>> 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 homelessss. despite the london fire and political upheavals, primim minister theresa may''s team wil start brexit negotiations with the european union monday as

expected. greece gets more loans after months of uncertainty. european finance ministers have agreed to release 8.5 billion euros for athens. plus, u.s. president donald trump lashing out again. this time at the "washington post." special counsel robert mueller is investigating criminal conduct by the president. mr. trump says the investigation is a witchhunt. ♪ brent: 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 home. prime minister theresa may has announced a full inquiry but it is not likely to assuage the anger. >> some part of the grenfell tower are still burning. these are visual taken of the interior. emergency crews can only entnter parts of t the b building. the fire department reported the chance of finding anyone still alive are basically nil. what cost of the fire and how could it spread so quickly are the questions being asked by residents and the mayor of london felt their anger. >> understandably the residents are angry and concerned. >> someone needs to be held accountable. the deaths could have been prevented. >> we welcome the call from the

prime minister for a independent public inquiry. >> we need it now. >> people are especially blaming those responsible for fire safety. >> if you saw that building go up like i thought, that building was not meant for fire safety. there is public anger but we are grieving. >> thursday saw prime minister theresa may visit the site. media were not allowed to film. >> in addition to the immediate fire report and any potential police investigations, it is important we have a full public inquiry to get to the bottom of this. why did this happen? people d derve answewers. >> british media reports a new siding used on the building

could have enabled of the fire to spreadd quickly. accordining to a report, the siding may have been made from substandard material that had also been involved in other building fires. >> we want to ask someone who knows what we are about when it comes to fighting fires. he is a fire safety officer. he joins us from manchester. how do you explain what we saw in london yesterday? >> i think the panelss of around the building to give it environmentatal installation --- there has been? -- there have been questions about the insulation. it seems the filling inside

was flammable. >> that was known by the people who decided to go with that material. how do you explain the decision to approve of that material. doeses any fire sasafety codes? -- does itt meet fire safety codes? >> it looks as though the material used to wrap the building is allowed. about 15-20 years ago, these panels were used in construction in large buildings such h as warehouses andnd it becacame apparent that they were a big problem. there were warehouse fires where the speed of ththe spread of the fire astonished the firefighting community. it was at the insulated filling

that was making the fire spread quickly. i'm surprised that flammable filling is still allowed. for it stillll to the presentedn residential areas is astonishing. the ministers responsible f for housingg about 6 6-7 yearsrs ago declined recommendations to upupdate the building regulatios which would ensure that flammablee panels would not be useded on residential accommodation. the update was never applied and the gentleman in question is 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 not have enough money or mamanpower? >> at the core of the issusue is the codes wewere not updated whn it was recommended. at the back ofof those warehouse fires, over a p period of a few yeyears, very usus reports weree and eventually a a senior mininr was informemed the buildiding regulalation should bebe update. he did n not update them. the e building regegulations ned reviewing about every 2-3-3 yea, particulularly n now when new mamaterials are beingng developd alall the timee and the existstg regulations are not prepared d r those e in n new, innovative mamaterials and d the longerhehy remain n 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 a done. when you hear residents with a replace --residents with a complaint, do the building managers in manchester take it seriously or does that get ignored bececause many times people c complaining a are poor people? >> the machinatis of governments s andgencies tatakea longng time. in the shohort term, there are a lot ofof high-rise buildings across thehe u u.k. being builth different materiaials to make tm

enviroronmentally efficient. peopople in manchestster right w are trying to o find o out whatt materirials are being used on te buildingng they are i in. there is an optionn to have nonflammable material. when structutures come under a high pressurure l load because f the intense wind, ththat affects ththe fire spread. even somomething highlhly flammablble, with intetense pressureres from below, they wil burn very quickly. there is no excuse for using flammable material in a building where so many people are asleep in bed. brent: thank you f for speakingg with us. phphil murphy from manchester.

thank you. 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 thereresa may's government was left in last week's election. it w wk in her p position in the upcoming brexit talks. they have less than two years to hammer out an agreement before the u.k. lisa the youth you -- the eu. good evening, the chips have not fallen in london yet but both sides are pushing ahead with the talks, why? >> theresa may 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 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. the uncertainty in norman --i just talked to british citizens in spain, the uncertainty is enormous on their part. the big question for all of the eu is what does the u.k. mean when they talk about brexit? brent: and what theresa may can or cannot say at the negotiating table. she does not have the majority at home that she wanted. >> no doubt this weakens her position. she took a gamble when she called this election to get a stronger mandate and that has

clearly backfired. if you suggested that she was never serious about getting out of the union, that was only a bluff to get a stronger position to get mee leverage, then she clearly has lost about -- has lost that too. brent: what have you heard in brussels? re: you negotiators changing their -- are eu negotiators changing their tactics now that they know theresa may w will be coming in weakerer? >> it is less about tactics. there is a huguge cururiosity. 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 was a hard brexit look like? they have until march 2019 to get a deal and otherwise there is no deal. from a eu perspective no deal would be worse than a bad deal. 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 for the eu and the 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. it took place about 700 kilometers south of beijing. the cause of the last remains unknown. in the philippines, troops are

beginning -- continuing their fight against islamist militants. 300 0 people have been killed in at least three weeks of fighting. most have been militants but civilians are also among the casualties and many more are trapped inside the deceased city. -- beseiged city. he has been in a coma since he was shortly sentenced -- shortly after he was sentenced to hard labor in north korea. it is believed a sleeping pill cost of the,. you are watching --you're watching dw news live from berlin. coming up, special prosecutor robert mueller potentially looking into criminal charges against president donald trump. we will speak to an analyst to

find out what the truth is. plus, greece gets more loans. eight -- 8.5 billioion euros for athens. we will go to luxenberg for the details. we will be here with more business news. be right back. ♪

>> 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 president donald trump. mueller has requested interviews with intelligence officials.

investigators are looking into whether the president obstructed justice by asking formally -- former head fbi -- former head of the fbi james comey -- president trump has described the investigation as a witch hunt. let me ask you about this washington post report. how credible you think these reports are that the president is now the target of a criminal investigation? >> it is hard to know what my guess is they are very credible. especially since the president added fuel to the fire by doing

more tweets. his next tweet this morning was a collusion story. something, to me, is really going on because he is referring to it. after the testimony of james comey 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. >> when you hear the u.s. president or you see what the president tweets and when he refers to thehey, whoho is he referring to? who is he referring to creating this which i? -- witch hunt? >> that is a good question.

he is referring to his enemies, one can say. 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 jammed up and now because he was concerned about the russian probe, we don't know anything about whether he was involved in collusion. but he certainly had conversations about it. it is one of the things where a cover of maybybe worse thanan ay crime -- cover up maybe worse than any crime. he may have got himself in trouble. brent: what about the special counsel itself -- himself, mr. mueller? we understand he is supposed to be investigating russian meddling into next year's

election and now it seems he has jumped from that and is investigating the president for obstruction of justice in terms of what he is done with james comey and the fbi. there are no limits to what you can investigate? >> if he tried to investigate something totally unrelated, i think that would qualify as grounds -- if you are obstructing justice or if you are obstructing justice in connection with the underlying pro, it is entirely reasonable that he would investigate the secondary crime in this case.

>> professor of law joining us now from the u.s. state of delaware. thank you during much. -- thank you very much. brent: time to shift gears. javier here with business news. maybe another bailout package for greece? >> after months of uncertainty on greece, european finance ministers have decided to release a hundred billion euros -- 800 million euros of the bailout package. a debate over greek debt relief visited -- pitted them against

the imf. the latest payment gets greece enough cash to avoid default. and joining us now from luxenberg is our brussels bureau chief who has been coveringng te talks for us. 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 the imf would have preferred to have a debt relief committed to it by the u.s. finance ministers but the imf is formrmally on boarard. that is what the germans wanted but they are not going to contribute any funding. i asked the german finance minister is this did not violate these areas of the whole program

that was intended from the beginning. >> it is a small change compared to what was agreed on in the beginning. we do not have to use of the entire amount to be decided on. 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 sustainability. in about one year the imf will have to decide again whether they pay or not. do you think anything will literally change or will you have the same -- do you think anything will significantly change? >> we have different projections. european institutions are much

more optimistic than the imf. in the past the imf was wrong with its pessimistic projections and d at the moment the econonoc development in greece is good. our often criticize persistence paid off. all o of that will hopefully contribute to the overall goal of the program, to have sustainable debt in greece and have the country have access to financial markets. that would in all of the commotion becaususe of that isie main goal -- end all of the commotion because of that is the main goal. you have greece stand on its own feet by the middle of next year. >> are you a little surprised

about 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 and that is still the case. so we cannot give the greek people of the lesion -- the illusion that everything is fixed. they still need to establish a good administration. they are on the right track. this is also difficult that i'm not surprised that it took a little longer than agreed. brent: a tired but optimistic finance minister in luxembourg. thanks very much for covering the story.

that is all from the business desk. we are going to hand you back over for some sports. volkswagen has -- they have arrived in germany for the turn it. -- for the tournament. the team reached at their home base in so she -- sochi on thursday morning. they will have plenty of time to prepare for their opening match in australia. there -- they were given a warm welcome in russia including full fingers in traditional makeup -- folk singers in traditional

makeup and dress. i want to watch surfing for a minute. it was a high-scoring final agag

>> welcome to inside the americas with me. up, after two months of iolent protests and faced with growing censorship, journalists take to the city's buses to get the news out. there is new competition for american businesses, but these coming from inside the united states. and the world's fastest man has his last race on home soil. and the homeamaica village. first we'll start in venezuela protests against the president have been going on for the past two months. more tuation is becoming and more difficult