Browse content similar to 18/06/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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direct peace talks with the Taliban. After more than a decade of war | :00:16. | :00:20. | |
costing thousands of lives, the US announces the first step on a long | :00:20. | :00:26. | |
road to peace. The news comes as NATO troops hand over control of the | :00:26. | :00:31. | |
country's security for the first time to Afghan forces. We don't | :00:31. | :00:37. | |
anticipate this process will be easy or quick, but we must pursue it in | :00:37. | :00:41. | |
parallel with our military approach. | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
We will be looking at the prospects of success in the talks that are due | :00:44. | :00:49. | |
to start within days. Also tonight: At the G8 Summit, | :00:49. | :00:54. | |
leaders agree more aid for Syrian refugees, but there is no agreement | :00:54. | :00:59. | |
on President Assad's fate. As campaigners call for tougher | :00:59. | :01:04. | |
rules on tax evasion, the G8 leaders agree new global action. | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
Ministers claim fundamental progress in blocking images of child sexual | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
abuse online after talks with the internet companies. | :01:12. | :01:16. | |
And what is happening to the weather? We report on the latest | :01:16. | :01:22. | |
debate among the experts. Later in the hour on BBC News, I | :01:22. | :01:26. | |
will be few would sport today as the British and Irish Lions lose on tour | :01:26. | :01:29. | |
for the first time, just four days before they face Australia in the | :01:29. | :01:39. | |
:01:39. | :01:57. | ||
in Afghanistan, costing thousands of lives and billions of pounds, the | :01:57. | :02:00. | |
Americans are to start direct talks with the Taliban. The White House | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
called it the first step on a long road to peace. The process was | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
announced on the day the Afghan government took full control of | :02:08. | :02:17. | |
security in the country, as David Each of the past 12 years, the | :02:17. | :02:23. | |
Afghan war has cost those nations fighting it around �20 billion. Then | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
there is the cost in lives lost, tens of thousands of Afghans, and | :02:26. | :02:33. | |
3000 dead foreign troops. But as foreign forces closed down bases to | :02:33. | :02:38. | |
go home, the uneasy truth is that, far from being defeated, the Taliban | :02:38. | :02:40. | |
are still fighting and is now claiming political legitimacy by | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
opening an office in the Gulf and still calling themselves by the name | :02:45. | :02:52. | |
they did when they were in Afghanistan. We want good relations | :02:53. | :02:55. | |
with all countries of the world, including the neighbouring | :02:55. | :03:02. | |
countries. The opening of the Taliban office upstaged a ceremonial | :03:02. | :03:07. | |
event in Kabul to mark the formal handover of Afghan security from | :03:07. | :03:13. | |
NATO to the Afghan government, an historic moment for Afghanistan, but | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
President Karzai found himself talking about the old enemy. | :03:16. | :03:22. | |
principles are that the talks must bring about an end to violence in | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
Afghanistan. In Afghanistan there is fear among human rights activists | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
that there may be too many concessions made to the Taliban on | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
women's rights or education in return for peace, but nothing will | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
happen fast. We do not anticipate this process will be easy or quick, | :03:39. | :03:47. | |
but we must pursue it in parallel with our military approach, and we | :03:47. | :03:51. | |
will in the meantime remain fully committed to our military efforts to | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
defeat Al-Qaeda and support the Afghan national security forces. | :03:55. | :04:01. | |
There have been 444 British dead, almost all of them killed between | :04:02. | :04:04. | |
2006 and 2012 in Helmand. Politicians and military leaders | :04:04. | :04:10. | |
agree that it is time to talk. have long argued that we need to | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
match the security response in Afghanistan where our troops do | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
fantastically important work and where the programme of handing over | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
to the Afghan national-security forces is on track, we have to match | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
that with a political process to try to make sure that as many people as | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
possible give up violence, give up armed struggle. There has been no | :04:29. | :04:34. | |
call for a seized by, the war will not end with these talks, but these | :04:34. | :04:38. | |
talks could end the war. -- these fire. This could mark the beginning | :04:38. | :04:42. | |
of the end of Afghanistan's long torment. | :04:42. | :04:47. | |
As Britain's long and dusty campaign draws to a close, it might be some | :04:47. | :04:57. | |
:04:57. | :04:59. | ||
time before we can say whether it affairs editor John Simpson, John, | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
how do you see the prospects of success in these talks? Everybody is | :05:04. | :05:11. | |
talking about a long time, it will take a good deal of time. I mean, | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
the phrases are just endless. About the length of talks, if they | :05:16. | :05:21. | |
actually do start properly and continue. Apart from anything else, | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
who are the Taliban? You know, they are such a diverse group, with no | :05:26. | :05:33. | |
kind of clear structure, military or political structure. It is not like | :05:33. | :05:39. | |
holding talks with the B and conquer, say, all with the IRA or | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
something like that. These are groups of people, some of whom want | :05:42. | :05:50. | |
to talk, for whatever reason, many of whom do not want to talk, and | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
indeed there is really every reason to think that those who don't want | :05:53. | :05:58. | |
to talk of the ones that really are the decision-makers. Some years ago | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
now, I suppose it is four or five years ago, I suppose, when these | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
things started first to come up, I talked to somebody very senior in | :06:07. | :06:14. | |
the Taliban, genuinely part of the leadership, and he said, why do we | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
want to talk with the Americans? We are winning. Personally, I do not | :06:19. | :06:21. | |
think they are winning, but nevertheless they think they are, | :06:21. | :06:28. | |
and the logic of talking from their point of view is a less than it is | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
from the point of view of President Obama, who is pulling his troops out | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
and wants to make sure he goes out on a high note. | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
Once again, John, thank you very much, John Simpson. | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
After two days of talking in Northern Ireland, the G8 world | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
leaders have reached final conclusions on Syria, global tax | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
avoidance, and on fighting terrorism. There was broad agreement | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
on the need to negotiate a settlement in Syria, but there was | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
no mention of President Assad and his place in the country's future. | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
President Putin of Russia warned against sending arms to be Syrian | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
rebels, comparing them with the people who murdered Drummer Lee | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
Rigby in Woolwich. Nick Robinson has this report. | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
It is the most exclusive club on the planet, open only to the leaders of | :07:14. | :07:19. | |
the world 's richest nations, but one question has hung over the still | :07:19. | :07:25. | |
and beautiful waters of Lough Erne. As the G8 the will, the power to | :07:26. | :07:31. | |
stop the latest conflict to ravage the Middle East? The public smiles | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
belie private disagreements. Russia's often grim faced President | :07:35. | :07:40. | |
Rudin has resisted pressure from his fellow leaders. -- Putin. They | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
wanted him to sign up to a statement which made clear that the Syrian | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
future cannot involve President Assad. He refused. The Prime | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
Minister insisted, though, that all the G8 leaders wanted this message | :07:51. | :07:56. | |
to be heard by those considering abandoning the Assad regime. What is | :07:56. | :08:01. | |
important is to send a very clear signal to the Syrian leadership that | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
we know Syria needs a functioning government, functioning departments, | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
a functioning military and police force, it needs those things after | :08:10. | :08:17. | |
Assad has gone. You cannot imagine a Syria where this man continues to | :08:17. | :08:19. | |
rule, having done such dreadful things to his people, but these | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
people also want stability, and they should know that this is what the | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
international community has agreed. That was not spelt out in the G8 | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
communique, so what exactly did the leaders agreed on how to handle | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
Syria and President Assad? The leaders say they will work together | :08:35. | :08:39. | |
to stop the bloodshed in Syria, they will push for fresh peace talks in | :08:39. | :08:44. | |
Geneva as soon as possible, and they will committed to destroying and | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
expelling Al-Qaeda supporters. What they have not agreed on is the | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
supply of weapons, and crucially they have not agreed on the future | :08:51. | :08:56. | |
of President Assad. President Putin has signed up to very similar | :08:56. | :09:01. | |
language in the past, but he has never spoken out against arming the | :09:01. | :09:09. | |
Syrian rebels in a way designed to be more provocative than this. | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
TRANSLATION: Recently the British people suffered a tragedy, next to | :09:12. | :09:15. | |
his barracks on the streets of London a British serviceman was | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
violently assassinated. Clearly, the Syrian opposition is not entirely | :09:20. | :09:24. | |
composed of people like this, but many of them are exactly the same as | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
the ones who perpetrated the killing in London. What was not hurt here is | :09:29. | :09:36. | |
any detail of how and when President Obama will carry out American | :09:36. | :09:38. | |
promises to give military support to the opposition. His only words on | :09:38. | :09:43. | |
the subject came in an interview recorded before he left home. | :09:43. | :09:48. | |
are folks who say we are so scarred from Iraq that we should not have | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
anything to do with it. I reject that view as well, because the fact | :09:51. | :09:57. | |
of the matter is that we have got serious interest there. To those who | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
fear we are on the brink of a superpower proxy war in the Middle | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
East, any agreement here will be welcome. Britain and America have | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
toned down their rhetoric about arming the rebels. Russia, they | :10:09. | :10:15. | |
hope, is ready to see the back of President Assad. The only question - | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
is anyone in Syria actually listening? As the G8 leaders flew | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
away from yet another summit, the question remained unanswered. Will | :10:23. | :10:33. | |
:10:33. | :10:35. | ||
Well, the G8 leaders said the deal on tax agreed at the summit would | :10:35. | :10:39. | |
tackle what they call the scourge of tax evasion, giving government is | :10:39. | :10:43. | |
automatic access to information about a resident's tax affairs. | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
Rules will be changed to stop firms moving profits across national | :10:47. | :10:53. | |
borders to reduce tax bills. Stephanie Flanders has more details. | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
A grand commitment on tax from the world's most powerful leaders, but | :10:58. | :11:04. | |
they know better than most that when it comes to who pays tax and how | :11:04. | :11:06. | |
much, it is all in the small print. The declaration that has been signed | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
here at the DH, we are committing all of these countries to exchanging | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
information on people who try to evade their taxes, on making sure | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
that companies know who owns them. And on making sure that companies | :11:20. | :11:25. | |
cannot shift profits artificially to avoid tax. Grand promises, but what | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
will they mean in practice? One key commitment was the promise of a new | :11:29. | :11:34. | |
global standard for tackling tax evasion where authorities will | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
automatically exchange information so that if a British national opens | :11:37. | :11:41. | |
a bank account in a tax haven, the Inland Revenue would automatically | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
find out. That would be a change from today, when they have to ask | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
for that information in each individual case. To follow the | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
money, Inland Revenue also needs to know who owns what, and that is | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
where the second big promise comes in, to set up a central register of | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
ownership and require every company to say who really owns and controls | :12:00. | :12:06. | |
them. Campaigners welcome to both parts of the deal but wanted the | :12:06. | :12:10. | |
leaders to do more to help developing countries benefit, and | :12:10. | :12:15. | |
more creative tax planning for big multinationals. This is a first | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
step, and it has been recognised in this declaration that companies need | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
to declare where they pay their tax, how much tax they should pay, but it | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
is only a first step, and we wanted to be publicly available so the | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
public and the media can scrutinise that and make sure companies pay | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
their tax early. By themselves, today's promises will not directly | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
stop big multinationals using loopholes in the system to slash tax | :12:42. | :12:45. | |
bills in countries where they do a lot of business. They talked today | :12:45. | :12:49. | |
about getting rid of those holes, but that is a global problem even | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
the G8 leaders cannot promise to solve any time soon, at least not | :12:52. | :12:55. | |
until they have more countries around the table at the G20's summit | :12:55. | :13:05. | |
The use of face down restraint in mental health hospitals in England | :13:05. | :13:08. | |
could be banned. The BBC has seen evidence which shows the | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
controversial technique is being used hundreds of times a year in | :13:12. | :13:17. | |
some NHS trusts, a level described by a health minister as shocking and | :13:17. | :13:25. | |
even excessive. Mark Easton has the details. This man's death in a | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
mental hospital led to the American state banning the use of face-down | :13:29. | :13:34. | |
restraints, but in England, in the 15 years since David Rocky Bennett | :13:34. | :13:41. | |
died in similar circumstances, campaigners say there have been 13 | :13:41. | :13:43. | |
restraint-related deaths involving mental health patients and the time | :13:43. | :13:53. | |
:13:53. | :13:54. | ||
to ban is long overdue. It's dehumanising and at worst a death | :13:54. | :14:01. | |
sentence. We don't want to see it in the NHS. Naomi knows what it means | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
to be pinned to the ground and as a mental health patient she has | :14:05. | :14:10. | |
endured the procedure many times. Most recently a few months ago. | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
are terrified anyway and it makes you feel even more scared. You are | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
supposed to be building up trust with the staff, but the way it's | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
done quite often it means that that trust is broken completely. | :14:22. | :14:26. | |
Face-down restraint should only be employed as a last resort, but | :14:26. | :14:31. | |
figures show wide variation in the use. In 2011 it was not used at all | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
by four English mental health trusts. While one trust in | :14:35. | :14:38. | |
Northumberland used it over 900 times and another in Southampton | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
over # 00. A number of trusts were unable to provide figures. -- 800. A | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
number of trusts were unable to provide figures. A minister said the | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
variation in the use of restraint is shocking and he's demanding answers | :14:50. | :14:55. | |
from the two trusts who between them account for almost half the use of | :14:55. | :14:59. | |
face-down restraint. I'm very interested in what Mind says about | :14:59. | :15:05. | |
the idea of just banning face-down restraint. If that's possible, it | :15:05. | :15:08. | |
should be done. Two of the trusts involved used then hundreds of times | :15:09. | :15:15. | |
a year. I want them to address what appears to be a very considerable | :15:15. | :15:19. | |
excessive use of restraint. In a statement, the Northumberland Trust | :15:19. | :15:25. | |
said it only uses the most proportionate response. The southern | :15:25. | :15:30. | |
Health Trust, said it is used to minimise discomfort and stress to | :15:30. | :15:34. | |
staff and patients. Face-down restraint is no longer used in | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
Sheffield, after the medical director of the most Trust there | :15:38. | :15:43. | |
experienced the procedure for himself. Pretty unpleasant actually. | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
Hard to breathe. We have taken a very determined stand to stop the | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
use of face-down restraint throughout the Trust and it's not | :15:51. | :15:56. | |
caused the problems that people thought it might. We have done less | :15:56. | :16:01. | |
restraint and less see collusions. Professor cendal is reviewing | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
official guidance and says the committee is likely now to consider | :16:05. | :16:14. | |
whether an outright ban on them should be introduced. There has been | :16:14. | :16:18. | |
a higher-than-expected rise in inflation, reaching 2. 7% in May | :16:18. | :16:25. | |
from 2. 4% in April. The rise was at bueded to increases in the cost of | :16:25. | :16:31. | |
food and clothing and air fares. -- attributed to increases in the | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
cost of food and clothing and air fares. Millions of people took to | :16:34. | :16:39. | |
the streets in Brazil, with violent clashes with police in Rio. Protests | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
are over rising public transport costs, and the expense of staging | :16:44. | :16:49. | |
the 2014 World Cup. In Lebanon, there has been more loss | :16:49. | :16:52. | |
of life in the latest outbreak of violence between rival groups | :16:52. | :16:57. | |
provoked by the civil war in neighbouring Syria. The conflict is | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
becoming increasingly sectarian as Sunni rebels take on the forces of | :17:01. | :17:06. | |
President Assad and his Shia supporters. As we now report, the | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
fear is that this sectarian conflict will spread further across the | :17:10. | :17:16. | |
region. The Lebanese army sent | :17:16. | :17:18. | |
reinforcements when the clashes started. It's already stretched | :17:18. | :17:28. | |
thin, trying to keep the peace. On one side where gunmen loyal to an | :17:28. | :17:35. | |
extremist Sunni cleric, who has been stirring up tension. The other set | :17:35. | :17:40. | |
of guns belong to a group that support the Shia militia, Hezbollah. | :17:40. | :17:45. | |
The fault line runs through the Middle East. It's rumbling because | :17:45. | :17:52. | |
of sectarian killing in Syria and exporting hatred and fear. The Army | :17:52. | :17:55. | |
managed to calm things inside, orderering the gunmen off the | :17:55. | :18:00. | |
streets, until the next time. The city remains tense. Every time | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
there's an incident like this in Lebanon there are more fears that | :18:05. | :18:09. | |
the nightmare of civil war that ended more than 20 years ago could | :18:09. | :18:15. | |
return to this country. As ever, the Lebanese are not masters of their | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
own destinies. They are buffeted by forces that come from abroad and | :18:19. | :18:25. | |
they're finding it very hard to deal with what has been unleashed by the | :18:25. | :18:31. | |
civil war in Syria. At the top of the ridge is Syria. It's war is | :18:31. | :18:34. | |
leaking into all the neighbours, but down the mountain in the Beqaa | :18:34. | :18:43. | |
Valley they feel it more than most. TRANSLATION: --This woman's son was | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
a Hezbollah fighter and he was killed in April as Hezbollah battled | :18:47. | :18:53. | |
against the Assad regime -- for the Assad regime against the allies of | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
Al-Qaeda. TRANSLATION: We are up against something more important | :18:57. | :19:03. | |
than Israel, the Nusra Front. If we don't take a stand, who will? | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
Hezbollah's leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah is a vital ally for | :19:06. | :19:13. | |
Syria's President. Hezbollah has lost many men in Syria, but they've | :19:13. | :19:18. | |
been hardened by years of fighting Israel and for now have the rebels | :19:18. | :19:24. | |
on the runment they are Shia Muslims and share a background with Assad's | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
Alawites. The war in Syria didn't start as a sectarian fight, but it's | :19:29. | :19:34. | |
turning into one. That matters in Lebanon even in hospitals, because | :19:34. | :19:42. | |
the sectarian divisions in this country mirror those in Syria. Not | :19:42. | :19:47. | |
from Hezbollah strongholds in the town Sunni Muslims are being treated | :19:47. | :19:56. | |
by a Lebanese Sunni charity. This rebel fighter from the Free Syrian | :19:56. | :20:05. | |
Army said he was shot by a Hezbollah sniper. Trans war's spreading fast. | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq are affected, because no-one knows how | :20:08. | :20:16. | |
to stop it. In Lebanon, peace depends on maintaining a delicate | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
equilibrium between give groups. Syria's war means the formula isn't | :20:20. | :20:30. | |
:20:30. | :20:33. | ||
internet industry about blocking images of child sexual abuse on-line | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
have made fundamental progress. Companies, including Google, Twitter | :20:36. | :20:41. | |
and BT, have agreed to give an extra �1 million to the Internet Watch | :20:41. | :20:45. | |
Foundation to search for abusive images rather than just responding | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
to reports. It is estimated that there are one million unique images | :20:49. | :20:57. | |
of child abuse on-line. 40,000 are currently reported every year. | :20:57. | :21:05. | |
9,500,000 web pages are removed in response. -- 9,500 web pages are | :21:05. | :21:10. | |
removed in response. Stuart Hazell and Mark Bridger used extreme | :21:10. | :21:15. | |
pornography on-line. Today, internet companies and ministers met to | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
discuss how to curb access to such material. They agreed new powers for | :21:18. | :21:23. | |
the body which tries to remove it. The two recent paedophile cases, | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
particularly, have brought this way up in the public consciousness and | :21:27. | :21:29. | |
people really want something done about it and we can do something | :21:29. | :21:34. | |
about it, not everything, but something. The Government said the | :21:34. | :21:37. | |
inter Internet Watch Foundation would now be able to do more. The | :21:37. | :21:41. | |
body, funded by industry, will receive another �1 million from | :21:41. | :21:44. | |
internet companies. It's work involves acting on reports of child | :21:44. | :21:50. | |
abuse images. It will now actively seek them out and it issues a black | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
list for internet providers to block and now they're being encouraged to | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
flash up a warning when users try to access such images. In public, the | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
internet companies were polite about today's meeting, but in private they | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
said there was little new about the measure unveiled. One executive, who | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
was there, told me the politicians had shown frightening ignorance | :22:10. | :22:14. | |
about the technical issues and he accused the Government of failing to | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
provide sufficient funding to track down those behind the child abuse | :22:18. | :22:25. | |
images. The job of prosecuting those who upload or view the images is | :22:25. | :22:27. | |
done by Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency, and their | :22:27. | :22:31. | |
budget has been cut to �6 million, but the Government insists the work | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
in this area has become more effective. We have got more people | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
working on the front line, on the sorts of issues that are connected | :22:39. | :22:45. | |
with child abuse and child exploileTation. What is important -- | :22:45. | :22:47. | |
exploitation, but what is important is Child Exploitation and Online | :22:47. | :22:49. | |
Protection Agency are working in co-operation with the industry. | :22:49. | :22:56. | |
Parents' groups want more action now. It's illegal content, so there | :22:56. | :23:00. | |
needs to be funding to back up the agencies and the Internet Watch | :23:00. | :23:05. | |
Foundation to make sure it's not there and people are prosecuted. | :23:05. | :23:09. | |
campaign to eradicate the images is gathering pace, but finding them in | :23:09. | :23:16. | |
every dark corner of the internet won't be easy. | :23:16. | :23:23. | |
On thes -- from the freezing winter of 2010 to last year's soaking-wet | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
summer, Britain has experienced unusual weather patterns in recent | :23:27. | :23:33. | |
years, and today meteorologists have met to discuss the patterns and to | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
consider whether they are part of a radical shift in global weather | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
radical shift in global weather forms. A freezing winter three years | :23:40. | :23:48. | |
ago. The country almost paralysed. Last year, one of the wettest | :23:48. | :23:52. | |
summers on record. And we have just had the chilliest spring for 50 | :23:52. | :23:57. | |
years. This kind of thing has happened before, but rarely in such | :23:57. | :24:01. | |
quick succession, so is there something behind this? Today at the | :24:01. | :24:06. | |
Met Office in Exeter, they were puzzling over the swirl of colours | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
representing the jet stream. It's the key to our weather. But not the | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
whole answer, because what shapes the jet stream is a range of forces. | :24:14. | :24:19. | |
The sun, for example. And the warmth of the oceans. Maybe man-made | :24:19. | :24:24. | |
greenhouse gases as well, but no single answer has emerged. At the | :24:24. | :24:28. | |
moment we really can't say. I know it's a disappointing answer for you. | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
It's a disappointing answer for scientists to have this uncertainty, | :24:33. | :24:36. | |
but I want to emphasise that in order to address that question we | :24:36. | :24:41. | |
need to know what is loading the dice for the position of the jet | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
stream. To understand our weather, the starting point is the jet | :24:44. | :24:49. | |
stream. The river of wind flowing above the Atlantic. This is where it | :24:49. | :24:54. | |
should be for us to get decent weather, but when it's south we get | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
more rain, but what affects the course? The rapid retreat of arkic | :24:58. | :25:03. | |
sea ice. The red line shows the average. That could be one factor. | :25:03. | :25:06. | |
Or is it the temperatures and currents of the Atlantic Ocean? Heat | :25:06. | :25:12. | |
in the ocean influences the air above. Finally, the sun, now in a | :25:12. | :25:15. | |
more active phase can affect the upper atmosphere, or it could be a | :25:15. | :25:22. | |
mix of all of these. Last year, the Arctic ice melted to a record | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
extent. I saw for myself what happened. This may be a sign of a | :25:27. | :25:30. | |
man-made influence in any event, but some scientists believe the scale of | :25:30. | :25:35. | |
the change is so great that it must disrupt the circulation of air above | :25:35. | :25:41. | |
it. We have this unprecedented decline in Arctic sea ice and it has | :25:41. | :25:46. | |
a direct impact on the atmosphere above it. One is the atmosphere | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
warming. But the patterns of winds and currents are incredibly complex. | :25:50. | :25:54. | |
Working it all out is one of the toughest challenges in modern | :25:54. | :25:58. | |
science. There's just so much that isn't known. The answer may even lie | :25:58. | :26:03. |