31/03/2014 BBC News at One


31/03/2014

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future food and water supplies. We expect to see substantial

:00:22.:00:27.

extensions, widespread impacts on ecosystems. We'll be looking at the

:00:28.:00:31.

science behind the report and we'll be live in the Somerset levels as

:00:32.:00:35.

they take action to prevent further flooding.

:00:36.:00:36.

Also this lunchtime: Policing in England and Wales says it has been

:00:37.:00:40.

damaged but not broken by scandals, according to a new report.

:00:41.:00:48.

It has shaken public trust in the police, and that is the trust that

:00:49.:00:53.

needs to be restored. New inquests into the deaths of 96

:00:54.:00:56.

people at Hillsborough 25 years after the stadium disaster.

:00:57.:01:00.

George Osborne commits to fight for full employment and says he'll use

:01:01.:01:03.

tax and welfare changes to achieve it.

:01:04.:01:07.

The phone-hacking trial hears how Rebekah Brooks' husband hid

:01:08.:01:09.

pornographic DVDs from police to avoid embarrassment.

:01:10.:01:15.

Later on BBC London: The Mayor of Tower Hamlets denies he's given

:01:16.:01:18.

funding to charities to gain electoral support.

:01:19.:01:22.

And with the Met about to trial body cameras for officers, we travel to

:01:23.:01:23.

the US to see how it works there. Good afternoon and welcome to the

:01:24.:01:50.

BBC News at One. The impact of global warming is likely to be

:01:51.:01:54.

severe, pervasive and irreversible. That is according to a major report

:01:55.:01:58.

by the UN, which warns of a growing risk of floods, food shortages and

:01:59.:02:02.

threats to human health and carbon emissions are not reduced. While

:02:03.:02:07.

some sceptics have acute sciences of being too alarmist, the report

:02:08.:02:11.

suggests humans may be able to add of the changes, but only within

:02:12.:02:17.

limits. -- to adapt. Climate change is here, now, says

:02:18.:02:23.

the UN's report. We can see it in fish migration patterns, in melting

:02:24.:02:29.

Arctic sea ice, in shrinking Himalayan glaciers are like this one

:02:30.:02:34.

I visited last year. We can see the damage to coral is. In short, the

:02:35.:02:39.

authors say, climate change is a fact. But the report is saying is

:02:40.:02:44.

that parts of climate change are reversible. Things have happened

:02:45.:02:50.

that we can't change. But there are a lot of things where if we act now,

:02:51.:02:54.

we can prevent it getting worse. We are likely to get more severe floods

:02:55.:03:01.

in future as warm air holds more moisture. It urges politicians to

:03:02.:03:05.

cut emissions of CO2 to slow the warming. But at the document's

:03:06.:03:11.

launch in Japan, the authors said we must also adapt to the inevitable

:03:12.:03:15.

future changes to the climate. It is not that we are talking about

:03:16.:03:19.

identifying a particular thing that is going to happen at a particular

:03:20.:03:23.

time. It is understanding how to be prepared into microwaves. One is in

:03:24.:03:34.

decreasing -- in two microwaves. One is decreasing climate change, the

:03:35.:03:39.

other is coping. This is a small move towards adaptation. On Exmoor,

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they are draining channels but previously to improve productivity.

:03:47.:03:52.

They are trying to catch water in the Moss to prevent flooding. This

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moth stores 20 times its own weight in water. -- Moss. Every drop of

:04:00.:04:05.

rain caught here does not end up downstream. We can improve farming,

:04:06.:04:10.

too. Here in Cranfield University, they have created artificial mini

:04:11.:04:16.

fields and switched on the rain. In the plot on the left, the soil is

:04:17.:04:21.

contacted by farm machines. See how the water runs off. Compact it feels

:04:22.:04:28.

contributed flooding. We need to be smart about how we manage the soil

:04:29.:04:34.

and the land. Good soil management is the way to absorbing some of

:04:35.:04:37.

these rainfall events. To mitigate or reduce the impact of some of the

:04:38.:04:42.

flooding, that is. So there are things we can do. But adapting to

:04:43.:04:46.

climate change does have its limits, the report says. If we see a four

:04:47.:04:51.

degrees rise in temperature, we expect to see expand as macro

:04:52.:04:57.

substantial extinctions, widespread impact on ecosystems... -- we expect

:04:58.:05:07.

to see substantial extinctions. Extreme warming would also melt the

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Greenland ice cap. Critics say the report is alarmist. They say the

:05:14.:05:17.

climate simply will not warm that much. The UN panel says we have to

:05:18.:05:22.

make sure that it doesn't. Our science editor is here. It is a

:05:23.:05:30.

pretty grim prognosis. It is pretty grim with the word if in front of

:05:31.:05:35.

everything. If there is extreme warming, at the upper end of what

:05:36.:05:40.

the scientists are saying could happen, a whole cascade of things

:05:41.:05:44.

could follow. If it is not as bad as had been thought, some of those

:05:45.:05:49.

impacts will be minimised. As ever, there are great varieties of how the

:05:50.:05:53.

impacts will play out. For example, if you are poor, living and of -- in

:05:54.:06:02.

a developing world coast, you are likely to be exposed to more of the

:06:03.:06:05.

impacts the scientists have been talking about. If you look at crop

:06:06.:06:10.

yields, it is more, became two. Plants do well with more carbon

:06:11.:06:13.

dioxide. Some greenhouses are given more CO2 to help the plants

:06:14.:06:19.

flourish, up to a point. Plants do not like to be stressed by heat. In

:06:20.:06:25.

some parts of the world, some plants might do a bit better for a while.

:06:26.:06:29.

In other parts, it will be pretty difficult earlier on in the century.

:06:30.:06:34.

There have been many reports on climate change. How significant is

:06:35.:06:39.

this one? It takes account of a whole new load of research done in

:06:40.:06:43.

the seven years since the last one. There has been a lot of work in the

:06:44.:06:48.

oceans, forest, deserts. Scientists think they have a better picture.

:06:49.:06:53.

They also, conversely, think there is a lot they don't know. The more

:06:54.:06:58.

they drill down into the complexity of ecosystems and how the world

:06:59.:07:01.

responds to warming, and particularly how humans respond and

:07:02.:07:05.

can adapt, the more they realise there is even more work to do to

:07:06.:07:09.

understand fully what the impacts might be.

:07:10.:07:14.

We will have more on the effects of global warming later in the

:07:15.:07:17.

programme when we see how one community is dealing with the

:07:18.:07:22.

consequences of the very wet winter. The first ever annual assessment of

:07:23.:07:25.

the police service in England and Wales says it has been damaged but

:07:26.:07:30.

not broken by scandals. It says it has been severely shaken by

:07:31.:07:33.

controversies including the Stephen Lawrence case and the so-called

:07:34.:07:38.

plebgate affair. The Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Tom Windsor, said

:07:39.:07:41.

the scandals and revelations had damaged public confidence and the

:07:42.:07:44.

morale of honest, hard-working officers. Our home affairs

:07:45.:07:47.

correspondent is in Westminster for us.

:07:48.:07:51.

It has been a pretty bad year for the police service, in terms of

:07:52.:07:55.

resources and reputational damage. Many expected this report to put the

:07:56.:07:58.

boot in, not least because its author hasn't been afraid of

:07:59.:08:02.

recommending some pretty controversial reforms to police pay

:08:03.:08:06.

and conditions in the past. In the round, it reads like a pretty

:08:07.:08:10.

staunch defence of the police service in England and Wales. That

:08:11.:08:14.

is not to say, of course, that they are not criticisms with it.

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Damaged but not broken. After a year of what seemed like endless

:08:20.:08:23.

criticism of the police in England and Wales and the verdict of the

:08:24.:08:26.

Chief Inspector of Constabulary appears almost, the mentoring. There

:08:27.:08:32.

have been scandals, yes, but it cuts, too. But Tom Windsor's report

:08:33.:08:38.

on the police is essentially a B+. It is necessary for the police to

:08:39.:08:45.

re-establish the priorities of policing. The first priority is

:08:46.:08:50.

keeping people safe, to prevent crime to prevent people becoming

:08:51.:08:53.

victims in the first place. He says police have made budget cuts while

:08:54.:08:57.

protecting the front line. But he warns that a loss of trust in police

:08:58.:09:02.

is corrosive and public confidence is severely shaken by recent

:09:03.:09:06.

controversies. He says revelations about police corruption in the

:09:07.:09:08.

Stephen Lawrence murder investigation justify severe

:09:09.:09:14.

criticisms and public disquiet. But in general he concludes police are

:09:15.:09:19.

honest and deserve fair treatment. In other scandals, he has less to

:09:20.:09:24.

say. They include plebgate, the enforced resignation of a Cabinet

:09:25.:09:28.

minister as a result of at least one dishonest officer. And the sexual

:09:29.:09:32.

deception of citizens by undercover police, cases which he says remain

:09:33.:09:37.

open and uncle included, even if others have judged them premature

:09:38.:09:42.

leak. Today's report is the first annual assessment of police, and

:09:43.:09:46.

more will follow. It paints a picture of a survey struggling with

:09:47.:09:49.

resources and often burdened by criticism, but in general in good

:09:50.:09:54.

shape. Looking to the future, he also has

:09:55.:09:57.

concerns about the technology that the police use. In many cases, he

:09:58.:10:03.

says it is primitive. He has reservations about the readiness of

:10:04.:10:07.

police to tackle adequately cyber crime, the huge growth in online

:10:08.:10:12.

fraud. With regard to corruption, he says that needs to be tackled at the

:10:13.:10:15.

top in terms of providing leadership. But he is clear that

:10:16.:10:19.

rebuilding trust in the police among the public is going to be done by a

:10:20.:10:23.

neighbourhood policing, the so-called preservation of the bobby

:10:24.:10:28.

on the beat. For the first time ever, selectors

:10:29.:10:31.

as an probation officers have jointly walked out of court crossing

:10:32.:10:37.

in and will usher macro Wales today. -- England and Wales today. Members

:10:38.:10:40.

of the National Association of Probation Officers are protesting

:10:41.:10:43.

against plans to advertise part of the service. -- to privatise.

:10:44.:10:53.

New inquest into the deaths of the 96 Liverpool fans who were killed in

:10:54.:10:57.

the Hillsborough disaster 25 years ago has begun this morning. The

:10:58.:11:01.

Djourou of the original inquest in 1991 returned verdicts of accidental

:11:02.:11:06.

death. But they were overturned over that -- after a long campaign.

:11:07.:11:19.

These inquests involve around 100 lawyers and 300 bereaved relatives.

:11:20.:11:22.

As such, they have had to build a special court room here in

:11:23.:11:25.

Warrington for them. The hearings will last for around a year. This

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morning, they began by selecting the jury.

:11:30.:11:36.

They lost their loved ones 25 years ago. Today, they came to court to

:11:37.:11:41.

find out what happened at Hillsborough. These families have

:11:42.:11:45.

spent years campaigning for you inquests. They know the months ahead

:11:46.:11:50.

will not be easy. I think there will be quite a few shocks as we progress

:11:51.:11:59.

over the next 12 months. The truth will out. You can't underestimate

:12:00.:12:03.

how difficult it is going to be for everybody. All we can do is do our

:12:04.:12:07.

best and trust in the judge and everything else. Sheffield

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Wednesday's Stadium has long been associated with the disaster which

:12:13.:12:16.

happened here. It is where Liverpool came to play an FA Cup semifinal in

:12:17.:12:20.

1989 and where the terraces became so overcrowded that 96 people

:12:21.:12:27.

eventually lost their lives. Then you inquests will seek to establish

:12:28.:12:30.

how each of the Liverpool fans died and will last for around a year and

:12:31.:12:37.

hearing evidence from new witnesses. There are thousands of pages of

:12:38.:12:40.

documents. There is hundreds of witnesses coming. And there are

:12:41.:12:45.

hours of footage that has never been seen before. All the work that has

:12:46.:12:51.

gone into this before the inquest started today is huge. Two years ago

:12:52.:12:55.

the previous inquest verdict of accidental death was quashed at the

:12:56.:12:59.

High Court, and these new inquests were ordered. It followed the

:13:00.:13:02.

publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which are new

:13:03.:13:05.

evidence about the disaster. Its primary author came to court today.

:13:06.:13:13.

My concern is at this minute with the families and the survivors, and

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what this, after 25 years, means to them. Yesterday at Anfield many fan

:13:21.:13:25.

stops to pay respect to the memorial as the new inquests begin. The

:13:26.:13:31.

effect is still deeply felt by this community. The juror 's have been

:13:32.:13:38.

told they must put out of their minds anything they may have heard

:13:39.:13:42.

or read about Hillsborough in the past. Among the first people to give

:13:43.:13:47.

evidence here at court in the coming days will be some of the relatives

:13:48.:13:52.

of those who died, who have been asked to stand up and address the

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jury, telling them their own personal recollections and memories

:13:58.:13:59.

of the fans who went to Hillsborough and never came home.

:14:00.:14:05.

There is more on the Hillsborough disaster on our website. You can

:14:06.:14:10.

find out more about the 96 men, women and children who died and

:14:11.:14:16.

details of the inquests. The Chancellor, George Osborne, says

:14:17.:14:20.

he wants to build an economy that supports full employment. In a

:14:21.:14:24.

speech to business leaders, he said there is no reason why Britain

:14:25.:14:28.

shouldn't aim to have the highest employment rate of any of the

:14:29.:14:32.

world's leading economies. Norman Smith is in Westminster. Pick a

:14:33.:14:40.

different economist and you'd probably come up with a different

:14:41.:14:43.

answer, and therein lies the problem. We do not know what Mr

:14:44.:14:47.

Osborne means by full employment, whether he's setting up a new

:14:48.:14:51.

economic target or just reaching for an ambitious headline. We don't know

:14:52.:14:56.

whether he means 0% unemployment or 1% or 2%. Or he would take is he

:14:57.:15:00.

wants Britain to be the best place in the world to get a job. He

:15:01.:15:04.

flagged up the fact that proportionately, more people are in

:15:05.:15:25.

work here than are in the United States. But if you look in the

:15:26.:15:28.

report by the Office for Budget Responsibility, they are saying

:15:29.:15:30.

unemployment will still be 5% in 2018. So is that full employment? We

:15:31.:15:32.

simply don't know. The Chancellor said that the Government had already

:15:33.:15:35.

made a lot of progress in creating more jobs. We will not rest while we

:15:36.:15:37.

have so much wasted potential in some parts of our country. That is

:15:38.:15:40.

why today I'm making a new commitment. A commitment to fight

:15:41.:15:42.

for full employment in Britain. Making jobs a central goal of our

:15:43.:15:46.

economic plan. My sense is what is going on is not so much about

:15:47.:15:49.

figures and numbers but political positioning. Sending out a message

:15:50.:15:52.

to the electorate that the coalition is not just obsessed with deficit

:15:53.:15:57.

reduction, they also want to create jobs. It also trying to park Tory

:15:58.:16:06.

tax on the Labour cabbage patch. Our top story. Severe, pervasive and

:16:07.:16:11.

irreversible. The UN's verdict on the impact of global climate change.

:16:12.:16:16.

Still to come... How one community in Somerset is coping with the

:16:17.:16:21.

effects of a very wet winter. Later on BBC London, the Government's is

:16:22.:16:26.

accused of licensing slavery by making it difficult to foreign

:16:27.:16:29.

domestic staff to escape bad employers. And is the warm weather

:16:30.:16:33.

here to stay? We will have a full forecast for London at 1:30pm.

:16:34.:16:43.

The Australian Prime Minister has said there is no time limit in the

:16:44.:16:48.

search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. He made the

:16:49.:16:51.

comments as he visited service men and women involved in the hunt in

:16:52.:16:54.

the southern Indian Ocean. Later today a ship will leave Perth bound

:16:55.:16:57.

for the search area towing a device for locating the black box flight

:16:58.:17:01.

recorder of the missing plane. Jonah Fisher is at the base from where the

:17:02.:17:09.

search is being co-ordinated. Yes, it's now more than three weeks since

:17:10.:17:14.

the Malaysian Airlines plane disappeared. And the prospect of

:17:15.:17:17.

finding out where the aircraft is now and indeed what happened on

:17:18.:17:21.

board have never felt bleaker. We've just heard back from the Australian

:17:22.:17:25.

authorities, the results of today's search. There were ten planes and

:17:26.:17:29.

ten ships operating in the search area. Yet again they've not come

:17:30.:17:33.

back with anything of any consequences. Questions are

:17:34.:17:38.

increasingly being asked about how long this search effort can continue

:17:39.:17:45.

for. Australia's Prime Minister came to visit a search operation in

:17:46.:17:49.

desperate need of a lucky break. It has been two fruitless weeks since

:17:50.:17:54.

attention shifted to the southern Indian Ocean, and having spoken to

:17:55.:17:59.

some of the pilots, Tony Abbott palmist that the huge, multinational

:18:00.:18:03.

effort would continue. The best brains in the world are applying

:18:04.:18:09.

themselves to this task. All of the technological mastery that we have

:18:10.:18:13.

is being applied and brought to bear here. So if this mystery is

:18:14.:18:21.

solvable, we will solve it will stop but I don't want to under estimate

:18:22.:18:25.

just how difficult it is. The first flight to leave the base today was a

:18:26.:18:31.

Chinese 76. Several times in the last week, planes have spotted

:18:32.:18:35.

debris in the water. When ships have followed up, they've discovered only

:18:36.:18:41.

rubbish. Having searched unsuccessfully, both from the air

:18:42.:18:45.

and on water, this new device will look beneath the waves. This is the

:18:46.:18:50.

pinger locator. It is due to leave Perth tonight and will listen for

:18:51.:18:54.

signals from the plane's Black box recorder. But for it to have any

:18:55.:19:00.

chance, a rough crash site will have two have been identified. By the

:19:01.:19:05.

time this locator makes it to the search area there may be only a

:19:06.:19:10.

couple of days of battery life left on the black-box recorder. With no

:19:11.:19:14.

signal to look for, this already difficult task will become that much

:19:15.:19:23.

harder. In Kuala Lumpur, Chinese relatives of those on-board parade

:19:24.:19:27.

at Buddhist temple. With each passing day, the chances of them

:19:28.:19:31.

getting any answers become more and more remote. So the pressure is very

:19:32.:19:39.

much on the aircraft and the ships working in the search area, to come

:19:40.:19:43.

up with something that will give some indication that the plane did

:19:44.:19:47.

indeed come down in that area and where a possible crash site was.

:19:48.:19:52.

Without that, the search for the black-box recorders using this new

:19:53.:19:55.

device will be almost impossible. Back to you in the studio, Simon.

:19:56.:20:03.

Jonah Fisher, thank you very much. Charlie Brooks, the husband of

:20:04.:20:06.

former News of the World Editor Rebekah Brooks, has told the Old

:20:07.:20:09.

Bailey he took a padded envelope of pornographic DVDs out of their flat

:20:10.:20:12.

and hid them behind some bins, before a police raid. He said that

:20:13.:20:16.

he didn't want them to embarrass his wife. Our home affairs correspondent

:20:17.:20:19.

Tom Symonds reports. Rebekah Brooks and Charlie Brooks in happier times

:20:20.:20:24.

at the races. She, one of the media's most powerful executives.

:20:25.:20:28.

He, a trainer turned writer, Keane, he said today, to protect her

:20:29.:20:33.

reputation. He was being questioned by his barrister about the tense

:20:34.:20:38.

days in July 2011, when his wife was arrested by police investigated

:20:39.:20:40.

phone hacking. He said he expected them to arrive and raid their

:20:41.:20:44.

Chelsea apartment at any moment. And he was captured on camera in the

:20:45.:20:49.

garage below hiding a laptop and a padded bag behind some bins out of

:20:50.:20:52.

shot here to the right. On the laptop, ideas for novels. In the

:20:53.:20:58.

bag, he said, his pornographic DVD collection. He said, I envisaged 20

:20:59.:21:02.

policemen coming in and emptying every drawer and looking under every

:21:03.:21:07.

nook and cranny. And I did think about my DVDs, and I had what I

:21:08.:21:10.

still describe as my Jacqui Smith moment. I didn't want to embarrass

:21:11.:21:23.

my wife in the same way. The former Labour Home Secretary resigned in

:21:24.:21:26.

2009 after claiming expenses for the TV service husband had used to watch

:21:27.:21:28.

pornographic films. Mr Brooks said he was worried that the discovery of

:21:29.:21:30.

what he on several occasions described as his smut, would be

:21:31.:21:34.

leaked by the police to the press. He said there had been a number of

:21:35.:21:38.

leaks to the Guardian already. He was worried that that would

:21:39.:21:42.

embarrass his wife. The police raided the flat but only got hold of

:21:43.:21:46.

Mr Brooks' items because the next day workmen collecting waste bins

:21:47.:21:50.

found them and handed them in. Charlie Brooks denies hiding

:21:51.:21:54.

potential evidence. When Rebekah Brooks found out what had happened,

:21:55.:21:57.

after hours of meetings with the police and her lawyers, she, in his

:21:58.:22:06.

words went ballistic. A court in Pakistan has charged former military

:22:07.:22:09.

ruler Pervez Musharraf with treason, the first army chief to face such a

:22:10.:22:12.

prosecution. Mr Musharraf is accused of unlawfully suspending the

:22:13.:22:14.

constitution and instituting emergency rule in 2007. He pleaded

:22:15.:22:18.

not guilty and has always claimed that the charges against him are

:22:19.:22:22.

politically motivated. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

:22:23.:22:32.

There was a ratcheting up of tension today between North and South Korea

:22:33.:22:34.

as the two countries exchanged shellfire into their disputed

:22:35.:22:40.

western sea border area. During a joint military drill with the United

:22:41.:22:43.

States, South Korea says it returned fire after North Korean shells

:22:44.:22:47.

landed in its territorial waters. North Korea announced earlier that

:22:48.:22:50.

it would hold live-fire drills in seven parts of the border area.

:22:51.:22:57.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has arrived in Crimea with

:22:58.:23:00.

several members of his government for what is the highest level visit

:23:01.:23:03.

to the Black Sea peninsula since its annexation by Moscow earlier this

:23:04.:23:06.

month. It follows talks yesterday between the United States and Russia

:23:07.:23:09.

in Paris. The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, said both sides were

:23:10.:23:12.

committed to a diplomatic solution and described their discussions as

:23:13.:23:16.

frank. Our correspondent Daniel Sandford is in Moscow. How

:23:17.:23:24.

significant is the visit by the Prime Minister? There is no one more

:23:25.:23:30.

senior within the Russian government after Prime Minister Medvedev, other

:23:31.:23:35.

than Vladimir Putin himself. It's a very high-level visit and is sending

:23:36.:23:39.

a very strong message to the world that Russia regards Crimea as part

:23:40.:23:43.

of the Russian Federation now. They've already created today a

:23:44.:23:48.

ministry for Crimea was also turning Crimea into a special economic

:23:49.:23:52.

zone, in order to try and attract investment to Crimea. It's a very

:23:53.:23:56.

strong message. Don't forget, this is coming literally the day after

:23:57.:24:00.

the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, met the Russian foreign

:24:01.:24:06.

minister, Sergei Lavrov, and just three days after President Putin

:24:07.:24:08.

telephoned President Obama on Friday night, in order to try and get talks

:24:09.:24:13.

going over the future of Ukraine. I have to say, despite those signals

:24:14.:24:18.

today from Dmitry Medvedev, the signs otherwise reasonably

:24:19.:24:21.

promising. There were lots of worries over the last couple of

:24:22.:24:24.

weeks that Russian troops might be about to go over the border from

:24:25.:24:27.

Russia into eastern Ukraine. There was a big build-up of troops there,

:24:28.:24:31.

the Americans were warning a lot about that build-up of troops. But

:24:32.:24:35.

there were four hours of talks last night between the Russians and the

:24:36.:24:38.

Americans. Those troops were discussed at length and the

:24:39.:24:41.

Ukrainians say there may be some signs today that those troop numbers

:24:42.:24:46.

are coming down. That has not been taken very seriously at the moment.

:24:47.:24:52.

The main stumbling block at the moment is still the Russian 's

:24:53.:24:54.

insistence that in future Ukraine has to be a federalised country, a

:24:55.:25:00.

country with a lot more power devolved to lower levels. The

:25:01.:25:03.

Americans are saying that this for the Ukrainians to decide. The

:25:04.:25:06.

Ukrainians themselves put out a strong statement yesterday saying,

:25:07.:25:10.

why is Russia telling us how we should run our country when they

:25:11.:25:12.

don't even run their own country in that way? Today's warnings from UN

:25:13.:25:19.

scientists of further flooding because of climate change come as

:25:20.:25:22.

many households in Britain are still trying to deal with the damage

:25:23.:25:25.

caused by the winter's weather. When the Somerset levels flooded many

:25:26.:25:28.

locals blamed the lack of dredging for the severity of the crisis.

:25:29.:25:31.

Today contractors started to do just that. But whilst this is what many

:25:32.:25:34.

people have been calling for, critics have questioned how

:25:35.:25:37.

effective the operation will be. Our correspondent Jon Kay is in

:25:38.:25:50.

Burrowbridge in Somerset. For generations these rivers were

:25:51.:25:52.

dredged or cleared out to keep them flowing freely. Pretty much stopped

:25:53.:25:56.

about 20 years ago, and many people who live around here blamed that on

:25:57.:25:59.

the flooding. The worst of the flooding we saw over the winter.

:26:00.:26:03.

They believed that thanks to some Government money, this has all

:26:04.:26:06.

started again this morning. The question is, how effective is this

:26:07.:26:11.

going to be and how much will it cost long term? It was a winter that

:26:12.:26:16.

the people of Somerset will never forget. But as spring arrives and

:26:17.:26:20.

things return to normal, changes under way. On the banks of the River

:26:21.:26:28.

Parrett, dredging has now begun. Clearing a five mile stretch of

:26:29.:26:32.

nearly half 1 million tonnes of silt. Local people have demanding

:26:33.:26:36.

this for years believing it will reduce the risk of flooding. Seeing

:26:37.:26:41.

the dredging and action, this is what it's all about, this is what we

:26:42.:26:46.

are wanting. I'm washed, and showered, I probably absolutely

:26:47.:26:52.

stink. Seven weeks ago we met Becky and James, desperately moving their

:26:53.:26:56.

animals as flood waters surrounded their farm. I really don't know what

:26:57.:27:02.

to do. With the water now gone, the animals are coming back. And they

:27:03.:27:06.

hope dredging means the rivers will never flood again. It's definitely a

:27:07.:27:12.

big morale boost. To know those diggers are there, it gives you a

:27:13.:27:15.

bit of extra confidence and hope that things are going to get sorted

:27:16.:27:21.

out. Does it make you feel safer? Hopefully. Others lest convinced,

:27:22.:27:26.

though, and think dredging is just a way of appeasing flood hit

:27:27.:27:30.

communities. Ken Tatum was part of the Environment Agency team that

:27:31.:27:35.

decided to stop dredging two decades ago. I don't think it will make any

:27:36.:27:39.

difference at all. My main concern is the fact it's a false hope to

:27:40.:27:43.

those people who have been affected that now have to plan the rest of

:27:44.:27:55.

their life. This dredge is costing ?5 billion from special Government

:27:56.:27:57.

funding. The Environment Agency says it more money follows, the scheme

:27:58.:27:59.

will continue. The tide brings in silt twice a day into the river, and

:28:00.:28:04.

that deposits out. It will silt up again within five to ten years if we

:28:05.:28:08.

don't do that regular maintenance. The plan is to take the river banks

:28:09.:28:12.

back to where they were in the 1960s, which experts say should

:28:13.:28:15.

improve the water flow by around 30%. It is quite slow going, we've

:28:16.:28:21.

been here since first thing this morning. They've done about 50

:28:22.:28:26.

litres in that time. It's going to take around seven months to do all

:28:27.:28:29.

five miles up and down the river bank. Then there will be an

:28:30.:28:32.

assessment to work out how effective it has been and how it will be paid

:28:33.:28:36.

for long term. One suggestion is people round here could pay a bit

:28:37.:28:40.

extra on top of their council tax. John Kay, thank you very much. Let's

:28:41.:28:43.

have a look at the weather. Variable amounts of cloud, some

:28:44.:28:54.

thick enough to produce the odd spot of drizzle. There is sunshine for

:28:55.:28:59.

Aberdeenshire. It will be hazy sunshine, not just from high cloud

:29:00.:29:03.

but also fairly high pollutant levels. We are seeing a mixture of

:29:04.:29:09.

Sahara dust and industry feeding in on a southeasterly breeze. The

:29:10.:29:12.

further west that you are in the UK, the less the pollutants will be

:29:13.:29:16.

noticeable. That's because we've got more of the sea breeze here. That in

:29:17.:29:21.

turn is feeding in in a weather front towards the south-west. That

:29:22.:29:25.

will move northwards and eastwards through the afternoon. Across

:29:26.:29:28.

Scotland it is a dry picture across the north and north-west with good

:29:29.:29:32.

spells of sunshine. Still relatively cloudy, grey and chilly across the

:29:33.:29:36.

central belt and south-east of Scotland. Similar picture across the

:29:37.:29:40.

east of the Pennines, north-east England seeing some low cloud and

:29:41.:29:47.

the odd spot of drizzle. It will feel quite chilly. In the south-east

:29:48.:29:49.

there are glimmers of brightness one -- round and feeling quite warm. The

:29:50.:29:54.

weather front pushes into the South West and South Wales by the

:29:55.:29:58.

afternoon. Some heavy bursts likely, too. For central and northern

:29:59.:30:02.

Wales, the West Midlands and in towards north-west England, some

:30:03.:30:06.

glimmers of brightness around. The cloud starts to get cloudy across

:30:07.:30:10.

Northern Ireland. Tonight, the band of rain moves northwards, notice the

:30:11.:30:15.

brighter colours on it for North Wales and north-west England, where

:30:16.:30:17.

we could even have a rumble of thunder with some downpours. It will

:30:18.:30:28.

move northwards, becoming combine to Scotland and the far north of

:30:29.:30:31.

England. Behind, drier, clearer skies. Perhaps a mist and fog

:30:32.:30:33.

developing across the South. That could cause a problem on Tuesday

:30:34.:30:35.

morning. That should lift and we should see some dry, bright weather

:30:36.:30:38.

in the South. Rain affecting the central belt in the northern half of

:30:39.:30:42.

Scotland, remaining quite dreary here. Some showers across the far

:30:43.:30:47.

north of England but given some brightness, once again across

:30:48.:30:50.

England and Wales we could see temperatures into the upper teens.

:30:51.:30:53.

The pressure chart for weapons they show is an area of low pressure out

:30:54.:30:57.

across the Atlantic, high pressure dominating across the east. A pretty

:30:58.:31:10.

messy picture for weapon states. Outbreaks of rain across the

:31:11.:31:12.

south-west. Showers across the North. Where we get some sunshine

:31:13.:31:14.

across the south-east again, temperatures up to 21 Celsius. If

:31:15.:31:16.

you are interested in finding out about the Sahara dust, there is an

:31:17.:31:19.

excellent explanation online. Nel reminder of our top story. Severe,

:31:20.:31:27.

pervasive and irreversible. The impact

:31:28.:31:28.

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