a female health worker is arrested on suspicion of the murder of eight babies — and the attempted murder of another six. the arrest follows a long running investigation into a high number of baby deaths, at the countess of chester hospital in 2015 and 2016. we'll have the latest. also on tonight's programme: the schoolboys trapped in a cave in thailand — one of their football coaches says they are tough: translation: these are the kids that i have trained. they are strong. i have built them up to play at a professional level. the number of people dying from drug taking in scotland is the highest since records began, 20 years ago. england expects — less than an hour to kick off, in a must—win match in moscow — at the world cup. i will be live at the stadium. can england reached the quarterfinals

and win their first knockout match ata and win their first knockout match at a tournament for 12 years? and coming up on sportsday on bbc news, we are live on day two from wimbledon where the best of british have been in action and we will look ahead to england versus colombia at the world cup. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. a healthcare professional has been arrested in cheshire, on the suspicion of murdering eight babies and trying to murder six others. the woman's arrest is part of an investigation into the neonatal unit at the countess of chester hospital, between march 2015 and july 2016. judith moritz reports. managers at the countess of chester hospital called in the police because they couldn't explain the unusual number of baby deaths and near death emergencies on the neonatal unit.

detectives initially focused on what had happened to 21 babies. now the investigation has widened to examine the cases of 32 babies — of whom 17 died. this morning, a woman who is described as a health care professional, was arrested on suspicion of murder. this morning, forensic searches began at a house in chester, which police have confirmed is related to the murder enquiry. a car was also being searched and items taken away for examination. neighbours on the same street woke up to the scene. i got up to go to work about 8am and the police were all there and i didn't see many people there. and i came back about 11:30 and there was a lot more activity going on. didn't know until we drove down this morning and saw all the police cars. saw the police cordon and a more than usual number of police cars,

the forensic vans. so obviously something very, very serious. at the hospital, the medical director said... the neonatal unit stopped providing care for very premature infants in july 2016. it now only looks after babies born after 32 weeks pregnancy. the managers say they are confident the unit is safe to continue. the police say they are conscious of the impact that their investigation will be having on staff and patients and especially of course, the families of babies are affected and tonight we have spoken to solicitors representing two of the bereaved families and they say they welcome

and are reassured by the fact that they can see the investigation is continuing and they just they can see the investigation is continuing and theyjust hope it will provide the answer is that the families want. twelve boys and their football coach trapped in a flooded cave in thailand have received their first food and medical treatment for 10 days. rescuers are trying to come up with a plan to free them. british divers located the group yesterday, but to get out, they may have to be taught to dive or wait for the floodwaters to recede — which could take months. 0ur south east asia correspondent, jonathan head, reports from the scene. there is a renewed sense of mission here now. for the first time in ten days they know where the boys are and they know they are alive. the co nsta nt and they know they are alive. the constant flow of diverse moves in and out of the caves. they are stocking equipment and food supplies underground preparing for what could bea underground preparing for what could

be a long and difficult rescue. tonight, they are trying to connect the children to their families. translation: we are bringing in a phone line, said the navy commander in charge of the divers, so they can speak to their parents. there is no rush, he said, all the children will eventually come back. seven divers including two medics are now staying with the boys. they are said to be surprisingly good health after ten days with almost food. this is the boys football coach, it was his assistant who went with them that day. he says he had no idea they we re day. he says he had no idea they were planning to go into the caves. but he is not surprised that they have survived so well. they are strong, these boys, he told me. i was building this team up to play professionally. they're almost

remark —— raglan ‘s discovery is still being celebrated all over thailand. it is as if a cloud has been lifted from this country. translation: it is unimaginable. i have been waiting for ten days and never imagined this day would come. i would like to thank the military, the police and all the officials who came to help to find my son. this is still a huge operation with large numbers of people coming in to help an operation which has achieved a remarkable success but it still does not have an answer as to how they will get those boys out of the caves. that is why the pumps are still working overtime here. no one thinks the boys can be extracted $0011. thinks the boys can be extracted soon. and more monsoon rain is on the way. jonathan head, bbc news, tham luang caves, thailand. as we've seen, the cave network that the boys are trapped in makes the rescue mission particularly complicated. our science correspondent, victoria gill, has been considering the options for getting

them out safely. how many of you? 13? relent. what was meant to be an adventure has become an international rescue mission and what is not yet clear is how that mission to bring the 12 boys and their football code safely to the service will be carried out. when the team walked into the entrance of the cave system on the 23rd ofjune it was dry but sudden heavy rainfall flooded and blocked narrow passageways . heavy rainfall flooded and blocked narrow passageways. as the route to higher ground narrowed, they abandoned their possessions. this is where british cave divers first reach them, two and a half miles from the entrance. two options are being considered for the rescue, pumping water out of flooded passageways and teaching the boys to scuba dive their way out in extremely risky swim through tight spacesin extremely risky swim through tight spaces in low visibility. a third

option is waiting for what levels to subside, which at the start of the rainy season could take months. british cave divers richard and david, the first to reach the boys are supporting this complicated but hopeful rescue effort. they were called in by the thailand authorities for their expertise in high risk cave diving, something on display during their 2004 attempt to reach chamber 26 of wookey hole in somerset. those boys have had a hard nine or ten days underground. and now they have got the best guys there. so, john and rick, you know, they are calm, they are very collected, they are very organised, extremely disciplined and consummate professionals. so i feel confident from this point on, that things are going to work. with even more heavy rain expected in the coming days,

rescu e rs rain expected in the coming days, rescuers will have to decide on the best way out. victoria gill, bbc news. the number of people dying as a result of drug taking in scotland is at its highest since records began more than 20 years ago — and the problem is thought to be the worst of any european country. new officialfigures show there were 934 drug related deaths in 2017, that's an increase of 8 per cent on the previous year. since 2007 the number of deaths caused by drugs has more than doubled. our scotland editor sarah smith has this report. used needles and fixing gear. the sharp end of a drug epidemic. scots are now five times more likely to die from drugs than in a road traffic accident. glasgow is the worst. if you want to understand the scale of the drug problem in glasgow, just come down here. we are right in the middle of the city centre, yet you can see all of the paraphernalia shows just how many people are down here shooting up every day.

heroin is cheap, plentiful and often contaminated. do you worry about overdosing? no. but you don't want to kill yourself, do you? i don't want to kill myself, i wouldn't do it. so when you are taking heroin do you sometimes not care whether or not it kills you? no. i don't care. don't care. nobody about me cares either. that's desperate. i know it's desperate. what on earth can i do? 18 people a week are dying in scotland, so most drug users know people who have died. derek's flatmate overdosed four months ago. found him in his bed in the same position i left him in in the morning. he was could come —— completely blew. it's not a nice site to ever see. you actually found him dead

from a drugs overdose? i found him, yes. it was a horrid thing to see and i've seen people die, but never seen anything... anybody can die from drugs, even myself when itake them. the scottish government promised a new drug strategy months ago. they admit that the current services are not meeting the extensive need. that is why we are determined to look at how our strategy is working and how it is failing individuals. graham bigley, a father of three, is one of the 934 people who died last year. he overdosed on heroin. his aunt tries to help bereaved families overcome the stigma that other people attach to drug deaths. they do matter. here's a dad. he has

a son, and nephew, it does matter. without a new, radical strategy, the fear is that drug but they do matter because he is a dad. deaths in scotland will continue to increase. a terrible problem getting even worse. sarah smith, bbc news, glasgow. there's less than an hour to go until england take on colombia, in their attempt to get through to the world cup quarter—finals. if england win, it'll be the first time they've triumphed in a knockout match at a major tournament for 12 years. in a moment we'll have a report from chi chi izundu who's with fans following the game here — but first our sports editor, dan roan, is soaking up the atmosphere in the spartak stadium in moscow. these matters do not come round all that often for england. this is their first knockout game for eight yea rs. their first knockout game for eight years. can they go better than they have done in the intervening period? there has been so much

disappointment. they know the draw has opened up for this and there is so much at stake and it feels like the most important game for a lot longer than eight years. there is no tea m longer than eight years. there is no team between them and the world cup final which is ranked above them now. these are exciting times but tense as well. england arrived here tonight for what they knew was a defining moment. win and a young side would have seized an enormous opportunity. lose and they would be going home. but england's captain and the tournament's leading goal—scorer has faith in his team. i'm not the only one, the whole team are focusing on ourselves and the way we play best is when we are free and playing free—flowing, attacking football. we've done quite well so far in the tournament. england fans have been hard to find in moscow. only 6000 are thought to have made it here but their team's encouraging start in russia and the shock departure is of some of the pretournament favourites has seen expectation levels raise. it will be tough. i think we have enough to beat them, maybe 2—0. i am praying it doesn't

go to extra time and penalties, that is for sure. initially i said the semifinal but now i think we might push it, might just get through because the draw has really got easy. but they are badly outnumbered. opponents colombia, one of the best supported teams at this world cup with an estimated 50,000 fans here in russia. their team are dangerous with several world—class stars, quarterfinalists at the last world cup four years ago. england will be wary. it's going to be difficult, yes. but for sure we are going to win the game. the english fansjust like one, colombia, it is hundreds of them. now we know, the reward for whoever wins tonight will be a quarterfinal against sweden after they beat switzerland this afternoon. the potential path ahead for england may be a tantalising one, but first they must overcome the immediate obstacle. sun, sea, high heat and tension.

this is the biggest england match of my lifetime, i was born in 1997. this is the biggest match of my lifetime and i am never more nervous. i would like to say i am confident but i am just going to support the boys. we will be nervous but i think we will get there in the end. who are you predicting to be man of the match? dele alli. why? because i am a tottenham fan and i think he will be brilliant. but most eyes will be on harry kane, particularly at his old school in chingford where pride is filling the playground. pride and hope that he can lead his team home the winners. he is the best player in the world. i really want england

to win the world cup. but when it comes to which team to support, the choice isn't a simple one on this estate. i have a tough decision because i live here but also my family comes from colombia. but i think colombia has a better opportunity to win. the thousands expected here on brighton beach may disagree. your predictions? 2-0. 2-1. how important is it for england to get to the next stage? very, we've got to. why? because it's coming home. and across the country in homes, pubs and fan zones like this one, that's just what they want. # football's coming home #. if england win, who knows how far

they can go, but they do have a chance of making it all the way through to the final. dan, enjoy it if you can in moscow. the time is 6:17 our top story this evening. a female health worker is arrested in cheshire on suspicion of the murder of eight babies and the attempted murder of another six. and still to come, find out which familiar face is flying a secret mission with the raf in the skies above the north sea. we meet the retired. and the new more than two thirds of lesbian, gay, bisexual and tra nsgender people avoid holding hands in public. that's according to the largest survey of its kind in this country, of more

than 100,000 people. the government has produced a 75 point plan to try to improve the lives of lgbt people in the uk — promising more support for schools, greater powers for the police to tackle hate crimes, and the creation of the post of a national lgbt health adviser. more details from our community affairs correspondent, adina campbell. what's it like to be young and gay in the uk? george, rory, billy and louis all live in london. i got a friend to post on their facebook that i was gay and tell the whole school. it was a really weird way of doing it, just because i didn't want my family to find out. similarly, there were quite a lot of people in the school who were not receptive to it. how comfortable are you maybe holding hands with your boyfriend, girlfriend in public?

i would not hold hands in somewhere like stratford in east london. i would if you were somewhere central, like soho. we do hold hands in public, and we were sitting next to each other and we were eating, and then we kissed, and this man ran up to us and he was talking about how we are going to hell, and he threw, like, a bible at us. i get it all the time, you're not really gay, but you're too feminine to be gay. why do you have long hair if you're gay? 0h, can two girls with long hair date? it's ridiculous. the government has now announced a new action plan, including a ban on controversial gay conversion therapies and improvements to gender laws to make it easierfor trans people to change their identity. asad dunham is gay and muslim. he says that the government needs to do more to help people from all backgrounds. we still don't have marriage equality in northern ireland, for example, and also there isn't an understanding of certain minorities, for example, black, asian, minority ethnicities and then when you add on layers, i think the government really needs to understand what's going on.

it's 2018... £4.5 million will be made available in england for the government's new action plan, but labour and other campaigners say it does not go far enough. imagine living your life, every single day, calculating how, calculating the disconnect between how you actually feel and how you need to present yourself to be safe. all of these positive changes have come in, but then it's much harder to change people's minds and people's hearts. a man known as nick who alleged there was a paedophile ring at the heart of westminster has been charged with perverting the course of justice. the man, whose real name is being withheld for legal reasons is also accused of fraud. his claims led to an 18—month inquiry by scotland yard into allegations that public figures sexually assaulted children, and that three boys were murdered. the inquiry was closed without anyone being charged. lawyers for the family of a schoolgirl who died

after an asthma attack have applied to have the inquest into her death reopened, because of new evidence they say links her illness with illegally high air pollution. ella kissi—debrah was nine years old when she died in 2013. she'd grown up 25 metres from a main road. air pollution is believed to contribute to 40,000 deaths in the uk every year but no direct link has ever been made with an individual case. our environment correspondent claire marshall reports. this is ella playing with her mum's phone. this little cough, an early sign. a few months later she was rushed to hospital unable to breathe. i'm going home today. she had developed acute asthma. she suffered three years of repeated attacks before dying at the age of nine. ella lived just 25 metres from

the south circular, one of the most polluted roads in london. her brother also has asthma. the family now walks to school along quieter roads. at the time, rosamond wasn't told about the dangers of air pollution. before she passed away, i probably resuscitated her between 20 and 30 times. yes, you know they are breathing it in, but you really do not know what damage it is doing. you don't know until it has happened. she wasn't born with asthma. revealed exclusively to the bbc today is medical evidence that could result in air pollution going on a death certificate for the first time. exhaust fumes contain harmful particles and chemicals, such as nitrogen dioxide. according to professor stephen holgate's expert report, there was a striking association between ella's emergency admissions and recorded spikes in air pollution. he said there was the real prospect that without unlawful levels of air pollution, ella would not have died.

the air that everyone is breathing here whether they are walking around or in their cars, is so polluted that it breaks european union laws and it was this bad for the whole period that ella was ill. human rights lawyerjocelyn coburn is appealing to the attorney general to reopen the inquest into ella's death. the uk needs to start complying with the law. this case, i hope is another piece, a piece of the puzzle which will push the government to decisive action. inspired by ella, community volunteers close to where she died in south—east london are now gathering as much data as they can. just leave that there fro two to four weeks and then we'll send it off. it's shocking, you know. i walk my kids along here every day to school and i'm just conscious all the time that they are breathing this in. my son has got asthma,

i've got asthma. something needs to be done about it. during ella's lifetime, no—one made the link between her asthma and air pollution. the attorney general is now reviewing the new evidence. claire marshall, bbc news, south—east london. it's day two of wimbledon — and both british number ones are through to the second round. ? johanna konta, the 22nd seed, won in straight sets against the russian natalia vikhlyantseva. she'll play slovakia's dominika cibulkova next. ? and kyle edmund beat australia's alex bolt, also in straight sets. edmund, seeded 21st, goes on to play american bradley klahn. the royal air force celebrates its centenary next week with a service at westminster abbey, and a huge flypast over buckingham palace. 100 aircraft will take part

in the biggest display ever seen in the capital. and today was their final rehearsal in the skies over lincolnshire, as sophie raworth reports. they've been planning this for months. today raf cranwell in lincolnshire stood in for buckingham palace as some of the aircraft taking part in the fly—past next tuesday carried out their final preparations. all right, g—pads on. the biggest formation will be the typhoons. 22 fastjet pilots will be taking to the skies and they took me along as they practised. well, this has never been done before. we've never put this many typhoons into the same piece of sky, especially not for a fly— past over london. we're really excited about it. we've practised this for a long time, prepared, the plans are all in place. the typhoons will be one element of this huge fly—past, but theirjob will be one of the trickiest to accomplish. precision and timing will be everything. to keep their formation a surprise,

we headed out over the north sea. this is where we have to be on track. approaching buckingham palace. 30 seconds away. seven miles to go. as these jets roar over buckingham palace, the royal family will be watching from the balcony. the mall will be packed with thousands of people there to see dozens of aircraft spanning much of the raf‘s history. if they can pull it off, it will be quite a sight. that was extraordinary, being up there with so many typhoons. have you ever seen anything like it? never in 27 years of serving in her majesty's royal air force, i've never flown in a formation that big before. but on the day, station commander mike balkwill will not be flying a typhoon. he has chosen history over speed, opting to fly one of the last world war ii hurricanes. it is old—school navigation. there is no gps. it's a map and stopwatch, so it's

full—on, but it will be good fun. they will be flying wing to wing with spitfires, lancashire and a dakota in what will be the raf centrepiece for its cenetenary year. the biggest fly past london has ever seen. time for a look at the weather. here's ben rich. i hope you're going to say more of the same, ben. funnily enough, i'll say more of the same. good news for some, funnily enough, i'll say more of the same. good news forsome, but funnily enough, i'll say more of the same. good news for some, but others might be looking for rain by now and there is precious little in the forecast. beautiful blue skies over perth and kinross and more to come. drier weather, warm weather, sunny weather but with the chance of a shower through the week and the shower through the week and the shower clouds have gathered across parts of the south west of england. let me show you what is going on. some cloud for eastern coast of the most sunny day. down in the south, something a bit more lively. storms

drifting along the channel islands and parts of the south west and also showers moving off the near continent which might drift into other southern counties through the evening. the shower should be few and far between and most places will be dry through the night but there will be extra cloud across scotland and the east of england. 9 degrees in norwich, 16 overnight in cardiff. tomorrow will bring more cloud than we used it, particularly for scotla nd we used it, particularly for scotland and north east england and much of it will retreat to the coast and the cloud coming into the south does have the potential to bring showers but there are not many on the map and most places will be dry. sunny spells, some extra cloud in the mix and the temperature is a bit lower, all the way down to 2425. but a bit more cloud over wimbledon in the forecast tomorrow, temperatures up the forecast tomorrow, temperatures up to about 23 degrees and only a very, very small chance of catching a shower. further ahead, very, very small chance of catching a shower. furtherahead, into thursday, the frontal system drifts

towards the north—west and some people will be looking for rain by now but don't hold out too much hope of this bringing you much rain. but it will bring some cooling down across scotland and northern ireland. temperatures across northern areas will dip away, 20 in glasgow, but they will rise towards the weekend and further south, we are looking at fine, dry weather, long spells of sunshine and temperatures at the end of the week and the weekend very close to 30 degrees. not much change at all. that's all from the bbc news at six. so it's goodbye from me, and on bbc one, we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. what was meant to be an adventure has become an international rescue mission.