hello and welcome to sportsday, i'm betty glover. new zealand and australia get ready to host the biggest ever women's world cup. it all kicks off in just a few hours. the final men's major of the year is also upon us. rory mcilroy won the open last time it was at royal liverpool, can he do it again? i've won a lot of tournaments, but the big four have eluded me, and hopefully this week, that's something that i can change. and stuart broad joins the 600 club, but england need more wickets in the must—win fourth ashes test.

hello and welcome along to the programme. the women's world cup gets under way on thursday. nine cities across australia and new zealand will stage 64 matches over the next month. it's the 9th edition of this tournament and is by far the biggest, with 32 nations taking part. our correspondent katie gornall is in brisbane. this is a world cup reaching new heights. for the first time, the tournament has come to the southern hemisphere, with australia and new zealand welcoming the world. it's the biggest women's world cup to date — perhaps even the best. the level has grown incredibly in the last ten years, and the best are coming here. the best are playing here in new zealand, they're playing in australia. so the entertainment is assured and guaranteed.

such was the demand for tickets in sydney that fifa moved the matildas�* opener with ireland here to stadium australia, the biggest venue in the tournament. right now, women's football is riding the crest of a wave, and the hype, particularly here in australia, has been building for months. this women's world cup is set to break all kinds of records, from viewing figures to tickets sold. but what will really help capture the public�*s imagination is excitement on the pitch. and there are signs that this could be the most open world cup yet. as ever, the usa are hot favourites, going for an unprecedented third world cup in a row. despite their injury problems, england, the european champions, are expected to challenge, while spain had some of the world's best players. and australia, led by superstar sam kerr, are capable of beating anyone on their day. but for all the excitement on the pitch, many teams face problems off it. jamaica had to crowdfund to travel to the tournament, while at the other end of the scale, england

are in a pay dispute with the fa over bonuses. you know, we want to keep pushing the game further thanjust being like, "ok, this is where we're sitting." it's something that we do regularly, every single tournament, every single year is what's next, how we can push the game on. growing the game starts at the grassroots. as one of the oldest clubs in australia and the hope is that a world cup on home turf will turbo—charge interest in women's football. could be a reallyl big wake—up call. this is a sport i can do, this is something i cani do at my local club. the girls are just wanting to play and they're giving up their netball and playing soccer, it'sjust fabulous. what would it be like if australia did win? hopefully a public holiday off school! this world cup has already broken new ground. the question is, will there be a new name on the trophy come august? katie gornall, bbc

news, in brisbane. thanks to katie, and a reminder, you can follow all of the women's world cup across the bbc. football transfer news is coming thick and fast as the new season approaches — liverpool have agreed a £12 million deal in principle to sell long—standing captain jordan henderson to saudia arabian side al—ettifaq. he was left out of their pre—season friendly in germany this evening and is believed to be discussing personal terms with the club, managed by another former liverpool captain, steven gerrard. and manchester city's riyadh mahrez is also heading to the saudi pro league. al—ahli have agreed to pay £30 million for the algerian winger. and pierre—emerick aubameyang is set to end his time at chelsea by heading to marseilles on a free transfer. he joined from barcelona last summer and leaves after scoring just three times in 22 appearances. to cricket now, and australia

are 299 for eight at the end of day one of the fourth ashes test. england won the toss and put australia into bat in manchester. and, though a number of batsmen got starts, none yet have produced a big innings. chris woakes got four wickets and there were two for stuart broad who reached the milestone of 600 test wickets. with milestones, they don't really mean anything, i think, until you stop playing. but you want to achieve milestones in test match wins. i think they always mean a lot more when you manage to to take wickets and test match wins and and as a team we've had a pretty decent day on a pretty decent cricket pitch as well. you know i've got the ball in front of me that i got the 600 with and that hit the aussies middle of the bat a bit too much off me today. so, yeah, it's been an interesting day's cricket, but nice to nice to have contributed to the team as well. our process is taking it day

by day and trying to make sure we win that day. and for us, today was obviously getting sent in again. it was just about putting our best foot forward and putting a score on the board that was going to put pressure on england. and obviously, they're the ones that are that are going to be chasing the game with with some weather around for for the last two days. well, pakistan need 83 runs to win their first test against sri lanka when play resumes on the final day in galle. they were 48 for three after losing wickets late on day four, giving the hosts some hope of an unlikely victory after they could only set a target of 131. austrian climber felix gall won stage 17 of the tour de france, but the biggest winner was the defending champion yonas vingegaard. the dane rode away from a struggling tadey pogacar on the highest mountain of this year's race and now leads by over seven and a half minutes with four stages to go. second—placed pogacar conceded defeat mid—stage, saying on his team radio, "i'm gone, i'm dead,"

and encouraged his team—mate adam yates to ride for a podium place. vingegaard is now seven minutes 35 seconds ahead of pogacar. team—mate adam yates is just over three minutes behind him — but he's extended his lead over carlos rodriguez from five seconds to a minute and three quarters. and simon yates, who finished second on stage 17, has moved up from eighth place overall to fifth — one minute 2a behind his twin brother, with one more mountain stage to come on saturday. the mayor of london, sadiq khan, says he would support a bid for the uk capital to host the 2026 commonwealth games. it did stage the velodrome cycling when the games were hosted in birmingham last year, and would be able to draw on more of the olympic facilities from 2012. it follows the australian state of victoria pulling out because of spiralling costs. golf's open championship starts on thursday. the final men's major of the year is taking pace

at hoylake, at royal liverpool where, when it was last staged in 2014, rory mcilroy was the winner. the northern irishman is among the favourites again, as ben croucher reports. the open, golf — at its most raw, a sport with rough edges and nowhere to hide. where here at hoylake, the fans flock to see the world's best. but who are you backing? big fans of rory. tommy fleetwood. i think he's due one. matt fitzpatrick. rickie fowler. i think i've got money on like, everybody. rory mcilroy would be my guy. if there's one place where he's going to win it, it's here. - so why not? for rory mcilroy, a return to the scene of his greatest triumph. the champion. in 2014, he lifted the claretjug. many more were expected to follow. none did. but he arrives at royal liverpool, fresh off victory at the scottish open and full of confidence. i've had a great nine years and i've won a lot of tournaments. but, you know, the the big four

have alluded me and you know, hopefully this week that's, you know, something that i can change. to win this week, he won'tjust have to be to 155 others. he'll have to beat the elements and topple a course towering with tradition. but it's hoylake newest hole that's got everyone talking, the 17th, a short par three where the slopes are steep, the bunkers deep, and danger lurks everywhere. yeah, it's a tough hole. we played it yesterday and it was straight into the wind, 30 or 40 miles an hour and it was not a tee shot that you want to have. yeah, there's not much room for error up there and i think it'll be a really exciting finish to it to open championship for sure. it's hard to say anything's fair or unfair because it'si it's so short. i would say if it is, l it's fair because it's unfair to everybody, it's golf and it's life. simple as that. but hoylake is anything but simple. don't expect to see the pros bombing drivers 300 yards. it's a course of quirks of character—building and breaking.

a little local knowledge come in handy. matthewjordan grew up playing this links. he came through qualifying and will now hit the first tee shot on thursday. it's an amazing honour. um, i'm sure the first tee, no matter what,| was going to be special, . but obviously to have this, you know, as a kid growing up, i used to wake up early, - you know, it's half six and - that was the open commencing and that was it done. so, um, i've got fond memories. so, to have this, as you say, honour is brilliant. _ who hits the last shots come sunday will likely etch their name into an illustrious history. who that might be is anybody�*s guess. that's why they call it the open. you can get all the latest sports news at from the bbc sport app, orfrom our website — that's bbc.co.uk/sport. but from me and the rest of the team here, it's goodbye.

hello. wednesday has once again brought record breaking temperatures to parts of southern europe. we've had an unconfirmed report of nearly 47 degrees in sardinia, and that intense heat is set to continue a degree or two up or down from day to day, but nevertheless relentless, both by day and by night. now, talking about heat, this time a year ago was when we saw record breaking heat here in the uk, but nothing that extreme heading our way here. we are still to the north of the jet stream. we are still in a cooler north westerly breeze at the moment. temperatures around about average just a little bit below, and with it plenty of scattered showers as pressure is relatively low. but, actually, with the lighter winds through the early hours of thursday, it turns quite chilly in some rural parts. there could even be the odd pocket of fog first thing this morning.

but again, it's around dawn, so it'll clear fairly quickly and that's when we'll see the best of the sunshine before the cloud starts to bubble again and we see some showers developing. now, it's one of those days where we could see lines of showers. so some places catch, shower after shower and others stay completely dry with good spells of sunshine. but it will be pleasant enough. 17—22 is a notch down on wednesday, slightly fresher air, still that brisk breeze up in the north and the east of scotland. but i think, by and large, it should be largely fine for the first day at least of the golf at hoylake and actually again for the cricket at old trafford. just the odd shower around can't be ruled out, but the chances of interruptions increase through friday and into the weekend because already as we go through the night, thursday into friday, we've got the next weather front gathering in off the atlantic. ahead of it, some cooler dry weather, but it does look as if we turn the tables to cloudier weather again with patchy rain for northern ireland, scotland, northern england as we go into friday. the far north of scotland, just a few showers, perhaps dry with a little ridge of high pressure in the south.

hopefully a drier day, fewer showers, a little bit more sunshine. but temperatures are down a degree, a bit more cloud around. and the reason? this area of low pressure that's rolling itself in again. so it looks like not only bringing us some wetter weather, once again, in what has been a really unsettled july, but also some strong winds to go with it. strong winds notjust in the south, but potentially the far north as well, which is going to make it feel fairly cool forjuly. as ever, there's more on the website. bye— bye.

live from washington. this is bbc news. a shooting in auckland leaves two dead and several injured a us solider who crossed into north korea.