for the first time. south africa prepare for their battle with the brave blossoms in the world cup quarter—finals we start with football, and the news from spain, where la liga have requested that the first clasico of the season should be moved because of fears of civil unrest. champions barcelona are due to host rivals real madrid at the camp nou on saturday 26 october, but there have been protests in catalonia since nine separatist leaders were jailed for sedition on monday. police and demonstrators have clashed in barcelona this wednesday, and officials at la liga want the game to be moved to madrid's estadio bernabeu... i think it makes sense the decision la liga has taken. now it remains to be seen whether barcelona agree. the situation is unusual in catalonia.

no—one knows what really happened, because many demonstrations are taking place simultaneously. now, most of them are pacific, so there's no problem. but you that our classico is something more than a football game. it is something more political. —— el clasico. and precisely on 26 october, there will bea precisely on 26 october, there will be a big demonstration in barcelona, rejecting the decisions of the spanishjustice. so rejecting the decisions of the spanish justice. so it rejecting the decisions of the spanishjustice. so it is a hard point, and i think la liga makes the point, and i think la liga makes the point in at least asking. because i think that, for example, yesterday with so many riots in the centre of barcelona, and the demonstration on the attorney sixth will be one of the attorney sixth will be one of the biggest —— on the 26th will be one of the biggest in catalonia, so it is not easy. i think changing the location of the game, of course, many questions will be asked, and i think that in the end el clasico will be played in catalonia if there

is nothing exceptional. staying with football, the holders, lyon, look well—placed to reach the quarter—finals of the women's champions league. ada hegerberg scored twice as the defending champions thrashed fortuna hjorring in the first leg of their last—i6 tie in denmark. eugenie le sommer scored the other two in a 4—0 victory which should make the return leg in france a formality. meanwhile, there were also big wins for bayern munich, paris st—germain and wolfsburg, who beat fc twente 6—0. and vivianne miedema scored four for the english champions, arsenal, in a 5—2 win at slavia prague. elsewhere, manchester city scored after only 13 minutes against atletico madrid, janine beckie with the goal. but they had to settle for a draw when charlyn corral equalised for the spanish champions nine minutes from time. i don't want to use the classic line of it is half—time, but it is, really. and we would have always gone to madrid, the way this team works, to win the game. so for me, nothing changes, really, and i'm

sure it will be the same for the team. and if we can get that goal, i think every game i think that we are not ——i think every game i think that we are not —— i never think that we're not going to get a goal. and that will give us our away goal. just looking forward to next one it means so much to us, notjust because we got the away goal, but their performance we put in, the amount of injuries we have had, the performances we have had. it has beena performances we have had. it has been a difficult week, and i am so proud of the performance. it was about, positive performance for us all. now, they were one of the worst teams a couple of months into the major league baseball season. but remarkably, fast—forward some four months and the washington nationals are into the world series for the first time in franchise history. they completed a four—game clean sweep over the st louis cardinals on tuesday. adam wild recaps the game that gave the us capital its first appearance in a world series since 1933. for baseball fans in washington, the way for a world series has been

long. 86 years since the capital had a team at the top. now, the capitals are on their way. but the signals, the science, haven't always been good. a poor start to the season, but they are more than making up for it now. picture patrick called an almost unplayable, the first to strike out ten in the first four innings of a postseason game. and with the batters doing their bit, the nationals were putting themselves right in control. st louis cardinals, well, they were watching their chances slip through their fingers. watching their chances slip through theirfingers. that is, when watching their chances slip through their fingers. that is, when they got theirfingers their fingers. that is, when they got their fingers anywhere near it. washington racing into a 7—0 lead. from there, there was no way back for the cardinals. jose martinez did make the score looked just a little bit more respectable, but this was a night, a series, that belonged to the capital. the washington

nationals are national league champions. we had some chances come through, and i think a lot of those failures taught us and pushed us to get to where we are now. and i feel, like me, the fans in the community kind of one, and they deserve this just as much as we do. a quite extraordinary turnaround in fortunes. after the weight, washington i going to the world series. —— washington are going to the world series. meanwhile, wednesday's game in the american league championship series between houston and the yankees was postponed due to the weather. a storm in north—eastern usa has been classified as a bomb cyclone. game four has been rescheduled for thursday in new york, with houston astros 2—1 up in their series against the yankees. the scottish rugby union has questioned whether a charge of misconduct from world rugby is appropriate. comments made by chief executive mark dodson about the potential cancellation of scotland's world cup match with japan have been referred to an independent disputes committee. dodson hinted at the possibility of legal action when the match was in doubt because of typhoon hagibis. the game went ahead, though, and scotland lost 28—21, which meant they were knocked

out of the competition. japan, meanwhile, have a quarter—final against south africa to look forward to in tokyo on sunday. the springboks are trying to avoid a repeat of the 2015 world cup, when they were beaten by japan in the biggest upset in the competition's history. and, according to boks star winger cheslin kolbe, they are not dwelling on the result known as the miracle of brighton. knowing that we had the loss against japan in 2015, i won't say it will a lwa ys japan in 2015, i won't say it will always be stuck in your head, but we know that it has happened. but it's four years later. it's a new opportunity for us, and we just have to keep holding week by week, and keep on playing. we are playing japan in the quarterfinal now again, so we japan in the quarterfinal now again, so we will make sure now that we are really well—prepared so we will make sure now that we are really well—prepa red and just implement what the coaches want from us implement what the coaches want from us throughout the weekend. not to

have what happened in 2015 in the back of our heads. the world heptathlon champion, katarina johnson—thompson, has described her recent gold medal in doha as a dress rehearsal for next year's olympic games in tokyo. after several disappointments and near misses in her career, johnson—thompson finally stepped out of the shadow of fellow briton jessica ennis—hill to claim her first global title two weeks ago. she beat the defending champion, nafi thiam, into second place, and now has the belgian‘s olympic title in her sights. everyone's journey‘s different, and just because you have a couple of bad yea rs just because you have a couple of bad years doesn't necessarily mean, you know, it's not going to work out for you in the future. you've just got to find what works best for you and actually, you know, gather the confidence and belief in yourself and have that support team around you that believes in you. and yes, just have patients. ever since i moved to france after rio has been about tokyo. even this world championships was a sort of dress

rehearsal for that. i'm championships was a sort of dress rehearsalfor that. i'm glad that, the position i'm in now, i'm glad that it the position i'm in now, i'm glad thatitis the position i'm in now, i'm glad that it is definitely going to give me confidence going forward, that i am able to win. it's been done before. but i have to keep the same energy going into this winter and train hard. and, you know, it's a sport also everything can happen, but i've just got to put myself in the best position. i'm in a pretty good one now. my competitor, nafi thiam, from belgium, she is our olympic, world and european champion. so her performances have definitely forced me to step up my game. i know that to beat her you have to score those big scores, and iam going have to score those big scores, and i am going to have to score more. i am fully prepared to go to training and try and better myself and i am fortu nate and try and better myself and i am fortunate enough to have a couple of events that didn't go too well for me, like the 200 and maybe even faster in the 800. so hopefully there is a scope there to go and grab those better performances. tennis, and another seed is out of the european open in antwerp. the number six seed, jo—wilfried tsonga, has been sent packing. the frenchman, who won the title in 2017, was beaten in straight sets

by compatriot gilles simon. but they were two hard—fought sets. simon, ranked 47 in the world, came through 6—4, 7—5. and he will now face the number four seed, stan wawrinka, in the quarter—finals. elsewhere, belinda bencic was among the winners at the kremlin cup in moscow, but the number three seed from switzerland had to come from a set down to beat polona hercog. bencic, who won the dubai championships back in february, took the deciding set 6—4 to seal her place in the quarter—finals. she will now face kirsten flipkens. and finally, it is probably fair to say that sports fans everywhere love a worldie. take a look at this one. we're at the world beach games in doha. it is brazil vs russia, the samba boys leading 8—3 when defender lucao did that. let's look at a different angle. he blasts it from the end of the world. back of the net! you can get all the latest sports news at our website. that is bbc.com/sport. but, from me and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye.

hello, good morning. wednesday started on a dull and damp note for many parts of the country. once that rain cleared away, though, we did see some sunshine. a chance to dry off, though, although a lot of the ground is still saturated, and there are a couple of flood warnings still out there. but following the sunshine, the clearer skies have meant it's turned quite chilly, particularly for the eastern side of the uk. where we had that cloud earlier on, we've now got the clearer skies, but looking out to the west, you can see that swirl of cloud there. it's producing showers or longer spells of rain. it marks the position of what is at the moment quite a deep area of low pressure. that's drifting towards the uk, already arriving in western areas. further east, though, with those clearer skies, temperatures may be low enough in eastern scotland to give us a touch of frost. further west, it will be milder, but you've already got a few showers. the breeze is picking up,

and we will see more and more showers arriving across the western side of the uk, blown in by some strong and blustery winds, which will also push the showers through the english channel and then move them inland, into the south—east of england and the midlands. but i think, for north—east england and north—east scotland, it should be largely dry. should be some decent sunshine. a much better day in north—east scotland than it was on wednesday. 13—15 degrees, that's near normal for this time of the year. so, through thursday, increasing numbers of showers. those showers will continue through thursday evening and thursday night, some of them heavy, accompanied by some rather blustery winds, which will keep the temperatures a bit higher. it should be a milder night, typically 6—8 degrees. we may stay in double figures across more southern parts of england. more sunshine and showers to come on friday. a good deal of them around coastal areas to begin with, but we'll see them developing inland, and some fairly frequent showers getting blown in on the strongest of the winds in the south—west of england and wales. 12—15 degrees, so those numbers at the moment not really changing a great deal. let's head into the weekend,

and remember, at the moment, low pressure is about here. but, as we move into the weekend, the low pressure is moving right across into the uk. it's not as deep an area of low pressure, but it will continue to bring sunshine and showers or longer spells of rain. longer spells of rain certainly blown in across scotland. the bulk of the showers further south, around coastal areas, developing inland, and with the low pressure right over england and wales, some slow—moving heavy and thundery downpours possible. quite windy and feeling cooler, i think, for northern scotland and for northern ireland. the highest temperatures in the south—east of england. so a lot of showers to come on saturday. through sunday, the showers become fewer. but, with that northerly breeze, it will turn a little bit cooler. for many of us, though, the start of next week should be dry, with some sunshine.

welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: details emerge of a threatening letter president trump sent to his turkish counterpart, as democrats and republicans in the us house of representatives vote overwhelmingly to condemn his decision to pull american forces from northern syria. meanwhile the fighting in syria continues. russian and syrian government forces have advanced into positions once held by the american forces. frantic efforts are still underway to reach a last—minute brexit deal on the eve of a eu summit in brussels. the pro—independence leader of catalonia condemns violent protests by fellow separatists that have rocked the spanish region for a third night in a row.