are you ready — because rome is. the start of the 44th ryder cup isjust hours away with europe looking to regain the trophy from the united states. japan beat samoa to keep their knockout hopes alive at the rugby world cup — a result that sees england through to the quarter finals. and the investigation into alleged corruption involving barcelona continues as spanish police raid the referees�* offices. we'll bring you the latest. welcome along, thank you forjoining us. not too long to go now until play begins at the ryder cup in rome.

europe will be hoping home advantage helps them to regain the trophy, it's 30 years since the united states won outside america. friday, the opening day, begins with the foursomes. first up will be england's tyrrell hatton and spain's world number threejon rahm taking on the number one—ranked scottie scheffler and sam burns. then it's the man everyone�*s talking about, ludwig aberg, the swedish 23—year—old who only turned pro injune, he's been thrown straight in and will partner viktor hovland against us rookies brian harman and max homa. ireland's shane lowry will then team up with austria's sepp straka against rickie fowler and collin morikawa, and then in arguably the match of the morning, a partnerships that's being called fleetwood mac — rory mcilroy and tommy fleetwood face xander schauffele and patrick ca ntlay. at the opening ceremony earlier, both captain's couldn't hide how much they're looking forward to the contest: couldn't be more excited

and happy for these 12 guys to go out and enjoy this week because i remember, i have so many fond memories of playing and being a vice captain. being captain is a bit more stressful but i am excited for these guys to take this all in and enjoy it and try to write their own history this week. we have 12 guys but unfortunately i cannot play all 12 each session and so at some point somebody will have to sit. it is a golf course that demands a lot out of you physically. the guys i have down on paper of the ones we feel put it best in a position to get off to a great start. well, someone who's already enjoying playing at the marco simone golf and country club in rome is viktor hovland. have a look at this during practice on thursday on the par four fifth.

an incredible albatross. the perfect shot — just 2a hours too early. but a great way to ratchet up the excitement. not the fans need any more encouraging. it is really buzzing. you can see all sort of stuff everywhere it is brilliant. the europe team play in europe and they are playing gorgeous. we are confident. will the us win? yes. you heard it here first. will you make yourselves heard? that is the plan. this is just the warmup, we have better gear on friday. how confident do you feel about europe's chances? i think america will be lucky to finish second. away from the ryder cup, a judge in florida has dismissed patrick reed's defamation lawsuits against golf reporters and media outlets. the 2018 masters champion was seeking damages of $750 million from 18 parties, including the golf channel.

reed claimed "calculated, malicious, false and reckless attacks" had caused him major damages afterjoining the liv golf series last year. next to the rugby world cup where japan have beaten samoa in toulouse — a result which sees england reach the quarter—finals with a game to spare. japan kept their knockout round hopes alive with a narrow victory over a battling samoa who finished the match with 11; men. 28—22 the final score. japan face argentina next weekend in what's likely to be a winner takes all clash to see who joins england in the last eight. there's one hugely significant game being played on friday at the world cup. in pool a, italy are chasing history, knowing a win would put them into the knockout phase for the first time but they're up against new zealand, who've never failed to reach the quarter finals and would be on the verge of qualification with a victory in lyon.

we not got the result against france in the opening pool game and we need to win all three to be in control of where we want to be. so even before we left new zealand we spoke about how world cups are different and there is pressure on how we play in the result goes for us and for them. that is what world cups are all about and that is how we will play the game. translation: obviously - when you played a world cup you always want to play against the best teams and that is why we are here. for sure it will be a great experience. but it isjust another game for us. even if there may be extra pressure, it is just another game for us. meanwhile, scotland will make 13 changes for their match against romania in lille on saturday. they have to get another bonus point win to give themselves a chance of making it to the knockout stages. grant gilchrist will captain the side, the edinburgh lock will win his 67th cap and has led his country before, most recently on last years tour of argentina. despite all the changes, scotland should be confident of a comfortable win,

romania have lost 76—0 to south africa and 82—8 to ireland in their other games so far. the other players have an opportunity and we know that this is obviously the final opportunity that they get before they play ireland but the decisions before south africa and tonga and the home and away games were tight ready so if players play well it will be a much longer selection meeting on sunday night, i am sure. to football now, where spanish police have raided the offices of the referees' committee as part of an investigation into barcelona's alleged corrupt payments to an official. the club face charges of corruption over payments made to a former vice—president of the committee in spain — in return for favourable refereeing decisions.

uefa is also investigating the matter. barcelona deny any wrongdoing and no arrests were made during the search in madrid. the nature of the crime is what the judges trying to investigate. he is trying to see if there is any proof, any proof any written thing, a piece of paper saying that they appointed one referee or another was appointed for barcelona. it is very difficult and this will take time and when i say time i mean one or two years so is a long—term case. liverpool owners fenway sports group have agreed to sell a minority stake in the club. the investment coincides with a succesful start to the season on the pitch — and is worth between 82 and 164 million pounds, being paid by global sports investment firm dynasty equity. the deal ends the search

for new investment by fsg, who wanted to retain majority ownership of the reds. napoli say they "never meant to offend or mock" their striker victor osimhen in a social media post but have stopped short of publicly apologising to him. the club shared videos on their tiktok account which appeared to mock osimhen missing a penalty. the player's agent has threatened legal action against the club. a napoli statement says it was "never the club's intent to offend victor" should he "have perceived it that way". the social media posts have since been deleted. former england lioness jodie taylor has decided to retire from football at the age of 37. she played for her country 51 times, featuring at two world cups and a european championship — but also had a globetrotting club career, winning league and cup honours in four different countries. she played at 17 different clubs before ending her career with a second spell at arsenal. i knew going in to playing there that i was most likely going to be my last

stint of playing. i don't think i would have loved anything more than to have hung up my boots with arsenal and when time is right it is only you who can call that and be ready to announce that. i have been ready for a while. it's taken me to this point to officially be able to announce it. in cricket, surrey have retained the english county championship. their nearest rivals essex needed to score at least 400 in theirfirst innings in their game against northamptonshire but they were dismissed forjust 211, with last manjamie porter bowled for a duck. it means surrey are guaranteed to retain the championship regardless of the result of their match against hampshire. 0bviously winning it last year and our goal was to go back to back and win again and it was very pleasing. when did you get news that essex was bowled out? we saw some reactions on the pitch. i think we were running into bowl and a few people on the balcony on the hotel side were celebrating

and i think that is the time we knew. just enough time to recap our top story. ludwig aberg, who only turned pro injune, has been named in europe's opening partnerships, as the ryder cup gets under way on friday morning. we start with the foursomes and you can follow all of that on the website. from me and the rest of the team at the bbc sport centre, goodbye. hello there. after all the cloud around on thursday and the heavy overnight rain, friday looks to be dry and brighter for many of us, thanks to a ridge of high pressure some good sunny spells

around to start the day but there will be some showers developing mainly in the north and west of the uk and these will be most frequent across the north and west of scotland, close to this area of low pressure. a squeeze on the isobars here so another windy day to come across scotland with gales here and later went further south. there could be a weather front clearing the far south—east through the morning. it will do so and then there is plenty of sunshine around. winds more of a feature further north and here is where we will see most of the showers with some of them heavy and thundery and blustery and gales up to 55 miles an hour. in the south, showers peppering western coastal areas otherwise it is mainly dry. 20 degrees in the south—east, not quite as warm and humid as it has been. a fresher feel to things. as we head through friday night with the slightly cooler air mass, clear skies and winds turning lighter for a while we will see mist and fog develop and it will also be a chilly night to come. single figure values across the board, as low as three orfour degrees across rural aberdeenshire.

as we head into the weekend we have high pressure bringing fine and settled weather to start with and this next frontal system will sweep into central western and northern areas through the day. so we start chilly and dry with sunshine, early mist and fog clearing, and then the sunshine will become hazy as the frontal system moves in. but most of the rain will be across northern ireland and wales, northern england pushing into southern scotland. the far north of scotland, southern south—east england should stay dry with sunshine albeit hazy at times. 20 degrees and mid—teens where we have wind and rain. into sunday it looks like that front clears its way into the north sea and we will have a hang back with the weather front across england and wales. sunday probably a bit cloudier for england and wales with splashes of rain through the morning. brightening up in the afternoon and brighter sunshine, a couple of showers in the north and west of scotland here the mid— high teens but warmer and muggier across south, up to 23 degrees. it is mixed into the new week and it will start off unsettled with settling down around the middle part of the week and we will start to see

showers across northern areas by the end of the week and it stays fine and settled in the south.

live from washington, this is bbc news. us house republicans make their case for impeaching president biden. democrats say the focus should be on the impending government shutdown.

sirens wail. dutch police arrest a gunman in rotterdam after three people are shot dead. and thousands are fleeing nagorno—karabakh as the leader of the self—declared republic says it will cease to exist by the end of next year. hello, i'm sumi somaskanda. it's great to have you with us. it's been a busy day here in washington as house republicans launched their impeachment inquiry into president biden. meanwhile, a potential government shutdown is looming with only a couple of days left for lawmakers to reach a deal. but on thursday, republicans spent the day focussed on making their impeachment case against president biden. they accuse him of profiting from his son hunter's business ventures while he served as vice president.