this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm kasia madera and these are the latest headlines: uk prime minister rishi sunak says he's willing to discuss pay with the nurses�* union to settle strikes but there's no commitment to increase salaries. when it comes to pay we've always said we want to talk about things that are reasonable, that are affordable and responsible for the country. international travellers are streaming into china after it fully opened its borders for the first time since the start of the covid pandemic. translation: downgrading covid doesn't mean letting it rip. - rather, we are more scientific, targeted and efficient in our response. the ukrainian military has rejected a russian claim that hundreds of ukrainian soldiers were killed in an attack

on the city of kramatorsk. in his latest television interview, prince harry reveals that he felt guilty for being unable to show any emotion in public after the death of his mother. hello. welcome. the uk prime minister rishi sunak has given his first tv interview of the year to the bbc�*s laura kuennsberg. mr sunak addressed concerns over nurses�* strikes and said he will talk to the royal college of nursing union about pay — but does not commit to increasing wages now to end their strike action. our political correspondent damian grammaticas reports. a health service in urgent need of care itself claims

hundreds are dying each week because of delays means this is perhaps the most pressing issue for the prime minister. the first question for rishi sunak, is this a crisis? the nhs is undeniably under enormous pressure. until now his government has said it won't talk to nursing unions directly about pay. that is done by a pay body. now he says a discussion can happen, though only it seems about future years. will you talk to nurses about increasing pay this year — yes or no? we are about to start that process. that is about next year. it is about the year we are about to start. is it not the financial year 23—2“ they want to talk about pay this year. we are about to have that conversation. when it comes to pay, it's not appropriate for those conversations happen in public. a glimmer of something for unions that will meet the health secretary tomorrow but not enough to stop strikes about the pay nurses are getting this year. there was a chink of optimism, there was a little shift in what the prime minister was saying, but what the government want to talk about tomorrow

is pay moving forward. and in the broadest terms. and that is not going to avert the strike action planned for ten days�* time. with many waiting days now to see a family doctor on the nhs, the prime minister was asked if he is signed up to private medical care. were you registered with a private gp and are you still? yeah, but my dad was a doctor and i grew up in an nhs family. that was not my question. it's really straightforward. were you registered with a private gp? and are you still? as a general policy, i would not talk about me or my family's personal health care situation. it is not relevant in this. what is relevant is the difference i can make to the country. but it is relevant, say the unions and his political opponents, who say it would be the honest thing, too. i thought the prime minister gave the impression of someone who not only doesn't use the nhs but doesn't understand the scale of the challenges or have a plan to deal with the fundamental problems, because yes, he can get people around the table in number 10 for a photo opportunity, do more sticking plasters to get us

through this winter, but we need fundamental change in the nhs to deal with what is the biggest crisis in its history, and that is what labour is looking to do. as long as the government won't talk about giving health workers any more pay now, saying the state of public finances doesn't allow it and the need to control inflation is vital, then more strikes are coming. ambulance staff this week, nurses and maybe doctors after that. review body, jerry cope. in the last hour i spoke to the former chair of the nhs pay review body, jerry cope. he began by assuring me the body is independent and how the review is carried out. it is fiercely independent. and all the members of the review body value their independence. it can only work if it's independent, of course. but how does it decide? well, it looks at comparability with other professions, looks at the rate of inflation, it looks at retention, it looks at recruitment, all those

sorts of things, motivation. so it looks at the full range of issues that are related to pay. so it is looking at... you talk about it looking at inflation, and we will go into that in a moment. in terms of its independence, who pays for it and decides who is on it? so there is a process. you apply, it is advertised, you apply and a panel, that doesn't include politicians, basically makes a recommendation to the government of the day, which are pretty invariably accepted. and people are appointed for a period of time. i think it is two lots of three years usually. is it paid for by the government? just in terms of its absolute impartiality and independence, ijust want to make it categorically clear that there is no

skew towards the government line on this? there isn't. i have sat on pay review bodies, notjust the nhs one, i sat on prisons as well, for 14 years and i never got a phone call from a minister putting pressure on me in those 14 years, and it was a labour government and conservative government appointed me. it is good of you to clarify that because i think given the level of discussions it's important to get that absolutely straight. you spoke about how rates of inflation are looked at. the review body looked at, they gave their proposals in the summer of last year. so much has changed. ijust wonder why... is there a need in your opinion for them to go back and review what they were offering? i think that would be very dangerous for all parties to establish that sort of precedent. actually they had a pretty good handle about what inflation was going to be. i think the thing they might not have got right was what was going to happen to pay awards generally. but the 4.5%, 5% they

awarded isn't that far away from the economy in general. so i think the issue they had to look at was was nurses a special case? and nurses got 3% the year before when a lot of other people got zero. so it would have been hard work for the trade unions to argue that they were a particularly special case, other than, of course, i think the strong point of the union argument is the retention argument. it would appear that nurses are leaving the profession, and that's clearly something that needs to be addressed. not only by pay but also through the way they are asked to work and be managed, etc, etc. just in terms of when it comes to the talks we are expecting tomorrow, we heard pat cullen earlier on, the general secretary of the royal college of nursing, saying that she will not be at these talks. if she is not at these talks, i just wonder why she

wouldn't be at the talks. it is crucial for her to have a seat at the table, surely. as i understand it they will not discuss pay directly tomorrow. the government are continuing to say that pay will be determined by the independent, says he, getting that in again, independent pay review body. and therefore, what they are talking about is, in a way, how the evidence will be presented to the pay review body. interestingly, general secretaries don't always take a direct hands—on approach to pay negotiations. this is across quite a number of sectors, in the same way that ministers don't take hands—on. they leave it to people who understand how pay systems work. jerry cope, a former chair of the nhs pay review body speaking to me

earlier. for the first time in nearly three years, china has lifted quarantine rules for people arriving from abroad. it's the final step in the government's dismantling of its zero—covid policies. the change has driven a rapid rise in covid cases and has prompted other countries to impose restrictions on chinese arrivals. martin yip is at the border between mainland china and hong kong. china has been rapidly de—escalating these covid—i9 control measures, literally walking away from what used to be called zero—covid policy. so if you wonder how rapid we are talking about, two things that happened today on the other side of this bridge might give you some clue. macau, the only place in china that could let you gamble inside a casino treats covid—i9 from today as an endemic disease. that means it's something more or less like a cold orflu, you don't need to report yourself to the authorities if you get it, and you are very unlikely to be quarantined or other measures to be imposed on you.

martin yip on the border between china and hong kong. earlier i spoke to professor rana mitter — director of the university of oxford's china centre. he told me what he made of the speed of the change. i suspect now that many observers will think that this has been in the works actually for a few weeks. the number of cases that was rising in china, the number of covid cases that simply couldn't be controlled by the zero—covid lockdown policy was almost certainly becoming so great that the change would have had to come within the next couple of months anyway. but the protests, you will remember a month ago there were protests on the street in china, really very rare indeed, and they were also being encouraged by social media, would probably have pushed the chinese government into changing the policy even more swiftly. in that context it helps them to get to where they want to go, which is to take people's attention away from covid and instead towards growing the economy which they want to be the china story of 2023. how much do you think it is the economic cost to china and how much is at the protests

we have been witnessing? i think that overall the protests could have been suppressed, and indeed probably work in terms of the immediate aftermath and indeed probably were in terms of the immediate aftermath by the police, the censorship of social media, and the other tools china has that most of big societies don't because they are more democratic. i think overall the economic story and concern over that is very real. china has something like 20% youth unemployment, and that's been exacerbated by covid but also being pushed by factors well beyond that, such as the effects of the famous one—child policy. that ended about seven years ago but the aftermath is still felt on the effect means china is getting old and much more quickly, but without having created the kind of pension or welfare schemes that richer countries like the uk or south korea orjapan have done. it is those medium to longer term stories that i think are really worrying the chinese government now even more than covid in the longer term and why they are so fixated on building the economy up

as fast as possible. and for xijinping himself, he's put himself in this position where he is the de facto leader, just in such a strong, powerful position when it comes to china. but is there a potential that if the cases increase, if the deaths increase, he could be in a precarious position, or is thatjust a given that a he will rule for the rest of his duration? i think realistically he is pretty safe. first of all at the party congress a few weeks ago in october he managed to replace pretty much all of the other top leaders, the top seven in the leadership, including himself, with people who he has pretty much hand—picked so the top leadership owe theirjob is to him and will not let that go lightly. beyond that there is also the possibility of even using social media to blame the protesters, saying, look, this is what the protesters wanted and that's why covid increased. in a weird way the chinese communist party may be able to turn the protests on their perpetrators to put forward a new

message that any rise in disease is not the fault of the leadership but the fault of the protests. professor rana mitter from the university of oxford. the ukrainian military has rejected a russian claim that hundreds of ukrainian soldiers were killed in a russian attack on the city of kramatorsk. hugo bachega is in kyiv with the latest. earlier today the russian defence ministry claimed, without providing any evidence, that a massive missile attack targeted two facilities in the eastern city of kramatorsk. they were housing hundreds of ukrainian soldiers. a statement the russian authorities said that more than 600 ukrainian forces had been killed. again, they provide no evidence to support this claim. they said this attack was in retaliation for that massive attack last weekend that killed dozens of russian forces. a ukrainian attack targeting a building in the occupied town of makiivka in the eastern donetsk region. and the russian authorities have confirmed that 89 were killed. and the russian authorities

have confirmed that 89 soldiers were killed. the ukrainians had said that up to 400 russian soldiers had been killed as a result of that attack. this was an attack that sparked lots of criticism in russia, and now today, a week after that attack, the russians are claiming that a similar attack targeting a building in the east of the country killed 600 ukrainian soldiers. the ukrainians are rejecting it, a spokesman for the ukrainian army told us this information was false, and it was another piece of russian propaganda. hugo bachega with the latest on those lines from kyiv. thousands of pilgrims have descended on the historic town of lalibela in ethiopia,

to celebrate orthodox christmas. it was the first time pilgrims went to the town since the conflict in tigray began in 2020, which disrupted life in the country. a surprise ceasefire was declared on november 2nd. the bbcs daniel dazie reports. peace at last, after two years of war. thousands of worshippers have travelled from far and near to mark the ancient custom of orthodox christmas in africa's largest christian site. the medieval rock churches here at lalibela became a world heritage site in 1978. they are important for christians as places of pilgrimage and devotion. but this year's ceremony is special. it's laced with the relief of a country recovering from war. translation: last year- we were in our home crying. i normally always come here for christmas, but i couldn't come for the last two years. more than the pandemic, the war was scary because it was a massacre that was visible to our naked eyes. i couldn't come and celebrate it

because i was afraid. not long ago, lalibela was on the front line of the brutal conflict between government forces and the tigray people's liberation front. the town changed hands four times during the fighting and miraculously the ancient churches appear to have been spared the scars of war. there is obvious relief here that a peace deal was signed last november, though memories of the war are never far away. translation: my prayer and wishes are god may grant us freedom - for myself and my country. many problems remain, with 2.3 million people still thought to be in need after being cut off from humanitarian aid. but today's ceremony rings with the hope that life will return to normal for ethiopians.

hundreds of protesters have arrived in trafalgar square in london in solidarity with anti—government demonstrations in iran. some held banners with the faces of protesters killed by the regime. it comes after two men were hanged in iran for killing a member of the security forces during last year's protests. earlier i spoke to khosro isfahani, who is an iran analyst at bbc monitoring. last night two women removed their huabs last night two women removed their hijabs holding placards with the names of these two young men written on them, mohammad mahdi karami and seyed mohammad hosseini. there has been an outcry on social media with

people from different backgrounds condemning these executions. these two men were sentenced to death in a court proceeding that only took a week. and today this afternoon this video emerged out of iran from mohammad karami's grave, and his mother, this woman shrivelled with pain, is crying over her son's grave. this video has gone viral on twitter. this pain echoes with many people inside the country. since the protests started the regime has killed more than 517 people. 70 children were among them. every killing and every execution has added fuel to public rage and public anger against the regime.

khosro isfa hani khosro isfahani reporting. prince harry has revealed that he felt guilty about being unable to show any emotion in public, after the death of his mother, princess diana. in a new interview for itv promoting his memoir, the duke of sussex — who was twelve at the time — says he only cried once, when she was laid to rest. our royal correspondent daniela relph reports. memories of diana princess of wales, and the anguish and grief of her son at her death, are at the heart of prince harry's memoir, spare. in the first of his television interviews, to be shown this evening, he describes the days after her death and, as a 12—year—old, how he viewed the public response. everyone knows where they were and what they were doing the night my mother died. i cried once, at the burial. i go into detail about how strange it was and how actually there was some guilt that i felt, and i think william felt as well, by walking around

the outside of kensington palace. there were 50,000 bouquets of flowers to our mother, and there we were, shaking people's hands, smiling. i've seen the videos, right? i've looked back over it all. and the wet hands that we were shaking — we couldn't understand why their hands were wet, but it was all the tears they were wiping away. the television interviews were supposed to be the first time we heard some of the detail of harry's book, but when it accidentally went on sale early in spain last thursday, we got an earlier than planned look at spare. drugs, sex and bitter family fallout — there has been little holding back. but again and again, he returns to the devastating death of his mother and the impact on him and prince william. everyone thought and felt like they knew our mum. and the two closest people to her, the two most loved people by her, were unable to show any emotion in that moment. buckingham palace will be watching

what harry has to say in the coming days. but, for now, there is no official response — a position that is unlikely to change. daniela relph, bbc news. doctors say the american football player, damar hamlin, is making good progress — after suffering cardiac arrest during a game last week. the buffalo bills player posted this update on instagram — his first since his collapse — saying he's thankful for the support of fans. he said, "if you know me, you know this is going to make me stronger." "i'm on a long road," he added, "keep praying for me." we wish him all the best. many businesses are going through difficult times — and the brewing industry is one sector that is struggling, with production costs soaring and beer sales in pubs falling. at least one small independent brewery a week closed during 2022 and many others are fearful of what this new year will bring, as our wales correspondent,

hywel griffith explains. it should be a time when glasses are at least half full for britain's brewers, but a slump in sales this festive season, coupled with ever—rising costs, means some are being drained of optimism. rob hope's 2023 will see him celebrate a decade of making beer, but he's worried. he's already had to lose seven employees in the last 12 months, leaving just him to brew with the help of his son. the cost of grain and energy is set to go up again. we can't put the price up on a barrel, really, because we are at the top end of what's acceptable, and unless something else changes between now and april, i'm going to face a grain rise and then my energy contract is going to change and then i'm like... our thirst for locally produced craft ales has grown massively over the last decade. it has become a £1 billion industry in the uk.

but the cost of living crisis means customers are more cautious with their cash. people aren't going out as much as they used to. there's less money flowing through bars like this one. i think a lot of people during covid got used to drinking at home, where they could buy cheaper beers from the supermarket and be in the comfort of their home, and i think a lot of people are still doing that. the pandemic pushed forward big changes in our beer drinking. as pub sales declined, cans and bottles were bought online instead. at this brewery in pembrokeshire, they are trying their best to diversify and weather the storm, but it's tough. we are trying to sell online or direct from the shop here, but everybody is struggling with the cost of living. the treasury says it recognises these are tough times, but help is being given on energy, fuel and business rate costs, as well as an extension on the alcohol duty freeze until next august. but brewers say they need more support, and soon, to

help see them through this winter. hywel griffith, bbc news. treasure hunters in the netherlands are hoping to find valuables worth millions, hidden by nazi soldiers during world war two. an old map believed to mark the spot where the german soldiers hid diamonds, rubies, gold and silver, was made public by the dutch national archive. claudia redmond reports. beeping these treasure hunters are hoping x really does mark the spot as they follow a map believed to show where german soldiers had a haul of stolen goods during world war ii. the map was made public alongside other papers from the time by the national archive of the netherlands, after a 75—year confidentiality period expired. translation: according to the documents, it - contains bracelets, watches, brooches, necklaces, silver coins, gold coins, precious stones, rubies, diamonds. armed with shovels and metal

detectors, groups wandered through the fields surrounding rural 0mmeren in hope of finding the buried loot. translation: like so many, i'm quite tickled by the news of this treasure. i'm a serious searcher, i've been searching in this area for 30 years and i've found nice objects, especially roman ones. but now, suddenly, we're told something we haven't known for all these years, that there is probably nazi treasure buried here. my daughter and i projected the map from 1944 onto the current map and our conclusion is that the cross is here. there's a road crossing in the shape of a fork and the little cross indicating the treasure here is here. which is where we are standing at the moment. but these hopeful treasure hunters shouldn't get their hopes up too high, as the released papers show the dutch state tried to find the looted treasure after the war, apparently without much luck.

we will have to get claudia to update that as and when we get any news. much more on the website. do get in touch with me on twitter. stay tuned to bbc news. good evening. it certainly has been a sunday of sunny spells and scattered showers. but don't take my word for it, take a look at this weather watcher picture, a beautiful rainbow in the sky of cornwall, but wet weather on the roads as those showers eased through. there's going to be further showers to come actually over the next couple of days. and overnight, we still keep the low pressure to the north. most of the showers out to the west. but for a time we will see some clearer skies. favoured spots for that's likely to be through eastern scotland and eastern england. and under those clearer skies, temperatures are likely to fall away. so it'll be a chillier start to monday morning in comparison to of late, low single figures here. so we start off on monday, still that low pressure into the far northwest,

the wind direction swinging round to a northwesterly, a fresher source, that'll drive plenty of showers into northern and western scotland, northern ireland, northwest england and wales. some of those showers will push a little bit further east, but that's where we'll see the best a cooler feel generally then, 6 to 8 degrees quite widely. we mightjust scrape double figures somewhere in the southwest. then as we go through monday evening for a time, we'll have clearer skies. but out to the west is the next set of fronts is going to bring more cloud and rain as it does so. and that means we will start to see those temperatures then a little bit milder to begin with on tuesday morning. so for tuesday, it's going to be a wet and windy day for many as these frontal systems start to push their way steadily north and east, and we'll start to see this wedge of milder air arriving as we go through the day. so tuesday will be a milder day with the wind direction swinging round to a south—westerly, quite a lot of cloud around, quite

wet at times. maybe in the cooler air there'll be a period of snow, but then that eases to rain as the mild air pushes in. and it's going to be a windy afternoon, 30 to a0 mile an hour gusts of winds for many. and those temperatures, though, look at this, back up into double figures. we could see highs of 1a degrees in the southwest. so tuesday will be mild, wet and windy. what's in store for wednesday? well, those frontal systems will ease away. we still keep quite a few isobars on the chart. again, the winds swing round to more of a westerly, so it won't be quite as warm. and because it's a westerly direction, still feeding in showers from the west. so throughout the week, it's going to stay pretty windy at times and staying quite unsettled.

this is bbc news. i'm kasia madera, and these are the headlines... international travellers are streaming into china after it fully opened its borders for the first time since the start of the covid pandemic. people arriving in the country no longer need to quarantine and chinese citizens are allowed to go overseas. uk prime minister rishi sunak says he's willing to discuss the issue of pay with the nurses' union to settle strikes, but he didn't make a firm commitment to increase salaries. the ukrainian military has rejected a russian claim that hundreds of ukrainian soldiers were killed in a russian attack on the city of kramatorsk. moscow said it was revenge for a strike on one of its own barracks. in his latest television interview, prince harry reveals that he felt guilty for being unable to show any emotion in public after the death

of his mother, princess diana. he says he only cried once.