arguing with the umpire. he then lost nine points in a row, and suddenly paul had levelled at 5—5. but the champion's reserves are deep. he fought back. who's cheering now? there were moments of brilliance from paul in the second, but experience shone through. it didn't take the serb long to get to match point. and djokovic was through to his 33rd grand slam final. he will play stefanos tsitsipas after the greek beat karen khachanov in four sets. and there was a british victory over night with a trophy to boot. alfie hewett and gordon reid, winning their fourth australian open wheelchair doubles title. but on sunday, in a tournament he says he loves, djokovic will have the chance to become world number one again. jane dougall, bbc news.

time for a look at the weather. here's nick miller. also starting in australia? might as well, 35 degrees _ also starting in australia? might as well, 35 degrees in _ also starting in australia? might as well, 35 degrees in melbourne. - well, 35 degrees in melbourne. today, a hot start to the weekend but it will be cooler and wetter on sunday. on the north island of new zealand they are crying out for drier weather right now. they had an absolute value which earlier on friday, water waste deep, the airport flooded, because nearly submerged under a state of emergency has been declared. they have had a record daily rainfall for auckland of around 261 millimetres, equating to around eight summer's worth of rain in one day so if you know anybody in this part of new zealand and they tell you it has been white, now you know how wet. our weather is not conducive to much rain at the moment because we have a finger of

high nosing and across the uk, fingers and noses?! we have a weather front across the far north north—west of scotland were some rain will move in as the afternoon goes on. lots of college around, eastern counties of scotland and northern ireland most favoured foreseeing sunny spells at the cloud foreseeing sunny spells at the cloud for england is a well starting to break up —— lots of clouds around. temperature is not much different across the uk, breezy with the rain as it moves to the western isles and across scotland as we go through tonight, notice how it is really fizzling away once it reaches the far north of england into saturday morning. south of all the fat, expect a colder, frosty night, particularly in clear spells across southern and eastern england, could be “i! in the countryside tomorrow, could be a few fog patches slow to clear. that figure cloud with perhaps still some drizzle in northern england will move into wales at the midlands. try tomorrow

for scotland and northern ireland with sunny spells, the odd passing shower moving through southern scotland and temperature is pretty similar across the board. not as cold on saturday, on sunday low—pressure passes to the north of scotland turning things windier, especially in scotland. the northern isles could see gusts in excess of 60 mph. more rain looking south across scotland and northern ireland on sunday for much of england and wales, albeit with cloud and a breezy day, staying mainly dry and a bit milder on sunday. northern areas of the uk are most likely to see wet and at times windy weather next week, stormy across parts of scotland on tuesday. we will keep you updated. much of england and wales will see drier conditions, but not completely dry. you can keep up to date on the bbc weather app. that's all from the bbc news at one,

so it's goodbye from me, good afternoon. it's1.34pm and here's your latest sports news. it looks like everton may have found their man after sacking frank lampard this week.. and it's a familair face to the premier league. sean dyche was sacked by burnley last april but now looks certain to be given the task of rescuing everton�*s troubled season. they're 19th in the table after picking up just 15 points from 20 games. in a decade at burnley, dyche guided the clarets to two promotions from the championship and two top—half premier league finishes. organisers of this summer's women's world cup say demand for tickets has been so great they want fifa to allow them to move the australian team's first game to a much bigger stadium. football australia ceo james johnson says they're following the lead of england's victorious lionesses, who sold out old trafford

for their first euros match against austria. the world cup takes place in australia and new zealand. it was extremely inspiring watching that tournament very very closely and we took a lot of learning is that tournament. i think what we saw is that if your first game gets off to a strong start at sets the tone for the tournament and that is something we would like to replicate here. something we would like to replicate here. the fourth round of the fa cup gets under way later when record 14—time winners and premier league leaders arsenal face manchester city. the match will see arsenal manager mikel arteta reunited with his former boss at city, pep guardiola. arteta spent five years as a player at the gunners, arsenal before moving to city, as assistant coach. it seems guardiola was always aware of his prodigee's ambitions. i know he went to the team, his club, you know, the team he dreams of.

so he's, i think, a supporter for arsenal, for the fact he played there, was a captain there and he loves the club. i remember... i remember that when we were together here, when we scored a lot of goals with our opponents, always hejumped and celebrates, except one team. the one team every time i scored a goal, ijump, come back, he was sitting there. it was arsenal. so in that moment i said, "that guy, that guy likes arsenal." england's cricketers have fought back with the ball in their the first of their three one day internationals against south africa in bloemfontein. the host got off to a rapid start after winning the toss and batting, but moeen ali got the breakthrough and england took three more wickets. no joy though so far forjofra archer, who's playing for england for the first time in almost two years. when england eventually get around to chasing a target, batter harry brook will hope to make an impact. he's making his international 50 over debut for england.

novak djokovic will face stefanos tsitsipas in the australian open final on sunday. djokovic beat american tommy paul in straight sets, while tsitsipas had a four—set win over russian karen khachanov. meanwhile, it's an incredible 16th grand slam doubles title for britain's alfie hewitt and gordon reid, and a fourth successive one in melbourne. it took them just over an hour to sweep aside their dutch opponents maikel scheffers, and ruben spaargaren, 6—1, 6—2. hewett, now has to prepare for the singles final tomorrow when he'll play 16—year—old tokito oda ofjapan. rory mcilroy enjoyed what he called "a pretty wild 45 minutes" at the rain delayed dubai desert classic this morning mcilroy completed a first—round six—under 66 with two birdies and a stunning eagle on the eighth. for a time he shared the lead with the usa's patrick reed. because of the rain his second round will get under way in the eraly hours

of saturday morning. swedish amateur ludvig aberg has the overall lead on 7—under. now to some success for great britain in winter sports. the men have won gold and bronze at the skeleton world championships in st moritz, switzerland. matt weston triumphed by more than a second over italy's amedeo bagnis with another brit, marcus wyatt, just missing out on bronze. weston becomes the first british man to win a world skeleton title since 2008. britain's scott meenagh has won a silver at the para nordic world championships in the 12.5km penalty time biathlon. it's britain's first ever para nordic world championships podium. that's all the sport for now.

israel says it's carried out air strikes against palestinian militant targets in gaza after several rockets were fired into israel. tensions have escalated in the region following the israeli military raid in the occupied west bank on thursday — in which nine palestinians were killed. israeli security forces say they entered a refugee camp injenin to arrest members of the armed group islamichhad who they accuse of planning a major attack. our correspondent yolande knell has more from jerusalem. reports say a total of six rockets were fired from the gaza strip overnight, most of them intercepted by israel's iron dome missile defense system. israel's military says it responded by bombing a site in gaza used by militants to manufacture rockets. we're not hearing reports that anyone was hurt, but we know that egypt and other mediators going behind the scenes from early on trying to stop the violence which have begun

in the west bank from spreading into gaza. this really followed the morning raid by israeli forces inside thejenin urban refugee camp. nine palestinians were killed there, both civilians and militants. israel's military said it was acting on accurate intelligence that an islamichhad cell was planning major attacks against israeli civilians and militants. now, i was in the refugee camp not long after three hours of fierce battles had ended, gun battles between armed fighters in the camp and the israeli forces who had entered in dozens of military vehicles. there were then these mass funerals that took place. tensions rising very high. and what we saw then actually in other parts of the west bank driving through, at other regular flash points is that there were clashes between palestinian protesters and israeli forces.

just outside ofjerusalem one palestinian man was killed. that brought the number of palestinians killed through the day up to ten, the number killed already this year, up to at least 30 people. we have had from the united nations, from the us secretary of state, messages coming out that they're very concerned about this "cycle of violence", as it's being called. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, is actually due to arrive here in a few days' time and he was already going to have a challenge trying to talk to israeli leaders and palestinian leaders. certainly any notion of the peace process going anywhere any time soon is really not something that people are talking about here. but now tensions look that much higher. we've had the palestinian authority in ramallah saying that they're actually cutting off their cooperation with israel on security matters in reaction to what happened injenin.

this week has seen a significant increase in western military support to ukraine with the approval of the supply of more battle tanks. but ukrainians have also been digesting new allegations of corruption levelled against some government ministers. it's led to president zelensky removing a group of ministers and officials in the biggest reshuffle since the conflict started. our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse reports on what's been described as kyiv�*s other enemy — corruption. the fresh beginnings of 2019 and a promise by ukraine's new president to finally deal with corruption. translation: my election has proved that citizens are tired of experienced politicians who over the past 28 years created

a country of opportunities — opportunities to steal, bribe and loot. yet in 2023, ukrainian politics is once again riddled with those exact allegations. ukraine's leader has overseen around a dozen resignations or sackings this week. oleksiy symonenko quit after taking a holiday in spain at a time when most men can't leave the country. vasyl lozinskyi was fired after being arrested for allegedly taking a bribe worth more than £300,000. he has denied it. and kyrylo tymoshenko, president zelensky�*s own deputy head of office, stood down after reports that he'd been living a lavish lifestyle. those came from this man, mykhailo tkach, an investigative journalist for the news website ukrainska pravda. translation: if the source of the money is unclear, they register things, such as cars or mansions,

to their close people or relatives, people that do not have an obligation to declare their property. i think every step an official makes should be clear to society. mr tymoshenko has also denied doing anything wrong, but mykhailo's scoops have led to a shake—up across government. translation: the president's latest decision also shows that such responsibility is recognised at the highest level, that you can't play around with this. we are talking about our country's existence. it is very important. this has already been a war that has taken so much from so many. and while there is fighting in some parts of the country, in others, people are trying to recover. so when there are claims of corruption once again at the heart of ukrainian politics, the political damage is that much deeper. outside of kyiv, the power has just come back, allowing ivana's bakery to do business once again.

translation: i don't like it. it would be better if this money went for something good for ukraine rather than to someone's pocket. probably we need to replace all those who are there for many years. they got used to that, it's what feeds them. corruption has plagued politics in ukraine since it declared independence 31 years ago. now, with the world's eyes on it along with the scrutiny that comes with receiving billions of pounds worth of foreign aid, kyiv seems keen to act, or to be seen to. russia's wagner group are gaining international prominence. they are active in several countries and they've recently been sanctioned by the us for criminal activity, which they deny. in the uk they've been discussed in parliament and the government is considering

changing the process that allowed the organisation's head to get around sanctions and sue a british journalist. but who exactly are they and what's behind wagner's war in ukraine? our security correspondent frank gardner reports. wagner troops in action in eastern ukraine, purging this town, they say, of nazis. these private military contractors, or mercenaries, have been in some of the fiercest battles in the donbas, fighting tooth and nail for towns like bakmut and soledar. their headquarters is in st petersburg, the same city where president putin worked for the kgb, but theirforward operating base is down in southern russia, reportedly at molkino, close to a russian military intelligence base. when the wagner group invaded crimea in 2014 they wore no insignia. people referred to them as the "little green men". they were established in 2014, seemingly on putin's direct orders, as a way to send russian fighters

to east ukraine while still maintaining an important element of deniability and, in that, i would say that wagner group is, in many ways, a quintessentially putinist organization. well, since then their activities have gone global. in 2015, they deployed to syria, propping up the regime of president bashar al—assad. there they successfully drove isis out of the ancient town of palmyra. in libya, they are allied to general haftar in the east, who set up a rival administration to the one in tripoli. in mali, they have effectively supplanted french troops, partly thanks to a slick pr campaign, like this poster praising mali's military ruler, colonel assimi, and president putin. some propaganda goes even further, like this anti—french video portraying wagner as the partner that african countries can rely on. in the central african republic they have been providing security for the president,

and they are in burkina faso and sudan. but in mozambique, they got ambushed by isis and took heavy casualties. they were pushed out quite quickly. it was a month—long deployment, a very short while. islamic state was able to take on vast swaths of territory, to a point where they were able to seize palma, which is a rich oil—producing area, one of the big gas towns. but it's really in ukraine's donbas region where wagner group has absolutely hit the headlines. they're often more effective than regular russian forces. their ranks swollen by 40,000 convicts, recruited from russia's penal colonies and often used as cannon fodder. so what does a typical wagner contract mercenary look like? they're often former members of russian special forces, the spetsnaz. they tend to hide their identities behind balaclavas or facemasks. they're armed with some of the latest russian weapons and equipment and they're far better paid than ordinary russian conscripts.

this is the man who runs them, yevgeny prigozhin, wanted by the fbi, a former convict and a close ally of vladimir putin. he grew rich through his catering contracts and is often referred to as �*putin�*s chef'. here's prigozhin with his troops down in the tunnels beneath soledar, which they recently captured. and here he is recruiting convicts to serve on the front line, offering them a six—month contract in exchange for their freedom. but no one surrenders, he tells them, and deserters will be shot on sight. at the beginning, the wagner group was much more professional than russian army. they used to recruit special forces. now their main personnel are prisoners. but this man did desert. andre medvedev is a former wagner commander in ukraine. he claims to have witnessed war crimes there, including those who refuse to fight being shot as an example to others.

incredibly, he managed to escape russia across this arctic border into norway in mid—january, being pursued by dogs and armed guards shooting at him. soon after that, the white house announced it was sanctioning the wagner group as a transnational criminal enterprise, a charge it denies. the fighting in ukraine shows no sign of letting up, and wagner are an integral part of it, but casualties are so high on both sides that even their boss describes it as a "meat grinder". around the world, wagner has become a useful arm's length tool for the kremlin and possibly a sign of how some wars will be fought in the future. now it's time for the stories making the headlines from across the uk.

a campaign is being launched in bristol to end the practice of bidding wars in the rental market. with demand out—stripping supply, campaigners say prospective tenants are being taken advantage of and even being asked how far over the asking price they'd be willing to pay. lee madan reports. it's a question anyone renting in bristol has become used to being asked. what is the maximum monthly rent you are prepared to pay? how do you feel when you read that for the first time? that it was asking me, yeah, how much more are you willing to pay? sophie's one—bedroom flat was advertised at £750 per month but she felt under pressure to offer £800. that is what may be quite anxious about it all, i was really desperate to get this place, it did force me to offer

more, and i got the property, but i have had to work extra jobs. and sophie is not alone. with fierce competition for every flat, house or even room that becomes available. in the last three years, the rental market in bristol has seen a spike in the bidding wars. the union acorn is calling for this to stop. everyone is so desperate to get a roof over their heads and find somewhere to rent, landlords and letting agents have unfortunately taken advantage of this and seen this as a route to maximise their profits to make even more money. the union has been visiting letting agents and asking them to commit to sticking to the advertised prices. ben giles runs an agency which has agreed to never encourage prospective tenants to pay more. he says stopping the practice altogether though is difficult. it is fairly common for people to approach us with an elevated offer now, so you don't necessarily

need to have a bidding war to go over asking rent, anyway. people will quite commonly come in with 25 or £50 over asking rent and people who have been looking for a long time look to do that now. with many landlords looking to put their prices up this year, due to increased costs, the situation for anyone hoping to rent remains challenging. a youth club in coventry says extra funding means they can increase the number of evenings they they can open, so it can help teenagers in the city who are struggling, due to the cost of living crisis. those running the club say some youngsters have told them their families are having to choose between heating orfood at home. ben sidwell reports. there is no shortage of teenagers coming to this youth club in coventry. here every monday, wednesday and friday, any young person from across the city between 13 and 18 can come along for support, a warm space and a hot meal.

the purpose is to combat the cost of living crisis going on that we are all feeling and particularly those who live in poverty. as you can imagine, in this local community there are lots of households in poverty and it is just about getting them to the breadline. they help us out, they are supportive in every way. it is very important, _ because some people don't have food, so they are doing something special. like, feeding us. run by the positive youth foundation charity, the extra sessions have been made possible by funding from the coventry building society. young people have it tough. straight out of the pandemic, it has really affected their opportunities. straight into the cost of living crisis. it is dark, cold, people are hungry. somewhere like this just provides

a real oasis for young people. in the kitchen, the hot meals are prepared by staff and volunteers. teenagers coming to the youth club can eat there, take the food home or distribute through the community to those struggling with food poverty. it is nice when everyone gets to come together, have food, especially with inflation. things are becoming more expensive. for young people, the funding means that throughout the winter months here they will always have a warm space and a hot meal when they need it. a french bulldog from kent who nearly died at birth has been named as one of finalists in the uk's ugliest dog competition. milo, who is one, comes from cliffe woods, near rochester. he has one eye, had fluid on the brain from birth and has an underbite and, despite what you might think, his owner, emma stephens, said she is proud

of his achievement. we often joke that he has the kind of face sometimes only a mother could love, and i do! milo has hydrocephalus, which means fluid on the brain. he also lost an eye as a very tiny puppy to an eye infection called neonatal ophthalmia, and he also has an underbite which gives him this particular appearance with his teeth. he is a bit aesthetically challenged. he is not what most people would call a particularly attractive or pretty dog, but to us he is a special dog. being a finalist in the uk's ugliest dog competition, we are actually really proud of him. we don't see it as something that is derogatory or demeaning to him. he's not that bad! there are plenty of contests out there for dogs that are pretty and perfect and we think it is nice to have the chance for milo to enter

one for dogs that aren't perhaps fully perfect and a bit quirky looking. if milo won the competition, for us it would be lovely because he gets to be celebrated for the way that he is. i think it is nice to show that it is not all about looks and good looks, especially. there are other redeeming qualities that are sometimes more important, and because of the fact that he looks the way he does because of his health issues and things that he has overcome. it would be wonderful. now it's time for a look at the weather with nick. hello.

overall, a lot of dry weather with us for the rest of the day. when that moves in we will see outbreaks of rain developing from that. for northern ireland and scotland, a lot of cloud. some brighter zones elsewhere, in the north of england, for example. where the cloud remains that we could see patchy rain or drizzle out of that. outbreaks of rain running further south. the rain will reach the far of the end of the night. a touch of frost the sky is clear in scotland. parts of southern england we could see close to —5 starting off on saturday in the countryside. fog patches will be slow to clear. a weather front with a few spots of light rain affecting northern england, wales and the midlands. north of that, bright skies and sunny spells with the odd shower in northern scotland.

this is bbc news. the headlines... the chancellorjeremy hunt has set out his plan to boost economic growth, prioritising reducing inflation and stabilising the economy. mr hunt also committed to the planned hs2 rail link reaching central london despite reports to the contrary due to rising costs. i don't see any conceivable circumstance in which that would not end up at euston, and indeed i prioritised hs2 in the autumn statement. nottingham university hospitals nhs trust is fined £800,000 after admitting failures in the care of a mother and her baby, who died 23 minutes after being born. a british teenager has been sentenced to 11—and—a—half years in prison for producing far—right

extremist videos that influenced two mass killings in the united states.