tonight at ten... a dramatic rescue as six children and two adults are finally saved from a cable car left dangling hundreds of feet above a ravine. this is the moment the last two children were hauled to safety along zip lines after being trapped for 15 hours in a remote part of pakistan. they'd been on their way to school when a cable snapped. helicopters were used to wynch one child to safety in a dangerous mission. after hours of waiting, relief for the families. i will have the latest about all eight were rescued, live from pakistan. also on the programme... wildfires in greece kill 18 more people. the bodies found in a forest near the turkish border are thought to be migrants who'd crossed illegally. it's emerged that the british museum

was warned more than two years ago that objects from its collection were being put up for sale. the murdered surrey schoolgirl — police in pakistan have questioned three members of her widerfamily as detectives try to trace her father. and how a ten—minute mri scan could revolutionise the way prostate cancer is diagnosed. on newsnight at 10:30pm... what a night at the museum — intense pressure on the british museum after a virtually unprecedented artefact theft. how did it happen, and can the institution recover? good evening. it was a daring rescue that began first thing this morning when this cable car carrying children to school in a remote part of pakistan was left dangling hundreds of feet above a ravine after one of the cables snapped. six schoolboys and two

adults spent more than 12 hours stranded inside as the military tried to reach them, first with helicopters, then with zip wires, helped by local people. huge crowds gathered to watch the rescue attempts. tonight, the last of the children were hauled to safety in the darkness. our pakistan correspondent caroline davies has the latest. this story has captured people's attention around the world and from the early morning when we started hearing about the cable car and those trapped inside, many started to fear the worst given the role of location, bad conditions, the fact there had been multiple different attempts that had not been successful to rescue them but through the day, more hope and of course this evening we had the news that all of them have been safely returned. shouting. through the darkness and forest, the sight the crowds had been hoping, waiting and praying for —

strapped to the cable, the final rescue, waiting arms and shouts of "god is great." 15 hours earlier, the children were taking the cable car to school when a cable snapped. makeshift cable cars are common in the rural mountains of pakistan, taking minutes over ravines while roads take hours. at first, army helicopters couldn't rescue them, buffeted by winds, scared the downwash from the blades could make the situation worse. on the ground, frustration. this man said that his brother and son were inside the car. translation: doesn't the government have enough resources to _ save the lives of these innocent children? if the government is so helpless, then it should seek help from another country. local tv managed to speak to one man inside the cable car, rising panic before his phone died.

translation: i don't know how to make a request, but it's - a matter of human lives. as you can imagine, the authorities should rescue all of us as soon as possible. officials tried to reassure the growing crowds. translation: now a special unit i is coming, the local rescue team are already on standby. we are trying but really don't want to take any chances here. with the crowds watching this rescue, a rope from the helicopter, a leap and swept to safety. then things became more complicated as the light went, the helicopters left. instead, locals and rescue officials used police and zip lines, dragging themselves along wires as the night set in, dark strong winds, hundreds of feet in the air, but determined to reach that was stranded. —— pulleys.

slowly and steadily saving all of them. some appeared stunned, landing in the crowd, a journey to school near tragedy now followed by people around the world, and relief at their safe return. caroline davies, bbc news, pakistan. the greek authorities say 18 people, thought to be migrants, have been killed in a wildfire in northeastern greece. their bodies were found in a forest not far from the turkish border. efforts are being made to try to identify them. our senior international correspondent orla guerin is on the turkish side of the border and has just sent this report. it is an inferno and it's leaving little in its wake. firemen have been battling the flames night and day, but the wildfires are spreading. they've come bearing down on avantas, a village where local people are counting their losses.

translation: it has reached the entire village, _ our own house up there, where the fire started, has completely burned down. there is nothing. fire, only fire, that's what we could see. the wind was so strong. high winds and soaring temperatures have created a perfect storm, and beneath the smoke, a terrible discovery in the forest — charred bodies of those who may have been seeking a better life. so far, they are unnamed, their stories unknown. translation: in the wildfire - of alexandroupolis, in an on-site inspection by the fire department in the wider area of avantas, 18 bodies were found near a shack. the authorities believe the dead may have been migrants or refugees who entered greece illegally and were hiding out near a national park. there is a well trodden route here for those who cross over

from neighbouring turkey, desperate to reach european soil. many who call this area home will have nothing left to come back to. this is an increasingly familiar picture in parts of europe, a postcard from summer in our time. wildfires are not new in greece, but scientists warn they are worsening with climate change. so, in avantas, the bells toll a warning — residents must go while they still can. we have been told tonight by a local coroner that the bodies of the 18 dead will have an autopsy is performed tomorrow. all 18 are male and he has said that two are young people, possibly children. the dna samples will be taken but the

process of identification is expected to be complex and lengthy. bbc news has spoken to one syrian man who was afraid his cousin is among that group and has lost his life. he says he was a 27—year—old who travelled from here in turkey with a group of iranians and afghans and they were aiming to cross the border here and reach the greek region where the fires are taking place and he has been unable to contact his cousin for the past three days. tonight those fires are still raging, 240 firefighters are involved in the effort to try to contain them and there are concerned now about fires which had broken out here on the turkish side of the border. thank you. it's emerged that the british museum was warned more than two years ago that objects from its collection were being put up for sale. an e—mail exchange, which has been seen by bbc news, reveals that the museum's directors said the matter had been thoroughly investigated and there was no evidence of theft. but last week it admitted that a large number of objects had been

stolen, and that it had sacked a member of staff. police are investigating. our culture editor, katie razzall, reports. the e—mails, seen first by the bbc, appear damning, suggesting that the deputy director and later the director of the museum were alerted to allegations of theft more than two years ago. the whistle—blower was dr ittai gradel, a dealer based in denmark who bought items on ebay, which he later discovered were british museum property. he wrote tojonathan williams, the museum deputy, in february 2021, about "a disturbing discovery i have made involving theft from the british museum." he followed it up injune, asking the director, hartwig fischer, if an internal investigation had begun. a month later came this response from the deputy, confirming, "the museum has conducted a thorough investigation, has found that the objects concerned are all accounted for with no suggestion of wrongdoing." mr williams adds, "the collection is protected." you know, the british museum is a museum of our common humanity.

the museum is chaired by the former chancellor george osborne, his institution under pressure. because, of course, we now believe more than 1500 items were stolen, damaged or are missing from this place with the british museum under increasing scrutiny. this is already being reported across the globe in the media. the british museum is a, probably the world's most famous museum. so the culture department would be wanting to assure itself from the board of trustees and george osborne that it has the governance in place to protect these items now and in the future and to prevent anything like this ever happening again. just as damaging is what happened later. according to the e—mail chain, dr gradel sent his evidence to george osborne via another trustee in october 2022, saying he was certain the british museum management had preferred to sweep the whole affair under the carpet. the next day, george osborne e—mailed hartwig fischer, the museum director. "these are very serious allegations," he says, and asked for answers.

that same day, hartwig fischer e—mailed the trustee who'd been the go—between, saying the case had been thoroughly investigated, adding, "there is no evidence to substantiate the allegations." a demonstrable falsehood, alleged dr gradel, in an e—mail to george osborne injanuary this year. mr osborne replied, saying he was taking his comments very seriously. finally, scotland yard was called in to investigate, more than two years after the original allegations were first brought to the museum door, raising red flags for a former detective with the met�*s art squad. clearly, objects being sold into a global art market can change hands very quickly and many times over a relatively short period of time — say, two or three years. that really adds a complexity which the police won't thank you for. the museum has launched an independent review. it hasn't commented on the e—mails, which raised tough questions about what senior leaders knew and when. katy razzall, bbc news.

police in pakistan looking for three people wanted in connection with the death of a ten—year—old girl in surrey have detained three of their relatives for questioning. sara sharif�*s father, stepmother and uncle flew out of the uk before her body was found. they have not been located but three other members of the wider family have. our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford is in woking. bring us up to date, daniel. it is almost two weeks since sara sharif�*s body was found in this house in the early hours of thursday morning and since then surrey police have urgently wanted to speak to the three adults that were living in the house at the time, her father, double sharif, his brother old —— also advocate on the day before her body was found. surrey police have asked pakistani authorities for help

but the authorities have not been able to trace those three adults that the police want to speak to but what i have been able to do is find an question urfan sharif�*s two pakistan —based brothers and his father but as far as we can tell, no information has come from that which has helped to locate the missing members of the family. detectives here are trying to build a picture of the last months of her life and police have said she sustained multiple and extensive injuries over a sustained period and obviously police want to try to understand how it is that she came to those injuries. the police have said they had some contact with the family but that was some years ago. we know surrey county council's social services also had some contact with the family. talking to people here on the street, they say that three sara's brothers and sisters appeared to go to school since the family moved in here in april but they did not see any sign of sara sharif attending school so it may be that although she was at school in

byfleet when the family used to live there, she may not have been attending school since moving here in april. attending school since moving here in aril. . ~ i. an international trading bloc — made up of brazil, russia, india, china and south africa — has begun a three day summit injohannesburg where its members are discussing expanding the alliance after what they're calling a surge in interest injoining the group knowns as brics. russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov is representing president putin, who has made a video address at the summit. the group wants more opportunities for trade and investment and is seeking to extend its influence against wealthy western nations. our chief international correspondent lyse doucetjoins me now. how important is this brics alliance — does it have that much influence? this alliance matters and if two of its most powerful members, china and russia, have their way, its most powerful members, china and russia, have theirway, it its most powerful members, china and russia, have their way, it will do nothing less than redraw the international map, overturning an

order where, as they see it, the united states and the west makes and breaks the rules. brics started off modestly two decades ago when british economist working for goldman sachs, lord o'neill, came up with this catchy phrase to talk about four and then later five emerging economies. but now it has become a club which wants to do far more than that. it represents about half of the world's population, 25% of its gdp, and it wants to use this occasion, it is even talking about the decolonisation of the world economy, moving away from the dollar as the standard which is ambitious and may not be feasible but is a member —— measure of the ambition of the group —— the de—dollarisation. and president putin address the summer, suggesting he is perhaps not quite so isolated after all. it was

russia that _ quite so isolated after all. it was russia that first _ quite so isolated after all. it was russia that first moved - quite so isolated after all. it was russia that first moved to - quite so isolated after all. it was russia that first moved to the i quite so isolated after all. it was - russia that first moved to the group to be an informal club and now after the invasion of ukraine, this has become a political stage for the russian leader. unfortunately, there is a small catch, he cannot strut across this stage because if he went to south africa, south africa would have been obliged to arrest him under the rules of the international criminal court where president putin faces war crimes charges. but still, as you said, he will address it remotely and is even apparently going tojoin the dinner remotely and is even apparently going to join the dinner remotely and what brics symbolises is that so much of the world, what they called the global south, does not by the west's binary view of the war in ukraine, that it is a war between good and evil. these countries say, we don't want to be moved into one plot or another, so they will resist the chinese and russian trying to turn this into an anti—west block

but it certainly is a measure of a new world in which we live today. lyse doucet, thank you. now a look at some other stories making the news today. a former metropolitan police officer adam provan has beenjailed for 16 years for a series of rapes including the rape a 16—year—old girl in 2010 and six counts of rape against a fellow police officer. wood green crown court was told the met officer was obsessed with women and had over 700 female contacts in his mobile phone. england rugby captain owen farrell's dangerously high tackle against wales will see him miss the start of england's rugby world cup campaign after he was banned for four matches by an appeal committee. he'll miss the games against argentina and japan after world rugby appealed against the decision of a disciplinary panel to downgrade farrell's initial red card for the tackle at twickenham to a yellow.

council officials have said the foundations and remaining bricks from the burned out crooked house pub near dudley in the west midlands must remain on site while its future is decided. it was demolished withing 48 hours of a fire — which staffordshire police is treating as arson, and campaigners want the famous landmark rebuilt. the number of drug deaths in scotland has fallen to its lowests level in five years, amid hopes it could be the start of a downward trend. numbers are down from over 1,300 in 2021 tojust over 1000 last year. but despite that the drug death rate in scotland — as you can see — remains far higher than in any other country in europe at 248 per million of the population. the sister of one man who died from a drug overdose has been

telling us his story. tony devine had been struggling with addiction and dependence on drugs, including heroin, for around 40 years. this is his sister, liz daly. it was my last day at work after a 50—year career. the staff had made me a crown and a velvet cloak to wear. i'm all dressed up like the queen, and, er, tony was lying on his carpet dead, at this very moment. yeah. and i don't like it. it makes me feel sad. my name's liz daly. my brother, tony devine, died injune 2021, aged 63, from a drugs overdose. tony started taking heroin in the early �*80s. i challenged him about it and, er, "no, no, no, not me." to hear that my brother was using heroin was a big shock to me.

i don't know if you remember, george, but our parents were friends. that's right, aye, you were my babysitter. and i was the babysitter! that's how far we go back. my name's george elliott, i'm 55 years of age, and i used to use drugs with tony devine _ i was an intravenous user for about 21, 22 years. for me to get a tenner bag of kit, i would need to go and steal £40 worth of stuff to sell for a tenner, and then get rubbish kit. and i've not even got a vein to put it in. so you saw him smoking heroin. what else did you see him taking? codeine. aye. codeine linctus. yep, the cough bottles. the bottles, aye. he loved that, that was a big thing. anything with codeine in it. mm—hm. he was on methadone — which is a heroin substitute — for decades. why didn't they try and get him off drugs altogether?

my name's claire mackie. i own the pharmacy in dumbarton that tony came every day- to collect his methadone. i i think the reason there's been. so many drug deaths in scotland, most of them, when you look at it, is multiple drug use. _ yes. it's buying street valium, mixing that with cocaine, | and it's not the methadone. when it comes to addiction, it's not just about stopping the craving for the drug, it's about finding out what happened to that person. both tony and i suffered from adverse childhood experiences. a lot of that was to do with my dad's misuse of alcohol, his heavy drinking and quite aggressive behaviour. and then, when we lost our mum, that was just the ultimate trauma for us. i had found some tablets in his house, and sent two away to be analysed. when the results came back, one tablet was from russia, and contained traces of rat poison.

and the other one originated injapan, and it was used there to euthanise animals. so, george, what was it that made you finally get clean? i was done, my body was done. i've got very few pals who i used with actively every day that are still alive. all my mates died round about us. you know, i don't need to worry about him any more, so that's good, but it's not the same. he was my wee brother and i loved him dearly. tony devine's sister liz telling his story. so what more can the scottish government do to cut the number of drug deaths? ministers have called for personal drug use to be

decriminalised which they say would mean users could have access to better treatment and support. but the uk government, which has the final say, is opposed to it. portugal has tried it though. and the rate of drug deaths has fallen, though some say it has normalised drug use. our scotland editorjames cook reports from portugal. in portugal, this is not a crime. in fact, these men are consuming their own cocaine and heroin under the supervision of doctors, psychologists, and social workers. they won't go to court, let alone prison, but not being criminal doesn't make it legal. habitual users can still be fined or referred for treatment and counselling. why are you here today? i came here because i came to smoke. i came to consume cocaine. why do you do that? because i need it. when you are taking drugs, your life, it's like a prison. you wake up, thinking drugs. you lay down, thinking drugs. it's drugs, drugs, drugs. at this consumption room in porto, the focus is on saving lives.

this is not only a place where people come to use drugs in a safe way. this is also an opportunity to bring people to the health facilities. this doctor designed portugal's drugs policy. does he think it would work in scotland? yes, i am completely convinced that is a good way to do. - would it save lives? yeah. yes. critics of decriminalisation say that it normalises dangerous drugs use and puts money in the pockets of criminals. is that fair? i don't agree at all. i think it's important - to assume that we are dealing with a health condition, - with a disease, and we do not criminalise other diseases. in portugal, consumption of drugs is treated as a matter of public health, rather than criminal justice, but supply of drugs remains with criminals, and that poses big challenges for the police here on the streets. recently, this housing estate

was a stronghold for dealers, then officers moved in. this area's been cleaned up. yeah. has that notjust pushed some of the problem elsewhere? definitely, because, well, let's put things this way. the police will not solve the social problem of drug addiction. is it better or worse? definitely better. after decriminalising it? after decriminalising, definitely better. if you compare portugal to scotland, we have such a wide difference, such a huge difference between the two countries. portugal does have far fewer overdose deaths than scotland, but the mayor of porto fears it's normalised drug use. so has this policy failed? a failure is maybe too strong a word because it would mean going back, and i don't think we should go back to the original plan of prohibition, but i think it should be criminalised in some places.

no—one here says decriminalisation is a magic bullet, but whatever the reasons, scotland has a drugs death crisis and portugal doesn't. james cook, bbc news, porto. and just to say if you need advice or support after watching that, there's help available on the bbc�*s action line page. and finally to a ten minute mri scan that could revolutise the way prostate cancer is diagnosed. researchers in london found that the scans proved far more accurate at diagnosing cancer than blood tests currently used to check for the disease. they're hoping it will pave the way for a national screening programme for middle aged men. prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the uk. it mainly affects the over 50s. one in eight men will get prostate cancer. but for black men it's one in four. more than 12,000 men die from the disease each year. our medical editor fergus walsh reports.

paul rothwell feels fortunate. his prostate cancer was caught early at london's university college hospital, after he took part in a trial using mri scans. the 62—year—old's cancer would've been missed if he'd only had the standard psa blood test, which came back as negative. if ijust had the blood test, i would be carrying on life as normal, walking around unaware that there was some sort of ticking time bomb inside me of a cancer slowly growing. and by the time i then did find out, presumably, it would have been much harder to treat and much more dangerous to me. we don't see any sign of cancer recurrence there, so... paul was among 300 men aged 50 to 75 who took part in the trial led by university college london. of the 25 men whose aggressive cancers were picked up via mri, over half, like paul, had negative blood tests. we think these are really significant results. what we see is that a short

ten—minute mri scan, used as a screening test, can selectively pick up significant cancers in a much more effective way than the psa blood test alone. that'll help us to diagnose the important cancers early, when they're curable. the prostate is a walnut —sized gland which sits below the bladder. it's the uk's most common male cancer with 52,000 new diagnoses every year. this is what men over 50 can request from their doctor, a blood test for the protein psa. high levels can indicate cancer, so it's a useful test, but unreliable, as it's not always accurate. after he developed prostate cancer, errol mckellar started offering men discounts on their mot if they got themselves checked out, and he now runs a charity to raise awareness of the disease. when prostate cancer turns up at your front door,

it doesn't care whether you're black, whether you're white, it doesn't care about your wealth, it doesn't care about you. what it will do, if you ignore it, it will kill you. larger trials will be needed to confirm the value of mri scans, before a national screening programme for prostate cancer could be set up, which may take up to a decade. fergus walsh, bbc news. time for a look at the weather, here's sarah keith—lucas. it has been another day of warm sunshine. this was the picture as the sun set earlier in guernsey. the nights are drawing in that little bit quicker but some clear skies and holding on to some warmth for some of us over the next couple of days. it will be the mix of sunny spells

and a few scattered showers but we will not all be seeing them. most of the showers are fading away that we saw during the day so for much of the night it is looking dry. just one or two showers in southern scotland and northern england and later in the night more cloud building across wales and the bristol channel. a bit of mist and murk around first thing on wednesday morning, a few splashes of rain in the west. temperatures for most, 12 to 13 degrees, but single figures across parts of scotland first thing. tomorrow, fairly similar as today so some spells of warm sunshine, but areas of cloud, particularly through wales, the midlands and a few spots of rain with the low cloud in places like yorkshire. to the north of that, a few scattered showers for scotland and northern ireland. not as many as recent days. temperatures in the north, typically the high teens but down towards the south—east 26 celsius. moving through towards the end of the week and low pressure sits across the uk into thursday. a

bit of a different sort of day. we