BBC News Briefing

18 December, 2024

Sofia has shoulder-length brown hair and is wearing a green top

Sofia Lotto Persio

Hello. After nine years in power, Canada's Justin Trudeau finds himself at a crossroad. Nadine Yousif looks at the ways the prime minister could handle the country's deepening political crisis. In Idlib, Hugo Bachega finds out what life was like under the Islamist rebel group that's positioning itself to rule Syria. And finally, a caver is freed after 75 hours stuck underground.

TOP OF THE AGENDA

What Justin Trudeau might do next

Justin Trudeau points to the crowd mid-speech. His mouth is open wide. He has dark hair and blue eyes.

Trudeau has been leader of the Liberal Party of Canada since 2013 and prime minister since 2015. Credit: Reuters

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is navigating rough waters. His approval ratings have been plummeting and his party has recently suffered a series of special election losses. The resignation of his once close ally, finance minister Chrystia Freeland, compounded those problems this week. Behind the fallout was the threat of tariffs on Canadian goods from US President-elect Donald Trump, who wants stricter controls along the countries' shared border. Canada has promised to implement sweeping new security measures that appear to address Trump's concerns. A federal election is due by October at latest. How long before the vote depends on which path Trudeau takes next.

Trudeau's four options

GET UP TO SPEED

Sarkozy loses corruption case appeal

The former French president must wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for a year. He's expected to appeal to the ECHR.

What happened >

From left to right: UK property tycoon Nick Candy, tech CEO Elon Musk and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage pose for a photograph in front of a painting of Donald Trump.

UK party leader meets world's richest person

Nigel Farage's meeting with Elon Musk raises the prospect of the billionaire's involvement in British politics.

Chris Mason's take >

A woman with died orange hair covered by a light blue shawl sits ina courtyard, a pink tricycle visible behind her.

Missing woman returns home after 22 years

The 75-year-old Indian woman, who says she was trafficked to Pakistan, was spotted by her grandson on YouTube.

Read now >

AT THE SCENE

Idlib, Syria

Rebel-held city offers clues to future

A street in Idlib features a blue truck parked on the side of the row where a man is selling green leafy vegetables to two other men. One man is looking at the scene from his motorcycle, while two women are passing by. One woman is dressed in a black niqab that is only showing her eyes, while the other wears a bright pink coat and her head is covered by a white, pink and black hijab. This woman is holding a young boy by the hand.

HTS brought some semblance of stability to Idlib in 2017 after years of civil war. Credit: Reuters

It's from Idlib in north-west Syria that rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched the astonishing offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad earlier this month. HTS has its origins in al-Qaeda and is still described as a terrorist organisation by the UK, the US, the UN and others. In recent years, it has actively tried to rebrand itself as a nationalist force, distant from its jihadist past.

Hugo has short dark hair and is wearing a dark jacket with a high collar.

Hugo Bachega, Middle East correspondent

When we visited earlier this week, streets were relatively clean, traffic lights and lamp-posts worked, and officers were present in the busiest areas. Simple things absent in other parts of Syria, and a source of pride here. An hour's drive from Idlib, in the small Christian village of Quniyah, the church bells rang for the first time in a decade on 8 December to celebrate Assad's removal.

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"In the last two years, they [HTS] started changing… Before, it was very hard," Friar Fadi Azar said. Properties were confiscated and religious rituals restricted. "They gave [our community] more freedom, they called on other Christians who were refugees to come back to take their land and homes back." But is the change genuine? Can they be trusted? "What can we do? We have no other option," he said. "We trust them."

Keep reading

Russian base: BBC Verify has reviewed satellite images showing a large amount of military equipment being moved in what analysts suggest could signal preparations for a partial withdrawal.

Syria's transition: International editor Jeremy Bowen speaks to UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen about his concerns and hopes for the country.

Mass graves: Correspondent Lina Sinjab joins rescuers who are working to find sites of mass killings and identify the remains.

Three scenes from different TV shows have been amalgamated to for one. On the left is a woman in a green coat with a brown bob who appears to be signalling to someone out of shot, in the middle is a woman in a leather jacket who is on the phone and has short dark hair, on the right is a man coming up escalators in what looks to be an airport and he is carrying luggage and wears a brown leather jacket and white trousers.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

20 best TV shows of 2024

Got some time off over Christmas? Take a look at these binge-worthy series.

Here's the list

And finally... in Italy

More than 150 volunteers have taken part in an operation led by the Alpine Rescue corps to save a caver who got stuck while exploring an uncharted area of a cave system on Saturday afternoon. This was the second time in 17 months that Ottavia Piana has had to be rescued from the area - and likely the last too, as she told her doctors that she never wanted to set foot in the cave again. Watch the moment her stretcher was brought out at about 3am (2am GMT) on Wednesday.

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– Sofia

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