Browse content similar to 03/04/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Of James Murdoch quits as chairman of BSkyB, the latest twist in the | :00:10. | :00:15. | |
phone hacking scandal. He says he wants to protect the satellite | :00:15. | :00:19. | |
broadcaster from the controversy surrounding him. It comes just | :00:19. | :00:24. | |
weeks before MPs report back on the scandal. Now the succession from | :00:24. | :00:29. | |
father to son could be in doubt. Rupert's fondest wish, to be | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
succeeded by one of his children, and James was the heir apparent, | :00:33. | :00:38. | |
that is even less likely now than yesterday. We will ask where this | :00:38. | :00:43. | |
leaves the future of BSkyB. Also tonight: plans to give the | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
security services greater access to online activity - he is the | :00:47. | :00:51. | |
Government backing off? We will not simply ram some | :00:51. | :00:56. | |
legislation through Parliament. We will make sure our proposals are | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
published so that people can debate them. | :01:00. | :01:04. | |
Trailers tossed into the air and homes destroyed - a tornado rips | :01:04. | :01:09. | |
through Texas tonight. The crisis in Syria - now the | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
president's uncle tells the BBC that Bashar al-Assad will not be | :01:13. | :01:18. | |
able to hold on to power. Winter returns to Aberdeenshire, or | :01:18. | :01:22. | |
with six inches of snow just days after record high temperatures - | :01:22. | :01:30. | |
what is happening to our weather? And in Sportsday on the BBC News | :01:30. | :01:33. | |
Channel, Champions League, as Milan and Marseille face uphill struggles | :01:33. | :01:43. | |
:01:43. | :01:57. | ||
Good evening. James Murdoch has resigned as chairman of BSkyB as | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
the phone hacking scandal continues to take its toll on the media | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
empire built up by his father, Rupert. James Murdoch, who faces | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
questions about what he knew and when, said he did not want the | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
fall-out from the phone hacking affair to tarnish BSkyB. The | :02:14. | :02:17. | |
broadcaster's future is being considered by the media watchdog of | :02:17. | :02:22. | |
cob. -- Ofcom. | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
It is a long running saga about James Murdoch, phone hacking and | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
the conduct of newspapers owned by his family's media empire. MPs have | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
questioned him. He resigned as chairman of News International, | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
which runs the newspapers, and is now stepping down as chairman of | :02:39. | :02:45. | |
BSkyB, part owned by the Murdochs' News Corporation. All that follows | :02:45. | :02:49. | |
phone hacking allegations at the News Of The World. The former | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
editor Rebekah Brooks was questioned by police and the | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
parliamentary inquiry took place. This is the most humble day of my | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
life. The committee which quizzed Rupert Murdoch and his son heard | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
claims that James Murdoch was warned about phone hacking in an e- | :03:04. | :03:09. | |
mail in 2008. He says he did not properly read it. With the benefit | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
of hindsight, we can look at all these things. If I knew then what | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
we know now, we would have taken more action around that and moved | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
faster to get to the bottom of these allegations. Today in a | :03:21. | :03:30. | |
:03:31. | :03:36. | ||
letter to the board, Mr Murdoch Today's boardroom change will not | :03:36. | :03:40. | |
make any difference to Sky viewers. The same executive management team | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
is still in place. But it is highly significant that James Murdoch | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
personally, and his position in the media industry and the Murdoch | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
empire. When he resigned from being head of the press interests in the | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
UK, it was said by News Corp that James Murdoch would then focus on | :03:57. | :04:02. | |
pay-TV interests in the company. The fact that he is leaving the | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
crown jewel of News Corp's pay-TV interests does mean that he is | :04:05. | :04:12. | |
unlikely to have a consistent job in the pay-TV area. The protesters | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
outside the reason BSkyB shareholder meeting criticised what | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
they called the Murdoch Mafia. There are questions now are about | :04:19. | :04:24. | |
where James stands in the family pecking order. For James Murdoch | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
and his prospects of succeeding his father at the top of News | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
Corporation, which remember, is Rupert's fondest wish, to be | :04:32. | :04:35. | |
succeeded by one of his children, and James was the heir apparent, | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
that seems even less likely now than yesterday. Before the long- | :04:40. | :04:45. | |
term succession is resolved, James Murdoch has the shorter term issue | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
of what a parliamentary committee concludes about his knowledge of | :04:48. | :04:54. | |
the phone hacking scandal. Cue, the timing of this resignation | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
is crucial, isn't it? Absolutely crucial. The Department of Culture, | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
Media and Sport committee will come up with its report in a few weeks' | :05:04. | :05:10. | |
time. What it says will be critical, what it finds about James Murdoch's | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
evidence about what he knew and when about phone hacking. Then you | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
have the strong probability that James Murdoch and his father Rupert | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
will appear at the Leveson inquiry at the end of this month, again. | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
There was a huge amount of attention when they appeared before | :05:24. | :05:30. | |
MPs. There will be a lot more attention this time. Then there is | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
the investigation by the broadcasting regulator Ofcom into | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
whether BSkyB is fit and proper to hold broadcasting licences. They | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
are looking at the role of the majority shareholder. That has not | :05:42. | :05:47. | |
changed today. They are also looking at the controlling director. | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
James Murdoch moving aside from chairman to being just a director, | :05:52. | :05:57. | |
could be seen in that context. Maybe he has tried to create space | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
for BSkyB in that inquiry so that the heat is off a bit in that sense. | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
But we do not know what they will come up with. But the pressure is | :06:06. | :06:12. | |
still very much on James Murdoch tonight, even after he has stood | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
down as the executive chairman of BSkyB, and on his family's media | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
business as well for us stop the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
appeared to signal a retreat to date over controversial plans for a | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
greater surveillance of e-mails on the internet use. | :06:26. | :06:30. | |
Mr Clegg said more consultation was needed and the legislation would | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
not be rammed through Parliament. Earlier today, the Home Office had | :06:34. | :06:36. | |
indicated that the proposals, which critics have labelled a "snooper's | :06:37. | :06:43. | |
charter", would be pushed through Parliament as soon as possible. | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
The way the world communicates has changed. The way serious criminals | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
and terrorists communicate has changed. So the Government wants to | :06:51. | :06:56. | |
update the law, but the plan has proved controversial and now the | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
Prime Minister is on the back foot, forced to defend his proposals. | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
This is not about extending the reach of the state into people's | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
data, it is about trying to keep up with modern technology. But we | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
should remember that this sort of data, used at the moment through | :07:12. | :07:18. | |
the proper processes, is vital in stopping serious crime and some of | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
the most serious terrorist incidents that could kill people in | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
our country. The police and security services are increasingly | :07:25. | :07:28. | |
interested in social media and Internet conversations. The | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
Government wants to let them access information on that at will. None | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
detailed content, just details of websites visited. But the idea of | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
more intrusion has been roundly criticised. It is unclear what it | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
means for people. It is always going to lead to fears about the | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
general browsing of people's e- mails unless they are clear about | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
what the proposals would mean and about how they are changing the law. | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
The Prime Minister has to get a grip on this government. It is | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
clear that there were different views on this inside the government. | :08:02. | :08:06. | |
The Home Secretary Theresa May used a piece in a tabloid newspaper to | :08:06. | :08:10. | |
try to justify the changes. She claimed it could prevent another | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
7/7-style a pack and maybe another paedophile murderer like Ian | :08:14. | :08:19. | |
Huntley. But some Liberal Democrats within the coalition led by the | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
Deputy Prime Minister saw an attack on civil liberties, and they do not | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
want to rush the charges through Parliament. On the local election | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
campaign trail, Nick Clegg was keen to intervene. The Home Office has | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
maintained that the plan will not be delayed, but with talk of a | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
draft bills and scrutiny before it goes to parliament, it looks like | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
the brakes are on. We are not going to ram legislation through | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
Parliament. We will make sure our proposals are published in draft so | :08:45. | :08:50. | |
that people can debate them. There is a debate to be had. The critics | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
were not just from the Liberal Democrat side. High-profile Tories | :08:54. | :09:00. | |
who jumped on the plan sensed signs of a victory. The agencies should | :09:00. | :09:05. | |
not be able to intrude on your private information or mine without | :09:05. | :09:10. | |
a magistrate's approval, a warrant. If we get that, we will have made | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
progress. Without that, the battle will go on. The Home Office can now | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
add its name to the list of departments who have struggled over | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
the past two weeks to communicate what this Government wants to do. | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
The BBC understands that the changes will feature in next | :09:24. | :09:28. | |
month's Queen's speech, but ministers have made a mess of it | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
along the way. The exile uncle of the Syrian | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
President Bashar al-Assad has said he does not think the regime can | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
hold on to power for much longer. Rifaat al-Assad, who has lived in | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
Paris since he unsuccessfully tried to seize power from his brother in | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
the 1980s, has told BBC that the level of violence on the streets of | :09:46. | :09:53. | |
Syria was too high for his nephew to survive. | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
30 years ago, Rifaat al-Assad was the second most powerful man in | :09:57. | :10:04. | |
Syria. The army commander at the right hand of his brother, who was | :10:04. | :10:09. | |
the first president of Syria, and the father of the current leader. | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
But since he led a failed coup, Rifaat al-Assad has mostly been in | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
exile. At the moment in a grand house in Paris, perhaps dreaming of | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
a return to power. It is not surprising that he is pessimistic | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
about the chances of the son of the man he tried to overthrow. Do you | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
think that President Assad's regime will survive what is happening at | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
the moment in Syria? TRANSLATION: It will be difficult | :10:32. | :10:37. | |
for him to stay in power. The problems are now general to all | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
parts of Syria. There are no places that have escaped violence, so I | :10:41. | :10:46. | |
don't think he can stay in power. Running Syria is still a family | :10:46. | :10:51. | |
affair. President Bashar al-Assad nominated his brother to lead | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
operations against armed insurgents. Here in Homs, which the president | :10:55. | :11:03. | |
visited last week and elsewhere. Today's events echoed the past. In | :11:03. | :11:05. | |
1982, Rifaat al-Assad and his brother crashed a revolt by the | :11:05. | :11:11. | |
Muslim Brotherhood in the fourth biggest town in Syria. Estimates of | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
the dead in backstreets like this started at 10,000. But now, Rifaat | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
al-Assad denies it happened like that, and prefers to talk about the | :11:20. | :11:24. | |
latest peace initiative. Kofi Annan is trying to get a political deal | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
going at the moment. Do you think that is possible, or do you think | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
the future for Syria is perhaps a much more serious civil war? | :11:33. | :11:40. | |
TRANSLATION: Kofi Annan's initiative is week. There have been | :11:40. | :11:45. | |
stronger initiatives before. Nevertheless, the point of staying | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
in this initiative comes with international consensus. And do you | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
think the initiative might work, or could there be a future involving | :11:52. | :12:02. | |
civil war? If he is serious about co-operating with those responsible | :12:02. | :12:08. | |
to an act change, we can make this initiative succeed. Without | :12:08. | :12:14. | |
international consensus, we may reach a civil war. The Syrian | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
government's tanks are still in and around rebellious turn up -- towns | :12:18. | :12:23. | |
like this and parts of the capital, Damascus. The Kofi Annan peace | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
plans say they must pull back by a week from now and there should be a | :12:27. | :12:32. | |
two hour truce. But their arguments over which side should stop | :12:32. | :12:35. | |
shooting first and scepticism over whether the deadline will be met. | :12:35. | :12:39. | |
Britain's top policeman has said his shot over allegations of racism | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
and assault by officers during last summer's riots. In an internal | :12:44. | :12:47. | |
statement to his staff, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
Bernard Hogan-Howe said he would not stand for any racism in his | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
force. He spoke after footage emerged of one officer apparently | :12:54. | :13:03. | |
Police in the United States say that the man suspected of shooting | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
seven people dead in Oakland had been teased over his poor English. | :13:08. | :13:13. | |
One Goh, 43, felt disrespected and isolated after being expelled from | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
the school. He later surrendered at a supermarket in Alameda. He was a | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
former student. An emergency has been declared in | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
parts of Texas tonight after a series of tornados struck, causing | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
widespread damage. Footage showed drugs being tossed hundreds of feet | :13:30. | :13:40. | |
:13:40. | :13:48. | ||
into the air. The -- traps. There Emergency warnings crackle on the | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
airwaves as a huge tornado tears through one of the largest | :13:51. | :14:01. | |
metropolitan air -- areas in the country. The storm picks up huge | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
lorries and spins them around a parking lot. In the aftermath, | :14:05. | :14:10. | |
graphic evidence of the tornado's power. No detailed account of the | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
damage yet, but this area is home to 6 million people and countless | :14:14. | :14:20. | |
businesses. With emergency calls flooding in, police and fire crews | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
arrived in the worst affected areas. Suburban homes ripped open. Trees | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
and power lines down. Amid the chaos, reports of survivors trapped | :14:29. | :14:38. | |
in buildings and in vehicles. Texas is used to extreme weather, sitting | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
at one end of what is known as tornado alley. After a lengthy | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
drought, local Myers had to introduce partial hosepipe bans | :14:47. | :14:54. | |
later this week. -- Mayors. But the last two years has brought a series | :14:54. | :14:59. | |
of devastating storms. Tornados now affect more of the country than | :14:59. | :15:04. | |
ever and scenes like this are increasingly familiar. | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
Coming up on the programme: Plans to make A-levels harder to help | :15:08. | :15:13. | |
students cope with the move from school to university. They teach | :15:13. | :15:16. | |
you a dumbed down version at A- level and when you get to | :15:16. | :15:19. | |
university you find out what you have been told has nothing to do | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
with what you will be taught in your first year and it is very | :15:22. | :15:30. | |
scary. Research by the BBC shows that up | :15:30. | :15:34. | |
to 20,000 small businesses may have bought complex financial products | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
from banks without properly understanding the risks. The BBC | :15:37. | :15:41. | |
has also learned that the Financial Services Authority is close to | :15:41. | :15:44. | |
completing its initial probe into whether banks systematically mis- | :15:44. | :15:52. | |
sold these products, known as swaps, and whether they are now at risk of | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
paying hundreds of millions of pounds of compensation. | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
On the trail of what some see as the next great misselling scandal | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
involving British banks. The sale of bets on the direction of | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
interest rates, known as swaps, to small businesses, here in sunny | :16:09. | :16:15. | |
East Anglia. I am in a small market town in Norfolk, about as far from | :16:15. | :16:21. | |
the financial sophistication of the City of London as you could | :16:21. | :16:25. | |
possibly get. Except a few years ago Barclays Capital, one of the | :16:25. | :16:30. | |
most powerful investment banks in the world, turned up and sold a | :16:30. | :16:36. | |
complicated interest product to this family firm, Adcocks. In 2007, | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
Paul Adcock was sold what is called an asymmetric cap and collar. He | :16:40. | :16:46. | |
now admits he did not understand it. He thought he was putting a ceiling | :16:46. | :16:49. | |
on the rate you would pay if interest rates went up. What he did | :16:49. | :16:54. | |
not realise is that he was also making a big bet that interest | :16:54. | :16:59. | |
rates would not fall, because ASBOs rates fell, the interest he paid | :16:59. | :17:05. | |
rose. -- as rates fell. He is now paying a crippling interest rate on | :17:05. | :17:10. | |
9% on a commercial mortgage of �900,000. Given that you patently | :17:10. | :17:13. | |
did not understand the financial product you are being sold, why on | :17:13. | :17:19. | |
earth did you agree to take it? would not have believed that a bank | :17:19. | :17:24. | |
that has supported our business for the last 100 years could | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
potentially ever dream of selling as a product that has done such | :17:27. | :17:33. | |
irreparable damage to our business. It has torn the sort out of our | :17:33. | :17:38. | |
business basically. We have to cut costs. The softest target his staff, | :17:38. | :17:45. | |
cut the staff. But most of our staff are members of the family. It | :17:45. | :17:51. | |
is very difficult and a very hard thing to do. Sorry. Some of these | :17:51. | :17:57. | |
are so complex... Abhishek Sachdev sold swaps like these when he was | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
at Lord's. Now he is showing small companies how to get out of them. - | :18:02. | :18:09. | |
- at Lloyds. Several thousand companies may have been involved in | :18:09. | :18:14. | |
these deals with Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC and RBS. Do you think there | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
was pressure put on the junior managers to sell? Undoubtedly. | :18:19. | :18:23. | |
These products have been and will continue to be very, very | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
profitable for the banks. Several benefits would be shown to the | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
client around the complex structured products. Those benefits | :18:31. | :18:34. | |
are fine and they are valid, but you cannot show the benefits | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
without the risks at the same time. That is where the banks are at | :18:38. | :18:43. | |
fault, I think. The banks insist that swaps can be good for clients | :18:43. | :18:49. | |
and Barclays says they stuck to the rules when dealing with Adcocks. | :18:49. | :18:53. | |
That is small comfort for a firm now managed by a 4th generation of | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
the founding family, fearful that the business will not still be | :18:57. | :19:05. | |
alive for the next generation. Planned strike by ground staff at | :19:05. | :19:08. | |
Stansted airport over Easter have been called off after talks. | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
Members of the GMB union had been due to walk out for four hours on | :19:12. | :19:17. | |
Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Monday, in a dispute over pay. | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
A-level exams could get much tougher if the Education Secretary | :19:21. | :19:25. | |
has his way. Michael Gove says the current exams, which students sit | :19:25. | :19:30. | |
in England, and in some schools in Wales and Northern Ireland, do not | :19:30. | :19:34. | |
prepare them for the rigour of university education. He wants | :19:34. | :19:38. | |
universities to have a say over what goes into the papers. The | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
watchdog has welcomed the proposal but some teachers say it is a quick | :19:42. | :19:48. | |
fix gimmick. Securing a place in university is a | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
major achievement. But the Education Secretary is concerned | :19:52. | :19:56. | |
that success at A-level does not necessarily mean you are ready to | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
start studying for a degree. In a letter sent to the exams regulator | :20:00. | :20:10. | |
:20:10. | :20:15. | ||
Ofqual and obtained by Newsnight, The coalition's answer is to give | :20:16. | :20:18. | |
universities a say in helping to decide A-level courses and how they | :20:18. | :20:23. | |
are assessed. It is very often a stepping-stone into university and | :20:23. | :20:28. | |
that is why it is a good thing to make sure that universities are | :20:28. | :20:31. | |
involved in having the highest possible standards at A-level. | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
There are students that admit that going from school to university can | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
be quite the lead. I thought A- levels were quite straight forward | :20:38. | :20:41. | |
and then you come to university and it is all theorists and stuff and | :20:41. | :20:46. | |
it is confusing at first. I think in science subjects especially they | :20:46. | :20:50. | |
teach you a dumbed down version at O-level. Many of them may never | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
even have taken an exam. For decades the number of people | :20:54. | :20:57. | |
studying at university has grown, as have the claims that A-levels | :20:57. | :21:02. | |
are getting easier. The pass rate has certainly been rising. In the | :21:02. | :21:07. | |
mid- 1990s, 85% of candidates in England were awarded a grade | :21:07. | :21:11. | |
between grade A and grade E. That has been steadily increasing and | :21:11. | :21:18. | |
last year 98.5% of students passed. Teaching unions are angry that they | :21:18. | :21:21. | |
have not been consulted about these proposals and they do have some | :21:21. | :21:26. | |
concerns. The Russell Group, made up of some of the leading | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
universities in the UK, so there should be changes about the way A- | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
levels are taught. -- say that there should be changes. We would | :21:35. | :21:40. | |
like to change A-levels to reduce the number of resits, to reduce the | :21:40. | :21:45. | |
marginalisation of A-levels, and to beef up some of the components. -- | :21:45. | :21:50. | |
modularisation. Scotland has a different education system and | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
Highers are generally used as a qualification for entering | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
university. There are other examining boards in Wales and | :21:57. | :22:02. | |
Northern Ireland, but some students do sit papers set by English boards. | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
For many future students, this is a clear sign that exams could become | :22:06. | :22:13. | |
harder and getting into university could become rather more difficult. | :22:13. | :22:17. | |
England's cricketers have had a mixed first day in the second Test | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
match against Sri Lanka. They need to win in Colombo to keep their | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
position as the world's best Test team, but Sri Lanka recovered from | :22:23. | :22:28. | |
an early slump with a century from the captain, Mahela Jayawardene, | :22:28. | :22:34. | |
which helped the hosts to 238 for six at the close of play. | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
In football, Barcelona are through to the semi-finals of the Champions | :22:38. | :22:44. | |
League after defeating AC Milan 3-1. Barcelona were helped with this | :22:44. | :22:50. | |
penalty by Lionel Messi. He scores! The player of the year went on to | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
score another, matching the record of 14 goals in one season of the | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
competition. Wintery weather has returned to | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
much of Scotland with six inches of snow falling in Aberdeenshire. It | :23:03. | :23:08. | |
is just a week since people were basking in temperatures of just | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
over 20 degrees. In England it remains dry, with March recording | :23:12. | :23:17. | |
the warmest and sunniest conditions on record. These dramatic weather | :23:17. | :23:23. | |
changes are now affecting our landscape and farming patterns. | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
Springtime in Aberdeenshire. After last week's record-breaking high | :23:27. | :23:33. | |
temperatures, you could say that normal service has been resumed. | :23:33. | :23:41. | |
Basking in the unseasonal heat several days ago, Aboyne is now | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
under snow. Thousands of homes have no electricity and drama on the | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
mountains. A helicopter evacuation for nine Belgian tourists from the | :23:50. | :23:57. | |
slopes of Ben that do we, Britain's second highest peak. -- Ben Macdui. | :23:57. | :24:01. | |
They were brought in from the cold, safe and well. They did have | :24:01. | :24:06. | |
camping gear with them and they made camp when the weather started | :24:06. | :24:11. | |
to deteriorate. They managed that before they got cold. In town, snow | :24:11. | :24:16. | |
shovels that had been packed away by back in service. Last week we | :24:16. | :24:20. | |
have customers on the deck and it was 24 degrees in the shade and 32 | :24:20. | :24:24. | |
degrees in the sunshine. We knew that it was not going to last that | :24:24. | :24:32. | |
long. Down South, a different picture. At the Royal Horticultural | :24:32. | :24:34. | |
Society's Gardens, there were plenty of tips on making things | :24:34. | :24:39. | |
grow, even in the drought. Spring is in full bloom, but the dramatic | :24:39. | :24:43. | |
shift in our weather patterns are presenting big challenges to the | :24:43. | :24:47. | |
gardeners. On a bigger scale, our farmers are having to adapt to the | :24:47. | :24:52. | |
changing weather conditions. The soil for many is starting to look | :24:52. | :24:59. | |
like dust. We have had two Super dry winters in a row. Official | :24:59. | :25:06. | |
figures for March so that it was the warmest since 1967. -- say that. | :25:06. | :25:10. | |
It was also the driest for more than a decade. The official advice | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
for farmers, expect the unexpected. The first thing to say is that I | :25:15. | :25:18. | |
don't think farmers, as climate change is developing, will be able | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
to rely on the average temperature and rainfall as they have done for | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
many years. There has to be an expectation that that will change | :25:26. | :25:31. | |
and they need to ponder how they adapt to that. In the East of | :25:31. | :25:34. | |
England, the lack of rain is bringing trouble on the roads. | :25:34. | :25:38. | |
Cracks are appearing as the earth beneath the carriageway tries and | :25:38. | :25:44. | |
shrinks. Big repair bills. And of course in much of England, the | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
hosepipe ban comes into force on Thursday this week and is likely to | :25:48. | :25:53. | |
remain in place for the entire summer. | :25:53. | :25:57. |