hello from the bbc sport centre. matchday six of the champions league kicks off in just a few hours with liverpool looking to continue their perfect start to the new format away to girona. the reds have been given a boost with first—choice goalkeeper alisson set to return to the starting line up after 11 games out with a hamstring injury. caoimhin kelleher kept five clean sheets in his absence. alison has been so outstanding for this club for so many years and for the brazil national team. that is definitely nice to have him back and to have him available. but if you look at how his replacement did, it is not going to be easy to do even better, so we expect definitely the same and may be on margins a little bit better,

but he did so well,. real madrid, who lost to liverpool last time out in the champions league, face a tough assignment against in—form atalanta in bergamo. the 14—time champions have been boosted by the return to fitness of brazilian duo viniciuer and rodrygo ahead of a replay of this season's uefa super cup which real won 2—0. tomorrow is another tough game for us, against a top side team thatis for us, against a top side team that is very strong. but we are focused on us and focused on how we can effect the game and be dangerous for them, so tomorrow is another challenge for us. a total of nine fixtures today which get under way with liverpool's trip to girona as well as celtic taking on dinamo zagreb. elsewhere, the champions of germany and italy meet as bayer leverkusen and inter go head—to—head, pointless rb leipzig host aston villa while psg, who sit 25th and out of the qualifying places, are in austria looking for a first win since

match day one. former leicester city manager nigel pearson says "learning to walk again has been an incredible challenge" after revealing he was dealing with a "neurological situation" last year. pearson had been waiting for more tests to diagnose the health issue in october 2023 shortly before he was sacked as bristol city manager. in an update of his condition on social media he thanked "all the kind people who have continued to send their support during the last 13 months". in the nba, karl—anthony towns returned from a one game absence to lead the new yorks knicks to victory over the toronto raptors — their fifth win in their past six games towns had missed new york's loss to detroit with a sore knee but showed no signs of ill effect as he scored 2a points and added 15 rebounds. his total included the final five points of the game as the knicks finally broke

free on their way to a fifth straight win over toronto. formula one now, and it was a thrilling weekend for mclaren�*s lando norris as he helped secure their first constructors�* championship for 26 years. mclaren had a slow start to the season, before vital car upgrades in may saw them improve dramatically. ceo zak brown explains why a newly reconfigured team was vital to their success. men and women at mclaren have done an unbelievable job, men and women at mclaren have done an unbelievablejob, and thatis done an unbelievablejob, and that is everybody, because to be successful as a formula i team of course you have to build a great race car but you need to be able to afford a great race car, so your commercial department is critically important. that depends on a huge fan base, thatis depends on a huge fan base, that is where your communications department comes in, hr and finance. all aspects need to be firing on all

cylinders, forgive the pun, to be able to rally everyone to be the best in the business, because this business is hard. and that's all the sport for now. in france, a historic mass rape trial is drawing to its conclusion. at the centre of it — a 72—year—old mother and grandmother, gisele pelicot. her husband of 50 years is accused of drugging her, into unconsciousness, and then over almost a decade, allowing at least 50 men, strangers recruited online, into the house where they allegedly raped her, while being filmed by the husband himself. in his first british broadcast interview, gisele pelicot�*s lawyer, speaking with his client's blessing, has told newsnight about the impact the case has had on mrs pelicot. victoria derbyshire met stephane babonneau at his law firm in paris. i think that there is a moment of disbelief

for everyone who heard about this story the first time. how is this even possible that first someone would want to do that to his wife? and how is it possible for the victim not to know what is happening to her? and the only way to answer this question is really by looking at the case, of course, but by listening to the victim herself. we were immediately convinced that this woman was telling the truth, that she was genuinely unaware of what was happening to her. and she explained to us how for ten years, she's been trying to understand what was happening to her by consulting with doctors, by talking with her family, with her environment. and no one was able to find any explanation. what were your fears, your concerns, before telling giselle pelicot

exactly who this involved, what it involved, and the scale of it over almost a decade? well, that she could have a nervous breakdown, of course, because we were all very worried that a human being who has been exposed to hundreds of extreme sexual abuse without knowing that, after being told what had happened to her, she couldn't accept to watch the videos or even to continue the discussion about the extent of the rapes. how many, how long, who? she wasn't ready for that. it took her almost three years to be able to accept, to have this very straightforward conversation about what was in the case, and she accepted that because at that time, she was already thinking to allow the public into the courtroom.

so she felt that she needed to be fully aware and fully informed of the case, even if, as many others, she would have preferred to live without knowing if it was possible. but it wasn't. and she, as you say, it took herfour years to watch the footage, the videos that her husband had filmed. how did she respond? how did she deal with what she was viewing? she felt extremely humiliated, by what she was seeing, extremely humiliated. she felt ashamed, too ashamed to listen to her snoring on the videos, ashamed to see herself in positions that were completely the opposite of who she was, and she was extremely shocked of seeing herself becoming an object, she used very strong words.

"they're using me as a trash bag. they're using me as an object. they're using me not as a human being." and i think that this achieved to help her, deciding that she wanted an open trial, a public trial. because she felt that it was important that people understood what happened to her. let's talk about madame pelicot�*s decision that she didn't want to be anonymous, that she wanted to waive her right to anonymity and open up the case to journalists and to members of the public. why was that important to her? she realised that it wouldn't be possible to understand the extent of what happened to her. and that this story could be useful to others,

and that in order to ensure that this would not happen again to anyone, it was important for the public to know how this could happen. what kind of men are on trial here? we heard many times that they are ordinary men. they are ordinary men because they are well integrated men. for most of them they havejobs, families, friends, but they are not ordinary in the choices they made, because they made some very particular choices that not all men would have done. and they have personal responsibility over these choices. so what this trial is trying to achieve is to understand how ordinary men could find themselves in this position. what has led to this horrendous story? most evenings after

the trial, women line up to applaud madame pelicot out of court. and you have told me she has, madame pelicot has received hundreds and hundreds of letters. you've gotjust a small batch today which have arrived at your offices here in paris. what effect is that having on her? she has mixed feelings about that. the first feeling is an immense sense of gratitude for these women, because she never asked for it. she didn't expect for it to happen. she believed truly, because this is what we told her, that she would be by herself, with, of course, the support of her legal team and herfamily members. but that would be all for the four months, and no one ever expected that she would receive some public support. this level of public attention.

and then came another feeling, which is a feeling of responsibility. so she feels a lot of gratitude because it helps her a lot. a lot because it's very complicated for herto, uh, well, to put herself in this situation every day of the week for months, having to endure the videos, having to endure the questions, having to endure the explanations of the accused. she feels that somehow she is representing these people now. and she didn't choose for that. but it happened and she accepted it. stay with us here on bbc news. good afternoon. it is a far quieter weather picture for the next few days, but under the high pressure we've picked up some fog

and indeed some frost. really cold start this morning, particularly across northern ireland and scotland, but that colder weather, the fog issues, may well slip a little bit further southwards through the coming night, but there are still numerous flood warnings as well out across england and wales following on from storm darragh. and it's taking a while for that rain to make its way down through the river systems. but the high pressure does ensure that through the rest of today, wednesday, thursday and friday, there's very little rainfall across the united kingdom. and then the high pressure does tend to relinquish its grip as we head towards the weekend. but a chilly breeze and quite a bit of cloud, even with the high pressure across the southern half of the country. a little bit of drizzle as well, and it feels colder than the 7 or 8 would suggest. further north, temperatures barely above freezing where that fog is lingering — the west of northern ireland, southwestern parts of scotland. it will thicken up again overnight tonight, possibly pushing into some parts of western england.

and if we see a few breaks even further south as well, but largely frost free again for much of england and wales, but an extensive frost further north, into northern england as well, and a hard frost over scotland, particularly in the glens. minus six, minus seven degrees celsius, still stuck under this area of high pressure, where the fog will have thickened up and that will be a travel hazard again for wednesday morning. northern ireland, parts of northern england. we may see a few more glimmers of sunshine across the midlands tomorrow compared with today. we may, instead of having the showers in the south and east and channel islands instead pick them up across southern devon and cornwall. those are subtle changes from day to day, but it will be another cold feeling day on wednesday despite the sunshine. by thursday, we might start to pick up more moisture and thicker cloud coming back in across central and eastern parts of england into the east of wales, and perhaps a bit more cloud by then for northern ireland and the far north of scotland, slightly less cold as a result, but still theissue of some fog around. then come friday, our weather front starts

to push its way southwards. we change our air mass and that will clear out the fog. we get a brisker wind going into the weekend, not strong winds, but a brisk wind and therefore a return to an atlantic wind direction. and it's a bit milder by then, but until then, some frost and fog by night. live from damascus, this is bbc news. i'm lyse doucet. top headlines.

israel says it has destroyed syria's naval fleet as it continues its attacks on syrian military installations for a third day. turkey's president erdogan welcomes the capture of two syrian towns in the north which had been under kurdish control. in damascus, the rebels who toppled the assad regime are offering rewards for information about senior security officers involved in alleged war crimes. here in the syrian capital, like a slowly turning to normal. the proxy of the traffic in the streets. servants were ordered to return to work today and some shops have reopened. i'll have the latest. lyse doucet in damascus, i'm get the girl removed the in london. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu testifies

for the first time in his long—running corruption trial.