9/11 survivors question unearthed video showing 'Saudi agent'

A previously-unseen film was shot by an early 9/11 suspect - who was never charged - as he wandered around US government buildings in Washington DC.

Martin Brunt
Crime correspondent @skymartinbrunt
Friday 6 September 2024

Omar al-Bayoumi was identified by the FBI as a Saudi intelligence agent. He denies that and any part in 9/11

A video seized by British detectives from an early 9/11 suspect 23 years ago raises a series of questions, says a survivor of the attacks.

The previously-unseen film was shot by the suspect as he wandered around US government buildings in Washington DC two years before the hijackers struck.

He filmed the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court and security guards inside and gave a running commentary, at one point saying in Arabic: "They say that our kids are demons. However, these are the demons of the White House."

Over shots of a low-flying plane, he says: "Airport not far from here. Plane taking off."

Image:Omar al-Bayoumi was identified by the FBI as a Saudi intelligence agent. He denies that and any part in 9/11

The hour-long film ends on the Capitol building, where the camera lingers on two limousines. The voiceover says: "Their cars. You said that in the plan."

Scotland Yard officers discovered the tape when they arrested the suspect, a mature Saudi student, Omar al-Bayoumi, at his home in Birmingham ten days after 9/11.

He was questioned by counter-terror detectives for seven days and then released without charge.

He was later identified by the FBI as a Saudi intelligence agent. He denies that and any part in 9/11, and has told US investigators his film was a simple tourist video.

He has admitted, a year later, innocently befriending two of the future terrorists who flew a hijacked plane into the Pentagon, killing 189 people.

A still from the video



It's not known if al-Bayoumi's tape and all or any of the items seized during the raid were passed on to the American authorities at the time in 2001.

The video was shown recently during a civil court case in New York in which the 9/11 victims and families, the plaintiffs, are trying to sue the Saudi government for complicity in the attacks.

The plaintiffs' legal team asked the Metropolitan Police three years ago to search its archive and send anything it had from its investigation into Mr al-Bayoumi. A team of eight detectives and staff spent several months sifting through 104 boxes of archived files.

Plaintiffs' lawyer Gavin Simpson played the tape and told the judge: "A trove of evidence seized by the Metropolitan Police…. enables your honour, the public and the 9/11 families to perceive for themselves the mechanism by which Saudi Arabia provided support to the 9/11 hijackers.

"Bayoumi's videotape bore all the characteristics, the hallmarks of al Qaeda casing a terrorist target."

Sharon Premoli escaped from the 80th floor during the attack on the twin towers

Campaigner Sharon Premoli, a 9/11 survivor, listened into the recent hearing when parts of the tape were played and said: "Al-Bayoumi's language was very incriminating.

"Two words he used in particular, one being the 'demons' inside the Capitol and number two 'the plan' he referred to. It's not a tourist video, he was casing the buildings and the area."

Ms Premoli, who escaped from the 80th floor during the attack on the twin towers in Manhattan, said: "It's wonderful that the Met Police was able to confiscate this information, but it's unfortunate we had to wait so long for it.

"We don't know how long anyone in the US government had the material. We know the FBI and the CIA were not helping each other and a lot was missed because of that. It's also possible the Bush administration had it and decided not to do anything with it to protect the Saudis."

Also shown in court for the first time was a notebook page with scribblings and calculations about the distance of an aeroplane from the ground and the horizon. Mr al-Bayoumi said it was part of his teenage son's homework project.



Neither the notebook nor the tape was provided to the members of the 9/11 Commission which produced an account of the attacks and what led up to them. It criticised the FBI and the CIA, but after interviewing al-Bayoumi in Saudi Arabia, concluded he hadn't been part of the plot.

Robbyn Swan, co-author of the authoritative The Eleventh Day, the Full Story of 9/11, said: "The items that the Met has supplied are crucial new bits of evidence which, on my reading of them, really do support the notion that an employ or employees of the Saudi regime aided and abetted the 9/11 hijackers and that is at the heart of the case.

"Some of my sources have suggested that from very early on the FBI was reluctant to look at the possibility of official Saudi involvement and this is part and parcel of the kind of obstruction of that part of the investigation they saw at the time."

In the past the Saudi government has denied it or any of its officials encouraged or supported the 9/11 terrorists.

June-August 2024 were hottest ever recorded: EU monitor

By AFP
September 5, 2024

California suffered a heatwave in early September

- Copyright AFP Sergei CHUZAVKOV

Benjamin LEGENDRE

The 2024 northern summer saw the highest global temperatures ever recorded, beating last year’s record and making this year likely Earth’s hottest ever, the EU’s climate monitor said Friday.

The data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service followed a season of heatwaves around the world that scientists said were intensified by human-driven climate change.

“During the past three months of 2024, the globe has experienced the hottest June and August, the hottest day on record, and the hottest boreal summer on record,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, said in a report.

“This string of record temperatures is increasing the likelihood of 2024 being the hottest year on record.”

The average global temperature at the Earth’s surface was 16.82C in August, according to Copernicus, which draws on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations.

The June and August global temperature broke through the level of 1.5C above the pre-industrial average — a key threshold for limiting the worst effects of climate change.

Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet, raising the likelihood and intensity of climate disasters such as droughts, fires and floods.

Heat was exacerbated in 2023 and early 2024 by the cyclical weather phenomenon El Nino, though Copernicus scientist Julien Nicolas told AFP its effects were not as strong as they sometimes are.

Meanwhile the contrary cyclical cooling phenomenon, known as La Nina, has not yet started, he said.

– Emissions reductions –

Against the global trend, regions such as Alaska, the eastern United States, parts of South America, Pakistan and the Sahel desert zone in northern Africa had lower than average temperatures in August, the report said.

But others such as Australia — where it was winter — parts of China, Japan and Spain experienced record warmth in August.

Globally, August 2024 matched that month’s previous global temperature record from one year earlier, while this June was hotter than last, Copernicus data in the report showed.

July was slightly hotter in 2023 than this year, but on average the three-month period broke the record in 2024.

Governments have targets to reduce their countries’ planet-heating emissions to try to keep the rise below 1.5C under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Scientists will not consider that threshold to be definitively passed until it has been observed being breached over several decades. The average level of warming is currently about 1.2C, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.

Copernicus said the 1.5C level has been passed in 13 of the past 14 months.

– Wildfires, hurricanes –

The oceans are also heating to record levels, raising the risk of more intense storms.

Copernicus said that outside of the poles, the average sea surface temperature in August was just under 21C, the second-highest level on record for that month.

It said August “was drier than average over most of continental Europe” — noting the wildfires that struck countries such as Greece.

But places such as western Russia and Turkey were wetter than normal, with floods in some places.

The eastern United States had more rain than usual, including areas lashed by Hurricane Debby.

“The temperature-related extreme events witnessed this summer will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet unless we take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Copernicus’s deputy director Burgess said.

Some researchers say that emissions in some of the biggest countries may have peaked or will soon do so, partly as a result of the drive towards low-carbon energy.

China logs hottest August in more than six decades

China is the leading emitter of the greenhouse gas emissions scientists say are driving global climate change. 

Sep 06, 2024

BEIJING – China logged its hottest August since 1961 in 2024, the national weather service said, after the country endured a summer of extreme weather and heatwaves across much of its north and west.

China is the leading emitter of the greenhouse gas emissions scientists say are driving global climate change and making extreme weather events more frequent.

Beijing has pledged to bring planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060.

On Sept 6, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement that “China experienced prolonged and extreme high temperatures” in August.

“The national average temperature was the highest for the same period since 1961,” it added.

The national average temperature in August was 22.6 deg C, 1.5 deg C higher than the same period in a typical year, Dr Jia Xiaolong, deputy director of the National Climate Centre, was quoted as saying.

“The northern regions experienced frequent and highly destructive rainstorms, while large-scale heatwaves persisted in the southern regions,” Dr Jia said.

“Nineteen national weather stations recorded daily maximum temperatures that either matched or exceeded historical records,” he added.

The record-breaking figures followed another report from the weather service on Sept 1 that average air temperatures in August in eight provinces, regions and cities “ranked the hottest for the same period” since records began.

They included the megacity of Shanghai, the provinces of Jiangsu, Hebei, Hainan, Jilin, Liaoning and Shandong as well as the north-west region of Xinjiang, the weather service said.

A further five provinces chalked up their second-hottest August, while seven more endured their third-hottest.

The Chinese weather authorities had also said July was the country’s hottest month since records began, state media reported, as extreme temperatures persist across large parts of the globe.

Extreme heat has seared much of East Asia this summer.

Japan also on Sept 2 said that its long-term average temperature between June and August was 1.76 deg C above the standard value – equalling the level seen in summer 2023 – the highest since statistics started being kept in 1898. 

AFP

Summer 2024 hottest ever recorded, 

EU climate change monitor says

Scientists have confirmed that summer 2024 broke global heat records for the second consecutive year, making 2024 likely to be the hottest year in recorded history. Data from Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service, shows June to August as the hottest period since records began in 1940.


Issued on: 06/09/2024 -

01:43Cavalry Church in Woodland Hills, California, shows a temperature of 121 degrees Fahrenheit (49.4 degrees Celsius) on September 5, 2024. 

© Frederic J. Brown, AFP

Video by: Solange MOUGIN

Summer 2024 sweltered to Earth's hottest on record, making it even more likely that this year will end up as the warmest humanity has measured, European climate service Copernicus reported Friday.

And if this sounds familiar, that's because the records the globe shattered were set just last year as human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from an El Nino, keeps dialing up temperatures and extreme weather, scientists said.

The northern meteorological summer — June, July and August — averaged 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Copernicus. That's 0.03 degrees Celsius (0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the old record in 2023.

Copernicus records go back to 1940, but American, British and Japanese records, which start in the mid-19th century, show the last decade has been the hottest since regular measurements were taken and likely in about 120,000 years, according to some scientists.

Tourists walk along the Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) on a hot summer day in Ronda, Spain on July 4, 2024. © Jon Nazca, Reuters

The Augusts of both 2024 and 2023 tied for the hottest Augusts globally at 16.82 degrees Celsius (62.27 degrees Fahrenheit). July was the first time in more than a year that the world did not set a record, a tad behind 2023, but because June 2024 was so much hotter than June 2023, this summer as a whole was the hottest, Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said.

“What those sober numbers indicate is how the climate crisis is tightening its grip on us,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, who wasn't part of the research.

It's a sweaty grip because with the high temperatures, the dew point — one of several ways to measure the air's humidity — probably was at or near record high this summer for much of the world, Buontempo said.

Until last month Buontempo, like some other climate scientists, was on the fence over whether 2024 would smash the hottest year record set last year, mostly because August 2023 was so enormously hotter than average. But then this August 2024 matched 2023, making Buontempo “pretty certain” that this year will end up hottest on record.

“In order for 2024 not to become the warmest on record, we need to see very significant landscape cooling for the remaining few months, which doesn't look likely at this stage,” Buontempo said.

With a forecasted La Nina — a temporary natural cooling of parts of the central Pacific — the last four months of the year may no longer be record-setters like most of the past year and a half. But it's not likely cool enough to keep 2024 from breaking the annual record, Buontempo said.

These aren't just numbers in a record book, but weather that hurts people, climate scientists said.

“This all translates to more misery around the world as places like Phoenix start to feel like a barbecue locked on high for longer and longer stretches of the year,” said University of Michigan environment dean and climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck.

The Arizona city has had more than 100 days of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) weather this year.

Men row a boat near a deluged straw hut in the river Ganges in Prayagraj: in India, just months after the country baked in its longest-ever heatwave, ferocious rainstorms have triggered widespread flooding and landslides © Sanjay KANOJIA / AFP

“With longer and more severe heat waves come more severe droughts in some places, and more intense rains and flooding in others. Climate change is becoming too obvious, and too costly, to ignore.”


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Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Cape Cod, said there's been a deluge of extreme weather of heat, floods, wildfires and high winds that are violent and dangerous.

“Like people living in a war zone with the constant thumping of bombs and clatter of guns, we are becoming deaf to what should be alarm bells and air-raid sirens,” Francis said in an email.

While a portion of last year's record heat was driven by an El Nino — a temporary natural warming of parts of the central Pacific that alters weather worldwide — that effect is gone, and it shows the main driver is long-term human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, Buontempo said.

“It's really not surprising that we see this, this heat wave, that we see these temperature extremes,” Buontempo said. “We are bound to see more.”

(AP)

China offers Africa $66b in fresh funding, promises a million jobs

Republic of the Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at the opening ceremony of the ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China Sept 5, 2024.

September 05, 2024 

BEIJING — President Xi Jinping pledged on Thursday (Sept 5) to step up China's support across debt-laden Africa with funding of nearly US$51 billion (S$66 billion) over three years, backing for more infrastructure projects, and the creation of at least one million jobs.

China was ready to step up co-operation with Africa in industry, agriculture, infrastructure, trade and investment, Xi told delegates from more than 50 African nations gathered in Beijing for the three-yearly Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit.

"China and Africa account for one-third of the world population. Without our modernisation, there will be no global modernisation," Xi said.

China, the world's biggest bilateral lender, promised to carry out three times as many infrastructure projects across resource-rich Africa despite Xi's avowed new preference for "small and beautiful" schemes based around selling advanced and green technologies in which Chinese firms have invested heavily.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China Sept 5, 2024.

The Chinese leader committed 360 billion yuan (S$65.98 billion) in financial assistance over three years, but specified that 210 billion would be disbursed through credit lines and at least 70 billion in fresh investment by Chinese companies.

Smaller amounts would be provided through military aid and other projects.


At the 2021 China-Africa summit in Dakar, China promised at least US$10 billion in investment and the same again in credit lines. This time, the financial assistance would be in yuan, in an apparent push to further internationalise the Chinese yuan.

PHOTO: Reuters

After the opening ceremony, delegates adopted the Beijing Declaration on building "a shared future in the new era" as well as the Beijing Action Plan for 2025-2027, Chinese state media said.

Xi also called for a China-Africa network of land and sea sea links and co-ordinated development, urging Chinese contractors to return to the continent now that Covid-19 curbs that disrupted its projects had been lifted.

He did not mention debt in his speech, despite Beijing being many African states' biggest bilateral lender but the Action Plan included terms for repayment postponements and called for the establishment of an African rating agency.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the summit that African countries' inadequate access to debt relief and scarce resources was a recipe for social unrest.

African lending arrangements vary from country to country. Gulf states like Saudi Arabia come after China for countries such as Ethiopia. Others like Kenya would have many creditors including European nations. There are also debts to multilateral bodies such as the World Bank and private bond holders.

The forum chalks out a three-year programme for China and every African state bar Eswatini, which retains ties to Taiwan.

In addition to 30 infrastructure connectivity projects, Xi said China was ready to launch 30 clean energy projects in Africa, offering to co-operate on nuclear technology and tackle a power deficit that has delayed efforts to industrialise.

But he did not reiterate his pledge at the 2021 forum in Dakar for the Asian giant to buy US$300 billion worth of African goods, pledging only to unilaterally expand market access.


Analysts say Beijing's rules on plant sanitary checks are too strict, making China unable to meet that promise.

But Africa looks set to receive more Chinese financing instead. Last year, China approved loans worth US$4.61 billion to Africa, in the first annual increase since 2016.

"I'm here to see how best we can foster our relationship with China," Princess Dugba, Sierra Leone's fisheries and marine resources minister, said on the summit's sidelines.

"China is getting us a fish harbour, which is one of the first of its kind," she said.

China pushes smaller, smarter loans to Africa to shield from risks


By AFP
September 6, 2024

As African leaders gathered this week for Beijing's biggest summit since the pandemic, President Xi Jinping committed more than $50 billion in financing over the next three years - Copyright AFP GREG BAKER

Matthew WALSH

China’s years of splashing cash on big-ticket infrastructure projects in Africa may be over, analysts say, with Beijing seeking to shield itself from risky, indebted partners on the continent as it grapples with a slowing economy at home.

Beijing for years dished out billions in loans for trains, roads and bridges in Africa that saddled participating governments with debts they often struggled to pay back.

But experts say it is now opting for smaller loans to fund more modest development projects.

“China has adjusted its lending strategy in Africa to take China’s own domestic economic troubles and Africa’s debt problems into account,” Lucas Engel, a data analyst studying Chinese development finance at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, said.

“This new prudence and risk aversion among Chinese lenders is intended to ensure that China can continue to engage with Africa in a more resilient and sustainable manner,” he told AFP.

“The large infrastructure loans China was known for in the past have become rarer.”

As African leaders gathered this week for Beijing’s biggest summit since the pandemic, President Xi Jinping committed more than $50 billion in financing over the next three years.

More than half of that would be in credit, Xi said, while the rest would come from unspecified “various types of assistance” and $10 billion through encouraging Chinese firms to invest.

Xi gave no details on how those funds would be dished out.



– Loans redirected –



China has for years pumped vast sums of cash into African nations as it looks to shore up access to crucial resources, while also using its influence as a geopolitical tool amid ongoing tensions with the West.

But while Beijing lauds its largesse towards the continent, data shows China’s funding has dwindled dramatically in recent years.

Chinese lenders supplied a total of $4.6 billion to eight African countries and two regional financial institutions last year, according to Boston University research.

The key shift concerns those on the receiving end: more than half of the total amount went to multilateral or nationally owned banks — compared with just five percent between 2000 and 2022.

And although last year’s loans to Africa were the highest since 2019, they were less than a quarter of what was dished out at the peak of nearly $29 billion eight years ago.

“Redirecting loans to African multilateral borrowers allows Chinese lenders to engage with entities with high credit ratings, not struggling individual sovereign borrowers,” Engel said.

“These loans reach private borrowers in ailing African countries in which African multilateral banks operate.”

– Modest approach –

China coordinates much of its overseas lending under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the massive infrastructure project that is a central pillar of Xi’s bid to expand his country’s clout overseas.

The BRI made headlines for backing big-ticket projects in Africa with opaque funding and questionable impacts.

But China has been shifting its approach in the past few years, analysts said.

It has increasingly funnelled money into smaller projects, from a modestly sized solar farm in Burkina Faso to a hydropower project in Madagascar and broadband infrastructure in Angola, according to Boston University’s researchers.

“The increased volume of loans signals Africa’s continued importance to China, but the type of loans being deployed are intended to let Africans know that China is taking African concerns into account,” Engel told AFP.

This does not mean that Beijing is “permanently retrenching its investments and provision of development finance to the continent”, Zainab Usman, director of the Africa Program at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said.

“Development finance flows, especially lending, (are) now starting to rebound,” she said.

– No ‘debt traps’ –

African leaders have this week secured deals with China on a range of sectors including infrastructure, agriculture, mining and energy.

Western critics accuse China of using the BRI to enmesh developing nations in unsustainable debt to exert diplomatic leverage over them or even seize their assets.

A chorus of African leaders — as well as research by leading global think tanks like London’s Chatham House — have rebuked the “debt trap” theory.

“I don’t necessarily buy in the notion that when China invests, it is with an intention of… ensuring that those countries end up in a debt trap,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in Beijing on Thursday.

One analyst agreed, saying that for many Africans, China has “become synonymous” with life-changing roads, bridges and ports and the debt-trap argument ignores the “positive impact” Beijing has had on infrastructure development on the continent.

“The reality is some (African) countries have had a tough time fulfilling their debt repayment commitments due to a multiplicity of factors,” Ovigwe Eguegu, a policy analyst at consultancy Development Reimagined, said.

Engel, of the Boston University research centre, said the argument mistakenly assumes that “China solely has short-term objectives in Africa”.

That, he said, “vastly underestimates (its) long-term vision… to shape a system of global governance that will be favourable to its rise”.

Grenfell United’s powerful response to the Grenfell Inquiry Report

5th September 2024

Leave a Commenton Grenfell United’s powerful response to the Grenfell Inquiry Report

“The duty of government should be to safeguard life, whilst protecting us from corporate greed. But for too long, they have aided corporations, facilitating them to profit and dictate regulation.”

By Grenfell United

Today (September 4) marks the conclusion of a painful six years listening to the evidence of the deaths of 54 adults and 18 children, our loved ones, neighbours and friends. It is a significant chapter in the journey to truth, justice and change. But justice has not been delivered.

The inquiry report reveals that whenever there’s a clash between corporate interest and public safety, governments have done everything they can to avoid their responsibilities to keep people safe. The system isn’t broken, it was built this way.

It speaks to a lack of competence, understanding and a fundamental failure to perform the most basic of duties of care.

The recommendations published today are basic safety principles that should already exist, highlighting how the government’s roles duties and obligations have been hollowed out by privatisation.

Where voids were created as the government outsourced their duties, Kingspan, Celotex and Arconic filled the gaps with substandard and combustible materials. They were allowed to manipulate the testing regimes, fraudulently and knowingly marketing their products as safe.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick has laid bare his mistrust in the building industry – no single publication like approved document B should subsequent be used as a means to regulate fire safety and to keep the public safe.

The government knew this was no way to regulate. It was there to be exploited.

Our lawyers told the inquiry that the corporate core participants – Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex – were ‘little better than crooks and killers’. The report makes clear that this statement is entirely true. We were failed in most cases by incompetence and in many cases by calculated dishonesty and greed.

The duty of government should be to safeguard life, whilst protecting us from corporate greed. But for too long, they have aided corporations, facilitating them to profit and dictate regulation.

It is a damning indictment for this country that amateurs (like Carl Stokes and Brian Martin) can pose to be experts, putting countless lives at risk and taking the lives of our loved ones.

There’s a reading of the inquiry hiding in plain sight that speaks to both the damage done to Grenfell Tower and the wider damage done to Britain.

It’s a serious problem for the whole country when governments invite corporations to write their own rules.

The government must now exert control over the sector to prevent further dismantling of public safety, which used to be understood as their primary job, not aiding and abetting crooks and killers.

To prevent a future Grenfell, the government needs to create something that doesn’t exist: a government with the power and ability to separate itself from the construction industry and corporate lobbying, putting people before profit.

Over and above all, the judge concludes what we already knew, that every single loss of life was avoidable.

We expect this government to break old habits and implement all of the recommendations made by Sir Martin Moore-Bick from the Inquiry report without further delay, because the time to address this is already three decades too late.

We are calling on the government to ban Arconic, Kingspan, Celotex and Rydon from central or local government procurement processes. And finally start acting in the British public’s interest.

We have an expectation that the Met Police and the CPS ensure that those who are truly responsible are held to account and brought to justice.

We must never forget that at the heart of this Inquiry report is the fact that 72 people lost their lives.

---

• This statement from Grenfell United was published in response to the Grenfell Phase 2 Inquiry Report on September 4th.
• Grenfell United are survivors and bereaved families from the Grenfell Tower fire, who have come together to demand justice and change in memory of 72 of our families and neighbours who died. You can follow them on Twitter/X here.

Profit Over People: How Incompetence And Greed Claimed 72 Lives In London's Grenfell Tower Blaze

The inquiry published on Wednesday revealed the lack of fire safety in residential buildings and the stark failures of the UK government and construction industry.

Danita Yadav
 6 September 2024 



A public inquriy into the Grenfell Tower Blaze found that all 72 deaths were "avoidable" | Photo: AP

Seven years later after a horrific fire at London's Grenfell Tower claimed 72 lives, a public inquiry into the fire has revealed that all of the deaths could have been avoided.

The inquiry published on Wednesday revealed the stark failures of the UK government, the construction industry and the lack of fire safety in residential buildings.

1,700 pages pointed out that the deadly fire was the end result of "decades of failure" where profit was placed over people.

What Was The Grenfell Tower Blaze?

On June 14, 2017, a high-rise fire broke out at Grenfell Tower flats in West London. The fire at the 24-storey building burned for a total of 60 fires and claimed 70 lives due to the fire.

Two others died after they succumbed to the injuries caused by the apartment blaze. The fire which started as an electrical fault and kitchen fire on the fourth floor, soon spread to the cladding panel of the building.

The fire began to spread rapidly and firefighters then saw another fire on the fifth floor. Residents fled to higher floors as large quantities of debris began to fall. While some managed to escape the fire, many residents fell to their deaths due to the intensity of the flames.

Floral tribute for the victims of the Grenfell Tower blaze outside Notting Hill Methodist Church Photo: Flickr/ ChiralJon

The fire which started at 12:54 AM BST spread at a "terrifying rate" and by 1:30 AM, the blaze grew out of control. The fire was brought under control around midnight of June 15 and was declared extinguished on June 16, 2017.

Of a total of 293 residents in the building, 223 people managed to escape the fire and were rescued by firefighters. A total of 72 people were killed in the incident, including a large number of children.

The Grenfell Tower Blaze also etched itself into history by becoming one of the deadliest residential building fires in the UK since the Blitz during World War 2.

What Has The Inquiry Revealed?

Over the 1,700 page inquiry, the words "incompetence", "greed" and "dishonesty" found multiple mentions. As per the inquiry's chair Martin Moore-Bick, all 72 deaths caused due to the blaze "were all avoidable".

Seven years of research and investigation pointed the blame on the companies involved in the maintenance and refit of the tower. The report added that companies had dishonestly marketed combustible cladding materials as safe.

The inquiry named three major firms - Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex - and accused them of "misleading the market". Architects Studio E and the the builders from Rydon and Harley Facades were also held responsible for the blaze.

The Theresa May government was also brought under fire, along with the local authorities of Kensington and Chelsea for their inaction over fire safety in high-rise buildings.


Charred remains of Grenfell Tower captured on June 17, 2017 Photo: Flickr/ ChiralJon

"Not all of them bear the same degree of responsibility for the eventual disaster, but as our reports show, all contributed to it in one way or another, in most cases, through incompetence, but in some cases, through dishonesty and greed," said Moore-Bick.

Grenfell United, a group representing the families of the victims and survivors of the fire called out the government for its failure to safeguard life.

"The duty of government should be to safeguard life, whilst protecting us from corporate greed. But for too long, they have aided corporations, facilitating them to profit and dictate regulation," said Grenfell United.

With the release of the much-awaited inquiry, police have revealed a total of 58 people and 19 organisations have been put under investigation. However, due to the delayed report, any prosecutions over corporate manslaughter and fraud for the accused remain years away.

The 2024 report comes years after the initial report in 2019 which examined the sequence of events on the night of June 17, 2017, and the actions of the fire brigades.

The 2019 report, which was phase one of the inquiry revealed the cause of the fire - an electrical fault in the refrigerator - and the reason behind the rapid spread of the fire - the building had been covered with cladding made from flammable aluminium composite material which acted as a source of fuel

The phase one report also praised the courage of the firefighters but highlighted the failure among fire brigade chiefs who had not been prepared for the Grenfell fire.

One of the major criticisms was the "Stay put" strategy deployed by the fire brigade as not only did it trap residents inside the tower as they watched it burn but it also took lives which could have been saved easily.

Grenfell Surivivors, Victims 'Failed For Years'

Following the publication of phase two of the inquiry report, newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer apologised to the relatives of victims and survivors of the Grenfell tower on behalf of his predecessors.

"It should never have happened. The country failed to discharge its most fundamental duty, to protect you and your loved ones," said Starmer during a session of the parliament."


The Labour leader also expressed his admiration for the strength to relive the events of Grenfell while giving evidential accounts for the inquiry report and called for a "day of justice".

Grenfell firefighter calls for lessons to be learned

Michael Keohan
BBC Kent Political Reporter•@MichaelKeohan

A Kent-based frmer firefighter who attended the Grenfell Tower blaze has said “lessons need to be learned now".

Aldo Diana, from Edenbridge, served as a London firefighter for over 30 years and helped save lives in the fire in June 2017.

Speaking to BBC Radio Kent, Mr Diana said: “I’ve been to many fires over my time, but nothing as alarming as this."

Mr Diana said the fire had “taken its toll” on his mental health and left him wondering “what he could have done better”.

On Wednesday, the six-year public inquiry's damning final report blamed the disaster on "dishonest" companies and a chain of failures by governments.

A cladding manufacturer “deliberately concealed” fire risks, while coalition and Conservative governments “ignored, delayed or disregarded” concerns, the report found.

It also said the local council had shown a “persistent indifference” to fire safety and the needs of vulnerable residents.

The London Fire Brigade Commissioner Andy Roe said the fire service was "not complacent" and would “continue to act on the inquiry's findings".

Aldo Diana
Aldo Diana served as a London firefighter for 30 years

Recalling the night of 14 June 2017, Mr Diana said it was a "normal shift to start off with” but said the scale of the fire soon dawned on him and his colleagues.

“It wasn’t until we got closer to the tower block you realised what a disaster it would be," he added.

Mr Diana rescued nine people on the night, carrying one person down 13 floors.

Speaking of his hopes for the future, he said: “We need to learn, there are still people living in blocks that are unsafe.

"We need to learn the lessons now, not in six months' time.”


Grenfell inquiry slams Lord Pickles and the Tory deregulation agenda

Lord Pickles said to be the only person in his department who thought fire safety issues were exempt from his government’s deregulation policy

by Anthony Robinson
05-09-2024 


image by Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Govt. Flickr

The final report into the Grenfell tragedy published yesterday was highly critical of Eric (Lord) Pickles the communities secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) between 2013 and May 2015. Lord Pickles had told the inquiry into the appalling fire which took 72 lives in West London in 2017, that he was “genuinely amazed” that civil servants weren’t aware that his government’s deregulation drive didn’t include fire safety.

Pickles claimed that it was “ludicrous” that officials in the Building Regulations and Standards Division should have thought that Part B of the regulations dealing with fire safety matters in and around buildings in England, was subject to the Conservative’s deregulation policy. He said that would have been “wholly disproportionate” and “utterly inexplicable” and blamed his staff for making “political assumptions”.

However, the inquiry found that the evidence given by officials inside the DCLG was “strikingly different” from his.
Only Lord Pickles thought fire safety was outside the deregulation policy

The Rt Hon Sir Martin Moore-Bick, who has chaired the inquiry, said he was “unable to accept his [Lord Pickles’] evidence on that question”. Moore-Bick said none of the documents or any of the witnesses, other than Lord Pickles, supported the conclusion that the fire safety regulations were “exempt” from the policy.

While Lord Pickles was communities secretary the report says, “deregulatory considerations appear to have permeated every aspect of the department’s development, assessment and implementation of policy. Far from its being inexplicable that officials were under the impression that the Building Regulations and Approved Document B were subject to the various demands of the policy, the documents demonstrated in clear terms that their understanding was correct”.

The report concluded there was a “wealth of material that showed both that he was personally an ardent supporter of the government’s deregulation policy and that the pressure within the department to reduce red tape was so strong that civil servants felt the need to put it at the forefront of every decision”.

Officials spent ‘inordinate’ amount of time on deregulation

Anthony Burd, principal fire safety professional at the DCLG told the inquiry that officials “spent an inordinate amount of time looking at how they could deregulate”. The “one [regulation] in, one out” rule was introduced by the coalition in January 2011 and extended to “one in, two out” in January 2013. By March 2016 it had become “one in, three out” as ministers sought desperately to slash more and more ‘red tape’.

Burd said it became increasingly difficult to oversee the building regulations because of the reduction in the number of staff and the changes involved in deregulation.

In his report, Moore-Bick said although ministers had excluded the regulatory reform (fire safety) order 2005 from the ‘red tape challenge’ in 2012, a point Pickles made in his evidence, it only served to “reveal the limits of his understanding of the distinction between fire safety regulations on the one hand and the Building Regulations and Approved Documents as they related to fire safety on the other.”

While Moore-Bick mentioned the “one in, one out” policy and the “red tape challenge” which ran from 2011 until 2014, he could have referred to twenty other initiatives and challenges to reduce red tape and the regulatory burden that Yorkshire Bylines listed in 2022, seven of which came after the Grenfell fire.

Yorkshire Bylines

Grenfell community unified in steps toward justice

James W Kelly
BBC News
Ayshea Buksh
BBC London

The Grenfell Inquiry found the 72 deaths were "avoidable"

"For us it's about coming together and figuring out what our next steps are as a community."

That's according to Paul Menacer, a survivor of the Grenfell Tower fire, as he and his neighbours continue to digest the findings of the inquiry's 1,700-page final report.

The deaths of all 72 people in the 2017 blaze in west London were avoidable and had been preceded by "decades of failure" by government, other authorities and the building industry, inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick's report concluded.

Mr Menacer echoed many survivors and bereaved in saying the next steps toward justice lie with the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).


Grenfell Report: Key findings from the inquiry


Speaking at a vigil held on Wednesday evening, he said that although the tragedy is "still raw" within the community seven years on, it has strengthened bonds.

"The amazing thing about our area is the fact we have so many people from [multiple] cultures, backgrounds, races all [together] as one," he added.


Paul Menacer says the community has "come together"


Samia Badani, who organised a community screening of Sir Martin's inquiry remarks at the Maxilla Social Club, said it had laid the "first steps" towards "accountability and justice".

"[The inquiry] gave us the truth, but it did not give us justice. It has given our community, Grenfell United, those fighting for justice, the means to hold those responsible accountable," she said.

Francis Dean, who lost his close friend Zainab Deen and her two-year-old son Jerimiah in the fire, said seeking justice for them would be his focus.

"Somebody has to be responsible. Even if it's the whole lot of them, they have to be responsible for it," he added.


Samia Badani said the inquiry was among the "first steps"


Grenfell survivors Miguel Alves and Antonio Roncolato said they are glad the report highlights that lives "could have been saved" on the night of the fire.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Alves said it is now down to the police to get the "justice that we need".

Rayner says unsafe cladding must be removed faster

Grenfell bereaved hope political promises ring true

Grenfell Tower fire: What happens next?

The Metropolitan Police has said it will need an estimated 12 to 18 months to pore over the inquiry's report "line by line" before any criminal charges are brought.

Mr Roncolato said: "Waiting another 18 months... so be it.

"We want to see those responsible, with blood on their hands, held to account."

The pair added they want to see action, a time frame and a plan.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met Stuart Cundy said on Wednesday: “Our police investigation is independent of the public inquiry.

"It operates under a different legal framework and so we cannot simply use the report’s findings as evidence to bring charges."

He added that in order to "secure justice for those who died and all those affected by the fire" a thorough investigation was needed, which would take "at least 12-18 months".

Telegram quietly enables users to report private chats to moderators after founder’s arrest

Manish Singh

 • September 5, 2024

Image Credits: Steve Jennings / Getty Images

Telegram has quietly updated its policy to allow users to report private chats to its moderators following the arrest of founder Pavel Durov in France last month over “crimes committed by third parties” on the platform. 

The messaging app, which serves nearly 1 billion monthly active users, has long maintained a reputation for minimal supervision of user interactions.

On Thursday night, Telegram began implementing changes to its moderation policy. “All Telegram apps have ‘Report’ buttons that let you flag illegal content for our moderators — in just a few taps,” the company states on its updated frequently-asked-questions page. 

The platform has also provided an email address for automated takedown requests, instructing users to include links to content requiring moderator attention.

It’s unclear how, and whether, this change impacts Telegram’s ability to respond to requests from law enforcement agencies. The company has previously cooperated with court orders to share some information about its users.

TechCrunch has reached out to Telegram for comment.

These policy changes follow Durov’s arrest by French authorities in connection with an investigation into crimes related to child sexual abuse images, drug trafficking, and fraudulent transactions. 

Responding to his arrest, Durov posted on his Telegram channel, criticizing the action: “Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach.” 

He argued that the established practice for countries dissatisfied with an internet service is to initiate legal action against the service itself, rather than its management.

Durov cautioned that if entrepreneurs were held responsible for potential abuse of their products, “no innovator will ever build new tools.”

Telegram CEO Durov says his arrest 'misguided'

Ali Abbas Ahmadi
BBC News

Pavel Durov, pictured in 2016

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has hit out at French authorities, calling his arrest last week in relation to allegations of insufficient moderation on the messaging app "misguided".

In his first public statement since he was detained, he denied claims that Telegram is "some sort of anarchic paradise" as "absolutely untrue".

Mr Durov was arrested on 25 August at an airport north of Paris and has since been charged over suspected complicity in allowing illicit transactions, drug trafficking, fraud and the spread of child sex abuse images to flourish on his site.

In Mr Durov's statement, which he published on Telegram, he said holding him responsible for crimes committed by third parties on the platform was both a "surprising" and "misguided approach".

"If a country is unhappy with an Internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself," the Russian-born billionaire, who is also a French national, said.

"Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach."

"Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools," he added.

While he conceded that Telegram was not perfect, he said French authorities had several ways to get in touch with him and with Telegram, and that the app has an official representative in the EU.

"The claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue. We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day," he insisted.

Telegram allows groups of up to 200,000 members, which critics have argued makes it easier for misinformation to spread, and for users to share conspiracist, neo-Nazi, paedophilic, or terror-related content.

Recently in the UK, the app has been scrutinised for hosting far-right channels that were instrumental in organising violent disorder in English cities last month.

Telegram did remove some groups, however cybersecurity experts say overall its system of moderating extremist and illegal content is significantly weaker than that of other social media companies and messenger apps.

In his statement on Thursday, Mr Durov admitted that an "abrupt increase" in the number of users on the messaging app - which he put at 950 million - had "caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform."

He said he would aim to "significantly improve things in this regard".

It comes after the BBC learned last week that Telegram has refused to join international programmes aimed at detecting and removing child abuse material online.

Pavel Durov, 39, was born in Russia and now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based. He holds citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France.

Telegram, which he founded in 2013, is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet Union states.

The app was banned in Russia in 2018, after a previous refusal by him to hand over user data. The ban was reversed in 2021.

Telegram is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.

FROM STALINISM TO FASCISM

Putin ‘wins’ in eastern Germany

A post-election debate over U.S. missiles and military aid for Ukraine is hampering coalition building in Germany’s east.

In regional elections in the formerly communist east on Sunday, Russia-friendly parties on both extremes of the political spectrum surged.

 | Ronny Hartman/AFP via Getty Images

September 6, 2024 
By Nette Nöstlinger and Svetlana Shkolnikova

BERLIN — A heated debate on Russia is crashing the normally more provincial politics of eastern German states, and Vladimir Putin is likely loving it.

In regional elections in the formerly communist east on Sunday, Russia-friendly parties on both extremes of the political spectrum surged — and they are already demanding that German leaders radically change their way of dealing with the Kremlin.

That includes the populist-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a new party named after its founder, a leftist icon who started out in politics as a member of East Germany’s communist party, which took third place in both Thuringia and Saxony.

One of BSW’s post-election demands: that Berlin halt a plan, announced in July, for the United States to deploy long-range missiles in Germany starting in 2026 to defend NATO territory. Putin, soon after, threatened to take “mirror measures,” accusing the U.S. and its allies of escalating tensions.

“Many people are afraid that Germany will allow itself to be dragged into this war and many people also see the great dangers of the U.S. missile plans,” Wagenknecht said on German public television after the regional elections.

Members of her party, who also advocate a stop to military aid for Ukraine and peace negotiations with Putin, have since suggested they won’t form coalitions with any party that supports the presence of U.S. missiles.

“We see that this is a measure that directly increases the risk of war for Germany and we believe that a state government must really raise its voice here,” Amira Mohamed Ali, co-leader of BSW, said on German public radio.

It remains unclear how the CDU will navigate its dilemma over whether to work with BSW. 

| Michele Tantussi/Getty Images

The BSW’s stance puts the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which won in Saxony and came in second in Thuringia, in a difficult position.

With all parties vowing not to govern with the far-right, pro-Russia Alternative for Germany (AfD) despite the party's surge in the elections, the CDU is set to lead coalition talks. But in eastern Germany’s new fragmented political landscape, the CDU needs BSW as a coalition partner.

Such a partnership, however, would be highly fraught. CDU leaders on a national level categorically reject BSW’s positions on Russia and accuse the party of being a tool of the Kremlin.

“The BSW acts as an extension of the Kremlin and contradicts all values [our party] traditionally stands for,” Roderich Kiesewetter, a senior CDU parliamentarian on the foreign affairs committee, told POLITICO. “This can also be seen as part of Russia's hybrid strategy of shaping the discourse and setting the agenda in Germany.”

Kiesewetter is among some 100 CDU politicians who have launched an effort to rule out cooperation with the BSW on any level by extending a party resolution banning cooperation with the AfD and The Left party, the successor to the East German communist party, to include the BSW.
Sympathy for the Kremlin in the east

But such a move would put local CDU politicians in Germany’s east in a peculiar spot, given the pervasiveness of Kremlin-friendly views among their constituents.

Nearly 3 out of 4 people in eastern Germany do not want the deployment of U.S. missiles in their country, according to a Forsa poll from late July. (Nationwide, half of Germans reject the plan.)

That helps explain why the conservative premier of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, who led his CDU to a narrow victory over the AfD on Sunday, has views that are out of step with his party’s national leaders when it comes to Russia. In fact, on that subject, he often sounds a lot like a politician in BSW.

“We can no longer provide funds for weapons to Ukraine only for these weapons to be used up and achieve nothing,” he told a German media outlet ahead of the election. Kretschmer has also called for a referendum on the U.S. missile deployment.

It remains unclear how the CDU will navigate its dilemma over whether to work with BSW. But one thing seems certain: The Kremlin is very pleased that a debate is taking place due to the party's rise.

“60 Minutes,” a popular Russian political show, included a segment highlighting the success of BSW, a party, as a narrator put it, that was "formed around the concept of peace.” | Michele Tantussi/Getty Images

The rise of Russia-friendly parties in eastern Germany has been a focus of attention on Russian state television. Coverage of the election on “60 Minutes,” a popular Russian political show, included a segment highlighting the success of BSW, a party, as a narrator put it, that was "formed around the concept of peace.”

The party’s message, according to the show, has found resonance in an eastern Germany where “there is nostalgia for the socialist past and resistance to the U.S. and NATO is quite strong.”

When a guest on the show wanted to dissect the election results in Germany, the host, Yevgeny Popov, also a Russian parliamentarian, intervened in a half-joking manner.

“What is there to analyze?” he said. “Putin won!”

WWIII

Malaysia says it won’t bow to China’s demands to halt oil exploration in the South China Sea

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

September 6, 2024

In this photo released by Roscongress Foundation, Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim gestures as he speaks upon his arrival at the International Airport in Vladivostok, Russia, Sept. 4, 2024, to attend at the Eastern Economic Forum. (Roscongress Foundation via AP)

KUALA LUMPUR--Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Thursday that Malaysia will not bow to demands by China to stop its oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea as the activities are within the country’s waters.

Anwar said Malaysia would continue to explain its stance following China’s accusations in a protest note in February to the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing that Kuala Lumpur had infringed on its territory. Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it was investigating the leak of the diplomatic protest note that was published by a Filipino media outlet on Aug. 29.

“We have never intended in any way to be intentionally provocative, unnecessarily hostile. China is a great friend, but of course we have to operate in our waters and secure economic advantage, including drilling for oil in our territory,” Anwar said in a televised news conference from Russia, where he is on an official visit.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer published the diplomatic note in which Beijing reportedly demanded that Malaysia immediately halt all activities in an oil-rich maritime area off Sarawak state on Borneo island.

The report said China had accused Malaysia of encroaching on areas covered by its 10-dash line, Beijing’s controversial map showing its claims to sovereignty in the South China Sea. The diplomatic note also expressed Beijing’s displeasure over Malaysia’s oil and gas exploration activities near the Luconia Shoals, which is near to Sarawak, it said.

Anwar said it wasn’t the first time China had sent a protest note over the South China Sea dispute but stressed it shouldn’t mar a strong relationship. Anwar had called China a “true friend” during a visit to Malaysia by Chinese President Li Qiang in June to mark 50 years of diplomatic ties.

“We have said that we will not transgress other people’s borders,” Anwar said. “They know our position ... They have claimed that we are infringing on their territory. That is not the case. We say no, it is our territory. But if they continue with the dispute, then okay, we will have to listen, and they will have to listen.”

Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan all dispute Beijing’s claims to almost the entire South China Sea. Unlike the Philippines which has had public clashes with China in the disputed area, Malaysia’s government prefers diplomatic channels. It rarely criticizes Beijing publicly, even though Chinese coast guard ships have sailed near Malaysia’s waters. This is partly to protect economic ties as China has been Malaysia’s top trading partner since 2009.