astana have their moments, but chelsea eased towards the win.its five out of five. their place in the knockouts is safely wrapped up. joe lynskey, bbc news. makes you appreciate the british weather a bit. hearts are playing fc copenhagen in the danish capital. it kicked off at a quarter to six. three points for hearts would confirm their place in the conference league play—off round. copenhagen have had more chances, but it's goalless at half—time. also tonight, a huge game for tns, who play in the welsh premier. the shropshire—based side take on 20—time greek league champions panathanaikos at shrewsbury�*s new meadow. that game kicking off at 8 o'clock, and chris wathan is there for us. while champions have already made history simply by reaching this stage. —— while champions. but there is still a chance they can break even more new records —— welsh. a draw would keep alive hopes of progressing in the competition. a win would mean they only need a point against bottom seat slovenian team in the final fixture next week. to do that they would ha

knockout stages of the europa conference league after a much—changed side won 3—1 in kazakhstan against astana up of mainly fringe players and youngsters. marc guiu with their opener in freezing conditions in almaty. it's a 16—hour round trip. chelsea face brentford in the premier league on sunday as they look to keep pace with the leaders liverpool. that's five wins from five for them in europe for enzo maresca. these are just some of the other results from the conference league. fiorentina 7—0 winners over lask, and a solid win for dutch side cercle brugge, too. all the results are on the bbc sport website. it's five wins from five for manchester city in the women's champions league as they beat austrian side st polten 2—0. it means they're top of their group, three points clear of barcelona, who beat hammarby 3—0. city and barca are already through to the quarterfinals, as are bayern munich and arsenal, who also both won their respective matches againstjuventus and valerenga. manchester city's men's side are not fairing as well as the women in europe this season. after their defeat to juven

decade—long fight between the opposition and the syrian government will stop the risk was minimised by the astanadiated by iran and turkey, that there would be areas without fighting. these areas were four areas in the south, in the middle and in the north. now, the fighting is back. there is kind of risk on both parties but the situation, the scene is different now as the main allies of the syrian government, which is russia. russia is busy with the fighting with ukraine. that was not the case five years ago. and hezbollah and iran are very busy with fighting with israel, and that wasn't the case five years ago. and that wasn't the case five years age-— and that wasn't the case five years ago. mass protests are continuing in georgia for a third consecutive night. riot police used tear gas and water cannon in the centre of tbilisi, where demonstrators have set up barricades. police say 107 people have been arrested. the unrest was triggered by the government's decision to delay moves to join the european union. the pro—western president of georgia has told the bbc she'll stay in her post. salome

to the uefa conference league now, and a much changed chelsea have beaten astana in kazakhstan by threeemain comfortbly on top of the table with a 100% record. chelsea making ten changes with the squad made up of mainly fringe players and youngsters. marc guiu with their opener in freezing conditions. in freezing conditions in al maty. it's a 16—hour round trip and chelsea face brentford in the premier league on sunday as they look to keep pace with the leaders liverpool. that's five wins from five in europe though for enzo maresca's side. after their defeat to juventus last night, manchester city's attention turns to playing manchester united on sunday. for city, its seven defeats in ten — just one win, the worst run of manager pep guardiola's managerical career but he believes the side is still playing well despite the results. you said what happened in the result is the _ you said what happened in the result is the one _ you said what happened in the result is the one question. _ you said what happened in the result is the one question. i— you said what happened in the result is the

those foreign ministers i mentioned were part of something known as the astana process, as in the meetingsout a political future for syria. bashar al—assad was not interested in talking about any transition of power whatsoever and he has now paid the price. the early signs are quite encouraging that there could be an orderly transition of power. why? because the leader of the main rebel group hts, hay�*at tahrir al—sham, this is somebody called abu mohammed al—jolani, he has said that we are going to respect minorities, there is not going to be a great big blood—letting and vengeance and so on. but he is only one person at the head of a very large sprawling coalition of rebel groups and there are some pretty hardcorejihadists in amongst them. let's not forget that hts is still a proscribed terrorist organisation, proscribed by the un and by many governments. it is going to have to prove itself in the coming days, weeks and months that it is absolutely true to its word and has left its terrorist roots behind, because people will be thinking about what happened in afghanistan when the taliba

there has been a discussions around trying to revive diplomatic discussions around the astana framework. again turkey, iran and russia in an attempt to try to guarantee some sort of security and stability within a framework already established that has already attempted to secure peace on that front. but again, russia has long been a key backer of bashar al-assad's regime. and as we have seen now in the last few days, is already coming to support bashar al-assad's armed forces in carrying out these airstrikes. but of course, important to remember that the timing here is interesting as well. this comes at a time where both russia and iran and of course, iran backed hezbollah in lebanon, are all already under pressure with the war in ukraine ongoing and, of course, with iran and hezbollah engulfed in hostilities with israel as well. so certainly a time where we already are seeing bashar al-assad's backers under pressure and preoccupied, perhaps an opportunity taken by rebel groups, the fear, of course, is around the domino effect that this could lead to. and also, of course, what this wil

show as he helped chelsea into the knockout stage of the uefa conference league with victory against astanazakhstan. a much changed squad of young and fringe players made the 16 hour round trip to almaty for the match, which was played in temperatures of around minus 11 celsius. and chelsea's ability to field an almost entirely different starting line up to the team that beat tottenham was on show as they got the job done with all the goals coming in the first half. lots more games going on in the conference league tonight — far too many for us to show you — but a few games of note. fiorentina put seven past lask whilst elsewhere hearts suffered a 2—0 defeat away to copenhagen. northern ireland side larne were beaten for the fifth time in the competition, 2—0 by dinamo minsk. shamrock rovers have the lead whilst the new saints are losing. keep up to date with a full list of scores on the bbc sport website. to the women's champions league where already—qualified manchester city are looking to secure top spot in the table they're playing st polten and it's currently goalless while barcelona a

of course, for members of the astana framework which of course has been such a focal point in the past with regards to mediating any sort of peace agreements in syria. so russia, of course, has been key in this. iran and turkey, we've heard from the iranian foreign ministry, the foreign minister there holding calls with his turkish and russian counterparts. russia, of course has long time been a key backer of the assad regime, supporting them with with airstrikes in the past. the concern is that this could again escalate as we have seen in the past, there has been calls from regional leaders for calm for this to be de-escalated remains to be seen whether that pressure will lead to any sort of movement on the negotiation table. >> all right, we shall see. nadia bashir in london. thank you so much. meanwhile in southern gaza, the israeli military struck a vehicle on saturday, killing three. world central kitchen workers. the idf claims one of those workers was a terrorist who took part in the october 7th attack on kibbutz nir oz. the world central kitchen, for its part, denies any knowle

in the conference league, chelsea beat astana 3—1, while in the europa league, manchester united cameore than 60 years since these two sides met competitively. rangers fans have suffered a poor start, but their season has improved. but despite the riches of the premier league team, times are tough for tottenham. theirfans heading north to support them. and how rangers would love to exact revenge on ange postecoglou, the man who used to manage their bitter rivals celtic. the home side came close early on — a chilly ibrox bouncing, notjust to keep warm. it was goalless at half—time, spurs not connecting — much to their manager�*s disgust. rangers capitalised. captainjames tavernier�*s cross in, and hamza igamane set ibrox alight — giving them an early christmas present. just look at them in here! but tottenham weren�*t going home empty—handed either, slicing through the defence. kulusevski! and there�*s how you save face. with just minutes to go, rangers had a chance to win it... ..but the spurs keeper was equal to the shot. a draw might not please the fans, or the managers, but it cert

the moment which the us is, i'm sure, closely monitoring the so-called guarantor countries of the astana process, which was the process by which the international community was helping was trying to help syria find a political solution. >> these countries met in doha just this weekend russia turkey, iran to discuss the latest developments on syria. as you rightly point out, there is some a sense of abandonment by a very depleted iran an abandonment of the assad regime, an abandonment by the russians of that very same regime, and a turkey who feels somewhat emboldened influential, will seek likely further influence in the country going forward. what does that political solution then look like today? we have, you know, the leader of a rebel group in charge, it seems, of what, at least in principle will be the early days of a transition, a group that is designated by the u.s. and others as a terror group. um what do you make of what happens in the days to come? it certainly feels to me as if a political solution of the sort of un resolution 2254 ilk of nine years ago is really very redundan

they were together as part of the astana process meant to seek a political solution to the syrian conflict. geir pedersen was speaking to there. they expressed concern for the syrian people even as events on the ground sped forward at lightning speed. it was an unexpected pace. turkey particularly concerned about potential refugees they say millions of syrians, of course have sought refuge in other countries since the civil war began in 2011. the majority have settled in turkey. nearly 3 million more than 7 million are internally displaced. well russia had been a strong supporter of the assad regime, particularly since 2014. they helped keep him in power during what has been this country's civil war. let's get you some more perspective now from cnn's paula newton. paula, how was assad supported by russia and why? what was moscow's interest in what was a very significant presence there? >> absolutely. >> a significant press presence and definitely, as you say, for about a decade now, and russia, in coming to assad's aid. and as you know, becky, it is very doubtful that assad would have been