10/08/2017 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today. I'm Philippa Thomas.

the British authorities say the scale of modern slavery

in the country is far larger than previously thought,

with tens of thousands of victims spread across

Its horrible, I tell you, it's just horrible...

Even now I just feel like, my heart starts beating a little bit.

it's ready to launch missiles towards the pacific island of Guam,

where America has a massive military presence

Britain's Food Standards Agency says 700,000 eggs contaminated

Bridging the generations - the veteran playwright

Alan Ayckbourn turns to science fiction to reach a new audience.

Hello, and welcome to World News Today.

Authorities in Britain say modern-day slavery and human

trafficking is now so prevalent in the country that there

are cases is almost every large town and city,

with ordinary Britons unwittingly coming into contact

There are likely to be tens of thousands of them,

according to the UK's National Crime Agency.

More than 300 police operations are currently targeting

And in just two months, this year there have been 111 arrests.

Here's our social affairs correspondent, Dominic Casciani.

Another day, another anti-slavery operation.

Over the last six months, the National Crime Agency has

coordinated operations to smash trafficking and slavery gangs.

This suspected brothel, run in the north-east of England,

Today, a new analysis from the agency suggests

the true scale of modern slavery is far greater

Aurel from Romania was coerced into hard labour.

A gang controlled his life for four months until he got out.

It's just horrible, I tell you, it's just horrible.

Even now, I just feel like my heart is start beating a little bit.

Modern-day slaves are tricked into the UK by gangs promising a

better life, and coerced into work they can't escape from.

Women forced into prostitution make up to ?600 a day.

Men are trapped in gruelling work in food processing or agriculture,

and victims are on the high street in nail bars and car washes.

You are more likely than ever before to unwittingly

run by workers under the control of a gang.

It's impossible to count all the victims, because,

like this enterprise, they are hidden from view.

But investigators say the more they look, the more they find.

We have also seen people as young as 13 and 14 being sexually

exploited and forced to engage in prostitution.

This is a growing problem, for which we think there's a shared

responsibility across society in the United Kingdom to address.

Some critics say the NCA has been too slow off the mark,

It says there has been a surge in the police response.

Charities investigating the abuses say there are obvious signs that

someone is being held against their will.

They are forced to work against their will.

The trafficker controls their finances, controls their movement.

In the small villages, there are few jobs and no money...

A new online campaign from the National Crime Agency.

It's pledging to carry on raids month after month, but investigators

say they will still need the public's help

Earlier, I spoke with the anti-slavery campaigner

and human rights barrister, Cherie Blair, who through her work

as the chair of the law firm Omnia Strategy, advises companies

on complying with the Modern Slavery Act.

Well, it's surprising, actually, where these people can turn up.

It could be the people who are picking

strawberries in the fields, if you are in a rural area.

It could be the girl who is doing your nails in the nail bar

who doesn't speak very good English, and seems very shy

It could be the guy washing your car in one of these

So these are the sort of places, and of course,

the sex industry is an industry where the are very many such people.

But it is not just actually about people

It is also about the kind of goods that we buy, and where they

It might seem strange to some of our viewers that

we are talking about the United Kingdom,

a developed country, sees itself as progressive,

and yet this problem, it still seems, is pretty pervasive.

Well, I think, as long as there is one person in slavery,

then that is a problem, and the statistics say

that they estimate about 13,000 people in slavery here

in the UK, and of course, today, the NCA, who said that the problem

That is the National Crime Agency, saying

Much bigger than they had anticipated.

In 2015, we passed the Modern Slavery Act.

In that first year, the number of prosecutions for

The following year, 2016, it had gone up,

This year, we have had this report saying

that the police are actively looking into over 300 cases.

So, are you satisfied that there are the tools

to prosecute and to bring people to justice?

That there are the tools to prosecute, definitely.

We do now have an array of offences, and we

have seen people in the UK be prosecuted.

One of the first prosecutions, for example, was a

couple from Nigeria who had brought with them a domestic servant,

beat her, didn't let her go out, worked her all the hours of the day,

and they were prosecuted successfully for

offences of slavery so, that is one example for sure,

Whether we have the resources and the knowledge to

actually identify people who are living in slavery is another

question, and that is, I think, what the report

today was highlighting, that it is a bigger problem than the

police imagined, and they are going to need to devote

And you're talking about specialist resources there, because

by definition, these people often don't speak English,

It is very hard to get to them, to find them in the first place.

Very much so, but, you know, in today's interconnected world,

though, it is very hard to keep someone in complete isolation,

Very much so, but, you know, in today's interconnected world,

though, it is very hard to keep someone in complete isolation,

Neighbours seeing strange activities in the street,

customers going to the nail bar and noticing that the girls are

very subdued, can't speak English very well, seem to be

Maybe just asking a little bit more about where these people

have come from, and where do they go home to tonight?

So, Cherie Blair, are you saying to your fellow Britons,

don't be too complacent about the situation in which other

people find themselves, their working environment,

they could be witnessing modern-day slavery?

I think sometimes, as Brits, we do not like

to be too nosy and prying into other people's business, but in this case,

Just when you thought the war of words between North Korea

and America could not get any more heated,

Pyonyang has just pushed it up another notch.

A statement from the dictatorship says it has a plan to launch

missiles into the sea around the US pacific island territory of Guam.

Washington has threatened a devastating response.

From Guam, Rupert Wingfield Hayes reports.

It may not look like it, but there is trouble in paradise.

This little Pacific holiday island is now the

focus of unwanted worldwide attention.

from North Korea today, this strangely

TRANSLATION: The Hwasong-12 rocket will be launched

by the Korean People's Army and will cross the sky above Japan,

flying 3,356 kilometres for 1,065 seconds before hitting

the waters 30 to 40 kilometres away from Guam.

This is the Hwasong-12 missile, on parade in Pyongyang this spring.

No-one should doubt it can reach Guam.

In recent months, North Korea has successfully

tested a host of long-range missiles.

The little holiday island is now within the reach of Kim Jong-un.

But at the volleyball court, the locals seem

I think we are kind of used to the whole ebb and flow of hearing

we're going to be bombed and it not happening and hearing

It is not anything that is new to us.

It never follows through, so I was not really concerned.

I think it is probably like a distraction,

maybe, a political kind of move on the side

of US and Korea, just to get attention, maybe.

If the aim of North Korea is to scare people,

People are not fleeing the beaches for the airport.

The threat against Guam is very specific.

That has a few people worried that maybe, just

maybe, Kim Jong-un is planning some sort of action to fire one or more

missiles over Japan in this direction.

Guam's two huge military bases are home to a

It makes the island a very attractive target.

The tourists, on whom this island depends, are already much more

TRANSLATION: I saw the news and started to check where the US

military bases on Guam are located. I am worried.

Everyone here is hoping this latest threat is

But they are also starting to wonder what they will do if it is not.

It's feared that 19 more African migrants drowned near the coast

of Yemen when people smugglers forced them off a boat.

It's the second such incident in the area in two days.

Yesterday 50 migrants perished after they were forced into the sea

The victims, most of whom were teenagers, came from Ethiopia,

They were headed to Yemen and were forced off the boat close

From there they hoped to reach Saudi Arabia and the Emirates

The International Organisation for Migration's Communication Director,

His colleagues in Yemen were told by survivors what happened.

These are two really tragic incidents that happened in Yemen

in which we learnt from migrants, After coming across the bodies

on the beach, we learned from the survivors that a smuggler

appears to have been worried by the appearance

of some authorities, some local authorities,

and rather than be arrested himself, he appears to have forced the young

men off the boat into the waters at a very dangerous time

when the seas are quite rough, and of course, most of them cannot

swim or have a very poor capacity for swimming.

And indeed, we have seen really high numbers of deaths.

51 in one incident reported yesterday, and then today, up to 19.

We are fortunate in the sense that we came across,

the staff came across the bodies buried on the beach,

so we got to learn about it from the survivors, but it is very

possible this is happening quite regularly.

The smugglers have absolutely no scruples about the lives of those

they are carrying with them, and indeed we know that many,

when they do get ashore in Yemen, once again are exploited,

held and detained, and calls are made to the families

so they can extort even more money from them.

Britain's Food Standards Agency says that some 700,000 imported eggs

contaminated with a pesticide have entered the food chain in the UK.

That's a massive increase over the original estimate of 21,000.

Meanwhile, Dutch investigators have arrested two people after raids

on companies in the Netherlands and Belgium linked to

a European-wide egg scare. Emma Simpson reports.

This Belgian farmer has had to destroy not just

The produce is contaminated with an insecticide which is banned

That is where it has ended up on a potentially

TRANSLATION: You cannot put your eggs on the market for three months.

And so I took the decision to kill the animals because it is really too

The company which came to clean and treat the red

lice with an organic product really used Fipranol.

This farm is in the clear and millions of eggs have now been

pulled from supermarket shelves on the continent.

Fipranol may be popular for getting rid of fleas on

pets, but it can be dangerous to humans.

Here in the UK, we produce our own eggs but also import them

And some of the eggs from affected farms

We're not talking about fresh eggs we buy off supermarket shelves.

The affected eggs went into processed foods like sandwich

A few days ago the Food Standards Agency said

Sounds a lot, but that is just .007% of all

There is no reason why people should avoid

Our assessment it is very unlikely it is a public health risk.

People need to not have food which contains a substance that

Four supermarkets of limited number of

Four supermarkets are withdrawing of limited number of

Others will already have been consumed.

Yet another food scare, highlighting just how complex supply

chains can be and how easily problems can spread.

Now, it's a story we reported on earlier this week

here on BBC World News, and that's made news around the world

You will probably have seen the CCTV footage of a jogger seeming to knock

a pedestrian into the path of a London bus.

Well, police earlier said they'd arrested a man over the incident.

The 33-year-old women only escaped serious injury thanks to the quick

The suspect, aged 50, has been released pending further inquiries.

It's a nail biting wait for the final result

of Tuesday's Presidential elections in Kenya.

Those released so far put appear to put the incumbent,

Uhuru Kenyatta, ahead by a clear margin.

But the opposition claims the electoral commissions computers

were hacked to give Mr Uhuru that lead, and have urged

to declare its leader, Raila Odinga, the winner.

International observers say the polls were conducted in

The BBC's Tomi Oladipo reports from Nairobi.

The official result of Kenya's elections have not yet been

announced, but the main opposition party says the tally is a fraud.

We demand that the IEBC chairperson announce

the presidential election results forthwith, and declare

the Right Honourable Raila Amolo Odinga and his

Excellency Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka as the duly elected

president and deputy president of the Republic of Kenya,

Early results indicate that its leader, Raila Odinga, is

trailing his rival, President Uhuru Kenyatta,

Now, the opposition say a source within

the electoral authority has provided numbers to prove they won the vote.

The opposition had earlier claimed the

electoral database was hacked, and election results manipulated.

The electoral authority admits there were

unsuccessful hacking attempts, but insists the results were not

Foreign observers also described the process as credible.

We believe this system is accountable, so far, and at every

step is followed, if somebody monkeyed with it, one will be able

So trust in the process going forward, that is the key.

On Tuesday, millions of Kenyans displayed that faith, and have been

The opposition claims are likely to add

Life in Kenya has been largely on hold since

A political stalemate will only bring more of the

uncertainty that Kenyans have been hoping to avoid.

The Electoral Commission says it is still

verifying the results as they come in.

Official figures are not expected for at least another day.

The United States has expelled two Cuban diplomats,

amid suggestions that mysterious technology was used

to damage the hearing of US embassy staff in Havana.

US State Department officials believe covert sonic devices may

Cuba says it's investigating the claims.

For more on this mysterious story, the BBC's Will Grant

In late 2016, several US embassy staff in Havana began to report

headaches and loss of hearing. As things worsened, they returned to

the United States for treatment. US officials in Cuba began to

investigate. Some familiar with the case have suggested a sonic device

was placed inside or outside the diplomats' homes.

What this requires is providing medical examinations to these

people, initially when they started reporting what I will call symptoms,

it took time to figure out what it was, but this is ongoing. Two Cuban

diplomats were asked to leave the country, but not formally declared

persona non grata. TRANSLATION: For its part, the Cuban Government

issued a lengthy statement on state television announcing the move as

unsubstantiated. They also staunchly protected the record with

international diplomats on the island. However, the incident comes

after a recent downturn in relations. After President Obama

improved ties with Cuba, President Strom has ruled this back. The idea

of US diplomats losing the hearing is unlike that help mend ties. This

latest twist in the long and convoluted relationship between the

United States and Cuba is straight out a cold war

spy novel both sides and we hope that an investigation will help them

get to the most bizarre of incidents.

Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, was a box office hit, and now

there is a sequel. I was relieved the very next day when the entire

rest of the world redoubled their commitments to the Paris agreement,

and in the US, our largest states and hundreds of cities, and business

leaders, said, we are still in the Paris agreement, and it now looks as

though the US is great to meet our commitments in spite of Donald

Trump. It is time to put America first. He has surrounded himself

with a rogues gallery of climate change deniers controlled by the

large polluters. This is well known. I had reason to believe that he

might stay in the Paris agreement, but I think they control his

thinking on this. The truth about the climate crisis is still

inconvenient for these large polluters and the politicians who

they control. The next generation would be justified in looking back

at us and asking, what were you thinking? Could you not you what the

scientists were saying? Could you not hear what mother nature was

screaming? We are feeling the effects of this climate crisis now,

we have had all-time record downpours here in the United Kingdom

in the last couple of years. Just this week, there were record fires

in high temperatures in southern Europe. You could go right around

the world and every night on the TV news now, it is like a nature hike

through the book of Revelation. Mother nature has joined this

discussion, and she is getting the attention of a lot of people who may

not see this as a political controversy. It is a question of the

survival of our civilisation. But we do have the solutions.

Sir Alan Ayckbourn is one of Britain's most successful

playwrights, best known for his comic observations of

Now, at the age of 78, he has written an

epic drama called The Divide, which has its world premiere

tomorrow at the Edinburgh International Festival.

It's set in England 100 years from now -

a deadly contagion has struck, leading to men and women

being separated either side of a giant wall.

The playwright spoke to our Arts Editor, Will Gompertz,

and told him why he had chosen to enter the world

It was, I think, an attempt by me to bridge my ageing writing

personality to a younger generation, and the way to do that, I thought,

was through the medium of science fiction.

It gives you an even playing field, where you say to your younger

audience, "Now this is a world that I don't know but I have

"created and you don't know, and you can inhabit it."

Is it a concern of yours that the theatre is failing

If you look in the average audience, maybe because of

money, but they seem to be middle to late middle age.

The sort of people I want in there...

You can get the very young, you can catch them before they are

ten, but after that they are a lost tribe.

where we are considered mature enough to be possible carriers

How do you keep on challenging yourself?

How do you make sure, you know, after all these plays

you don't find yourself repeating past ideas?

That is a real problem because I keep thinking I must have

I had a stroke a few years back, and for the first time in my life

for a few months I had no ideas. And I thought, well that's it.

Then a little germ arrived and I go, wow, they're

still manifesting, and of course now manifesting furiously.

I feel very excited but a little bit nervous.

I've written next year's play as well.

It's a play called Better Off Dead, I hope that

Sir Alan Ayckbourn speaking to our arts editor Will Gompertz there.