this story from jerusalem. she says those killed were reportedly protecting the aid trucks from armed theft. just to say, at least 36 palestinians killed across the gaza strip. according to what the local media are saying. but particular interest in these groups, who were said by local people, including the mourners at their funeral, to be involved in securing aid shipments coming into gaza. this after we've been hearing in recent weeks from humanitarian workers that in the south of gaza especially, the biggest obstacle for them getting aid in and distributing it has been the violence of these armed gangs, who have been looting the incoming aid. and we know that remnants of hamas police, along with some civilian volunteers, have been mobilising to try to protect the aid shipments.

the israeli military has now commented saying that the men that it targeted were armed hamas terrorists. it accused them of trying to loot the aid themselves. and, you know, this comes against the backdrop of these severe food shortages that we have been hearing about so much, particularly across the whole of the gaza strip, in the southern part of the gaza strip, that's where most of the displaced population is now based. a reminder of how there is, you know, unrest continuing in the west bank as well. this was a shooting on a bus, leaving an israeli settlement that was heading into jerusalem, and a 12—year—old boy has been killed and his funeral has been taking place. and we heard that there was a big manhunt going on, particularly in the bethlehem area last night, with the israeli army putting up roadblocks. the palestinian attacker eventually is said to have handed himself in.

european foreignness as had been discussing syria and ukraine, the role of europe in supporting kyiv has been under the spotlight since the election of donald trump who has indicated the us may scale back support. european ministers said there can be no peace deal imposed on the people of ukraine and it was said that the us and the eu and uk needs to be reunited against russian threats. it is uk needs to be reunited against russian threats.— russian threats. it is crucial we work _ russian threats. it is crucial we work together _ russian threats. it is crucial we work together on - russian threats. it is crucial we work together on this i we work together on this because if putin succeeds, we will pay the price, it will show that aggression succeeds and the rules —based order means nothing and we must galvanise our efforts to support ukraine and build up our european defence capabilities, our european defence co—operation, industrial co—operation, so we can respond to threats not only

posed by russia but by a challenging geopolitical world. the latest from that meeting. news that they have said ukraine's path into nato is irreversible, that has come from the european foreign ministers meeting. romania and bulgaria have been confirmed as full members of europe's schengen free movement travel zone. the countries partly joined schengen in march, after coming to an agreement with austria, which had initially opposed theirjoining saying the two countries needed to do more to prevent illegal migration. our correspondent nick thorpe is in nadlac, on the romania—hungary border. he told me what this means for people crossing that border. first and foremost, the passenger car traffic will be an enormous change for them. they will basically be able to drive straight through the border crossing that you can see on my right shoulder without even showing their

passport. indeed, all the way from the turkish border, the bulgaria— turkey border, they can drive all the way across europe to spain, norway, the english channel. it is a huge change for the people of romania and bulgaria and also other tourists and people travelling through europe coming through these borders on the way to greece, turkey or wherever. a big day for these two countries. the rumanians and bulgarians said that austria was exaggerating and that people have always got through one way or another and border controls don't make a great deal of difference. a beefing up of a boy like this does not make so much difference when you are fighting criminal gangs, smuggling people. but what the remaining ten bulgarians have said is they imported new equipment on the bulgaria — turkey border to check trucks going through. they have increased co—operation between the police forces of these

different countries and the austrians have said the reason they drop their veto is number is completely down. one could save numbers are down on people trying to get through because numbers are generally down and fewer people are trying to leave turkey to reach western or northern europe or perhaps they are going a different route through the balkans and bosnia and croatia. numbers are down, austria has dropped its veto and this is a big day for a and bulgaria. you are watching bbc news. the first batch of compensation from the infected blood scandal isexpected to be paid out to victims within days. ten people have been offered compensation totalling over £13 million according to the cabinet office. earlier i spoke to our health reporter, jim reed.

the government's calling this a landmark moment. and for once, i think that that kind of hyperbole, that kind of language is sort of justified. i mean, matthew, i've been covering this for ten years as a health reporter, speaking to many of the victims. the campaigners and the families have been campaigning forjustice for compensation in this case for in some cases, 30, 40, 50 years. there have been a series of interim payments of up to about £300,000 each for some victims. but this would be this week the first final compensation payment that goes out to victims. so it is quite an important moment. and we think it's about ten victims that have been offered around £13 million in total, and then another 25 victims that are being offered some form of extra compensation orfinal compensation, which is going to be discussed kind of going into christmas. so like i say, a really important moment and the sums involved here are quite staggering. so in total, rachel reeves, the chancellor, said in the budget that £ii.8 billion has been set aside to compensate tens of thousands of victims in this scandal. you touched on it in the early

part of that answer. it is arched across so many years, so much delay, even on the compensation after it was decided that there should be compensation. so when does this government think that all of the payouts or the majority of the payouts will be completed? well, i think this is one of the issues, because we're only talking about essentially a handful of cases here. so ten people to begin with, another 25. but we could be talking about, i mean, certainly thousands if not tens of thousands of victims, because it's notjust people who are infected that would qualify here. it's also their relatives — sons and daughters of people that have lost fathers, and also the parents of people that very tragically lost their children to this scandal can also qualify for compensation by themselves. so it looks like this is going to take quite some time until all of those people can qualify. and just this week, actually, the chair of the public inquiry wrote to the government saying that he wanted to acknowledge or raise concerns about, as he put it, a groundswell of discontent about how long this process was taking,

which is probably one reason you're seeing this announcement today. still, this announcement, as you said right at the start, it is a significant moment. just a question, aside from all of that regarding health and flu and the pressure on hospitals in england and wales, take me through that. so this is a real concern for the nhs in the uk at the moment. so today we had some new data about flu cases, in particular in hospital, about 2000 people in england with flu at the moment. the concern is the rate that's been going up. so up 70% in a week. that's four times the number in hospital with flu that we saw last year. so the message going out from the health authorities is if you haven't had your flu and in fact your covid vaccine, and you can get that until next friday free of charge, if you're in one of the at—risk groups, that you should be coming forward and getting it now.

nearly seven decades after achieving grade seven on the piano, 88—year—old raymond eveleigh from east yorkshire has passed his grade eight. his daughter included sheet music in last year's christmas stocking as a joke, but he's surprised everyone by gaining a distinction. simon spark has been to meet him. at the age of 88, tinkling the 88 keys on his piano. ray, a retired reverend, has just achieved a missing milestone in his life. and, yes, it does have the number eight in it. he's just achieved grade eight, the highest graded level on the piano before diploma levels, that is, and he's done it with distinction. grade seven was done in about 1957, and grade eight was done 202a. i saw the grade eight pieces and the oral tests

and the scales, and i thought, just for a bit of a laugh, i'll get them for dad, because i didn't think he'd want to do an exam and just put them in his christmas stocking. so ray's lessons began again over the internet, and almost a year later, to pass at the level he has is regarded as an incredible achievement. he had two heart attacks. his heart's only working 33% of what it should. so it's, you know, to be able to do that, we just didn't really think he would be able to do it _ he got a distinction. and, you know, there's a very tiny percentage of people who actually manage to do that. it's really, really slim. and he was very sweet. he said he thought that the examiners would probably be kind to an old man. but, you know, it doesn't work like that! not with the exam system. it's very satisfying. it was fun. it was hard work. um, because the older you get, the more difficult it is to learn things.

after being married to him for 65 and a half years, - i am more proud of him| and love him even more than i did in the beginning. what a lovely way to end the hour. now the weather. hello there. for many of us, we've probably felt like the weather has been stuck in a rut. it has been very cloudy across many parts of the uk, the exception being really across scotland, where there's been some sunshine. but certainly this afternoon there's been again some rather grey skies and we'll keep that cloud really for the rest of the afternoon across much of england, wales, northern ireland, some sunshine towards the far north and northeast of scotland today. a bit more cloud

towards the far west. temperatures perhaps a little bit higher compared to the last few days — across scotland two or three celsius, about seven to ten degrees elsewhere. now, through tonight, we'll continue with a fair amount of cloud, but with clear skies once again across scotland, the temperature will fall down fairly quickly tonight and we'll see some frost, particularly towards eastern areas. further south, again, the cloud keeps temperatures up — about five or six celsius. and then we will finally start to see some changes as we go into friday. high pressure finally moves away to the east. we've got one weather front moving its way into the far northwest, and that's going to introduce some rain across the northwest of scotland throughout friday, very gradually moving its way south and eastward. there could be some showery outbreaks of rain around the irish sea coasts. otherwise, though, still fairly cloudy, but that cloud will break up. there will be a few brighter spells developing, perhaps more so than the last few days. temperatures about four to eight celsius. and then as we go into the weekend,

it changes even more because high pressure, yes, is towards the southwest, but we've got a rather brisk westerly wind, and that's going to bring a few weather fronts in across northern areas. and with the wind coming in from the west and southwest, it's going to bring in milder conditions as well, especially for sunday. so over the weekend, we will see more in the way of sunshine. a bit of rain moving its way south and eastward, but it won't last all that long. not very high rainfall totals, so some sunshine at last for many parts of england and wales. more cloud towards northern and western areas. temperatures again at this stage still about 6—9 or ten degrees celsius. it's only by sunday where we start to see that much milder air moving its way in. so temperatures for most of us in double figures, although it will turn cloudier again by sunday, with some outbreaks of rain. bye— bye.

live from london. this is bbc news the british prime minister says he shares the public�*s horror about the murder of sara sharif — and there's a need for answers as to how it could have happened

we'll speak to a government adviser, who's worked on some of the uk's most high—profile safeguarding cases. syria's new government says they'll suspend the constitution and parliament while g7 nations call on them, to respect women's rights. will get the latest from lyse doucet. the first payouts in the uk's infected blood scandal, some victims could receive compensation in days — totalling over 13 million pounds. and a ringing endorsement for donald trump — time magazine's person of the year — as he opens trading on the new york stock exchange. welcome to bbc news. the prime minister says questions need to be answered over the murder of 10—year—old sara sharif as ministers say they're preparing "stronger safeguards" for children

being taught at home.