this is bbc news. the headlines at 11: dawn sturgess and charlie rowley remain critically ill after being poisoned by novichok — the nerve agent used against the former russian spy sergei skripal. dawn sturgess was caught on camera in salisbury last friday, the day before she collapsed. the home secretary has pointed the finger at russia. eurosceptic ministers meet to talk tactics as theresa may faces a cabinet showdown over brexit at chequers tomorrow. pumping out water, rescuers get closer to the dozen children trapped in caves in thailand, but they still can't get them out. and jim fitzpatrick reveals new information on how the dup and vote leave worked together on the eu referendum in spotlight: brexit, dark money and the dup. good evening.

police say the couple who are fighting for their lives after being exposed to a nerve agent in wiltshire fell ill after touching a contaminated item. dawn sturgess and charlie rowley have been poisoned by novichok — the same nerve agent used on the former russian spy, sergei skripal and his daughter in march. the home secretary, sajid javid, has once again pointed the finger at russia and said that britain must not be used as a dumping ground for poision. public health england says the risk to the public remains low. june kelly reports. —— poison. this is a macro to a stall in the salisbury last friday, seen on cctv buying drinks for the little hours later she was in intensive care. she

and charlie rowley fell ill within hours of each other and both remain critical in hospital. like all their family members, charlie rowley‘s robber isjust hoping family members, charlie rowley‘s robber is just hoping for some positive news. he is my younger brother. i love him too bit soppy i don't want anything to happen to him. and yet, it has. ——i love him to bits. how would you deal with it? you know? it is heartbreaking. the couple became contaminated when they handled the poison, according to scotla nd handled the poison, according to scotland yard, which is this investigation. counterterrorism officers ohl working with the local wiltshire force and four months on from the script now poisoning, police here are trying to reassure the public. our top priority now and a lwa ys the public. our top priority now and always will be the safety of every body in our community. to that end, people in a mystery and salisbury will see a significant increase in

the amount of police officers and the amount of police officers and the resources we have available. charlie was at this church social event on saturday in the hours before he collapsed. he looked at it out of sorts, you could sense something was not right one would have a she and it was possibly alcohol, we don't know fish or. this footage shows him being taken into salisbury district hospital. dawn stu rg ess ha d salisbury district hospital. dawn sturgess had already been admitted, asa sturgess had already been admitted, as a friend who didn't want to appear on screen, described. she is appear on screen, described. she is a happy, caring, loving person. she looks after everyone, really. i could sit here and talk and those are the ones in hospital and potentially fighting for their lives. in wiltshire, a number of locations where it is believed the couple were before they collapsed are now cordoned off. they fell ill hours apart at charlie's flat in amesbury. also closed is a baptist centre nearby and a local branch of

boots the chemist. in salisbury eight miles away, a hostel, john baker house, where dawn sturgess lived, has now been closed. so to have the queen elizabeth gardens in the city. the gardens are close to the city. the gardens are close to the shopping centre and a bench where julia and sergei the shopping centre and a bench wherejulia and sergei skripal collapsed in march. the medical team who nursed julia and sergei skripal are now fighting to save these new victims of. this is an expanding police investigation and the biggest questions are where and how were this couple poisoned? police and public health officials are stressing that this contamination could not have happened at one of the sites in the skripal investigation because they say they they were properly contaminated. but there is concern around the public when they see these areas cordoned off and that is why there is immense

pressure on officers to get hard fa cts pressure on officers to get hard facts out of this as quickly as possible. our security correspondent, gordon corera looks at the many questions facing the investigation. two nerve agent poisoning is close to each other and just months apart. so are they connected? there are still more questions than answers of. what we know? scientific analysis at porton down labs has said that confirmed that both incidents contained the same type of novichok nerve agent. so far it cannot be proven it was from the same batch. the skripal‘s are believed to have been poisoned after novichok was placed on the handle of their front novichok was placed on the handle of theirfront door. novichok was placed on the handle of their front door. sites they visited afterwards worked the contaminated and the amesbury couple are not believed to have come into contact with the nerve agent at any of these sites. that has left police with one primary theory, that dawn sturgess

and charles rowley had handled something that was dumped by the attackers in march, that could be some kind of container in which the nerve agent was held. one possibility is that they came across something in the park they visited just one mile from sergei skripal‘s home. but would it dangerous for months on's it doesn't surprise me that they are still in the environment for months after you. the work i have done has shown presence of agents for years after they have been used. might suggest it was residual contamination or perhaps something was in a container for example and that is what was discarded. the government's emergency committee that today, speaking afterwards, the home secretary suggested this could be the case of novichok leftover from the case of novichok leftover from the attack on the skripal‘s. and attack was blamed on moscow. the attack on the skripal‘s. and attack was blamed on moscowm the attack on the skripal‘s. and attack was blamed on moscow. it is com pletely u na cce pta ble attack was blamed on moscow. it is completely unacceptable for our

people to be deliberate or accidental targets, or people to be deliberate or accidentaltargets, orfor people to be deliberate or accidental targets, orfor our streets, parks or towns to be dumping grounds for poison. but the russian foreign ministry, as it did on march, cast doubt on britain's claims. translation: we on theresa may's government to stop these gangs with chemical agents and stock of shipping a joint investigation. today, forensic teams are urgently searching for the source of the latest contamination onto they find that evidence, they cannot know for sure how it came about. that ansett could provide a significant new lead into the investigation into the skripal poisoning as well as that in amesbury and help explain what, if any, connection between those two events there might be. several eurosceptic ministers have been meeting at the foreign office this evening, ahead of tomorrow's crucial cabinet summit at chequers, the prime minister's country residence. theresa may is expected to seek approval for a new strategy on the uk's future customs relationship with european union. our political editor laura kuenssberg has the latest. brexit secretary, are you happy with

the plan? have you been stitched up? relaxed, not so much. number ten's next steps on brexit are not to the taste of brexiteers. is it as bad as they say? are much closer connection to the eu after we leave than they had hoped. slow motion clash between them and ministers like the chancellor, who are pushing for tight ties has been underweight, is. prime minister desperately hopes she can pull them together tomorrow and is already trying to sell the plan a broader. tomorrow i will be bringing my cabinet together to discuss and decide a substantial way forward. translation: it is very important what the uk decides in the next few days,. theresa may needs angela merkel as well as a cabinet. a

different kind of negotiation was going on at home. whether the ta keaway going on at home. whether the takeaway was for boris johnson or not, he was tucked away with other collea g u es not, he was tucked away with other colleagues who backed leaving the eu, alarmed at the full proposals that number ten only shared this afternoon. rather than getting ready to rally around the p.m., seven brexit cabinet ministers have been gathering here at the foreign office, discussing their tactics and how they plan to push back. for true brexit believers, there is nothing to celebrate. plan that would see the uk signup to a common rulebook with the eu would hardly be leaving at all. that is not really brexit. it is losing the advantage brexit. the thing is, brexit is a wonderfully exciting opportunity for this nation to break away from the failed economic model of the eu. this nation to break away from the failed economic model of the sum has been a busy, busy night in downing street. the editor of the sun newspaper pop in for his own chat and it will be a long, long day

tomorrow. a brave prediction tonight from the man whose job it is to keep the tories in order. will everybody be backing the plan, are you confident of success? a good day perhaps. a difficult one, almost certainly. theresa may is hurtling towards a defining day, for sure. a sixteen year old boy has been charged in connection with the death of a six year old girl on the isle of bute. alesha macphail‘s body was found in woodland on monday morning. she'd been reported missing from grandmother's house. the boy will appear in court tomorrow. there's still no decision on how to rescue 12 boys and their football coach, who've been trapped in a flooded cave for almost 2 weeks now. the children were found on a rocky ledge around 2.5 miles from the mouth of the cave on monday. more than 128 million litres of water has been pumped out of the cave — allowing rescue teams to walk further into the tunnel. but some parts are too narrow and more heavy rain is forecast. the boys are being taught

the basics of diving. some need to be taught how to swim, but it's feared that option could be too risky. jonathan head is there. how long will they stay down there? the boys are now getting care and food, but the thai authorities are still debating whether to risk bringing them out quickly or waiting, possibly for months. dozens of volunteers are helping the navy divers. this is an exhausting and sometimes dangerous operation. this television actor is one of them. "water is the main obstacle," he says. "if we can get the water level down, the boys can be brought out." but while a massive pumping effort is reducing it in the first section of caves,

it's having less effect deeper in, where the boys are trapped. so, the thai army has been taking equipment to the other end of the mountains to try and lower the water table here, close to their location. they have a number of ideas they want to try. but their first effort has been to divert the streams which feed the underground pools. we followed them up, alongside pipes that had been laid just in the past few days. this creek has completely dried up. a week ago it was filled with water. so you can see that this project, with all these pipes, is definitely having an impact. higher up, we were shown in newly built dam. work like this is now going on all over these mountains. no—one is sure yet how much they can

bring down the water that is blocking the boys' escape, or whether they'll win the battle against the imminent monsoon rain. they just know that they have to try. jonathan head, bbc news, tham luang caves, northern thailand. now, it's time for spotlight: brexit, dark money and the dup — in whichjim fitzpatrick reveals new information on how the dup and vote leave worked together in the eu referendum. brexit marked the biggest shift in uk politics in generations. vote leave and their allies in the dup were victorious. but did they break electoral law? tonight, we reveal new information about the dup‘s eu referendum spending that the authorities didn't know. if that's a piece of evidence that you or someone else wants to raise with the electoral commission then we can certainly look at that.

the campaign brought the biggest known political donation in history for a northern ireland party. we received, i think, £155,000. the donation formally came from a little—known scottish group called the constitutional research council, or crc. there's something that stinks about this whole set—up. it stinks to high heaven. tonight on spotlight, in a major investigation, we scrutinise the only known member of the crc, richard cook, and reveal how he made money from shipping container loads of illegal waste overseas. when you're looking at waste crime, it normally always comes down to money. i follow a multimillion—dollar money trail all the way to ukraine. and this is where richard cook's company signed an $80 million contract. there was attempts to conceal the illicit origin of money. money that could be of interest to the feds.

i think there is a good chance that law enforcement in new york city would be interested in taking a further look at this. did the dup do enough homework into the financial background of their biggest donor? as official enquiries into allegations of cheating by vote leave continue, we offer new insight into how they worked together with the dup in the referendum. as official enquiries into allegations of cheating by vote leave continue, we offer new insight into how they worked together with the dup in the referendum.