>> this is the dw news live from berlin. tonight anger is growing over the london tower blaze. londoners are rallying around the community. community centers are overflowing with food, clothing , and supplies for those who are now homeless. also coming up tonight, despite the london fire and political upheavals, prime minister theresa may's team will start brexit negotiations with the european union monday as scheduled. we will get an update live from brussels. greece gets more loans after months of uncertainty. european finance ministers have agreed to release 8.5 billion euros for athens. we will go to luxembourg for the money. on that

plus, u.s. president donald trump lashing out again. this time at the "washington post." the newspaper is reporting that special counsel robert mueller is investigating criminal possible criminal conduct by the president. mr. trump says the investigation is a witchhunt. ♪ brent: good to have you with us. anger is rising in the aftermath of the london high-rise fire. the death toll has risen to 17 , but many residents remain unaccounted for, their bodies probably inside the smoldering shell of what was once in their their home. prime minister theresa may has announced a full inquiry, but it is not likely to assuage the anger on the streets of west london. >> some part of the grenfell tower are still burning. these are visuals taken of the

interior. emergency crews can only enter part of the building. they have to break off the recovery operation because of safety concerns. the fire department reported the chance of finding anyone still alive are basically nil. how could the fire had spread quickly, and what caused it? those are the main questions being asked by residents and the mayor of london felt their anger. >> understandably, the residents are angry and concerned. they have genuine questions that demand answers. >> someone needs to be held accountable. the deaths could have been prevented. >> of course we welcome the call , from the prime minister for a n independent public inquiry. we need answers now. >> now. we need them now. we need them now. >> people are especially blaming those responsible for fire safety. >> if you saw that building go

up like i thought from my back window, you know that building was not fit for purpose. somewhere along the line, someone made a catastrophic error. at the moment, we are grieving. there is public anger. >> thursday saw prime minister theresa may visit the site. the media were not permitted to film. >> in addition to the immediate fire report that will be produced and any potential police investigations, we had a full public inquiry to get to the bottom of this. why did this happen? people deserve answers. the inquiry will give them. >> british media reports a new siding used on the building could have enabled of the fire to spread quickly. according to a report, the in "the guardian" newspaper the , siding may have been made from substandard material that had also been involved in other building fires. brent: we want to ask someone who knows what we are about when

talking about when we talk to fighting fires. he is a fire safety officer. he joins us tonight from manchester. mr. murphy, thank you for taking the time to talk with us. how do you explain what we saw in london yesterday? >> i think the panels of around that were wrapped around the building to get it environmental installation, that are big questions about that. it is like a sandwich. two thin skins of alloy metal with a filling inside. it seems the filling inside was flammable. brent: that was known to the people who decided to go with that material. that is what we have heard since yesterday. how do you explain the decision to approve of that material. does it meet fire safety codes? >> it would seem so.

it looks as though the materials used to wrap the building is allowed. about 15-20 years ago, these sandwich panels as they were call back then were used in construction in large buildings such as warehouses, and it quickly became apparent that they were a big problem. there were warehouse fires where the speed of the spread of the fire astonished the firefighting fire engineering community. it was not long before the established that the insulated filling in the middle of the sandwich was when the fire was spreading quickly. i'm surprised that flammable filling is still allowed. for it still to the presented in -- to be permitted in residential areas is astonishing. it would seem the minister

responsible for housing about six or seven years ago declined recommendations to update the building regulations, which would ensure that flammable panels were not used on residential accommodation. the update was never applied and the gentleman in question is now being asked a lot of questions. brent: that is quite an indictment you are making and it begs the question, what happens in the u.k. when buildings are inspected for fire safety? you worked as a fire safety inspector. what is the problem? are the codes not stringent enough? do you not have enough money or funding? do you not have enough manpower? what is the problem? >> at the core of the issue is the codes were not updated when it was recommended. on the back of those warehouse fires i spoke to you about over

a period of a few years, very us various reports were done and eventually a senior minister was informed the building regulation should be updated. i think that was about six years ago. he did not update them. the building regulations need reviewing about every 2-3 years, particularly now when new materials, construction materials are being developed all the time and the existing regulations are not prepared for those new, innovative materials , and the longer they remain not updated, the more likely we are to have a disaster of this nature. brent: we heard from the survivors of the grenfell tower that they had complained numerous times to the building management about fire hazards and nothing was done. you worked in manchester if i am not mistaken. when you hear residents with a complaint like that do the

, building managers in manchester take it seriously or does that get ignored because many times people complaining are poor people? >> the machinations of governments and investigations and inquiries take a long time. in the short term, there are a lot of high-rise buildings across the u.k. being built with similar materials to make them environmentally efficient. i know people all over manchester right now that are hurriedly trying to find out what materials are being used on the building they are in. there is an option to have a fireproof material that will not burn. i believe some buildings have used a nonflammable version. flammable material

inside are cheaper. the misunderstanding of fire spreading large structures when they come under a high pressure load because of the intense wind, that affects the fire spread. even if something is slightly flammable, with those intense pressures from below, they will burn very quickly. there is no excuse for using flammable materials in a building where so many people are asleep in bed. brent: mr. murphy, we certainly appreciate your time. we will be talking to you the day after this coming up on this program. phil murphy from manchester. thank you. >> thank you. goodbye. brent: negotiators from both of the united kingdom and the european union will meet next monday to formally start brexit talks. that is despite the dramatic loss theresa may's government was handed in last week's election. the results without a majority

in parliament and weakened her position in the upcoming brexit talks. they have less than two years to hammer out an agreement before the u.k. leaves the eu. for more on this, i am joined now by our brussels correspondent. good evening to you. the chips have not fallen in london yet, but both sides are pushing ahead with the talks, . why? >> if we look at theresa may first, she wants to show that her government is up and running and she is aware of what kind of a laughingstock it would be if she was not able to show up for these crucial talks after calling in these unnecessary elections if you want to call it that to show that she gets a stronger mandate and then not showing up for the scheduled appointment. when it comes to the eu the main concern is get away from uncertainty. i just came back from spain. i finished talking to british

citizens down there. the insurgency enormous on their part. if you look to the u.k., polish citizens, or citizens from the baltics, they do not know what is coming for them. friendly, the big question mark for all of the eu is what does the u.k. mean when they talk about brexit? brent: and what about theresa may and what she can or cannot say at the negotiating table? she does not have the majority at home that she wanted. does this weaken her position in the tops? >> there is no doubt this weakens her position. she took a gamble when she called this election to get a stronger mandate. that has clearly backfired. even if you now suggest that thatobservers have said she was never serious about getting out of the union, that was only a bluff to get a stronger position to get more leverage, then she clearly has lost that, too.

-- that bargaining chip. brent: what are you hearing in brussels? are eu negotiators changing their tactics now that they know theresa may will be coming in weaker? >> my impression talking to people here in brussels and through parts of the negotiating team is really that it is less about tactics. there is a huge curiosity. the commission president called it the eu is a desperate to start these talks because they want to know what the u.k. actually wants. what means soft brexit? what means [? what would a hard brexit look like? they have until march 2019 to get a deal done. otherwise, there is no deal. from a eu perspective no deal would be worse than a bad deal. that is why they are so keen to get a clear position.

whether they will get that on monday is very much in doubt. brent: we will be covering that. a big day on for the eu and the monday u.k. reporting from brussels, thank you very much. here's a look now at some of the other stories making headlines. in eastern china, at least seven people have been killed, dozens injured after an explosion in front of a kindergarten. the blast took place about 700 kilometers south of beijing. the cause of the blast remains unknown. in the philippines, troops are continuing their fight against islamist militants. hundreds of people have been killed in three weeks of fighting. most have been militants, but civilians are also among the casualties, and many more are trapped inside the beseiged city. the u.s. college student freed from north korea's attention this week suffered serious

neurological injury. he has been in a coma since he march 2016, shortly after he was sentenced to hard labor in north korea. as father does not believe pyongyang's account that a sleeping pill caused the coma. you're watching dw news live from berlin. still to come, is special prosecutor robert mueller looking into possible criminal conduct by u.s. president president donald trump? "the washington post" says he is. the president says the inquiry is a witchhunt. we will speak to an analyst to find out what the truth is. plus, greece gets more loans. after months of uncertainty, european finance ministers have agreed to 8.5 billion euros for athens. we will go to luxenberg for the details on all that money. we will be here with more business news on the other side

of a 62nd break. -- 60 second break. we will be right back.

brent: welcome back. our top stories. the death toll in the london 17 with moreen by bodies still inside the building. prime minister theresa may has announced a full inquiry, but anger is growing over why the building burned so easily. "the washington post" is reporting that special counsel robert mueller is now looking into special criminal conduct -- into possible criminal conduct by president donald trump. mueller has requested interviews with intelligence officials. investigators are looking into whether the president obstructed justice by asking former head of fbi james comey.

president trump has described the investigation as a witch hunt. we need to talk a little bit about this. i am joined now by john. he is professor of law in delaware in the u.s. good to have you on the line with us tonight. let me ask you about this "washington post" report. it has been followed by the "new york times" and "wall street journal," each citing the own sources. how credible you think these reports are that the president is now the target of a criminal investigation? john: you know, it is hard to know, but my guess is they are very credible. the president added fuel to the fire himself in his early morning tweets. this morninget said they made a collegiate story and now they are going for obstruction of justice.

that suggests to me that something is going on since he himself is referring to it. it is not surprising because after the testimony of james comey, the fbi director last week, where he also said obstruction of justice had been taking place, it is no surprise that robert mueller widened his investigation to include the possibility. i think it is quite credible. brent: when you hear the u.s. president or you see what the president tweets and when he refers to they, who is he referring to? who are the people he is referring to creating this witch hunt? who is "they?" john: that is an excellent question. basically, one could say generally he is referring to his enemies. that does not get us anywhere because we do not know who that is either. he is looking at the media,

which he really does not like , and saying that the story got made up and now because he was , concerned about the russian probe, we don't know anything about whether he was involved in collusion, but that got him spooked enough that he had conversations about it. it is one of the things where a cover up maybe worse than any crime. who knows if any crime really took place? he may have gotten himself in trouble in this case by covering up something that may not be there. brent: what about the special counsel himself, mr. mueller? we understand he is supposed to be investigating russian meddling in last year's election. now it seems he has jumped from that and is investigating the president for obstruction of justice in terms of what he is did with james comey and the fbi. there are no limits to what you

he can investigate? john: there are some limits. if he tried to investigate something totally unrelated, i think that would amount to grounds of him being fired. if you are obstructing justice or if you are obstructing justice in connection with the underlying probe, it is entirely reasonable that he would investigate the secondary crime in this case. the obstruction of justice. i understand that there is possibly also an investigation and his about trump associates and their possible financial ties as well so these things are kind of if not converging, all related in some way, and i can be a real problem for the president down the line. john joining us

tonight from the u.s. state of delaware. we appreciate your time. john: thank you for having me. brent: time to shift gears. javier here with business news. another bailout package for greece? >> we have heard that before, haven't we? this time, it might be different. after months of uncertainty on greece, european finance ministers have decided to release 8.5 billion euros of the bailout package. payment would be the third bailout package and has been held up for months. a debate over greek debt relief pitted germany against the imf. the imf insists that more debt relief with important to get the economy back to the .

the latest payment gets greece enough cash to avoid default. joining us now from luxenberg is our brussels bureau chief who has been covering the talks for us. good evening. good to see you again. there we have it, but is this a deal that works for all the parties involved? >> christine lagarde said this was only the second best option because of course the imf would have preferred to have a debt relief committed to it by the euro finance ministers, but apparently that was not possible. the imf is formally on board. that is what the euro group wanted and especially what the germans wanted although they will not contribute any funding, at least not now. if this did not violate the spirit of the whole program that was intended in the beginning. here is what he had to say. >> it is a small change compared to what was agreed on in the beginning. it is not a significant change. for example, we do not think we

have to use the entire amount to we decided on, up to 86 billion euros. we are now at about 40 billion euros, so the imf will suggest to its board to approve of this program, but only start disbursing when, later in the program, we have debt sustained updated the debt sustainability. in about a year, the imf will have to decide again whether they pay or not. do you think anything will significant will change in one year, or will you have the same problem again? >> well, we have different projections. european institutions are much more optimistic than the imf. by the way, in the past, the imf was wrong with its pessimistic projections. at the moment, the economic development in greece is good.

on top of that, the country has decided on profound reforms. our often criticize persistence had paid off. all of that will hopefully we have another program to increase growth in greece that is part of our program. all of that will hopefully will contribute to the overall goal of the program, to have sustainable debt in greece and allow the country to have access to financial markets. that would end all of the commotion because of that is the -- because that is the main goal, have greece standing on its own feet by the middle of next year. >> are you a little surprised how everything turned out looking back to that night two years ago at the european council? >> we always knew that greece would need to go down a

difficult road. by the way, that is still the case. so we cannot give the greek people the illusion that everything is accomplished and further consolidation would not be necessary. they still need to establish a good administration. to be competitive in the framework of a heart currency. they are on the right track. we will continue to help greece. i am not really surprised. this is also difficult, but i'm not surprised that it is taking a little longer than agreed. brent: a tired but optimistic finance minister in luxembourg. thanks very much for covering the story for us. that is all from the business desk. i will hand it back over to brent for some sports. brent: thank you very much. germany have arrived in russia

for the big world cup warm-up, the confederations cup. the german kicks off this weekend and includes the six continental champions plus the host nation. reached theirteam home base in sochi on thursday morning. they will have plenty of time to prepare for their opening match against australia on monday. the germany squad includes many young players with little or no international experience. the captain, 23-year-old wasielder julian drexler, given a warm welcome in southern russia. you see a complete with folk singers in traditional makeup and dress. let's take a moment now. see if i can surf a little bit here. i want to watch surfing for a minute. don't you wish you could do that? he is winning the pro surf event. how does he do that?

it was a high-scoring final against his fellow australian. a great wave off of fiji. he won the event on his last ride in the final few minutes with some powerful precision use either -- you see there. we will be back for the day. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] folk singers in traditional makeup and dress. i want to watch surfing for a minute. it was a high-scoring final against his fellow australian. a great wave off of fiji.

on his last

♪ on this week's "wealthtrack," investment lessons from a great investor. in a rare interview, t. rowe price's brian rogers shares 35 years of experience. next on consuelo mack "wealthtrack." ♪ >> new york life along with mainstays family of mutual funds offers investment and retirement solutions so you can help your clients keep good going. >> additional funding provided by thornburg investment