BBC news with David Austin. Russia has launched a major operation in Syria using the flotilla of ships it has deployed off the Syrian coast. It said it had targeted IS and Al Qaeda-linked rebels in the provinces of Idlib and Homs. Meanwhile, the Syrian government has resumed heavy airstrikes on the rebel-held eastern side of Aleppo. President Putin has sacked his Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev who’s been charged with taking a 2 million dollar bribe. He denies the allegation. The Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev described it as a difficult event for the government which he didn’t fully understand. Republican congressmen in the United States have unanimously nominated Paul Ryan to continue in a powerful position of Speaker of the House of Representatives. He should be formally confirmed in the role in a vote by the full house in January. The UN says 14 million Nigerians will need humanitarian help in the northeast of the country where tens of thousands of children were at risk of dying from famine. The region was the former stronghold of the Islamic group Boko Haram. The full scale of damage done by Islamic State to the ancient city of Nimrud in Iraq is emerging after government forces recaptured the site two days ago. Much of the area lies in rubble with the ziggurat once one of the tallest of surviving structure from the ancient world reduced to a fraction of its size. Google’s chief executive has responded to concerns heightened since the US presidential election that Google’s search engine gave too much prominence to fake news stories. Sundar Pichai said it had to use more trusted sources. The boss of the McLaren Formula One team Ron Dennis has confirmed that he’s stepping down after 35 years. The outfit’s Bahrain-based majority of shareholders decided that his management style was too autocratic. Mr Dennis said their reasons were entirely spurious. BBC news.