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your passions and the way you enrich your community. life well planned. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" g the context on bbc news. g >> this is france putting its best foot forward and saying this is us in what we represent. this is my fourth olympics and they are all like a fever dream. >> it will be monday when the technical changes are made, and that trains are running normally again. no one should be under expectation that if they have a ticket booked on the tgv they

can take it in a normal fashion. >> it's stressful and it makes me worried that when we get there it will be chaotic and not quite the half-day off work i was expecting. but hoping to get there. ♪ anchor: the opening ceremony is underway but with high-speed rail links to paris sabotaged and the journeys of hundreds of thousands disrupted, not quite start the organizers of the pure sonics would've hoped for. the prime minister of israel finds time to chat with donald trump at his home in florida. one of the wlds most powerful drug lords is arrested as atmpts continue to break up mexican cartels. and illegal drugs found in vapes

confiscated from british children. the paris olympics are finally underway. the opening ceremony takes place in the city rather than a stadium, with thousands of athletes prorated i boat along the river seine. a different picture hours earlier, on one of the busiest days imaginable for the french capital. the rail network in and around paris thrown into chaos but a series of acts of sabotage. it's been called a massive attack after signal boxes and electrical wires on the high-speed rail system were vandalized, causing fires. our paris condo responded -- correspondent has the story. reporter: confusion at europe's busiest rail station in paris. the news of railway attacks spreading fast. delays and cancellations piling up. prompting frustration and some

anxiety. are you concerned about these attacks? >> i am concerned because i have a family and i want to make sure we get home safe and sound. >> i'm concerned, i don't want to be here with my little one longer than i need to be. reporter: footage shows centers escorted off one train into taken off the tracks after getting stuck on the outskirts of paris. this is one of the sabotaged sites on the high-speed euro starliner that joins paris to london. cables to liberally on fire, but by whom? paris already on high alert over potential russian cyber attacks and violent groups. the prime minister noted the sabotaged was not an amateur effort. >> what we can see is this operation was planned and

coordinated, sensitive targets were chosen that shows knowledge of the rail network and were to strike at. reporter: among those in the queue at a station in london, parents of a british athlete playing in the women's rugby sevens. >> we are prepared to wait for however long, we just need to get to paris. reporter: in france, engineers racing to fix the damage, replacing cables on the three affected lines. there were plenty of frustrated travelers here, but good news is while the high-speed lines have been affected across france, the bulk of the network is still operating finally and is trying to pick up t slack. >> the trains are moving, we are running the majority of trains today a bit slower, so most of the people who want to get to paris today should be able to do so.

reporter: and upbeat assessment but this has been an alarming experience for a city hoping nothing else will go wrong this olympic summer. anchor: not quite the start to the olympics organizers would have wanted but with the opening ceremony fully underway, let's hope the focus can be on the show and olympics itself. let's head to a damp and drizzling paris. reporter: go to the olympics, they said, it will be amazing they said, summer in paris, they said. here i am. don't feel sorry for me, i am kind of undercover but the people watching the ceremony are getting drenched, wearing different outfits to keep themselves dry, they have their big umbrellas. ultimately it is soaking. not the weather the organizers of the olympics wanted.

look at them, so brave. it's not the whether the organizers wanted, they would have liked this to be a beautiful, warm and sunny day as it's been in paris the last few days. alas, it wasn't to be. i'm in paris, i've been here a few days and i'm watching the opening ceremony from where i am and at some point later in the evening it will end just behind me by the eiffel tower and i'm sure there will be amazing fireworks. with me is our sports correspondent, who spent the last three hours talking about the ceremony. u've been here at the olympic ceremonies four years, your fourth olympics, how does this compare? >> it's incredibly different, it's never been done like this before, we've never seen an olympic ceremony outside the stadium. there are inherent risks with that.

like you said they would not have wanted this weather. we just saw a pianist with the rain slamming down on his piano. slippery fingers. they are enjoying it, you can see they've got their umbrellas. incredibly british weather. >> we are used to this, we live through this summer after summer. we've seen pics of lady gaga and she really knocked it out of the park with the song. >> the start of the ceremony everyone was hoping for, she came down the stairs with pink huge fans covering her and the big reveal. she sang in french, she has a french mom i think and italian down and she knocked it out of the park. huge icon. >> let's talk about boats i think we will have a look at and

the difference between this and the other ones we've seen in the past is this. athletes on boats and barges along the seine. it still happening, luxembourg, it is their time to waive advance. it's been lovely to see them. >> normally you get the parade of nations toward the end but here they started with it. the boats have played their part in the whole artistic show of everything. we saw jamaica really getting into it, spain loving life. italy was really excited. >> i thought july in europe would be good but it is misery. tell me about the flag bearers

because it is a symbolic thing to be asked to do. >> hugely symbolic for your country. most of the time it's voted for by the other athletes. that was the case with the u.s. athletes, coco gauff, the youngest to have the flag for the u.s. and the first tennis player, and she is holding it alongside lebron james, who needs no instruction, the most famous basketball player in the world, the u.s. basketball team is a shoe in. we saw 10 historical french women rising up with statues and they will be gifted to the city, because there are statues around of men. >> in the athletes village was

talking to someone who said there's a crash down there. >> you wouldn'tave consider bringing your children and it's been a huge conversation for women. the flag bearer for britain has three children. hu steps taken for sisterhood. >> seeing more pictures of the flag bears from all the countries. we talked earlier about other symbolic things. about half an hour ago we saw a beautiful big heart formed in the sky and about five minutes ago we saw a beautiful flypast. >> that's the thing about these opening ceremonies, they wanted to do things you might have seen before but not the same way. >> and we are not in a stadium and how lovely is that? >> that's what they are trying to do, bring it to the whole of

france. they are calling it the athletes games, trying to bring it to the athletes and people and make it a spectacle for everyone. it's the first time we will he had this many spectators seeing something like this up close because in the stadium you have maximum 80,000. they are making an effort with a slight problem with the weather. >> it's been lovely to talk to you and i'm looking rward to the big finale with fireworks which i am sure -- there is the heart. that was so sweet, i love that. i am a big softy. >> same. >> i am here at the paris olympics with natalie, we are covering the sports news and the stories behind the sports on bbc news. back to you. anchor: lovely, i think we are up to m, so more than halfway

through the alphabet, but they are long, these parades. how many athletes? >> 10,500. anchor: got that right at your fingers. enjoy the ceremony and stay out of theain. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ anchor: you heard, 10,500 competitors for more than 200 countries and spectators from around the world converging in one location. security in the olympics will have been long planned and yet on the first day there has been significant disruption and questions are being asked today whether this is a security failure. in our correspondent takes a closer look at the impact of the french rail lines. reporter: let's look at e

overall picture in france, this map shows the high-speed lines that have been affected. there are threeain ones and the three attacks in these areas. you will also notice there is one attack here in blue, that is a foiled attack according to media reports, local media reports in the area. there was an attack foiled this morning. according to the state owned real company, 250,000 people will have their journeys affected today. overall, 800,000 people will be affected across the weekend. this isn't a one-day story, why? they say it is because these fires affected conduits curing multiple fiber-optic cables meant to pass on safety information to the drivers.

it will take days and hundreds of workers to fix these cables one by one and it will take a huge, concerted effort. it's also affecting the eurosta r. one in four trains are canceled today and it is affected -- it is expected to affect saturday and sunday as well. let's look at why the eurostar is affected. they use this line and because of this attack here, it will affect all trains going each way they've said because, in th eir words, and of vandalism, they have to use the classic line, what they collect, and it will add an hour and a half for customers. the bigger picture is the olympics is going on. the sports minister said to play

against the games is to play against france and against your cap. she said france is meant to shine to the world and these games don't belong to the government, they belong to the people, who have been working to pull off the games. theyelong to the people of france, the country, and the athletes who have been dreaming of the olympic games. anchor: the events of today in how disruptive they have been. with me to discuss is the ceo of global guardian, a global risk company who advised on winter olympic games and is well versed with how many security is required for a massive global sporting event such as this. your thoughts on day one of the paris olympics and what has already been severely disrupted?

dale: obviously there has been disruption, but the world i live in, no one has been injured or killed. i know it can be first rating for travelers but the opening ceremony is ongoing, there have been no issues or injuries and the entertainment has been fabulous and the french are delivering a very unique opening ceremony insofar very secure. from that perspective, yes disruptive, but i think the french are very sophisticated and will fix this and we will move on. anchor: when you are planning security for an event of this magnitude -- if you look at the olympics you've been involved with -- presumably you have to try to think of every single issue that might arise, every aspect. here is three relatively small fires that have been well away from paris but caused huge amount of disruption.

how can you plan for something like that? dale: i think your average person is probably thinking myopically on paris. the rail system, there are thousands and thousands of rail in the country. no country could lockdown the system in this case. when you think about the vastness, i think all governments, and you have the french bringing in the police and military, drones, cyber offense measures. they will do a great job but it shows the vastness of this. the three hotspots that were attacked, it is an impossible task to lk all of the rail system down. anchor: the focus now will be on who carried out thettacks. what are the options being looked at? dale: when you think about

france and i'm not speaking in a negative tone, it is just a simple reality, if you think about the sport -- the support to ukraine, you have a political enemy in russia. if you think about the war in gaza, there is a long contingent of jewish population and a large contingent of palestinian population in the suburbs of paris. then you have the most recent election. you have layers of internal pressure, whether it is political, religious, socioeconomic, then you have international conflicts. there's a host of different groups that will be looked at, investigated and ultimately i believe they will figure out who this is through the investigation. but there is no one group to point to right with obvious intent. anchor: have the way the paris olympic been planned make it a more -- made it more difficult

from a security perspective? the athletes arriving down the paris the location, that mustof make things more complicated. dale: without question. if you think of a soccer game in europe, f1 or nfl football in the u.s., you are in a controlled environment, airspace shut down. there are approximately 300,000 people that bought tickets to be along the river, that there is high ground all of round -- all along the route. this is the most robust security challenge for an olympics that we can think of. the previous olympics have been a controlled environment and much easier to protect our clients and families.

in this case it's simply a very difficult, from obscurity perspective, event to secure. not mentioning or thinking about the marathons, triathlons. a lot of people don't think about the fact that the olympics are spread, they are operating in eight cities across france, not just paris even know paris is getting the attention right now and is the center of gravity. ultimately it's across the entire country. anchor: finally, if you were in charge of this security at the paris olympics, with the events of today have made you more concerned about the next two weeks and the paralympics afterward? would you be having to step up security in think differently about your security plan? dale: i think the french have done a great job anything they have thought differently and i think when you look at it, the aggressiveness of this, to put on a very unique show to the world, they should be congratulated for that.

from a pure security perspective, i think western governments, western militaries, cyber agencies, security agencies from around the world that are all supporting, they've put their best foot forward. i think you will have a very secure environment as much is feasible. but there are things that will never be completely secure and elents that can never be perfectly secure. as i woke up this morning and i saw this disruptive event with the fires, my initial response was i was not surprised at all as we've ramped up over the last year getting ready for this. none of us should be surprised. it is an imperfect science but i think the french, if they can control your environment they will defend this olympics. anchor: dale, really good to talk to you, thank you for your time. with me is our news reporter, there has been a huge amount of disruption across europe and the

u.k. what has been like at saint pancras? reporter: on a day where everything had to go right, everything went wrong and it has been a horrible day for thousands of people in london ying to leave the u.k. to reach paris. it's also affected hundreds of thousands of french people as well hoping perhaps to get to the opening ceremony this evening, which is well underway. instead we woke up to the news that three key high-speed lines have been attacked. it's been miserable for thousands of people who had their tickets ready to board the trains, around 2500 people realize they were not going anyone -- going anywhere. yes you can postpone, but many of the trains had already been

booked so it's causing huge queues at saint packer's -- saint pancras here in the u.k. >> i'm worried that when we get there it will be chaotic, basically and not quite the half-day off work i was expecting but i am hoping to get there. >> our train is running on time at the moment, we will just be a bit of delay on when we arrive. overall, ok so far. >> i've been stressed all day, i've been praying the trains will come and i will be able to get there because i'm going to the basketball tomorrow. i hope it won't get delayed. very stressed. >> it worked for a bit, i did check, most things were ok. i said i would come in and see what happens. >> it is kinda fine, there's just a lot of people milling around. a lot of people from eurostar

hanging around and telling us where to go. i was surprised, i expected chaos and it doesn't seem that way. anchor: that was earlier, what about now? reporter: we just heard from friends that things are can better, you will get about two thirds of the normal trains on the line from the north from lilles to paris, that will include eurostar trains as well as from the netherlands and belgium. you will have 80% of the trains from ordo and --bordeux and transferred. -- and strasburg. great news for people. if you're hoping to catch a flight, don't do that. there's a no-fly zone in place in northern france until midnight and would you believe, prices for long distance

services are rising to 200 pounds. it depends how much you want to get there. anchor: thank you for the update, the very latest on the travel news to the olympics. much more to come, stay with us on bbc news. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: "usa today" calls it, "arguably the best bargain in streaming." that's because the free pbs app lets you watch the best of pbs anytime, anywhere.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... woman: a law partner rediscovers her grandmother's artistry and creates a trust to keep the craft alive. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you,