voice—over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. in tecthlore, we go in search of the most exciting innovations around the world.

in this series, i'm on a special mission to uncover the technology powering the paris 2024 olympic and paralympic games. it's been the most high—tech games yet, and with the paralympics coming up, i'm testing the tech making sports more accessible to everyone. oh, how are you? yeah, i'm very good! this time, i'm joining paralympic long jumper lex gillette for a behind—the—scenes tour of team usa's training camp... synthetic voice: turn right and continue seven metres. | ..i'm learning how immersive audio is enhancing sport forvision—impaired fans, i'm whizzing round on cutting—edge green mobility and seeing how smart clothes are giving paralympic sprinter brian siemann a boost. holy moley, he's halfway round already! this is tecthlore paris: breaking barriers. the athletic performance at the paris olympics was dazzling, and the

excitement continues as france prepares for an exceptional paralympic games. it won't surprise you to learn that i love the paralympics just as much as i love the olympics. and there was a time long ago where i dreamt of reaching the podium myself. in the paralympic games, you have many, many records, performance, and many extraordinary stories, amazing stories with athletes. and so when you step inside of that stadium and you hear those cheers and you feel that high energy, everything that you did over the past four years, it was worth it. i'm exploring how technology is making the games more accessible to everyone, starting by meeting five—time team usa paralympian lex gillette. lex, hi! it's paul. paul! how are you? yeah, i'm very good. great to meet you. good to meet you too. after losing his sight in childhood, lex has won silver medals for blind long jump at every paralympics he's entered.

he currently holds the world record for blind athletes in his class, leaping a whopping 6.77m. this time, he's challenged himself to go one better — gold. but what shouldn't be a challenge for athletes like lex is getting around the venues. so you just navigate down... running track. that's the one we want, running track. we're at the us training campjust outside paris, testing a new app for navigation inside games venues. chime, synthetic voice: ah, there we go, right, so we're off and moving. turn right and continue seven metres. turn left and continue four metres. turn right. yeah, right? got us around the corner. to map each space, a 360—degree point cloud is painstakingly collected by hand. ai and computer vision then takes this sd data and, with the processing help of olympic partner intel,

crafts the step—by—step guide. once the map is created, it can be used to serve people with different disabilities. a wheelchair user may. need a step—free route. a deaf or hard—of—hearing user mayjust want to have visual i directions, and for. a neurodiverse user, they can prepare and plan for their trip and feel less| anxious and nervous i about the experience. continue eight metres. slight left and continue four metres. slight left... go straight. arrived — running track. there you go. so that was pretty good. that got us to the track pretty unscathed, i would say. yeah? how was that to use for you? yeah, no, it definitely... it was really interesting trying to figure out what it means to rotate left or turn left. so i think after a while, you use the solution a few times, you get used to it and you learn that path pretty easily. i canjump six metres, so i kind of know how far

that is, yeah. though this is the only paris site map so far, the team's ambitions are huge for the future. this year's deployment has been focused on the athletes - primarily and specifically . at the performance centres and the training grounds. and in coming games, - we're hoping to expand that to visitors and staff i and people attending the games as well. back at the sandpit with world—record holder lex, i'm trying to get my head around just how blind long jumping works. the announcer comes on, asking for silence within the stadium. 70, 80,000 people inside of the stadium, and it sounds like this. you get that hush descend. yes. lex works with a guide in whom he puts his absolute trust. after placing lex in the centre of the runway track, the guide stands next to the take—off board and then guides him with his voice to the right place. he will then begin his

call, which is, "fly, fly, fly, fly! " it's 16 strides to lift off. four, five, six... 14, 15, i6. we should be... and it'sjust there, yeah. and on the 16th stride, i fly. the paralympic take—off board is a little different to this one — a metre in size and dusted with chalk. so when i run and take off, then the official will be able to see my footprint... yeah. ..and they measure from the end of my toe to where i land in the sand. and 6.7m is an astonishing way away. wow, we are just about here. i can't comprehend quite how far that is. yeah, it's hard for me to comprehend. i can't even see it back there — that's how far it is! what would it mean to you personally to win gold at these paralympic games? the only box that i have yet

checked off is winning gold at the paralympics. you know, if i do decide to end after paris, it definitely would be a great way to end on top. best of luck going into paris. i appreciate it. i'll be watching with interest. yes, thank you so much. aside from athletes, some 350,000 disabled fans are visiting paris for the games, so it's critical that the city itself is accessible. i'm at charlety stadium meeting paralympian ludivine munos, who is head of paralympic games integration. oh, hello, paul! a former team france swimmer, she's competed in three games, winning12 medals, including several golds. as a paralympian yourself, does that give you a different perspective on what's needed for games like this? yes, it's an objective to have some paralympian, and like me, with some medals, internally of the committee, because i can share my

different experience. for example, when we work around the ceremonies, it's very difficult to walk, for me, more than 300m. in more than 300m, you can have some solution. in a city like paris, where so much of its charm is built on its historic buildings, retrofitting accessibility is quite a challenge, but ludivine assures me that all 18 paralympic venues have been designed and tested to ensure all visitors with diverse needs are made welcome. underground, only a few of the main paris metro lines are accessible, but on street level, the city has a 100% accessible bus and tram system, as well as new transport services just for the games. for the first time, we have 1,000 taxis that will be accessible for persons with disability. before, it was just 250, so we progress on that. and we had some different shuttles specifically

for the spectators with disability. you can take it in eight stations to go directly to each venue. getting around venues is one thing, but i'm really excited to learn how accessible tech is making sports much more fun for disabled fans. inside the stadium, the atmosphere for this qualifying event is phenomenal. i'mjoining nacer, a blind para—judo athlete who's just qualified to compete in his first paralympics. he's been using the paris 2024 audio app for a greater level of immersion. so it's notjust like commentary — they're actually giving you a little bit more about the environment and what's happening. yeah, of course. you have two channels. you have one channel in english and in french. so now they are telling that a new competition is starting now. ok, yeah. so they're giving you the athletes, the countries. they're giving you also the description of the stadium. if you are sitting in the north or the south, they tell you,

"to your right, you have the delegations. "at your left, you have the press review," and so on. so it's really dynamic, basically. how does that make you feel? you know, what does that bring to you as a spectator? it's the first time of my life i'm entering a stadium that i have in—stadium live description. it's great. well, enjoy the race that's about to start. the silence, you see? the sound of silence! across the city, at the iconic stade de france, some blind or visually impaired fans are trialling a hands—on device. so this device helps people inside feel the action. can you tell me a little bit about how it works? yeah, so it's for blind and visually impaired people so they can touch these tablets, and we have here a magnet, and the magnet moves to show the position of the ball. so theyjust have to touch it and they will feel the action of the game. oh, cool. it's moving! the tablet also vibrates at key moments... 0h! oh, is that a try?

..like a try scored in the rugby. there we go, it was a try. the tablet has been adapted for different games events and will be at paralympic goalball, blind football, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby. the real beauty with this is that there's no audio delay, and so blind people can feel what's happening and really be immersed in the atmosphere. commentary in french bringing this excitement to all will be key to creating a lasting legacy for the paralympics, with both real—world access and a record broadcast across a reach of 160 countries. push the sport and the para sport directly to the younger and the person with disability. and in more than that, for me, the behaviour is very important. if we can show... if every public can look at the paralympic record, i'm sure that they change their view around the disability,

and, in more than that, after, they can employ a person with disability after the paralympic games. i know the challenges involved in navigating life i'm continuing my deep dive into the tech powering the paris games by marking some memorable moments. it's been exhilarating exploring the technology that not only makes all of this possible, but continues to drive the paris games forward. but even that doesn't compare to watching the events themselves. south korea's archers swept the board, winning every archery gold up for grabs, five in total — an incredible result. just how do they do it? before the games, we met the hyundai motor group engineers designing the training tech behind this success, including this arrow—selection robot. he speaks korean translation: the equipment fires each arrow with the same angle and the same intensity. only arrows hitting virtually

the same spot are selected for competition, ensuring maximum consistency. as you can see, the second arrow struck slightly to the left and below. and for improved feedback in training, a camera tracks the athlete's posture when shooting — again, to ensure consistency, this time in body position. the purpose of this equipment is to allow athletes to save their poses more simply, offering immediate review. in ourfirst episode, we met british climber toby roberts, who was using a digital twin of the climbing venue at le bourget to prepare. how much it was studying the virtual model of the arena and how much endless training and talent, but gold was the result for the teenage sensation. congratulations, toby! before the games, we also met team usa's soccer captain, lindsey horan, who piloted her team all the way to gold, beating brazil in the final.

she showed us the secret of her success — incredible muscle—mapping tech she's been using to take her performance to a whole new level. you can always improve little things. maybe this will be that much better or i can be a little bit faster on the field, strengthening one muscle that i didn't know i needed to strengthen. itjust shows you a better idea of how your muscles are working. that i worked really hard on, and now my left hamstring isn't as great! i tried the tech myself, which all starts with a regular mri scan. well, that's certainly a novel experience, a first i've done for television! a couple of days later, i went to london's queen elizabeth olympic park to see my scans transformed. we get the 2d, grainy, black—and—white images that you see from an mri that none of us know what to do with. we have an ai that actually

automatically segments the muscles and the musculoskeletal system, and then we create a true—to—life form of the human body of who we captured. the body can be compared against itself for symmetry or against the wider population. now, i noticed when i looked through the results the words "fat infiltration" quite a lot. that sounds pretty bad! what does that mean? you actually are on the lower end of the spectrum of having an amount of fat inside each individual muscle. really, what we're doing is creating a metric for muscle health, which has never been done before. such precision health particularly benefits women, who've been historically overlooked in sports science. there is so much given into the men's side of the game in terms of, you know, injuries, in terms of statistics. now it's starting to progress a lot in the women's game, and they're also seeing women and men differently. congratulations to all our olympians.

of course, the excitement continues as disabled athletes strive for glory at the paralympics. i met olympic partner toyota at france's national training grounds, which has been a test bed for its all—electric paralympic mobility. hi. nice to meet you. as a former wheelchair user, i'm excited trying a high—tech attachment that can supe up any set of wheels. so how it works... basically, it goes here. then there is a hook. you put the hook inside the pin. ooh! wow. he laughs how to move it... brake, one hand. yep. acceleration, one hand. ooh! if you just move down, you go. great. and i'm just setting that to top speed, just so you know. and i'm off... ..at a safe limit of 6km/h. this is amazing! wind in my hair... ..what hair i've got! the easiest a00m

i've ever done. crucially, this doesn't require thumb or twisting motions to control, so tetraplegic georgios kapelakis, the president of the greek paralympic committee, could use it to carry the olympic torch. 150 of these have been given to athletes to use at the opening and closing ceremony, so paralympians can take part without exerting energy ahead of their competitions. really easy to drive. i can even do it with one hand. or one arm in my case. the paris fleet also includes this wheelchair—accessible people carrier and a smart scooter. this is cool, isn't it? it will be e—sharing for the first time ever for the athletes in the village, and it will be used also by the staff in the venues. like regular ride—sharing, these vehicles can be booked and unlocked through a smartphone app. it has also some sensor of proximity. in case you have some obstacle,

you start to decelerate. yeah. there is also a light that you can turn on. yeah, it's quite nice. and, of course, if somebody is on their way... beeps he laughs that's the best bit. oh, yeah. amazing. having so many athletes with different types of disability from different regions, with different use cases, is a perfect learning ground for us to see whether our solutions work for everybody. and these innovations will live on long after the games. today, already we have some requests from hospitals or retirement homes, which would like to work with us on some of those solutions, to have them as a legacy. this isjust a pilot project, but rolled out at scale it's easy to see how this could unlock cities for disabled people. next, i meet an elite wheelchair athlete whose racing skills leave me in the dust.

wheelchair sprinter brian siemann is a three—time usa paralympian. ahead of paris, the us track and field star has been wearing a unique high—tech sleeve from a start—up called nextiles. you just slide it up, make sure that it is lined up with your elbow. it's the only sleeve in the world that has the technology that wheelchair racers can currently use to actually collect real—time cadence data. can you explain what actually cadence is and how that's important to you as a wheelchair athlete? when we talk about cadence, it's the number of strokes that you're putting in. we want to have the most... ..most power, most efficiency, but also, not be wasting it by putting in just unnecessary strokes. this first—of—a—kind data comes from biometric threads concealed in the elbow, combined with data

from an accelerometer. it's measuring how quickly and how far those fabrics are actually going back and forth, and then giving you real—time data so that you can actually adjust your training session. now, i know you've agreed tojump in your racing chair... yes. ready to hop in the racing chair and i'll show you some workouts. brian uses an aluminium racing chair with carbon—fibre features and his phone attached. you can sort of make adaptions in real time from what you're seeing. yes. that's really cool. well, i'm going to let you crack on. all right. wow! brian's personal best is 400m in 48.6 seconds. holy moley! he's halfway round already. and he hits top speeds of 22mph. wow! amazing. how did that feel? it felt pretty good. good to be back on the track. brian shows me the results on his smartphone. the first part you'll see here.

you'll notice that the highest peak is the spike right at the start. you're going to be putting in more strokes at a very rapid rate to get your chair moving. but then i stabilised myself so that i could have a good, hard effort. if i was seeing my cadence spike all over the place, that's a sign to me that i'm not actually consistent with my stroke, and that maybe for the next interval, what i'd have to do is i would really focus on making sure that it was more level. how easy is it to find technology like this, that's tailored specifically towards disability sport? it's so hard to get companies to invest in athletes with disabilities and make sure that their tech works for us. to have something like this to help improve my performance is really special, but i think in the big picture as well, it's advancing accessibility for everyone. and is having access to data like this having real—world benefits, like, out on the track? absolutely. i think when you are at an elite level, everyone

is fit, everyone is on top of their game. and so, having data like this is going to make or break whether or not you make the podium or not. for me, my goals would be to bring home a medal, or two, and we'll see what happens after that. well, best of luck. thank you so much. it's been such a joy meeting the athletes giving their all at the paris games. what i've learned is that everyone brings the olympic spirit of faster, higher, stronger to everything that they do, whether in sport, production or pioneering new tech. i can't wait to see what comes next. they laugh the first i've done for television. wow!

hello there. we're into fine settled spell of weather now, just in time for the weekend,

and we should see a lot of sunshine on both saturday and sunday, especially across england and wales. winds light in the south, always a bit fresher further north. that's because scotland is closer to this area of low pressure over iceland, but the azores high, bringing plenty of sunshine and lighter winds to england and wales. but it will be quite a cool start to saturday morning. cool and fresh, with temperatures in single digits out of towns and cities. but there'll be plenty of sunshine to begin the day, cloud tending to bubble up into the afternoon, and that will bring a few showers to northern and western scotland and northern ireland through the day, where it'll stay quite breezy but light winds further south. temperatures here 24—25 degrees. mid to high teens across the north, maybe 20 degrees across northeast scotland. now the showers tend to fade away across most of the north, the odd one continuing across the highlands through saturday night. lengthy clear skies again, light winds to the south. so it's going to be another fresh night to come with seven to 12 degrees for sunday. the azores, high across the south, just nudges up a little bit further northwards. so large parts of england and wales, maybe northern ireland,

southern scotland will see lighter winds, but still quite breezy across the north and west of scotland, where again we'll have a few showers and a few showers, perhaps for northern ireland, maybe just one or two across western england and wales, but similar sorts of temperatures, mid 20s in the south and mid to high teens further north. now as we head out to sunday to monday, our area of high pressure begins to get squeezed out in towards the near continent as low pressure takes over across western areas, it goes downhill through the day across the north and the west. wetter and windier but central and eastern parts of the country will stay dry. plenty of sunshine and light winds, too. further north and west it will be turning blustery with that rain, so temperatures here high teens at best, quite warm and turning increasingly humid across the southeast 25, maybe 26 degrees. tuesday looks more unsettled generally across the country. could even see a few showers in the southeast. it'll be a breezier day to come, but the heaviest of the rain will tend to be across the north and west of scotland. temperatures here again mid to high teens up to around 20

to 24 in the south. further areas of low pressure will cross the country, bringing wet and windy spells to the north and west, but it should tend to stay largely dry, quite warm, humid and breezy across the southeast.

hello, i'm rajini vaidyanathan. and welcome to tonight's special programme where we take a deeper look at this week's push for a ceasefire in gaza. us presidentjoe biden says a truce in gaza is much closer than it's ever been, but that it's not there yet. negotiators said the talks were "serious and constructive" — they'll meet again next week to try to finalise an agreement between israel and hamas. in this special programme we'll take a look at where things stand. we begin with a report from the occupied west bank, where the funeral of a 22—year—old palestinian man, who was shot dead whenjewish settlers stormed his village

thursday night has taken place.