because we know in lebanon, most of the people are hunters, so — and this sport actually, i took it from my dad. my dad, he was also a lebanese champion in trap shooting and he was the one who discovered this talent in me. so, tell me about that introduction. do you remember the very first time your father showed you how to hold the gun? yeah, because it left very special moments because first of all, i used to go with him hunting when i was very young, so i was introduced to all kinds of shotguns and stuff because of, first of all, hunting. and then, when i turned 14 years old, my dad said, "ok, let's go and try trap shooting" and this is where they discovered that i liked the sport, and why not to go further? and not long after that, you took part in your first international competition, right? yeah, hejust dropped me in my first world competition. it was a world cup in cairo. i took seventh. i took a very high ranking. and this is where, for my parents, it was like a turning point. so, they said, "ok, if you want to succeed in this, "then we have to stop everything and just put "the focus all on trap shooting." sarah, how did you get into sports? when i was in school, i was maybe nine years old, they had this activity — summer activities or the activities they do during the weekend — and my friends told me, "let's try and play basketball. " i said, "i have nothing. "i don't know how to play basketball." "let's learn, come, try. "you experience the game and you learn some skills "and you see, if you fit, you continue." so, this is how we started. we used to spend all of our free time playing and this is how i continued and i discovered that i loved this game. you love this game. and what did you love about basketball, sarah? it's all about teamwork and you have to have leadership and it combines many skills together. these skills, like, these are life skills. now, we teach them to young children, like teamwork, collaboration, communication, leadership, decision—making — these are all combined together to make a player, so, and i used to be fast, and i'm still fast, so i fit. you fit! and were yourfamily encouraging of you going out and playing basketball? not that encouraging because they were not aware — they did not have the awareness of the importance of sports on children. what encouraged me is that my sister and i were playing on the same team — the school varsity team. we used to play all the time together. this is what kept me going. 0k~ — ray, what are the key qualities that you need to excel as a trap shooter? well, i believe that, first of all, it's in the dna because every shooter, you ask him, or ask her, they always come back to the history of the family. so, everyone says, "ok, because my dad was a shooter "or my mother or my grandfather" — so, it's very rare to find, like, new entries, like, new people entering this kind of sport. so, basically, i believe that it has to be first of all, in the blood, like, you have to love the game. second of all, there is no team, so it's all based on you. you have to be comfortable, you have to be focused, you have to pull the trigger, so the opponent, actually, is the target, so, it's not another athlete, or someone in front of you. so, that's the difference. it's all based — everything is based on you. it's like, the basketball — the difference is, like, you have a support team with you. like, if it's not your day and you're notjust throwing the ball and entering, like, you have a back—up. but if it's not my day and i'm not pulling the trigger and i'm not hitting the target, no—one would do that for me, so, that's the difference. well, sarah, let me come to you with that question. you know, basketball is a team sport. what are the qualities that you think make a good player? i see that to be a good player, you have to challenge yourself, as ray was saying, since her sport is more individual than basketball. but also, you need to have that peace between you and your inner self and to be consistent, to have this courage and empowerment between you yourself and your surrounding, and to work on your mental health — mental health and physical health. right. you cannot be fit on court if you don't work on your mental health. it's interesting that you both mentioned that, that mental health... yes, because basically, it's something — today, a lot of athletes are talking about mental health, and the turning point of this is due to the covid. so, the covid was a transition for all athletes and especially when they rescheduled the olympic games. so, that was, for me — because i went to tokyo — that was really challenging because we've been preparing for the past four years and you are ready to go and then, suddenly, they postpone it a year. so, a year for an athlete is really something. so, this is something it's not any more a taboo. it's becoming a daily discussion because it is very important in an athlete because we have a lot of common things, we have a lot of work to do, so physically, we get tired, mentally, we get tired. putting all the time challenges in front of us, it's something that really requires a lot of calmness and dedication, and — so, it's not easy because when we win, people see the end result but they don't know exactly what's behind the stage. sarah, did you think when you were growing up that a career in sports was possible? here in lebanon? here in lebanon. no, there's no way. n0~ _ no way? very hard. no way. no way? so, that was... so, you had to have a plan b — was that the idea? exactly. i focused on my career now at my work, not as a basketball, as a career on basketball, as a career. i play ok, i play on a — i played in the first division. i'm still playing, but i don't look for it as a career. i take it as a hobby. and just so i understand, the reason why you didn't look to it as a possible career was because it's just not possible? the lack of... yeah, of sponsors... ..of finance, the lack of the support of the government, the federation. we do not, unfortunately, have in lebanon a vision in sports because basically, the people who are over it are not people educated much or they have a sports background to set a plan and a vision to develop sports in lebanon. so, basically, the lack of the finances and the lack of the mental and the support of the sport system in lebanon, we do not have it. so, it's something that we have to do on our own, with the supports of the families and friends and, luckily, if we have sponsors. and it's hard work, it's really hard work, and you pay for it from your savings. like, if you want to be an athlete, you have to train well, like strengthening and gym in the morning, let's say, and basketball at night. you have to schedule your trainings. and you have to pay for your personal trainer if you want to train at the gym, because you cannot train whatever you like to prevent injuries and so on. while if we want to talk about men athletes, they have their trainers, they have their nutritionists, you have to schedule your meals. but this is not available for all women athletes here in lebanon. so, it's a completely different situation for male athletes, ray, would you say? basically, like, if i want to talk about basketball... i'm talking about basketball. ..i think the men's basketball team is more supported by the government and the federation than women, you know? so now, you can see a little bit of transition of supporting the women because i think now, they're competing in the asian cup? asian championship? yes. — i forgot which... so, you see, like, there is a little bit of support. but in teamwork, they focus more on the men. and this is something, for me, it's not acceptable because as men can do results, women, they can do results as well and better. and today, the ioc, they actually insisted on having... this is international olympic committee? ..olympic committee, they insisted to have gender equality between men and women. if you want to go back to the past olympic games, you can see there was, like, 60% men, 70% men, 30% women. until today in tokyo, you find, like, 45% women, and the rest men. so, we're becoming equal and they introduced the mixed team events. so, just to give the right for the men and women to be together and to prove that gender equality in sports is something very important. right. so, you're both saying that what is holding women back is a lack of support, a lack of sponsorship, you know, the infrastructure. so, how have you, ray, how have you made it? how have you managed to overcome those hurdles? well, first of all, i had the support of my parents. they invested a lot on me. they invested time, they invested money, they invest — because they believed in me. and then, i had to work, as well, to — and my salary was just to go to pay my trainings, my expenses, everything. and my main goal was to do a result because in lebanon, they wait for you to do results. like, you do not get the support before getting the result — which, actually, the support you needed before getting the results. exactly. so, they wait for you to do a result, and then, if someone comes over to help you and support you... you-e lucky. — ..you're lucky enough to do so. i was lucky that my work paid off at the end of the day, after ten years, like, i got sponsors and everything. but i've won eight world championship medals. i've done three olympic games, i won asian championships — championship, so, ok, now let's talk. but where have you been in the past years, you know? yeah. so, this helped me to find sponsors and the support. definitely today, it's not like before because, due to the economic situation in lebanon, and the banks are not available anymore and they took our money, so it's harder today to find the financial support and sponsors in lebanon. even... - sarah, go ahead. even they do not even stream women's games. yeah. showing them on tv? yeah, they stream all the men's games, but — and even for individual sports, they do not stream them. yeah. at all. it's like, luckily, you know, when we watch the news and you go to the sport sector, they start talking about the results or, like, for example, manchester united won. like, "ok, but why don't you start from lebanon?" now, lebanon is the country hosting the largest number of refugees per capita — its estimated that 1.5 million syrians are currently living here. sarah, you work with the ngo right to play and you run programmes for kids living in refugee camps. who are the kids you work with and what is the situation at the camps like for them? i didn't know that such places exist, like, five minutes away from my home in beirut. the first time i entered a refugee camp, i was really surprised and shocked by this — what i saw. what were you seeing? like, the streets are full of dust and water. all the electric cables are — how do we say it? tangled cables? ..tangled together and the water's dropping on electric cables. yeah. the situation is really... horrible. ..horrible, yeah. now, the programmes that you run are to promote social cohesion and also to teach skills, so just tell me about that work — how do you do that? on all our projects, we use the play—based learning methodology and we — during the sessions, we integrate life skills with the game, with the technical skill. they realise, after playing, like, if you want — if you are playing football, let's say, and your team lost, has lost the game, then after the discussion, we reflect on this. "what do you think was the reason you lost the game?" so, they give answers, and then, they figure out that there was no teamwork between the players. so, if we emphasise about this skill, like you have to communicate before passing, you have to have eye contact, make sure that your team—mate is looking at you, or maybe to give him a sign for him to receive the ball. so, we focus on these skills to help them improve in the game. now, ray, you served as a un youth and goodwill ambassador for four years. how did you use your personal experience to promote gender equality? starting with my sports and the experience i had at the beginning of my career, seeing how women in lebanon are being really... ..far from getting their rights, and especially when it comes to sports. and this is where actually, i went also to campus, like, a lot of campuses in south and north of lebanon. and the main goal was actually is to introduce a sport in a way or another, that a woman, she can. and ifigured out also, not only — the community is not helping, but really, that the girl was not allowed even to hold a ball or to go play basketball or football. so, it was — for me, i was really shocked. i thought that today, after all these years, like, sports is becoming more common, women have more rights. but basically, no. so, this is where one of my missions is to develop sports in lebanon, where we create a lot of courts, like basketball courts and football courts, and being present with the kids, and tell them about my story and how i started, and how difficult it is actually to pass through all this negativity and bullying, but we have to overcome them all. being a role model for them, this helped them to start to think in a different way. sarah, you're working in a very challenging environment. how do you stay positive? ok, on a personal level, because after what you see in the refugee camps, or in the areas i work with... you have an emotional intelligence, like, you feel with people and so on. and also, it all reflects on yourself, and it affects me. so, i try to take care of my mental health through — i do meditation, breathing exercises, i train. and this helps me a lot. so, sports has also — helps you with that? yeah. 0k, 0k. now, sarah, sport is notjust a way to empower kids in refugee camps. it's also been a way to provide job and career opportunities for female coaches. so, tell me about that. yeah, so, our mission, or our vision on our programmes is to work on a sustainable level. like, if one day, the project ends, what would these coaches — what will they do? so, what we did is that we gave them trainings with the certification trainings, and, like, now on the kids athletics project, they have certificates that allows them to work as an athletics coach, but on a beginner level. so, this gives opportunities to coaches, to... job opportunities to coaches. on the football project. on the football project the coaches took the level d and level c certificate from the football association, lebanese football association. and also, on one of our football projects, they have — they had trainings. most of the coaches reached the most advanced level, and they took the icc, international coaching clinic, and they have their certificates, and many of them opened up their academies, or they have a job now as a coach. fantastic, so you're seeing direct results there. yeah. now, ray, you're a coach. you help run yourfamily�*s business, as well. you have your own line of ammunition. what is harder — training for the olympics, or being an entrepreneur in lebanon? training for the... laughter to tell you the truth, no, training, because it requires a lot of hard work. like, i train nine hours, ten hours a day. it requires a lot of dedication and patience, and... ..keep on fighting towards a goal to make everyone proud, to make your country proud. no, it's hard, and... ..because any business you turn, like, at any time, you can shut down or you can excel, or — there is nothing, because you do it for yourself, you know? but when you are on a mission, on a national mission, it's different. the responsibilities are bigger. the division is wider, the targets are bigger. so, i believe, yeah, training for the olympics is way, way harder... way harder. ..because there's a lot of sacrifices you have to do, a lot of sacrifices, like, on your routine, daily routine, towards your family, towards your friends. no, it's hard work. it's really hard work. sarah, when you introduced these initiatives to help women play a greater role in the matches and the camps, how did people receive it? i can tell you a story that happened when we started implementing a football project in a refugee camp in the north. the communities there are a bit strict, and they have this strict mindset, and they are religious. so, they did not welcome or accept that female coaches, first to train football, because it's a men's game, it's not made for girls. and they did not even accept for girls to be trained on football, and public. like if the court is open to the public, they did not welcome this idea. we faced a few challenges. we faced a few challenges regarding this. and they started to talk about this, the religious figures, and the mosque. and during the friday prayers, they even took away the teams, the players from their coaches and assigned a male instead of the female coaches. so, was the solution, sarah, to find a secluded location where the girls could play without being seen? exactly, this was the solution back then, because, as i told you, they were not allowed to be seen to the public. so, we were lucky that the centre we worked with had a space in the backyard, and it is covered. so, what we did is we rehabilitated the space into a mini football pitch, and it was covered for the girls to have the chance to play. right. this helped us to move forward, like step by step, and to gain back the teams we lost. and this encouraged more participation, girls' participation. even the parents started to attend the sessions to watch their girls play football. and now, it's becoming better and better. ray, you have your eyes on paris 2024, which will be your fourth consecutive olympics, which is amazing. how are you feeling about paris? so excited, so positive. ifeel this time, i'm much more ready than any other time, because the experience is playing a huge role, in the preparation towards the olympic games. but let's talk first about the qualifications... right. ..which is more important, and i'm starting now in august. it's our first qualifications for the olympic games, and then, i have the asian championship end of the year in october, and hopefully you'll see me in paris. yeah, fingers crossed. chuckles so, female athletes in the middle east are a growing group. what message would you have for young women who are looking to take up a sport? sarah? i tell them, especially young girls, "do not stop. "always keep going. "be passionate about the sports you do. "and take care about your mental health, your physical "health and your nutrition." ray, what advice would you have? well, a lot of advices. let's hear them! basically, i believe that sport is the future, and we as women, with all the capacities we have — because it's in the genes, you know, its genetic — we are multi—functional people, and we have a lot of potentials. we are more responsible, we are more persistent in what we do. we like to reach goals in our life. and, especially when it comes to different sectors, and as we can see today, women, they are being implemented everywhere, like, in all the sectors. so my message to her is not only keep going, but keep growing, and always believe in yourself and love yourself. because this is what matters first. if you're not strong enough to believe and love yourself, you will never, ever be able to reach your goal. so, keep it up and just be consistent in what you do. ray and sarah, thank you very much. thank you. thank you so much. hello. we have a very warm week of weather in prospect. in fact, it could turn out to be some of the warmest weather of the year so far. the highest temperature we recorded over the summer was all the way back injune at 32.2 celsius. this week we are expected to get to 30 celsius, but some places could getjust a little bit warmer than that. certainly some very warm or even hot weather in the outlook with plenty of strong sunshine, butjust a little bit of mist and fog here and there — some to start monday morning, particularly across parts of southwest scotland, but a few patches elsewhere, tending to lift and clear very quickly, and then we will see lots of sunshine. a little bit breezy down towards the far southwest, the far north of scotland, but really only the western and northern isles seeing more cloud and a few splashes of rain. temperatures in eastern scotland and up to 25, 26 degrees, parts of central and southeastern england could well get to 29. through monday night, it stays dry with clear skies, still this weather front in the far north of scotland with a few splashes rain and maybe the odd shower shower into the far southwest of england by the end of the night, 16 there in plymouth to start tuesday morning, a very warm start, a mild start elsewhere as well. for tuesday, this area of low pressure swirling to the southwest of us may introduce the odd shower across the southwest of england, parts of wales, possibly northern ireland. a weather front in northern scotland will be elsewhere lots more sunshine and plenty of warmth as well, but a slight shift in the wind direction will bring a slightly cooler day in the eastern side of scotland, 21 for aberdeen, further south 27, possibly 28 degrees. as we move into wednesday, this area of high pressure changes shape, shifts to the east of us and we start to bring the winds up from the south, so another surge of very warm air. wednesday is the day when some places could get up to 30 celsius or possibly even a little bit higher than that, a few patches of mist and fog around some of the coast but elsewhere it is a story of warmth and sunshine. and as we head towards the end of the week we stick with the same theme, temperatures could still get close to 30 degrees on thursday. only very, very slowly will it turn more unsettled from the west. live from washington, this is bbc news. ukraine's president zelensky announces a key change in military leadership for his country. taiwan faces a powerful typhoon as thousands evacuate. there is hundreds of vehicles that are completely stuck in the mud. this is a disaster like never been seen at burning man. thousands remain stranded at the famous burning man festival in the us desert amid heavy rain and mud. hello. i'm helena humphrey. it is good to have you with us. we begin in ukraine where president volodymyr zelensky has announced a major shake—up to his government, dismissing his defence minister, oleksii reznikov, seen here. president zelensky has now named a new leader, rustem umerov, the head of ukraine's main privatisation fund. here's mr zelensky giving that update. translation: this week, | the parliament will be asked to make a staff—related decision. i would like to outline it now. i have decided to replace the minister of defence of ukraine. oleksii reznikov has been through more than 550 days of full—scale war. i believe that the ministry need new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole. ukraine's parliament still has to approve the change, and mr zelensky says he expects that lawmakers will sign off. the dismissal of oleksii reznikov