hagar chemali, thank you. she worked on syria and lebanon on the obama administration.bc news. let's look at some other stories making news in the uk. a woman who threw a milkshake over the reform uk leader, nigel farage, has been given a13—week suspended prison sentence. victoria thomas bowen, who's 25, admitted assault by beating and criminal damage at an earlier hearing. nigel farage criticised the sentence, saying it shows "you can assault a member of parliament "and not go to prison". a 12—year—old girl has appeared in court charged with the manslaughter of an 80—year—old man, who was injured while walking his dog in a park near leicester. bhim kohli died in hospital after the alleged attack in september. the girl cannot be named because of her age. deputy prime minister angela rayner has set out plans for a redesign of local government in england. district councils will be incorporated into wider authorities and new elected regional mayoralties created. ministers say the changes would empower local leaders and could save up to £2 billion. you're live with bbc news

all right hagar chemali, thank you for for that context for walking us through this. we really appreciate it thanks um, we're gonna have more of our breaking news coverage when we come back. a resident in the capital of syria says rebel forces have entered damascus as they fight to take over the capital. and overthrow the country's president. we are monitoring this very closely. we'll have new details for you here in the cnn newsroom tomorrow on cnn, it's a night that's good for the soul. >> join anderson cooper and laura coates for cnn heroes, an all star tribute thank you guys. meet the honorees and celebrate their life changing achievements they're ordinary people doing extraordinary things. then find out who will be named the cnn hero of the year. >> it's really incredible. >> plus, don't miss a special tribute to this year's legacy award honoree michael j. fox, cnn heroes, an all star tribute tomorrow at 8:00 on cnn it's the most wonderful time with verizon. >> trade in any phone, any condition for a limited time. get iphone 16 pro on us and ipad and apple watch

i spoke with hagar chemali, former director for syria and lebanon in the national security council ination about whether the international sanctions on damascus will be lifted. i don't see it happening until his words are backed by actions. he is saying all the right things, he has promised minorities will be protected, promised to work with other partners to hold elections, he says he wants peaceful international relations, he is saying all the right things but as we know he has a chequered past as a former al-qaeda leader and while he has disavowed global terrorism and ties with al-qaeda, he governed the north—west corner of syria just up until last week, in a conservative, radical and repressive islamist way, and so we have to have some time to see if his actions will be backed up by those words before anybody will consider withdrawing sanctions, notjust sanctions on damascus but sanctions regarding hayat tahrir al—sham because it is designated not just by the us and uk but the united nations as well. there are some calls to delist the rebel leaders, hts, as terrorists, do you see

we're joined now by josh rogin, columnist for the washington post also with us, hagar chemali former director for syria and lebanon at the white house national security council. josh, you hear kirby there saying this morning it's an open question. who's running syria which way could this go right. no, i mean i would direct kirby to watch what's going on in damascus. >> there's a lot of interesting things developing. the, uh the a man by the name of mohammed al bashir has been appointed to form a temporary government. he's from the opposition. one of the opposition technocratic governments that had formed to administer free areas of syria in idlib. jolani, the head of fts, met with bashir and assad's prime minister to arrange a peaceful transfer of power. that's a positive sign. the state employees were told to return back to work general amnesty was given to all syrian military conscripts. uh the the new government said all women can wear whatever they want. journalists shouldn't be harmed. they're getting the airports back up. they're going to get the banks back up. uh so, you know,