nicola bulley�*s death was an accident — a coroner says she drowned after falling into a cold river in lancashire. i hope that his majesty's coroner's clear and definitive findings will put an end to ill informed speculation and conspiracy theories. a bbc investigation uncovers the illegal trade in virtual child sexual abuse material. and lewis capaldi says he is taking a break from touring after struggling with his set at glastonbury. and on newsnight at on 10.30 we'll go deeper behind the headlines and speak live to key players on today's big stories. plus, a first look at tomorrow's front pages.

good evening. thousands of hospital consultants in england have voted to strike over pay in their longest industrial action since the 1970s. the senior doctors will walk out for two days next month on 20th and 21stjuly which means operations will be cancelled. urgent operations will still be provided, though. junior doctors and that includes doctors who have spent up to eight years working in hospitals are already planning to strike from 13th to 17thjuly. but it was announced today that the current strike action by nurses won't continue. our health editor hugh pym reports. chanting: no ifs, no buts, no junior doctor cuts! - junior doctors have already been staging strikes over pay in england. they are planning the longest yet — five days, next month. now their senior colleagues,

consultants, will walk out of some care. like junior doctors, they've rejected a 5% pay rise. they say after inflation their pay has fallen about 30% in 15 years. this has been the accumulation of lots of pay cuts over the last decade. and because inflation has been rising, it really has exacerbated the losses we've actually had. it's really brought home just how much pay had fallen prior to this current rise in inflation. and that, coupled with what's happened during covid, has really brought the focus on how much consultants do. bosses at this leading hospital say they support the right to strike, but are now having to face up to wider disruption and more cancellations. so, it will be challenging, but the public should be absolutely assured that we throughout the nhs will keep patients safe, but a lot of routine activity will be lost on the back of these strikes and that's why it's really important, more than ever, it's really important that all parties get around the table and resolve this matter. the government said the strike vote was disappointing

and consultants would benefit from pension tax changes. car horn beeps it's a different story for nurses in england. what do we want? pay rise! how do we get it? strike! what began in december with the biggest set of strikes in the union's history has come to an end. in april, members rejected a pay offer accepted by most other health unions. we have listened as your royal college of nursing... but then, in a new ballot, not enough of them voted to reach the legal strike threshold. i admire what our nursing staff have really done over this past year — taking industrial action is not easy. you recommended with other unions a 5% pay increase. your members rejected it. now there is not a mandate for further strike action. have you misread the mood? no, i don't think any of us have misread the mood. they're very tired. they're concerned about losing more pay during industrial action, but they're absolutely very clear that they will continue to campaign for what is right for nursing and what is right

for their patients. ambulance unions unison and the gmb had already called off strike action. rcn members now won't be striking either. we reached a deal with the nhs staff council that the majority of trade unions agreed to. i'm pleased that the rcn have now ended their industrial action. consultants in other parts of the uk are not in a pay dispute. junior doctors in scotland will stage a strike next month, so there, and in england, patients will find many areas of care are affected. and hughjoins me now. hugh, how disruptive is this latest strike going to be? 0n the one that hand you have the royal college of nursing which has been staging strikes, high—profile action since the end of last year, saying it will not continue with strikes because it did not get the legal mandate to allow further action to continue although there was a majority in favour, but the turnover was not high enough. most

of the other health unions have called off their action and accepted the offer, but the government is in dispute with a much bigger swathe of the workforce, the junior doctors up to the most senior consultants who are members of the bma. we knew junior doctors were planning their longest walk out yet in england next month, five days, that was causing concern at the highest levels of the nhs, and there will be one clear day and then the consultants will walk out on strike, affecting a great range of planned treatment and non—urgent care although they will continue with critical care. thousands of further cancellations do seem likely. the two sides seem far apart, the bma and the government, the pay position is a long way apart, no sign of further talks, so this may rumble on for a while yet. reducing waiting lists is a key government pledge for the

prime minister and that has got a little more difficult.— little more difficult. thanks for “oininu little more difficult. thanks for joining us- _ this evening, two russian missiles have hit the centre of the city of kramatorsk, in the donetsk region of eastern ukraine. at least four people have been killed by the strike which hit a shopping centre and restaurant. the governor of donetsk told ukrainian television the city centre was crowded with civilians when the missiles fell. it's feared people may be trapped under the rubble. president putin has tried to rally russia's military and security services by thanking them for preventing civil war from breaking out. in a speech today, he insisted his rule was not weakened during saturday's rebellion by the wagner mercenaries and suggested russia's regular military showed restraint by not being drawn into any fighting. meanwhile, the leader of neighbouring belarus has said the head of the wagner group is now in belarus. 0ur russia editor steve rosenberg reports.

vladimir vladimirovich putin. at the kremlin, it was pomp with a purpose... ..to remind russians he is still in charge around here. waiting for vladimir putin — 2,500 soldiers and guards, and the defence minister the wagner mutineers wanted sacked. having survived the rebellion, it was time to say thank you. translation: you defended - the constitutional order, the lives, security and the freedom of our citizens. you have saved our motherland from upheaval. in fact, you have stopped a civil war. in fact, the reality was rather different. the wagner soldiers, who had been cheered on the streets of rostov, had only stopped their rebellion after the kremlin did a deal with them, promising not to press charges against them and their leader, yevgeny prigozhin.

still, kremlin spin is presenting this as a triumph for the president. the mutiny by mercenaries was a major challenge to vladimir putin's authority. but, the uprising is over, and now the kremlin is trying to change the optics, to reframe what happened as a victory for the president and for russia. but where is yevgeny prigozhin? under his deal with the kremlin, he agreed to leave russia for belarus. today, the leader of belarus, alexander lukashenko, said, "yep, he's here." but in exile, could mr prigozhin still be a threat to the kremlin? not if vladimir putin can help it. he's now suggesting that russian investigators might probe the wagner group's finances. a less than subtle hint to the wagner chief not to make trouble.

the last few days have put him under huge pressure. now, president putin's determined to show he is in control. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. our international editor, jeremy bowen, is in kyiv. so what impact will this all of this have on the war in ukraine? well, you have seen those awful scenes in kramatorsk where the attack took place and if the priority today in moscow was a relaunch if you like of vladimir putin, may be of that was to show that they could keep up the military pressure. in the ukrainian capital i've spent most of the day to senior members of president zelensky�*s administration to see what they make of the situation. and of course there has to be a pinch of salt when you talk to people who are fighting what they believe, i would say correctly, life struggle for the

independence of this country. but it is interesting nevertheless to get their opinions and all of them said they believed that vladimir putin was effectively finished and that the countdown was ticking down on his future. they also said that they believed groups within moscow who were waiting to take their chance and to push their preferred candidates for the succession when it ended. when and if vladimir putin steps down, i emphasise this is the opinion of the leadership here, so you have to accept that, they are looking at it from a certain angle. 0ne looking at it from a certain angle. one more thing, i asked about the progress of the ukrainian offensive and one of the senior advisers said to me, the mutiny did not make much difference on the battlefield. because it did not last very long. another one said, when i asked about progress, he made a face and did

something like that as if to say, it is going slowly and they have not got that far, although he was hopeful that things were going to get better from there perspective. what they are trying to do is manage expectations. in case any of their western allies get overexcited. because despite everything that has happened in moscow, the russian army is still a formidable foe for the ukrainians.— is still a formidable foe for the ukrainians. . ~', ., ., , a coroner has concluded that nicola bulley�*s death was accidental and she did not have "any desire" to take her own life. the 45—year—old went missing on a dog walk in st michael's on wyre in lancashire injanuary prompting a major search, which led to intense public interest and a social media frenzy of conspiracy theories. but today the coroner ruled she drowned after falling into cold water. here's our correspondent danny savage. nicola bulley, with her dog, willow.

a coroner was told she had treated the spaniel like a third child and would never have willingly abandoned it on a riverbank. willow's harness and nicola's phone were found one friday morning in january at this spot. the place where nikki bulley accidentally fell into the river wyre. her body wasn't found for three weeks. a period when herfriends desperately appealed for information and social media was filled with unfounded and often cruel speculation. what really happened was a tragic accident. but its left her family damaged by unfiltered online comment. it is upsetting that we have continued to receive negative, targeted messages and still wildly inaccurate speculation being shared on numerous platforms. we encourage people to look at the facts, the evidence which has been heard during the inquest, and the conclusion reached by the coroner. the coroner was told there was nothing in nicola bulley�*s medical records to say

she was suicidal. yes, her family acknowledged, she did have a blip last christmas because of the side effects of hrt, and was drinking too much. but she wasn't talking about taking her life. her partner, paul ansell, seen here in february, tearfully told the inquest that when she went missing, she was back on her medication and wasn't drinking. everything was in a good place, he said. all of the evidence pointed to a dreadfully unfortunate event. i hope that his majesty's coroner's clear and definitive findings will put an end to ill—informed speculation and conspiracy theories which have been so damaging to nikki's family and the community of st michael's. this inquest should finally put to an end the speculation surrounding the death of nicola bulley. perhaps now the online voices who suggested anything more sinister will be muted. her family now just want to focus

on who they describe as the most amazing mum who had so many future plans. instead of things said by people who never knew her. danny savage, bbc news, preston. in the last hour, police in california have confirmed that human remains found in mountains are those of the british actor julian sands, who went missing on a hike injanuary. julian sands was best known for his roles in the oscar winning film a room with a view and tv dramas 2a and smallville. the former health secretary, matt hancock, has told the covid inquiry that the government made a colossal mistake in its planning for a pandemic before coronavirus struck. he said the government had wrongly assumed the virus couldn't be halted and so there wasn't enough work done on prevention. but he told lawyers that he'd been assured that the uk had the best system in the world to deal with a pandemic. bereaved families accused him

of blaming others for his mistakes. 0ur health correspondent catherine burns reports. matt hancock arrived early this morning but there were already people waiting for him, including lorelei king. her husband vince died in a care home in march 2020. ijust wanted to hold up my photographs. he didn't look at them, i didn't expect he would. then protestors complaining about lockdown and vaccines arrived. one was arrested before the former health secretary was even sworn in. nowadays, matt hancock is perhaps best well known for his stint in the jungle, after resigning for breaching his own social distancing guidance. but he was a key and sometimes controversial face throughout the pandemic. he spoke directly to families in the inquiry room. i am profoundly sorry for each death that has occurred, and i also understand why for some it would be hard to take that apology from me.

all the questions boiled down to one thing. what did he do as health secretary to get us ready to face a pandemic? why did you not pursue those issues? you bore and you bear ministerial responsibility for that calamitous state of affairs. iwere the nation's preparations for a i pandemic of this nature good enough? no. matt hancock often stressed that officials were too focused on dealing with the disaster, instead of stopping it from happening. the colossal scale of failure in the assumption that it would not be possible, and the lack of ambition in the assumption that you can't stop the spread of a disease. we can. he was also asked if planning for a no—deal brexit was a distraction. he accepted that it was, but said it also meant we had enough medicine in intensive care. the work done for a no—deal brexit,

on supply chains for medicines, was the difference between running out of medicines in the peak of the pandemic and not running out. but it seems nothing today has soothed the feelings of bereaved families. self—serving, arrogant, it was all about blaming other departments. my opinion of mr hancock has not changed. all i will say is i do not respect mr hancock. matt hancock faced protesters this morning as he came in, and again now they are turning their backs on him to show they do not accept his apology and they do not believe his evidence. the inquiry isn't over for matt hancock. he will be sworn in again in later modules too. catherine burns, bbc news. now a look at some other stories making the news today. the boss of thames water, sarah bentley, has quit weeks after being forced to give up her bonus over the company's environmental performance.

ms bentley became chief executive in 2020 and has been at the helm as water firms have been in the firing line over the release of sewage in rivers and the sea. the company behind boots the chemist says it will close 300 of its branches throughout the uk over the next 12 months. stores close in proximity to each other are at risk of closure but the bbc understands there will be no redundancies and staff will be offered work at nearby stores. the former foreign correspondent and broadcaster, dame ann leslie who reported from more than 70 countries and witnessed some of the key moments of the 20th century has died. she was 82. dame ann reported from northern ireland, bosnia and afghanistan and interviewed a series of famous names including muhammed ali. a bbc investigation has found that paedophiles are using artificial intelligence and virtual reality technology to create and sell life—like child sexual abuse material. they market the illegal

content using accounts on mainstream platforms, make images to order and even offer to create regular supplies for subscribers. the national police chiefs' council has said it's "outrageous" that some platforms were making "huge profits" but not taking "moral responsibility" for safety. angus crawford reports. so i'm in a room with a woman called tara. tara is just an avatar created for use in vr pornography. so there's a dance pose. tara is fully clothed, but make no mistake, most of the content is extremely explicit. a lot of work has been done on genitalia. fabien benetou is a vr expert, an advisor on tech to the european parliament and shows us how it works. the game's called virt—a—mate. it lets users build their own vr porn, anything they can imagine.

so what i would worry for is for people to use this illegally. too late — it's already happening. even though virt—a—mate says it's put in place stringent measures and strongly opposes illegal use, we found players creating child models for use in explicit sex scenes. look here, a user is offering avatars of young girls for sale. "teens and tweens," he says. this one is making them aged 10, i2 and 15. and it gets worse. he's taken a photo of a real child on a beach and then used the image to create an obscene 3d model. but vr is just one of the new technologies driving the growth in computer—generated child sexual abuse material. artificial intelligence is also having a huge impact. ai allows paedophiles to create any image they want,

almost indistinguishable from the real thing. they're using the ai image generator, stable diffusion, describing what they want, the program doing the rest. there has been this huge flood... 0ctavia has spent months researching this world, groups of paedophiles on mainstream platforms, making, sharing, selling ai generated illegal images. the volume is just huge. so people will say, "oh will aim to do at least 1,000 images a month." they've got thousands of followers, some of these people. we didn't pay to subscribe and we didn't view any illegal images, but we could see the comments and hashtags. it's notjust very young girls. it's often talking about toddlers and using babies as sex toys and just the most awful stuff. it's really shocking. yeah. and often using the word rape, shameless child rape is the hottest thing in the world.

police fear a flood of ai images could make it harder to find real victims of abuse and want big tech to take action now. i think it is outrageous that companies are creating huge profits and yet aren't taking the moral responsibility. are we at a tipping point, then? i think we are. and the cost of not getting this right? the cost is a human cost. stability ai, the company that helped create the tech that makes this possible, told us they "strictly prohibit any misuse for illegal or immoral purposes across our platforms, and they strongly support law enforcement efforts against those who misuse our products." vr and ai, new tech, new worlds, but very real dangers, too. angus crawford, bbc news. a long—awaited independent report into cricket in england and wales has found racism, sexism,

classism and elitism are widespread in the sport. england cricket captain ben stokes says he is "deeply sorry" to hear of the experiences of people who have been made to feel unwelcome. the sport's governing body says they would "use this moment to reset cricket". 0ur sports editor dan roan reports. from perceptions of exclusion and troubling stories of sexism and racism, to fears of an elitist culture. just some of the testimony revealed in a damning report into discrimination in cricket. our findings are unequivocal — racism, sexism, class—based discrimination and elitism are widespread and deep—rooted throughout the game. the stories were absolutely horrific, and it goes to show that the culture in cricket is rotten. the report, called holding up a mirror to cricket, heard from more than 4,000 people, with 50% saying they'd experienced discrimination in the game. 75% of those who suffered

it did not report it to the authorities. the ecb has issued an unreserved apology for its failings. and today england captain ben stokes, who contributed to the report, addressed the issue. to the people involved in the game who have been made to feel unwelcome or unaccepted in the past i'm deeply sorry to hear of your experiences. cricket is a game that needs to celebrate diversity on all fronts because without diversity this game would not be where it is at today. the report found that women were treated as second—class citizens in the game, there was little to no focus on addressing class barriers, that many people felt excluded because of a heavy drinking culture, and that the ecb had failed to support black cricket. maurice chambers came to essex from jamaica as a teenager and says he experienced racism at the club. an investigation is ongoing. how many people of my background do you see playing professional cricket now? like, these days. there's not many of them, are there?

is this the kind of stuff i'm going to be facing, you know, at whatever club that, you know, i'll be playing for? like, nobody wants that. with both england's men's and women's teams hosting ashes series, this was meant to be a summer to savour. but as lord's prepares for a full house here ahead of the start of the second test against australia tomorrow, as well as excitement, there'll be grave concern about one of the most chastening reports to rock english sport in recent years. the report's 44 recommendations include equal pay for the professional women's game, the removal of the annual match between eton and harrow schools from lord's, and a new regulatory body independent from the ecb. while the report said private schools dominated the talent pathway, it did praise efforts like this at warwickshire, part of the chance to shine initiative designed to expand cricket's reach. i really love the teamwork and just the positive energy it brings. i like when i'm fielding

and i catch a ball. it gives self esteem, because everyone'sjust applauding for you. english cricket was already under scrutiny from the yorkshire racism scandal exposed by the county's former spinner, azeem rafiq. now the ecb hasjust three months to come up with an action plan to salvage trust across the whole sport. dan roan, bbc news. the rapper stormzy and the crystal palace forward wilfried zaha have agreed a deal to buy the non league club afc croydon. the artist who grew up in the south london borough is part of a three—man consortium including palace's employee danny young. —— young. the club competes in the ninth tier of english football.

this was the crowd that watched and sang for lewis capaldi at glastonbury on saturday. as the singer struggled with his voice the crowd took over and continued for him. he's now announced a break from touring for the foreseeable future and said he was still learning to live with the impact of his tourette's syndrome. jon donnison reports. coughing #so...# struggling with his voice and a bad cough on saturday night, lewis capaldi needed a little help. and he got it. crowd sings but he hinted there was maybe more going on. i recently took three weeks offjust because i've been non—stop from the start of the year and i wanted to have a kind of wee break for my head, for my mental health. i wanted to come back and do glastonbury because it's obviously so incredible, so i just want to thank you all for coming out and watching us. and in a statement this morning, the singer said he was still learning to adjust to the impact of tourette's and that on saturday it had become obvious he needed to spend much more time getting his mental and physical health in order so he could keep

doing what he loved. lewis capaldi is one of around 300,000 people in the uk with tourette's syndrome. it causes involuntary movements or tics and sometimes sounds, although contrary to popular belief, involuntary swearing is rare. in september, the singer spoke to bbc breakfast about tourette's and the challenge of living and performing with the condition. it depends, like, if i've had enough sleep, what i've been eating, what i've been drinking. and it's one of those things where if you're really excited, it's kind of twitchy. if you're nervous, if you're happy, it's weird, if you feel any emotion at all, tourette's seems to come knocking. and campaign groups say he's done much to raise awareness of tourette's. when i saw him performing, i could feel his pain. you could just see that he felt deflated from the performance. but what he didn't realise, that in that very moment he was making history. people were accepting

him for who he was. regardless of his tics and his mental health difficulties, they were accepting him. and for the tourette's community, that's huge. lewis capaldi described the decision to take a break from touring as the most difficult of his life, and apologising to fans, said he'd be backjust as soon as he was able. john donnison, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. how does it look? more unsettled but good news for people who want some rain. good evening. it was a cloudy day today, outbreaks of rain affecting much of the northern half of the country tied in with these weather fronts, of the country tied in with these weatherfronts, that of the country tied in with these weather fronts, that area of low pressure sitting in the north atlantic. most of the rain was across scotland and northern england, it has cleared into the north sea, the legacy of some spots of drizzle left behind, a lot of cloud through the overnight period but many places will turn a bit

drier, a bit more of a