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. police used water cannon and tear gas against demonstrators who turned out in their thousands near the parliament building in the capital tbilisi for a third night running on saturday. police say 107 people have been arrested. 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 itjust two days ago about 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 this commitment of georgian nation is towards european and euro—atla ntic integration and this is written in our constitution. so where those protests will lead, this is the main question today when asking about that. but i would say that this will lead to the strengthening of the georgian democracy and georgian statehood, and get back georgia as soon as possible to its european and euro—atlantic path and restoration of strategic 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. barbara plett usher, bbc news, beirut.

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 will 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 seeing in the coming weeks, then? did you anticipate a further sweep from these fighters that they can expand further in syria? i think everyone... i think we can expect... we can certainly expect a more assertive counter—offensive that assad had talked about. and the question is how effective is it going to be? and to what extent is russia truly going to come to assad's rescue? and a that's very much in question. what we're seeing unfolding here is a result of a middle east in turmoil and assad's allies either looking the other way in terms of not paying attention and being weakened. so what happens here is nature, of course, abhors a vacuum. there was a vacuum that allowed hts to step in and it has made these stunning, stunning gains

as you described. what it also shows us is that syria has long ago stopped being simply about syria. and that is one big takeaway in the events we have unfolding today. you have multiple actors vying for their own interests in what essentially has been a failed state. i mean, you werejust talking there about whether its allies show up. do you think, as well, iran will be the ones to show up, of cours,e when they have been so embroiled in the middle east? and if there is that vacuum, where does that leave the united states? where will it be looking at this? yeah, yeah, iran certainly should be looking to show up in some way and, again, the big picture here is that hezbollah, which has done a lot to help the assad regime, has been severely weakened, especially in the context of the recent ceasefire that we've seen negotiated between israel and lebanese hezbollah.

but the fact of the matter is israel has a lot at stake in syria, and we can expect them to show up but the question is what exactly would that look like? and what resources is it going to be able to devote to make an effective comeback? so all this is very much in question right now. israel's former defence minister and chief of staff of the israel defence forces, moshe ya'alon, has said his country is carrying out ethnic cleansing against arabs in northern gaza. mr ya'alon said benjamin netanyahu's far— right backed government is 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 seventh 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's happened today. it hasn't confirmed just 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 and on one of them, somebody had draped a t—shirt bearing the name and the emblem of the charity.

the idf, the israeli defense forces, are saying that they targeted the vehicle because inside was a man who they claimed took part in the hamas attacks of october the 7th. they haven't provided any evidence for that. also today, hamas has released another hostage video. in it, we see a 20—year—old, edan alexander. he is an american—israeli hostage. he is very distressed throughout and, within it, he appears to ask mr netanyahu, the prime minister, to do more to secure his release. also he addresses donald trump directly, saying that he needs to use all of his power to try and 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 that this was psychological warfare. previously it has been described as psychological torture. the government say they're doing all they can

to secure the release of the hostages. nick beake reporting there. 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. i 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, mrtrump 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 pick. 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. fine gael leader simon harris says it could still be some time until the results are clear. for those of you who have been working very hard in tv and radio studios, and for those watching at home, i'm sorry to say i think we've a while to go yet. and in many ways, i think it could be this time tomorrow before we're getting a clearer picture. but what i do know this — fine gael is in a very competitive position. we're on track to top the poll in at least 10 constituencies. that's a significant increase. we're gaining seats in constituencies where we haven't had them in many a year, including tipperary south and waterford, and we're adding second seats in constituencies as well. but this is going to be a tight

election and i think we have to really see right down to the wire and right down to transfers in the hours, and maybe even days, ahead. micheal martin of fianna fail says his party is in a good position. it looks like that we will certainly exceed the exit poll somewhat and that is heartening to us. and also — again it's very, very early days — but we do see a route to a very strong finish here in this election. but i would predict that we will go into the early hours of tomorrow morning. i think we could go to monday before a lot of these final seats in many constituencies will be decided. basically saying, pascal, it's a bit too early yet to call the exact type of government that will be formed or the composition of the next government. sinn fein leader mary lou mcdonald told us what she said she'd been hearing from voters the idea of fine gael back in government for what would be almost 20 years, if it was to run to term, is not something

that people who have voted for us wish to see. i don't think there is any appetite for a return of the same old same government. i think the message around change is something that we all heard, we all reflected on, we all reflected back in our contributions in debates and the question is now how do we actually... how do we make that real? and we need to talk to each other about what might be possible here. 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. a memorial service for the former first minister of scotland, alex salmond, has been held in edinburgh. the leader of the alba party, who led the snp in government from 2007 to 2014, died last

month while attending a conference in north macedonia. the current first minister, john swinney, and former prime minister gordon brown, were among the congregation. 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. the world beekeeping awards have announced that honey will not be judged at next year's ceremony because of concerns about fraud within the global supply chain. the awards said the change was necessary because of the inability to fully test the product for adulteration. honey has been facing a authenticity crisis, with jars sometimes bulked out

with cheaper sugar syrups. 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 that you think, well, that will benefit humanity. and i'm looking at those robots going, and driverless cars, and there'sjust certain things, ithink, and i'm not a curmudgeon. i'm a very curious human being. and i just look at these things and think, i don't really know what that's bringing anybody. sometimes there's this 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. and do you think that there is...can you, you know, can you see a day where actors actually could be replaced by ai creations? is that something that worries you? i'm less concerned with myjob 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. with that milder weather comes thicker cloud and rain at times. that's your weather. bye— bye.

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.

lara: this week, we're taking a look back at some of our amazing adventures with al. spencer: now, how would you like to meet one - of the most popular and highest earning instagram models? well, you can't — because she doesn't exist. but we go behind the scenes with the team that created her. lara's sniffing around the scientists who are bringing historic smells back to life. so i guess ijust put my nose in here. and spencer looks at the latest ai features on phones and tablets. but are they top quality or a bit rubbish? he laughs 0k, it got rid of the bin! - and put another bin there. we'll also meet the actors who say their voices have been manipulated by ai.