welcome to newsday. i'm katie silver. welcome to newsday. i'm katie silver. the head of the rebel group the head of the rebel group which now controls large parts which now controls large parts of syria has told the bbc of syria has told the bbc the country is exhausted the country is exhausted by war, and poses no threat. by war, and poses no threat. the un estimates 100,000 the un estimates 100,000 refugees have already returned refugees have already returned to the country. to the country. ahmed al—sharaa said western of the assad regime. ahmed al—sharaa said western sanctions had to be lifted sanctions had to be lifted for more syrians to come back. for more syrians to come back. in one of his first television in one of his first television interviews since his forces interviews since his forces toppled president assad two toppled president assad two weeks ago, ahmed al—sharaa also weeks ago, ahmed al—sharaa also called for the west to stop called for the west to stop designating his group, designating his group, hayat tahrir al—sham or hts, hayat tahrir al—sham or hts, as a terrorist organisation. as a terrorist organisation. hts, which split from al-qaeda hts, which split from al-qaeda in 2016, says it is no longer in 2016, says it is no longer a jihadist or extremist group. a jihadist or extremist group. he says they do not target he says they do not target civilians, and consider civilians, and consider themselves victims themselves victims

of the assad regime. our international editor, jeremy bowen, sat down with ahmad al—shaara in damascus. the de facto leader of syria, ahmed al—sharaa, chose to do the interview in the presidential palace built by the assads. he told me he wasn't surprised that the old regime collapsed so quickly. syrians, he said, needed to keep calm to tackle all the problems they face. you've made a lot of promises, you've said you will respect the mosaic of different sectarian groups here in syria — minorities as well. are you going to keep those promises? translation: the syrian . population has lived together for thousands of years. we're going to discuss all of it. we're going to have dialogue and make sure everyone is represented. the old regime always played on sectarian divisions, but we won't.

we were welcomed in all the big cities by all the sects. i think the revolution can contain everybody. so this isn't going to be some kind of a caliphate, or you're not going to make syria into a country like afghanistan? because you know there are people who say that maybe you want to behave like the taliban. translation: there are many differences between syria - and the taliban. the way we govern is different. afghanistan is a tribal community. syria is completely different. the peoplejust don't think in the same way. the syrian government and their ruling system will be in line with syria's history and culture. so the culture of syria includes rights for women, it includes education for women, it includes tolerance for people drinking alcohol? is that all acceptable to you? translation: when it comes to women's education, - of course. we have had universities in idlib for more than eight years.

i think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%. and alcohol?

that's a political classification. we haven't committed any crimes thatjustify calling us a terrorist group. in the last 1a years, we haven't targeted any civilians or civilian areas or civilian targets. i understand some countries will be worried by that designation, but it's not true. now, after all that has happened, sanctions must be lifted, because they were targeted at the old regime. the victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way. police in moscow say they have detained the man suspected of killing a senior russian general. russian officials claim the 29—year—old from uzbekistan said he was recruited by ukrainian special services. in an interrogation video released on wednesday, the suspect said he was offered a european passport and $100,000 in return. russian general igor kirillov was killed on tuesday

by an explosive device installed in a scooter that was detonated remotely. ukraine claimed responsibility for the assassination which took place just one day after the country accused mr kirillov of using banned chemical weapons. russian investigators say the suspect livestreamed the attack to ukrainian officials in dnipro from a rented car nearby. meanwhile, north korea has lashed out at "reckless provocation" by the united states and its allies for criticising pyongyang's support for russia's war in ukraine, including the deployment of troops. on wednesday, the us said that at least 30 north korean troops have been killed fighting ukrainian forces in russia's kursk border region, hundreds more had been injured. i spoke to lieutenant—general chun in—bum, who was the commander of south korea's special forces. unfortunately, i foresee that the russians and the north koreans will establish

a new relationship that will last way beyond the ukraine—russian conflict. yes, i do see them doubling down and increasing their involvement not only the ukrainian front, but here in korea. interesting. i guess — how do you imagine all of this is going to be viewed by seoul, particularly the experience that these north korean soldiers will be gaining on the battlefield? it's a significant problem for us. right now, the north koreans are showing, step—by—step development and involvement in this war. as you said, they're gaining first—hand experience. they're going to come back. they're going to use this first—hand experience, as well as the technical aspects of the war. we will have to do a lot of catching up. how do you imagine seoul is preparing for that advancement, that gaining of knowledge, that gaining of experience?

what do you imagine seoul is doing to prepare? as you might be aware, we're in a little bit of a jam right now. but our people who are responsible for these kind of things are doing theirjob. so i'm sure that they will be on their toes to ensure that the latest information that can be obtained and shared will be collected. also, we are closely following north korean developments, and we will do our best to prepare. i want to get to that jam you alluded to in just a moment. first of all, though, i wanted to ask you about the north korean troops that are being sent. what do we know about them? i'm reading conflicting reports. some say they're junior infantrymen.

others say they're more sophisticated and actually engaging in espionage. do you have any further insights? yes. i believe that they are better than your average north koreans. they're better—trained and what they would term as "elite" troops. i just want to point out that we have not seen the mass defections that some people have predicted at the initial stages when this information about north koreans working for russian army came out. like the old saying in world war ii — only believe half of what you see and a fourth of what you hear. i think that kind of caution is required. these north koreans — some of them are going to be good. some of them are going to be bad. but, on average, they're better—trained than the average russian soldier recruit. so i believe, as the days go by, the north koreans will, unfortunately, get better. turning to the political

turmoil that we've been seeing in south korea, and of course the botched attempt by president yoon to establish martial law — if you were in that senior position in the army at the time, how would you have responded? did the army have any choice but to enforce it? the army had a choice. actually, the army leadership had a choice. it was not the entire army. and if i were in their shoes, i guess — it's not honourable for me to speak in a situation when i'm not there, but i probably would have said no. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news: inflation has risen to an eight—month high of 2.6%. the rate is still well down on recent highs during the energy crisis. but it's thought it will go up

further in the new year, which could mean interest rates are cut more slowly than had been expected. the chancellor said there's more for the government to do. a 19—year—old man who killed three of his friends in a car crash, after inhaling nitrous oxide, has beenjailed for more than nine years. daniel hancock and ethan goddard — who were both 18 — and elliot pullen, who was 17, died in marcham last summer. thomasjohnson, from shrivenham, had been driving at almost 100mph. gregg wallace will be replaced by the restaurant critic grace dent in the next series of the bbc�*s celebrity masterchef. the guardian columnist willjoin the regular masterchef presenter john torode next year. wallace has been accused of inappropriate behaviour and faces a review into his conduct. plenty more on all those stories on our website — bbc.co/news. you're live with bbc news. haiti is one of the poorest and most dangerous countries in the world. gangs control over 85% of the capital, port au prince, and the violence has escalated following the recent

resignation of the country's third prime minister this year. there are now 700,000 internally displaced people. 0ur senior investigations correspondent nawal al—maghafi and her team are the first to enter the country since the latest escalation. a warning, you might find their report upsetting. downtown port—au—prince — now the scene of daily street fighting between gangs vying for control. once one of the city's most populated areas, it's now a ghost town. we're with the kenyan police on a patrol. they're here to support the haitian forces, as part of a multinational response to restore law and order. it's not long before we come under fire. gunfire we're being shot at by a gang member from that direction, so the guys...

..are just retaliating. and then this. a human body burning in the middle of the street. we're on our way to meet the leader of one of the most prominent gangs here, filming ourjourney under cover. reynold estina, notorious for kidnapping, is wanted by the fbi. your gang and gangs like yours have spread terror across the city. you have raped people, you have killed people. translation: when we capture an enemy, we are celebrating i a victory, so sometimes the group gets excited. they capture somebody and they do things they weren't supposed to do with them, because when it's been the other way round, they would have done the same to us. gang warfare has driven 700,000 people out of their homes, to overcrowded schools like these where sexual violence and drug use is rife. this is the third place negosiat has had to make home.

she tells me she's too afraid to sleep here. she stays up to watch over her five children. translation: my neighbourhood was taken over by gangs. - i left and went to live in solino for safety. today, again, i'm on the run to save my life and my children. the violence is escalating, a clear sign the kenyan strategy is failing. 2,500 personnel were due to be deployed, but only 400 are here. they tell us they're making progress and take us to see a former police station that they've now retaken. but the area is still surrounded by gang snipers. the police fire some warning shots. they can shoot from here. so just that building over there, the red with the blue, is where the snipers are shooting at you? you heard the shot? yeah. stay down now. the violence permeates every stage of life here. shayna is two years old.

she, like 760,000 children in haiti, is starving. translation: i would like my kids to be able to eat bread, . even if i can't. i would like to get proper care for my child, too. i don't want to lose her. but as the situation here continues to deteriorate, haiti risks losing an entire generation. nawal al—maghafi, bbc news, port—au—prince, haiti. tens of thousands of people are without access to water four days after a devastating cyclone struck the french indian ocean island of mayotte. french authorities say they aim to deliver more than 100 tonnes of food to the territory by the end of the day. officials say the water system has been partially restored to half of the population — but half of the territory remains without power.

rescue teams continue to search for survivors. france says 22 people are known to have died, but local officials warn the toll could rise significantly. france's president emmanuel macron is expected to visit on thursday. 0ur correspondent has more. our correspondent has more. the reason why _ 0ur correspondent has more. tie: reason why efforts were set up here, there's only one airport in mayotte, the runway has been partially damaged by the cyclone and at the moment only military airplanes are able to to land there, commercial airplanes can't yet land there. 0nly airplanes can't yet land there. only with military planes, they can only land at night. this has completely cut the island off from the rest of the world. they set up an air corridor between reunion and mayotte. they plan to deliver 120 towns of food today, as well as have 50% of the island back having running water by the end of today. so they're working hard today. so they're working hard to try to address this. we have to try to address this. we have to bear in mind people haven't had food and water for the most part since saturday.

particularly those outside of the main capital. so they've really been struggling and nobody knows exactly how many people may be buried under mud. there appears there were mudslides in a lot of areas with informal settlements were built. it's a really worrying picture. the authorities are concerned and they want to try to get aid there as soon as possible. facebook severely restricted the ability of palestinian news outlets to reach an audience during the israel gaza war. meta says any suggestion it deliberate suppressed particular voices is "unequivocally false. " particular voices is "unequivocally false." in times of conflict, access to reliable news is vital, and today, many turn to social media as their primary source of information. on platforms like facebook and 0n platforms like facebook and instagram, how people engage

with content, so comments, likes, shares and reactions, can increase visibility and shape public opinion. for the last year, palestinian journalists have raised concerns their posts are being suppressed and according to our research, something has happened. in the first comprehensive data analysis by territory since the start of the war in gaza, we analysed more than 100,000 facebook posts by different palestinian news organisations. this bar represents the average engagement per post in the lead—up to the hamas attack on israel. then, hamas's attack and israel's subsequent and ongoing war in gaza maybe one of the biggest talking points in the world. look at what happens to the engagement on the same facebook pages. it nose dives. since that date, there's been a 77% drop in average engagement. 0ne there's been a 77% drop in average engagement. one of the pages analysed in our investigation is the well established palestine tv. they

have 5. 8 million followers on facebook, and have some posts about the war restricted by the platform. we did the same analysis on similar news pages from israel and neighbouring arab speaking countries, and found the engagement went up. meta confirmed that temporary product and policy measures were brought in, in response to the conflict. the company admitted that pages posting exclusively about the war were likely to see engagement impacted. any implication this was done to suppress a voice is unactivically false. but according to some inside the company, palestinians have been deliberately suppressed. this

employee shared documents about a change to facebook�*s algorithm. it a change to facebook's algorithm.— algorithm. it was more aggressive _ algorithm. it was more aggressive towards - algorithm. it was more - aggressive towards palestinian people writing comments on instagram posts.— people writing comments on instagram posts. they gave us this leaked — instagram posts. they gave us this leaked documents - instagram posts. they gave us this leaked documents in - instagram posts. they gave us| this leaked documents in order to strengthen the precision threshold further to a0 for 25, for palestinian authors only. the algorithm only has to be sure a comment from a palestinian was potentially violating guidelines to make it visible to other users. meta says it was necessary to respond to what the calls a spike in hateful content. but some staff were unhappy about it. , ~ ., some staff were unhappy about it. w ., it. this kind of bias will affect the _ it. this kind of bias will affect the whole - it. this kind of bias will. affect the whole narrative. regular customers will be looking at their phones, thinking they're seeing the truth, while they're seeing just a very small slice. 0r they're being trapped in a bubble because other peep were silenced. the bubble because other peep were silenced. h, , bubble because other peep were silenced. , ., silenced. the decades long israel palestinian -

silenced. the decades long israel palestinian conflict l silenced. the decades long| israel palestinian conflict is one of the most difficult topics to address for many media organisations. what our research suggests is when platforms are as large as meta's, even small changes can have big implications. now, for hundreds of years, residents in one town in northern canada have lived alongside their polar bear neighbours. but scientists are warning that climate change could spell danger. as the temperature rises and melts, theice temperature rises and melts, the ice polar bears need to hunt seals, they're being forced to spend more time on land, bringing them closer to people. there's a polar bear under our tundra buggy right now. he's very curious about us. oh, my word... at the height of polar bear season in churchill, manitoba, conservation scientists are out on the tundra, monitoring one of the most southerly polar bear

populations in the world. yeah, the bears want to stay with the ice. the bears are waiting for the bay to freeze, so that they can use it as a platform to hunt seals. but as the climate warms up here, the bears are having to wait for longer. we had about 1,200 polar bears here in the 1980s. now, we have closer to about 618. we've lost almost about 50% of those polar bears in the last several decades. we've tied that to these bears are on land about a month longer than their grandparents were. in the long—term, this threatens the survival of this polar bear population, but in the short—term, it means these bears are getting hungrier. the longer they're onshore, the longer they're fasting, and the longer they might need to start looking for alternative sources of energy and food. and sometimes, those sources are us. that poses a particular challenge for churchuill and the team of polar bear alert rangers who patrol and protect churchill.

i came down this trail, and i caught him up on this deck. it was testing the door. what did you do? so, at that point, you haze them, chase them in a desirable direction, which in this case would be away from town. this is a place that takes pride in setting an example for how humans can coexist with these big predators, everyone here that we've spoken to is very aware of it all the time, and... 0h, should we go? i can hear cracker shots over there. that means that they may be moving a bear. there's a bear there. it's crossing the road...! get in the car! we heard crackers going off. now, the polar bear alert team are moving around. so, we're going to get back in the car. you canjust see it through the trees there.

we could see the polar bear teams and the quad bikes and their trucks moving the bear along. and... that's why a new marine observatory here is carrying out experiments to better forecast how conditions will change. today, hudson bay has about five months ice—free. the bay is open getting to all year round. they're working to improve the projection of ice conditions to facilitate to make better decisions on the shipping season. this is a town preparing for a future without sea ice in the bay. the town's mayor says that could present opportunities.

what will it look like in ten years' time? what will it look like in ten years time?— what will it look like in ten ears'time? , ., , , years' time? will be a bustling ort. years' time? will be a bustling port- the _ years' time? will be a bustling port. the future _ years' time? will be a bustling port. the future looks - years' time? will be a bustling port. the future looks bright. l port. the future looks bright. but the future of the polar bears depends on ice, if we can rein in temperatures and preserve the ice they depend on. ~ . ., preserve the ice they depend on, ~ , , preserve the ice they depend on. we can preserve the species as a whole- _ on. we can preserve the species as a whole. sea _ on. we can preserve the species as a whole. sea ice _ on. we can preserve the species as a whole. sea ice is _ on. we can preserve the species as a whole. sea ice is much - as a whole. sea ice is much more thanjust as a whole. sea ice is much more than just frozen ocean. it's a gardeners it's a platform, it's it's a gardeners it's a platform, its access to food. it's life, really. an update on the two astronauts stuck in space since the summer. they will now have to wait even longer to get home. they arrived at the space station injune, and were originally due to return to earth after just originally due to return to earth afterjust one week. their initial stay was extended to february 2025 because of technical issues, with the experimental spacecraft starliner. following experimental spacecraft sta rliner. following another delay starliner. following another delay in launching a new capsule, they won't be back

until late march or possibly april. keep watching bbc news. the us federal reserve cut interest rates for the world's largest economy, but markets on wall street dipped significantly. why? well, tune into business today next to find out. hello. after the overnight rain across england and wales, thursday promises to bring lengthy spells of sunshine. it'll be a little on the chilly side, particularly across the north of the uk with a noticeable breeze, but overall, not a bad day. now, here's the satellite picture of that weather system earlier on, spreading across the uk. the rain has been mostly across the southern half of the country — in the north, we've had showers and clear spells. by the middle of thursday, that weather front is way towards the east of us — and in its wake, we're in that north westerly airstream. so, this is what it looks

like early in the morning — still the remnants of the rain there across east anglia, but 1—2 showers also further towards the west. frost—free for england and wales, typically five celsius, closer to freezing in northern ireland and scotland. so here's that weather, then, on thursday — sunshine, particularly across eastern and central england, but notice a few showers in scotland, and 1—2 elsewhere. but on the whole, a fine day. the temperatures — around eight for cardiff and for london, about that for liverpool. in edinburgh and belfast, it'll be a shade cooler than that. and then, friday, we're expecting more rain to sweep in. this next weather front crosses the country — middle of the day, it'll be in central areas of england. gusty winds for a time, too, before it clears away and the skies turn clear, as well. now, let's have a look at the forecast for the weekend, because it will be very blustery. a nasty area of low pressure is expected to sweep just to the north of us — it'll introduce really strong winds to northern and western scotland, and really blustery elsewhere. 60—70mph gusts there in the north of scotland, 50mph across many

central parts of the uk. the temperatures may reach 12—13 in some spots — but, because it'll be windy and there'll be showers, some of them wintry over the hills, it won't feel particularly warm. and it's notjust saturday that'll be windy, another very blustery day on sunday to come — look at that, gusts approaching 50mph further south, too. but it will be colder on sunday, you really will feel that wind chill. those temperatures will dip to six celsius — add on those a0—50mph gusts, and you'll need your thick coats. now, here's christmas week — it turns out that christmas day will be about the mildest day, but it is going to be generally settled. bye— bye.

the us fed cuts rates again, but markets plunge on a cautious outlook for 2025. with the trump administration just weeks away, we ask robinhood's ceo what retail investors can expect. hello and welcome to business today. i'm katie silver. we begin injapan where the central bank has decided to keep interest rates steady at 0.25% in a move that was widely anticipated by markets. rates have remained at this level since july this year. still on central banks — let's turn to the fed which has delivered its third rate cut

for the year. despite that, the s&p 500 and the nasdaq tumbled around 3%, as you can see here. the dow slipped over 1,000 points. that was because the fed gave a cautious outlook for 2025. former fed governor randy kroszner explained to me that wall street's kneejerk reaction is not a cause for concern. i was a bit surprised because they made a very clear that they would cut, that they were concerned that inflation is not coming down as rapidly as they would like, economy is still strong and robust so that suggests that they were going to revise the number of cuts that they had forecast. less than the september forecast, they would do a full four quarter point cuts, now they said they will do two of those. it doesn't surprise me at all given what they said, i'm surprised the market said, gosh, what are they talking about? even though i think that's what they've been saying in the last few weeks.