Category World News

The UK government has opted to tear down London’s Grenfell Tower, where 72 people died in a 2017 blaze, according to a group representing relatives of the deceased.

The advocacy group Grenfell Next of Kin said in a statement that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner had confirmed the news to a group of victims’ survivors and relatives on Wednesday.

According to The London Standard, the government is scheduled to release a formal statement on Friday.

Some family members want the tower to remain in place until criminal charges are brought against it for the errors that caused the fire, or keep it as a memorial.

According to Grenfell United, a separate organization representing the fire victims’ families, “Angela Rayner could not provide a justification for her decision to destroy the tower.”

“She refused to confirm how many bereaved and survivors had been spoken to in the recent, short four-week consultation”, the group said. No one backed her decision, despite the fact that the majority of the room was bereaved, according to the room alone.

It added: “Ignoring the voices of bereaved on the future of our loved ones ‘ gravesite is disgraceful and unforgivable”.

Following Angela Rayner’s decision to destroy the Grenfell Tower image, our statement follows. twitter.com/9JiB8FDNPA

Grenfell Next of Kin acknowledged that the tower, which is structurally compromised, “cannot be propped up indefinitely due to safety concerns”.

We want to talk about the structural factors that led to this choice, according to Grenfell Next of Kin. “We want a discussion about what will go in the Tower’s place”.

Prior to the eighth anniversary of the tragedy on June 14, the government announced it would not alter the site, which it had been advised to “carefully take down.”

According to a six-year public inquiry into the fire, “decades of failure” put profit before safety as the cause of the disaster.

The inquiry’s report, released last September, highlighted failures by successive UK governments, local council leaders, the fire service and the companies involved in the production and installation of the flammable cladding and insulation that allowed the fire to spread so rapidly.

Here is the situation on Thursday, February 6:

Fighting

• Within 24 hours, according to Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhia Regional Military Administration, Russian troops attacked nine settlements in the southeast of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region. Some 13 reports of damage to residential buildings, vehicles and infrastructure were recorded.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, claimed that Kyiv had recaptured 150 of the country’s most imprisoned soldiers after they had been held captive for more than two years. This effort was part of a mutual swap between both countries, brokered by the United Arab Emirates.
• Kyiv’s military said it shot down 57 of 104 drones launched by Russia overnight, while 42 did not reach their targets. The military said Moscow also shot two Iskander-M ballistic missiles at Ukraine.
• According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the country’s Baranivka and Novomlynsk settlements in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions of eastern Ukraine were taken, according to the state news agency TASS.
• Ukraine’s military said that Kyiv’s forces struck the Bashneft oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region, sparking a blaze. The oil refinery was involved in the supply of gasoline and diesel to Russian forces, according to the military.
• In an explosion close to a military conscription office in the country’s western Khmelnytskyi region, local police reported one fatality and four others injured, according to local media.
• Two people were killed near the front line in eastern Donetsk, according to Kyiv’s emergency services, and one was killed close to the Black Sea port of Odesa, both as a result of Russian attacks.

• Ivan Vyhivskyi, the country’s national police chief, claimed Russia’s spy agencies were to blame for the explosions at Kyiv’s military draft offices, according to Interfax, the country’s state news agency.
• Rustem Umerov, the country’s defense minister, announced that a project to create robotic vehicle units would “scale up the use of unmanned ground systems in the military.”

Russian oil and gas

• Igor Babushkin, governor of Russia’s Astrakhan region, told residents not to panic after its main city, which lies close to a large gas chemical complex, was enveloped in a cloud of natural gas following a Ukrainian attack. He also promised to keep the residents informed that open spaces don’t pose a risk to natural gas.

Humanitarian aid

• Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev authorized the government to spend $1 million on the purchase and delivery of energy equipment, according to a decree signed by the country’s president.

Politics and diplomacy

• Zelenskyy authorized two bills that would extend the period of martial law and mobilization until May 9.
• Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, expressed his satisfaction with President Donald Trump’s assertion that Moscow was concerned about a potential NATO ally’s entry into Ukraine.
• Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, stated that the country is in contact with Washington on a ministerial level and that the communication had been “intensifying,” but he would not provide more information.
• Zygimantas Vaiciunas, the energy minister of Lithuania, claimed that the three Baltic states joining the Western European power grid on Saturday would end “Russia’s capacity to use the electricity system as a tool of geopolitical blackmail”.
• According to Reuters, David Lammy, the foreign minister of the United Kingdom, will announce 55 million pounds ($68.7 million) in financial aid to Kyiv to aid inputting it in the “strongest position possible”.
• Due to lack of security guarantees from Moscow, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delayed the rotation of its mission to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. The ministry warned that it would “not allow Russia to undermine the Agency’s independence” as a result of the Kremlin’s use of blackmail as a tool to intimidate international experts.

• Mikhail Ulanov, a senior diplomat in Moscow, claimed that Ukraine is lying about the lack of Russian guarantees, according to RIA news agency. Instead, Ukraine was trying to set new rules for the rotation of IAEA personnel, he reportedly said.
• Zelenskyy said he was ready for direct talks with Vladimir Putin, but that was “empty words,” according to Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin.
• Peskov also branded Zelenskyy’s demand for nuclear weapons as “bordering on madness”, adding that “there is a non-proliferation regime for nuclear weapons, among other things”.
• Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine has “huge” potential to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US and invited US businesses to participate in Kyiv’s reconstruction.
• Zelenskyy reiterated his willingness to hold elections in Ukraine, citing legal and logistical considerations, but he claimed the process is still a challenge in the face of the conflict.
• According to the Norwegian Intelligence Service, Russia is “likely” to launch sabotage operations against Ukraine in 2025, possibly involving Ukraine’s energy infrastructure or aid.

In a poor 1-1 draw with Botafogo in the Brazilian Paulista Championship, Brazilian forward Neymar made his long-awaited return to his former club Santos.

Before kickoff on Wednesday, the jubilant and tearful fans lit up their mobile phones to give the striker, who left the team 12 years ago, a hero’s welcome.

Neymar, who was celebrating his 33rd birthday, started on the bench and came on after the break as Santos had taken the lead through Tiquinho Soares ‘ first-half penalty.

However, the forward struggled under the pressure of his first game in 16 months.

He tried to conjure up some of the magic that had placed him among the world’s best for five years at Barcelona, but it wasn’t enough.

Alexandre de Jesus scored the winner for Botafogo in the 67th minute. Four minutes later, Walshison was fouled on Neymar, but Santos were unable to exploit their superiority.

“I can’t find the words to express the feeling when you love something. After the game, Neymar said, “I love Santos very much and I can’t even describe the feeling I felt when I stepped out on the pitch today.”

“It was a very difficult game. My father was there on the side, even to my knowledge. I said, ‘ It’s a difficult game, they’re marking a lot at the back, they’re a team that defends a lot, a lot of hitting. ‘ And they found a ball and scored. I think it’s time for me to be patient and get some practice”, the player added.

After torn apart in his left knee during a World Cup qualifier against Uruguay in October, Neymar was limited to seven appearances. He left Paris Saint Germain for Saudi Arabia.

The forward has stated that his remarkable career will come to an end as he tries to “play football once more,” as he has stated.

Neymar won six trophies during his first stint with Santos from 2009-2013, including the 2011 Copa Libertadores.