Syrian rebels enter Homs and close in on Damascus

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

0:46Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Sunday 8th December. Islamist rebels in Syria say they've captured Homs, the third biggest city. Rebels are also closing in on the capital Damascus. nearly 14 years after the Arab Spring, is this the end for President Assad? South Korea's opposition fails to impeach the president over his short-lived declaration of martial law, and Notre Dame Cathedral has reopened more than five years after it was gutted by fire. Also in the podcast, why the killing of a health insurance boss has exposed anger at the US healthcare system, and...

1:24It was too good to be believed. The story hit the headlines all across India. But now after two weeks, it's turned out to be a hoax. The con man who claimed to be a long lost son.

1:40He may have survived nearly 14 years of civil war, but suddenly the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, is looking very vulnerable. Just over a week after Islamist rebels began their offensive, they say they have, quote, fully liberated Syria's third biggest city, Homs. Residents said security personnel were fleeing by motorbike, while commanders were reported to have left for the coast by helicopter. Footage from the scene showed people running in the streets against a backdrop of continuous gunfire.

2:15Later, residents said thousands of people had come out to celebrate the departure of government troops and calling for the end of decades of Assad family rule. Rebels have also been closing in on the capital Damascus, where protesters defied years of repression and tore down the Syrian flag and portraits of the president. Lina Shikuni is a Syrian journalist who works for the BBC World Service. She's been speaking to people in the capital. One source tells me that there hadn't been any presence of regular patrols as usual as they're used to in Damascus at night. People around the city are talking more in whispers about the fact that the last days of Assad might be coming soon.

2:58Everyone's confused. The situation for people inside is quite murky. And then you have a split society between people who are hopeful. They see themselves as having lived under a brutal dictatorship for all these years. There's another half of the population that is actually very worried about what's going to happen and is fearful of the future and what the end of the Syrian government or Bashar al-Assad's government might bring to Syria. Lina Shaikuni, Syrian journalist who works for the BBC World Service. I got the latest on events in Syria from our correspondent Hugo Bashega near the Turkey-Syria border.

3:44It does seem that the rebels are now advancing and there are reports now that they have moved towards the centre of the city. Again, very difficult to get a clear picture of what's happening, but there have been reports that they've captured the prison in Homs. Hundreds of prisoners have been freed and also army convoys have been seen leaving the city. There have been reports of military officers leaving a base in Homs in helicopters. So we saw that in the last few days, the regime tried to stop this rebel advancing homes because this is a strategic city. But now it seems that these insurgents are making progress.

4:21And it does feel that it is just a matter of time before they announce that they've seized this very important city, because this is the city that connects the capital with the rest of the country. And if they do manage to capture homes, it means that Damascus will be isolated from the rest of the country. They will now presumably move south towards Damascus, while other rebels from the south are approaching from that direction. Do we know where President Assad is at the moment? He hasn't appeared in public or hasn't made any kind of speech since the beginning of this crisis last week. But today was a dramatic day of events, not only because of what's happening in homes, but also because of this astonishing progress from other insurgents from the south.

5:09And now they are getting close to Damascus. So it does feel that the president is in a very difficult situation, unable to stop these rebels. And again, the military in some places are unable to stop this offensive. And in some places, it seems that they are unwilling to stop the rebels. We've seen reports of defections. We've seen reports of officers abandoning their positions. So the president is now in a very difficult situation. And again, a lot of people starting to believe that this is the beginning of the end of the Assad regime. Hugo Bershega, near the Turkey-Syria border. So just how critical is it for the Syrian president?

5:48Kaji Madeira asked our security correspondent Frank Gardner. President Bashar al-Assad's regime is in the most danger it has ever been since the much maligned Arab Spring first erupted in 2011. And at the time in the summer then when that revolution was gathering pace, a lot of people thought he wouldn't be able to survive to the end of the year. But later on was the help from the Russian Air Force, from troops on the ground from Hezbollah and from Iran. They were able to prop up his regime. And he had largely won, actually. He had largely defeated the revolution or the uprising. But this time, Russia is distracted.

6:23Their main effort is in Ukraine. Iran and Hezbollah are weakened by months of tit-for-tat and fighting with Israel. And he's pretty much on his own. The Syrian army is weak. They can't fight this on their own. They're demoralized. They are defecting. They're surrendering. They have simply, as you heard there, fallen away in the cities that the rebels have taken. In Halib, that's Aleppo up in the north, in Hama, in Daraa in the south, which was the birthplace of the uprising. So this does now feel like the dying days of this regime. The only ways I think it could be saved for him is if there was some kind of military intervention by an outside force.

7:01I don't think the Syrian army is strong enough to do it on its own, or if some deal was stitched together by foreign ministers, but I think we've got beyond that point. They'd be meeting in Doha, the Qatari capital. So you've got Russia, Iran, Turkey and other foreign ministers all meeting there. They've been trying to hammer out some kind of a political deal, but it's a bit late for that. That was offered to President Bashar's regime and he wouldn't listen. He didn't want to compromise at all. And he's probably left it too late now. It would be extraordinary if he is able to survive this. But he survived 2011.

7:34So who knows? Is this lightning offensive about toppling Assad or is it about imposing some sort of other agenda? Well, it's first of all about toppling his regime. Let's be clear. Bashar al-Assad's regime is a murderous, brutal dictatorship. He has butchered thousands of his own people. He's tortured them. He's gassed them. And he's lied through his teeth to interviewers saying, why would I gas my own people? Who would do that? Well, here's a clue. Him. He did it. And the facts and the evidence are right there. They're indisputable. Independent people have gone on the ground, taken the evidence, and it's there.

8:13So it's tempting to say whatever replaces him is better. But I'm not sure that that's not necessarily a given, because let's have a look at who these people are. HDS, which is the main rebel group, it stands for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Organisation for the Liberation of Syria. They started out being allied to al-Qaeda, not exactly the most peaceful and inclusive organisation on the planet. They split from al-Qaeda in 2016, but they are at heart, many of them are jihadists. They believe in holy war, as it were, and imposing their version of Islam. Now, their head, Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, is a canny guy.

8:54He's been giving interviews to people like CNN, and he said, when we win, and we will win, we will establish a pluralistic, inclusive rule. In other words, minorities have nothing to fear. They do fear it. The Christians and the Alawites. So Bashar al-Assad's regime, they are Alawite Shiites. And the rebels are primarily Sunnis. So there's a lot of fear amongst Christians and this very small number of Jews, Druze and Alawites as to what kind of a rule this is going to be. And I think it's possible we could actually see a period of chaos. Damascus hasn't fallen yet. And it could be that the front line stagnates and that the regime is walled in in the capital for some time.

9:38But my gut feeling is that I think it's going to fall. The BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, and we'll have more on events in Syria later in the podcast. Some other news now, though, and the South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol has avoided impeachment over his shock declaration of martial law last week. Most politicians from his party boycotted proceedings despite a vast demonstration outside parliament calling for him to go. Rupert Wingfield-Hay sent this report from the South Korean capital.

10:12After three days without a word, at 10 o 'clock this morning, President Yoon Suk-yeol finally appeared on television to address the South Korean nation. The declaration of martial law was born out of desperation, he said. I sincerely apologise to the people who must have been alarmed. I will not avoid legal or political responsibility. And that was it. Less than two minutes. No real explanation and definitely no resignation.

10:47By mid-afternoon, huge crowds had begun to gather outside the National Assembly, while inside, legislators prepare to vote on President Yoon's impeachment.

11:01So I'm now standing in the middle of a huge crowd of opposition supporters who are, I think the only word I can use is they are besieging the front gates, the main entrance to the National Assembly building. There are literally tens of thousands of people out here this afternoon and there are thousands and thousands more streaming in all the time. The message from the crowd here is simple. President Yoon must go.

11:36So now you can hear the chant from the crowd is open, open, open. The police are trying to block the crowd from occupying the street in front of the National Assembly and they're saying, open, open, open. And they're now surging forward, pushing the police line back, opening up the road in front of the National Assembly for the protests to take over. I cannot believe this is happening in the 21st century. But I'm very glad that citizens came out to protest against this ridiculous situation. and we will march on until our democracy finally triumphs over this.

12:22But as evening turned to night, it became clear the motion for impeachment would not pass. With 195 votes in favour, it had fallen just five votes short of the majority needed. At 9.30, the House Speaker called the session to a close. So the vote is over and out here on the streets, there is obviously huge disappointment that they failed to win, that they failed to get the impeachment motion through. They're still chanting, President Yoon stepped down. The Democratic Party, the opposition party says this fight is not over. President Yoon may have survived this first attempt to remove him, But the street protests will continue, they say, until the president resigns or is removed from office.

13:09Our report from the South Korean capital Seoul by Rupert Wingfield Hayes. Five and a half years after it was gutted by fire, a refurbished Notre Dame Cathedral has reopened in Paris. A lavish ceremony was overseen by the French president Emmanuel Macron with Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky among the guests. This report from Andrew Harding. The famous bells ring out once more. Then three knocks at the cathedral door, and Notre Dame is officially reopened, some would say reborn. Inside, no hint of the fire's damage. Instead, gleaming limestone and a host of VIPs. Prince William is here, alone, to represent the United Kingdom.

14:00Greeting Donald Trump, who seemed close to arm-wrestling the French President Emmanuel Macron. Applause inside for the firemen who tackled the blaze and saved much of the building. And a French thank you projected on the outside. President Macron, weakened politically these days, sought to inspire and to unite. We have rediscovered what great nations can accomplish to achieve the impossible. This cathedral has shown us what a nation is and what the world should be. It was late on the 15th of April 2019 that Notre Dame caught fire. An inferno spread. A watching world gasping as the famous spire collapsed.

14:50But the work of 2 ,000 craftsmen and women, a flood of donations and a strict deadline have brought France's most beloved building back to life. Before tonight's ceremony, time for a short meeting between Macron, Trump and Ukraine's embattled leader, Volodymyr Zelensky. It certainly seems like the world is going a little crazy right now, and we'll be talking about that. But the focus was on one building that has weathered centuries of storms and has re-emerged looking and sounding perhaps even better than new. Andrew Harding in Paris. And still to come on the Global News Podcast. The digital medium is going to change our whole attitude about art and it's going to take it more into a democratic, egalitarian world.

15:41Celebrating digital art before the internet at a new exhibition in London.

15:52If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, back to our main story now. And as Syrian rebels close in on the capital Damascus, foreign ministers from three of the major power brokers in the region, Russia, Iran and Turkey, have been holding emergency talks in Qatar.

16:43Foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia later joined them. And in the past few hours, they issued a statement calling for a political solution in Syria. Our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette, is in Qatar. I've just spoken to the UN special envoy for Syria who was at those talks. And there seems to be a consensus that they know that things are moving fast on the ground and potentially out of control. But they seem to be agreeing that every effort must be made to prevent the kind of collapse, the precipitous collapse that could set Syria on a spiral of violence and chaos at a time when at least two different rebel groups are pushing towards Damascus.

17:26So they've been underlining the escalating crisis and that the collapse seems almost certain, but they still think there is a chance that they can convince the rebels to hold fire and to try to agree on some kind of an orderly transition. Now, of course, the reality on the ground is such that the rebels now seem bent. This victory is within touching distance. and whether or not they would agree to that is a very, very big question at this hour. One of the senior officials in that meeting told me it's over, that Russia and Iran understand there is nothing that they can do now militarily to save their ally that they have done so much to keep in power.

18:10The big question at this hour, is President Assad going to stay and fight or is he going to flee? There have been offers made to him. He could go to Moscow. He could go to the United Arab Emirates, where his family has already gone. But tonight, the meetings are still going on. That is the big question this hour. What is President Assad going to do? Is he going to go down fighting, or is he going to get out as fast as he can? Lise Doucette in Doha. Forensic tests are being carried out on a backpack found in Central Park in New York, which is thought to belong to the gunman who shot dead the boss of a major health insurance firm on Wednesday.

18:49Brian Thompson was gunned down in the street as he was preparing to host an investor conference. The New York Police Commissioner says her officers believe the gunman has now left the city. The motive for the attack is under investigation, but it has provoked a wider debate over the state of health insurance in the US. Jessica Glenza is a senior health reporter at The Guardian US. She told Sean Lay about some of the reaction to the killing. I've received emails that said the senders were happy about the killing of Brian Thompson, which frankly is an abhorrent sentiment. So the reaction has been strong, immediate, frankly, disgusting on some level.

19:27That being said, as a reporter on the U.S. health system, I spend my entire life working on stories about the ways that these enormous corporations like United Health Group are denying care for their beneficiaries. They've been criticized for denying care for the elderly and chronically ill. So the ubiquity of bad experiences that people have had with these companies, I think, is coming out right now. So, Jessica, that gives us a sense of where the anger comes from, notwithstanding that this is an abhorrent crime that was committed on Wednesday. Have you specific examples from your reporting of the sorts of situations that get people so angry about their health care or rather their lack of health care as they seem to perceive it?

20:15A few years ago, I did a story on a family that was besieged by medical bills after their infant son died after multiple surgeries. So this family was already obviously traumatized by the loss of their son, but then was pursued by debt collectors after their insurance did not cover a portion of those medical bills. These are the kinds of experiences that are happening to people across the country and increasingly, especially as insurers use artificial intelligence to deny care in batches. So you can see what I mean about the Kafkaesque situation that people find themselves in, the ubiquity of this situation, and then their feeling that they have nowhere to turn when it comes to enforcement of laws around how these insurance companies treat them.

21:04Is healthcare an example of that thing we've heard so much about during the course of an election year, a sense of political disenfranchisement for many Americans that they're told, look, we've given you this great system, isn't it wonderful? It doesn't work for them. And nobody seems that interested in doing anything about it. Absolutely, because people feel they have nowhere to turn when it comes to correcting these things that have happened to them, particularly as the majority of their representatives, both at Congress and at the state level, are receiving donations from pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, hospital corporations.

21:39they sort of feel beleaguered. And I think that is a correct estimation of the situation here in the United States. I think it's an enormous burden on Americans and something that is seen as a hated and intractable quagmire by many. You've just talked about the kind of disenfranchisement idea. We have a lot of people expressing anger against Big Pharma. We know that the man who's been nominated to be Health and Human Services Secretary in the next Trump administration, Robert F. Kennedy, is one of those critics. Is this an area which he is likely to become involved in? I think it's a complicated question because as much as Robert F.

22:18Kennedy might like to do something like that, and as much as his crack record as an environmental attorney might suggest that he might be interested in doing something like that, he's going to be a part of the Trump administration, which is fundamentally deregulatory. US health reporter Jessica at Glenza. Firefighters in the Dutch city of The Hague say a survivor has been pulled from the rubble of an apartment block after a series of large explosions. At least three people died and three others were injured. It's thought others may be trapped in the wreckage. More details from Anna Holligan. All of the roads around this neighbourhood have been cordoned off.

22:53People have been evacuated from their homes. There is a deep sense of shock within this community but also confusion because Police are still trying to establish the cause of the blast. They're asking for witnesses to come forward in relation to a car that was seen speeding away from the scene shortly after the explosion, but it's still unclear as to whether or not there is a link. They're also investigating the discovery of a burnt-out car that was found shortly afterwards, about 10 metres away from here. Emergency services are working at the scene. They have a crane and a drone in operation.

23:32picking through the rubble. But the mayor of The Hague has warned the people in this community to expect the worst. Anna Holligan reporting from the Netherlands. Police in India say a con man pretending to be a long lost son has been arrested for exploiting a number of families over two decades. Indrat Raj Maghawal claimed to have been kidnapped as a child and kept in servitude before a supposed reunion. But his deception has now come to light, as I heard from our South Asia regional editor, Anbarasan Eti Rajan. Two weeks ago, it was too good to be believed, the story itself. Someone comes and then says, you know, I'm your son.

24:10I was taken as a captive by a cattle herder, tied to a chain for nearly 20 years. I was looking after the cattle. I managed to escape and then he comes and meets his, whom he called the parents. It was a lot of joy. So that news hit the headlines all across India. But now after two weeks, the story has turned out to be a hoax. And now police say that this man has been doing this for several years. It was not the first attempt. Then when they started digging up the stories, they found out that he had been with several families in the last 10 years or 20 years. And he found families who were missing a child.

24:47Basically, he would walk into a police station and then say he was kidnapped and he was kept in some place. or he will come out with a very credible story, which the police would believe and he wanted to be reunited with the family. So now the police will go through the records and then say, who all have complained about missing son in the last 20, 30 years? Because in India, it's a huge country with 1.4 billion people. Thousands of children get lost every year. So when the parents come in to the police stations, he listens to the stories of these people. And what police were saying, in a way, he was so deceitful, he would listen to the story and pick up from which one was the most, you know, he can relate with them.

25:25So then he says, oh, that was my father. That was my mother. And then he goes with them. So police also say, okay, one case solved. You can go with them. But in this case, what happened to Tula Ram, the latest person who took him to his woman, the mother was very fond because he was seeing a son after so many years and they missed the only son. And then he said after three days, he was trying to leave. So he got a bit suspicious why he was trying to leave. My wife was so much affectionate. and always when you come back after 30 years, you would try to be very normal with family. But here he was behaving in a suspicious way.