at that moment, we felt like our hearts had broken all stop the enquiry opens up the first to speak the couple who lost their unborn child. tonight we take time to meet the gomez family as they rebuild their lives and reclaim their lost possessions. it was handed to us at the beginning of april and we had four boxes. we opened the small ones.” april and we had four boxes. we opened the small ones. i know what that is. we don't really make long—term plans so much because we go to bed today and you don't know what's going to be in the morning. also tonight no more of this for a while it seems. roman aberavon mitch may miss more chelsea games as the home office waits on his visa. is britain getting tough on russians?

should it be tougher? two russians are with us to debate that. and the case for children walking to school oi’ case for children walking to school or more accurately parents not driving. is it time to brand cars at the school gates after that horrible night in june last year killing 72 people there was a desire to investigate. back injune last year, killing 72 people, there was an obvious desire for a proper investigation, and a rapid one at that. an inquiry was officially launched on august 15th, and thejudge leading it, sir martin moore bick, said he hoped to provide an initial report on the cause and spread of the fire by easter this year. well easter came and went two months ago, no report yet but at last, today, the inquiry is properly underway.

the stories that came out of the tower in the days after the fire were unbearable to hear. survival or death, it was horrifying — bloodcurdling — to even think about the experiences the residents had to endure. in the inquiry‘s opening days of evidence—taking, those experiences are being relived or retold. and time has not made them any less upsetting. sir martin seemed aware of that today. during the coming days there will be much sorrow, sorrow at the memory of lives cut short and sorrow at the contemplation of promise unfulfilled. sorrow at the loss of close relations and sorrow at the absence of friends and neighbours. but that sorrow will, i hope, be tempered by memories of past happiness, of times spent together and of former joys. an inquiry of this sort is there to establish the truth as to what happened, it is also a form of reconciliation where the nation takes formal stock of the tragedy. these first days will be commemoration hearings, where those who died are remembered. we'll hear some of the moving testimony from survivors and relatives later,

but among those speaking today were the gomes family, and newsnight‘s katie razzall has got to know them and spend a bit of time with them over the last year. katie is with me now. katie, let's go back to when you met them, it was pretty shortly after the fire. they lived on the 21st floor of the tower and we were trying to piece together the story of one floor and we chose that one. and when the newsnight producers and i first met them, they were understandably clearly still in deep shock about what they had gone through. they were originally from portugal. they have that night a terrifying escape and suffered great loss, notjust the loss of close neighbours and friends, but also, as you saw, the loss of their son, logan, son—to—be. andreia was seven months pregnant and that baby boy was stillborn in hospital as she and his sisters lay in induced comas that night. you met them in the build—up to this enquiry.

we met them most recently last week as they prepared to commemorate logan at the hearing today. as you said, we will be showing you the tribute from other people and from marcio later but last week we were privileged to witness an extraordinary moment in their lives, because in april, they were given four boxes, the possessions that have been retrieved by investigators from their home, all that is left from their home in grenfell and they shared that experience with us. here is the film which was produced by us. my mum gave it to me. this is how hot it was in my bedroom. this was on the window ledge of my bedroom. so, this would have stayed there.

in the fire for a long, long time. my gran gave me this for my first... for my holy communion. so it has a very special sentimental value. i'm going to use it for our new plants. it has been cleaned. even so, you can see the damage. the burn damage inside. these treasured possessions have been recovered from their flat, high up in grenfell tower. this is a necklace that marcio gave me at christmas. marcio was the first one that i met and then i had louanna and then i had megan.

it was such a lovely... yeah, it survived. there is no gloss on this or anything. it has completely melted away. it makes you realise what you survived. for almost a year, with its surviving residents dispersed, grenfell has loomed over west london, a symbol, a reminder, a crime scene. investigators recently returned four boxes to marcio and andreia, everything that has been retrieved from their home on the 21st floor. so far, they have steeled themselves to open just two of the boxes. i never expected to have four boxes, not knowing what was inside, was like a blast from the past. it was still very emotional. they still have the smell around the items, even though they had been

professionally cleaned, there was still the smell they couldn't get rid of. was it a smell that you recognise? it was the smoke smell. it was the smell that stuck with us for a number of months. straight after, we just could not get rid of that smell... i was going to say our clothes, but they were not really our clothes, but from our bodies. and i remember, especially in the girls' hair, doesn't matter how many showers, how many times they wash their hair, it was constantly in their hair. so, when we opened them boxes, that smell, that maybe we have not felt as strong for maybe a couple of months, suddenly, that came. it wasjust... it was like we were stopping time. it was like, literally,

we were stopping time and then it was a bit... difficult. newsnight first met marcio and andreia soon after the fire. they had had a terrifying escape with their two daughters and another family, down the smoke—filled staircase, tripping over the dying. six people on their floor lost their lives that night. i think about that all the time. it is easier not to talk about it, but it is impossible not to think about it. there are certain times, triggers, during the day that you think of it more and it could be... obviously, specifically for us, it is around our close neighbours on our floor. and then you pass someone

who is very similar and it starts coming back and ifound myself sometimes looking at somebody i have never met before, it might be a complete stranger and i look again, over and over again and i think, is that you? and then i have to remind myself, no, it can't be, because they are not here. and that is something that you will never get over. i think it was handed to us at the beginning of april. we had four boxes, we opened the smaller ones, it was a bit more difficult to open the bigger ones. we were biding our own time. let's see, let's see. that is my mug. what is that?

my tweety mug. you used this. i did use it, yeah. you used this, like, the night before and it was still there. this was in the middle of the living room. so, there is gloss melted on the inside. i have no idea where that came from, but... yeah. so, yeah. oh look! that is my mum's wedding ring! is that cleaned ? yes. proper cleaned. oh my god! wow. it is so nice. it is staying here. so this stuff has been cleaned before it came to you? yeah.

we asked them to clean everything and then obviously, we would decide what to keep and what to throw away. i've got my football medal. that survived. gold medal. fifa. oh look. oh, that was in... that was my dad. yeah. it was in with the glasses. yeah. look at that. why don't you get your mini mug out? i know what that is. well, well.

as they all tried to escape on the night of the fire, in the smoke—filled darkness and confusion, lily the family dog ran back upstairs. she didn't survive. no, she will always be here with us. yeah. although we made a mistake. i know. what mistake? because when i bought it, i bought a big one and a small one but i didn't realise that it was a cat's. but, it stayed anyway. she didn't mind. she used both. she can't read, so... she couldn't read. yeah. i thought this was destroyed completely. because it was underneath

the window, so... i thought it didn't survive. that i wasn't expecting to see. on the 14th day of every month, west london mourns all those who died at grenfell. this is the 11th silent walk since the fire. over the year, everybody has been moved around, different areas and you lose contact a little bit. and obviously it is one way of showing that we are still together and still fighting. i can't believe that. it doesn't feel like

a year at all, at all. it seems like it was... i don't know, maybe a couple of months ago. i don't look at the building, i just look at my windows. and that is why i am a bit... it is going to be hard to see it covered. you're not sure you want it covered? no. it will be difficult. because, yeah, you tend to look at your own flat. the family recently moved into a new permanent home, but only a third of grenfell households have the same. yeah, i think there are still a lot of people who are living in hotels or temporary accommodation, which doesn't help. nearly a year on and theresa may did say that three weeks, everybody

would be re—homed, rehoused. but i think realistically everybody knew that was never going to happen. if we just sit down and wait for the promises that they made, we might as welljust be sitting down for ever. you feel the community has been let down by what was promised? very, very. this is in general, obviously, because, i can say, we can say, that we had really nice people trying to help us and it is not all of them. yeah, it seems to be a constant battle with the authorities. be it local or central government. they all, you know, stand up and say the right things, but, you know, they are trained to do that, so it is very easy for them to say it. actions speak louder than words and i think it is clear to see that the actions have not always been there. andreia was seven months pregnant when grenfell caught fire.

their son—to—be, logan, was the youngest victim. stillborn as his mother lay in a coma in hospital. they are still dealing with the impact of all they have experienced. we don't really make other plans as long—term plans. we don't talk about, you know, the future, so much, because you go to bed today, you don't know what it is going to be in the morning, so there is no... this is me now, obviously, maybe i can change, in a few years, again, but not now, i think... i feel like it is a waste of time, doing major plans for the future. i don't even know if i am going to wake up. we met last week as they prepared to commemorate logan

at the grenfell inquiry. it is probably fair to say that it has been one of the most difficult things i have had to do. i underestimated how difficult it was going to be. which is a shame, we have not been able to finish it. but you do a very small bit and memories start flooding back and you just have to stop and try something else. phase one of the grenfell inquiry began today with commemorative hearings to some of those who died. marcio and andreia remember their son. when we met, we asked them more broadly what they want from the inquiry. i think we want it to be fair and just and quick as well. we don't want it to go on for such a long time. and we know that could be a possibility. we want them to take

all the facts into account. i think it is fair to say. we are really after justice. we know that there were some failings. they know that there were failings, but it is a case of gathering all the facts first. we want the pressure to be on so it does not take 15 years for them to get to the bottom of it. do you have faith in it? i think time will tell, to be honest. personally, i don't even know how to answer that, to be honest. let's see, let's see. there is hope there. i am hoping that everything goes as it should go and not... not that many years, as marcio was saying, but faith is a strong word. let's see, let's see. katie razzall with the gomes family in the days running up to the inquiry.

and katie, marcio gomes was the first to give evidence today at the inquiry. they were and today was the latest and emotional day this dignified family had to face. they were first because logan was the youngest victim of the fire and it was deemed fitting he should be remembered first and marcio broke down, so many of us broke down in the room as he described the family's feelings about their much loved, much longed for boy. we also saw pictures of logan taken after he was stillborn and they were so distressing to see but i think the family were determined that we would see them to understand the magnitude of their loss. this is some of what marcio gomes had to say. you never know what you're made of until you are broken. and i can tell you this.

my wife... she is made of the hardest material i know. and without her strength and courage, i would not be here. he sobs 0k? i might be doing the talking, but she is the one who has always been rock solid. and we love our son. we always will do. and the gomes family weren't the only ones to speak today — katie.

it is six days of commemoration, it is going to be a tough six days. it really is and the inquiry has clearly given great consideration to how difficult the days will be. there are counsellors and first aid on site, there's a separate room for the brief to go to if they need to, there's a quiet room and a prayer room. there are 72 victims of grenfell, and all of them will be remembered in some way over the next few days but not all of them will be commemorated with spoken tributes. everybody was asked whether they wanted, given the opportunity to, but not everybody felt ready or able to speak, even through a solicitor. here are excerpts from the tributes given about the five other victims of the fire who were commemorated today. the only possessions we have left of his now, which are a recovered handful of coins, so poignant to us, as he would give you his last pennies if you ever needed them.

saber had always been there for all of us. he never complained. and he always did everything with a smile. he was my husband, he was my best friend. i miss him so much. he will always be the love of my life. the events of that night took his life and all trace of his existence in this world. he never stood a chance of getting out. it should never have happened. there will be two empty chairs at the table for every birthday,

christmas and new year's. but they will forever own a position in our hearts. we will carry their memories throughout our lives, our children's and our children's children. although the pain feels like forever, it will soon be replaced by happiness. let's look ahead, after the six days, there is serious inquiry work to be done on finding the facts. what is the timescale? how is it, what shape will it take? we are in phase one of the inquiry, looking at how the blaze happened, what happened on the night and after these commemoratives hearings, from the 4th ofjune, that is when the oral hearings will start. for example, firefighters will give evidence sometime injuly, there will be four weeks of evidence in september from the bereaved survivors and residents.

it is expected the interim report, so the findings of phase one, how it happened and what happened that night, that is expected to be published at the end of this year, perhaps early next year but as you mentioned earlier, the timescale has already slipped on the initial report that was to be written so nothing is confirmed. thank you forjoining us. and if you want to find out more about the grenfell tower inquiry, radio 4's eddie mair is presenting a podcast every day the inquiry sits which looks in detail at what's been said and heard. you can download it from the bbc iplayer radio app, itunes or your podcast provider. chelsea owner roman abramovich seems to be the latest victim of a hostile environment policy towards immigration. he's having trouble renewing his visa. it is thought that tougher checks over the origins of incomers' wealth could be one cause of the apparent delay. theoretically, things are meant to have become more serious for oligarchs here since the poisoning of the skripals 11 weeks ago, but a report by the foreign affairs

committee of mps published today says the government has allowed business as usual to carry on in london. our political editor nick watt is here. what do you know about this case? i understand his visa ran out in early april. he was not in the uk when that happened which means he has to apply from russia and that is a more complex process. he faces two challenges, firstly, the rules for these tier one investor visas have been tightened up since 2015 and secondly, the home office is taking a much closer look at russian applicants since the salisbury attack. the upshot of that is that roman abramovich may have had to account for the source of his wealth in applying for the visa. it is important to say this is not targeting him. this is the rules that are applied to all applicants from the russian federation. but what is the government trying to achieve? it is important to talk in wider

terms than about roman abramovich, about the foreign affairs select committee report today on what they says the government's failure to deal with russian corruption. there was criticism for the government for delaying the introduction of legislation for a register owners of overseas companies that own or purchase property in the uk, criticism that is not going to be operational until 2021. as i understand it, the government said today, certainly told me that they would like it to be up and running by 2020. but interestingly, there's a debate going on in government. i was talking to one minister who said that things are eerily quiet on the russian front and this minister said is that moscow is biding its time for the world cup. let that happen and then, this minister said, russia will be after the uk, not through traditional warfare but through warfare through the internet and this

minister, who would no russian capability, said for example, they have the ability and may well decide, for example, to stop the city of london functioning. nick. with me now is vladimir ashurkov, the executive director of the anti—corruption foundation which is led by alexei navalny. vladimir was granted political asylum in the uk after facing prosecution in russia, charges he says are politically motivated. also with us is the founder of the dating app huggle, valerie stark. you came from russia to the uk. and you are concerned that all russians are being tarred by this idea that there is something dodgy about anyone who has got money and is russian. i mean, not every single russian is targeted, obviously, it is all about experiences and not every single british person is saying things about russians but i can only speak for myself and my friends, i guess. in my experience, i've started to get a lot of negative comments,

especially since the skripal case happened and i understand it is coming from the media speculation and everything we see on the tv, if you know nothing about russians apart from what you see on the tv, what else can you know? if you have no russian friends and you don't work with any russian people together, obviously, that is all you know. no one wants a whole race or nationality of people to be generalise, but do you think of the very wealthy russians who came here and do not mention names, do you think on the whole it is clean money or dirty money? how should we look at russians here? i think you need to... the government need to take care of this. i cannot feel anything about that. if the money is dirty, you need to get rid of it. it is not up to me to decide. vladimir, presumably you think it is reasonable for the british to say, we should ask questions about the origin of the money,

because of is is obtained corruptly, we should know about that and not give uavs are? —— not give a visa. britain has quite robust anti—corruption legislation. until recently, the government was quite reluctant to use the instrument it has. maybe now the political environment is changing and the british authorities will be less tolerant to the dirty money coming into the uk from russia and other countries. what do you think we should do? do you put any time limit on it? should we be rigid about this? you might say, it is not up to the uk to impose russian laws and if russia sold its assets in 19905 at stupidly low prices to people, that is not a british problem and not one for us to get involved in now? i think the british government has to be transparent. let us take the case of roman abramovich, just denying a visa to a foreigner

with unexplained grounds seems like a weak response... just to be clear, we do not think he has been denied a visa, it is going through the application. i think places like roman abramovich and other russian oligarchs need to be investigated and british authorities have the instruments to do it. —— i think cases like roman abramovich. do you agree? well, i do not understand how they got here in the first place, then. the british government was fine with them getting here? we have not bothered to ask any questions. who can you accuse them? it is whether it is right for us to think, we have been a soft touch, we should ask the questions. we could ask the questions of the british government. yes. i do not understand this. you cannot say that the person is not guilty and then ten years later say,

actually you are. it seems to me that the question was never asked and now it is being asked. do you detect a change, vladimir, do you feel that the british government is taking it more seriously, because certainly there has been a big contrast with the americans and it has affected companies in the uk through american sanctions? there has been a lot of strong rhetoric but we have not seen any action. it is common knowledge that the uk has become a safe haven for dirty money from russia from other countries and the british authorities would turn a blind eye to it. maybe now the situation will change. would we be right... does it matter when crimes were committed ? how far back do we have to look into the careers of people? let us look at an individual case, our foundation uncovered a case... because the people are not here to defend ourselves,

do not get us into legal trouble. you have looked at cases. we have looked at cases of russian corruption when russian businessmen had properties here, the majority owners of companies that are quoted on the london stock exchange, they are involved in corrupting foreign officials in russia and other countries. we are bringing those cases to the attention of the serious fraud office or financial regulators and we do not get a response. you do not get a response? no. valerie, you say your friends and you feel in your experiences, that you have been blackened with the media impressions, but you do acknowledge that there is a lot of that. i understand. but i get negative comments predominately from people who do not know me or know any russians. i have lovely british and russian friends and i feel happy in the uk. what i do not like is that without any grounds or evidence or any decisions made by government,

people claim that everything russian in the uk is corrupt and that is what i do not like. even what you just said, russians corrupt a lot of businessmen with a lot of money. i would like people to be very precise about who they accuse. so there is no stereotyping. you agree on that. yes. thank you both very much indeed. michael gove, the environment secretary, publishes his clean air strategy tomorrow. one thing he's apparently not putting in the strategy is finding a way of getting children to walk more often to school. maybe knowing it's not getting much of a look—in, the group living streets has opted to promote the idea today, arguing that parents should be banned from dropping children at the school gate. it would mean fewer cars polluting the air and the children would benefit from the walk. but to make it happen, a lot of parents would need to take the leap at the same time, otherwise if one lonely child takes the walk to school,

they'll still have the polluted air to deal with. well, there is a precedent for this kind of policy. a council in london, the london borough of hackney, has already banned cars from streets around some schools. the labour mayor of hackney phillip glanville joins me now, as well as the journalist and father harry wallop. welcome to you both. how is it working, philip? we have done four school streets with parents and schools leading the charge. they come to us and talk to us about the type of scheme they would like and during pick—up and drop—off we restrict vehicles. a lot of parents are presumably still dropping their children off, a few streets away. only 10% of parents drop off their children to school in hackney anyway, so it is about restricting those who are doing that and the through traffic as well and about making the streets better. if you come into that street, and you can, it is not physically blocked off,

you've got cameras, if you come into the street, what is the fine? £65. how many fines are you getting? it has now fallen to three, the aim is to not have anyone getting fined. it is not about raising resources, it is about changing attitudes. we have introduced things like 20 mph zones. making people aware. i would like to talk about that. harry, you are a father. how does that sound? as phillip says, only 10% of people in hackney drive and drop the kids at school. i live in a neighbouring borough and i walk my kids to school in rain or shine, but i am lucky, i only live a kilometre from the school. this may work in inner—city london, where actually nitrogen oxide particles only represent 5% from private vehicles, they are only responsible for 5% of the nitrogen oxide. the problem will be in other cities where people have

to drive a bit further. i am thinking of more rural areas with the distances are greater. —— areas where the distances. and the infrastructure is not in place. but even in manchester, schoolchildren have to pay £1.30 every time they get on a bus. if you have two or three children, driving will end up cheaper. it is very expensive outside of london to use the infrastructure to not drive your children to school. have you got figures on how many parents have now stopped driving children to school or anywhere near the school? it is very early days but the feedback has been fantastic from parents, they have reclaimed the streets after school for play streets. is that parents who have cars and dropped kids off or parents who never did in the first place? the school community is coming together. the report has been somewhat misrepresented, there have been 21 recommendations in the living streets report, it starts to say schools should have

travel plans and look at physical infrastructure changes, what other policies need to be put in place to make schools more accessible without the private car, in some areas it might be car pooling, better bus services. is the airclean? we measuring it and there will be a report in 6 months. it is much easier for everyone to make this change than one family. it is a collective decision. if there were more children walking to school, it is easier for other children to walk because it is safer, the streets are full, the other cars are watching out for children. if you ask parents why they drive... i'm against the idea of banning anything like this, but if you asked them why, there are usually good practical reasons, it is either on their way to work and it makes sense, you're not cancelling a trip, or because they do not feel it is safe and we know that traffic accidents involving children have

fallen massively over the last generation and that might be because more people are driving to school. i know that is a catch—22 situation. and people do not feel the streets are safe and a lot of london streets are not safe. hackney is not alone in this, it is a borough where every street has a 20 mph speed limit, how is that working? if you can enforce that, parents may be more willing to let their children walk. it goes beyond that, it is filtering roads, creating neighbourhoods that are liveable and closed to through traffic and one of the enemies to this is rat running, use of ways, use of google maps, if you close to streets and filter them... you're putting them on main roads. main roads are built for cars. you see evaporation. fewer cars as you change attitudes to streets. the more pleasurable you make them, the more you encourage walking

and cycling, people feel safe. that is the evidence that happens from we do our filtering. once again, the motorist is the victim of eco—virtue signalling, it will not make a huge difference, it will move the traffic to other roads. i know hackney roads well. the areas where there have been road closures are lovely, they are lovely to cycle and walk around on but the main roads are now gridlocked. that worries me, the street i live on is very nice but there are other streets where the cars are forced... it is about more filtering rather than less. the more neighbourhoods that are traffic free, it is easier to have school streets and play streets. we will leave it there. thank you very much indeed. a quick look at the paper, because the daily mail leads on a new clean air revolution and it is referring to the michael gove strategy, crackdown on wood—burning stoves, diesels and toxic tire particles. i hadn't heard that one.

to tackle national health crisis. the daily telegraph talks about the scottish tory leader, ruth davidson, the union is in danger is the thrust of that. that's it for tonight. kirsty is here tomorrow. in the meantime, we've been thinking about a spring clean for the look of the programme, and we're looking at some of the ways different designers might say goodnight. change is never easy, so watch carefully and tell us what you think. here's how animator, designer and all—round font genius ben hwin would spell it out. goodnight. jaunty music # everybody gather round # not another sound # no, no, no, no

# no, no, no # stick to the stuff you know # if you want to be cool, follow one simple rule # don't mess with the flow, no no...#. he . what have we got on the weather front? not looking bad at all across the uk. some thunderstorms in the forecast. some storms ended the day on monday and they could be back again on tuesday. not for everybody but the vast majority should have a fine day. there could be some doubt was on the way for southern areas. quite a bit of thick cloud across northern ireland and scotland. this isa northern ireland and scotland. this is a weak weather front. that means that it is a weak weather front. that means thatitis is a weak weather front. that means that it is not producing a look

around. it is mostly a band of cloud. some damp weather around truly the early hours across central parts of scotland. the rest of the country, lots of clear skies. 12 degrees on tuesday morning in the south. it will be cold in the north—west of scotland, for degrees. it is looking fine first thing and you can see little pockets of blue and these are shall we. we could seize shara was across. thicker cloud in newcastle, ebdon, aberdeen. how about the rest of the morning into the afternoon? it would be clearly cloudy across this part of the country. cloudy skies in northern ireland. the rest of the uk is sunny but then these bits of blue oui’ is sunny but then these bits of blue our shower clouds in the south—east. these could extend into the midlands. how about the chelsea

flower shop? tuesday and red deer are looking fine and temperatures could hit 23—24. the forecast for the middle part of the week, high—pressure intro to the weather. in the uk and scandinavia. merry settled weather conditions for a large body of the uk. it could be cloudy in the morning for the south—east. the best of the weather in the south. these warm oranges mean that the temperature is rising up mean that the temperature is rising up nicely. 23 for cardiff. 18 in newcastle. looks like temperatures will level off across the south of the uk over the next few days. more cloud and some spots of rain. heading into the weekend, it's the holiday weekend, things are on the up holiday weekend, things are on the up and we could see those temperatures are rising into the mid—and maybe even high 20s. it is looking good. this is news day on the bbc.

i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore, the headlines: a violent danger emerges as flows of molten rock from the kilauea volcano are travelling twice as fast as... south korea's president meets with donald trump. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme. scientists believe that an overly clea n scientists believe that an overly clean environment good increase the risk of leukaemia in babies. many people wanted to see the pictures of the prince and his bride. they are out.