as he helps the world champions to a goalless draw against germany in the uefa nations league. surreally serena williams goes towards a record 24th grand slam title with a victory over sevastova in the us open semi—final. and tiger woods along with rory mcilroy equals the course record at the bmw championship in pensylvannia. hello and welcome and in tennis, in the past few minutes serena williams is into the us open final with a straight sets 6—3, 6—0 win over latvian sevastova, which tookjust over an hour. the 36—year—old, a six time winner at flushing meadows, when the 2—0 down before she exploded into action and made a real statement, as she goes to within one

win ofa statement, as she goes to within one win of a record equalling 24th grandslam title. she plays last yea r‘s grandslam title. she plays last year's runner—up, madison keys, or namely osaka, the first woman from japan to reach a grandslam semi—final in 26 years. she's had a great year. we played on clay before, which is a different surface. we've played on hard court a couple of times before, it will be a couple of times before, it will be a tough match. she's playing well to get to the semifinals, so i'm looking forward to it. i know a bit more about her. i feel like she a lwa ys more about her. i feel like she always has some pretty funny interviews. so far i look forward to seeing what she's saying in her interviews. have you ever been to japan? yeah. you know when you go there, everything, is, like, totally awesome, and you're having the time of your life and you go out every

day and eat good food and stuff. that's how i feel right now. i'm really looking forward to going to tokyo, but i have to focus on playing this tournament. i mean, when i go to japan playing this tournament. i mean, when i go tojapan i playing this tournament. i mean, when i go to japan i don't feel like i'm at home, i feel like when i go to japan i don't feel like i'm at home, ifeel like i'm in a super awesome, like, it's i'm at home, ifeel like i'm in a superawesome, like, it's not i'm at home, ifeel like i'm in a super awesome, like, it's not home, it's like a super awesome extended vacation that i don't want to leave. like working with my colleagues! the first batch of matches in the inaugural uefa nations league were played on thursday including world champions france who were in munich to play former champions germany. it was france's first match since lifting the world cup in moscow and the league a, group one, game failed to deliver any goals but it did see a wonderful string of second half saves from third choice french goalkeeper alphonse areola. germany went out at the group stage in russia, their earliest exit

for 80 years with the next match in the group to be france against the netherlands, to be played in paris on sunday, but in this game the coach was impressed by hugo lloris‘s replacement translation: he was playing at the level he usually does for his club. you knows i have confidence in him, evenif you knows i have confidence in him, even if he is our third choice goalkeeper at the moment. the opportunity arose and he took it well with his usual calmness and tranquillity. again, i'm very pleased and proud of what he did, and this will give him even more confidence than he already had, lots more. so, confirming that score in munich in group a. while in group b, ryan giggs took charge of wales for the first time in a competitive fixture as he saw his side run out convincing 4—1 winners over the republic of ireland in cardif, with real madrid's gareth bale among the scorers. there were four games in leagues c and d, and they included a 2—0 win for macedonia in gibraltar. that was gibraltar‘s first competitive international on home soil. tiger woods and rory mcilroy have both equalled the course record at the bmw championship in pennsylvania, the penultimate tournament of the fedex cup play—offs on the pga tour. the pair shot 8—under rounds of 62 to share the lead by a stroke.

the iii—time major winner woods carded a round that included an eagle and seven birdies along with a solitary bogey, and the 42—year—old will feel like he has momentum heading into his second round on friday. although mcilroy will feel he missed out on more after he bogeyed two of his last three holes, interspersed with some wonderful play, as he looks to become one ofjust 30 who'll progress to the season—ending tour championship in atlanta. now to cricket, and friday's fifth and final test at the oval in london will see former england captain alastair cook take to the field for the last time in his illustrious international career. his side have an unassailable 3—1 lead over india in the series, and joe wilson looks ahead. well, alastair cook i'm sure would like us to be talking about something other than alastair cook

as we preview this test match, so let's focus on the wicket—keeping. very interesting. england said jonny ba i rstow very interesting. england said jonny bairstow will resume as wicket—keeper in this test match, but in the future, jos buttler and ba i rstow but in the future, jos buttler and bairstow may share the workload so we could have some kind of blog rotation policy. fascinating see that. in this test match, moeen ali will bat number three. he bowled so well in the last test match and going forward he may bat at number three, he may not. captainjoe root says adaptability will be the crucial thing in the future. he knows for certain he will not of course have alastair cook to turn to. naturally, a lot of his media opportunities today were taken up with discussing the soon to be retired alastair cook. do you think he's got another century in him? obviously, yeah. i've seen one coming for a while. you might not think it with the scores he's had in the last couple of weeks, but it

would seem fitting for him to go out ona would seem fitting for him to go out on a real high on a personal note, not just us as on a real high on a personal note, notjust us as a team. hopefully he can soak up everything else that comes with this week and go out and deliver on the field. it would be nice to start and finish with a century, wouldn't it? you never know, it might be written in the stars for him. india may feel u nfortu nate stars for him. india may feel unfortunate or even an lucky being 3-1 unfortunate or even an lucky being 3—1 down going into this test match, a bit more resolve in the run traces and it could have been different. anyway, anyway, their mindset and approach will be fascinating in this test match. their captain virat kohli didn't speak to us today, instead he sent rahane into that. for england, particularly be won small, small sessions. especially bowling. as i said, important test match coming up and we will do our best. the test matches so far between these two teams have produced a low scoring and exciting

cricket and if this match followed a similar theme, i don't think anyone here would really complain. and if alastair cook did someone one final great test innings, well, who here would begrudge him that? nobody i'm sure. valentino rossi refused the offer of a handshake from his moto gp championship rival marc marquez at thursday's news conference ahead of this weekend's san marino grand prix. rossi denied that there are any problems between himself and reigning champion marquez, who he currently trails by 59 points at the top of the championship standings. the situation will not have been helped by events at this year's argentine grand prix, when marquez collided with rossi and sent the italian crashing out of the race. it sounds to me a bit strange because in reality, we don't have any problem between me and marc. i don't know why we have to make peace for me. for me it's ok. for me, it's nice. of course, if

it's no problem for me, it's no problem to shake hands. but it's like this! i mean... what i can say? already second time. but no problem. i will raise him. we don't need to shake the hand, we are ok. there's a new leader at the vuelta a espana. spaniard jesus herrada is now the man to catch, in the leader's red jersey after stage 12. herrada started the day over five minutes behind leader simon yates of great britain, but yates' mitchelton—scott team failed to react to an early breakaway, and never got back into the race. herrada now has a three—minute lead in the gc standings, while frenchman alexandre geniez took the stage victory in a sprint finish. elsewhere, the dutch team lotto—nl—yumbo won stage 5 of the tour of britain, a team time trial in cumbria in the north—west of england. they beat quick—step—floors by 17 seconds to win the first team time trial in the

history of the race. their slovenian rider, primoz roglic, who's a former ski jumper, is the new race leader. he's six seconds clear of of the frenchman julian alaphilippe. an exciting opening day at the surf ranch pro in california, a venue i60km inland, saw the artificial wave system designer and ii—time world champion kelly slater dominate the day with a superb performance that placed him at the top of the leaderboard. slater left his best performance to his final ride of four where he posted a score of 8.5/10, utilising his superb barrel riding skills along with a series of perfectly timed bottom—to—top turns. the top seeds including gabriel medina, filipe toledo and julian wilson surf their opening round tomorrow. lovely pictures. nyomi osaka and madison keys are in their second semi—final at the us

open. —— naomi. serena williams is in the final, the six time winner at this event beat sevastova. from me and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye. hello, good morning. the details for this weekend still look a little uncertain. things are more straightforward, though, for friday. a lot of the rain and earlier thunderstorms have been fading away. skies have been clearing, which is why it's been turning quite chilly out there, and it'll feel a little cooler for many places with a north—westerly breeze, but for the most part it'll be dry. there's going to be some areas of rain still around, very close to this area of low pressure that's in the north sea. this is where we'll see most of the rain, so perhaps northern parts of scotland, eastern scotland for a while, and the north—east of england. maybe a little bit of rain heading towards the wash, but for the most part, this rain will move its way out into the north sea. one or two showers coming in on that north—westerly breeze, patchy cloud bubbling up, still some sunny spells, and most places will have a dry day.

it may feel a little warmer across the northern half of the uk with some sunshine, but a little cooler in the south, temperatures not really making 20 degrees. into the evening, a lot of that cloud melts away. temperatures fall away, and then we've got increasing cloud coming in from the atlantic. and this is the start of the uncertainty — how far north or south that rain is going to get. but it should be a milder night on friday night into saturday morning. but across england and wales, it looks like we're going to see cloud and a spell of rain. that rain could affect southern parts of northern ireland and southern scotland for a while. it's more likely that southern counties of england should see very little, ifany, rain. and across the northern half of scotland, this is where we'll see the best of the sunshine. those temperatures not changing very much, 17—19 degrees. uncertainties arise because we've got a chain or a string of weather fronts sort of buckling their way across the uk. and if there's a bit more amplification to that buckling, so the rain goes a little bit further north, which it looks

like doing for sunday. but a lot of that rain will peter out through the day. we'll see a bit more sunshine developing, with some showers continuing across the northern half of scotland. most places in the afternoon may well be dry, and there's a warming trend for england and wales, with temperatures 2! or 22 celsius. as we head into next week, there's a strengthening jet that's propagating across the atlantic. that's going to pick up areas of low pressure, these weather fronts too, and steer them towards the uk. it looks like it's going to be more north—western parts of the uk which will see the wet weather into the early part of next week. that rain beginning to gather during the second half of the day. one or two showers ahead of it, but some sunny spells as well. it should be a bit warmer too, temperatures 22 or 23 degrees. and that warming trend continues across the south—east into tuesday and wednesday, temperatures peaking at 2a or 25 degrees. again, towards the north—west, there'll be more cloud, stronger winds and rain at times. 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: fallout from the anonymous white house resistance letter. senior officals are denying

they wrote the editorial for the new york times. confrontation at the un. russian and british diplomats trade accusations of criminality and deceit over the nerve agent poisoning of a former spy. they tried to murder the skripals. they played dice with the lives of the people of salisbury. they work in a parallel universe, where the normal rules of international affairs are inverted. and british airways is investigating the theft of bank card details from its website and its mobile app. hundreds of thousands of customers have been affected. and tributes to an icon.