live from london. this is bbc news. a memorial service at magdeburg cathedral, attended by germany's leaders, for victims of the market attack. a nine—year—old is among five people killed in the attack, 200 others have been injured. at a news conference, the suspect was confirmed as taleb al—abdulmohsen. our correspondent says the saudi authorities warned their german counterparts about him. no us shutdown for christmas, but has donald trump's authority been damaged, in the struggle for a budget deal? and world renowned opera singer — maria callas — is the subject of a new film starring hollywood actress angelina jolie.

a memorial service has been held in the german city of magdeburg — for the victims of a deadly attack on a christmas market on friday. at least five people were killed when a man drove into a crowd at high speed. along with those five deaths, city officials say 200 people have been injured, many seriously. we can now name the suspect in the attack as taleb al—abdulmohsen — he is a 50—year—old doctor from saudi arabia. officials say he appears to have been motivated by resentment at the treatment of refugees in germany — rather than religion. the bbc has been told the saudi authorities passed on warnings about him. chancellor scholz has visited the scene. he's called what happened in magdeburg a �*terrible act'. there are questions

about security after it emerged the suspect drove through an entrance reserved for ambulances and official vehicles. anna foster has been at the scene and sent this report. flickering candles have replaced the twinkling christmas lights. here in magdeburg, there's shock, disbelief and questions about how something like this could happen. 2a hours ago, this market was packed with people, but the laughter and celebration was cut devastatingly short when a car sped through the crowds, killing five people and injuring 200 more. the car sped past us and the police ran after it. other emergency services arrived, evacuated people and diverted traffic. people were still panicking and screaming. we now know it used the rescue entrance to get into the square, a gap deliberately left for ambulances to have access.

police say the deadly rampage lasted three minutes. armed police quickly arrested a man, a doctor originally from saudi arabia but living here for nearly 20 years. his motive is still under question. as things stand at the moment, it looks as if the background to the crime could have been disgruntlement with the way saudi arabian refugees are treated in germany. but what exactly is behind it is still under investigation. emotions are running high here. alongside the sadness. there's an undercurrent of anger against politicians who some feel didn't make this place safe enough. the german chancellor, 0laf scholz, came to lay a white rose and promised an investigation. as specialist police continue their investigations just a few metres away, the collection of flowers and candles here just keeps on growing. this bitter december wind

is not keeping people away. they want to be here. they want to be together and to remember the friends that they've lost. christmas feels very different here now. the stalls won't be reopening. the focus turned instead on remembering the victims, helping the survivors and making sure a tragedy like this can't happen again. 0ur security correspondent, frank gardener has been looking into potential warnings from the saudi government regarding the suspect. they say that they passed four so called notes, official diplomatic communications from saudi arabia to germany. i don't know the dates but they sent three of them to german intelligence agencies and one of them to the german foreign ministry warning they say about taleb al—abdulmohsen�*s extreme views that he held. there are two sides to this. there is a view taken by at least one respected counterterrorism

expert that i know of saying that this is something of a disinformation campaign he is even saying, but this is the saudis trying to blacken his name. it is pretty black right now, but trying to basically say that he had a somebody who was dangerous back then. because he was allegedly trying to help a number of people who had left saudi arabia and were either political dissidents or people who were trying to turn their back on their islamic faith. saudi arabia being very much a monolithic one faith country, islam, and this man taleb al—abdulmohsen had left the religion of his birthplace. so in islam you're not supposed to leave your religion, and he has turned into somebody that the federal interior minister has referred to as an islamophobe.

and certainly some of the text and tweets he posted and have been reported on german media are exactly that, islamophobic. there are two sides of this but it does seem the saudi authorities were concerned about this man's extreme views. do we know what the german authorities did with the warning the saudis said that they gave and do we know to what extent german security services were monitoring him? zero, according to the saudis, there was no response. some reports in the german media that the saudis had made attempts to bring him back, to extradite him, which germany resisted. germany is very much, if you remember back in 2015, germany has been a refuge for very large numbers, roughly 1.5 million refugees from the middle east, notjust from syria but other countries as well.

something which has been a polarising factor in german domestic politics which has helped to give rise to the afd, the german far—right party which has gained in strength and popularity at the polls. there are entire message is that germany should not be a refuge for these people and that it is changing the character of germany and that seems to be something that this man, taleb al—abdulmohsen, agreed with them about. that he had a conspiracy theory that the german government was somehow in league with islamic extremists. was trying to islamise germany. these are all things investigators are looking into. let's be clear, none of this in any way justifies what he did, so whatever conclusions of the

country, the german authorities still haven't referred to this as a terrorist attack but whatever conclusions are they come to, there is obviously quite a complex back story going on here only bits of which are starting to come to light now. in the last few hours — a memorial service at magdeburg cathedral was held for the victims of the attack. the service was led by the cathedral�*s choir. families of the victims, emergency workers and government officials including the german chancellor attended the service. meanwhile hundreds of people gathered outside the cathedral to hold a vigil, laying flowers and candles as tributes to those who lost their lives. city officials estimate 1,000 people gathered at magdeburg cathedral for the memorial service.

hans goldenbaum, works for salam, a local german organisation aimed at preventing violence and radicalisation. he told me his organisation had been aware of the suspect our first thought was that we are dealing with an attack attributed to the islamic state which was agitating in the last month for followers to attack especially christmas events and christmas markets. 0ne wing of the islamic state network was very active in calling for explicit violence to spread fear in the heart of the enemy, so this was the first thought. but soon we got some information about the perpetrator and as soon as we heard it as a saudi arabian male 50 years old, we realised we already knew him as a right—wing online activist.

was very much part of a global filter bubble of far right extremism, dealing with anti—migrant content as your colleague mentioned. so we were following this lead and analysing his online profiles on social media accounts, and with german media speaking with journalists and politicians and the giving analysis for the background and motivation of the perpetrator. while we were doing this another thing reached out so some of our colleagues were in contact with migrants in the city of magdeburg and we had many talks with migrants living there who are in fear, some are leaving the city and visiting friends in other cities because of they spoke of a very hostile

environment as local citizens were accusing migrants, people looking like migrants and muslims, as being terrorists and enemies, and there were even some verbal attacks on the streets and spitting on people. we had some cases of people getting assaulted. one guy told us he was leaving work after his evening shift and he got attacked walking home by four young men beating him. sorry to interrupt, you are saying this has happened and you are describing events in the last 24—hour since the attack happened in magdeburg? yes, we are seeing a very unusual spike in racist and far right violence in the city of magdeburg. we heard of several cases today, more than a dozen cases of assault, which is quite an unusual number, and one young student told us and i quote, i am living in the city

of magdeburg for more than ten years and i have neverfelt hostility or a hostile environment like when he said it in the last 15 or 16 hours, since the attack. this is what we hear from many people, people who got attacked in their cars at traffic lights, from an organisation aimed at preventing radicalisation and violence. here in the uk... pensioners have until the end of today to apply online for a key benefit to help them qualify for the winter fuel payment. the deadline to claim pension credit is just before midnight. hundreds of extra government staff have been on duty today to help deal with the claims. here's marc ashdown. gary applied for pension credit back in september, but as the cold weather takes hold, he's still waiting for it to be processed, leaving him out of pocket. at the moment, it's costing me

£190 a month in lost revenue which i'm having to make up from my own savings accounts. because the total benefit that i was receiving before reaching my 66th birthday, some of those benefits have now ended and i applied for pension credit to make up the difference. worth around £4,000 a year itself, the pension credit is also a gateway to receiving the winter fuel payment. last winter, 10.8 million pensioners received between £200 and £300, depending on their age, to help towards paying their energy bills. but in september, the government won a vote in parliament to restrict the payment to those receiving certain benefits, like pension credit. at the time, department for work and pensions analysis showed 780,000 pensioners who could qualify for the benefit weren't expected to actually apply for it. since the end ofjuly, it has received 150,000 fresh applications.

so far, 42,500 additional claimants are receiving pension credit. the department said it's drafted in 500 extra staff to help process a growing backlog and there's a help line open until 3:15 this afternoon to offer advice to anyone yet to apply. applicants need details like their national insurance number, income and savings information and their bank account details. charities, however, are warning pensioners to be wary of scams. i'm aware that there are lots of scammers out there either cold calling people, pretending to be from the dwp or sending people text messages and, really, they're trying to get people's personal details. and the dwp would never cold call anybody or contact anybody — they don't chase people to apply for pension credit by phone. so, if anyone does receive any messages like that, then it's likely be a scam and it's either best ignored or if you're in doubt, then contact a local age uk or the age uk advice

line to check. the government said over a million pensioners will still receive the winter fuel payment and it's urging anyone who thinks they might qualify for pension credit to act now, before the deadline at the end of today. marc ashdown, bbc news. a partial shutdown of the us government has been averted, after congress voted, at the 11th hour, to pass a controversial spending bill. after two failed attempts, a pared down measure was agreed by republicans and democrats in the senate and house of representatives — as peter bowes reports. the bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. a sigh of relief for more than 3 million us government workers. many americans feared that christmas would be overshadowed by a damaging federal shutdown with no pay for some and reduced services. this was the third attempt to agree a spending plan after donald trump and his government efficiency tsar,

the billionaire elon musk, intervened to scupper the bill in its originalform. but with hours to go before the government ran out of money, a deal. after days of wrangling, republicans and democrats agreed on a plan that will fund the government for the next three months. there's money for essential services, as well as disaster relief and aid for farmers. the bill passed in congress but the president—elect appeared to be calling the shots. i was in constant contact with president trump throughout this process. he knew exactly what we were doing and why and this is a good outcome for the country. i think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well. but there's no reference in the bill to lifting the debt ceiling. that's the limit on how much the government can borrow — a measure which trump wanted in place before his inauguration. house democrats have successfully stopped extreme maga republicans from shutting down the government, crashing the economy and hurting working class americans all across the land.

the bill's passing marks the end of a turbulent few days in washington, which have also exposed divisions amongst republicans a month before donald trump takes office. peter bowes, bbc news. earlier i spoke to robert moran, a former republican strategist. i asked him what he makes of the way in which the us shutdown was averted. i think that people are focused on the three big personalities, on trump and elon musk and speakerjohnson but it is not about the personalities but the numbers. there are three numbers more important than the personalities. there is 36 trillion which is the first number, the national debt, which we have to find a debt ceiling vote for. there are 726 billion which is the second number, the amount of money it takes to service the debt annually which is about 14%

of the budget and 218 votes, so speakerjohnson in the next congress will only have 220 votes and he needs 218 to pass anything and that is what this is really about, about those three numbers, and a lot of this other stuff is sort of the wrangling as your correspondent mentioned. the issue that was not sorted out by this bill was this issue of the debt ceiling, the federal borrowing limit being increased. there is the split now becoming visible between those known as the bet hawks and those who want to bring about tax cuts for the rich, how much of problem could that be for donald trump down the line? it is a challenge in that they basically kick the can down the road until march so they have to have a debt ceiling vote by march, sometime in march.

what that means it is to is hard for them to pass some of the other bills and pieces of legislation because they will have that fight as well. it complicates the first 100 days and the republicans have the trifecta, they control the white house, the house and the senate. they want to go fast and figure they only have two years to pass as much as they can, so this creates a troublesome fight that may be could burn a month and that is the issue. briefly, what is of the way forward? let s get some of the day s other news now...authorities in nigeria have warned charities distributing aid during the festive season to involve the police after two deadly crushes on saturday morning at such events. at least 20 people are reported to have died in anambra state, in the south east of the country where a charity was giving out rice. at a similar event, at a catholic church

in the capital abuja, at least ten more people died. a bus crash in brazil has killed more than 30 people. it happened overnight in the south—eastern state of minas gerais. officials say the driver lost control of the vehicle after a tyre burst. according to witnesses, it crossed the carriageway into the oncoming lane, collided with a truck and caught fire. the bus had reportedly begun itsjourney in sao paulo. albania's prime minister says the government is to shut down the social media platform, tiktok, for at least a year, from january. edi rama described tiktok as �*the neighbourhood thug'. the albanian leader has been considering the ban since a 14—year—old pupil was knifed to death by another student, outside a school last month. the dispute allegedly began on social media. here in the uk... people have been gathering at stonehenge to mark the winter solstice. today has had the fewest daylight hours for people in the northern hemisphere. in the uk, there was less than eight hours of sun —

and further north, some people won't have seen any daylight at all. stonehenge is an important landmark for the occasion. the neolithic monument — which took many hundreds of years to build — is aligned to the position of the sun at both midwinter and midsummer. 0ur reporter fiona lamdin who is at stonehenge and has been meeting with some of those celebrating. thousands, over3,000 people have been here in the stones, they arrived very early this morning. the sunrise, if you could call it a sunrise, was about 0812 but it is really cloudy so we didn't see anything dramatic. but the great thing is it is not raining. first of all, let's just hear about the importance of today. just tell us, you say that the winter solstice is actually more special than the summer. why is that? well, we think it was because it was a time when people were gathering, and the people who actually built stonehenge just lived a few miles down the road, and we know that they were having giant feasts

at the time of stonehenge, as they were putting up the stones, so it is kind of like the equivalent of our christmas holidays, where people are coming together, gathering, celebrating, and we've got over 4,000 years of people coming to stonehenge to celebrate so, you know, everybody here at english heritage is really delighted to have everyone here today, it's been a really, really fabulous event, despite the clouds. everyone has really enjoyed themselves and it has been peaceful and great, a brilliant moment to mark the day. the world renowned opera singer maria callas is the subject of a new film, maria, starring hollywood actress angelina jolie. it focuses on her final years, in the 1970s, when she was living in paris. with angelina jolie taking on acting roles relatively rarely in recent years, the film has provided something of a comeback narrative for her. our culture reporter noor nanji went to meet her. operatic singing. my life is opera.

there is no reason in opera. one of the world's greatest opera singers, maria callas, now the subject of a new film as she lived out her final days in paris. it stars angelina jolie, who learned to sing opera for the role. one of the greatest privileges to being an actor is you often are supported by a crew to try something and explore something you've never done and you can learn. but this one certainly was the most challenging. one of maria's most famous performances was as tosca in covent garden in 1964. but she also courted controversy. after an affair with the greek shipping magnate aristotle 0nassis, the paparazzi hounded her. have you talked to mr onassis?

all my friends. i am answering no more questions. she was characteristically defiant. i don't read the criticisms, because, you see, i know exactly what i do before anybody tells me, but the best critic is the public. angelina jolie's two eldest sons, fax and maddox, worked as production assistants on the film. it was good to have your children watch your mum not do something easily. but they've of course seen me go through many things, but they hadn't experienced me expressing a lot of the pain that usually a parent hides from a child. your voice will not return. vocal decline, possibly caused by dramatic weight loss, led to the premature end of maria's career. maria callas spent her last years living largely in isolation. she died of a heart attack at the age of 53 on september 16th, 1977.

crowds lined the streets to pay their respects. we've all been through joy, love, pain. the most quite deep human experiences, and often there isn't a sound that we've been able to let come out that matches what we feel. opera does. noor nanji, bbc news. book me a table at a cafe where the waiters know who i am. i'm in the mood for adulation. just a reminder of our top stories on the bbc website with the latest on the attack in germany, those terrible events at the christmas market when a suspect drove a car into the christmas market in the east german city of magdeburg. a9—year—old is among people

killed, 200 people injured. many of them critically and those latest reports are all on the website. hello. saturday was a very showery and very windy winter solstice. let's take a look at some of those gusts of wind that we saw during the day on saturday, between around 60 to 80 miles an hour, particularly around exposed coasts and hills in the north and the west, too. 82 miles an hour was the windiest spot in the hebrides. now, for sunday, we've got more of the same, gusty winds and wintry showers for some of us, and there could be some travel disruption on the cards. low pressure sits to the north—east of the uk, we've got these winds bundling in from the north—west, bringing us plenty of shower, gusts of wind of 60 to 70 miles an hour across parts of scotland, especially in the north—west, but elsewhere we could see 50 to 60 mph gusts for western parts of england and wales, 40 to 50 mph towards the east. so, plenty of showers, as you can see blowing in on that breeze, they will be a little bit wintry

for the likes of the pennines, the peak district, the hills of wales and the north of scotland in particular. most of the showers turning back to rain later in the day but blowing in with those very strong winds. but in the south and east, a lot of dry weather on the cards but it is not going to feel warm, around six to eight degrees but feeling colder when you add on that north—westerly wind and those showers with a bit of a wintry flavour to them. now, later sunday into monday, the next front approaches from the west but we've also got higher pressure trying to reach in. still windy at first on monday towards the east by the winds will ease through the day, and sunshine holding on for central, southern and eastern parts, but clouding over from the west with some patchy rain later on. eight or nine degrees the warmest spot is down towards the south—west but for most of us, another chilly feeling day, four to seven degrees. but as we head towards christmas eve on tuesday and christmas day on wednesday, that much milder air spills its way in from the south—west. so, temperatures are going to be on the up, christmas eve we are looking now, tuesday, quite a lot of cloud, low cloud, perhaps some hill fog, little bit of drizzle,

especially towards the west. but temperatures back up at around 12 or 13 degrees for most of us, we could see 14 anywhere to the east of higher ground. and it similar picture for christmas day as well, it is not going to be a white christmas, if you are crossing your fingers for one of those, rather grey, actually, quite a lot of cloud. some holes in the cloud, i think not a bad day, most of us will be dry, perhaps a little rain in the far north—west. temperatures 11 or 12 so probably not quite as warm and christmas day as it will be on christmas eve. looks dry into boxing day, too, and then perhaps just a little cooler towards the new year.

now on bbc news, the big cases: my husband the monster. a warning this programme contains some upsetting scenes and descriptions of sexual violence. i'm a rapist, like the others in this courtroom. they knew everything. they treated me like a rag doll. like a garbage bag. the abuse went on for years, in secret. a husband drugging his wife. he would put her into a coma state for around seven hours each time he did this. allthe time, dominique pelicot was filming, sometimes with a fixed camera, sometimes with his phone, but every time he was filming.

strangers invited to act out their darkest urges.