hello and welcome along to sportsday with me, sara mulkerrins. coming up on the programme... closer than expected — but it's australia who are through to the cricket world cup final after a tense match against south africa. this weekend's grand prix could be the coldest on record. it's the first time las vegas has hosted it for 41 years and temperatures are expected to plummet. and the new research programme helping to reduce injuries in female athletes by monitoring the menstrual cycle.

you're very welcome along to the programme. so, after six weeks of action, we now know who will be in the final of the cricket world cup. australia will meet the hosts, india. but it wasn't a straightforward semifinal. they were up against south africa, who initially struggled, losing four early wickets before recovering to push australia right to the end. however, the five—time champions used all their experience to battle through and take a nervy three wicket win, asjoe wilson now reports. what's in those south african expressions? pride of course, but nerves? well, first over of the match, their captain temba bavuma out. south africa chose to bat first — they like to bat first. quinton de kock — that's only going for pat cummins. australia caught everything. the kolkata conditions suited their bowlers. south africa for a while could barely score.

when rassie van der dussen fell, it was 2a—4. heinrich klaasen resisted until this — dismissed by the part—time spin of travis head. through it all, david miller kept strong, kept swinging. his 101 gave his team something — a total of 212 to defend. south africa's opportunity? well, they dropped travis head a couple of times and he continued to thrive — past 50 to 62. and then out. what about glenn maxwell? gone for one. you've not seen celebrations until you've seen tabraiz shamsi. steve smith was steady, until this. australia 38 behind and now six wickets down. 20 to win, josh inglis bowled. neutral crowd living every moment, still time for a twist. and edged and dropped. pat cummins hit the winning runs — cold hard numbers. south africa's fifth

semifinal — they've won none. joe wilson, bbc news. novak djokovic boosted his chances of making the last four of the season—ending atp finals in turin after he recovered from a second set slump to beat hubert hurkacz. all three of djokovic�*s group stage matches have gone to three sets. he took the first against his polish opponent on a tie break. despite losing the second set six games to four, the defending champion came back in the third to take that comfortably 6—1. so djokovic needed jannik sinner to beat holger rune in the evening match in order to progress. and sinner did just that. it went all the way, though. sinner needing the third set to wrap up the victory to remain unbeaten in turin and become the first italian to make the semifinals of the event on home soil. hungary qualified for euro 2024 with a game to spare after a last—minute alex petkov own goal earned them a draw against bulgaria in sofia.

elsewhere, scotland, who have already qualified for the finals in germany, twice came from behind to draw 2—2 in georgia. spain's 16—year—old wonderkid lamine yamal scored his second international goal as his already qualified side beat cyprus 3—1, and already eliminated sweden were beaten for the first time ever by azerbaijan. and you can get the full results on the bbc sport website and app. now, for the first time in the 21st century, there will be a unification heavyweight fight and it will include a british boxer. now, just a warning, there is some flash photography to come here. it has been confirmed that tyson fury will put his wbc world title on the line against the ukrainian boxer oleksandr usyk, who holds the three other recognised world titles. it will happen on february the 17th in riyadh in saudi arabia, and the winner will become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since lennox lewis back in 1999. i've been in many,

many heavyweight title fights before. it is what it is. and now is the most important one. you know, me and oleksandr, both undefeated. he's a champion, i'm a champion. and it's going to be one of the fights for the ages, you know. so we've been chosen, and i believe we're both destined to be here and to be in this big fight in saudi arabia, the ring of fire. and there's only one winner. and i'm destined to become the undisputed champion. and more than that, i'm destined to cement my legacy as the number one fighter of this era. now, the las vegas grand prix returns to formula one for the first time since 1982, but this weekend could see the lowest temperatures ever recorded at a formula one race. the mercury is expected to drop below 5 celsius on the new street track, which would beat one of formula one's longest standing records, stretching back to the 1978 canadian grand prix, the coldest race ever held. well, the bbc�*s simon king has more on the plunging temperatures.

when you think of las vegas in the nevada desert, you may associate that with being hot all year round. and that's perhaps what many of the formula one teams may have thought as they arrived in las vegas this week for the grand prix. however, this grand prix is taking place at night and at night in a desert, it can get cold, especially in mid—november. you may have also assumed that it will be dry, being in a desert, but through friday and friday night for qualifying, there are quite a few showers moving their way through nevada, so some of these could possibly affect the qualifying session in las vegas. and with temperatures of 13, 1a celsius, that could be quite challenging. for the race, well, it's going to be dry, but again, at night, temperatures falling away pretty quickly — 11 or 12 celsius. it's not going to be the coldest grand prix on record. but with temperatures this low, with a freshly laid track, getting heat into the tyres could well be challenging

for the drivers and the teams. yeah, an interesting weekend ahead. the bbc�*s simon king there. now, snapped ribs, muscle strains and under—fuelling are just some of the issues faced by great britain's female rowers in their pursuit of olympic glory. and they're often as a result of the menstrual cycle. but a new research programme is trying to change that. project minerva, named after the roman goddess for war and wisdom, brings sports scientists and elite athletes under the same roof for the first time, notjust in the uk, but also globally. the goal is to make the rowers healthier, stronger and ultimately medal winners. sarah dawkins travelled to the gb base in caversham to see them in action. from the early starts on the water to giving absolutely everything off it. great britain's rowers are leaving no stone unturned in their pursuit of olympic glory next summer. everything hurts.

my feet, my legs, lungs. yeah. the latest focus — the health of their female athletes. this is project minerva. saliva testing to track hormones and the menstrual cycle alongside other training markers like heart rate monitors. for the first time, sports scientists and elite athletes are under the same roof, delivering more personalized and productive training. you're gaining more knowledge about how your body works, what happens every single month, every single day, and how those fluctuations change. this is about the one—percenters and in elite sport, that is what we're looking for as well, is those little edges that can make the difference. for some, like hannah scott, the project has been life—changing. i think over my time i've had ten rib injuries and that was something i just accepted and thought was normal. it turns out it's actually something i can fix. and i think what they've discovered through this project, they've realised that it's also

to do with how women are fuelling. and it's notjust that women are more susceptible to rib injuries than men. it is the fact that we have these hormones, we're not maybe producing as much oestrogen as we should have been for our bone health, and that's why. scott is now injury free, marking her comeback with a gold medal at the world championships in september. great britain take gold! i'd taken away learning from the year before with project minerva and i felt so confident on the start line at the world champs because i knew so much more about my body. nice forward movement... the hope is what's happening here can be rolled out across other elite sports in years to come. we're really proud to be pushing the boundaries a bit and proud that we're taking a real invested interest to the next level in female athletes. we're looking to the future, we're looking to la, and we're looking to be able to support the next group of athletes even better than we have done this group. the negativity around the menstrual cycle is being washed away. no longer something to fear,

but instead to embrace. i'd like to make women's journeys in rowing as easy as possible. the capabilities of women's bodies to be stronger in certain ways, and it's not that we're weak, we just didn't have the support in the first place to help us be strong. sarah dawkins, bbc news, caversham. fascinating insight. now, a reminder just before we go of our top story, because after six weeks of action, we finally know who will be in the final of the cricket world cup. and it is going to be australia up against the hosts, india this weekend. you will of course be able to follow that as it develops on the bbc sport website and app. but for me and the rest of the team, we will see you again soon. bye—bye. hello there. it's a very mixed picture of weather across the uk on thursday and the rain and the winds will return along

with the milder feeling air over the weekend. but on friday it's looking largely dry. a few showers out towards the west, plenty of sunshine around. temperatures now close to the seasonal average. so we're between weather systems on friday. these fronts clear into the north sea. this is the weekend's weather, a deep area of low pressure approach. and from the southwest, we'll be seeing that by the time we get to the end of the day. but most of the day, it's certainly looking dry. the early cloud will clear away into the north sea a few showers across north west england, the isle of man down through wales and possibly the south west of england. and here it will cloud over also northern ireland as we head towards the end of the afternoon. but plenty of sunshine around temperatures close to the seasonal average, generally eight to 13 degrees. but still that cold air lingers across northeastern areas of scotland. as we head through friday night and into saturday morning, that wet, windy weather spreads in from the southwest, brisk southeasterly winds, spells of heavy rain, the temperatures rising unusually through the night. so this is how we're set to start off saturday morning,

between 12 and 1a degrees celsius out towards the south of england. the rain gradually clears its way eastwards, so it will turn a lot drier across much of england and wales or eastern scotland as we head through the afternoon. some showers further west. temperatures certainly very mild rising to 15 or 16 degrees celsius in the south, ten to 13 degrees celsius further north. now, that deep area of low pressure is still spinning its way eastwards as we head through sunday. the focus of the rain on sunday will tend to be towards the north. so across northern england and much of north west scotland, also northern ireland seeing some hefty showers at times, a few showers out towards western wales, perhaps further south across much of england and wales is dry. but here we'll see some very blustery winds, gusts of a0 to 50 miles an hour. temperatures perhaps just that little bit lower. now, as we head through sunday night, the area of low pressure starts to clear away, but it does leave a legacy of showers. still, the milder air hangs on for part of monday,

but you can see we draw down more of a northerly wind. so the temperatures are set to turn cooler as we head through into the start of next week. a drop in temperature turning more settled, too, as we head into the middle of the week for most of us. bye for now.

live from washington. this is bbc news. us president biden meets with asia—pacific

live from washington. this is bbc news. us president biden meets with asia—pacific leaders focusing on trade, competition and military might. the body of a 65—year—old woman abducted by hamas has been recovered by israeli troops near the hospital where israel says militants have stored weapons. plus, we visit the community in iceland threatened by a volcano at risk of erupting. hello, i'm carl nasman. the asia—pacific economic cooperation summit continues in san francisco with president biden reassuring world leaders that the united states is committed to the region's economic growth. he also said his talks with chinese leader xijinping on wednesday would provide stability not only in the indo—pacific but around the world. the us and china agreed on resuming high—level military communication and slowing the production of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid responsible for tens of thousands of drug overdose deaths in the us.

however, the leaders are still at odds over taiwan.