50, lots to get through and we're starting with a busy night of european football. and all four british sides topping their groups in the europa league. brighton were celebrating after a very late goal at home to marseille meant they beat them to an automatic place in the last 16. it finished 1—0 at the amex. brighton willjoin west ham who also topped their group after beating freiburg 2—0. rangers, who beat real betis to keep sparta prague in second place, and liverpool, who went through regardless of their defeat to union saint gilloise. elsewhere, villa real beat rennes which means they take the top spot in group f but despite winning tonight, roma will have to play off after slavia prague stayed top of their group. so liverpool were already safely through which gave the managerjurgen klopp the opportunity to give some of his star names a rest and take a look at the club's

talented youngsters. it was a really important experience and the other is good for rhythm. so good performances and, of course, as a team, is a fair assessment, if they say now, top of the table belgium and come here and bring kids and altogether that is really difficult, but i thought they gave it a go and thatis thought they gave it a go and that is ok for me. aston villa are into the last 16 of the europa conference league. they could only draw at the bosnian side, zrinjski mostar, but that was enough to seal the top spot in theirgroup. unai emery had made eight changes from the side that beat arsenal last weekend. aberdeen were already out of the competition, but they managed their first group stage victory in nearly 16 years after beating bundesliga giants eintracht frankfurt 2—0. it was a frustrating night for chelsea women who missed out on the chance to top their champions league group. they were held to a goalless draw by the swedish side

hacken, who stay top ahead of chelsea by two points with three more rounds to go. the first two go through to the quarter—finals. elsewhere, paris saint—germain broke their duck in the competition with a 2—1win over roma. and there were wins for paris fc and real madrid. referee chief howard webb has told officials to "keep the foot on the gas" and clamp down on unacceptable behaviour to prevent a repeat of the recent scenes in turkey. the former turkish football club president who punched a referee has been given a permanent ban by the country's federation. faruk koca, who was the president of mke ankaragucu, struck the official after running on to the pitch following his side's draw in the turkish top flight. the referee had to be taken to hospital. koca apologised and resigned from his presidency of the club, who have also been fined and ordered to play five home games without any fans. the sense that we saw in turkey

were disgraceful. i'm sure any reasonably minded person would absolutely agree that we should never ever at any level see that type of incident happen to any participant on the field, in this case it was against the referee. unfortunately, does happen at lower levels as well, i hear of these types of situations happening at grassroots levels and i think its indicative of a problem that exists. history will be made this month when rebecca welch becomes the first female referee to take charge of a premier league match. she'll officiate at fulham v burnley on 23rd december. it comes less than a year after welch became the first female championship referee. meanwhile on boxing day, sam allison will become the first black referee in the premier league since 2008. he'll oversee sheffield united's match against luton. onto cricket now and england have lost the second t20 international against the west indies.

and after putting the windies into bat in grenada, england restricted them to 176—7, opener brandon king top scoring with and unbeaten 82. adil rashid england's best bowler with a superb two for 11 runs. in reply, sam curran was the only england batter to reach a half century and england went on to lose by ten runs. the windies now have a 2—0 lead in the five—match series. meanwhile in his final test series, david warner put australia in control in the opening match against pakistan in perth with a brilliant 164. the 37—year—old opener starred on day one, as australia ended on 346—5. and it means warner is now fifth on australia's all—time test run scorers list. and england's women have work to do if they want to end nearly a decade without a test match victor. in their one—off match against india. england's bowlers toiled in the mumbai heat as india capitalised on a batting—friendly surface to reach 410-7

at the close of play. seamer lauren bell was the best with the ball taking 2—64. it went really well today. a tough day today, but like as we come back again tomorrow. it's very impressive how it is their first matinee can play test match to. we had worked really hard for our wickets today. a couple of rugby lines now and andy farrell has signed a new long—term contract to remain as ireland head coach. farrell will now stay until the end of the 2027 world cup. his irish side were ranked number in the world before losing to new zealand in the quarter—finals of this year's world cup. last summer, they achieved their first ever series win in new zealand and they won a six nations grand slam earlier this year. eddiejones has admitted he felt terrible about australia's world cup failure, but insisted he had no guilt about the process that meant

he returned as japan coach after stepping down from his post with the wallabies. at a press conference on thursday, jones faced more questions about how and when he first made contact with the japanese rugby football union. ididn't ididn�*t do i didn't do an interview before the world cup. i was asked by the world cup. i was asked by the recruitment agency to share my experiences with them on japan and some people might have construed that as an interview, it certainly wasn't an interview. the first interview i had with japan was interview i had with japan was in december. and that's the only interview i've had. britain's charlotte dujardin has done the double at the london international horse show, winning the world cup freestyle to music with a huge score of nearly 90% on imhotep. the double olympic champion was back at the show after missing last year's event while she was pregnant with her first child. she finished nearly 4% ahead of her gb team—mate lottie fry and it was british 1—2—3,

with becky moody in third — a repeat of the thursday's grand prix. now, for decades football fans have collected stickers of famous players and put them into albums. and now for the first time the women's super league has a dedicated collection of its own. the fa has joined forces with the italian sticker company panini to produce an album of nearly 350 stickers of stars. here's our reporter sarah dawkins. gotze, gotze, need. sticker collecting has been a staple of men's football culture since the 1970s, but now there are some new faces on the page. yeah, decent. hit some new faces on the page. yeah, decent.— some new faces on the page. yeah, decent. hit all the right anules, yeah, decent. hit all the right angles. guess- _ yeah, decent. hit all the right angles, guess. it's _ yeah, decent. hit all the right angles, guess. it's a - yeah, decent. hit all the right angles, guess. it's a bit - angles, guess. it's a bit surreal. _ angles, guess. it's a bit surreal, to _ angles, guess. it's a bit surreal, to be _ angles, guess. it's a bit surreal, to be honest. l angles, guess. it's a bit surreal, to be honest. i | angles, guess. it's a bit - surreal, to be honest. i always say panini sticker book and in the playground making swaps. there are nearly 350 cards to

collect, including 12 of these shiny cards, one for each team. 0ne down, 348 to go. it took 41 years four to to lodge a women's collection, from world cups to domestically is there now more than making up for lost time. now more than making up for lost time-— now more than making up for lost time. ,., ., lost time. the important thing is that it's _ lost time. the important thing is that it's happening - lost time. the important thing is that it's happening and - is that it's happening and everyone isjumping on board now and that is where it is going to go from strength to strength. fix, going to go from strength to strenuth. �* u, going to go from strength to strenuth. �* _, . ., going to go from strength to strenuth. �* . ., ., strength. a record crowd of nearly 60,000 _ strength. a record crowd of nearly 60,000 packed - strength. a record crowd of nearly 60,000 packed into| strength. a record crowd of. nearly 60,000 packed into the emmers on sunday. it seems these sticker books will only keep feeding that fan frenzy. i think is good because it gives women a chance to kamalei, express themselves with what all. i express themselves with what all. ., ., ., , ., all. i would love to be in a sticker and _ all. i would love to be in a sticker and stuck - all. i would love to be in a sticker and stuck in - all. i would love to be in a - sticker and stuck in someone's book — sticker and stuck in someone's book. ~ , . ~ , book. we were picking up the sticker book _ book. we were picking up the sticker book and _ book. we were picking up the sticker book and it _ book. we were picking up the sticker book and it was - book. we were picking up the | sticker book and it was always meant. — sticker book and it was always meant. both_ sticker book and it was always meant, both of— sticker book and it was always meant, both of these - sticker book and it was always meant, both of these young . meant, both of these young girls— meant, both of these young girls they— meant, both of these young girls they can_ meant, both of these young girls they can dream - meant, both of these young girls they can dream and - meant, both of these young i girls they can dream and they can believe _ girls they can dream and they can believe they _ girls they can dream and they can believe they can - girls they can dream and they can believe they can be - girls they can dream and they can believe they can be in- can believe they can be in these _ can believe they can be in these sticker— can believe they can be in these sticker books - can believe they can be in. these sticker books one—day form — these sticker books one—day form bruce _ these sticker books one—day form bruce carter— these sticker books one—day form bruce carter you - these sticker books one—day form bruce carter you just . these sticker books one—day| form bruce carter you just to -et form bruce carter you just to get hold _ form bruce carter you just to get hold of? _ form bruce carter you just to get hold of? my— form bruce carter you 'ust to get how mi form bruce carter you just to get hold of?- from l form bruce carter you just to l get hold of?- from the get hold of? my one! from the playground _ get hold of? my one! from the playground to _ get hold of? my one! from the playground to the _ get hold of? my one! from the playground to the office, - playground to the office, chinese and swaps are here to

stay, sticking these wsl stars into the history books. charlotte hawkins, bbc news, manchester. six shirts worn by lionel messi during argentina's triumphant run at the 2022 world cup have sold for $7.8 million at auction. the collection included the shirt he wore during the first half of the final in qatar. it's the most valuable item of sports memorabilia sold at auction this year but it didn't break the record, which is the 10.1 million fetched by michaeljordan�*s jersey from the opening game of the 1998 nba final. auctioneers sotheby�*s said the messi shirts were in their original state from the games. smell is something that we definitely have to consider, but at the same time the collectors typically don't care one way or another. for certain athletes camino, it can actually be something you can consider when you are purging the —— purchasing thejersey. but in this case they all smell fine. . ., , , ., you can get all the latest sports news at from the bbc

sport app orfrom our website — that's bbc.com/sport. from me and the rest of the team at the bbc sport centre, goodbye. hello. milder weather is set to develop across many parts of the uk over the next couple of days. that mild air spreading from the west — with it, a lot of cloud. yes, there'll be some sunshine, but i think it will often be cloudy. and the further north and west you are, particularly the north—west of scotland, we can expect strong winds and some heavy rain. but for friday, high pressure dominating to the south of us, keeping things mostly dry in southern parts. this warm front here introducing more cloud, cloud through the morning across northern ireland. that cloud then working its way up into a good part of scotland, clouding over across parts of north—west england, wales and the southwest. maybe the odd spot of rain or drizzle for coasts and hills, but for central and eastern parts of england, we should hold on to some spells of sunshine. not especially windy down towards the southeast, whereas the winds will be picking up all the while across the north—west of scotland.

temperature—wise, eight or nine degrees in some eastern parts, 12, maybe 13 out towards the west. and that mild air in the west continues to push further east as we head through friday night. with it, extensive cloud cover, some mist and murk, some spots of rain and drizzle, particularly across hills in western scotland. very windy in the north of scotland as well, but a milder night in prospect. temperatures generally between four and 11 degrees as we start saturday morning. that feed of mild air coming from the southwest and that mild air will be wafting across all parts of the uk as we head through the weekend. saturday will bring a lot of cloud. as you can see, that cloud producing some spots of rain and drizzle. it may be that things brighten up a little bit down towards the south with some sunshine. equally, though, this frontal system here will bring heavy and persistent rain into the north—west of scotland. and those temperatures, 12, 13, maybe 14 degrees, very windy up towards the north. now, that rain in the north—west of scotland just keeps on coming through saturday night and into sunday. it may be that over some high ground in western scotland, we see up to 175 millimetres of rain. that could well bring some localised flooding and some travel disruption. a bit of rain into northern ireland and northern england. the further south you are, drier, brighter, a bit more

in the way of sunshine, highs of 13 or 14 degrees. but after that milder weekend and a mild start to next week, it actually looks like temperatures will then drop away. we may start to see some wintry showers developing over high ground.

live from washington, this is bbc news. european officials green light talks over ukraine's membership in the eu, moldova too. we'll take a look at what that means for the region. russia's president says he's committed to russia's objectives in ukraine. vladimir putin speaks at his first year—end press conference since the 2022 invasion. the us urges israel to scale down its operation in gaza, even as the country's defence minister says its war with hamas could last several more months plus, seeing stars — why much of the world is enjoying a celestial show of meteors. hello, i'm sumi somaskanda.

thank you forjoining us. the european union has agreed to open membership talks with ukraine and moldova and to grant candidate status to the country of georgia. all three nations have been pushing to join the alliance. ukraine's president, volodymyr zelensky, called the decision "a victory for ukraine". it comes as the us approved the national defence authorization act, an $886 billion defence bill that will provide more aid to ukraine. out of this bill, ukraine will receive $300 million for security assistance. but that number pales in comparison to the billions needed to fund the war. the bbc�*sjessica parker sent this update from kyiv. the decision to open membership talks here in ukraine will be hugely welcome, of course. they applied tojoin hugely welcome, of course. they applied to join the euro right after russia's full—scale invasion although for many moving towards europe is a far longer held ideal, of values they are fighting for right now. for president zelensky is a decision he really wanted and

really needed. he has