coming up on our show: ready for the elite of world golf — royal birkdale prepares to to host the open championship. battered and bruised, leading sprinter marcel kittel is forced to abandon the tour de france. chelsea agree a deal to sign real madrid striker alvaro morata for around $91 million. hello and thanks for joining us on sport today. we are just a few hours away from the start of the 146th open championship taking place at royal birkdale, on the north—west coast of england. sweden's henrik stenson is the defending champion, but is certainly not the only man with compelling ambitions of walking once you win one, obviously it's off your shoulders, and it's more about putting yourself in contention again and trying to win a second one. given a long and successful career that i have had, i think it is

something worth waiting for. it's what you want, you know? if i was at a betting company and i saw my form over the past few weeks, you would say, it yes, that's probably a fair enough price. it only takes one week for those odds to go back to eight to one. i feelfresh, for those odds to go back to eight to one. ifeelfresh, ready for those odds to go back to eight to one. i feelfresh, ready to for those odds to go back to eight to one. i feel fresh, ready to go. just trying to keep my striking where it has been, playing the different shots and adjusting to the speed of the greens over here. i like the golf course, it has been a very tough but fair test. everybody knows how much i love the open, and i would love to at least have one of them before i kind of hang up the boots. so, we are going to give it a shot this week —— open. boots. so, we are going to give it a shot this week -- open. just as good

as the us open went, for sure. i feel like i played well over here, a lot of imagination. you've got to use a lot of imagination. you've got to use a lot of different shots, i really enjoy coming over here and playing. it would definitely mean a lot. it is the one tournament that i drink about since i was a young boy. i think the royal birkdale would be a full circle moment, based upon what i did in 1998. it's a special tournament, lots of good memories. five —— so it all tees off on thursday in the uk in just under five hours' from now. the first three out are mark o'meara, chris wood and ryan moore at a sprightly half past six local time. one of the other contenders is tommy fleetwood, the southport youngster grew up a stones throw from the course and has been enjoying incredible success over the past year. from 188th in the world last september, he's

at the lofty heights of 14th after some outstanding performances that include a fourth place at the us open. our correspondent, andy swiss, went to royal birkdale to meet him. welcome to royal birkdale where the waiting is very nearly over. players fine—tuning their preparation ahead of the start tomorrow. it is an open that should live up to its name. it is wide open, so many contenders. no doubting the sentimental favourite here, tommy fleetwood. he grew up just one tee shot away from this course. he has had an incredible two victories in the 2017 year, a career—high14th in victories in the 2017 year, a career—high 14th in the victories in the 2017 year, a career—high14th in the world rankings. he is very much the man that people here are talking about. i caught that people here are talking about. icaught up that people here are talking about. i caught up with him during one of his practice rounds. it isjust going to be an experience i've never had before. the strength of a home crowd. you do get more than this. i don't live in the town any more, but i was born and bred here for 25 yea rs. i was born and bred here for 25 years. it is going to be special. we

have a chance to win the open, i would love to have that as the ideal. it's great, looking back as a kid, 20 years on, their‘s been a lot that's gone into it. coming back to your elements with a chance to win the open is very special. it is so nice to be able to play in front of friends and family, people i've known my whole life. it can be a daunting experience, but at the same time, it's not often you have so many people that want you to do well, rooting for you when you tee off. it is lovely that i get the chance to do it. a lot of people, their home tournament is not the british open. so, that's an amazing feeling and experience, having as the home event. i hope i can give

them something to cheer about. it is going to be great. a victory for tommy fleetwood would be some story, a local has not won the tournament for 25 years. plenty of other players hoping to end that. justin rose shot to prominence here as a 17—year—old back in 1998. you might remember him chipping in at the final hole. he has high hopes here as well. plenty of contenders from around the world. rory mcilroy has had some problems recently, but he will be looking for another title. world number one dustin johnson will be looking for another title. world number one dustinjohnson has all the makings of another win. it gets under way tomorrow morning. well it's not much of a secret that british people have a mild obsession with discussing the weather, often very helpful for filling in some small talk. however, when it comes

to one of golf‘s biggest prizes, every little meteorological fluctation could have a big impact on the leaderboard. so for you golf fans out there, we thought we'd get the bbc‘s weather reporter stav da naos to preview the conditions at royal birkdale. hello there. thursday marks the start of the royal birkdale championship in lancashire. looks like the weather will be pretty challenging at times throughout the four days. thursday not looking that bad, in fact, four days. thursday not looking that bad, infact, we four days. thursday not looking that bad, in fact, we will have lost the humidity and walked from earlier in the week. a lot of dry weather with some sunshine, light winds and afternoon temperatures around 17 degrees friday, for the early starters, conditions should be ok. later on, looking like wiggins will continue to increase with outbreaks of rain potentially arriving from the south and west later in the afternoon. temperatures around 18 degrees. for the weekend, afternoon. temperatures around 18 degrees. forthe weekend, conditions challenging with low pressure nearby. continuing to see fairly breezy conditions in some sunshine and showers, showers could be heavy

at times. there's been plenty of drama as we approach the business end of the tour de france. leading sprinter marcel kittel, who already has five stage victories at this years race, well he crashed out on wednesday‘s stage 17. while former champion ski—jumper turned cyclist primoz roglic claimed the stage win. it was good day for defending champion chris froome who extended his overall lead. our reporter, simon brotherton is following the tour. chris froome survived a tough first day. he has increased his overall lead in what is still a close race. the slovenian won the stage on his own. baguio was 30 seconds behind them, so dropped out of the top three. chris froome leads by 27 seconds. marcel kittel lost the

greenjersey seconds. marcel kittel lost the green jersey today, it now goes to marcel matthews. the couple of football lines for you. chelsea have agreed terms with real madrid for the transfer of spanish international striker alvaro morata. the fee is believed to be in the region of $91 million, which would be a club record for the premier league champions. and england international kyle walker has been talking to the bbc following his transfer from tottenham hospur to manchester city last week — and it seems it wasn't an acrimonious move. this is what he said after it was put to him that the brutal truth was city were more likely to win things than spurs. you know, i'm not going to sit here and disrespect tottenham one bit, because what they've done for me over the years has been fantastic andi over the years has been fantastic and i am more than grateful. the way that they've made the stepping stones in the right direction over the years that i've been there is crazy. it's a team, i am a manchester city player right now and iam manchester city player right now and i am fully focused on that, picking

up i am fully focused on that, picking up the silverware and everything. england are up and running at the women's european championship in the netherlands after thrashing scotland in utrecht. jodie taylor fired a hat—trick as the 2009 runners up hit scotland for six. spain began their women's euro 2017 campaign with a comfortable victory over portugal. finally, we've heard of raining stopping play in various sports but what about sharks. it came atjeffery‘s bay in the world surf league. a three—metre long great white shark swimming onto the competition lineup. three—time champion mick fanning of the usa, who emerged unscathed from a shark attack while competing in australia two yeas ago, was once again involved but safely surfed away. understandibly the competition was suspended until great whitey moved on. you can get all the latest sports news at our website — that's bbc.com/sport. but from me and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye.

hello there. there was still quite a lot of energy in the atmosphere, during wednesday afternoon some pretty intense thunderstorms broke out across north wales and parts of north—west england. weather watchers pictures coming through of torrential downpours, and there were reports of flash flooding across the rural area and parts of western lancashire. during the small hours of thursday, those heavy, thundery showers continue to move their way northwards. quite a wet start to thursday across scotland. further south, much of england and wales, it's going to be cloudy with showery outbreaks of rain. the odd heavier burst there too. turning a little bit cool and fresh and pushing to the far west, but quite a humid start again for thursday morning across eastern areas. and it means it will be quite a drab start across many eastern areas through the morning,

and outbreaks of rain, the odd heavy outbursts too. eventually clearing out into the north sea, becoming more confined towards the north—east of scotland. but something a bit brighter and drier into the afternoon, but with it cooler and fresher air, so you will notice that — highs around 21 and 22 degrees across the southeast. further west, even cooler than that. around the mid—teens celsius, but at least you have the sunshine to compensate. in towards scotland, it's central northern areas will see most of the cloud, outbreaks of rain, the odd heavier burst, particularly across the northern isles. and then into northern ireland, something more showery moving in later on in the day. that is because of this area of low pressure which will become quite a player in our weather through friday, and potentially on into the weekend as well. notice isobars deepening as it continues to move in towards western parts of the uk. so it means quite a windy day for the western half of the country. and a weather front, pretty slow moving, will bring a lots of rain to northern ireland, to wales, particularly into south—west england and maybe in towards

the west midlands. whereas further north and east, actually a fine dry day with some sunny spells and temperatures around 20—23 degrees. but cooler further west under that rain. through friday night, the weather front slowly gets a wiggle on, moves its way a little bit further northwards and eastwards but it's still with us though, as we head on into saturday, but a bit of a disappointing start to the weekend, i have to say, across northern and eastern areas — quite wet, the odd heavier burst there, too. feeling quite cool as well. the south could see the sunshine come out a little bit but then blustery showers will arrive and it will feel fresh. on into sunday, the winds ease down a little bit but it doesn't mean any showers that develop through central southern areas could be quite slow—moving so quite a bit of rain falling in a short space of time. further north, it looks like it will remain quite wet. i think the main message is, then, through this weekend, it is going to remain fairly cool and fresh for the time of year, longer spells of rain, but more likely showers and sunny spells.

welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: three of donald trump's inner circle are called before congress as part of investigations into russian interference in the us election. the president says he would never have madejeff sessions the attorney general if he'd known he'd recuse himself from the investigation into russia. how the billions of tons of plastic manufactured since the 1950s are now threatening the planet. researchers say the world is at risk of near—permanent contamination. and a british zoo joins the fight to save the northern white rhino, using ivf from its closest relatives.