tv BBC News BBC News June 25, 2017 9:00am-9:31am BST
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this is bbc news. the headlines at 9: cladding on 3a tower blocks in 17 council areas in england has failed fire safety tests, the government says. so far, every sample has failed the tests. hundreds of residents in camden have spent a second night away from their homes after four buildings were evacuated over safety concerns. the government says prices for goods such as sugar and bananas won't rise after brexit, as many countries will continue to have duty—free access to the uk. the glastonbury festival gets under way for third and final day of performances, with ed sheeran providing this the grand finale on the main stage this evening. this the grand finale on the main stage this evening. and our sunday morning edition of the papers is at 9.35 — this mornings reviewers are the political commentator daisy mcandrew and peter conradi from the sunday times. good morning and
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welcome to bbc news. cladding on 3a tower blocks in 17 council areas in england has failed fire safety tests. so far every sample sent for testing has failed — cladding from up to 600 blogs are to be examined. in north london, residents have spent a second night in temporary accommodation after camden council evacuated 4 high rise blocks because of fire safety concerns. this morning the council released a statement, saying it had worked through the night to secure accommodation for those affected. nick quraishi reports. testing around the clock. the government says as many as 600
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high—rise blocks will need to be checked for fire safety. councils are being urged to prioritise buildings they're most worried about. so far, 3a samples of cladding examined across 17 councils in england haven't met the required standards, a 100% failure rate. the councils include manchester, hounslow and plymouth. fire authorities are also having to examine exposed pipes, cable ducts, escape routes and fire doors. it's a huge undertaking and it's not just residential blocks. checks are taking place in scores of nhs buildings, like hull royal infirmary. ministers say a failed test doesn't necessarily mean a building has to be evacuated, but in north london hundreds of people are spending a second night in temporary accommodation. camden council says it was left with no choice because of multiple fire safety failures. some, though, still don't want to go. the council officials came to the door, banging on the door,
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"get out, get out," but the chap round the hallway said, "no, she's not going, she's getting on for 80, she can't go anywhere, she's got a cat." by night, the pockets of resistance against evacuation are evident. nick quraishi, bbc news. our correspondent catriona renton is in camden in north london. good morning. good morning. you will see there are people still coming here to the centre to get advice. we have seen people in the last few minutes coming to talk to council officials at the door here, to get information. but we are seeing far fewer people coming here now than we have seen over the last 36 hours or so. have seen over the last 36 hours or so. that's because over that time many people have now been found temporary accommodation. as we've just heard, from a council statement we received, offers of accommodation
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have been made to nearly 200 people who have had to leave and most of these offers, they say, have been accepted. the council say they have worked through the night and will continue today, to secure further accommodation, whilst emergency fireworks are undertaken and construction work has already started on one of the blocks, which was one that was going to be evacuated but wasn't evacuated. the other four while, evacuated but wasn't evacuated. the otherfour while, though. evacuated but wasn't evacuated. the other four while, though. we evacuated but wasn't evacuated. the otherfour while, though. we are funding continues to be made available to ensure that those currently in temporary accommodation have the essentials that they need. that's a reference to every household being offered £100, every household being offered £100, every household that's been evacuated offered £100. you can come here to the residence centre to collect it. they also say this morning council staff will conduct further doorknocking, to ask those who remain to leave an issue another
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letter, reiterating to residents who are still remaining in those four blocks that they must leave. the council say there are routes they can go down legally to force people to leave and they don't want to do that, they say they want people to leave so with empty buildings they can get on with the work. i enjoyed with one of the residents, one of around 20 household who has not left. roger evans. good morning. roger, you have decided not to leave. you had stayed over the last 36 hours. why have you decided that? in my opinion, the building is no less safe now than it was 48 hours ago, last week. i've lived in the building for three years. the discoveries they've made now, with any problems with the building, at the same i've been living with for the same i've been living with for the last three years and i felt perfectly safe in the building in that time and see nothing this change. the council say it is not say that they want you to leave so they can get on with the work they wa nt to they can get on with the work they want to do. what is your answer to that? they say if you get out and
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they can get on with a work and everybody can be back in soon.|j don't see why my presence being there, that it's going to delay than getting on with any works. they were saying the flats were safe its areas in communal part of the building, pipes and lagging, that are affected. if they need to shut off electricity, water and need to dno —— do an evacuation i will be prepared to leave but at the moment i'io prepared to leave but at the moment 110 one seems prepared to leave but at the moment no one seems to prepared to leave but at the moment 110 one seems to know prepared to leave but at the moment no one seems to know what needs doing. the advice seems to be changing on an hourly basis. far as i'm concerned, they've done work on the building without sin city before andi the building without sin city before and i can't see why they don't do that against a pyrah you have come out to speak to us. are you finding difficulties when you come out of the building getting back in? absolutely. they have stopped us getting free access to the building. 0ur electronic tags that give us access to the doors have been switched off so officials inside me to open the door. they are not been the most encouraging a welcoming. last night when i arrived home about
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10:45pm, they said they were not letting anyone back into the building after ten o'clock and tried to send me away. one of their colleagues tried to open the door but a security member tried to physically restrain me to stop me getting back into my building. thank you for talking to us, roger. we will no doubt hear from you about what is happening throughout the course of the day. we are hearing from practical points. as we heard earlier, residents who have been evacuated are entitled to £100 per household. they can come here to get up. people are still coming here to register. the council are also holding an event this afternoon at the nearby community centre to celebrate eid, because they say they don't want anyone who has been affected by the evacuation to miss out on that celebration. there is the uncertainty that has been happening here, it has eased somewhat but what happens next raises more questions with residents expecting to be out of bounds for
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3-4 expecting to be out of bounds for 3—4 weeks. expecting to be out of bounds for 3-4 weeks. thank you very much. in salford, the council has announced it will remove cladding from nine tower blocks. steve kingston is the editor of the salford star. good morning. good morning. tell us what's happening there. at the moment it seems to be total confusion. the council at a press conference on friday when they announced the cladding was coming off, before any test result had come back. since then they've been telling residents that the cladding won't be coming off until they get replacement cladding. that could be months. basically is it safe or is in it? nobody seems to know. i'm reading what the city mayor of salford has said. he says the decision to remove the cladding on the council's nine tower blocks is the council's nine tower blocks is the right thing to do. there will be no waiting around in salford while there are any questions about the safety of our residents. how do you respond to that specifically? on the
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one hand i think it's very laudable he has said that. on the other hand, pendleton together, the housing company, their staff were going around here today saying to people the cladding won't be removed until replacement cladding is there. that could take months, nobody seems to know what's going on. pendleton together, we'd like to wish all our customers a nearby residents everything possible is being done. to an extent by the organisation pendleton together and council, they are in new and uncertain territory? yes, but they shouldn't be. we've been looking for planning applications for the last four or five years on the amount of information on safety is so little. all they seem to be interested in was the cover of those blocks, the cladding used looking pretty for passers—by and things like that. it was all about image and not about safety. i think the council knows what's in those blocks, because it would have had technical information, it has passed planning
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at some point. they need to come clea n at some point. they need to come clean and tell people the information. we are putting out as much information as we can find, but i'm not planning expert orfire safety expert. absolutely. what local residents telling you about their current situation? we are getting absolutely inundated with facebook messages, texts, e—mails, you name it, people have sent us videos of fired safety doors hanging off, gaps in fire doors, all sorts off, gaps in fire doors, all sorts of things. not particularly in these blocks but others around salford. while all the attention has been made about the pendleton blocks, there are plenty of other blocks, 43 other blocks in salford, and we need to be looking at those in telling people what is going on. thank you very much for coming on, steve kingston, the editor of the salford star. kingston, the editor of the salford sta r. let's kingston, the editor of the salford star. let's get a political view of all of this. with me is baroness sal brinton, who sits on the all—party parliamentary fire safety and rescue group. good morning. good morning. what you
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think government should be doing and saying that they haven't done so far? i think the message steve just gave of residents in salford, and we are hearing it in camden and at g re nfell tower, are hearing it in camden and at grenfell tower, is residents and individuals affected not getting enough information. it just individuals affected not getting enough information. itjust shows that more needs to be done. what we're seeing as liberal democrats is we're seeing as liberal democrats is we ought to trigger the sort of civil emergency systems that came into place with the cumbria flooding is in 2015, to make sure that eve ryo ne is in 2015, to make sure that everyone knows what's happening. if people are moved out of their flats at short notice, there are lots of others to keep them informed. the problem with having pets, can they find accommodation with pets? particularly concerned about vulnerable tenants, all those things. it is not good in an emergency for stop for any family asked to leave their flat at short notice, it's an emergency. we need to make sure there is better communication. what would those civil emergency measures mean in practice for those currently living ina practice for those currently living in a block which isn't necessarily
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being evacuated at the moment? about making sure they understand why it's not being evacuated. that they are safe and the corresponding one is in camden to explain to people why it's not safe and they should move. camden have taken that advice on the london fire service... that is right. absolutely right. part of the overall problem is regulations have been softened since 2005, when the fire service no longer had to pass plans and buildings after major works had happened. since then there has been this attitude that we need to get rid of regulations rather than focus on safety. i'm really pleased that sajid javid has announced the focus is now back on safety. but there is a consequence to that, which is a lot of work is going to be need to be done in a lot of tower blocks to prevent future fires. you mentioned scheduled javid -- sajid fires. you mentioned scheduled javid —— sajid javid, he's also talked about funding, saying the government
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will provide funding to local authorities who need it for stop is enoughin authorities who need it for stop is enough in financial terms? authorities who need it for stop is enough in financialterms? no, it's not. i think councils having faced severe cuts in recent years are really struggling. any emergency procedure is going to suck their resources away straightaway. it's not just about covering resources away straightaway. it's notjust about covering the costs of the rebuilding. but frankly there is also an issue about the lives of residents being disrupted. whilst it fine to say are given money in the early days, if you're living outside your home with no access to your things for weeks or months, compensation must be available straightaway. do you get the feeling from the town of what government has said, and you referred to the attitudes of health and safety that may have changed in recent days, that that is probably going to come on stream down the line as well? i'm slightly concerned with the comment this morning that this is in a bottomless pit. the mindset is not yet on how do we solve the emergency
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that these residents are facing at the moment. that safety and that is oui’ the moment. that safety and that is our community responsible at it and i look forward to the government accepting that. things need to happen and they have to happen very fast. thank you very much indeed for coming in. a cyber attack on the parliamentary computer system appears to have been contained according to government sources. officials at the houses of parliament said there had been a "determined" attempt by hackers to identify weak passwords for email accounts used by mps, beers and their staff- . . w . people open to blackmail. the national cyber security centre is now investigating what happened. we know that our public services we re we know that our public services were attacked. it's not at all surprising that there should be an attempt to hack into parliamentary e—mails. it's a warning to everybody, whether in parliament or elsewhere, that they need to do everything possible to maintain
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their own cyber security, including having complex and therefore safer codewords. liam fox. pakistan government officials say at least 100 people are reported to have been killed and dozens more badly injured when a lorry transporting oil burst into flames in punjab. police said a crowd had gathered to collect fuel leaking from the vehicle which had overturned on the main highway from the city of bahawalpur. fire fighters have been tackling the blaze which is said to now be under control, although the road remains closed. 0ur correspondent secunder kermani is in karachi. what is known about what happened at the scale of the fatalities? the latest figures we are hearing in terms of the death toll is 123 people have been killed, over 140 have been injured. the authorities say they do expect that death toll could increase as the day goes on.
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in terms of what happened, we understand that an oil tanker was travelling between karachi and lahore and in the early hours of the morning the lorry was. some reports of the accident was. some reports say speeding, others say a flat tire, others say it was making a sharp turn. after it overturned, fuel leaked out and local people began to come to the scene carrying smalljerry cans or kitchen bowls even, to try and collect the fuel and take it back home. some eyewitnesses say some of the local people who were there were smoking cigarettes, although that's not confirmed. what we do know is was there were a couple of hundred people at the scene collecting fuel, an explosion occurred. pictures on local media, some of them far too graphic to show on the bbc, showed
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dozens and dozens of charred bodies and the remains of vehicles that had been burnt out from the scene. the army has sent its helicopters to try and transport some of the injured to nearby hospitals and burns units. the fire has now been extinguished, but as i said the death toll is expected to rise. this comes just a day before pakistan celebrates the largest festival, one of the largest festivals in the muslim calendar, eid, due to take place here tomorrow. so the roads would have been particularly busy, and as you can imagine, casting a shadow after the preparations for the festival. thank you. a teenage boy has been arrested on suspicion of the attempted rape of an eight—year—old girl in manchester. the boy — believed to be 14 or 15 — was detained after officers were told the girl had been attacked in a park in moston, yesterday evening.
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it is 8:18am. the headlines: cladding in 17 council areas in england have failed fire safety test. so for every sample as failed the test. hundreds of residents in camden have spent a second night away from their homes after four buildings were evacuated over safety concerns. more than 120 people are feared to have been killed when a lorry transporting oil burst into fla mes lorry transporting oil burst into flames in pakistan's punjab province. the archbishop of canterbury, justin welby, has urged theresa may to set up a cross—party commission to advise her on brexit. writing in the mail on sunday, he says such a commission could "hold the ring for the differences to be fought out" and "draw much of the poison from the debate". ministers say 48 of the poorest countries in the world will continue to have duty—free access to the uk after it leaves the european union.
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the international trade department said the decision would mean prices for imports such as sugar and bananas would not be affected by brexit. our business correspondent, joe lynam, has the details. some of our most popular ingredients and products, like cocoa or bananas, are grown in some of the world's poorest countries. to help almost 50 of them expand their economies, the eu already allows them to export their goods tariff—free into europe. now the government has confirmed that this will be maintained after britain leaves the eu. it means products such as bananas, sugar and coffee should not be any more expensive for uk households when imported after 2019. the uk imports almost £20 billion a year tariff—free from 48 developing countries, including haiti, ethiopia, bangladesh and sierra leone. exports of arms and defence equipment are not included in this trade agreement. we want as we leave the european union to be champions
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of globalfree trade, pointing out that it has already taken more people out of poverty in the last 25 years than in the whole of human history up to that point. we've got to keep that momentum going, we've got to get the big economies opening up and we've got to give the opportunities to the developing countries to trade their way out of poverty. assuming britain quits the european customs union as well as the eu, it will be free to conduct its own trade deals with any country. that could allow it to expand the list of poor countries with tariff—free access to uk markets in future. joe lynam, bbc news. more than 100 people are still missing — after a massive landslide engulfed a village in china's sichuan province. at least 60 homes in mao—shan were buried in mud and debris — when the side of a mountain collapsed following days of heavy rain. fifteen bodies have been pulled from the rubble so far, as well as three survivors.
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andy beatt reports. rescuers in china have been working through the night in a well coordinated but increasingly desperate search for survivors. more than 2000 police, soldiers and civilians are involved in the operation, sifting through mud and rubble, a task made more difficult by the darkness. earlier, the impact of the landslide was plain to see, an entire village buried under tonnes of rock. the disaster triggered, it's thought, by recent heavy downpours, also blocking roads and rivers. hospitals are standing by to receive survivors, but so far there have been few. this month old baby and its parent lucky to be alive. translation: at around five o'clock in the morning the baby started crying, so i changed the nappies and then i heard a loud noise. i went to the front door, but i was hit by wind and water and stones came flying, that pinned me down to the ground. my wife and i slowly got up, held the baby and escaped. the emergency response has been
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swift in an area used to deadly landslides and earthquakes. 0nce roads were cleared, heavy digging equipment could be brought in. but it's also been a case of using much more basic methods, sometimes even bare hands to try to clear the debris. teams on the ground are being aided by life detection equipment and sniffer dogs, and helicopters deployed to bring in people and provisions. it's the biggest disaster to hit the area since a devastating earthquake in 2008, that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing. local officials say that quake had weakened the mountain, making landslides more likely. president xi jinping has called for rescuers to spare no effort in their search, but as time passes, and with more heavy rain forecast, prospects are increasingly bleak. andy beatt, bbc news. yemen is facing the worst cholera
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outbreak. more than 200,000 suspected cases of the disease. the outbreak spread because of the colla pse outbreak spread because of the collapse of health system during the civil war. the two un agencies say they're doing everything they can to stop yemen's cholera outbreak from accelerating. they're tracking the spread of the disease and have deployed rapid response teams to go from house to house, telling people how to protect themselves by cleaning and storing drinking water. but they're facing impossible circumstances. it's a highly infectious disease, but at the same time, this is not the first time that we've faced cases of cholera in yemen. it's actually endemic in yemen, but the fact that it's reached such a high number, it's a shame in the history of this conflict. we're talking about health, health of the 200,000... the people that you mentioned are children, a quarter of the fatalities are children,
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so children are seriously affected by this outbreak, and it's important and crucial that we get to them with the help and assistance that they need, so that we can beat back this disease. two years of civil war have destroyed health services and sanitation systems. severe food shortages have led to widespread malnutrition, making yemenis, especially children, even more vulnerable to disease. more than 1300 people have already died of cholera. it's one of the biggest sporting events taking place this year, but the chances are you've never heard of it! thousands of athletes from 23 islands around the world have travelled to gotland in sweden for the 2017 island games. jen smith has the details. 23 island nations, each with small populations, come together every two years to compete in their own bespoke competition. some have travelled from the arctic, others from warmer climes.
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so, why? the island games is a wonderful event for islands with a population of less than 100,000. but it is an event where we can come together, regardless of the distance in between us, we can come together and celebrate what we all love to do and what we do best to represent our islands. for us gibraltarians, definitely, because olympics, europeans, we don't have a chance of medaling. this is where we have a chance of medaling finally, so yeah, this is a very big deal for us. it's about competition but also about making friends and having fun and meeting a lot of cool people. this year gotland is the host. it's a swedish island in the baltic sea, and around 60,000 people live here. but for one week in june, over 2000 competitors from islands as far afield as st helena in the south atlantic and bermuda in the caribbean will come here.
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so how much work is involved in putting all that together? how much work? a lot of work, i can tell you that. i've been employed for two and a half years, and we've been at this since 2007, or something like that. it's ten years in the making, basically, from the first thought of maybe hosting the games again, until coming to this day. and this day could see the beginning of an olympic career, like it has for some well—known brits. we've got some old veterans in the guernsey club now and their claim to fame is they once beat mark cavendish, which is quite funny looking back now, seeing how far he's come. there is some young hopefuls from the isle of man that are clearly following in his footsteps, so we'll see where they are in a few years. and for some it's closer than that. andy from the isle of wight hopes to make it to the gold coast next april. i compete for scotland now in the commonwealth games. i've done the last three games and the qualifying distance is 67.5 metres, which i'm just short of this year. it would be nice to try and get the qualifying distance and get
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the trip to australia next year. so while it is known as the friendly games, there's still some serious competition. jen smith, bbc news, gotland. ed sheeran will headline the pyramid stage tonight to close this year's glastonbury festival. one of the biggest crowds of the weekend is expected to gather to watch barry gibb this afternoon. 0ur entertainment correspondent, lizo mzimba is there. good morning, what lies ahead? it's going to be a great day of music. as you can see, the big clean—up operation is underway after yesterday. went very well here in front of the pyramid stage. tens of thousands of fans, culminating in the foo fighters. earlier in the day jeremy corbyn attracted massive crowd here as well. a headline set by rock band foo fighters... here he is, jeremy corbyn! he wasn't one of the headline artists, but perhaps unsurprisingly he drew one of the biggest crowds so far. do you know politics is actually
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about everyday life. the labour leader was always going to be a big draw for a left—leaning audience at a festival like this. jeremy corbyn's appearance is another demonstration of his current popularity with young people in particular. among the day's musical highlights, a vibrant, energetic katy perry. and liam gallagher dedicating don't look back in anger to those killed in the london and manchester terror attacks and the grenfell tower victims. # don't look back in anger, i heard you say #. some great musical act here, and
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today on the pyramid stage we will see the likes of barry gibb. the traditional spot on sunday afternoon expected to attract a big draw. jamie cullum will be there. on the other stage, about 500 yards away, emeli sande will be performing. of course, as well as music, the other m word people associate with it is mud. 0nlya bit m word people associate with it is mud. only a bit of rain and it is still pretty green. people are looking forward to ed shearer and on the pyramid stage, finishing off a week and that is going to be music filled and relatively mud free. that is good to hear. thank you very much. let's check on the weather forecast. fifth today, we are looking at a north—south divide, northern areas generally dry up and bright with some sunshine and a bit cooler
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further south but the weather front bringing more cloud and outbreaks of light and patchy rain. the winds across the north of scotland easing down through the day and we will see one 01’ down through the day and we will see one or two showers here but like i said, the best of the sunshine, temperatures ranging from 16—21 across the south—east. this evening, it looks like a fine enter the day for many northern areas without sunshine, the clearer whether pushing its way southwards during the course of the night and by the end of the night light winds and clear skies, the rest of it are quite cool night to come, temperatures down in single figure values in the countryside. monday, we start on a cool night but bright with some good spells of sunshine and areas of low pressure will bring thicker cloud across the west, with outbreaks of rain in northern ireland but elsewhere in the sunshine, it will feel quite warm, particularly across the south and east with a top temperature of 24 degrees.
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