ukraine continues to push back russian forces, but the invading troops aren t giving up. they re trying desperately to change the narrative here. and the reality that most russian forces in ukraine are on the retreat. the delayed rugby league world cup will finally begin later, when hosts england take on samoa in the first of 61 games of the tournament. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk, or around the world. in the uk, the new chancellor of the exchequer, jeremy hunt, has refused to rule out public spending cuts, and said taxes may have to rise. in his first interviews since being appointed, jeremy hunt told the bbc ministers had made mistakes when they announced plans to slash taxes without setting out how it would be paid for. in the three weeks since, the cost of borrowing money rose, both for the public and for the government. mr hunt said every government department would have to come up with savings. answering prime minister s questions this week, liz truss
sometimes at world cups you have a bit of a mismatch in the opening match. but not today. england, the tournament hosts, play samoa. one of those teams who a lot of people fancy as there dark horses to maybe go on and lift the trophy. so many of their players have just played in the australian grand final in rugby league. stars of the game there, a really talented squad. some people are making them the slight favourites this afternoon. in fact, there is the huge away end for the samoan support. you can see the flags, the red, white and blue fluttering in the sunshine, and the red and white of england at the other in. a defining match for the ambitions of both of these teams and what is going to happen to them over the next few weeks. it really is one of the most open world cups as well. one of the hardest to predict because of the pandemic across the world. and the break that many of the nations have had since they last played a proper competitive international match. take australia, w