w back into action, we are now creep back into action, we are now going to creek off to bed. to other news now, around a 1,000 people trapped by bushfires on the south eastern coast of australia have been rescued by the australian navy. tens of thousands of others are being urged to move to safety amid fears the fires could worsen in parts of victoria, new south wales and south australia. the death toll for this week has risen to eight and a50 homes have been lost on the south coast. this map shows the spread of the fires since the begining of the week — as you can see, they are concentrated in the eastern coastal areas.our correspondent shamai khalil reports now from sussex inlet, just over a hundred miles south of sydney. for the first time in days, nearly 1,000 tourists and residents can breathe a little more easily as they are finally moved to safety. the navy has stepped in to rescue those who were stranded on the beach in mallacoota when they were encircled by an uncontrollable fire on monday. a state of disaster has been declared in eastern victoria ahead

of tomorrow's extreme conditions. up to 100,000 residents are being told to evacuate. if you can leave, you must leave. that is the only safe thing for you, your family, and, indeed, for others who may be called to your assistance. we cannot guarantee your safety. in new south wales, the message is the same. fire authorities have said that saturday's blazes could be as bad as, if not worse, than those of new year's eve. in the coastal town of batemans bay, firefighters are racing to protect those who have decided to stay. despite the warnings, jeff and pamela zorbas decided they are not leaving their small town of sussex inlet. hopefully, it is not going to be as bad as they are predicting but we have got the hoses ready and we just hose the house down if the embers come. and if the fires do hit hard, we've got a boat here. we're going tojump in the boat

and we are going to get out to see. ——we're going tojump in the boat and we are going to get out to sea. i'lljust take the family and the dogs and away we go. jay martin is also staying put to defend his house and help friends and neighbours. he tells me the anticipation of disaster is what worries him. waiting. that's the hardest part. we've been at it for two weeks and it's just waiting. and there's people who've got it a lot tougher than me. i've just been waiting and helping out, just getting through tomorrow and hope it all passes and we get a bit of rain on monday. a blaze has just started on the bush in this area, just beyond that tree line. firefighters are watching closely here. their concern is that, with the wind picking up, this could travel very fast and get here so they are patrolling the area and making sure that properties are protected. that is really the main aim. politically, this has been a rough ride for the prime minister, who has been regularly criticised for how he has handled the bushfire crisis. and it is notjust the residents who have made their feelings clear. scott morrison said he understood the anger but was focusing

on the task in hand. 0ur concerns are obviously are now looking out over the next sort of 24—48—hour period. this is a ferocious fire that is still out there and the climatic conditions are going to be very difficult to contain that in the next 24—48 hours. that is why the evacuation messages are so incredibly important. there is a real sense of dread here about what will happen in these coming hours. at a time when many had planned family holidays, australians now wait for yet another firestorm to blaze through. shamaa khalil, bbc news, on the southern coast ——shamai khalil, bbc news, on the southern coast of new south wales. a new portrait of her majesty the queen and their royal highnesses the prince of wales, the duke of cambridge and prince george has been released to mark the start of a new decade. this is only the second time a portrait has been

issued of the four members of the royal family together. the first was released in april 2016 to celebrate her majesty s 90th birthday. this new portrait was taken just before christmas in the throne room at buckingham palace. now it's time for sportsday. hello, and welcome to sportsday. bad luck with sickness and a football injury. but now, poor batting leaves england's cricketers struggling in south africa. taking a minute for mental health — find out why this weekend's fa cup games kick off late. down and out — how the festive fixtures are filling the physio rooms.

hello there, welcome to sports day. thank you for your company. after another dismal batting display, england's cricketers limped to 262—9 at the close on day one of the second test against south africa in cape town. as our sports correspondent joe wilson explains, yet again, england squandered the chance of building a formidable total. cape town cosmic new land ground is appreciated fully from a distance, it might be the best view in world cricket. zach crowley, 21 years young, was just trying to watch the ball and stay cool. he opened england's batting, not easy. he played because rory burns had to hurt himself playing football. south africa don't need extra help, and england's training football games are now banned. there batting here was stop start or start stop. going for 34. captain joe was stop start or start stop. going for 34. captainjoe route deflected the ball to the wicketkeeper he made 35. he is a frustrating numbers ——

these are frustrating numbers. joe gently did so much hard work and then... 38 for him. still, step forward bend stokes. a good firm hit. these are the moments you realise so many of cape town's spectators were england fans. it isa town's spectators were england fans. it is a very dryjanuary in that son. stokes did next, or perhaps don't. besides, still couldn't believe it. going for 27. england cosmic intermittent endings threatened to stop. that was current gone. they got to 262 for nine, thanks mainly to all the pope, just turning 22. his innings weren't quite table mounted, it was high enough to give england some hope, 56, not out, joe wilson, bbc news. england bowler graham onions is part of the bbc‘s cricket social online show — and he has sympathy for the england squad, who've been hit by illness and injury since they landed

in south africa. yeah, it's been a nightmare tour. you know, the six weeks or whatever that we were off, the four weeks that they have been out there, i think everything has been thrown at them, it's quite a young group really, through the illnesses, the fit players, the performance on the pitch, it's not been quite as good as what they have expected from themselves. and i think us, as fans, we expect from them as well. i think tomorrow will be a fine day. if they can keep these crop of players together, they want to have a tougher series than what they had so far. ——they won't to have a tougher series than what they had so far. let's have a look a some of the other stories making the sports news today. marnus labu—shane scored his fourth century in his last five test matches, as australia took control of the third test against new zealand in sydney. he'll resume day two in just over an hour unbeaten on 130, with his side on 283 for three. rhys webb will be eligible to play for wales in this year's six nations. the scrum half is leaving the french side, toulon for the welsh side, 0spreys.

he'll be available for their opening game against italy on the 1st of february, as they begin the defence of their title. and great britain lost their opening group match of the atp cup against bulgaria. it went to a deciding doubles rubber — butjamie murray and joe salisbury were beaten by the narrowest of margins, in a champions tie—break. austalia's nick kyrgios is also playing in the atp cup — and he's donating around 100—pounds for every ace he hits this month, to the relief fund for victims of the bushfires in his country. he sent down 20 aces in brisbane today, as he beat jan—lennard struff, so that's over two—thousand pounds already — and he was understandably emotional afterwards. i don't really care about the praise too much, you know, ijust think, you know, we have the ability and the platform to do something like that, and obviously we have got the most toxic air in the world, that's pretty sad. so, yeah, it's just... it's tough.

prince william has once again joined up with some of football's famous faces to encourage people to talk openly about their mental health. all of this weekends fa cup games will start one minute late, as fans are shown a film about the issue. katy austin has more. in life, as in football, we all go through highs and lows. morecambe footballer kevin ellison knows exactly what that's like. i couldn't control it. i describe my little bit as, it was a dark cloud. i'd be happy and bubbly, then all of a sudden, literally, bang, it's like a dark cloud come over me and i'd be a totally different person. i could feel that coming on me, but i had no control over it whatsoever. we can all sometimes feel anxious. he's given his backing to a new film that also features england stars and is narrated by the duke of cambridge. its focus, keeping your mind healthy. but we can all start to change things. over the next few days, 32 fa cup third round matches

will be played at grounds across the country. all of them will start one minute late while the film is shown, a chance for millions of fans to pause to think about their own well—being. men are less likely than women to take action to do something about it, whether that's stress or for feeling low or difficulty sleeping, so the film asks football fans to take a minute to learn about what they can do to improve their mental health. every mind matters and heads up will show you the simple steps you can take to look after your mental health. that includes downloading a mind plan which can give guidance on coping with common issues such as feeling anxious or sleeping badly. prince william is president of the fa, and ending the stigma around mental health struggles is a goal he has championed. he discussed it with high—profile footballers for a special bbc programme in october. through this campaign,

he hopes to bring those passions together again and use football to start the largest ever conversation around mental health. katy austin, bbc news. while other leagues across europe have enjoyed a break over christmas and new year, the premier league has continued at pace with clubs playing multiple fixtures over the course of the week. many have argued that it puts too much pressure on the players and causes injury. patrick gearey has been looking at what those in the game think and what may help. once upon a time, this was normal. for most of us, this is the time of year we resolved to get fit, for league for boys at the point of exhaustion, this week and, most premier clubs will play their fifth game in15 days, premier clubs will play their fifth game in 15 days, before that, the leaders liverpool with a club world cup them on the last night, they beat sheffield united by sunday afternoon they will be facing everton and fa cup. the boys ran 38 km to win a premier league game, and ican km to win a premier league game, and i can have and try to run on the 11 for the next game, but it doesn't work like that. tomorrow —— it's

more quick, it's more demanding. think, one time about the players. there are numbers behind the grumbles, according to the website visio room, 120 premier league players are currently injured, including 11, a whole team at newcastle. spurs lost top square harry kane on new year's day, one of seven of their squad currently out. you look at the number of injuries in that the premier league players over the last two weeks, you realise that recovering is not enough. the players need more protection, the players need more protection, the players that belong to squads with so players that belong to squads with so many solutions, that there is also a little space for rotation. 50 the physio— room becomes the front line, it takes more than a magic sponge to nurse footballers through the seasons most grueling assault course. they are dealing with engines on the brink of overheating. those days in between games are

really, really important in minimising risk. it might be a sense of getting a massage, it might be using just gentle recovery strategies, but at this time of year, particularly with the commercial demands of new year's day fixtures, boxing day fixtures, trying to fit all of that interest pushes people to the limit. on the other side of this, the cameras will stop television is at the core of the premier league, just make entire rounds of games are shown live over the festive period. liverpool spots thanks les will be more. we need to talk to the football people, and i think there's a solution possible. nobody will miss the game at the end and think, oh, boxing day football game, there will be enough football, 100%. we except that 100%, we love this game, again, we have to make sure that we can all come through, at the end, the best team wins or whatever, and with injuries and stuff like that. the season to him the first time, there will be a winter break in february, part of the premier leagues effort to reduce workloads, but players and managers

may still be counting the cost of christmas, much later in the year. patrick geary, bbc news. let's bring you up to date with tonight's rugby union — and in a feisty premiership match in england, sale sharks moved third after scoring a bonus point 48—10 win over harlequins. there were six tries from six different players for the hosts including chris ashton — as well as three sin binnings. scarlets are top of conference b in the pro14, after they won 16—14 in cardiff, despite scoring only the one try — it was enough to turn the match in theirfavour, though, and leigh halfpenny‘s three penalties proved the difference. and ulster continued their unbeaten run at home this season, as they picked up a bonus point 38—17 win over munster in belfast — ireland winger jacob stockdale scoring his first club try for a year. i'm sure many of you will remember the days when the bdo ran the darts world championship. i certainly do. the tv coverage was incredibly popular and players such

as eric bristow were huge stars. but the pdc has since taken over as the sport's major force and when the bdo world championships start in london tomorrow, there'll be reduced prize money due to a lack of sponsorship and poor ticket sales. 0ne former men's champion told us he thinks it may be time for the organisers to cut their losses. i think the ball needs to be bigger so i think the ball needs to be bigger so there is more ideas, you know? at the moment, the board is quite small, and i think that's you know, one person can have an idea, and they can go with it, and it's not seen as making the wrong decision. but, iam not seen as making the wrong decision. but, i am not sure where it goes from here, if it's as toxic as people are saying, then, you know, is there a future for its? you know, has its come to an end? that's the question that we can't answer at this particular moment in time. that's all from sportsday. thanks very much forjoining us.

good evening. today brought some of the brightest weather of the year — so far — for many parts of the uk. quite a lot of sunshine around once we've cleared this area of cloud away to the east, behind me, there is more cloud showing up. that will be rolling into affect some of us through the weekend. for the time being though, we are in the grip of some relatively chilly air, it's going to be a relatively chilly night. the coldest air of all affecting the far north of scotland, where, for shetland, we are likely to see some snow, even to quite low levels for a time. it's still quite windy across the far north of scotland as well. outbreaks of rain across the north and west of mainland scotland, western isles as well. generally, a lot of cloud into northern ireland, wales, the southwest of england. further east and further south, where we keep hold of clear spells, a chilly night. some spots in southern england could get all the way down to freezing to start saturday morning. so, high pressure down to the south end, frontal systems rolling around the top of that high—pressure area. bringing a lot of cloud in across the western side of uk, so through the southwest into wales, northwest england, northern ireland, southwest scotland, cloudy

and a bit damp at times. some slightly more persistent rain moving across northern scotland. but through southeast scotland, central and eastern parts of england here, we should see a decent amount of sunshine, and those temperatures, well, just showing signs of creeping upwards a little bit across western areas. 10 degrees in plymouth, for example. now, as we go through saturday night, we will see more cloud rolling in from the west, again, the odd spot of rain, some more persistent rain and within scotland. ——some more persistent rain in northern scotland. we keep this band of rain here as we go through sunday. further south and further east, more in the way of dry weather, some spells of sunshine around. it's going to be a windier day again on sunday, particularly across northern ireland and scotland. but those temperatures, 10 degrees in glasgow, 11 in belfast. now, as we move into monday, we are going to see this band of rain pushing in from the west. some quite heavy rain, actually. still some brisk winds with that. the rain, unlikely to get to east anglia or the south east before nightfall,

and up to the northwest, things will dry up a little bit as that band of rain slides its way through. temperatures again 9—11d. generally speaking though, next week, the weather is set to become quite turbulent. the jet stream, the winds high up in the atmosphere, becoming very strong and very powerful, bringing deep areas of low pressure in our direction. so, what that means for our weather is it will be windy. we will see gales, may be severe gales across northern areas at times. there will be some outbreaks of rain, but it will generally feel mild.

president trump defends the us drone strike that killed iran's foremost military commander — saying imminent and sinister attacks were being planned. the target, qasem soleimani, was the mastermind behind iran's middle east operations, heading up the country's elite intelligence and military force the us drone struck a car carrying soleimani just outside the airport in iraq's capital, baghdad — president trump described it as defensive. we took action last night to stop a war. we did not take action to start a war. iran has called the assassination an act of international terrorism — and has promised a response at a time and place of its choosing.