Is perfomed by a team of vets in liverpool. And coming up on Bbc News, celtic get their Champions League Campaign off to a flying start with a Record Opening Win for brendan rodgers side. Good Afternoon And Welcome to the Bbc News at one. The bbc has today been contacted by more former harrods employees who say they were assaulted by Mohammed Al fayed when he owned the famous department store. It follows claims in a new Bbc Documentary by five women who say he raped them while they worked for him. The programme has uncovered evidence that, under mr Al Fayeds ownership, harrods not only failed to intervene but helped to cover up the allegations. Just to warn you, this report from Shaimaa Khalil contains descriptions of sexual violence. Yeah, i went back to harrods about a year ago. I knew if i could walk through and come out the other side, id be in a good place to be talking to you. Ijoined harrods because i wanted to be a buyer, and i ended up working for an absolute monster. When mohamed Al Fayed took over harrods, he quickly embraced his high Profile Role and the status that came with it. To his customers and the celebrity guests, he was all charm. But to many of his female employees, he was a different man a predator. Weve heard testimony from more than 20 of Al Fayeds female ex employees. He tried to rape me more than once. And he pushed me in and onto the bed, so that i couldnt move. You know, he was 79, i nearly 80, and i was 15. Mohamed Al Fayed was rich and powerful. That power allowed him to carry out assault at scale over decades. I wasnt at home. I was in france. And hed come upstairs into my room. I was absolutely terrified. Got into bed with me. He was trying to kiss me and push himself on me and. And ijust. I dont know how i did it. Ijust kicked him off. I kicked and kicked and kicked and kicked and screamed. And again i got him off. I was just. Just terrified. I think mohamed Al Fayed is a rapist. I think hes a serial rapist. Gemma worked as Al Fayeds Personal Assistant for two years. My first trip was actually to Abu Dhabi and he was trying to get in my room in quite an aggressive manner. It was absolutely terrifying. Just didnt know which way to turn, so i bought a small dictaphone that i had in my pocket and these are the transcripts from those recordings. One of them was in paris, in his residence there, villa windsor. I said, i just want to go to sleep on my own, mr fayed. I dont want to, mr fayed. And he kept saying, relax, please, relax. How can you relax when youre in that situation . He walked out and he was angry. Not long after this incident, gemma says Al Fayed raped her. The bbc has heard testimony from four other women who say he raped them at his properties. In 2009, gemma contacted a lawyer who told harrods she was leaving herjob on the grounds of sexual harassment. She didnt feel able to disclose the more serious allegations at the time. They agreed to pay a settlement if she signed a non disclosure agreement. There was also one other condition. The lawyers organised for a Shredding Truck to come to my lawyers office. It was shredded in front of us, including tapes i had of him, my phone, that had messages and voicemails, really quite nasty voicemails on them. Someone from hr was present for the shredding of all of the evidence i had. I thought id lost the transcripts, but actually what i did have was the transcriptions sent to my lawyer in my sent items of my Email Account at the time. In a statement, the current owners of harrods say they were utterly appalled by the allegations and that employees who were his victims had been failed for which they sincerely apologised. They also said that the harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010. There were several attempts to expose Al Fayed before his death, but it is only now that many of the survivors feel able to speak publicly about the abuse. For those who have, the silence and the taboo are finally broken. Shaimaa khalil, Bbc News. And you can watch more on that story on Bbc Two tonight at 9pm and on bbc iplayer, and theres also a Podcast Series on bbc sounds. The Bank Of England has held Interest Rates, deciding to keep them unchanged at 5 . Homeowners, landlords and renters had been hoping for a cut to bring their payments down. The news is more positive for savers. The Banks Governor had previously said that any reduction in rates would happen gradually. Our chief economics correspondent, dharshini david, joins us. Dharshini, what should we take away from Todays Decision . As you say, no surprises there because they had warned us it was not going to cut rates as quickly as they put them up. But it is a reminder to borrowers is coming off, for example, fixed Rate Mortgage deals, Hundreds Of Thousands this year, over the rest of this year, they will face higher repayments than they have been used to. This of course means all sorts of pain which already homeowners, landlords and renters have been facing. Including one family we went to visit in bracknell. Getting a Dream Home for yourfamily has got harder as the cost of living crisis pushed up bills, including rents, challenging even for those in work. My family helped move us, so that helped because we couldnt afford the moving vans, so they had to chip in. Like james and sophia, who have had to downsize and faced other tough choices, just as their son arrived. When i went on maternity leave, i could only go off for about ten weeks to spend with my son because we just couldnt afford any more. Even that was a major stretch, to the point where we had to get ourselves into a pit of debt. It was the Food Banks that got us through. Yeah, definitely, definitely. They were so generous, donating, like, milk and toiletries. The Bank Of England is very aware of the pain higher prices can cause. So, with inflation in some areas, services, such as airfares and hotel stays, still relatively high, it has decided not to cut Interest Rates again today. However, take a look at fixed Rate Mortgage deals. They are already coming down because they are linked to expected Interest Rates. Analysts do think that cost of borrowing will follow soon. That has injected new life into the Property Market and increased prices. Where does that leave those looking to switch from renting to buying . Housing is still actually quite expensive. For example, if you are a typical earner buying a typical first time Buyer Property with 20 deposit, that monthly Mortgage Payment is now taking about 36 of that average earner s Take Home Pay and the long Run Average is about 30, so you can see it is much more stretched than it was before because House Prices are still high relative to earnings and because Interest Rates are so much higher than they were before. Only one member of the banks nine strong Interest Rate Panel voted for a cut today. Analysts think another Rate Reduction will come this year, but only when ther s clearer signs lingering inflationary pressures, including on rents, are subsiding. Pressures that are also at the forefront of many households minds. I mean, even with this place, one Year Mark on the contract, the price goes up by 5 , 70 a month, and already written in, so we dont know whether we can do that. Already, starting to think of in a years time weve got to pack everything up again and move it all again dharshini david, Bbc News. The bbc has been told that several offenders who leftjail last week, under the governments early release scheme, havent been fitted with electronic tags yet, even though they should have been. The government has blamed the company that provides the Tags Serco for the delays. Our political correspondent Harry Farley can tell us more. Harry, whats gone wrong here . Ultimately, the sheer numbers of prisoners being released part of the way through the sentence and being monitored in the community, there is a backlog of those prisoners waiting to have tags fitted. Obviously the i700 to have tags fitted. Obviously the 1700 prisoners released early in england and wales last week by the government only added to that. One Probation Officer appointed to a shortage in the number of tags, the Ministry Ofjustice points to the backlog. Just to be clear, when a prisoner is released early from prison, they are still serving the sentence and they are monitored in the community, often fitted with tags usually around the ankle and it allows the authorities to monitor movements and in some cases impose curfews such as being at a certain address overnight. To give you a sense of the problem and just how serious it is, one offender released last week and that the Governments Scheme told my colleague they should have tagged him but they havent and it means i can go where i choose. This offender says they will abide by the Curfew Conditions imposed, but they go on, i know people who are not doing that because they have not been tagged, it is a disaster waiting to happen. The Ministry Of Justice is blaming the Security Contractor Serco for their part. They say they are working hard to clear the backlog. A ministry of Justice Spokesperson said they will apply financial penalties against the company if it is not resolved quickly. They say they will also prioritise tagging domestic abusers to make sure they abide by their conditions, such as staying away from the address of their victims. Harry, thank you. A new report on the standard of Maternity Care in england says it urgently needs to be reformed to stop harm from becoming normalised. The Care Quality Commission has warned of widespread problems in hospitals across the country and is calling for immediate action to address them. Our health correspondent, catherine burns, reports. Fiona designed this nursery when she was pregnant, picking out outfits for her baby, but her daughter, aliona, never lived to enjoy any of this. Things that i made for her, Birth Announcement pictures. Fiona went into labour at home, her waters broke and she was worried because she didnt think her baby was moving as much as normal. She should have been assessed then. She wasnt. When she was in hospital, her baby had an abnormal heart rate. This should have been assessed. It wasnt. Baby aliona was pronounced dead within half an hour of birth. When they came over and said my name, ijust turned around to them and went, shes dead, isnt she . And. And they said, yes. And this Primal Scream is probably the only way i can describe it, itjust came out of me with no sort of control over my body. A tiny piece of her hair. Leeds Teaching Hospitals has said its sorry that the care it provided was not at the standard it would expect, and that it has learned lessons from what happened. But stories like fionas are happening too often. You will stay. Over recent years, weve seen high Profile Maternity scandals. Yesterday, bereaved families in nottingham heard a Progress Review on whats become the biggest investigation into Maternity Failings in nhs history. Almost 2,000 cases are being reviewed there. The healthcare regulator, the cqc, was worried about this so carried out a national maternity inspection. It focussed on about two thirds of Hospital Maternity units any that hadnt been inspected since march 2021. Of the 131 units it inspected, not a single one was rated as outstanding for safety. 35 had good safety ratings, leaving 65 as either requires improvement or inadequate for safety. In other words, two thirds of Maternity Units are not safe enough. This report doesnt hold back, saying unless things change, poor Care And Harm will become normalised. But in some ways, none of this is new. There have been warnings about Maternity Safety for years now. Weve reported on this over and again, but still the problems remain. This Report Picks out certain key issues women not getting assessed quickly enough, trusts not learning from mistakes, not enough staff, discrimination based on race. It says, disappointingly, none of these problems are new. It is one of the biggest issues that keeps me awake at night, worrying about the quality of care being delivered today and the risk of Disaster Greeting women in labour tomorrow. He says trusts will be supported to make rapid improvements so all women can feel confident using maternity services. But Fiona And Other Families say, for things to improve, there should be a public inquiry into the state of Maternity Care. Our top story this afternoon. More former harrods employees claim they were assaulted by mohamed Al Fayed when he owned the famous department store. And the us Coast Guard releases more footage of the wreckage of the Titan Submersible which imploded last year on a mission to explore the titanic. Coming up on Bbc News, arsenal are in italy as they prepare to take on atalanta in the Opening Match of their Champions League Campaign. Its one of six matches this evening. A fresh round of funerals are being held in lebanon, after a second day of attacks on electronic devices belonging to members of the powerful military and political group hezbollah. Civilians were also killed and injured when first pagers, and then 2k hours later Walkie Talkies exploded in a wave of co ordinated detonations. Israel hasnt admitted responsibility for the attacks, but has announced a new phase in its conflict with lebanon. Hezbollah s leader Hassan Nasrallah will make a speech in the next few hours. Our middle East Correspondent Hugo bachega reports from beirut. This is the moment a blast rocks beirut. Hezbollah had gathered to bury the victims from the explosions of the day before until it was hit by a new wave of attacks, this time Targeting Walkie talkies used by the group. Apparently another operation by israel. One of the Explosions Yesterday happened not far from here, in a Hezbollah Stronghold in southern beirut. There was a lot of Chaos And Confusion because many believe that no electronic device was safe. Hezbollah members stop us a number of times, telling us not to use a camera, phones and today those concerns continue. Translation its scary, its frightening. Where are we going . I have no idea, this is frightening. We cannot cope any more. Translation of course i was scared, is there anyone who wouldnt be scared in this situation . You can hide from a bullet but this is much more difficult. Ifi bullet but this is much more difficult. If i want to answer my phone i am too scared. This is not a face to face battle, it is a cowardly way to fight. If you want to show our Strength Basis on the battlefield. The attacks on lebanon began on tuesday, pagers used by hezbollah exploded as people were shopping at home with their families. The group had turned the Soul School Technology because of security concerns, fearing that israel was monitoring Mobile Phones to track and kill its fighters. Israel is widely believed to have been behind the attacks and as usual, it has not claimed responsibility but the suspicion is that it managed to Add Explosives inside the devices. For almost a year, Hezbollah And Israel have been fighting along the border, a conflict that so far has been relatively contained but concerns are rising again that this may escalate into an all out war. Later today, the hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will give his first public reaction to the attacks. Many will look for any indication of how the group might react after a humiliating couple of days. Hugo bachega, Bbc News. In a moment well speak to yolande knell injerusalem. First to hugo in beirut. Hezbollah are deciding how to react to this, what options will they be considering . I think this is the key question because this was the worst Security Breach in the history of hezbollah, humiliating for the group. And obviously very damaging for the group, it wants to be seen as one of israels most sophisticated enemies but hezbollah is treading a very fine line because any kind of response could trigger a major war with Israel And Hezbollah has given indications that it does not want that right now. And obviously hezbollah is supported by iran and having shown hezbollah right here in lebanon next to israel is important for iran, part of the deterrent so it is a very difficult reality for Hezbollah And Itll be interesting see what Hassan Nasrallah will say later today when he makes his first public remarks since those attacks. These attacks have also had a huge psychological impact on people across the country. Some people telling us they are scared, that their devices might explode, so lots of people wondering if these attacks are going to continue. Thanks, hugo. And lets head tojerusalem, yolande, whats being said in israel . The israeli Defence Minister has been talking about the centre of gravity moving north and we know that there have been israeli troops sent to the northern border with lebanon, an entire division recently serving inside garzo. Its still not clear from serving inside garzo. Its still not clearfrom here if israel serving inside garzo. Its still not clear from here if israel is serving inside garzo. Its still not clearfrom here if israel is heading to a full blown war with hezbollah o