Browse content similar to 13/06/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Bowe Bergdahl will remain there for further treatment. Those are the | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
latest headlines from BBC World News. Now for the latest financial | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
news with Alice and World Business Report. An end in sight to South | :00:00. | :00:18. | |
Africa's longest strike, but the nation's problems run far deeper. | :00:19. | :00:26. | |
Plus, clicking with confidence. New EU rules to protect the online | :00:27. | :00:27. | |
shopper. moment. But let's begin in South | :00:28. | :00:53. | |
Africa, where an end could finally be in sight to the longest strike in | :00:54. | :00:55. | |
the 130`year history of the country's mining industry. On | :00:56. | :00:57. | |
Thursday the three top platinum firms announced they had reached | :00:58. | :00:59. | |
in`principle undertakings with union leaders to break the five`month | :01:00. | :01:07. | |
deadlock over pay. These pictures show a huge rally of the AMCU union | :01:08. | :01:10. | |
on Thursday, where workers appealed to leaders to sign the pay deal. The | :01:11. | :01:13. | |
strike has meant huge hardship for them, as well as serious economic | :01:14. | :01:16. | |
damage for the mining industry and the country as a whole. Labour | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
unrest is pushing South Africa towards recession, and later today | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
it could see its credit rating downgraded, an indication that | :01:24. | :01:25. | |
international investors are losing confidence. Our Africa Correspondent | :01:26. | :01:40. | |
Andrew Harding reports. 20 weeks now, and counting. The miners' | :01:41. | :01:49. | |
strike which is pushing South Africa towards recession. Workers are no | :01:50. | :01:51. | |
longer willing to accept the status quo, demanding that their basic pay | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
should be more than doubled. It is an attitude which is spreading. | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
Workers are beginning to get frustrated, after 20 years of | :02:02. | :02:04. | |
democracy, things have not changed for them. Things might have changed, | :02:05. | :02:10. | |
but if you go to coalitions of employment, salaries of workers are | :02:11. | :02:15. | |
getting less. Industrial action now threatens to spread to steel plants | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
like this one. The owners are worried that South Africa's | :02:20. | :02:22. | |
governing alliance is offering mixed messages, not concrete action. I | :02:23. | :02:29. | |
think at some point, the ruling party is going to grasp the nettle | :02:30. | :02:36. | |
and say they stand for this and will put people back to work. They will | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
make tough and hard decisions, and eventually, sanity will prevail. If | :02:42. | :02:47. | |
they do not do that, it will just be an ongoing, steady decline into | :02:48. | :02:53. | |
recession. On a continent with plenty of booming economies, South | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
Africa has become an increasingly worrying exception. Relations | :02:58. | :03:00. | |
between investors, government, and workers, have not been this | :03:01. | :03:06. | |
problematic for a long time. That is the challenge. The nature of Labour | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
is changing. Trust between Labour and the employers has completely | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
been shattered. And it doesn't exist. Trust between workers and | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
their leaders within the unions is about to be broken. Here is the | :03:19. | :03:25. | |
proof of that. Tensions rising in the Platinum mines. This worker's | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
home was torched because he wanted to end the strike and return to | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
work. The people are scared because of the violence which is happening. | :03:37. | :03:39. | |
People are intimidated when they want to go back to work. Everyone is | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
afraid of his life. So for now, mines like this remain closed. | :03:44. | :03:51. | |
Resilient but obstinately unequal country slouches towards recession. | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
Lebohang Pheko runs the development consultancy, Four Rivers. He is in | :03:58. | :04:02. | |
our Johannesburg studio. `` she joins us. Good to see what | :04:03. | :04:09. | |
programme. We may be now seeing the end of this longest running strike | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
in South Africa's mining industry. But the problems in the country | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
spread far beyond this, don't they? Well, I mean, I think there are a | :04:19. | :04:24. | |
couple of things. It is way beyond London to Anglo`American mines and | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
also to Platinum mines. It has also gone into the quarrying industry and | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
the steel and cement industries. It is trickling into manufacturing as | :04:36. | :04:40. | |
well, which has seen a recession of about 0.7%. And the quarrying | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
industry has seen about 1.3% of lost. Link to that is the decrease | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
in capital flows arising from the mining sector, which are still quite | :04:50. | :04:55. | |
reliant. There is the risk that will make inflation might also begin to | :04:56. | :04:58. | |
creep up again, which is what the Reserve Bank tries very hard to keep | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
under control as part of the key monetary and fiscal instruments. So | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
I mean, that of course may well have an impact on consumer affordability | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
of a whole range of things. And related to this is a crisis in | :05:13. | :05:18. | |
electricity and the supply. There is a lot of load sharing taking place | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
at the moment which also hampers the activity of the mining sector. So | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
there is a trickle`down effect in other sectors and in other realms. | :05:27. | :05:30. | |
Indeed, as you say, there are talks of strikes happening in the gold | :05:31. | :05:33. | |
industry, the steel industry as well. We saw the economy in South | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
Africa contract in the last quarter. There is a risk it could | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
happen in the next. Are you worried that the country might enter a | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
period of recession? We are also of course awaiting the latest ratings | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
from each and Moody 's. What are you expecting from that? `` Fitch. We | :05:51. | :05:59. | |
will see. I have found some of the ratings downgrades unfair and | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
unfounded. In the last year or two we have been puzzled, because | :06:04. | :06:05. | |
certainly countries like for example Egypt, who managed to retain a | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
particular rating despite the great turmoil that, so there are some of | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
us who might not use that as too much of an index, but certainly in | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
terms of our own domestic policy about domestic economic policy | :06:22. | :06:24. | |
direction, we need to think about what we want our Labour industry to | :06:25. | :06:27. | |
look like and where we want to position it over the next five or | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
ten or 15 years. And I think that these strikes illustrate the extent | :06:33. | :06:35. | |
to which we can't rely on the mining sector in the same way that we have | :06:36. | :06:39. | |
previously. The way that we need to really think about reskilling a | :06:40. | :06:42. | |
whole generation of workers. And a way that we really need to | :06:43. | :06:48. | |
rehabilitate a very historically fractious relationship, particularly | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
in the mining sector, which has been a sight of struggle even pre` | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
apartheid. Restoring that issue of trust we heard in the film earlier. | :06:57. | :07:00. | |
Thank you for joining us live from Johannesburg. Online shopping has | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
seen massive growth in recent years, and from today consumers in Europe | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
will get more protection when buying over the internet, as new rules come | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
into force across the 27 EU member states. It is called the EU Consumer | :07:13. | :07:15. | |
Rights Directive. Here are some of the things it will mean. A 14`day | :07:16. | :07:18. | |
cooling off period, in which consumers can return products bought | :07:19. | :07:21. | |
online A ban on "pre`ticked" boxes for additional services, a common | :07:22. | :07:23. | |
one is travel insurance when buying a holiday. Refunds within 14 days of | :07:24. | :07:35. | |
goods being returned. A ban on excessive surcharges for using a | :07:36. | :07:37. | |
credit or debit card, for instance when buying flights. And a ban on | :07:38. | :07:46. | |
excessive charges for customer service phone lines. Philip Smith is | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
from Trusted Shops, a website which certifies online retailers who sign | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
up to a code of conduct. He is in our North of England studios. Good | :07:57. | :08:07. | |
to see you. These changes to regulations, they are long overdue, | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
aren't they? We have all been shopping online for quite sometime | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
now. Yes, basically the idea behind the directive is that they harmonise | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
these laws across the member states in Europe. So they will be | :08:22. | :08:27. | |
effectively replacing the distance selling regulations that we have | :08:28. | :08:32. | |
particularly in the UK. So they will be implemented in the UK through the | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
consumer contract regulations. So distance selling regulations that we | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
have which came into force back in 2000 will basically be replaced by | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
this new directive. And how will this new directive be enforced? Will | :08:46. | :08:52. | |
all websites that we go to, whether we are buying an item of clothing or | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
buying a flight, will they all have to sign up to these new directive | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
is? Yes, when you are shopping online, any online retailer is going | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
to have to make these changes. So it's really important that they do | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
that. And this kind of `` there are kind of four main areas they will | :09:11. | :09:15. | |
have to change. One will be the order button, so when a consumer | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
reaches the checkout the button will not be allowed to say goodbye, or | :09:20. | :09:29. | |
order now, any more. It will have to explicitly inform the consumer they | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
are entering into a contract and will have an obligation to pay. So | :09:34. | :09:36. | |
some of the rules may seem quite small, just changing the wording on | :09:37. | :09:40. | |
a button. If a retailer doesn't change that wording, they are not | :09:41. | :09:44. | |
actually entering into a contract with the consumer. It is very | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
important retailers make these changes. OK, we can all start | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
clicking away with a bit more confidence. Thank you for talking us | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
through that new directive. In other business News: The Governor of the | :09:58. | :10:02. | |
Bank of England Mark Carney has warned UK interest rates could rise | :10:03. | :10:05. | |
"sooner than financial markets currently expect". He was speaking | :10:06. | :10:08. | |
at the Lord Mayor of London's annual banquet. UK borrowing costs have | :10:09. | :10:11. | |
been at a record low of 0.5% since 2009. The comments sent the pound, | :10:12. | :10:14. | |
already at a five`year high, up sharply. Russian gas exporter | :10:15. | :10:22. | |
Gazprom says it will halt supplies to Ukraine, if it fails to pay | :10:23. | :10:23. | |
Ukraine owes some $4 billion for gas, a figure disputed by Kiev. The | :10:24. | :10:29. | |
row has unsettled politicians in Europe, which gets half of its | :10:30. | :10:32. | |
Russian gas via pipelines that cross Ukraine. But so far EU`brokered | :10:33. | :10:35. | |
talks have failed to get the two sides to agree. | :10:36. | :10:50. |