28/07/2017 BBC News at One

The BBC understands at least 60 high-rise buildings

failed a fire safety test, where insulation and cladding

were tested together for the first time.

The buildings identified so far are nine council blocks in Salford.

Work to remove the cladding is already under way.

We will have the latest about the new safety tests.

The Chancellor says any transitional deal after Britain leaves the EU

must end before the next general election. Another blow for Donald

Trump, as the US Senate fails, for a third time, to overturn President

Obama's health care initiatives. Pakistan is thrown into

political uncertainty, after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

is forced to resign in the light Rubbish piles up in the streets

of Birmingham, as council refuse workers step up

their industrial action. Coming up in the sport on BBC News,

Alistair Cook falls short of his first century,

since stepping down as England Test captain, on day two of the third

match against South Africa. Good afternoon, welcome to the BBC

News at One. The BBC understands officials

believes at least 60 buildings have failed an official fire safety test,

in which ininsulation and cladding, of the type fitted at Grenfell

Tower, were analysed together for the first time.

So far, just nine of the buildings which failed have been identified.

They're in Salford in Greater Manchester,

where the local council is asking for help from central government

As those affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower wait to find out how

and why the fire spread, across the country, others are anxiously

waiting to find out if their homes are at risk too. But for many, it's

not good news. The BBC understands officials believe at least 60 tower

blocks have failed a new fire safety test. Including nine in Salford,

where the removal of cladding began weeks ago. The thought of it not

being safe and you're sleeping in bed of a nighttime, do you know,

that's it, it's bad, isn't it? Really bad. They should take the lot

off. I don't care how much money it costs them. It's not money, it's

people's lives. I think we're sitting on a tinderbox. Costs to

remove and replace cladding are expected to run into tens of

millions of pounds. The concern now is who will pick up the bill. Local

authorities, Housing Associations, some of them have reserves. All of

them have access to borrowing capacity and if there are any

authorities that have difficulties, we will ensure that we make

additional capacity available to them so that they can get the cash

they need to do any urgent and necessary work. In the first round

of tests, cladding from every building failed, but critics said

this wasn't realistic. Experts are now carrying out new, more thorough

tests, like these, combining cladding and insulation to find out

which materials are dangerous when put together, like they were on

Grenfell Tower. Polyetholene is an oil based material. When it reaches

600 degrees it will perform like paraffin. We know what paraffin

does, it burns. If you clad a building in it, you've got a fuel

source for a flame to prop gait on. Yesterday the Metropolitan Police

said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that the company that

managed Grenfell Tower and Kensington Chelsea Council may

have committed corporate manslaughter. It's very, very

important that we now have a proper inquiry that finds out what

happened, why that fire spread, whether the materials are the right

materials and I and my colleagues will support that public inquiry.

More than six weeks on, there's no escaping what happened here and with

reverberations being felt across the country, there's clearly a lot of

work to be done to ensure a tragedy like this never happens again.

In a moment, we will be speaking to Judith Moritz in Salford,

but first, we can speak to our correspondent, Tom Burridge,

who is by Grenfell tower in West London.

Tell us more about these tests, Tom. Previously the Government

commissioned tests, smaller scale tests, on samples of cladding

similar to that on Grenfell Tower. What's happening now are larger

scale tests on a combination of both cladding and insulation. In the case

of this first set of results, we're expecting today, it's significant

because the type of cladding in the test and the type of insulation

taken as a whole and tested is exactly the same type as on Grenfell

Tower, we're talking about a combustible type of insulation and

we're talking about a type of cladding with a combustible plastic

or polyetholene core. Given that it's hardly surprising it's failed.

It leads credence to the theory that the building materials used, as a

whole, on Grenfell Tower were not appropriate. It then beggars the

question: Was an appropriate test carried out on that system, that

cladding system, the insulation with the cladding, or not? That will be a

focus of both the public inquiry and the investigation by the

Metropolitan Police. Tom, thank you. The upshot of this is that work is

already going on where you are. Yes, Salford Council say they didn't want

to wait, in fact, they conducted their own review pretty much

straight after Grenfell and they began work to start taking away

cladding last month. If I step out of the way now, the camera will move

and try to show you what's happening here. If you look at the top of this

building, can you see there is the grey and the red clad there. That

cladding is thought to be unsafe, similar to Grenfell. That has been

there, it took two years to put up and that is going to start coming

down. Moving the camera down, you can see below it, when the cladding

comes away it exposes the silver insulation. The council say they

don't want to leave that exposed, if you move the camera across, you can

see where the lettering is there on the side of the building, that is

new cladding, temporary, it consists of concrete boarding. The council

says that it is safe for now, but it's not a permanent solution. They

want to carry out further tests next month to find the sort of cladding

that long-term they can put on these buildings. They know it will take a

long time and will cost millions. They are demanding help from the

Government with that. Thank you.

The Chancellor Phillip Hammond has said there is broad agreement

in Cabinet that there should be a transition period of up to three

years after Britain leaves the EU, but that it should be finished

before the next general election, which is scheduled for 2022.

The Chancellor said a failure to implement a transition deal

Our political correspondent Iain Watson is in Westminster.

What does all of that then mean for the Brexit time table? As you know,

the Prime Minister's very fond of saying "Brexit means Brexit". But

full Brexit might take longer than some people thought. Yes, we will

leave the European Union in March 2019, but the Chancellor has got his

Cabinet colleagues on board for a concept of a transitional period

beyond that and during that time, things might not look all that

different. We might have similar levels of EU migration, for example,

until a new system is put in place. But in return, his Cabinet

colleagues have voted leave during the referendum have a guarantee from

the Chancellor that transitional period won't last longer than three

years. There's a general view that any

transitional period would have to be finished by the time we get

to the date set for the next general It depends on the technical

requirements to put in place customs and immigration arrangements

and so on, and, of course, this is all subject to negotiation

with the European Union. But the overriding concern,

as we leave the EU - and the job will be done on the 29th

March, 2019 - the overriding concern is to make sure that we go

through this process in a way that avoids disruptive cliff edges

for business and for The Cabinet agrees with all that,

but as is often the case in politics, the devil is in the

detail. Let me give a brief example. If the European Court of Justice

would have a role during the transition period, if the EU insists

on that, this apparent Cabinet unity could be shattered. Thank you.

In a major blow to President Trump, the US Senate has failed,

for a third time, to repeal President Obama's

In a dramatic late-night sitting, three Republicans voted

Among the three was veteran senator John McCain.

He broke off brain cancer treatment to attend the session,

and his "no" vote proved decisive, as Richard Lister reports.

Breaking news a massive blow to the Republican plan to repeal at

Fordable care act... Americans are waking up to the news that ObamaCare

lives on and seems, for now, unassailable. President Obama's

Affordable Care Act required nearly all Americans to buy health

insurance and required insurance to cover everyone. Republicans

condemned it. Momentum is building for the repeal of the health care

bill... Too invasive, too expensive, they said. For seven years, they've

demanded it be replaced. But they can't agree on how and with a single

vote margin on last night's repeal bill, all eyes were on one man. Mr

McCain. The self styled maverick Republican cast with a thumbs down

to gasps in the chamber. And that killed the bill.

CHEERING For ObamaCare supporters, this was a

real victory, further repeal efforts seem unlikely for now. This is

clearly a disappointing moment, from sky rocketing cost to plummeting

choices and collapsing markets, our constituents have suffered through

an awful lot under ObamaCare. This repeal bill was highly

controversial. It would have abolished the legal mandate to buy

insurance, but increased the number of uninsured people by 15 million

and increased some premiums by 20%. Democrats said it was time for a new

approach. Every place in every corner of the world, of the country,

where we go, the number one thing we are asked, and I know this because

I've talked to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, is can't

you guys work together? Let's give it a shot. This is a test of Donald

Trump's presidency too. Let ObamaCare implode, he tweeted.

Senator McCain was cheered outside Congress but he's left his party in

chaos and his president humiliated, unable to overturn Barack Obama's

health care legacy. President Trump's new communications

director has become involved in an extraordinary public feud

with two senior colleagues, Anthony Scaramucci has launched

a scathing attack on both the White House chief of staff,

Reince Priebus, and Mr Trump's chief Laura Bicker reports

on this, the latest episode President Trump's West Wing

is at war with itself. The appointment of the flashy

financier, Anthony Scaramucci, of communications has prompted

a bitter battle to win Mr Scaramucci has indirectly

accused his colleague, the White House chief of staff

Reince Priebus, of leaking information about

the administration. He called a US network

show to say that only Mr Trump could judge

whether the tense relationship When I said we were brothers

from the podium, that is because... But some brothers are

like Cain and Abel. Other brothers can

fight with each other I don't know whether this

is repairable or not, Tonight, in an extraordinary

phone call with a reporter from the New Yorker,

Anthony Scaramucci described Reince He also took personally

about Mr Trump's chief strategist, On Twitter he said he would refrain

from using "colourful language", but would not give up

the passionate fight Mr Scaramucci has been

in the West Wing just one week, and appears to have spent more time

launching personal attacks than pushing the

President's policies. He may also be forcing the chief

of staff, and a key Republican Let's hear more about everything

going on in Washington overnight. What now for health care, what

happens with that? What a night of drama under the dome of Capitol

Hill. When it comes to Republicans they're picking up the pieces but

they are bruised and they are battered. How they go forward with

health care is now uncertain. Because one, they're running out of

time. This is part of a spending bill. And two, as you heard from the

Senate majority leader there, perhaps it's time to move forward.

And many of his party may feel the same. And the public feuding is

quite extraordinary. Well, this is as close to a reality TV White House

as we've ever seen. What we have here is the White House chiefs of

staff versus the newcomer, the communications director. Now Anthony

Scaramucci seems to have the ear of the president and he's a chip off

the old block. They are very similar personalities and backgrounds. If it

comes to a fight between Anthony Scaramucci

and Reince Preibus, I fear he will be voted out. (

Pakistan's prime minister, ( Nawaz Sharif, has resigned,

after being disqualified from office by the supreme court,

over corruption allegations against his family.

The allegations stem from documents that came to light -

the so called Panama Papers - regarding his children's

offshore business holdings, which include four luxury apartments

For opponents of the Pakistani Prime Minister, today's court decision is

a huge and unprecedented victory for accountability in a country where

politicians often have a reputation for corruption. Today, Nawar Sharif

resigned after the highest court disqualified him from office. A

panel of five judges unanimously decided he had not been honest when

explaining his and his family's financial dealings to a corruption

inquiry. The Supreme Court has led from the front. And democracy will

strengthen. Democracy will evolve in Pakistan and we will be able to

establish a new Pakistan. The allegations against Sharif revolve

around four luxury central London flats. The documents from the Panama

paper leaks revealed were linked to a number of his children. The

Pakistani Supreme Court has been trying to establish where the money

came from to buy them. The Prime Minister's daughter widely seen as

his political successor, as well as her father, will now face further

inquiries by the national anticorruption body. No Prime

Minister in Pakistan has ever completed a full term in office.

Sharif served twice in the 90s, but was overthrown in a military coup.

Some of his supporters have claimed the allegations against him now are

an attempt by the country's powerful army to oust him again.

His family have always denied any wrongdoing and outside the court

some of his ministers remained defiant.

TRANSLATION: No matter who becomes the Prime Minister, the Prime

Minister in the hearts of the Pakistani people will always be

Nawaz Sharif. The ruling party will now have to nominate a new leader

but with elections due to take place by the middle of next year, the

country is facing real uncertainty. The BBC understands officials

believe at least 60 high rise buildings failed a fire safety test

where insulation and cladding were tested together for the first time.

And, coming up, hidden below ground for 75 years,

the Royal Mail railway you'll soon be able to hitch a ride

Coming up in sport, Lewis Hamilton is just third quickest

in the first practice ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

He goes into the weekend trailing Sebastian Vettel by just a point

Aid workers in Greece have told the BBC they're dealing

with hundreds of extremely vulnerable refugees

Many have suffered torture and sexual abuse at the hands

of so-called Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

The European Commission has said such refugees should be moved

to Athens for specialist treatment but charities say

Our Europe reporter, Gavin Lee, is on the island of Lesbos.

Rare footage from a place journalists are banned.

It shows tents have been replaced by containers,

a reflection of Europe's waiting room being made a little more

long-term for the 4,000 being held on the island.

Violence, rioting and fires are becoming routine.

The camps are full and migrants, though small in number,

Since so-called Islamic State started to lose ground,

many who arrived in Greece have escaped attention, men tortured

by tortured by IS fighters, women used as sex slaves.

There is little support for them and it is worsening the problem

You need to improve the health care that is given to these people.

If they are vulnerable, they need to be recognised as such,

and they need to move to somewhere where they can receive care.

The reality is, there isn't this care here on the island,

and they need to move to the mainland to receive it.

Osama was once a Syrian policeman, but was caught by rebel groups

He says he was regularly beaten and sexually abused by his captors.

I have been in captivity for three years.

Sometimes I feel if I had been killed it would be better than this

humiliation. The policy is clear that vulnerable

migrants should be taken off the island quickly for specialist

treatment. So why are they still here? I would like at this point to

remind that 30,000 people have come through the island since March 2016

so there can be individual cases, some individual cases, that may have

- they may not have been processed as quickly. The Greek Government is

promising to take extremely vulnerable migrants off the Islands.

In the meantime, those needing the most help are still waiting.

Gavin Lee, BBC News, Lesbos. Companies working on the Crossrail

project have been fined more than ?1 million after three sets

of failures, one of which led The companies pleaded guilty to

offences following an investigation. Rene Tkacik died after being crushed

by wet concrete in 2014. Two other men were injured

in separate incidents within six Four men have been arrested

on suspicion of making an explosive Police say no one was hurt

when a device erupted. The incident only came to light

when a prison worker contacted a Welsh Assembly member,

with concerns about staffing. Following an incident here at HMP

Cardiff on 15th June, a member of staff at the prison

contacted the south-west Wales Assembly member

Bethan Jenkins with concerns The worker told Ms Jenkins that

prisoners had fashioned an explosive device out of tea whiteners

which are very flammable. The Assembly member instantly

contacted the Prisons Minister Sam Gyimah with her concerns

that the situation could have He was implying to me

that the prisoners could revolt, could take over the prison

because of the situation potentially with the staffing,

although there are other issues also and that's something I think that

everybody needs to be aware of so that we ensure these type

of situations don't happen again. The prison worker that contacted

Ms Jenkins said that staffing levels at the Welsh capital's prison played

a part in this incident occurring. He went on to say that staff morale

was at an all-time low and that unless things were to change

an event of this nature Because there's not enough staff

to do routine stuff like cell searches every day and checks

on cells they may be But that's always been the case

for the past five years and that's why we are insisting that 2,500

extra prison officers We have lost over 7,000 and we need

those 7,000 replaced. In a statement, the Ministry

of Justice said that nobody had been hurt in the incident

and that the matter had been They added that it would be

inappropriate to comment South Wales Police have released

all four individuals One without further action,

but investigations continue Council refuse workers in Birmingham

are stepping up their industrial action in a dispute that has left

rubbish piling up in the streets. Members of the Unite union have been

refusing to do overtime, and have been carrying out daily

two-hour stoppages - The dispute is about planned changes

to working practices, as our correspondent

Sima Kotecha reports. Piles and piles of rubbish strewn

across some of Birmingham's streets. On this road it's been three weeks

since the rubbish was collected. We have seen a rat over there

yesterday, absolutely disgraceful. Four weeks now it's been here,

absolutely terrible. So we pay all our money, council tax

and they won't come and get it, It's not fair on the kids,

the kids can't even play out any It's disgusting, we come out

of our house and it stenches While the stench from this

pile of rubbish here really is unbearable,

not sure if you can see or not, And with this strike due

to carry on until September, for people living on this street,

the smell is going to get worse. Since earlier this month,

bin workers have been striking for two hours every day over changes

to their shift patterns and plans to cut the number

of supervisor jobs. From today, they'll be striking

for three hours a day. They say the proposed changes

will lead to staff being paid I can talk about working patterns,

I can discuss those with my members. What I can not discuss is members

who are low paid, losing money They have mortgages to pay and food

to put on the table, remove that, don't have those on the lowest wages

pay for austerity and mismanagement The local council says budgetary

constraints mean they need to adopt In a statement, it says: Positive

discussions are continuing to take place with the unions and we hope

to be able to resolve this With August around the corner,

a mixture of hot temperatures and more rubbish is what many

here are dreading. For 75 years, an underground network

of railways was used by Royal Mail to move post around the capital

but in 2003 the system Now it's reopening,

as a tourist attraction - members of the public will be able

to take a unique ride through tunnels previously travelled

by only parcels and letters. Throughout its 500-year history,

the Royal Mail's mission has NEWSREEL: Now down

the chute into the vans... To harness technology

of the day to deliver letters and parcels as quickly

and accurately as possible. This new Postal Museum shows how

deliveries have evolved. But by the early 20th century,

the mail system in London faced two big problems -

heavy fog caused by smoke billowing In 1927, this underground

rail network opened. NEWSREEL: On the Post Office tube

railway, 25,000 mails bags travel through 6.5 miles of tunnels below

crowded city pavements... For 75 years, unmanned trains

shuttled mail between six sorting offices and two railway stations,

Liverpool Street and Paddington. I guess it was designed

for letters, not people. Passengers will soon be able

to ride specially-adapted trains It was a really important

part of moving the mail It was essential to allowing that

communication to happen quickly Its running costs

were deemed too high. Transporting mail above ground

was considered more cost-effective. This is one of the mail platforms,

where the trains would have stopped and the mail would have been

loaded into containers. It almost looks like

it was abandoned. The equipment was all left down

here, newspapers and things like that still laying around,

all the trolleys, the trains Soon to become a quirky visitor

attraction, for some the Mail Rail The postal service is really

the first social network, keeping people in touch,

allowing people to stay in touch over distance and quickly,

and it was important, the speed was important,

and that's what Mail Rail was about, Tim Muffet, BBC News,

70 feet below London. The third cricket Test is finely

balanced after both sides enjoyed success at the Oval. England are

269-6 at lunch. What shall we do about Alistair? Try

and get him out early. Toppling the former captain surely top of the

agenda at the South African pre-play huddle. Cook closing in on a 31st

Test century knows what it feels like to be the wicket to take. And

they nearly got him. Just a few overs in, just a few inches too far

away and Cook was saved by barely a brush on the grass. Not so lucky the

second time around, though. Six added to his overnight total and

Cook was gone, lbw. Hopes of another 100 dashed. After a long day's work

yesterday, today it's a long day watching. But Ben Stokes was still

there. Swinging his way to over 2,000 Test runs and whipping one

away to the boundary, flying over flaying finger tips to bring up his

10th Test 50. Bairstow was going well too. But with the new ball, his

luck turned. Edged, caught. Out for 36.

However, after yesterday's rain the clouds are blowing away for England,

prospects perhaps brightening. Test tight, series tied. All those that

have gone before can do is watch and wait.

Is the weather brightening, here is Nick.

Not much summer warmth today or for the

Signs of summer in North Wales today. But as is typical with our

weather at the moment it will be raining before the end of the day.

Two zones in our weather looking at the satellite picture, northern

England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, sunshine and showers. But the rest

of England and Wales turning cloudier as the system moves in from

the south-west with rain and stronger winds. That rain patchy in

nature through southern England but more persistent for us and edging

northwards in Wales. Cloud increasing in eastern England where

we have seen sunshine today. Patchy rain working to parts of the

Midlands and north-west England. Elsewhere in northern England we are

back into sunny spells and a few showers and a few for Northern

Ireland. More especially into Scotland and could be thundery.

Sunny spells in between. It's cool and breezy across the UK and a windy

end to the day to the south-west as this rain becomes more extensive

across England and Wales for a time going into this evening. Before

clearing all. Still a few showers overnight for Scotland and Northern

Ireland. Elsewhere, turning dryer and clearer with overnight

temperatures of around ten to 15. The big picture for the weekend, a

weather front close to the south coast lingering like a bad smell

before coming back Saturday and low pressure to the north-west a source

of showers for Scotland and Northern Ireland on Saturday and widely by

Sunday. This is Saturday. Sunshine scattered showers for Scotland and

Northern Ireland, one or two elsewhere. But elsewhere quite a lot

of dry and sunny weather for a time. Remember that weather front close to

the south coast, it comes back to life. Cloud and rain gradually

edging north through the afternoon. But if you are dry and sunny for any

period of time, it will feel warmer but it's not looking promising

tomorrow afternoon at the Oval for the cricket, there will be some

outbreaks of rain edging northwards, not just through the Oval, but

elsewhere to parts of England and Wales into the evening. Heavier

bursts, south-east Wales, parts of the Midlands. Still showers in

Scotland and Northern Ireland. Part two of the weekend, Sunday, could be

a fine start. It won't last, showers and heavy will spread east across

the UK but the further east you are they may not arrive until quite late

on. This is the weather menu for this weekend. Refunds are not

available. If you do get sunshine, it may feel pleasant for a time.

It's hard to feel short-changed a little bit by our weather so far in

the second half of summer. The BBC understands officials

believe at least 60 high rise buildings failed a fire safety test

where insulation and cladding were tested together for the first time.

That's all from the BBC News at One, so it's goodbye from me

and on BBC One we now join the BBC's news teams where you are.