with six more from the continent hoping to break free from the pyramid but instead they hit a wall. i want to apologise to all of the fans and supporters of the european football club for the disruption i caused over the past 48 hours. amid contrition and derision all six pulled out, but two years on the managing company has put forward new plants. a22 say the foundations of football are in danger of collapsing and it is time for change. juventus, barcelona, real madrid still stand

beside esl wanted to have up to 80 teams with entry based on merit, it would still be run by the clubs. what we see today is a pretty desperate rehashing of the original concept by the three clubs, effectively, who remained in what was the european super league who seemed to be in denial that the project is dead. it was far too important to allow its future — it was far too important to allow its future to be determined on the basis _ its future to be determined on the basis of profit sheets or individual clubs _ spain's top—flight tweeted this... new plans have addressed some points of concern and say funds will trickle down, but the esl faced a backlash football has really seen before to win this sport round it would be some come back. chelsea will face arsenal in the women's league cup final after thrashing west ham 7—0 in tonight's semi—final. sam kerr was the star of the show — scoring four,

including a first half hat trick. there were further goals from fran kirby, laurenjames and guro reiten. the two—time winners are through to their fourth consecutive final having lost last season to manchester city. in scotland, rangers moved to within four points of league leaders glasgow city in the scottish women's premier league, thanks to a 4—0 victory overs hibs. kirsty elizabeth howart—thomson scored the pick of the bunch as she netted rangers second and third goals, with two hannah davison headers starting and finishing the scoring. cristiano ronaldo has scored the 500th league goal of his career at his new club in saudi arabia. he had scored just once in his first three games for al nassr, but got four in one match as his club beat al wehda 4—0. ronaldo turned 38 on sunday, and he's now scored 61 career hat—tricks. with this one, his first

in the saudi league, he got the referee to sign the match ball. ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky will address a gathering of more than 30 nations tomorrow. they'll be discussing how to respond to the prospect of russian and belarusian athletes competing at next summer's paris 0lympics. ukraine is threatning to boycott the games if those athletes are allowed to compete. britain's culture secretary lucy frazer say russian athletes �*shouldn�*t line up on the world stage�*. following russia's invasion of ukraine, the international olympic committee has been trying to develop a pathway, enabling russian and belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals. wales head coach warren gatland is making some big changes for this weekend's six nations clash with scotland. he's taken the decision to drop veterans alun wynjones, justin tipurick and taulupe faletau. it follows last week's heavy defeat to ireland.

there are also first starts for exeter pair dafydd jenkins and christ tshiunza, while tommy reffell completes a new—look back—row. we've lost that first game we can't win the grand slam or triple crown, we still want to do well in this tournament and saturday�*s game is important for us. but we need to think long term as well. we need to think of the next seven or eight months. we have a huge disparity between those experienced players of the number of caps and a lot of the youngsters who are incredibly talented with limited numbers of caps so obviously developing their talents. so we just need to find that balance. and of course you can get more details on all the latest from the six nations on the bbc sport website. worcester warriors are no more — the new owners of the rugby union club have announced they're changing the name. they've also withdrawn from the rfus process to enter

into the championship due to the instability of the league. the club will now be rebranded as sixways rugby. the rfu says it provided worcester with "the best possible chance" to provide all information required to prove its sustainability. while the department for digital, culture, media and sport has described it as "devasting news for rugby fans across the west midlands." in basketball, great britain's women comfortably secured victory against estonia in the first of two must—win fixtures, as they look to seal qualification for the eurobasket finals. there was no repeat of the loss suffered to the same opponents in november 2021, as team gb hammered estonia by 55 points. temi fagbenle led the way with 23. great britain must now beat portugal on sunday to have any chance of qualification. that's all the sport for now.

this is bbc news, we'll have the headlines and all the news, straight after this programme. across the uk, people are on strike. in england... there is a growing

anger in this country. ..scotland... the workers united will never be defeated! ..northern ireland... horns sound ..and wales. how are people going to pay these bills? i workers spent more days on strike in 2022 than at any time since the 1980s. unions and bosses are further apart than ever. so why are they striking and is there an end in sight? these strikes are completely unnecessary. i'm finding it really hard, like, to heat my house, to feed my children. our members have been. getting poorer and poorer. at the end of the day, i they deserve a pay rise. there has to be a reality check amongst the trade union colleagues about where that money would have to come from. no—one's taking it lightly but it's, kind of, the only way now we feel like we're going to be heard. if the union leaders - continue to be unreasonable, then it is my duty to take action. i'm not the grinch. i'm a trade union official and i'm determined to get a deal.

the biggest strikes in a generation are happening even though fewer people are in unions. membership peaked in the late 19705, when i3—million people were members. since then, it's declined to about 6.7 million people — about a quarter of the workforce. it's mostly in the private sector that union membership has fallen, but unions are still strong and able to flex their muscles elsewhere. strikes, increasingly, are largely concentrated in the public sector or in the formerly public sector. so privatised utilities, for example. and we're seeing it in royal mail and we're seeing it, of course, the railways were privatised. trade unions are recognised

for bargaining over pay and conditions in the public sector. that hasn't really gone away. it's been under challenge. it's got more fragmented but it still holds up. unions say strikes are a last resort and are usually called when negotiations break down. workers, when they vote to strike, first have to weigh up the alternatives. people have to see a serious injustice in the workplace and then, if they're in a unionised workplace, they think that the union can actually do something about it. and also that they think, weighing up the costs and benefits, on balance, it's worth taking a deep breath and going on strike. the current wave of strikes has echoes in history. the uk's biggest industrial action was in 1926. the general strike shook the country, with coal miners playing a central role.

one in ten men or boys of working age were employed in the coal industry. now, miners had won important gains in the 1910s and then during the first world war by having established a national system of pay bargaining. so there was an attempt by employers to abandon national minimum and to reduce the overall volume of wages, so miners resisted and workers, trade unionists in other sectors of the economy, joined them in a sympathetic strike — the general strike. the government of the time, including the chancellor of the exchequer, winston churchill, refused to back down. after nine days, most unions called off their strikes, leaving the miners out on their own. they were ultimately unsuccessful in that the national system of pay awards was abolished in coal mining. protesters: two, four, six, eight, castle must negotiate! _ fast forward to the 19705

and the so—called winter of discontent, rolling strikes across lots of industries stopped work. rubbish piled up in the streets as refuse collectors joined the walk—outs. workers were attempting to protect themselves against attacks on their cost of living and they were on strike because many of them worked in the public sector and their wages were being controlled downwards by the then labour government that was trying to seek a way out of the high levels of inflation in britain in the 1970s, very similar to the 2020s where we are today. the disruption then was the biggest in modern times, with 29—million working days lost. estimates for today's strike suggest the total for 2022 could be 2—million. in may 1979, a conservative government led by margaret thatcher was elected and, within months, it passed new laws to limit

the power of trade unions. they've certainly become less influential. they became less influential from the 1980s to the 2010s. i believe they're becoming more influential now. just as in 1979, today's strikes are being driven by powerful forces of economics. the covid pandemic saw a pay freeze on many workers, and just as things were getting back to normal, came the war in ukraine, causing a huge increase in the cost of energy. we want 10%! workers are experiencing the deepest and longest wage squeeze in 200 years. the cost of living crisis, energy prices soaring, the cost of fuel and household goods and food. people are on their knees and they're saying, "we need more. "we need a fair pay rise." inflation hit 11% as the latest wave of strikes began.

the institute for fiscal studies estimates the cost of raising pay to match that across the whole of the public sector would be £18—billion. the government says that increase is unaffordable and would make inflation worse. we need to make sure that in the round, the decisions that we take don't have big economic impacts, both in terms of causing an inflationary spiral, in terms of other wage rises asked by other people in the economy. also, putting money into the economy, it causes prices to go yet higher. and that's why these are very, very difficult decisions. unions point out pay is rising more slowly in the public sector than elsewhere in the economy. public sector pay has risen on average 11% to 5% in 2022, according to the ifs. in the private sector, it's gone up about 6%. critics of unions, however, point to other factors in the argument.

the people who are scraping a living lat the moment are people working i in things like retail, - agriculture — low productivity industries with low pay. the public sector... l you know, it's certainly true that l nurses are perhaps not paid as much as they are in some other countries and so forth, but nurses earn morej than the national average. unions say some of their members are on the lowest pay and they say working conditions in the public sector are being worsened, too. it's about the staffing crisis that's been driven by 12 years of those pay cuts, but also a lack of adequate funding that has meant we've got real work intensification, excessive and unsustainable workloads. elsewhere across the economy, it's about insecure work, it's about attempts to reduce people's pensions and attacks on kind of increasing casualisation, so it is a range of factors.

but bosses insist workers' demands can only be met if unions accept the need to change and modernise. look at the railways, for example, where many of these issues - have been unresolved - for generations, literally. if you take the sort of weekend rota arrangement, it's always been - dependent on overtime. that system was being argued about 50 years ago, right, - and it's still here today. and, you know, if we want to make our public and quasi _ public, like the railways, - have a sustainable increase in pay over time, and that's _ what we all want to see in a sense, then they've got to i increase productivity. money doesn't come from nowhere. it has to be funded, ultimately, by the industry itself. _ the research shows us that pay strikes tend to be effective,

not necessarily in getting all that's claimed, but certainly in achieving a gain. it helps if you're in an occupation which isn't easily substitutable. an example of that is the barristers' strike. you can't suddenly bring in a whole load of replacement barristers to substitute for that job. barristers won one of the largest pay settlements of 2022, calling off their strike in november after the government offered a 15% increase in their fees. and there was a pay deal worth up to 16% for members of the cwu union after a walk—out at bt. here's how the union praised that agreement to its members.

but such victories come at a cost. the general public has faced months of disruption, with unions targeting the busiest periods to strike and co—ordinating their action with other unions. border force staff at the uk's l busiest airports announce eight days of strike action. this is a country right now where receiving a letter, catching a train, getting a driving test, even being collected by an ambulance or seeing a nurse might not happen. 124 different government _ departments, people who work in job centres, in tax offices, - in the department for transport, culture, in museums and galleries. this really is a very bitter dispute and there is no end in sight. of course, it's regrettable that inconvenience is caused and, wherever possible, our members seek to minimise that, but when you've got an employer who won't budge, who won't listen, that often is the last resort to many workers.

and it's an important part of the tool box that they have in order to get an employer to come and negotiate and sit round the table. but it is at the workforce's discretion to withdraw their labour. it's a fundamental right that they have. that right to strike is limited by laws which have made it harder to go on strike. unions have to hold a ballot with members voting by post. a strike can only happen if 50% of them turn out. where important public services are at stake, at least 40% must vote in favour. and since the summer, employers are allowed to bring in agency workers to replace those striking. but those aren't the only reasons going on strike can be difficult. it's a very risky, it's a very stressful thing to do. it can mean difficult relations with your colleagues. certainly it can mean difficult relations with your immediate managers. it's not an easy decision. strike action, historically, has not been a course of action for all workers.

there are some groups which haven't been able to do so. the police are one group, prison officers are another, and military personnel. the government is proposing extending some of those restrictions to other parts of the public sector, including paramedics and firefighters. that follows other legislation introduced over the years to reduce the impact of strikes. the laws on who can strike and where have changed since the 1970s. now it's only possible to go on strike when you're in direct dispute with your employer at your own place of work. a poll in october found 60% of the public generally support workers taking industrial action, with 33% opposed. but will that support continue? we think that public

support is really enduring. we know that everyone is looking to this industrial action because it means something for them, too. a win for members taking action is a win for all and that public support is really important to keep that pressure on employers, on government, to make sure that those workers get a fair pay deal. i think public opinion on this can be very volatile. - at the moment, for example, - there's plenty of support for nurses and medical workers, generally. whether that will be maintained i if there were serious strikes over a long period of time, _ where waiting lists were going up and up and up and up, i doubt. ithink, you know, opinion i could shift very, very quickly. whistle blows for now, these strikes are going to impact many of us — students, patients, passengers and all the other users of the industries taking action. the number of strikes has risen,

with no sign so far of a resolution. so, what's the way out? the way to end the current wave of strikes is to ensure that we get wages rising across britain. the priority for the government is to stabilise the economy and to grow the economy and in order to do that you need to make sure that workers have wages in their pocket that mean they can not only keep their heads above water but they can go out and continue to stimulate demand in the economy. this intensive period of strike action will come to an end. people's personal circumstances, people can't survive without wages, and they can only carry it on for a certain amount of time. most people don't have large savings to buffer them against difficult times. most people are not being affected by these strikes. i unless the government sort of bottles and gives in, - i think these strikes will settle down. i

we won't have these _ inflation—busting pay increases. but it does depend on the government having the will to, _ you know, override temporary unpopularity on this. - as inflation declines, the pressures themselves, the immediate pressures that are so acute that make people prepared to take strike action, will decline as well. people adjust again... ..to making their already declined wages stretch, because it's that much easier to make it stretch when inflation isn't as high as it is at the moment. hello.

looks like the weekend's not looking bad at all, it's just around the corner. a lot of dry weather on the way. how about friday? it is going to be quite cloudy, particularly across northern and western parts of the country. best of the sunshine in the south—east of the uk. and in fact, this is where the skies have been clearing. you can see all the cloud piling into north—western areas. milder conditions here too, with the south—westerly winds and bits and pieces of rain through the early hours. but where the clear skies have developed across southern parts of england, the temperatures will be lowest. first thing on friday in rural spots could be as low as minus five degrees. well, like plus five, i think, in the lowlands of scotland. and you can see how this milder air is pushing into scotland, northern ireland, northern parts of england and also into wales. but with that also comes a lot of cloud and at times the cloud will be thick enough here in the west to produce a little bit of drizzle. but i think in western scotland it will be rain. 0n the other hand, in eastern scotland with some sunny spells in aberdeen, it could be around 13

degrees, but after a colder start to the day in the south, it will be about nine or so i think in london. and after a bright start, the clouds will thicken as well. let's have a look at the weekend then. high pressure in charge of the weather so you'd think all settled sunny weather well, not necessarily. there's a lot of clouds stuck in this area of high pressure and it will be slow to move across central parts of the uk. so i think saturday, at least at times will be cloudy. a few glimmers of sunshine certainly on the cards and temperatures quite uniform, typically between 11 and 13 degrees celsius. and the high pressure still with us on sunday. when you're in the centre of the high, the winds are very, very light around the edges of the high pressure, the winds tend to be stronger. so for northern ireland and western scotland, i think more of a brisk wind, whereas lighter winds and feeling just that a little bit milder, there in the sunny spells across east anglia. and the high pressure — this is into next week, monday, tuesday, the high pressure

still very much dominating the weather, notjust around the uk but across much of europe. so certainly i think until about tuesday, wednesday, very little change on the weather front beyond that. some rain possibly on the way but dry until then bye—bye.

welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines... at least twenty thousand people are now known to have been killed in the devastating earthquakes in turkey and syria still, relatives hope their loved ones might emerge alive. i tried to do it yesterday to dig it myself. but you can't. you see the concrete like this? all close to each other. i'v e i've got no power to lift theirs. i've got no power to lift theirs. amid the misery there are miraculous rescues — a woman is freed after eighty seven hours under the rubble, but hope is fading for many others. we'll have the latest news

and analysis from our correspondents in the region.