Browse content similar to 06/08/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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have been pulled out, following heightened fears of a terror attack. | :00:14. | :00:18. | |
High alert on the streets of the Yemeni capital, with America saying | :00:18. | :00:22. | |
it has credible evidence of an Al-Qaeda attack in the planning. | :00:22. | :00:27. | |
Tonight at the BBC has been told Al-Qaeda extremists have been | :00:27. | :00:31. | |
gathering in the Yemeni capital. Also on the programme, the father of | :00:31. | :00:34. | |
this 14-year-old girl says she killed herself after being bullied | :00:34. | :00:40. | |
online. Friends have been paying tribute to her. She was a really | :00:40. | :00:44. | |
nice girl, you would not think anybody would want you would just | :00:44. | :00:52. | |
think she was so happy. Two boys aged five and seven are killed by a | :00:52. | :01:02. | |
:01:02. | :01:03. | ||
the reptile had escaped from a pet shop. Music on Mars - Curiosity | :01:03. | :01:06. | |
Rover celebrates one year on the Red Planet with a Martian melody. And | :01:06. | :01:12. | |
coming up in sport, Luis Suarez will miss Liverpool's three season | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
friendly in Norway with a foot injury, as doubts remain about his | :01:15. | :01:25. | |
:01:25. | :01:43. | ||
staff in the Middle Eastern state of Yemen have been taken out of the | :01:43. | :01:48. | |
country, in the wake of a security alert. The Foreign Office is | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
contacting any other British citizens who remain there. In the | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
last 24-hour scum it has emerged that US intelligence has intercepted | :01:54. | :02:01. | |
conversations about a possible attack in Yemen. Our security | :02:01. | :02:09. | |
correspondent, Frank Gardner, reports. Getting out of Yemen - | :02:09. | :02:16. | |
Western expatriates heading for the airport today. Britain has now | :02:16. | :02:22. | |
closed its embassy. It is empty, but guarded. The several dozen British | :02:22. | :02:27. | |
staff there have been flown home today. The reason behind this is | :02:27. | :02:31. | |
intercepted messages between Al-Qaeda leaders. The US says it has | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
overheard a conversation between this man, and the Al-Qaeda leader, | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
hiding in Pakistan. Their conversation Ruth Porter bespoke of | :02:40. | :02:48. | |
a strategic attack on US interest rates. -- reportedly spoke. I think | :02:48. | :02:54. | |
this is very real. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has heatedly woven | :02:54. | :03:02. | |
itself to be dangerous. I think this has particularly got American and | :03:02. | :03:10. | |
European officials worried. Al-Qaeda operatives have access to trucks, | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
explosives and volunteers. They have also placed explosives on | :03:14. | :03:18. | |
international flights three times now. The BBC has learned that Yemeni | :03:18. | :03:22. | |
counterterrorism forces are on high alert after detecting several | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
Al-Qaeda operatives arriving in the capital, believed to be targeting | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
Western embassies and the Yemeni military. When I visited the Yemeni | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
border with Saudi Arabia this year, the Saudi guards complained that | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
since the Arab Spring uprisings, there has been almost no security on | :03:39. | :03:45. | |
the Yemeni side. So, to hit back on Al-Qaeda, Ashington has resorted to | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
missiles fired by the deeply unpopular unmanned drones, which | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
often kill civilians as well as militants. But the Foreign Minister | :03:52. | :04:00. | |
says they have few alternatives. fact is that if your target is | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
Al-Qaeda, and if they are endangering the security of your | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
country, there is no alternative. Impoverished Yemen's problems extend | :04:08. | :04:15. | |
well beyond international terrorism. The world wants to help, and the | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
embassies will have to reopen, but when they do, the threat of attack | :04:18. | :04:25. | |
will still be there. Al-Qaeda may well wait for another opportunity. | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
There will be surprised that after all these years, Al-Qaeda can still | :04:29. | :04:35. | |
think about mounting this kind of operation. It is very depressing. I | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
think the reason is that Yemen is a very difficult country for law | :04:39. | :04:44. | |
enforcement to be spread out in oral areas. There is pretty good security | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
on the whole in the cities, but out in the more remote provinces, it is | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
an ideal refuge for them. They are living with the tribes. The | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
government cannot go in there, rather like the Pakistani government | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
has problems getting into the more remote parts of the tribal | :05:00. | :05:06. | |
territories. So, why are they so rattled by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
Peninsula? Three reasons. It is relatively easy for them to get into | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
the capital with trucks and explosives and guns and threaten | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
Western embassies. If they cannot get to the US Embassy, they will | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
look for another European target. Hence the embassies closing when | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
they get these threats. There is also the threat of putting bombs on | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
planes, which they have done three times. And also, there is the | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
propaganda element, they have got people writing for magazines, | :05:33. | :05:38. | |
targeting young and impressionable people. | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
The latest review of the state of the NHS in England has called for a | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
complete cultural change to put patient safety above everything | :05:45. | :05:50. | |
else. The report, repaired by President Obama's health adviser, | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
Don Berwick, says that in rare cases, staff should face criminal | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
sanctions. Tonight, the report has been described as a missed | :05:59. | :06:06. | |
opportunity. Branwen Jeffreys reports. This is where making care | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
as a first starts, with the patient, at the bedside. At this Birmingham | :06:10. | :06:16. | |
Hospital, nurses and doctors write straight into a patient's record. | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
The tablet computer links up to a system which monitors quality. That | :06:20. | :06:27. | |
feeds back to each ward, to say how it is doing, day by day. The nurse | :06:27. | :06:33. | |
in charge told me it had really pushed them to make improvements. | :06:33. | :06:36. | |
is a really good quality indicator of how well we are performing, as | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
award, and the care that we are giving to our patients. This ward is | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
monitoring day by day how it is doing on things which really matter | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
to patients, things like the number of people falling, infections, | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
whether or not medicines are being given properly to patients. And | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
crucially, it can compare it performance to every other ward in | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
the hospital. Stafford Hospital is trying to move on. What happened | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
here is a reminder of how things can go wrong. The public inquiry spelt | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
out the wider problems in the Health Service in England. Paul Richards | :07:10. | :07:15. | |
died in 2007 in another hospital after a mistake in his medication on | :07:15. | :07:23. | |
a cancer ward. His widow has been involved in this review. Systems | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
sometimes are not safe in our hospitals, and changes are needed. | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
If we all work together for positive change towards patient safety, then | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
the NHS will become a better and safer place for us all. This report | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
says the NHS has to focus more on patient safety. Nuke guidelines on | :07:40. | :07:46. | |
staffing are needed, but no fixed levels should be set nationally. A | :07:46. | :07:49. | |
review of regulation to make it simpler and clearer is needed. | :07:49. | :07:54. | |
Also, a culture where mistakes are reported, and a new criminal offence | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
for wilful or recklessly black. But it says legal action should be rare, | :07:58. | :08:04. | |
and openness should be encouraged. People need to learn from each | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
other, the culture should be open and transparent, people should be | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
welcomed when they speak up. That is so much more powerful than finding | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
the occasional miscreant. patient groups say the report is | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
full of platitudes and light on practical solutions, with too little | :08:23. | :08:28. | |
detail to hold the NHS to account and make sure another tragedy like | :08:28. | :08:36. | |
Stafford is avoided. The father of a 14-year-old girl who was found dead | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
in her bedroom on Friday says she was driven to suicide by cyber | :08:40. | :08:44. | |
bullying. Hannah Smith, from Lutterworth in Leicestershire, was | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
apparently taunted about her weight and appearance via anonymous users | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
on the social networking site Ask.fm. Her father has called for | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
structure controls on all internet sites used by children. Sian Lloyd | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
reports. Hannah Smith, a loving daughter and sister, whose family | :09:01. | :09:08. | |
say was driven to her death by cyber bullies. Flowers and messages have | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
been left at the home where Hannah lived with her father and sister, | :09:12. | :09:18. | |
16-year-old Jo. She discovered Hannah in her bedroom on Friday. | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
Hannah's friends are devastated by her death and struggling to take in | :09:22. | :09:30. | |
what has happened. She was lovely, she was chatty you could always have | :09:30. | :09:36. | |
a laugh with her. If you were ever said, she would put a smile on your | :09:36. | :09:43. | |
face. She was so popular in school, she was such a pretty girl, there | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
was no reason for her to be bullied. Hannah was one of the | :09:47. | :09:52. | |
millions of people who use the Latvian -based site Ask.fm. Her | :09:52. | :09:58. | |
father says she was subjected to a torrent of abuse by members, who can | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
post messages anonymously. The website said tonight that it will | :10:01. | :10:07. | |
cooperate in the investigation into Hannah's death. This lady's niece, a | :10:07. | :10:13. | |
15-year-old, took her life last year. She had used the same website | :10:13. | :10:19. | |
and had also been targeted by online bullies. The loss of a child in | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
these circumstances is unbearable. Each time you hear about the loss of | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
another child, it stabs you in the heart as if it has happened again to | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
you. And pain groups are still calling on social networking sites | :10:30. | :10:36. | |
to be more accountable. We are looking at legislation to be amended | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
to encompass cyber bullying. There are things which are being done, but | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
lots more needs to be done full stop we want to see the Government | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
stepping in a bit more. Hannah had been a popular pupil at Lutterworth | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
High School. Today, the head teacher described how everyone was shattered | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
by what has happened. Hannah was bright, bubbly and thoughtful. She | :10:58. | :11:04. | |
had everything to live for. The 14-year-old family say her death | :11:04. | :11:08. | |
must not be in vain. They are campaigning for tighter controls of | :11:08. | :11:18. | |
:11:18. | :11:18. | ||
Two men have died and another has been injured in a shooting at a farm | :11:18. | :11:24. | |
and Equestrian centre in South Lanarkshire. Peter Thompson, who was | :11:24. | :11:29. | |
a 59-year-old man, was found dead at the scene. The body of a 53 year Mac | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
man was found in a nearby car. Police say they are not looking for | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
anyone else in connection with the incident. Now, it was the month that | :11:38. | :11:44. | |
Andy Murray won Wimbledon, a royal baby was born, and we all basked in | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
the highest July temperatures for years. Last month's heatwave also | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
gave the economy a boost. Retailers enjoyed their fastest growth in the | :11:53. | :11:58. | |
month of July for seven years. Sales grew by more than 2% compared with | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
the same month last year. The latest numbers show that manufacturing also | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
grew by a similar amount. Our business correspondent, Emma | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
Simpson, has been back to a foundry in the West Midlands which has | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
managed to turn itself around. It is a hive of activity, goods ready to | :12:15. | :12:23. | |
be shipped. Four years ago, this factory looked very different. We | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
met Frank after his business collapsed and he had just laid off | :12:26. | :12:33. | |
dozens of workers. It is very personal when you have got to tell | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
these people that they have not got a job any more, when you have worked | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
with them for 30 years. Very difficult. But he started all over | :12:41. | :12:47. | |
again, making metal castings, and slowly, winning orders. The foundry | :12:47. | :12:55. | |
is alive again. It is like winning the lottery, that is how I feel. We | :12:55. | :13:00. | |
have got the foundry back, we have got some of our old employees back, | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
we are expanding again. To get it back to where it was, before I pass | :13:05. | :13:08. | |
away, would be a wonderful thing, absolutely wonderful. This is a | :13:08. | :13:14. | |
keypad for a cash dispensing machine. We actually lost this job | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
to China on cost, and we now have it back. He has got 15 staff, all | :13:19. | :13:24. | |
former workers. Michael was a self-employed electrician, when he | :13:24. | :13:31. | |
got the call to come back. building trade was finishing, and I | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
had a few financial worries, and I thought I would come back, get a | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
better financial security. When the recession hit, hundreds of | :13:38. | :13:44. | |
manufacturers went under in the West Midlands, and many never came back. | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
This one did, but Frank and his team are now having to do things very | :13:47. | :13:54. | |
differently. There is no one in the office, no book-keeper or van | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
driver, either. Instead, they all muck in to stay competitive. They | :14:00. | :14:05. | |
have just a 10th of the number of staff they once had, but they are | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
still generating �1 million worth of sales this year. Today, we had more | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
evidence of the UK economy being on the move, but the recovery is | :14:12. | :14:19. | |
nothing like as incredible as this one. A 16ft-long snake is believed | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
to have killed two young boys in Eastern Canada after it escaped from | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
a pet shop. Police say the rock python coiled itself around the | :14:28. | :14:33. | |
boys, aged five and seven, and strangled them as they slept. They | :14:33. | :14:37. | |
believe it slipped out of its cage and entered their flat through the | :14:37. | :14:46. | |
ventilation system from the shop below. These brothers adored each | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
other, sleepovers were regular treat, but yesterday a visit to | :14:51. | :14:57. | |
their best friend's home turned into unimaginable tragedy. The police | :14:57. | :15:00. | |
sealed off the New Brunswick building where the boys were | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
killed, they had spent the night in the flat above the pet shop where | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
their friend lived. It is believed a snake slipped out of its cage, | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
travelled through the ventilation unit, and into the room where the | :15:12. | :15:21. | |
brothers were sleeping. Shop owner discovered the children. I thought | :15:21. | :15:25. | |
they were asleep until I saw the hole in the ceiling. I saw this | :15:25. | :15:35. | |
:15:35. | :15:35. | ||
terrific scene -- horrific scene, I pinned the snake down and put him in | :15:35. | :15:41. | |
a cage. The snake is thought to be an African rock python. | :15:41. | :15:44. | |
Approximately four metres long, it had wrapped itself around the | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
children. By the time the emergency services arrived, the boys were | :15:48. | :15:57. | |
dead. Experts say incidents like these are rare. Was the snake | :15:57. | :16:04. | |
hungry? Absolutely. That doesn't mean it was neglected. Nevertheless | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
one report claims customers had previously complained about | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
conditions in the shop and a question now hangs over whether the | :16:12. | :16:18. | |
shop was properly licensed. Tonight, Noah and Connor's mother was | :16:18. | :16:28. | |
:16:28. | :16:29. | ||
described as grief stricken. Our top story this evening. Security | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
alert in Yemen as all British embassy staff are pulled out over | :16:33. | :16:39. | |
fears of an Al-Qaeda attack. Can they rise from the ashes? We look at | :16:39. | :16:45. | |
the reasons behind Australia's poor streak at sport. On BBC London, | :16:45. | :16:53. | |
living in squalor, the tenants being housed in places infested with | :16:53. | :16:56. | |
bedbugs and lies. How Beth Tweddle's sporting legacy will live | :16:56. | :17:05. | |
on in east London. A year ago today the Mars Rover | :17:05. | :17:11. | |
Curiosity was touching down on the Martian surface. It had travelled | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
352 million miles and its mission was to find out if Mars could ever | :17:15. | :17:21. | |
have supported life. So far over 70,000 images have been sent back to | :17:21. | :17:27. | |
Earth by Curiosity. The project has cost just over �1.5 billion but that | :17:27. | :17:37. | |
:17:37. | :17:37. | ||
is cheap compared to manned missions. It began with a high-speed | :17:37. | :17:44. | |
approach and in a nail-biting descent. One year ago, NASA's most | :17:44. | :17:49. | |
sophisticated rover successfully touched down on Mars. Mission | :17:49. | :17:54. | |
control erupted. Years of planning had paid off and a series of | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
discoveries was to follow. This sequence of pictures shows how | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
Curiosity got to work, exploring the landscape for clues about weather | :18:02. | :18:06. | |
conditions here in the distant past could ever have supported life. | :18:06. | :18:14. | |
Let's imagine we could be on Mars right beside Curiosity. The most | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
striking thing is its sheer size, but this allows it to carry more | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
instruments than ever before to see if life could ever have existed | :18:21. | :18:31. | |
:18:31. | :18:31. | ||
here. The first discovery was on the surface itself. Curiosity was on | :18:31. | :18:37. | |
rocks where we know water flowed in the past. Then the Rover extended | :18:37. | :18:42. | |
its arm, a complicated set of manoeuvres to try something never | :18:42. | :18:47. | |
attempted before on another planet, to use a drill to dig below the | :18:47. | :18:52. | |
surface just a couple of inches, but the results were amazing. The | :18:52. | :18:57. | |
drilling revealed a kind of clay which could only have been formed in | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
water with the right chemical balance for life. In fact the water | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
would have been drinkable, proof according to NASA of the first | :19:06. | :19:14. | |
discovery of a potential habitat on a world beyond our own. Rock from an | :19:14. | :19:21. | |
old stream in Britain very similar to what has been found on Mars. This | :19:21. | :19:25. | |
scientist says the findings are incredibly significant. This water | :19:25. | :19:30. | |
would not have been too salty or acidic, it would have been sweet | :19:30. | :19:37. | |
water which is perfect for life to thriving on earth. On Mars we have | :19:37. | :19:44. | |
rocks perfectly conducive for life in the ancient past. Curiosity is on | :19:44. | :19:47. | |
the move again. Water once flowed here and we now know that life at | :19:47. | :19:53. | |
least had a chance. The European commission will send a | :19:53. | :19:58. | |
team of monitors to the border between Spain and Gibraltar as the | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
row over the British territory continues. The Spanish government | :20:01. | :20:04. | |
says it may introduce a feed of monitors to the border between Spain | :20:04. | :20:06. | |
and Gibraltar as the row over the British territory continues. The | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
Spanish government says it may introduce a feed to cross the border | :20:09. | :20:16. | |
the monitors are expected to arrive in September or October. | :20:16. | :20:22. | |
They are disputed waters between Spain and British rock. On a boat, | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
Gibraltar 's government took us to the spot which is now the focus of a | :20:26. | :20:31. | |
diplomatic dispute. We are not far from the rock from Gibraltar, and | :20:31. | :20:35. | |
according to the Gibraltarian government we are in Gibraltarian | :20:35. | :20:40. | |
waters, but the Spanish government disagrees. You cannot see it, but | :20:40. | :20:46. | |
below is the source of the tension, the row between Spain and Gibraltar | :20:46. | :20:50. | |
and Britain. Several days ago Gibraltar says it created an | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
artificial reef to protect the marine life here. Spain says the | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
concrete blocks were dumped into the seats to keep Spanish fishermen | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
away. In the morning mist we found these Spanish fishermen preparing | :21:03. | :21:10. | |
their nets. It is madness, says this man. For years we got on well, now | :21:10. | :21:15. | |
we have fallen out with our neighbours, he says. The | :21:15. | :21:19. | |
Gibraltarian neighbours have lived on a small slice of Britain for 300 | :21:19. | :21:24. | |
years. Spain gifted Gibraltar to Britain in a peace treaty, but has | :21:24. | :21:31. | |
since claimed it should be handed back. In this latest dispute, Spain | :21:31. | :21:39. | |
has threatened a 50 euros charge to get over to Gibraltar. The idea to | :21:39. | :21:45. | |
set up a toll which doesn't apply to Spanish workers but applies to | :21:45. | :21:49. | |
everyone else is so contrary to the freedom of movement of people that | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
we believe it will be illegal and therefore that it cannot be made to | :21:54. | :22:00. | |
work. Gibraltar 's rock towers over the tip of Spain and there has been | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
tension in these crowded waters before. The people on either side of | :22:04. | :22:09. | |
the divide our friends, colleagues and neighbours, but Spain, | :22:09. | :22:17. | |
Gibraltar, and Britain's governments cannot get along on this issue. | :22:17. | :22:21. | |
It was a morning and high anxiety for much of Scotland as students | :22:21. | :22:26. | |
found out their exam results. It was good news overall as pass rates were | :22:26. | :22:30. | |
up for all major qualifications including highers and standard | :22:30. | :22:40. | |
:22:40. | :22:41. | ||
grades. Way down in the glen below me here is that most north-western | :22:41. | :22:47. | |
school on the Scottish Highland and this morning the students were | :22:47. | :22:53. | |
waiting nervously for news. Today, along with bills and birthday cards, | :22:53. | :22:57. | |
the postman is delivering hopes and dreams. He is heading for this town | :22:57. | :23:02. | |
on the very edge of the British mainland. Here, 27 pupils at the | :23:02. | :23:10. | |
village high school are waiting anxiously to learn their fate. For | :23:10. | :23:20. | |
:23:20. | :23:25. | ||
Jacqueline, the news is good. into university, I got another A and | :23:25. | :23:30. | |
two Bs so I am really happy. Others are heading in a different | :23:30. | :23:37. | |
direction. I didn't get my maths grade but I have got a job and it is | :23:37. | :23:42. | |
not compulsory, I didn't need it anyway. The pass rate for higher | :23:42. | :23:52. | |
:23:52. | :23:55. | ||
English was up 0.7% while the overall pass rate rose by 0.5%. As | :23:55. | :23:59. | |
for standard grades, they are on their way out. These pupils were | :23:59. | :24:05. | |
among the last to suit them. They have been replaced with new | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
qualifications called nationals. Scotland's entire curriculum is | :24:10. | :24:16. | |
being replaced, but the focus here is on the immediate future, which | :24:16. | :24:24. | |
for some pupils will be very different. Life changing moments, | :24:24. | :24:34. | |
happening today all over Scotland. They are happy tears. | :24:34. | :24:39. | |
It weighs 16 tonnes, it is the size of a double-decker bus and has just | :24:39. | :24:45. | |
been removed from London's sewer. Britain's biggest ever that Berger | :24:45. | :24:49. | |
has just been removed from the sewers underneath Kingston upon | :24:49. | :24:54. | |
Thames. Thames water says the blockage could have led to | :24:54. | :25:02. | |
overflowing. Apologies to any viewer eating their dinner during that. Not | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
long ago people living down under were on top of the sporting world, | :25:05. | :25:10. | |
but it has been a dismal summer, surrendering the ashes and losing to | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
the British and Irish Lions. It is not much better in swimming | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
and tennis, two sports in which Australia has traditionally | :25:18. | :25:26. | |
excelled. It is a nation defined by prowess on | :25:26. | :25:31. | |
the playing field, but Australia's status as the world 's greatest | :25:31. | :25:36. | |
sporting nation is under threat. London 2012 was the country's worst | :25:36. | :25:41. | |
Olympic performance for 20 years, this summer their rugby team lost to | :25:41. | :25:46. | |
the British and Irish Lions, and the cricket Ashes will be staying with | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
England once again. Today in Sydney 's sport seemed as much a way of | :25:51. | :25:59. | |
life as ever, so why is Australia no longer punching above its weight? | :25:59. | :26:02. | |
Something has changed, but I don't know what. Australia is going | :26:02. | :26:07. | |
through a crisis at the moment, maybe the facilities in England have | :26:07. | :26:13. | |
improved. No place symbolises better the chair of Australian sport than | :26:13. | :26:19. | |
this, the Melbourne Cricket ground, and yet by the time England play | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
here on Boxing Day the hosts could be well on their way to losing | :26:23. | :26:28. | |
back-to-back Ashes series so what now is being done to try to revive | :26:28. | :26:32. | |
Australian sport? The Australian Institute of sport here in Canberra | :26:32. | :26:37. | |
is known as a world leader when it comes to performance with | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
state-of-the-art facilities. Many of the titles won over the years can be | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
traced back to this place, but the man in charge told me it has now | :26:46. | :26:53. | |
come the time to look to Britain for guidance. The UK sport philosophy of | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
no compromise has been one of the cornerstones of British success, and | :26:58. | :27:01. | |
you can debate philosophy but there is no doubt that has been pivotal | :27:01. | :27:10. | |
for success. Australia's underperforming sports are having | :27:10. | :27:14. | |
their funding cut. Others blame the generation of less active | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
youngsters, but whatever the reason there is an acceptance that other | :27:19. | :27:28. | |
countries have caught up. I think we have had people coming here and | :27:29. | :27:34. | |
looking, trying to identify young people and bring them through. | :27:34. | :27:37. | |
Australia's cricketers left Manchester this morning, but with | :27:37. | :27:41. | |
many backing the country to restore its sporting reputation, its rivals | :27:41. | :27:46. | |
might want to enjoy the moment while they can. And now the weather | :27:46. | :27:54. | |
forecast. If you like this kind of forecast. If you like this kind of | :27:54. | :27:59. | |
summertime weather, it is on repeat, same. It will not be bone dry, just | :27:59. | :28:05. | |
a few showers and the emphasis on largely dry weather. The cloud that | :28:05. | :28:10. | |
has built up today across England and Wales is starting to fade away. | :28:10. | :28:15. | |
You may see a stray shower hitting the Far East overnight. Some rain in | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
the north-west Highlands in Scotland, that could be on the heavy | :28:19. | :28:25. | |
side, and these temperatures will be reaching single figures again so if | :28:25. | :28:28. | |
you thought it was cool this morning you will think the same again | :28:28. | :28:34. | |
tomorrow morning. That rain in northern Scotland will break up into | :28:34. | :28:40. | |
showers, and elsewhere it is a fine day. This is the picture at 4pm, and | :28:40. | :28:47. | |
amongst these showers there will be some sunny spells. It looks like a | :28:47. | :28:51. | |
lovely afternoon across northern England. There may be some showers | :28:51. | :28:56. | |
in England and Wales but most will stay dry with temperatures into the | :28:56. | :28:59. | |
lower 20s. We are expecting more cloud in the south-east and there is | :29:00. | :29:09. | |
:29:10. | :29:15. | ||
the chance of the shower or thunderstorm. The sailors at Cowes | :29:15. | :29:21. | |
will appreciate the breeze. This weather system moves across on | :29:21. | :29:28. | |
Friday but we need to account for more cloudier zone. The temperatures | :29:28. | :29:31. |