be end live from london. this is bbc news. a nine—year—old child who died in the christmas german market attack has been named as andre gleissner. the man accused of the attack is remanded in custody , charged with five counts of murder and multiple attempted murders. the bbc finds that a church of england priest with a history of child sexual abuse allegations was twice re—appointed to a senior position and we're at london's st pancras station, as a ukrainian choir sings carols for hope , with a special guest. happy christmas, keep strong, keep the faith in who you are, keep the faith in ukraine. slava ukraini.

hello, i'm samantha simmonds. the boy who died in the attack at the magdeburg christmas market has been named. andre gleissner was nine years old. his identity was confirmed by the fire department, who said he had been a member of the children's fire brigade in the town of warle, about an hour's drive from magdeburg. there's a memorial where people have been laying flowers and lighting candles. andre was one of five people who were killed. the identities of the other four, who were all adult women, have not been made public. the man held by police following the incident, taleb al—abdulmohsen, has been charged with five counts of murder, and multiple counts of attempted murder, and remains in custody. he is a doctor, from saudi arabia, and his motive remains unclear. his social media posts appear to suggest he had been critical of islam. our correspondent anna foster reports. this is andre, nine years old,

looking forward to christmas, enjoying a night out at the festive market when he was killed. a fundraising account for his devastated family has raised thousands of euros. on social media. on social media his mum said, "let my little teddy bear fly around the world once again." taleb al—abdulmohsen has been charged with andre's murder and that of four other people at the christmas market. german investigators are building up a picture of the saudi doctor, including in his own words. my name is taleb. i'm from saudi arabia. i'm an activist. in 2019, he was interviewed by the bbc. he talked about how he used his free time to help people. i created a website to help people seeking asylum, especially from saudi arabia and the gulf region. now, he's been charged with killing five people at magdeburg's christmas market, speeding a powerful car through the packed alleys between the stalls, causing terror and panic. the attack unfolded

in the city's central square at around 7:00 on friday evening. the car turned off a nearby road and onto a pedestrian crossing, entering the market through a gap in the concrete security perimeter that had been left open for emergency vehicles. it drove into the celebrating crowds, injuring more than 200 people, a0 of them seriously. minutes later, the car left the market on the east side and joined the main road. but the suspect couldn't get through the traffic, and this video shows armed officers arresting him, telling him not to move from the ground. taleb al—abdulmohsen lives in this quiet town, bernburg, around 25 miles away from the site of the attack, and more detail is coming to light about his background and his views. he came to germany from saudi arabia nearly 20 years ago and works at this clinic as a psychiatrist. ulrika's relative is being treated here.

she was shocked when she heard the link. yes, i was very shaken. um, yeah. it's horrified. it's terrible. it's, it's made me sad. it's made my whole family very sad. and everything i know is sad. from his home on this peaceful street, taleb al—abdulmohsen built an online presence which will be key to the police�*s investigation. in 2019, he spoke to a german newspaper about what he called his activism, telling them "i'm history's most aggressive critic of islam. just ask any arab if you don't believe me." attention is now turning to safety and security. whether this market was protected enough and whether authorities had any warnings that taleb al—abdulmohsen may have posed a threat. germany is waiting for the answers. anna forster, bbc news. our correspondent bethany bell is in magdeburg and updated me on the investigation.

them blake lively requested there is to be no more mention of mr ball don anyand mr heath's previous pornography addiction, there is no more description of their own genitalia, and to be no more adding of sex scenes out side of the script that blake lively approved when signing on to the project initially.— project initially. babs don an 0 project initially. babs don anvto be _ project initially. babs don anyto be end _ project initially. babs don anyto be end this - project initially. babs don anyto be end this has - project initially. babs don i anyto be end this has been cordoned — anyto be end this has been cordoned off _ anyto be end this has been cordoned off since - anyto be end this has been cordoned off since the - anyto be end this has been i cordoned off since the attack but this afternoon they opened it up again, and people have been coming to look and many are asking how it was that there was such a lapse in security, is the way one man put it, how it was that a car was able to drive at such speed into this area. the authorities have said into this area. the authorities have said that into this area. the authorities have said that the into this area. the authorities have said that the car into this area. the authorities have said that the car drove through a street that was meant for emergency vehicles, and it wasn't cordoned off like the rest of the market. many, many questions there and we know there will be meetings tomorrow at a national and federal level looking at those questions, and also, people are asking, you know, how it was there were warnings about this man, apparently saudi arabia tipped off the german government about him, and possible extremist views, but germany's authorities say they weren't

deemed specific enough at the time. earlier i spoke to tim rohn, head of investigations at welt. tim and his team have been investigation the attack since friday. he told us what he has discovered. well, i mean, that is the big question everyone is asking, what do we know about potentials, potential motivations of the attacker? i mean, i guess it is the most difficult question so far, because as i heard in bbc right now, and we wrote it as well, he was for a long time portrayed as a critic, as a strong critic of islam, and as an opponent of the regime in saudi arabia. in one interview, ijust read again from 2019, he said he is probably the biggest critic when it comes to islam. later on he started accusing the federal government of not protecting him, the german federal government, of not protecting him and other secular arabs. that is why he announced, and on the other hand, he supported afd position, so positions of the right—wing party in germany, he supported the front woman of the afd. so many people call it a right—wing extremist act compared with christchurch already. then we have the theory

it was a false flag operation, he is not an islam critic, but in reality, an islamist. so it is so hard, at this moment, to say what was behind it, and i think, we tried to be very careful here, to only state facts, and separate them from speculations. there is a lot of work for the investigative authorities there, isn't there? when journalists are concerned they are looking into reports that the authorities perhaps received warnings about a possible attack, what do you understand about that side of the story? yeah, i mean, the thing, the real, the really special thing was this attack, is that this person, he underwent this radicalisation in plain sight, so to speak. he gained some international recognition, as i said as a critic of islam. he had 16,000 followers on twitter, and mostly about different topics, but then in between all those statements, there were repeated messages when he was actually announcing that he was going to attack germany. that he was going to take revenge, that germany will pay a huge price for betraying him and other arabs, so other refugees, and so actually it was visible for everyone yeah, i mean, the thing,

the real, the really special thing was this attack, is that this person, he underwent this radicalisation in plain sight, so to speak. he gained some international recognition, as i said as a critic of islam. he had 16,000 followers on twitter, and mostly about different topics, but then in between all those statements, there were repeated messages when he was actually announcing that he was going to attack germany. that he was going to take revenge, that germany will pay a huge price for betraying him and other arabs, so other refugees, and so actually it was visible for everyone that something really, really bad could happen, and then, what we were able to reveal yesterday was that even the authorities, the german authorities, they knew about him, they had him on the radar, and a couple of months ago, in the end they decided, or they concluded, that he is not a threat, so they were considering to approach him, to talk to him, but in the end theysaid "no, we don't do it, he is probably not a threat." i mean we have seen what happened on friday. that was, that was a wrong

assessment, which maybe has i mean we have seen what happened on friday. that was, that was a wrong assessment, which maybe has cost lives, because maybe it was possible to stop him before. if you look at his tweets right now, it is just shocking. the bbc has found that a church of england priest with a history of child sexual abuse allegations against him was twice re—appointed to a senior position when the current archbishop of york, stephen cottrell, was the bishop of chelmsford. a woman who says she was groomed by the priest, david tudor, has described the renewal of his contract an insult to all his victims. harry farley reports. david tudor was an area dean

in charge of 12 parishes in essex, when stephen cottrell took over as the bishop of chelmsford of chelmsford in 2010. and the children... but tudor was banned from being alone with children. in the late 80s, he'd been jailed for the indecent assault of three underage girls. the convictions were quashed on a technicality and after a five year ban, he was allowed back to minister as a priest. stephen cottrell was fully briefed on the concerns about tudor, but tudor was not suspended until nine years later in 2019, when a fresh police investigation was opened. the now archbishop of york previously said the situation he faced was horrible and intolerable, but there were no legal grounds to act earlier. what we can now reveal is david tudor was reappointed twice, in 2013 and 2018, into his senior role.

at both points, stephen cottrell was the bishop with overall responsibility and knew that david tudor had paid £10,000 to a woman who says she was sexually abused by him from the age of 11. one of david tudor�*s victims, who did not want to be identified, said these were not the actions of a bishop dealing with a situation that was intolerable to him. she reiterated her calls on the archbishop of york to resign. a spokesperson for stephen cottrell said he accepts responsibility for david tudor, remaining as area dean, acknowledges this could have been handled differently and said that no—one advised him that david tudor should not continue as area dean. this morning, the bishop of newcastle said archbishop cottrell�*s expressions of regret did not square with his actions. the bishop of gloucester was asked on radio four if she still supports the archbishop of york. i think there are very important conversations and processes to go on that are not going to take place over public media. i do think there are big questions to be looked at. i heard that news with shock and dismay. weeks after the archbishop of canterbury was forced to resign, the church of england heads into christmas with mounting calls for his number two to do the same. harry farley, bbc news.

0ur relgion editor aleem maqbool told me exactly where the investigation now stands. it was just on monday that we put out this investigation, and at that time, immediately, the archbishop of york said, yes, he acknowledged that he knew about this priest in his charge, david tudor, he knew about the abuse allegations in the past, he knew this was a priest who was banned from being left alone with children. he later learned, two years later, that this man, david tudor, paid £10,000 to an alleged victim, but he says that it was a situation that was awful to live with, for him as a bishop, and to manage. so, the question, of course, that we had, on behalf of the very brave women who came forward to speak with us, was ok, so what did you do about it? if you were so troubled by this every day, what attempts did you make to remove this man

from the church? because that was what was galling to these victims of david tudor, that they had suffered and he was still in the church. well, the archbishop of york said that the focus was on managing the risk posed by this priest. a lot of people will say, well, why do you need to manage the risk posed by a priest. if you have to do that, why are they a priest at all? but the archbishop of york said there was nothing legally he could do, and now we find this, that on trying to find evidence that would tell the women they were the centre of any decision being made here were found something very different, which is that he had his position renewed in this senior position in the diocese, as area dean. that was renewed on two occasionses after the archbishop of york knew all of these things. like i say, his defence is he was focussed on managing risk. that is really not enough for a lot for the victims in this case. i want to ask more about that.

what has the reaction been to the church's response, where does this go from here? yes, i mean, so, not only have i spoken quite a lot to the victims in this case, who, as i said, were brave enough to come forward, but other women who have come forward, since then, since we broadcast this a week ago, and they are waiting for a sense that they will get a personal apology perhaps, it is not for us to say what the archbishop of york should do. they certainly don't feel that they have got enough as yet, and every time there are more details revealed it strengthens their feeling, yes, he should step down, but also much more. they want to get a sense that things are going to change, that there is a sense of urgency, because a lot of viewers will be forgiven for thinking they hear about abuse cases all the time and things don't change, and i think some of those victims who took a lot of courage to come forward want to feel perhaps what is they have done might lead to some major urgent change.

turning to syria now, where the country's de facto leader ahmed al—sharaa, has said that all weapons in the country will come under state control, including those held by kurdish—led forces. speaking during a meeting with the turkish foreign minister, mr al—sharaa said that armed factions will soon be absorbed into the syrian army. as life slowly returns to normal in syria, the takeover by hayat tahrir al—sham, or hts, is causing concern for some religious groups. hts is a sunni muslim group, and its leader has a jihadist past. minorities including christians say they are worried. from the syrian capital, damascus, here's yogita limaye. the dictator has fallen and fled. but what of the community he belonged to? bashar al—assad is from the islamic alawite sect.

it's one of syria's biggest minorities, but it's controlled power over a majority sunni muslim country for 50 years. in a working class alawite neighbourhood of damascus, a few agree to speak to us. dozens of others refused. i asked if they feared revenge. translation: so far. translation: so far, we are okay. - hayat tahrir al—sham has been respectful to us, but there are groups pretending to be hts who are making threats. we are scared of them. many from the alawite sect and indeed this neighbourhood worked in assad's forces. where are they, i asked? translation: everyone - who worked with the military and did bad things has fled. but people who do not have blood on their hands, they are not scared and have stayed back. the men who've taken

control have said those from the deposed regime involved in crimes will be held to account, but that the freedoms of minorities will be protected. hayat tahrir al—sham has a jihadist past and an islamist present. does syria's plural society believe their promises? this country's christian community is one of the oldest in the world. this is the christian quarter of damascus. now, we have seen christmas decorations up in some parts of the city, but people who live here tell us the decorations here are more muted than they have been before. christians have told us that they do feel reassured by his promises, but that there is still uncertainty, and there are still worries about the form of government that this country will have in the future. that's the way. we met yusuf sabag, a lawyer from the christian community. i'm so happy because the assad fall. -

this is like the a i dream come true. but there is concern. i have to be realistic. htc will are here now- and they are islamic militia. that's what they are. 0k, iwant them, i need, i wish, i pray they will bej modern islamic militia. it's a moment of hope in syria, but also one of uncertainty. yogita limaye, bbc news, damascus. belfast city airport has declared an emergency incident after a plane experienced a hard landing. pictures show the aircraft sitting on the tarmac, with a collapsed nose landing gear. the airport said there were no passengers on board — just four crew members when the incident happened. the runway will be closed for the rest of the day and some flights have been diverted to belfast international. the hollywood actress blake lively has filed a legal complaint against her �*it ends with us' co—star justin baldoni alleging sexual harassment and a campaign to "destroy" her reputation.

lively says she wants to "pull back the curtain on sinister tactics used to harm people who speak up about misconduct." mr baldoni's legal team told the bbc the allegations are "categorically false". our correspondent matt graveling is following the story, and told us what more we know. details have come out in paperwork that has been filed to the california civil rights department, and they are part of a complaint by the actress blake lively, and she is accusing actor justin baldoni and his team, of sexual harassment and a campaign to destroy her reputation. but samantha, to understand how we got to this point, we need to rewind a little bit first, because lively and baldoni were stars of the netflix film it ends with us, which came out in the summer. now the film did very very well with viewers, but in this complaint filed in california we have been made aware of some big disagreements on the set. it states on 11th january a meeting was held to address what has been described as a hostile work environment, and the meeting was attended

byjustin baldoni, who was also the film's director and the co—chairman, and co—founder of wayfarer — this is the production company behind the movie. blake lively attended with her husband, the actor rhein reynolds, who wasn't in the movie, it is important to say, and some other members of the film's production. now blake lively�*s lawyers allege that mr baldoni and the wayfarer ceo jamie heath engaged in inappropriate and unwelcome behaviour towards her and others on the set. now, this meeting, samantha, included a list of 30 demands relating to the pair's alleged misconduct, to be met, to ensure production in the movie could continue. among them blake lively requested there's to be no more mention of mr baldoni and mr heath's previous pornography addiction, there's no more description of their own genitalia, and to be no more adding of sex scenes outside of the script that blake lively approved when signing on to the project initially. carol services are a time to come together and commemorate the year gone by.

but for ukrainians, christmas time can be a bitter reminder of what and whom they have lost. tonight, london's st pancras station has hosted a charity service — ukrainian carols of hope. our reporter olga malchevska was at the carol service, where she was joined by the broadcaster and comedian stephen fry. why do you think it is important for you to come here and support the event? i had the extraordinary - experience two years ago i was invited by madame zelenska, the wife, the first lady of ukraine, the wife of the president, who holds every year a conference, and two years ago she wanted to hold a conference on mental health, which is a subject i am very involved in, over here, i am president of mind, the largest of our mental health charities, and i am so fascinated that a country that is at war could have the honesty and the openness to talk about the mental health of its citizens, and it just was a reminder to me of the difference between ukraine and russia. in russia they never talk

about their mental health, which is in a terrible state, as you can imagine. it is drunkenness and drugs and criminality is the only out let for the russian citizen, the ex—soldier, but in ukraine they care about their people, and they care about the mental health of their soldiers, the soldiers coming back, and of the families, and of the children, and the citizens of ukraine, and they were very anxious to discover more about what could be done to help, and to be honest and open and to encourage ukrainian people, who are not used to it, just as we weren't in britain, we never talked about it 20 years ago, it is quite new to talk about mental health with openness and without shame or stigma, and the ukrainian people are starting to do this, and it is very healthy to do it. that's the paradox. it is healthy to talk about ill health. if you don't talk about it, it gets worse. thank you so much. apologies for interrupting.

i know you went to ukraine, what was one thing which impressed you the most, or maybe surprised? oh, the people. the humour, the laughter. although there is a terrible situation of course, they are, you know, people of great strength, and again, a sign of health is to laugh, and they laughed. i mean, it is black humour, dark humour sometimes, but it is also humour that connects themselves to each other and reminds them who they are. they are ukrainians fighting to be ukrainians, to stay ukrainians, not to be invaded. i mean, most british people are not aware of the history of your country, things like the holodomor, the unbelievable suffering that has been undergone by the ukrainian people over the past 150 years, in their fight to be an independent people. and yet, as you were saying, humour is so important for ukrainians, that they once even elected a president who used to be an actor, working as comedian, the most popular comedian in the country, right.

and ijust wanted to jump on that as well, and just to ask you, well, you have here in britain all generations who are united in the love to you and your art. you have people who remember you about your masterpiece, a bit of laurie and fry, and you have people who are watching you on tiktok today, a younger generation. what is your message to all the ukrainians, a very short one, then we willjump to the choir? happy christmas, keep strong, keep the faith in who you are, keep the faith in ukraine. slava ukraini. thank you so much, let us listen to the beautiful ukrainian choir, who will sing silent night for us, which is in ukrainian. it's called svyata nich. let's listen to them. they sing in ukrainian.

the american singer, alfa anderson, best known as one of the lead vocalists of the disco band, chic, has died. she was 78. the singer is best known for hits including le freak and good times. she was encouraged to join chic by luther vandross in 1977. she passed away on 17th december. chic co—founder nile rodgers confirmed the news on social media, where he paid tribute to anderson saying "thank you for everything." that is it for me for the moment, stay with us on bbc

news, thanks for watching. hello. it's been a chilly, windy and showery sort of weekend, but thankfully the weather is looking a little bit quieter now in the run up to christmas. so for christmas week then a change to the weather. things are turning milder, less windy than they have been and things looking mostly dry for many of us towards christmas. but we're going to be starting off with that cold air still in the east. milder air is going to be working in through the day on monday. still a few wintry showers, a little bit of ice first thing monday, i think across parts of north east scotland in particular. but this system is a warm front so it's bringing the milder air. it's also bringing some patchy outbreaks of rain on monday to western areas. these are the sort of temperatures we'll start the day with, two to four degrees for northern and eastern areas, five or six

towards the south and west, a little bit colder than that for the more rural spots, particularly where we had the wintry showers. could be some icy stretches in the far north east. we'll keep the sunshine longest across parts of eastern england on monday. the cloud builds from the west, bringing some patchy rain and some hill fog around western coasts and hills. could be a little bit of snow on top of the highest ground for the highlands, scotland, for a time. only about four or five degrees around that east coast, but in the west nine or ten degrees. things are turning a little bit milder as that warmer air moves in from the atlantic. high pressure is going to be building in as we head through to christmas eve on tuesday as well. so that's keeping most places dry. we will see a little bit of patchy rain across the north and northwest of scotland, perhaps around other western areas a little bit of drizzle here and there. a fairly cloudy picture for many of us on christmas eve. best of any sunshine will be to the east of higher ground. so aberdeenshire, perhaps parts of the welsh marches, seeing a little bit of blue sky here and there. temperatures though, 13, 1a, possibly 15 degrees for some of us. so one of the warmest christmas eves on record, i think. and then that mild air stays with us through into

christmas day as well. we've got a front just trying to move in towards the northwest. it's going to be quite breezy here, and there'll be some outbreaks of rain across the northwest of scotland i think for christmas day. for most of us it's not going to be a white christmas. more of a grey one, really. mostly dry though, quite a lot of cloud around. again, some breaks in that cloud generally to be found to the east of higher ground. so the likes of yorkshire for instance, around the the east coast of england could see a little bit of brightness developing. top temperatures between 11 to 13 for christmas day, perhaps a degree or so down on christmas eve. but most of us looking dry and settled into boxing day and towards the end of the week too. it's mild, it's cloudy, but it's not going to be a white christmas. bye— bye.

this is bbc news, the headlines. a nine—year—old child who was killed in the german christmas market attack has been named as andre gleisner. four women, aged between 45 and 75 also died. germany's interior minister has promised a thorough investigation into the magdeburg attack, including how much was previously known about the suspect. a saudi man suspected of driving the car that ploughed through the crowd has been remanded in custody. gaza's civil defence agency says at least twenty—eight people have been killed in a wave of attacks by the israeli military across the gaza strip. targets were hit in gaza city, rafah and khan younis. and festive cheer sweeps through spain — with more than two billion euros handed out as part of the world's biggest lottery.