Browse content similar to 05/08/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Another torrid day on the world stock markets amid continuing fears | :00:07. | :00:11. | |
of a new recession. It is a downward slide, with investors | :00:11. | :00:18. | |
nervous about the euros own debts. The EU says they should not panic. | :00:18. | :00:22. | |
I would encourage everybody to stay calm and breathe deeply and see | :00:22. | :00:29. | |
that the economy recovery is going The end of the worst week on the US | :00:29. | :00:35. | |
markets for two years. President Obama urges for calm. What I want | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
the American people and our partners around the world to know | :00:38. | :00:43. | |
is this: We are going to get through this. Things will get | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
better and we will get there to get a. We will be assessing if Europe's | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
leaders can take decisive action to reassure the markets. | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
Also tonight: The British teenager killed by a polar bear in the | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
Arctic. The there is shot dead after four others on the same | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
expedition are injured. The Polar Bear attacked him with his right | :01:05. | :01:10. | |
paw across his face and his head and his arm. | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
A special report on Syria's uprising. How activists are | :01:15. | :01:20. | |
defining five months of a brutal government crackdown. | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
And an international theme at Edinburgh. How Chinese productions | :01:24. | :01:30. | |
are attracting attention at this year's festival. | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
Later in Sportsday: Black poor kick of the new English football season | :01:34. | :01:39. | |
fresh from their Premier League adventure. They take on Hull in the | :01:39. | :01:49. | |
:01:49. | :02:00. | ||
Good evening. Markets around the world have endured another day of | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
turmoil triggered by near-panic at the possibility of a new US | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
recession and of Europe's debt crisis spreading. New York's | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
markets have closed in the last half an hour after their worst week | :02:12. | :02:17. | |
for two years, despite jobs data that was better than expected. In a | :02:17. | :02:22. | |
moment will be exploring the cause of all the instability but first, | :02:22. | :02:27. | |
here is Robert Peston. 24 hours of turmoil on markets. | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
Share prices plunged yesterday in Germany and the rest of Europe, | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
infecting the Americas, including Brazil. Overnight, it spread to | :02:36. | :02:42. | |
Asia, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and back to Europe, with | :02:42. | :02:46. | |
almost three trillion pounds wiped off for shares worldwide. The | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
crisis was triggered by growing fears that Italy and Spain would be | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
unable to repay their debt, which led to a rise in their borrowing | :02:54. | :02:59. | |
costs. That was stamped on 21st July when the governments said they | :03:00. | :03:05. | |
would agree a new support package but the fears came back and Italy | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
and Spain's borrowing costs continued their rise at dangerously | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
high levels. I would encourage everybody to stay calm and breathe | :03:14. | :03:18. | |
deeply and see that the economy recovery is going on. It is | :03:18. | :03:24. | |
important that people see that this work is indeed going on day and | :03:24. | :03:29. | |
night. It may be tempting to see falls in share prices as having | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
very little relevance to us but they directly affect the value of | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
pensions and they may say a good deal about the province of | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
companies to invest and create jobs -- the confidence of companies. And | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
when bank shares fall, it can tell you something about their ability | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
to borrow and when the banks cannot borrow, they find it hard to lend | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
and when they cannot lend, the economy can weaken. This afternoon | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
there was a brief recovery in share prices, after US unemployment | :03:58. | :04:01. | |
figures turned out better than feared, but the respite was short- | :04:01. | :04:06. | |
lived. What I want our American people to know is this: We are | :04:06. | :04:10. | |
going to get through this. Things will get better and we are going to | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
get there together. If the problem is the excessive indebtedness of a | :04:14. | :04:21. | |
number of rich, Western countries, is there a painless solution? | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
I'm afraid. It amounts to the fact that people will have to accept | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
that governments will have to be smaller and spend less so there | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
will be left public sector employment, fewer jobs and the | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
public sector and if expenditure on things like health care and | :04:36. | :04:41. | |
pensions and education -- less expenditure. Bank shares have been | :04:41. | :04:51. | |
:04:51. | :04:52. | ||
Today, a loyal band of Scotland announced it was back in the red to | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
the tune of �1.4 billion for the first six months of the year, in | :04:55. | :05:00. | |
part because of losses to its loans to Greece. How bad can it get? | :05:00. | :05:05. | |
would be stupid not to be cautious and alert to the significant risks | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
that can turn bad but I think the probabilities are that the world | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
doesn't turn overnight from a place that is slowly recovering to a | :05:14. | :05:19. | |
place that is a disaster area. Commodities markets, forcing the | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
price of copper, lead, zinc and tin are saying that the global economic | :05:23. | :05:27. | |
recovery is threatened and that we all risk been burned in the white | :05:27. | :05:33. | |
heat of markets. There is continuing concern over | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
the health of the US economy and we are just getting used of | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
developments on that front. Let's go live to Mark Mardell in | :05:40. | :05:46. | |
Washington. ABC is reporting that a government official has told them | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
that the White House is expecting and preparing for a downgrade of | :05:49. | :05:55. | |
its triple-A status by the rating agency. We haven't got independent | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
confirmation of that and I stress that no other networks are | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
reporting that but ABC are usually pretty reliable. This is the news | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
that people one week ago were braced for, they thought it would | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
be a terrible catastrophe, an appalling thing to happen to | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
America's reputation. I just wonder whether if it is true, the markets | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
have perhaps discounted it and the rating agency is a player in the | :06:19. | :06:24. | |
game. It perhaps has been backed into a corner by some of its | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
previous tough talking. But clearly, if it is true, it is not great news | :06:28. | :06:34. | |
for America. Let's turn to Europe now. Much of the fear has been | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
centred on Spain and Italy. Silvio Berlusconi said tonight he would | :06:38. | :06:43. | |
speed up a package of austerity measures. There are concerns that | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
the European leaders are not acting decisively enough and need to do | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
more to reassure investors. Stephanie Flanders has this | :06:51. | :06:58. | |
assessment of the growing financial fears. | :06:58. | :07:03. | |
You might wonder what way the markets are panicking right now. | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
Didn't the week begin with be good news that America would not | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
default? But investors are worried about growth as well as debt. | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
fact that it is in the private sector, corporate sector or the | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
public sector, everybody is trying to repay their debts, trying to | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
atone for the sins of the past and the consequences of that his lack | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
of demand and lack of growth. the eurozone, fear of slow growth | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
has fuelled fears about the level of government debt. Investors | :07:30. | :07:34. | |
worried that if countries like Italy and Spain cannot grow, they | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
will not be able to control their borrowing and because they are all | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
tied together by think will currency, the problems of | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
individual countries have turned into a problem for all of Europe. | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
So what can leaders do to stem the panic? They might want to rethink | :07:49. | :07:53. | |
their holiday plans for a start. The leaders of France, Germany and | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
Italy are all away from their desk, although David Cameron interrupted | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
his Brit today to chat with the Governor of the Bank of England. -- | :08:02. | :08:07. | |
interrupted his break. If the panic continues, the central banks may | :08:07. | :08:11. | |
act. The European Central Bank is under pressure to support countries | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
by buying more of their debt. If the US recovery stumbles, you may | :08:15. | :08:20. | |
see their central bank pumping more money into the economy. What can | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
governments in the eurozone do? Well, we could see them offer more | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
budget cuts. That may happen in Italy. But what investors really | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
want to see is all of the country's acting together to create a bigger | :08:32. | :08:37. | |
bail-out fund perhaps, or may be guaranteeing troubled countries'' | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
debts. Those last two are steps that Germany refused to take two | :08:41. | :08:46. | |
weeks ago. The Italian Prime Minister said tonight that the G7 | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
finance ministers would meet in the next few days and he would try to | :08:49. | :08:54. | |
balance Italy's budget one year early. You might wonder what this | :08:54. | :09:00. | |
all means for us in Britain. After all, we didn't sign up for the euro. | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
But we are fully paid-up members of the global economy. We in Britain | :09:04. | :09:07. | |
are not in the firing line of these problems because of the difficult | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
decisions that we have taken of the last year to bring spending under | :09:11. | :09:17. | |
control, to bring down borrowing, to control debt. Britain is able to | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
borrow at low rates of interest because the financial markets have | :09:20. | :09:24. | |
confidence in what we are doing. is true. The market are not so | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
worried about Britain's debts but another reason our borrowing is | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
lobe is because investors are worried about growth here as well. | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
Our recovery hopes are pinned on bank lending more and companies | :09:37. | :09:40. | |
exporting more and none of that will happen if the worries of the | :09:40. | :09:46. | |
last few days get out of hand. Let's go live to Brussels. What | :09:46. | :09:53. | |
other signs about how EU leaders are responding to the crisis? | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
Well, an indication of the anxiety felt here of a flurry of phone | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
calls that have been taking place, particularly this evening. | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
President Sarkozy speaking to the German Chancellor, the German | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
Chancellor is due to call President Obama, David Cameron has been | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
speaking to Angela Merkel, all indications of anxiety. The | :10:13. | :10:19. | |
Italians have been pushing for an emergency meeting of the G7 | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
countries, although that perhaps may not take place. Italy remains | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
the focus of all this and tonight Silvio Berlusconi said he would | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
bring forward austerity measures and social reforms. He would also | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
balance the budget one yet barely and he has one eye on the European | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
Central Bank, which he hopes might intervene next week and make things | :10:41. | :10:45. | |
easier for Italy, but the message from the European Central Bank is, | :10:45. | :10:51. | |
it has to be convinced that Italy is truly serious about putting its | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
house in order. As regards to European leaders, I believe they | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
are struggling to come up with answers. There is the sense of | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
drift, policy differences over this, and of course, the key question | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
remains unanswered. What if a big country like Italy needs help, it | :11:07. | :11:11. | |
needs rescuing? Where is the mechanism to do that? They have not | :11:11. | :11:18. | |
been able to provide the answer and that is still troubling the markets. | :11:18. | :11:23. | |
Our Europe editor there. Let's take stock of what we have seen. | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
So, financial markets across the globe have seen dramatic losses | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
over the past five days. In the last hour on Wall Street, the Dow | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
Jones ended up slightly on the day but was down nearly 6% for the week. | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
Earlier, Germany's main share index, the DAX, plummeted nearly 13% over | :11:37. | :11:45. | |
And here, the FTSE 100 closed down 2.7% on the day. That's close to a | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
10% fall over the week. Nearly �150 billion were wiped off the value of | :11:49. | :11:58. | |
Robert Peston is with me. What people want to know is, is this so | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
the? Anybody who tells you they know precisely what will happen to | :12:02. | :12:07. | |
the markets is a school or a liar. But we are living through times of | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
profound uncertainty and much of that uncertainty stems from the | :12:11. | :12:18. | |
vast amounts of debt on many Western major economies, the UK, | :12:18. | :12:25. | |
the USA, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Greece. I am not just talking about | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
government debt, the some of it, financial debt, household debt, | :12:29. | :12:35. | |
government debt. If we manage that dead in the best case and reduce it | :12:35. | :12:39. | |
in a rational way, the Bank of England says we can expect years of | :12:39. | :12:45. | |
relatively low growth and if we make mistakes, there will be crisis. | :12:46. | :12:51. | |
The question is, will we manage the debts down in a sensible way? We | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
are hearing out of America denied that the ratings agency may remove | :12:55. | :13:00. | |
the cherished triple-A credit rating from America, which would | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
commit if that did happen, caused all sorts of uncertainty for | :13:03. | :13:09. | |
vendors to America. Why? Because the perception is that the US | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
decision on how to reduce the deficit was made in any rational | :13:14. | :13:17. | |
way and the big problem of the eurozone is that the perception of | :13:17. | :13:21. | |
investors is that the multiplicity of governments that need to make | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
decisions means that when they get a crisis of the thought they had | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
been experiencing in terms of investors' lack of confidence and | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
the inability of certain countries to repay, the Government's just do | :13:31. | :13:36. | |
not act fast enough or rationally enough. | :13:36. | :13:41. | |
There is more on the card crisis in a special section of the BBC | :13:41. | :13:49. | |
The Ministry of Defence has this evening announced the death of a | :13:49. | :13:53. | |
Royal Marine from 42 Commando Royal Marines in Afghanistan. He died | :13:53. | :13:59. | |
today in the Nad-e Ali District of The Royal Marine was mortally | :13:59. | :14:02. | |
wounded by a grenade that landed inside his check-point. His next of | :14:02. | :14:12. | |
:14:12. | :14:12. | ||
A British teenager has been mauled to death by a polar bear in the | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
Norwegian Arctic. 17 year on Horatio Chapple from Wiltshire was | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
on a camping expedition in the Svalbard Islands in northern Norway. | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
Four others who were injured in the attack have been flown by air | :14:25. | :14:31. | |
ambulance to Tromsoe. The isolated spot on an Arctic | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
glacier where this morning's can go to tack -- tragic attack took place. | :14:35. | :14:41. | |
A remote and vulnerable campsite, and the polar bear shot dead, but | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
not before he had killed one young British man and viciously malt four | :14:45. | :14:50. | |
others. A helicopter was rushed into airlift them to hospital. The | :14:50. | :14:54. | |
alarm had been raised by satellite phone. What had been the adventure | :14:54. | :14:59. | |
holiday of a lifetime had abruptly turned into a disaster. The 17- | :14:59. | :15:06. | |
year-old schoolboy who was killed was named this afternoon. The young | :15:06. | :15:13. | |
explorer who died on our expedition this morning is Horatio Chapple. | :15:13. | :15:18. | |
Horacio was a fine young man, hoping to go on to read medicine | :15:18. | :15:23. | |
after school. The injured include a trip leaders Andrew ruck and Mike | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
Read as well as two teenagers. Terry Flinders is the one of them. | :15:27. | :15:32. | |
The organisers told him what had happened. The Polar Bear attacked | :15:32. | :15:40. | |
him with his right paw, crashed his face, head and arm. Then the leader | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
came along and tried to get the polar bear away. He got mauled | :15:44. | :15:49. | |
badly, according to the television. But they managed to shoot the polar | :15:49. | :15:57. | |
bear. The British Schools exploring Society is based in London and they | :15:57. | :16:04. | |
organise expeditions for people in their late teens and early twenties | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
to experience the world and us. It is the chance of seeing polar bears | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
in their natural habitat that is one of the top attractions of trips | :16:13. | :16:17. | |
to Svalbard. It is thought there are nearly 3000 bears roaming wild | :16:17. | :16:20. | |
amidst the stunning landscape. Blogs posted on the expedition | :16:21. | :16:25. | |
website a week ago talk of an Arctic adventure of sea ice and the | :16:25. | :16:29. | |
polar bears they were dreaming of seeing. But adventure holidays like | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
these are never risk free. Although this group did have training and | :16:34. | :16:38. | |
took precautions, according to one teenager who flew home early | :16:38. | :16:44. | |
because of frostbite. Every night, we were supposed to set off their | :16:44. | :16:48. | |
flowers around your separate camp. You were supposed to have wires | :16:48. | :16:53. | |
along it. If a polar bear trips into it, an empty shotgun round | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
makes a loud bang. That is supposed to scare away the polar bear. | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
went wrong this morning is still not clear. An investigation has | :17:01. | :17:06. | |
been ordered by the Norwegian authorities. | :17:06. | :17:14. | |
Coming up: Shakespeare goes east, with a Chinese version of Romeo and | :17:14. | :17:19. | |
Juliet at the Edinburgh Festival. Reports from Syria say that at | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
least 11 people were killed today in the latest clashes between the | :17:22. | :17:30. | |
security forces and anti-government protesters. | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
It is five months since the uprising in Syria began, and | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
foreign journalists remain restricted in their access to the | :17:38. | :17:42. | |
country. John Simpson is in Lebanon, where he has been speaking to | :17:42. | :17:45. | |
Syrian refugees and those who still support the president. | :17:45. | :17:50. | |
The view across the valley in the direction of Syria, now a closed | :17:50. | :17:55. | |
country. Across the border, some of the worst fighting has been going | :17:55. | :17:59. | |
on in the city of Hama. Syrian television, government controlled, | :17:59. | :18:04. | |
showed these pictures of the city today, claiming that things were | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
now quiet there. The commentary tells the viewers that the | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
demonstrators are armed and violent. The Syrian government line is that | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
the demonstrators are basically terrorists, supported by hostile | :18:16. | :18:21. | |
foreign forces. But tonight, an opposition supporter in Hama denied | :18:21. | :18:31. | |
:18:31. | :18:39. | ||
Thousands have been demonstrating across Syria today, including in a | :18:39. | :18:47. | |
city just a few miles from Damascus. The BBC has verified these pictures. | :18:47. | :18:54. | |
From Lebanon, I got through to the satellite phone of the man who sent | :18:54. | :19:00. | |
them. What will happen in the long run? Do you really think that the | :19:00. | :19:10. | |
:19:10. | :19:18. | ||
government of President Assad will This country, Lebanon, knows all | :19:18. | :19:23. | |
about civil war. Syria has often been deeply involved. There's a lot | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
of nervousness hear about any spillover from the Syrian troubles. | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
Today in Beirut, there was a small demo by supporters of the Assad | :19:31. | :19:37. | |
regime. Some Lebanese politicians take a strongly pro-Syrian line, | :19:37. | :19:43. | |
including the former government minister. It must be difficult and | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
embarrassing for somebody like you to have to defend a government | :19:48. | :19:56. | |
which shoots down its own citizens? TRANSLATION: Internal forces are | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
working against Bashar al-Assad and want to bring him down. | :20:00. | :20:05. | |
He does not want war. If Syria falls, it will be totally | :20:05. | :20:09. | |
fragmented and would destabilise the whole region. It is beginning | :20:09. | :20:13. | |
to look as though things over there have gone too far for a compromise | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
solution. The Government cannot back down without looking as though | :20:18. | :20:23. | |
they are surrendering completely. If the demonstrators were going to | :20:23. | :20:26. | |
stop, surely they would have stopped already. People on both | :20:26. | :20:30. | |
sides are now starting to warn about the possibility of civil war, | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
but no one seems to know how to stop it. | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
The energy company E.ON has announced that it will increase its | :20:37. | :20:40. | |
gas and electricity prices. Gas will go up by 18%, while | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
electricity is set to rise by 11% from next month. E.ON is the fourth | :20:45. | :20:50. | |
of the big six suppliers to raise prices. It blamed problems in the | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
Middle East for the hike. But the campaign group Consumer Focus | :20:53. | :20:59. | |
claims wholesale prices are a third lower than they were in 2008. | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
Police are warning that a section of the M25 in Surrey is likely to | :21:02. | :21:05. | |
be closed until the early hours of tomorrow morning after an accident | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
during rush-hour. Four people were injured, two of them airlifted to | :21:09. | :21:19. | |
hospital, after a lorry crashed over the central reservation. | :21:19. | :21:24. | |
At one stage, there was a tailback of almost 30 miles to junction 10. | :21:24. | :21:27. | |
The Libyan government has denied reports that one of Colonel | :21:27. | :21:31. | |
Gaddafi's sons has been killed in a NATO airstrike. It is the second | :21:31. | :21:34. | |
time this year that Khamis Gaddafi has been reported killed. In | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
western Libya, rebel forces say they are running short of | :21:38. | :21:42. | |
ammunition. Despite this, they have managed to take new ground and | :21:42. | :21:50. | |
advanced from the port city of Misrata to the outskirts of Zlitan. | :21:50. | :21:55. | |
Coming to bury a mother and her two young children, victims of a NATO | :21:55. | :22:00. | |
airstrike, the regime claims. It brought journalists to Zlitan to | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
witness their funerals. NATO says it hit a command and control centre, | :22:04. | :22:10. | |
but it is looking for more details. In the town centre, there was quiet. | :22:10. | :22:18. | |
It is still under government control. But the rebels are | :22:18. | :22:23. | |
battling to change that. The two months, they have been advancing on | :22:23. | :22:30. | |
Zlitan. The furthest they have got is the suburbs. And they have | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
needed plenty of help from above. This is one of the latest air | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
strikes by the RAF, which has been pounding targets in and around the | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
town, destroying some of the regime's concealed weapons. At the | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
frontline, we found this rebel Brigade resting during air lull in | :22:48. | :22:54. | |
the fighting. A source told us that the rebels cannot advance much | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
further because they are dangerously low on ammunition. This | :22:58. | :23:04. | |
amateur army is running on empty. The fighters here said they still | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
have to rely on a lot of home made improvised weapons, like this anti- | :23:08. | :23:13. | |
tank gun which has been bolted to a pick-up truck. They have managed to | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
capture some arms from Colonel Gaddafi's forces. They took this | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
anti-aircraft gun a week ago. But they say they often run short of | :23:21. | :23:26. | |
ammunition. Sometimes, they have to wait for days to be resupplied. At | :23:26. | :23:31. | |
times, they have been down to their last box of bullets. | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
TRANSLATION: What can I say? Our ammunition could run out any | :23:36. | :23:45. | |
time now. I have maybe enough for one or two days. The commander took | :23:45. | :23:50. | |
me to a lookout post to get a rare glimpse of Colonel Gaddafi's men. | :23:50. | :23:55. | |
They were across the sand dunes, about two kilometres away, visible | :23:55. | :24:00. | |
with binoculars and perhaps watching us as well. The rebels | :24:00. | :24:07. | |
want to flush them out so that they can push on towards Tripoli. The | :24:07. | :24:10. | |
capital is just an hour and a half's drive away, a tantalising | :24:10. | :24:16. | |
prospect. But the fighters say that to get there, the least they need | :24:16. | :24:22. | |
is bullets. The curtain has tonight gone up on | :24:22. | :24:27. | |
the world's largest arts festival. Among the dozens of shows at | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
Edinburgh this year are a Chinese King Lear, a Chinese Hamlet and a | :24:30. | :24:35. | |
Chinese Romeo and Juliet. Both the main and the Fringe Festival are | :24:35. | :24:39. | |
reflecting what is being described as a new and extraordinary cultural | :24:39. | :24:49. | |
:24:49. | :24:55. | ||
flowering. A opening tonight, a little window | :24:55. | :25:02. | |
into the mind of China, a tattooist Romeo and Juliet. It is certainly a | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
spectacle, pure entertainment, but there is another question behind | :25:05. | :25:11. | |
all of this. What do we really know about China and the East? In the | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
days of China's cultural revolution in the '60s and '70s, this show | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
would have been unthinkable. But today, China is on a very different | :25:20. | :25:27. | |
cultural mission. He has been working on the idea of making a pea | :25:27. | :25:35. | |
and -- musical production for two years. The idea of presenting this | :25:35. | :25:38. | |
philosophy is to allow people to know what the essence of it is. | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
festival will also offer a Chinese interpretations of King Lear, | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
Hamlet and the Tempest. It is extraordinary what is coming out of | :25:45. | :25:50. | |
China, but not only China. There is a genuine cultural flowering | :25:50. | :25:54. | |
happening in Asia. For the festival director, if we are to understand | :25:54. | :26:01. | |
the future, we need to understand the east. Unless you really | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
understand and take the time to delve underneath what these | :26:04. | :26:11. | |
cultures are about, you do not fully understand where they come | :26:11. | :26:18. | |
from, what motivates them. instance, laughter. Stand-up was | :26:18. | :26:23. | |
almost unknown in Korea. But Korean shows will high-rate comedy doctor | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
to help them navigate Britain's odd sense of humour. | :26:27. | :26:34. | |
Do you think Britain knows anything about Korea? I have to say not | :26:34. | :26:39. | |
really. It is a pity. That is why I keep bringing Korean shows here, so | :26:39. | :26:44. | |
we can introduce our culture. Meanwhile, this Chinese Swan Lake | :26:44. | :26:49. |