violence intensifies in hong kong as dozens of demonstrators attempting to escape a university are blocked by police. borisjohnson boris johnson and jeremy corbyn borisjohnson and jeremy corbyn will be going head—to—head in the first ever general election tv debate behind serving prime minister and leader of the opposition. the liberal democrats and the snp will not bejoining the liberal democrats and the snp will not be joining the debate after a legal bid to be included. in watson is gearing up for the action tonight in salford and joins us now from the debate venue. all set for a busy night? i'm not sure if you can hear me but we are gearing up for the debate here in salford this evening and as you can see people are taking their place is now in the spin room.

some people look to be even pre—spinning, a member of the conservative campaign immediately behind me and some of the shadow cabinet are here. we've already seen some prominent conservatives although not cabinet ministers but the main event will be the first time ever that the leader of the opposition and the prime minister are taking each other on in a head—to—head debate. are taking each other on in a head-to-head debate. what kind of format can we expect this evening? i fear that that one is not going to be and sit in the next few minutes! but we will try to get our communication sorted in time for the sort of that debate on itv at eight o'clock. stay with us throughout the evening including of course for the paper reviews later this evening and joining meat will be lord digby

jones who is the former trade minister and always opinionated and don foster of the guardian. before that time for sportsday. hello, i'm olly foster, here's what's coming up on sportsday. it's a big night for bale and wales...win and they are off to the euros again, we'll be live in cardiff injust a moment. scotla nd scotland and northern ireland also playing tonight, it is the play—offs for both of them and we will try to explain the path that lies ahead. hurricane hannah is back only two more world titles, she tells us about her road to tokyo. and also coming up, we find out how social

media sort rachel miller make it into the winners enclosure this afternoon at linfield. good evening. it's a sell—out at the cardiff city stadium tonight becasue wales can book their place at next summer's european championship. beat hungary and they are there. let's cross live to cardiff now — our sports correspondent andy swiss is there. they were european semi—finalists 3 years ago and exceeded all expectations, they have been using those memories as a motivational tool.

that's right, and the welsh fans will be desperate to get to the euros again after their unforgettable experience in 2016. the equation is simple as you say, if they beat hungary than they are through to euro 2020. just had an announcement and wales have announced that aaron ramsey and gareth bale will both start, the two big names for wales, the first time they both started to qualify for wales for two years. and joe allen the midfielder is also back from suspension cell wales pretty much at full strength. they seem to have found their form at just full strength. they seem to have found their form atjust the right time, they are on a five match unbeaten streak and they look very impressive at the weekend when they beat azerbaijan. ryan giggs said it was their best performance in a qualifier that he is seen during his

reign. many of the welsh fans of course will remember the disappointment of missing out on qualification for the world cup in 2018 when they lost a similar crunch match tour tonight in many ways, another winner takes all match against the republic of ireland two yea rs against the republic of ireland two years ago which they last. but i've been speaking to the former wales international ewan roberts and he believes that wales can get the job done tonight. i am quite confident, ididn't want done tonight. i am quite confident, i didn't want to be overconfident because that is never a good thing. had you said listen, is the last game, you will need to win that after we lost those two games in june on the way to croatia and hungary andl june on the way to croatia and hungary and i would have snapped your hand off, to be fair. we know what we have to do, we have confidence and there is a good spirit now in the camp. i travelled back with the team on saturday and they were buzzing especially when they were buzzing especially when they heard the result that slovakia had lost in croatia. we are hard

side to beat in the cardiff city stadium, we only lost once in a last 13 qualifying games. and hungary do not travel well. gareth bale and aaron ramsey back, how important will they be tonight? theyjust left everyone , will they be tonight? theyjust left everyone, for the fans, the players they share a dressing room with, and once they see them walking through the door fully fit itjust once they see them walking through the door fully fit it just lifts the whole atmosphere around the place. and that team news, both confirm to start, fantastic news for this match against hungary. obviously a must win for wales but there is the safety net of course of the play—offs. but no one clearly even wa nts to play—offs. but no one clearly even wants to talk about that then they just want to get the job done tonight. as you say and two years ago with the crunch world cup qualifier against republic of ireland, wales have the safety and at this time of a play—off place but clearly that is the last thing that

the fans will be thinking about. it has been a roller—coaster ride for wales in the past couple of years after the disappointment of missing out on the world cup, there was a controversial appointment of ryan giggs as the new manager and they got off to quite a rocky start in this qualifying campaign. when the last to hungary in budapest back in june they were fourth placed in the group at that stage and the chances of automatic qualification seemed pretty distant but they seem to have found an unlikely new hero in the form of their striker kieffer moore, 6'5" tall, he used to be a lifeguard and play a lot of non—league football into the last few years but he has been brought in by ryan giggs and he seems to have offered a new focal point. he's a very physical, centre forward and it seems to have rejuvenated the team, he scored a couple of goals along the way as well and it has given wales and real chance of securing automatic

qualification tonight. and what an achievement that would be for ryan giggs, asi achievement that would be for ryan giggs, as i said it was a controversial appointment and of course he never reached a major championships as a player. can he reach a major tournament as the manager at now of wales, will find out very shortly as the kick—off is at 7:45pm. and commentary on radio 5 live. many thanks indeed. going very early with the christmas scarf! if wales slip up then this is the route to the euros, the play—offs, they will be put into a pot of 16 teams chasing the final 4 places. the 16 teams will be split into 4 groups in a draw on friday. northern ireland, the republic of ireland and scotland are also in there, so they could cross paths. the highest ranking team in each group will host the lowest ranked — with the second playing at home against the third, in one—legged semi—finals on the 26th march. the winners of those

matches will meet in 4 winner takes all finals a few days later for those final four places in the championship. so the playoffs await for northern ireland however they fare against germany in frankfurt tonight, theirfinal group match should hold them in good stead going forward. the main thing is the experience for us especially for the younger players of playing in this type of arena. it is similar to what you would play in the finals and possibly now what we were playing in a play—off but that experience can only stand a player in good stead from the individual confidence and confidence as a unit in the team. and we hope to get that tomorrow night. scotla nd face kaza khsta n at hampden park in their last qualifier. steve clarke has been with the national squad for 6 months now, and he was asked at yesterday's news conference if they would benefit from having more games between now and those march play—offs to help the squad continue to gel

under his leadership. we do not have that opportunity, thatis we do not have that opportunity, that is one of the foibles of the fixture calendar, but we have to deal with. it is four months to the next get—together. i will of course try to keep in touch with most of the players and we will come together and hopefully they will forget what they've had this year. let's have a quick look at some of the other headlines. luis enrique is back in charge of spain. he stood down from the role earlier this year to care for his nine year old daughter. she died of bone—cancer in august. his former assistant robert moreno has moved aside. enrique has been given the job til 2022. the new wales rugby union head coach wayne pivac has named his first squad. 22 of the 35 to face the barbarians at the end of the month were at the world cup. new zealand—born backs johnny mcnicholl and willis halaholo

are called up for the first time. following their maximum fine and points deduction for breaking the salary cap, saracens have been fined by european rugby chiefs for failing to attend this season's champions cup launch. they are the holders. the world para athletics championships in dubai finished last friday. the british team came back with 29 medals including 13 golds, two of them from wheelchair racer hannah cockroft who is now a 12 time world champion. all roads lead to tokyo now and the paralympics next year. she spoke to me earlier. about eight months from tokyo now and that is the drive. the world championships have been so late this year. it has been a seven month long season which is a lot of competing

and now i just season which is a lot of competing and now ijust have two weeks to recover and get rested and then get back into full training to get ready for tokyo. that is the drive, but we have such little time to do so much. we have to fit a whole winter season which is normally maybe seven months itself and the competition season which itself is normally four months into about eight months. so much time. involve the london 2012, double gold medallist there and then upping that to three in rio but then having to whittle back what you can achieve in tokyo because of the complexity of the different classes in para— sport, you will only have two gold medals available to you next year and that must be frustrating. yes, i have the one and the eight available to me in tokyo and it would be nice to retain the title is that i already have, i would love to retain the 400 but thatis would love to retain the 400 but that is not available and you kind

of just have to focus that is not available and you kind ofjust have to focus on what you are allowed to have. there are so many classes that if everyone had every event at the paralympics would just never end! so you understand why they do it but you hope and pray it will not be your event they take away. unfortunately this time it was. you lost your mojo last year, was. you lost your mojo last year, was that because you were so dominant, you have this ridiculous unbeaten stretch? i think last year i got unbeaten stretch? i think last year igota unbeaten stretch? i think last year i got a lot of office to go and do things outside of athletics and so i got a bit distracted and i think as well when your world paralympic champion the european championships do not really ignite you as much as may be a wealth or paralympics to. and i thinkjust it came out to the european championships and i did not massively want to be there, it is a lwa ys massively want to be there, it is always an honour to put on the gb vest but when the best in the world are not there because it is only a european line—up you can think, do i wa nt to european line—up you can think, do i want to put in the same amount of work i put in for the much bigger championships for this. so i let my

wine ——i championships for this. so i let my wine —— i let my mind wander and it is important to prepare for the next thing as an athlete so i do not regret going out and try new things. it means that when this ends i have that to fall back on. in a way it was a good thing, i did not enjoy winning a silver or losing a world record but that has been my motivation this year to come back and prove that i'm still the best in the world and everyone has their focus wondering at some points but you need to bring it back when it counts. i want to get to tokyo and eve ryo ne counts. i want to get to tokyo and everyone keeps asking me what is next and i always thought tokyo for me would be the cut off for me but i would love to go to the commonwealth games. and the next one is in birmingham so hopefully i can maybe slide in there and get an event, we will see. england's cricketers are in new zealand, the first test against the black caps starts tomorrow evening. there's likely to be

a new opening partnership with warwickshire's dom sibley coming into the side to play alongside rory burns. sibley top scored in the county championship this year — he's been speaking to test match special‘s simon mann. opening the batting you need will have similar scores but for me, if i do get in i will go big and make the most of that so hopefully if i do get in! most of that so hopefully if i do get in i can make those big scores. does it help that there will be rory burns, afamiliar does it help that there will be rory burns, a familiar face, does it help that there will be rory burns, a familiarface, at the does it help that there will be rory burns, a familiar face, at the other end? we go way back and he drove me to my first second team game so to open the battle with him in a test match would be amazing. it would be full cycle. when he was driving did he talk about the prospect of playing for england one day?” he talk about the prospect of playing for england one day? i saw on the other day and he said we still talk about this. i'm not we did! it is something that never got brought up. but i