sumi: u.s.ry 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

sumi: you cast about an israeli presence in gaza.e israeli foreign minister saying, we will not allow terrorist activities against israeli citizens from gaza. we will not allow a return to the reality before october 7. practically, what would that look like? brian: i think with the israelis want to do is keep a hold of their two primary corridors that prevent movement of hamas militants and supplies through the gaza strip, including one on thegyptian border, and the other in the middle of the gaza strip. i think they would also do limited rates to disrupt hamas activity when they see it. i think you would be seeing more consistent military activity, but it would not be at the same large-scale we see today. sumi: would represent the palestinians in accepting that arrangement? brian: i think hamas wants to position itself to accept that arrangement. but i don't think it will be willing to accept those raids. i think that is part of what we still need to work out. sumi: i want to ask about syria, the other major story in the middle east

sumi: for more on u.s. investment in africa, i spoke to a democrat from illinois, a ranking member on the house committee on china. congressman, president biden visit in an effort to counter chinese influence in africa, what do you think of the massive railway project the president biden announced will do? rep. krishnamoorthi: i think it is a game changer. the chinese government actually tried to find a rehabilitation of that particular railway in 2017, but it was so shoddy that there are almost 10 accidents per year, and this is just an example of what happens when you bring the ccp, the chinese communist party come into the development game. they bring something called the belt and wrote initiative, which we call debt trap diplomacy. so this rehabilitation attempt failed, then the angolans turned to the europeans and americans to try to salvage this project. so now we are working on it, and we are working on a in a way at will help angolans but also help the world, since angola is such a source of critica

. ♪ sumi: welcome to world news america.ormer president bashar al-assad said he never planned to step down as president and insist he left syria at russia's request, according to a statement on the telegram channel belonging to the syrian presidency offering his view of the rebel offensive that toppled him. it is unclear who currently controls that channel or whether mr. assad wrote the post but he claims he was besieged on a russian base where he was overseeing combat operations only to find that syrian troops abandoned their positions. he went on to defend his record serving as president and said his bond with the syrian people remains unshaken. it comes as russia's military activity increases. russian forces were seen heading to the city of tartus. the european union's foreign policy chief is calling on syria's new leadership to expel russia's influence in the country. our russia editor steve rosenberg has more from moscow. steve: where is bashar al-assad? he has not been seen since he fled syria. today, a statement purpo

i am sumi somaskanda in washington. for watching and stay with bbc 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 nowest of p. >> good evening. i am geoff bennett. on the news hour t

guilty on count two, sumi. guilty on count three. let's remember...cks. it was an extraordinary moment, wasn't it? and there were people you saw... you heard cheering outside of the court. there were trump supporters who were protesting, and we heard then more and more colour from inside the courtroom, that donald trump was very angry, of course, with what he called a miscarriage ofjustice. but as i remember nada saying in that moment, you know, a president — a former president, now president—elect — who had constantly broken with presidential norms, here again was another unprecedented moment in the history of us politics. this is a monumentous moment in us politics, a defining one. donald trump continuing to shatter the norms of the nation's highest office. all of those legal issues were going on, but at the same time, so was the campaign. and the big moment injune, arguably the biggest moment of this entire cycle was that first presidential debate betweenjoe biden and donald trump in atlanta. i was down there for that and i remember writing in my n

yeah, you get a chair, sumi, that would be a starting point. so welcome to this episode of path to the presidency. we're back. we're moving away from election and towards inauguration. so welcome to this episode of path to the presidency. we're back. we're moving away from election and towards inauguration. but lots still going on and lots to discuss. and we are absolutely delighted to have a colleague with us today who hasn't been on this podcast before, but hopefully will again. nada tawfik, our new york correspondent. hi, nada. great to be with you guys. yeah, it's really good to see you. it feels like we get to cross paths with you at the big events, the conventions, and then whenever we're in new york. butjust if you're wondering, by the way, i am sitting on the floor once again here in the dc office because i realise, actually, it's pretty comfortable. but, caitriona, you look like you're in a jungle. i am in a jungle, yes. i'm in a very boring edit suite, tv edit suite. i don't even know what's on the side of me here, so please forgive m

if we do so, the russian army will move into the territory of ukraine in the direction of sumy — they where i was born, by the way — and they will continue their offensive, so we will have to keep some forces there, but to fight the war in our territory, defending the city of sumy and the region. so it makes perfect sense now to continue this operation. let's talk about recruitment just a little bit. i mean, you're a ukrainian citizen. you know the feelings of young ukrainians. many of them, it seems, now, are desperate to avoid being mobilised into the ukrainian army. we see desertion rates rising. some say 100,000 ukrainian men have, one way or another, avoided mobilization since 2022. we also see that in terms of corruption, people are paying hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars to get a ticket called a white ticket, to be given permission to avoid the military draft. again, ukraine can't afford this. how do you counter it? well, i believe it works the same way for every nation at war. the longer the war lasts, the more difficult recruiting gets. it has been the case for throu

sumi, maybe we need to start a path to the presidency cookie party for christmas.s matters, i mean, a lot going on, yet again, on our path to the presidency. and anthony, this issue of immigration flaring up again last week, in that interview that donald trump did with meet the press on nbc — and it's really kept going, hasn't it? it has, i mean, this is another example of how donald trump can drive the agenda, drive the conversation. i'm sure you've noticed that over the past month — and in donald trump's first term, where he says something and it becomes something that all of us start chasing around. and what he said in that interview was that he wanted to do away with birthright citizenship on day one of his next term in office. now, birthright citizenship, as i'm sure you know, is the the idea that someone born on american soil, regardless of who their parents are, is an american citizen by birth. it's grounded in the us constitution, in the 14th amendment to the us constitution that says people born in the united states — and subject to the jurisdiction thereo

and, sumi, it's great we have our fabulous colleague courtney subramanian with us today as well.rtney. hi. thanks for having me on, guys. great to see you, courtney. and if i'm not mistaken, i see some boxes behind you. you told us you're moving, right? or you did move. yes. - i did move. i've made the grave mistake of moving just before the holidays because i embrace the chaos. so here we are. you are brave. speaking of chaos, i mean, that kind of brings me to what i wanted to talk about today, which is the future of the democrats. they have endured a pretty chaotic election cycle in 2024. they've seen a lot of highs and lows, as you mentioned, this summer, with the push for biden to end his re—election, peaking with the democratic convention and all the energy around kamala harris's unexpected campaign, and then obviously culminating with the loss of the white house and the senate and narrowly, you know, control of the house. so there's been... i don't know about you guys, but i feel like over the holidays, you know, at a lot of these holiday parties, there's been a lot of fing

i'm sumi somaskanda. thank you forjoining us.he reshaping of the middle east. the un secretary general antonio guterres said there were signs of hope in syria with what he called the end of the dictatorship of president assad he was overthrown at the weekend. but idf strikes on gaza are continuing. gaza's civil defence agency said on wednesday that an overnight israeli air strike in the northern part of the territory killed at least 22 people, including women and children. syria's remains uncertain.

i'm sumi somaskanda. it's 1:00pm in seoul, after a night of political chaos.ep down, after he attempted to impose martial law. politicians rushed to parliament and voted to block the move, before mr yoon dramatically withdrew the order. the leader of president yoon�*s own party, the ruling people power party, says the president and the entire cabinet should resign, and that the defence minister should be sacked. the largest labour union says it's planning to go on strike until he leaves. no signs of that yet, but senior aides — including his chief of staff — have offered

that brings in all of the various parties, christians, druze, kurds, and of course the alawite and sumytions and we don't know ifjolani will be able to do that. is ifjolani will be able to do that. , , ., ., ifjolani will be able to do that. , ., , ., that. is he someone, “ust to develop that i that. is he someone, just to develop that thought, - that. is he someone, just to develop that thought, that l that. is he someone, just to i develop that thought, that you have a hunch that the rest of the region and the world can work with, and you work for presidentjumped in the president jumped in the previous presidentjumped in the previous administration, what will his approach be this time round? —— president drop. —— trump. he said the same thing all the time, he will be transactional.- all the time, he will be transactional. ~ . ., , all the time, he will be transactional. ., ., , , transactional. what he means is that he does _ transactional. what he means is that he does not _ transactional. what he means is that he does not want _ transactional. what he means is that he does not want

sumy in ukraine and salma abdelaziz joins us now to discuss the developments out of nato meetings in brussels. >> i mean, we're going to go back to the same point that you know, biden is a lame duck, almost. >> absolutely. >> and we have secretary of state antony blinken, who's just arrived in brussels for this foreign ministers meeting. >> i believe we have images to show you of him getting there. this could potentially be his last major meeting here with nato foreign ministers before, as you mentioned, of course, he is on the way out. he just before arriving in brussels yesterday, i believe, announced this massive new aid package for ukraine. more than $720 million. and what is unique about this package is that it's part of what is called presidential drawdown and it means that president biden can take from the u.s. stock us's own arsenal of weapons and send that straight to ukraine. that makes it much quicker to get out to reverse that. if he does it, president trump would not be able to reverse that. and all of this of course, laying the groundwork that president biden wants to l

the town of rylsk is located some 16 miles from the border with ukraine's sumy region.ts military had fought against north korean troops sent to bolster russian forces in the kursk region, as the war continues. they're said to be the best troops pyongyang has — which has raised questions about how effective they might be. the bbc has been talking to two former members of the north korean armed forces who have defected to south korea to find out more. do you think that there are going to be a lot of defections from the soldiers? now, here in the uk. the family of two men charged over an altercation at manchester airport say they have instructed the lawyer who represented the family of murdered teenager stephen lawrence, to represent them. mohammed amaaz, who is 20, and muhammed amaad, who's 25, have been charged with actual bodily harm over the altercation with police. mobile phone footage had shown one of the officers kicking and stamping on the head of one man while he was lying on the floor, as the incident came to an end. the cps says it took the combination of evide

they can hold out in kursk less confident of how long the west expects them to nick paton walsh cnn sumy, ukraine we have a major update in the case of hannah kobayashi. >> she vanished weeks ago, but authorities now say that her disappearance was, quote voluntary. where they spotted her and how her family is now reacting can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther. >> never too much new year's day on get your home ready for holiday gatherings with stanley steemer. >> we take care of the deep cleaning so you don't have to. make your home shine for your special occasions because not clean until it's stanley steemer clean when you see what it's really like when our skin touches wool, you see why we need downy free and gentle with no perfumes or dyes. >> it not only makes your clothes softer and is gentle on your skin, it breathes life into your laundry. >> no peeking. okay. okay. okay. >> i over 600,000 usps e

i'm sumi somaskanda. this could have you with us. we begin in syria, where shops are reopening and people are returning to work in the capital damascus, three days after the fall of the assad regime. the new interim prime minister, mohamad al bashir, has called on syrians abroad to return home. he says he wants to provide stability and calm in the country as day to day life gradually resumes. but many people across the country want to see revenge for the atrocities that happened under bashar al—assad's rule. fighters in syria set fire to the tomb of hafez al—assad, the father of the ousted president. and video from the family's hometown shows a coffin and parts of the mausoleum on fire. meanwhile, large crowds gathered in a suburb of the capital damascus for what they believed would be a public execution against those who committed atrocities under the assad regime. our international editor jeremy bowen sent this update. a warning, there are some disturbing images in his report. if only moving from dictatorship to freedom was as simp

i�*m sumi somaskanda. it�*s good to have you with us.confidence. michel barnier will become the shortest—serving prime minister in the history of modern france. the vote was decisive. 288 votes were needed to unseat mr barnier. in the end, 331 were cast to remove him. the budget, which was the cause of his downfall, is now defunct. france has been plagued by political uncertainty since the summer election resulted in a hung parliament, a result that can�*t be changed in an election before next july. in the meantime, president macron will address the nation on thursday evening. he�*s also expected to appoint a new prime minister quickly, not least because president—elect trump is due in paris this weekend for the opening of the notre dame cathedral. our paris correspondent andrew harding reports. moments before the voting began here in paris tonight, michel barnier made a final rather forlorn mp to french mps. the prime minister urged them to back him and his government and his budget, or create chaos. translation: ican't- believe a major

i'm sumi somaskanda. it is good to have you with us.ork is under way in syria to build a transitional government, 48 hours after the sudden collapse of bashar al—assad's brutal regime. no—one is officially in charge of the country. but power appears to be consolidating into the hands of abu mohammed aljolani, the islamist leader whose rebel group, hts, launched a lightning offensive that led to mr assad's downfall. mr assad has left the country and been granted asylum by russia. and the regime he left behind is swiftly falling in line behind the rebels. our correspondent yogita limaye now reports from the streets of damascus, as people celebate the end of the assad regime and wonder what comes next. a jubilant people pour into the capital's central square for a second day. a street party—like atmosphere. this might seem like a dangerous way to celebrate. but not in a country that has endured years of bombs and bullets, finally rid of a brutal dictator. anyone who wants to celebrate is coming here, to the central square in damascus. ever

i'm sumi somaskanda. it's 1:00pm in seoul, after a night of political chaos. calls are growing for south korea's president to step down, after he attempted to impose martial law. politicians rushed to parliament and voted to block the move, before mr yoon dramatically withdrew the order. the leader of president yoon�*s own party, the ruling people power party, says the president and the entire cabinet should resign, and that the defence minister should be sacked. the largest labour union says it's planning to go on strike until he leaves. no signs of that yet, but senior aides — including his chief of staff — have offered their resignation, according to local news agency had. —— yoonhap. the crisis has alerted many around the world. the us and the uk say they're relieved that the president reversed his decision, but are deeply concerned about what's happening in south korea. our correspondent is in the capital, and sent this report on how it all unfolded. soldiers and police following the orders of a desperate president. locked in a bitter fight with his polit

i'm sumi somaskanda. thank you forjoining us.to impose martial law. the country's opposition party is demanding president since a yoel is stepping down, and the legislator union says it is planning to go on strike until he does. president yoon has since reversed his shock decision, confirming the army had been withdrawn from the streets. he'd ordered their deployment a few hours earlier, accusing the opposition of being criminals. protestors, who'd gathered on the streets of seoul to demonstrate against the sudden introduction of military rule, are celebrating the equally sudden reversal. earlier, thousands of protestors clashed with police, as they tried to get into the national assembly building. some broke through barricades or climbed fences to get inside the building. president yoon suk yeol said he imposed martial law to protect south korea from what he described as "north korean communist forces". but less than two hours later, parliament defied the president and voted to block the move. this south korea is a critical us a

reported, but local authorities confirm no casualties or damage. meanwhile, and the north eastern sumi regions strikes at 12 residential buildings to schools and other infrastructure earlier the russian and ukrainian forces fried prisoners in a coordinated swap. brokered by the united arab emirates, the russian defense ministry says a 150 if its soldiers were released on by the russians soil, as they are now being transported back to russian territory. ukraine says a $189.00, if it's personnel were released. the lawyers of south korea's in peace president to you and so kill say they will fight an arrest warrant issued by a court on tuesday. investigators requests that the warrant after you and failed to appear for questioning several times you and was suspended from office after you attempted to impose martial law. earlier this month, he's facing potential charges of insurrection from mcbride reports from sol. for prosecutors investigating impeach, president june took jo, this move was unprecedented, but necessary on 3 separate occasions. they have summons june, for questioning on char

i'm sumi somaskanda, thanks for joining us. we begin in syria.t will suspend the constitution in parliament while it works out how to run the country. 0ther mahmoud el jennati said that a new committee will be established to make changes to the way that syria's is government over rate three—month transition period. a spokesman added that syria's religious and cultural diversity will not be threat. it comes as syrians continue to search presence and hospitals for news of missing loved ones who disappeared during asset's oppressive rule.

and you know, sumi, you mentioned some of those races playing out on the hill and i think that speaksation within the party, right, about where they should be and who should be calling the shots and leading the party and shaping the messaging coming out. i remember after 2016, when hillary clinton lost to donald trump, there was so much soul—searching that the democrats were supposed to be doing at that point and focusing on who was going to be the next generation of leaders. and that is what we're seeing on the hill right now with that wrestling over committee chairs. because right now, if you look at the leadership of the democratic party, you know, it's basically looking at a collection of grandparents, isn't it? whereas you look at the republican party and it's not that, and donald trump every day is announcing a new person who's going to be head of this, ambassador of that, whatever. and because he's, you know, kind of focusing on people who are on tv and stuff, which we can talk about later, like, they all look very glossy and shiny, which is in contrast to what we're seeing fro

because nita would still be in sumi, ensure to go, which is in the northeast of ukraine, and a missile. it would take 2 or 3 minutes to reach moscow from the area. so again, this would be a strategic defeat for russia. so there's no way that the russian would ever accept any sort of, uh, freezing of the conflict of any of that sword. on the other hand, we'll, the russian also wants to be careful about not making nato looks like at last. because this with galvanized nato and they would essentially bring any, even more of these extremists and an expansionist empower in the alliance. so russia certainly wants to make sure that there is no new iron curtain of any time. russia wants to, you know, re establish connections with you and the best buy course is that some very optimistic care of. i would like to agree that you are right. i'd like to think that way. but garland, when this conflict comes to an end, and none of us know how it's going to come to an end, it won't be really over. okay. the sanctions will not come to an end. and it will be a new type of complex, a rum state from ukraine

to my mind the demand was like sumy the bull's induction ceremony with trump in the role of the familys. asking me if i have what it takes to be a made man. i did not and would never. i was determined not to give the president any hint of assent to this demand, so i gave silence instead. and that moment described in detail in his book and then also testified to it at that dinner, was kind of the beginning of the end for james comey. because over the next several months he would keep investigating, trump keep pushing back, and eventually trump fired him. trump also admitted why he fired him on live on television. >> regardless of recommendation i was going to fire comey. knowing there was no good time to do it. and, in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story, it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election, that they should have won. >> so basically comey didn't pass trump's loyalty test, didn't lift the cloud of the russian investigation or put trump above the law so trump fired him. s

of their tiny range when the defenses fail the icy silence breaks moscow pummeling the border town sumy. here with a cluster munition missile that killed 12 in an apartment block. because ukraine is still inside russia, holding positions in kursk this thermal drone image shows just hours earlier, the dawn's fight in kursk for alexander group a contact robert saleh joe tague shtula. in the positions they've hit. no sign of the north korean troops meant to be in kursk. instead chechens, even african mercenaries. but above all endless waves of russians limit night time army to the west. his humvee is a mess. he hasn't slept for three days and shelling has damaged his hearing. but he knows what he'd say to president-elect donald trump when ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in the 90s, we were promised protection we don't believe that that is just ed lavandera sima merick anjali rao samuel luiz confident they can hold out in kursk less confident of how long the west expects them to. anderson, you heard about north korean troops there? well, there have been suggestions that they have, in fa

of their tiny range when the defenses fail the icy silence breaks moscow pummeling the border town sumyuster munition missile that killed 12 in an apartment block. because ukraine is still inside russia, holding positions in kursk this thermal drone image shows just hours earlier, the dawn's fight in kursk for alexander group a contact robert saleh joe tague shtula. in the positions they've hit. no sign of the

of their tiny range when the defenses fail the icy silence breaks moscow pummeling the border town sumy, here with a cluster munition missile that killed 12 in an apartment block because ukraine is still inside russia, holding positions in kursk this thermal drone image shows just hours earlier, the dawn's fight in curse for alexander group contact robert saleh in the positions they've hit. no sign of the north korean troops meant to be in kursk instead, chechens even african mercenaries but above all, endless waves of russians limit night missed his humvee is a mess. he hasn't slept for three days and shelling has damaged his hearing. but he knows what he'd say to president elect donald trump. when ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in the 90s, we were promised protection russia. >> we must know that so this chance was very ed lavandera sima merick anjali rao maya szaniecki confident they can hold out in kursk less confident of how long the west expects them to. >> well, jake today we've seen the german chancellor, olaf scholz, come to kyiv promising more air defense. but it's his fir

i'm sumi somaskanda, thanks for joining us. we begin in syria.he leader of one of the rebel groups that overthrew the assad regime's is the new interim government will suspend the constitution in parliament while it works out how to run the country. 0ther mahmoud el jennati said that a new committee will be established to make changes to the way that syria's is government over rate three—month transition period. a spokesman added that syria's religious and cultural diversity will not be threat. it comes as syrians continue to search presence and hospitals for news of missing loved ones who disappeared during asset's oppressive rule. jeremy browne is in damascus. his report has some details you might find upsetting ——jeremy some details you might find upsetting —— jeremy bowen. they have to find the missing and identify the dead before they can build a new syria. 35 more bodies of men killed in prison have arrived at the mortuary, and the hospital mortuary is full. the only way to find a missing son, father, or brother is to look for yourself. tra

i'm sumi somaskanda. thank you forjoining us. united nations says the world is witnessing the reshaping of the middle east. the un secretary general antonio guterres said there were signs of hope in syria with what he called the end of the dictatorship of president assad he was overthrown at the weekend. but idf strikes on gaza are continuing. gaza's civil defence agency said on wednesday that an overnight israeli air strike in the northern part of the territory killed at least 22 people, including women and children. syria's remains uncertain. fighters in syria have set fire to the tomb of hafez al—assad, the father of the ousted president. video from the family's home town shows a coffin and parts of the mausoleum on fire. meanwhile, large crowds gathered in a suburb of the capital damascus for what they believed would be a public execution against those who committed atrocities under the assad regime. our international editor, jeremy bowen, sent this update. a warning — there are some disturbing images in his report. if only m

my colleague sumi somaskanda spoke to her earlier.national movement - you're calling on western presidents to back a national movement in - you're calling on western presidents to back a national movement in yourj to back a national movement in your countries take to country what are you asking them to do exactly? country what are you asking them to do exactl ? ,, , , country what are you asking them to do exactly?— do exactly? sensing this in georgia to su ort do exactly? sensing this in georgia to sopport us _ do exactly? sensing this in georgia to sopport us in — do exactly? sensing this in georgia to support us in our _ do exactly? sensing this in georgia to support us in our european - to support us in our european integration and that is enshrined in our constitution and has been supported by our partners but also by the georgian population and more than 80% of them, whatever is happening, including the occupation of our territories and that determination has never flinched. so, we see on the streets the population wants nothing