at a un—run school. israel says it's investigating the circumstances. the us says up to 400,000 people remain in northern gaza, as israel's ground offensive there continues. the un says no part of gaza is safe. authorites at the rafah crossing say no foreign passport holders will leave gaza for egypt until the injured people in gaza's hospitals are allowed to travel through the crossing. hello. welcome to the programme. arab foreign ministers at a meeting in amman have told the united states�* top diplomat antony blinken that there must be an immediate ceasefire in gaza. thejordanian foreign minister ayman safadi said the killing of civilians by israel could not be

justified by its claim of self defence. he said the entire region was sinking into a "sea of hatred" that could define generations to come. the egyptian foreign minister, sameh shoukry, said his country is making every effort to deliver aid and treat injured gazans and joined the call for an immediate ceasefire. the numbers of people who were killed from civilians in gaza over the last few weeks, including working in relief and journalists cannot be justified any way. and in this regard, we are still asking for an immediate ceasefire and that israel would stop hindering the delivery of humanitarian aid. and we also demand an international investigation for these violations of the international law in this war.

and finally, what we are witnessing of an escalation and the human tragedy and suffering of civilians as a result of not addressing the deep root of the problem and to address the rights of the palestinian rights. i reject any attempts to liquidate the palestinian cause. and i ask that we need to work as soon as possible. for his part, mr blinken reaffirmed us support for humanitarian pauses in fighting. but he rejected the call for an "immediate ceasefire". it's our view that a ceasefire now would simply leave hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on october 7th. and you don't have to take my word for it. just a few days ago,

a senior hamas official said that it was their intent to do october 7th again and again and again. no nation, none of us, can accept that. no—one would find that tolerable. and so it is important to reaffirm israel's right to defend itself, indeed, its obligation to do so and to take necessary steps so that october 7th and never happen again. but it's also very important the way israel does that. and that's what we've talked to the israeli government about with taking every possible measure to protect human life, to prevent civilian casualties, as well as to ensure that those who are in need have the assistance that they need. 0ur correspondent anna foster followed the news conference

and gave us her analysis on the israeli stance. israel has been very clear since those attacks on the 7th of october that one of their key objectives, along with releasing those hostages, is to entirely eliminate hamas and its leadership and its infrastructure from inside the gaza strip. so it was just interesting, i think, to listen to those three men talking there. the product of many conversations that the us secretary of state has been having injordan today, illustrating many of the points in particular. i think when you heard at the end the press conference there, they were talking about some of the images that we see coming out of gaza, those images of civilian killings, particularly of children. i think you could see there the unity between the three, they were all agreeing that these are not the kind of images that the world wants to see and that, in fact, they are often and we've been showing you sometimes here on on bbc news, you know, these images that are very graphic and very difficult to see, as were as antony blinken was was pointing out there, as were those similar images

that we saw on october the seventh after those barbaric attacks by hamas on israeli civilians and women and children in the south of israel. i think antony blinken will now be considering really the conversations that he will also have in turkey tomorrow. he's added an extra stop to his trip. but it really shows you, i think, the depth of feeling here across the middle east, but also really the diversity of feeling as well and the fact that there is no clear, no clear answer, notjust about how to deal with the current conflict, but also you heard them reflecting there on what will happen next, the idea of how gaza will or could or should look once hamas has been removed from power, they're entirely removed from gaza. and again, i think that that highlights something which has been raised diplomatically by many countries as an issue going forward. you know, nobody knows quite yet how gaza would run,

what it would mean for those more than two million civilians who are living there in gaza, more than a million of them displaced from the north into the south of the strip. anna a n na foster anna foster there. inside gaza, israel's military has urged civilians to leave the north. it had re—opened one of the strip�*s main highways, allowing people to drive south. but that's now shut again, with some 350,000—400,000 people remaining in northern gaza, according to a us envoy. the rafah crossing to egypt is also closed. we are hearing that gaza border authorities will not permit foreign passport holders to cross into egypt until the injured people in gaza's hospitals are allowed to travel to rafah. hundreds of foreign citizens have escaped gaza through the crossing in the past few days. meanwhile, an officialfrom the un agency for palestinian refugees has warned there is little the organisation can do to protect gazans.

let me show you some video we've received from the medical air for palestinians. dr marsan abusada works at the al—shifa hospital in gaza and has taken these mobile phone clips of wards packed with injured people. a warning you may find some of these images distressing. today is 3rd of november, the 20th day of aggression on gaza. i am now doing a photo. this is the sixth operating theatre in the subspecialty building. this is allocated for the cardiac surgery room. but unfortunately, today we are replacing children who already had surgery. these are children who had surgery. we don't have any empty place in the inpatient department. so we turn this room to be as a recovery area and inpatient department to our icu. unfortunately, this boy

has no family at all. no member of his family can see him or come to see and to visit this boy. i am now in the main operating theatre in al—shifa. it is well overwhelmed with the huge number of injured people, as you see here. this is considered as a recovery area. it is full of patients. no vacant place to admit to inpatient department, as you see, still always it is the same scene. no vacancy in the inpatient department to admit any patients. most of the patients, they had surgery, but they are waiting to be transferred to inpatient department and we are providing them here. it is a horrible situation. we are providing care. this operating theatre, as you see here... 0k. and this is again what we have before me, the surgery again.

meanwhile, the united nations palestinian refugee agency says a school it runs for displaced people in gaza was hit today. a spokeswoman, juliette touma, told the bbc that thousands of people were sheltering at the al fakhoura school injabalia in the north of the territory. hamas says israel carried out the attack. a spokesman for the israeli military said it was investigating, but said there had been an exchange of fire. and on friday night, there was an explosion at another school sheltering displaced palestinians. the hamas—run gazan health ministry says at least 12 people were killed. it says the school was bombed by israel. there has been no comment yet from israel. these images show the aftermath of an israeli attack on an ambulance, also on friday. the un and the world health organization condemned the attack. the israel defense forces admitted striking the ambulance,

but said the vehicle was being used by hamas to transport fighters. the gaza health ministry says 9,488 people have now been killed, including about 3,900 children. about 1,400 israelis were killed in the hamas attacks. 0ur correspondent rushdi abu—alouf has this update from inside gaza. today, israel asked about half a million people who still live in gaza city and the north to leave south here to khan younis. the city is already overwhelmed by about a million people who were displaced from their houses. the reason — the fighting was intensified around the gaza city and it seems that the israeli operation is expanding and pushing the people who are still in gaza to leave. they want the area to be evacuated, especially around the tel al—hawa area where al-quds hospital is. this morning there was an air strike

right in the front of the hospital and they destroyed a building, causing big damage and big panic to about 14,000 people who are taking the hospital as shelter. israel insisted they should leave. the director of the hospital say we can't leave because most of the roads around the hospital were destroyed and about 100 patients are being treated inside. eight of them were connected to the life—saving machine. the biggest israeli incursion so far is in the north west of gaza, and they are pushing hard towards gaza city. it seems that the israelis want to tighten the siege around gaza city itself, and they are pushing hard for the residents who still remain there to leave their homes here to khan younis. as we mentioned, the exit of foreign citizens from gaza through the rafah crossing to egypt has been stopped — at least temporarily. no—one has used the crossing today. border authorities will not permit

foreign passport holders to cross into egypt until the injured people in gaza's hospitals are allowed to travel to rafah. hundreds of foreign citizens have escaped egypt through the crossing in the past few days. alla ragaie is our bbc arabic correspondent in cairo and has this update. till this moment, we've been hearing that nobody has managed to cross to the egyptian side. according to palestinian sources, we have seen the list that used to be issued in the past three days by the authorities of crossings in gaza with around 700 names, including german, british and egyptians. for the first time, all of the all of these people, hundreds of them headed to the border. but the gate didn't open, according to sources we talked

to from the crossings, authorities in the palestinian side. there is some kind of a condition. they are making it clear that they will not allow the foreigners or dual nationals to cross to the egyptian side until there is some kind of coordination or agreement about the safety of transferring those injured — severely injured — palestinians to the egyptian side. this, of course, came after a day when the palestinian side or the palestinian authorities accused the israeli forces of targeting a convoy of ambulance, ambulance in front of al—shifa hospital, which killed around 15 in this convoy. so far, nobody crossed, but we're still watching if there will be some kind of updates there.

the situation on israel's northern border with lebanon remains tense. iran—backed hezbollah has been exchanging fire with israeli forces since the 7th of october attacks launched by hamas. for more, here's our correspondent in beirut, hugo bachega. a lot of people here in lebanon and israel and washington are relieved after the speech yesterday. the first time the influential leader of hezbollah made a public speech since the beginning of the war between israel and hamas and for weeks we had been talking about fighting along the border between lebanon and israel and fear that violence could escalate and lebanon could be dragged into the conflict so a lot of people were watching the speech yesterday and i think the most important thing that came out of the speech was he did not announce any intention to escalate those attacks, step up the campaign by hezbollah

against the israeli military. he did leave the door open for more attacks, he said all options were on the table and he said the actions of hezbollah will be determined by what happened in gaza and by the actions of the struggle towards lebanon and hezbollah and he said the only way to prevent the conflict from spreading across the middle east was to stop the war in gaza. i think it was also important that he described those attacks that have been carried out by hezbollah as significant because he said this was forcing israel to deploy a large number of troops to its border with lebanon but again, there was no indication that hezbollah would be stepping up its attacks against the israeli military and i think the reaction that we have had from the biden administration is that they believe the possibility of an escalation of the crisis has been contained and that a wider conflict has been deterred, at least for now.

hugo bachega there. my colleague anna foster spoke with tom fletcher, the former uk ambassador to lebanon. he warned the road to rebuilding trust with arab governments will be a long one for the us secretary of state antony blinken. i think what blinken is trying to do is to to rebuild trust with those arab allies. and that trust has been very, very badly damaged, obviously, over the last few weeks. and there's a long process ahead to rebuild the trust, not just with the governments, but with the arab population more widely. and that's why he's shuttling around the region. but alongside that, you can hear the frustration in his voice and in their voices, obviously, the anger in their voices that the dialling up of pressure during blinken�*s visit the last couple of days to israel hasn't actually had the result that he wanted. he hasn't got the humanitarian pauses. he hasn't got as much humanitarian aid in as he was hoping. and he's been told pretty

clearly by neta nyahu and the israeli military that they need to continue what they call. it's a very chilling phrase, mowing the lawn, reestablishing long—term deterrence against hamas and hezbollah. i think one positive, though, over the last few days that he will take from this is that nasrallah's speech yesterday, the hezbollah leader's speech yesterday, didn't dial up, didn't escalate. and i think he'll feel that the risk of that regional escalation has been dialled down a little bit. but that's one small positive in the midst of many negatives. let's talk a little bit more about that speech of yesterday, because, in fact, the pentagon were were confident enough yesterday, weren't they, to put out a statement saying that they believed that a wider regional conflict — or certainly an escalation on the northern border of israel with lebanon — was not an issue for now, because, of course, people have been waiting for that speech

with the potential that hassan nasrallah would announce hezbollah�*s full—scale entry into this conflict. why do you think that didn't happen? so, i think hezbollah are a cautious actor in this respect. they know that the lebanese people are very opposed to that escalation, that there is real opposition to a conflict across the israel—lebanon border. they know that there's a serious deterrent in the weapons that israel has, the willingness of israel to use them, as we've been seeing in gaza, but also in those us troop deployments in the region too. and i think the iranians have also concluded that now is not the time for a regional escalation. and so they would quite clearly have signalled to nasrallah that he should dial up the rhetoric, but not dial up the real threats and not actually increase the risk of tension across that border. anna foster also travelled to northern israel, and spoke to 0rna — a woman who evacuated from her border town. she asked her how she was coping

with the situation. we are organised and we know when shooting is about to begin or when shooting starts, we know exactly what to do. and we get orders in our systems in all kinds of ways. we get alarms and we know that we should take cover and everything. and the intensity is the blast that you hear closer. and also the number of times a day when all the roads are blocked and you cannot go in and out and when you have to to stay in a bomb shelter or in a different kind of shelter for longer periods of time. and it happens more and more often. and tell me, you left, but you haven't gone too far away? no, i... i need to be close by.

i'm not used to leaving my home. i'm used to being in a war zone sometimes in my life, many times in my life. and i know exactly what to do in these situations. but i hate coming out of my community in these situations. and in fact, it's the first time — i'm 57 now — it's the first time since i've been an adult that i have been evacuated. i always stayed, even in the worst situations. does it feel different to you this time? it is. first of all, it's heartbreaking. it's really horrendous. i don't think there's a single person in israel, a single israeli, who did not get awful news about acquaintances who had not been to a shiva or to a funeral or to give their condolences to people hurt.

everyone are involved in this and our children are involved in this. those who are older are drafted and they're on the borders. and the fear is unusual. people who i'm not used to to seeing them this way are intimidated because. it's not only war. these atrocities that we know of are beyond words. she was speaking to our correspondent anna foster. a british—based doctor who'd been trapped in gaza since the conflict began is now back in the uk. dr abdelkader hammad — a surgeon in liverpool — had been volunteering at the al—shifa

hospital in gaza city. he was able to use the rafah crossing into egypt on thursday. sam harrison reports. a moment to savour. the relief of a man back from a war zone and back with his family. dr abdelkader hammad, a surgeon at the royal liverpool hospital who's visited gaza for the last ten years. let's get you home. his work largely revolved around training doctors at gaza city's biggest hospital, al—shifa. his latest trip began just a day before last month's cross—border attacks by hamas gunmen. but finally, he's safe. big, big relief to see my wife and my sons here. i mean, it's been four weeks waiting for this moment really to happen. and, i mean, at some stage, i wasn't sure that this will happen, really. but thank god i'm here.

it was this, the rafah border crossing, which dr hammad was able to pass through in order to reach egypt. as he found, though, his exit wasn't smooth. we went twice to the crossing, the first time we were turned back because the crossing closed. it was chaotic. and the second time we were lucky to get out. i mean, even on that day, some people have been turned back. the journey back to the uk is a long one and it's one that others are hoping to make. and with more people expected to cross from gaza into egypt over the coming days, there's hope more reunions like this one will take place. a lot of times we're wondering, are we going to get this moment because it's been so long and so many ups and downs. and you sometimes feel a bit guilty about, you know, being lucky to be able to get out. a family reunited at last. but for others, the agonising wait continues. sam harrison, bbc news, at heathrow.

tens of thousands of people have been protesting in london in the latest of a series of large—scale demonstrations in the capital, demanding an end to the bombardment of gaza. there were several thousand people in trafalgar square, chanting slogans, carrying placards and waving flags. 0ur correspondent aruna iyengar sent this update. thousands of people are here in trafalgar square. they are asking, it seems, for a ceasefire. i have talked to dozens of people this morning who have said to me that they want to protest peacefully. they say they want to see a ceasefire in palestine. i asked them also about the problem of possible extremists infiltrating these protests. they said that wasn't true, they hadn't seen any signs of that. one man i spoke to earlier said that manyjewish people had joined these protests to call for a ceasefire.

as you know, that is not the line of the government's policy at the moment. the current policy of the british government is to call for pauses in israel's attacks on the gaza strip. people here are generally in good heart. they are shouting, making a lot of noise, waving flags. but so far it does seem to be extremely peaceful here, albeit very noisy. yesterday we heard from the chief rabbi of britain, your headlines are coming up. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there, given how wet it has been, flooding will still be a concern over the days ahead. we have had some rain around today, some heavy showers here in sussex also affecting hampshire and also kent. a few thunderstorms and some gusty winds too. that has brought some

more persistent rain in northern england and north wales. still some wet weather here around now but that thread will slowly tend to ease off overnight. 0ut thread will slowly tend to ease off overnight. out to the west, some clearer skies, the odd shower. chilly start tomorrow in northern ireland and scotland, one or two mist and fog patches in the morning. those will lift. we start quite cloudy tomorrow in eastern scotland and england, still a bit of rain left from overnight, that should move away. some sunshine coming through. up to the west, sunshine, showers through the day, bumping into the far west of scotland, one or two for northern ireland. local showers arriving across and western parts of england and wales. if anything, those temperatures could be a shade higher than they were today. a bit like today, from northern parts of the uk, the winds should be fairly light and again like today, stronger winds will be in the far south. the far south—west of england, through the english channel and again, unfortunately, channel and again, unfortunately, channel islands we have some strong and gusty winds and some rather

rough seas as well. those showers will continue into bonfire night, showers for many western areas, clearer skies out towards the east. it's going to be the story of the next couple of days. still got low pressure dominating the weather into the start of the new week so again, it still looking rather unsettled. close to that area of low pressure, some wetter weather in the far west of scotland, again the odd shower for northern ireland, some showers for northern ireland, some showers for england and wales and may be during the afternoon a few more of those will get into eastern areas as well. but some sunshine around as well, temperatures 11 to 13 degrees, those numbers not really changing very much over the week ahead. it's probably not until the middle part of the week that we see our first speu of the week that we see our first spell of organised rain. this weather front pushing in from the atlantic with somewhat stronger winds but certainly not going to be a stormy week ahead. it is not going to be as windy, as wet as it has

been and before the rain, the middle part of the week is a case of sunshine but also a few showers.

this is bbc news. the headlines: egypt and jordan call for an immediate ceasefire in gaza, but the us secretary of state antony blinken is urging only humanitarian pauses. ceasefire now would simply

leave hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on october the 7th. the un's palestinian refugee agency says there was an explosion at a school it runs. hamas says 15 people were killed. israel says it's investigating. the us says up to 400,000 people remain in northern gaza, as israel's ground offensive continues. the un says no part of gaza is safe. an earthquake in western nepal kills at least 157 people. houses are destroyed and people are digging through rubble to rescue others. now, we will get news on the international news in just a few minutes, but it is now time for a look at the sports. —— more on the international news. hello from the bbc sport centre. we'll start at the cricket world cup, where the defending champions england have finally been put

out of their misery. they were beaten by 33 runs by australia in amedabad. england, who had to win to keep their slim semi—final hopes alive, put australia into bat and bowled them out for 286. chris woakes was the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 54, dismissing both openers, travis head and david warner. england's reply started with a first ball duck forjohnny bairstow off mitchell starc. half centuries from dawid malan and ben stokes kept england on course, but once they were gone, england were always struggling. they were bowled out for 253 in the 48th over. australia are third in the table, and look good for the semi—finals. with two matches left to play, england will just try not to finish bottom. pakistan have kept themselves in the hunt for a top—four finish after beating new zealand in their rain—affected match in bengaluru. victory looked to be beyond them after they put new zealand into bat. rachin ravindra made 108 as the black caps reached 401—6. fakhar zaman set off in pursuit

of that with an astonishing knock of 126 offjust 81 deliveries. he hit 11 sixes. they reached 200—1 before the rain finally meant the game had to be abandoned but because more than 20 overs had been bowled, the match was decided under the duckworth—lewis—stern method, and thanks to fakhar�*s blistering ton, pakistan won by 21 runs. they are in fifth, level on points with fourth placed new zealand. both have one game left to play. in football, manchester city have moved back to the top of the premier league after overpowering bournemouth 6—1 at home. jeremy doku starred for city with a goal and four assists. bernardo silva scored twice and there were also goals from phil foden, manuel akanji and nathan ake. the one concern for city is that erling haaland had to come off

at half—time with a twisted ankle. but there were far more positives, including the performance of their new belgian signing. how wasjeremy how was jeremy doctor who? he has this individual— how was jeremy doctor who? he has this individual quality _ how was jeremy doctor who? he has this individual quality when _ how was jeremy doctor who? he has this individual quality when it - how was jeremy doctor who? he has this individual quality when it can - this individual quality when it can take people on every second. he is so fast and how to mark and does the same in training so he, especially when he is one on one, he did so well today. he made a great difference. ——jeremy well today. he made a great difference. —— jeremy doku. manchester united have ended a week of two defeats and some unwelcome scrutiny with a crucial premier league victory. captain bruno fernandes got the winner against fulham at craven cottage in the 91st minute. the 1—0 win has moved them up to seventh for now. it could be the win that eases the pressure on manager erik ten hag who had insisted that he is the man to turn things around after united's worst start to a campaign in more than 60 years. it was really massive, important for us to get the three points today, because the situation is not the best and we need to get points, we need to start to build something, and when i mean build something, i know we have been saying this a lot

of times, but we need to start from somewhere, and there is no time to look back now, and look forward. five other premier legaue games on saturday. brentford came from behind to beat west ham 3—2. burnley remain in the relegation zone, beaten 2—0 at home by palace. everton were heading for a win at home to brighton but ashley young scored an own goal. that finished 1—1. sheffield united have theirfirst win of the season. 0liver norwood's penalty in the 10th minute of stoppage time saw them beat wolves 2—1. the match bewteen newcastle and arsenal has just kicked off. there are no goals so far. that is all the sports _ there are no goals so far. that is all the sports for _ there are no goals so far. that is all the sports for now _ there are no goals so far. that is all the sports for now but - there are no goals so far. that is all the sports for now but there l there are no goals so far. that is| all the sports for now but there is more on the bbc�*s bought website. —— the bbc news website. at least 157 people are believed to have been killed in an earthquake in western nepal. the shallow quake of magnitude 5.6 hit the remote hill district of jajarkot, which is about 500 kilometres west of kathmandu.

strong tremors were felt in the capital and in indian cities including delhi. hospital officials in jajarkot said they were treating more than 40 injured people rescued from the rubble of their homes. the bbc�*s nepali correspondent, ashock dahal has more from kathmandu.. as it is turning dark in nepal, many people who are affected by the earthquake i started spending nights outside of their homes, as their homes were either collapsed or cracked by the earthquake. many of them don't have tents and they are also awaiting for the local authorities in nepal, who are struggling to distribute relief, as it is turning nights, and electricity facilities in many affected areas are cut off. more than 300 injured, and some of these

were airlifted to hospital facilities in urban areas and a few of them were brought to cats meant to, as far as 500 kilometres from the epicentre. —— kathmandu. after witnessing the damage in the affected areas this morning, nepal's prime minister said he would take a decision about distribution of further relief packages to the victims and also whether to accept foreign aid to the victims or not. many countries, including a pull�*s neighbours india and china, have offered humanitarian aid to the quake victims of nepal. —— including nepal's neighbours. many people died while sleeping at their homes as the earthquake hit at midnight, and most of the victims were crushed by houses while sleeping. the majority

of the deceased were women and some of the deceased were women and some of them were children. seismologists have warned that nepal sits in an active seismic bout. a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit more than nearly 9000 people in 2015 and its aftershocks were monitored until last month. —— seismic belt. european commission president ursula von der leyen has made an unannounced visit to kyiv. she is there for talks with president zelensky on ukraine's efforts to join the european union. the commission will next week report on the progress made by ukraine and other countries in their bids for membership. kyiv hopes that despite the ongoing war against invading russian forces, eu leaders will agree to open formal accession negotiations at a summit in december. that would require the approval of all 27 eu nations,

something that's not certain. i must say you have made excellent progress. this is impressive to see. we will testify to this next week, when the commission will present its report on enlargement. i want to tell you how impressed we are by the reforms you have made in the midst of a war. we should never forget you are fighting an existential war, and at the same time, you are deeply reforming your country. you have reached many milestones, reforming yourjustice system, curbing the oligarchs' grip, tackling money—laundering and much more. this is the result of hard work. and i know that you are in the process of completing outstanding reforms. if this happens, and i'm confident, ukraine can reach its ambitious goal

of moving to the next stage in the accession progress. 0ur reporter sent this update from kyiv. there are signs that show that eu politicians believe that ukraine has met the criteria to start the accession process. in fact, the german foreign minister has said that she believed there will be... ukraine will start the formal process after the december summit. many here in ukraine are expecting this report, and they believe that finally their goal to join the eu at least will have a certain framework and timeframe, and they will start this process. there were seven conditions that were indicated by the european union that ukraine must meet in order to become a formal... in order to start the formal process. in the past, they said that two of these requirements were met, but ukraine was still supposed

to make more efforts to work on reforms of the constitutional court, to change its legislation, to work more on fighting the oligarchs, and support the minority rights. so, now, on wednesday, we will hear the report from the european commission. if it is positive, it is very likely that the eu will start this formal process after the summit in december. we do not have the exact timeframe at this moment. this is exactly what ukraine was demanding from the eu, "give us a timeframe so we will know when we will be able "tojoin the european union." at least what they will get now, they will have this formal process to start talks with the european union and become a member in the future. that will be the starting point. as for the timeframe, i believe we might hear something in december, but probably even later.

it is not necessarily coming during the summit. some of the eu countries were quite sceptical about ukrainejoining the eu, particularly hungary. the prime minister of hungary, viktor 0rban, was saying he does not believe that ukraine canjoin the european union while it is at war. it is very difficult to predict when it will happen, and also it is not certain, of course, that all 27 members of the european union will agree to start this formal process. we need to wait for the summit in december, even if this report that is coming out next week will be positive and will confirm that ukraine has met all the requirements that they set up for this country. in northern ireland, water pumping has started in the flooded areas of downpatrick. several towns were hit by heavy rain this week. but for many businesses, it could be a while until they are able

to assess the damage to their premises. as our northern ireland environment correspondent, louise cullen, reports. unprecedented, apocalyptic, and now the aftermath. after two days of drier weather, it is time to push the water back. the pumps have been working away for hours here, pumping thousands of litres two kilometres away from here. the water level has receded, but it has been far from a simple operation. the complications we are encountering, obviously everyone has heard downpatrick is basically in a bowl, so there is a lot of floodwater draining down into this bowl. the water levels in the river are quite high, thankfully they are now subsiding. this is as close as this local person can get to her shop floor.

my stock is just floating about. it is very hard for a family business. we have been here for 100 years almost and my grandfather started it up. it is hard for everybody but we are a lovely community and we are trying our very best. the fire crew are amazing. it is just heartbreaking. and across the road, the local pharmacist is starting his clean—up. we were here until the early hours of the morning while they were trying to save my premises, and it meant so much to me. and to the rest of our staff when they came in the next day. this is one of the main shopping streets in this market town, and with christmas barely seven weeks away, there is just one wish now on everyone's list. we need help. we need help now. we need somebody to come down here and say... we need that man who signs the cheques. the british actor and comedian russell brand faces a further accusation of sexual assault. the claim is made in a lawsuit filed in the us state of new york.

the accuser is a woman using the alias "jane doe". she claims mr brand assaulted her during the filming of the romantic comedy arthur in new york, 13 years ago. she says she was an extra in the film. several women have recently accused mr brand in the british media of sexual assault or inappropriate behaviour, but this is the first accusation filed in court. he has denied taking part in any non—consensual sexual activity. david willis reports. and i tried to get away from him... an investigation by the times, the sunday times and channel 4 reported claims of sexual assault on the part of russell brand involving four women. one of whom alleged he raped her at his home in los angeles. he denies the allegations. these and this latest allegation all relate to a period when russell brand, seen here at the premiere of his film get me to the greek, was at the height of his hollywood stardom. now, an affidavit filed in new york

alleges that russell brand exposed himself to an extra on the set of the film arthur. "the sexual assault happened later that same day "when i was in the bathroom", the affidavit continues. it's the first such allegation to be levelled against russell brand in a lawsuit. he has yet to respond. what i seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations... shortly before the initial allegations came to light, he took to his youtube channel to maintain that all his relationships had been consensual. his latest accuser, who has maintained a career as an actor, is reported to be seeking unspecified damages in return for psychological injuries suffered as a result of the assault. david willis, bbc news, los angeles.

in colombia, the search continues for the father of liverpool footballer — luis diaz — who the government says has been kidnapped by left—wing rebels. the colombian forward's mother was released shortly after being seized by gunmen on saturday, but his father is still missing. officials say they expect him to be freed soon, but it's still a difficult time forfamily and friends. translation: luis is very much affected by this situation. - he is very attached to his father, and a blow like this is hitting him very hard, as it is hitting all of his family members, as it is hitting all of us. this situation isn't easy for anyone. this is the first time we've been in a situation like this, and here we are waiting to see what is going to happen. the information we have is that he will be released. and, yes, we are waiting and waiting for things to be solved in a good way.

people are arriving at nottingham's motorpoint arena for a special tribute ceremony for ice hockey player adam johnson, who was fatally injured by a skate blade last saturday. it will include a two—minute silence. an inquest has opened into his death, as angela rafferty reports. a sea of flowers for a city and a sport in mourning. adam johnson's death has touched so many lives. the outpouring of love and emotion that we have seen from across the world has been incredible, overwhelming, but really comforting at the same time. thousands are expected at a memorial service at the nottingham motorpoint arena, a chance for those touched by the tragedy to unite in their grief. i'm a football fan, really, i don't follow ice hockey, but to hear that someone has gone through that... it's sad. voice cracks: he was 29.

it hasjust been a tragic accident and, you know, what can you say? wonderful flowers we're seeing here. it'sjust awful, really. for those who knew him, and thousands who didn't, everyone wants to pay their respects. a fundraiser in his memory has already raised thousands of pounds to be spent on projects injohnson�*s hometown in america. 2,500 memorial pucks bearing his name, and the same number of memorial shirts have been sold in less than 24 hours. more than would usually sell in an entire season. his team—mates will hold a private service here, before thousands of fans are expected to turn up at 5:30pm, to sign a book of condolence. a two—minute silence will be held later in the evening to mark the moment the incident happened last weekend. i imagine it will bring it flooding back for a number of people, but i think it is really important that we mark that moment as we all come together as a hockey family. i think it will be incredibly respectful. incredibly moving,

and incredibly emotional, as well. and it's an opportunity. we will have lots of charities, mental health charities, looking to support people, because, for some people, they will find this very traumatic. the book of condolence will be sent to the player's family — a lasting memory of the legacy he's left behind. the special service will be held exactly seven days after he died. a chance for the ice hockey community to come together. a chance to mourn a much loved friend. a chance to remember one of their own. croatia's foreign minister has been criticised for trying to kiss his german counterpart at a ministerial summit in berlin. they shook hands before a group photo, but then gordan gherlich radman moved to greet annalena baerbock with a kiss. she turned her head, so they bumped cheeks. now, mr radman is facing accusations of acting inappropriately. but he says colleagues always greet each other warmly.

our reporter tom brada has more on the story. eu ministerial summits often don't generate headlines, but this moment at an eu foreign ministers meeting in berlin has sparked some controversy. on the left, that is croatia's foreign minister, gordan grlic rudman, greeting his german counterpart, annalena baerbock, with a handshake followed by an extremely awkward attempted kiss. ms baerbock turns her head away and his kiss lands on her cheek. now, this happened on thursday, but it's only over the weekend that the video started to spread rapidly online. according to german media, mr grlic radman has already apologised and defended what happened as a warm human approach to a colleague and that it was maybe an awkward moment. for her part, ms baerbock has yet to comment, but the situation has been covered by both german and croatian press. for example, this is a translation of an online article from the german tabloid newspaper bild.

the paper calls the incident a kiss attack and goes on to say that the embarrassing situation played out because mr grlic radman had arrived late and that all the other ministers had already greeted one another and exchanged kisses. meanwhile, croatian media has picked up this tweet from former croatian prime ministerjadranka kosor who posted that forceful kissing of women is also called violence, isn't it? now many people are defending mr grlic radman, insisting that the incident has been blown out of proportion and the greetings with a kiss are a standard part of european culture. if you could go back in time 4.6 billion years and take a picture of our sunjust as it was being born, it might very well have looked like this. this is a very young star, in the constellation of orion. it's a new image from nasa's james webb space telescope. you can see the pink and red jets shooting out from a dense disc of gas and dust.

the star is thought to be no more than 50,000 years old, but would have looked much the same as our sun at a similar age. the telescope, which launched two years ago, is in the sun's orbit, 1.5 million kilometres from earth. drjenifer millard — astronomer at fifth star labs — explained it to us earlier. she started by telling us what the image shows. so, we are looking at a newly formed star, as you said, only a few tens of thousands of years old. and stars form from collapsing clouds of gas and dust, and as they are collapsing, we preserve the way that these clouds are rotating, it kind of gets enhanced. it's what we call the conservation of angular momentum. you have may have seen this with a ballet dancer who's spinning and they bring in their arms and start spinning faster,

or if you've spun around on a chair and bring in your legs, you suddenly spin faster. what we are doing here is bringing in this cloud of gas and dust that starts to form a star and it spins faster and faster. but we have to get rid of some of this spinning because otherwise the star willjust fling itself apart. the way this is done, we think, is through these amazing jets which are driven by a very powerful magnetic field and also the rotation of this star. it looks spectacular, doesn't it? just looking at those photos. but on the grand scale of things, how important would you say this discovery is, jennifer? this is amazing, we have such a detailed image from the james webb space telescope, because we have studied this object for about 25 years but not at the wavelengths we can with jwst, nor with such refined detail, so it will allow us to fully understand how stars are behaving in their very early days. star formation is still something we are still trying to figure out because it takes so long to happen. we can't watch one star form. we have to take lots of different snapshots of different stars at different stages and build up a picture that way. but we can see that there are jets that came out at different points,

that's why there are different bright points along this jet, because we have studied it so long, we can see it evolving over time and all of this information helps us to understand how we get to stars. this james webb telescope, it was only released last year. it has already been responsible for so many discoveries. just how powerful and how important would you say this piece of equipment is? i would say the james webb telescope is a kind of once in a generation telescope. we don't get them very often because they are incredibly difficult to build, they require decades of planning. this telescope was planned before we even launched hubble and that was 30 years ago. with this telescope, we are seeing parts of the universe we could never see before. the light from the very first stars and galaxies billions of years ago, we are seeing things like this. we can see asteroids and planets, everything. it is so sensitive, this telescope, that it can detect the heat of a bumblebee on the moon.

it is just incredible. and it can see so many more details. it is an absolutely amazing telescope and it has been doing science for 18 months and it seems like barely a week goes incredible discovery. but is it for me today. there is more on our app and on our bbc news website where we had correspondence updating you with all the latest on the war in gaza. you can also contact me on twitter. your headlines are coming up. do stay with us here on bbc news. hello there, given how wet it has been, flooding will still be a concern over the days ahead. we have had some rain around today, some heavy showers here in sussex also affecting hampshire and also kent. a few thunderstorms

and some gusty winds too. there are more showers at the moment with that area of low pressure. that has brought some more persistent rain in northern england and north wales. still some wet weather here around now but that thread will slowly tend to ease off overnight. out to the west, some clearer skies, the odd shower. chilly start tomorrow in northern ireland and scotland, one or two mist and fog patches in the morning. those will lift. we start quite cloudy tomorrow in eastern scotland and england, still a bit of rain left from overnight, that should move away. a little cheer—up, sunshine coming through. up to the west, sunshine, showers through the day, bumping into the far west of scotland, one or two for northern ireland. local showers arriving across western parts of england and wales. if anything, those temperatures could be a shade higher than they were today. a bit like today, for northern parts of the uk, the winds should be fairly light and again like today, stronger winds will be in the far south. the far south—west of england, through the english channel and again,

unfortunately, channel islands will have some strong and gusty winds and some rather rough seas as well. those showers will continue into bonfire night, showers for many western areas, clearer skies out towards the east. that's going to be the story of the next couple of days. still got low pressure essentially dominating the weather into the start of the new week so again, it still looking rather unsettled. it's still looking rather unsettled. close to that area of low pressure, some wetter weather in the far west of scotland, again the odd shower for northern ireland, some showers for england and wales and maybe during the afternoon, a few more of those will get into eastern areas as well. but some sunshine around as well. temperatures — 11 to 13 degrees, those numbers not really changing very much over the week ahead. it's probably not until the middle part of the week that we see our first spell of organised rain. this weather front pushing in from the atlantic with somewhat stronger winds, but it's certainly not going to be a stormy week ahead. it is not going to be as windy, as wet as it has

been and before the rain, the middle part of the week is a case of sunshine but also a few showers.

live from london. this is bbc news. foreign ministers from egypt and jordan call for an immediate ceasefire in gaza— but antony blinken says that would allow hamas to regroup. ceasefire now would simply leave hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on october the 7th.

hamas says 15 people have been killed in an explosion at a un—run school. israel says it's investigating the circumstances. the us says up to 400,000 people remain in northern gaza, as israel's ground offensive there continues. the un says no part of gaza is safe. rafah crossing authorites say no foreign passport holders will leave gaza for egypt until the injured people in gaza's hospitals are allowed to travel through the crossing. protests in support of palestinians have been taking place in cities around the world — here in london 11 arrests were made after one such demonstrations attended by thousands. and the met office issues a heavy rain warning for the south and south east of england.