coming up on this programme: british rider geraint thomas remains on course for victory in the tour de france with three stages remaining the former manchester united manager alex ferguson has publicy thanked those who helped him recover from a brain haemmorage in may. and adil rashid takes aim at former england captain michael vaughan after he criticised the leg spinners inclusion for the first test against india starting next week in birmingham hello and welcome to the programme where it was a trouble—free day in the peloton for the tour de france leader geraint thomas as arnaud demare won a largely flat 18th stage on thursday. thomas still leads overall — and only friday's mountain pass and saturday's time trial stand between him and a maiden grand tour title. tom fordyce reports. after two days in the high mountains of the pyrenees, a chance for geraint thomas and his yellowjersey rivals to sit safely in the pellet on and let the sprinters fight it out. frenchman arnaud demare held

off his compatriot on the baking hot streets, thomas coming home safely to maintain his near a two—minute advantage. the respite will be brief, on friday it race returns to the mountains and thomas knows that others will surely come. the former manchester united manager alex ferguson has thanked medical staff and fans for their help and support, in his first public message, since suffering a brain haemmorage in may. ferguson — who won 38 trophies in 26 years at old trafford — was rushed to hospital, and spent several days in intensive care, which prompted an outpouring of affection, from across the footballing world. just a quick message, first of all to thank the medical staff at macclesfield, and huddersfield hospital, believe me, without those people who gained such great care, i would not be sitting here today. so

thank you from me and my family, thank you from me and my family, thank you from me and my family, thank you very much. this has made me feel so humble, as have all the m essa 9 es me feel so humble, as have all the messages i have had from all around the world wishing me the best and the world wishing me the best and the good wishes that resonate very, very strongly in may. so thank you for the support you have given me. lastly, i will be back later in the season lastly, i will be back later in the season to watch the team, in the meantime, all the best tojose and the players, thank you very much. there was just one game played on thursday in the worldwide series of friendlies that make up the international champions cup. atletico madrid beat arsenal on penalties in singapore — with arsenal under new management for the first time in 22 years. austin halewood reports. a new season, a a new season, a new a new season, a new kit and a new start for arsenal. after 22 years at the helm, arsene wenger‘s reign

ended against atletico madrid. it started the same way, luciano vietto heading his side into the lead. both sides had a youthful feel about them, but eager to impress, 17—year—old emilie smith rowe did just that, the gunners level back in singapore. at the naivete of youth almost came back to port them, playing out from the back is the way forward in the modern foot all, just not that far back. atletico going close. and so came penalties, the toughest of all tests in professional football, or so we thought. for the atletico keeper, it is surprisingly easy, three says, a possible four. and then the winner to seal it, he is only their backup goalkeeper. translation: i am happy because

above all, what of the guys played really well, especially the younger ones are. we have been able to incorporate them in a strong defensive structure we have had over the last few years. the youngsters all understand that steps to the first—team scene far away but it is not as far as they may think. if they keep working hard like this, they keep working hard like this, they will get their chance. bayern munich have confirmed the signing of canadian teenager alphonso davies from vancouver whitecaps for a fee that could rise to $22 million — a record amount received by any club in major league soccer. the 17—year—old midfielder, who was born in ghana, has already won 6 caps for canada — and davies will officiallyjoin the german champions on a four year deal next january. the move involves a fixed transfer fee and additional compensation that could total more than 22 million us dollars, the most received by a club in the league's 22 year history.

this would not have been possible without the vision and leadership of bayern munich, their sporting director and chief scout, they saw what we see in him and credit a compelling opportunity for the club and our player. they are truly a world —class and our player. they are truly a world—class organisation and we are proud of the relationship we have established with them. cricket — adil rashid says former captain michael vaughan's comments about his return to the england test squad are "stupid" and "do not matter". the 30 year old has been named in their squad for next week's ist test against india in birmingham — and was one of the star performers as england won the recent one—day series. the leg spinner is only playing one—day and t20 matches for his county side yorkshire this season having chosen not to play the red ball format. england's national selector ed smith has been responding to claims that rashid's selection sets a bad precedent. moving forward, we are very clear,

this is an unusual i—off set of circumstances which we have discussed. moving forward, for players to be eligible to play for the england test team, starting from next year, they have two have a contract cleaning red bull cricket. they have two had it. you cannot move forward saying i don't want to play england cricket i want to play test, adil rashid is aware of this and he will know that she he will have to have a read all contract if he wishes it to be available for selection in test cricket. situation we find ourselves in now is different, he assigned a white ball contract and that is a fixed. as a result, we are prepared to select him for the summer and the winter. at the women's hockey world cup in london, ireland have become the first team to qualify for the quarter—finals. in thursday's matches, spain thrashed south africa 7—1 to keep alive their hopes of qualifying from pool c. they play the group leaders germany on saturday. while, anna o'flanagan scored

the only goal of the game as ireland beat india in pool b to seal their place in the last eight, with a game to spare. it is an absolute dream experience. i think we will be pinching ourselves for a couple of days anyway. it is brilliant for us, but it wasn't outside the realms of possibility for this team. came in here with the belief, we have done a lot of homework and have played a lot of homework and have played a lot of homework and have played a lot of things in our pool before and we knew we could get results. absolutely it is an unbelievable experience, it has come with a bit of confidence as well. we know we can get results on our day, we have just gone out and proven that and thatis just gone out and proven that and that is brilliant. tennis — and the top seed dominic thiem is safely through to the quarter—finals of the german open in hamburg. the world number 8 from austria beat australia'sjohn millman in straight sets to seal his place in the last eight. thiem won 6—2, 6—2 — and he'll plays nicolas jarry of chile in the quarter finals. pablo carreno busta is also

through to the last eight. the number 3 seed from spain won the first set of his match against aljaz bedene 6—2 — and was leading 4—love in the second when the slovenian needed treatment for a back injury. bedene was eventually forced to retire — and carreno busta will now face nikoloz basil—ashvili for a place in the semi—finals. the american golfer bryson dechambeau, doesn't appear on the european tour very often, but he's the man to beat after the first round, of the european open — also in hamburg. he finished tied for 51st, at the open championship in scotland last week, but carded a 6—under—par round of 66, to head the field. it included 3 birdies in four holes, around the turn. masters champion patrick reed finished four shots back on 2—under. on the lpga tour, tiffanyjoh holds a four shot lead after the opening round of the ladies scottish open. she carded a nine—under—par round of 62 with a run of four straight birdies from the 10th to 13th holes that saw her cruise up the leaderboard, before a final flourish at the 18th hole saw her card a highly impressive

round to hold a commanding lead. thailand's ariya jutanugarn, a two—time major winner including this year's recent us open is on 4 under and well placed heading into her second round but still has plenty of work to do. anthony rizzo hit a walk—off homer in the ninth inning to lift the chicago cubs to an amazing 7—6 win over the arizona diamondbacks at wrigley field on thursday. after the home side pulled level in the 9th rizzo followed it up with the winning homer, his 13th of the season and the cubs overcame a five—run deficit to win the game and split the four match series. you can get all the latest sports news at our website — that's bbc.com/sport.

but from me and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye. hello. good morning. for most places the heatwave has reached its peak. what a peak it was. temperatures on thursday above 35 degrees in surrey. 35 on the nose in central london. further north in edinburgh, temperatures of 27 degrees. however, the heat sparks off thunderstorms, some of which will continue on friday. then for the weekend things will feel much fresher. the fresh air lies behind the bands of cloud, atlantic frontal systems heading our way. where we have the clumpy cloud is where we have thunderstorms breaking out on thursday evening.

as we start friday morning the temperatures will be pretty high. 16 in belfast and newcastle. 20 in london. still some showers and thunderstorms, particularly eastern areas. things may be dry around the middle of the day and then showers will return later on. out west we will see cloud moving across northern ireland, western scotland, fringes of england and wales, patchy rain here. for the far east of the country it is a hot day. 32 in norwich. further west it is cooler and fresher. friday night we could see some really vicious downpours and thunderstorms across eastern england and scotland. could be some travel disruption. this heavy rain could also have some thunder and lightning included. still warm and humid for many. signs of something fresher pushing into the west. that is a sign of what is to come. these frontal systems drift through on saturday. there will be rain around

at times on saturday. some sunny spells as well. but as we chase to the north—east we will bring in further showers and we will also bring in some cooler and fresher air. so temperatures on saturday afternoon well down on where they have been, 25 or 26 degrees. quite a breezy day as well. sunday is quite windy. this band of rain pushing north and east. this is a very different weekend compared with what we've been used to recently. spells of sunshine into the west later on. look at the wind. much more windy than it has been for some time. those temperatures actually on the low side. 20 in belfast and glasgow. 21 in london. that is your lot. we stick with the fresh feel for the start of the coming week. it looks like there will be some spells of sunshine. then later in the week it looks like it will warm up again. a very warm welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley.

our top stories: a deadline passes for the us government to try to reunite families separated by donald trump's zero tolerance policy. former world cricket star, imran khan, claims victory in pakistan's election, promising the people he'll fight corruption. translation: whatever the ruling elite has been doing in pakistan so far with the taxpayers' money, i'm promising you today that i will change all of that. bruised and bewildered. the children who survived the laos dam collapse. we've just found this shelter where hundreds of people are now gathered. they want food, water, blankets, medicine, if they need it. talking to people here, they all tell you the same story. they had very little time to escape.