Newshour

Lawmakers in South Korea have voted to remove President Yoon Suk Yeol from power, following his failed attempt to impose martial law. Crowds of protesters are celebrating outside parliament though a vocal minority is angry that some members of the governing right-wing party backed the measure. Mr Yoon is now suspended from office and South Korea's Constitutional Court has one-hundred- and-eighty days to rule on his political future.

Also in the programme: We ask what happens now to Russia's military bases in Syria following the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad; and we look at the Krampus Run - the end-of-year tradition where crowds gather to watch hundreds of people dressed in demon-like costumes run through towns scaring children.

(Picture: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers an address to the nation at his official residence in the capital Seoul. Credit: The Presidential Office/Handout via REUTERS)

We hear from a recent returnee celebrating in Damascus today.

France24 senior reporter Catherine Norris-Trent explains who the new French Prime Minister is and how long he'll last.

Also: can't stand fidgeting? It's called misokinesia.

(Photo by ANTÓNIO PEDRO SANTOS/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Syrians took to the streets in mass demonstrations on the first Friday without al-Assad. We hear from the centre of Damascus.

(Photo: Syrians in Latakia celebrate and wave the new Syrian flag. Credit: Reuters)

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)