01/08/2012 BBC News at One

The first gold for Great Britain at the London 2012 Games, as Helen

Glover and Heather Stanning win the women's pair rowing. COMMENTATOR:

Great Britain into the record books and fab -- fabiously well done. And

they make history too as they become the first British women ever

to win Olympic gold in rowing. so overjoyed. I wanted to collapse.

Tears on the podium as Great Britain's new golden girls enjoy

the glory. Are they on the road to more medals? The women's individual

time trials are under way. High hopes for Lizzie Armitstead and

Emma Pooley. And golden hopes for Bradley Wiggins in the men's race

this afternoon. That's unforgivable. Charged - eight Olympic badminton

players are accused of not using their best efforts to win a match.

The conflict in Syria - President Assad says the fate of the nation

is at stake. Hoping to boost the economy and the property market - a

new scheme to get banks lending to businesses and homeowners comes

into force today. And the celebrated American author and

political commentator, Gore Vidal, has died at the age of 86. Later -

there will be no change to London's Olympic strategy, as businesses

claim a sharp drop in trading. We'll have the roundup of the

Afternoon and welcome to the BBC News at One from our studio at the

Olympic Park in East London. Good And it's gold at last for Team GB

after Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won the women's pair

rowing in impressive style. They also made it into the history books

as the first British women ever to win Olympic gold in rowing. Their

win was all the more extraordinary given that 26-year-old Helen Glover

only starting to row four years ago after being picked out as someone

with potential for her height. There's been more success for Team

GB with a bronze in the men's eight. They waited beside a lake built for

rowing. In Afghanistan they shared the same anticipation. The Royal

Artillery willing on their team- mate, Captain Heather Stanning. By

rights, Stanning in the cap and Helen Glover should still be

learning to row together. Glover only got into a boat for the first

time four years ago, recruited because of her height, almost six

feet tall. Inside two minutes they had a clear lead in lane three.

That's their style - go hard from the start. Their lead over the rest

was nearly three seconds with a quarter of the race gone. At half-

way the gap was even better. Even the world champions from New

Zealand in second were in a different race. Logic suggested the

British pair couldn't sustain that level of performance, maintain

their dominance, but the gap told you they were getting better and

better. Forget the days Britain had been waiting for a gold at these

Games. Never before had there been female British rowing champions.

COMMENTATOR: The crowd are roaring them on again. Over the final

metres the other closed, but -- the others closed, but never to

threaten the outcome. A triumph of team work, stamina and utter

commitment. Glover and Stanning, Britain's first Olympic champions

of 2012. The recent history of British rowing is famously

successful, but there's so much to live up to. The presence of Sir

Steve Redgrave was almost too much for Helen. That's a powerful

shoulder to cry on, but they summoned their composure to talk

about the race. Shattered and overjoyed. I want to jump around. I

don't know. I'm probably talking rubbish now. Matthew and Steve were

watching and you smiled with 250 to go and they were saying, don't

smile, you haven't won it yet. was probably a grimace. I never

thought we had this. We went through the orange buoys and then I

thought we've got this. Suddenly for Team GB as a whole, the

burden's lifted. This was the reaction at team headquarters in

East London. No longer the nagging question for the first gold. It was

delivered on the lakeside at Eton Dorney and this is what a gold

medal looks like around a British neck in 2012. Andy Swiss is there

for us now. Everyone really still catching their breath after a quite

extraordinary morning here. An extraordinary performance by Helen

Glover and Heather Stanning to win gold in the most emphatic fashion

possible. I'm joined by the five- times Olympic gold medallist, Sir

Steve Redgrave. Wow, what a performance? It's been a great

morning. The girls have done us proud and shown a lot of promise

over the last couple of years. I was quoted in the New Zealand press

when the world championships were out there two years ago, they've

done a fantastic job to make the final, but that's as good as it

gets and they went on to win silver that time. Repeated that last year,

after dominating the circuit and this year, have taken the circuit

apart. I've been telling everyone they'll win gold. There's no-one

else who will put them under pressure. I kept saying to myself,

you can't say that. You've been in the situation before, you can't say

that. They've just blown everyone away. I was standing next to Matt

and he was concerned at one stage that they were going to win by more

than five seconds when Matt and I first raced with each other in the

Barcelona Games they could have won by much more, but the emotion and

the crowd, that they knew they had just not consciously eased off, but

they knew they didn't need to gun it to the line. What can you tell

us about them and their careers? Helen, four years ago, watched the

Games on TV and thought, "I fancy doing that. I could be a rower." It

was around the same time I launched a programme in this programme for

looking for tall people within rowing, handball volleyball and she

was one that came through the programme. It shows you that if you

get the right people in the right sports, they can achieve great

things. The first Olympic gold medal for Great Britain here in

London. How will their lives change, because as you know, winning gold

is something that changes your life? Tomorrow, all the papers will

have their picture on it. There's a few chances with cycling going on

with the time trial, so we could have multiple golds tomorrow, but

to be the first gold of the Games is pretty special, but the first in

the women's rowing crew at the Games. We've had a couple of

chances, but nobody's done it yet and I think in a couple of days'

time we have Kathrine Grainger and she'll do it as well. The men's

eight, who won a bronze. Greg Searle at 40, another medal for

him? I feel for him in some ways there was a silver up for offer for

them. They said they were going for gold and they did everything all

the experts said they should do to try to beat the Germans and put

everything on the line and one stage I thought they would do it.

The Germans were hugely impressive and very, very impressive. They

rowed away. They have a bronze. I saw it being put around their neck

and I was thinking that could have been a silver. It doesn't make a

difference. As a country we should be hugely impressed by their

attitude, determination. It was gold or nothing. They've got a

bronze. Thank you very much indeed for talking to us. There we have it,

an extraordinary morning here. Britain has its first gold medal of

the Games and two new sporting heroes in Helen and Heather and it

could be the start of a golden week for rish boroughing. Thank you very

much. I'm joined by someone who knows Team GB's rowers very well,

Nathaniel Reilly O'Donnell, who was in the men's eight rowing squad for

the last four years. It was gold or nothing and it really did look like

they could do it. They got the lead they were looking for into the

final last quarter and they just ran out of gas. They risked

everything. A real defiant factor of the crew is before the Beijing

race they didn't want to lose the silver and the last four years has

been everything we won't be the nearly men and it will be all about

the gold and they put everything in. They risked all sorts of things,

physically, things with family, at work, all those commitments and

they put it out there and they put themselves into that position. The

German crew is phenomenon. They haven't been beaten in the last

Olympiad. The guys should be proud, because it takes real guts.

Absolutely. They have a bronze medal. You know them very well.

What will they be going through right now? They'll be disappointed.

They will be really disappointed and it will take time, but they'll

know that it's been a huge achievement and I think the manner

in which they raced, the manner in which they put themselves into that

position, they will be proud that they did it like that. They didn't

shy away. They stepped you and took that risk and you have to put

yourself in those sorts of positions. Huge determination.

We'll talk about Helen Glover as well. An extraordinary story, given

she only started rowing four years ago. Picked out because of her

height. She was the right height. There is the world-class star

programme and they look for well- trained people and so she knew

sport and transfer the skills she had learnt elsewhere and she's had

fantastic ability to be able to learn very quickly the boat skills

needed and to be able to then bring in her experiences from other

sports and achieve what she has achieved today. Incredible. Thank

you very much for joining us. So now Team GB's next medal hope is in

the cycling with all eyes on Bradley Wiggins. Fresh from his

historic victory in the Tour de France, he's favourite to win the

men's time trial this afternoon. The women's event is already under

way with medal hopes resting on Emma Pooley and Lizzie Armitstead,

who'll be aiming for her second medal of the Games. The races

finish at Hampton Court and our sports correspondent, Dan Roan, is

there. As you say, Bradley Wiggins is very much the king of the Tour

de France, after he became the first Briton in history to win the

biggest bike race in the world, just a couple of weeks ago. Today,

he could become Olympic Royalty, because he already has six Olympic

med alds to his name, three golds, two bronze and one silver from the

Olympics at Sydney, Athens and Beijing. If he wins a seventh here

today, he will overtake Sir Steve Redgrave and become the most

decorated Olympian in British sporting history. In the very

appropriate and palatial surroundings of Hampton Court

Palace. Huge crowds here ahead of the men's time trial, which gets

under way in a short time. He will be going for gold, and he's

favourite and it will be his fourth and it would become the second gold

of the day for Team GB. Bradley Wiggins has been speaking to the

BBC. The The country has gone Wig - tastic. It's good that it has that

effect. It's a bit strange for me. Ultimately I only do it to be

individual, but it's good. biggest name in cycling, you're the

winner of the Tour de France. bigger than Cavendish now I haven't

done the head and shoulders shot yet! The scale of the win and

reaction in this country, do you pinch yourself? It was a bit

overwhelming. I was so used to see that happen to others like Chris

Hoy coming back from Beijing and I guess I don't think any of us

appreciate what cycling is going through at the moment, because you

are concentrating on your performance and we are all pretty

down-to-earth guys by the nature of the sport. We don't fully

appreciate what it's doing for the profile of sport. To win the Tour

de France takes many sacrifices. What did you have to do to get

where you are? A lot. Apart from the training and physical side, I

have to six weeks of the year live on top of a mountain in Tenerife

and I miss children's birthdays and the kids break up and you are

leaving over Easter. They don't know where you are and I sleep in

the spare bedroom and in the tent for weeks on end, so having a

family and being a father and husband and all that isn't

conducive to trying to win the Tour de France. The two don't go

together, but if you've got a support -- a supportive family like

I have, you can do it. I don't know how long you can do it for though.

This is your fourth Olympics. You've won six medals and you are

steeped in Olympic history. What do the Games mean to you? This is like

something that I always come back to every four years. Because it's

not every year you don't ever miss them. To come back here for the

same people and staff and it's good. Every four years I get a bit older

and a bit more successful. From the 19-year-old lad in Sydney and some

people think I haven't changed a bit I'm looking forward to going

out and trying to win the fourth in Bradley Wiggins there, who today

goes for his first ever Olympic medal on the road. His previous six

have been on the track. A big day for him. A big day for Team GB. Now

the women's time trial is under way. We'll show you live pictures in a

moment. Let me tell you about the course. Behind me is Hampton Court

Palace. Thousands of cycling fans have made their way here, many of

them on the bridge across the Thames. The women come over the

bridge and carry straight on. The men will bend around this road and

then loop along the river. Their route is a few miles longer than

the women's time trial and that will begin in a short time. Bradley

Wiggins will begin his time trial at 3.07pm. Let's show you live

pictures now. They're under way. The competitors are on the road.

The big British hopes are Lizzie Armitstead, who of course, won

silver in the road race on Sunday. Regarded as the bigger contender,

the specialist is Emma Pooley who won silver in Beijing and who got

under way as well a short while ago. The course isn't perhaps as hilly

as she would like. According to the experts Emma Pooley stands a very

good chance of a medal. All eyes however will be on Bradley Wiggins

as he tries to secure historic achievement, his first medal on the

track, his seventh medal overall. It would be a great day for him and

for Britain if he can deliver. Eight women badminton players have

been disqualified from the Olympics for not trying hard enough to win

their matches. Four players of players had already qualified for

the quarter finals. Then it's claimed that they deliberately

tried to lose in order to get an easier draw later in the

competition. Today Lord Coe called the incident depressing and

unacceptable. Let's speak to our Olympics correspondent James Pearce

in the park now. That decision to disqual the players has been

announced in the past half hour. In the end the decision taken to

protect the integrity of the competition and to punish players

who gave spectators who'd paid to come in and watch them nothing

worth watching at all. An Olympic match which descended

into farce. If you're one of the world's best players, you'd be

expected to be able to serve into the court. The Korean and Chinese

pairs simply took turns to the shuttlecock into the net. The crowd

booed and eventually the referee came onto the court and threatened

to disqualify them. The following match and a similar story. This

time it was South Korea against Indonesia. The problem was these

pairs had already qualified for the knock-out stages and had decided

that they'd get a better draw if they lost. I was dismaid and

disgusted. I couldn't believe what was going on last night. It was

incredible scenes in. All my badminton career I've never seen

anything like it. Spectators at the venue last night took to the air

waves to vent their frustration. Just really frustrating. You come

here to watch entertaining badminton and all you see is them

serving it into the net. We thought they'd got somebody off the car

park to play. We hit it over the net more. Pathetic. You would

expect more from professionals. sport's governing body met this

morning to consider what action to take. Other condemned what happened

Yeah, depressing. Who wants to sit through something like that? The

sadness of it is I was at badminton yesterday and I saw you know a

British competitor narrowly fail to progress, but the games were

incredibly competitive in front of really large, enthusiastic

audiences. Unacceptable. I know the badminton federation really well.

They will take it really seriously. It is unacceptable. An evening of

shame for the sport of badminton. The tough action take been in

throwing them out of the Olympics sends out a clear message that this

won't be tolerated but also deprives the competition of some of

its most talented players. So tough action taken by the

federation. But there is a debate, because the problem is this,

although they haven't played within the spirit of the rules, they

haven't actually broken rules of the competition. Some people, for

example, one of Britain's Olympic rowers Zac Purchase tweeting, "What

have they done wrong?" Many other woz have done the same in their

position, by realising they get a better draw by losing. But it is

about winning an Olympic Gold Medal. about winning an Olympic Gold Medal.

Let's look at the overall medal Our top story this lunch time: It's

gold number one for Team GB, as Helen Glover and Heather Stanning

win the Women's Pair rowing in impressive style. They become the

first British women rowers ever to claim Olympic gold. Coming up:

Tributes to the American author and commentator Gore Vidal who's died

at the age of 86. Later on BBC London: We hear from

the gardener keeping the Olympic Park in bloom for the Games. And

we'll have all the latest travel In Syria the battle for control of

Aleppo continues, opposition forces say government aircraft are still

pounding rebel positions in the The battle for Aleppo continues

unabated. The army again shelling rebel strong holds to regain

control of this crucial city. It's the largest in Syria. With the army

offensive now in its fifth day, the number of casualties is getting

ever larger. Amongst them, many civilians trapped inside the city.

From what we're hearing from opposition activists across the

border inside Syria is that the battle for Aleppo could be about to

become much more intense. They are saying that a big column of

military vehicles is now on its way to Aleppo to reinforce the army

units already fighting inside the city. But the rebels remain

confident they can hold out against the army. This unverified video

shows a large haul of assault rifles taken from captured troops,

who the rebels say are demoralised and willing to defect. This is a

rebel fighter who's been battling government forces inside Aleppo. He

says they've captured heavy weapons in recent days.

TRANSLATION: We make a tactical checkpoint and we take eight tanks

and also we are using everything to fight the army. Already tens of

thousands of civilians have fled Aleppo. Some crossing the border

into Jordan and Turkey. With the Syrian government determined to win

the battle for Aleppo at any cost, there could soon be a flood of

refugees pouring into these camps. A new scheme starts today to make

more money available to home owners and businesses. The funds will come

from the Bank of England and will be borrowed by banks at below

market rates, but only if they pass it on to businesses and consumers.

It's a plan hatched by the governor of the Bank of England and the

Chancellor designed to get more money flowing round the economy in

the shape of new loans to businesses and consumers. And since

details were announced last month, some mortgage lenders have already

started cutting their rates in anticipation of the cheap funding

which comes on stream today. couple of weeks ago, the cheapest

five-year fixed rate was 3.69%. We've now got three lenders offered

the same time below 3%. Though you need a 40% equity to get the

cheaper rates that gives an idea of the impact. The scheme called

Funding for Lending will provide cheaper credit to the banking

system. The Bank of England hopes to lend around �80 billion to banks

and building societies with an interest rate of 0.75%, as long as

they maintain or increase lending to companies and households. But if

lending falls, there'll be penalties with the bank's borrowing

cost rising as high as 2%. For the last few months, the Treasury's

been advertising the National Loan Guarantee Scheme, a Government plan

designed to encourage business lending by banks. It was only

launched in march. Now we're told it's going to be wound down because

of the new initiative which started today. Labour claims George

Osborne's previous scheme, which was launched with a lot of

publicity, has been axed because it wasn't working. This is policy

making on the hoof. It's a shambolic way of making decisions

to announce a scheme in a March budget and then U-turn and drop it

a few months later. But the Treasury argues the new scheme will

be more attractive to the banks and that the previous initiative did

succeed in boosting lending and is not being abolished.

Roulz Rausing, one of Britain's richest men, has pleaded guilty to

preventing the lawful burial of his wife eva. It's thought her body may

have lain for up to two month's in their home.

The American writer Gore Vidal has died at the age of 86. He was one

of the country's most distinguished authors, but was well known for his

outspoken comments on sex, religion and politics.

Gore Vidal was a brilliant writer, with an acid tongue and assured

sense of style. Here he is in a single chat show appearance with

whit sixes about politics and why he ran for office himself. I like

crowds. I have depths of insincerity as yet unplumbed.

There's nothing like a crowd to really inspire that. I ran the

first time only out of greed and vanity, the two things which drive

my character. I'm unlike other people as you know. I suppose you

write about what interests you. I have always liked politicians

better than people. Do you find you've been able to influence

politics in America by your writing? Are you joking? Nobody

reads in America. LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE He'd been born into one of

America's most famous dynasties. His grandfather founded the state

of Oklahoma. Advice President Al Gore was a cousin, Jackie Kennedy

was his step sister. His first novel in 1946 was an immediate hit.

There after he was constantly in demand for film scripts like Ben

Hur, newspaper articles, books, a series of masterful historical

novels traced American history from the war of independence to the Cold

War. He thought the US had become an empire controlled by the few and

had forgotten its democratic and republican roots. For years he

lived in Italy but visited America often, a biting satirist, a man of

formidable intellect who spoke his mind with francness and originality.

The American writer Gore Vidal who as died. Now the weather. Chris has

the latest for us. Wet and rainy the latest for us. Wet and rainy

here at the moment. That's right, hour-by-hour the

cloud thickening up over the lidge pick -- Olympic Park. The cloud is

producing spots of rain, just showers really. Those showers will

ease away through the rest of this afternoon here. Whereas further

west we will see further outbreaks of rain from a cold front. You can

see this cold front is the rain moving into Wales and south-west

England. That rain will be heavy at times as it moves across the

Midlands and Wales through this afternoon. To the south we have a

clutch of showers working in across the English Channel. They're

working in the south-east. A lot of that rain is evaporating so spots

of rain here and there. Increasingly through the rest of

afternoon, we should see things becoming drier and brighter. So the

weather set fair for example, Bradley Wiggins gets on in the

cycling in the next 45 minutes or. So later, we'll see Andy Murray

with Laura robson in the tennis. The weather should be drier and

brighter with a low risk of a shower at Wimbledon. For the rest

of the country, patches of rain through central southern England

and in the Midlands, heavy for a time in the Midlands. North West

England is cloudy and damp. There will be further heavy outbreaks of

rain particularly into say sterlingshire, north of the central

low lands. In Northern Ireland, one or two showers knocking around. For

the football, the men's football taking place at the Millennium

Stadium in Cardiff, it's a bright prospect here with sunny spells.

Taize mild evening as well. During this evening, we see the rain

clearing away, could be an odd spot across East Anglia maybe the far

north of Scotland. But it's dry across most parts of the country,

temperatures 11 to 15 degrees or so. Tomorrow morning, it starts off

bright, most areas see decent sunshine to start the day, however,

we're going to see showers quickly across Wales and south-west England.

Through the day they push north and eastwards. There's thunder storms

into the afternoon. It looks like the worst of the showers will stay

to the north and west of London, so for London it's a low risk of a

shower, essentially it will stay dry. In the sunshine temperatures

into the high teens, if not the low 20s. Friday, another day of

sunshine and showers. Again most of the showers will be favoured across

western parts of the British Isles. That's where the low pressure is.

The London area staying dry and bright. Into the weekend, the low

moves over eastwards and that brings increased threat of down

pours to the Olympic Park this weekend.

A reminder of our top story - Team GB has won its first Gold Medal of

the London 2012 Olympics. Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won the