live from washington. this is bbc news. a memorial service is held at magdeburg cathedral attended by german leaders for victims of a christmas attack. a nine—year—old is among five people killed in the attack, 200 others have been injured. a senior palestinian official tells the bbc that a ceasefire deal between israel and hamas in gaza is 90% complete stop and after days of negotiations joe biden signs the us government suspending bill —— spending bill into law, officially averting shutdown. hello and welcome to the programme.

respects are being paid in the german city of magdeburg to the victims of friday's deadly attack on a christmas market. five people were killed — and at least 200 injured when a man drove into a crowd at high speed. a memorial service has been held in magdeburg's cathedral. hundreds of people, including the german chancellor, gathered in the square outside, some carrying candles and flowers. as the mourning continues, prosecutors are investigating a potential motive. germany has been hit by a number of deadly islamist attacks, but investigators say the evidence in this case suggests a different picture. the suspect is a 50—year—old saudi doctor, taleb al—abdulmohsen, who came to germany almost 20 years ago. officials say he appears to have been motivated by resentment at the treatment of refugees in germany rather than by religion. there are also questions about security after it emerged the suspect drove through an entrance reserved for ambulances and official vehicles. anna foster has more from magdeburg. there were just a handful of people out here tonight, reading the notes that have been left on the flowers, or attending these candles, that are throwing golden pools of light out into the deserted

streets, and just look at this place this evening, the saturday before christmas. this market in the centre of town should be thriving, should be an absolute harbour of light and noise and energy, and instead use of a closed christmas stalls, you still see the detritus on the ground, the blankets that were used to warm the injured, some of the medical equipment that was used to treat those more than 200 people who were wounded here last night. this is an attack which has shocked notjust the city, but germany throughout, and which will change this place forever. as night fell, hundreds of people attended a vigil at the city's cathedral, a packed and sombre affair. some of the first responders were among the mourners. chancellor olaf scholz sat next to germany's president. 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. translation: 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. translation: as things stand at the moment, i 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. earlier today, chancellor olaf scholz came to lay a white rose and promise an investigation. translation: it is a dreadful tragedy that so many people i were killed and injured. it is a dreadful catastrophe. we send our sympathy to those who are injured, and i express the solidarity of the entire country. 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. in just the last few hours, around a hundred far—right protesters gathered in the streets of magdeburg. the march called for the �*re—migration�* of immigrants living in germany.the christmas market attack will likely add to the debate over security and immigration before national elections in february. opinion polls show the far—right alternative for germany party is likely to perform strongly. while a motive for the attack is still unclear, our security correspondent, frank gardner has been looking into the suspect — taleb al—abdulmohsen — and alleged warnings from the saudi government about him. they say that they passed four so—called "notes verbales". these are official diplomatic notifications that they sent from saudi arabia to germany. i don't have the dates of them, unfortunately, but they sent three of them to germany intelligence agencies, and one to the german foreign minister, warning, they say, about taleb al—abdulmohsen�*s extreme views that he held.

but there are two sides to this, there is a view taken by at least one respected counterterrorism expert that i know of, who is saying that this is something of a bit of a disinformation campaign, he's even saying, that the saudis are trying to blacken his name. well, it's pretty black right now, obviously. trying to say that here was somebody that was dangerous back then but why? he was allegedly trying to help a number of people who had left saudi arabia while political dissidents or people 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 his religion of his birthplace. so, in islam, you are not supposed to leave your religion, and he has turned into somebody that the german federal interior minister as referred to as an islamophobe, and certainly some of the text, some of the tweets that he posted and are being reported in german media are exactly that, islamophobic. there are two sides to this but it does seem the authorities were concerned about this man's extreme views. rebecca schoenenbach is a counter—extermism expert based in berlin and she told us more about the suspect�*s profile. what stands out most is that he seems to have suffered from a persecution complex, so a lot of his tweets on x, a lot of his direct messages show that he felt persecuted by the german state, and even by the police, and he accused of secular muslims, or x muslims, also persecuting him, and it is true that he defamed some of them, and they had to pursue him in court,

and they won. so it seems to be a mixture of him accusing others, then feeling that they go after him, feeling suppressed by the german state. that is the most significant thing that stands out, apart from his hatred of islam, and his fandom of elon musk and the far right afd in germany. so, tell us more about that, with regards to elon musk, for example. ijust wonder, more generally, when you are looking at kind of cases of extremism, and of course we don't know the motive here, but to what extent are we seeing, for example, conspiracy theories, or misinformation and the amplification of that

feeding into various kind of beliefs? well, he was an advocate for re—migration, so he was a staunch critic not only of islam, but of any sort of migration to germany, but particularly the migration of muslims, of muslim countries, and he favoured people who were known as critics of islam, not only of islamism, but in islam, such as tommy robinson in great britain. he retweeted some of elon musk�*s takes. he didn't particularly retreat all the right wing extremism theories, so it does not seem that his whole worldview was right—wing extremism. he also tweeted a lot about sexual abuse, he tweeted a lot about women's rights,

some facts that are really to be criticised for anybody, advocating for women's rights, but he mixed with theories, with conspiracy, but most outstanding where his own perception of the german state, of the treatment of refugees, of the german police, and he even accused his own lawyers to have betrayed him. i want to ask about something that you wrote about, saying the suspect had worked as a doctor, and i've seen your comment about education level is not ruling out for example self radicalisation. just tell us more about what you've seen in that regard. well, we know that at least researching organised crime and organised terrorism, but a lot of the terrorists, may two thirds to a half of them, have education, have education degrees that are equivalent to university

degrees, so most of the time, if you research organised terrorism, it is organised by people who are able to organise attacks, such as in paris, who have a good education, so to say that education in general helps prevent radicalisation is simply naive to say it, to say the least. so of course education can play a part in the prevention of radicalisation, but it must be accompanied by other factors. what is unusual with the attacker is his age. he was 50, or he is 50, he is still alive, he has been caught alive. it is unusual that he radicalised not in a short time span, but it seems to be over several years, so they have been people who were already warned against him in 2017 —— who already warned against him. he was pursued in 2018. he himself called the police

several times during the years, so there seems to have been a very slow sort of radicalisation over the years. he seems to have done really refugee work at the beginning, and then attacked other refugees, so it is sort of a mixture. he is not a typical example of a terrorist. and a reminder — you can follow all the developments from magdeburg on the bbc news website or app. here in washington — a partial shutdown of the us government has been averted after presidentjoe biden signed a spending bill into law early saturday. the deal cleared the senate more than half—an—hour after a midnight deadline, having passed the house of representatives on its third attempt. it will fund federal agencies for three months, lifting the threat of public services closing over christmas. in a statement, mr biden said the deal represented a compromise in which neither side got everything each wanted. he welcomed funding in the bill for hurricane and other disaster relief. the bill makes no reference

to lifting the limit on how much the government can borrow — a measure which donald trump wanted in place before he returns to the white house on january 20th. peter bowes has more. 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.

syria's new leaders have begun appointing key ministers two weeks now after the fall of the previous administration. the european union, britain and france and the us have sent delegations to the syrian capital with the us now scrapping a reward for the arrest of syria's the facto leader. elsewhere in the region hamas and two other palestinian armed groups say that a ceasefire agreement with israel is closer than ever if israel does not impose new conditions. a hamas official has said talks in cairo on friday had made significant progress, with most terms related to a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreed upon. the announcement comes amid continued israeli assaults on gaza. airstrikes on two houses in the nuseirat refugee camp and deir al—balah city in central gaza killed at least ten people, including two children. in the past few hours, the director of kamal adwan hospital, one of the three barely functioning hospitals on the northern edge of gaza — says the israeli military has ordered people to

leave the facility. and in israel, a missile fired from yemen has evaded the country's advanced air defences and hit a park in the city of tel aviv, injuring more than a dozen people. the iranian—backed houthi group said it had fired what it described as a �*hypersonic�* weapon out of solidarity with palestinians in gaza. and the us military said it carried out air strikes against the houthi in its capital they also struck drones and a missile over the red sea. i'm joined by edmund fitton—brown — senior fellow with new america's future security programme and former uk ambassador to yemen. great to have you. i want to start with that houthi missal that injured people in tel aviv coming after another missile hit a school in tel aviv. what does this tell you about the defences of israel and the capability of the houthis? it is interesting and the houthis are further away from israel

than some of their other adverse areas and the israelis have overcome their concerns about lebanese hezbollah who of course were firing rockets and other projectiles on a regular basis from right across the border. so this is a different challenge for israel. the houthis do not have the same capability that lebanese hezbollah had but they are proving to be somewhat effective in this relentless attempt to get through the israeli defences and the israelis do not have as good an option to retaliate against the houthis because there is no invasion option.— houthis because there is no invasion option. how big of an escalation _ invasion option. how big of an escalation do _ invasion option. how big of an escalation do you _ invasion option. how big of an escalation do you think- invasion option. how big of an escalation do you think the . escalation do you think the strikes in counterstrike's, israel of course striking yemen today, do you think that this could be another conflict emerging now in the region? in a way it is part of an existing conflict tween israel and the axis of resistance because the

houthis along with the israeli sheer groups and lebanese hezbollah and hamas are part of this axis of resistance that is co—ordinated by iran. in this singular case as i say the route for escalation is not so clear. the houthis cannot do much more than they are already doing. israelis can do more, they escalate the retaliatory strikes on yemen or on the houthi control part of yemen but actually stopping the houthis from doing what they are doing is proving difficult both for israel and for the united states and its allies. you mention the axis of resistance organised by iran and its influence has been severely weakened now, you look at hezbollah and hamas, how much do you think it will now stake its future in the region on the houthis. i stake its future in the region on the houthis.— stake its future in the region on the houthis. i think they do matter a lot — on the houthis. i think they do matter a lot to _ on the houthis. i think they do matter a lot to iran. _ on the houthis. i think they do matter a lot to iran. you - on the houthis. i think they do matter a lot to iran. you are l matter a lot to iran. you are correct. lebanese hezbollah was previously considered to be the elite member of the axis of

resistance and now it has been decimated. so you are left with primarily the yemeni houthis and the iraqi proxy militias. the problem with the iraqi proxy militias is that if they take action it immediately compromises the iraqi government and that is something they have to be careful about and iran has to be careful as well where is because the houthis are in control of the yemeni city, there is a limit to what the israelis can do in retaliation. israelis can do in retaliation. i want to turn briefly to syria now. we know officials have been holding meetings with the rebel group and there is a foreign minister now and a defence minister appointed by hts, what do you make of how this transition in syria is starting to play out? i think it is an extremely _ starting to play out? i think| it is an extremely important transition. this is a seismic event, a change of regime in damascus and of course there are huge risks and huge opportunities here. hts has

taken great care to say the right things and what it wants to do. it talks about protecting the rights of minority communities, it speaks about not being interested in having conflict with neighbours. and if it sticks to that then there is some scope for this to be a very positive development. the other way to look at this, of course, is that previously the assad regime was clearly never going to be able to re—establish its authority after that down broke, after the arab spring so we were in a phony war period with al—assad holding on by but it was always clear that the majority would eventually have their way and there for the international community really has to work with the rain of that stop briefly, ambassador if you do not mind, wit there are growing concerns about the islamic state re—emerging potentially in syria. is it

something that concerns you? it is definitely a worry. there are all sorts of knock—on effects that occur. for example when the regime initially tried to defend itself against the hts advance that meant withdrawing forces from isis areas and there was an element of ice is progress. we also have conflict between turkiye and the turkiye backed syrians and the turkiye backed syrians and the turkiye backed syrians and the kurdish forces that have been aligned with the united states against isis and that potentially makes the camps and prisons in north—eastern syria vulnerable to things like jail breaks. yes, isis is a problem. we appreciate _ yes, isis is a problem. we appreciate your _ yes, isis is a problem. we appreciate your thoughts tonight. he was a check now on some of the other headlines. a bus crash in south—eastern brazil has killed 38 people. officials say the driver lost control of the vehicle burst. the bus

deported that make parted from some polo anglers carrying passengers. pictures from the scene show tangled and charred wreckage. charities have been asked to involve the police as they distribute aid over the christmas period after nearly 40 christmas period after nearly a0 people died in a crash. police say the organisers could be prosecuted for criminal negligence. albania's prime minister says the government will shut down tiktok for a year beginning injanuary. the social media platform was described considered since the ia—year—old student was knifed to death by another student at school last month in a dispute that allegedly began on social media. tiktok says it is seeking urgent clarification. and in a blockbuster matchup in the world of boxing, alexander defeated tyson fury to retain his title is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. the ukrainian won on

points after a thrilling i2 points after a thrilling 12 round contest. alljudges gave him the victory. he set the pace for most of the fight landing more punches than his british opponent. it is the second time now he has defeated tyson furey. the world renowned opera singer maria callas is the subject of a new film simply called maria it focuses on her final simply called maria it focuses on herfinal years in the 19705 when she was living in paris. angelina jolie play5 when she was living in paris. angelina jolie plays the title role and had more than six months of singing training to prepare for it. our culture editor went to meet her. one of the world's greatest opera 5inger5, 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 196a. but she also courted controversy. after an affair with the greek shipping magnate aristotle onassis, the paparazzi hounded her. have you talked to mr ona55i5? i talk to 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 5on5, pax and maddox, worked as production assistants on the film. it was good to to have your children watch your mum not

do something ea5ily. they've seen me go through many things, but they 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. we've all been through 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 doe5. 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.

stay with us, plenty more coming up right here on bbc news. hello. saturday was a very showery and very windy winter sol5tice. let's take a look at some of those gu5t5 of wind that we saw during the day on saturday, between around 60 to 80 mph, particularly around expo5ed coasts and hills in the north, and the west, too. 82 mph was the windiest spot in the hebride5. now, for sunday, we've got more of the same — gu5ty winds and wintry showers for some of us, and there could be some travel disruption on the cards. low pressure 5it5 to the north—east of the uk, we've got these wind5 bundling in from the north—west, bringing us plenty of showers, gu5t5 of wind of 60 to 70 mph acro55 parts of scotland, especially in the north—west, but elsewhere we could see 50 to 60 mph gu5t5 for western parts of england and wales, a0 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 northwesterly wind, and those showers with a bit of a wintry flavour to them. now, later on 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, but the winds will ease through the day, and 5un5hine 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 5pots 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 5pill5 its way in from the south—west.

so, temperatures are going to be on the up, christmas eve, we are looking at now, tuesday, quite a lot of cloud, low cloud, perhaps some hill fog, a 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 1a anywhere to the east of higher ground, and a similar picture for christmas day, as well. it is not going to be a white christmas, if you were cro55ing 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 dry, perhaps a little rain in the far north—west. temperatures, 11 or 12, so probably not quite as warm on christmas day as it will be on christmas eve. look5 dry into boxing day, too, and then perhaps just a little cooler towards the new year.

voice-over: this is bbc news. rolling programme include5 account of sexual violence which some he was may find upsetting. —— 5ome which some he was may find upsetting. —— some viewers. 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 abu5e went on for years, in secret. a hu5band 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.