welcome to newsday, i'm katie silver. ukraine says it is responsible for a bomb attack that killed a senior russian general in moscow. lieutenant general egor kirellov was leaving his home in southeastern moscow on tuesday when he and his aide were killed by explosives planted in an electric scooter. bbc verify has been looking at the images from the scene. an ied — or an improvised explosive device — was used in the attack. the incident comes just a day after ukraine reportedly charged mr kirillov in absentia of coordinating the use of banned chemical weapons on ukrainian forces on the frontlines. the kremlin denied those allegations. russia's investigative committee says it has opened a criminal investigation into the murder. the kremlin called the bombing an attack of terror and is vowing revenge. our russia editor steve

rosenberg has the latest report from moscow. being filmed from a car opposite, a russian general and his assistant. here, what appears to be a scooter — we will come back to that. what followed was a giant explosion, with deadly the two men were killed, a moscow apartment block was now a crime scene. investigators sifted through the debris, searching for clues. later, a spokesperson for russia's investigative committee revealed that the bomb had been hidden on that scooter. a terrorist attack, she called it. it was the targeted assassination of this man. lieutenant general igor kirillov was chief of russia's radiation, chemicaland biological protection forces. only yesterday, ukraine had reportedly charged him in absentia for his alleged use of chemical weapons in the war. the general was known for making wild accusations against the west.

he once claimed that america was plotting to infect russian troops with malaria, by releasing mosquitoes from drones. in october, the foreign office sanctioned him, calling him a significant mouthpiece for kremlin disinformation. russian state tv said that with today's attack, president zelensky had signed his own death sentence. the former kremlin leader dmitry medvedev called for the killers to be tracked down in russia. "we must do everything" he said, "to destroy the patrons who are in kyiv." for local residents who may have heard the blast, there is a sense of shock. for many muscovites, even after nearly three years of war, russia's war in ukraine is something that is happening a long way away from here, something they see on tv or on their phone. but the killing of a general, here in moscow? that is a wake—up call, and a sign that this war

is very real and very close to home. lisa, who lives close by, says she is scared. "when this kind of thing happens notjust in your home town," she says, "or your own neighbourhood, "but in the building opposite, that's shocking." there's been no reaction yet from president putin, but the expectation is that, after such a high—profile killing in the russian capital, moscow will retaliate. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. there's concern in ukraine about what retaliation might be coming their way. our defence correspondent jonathan beale has the view from kyiv. well, the main focus has been of course on the battle on the ground — and there's no doubt in that war, it is the russians who are advancing and ukrainians who are losing ground. but there's also this second clandestine war involving espionage and assassinations —

in war, ukraine cleans some successes, notjust in the targeted killing of this russian general who was involved in russia's chemical weapons programme, but also last week, the shooting of a russian scientist involved in its missile and drone programme, again near moscow. and tonight, ukraine's security service, the sbu, says they've uncovered a major russian spy ring which included disaffected ukrainians who they alleged were trying to pass on details of the locations of western supplied weapons in ukraine, including f—16s — in other words, primed russian targets, not least for propaganda purposes — they say they've foiled that plot. we've been talking to ukrainian troops on the front line, there is no doubt they're tired

after three years of fighting, they�* re losing ground. but they're not giving up — and this clandestine war shows that, too, whatever uncertainty may lie ahead next. earlier melinda herring, senior fellow at the atlantic council's eurasia centre, told me the attack sent the message that nobody in russia was safe. that was the big message that kyiv was sending moscow with this attack on the lieutenant general. it's the first general in russia to be hit. other generals have been hit along the front, but really, to get this deep into russia is a big deal. it sends a message, it's chilling, that no—one is safe. and there's a second theme as well. so, the gentleman who was killed, he was in charge of chemical weapons, and more than 5,000 ukrainian soldiers at least have experienced exposure to chemical weapons. so, tonight i think in kyiv there's a sense of sweep ——

so, tonight i think in kyiv there's a sense of sweet revenge, the person responsible for chemical weapons is no longer with us. what sort of retaliation may we expect to see from the kremlin? there's a tit—for—tat war going on between the russian fsb and the ukrainian — the ukrainian security services. it's a little bit under—reported. the previous person who spoke with you talked about a couple of hits the ukrainians have had. this isn't the first success the ukrainian services have had. but the russian services have also had a number of successful attacks in the past couple of weeks as well. right. and given that, how would you rate the current state of ukraine's war effort when it comes to things like soldiers, weaponry, drones, when we compare them to russia?

so, let's zoom out a little bit. the important facts are — we're about to go into the third year of the war, february 2a will be the third anniversary. there's some things different now. there's parity between russia and ukraine in terms of shells. before the russians, a year ago, if we were talking, i would've been complaining the ukrainians don't have any shells. it was 5 to i russia to ukraine in terms of shells. 7 to i, 8 to i, but things are different now. and there's parity with shells and parity with attack drones. however, russia seems to have the momentum on their side, and they're definitely making progress. it's very slow and incremental but they're making progress. ukraine has a very big problem with man power. and it's trying to address this problem but it hasn't sufficiently done that. especially on the infantry side. got one month left of president biden in office. there's big question marks about america's support in a month from now,

what do you expect — do you expect kyiv to make any big moves before president biden leaves the white house? so, volodymyr zelensky, the president of ukraine, is not going to do anything big or major. i expect him to use all of the long range weapons the united states has sent, that britain has sent, that france has sent, before trump is inaugurated. but everybody — all the eyes are on washington. we don't know what trump is going to do. trump has said he's going to end the war in ukraine that russia started, in 2a hours. everyone knows that's a campaign promise. it's not going to happen. the conflict is far more complicated than that. there's at least three peace plans floating around in washington. moscow has already rejected them. through its proxies they said these things are a nonsense. no—one knows how to get moscow to the come to the table, to get them to stand down. moscow thinks it's winning, why should it come to the negotiating table? all eyes on trump, when he says

he can negotiate with his friend vladimir putin. meanwhile, a united states military official has said that that there have been several hundred casualties among the north korean forces fighting for russia against ukraine , since they went into battle in russia's kursk region. the ukrainian military says moscow has used north korean troops in an intense offensive in kursk, to push back ukrainian troops occupying russian territory there. plenty more on that story on our website bbc.com/news around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. a former archbishop of canterbury, george carey, has quit as a priest. it comes after a bbc news investigation found he'd allowed a priest to return to ministry, despite being banned over sexual abuse allegations. justin welby, the most recent archbishop of canterbury, resigned from that role for similar reasons.

the leader of reform uk, nigel farage, has met elon musk in florida , and said the tech billionaire was "not opposed" to making a donation to the party. after the meeting at donald trump's mar—a—lago resort, mr farage said there was "one more chance left to save the west" and they could "do great things together". campaigners have reacted with fury to the government's decision not to pay compensation to women who have been affected by rises in the state pension age. they believe more than three million women born in the 19505 known as "waspi women" weren't given sufficient notice of the change. the government said the 10.5 billion pound bill represented poor value for the taxpayer. you're live with bbc news. the united nations is warning that unless syria gets urgent support it could be plunged back into conflict. there have been clashes between turkish—backed groups and kurdish forces in the northeast. the un special envoy to syria says sanctions should be lifted to enable its reconstruction. the leader of hts —

the rebel group that ousted president bashar al—assad — is also calling for the west to lift sanctions. including the designation of its group, hyatt tahrir al—sham, as a terrorist organisation. in his first interview since taking over the country, ahmad al—sharaa told the times of israel that the west "should lift all restrictions, which were imposed "on the flogger and the victim the flogger is gone now." he also warned israel that it must end its air strikes in syria and withdraw from syrian territory. it comes as british diplomats meet with the syrian leader to ensure a smooth transition of power, and as the un security council calls for an inclusive and syrian—led political process. across the country, the syrian people are trying to come to grips with their new country after more than a decade of devastating civil war. the city of homs saw some of the worst fighting during the civil war, and the first of the sieges known as surrender or starve, imposed by the regime.

now some of the families and fighters forced out of homs a decade ago, are returning. and so has our chief international correspondent lyse doucet, who regularly reported from the city during the war. she sent this report. in 2014, we reported on the end of the old city siege. a thousand starving civilians rescued in a temporary truce, including a little girl named baraa. we've stayed in touch from afar since then. nice to see you! translation: they were the hardest times. - even now, when i think back, i wonder, how did we survive? it was a nightmare and it ended, thank god. but their suffering didn't stop.

theirfather farhan raised his daughters on his own. their mother was killed when a rocket slammed into their kitchen. all of them have been striving for a betterfuture. the starving girl we met is now studying food science at university. translation: | never. thought that i'd find a job here in the days of the regime. i always thought that i'd go to europe to work. but now there's a chance to live here with dignity. translation: we want a civilian government, l not even an islamic one. we want to live together, to coexist. we want whoever the president is to pack up and leave at the end of their term. we don't want another president for life, someone they build statues of. they insist we must visit their place of refuge in the siege — thejesuit monastery which opened its doors. a nativity scene now. the new syrian pastor finds

christmas hope in their story. this is what is about the grotto wherejesus and the holy family, they find a refuge. and this now comes to something very beautiful, a very beautiful story, the story of farhan and his family. it's the story of homs, the city they called the capital of the revolution, now a crucible for syria's new start. lyse doucet, bbc news, homs. meanwhile, ceasefire talks between israel and hamas are reported to be gaining momentum, with officials saying both sides are inching towards striking a deal. us state department spokesperson matthew miller said the us is cautiously �*optimistic�* about a possible ceasefire deal following months of deadlock. for more on the ceasefire talks, our gaza correspondent rushdi abualouf sent this update.

he's currently in istanbul. after six months of a complete deadlock in the talks between hamas and israel, the senior palestinian officials have told the bbc there is a significant progress in the way to achieve a ceasefire after 1a months of fighting between hamas and israel. he said at 3 stages, the ceasefire proposal is three stages. the first stage hamas will have to release all of the civilian hostages, including the female soldiers and the bodies of those who were killed during the fighting. in exchange, israel will withdraw from coastal road and allow hundreds of thousands of people to go back, but israel has put condition they need to be screening everybody going back to the north, to make sure that none of the hamas fighters or hamas militants or any militants from other groups will be allowed back to gaza. weeks of reported drone sightings in the skies

above newjersey and several other us states have led to speculation and misinformation. as well as genuine drone sightings, there have been several false claims which have gained millions of views online. bbc verify�*s jake horton investigates some of the most viral claims. what is flying in the skies over newjersey and other us states ? videos like these are calling lot of chatter about suspected drones. leading to speculation and misinformation. there have been genuine drone sightings, but here are the most viral false claims. there are false claims the pentagon has confirmed the drones are not human—operated, with some people suggesting aliens are involved. the pentagon has not said this. it doesn't believe that foreign adversaries are operating the drones. it ruled out the us military being responsible, and there's been no mention of alien involvement. second is the claim drones were dispatched from an iranian ship off the coast. they said that iranian�*s

militarised drone carrier vanished from port. these satellite images show the slip in question, identified by experts, remains off the coast of iran, some 11,000km from newjersey. there are posts claiming to show drones that actually show other types of aircraft, like this post that says it shows the best drone footage, which is definitely not a plane in bedminster, newjersey. it's been viewed more than1 million times. an expert told us the aircraft is clearly a helicopter. this footage from a local fire department shows the helicopter with a similar appearance. it has the same green and red flashing lights, while us authorities have been unable to provide definitive answers, they say these objects don't pose a danger to the public or national security. earlier i spoke to clayton swope, deputy director of the aerospace security project at the centre for strategic and international studies. i asked him what he thought

people were seeing. we keep learning more information about what may be happening. the white house said there are about 5,000 sightings the us government has been investigating, but 100 of them are still under investigation by the fbi. there's a lot of sightings. that's a lot to parse through. one thing i think is clear is that the united states has trouble tracking real—time drone activity over the homeland. that's something that maybe shouldn't be surprising if you think about air traffic control systems, they're looking for something entirely different, they're looking for aircraft, they aren't small, low flying. if you look at military early warning systems like norad, those are looking at different things too, like ballistic missiles and long range bomber threats. it's very difficult to figure out what is happening with these drones real time. we're seeing that happen

before our eyes in the last month on the east coast. i mean, i guess i was surprised that it was that difficult to identify and track these sorts of drones. does that mean society is basically sitting ducks? where the government isn't able to assess and respond to threats? i would think back to — i think there's a couple of years ago when there were some high altitude balloons from china that came over the united states. and the pentagon admitted that we may have missed a few of those. it was a similar phenomenon where there was just no sufficient awareness of what's happening in that area of the air space. something similar here is happening with drones, just the way the infrastructures that have developed, it's just a very different set of targets that they were meant to look for. it's not necessarily that we cannot detect and we can't track them, it's just the systems that we have deployed at scale across the united states really can't do that.

this probably also isn't unique to the us. there's unexplained drone sightings over in the germany and the united kingdom. there's systems around the world, they're not set up to look for them. we need to figure out if we want to make the investments in the infrastructure at nationwide scale to track, identify drones in real time. and the president—elect donald trump has suggests there's been a government cover—up and he says the government "knows what is happening." do you think there's any truth to that? to date, the government hasn't been able to really put together a clear story about what it thinks is happening. the latest from the white house was just it could be aircraft, fixed wing aircraft it, could be helicopters. it could be some commercial drone activity. some amateur drone activity, as well as the law enforcement drone activity. so that's just about everything it possibly could be and the kitchen sink.

so it behoves officials to try to get more information out to the public about what is happening. this is reallyjust the tip of the iceberg. norad said earlier this year that since 2022, there's been about 600 unexplained drone incursions over us military bases around the country. we hear a few of those even just happened in the last few weeks, there was a man, a chinese national, arrested in california, for flying a drone over a space force base, who was arrested boarding a flight back to china. there's enough suspicious activities out there to warrant more of a look at these things. maybe this is a scenario where there may be more information the government could be providing, but really also acknowledged there are things the us government should be thinking about improving and maybe how we respond to drone incursions into unauthorised areas that we haven't thought that much about before. thank you forjoining me

from the centre for strategic and international studies. at least 1a people have died from a powerful earthquake just off the coast of vanuatu in the southern pacific. the capital, port vila was the hardest hit, at the epicentre of the 7.3 magnitude quake. an intense aftershock nearby and smaller tremors continued through the evening. authorities are beginning recovery operations at several collapsed or damaged buildings, including the american embassy. officials say, while it was the strongest earthquake in decades, the damage could have been worse. nearby australia says they will provide whatever help is needed, and is flying in emergency teams to vanuatu. vanuatu is home to more than 300,000 residents across 80 islands. luigi mangione, the man suspected of shooting a health insurance boss in new york two weeks ago has now been formally indicted for murder. he faces one charge of murder in the first—degree and two charges of murder in the second—degree, including one as an act of terrorism. new york prosecutor alvin bragg said the killing "was intended

to cause shock, attention and intimidation". our nada tawfik has the latest. the killing of the united health care ceo brian thomson set off a five—day man—hunt that captivated people around the world and set off a debate about healthcare in america. some celebrated, and even rooted for luigi mangione, the suspect. but today in new york, prosecutors branded him a terrorist. they have charged him with three counts of murder, two with terrorism components. and in announcing the indictment, the manhattan district attorney said this was a "frightening, well—planned, targeted murder in one of the most bustling parts of the city that was intended to cause shock, attention". if convicted, luigi mangione faces life in prison without parole. district attorney alvin bragg laid out the timing of his movements in new york, as well as the evidence against him.

but luigi mangione is said to be not fighting extradition to new york any more. he's retained a new lawyer in new york — his previous pennsylvania lawyer said he will be pleading not guilty to the charges against him. in the meantime, though, he will appear in court in pennsylvania on thursday. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. lawyers for the suspended president yoon sung nyull have said the south korean leader strongly denies the charges against him of insurrection. the constitutional court is preparing to begin its impeachment trial of president yoon, after parliament voted to impeach him on saturday. police in georgia have launched a criminal negligence investigation after 12 people were found dead at an indian restaurant in the country's ski resort of gudauri. the victims, 11 of whom were indian citizens, were found in dormitories on the restaurant's second floor.

police say a generator was found running in a closed room near the bedrooms, leading them to suspect carbon monoxide poisoning. the french military has released video showing soldiers and medical teams assisting residents of mayotte. officials say they plan to send four to five planes of aid a day. hundreds of military personnel have arrived to assist the residents there after the deadly storm. we again saw temperatures reaching 13 celsius on tuesday, but the cloud this time brought with it more rain. and into the southwest, we'll find this rain arriving later in the day on wednesday. but at the moment, this area of low pressure is bringing the rain into the night. it's also bringing some strong and gusty winds, and that's all keeping the temperatures up. it's very mild — these are the temperatures of 12—13 celsius by the end of the night. but it will still be windy into the morning, and the strongest of the winds are likely to be over

and to the east of the pennines. gusts 50—60mph in the morning — could be quite tricky if you're travelling on the m62 or the a1, for example. may well be some early rain across northern england to move through, and then, following that, sunshine and scattered, blustery showers will develop in scotland and northern ireland. and across england and wales, it may well brighten up as well, before we see this cloud and rain coming in to the southwest of england and wales later on. temperatures still in double figures for england and wales — but with that northwesterly wind developing in scotland and northern ireland, things will get colder as we head through the day and temperatures will be falling. overnight, we've got that rain coming in from the southwest to push across england and wales — it should've cleared away from the southeast by thursday morning. we'll all feel colder in those brisk winds, temperatures 6—8 celsius — but at least there'll be

more sunshine around. pretty chilly overnight for a while, before we see this rain coming in from the northwest on friday — that rain pushes away from scotland and northern ireland, into england and wales. it'll be followed by some sunshine and a few showers, and we'll end the week with temperatures of around about 9—10 celsius, so pretty good. heading quickly into the weekend, though, and it looks like a very unsettled weekend ahead. this weather system bringing some rain on saturday, and around the area of low pressure, we'll introduce a polar maritime air mass. and throughout the weekend, it looks like it'll be really quite windy. but through the weekend, it willjust get colder — and, as we see that colder air arriving, particularly on sunday, those showers will be turning wintry.

japan's top car makers honda and nissan are holding discussions about a potential merger, but investors are having mixed reactions. plus, it's almost time for the fed's final interest rate decision of the year with the markets hoping for a christmas cut. hello and welcome to business today. i'm katie silver. to our top story this morning — japan's honda and nissan are understood to be

in merger negotiations, and the news is sending shares of nissan and mitsubish soaring in tokyo, while honda's stock is down around 2%. for more on all of this, let's bring in suranjana tewari live from the newsroom. the discussion between these two were first reported by japan's nikaev newspaper. but now the bbc understands that honda and nissan are discussing a potential merger. the discussions are understood to be in the very early stages and there is no guarantee that ideal will be struck. but this is the clearest sign yet of some sort of reorganisation in japan's auto industry. in the face of immense challenges posed by both tesla and chinese ev makers. the discussions would allow the manufacturers to co—operate more closely on technology and help japan's number two and number three

automakers to create a more