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erika: i love seeing interns succeed, i love seeing them come back and join the engagement teams and seeing where they go from there, i get to watch their personal growth, it makes my heart happy. (laughs) 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: and now, "bbc news" sumi: i am sumi somaskanda in washington and this is bbc "world news america." they work out the next steps. an american who disappeared after a trip to budapest is found in syria. joe commutes sentences for 1500

people. the largest single day act of clemency in modern history. thank you for joining us on "world news america." an american man has been found in syria after being held in prison for seven months. travis had been reportedly missing since may, last seen in budapest. he said he was on his way to jordan on a spiritual journey when he was detained. he was broken out of his cell by rebels. his family told that they did not know he was being held in prison. they denied reports they spoke to him three weeks ago and they said they did not know if he was dead or alive. are middle east correspondent sent us this report. >> prisoner of the old syria.

poster child for the new one. travis, an american from missouri, released by rebel forces as they swept president assad from power. >> in the middle of the night or early morning, they came with a hammer and knocked on my door. there were two men with guns and there was another man and they help me get out of prison and took me to damascus. >> the men who found him put this video on social media, saying he was in safe hands and had been checked by a doctor after seven months in the custody of assad's military intelligence. >> it was never too bad. i was never beaten. the bad part was i could not go to the bathroom when i wanted to. >> he was found wandering through this damascus suburb

today by syrians celebrating freedom themselves. locals are telling us they found a foreigner wandering in the streets. they said he was in fairly good condition but they brought him here and gave him some food and water. they said he was very hungry and talking in english but they could not understand what he was saying and they did not know who he was. they showed us the selfies they had taken with him as the militia now in charge looked on. >> they found him barefoot. he kept repeating he was helped by military intelligence in damascus. we offered him food, treated him well, as a human being. without any consideration of his american citizenship. >> travis' story is one among

tens of thousands from assad's notorious prison system, many more brutal will never be told, silenced by the man many syrians see as the biggest criminal of them all. sumi: rebel leaders said they plan to close down syria's harshest prisons. on thursday hundreds of people marched through the streets of damascus for an activist funeral. he was an outspoken critic of bashar al-assad. he was among thousands found dead in a prison. as a warning for viewers, this report contains upsetting images. >> oh, my boy, my baby, you were only 19, cries a mother who just found the body of her

teenage son. he was one of tens of thousands who disappeared under bashar al-assad's regime. now his family knows what happened. he was tortured and killed in prison. those still searching would give anything to have closure. i wish i could see my son, even if it is his dead body, so i could bury him and i know which world my son is in. her son, missing since 2011, when syria's uprising began. she has come to hospital to search through the bodies brought from the prison. this is how she reacted when she saw them. battered, burned, emaciated, some not even whole.

the stench here, overwhelming. we have seen a steady stream of people, mothers having to sift through badly disfigured corpses to find some information about their sons. there is literally a bag of human bones. when you look at the bodies, there are clear signs of torture. there is one body that does not have a head. this is but a glimpse of the scale of atrocities committed by the assad regime. >> rage can now be expressed and it is easily found. every mother who has lost her son should get revenge from assad. putin should give him to us so we can execute him in a square, a woman shouts. they feared to ask where

their loved ones work. now, there are people holding up photos searching for family. most will not get answers. if the world had any understanding before this about the brutality of assad's regime, it was in part because of this activist. his body found in a prison, returned to his family. protests in 2011, was arrested and tortured. exiled in 2013, he chose to spoke openly about what he endured. he goes on to describe how he was abused. his sister told us why he returned to syria in 2020, he

was arrested immediately on arrival. >> the government told him there was an agreement and he would be safe. they also told him his family would be arrested and killed if he did not come to syria. we are happy the regime fell but i wish he was alive to see it. he paid the price for our freedom. i want is taylor's to be brought -- i want is killers to be brought to court for their crimes. >> crowds took his body along the streets of damascus. this is the freedom he did not live to see. >> less than a week ago you could not talk openly about activists like him. loved ones would disappear. there is no image that reflects this incredible turn of events

in syria more than this one, were hundreds of people are able to open the march on the streets for his funeral, calling him a martyr and a hero. more and more people are joining in. hundreds, thousands now. everywhere we go, more people joining this march. sumi: thousands of prisoners has been freed since the fall of the assad government, some families are still hoping to find missing loved ones. a defense organization has been at the forefront of syria's rescue operations and says they believe there are more people hidden in secret prisons. a syrian journalist has been looking for her father since he was kidnapped by the government in 2013. she is one of more than 110,000

people who disappeared under assad's regime. how have the last two week spent for you? -- weeks then for you? >> i do not know to be honest. i am still living day by day and moment by moment. i cannot really even keep count of the nights i have not slept, or left my apartment. it is a very, very difficult time for me but also for millions of syrians, especially those outside syria who also have family members missing in assad's prisons. it is a time that we all waited for for so long. we all work for for so long. it is another moment of truth

for many of us who have been for years waiting for the fate of our loved ones. sumi: have you heard anything about your father? >> unfortunately, not yet. but i am not only hoping, i am actively searching for my dad and many other people inside syria are helping me with the search. i am hoping soon i will find a way to go back to syria and search for him. and hopefully find him soon. sumi: you will go to syria and search for him in person? >> that is the hope. it is not as easy as one might think. i have a document and political asylum in germany. going back to syria in normal circumstances would mean i would lose my asylum status but i am

trying to see if there is another way to do things. to be very honest, this is a crucial time, sensitive time for me and others syrians who are refugees in different countries. every day counts. every day we do not have the capacity and the access to search for our loved ones makes the danger bigger and makes the efforts less likely to find the result that we hope it will find. i think this is the main thing i am trying to do now and i believe that many other syrians are trying to find their way to syria. sumi: you once said losing my dad feels like losing a part of my soul. what role has your dad played in

your life? >> everything. i have said many times that i lived the past 11 years of my life only for this man, who happened to be my father but was also a very dedicated, honest, brave syrian man who believed in freedom not only for him and for us and the community, but for all syrians and beyond. i think that i/o him -- i think that i owe him whatever i have been doing in my life and i owe him to not give up on him and keep searching for him and to find the truth and hopefully find him and free him and to find the truth of what has happened to him. sumi: for so many families like yours, what would justice look like now? >> it is very difficult to say.

i only speak for myself but for me, justice is a very long process and it starts by allowing me to go back to syria and search for my father and hopefully find him. i am clearly saying it is very unjust that millions of us to even go back to syria to search for our loved ones because of visa systems and border regimes. justice for me starts here. of course, whenever i have the information and the truth about what has happened to my father, i would definitely not accept his perpetrators, whoever they are and wherever they are, to be tolerated, for a given, or to be allowed to get away with what they have done. i hoped for years that for me,

justice should start inside syria. today we have the chance to do this. going back to syria makes total sense and is the one thing i can do at the moment and i want to do at the moment because hopefully justice for the crimes that the assad regime has committed in the past will take years and hopefully it will start and end inside syria. sumi: u.s. secretary of state antony blinken is in turkiye in an effort to prevent further escalation. he ensured that u.s. has been in contact with israel involving recent attacks in syria. the head of the united nations said he is concerned with israel's extensive violations. more than one million people had been newly displaced in country as the leader of the syrian rebel groups at the new government will suspend israel's

constitutional parliament as it figures out how to govern the country. warning of external threats from other armed groups. >> we want to avoid sparking any kind of additional conflicts inside of syria at a time we want to see this transition to an interim government and a better way forward for syria. part of that has to be ensuring that isis does not rear its ugly head again, and critical to making sure that does not happen is the so-called adf we have been support -- sdf we have been supporting. sumi: jake sullivan met israel's prime minister. the biden administration hope for a cease-fire deal between israel and hamas in gaza before donald is inaugurated in january. officials say they are optimistic about a cease-fire with hamas but all parties will have to compromise.

israel continues to hit gaza. 58 palestinians were killed in israeli attacks on thursday. some aid workers were reportedly killed while protecting trucks with food. here in the u.s. president joe biden has issued presidential pardons to 39 americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. he is commuting the sentences of nearly 1500 people. it is the largest act of clemency by a u.s. president in a single day. he said those pardons had shown rehabilitation and a commitment to making their community stronger and safer and deserve a second chance. biden promised more steps in the weeks ahead. he commuted the sentences placed in home confinement during the covid-19 pandemic and those facing sentences the president deemed too long under outdated laws.

are north american correspondent is following this story for us. tell us more about these pardons. >> it is worth explaining the difference. when a sentence is commuted it means the conviction still stands but the sentence they serve has been reduced. that is by far the largest group. about 1500 people. joe biden said those people had shown they deserved a second chance. there is a smaller group of 39 people who have been granted pardons. your slate is effectively wiped clean and your conviction no longer stands. all of those people were convicted of nonviolent offenses. they have all given back to the community in one way or another. one person was convicted 25 years ago of a nonviolent offense and went on to spearhead vaccination efforts during the covid pandemic. paul garcia has helped mentor

young people. these crimes were a long time ago and they have given back to their community. sumi: how significant do you think this is? >> if you think of joe biden and pardons, the first thing most people think of is joe biden's s hunter bidenon, -- son, hunter biden. he was facing gun charges and tax evasion charges. you have seen from the white house that we are likely to see further acts of clemency going forward. the white house has also hinted the possibility of preemptive pardons. giving pardons to people the white house is concerned might be targeted by a donald trump justice department. for example the chairman of the

joint chiefs of staff, who has been critical of donald trump. he is one name they are considering to give a preemptive pardon. joe biden, what president might that set going forward for other presidents giving preemptive pardons. at the moment they are not saying if you will take that stance. sumi: let's get another perspective with a political scientist at the american enterprise institute. great to see you. why do you think we are seeing this large-scale act of clemency now? >> we have a limited amount of time left for joe biden in the pardon power is one that presidents have used sometimes controversially but often in a fairly limited way. i think biden is trying to clear the decks right now for a lot of people who were convicted of these nonviolent offenses and

get people off the books. it is also something i think will happen even more. we will see it perhaps with a couple of controversial figures. controversial only in the sense that there have been requests to pardoned them over many years, including a native american rights individual. there is now pressure on biden to pardon the 40-some people convicted of federal offenses who are on death row to make sure there is a blow sumi: do you think he will do so? >> the pardon power is not just in public consciousness because of hunter biden. donald trump pardoned many of his cronies, including paul manafort, notoriously his campaign manager who had ties to russia. he pardoned people convicted of war crimes.

we know trump has pledged that on his first day he will pardon a substantial number of the people involved in the violent insurrection on january 6, 2021, trying to storm the capitol and overturn results. biden is trying to set the stage for a different type of pardon. these people did not commit violent offenses or try to overthrow the government. sumi: could we see president biden issue preemptive pardons for people like adam schiff, who was part of the january 6 committee? >> a lot of people are calling for preemptive pardons. pardoning people who have not been charged with any offense. richard nixon pardoned after he left office by his successor, gerald ford. that would be even more controversial. we know adam schiff among others have said he does not want to see it happen. the same with liz cheney, who

has been targeted by donald trump for retribution. it is a tough call when you know you have an incoming president who has said his will be and administration of retribution. the controversy over pardoning people but have never been charged with anything is tough stuff. sumi: do you think the presidential pardon power should be reformed? >> it is in the constitution flatly as an unlimited power. obviously there have to be some limits. what do you do if a president takes a bribe to pardon an individual? what you do if a president sells pardons? after the supreme court in the united states said presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts taken but can use their power of immunity to also tell their subordinates to go ahead and murder this guy, don't worry, i will pardon you.

it is time for a reconsideration. that could happen with action by the supreme court. most likely it would take a constitutional amendment. since we have seen abuses of this power especially going back to what trump did at the end of his first term, it might be time for a reconsideration of this unlimited power given to the president by our findings hours. sumi: it is not center elect adam schiff anymore, senator adam schiff. thank you for joining us. great to have you on the program. 2024 will be the earth's' hottest year on record. the announcement comes as global sea ice cover fell to a historic level. september was the second month -- the second warmest month. . this year's data is not complete.

this year has more than 99% of exceeding last year's heat record. an indian teenager has become the youngest ever chess champion. at 18 years old, gukesh dommaraju is four years younger than the former recordholder. he beat ding liren in singapore. gukesh dommaraju has long been a prodigy in the chess world, becoming a grand master at 12 years old. 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. ♪ ♪

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amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the “news hour” tonight, president biden makes history by commuting over 1000 sentences and issuing dozens of pardons for non-violent drug offenders. amna: daily life returns to syria, where its new leaders must now figure out how to build a functioning government for the entire nation. geoff: and one colorado community thrown into the political spotlight prepares for mass deportations under the incoming trump administration.