1 week ago Barking balcony collapse: Disaster waiting to happen, say experts

Barking balcony collapse: Disaster waiting to happen, say experts  BBC

Events

1 week ago ‘Poor management leads to fatal crushes’: how Glastonbury and others are dealing with big crowds

After disasters such as Astroworld and scary bottlenecks at last year’s Glastonbury, Emily Eavis and crowd experts explain how they’re trying to make events safeIn the last two decades the British festival season has ballooned in size to become not just a critical part of our cultural life, but the economy at large – worth billions of pounds, and numbering as many as 850 events last year. But as Glastonbury kicks off this weekend and the season enters its peak, there are a growing number of controversies around crowd safety and management.In April, London Assembly member and Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall echoed Metropolitan police concerns about the potential for a “mass casualty event” at Notting Hill Carnival this year, and in May, the Mail on Sunday published an anonymous Glastonbury whistleblower’s allegation that the festival is a “disaster waiting to happen Worst-case scenario, people are going to die.” Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago The legacy of the Grenfell fire: 'People who lived in that tower were nothing to those in charge'

Eight years after the disaster, a new Netflix documentary aims to unpack what happened. We spoke to one of the families who are still waiting for justice

Events

3 w. ago Why the Air India flight crashed: Expert Julian Bray has advised on the deadliest calamities. Now he examines the footage to reveal 'weird' inconsistencies... and a horrifying possibility

All plane crashes horrify us at a visceral level - but yesterday's Air India disaster is in a league of its own. What really happened? Can any lessons be learned?

Events

3 w. ago Huge row as Tories demand watchdog probes Reform over data grab

The Tories have called on the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to look into a 'cyber-security disaster waiting to happen' affecting Reform-controlled councils

Politics

3 w. ago Troops are now patrolling Los Angeles. This is a disaster waiting to happen | Kenneth Roth

Troops are trained for war, where they can shoot to kill. Asking troops to police is an invitation to brutalityThis was the moment that Donald Trump was waiting for. A Democratic city, Los Angeles. A Democratic state, California. His most popular issue, immigration. And protests where occasional violence could be spotlighted endlessly on social media. What better time to summon the troops and burnish the president’s tough-guy image.But Trump should be careful what he wishes for. The spectacle of needlessly calling in 4,000 national guard troops and 700 Marines may be red meat for his Maga base, but for most everyone else it is a bright warning sign of Trump’s autocratic tendencies. Rather than quell the protests, he is provoking more, not only in LA but in at least two dozen cities across the US. Even if this is not yet the mass mobilization that such repression has sparked in other countries, it is making Trump’s true colors clear.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Ri...

Events

3 w. ago ‘Absolutely shocking’: Netflix documentary examines how the Titan sub disaster happened

New film Titan: The OceanGate Disaster looks back at the many bad decisions that led to the devastating 2023 tragedyIf you were sentient in the summer of 2023, you probably remember the feverish speculation, vicarious horror, snap consternation and armchair sleuthing after the disappearance of the submersible called Titan during a commercial voyage to the wreck of the Titanic. The Titan sub disaster was inescapable for weeks as the story evolved from critical rescue mission – the best-case scenario being a mechanical failure deep in the North Atlantic with 96 hours of oxygen for the five passengers, which you better believe became a countdown clock on cable news – to tragic recovery operation.The sub, it turned out, had imploded at 3,300 meters beneath the surface, 90 minutes into a dive that was supposed to reach 3,800 meters deep. All five passengers – British explorer Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, French diver Paul-...

Events