viable". now on bbc news: sport today. is hello, i'm gavin ramjaun — and this is sport today live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: a storm in 3 rugby world cup. two matches are cancelled — with more injeopardy as japan braces itself for a super typhoon this weekend. belgium thrash san marino — and become the first team to qualify for next year's european championship finals. history is made in iran as women are allowed to attend welcome to bbc news. a football match for the first i'm mike embley. our top stories: time in forty years. fierce fighting as turkey continues its offensive against kurdish areas we start at the rugby world cup in northern syria — where tournament organisers have been defending their decision in the us bipartisan to cancel two of the weekend's efforts to launch sanctions matches— because of typhoon hagibis against ankara get underway. which is due to hit the tokyo area on saturday. fears that the chaos and fighting a decision on the crucial could mean escape for thousands pool a game, betweenjapan of islamic state fighters

and scotland, won't be made until the morning of the game on sunday. imprisoned in the region. world rugby say the safety two businessmen, reportedly of players and spectators with ties to rudy giuliani, is the priority. charged with violating campaign finance laws. japan braces for the strongest typhoon this year — the authorities warn of severe weather and widespread destruction. the decision to cancel these matches and the iranian women attending has not been taken lightly and has a football match for the first time been made with the best interests of since the islamic revolution. team, public, tournament and volunteer team, public, tournament and volu nteer safety team, public, tournament and volunteer safety is a priority based on the expert advice and the detail information we have available. we've been intensively working through a range of detailed contingency options in partnership with the host cities, the venues and the teams to try and ensure that any impact on matches had a fair chance of being played however the risks arejust too challenging to enable us to deliver fairer too challenging to enable us to deliverfairer and too challenging to enable us to deliver fairer and consistent contingency approaches for all teams

and participants and importantly to provide confidence in the safety of spectators. new zealand's pool b match against italy was one of the games called off — with both sides awarded two points. the decision means the all blacks go through to the quarter—finals as the group winners — but the italians are out because they needed to win the match to keep alive their slim hopes of going through. head coach conor o'shea says the decision has been hard to take — especially for leonardo ghiraldini. after 104 caps, he's now played his final match for italy. 14 years, you've given everything, and it sometimes in are difficult because when you don't win all the games you want to, we are sometimes up games you want to, we are sometimes up against it but leo ghiraldini spent six months in rehab, time away from his family doing that rehab and you never write your own script but eve ryo ne you never write your own script but everyone is emotional today because

it's not the finish, you don't finish in the dressing room. when will lose together. the other match called off is the pool c decider between england and france — although both sides had already qualified for the quarter—finals. it means france have been denied the chance to beat england, and finish top of the group — but england's head coach eddiejones is quite relaxed about the situation. we didn't really, to be honest, care oi’ we didn't really, to be honest, care or no. we were preparing for the game and win the game is on, we are in game mode and win the game is off, we are in preparation mode so the japanese have a saying, we can't control it. after thursday's rest day, the world cup resumes on friday with australia versus georgia. a win for the wallabies would take them top of pool d. on to football — and belgium are the first team through to next year's european championship finals. they beat san marino 9—nil on thursday — to make it 7 wins out of 7 in their qualifying group.

inter milan's romelu lukaku scored twice as the world's top—ranked team opened up a 6—nil lead at the break. they added three more in the second half, with another italian—based player — atalanta's timothy castagne — completing the rout in stoppage time. it means belgium have qualified for the finals with three games to spare. elsewhere, northern ireland took a shock lead against the netherlands with a goal from josh magennis after 75 minutes. but the dutch turned it round with goals from memphis depay and luuk dejong in the last 10 minutes. depay scored again in stoppage time to complete a 3—1 victory. both teams are locked in a three—way tie with germany at the top of group c. we knew what to expect, we knew they would definitely bring a lot of passion, a lot of hard work on the pitch and we have to give them credit as well. they put a lot of motor on us at times. obviously there was loads of space even to play through it but they did well

and we tried to keep putting pressure on them, keep creating chances and obviously it wasn't our best game. we would have been delighted to come here and get a point because it playing in belfast to qualify, that was taken away from us to qualify, that was taken away from us in the last few minutes so we have to regroup for the last two games and get as much as we can out of the remaining two games. elsewhere, lu ka modric was among the scorers as croatia beat hungary — to go three points clear of slovakia at the top of group e. robert lewandowski scored a hat—trick as poland won 3—0 in latvia. they remain three points clear of austria at the top of group g. and in group i, russia thrashed scotland 4—0 — but still need one more point to qualify. that's because cyprus won in kazakhstan. staying with football, there was massively significant match played in tehran on thursday. women were allowed into a stadium to watch a men's match — for the first time in a0 years. the change followed pressure from football's world governing body, fifa — and the death of a fan who set herself alight, after being arrested for trying to attend a match. more than 3,500 women bought tickets for the world cup qualifier

against cambodia, where they were granted access to a special women's—only section of the azadi stadium. but amnesty international described the move as a cynical publicity stu nt because the capacity is 78,000. there are supervisors from fifa that came to observe and check the behaviour of the iran federation so the atmosphere is very good, it's very sympathetic and i hope we all enjoyed the match. well, they would have enjoyed the match — with sardar azmoun scoring a hat—trick as iran thrashed cambodia 14—0. karim ansarifard went one better — scoring four — as the iranians made it two wins

out of two in group c. there were plenty of goals all round asia on thursday. yang xu scored four as china beat guam 7—nil, jamie maclaren scored a hat—trick in australia's 5—nil win over nepal, in group f, japan scored 6 against mongolia while kyrgyzstan managed 7 against myanmar, while south korea beat sri lanka 8—nil in group h. four of the goals scored by kim shin—wook, with son heung—min getting two. on to the world gymnastics championships in stuttgart — and news of another gold medalfor simone biles. the american came out on top in the women's individual all—round event — beating china's tang xijing by 2.1 points. biles has now won 22 medals at world championships — and 16 of them are gold. it means the world to me. for me, that's kind of unheard—of so it's really exciting but we finished strong and we gave it our all and it's just super exciting that i have the opportunity to do this. we think everything you do out there is

absolutely awesome but out there for you, what was your own rating of your performance? today, i'd probably rated out of seven. qualifications went a little bit better here and now that i'm pretty pleased with my performance, i can't complain. india's cricketers will resume on 273—3, on the second day of the second test against south africa. mayank agarwal was again the stand out star in pune. the opening batsman with a score of 108 after his double century helped india win the first match of this series. captain, virat kohli, added 10 boundaries in an unbeaten 63. tennis — and friday is quarter—finals day at the shanghai masters, with the top 4 seeds all safely through to the last eight. the defending champion novak djokovic eased into the quarter—finals with a straight sets victory over the big—serving americanjohn isner, who's the number 16 seed. the world number one came through 7—5, 6—3 — and remains on course to win a fifth shanghai masters title. daniil medvedev over came a "mini meltdown" against canada's vasek pospisil to reach the last eight.

the russian came from a break down to take the first set on a tie—break — before winning the second 7—5. the number 3 seed — who won the cincinnati masters earlier this year — will now face italy's fabio fognini in the quarter—finals. in the other half of the draw the number 2 seed roger federer beat belgium's david goffin in straight sets. federer — who's bidding to regain the title he last won two years ago — came through won 7—6, 6—4. he'll now face the number five seed from germany, alexander zverev. and the number 4 seed dominic thiem is through to the quarter—finals after a straight sets win over nikoloz basilashvili. thiem won 6—3, 6—4 — and will now face the number 11 seed from italy matteo berrettini. one other tennis line. naomi osaka has declared her intention to represent japan at next year's olympics in tokyo. the world number 3, and reigning australian open champion, was born in osaka to a japanese mother and haitian father. but she grew up in new york,

and also has us citizenship. japanese law decrees that a person must choose one nationality before their 22nd birthday — and osaka's chosen to represent the country of her birth at the tokyo olympics. 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. so far october has been a very wet month for some of us. now, as you can see in this forecast, it takes us all the way through the weekend, and we're not done yet. and during friday there will be more heavy rain across parts of england, wales and scotland, especially in the west with heavy showers mostly to the north of glasgow.

let's take a look at the big picture, the set takes us through the weekend. this weather front, hanging around parts of england and for much of the weekend. a feed of showers running into western parts of scotland. then we go on through into sunday, this weather front will eventually start to pull away, but we'll see more heading in from the atlantic. yes, it is staying unsettled even into next week, as well. this is how we start friday, you can see the areas of heavy rain into parts of england under, further heavy showers than into western scotland. a dry start to northern ireland with some sunshine, very blustery up there as well. i just want to focusing on some of the wetter areas greater risk of disruption and the met office has yellow weather warnings in force for rain for much of wales, the peak district into the pennines, higher totals here to higher ground, quite widely15—30 millimetres, difficult driving through that. in this i was rattling into western scotland, north of glasgow, giving early high rainfall totals again, especially for the higher ground,

but some difficult travelling conditions. giving an indication of where we're going to see some of the stronger wind gusts as well, this area of heavy rain feeding further south across england under, quite squally in nature as the day goes on. brightening up for some, north wales, northern england as the day goes on, sunny spells, the odd shower for northern ireland, one or two reaching into eastern scotland, it's not a washout everywhere. this is the picture friday night into saturday morning, still the cloud and some outbreaks of rain. the further south you are in england, still the chance of a show in northern ireland, or especially in northern and western parts of scotland. the lower temperatures will be where you do have some clear spells. now, as saturday begins, we still have this weather front close to parts of southern england, but elsewhere there will be some sunny spells to be had, yes, there's a chance of catching one or two showers, but it's not going to be a disaster of a day. lighter winds than we have had recently, temperatures mostly in the mid—teens, but it looks like later some of this rain towards south—west england, maybe south wales as well will begin to turn heavier, certainly more persistent, too. so that's how saturday is shaping up. as we go into the second half of the weekend, overnight heavy rain

across england and well, rain falling into the north sea. it looks like another area of raining cloud was spreading from the western zone more of scotland wetter on sunday. some uncertainty about the detail, though, so keep on checking back. 00:13:21,223 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 if you've got weekend outdoor plans.