i have a cancer where you can operate and you have to try to slow it down as much as possible, and that is what i am doing. and yorkshire cricket's former chairman apologises for racism at the club as his controversial return moves a step closer. hello again. he says he'll always be a patriot, but after 2a years of historic success bill belichick is leaving new england. regarded by many as the greatest coach in nfl history. he and tom brady took the franchise to six wins from their nine super bowl appearances. both records for a coach and quarterback. but since brady left things haven't been as good and after the 2023 season

handed belichick the worst win—loss record of his 29 year coaching career belichick has parted company with the patriots. it's likely he was pushed rather than choosing to go, and this is what he said in a typically brief media appearance on thursday alongside team owner robert kraft. robert and i, after a series of discussions, have mutually agreed to part ways. and for me, this is a day of gratitude and celebration. we had a vision of building a winter building championship football team here, and that succeeded, exceeded my wildest dreams and expectations. so i'm very proud of that. and i always have those great memories, i'll carry with those those with me the rest of my life. coach belichick will forever be celebrated as a legendary sports icon here in new england, and i

believe go in as a pro football hall of famer on the first ballot. why? because he is the greatest coach of all times. well, tom brady agrees. posting on social media that he could never have been the player he was without belichick. the coach is now 71 years old. but only 14 wins short of the nfl all time record held by the legendary don shula. so even though he's known very little other than new england he's not retiring. i don't think there's much out there in the world that interests bill belichick other than football. if you want to talk about something other than football, you need to find somebody other than bill belichick to do it with because that's all he's about being part ofa team. breaking down film that still gets them up in the morning, gets them excited, and i think it's the only thing that he really, really cares about. former england manager sven goran—eriksson has revealed he has at best a year to live after being diagnosed

with terminal cancer. eriksson was the first foreign coach to manage england reaching three major championship quarter finals in a row. after spells in english and italian club football he was most recently working at klaastad in his native sweden before stepping down 11 months ago. eriksson says he will "fight for as long as possible". so i fall and my children took me to the hospital. and after one day of examination. so i fall and my children took me to the hospital. and after one day of examination. and. they told me that i got five small strokes, but that's ok. they said, no problem, you recover 100% from that.

but worse, they said "you have cancer. "which we can't operate. and we will give you treatment medicine and like it. it will live as long as possible". oi live a totally normal life. not in hospital now and then yes, i go for a visit, but i live at home and i have friends here. and christmas, new year, the whole family was there. a lot of people and i'm going out. i try to exercise as much as possible, which is less, of course, than it was one year ago. but i have a normal life and when you get the message like that, i think you appreciate every day and you take, you are happy

when you wake up in the morning and you feel 0k. so that's what i'm doing. ireland head coach andy farrell will lead the british and irish lions when they tour australia next year. farrell is named as head coach of the lions for the first time having served as assistant to warren gatland when they triumphed in australia in 2013 and again when they toured new zealand four years later. farrell has just signed a new contract to be in charge of ireland until the next world cup in 2027... but will miss next year's six nations to concentrate on his work with the lions. well, it feels fantastic. he actually feels great to those finally out there. i know there was a lot of speculation or whatever, but it's great for me to to start the process and off we go from here. i wouldn't take this on if i wasn't excited about trying to do the bestjob that i could possibly be. and ultimately, that's to be successful in a british and irish lions tour to australia. i know how difficult

that is to to do and to achieve and the work that has to go into that. but that's that's what i love, that's what i'm passionate about. the coaching of all that. this is what touring is all about to embrace all of that. and i'm talking about the length of the tour, the pressure of the tour, the games that are coming rapidly the whole time, playing games closer together that you've you've not done for, for so long, having no excuses, trying to make sure that you mix with absolutely everyone and everyone becomes your best mate. and what you're trying to get on the back of that is memories that are and bonds that will last forever. and that's what it's all about. yorkshire cricket club has approved a takeover bid by a consortium headed by its former chairman. colin graves was in charge for part of the period during which the club was eventually fined for failing to address the systemic use of racist or discriminatory language. the takeover bid will now be voted on by the yorkshire club's members... but the former player at the centre of the allegations azeem rafiq says the move will "empower racists". our sports editor

dan roan reports. yorkshire cricket club has struggled to recover from its racism scandal. the county fined last year for failing to tackle the systemic use of discriminatory language despite being chairman for some of that period. colin graves is now set to take over the club and having been criticised for describing some incidents as banter today, he said sorry. in a statement, graves said i apologise personally and unreservedly to anyone who experienced any form of racism at yorkshire. "discrimination or abuse based on race, ethnicity or any other protected characteristic is not and never will be acceptable. "i profoundly regret some of the language i used when asked about the events that took place when i was chairman". promising fresh investment graves�* return will save yorkshire from the brink of administration. the county owing his family trust around £15 million after a bailout 20 years ago. the club's chief executive today telling me why the board approved the takeover. this is the viable option that keeps yorkshire cricket operational. so it's a good day for yorkshire cricket.

as you know, it has been controversial. do you understand that? do you accept it's not a good, look given everything that's happened at yorkshire? so i appreciate people have their own opinions. i absolutely do. i also believe that now is the time for people to understand the dire financial situation that this board has picked up due to the allegations that had previously put in place. colin and the new board coming in should be given the second chance. but with cricket under scrutiny over its record on discrimination, some see this as a backward step. former yorkshire player azeem rafiq, whose revelations of suffering racism there plunged the county into crisis, said he's dismayed. a lot of anger, frustration and all it does is confirms and sends the message loud and clear to south asians that cricket is not a welcoming place and a safe place for us. you know, i've had enough for a very long time. i've seen this at my club. i no longer do. the ecb today said it was vital that work at headingley and beyond to make cricket

more inclusive continued. but with graves�* divisive takeover voted on by yorkshire's members early next month, the controversy is set to continue. dan roan, bbc news. ronnie o'sullivan is through to the semi—finals of the masters snooker for the fifteenth time, despite calling himself �*awful�* in his win over barry hawkins... it was a scrappy match at alexandra palace in london with both players making mistakes. this miss by hawkins when he was 50 points ahead in the ninth frame cost him dear as o'sullivan the table to win by 6—3. shaun murphy survived a scare against jack lisowski, potting this black avoided losing a third frame in a row and the 2015 winner secured a 6—3 victory to set up a semi final against 0'sullivan on saturday rory mcilroy looked anything but rusty as he opened the new golf season with a flawless round of 62 at the inaugural dubai invitational. he sank nine birdies to go two shots clear of the field. mcilroy hasn't played

since finishing a distant 22nd in the dp world tour championship in november, and he said he'd even surprised himself, with how well he'd played at the dubai creek resort. you can get all the latest sports news at from the bbc sport app, orfrom our website — from me and the rest of the team at the bbc sport centre, goodbye. hello there. it was another day where some of us had sunshine, some of us had cloudy skies on thursday. the cloud, again, was coming in from the north sea, bringing with it some patches of drizzle for east scotland, eastern areas of england. but as the cloud came around the area of high pressure that's dominating to the northwest, it actually mixed in some slightly drier airjust above the cloud layer as those winds went across the mountains and that

drier air evaporated the cloud. and so, what a glorious day it was across parts of the highlands, with not a cloud in the sky. we're going to have a similar kind of weather prospects, really, over the next day or so. with these clear skies in place in scotland, it's very cold night in places, temperatures getting down into minus double figures, —10, —12 degrees, something like that. whereas where we keep the cloud, that is across large parts of england, wales and northern ireland, it'll stay largely frost—free. and so, for friday morning, it's another day where cloud will vary quite a lot. the cloud thick enough across eastern areas of england to bring us a few patches of drizzle at times, particularly during the morning, the afternoon tending to become a little bit drier. the best of the sunshine — well, scotland, cloud might break in northern ireland, and the northwest of both england and wales could also see some breaks in the cloud. now, temperatures give or take around about six degrees, bit colder than that, though, in the sunshine in scotland. 0n into the weekend's weather prospects — we start to get a northwesterly wind moving in. thicker cloud brings the threat of a few showers

for northern scotland, maybe an odd spit of rain for northern ireland, too. still quite cloudy across england, wales, but probably a better chance of seeing a few cloud breaks, little bit of sunshine coming through, and it continues to be cold for the time of year. but then, as we get into the second half of the weekend and into monday, across northern areas of scotland, northerly winds start to blow harder and we start to get showers turning to snow. some accumulations are quite likely, so we could start to see some disruption across one and two routes. elsewhere, though, through sunday and monday, little overall change in the weather picture. some sharp frosts, a lot of dry weather, some spells of sunshine. beyond that, though, into next week, we could see some areas of snow affecting northern areas of the uk early in the week and maybe a system coming up from the south later in the week. there is still quite a bit of uncertainty about those kind of features, but the potential for seeing some disruption is certainly there. the highest risk initially across parts of northern scotland. bye for now.

live from taipei. this is newsday on bbc news. breaking news. the white house confirms that the us and uk have confirmed —— started launching missiles in the red

sea. also this hour — we're in taiwan where china warns voters here to make the right choice to avoid war and decline, ahead of saturday's key presidential elections. the island has become a flashpoint in the battle for regional supremacy. we will find out what people living on the taiwan strait think. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc world news. it's newsday. welcome to a special edition of newsday from taipei and of newsday from taipei we have plenty of coverage of and we have plenty of coverage of the upcoming election ahead on the programme. but before we get to that we have an update on the breaking news story happening over the last hour. we can bring you this report. the united states and written have gun strikes against

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