better had mr biden left the race sooner. tehran has rejected us allegations of an iranian plot to assassinate president—elect donald trump, and iranian—american journalist masih alinejad. the usjustice department has charged 3 men, who it alleges were recruited to kill. police say a powerful explosion at a railway station in the western pakistani city of quetta has killed at least 26 people and injured dozens. a militant group, the balochistan liberation army, said it carried out the bombing. the police watchdog will review how the uk metropolitan police officers handled allegations of sexual offences against former harrods owner mohamed al fayed. the independent office for police conduct will review 2 previous cases after the force referred itself. a campaign group is urging hundreds of thousands of former university students to check if

they're eligible for a refund from the student loans company. figures released for the first time show a total of £181; million has been overpaid. radio 4's money box dan whitworth has more. student loans. everyone signs up for them when enrolling at university, and from september 2025, they'll increase for the first time in eight years. the government announced last week that tuition fees in england will increase by 3%, from £9250 to £9535. all in all, the average student leaves university education with almost £45,000 worth of maintenance loans and tuition fees to repay. repayments generally begin once individuals earn above the annual threshold to start paying back their fees and loans. but for a number of reasons, individuals can start paying back their debts too soon.

of the money paid towards outstanding debts last year, £181; million was overpaid. the student loans company says that amount may be refundable to around about1 million former students. one of those students was martin, who was refunded nearly £400 after he exceeded the monthly payment limit, but not the annual limit. i got a refund of £396, so it was quite substantial i think, but at the same time it was sort of thought of how much extra money have they been taking off me for the last ten months or so? this is the first time these figures have been released, and former students are being urged to check their refund eligibility by logging on to their student finance account online. dan whitworth, bbc news. tomorrow people across the country will fall silent to remember the lives that have been lost in war and pay tribute to our armed forces. this year is especially poignant, as five months ago we were also marking the 80th

anniversary of d—day and celebrating heroes like percy chafer, aged 104, who was one of the oldest surviving d—day veterans. before his death last month — just weeks before his 105th birthday — he was able to share one final and special story with our reporter jayne mccubbin. at the age of 104, percy lived in his own flat, did all his own shopping, all his own laundry, and earlier this year, on the anniversary of d—day, he had shared his story. i am percival frank edward schafer, age 104 and still going strong. that was good. late this summer i met him one last time to hear another story. 0ne he and his family hope will encourage other families to share their own stories, to make sure these stories never die.

what was his name? freddie. his mum was my mum's sister. he was a good husband to my mum, and he was a really good father to me. freddie was percy's cousin, and when he told his story to the bbc, percy's niece realised how little she knew about her own dad. jacqueline discovered the national archives held a document with her dad's name, so we took them along to find out more. oh, my god, this is amazing. it's absolutely amazing. alljacqueline�*s dad had told her was that he'd been captured during the war. he'd escaped and been recaptured, but she had no idea where that captivity was or what it had been like. well, it's a card of fred's registration as a prisoner and where he was held prisoner of war, finally, in lamsdorf. it gives his prison of war number. it gives his army number, and it gives the date that he was actually

captured in libya. i didn't know any of it. and then that's his actual fingerprint there. and i can't believe that. that is amazing. so this is amazing. thank you. fred and percy both grew up in london, seeing each other only at christmas and on birthdays. but when they went to war, they thought they may never meet again. i've actually got this one of the three of you in cairo. but this photograph was the stuff of legend in percy's family. it hinted at an unbelievable story percy told of a time in a cairo cafe when he had been a desert rat. one of my comrades made a remark that there was a man looking at me. couldn't recognise who he was. and then he walked towards me. and the words, the very words he said to me was, are you percy chaffer? and so i said yes. and he replied, i'm your cousin fred, which really took me aback. and that was amazing. i was amazed myself.

i thought, i've come all this way now. i've got to meet my cousin in cairo, of all places. yeah, yeah. he said, that's the table he thinks he was sitting at when he met my dad. really? that's probably the table. 2,000 miles from home, the cousins had bumped into each other, thanked their lucky stars, and then went their separate ways. and the next thing i knew was my mum had written to me saying that philip was missing. you didn't ever talk to my dad about it as old comrades or anything like that? you didn't. i don't know why your dad didn't want to discuss it. maybe he had a hard time, you know. maybe he had a hard time. we don't know. can you remember what he was like after he came back? after the war? he was very quiet. and usually fred was very bouncy and laughable. have a good laugh. but that had all gone.

the thumbprint was made in stalag eight b on the border of germany and poland. that led to another document showing her dad had previously been held in camp 70 on the east coast of italy, and that made sense of one gem of a story fred had chosen to talk about. and that was the story about a pair of gold earrings. well, one of the things he told me was that him and his mate steve, they did actually escape from one of the prisoner of war camps, and they disguised themselves as italian fishermen. they had their ears pierced and probably quite tanned from coming back from egypt where he was, and they escaped and then they got captured. he never, ever took those earrings out. he wore them his whole life. he was wearing earrings before they were even fashionable. look carefully and you can see the glint of an earring in this photo taken after the war, when fred met his wife, sally. and then you were best man at

their wedding on the end there. yeah. they had one child, jacqueline. the dates on the document suggest fred may have taken part in the brutal long march towards the end of the war, when prisoners were made to leave the camps without provisions and walk across war torn europe during one of the harshest winters on record. and it answers a lot of questions now, and it's like percy said, he was very bubbly, very... he was fun. and that wasn't the dad i knew. the dad i knew was very quiet, very reserved. he died in 1993, and today actually would have been his birthday, and he would have been 104 alongside percy. so it is a real shame that he's not here with percy today. you do think it's important that these stories are remembered and shared? well, they should be.

yeah, yeah. well, it keeps things alive, doesn't it? never forget. neverforget them. never forget. percy died peacefully at home on october the 16th and will be buried next week. thank you for your service, percy and fred. and thank you for these important stories. what is what we'll be covering across remembrance weekend and and online. including coverage of the royal british legion�*s annual festival of remembrance from the royal albert hall. that's tonight on bbc one and iplayerfrom 9pm. the metropolitan police has denied claims that farmers have been banned from protesting in london later this month. they are angry at the chancellor's plan to extend inheritance tax to land and assets worth more than a million pounds, which had previously been exempt.

farmers, including the tv presenterjeremy clarkson, claimed they'd been prevented from holding a rally on november the 19th because of what they claimed was "two—tier" policing, which favoured pro—palestine protests. in a statement, the met said "at no point have we banned anyone from marching on this date." 0ur political correspondent harry farley gave us the latest. the nfu say it's not a protest, it's sort of a mass lobbying event, but there is a limit on places. and so some people have been turned away, and that seems to have led to claims that the protest was being blocked. and, as you say, several well—known figures, including the tv personality jeremy clarkson, saying it seems that if you're from just stop oil or protesting about gaza, you can do what you want. but farmers are treated differently. it's worth saying the metropolitan police have completely denied that, they do have powers to place conditions on protests, such as where or when they can take place, but the power to ban them completely is really very rare and only if there's risk of serious disorder. so metropolitan police say they

have not banned any protest, and it does now appear that there will be a separate rally going on in westminster forfarmers to protest. those who can't get into this official event organised by the national farmers' union. but these events, however, there are lots happening quite often in london at the weekends particularly, and they have to be managed somehow. they do. and the metropolitan police manage where and when they can take place. they say that they apply the same legislative framework to each and every notification we receive without fear or favour, and strongly deny any claims of two tier policing. it's worth mentioning, of course, there is really deep set anger among farmers at the changes announced in the budget. i've been speaking to farmers over the last few days, saying that this will impact a much wider proportion of farms than the treasury say will only impact the most valuable and the most wealthy farmers. and it's fair that they may pay some inheritance tax.

farmers argue that because many farms are large, even if they are cash poor, they are asset rich. and so that's why they will be taxed. and that there are fears from the farming community that they will lead to many more farmers being taxed when they pass them on to their children. but a big news regarding the queen. it's odd that following doctor's guidance to ensure a full recovery from a chest infection and protect any others from potential records, her majesty will not be attending remembrance events this weekend. while this is a source of great disappointments, we are told she will mark the occasion privately in her home and hopes to return to public duties early next week. queen camilla not attending remembrance events this weekend. between 600,000 and a million people catch norovirus in the uk every year, and as we head into the colder months a new vaccine is being trialled to tackle the highly contagious vomiting bug. if successful, researchers say it would reduce the number of vulnerable adults

in hospital during winter, and lessen the financial burden on the nhs. 0ur reporter cheryl dennis has been to southmead hospital in bristol to find out more. running ward 26 b at bristol's southmead hospital is a big team effort, but one little bug, norovirus, has the potential to take down staff, patients and visitors. it's highly contagious so it can go across all of those three groups very quickly, so you can quickly find wards that have got problems with their staffing due to norovirus, but also patients that are affected and their families as well. every year, the winter vomiting bug, which involves sickness and diarrhoea, returns around now. the uk health and security agency say as the season begins, cases of the illness in the last fortnight nationally are already worryingly high. so for most people, norovirus is a few days of feeling very unwell. but on wards like this one

at southmead hospital, where patients are either recovering from surgery or already very poorly, it can be extremely serious. particularly the elderly patients that are frail or immunocompromised. they can become very dehydrated and ill very quickly. the team has a few tricks up their sleeves to try to keep norovirus away. at three quarters of our bed base, our single bedrooms and bathrooms, so they are single bedrooms with their own ensuite bathroom and that can contain infection, so we're not then at risk of spreading it across the ward. and now they're also taking part in a world wide vaccination trial. they're looking for 70 people over 60 to test a newjab. researchers already know it's safe, but need to find out if it works well in the real world. it doesn't technically stop you developing the disease, but it improves your body's immune response to that disease so that you fight off the disease much

quicker and hopefully before you even get symptoms. norovirus in a ward like this can be pretty devastating. we can have to close the ward for, for, for a day or even several days until it's cleaned. so knowing that the chances of that happening is really, really important for me and for all of our staff in terms of ensuring wards can stay open and that patients can get access to the care that they need. flu vaccines and now covid jabs to medics hope the public will be open to potentially one more. very good. excellent. yeah, we're all for it. nhs is doing a brilliant job and yeah, whatever they recommend we take on board. even being somebody that doesn't like - needles, i don't think it would bother me. i so... let's have it. yeah, let's be safe. it'll be at least two years before the vaccine is ready. in the meantime, the best advice —

wash your hands. cheryl dennis, bbc points west at southmead hospital. cheryl dennis, bbc news. that was cheryl dennis... here in the uk, more than 30 firefighters, police officers and public servants who died in the line of duty have become the first to posthumously receive a new award in recognition of their sacrifice. among those honoured with the "elizabeth emblem" are police constables fiona bone and nicola hughes, who were killed in 2012. nicola's father, bryn, led the campaign for people like his daughter to be recognised, as our reporter tim muffett explains. it's been a long, grief stricken journey for bryn hughes. it's 12 years since his daughter nicola was murdered whilst serving as a police constable. he finds running can help. you're alone with your thoughts. as a grieving father, to get through it, you've got to put one foot in front of the other. now bryn is doing precisely that along downing street.

he's here with paul bowen, whose daughter fiona was murdered alongside nicola. the unarmed officers were shot and attacked with a grenade whilst attending what was believed to be a routine burglary in greater manchester. she was nice, friendly and liked people and she didn't anticipate dying the way she did, that's for sure. but you know, she knows she had to do thejob. what was she like, nicola? mischievous at times. very mischievous at times. very funny when she wanted to be. bryn and paul have campaigned long and hard for a posthumous award for public sector workers killed in the line of duty. they've had widespread support from families of others who've died. in march, plans for the elizabeth emblem were announced, and today the news that nicola and fiona have been named amongst the first group of recipients. they go to work every day and they're serving the crown and wearing a crown on their uniform. and quite rightly so,

they should be recognised by the crown, by the state. and i think that's important that they are recognised and not just police officers, but other public sector workers who have been killed in the line of duty or have died doing the job that they're doing, serving the public, serving us. inside number 10, a meeting with the prime minister, who wanted to commend brynne and paul personally for their campaigning. getting it moved. on is always hard. takes a certain - degree of resilience. in total, 38 recipients of the elizabeth emblem have been named today, 12 years after their deaths. formal recognition for the bravery and commitment of fiona bone and nicola hughes, whose lives were given in service. tim muffett, bbc news. 17 people have been treated in hospital in manchester after a crash involving two double—decker buses close to the city centre. nine ambulances and an air ambulance were dispatched to the scene of an accident

involving two bee network buses on rochdale road, just after 8:30 a.m. according to the north west ambulance service, none of the passengers sustained serious injuries. images that we have obtained show debris scattered across the road, with one bus appearing to have collided with the back of the other. a spokesperson for greater manchester police reported that the road remained closed while emergency services were at the scene. liverpool baby hospice, zoe's place, has been saved from closure after reaching its five million pound fundraising target. it is one of three specialist hospices in the uk which supports children with chronic or life—limiting conditions. 0ur reporter katie barnfield was there as staff and families heard the news. tears of relief as zoe's place is saved. just last month, staff at the liverpool hospice were told it would have to close, but after a massive public effort, they can now continue supporting the babies and families who rely on their care. well, my legs are actually

shaking and i'm going to be honest with you, i'm so happy because without you, so happy because without here, i don't know what we would have done. some of us can't travel too far to go to another hospice. and then this is like a second home to us anyway. so i'm so happy i can't even put it into words. i'm emotional. it's taken weeks of hard work to get to this point. the team here needing to raise £5 million in just 30 days to keep this hospice running. but with the help of everyone from local schoolchildren to celebrities and big businesses and even donations from around the world, they've done it. tonight i'm doing a gig for zoe's place. john bishop was one of the stars who got involved putting on a charity show with other famous comedians. it's not something that the city of liverpool wants to lose, and so everyone has come out of the woodwork to support and it's been brilliant. but it's also a testament to the work that they do that people recognise how important it is. what have you got in there? 41 staff members were set

to lose theirjobs at the end of this year as the lease on this building is ending. but now they have the money to move to a new site. we've got a building. we've got a building in mind which is in west derby village, and so that's very exciting. we've had loads of school kids knocking on the door, giving us their pocket money, you know, doing all kinds of activities in schools and, you know, it's overwhelming what people have done. it's liverpool for you. clever girl. the families like steph and her daughter robin, having this support makes a huge difference to their lives. robin's got spina bifida and she's paralysed from the waist down. she has to be cathetered every three hours. so when obviously it was starting, and zoe's like, you worry because the catheter in part. and because i knew they were all nurses, i knew that she'd be safe. and, um, and they all,

they all loved the children like to their own. and i think they're all so special. like, you just wouldn't find that anywhere else. the staff here say they will be forever grateful for a community that came together and helped them when they needed it most. katie barnfield, bbc news in liverpool. 0tters are usually found no more than a few hundred metres from water but at night they will often choose to travel on foot, to get from one stream to another. as a result, the uk wild 0tter trust says "countless" otters are killed and seriously injured on our roads every year but they have come up with a simple idea to help, as our reporter andrea 0rmsby has been finding out. meet menai, a little otter cub orphaned when his mum was killed crossing a road. menai was found at around about eight to 12 weeks—ish, roughly, on anglesey, by a reserve warden of the rspb. they called us. we arranged the transport. got it down to us and he's doing 0k. he's putting weight on now daily, so that's a good sign. now, to try to stop more otters being killed and more cubs

orphaned, these signs are going up. the uk wild 0tter trust, based in north devon, says every year countless otters lose their lives or are seriously injured on uk roads. this stretch of the a361 from barnstaple to braunton, right in the heart of tarka territory, is notorious. this is an accident black spot for otters. over the past few years we've had at least 15 to 17 killed. and they seem to be, obviously, coming from the estuary, and they seem to be crossing up, and most of them are killed over on the left there. within just 22 hours of the charity launching its slow down for 0tters campaign, £1,500 had been donated — enough to put up these signs, the only ones in devon. generally, people don't take any notice of road signs, but these are quite unusual. you know, they've got an otter on them. there's a big sign there saying: caution otters. so hopefully they do a little bit good. if only one person sees the sign, then that's already worked, so it's a win.

i hope that, with the signs up, that there's more awareness of that the otters are around, seeing as we are around the all the estuary. and i hope that itjust makes people think a little bit more as to what goes on and just to be a bit more careful, drive a little bit slower, and be more aware of the wildlife around. and the otters really mean a lot to you. definitely. they have my heart. we are in tarka, . the 0tter territory. the tarka trail is behind us. it's named afterj tarka the 0tter. it's sort of part of- the heritage of the area. and to discover that, you know, i otters are being killed on this. little stretch of road quite - regularly is quite distressing. and in a creature that's i struggling to sort of make a comeback, it's really- important that we actually do something about it. menai is one of 33 otters so far this year, being cared for by the uk wild 0tter trust. we're seeing an increase on smaller cubs, certainly. and we're seeing an increase due to the mothers being killed on roads.

it's a big problem. it probably accounts for 85—90% of road deaths or deaths in otters. after a year of rehabilitation, menai with his guinness moustache, will be released back into the wild. andrea 0rmsby, bbc news. scientists in germany say they have discovered elephants have not only mastered the skill of showering, but also the art of sabotage. this is mary, an asian elephant who lives at berlin zoo. this video footage which was taken inside her enclosure and shows her washing herself using a hose. scientists observed her gripping the hose with her trunk and holding it in the air as if it were a shower head. take a look at what happened next — a younger elephant named anchali was caught sabotaging her friend by bending the hose. from a different camera, you can see anchali using her trunk to kink the tube and stop the flow of water, interrupting mary's shower.

why would you do that to poor mary? now it's time for a look at the weather with elizabeth rizzini. hello there. well, it hasn't been gloomy everywhere this week and we've seen some of the best of the sunshine, the blue skies across parts of scotland, but elsewhere lots of low cloud, mistand murk, with a few spots of drizzle but generally dry. it's more of the same again today, but there will be some changes tomorrow, with showers in the north and the west, and eventually some brighter skies too. there will be some brightness developing this afternoon across many parts of scotland, towards the north of scotland and also towards the southeast. again, some sunshine here, some pockets of brightness too possible across northwest england and north wales, but elsewhere that low cloud is just going to linger on. and it's chillier too than it was yesterday. with many of our temperatures in high single figures. the winds are light, but they'll start to pick up overnight tonight as this cold front approaches from the west, bringing outbreaks of rain into western scotland, northern ireland in time

for tomorrow morning. some clear skies across northeast scotland. northeast england here a chilly start to the day tomorrow. elsewhere, a lot of low cloud mist and murk yet again. that will again set the tone of the day across much of england and wales, that patchy rain drifting southwards and eastwards. lots of events and services going on for remembrance sunday, of course, and there will be some afternoon sunshine across northern ireland and for much of scotland again. a few pockets of brightness, this time across east anglia in the far south of england. now that cold front clears southwards and eastwards. behind it a different air mass, clearer, drierair with a lot less moisture. so there will be more sunshine, a different feel to the weather into the start of next week. again, it's looking largely dry. we could just see one or two showers run down these north sea facing coasts at times, but most areas staying completely dry and this time the sunshine is a lot more evenly shared. temperatures will start to rise a little above the seasonal average perhaps too, but lots of dry weather around again on tuesday with high pressure out towards the west.

we could see one or two showers again for eastern facing coasts. that certainly is possible on tuesday, but largely dry with the best of the sunshine again in the west. temperatures starting to slip a little, and it will tend to feel cooler as we work our way through into the middle the end of next week. but if we just take a look at the outlook for our capital cities, then you can see there will be a lot more sunshine on offer. so a lot less gloomy as we head through monday and tuesday. bye—bye for now.

live from london. this is bbc news... buckingham palace announces that queen camilla will not attend remembrance day events due to a chest infection.

a senior advisor to donald trump's campaign says ukraine needs to acknowledge that it has lost crimea to russia. senior us democrat, nancy pelosi, has suggested president biden is partly to blame for the party's election defeat. and britain's mark cavendish, the most successful sprinter in cyling history, announces his retirerment — we'll have more on that in our sports bulletin. hello. within the last few minutes it's been announced that queen camilla is to miss remembrance events in the uk this weekend as she makes full recovery from a chest infection. a statement from buckingham palace said the decision was made to also protect others from any potential risk.

loads of questions around the future of the war