BBC Anchor

The Prime Minister is not the most powerful job in France, but it's a role that's been causing the President, Emmanuel Macron, plenty of problems. The last one, Michel Barnier, was forced out in a no-confidence vote after a couple of months. Now President Macron has named François Bayrou as the next Prime Minister.

But will he fare any better, given the divisions in Parliament where no party has a majority? I heard more from our correspondent in Paris, Hugh Schofield.

Yeah, he's kind of, as you say, got the job he's always wanted. But can he survive the political headwinds that brought down Michel Barnier?

Women in Iran who refuse to cover their hair with a hijab face arrest, beatings and prison. And things could be about to get worse. A new law imposing harsher penalties on women who break the strict Islamic dress code is now being sent to the president for his signature. Masoud Bezeshkian, who took office in July, has five days to sign it, though he has expressed some reservations about the law.

I heard more from Mina Joshaghani of the BBC Persian service.

Now, we know the new president, a relative moderate, doesn't like the morality police. He doesn't want women to be forced to wear the hijab. Will he sign this law? And if not, will it go ahead?

Our correspondent in Damascus, Lena Sinjab, was there.

But in a word, even if he doesn't sign it, it can still go through? This can go through, yes. The UK royal family have not had the best press in recent years, none more so than the king's brother, Prince Andrew. He stepped back from royal duties in 2019 after public anger over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

But now another of his friends, a Chinese businessman he describes as a close confidant, has been banned from the UK on national security grounds. Our reporter Graham Satchell spoke to Bernadette Kehoe.

Here in Britain, as elsewhere, people are struggling with the high cost of living and Christmas can be a difficult time for many. Surveys suggest that people are tightening their belts and spending less on festivities and on presents for their families. But as Richard Hamilton found out, that's not the case when it comes to pets.

This is Minnie. To be honest, they're only eight months, so we're just trying to get them a bit more socialised and stuff, but it is good because you get to meet other Dachshund owners.

Richard Hamilton, who will be doting on his rescue dog this Christmas. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News Podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Sydney Dundon and produced by Alfie Habershon. Our editors, Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.

Yeah, building our country probably easier said than done. Of course, the people now in charge were former jihadists. We've got Israel keeping its troops on Syrian territory over winter, it says. And then there's fighting going on in the north between Turkish-backed groups and the Kurds. What are the chances of a new future for Syria?

Nina Sinjab in Damascus. The Ukrainian energy company DTEK says its power plants have been severely damaged in the latest wave of missile strikes by Russia. It is the 12th large-scale Russian bombardment this year. Abdul Jalil Abdurasulov is following developments from Kiev.

Yeah, and it's been carrying out these kind of attacks for the past three winters. I mean, how good is Ukraine at restoring power and energy when these attacks happen?

Also in the Global News podcast... We find out what was the video game of the year. Muslims in Syria have been celebrating their first Friday prayers free of the dictator Bashar al-Assad who was overthrown at the weekend. The authorities called on people to take to the streets to mark the victory of the revolution as they called it and many thousands did so.

Diary of a CEO is the fifth most listened to podcast around the world this year, according to Spotify. The host, British entrepreneur Stephen Bartlett, started it by focusing on business tips before moving on to the world of fame and celebrity.

Today there are few people he can't persuade to sit opposite him at the microphone, with Simon Cowell, Trevor Noah and Boris Johnson all appearing in recent episodes. Now a BBC investigation has found that the podcast is amplifying a number of harmful and misleading claims about health. I heard more from our global disinformation reporter, Jackie Wakefield.

And these are all false.

And has the podcast or the makers said anything about the fact that they include these kind of comments?

I imagine it's not just Diary of a CEO that has this kind of issue. How easy is it to regulate these kind of podcasts, which are often independent brands and they have huge listenerships?

Yeah, and I guess as a listener, it's up to you to decide whether this stuff is true or not. And that's pretty hard. Yeah.

Video games are big business, with more money spent on them than on film and music combined. But recently the sector has suffered from strikes and layoffs. Overnight, the industry held its version of the Oscars, the Game Awards, in Los Angeles. So how important is the event for gaming? The BBC's Andrew Rogers was watching.

Yeah. Were there any big announcements? And I know they also have a lot of surprise guests.

And tell us about some of the big winners and the other highlights.

One has to ask, who shall take the throne?

But is a single night however glitzy enough to restore the optimism after all the recent troubles?

BBC gaming expert Andrew Rogers.

Why pets are the big winners this Christmas. The military junta in Myanmar has been struggling to maintain its grip on power ever since the coup in 2021. Over the past year or so, it's been steadily losing ground to ethnic armed groups.

One of the most powerful of those militias, the Arakan Army, has now taken control of Myanmar's border with Bangladesh after capturing the last military base in northern Rakhine state. Our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head told us about the bloody two-month battle.

You mentioned the Rohingya, that persecuted Muslim minority, many of whom fled across that border into Bangladesh. How significant a blow is the loss of that border to the military authorities?