live from washington, this is bbc news. the south korean president yoon suk yeol apologises for declaring martial law and says he won't do it again, but does not offer to resign. thousands flee as rebels reach the city limits in syria. and thousands brace for storm darragh which could bring treacherous conditions to the uk. hello. i'm carl nasman. south korea's embattled president yoon suk yeol has apologised in a dramatic but brief address

to the nation — his first public appearance since rescinding martial law him imposed on tuesday. president yoon did not offer to resign, or mention the impending impeachment vote he faces in parliament later on saturday. opposition leader, lee jae—myung, called for the president's resignation, saying that the biggest risk to the nation is "the existence of the president himself." he spoke for a few minutes. translation: is present i am in charge of national affairs. this has caused inconvenience to the public. i'm sorry and i apologise to citizens who must�*ve been very surprised. i will not avoid legal and political responsibility regarding declaration of martial law. my fellow citizens, there are remiss about another declaration of martial law but i want to make it clear there will never be a second declaration of martial law. my fellow citizens, i will leave it to our party to take measures to stabilise the political situation in the future, including my term in office. moving forward our

party and the government will take responsibility for the management of state affairs. i apologise again for causing concern to the public. the leader of the opposition called for the president's resignation saying the biggest risk to the nation is the existence of the president himself. the coalition needs only eight members of president yoon�*s party to impeach him. friday gave the first clear sign is his own party may photo the opposition when its leader called for his suspension. south korea has been plunged into turmoil since the martial law declaration, a decision lawmakers swiftly overturned. our asia correspondent has more now from seoul. it was very brief, only a few minutes long and what it absolutely wasn't was a resignation speech. president yoon made this apology, he bowed to the people of korea, he said he was sorry

for the anxiety and trouble he had brought by declaring martial law. he said he did it out of desperation to try and break a political impasse. he also said, and i think this is the key bit, he said he would now put the authority or responsibility for what now happens in the hands of his party, the people's power party. i think what that shows us is president yoon is taking another gamble here. he faces a vote of impeachment this afternoon in the national assembly and the key to his survival is keeping his own party on his side, and not crossing to the opposition. he is basically saying to his party today, look, i will let you decide my fate but do not vote with the opposition in the impeachment vote this afternoon. he is trying to use this speech to survive the vote of impeachment this afternoon. how is that gamble, this speech and apology, being received in south korea? does this seem to be

placating some of his critics? it certainly has not placated the opposition, the democratic party, which holds a large majority in parliament, and is the party pushing for the impeachment this afternoon. it has said it would change nothing. it said no apology would work and they will push forward with the impeachment. it may well work with some members of his own party. there was a very long meeting, a ten to 12 hour meeting, of his party going well into the night and at the end they said they were going to, as a party, not support impeachment, although there are a handful of members who we think may cross the floor to join the opposition. but the reaction from his party in the immediate aftermath of this speech, just in the last few minutes, has been essentially to say, it is a matter of time now. he has to go. it is just a question of how, he goes — and obviously his party would prefer

he stays for a bit and then resigns, rather than being impeached because they fear that will damage their own chances. politicians being politicians want to save, they do not want to damage themselves and would much prefer he goes by resignation than by impeachment. for more on the address and the unstable situation, i has been speaking with robin —— robert kerry. —— have. we finally hear now from the president, what was your reaction to the address? i thought rupert was really correct, it was really underwhelming. given the scale of what president yoon has done, declaring martial law in circumstances that don't merit it at all, taking south korea back towards echoes or shadows of what was when the military dictatorship a0 years ago,

and there are south koreans who remember those days, all of that is wildly disproportionate to president yoon�*s concerns about parliamentary gridlock. i would have expected the president to speak for a longer period of time than just three minutes to explain himself. there are rumours around that this was impulsive and this and that, he wasn't in his right mind, there is a lot of concern about why he did this because it seems like such an extreme step. he didn't really explain that at all, so i don't think this will really do it, the opposition said the impeachment effort will continue, i imagine they will be able to get some conservative votes, the liberals have about six hours here according to the clock to peel off eight conservative voters. but even if the impeachment doesn't work, i think he will face street protests for months and months, i think his resignation will have to happen at some point. let's talk about the impeachment process in south korea. two—thirds threshold, is that right, to clear the national assembly? not that many of his

own party need to vote for this. what other chances we might see this happen in six hours time? i think the chances are pretty good. they only need to peel off eight votes, and it is pretty clear i think, in south korea, that he is hugely unpopular. the data is all over the place and the polling on this is all very prompt but the information i have seen said something like 70% of south koreans think this was something like insurrection or rebellion and 76% want him to quit or be impeached. even if he survives, south korea has a pretty vigorous street protests culture so even if he survives i imagine they will be protests against him for months and months. this is what happened when south korea went through an impeachment about eight years ago, there were relentless street protests that forced the government's hands. my sense is, it would be wise of him to resign because he might at least avoid jail time. if he gets impeached he may end up in prison. i wish the president

would go forward and explain his thinking a little bit more about which this two—minute address did not give us. there is so many questions and he is not explaining himself, which is difficult and unfortunate. why do you think he is not explaining himself? would that benefit him politically, would it benefit him in a criminal sense? you mentioned that he could possibly go to jail. it might help to move the public�*s anger a little bit if they actually had some kind of sense of this. but yeah, i would imagine, if you are thinking of criminal liability, then admit nothing because you open yourself up. but my own sense is we don't know because he won't explain himself, but my own sense is this was probably impulsive, i think that is why he is not talking about this in public because he decided this in cahoots with a few of his friends from the defence ministry, his old boys network that has been with him for a while, and i think this was really thrown together at the last minute because there is a lot of evidence from the coup itself, or the insurrection or whatever this is, it was very inept, it was not well organised.

there was little contact and co—ordination with the police who seem to be at odds with the military, there was no plan at all to control the crowd, to take major intersections, to take the airport, if this was a coup, it was a really, really inept one which tells me that president yoonjust threw this together at the last minute. and i think that is why he is not talking about it, big because itjust happened and he didn't really know what he had walked into. we have about a minute left but you mentioned this people power there in south korea, the history of protest, we saw that in 2016 which led to another impeachment. if this impeachment vote does not pass, do you think we would see similar protests? yes, absolutely. the candlelight street protest tactic is pretty well ingrained in south korea, it has a pretty robust street protest culture including

fairly militant labour unions who go out and protest and march and raise their fists, that goes back at least to the 1980s, arguably to the �*70s, the south korean president had been impeached, jailed, investigated for a lot less than this, this is not your typical corruption and bribery scandal, suspending constitutional governance because of a parliamentary fight gridlock, that is wildly disproportionate and i would be shocked the south korean public did not protest it. tens of thousands of people are fleeing the syrian city of homs, as islamist rebels close in. the third major city under siege to see the advance of opposition fighters since they began a surprise operation against government forces last week, the latest chapter in syria's 13—year civil war. the opposition fighters, with former links to al-anda, are making a resurgence after being forced into retreat five years ago. but in just ten days they have taken control of syria's second—largest city, aleppo. another major city, hama, fell yesterday, and now they have reached homs. they also have in their sights the capital, damascus —

a stronghold of syrian president bashar al—assad and government forces. the government's loss of territory comes as backers russia, iran, and hezbollah find themselves stretched in other conflicts. with all the latest from the turkey—syria border, here's hugo bachega. syrian rebels on their way to homs. their offensive has been swift and astonishing. here, they celebrate as they capture another town without facing any resistance. they also had no opposition in hama. chanting "god is greatest", crowds gathered to welcome the fighters. gunfire they also seized this army base, a symbolic win as the military struggles to counter their progress. the civil war in syria started in 2011 when president bashar al—assad crushed protests against his regime. homs, a rebel stronghold,

was under siege for three years. opposition fighters only left under a deal brokered by the un in 2015 when government forces reclaimed it. if the rebels take homs, damascus the capital would be a quite easier target. the syrian army has fallen, and the state capacity has been degraded a great deal. the writing is on the wall. frozen for years, the front lines in syria are changing fast. this is an insurgency led by islamist rebels from a group known as hts. they have their roots in al-qaeda but are trying to rebrand themselves as a nationalist force. from their base in idlib, they launched a surprise campaign last week. they took aleppo, the country's second largest city, and continued to push south. this is their leader,

abu mohammed al—jawlani. in an interview to cnn, he said the goal was to topple the regime and bring back syrian refugees. translation: people will return to their homes, - many refugees in turkiye will likely return, as will a significant number of refugees in lebanon and jordan, even refugees in europe may return to rebuild their country. they are vowing to reach damascus and bashar al—assad is struggling to stop them. in the past, he relied heavily on russia and iran to fight the opposition. but both allies are preoccupied with their own affairs. the rebels have the momentum and the regime is increasingly under threat. large parts of the uk are braced for storm darragh with amber weather warnings for widespread disruption covering southern scotland, cornwall and northern ireland. storm darragh is expected to bring heavy rain over the weekend across the uk. the most serious threat

is to south wales and along the bristol channel, where a rare red warning for strong winds has been issued, meaning a danger to life. gusts of around 90 miles an hour are expected, starting in the early hours of saturday. the government says about 3 million people living in the area covered by the red warning have received a siren—like alert on their phones warning them of the expected high winds. our wales correspondent tomos morgan reports from porthcawl. from penarth to porthcawl, along the welsh coastline, businesses have been busy planning and preparing for more bad weather. at the moment, the plans are to be in because we've got deliveries for our customers and stuff like that. some are elderly, so we need to get out to make sure they get stuff. but other than that, that's all i've got on the cards at the moment. although towns on welsh coastlines are familiar with bad weather, having to close shops and cafes on a saturday so close to christmas will undoubtedly affect businesses. metres away from the seafront

is piccolo�*s cafe, who earlier made the difficult decision to close tomorrow. sea defences keeps the water down, but there's a lot of debris comes up and it's the wind more than anything and, you know, sometimes you can feel the glass shaking. two weeks ago, when storm bert ravaged the south wales valleys and caused severe flooding, there was criticism by residents and politicians that stronger warnings didn't come soon enough. the government has issued its largest ever use of its warning alert system, sent to the mobile phones of three million or so people living in the affected areas, where a rare red warning for wind, the met office's highest category for bad weather, has been issued across the entire west and south coast of wales and along the bristol channel. and they basically mean danger to life. big impacts. but not just that, it also expresses certainty. so that means that the met office is confident that these severe conditions will be affecting

in quite a large area. as wales gets ready to defend itself once more, the miserable weather in the run—up to the festive period continues. police searching for the man who killed the ceo of one of america's largest health insurance companies have widened their manhunt to now include four us states — new york, newjersey, connecticut, and georgia. police believe the suspect has left new york and is heading to atlanta. brian thompson was shot in the early hours of wednesday morning in manhattan. he later died in hospital. officers say the suspect was first seen in the upper west side area two hours before the shooting. five minutes before the murder, he walks to the hilton hotel in midtown and waits. thompson walks to the hilton, where he was due to give a speech, and is shot at least twice before

the suspect escapes towards central park on an e—bike. police have yet to suggest a motive, and would not confirm a report that "delay" and "deny" were written on the bullets — words often used by insurance companies to reject claims. nada tawfik reports from new york. new video shows the suspected assailant walking along 55th st and putting something on a pile of trash bags. this was minutes after he purchased items at a starbucks with cash. hi, i'm brian thompson. and less than half an hour before he shot united health care ceo brian thompson. our mission and values are focused on helping people live healthier lives. this image caught on surveillance camera shows the suspect standing at the check—in desk at a hostel where he reportedly shared a room with two other men. in a flirtatious moment, he pulls down his mask to show the receptionist his smile and reveals his full face. this breakthrough in the case here

at the american youth hostel on manhattan's upper west side has given police new leads. these brothers who live in italy say they were staying on the same floor as the suspect. it was a weird coincidence that it was exactly that night, it feels a bit crazy still, but the next day, the whole night we had a police officer staying on our floor for our safety, or we don't know, maybe he was also waiting for him to come back. we now know the person of interest in this case checked into this hostel using a fake id, after arriving here on a bus from a state south of the city ten days before the shooting. this has now turned into a multi—state manhunt. the fatal shooting of brian thompson in midtown manhattan just as he was about to give an investor talk felt like a scene out of a hollywood movie. it has led other major corporations to re—evaluate their safety. no one is going crazy thinking

immediately this is an attack against all ceos, but it is making everyone re—evaluate. according to our us partners cbs police believe the crime weapon was a b&t station six. this video demonstrates why a handgun like this might have been chosen to carry out murder in a built—up part of manhattan where a gunshot would echo. gunshot very, very quiet. new york officials insist the investigation is on the right track. for now, though, the suspect is still at large and his identity unknown. and another development are us news partner think forensic tests on a backpack found in central park which may have belonged to the suspect as the man—hunt stretches now into another day. i have been speaking about the operation with a former fbi special agent. it is now multiple states according to new york

city police. what does that tell you about this search and how difficult this is going to be? i how difficult this is going to be? ~ , , how difficult this is going to be? ~' , . be? i think this is actually a very exciting _ be? i think this is actually a very exciting part _ be? i think this is actually a very exciting part of- be? i think this is actually a very exciting part of the - very exciting part of the investigation. i would very exciting part of the investigation. iwould be very exciting part of the investigation. i would be very surprised if they didn't have him under surveillance right now, if they don't have a victim, they don't have a subject they already really like for it. my guess is that they have him under surveillance in another city or another location and they are preparing a search warrant, the swat team is probably preparing to take him down, take his door down and execute a warrant or arrest warrant on him. just down and execute a warrant or arrest warrant on him.- arrest warrant on him. just to “um arrest warrant on him. just to jump in. _ arrest warrant on him. just to jump in. what— arrest warrant on him. just to jump in, what gives _ arrest warrant on him. just to jump in, what gives you - arrest warrant on him. just to jump in, what gives you that l jump in, what gives you that sense that they have that much of a track that they are really keyed in on the subject, the day know where he is? we are all speculating _ day know where he is? we are all speculating here _ day know where he is? we are all speculating here and - day know where he is? we are all speculating here and i - day know where he is? we are all speculating here and i am i all speculating here and i am speculating, but today, this afternoon the nypd put out some information, they track him to the bus station and said they did see him leave but i am guessing they had a lot of surveillance cameras in the bus station and they probably have

done a lot of interviews and a lot of techniques in the bus station to figure out where he went. a lot of times what happens when we are worried about an attacker doing another attack is they put him under surveillance and they make sure the safety of the community is first and paramount. i am just guessing about is the situation right now, nobody has put out information saying that is the case, but he has left a lot of information and evidence behind to clue them into who he is. walk us through some of that information and evidence that seems to be left behind here. we know that right now police in new york are examining a backpack that was recovered in central park, they think that might potentially have belonged to him and of course like you mentioned, those cameras, we have some pretty extensive footage of the suspect. it is footage of the suspect. it is uuite footage of the suspect. it is quite impressive. _ footage of the suspect. it is quite impressive. in - footage of the suspect. it is quite impressive. in a - quite impressive. in a relatively short amount of time, to have figured out where he came in the city, then where he came in the city, then where he went and how he left, it is

pretty impressive with the tens of thousands of cameras that are covering the city. it is one of the densest areas in the world for cameras, to put them all together, i am sure when he made that mistake and flashed his pearly whites at the receptionist at the hostile, that he probably was pick up somewhere on facial recognition and we have also seen various canvassing out, has someone seen this person. somebody has probably called then who knows him and knows he has an axe to grind with the ceo, and probably that is how the identification happened. also there is a lot of speculation going on about dna that was collected on him, if that is the case then he is in our databases and we have figured him out already, we'rejust waiting for sure thing. you him out already, we're 'ust waiting for sure thing. you are referrin: waiting for sure thing. you are referring to — waiting for sure thing. you are referring to the _ waiting for sure thing. you are referring to the picture - waiting for sure thing. you are referring to the picture where l referring to the picture where we see him smiling allegedly taking his mask off, potentially to flirt or speak with a woman at the hostile he was staying at. —— hotel he was staying at. what kind of

picture is this painting, you are saying this is speculation, but do we have a sense of who the suspect might be, does he know the ceo, does he have may be more training than a normal citizen when it comes to something like this? what do the clues say to you? it is the clues say to you? it is really interesting, - the clues say to you? it is really interesting, i- the clues say to you? it is really interesting, i think| the clues say to you? it is i really interesting, i think at first everyone thought this is a super professional. i don't think he is a super professional, he made a lot of mistakes, he is probably someone with an axe to grind, but there are literally millions of people out there who feel they have been messed over by their insurance company. so that doesn't really narrow the dragnet too much, but he wrote on the bullets allegedly "deny, defend, depose", and some are saying thatis depose", and some are saying that is the title of a 2010 book about how insurance companies deny your claims. if thatis companies deny your claims. if that is the case i think we would rely a lot on talking to, if he had a security came, talking to his wife and family.

has he received any mail, anybody trying to contact him, anybody trying to contact him, anybody referencing that book. that would probably give you a pretty good idea. i think the motive is pretty clear, just based on who the target is, who the victim was. we could be wrong, but i don't think he is very, very professional, just by looking at him, but there is evidence also that he really planned this out and was very methodical about it as well. really interesting stuff, pat mcmonigle, thank you for pulling back the curtain there a bit. the social media platform tiktok is said to be banned in the us after the us appeals court upheld the decision to have it separate from its parent company. the ban is due to take affect the day before donald trump's inauguration next month but the platform says it will take its fight to the us supreme court,

arguing the law violates free speech. french president emmanuel macron is preparing to host world leaders for the official reopening of notre—dame cathedral. the historic building was devastated by a fire five years ago. since then, thousands of people have been working tirelessly on its renovation. this is a look at what it looks like today. there will be ceremonies througout the weekend to celebrate the restoration of paris's landmark building. you can see some you can see some of you can see some of the details that have been restored, sculptures, the painting, the colours really coming through after the suit was scrubbed some of the walls of notre—dame. among those expected to join are the prince of wales, ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky, us first ladyjill biden and us president—elect donald trump. thanks for watching, stay with us, plenty more coming up on bbc news.

hello. the weather conditions continue to deteriorate across many parts of the uk, but especially out towards the west as storm darragh begins to batter the uk and ireland. the red warning of wind from the met office has been issued for parts of wales and also parts of southwestern england, and is valid from 3am on saturday to 11am on saturday. that's when the peak of the winds will occur — danger to life, travel disruption, power cuts, and ferocious conditions out to sea — winds could be gusting to around 90 miles an hour. now, rest of the day, a much wider amber warning will also be in force across many western parts of the uk, with winds up to about 80 miles an hour, also bringing damage and disruption and nasty conditions around coastal areas as well. on top of that, heavy rain is expected across southern parts of wales. throughout this period here, the amber warning is in force

and we could see as much as 90mm of rain. so let's have a look at the weather map, then. here's that circular storm with the pressure lines, storm darragh, as it barrels across the uk. in the centre of the storm, it's calm, so there will be a period of calm, for example, across northern england and eastern england before the winds start picking up as we head towards lunchtime. now, the peak of the winds will start to ease out towards the west, but they will be picking up across central and eastern parts of the country, so 50,60 mile an hour gusts so 50,60 mile an hour gusts are certainly possible, are certainly possible, bringing disruption bringing disruption and also the potential and also the potential for damage — for damage — again, some trees down, again, some trees down, perhaps damage perhaps damage to buildings as well. to buildings as well. and then we have to wait until early sunday before the winds before the winds really start to die down. so storm darragh will move really start to die down. into the near continent, still a big pressure gradient here, you can see these isobars you can see these isobars are tightly packed, are tightly packed, so gale force winds will be certainly around coasts with some rain showers.

but out towards the west, the sun should come out, the winds will ease and it'll actually be, relatively speaking, a pleasant end to sunday — temperatures will be around single figures on sunday. and then eventually sunday into monday, a high pressure topples over the uk, nasty conditions in the mediterranean, but we've got that high pressure, and that means some sunshine and much calmer weather.

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. this is mongolia, a land of deserts, mountains and the step. it is home to around 1 million nomads. for centuries they have survived off the land, shepherding livestock and

moving their cams from season to season.