live from london, this is bbc news. thousands flee syria's third largest city as islamist—led rebels advance towards horns after taking hama. romania's top court annuls results of the first round of presidential elections. officials say the whole process must be rerun. president macron says he'll name a new french prime minister within days, after michel barnier was ousted in a no—confidence vote. the uk met office says extreme winds of up to 90mph could put lives at risk.

hello, i'm ben brown, welcome to bbc news now, welcome to bbc news now. tens of thousands of people are fleeing syria's third biggest city homs, fearing that islamist—led rebels will capture it in the latest stage of their surprise offensive. the rebel advance southwards has been as rapid as it has been unexpected with as many as 280,000 people displaced in little over a week. first the rebels seized aleppo in the north, forces beat a retreat, they took hama and now they're reported to be just five kilometres from the outskirts of homs. if they can capture the country's third city, the rebels could cut off the main road leading from damascus to the syrian coast. this footage shows how the rebels — seen here in hama — have been advancing almost unopposed into key syrian cities, although the government of bashar al—assad says

it has been launching air strikes against them. the syrian conflict has largely been frozen since 2020, when a ceasefire brokered by russia and turkey de—escalated the fighting between syrian rebels and president assad's forces. the lightning offensive launched by rebels last week has been the fastest battlefield advance by either side since the country spiralled into civil war 13 years ago. in 2011, as the arab spring swept the middle east, president assad's government troops cracked down violently on peaceful pro—democracy protesters. more than half a million people have been killed since that time. back then, the group leading this latest advance — hayat tahrir al—sham — was set up under a different name, the nusra front, as a direct affiliate of al-qaeda. its leader, abu mohammed al—jawlani, has since publicly broke ranks with al-qaeda, and set up a new organisation, taking that new name hayat tahrir al—sham. last week, they seized

control of aleppo, the first time rebels have controlled syria's second largest city since 2016. they've been pushing south ever since, capturing hama, a key central city they were never able to capture before. they are now on their way to homs, a strategic city linking the capital to the mediterranean coast. al—jawlani has told residents of homs "your time has come". 0ur middle east correspondent hugo bachega was at the turkish—syrian border. it's an astonishing offensive by these rebels. last week, they captured aleppo, syria's second largest city. yesterday hama. and now they are on their way to homs, which is the country's third largest city, a strategic city in central syria. it connects the capital, damascus, to the north of the country and also to the coast, the heartland of president bashar al—assad. so very significant

developments happening. reports suggest they are getting closer to homs, and also reports indicating that government troops may have pulled out from central parts of the city. so, again, astonishing advance by the rebels. this is an offensive that is being led by islamist rebels from a group known as hts. they have their roots in al-qaeda. they're trying to project themselves as being a nationalist force, trying to topple the regime of president assad. and again, i think the big question here is about how the president is going to respond and whether he's able to launch any kind of counteroffensive to try to stop these rebels and try to reclaim territory. we know that in the most violent chapters in the war in syria, the president relied heavily on russia and iran, especially in russia's air power, to crush the opposition, to crush rebels.

and that's how he managed to change, you know, the course of the insurgency in syria. but now both russia and iran are preoccupied with their own affairs. russia is busy in ukraine. iran is still reeling from a huge israeli campaign targeting its targets, its proxies across the middle east, especially hezbollah in lebanon. so we don't know whether the president has the ability to launch any kind of operation to stop this advance from these rebels. so this advance is really...this offensive has reignited the civil war in syria. and assad's future, i mean, the future of his whole regime could be at stake here. he's really under threat. he really is. this is the most serious challenge to his regime since the beginning of the war, the most intense phase of the war that started in 2011 with anti—government protests being crushed by government forces.

and, again, i think the key question here will be how his allies are going to respond. russia, iran, hezbollah have vowed to support president assad as the rebels continue to advance across the country, but i think it's also very interesting to see how hts is trying to change, you know, their image from being, you know, radical islamists to being, again, this nationalist force trying to topple the government of president assad. and the group's leader gave an interview to cnn and i think, you know, again, he was being very diplomatic. he was talking about the future of the country. he was saying that he wanted to rebuild syria, to get rid of president assad, and to allow the return of millions of syrian refugees who had forced to flee the country because of the war, so fast—moving developments in syria as these rebels continue to advance in the country.

romania's top constitutional court has cancelled the presidential election, annulling the result of the first round, which was held two weeks ago. the announcement comes days after security services revealed details of what appears to be a major attempt to interfere in the country's presidential elections using the social media platform tiktok, and with a series of cyber—attacks. the results of that first round saw calin georgescu, an almost unknown far—right nato sceptic who had vowed to end ukraine aid if he won, win the most votes. the court said it made the move "to ensure the correctness and legality of the electoral process". let's speak to our foreign correspondent sarah rainsford, who joins us from romania. just explain why you think this constitutional court has made

this decision and what the reaction has been. it this decision and what the reaction has been.- reaction has been. it is something _ reaction has been. it is something of - reaction has been. it is something of a - reaction has been. it is| something of a political bombshell here in romania, after a couple of weeks of complete turmoil in politics. it is very hard to predict what will happen here from one minute to the next because it was two weeks ago that a total unknown, very little known a character from the far right of romanian politics emerged, only campaigning on tiktok, so when the first round of the presidential election. after that, there was a lot of concern about how fair that vote had been, how he had managed to surge to the top as an essentially unknown character, particularly because his policies are from the far right, very sympathetic towards russia and sceptical about nato. we had this week a release of intelligence documents by the authorities here which suggested his

meteoric rise had actually been down to an influence campaign that was conducted and coordinated from outside of this country but was the allegation. now at this latest move, the constitutional court judges the entire presidential election has to be cancelled and started again from scratch. in utterly uncharted territory, and the reactions have been extraordinary, the second round vote was meant to take place on sunday with calin georgescu, that front runner, facing another candidate who has come out condemning the court saying their vote was illegal and immoral and says it is a vote to democracy. it is fair to say no one knows what will happen next. ~ ., �* ~ ., next. we don't know whether the vote on sunday _ next. we don't know whether the vote on sunday goes _ next. we don't know whether the vote on sunday goes ahead - next. we don't know whether the vote on sunday goes ahead or . vote on sunday goes ahead or not, presumably it doesn't? we know that _ not, presumably it doesn't? - know that that vote will not happen, the whole election will

be run from scratch, including the campaigning, so we are waiting for a government to announce the date of the beginning of campaigning but at the moment we don't even have a government here in romania, there were parliamentary elections last week as well and there are still in negotiations under way to form a coalition. so there is no one to give as the date for the next election so no idea really when that could take place. in the meantime, there have been protests here over the past few days, people really worried about allegations of possible russian interference in the election, fear that perhaps the tentacles of moscow are stretching all the way here to bucharest and using online platforms like tick—tock to distort politics. this is a country with a long history of dictatorship, a long cool relation, let's say, with russia since then, and it calin

georgescu himself denied in any sense being moscow's man. he is a populist politician who says he is a man of the people, he has an agenda for change in romania and wants to implement that, so i imagine he will be angry too about what the constitutional court has now done. , , done. yes, it will be interesting - done. yes, it will be interesting to - done. yes, it will be interesting to see i done. yes, it will be | interesting to see his done. yes, it will be - interesting to see his reaction and we will bring that to you when it comes in. thank you. a rare red warning for wind, with threats of significant disruption and a "danger to life", has been issued by the met office for parts of wales and south west england on saturday as storm darragh hits the uk. many parts of wales are still recovering from the flooding caused by storm bert nearly two weeks ago. 0ur wales correspondent tomos morgan in the town of penarth, in south wales, where they are preparing for storm darragh. well, as the old cliche goes, it really is the calm before the storm

here in penarth. but i've got to be honest, in the short time that we've been here, the wind is slowly starting to pick up here and as darren said there, what will happen here, there will be a yellow weather warning for wind and rain across most of the mainland, here, across the uk and in wales and in northern ireland, which comes in around three, and then in the early hours, as i mentioned, that red warning comes in across the entire south and west coasts of wales and the bristol channel. and the thing about this really is that it was only two weeks ago that wales was battered by storm bert. we had that severe flooding across the south wales valleys, pontypridd hit. there was also a landslip, an old coal tip slip in abertillery there. so some of these areas are still recovering from the storm two weeks ago. and now we're having this red warning for wind, which is across the coasts of wales, but also there will be an amber rain warning for the entire of all of wales across tomorrow

up until the early evening. so having just about coming through the last storm, wales is going to get hit again. and there has been warnings from the deputy first minister to make sure that people do adhere to these warnings, they don't travel unless it's completely necessary, and a huge swathe of sporting occasions and events across south wales are already being called off in preparation for storm darragh. a defiant emmanuel macron has insisted he will stay on as french president till the end of his term in office in 2027, despite opposition calls for him to stand down amid the country's political turmoil. in a ten—minute televised address to the nation, president macron also said he'll appoint a new prime minister in the coming days, after the resignation of michel barnier, following a no—confidence vote. mr barnier was only in office for three months, making his term the shortest of any prime minister in the history of modern france. president macron has

asked him to stay on in a caretaker capacity, while his successor is chosen. here's the bbc�*s mark lowen with the latest. he intimated that marine le pen of the far—right national rally party had been one of those trying to bring down michel barnier and succeeding with that no confidence vote because of naked political ambition. her eye on the presidential election in 2027. he didn't name her, but that was clearly the implication behind that statement. and he said that the french people need to unite in a spirit of cooperation, citing the olympic games held here in paris over the summer, the reopening of notre dame cathedral tomorrow, saturday, after that fire that ravaged it five years ago, as examples of how france can can produce great things and come together when it's needed.

but, actually, this country is incredibly divided at the moment, and many people blame president macron for that, for polarising people, pushing people towards the political extremes, towards the far left and the far right, despite being the man who came in as president promising to revive the centre ground. and the real challenge here is that even if a new prime minister is appointed in the next day or two, as we expect it to be, or in the coming days, problems will remain, and president macron absolutely defiant that he will absolutely go nowhere. he intends to see out the rest of his presidential term until 2027, despite mounting calls for him to resign. and, mark, you just mentioned the reopening of notre dame tomorrow. an amazing achievement done in five years after that terrible fire, and president—elect donald trump amongst the vip guests coming to that. but a backdrop, and almost

embarrassing backdrop, i guess, for president macron to have such political chaos at a time when he's got all these guests coming to paris. yeah, i mean, he was hoping that, you know, france would be basking in glory on the world stage and not have its mind on political chaos for the reopening of notre dame. but, you know, a lot of people here will be thinking about how france can't get its own political house in order, let alone that, you know, that its opening a beautiful cathedral. so, you know, there was talk that he wanted to establish a new prime minister, a new government, before the reopening of notre dame. i think that's now unlikely, unless there's suddenly an announcement, an announcement later on today, and all of this coming at a time of real concern about france's economy, with the budget deficit very high here, it's double the limit imposed by the european union. you know, there are wars on europe's doorstep and trump about to get into the white house, so a terrible time for france to be in such a perilous state. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc

news.

a former british paratrooper who has pleaded not guilty to two murders and five attempted murders on bloody sunday back in 1972 will stand trial. ex—paratrooper soldier f, who cannot be identified, is accused of murdering james wray and william mckinney when members of the parachute regiment shot dead 13 civil rights protesters on the streets of londonderry. 0ur correspondent charlotte gallagher is in belfast. she says it's a significant moment more than half a century on. you can't overstate what a monumental day this is for the victims of bloody sunday and their families. it's now been more than 50 years since british soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians in londonderry. 13 people were killed. two of those were james wray and william mckinney.

now, soldier f is charged with the murder of those two men, as well as the attempted murder of five other people. now, today in court, he pled not guilty to all those charges. we didn't see him in court. he was behind a blue curtain, so his anonymity was protected, but we heard him say clearly not guilty. now, thejudge rejected an application from soldier f's legal team to essentially throw out the case. they say there simply isn't enough evidence. the judge said that was to be decided during the trial, which will go ahead. another thing the judge rejected was an attempt to have the anonymity on soldier f lifted. he said there was still a real risk from republican paramilitaries to soldier f, and the anonymity would stay. now, the families, when they came outside, of the bloody sunday victims, said it was a good day because the trial was going ahead, a trial they've waited a long time for, but they were bitterly disappointed about that anonymity order, describing it as a curtain of shame

around soldier f. they've also called for the trial to take place without delay. i mean, a lot of these people, they're in their 70s, their 805, they want to see this trial take place. police in new york have shared new images of a man they want to question over the fatal shooting of the health care executive brian thompson outside a hotel on wednesday morning. the first images had shown the man wearing a mask, but the nypd has now made these pictures of his face public. he is wearing a hood but, as you can see, he appears to be relaxed and even smiling. just a few minutes later he shot mr thompson dead, before making his escape. more details are emerging about his movements leading up to the murder, but so far, his current whereabouts remain unknown and his motive is yet to be fully established. cbs news correspondent jarred hill in new york gave more details on the investigation. so it's kind of interesting, ben, because we're learning

at cbs news, the potential reason that we actually have this very clear image of the person of interest�*s face, in particular, why he's smiling in one of those pictures. we're learning that a woman working the front desk at the hospital asked to see his, quote, pretty smile when he was checking in. was this a tactic to try and make sure that she could see his face uncovered? or was it a moment of, you know, friendly flirtation? that's still yet to be seen. but it appears that that's the reason that we have, again, this clear image of this guy's face, an image that could potentially help to lead to him being captured. the big question, though, still remains where is he and who exactly is he? we do know that new york police are continuing in particular, they're looking throughout central park because that's the last place that we saw him with his backpack, as well as with the weapon before he left the park, and then was seen without those two. so again, the question is where are those pieces

of evidence and what might they learn from that? and what more do we know about his victim then, brian thompson, this chief executive of this huge health care insurance company? yeah, so he's someone who, as you all were mentioning in the story, was not really a public player. so there are a lot of questions again around exactly why was he specifically targeted. he was a husband. he was a father. we do know that his widow has told some media sources that there were some other threats on his life prior to this shooting. local police in the area, though, have said that they hadn't gotten any reports of any other threats. and so that is also a big question as well. was there anything leading up to this that might have been a bit of a signal that something else could happen? protestors and members of parliament are camping out overnight at the south korean national assembly, ahead of a vote to impeach the president on saturday. they've voiced concerns that president yoon,

who first declared, and then a few hours later revoked, martial law earlier this week, could try again to subvert civilian rule. mps voted unanimously to reject martial law — tomorrow's vote could remove mr yoon from office. the national assembly is already considering launching a treason investigation against the president. 0ur correspondent laura bicker has been following developments in seoul since the political crisis was triggered late on tuesday evening. she sent us this update. this is the third day of protests, and as usual in korea, it turns into a bit of a party atmosphere. but they are growing in size. they are once again calling for his impeachment, and in the next 2a hours, a vote will be held in the national assembly, which is just a few hundred metres from here. now, today, we've heard some extraordinary accounts of the night that he declared martial law. we have heard from the leader of his own party, who said that he had to be removed for the safety of the republic of korea.

he said that he's seen new evidence that president yoon had planned to round up the members of parliament and have them detained in a prison. we've also heard from the intelligence services that president yoon had given orders to round up the members of parliament to tie up loose ends. now, this relates to the fact that this is a president who is desperately trying to grip on to power. deeply unpopular and struggling to gain the support of his own party. it does seem, given the evidence that we've heard, that he wanted to somehow use martial law to overrule his own national assembly. so what we're seeing over the last few hours is a build—up of pressure on the president himself, but he is showing no signs that he wishes to resign. earlier, there were rumours within the national assembly that he was going to come, going to apologise and going to resign.

at that time, the members of parliament blockaded the door, linked arms, calling again for him to be impeached. he did not show up. there is no sign so far that he's even going to speak publicly. meanwhile, as you can see, number of people who are coming out to try to call for him to be removed is increasing, and we're expecting these crowds to grow in the next 2a hours ahead of that impeachment vote. ijust want i just want to take you to romania, bucharest, that is the parliament there, live pictures, because as our correspondent was telling us, there has been a bombshell announcement from romania's constitutional court which has an old the first round of voting in the presidential election just a few days before the second round was due to take place. it means the whole presidential election process will have to start again from scratch. the first round was

won by calin georgescu, an almost unknown far right nato sceptic. more about to come, you are bbc news. —— you are watching bbc news. storm darragh is heading into western parts of the uk this afternoon but things will take afternoon but things will take a turn for the worse overnight and into saturday, then we have this red warning meaning a danger to life, winds will be gusting 90 mph across western and southern parts of wales, through the bristol channel. the warning is from three o'clock tomorrow morning to 11am on saturday. as well as a danger to life, travel disruption and large and dangerous waves as well. is all happening in the atlantic, getting closer that area of cloud deepening into that area of low pressure bringing storm darragh, bringing stormy weather into western parts of the uk. temperatures will not

be as high as yesterday. following the track of the storm, it will post right the way across the uk, sweeping rain in from time to time, bringing a spell of heavy snow over the mountains across northern parts of scotland. as the centre of the storm pushes to the north sea, those north at north—westerly winds really strengthen which is why we have this red warning from the met office but there is a larger office but there is a larger area that is covered by an amber wind warning where gusts will be 70, 80 amber wind warning where gusts will be 70,80 mph, that amber wind warning where gusts will be 70, 80 mph, that lasts for longer during saturday and disruption across these parts of the uk as well. on top of all that, given the rain we have had, more rain to come on saturday, this part of wales could see flooding effects as well. let's see what happens during saturday, we have this wet and windy weather sweeping across many areas, a bit more snow over the scottish

mountains as well. the centre of the storm is out into the north sea, so posing in strong north to north—westerly winds everywhere. windy everywhere and during the afternoon the winds pick up along those north sea coasts, temperatures similar to those today. the storm will eventually push out into continental europe, still isobars on sunday, windy again, probably not quite as windy as it saturday but to stronger winds probably down the eastern side of the uk. this is where we will see most of those showers are streaming and, further west it is looking largely dry with tension, winds continuing to ease down but it may be a bit colder tenderly we can.

live from new york at the opening bell, this is business today. a strong end to a strong week for wall street. stocks open higher afterjobs numbers suggest the fed is still on track to cut interest rates this month. hiring rebounded in november after an october hit by hurricanes and strikes. us employers created 227,000 newjobs, slightly ahead of expectations. also coming up... global trade beef. the eu agrees a massive free trade deal with south america, despite fierce opposition from european farmers and defiance in paris and rome. plus, the clock runs down for tiktok. the social media giant awaits a court ruling on plans

to ban it in the us. welcome to business today, live