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police in new york release new pictures of a suspect they want to question following the killing of a u.s. health insurance boss and french president says he will nominate a new prime minister in the days ahead. welcome to world news america. we start in the middle east where fighters in syria have made another breakthrough in the surprise offensive against the government. they seized the central city, the second major city in the country days after captioning the city of aleppo. this comes 13 years into a civil war that has devastated syria. this footage shows rebels entering apparently unopposed. you can see the fighters being welcomed by residents. the rebels then turn the cameras

around and record themselves celebrating. the syrian army says it has withdrawn forces from the area, effectively ceding control. earlier thursday in a televised speech, the leader of the lebanese armed group hezbollah, accused israel and the u.s. of sponsoring the offensive in syria, saying the countries are aiming to overthrow the syrian government and antonio guterres says the international community has failed to de-escalate tensions in the middle east. for more, here is our correspondent. reporter: this is a major victory for the rebels in this astonishing offensive. this area is the second big city captured by the rebels in this offensive against president assad after aleppo. with this capture it will be difficult for the regime to launch a counteroffensive to try to reclaim aleppo and for the rebels it puts them closer to a

key city, a strategic hub to the north of the country to damascus and the coast. this is an offensive that has been led by islamist rebels, a group known as hts. they say they will continue and that the next stop in their campaign is the city of homes so a major setback for president assad. we know in the past he relied on russia and iran to crush the opposition in syria but russia is busy now with the war in ukraine and iran is still reeling after a huge israeli campaign against their proxies in the middle east so we still do not know if or how the president will react to try to stop the advance that could threaten the survival of his regime. >> we can speak now, how

significant of again is it for the rebels to have control here? >> it is very significant. it is a seachange. the significance of, is it opens the door and path for the rebels to move on closer to the lebanese frontier and another major area and the strategic significance is not just that this is the fourth largest city in syria, they already captured aleppo a few days ago but it also risks interrupting the supply line, the logistical supply line from iran to hezbollah in lebanon so strategically this could be a game changer. damascus is further south on the and five highway and there were already people asking if the rebel events can go that far. >> and many are asking how is it the rebels have managed to gain such momentum, this is a 13 year civil war. >> what is happening in syria is

a local war but also has dimensions so the bonds of power in the region have changed and everyone senses that. because of the war between hezbollah and israel and the direct strikes between israel and iran, people understand around right now is the weakest it has been in decades and the iranian sponsored proxies in the regime in syria is weak so these turkish back rebels took advantage and punched through. the regime in syria has depended on iranian backed local ground forces and also the russian air force, which is similarly consumed because of their war in ukraine. >> what will we see in terms of support from russia in particular? they have been a big ally to the president assad. >> there was a coalition that

came together in defense of the regime in 2018 when they really needed it and it was essentially iranian backed forces on the russian air force. that saved the regime in damascus. that coalition is no longer there and the regime lacks local legitimacy and is minority based on authoritarian and they are largely a conservative sunni environments of the regime is in a precarious position. >> how is the renewed fighting affecting the civilian population? people have had to evacuate. >> it is a tragedy, there is no other way to put it. syria has faced years of civil war and there is a great deal of further uncertainty to come there not all syrians are in favor of these islamist rebels. some fear for the future. the rebels are doing what they can to try to assuage some of these fears but fears are there

nonetheless and the other choice is this draconian regime that has used weapons of mass destruction against their own people so a lot of sympathy for the people of syria, millions of who are internally displaced and displaced into neighboring countries. >> where do you see things heading next? >> i do not think there will be a takeover of damascus. there is a regional understanding emerging. we had the israeli spy chief visiting turkey on november 19. the u.s.-backed kurds are also being active in intercepting iranian proxies further east so i think this is a coordinated effort to weaken iran's hand in the region but we remember in 2015 obama white house talked about catastrophic success. they did not want to see these rebels completely take over damascus and i suspect some of these concerns are still there. >> a really interesting

analysis. thank you for joining us. busy international released a 296 page report using is really forces -- accusing it was really forces of committing genocide in gaza. in a statement, amnesty said israel's unlawful conduct resulted in unprecedented harm to palestinians in gaza that resulted in a massive scale of killing and injury. israel dismissed this report and says it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the hamas attack october 7. israel continues the offensive in gaza and there are reports there forces bombed a camp for displaced people in southern gaza wednesday israel says it was targeting senior hamas officials. earlier today the u.s. called these allegations unfounded. >> we disagree with the

conclusions of the report. we have said previously and continue to find the allegations of genocide are unfounded. >> embassy international secretary-general spoke with bbc about the allegations and urges the international community to push israel to uphold human rights of civilians in gaza. >> there is no genocide happening. the international community is failing in their obligation to prevent the crime of genocide as demanded. some government such as the united states they actually face the risk of being complicit of genocide to the transfer of weapon. that must stop. it is a violation of one of the most important principles, prevention of genocide. and then the rest of the international community, those that may be saying the right thing, denounced what has

happening but has not taken action, we need to see far more happening, words are not enough. 45,000 people have died. conditions of life are leading to destruction. words are not enough. we need tangible action on the part of the international community collective platform meant to stop the genocide and carnage, collective platform committing all states to implement international court, arrest warrants to implement the ruling of the international court of justice and any means that is at the disposal of states regarding unlawful activities by israel such as sanctions, all of that must be put in place, not in three months, it must be put in place now. >> we will have the interview

with the secretary-general in the next hour. a massive police operation is still underway in new york after hooded gunmen shot dead the chief executive of united health care. police released new photos of a person of interest was last seen on a bike in central park the shooting wednesday morning there united health care chief ryan thompson was shot in manhattan on his way to the investor meeting. he was later pronounced dead at the hospital. police are investigating a motive but said it was a preplanned, premeditated and target attack. investigators say the words deny, defend, depose were written on the shell casings covered at the scene, corporate language used in insurance claims. our correspondent is in manhattan and has the latest. what is the latest on the investigation? >> it seems like almost every

hour police have released new footage, new evidence piecing together the timeline of the brazing shooting -- brazing shooting in downtown manhattan in daylight. the casings, the words written on them are a reference used by tactics used by insurance companies to deny paying medically necessary claims. that perhaps leads the police to a possible motive, understanding whether brian thompson was targeted specifically because he was the ceo of united health care but they are also looking at evidence they have recovered. a water bottle from the suspects trip to a starbucks before the shooting, a cell phone they believe belonged to him that they found in an alleyway. they have even gone to a hostel where he stayed in the upper west side in manhattan trying to

speak to people and to see if he used a fake id to check in. so lots to investigate as they tried to piece together who and why. >> a brazen and shocking shooting in midtown manhattan. how have people been reacting to this? >> it certainly has come as a shock. people who work in the area, in that hotel, some have been there for 20 years and never seen anything like this. it is a tourist area not far from the rockefeller center where the christmas tree lighting was held last night under tightened security, but nevertheless went forward. the museum of modern art, central park are there and central new yorkers are going about their normal business but it is captivating, the shocking nature of it.

i have to say on social media there has been far less sympathy for his death then his colleagues and families, pointing out that he was the ceo of an insurance company that has been accused of lawmakers and regulators of systematically denying people's health claims and profiting off of them. so this has certainly caused a lot of discussion in society about the larger health care industry as people question whether that is a motive for why someone wanted to kill him. >> great to speak with you as always. emmanuel macron is rejecting calls to resign, saying he will see out his term which ends in 2027 after the collapse of the government. the prime minister resigned one day after losing a no-confidence vote in parliament. he served the shortest term ever

by a modern french prime minister but will continue his duty and he's -- his duties in a caretaker role. macron will name his replacement in the coming days, claiming members of parliament were hoping to force an early election. >> in 60 years, a vote of no-confidence is unprecedented. the extreme left joins in [indiscernible] and because the forces that were governing france yesterday chose to help him, now i know that some people [indiscernible] i have always accepted my responsibility, whether mistakes or successes but i have [indiscernible] parliamentarians who have decided to bring down the

government a few days before christmas. reporter: amid the political turmoil and concerns over economic instability in france, confirmation of macron but we will not have a prime minister named immediately, he says he will take a few days and nominate someone who will try to create unity in a fragmented parliament and tried to get a vote of confidence and push through a budget for next year. president macron was defiant, saying he will stay in office for his phone mandate despite the growing calls for many for his resignation, many critics believe he brought the country to polarization and stagnation and while admitting some responsibility for the uncertainty in french politics at the moment with the snack -- snap elections he was fiercely critical of his opponents who he

accused of being an anti-republican front bringing down the french government. the question is whether this will offer any reassurance to french people he talks about the need to work in the common interest of france and cooperate and to find common ground and france is not feeling very cooperative at the moment, is very polarized and french political culture is one that is very adversarial so it will be difficult for a prime minister to bring unity to the country and this all of course coming while france economy is creating concern with the budget deficit now twice the limit imposed by the european union union, wars on europe's doorstep and trump is about to take office in the u.s. and that is a time when europe will be called upon to offer a strong united [inaudible] and france is really offering

anything but that. >> the head of the secret service in the u.s. testified thursday before a bipartisan house task force investigating the assassination attempt against donald trump. the hearing marked ronald rose first public appearance since taking over the agency in july. he says he takes accountability for the secret service abject failure before an attacker shot at trump during a rally in pennsylvania. this led to the resignation of his predecessor. >> the quality of advanced work and prep for the butler farm visit did not meet the expected standards of this agency. let me be clear. there will be accountability, and that accountability is occurring. it is in extensive review and it requires time to assure -- ensure due process and the pace of this process does frustrate

me, but it is essential that we recognize the gravity of our failure. >> following the hearing a panel will hold a meeting to consider the findings of the final report and lawmakers on the task force include madeleine dean of pennsylvania. i spoke with her earlier. congresswoman, what did you learn from the hearing with the secret service acting director about what went wrong? >> it was really what we had learned over several months there since the first steps -- assassination attempt july 13 and then the second at mar-a-lago, obviously the one on the 13th was horrible and there were extraordinary failures we were able to quickly uncover but painstakingly uncover. today was the final hearing because the mandate is ending and we were required to come up with a report of recommendations

and findings which we did and have voted and seven at them. i want to give extraordinary credits to the chairman, mike kelly from butler, pennsylvania and to the ranking member jason crow and to the extraordinary membership. this was not a political investigation at a time here in this country of heightened politics. we were determined not to make this political, but to actually get to the root of the failures and to your question, i was very pleased that all along the secret service immediately recognized failures. they did not try to utilize -- they did not try to use euphemisms, they said it was a failure and they found a series of failures we made recommendations about. >> things were heated during the hearing between the acting director and one of the members of the task force. was the acting director adequately able to explain what

went wrong but also what changes have been made since? >> you will notice if you look at that heated exchange it had absolutely nothing to do with july 13. so i would rather not focus on that heated exchange whatsoever. it was focused on a memorial at 9/11 where the acting director had gone as a first responder. i would rather focus on the 99% of the work we did as this bipartisan nonpartisan task force on the cooperation we got from the secret service. we had missions we got from the secret service. i am convinced our work is meaningful and the work of the task force was to get out the truth, find the failures and how to rectify them, and very importantly, as the chairman said to me when i first spoke to him about this, to make sure we can reestablish trust in institutions as critical as the secret service. they have a no fail mission.

they cannot risk the life of any of their principles. i do not think it is complete, that is absolutely certain. changes are underway but restoring trust in institutions is critically important and i want to say about the secret service, they had some massive communications failures, advanced failures. has everything been corrected, absolutely not. we do not have all the answers. we did not get enough information form department of cash from department of justice or fbi on the shooter's motives. why was he there. and i want to remind people while donald trump was wounded with a minor wound on his ear, could have been dramatically different and a gentleman lost his life. a father, corey comperatore. two others were injured.

people have a right in this country to be free of political violence and that is what this task force was about. not just the elected candidates, but the people who want to go to a rally and be cynically engaged and that is what we are fighting for. >> that hearing comes as donald trump finalizes his cabinet and advisors, including nomination for sebastian gorka for deputy assistant to the president and senior director of counterterrorism. he served as a strategist in his first term. caitríona perry spoke with him about his return to the white house. caitríona: what do you and trump perceive as the greatest threat to u.s. national security at this time? what will be your priority on day one? >> sadly given the feckless dilettante leadership of the last four years under joe biden we have several threats.

for four years under trump we had no new war and then incomes the democrat administration, he surrenders afghanistan, putin invades ukraine, there is the slaughter of innocents in israel october 7, we had chinese military buzzing our ships and planes. we will have our work cut out for us but this will be peace through strength, the priority as clearly indicated by donald trump and michael waltz and the new borders are tom homan is to secure the sovereignty of the nation, border czar tom homan is to secure the sovereignty of the nation starting with the thousands of criminals that harris led into the country. >> you can watch that full

interview in our extended addition coming up. u.s. authorities canceled a tsunami warning for coastal california and oregon. people rush to get to higher ground in san francisco before the warning was canceled. the alert covered almost 5 million people and followed a magnitude seven earthquake that struck off the coast of northern california. there are power cuts across parts of the region but for now, everyone is safe. that is our program. thank you so much for watching bbc news. you can always go to bbc.com/news for the latest order to check out what we are working on at any time go to your favorite social media site. thank you for watching world news announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james.

announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.

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