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tv   Newscast  BBC News  December 7, 2024 8:30pm-9:01pm GMT

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this is bbc news. the headlines: the syrian army says it is boosting the deployment of forces around damascus as rebel fighters continue their advance on the capital from the north and south. state media deny reports president assad has fled the city, where protesters appear to have toppled a statue of the president's late father. the notre dame cathedral in paris reopens in the presence of leaders from around the world, five years after it was badly damaged by fire. two men have been killed by trees falling on their vehicles during storm darr as heavy winds and rains continue to rage across the uk. south korean opposition mps have vowed to continue pushing for the impeachment of the country's president after he survived a first attempt by a handful of votes.
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hello and welcome. world leaders have been gathering in paris for a ceremony to reopen the restored notre dame cathedral, which was badly damaged by a fire five years ago. firefighters who helped put out the blaze were given a standing ovation. president macron expressed his gratitude to them and those who helped restore the cathedral. the colossal project costing more than $700 million has been completed broadly in the timeframe promised by the french president. mr macron said people had rediscovered what great nations could do, achieving the impossible. translation: this is gratitude to everyone _ translation: this is gratitude to everyone who _ translation: this is gratitude to everyone who saved, - translation: this is gratitude to everyone who saved, helped | to everyone who saved, helped and rebuilt notre dame.
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gratitude to everyone present at this moment where we are going to restore it to the catholics of paris, the catholics of paris, the catholics of paris, the catholics of france, and the catholics of france, and the catholics of france, and the catholics of the whole world. yes, tonight, the bells of notre dame are ringing again, and this is an amazing moment, and this is an amazing moment, and soon we will hear music of hope known to france, the people of the world, the bells of notre dame are ringing again. which have accompanied us through history. they sound, they ring, for everyone who has seen the crown of thorns for henry iv during his religious
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wars, for the widow of louis xiii, and the victories of louis xiv, for napoleon and on a day in 180a, for victor hugo. he used them to dream and think about quasimodo, clodell, who returned to hope one evening in 1896. forthe returned to hope one evening in 1896. for the days that we celebrated the liberation under general de gaulle, to france, to its soldiers, to its great people, yes, those bells rang. everyone who has been part of our history. at the same time, we will never hear that voice
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again. the 15th of april, 2019, the news of the fire was on everyone's lips. the fire spread to the transept will stop the smoke was dark, black, and there were hours of fighting the fire. a decision to see what would happen, all these moments of hope to see what might happen to the stone and the glass, four hours. students came down from saint genevieve to find fields. people in times square stood in front of those first images, and in moscow, faithfulfrom all over gathered in front of
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embassies. in niger, we had people praying in their religion for notre dame. that evening, there was a... there were people awaiting the worst news as we saw the fire spread from the north belfry, and yet there was hope as well. some people might call it chance, others might call it destiny, others might call it destiny, others might call it providence. but certainly, it was the result of bravery. among those at this evening's event are the us president—elect donald trump and the ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky. the two leaders held a meeting at the elysee palace, along with french president emmanuel macron, ahead of the ceremony. prince william was greeted by mr macron as he arrived at notre dame cathedral for the ceremony, as was us first ladyjill biden, although presidentjoe biden did not attend.
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the owner of social media platform x elon musk was present for the re—opening, and amongst the celebrities in attendance was actress salma hayek. a reminder of one of our top stories. in syria, the focus is now on the fighting in the capital damascus, with one group of fighters claiming to have reach it suburbs and what they claim is the final stage of its offensive. the syrian state news agency is denying reports president bashar al—assad has left the city, claiming he is carrying out his work from damascus. syria's battered government is setting up a ring of steal around damascus and is also denying claims the army is withdrawing from surrounding areas. but a rebel commander said its forces have begun the final phase of encircling the capital. social media pictures which the bbc have verified so
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protesters toppling a bust of the president's father in president square in a neighbourhood about ten kilometres from the centre. the rebel group advanced rapidly on the capital after snatching the southern province of daraa from government control. the latest pictures show rebels driving in a seized military vehicle in the daraa region. news agency reuters says other rebels from the hts have advanced from the north and are inside the third city of homs, with the syrian army loyal to president assad simply falling away. there are also reports of some 2000 syrian soldiers have fled the front lines and crossed into iraq. these pictures were filmed on the syrian state side of the border with iraqi officials saying some of the officials saying some of the officials allowed to enter the country were wounded and hospitalised. let's return to our coverage of that now, and our security
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correspondent frank gardner is with me in the studio. how critical is the situation now? where are we at? i critical is the situation now? where are we at?— where are we at? i think president _ where are we at? i think president bashar - where are we at? i think . president bashar al-assad's president bashar al—assad's resume is in the most danger it has ever been in since the much maligned arab spring first erupted in 2011, and at the time, when that revolution was gathering pace, a lot of people thought he would not be able to survive till the end of the year. but later on, with help from the russian air force and troops on the ground from iran and from his brother, they were able to prop up his regime, and he largely had defeated the uprising, thanks to outside help. but this time, rush is distracted. their main effort is in ukraine. the others are weakened by months of tit—for—tat and fighting with israel and he is pretty much on his own. the syrian army is weak. they can't fight this on their own. they are demoralised, defecting, surrendering. as you head
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there, they have simply fallen away in the city is that the rebels have taken. in aleppo up in the north, in daraa in the south, the birth of the uprising way back in march 2011, i think. uprising way back in march 2011, ithink. so uprising way back in march 2011, i think. so this does now feel like the dying days of this regime. the only ways i think it could be saved for him is if there was some kind of military intervention by an outside force. i don't think the syrian army is strong enough to do it on its own. 0r enough to do it on its own. or if some deal was stitched together by foreign ministers. but i think we have got beyond that point. we have been meeting in doha, as you know, the capital of qatar, so you have iran, russia, turkey under the foreign ministers meeting there. they have been trying to hammer out some kind of political deal, but it is a bit late for that. that was offered to president assad's regime and he would not listen. he did not want to compromise at all, and he has probably left it too late now. it would be extraordinary if he
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is able to survive this, but he has survived 2011, so who knows? is has survived 2011, so who knows? , , has survived 2011, so who knows?— knows? is this lightning offensive _ knows? is this lightning offensive about - knows? is this lightning | offensive about toppling knows? is this lightning - offensive about toppling assad or is it about imposing some sort of other agenda? it is first of all about toppling his regime, let's be clear. bashar al—assad's resume is a murderous, brutal dictatorship. he has butchered thousands of his own people. he has tortured them, gassed them, and he has lied through his teeth to interviewers, saying, why would i gassed my own people? who would do that? well, here is a clue. him. he did it. and the fact that the evidence are right there. they are indisputable. you have had independent people on the ground who have taken the evidence and it is there. so it is tempting to say, whatever replaces him is better, but i'm not sure that that... that is not sure that that... that is not necessarily a given, because let's look at who these people are. hts, the main rebel
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group, which stands for the organisation for the liberation 0rganisation for the liberation of syria, they started out aligned with al-qaeda, not exactly the most peaceful, inclusive organisation on the planet. they split from al-qaeda in 2016, but they are at heart, many of them, jihadists, and they believe in holy war, as it were, and imposing their version of islam. the head of that group is a canny guy. he has given interviews to people like cnn and has said, when we win, and we will win, we will establish a pluralistic, inclusive rule, in other words, minorities have nothing to fear. they do fear it. the christians and the alawites. so the assad regime are alawite shi'ites, and the
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majority are sunni. so there is fear among dues, alawites, druze about what this might look like. there is fear the front line stagnates and the regime is walled in on the capitalfor some time, but regime is walled in on the capital for some time, but my gut feeling is, i think it will fall. but let us see. weeks from now, you could say, frank was wrong, wasn't he?! we don't often aet was wrong, wasn't he?! we don't often get a _ was wrong, wasn't he?! we don't often get a chance _ was wrong, wasn't he?! we don't often get a chance to _ was wrong, wasn't he?! we don't often get a chance to say - was wrong, wasn't he?! we don't often get a chance to say that! i often get a chance to say that! my often get a chance to say that! my next question is, i suppose, where does turkey stand on all of this? russia and iran appear to be standing back, embroiled in their own conflicts. 0ne in their own conflicts. one could argue russia has a great deal to lose. how about turkey, and how does this change the texture of the entire region? turkey's president erdogan has already said there is a new reality in syria. his country back to the rebels. i'm not sure they expected them to
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advance quite so far so quickly. i think he will be concerned about any increase in power or area under the control of the kurds, so for turkey, they don't want to see the kurds get any stronger and the kurds get any stronger and the kurds have taken the easternmost city, the syrian army disappeared, they vanished, so the kurds took that over. what does it mean for the region? the good news is, although they started out as jihadists, is, although they started out asjihadists, the main rebel group hts don't seem to have any ambition is to establish some kind of global transnational caliphate. they are not isis or al-qaeda. they have some pretty suspect links. they are still a proscribed terrorist organisation by many governments. the terrorist organisation by many governments.— terrorist organisation by many governments. the eu, the un, the united _ governments. the eu, the un, the united states. _ governments. the eu, the un, the united states. indeed. - governments. the eu, the un, the united states. indeed. sol the united states. indeed. so the united states. indeed. so the will the united states. indeed. so they will have _ the united states. indeed. so they will have to _ the united states. indeed. so they will have to prove - they will have to prove themselves. if they manage to
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topple president bashar al—assad's regime in the next few days or even hours or weeks, and take power, they will be at a fork. they can go one of two macro ways. they can be intelligent about this and do exactly what they said they were going to do, which is to rule the country for the benefit of all syrians and not to persecute minorities, in which case, they will eventually, i would which case, they will eventually, iwould imagine, in new york, where the sanctions are placed on them, they will lose their terrorist designation. but they are going to have to prove it first, because remember that the taliban said during the fall of kabul, don't worry, nothing to fear here, once we take control. and afghanistan has been a basket case when it comes to human rights and particularly women's rights. so the jury will be out there. the other way, which could go really badly, is that you have already got al-qaeda saying,
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putting out propaganda saying now is the time to crush the crusaders, and urging the rebels to turn on anybody who is not a sunni muslim. if they start to go down that route, we are on a hill world of pain for syria, because it will probably invite coalition bombing. who knows which way future president donald trump will take this? and on that subject, we have said russia is involved in its own conflict in ukraine. as it also possible that iran is not engaging as we might have expected in another context because they are looking at donald trump coming into office and thinking, maybe there is a diplomatic way forward here? possibly, yes. russia has bombed the rebels quite a lot and they have not withdrawn completely. russia has a lot to lose here, because president putin gained a lot of kudos in the region for standing up for his ally, assad, and gulf arabs
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particularly, i have spent a lot of time in the gulf, and they were very impressed, they looked how quickly mubarak was dropped in 2011 when the crowds came out against him and how putin stood by assad, but those gains will be undone if russian air power is unable to save this regime.— air power is unable to save this regime. thank you very much, frank— this regime. thank you very much, frank gardner. - this regime. thank you very much, frank gardner. the | this regime. thank you very l much, frank gardner. the fbi are offering $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect who shot dead the boss of a health insurance firm. police believe they have found a backpack in central park in new york which has been sent for tests. 0fficers new york which has been sent for tests. officers are still trying to identify the suspected killer, who they say arrived by bus ten days earlier. 0ur correspondent has the details. the police investigation into this targeted murder of brian thompson continues apace, and the most significant developer this evening is that our
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partners here in the united states, cbs news, are reporting that the new york police department believe they have recovered the backpack which the gunman was wearing at the time of the attack. they believe that he dropped that backpackin believe that he dropped that backpack in central park, and they have been scouring the park for evidence. they believe they recovered that backpack this evening. it has now been sent off forforensic this evening. it has now been sent off for forensic testing. it is not clear at the moment exactly what that might yield, but police have also been able to establish more about the movements of the government before and after the attack. —— the movements of the gunman. they know he arrived in new york about ten days before the shooting and checked into a hostel, and then on the day of the attack, he left that hostel in the early hours of the morning, came down to midtown manhattan and sort of walked around the area before the shooting at about 6:45am. he then made his escape. he was on an e bike through central park and then he caught a taxi which took him to a bus station in
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upper manhattan. police know that he arrived at that bus station, but there was no video evidence of him leaving, which has led them to believe he may well have now left new york city, which means this has now expanded into a multistate investigation. in terms of the motive for the attack, that is still not entirely clear. police say there is no evidence to believe it has anything to do with brian thompson's personal life. they are working on the theory that it may either be a disgruntled former employee or perhaps a disgruntled former customer of united health care. the investigation, though, continues apace. it is now going into its fourth day, but it is still not clear who the gunman is or where in the country he may be. ballots are being counted in ghana's presidential and parliamentary election. initial results are expected on sunday. president nana akufo—addo is stepping down after serving the maximum two terms in office.
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his deputy, mahamudu bawumia, is one of the main contenders to succeed him. he's facing a challenge from a former president, john mahama. 0ur correspondentjames copnall has the latest. this is a polling station in the capital. it has just closed, and election officials are going through the balance, making sure everything is in order. we will get presidential election results in the next few days, and the early sense is that things have gone relatively smoothly throughout the country. we heard from local domestic ghanaian election observers, who said there had been some incidences of violence, many more election materials arriving late, but overall, generally, their early reckoning was that things had gone fairly smoothly. there was one incidentjust in the north of the country. one person was shot dead. ghanaian media is suggesting that it was linked to the elections. we don't have full confirmation of thatjust yet. but for now, counting
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getting under way. everyone very anxious to see who garner�*s next president will be. a major incident has been declared in parts of wales because of disruption from the storm. a rare red weather warning in areas of wales and southwest england has ended, but amber warnings are still in place, meaning a possible risk to life. the energy networks association said that as of teatime, around 177,000 homes in england, scotland and wales were without power. more than three quarters of a million customers who had lost supplies have already been reconnected. in parts of wales, winds reached 93mph with heavy rains. cardiff airport has closed its runway and both rail and coach services have been disrupted. sports fixtures are also hit, including the merseyside derby and races in aintree. there has been one death as a result of the storm. a man has died after a tree fell onto his van during storm darragh. police say he was in his 40s,
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and was driving on the a59 dual carriageway at longton in lancashire. he was pronounced dead at the scene. 0ur correspondent hywel griffith is in penarth in south wales. he's been giving us more details about the effect of storm darragh in wales. well, the winds may have dropped here in wales now, but the concern remains. as storm darragh passes through, leaving plenty of damage and debris in its wake. the ongoing rain in parts of wales is causing a problem around wales. there are 27 flood warnings at the moment and a further 70 flood alerts on rivers, including this one, the river ely in the western part of cardiff, and another part of wales and mid wales, builth wells has seen severe flooding. the first minister of wales eluned morgan has told people that they need to remain vigilant. this is the fourth named storm of the season so far.
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we've seen sadly, lots, hundreds of homes around wales flooded. there is concern that that may be the situation again tonight, going into tomorrow. so the warning is for people not to travel unless they have to and to remain careful on the roads. north wales police having told us they're unable to clear all the fallen trees, and dyfed—powys police, that covers mid and west wales, saying they've declared a major incident because of the damage from the storm. emily brown has been looking at the impact of the storm across the rest of the uk. tens of thousands of homes are still without power according to the national grid, and earlier, the met office issued a red warning. that is its highest warning, and that means a possible threat to life. that was in parts of wales and south—west england. that has now been lifted, but an amber warning is in its place. travel has been seriously disrupted. businesses closed, sports events have been cancelled, and
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the message to the public has only been to make essential journeys. there is particular concern about flooding in wales, particularly because they are, they had storm bert just a week or two ago and there was existing damage from that, so many are worried this will add to the existing damage. some strong pictures we have seen so far. llandudno pier, which we can show you now, its boss said it would not weather the storm, and if it survives, it would be a miracle. we know now that its kiosk has been damaged. we have also had some pictures and of a car that has been crushed in cardiff on the side of the road there. and also, waves crashing over a sea wall in porthcawl in south wales. and then just in the past few hours, these images have come in and of what is a nerve—racking landing at heathrow. this is one of the planes coming in, fairly
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wobbly, as you can see, as it lands at the airport, so fairly challenging conditions for pilots. and also, we have this image of a dog who has been rescued after being stranded on the humber estuary for six hours. this is buddy, who was found near witton island, and volunteers were able to narrow down the search for him thanks to a tracking device fitted to his collar. so, many people and dogs are affected. so a yellow weather warning is in place from 6am till 6pm tomorrow, so the impact of the storm is going to continue to be felt throughout the rest of the weekend. now, imagine spending all your days surrounded by these beautiful creatures. i think that would be rather scary! looks magical, though. well if that sounds like your dream job, you're in luck! the sealife centre in scarborough is searching for a newjellyfish supervisor. it is not often you see that job! the ideal candidate will be someone with experience in aquarium displays
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and caring for marine life. 0ur reporter hannah gray can tell us more. can you imagine telling people you are a jellyfish supervisor and they ask what job you you are a jellyfish supervisor and they ask whatjob you do? currently on display, we have four different species of jellyfish, but there are literally thousands in the world. so how old are these ones? probably nine months old, but jellies only have a life span usually about a year. amy must have one of the most weird and wonderfuljobs in yorkshire. i definitely get a lot of raised eyebrows. it is not your usual off—the—shelf kind of job! people are usually really interested to find out more about it. jellyfish might look like illuminating creatures. they need feeding five times a day, they need crystal clear water, plus they only live for about a year, so a lot of the role involves making sure they breed, and nurturing their babies to keep them in existence. how did you get into this job?
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i did marine biology at university and after i finished, i got a job at scarborough sea life. at that point, i had no idea about the wonders ofjellyfish. they weren't even on my radar, but it didn't take long to get me hooked. , , ~ ., , hooked. they strike me as dangemus- _ dangerous. have you been stung? i hate to say it, but probably most days! but the jellyfish we have here at scarborough have a very mild sting. well, if that hasn't put you off, this aquarium is now recruiting. we have had ten applications so far, we have had ten applications so far. which— we have had ten applications so far, which we are thrilled about _ far, which we are thrilled about. it's a very specialist role, — about. it's a very specialist role, and _ about. it's a very specialist role, and first and foremost, we are — role, and first and foremost, we are looking for somebody with— we are looking for somebody with a — we are looking for somebody with a passion for animal welfare _ and now, time for some weather with ben. hello. storm darragh brought wind gusts of more than 90mph in parts of wales. we don't see that very often here in the uk. we've seen power cuts,
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widespread travel disruption, a fair bit of damage as well. this met office amber warning through the evening covering parts of wales and the south—west of england. this is where we've seen some of the worst of the weather today. there could be more disruption on the way. but it is going to stay very windy elsewhere through the evening and into the night, all in association with this hook of cloud. this is storm darragh — it looks beautiful on the satellite image, but this really has been packing a punch. the centre of the low pushing away eastwards, but still you can see a lot of white lines, a lot of isobars squeezing together. it does stay windy, that wind coming down from the north so it feels cold. some of the strongest of the winds as we go through the night may well be across south—east scotland and north—east england. more rain to come here as well. further north and west, some clear skies. a few wintry showers into northern scotland will stay fairly windy, so that will stop the temperatures dropping too far. that said, we may see a few icy stretches developing across some parts of scotland into tomorrow morning. now, for tomorrow, storm darragh clearing, but still close enough to bring
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some cloud and some showers across the south—east corner. in fact, across many central and eastern parts of england, we will see a fair amount of cloud, some showery rain drifting through. further north and west, though a much better looking day. drier, brighter spells of sunshine. just the odd shower. still windy, but not as windy as it has been. although these eastern and southern coasts of england and the channel islands will continue to see some rather gusty conditions right through into sunday afternoon. temperatures stuck in single digits — factor in the strength of the wind, it's going to feel really cold out there. now, into monday, it looks quite breezy. fairly cloudy with some showers towards the southeast corner, but further north and west, high pressure building will see more in the way of sunshine. some lingering fog patches, which could make it feel very cold indeed. even if the sun comes out, it will be a rather chilly day, and this area of high pressure will tend to establish itself as we head towards the middle part of the coming week. under the high, there'll be a lot of cloud. there'll be some areas of mist and murk, a few bits
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and pieces of rain and drizzle here and there, but it should be largely dry and much calmer than it has been today.
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live from london, this is bbc news. the syrian army says it is boosting the deployment of forces around damascus as rebel fighters advance on the capital. state media denies reports that president assad has fled the city, where protesters appear to have toppled a statue of the president's late father. the notre—dame cathedral in paris reopens in the presence of leaders from around the world. five years after it was badly damaged by fire. translation: this is gratitude to everyone who saved, helped, and rebuilt notre—dame de paris. fine who saved, helped, and rebuilt notre-dame de paris.- notre-dame de paris. one of those in attendance - notre-dame de paris. one of those in attendance was - those in attendance was president—elect donald trump, who met prince william following the ceremony. joe mike mann have been killed by trees following on their vehicles during storm darragh in the uk —— two men

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