we're just two days away from the heavyweight unification super—fight in saudi arabia. tyson fury, the wbc champion, taking on olexander usyk, who is putting his wbo, wba and ibf world titles on the line. the winner would become the first four belt heavyweight world champion. the fighters have been rolled out for a news conference, and both men were surprisingly reserved. i'll make this short and simple — i want to thank god for the victory i've received already, and i want to thank everybody involved in putting this massive event on. i want to thank usyk for turning up and challenging me — and that's about it. thanks to all the fans who travelled to support me, because i know it's tough times at the moment and money's hard, so i aim to put on a show. thank you very much, god bless.

hi everybody, people. applause i'm happy to be here. i'm excited. i'm grateful for his excellency, and for whom this fight happened. let's make history. enough, thank you very much. the great and the good of the boxing world have made their way to riyahd for this unmissable fight. our reoprter ade adadoyn got the thoughts of a former world champion. well, the press conference wasn't one what we're accustomed to with tyson fury. none of the shenanigans, shouting, pushing, orshoving — it was very respectful towards oleksandr usyk. alongside me is former world champion amir khan — what did you make of that? i thought there would be shouting, pushing, and shoving, but it was very different. yeah, you know, ithought there would be a lot of yelling and shouting, and obviously going face—to—face, head—to—head — but it was the total opposite! it seemed that both fighters know the fight is days away

now, no point talking about it, let their fists due the talking. i thought it was very respectful, i think the managers and promoters were very respectful — because look, nothing can change now. both fighters have trained, they know what they have to do and what their game plan will be, and it'll be the best man to win now. so let's see, look, it'll be an epic fight though, this is a fight — we've not had a fight like this in the last 25 years. it's funny because we had lennox lewis and holyfield who were the last undisputed champions. so i mean, this is an amazing year to see that boxing in saudi arabia, it's massive, but this is what boxing needed. this is what we all needed. what did you make of the fact that, in the face of, tyson fury never looked at oleksandr usyk? normally he tries to get under his opponent's skin and get the psychological edge. i wonder, you've been here before, as a fighter, don't you just do the normal things that you normally do? normally i would go there on autopilot, you go and do your thing. but i just don't think tyson respects him, that's why he doesn't look into his eyes.

tyson doesn't want usyk to feel what he's feeling, you know what i mean? you know when you look into a fighter�*s eyes and you get to the and feel everything he's going through? usyk seems confident to me, and i don't think tyson sees that. not that there is fear and him, but he's got his own game plan and strategy going on, and he doesn't want that to change, because that can change when you look into someone�*s eyes — it's happened to me — back in the day when i fought, i remember looking into danny garcia's eyes and my whole game plan went right out the window. and i got beat. so i think that's what it is, he knows what he needs to do and not to look into their eyes. who's going to win this? give me one name. tyson fury, it'll be close, but i've got oleksandr usyk winning the first couple rounds, then tyson putting the pressure on and winning the rest of the rounds. it'll be a majority decision or unanimous tyson fury.

thank you, that's former world champion amir khan, who is picking tyson fury to win. there is a saying in boxing that a good big'un always beats a good little�*un. we'll find out whether that becomes true on saturday night. can't wait for that fight. leeds are just one win away from an instant return to the english premier league after thrashing norwich 4—0 in the second leg of ther play—off semi final, at elland road. they'll play the winner of southampton and west brom at wembley. chris coles was watching for bbc radio 5live. in the end, leeds couldn't have wished for a smoother passage through to wembley — a strange feeling given their playoff struggles of the past. from the off, they look hungrier than norwich, who just couldn't cope with leeds�*s intensity. the smart kick gave them an eighth minute lead, joel pirro's header took a cross, and whenjorginho ruda crashed in the third from close range, the tie was done with still five minutes of the first half to play. somerville added a fourth and the second half to complete a dominant leeds win, taking them to wembley a game away from an immediate

premier league return. manchester city's goalkeeper ederson will miss sunday's premier league title decider and next week's machester derby fa cup final. the brazilian was forced off with an eye injury during city's 2—0 win at tottenham on tuesday that left pep guardiola's side on the brink of their fourth consecutive title. scans have confirmed ederson suffered a small fracture to his right eye socket, following a collision with cristian romero. france head coach didier deschamps has named his 25—man squad for euro 2024, with n'golo kante handed a surprise recall. kante, who moved to saudi pro league side al—ittihad in 2023, last played for the national team back in 2022. kante has 56 caps for france and was a key part of the side that won the world cup in 2018. while the former chelsea midfielder was included, there was no room for current chelsea forward christopher nkunku or michael 0lise of crystal palace. xander schauffele carded

the lowest round ever in a us pga championship, with a first round 62 to lead the way in kentucky. the american came up with nine birdies in a sensational bogey—free round at valhalla to beat hose maria 0lazabal�*s course record set 2a years ago. an exciting first day at golf�*s second major of the year — you can follow it all on the bbc sport website. iga swiatek won her 11th straight clay—court match on thursday, as the top seed moved closer to another record with a comprehensive semifinal defeat of coco gauff at the itlalian 0pen. the world number now stands one victory away from duplicating the madrid—rome clay trophy double achieved by serena williams 11 years ago — she beat gauff for the tenth time in ii meetings, and will face aryna sabalenka in the final. tommy paul booked his semifinal spot in the itali 0pen semis after beating hubert hurkacz in rome. the iath—seeded came through in a match featuring 13 breaks of serve.

the american kept his composure in a nerve—wracking deciding set for a two—hour, as—minute victory. tommy paul will play chile's nicolas jarry in his semifinal. the lawn tennis association has confirmed that queen's club will stage a wta tour event next summer in a reshuffle of the grass—court season. the governing body has says it wants to promote the women's game and the tournaments at birmingham and eastbourne will be reduced in status. but there have been concerns by male players about the state of the grass courts they will inherit for their tournament the following week. the fortnight of the wimbledon championships ably demonstrates that two weeks of play on a grass court is very, very durable. and we've reassured the atp on multiple occasions that there won't be an impact in the integrity and the performance of the court in that second week. so we remain in dialogue

with the atp around post but remain altogether confident that the changes in 25 will be permanent. simone biles says she's better equipped to handle the challenges that await, as she prepares for a third 0lympics — this was after she had to withdraw from multiple competitions, including the tokyo 2020 games. the four—time olympic gold medallist will compete for the first time in 2024 at the us classic, and says that she's not cured, but she is mentally in a better place. i think there were a lot of variables that went into tokyo that i didn't get properly taken care of — therapy and all the things. and i've been doing a lot of therapy all week, a lot of sessions, a lot of hours — so i've put in the work, so i know that that won't happen, that won't affect me moving forward. my therapist is available to me kind of at any time i ever need, even outside my sessions — even at worlds, like, some of the girls, i think they went out to a chocolate

factory or whatever and i wasn't present because i was at the hotel during my therapy sessions, because i know how important that is for me to stay present, mindful, and not be too anxious. so yes, we will keep that up and i've done that at classics championships, worlds, so it'll continue. stage 12 of the giro d'italia was won byjulian alaphilippe. the former world champion taking the victory after riding away from his breakaway companion mirco maestri in the last few kilometres of the stage into fano. it's the first win for the former double world champion in almost a year, following his win at the criterium du dauphine injune 2023... alaphilipe has now won a stage on the three major tours. tadej pogacar retains the race leader's pinkjersey. you can get more on the bbc sport app, orfrom our website. but from me, will perry, and the rest of the team at the bbc sport centre,

goodbye. hello there. thursday brought us a real mixture of weather across the uk. it was scotland and, to a degree, the far north of england that had the best of the day's weather, with plenty of sunshine. and very warm in the highlands, temperatures reached 25 celsius in altnaharra — that was the warmest place in the whole of the uk, confirmation of the rather beautiful weather we had here. wasn't like that everywhere, though — for northern ireland, england, and wales, we had rain or some thundery showers around, and across berkshire and also pembrokeshire, we had photographs sent to us of some funnel clouds there — tornadoes that don't quite make it all the way down to the ground. it was very wet for some — in nantwich, in cheshire, we had 25 millimetres of rain. now on into friday's forecast, the tail end of the weather front will continue to feed in quite a lot of cloud across northern england,

and we start off certainly with some mist and fog patches around some of our north sea coast. aside from northern england, though, i suspect overall, we're looking at a brighter day on friday with more in the way of sunshine. there will, though, be 1—2 showers popping up into the afternoon, i—2 thunderstorms, but big gaps between those showers — that means probably for most of you, we're looking at a dry day with temperatures widely high teens, to the low 20s. it will feel warm in the sunshine, highest temperatures, probably west scotland, where i think we'll probably get to 2a — outside chance of a 25. 0n into the weekend, we've got a low pressure system threatening some heavier bursts of rain across southeast england, certainly more cloud around here as we head into the morning. 0therwise, again, we're looking at a few mist and fog patches — clearing and lifting away, sunny spells, breaking through, and then, into the afternoon, i—2 showers and thunderstorms p°pping up- temperatures still on the warm side — we're looking at highs well into the teens, 23—24 celsius in the very warmest areas. given the light winds and the may sunshine,

that will feel very pleasant. for sunday, though, there is a slight change in the weather picture across scotland and northern ireland, in that there'll be a bit more in the way of cloud pushing in here — it could be thick enough to give us an odd patch of rain. england and wales mainly dry with some sunshine, but you will notice the temperatures just dropping a little bit across scotland and northern ireland, given that cloudier weather. now beyond that, into next week, looks like the start of the week should be ok — many of us will have drier weather with sunny spells — but there's a tendency for the cloud to thicken, with rain arriving towards the second half of the week.

you're with newsday, live from singapore. the headlines: two presidents and one vision —

putin and xi say they will work together to combat "destructive and hostile" us policies. phone calls and the ethics of secret recordings — donald trump's hush—money trial hears more evidence from his former lawyer michael cohen. police charge a man with the attempted murder of the slovakian prime minister, who is still in a serious condition after being shot. and a special report from taiwan — where the president tells the bbc she doesn't believe an attack from china is imminent. hello and welcome to the program. we begin in china where russia's president and his chinese counterpart have promised to work together to combat what they say

are "destructive and hostile" us policies.