towards a transitional government days after they toppled bashar al—assad. a 26—year—old man is arrested at a pennsylvania mcdonald's in connection with the killing of a healthcare ceo in new york. concern in seoul over who is in control of the country as president yoon is barred from travel. hello and welcome to newsday. i'm steve lai. we start in the middle east, where seismic events in syria have been causing shockwaves in the country and abroad. work is under way in damascus to build a transitional government, currently no—one is officially in charge of the country but power

appears to be consolidating into the hands of abu mohammed al—jolani, the islamist rebel leader widely seen as the mastermind of assad's downfall. on monday he met with the prime minister, who has now been replaced but says he will still help with the smooth transition of power. while the victors turn their attention to politics, the syrian people are trying to reclaim their lives. huge crowds gathered today at the notorious saydnaya prison near damascus, with people desperately hoping to find evidence of loved ones who went missing under president assad's rule. our correspondent sent this report from inside the prison. the saydnaya prison, a symbol of some of the darkest abuses of bashar al—assad's rule. thousands of opposition supporters were tortured and killed here. now there's a rush for a chance of finding those still missing. for the first time, the doors have been opened wide to a country traumatised

by decades of repression. everyone has a desperate story to tell of loved ones jailed for years. munther tariq is looking for his brother—in—law. we came to here, like everyone, to find maybe a light at the end of the door, maybe. "call me the wounded mother," she says, because of the children she's lost. "may god take revenge on bashar al—assad." just days ago, rebels freed thousands of prisoners here on their march to damascus, amazed at this sudden recovery of their lives. the empty cells a striking image of how much has changed, but many believe this isn't the end — people still trapped, they think, in an underground prison. the syrian civil defence group the white helmets has joined the search.

translation: we believe there's a network of cells. with prisoners beneath the jail, but we haven't yet been able to find the entrance. we do not have any details on how many people are underground. family members have reached the prison building, pushing at the gates to get in. we squeezed through on a surge of excitement. for a moment, they thought they'd made a discovery. they're searching the bowels of the prison, looking for tunnels that lead to hidden cells. we went down to see for ourselves the frantic efforts to break through to anyone who might still be alive. this is where they think they may have found an entrance to an underground prison. they've been looking for more than a day, but they haven't found anything so far.

nobody knows exactly what they might find or who might be underneath the ground, but many, many people are hoping that some of their loved ones will be found. sifting through a litter of documents for any evidence of their loved ones or clues to an underground prison — no sign of it yet, but the hunt will continue. after the past two weeks, syria has entered a new era, but people are still caught in the dark grip of the old one. translation: our priority - is our sons, who are the future of this country. do you believe that we, the elderly, can do much now? we want our sons back and we want our country back, too. how can this country move forward without dealing with the horrors of its past? the rebels say their forces have established order across almost all of damascus and they have granted

an amnesty to military personnel who were conscripted into service by the assad regime. our correspondent has been assessing the mood in the syrian capital. music plays. a jubilant people poured into the capital's central square for a second day. a street— party—like atmosphere. this might seem like a dangerous way to celebrate. but not in a country that has endured years of bombs and bullets, finally rid of a brutal dictator. anyone who wants to celebrate is coming here, to the central square in damascus. every couple of minutes, we are hearing celebratory gunfire. the ground here literally is strewn with bullets that have been fired. and it's notjust members of the rebel group hts, it's lots of civilians.

i've seen women and children bringing their families along. stories of horror, too easily found amidst this joy. mohammed is a5, but looks older because he has no teeth. he says bashar al—assad's soldiers broke them because he belonged to a rebel militia. they also cut off part of his tongue and gave him mice to eat in prison. "we are the people of damascus," he says, "though they accused us of being terrorists. thank god, i can't believe what's happened." hayat tahrir al—sham's fighters, heroes for those here for liberating them. but can a group that has a jihadist past deliver the democratic rule that hani told us he wants? i think, based on the last 13 years, hayat tahrir al—sham has changed a lot.

they started maybe as part of al-qaeda, but now they are syrians, purely they are syrians. i think in the coming days, we will see good things from these guys. noor is a nurse. she believes hts won't impose hardline rule, especially on women. "they are from our country, they are not islamic state. "we're not afraid of them. "i don't think they will force us to cover ourselves from head to toe." today, the man at the centre of it all, dressed in his usual military attire, hts leader mohammed abu al—jolani, met the interim prime minister to discuss the way forward. so far, there is little clarity on what that could be. damascus is still largely shut down, and there is a curfew from dusk till dawn. at a police station, we met hts men brought in to protect it. we asked what would happen to the men who fought for assad. translation: our revolution is not for revenge. _ any policeman who does not have blood on their hands, we will work with them.

the looting and vandalising that was seen on the first day, that appears to have stopped today. what we've seen at government buildings, public places, markets, is that rebels from hayat tahrir al—sham have been moved from idlib, the region which they control, en masse to damascus, to secure these places. but as of now there isn't a proper, functioning government in place. that vacuum can breed instability. who will run this country? an answer is needed quickly. yogita limaye, bbc news, damascus. as the new groups in control of syria attempt to find theirfeet, global and regional powers are trying to make sense of what has happened and what could come next. germany and france have said they are ready to work with the new regime but the group is still considered

a terrorist organisation by the eu and uk as well as the united states. it is not clear if that will change. israeli warplanes have reportedly carried out dozens of strikes around damascus, a military air base and a research centre suspected of links to chemical weapons production were among the sites hit. israel says it is acting to stop weapons falling into the hands of extremists. then there is russia, bashar al—assad deposed leader is reportedly in moscow but on monday the kremlin refused to say where he was, adding there were no plans for a meeting between him and president vladimir putin. for more on events in syria and joined by aaron, a senior fellow at the washington institute, he also wrote the book on hts called �*the age of political jihadism.�* i think the short way of explaining it is they essentially went from being

a part of the globaljihadi movement from 2011 to 2016 to a local regime from 2016, 2017 until now so they have an 8.5 year track record, nearly double the time they've been part of the global jihadi movement. in the most recent iteration, and in that time they also destroyed all of the islamic state sales in the area they were controlling in idlib as well as al-qaeda's attempts to make a new branch there as well. it is a complicated issue because even though they are no longer a part of the global jihadi movement, they still ruled idlib like an authoritarian regime since they are still conservative islamists. we have seen some optimism on the streets of serious —— syria's capital that hts has moved away from its jihadist past but as you've been describing it, is it too soon to assume that? i do think so. in the past we have seen abu mohammed al—jolani pivot at various points, whether it was from isis in 2013, al-qaeda in 2016,

beginning to build institutions, reforming the military, reaching out to minorities a couple of years ago for the first time so it is possible that we could be seeing a new pivot and also the fact that now, not only they are in control of idlib, which is more a conservative area of the country versus aleppo, damascus, very cosmopolitan cities. not only they have greater percentages of minorities but they are also secular muslims beyond just religious muslims so it is definitely going to be one of the challenges for them to navigate this new scenario and how they scale up what they have already done in idlib to the entire country. this pivot that you talk about, moving away from ias and al-anda, is this key to how he has managed to galvanise the various rebel factions to fight for one because here?

definitely, that's part of the reason why he disavowed and broke from al-qaeda is they wanted to create a unified front against the regime and one of the things that was hindering him was the fact that many other rebel groups felt that them being a part of al-qaeda would hurt their ability to do this because then they would all be under pressure from a potential affiliation with al-qaeda and therefore that is part of the story of why they did it alongside some other internal issues and since then we have seen them build a bunch of institutions to govern over the last seven years in idlib as well as reform their own military infrastructure, which created more command and control over all factions being altogether rather

than a bunch of disparate groups, about 1000 different insurgent groups a decade ago and that in part helps explain why everything happened so quickly in the last two weeks now. do we know how he intends to lead going forward now he has toppled the assad regime? based off of precedent, it seems he will continue to play this role from the outside of the official government because they do have an actual prime minister for what they described as their salvation government, the civilian arm of hts and that is mohammed basheer, who abu mohammed al—jolani met with alongside the former assad regime prime minister earlier today and he will be leading a lot of the civilian and technocratic sides of it but he has this broader role beyond just an official role because he's the leader of everything that he doesn't have an position within the government.

if you'd like to get a greater understanding of what has been happening in assyria and the implications of it, you can find more information on our website. this article byjeremy boland talking about the seismic turning point that assyria now faces. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's take a look at some other news in the uk. energy companies say the vast majority of people who lost power during storm darragh have been reconnected but thousands are still cut off. in york, the river burst its banks and a number of railway lines are closed in wales in the southwest of england due to fallen trees and debris. premier league referee david coote has been sacked following allegations about his conduct. he was suspended after a video was circulated allegedly showing him making derogatory comments about liverpool

and the club's former manager, jergen clopp. the governing body say coote �*s actions were in serious breach of his employment and his position was deemed untenable. the chancellor rachel reeves has urged european finance ministers to help her build what she has called a mature businesslike relationship between the uk and the eu. she is the first british chancellor to address euro group finance ministers since breaks it. — since brexit. it is understood the government is considering a far more extensive reset of post— brexit relations. you are live on bbc news. after a massive man—hunt across multiple states in the north—eastern us, police have arrested a man in connection with the murder of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson last wednesday. 26—year—old luigi mangione was arrested in pennsylvania on monday as a strong person of interest the murder investigation. he has not been formally charged with the death of healthcare ceo brian

thompson in new york but he has been charged with carrying a firearm without a license and providing false identification to police. he is currently being held without bail after a brief court appearance and officials are now calling him a suspect. at a press conference in the past hour, police thanked the public for their help. the pennsylvania governor issued a stern warning. in america, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint. i understand people have real frustration with our healthcare system and i have worked to address that throughout my career but i have no tolerance, nor should anyone, for one man using an illegal ghost gun to murder someone because he thinks his opinion matters most.

our correspondentjess parker was inside the court and sent this update. we were in the courthouse a building or two behind me earlier where, as you say, luigi mangione appeared before a judge for a short hearing, where the charges you mentioned my file here in pennsylvania were outlined to him. mr mangione appeared engaged in court, he answered questions put to him by the judge. thejudge, for example, asked him about his addresses, his work in recent years, he set up until a year ago had been working as an engineer. he was asked if he had any alcohol or mental health and addiction issues, to which he replied no to that and then the prosecutor also stood up to outline more details and in the end, the judge also said he would be denying bail to mr mangione, who just to describe as well the scene, as i say, he appeared engaged in the courthouse, dressed injeans, bluejersey,

he was handcuffed at his wrists and ankles as well. lots of press in the courtroom clearly because of the huge amount of interest that there has been in this case. journalists rushing to the city earlier today after news of the arrest spread. we learned more today about what happened at the mcdonald's, the local mcdonald's where the arrest happened and we heard a little bit more detail in the press conference that you showed a clip ofjust a moment ago. what we are told is that this morning, it was in fact a customer who recognised the suspect, he was sat on the back of the restaurant on a computer, on a laptop. this customer notified an employee, we are told, who then rang the police, dialled 911 and officers soon came to the scene and what the officers described is that they approached the suspect, asked him to remove a mask that he had on his face and started asking him questions.

at one point during these questions it appeared the suspect was getting a bit shaky and after a while they took him away for further questioning. in terms of what is going to happen in new york, where the murder of the healthcare executive took place, what the prosecutor said in court earlier today if they expect some sort of warrants to be issued fairly soon from new york but it's not exactly clear at the moment because of various judicial processes as to whether mr mangione will remain here for the time being or could be extradited up to new york. let's take a look at some other stories and headlines. media tycoon rupert murdoch has lost his bid to give more control of his media empire to his eldest son for now. a nevada court ruled against his attempt to change his family trust in order to hand over control of his empire to his son lchlan.

his company, including fox news and news corp, will now give equal say to all four of his oldest children. lawyers for tiktok are asking a federal court to pause a law that would ban the up until the supreme court reviews on appeal. it comes after a panel ofjudges sided with the biden parent company, bytedance. administration against tiktok�*s china—based parent company, bytedance. there are concerns about the data the app provides to the chinese government. google has unveiled a new chip which he claims takes five minutes to solve a problem that would currently take the the world's fastest supercomputers an unfathomable number of years to complete. tech experts say the new quantum chip dubbed willow is a largely experimental device, meaning its ability to solve a wide range of problems is still years and billions of pounds away. to south korea, where protesters have ta ken to the streets on monday evening to continue calling for the removal of their president from office over last

week's short—lived declaration of martial law. thousands of demonstrators in seoul braved the cold, saying it was not enough for the president to simply apologise, demanding his removal or resignation. the latest protest came after prosecutors banned president yoon from leaving the country as they investigate him. it raises more questions about what control mr yoon has over the government. to help us understand the situation better i'm joined by troy, director of the career centre at the wilson centre in washington. i asked him who is now leading south korea? i think this is a real question. there have been statements by the head of the people power party, the president's party, that he and the current prime minister will be trying to execute many of the state functions. there is no constitutional means for someone taking the president's power except through either impeachment or resignation, so this would seem to be an extra—constitutional measure. right now i think this creates a lot of confusion

about who is in charge and who is in charge of what at the moment. this travel ban just adds to that, doesn't it? yes, the president can be banned along with any citizen that is under investigation for insurrection or treason, a 30—day period in which the ban can be put in place for. right now, that inhibits the president's ability to go abroad and engage in foreign policy discussions so it takes much of his ability to engage in foreign affairs off the table as well. lawmakers from the ruling ppp ruled over that impeachment that took place last saturday, we understand the opposition wants to bring another one forward this weekend. how do you anticipate this will proceed? the ppp would like to avoid a second impeachment of a conservative president within eight years. they are trying to find an alternative pathway but the party is divided.

right now, there is either an option on the table to try to have president yoon announce he would resign from office sometime in the next three to six months, or to put in place a constitutional amendment that would shorten his term by about one year. neither of these policies are likely not going to be acceptable to the opposition but at the same time if the ppp holds together and boycotts the next impeachment vote, it would not be possible for the democratic party to remove yoon from office without them. while this goes on, protests continue to grow. we saw a similar thing back in 2016 with the then prime minister. do you think the protesters will also add weight to the calls for him to leave? i think there's a lot of pressure on president yoon and the ppp to find a solution soon. the protests are likely to continue to grow. this was a much more significant breach of the constitution than anything

that the former leader had done in 2016 and when we look at the public reaction so far, what is likely to come, 75% of the public thinks that he should be impeached. it is not clear that there is any path forward other than an impeachment or resignation some time in the near future. it's a question of the political leadership on both sides trying to find a way to get to this path. this year's golden globe nominations have been announced, with the musical thriller amelia perez leading with ten nominations. a spanish—language film starring zoe saldana and selena gomez is about a mexican drug lord who transitions to life as a woman. others in other similar running included the brutalist with seven nominations and papal thriller conclave, with six. the broadway musical adaptation wicked had four nominations,

in tv, the drama comedy the bear about chicago chef won five nominations and the awards will take place next month on january the fifth. a rare roman coin depicting brutus, one of the assassins of julius caesar has sold an option in switzerland for over $2 million. the gold coin is one of only 17 still in existence. it was issued by brutus a year after the assassination in 44 bc, depicting a portrait of bridges surrounded by laurel leaves on one side while the other bears are symbols that reflect on his military victories. the queen was bought by a european collector following intense bidding. that is it for this edition of newsday. i'll be back shortly with business today. hello there. the fine weather that we saw on monday for most of us

will continue through this week. we've got high pressure in charge of the weather, keeping things settled and, well, mostly cloudy. there will be some sunny spells from time to time. but the area of high pressure isn't going to move very far, really, throughout the week. on tuesday, it's still situated really across scotland and northern ireland. still perhaps a bit breezy down to the south—east of england, where those white lines, the isobars, are a little bit closer together, but certainly a cold start on tuesday morning, a widespread frost for scotland and northern ireland. not as cold across england and wales with more cloud. and we'll keep a lot of that cloud, really, throughout the day on tuesday for england and wales. but it's fog in some central, southern areas of scotland and northern ireland which could linger on for much of the morning, only slowly clearing away. and where the fog doesn't clear, it's going to be pretty cold. there'll be some cloud affecting the far north of scotland during tuesday afternoon, perhaps a few spots of rain for the northern isles, but really for most of scotland, lots of blue skies and lots of sunshine. but temperatures will struggle,

especially where you keep that fog. so, for example, in glasgow, 0 degrees celsius as a maximum temperature. sunshine for northern ireland, perhaps parts of north—west england, west wales getting some breaks in that cloud as well. elsewhere, fairly cloudy. perhaps still some outbreaks of rain, some drizzle affecting the far south—east of england with a bit of a breeze here. and then as we go through the night on tuesday and into wednesday, that high pressure really doesn't move very far at all. so again, for scotland and northern ireland, it will be a cold night into wednesday, with a widespread frost. staying cloudier for england and wales, and that will keep the temperatures up above freezing. so here's wednesday's weather. once again, there could be some patches of mist and fog in some central areas of scotland. hopeful, perhaps, on wednesday of seeing a bit more in the way of sunshine across wales, the midlands and eastern parts of england. but on the whole, temperatures here about 4—6 celsius — that's about average, really. another cold day for some central areas and northern parts of scotland. then for the rest of the week, really, not a great

deal of change. the area of high pressure will start to drift away a little bit for the end of the week, and we start to see a few weather fronts moving into northern areas. that �*ll bring some outbreaks of rain, but on the whole, the outlook is looking rather settled. mostly dry, some sunshine at times as well, with temperatures about average. bye— bye.

shares of nvidia fall after china opens an anti—trust

investigation into the chip giant. we'll have all the details. plus, we speak to a former governor of india's central bank on what lies ahead for china and the global economy. hello and a warm welcome to business today. let's begin with our top stories. china is investigating nvidia over alleged violations of anti—monopoly laws. the company said in a statement it will co—operate with chinese regulators. its shares have taken a hit, falling by more than 2% in new york. our technology correspondent explains what the investigation is all about. china's top market regulator says it's probing nvidia over suspected violations of its anti—monopoly laws. one allegation that is being made here is that nvidia may have run afoul of some commitments it made in 2020, when it acquired an american—israeli chip designer.

they were light on details on what