live from london. this is bbc news the rebel advance in syria continues at pace — they've taken control of hama — now they're closing in on the crucial city of homs. our correspondent barbara plett usher willjoin us from the region. new york's mayor — says he's confident police are on the "right track" — but the man — wanted over the shooting of one of america's top executives — is still on the run. romania's top court — annuls the results of the first round of its presidential elections. it says, the whole process must be rerun. and — as notre dam prepares for the official re—opening — stunning images from inside the cathedral, five years after the devastating fire. these are the live pictures from paris, we are here this half—hour —— we will hear this

half—hour —— we will hear this half—hour from those involved in the restoration. 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. reports say the militias may be just five kilometres outside the city — as they continue their advance, after taking hama yesterday. the leader of the rebels says, he wants an end to the assad regime, and sought to reassure minorities, they would be respected. the united nations says, almost 300,000 people have been displaced in syria, since the civil war was reignited last week. the rebels initially seized syria's second city, aleppo, before advancing south to take hama. taking homs would cut the main road leading from the capital, damascus, to the coast, a stronghold of the embattled president, basharalassad.

his forces say, they've been bombing rebel positions from war planes. joining me now is our correspondent barbara plett usher in beirut. this sheer speed of this taking so many people by surprise. that's right. we've been monitoring the rebel advance during the day. they are saying that they have moved from hama. they have passed through to key towns already and posted footage them showing them, right on the outskirts of hama we also have the syrian observatory for human rights, a war monitor reporting the same kind of thing. so an astonishing speed for them to be moving from capturing one city to the gates of another if indeed that is where they are. the defence ministry has been saying and claims that it has withdrawn troops from the city, it is denying those claims. it

would be the kind of city that the regime would really want to try and protect and defend because it is very strategic. it is the main link between damascus and the rest of the country. and even as you have this advancing rebel offensive towards hama, we are also getting reports of flare—ups of violence and other parts of the country, kurdish rebels are saying they have seized a town quite far to the east, there is also reports of pockets of unrest in the south. barbara, is there a _ unrest in the south. barbara, is there a real _ unrest in the south. barbara, is there a real chance - unrest in the south. barbara, is there a real chance now . unrest in the south. barbara, l is there a real chance now that asad will be toppled? i is there a real chance now that asad will be toppled?- asad will be toppled? i think more and — asad will be toppled? i think more and more _ asad will be toppled? i think more and more people - asad will be toppled? i think more and more people are l asad will be toppled? i think- more and more people are asking that question and entertaining that question and entertaining that possibility. the fact that the rebels have advanced so quickly really does seem to indicate that the army is simply not able or willing to stop it. the army has been overstretched and under resourced for much of the time of the civil war, but now it seems it's really been hollowed

out. the morale is low, the pay is low. there's a lot of corruption, and so far we have not seen the army rally really aside from some fighting around the city of hama to take on the rebels. you also have the supporters of the regime, russia and iran who have really been the ones that have been propping it up over the years. they have not responded with that same kind of support. they are facing their own conflicts and pressures with ukraine on the one hand with russia and israel on the other with iran. the russians have carried out some air strikes but have also just told their nationals were suggested that their nationals leave the country, which suggests that they feel things are going to get worse. the iranians, of course, supplying militias that are allied to them to help syria fight its war. the biggest one of that was hezbollah. and they have very much been weekend by an israeli military campaign. small numbers have crossed the

border to try to defend hama, but we have not seen that kind of defence yet. —— to defend homs. whether the regime and its allies are able to defend what they still hold, which is homs what they still hold, which is horns and damascus, and of course the coast, which is the political stronghold. but, yes, that question is being asked whether in fact mr asad will be able to keep power.— able to keep power. barbara plett usher, _ able to keep power. barbara plett usher, we _ able to keep power. barbara plett usher, we will - able to keep power. barbara plett usher, we will leave i able to keep power. barbara plett usher, we will leave it| plett usher, we will leave it there. thank you very much for now. former us ambassador to syria, robert ford spoke a little earlier about the brutality of assad regime. the assad regime and its brutality are well known. it is responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of syrians, some in very gruesome fashion. and i think it is important for viewers to remember that because of those crimes, many of the assad loyalists now will fight hard at the end.

it would be difficult for them to surrender knowing that accountability awaits them. have you been surprised by simply the speed of events on the ground? yes, i have to say i am almost shocked by the speed of events on the ground and two things stand out — one, that morale of the syrian army is terrible, i don't think i have ever seen it so disorganised and unwilling to fight, and second, its external supports, russia and iran, seem to be unable to send quickly vital reinforcements. how critical is it for assad to hold homs? if homs is lost, it's a big blow to assad. it's worth viewers knowing that hezbollah from lebanon intervened to save homs in 2013 and stopped armed opposition momentum back then, early in the civil war. if homs falls, the next will be fighting in damascus itself. now, if assad falls,

and it is still a big if, just take me through your analysis of the key implications of that. first, as you say, it is a big if, and i think there are many variables in play, but were he to fall i expect first there would be some kind of syrian military security governing council, a revolution command council after the coup, and that would probably try to fight on. remember, they are guilty of terrible crimes and they don't want to pay for them. so at some point perhaps then if they are overwhelmed, those that can will try to escape and the rest would surrender, but it is very far from clear what kind of syrian opposition government would come

into place. there are many different factions of the syrian armed and political opposition. there are so many key players involved and neighbours, what do you think the key implications for all of them are, the turkeys, the irans, the lebanons and hezbollahs? well, first, it would be an enormous defeat for both russia and iran, because the bashar al—assad government has long been a key ally for both countries and the fall of the government would be a terrible blow to both putin and the iranian islamic republic. millions of syrian refugees in turkey would likely return to their homes in cities like aleppo and homs. iraq, ithink, is nervous watching what's going on, but so far its government has not said it would send military units into syria to help assad.

tell me more about the ideology of this main rebel group, hts, because it has morphed in recent times, hasn't it? well, it is not clear exactly how much it has morphed but definitely it has changed. when the united states government, and i spearheaded the effort in 2012, put them on the american terrorism list, they had direct organic links to al-qaeda in iraq. in the intervening years, they cut ties with al-qaeda, they actually fought al-qaeda loyalists in northern syria, they cut ties to the islamic state and fought hard bloody battles against them back in 2014 before expelling them out of the territory that this organisation, hts, controls. they have opened up to the christian community

in north—western syria and aleppo, very unlike al-qaeda or the islamic state. they have sent a message trying to reassure the syrian alawi community, again very unlike al-qaeda or the islamic state, and they seem to be relatively competent managers of cities. there are syrian—american medical organisations that have been running hospitals and clinics in the territories controlled by hts and their leaderships have told me several times during the last years that they are able to work smoothly without difficulty from this hts organisation. police in new york say the search for the killer plenty more on that story and the bbc website. let's head now to new york, because

police say the search for the killer of the us insurance executive brian thompson has been widened to at least two more states — newjersey and connecticut. police have also compiled more than 200 photos from surveillance cameras, covering the suspect�*s arrival in new york city, the scene of the shooting, and his escape route. they have described these as important developments. mr thompson was killed on wednesday in what's been called a targeted attack. let's speak to our north america correspondent jon sudworth in new york. john, tell us more about what the police are actually saying. well, matthew, central manhattan, of course, is one of the most filmed and photographed places in the world. so, no surprise that two days on, the police have built up days on, the police have built up a substantial body of evidence, not least those photographs. they also have details about the suspect�*s movements, saying he checked into a hostel on the upper west side of manhattan in the days

before this killing and that he arrived in new york on the 24th of november having travelled by bus, a greyhound bus that left atlanta and georgia. what's interesting about the latest images that they've released is that they show his face very clearly. newspaper reports for unnamed police sources suggest that these images were taken at the reception desk at the hostel and that the man in the images was asked by the receptionist to take his mask off and give her a smile, a very innocent, normal exchange, but if that is true, then that exchange may have given police their most important clue yet, because as i say, the image is a very clear image. you have to wonder, even if they are not yet close to making any arrests here, they must be getting close to identifying the person of interest they want to speak to. , ., ., ,., of interest they want to speak to. , ., �* ., to. tell us more about brian thompson. _ to. tell us more about brian thompson, his _ to. tell us more about brian thompson, his company - to. tell us more about brian| thompson, his company and to. tell us more about brian - thompson, his company and why the health insurance...

thompson, his company and why the health insurance. . ._ the health insurance... well, ou the health insurance... well, you know. — the health insurance... well, you know. it's— the health insurance... well, you know, it's one _ the health insurance... well, you know, it's one of - the health insurance... well, you know, it's one of the - you know, it's one of the world's biggest companies, personally one of —— certainly one of america's. it ensures americans for their health care, brian thompson had been chief executive since 2021. one other interesting detail is that the shell casings found at the scene where, again, according to newspapers, quoting unnamed police sources, found with some kind of inscription upon them, and that is the wording, apparently, contain words like "deny and delay" there is speculation that that may refer to the allegations that the insurance industry, long—standing allegations that they look for ways to deny and delay payments to the subscribers in their network. the insurance industry has long denied that, of course. but what is clear, whether or not there is a link to mr thompson's position as ceo of united health care or not in this killing, they are taking no chances and we have seenin taking no chances and we have seen in recent days some of the

big insurers begin to take down the personal details of their senior management team from their web pages, taking off the names and the photographs of those senior managers. john said with _ those senior managers. john said with live _ those senior managers. john said with live there - those senior managers. john said with live there in - those senior managers. john said with live there in new york, thanks very much. next up on the programme, news from romania. the president is speaking after the constitutional court cancelled the presidential elections. that story is coming up. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

you are watching bbc news. as promised, let me take you to romania, because the top constitutional court — has cancelled the presidential election ? annulling the result of the first round, held two weeks ago. the announcement was made, days after security services revealed details of what appears to be, a major attempt to interfere with the elections using the social media platform

tiktok, and a series the results of that first round saw calin georgescu — an almost unknown far—right ——let�*s speak to our centrtal europe correspondent, nick thorpe who is in budapest. wears the country go after constitutional court decision? this is an astonishing situation in romania. we have the president, who as you say has been trying to calm with this speech to the nation which is still going on in the last few minutes. he's trying to calm the nation because this is an astonishing situation. he is due to be in office only until the 21st of december. under romania's constitution now, he could presumably prolong his term in office in order to see romania through the next few months because what's happened as a result of this constitutional court decision is that the whole election

needs to be run again. so from scratch, candidates, new candidates need to collect signatures and put themselves out. so if you weeks ago, and the first round, which has now been an old, there were actually 13 candidates, so the whole process has to start from scratch. it's also a big question, the man who won the election will be able to stand again, there's nothing in the court decision which prevents him from doing. however, there may be legal consequences for the revelations are the allegations that have come from romanian intelligence about russian involvement in his campaign. so he may now face criminal procedures, which could prevent him standing again. so there's certainly a great sense of uncertainty and interestingly, the liberal candidate who was supposed to face him in this election has also criticised the court decision and said that the state has trampled romanian democracy underfoot with this

decision. ., ~ , ., , democracy underfoot with this decision. ., ~' , ., , . decision. thank you very much for the latest. _ michelle fleury explains what's likely to happen next.— explains what's likely to happen next. explains what's likely to ha en next. ,, ., ., happen next. the us court of a- eals happen next. the us court of appeals in — happen next. the us court of appeals in the _ happen next. the us court of appeals in the district - happen next. the us court of appeals in the district of- appeals in the district of columbia ruled that essentially this man could go ahead. it was being challenged by tiktok and its owner, the chinese parent company, underthe its owner, the chinese parent company, under the grounds that it was an infringement of first amendment rights, however, in its ruling, let me review what they said, the first amendment exits to protect free speech in the united states. here the government acted solely to protect that, freedom from a foreign adversary nation, and to limit that adversary�*s ability to gather data on the people of the united states.

now, you may recall this date back to donald trump is my first time in office, he went into a sort of lengthy battle with tiktok, off to railed against it through the form of the idea of tariffs. ultimately, it was under presidentjoe biden that this ruling came into effect. essentially it gave china's owner untiljanuary to either owner until january to either sell the owner untiljanuary to either sell the company or divest it, and as things currently stand, that will go ahead, although we expect them to appeal to the supreme court. britain's office has —— the neck the met office has issued a rare �*red warning' for wind — for parts of wales and south west england — as storm darragh hits the uk. it warns of threats of significant disruption and a "danger to life". 0ur weather presenter chris fawkes explained how bad this storm is likely to be. we've not had one of these since january. they don't get issued very often. we're

looking at a gust of wind up to her in excess of 90 mph bringing a real threat to life, and this is the latest satellite picture which shows the storm developing and moving in and the scale of the storm means that hazards are going to be affecting pretty much all parts of the uk. it's wins that come first. direct weather warning for parts of wales, southern and western wales, parts of southwest england. gust of wind in excess of 90 mph, strong enough to bring structural damage, some groups will be blown off buildings. a number of trees are likely to come down from us a widespread transport disruption and power cuts as well. there is a more widespread amber warning that takes an even more areas of wales, parts of western england and northern ireland to southwest scotland. gust here will not be far behind, 70—80 mph, they will be strong enough to bring down trees. so transport disruption and power supply problems are also possible. supply problems are also possible-— supply problems are also ossible. ., , ., possible. you can see here on that graphic — possible. you can see here on that graphic when _ possible. you can see here on that graphic when it _ possible. you can see here on that graphic when it goes - possible. you can see here on that graphic when it goes to i that graphic when it goes to the amber warning just how extra area this actually covers. in terms of wider

impact, take me through that. this is a system that will bring multiple hazards and probably one of the first hazards is actually in scotland where we are going to get some heavy snow across the hills. looking at 10—20 cm of blizzard conditions. the 89 could be badly affected and even away from those red and amber warnings for areas in terms of wind, the wind is going to be strong enough overnight and tomorrow to bring down tree branches just about anywhere. so there could be some more localised impacts from that. we've got heavy rain to consider as well. now, we've got heavy rain to consideras well. now, rainfall accumulations are going to really build up and particular concern, wales, why? because, well, storm bert, remember that, well, we are looking at another 80—90 mm of rain going in here. so there is another amber warning for in here. so there is another amberwarning for rain in here. so there is another amber warning for rain and fears that we are going to see a return of another round of flooding across south wales

stop byjust one sentence, because we saw that weather system of the country, how long is it likely to stay over the country? it will still be impacting us even into sunday, but the strongest winds at that stage will be strong enough to affect fairies, another area of concern into the ferry crossings in southeast england to france. to crossings in southeast england to france. ., ., , crossings in southeast england to france-— where president macron is preparing for the official reopening president macron is preparing to play host, to international dignitaries — for the official re—opening of notre dame cathedral. the historic building was devasted by fire — five years ago. since then — experts have been working tirelessly on its renovation. brian katz is an an acoustics expert helping to restore the unique sounds of the grand cathedral. he told me the finished project looks stunning. the renovation has really progressed far and it gives this impression of attending the opening ceremony of a gothic cathedral, which is quite exciting. give me an idea and our viewers watching the sort of work you were involved with. so, we were part of the scientific advisory committee to the restoration, so we were there to answer any questions and provide any support to the restoration committee on the impact of anything that they were doing,

so we were in the acoustics group, there was also structure and glass and metal and we were all there as part of the scientific working support group to help, specifically we helped in predicting what the acoustic impact of choices would be, the most notable of that was on the restoration or the replacement of the choir organ, where they were looking at providing a new layout and a new position of the organ and we were able to study the propositions from the organ builders and provide advice that way. how do you even do that? because right at the start of the week i saw the choirs practising for this weekend's events, but what are the sort of factors you're trying to take on board that affect the acoustics there? so we had the opportunity, in 2015, to do measurements in notre dame and start creating what is called a digital acoustic twin which is a computer model which can replicate the acoustics and then

since the fire, subsequent measures to that, we were able to refine that, so basically we have a duplicate of notre dame which we can integrate changes like moving the organ and changing the orientation of the organ or even changing the shape of walls or different materials and we can predict what the sound results will be. that is the prediction and as you are talking we are seeing an array of pictures from inside, the stunning stained glass window, but in terms of that acoustic, what you have described is the theories of what you are going through, when you did the tests, what did they actually sound like and how did you do the tests? the test for the measurements are basically putting microphones and speakers in a lot of various positions and then creating a 3d model and trying to calibrate the model so it gives the same results as the microphone. in a lot of various positions and then creating a 3d model

the acoustic history of notre dame over eight centuries and trying to recreate different pieces together as a historic film, a documentary so people can experience all the stages of notre dame as well as hearing of music in different epics, and we are putting that together as a historic film, a documentary so people can really experience all the stages of notre dame as well as hearing sadly, the restriction is quite high will you be there? that is uuite will you be there? that is quite high _ will you be there? that is quite high on _ will you be there? that is quite high on who - will you be there? that is quite high on who has - will you be there? that is - quite high on who has access. we are cochairs, and there was only one permit of accessibility, and she was the one who got it. so sadly i will be at home this weekend, but i think i will be doing a fair number of interviews from zoom in my house, but i will be going in on wednesday, we have

tickets to go into the first mass on the 11th, and i'm very excited to hear it now that it is open. full coverage of that reopening throughout the course of this weekend here on bbc news. hello there. storm darragh is going to bring damage and disruption widely across the uk this weekend. there is this red wind warning issued by the met office. these are really quite rare. it means a danger to life. the winds are going to be gusting 90 miles an hour through this part of wales, and for a while through the bristol channel as well. that warning runs from the early hours of saturday morning into saturday. and not only a danger to life, there'll be travel disruption, power cuts and some large and potentially dangerous waves as well. now, there's the storm, and it has been bringing wet and windy weather eastwards, the winds continuing to strengthen through the night, and as well as rain, we've got a spell of snow over the hills across northern parts of scotland.

but let's focus on the winds again, because not only do we have that red warning, but we also have an amber wind warning that covers a largerarea, including northern ireland and south—west scotland, and lasts for longer on saturday, with the winds gusting 70 or 80 miles an hour. and, on top of that, an amber rain warning. given how wet it's been in this part of wales, with more heavy rain to come, there's likely to be some furtherflooding issues here. and we're all going to have a windy and potentially wet day. those strengthening north to north—westerly winds feeding in showers or longer spells of rain, and as the low, the storm, tracks into the north sea, so the winds will pick up around the north sea coast, perhaps as they begin to ease a little out towards these western areas. temperatures tomorrow very similar to what we saw today. now, for the second half of the weekend, there's the storm. it is going to start to track away into continental europe, but it's still going to be a windy day on sunday, perhaps not quite as windy. the strongest of the winds are going to be through the midlands and eastern england, perhaps eastern scotland for a while,

and this is where we're going to find most of the showers streaming in. but towards the west and north it's going to be less windy, it'll be drier and there'll be more in the way of sunshine, but it is a northerly wind, so temperatures will be seven or eight degrees. over the weekend, then, we'll see that storm tracking across the uk, bringing wet and windy weather, but into the beginning of next week that moves down into the mediterranean. high pressure will build across the uk, the winds eventually dropping in southern areas. we'll all get lighter winds, quieter, drier weather and some sunshine.

this is bbc news, the headlines the rebel advance in syria continues at pace. with president sib toppled? bbc verify takes a look. a new leader in romania after the top court demands new elections. the search for the government in new york includes new jersey and connecticut. warnings a severe storm could put lives at risk. the uk met office is forecasting extreme winds of up to 90 mph. beatles legend sir paul mccartney is honoured

in a specially minted coin collection — the first of its kind.