Singapore, youre watching bbc world news. Its newsday. Good morning. Its 8am in singapore and 1am here in london where the british Prime Minister theresa may has ordered a Public Inquiry into the fire that devastated a residential block of flats in west london. 17 people are now known to have died. Many residents are missing, with whole families unaccounted for. Heres the latest from our home editor, mark easton, and i must warn you, there are some distressing details in his report. Slowly, inch by painstaking inch, Fire Officers continue their grim and dangerous work. Amid the soot blackened shell of what was once home to hundreds are some who did not make it out. Exactly how many, we dont know, but police today said they hoped the final death toll would not be in three figures. The scale of this tragedy is yet to become clear. Sadly, i can confirm the number of people who have died is now 17. We do believe that that number will sadly increase. There are 37 people receiving treatment, of which 17 are still in critical care. The brother of these two syrians was one of those who lost his life. Mohammed alhajali was an engineering student seeking a better life in britain. Omar was with him as firemen tried to evacuate the blazing building but the pair got separated. I looked behind me, i didnt see my brother. I said, my brother, my brother, where is he . They were ignoring downstairs. I went outside. I called him. I said, where are you . He said, im in the flat. I said why you didnt come . They brought us outside. I thought you were with us. He said nobody brought me outside. He said why have you left me . He said why . I didnt leave i thought they took him outside with me. They didnt. They left him. Younger brother, hashim, continued to talk to mohammed on his mobile phone until there was no reply. He said, please tell mum to pray for me. Telling me use the quran for him. He said, are you happy . Are you happy with me . Do you have any problem with me . Isaid, no, who has a problem with you . You have a sweet heart, mohammed. Youll make it out. Then he said. He was speaking slowly. He said, i cant. I cannot breath. Iam dying. They left me. Why . Relatives of five year old isaac paulos confirmed today that the little boy was among those who died in the fire. The agony of a wounded neighbourhood is written on a wall, the desperation of people searching for family and friends. Prayers and solace from near and far. For the last two days, jason garcia has been searching for his 12 year old cousin jessica urbano. We feel helpless, really. Were hoping that, by putting up posters, sharing her image on social media, and talking to people like yourself, that maybe someone with information will get in touch. Thy kingdom come. This evening, jessicas parents and friends gathered together in a community that is craving answers but complains of delays and evasion. At the moment, were grieving, but there s a bubbling anger underneath and we want to see somebody held accountable for this. The love and generosity thats poured into North Kensington in the last couple of days cannot make up for the numbing sense of loss. The Prime Minister made a private visit to the scene today, speaking to Emergency Workers before announcing there will be a full Public Inquiry into what went wrong. When i spoke to the emergency services, they told me the way this fire progressed and how it took hold of the building was rapid, ferocious and unexpected. We have to get to the bottom of this. The truth has got to come out, and it will. The labour leader, jeremy corbyn, also went in North Kensington, insisting he would speak up for the community. Shock and grief are being joined by outrage and anger. The questions are raining down, rather like the charred lumps of cladding which locals are holding up as possible evidence that people were housed in a preventable death trap. This Tower Block Fire looks just like North Kensington. London mayor sadiq khan was heckled by a small group of people on a visit to Grenfell Tower today. Whats he gonna say . I dont want to hear this rubbish. Feelings are running high. Understandably, the residents are very angry and concerned and have genuine questions that demand answers and so whereas. Someone needs to be held accountable. These deaths could have been prevented the concerns are notjust about what went wrong in North Kensington, theyre also about what could go wrong in thousands of tower blocks across britain. Residents at trellick tower, who can see Grenfell Tower from their balconies, now have a constant and disturbing reminder of the risks of high rise living. Mark easton, bbc news, North Kensington. Another devastating story, this time in china, where at least seven people have been killed in an explosion outside a nursery. Its not yet known if any children are among the dead. At least 66 people have been injured and officials are investigating the cause of the blast in the easternjiangso province. Our beijing correspondent, john sudworth, has this update. Photographs from the scene showed both adults and children lying on the ground, some of them bleeding heavily. The police say the explosion happened at around liz50pm. The time of course in china in which many parents would have been picking up their children from school. Unconfirmed eyewitness reports being reported by local media suggest at this stage that the explosion may have been caused by a Cooking Gas Canister at a local food stall. China, of course, has a relatively poor record when it comes to industrial or public safety. And, indeed, in the past, there have been a number of incidents in which there have been deliberate Violent Attacks on schools by individuals bearing a grudge. But it is too early to speculate in this case. While the hospitals continue to treat the injured, the police say they are investigating the cause. Also making news today the father of an american student who was detained in north korea for 17 months has accused pyongyang of brutalising his son. Otto warmbier, who was jailed for trying to steal a propaganda banner, was returned to the us this week on humanitarian grounds. Doctors say otto has a severe neurological injury and has extensive loss of brain tissue. His father is relieved to have his son back. The judge in the bill cosby Sexual Assault trial has instructed the jury to keep trying to reach a unanimous verdict. Thejurors told thejudge they were in deadlock, despite 30 hours of deliberations. The comedian denies drugging and assaulting a woman at his home near philadelphia in 200a. Russias president Vladimir Putin has offered the fired fbi chief james comey Political Asylum during his annual question and answer phone in on russian state tv. He said mr comey, whod been looking into russian interference with the us president ial election, had things in common with edward snowden, the Us Intelligence analyst, who took refuge in moscow after leaking classified information. Now take a look at this. This performer, attaching herself to a helicopter, is erendira wallenda, whos about to fly over niagara falls, where she performed a routine which included hanging from a cord gripped only by her teeth. As you can see, she put on quite a show for the watching crowds. Erendira comes from a family with a bit of a history linked to niagara. Her husband, nik, walked a tightrope across the falls five years ago. And youll be glad to know he was there when she came back down to the landing site, safe and sound. We are turning to the fire. Many families are still waiting anxiously for news about their loved ones. There have been notices about asking for information. The police say they may never be able to identify all all who have died. We report on a search for relatives. Some of the details in the report may be upsetting. Mohammed hakim fears hes lost everyone his mother, father, two brothers and sister. All his extended family supporting him now rushed to the fire when the calls of panic came. I spoke to her and the last few words she said to me was, please forgive me if ive said anything to upset you or hurt you. I dont think were going to make it out of the building. They were supposed to be celebrating next month. His sister, husna, was getting married, but the entire family were trapped on the 17th floor. They were Reciting Duas from the koran. And it wasjust heartbreaking, and then itjust cut out. And then i rang husna. She was, like, were not going to make it, we cant make it, we can see flames under the door. We can see flames under the door. I kept saying, try and put things under the door to stop the smoke coming in and get as low as you can and open the windows. Someones going to come, call the fire brigade, do something. And then she stopped talking. All i could hear was this Crackling Noise in the background, because the phone was still on, but she wasnt saying anything. The not knowing is killing me. I really need to find out where they are. The family stood helpless outside, unable to rescue them. This is the worst thing i remember in my life. I saw my uncle, from the 17th floor. He opened the window. He kept shouting, please, help us, get us out. He was saying allahs name, and all this. I kept looking at him, helpless. Mohammed, it must be extremely difficult, just not knowing . Not losing one member of my family, but losing all five, the whole, entire family. I dont have my parents any more and you only get one set of parents in this world. And i had three siblings. They are all gone, in the space of a couple of hours, after leaving their house, they are all gone. They still have hope, but feel bereft of help. Adel chaoui is another relative deep in grief and frustration. Ba by leena belkadi, just six months old, is missing, along with her mum, farah, and her dad, omar. They eventually found two of the babys sisters in hospital. We cajoled and begged a nurse to go upstairs and after ten minutes, one of them offered to do so and came down and told us they had a child that matched the description, did we want to come up and have a look. We found one of the children there, the younger. My brothers looking around, and hes staring at another bed and asks farahs older sister to have a look. Farahs older sister says, thats the other child, thats the older one. They were beds apart and nobody in authority was making any effort to identify them. Youve had to do this all yourself . Weve had to do it ourselves. So many families here are looking, hoping, dreading the news that may come. Lucy manning, bbc news, west london. There is much more on this on our website. There is a live page that is constantly updated by reporters. There are also stories for the families and injured. There is also a story on the make up of the tower and what we know about the fire so far. Baseball is said to be americas game, and the countrys leading politicians have made a statement by taking to the field for the annual congressional baseball match. The background of course is the attack on a group of republicans as they were practising at a field in virginia on wednesday. Four people were injured, including senior congressman, steve scalise. The attacker, james hodgkinson, was shot dead by police. Its an annual tradition when republicans and democrats take a Breakfrom Republicans and democrats take a break from the turmoil of the political battle for an evening to play baseball. This is one of the last vestiges of Old Washington where politicians on both sides of the ideological divide put aside partisan differences and actually socialise together. Youre watching newsday on the bbc. Still to come on the programme the duke of yorkjoins me to have his say on life after brexit. There was a bomb in the city centre. A code word known to be one used by the ira was given. Army bomb experts were examining a suspect van when there was a huge explosion. The South African Parliament has destroyed the foundation of apartheid by abolishing the population registration act, which for a0 years forcibly classified each citizen according to race. Germanys parliament, the bundestag, has voted by a narrow majority to move the Seat Government from bonn to berlin. Berliners celebrated into the night but the decision was greeted with shock in bonn. Just a day old and the royal baby is tonight sleeping in his cot at home. Early this evening the new prince was taken by his mother and father to their apartments in kensington palace. The Real Focus Today was valentina tereshkova, the worlds first woman cosmonaut. What do you think of the russian woman in space . I think its a wonderful achievement and i think we might be able to persuade the wife it would be a good idea if i could to get her to go up there for a little while. This is newsday on the bbc. Im Sharanjit Leyl in singapore. Im Kasia Madeira in london. Our top stories the death toll in the london Tower Block Fire rises to 17, but is expected to increase further. A day after a shooting that targeted members of us congress, democrats and republicans take to the field for a Charity Baseball match. This Athletics Footage has gone viral over the past few hours. This is blessing of nigeria competing in the womens long jump at the Diamond League meeting in oslo. Herfirst round effort will be remembered for all the wrong reasons as her hairpiece came loose as she landed. Her leap was 6. 21, about a0 centimetres further than her hair lets take a look at some front pages from around the world. The singapore based strait times leads on a row amongst the islands first family, the lees. The paper reports that the Prime Minister, lee hsien long, has raised serious questions about the way his father, lee kwan yews last will was altered to reintroduce a clause to demolish his house. The gulf news front page carries a photo of supplies being collected for those Made Homeless by the london Tower Block Fire. But a report in the paper quotes the United Arab EmiratesForeign Minister as saying qatar will be isolated if it fails to address the grievances of the gulf nations. The philippines star looks at the public absence of president duterte since monday. It quotes a president ial palace spokesman as saying the president is fatigued not ill after 23 days on the road. Its extremely rare for members of the British Royal family to comment on politics, so our next item is something of a scoop. Ive been talking to the duke of york, or Prince Andrew as hes also known, right here in the newsday studio. Hes been Visiting Singapore for a Commonwealth Science conference. He was also here to promote the programme he runs for entrepreneurs, which is called pitch palace. I was able to get his thoughts on a number of things, including, just three days before negotiations are due to start, brexit. I think that the changes that are going to happened to the uk because of the article 50 instigation, and the negotiations that are going to go on over the next couple of years, there is going to be uncertainty. We live in an uncertain world, as we have seen recently, and its getting more uncertain, but i suspect over time, once people begin to understand exactly what it is that is happening and how it is going to happen, and im just as much in the dark about that as anybody else, i think that the sentiment, as you say, might, well, actually should return because the underlying factors are still stable, good, growing and because. We have been concentrating on 27 countries, if you take that as an internal market, there is an external market thats a lot bigger and many businesses have not looked over that garden fence to some extent and, in my experience recently, businesses to look over the garden fence have gone, mmm, the grass isnt quite as dark and unforgiving as you might expect, and actually getting over the fence, there might be some fresh grass out there. So lets talk about those businesses that are looking over the garden fence, what are the most important parts of the world now for brand uk . The world is your oyster. I think what were seeing is there are a number of businesses that are looking towards the commonwealth. The commonwealth is 53 countries that use the same legal system, and i suspect there are a lot of opportunities in there. The uk is looking at that for a more Holistic Approach anyway. And then youve got the whole of asia. China is very, very important, its growing in importance. The way i would look at it is youre almost spoilt for choice today as to where you could go. I suspect also there are opportunities for International Markets looking at the uk in a way that they may not have looked at us before. The duke of york. With an annual budget of £6 billion, sir mark walport, head of the new uk research and innovation agency, is probably the most powerful person in british science. But will the recent uk elections and brexit throw plans into disarray . Well, lets find out what he thinks . Thank you so much for coming into the studio. Youve been described as the studio. Youve been described as the science supremo, you are going to ta ke the science supremo, you are going to take this role next year as the head of the uk research and innovation agency. Weve got far too little time to talk about exactly what the scope of that job little time to talk about exactly what the scope of thatjob in titles, but can you tell us briefly . Its the public funding for Science Research and innovation. Its building on enormous strengths, we got seven research councils, weve got seven research councils, weve got innovate uk and the opportunity is to bring them together and build on what are our is to bring them together and build on what are oui enormous is to bring them together and build on what are our enormous strengths. The uk puts about 3 s r d funding but we get 50 of the most cited papers 3 of the worlds. We are an innovative country and a globally outward looking country. £6 billion budget sounds like a lot but with the recent uk collections, brexit as well, will that potentially change things . The first thing to say is as pa rt things . The first thing to say is as part of the formation of the uk research and innovation agency, the government has committed an extra £a. 7 billion moving forward to 2021. Obviously well wait to see what happens in terms of science and the negotiations around brexit, but the Prime Minister herself has talked about science as being one of the important pillars of our collaboration. But some of that funding comes from europe at the moment into the uk . Not of that £6 billion, the £6 billion is what the uk is publicly funding but youre right, theres more than another £1 billion a year that comes in from european grants. Wouldnt that be a concern if that goes away . The most important thing of all to be honest is to maintain our collaboration. The very nature of research increasingly it said burdon, thats why im here at the Commonwealth Science conference, bringing together 62 countries and theres a range of collaborations and many with singapore, so ive visited many of the science and Research Institutions and funders in singapore its a burden. Institutions and funders in singapore its a burden. Going back to the situation in the uk, in the past there have been concerns in the past there have been concerns in the Scientific Community that this new organisation youre going to be heading will centralise control of a lot of the funding. Can such a large, monolithic organisation potentially spur innovation . The a nswer potentially spur innovation . The answer is its not going to be a monolithic organisation, its going to bea monolithic organisation, its going to be a polymer thick organisation, we are building on the strength of the existing partners and they will have very strong identities poleksic. We will make sure they have strong leaders as well. So its intended to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts but it isnt about centralisation or some enormous concrete pillar. As i warned earlier we dont have much time but thank you for coming into the studio, sir mark walport. You have been watching newsday. Stay with us, we take you to kazakhstan to find out how the country aims to generate half its energy needs from renewable sources. And before we go, let me bring you these pictures of a young black rhino doing a turn for visitors at tallinn zoo in estonia. The female calf is already giving her mother kibibi the run around, despite being born just two weeks ago. But shes still a bit wary of visitors and didnt get too close. Thats all for now, stay with bbc world news. Very wise congratulations to her. Hello there. It looks predominantly dry for the uk for the next three or four days. Temperatures will rise as well. But actually through the course of yesterday, we lost temporarily some of the heat. Things freshened up behind our cold weather front. We still managed 25 degrees in the sunshine ahead of it. But the fresher atlantic air brought quite a pestering of showers, which continued into the evening but have been easing away overnight, as high pleasures built in. But were not without Weather Fronts. There will be very weak Weather Fronts coming in across parts of Northern Ireland and western scotland. So it will be a more comfortable end to the night but we will have rather more cloud again to greet us across Northern Ireland, western scotland. Cloud coming and going further south, i think, is really the name of the game, because it will be bright with some spells of sunshine, particularly in southern and western areas. For the West Of Scotland, and the islands, the Western Isles in particular, it looks to be fairly damp day, 1as or 15s here. East of the gambians, where the sun comes out, we could see 19 degrees, 20 across Northern Ireland with some Afternoon Sunshine as well. Well see varying amounts of cloud across northern, central and eastern parts of england. Looks like we could see some very decent breaks in the cloud across south wales and the south west. Temperatures in comparison to recent days will be just a degree or two down, 22, 23 the high, but strong sunshine and very high levels of uv, unfortunately. As we go through the coming night, well see a little bit more Misty Low Cloud around. Well see that anyway through the day across western scotland. There could be some around southern and western areas, notjust the coast but inland. Its not going to be a particularly cold night either. As we move into saturday, the High Pressure starting to build in again, pushing those Weather Fronts northwards. Theyre still going to hang on in the far north West Of Scotland through saturday morning but its essentially a fine day. More sunshine, i think, compared with the day ahead. Although for Northern Ireland, still cloud around and scotland, again, the best will be the east of scotland and there we could see temperatures getting into the low 20s. A little warmup for Northern Ireland, again. And certainly so across england and wales as we start to build up the warmth. Sunday again we see the Warmth Building even further. We start to pick up more of a southerly in the south, so hopefully losing the Misty Low Cloud but, again, the north West Of Scotland is looking as if it could be persistently cloudy with some rain at times. If you are finding the prospect of temperatures approaching 30 a little stifling, the sea is a little cooler at this time of year so those sea breezes will be refreshing. But the sun will be just a strong, even around the coast, it doesnt matter if its 15 degrees or 25 degrees. And these are the uv levels through the weekend, as you can see, they are high for many parts of the country. The heat builds further as we head into the start of the new week, particularly in the south. Bye bye. Im kasia madera with bbc world news. Our top story this hour the grim task of Finding Bodies after the london Tower Block Fire. So far, there have been 17 confirmed fatalities, but that number is expected to rise as many are still missing. The last of the fires are being dampened down and specialist teams are now working inside the tower to secure parts of the building. Prime minister theresa may has ordered a full Public Inquiry into the fire, saying people deserve answers as to why it spread so rapidly. The mayor of london, sadiq khan, said the judge chosen to lead the inquiry should publish an interim report this summer. In other news the annual us congressional baseball match is now under way. Players paid tribute to the House Majority whip, steve scalise, and three other people who were injured on wednesday in an attack on a group of republicans who were practising for the game. And another headline here in the uk