the open championship tees off at carnoustie in scotland in the coming hours, and jordan spieth heads out as defending champion. britain's geraint thomas is the new overall leader at the tour de france, after an impressive victory on wednesday's 11th stage. and is this the world's most expensive goalkeeper? brazil's alisson moves closer to a record—breaking transfer to liverpool. hello and welcome to the programme, where we are nowjust hours away from the year's third golf major of the year, the open championship at carnoustie in scotland. americans hold all four major titles at present, and jordan spieth is the defending open champion. but what odds of a return to grand slam success for the rest of the world? four years ago rory mcilroy lifted the claret jug, winning by two strokes from rickie fowler and sergio garcia, and the northern irishman will be keen to add to that triumph and the other three majors he has won. but he is wary of the man who claimed victory last year. jordan has had a nice little run, he

has won three in three years, and if you continue to do stuff like that, you continue to do stuff like that, you are going to be one of the greatest of all time. but there has only really been one guy that has done it for a 10—year period, where he has won that many, and that is tiger, and it was 11 years and he won 1a major championships. pretty ridiculous in anyone‘s look, so i am certainly not expecting to go on that sort of attack. but as long as i give myself chances and i have in contention most of the time, when i am playing a major, ifeel like if you put yourself in position enough times you will hopefully find a way to get it done. let's have a look at some of thursday's tee times. defending champion jordan spieth is out alongside justin rose and kiradech aphibarnrat. patrick reed, the masters champion, plays with paul casey and louis oosthuizen, while dustin johnson's group follows rory mcilroy‘s.

and later it is tiger woods who heads out, shortly after two—time winner padraig harrington. team sky's geraint thomas has seized the overall lead at the tour de france after an impressive victory on stage ii, a 108.5 km ride from albertville to la rosiere. belgium's greg van avermaet, who had led since the third stage, was well down the field in the main peloton and is now out of contention. with all the details, here is our man out in france, tom fordyce. a fine day for chris froome, and a wonderful one for his sky team—mate geraint thomas, the welshman attacking on the final climb to la rosiere to win stage ii and ride into the leader's yellowjersey. thomas was second in the overall classification overnight, but survived attacks from valverde before overhauling another opponent in the last 500m. he now has a lead

of one minute and 25 seconds over chris froome, moulin third, and the two britons taking a tight grip on this famous old race. liverpool have agreed a world—record fee with roma for brazilian goalkeeper alisson. the $87 million deal will be the most any club has ever paid for a keeper. the 25—year—old joined roma from brazilian side internacional two years ago. alisson played in all five of brazil's world cup matches, keeping three clean sheets. liverpool's buy, if it goes through, would overtake the current record for a keeper, which was $62 million paid byjuventus to parma for gianluigi buffon in 2001. so is alisson worth the money? here is our football reporterjohn bennett. roma fans will tell you that he is worth every penny, a fantastic season worth every penny, a fantastic season last worth every penny, a fantastic season last season. worth every penny, a fantastic season last season. it was actually the first season that he was first choice at roma, the season before that he was second choice. 17 clean sheets in 38 serie a games, a

massive reason they got to the semifinals of the champions league. some wonderful saves, as well, during the season. i know you don't wa nt to during the season. i know you don't want to get bogged down with stats at save percentage of 80% which is pretty remarkable when you compare him to other goalkeepers. eddison last season, 67%. 80% is on a par with de gea, and we know what a great season he had the manchester united. fantastic goalkeeper, just got back from russia, watched two of the brazil games. he kept two clean sheets in russia, ahead of eddison. a great goalkeeper, brilliant distribution as well. a modern goalkeeper, excellent with his feet. the former brazil coach said he was a goalkeeper who thinks like a striker. so a great signing the liverpool fans. i think they have every right to be excited. manchester united manager jose mourinho has challenged paul pogba to play as well regularly for his club as he did for france at the world cup. pogba is one of a number of united players who played in the latter stages of the tournament in russia,

and are missing the club's pre—season tour of the united states. his form has been inconsistent at old trafford, whereas he played a starring role in france's triumph. i hope that he understands why he was very good. i think that is the point about his performance level, and his contribution to a winning team, is for him to understand why he was so good, especially in the second part of the competition, quarterfinals, semifinals, finals, where he was in my opinion absolutely brilliant. the former wales and british and irish lions captain sam warburton, who is 29, has retired from professional rugby. he hadn't played since leading the lions to a drawn series against new zealand last year, but he had been training with cardiff blues. knee and neck problems

have ruined those plans. warburton made his debut for wales when he was 20, and went on to captain the side more times than anyone. we know that warburton hasn't played since the third test for the lions against new zealand, back injuly 2017, it's almost a year ago to the day. many thought, warburton himself, he would come back fit and firing after a good pre—season, having had over a year out of the game. but clearly, after having so many surgeries, the mental and physical toll that would have taken, he got back into pre—season training, and his body could not deliver what it has done in the past. it is a great shame he is having to give about 29. it's far too young, you feel, for a player who might have had so much to give. but we can celebrate a fantastic career for a manner highly respected, on and off the field. anthonyjoshua says he is still hopeful of a fight

against american deontay wilder. joshua will defend his ibf, wba and wbo world heavyweight titles against alexander povetkin at wembley stadium on 22 september, and admitted it will be a tough match—up. on wednesday he met the press, and among them was our boxing correspondent mike costello. well, the clamour around anthony joshua continues, as he returns to the scene of one of the greatest nights in british boxing history. it was here at wembley stadium 15 months ago that he outlasted wladimir klitschko in an 11 round thriller that would have graced any heavyweight era. it was hoped that this time deontay wilder, the american who holds the bbc magician of the world heavyweight title, would be in the opposite corner —— wbc version. it is instead alexander povetkin, the russian who won 0lympic povetkin, the russian who won olympic gold back in 2004, and who according tojoshua carries a sizeable threat. povetkin i think

will be more here, waiting to go under, head to the body, come up to the head. he is waiting to do something, he is not surviving. he is actually trying to engage. it is a dangerous one because you can get caught without realising you have the swing a left hook. it is what they call a banana skin fight. the showdown with povetkin will be joshua's for the stadium fight in a row. tickets are expected to go on sale next week and all 90,000 expected to sell out very quickly. and that will bring the total watching joshua in those four fights to 440,000. and, after the euphoria of the world cup in england reaching the semifinals, joshua believes that some of that will deflect onto boxing. seven new events will be included in the programme for the beijing 2022 winter olympics, the international olympic committee has confirmed. the games will feature a record number of female athletes, and among the sports included, it will see a debut for the women's monobob — a discipline trialled at youth level in 2016. elsewhere, the mixed team events

included for beijing 2022 are the snowboard cross, ski jumping, freestyle skiing aerials, and short—track relay. in just over two years time the 2020 olympics will begin in tokyo, and there are concerns over the heat in the city at the moment, with the temperature reaching about 40 degrees celsius as the media toured the stadium on wednesday. the opening ceremony will be held on 24july, when the temperature is usually around 25 degrees, but the humidity could create tough conditions for athletes and spectators. the organisers, though, are promising to take the problems seriously, with increased shelter and cooling fans provided for spectators and athletes, and events expected to be scheduled at cooler times of the day. iam sure i am sure it will be a fantastic games regardless. just to remind you that the 147th edition of the open championship gets under way in the

coming hours. jordan spieth, the american, is the defending champion. but, from me and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye. hello there. i think there's a little bit of something for everyone in this forecast, some rain and also some warm sunshine. but on wednesday it was a case of high pressure, and most places seeing some sunshine. also quite a bit of cloud around, too, but that did lead to some dramatic sunset photos sent in by our weather watchers. high pressure was the dominant force on wednesday, but we look to the north—west for a tangle of weather fronts which will bring some rain on friday. but first thing on thursday, it's going to be a dry one. variable cloud, some clear spells. quite a warm one to start the day for england and wales. a few chilly spots across some rural parts of central and northern scotland. but thursday promises to be another dry one, i think, for most.

probably more sunshine around, of course, than we saw on thursday. just a slim chance of a shower across north—east england and south—east scotland. and later in the day, breeze and cloud pick up across this north—west corner, with those weather fronts. a little bit of rain here, as well. 15 to 20 degrees in the north, but as high as 28 or 29 celsius across the south—east, so it's going to be warm here. now, this is the tangle of weather fronts which will bring some rain to northern and western parts of the uk. it will continue to move its way south—eastwards as friday wears on, so a lot more cloud across the northern half of the uk. some substantial rain in places, fairly heavy bursts at times. but as it moves southwards, it will tend to ease and become a little lighter and patchier. so it's going to be a little bit cooler across northern areas, 18 to 20 degrees. further south, though, another warm day, with temperatures reaching 28 to 29 degrees. and then, into friday evening, there is just a slim chance of seeing a thundery downpour move up from the near continent across the south—east of england in towards east anglia. they will be very few and far

between, but if you catch one, you'll certainly know about it. that cold front then continues to sink southwards during the course of saturday, so it may linger on across southern areas for a while. so we could see a fair amount of cloud central, southern england and wales on saturday, the odd spot of light rain on it. to the north, a little bit drier, variable cloud, some spells of sunshine. temperature—wise, again the high teens celsius, mostly, across northern ireland and scotland. cool and fresh across england and wales, 21 to 25 degrees. on sunday it's a warm day, central and southern areas with more sunshine. further north, a bit breezier and more cloud, with outbreaks of rain. that pressure across western scotland. for the south—east, though, again mid to high 20s celsius. so it's quite a mixed weekend, with variable amounts of cloud, with a little bit of rain, but also some spells of warmer sunshine. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley.

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