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 good to have you with us. let's 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?", this woman raged. "no—one is helping us. how can i find him among these prison files?" assad's regime was meticulous in documenting its brutality,

but critical evidence here is being lost each day and the desperation of families is growing. in a cemetery outside damascus, we found khaled pulling out bags of bones from a shallow, unmarked grave, each one marked with a name and a prison number — two women and a man. khaled was looking for his brothers, taken by airforce intelligence 11 years ago. translation: anyone - who wasn't killed immediately was taken to an area known as the driving school 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, bbc news, damascus. that's the latest from damascus. let's get more

on those discussions in the region today. senior officials from the us, turkey and a number of arab countries say they'll support a peaceful transition process in syria. jordan's foreign minister said regional powers did not want syria to sink into chaos. i spoke to our arab affairs editor sebastian usher to get his analysis on these discussions. in a sense, there's nothing that radically new in what they had to say today. the fact that they were meeting, i mean, it underlines the sense that all powers, both inside syria and outside, are trying as hard as they can to ensure that there is as smooth a transition of power as possible. i mean, this is going to be difficult. and so the word that they were saying — i mean, i think the key word is "chaos". and they talked about that, that they don't want syria to slip into chaos, understandably. and 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 has jihadist 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 foreign ministers and also the turkish foreign 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 do 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. let's go to the caucasus now. a former professional football player has been elected in 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 as 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 adequately to the claims by public, by our international by public, by our international partners shows only the growing partners shows only the growing polarisation bringing polarisation bringing the country into a huge the country into a huge political crisis both locally political crisis both locally and internationally. and internationally. and it poses serious threats and it poses serious threats to the security of the country, to the security of the country, but to the stability but to the stability of its economic and social this political crisis. of its economic and social growth and development. growth and development. the two main demands the two main demands of the protests is to free of the protests is to free the imprisoned protesters the imprisoned protesters and to hold new elections and to hold new elections with legitimate observers. with legitimate observers. and along with many other and along with many other citizens, i also don't see citizens, i also don't see another way of de—escalating another way of de—escalating this political crisis.

let's go to a developing story coming out of the us and now. abc news has agreed to pay $15 million to us president—elect donald trump to settle a defamation lawsuit after its star anchor accused him of rape on air. let's cross live to washington to speak to our north america correspondent rowan bridge. talk us through the nuts and bolts of the story.— bolts of the story. this relates _ bolts of the story. this relates to _ bolts of the story. this relates to an _ bolts of the story. this relates to an interview| bolts of the story. this - relates to an interview that george stephanopoulos did back in march. he is the host of a sunday morning talk show in the united states. he did this heated with a republican congress women during which he repeatedly said that donald trump was found guilty in a civil trial of labour. now, the distinction here is that what the civil case actually found

was that he was guilty of sexual abuse —— any civil trial of rape. donald trump then sued abc and seen

few minutes i had not seen anything from him. i would few minutes i had not seen anything from him. iwould not be surprised if he posts about this on his truth social media site where he tends to make his pronouncements from. he has had quite a robust relationship with the media, always talking about the fake news media but he has a split attitude, clearly enjoying the attention that comes from being a public figure and being a celebrity of sorts, but at the same time, often, as you say, rails against the coverage that he gets. interesting to note that during his election campaign, often he would turn to podcasters or social media sites as a way of getting out his message and a sort in some ways traditional television broadcast interviews, though he has been sitting for some of those recently as well. roan bride, those recently as well. roan bridge, thank _ those recently as well. roan bridge, thank you _ those recently as well. roan bridge, thank you for - those recently as well. roan i bridge, thank you for following that story from washington. france's interior minister says all makeshift homes on the french indian ocean

territory of mayotte have been completely destroyed by cyclone chido. mayotte sits in the indian ocean, about 500km east of mozambique and about 350km west of madagascar. the storm brought heavy rain and winds that peaked at more than 220km/h. at least two people have been killed. the cyclone has also wrecked homes, brought down electricity poles and trees and smashed boats. france's transport minister called the situation extremely worrying, and that ships were being deployed to ensure supplies. earlier, prime minister francois bayrou held an emergency meeting with ministers. it's been described as the worst storm in mayotte in 90 years. the french interior minister said he feared a heavy death toll. now the cyclone is moving westwards towards mozambique. 0ur weather presenter elizabeth rizzini explains more about what the path of the storm. this tropical cyclone is intensifying at the moment in the very warm waters of the mozambique channel, and it's gradually tracking

its way further westwards now towards the coast of northern mozambique, where it's due to make landfall really in the next few hours, the early hours of sunday morning. and then it's going to track further westwards, affecting parts of malawi and also zimbabwe as well. of course, once it makes the next landfall, then it will start to weaken again. but it's particularly intense at the moment. we've seen some gusts at sea of 280km/h. that's i73mph. and it will cause a storm surge when it gets to the northern mozambique coast. it's likely to affect the cities of nampula and pemba. it will bring a lot of very heavy rainfall locally. some spots could see as much as 300mm of rainfall. but of course, we're very concerned about the strength of the winds as well, which are intensifying at the moment. so it's likely to make landfall as a category four storm with, again, the same sort of damage as we've been seeing on mayotte.

well, on that damage, we've seen these pictures a moment ago. talk us through the kinds of damage one can expect to infrastructure for tropical cyclones like this. well, it all depends on how strong the infrastructure is at the time when the tropical cyclone makes landfall, of course. but you can expect roofs to be ripped off and certainly transport infrastructure to be damaged. there are evacuation orders, people have been ordered to get to higher ground, for example, and towards the coast, there'll be the risk of the storm surge with those very strong gusty winds and huge waves as well — waves of up to four to six metres have been predicted for for coastal areas, so it's likely to make a huge impact on this area of the world. 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 packs, 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 us". as the vote to impeach mr yoon got under way, a solemn warning from pa rliament�*s speaker. translation: the weight l of your ballot is heavy today. it carries the weight of history, the weight of democracy. enough mps heeded his words. the motion passed by just four votes. cheering the irony here tonight is that president yoon always said that he didn't care about being popular with people or with his party. he wanted to do things his own way, and he didn't mind who he upset. but people in south korea have shown him tonight that in a democracy, in their democracy, you cannot act alone, however much you might try. the dictator president yoon has now disappeared. so happy!

today's verdict doesn't mean the president is gone for good — for now, he's suspended. the courts will have the final say. and tonight, mr yoon has said he's determined to fight on. this is the biggest test korea's young democracy has everfaced — and it's passed. people's persistence has paid off — the politicians have listened and tonight, this is their victory. jean mckenzie, bbc news, seoul. a spectacular meteor shower is expected to light up the night sky this weekend. the geminid meteor show is considered one of the most impressive events in the sky's calendar, with up to 150 meteors expected to be visible per hour. while they've been visible since the 4th of december, in the uk they will peak in intensity tonight and into tomorrow so it's

the ideal time for those hoping to catch a glimpse. ben marshall is an astronomer based in newcastle. he explained what the gemini meteor shower is. schnittke explained what makes the gem and shower so popular. 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. 0k. 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, and 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 crown of thorns, a relic said to have been placed on the head ofjesus christ at his crucifixion, has returned to notre—dame cathedral in paris. the woven circle of rushes encased in a golden tube had been saved from the huge fire that gutted the historic building five years ago. the relic was first mentioned byjerusalem pilgrims in the 5th century and later found its way to constantinople, where the then french king acquired it in the year 1239. long distance runners have been taking part in one of the most challenging marathons in the world in antartica. held in the union glacier, the antarctic ice marathon is the southern—most athletics event on earth. with the ellsworth mountains as a backdrop, the competitors do laps of the camp, which is situated just 600

miles from the south pole — which has an average wind—chill temperature of minus 20 celsius. ijust want i just want to remind you ijust want to remind you of our breaking story, abc news in the united states has agreed to pay $15 million to president—elect donald trump to settle a defamation suit after one of its anchors is said mr trump had been found liable for rape. to stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. well, finally some blue sky and some sunshine for many parts of england and wales through the day on saturday. and it was a beautiful end to the day — lots of red skies around, including here in gosport in hampshire with our approaching weather front. but it's that weather front that's introducing a lot more cloud as we head through sunday

so it's not such a nice day of weather. there'll be a brisk westerly wind, many places will stay dry and the air is going to turn a lot milder. and that's because it's a warm front marked here, with the red circles gradually slipping southwards and eastwards for the rest of saturday night, introducing that milder feeling air, marked here in yellow, squeezing the blue, colder air well out of the way. we're staying in that milder air for the next few days. and here it is on sunday morning. a lot of clouds, some coastal, some hill fog around, gales across the northern isles. and it's breezy with that brisk westerly wind further south too. heavy rain pushing into northwest scotland, but elsewhere largely dry away from these northern and western coasts. the best of any breaks in the cloud will be to the east of high ground, so eastern scotland, northeast england, eastern wales should see at least some brighter spells. temperatures will be mild, 12 to 1a celsius and the best of any brightness. and it's just more of the same as we head through sunday night and into monday, the rain continues across northwest scotland. a few breaks in the cloud, perhaps further south with the strength of the breeze, but temperatures won't drop

much below nine or ten celsius as we kick off the new working week. and if we just take a look at the pressure chart, then you can see that this rain is just set to continue across northwest scotland. there is a met office yellow weather warning in place for heavy rain here. there could be some localised flooding because the rainfall totals will really start to rack up, particularly as we head through monday and into tuesday. and because of the snow melt, with that milder air, there could be some localised flooding, the rain gradually pushing across caithness and sutherland later on. a few more breaks in the cloud, i think further south on monday. it does stay breezy, but i think we'll stand the chance of seeing more sunshine across east anglia and parts of the east midlands in particular. as we head through monday and into tuesday we look out towards the southwest, it's turning really very wet and windy, with this deep area of low pressure starting to sweep through. the winds turn more south—westerly and it will be very blustery, unsettled as we head through the middle of the week, and then it will turn cooler with a northwesterly wind developing on thursday. so a drop in temperature again. bye—bye.

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. 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. france warns of a potentially heavy number of casualties after cyclone chido hits mayotte. the interior minister says all makeshift homes have been completely destroyed by the heavy rain and winds that peaked at more than 220 kilometres an hour. 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, raid on the brothel next door. officers shout.