rise over two years. the health secretary, wes streeting, said the agreement was crucial for the nhs. here's our health editor, hugh pym. it began in march last year. striking junior doctors on picket lines in england and demanding a pay rise of 35% to be phased in, which they said should compensate for inflation over more than a decade. what do we want? pay restoration! when do we want it? now! some talks took place with the conservative government, but that didn't stop 11 rounds of strikes over a total of 44 days. soon after the election, the labour government made an increased pay offer, which the doctors union, the bma, put to members and they voted to accept. this is the first step towards restoring pay, towards restoring the value, which is all that doctors have wanted since the beginning of this campaign.

as you will know we have had huge pay cuts since 2008 but this marks a change in that trajectory. and if these communications break down, then we will be thinking about going back into dispute and striking again if we need to, but that is always a last case resort and something we don't want to have to do. the offer included a backdated pay rise for last year of 4%, on top of an existing increase worth an average of 9%, and for this year, an additional 6% increase, topped up with an extra £1,000, which comes to around 9%. it overall adds up to 22%. the government says strike action byjunior doctors cost the nhs in england around £1.7 billion. the health secretary welcomed the vote in favour of the deal. the deal we've reached with junior doctors is fair for them, but crucially fair for patients and the taxpayer because now we can draw a line under this bitter dispute, cut waiting lists and get our nhs notjust back on its feet, but fit for the future.

nhs managers and patients will be relieved that further health strikes are off the agenda in england. around 1.5 million appointments and operations were cancelled because of all industrial action by nhs unions since the end of 2022. the bma, though, has argued that there is still a long way to go to compensate for past inflation and their campaign isn't over. the doctors union agreed a pay deal with the scottish government last year and there weren't any strikes. junior doctors in wales have voted in favour of a pay offer. there's an ongoing dispute in northern ireland. hugh pym, bbc news. the liberal democrat party conference closes in brighton later today — with a keynote speech from leader sir ed davey. he'll say that fighting to "fix" what he calls the "broken" nhs is what his party will prioritise above all other issues from now on. let's go now to our political correspondent hannah miller, who is at the

conference in brighton. final day to day? yes, and we expect ed davey to offer some words of hope to define his party as being one that has help as he seeks to offer opposition to the labour party while focusing attacks, as they have been for many months, on the conservative party. i'm joined by the former president of the liberal democrats, sal brinton. the liberal democrats, you won really on three issues, sewage, the cost of living, health and social care. looking around conference, do you think it is possible to keep immunity across a whole range of national issues that you had such a big presence in parliament? i such a big presence in parliament?— such a big presence in parliament? such a big presence in arliament? . , ., , parliament? i am sure that is the case- _ parliament? i am sure that is the case- we _ parliament? i am sure that is the case. we have _ parliament? i am sure that is the case. we have 72 - parliament? i am sure that is the case. we have 72 mps . parliament? i am sure that is. the case. we have 72 mps who are finding their feet and learning what is going on but the big thing about conference

has been the absolute confirmation of our strategy and the key issues we went with. there was a yougov poll of the top a0 policies from the top four parties in the election and the lib dem ones were the top eight, and of those, all of them including sewage was on the list. you have a big _ sewage was on the list. you have a big role _ sewage was on the list. you have a big role in _ sewage was on the list. you have a big role in developing international relations, particularly in europe. do you feel the party is doing enough to push to improve relations with european nations? the -a with european nations? the party has — with european nations? the party has a _ with european nations? the party has a very _ with european nations? the party has a very clear - with european nations? tue: party has a very clear plan about how we can move back towards building trust with the eu and the member states, to make sure we can start slowly to integrate again, things like the erasmus scheme for young people so they can travel as they used to be able to, ensuring we develop better trade relationships, we know trade relationships, we know trade with the eu has really dropped in the last five years, and then slowly, slowly, if

everything is right both in the uk and eu, to talk about closer integration, but that is a long way away. the important thing is to rebuild trust in the uk that it is to rebuild trust in the uk thatitis is to rebuild trust in the uk that it is something we need to look at and trust in the eu with member countries utterly bemused about have left in the first place. d0 bemused about have left in the first place-— first place. do you think the labour party _ first place. do you think the labour party is _ first place. do you think the labour party is taking - first place. do you think the labour party is taking any i labour party is taking any positive steps? t labour party is taking any positive steps?— labour party is taking any positive steps? i wish they were stronger, _ positive steps? i wish they were stronger, i _ positive steps? i wish they were stronger, i think- positive steps? i wish theyl were stronger, i think there positive steps? i wish they . were stronger, i think there is a change in tone and i think the prime minister going to meet other prime ministers in italy and germany as a helpful sign that the government is at least talking more than the previous government was. fine previous government was. one thin we previous government was. one thing we expect _ previous government was. one thing we expect to _ previous government was. one thing we expect to hear from ed davey later is talking about unseating more conservatives, becoming the official opposition. is that really credible that the party could get more than 72 mps? t credible that the party could get more than 72 mps? i really believe so. _ get more than 72 mps? i really believe so, partly _ get more than 72 mps? i really believe so, partly because - get more than 72 mps? i really believe so, partly because we. believe so, partly because we continue to campaign on the way

we have been over the last ten years, developing these key themes. most of our mps won because they were well embedded in their communities, people knew them, our cabinet reported back to them on issues that we knew people were worried about. if we continue on that and the conservatives do not sort themselves out, and at the moment everyone agrees it will take some time, we were told we would win more seats at the next election. t would win more seats at the next election.— next election. i want to ask ou next election. i want to ask you about _ next election. i want to ask you about diversity - next election. i want to ask you about diversity in - next election. i want to ask you about diversity in the i you about diversity in the party, something you have previously commissioned a review and into ethnic minority candidates in the party etc. do you think the liberal democrats have a problem with that? t have a problem with that? i don't. it takes time to have a problem with that? t don't. it takes time to change the culture of how your party member support notjust ethnic member support not just ethnic minorities member support notjust ethnic minorities but others who are underrepresented in parliament, so disabled people, lgbt and in the past women. i am so proud we have almost 50% women mps in

this round but we have more ethnic minority mps than ever and the same is true for disability and lgbt, so the long term plan is working, we are getting candidates notjust selected but selected for winnable seats. . , ., winnable seats. specifically on ethnic minority _ winnable seats. specifically on ethnic minority candidates, . ethnic minority candidates, does it need to be a greater priority? does it need to be a greater riori ? , ., ., , ., priority? they all need to be a riori priority? they all need to be a priority because _ priority? they all need to be a priority because they - priority? they all need to be a priority because they remain l priority because they remain underrepresented in the house of commons as a whole and the house of commons needs to represent the uk. at the moment, it doesn't. diddy, thank you _ moment, it doesn't. diddy, thank you for _ moment, it doesn't. diddy, thank you forjoining - moment, it doesn't. diddy, thank you forjoining us. . moment, it doesn't. diddy, i thank you forjoining us. enjoy the rest of the conference, enjoy the moods and ed davey�*s speech —— sal, thank you for joining us. studio: thank you very much, hannah miller at the liberal democrat conference in brighton. we will have full coverage of the leader sir ed

davey�*s speech on the bbc news channel this afternoon. universities in england say tuition fees need to be increased in line with inflation to help prevent them from "sliding into decline," and are calling for more government support. but students say they are already paying too much. in recent years, universities have admitted more international students — who pay higherfees — to make up for the fall in income, caused by the freeze in what uk students pay. but there has been a decrease in international students applying for uk student visas for this academic year. changes to visa rules and a currency crash in nigeria mean the applications for uk study visas between january and august were about i7% down on the same period last year. vanessa clarke reports on the challenges facing british universities. after a quiet summer, university campuses are once again filling up. in manchester, more than 100,000 students are expected to descend on the city this month, and here at the manchester metropolitan, there will be more home students starting than ever before. we're enormously excited to be welcoming 10,000

new undergraduates. but in england, vice chancellors are calling for help as tuition fees remain frozen and international student numbers are down. for many institutions, we're now at an inflection point. we can choose as a country what type of higher education system we want. currently, we have some of the best universities in the world. we deliver really great internationally rated teaching and research. if you want to carry on doing that, we've got to find ways of investing. it's not an easy time for universities. more than a0% are expecting to return a budget deficit this year, and they're calling for a decision about how they will be funded long term. see you tonight, then. 0h, maybe another bowl of rice! in proposals due to be released in the coming days, universities uk will call for a tuition fee rise in england linked to inflation, as well as more investment from the government. they also want to see maintenance grants go up and access to child and adolescent mental

health services for students up until 25. but the idea of tuition fees going up did not go down well here. such a big chunk of money that i can sort of log in and see that i owe the government at the moment, and the idea of spending more than that... if it weren't for that, i would definitely be annoyed because i'm not, i am getting a lot of teaching, but i'm not getting like 10k worth. i wouldn't want it to go up like past 10k, i think that's... and itjust puts people off going to uni basically, and no—one will go. the department for education in england says it has inherited a challenging set of circumstances and it will create a secure future for universities. but there are no easy options. we know that there really isn't very much public money available, and if there was, i'm not sure it would necessarily go to higher education. the next option is students, but it's politically very difficult to put up tuition fees. although if tuition fees were linked to inflation, arguably the cost isn't going up, the costs are staying the same. but making that argument

is quite tricky. for many students, this week marks the start of their university experience. but outside of campus, the debate about whether the cost should be on the taxpayer or the student rolls on. vanessa clarke, bbc news, manchester. the vice chancellor of the university of east anglia, professor david maguire, explained the importance of universities to the british economy. uk universities are among the best in the world and they are incredible uk assets. a recent piece of work by london economic shows that each year universities add £265 billion to the uk economy. in context, the so—called black hole rachel reeves identified was less than a tenth of that. for every £1 invested by the government, by the country, universities return £1a, so a major, major asset which contributes greatly to the economy. unfortunately, in recent years the amount of money coming into universities

has not kept pace with inflation so now undergraduate courses are running at a loss. the deficit is about £3 billion a year in the country and we are only getting about 90% of the cost into universities, so unless that addressed universities will not be able to deliver the really high standard of education which students deserve and we will lose international competitiveness. it is a really important point that needs to be addressed. are there any other ways? because some students say if the fees rise, they are already struggling with inflation so it will make what is already a difficult challenge to be able to study and get further education even more difficult. i entirely understand the perspective of students who obviously do not want to pay more and in some cases can't pay any more. there are three groups that benefit from higher education — individual students, the state, the government

and also employers. amongst those three we have to work out a formula to fund university high quality education. at the moment students are paying 16% of the cost... sorry, the government is paying 16% of the cost, but that has fallen considerably, individual students are covering most of it and employers are not paying very much at all directly, only indirectly through taxes, so we need a rebalancing of the government to put more money in through the block grant and to support the notion of increasing fees so that at least the situation gets no worse. we are not rising the fee cap to get more money, we are just stopping the slide to the deteriorating position. but the government has challenges in terms of public finances, as we know, and it will not necessarily write a blank cheque. is there another danger that if this becomes the case and fees go up,

a university education in the uk becomes elitist? i think that it's a possibility, but we absolutely do not want to return to the situation of 30 or a0 years ago where only the wealthy and elites can go to university. it is a remarkable instrument of social mobility, of allowing people to further themselves through working hard and educating themselves. i think a wider point is the government benefits greatly from students. 0ver their working life, undergraduates pay £70,000 more tax than somebody who does not go to university, for a postgraduate student it is in excess of £150,000, for a research postgraduate student it is three times that, so a lot of money is flowing into the exchequer and the government has to think about how we will address the current problem of stubborn low levels of economic growth or skills. universities are the answer to that and we are asking for more

money to support the country's wishes to improve and grow. professor david maguire. india's supreme court has warned states they cannot demolish the homes of people accused of a crime. the tactic — known as "bulldozerjustice" — is increasingly used throughout the country. critics say it unfairly targets minority communities, especially muslims. the supreme court will now issue new guidelines on property demolitions. 0ur south asia correspondent samira hussain reports. 0vercome with grief. this was once her home. now a pile of broken dreams. three months ago, police accused her husband and ten others — all muslim — of having beef, prohibited in most indian states. the next morning, authorities bulldozed their homes, claiming they were illegal, built on public land.

translation: what pains me the most is that - i lost my daughter too. 16—year—old zeenath died of pneumonia just weeks after their home was demolished. after their house was broken down, they were reduced to sleeping in here. they would cook food over on this side. they would sleep on this side. and when it rained and there was too much water coming in, they would go and find shelter somewhere else. translation: they already took my husband to jail. - why did they have to break my home? if they hadn't, my daughter would be alive. convinced zeenath died because she had no protection from the monsoons. not a one off — recently, there's been a rise in demolitions... ..critics say without prior notice and often

targeting muslims. none of the due process is actually followed, which is why the supreme court has taken an interest in this. there is a system that the government must follow. there is a due process which it doesn't actually respect. they go about razing people's homes for no reason other than the fact that these people are muslim. the government did not reply to our requests for comment, but has consistently rejected accusations it targets muslims. translation: show me one muslim who can say| "i was innocent" and has been a victim of injustice. show me one. nobody can say this. this social media video went viral last year — muslim boys allegedly spitting on a hindu procession. two days later, an announcement for the neighbourhood. "the police will use the harshest punishment against them." their home reduced to rubble.

their father bewildered. translation: they put up a notice saying the building is structurally unsafe and will be demolished. "take what you can, you have an hour." his sons merely accused of a crime, but the entire family pays the price. it's why the supreme court is now stepping in to issue guidelines for the entire country to follow. samira hussain, bbc news, madhya pradesh. a public hearing into the titan submersible disaster has revealed the final text messages sent by those on board as they headed towards the wreck of the titanic. 0ne read, "all good here" — before the craft imploded and killed all on board. the communications were between the sub and the mother ship on the surface, as titan made its descent in june last year. the hearing was also shown this image show the wreck

of the submersible seen on the sea bed for the first time. —— was also shown this image of the submersible on the sea bed. the us coast guard, will assess what went wrong and whether the accident could have been prevented. here's rebecca morelle. the wreckage of 0ceangate's titan sub, its tail cone lying nearly 3,800 metres down on the atlantic sea floor. it was taking passengers to the titanic when it imploded, killing all five people on board. those who died were british explorer hamish harding, suleman dawood and his father, british pakistani businessman shahzada dawood, french diver ph nargeolet and stockton rush, 0ceangate ceo. i would like to ask that everyone present please stand for a moment of silence in respect to those persons who perished as a result of this casualty. now a public hearing has started to establish exactly what went wrong. this is a full—scale model of 0ceangate's titan sub. we've heard more about its previous expeditions.

it went to the titanic wreck site 13 times in 2021 and 2022. and during those two years, there were 118 things that went wrong with the sub, including the front dome falling off when it was brought out of the sea, its thrusters, which steered the craft failing at 3,500 metres and its batteries died on one dive, leaving the passengers stuck inside for 27 hours. we also learned the timeline of its final dive and the last few text messages sent between the sub and the surface. titan began its dive at 9.1a in the morning local time. at 9.18, there was a communications check. after that, comms were patchy. about an hour into the dive at 1016, titan sent a message saying, "all good here". and at 10.25, at a depth of 2,600 metres, it said it was to the south east of titanic�*s bell. the last message was sent at 10.a7 at a depth of 3,3a6 metres.

titan said it had dropped two weights. after that communication was lost, the sub had imploded, but there's nothing in the messages to suggest that the passengers on board had any idea that anything was wrong. the meeting heard stockton rush didn't want an independent safety assessment. stockton's first issue was it was time and cost could take too long and way, way too expensive. this is ridiculous, in his words, it stifles innovation. i said, well, you know, you can still be innovative. the hearings into the titan disaster continue for two more weeks. rebecca morelle, bbc news. a loggerhead turtle, who was found washed up on a cumbria beach, has been nursed back to health and released back into the wild. it was back in february when nazare was spotted covered in algae, cuts and showed little sign of life. but following a successful rehabilitation programme,

she's ready for another chance at life. 0ur reporterjayne mccubbin has been following herjourney. her name is nazare and she is incredibly lucky to be alive. back in february, the loggerhead turtle was discovered by a dog walker after being washed up on the cumbrian coast. she was cold and weak and far from the warm waters which should have been home. a team from blackpool sea life centre were called to action. so she was motionless. she was just about making some movements with her eyes, and she was completely covered all over her shell in algaes and seaweeds, like she'd been floating around in the sea for some time. herjourney had taken herfar off track into the cold, stormy waters of the irish sea. her rescuers knew this because of a satellite tracking device found on her back. that revealed nazare's habit of getting lost and being found. which was amazing because we found out that she was released from the coast of france from la rochelle aquarium, where she'd been rehabilitated injune in 2023. so it wasn't the first

time she'd been in a facility like ours. and the tag stopped beeping around december time, just off the coast of ireland. and that means she probably got stuck in the storms then and disappeared. so she'd had a bit of a rough couple of months, we reckon, from the condition of her. those months had taken their toll. staff removed algae with a toothbrush. by right she should have died, but her dehydration and pneumonia were treated over three weeks of 2a hour care. she was eventually well enough to be driven to scarborough sealife centre. regulating her temperature was so important she made the journey first class. she actually moved in the front of the van with me for the journey over from blackpool, and then from there we were able to then move her and transition her into our ocean tank. it means building up those muscles to start diving again properly. when she was finally ready to fend for herself, nazare's final journey took her here. the warm blue waters

of the azores. and almost 2500 miles from the irish sea, she was released. and it was simply incredible. she kind of went into the water, kind of had a little bit of a look around, and before you know it, she rocketed off into the, you know, the vast blue that you could see kind of before you. we didn't really get a chance to say goodbye, it was that quick. and it was just brilliant in the sense that it was the culmination of lots of different teams coming together to allow this turtle to go back to the wild, and that's what it's all about for us. it's about giving something back and giving an animal a second chance. the team hope this is the last time she ever experiences the skills and tlc of european aquariums. jayne mccubbin, bbc news. a rare yellow—eyed penguin called hoiho has taken the crown in new zealand's bird of the year competition. more than 50,000 people voted in the competition, to give the penguin its second win since 2019. thought to be one of the

world's rarest penguin species, only around a,000 are believed to be left in the world. a recap of our main story — the mayor of —— a recap of a story we brought you from india. india's supreme court has now halted so—called bulldozer demolitions until the 1st of october. earlier we showed you a report from our south asia correspondent samira hussain looking into the issues and challenges around bulldozer justice, as it is known. the court in india had been hearing petitions which challenge the use of bulldozers by state governments to target the homes of some people accused of crimes. some people say minority groups are often targeted more than others, including muslims. as wejust heard, the supreme court has had that hearing now and has rule to hold bulldozer demolitions until october the 1st. matt taylor has the

weather. the fine and quiet weather conditions continue in the uk at the moment are in for a few days yet. dry and reasonably sunny for the vast majority today, starting on a chilly note with some mist and fog around and thicker cloud in the north and west of scotland. in the bigger picture, residual flooding in central and eastern europe and the focus of the heavy rain switches to italy, low pressure there, high pressure here, which is keeping things generally dry. 0n the edge of it, we saw that cloud in northern and western scotland, breaking up through the afternoon, some sunny spells, cloud through east anglia and the south—east and and feeling warmer compared to yesterday. temperatures here at if not down a little bit on yesterday's values, but a warmer day for scotland and the west of northern ireland, with temperatures around 22 celsius. the cloud in northern ireland and scotland continues to thin and break across eastern wales and central and eastern england, we will see more mist and low cloud develop, so it will not be as cold across southern areas compared with last night. in scotland, northern england

and northern ireland, some of them down to around four celsius. lots of sunshine here to start tomorrow, mist and fog patches clearing, the mist in east wales and central and eastern areas breaking up in the early afternoon, with a few patches remaining around the coast. for most, a sunny afternoon remaining on wednesday and 2a degrees potentially in the north of scotland, 25 celsius across some southern counties. temperatures widely in the low to mid 20s. thursday,we have low cloud extensively across the country, central and eastern areas in particular, lingering more across eastern parts of thursday afternoon, but then sunshine again developing. not as warm in scotland but still 22 in the west, 20 degrees in northern ireland, 2a, 25 in the south—east of england. from thursday night and into friday at the weekend, things change. low pressure in the bay of biscay drifting northwards. it will be slow progress.

for most on friday, it will still be mainly dry with sunny spells, some showers breaking out across england and wales later but into the weekend, showers and thunderstorms will break out more widely and temperatures will start to drop just a little bit. that is how it is looking. see you soon.

live from london. this is bbc news. the frenchman at the centre of a high—profile mass rape trial has admitted to all charges in his first testimony in court. floods caused by a powerful storm in central europe kill at least 18 people, and leave thousands homeless. a man has been charged with the murders of three people in a crossbow attack at their home in the uk. rapper and producer sean "diddy" combs has been arrested in new york. hello, i'm rajini vaidyanathan. the man at the centre of a mass rape trial in france has testified in court

for the first time. dominique pelicot, who's 71, admitted he was a rapist, and asked for forgiveness. he's accused of repeatedly drugging and raping his then wife, gisele, over many years, and arranging for other men to rape her while she was unconscious. dominique pelicot has accused his 50 co—defendants of knowingly participating in rape. many of the men say they thought they were taking part in a sex game. we will have more on that story in a moment and there is more on the bbc website. a desperate operation to shore up flood defences is taking place in poland, as floodwater threatens to engulf a city in the south west of the country. the mayor of nysa has asked all aa,000 residents to leave. more than 5,000 soldiers have been deployed in the region. at least 18 people are thought to have died in the floods across central europe, which have been caused by heavy rain and snowfall.