streets as rebel forces the streets as rebel forces impose a curfew in damascus after taking control of the caphal after taking control of the capital, marking a dramatic fall in assad's regime and forcing him to flee. us president joe biden has called it a moment of historic opportunity for the long suffering people of syria to build a better future. here in the uk, around 100 syrians have arrived at piccadilly circus in london to celebrate the fall of the assad regime. meanwhile, the foreign office has been evacuating british nationals ahead of the offensive, though the exact numbers remain unclear. and the prime minister says the uk welcomes the fall of assad's barbaric regime in syria. >> i welcome the fact that assad has gone. the syrian people had to put up with his brutal regime for far, far too long. we're to talking regional allies. it's very important now that there's a political settlement, a political way forward, and it's

very, very important that we emphasise that civilians and minorities must be protected in this process, but very, very pleased that assad has fallen . pleased that assad has fallen. >> now, strong winds are hammering the uk. >> now, strong winds are hammering the uk . just days hammering the uk. just days after storm dara left, two men dead and thousands without power. a yellow weather warning is in place with gusts of up to 70 miles an hour, threatening more blackouts and travel chaos. flooding fears are rising too, with over 200 alerts issued across england, wales and scotland. 200,000 homes are still without electricity after the storm brought a 93 mile an hour winds on saturday. in other news, the leader of edinburgh city council has been suspended by the labour party after claims he sent inappropriate sexual messages to ukrainian refugees, including through a dating app. police are now investigating a report of cammy day's behaviour, made through the council's whistleblowing service. opposition leaders, including

from the snp, are calling for his immediate resignation , his immediate resignation, describing the allegations as beyond shocking. the leader of scottish labour, anas sarwar , scottish labour, anas sarwar, says the claims are deeply distressing and insists the party acted swiftly when alerted on saturday. mr day, who denies any contact from police, has not commented on the allegations. now thousands gathered for a march against anti—semitism that took place in london today. the route passed through westminster and whitehall, ending with a rally at parliament square. it follows reported quadrupling of anti—semitic hate crimes over the past year, making jewish people the uk's most targeted minority faith group. the rise is linked to the hamas attacks on israel in october, and the subsequent strikes on gaza . and subsequent strikes on gaza. and the prince of wales has been helping serve christmas lunch at a homeless shelter run by a charity that he was introduced

to by his late mother. william waugh was one of the passage charity's aprons as he joined the long line of volunteers serving food while chatting with attendees on thursday. he first visited the london based homelessness charity more than 30 years ago with his late mother diana, the princess of wales . those are the latest gb wales. those are the latest gb news headlines. more in an hour for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gbnews.com/alerts . gbnews.com/alerts. >> surprise revelations from the us congress. a newcastle united fan wages war on rainbow armbands and cinderella gets a trigger warning. this is free speech nation . welcome to speech nation. welcome to free speech nation. welcome to free speech nation. welcome to free speech nation with me, andrew doyle. this is the show where we take a look at culture, current

affairs and politics. and coming up on the show tonight, a student allegedly suspended from her university radio station in leeds for expressing gender critical views is campus free speech under serious threat? a mental health professional is launching a new service pledging to erase ideologies from therapy. is it time to rethink how we treat mental health and the victim of a german terror attack ? is convicted of attack? is convicted of anti—islam hate speech ? so is anti—islam hate speech? so is two tier policing becoming an international problem? and of course, i have a wonderful comedian panel here tonight who'll be answering questions as usual from this lovely live studio audience. my guest tonight are louis schaefer and cressida whetton . how are you cressida whetton. how are you both ? both? >> i great start to the show, louis. >> the thing is, louis, i was in america last week. i was in arizona and everyone there is so lovely, so, so beautiful and wonderful and friendly. and i thought americans were all like you, but they're not. no, there are nice ones. >> they went to arizona. yeah.

they didn't stay in new york. >> exactly. new york is a problem, isn't it? >> it actually, it is the problem. weather. weather. weather is the problem. the weather here is horrible. the weather here is horrible. the weather in new york is horrible. >> half the time it can be. but it birthed you. and for that, i'm eternally grateful. there you are. see, i'm actually nice. how are you, cressida? >> i'm all right. i had socialised with louis last night. yeah, well. why indeed? it was the christmas due. >> the christmas due? yes. and how was. was louis well behaved? >> well, i mean, there was alcohol involved, and it was louis. so it's not really anything i can talk about on television. >> abominable. okay, so let's get some questions from the audience. the first one is from andrew. andrew. hello. hello there. >> did the covid pandemic come from the chinese wuhan lab or were globalist billionaire americans involved with? some conspiracy theorists say. >> that sounds like a loaded question, andrew. but you know what? it's interesting because, well, let's let's start at the beginning. of course, the big the massive coronavirus pandemic begins happens to start in the location, which has the biggest

coronavirus laboratory in the world. and some of us thought, well, maybe there's a connection. i don't know, maybe there is . and other people said there is. and other people said that was a racist conspiracy theory, didn't they? well not anymore. so the us congress has now released this. it's a document over 500 pages. i had a look. i browsed, but i'm not reading it down. i couldn't put it a real page turner, but turns out, yeah , probably it did come out, yeah, probably it did come from wuhan. >> it did come from a lab. yeah, that's what it was. >> why is anyone surprised? >> why is anyone surprised? >> i'm not surprised. isn't it far more racist to say. oh, yeah. it's because of their habhs yeah. it's because of their habits of eating bats. isn't that more sort of. yeah. >> it was like, oh, somebody copulated with a pangolin or something like. no, it's just because you've got a massive coronavirus lab. yes. right there. >> exactly, exactly. hazard of the job. even if it was all. if none of it was on purpose. i mean, it'll still be dangerous. >> we should say we don't know 100%, but we know basically 99% that this is probably, you know, all of the major experts are now saying that. >> yeah, it's been a great week for conspiracy theorists. another one. >> well, this is the problem. well, yeah. talking of

conspiracy theorists, i mean, this is the problem, louis, isn't it? when the conspiracy theorists are proven right? it wasn't a conspiracy theory. it wasn't a conspiracy theory. it was just common sense, wasn't it? >> no and no. is that it? it's a no. it's that that this the reason. the reason they're tracking it there is because they have the codes that that do they have the codes that that do the testing of it. >> what what are you talking about? >> what makes what makes a virus? here's the point. the point is, we're blaming china. china's a horrible country, and they're not our friends. and we got to watch out for them. but the fact that. >> but it's quite an inflammatory statement already. but i'm going to let you keep going. >> see where this goes. saying they're horrible people, but they're horrible people, but they're it's a horrible country right now. it might be nice when they get rid of their communist regime, but the truth is, is thatis regime, but the truth is, is that is that covid is just is just the flu and the flu. just the flu. it is. >> well, i'll tell you why. i know, louis, because i had covid three times and i've had the flu many, many more times. >> yeah, because you've got a bad attitude and you were told you're going to get it. and when you're going to get it. and when you're told you're going to get it, you're going to get it.

>> so i was hypnotised into losing my taste and smell. yes, yes. derren brown is behind all of this. >> then. but i don't know. is he chinese? >> well, he . well, there's >> well, he. well, there's another conspiracy theory we should look into at the. >> at the end of the day. at the end of the day, you can't believe anything that anybody says about it. >> i really don't, but least of all you. yeah, but what i'd say, chris, i mean, it's an interesting one because of course, there's all sorts of investigations now. there is us government funding probably went into the virus lab gain of function research , 1538