After Assad has fallen, there are still many families searching for their loved ones in hospitals and morgues around the country. Tens of thousands of people were imprisoned under Assad's regime. Now that many have been freed, they must learn to survive after the trauma of torture and years of detainment. We speak to a specialist psychologist, working with the survivors of torture. Also on the programme: a breakthrough discovery finds that vaccines could be administered using a topical cream; and British military veterans who were sacked or imprisoned because of their sexuality can now claim compensation, we speak to a veteran who was outed by a British tabloid.

Image: Inside the Sednaya prison in Damascus, Syria Credit: Antonio Pedro Santos, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

A funeral has been held in Damascus for the Syrian activist Mazen al-Hamada, whose tortured body was found in the notorious Sednaya prison after the fall of the Assad regime.

Also on the programme: we hear about the attempts to rid Syria of chemical weapons and narcotics for export; and a week after declaring martial law, the South Korean president says he is defending democracy.

(Photo: Mourners carry the coffin of prominent Syrian activist Mazen al-Hamada in Damascus, Syria, 12 December 2024. Credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Interviews, news and analysis of the day’s global events.

Syrian rebels have set fire to the tomb of ex-President Bashar al-Assad's father in his former hometown in the western Syrian Latakia province. Meanwhile, shops are reopening and people are returning to work in Damascus as day-to-day life gradually resumes. We look at the impact of returning refugees on the Syrian economy, examine concerns over a precarious security situation with a possible resurgence of Islamic State and in doing so, we hear from Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, and from Damascus itself.

Also on the programme: South Korea deals with the fallout from last week's short-lived period of martial law and one humpback whale appears to have made one of the longest and most unusual migrations ever recorded.

(Photo: A man rides in the open trunk of a car in Aleppo, Syria. Credit: Karam al-Masri/Reuters)

Interviews, news and analysis of the day’s global events.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed it has troops operating in Syrian territory beyond the demilitarized buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. It added that its strikes were to prevent weapons falling "into the hands of extremists" as Syria transitions to a post-Assad era. We hear from Damascus and ask how Syria’s new rulers are likely to govern?

Also on the programme: Investigators continue to interrogate Luigi Mangione, the suspect in New York's health insurance boss killing; and Google's new quantum computer chip is hailed as breakthrough technology, but what can it actually do?

(Photo: Abu Mussab al-Halabi, a rebel fighter poses for a photograph after an interview in Presidential Palace, Damascus Credit: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

Families of Syrian prisoners have been streaming towards the prisons of the Assad regime, where tens of thousands were imprisoned and tortured for years.

Also in our programme: what could the future hold for Syria's government? The province of Idlib, which has been run by the country's main rebel group, might hold some clues; and we speak to the family of American journalist Austin Tice who was abducted in Syria twelve years ago.

(Photo: Syrians dig into the ground as they search for relatives they believe were held in secret cells at Sednaya prison, dubbed by Amnesty International as the 'Human Slaughterhouse'. Credit: Shutterstock / Mohammed Al Rifai)

Syrian rebels are working to form a transitional government, a day after they seized Damascus and toppled President Bashar al Assad. Rebel fighters have been securing public buildings in the capital, where joy at the end of 50 years of authoritarian rule is mixed with anxiety about the future. Syrian civil defence workers have deployed to the ousted Assad regime's notorious Saydnaya prison to investigate reports that people are still trapped in cells hidden underground.

(Photo: Syrian Democratic Forces capture al-Hasakah, Al Hasakah, Syria - 08 Dec 2024 AHMED MARDNLI/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

The Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad, managed to fly out of Damascus for Russia, before rebels led by the Islamist HTS group entered the capital last night. The rebel leader addressed crowds inside the historic Umayyad Mosque in the capital and told Syrians that they can now breathe freely. We hear from our correspondents in Damascus and Moscow and speak to one of what are likely to millions of Syrians forced to live abroad who now wants to go home.

Also on the programme we take a look at a cautious international reaction to the change of leadership, as the United States calls it a moment of risk and uncertainty.

(Photo: President Putin & Former President Assad; Credit: Reuters)

Five decades of authoritarian Assad family rule in Syria have ended with the president fleeing the capital before it fell to rebels without resistance. His former international backer, Russia, says he's left the country.

In this special edition of Newshour focusing on events in Syria, we ask what's next for a country that's been torn apart by civil war forcing millions of people to flee? Will there be an orderly transition of power to the rebels ? Why did the regime collapse so suddenly ? We'll hear from supporters and critics of the Assad government. And from the Red Cross in a chaotic Damascus - what the future is for the hundreds of thousands tortured and detained under Assad's murderous rule.

(Photo: People celebrate after Syrian rebels announced they've ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Beirut, Lebanon December 8, 2024. Credit: REUTERS/Ahmad Al-Kerdi)