and a "spectacular" meteor shower is expected to light up the night sky this weekend all around the world. hello, i'm rich preston. very warm welcome to the programme. we begin in the middle east. leaders from the arab world, along with the us secretary of state antony blinken, have been meeting injordan to discuss the future of syria. more on that in a moment. first, nearly a week after the overthrow of the syrian president bashar al—assad, more details are emerging about the extent of human rights abuses committed under his rule. the bbc has visited a military base, bombed earlier this week by israel, which revealed evidence of torture being carried out there. our middle east correspondent, lucy williamson, went

to the base in damascus — and just to warn you, her report contains details you may find distressing. the men who protected president assad have gone, the control room at mezzeh military air base scarred by the moment control slipped away, its abandoned assets now targets for israeli air strikes. israel has been systematically destroying the military equipment left by the assad regime, worried about who might end up using it. russian—made aircraft, israeli bombs, militia backed by turkey, iran, the us — this was neverjust syria's war, and outside powers still have a stake here. assad's fall has meant unanswered questions about syria's future, but it's also left unanswered questions from the past.

this airbase held a prison where detainees were reportedly tortured and raped by military intelligence. in one room, we were shown electric shock equipment for interrogations. the only thing more painful than finding your parent or child among the records here is not finding them at all. in the building next door, we found the mother of kurdish prisoner mahmoud hussein searching for his face among the photos on the floor. "he was registered here, but we can't find him," she said. "may god burn assad's heart, the way he burned ours". "what are these documents?", "what are these documents?", this woman raged. this woman raged. "no—one is helping us. "no—one is helping us. how can i find him among how can i find him among these prison files?"

these prison files?" assad's regime was meticulous in documenting its brutality, but critical evidence but critical evidence here is being lost each day and the desperation here is being lost each of families is growing. in a cemetery outside in a cemetery outside damascus, we found khalid damascus, we found khalid pulling out bags of bones pulling out bags of bones from a shallow, unmarked grave, from a shallow, unmarked grave, each one marked with a name each one marked with a name bbc news, damascus. and a prison number — and a prison number — two women and a man. two women and a man. khalid was looking for his khalid was looking for his brothers, taken by airforce brothers, taken by airforce intelligence 11 years ago. intelligence 11 years ago. translation: anyone - translation: anyone - who wasn't killed immediately who wasn't killed immediately was taken to an area known was taken to an area known as the driving school as the driving school to be slaughtered. to be slaughtered. i expect this happened to my brothers. when i saw these bags, i thought my brothers might be inside them. syria is beginning a new chapter amid unfinished stories from its past. lucy williamson,

and they talked about that they don't want syria to slip into chaos, understandably, and that we were hearing from some of the foreign ministers that they believe that that means that remnants of the assad regime officials need to take part in the government. it can'tjust be stripped away, as we saw in iraq, as i guess we saw in libya. i mean, the iraqi foreign minister mentioned libya, saying, "we do not want to see another libya in the region". so i think that's a huge concern. there were eight arab countries, including saudi arabia, including the uae. and i mean, the other message, which again, we've been hearing again and again, is that this government needs to be representative of all syrians. that means all the ethnic groups, all the different political groups. and of course, there's still a big question mark over that. and we've been hearing from syria, from hts, the main rebel group, which hasjihadist roots, of course — we've been hearing that same message coming time and time again. some people are suspicious because of its past, but others just wonder if in the sort of circumstances which they're now trying to deal with, whether it's

possible to navigate towards that kind of smooth transition, if it's possible to live up to those promises, even if the groups involved genuinely believe in them and genuinely want to work towards them. as well as those arab states that you mentioned, also involved was the united states secretary of state, antony blinken. let's take a quick listen to what he had to say. in this region and elsewhere, we've seen how the fall of a repressive regime can swiftly give way to more conflict and chaos, how the shoes of one dictator can be filled by another, or how interference by an outside country can be thrown off, only to be replaced by another. that's why it's so important that we and our partners came together today to agree on principles that will guide our efforts to help the syrian people meet these challenges and build the inclusive, non—sectarian, peaceful and sovereign state that they want. so, sebastian, antony blinken, echoing that word chaos there. what did you make of what he had to say?

well, i mean, he signed ajoint statement with the arab minister, as well. turkey, of course, has played a very, very big role in the past, but particularly in supporting hts. i mean, i think of all the outside powers, turkey was probably the most proactive in what's happened in the past two or three weeks in the removal of president assad from power. and i mean that message, yes, it's the one that we've been hearing again and again. but if you look at the us record — i mean, move away from syria for a moment, look at gaza. we've heard from antony blinken many, many times, he's made many visits to the region with plans, with pressure, and he hasn't really achieved anything. desperately trying to get a ceasefire in gaza — has been unable to do that. so, i mean, we have to look at this on the level of, as he said, principles. but there's an element

of wishful thinking. the one other kind of interesting thing that he said there was that the us has been in touch with hts now — direct contact, he said. now that's interesting because the us, as several other countries still designates it as a terrorist organisation, and it was in specifically to do with the fate of a missing american journalist, austin tice, who i think has been missing since 2012. and there's been hope that with the removal of president assad, there might be a possibility, if he's still alive, of finding him. and so the us has contacted — it's made it a priority of what it wants to do in syria and has contacted hts to discuss that. but he also said that the us had set out its principles, the ones we're talking about, the ones they talked about again today injordan, to hts to say, you know, this is what we believe is the way forward. a former professional football player has been elected as president of georgia in a vote in the country's parliament, despite condemnation from the incumbent president and the pro—eu opposition. they say the election process was illegitimate. mikheil kavelashvili previously played for

the manchester city team before going on to become an mp in his home country from the increasingly authoritarian ruling georgian dream party. he was the only candidate for thejob. it comes after 17 days of pro—eu protests across the country's towns and cities. this was the scene outside parliament earlier. the four main opposition groups have rejected mr kavelashvili's appointment and have boycotted parliament. earlier i spoke to liza zhvania, who's the daughter of former georgian prime minister zurab zhvania. we're seeing the unprecedentedly long, 17 days of protests outside, gathering thousands every day, young people, along with more than 500 imprisoned and about 300 of them beaten severely. so the so—called government, which has a huge lack

of legitimacy locally, not only by the opposition but also by a large portion of the public as well as internationally, has announced, has chosen the new president, someone who, even for the electorate of georgian dream, is not liked or not eligible for the candidacy of presidency, and has been criticised by even the supporters of georgian dream. i was going to say you say he's not eligible. he ran unopposed in the vote in parliament. there will be people who support him. what kind of person is he and what will he be like in this role? more than what kind of person he is, it's interesting to see why... well, he has been

the spokesperson for the gd�*s far—right wing. he has been quite aggressive in his speeches, but he has never held political weight as a player within the team. and it is important to see this event as gd�*s other act of taking legitimacy from a public institution, that is the president's institution. we saw the parliament filled by only gd mps, which shows the comic nature of the parliament now, and now the place of the president is filled by someone who is least likely to oppose anything by the gd leadership. so i guess that's why he got chosen for this, and for other to completely delegitimise the institution of president, which so

far remains the only independent official institution in georgia. is this just a blip, do you think? or is this a long—term threat to georgia's democracy? we are facing a huge political crisis with such huge protests and police brutality and the lack of gd to respond adequately to the claims by public, by our international partners shows only the growing polarisation bringing the country into a huge political crisis both locally and internationally. and it poses serious threats to the security of the country, but to the stability of its economic and social growth and development. the two main demands of the protests is to free the imprisoned protesters and to hold new elections with legitimate observers.

and along with many other citizens, i also don't see another way of de—escalating this political crisis. let's go to east asia now, and thousands of people have been celebrating on the streets of south korea's capital, seoul, after parliament voted to impeach president yoon suk yeol. it was the second attempt to impeach the president after he tried to impose martial law at the start of the month. the move was seen as the biggest test south korea's democracy has faced. 0ur correspondent, jean mckenzie, sent this report from seoul. cheering in a moment, a protest erupts into a street party, rejoicing the downfall of a president many have long despised. they'd accused him of being authoritarian, of eroding their democracy. but no—one could have guessed

what he had planned. when mr yoon stole from the playbook of south korea's past military dictators, dispatching troops to storm the parliament, he committed his final unforgivable act. the biting temperatures would have been enough to force many indoors. but armed with glow sticks and hot pads, they descended here for the 11th day in a row. young women leading the charge. he said martial law was for the people, but not one of his policies has helped.- people, but not one of his policies has helped. they wait of our policies has helped. they wait of your ballot _ policies has helped. they wait of your ballot is _ policies has helped. they wait of your ballot is heavy - policies has helped. they wait of your ballot is heavy today, | of your ballot is heavy today, it carries the rate of history, the rate of democracy. enough mps heeded his words. the

motion passed byjust four votes. cheering the irony here tonight is that the president yoon said he didn't care about being popular with people or his party. he wanted to do things his own way and did not mind who would be upset. but people in south korea have shown him tonight that any democracy, in their democracy, you cannot act alone, however much you may try. alone, however much you may t . . ., ., alone, however much you may try. the dictator, president yoon has — try. the dictator, president yoon has now _ try. the dictator, presidentj yoon has now disappeared. try. the dictator, president. yoon has now disappeared. so happy! yoon has now disappeared. so ha--! ., yoon has now disappeared. so hau! ., . yoon has now disappeared. so ha“! ., . .,, ., happy! today's verdict does not mean the president _ happy! today's verdict does not mean the president is - happy! today's verdict does not mean the president is gone - happy! today's verdict does not mean the president is gone for| mean the president is gone for good. for now, he is suspended. the courts will have the final say. translation: find the courts will have the final say. translation: and tonight, mr yoon has _ say. translation: and tonight, mr yoon has said _ say. translation: and tonight, mr yoon has said he _ say. translation: and tonight, mr yoon has said he is _ mr yoon has said he is determined to fight on. this is the biggest — determined to fight on. this is the biggest test _ determined to fight on. this is the biggest test career's - determined to fight on. this is | the biggest test career's young democracy has ever faced. and

it's democracy has ever faced. and its past,... the politicians have listened and tonight it is their victory. jen moon is an international affairs specialist and freelance journalist. she told more about the significance of these developments in south korea. all right, so it's a huge moment for this young and vibrant and raucous democracy here in south korea. for the last 12 years, south korea has been in a political turmoil as they watched in horror yoon's declaration of martial law, which sent chills through a country that had for decades fought authoritarian rule. we also saw on the streets those young people partying and now embracing this victory at the national assembly.

now, their parents and grandparents fought, or some of them died, for democracy. after president yoon had been stripped of his presidential powers, the prime minister, who's second in line now takes the act as the acting or interim leader, because mr. hahn is not an elected official. however, he will lead south korea with no real political heft at a time when this country faces challenges at home and abroad, such as north korea's growing nuclear threat and the return of donald trump to the white house. as you mentioned, that interim leader has limited powers. this is now in the hands of the constitutional court. six months, i believe, they have to get an answer on this. talk us through the process they will be going through. absolutely. so now the fate of president yoon is now in the constitutional court, where nine justices are supposed to make up that court. right now, three have resigned, because of retirement, six remain in the constitutional court.

the court will have roughly 180 days to make the decision. so whether to uphold this decision or reject it. when we look at past experiences, we've had two impeachments of presidents. one went up to the constitutional court, took about 60 days until it was rejected by the constitutional court, and that president went back to office. now the president park geun—hye of 2017, she got ousted from office. it took the constitutional court roughly 90 days until they made that decision. so we'll have to wait and see how long that takes. after the constitutional court makes its decision, we'll have two months to come up with a snap election for the president. hello from the bbc sport centre. what is already an intriguing

premier league season has been made even more interesting with league leaders, liverpool playing out a 2—2 draw with fulham. arne slot�*s side were down to 10 men in the first half when andy robertson was sent off, and fulham were already ahead at that point thanks to andreas pereira. cody gakpo managed to equalise for liverpool just after half time, but fulham regained the lead with 15 minutes left thanks to rodrigo muniz. before diogojota, playing his first game since october equalised for liverpool, with neither side able to find a winner. i told the players, just put in an outstanding performance. impressing, but also with the bulk of how well they play. so we were on their half i think every minute, maybe even when it was 11 versus 11, we had more problems than when we were down to ten, but in the end, if you can do this with ten players, what will happen with 11? we never know what happens in the season, you get a red card, and it is a good that we have a team that is very difficult to beat. newcastle united stopped their recent run of four games wihtout a win by beating leicester city 4—0.

that's a first defeat for the new leicester manager, ruud van nistelrooy. jacob murphy scored two of newcastle's four goals and the win moves them up to 11th place. the newcalste boss, eddie howe, wants his team to produce more of those kind of performances. we are disappointed that we have not been able to show that more this season. today's up there again with one of our best performances, but i do feel we are getting there, despite some inconsistencies around today's performance. we have just got to focus on the future and try and replicate these levels on a regular basis. third placed arsenal failed to capitalise on liverpool dropping points. the london side could only manage a goalless draw against everton. wolves's woes continue. they were beaten 2—1 by ipswich — jack taylor with a late winner in the 94th minute. but both sides remain in the relegation zone. while nottingham forest have beaten aston villa in the day's late game — 2—1 the final score, anthony elanga with

an injury time winner. there were plenty of goals in the scottish premiership. motherwell moving up to fourth place after an eventful 4—3 win over dundee united. hibs defeated ross county 2—1. and saint mirren are in the top 6 — they had a 3—2 win over saintjohnstone elsewhere in europe, serie a leaders, atalanta beat cagliari i—0. second placed napoli had a 3—1 win over udinese. in germany, the bundesliga leaders bayern munich were beaten 2—1 by mainz. jae—sung lee with both goals for the home side. defending champions bayer leverkusen won 2—0 at augsburg. in spain, real madrid can move to the top of la liga, above barcelona. that is if they win away at rayo vallecano. that match kicked off about 15 minutes ago. vallecano have the lead at the moment — 1—0 the latest score. to cricket, where england have already won their test series in new zealand but they are hoping to make it a 3—0 clean sweep. on the opening day of the final test in hamilton their bowlers have had a good start, taking nine wickets.

gus atkinson and matthew potts both taking three wickets each. new zealand's tail dug in with mitchell santner there was a half century earlier from tom latham as well. the hosts will resume on 315 for 9. there are periods where we do go through a phase of not taking any wickets. but if you look at the fielding input and energy they give to all the seamers toiling away, perhaps not doing the nicejob, kind of grafting away, as you would say, and not being rewarded for it, it's backed up by the fielders. we know that if we do stick to our guns and are meticulous with it, it will come our way eventually. and it kind of wrestled the day back a little bit for ourselves. that's all from the bbc sport centre just now. a "spectacular" meteor shower is expected to light up the night sky this weekend.

the geminid meteor shower is considered one of the most impressive events in the sky's calendar. ben marshall is an astronomer based in newcastle — he explained what the geminid meteor shower is. so we have multiple meteor showers throughout the year, and basically all they are is there's some debris somewhere in our orbit that the earth is passing through. so the geminids meteor shower is debris from a comet that we found in about 2005, and an asteroid — in fact, this asteroid is one of the closest that goes to the sun. but we are passing through this debris field left as that thing has gone past our orbit. and of course, as we go through that field, we pick up all of this stuff that its left behind, that goes into our atmosphere, burns up, and we get these beautiful lines of light going across the sky. are they dangerous to people watching them on earth? do things fall out of the sky and hit people on the head? no. i think there's only about two ever reports of someone being hit by them

and nobody�*s been seriously injured. no, they are no danger. they're about the size of a grain of sugar to about a grain of rice. they're not that big at all. so no need to go out wearing a hard hat then. but what is the best way to see them? just go outside and look up, basically. you need to be somewhere dark. so anywhere away from light pollution is always best for looking at the night sky anyway, preferably have no clouds. it is always better when there is no moon. unfortunately, at the minute we are in full moon period, so that will get rid of some of the dimmer meteors that we'll see. butjust go outside when it's dark and look up. so they're called the geminids because they come from the constellation of gemini. that's like the epicentre of them. so if you look there, you won't really see many, but if you look kind of like 45 degrees off to the side of it, that's where you'll see more of them coming from there. butjust go out and look at them. they are great ones

to see as well. the former us house of representatives speaker nancy pelosi is "well on the mend" after undergoing a successful hip replacement surgery in luxembourg. the 84—year—old was taken to hospital on friday after a fall while on a official trip, her office has said. she stood down as the congress' first female speaker at the start of 2023 but remains a member of the house of representatives. much more on all the stories on the bbc news website and the bbc news app. to stick with us here on bbc news. goodbye. hello there. the sunshine made an appearance across much of the country, certainly england and wales, for the start of the weekend, but it's all change for part two of the weekend. skies do turn cloudier again with a stronger breeze and a little bit of drizzle here and there, but what you will notice, it will be milder for all. so there's that window of sunnier weather which we had through today pushing off

into the near continent, and we see this warm front start to edge into western areas. that will introduce the cloud, outbreaks of rain, but also stronger breeze and as the name suggests, it will introduce it will introduce some milder air as well. so temperatures by the end of the night up to double figures across western scotland, northern ireland, perhaps around irish sea coasts. seven to nine further east, but even that's milder than what we've had of late. sunday, then, a rather grey picture for many. limited sunny spells here and there. probably the best of it across east of england, certainly east of the pennines, north east scotland, but it will be windy across the north of the uk, gales for northern scotland and heavier rain, persistent rain beginning to pile into the north and the west highlands there. further south, a bit of drizzle over western hills, but mostly dry. and look at these temperatures. a lot milder than it's been of late — around i! to 14 degrees. sunday night, the rain continues to pile into northern and western scotland. it stays windy here. furthersouth, drier, variable cloud, a few clear spells and all areas will be mild with, i think, double figure values for most places.

so monday, then, similar story. we've got high pressure to the south, lower pressure to the north with weather fronts here bringing more rain for northern scotland. more isobars for the northern half of the uk, so here it'll stay windy with gales again across the far north of scotland. rainfall totals really mounting up for the northwest highlands. further south, not a bad day. closer to the area of high pressure. for england and wales, we should see some sunny spells around, a few showers across western areas. there'll be some sunshine, i think, for northern ireland too. and again in that milder air, i! to 13 or 14 degrees, so well above where we should be for the time of year. and then as we push deeper into the week, we can see that low pressure dominates the scene. in fact, deeper areas of low pressure could start to bring gales and heavier rain to more of the country through tuesday and wednesday. but we'll still be in that mild airmass as you can see here. from thursday onwards, things turn a little bit fresher with north westerly winds, sunshine and showers. in fact, temperatures returning a bit closer to the seasonal norm.

take care.

this is bbc news, the headlines... the former manchester city footballer mikheil kavelashvili is elected as georgia's new president by the country's disputed parliament. it comes amid weeks of mass pro—eu protests by the opposition. mps in south korea vote to impeach president yoon over his failed attempt to impose martial law. speaking after the vote,

he vowed to never give up. us secretary of state antony blinken says the us has made direct contact with hts, the group leading the rebel alliance in syria. dipolmatic moves are gathering pace to stabilise the country, after the end of the assad regime. and the mystery is continuing to grow in the us after repeated sightings of unknown drones in several states on the east coast. the governor of newjersey has urged president biden to investigate. now on bbc news, newscast. faisal, as economics editor and somebody with an interest in tech, you will remember when youtube first started, which year? i'm going to say 2005? correct. good knowledge, faisal. i remember going up to my editor on channel 4 news

and going, this is big, this is really big.