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So a neutron star is kind of about the size of Chicago.
Unexpected Elements from the BBC World Service Search for unexpected elements wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.
Coming to you live from London, I'm Shawn Lay.
Authoritarian governments regard statues as a symbol of political virility.
When people start to attack the symbols, it can be a sign that the substance of political power is draining away.
This was posted on social media on Saturday in Syria, a video purporting to show a crowd in a southern suburb of Damascus, the capital, chanting and cheering as a giant bust of Hafas al Assad, Syria's dictator for 30 years and father, the current president Bashar al Assad, was toppled.
The reaction may be premature, but it's undoubtedly the case that the anti government offensive which began just 10 days ago, has advanced so rapidly across the country that many observers believe the balance of power is shifting decisively against the House of Assad, the dynastic authority which has ruled the country for more than half a century.
Hayat Tariya Al Sham, or hts, the group which seized Aleppo in the northwest before taking Hama in the middle of this week, is made up of former members of Al Qaeda and broke with it back in 2016.
A host of reports in the last few hours, not independently verified, suggest Syrian officials flying out of the city of Homs with reports that the prison in that city may have passed into rebel hands.
And if Homs were to thaw as Syria's third largest city, the the distance to Damascus, the capital to the south of it, is not that far away.
That was the picture in Syria today.
While the foreign ministers are the country's key allies, Iran and Russia talked in Qatar about Syria's future.
A large army of rebel fighters led by a man who once fought with Al Qaeda is advancing gradually towards the capital, Damascus.
So that's that picture that we've actually already heard from.
So let's move forward to what is happening around the rest of the country.
We hear now from a rebel fighter thanking God as he patrols a section of the road north of linking Homs.
Well north of that road, the M5 motorway, a key link between Damascus and the north of the country, which is reported to be in rebel hands.
The group Tahrir al Sham hds, which seized control a few days ago, was out in force to celebrate its victory in Hama.