Also painted the skies above with the french flag. A,500 athletes made up the parade from the Champs Elysees to the place de la concorde. The first of 11 days of Sporting Action takes place on thursday as france hosts a summer Paralympic Games for the first time. So the Opening Ceremony is complete. And after tokyo had no fans due to covid, and rio was dogged by financial issues, the pressure is on the french capital to rival or even better london 2012. Beyond the sport, however, those involved say theyre mindful of a secondary purpose for the games. It is always important, we are here in elite sport. Winning medals is what were about, but we are also part of an incredible global movement, the paralympic movement, which on and off The Field of play wants disabled people to be recognised wholly in society. Those performances on The Field can only help us in that cause. Now to the Us Open tennis, where the wimbledon Champion Barbora Krejcikova is out. She was beaten in the second round b
Some pieces to bang your head on. Yeah. We have a GrAnd Piano if youd like to entertain us. A GrAnd Piano . Yes. I can open it, but i couldnt play it. John laughs Michael Palin, welcome to This cultural life. Thank you. You were born in sheffield in 1943. What are your earliest memories of childhood, Home Life . Um, i think it was shopping in the Ration Book era. Um, And i can remember going with my mother to get. I think we were given free Orange Juice at that time. Really, This must have been. I must have been three or four. And watching it being filled up And hAnded over. Your father was an engineer in the sheffield steel industry. Yeah. What Sort Of man was he . What was he like . He was. He was quite a difficult man in a way. He was a little Bit Sort of. Could be quite cantankerous. And i think a lot of This went down to the fact he had a stammer all his life. He was a man with a good sense of humour, but probably unable to telljokes because of the stammer. So i think there was a
From jenin, Lucy Williamson sent this report. It was a message of force, delivered quietly at first. Israeli soldiers seeking their targets, Street By Palestinian street. By morning, hundreds of troops backed by Armoured Bulldozers had arrived in the Refugee Camps of tulkarem, nablus, tubas, jenin. Home to armed palestinian groups and unarmed civilians. At least ten palestinians have been killed. Hamas says six of them were its fighters. Masoud najjar said he was injured when he opened the door of his house to young men asking for water. Translation we felt like something came down on us from the sky and there was an explosion. I was unaware of what was going on. When i put my hand on my chest, it was all shrapnel and blood. Injenin, Army Vehicles surrounded the citys two main hospitals. Ambulances stopped and checked by militaryjeeps. Israels Foreign Minister has urged his government to use gaza as a model for dealing with armed groups, here saying that iran was backing them and that
Lucy williamson sent this report from the soroka medical centre in southern israel. Surrounded again by sunlight, by the sound of hebrew. Farhan alkadi, a 52 year old bedouin israeli, snatching a second chance at life. Crouched on the floor of a military helicopter, after 326 days in captivity, a smile. The start of his journey back home. At israel s soroka hospital, his last few moments in hiding. A wall of israeli soldiers shielding him from the world he left ten months ago. From a tunnel in gaza to an israeli ambulance in a couple of hours. His family racing the last few metres to greet him. Thin and pale but staff said in a good and stable condition. Translation: it is difficult to explain how it feels. It is better than having a newborn. We thank god and we thank everyone and hope to see him healthy. We re very happy, very happy. Israel s prime minister called to welcome him home, keen to be part of his release. We cannot go into many details of this special operation but i can sh
Catherine the great. Over the next half hour we will look at the impact of the election for those in russia, ukraine and around the world. But first, we start our coverage with this report from our russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, in moscow. Russias democracy is the best in the world, the kremlin says. And at Polling Station 38 in moscow, we found a choice of candidates and plenty of voters. Democracy in action, right . Not quite. Realistically, only one man can win this. Vladimir putin the man whos been on russias political stage for the last quarter of a century. Vladimir putin faces no serious challenger. His fiercest rivals are in exile or in prison. Not that this woman, whose son is fighting in ukraine, wants any change at the top. Of course i voted for putin, she says. I trust him. But not everyone who came out today was actually voting. This, one of a string of attacks on Polling Stations across russia. They are unprecedented. After chaotic scenes here. An arsonist is detained. A