hello from the bbc sport centre six more games in the champions league on thursday. five—time winners barcelona are in action — they go to monaco. start to the season. five wins out of fivesees them sit top of la liga, the only team with a 100% winning record. the last time they won the champions league, however, was back in the 2014—15 campaign. monaco beat barcelona in pre—season, but barca boss hansi flick says his side are ready to put on a permonance. we know it is a really good team. they won against us and this is maybe... but it is now a new situation. we have a new

champions league and we start this competition and the champions league is the best competition in the world. everyone i think is ready, wants to play, and hopefully it goes on the right direction. goes on the right direction. arsenal winger bukayo arsenal winger bukayo saka is available to saka is available to play in their champions league play in their champions league opener at atalanta. opener at atalanta. saka was taken off in saka was taken off in sunday's north london derby win sunday's north london derby win at tottenham with arsenal boss at tottenham with arsenal boss mikel arteta saying mikel arteta saying he "could not continue". he "could not continue". captain martin odegaard captain martin odegaard has been ruled out with has been ruled out with a significant ankle injury a significant ankle injury which arteta hopes won't have which arteta hopes won't have too much of an impact too much of an impact on their perfomances. on their perfomances. he is ourcaptain, different rightdirection. he is ourcaptain, he is our captain, he is one of our biggest players without a he is our captain, he is one of our biggest players without a doubt. he has been one of the doubt. he has been one of the most consistent players in the most consistent players in the last two or three seasons and last two or three seasons and our identity is related to his our identity is related to his way of playing and his way of way of playing and his way of behaving. we are going to have behaving. we are going to have to deal with that and that is a to deal with that and that is a testament to the team, have testament to the team, have

capable we are to show a capable we are to show a testament to the team, have capable 'face e to show a testament to the team, have capable 'face and show a testament to the team, have capable 'face and in ow a testament to the team, have capable 'face and in the; testament to the team, have capable 'face and in the fact different face and in the fact that we have other players under the options that can still be effective. under the options that can still be effective. four other games to tell you about for the men. xabi alsonso�*s side, bayer leverkusen, head to rotterdam as they are up against feyenoord. french side brest make their champions league debut, they're at home to sturm graz of austria. atletico madrid face rb leipzig and benfica go

that's after rivals red bull raised questions about its legality. footage from the azerbaijan grand prix last weekend appeared to show a part of mclaren s rear wing flexing upwards on the straight which may reduce drag and increase straight—line speed. however, an fia spokesperson says mclaren have passed all the necessary tests. cricket and england are taking on australia in the first one day international of a five—match series. stand—in skipper harry brook won the toss and chose to bat at trent bridge. they got off to a solid start, with openers ben duckett and phil salt reaching 48 before the loss of the first wicket. salt and willjacks the wickets to fall. england are currently 211—2 in the 32nd over. ben duckett is closing in on a century. ben duckett is closing

in on a century. and that's all the sport for now. thousands of pharmacists across england, wales and northern ireland are going to be balloted on whether to open for less time and cut their services. the national pharmacy association says the vote is unprecedented, and pharmacists are struggling to keep their businesses going because the funding they get from the government isn't enough. hugh pym has more. olivier runs a small group of pharmacies near reading. they can regularly open for up to 60 hours a week, but that could be cut to just a0. the minimum required under a government contract if there's a vote in favour of protest action over funding. work outside that contract, including some emergency contraception, substance misuse services and free medicine delivery would be suspended, he says. feelings are running high about funding lagging behind rising costs. what we're asking our members to consider is actually reducing their opening times

to core hours. so most community pharmacies are contracted by the nhs to work for a0 hours. but many of our members work for more time than that. we think the average is over 50 hours, so that would mean a reduction of ten hours a week. now, that may not sound like a lot, but ten hours will be at the times of evenings, maybe weekends, and that potentially would push people into other parts of the nhs when we know that that's already struggling. the ballot is being carried out by the national pharmacy association. it has 6,500 community pharmacy members in the uk out of a total of 13,000. the npa says about 1,500 have closed since 2016. since then, core government funding in england has fallen by 40% after adjusting for inflation. the pharmacy first service, launched injanuary in england, extended the range of services which can be provided, including treatment of sinusitis, earache and shingles.

the npa said members were not being asked to pull out of the scheme, but noted that a reduction in opening hours to a0 per week would have an impact on its effectiveness. health is a devolved issue, and separate ballots are being carried out among pharmacists in wales and northern ireland because of similar concerns about funding. there's no discussion about protest action in scotland, with the npa saying there is more adequate financial support. a department of health spokesperson covering england said... pharmacies had been neglected for years and better use would be made of their skills, including more independent prescribing. hugh pym, bbc news. a new report on the standard of maternity care in england says it urgently needs to be reformed, to stop harm from becoming normalised. the care quality commission has warned of widespread problems in hospitals across the country, and is calling for immediate action to address them. 0ur health correspondent catherine burns reports. fiona designed this nursery when she was pregnant, picking out outfits for her baby,

but her daughter, aliona, never lived to enjoy any of this. things that i made for her, birth announcement pictures. fiona went into labour at home, her waters broke and she was worried because she didn't think her baby was moving as much as normal. she should have been assessed then. when she was in hospital, her baby had an abnormal heart rate. this should have been assessed. it wasn't. baby aliona was pronounced dead within half an hour of birth. when they came over and said my name, ijust turned around to them and went, she's dead, isn't she? and... ..and they said, yes. and this primal scream is probably the only way i can describe it, itjust came out of me with no sort of control over my body. a tiny piece of her hair. leeds teaching hospitals has said it's sorry that the care it provided was not at the standard it would expect, and that it has learned lessons from what happened. but stories like fiona's

are happening too often. you will stay... 0ver recent years, we've seen high—profile maternity scandals. yesterday, bereaved families in nottingham heard a progress review on what's become the biggest investigation into maternity failings in nhs history. almost 2,000 cases are being reviewed there. the healthcare regulator, the cqc, was worried about this so carried out a national maternity inspection. it focussed on about two thirds of hospital maternity units — any that hadn't been inspected since march 2021. of the 131 units it inspected, not a single one was rated as outstanding for safety. 35% had good safety ratings, leaving 65% as either requires improvement or inadequate for safety. in other words, two thirds of maternity units are not safe enough.

this report doesn't hold back, saying unless things change, poor care and harm will become normalised. but in some ways, none of this is new. there have been warnings about maternity safety for years now. we've reported on this over and again, but still the problems remain. this report picks out certain key issues — women not getting assessed quickly enough, trusts not learning from mistakes, not enough staff, discrimination based on race. it says, disappointingly, none of these problems are new. it is one of the biggest issues that keeps me awake at night, worrying about the quality of care being delivered today and the risk of disaster greeting women in labour tomorrow. he says trusts will be supported to make rapid improvements so all women can feel confident using maternity services. but fiona and other families

say, for things to improve, there should be a public inquiry into the state of maternity care. catherine burns, bbc news. ijust want i just want to tell you that in the next few minutes we are expecting to hear from the leader of the militant group hezbollah. he leader of the militant group hezbollah-— leader of the militant group hezbollah. , , . ., hezbollah. he is expecting to seak hezbollah. he is expecting to speak very — hezbollah. he is expecting to speak very shortly _ hezbollah. he is expecting to speak very shortly after - hezbollah. he is expecting to speak very shortly after 37 i speak very shortly after 37 people, is the latest figure, 37 people died after those attacks on pagers and walkie—talkies in lebanon. thousands of people have been injured. hezbollah has blamed israel. there are fears the conflict has spread. these are the scenes on the lebanese border. israel has said a new phase of the war with hezbollah is about to open. we are going to be hearing from the leader of hezbollah very shortly. we will bring you that here on bbc

news. do stay with us. hello there. good afternoon. well, it's still warm and dry today, with plenty more blue sky and sunshine to come, despite that rather murky start. now, yesterday, temperatures reached 26 celsius in the far north of scotland. here today it's slightly cooler, but still the sunshine continues, particularly out towards the west. and for the rest of the week, well, temperatures remain above the seasonal average. it's going to be cooler and cloudier always for eastern—facing coasts. expect some wet weather across the southern half of the uk on friday and through the weekend.

live from london, this is bbc news. funerals are held for hezbollah fighters killed in two days of exploding device attacks across lebanon. at least 37 people have been killed and thousands more injured. the hezbollah leader, hassan nasrallah, is due to give a televised address shortly. the iran—backed armed group, has previously promised "just punishment" for the attacks. it comes as israel says it has started a new phase in the war and moves troops from gaza to the north of israel. welcome to bbc news. if you'rejustjoining us, we're expecting to hear from the hezbollah leader, hassan nazrallah, in the next few minutes — his first response after two days of attacks in lebanon,

using sabotaged pagers and walkie talkies —