the holders, germany, arrive in russia as they look to succefully defend the world cup title they won four years ago. and after this world cup, spain's head coach will take over at european champions real madrid. while tiger looks to roar back. woods takes to the hills in new york state ahead of the us open. hello and welcome to the programme, where the clock is ticking, with the world cup officially kicking off in russia on thursday. the teams are continuing to arrive in their bid for football's greatest prize, and those touching down on tuesday included the holders, germany, who left from a wet and rainy frankfurt before arriving in moscow, where they will begin their defence against mexico on sunday. austin halewood reports. with less than 48 hours to go, it is almost time. russia is ready, and now so almost time. russia is ready, and now so other teams, because the

champions are on russian soil. germany flew into moscow ahead of their first match on sunday, the task ahead of them to become the first team for 56 years to retain the trophy. england are another side hoping they can rewrite the history books, but for different reasons. gareth southgate‘s team arriving in russia desperate for a first knockout win since 2006. but, while germany are the team to beat, brazil are the ones to watch. the south americans feel this is their time. starved of the title since 2002, theirfans are starved of the title since 2002, their fans are starting to get impatient. i think we have a very good team. since the olympics in rio, we played very good. what's, you know, world cup is so difficult. we will see. i hope brazil can win. and, just like four years ago, all eyes will be on one man, neymar. after almost five months out with

injury, the world's most expensive player is fit in the nick of time. translation: yes, neymar was absolutely fine, thank god. he was dealt with perfectly, and he has now made a full recovery. we had to take special care of him during training, but he is back now, and he is ready. and training on tuesday, neymar was certainly in good spirits, he and his team—mates pelting coutinho with flour and milk on his 26th birthday. it was in quite a kick, but i suppose it wasn't too far off. —— wasn't quite a kick. —— cake. as for this world cup to come, it will be breaking new boundaries, with video assistant replay technology to be used for the first time. this is the video operations room, where all the key decisions will be made. the use of the technology is controversial. it has led to long delays during testing in the german bundesliga, italy's serie a, and the english fa cup. officials admit that the system has been rushed in for the tournament, but are confident that

the technology will help referees make better decisions. the target of var is just as. is justice, and to avoid the clear and obvious mistakes. and the technology is everywhere. technology is... you know, all the sports, everywhere. so we cannot... i don't know if we want a goal scored by the end, in the last minute, in the final workout. soi last minute, in the final workout. so i think we want a good intervention from the technology. poland warmed up for the world cup with a 4—0 win over lithuania in warsaw, with two goals from robert lewandowski and extensive use of goal—line technology. lewandowski got his first afterjust 19 minutes, and then his second on the half—hour mark, from a free—kick which hit the bar and bounced out of the goal. it was given after the use of var. lewandowski was then subbed at half—time. but the poles weren't finished. dawid kownacki found the net in the 71st minute. jakub blaszczykowski got the fourth ten minutes later, when he converted a penalty

after the referee signalled that lithuania's algis jankauskas had handled the ball in the area. poland start their world cup campaign against senegal on 19 june. the spanish head coach, julen lopetegui, will replace zinedine zidane as real madrid manager after the world cup. he took the nationaljob in 2016, but will inherit a side that won the champions league three successive times under zidane. the 51—year—old previously managed porto for two years, before taking over with spain. realfinished third in la liga last season, 17 points behind champions barcelona. sweden were shocked on tuesday when they lost their first match in the european groups of women's world cup qualifying. they were beaten i—0 by third—placed ukraine, but still sit top of their group, ahead of denmark on goal differrence. —— difference. while elsewhere, wales moved back to the top of group i, and ahead of england,

after a 3—0 win over russia. switzerland and scotland remain first and second respectively in group 2, and the republic of ireland's slim hopes of managing to reach the qualification play—off took a blow when they lost 1—0 to second—placed norway. centuries from tammy beaumont and sarah taylor helped england's women beat south africa by 69 runs and level the three—match series at 1—1. opener beaumont made 101 and wicketkeeper taylor struck ii8 as the hosts posted 331—6 in brighton. only lizelle lee, with a century, and 44 from chloe tryon made an indent on the score, with the third and final match to be played in kent on friday. fresh from their historic victory over england on sunday, scotland's cricketers have come back down to earth with a bump. pakistan skipper safraz ahmed top—scored with an unbeaten 89, as his side set a victory target of 205 for the hosts in their t20 international in edinburgh.

the scots fell well short of their target, managing 156—6 in their 20 overs. england captain eoin morgan says his side will be happy to shake hands with australia's players before the start of the one day series on wednesday. it is the first time australia have played a series since the ball—tampering scandal on their south african tour in march, but morgan says it will be business as usual. from the oval, in london, here is our sports correspondentjoe wilson. it is not the ashes, but don't mistake of significance. australia's first series after the sandpaper scandal. here, their captain, tim paine, is checking if eoin morgan is happy to shake hands before the game, all part of australia's attempt to be nicer. talk is cheap, of course, morgan says, but he gets the idea. i understand that... i suppose the bashing that their board has gone through and that their jersey has gone through over the last six months. and it is important

for the game to have a strong australian side around, and we are more than happy to shake hands before the game if that means it creates a different image for the people. while eoin morgan says he is still expecting a tough, hard battle, the australian squad here may be missing some key batsmen through suspension, some key fast bowlers through injury. but look, it is still australia. a former captain is still australia. a former captain is here to advise, ricky ponting punting. the old australia hasn't disappeared. i'm sure the boys will tell you they copped plenty when they are in australia, and as long asi they are in australia, and as long as i have known the australian team, they have copped plenty when they are over here. that is part and parcel of it, and that is something oui’ parcel of it, and that is something our team is certainly expecting and something we have to take on board, and,i something we have to take on board, and, isuppose, try something we have to take on board, and, i suppose, try and enjoy and embraces as much as we can. one thing is clear, 400 miles' drive south, they must be better than in edinburgh. but in cricket, they don't have many bad days these days. the world cup isn't the only big sporting event starting on thursday. the second major of the golfing

calendar gets underway, with the us open starting at shinnecock hills in new york. i4—time major winner tiger woods is playing in this championship for the first time since 2015. the 42—year—old has not finished inside the top ten in this event since he tied for fourth at pebble beach in 2010. it is the final year that woods will be exempt from qualifying for the competition as a past champion. his last victory, and last major, was 10 years ago at torrey pines. i have been there on a number of occasions to win a major championship, you know, since the ‘08 us open, and i haven't done it. and no, i don't like that feeling. i've certainly had a nice run where i've certainly had a nice run where i've won a few, and unfortunately, over the last ten years, i haven't. but, for the first few years of my

career, i did well. golden state warriors have been celebrating winning their third nba championship in the past four years. the warriors took to buses in oakland as they celebrated a resounding 4—0 victory over the cleveland cavaliers, in what was their fourth successive series against each other. steph curry was again at the forefront, while kevin durant made it a second year in a row he was awarded the mvp award for the finals series. and the washington capitals won the nhl final last week, and the celebrations were continuing as they showed off the silverware to their fans, led by alex ovechkin. the parade and rally midway between the us capitol and washington monument commemorated the first title in dc in the major four professional sports since the redskins won in 1992, and the first stanley cup in the capitals' 44—year history. you can get all the latest sports news at our website.

but, from me and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye. hello there. wednesday's weather will start off innocuously enough, but there is trouble on the horizon. after some sunny spells through the day, things as we go into the evening will turn very wet and very windy, unusually windy for the time of year. after what has been a relatively quiet spell of weather, thejetstream is breaking back from the west, bringing a lot of cloud from the atlantic. and, where you see these dips in the cloud structure, that is where we are developing some areas of low pressure. this one is going to bring a very wet and windy wednesday night. but, for the time being, we've started the day under the influence of a ridge of high pressure. so we're going to see a lot of dry weather and some good spells

of sunshine through the day. cloud amounts will tend to increase from the west as the day wears on, could just be the odd shower, and then eventually we'll see some rain just splashing into the western side of northern ireland and the west of scotland, the winds starting to pick up here, as well. but ahead of that wet weather, it's going to feel quite pleasant, with highs of 21 or 22 degrees. now, as we go into wednesday evening, it'll stay dry across much of england and wales. but, for northern ireland and scotland, this rain will begin to pile in. you can see the dark blue colours indicating really heavy downpours, all courtesy of this area of low pressure. quite a deep low. you can see the isobars really squeezing together. that shows that we're going to see some very windy weather indeed. as we go into the first part of thursday morning, we'll see the outbreaks of rain moving eastwards, and very strong and gusty winds for northern ireland, the far north of england and particularly scotland, where there could be wind gusts of 60 mph or more, even for places like glasgow or edinburgh. that could well cause some travel disruption for thursday morning's rush hour, gales or severe gales,

so do tune into your local bbc radio station to find out if there are any impacts where you are. now, the wet and windy weather will slowly ease as we go on through the day on thursday. so aside from a few showers, especially in the north, it's actually going to turn into a decent day. good spells of sunshine and temperatures — well, cool and fresh across northern areas, but actually, down towards the south—east, still getting up to around 22 degrees. looking ahead to friday, a quieter day with light winds. some spells of sunshine around. some outbreaks of patchy rain, perhaps, across northern ireland and the north—west of scotland. best of the sunshine likely to be found towards the south—east, the highest of the temperatures here as well. and then, as we look towards the weekend, not completely dry. there will be some showers around at times. there should equally be some spells of sunshine, and temperatures in places up into the 20s. welcome to bbc news. broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley.

our top stories: north korean state media says kim jong—un‘s accepted an invitation to visit the united states and donald trump's been invited to pyongyang. at tuesday's summit, north korea claimed yet again it would get rid of its nuclear weapons, but the us president shocked his allies in the region with this pledge on military exercises. we will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money. in the uk, the government avoids a damaging defeat over brexit, but only just. and the french president criticises the new italian government for refusing to take in 600 migrants stranded on a rescue ship in the mediterranean.