the semi—finals of the rugby world cup are approaching. we'll bring you the teams for the huge match between argentina and new zealand. new zealand continued their winning run at the cricket world cup with a thumping 149—run win over afghanistan in chennai. afghanistan had the better of the early proceedings, taking three wickets in nine balls, to leave new zealand struggling at 110 for four. but a solid partnership between captain tom latham and glen phillips of over 100 steered them towards a 288 total. the bowlers then took over with a clinical performance, as afghanistan were all out for 139 in reply.

we know that every game's a tough game. afghanistan today was no different. you know, we obviously started off pretty well, but there was moments in the game there where we were battling a little bit and it was kind of on the knife edge for a while, so it was nice to get to a score... i guess that partnership between tom and gp was massive for us, and then it... pressure with the new ball always helps, and we know afghanistan are a quality side and they showed it the other day. manchester united's hopes of a first appearance in the group stage of the women's champions league were ended by defeat to paris saint—germain in the second round of qualifying. marc skinner's side came into the second leg in the french capital optimistic of getting past the two—time finalists, after having come back to draw 1—1 in last week's first leg at leigh sports village. but, despite a decent display, they were undone by a superior psg side. elsewhere, glasgow city never

looked like overturning norwegian side brann�*s commanding first—leg advantage. the draw for the group stage takes place on friday, with last season's women's super league winners chelsea britain's sole representative. jenni hermoso has been named in the spain squad for the first time since winning the world cup. former spanish football federation president luis rubiales kissed hermoso during the world cup trophy presentation, which she says was not consensual. rubiales eventually resigned and was given a restraining order. liverpool and egypt forward mohamed salah has called for "world leaders to come together to prevent further slaughter of innocent souls" amid the ongoing israel—gaza conflict. health officials said hundreds of people were killed by an explosion at a crowded hospital in gaza city on tuesday night. salah posted on social media and said humanitarian aid to gaza must be allowed "immediately".

newcastle united have confirmed their midfielder sandro tonali is being investigated by the italian prosecutor's office and the italian football federation, in relation to alleged illegal betting activity. it's after tonali was withdrawn from italy's training camp. newcastle say the 23—year—old is co—operating with the inquiry, and that he and his family would continue to receive the club's full support. tonali and aston villa's nicolo zaniolo recently left italy's training camp for their euro qualifiers against malta and england, after being told they were involved in an investigation by italian prosecutors. tonali has been capped 15 times by italy. brazilian star neymar is to undergo surgery after suffering a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his left knee. the 31—year—old picked up the injury while on international duty for his country on tuesday in their 2—0 defeat to uruguay. his club, saudi arabia's al—hilal, have not said how long he is expected

to be out for. earlier this year, czech republic midfielder jakubjankto came out publically as gay — becoming the first current international male footballer to do so — posting a social media video to tell his story. he's spoken to the bbc about his decision, and how much better he feels now that he's not hiding who he is any more. after 5—6 months, i can tell it wasn't a mistake. if i can do it again, i definitely do, because it's helped myself. i think i helped many people. thousands — i don't know how many people. also, i think it was a huge moment for all footballers, in a professional perspective. many professional players wrote me, they thank me for these messages. i think it's a good, positive example for everybody, and now i'm really happy that i can play without any hides,

without any scared. i had always a fear there might be somebody who reads a message or sees a photo from a guy, and at this moment, nothing is happening. we just carry on like nothing happened and i'm really happy for it. after six months, yeah, i'm really happy to do it. winger mark telea is back in the new zealand side for the all blacks' rugby world cup semifinal against argentina. telea was dropped for the quarterfinal victory over ireland after a breach of team protocol. his return is one of two changes to ian foster's starting 15 for friday's semifinal, with sam whitelock coming into the second row. we've learned to greatly respect argentina and, for them, what playing for their country —

it clearly means a lot. they are perhaps an underrated team that has got a rich history of perhaps overachieving at world cups and done a fantasticjob to get here, at the same level we are, so it's going to be a heckuva game. we're going to have to improve our performance, because the stage gets bigger and bigger at this time in the tournament, and you've got to grow the game. and that's our strong focus. the fact is, we know — and we said it before the irish game — it's the best team on the night that wins it, and we know argentina have done that to us. so, look, we're not buying into anything about favouritism or underdogs or whatever it is. it doesn't make any difference to us. we know we have to perform at our best and that's the only way we're approaching this game. the winner of that first semifinal will play either england or south africa in the final at the stade de france. scrum half danny care has featured in four of england's five games,

including sunday's nail—biting quarterfinal win over fiji. i think ithinka i think a lot�*s changed in four years. we are a completely different team, they are completely different team, they are playing a different way, so such respect for their team and their coaches. i think they've tweaked and adapted their game, and there aren't many weaknesses there to go after. i think we've got to be incredibly respectful of them, which we are, but also trying to focus on ourselves a fair bit this week. our game is slowly getting better and better. we've shown glimpses of really good stuff, and stuff we could definitely improve on. and we know if we can get our game on the pitch, we can hopefully cause some problems. but we are fully aware of the mammoth task at state, but we are excited. == mammoth task at state, but we are excited-—

investigators into snookers largest ever match—fixing scandal have told the bbc that a "perfect storm" of corruption, money troubles, cultural issues, and the covid—19lockdown led to the scandal. liang wenbo and li hang were given lifetime bans, while eight others — including major winners yan bingtao and zhao xintong — were handed suspensions. it's hoped that will act as a deterrent to potential cheats. bbc sport has been given acccess to the investigation and a company that monitors suspicious betting patterns. you're looking at the most common frames, you know, outright winner, frame handicap and totals markets, some of the more side markets. so, actually betting on a score. so, for example, fourframes to one. and this frame winner of a potential side markets, they could manipulate. and we've seen evidence as the investigation progressed that they were aware of odds monitoring and had an understanding of how it works.

so, yeah, we've even had examples where we believe manipulation was called off based on a movement in the odds. they'd seen the odds shift, and therefore they knew that would be detected. therefore they called off their plans to fix that match. the behaviour of some individuals in this last case was absolutely despicable, especially older players who had had good careers — using young, vulnerable players to do the dirty work. it is absolutely despicable. we're constantly reviewing our processes, constantly looking at how do we keep on top of this. but it's notjust a snooker problem. this is a worldwide sport problem. we're a sport that stands out and actually says "we have got a problem". here it is, and this is what we're going to do about it as a sport. i think we're incredibly clean and the vast majority - of players are there to try and make a living, to tryl and do well as a sport. and it'sjust unfortunate when you get a corrupt. influence such as we had here.

and money came into play with debt and other- things that caused this. the damage you do to the sport, the damage you do to— yourself, the damage you do to your familx _ and if you do it, - evidence shows over time you will get caught. so why would you do it? so i think— so why would you do it? so i think that _ so why would you do it? so i think that message - so why would you do it? so i think that message is - so why would you do it? so i think that message is quite i think that message is quite powerfut _ you can get all the latest sports news from the bbc sport app, orfrom our website. from me and the rest of the team, goodbye. hello there. well, storm babet continues to push northwards across the uk. its impacts are likely to be felt for much of the rest of the week. in fact, the met office has issued its highest level of alert. it's a rare red warning, in force for rain, valid from 6pm on thursday evening, right through until midday on friday. it's for north—eastern areas of scotland, parts of angus

and southern aberdeenshire. the totals are really going to start to stack up. the rain is quite widespread across the uk as we head through the rest of the week, but nowhere more so than across north—eastern areas of scotland, where there could be as much as two months�* worth of rainfall by the time we get to the end of the day on friday, around 200 to 250 millimetres of rain. and that heavy rain is moving northwards. this is storm babet, of course. the winds are strengthening out towards the east coast of scotland. gusts of wind here of around 70 miles an hour. the winds lightening towards the south. it's turning drier here. it is a mild start to the day, but of course, the temperatures are largely academic. and so that rain will continue to push northwards as we head through the morning. sunshine and showers, some of the showers possibly heavy and thundery across england and wales. the rain will start to turn very heavy, very persistent. it aligns with that strong south—easterly wind as we head through the day on thursday and it willjust keep coming as we come into thursday night and friday morning itself. so that south—easterly wind driving more rain, acting as a kind of conveyor belt. and there are wider amber

weather warnings in force across scotland as well, another one for rain across caithness and sutherland. and this one is for wind, too. now, with that brisk south—easterly wind, it's not the prevailing wind direction, so there could be some trees down, likely to be some impacts from these strong, gusty winds. but this, of course, is of most concern within the red warning area. now, there could be some extensive flooding, possibly some deep, fast flowing flood water, maybe some structural damage as well, some very tricky travelling conditions as well, so dangerous for travel. and then we see a second area of low pressure. that's just going to enhance the rainfall a little further, i think, on friday. but then as that low pressure builds through, we still see these gusty winds out towards the east coast. the focus of that rain will tend to be across central areas of england, down through parts of wales and particularly the south—east of england as we head towards the end of the day. still very windy for eastern coasts, but at least the rain lightens across scotland. do keep tuned to the forecast.

welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. i'm arunoday mukharji. let's get you the headlines. egypt announces an aid corridor to gaza, following what presidentjoe biden called a very blunt negotiation.

i was very blunt about the need to support getting in humanitarian aid to gaza. the us president _ humanitarian aid to gaza. the us president is _ humanitarian aid to gaza. the us president is now heading back to the us after offering unwavering american support to israel and warning against acting on rage. the white house says intelligence shows israel was not behind the gaza hospital explosion but many arab countries continue to blame an israeli air strike. the death toll in gaza surpasses 3000. voice-over: live from our studio in singapore, - this is bbc news. it's newsday. hello and welcome to the programme. we begin with the israel gaza war and news of a deal to allow aid into the palestinian territory, where

more than 1 palestinian territory, where more than1 million people