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tv   BBC News  BBC News  June 24, 2017 6:00pm-6:31pm BST

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this is bbc news. the headlines at six: the government says 27 high—rise blocks of flats in 15 local authorities in england have failed fire—cladding safety tests. four buildings in north london were evacuated last night by the authorities for "urgent fire safety works". they said there was nothing we could do to guarantee resident safety that night. in that situation, given the second we are in i thought we had to act swiftly. we are making sure the authority has the ability to do what is necessary to ensure that people have somewhere to stay and that the work is done so that tower blocks will become safe for them to return in the future. house of commons authorities say they‘ re investigating attempts to hack mps' and peers' email accounts. labour leaderjeremy corbyn urges the glastonbury crowds to make a difference.
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all blacks defend their record against the british and irish lions, beating their visitors 30—15 in their first head to head of the three test series. good evening and welcome to bbc news. 27 high rise buildings around the country have failed fire safety tests on their external cladding according to the latest government figures. thousands of buildings — including some schools and hospitals are now being checked following the grenfell tower disaster. camden council in north london has defended its decision to evacuate four tower blocks at short notice, moving hundreds of people into emergency accommodation. our correspondent richard lister reports.
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why was we all ordered to be evacuated at 8.30 at night? tempers were running high today, the leader of camden council took the brunt of the frustration from people evacuated overnight. i am being told they can't rehouse me because i've got a dog. a hotel place was found for this woman, and her dog, but there are thousands of others, people and pets, facing weeks of uncertainty. more than 100 spent the night at this leisure centre. the cladding at four of these blocks is similar to that on grenfell tower, but it was issues with gas pipes and fire doors that made the fire service demand an evacuation. they said there was nothing that we could do to guarantee residents' safety that night. in that situation, you know, given the circumstances we are in, i thought we had to act swiftly. peter, who is 94, had to leave the flat he has had for almost 50 years.
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i felt sorry for people who are a lot worse than me, especially with children. they have to carry on. but there are at least 80 flats where residents are refusing to leave. i really cried last night. the council officials came to the door, banging on the door, get out, get out, but the chap round the hallway said, no, she's not going, she is getting on for 80. she can't go anywhere, she's got a cat. work is under way to fix the faults but it will take weeks to complete. the residents of this tower block feel themselves to be in limbo, unsure of just how and how long they might be excluded from their homes. in some cases it is possible to take mitigating action and the fire service are content that the blocks are safe, in others it has been necessary for people to move out on a temporary basis, that is what happened in camden last night. most living in these blocks have been back to get enough for an extended stay somewhere
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else, even as others argue there is no need to leave. 0ur reporter amy cole is in north london. 0ver over the course of the day, we have seen a steady stream of people going in and out of the leisure centre as they have been registering themselves and trying to find out more information from camping council. it is fair to say there has been a lot of anger and frustration among the residents who were woken up among the residents who were woken up by among the residents who were woken up by two, three o'clock this morning and were told to pack their bags and hastily leave their flats. many have wondered why that could not have been done this morning or why they could not have been given more time. camden council say they we re more time. camden council say they were told by fire officials that the resident safety could not be guaranteed overnight. we understand that around 83 households have refused to leave. 0ne that around 83 households have refused to leave. one of those people who is staying put is gemma.
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when did you get the knock? we got the knot, the first knock around 930 la st the knot, the first knock around 930 last night to tell us that the building was being evacuated and we had to leave immediately. when we asked what would happen if we did not leave, they said they strongly recommended believing that they could not force us out basically. then we made the decision to stay. why have you decided to stay if it is not safe? we have always felt safe in our blocks. we feel safe on the fourth floor, we are not too high up and we just feel like... it was chaos. it was not like you have to leave by tomorrow, you have to leave in a couple of hours, it was leave in a couple of hours, it was leave as soon as possible and there wasjust so much going on and we just decided to stay put until we knew more information. how do you feel that some of black cladding on your tower block has been tested and found to be non—fire retardant? your tower block has been tested and found to be non-fire retardant? that is very scary. i am glad the council
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are doing something about it. it is just in regards to this situation, it is chaos here. we just do not wa nt it is chaos here. we just do not want to put ourselves into the chaos. my residency, we are all fully grown adults and we have made the decision, we spoke last night and we decided we felt safe in flat and we decided we felt safe in flat and decided to stay. what would it ta ke to and decided to stay. what would it take to make you move? a plan to tell us exactly what is happening. this is where you are saying, how long you are there for. have you been offered any other accommodation? not yet. we have told them where we are. we gave them our names and numbers. they said they would be in contact. we said until then, we are staying put.|j would be in contact. we said until then, we are staying put. i know that you have been there for 17 odd yea rs that you have been there for 17 odd years so that you have been there for 17 odd years so it is your home as well. many people in a similar situation to you, they just many people in a similar situation to you, theyjust don't want to leave ? to you, theyjust don't want to leave? no, no one was to leave their house. we did a weekly shop
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yesterday before we got in to find we we re evacuated. yesterday before we got in to find we were evacuated. we were preparing for the wii guide. it was a shock to find out that you have got to leave right now. thanks very much for talking to us. as you hear that, gemma is refusing to budge. some of these homeowners have got pets and within hearing today how the rspca has been on hand to give advice and is offering some shelter to some of those pets and is helping people in that way. they have got foster homes on stand—by because people do not want to be separated. this is a very complex and difficult situation and our still a lot of officials from camping council that time that leisure centre at the moment talking to residents. amy, thank you. earlier my colleague annita mcveigh spoke to the leader of camden council georgia gould and asked her how many residents had refused to leave the tower blocks. my last briefing was that 83 households wanted to stay, obviously we are knocking on doors with the fire services, having conversations with those
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residents at the moment. so that is a moving picture. how many of those households, how many of those people do you think you will be able to persuade to move today? look, it was a really deeply distressing night. i got the news from the fire services that their belief was that the block was not safe to stay in at 5pm. we had to act incredibly swiftly to move people out of those blocks. people were, you know, having their doors knocked on late into the night. 0bviously people were distressed. we needed to give them that accurate information at the time, but i think, in the morning, having the fire services with us, having those conversations, we will be able to persuade people to move. because those blocks are not safe. if people still don't want to move and if they leave their flats to go to work, to go shopping, would you then be in a position of saying to them that you won't allow them or you can't allow them to re—enter the building. what we are saying to anyone who wants to go back into the building to get possessions is that they can go in,
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get their possessions but they will have to leave the building in half an hour and be accompanied by the fire services. so specifically the people who have refused to leave at this point, if they left for whatever reason, would they be allowed to re—enter? i think the same would apply. they would have half an hour to go in and get their belongings. and i understand more than 100 people spent the night here at the leisure centre behind us. what efforts are going on now, i know some people have already been found hotel accommodation, what efforts are going on now to find accommodation for these 100 or so people? yeah, it's just an unprecedented situation. we had 4000 people in those blocks. council staff, volunteers have all been working through the night, we have identified hotel accommodation, we have identified temporary housing. we are working with other boroughs and people here are moving out slowly, we are having those conversations, but, of course, people are tired, people have had a terrible night. we just want to get people into secure accommodation as quickly as possible. local authorities across the uk are working urgently to identify
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other buildings at risk. fire safety officers are carrying out inspections, with suspect cladding sent for independent testing. the government has promised to meet the costs but some councils are warning they need more help, as duncan kennedy reports. no amount of days that pass can ease the hurt of loss felt by those left bereft by the grenfell fire. in silence and in unity, volunteers and families of some of those who died gathered today, near the tower to reflect. not since the second world war have so many buildings been subject to checks in the aftermath of a single fire. 27 blocks have failed safety inspections across 15 councils. birmingham says the government must help pay for it. retrofitting of sprinklers should be one of our responses here, and when your chief fire officer of your region tells
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you that, clearly as the leader of a city you have to listen to that so we started to look at the figures and it comes round £31 million. manchester, plymouth, hounslow and portsmouth are many others are facing huge bills. the government insists it will help on a case by case basis. if they need financial support, not all will need it, if they need it we will work with them to make sure they have the resources to do this necessary work, absolutely. that will not be put at risk. the grenfell fire was reflected today, at glastonbury, jeremy corbyn appeared on the pyramid stage pressing for what he calls a national government response. is it right that so many people are frightened of where they live at the moment, having seen the horrors of what happened in grenfell tower? away from the crowds in west london, the fire continues to draw people to
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reflect on the disaster, and the difficulties being felt. and what all this means, is that in the ten days since grenfell, the lives of literally thousands and thousands of people have been affected. and with more testing on cladding, fire doors, pipes, and other buildings still to come, those numbers will almost certainly increase. as those checks continue, resources everywhere are being put under huge pressure, the one capacity there is no shortage of is sympathy. parliament has been hit by a cyber—security attack — house of commons authorities say they are investigating unauthorised attempts to access mps and peers' email accounts. mps were told about the attack on friday night. international trade secretary liam fox said that people need to make sure they use strong passwords. well earlier on our political correspondent eleanor garnier
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gave us this update. we know that there are regular attacks by hackers attempting to get passwords. we have seen reports in the last few days of even cabinet ministers' password being for sale online. we know that our public services are attacked so it is not at all surprising that there should be an attempt to hack into parliamentary e—mails so it is a warning to everybody, whether they are in parliament or elsewhere, that they need to do everything possible to maintain their own cyber security, including having complex and therefore safer codewords. that was clearly liam fox. let's hear from alan all —— eleanor now. we are told that parliamentary authorities were made aware of this cyber attack yesterday, so on friday. we now know that a number
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of mps do not have access to their e—mail account remotely. but a house of commons spokesperson i spoke to was stressing that that was not in itself as a result of the cyber attack, actually that was the steps that were being taken to protect the parliamentary cyber estate. so the reason mps and some lords do not have access to their e—mails is because of protection and measures that are being put in place by the parliamentary authorities. i have spoken to a number of mps, i've been in contact with a few too. some have said they have not got access, others though have said they have access to their e—mail accounts. i know that mps have been sent messages saying the authorities are investigating a cyber security incident, they said they are going to making some emergency changes to the it network which may cause some disruption. we request that you remain extra vigilant while we investigate this. so clearly this situation is being investigated but is rather ongoing. we do not yet know how serious this is. we heard liam fox,
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the trade secretary, earlier saying he was not surprised that there had been an attack on parliament. we know that in the past the nhs has been victim to a cyber attack. so he was saying you have got to have stronger passwords. that was what he said was the people needed to be doing inside parliament and outside two. trading standards officers are investigating claims that the car hire company, europcar, has been deliberately over—charging some customers for repairs. the offices of the firm in leicester were raided yesterday after a number of complaints from customers. iraq's prime minister has said the city of mosul will be liberated from so called islamic state militants within days. around 400 is fighters are surrounded in the centre of the country's second largest city. 0ur correspondent 0rla guerin, along with her team nicholas hameon and firle davies, have been to the front line in mosul‘s old city — their report contains images you may find distressing.
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a journey to the front line. 0ur windscreen a reminder of the dangers ahead. 0ur escort, from iraq's elite counter—terrorism force. snaking forward towards an enemy that is still inflicting casualties. like this wounded soldier, being rushed away as we arrived. and families fleeing too. 0n foot. escaping hunger and fear, and a beloved city robbed of life. no food. no water. mosul dead. this is the old city area, it is really the heart of the battle, and when you look around here you get a real sense of how fierce the fighting has been, the damage is immense. in every direction.
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the narrow streets are a tight squeeze as troops close in on the last pockets of is resistance. we were told the militants were just 300 metres away. some on the receiving end of an iraqi missile strike. the extremists are facing defeat here, but it has taken three years to get this far. and immense damage has been done to the fabric of mosul, and the unity of iraq. the headlines on bbc news: the government says 27 high—rise blocks of flats in 15 local authorities have failed fire—cladding safety tests. four buildings on the chalcot estate near swiss cottage in london were evacuated last night by authorities for "urgent
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fire safety works". a cyber attack at westminster — the house of commons authorities say they‘ re investigating attempts to hack mps' and peers' email accounts. today is armed forces day. more than 300 events are taking place across the country to celebrate the work of our armed forces. the defence secretary, michael fallon, has been explaining the importance of the events. they are doing more and more to keep a safe around the world. there are some 10,000 servicemen and women who are working for us around the globe on operations, and in our bases. they have been helping to deal with daesh terrorism, helping to rescue migrants in the mediterranean, the on nato deployments, been peacekeeping in south sudan, all of that keeps us safer here at home. they are out of our sight but they should never be out of mind. and it is very important
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that we continue to thank them everyday, every year, on armed forces day. the main event has been taking place in liverpool, where a parade and raf fly—past have marked armed forces day. 0ur correspondent danielle hewson gave us this update from liverpool. 0ver over 100,000 0ver100,000 people have turned out to celebrate. we have got people queueing to take a look inside a replica of typhoon, real version did a flyby to mark the start of the event earlier today. there was a parade which ended up down the way at the royal box where the earl of wessex was representing the queen, along with prime minister theresa may. now this has become an annual event. it is the ninth one and it's all about marking the sacrifices and the dedication of our service men and women. the event will be going
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on all day. there is a chance for people to take a look on board a hms type 23 frigate. dragon vote racing and there has also been a file path. we have seen the red arrows already today and we are going to see the battle of britain memorial flight. it was an event that has attracted a great deal of attention. the bullet had the chance to look at equipment which is used by our armed forces. both overseas and here in the uk. it isa both overseas and here in the uk. it is a national event and people have been delighted to come out and support national armed forces day. a huge rescue operation is taking place in south—west china, where more than a 100 people are feared to have been buried by a landslide. the search is taking place in a mountainous area of sichuan province, close to tibet, after the side of a mountain collapsed following heavy rain. we understand at least five people
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have been killed following that landslide. —— five people have been recovered. chinese rescue teams have been digging through mounds of rubble in the village searching for survivors. more than 40 homes were buried when the top of the mountain collapsed causing a major landslide in this remote part of western sichuan province. working in constant rain, and with roads covered by mud and rocks, the rescue effort has been difficult. and yet local officials say some survivors have been pulled out and taken to hospital. they say this has included a couple and also a baby. translation: at around five o'clock the baby cried so i changed the nappies and then i heard a loud noise. i went to the front door but was hit by wind and water and stones came flying that pinned me to the ground. my wife and i slowly got up, held the baby and escaped. hundreds of rescuers have been deployed and once
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the road was cleared, heavy digging equipment could be brought in. but it has also been a case of using much more basic methods and sometimes even bare hands to try and clear the debris. the mountains are prone to deadly landslides and earthquakes. meaning emergency teams in the area are used to dealing with these types of disasters. recent heavy downpours are thought to have contributed to the instability which triggered part of a mountain to fall down onto the village below. the murdered mpjo cox has been remembered in parliament with a coat of arms. the plaque was designed by her two children who unveiled it in the commons chamber as part of a "family day". it bears the motto ‘more in common‘,
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taken from her maiden speech in the commons. people in hounslow are among those residents of tower blocks that have been told their buildings have failed fire safety inspections. but, unlike in camden, where residents have been evacuated until the buildings are made safe, hounslow council, in west london, told tenants they won't be moved. 0ur reporter victoria cook was there. residents have lived with the blue cladding for more than ten years. now they know it is flammable and has to come down. the council have invited residents to a meeting here this morning to tell them what they are doing about this dangerous cladding. they said they are hoping it is going to start coming down in about eight days' time, so the beginning ofjuly. they say they are putting a 24—hour fire warden on site. but they are stressing at this stage they are not announcing an evacuation. some may question why. the council says they have been advised by the fire service that the building is safe enough for people
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to stay. after the meeting, ray and his daughter kim show was around. ray's family have told him they are so ray's family have told him they are so worried they want him to leave. ray's family have told him they are so worried they want him to leavelj will admit, it has played only a little bit. i have got a very good friend and i talk to her about it. it has affected your sleep. watches films or whatever, not wanting to go to sleepjust films or whatever, not wanting to go to sleep just in films or whatever, not wanting to go to sleepjust in case. ray was given a piece of the cladding by the original builders. now his daughter wa nted original builders. now his daughter wanted out of the flat. this is the piece. here is your fire. dangerous cladding issue is one of the reasons why hundreds of flats have been evacuated in camden overnight. it is for there are now eight councils across the capital that have now discovered similarfire across the capital that have now discovered similar fire risks to tower blocks. each one is being dealt with in a different way. back
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in hounslow, the scaffolding is going up but residents will not be moved. the council says they will be doing yet more fire safety checks on monday. festivalgoers at glastonbury are well into the second day of the festival, where katy perry and the foo fighters are set to top the bill tonight. jeremy corbyn also took to the stage this afternoon to address the crowd following month's general election. he said he'd been inspired by the number of young people who'd got involved in politics for the first time. he said it heralded a new era in politics. that politics that got out of the box is not going back in any box because we are there demanding and achieving something very different in our society and in our lives. there's a number of things that are very simple, very basic questions we should ask ourselves. is it right that so many people in our country have no home to live in and only
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a street to sleep on? is it right that so many people are frightened of where they live at the moment, having seen the horrors of what happened in grenfell tower? is it right that so many people live in such poverty in a society surrounded by such riches? jeremy corbyn there. two giant pandas have landed safely in berlin accompanied by chinese panda specialised and a tonne of bamboo. the bears were flown in from china ona the bears were flown in from china on a cargo plane and welcomed by the mayor and the ambassador to germany. their arrival is a sign of increasingly close diplomatic and trade ties between the two countries. the pandas will
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officially go on show to the public at berlin zoo next week. let us find out what the weather is doing. a dry saturday. a deep area of low pressure. putting to the north of scotland, bringing bands of rain further south at the moment into lewis, across the northern highlands. stays windy here into the night. rivulets showers across parts of southern england and wales. the older part, dry for a time during the night. more cloud building from the night. more cloud building from the west. dawn, rain and drizzle. mild enough start for england and wales, a bit fresh of scotland and northern ireland. still breezy. the area of low pressure knock moving away in a hurry. it will bring the windies whether to north—east scotla nd windies whether to north—east scotland and some blustery conditions for north east england to start sunday. we still have those bands of showers, 0rkney, shetland and into the central swathes of western scotland, either side of
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that there will be some sunshine around first thing. after a large dry afternoon in northern ireland, one of two shelves are coming, most places will avoid them, a bright enough start for north england, blustery weather. we will see lots more cloud to start the day, patchy rain and drizzle, mainly to the west. ease angler should start the day dry. the patchy rain and drizzle will work its way eastwards through the morning. it does mean for many of you across wales, midlands, a cloudy day tomorrow. a bit of sunshine that always a greater chance of seeing some rain at times. afternoon, east midlands, the odd heavy shower. temperatures still low 20s. bright afternoon for north west england. scotland and northern ireland feeling fresher and for those at glastonbury, through the morning and into lunchtime, the greatest chance of some rain. then sky is and a small chance of another shower to end the festival. monday looking 0k shower to end the festival. monday looking ok the most. a dry day. with
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some sunshine, maybe a few showers in the north—west. feeling warm in the sunshine. the rain spills its way eastwards to take us through into tuesday. a chart that looks a bit more typicalfor us into tuesday. a chart that looks a bit more typical for us here for a british summer. next week, more that as well. spells of heavy rain just about anywhere. breezy at times, a of sunshine that cloudy for most of the time. the headlines: the government says 27 high—rise blocks of flats and 15 local authorities have failed to fire cladding safety tests. for buildings in an estate in london we re buildings in an estate in london were evacuated last night by authorities for urgent fire safety works. they identified a number of issues in the blocks around insulation, around gas pipes going into flats, around fire doors. and
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the message to me was that the combination of the flammable external cladding and these issues inside the block meant that the building wasn't safe. some residents of the hotels or any beds in a leisure centre, although 18 households have refused to leave. the general advice is to get out and

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