Browse content similar to 31/03/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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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, | :03:40. | :03:46. | |
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 | :03:53. | :03:59. | |
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 | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
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. | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
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 | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
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 | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
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 | :13:14. | :13:20. | |
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 | :13:53. | :13:57. | |
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. |