kokkinakis to help great britain beat australia. hello, and thanks for joining us on sportsday. and we're going to start with cricket, where it's been another record—breaking day for ben stokes. the all rounder smashing his way into the history books with the highest score by an england batter in a one—day international, as he hammered a brutal 182 in the third odi against new zealand at the oval in london. stokes had only come out of one—day retirement to play in this series and the world cup in india next month. and what a reminder of what the test captain brings to the shorter form of the game, nine sixes and 15 fours in his 124—ball innings.

and that fabulous batting performance laying the foundations for a huge win, england all out for 368 before skittling the kiwis forjust 187 runs. the 181—run winning margin is the eighth highest for england in odi cricket. they lead the series 2—1 and meet in the final one—dayer on friday at lords. to the rugby world cup now, and friday will be a special day for sam whitelock. the 34—year—old new zealand second row willjoin richie mccaw as the all blacks�* most—capped player when he lines up against namibia in toulouse. whitelock will move level with former all blacks captain mccaw with his 148th appearance. incidentally, it will also be his 21st world cup game — which will take him one off the record for world cup appearances, jointly held by mccaw and former england propjason leonard.

the defending champions south africa will make 1a changes when they take on romania on sunday in bordeaux. having shown their innovative side in the world cup warm up match with new zealand with a controversial 7—1 split between forwards and backs on the bench, they've thrown another curveball by naming four scrum—halves in their matchday squad of 23. cobus reinach starts at nine. grant williams, who is usually a scrum—half, has been named on the wing, while jaden hendrikse and faf de klerk are on the bench. for head coach jacques nienaber, there are specific goals for this game. we need to bank the win against romania. but there is definitely some tactical and technical stuff that we want to get out of this game, and that's going to be our challenge. and it's almost internally focused on us, that we make sure we get what we want out of this game. nba teams will be able to rest only one star player per game

this season under new rules, with potential fines of millions of dollars. the player participation policy defines a star as anybody picked in an all—nba team or nba all—star team in the previous three seasons. nba commissioner adam silver believes, "if you're a healthy player in this league, you're expected to play." this is ultimately about the fans and that we've taken this too far. i mean, this is an acknowledgement that it's gotten away from us a bit and that particularly i think when you see young, healthy players who are resting and it becomes maybe even more in notion of stature around the league, as opposed to absolute needed rest or it's just part of being an nba player that you rest on certain days, and that's what we're trying to move away from. to football now, and sarina wiegman has named a 2a—strong squad for england's nations league matches against scotland and netherlands later this month. not too many surprises, barring a couple of injuries, she's gone with the bulk of the lionesses squad that reached the world

cup final last month. our reporter sarah dawkins was at wembley stadium for the squad announcement. sarina wiegman has named 2a players in the squad for this nations league tournament and she's decided to keep the faith and stick with the majority of the players that featured for england at the world cup this summer. in total, there are five changes to the squad. we have midfielder lucy staniforth and defender maya le tissier — both standby players for the squad in australia. they make their way back into that list, as does jess park in the midfield line. two players you might have expected to see on that list are out with injury. midfielder keira walsh, who played such a key role for england in australia, she's out with a calf injury. and striker beth england misses out after hip surgery. actually, one of the reasons that sarina wiegman gave for the lack of changes in this squad is the short turnaround. it's hard to believe that only just over three weeks ago, england were playing

in a world cup final, and now they find themselves preparing for their next competitive fixture — and that's something that the england manager says that she is worried about. some players only had six days off, which after such a high—level, high—pressure competition is not good for them. and that has been going on for a long time, because we have major tournaments in the summer all the time. so the urgency to make it better is really, really high. in the weeks since the world cup final, discussion has been dominated by what happened on the pitch after the final and the actions of luis rubiales, the spanish football federation president. sarina wiegman is not one to shy away from the issues. you might remember when she accepted her award for uefa women's coach of the year last month, she used her acceptance speech to talk about the women's football team and their achievements and said that winning the world cup and their celebrations had been spoiled by what happened. today, she was asked

about the developments since luis rubiales had stood down from his position, and this is what she had to say. players need to be listened to and we need to move on. the women's game has improved so much, but there still a way to go, and not only in spain but i think everywhere. there's many, many players, top athletes, who still have lots of challenges which i think we should work on altogether and stay connected and try to make the world better for those players. so this is a chance for england to dust themselves off after the disappointment of that world cup final, but there's a lot more at stake here than just pride. olympic qualification is on the line. if england can reach the final of this nations league tournament, they can secure a spot for team gb at the paris olympics next summer. the first match is against scotland. they're having their own issues off the pitch, with the side taking legal action against the scottish fa over equal pay. they'll be hoping that doesn't

cause any distraction for them on the pitch at the stadium of light in sunderland next friday. italy midfielder marco verratti has completed a move to qatari side al—arabi from paris saint—germain for a reported 45 million euros. verratti won nine liguei titles with psg afterjoining in 2012, while he also helped italy win euro 2020. he becomes the latest european player to move to the middle east, after many made the switch to the saudi pro league during the off—season, including his former psg team—mate neymar. in a statement, verratti said, "paris, the club and its supporters will always have a very special place in my heart. i will be parisian forever." tennis now. the davis cup is in full swing and we've seen wins for defending champions canada, czech republic and the usa. great britain meanwhile got their campaign under way in manchester, kicking things off with a good win over australia, who they beat 2—i. there was a brilliant debut for 21—year—old jack draper — up against thanasi kokkinakis

in the opening singles rubber. kokkinakis sits 32 places above draper in the world rankings, but the brit backed up his run to the fourth round of the us open with a great performance, coming through 6—7, 6—3, 7—6. british number two dan evans also enjoyed his singles rubber seeing off world number 12 alex di minaur, 6—1, 2—6, 6—4 to earn an unasailable 2—0 lead for great britain. evans was then back in action with wimbledon champion neal skupski in the doubles, but the pair lost to the australian duo of matthew ebden and max purcell. two—time grand slam champion and former world number one simona halep says she is "shocked" after being banned for four years from the sport following breaches of the tennis anti—doping programme. the former wimbledon and french open winner says she intends to appeal against the decision at the court of arbitration for sport. she tested positive for the use of roxadustat at last year's

us open and an independent tribunal also found her guilty of using an unspecified prohibited substance or method in 2022 after irregularities were found in her biological passport. translation: i am shocked. i could say it is a great injustice, what is happening. i have absolutely never doped. my blood tests were negative and there were no banned substances found. only on the 29th, when a tiny amount came out in the urine test, and that was it. now i have to go to the court of arbitration and i will appeal this decision, which makes no sense in my view. i hope the truth comes out one day and i will fight to the end to prove it. finally to cycling. and sepp kuss has held on to the lead at the vuelta a espana after a thrilling finish to stage 17. the american was left trailing by hisjumbo visma team—mates primoz roglic and jonas vingegaard with just over a mile to the finish.

roglic won the stage, ahead of vingegaard, but kuss recovered to finish third. his lead over vingegaard is now down to just eight seconds. and that's all your sport for now. from me, marc edwards, and the rest of the team, bye—bye. hello. thursday promises to bring a real mix of weather across the uk. for much of wales, parts of the midlands and northern england, we will have a band of cloud bringing some outbreaks of rain at times. to the south of that, it will be dry and warm. to the north of that, a mix of sunshine and showers. and in the far north, in northern scotland, some strong winds. it's all because of an area of low pressure and this dangling frontal system here. this weather front, will be very, very slow—moving through the day on thursday, so we will see that band of cloud and rain across wales,

parts of the midlands, some parts of northern england. we start the day with gales across the north of scotland and some heavy rain drifting its way across the northern isles. scotland, northern ireland, the far north of england can expect a day of sunny spells and scattered showers. then here's our rain bands, the rainjust waxing and waning across parts of wales, the north midlands, northern england. to the south of that, some spells of sunshine and some warmth, highs of 23, 2a, maybe 25 degrees. now, through thursday night, our rain band will tend to pep up again and it will also drift northwards across northern england, into northern ireland, southern and central parts of scotland by the end of the night. to the south of that, clear spells, ii or 12 degrees. to the north of that, actually rather chilly in the north of scotland. but for friday, well, it looks very wet indeed across northern ireland, rain also affecting southern and central parts of scotland. and underneath the cloud, with the outbreaks of rain, temperatures in glasgow only getting to 13 degrees, 14 there in belfast. compare that with 25 in london.

some warmth and humidity building down towards the south. into the weekend, this area of low pressure swirling to the south—west of us will try to throw some showers or longer spells of rain in our direction. and with that, some relatively warm and humid air. that said, many places on saturday will see a fair amount of dry weather. a little bit of cloud, some bits and pieces of rain here and there, maybe some thunderstorms in the channel islands and the south—west of england. but towards the south—east corner, in the sunshine, highs of 26 or 27 degrees. always cooler and fresher further north, but some warmth and humidity for many of us on sunday. with that, some heavy showers and some thunderstorms. that's all from me. bye for now.

live from washington. this is bbc news. the size and scale of libya's devastation becomes more clear, after a fierce storm and floods killed at least 5000 people. north korean media says kim

jong uninvited vladmir putin to visit his country during their meeting, and that putin accepted. plus, an a—i forum, an impending retirement, and the threat of an impeachment. we'll wrap up a busy day on capitol hill. i'm helena humphrey. it's good to have you with us. more than 5 thousand people are now known to have died in libya after a storm unleashed a torrent of floodwater on sunday. these drone shots from the city of derna give a sense of the devastation, and the difficulties getting aid to where it's needed. the city of around 100—thousand, on the mediterranean coast, at the mouth of a season river called wadi derna — was particularly badly hit. these satellite images show the scale of the damage

after two dams and four bridges collapsed.