i will tell you continues. i will tell you about the impact of the football world cup in qatar had on the premier league last winter, as a new report finds injuries lasted longer and cost clubs more money. and it will be a new sport at the los angeles olympics in 2028. we will tell you about flag football and how it is growing in the uk. welcome along. thank you forjoining us. england's qualification campaign for next year's european championship in germany ended with an uninspired 1—1 draw in north macedonia. gareth southgate�*s side are still group winners — and the result ensures they'll be among the top seeds when the draw is made. but, as our football correspondentjohn murray says, it wasn't the way they

wanted to sign off. gareth southgate�*s team will be amongst the strongest sides in pot i for the finals draw a week on saturday. yet these last two matches against the weakest teams in the group were disappointing. debutant rico lewis was unfortunate to concede a penalty which, although it was saved by pickford, the macedonian captain bardi followed up to score. a headerfrom a corner by harry kane — on as a substitute — forced an own—goal for the equaliser. but otherwise, on a difficult, newly re—laid pitch, england struggled to break macedonia down. and so it was far from the uplifting end to the campaign they'd been hoping for. i have to be pleased with the progress of the team. if you'd said at the start of the campaign that we would be 8 wins, 2 draws at the end of the year, it's a pretty good record, and we can now start

to look forward and we've got these two exciting games in march to look forward to and prepare for. so, yeah, i think we've done a lot of things well — but there's always room for improvement. elsewhere in that group, the team that beat england in the final of the last euros — italy — ensured they'll be in germany next year to defend their trophy. their goalless draw with ukraine saw them take the second automatic qualification place in that group. ukraine's hopes will now rest on the play—offs in march. czech republic are through to the finals with a 3—0 win over moldova, although they'll have to find a new manager — jaroslav shilhavy stepped down moments after their victory. slovenia will be there too after a 2—1 victory over kazakhstan. denmark won that group — but were beaten 2—0 in northern ireland, who at least ended a disappointing campaign on a high. wales are preparing for their must—win qualifier against turkey, which takes place in cardiff on tuesday. not only must

robert page's side win — but they also need croatia to draw or lose to armenia. wales currently sit in third place in group d, five points behind turkey and two points back from croatia with one last attempt to avoid the playoffs and qualify automatically: we'll have no talk of play—offs. if we continue to talk of play—offs, you'll call the game off on tuesday. that's our mentality. that's our attitude. we're focused on the job. we spoke about regrets. we don't want any regrets at the final whistle on tuesday evening. we'll take control of it ourselves. we don't want to give the same effort we gave against croatia. and results going for us elsewhere. that will be a devastating blow for us to take. we can control what we can control, and that is going to give a performance that will win us the game. this time last year, the men's football world cup in qatar began, which of course had to be moved to the winter because of the high temperatures there. the men's european football injury index has found that the premier league had the second highest number of injuries across the continent thereafter, behind the german bundesliga.

the author of the report for howden, james burrows, has been telling us more. i think there's a couple of factors behind that. when you look at participant levels in the world cups, at a number of players, in percentage terms, that went to play at the world cup, the premier league contributed the most players out of the top five leagues. so, just over 23% of players playing in the premier league went to represent their country at the world cup finals. for the other four leagues, the levels of participation were between 9% and 14%. so, in very simple terms, the premier league are sending more players to the world cup finals — so, therefore, it's a pretty sort of clear line of argument that they're gonna see more injuries being sustained. one of the patterns that we've seen throughout all of these reports, as well, is that the premier league tends to compare unfavourably to the other leagues in terms of the number of injuries which are sustained, and they tend to be up there with the bundesliga. so perhaps the style of play

is contributing as well — so the bundesliga and the premier league be more associated with high—intensity, high—pressing styles of football versus those other european leagues that perhaps there's an argument in there that says the type of football that's being played and the intensity it's being played at is also contributing to the number of injuries that are being sustained. talking of injuries — spain and barcelona have confirmed midfielder gavi suffered a tear of his anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, and could miss the european championship next yean the 19—year—old was injured on international duty for spain in theirfinal euro qualifier against georgia. he'll need to have surgery and is expected to miss the rest of the season. us soccer says it hired the right person for the long—term, after appointing chelsea boss emma hayes as the new women's national team head coach — despite the fact she won't start in the role until the middle of next year. the ussf sporting director matt crocker made the comments about hayes in a news conference announcing the squad for next week's international friendlies against china. he says plans are being worked

on to have hayes visit the team in florida next week. she's developed into, like i mentioned, arguably, one of the world's best coaches. there were so many other things i found out about her in addition to her experience in the us — being multilingual, in terms of her ability to speak spanish, there are so many layers and depths to her qualities, and, yeah, i'mjust really excited with the coach that we've been able to land, and excited to learn and develop as well alongside her. so, yeah, it's great. straight from winning a record seventh atp finals title, the world number one, novak djokovic, has arrived in malaga for the davis cup finals. the 24—time grand slam champion is there to face quarter—final opponents great britain on thursday. he was greeted by former player — now tournament director — feliciano lopez. djokovic, who's won all the major titles this year except wimbledon, is hoping to lead serbia to the men's

team prize for the first time since 2010. and finally on the programme — flag football. it's not a sport everyone knows about but it's been officially added to the schedule at the 2028 olympic games in los angeles. it's a non—contact version of american football and is gaining popularity in the uk. our reporter adam samuel has been finding out more. the super bowl is the pinnacle of american sport. but with flag football's inclusion at the �*28 olympics, a new generation are being inspired, including here at st anne's academy, where they've built a unique relationship with the nfl�*s minnesota vikings. i saw the opportunity for our kids to get involved with it. from there, we started off with a really small flag football, after school, as an extracurricular. from there, we went on to the regional

tournament, won that, and then went down to tottenham hotspur stadium, where we represented the minnesota vikings and finished third in the uk. so, what is flag football? it's a fast—paced, five—on—five game played in 20—minute halves. the objective is to catch the ball or run it into an opponent's endzone, which scores you six points. however, the ball carrier must avoid having their flags pulled out, which ends each play — and if your team doesn't score in four plays, your opponent gets the ball back. according to the nfl, there's 20 million players worldwide — and of those, around 50% are female. this sport is undoubtedly on the rise. it's a safer version of american football. i think that's even better. you have to worry about the kids getting

injured in flag football. and the kids did so well — i'm excited about that, bought the vikings sponsoring and supporting this school, and the kids embracing american it's great. american football, it's great. i enjoy the teamwork, how you have to work together — and mostly the throwing as well. because i love throwing. i love the tackling and stuff. and i love that it's _ non—contact, because i don't like contact. and then it'sjust| great fun overall. everything we're building towards is building towards that 2028 olympics, where flag football's going to be a sport. it's an opportunity to put it on the global radar. we don't want to wait until then. we want to build that interest and that pool of athletes now. i've been hearing "olympics" a lot today. and my first thought was — "i have to put my name " fo rwa rd. "i have to try my best." because playing in la would be great, you know? that would be a once—in—a—lifetime thing, you know? olympic dreams for an olympic sport. adam samuel, bbc news. you can get all

the latest sports news at from the bbc sport app, orfrom our website — that's bbc.com/sport. including the european championship qualifying results — england drawing 1—1 in north macedonia. italy will be at the finals next year, after they got a 0—0 draw against ukraine. from me and the sportsday team, that's all for now. goodbye. hello. the weather's fairly quiet at the moment — typical autumn weather, really. towards the end of the week, possibly a little dose of winter on the way. but let's concentrate on the here and now. so tuesday, a rather cloudy day across england and wales, but across scotland and northern ireland, i think, some sunshine on the way. now, the satellite picture shows that we're sort of in between weather systems.

we have got thicker cloud on the way. that will be in place across the country on wednesday, but before that happens, this area of high pressure nosing across the country, and that means that the morning will have been sunny across scotland and northern ireland and also quite chilly, whereas we've got the thicker cloud across the bulk of england and wales, with temperatures between 7 and ten celsius. so, later on in the morning, i think it stays fairly cloudy across east anglia, parts of the midlands and the south. some showers, too. you can see that breeze off the north sea, but sunshine developing across many parts of northern england and wales. the opposite is true across scotland and northern ireland. after that crisp, sunny start, thicker cloud moving in, and perhaps some spots of rain. and then, take a look at wednesday — really thick cloud across the northern half of the uk, a stronger breeze and also some outbreaks of rain, but the temperatures will be a little bit higher. this is relatively mild atlantic air, so in some spots, up to about 11; degrees, for example, in belfast,

and then thursday, and into friday, we see some big changes going on in the air. this cold front is expected to sweep southwards across the uk, opening up the doors to stronger winds and colder air, sweeping in from the northern climes, all the way from the norwegian sea, and, yes, that does mean that we'll see some wintry showers, particularly across the scottish hills. now, thursday isn't going to be too chilly — i think temperatures will quickly, later on in the day, drop, in the north, but i think in the south, we're still talking about 13 or so. by friday, after the passage of that cold front, you can see a northwesterly or northerly wind, some wintry showers there across the scottish hills, but also a lot of crisp sunshine, and with that colder air, temperatures only around 4 degrees in the lowlands of scotland, maybe about 8 or 9 in the south. bye— bye.

live from washington, this is bbc news. close to a deal — hamas leader says his group is nearing a truce agreement with israel. 28 premature babies arrive in egypt — transferred from the gaza's main al—shifa hospital.

hundreds of thousands displaced in the horn of africa due to heavy rains and flash floods. another shake up for openai after the artificial intelligence company names its third ceo in three days. and us president biden celebrates his 81st birthday by marking an annual tradition that's for the birds. hello i'm caitriona perry, you're very welcome. hamas leader ismail haniyeh says the group is close to a truce agreement with israel — according to a statement posted on telegram. he says the group has delivered its response to qatari mediators. there's been no further details about what the terms would be, but it's widely thought that it will include a number of hostages released in exchange for a pause infighting. here's what the white house spokesmanjohn kirby said on monday.