staying — pep guardiola agrees to make his manchester city career a decade long. italy celebrate, after claiming their first billiejean king cup in 11 years. and we hear from warren gatland on his future, as his wales team face a whole calendar year without a test win. hello again. we're going to start first of all with this man, pep guardiola, who has agreed to sign a new deal at manchester city. it's only an extra year, but by the time his new deal runs out, guardiola will have been at city for a decade. in that time, he's racked up 1a major trophies, but theirform has been patchy recently, and with

the financial fair play charges hanging over city, wednesday's contract news has been a much—needed boost for the club. what a win for brighton! and history is made, the sort of history manchester city did not want. after the worst run of pep guardiola's managerial career and manchester city's worst in 18 years, the international break offered both the chance of a reset. yeah, we lost again, so clean our heads, international break, and hopefully come back fit, our players. two weeks on from that brighton loss, city welcomed tottenham to the etihad stadium on saturday, boosted by the news of a guardiola contract extension. it's brilliant, isn't it? that's all you can say. nobody's going to say it's not brilliant, are they? _ fantastic news for all city fans. we're all one big family, and pep's part of the family. it'sjust great. it'll lift the club, lift the players. after eight years in the etihad hot seat, plus the impending

departure of key ally txiki begiristain, doubts over guardiola's future had started to surface. now the spaniard has agreed to a new deal that would take his time at the club to a decade. guardiola's spell has brought unprecedented city success, including six premier league titles in seven seasons, and now thoughts can turn to the future. it's going to provide a boost, in the sense that it's very positive news. everybody at the top of the club has got what they wanted. you know, the fans, 99% of the fans will have got what they wanted. the players have got the certainty now. so, you know, in terms of like erling haaland, if he gets a new contract, it will help because guardiola's there. and long term, the fact that they don't have to replace the sporting director and the manager at the same time, that's a big boost. but it also means that while the new sporting director is bedding in, guardiola's there to kind of steady the ship. in the here and now, these are choppy waters. off the pitch, city await the outcome of a trial into their 115 charges for allegedly breaching the premier league's financial rules.

on it, they find themselves five points behind league leaders liverpool, with the contracts of some guardiola stalwarts drawing to an end and a squad in need of evolution. there are some obvious candidates there and there's a big area of the squad, with de bruyne and possibly gundogan, in midfield that could be overhauled. and the fact he signed a contract to go for one year more, possibly two, shows that the desire�*s not just there for this year, it's for possibly two more. now city can start planning for the future, a future that includes arguably their most important asset. dan ogunsakin, bbc news. well, of course, very few managers, particularly in the modern era, get to decide their own future, but pep guardiola's success has given him just that at manchester city. spanish football expert guillem balague told us what he thought the process pep might have followed. decision—making had to do with, uh, yeah, looking around, basically, but especially looking inside, ifeel. so it wasn't really to do

with the squad or the signings. it wasn't a sporting decision. it wasn't a money decision either. it was a decision that had to do with, can i be in manchester another year? family is away. have i got the energy to do this? as you know, he struggled with his, with his back. and generally, the intensity of the premier league means that everybody struggles. itjust demands a lot of you, of your mind and your body. and, uh, ifeelforthe last month, manchester city were quite confident, 90%, they said, that he would decide to stay, but they needed to hear it from him and, eventually, he's confirmed. he leaves manchester city and that's the end of pep guardiola as a manager of a football club. and next, a national side, that has been a dream of his. could be, could be england, who knows? we know that brazil have been after him for a while and others will come as well. so i don't think he'll be short ofjobs. but really, it's a matter

of saying, all right, a year and a half, this rest of the season and a year more, can i do that? and the answer for manchester city fans and, of course, for the club, has been very positive. i'm not sure what the other people in the premier league clubs or managers think of that, though. guillem balague speaking to us there. now, one other football story, and chelsea have qualified for the quarterfinals of the women's champions league, with two games to spare. they beat celtic 3—nil tonight to top the group, their 11th win out of 11 games so far this season. lyon and real madrid are also both through, after winning their games, although both had to come from a goal down. and germany's alexandra popp scored a hat trick for wolfsburg to keep alive their hopes of a place in the last eight, after their second 5—nil win in a fortnight. some tennis news now, and italy have claimed their first billiejean king cup title in 11 years, beating slovakia in malaga. jasmine paolini wrapped up a 2—love win for italy after comfortably winning her singles match 6—2, 6—1 against rebecca sramkova. that's after lucia bronzetti

had already put italy ahead in the first singles match. the victory will earn italy $2.1; million in prize money. the country has become a bit of a tennis powerhouse recently, with the men's team — led by world number one jannik sinner — winning its first davis cup for nearly half a century last year. unbelievable. it's a crazy year. i don't know, to finish like this, with a title and the billiejean king cup, it's amazing. i don't have words to describe it. it seems like you're on a platform, going up, up, up, up, up. you know, i'm trying just to enjoy every moment, because it's important also to understand where you are, you know, and ifeel lucky to be in this position. i feel lucky to be part of this team. and i think we played an unbelievable week, and i'm really happy that this year, we could bring the trophy home again. now, warren gatland says

he does want to continue as wales rugby union head coach, as his side prepares to face the world champions, south africa, in cardiff on saturday. things haven't been going quite so well for gatland recently. he's overseen a record 11 successive test match defeats, and another loss this weekend would mean wales have gone a whole calendar year without a win — their worst run since 1937. gatland has previously said he would resign if it was in the interests of welsh rugby. well, i think we've been pretty clear, in terms of the plan that we've had. we know we've got a group of young players that, um, that need a bit of time. look, i've been, ithink, pretty honest, in terms of, i understand the pressures of international rugby and performance and performance and results. and, uh, we can only continue to work as hard as we've done. and so, um, but i'm aware of the pressures and that decisions could be made outside of my control.

so, uh, wejust have asked for a little bit of time. whether we get that time or not, you know, we'll have to wait and see. well, now to someone taking the sport of ultrarunning to a new level, and for a good cause. mahi tahiri is running 50km every day until the end of the month to raise money for a diabetes charity. the 12 in 12 challenge is to mark 12 years since his daughter, scarlett, was diagnosed with the condition. andy burkitt was there as he set off. you're very nervous. i'm not prepared, hoping i'll be standing by the end of it, but i think it'll be hard. we all deal with adversity in different ways, and for mehdi, it lit a fire in him. i didn't even know what type one diabetes was. they said, you're lucky you brought it now. if you bought it 2a hours later, it would

have been 50 over 50. that's the hardest i've ever been hit in my life. when my daughter got diagnosed with type one, it's not... it's not nice to see your loved ones suffering or going through what she went through at the age of two. i couldn't really take it in. i was like, i need to cry. i need to go out there and cry and make sure i take her. i was like, no, do you know what? i need to change this. this community of runners has raised tens of thousands of pounds and run countless marathons between them. but the 12 in 12 challenge is the toughest one yet. something i learned from my mum is to care for people around you because you know you're nothing without your team. and this challenge we've got coming up is a hell of a challenge. i've never done an ultra marathon in my life and we're going to do 12 back—to—back. mahdi wasjoined along the 31—mile route by a number of his running community, and two of them were with him every step of the way. i don't know how he's going to do it. he's incredible. you know, he keeps setting himself his challenges and he's smashed them every time. so he's a credit to himself. credit to his community.

lucky to have him. yes. i've done quite a few ultras and stuff, - but hats off to him. i can't do 12 in 12 days, | so i'll be doing 5k every day and i'll probably do - the last ultra with him again, but don't envy him doing 12. the next 11 is going to be hard, but it's not as hard as what people with type one go through. so like i always say, this isjust a run. 12 very long runs. andy birkett, bbc news. wow! my knees are aching just watching that. good luck to him and everyone running those ultra marathons. well, that's it from me. as always, there is much more on the bbc sport website, including a reminder of our top story, pep guardiola signing a new contract for another year at city. but from me and the sportsday team, from all of us, goodbye. hello. our cold weather is going to hang around for another few days yet, and that means the prospect — for some of you — of seeing some more snowfall. not that you need any more

of that here in aberdeenshire, the snow already lying thick on the ground. with low pressure, though, moving into scotland, that snow is going to get heavier over the next few hours. this area of low pressure diving into france, well, that's going to have some snow on its northern edge as well, as we look at the details into thursday. 5cm to 10cm of snow, then, possible into parts of northern and western scotland, 20 over the hills here. little line of snow showers coming in off the irish sea, working across parts of cheshire, greater manchester, very localised, but you could see a centimetre or two there. otherwise, a widespread frost and icy conditions to start the day on thursday. now, it looks like we'll have 2—5cm of snow building in over the high ground of south—west england, potentially causing a few issues on the roads. there is a chance that some of that snowfall could reach into the south downs of south—east england, so you might even see an odd centimetre or two here to start the day on thursday. away from that, this zone of persistent snow showers will work southwards across scotland. showers increasing in northern ireland, the north—west of both england

and wales later in the day. probably coming through as a bit of a mix. yes, there will be some sleet and snow, equally, around coastal areas, you might find a bit of rain mixed in at times. it will be another cold day. friday, another cold one, frosty and icy to start off with. fewer showers this time across northern scotland, as pressure begins to rise. but we'll continue to feed in those showers down the irish sea, and they will work into the north—west of both england and wales — again, coming through as a bit of a mixture, really, a bit of rain, a bit of sleet and maybe a few flurries of snow. temperatures still well below average. but then into the weekend, we get this powerful area of low pressure moving in off the atlantic, bringing some problems to the uk. ok, there's going to be some strong winds working through the irish sea, gusts 60—70 odd miles an hour, heavy rain that could cause some localised flooding. and then there's the risk of this hill snow across northern england and scotland. highest hills, 20—40cm, but the snow coming down so heavily, it might not be possible to keep some of those higher level routes open. and because the snow is going to be coming down

in big, wet, sticky flakes, better chance of it sticking to power cables, and they could be brought down under the weight of snow. so there may well be some power cuts around this weekend as well.

live from singapore, this is bbc news. joe biden approves 300 million dollars in aid for ukraine as kyiv fires uk—supplied long range missiles into russia for the first time. indian billionaire gautam adani has been charged in new york over an alleged bribery scheme involving indian government officials. the us vetoes a un security council resolution on a gaza ceasefire, drawing criticism from other member nations. and australia introduces legislation to ban those under 16 years of age from accessing social media.