This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Paul Moss, and in the early hours of Sunday, the 1st of December, these are our main stories.

Syria's president Assad insists he will defeat rebel forces, his first comment since they captured the city of Aleppo.

The aid group World Central Kitchen says it's suspending operations in Gaza

after three employees were killed in an Israeli strike. And Georgia's pro-Western president

vows to stay in power past the end of her mandate, describing the parliament electing a new one

as illegitimate. Also in this podcast,

why have killer whales apparently revived a marine fashion trend

wearing dead salmon on their heads?

In a world of so many conflicts, it can be hard to keep up with every war, every battle, every

skirmish.

And that perhaps is sometimes true of the countries involved in fighting.

Russia, for example, has been focused on its invasion of Ukraine.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, has been hit hard

in its conflict with Israel. And it does look like both of them failed to notice what was going on

in the meantime with a conflict in Syria. Russia and Hezbollah had been major supporters of the

Assad regime. Their relative absence from the scene would perhaps partly explain how, apparently out of

the blue, rebels based in Idlib managed to break out of their stronghold and almost those instantly

overwhelmed the city of Aleppo. The attack certainly came as a shock to this resident.

We had no idea what was going on. The rebellious troops, they were actually moving closer to us in the middle of Aleppo.

And they managed to enter the city of Aleppo.

And they were all technically over half of Aleppo.

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