hello from the bbc sport centre. the sport of darts has never seen anything like it — 16—year—old luke littler, on his debut, is through to the pdc world final. he'll take on another luke, luke humphries, who himself became world number one after his victory in the semi—finals. but it's littler who is making all the headlines. if he wins, it goes without saying, he'll be the youngest to do so, surpassing michael van gerwen who was 2a when he won his first title. and even littler can't quite believe what's happened. no, i wouldn't have thought i would. didn't even think i would reach the final. ijust wanted to win a game and come back after christmas. no goals had been set, so i'm not even going to set a goal to win it. this world championships, i've got nothing to lose. it's just a free hit for myself and here i am still standing at the world championships. there's no pressure.

like i've said, it's my first time being here and i'm still here. so ijust take it in my stride and take it game by game. i've just got to believe in myself, believe in my own ability. i think that's probably one of the best ones i've played, ever, on the stage, so, you know, i put in one game too early, but, obviously, i needed to put in a statement performance because, you know, luke was fantastic tonight, and, you know, if i'd put in an edgy performance everyone would have probably thought it was a one—sided final, where now i have allowed that, for everyone to dream that it's going to be one of the best finals. so, really, really pleased with that. i think every aspect of my game is as i wanted it to be. in tennis, novak djokovic�*s 43—match winning run in australia is over, after he was beaten by alex de minaur in the united cup quarterfinals in perth. de minaur, the world number 12, took full advantage of an out of sorts djokovic, whose been struggling with a wrist injury,

taking the first set 6—4, and de minaur showed few nerves in the second as he eventually closed out the match 6—4. it gives australia a 1—0 lead over serbia in the mixed team event, and hands djokovic his first loss in australia since the 2018 australian open. it's really special. novak is unbelievable, and what he has done for the sport is pretty special, so it feels surreal, it feels amazing, i'm happy to do it here in perth and in australia. emma raducanu has been given direct entry to the australian open later this month it was thought she'd have to qualify — but following a series of injury withdrawals, the former us open champion been included in the main draw. she is currently playing at the auckland classic, and will take on second seed elina svitolina on thursday. another player on the comeback trail is naomi osaka,

but the four—time grand slam champion is out of the brisbane international. in a really high quality match — she took the first set against former world number one karolina pliskova, but the czech fought back to take the next two to set up a clash with third seed, jelena ostapenko, in the last 16. and it was a comfortable start for world number one aryna sabalenka in her opening match of the season in brisbane — she tookjust 58 minutes to reach the last 16, beating italy's lucia bronzetti in straight sets, 6—3, 6—0. brighton manager roberto de zerbi has praised his side's "very smart game" after keeping a first premier league clean sheet of the season, in a 0—0 draw at west ham. it's the 4th clean sheet in a row for the hammers, who stay sixth, while it's brighton's first for 2h games. the point moves the seagulls into seventh place, above manchester united, while west ham are three

points further ahead. david moyes�*s side were without key players — including mohammed kudus. he was made unavailable as he's off to the africa cup of nations, even though the tournament is still 11 days away. unfortunately, you know, for some reason we weren't allowed to play ours, when mo salah could play for liverpool last night. so, you know, we were unable to play ours today. all teams need the best players playing to either win it all to play better, and we probably missed a bit of that tonight, but overall i really, really pleased. we've played brighton twice, we've got four points, so i'm thrilled. i'd like to have done better tonight at times, especially the second half, but overall, really pleased. it's the opening day of the second test between south africa and india in cape town, where the hosts have been bowled out forjust 55 in their opening innings. south africa won the toss and chose to bat but were blown away by india's bowlers — mohammed siraj taking six wickets in a ferocious spell that accounted for most of the top order. india have begun their response

and they are currently 71 for i. south africa lead the two—match series after winning the opening test at centurion. and pakistan have posted a score of 313 on the opening day of the third test against australia in sydney — pat cummins�* five—wicket haul had the visitors in trouble but half—centuries from mohammed rizwan and aamerjamal rescued the innings, australia finishing the day 6 for none in reply. and in the nba, joel embiid returned from injury to lift the philadelphia 76ers to a win over the chicago bulls embiid had missed the last four games with an ankle injury but returned in style — scoring 31 points to go with 15 rebounds and ten assists to lead his team in a 110 to 97 win. and a reminder you can keep up to date with all those stories, and more, on the bbc sports website and app. that's all the sport for now.

thanks for being with us. let's turn to politics now and the leader of the liberal democrats ed davey has been campaigning at the start of what's likely to be an election year. mr davey has been in guildford — one of the so—called blue wall seats — held by the conservatives but a top target for his party. here it is, 2024, the year the voters finally get to pack up this awful, out of touch conservative government. throw their disastrous policies into the skip. clean up the sleaze stains from their carpet. and eventually move the whole lot out of number ten. cheering. today, i'm launching ed davey�*s tory removals!

cheering. it's the blue wall's premium unseating service for conservative mps. laughter that was serie ed davey. richard tice — the leader of the reform party — is also in campaign mode. he's warned that he'll resist pressure from the conservatives, for his candidates to stand down at the election to avoid splitting the right—wing vote. no, the truth is, the tories are terrified. yes, in the new year, the special pleading has already started. "oh, please don't stand here, please don't stand there. i'm one of the nice guys, i believe in all everything that you believe in." you've all broken britain. you're all responsible. so, there's no special deals. we stand on every single seat in england, scotland and wales. reform party leader richard tice.

live now to our political correspondent peter saull. this vote splitting of the right—wing is a real problem for the conservatives, isn't it? yes. conservatives, isn't it? yes, potentially. _ conservatives, isn't it? yes, potentially, or— conservatives, isn't it? yes, potentially, or the _ conservatives, isn't it? yes, potentially, or the richard i conservatives, isn't it? yes, i potentially, or the richard tice were saying then, still, i wrote for reform is not necessarily a vote for the labour government. we kept using this phrase starmergeddon, referring to what is going to happen, richard tice, the leader of the reform party and the liberal democrats want an election sooner rather than later, a fact sir ed davey was also saying, he was going to take on legislation in the house of commons later on that would bring back the fixed terms parliament act, from when the lib dems were in coalition with the conservatives, then repealed by borisjohnson, but that legislation boris johnson, but that legislation would have meant that the election would have meant that the election would have meant that the election would have taken place on the 2nd of

may, which is the same day as local elections are due to take place in england. ed davey made the point that rishi sunak is cling onto power. i'm sure the other opposition powers to remote parties will be making the same point in the coming weeks. richard tice, making the same point, the deputy chair, lee anderson, on his tv news show made, that they should not be standing because that will aid labour, but he said you need to vote for the party actually believe in. whether they will be able to win any seats is another matter, though they are insisting as you heard that they are going to put up a candidate in every single constituency england, scotland and wales. whether they again have the infrastructure is to do that is another question, but they said they already have 500

candidates in place. now it's time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. hello. we may be done with the worst of the wind and the rain for this coming week, but the impact of what has fallen is still being felt. plenty of flood warnings still across the country today. all the details of them are on the bbc weather website. for the impact, bbc local radio is your best port of call for what's happening where you are. now the storm which brought some of the rain yesterday, storm henk, that's now in across parts of northern europe. still low pressure with us and that's why it's not a dry day out there. still got some showers around, some of those heavy and thundery around the coast. fairly frequent, but fast moving showers through parts of wales and southern england. fewer showers northern england, far south of scotland and northern ireland, some staying completely dry here throughout the day, but some lengthier bursts of rain into the west of scotland and some snow in shetland, where it's still chilly — three degrees here. elsewhere, temperatures above average, but down on yesterday. now into tonight to continue with some rain across the north and east of scotland, some snow in shetland at times. isolated showers elsewhere, turns drier. but some clear skies around,

colder night than recent nights. don't be surprised if one or two sheltered valleys see a touch of frost into the morning. so your thursday commute will be a colder one, but a brighter one for the most part. a lot more sunshine around. still some outbreaks of rain to the north and east of scotland. a few showers elsewhere, scotland, parts of northern ireland, northern england, but channel islands turning wet through the morning and some of that rain could edge into southern counties of england. bear in mind that could be a bit further north than shown on these charts. and that's because of this system here, which is moving out of france. just how far north it gets a bit of a question mark, but it will get out of the way as we go into friday. still got low pressure to the north—west of scotland. so still the focus for the bulk of the showers here. but there will be a few showers elsewhere. as you can see, though, the winds for many of you will be still on the lighter side. some sunshine in places, temperatures dropping closer to where we should be injanuary and they will be set to drop further. low pressure that has dominated for so long gets squeezed away by high pressure building in scandinavia and out from parts of the atlantic.

and that will eventually not only turn things drier but also colder across the country. with the arrival of more widespread night—time frost will be some mist and fog by night as well. but i think the crucial thing, especially with all those flood warnings around at the moment, very little rain. there will be a few showers, it's not to be a completely dry picture, but the emphasis for most of you is some longer, drier spells and that will continue through much of next week. take care.

live from london, this is bbc news.

lebanon accuses israel of trying to ignite conflict across the middle east after a senior hamas leader is killed in beirut. aftershocks and heavy rain complicate earthquake rescue efforts injapan. at least 64 people are now confirmed dead. junior doctors in england begin the longest strike in nhs history, joining a six—day walk—out over pay. hello, i'm lucy hockings — welcome to bbc news now, three hours of fast—moving news, interviews and reaction. lebanon's government has accused israel of trying to ignite conflict across the middle east, after a senior hamas leader was killed by a drone strike in southern beirut. saleh al—arouri and at least five

others died in the blast on tuesday. he was considered one of the founders of hamas' military