this is bbc news. i'm martine croxall. the headlines at 8pm. four of the boys trapped in a flooded cave system in thailand have been rescued and taken to a local hospital. a team of divers helped the children through a difficult part of the route. the rescue effort has been suspended until tomorrow. as borisjohnson criticises theresa may's brexit proposal, support from michael gove, who says the plans are realistic but the uk should prepare for all outcomes. if the eu is ungenerous and inflexible, then we may have to contemplate walking away without a deal. the home secretary, sajid javid, visits salisbury and says the city is open for business after the poisoning of a couple in amesbury. japan's prime minister says efforts to save people trapped after days of heavy rain is now a race against time. more than 80 people have died across central and western regions. hello and welcome to bbc news.

a dramatic rescue attempt to save the young football team trapped in a cave network in thailand has so far managed to save four boys. the operation started this morning with two brits leading a team of thai and foreign divers. eight players and their coach are still trapped — with time against the rescuers as more heavy rain is forecast. the four brought out are recovering in hospital. a warning that our south—east asia correspondentjonathan head's report contains flashing images. it began with more divers and air tanks going in. and all other non—essential vehicles being sent out. a daring and complex rescue was under way. governor narongsak osotta na korn, who commands the operation, described it as d—day.

conditions will never be better, he said. after their dramatic discovery on monday, the boys have been fed and treated by an army medic on the rock shelf where they'd been forced to retreat by rising water. they were judged fit enough to make the journey. although none has ever dived before. it involves two divers swimming with each child, who's tethered to the driver in front. they follow a previously laid guide rope to help over difficult terrain and poor visibility. the narrowest part of the route is less than a0 centimetres wide. the boys are helped through by the diver in front, before resting on a rocky outcrop and then continuing. as the light outside faded, the site of flashing lights and the sound of helicopters told us at least some of them were out. they were then flown to the city of chiang rai. this is what all of those who have

been involved in this operation have been waiting to see. we saw two ambulances go into this hospital earlier. that is another. the boys are coming out. then, governor narongsak made this announcement. "after 16 days of waiting, today we were able to see the faces of the wild boars", he said to cheering journalists, referring to the nickname of the boys‘ football team. the four who were brought out today were described by one rescuer as doing remarkably well. they hope to get the remaining nine over the next 2a hours. jonathan head, bbc news, chiang rai. our correspondent dan johnson has been near the exit of the cave in tham luang, where the amount of rainfall is being closely monitored. yes, this is what the officials in charge of the rescue always feared. that it would start raining really heavily, and that that would increase the water level in the cave, possibly

putting the boys at risk. because if the water level went up any further they would run out of space to stay clear of the water. now they said that they had a window of weather in the last couple of days, and that's why they chose today to start this rescue attempt. the man in charge of the operation says it's d—day. that underlines just how daring this rescue attempt is. but perhaps this shows you why they needed to at least get started. he has made clear that if the water levels in the cave do start rising who are still in there, they do have an emergency evacuation plan that they can bring forward to move people out even more quickly. but if the rain doesn't affect the water level inside the cave too quickly, too much, then it looks like they're going to carry on at the steady pace they've approached this job with during the day. taking care, taking time, making sure that it is done safely. because it's such a complicated task, and there's still a lot of risk, a lot of uncertainty associated with it. everyone here is well aware that one man has lost his

life during this rescue attempt. an experienced navy diver who had probably got some experience of cave diving. these boys don't have that benefit. they've only had the advice and the training that they've been able to receive in the cave over the last few days, from the international cave diving experts who have come here. and it's those experts who need to be back on scene tomorrow, feeling fresh, able to concentrate, able to give this their full attention and determination to make sure that the rest of the group gets out safely. our correspondent, nick beake, was at the hospital where the four boys have been taken to, in chiang rai. it's at this hospital tonight that the doctors and nurses have the responsibility of looking after these four boys. the first to be brought out as part of this extraordinary rescue operation. they were ready and they were primed, and earlier this evening the first patient arrived. we saw an ambulance race to this place, they went straight to the main entrance. a short time later there was a second ambulance arrived,

after that we heard the helicopter overhead and then a fourth helicopter and those two boys brought into another entrance. we believe they've undergone checks this evening. they had a plan in place for basic checks, so blood tests, urine tests, looking to see if they picked up any sort of infection in the water or underground over the past weeks. because remember it's been more than a fortnight now that they were trapped in this cave, and how they would be plucked to safety looked extremely difficult indeed. but we know tonight four boys are here and they're being looked after. we can speak now to les hewitt, who was trapped overnight in a flooded cave in north yorkshire in 1992. he joins us now via webcam from stanhope in county durham. les, thank you very much forjoining us les, thank you very much forjoining us to talk about it, it makes me

feel queasy because i suffer from claustrophobia but tell us what it was like for you when you got stuck. we got stuck in march 1992, we were ina we got stuck in march 1992, we were in a cave which has a long slope to getting to the vertical, 45 degrees slope, and then a lot of crawling and a huge passage about 25 feet circular. we went to the far end of that. and when we tried to come back, a bit like what happened to them, where we first crawled in, the water had risen from underneath the cave and close it off so we were stuck in a big passage. we ran to the other end where it was highest and sat on a pile of stones and within an hour, the water was up to oui’ within an hour, the water was up to our feet within an hour, the water was up to ourfeet on this within an hour, the water was up to our feet on this pile of stones. how experienced a cave where you are compared with the man youlj experienced a cave where you are compared with the man you i had been caving about four or five times, and he was an experienced caver. but it

is not his fault or my fault, just one of those things, we just failed to notice... my phone is ringing, i beg your pardon! don't worry les, we are used to this sort of thing. beg your pardon! don't worry les, we are used to this sort of thinglj was trying to turn it off. somebody must have seen you on tv and they are bringing to tell you you are on telly! how quickly did you realise you were stuck and needed help? when we got back to the low bit and realised it was shut off with water and it was still rising. but we had no way of telling anyone else, our wives eventually missed us by ten o'clock at night, we had not come home so they rang the police and the cave rescue. we gave them four caves we could have been in and realise when they saw where the car was parked, they realised that the water had been high towards the top of the cave. fortunately, they looked at

the plans of the cave and thought we could possibly be sitting in an air bow at the far end. so they got divers in, in the middle of the might, they all got out of bed after they'd gone to bed, at midnight, but their gear on they'd gone to bed, at midnight, but theirgearon in they'd gone to bed, at midnight, but their gear on in march in the freezing cold and dived into the cave to look for us. what was going through your mind, give us an insight into what does children, trapped for days, will have been going through? is difficult to know. i told your research, i work with children and they much more resilient than adults. they don't think about death in the same way. but i was nearly 50 and you see these horrible things happening to people, and i just these horrible things happening to people, and ijust thought we these horrible things happening to people, and i just thought we were going to sit in this cave and we would sit there and slowly the water would sit there and slowly the water would rise until we drowned. and i am sure the children and the coach must have been thinking the same. and the longer you are there, the more telling it is going to be. we

we re more telling it is going to be. we were there by about one o'clock in the morning. the water slightly started dropping. i thought maybe the fire brigade were thumping the cave out like they are doing in thailand but they weren't, obviously. so i just thailand but they weren't, obviously. so ijust assumed that we we re obviously. so ijust assumed that we were going to die. there was no question, i couldn't imagine how anyone was going to rescue us. which i think, think children have more hope than grown—ups for things like that. they still believe in father christmas, don't they, in a way? so they believe... i didn't believe that father christmas came dressed in wet suits, for us. the man that you were with, roy dean, how important were you to each other to keep your spirits up? very important, had we been alone it would have been impossible. we got soaking wet trying to swim and earlier, and it was march and

freezing cold and we were aware of hypothermia so we took turns, one of us hypothermia so we took turns, one of us sat down and we put some pads on the rocks and the other one sat on their knee and put their arms around it and stood a hug and after ten minutes we changed around. i would sit down and he would sit on my knee and then we would turn and hug each other face—to—face. so that does work. i knew it from my mountaineering, you need to stop worrying about anything except cuddle each other. and yet mentally, cuddling somebody is wonderful. even if it is roy dean of! i enjoyed cuddling him! i bet he'd say the same. i don't know if the coach, children will automatically huddle when they are taken camping, when you have four of them in a tent under the morning they are all cuddled together, four adults would not be, they would think, i mustn't touch that person. but hopefully thatis touch that person. but hopefully

that is what they did. when you hear about this rescue effort and the cramped space they have to get through, what goes through your mind? pessimistically, ithought that firstly, the cave would have filled with water and they would have drowned before they were found, and then when they were found i just looked at what roy and i had swum through which was, compared with what they are swimming through, comparatively easy, apart from the last part, as things go. it seems impossible. already they have four more people out. i was on newsnight the other night and i said, if there had been 1a of us in our case we would not all have got out alive. i still think children are better than adults. they are smaller so they go through the little holes, the passages easier. but children think, it's a bit like, say, don't take a child near the edge of the cliff.

children don't jump off, child near the edge of the cliff. children don'tjump off, adults do that. adults slip off the edge of clips but not children. tell us, did you give up caving? no, i got absolutely obsessed with it. i didn't go caving for about a week and then i went and i never stopped. for the first year i went twice a week for a year. and then people started as we dashed asking me if i would take them. i bet your wife was thrilled about that. my wife died a couple of years ago but she was interviewed about this and she a lwa ys interviewed about this and she always was asked, do you mind les going caving again, and she said, i would prefer he didn't go but it's not up to me what les does. and it wasn't up to me what she did in the way of hobbies, or whatever. if you

need to do it, you need to do it. but have enjoyed cav and i know lot of cavers and i divers who rescued me and we've had a good time. hopefully it will be the same for those children. what a wise couple you were. what a sensible woman. les, lovely to hear your story although terrifying, and great teacher about your caving partner roy dean, i believe he died in 2011, thank you for telling us about him. i will look at full father christmas from now on. you do that, for the christmas is around you all the time. in different guises. great to talk to you, thank you. bye bye. the environment secretary michael gove has defended the prime minister's brexit strategy, which was agreed with the cabinet on friday. foreign secretary borisjohnson reportedly criticised the plan, and said the deal falls short of what most brexiteers wanted. but mr gove said it's important to be realistic, although he also said britain should

be prepared to walk away next march — if agreement can't be reached with the eu. vicki young has the details. she gave them little choice. back this compromise deal or resign. theresa may laid out her plan to cabinet on friday. the uk would be tied to eu rules on goods, a closer relationship than many pro—brexit ministers want. but the prime minister has crucial support from one of the leave campaign's most prominent figures. i'm a realist. and one of the things about politics is that you mustn't, you shouldn't make the perfect the enemy of the good. and one of the things about this compromise is that it unites the cabinet. collective responsibility reigns. and i think for the cabinet, all of us, our responsibility is to work together in order to ensure that we can get the best possible deal for britain. at chequers, ministers were allowed to speak their minds. borisjohnson told colleagues in typically direct language, that they were being asked

to "polish a turd". the foreign secretary was hostile to the plan, arguing it didn't honour the pledge to take back control of our laws. but friends say he is not resigning because he wants to continue to make his case. 0ther brexiteers are prepared to go further. i can't support this deal. the offer is so bad that i wouldn't be supporting it if the european union were paying us. if she sticks with this deal, i would have no confidence in it and if the prime minister sticks with this deal, i'll have no confidence in her. 0n the other side of the brexit argument, more than 100 business leaders from companies including innocent smoothies and waterstones have described the plan for a combined customs territory as costly and unworkable. labour agrees. i'm afraid it's got fudge written all over it. if you look at the facilitated custom arrangement, the heart of all of this, it's a rebadging of

the partnership, based on the idea of a border you can distinguish between goods that will stay in the uk and those going to the eu. it's an workable. it's a bureaucratic nightmare. so, it seems theresa may's cabinet has reluctantly, in some cases, decided to fall into line. but what about her mps? there's no doubt that many brexit backing conservatives are deeply disappointed, some furious, with what's on offer. tomorrow she'll meet them up here in the commons to try to persuade them this is the best option. only then will we know whether talk of a leadership challenge is really on the cards. the deal done at chequers certainly hasn't pleased everyone. the uk government's calling on brussels to take it seriously. in the meantime, its promise to accelerate preparations to leave the eu without any deal at all. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30 and 11:30pm this evening in the papers. 0ur guestsjoining me tonight are tony grew, parliamentary reporter and caroline frost, entertainment journalist and broadcaster. the headlines on bbc news.

four of the boys trapped in a flooded cave system in thailand have been rescued and taken to a local hospital. the mission to save the remaining eight and their coach continues tomorrow. as boris johnson criticises theresa may's bricks and proposals, support from michael gove who says the plans are realistic and uk should be powerful outcomes. home secretary sajid javid as visited salisbury and says the city is above the business after the poisoning of the business after the poisoning of the couple in amesbury. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's tim hague. with his thai binh! thank you, i've had a haircut since last week so i am making an effort. sebastian vettel of ferrari has extended his lead at the top of the formula 1 drivers championship after winning a dramatic grand prix at silverstone. lewis hamilton was second after a

collision on the first lap. kimi raikkonen was third. andy swiss rounds up the race. at a sweltering silverstone, lewis hamilton and 140,000 fans hoping for history. but from pole position his chances of a record sixth win here were soon sent spinning. a sluggish start, a collision, and in the blink of an eye hamilton was down to 18th, his race seemingly over. but boldly, brilliantly, he surged through the field and back into contention before more twists, two crashes interrupting the race, thankfully all drivers unhurt. the resulting shake—up, though, produced some finish. sebastian vettel taking the lead from bottas before hamilton also went past up to second place, but he couldn't quite catch sebastian. the german taking the chequered flag ahead of his title run. what drama these fans have seen and what a fight back

from lewis hamilton, but his hopes of a record win here have agonisingly ended in frustration. vettel now leads the championship by eight points on a day when hamilton ‘s champagne moment did not quite materialise. andy swiss, bbc news, silverstone. it fell a bit flat for him today didn't it. the world champion won the second stage of the tour de france and took the leaders jersey as well. the reigning champion chris froome finished safely in the peloton but as of eight minutes behind. after falling off on day one for a second grand tour in a row chris froome enjoyed a more leisurely sunday ride. it was a lonely loop for sylva i n ride. it was a lonely loop for sylvain chavanel, on his own for most of the afternoon although he found friends eventually, behind the sprinters had a warm up with world

champion peter sagan taking bonus points in the intermediate sprint before adam yeats made sure that there was still some british involvement. as he picked himself up and sprinters fell over and this crash ended some chances of keeping hold of the leaders yellowjersey. that will sit instead with sagan outsprinted the handful of riders left to take his ninth tour de france stage win. he'll need the other hand to count them though. india have beaten england in the one—day match at bristol, england gave the tourists a target of 199 for victory, england's bowlers made inroads into the batting order but could not prevent rohit sharma from hitting the ball all over the place, joined by hardik pandya rohit sharma made a century before the winning i’u ns we re made a century before the winning runs were smashed as india won by

seven wickets to claim a 2—1 series victory. russell knox of scotland has won the irish open after beating ryan fox of australia in a play—off, they were tied on 1a and after their final runs in donegal and both got to the green in two in the play—off hole that russell knox produced a brilliant putt to get a birdie. the pressure was on fox brilliant putt to get a birdie. the pressure was on fox to equal it but he missed to give russell knox his third european tour victory. that's all the sport for now, plenty of world cup on the website as well as all that. i'm pleased to hear it, will we see later? 1115 although i'm a lwa ys will we see later? 1115 although i'm always available before that if you need me! thank you, i know where to find your! the home secretary, sajid javid, has visited the wiltshire town of amesbury, a week after 2 people fell critically ill after coming into contact with the nerve agent novichok. after meeting emergency workers and local residents, he reassured people that the risk

to the wider public is low. i want to say to anyone that's listening now, this is a beautiful part of the country to visit. if you want a good day out, why not come down and show your support at the same time as having fun with yourfamily? it's a lovely part of the country to visit. also, i want to take the opportunity to say to everyone, but especially local people, that the risk to the public remains very low. that's the clear advice of public health england, it's the clear advice of sally davies, the chief medical officer. and finally, of course, for all of us, our thoughts are with the man and the woman who are impacted by this latest incident, who are still in hospital, still in critical condition. we're thinking of them and of course their family and friends. the home secretary. millions of people are being told to leave their homes injapan because of extensive flooding and land slides that have already claimed more than 80 lives.

record rainfall has caused rivers to burst their banks in hiroshima and other areas as caroline hawley reports. more than 50,000 rescuers are now involved in what the authorities are calling a race against time. these hospital patients were saved by the japanese military. this is where they were rescued from. the only escape was either by helicopter from the rooftop or by boat. and here, we see why. some people are reported to be still stranded in the hospital — and they are not alone. a swathe of western japan has been hit by unprecedented rainfall that's caused flash flooding and landslides. many people died because they weren't able to flee in time. among them, an 80—year—old couple and a three—year—old girl. and the death toll will certainly rise. translation: i went to my father's home, but it was hopeless. we were looking for two people and only found one. several million people have been told to move

to safer ground if they can. those trapped in their homes have been advised to move to higher floors. some are already as high as they can go and have tweeted desperate calls for help. translation: even now we've not been able to confirm the safety of quite a lot of people and there are many who are stranded, facing the terror of impending inundation and waiting for rescue. nature has delivered this part ofjapan a devastating blow and it's not finished yet. more rain is forecast and with it, officials say, a serious risk of more landslides. caroline hawley, bbc news. a man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after an incident which left a woman dead and put a teenaged boy in hospital. a 54—year—old woman was found with serious stab wounds on saturday at a house in aylesbury in buckinghamshire. she was pronounced dead at the scene. a teenaged boy was injured and is being treated in hospital. a 32—year—old man has been arrested. donald trump's visit to the uk this

week will put "unquestionable pressure" on security forces, according to the police federation. the us president will spend time in london, and windsor as well as visiting chequers, during the 2—day working visit. thousands are expected to protest and police forces from across the country have been asked to send officers to assist. the home office said other forces can be "recompensed by the hosting force". the summer's always busy. a presidential visit will always be busy. the world cup will always give more of a need for police. and salisbury, and other incidents around the country. what we've got is a perfect storm that uk policing is struggling to cope with because of all the cuts we've had to endure. simon campton from the police federation. england football fans are continuing to celebrate the fact that their team are just one win away from the world cup final, after their comfortable victory yesterday against sweden.

millions watched as harry maguire and delle alli's goals set up a semi final clash with croatia — the last time england made it this far in a world cup tournament was 28 years ago, at italia 90. darren lewis, football correspondent for the daily mirror is in st petersburg — and a short time ago, he explained the scale of what the national side have achieved — and why they could go all the way. if you remember, we hadn't won a knockout game for 12 years, so we were really struggling to kind of comprehend the idea that we could make it to this stage. but it was really a victory achieved with the minimum of fuss. two good goals, fans celebrating. quite surprised with the confidence the team still have and the amount they have left in the tank going into the remaining two games. because croatia will be a rather different kettle of fish, won't they? they will indeed. 1998 semifinalists, a team who play with a lot of quality players in their side including the real madrid midfielder luka modric, who's won three champions leagues in the last four seasons.

ivan rakitic in midfield as well. and thejuventus striker, mario mandzukic. make no mistake they've got a lot of quality in that team and they will be several levels up on the sweden side we faced at the weekend. you can understand a certain amount of exuberance from england fans with this victory over sweden, but there's been anti—social behaviour as well. vandalism in some places. what have you seen of that, if anything? it's interesting, because before the tournament began we were over here, there was concern about the potential for disorder in russia, and yet the first disorder i've seen has been, when i've logged onto the internet to see what's gone on in the uk. let's not kid ourselves, over here that kind of thing wouldn't be tolerated in russia because they are very swift and decisive with how they come down on disorder. one of the features of this tournament not only has been a fantastic football but the way in which it has been really well organised,

and the lack of disorder in russia. i've been to five different venues for the football so i can give you a broad opinion. i've had nothing for the daily mirror football website to report on negatively, as far as disorder is concerned. the first i've seen is in the uk. that's good to see and i hope it continues. in the past, some national sides, and then managers, have had a bit of a rough ride with the press. i'm thinking of the "turnip" headlines for graham taylor and the wally with the brolly for steve mcclaren. how different, though, is it with gareth southgate? is it entirely down to how well the team is doing or the kind of man he is? i think it's a number of things. so often we've given stick to the football association but they've done superbly well to break down the barriers between the england national team and the press and public. they haven't mollycoddled them, they've not treated them like rock stars. they've encouraged them to be open with the media,

encouraged them to use social media, as we've seen so often, and in the wake of saturday's game. that culture of openness has re—established a connection between england fans, the media and the england team. gareth southgate has managed at under 21 level, so there is a continuity with the players going into the senior team too. i think it's been a perfect storm really that's come together at the right time because this is the most open world cup there's ever been to win and there will be a new name on the trophy this season. there is every expectation that it could possibly be england, and they will have earned it.