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narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. narrator: funding waalso provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". christian: hello, i'n fraser, and this is the context. >> we can confirm that we have

managed to retrieve 74 bodies. >> johannesburg has never had an incident like this, where so many people die as a result of fire in the center of the city, so this is tragic. >> when we woke up, the fire was all over. other people were stuck. ♪ christian: a towering inferno that kills ateast 74 people in south africa, the emergency services said people were leaping from their fifth floor windows to their deaths to escape. the grim task of recovery is now underway and johannes -- in johannesburg.

and hurricane a dahlia caused significant damage along the gulf coast in florida, where cleanup is underway. and andrew tate charged in romania with rape and human trafficking. it is an appalling tragedy -- 74 people, including 12 children, killed in a fire that swept through an abandoned five-story building in johannesburg. these are the images of the fire. there are reports that some of the dead, who lived in a maze of shacks and makeshift shelters through themselves to their deaths. a search operation is being carried out floor by floor, with fears that the death toll could rise further. >> when we woke up, the whole building was on fire. we don't know how it started. >> how did you get out?

>> we jumped out of the window. i jumped out of the window. my wife throw me the baby. i caught the baby and she jumped. everything was burning. christian: president cyril ramaphosa has been on the scene tonight to be briefed by emergency services. a few hours ago, he extended these condolences to families of the victims. >> my deep condolences to the families of those who have passed away and those who are injured, and our hearts go out to every person who is affected by this disaster. i do hope that the investigations into the fire will enable communities and authorities to prevent a repeat of such a tragedy. christian: the abandoned building is in the former business district in

johannesburg, filledith homeless people who had moved looking for shelter during the cold winter months. many living there would be african countries, so it woulder not be considered formal accommodation. there is no lease on the building, as far as we know, and it was not being properly looked after. let's follow our correspondent, who is following the story for us. do we know how the fire started and how it spread so fast? >> no. investigations have begun and they are continuing to establish what has caused this fire. what we do know, and we heard from witnesses earlier on, the fire started at about 1:00 a.m. in the morning. some teenagers across the road say they heard people crying for help and alerted the emergency services, looked out the window

and saw people jumping out of the building to try to escape the inferno and save their lives. some of theme trying to use sheets to get down onto the ground floor and some of them died as a result of trying to jump to save their lives. but as you mentioned there, this is a very unusual situation in the sense that these are what are called hijacked properties. many of them in the inner cities of south africa, we understand, there are over 100 of them. buildings that were condemned -- this particular one belongs to the city of johannesburg and had been taken over by gangs who rented these rooms out, rented the apartments out to families. there was a lot of overcrowding and no consistent electricity or water supply, so there were illegal connections of electricity.

some families were using paraffin stoves and gas stoves, so this fire could have been started any number of ways. there are a lot of people out tonight, who did not know what happened or know where they are going. christian: for the search and rescue recovery teams, it's difficult to know how many they could be looking for. this was a building filled with undocumented migrants, so there is no record of them being there. >> no record of them being there. as pointed out, earlier ron, it was overcrowded. the authority said it was almost like an informal settlement with in this building, with cardboard boxes and sheets dividing the rooms for the families living there. as you pointed out, many of them were undocumented migrants living in the inner city of

johannesburg, because it is easier to get to their jobs. it will be difficult to establish how many people have died and how to identify who those people are and where they came from. christian: can you talk about the broader issue, the housi crisis in south africa? there are one point 2 million people just in johannesburg looking for accommodations and somewhere to le. what is at the root of that? >> the root of that is the infrastructural decay that has not just said in in this particular area, but almost every single area of south african society. we have seen decay in the power supply, with numerous power outages, the decay in the water supply, where buildings sometimes go for days or weeks without water for various reasons. cyril ramaphosa did mention when he addressed the community earlier on, he said they

would need to come up with an effective policy to be able to deal with this housing crisis. a lot of people here believe this problem is likely to happen again, because there are so many problems within this south african economy and society. christian: a truly appalling tragedy. thank you for being with us this evening. ♪ christian: hurricane idalia was the most powerful storm to hit the big bend of florida in 125 years, but the state might have just avoided the worst case scenario. 6000 homes were flooded north of tampa and there are around 4000 people across the state without power and in steamy temperatures. this time last year, hurricane ian caused catastrophic damage around fort myers, killing 150 people. this could have been a lot

worse. that said, it will take time for authorities to reach the more remote areas. and president biden has confirmed he will visit florida to assess the damage himself on saturday. it all a is now tropical storm and has moved into the atlantic after crossing georgia and south carolina, and after nine storm surges in certain places, there will be some communities worse hit than others. let's hear from some of those affeed. i'm feeling great the house is still here, but there is so many houses gone and so much stuff around. >> i have never seen anything like this. you can see trees uprooted, powerlines laying in the road, and it's pretty devastating. it took a toll on this town. >> we stayed in the walmart parking lot last night and the wind was just hoing.

there were other residents that left their house, but man -- it was unbelievable, how strong the wind can be. mother nature is definitely no joke to play with. christian: a short time ago, ron desantis told the news conferences that emergency services were trying to clear power and restore -- clear debris and restore power from the rain. >> as of 6:00 a.m. today, there are 140 6000 power outages reported across the state, but power is being restored quickly. 420,000 accounts lost power during the storm have been restored. christian: in the last hour, president joe biden made a visit to the workers at the federal resource management agency, fema, in washington, d.c. he wanted to thank them for

dealing with hurricane i dalia and the wildfires in hawaii. >> with climate change ramping up, you are going to hundred -- 365 days a year, 24/7. you are having to deal with a lot, and yourister organizations, across the board. it's amazing, the sacrifices and risks you folks are taking in the field. thank you, thank you, thank you. we are in a situation where, you know, we are -- how can i say it -- there are still some deniers out there in terms of whether or not climate change had anything to do with any of this. we are going to need a hell of a

lot more money in appropriations to deawith all you are taking care of. christian: and it is getting harder to deny. the hurricane turned into a tropical storm, which carries a lot of rain and heavy wind with it as well. it's been going through georgia and the carolinas. let's speak to brendan clark, in charleston, south carolina, an anchor for wcbd news 2. brandon: thank you for having me so much. it looks like a beautiful day. the sun is shining, no wind, no rain, just picking up the pieces, so to speak. we had to deal with a lot of flooding last night and into the morning hours, and that was the biggest problem. we had a king tide, and extraordinarily high tide at 8:

30, so that high tide coupled with the rain we were worried would lead to a lot of problems. we had flooding in historic downtown south carolina and more rural areas, so flooding was the big issue here in charleston, a cat three hurricane when it hit florida, but by the time it went through the panhandle of florida and georgia and came to us, it s downgraded to a tropical storm. the flooding in high tide were our biggest concerns of the night. christian: i don't want to underestimate the damage it caused, but when my characterization be fair that given the size of the storm -- 125 miles across -- we got off light here. trees are down, the power is off, but it could have been a lot worse. >> we talk about dodging a bullet a lot over here, and that's what we did. we are so used to hurricanes

coming through the atlantic, but this one came in through georgia. when the rain levelhit at 11:00 p.m. the night before, when they said it would be a category four and maybe a hurricane when it hit charlston, it opened our eyes a lot when the storm was headed our way. but when we saw the rain more inland than on the coast, which we don't see a lot, and the winds were not sustained as much, i think we are always prepared for the potential of damage that hurricane can do and we were prepared when it came to this one, but we are breathing a sigh of relief that it is not as bad as we thought it could have been. christian: the lights are out, the power is off, and it is pretty steamy there at the moment. are you getting any idea of how quickly air-conditioning will come back on? >> they were putting the power back on last night, as a matter of fact. the utility companies bring in

help from different states as need be, and we had thousands without power last night. the big thing we are talking about right now and will be talking about on our newscast is beach erosion. all the beaches and islands around here took a hit. they always take a hit when it comes to beach eroon -- it's loggerhead sea turtles that are nesting and going out to the ocean right now, so that was also a concern with beach erosion. as far as power, a majority of the people do have their power back on. christian: that's good news. brendan, have a good show this evening and thank you for coming on. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. let's take a loo at some of the stories making headlines today. a police officer following two teams after -- two teens

who died in a the bike crash is being investigated. this led to a crash, which saw dozens injured and arrested. and the previous holder of the job, ben wallace, stood down. part of a mini-reshuffle and taking on his former role is claire contini, a close ally of rishi sunak. and this discount chain went into administration earlier this month, but the stores remain open and price waterhouse cooper is trying to find another buyer for the store. you are live with bbc news. the bbc has uncovered evidence that dozens of women were potentially groomed into online

sex work by the iluencer andrew tate's all-male society, "the war room." documentary writers were given copies of directions given to war remembers, to make women more submissive and gradually subvert their control. you have investigated this all-male society -- what did you discover? >> most people know andrew tate for his online content, which many say is misogynistic, but the war room is a self-help society that he says helps you become a better man. we uncovered in the war room, they are teaching men methods for grooming women into online sex work and have identified from the leak messages you

referred to 45 potential victims of this grooming method. it's important to remember, not all members will engage in these methods, but the evidence suggests many did. christian: you have a whistleblower who we hear from in this documentary, eli, who points the finger at the man who he thinks is driving the project . let's have a listen to what he said about the way that it worked. >> iggy basically said, let's not kid ourselves, this is a cult. >> who is in charge? >> of the war room? iggy is at the top, yeah. christian: is there any evidence that the many who belong to this war room follow through on what th are being taught? >> yes, in the leak messages we got access to, up to 45 women were recruited into working on webcam, potentially groomed

using this method without their knowledge. we saw specific examples of men grooming specific women and in the documentary, we spoke to two of those women, one in argentina and one on the west coast of the u.s. we see in those messages to members giving advice and men acting on that aice, ending up with women working for them in the online sex industry. christian: we can hear from one of the alleged victims. her name is amanda, that is not her real name, but here is what she told you. >> i was 21. i wasn't making any money. i wa young and in a very vulnerable position. i didn't feel like i myself have a lot to offer, so this older guy, being into me, it was attractive. >> so up until the webcam, he

had portrayed himself as someone who is romantically interested in you? >> yeah. christian: matt, we see you in that video. what can you tell us about amanda's story? are there more clues as to how this works? >> what is so striking about the woman we are referring to as amanda and the other woman, they were approached in the same way. it was only after a long period of a relationship that they realized, according to them, that this man was grooming them to work in online sex work. christian: and they had never spoken to one another? they were not able to swap stories? >> no, no. you can imagine what it was like for them, thinking they were in this relationship that got a bit stranger and more controlling, and eventually when the conversation was had with this women by their alleged groomer to work on the webcam, sex

performing, it was too late. they were engaged in a relationship with this person. christian: can you speak to the nature of that? how does a grooming relationship like that happen? >> one part of it comes from discourse that andrew tate himself teaches, which is the phd, his course for how to make sure a woman is under your control and you are the person with the ultimate amount of power in the relationship. what we found through whistleblowers and the women we spoke to, and those leak to messages, the method being taught is more sophisticated and detailed than seen in the public courses, which you can find. the senior war remember you referred to, he talks about missions, or creating chase cycles. roger lee giving women more and more medium tasks that get more severe as you go, and rewarding them for bad behavior.

he refers to this as pavlovian conditioning, like how you would train dogs. there seems to be this idea that through a gradual process of grooming, you can make someone more submissive and subservient. but also talks about it being important to minimize a woman's support structure. we've their home, family, town, ceasing friendships with old friends and work colleagues. it's a combined method of creating subservience and dependence and isolating their support network. christian: to the port where they went -- point where they would tattoo the name of their groomer on their bodies. >> yes. this is something that andrew tate himself has encouraged in his own videos. he says getting a woman to fall in love with you is the first 10%. getting a woman to tattoo your

name on their body is the other 90%. you can see how far that level of control goes and what they are trying to achieve. christian: what about their control over the war room and they attracted to it and sort out potential members? >> that's another interesting thing. we speak to a man who claims to have been the head of sales and marketing for the war room, and he talks about dozens of people working in marketing for andrew tate to share clips of him, discredit people like us who are reporting on him. so if you see lots of people saying our reporting as lies or discrediting what we are saying, that is being orchestrated from within the war room as a marketing campaign. christian: did you approach andrew tate for this documentary? >> yes, we approached him numerous times. he offered us an interview on one occasion, we went to his house in romania --

christian: let's play that clip. you have the clip of when you call him. let's talk off the back. >> this is matt. >> mr. honest journalism. >> that's what i like to think of myself. the main reason i'm calling is whether or not you were up for doing another interview. >> you can't do an interview with me, but i can do an interview with anyone. why would i do an interview with you? >> there are other questions we have -- >> i get to choose who becomes most relevant by proxy, because i am the most relevant person. christian: mr. honest journalism. [laughter] christian: what about the people he associates with? do they trawl you and come after you? >> yes. this is an orchestrated campaign

run from within the war room, and they call me the dng, dork nerd geek. christian: so people who watch this, this is more publicity about him, and there is a court case going on in romania. are you at all concerned that you are getting into much? he is hearing from victims, their side of the events, and that might bet him -- benefit him in any future trials? >> arew tat managed to become a famous global figure without media coverage. even now, he is attracting millions and millions of views on twitter and rumble. from my view, what you need to do as a responsible journalist, is provide the context and truth

of the allegations around it and not allowing this figure to use social media to create the narrative himself. christian: thank you very much for coming into tell us all about it. if you want to watch that documentary, it is called andrew tate: the man who groomed the world. we will go to a short break, but come back and focus in on events on this side. the sports roundup and the eu budget, in debt two years into a seven year budget. what's gone wrong and how they might solve it, coming up. stay with us. ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation;

pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

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