22/06/2017 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at Ten: Emergency checks on hundreds of high-rise buildings,

following the catastrophic fire at Grenfell Tower.

The kind of cladding that can catch fire has been found on at least

eleven other tower blocks, as the Prime Minister

promises every step is being taken to ensure safety.

Our focus is on supporting the victims, finding homes

for those made homeless, and making sure this

country's housing stock is as safe as possible.

In north London, Camden Council is removing panels from five

of its blocks, as Labour says it's time for a new approach

From Hillsborough, to the child sex abuse scandal, to Grenfell Tower,

Working-class people's voices are ignored, their concerns

We'll be reporting on the urgent work being done to check the safety

After long hours of Brexit talks in Brussels tonight,

the Prime Minister makes an offer to EU citizens living in Britain.

Inside Raqqa, a city engulfed in violence,

Following the conviction of a former Anglican bishop for sex abuse and

Independent reported heavily critical of the Church's conduct.

Inside Raqqa, a city engulfed in violence,

as so-called Islamic State struggles to hold on - we have

There's still sniper fire going on here.

Welcome to Raqqa - the capital of a caliphate, and the siege.

And why Prince Harry resents the decision to make him walk

behind his mother's coffin when he was 12 years old.

And coming up in Sportsday on BBC News:

England's youngsters have booked their place in

the Under-21 European Championships, after a big victory

Safety inspectors are carrying out urgent checks on hundreds

of high-rise buildings in England following the deadly fire

The Prime Minister says every possible step

is being taken to ensure all the buildings are safe.

Local authorities throughout the United Kingdom have been invited

to send samples of cladding for urgent testing.

The government estimates that around 600 buildings in England are covered

So far it's been disclosed that 11 residential blocks in eight local

authority areas have been fitted with the kind of cladding

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said the Grenfell Tower disaster,

which claimed the lives of at least 79 people, demanded a step

change in the country's attitude to social housing.

Our home affairs editor Mark Easton reports.

The consequences of the Grenfell Tower tragedy are now

Hundreds of samples of cladding, similar to that used

in North Kensington, are being tested, from tower blocks

Cladding on 11 blocks in eight areas in England have come back

as combustible so far, including here, on the Chalcot

estate in Camden, just a few miles from the Grenfell tragedy.

You can see the smoke from Grenfell Tower.

Every night I'm awake, just thinking about it.

None of the residents have stopped talking about it since that day.

These tower blocks are different to Grenfell, in that they have

noncombustible mineral fibre insulation behind the cladding.

Nevertheless, as of now, fire wardens will patrol 24 hours a day,

The council claiming they were misled about the fire

We never felt the need to take off these panels,

take them to an independent testing centre to watch them burn.

We thought we were dealing with reputable companies and we feel

let down and our tenants feel let down.

My absolute priority is to make sure that our tenants feel safe.

This test, put on for council officials and fire chiefs by one

company a few years ago, shows the difference

between external wall insulation materials.

Noncombustible mineral based on the left, and combustible

It's illegal in some countries to use combustible cladding

Combustible cladding is not actually banned.

Government building regulations permit its use in certain

circumstances even on tower blocks like this one.

It's used on hundreds of public buildings all over the country.

So one question must be - are the regulations good enough?

None of us want to see a circumstance like this happen again.

Working-class people's voices are ignored.

As the government confirmed that panels from 600 high-rise buildings

are being tested for combustibility, the Prime Minister was repeatedly

Was cladding of the type used in Grenfell Tower compliant

with the fire safety and building regulations applicable at the time

when the refurbishment was undertaken - yes, or no?

They are testing the cladding on the building and they expect

to make the results of this public in the next, I think

I don't understand why the Prime Minister can't tell us

whether that product is compliant with building regulations

The testing of the cladding, the testing of the materials used,

is being undertaken and a statement will be made by the police

and the Fire Service within the next 48 hours.

48 hours to wait, but 18 months ago the government was sent a letter

by MPs on the fire safety committee warning of the dangers

Today's buildings have a much higher content of readily

available combustible material, it explains.

This fire hazard results in many fires, because adequate

recommendations to developers simply do not exist.

It wasn't just 2015, it's been every year probably

This disaster should never have happened.

After a cladding fire in Ayrshire which killed a man in 1999,

noncombustible cladding became the rule for public housing

in Scotland, although tonight, new checks were under way

In Plymouth, the council says combustible cladding on these blocks

will be removed as the scandal of Grenfell widens.

Today, the chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea was forced

to resign over the council's handling of the tragedy,

an event which looks destined to become a watershed moment

Just over a week since this disaster happened. What for you was the most

fundamental unanswered question about this affair now? It was nine

days since the fire ripped through Grenfell Tower and there's still no

clear government advice on whether the cladding on that block was even

legal. Repeatedly pressed, we've just heard, the Prime Minister said

we had to wait another two days, because there was a police

investigation. Many people, including me, have attempted to

understand our building cladding rules in the last week, and I think

I'm probably not alone in finding them almost impenetrable. I think

that legal confusion may prove to be part of this scandal. Hundreds of

checks still need to be done, as government ministers, local

authorities, building contractors and others hope against hope that

when the buck stops at the end of this sad affair, it won't stop with

them. But right now, tonight, the harrowing job continues in Grenfell

Tower. There are more than 350 households still in emergency

accommodation. And of people across the country in tower blocks going to

bed, checking their children are safe and sound, without clear advice

on whether their home is as safe as it should be. Mark Easton, thank

you, our home editor. The Prime Minister Theresa May has

been attending her first European summit since the election,

where she told fellow leaders that no EU citizen lawfully in the UK

will be asked to leave the country Mrs May said she wanted to offer

"certainty" to the estimated three million EU citizens currently

in the UK, and to ensure that families were not split

by the Brexit process. Our political editor

Laura Kuenssberg is in In the last hour, Theresa May's big

Brexit opening gambit, her challenge to her EU counterparts, she's made a

promise that the 3 million citizens from around the continent who

already live in Britain can stay for good, if they've been there for five

years. She believes it's a fair and generous offer, and a symbol, she

hopes, the government getting on with Brexit at a time of turmoil at

home. No victory lap, no majority,

no expectation of an easy ride. As she comes here with plans for EU

citizens here and at home. How can you carry on with your

version of Brexit when the mandate you desired to strengthen

has actually weakened? I'm very pleased to be

at the European Council following the constructive start

of our negotiations for the United Kingdom

to leave the European Union. What I'm going to be setting out

today is clearly how the United Kingdom proposes

to protect the rights of EU citizens living in the UK,

and see the rights of UK citizens Both sides say they

want to be generous. EU citizens already in Britain

will be allowed to stay. Yet a lot more will be said

across the table before there's The uncertainty after the election

has allowed some EU enthusiasts to ponder if Brexit will really

happen - with a little The European Union was built

on dreams that seemed You may say I am a dreamer,

but I am not the only one. In this political circus,

with its stalwarts and rising stars, all must parade, if not wink

for the waiting cameras. There is no serious expectation that

Britain will change its mind, but some may sniff more of a chance

of getting the UK to listen. My dream would be that

in the Brexit process we will come to an end state,

or an intermediate end state for the coming years,

in which the United Kingdom would stay connected

to the internal market. TRANSLATION: For me,

the priority is shaping the future Remember, just leaving

the European Union - They took nine months to write

a letter to trigger Article 50. We see the situation

now so what was so easy and without consequences is not

the right story. The Prime Minister asked

for your votes to give her more power among these leaders

as well as more influence back home. But that's backfired so badly

they can't even be sure as they get down to business that she will be

the one to see the deal through. Commiserations perhaps,

among those few who put But Theresa May's pain

in this moment could be What is your take on the form of

this offer that Mrs May has made to EU citizens in the UK? I think some

of the big questions have been partially answered, but a lot is

outstanding. So let's be really clear about what we do know and

about what we do not know. So what we do know is the British government

believes that any EU citizen who has lived in the UK for five years

should be allowed to stay for good with access to health care,

education, benefits and pensions, broadly the same rights as any to

British citizens. They are also suggesting that any EU national

living in the UK when we leave the EU should be given a chance to earn

that kind of power men permanent residency. No one should be asked to

leave on D-Day when finally an end to Britain and Brussels is actually

something that becomes real. But there's a lot we don't know. What

about those people's families, who might be living in other places?

What about their descendants? What about any kind of convocations?

Because this is about families' lives, it's about all those

thousands and thousands of individual cases and the exceptions

along the way. What is also not clear is whether or not the

nitty-gritty of this offer will be as generous as they offer the

European Union put forward about a month ago. We know what they have

specifically put on the table, but the government won't give us the

full details in black and white until next Monday, when the plan is

put forward the parliament. One thing that is certain though is an

almighty clash that is coming. The UK Government is adamant that the

new system, these rules, should be administered by British courts. Here

in Brussels the view is the direct opposite. Only the European Court

can be in charge. Now that's only one row that we know is pretty much

certain to happen. But there does seem to be an urgency on both sides

will stop compared to so much of the Brexit negotiations that is fraught

with process, fraught with difficulty, this concern is how

people live their lives. Laura Kuenssberg with the latest that the

EU summit in Brussels. In Syria, there's a new offensive

taking place to gain control of Raqqa, the city which so-called

Islamic State regards as the capital In the past few days

fighting has intensified between Syrian Democratic Forces -

backed by the US - and the fighters Our correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse,

producer Peter Emmerson and cameraman Fred Scott

are the only British broadcasters to have ventured inside Raqqa -

a city engulfed in violence - This has been a long

and brutal road. We're inside Raqqa now,

driving towards the centre with the Syrian Democratic Forces,

the SDF, a coalition They have only just retaken these

streets off the fighters that call Here, IS is often unseen,

but all the more dangerous for it. A noise in the sky signals

the presence of a drone. What's happening is that we've just

driven down these narrow side streets and suddenly,

there's gunfire overhead and everyone's looking up

in the sky, searching As they push forward,

carts emerge flying white flags. Some of these families have spent

years trapped inside a nightmare. There are tens of thousands

of people still in Raqqa, IS has been killing anyone

caught trying to leave. The SDF has made rapid

advances towards the centre. They have support from American air

strikes and artillery. But now, they're within a few

hundred metres of the old city. Islamic State is hemmed

in here, almost surrounded, They've done this perhaps more

successfully than any other group. But these fighters

seem immune to terror. This war has been going

on for longer than World War II. This is about as far

forward a position... About as far forward as they've

managed to hold, but as you can see, there's still sniper fire

going on here. Welcome to Raqqa, the capital

of a caliphate under siege. Among the Kurds, men and women fight

alongside one another. Even on the front lines,

there are no distinctions. She was studying to become

a nurse, but here, she's Returning from the front,

fighters describe intense, all-night battles as Islamic State

uses its network of tunnels to stage This is going to be

a long, hard fight. If IS loses Raqqa, it will surely

mean the end of the caliphate. It certainly won't be the end

of Syria's long war, or the violence it has spawned

around the world. Gabriel Gatehouse,

BBC News, in Raqqa. The pressure on so-called

Islamic State is also evident in neighbouring Iraq,

where the the city of Mosul The Iraqi army has been

devoting more resources to try to retake the city over

the past eight months. Mosul was the city chosen

by the Islamic State group in 2014 to declare its Middle Eastern

caliphate, bringing the extremists Since then, IS has been

gradually forced back to its remaining strongholds

in Syria and Iraq. And last night, after the ancient

Great Mosque of al-Nuri was destroyed, the Iraqi prime

minister announced "an official From Mosul, our correspondent

Orla Guerin sent this report. An amateur recording

captures a key moment the destruction of

the Al Nuri mosque. For the barbarians of IS,

nothing is sacred. Now, only rubble in place of one

of Irag's great treasures, The country's prime minister said

in destroying the mosque, The BBC's Arabic Service managed

to film the mosque just an hour These are probably among the last

images of its landmark leaning minaret, with the black

IS flag still flying. that the IS leader Abu Bakr

al-Baghdadi proclaimed himself ruler of all Muslims in July 2014.

Now, he is in hiding. Iraqi forces are hunting them down,

street by street, house by house. But the troops are facing fierce

resistance, the militants As they make their last stand,

civilians are fleeing the city, For some, it's a struggle

to escape the battlefield. others venting their

anger as they go. "May God deny help to

the militants," this man says. The destruction of the mosque is not

the end of the fight to free this city, but Iraqi military sources say

they hope they can now advance more swiftly,

closing in on the last They say IS is down to just a few

hundred men, and they are hemmed Orla Guerin, BBC

News, western Mosul. The Archbishop of Canterbury has

asked one of his predecessors, Lord Carey, to step down

as an honorary assistant bishop after a highly critical

independent report on Church collusion with a bishop

who abused young men. Peter Ball, who served as Bishop

of Lewes and of Gloucester and who's now 85, was jailed

in 2015 for a series The report said damage done by Ball

had been compounded by the failure of the Church

to respond appropriately. Our religious affairs correspondent

Martin Bashir reports. Charismatic and ambitious,

Peter Ball, like his twin brother Michael, had been a bishop

in the Church of England, their joint achievement

being heralded on But in 1993, Peter Ball was forced

to stand down as Bishop of Gloucester after accepting a caution

for gross indecency. Despite his admission,

he continued officiating in churches and several

public schools. A second police

investigation led to him being jailed at the Old Bailey in

2015 for abusing 18 adolescents Today's review, entitled An Abuse

Of Faith, says the Church colluded with Peter Ball instead of

being concerned for the welfare They didn't follow any proper

process in considering They approached it,

again, confused by the sense of Peter Ball being

fundamentally innocent. One of the witnesses

says this review should provoke immediate change

to Church practice. I think the Church has

demonstrated it can no longer I think safeguarding in the Church

needs to be independent of the Church, and I

think safeguarding should be nationalised and overseen

by an external body. The most striking revelation

in today's report concerns several letters that were sent here,

to Lambeth Palace, by victims of Peter Ball

in the early 1990s. Then Archbishop of

Canterbury, George Carey, chose not to pass those

letters on to the police. Today, Lord Carey

apologised, saying Lord Carey has been

asked by the current Archbishop, Justin Welby, to step

down from his position The Church of England says

that safeguarding will Martin Bashir, BBC News,

at Church House in London. The population of the UK has

seen its sharpest annual The Office for National Statistics

says from June 2015 to June 2016 the population rose

by 538,000 people. That takes the total estimated

population of the UK to more It's thought the change has been

driven by immigration, but also by more births

and fewer deaths. Single parents with a child under

two have won a court challenge against the Government's benefits

cap. A High Court judge said

the cap was not intended to cover such households,

and the failure to exempt The Government has

said it will appeal. Makram Ali, the only person who died

in the Finsbury Park had suffered "multiple

injuries", according He was formally named today

by police, and his family said His daughter said he was a quiet

man with no enemies. Our home affairs correspondent

Daniel Sandford reports. It now seems clear that Makram Ali

was killed in the attack. His death from multiple

injuries can only have been 51 years old, he moved

to Britain from Bangladesh He had six children

and two grandchildren. We wish everyone to know

what a lovely man he was. He spent his whole life

without any enemies, And I have no doubt that our father

would not wish for there to be any retaliation or recriminations,

and would urge people to remain calm and to pray for peace

in these difficult times. Makram Ali suffered from a weak leg

and had collapsed that night He was being helped in this

cul-de-sac a few yards from his home by other worshippers,

when the white van sped round The van, with its distinctive yellow

logo, was hired in Pontyclun Police are asking for information

on its movements over the weekend, and for people who spoke

to the driver. We need to hear from those people -

what conversation did they have, And that 48-hour period

is incredibly important. But of course, if you knew him

in the days and weeks leading up to this attack,

please come forward - 47-year-old Darren Osborne

from Cardiff is still being held on suspicion of murder,

attempted murder and terrorist offences, but he has

not yet been charged. The head of the United Nations says

the conflict in South Sudan which has left an estimated

4 million people homeless. Antonio Guterres was visiting

a refugee camp today in northern Uganda, where many

South Sudanese have fled. He said the response

from the Ugandans is a "remarkable example"

to other nations, but as our correspondent

Catherine Byaruhanga the crisis is placing a big strain

on the country's resources. It's the end of a painful

and often terrifying journey Most have walked for

weeks through the bush, They're ferried on buses

from the border with South Sudan Children make up the majority

of the refugees here, and some have made the dangerous

trek alone, like 16-year-old Peter,

who's an orphan and fled the fighting

in South Sudan last month. They shot my neighbour in the back

and then started chopping him up. I started thinking I could be next,

so I decided I had to leave Imvepi camp was only opened

in February and has taken in The head of the United Nations flew

in to see the scale of the problem. I asked him what action he wanted

to see to tackle the refugee crisis. and time for the international

community to help the refugees and to show the Ugandan people

the same generosity the Ugandan And what have the people

said to you here Well, of course, they said how much

they suffered in South Sudan dealing with refugee influxes

from its neighbours, the Democratic Republic of Congo,

Rwanda and South Sudan. This country thinks it has

a long-term solution which could allow people to stand

on their own two feet. it's become the biggest

in the world, with over a quarter

of a million people. What's unique here is that each

family is given a plot of land Businesses and schools

have flourished. It caters for South Sudanese

and local children, and the headteacher

is a refugee himself. When we arrived, we were

given refugee status. We were given non-food items,

and the schools were opened. With the life, there is nothing bad

except at present that the food we are receiving will not be

enough for us. Grain supplies for refugees

have been cut in half, another sign that Uganda

is struggling to cope The long-term solution is to stop

the fighting in South Sudan. But so far, regional and world

leaders have failed. Catherine Byaruhanga,

BBC News, northern Uganda. Prince Harry has questioned whether

any member of the Royal Family He said the royals were acting for

the "greater good of the people". In an interview with the American

magazine Newsweek, the prince also criticises the decision for him

to walk behind his mother's Our royal correspondent

Peter Hunt has been studying It's a moment seared

on the nation's psyche, the funeral of a princess killed

in her prime, her 12-year-old son 20 years on, Prince Harry is

critical of those who put him there. And he's voiced his considerable

discomfort in an American magazine - the enduring Diana fascination

is global. I think he has spent

so much time hiding away from himself and his demons,

but now he's faced them and to a large extent conquered

them, he feels more confident to be optimistic, truthful

and say how he feels. A monarch and three heirs,

an hereditary system secure. while the Windsors are selflessly

focused on the greater good, none of them is desperate

to be sovereign. Republicans who seek

an elected head of state, and upset some monarchists

who believe that in return for a privileged palace life

like the one Harry enjoys here, Royals should step up

to the mark without a fuss. I don't think it's such a good idea

to be quite so open. in bringing out his own true

feelings, but I think we've got

to a point now Harry is desperately seeking

the increasingly unattainable - Inspired by his mother's example,

the personable prince insists Older royals like Prince Philip,

who left hospital this morning know all about balancing

the private and the public. They're a grandson and a grandfather

who know about service, duty and occasional eyebrow-raising

public utterances. Here on BBC One, it's time

for the news where you are.