Israel's government has approved a plan to encourage the expansion of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was necessary because a "new front" had opened up on Israel's border with Syria, after the fall of the Assad regime. We hear from a former Israeli Prime Minister, who says the move is an unnecessary provocation.

Also on the programme: We get a sense of the devastation in the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, where its feared hundreds of people have been killed by Cyclone Chido; and explore why America's ABC News agreed to settle its defamation case with Donald Trump.

(Picture: Israeli military vehicles ride through Syria close to the ceasefire line between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria Credit: REUTERS/Jamal Awad)

The US's top diplomat is in Jordan for talks with representatives from several Arab countries, Turkey, and Europe to discuss the future of Syria following the ousting of the former president, Bashar al-Assad. Also on the programme, the South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has vowed to fight for his political future, after parliament voted to impeach him over his failed attempt to impose martial law; and, the director of "Goodbye Lenin", Wolfgang Becker has died.

(Photo: Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Pool via REUTERS)

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.