as a job and being stuck with dreams coming through, making money. having a son with non falls injunction starts december 13th on d, w. the business day w. news live from further in is witnessed, fine, has advanced in a surprise offensive in northern syria rebels unit to say to of and to the 2nd biggest city a level hundreds of reported dating battles with government forces. also coming up for testers, clash with police for a 2nd not in georgia. i think the close of the suspension of talks on joining the european union at 5 years after the devastating fight and not to let them cathedral shows off its new face to the will french president among them a call to his the powers land 5 days before the official reopen the

i'm anthony howard. welcome to the program, rebel fighters site. they have entered and taken out a number of districts in syria's 2nd biggest city. a level have been fighting between islamist rebels and government forces has been reported across the city. series military says it's inflicted heavy losses on the islamists who have been advancing on the left by 4 days. they have also taken control of a strategic strategic towns rather along the way with hundreds reported, killed the escalation in fighting in some of the deadly deadliest. and he is and comes after wakes of simmering violence. let's take a look at the groups involved in the offensive and why it's happening now. major fighting erupt again in serious civil war. day after staging this surprise attack

on government held positions in the north. the rebels moved on to a level showing the city syrian state media said the army, backed by its headline. russia responded with strikes unintelligence positions and a lot of it lip countrysides. the syrian army says the assault is being led by the high yachts across the ocean. or h t s a militant group which controls much of northwest and syria. the i t s is led by, i'll tell you this form of syria branch. it consists of multiple different insertion groups, some with cell the 1st and jihad just audiology. many reject the influence of foreign forces, such as turkey, russia, all the united states, but others approve. it's a complicated coalition, but what does unify them is their opposition to syria liter busha assad? government them and this has been displaced for 5 years. but thank god i'm now

fighting to reclaim on land from the grid to the criminal regime. we will persevere on this policy and called on young people to join us in the struggle to take back our country. i don't show a lot of agenda that since 2020 the h t and signed up a rebel groups have been mostly biased and the blood province. the area was subject to a turkey and rush, it broke a truce. but outside of it live, there are large parts of syria, still controlled by rebels, opposed to assets, government, including along the border with the rock. us back to curtis forces maintain large parts of the north and turkey, along with the syrian national army control a so called buffalo zone, along the turkish border with the offensive. the rebels may be trying to capitalize on the of the complex currency writing elsewhere with assets allied iran, reeling from israel, defensive on hezbollah, and 11 on,

and with rushes resources stretched with a drawer and ukraine. but the offensive and the syrian government's response has left many civilians in the following line. groups of refugees helping fling the fighting, heading to shelters and the blood province at the scene is what happens. all of the people started leaving, but we stayed until the morning. but as i was preparing breakfast for my children, a plane flew overhead. as soon as we stood, we ran into the visits on the front of the united nations is calling for an immediate, the escalation, and an end to the most intense fighting northwest. and syria has seen in the robot. as for it is a senior fellow at the middle east institute in washington. he also served as the us ambassador to syria from 2011 to 2014. you're a great resource for us to have at this moment robert, i went to the syrian government, seems to have been taken by surprise by this rebel offensive. uh,

did you say this coming uh no, i don't think anyone saw it coming. perhaps the turks, you know, great news, it was going to be launched, but russia was surprised. certain government obviously surprised. and i think western observers were as well with that in mind. if we're trying to reverse engineer this, why do you think now what guides these forces, the opportunity to strike, apparently with the element of surprise and ultimately with great success, as well as the most important element that has changed on the ground in syria over the past months is the weakening of one of the key extra supports for the ba, sharyl us government. that is to say, lebanese has by law and various iranian backed militias that operate in northern syria. some of them are iraqi, some of them are asked, and some of them are packed. standing in these railways have shipped them hard over

the past months. they've hit his bow, a very hard over the past months of the israel is have disrupted border crossing. so that it was harder for lebanese his bullet to move back and forth between loving on and this part of syria. and we can't forget that russia is focused much more on ukraine than it is on syria. and over the past years, the russians have in doubt their military forces in syria and so all sides, external supports are weaker and hands. they cannot rush in to help the syrian army, which at the best of times, is never very effective. to what extent have the russians pulled back? robert, we know whereabouts and the world is now busy fighting and you crying. how much of an influence is that potentially having at this moment?

the, the key thing to watch is the sir, is the russian air force. the russians have always used primarily their air assets in syria based at a place called main. and not so far from a level by fair we haven't seen a search in russian air force ground attack. over the last 2 days, the russians actually have done very little. and my guess is that is not because they seek the downfall of the short law side. rather it is, they don't have a lot of air assets. so forgive me for asking you the crystal ball, but how do you think this is going to play out over the coming days and weeks? well, i don't think this is the afghanistan in a repeat of kabul, any time soon. a level is still over 350 kilometers north, the capital city, damascus. and unlike afghanistan, the syrian opposition is not nearly so united. to give you an example and your

report was talking about various islamist and less as long as more secular fighting groups among the opposition. that's absolutely true. and we didn't even begin to talk about the syrian democratic forces led by a syrian kurdish militia, backed by the united states, which does not like these as long as settlements that have advanced on a level. and i can imagine that if the militants expanded their reach east into curtis harris will have new battles there. and so i don't think this battle portends an end to the syrian civil war. yeah, another very complex front opens up robot. s. ford senior fellow at the middle east institute in washington. thanks so much feel insight to this one and do to thousands of demonstrators separate 10 to the straits of the georgian capital

tbilisi for a 2nd night of protests, police fire and water cannon and t gas. in an attempt to disperse demonstrators who had gathered outside parliament, protest is held flat practice in record barricades in the 10 stand demonstrated as opposed to government suspension of tools from joining your opinion. until 2020 i pro russian prime minister says georgia will still say membership, but on it's on earlier data, police money a cut them not to was on the streets of publicity. we asked to about tonight's atmosphere while this chosen is quite tons. as you might see on the background, there is a riots police mobilized right next to the problem. and we can hear that some of the protesters are, the protesters are sorry, the todds of the police has been using the water turned on when,

what's trying people so think that they would lease requirements squared for a few minutes and they come back again, which makes it quite the police to discuss the crowd. now the, as you can see, probably in the background, the police, a warning asking their protests is to leave the apartment square or otherwise they will use the force. so it's definitely quite, quite uh, sort of tense a department square um at this moment cuz people refuse to go away. at this point i was the deputies met a couple of months of a very much in the thick of the accident of lacy. all right, let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world. them. this. chad is tim and i think a military and security agreement with products for my colonial power. it's expected to maine, the withdrawal of hundreds of french soldiers stationed in the central african nation, reflecting frances dwindling influence in it's for my african colonies. again,

this government says there's a number of people killed in advance liability this week. a site that numbers risen out of 17 more than 100. others are still missing. month come a dozens of homes around 300 kilometers east of the capital composite bridge column . it decided to support draft ledges. legislation to make consist of dying legal bill will now move to further scrutiny among low macros before a final thought. so for the site, the low would provide thinking dignity to the dying. well opponents, where a bone paper might be a waste into taking their own lives. thousands of people in italy joined a general striking protest marches the angry about the budget proposed by the 5 right government, a prime minister, georgia maloney. it would kept funding for education, health care and, and other public services strike, disrupted it, traffic, public transport, schools and hospitals now not for them cathedral and passes,

shutting off its new face to the wills 5 years after a devastating fire. the beloved gothic land mark is almost ready to reopen. rebuilding his costs around 700000000 euros. hundreds of skilled craft work as painstaking, restore the cathedral spy and roof along with much of the interior. after 5 years, the efforts of thousands of workers, millions of years, and a little bit of good phase one of perez's most famous buildings. the notes are dom cathedral is ready for its grand reopening. one week ahead of the big day, french president emanuel mcclung took a to or the renovated land, about meeting with some of the artisans who have worked on the projectile. he describes the effort to rebuild the cathedral as a overwhelming. he sang to everyone who donated money,

but saves the highest prize for the work. cuz autism ends in class, people, he made it happen. so the who have to, so how's the shock of the reopening will be, i believe, and i want to believe is a strong this beth of the fire passcode, but it will be a shock of who knows, because all of you who are here today is have contributed sit on the sphere of how it is indeed to you that we owe this metamorphosis. that is a you where the outcome is of the construction site. and you transformed code into odd on the if i may put it that way. in april 2019 cya ravaged the 850 of old medieval gothic cathedral investigate to set the blaze was started either by an electrical short circuit or a cigarette. money began pulling in some across the world, or some of the site more than $840000000.00 euros in total. around

a 140000000 you guys have which remains on spent. and that's because even though the in tavia is christine, the ex area is still unfinished, 20 parts of the building is still covered with scaffolding and make shift work. a facility is still feature that's historians, edge patients. the original construction of dr. dawn began in the mid 12th century and took almost 200 years. the archbishop of paris is expecting some $15000000.00 visitors a year, apparently confident that most of them will overlook the unfinished ext area. uh, before we go, here's a reminder of our top story. the so we'll monitor so says is list 5 has have taken over a number of districts in syria. second biggest city level syrian exhibit tree for human rights reports. heavy fighting between rebels and government forces with hundreds killed by. that's all for now. coming up next japanese mega comics and the

fascination with not the image or at store is coming up on some vials after a short break. don't forget you can always step for that on a website that's to be found at d. w dot com for how social media channels handle is at the w needs. the my name is the calls back said wow, thank you so much for joining in. welcome to don't hold bad. a lot of people do that. it's all about saying it aloud. that's what it being nosy bay, like good everyone to kings for healthy award winning called called the called back . and was that a kind of calculating system, manga, and anime a series that could be lies. i'm drawer 5, the minutes for you.