>> good afternoon. hello and welcome to gb news. we're live on tv, online and on digital radio. i'm nana akua and for the next few hours, me and my panel will be taking on some of the big topics hitting the headlines. right now, this show is all about opinion. it's mine, it's theirs. and of course it's yours. we'll be debating and discussing and at times we will disagree, but no one will be cancelled. so joining me for the next few hours, political commentator lin mei and also political commentator jonathan lees. now it's been confirmed that five people, including a child, have died after a car drove into crowds at a german christmas market. city officials say over 200 people were injured and the suspect, a 50 year old saudi doctor, is believed to have acted alone. i will bring you the latest throughout the show then coming up, do you believe nigel farage could run the economy? chancellor rachel reeves has launched a scathing attack on him, and she claims

that reform leader hasn't got a clue. so i've got to pull up on x asking you that very question. do you believe that nigel farage could run the economy? cast your vote now then, in difficult conversations, adult content creator bonnie blue will be here live in the studio now. she's become one of the most controversial figures this year by engaging in sexual what can only be called marathons. then my niggle, our labour party of absolute hypocrites and replacing the unelected house of lords with a new, smaller, democratically elected second chamber. really? then in clip bait , this anti keir starmer bait, this anti keir starmer parody song which has reached number one in the download charts. have a listen. it'll be freezing this christmas while keir starmers warm. what do you think? is it funny? is it not? but before we get started, let's get your latest news with sophia

wenzler. >> nana. >> nana. >> thank you. good afternoon. it's just gone 3:00. these are your headlines from the gb newsroom. first, at least five people, including a child, have been killed after a car drove into crowds at a christmas market in germany. the suspect, a 50 year old saudi doctor with reported islamophobic views, has been arrested as chancellor olaf scholz promises a full investigation and justice. european leaders, including sir keir starmer, have expressed solidarity, calling the attack horrific. >> flowers have been laid at the scene ahead of a memorial service in the city's cathedral this evening. our home and security editor, mark white, has been looking into the lone attacker , believed to be behind attacker, believed to be behind the incident in magdeburg. >> he is a 50 year old originally from saudi arabia, who arrived in germany in 2006

and claimed asylum, having fled saudi arabia wanted by the saudi authorities over allegations of rape and other criminal offences. however, the german authorities granted him refugee status in 2016 on human rights grounds. >> now time is running out for pensioners to claim pension credit and secure their winter fuel payment for 2024 2025, with the deadline just hours away. online applications close at 11:59 pm. and phone lines will be open until 3:00 this afternoon for last minute calls. around 760,000 pensioners could miss out, with a benefit topping up weekly incomes and unlocking extra support. the change, announced by chancellor rachel reeves, means winter fuel payments now go only to those on means tested benefits, slashing

recipients from 11.4 million to just 1.5 million. scrap staff parking charges. that's a call from unions, as new research reveals 1 in 4 nhs trusts in england have raised fees for patients, staff or both in the last two years. patients charities say the charges unfairly penalise unwell people, while nhs leaders argue financial pressures leave trusts little choice but to charge the rises, often targeting city centre hospitals have seen higher earners pay more, while nhs staff collectively spent over £70 million on parking last yeah over £70 million on parking last year. unions say health workers are on their knees and need support, not extra costs, as they face the strain of chronic understaffing and the fallout from the pandemic. the department of health insists fees are locally set but must be reasonable. now. crowds across the northern hemisphere have been gathering from early on

this morning to get a sight of the winter solstice, marking the shortest day and longest night of the year in london. there's just under eight hours of daylight, with sunrise at 804 and sunset at 3:53 pm, and even less for people further north. the solstice signals the return of longer days and is celebrated worldwide, from pagan yule festivals to modern traditions inspired by ancient customs, events at stonehenge are among the most iconic, drawing thousands to witness the so—called rebirth of the sun. wherever you are, today's daylight is less than half of what we'll see on the longest day of the year. cache tops the list of christmas gifts for young adults, a new survey has revealed. nearly half of 16 to 24 year olds prefer cash, with 40% happy to receive a voucher and 36% open to a bank transfer.

a third would even like a direct payment into their savings account, while a fifth would still welcome a cheque. but across all age groups, gift cards and vouchers remain the most popular choice for financial gifts. and as christmas falls mid—week, experts say cash machines will be even busier this year, with customers set to withdraw around £1.5 billion in just one week. wet, windy and wild christmas travel plans for millions could be blown off course this weekend. yellow weather warnings for wind cover much of the uk, with gusts of up to 80mph forecast for scotland and northern coastal areas. the met office says road, rail and ferry disruption is likely as millions hit the roads friday, expected to be the busiest travel day since records began in 2010. showers could bring snow and icy conditions to parts of scotland, with strong winds making sunday's journeys exhausting,

according to the rac. winds will ease by monday, but a mild and cloudy christmas is on the cards for most of the uk. those are the latest gb news headlines. now it's back to nana. >> good afternoon and welcome. this is gb news. we're live on tv online and on digital radio i'm nana akua. you won't believe what's just happened. i won't tell you. don't worry. but it's now been confirmed that five people, including a child, have died. now, that was after the car crash. and this is the car that drove into crowds at the german christmas market. city officials say that over 200 people were injured and the suspect, a 50 year old saudi doctor, is believed to have acted alone. i'll be bringing you the latest throughout the show, then coming up for the great british debate this hour, i'm asking, do you believe nigel farage could run the economy? chancellor rachel reeves has launched a scathing attack on him, and claims that the reform leader hasn't got a clue. so for

the great british debate, i'm asking, do you believe nigel could run the economy? there's a poll up on x asking you that very question. cast your vote, then in the polls. now, this is an extraordinary story. it's a breakthrough that shows that alzheimer's may sometimes, in some cases, be caused by the herpes virus. now that travels to the gut. so it travels to the gut and then travels from the gut and then travels from the gut to the brain. fascinating. doctor thorin govind will be here to give us more. all of that coming up. and as ever, do not forget, in the next hour, bonnie blue will be joining me live in the studio. yes, you heard it here. you won't want to miss that. as ever, send me your thoughts, post your comments gbnews.com/yoursay. so he's just coming up to nine minutes after 3:00. five people have been killed and over 200 injured after a car drove into crowds at after a car drove into crowds at a german christmas market last night. now, the suspected

attacker was arrested at the scene and is believed to be a 50 year old doctor from saudi arabia. now the prime minister, sir keir starmer, has said that he's horrified by this atrocious attack. joining me now is the uk correspondent for die zeit, jochen bittner. i hope i said that right. so, absolutely. talk to me. what happened exactly? for some people who may not have heard the news, what exactly happened? >> well, in the in the town of magdeburg yesterday night, this 50 year old doctor that your news just mentioned. >> he drove a bmw at high speed into a christmas market, which was obviously crowded. and the authorities will have a lot of questions to answer as to why this was possible. because as everywhere now in western europe, the german christmas markets, they are protected by bullets and barriers. but in this case, obviously a gap was

left for a tramline to move through. and it appears that the perpetrator used this gap to drive the car into the crowds. >> now, when obviously the perpetrator was driving at speed, i hear that the car didn't slow down. do we know more as to whether this was deliberate, or whether he had some sort of medical emergency, or whether there was anything more that could have been an explanation as to why this happened. >> this nana is a very curious case. this guy that we are talking about, we're finding out more about his motives. minute after minute. and it appears that he was both. if you like , that he was both. if you like, islamophobic or anti—islamic and also anti—german in a way. he ran a kind of helpline for asylum seekers from saudi arabia. at the same time, he got so annoyed with the german

refugee system and asylum system that he decried what he called the islamisation of germany and europe, and he was so angry with the germans because he believed that they were actually then chasing and persecuting refugees from saudi arabia. so obviously, what we can say so far is that this man is deranged. i think he worked. >> sorry. go on. you said he's deranged, and then we lost you from there. >> oh, yeah. he's he's obviously deranged. he worked in a facility for mentally ill people close to magdeburg himself. and this, of course, also raises the question if this guy had radicalised in the course of the past few months, why did nobody there notice? i mean, obviously, if you work in a hospital for the mentally ill, some colleagues might see telltale signs of yourself becoming

unstable or radicalised. and then again, we hear that there were warnings from the saudi government to the german authorities. there was also a warning from. saudi lady warning them of what she perceived as a radicalisation of this guy. and the warning, as far as we know, were not heeded. >> so he was anti—islamic, but he was also anti—german. and it sounds like you're saying that he was not happy with the fact that the, the way the maybe the religion had sort of infiltrated germany because he was trying to get away from it. is that kind of where we are with this? >> we can't say that for sure at the moment. what we can say for sure is that. >> i mean, he heard some reports that there were explosives in the car. is that has that been confirmed or is it just hearsay

or. >> this, this this has not been confirmed. no. and i mean, he he portrayed himself in an interview a couple of months ago with a renowned german newspaper as being, quote, the biggest islam critic in history. and then again, he was in touch with other ex—muslims in germany who, who themselves had doubts about his version of things, namely being an ex—muslim. so, i mean, it's very hard to figure out at this stage what was actually his motivation. but what we can say was that he wanted to hurt germans. he actually announced that he wanted to kill germans and wanted to take revenge for what he saw as some kind of maltreatment against him and against other people from saudi arabia. and of course, this is

this is not founded in a factual sense. i think we are dealing sick mind here, basically. >> yeah, we really are. bittner, thank you very much. really good to talk to you. thank you. thank you.thank to talk to you. thank you. thank you. thank you. all right. well, i mean, it's frightening, isn't it? what are your thoughts? gbnews.com/yoursay. stay tuned though. we've got loads more still to come if you just tuned in. welcome on board. it is fast approaching. 15 minutes after 3:00. i'm nana akua now. sue gray, that name. the civil servant who investigated partygate and went on to become sir keir starmer's chief of staff, has been made a life peer as part of the prime minister's 30 new appointments as he attempts to swing the house of lords his way. meanwhile, downing street yesterday has confirmed that lord peter mandelson will be the next uk ambassador to the united states, with sir keir starmer saying the labour grandee will bring unrivalled experience to the role and take our partnership with the united states from strength to strength by. but why

doesn't he have a listen? why don't you have a listen? have a listen to lord mandelson and his previous comments about president elect donald trump with an american president who is little short of a white nationalist and racist, even those who have a sneaking admiration for donald trump because of the strength of his personality , nonetheless regard personality, nonetheless regard him as reckless and a danger to the world. perfect choice, wouldn't you say? honestly? seriously? joining me now, political commentator. jess gil. jess, welcome. thank you for joining me. >> thank you so much for having me on. >> right. let's talk about this. peter mandelson. why is he a good choice? >> honestly, i don't know too much about him. >> i would say yes, he is a good choice from from what i know. >> well, let's talk about these appointments then, because keir starmer was adamant about getting rid of hereditary peers. and now what he's done is he's

clearly filling it with people to swing the balance in his favour. >> honestly, i'm very much in favour of hereditary peers despite the average viewpoint of my age demographic, because honestly, i think it's a testament to the legacy and the heritage of britain. i think it's a very noble and noble position to have. and i think if you look at the hereditary peers throughout time, they have done a good job. and i think actually it's a positive thing not to be so politicised, but to be tied to a duty to an honour of your country. and so i think hereditary peers are a great thing, in all honesty. >> so what do you think of keir starmer then? because he's obviously got rid of them and now he's replacing them with his own sort of cronies, people that he's chosen, one of them being sue gray. >> yeah. so i think we can see the effect of getting rid of hereditary peers through the appointment of sue gray with, with the because obviously through partygate and through her previous controversies

around particularly like boris johnson's administration, his government, we can see that obviously she's a loaded figure and it calls into question, what's the point of the house of lords? and i think the house of lords, it should be to keep the house of commons in check. it should be a sort of check and balance to make sure that there is this element of government that isn't just the elected parts, because with the elected parts, because with the elected parts, even though i wouldn't really consider keir starmers government elected, considering the amount of unpopularity they had in low turnout. yeah, absolutely. i wouldn't consider them the most popular government. and i think right now they shouldn't be enacting radical change because they don't have a mandate for that. i don't have a mandate for that. i don't think so. with the house of lords, i think it's quite ridiculous. they're putting forward someone radical like sue gray, who is obviously very controversial and i would argue, very unpopular with the general public. >> it does seem a bit odd, doesn't it? do you get the sense that the current government, because you said they're putting things forward without actually

having a mandate for it, even though we've put them in charge to run the country? do you get the impression that they are going in the wrong direction? >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, obviously i'm biased because i'm more right wing, but i think they have spoken. they have given red meat, weirdly enough, to the to the voters who care quite a lot about immigration, which i would say is the key issue of our time. they are more radical than i would argue kemi badenoch at least starmer is in red rhetoric, which is ironic because the guy is so uncharismatic and so unideological. it's crazy. so i think he is willing to say whatever. i think that's the issue of keir starmer. but in terms of what he's putting through, obviously with the winter fuel payments, that was a punishment, i would say, on boomers, on our older generation who should be looked after. and also in terms of the farmers, why are you literally biting the hand that feeds you? it's ridiculous. >> and also the waspi women, they came out and said they gave

their, you know, unvetted support. lots of them came out to tell us how they were going to tell us how they were going to support the waspi women. then they've to support the wa