted to hospital and it is

understood he suffered head injuries. It is hoped that will not

cast a shadow on this afternoon's event, the elite race, with some of

the world's greatest cyclists, including Chris Froome, fresh from

his victory at the Tour de France. He will use this as an opportunity

to prepare for next week's Olympics in Rio. Thank you.

An American skydiver has entered the record books by jumping

from a height of 25,000 feet without a parachute.

After free falling for two minutes, Luke Aikins landed

safely in a giant net suspended 20 storeys off the ground.

The event took place in southern California and was shown live

You can see more on all of today's stories on the BBC News Channel.

The next news on BBC One is at 6:35pm.

Good afternoon. July is almost over. Looking back on the month, the first

two weeks, nowhere in the United Kingdom got above 25 degrees but we

did peak at 33.5. It was very dry in the South East of the United Kingdom

with some