this is bbc news, the headlines... chanting. syrian rebels celebrate after seizing control of much of the city of aleppo. syrian government forces say they've temporarily withdrawn to prepare a counter offensive. it comes after the insurgents continued their surprise four—day offensive, meeting very little resistance. world central kitchen says it is pausing operations in gaza after a vehicle carrying its colleagues was hit by an israeli airstrike. the charity says it has no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the october seventh attacks. counting is under way in ireland's general election, with an exit poll suggesting a tight race between the three main parties.

and cate blancett has told the bbc about her �*deep concerns�* on the use of ai and its role in the film industry. now on bbc news, it's newscast. i'm here with victoria derbyshire at last. what do you mean, at last? well, it seems like it's been a year since you've graced our cushions. i think it may well be... yes, it is, but obviously i use the studio. we record ukrainecast here. i know, i'm not saying you're not here, but you're not here on this. correct. i still think of you as having achieved a rare interview with jeremy clarkson. i think that made the cultural weather. you probably won't like me saying that, about the farmers. you don't like me saying that? i don't... i have no opinion. ok, so we've got lots to do to get to grips with in this edition. yes. significant news in syria — a part of the world that we have not talked about for quite some time. and obviously, after yesterday's vote in the house of commons on assisted dying, we have had

soooo much correspondence from newscasters, and you'll be "if the vote goes the way i've crunched the numbers, it will pass." but anyway, it's actually quite a comfortable pass, despite the people saying it was too close to call. yeah, it's an emphatic majority in favour of the first step of this legal process.

but it does show that parliament — or the commons — is split, 330 to 275 it was in the end, wasn't it? um, and there is a long, long way to go. i mean, iwasjust looking on the government website. we've now got the committee stage where they go through line by line, then the report stage, then another vote. then it goes to the lords — similar process. and in the end, of course, the two houses have to agree, don't they? yes. so what we're really reporting is a culturally significant vote, because this has been compared, really, to the united kingdom passing abortion rights, making a big social change. you're saying something about your country as lawmakers, when you allow people to use the money that the state provides to cure and help people to be, to supply the drug that will end your life. well, we don't know if the state will be paying for this. that is one of the questions that has been raised by, amongst others, a think tank called the nuffield trust.

they say, "is it going to be fully publicly funded? if it is, will it sit alongside services like social care and hospice care, which are not?" both of these services are financially on the brink. so there are many, many questions that arise out of what happened yesterday, which is going to affect so many people — it is, for england and wales — affect people in positive ways, those who are for it and obviously for those against it, it's quite anxiety—inducing. i mean, i suppose the thing is that in the bill as currently been, that's been passed — or it's the second reading, and then it goes to these processes — two doctors have to authorise your request as a patient, and a judge, a high courtjudge. so those are state resources, whether or not the drug is being paid for by... but the thing is, it is a new thing for the british state to do. and with respect to listeners in scotland, there's a similar bill going through the motions there. so we're really talking about what happened in the uk parliament. it's a sign of what lawmakers think. and it's a big difference,

because i remember the debate of nearly a decade ago, and there was not a feeling that we were ready for it. and then the vote, it was a very significant vote against it. but now you find a more nuanced view from doctors. you find a more neutral position, should i say, as opposed to what we had before, and even a former archbishop of canterbury spoke in favour of it. those are new things that happened in the run—up to this. so i think at the end of the week when we've done so much speaking about it, we do say when we look at our country, this is a moment we learn something about ourselves. definitely. and there's been so much correspondence following the decision, and it has to be said that a majority of those of you getting in touch in the last 2a hours are supportive of this bill. richard is a newscaster. hello, richard. "i personally feel so much better with the assisted dying bill being passed. finally, british people are being allowed slowly into the 21st century by the powers that be." now, richard adds this:

"it's a shame that 275 luddite mps think that it's worth trying to keep us in the dark ages, such that desperate people can't choose to end their life in a dignified 21st century way." now, i want to say to richard, our newscaster, that a lot of people said this showed parliament at its best, which is that there's a reason why this is an agonising decision. it's difficult. so it's not really for me to be rude about people on either side. people were saying unlikely alliances were formed in our parliament. i don't know if you... you've studied parliament for a long time. did you spot that kind of new tone in the way it was being handled? um, i mean, an unusualtone. you don't often hear such, uh, respectful listening, no particularjeering, no waving of order papers. people took it — from what i saw — took it solemnly and listened to everybody who made an intervention. and, you know, when somebody wanted to interrupt the intervention, the right honourable member would give way. so that's a very, another part we have shone a light. we're often very...

we see a lot of commentary about, against mps. you know, "they're all the same. all of them, they're all the same." well, guess what? they're not. they're, actually, the only way they perhaps are the same is that being human, they find this a very difficult decision to make, as i would, as you would, and as an honest newscaster would, making the decision on behalf of your constituents who could well be split. there were meetings in village halls, in constituency surgeries where mps were themselves in tears at what they heard. newscaster nick on discord said, "i honestlyjust think that neither our health service or court service are up to delivering this bill, and the time and money should be spent elsewhere." ian — "high quality debate and mps have backed it by a majority of 55 votes. it could be a long and complex road before it becomes law, but i saw the house of commons at its best today." and we got this voice note from listener claire in the canary islands. hi, newscast team. i was really relieved

that the vote was passed yesterday. like so many other people in the united kingdom, i've watched, in this case, my mother, die a slow and agonising death from cancer. howling with pain whilst a drug, an injection, was administered into a tumour the size of a baby in her stomach. when she was first diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, she said to us that she wanted the choice to go. there was a lot of medicine that we could have administered, but the law says we couldn't, so we let her die like that. we had no choice. she would have chosen to go. a small risk of coercion in a tiny minority of people should not deny thousands of people the right to die with some level of dignity.

god... i feel sort of privileged that clare has shared that with newscast. sort of awed, and also aware that every family has a story. it's not the done thing for you and me to talk about our families, but we can say with truth that we understand because there's a story in every single family. and in covering it, asjournalists, we have been aware of the absolute passion with which people have come to this subject, and we're trying to get to a world in britain where we can disagree more agreeably. we've done all the shouting thing very, very well, and we did it so well about brexit. "oh, it's in." "it's out." "oh no, you're wrong. you're awful." we've been really good at that. it's really important, i think, to our newscasters that this debate is had with a better tone. and it seems to me that perhaps the fairest thing to do, having listened to claire, is to also listen to carol. she is worried about the result. she was a palliative care nurse

and would rather that the focus be on improving access to other areas of care. hello, newscast. as a former palliative i care nurse, i have over the last weeks listenedl with great interest to all points of view and i just can't dispel the feelingl i have of growing unease about the progression i of the bill, and just wondered if a pause would be sensible, | thereby allowing more time to concentrate our minds, i our hearts and expertise as a compassionate, - understanding and creative society on the problems i of improving symptom control and access to palliative care . for everyone that is coming to the end of their lives. i it's such an important question because so many people have asked, if this is to become law, how is it a proper choice if palliative care is not funded consistently

across the country and in a sustainable way? it's not a choice then, is it? and there's one commentator i follow who's published a report that she lost her dad four years ago, and her mum went to the same hospice system. and in four years, the level of care for both her parents was different within four years. got worse. got worse, right. and kim leadbeater, who's bill this was — it's a private member's bill — she has promised that in all her powers, as someone who was wanting this, that she will give time in the next stages. it's not all up to her, but she's understood the responsibility that she has to listen to people like carol, invite them into the house of commons to give evidence at the next stages. so i think there is — you said it first, i'm now repeating what you said — there's a long way to go, and part of that long way should include people offering their maximum concerns and experience.

i think kim leadbeater did say on the committee, which will look at this, she will invite people who are opposed to it so that everybody�*s views are heard all the way through. and then, of course, you're not going to be the same as wes streeting giving more money for palliative care. so people like carole will say it's not so much that you're listening, it's that the money for palliative care, which isn't there now, is not there in your budget which you've passed. so it's a very complicated picture. but what we can say is that other countries in the world have taken this decision. they are further down the line than us. and it could be hoped that we as journalists, newscasters who are informing themselves and our politicians, go out and learn the lessons of what's been happening for ten years and more in other countries, because that would be really useful. i am going to recommend the health and social care committee report into assisted dying slash assisted suicide. that's its official title. it was published in february this year. it's very long, but it has all the evidence from all the places that have legalised this over the years.

and it shows you where the law has changed, why the law has changed, and those jurisdictions where it hasn't changed at all, because that is one of the concerns of those who are against it. so where is that report? what do i put in the browser? search "assisted dying/assisted suicide health and social care february 202a" and it will be the first result. i think it was you who said this just a few moments ago. of all the issues we've been discussing seven days a week in the news, one of them has not been syria. and really, in the last seven days, we've started to pay attention to a game—changing series of events that are taking us by surprise because we haven't been looking there. yes, rebel forces in syria have taken control of most of the second largest city in syria, aleppo. now, eight years ago, seven years ago, we were always talking about

what was going on in aleppo, weren't we? a civil war going on there. but this is the largest offensive against the syrian government in years. and russia, for the first time since 2016, has also launched air strikes in parts of aleppo overnight. obviously, president putin is an ally of president assad. so let's meet shashank joshi, defence editor at the economist. welcome back to the newscast, shashank. thank you for having me. it's great to be on and to be talking about something other than ukraine for once. and i suppose let's just start there. we have not been talking about syria at all. if there was a word cloud of newscasts in the past 12 months, it's not been on there. no. although really, it's a testament to how much news there has been because there have been newsworthy developments in syria in the past six months. in particular, back in february, for instance, we saw protests in idlib province in this part

of syria against hts, which is this islamist rebel organisation that has now been sweeping across. so there have been movements under the surface and these things are connected, right? so hezbollah, the lebanese militant group, has been a staunch pro—assad fighting force inside syria. what we're seeing this week is in part, and i stress only in part, a function of the fact that israel has so massively weakened hezbollah. that that's one of the reasons for what we're seeing. so who are the rebels then, and what do they want? well, there are many, many rebel groups in syria, but this is one called — the one that's really swept across and is now dominant in this part of syria — is called hayat tahrir al—sham, hts. and it's very difficult to sort of summarise them, but fundamentally, they were an islamist rebel group. they were explicitly allied some years ago to al-qaeda inside syria.

they were proscribed as a terrorist organisation by a number of countries, including the united states. what's happened since then is quite complicated, but basically they've split with al-qaeda. many experts say they have become fundamentally more pragmatic and moderate. for instance, they have been cracking down on al-qaeda and islamic state cells. so they are still islamist in their ideology, but they're not salafi jihadi and sort of as extreme as they once were. and if you look indeed, in the last day or so, they've been reaching out to some christian communities in this part of syria to say, you know, "we understand you might be afraid, we're not here for extremist vengeance or anything like that. " but there is still a debate about whether they've really ideologically made that transformation in a serious way. could assad be toppled and what will russia do? assad could be toppled. you know, these regimes are very, very brittle,

as we've seen, and nothing can change for years. and then the basis of the regime can kind of suddenly implode. but having said that, i think it's clear russia is committed to saving assad. they've been launching air strikes, ithink their first airstrikes in aleppo for something like eight years. they haven't got very much manpower to spare to help assad. but the other thing to bear in mind is that it isn't clear to me that other countries in the region necessarily want to see assad fall. they will not be egging on their various proxy factions inside syria. for instance, in the south, jordan is very influential. jordan is probably not necessarily enthusiastic about a dramatic collapse of syria at this point. the americans are probably not very keen on that. and if you look at a number of gulf arab states, these are the countries that were at the vanguard of the anti—assad rebel movement ten, 15 years ago. as your listeners might recall, they are now

reaching out to assad in many cases, particularly the uae, and are sort of re—establishing ties with him. so this puts him in a very, very tricky spot. but in short, i think they'll be keen not... they won't necessarily be keen to see a sudden dramatic implosion of the regime at this stage. if there was an implosion, what could be the consequences for the countries around syria? 0h, huge on all sides, of course. first and foremost, we all remember the massive impact of the syrian refugee flow on neighbouring countries — injordan, which wasn't very well equipped to deal with this. in turkey, which has still been, you know, really felt the impact of this years on and not least in europe as well. we saw that the refugee flow over the last 15 years into countries like germany. so the humanitarian impact, the refugee impact would be serious, but it would also be, i think, a really interesting moment for regional powers to be competing in an environment unlike ten years

ago, when the americans and the russians are not necessarily going to fill the vacuum in the way that they did. america still has special forces inside syria who are supporting this syrian rebel coalition called the syrian democratic forces, the sdf in parts of syria. so kurdish groups are very, very powerful. that's a kurdish faction. but neither the russians nor the americans are interested in syria in the way that they once were. so i think you'd see a lot of other factions involved there. so here we get to the point is that what's happening is the world order is changing. it's being turned upside down. and when shashank reminds us ofjust a decade, all the certainties of a decade ago have gone. the new world order looks an awful lot like north korea, china, iran, russia, the global south working out who to back. america losing its influence. and the front line for many people appears to be ukraine.

and with that in mind, i think we should all listen to the head of the mi6. he's called richard moore, and he was speaking in paris. and we'd love shashank�*s briefing on what he said about what a victory in ukraine for russia looks like. if putin is allowed to succeed in reducing ukraine _ to a vassal state, - he will not stop there. our security — british, french, european and transatlantic - will be jeopardised. the cost of supporting | ukraine is well known, but the cost of not doing - so would be infinitely higher. it's not the first time we've heard that kind of warning, but does it have more significance because it comes from the mi6 chief, shashank? the significance is twofold. one is that it comes from a man who is, of course, pretty well informed about things. and the strategic assessment of mi6 is evidently

that putin's strategic objectives in ukraine haven't changed. he still wants a russia—dominated kiev. that's really important because it shapes our assessment of the kinds of deals that may be done. the second reason it's so important, this timing is because of the trump administration, which believes that it can secure a deal inside syria to stop the fighting. and this is important because, you know, i've been looking over, for example, the writings of pete hegseth, who is trump's nominee for the secretary of defence. and he's explicitly said, "i don't think putin's going to go any further than ukraine. i don't think he'll go for poland. he's not going to go for the baltics. he's happy with ukraine." if you believe that, you might do a deal in ukraine that's pretty unfavourable for ukraine and says, ok, russia, ukraine is going to be russia dominated, who cares? we're just going to protect the rest of europe. but if you don't believe that, as richard more clearly doesn't, then it's actually of much more importance that russia not be

allowed to rule over the rest of ukraine. and we're coming up to 25 years of putin's grip on russia. and at the same time, we've had a prime minister a month in the uk, we've left the european union. trump is a disrupter. the west looks very disunited. and shashank, for you, looking at what was the differences between the last time we started talking about nuclear exchanges in europe when i grew up victoria and i grew up, um, which is a0 years ago, there were established rules, horrific though they were in the cold war. the cold war was run on railroad lines. now, it seems to me, shashank, these disputes are being had without those understandings. putin himself has said, hasn't he? it's not clear who to ring in the west. not clear who to get hold of. i think that we shouldn't... the cold war had some pretty rough patches, pretty rough moments, right? in the 80s, the kremlin was seriously, genuinely concerned reagan might launch a first strike,

so i think it had some pretty rough patches today. i think it is true things are very complicated. you've got this four power axis, as you alluded to earlier on russia, north korea, iran, china helping one another in different ways and in some ways helping one another in more advanced and aggressive ways than we are helping ukraine. north korea sending thousands of troops to russia. having said that, my message would be to not take everything putin says at face value. putin's interest right now is in playing up the level of risk, playing up nuclear risk, playing up, nuclear risk, playing up missile risk, making us afraid through those words, but also through sabotage. in europe, we've had unidentified drone sightings in us air bases in the uk this week we've had cables cut in the baltic. the purpose of all of this is to frighten us, and the purpose of frightening us is to make us back away from supporting ukraine. so by all means, let's analyse this. let's assess the risks, but also keep a cool head.

and remember, putin's aim here is to give us the jitters. and i think that's best avoided. and a final thought from you, shashank, about what president zelenskyy told sky news yesterday, offering ukraine nato membership while allowing russia to keep for the moment anyway, the territory in ukraine it already occupies could end the hot stage of the conflict. do you think we are coming closer to the end of this war? we are. i think we're coming closer to talks. but look, you followed the middle east for the last six months. you know that talking to somebody, trying to get a deal, isn't the same as getting a deal. we are over a year into the gaza war. there's no deal. and i think what trump is going to find is that putin, feeling quite confident, feeling quite emboldened by north korea, by his progress on the battlefield, is not necessarily going to bite. he's not necessarily going to be as eager for a deal as trump thinks.

so actually, i think that could be the surprise. we have diplomacy, we have talks, but we have no deal. and that's why it is so important to be prepared for that scenario that richard moore talked about, which is ongoing russian advances in ukraine and the threat they would pose to us. and just for personal satisfaction, i've said it on newscasts before. can you tell newscasters i'm right when i've said before, most wars in history and round the table. said before, most wars in history end round the table. so i've said that on here. it's going to be very embarrassing for me, shashank, if you say i'm wrong. but we're bidding you goodbye, bearing in mind this could influence if you're re—invited. do most conflicts end round the table? you know, ithink you're right. i think they do. i think the decisive battle. that napoleonic idea. you smash the enemy on the battlefield. and that's the end. that 19th century idea. i think that that, you know, apart from the world wars, apart from a few other cases, sri lanka's civil war was a decisive military victory. armenia azerbaijan recently was a decisive victory. but on the whole, i think there are more cases. you're correct of a diplomatic settlement

with mutual exhaustion, bringing the fighting to a conclusion. so i hope that's enough to earn my return ticket. i think it may be. thank you, shashank. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. it's interesting, isn't it, that there's a there's lots to be pessimistic about with good reasons. and shashank with his context is reminding us, don't get frit, don't get spooked. and that's kind of what we all look for at the moment, isn't it? context. thank you, shashank. thank you for your perspective. ah, well, that's it, isn't it? that's it. are we are we going to do this again tomorrow? can we face it? i think we can. well, have you got any scoops? not telling you. right. i've gotjude law on the programme. excellent. pourquoi? he's made a new movie, which is about a real story from the 70s. and the 80s about a white supremacist conspiracy in the us. would you believe it? they felt that the government was the enemy.

he talks about that. i'm selling him for laura tomorrow. she's already done an interview with cate blanchett. so i'll take yourjude law and i'll help you. so please bring all your scoops for for sunday's newscast. and thank you for listening and watching. goodbye. bye. newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello, there. well, it's turned milder over the last 2a hours or so. plenty of cloud, along with that mild feeling air. misty murky conditions, with some patchy light rain and drizzle, particularly for western hills, here is lancashire underneath the cloud. best of the breaks in the cloud and sunshine to the north east of higher ground, such as here in aberdeenshire, of course for st andrew's day. tomorrow, we will be keeping the mild air. there will be some showers. some of those showers possibly heavy, especially towards the west, but also some spells of brightness and sunshine. this weather front gradually approaching from the west. we are keeping the strength of that southerly to south—westerly wind as we head through this evening and overnight. it will feel brisk at times

through these irish sea coasts. bands of rain tracking eastwards, plenty of cloud around, some clearer spells developing across parts of western scotland into northern ireland, but temperatures do remain in double figures to start off the day tomorrow, so it's a mild start to the day for this time of year. and then into tomorrow morning itself, these bands of rain and showers keep tracking further eastwards, there will always be a lot of cloud across parts of east anglia for much of the day but some brighter skies developing for central western areas, another rash of showers, some of which could turn out to be heavy, across northern ireland, towards the far west and across western scotland later on through the day. but it does stay mild, temperatures again above the seasonal average. but just look at what happens on sunday night into monday. so our fronts clear eastwards and then we start to draw down more of the northerly wind and that will push down colder air from the arctic and we are all into that colder air by the time we get to monday night and into tuesday so there will be a widespread frost as we start off tuesday morning. let's look at monday,

you will notice the cold conditions out towards the north and the west, a few wintry showers across the higher ground of scotland in particular, as that front gradually tracks its way further southwards, bringing cloud and some outbreaks of rain with it, but it will brighten up behind the front and you notice a clear contrast between colder air in the north and still that milder air hanging on for a time further south. so, widespread frost as we start tuesday morning, then we look out towards the atlantic, this band of rain, as it bumps into the colderair across the higher ground of the north in particular, is likely to turn to snow. for some we're staying in that colder air on tuesday. it will turn milder again later on through the week. bye— bye.

live from london, this is bbc news. syrian rebels celebrate after seizing aleppo, with reports they're now sweeping south towards hama — another major city in syria. anti—government protests are taking place across georgia for a third night. and cate blancett talks to the bbc about her "deep concerns" on the use of ai and its role in the film industry.

hello, i'm karin giannone. syria's president assad has vowed to defeat the rebels who've taken over aleppo — however big their attacks. he said that after the biggest offensive by islamist rebels in years has taken government forces by surprise. it's eight years since the rebels were forced out of aleppo at the height of the civil war. rebel fighters, who control much of the northern city of aleppo, are now reported to be sweeping south towards another major population centre: hama. it lies south of idlib province which is now fully in rebel hands. this was the scene today in aleppo, where there are reports of queues of cars clogging the roads out of the city as some civilians flee. this video — apparently filmed from a vehicle —