board health and social care board regulator in england does not fit for purpose. a typing arrives in south—eastern china after leaving a trail of death and destruction across taiwan and the philippines. there has been a major sabotage attack on france's high—speed rail network. investigators are looking at the damage caused to the line and trying to start repairs. sncf says its lines have been hit by targeted attacks in a coordinated temp two paralyse the network. fires have been started in three points on the line from the west, north and east of paris. 800,000 passengers have been affected. euros are —— eurostar services have also been affected.

efforts are under way to try and repair the damage, but they are not expected to be completed until after the weekend. the ioc chief says he has full confidence in the french authorities after the incident. the chief executive of the french meal —— real work —— real networks said an investigation was in progress but they didn't get to know who was responsible for the attacks. i don't know. there is an inquiry at the moment. the police force are looking for the people who committed this assault against the french network. it is ongoing. i have no information on that. andrew harding sent this from one of the main railway stations in paris.

trains are still arriving and departing. the authorities here insisting that they are having some success in diverting those high—speed trains onto other lines and so although the network is severely disrupted. they are hoping that over the course of the next few days they will try to sort this out and get everybody where they need to be. this is an important time for jurors, people arriving for the olympic games, but also parisiennes leaving the city for their summer holidays. the mood here is very calm. a lot of security around. people are waiting for news about these delayed trains hoping that things will be resolved fairly soon. it is a huge day for france and a huge moment for the athletes. years

of training, build—up expectation and of course pressure. a leading sports psychiatrist told us how the athletes prepare for the games. we'll talk about that a little bit later. first of all, let's hearfrom our correspondent at saint pancreas. st pancras is the main london station that connects the eurostar from london to paris. even on a normal day it is really busy, but it was expected to be especially so because so many people were planning to travel to paris for the olympics and also because it is school holidays now and it is peak time for people to go on trips to europe. unfortunately, eurostar has put up a status update online warning passengers if they can to not travel today and to postpone anyjourneys that they have picked if they can. that is because that damage to overhead rail lines that has been reported in france has hit the network along the route that

eurostar normally travels through france to get down into paris. so the company has had to redirect its trains around what it calls the classic routes. that it says is adding around an hour and a half to journey times, forcing them to cancel some trains. if you have seen to licensing pancreas before in the past, usually causes a huge crowd to build up in that long concourse of the station. it can become disruptive even for domestic travellers as well because there are a lot of domestic trains to go from here to the home counties and also north into hertfordshire. if congestion builds up on that station and people could get to the platform is easily there could be further knock—on effects to people in the uk evenif knock—on effects to people in the uk even if they are not planning to travel. i went inside earlier and queues are starting to build up.

nothing too chaotic yet, producing a lot of people who are checking for status updates, asking customer service agent for advice, not really sure what to do. people are around in stations to help people replant their travel if they need to. they have also said that passengers are able to cancel for a full refund free of charge if they need to come or modify their bookings free of charge. for people who were hoping to get to paris for the olympics opening ceremony tonight, this could be an irreversibly real trip. katie gornall has more from paris. this is a huge deal, causing chaos at parisien train stations. hundreds of thousands of passengers are affected. organisers say the attack was clearly coordinated, arson

attacks on junction boxes. was clearly coordinated, arson attacks onjunction boxes. it was clearly coordinated, arson attacks on junction boxes. it is hard not to see a link to the olympic games with the opening ceremonyjust hours away. this will cause chaos for fans travelling to the olympic games and trying to get around the city once they are here. we have heard from the organisers in the statement, saying that paris 2024 has taken note of the incident. we are working closely with our partner sncf to assess the situation. they are bound to be concerned because there is a huge security operation anyway under way here in paris on the six kilometre stretch of the river that will play host to the

opening ceremony. an opening ceremony like no other. the first to take place outside of the stadium. it was already going to be an incredibly difficult event to stay secure. 45,000 security personnel on the streets of paris guarding the border. there is almost like a ring of steel around the river right now, with miles of metal fencing, checkpoints and police checking qr codes to allow people to move around. this will put authorities on alert. it is not something that they will not be prepared for. we heard president macron talking about security difficulties that that might entail. he said we have intent —— contingency plans in place. there is no indication that that is the case just yet. paris 2024 are monitoring the situation and i will be hoping that this opening event can flow freely when it gets under way and few hours. an unprecedented opening ceremony, hundreds of boats are set to sail down the river saying carrying 10,000 athletes. there will be officials, dignitaries from all around the world watching

this, as well as 300,000 spectators on the river salmon itself. a massive security operation and they will just massive security operation and they willjust hope that everything flows smoothly and i can still go to plan. for the athletes themselves, huge day, years of training, build—up, pressure on them. i spoke to a leading sports psychiatrist earlier, who told us how athletes prepare for the games. most people will have a sports psychologist and psychiatrist doing similar work. we are looking at the physical aspects of getting fit and mental aspects. for the last few years in building up for olympians i am working with, we look at what will happen in the build—up to the olympics, what happens on the day. for example, what's happened this morning, unexpected things happening, you have to learn to have focus and a mental strategy of where you want your thinking

and emotions to be in order to optimise performance. it is a skill base we are working on, no different to a pphysical base. these days, do most elite athletes work with sports psychiatrists, psychologists, such as yourself? i think they do. obviously, people vary in their ability and what they feel they are able to do to manage themselves, so not everybody will want that. but many of the athletes realise that there are available techniques and support systems to show you how your mind works and how you can make it work in your favour and optimise physical performance. tell us, you work closely with the athlete adam peaty, big british name competing, tell us about how he prepares. a big british name, lots of eyes on him in the games. it is a privilege working with him, great guy. along with his coach, mel marshall, we formed a team on the mental side of things. he works really hard on this, he applies it, he feeds back. what we do is we look at the way his mind works and the way he thinks, because i work with people in a unique way, so that there's no room for sudden thoughts or behaviours that will appear at this crucial time. it's all planned for many

months ahead of time. it isa it is a very individual strategy that you employ. what techniques i explore what is unique to them. if you take the olympics themselves, you take the olympics themselves, you know millions of people are going to be watching and it is a one in a four year opportunity to perform in their best. some athletes will rise to that, believing it is their opportunity to do this, other athletes say that is too daunting. we have to look at what negative thoughts athletes might have and what positive thoughts and think what positive thoughts and think what is the optimum thinking for that particular athlete? even an athlete that seems to be positive, that can actually heighten the emotion so you start getting impaired judgment. we have to look

at what their mind does and what works for them individually. haw at what their mind does and what works for them individually. how do the block works for them individually. how do they block out _ works for them individually. how do they block out the _ works for them individually. how do they block out the fact _ works for them individually. how do they block out the fact that - works for them individually. how do they block out the fact that there i they block out the fact that there are millions of eyes on them? there are millions of eyes on them? there are 10,000 athletes competing in these games and it may be the first time they have had cameras on them, the eyes of the world watching them on their tv set to run mind. how can they block that out?— they block that out? again, different athletes _ they block that out? again, different athletes work - they block that out? again, different athletes work in l they block that out? again, - different athletes work in different ways. there are distraction techniques. the key thing is to focus on the process of what you're actually doing. i try to tie in events like athletics on the track or you may have an eight tonne truck -- 800 or you may have an eight tonne truck —— 800 metre that you can break down into different parts of the race. the mind can wander off. we have a process by which we can bring back quite quickly. process by which we can bring back quite quickly-— quite quickly. professor steve peters there. _ quite quickly. professor steve peters there. let _ quite quickly. professor steve peters there. let us - quite quickly. professor steve peters there. let us show- quite quickly. professor stevej peters there. let us show you quite quickly. professor steve - peters there. let us show you some of the repair work going on in

france in those high—speed railway lines. the president of sncf said that the attackers started fires and conduits carrying multiple fibre—optic cables that rely safety operations for drivers. there are huge numbers of cables that have to be required manually. 250,000 people are affected today and i work is expected to continue over the weekend. stay with us here on bbc news.

hello from the bbc sport centre. i'm ben croucher. well, away from the issues affecting the rail networks in france, we arejust a matter of hours away from the 33rd olympic games being declared open in paris. indeed, this time tomorrow we'll have already dished out the first medals, but friday is all about the opening ceremony, and one with a difference for it will not be held in the olympic stadium, but rather on the river seine. hello from the bbc sport centre.

thomasjolly, the artistic director, said he wanted the beauty of the sun to bathe paris, but he may not get his wish. the parisian precipitation may be winning the battle right now, but the forecast later is better. so what can we expect? many of the details are still secret, but a floatilla will entertain some 300,000 spectators along the banks of the seine, ending near the eiffel tower at trocadaro. it is definitely a huge talent, but think about that, on a six kilometre parade, the athletes are going to go through some parts of the history of france with an artistic shoe intertwined into the parade and the prodigal element. it is special and we want our games to be special. we have paris, it is a fantastic asset and we want to show to the world. for the first time you will see