in key battleground states. a bbc investigation reveals — that super—strength — synthetic opioid drugs — linked to hundreds of deaths, have been found in samples of fake medicines sold online. archaeologists have discovered an ancient mayan city underground with pyramids and a support centre. and a new piece of music believed to be by the polish composer chopin has been discovered nearly 200 years after it was written. first of all the sports news with hugh ferris. portuguese club sporting have confirmed manchester united are interested in making ruben amorim their next manager and are willing to pay his release clause. amorin has won two league titles in portugal and has become one of the most coveted young coaches in europe with united looking for a new boss after united sacking erik ten hag on monday.

a statement from sporting to the lisbon stock exchange said the premier league club is ready to pay amorim's ten million euro release clause. pep guardiola is hoping that rodri will use winning the ballon d'or to give him energy to recover from his serious knee injury. the spanish midfielder is the first manchester city player to claim the award given to the best footballer in the world. and his club manager is delighted. we are so proud. of him. i think it is the first time we could have imagined, it years ago, that one player received this prestigious award, that we are so delighted to be part of it, to share it with him. three of the home nations will be be continuing their bid to qualify for next year's women's european championship in switzerland later. scotland can move a step closer if they avoid

defeat at home to hungary. they're 1—0 up from the first leg. a draw or a win at easter road would see them reach the play off second round. if they win that tie, then they would qualify for the euros. i think the players feel really excited to be here. special circumstances for some of them. also, they have good experience playing here, and coming back we are excited to have this good experience with our friends and continue excited to have this good experience with ourfriends and continue in this journey of qualification for the playoffs. so scotland have a lead. elsewhere northern ireland take a 1—1 draw into their home leg against croatia, while wales will have to come from 2—1 down to beat slovakia. steve borthwick has named his england team to face new zealand at twickenham in their autumn nations series opener on saturday. ben spencer will make his first start for england at number nine in place of alex mitchell, who remains out with a neck injury. henry slade is fit enough to start in the midfield, and will partner ollie lawrence, with marcus smith at fly—half. tom curry makes his first england start since the rugby world cup 12 months ago. while slade has played less

than an hour of rugby this season since returning from shoulder surgery for exeter last weekend. henry slade wanted to play for his club and you have experienced players, and experienced test player, and that is what you wanted to do, so i backed him. he hasn't beenin to do, so i backed him. he hasn't been in great —— he has been in great physical shape, he had this shoulder surgery and did what he needed to do to find his return and be back for exeter and for england. for this automations, he has been driven, which is what you want as a coach, players like henry slade. england have named jacob bethell in their squad for their three—test series in new zealand, with wicketkeeperjamie smith missing the tour to be at the birth of his first child. warwickshire all rounder bethell made his international debut in the summer, playing two t20s and five one—day internationals against australia, but this is his first call—up to the test squad. the barbados—born player has made his name in the shorterformats but is yet to score a century

in red ball cricket. the full squad is on the bbc sport website and app. katie boulter is through to the second round of the hong kong open after a straight sets victory over aoi ito. the british number one came in to this off the back of reaching the semi—finals in tokyo last week and eased through the first set. she broke early in the second and held her serve to win 6—4 6—4. she'll face china's wang xiyu in the last 16. and that's all the sport for now. more on the website and olly foster has the sport at half past six. here in the uk, the government has announced more details of what is in this week's budget for the national health service. the funding is part of the government's overall pledge to increase the number of nhs hospital appointments and procedures in england by 40,000 per week. hugh pym reports. out on the wards with a story to tell.

the chancellor and the health secretary meeting hospital staff to explain some of their spending plans for the nhs in england. the budget, they were told, would provide money to help get more patients treated, and reduce waiting lists. to deliver on the 40,000 additional appointments every single week in our health service, to reduce those waiting times and waiting lists. and alongside that, the biggest capital budget since 2010 in our national health service, to invest in the new scanners, the diagnostic equipment, the radiography equipment that our nhs desperately needs — alongside the reform to get better productivity and better outcomes for patients. so what are the details? the treasury says £1.8 billion of extra money has been provided to the nhs since the election for more operations and appointments. there'll be 1.57 billion allocated next year for equipment including scanners and radiotherapy machines. the challenge is to bring down the total waiting list of 7.61; million. extra money announced by the westminster government

generates more, as well, for scotland, wales, and northern ireland. these are some — but not all — of the government's spending plans for the nhs in england. to find out overall totals for this year and next year and how they compare with the previous trend, we'll have to wait for the budget speech itself. health experts welcome the new funding, but warn that there are many unanswered questions about future policy — with the government's ten—year nhs plan not published until next spring. if you think about the huge pressures on the national health service now, but also into the future with the ageing population, we're simply not going to manage carrying on the way we have with marginal improvements — or, indeed, significant improvements. there really has to be a massive step change in the way that we do things in the national health service. and really the game—changer here is technology with different working practices, and that should be the focus of reform, and that's what we really need to see the look of — in addition to the money — and that really will only begin to be forthcoming in the spring.

some of the new investment will go into surgical hubs — specialist centres for carrying out planned operations. the aim is to get patients treated quickly and more efficiently. but getting back to the 18—week target for waiting times will be a big ask, and today's announcement is just the start. hugh pym, bbc news. join us live as chancellor rachel reeves reveals the autumn budget tomorrow. bbc news will bring you every moment, every insight, and every impact in our exclusive, in—depth coverage. coverage starts at 9am at with tomorrow morning. —— westminster. a week to go until polling day in the united states — who's ahead? the bbc�*s head of statistics, robert cuffe, has pulled himself away from the spreadsheets to give us a rundown on how

the candidates are faring. yes, seven days to go. and democrat kamala harris, who's been ahead in the polls for much of the campaign, still is nationally, but onlyjust. now, this isn't a single national vote. the states get the final say. so let's go state by state, or at least through the main ones. each state is getting a number of what they call electoral college votes, depending roughly on its population. so let's give them dark grey squares, one for each of these votes to show you who gets the biggest, say, loads for texas, but not so many for sparsely populated montana. now, it's winner takes all. in nearly every state, the electors vote for the candidate who won the popular vote there, and trump and harris need more than half of those electoral college votes. that's 270 to win, and most states tend to be pretty locked in, eitherfor the republicans in red or the democrats here in blue, but not enough to guarantee victory. you can see here each party's wins

across these safer states in 2020 weren't quite enough to get them over the line. now, the last seven states up here are much harder to predict. nevada and arizona, out west, georgia, north carolina here in the southeast, and michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania up north. and both trump and harris need to win a good few of them to become president. the polling in these swing states isn't so good for kamala harris. at the start of october, she was ahead in about four of the seven, with one more basically tied, but with a week to go, if anything, donald trump here in red is edging ahead in a few. now, a quick word of caution. polls can't be precise to one decimal place. normally the truth is a couple of points up or down. so with a week to go, the polls can't pick your winner. either candidate could still win any or all of these and romp home, so there's plenty to play for. head to the bbc proms website for

much more analysis. super—strength synthetic opioid drugs, linked to hundreds of deaths, have been found in samples of fake medicines sold online. some are being marketed to treat anxiety, allergies, and sleeping problems. they're called nitazenes, and the bbc has spoken to one mother about the loss of her 23—year—old son, who was found dead next to fake anti—anxiety pills, as navtej johal reports. singing. watching alex perform and hearing him sing was, i'd say, one of the biggestjoys ever in my life. i feel like alex's love for music was... like for many people, it was an escape from the struggles of daily life. alex harpum dreamed of becoming an opera singer. injuly last year, he'd just finished his degree

at a prestigious music school. when he was found dead in his student flat. he was 23 years old. in his bedroom, police found anti—anxiety medication he'd taken that turned out to be fake. tests later revealed the pills contained nitazenes — super—strength synthetic opioids. half of me has gone, that will never come back. i miss him all day every day. alex was my best friend. there's no one else i can talk to now that really gets me. i'll never recover from it, truly. it's not known why alex bought the pills. he is one of hundreds of people in the past year whose deaths have been linked to nitazenes. bbc research can reveal nitazenes have now also been found in fake medicines sold as being able to treat conditions like anxiety or insomnia.

we've analysed results from the national drug testing service wedinos, and found 130 instances in the 12 months to september where people tried to buy medication found to have been contaminated by nitazenes. experts say some people are seeking out prescription medicines illegally because they want to self—medicate. the united nations says it's concerned that the contamination of these medicines by dealers could be deliberate, and mirrors the start of the us opioid crisis. which drew in people seeking prescription drugs. so here in europe we are not yet in that situation. but these could be the early signs. the national crime agency says nitazenes are being created in illicit labs in china and entering the uk in the post. 15 synthetic opioids were banned in march, and last month the government proposed legislation to ban more. alex's family want to see more drug testing, and are warning that anyone can be affected by nitazenes. i think there are a lot of parents out there that assume that their kids would never do

anything like this, and maybe seeing alex's profile, who he was, what he was doing in life, itjust perhaps makes people think twice and think, actually, itjust perhaps makes people think twice. navteonhal, bbc news. i spoke to harry sumnall is professor in substance use at liverpooljohn moores university. he outlined why nitazenes have contaminated these fake drugs. we've always had a problem with fake medicines in the past, and also unlicensed medicines which have been diverted for use. there might be an element of experimentation, perhaps organised crime groups are testing the market, but i think there's wider geopolitical considerations as well. in afghanistan at the moment, the taliban have placed a ban on the opium crop, which would lead to production of heroin. there's perhaps going to be a long term disruption to heroin markets. so perhaps suppliers are testing the market with some of these

other synthetic opioids. we've also seen in north america, as well, how easily markets can shift from heroin to synthetic drugs, much more harmful synthetic drugs. and we're very concerned that we might be seeing the early signs of that here in europe, and in particular in the uk. but coming back to the basic point, do you think it's accident or deliberate? i think there might be a mixture. so in australia, for example, we have evidence of contamination of cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy with these nitazenes and that's probably accidental. i think there's also probably accidental contamination of heroin supplies in the uk. but when we're thinking about well—manufactured, formulated packaged medicines like what was being discussed in your package just then, perhaps this is a bit more worrying and this might be deliberate. and harry, just tell viewers who are watching, who may not know about nitazenes

a little more about them, because they are incredibly powerful, and we've seen just a prolific number of deaths in the us, haven't we? yes. so the world is facing a synthetic opioid crisis. so viewers might be familiar with heroin, which is classed as an opioid. nitazenes are synthetic opioids. they're made in labs — many times more potent than heroin. so you need much less of the substance to have the same effect. but that also increases the risks of overdose and potentially death. and in north america, where the supply has shifted from heroin to fentanyl and other type of potent synthetic opioid, they're recording around 100,000 drug deaths a year. now in the world of sport. the spain and manchester city midfielder rodri has won — football's most prestigious individual prizes — the ballon d'or. the 28—year—old helped spain win the european

championship in the summer — and a huge part in helping city win a fourth consecutive premier league title. that is the sermon you last night, and there has been a huge response. with me is our reporter emily brown. there has been controversy and reaction because the football are not mentioned in that introduction is viniciusjunior, and so many people thinking that the ballon d'or would be his this year. that people thinking that the ballon d'or would be his this year.— would be his this year. that is ri . ht, would be his this year. that is right, manchester _ would be his this year. that is right, manchester city - would be his this year. that is i right, manchester city midfielder rodri one this year is ballon d'or i had of the book he favourite viniciusjunior who pays had of the book he favourite vinicius junior who pays for had of the book he favourite viniciusjunior who pays for real madrid and because of that real madrid and because of that real madrid did not turn out to the ceremony. they have won that award 12 times but said their representatives would not go where they are not respected after learning that their player had not won the trophy. the brazilian international, who is 2a, was the

clubs top goal scorer last season and they won the champions league and they won the champions league and la liga. viniciusjuniortook and they won the champions league and la liga. viniciusjunior took to social media quite quickly. he posted on x, i would do it ten times if i have to, they are not ready. he also took to instagram not too long ago and posted a picture of real madrid, the club, sitting on the nine, so it is clear he was feeling particularly frustrated, and also there's been a reaction from other players as well. his team—mates set on x... and former brazil forward, or over, who one the ballon d'or in 1999 was also critical of the decision. he said" in my opinion he was the best and should have one, i don't understand the criteria used by those who voted. " so lots of reaction. . ., ._ ,

reaction. there are always controversies, _ reaction. there are always controversies, the - reaction. there are always controversies, the whole l reaction. there are always i controversies, the whole lino reaction. there are always - controversies, the whole lino missy and cristiano ronaldo thing, but this is almost completely different. rodri won the euros with this country, and for manchester city he is important, they almost always stumble when he does not play. he was stumble when he does not play. he: was integral for mattresses city and was integral for mattresses city and was instrumental in mattress city when in the premier league earlier this year and played a crucial role in spain when the euros that he was in spain when the euros that he was in fact named player of the tournament. so last season, rodri lostjust tournament. so last season, rodri lost just once tournament. so last season, rodri lostjust once in the fa cups final two manchester united and he is the first manchester city player to win the ballon d'or and the first premier league based player since cristiano ronaldo in 2008. he is the first spanish player to win the war —— a word since luis suarez in 1960. it is what the mattress mattress and

city manager, pep guardiola, said he was so proud of rodri, and he's not there tojudge was so proud of rodri, and he's not there to judge what other clubs wanted to do, so he did not want to comment on real madrid's actions. archaeologists have discovered a huge ancient city hidden underground in mexico which may give a better understand of the maya civilisation. known for their distinctive temples and cities which stood for centuries but due to factors such as war and disease, the mayans faded into obscurity around 300 years ago. however, thanks to modern technologies, including radar, archaeologists are able to uncover these civilisations in their native north and central american countries, as georgina rannard reports. deep in the central american jungle, the trees are hiding treasures. radar fired from a plane peers through the canopy to search for ruins. this is in guatemala, but archaeologists have now discovered another huge city — this time in mexico. they're calling it valeriana. now, we don't have any pictures of valeriana —

that's because no—one's been there for hundreds of years — so we thought we'd show you what it might have looked like, here in this virtual studio. this is a mayan pyramid temple, similar to the ones that would have been found in the city. people worshipped here, brought riches like jade masks, and even buried the dead. in total, the team found almost 7,000 buildings in an area of the jungle about the size of edinburgh. up to 50,000 people may have lived in this area at its peak in the ninth century. alongside houses, the archaeologists found evidence of amphitheatres, plazas, and even a sports field for an ancient ballgame. it would have been a very colourful, very lush, and i think very striking environment to move through. things like palaces and temple pyramids — all of those would have been covered in lime plaster and then painted red, pink and yellow and black. there would have been clusters of buildings where people mostly spend their time making ceramics,

or mostly spend their time shaping stone tools. this part of the world, there's some evidence for marketplaces. it took centuries, but war, climate change, and the spanish invasion caused the collapse of the mayans. but their descendants still live in campeche today, and at the new site — just 15 minutes from a busy road — their ancient relatives lie beneath their feet. georgina rannard, bbc news. a new piece of music — believed to be by the polish composer, frederic chopin has been discovered, nearly 200 years after it was written. the unknown waltz was unearthed in the vault of the morgan library and museum, in new york. unsuprisingly, it's generated huge excitment. this is a little bit of it — being played by the pianist lang lang — we can also hear too — from the curator robinson mccleenan who discovered the manuscript.

piano music. when i saw the manuscript, it was unique within the collection and it caught my eye as something that looks like frederic chopin, the handwriting and of course it said frederic chopin at the top, and it's a minor, so i had a feeling of cautious excitement. in many of cash in my line of work, your doubts until proven otherwise. i took a snapshot on my phone and brought it home and played through it a bit, and hum the tune and had the feeling, perhaps, if this is what i think it is, i might be one of the first people in modern times to hear this melody. that

first people in modern times to hear this melody-— this melody. that was the curator after the discovery. _ this melody. that was the curator after the discovery. i _ this melody. that was the curator after the discovery. i spoke - after the discovery. i spoke to debbie wiseman, a conductor and composer, and i asked her it's only 2a bars long, but within those 2a bars it's perfectly formed. and i'm just wondering, because it's a piece

that is so short, whether it was a gift for one of his friends. he was quite well known for giving gifts of music to his friends, and i'm wondering if thisjust might be that something that he wrote on a morning sat at his piano and it was a gift for a friend, and it just left. it was left there unpublished. but aren't we fortunate to have to have discovered it? that's a really interesting theory, that he would write a short piece and then give it as a gift to friends. he would do that, would he? well, he was known for doing that. and i think the the only thing that's drawing me to think that is that it's so short. and i would imagine, you know, chopin was a hugely prolific composer for the piano. he wrote mazurkas and scherzos, and he had this passion for piano playing himself and this gift for melody, which just flowed out of him in a very natural, organic way. speaking to me a little earlier. that's almost dead from today's programme. a big —— a quick pointer again about tomorrow's budgets, labour's first budget. to head to the bbc news website. already, so much material. that announcement of

the nhs money today, but more of the detail will be announced in that first labour budgets, the first from a female chancellor, and this article is fascinating to read because the bbc talking to just a number of people, different backgrounds, differentjobs, what backgrounds, different jobs, what they backgrounds, differentjobs, what they are hoping for, expecting, fearing in the budget. i will be at westminster throughout tomorrow to take you through all of that. the run—up, the actual announcement itself and all the reaction. hopefully see you then. it starts at nine tomorrow. goodbye. hello. for most of us, it's been quite a cloudy, gloomy day, but relatively mild. in eastern scotland, where the sun came out in aberdeen, the temperature reached 16 celsius, five degrees above the average, and about that further south in cardiff and london, despite the cloud. now the outlook for the next few days — very little change. it is going to stay mainly dry and mild. now we say dry, it'll still be quite damp in the morning, especially where the mist forms

and you get thicker drizzle from thick, low—grade cloud. now not much real rainfall on the way. in fact, if we look at the rainfall accumulation across parts of europe, you can see how that rainfall pattern follows where the jet stream moves and brings weather fronts. we're in the middle of an area of high pressure, hence little appreciable rain on the way. now here it is, that high pressure over us on wednesday. that means very calm, gloomy conditions first thing in the morning. and in fact, you can see through the night, quite a rugged area of cloud on top of us. but where the clouds do clear and you get lengthy clear spells, temperatures will dip to single figures, so perhaps central parts of scotland around four or five degrees, but for most in the range of around, say, eight to ten celsius. so not quite as mild on wednesday morning as the last couple of nights have been. tomorrow a very similar start, so grey skies, mist and drizzle in places, but then come the afternoon there will be some sunshine developing. favourite spots across parts of scotland, almost anywhere, really, could see some

sunshine, but other areas will be stuck underneath the grey clouds. on thursday, the high pressure still with us, but it is slipping a little bit further to the south and changes shape. that also means that weather fronts are nearing the north of scotland, with stronger winds, too, even gale force winds around the western isles, with some damp weather here. elsewhere, for northern ireland, wales and england, we're expecting a dry day with some sunny spells, mild, too, with the south—westerly winds, and of course we have halloween on thursday, so for the trick or treaters in the evening, it's not looking bad at all. and again every bit as mild — those temperatures could still be hovering around 15 celsius. and then next on the list, the fireworks. if you're celebrating over the course of the weekend, it's looking mostly dry across much of the country. and then the weekend itself again, more of the same. temperatures around the mid—teens.

tonight at six — the teenager accused of murdering three children in southport is charged with production of the deadly poison ricin. axel rudakubana is accused of the fatal stabbing of these young girls at a dance class injuly. as police reveal more details about their investigation, the alleged attacker is also charged with a

terror offence, possessing a study of the al-qaeda training manual. also tonight — the chancellor will announce a pay rise for three million people in tomorrow's budget by increasing the national living wage. good news for low—paid workers as the government unveils an inflation—busting rise in the national living wage. but what will that mean for businesses and the government's pro—growth strategy? a week to go to the us election, i'm in arizona, one of the key swing states which could help decide the presidency. and the images which reveal the wonders of a forgotten city, centuries old and found by chance beneath dense jungle in mexico. and coming up on sportsday in the next half an hour on bbc news... manchester united are closing in on ruben amorim as their next manger, they've agreed to pay his release clause at the portuguese champions sporting.