Ceasefire talks in cairo. The good news is that they are happening and that five nations, orfive parties, are at least all there in cairo. So thats hamas, israel, the us, qatar and egypt. The not so good news is that israel has only sent a fairly low level team theyre not there to negotiate, theyre there to study what hope there is of trying to bridge the gap between what is acceptable to israel and what is acceptable to hamas, and that gap is still pretty wide. The main Sticking Point, as my colleague yolande referred to there, is over how this ends. So the fundamentals of the deal are largely intact, theyre largely agreed. They can agree this that it will start with a 42 day period of calm, a truce essentially, during which hamas will give up 33 hostages. Theres a bit of dispute about whether they would be alive or dead, but 33 hostages. In return, a much larger number of Palestinians Prisoners would be released from israeli jails and palestinians who had been moved south into rafah
knowing what we did, but with hindsight, that is the moment we should have done it, three weeks earlier, and it would have saved many, many lives. alistair darling, the labour politician who was chancellor during the 2008 global financial crash, dies at the age of 70. members of the rmt union except a pay deal ending their involvement in a long running series of rail strikes. hello, i m matthew amroliwala. hello, i m lewis vaughanjones. welcome to the programme. the pogues frontman shane macgowan has died at the age of 65. he was discharge from hospital last week. his wife confirmed he had died in social media. macgowan fronted the pogues from 1982 until their break up in 2014. the band are best known for the christmas hit song fairytale of new york. our arts correspondent david sillito reports. # it was christmas eve, babe # in the drunk tank # an old man said to me. # happy christmas, your ours, i pray god it s our last. fairytale of new york, a bleak, drink sodden duet
at edinburgh zoo. and coming up on bbc news. manchester united s champions league hopes in the balance, with keeper onana in the spotlight after letting their lead slip at galatasaray. good afternoon. rail strikes by the rmt union are over for now. its members have voted to accept a pay deal, to end their year long dispute over pay, jobs and working conditions. they will get a backdated pay rise of 5%. it means the end of the union s mandate for more strikes until at least next spring. but another rail union aslef is pressing ahead with more industrial action starting tomorrow. here s our transport correspondent katy austin. it s been nearly a year and a half since the long running series of strikes on the railway began. commuters like these in west sussex have had to get used to it. if you want to go to work instead of being stuck at home, yeah, it disrupts normal everyday life 100%. i don t understand why there s so many. i haven t been able to go into work as frequently a
the most senior hospital doctors. they ll vote on a new government pay offer over the next few weeks. during that time, the threat of further strikes will be lifted. let s talk to our health editor hugh pym, whojoins us from the newsroom with the latest. hugh, this news has just come in to us. what are the details of what looks like a breakthrough in a long running dispute? it like a breakthrough in a long-running dispute? like a breakthrough in a lonua-runnin disute? ., , long-running dispute? it does look that way although long-running dispute? it does look that way although the long-running dispute? it does look that way although the deal - long-running dispute? it does look| that way although the deal will have to be put to members over the next month. but it does lift the threat of further strikes by senior doctors which was really worrying nhs leaders. they were very concerned about what might happen over the winter period. consultants in england were given a 6% pay