Hello, welcome to the bbc news at ten. Tens of thousands of people have gathered on the streets of paris tonight to watch the opening ceremony of the 2024 paralympics. 4,400 athletes from 184 delegations will compete over the next 11 days of competition with these games featuring a record number of delegations and of female athletes. Our sports correspondent andy swiss is watching in paris. A perfect parisian evening and a paralympic curtain raiser like no other. Welcome to paris! at place de la concorde an opening ceremony exploring attitudes towards disability. French star christine and the queens with a modern take on an edith piaf classic. And soon it was time for the athletes. Parading down the champs elysees, more than 180 countries united by a commonjoy. And here comes great britain. The british team, led by terry bywater and lucy shuker, were welcomed by the prime minister, sir keir starmer. Paralympics gb have 215 athletes competing here and after finishing second in the med
In front of a really intense, full stadium. For the womens game, thats what we want. Thats what we expect now at these big tournaments, especially in a semi final. So for us, we thrive in those moments. These lionesses know that theyre about to face their toughest test yet at this tournament, trying to overcome not only their opponents, australia, but also a huge and hostile crowd here at the national stadium. But if they needed inspiration, 20 years ago, englands Rugby Union Team won the world cup right here by beating australia, one of english sports greatest ever moments. The matildas journey to a first semi final has gripped the nation with record Viewing Figures and ticket sales. Theyve really grown with us throughout this whole tournament, from all over the country has been absolutely unreal and theyre really like a 12th men out there for us. And i really do believe theyve gotten us over the line on more times than once. So, yeah, theyre going to be vital for us tomorrow. Austral
alongside the queen and prince and princess of wales. the uk s national health service marks its 75th anniversary today we look at how that s being celebrated and the huge challenges it s facing. and the latest from wimbledon asjust stop oil protesters briefly disrupted a match by covering a corner of the court in orange confetti. hello, i m matthew amroliwala. welcome to verified live three hours of breaking stories and checking out the truth behind them. thousands have joined funeral processions injenin in the west bank in the middle east for 12 palestinians killed during an intense 48 hour operation by the israeli military. massive crowds marched towards the cemetery these pictures giving you a sense of the scale of the turnout. huge numbers, huge anger after israeli forces launched a two day raid against what they described as terrorists launching attacks from jenin. eight of the dead were members of militant groups. as the bodies were carried through the debris str
from more than 800 serving officials in the us and europe denouncing their governments policy on israel and the war in gaza. in a signed a statement, they warn that their own governments policies on the israel gaza war could amount to grave violations of international law . one signatory to the statement a us government official with more than 25 years national security experience told the bbc those who understand the region were not being listened to. the statement warns that their administrations risk being complicit in one of the worst human catastrophes of this century, but that their expert advice has been sidelined. it says israel has shown no boundaries in its military operations in gaza, which has resulted in tens of thousands of preventable civilian deaths. it also calls for the us and european governments to stop asserting to the public that there is a strategic and defensible rationale behind the israeli operation . the statement is signed by civil ser