and celtic have been knocked out of the champions league in the third round of qualifying by aek athens. hello and welcome to ther programme, where the england all—rounder ben stokes has been found not guilty of affray at bristol crown court in england. the case related to a fight outside a nightclub in the city in september last year. he's been drafted straight back into the england squad following the verdict but he may still face a sanction from the england and wales cricket board. our sports editor dan roan was in court. it had taken almost a year, but finally ben stokes emerged from court today having cleared his name. one of the world's top cricketers found not guilty of affray. today's verdict represents the end of an 11 month ordealfor ben, during which time he has had to maintain his silence at times when many in social media and certain parts of the press predetermined his guilt long before the trial began. the past 11 months have served to highlight to benjust how highly he values his position as an england representative, both in terms of the privilege that role entails and

the responsibilities that accompany it. also acquitted, co—defendant ryan ali, one of two men knocked unconscious by stokes in a late—night brawl last year. do you have any comment at all? i'm very relieved. i'm glad it's all over. that's all i'd like to say at this time. sorry, do you mind just loosening the right one on my wrist? stokes had been arrested in bristol in the early hours of september 25. police body cam footage showed him being detained. moments earlier, he had been involved in this fight, punching both ali and his friend, ryan hale, who was cleared of affray last week on the direction of thejudge. the local resident who filmed the violence said the men had behaved like football hooligans. ali left with a fractured eye socket. stokes insisted to police and then in court that he had been acting in self defence, having confronted the pair over homophobic language towards two gay men. cctv footage from earlier in the evening shows stokes and team—mate alex hales, who was not charged with any offence, trying to re—enter

a nightclub while out celebrating an england win. the prosecution claimed stokes can be seen mocking the gay men and here throwing a cigarette but at one of them. stokes said it was just banter. these are the two gay men seen chatting to stokes earlier that evening. neither were called as witnesses in the trial. i didn't get involved. i was more on the sideline. but, yeah, it turned into a massive brawl. and obviously i got a bit scared, so i carried on walking on. so you didn't witness the entire fight to the end? i witnessed most of it. yeah. when the guy was on the floor that's when i can have thought it was a bit too much for me. this has been a costly episode for a player who only ten days ago starred as england beat india in the first test, but who had to sit out last winter's ashes series in australia. within the hour he had been reinstated to the england squad

for the third test match, which start on saturday. do you have any message for england cricket fans, ben? this could just be the biggest victory of the all—rounder‘s career. but at a time when english cricket wants to attract a new family audience, it may not be the end of a saga which has cast a shadow over the sport. dan roan, bbc news, bristol. despite stoke‘s acquittal and his immediate return to the test —— despite stokes's acquittal and his immediate return to the test squad for the third match of the series against india this saturday, the england and wales cricket board will now have its own disciplinary process to decide whether stokes' conduct deserves any sporting sanction. here's our cricket correspondent jonathan agnew. the board has been really fastidious in making sure that it has, throughout the process, not try to judge ben stokes. when he was not chosen for australia originally it was because the board didn't know if he would be charged and if he was charged, then what with, then when he was charged with kefraya they

decided to pick him —— affray, they decided to pick him —— affray, they decided to pick him. because they don't have a disciplinary process ready to go yet, they feel if they didn't pick him, it might seem to prejudice him. probably the process will start this week. lakshan sandakan returned career best figures of 3 for 19 as sri lanka managed a narrow three—wicket win in the only twenty20 match against south africa in colombo on tuesday. batting first after winning the toss, south africa was bowled out for 98 runs in the 17th over which was their lowest ever t20 score, with lakshan at the heart of it helping dismiss the proteas middle order. despite a poor start the hosts reached their target with four over remaining, dinesh chandimal remained unbeaten on 36 with isuru udana hitting the winning runs. two—time world champion fernando alonso won't race in formula one next year with a likely move to indycar racing in the us. the mclaren driver will see out his contract, but after 5 years with the team he says it's time for a change. the 37—year—old spaniard has been

in f1 for 17 years and won the title in 2005 and 2006 with renault, but it's been his ambition to secure motorsport‘s triple crown by winning the monaco grand prix, the le mans 2a hour and indy 500. he's won the first two so is expected to secure a drive in the us as he looks to become only the second driver to achieve the feat after british driver graham hill. celtic have been knocked out of the champions league in the third qualifying round after losing 2—1 on the night and 3—2 on aggregate to aek athens. brendan rodgers' side went 2—0 down just after half time and despite a goalfrom scott sinclair it was the greek side who progressed, while elsewhere three other former winners went through with ajax, benfica and red star belgrade moving to the final round before the competition proper, but it was the scottish champions who failed to join them. real madrid will play their first competitive game without cristiano ronaldo when they take on city rivals atletico madrid in the uefa super cup in estonia on wednesday. real have won just one of their past 10 la liga meetings

with atletico but have won the champions league for the past three seasons, while atletico are europa league champions. translation: it is a privilege every time that you are playing in a final, it means you have done things right, and winning three champions league titles in a row means you have the chance to reaffirm yourselves as champions and we would be very excited to achieve this new record. tennis now, and roger federer breezed through to the third round of the cincinnati masters after a 6—4, 6—4 win over germany's peter gojowczyk, and he'll play argentina's leonardo mayer in the last 16. while just two days after losing the toronto masters final to novak djokovic, and having turned 20 that same day, stefanos tsitsipas struggled against belgium's david goffin, missing shots on vital points to crash out, while iith seed goffin goes on to play france's benoit paire. the australian nick kyrgios usually changes

into his tennis shoes on court, but left them in the changing room for his match against denis kudla. he took time to settle into them, losing the first set on the tie break before winning the next two to set up a last 32 match against borna coric. milos raonic sailed into the second round with a straight sets victory over serbia's dusan lajovic. the canadian won 6—3, 6—3 in a match that lasted less than an hour and he'll now play tunisia's malekjaziri, who qualified as a lucky loser after rafael nadal withdrew. in the women's draw, karolina pliskova got the better of agnieska radwanska for the first time in their eight meetings. the number nine seed, formerly a world number one, hadn't even managed to take a set from radwanksa in seven matches, but she took two from her on tuesday, moving into the second round with a 6—3, 6—3 victory, where she'll play belarussian aryna sabalenka. number six seed caroline garcia knocked out former australian open

champion victoria azarenka. the frenchwoman won in straight sets 6—4, 7—5. ukraine won six golds on the second night of action at the world para—swimming european championships in dublin. one of the six came from yaroslav semenenko, who set a world record in the heats of the men's 50m backstroke s5 before claiming gold in the final. italy picked up four golds while great britain saw 16—year—old maisie summers—newton win the 200m individual medley sm6, setting a new world record in the process. just wanting to go out and give everything i could. i wanted to go quicker than this morning. but to go that fast, i just can't quicker than this morning. but to go that fast, ijust can't believe it. i have been training really hard with my coat. yes, itjust all came together. in major league baseball news, ryan braun hit two of milwaukee's four home runs as the brewers cut

into chicago's national league central lead with a 7—0 victory over the cubs on tuesday. braun had already hit a two run homer at the top of the first inning to help put the brewers 3—0 up, but he did it again at the top of the third to put his side in a strong position early on and the cubs never recovered, with their managerjoe maddon then getting ejected for the second time in four games when plate umpire phil cuzzi called ben zobrist out on strikes in the sixth. you can get all the latest sports news at our website, that's bbc.com/sport. don't forget the top story that ben stokes has been cleared of charges of affray at bristol crown court. but from me, tulsen tollett, and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye. hello there.

the weather pattern for the rest of this week and into the weekend looks pretty similar day on day and that is with more cloud, rain, stronger wind across the north and the west of the uk and the further south and east that you are, better chances of staying dry and bright with sunshine and feeling warmer. that process really will begin through wednesday, with an area of low pressure to the north—west of the country, a couple of weather fronts moving into northern and western areas, whereas further south and east it should stay largely dry. variable cloud, but also the sunshine breaking through at times. although breezy, not quite as windy it as it will be across northern areas. thicker cloud with outbreaks of rain, blustery across the north and the west of scotland, eastern scotland for a time across the south, scotland into northern ireland in between the two weather fronts we could see a little bit of brightness. this first weather front will bring rain to north—west england, parts of wales and eventually into the south—west of england. 2a, 25 degrees again across the south—east. another warm afternoon. as we head through wednesday night, that weather front will merge together and bring rain further south—east to parts of northern england, the midlands, wales and south—west england. ahead of it, another

muggy, dry night. to the north—west of it, clear spells and blustery showers. some heavy and feeling cooler and fresher. heading on into thursday, that weather front continues to sink its way south eastwards, it also opens the floodgates into cooler, fresher air which will flood in across the country during thursday and last into friday. it will be noticeable particularly in the south—east. that weather front will take its time to clear the south—east. a grey, wet, blustery day across the south. further north and west it will be quite windy, with sunshine and showers, some of them merging through longer spells of rain across the west of scotland and those temperatures range from 17—20 degrees,

feeling much pressure right across the board, particularly in the south east. on friday we do it all again. another area of low pressure hurtles in off the atlantic to effect the northern half of the country, keeping things more settled across the south and the south—east. it's going to be a windy day across northern ireland, scotland and perhaps north wales. more cloud, outbreaks of rain, persistent across the western scotland. further east you are, quieter, some sunny spells and feeling just a touch warmer than it did on thursday, highs of 22 or 23 degrees. saturday looks fairly quiet but it is only more wind and rain, the best of the brightness and warmth in the south—east. welcome to bbc news. broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: devastating scenes as a high motorway bridge collapses in genoa, italy. at least 26 people have been killed. the rescuers behind me there are still trying to lift up several large slabs of concrete under which they believe several more

vehicles may be trapped. a grand jury investigation in pennsylvania finds credible allegations of sexual abuse by more than 300 catholic priests, going back decades. british anti—terror police are searching 3 addresses and questioning a 29—year—old man arrested after his car swerved into pedestrians and crashed into a barrier outside parliament.