hello and welcome to sportsday with me gavin ramjaun. a thriller in the champions league as barcelona comeback to defeat benfica in the final moments. alex hartley says she has been given "the cold shoulder" by england players at the women's ashes because of comments the former spinner made about the team's fitness. and we're in rome for the launch of this years six nations with ireland starting their bid to defend their back to back titles.

it's far—off to say that that is an advantage to be one or two. we still don't know yet if that's an advantage or not. you might be lucky, you may be very unlucky and ending up eight can mean that you are maybe lucky. so, for me, it doesn't tell me anything. what's for me is the most important thing to know is that we've managed to skip around and that is definitely worth it. one match in the europa league to bring you, the start of three big european matches across the week in istanbul. and galatasaray blew a two—goal lead in the second half, as dynamo kiev fought back to secure a draw. the ukrainian team got the draw that gave them the first point of this group stage of the competition. andriy yarmalenko scored the two to get them back in the game, the equaliser in a 3—3 draw coming less than 10 minutes from the end.

manchester city have bolstered their defensive options again, with vitor reis the second player to join the club in the space of 2a hours. the deal for the 19—year—old brazilian defender was only announced early on tuesday. he's cost nearly £30 million from palmerias. and another young defender, 20—year—old abdukodir khusanov arrived from french side lens forjust over £33 million. both have been training with the squad although they won't be eligible to play away at p56 on wednesday in the champions league. despite england conceding the ashes at the earliest possible opportunity, they still have two t20s left to play — the first on thursday in canberra — and a one—off test match. england have been criticised for their poor performance, notably from former england bowler alex hartley who has questioned the team's fitness — resulting in what she says — that some england players are refusing to be interviewed by her. earlier, hartley reiterated her disappointment in the gap between australia and england on the pitch.

she's been speaking to the bbc�*s henry moeran. well, it's now 2a hours since england's hopes of regaining the women's ashes disappeared into a symphony night. but they have still got cricket the play in this woman's ashes series — two t20s, one test match. alex hartley, world cup winner 2017. it's a difficult position. it's been a disastrous tour? yeah, it has. you've taken the words out of my mouth. it's been a disaster. england have lost the ashes at the earliest opportunity. and australia have been dominant and they showed that in that first t20. they blew england out of the water. i guess now for england, all they've got to play for is pride and country. we came into this ashes series with every hope that england could compete after what we saw in 2023, but it's looking like that was an outlier. they said all along they've been close. we've been competiting, we're not far away. they are miles away! they have been miles away. in some aspects, and some passages of play, they have

been close but they've not been close for long enough. i think that's where australia have been so good, it's when they have given england the sniff, england haven't been able to take it and then capitalise on that. so, look, they are miles away to be completely honest and something has to change within the team and the environment because if england have got to compete against australia for the next ten years for the foreseeable future, they've got to be better. dare i say it, but if england were to win a game or two, does that rather paper over the cracks? i think so in a way. i think if england could come out with two, four, six points on the board, having one two t20 and drawn a test match, it will paper over some the cracks, but i still think those hard conversation need to be had. there is the prospect that england could get draw the women's ashes series. it's seems unlikely given how it's all gone so far. the next t20 is here in canberra. australia's capital where the australian of the year will be crowned on friday. reasonable case for a member of the australia's women's side

given how well the series has gone for them so far. henry moeran and alex hartley there for us. the six nations starts next month with ireland hoping to defend their back to back titles. england have been in flux with some disappointing results and injuries, while scotland will hope to build on progress they have made. wales though are in crisis after their wooden spoon last year. and what about france and — significantly — italy? 0ur correspondent andy swiss was at the launch in rome. it is exactly 25 years since italyjoined the six nations which is why they're having the big launch here in rome. all the captains and coaches were in attendance. in fact, earlier on, they were posing for photos here at the colosseum before heading back to continue their preparations with their respective teams. butjust before the launch earlier on, there was a big news coming out of the england camp and that is that their vice captain and hooker jamie george has been ruled out of their opening game against ireland because of a knee injury. scrum—half jack van portvliet has also been ruled out of that match because of injury.

while there is also injury doubt over another of their scrum—halves alex mitchell and so because of that, england have called up two more scrum—halfs to their squad in raffi quirke and ben spencer. not the ideal preparations for head coach steve borthwick but he says his team can take it in their stride. by nature, you always have this bumps and bruises. we've got a good squad with good landed players within it and i think what you've got to do, when the opportunities come and other players have got to grasps the opportunities. yes, a few injuries are setbacks therefore england. as i say, they face ireland in their opening game but the opening much of the entire championship takes place in paris next friday with wales taking on france. now, wales had a terrible 2024, losing every single match that they played during the year. in fact, they have lost the last 12 games. now, their captainjack morgan

celebrated his 25th birthday today and he says he is confident the team will improve. we just take it week on week. our focus now is france and after france, we'll go into italy and we just take it week on week, and try and keep on, everytime we come into training, every day we try to keep on getting better, learning, developing as a team. just keep on working together and building what we've got as a squad and hopefully get put performances. yes, wales will start the underdogs against france. also the opening weekend, scotland will be hoping to continue their encouraging recent form as they take on italy. but of course, the big question is who will win the title? now, ireland have won it for the last two years so have they got what it takes to make it three in a row? they didn't look as compelling

as a side in the autumn. they looked a bit more porous which is not something you'd ever say about the irish in the last few years. and it's felt like a duopoly with six nations between the irish and the french. i would say from looking at domestic forms of individual performances that france are the favourites going into it and they looked to be a team where the fearest amount of questions marks go into it. but, once again, around the six nations, a lot can change. so, yes, it certainly has all the makings of a fascinating six nations. and ireland will be hoping that come their final match here in rome against italy on march 15, they will make it an unprecedented hat—trick of six nations titles. look forward to that. andy swiss there at the fabulous location of the colosseum in rome. one of the most importantjobs in formula one is race engineer — they speak directly to the drivers and their echanges are broadcast, so they're pretty visable. well, haas have appointed the first female race engineer in f1. german national laura muller has been with haas since 2022

and has been promoted from performance engineer. she'll work with new signing esteban 0con. haas�* new head of strategy will also be a woman — carine cridelich has been recruited from red bull's racing bulls team. you can get more on the days of sports news as well as all the latest from those champions league matches over on the bbc sports app orfrom our website which is the usual place of bbc.com/sport. but from me and the rest of the team here on sportsday, thanks very much for watching, and we will see you again next time.

hello. wednesday is going to be quite a quiet day weather wise, albeit a rather murky one at times. however, by the end of the week, things will be a lot livelier. we have a named storm on the way. storm eowyn already yellow warnings from the met office, the risk that some places could see gusts of wind of 90mph. but for the time being, certainly no strong winds, in fact, very few isobars on our pressure chart. so, very light winds. that has allowed some mist and fog to form, some of that taking a while to clear. but across scotland, northern ireland, northern england, wales, the south west, through the afternoon, we should see sunny spells and just the odd shower, whereas for central and eastern parts of england will hold on to more in the way of cloud, on to more in the way of cloud, maybe a little bit of rain, maybe a little bit of rain, and temperatures 5—8 degrees. and temperatures 5—8 degrees. so in spite of the light winds, it's going to feel fairly chilly, and it's going to turn cold again through the night, especially where we have some clear spells. we could see some mist and fog patches, some areas of cloud. temperatures dropping down to freezing, below freezing in places, but later in the night, into the first part of thursday morning, we see a band of rain pushing into northern ireland,

that will swing its way eastwards through the day. could well see some snow mixing in over high ground across some northern parts of scotland. it's is going to be fairly breezy, but that is just the precursor to what is heading our way on friday. now, to find out where storm eowyn is forming, we have to look out into the atlantic and look up to the jet stream. the winds high in the atmosphere, a jet stream level likely to exceed 250mph. so that extraordinarily strong jet stream providing the fuel, the energy to deepen this area of low pressure. this low will be deepening rapidly as it approaches our shores, and storm eowyn is likely to bring widespread gales, outbreaks of rain, some snow across the north. but it is across these irish sea coasts where, at the moment, it looks most likely that we could see wind gusts of 80 to possibly 90mph, maybe even stronger than that in the most exposed spots. 0bviously those winds could cause some damage and some significant disruption, and that does usher in a rather turbulent period of weather. there will be further spells of wind and rain in the days ahead.

live from singapore, this is bbc news. in his first 2a hours back in office, donald trump signs a stack of executive orders as promised. from january 6 pardons to declaring a national border emergency. trump has also started the process of withdrawing the us from the world health organization. we'll have more on the implications of that decision with a former chief scientist of the who.

welcome to newsday, i'm steve lai. we begin in the united states where — afterjust 1.5 days in the white house — donald trump has signed a slew of sweeping executive orders. the latest — a mandate to dismantle all diversity, equity and inclusion programs.