i'm helena humphrey. good to have you with us. the pro—western president of georgia has told the bbc she'll stay in her post, amid a crisis over the government's decision to suspend accession talks with the european union. salome zourabichvili's term is due to end in two weeks�* time, but she says she will not stand down because the current parliament is what she calls �*illegitimate�*. the ruling georgia dream party announced on thursday that it will put talks with the eu on hold until 2028. a quick warning these pictures coming up may have some flashing images. this is the scene now live in tbilisi. earlier police used water cannon and tear gas against demonstrators who turned out in their thousands near the parliament building in the capital for a third night running. police say 107 people have been arrested. there you can see the scene

shortly after 7.00 in the morning there in the capital, tbilisi. our russia editor steve rosenberg sent this report from tbilisi, and a warning it contains distressing images. as night fell in tbilisi, they were building barricades using anything they could find. people here are angry that the ruling party have suspended georgia's bid tojoin the european union. they believe that russia is pulling the strings. i am protesting here against our government, who is pro—russian, and they don't want to have any relationship to europe or usa. and i am here for my freedom, for my future. suddenly, fireworks, aimed right at the parliament building. we could see a room inside ablaze and figures who climbed up to the windows looking, perhaps, for a way in. most of the protesters i've spoken to here say

they won't give up. they will keep coming out onto the streets until they can secure georgia's future in europe. the authorities are clearly under pressure but so far, there is no sign of any u—turn by the government. it seems determined to crack down. defiance on the streets, and from one of the government's fiercest critics — georgia's pro—eu president. her role is largely ceremonial and her term due to end in december but now, she's refusing to step down, dubbing the government illegitimate. do you fear for your safety? i mean, do you think you could be arrested? i think that i'm defended by the people that are out there on the streets, so i don't think so. i think that today, the ruling party is very isolated, and it will be more and more so. in recent days, some protesters have been beaten by police. georgian journalist guram rogava was live on tv

when this happened. hello. guram told me he'd been hit so hard, he blacked out. translation: | think our i citizens are now being forced to think do they want to live in a country where peaceful protest is being punished and where journalists are being attacked from behind when they're speaking about what's really going on. if we want to live in a country like this, so be it. georgia's government blames what it calls violent protests on european politicians and local agents. on the streets, they say they're fighting for georgia's future. and the battles are daily now. police have once again used water cannon and tear gas to disperse the protesters. steve rosenberg, bbc news, tbilisi. tengiz thaladze is a senior fellow at european centre for international political economy and a former presidential foreign relations adviser.

he explained more about the current protests. the main detonator was the statement of the georgian dream they made just two days ago about special european integration process. suspension of the european integration process. and you are absolutely right, talking about manifestations not only in the capital of georgia, but in the other big cities. and i would say that this is once again proving how strong its commitment of georgia nation is with european integration. and this is written in our constitution. so where this process will lead, this is the main question today when asking about that. i would say that this will strengthen georgian democracy in georgia and georgian statehood and get georgia back as soon as possible on the euro—atlantic path and restoration of strategy in partnership

with the european union and with the united states. the syrian army says dozens of its soldiers have been killed by rebel forces who have captured the country's second largest city, aleppo. the islamist fighters have made further advances on their fourth day of a lightning offensive and are now sweeping south towards syria's fourth biggest city, hama, on the road to the capital, damascus. rebels celebrated in the streets of aleppo. president bashar al—assad — who hasn't been seen in public since the offensive began — has promised to defeat the opposition fighters, describing them as terrorists. he said he would do so with help from his allies, which include russia, iran, and hezbollah. the london—based syrian observatory for human rights says more than 300 people, including at least 20 civilians, have been killed since wednesday. the white house has urged de—escalation, while calling for a serious and credible political process to end syria's 13—year civil war.

0ur correspondent barbara plett usher is monitoring developments from neighbouring lebanon. chanting. a stunning victory for the rebels, even they overcome with its swiftness and success just three days after launching a surprise offensive from their stronghold in northwest syria. this is the most serious challenge to president assad in years. a carefully planned attack. they stormed back into aleppo for the first time since assad's army forced them out at the height of the war, this time meeting almost no resistance. translation: after hard workj and patience from the fighters, the city of aleppo has been completely liberated, thank god. and by god's will, we will reach horns and damascus too. this is a joint force of rebel groups, led by the islamist hayat tahrir al—sham, or hts. it used to be linked to al-qaeda but cut ties from the group years ago. hts is listed as a terrorist organisation by the us and others. it controls most of the northwestern province of idlib, the last remaining opposition stronghold

after more than a decade of civil war. that war began in 2011, triggered by popular protests against assad's rule. russia intervened in 2015, turning the tide against the advancing rebels. the battle for aleppo in 2016 was a crucial point. syrian and russian forces gained control after a gruelling siege. the war�*s mostly gone quiet since, with occasional eruptions, the last major one in 2020 when syria and its russian allies attacked idlib. now, again, russian warplanes are bombing aleppo. the syrian army says it's made a tactical retreat to prepare a counteroffensive. the kremlin is assad's most important ally but it's now also fighting a war in ukraine. iran and the lebanese hezbollah are also sending fighters to syria, but they've been weakened by israeli attacks in the region — that's one

reason the rebels were able to advance so quickly. reviving a simmering conflict at a time when the middle east is in turmoil. for more on this, i spoke to anna borshchevskaya, senior fellow at washington institute for near east policy. anna is also the author of putin's war in syria: russian foreign policy and the price of america's absence. i just want to begin by getting your assessment about how crucial you think the next hours are, the next days are, for the syrian regime, because, of course, we've seen those russian strikes on aleppo for the first time since 2016. but of course we're also considering the fact that they are deeply engaged in their war in ukraine, so do you think russia has the bandwidth to help assad reverse the losses? well, theoretically, russia still has some bandwidth to help assad. the fact of the matter is russia's involvement in syria was always limited by design. but at the same time,

as you said, we are dealing with a very different russia. this is an overstretched russia, that is prioritising the war in ukraine. and the fact of the matter is russia also missed a crucial window of opportunity in the last several days. russia had been missing in action. so the answer is it's possible, but, to your point, the next days, hours, are very, very crucial. will we eventually reach a point of no return when assad cannot reverse the tide of his losses? and that certainly is a possibility. do you think that president putin will also be concerned about the optics of this? the optics of being too late to help an ally when, of course, perception and perception of strength clearly matters a lot to russia? absolutely. putin would be worried about optics precisely for the reasons that you've outlined. russia cannot afford to look weak because its

entire entrance into the syrian theatre had given it a lot of prestige across the region. putin had made himself look like somebody who did what he said he was going to do, somebody who stood by his ally. and if putin fails here, it could very well reverberate in terms of his prestige when it comes to being able to fight the war in ukraine. so, anna, what do you think we could be israel's former defence minister and chief of staff of the israel defense forces, moshe ya'alon, has said his country is carrying out ethnic cleansing against arabs in northern gaza. mr ya'alon said binyamin netanyahu's far—right—backed governmentis leading israel towards destruction. mr ya'alon — a right wing politician — is a noted critic of prime minister netanyahu. israel — which has forced hundreds of thousands of palestinians from northern gaza while pummelling the area with air strikes — denies ethnic cleansing. this comes amid reports of an israeli aistrike on a multi—storey house in the north of gaza, killing and injuring dozens of people.

earlier, humanitarian organisation world central kitchen said it is pausing operations in gaza after a deadly israeli air strike on one of its vehicles. images from the southern city of khan younis show the wreckage of a vehicle with its roof blown open. at least three people are reported to have been killed. the israeli army has confirmed it was targeting a car, saying it was carrying a person involved in the october 7th attacks. world central kitchen says it has no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the hamas attacks. seven members of its staff were killed in idf strikes on their convoy in gaza in april, in what the israeli military described as a "grave mistake". and in the last few hours, the international aid agency save the children, says a staff member has also been killed in an israeli airstrike in khan younis on saturday. 0ur correspondent nick beake has more from jerusalem the charity world central kitchen said it is heartbroken by what has happened today.

it is not confirmed how many of its employees were killed but certainly, there was video earlier today out of the city of khan younis and it showed three body bags on one of them, somebody had draped a t—shirt bearing the name and the emblem of the charity. the idf, israeli defense forces, saying they targeted the vehicle because inside was a man who they claimed took part in the hamas attacks of october the seventh but have not provided any evidence for that. also today, hamas has released another hostage video. in it, we see a 20—year—old edan alexander who was an american israeli hostage, he is very distressed throughout and within it, it appears to ask mr netanyahu, the prime minister, to do more to secure the release and also he addresses donald trump directly, saying he needs to use all of his power to try to secure a deal. it looks like he's reading from a script, certainly, for a large part of the video. tonight, the defence minister here in israel said this

was psychological warfare. previously it has been described as psychological torture. the government says they are doing all they can to secure the release of the hostages. the mother of the hostage nick mentioned there, edan alexander, was at a rally in tel aviv on saturday night. speaking to the crowds just hours after the video was released, she called on israel to do an immediate deal to free the hostages and bring them back from gaza. translation: the video has shaken me and my family. while it gives us hope, it also shows how difficult the situation is for edan and the other hostages and how desperately they are crying out for us to rescue them now. around an hour ago, prime minister binyamin netanyahu called me. he reassured me and promised that now, after reaching an arrangement in lebanon, conditions are right to free you all and bring you home. us president—elect donald trump says he will sack

the director of the federal bureau of investigation and replace him with one of his most loyal staffers, when he begins his term in january. in a post on social media, mr trump says he intends to fire the current fbi director, christopher wray, and nominate lawyer and former national security official kash patel as his replacement. mr patel has been critical of the agency and the investigations it has held into mr trump's alleged links to russia, his handling of classified documents, and his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 election. mr patel has also spoken about using the criminal justice system to punish members of the media and government who he alleges lied about mr trump and helped joe biden supposedly "rig" the 2020 election. the director of the fbi does not normally change when a new president enters the white house. and the position also requires approval by the senate. hugo lowell is a senior political correspondent at the guardian. he explained the signficance of donald trump's choice of kash patel.

kash is a deeply polarising figure, even inside trump's orbit. and i think the fact that trump chose him as fbi director really underscores just how much trump has wanted someone ideologically aligned with him to serve in that role. you know, trump has seen the fbi directorjob with special interests. i mean, he fired james comey in 2017 over his refusal to drop the russia investigation, and he now wants to fire chris wray because of what he sees as insufficient loyalty. you know, with kash patel, he is someone who is so ideologically aligned, they both think that leadership of the fbi should be fired, that even some people in trump world are like, you know, this guy is a little off the deep end. but kash patel has been loyal to trump in a way that kind of few others can claim to be, especially during the classified documents investigation, one thing that really dogged trump in the last two years. you know, kash patel, was subpoenaed to testify

before a federal grand jury and try to incriminate trump. and he refused to to it. he refused to do it until a federaljudge ordered him to, and when he finally ended up before the grand jury, he said, well, i don't think trump did anything wrong and he probably declassified all the documents at mar—a—lago anyway. and so that's the kind of person you're dealing with. this is someone who is loyal to trump through and through. hugo, ijust want to read to you some of the things that kash patel has written in the past. i mean, he's written books. he says in one of them the fbi has become so drastically compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic measures are taken. he's also written a children's book called the plot against the king, depicting so—called deep—state enemies trying to steal king trump's crown. i mean, does this tell us anything about the kind of policies he could advocate for? yeah, look, i mean i think he will do — a — whatever trump really wants him to do with respect to using the fbi to go after

enemies, real or perceived. i think certainly kash patel will be a big proponent of going afterjack smith's team for instance. you know, that has been a big priority for trump, is to seek retribution. he promised on the campaign trail, and i don't think anyone should think that he wasjoking. he really did feel like he was being persecuted byjack smith, the special counsel, and i wouldn't be surprised to see kash use the fbi to go after trump's political enemies like that. you know, that is the sort of thing kash has been doing from several years. you have to remember where he came was he came from devin nunes�*s office. devin hunes was the top republican on the house intelligence committee. and at the time, in 2017, devin nunes was being accused of doing trump's bidding and trying to find ways to justify and back up what trump was saying with respect to the russia investigation, about being wire—tapped by obama and all the rest of it. and so that is the background to kash patel, and i don't think it should come as a surprise to anyone

if his fbi... if he is senate—confirmed, will do what trump wants him to do. votes cast in ireland's general election are being counted across the country. figures from one exit poll suggest a dead heat between the three main parties. the left—wing opposition party sinn fein says it's hopeful of winning the most seats in the parliament in dublin for the first time. but fianna fail and fine gael — which led the outgoing coalition government — say they're also performing well in early tallies. it's still early in the process as only 39 of the 174 parliamentary seats have been filled so far. a final result isn't expected until at least the end of this weekend. caitriona perry has the latest from dublin. the way the electoral system works in ireland, of course, candidates are ranked in order of preference in each constituency. there are three, four or five seats to be allocated, so counting can take some time, first preference, second preference are allocated. some constituencies have

actually finished counting for the night and will resume again tomorrow. but at this point in time, the three biggest parties are all claiming that they can form some sort of coalition government, sinn fein itself and each of those groupings looking to add some of the smaller parties come into government with them. the other party in government, the green party looks like being wiped out, it currently has 12 seats it may end up with zero orjust one or two by the end of the count. the main parties themselves have all been reelected. let's talk some more about what has happened so far. i'm joined by the deputy political editor of the irish examiner. what do you make of what we are seeing so far? it is hard to read into it because we don't know yet.

we know roughly the vote share. fianna fail will probably lead the way in vote share, sinn fein will come second and fine gael will come third. back in 2020, sinn fein had a huge wave go towards them. they finished first in first preferences but they were actually the third largest of the three medium—sized parties because they didn't run enough candidates. they only ran about 40 candidates. they only ran about a0 candidates, got 35 elected. this time, they've run 71 candidates. they've gone down in vote share but looks like they'll be up in numbers. they're saying they can put together a coalition government. they look like they'll end somewhere between 35 or a0 seats. that will require a lot of manoeuvring between the left parties, if you look at the likes of labour, the social democrats, they could come back with 18 or 19 between them. you're still a long way short of that majority of 88. fianna failand fine gael very explicit in the last couple of weeks of the campaign that they're not going to talk to sinn fein, that they won't form a coalition government with them. so with them locked

out, the only option is realistically a fianna fail—sinn fein government if it's not going to be a repeat of fianna fail and fine gael. and fianna fail have said they won't go into government with sinn fein anyway. they've said that as recently as today. is the power going to rest with those smaller parties like the labour party, the social democrats?— labour party, the social democrats? ., ~ labour party, the social democrats? . ~ democrats? yeah, i think if you look at the _ democrats? yeah, i think if you look at the way _ democrats? yeah, i think if you look at the way the _ democrats? yeah, i think if you look at the way the numbers . look at the way the numbers might shake out for the likes of fianna fail and fine gael, fianna fail are very confident that they're somewhere around a5 it 50 says, fine gael probably accepting they're somewhere shorter at 35, 37. put them together, you're up around 82. you want your dail majority to be way above, you want it to be as big as possible. 88 is the bare minimum. it's not really workable because you're going to lose a td overboard on some vote at some point. if £31 to lose a td overboard on some vote at some point. if— vote at some point. if of got labour, if — vote at some point. if of got labour, if they _ vote at some point. if of got labour, if they come - vote at some point. if of got labour, if they come back i vote at some point. if of got l labour, if they come back with 10 seats, — labour, if they come back with 10 seats, you're _ labour, if they come back with 10 seats, you're at— labour, if they come back with 10 seats, you're at 92 - labour, if they come back with 10 seats, you're at 92 and - labour, if they come back with 10 seats, you're at 92 and all. 10 seats, you're at 92 and all of a — 10 seats, you're at 92 and all of a sudden _ 10 seats, you're at 92 and all of a sudden it's _ 10 seats, you're at 92 and all of a sudden it's a _ 10 seats, you're at 92 and all of a sudden it's a bit - 10 seats, you're at 92 and all of a sudden it's a bit more i of a sudden it's a bit more workable _ of a sudden it's a bit more workable. you _ of a sudden it's a bit more workable. you find - of a sudden it's a bit morel workable. you find friendly independents _ workable. you find friendly independents who - workable. you find friendly independents who will - workable. you find friendly| independents who will pass workable. you find friendly- independents who will pass your budgets — independents who will pass your budgets and _ independents who will pass your budgets and support _ independents who will pass your budgets and support you - independents who will pass your budgets and support you but -

budgets and support you but won't — budgets and support you but won't necessarily— budgets and support you but won't necessarily be - budgets and support you but won't necessarily be in- won't necessarily be in government— won't necessarily be in government and - won't necessarily be in government and you i won't necessarily be in. government and you get won't necessarily be in- government and you get to 96, 97. ii— government and you get to 96, 97. , . ., , ., government and you get to 96, 97. , , ., , government and you get to 96, 97. , , ., 97. it becomes a bit more workable _ 97. it becomes a bit more workable but _ 97. it becomes a bit more workable but have - 97. it becomes a bit more workable but have you - 97. it becomes a bit more workable but have you to | 97. it becomes a bit more - workable but have you to have those negotiations. what we've had in ireland over the last five years is a rotating taoiseach�*s office where fine gael and fianna fail split the prime minister's office, where you had 2.5 years of michael martin, it 2.5 years of first leo varadkar and then simon harris. will that be possible if fianna fail are 10 seats ahead of fine gael? i don't know if that's possible. we could have weeks and weeks of negotiations ahead. just briefl , negotiations ahead. just briefly. is _ negotiations ahead. just briefly, is there - negotiations ahead. just briefly, is there a - negotiations ahead. just briefly, is there a chance that those negotiations won't result in a government and we might have to be a general election? my have to be a general election? my mental health hopes not. but there is a possibility. once you get into the negotiations, i think things change, things can happen. the breakdown of cabinet seats will be important. the rotation of the taoiseach�*s office. the best case scenario for fianna fail and fine gael would be to be slightly closer within seats, four, five, six seats apart because then you could negotiate what michael martin

has talked about, party of esteem. but if not, we could be back here in the next two or three months. let's turn to some other news around the world. iceland is holding a snap election, largely triggered by disagreements within the governing three—way coalition over asylum seekers and immigration. however, voters have been more preoccupied with the state of the economy, housing, and the health service. opinion polls suggest major changes may be ahead, with the opposition gaining ground, and parties in the current coalition suffering big setbacks. the indian billionaire gautam adani has for the first time publically responded to allegations by the us that he was part of a multi—million dollar bribery scheme. speaking in the indian city ofjaipur, mr adani said that what he described as "attacks" only made his company stronger. earlier this month, the billionaire and seven others were indicted by us prosecutors and accused of misleading international investors. two—time oscar—winning actress cate blanchett told the bbc she is "deeply

concerned" about the impact of artificial intelligence in the film industry. speaking to laura kuenssberg, she said the issues facing wider society were even greater. there are some things where you think, well, that will benefit humanity. and i'm looking at those robots go and... driverless cars... there's just certain things, i think. i'm not a curmudgeon. i'm a very curious human being and ijust look at these things and think i don't really know what that's bringing anybody. sometimes it's just experimentation for its own sake, which is creativity to one, when you look at it in one way, but then it's also incredibly destructive which, of course, is the other side of creativity.- is the other side of creativity. is the other side of creativi . �* ., , ., ~' creativity. and do you think that there _ creativity. and do you think that there is... _ creativity. and do you think that there is... you - creativity. and do you think that there is... you know, l creativity. and do you think. that there is... you know, can you see a day where actors actually could be replaced by ai creations? is that something that worries you? i’m ai creations? is that something that worries you?— that worries you? i'm less concerned _ that worries you? i'm less concerned with _ that worries you? i'm less concerned with may - that worries you? i'm less concerned with may job i concerned with may job prospects concerned with mayjob prospects than i am concerned about the impact it's going to have on the average person, on

old—age pensioners, on, you know, people who are already working three jobs to try and be below the poverty line. you know, that's my concern. i'm worried about us as a species. it's a much bigger problem. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. meteorologically speaking, saturday was the last day of autumn. it was bright enough across many eastern areas of the uk. in the west, though, we had thicker cloud and a bit of drizzle at times. wherever you were, though, it was very mild with temperatures six degrees above average in the highlands. achnagart seeing a high of 15 degrees. the average at this time of the year is nine. and these mild south—southwesterly winds continuing to blow a band of rain across from scotland and northern ireland, moving it into wales and western areas of england over the next few hours. these are the kind of

temperatures you'll have to start your breezy sunday morning as our band of rain continues to push its way eastwards with time. now, behind that, actually, we should get some brighter weather, so sunny spells are in the forecast for western areas. there will be some scattered showers, though, at times, so not entirely dry. it will, however, continue to be very mild and for the first day of winter, temperatures could reach around 1a, 15, maybe even 16 degrees in the mildest spots. but that milder weather isn't going to hang around for very long because heading into monday, behind this weather front here, we get a flow of much colder northwesterly winds heading in and that will be dropping the temperatures across northern areas as we go through the course of monday. so, mild enough start to the day on monday for many areas. a band of rain pushes across northern england, reaches north wales and north midlands. behind that, sunshine comes out with some scattered showers. gusty winds through the irish sea and the north sea, reaching gale force at times and making it feel a little on the chilly side.

temperatures not doing too badly across much of england and wales but through the afternoon, further northwards temperatures will be dropping through the afternoon and it will start to get colder and colder. and then, through monday night, that colder air surges its way southwards — a real turnaround in weather fortunes. we get a widespread frost, a much colder night on the cards. well, that takes us on into tuesday, and it's a dry, sunny start to the day, if cold for most of us. the exception is northern ireland, where we'll get this band of rain. the rain starts to move into that colder air and we start to see a little bit of snow on its leading edge, initially falling across parts of scotland. and it's across the hills of northern scotland that that lasts longest. could cause one or two issues but, eventually, milder air will mean that the snow all turns back to rain. and then, later in the week, yes, it is set to turn a good deal milder.

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. iam i am co—host of the bbc�*s ukraine cost.

as conflict rages across the globe and press freedom comes under sustained attack. we celebrate the crucial work and unwavering commitment of freelance journalists and filmmakers worldwide. often the only eyes on the ground. in challenging and dangerous places. who are the people who bring us these stories? how do they do it? and what drives them to the firing line? as journalists we know the importance of being where news breaks. of capturing the situation on the ground, of living the story. that it would be impossible to tell the biggest and most consequential global stories of our time without the work of freelance journalists and filmmakers who often operate in incredibly difficult circumstances under great personal strain. each year their workers honoured by the rory packed awards named after a british freelancer who killed in moscow covering the october coup in 1993. his work lives on through the rory packed trust which is supported freelance journalists and theirfamilies around the world for nearly 30 years. over the next half hour we will hear from the 202a finalists and winners whose work reflects the turbulent and volatile times we live in. it explores the human cost that so often lies at the heart of these stories from across the world. first up, the award for news for work that

focuses on the immediacy of the story.