cos you never agree with anything anybody says. certainly... well, thank goodness for that. ..not! and as football's popularity boomed, so did motson�*s. you could hear his passion for the game in every syllable. oh, this is getting better and better and better! he was the voice of our sport for, well, pretty much 50 years, wasn't he? and a remarkable character, remarkable commentator. and he always seemed to get the mood right and get the occasion. and just lived and breathed football, didjohn. and when he finally retired from the bbc in 2018, the fans' affection was plain to see. a fitting tribute to one of football's defining voices. john motson, who's died at the age of 77.

time for a look at the weather. here's chris fawkes. hello, chris. hello. most of us some sunshine. certainly a lovely end for the day. this was the west midlands, birmingham, sutton coldfield, with the setting sun as you can see over the setting sun as you can see over the slate. it was like that everywhere. after a sunny morning in scotland the cloud limit clouds gathered through the afternoon, and a rather dark and moody scene with the wind picking up on rain from these weather fronts. moving southwards at the minute. rain getting across scotland and eventually moving into parts of northern england, northern ireland as well. most of the rain quite light and patchy. it will increasingly leave any frost limited towards southern parts of both england and wales where you might get off to quite a nice sunrise tomorrow morning before cloud tends tomorrow morning before cloud tends to spread southwards as this front continues its journey south across england and wales as well. a lot of cloud around. the rain light and patchy. notice the skies across

scotland and northern england. plenty of sunshine here. just a few show is coming in off the north sea. some cold north—easterly winds affecting north—eastern parts of scotland, and eastern areas of england. on the face of that temperature is quite close to average and feeling quite chilly across eastern areas. i think that is due to the strength of wind. heading into the weekend, high pressure builds across the uk and it strengthens. we will get the strong winds continued to blow down the north sea, bringing a few isolated showers in certain eastern areas having the thickest of any cloud. the rest of the sunshine in the west but i think the winds again will make it feel quite chilly across the north and east of scotland and into eastern parts of england as well. temperatures not changing too much. highs of between around seven and nine celsius. the second half of the weekend again, high pressure stays with us. another lives in a dry day on sunday. went a little bit lighter with high—pressure dominating well into next week. the weather is set fair. mishal. chris, thank you very

much. we will hand over to our colleagues across the nations and regions by the news good evening, i'm chetan pathak with your sports news. we start tonight at old trafford where manchester united have come from behind to beat barcelona and reach the last 16 of the europa league. it means they're still in the hunt to win four trophies this season. jane dougall reports: hope is reborn at manchester united. third in the league and a focus on other silverware too.— third in the league and a focus on other silverware too. where one of the only teams _ other silverware too. where one of the only teams in _ other silverware too. where one of the only teams in the _ other silverware too. where one of the only teams in the league - other silverware too. where one of the only teams in the league that i the only teams in the league that are in all competitions is great so far. ., , , . , ., are in all competitions is great so far. .,, , ., ., we far. the trophy hunt was on. . we can dream- _ far. the trophy hunt was on. . we can dream. for— far. the trophy hunt was on. . we can dream. for a _ far. the trophy hunt was on. . we can dream. for a club _ far. the trophy hunt was on. . we can dream. for a club that - far. the trophy hunt was on. . we can dream. for a club that hasn't| can dream. for a club that hasn't won any silverware since 2017. this seasonis won any silverware since 2017. this

season is looking promising for manchester united. they are still in contention for four trophies. manchester united. they are still in contention forfour trophies. the leak up, the replete,, the premier league, and the fa cup. the minister has been credited with this revival but the spanish giants had their own plans. we were given an early penalty. one of the best players in the world stepped up robert lewandowski full david tejeda but onlyjust. but manchester united are experienced at coming from behind. one such and fred had leavened it. the roar eckerd around old trafford. they weren't finished. attempt after attempt. until, finally, the third time lucky. approvalfrom on high. with your hopes still alive and a match against newcastle for another trophy in a few weeks' time. this

could be a reincarnation of manchester united glory days. jane developed, bbc news. next tonight — he's been decribed as the voice of football — plenty of tributes today for one of the sport's most famous commentators —jon motson — who's died at the age of 77. in a 50 year career, jon covered ten world cups, ten european championships and 29 fa cup finals for bbc sport before retiring in 2018. his family say he died peacefully in his sleep. these are some moments of his you might remember. here's gascoigne! oh, brilliant! yes! oh, yes! and there it is, the crazy gang have beaten the culture club. it is dramatic, it is delightful, it is denmark who are the european champions. radford again! what a goal! radford the scorer. and still ricky villa, what a fantastic run!

he has scored! an amazing goal. next to rugby union, wales coach warren gatland says he can finally focus on preparing his squad for their six nations match against england on saturday, after a strike was averted. wales players were threatening not to play because of a contract dispute. but the matter was resolved yesterday which has now allowed gatland to name his squad. there'll be nine changes from the loss against scotland — including owen williams at fly half and debutant mason grady playing at centre. meanwhile anthony watson will make his first england start in almost two years in the match in cardiff on saturday. the 28—year—old comes in to replace the injured ollie hassell—collins on the wing. vice—captain courtney lawes makes his return from injury and is fit for the bench. andy farrell's ireland continue their pursuit of the grand slam when they play italy in rome on saturday.

craig casey will partner ross byrne in a new half—back pairing, with captainjohnny sexton left out after picking up a groin injury against france last time out... andy murray is through to the last four of the qatar open — his first semi final in eight months. of course this one went the distance too murray lost the first set to the french qualifier alexandre muller who is ranked 170th in the world — murray 70th — the slow start perhaps understandable after a three hour win over alexander zverev yesterday.. but murray soon warmed up and and took the next two sets 6—1, 6—2. he'll now face the czech playerjiri lehecka for a place in the final. in the super league holick kr one. after they got off to win and start to the season. and australia are into the final

of the women's t20 cricket world cup final after beating india by five runs. chasing 173 to win india needed 16 off seven balls until the wicket of sneh rana swung the pendulum back in australian's favour. scenes ofjoy from the reigning champions. a big swing at the end here wasn't enough for india. australia go through to another final and await england or south africa on sunday, they play each other tomorrow. and a reminder you can keep up to date with how england's men are getting on in wellington — on the bbc sport website — with their second and final test against new zealand under way. that's all for now, goodnight. this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour,

straight after this programme. in a lot of the stories that we tell, they can be so bleak. you need to show some hope as well, because hope is important. and that's the thing that, and all of those rescuers, all of those search and rescue teams, they were all there because they had hope that people had survived. even now as we talk today, they're still finding people under there. and those stories are really important. they are so important. but i think what we have to do is also balance that hope with the reality of the situation, and to say that these moments are incredibly important, but they're also rare.

i'm anna foster. i'm a middle east correspondent for the bbc, which means i cover the whole of the region. i'm based in beirut, but i go anywhere at any time. lebanon is a beautiful place, but right now its problems are putting some tourists off. there's been a lot happening in lebanon. the country is falling apart in the middle of a huge economic crisis. obviously, things in israel with the palestinians has been really busy as well. there was a period of time injuly of last year where we just travelled constantly for about a month. went to tunisia for the referendum there, covered the us presidentjoe biden's visit to saudi arabia. we were in turkey talking about cross—border aid to syria. i think i'm doing a good job if i'm telling you about as much of the region as possible because there are so many. the middle east is so important, and there are so many stories going on there.

we begin in turkey because we're getting news of dozens of people who have died across the country, and in northern syria, following a major earthquake struck in the early hours of this morning. i heard about the news. so i was... i was on my way somewhere else, and i was already in istanbul airport. and the first thing that i checked, actually, was the the beirut whatsapp group. and the message at the top, the first unread message was my boss, the middle east bureau chief, saying, is everybody ok? so as soon as i saw that, ijust felt... ijust felt this tightening in my stomach. and i went down the messages, and it became apparent that it was an earthquake. i was immediately starting to think, "where do i need to go?" "how can i get there?" the problem was there'd been really bad weather in turkey that weekend, and that's why i was stuck in the airport because i'd missed my flight. so, in many ways, i was in a i was

in a really good place to try and get to where i needed to be. but, also, these cancelled flights were a huge problem and everybody else was stuck. everybody else was trying to get on cancelled flights as well. and i needed to run to get to it. but fortunately, the flight was fine. i think i got the last seat on that flight, and that took me to adana, which was the nearest city that had an airport. what i had was a driver, a trusted driver, and he was waiting for me at the airport. in that situation, not everybody does want to go out and work, but he knew that he was picking up a bbc correspondent, and that we were going to head towards the earthquake. so that... well, the earthquake epicentre. the journey was difficult for a couple of reasons. it was physically difficult because the earthquake had damaged a lot of the roads.

and, at the same time as you had everybody trying to get in, you also had people trying to leave as well, because, of course, if you've got a car, and the ability to, you want to get out of that earthquake zone. so, a lot of people had loaded up their cars and they were driving in the other direction. so, everybody met each other on this mountain road and itjust created a huge trafficjam. so, we spent maybe three hours longer in this trafficjam to do a journey that would have taken maybe 30 minutes. this is the huge line of cars that people trying to leave barash province. it's hardly moving. and people sitting here for hours, they are. i was on my own, and people have asked this. they've said, "why didn't they send you all of the team members?" "why did they leave you to go on your own?" and it wasn't a question of that. it was the fact that i got there first. so, if i'd have waited for more

team members to arrive, it would have been maybe 2a hours. it might have been even longer by the time everybody had arrived on flights. the thing with a natural disaster like this one is until somebody arrives at the scene, and starts taking pictures and talking to people and filming things, nobody quite knows the scale of it. and it takes days, often, for the size of it to become apparent. people here wonder if they can ever rebuild. "marash is finished," they told me. "marash is finished." you're the first one who arrived. did you feel any sort of pressure? it was pressure to do a good job because i knew that i'd managed to get there first. i felt the pressure to go out and actually be able to let people know what was happening. you really see the size

of the effort that's going on here on top of this kind of rubble. rescuers are using their bare hands, and you can see them throwing down blocks and trying to search desperately for survivors. this used to be a 12—story apartment building, just like the one behind it, and, so far, they've only found three survivors. one thing i really noticed on the first night was that there were so many collapsed buildings, and there was only one rescue team. and i knew, in the back of my mind, that it wasn't that those buildings were all empty. it was just that there weren't enough people there to do rescues. and it was only on the second day as we were moving at the same time as rescue teams, medics, equipment, we could see those big diggers and things being brought in. and ijust knew from looking around me that there was nobody else there.

there's something about an earthquake that creates a particular level of destruction. after an earthquake, everything is just stripped away. they're just these gray piles of concrete and dust and metal and glass. a lot of the humanity has been stripped away from it. itjust looks like a pile of masonry and rubble. as you moved around from area to area, there was just more and more and more. and you feel that you've seen the worst of the devastation. but, then, you, maybe, turn a corner and there's more. you know, you can show pictures of that. and they all look the same after a while. they all kind of meld into one. so, you have to then use words

and descriptions and ways to actually get that across. one thing i always find in stories like this, when there are so many people affected or such a big place affected, for me, it's it's always about kind of individuals and details. so, i think of this one woman who was waiting for news about her daughter, and somebody passed a makeup bag out of the ruins of a building that had collapsed. it was a pink... i can picture it. stuffed full of somebodies lipstick, mascara, whatever it might be, and they brought it out and this woman took hold of it, and she tucked it, she tucked it under her arm, and she was crying, obviously, because this meant

that they were getting closer to what she knew was the body of her daughter, because they'd said that everybody in that building that nobody had survived. and they were very clear that they were only looking for bodies to bring back to the relatives. you know, it's like those tiny details that are things that, you know, the same things that you own, the same things that you have in your life. and it's sort of it's that sudden collision of your life and somebody else�*s. and those connections where you suddenly think to yourself, that could be me or anybody standing there at that moment, waiting for the most awful news. for so many disasters you have, you know, people have id on them. they have a purse or they have a phone or they have something that can that can tell you who they were. but for this, everybody is asleep in bed, and you don't have any of those things. so, when they were going through this rubble and looking

for bodies, it would often be, you know, the colour of somebody�*s pyjamas. and they would shout that out and people would think, oh, i think my daughter was wearing purple pyjamas, so this this one might be me. this was an entire neighbourhood, and it's completely destroyed. it was hundreds of apartments, thousands of people, and the majority of them are still buried. you know, those tiny things. they feel really out of place when you're talking about that scale of destruction. but i think it's those are the things that actually that i use to try and give people an understanding of all of those tens of thousands of people. it's one one person, one family, one home, one life. i'm going to cough. i'm so sorry. can i grab some water? yeah. i'm really sorry. this is the dust it's

left my poor throat is flayed. there was a bitterly cold wind here today and it is whipping up the smoke and the debris and the particles of dirt. it goes in your eyes. it goes in your throat. and despite that, the rescuers are still here on top of this pile of rubble... and the amount of dust that that it kicks up into the air. it's just constantly in your throat and in your chest. and it makes you it makes you cough a lot. the dust is really problematic. and that's one thing that i'm still even now. this man travelled here from doncaster as soon as he heard the news of the quake. his brother is in there somewhere. i tried to do yesterday to do a dig myself, but you can't see the concrete like this or cross each other.

i've got no power to lift this. you never want to leave a story, and especially not a big story. and actually, to leave a big story like that is always a massive, massive emotional wrench. it's really hard because you always want to you know, you've gone to the effort to get there and you always want to stay there. i can't stop crying. last three, two days, i'm here. i came back to the uk because it was my daughter's birthday and she was turning nine. i try really hard to always be at home when it's the kids birthdays. everybody was really, really supportive and brilliant in making sure and it was quite a long journey as well. there was a lot of driving. the airport ports weren't functioning, so i needed to go further north to ankara to be able to actually fly out. you know, you look at the people around you who've lost everything, who've lost loved ones, who've lost homes, who will not be lucky enough to be able to perhaps

spend another birthday or another moment like that with their child. the story will still be told by the people who are staying behind. but i have to realise that, you know, this is a moment when i need to be a mum first and a journalist second. let's have a moment for your taxi driver. he's a big part of this story. he is. we were a team because normally in those circumstances, you would have a sizeable team of people. you would have somebody who spoke turkish, which i don't. and he didn't speak english either. so we did a lot of translation on the mobile phone. we had a lot of hand signals. we developed our own language so, so often he was used to me kind of having the phone and waving it and saying, internet, internet, which meant that we were going to have to drive around the area where we were to find a place where we could get some signal to broadcast or to send messages

or something like that. but he was fantastic. well, our middle east correspondent, anna foster, is in turkey. and she arrived this morning. i roped him in to do a few extra bits and pieces. so the first live that we did in the dark was for the 6:00 news that evening. but in that particular city, there was no power at all. it was completely dark. so i got him to park the car behind me and and use the car headlights to light the scene. but i was then trying to hold my phone in a way that didn't throw shadow onto my face, and it was pouring with rain at this point. so there was lots of manoeuvring to try and get that in the right place so you could see me and you could see them. this really is a picture of devastation here. the city is in complete darkness tonight. there is no power at all. the only place where you see lights. this was not what he signed up for, but he was incredibly helpful

and just really willing to to do what was needed. every conversation we've ever had has been through a translation app. but we did there was one maybe the second or third night. i was facetiming my family and he gave them a wave and then he was facetiming his family. so, i gave them a wave. and we, you know, we shared food. we had... we'd managed to get a sort of bag of supplies and chocolates and things from a petrol station. so we would sit and eat together. what does the future look like for him? for so many people who live in that region as things have become incredibly difficult. so, you know, we say goodbye and he's gone back to his family and his life. his life continues now. more than 11,000 people are now confirmed dead across southern turkey and northern syria

as rescue workers. i would leave programme teams to mention the death toll because i knew that it was rising fast. more than 12,000 are dead. it's feared thousands more. i could see the number of bodies and the regularity with which they were being brought out. but numbers on their own. without the human stories, they they don't engage in the same way. and while you can hear the number, in order for it to mean something to you, you need to know about the rescuers who are risking their lives standing on this unstable rubble to try and bring people out. or you need to know about the families who are waiting or the people who were trapped under the rubble, who were trying to communicate with the rescuers. but it's the people, the people like us and what they're going through that is the bit of the story that actually makes it mean something to you.

the devastating power of the earth seen from the air. swathes of this city lie in ruins. when i was filming with my phone, you know, sometimes on the other side of the camera, you know, sometimes i'm crying. when the rubble shows a sign, the digger stops. behind this blanket an arm reveals a body. slowly, carefully, its uncovered. i think for this one, certainly, the man at the moment ofjust having identified his dead father in the rubble. it was just a very powerful moment. i will take that one with me. you know, if you were to ask me that question again in 20 or 30 years time, i know that i would still talk

about that moment. this is more than anything a huge, huge tragedy. and the hope is there. but it is a, sadly, a small part of the bigger picture. hello there. most of us on thursday saw some fairly lengthy spells of sunshine. however, in scotland, after a sunny start through the afternoon, the clouds gathered and it turned quite wet and quite windy as well. now, this rain is associated with this weather front, here,

that's pushing its way southwards at the moment. so, rain trickling across scotland into northern ireland, northern england. over the next few hours, the rain is going to be quite light and quite patchy. clear skies in the south, allowing a touch of frost as we head into the first part of friday morning. so, a chilly start to the day, here, and, really, through the rest of friday these weather fronts continue to push southwards, bringing an odd patch of rain with them. brighter skies for scotland and northern england, with just a few showers in the northeast and a cold wind, particularly for northern and eastern parts of scotland, and affecting eastern areas of england as well. and that will certainly knock the edge off the temperatures. and into the weekend, high pressure stays in charge. so, there will be a lot of fine and dry weather with cloud varying, but there will be cold winds continuing to affect eastern areas of scotland and england as well. that's the latest.

welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines.. the un approves a resolution calling for russia to withdraw its forces from ukraine, 141 1111 countries voted in favour. only seven opposed. the resolution comes on the eve of the first anniversary of russia's invasion which has killed tens of thousands of people, flatten cities and towns and forced millions to flee their homes. we will be live in new york with our correspondent for the latest. also coming up on new year's day hollywood film merkel harvey weinstein has been sentenced to a further 16 years in prison for rape on top of a 23 year sentence already

serving. in the european union has