of titanic artefacts recovered from the ship. welcome to the programme. i'm lewis vaughan jones. a bbc investigation has found that a priest in blackburn who was assessed as a potential risk to children and young people was given a six—figure pay—off by the church of england. canon andrew hindley was subject to five police investigations, but wasn't charged. he has always strongly denied any wrongdoing. our religion editor, aleem maqbool, reports. a cathedral, meant to be a place of harmony and sanctuary. but at its heart a secret, kept out of the public eye for decades until now. good morning and welcome to blackburn cathedral. for more than 30 years, canon andrew hindley worked in the blackburn diocese. over that time, he faced allegations of abuse,

including sexual assault. we've now discovered when he left in 2022, it was with a payoff believed to be around £250,000. when i was first ordained, i imagined that i'd be a priest for ever. rowena pailing was a senior blackburn cathedral priest who resigned in protest at the payoff. the message that that sends to victims and survivors is absolutely horrific. so when there were senior clergy, bishops, saying, "oh, this is wonderful, it's all resolved, a settlement has been, has been reached", expecting me to be happy, i was devastated. canon hindley faced five police investigations. he was never charged and has always strongly denied any wrongdoing. but risk assessments commissioned by the church itself concluded he did pose a potential risk to children and young people. for years, the church failed to act effectively on the warnings. the first reaction seemed to be one

of fear to take it on. joan, not her real name, says her relative made a complaint of sexual misconduct against canon hindley. she won't talk about the allegations themselves, but says herfamily was deeply let down by the church. that fear seemed to revolve around the likelihood that the church could be brought down by this. a former bishop of blackburn even suggested she and herfamily move on. canon hindley was suspended, but restrictions on him weren't monitored. internal church investigations into him were dismissed and there were more allegations, as recently as 2018. the institution seemed fearful he would take legal action if he was removed. well, having not managed for years to get rid of a priest who was deemed a risk to young people, we've seen leaked letters that show that leaders of the church of england felt an alternative would just be to close blackburn cathedral completely.

a plan that wasn'tjust discussed but appears at one point to have been approved. in the end, canon hindley was forced to retire early and accepted a large payment. the church says it was to settle a legal dispute and was their only option to remove him. i don't think anybody can be quite happy with the way that that situation was resolved. the current bishop of blackburn, philip north, was not in post when the settlement was made and says lessons need to be learned. but what about all the warnings the church had? there is a grey area around risk assessments, and so a priest can have a risk assessment, which can indicate a level of risk and the action, the powers of a diocesan bishop are limited. there are people listening who will feel there's no grey area there. if a risk assessment comes along and says children are unsafe around a member of clergy, that's pretty black and white. i completely agree with you. i suppose, i suppose the answer would be, but actually that priest hasn't done anything yet. it would depend on the findings

of the risk assessment, but my view is that if a risk assessment says that a priest is a risk, ishould be able to take action. and at the moment, the disciplinary processes in the church are not strong enough to do that. and that's an area where i and others will be pushing for change. for rowena pailing, the church of england absolutely could and should have done more. she says its repeated failings meant she had no choice but to step down. i took a decision on conscience that i couldn't work for an organisation which put its own reputation and the protection of alleged abusers above the protection and care, and listening to victims and survivors. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in blackburn. and our religion editor, aleem maqbool, joins me now. so one of the questions clearly don't come off the back of that is just what is really the only option?

yes, you heard the current bishop of blackburn saying the system has failed. the question for people outside is, why not change their systems and urgently and quickly? he says that is in train but in the meantime, there must have been an alternative to paying this man nearly a quarter of £1 million is what a lot of people would ask. we have got a response from one of the men who made a decision to make that payment, which is the former bishop of blackburn. 0n payment, which is the former bishop of blackburn. on that settlement he says, our priority was to ensure canon hindley could never return to ministry, this was primarily to protect children and young people from the risky post. the decision was made at the time, this was the only option left to us to obtain the desired outcome. i wish other mechanisms by which canon hindley could have been removed were available. but we have spoken to safeguarding experts, even those who

have done reviews into the church, who say if you were worried about legal action, that is not an excuse. when it comes to safeguarding, there is only one priority which is the safety of young people. so the risk assessment comes back and said somebody should not be around children and young people, you get rid of them and you deal with the legal ramifications. but the church says it is looking into what it can learn from this case and others but it has said that in the past, and i think a lot of people are waiting for change. fin think a lot of people are waiting for change-— think a lot of people are waiting for change. think a lot of people are waiting for chance. . ., ., ., ., for change. on that idea of what are the other alternative _ for change. on that idea of what are the other alternative is _ for change. on that idea of what are the other alternative is what - for change. on that idea of what are the other alternative is what other l the other alternative is what other organisations do and change being set in motion, what is the latest there? {iii set in motion, what is the latest there? u, , , set in motion, what is the latest there? , ., ., there? of course every organisation has responsibilities _ there? of course every organisation has responsibilities when _ there? of course every organisation has responsibilities when it - there? of course every organisation has responsibilities when it comes l has responsibilities when it comes to safeguarding. some people are looking at the church and other religious institutions to do better than other organisations because a lot of people look to them for moral guidance, for example. the church has got a long history of issues in this area and there are a lot of

survivors of abuse in the church of england who say systems are still not transparent. there needs to be more independence in this process. there is still too much interference when it comes to safeguarding procedures and yes, the bishop of blackburn says if the risk assessment comes along, they can be better outcomes, there can be more ability to act but even he had said this morning there are some people within the church who are fighting against that. so there is an issue about culture as well, and that has been an underlying issue to all of these cases that have come up over recent years. these cases that have come up over recent yew-— these cases that have come up over recent veere— these cases that have come up over recent years. aleem maqbool, thank ou ve recent years. aleem maqbool, thank you very much _ recent years. aleem maqbool, thank you very much for — recent years. aleem maqbool, thank you very much for that. _ next, to the middle east now. iran has dismissed calls from western countries to refrain from taking action against israel. the uk prime minister, sir keir starmer, was among leaders who have urged iran to avoid military escalation. his comments — in a phone call

with the new iranian president are part of a wider diplomatic push to prevent any escalation of the violence in the region. but the iranian foreign ministry said the statement lacked "political logic". 0ur political correspondent hannah millerjoins us now from westminster. just talk us through what we know about this phone call first of all. so yesterday, there was a call between the us, france, germany and italy and then after that, the uk prime minister keir starmer spoke directly with the iranian president. he called on iran to refrain from attacking israel, telling president pezeshkian that now was a time for calm and measured behaviour. he said war was not in any one's interests. we are told it was a 30 minute conversation. the first time that the uk prime minister and the

iranian president have spoken in almost three and a half years. so this is rare. it is very unusual. it is not clear from the iranian response at this stage that it has necessarily have any effect but there is a lot of work going in in downing street and i think a clear sign that downing street is concerned about the rising tensions in the middle east.— in the middle east. hannah, thank ou ve in the middle east. hannah, thank you very much _ in the middle east. hannah, thank you very much for _ in the middle east. hannah, thank you very much for that. _ it's a tragedy that continues to fascinate after more than a century. the titanic hit an iceberg and sank in april 1912. the wreckage was only discovered in 1985. since then, more than 5,000 artefacts have been retrieved from the bottom of the atlantic ocean. many of them are kept in a warehouse in the us state of georgia. 0ur science editor, rebecca morelle, has been given rare access. relics from the most famous maritime disaster in history. from parts of the ship to passengers' belongings, everything here is a reminder of a tragedy at sea more

than 100 years ago. i can't reveal the location of where i am. all i can say is that this warehouse is somewhere in atlanta, because what's inside here is incredibly precious. thousands of items recovered from the titanic, and every single one of them tells a story. this is a really beautiful little fashionable bag. and it belonged to marian meanwell. she was a 63—year—old milliner, which means she did all the little detail work on hats and dresses. she was travelling to the us to be with her daughter, who was recently widowed. inside it was a medical card. all third—class passengers had to show they weren't bringing disease into the us. but it also reveals a twist of fate. what's really interesting is that we can see she was originally supposed to sail on the majestic. she actually got re—routed onto titanic. so unlucky. this is a letter, actually, a reference from a former landlord, and it says, "this is to certify

that we have always found miss meanwell to be a good tenant. prompt with payment." and it's signed by wheeler & sons, landlord. i mean, it's amazing this has survived. but there's a photograph. we have very few photographs that survived. but this little picture we think is of her mother, but is just a little bit of an image of a woman left. so, unfortunately, ms meanwell did not make it. she was one of the people who perished. being able to tell her story and have these objects is really important because, otherwise, you know, 1500 names, she's just another name on the list. the titanic sank in 1912 and lies at the bottom of the atlantic. all of the items were recovered from a debris field that surrounds the wreck, where the contents of the ship spilled out as it split apart. so this champagne bottle — we have several others, as well — survived on the floor of the ocean

for decades and actually still had its contents inside of it. there's a lot of bottles on the ocean floor and a lot of, like, stock pots and kitchen pots, because titanic actually broke up around one of the kitchens. so itjust kind of littered this debris all over the ocean floor. so the first—class passengers, i mean, it was pretty glamorous, wasn't it? yeah, titanic was supposed to be the most luxurious liner. so having champagne, having a gym, having all these amenities and all these great things for the passengers would have been really important to them. some artefacts collected from the sea floor also come from those who survived. there was a perfume salesman on board and he actually had over 90 of these little perfume vials. and so you can actually still smell them. that's really — that's mad. after more than 100 years and all that time at the bottom of the ocean, you can still smell the perfume. yeah, and they're still so potent. they belonged to adolf saalfeld, one of 700 people who were rescued from the ship. he was travelling second class.

amazingly, he survived. he went on to live in england after the sinking. he had passed by the time we found this, but it's my understanding that he did live with a bit of guilt, survivor's guilt. titanic was on her maiden voyage, travelling from southampton to the us, when she hit an iceberg. the ship, made from thousands of thick steel plates, was thought to be unsinkable. these are rivets. they held each of the layers of the hull, overlapping together to form the exterior structure. so there were over three million of these on the ship. there was a theory that they were using substandard materials. so maybe the rivets weren't made of the best material, for example? yeah, there were high concentrates of slag in these, which is like a glass—like material that makes them maybe a little bit more brittle in the cold. but if one of the rivet heads popped off easier, then it could have allowed the seam to open up — where the iceberg hit — easier and made it bigger than it

otherwise would have been. some items also show how life on board differed for the social classes. from a sturdy and simple third—class cup to delicate and detailed china for first class. the items retrieved are put on display in exhibitions around the world. rms titanic inc have the only salvage rights to the ship. what do they say to those who think the wreck is a grave site that should be left alone? titanic is something that we want to respect and we want to make sure that we're preserving the memory. because not everyone can go down to titanic, not everyone can go to the ship, and we want to be able to bring that to the public. the company's latest expedition has identified more objects they'd like to bring back. who knows what they'll find and the details each item may tell. rebecca morelle, bbc news, atlanta, georgia. now, here in the uk, one charity is trying to help people struggling

financially. it's called freely fruity, plants fruit trees in public areas so anyone can harvest a healthy snack. 0ur reporterjoe campbell went to meet some volunteers in reading. whitley wood isn't the first place you think of for an orchard, despite its name. but dad joe and daughter abby had come here to help create a site where local people will soon be able to pick their own apples. it's a braeburn apple tree. do you know anything about braeburns or is this a case of plant it and see what comes up, literally? i don't know what care they need in terms of the trees, but yeah, i've eaten the apples, does that count? obviously, i have seen areas where they've just been planting trees, but i've never been involved in doing it before. um, yeah, i'm interested to see the tree grow up, really. the charity behind it has only been up and running a little over three years. this is our first major orchard in reading. we've done several

in wokingham so far. it's really great to get out into whitley and to work with local people. have you got a garden to grow things in? from the young to the not so young, lots of these local people were getting involved. what more could you want? free fruit, yeah. and with the cost of living as well these days, free fruit for people, yeah, it's a wonderful idea. yeah, let's get some flowers in next. now, the charity dreamt up over a meeting of three mates down the pub is in the running for royal recognition, with nomination for a king's award for volunteering. for three men to start this dream up in a pub over a few beers and a game of football for where this charity has led to and become today is just, just crazy and mind boggling again of, you know, the world literally is our orchard, so there's no stopping us now. as well as boosting their public profile, success comes with a visit, appropriately enough, to a royal garden party,

where they and the king would probably have much to talk about. i think from what he's done in the past and the visions he's seen with the future and obviously the greener planet, i think there's, he would get us and it would be great to sort of have that chat with him. stops the roots getting air to them. award winners, possibly including freely fruity, will be announced later this year on the king's birthday. many of us have a favourite holiday destination that we return to year after year — but how about doing it every summer for 57 years? a couple frrom preston have been visiting bude in cornwall since 1967 — and have no plans to stop. 0ur reporter andrea 0rmsby has been to meet them. i'll get the chairs out. back in bude. oh, it took a bit of pulling today. colin and doreen hunt, from preston in lancashire, have had a year or two to perfect their summer holiday routine here.

and another. and another one. deckchairs out, beach hut closed. all right, there we are. time to relax. oh! — oh, that's better. that's better. look at that surf. these two former teachers are real characters. she's 88 and he's 87. he will be 88 in four weeks. i'm a toy boy for three months of the year. so where did the whole bude thing begin? we first came in 1967 and our son was 11 months old. in fact, he learned to walk here. and our daughter was almost three. and we've been coming every year since. nothing has stopped us, even during covid. we came down every year during then. bude is where they learnt to surf. it was all on the old wooden belly boards then. we didn't call it surfing, not

like they do now, have to stand up. and it's where they started walking the south west coast path in sections, finishing the whole thing in 2000. so has there ever been a time they were tempted to bin bude? no! no. no, no. no. we always had at least a week in bude wherever else we went. we have walked all over the world, but there's nowhere more beautiful than the south west coast path. we've never been to a better place for a family holiday. there's so much to do, notjust the sea. we've been to very pretty, picturesque villages. but bude, i think, has everything. it's got the scenery, it's got the sea, and it's got a lot of other activities. i think it's fair to say they quite like the place. i mean, there's so many happy memories connected with bude and especially being with the family, because i think we have a close family, you know, and it's lovely being down with the children and then with the grandchildren, and we're so pleased that the grandchildren enjoy it as much as we did.

it'sjust beautiful. we look forward to it every year. we shall be coming as long as we can make it. oh, that's nice. if they get to 60 summer holidays here, they say they'll have a big party. but with these two, i think we should start planning now for the 70th celebrations. andrea 0rmsby, bbc news. team gb have returned back home after a memorable 0lympics in paris. british athletes won sixty—five medals overall — one more than the total in tokyo, three years ago. many of our 0lympians are out and about today as part of team gb�*s new changemakers programme — supporting community projects across the country — and aiming to inspire the next generation to follow in their footsteps. 0ur reporter tim muffett is at a youth club in paddington to find out more. after every 0lympics, sports often report a post—0lympics bounce. the idea here at north paddington sports club is to turn that short—term bounce into long—term gains.

plenty of young people here inspired by what they saw in paris taking part in a range of sports. a bit of boxing going on here. you can see some basketball, some tennis as well. the hope is that more and more people will do what so many medallists managed to do this year in paris. let's have a quick chat to two very special guests. firstly, dame katherine grainger, former olympic gold medallist, of course, and now chair of uk sport. what's the plan, how are you going to turn short—term interest into long—term gain? so we love paris, we all love paris, and we all feel paris is over, it's behind us now. the amazing thing is we have wonderful olympians still with us who have just stepped off the train and who want to go back into communities and towns and sports halls and pools and share their stories and share their inspiration and talk to young people, talk to everyone about what they've done. the olympians are doing this changemakers programme this week and are all over the country in individual pockets, selling amazing messages of what they've got from sport, what they've given to sport and how they can now can go back

into society and make a difference. thanks so much indeed. now, talking of amazing messages and inspiring people, max whitlock, britain's most successful ever gymnast, just back from paris. no medals this year but you've had plenty before, haven't you, and you've just recently retired? yeah. what's your plan, how are you going to inspire young people to get involved? i think that's what's really important. i i think i'm someone who works well |from targets and setting a mission. j so i'm piling pressure on myself to try and make that impact, - to further on the impact that i've had in the sport, which i feel- very lucky to have had. days like this today, celebrating the changemakers initiative, - to help take athletes, - take their passion projects that they want to try and do make changes within their community . within sport, whether it's making a sport accessible or getting - young people in, ithink that's massively important. - i think that's massively important. so i'm trying to help- the younger generation, grassroots of our sport, working within schools, | helping teachers to start that grassroots and get it right. . when people see people winning a medal at the olympics they think, i will never do that because it is elite sport. can you make grassroots sport connect to that and how do

you improve that connection? i think first and foremost, - the most important thing is finding something you love doing. that's what the passion is for me. i found gymnastics when i was sevenj years old and sometimes just finding that thing is the hardest thing. that is a first step. you find something that you like, something that you enjoy maybel something you are good at but it doesn't matter so much- at that stage. ijust enjoy going in loving what do. i you never know where it can get to. as long as you try something, put yourself out there, - that is the first step. inspiring message indeed. max, congratulations on an amazing career. and thank you for your time, katherine. maybe a future olympian is trying out a spot for the first time here this morning. certainly the hope, paris, people are olympic withdrawal symptoms already. the paralympics in a couple of weeks' time to look forward to and then los angeles 2024 and the hope is people that got inspired by what they saw in france might take up a sport and be representing team gb in few years' time. thanks to tim for that.

banksy has unveiled his ninth animal artwork in as many days — this time at london zoo. the graffiti of a gorilla, seal and birds is in a similar style to the artists' eight other animal works that have been unveiled (00v)yesterday an eighth artwork by the elusive artist featuring an rhino mounting a nissan micra was revealed in charlton, southeast london. however, it wasn't long before the installation was defaced. a man wearing balackava was caught on camera walking up to the artwork and was seen spray painting it with a graffiti tag. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol kirkwood. hello again. yesterday was the warmest day of this year so far. the temperature reached 34.8 celsius in cambridge, but as we go through the rest of the week, it is going to turn that bit cooler. there will be rain at times. it will be unseasonably windy at times as well, but there will still be a fair bit of sunshine around. now today, we've got this weather front bringing in some rain, and if we follow where it wraps around across the northwest, here we'll see a return to sunshine and showers later,

but unseasonably windy across the northwest with gales across the outer hebrides and the isle of skye today. our weather front continuing to drift eastwards through the day. ahead of it across central and eastern parts of england, staying dry with some sunshine. and, in fact, temperatures in norfolk and suffolk could get up to 30 degrees. but fresher conditions in the north and the west. through this evening and overnight, our weather front continues to drift eastwards as a weakening feature. not getting into the far southeast, where it could well be preceded by some showers, but some clear skies and the winds easing. in sheltered parts of the northwest, temperatures could fall away to 5 or 6 degrees, but still quite warm in the south at 15 or 16. tomorrow, then, we start off with the cloud. some spots of rain initially, that will tend to fizzle, but as we move west through south west england, wales, the midlands, northern england, scotland and northern ireland, lots of dry weather, a fair bit of sunshine but the winds strengthening later on in the day out towards the west with more cloud building. temperatures — 15 to about 24.

then as we move from wednesday into thursday, well, we've got this next clutch of fronts connected to this area of low pressure coming oui’ way. and if you look at the isobars, it is going to be quite unseasonably windy across england and wales ahead of this weather front. so after a dry start, the cloud will build as the rain continues to push southwards across scotland and northern ireland into northern england and also wales. brighter skies follow on behind and temperatures 15 to about 26 degrees. then, as we head on into friday, we've got the remnants of that weather front to clear away from the southeast and the english channel, channel islands. what you'll find is behind it will become drier and brighter, but also some showers being driven in on a blustery wind across the north west. here we've got highs of 14 degrees, but in the southeast we're looking at about 24.

live from london. this is bbc news. firefighters and soldiers battle the flames in greece — which have reached the outskirts of the capital, athens. in the uk, families of the victims of valdo calocane say services responsible for his care before the attacks in nottingham "have blood on their hands." "self obsessed rich guys." the kamala harris campaign's response to elon musk and donald trump's social media conversation. the pilot killed when a helicopter crashed into the roof of a luxury hotel in cairns, australia, on monday, was an employee of the charter

company that owned the aircraft. hello. we are going to get the latest on the wildfires in greece. there is a new evacuation order on a seaside area to the east of athens. helicopters are back up in the air after being grounded overnight for safety reasons. hundreds of firefighters trying to control them. european countries are sending help. one person has died so far. firefighters have been battling outbreaks to the north east of the capital since sunday. conditions are expected to remain

dangerous over the next few days, but a drop in winds offers hope.