encounters, the underdogs will believe they can reach the semifinals for the first time. the all blacks are always raising the bar and everyone else is chasing the bar and trying to get to the same height. i guess it is genuinely something we will find out on saturday. but the action starts here, 600 miles away where two world cup quarterfinals will provide a new attraction this weekend and with the losers going home the heat is on. dan roan, bbc news, oita. time for a look at the weather. here's nick miller you can tell us how it is looking for the rugby. last week there was a major typhoon, but this week it is quieter. it looks to be clearing away in time for the england match. it is new

zealand against ireland and there may be a few showers around in tokyo. i suspect we can cope with a few showers. it is a low pressure here as well. it is not a wash—out, some beautiful blue sky across parts of eastern england, but rainbows in wales and heavy showers in south—west england. you can see this swirl of cloud and it is an area of low pressure that is moving around us. low pressure that is moving around us. they are feeding into towards wales and south—west england. but notice this spell of rain on the east coast of scotland. it looks very wet here this afternoon and into tonight. in aberdeen 10—20 millimetres. in southern england there are very gusty winds, it may be up to 55 miles an hour in exposed spots, but not many showers across the eastern side of england, and temperatures in the mid to low teens. tonight it swirls around this

area of low pressure, the showers area of low pressure, the showers are mainly in the south—west and in scotland. temperatures go down to single figures. maybe the odd folk patch around. we are on to the weekend, it is still low pressure, but it is not a wash—out. a spell of rain in scotland moves into northern england, taking some showers into northern ireland. one or two showers, not as many as recently, and there is an northerly wind developing across the northern part of the uk, but still 15 in southern england. low pressure into sunday is moving away into the north sea. close to that there will be a few showers in eastern scotland and north—east england. for many of us, sunday is looking drier. a few early mist and fog patches clearing. but notice the wind coming down from the north, so there is a bit more of a chill taking hold on sunday. single

figures in scotland. there is a trade—off at the start of next week, high pressure settling things down, but it will feel cooler. overnight there could be a touch of frost here and there. the main thing is for most of us at the start of next week it is looking dry and that is not a word that has been in the weather forecast recently. the prime minister is racing to convince mps today to back his new brexit deal before tomorrow's crucial vote in the commons. that is all from us, so it is goodbye from me and on bbc one we nowjoined it is goodbye from me and on bbc one we now joined the it is goodbye from me and on bbc one we nowjoined the new schemes where you are. hello there. you are watching bbc news. i am olly foster at the bbc sport centre. wales will be a full strength for the world cup

quarterfinal against france on sunday. they have been waiting on the fitness of fly—half dan biggar. he has been recovering from concussion. it will be the same starting 15 that beat australia earlier in the tournament. warren gatland says they have no reason to fear the french. we have had a good run against england, a run of seven games and the one we lost was in paris when they scored in the last minute. but they scored in the last minute. but they have always been close games and we are going in with a lot of belief, a lot of self—confidence. the england scrum—half, ben young has faced the media injapan. he was asked about the decision to drop george ford and move the skipper owen farrell to fly half for their quarterfinal against australia. that match will start the tournament's knockout phase tomorrow morning. i have been fortunate to play with both of them and have a lot of game

time with both of them. they are both outstanding players and for me it doesn't make a difference. you know, they are both, we are very blessed to have two outstanding players fighting for that one position and i think it brings out the best in both of them. ijust have to make sure my service is good and give them time on the ball. the premier league tomorrow returns tomorrow as does its no room for racism campaign. very timely in the wa ke racism campaign. very timely in the wake of the game on monday night in bulgaria where english black players we re bulgaria where english black players were racially abused. fans are asked to report discrimination if they see it at matches. there is room for any kind of emotion. but there is never room for racism. there is no room for racism in the premier league or anywhere else. if you see it, report it.

shola ameobi is part of a premier league advisory board that has helped with the campaign. it is about you know, tackling these issues head on. obviously, coming off the back of what was to mulch was weak terms of the england team and what they experienced in bulgaria, these are issues that really need to be looked at and i think it is really important that as this came, no room for racism, it is not just a this came, no room for racism, it is notjusta campaign, this came, no room for racism, it is notjust a campaign, it is, this came, no room for racism, it is notjusta campaign, it is, you know, we need to take action on this. in spain, the first el classico has been postponed for fears of violence in barcelona. there have been days of protest on the city after nine cata la n of protest on the city after nine catalan separatist leaders were jailed on monday. at barcelona and real madrid objected to the plan to switch the game to madrid. the clubs have been asked to agree on a new day by monday. barcelona have

suggested the 18th of december. andy murray plays late in the quarterfinals of the european open into and i2. quarterfinals of the european open into and 12. he came through fairly co mforta bly into and 12. he came through fairly comfortably against public with us last night in straight sets. he is planning to make this his final tournament of the year. his wife is due to give birth to their third child very soon. staying with tennis, johanna konta has pulled out of next week's wta elite trophy in china. she is not going to play again this season. she has had a pain in her knee and has decided to focus on rehabilitation for the rest of the year. that is all the sport for now, much more on the bbc sport website of course. all the build—up to those rugby world cup quarterfinals that start tomorrow, but we will have much more tomorrow afternoon live in the next hour. let's return to the story of the day — brexit. the prime minister has been working to build support for his deal

with the eu before tomorrow's historic saturday vote in the house of commnos. but the dup say they couldn't support the deal as it would treat northern ireland differently to the rest of the uk. sammy wilson, the dup's brexit spokesperson, told my colleague ben brown that the deal doesn't fulfil the pm's promises. the deal is toxic as far as northern ireland is concerned. it does not meet the promises which the prime minister made with the whole of the united kingdom would be leaving the eu. basically it leaves the northern ireland in the eu single market and the eu customs arrangements and doesn't even give us the mechanism under the belfast agreement to extra ct ourselves under the belfast agreement to extract ourselves from that arrangement if it either proves to be unnecessary, or proves to be damaging to the northern ireland economy. we will not be voting for the deal and we will be voting against it and encouraging others to do so. you say it is toxic, your language seems to be strengthening

since yesterday against this deal, hardening, if you like. do you see this as worse than theresa may's deal? you know, with theresa may's deal, at least the backstop had the whole of the united kingdom locked into the kind of arrangement which northern ireland is now locked into. that means there will be a watered—down rac that within the country of the united kingdom, goods will be subject to external checks and firms will have to fill in customs declarations. goods will be examined on the irish sea and companies in northern ireland will have to pay eu duties on certain goods, as well as abide by eu regulations. now that is bad for northern ireland and the other thing that does, is since we will have no

say in any of those regulations, nor will the uk government, it will actually encourage businesses, individuals, lobby groups etc in northern ireland to look more and more towards dublin for their representation in europe. and that, we see, as a slow trickle of the united kingdom and into a united ireland. you will be aware there are business leaders in northern ireland, who possibly vote for your party, who are saying they want a deal, they want certainty, they need certainty, it is time to move on, let's get on with this? we want a deal as well. we did take some risks to give the prime minister and attitude and flexibility in the negotiations with the eu. for example, we did say we were prepared to tie ourselves to eu regulations, albeit with the safeguard that if those prove damaging or unnecessary, we would be able to vote ourselves

out of them. when the eu came back and said the range you have given for that is too limited, we were prepared to extend the range to cover manufacturing, agricultural goods and food products. we did actually try to help the prime minister in these negotiations. we didn't stick our heels in and bury our heads in the sand and say, we are not moving at all. but having done that, we expected, from the prime minister, he would then stand by the prime minister —— promises he made to us and that they would not be any customs element to the deal, which he did with the eu and he went back on both of those. sammy wilson of the dup talking to ben brown. but whilst the dup say they won't be supporting the deal, a number of labourmps say they will. john mann is one of them, despite party leadership

like john mcdonnell telling them not to. he also spoke earlier to ben. john mcdonnell wants to remain in the european union. he and i stood ona the european union. he and i stood on a manifesto that said we would accept the result of the referendum. he andi accept the result of the referendum. he and i both voted to have that referendum. if you have a referendum, you accept the result and that is what i will be doing, nationally, that is what the country did. it is easierfor me because nationally, that is what the country did. it is easier for me because 70% of my constituents voted to leave as well. so there is no ambiguity on the mandate that i have and that is what i will be seen through and that is what i was re—elected on, as were other labour mps. have you had any contact from the leadership, have you had any people telling you what you had any people telling you what you should be doing, asking you to change your mind? i have had no whips from anywhere, any side contact me. i have not had boris

johnson, john mcdonnell or anybody else. nobody. all right, so you are making up your own mind, you have made it up also, i think there is a nervousness, actually, and mps are nervousness, actually, and mps are nervous and a nervousness amongst the whips of overdoing it. because they can get a counter reaction to doing that. what mps will be doing is, they will be thinking through what their constituents expect of them. i have had e—mails this morning, lots of them from my constituents, overwhelmingly saying, thank you, you are backing the deal. from people elsewhere in the country they are saying, no, it is a disgrace you are backing the deal. i am doing what my constituents say andi am doing what my constituents say and i think the more labour mps listen to their constituents, the

more likely it is that this deal will get through. and a deal, even though a lot of people are saying, on your side of the fence, on the labour side, are saying it would be damaging for worker's rights, damaging for worker's rights, damaging for worker's rights, damaging for environmental standards and so on? they know that there is a red herring because there will be a withdrawal bill that is amendable. and a majority in parliament wanting to keep workers' rights, environmental standards, has the absolute power to do it indeed a majority in parliament has the power to strengthen them better than the european union. that's democracy. there is an overwhelming majority in parliament to at least maintain our current standards and a majority i think to improve them. i have no

problems whatsoever on those two issues and i don't think the general public would vote in politicians who would try to get rid of paid holidays or try and water down our environmental standards. democracy will prevail on that. john mann, speaking to bang a little area. the headlines on bbc news... borisjohnson is in a race to try to persuade mps to back his new brexit deal, ahead of an historic vote in parliament tomorrow. but opposition parties are set to vote against him, and northern ireland's io democratic unionist mps won't support the deal. there's been sporadic fighting in syria, despite turkey's agreement to suspend its military offensive against kurdish forces.

good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this last european council press conference after the utopia summit. my first invite the president of the european council, donald tusk, to take the floor. thank you, good afternoon. last night, the leaders discussed enlargement the overwhelming majority wanted to open discussions about albania. but such a discussion requires anonymity. this issue will be for the summit in may 2020. let me be very clear. north macedonia and albania are not to blame for this. the commission reports are also clear that both these countries

did what they were asked to do. and the adoption was an extraordinary achievement. so both countries have the right to start eu negotiations as of today. they are ready. unfortunately, a few member states are not ready yet. this is why we didn't manage to reach a positive decision. personally, ithink didn't manage to reach a positive decision. personally, i think it was a mistake, but i will not comment on it further. today, i would like to send a message to our macedonian and albanian friends... please do not give up. i fully understand your frustration because you did your share and we haven't. the eu is a complex entity and it is true that

sometimes it takes too long to decide. but, i have absolutely no doubt that one day you will become full members of the european union. today, leaders have discussed the priorities of the new commission with the future eu budget. it will continue in the following month. however, without jean—claude juncker myself around the european table, as you know. on this note, i want to thank jean—claude juncker, my colleague and friend, for friendship, for your loyalty and solidarity and for our great corporation and i also want to thank you, the media for your tough, corporation and i also want to thank you, the media foryourtough, but fair questions, for your patience,

for staying up so late with us and for staying up so late with us and for laughing at some of ourjokes. never funny, frankly speaking. thank you, thank you for everything. thank you, thank you for everything. thank you, and now presidentjean—claude juncker of the european commission. translation: to friends, i am very disappointed at our results on the enlargement. five years ago, when i started myjob, isaid enlargement. five years ago, when i started myjob, i said to parliament that during the five years my office, there will be no more enlargement. all sorts of people we re very enlargement. all sorts of people were very disappointed in the western balkans. it was quite clear there would be no member state

during that time that could fill the conditions. but in fact, what we have seen is quite different. people have seen is quite different. people have made progress. last night, it wasn't a question of whether or not those countries were ready, the issue yesterday was whether or not they were candidates who would be at they were candidates who would be at the level which would allow us to start negotiations. i think this was a big mistake. a lot of countries thought they weren't ready to even start negotiations. i think it was an historic, and historic error. i fully believe this will prove to be the case today. we talked about it

for seven years. not many new elements are recalled to cancel, but they had an obligation. the obligation is to conclude the debate on the annual multi—financial framework quickly. because if we wait until the end of next year, there will be two years wasted where researchers cannot research our young people will not be able to go on their erasmus trips. that was one of the great triumphs of the eu in recent yea rs. of the great triumphs of the eu in recent years. the heads are going to have a lot to do to come to an agreement on the budget. the proposal is a wide sweeping combining all policies and rolling over new policies for the future. this is the last european council for donald and me. i think it was

118 councils i have been asked. i don't think anybody else has been able to say they have been to so many, councils or european councils? i would like to thank donald for his friendship and working together so well with me. it has been great leadership and we have been co—managing the ship... studio: that is the outgoing president, jean—claude juncker. talking about donald tusk. talking about the enlargement of the eu, not brexit. huge gunfights has erupted in mexico when police forces

ca ptu red in mexico when police forces captured el chapo's some. fighting raged for several hours in the city of culiacan between members of the sinaloa cartel and the police and military. sustained gun fire. culiacan is a city at war. not a conventional war perhaps, but an intense and violent conflict all the same. heavily armed gunmen from the powerful sinaloa cartel but exchanged sustained gunfire with the police and the military in the state capital, spreading panic in the city's main commercial district. gunfire. their demand was simple, they wanted their leader, ovidio guzman, the son of the most notorious drug lord, joaquin "el chapo" guzman, to be released immediately. once the fighting subsided a little, the government gave its version of events, saying a routine police patrol had been attacked from a home and the officers went in to take control. translation: during this incident

one of them was identified as ovidio guzman lopez. as a result, several organised crime groups surrounded the house with a force greater than that of the patrol unit. given the cartel‘s greater force and the potential harm to the civilian population, the authorities later said that the police decided to turn the wanted drug lord over to his men. if that is in fact what happened, and in mexico moments like this are generally very murky, it will be a huge embarrassment to the state and federal governments. at the same time there was a prison break in the city involving as many as 20 inmates who escaped in the chaos. el chapo guzman was recently sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years in the united states on drug trafficking charges. his sons have partly inherited the family business. the government of president andres manuel lopez obrador has been accused of failing to create a coherent security strategy

on the drug war since coming to power nearly a year ago. this latest violence will only serve as further evidence to his critics that his administration needs to get a grip on the problem still sweeping much of the country. will grant, bbc news, mexico. scientists developing techniques to count great whales from space say the largest ever recorded stranding of the animals was probably underestimated. the carcasses of more than 340 whales were spotted in 2015 on the remote beaches of patagonia in chile... but that survey was conducted from planes and boats, and carried out many weeks after the deaths actually occurred. our science correspondent rebecca morelle reports. it was a stranding on a huge scale. last year in australia, there were more than 150 wales washed up. by the time rescuers got there, most were dead. with events like these time is vital, but scientists have found

a new way to attract strandings, from space. using powerful satellites they can scan thousands of kilometres of coast, zooming in on the animals until a body of a beached whale is revealed. satellites can enable us to take pictures and see whale stranding is much more rapidly than people have capacity to do on the ground in remote areas, and they will give us that extra opportunity to react quickly and learn from stranding events and hopefully do better with how we manage them in our oceans. but there is still so much we don't know about wales, how they live and how they die. if we can spot how many are stranding and where, it could help us to better understand why it is happening. strandings are complex events. the animals might be ill or lacking food, but issues like pollution, boat strikes and climate change now, it's time for a look at the weather with nick miller. hello.

low pressure is moving in across the british isles. that's why there are some heavy showers to be had this afternoon. there is also a bit of sunshine occasionally too. in fact, a lot of sunshine into nottinghamshire from this view earlier, but got the heavier showers around in wales. some of these could come with the rumble of thunder as well. you can see on the satellite picture this well of cloud around the area of low pressure, the dots of cloud here. and they are the heavy showers moving in. so, a lot of those are around the western side of the uk. as you can see on the recent radar pictures showing where we had the showers today. now, we started the day with some across the eastern parts. a lot of these have moved out of the way. in fact, a large part of the afternoon across north—east england into east anglia is looking dry. a bit of cloud building, but still sunny spells. it's pretty wet, though, into eastern parts of scotland, especially from montrose up to aberdeen. ten to 20 millimetres of rain, some spots may get a bit more before the day is done. a lot of the showers coming in towards wales and southern england along the south coast are going to be accompanied by some very gusty winds as well.

may be exposed coasts coast gusting up to 55 mph into the channel islands as well. as we go into tonight, again, the south and west will see most of the showers. a longer spell of rain, though, pushing a bit further south through scotland, with a good deal of cloud around. many of us seeing those temperatures dipping down into single figures. there could be the odd mist and fog patch around, for some, as we start the day tomorrow. and then, tomorrow, this area of cloud and rain slowly feeds out of scotland into parts of northern england. and notice the northerly wind getting stronger into northern scotland with a few showers. that will be quite a biting wind. you'll feel a chill with that going through saturday. northern ireland may get the odd shower. one or two around for england and wales to, but there will be some sunny spells. and here is the low pressure. by sunday, heading out into the north sea. close to that, still a few showers around, particularly parts of eastern scotland and north—east england, but there is going to be a lot of dry weather around on sunday. a good deal of cloud mind you. still a good chance of the odd mist and fog patch to start the day, and more of us tapping into that northerly breeze as well. so, we are going to feel things

cooling down on sunday. some into the mid—teens, most of us lower than that. just seeing the figures here in northern scotland. but as the pressure moves away, higher pressure moves in to the start of next week. most places are looking dry, with a bit of fog and frost around.

hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm ben brown live at westminster where boris johnson is trying to persuade mps to back his new brexit deal, ahead of an historic vote in parliament tomorrow. the prime minister says he's "very confident" he'll win, the result is expected to be tight. of course we are going to try and persuade and point out the real positives in this deal, on the substance, on the merits, and i am confident that will help bring people behind it and obviously it will be a close vote tomorrow, but i am confident we can get this done now. but opposition parties are set to vote against him — and northern ireland's 10 democratic unionist mps won't support the deal. the deal is toxic as far as northern ireland is concerned. it does not meet the promises

which the prime minister made,