:00:22. > :00:27.future food and water supplies. We expect to see substantial
:00:28. > :00:31.extensions, widespread impacts on ecosystems. We'll be looking at the
:00:32. > :00:35.science behind the report and we'll be live in the Somerset levels as
:00:36. > :00:36.they take action to prevent further flooding.
:00:37. > :00:40.Also this lunchtime: Policing in England and Wales says it has been
:00:41. > :00:48.damaged but not broken by scandals, according to a new report.
:00:49. > :00:53.It has shaken public trust in the police, and that is the trust that
:00:54. > :00:56.needs to be restored. New inquests into the deaths of 96
:00:57. > :01:00.people at Hillsborough 25 years after the stadium disaster.
:01:01. > :01:03.George Osborne commits to fight for full employment and says he'll use
:01:04. > :01:07.tax and welfare changes to achieve it.
:01:08. > :01:09.The phone-hacking trial hears how Rebekah Brooks' husband hid
:01:10. > :01:15.pornographic DVDs from police to avoid embarrassment.
:01:16. > :01:18.Later on BBC London: The Mayor of Tower Hamlets denies he's given
:01:19. > :01:22.funding to charities to gain electoral support.
:01:23. > :01:23.And with the Met about to trial body cameras for officers, we travel to
:01:24. > :01:50.the US to see how it works there. Good afternoon and welcome to the
:01:51. > :01:54.BBC News at One. The impact of global warming is likely to be
:01:55. > :01:58.severe, pervasive and irreversible. That is according to a major report
:01:59. > :02:02.by the UN, which warns of a growing risk of floods, food shortages and
:02:03. > :02:07.threats to human health and carbon emissions are not reduced. While
:02:08. > :02:11.some sceptics have acute sciences of being too alarmist, the report
:02:12. > :02:17.suggests humans may be able to add of the changes, but only within
:02:18. > :02:23.limits. -- to adapt. Climate change is here, now, says
:02:24. > :02:29.the UN's report. We can see it in fish migration patterns, in melting
:02:30. > :02:34.Arctic sea ice, in shrinking Himalayan glaciers are like this one
:02:35. > :02:39.I visited last year. We can see the damage to coral is. In short, the
:02:40. > :02:44.authors say, climate change is a fact. But the report is saying is
:02:45. > :02:50.that parts of climate change are reversible. Things have happened
:02:51. > :02:54.that we can't change. But there are a lot of things where if we act now,
:02:55. > :03:01.we can prevent it getting worse. We are likely to get more severe floods
:03:02. > :03:05.in future as warm air holds more moisture. It urges politicians to
:03:06. > :03:11.cut emissions of CO2 to slow the warming. But at the document's
:03:12. > :03:15.launch in Japan, the authors said we must also adapt to the inevitable
:03:16. > :03:19.future changes to the climate. It is not that we are talking about
:03:20. > :03:23.identifying a particular thing that is going to happen at a particular
:03:24. > :03:34.time. It is understanding how to be prepared into microwaves. One is in
:03:35. > :03:39.decreasing -- in two microwaves. One is decreasing climate change, the
:03:40. > :03:46.other is coping. This is a small move towards adaptation. On Exmoor,
:03:47. > :03:52.they are draining channels but previously to improve productivity.
:03:53. > :03:59.They are trying to catch water in the Moss to prevent flooding. This
:04:00. > :04:05.moth stores 20 times its own weight in water. -- Moss. Every drop of
:04:06. > :04:10.rain caught here does not end up downstream. We can improve farming,
:04:11. > :04:16.too. Here in Cranfield University, they have created artificial mini
:04:17. > :04:21.fields and switched on the rain. In the plot on the left, the soil is
:04:22. > :04:28.contacted by farm machines. See how the water runs off. Compact it feels
:04:29. > :04:34.contributed flooding. We need to be smart about how we manage the soil
:04:35. > :04:37.and the land. Good soil management is the way to absorbing some of
:04:38. > :04:42.these rainfall events. To mitigate or reduce the impact of some of the
:04:43. > :04:46.flooding, that is. So there are things we can do. But adapting to
:04:47. > :04:51.climate change does have its limits, the report says. If we see a four
:04:52. > :04:57.degrees rise in temperature, we expect to see expand as macro
:04:58. > :05:07.substantial extinctions, widespread impact on ecosystems... -- we expect
:05:08. > :05:13.to see substantial extinctions. Extreme warming would also melt the
:05:14. > :05:17.Greenland ice cap. Critics say the report is alarmist. They say the
:05:18. > :05:22.climate simply will not warm that much. The UN panel says we have to
:05:23. > :05:30.make sure that it doesn't. Our science editor is here. It is a
:05:31. > :05:35.pretty grim prognosis. It is pretty grim with the word if in front of
:05:36. > :05:40.everything. If there is extreme warming, at the upper end of what
:05:41. > :05:44.the scientists are saying could happen, a whole cascade of things
:05:45. > :05:49.could follow. If it is not as bad as had been thought, some of those
:05:50. > :05:53.impacts will be minimised. As ever, there are great varieties of how the
:05:54. > :06:02.impacts will play out. For example, if you are poor, living and of -- in
:06:03. > :06:05.a developing world coast, you are likely to be exposed to more of the
:06:06. > :06:10.impacts the scientists have been talking about. If you look at crop
:06:11. > :06:13.yields, it is more, became two. Plants do well with more carbon
:06:14. > :06:19.dioxide. Some greenhouses are given more CO2 to help the plants
:06:20. > :06:25.flourish, up to a point. Plants do not like to be stressed by heat. In
:06:26. > :06:29.some parts of the world, some plants might do a bit better for a while.
:06:30. > :06:34.In other parts, it will be pretty difficult earlier on in the century.
:06:35. > :06:39.There have been many reports on climate change. How significant is
:06:40. > :06:43.this one? It takes account of a whole new load of research done in
:06:44. > :06:48.the seven years since the last one. There has been a lot of work in the
:06:49. > :06:53.oceans, forest, deserts. Scientists think they have a better picture.
:06:54. > :06:58.They also, conversely, think there is a lot they don't know. The more
:06:59. > :07:01.they drill down into the complexity of ecosystems and how the world
:07:02. > :07:05.responds to warming, and particularly how humans respond and
:07:06. > :07:09.can adapt, the more they realise there is even more work to do to
:07:10. > :07:14.understand fully what the impacts might be.
:07:15. > :07:17.We will have more on the effects of global warming later in the
:07:18. > :07:22.programme when we see how one community is dealing with the
:07:23. > :07:25.consequences of the very wet winter. The first ever annual assessment of
:07:26. > :07:30.the police service in England and Wales says it has been damaged but
:07:31. > :07:33.not broken by scandals. It says it has been severely shaken by
:07:34. > :07:38.controversies including the Stephen Lawrence case and the so-called
:07:39. > :07:41.plebgate affair. The Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Tom Windsor, said
:07:42. > :07:44.the scandals and revelations had damaged public confidence and the
:07:45. > :07:47.morale of honest, hard-working officers. Our home affairs
:07:48. > :07:51.correspondent is in Westminster for us.
:07:52. > :07:55.It has been a pretty bad year for the police service, in terms of
:07:56. > :07:58.resources and reputational damage. Many expected this report to put the
:07:59. > :08:02.boot in, not least because its author hasn't been afraid of
:08:03. > :08:06.recommending some pretty controversial reforms to police pay
:08:07. > :08:10.and conditions in the past. In the round, it reads like a pretty
:08:11. > :08:14.staunch defence of the police service in England and Wales. That
:08:15. > :08:19.is not to say, of course, that they are not criticisms with it.
:08:20. > :08:23.Damaged but not broken. After a year of what seemed like endless
:08:24. > :08:26.criticism of the police in England and Wales and the verdict of the
:08:27. > :08:32.Chief Inspector of Constabulary appears almost, the mentoring. There
:08:33. > :08:38.have been scandals, yes, but it cuts, too. But Tom Windsor's report
:08:39. > :08:45.on the police is essentially a B+. It is necessary for the police to
:08:46. > :08:50.re-establish the priorities of policing. The first priority is
:08:51. > :08:53.keeping people safe, to prevent crime to prevent people becoming
:08:54. > :08:57.victims in the first place. He says police have made budget cuts while
:08:58. > :09:02.protecting the front line. But he warns that a loss of trust in police
:09:03. > :09:06.is corrosive and public confidence is severely shaken by recent
:09:07. > :09:08.controversies. He says revelations about police corruption in the
:09:09. > :09:14.Stephen Lawrence murder investigation justify severe
:09:15. > :09:19.criticisms and public disquiet. But in general he concludes police are
:09:20. > :09:24.honest and deserve fair treatment. In other scandals, he has less to
:09:25. > :09:28.say. They include plebgate, the enforced resignation of a Cabinet
:09:29. > :09:32.minister as a result of at least one dishonest officer. And the sexual
:09:33. > :09:37.deception of citizens by undercover police, cases which he says remain
:09:38. > :09:42.open and uncle included, even if others have judged them premature
:09:43. > :09:46.leak. Today's report is the first annual assessment of police, and
:09:47. > :09:49.more will follow. It paints a picture of a survey struggling with
:09:50. > :09:54.resources and often burdened by criticism, but in general in good
:09:55. > :09:57.shape. Looking to the future, he also has
:09:58. > :10:03.concerns about the technology that the police use. In many cases, he
:10:04. > :10:07.says it is primitive. He has reservations about the readiness of
:10:08. > :10:12.police to tackle adequately cyber crime, the huge growth in online
:10:13. > :10:15.fraud. With regard to corruption, he says that needs to be tackled at the
:10:16. > :10:19.top in terms of providing leadership. But he is clear that
:10:20. > :10:23.rebuilding trust in the police among the public is going to be done by a
:10:24. > :10:28.neighbourhood policing, the so-called preservation of the bobby
:10:29. > :10:31.on the beat. For the first time ever, selectors
:10:32. > :10:37.as an probation officers have jointly walked out of court crossing
:10:38. > :10:40.in and will usher macro Wales today. -- England and Wales today. Members
:10:41. > :10:43.of the National Association of Probation Officers are protesting
:10:44. > :10:53.against plans to advertise part of the service. -- to privatise.
:10:54. > :10:57.New inquest into the deaths of the 96 Liverpool fans who were killed in
:10:58. > :11:01.the Hillsborough disaster 25 years ago has begun this morning. The
:11:02. > :11:06.Djourou of the original inquest in 1991 returned verdicts of accidental
:11:07. > :11:19.death. But they were overturned over that -- after a long campaign.
:11:20. > :11:22.These inquests involve around 100 lawyers and 300 bereaved relatives.
:11:23. > :11:25.As such, they have had to build a special court room here in
:11:26. > :11:29.Warrington for them. The hearings will last for around a year. This
:11:30. > :11:36.morning, they began by selecting the jury.
:11:37. > :11:41.They lost their loved ones 25 years ago. Today, they came to court to
:11:42. > :11:45.find out what happened at Hillsborough. These families have
:11:46. > :11:50.spent years campaigning for you inquests. They know the months ahead
:11:51. > :11:59.will not be easy. I think there will be quite a few shocks as we progress
:12:00. > :12:03.over the next 12 months. The truth will out. You can't underestimate
:12:04. > :12:07.how difficult it is going to be for everybody. All we can do is do our
:12:08. > :12:12.best and trust in the judge and everything else. Sheffield
:12:13. > :12:16.Wednesday's Stadium has long been associated with the disaster which
:12:17. > :12:20.happened here. It is where Liverpool came to play an FA Cup semifinal in
:12:21. > :12:27.1989 and where the terraces became so overcrowded that 96 people
:12:28. > :12:30.eventually lost their lives. Then you inquests will seek to establish
:12:31. > :12:37.how each of the Liverpool fans died and will last for around a year and
:12:38. > :12:40.hearing evidence from new witnesses. There are thousands of pages of
:12:41. > :12:45.documents. There is hundreds of witnesses coming. And there are
:12:46. > :12:51.hours of footage that has never been seen before. All the work that has
:12:52. > :12:55.gone into this before the inquest started today is huge. Two years ago
:12:56. > :12:59.the previous inquest verdict of accidental death was quashed at the
:13:00. > :13:02.High Court, and these new inquests were ordered. It followed the
:13:03. > :13:05.publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which are new
:13:06. > :13:13.evidence about the disaster. Its primary author came to court today.
:13:14. > :13:20.My concern is at this minute with the families and the survivors, and
:13:21. > :13:25.what this, after 25 years, means to them. Yesterday at Anfield many fan
:13:26. > :13:31.stops to pay respect to the memorial as the new inquests begin. The
:13:32. > :13:38.effect is still deeply felt by this community. The juror 's have been
:13:39. > :13:42.told they must put out of their minds anything they may have heard
:13:43. > :13:47.or read about Hillsborough in the past. Among the first people to give
:13:48. > :13:52.evidence here at court in the coming days will be some of the relatives
:13:53. > :13:57.of those who died, who have been asked to stand up and address the
:13:58. > :13:59.jury, telling them their own personal recollections and memories
:14:00. > :14:05.of the fans who went to Hillsborough and never came home.
:14:06. > :14:10.There is more on the Hillsborough disaster on our website. You can
:14:11. > :14:16.find out more about the 96 men, women and children who died and
:14:17. > :14:20.details of the inquests. The Chancellor, George Osborne, says
:14:21. > :14:24.he wants to build an economy that supports full employment. In a
:14:25. > :14:28.speech to business leaders, he said there is no reason why Britain
:14:29. > :14:32.shouldn't aim to have the highest employment rate of any of the
:14:33. > :14:40.world's leading economies. Norman Smith is in Westminster. Pick a
:14:41. > :14:43.different economist and you'd probably come up with a different
:14:44. > :14:47.answer, and therein lies the problem. We do not know what Mr
:14:48. > :14:51.Osborne means by full employment, whether he's setting up a new
:14:52. > :14:56.economic target or just reaching for an ambitious headline. We don't know
:14:57. > :15:00.whether he means 0% unemployment or 1% or 2%. Or he would take is he
:15:01. > :15:04.wants Britain to be the best place in the world to get a job. He
:15:05. > :15:25.flagged up the fact that proportionately, more people are in
:15:26. > :15:28.work here than are in the United States. But if you look in the
:15:29. > :15:30.report by the Office for Budget Responsibility, they are saying
:15:31. > :15:32.unemployment will still be 5% in 2018. So is that full employment? We
:15:33. > :15:35.simply don't know. The Chancellor said that the Government had already
:15:36. > :15:37.made a lot of progress in creating more jobs. We will not rest while we
:15:38. > :15:40.have so much wasted potential in some parts of our country. That is
:15:41. > :15:42.why today I'm making a new commitment. A commitment to fight
:15:43. > :15:46.for full employment in Britain. Making jobs a central goal of our
:15:47. > :15:49.economic plan. My sense is what is going on is not so much about
:15:50. > :15:52.figures and numbers but political positioning. Sending out a message
:15:53. > :15:57.to the electorate that the coalition is not just obsessed with deficit
:15:58. > :16:06.reduction, they also want to create jobs. It also trying to park Tory
:16:07. > :16:11.tax on the Labour cabbage patch. Our top story. Severe, pervasive and
:16:12. > :16:16.irreversible. The UN's verdict on the impact of global climate change.
:16:17. > :16:21.Still to come... How one community in Somerset is coping with the
:16:22. > :16:26.effects of a very wet winter. Later on BBC London, the Government's is
:16:27. > :16:29.accused of licensing slavery by making it difficult to foreign
:16:30. > :16:33.domestic staff to escape bad employers. And is the warm weather
:16:34. > :16:43.here to stay? We will have a full forecast for London at 1:30pm.
:16:44. > :16:48.The Australian Prime Minister has said there is no time limit in the
:16:49. > :16:51.search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. He made the
:16:52. > :16:54.comments as he visited service men and women involved in the hunt in
:16:55. > :16:57.the southern Indian Ocean. Later today a ship will leave Perth bound
:16:58. > :17:01.for the search area towing a device for locating the black box flight
:17:02. > :17:09.recorder of the missing plane. Jonah Fisher is at the base from where the
:17:10. > :17:14.search is being co-ordinated. Yes, it's now more than three weeks since
:17:15. > :17:17.the Malaysian Airlines plane disappeared. And the prospect of
:17:18. > :17:21.finding out where the aircraft is now and indeed what happened on
:17:22. > :17:25.board have never felt bleaker. We've just heard back from the Australian
:17:26. > :17:29.authorities, the results of today's search. There were ten planes and
:17:30. > :17:33.ten ships operating in the search area. Yet again they've not come
:17:34. > :17:38.back with anything of any consequences. Questions are
:17:39. > :17:45.increasingly being asked about how long this search effort can continue
:17:46. > :17:49.for. Australia's Prime Minister came to visit a search operation in
:17:50. > :17:54.desperate need of a lucky break. It has been two fruitless weeks since
:17:55. > :17:59.attention shifted to the southern Indian Ocean, and having spoken to
:18:00. > :18:03.some of the pilots, Tony Abbott palmist that the huge, multinational
:18:04. > :18:09.effort would continue. The best brains in the world are applying
:18:10. > :18:13.themselves to this task. All of the technological mastery that we have
:18:14. > :18:21.is being applied and brought to bear here. So if this mystery is
:18:22. > :18:25.solvable, we will solve it will stop but I don't want to under estimate
:18:26. > :18:31.just how difficult it is. The first flight to leave the base today was a
:18:32. > :18:35.Chinese 76. Several times in the last week, planes have spotted
:18:36. > :18:41.debris in the water. When ships have followed up, they've discovered only
:18:42. > :18:45.rubbish. Having searched unsuccessfully, both from the air
:18:46. > :18:50.and on water, this new device will look beneath the waves. This is the
:18:51. > :18:54.pinger locator. It is due to leave Perth tonight and will listen for
:18:55. > :19:00.signals from the plane's Black box recorder. But for it to have any
:19:01. > :19:05.chance, a rough crash site will have two have been identified. By the
:19:06. > :19:10.time this locator makes it to the search area there may be only a
:19:11. > :19:14.couple of days of battery life left on the black-box recorder. With no
:19:15. > :19:23.signal to look for, this already difficult task will become that much
:19:24. > :19:27.harder. In Kuala Lumpur, Chinese relatives of those on-board parade
:19:28. > :19:31.at Buddhist temple. With each passing day, the chances of them
:19:32. > :19:39.getting any answers become more and more remote. So the pressure is very
:19:40. > :19:43.much on the aircraft and the ships working in the search area, to come
:19:44. > :19:47.up with something that will give some indication that the plane did
:19:48. > :19:52.indeed come down in that area and where a possible crash site was.
:19:53. > :19:55.Without that, the search for the black-box recorders using this new
:19:56. > :20:03.device will be almost impossible. Back to you in the studio, Simon.
:20:04. > :20:06.Jonah Fisher, thank you very much. Charlie Brooks, the husband of
:20:07. > :20:09.former News of the World Editor Rebekah Brooks, has told the Old
:20:10. > :20:12.Bailey he took a padded envelope of pornographic DVDs out of their flat
:20:13. > :20:16.and hid them behind some bins, before a police raid. He said that
:20:17. > :20:19.he didn't want them to embarrass his wife. Our home affairs correspondent
:20:20. > :20:24.Tom Symonds reports. Rebekah Brooks and Charlie Brooks in happier times
:20:25. > :20:28.at the races. She, one of the media's most powerful executives.
:20:29. > :20:33.He, a trainer turned writer, Keane, he said today, to protect her
:20:34. > :20:38.reputation. He was being questioned by his barrister about the tense
:20:39. > :20:40.days in July 2011, when his wife was arrested by police investigated
:20:41. > :20:44.phone hacking. He said he expected them to arrive and raid their
:20:45. > :20:49.Chelsea apartment at any moment. And he was captured on camera in the
:20:50. > :20:52.garage below hiding a laptop and a padded bag behind some bins out of
:20:53. > :20:58.shot here to the right. On the laptop, ideas for novels. In the
:20:59. > :21:02.bag, he said, his pornographic DVD collection. He said, I envisaged 20
:21:03. > :21:07.policemen coming in and emptying every drawer and looking under every
:21:08. > :21:10.nook and cranny. And I did think about my DVDs, and I had what I
:21:11. > :21:23.still describe as my Jacqui Smith moment. I didn't want to embarrass
:21:24. > :21:26.my wife in the same way. The former Labour Home Secretary resigned in
:21:27. > :21:28.2009 after claiming expenses for the TV service husband had used to watch
:21:29. > :21:30.pornographic films. Mr Brooks said he was worried that the discovery of
:21:31. > :21:34.what he on several occasions described as his smut, would be
:21:35. > :21:38.leaked by the police to the press. He said there had been a number of
:21:39. > :21:42.leaks to the Guardian already. He was worried that that would
:21:43. > :21:46.embarrass his wife. The police raided the flat but only got hold of
:21:47. > :21:50.Mr Brooks' items because the next day workmen collecting waste bins
:21:51. > :21:54.found them and handed them in. Charlie Brooks denies hiding
:21:55. > :21:57.potential evidence. When Rebekah Brooks found out what had happened,
:21:58. > :22:06.after hours of meetings with the police and her lawyers, she, in his
:22:07. > :22:09.words went ballistic. A court in Pakistan has charged former military
:22:10. > :22:12.ruler Pervez Musharraf with treason, the first army chief to face such a
:22:13. > :22:14.prosecution. Mr Musharraf is accused of unlawfully suspending the
:22:15. > :22:18.constitution and instituting emergency rule in 2007. He pleaded
:22:19. > :22:22.not guilty and has always claimed that the charges against him are
:22:23. > :22:32.politically motivated. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
:22:33. > :22:34.There was a ratcheting up of tension today between North and South Korea
:22:35. > :22:40.as the two countries exchanged shellfire into their disputed
:22:41. > :22:43.western sea border area. During a joint military drill with the United
:22:44. > :22:47.States, South Korea says it returned fire after North Korean shells
:22:48. > :22:50.landed in its territorial waters. North Korea announced earlier that
:22:51. > :22:57.it would hold live-fire drills in seven parts of the border area.
:22:58. > :23:00.Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has arrived in Crimea with
:23:01. > :23:03.several members of his government for what is the highest level visit
:23:04. > :23:06.to the Black Sea peninsula since its annexation by Moscow earlier this
:23:07. > :23:09.month. It follows talks yesterday between the United States and Russia
:23:10. > :23:12.in Paris. The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, said both sides were
:23:13. > :23:16.committed to a diplomatic solution and described their discussions as
:23:17. > :23:24.frank. Our correspondent Daniel Sandford is in Moscow. How
:23:25. > :23:30.significant is the visit by the Prime Minister? There is no one more
:23:31. > :23:35.senior within the Russian government after Prime Minister Medvedev, other
:23:36. > :23:39.than Vladimir Putin himself. It's a very high-level visit and is sending
:23:40. > :23:43.a very strong message to the world that Russia regards Crimea as part
:23:44. > :23:48.of the Russian Federation now. They've already created today a
:23:49. > :23:52.ministry for Crimea was also turning Crimea into a special economic
:23:53. > :23:56.zone, in order to try and attract investment to Crimea. It's a very
:23:57. > :24:00.strong message. Don't forget, this is coming literally the day after
:24:01. > :24:06.the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, met the Russian foreign
:24:07. > :24:08.minister, Sergei Lavrov, and just three days after President Putin
:24:09. > :24:13.telephoned President Obama on Friday night, in order to try and get talks
:24:14. > :24:18.going over the future of Ukraine. I have to say, despite those signals
:24:19. > :24:21.today from Dmitry Medvedev, the signs otherwise reasonably
:24:22. > :24:24.promising. There were lots of worries over the last couple of
:24:25. > :24:27.weeks that Russian troops might be about to go over the border from
:24:28. > :24:31.Russia into eastern Ukraine. There was a big build-up of troops there,
:24:32. > :24:35.the Americans were warning a lot about that build-up of troops. But
:24:36. > :24:38.there were four hours of talks last night between the Russians and the
:24:39. > :24:41.Americans. Those troops were discussed at length and the
:24:42. > :24:46.Ukrainians say there may be some signs today that those troop numbers
:24:47. > :24:52.are coming down. That has not been taken very seriously at the moment.
:24:53. > :24:54.The main stumbling block at the moment is still the Russian 's
:24:55. > :25:00.insistence that in future Ukraine has to be a federalised country, a
:25:01. > :25:03.country with a lot more power devolved to lower levels. The
:25:04. > :25:06.Americans are saying that this for the Ukrainians to decide. The
:25:07. > :25:10.Ukrainians themselves put out a strong statement yesterday saying,
:25:11. > :25:12.why is Russia telling us how we should run our country when they
:25:13. > :25:19.don't even run their own country in that way? Today's warnings from UN
:25:20. > :25:22.scientists of further flooding because of climate change come as
:25:23. > :25:25.many households in Britain are still trying to deal with the damage
:25:26. > :25:28.caused by the winter's weather. When the Somerset levels flooded many
:25:29. > :25:31.locals blamed the lack of dredging for the severity of the crisis.
:25:32. > :25:34.Today contractors started to do just that. But whilst this is what many
:25:35. > :25:37.people have been calling for, critics have questioned how
:25:38. > :25:50.effective the operation will be. Our correspondent Jon Kay is in
:25:51. > :25:52.Burrowbridge in Somerset. For generations these rivers were
:25:53. > :25:56.dredged or cleared out to keep them flowing freely. Pretty much stopped
:25:57. > :25:59.about 20 years ago, and many people who live around here blamed that on
:26:00. > :26:03.the flooding. The worst of the flooding we saw over the winter.
:26:04. > :26:06.They believed that thanks to some Government money, this has all
:26:07. > :26:11.started again this morning. The question is, how effective is this
:26:12. > :26:16.going to be and how much will it cost long term? It was a winter that
:26:17. > :26:20.the people of Somerset will never forget. But as spring arrives and
:26:21. > :26:28.things return to normal, changes under way. On the banks of the River
:26:29. > :26:32.Parrett, dredging has now begun. Clearing a five mile stretch of
:26:33. > :26:36.nearly half 1 million tonnes of silt. Local people have demanding
:26:37. > :26:41.this for years believing it will reduce the risk of flooding. Seeing
:26:42. > :26:46.the dredging and action, this is what it's all about, this is what we
:26:47. > :26:52.are wanting. I'm washed, and showered, I probably absolutely
:26:53. > :26:56.stink. Seven weeks ago we met Becky and James, desperately moving their
:26:57. > :27:02.animals as flood waters surrounded their farm. I really don't know what
:27:03. > :27:06.to do. With the water now gone, the animals are coming back. And they
:27:07. > :27:12.hope dredging means the rivers will never flood again. It's definitely a
:27:13. > :27:15.big morale boost. To know those diggers are there, it gives you a
:27:16. > :27:21.bit of extra confidence and hope that things are going to get sorted
:27:22. > :27:26.out. Does it make you feel safer? Hopefully. Others lest convinced,
:27:27. > :27:30.though, and think dredging is just a way of appeasing flood hit
:27:31. > :27:35.communities. Ken Tatum was part of the Environment Agency team that
:27:36. > :27:39.decided to stop dredging two decades ago. I don't think it will make any
:27:40. > :27:43.difference at all. My main concern is the fact it's a false hope to
:27:44. > :27:55.those people who have been affected that now have to plan the rest of
:27:56. > :27:57.their life. This dredge is costing ?5 billion from special Government
:27:58. > :27:59.funding. The Environment Agency says it more money follows, the scheme
:28:00. > :28:04.will continue. The tide brings in silt twice a day into the river, and
:28:05. > :28:08.that deposits out. It will silt up again within five to ten years if we
:28:09. > :28:12.don't do that regular maintenance. The plan is to take the river banks
:28:13. > :28:15.back to where they were in the 1960s, which experts say should
:28:16. > :28:21.improve the water flow by around 30%. It is quite slow going, we've
:28:22. > :28:26.been here since first thing this morning. They've done about 50
:28:27. > :28:29.litres in that time. It's going to take around seven months to do all
:28:30. > :28:32.five miles up and down the river bank. Then there will be an
:28:33. > :28:36.assessment to work out how effective it has been and how it will be paid
:28:37. > :28:40.for long term. One suggestion is people round here could pay a bit
:28:41. > :28:43.extra on top of their council tax. John Kay, thank you very much. Let's
:28:44. > :28:54.have a look at the weather. Variable amounts of cloud, some
:28:55. > :28:59.thick enough to produce the odd spot of drizzle. There is sunshine for
:29:00. > :29:03.Aberdeenshire. It will be hazy sunshine, not just from high cloud
:29:04. > :29:09.but also fairly high pollutant levels. We are seeing a mixture of
:29:10. > :29:12.Sahara dust and industry feeding in on a southeasterly breeze. The
:29:13. > :29:16.further west that you are in the UK, the less the pollutants will be
:29:17. > :29:21.noticeable. That's because we've got more of the sea breeze here. That in
:29:22. > :29:25.turn is feeding in in a weather front towards the south-west. That
:29:26. > :29:28.will move northwards and eastwards through the afternoon. Across
:29:29. > :29:32.Scotland it is a dry picture across the north and north-west with good
:29:33. > :29:36.spells of sunshine. Still relatively cloudy, grey and chilly across the
:29:37. > :29:40.central belt and south-east of Scotland. Similar picture across the
:29:41. > :29:47.east of the Pennines, north-east England seeing some low cloud and
:29:48. > :29:49.the odd spot of drizzle. It will feel quite chilly. In the south-east
:29:50. > :29:54.there are glimmers of brightness one -- round and feeling quite warm. The
:29:55. > :29:58.weather front pushes into the South West and South Wales by the
:29:59. > :30:02.afternoon. Some heavy bursts likely, too. For central and northern
:30:03. > :30:06.Wales, the West Midlands and in towards north-west England, some
:30:07. > :30:10.glimmers of brightness around. The cloud starts to get cloudy across
:30:11. > :30:15.Northern Ireland. Tonight, the band of rain moves northwards, notice the
:30:16. > :30:17.brighter colours on it for North Wales and north-west England, where
:30:18. > :30:28.we could even have a rumble of thunder with some downpours. It will
:30:29. > :30:31.move northwards, becoming combine to Scotland and the far north of
:30:32. > :30:33.England. Behind, drier, clearer skies. Perhaps a mist and fog
:30:34. > :30:35.developing across the South. That could cause a problem on Tuesday
:30:36. > :30:38.morning. That should lift and we should see some dry, bright weather
:30:39. > :30:42.in the South. Rain affecting the central belt in the northern half of
:30:43. > :30:47.Scotland, remaining quite dreary here. Some showers across the far
:30:48. > :30:50.north of England but given some brightness, once again across
:30:51. > :30:53.England and Wales we could see temperatures into the upper teens.
:30:54. > :30:57.The pressure chart for weapons they show is an area of low pressure out
:30:58. > :31:10.across the Atlantic, high pressure dominating across the east. A pretty
:31:11. > :31:12.messy picture for weapon states. Outbreaks of rain across the
:31:13. > :31:14.south-west. Showers across the North. Where we get some sunshine
:31:15. > :31:16.across the south-east again, temperatures up to 21 Celsius. If
:31:17. > :31:19.you are interested in finding out about the Sahara dust, there is an
:31:20. > :31:27.excellent explanation online. Nel reminder of our top story. Severe,
:31:28. > :31:28.pervasive and irreversible. The impact