hello from the bbc sport centre. hello i m chetan pathak with your latest sports news we start at afcon the 34th edition of the africa cup of nations has reached the semi final stage with both matches on wednesday. the hosts ivory coast play the democratic republic of congo but before that it s the other heavyweights nigeria. who play south africa. and they ve been given a massive boost with striker victor osimhen declared fit to play who had been a doubt with an abdominal problem. it s a rematch of the 2000 afcon semi final which nigeria won and was the last time south africa reached the last four. this time their coach is hoping they can go one step further: i think for many people it was unexpected. but we did it, and that means that south africa became a good team. it s also more than 20 years ago that south africa played the semifinal, even more that we play the final. that means that we ve got a lot of motivation. meanwhile, ivory coast have never won the competit
but he says even when the pandemic is over, he ll think twice before returning to the festival. fiona lamdin, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. here s chris fawkes. thanks a lot. for many of us the weather will stay bright and right through the rest of the day today, quite a bit of cloud around but some spells of sunshine poking through. the satellite picture shows a weather system looking to the north west ultimately bringing some rain, particularly tonight and tomorrow. but we also have rain stretching across parts of eastern england from this line of showers that have developed over the last couple of hours. those showers have formed due to a convergence zone, where the winds bash together, scraping all the moisture together to make this line of downpours and they will continue to affect these areas well over the next few hours. if you live across parts of west yorkshire, nottinghamshire, leicestershire and towards greater london and into parts of east sussex and k