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restores his father's historic jazz club with his son. a raymond james financial advisor get to know you, your passions, and the way you bring people together. life well planned. brett: you know as someone coming out of college it can be very nerve-racking not knowing what to expect, whether you'll like your job or not, whether you'll make friends, whether you'll fit in, and here i feel like it's so welcoming and such an inclusive place to work, you just feel like you're valued. 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 nowbc news" chri. i'm christian fraser, and thisi. is the context. >> allegations, calling them

baseless and saying china has always acted with honor in business dealings a barrage. christian: the case has now added a challenge to a political debate here. the government wants to reach out and engage with china, but that comes with risk. >> that it -- there is a chiasm of hostile activity by china, trying to influence not just in the u.k. but around the world. ♪ christian: the alleged chinese spy was linked to prince andrew is named. why did they takes a long to ban him from the u.k. he alleges he did nothing wrong.

assad said he never intended to flee to russia. tonight, security brief. a very good evening. the alleged chinese spy links to the duke of york has been named after an order was lifted this afternoon. here's what we know about chinese national yang tengbo. he ran a consulting firm here. he first arrived in britain in 2002. he studied for a masters in public health university and policy at york university. he had been given leave to set up an advisory group to help with investor. for that consultancy, he met with at least two prime ministers and by 21 was attempting to leverage his contacts with prince andrew. in november of that year, he was stopped on his way into the u.k. the intelligence services confiscated all of his digital

devices, from which they glean some concerning messages relating to the prince. yet not until february 2023 was he finally banned from returning to the u.k. today, mr. yang issued a statement, claiming he done nothing wrong and that the widespread description of him as a spy was entirely untrue. our correspondent damian grammaticas has more. damien: this designed to drum up business. we see yang tengbo, we can now name him, banned as a risk to national security. mr. yang is accused of working for china's communist party, using his ties to build contacts. a photo of him meeting david cameron and theresa may. dealing with foreign threats was already on the prime minister's agen. here in n norway, the immediate issue, russia's war with ukraine, seeking closer

ties with china. he was asked, what about activity? >> of course we are concerned about the challenge that china poses. our approach, as you know, i had a meeting just a few weeks ago now, our approach is one of engagement, of cooperating where we need to cooperate, issues like climate change.on to challenge where we must and where we should. damian: mr. yang is appealing his banned from the u.k. he asked today for his own anonymity to be listed, insisting he is an entrepreneur, trying to build bridges between east and west. in a statement, he said "i've done nothing wrong or unlawful. the description of me as a spy is entirely untrue," adding "i would never do anything to harm this country, it is my second home." what it has done is that challenge to a political debate here. the government wants to reach

out and engage with china, but that comes with risk. >> somebody with security forces was allowed to get so close to the royal family without properly scrutinizing them. >> the pacific -- sycophantic tone he took a few weeks ago may not be very wise. damian: china offers economic opportunity. keir starmer wants to see is that, but he should be wary of the true cost that might bring. damian grammaticas, bbc news. christian: he says he's fallen victim to a change political climate, but there has been an in depth -- he was working for the front work department, an arm of the chinese communist party.

the statement released by prce andrew says they have met through official channels. with us tonight is louk, founder and executive director of the interparliamentary alliance on china, which works internationally with parliamentarians to counter the chinese threat. thank you for being with us. the former conservative leader, iain duncan smith, said this is just the tip of the iceberg. how many others do you think there are like yang tengbo working in plain sight? luke: it has been estimated the united front work department, which is a sprawling organization, has as many as 40,000 people working around the world. and british context, you might be talking hundreds, possibly more than that. what we do know is from recent reporting, the overseas chinese police stations and other categories ostations are also

from linked organizations. so this is a group which has come in the words of the intelligence and security committee report from last year, penetrated every sector of the u.k. economy, and you can't do that with one or two people. so it is nothing to be seriously worried about. christian: what will concern people? the time it took to ban him from the u.k., knowing what they glean from his devices? of messages that were taken in november 20 21 were not acted upon until february 2023. how would you explain that, do you think? luke: well, i think a defense of intelligence and curity services, we have not had legislation to deal with these kinds of activities until relatively recently, not until 2023 did we have a national security investment act, which creates at least some mechanisms to be able to deal with china's overseas influence activities. but even that, in my view, is

not enough. and that is really recent. if you look at the activities that have been undertaken by yang tengbo, you have activity that is not illegal. there is no statute that enables us to deal with that. so for the police to take action, they need to figure if there is something wrong, and uncovering the links to those, maybe that is the force of the u.k. christian: the mechanism by which you speak could be this plan to create a foreign influence registration scheme, the security minister jarvis was asked about that this afternoon, and there's a feeling that government has stalled on this. why is that the case, and what difference would it have made

luke:? it's the case that conservative governments, as you rightly say, governments have not wanted to upset beijing, the balance of the relationship, or take steps they feel unnecessarily antagonistic, and the reason for that is there is a dogma in the treary that unless we pitch our economic wagon to china's, we won't be prosperous as a nation, but this is not true, as actually. when you dig into it. nevertheless, it has a lot of influence, so that i think that is why we are seeing resistance what we would call china realism , simply recognizing the chinese communist party for what it actually is, for what it is seeking to do, the united kingdom and around the world. we are not taking those steps, and that should be front and center for everybody, regardless of which political party they are associated with. christian: but have there been a

foreign influence registration scheme, and yang tengbo was put on that, because there are different levels of the establishment, and presumably politicians would have to declare that, what difference would that make in this case? luke: it would make due diligence easier, and certainly they would look at this registration scheme and they would see whether or not his name is on it. if it were, they would not associate with him. it would make that difference. more importantly for that, for those who do not register, and i underline here that it is highly unlikely that members of the front work department will voluntarily register, that will enable our security services then to pursue action against those who refused to register, and for that has tremendous value, i think. christian: right. in terms of this argument that was heard across the dispatch box about who was trying to be sycophantic to the chinese

state, why are we still calling this man h6 until this afternoon? why did we not know that his identity when the rest of the world seemingly didn't come under what basis was he given anonymity? luke: your guess is as good as mine. there are not criminal charges of leveled against him, and it only takes five minutes to find articles of this guy boasting of his achievements on the chinese internet. he's got a number of graphic pieces talking about the constellation of stars he's managed to gather around himself. so he was boasting about it and very happy to publish that. i can't understand why he would have been granted anonymity, so thankfully that has been lifted. christian: luke de pulford, thank you for coming on. luke: cheers. christian: the archbishop of york is facing calls to resign days before he takes temporarily

charge of the church of england. david tudor remains in place, being barred by his position for laying with children and excepting compensation. stevstephen cottre says he's apologizing and has led david tudor go. questions on stephen cottrell. he was questioned in detail about a priest in his charge. for decades, david tudor had faced allegations of abuse. in the late 1980's, he was even jailed for six months for the indecent assault of three underage girls. eventually, he was allowed back in essex.

for years, for years, many of the women who suffered abuse under david tudor did not know he was a priest again. some like rachel did not know he was operating with the provision he could not be left alone with children. rachel: he could not be left alone with children? >> but when he arrived, stephen cottrell did know that, and there was more to come. two years later, he found out david tudor had paid 10,000 pounds to a woman who had come forward to say he had abused her when she was a child. then not only did david tudor come under stephen cottrell, remain in post, he was named a chancellor cathedral. there are those who do not by the archbishop's defense that that was not some kind of reward

for david tudor. rt. rev. hartley: it is not good enough. including the title honorary, that is certainly not someone should be honored in that way. >> if you want to be superior -- >> eventually and 2019 when another police investigation was opened into david tudor, stephen cottrell did suspend him, nine years after he became bishop. but he said he acted as soon as he could. "the situation i faced," he says, "was horrible and ajar liberal. i'm deeply -- and intolerable. i'm deeply sorry we were n taket that was a situation i inherited." seeing him in the church were so long has had a lasting impact on those like debbie, who did not want to be identified what was sexually abused by him between the ages of 13 and 15. >> they endorsed what he did was ok, that taking people's lives

is ok to do, to take their children away from them, to limit her friendships with friends and family, carrying this thing for so many years. christian: plenty more on that story on the bbc website. we will take a short break. around the world and across the u.k., you are watching bbc news. ♪ ♪

christian: syria's former president bashar al-assad has issued his first statement since he was deposed just over a week ago, and which he says he had never intended to flee to russia. the statement was put on the telegram channel belonging to the syrian presidency, although it is not entirely clear who currently controls it or whether he wrote it. our moscow correspondent steve rosenberg reports. steve: where is bashar al-assad? he has not been seen since he fled syria. today, a statement, purporting to be from him, appeared on social media accounts of the

former syrian president, dateline moscow. it is unclear who controls the account and whether assad wrote this. "my departure from syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles. i remained in damasc, carrying out my duties into the early hours of sunday, the eighth of december. at no point did this and that -- during this event that i coider stepping down or seeking refuge." president putin, who met army cheese today, has reportedly granted a sought asylum, but the kremlin leader has said nothing publicly about it. most of this speech was about the war in ukraine. not a word about syria. despite having this naval base in syria in tatters and a base there, events there seem to have taken moscow by

surprise. it was war too distracted -- was russia too distracted by its war in ukraine? mp popov: no, we have not lost syria. we still have bases in syria. c: but you don't know the future of those bases will be. mp popov: yeah. of course. steve: a spokesperson said moscow was in contact with what he referred to as representative of those forces who control the situation in. a dialogue of russia's military presence there. if russia loses its status, it will lose its foothold in the eastern mediterranean. president putin has invested heavily in syria. what might the russian elite to be thinking about the fall of assad? andrei: i think we understand this is an putin's favor. they can be vocal. this is an example how the

autocratic regime could fall. steve: as president, bashar al-assad was a regular visitor to moscow. his exact whereabouts now remain a mystery. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. christian: well, it may be a mystery, but it seems like he will be well catered for. "the financial times" reports that he airlifted to hundred $50 million in cash to russia between 2015 and 2819. in a time when syria under sanctions was heavily indebted to russia. that lends to the syria-russia ties, especially since a thought and his family have chosen moscow for his refuge. there were some suspicions that they were using the ill-gotten gains to buy luxury properties in southwest syria.

bathey swiftly moved into an army positionlast week, to a previously demilitarized buffer zone. sunday, the israeli government approved a plan to expand its settlement in the occupied golan heights. there are more than 30 such settlements, an estimated 20,000 people. with us to speak about it all is david come a senior fellow of the washington institute. it is so good to have you on the program. let's talk about the money, first of all. it would be reasonable to assume that russia was being targeted as a haven for the assad regime, given the amount of cash that was spirited away. david: absolutely. this is one of the few places that i thought have relations where he was accepted, where he

could store his money during all these years, and i think for a side, it was a love more comfortable than northern korea. christian: why did you make of the first statement that we got from him today? david: i think it is brenda schmidt, it is a justification, and public relations after what can only be described as an incredibly embarrassing episode, not only for the assad regime, 50 years in power, ending with bashar, but also for putin, abandonment of a key ally in the middle east. christian: there's been all this talk in recent years about whether the sanctions worked, saddam hussein, and russia, in nortkorea, in iran. is this evidence, do you think, the fact that he was paying in cash or servis to

russia, that eventually the army fell because they were not being paid enough. is that evidence in your mind that maybe sanctions did work? david: well, it is difficult to prove. we know the army was demoralized. we know they are a conscript army, very little reason to be loyal to such a brutal regime that was murdering their fellow countrymen for so many years. but money was tight, and part of this is not just the morale of the army, but something like 80% of the syrian population have fallen below the poverty line. 90% devaluation of the currency. neighboring lebanon enduring financial labs, syria unable to retrieve dollars. i think all of this contributed to the brittleness of the regime. christian: we heard plenty of

comments from president-elect trump about the situation in the middle east. he talked about syria. he called it a "turkish 'tato," which is a curious phrase given that they are a u.s. ally. do you have any clue about what he wants and his involvement in syria? david: this turkish takeover, overwhelming support for the army, which acted as the tip of the spear during the final week or so of the rebellion, highly effective input turkiye really, and erdogan, in the cat-bird seat in syria, and now sweeping across the north and may be taking on the united states, turkish partners, syrian mocratic forces. from hess that he does not want to be involved. he may defer to erdogan and let erdogan deal with all of the

problems and isis in syria. we will see how that transpires. christian: it would appear that the europeans do want some involvement, though. we had a comment from the head of european affairs, saying russia and iran will not be allowed to return to syria. now we get word that the british government is sending 50 million pounds of humanitarian aid to the syrian people. they are not saying who that is going to come of it you would presume, would you not, that is going to the interim government? david: yes. a u.s. designated terror organization. listen come at the end of the day, this is a transitional government. people of syria are in great need of financial assistance, and the international community wants to be involved in one way or the other. i think there are issues of human rights, treatment of

minorities, christian, jews, shiite, kurd, going forward, we do not know how that is going to pan out, but i can guarantee you it will have a chance of ending better if there is some degree of lesser involvement -- western involvement. at the same time, i think this transitional government will remember that i ran, hezbollah, and russia helped kill the better part of the 500,000, mostly civilian, sunni muslims during this revolution. it will be hard for iran to get back again. there will not be a lot of help going to hezbollah. the question will be how russia will end up, if they will be allowed to keep their faces. christian: yeah. just a really quick thought on hamas and gaza. hamas hostages released, said trump today. david: he repeatedly said earlier there will be all hell

to pay for hamas, whether that is going through leadership or putting more pressure on bureaucrats in tehran. trump once all of these conflicts over by the time to get into office. that may be aspirational, but he seems to be pushing hard and threatening to get to that point before january 20. christian: david makovsky, thank you very much. for the security brief is coming up in the next half-hour. i hope you will join us for that. we will take a short break. we will be back after this. do stay with us. ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation.

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