and britain's natasha jonas says she must beat mikaela mayer to cement her legacy as one of the best pound—for—pound fighters. welcome along to the program. wherever you are watching around the world. let's start with africa cup of nations, where egypt and ghana played out a highly entertaining 2—2 draw in group b. there were three goals in five frantic second half minutes to level the tie, after egypt had gone ahead at the end of the first half.

our reporter dan ogushenkin was watching the game. he can put into context what this match means for the two teams. it came alive in the second half? a lot of pressure. we heard there was an altercation in the team hotel. a team confronted him. the good news was mohammed curtis was back the undoubted star of the ghanaian side. �*s return was what the weight. eventually. eventually. here is that undoubted star of the side and his return was worth the wait, eventually. a bit of a slow burner first up and came together right at the end. mohamed salah going down, clutching his hamstring. terrible news for liverpool fans as well and after he was substituted said he could not go on any longer. that is when mohammed kudus came to the score.

scored a beautiful goal and a change. it looked like things were going very nicely for the black stars. but then everything changed. egypt not very good after the first 45 minutes. amin mohamed omar got them back into the game. scored a second to minutes later and just when it looked like ghana would then go to go and a take control of the match back a take control of the match became egypt again. mostafa mohamed, with the second equaliser to make it finish 2—2. the result robably does more for egypt than ghana. they are under pressure and only have the point for the opening two games. one game left to go against mozambique but with curtis back on the side of this kind of form you would not bet against them getting the result they need and will hopefully get them through into the last 16. thanks very much, dan. elsewhere in the other fixtures on thursday. emilio nsue scored a hat—trick as equatorial guinea closed in on the knockout stages by thrashing guinea—bissau, and nigeria took a huge step towards reaching the last 16 with a 1—0 win over hosts

ivory coast in group a. william troost—ekong scoring the only goal from the penalty spot. nigeria tried and put up a fight and showed they came here for the competition. looking good now. we have more confidence than before. laughter we are the host team in the competition. i think the best is coming in the next match but we are very discouraged. everybody is down. this is a mess, man! after the first match, we were scared. - they played very well but this time around we are lucky, - just so lucky. i wasjust so happy about it. so impressed and happy with the standard of the game and happy with how everyone is progressing. moving onto the asian cup now, where australia are into the last 16 after beating syria 1—0. jackson irvine scored the only goal of the game in the second half.

the victory means the socceroos currently top group b. uzbekistan are likely to join them in the knockout stage with a 3—0 win against india. in group c, palestine kept their slim hopes of qualifying alive with a 1—1 draw against the uae. after all the reports, it's now official — england midfielderjordan henderson has joined ajax in a permanent move, bringing an end to his time with al—ettifaq in saudi arabia. henderson signed a 3—year contract with the saudi side when he left liverpool injuly, where he linked up with steven gerrard as manager of the team, but after just 17 appearances for the saudi pro league side, he's heading back to europe, and has signed a 2.5 year contract with the dutch side. despite henderson leaving, steven gerrard has signed a 2—year contract extension to stay as head coach at al—ettifaq until 2027. gerrard is reported to be one of the best—paid managers

in the world, on a salary of around £15 million a year in saudi arabia. al—ettifaq, who finished seventh last term, currently sit eighth in the table, 28 points behind the leaders. england women begin the defence of their six nations title in late march, but their first training squad of the year has been announced with bristol lock abbie ward getting called up less than a year after giving birth to her daughter. head coachjohn mitchell has included six uncapped players in the 38—strong squad, and england captain marlie packer has been speaking to the bbc about the relishing the responsibility of wearing the armband. i look back at it now and an incredible year with loads of learnings and a lot of self—learning as well. being england captain, there is so much more to it thanjust, you know, being england captain. and i think as much credit as sarah got,

i don't think she got as much credit for what she did do and was just relentless in everything she did. for me to take over it was a swift learning curve but one i definitely relished and loved every minute of it. it has not changed me as a player on the pitch. if anything it has made me better. i probably engage my brain a little bit more. just what i do is now even more important to what the rest of the squad or other players look up to. i have a great leadership group around me and i can pull on them when i need them but the lot of it comes down to then i have the last say on some stuff in just getting used to that is that new role in how we discuss and work things out.

but the buck lies with me on most of it. boxing, and natasha jonas says she must beat mikaela mayer on saturday in liverpool but that it will be a huge test for her. jonas will defend her ibf welterweight title against former unified super—featherweight champion, mayer, who is considered to be among the world's best. ade adedoyin reports. this matchup has generated interest principally because they are so evenly matched on paper. both had solid amateur careers. both former olympians in both have oneworld titles in the professional arena. moved up 2 weight classes in 2022 and move back down to welterweight because there are more opportunities and bigger names here. she says her goal is to go down as one of the best pump ——pound for pound in the world when she retires on saturday night in the arena. the majority of the crowd there to see her when. expectation brings pressure, she says that something it is huge for me as an athlete. me journey that i've been on but also the young

girls coming behind me they can now see there is a pathway in boxing for them too. to be celebrated and recognised by the community that helped raise and shape me into the woman i have become is also a very big honour for me. moving up aa weight class, an accomplished boxer like yourself, both in amateurs and professionals. how much of a test will she pose for you? a big test. that's why i chose so. i am near the end of my career. i want to give myself there big challenges. to be able to say when i hung up the gloves i was one of the best in this era and to do that you have to be in top people in pound for pound list and mikaela mayer is one of the names on it. her fourth fight in a row, fighting here in england. first time fighting in the welterweight division. used to be a super by where she held her world titles, until she lost it back in 2022. also the first time she will face a southpaw, a left—hander, they can be notoriously difficult,

the adjustment. not an easy one to make but she remains confident she has all the tools to get the job done. luckily i've built a fan base year and i will need it going into the fight on saturday because i know it is a hometown and they go hard for their people here. i don't expect fans to be cheering my name but it is really important for me because i have to win this fight if i want to go on to have the career that i've always envisioned myself having. i had a little setback this last year having lost my belts but this is a new chance for me. i've moved up and feel good and strong and getting this belt from natasha jonas will put me back into the position i want to be. it is a big name for me and i want to have it on my resume and peter on saturday night and go on a challenge the great names at welterweight. despite its bid opinions but the odds may have natasha jonas as a slight favourite to win. a rematch clause in the contract that ——a rematch clause in the contract that if she does not have the job done and she will have the job to have mikaela mayer again. but she told me her goal is to win

and win emphatically and move onto the next challenges in her career. just enough time to recap our top story: egypt came back from behind twice as they drew 2—2 with ghana at the african cup of nations, but star striker, liverpool's mo salah, left the field injured just before half—time. he is egypt's captain. you can get all the latest sports news at from the bbc sport app, orfrom our website, that's bbc.com/sport, but from me and the rest of the team at the bbc sport centre, goodbye. hello. the cold wintry snap continued on thursday with more snow that's been accumulating across parts of northern scotland also northern ireland, around some exposed coast of england and wales as well. this was the picture

in highland. we've got several centimetres even right down to sea level, up to a0 centimetres over the higher ground. now, still a cold day to come on friday with some more snow. but milder, windier and wetter weather arrives as we head through the course of the weekend. overnight, snow continuing to pile in across northern and western scotland in particular. few showers, perhaps northern ireland, north—west england. so some slippery conditions as we start the day on friday, around some western areas in particular. temperatures, i think at 6:00 in the morning, around about —2, —3 for many of us, a little bit milder, perhaps under the cloud cover across parts of western scotland with the breeze picking up, too. we're going to continue to see snow across scotland, but it'll mainly be over the higher ground because later in the day at lower levels, that is going to turn back to rain showers, as that slightly milder air moves in. for much of northern ireland, england and wales, mist and fog clear away through the day to leave some sunshine and temperatures will be at that little bit less cold than recent days. so we're looking at highs between around about 4—6 degrees friday afternoon for most of us. and then as we move through into the weekend,

we've got this area of high pressure which then moves its way out towards the southeast and that opens the doors for atlantic weather fronts to move their way in. so bringing some rain, some wind and some milder air, you can see the yellow and orange colours returning to the map as that arctic air gets squeezed away towards the east. so for saturday, some fairly heavy rain across parts of england and wales, particularly the further north you are, further south and east should stay mostly dry. could be some more rain across parts of scotland and northern ireland as well later on in the day. just wintry over the highest peaks but i think for most it will be falling as rain. still relatively cool in the south and the east, six or seven, but double figures further west. into sunday, the next frontal system moves in. so it's really this central swathe of the british isles that are going to be particularly wet. windy, ithink, wherever you are on sunday. gales around exposed coasts and hills, too. temperatures in the low teens possibly for some of us in the south. single figures further north. the outlook for the course of next week is for the much milder weather to return

but it will also be windy and often unsettled, too. bye— bye.

live from washington. this is bbc news. the us strikes houthi targets in yemen for the fifth time in a week — as tensions rise in the middle east. an exchange of missiles between iran and pakistan stokes fears of wider regional escalation. and a scathing report concludes the police response to the uvalde school massacre in texas, was a failure. hello. i'm azadeh moshiri, welcome to the programme. we start with the growing tensions in the middle east — against the backdrop of the israel—gaza war. iran and its proxies are involved in exchanges of ground fire and air strikes across multiple countries. in yemen, us strikes targeted houthi positions for the fifth time in a week.

us central command confirms they destroyed two houthi