Grief and anger are boiling over in Magdeburg after an attacker used an access lane for emergency vehicles to drive into a Christmas market, killing five people and injuring hundreds.
On a visit on Saturday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, ministers and regional political leaders were heckled by members of the public, some seemingly outraged by what was criticised as a lapse in security.
German authorities have defended the layout and security at the market.
Authorities are also facing questions after reports that they were warned last year about the suspect, with police saying they had conducted an evaluation as to whether the perpetrator might be a potential threat a year ago.
The suspect has been ordered into pre-trial detention and faces charges of murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm.
Usually at this time of the year, German city centres are full of shoppers and revellers drinking mulled wine, but this year the mood is very different.
The main Christmas market is cordoned off by tape and surrounded by police vans as armed officers patrol the shops and malls nearby.
There is sadness in the air in Magdeburg, as well as bafflement and anger, as people ask how could this have happened.
As Scholz and his colleagues walked out of the cordoned-off market during their visit on Saturday, they were met with booing and heckling and shouts of "hau ab", an extremely aggressive form of "get lost".
Some people seemed enraged by a perceived lapse in security. Others appeared simply annoyed and irritated in general at Germany's political leaders.
Security has ramped up at Christmas markets across Germany since a similar attack in Berlin in 2016 when a man drove a lorry into a market crowd, killing 12 people.
Open-plan Christmas markets now have some sort of barrier around them — typically large concrete blocks, which is the case in Magdeburg.
However, the gap in the barriers was large enough to allow emergency vehicles to pass through.
City official Ronni Krug told reporters at a press conference on Saturday that emergency responders needed an evacuation route in case of a "conventional" emergency, and all the relevant agencies approved the plan.
"A safety and security concept must, on the one hand, protect those visiting an event as much as possible, but also needs to ensure, at the same time, if something does happen, they are able to leave the site safely and rapidly", he said.
"Perhaps it is something that could not have been prevented", he added.
German media reported that before the attack, there had been warnings into a potential threat from the suspect.
The suspect, a doctor from Saudi Arabia named Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, arrived in Germany in 2006 and in 2016 was recognised as a refugee.
An atheist, he ran a website that aimed to help other former Muslims flee persecution in their Gulf homelands. His social media was full of anti-Islamic sentiment and conspiracy theories.
At Saturday's press conference, Magdeburg police chief Tom-Oliver Langhans said police had conducted an evaluation as to whether the perpetrator might be a potential threat, "but that discussion was one year ago".
He added that investigations into the suspect's past were ongoing and declined to comment further.
One of those tip-offs is believed to have come from Saudi Arabia, the suspect's home country.
A source close to the Saudi government told the BBC it sent four official notifications known as "Notes Verbal" to German authorities, warning them about what they said were "the very extreme views" held by al-Abdulmohsen.
However, a counter-terrorism expert told the BBC the Saudis may have been mounting a disinformation campaign to discredit someone who tried to help young Saudi women seek asylum in Germany.
On Saturday, Langhans said he did not have information when asked about Saudi Arabia issuing warnings.
Later, the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, told public broadcaster ZDF that his office had received a notice from Saudi Arabia in November 2023. He said local police took appropriate investigative measures, but the matter was unspecific.
He added that the suspect "had various contacts with authorities, insulted them and even made threats, but he was not known for violent acts".
Past investigations would need to be revisited, Münch said.
On Friday evening, a man ploughed a car into a crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg.
The attack has left five people dead and more than 200 injured, with many in a critical condition.
One man has been arrested over the attack, and police believe he was solely responsible.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz travelled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a city councillor declared Christmas over for the city.
How did the attack unfold?
Unverified footage on social media showed a black BMW travelling at high speeds through the pedestrian walkway between Christmas stalls.
Eyewitnesses described jumping out of the car's path, fleeing or hiding. One told the Reuters news agency that police were already at the venue and chased after the car before arresting the suspect.
Footage from verified sources showed armed police confronting and arresting a man who can be seen lying on the ground next to a stationary vehicle - a black BMW with significant damage to its front bumper.
BBC correspondent Damien McGuinness in Magdeburg reported that the market is "surrounded by concrete blocks". However, "there is a gap which is wide enough for pedestrians to go through, but tragically wide enough for a car to go into the Christmas market", he said.
City officials said around 100 police, medics and firefighters, as well as 50 rescue service personnel rushed to the scene in the aftermath of the attack.
Images from the scene on Friday night showed an area outside the market awash with blue lights as dozens of first responders attended to the injured.
Video shows arrest of Magdeburg attack suspect
Who are the victims?
Five people have died in the attack, one of whom is a child.
More than 200 people have been injured and at least 41 are in a critical condition.
The toll had earlier been reported as two dead and 68 injured, but was revised to the much higher totals on Saturday morning.
None of the victims have been identified yet.
Reuters
Tributes have been left at a church by the scene
Who is the suspect?
German media has identified the suspect as Taleb A, a psychiatrist who lives in Bernburg, around 40km (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.
The motive behind the attack remains unclear, but authorities have reported that they believe he carried out the attack alone.
Originally from Saudi Arabia, he arrived in Germany in 2006 and in 2016 was recognised as a refugee.
He ran a website that aimed to help other former Muslims flee persecution in their Gulf homelands.
Evidenced by social media posts, the suspect is an outspoken critic of Islam, and has promoted conspiracy theories regarding a plot to seek Islamic supremacy in Europe.
A report from Der Spiegel said a complaint was filed against Taleb A with the authorities a year ago over statements he made. Officials did not see any concrete threat, the report says.
What have officials said about the attack?
"The reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears," the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on social media platform X.
Magdeburg's city councillor for public order, Ronni Krug, said the Christmas market will stay closed and that "Christmas in Magdeburg is over", according to German public broadcaster MDR.
That sentiment was echoed on the market's website, which in the wake of the attack featured only a black screen with words of mourning, announcing that the market was over.
The Saudi government expressed "solidarity with the German people and the families of the victims", in a statement on X, and "affirmed its rejection of violence".
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was "horrified by the atrocious attack in Magdeburg", adding that his thoughts were with "the victims, their families and all those affected" in a post on X on Friday night.
（德国之声中文网）美国中央司令部（CENTCOM）周六晚间宣布，一架F/A-18超级大黄蜂战斗机在从航空母舰“哈里·杜鲁门”号(USS Harry S. Truman)起飞后，被己方导弹巡洋舰“葛底斯堡”号(USS Gettysburg)“误击”后坠毁。这架飞机属于弗吉尼亚州大洋娜海军航空站第11攻击战斗机中队“红色裂缝者”。
Mozambique is on edge ahead of a ruling expected on Monday to determine the final results of October’s disputed elections, after allegations of rigging triggered weeks of protests in which security forces have killed dozens of people.
The opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane has threatened “chaos” if the constitutional council confirms the initial election results, which gave the ruling party candidate, Daniel Chapo, 70.7% of the vote and Mondlane 20.3%.
The Podemos party, which is allied with Mondlane, said it should have 138 out of 250 seats in parliament, instead of the 31 that the election commission said it had won.
Mozambique’s Catholic bishops alleged that ballot-stuffing had taken place, while EU election observers noted “irregularities during counting and unjustified alteration of election results”.
Mondlane has repeatedly said he won and has urged his supporters to take to the streets. This has brought the economy to a near standstill, including shutting the border and disrupting trade with South Africa.
Security forces have cracked down in response, killing at least 130 people and injuring hundreds more, according to Human Rights Watch. Local media reported that security forces shot dead two mourners on 14 December at a funeral for a blogger known as Mano Shottas, who had been killed while livestreaming a protest two days earlier.
Recently, some protesters have become violent, with offices of the ruling party, Frelimo, set on fire and a statue of the former defence minister Alberto Chipande, who is credited with firing the first shot in Mozambique’s war of independence, pulled down.
“On Monday the whole country must stop,” Mondlane said on Friday in one of his regular broadcasts, which he has been streaming on Facebook from an undisclosed location abroad, where he claims he fled to avoid being assassinated.
Mondlane called for prayers in the south-east African country on Sunday. “We are giving the opportunity to pray for the judges of the constitutional council, to pray for [its chair] Dr Lúcia Ribeiro, so that on Monday, from her, justice comes out, the electoral truth does not come out as a lie,” he said.
Mozambique’s outgoing president, Filipe Nyusi, rebutted Mondlane’s claim that he was planning to cling to power, saying in a Thursday evening broadcast that he would leave office in January as planned.
He also implicitly criticised Mondlane, saying: “It worries us that the process of choosing our leaders was transformed into a pretext to induce and exacerbate social tensions and violent acts.”
Zenaida Machado, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the ruling administration had “decided to brand the entire protest movement as violent to justify their own use of excessive force”.
“The fact that some people within a protest have become violent does not label the entire protests violent,” she said.
While most analysts believe there was some level of rigging, some said it was unclear whether Mondlane had won.
“A 70% majority for Frelimo was a massive surprise to everybody,” said Alex Vines, who was part of a group of election observers from the Commonwealth. “But neither … can [you] say that Venâncio Mondlane won. We just don’t know.
“The [opposition party] Renamo vote collapsed in Renamo heartlands,” said Vines, the head of the Africa programme at the thinktank Chatham House. “Frelimo benefited from that. It was in the urban areas that Podemos and particularly Venâncio prospered, which is not enough, necessarily, to get a majority.”
Four of the constitutional council’s seven judges were appointed by Frelimo parliamentarians, while the chair was appointed by Nyusi.
Adriano Nuvunga, the director of the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights, a Mozambican non-profit organisation, said: “Everything will depend on what they say at the announcement – whether they will confirm the current results with minor changes or whether there will be a change, which is unrealistic. We are bracing for impact.”
A woman who was with her boyfriend at the Christmas market in Magdeburg has told local media she had her boyfriend in her arms when the car used in the attack came speeding towards them.
"He was hit and pulled away from my side. It was terrible," 32-year-old Nadine told the Bild newspaper.
Footage published on German media showed a black car striking a crowd of people at high speed and continuing to drive forward for hundreds of metres.
Nadine's boyfriend is said to have sustained injuries to his leg and head.
Another eyewitness, Gianni Warzecha, told the BBC he was listening to Christmas music at the market with his girlfriend's family when "suddenly there was a rumbling and the sound of shattered glass".
"People began to panic," he said. "I saw the car and people on the floor, people bleeding. There were also kids.
"I was concentrating on getting first aid to people. It took a few minutes for the first paramedics to arrive but it wasn't enough because there were already 200 people hurt.
"Most of the first aid was done by people there."
Lars Frohmüller, a reporter for the public broadcaster MDR who arrived at the Christmas market in Magdeburg shortly after the attack, told the BBC about what he saw.
"Everywhere were ambulances, there were police, there were a lot of fire workers.
"This was a real chaotic situation. We saw blood on the floor, we saw people sitting beside each other and having golden and silver foils around them. And we saw many doctors trying to keep people warm and help them with their injuries.
"It's a big shock. It's a big shock for every people here in Magdeburg and for every person in Saxony-Anhalt."
Tobias Rausch, who was at the Christmas market and serves as general secretary of Germany's far-right AfD party in Saxony-Anhalt, told Reuters it was scary.
Rausch said he had not reached the market when "all of a sudden, we heard a muffled noise, an engine roaring".
"People were screaming. It all happened in a fraction of a second."
Once away from danger, Rausch said he was able to film the moment police detained the suspect.
Local officials told a news conference that fellow citizens had given vital first aid to those hurt in the moments before emergency services arrived on the scene.
Reuters
Heike Janke was at the Christmas market on Friday hours before the attack
One Magdeburg resident, Heike Janke, was at the Christmas market on Friday and left at around 18:00 local time (17:00 GMT), roughly an hour before the attack took place.
"We could have been hit," Ms Janke told Reuters, as she lit a candle for those involved in the tragedy. She said she felt appalled by what happened, "somehow you just can't believe it".
She was joined by many other locals who brought flowers and candles to a church near where the attack happened.
Corinna Pagels, a local and employee with a counselling organisation, said she was at the market herself early on Friday. She said the healing for the community starts now.
"Of course, it gets to you and we also need to process things and thankfully we have a good network and are also there to provide aftercare for rescue workers and firefighters and support them in the aftermath. So the real work starts now."
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, was the Bishop of Essex when David Tudor was twice reappointed to a senior position
A Church of England priest at the centre of a sexual abuse case was twice reappointed to a senior role during the Archbishop of York's time as Bishop of Chelmsford, the BBC can reveal.
New information shows Tudor's contract as area dean in Essex was renewed in 2013 and 2018, at which times Mr Cottrell knew he had paid compensation to a woman who says she was abused by him as a child.
The Archbishop of York said he regrets his handling of the case, with a spokesperson saying "he acknowledges this could have been handled differently".
They added that "all the risks around David Tudor were regularly reviewed" and that was the "main focus".
Rachel Ford, who told the investigation she was groomed by Tudor as a child, said the renewal of his contract as area dean was "an insult to all of his victims".
Ms Ford added that if responsibility for that lay with Mr Cottrell, it strengthened her feeling that he should resign.
The pressure on Mr Cottrell comes at a time of turmoil in the Church of England following a damning report into how it covered up prolific abuse by the barrister John Smyth.
The report led to the resignation of the Church's most senior figure, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. Mr Cottrell will take over his role temporarily for a few months in the New Year.
The BBC investigation showed Mr Cottrell was briefed in his first week as Bishop of Chelmsford about serious safeguarding issues surrounding Tudor.
These included that Tudor was convicted of indecently assaulting three underage girls and was jailed for six months in 1988, although the conviction was quashed on technical grounds. Mr Cottrell would also have known Tudor served a five-year ban from ministry.
By 2012, Mr Cottrell also knew Tudor had paid a £10,000 settlement to a woman who says she was sexually abused by him from the age of 11. In 2018, the Church of England issued an apology and a six-figure pay-out to another alleged victim.
Yet the priest was suspended only in 2019 when a police investigation was launched after another woman came forward alleging Tudor had abused her in the 1980s.
Facebook/Canvey CofE
David Tudor after being presented with a certificate signed by Bishop Stephen Cottrell making him an honorary canon of Chelmsford Cathedral in 2015
When first responding to the BBC's investigation, the Archbishop of York said he was "deeply sorry that we were not able to take action earlier", insisting he had acted at the first opportunity that was legally available to him.
Mr Cottrell also said he had been faced with a "horrible and intolerable" situation and that it was "awful to live with and to manage".
When Mr Cottrell became bishop in 2010, Tudor was into the second year of a five-year term as an area dean, a role overseeing 12 parishes in Essex.
His appointment to that post, under a different bishop, happened despite him working under a safeguarding agreement that barred him from being alone with children and entering schools.
The title was renewed twice under Mr Cottrell - in 2013 and 2018 - and he lost the title only when the term of office expired in 2020. It was not taken from him.
A spokesperson for the Archbishop said he "accepts responsibility for David Tudor remaining as Area Dean".
"No-one advised him that David Tudor should not continue as an Area Dean," said the Archbishop's office.
Another of Tudor's victims, who does not want to be identified, said she was "shocked and disappointed" to hear his tenure as area dean was twice renewed during Mr Cottrell's time as Bishop of Chelmsford.
"These are not the actions of a bishop dealing with a situation that was intolerable to him, in fact, quite the opposite. I call on him to do the honourable thing for the sake of the Church and resign," she says.
In 2015, under Mr Cottrell, Tudor was also made honorary canon of Chelmsford Cathedral.
The Archbishop's office insisted it happened because of a change in Church policy during Mr Cottrell's time as Bishop of Chelmsford, meaning area deans were automatically made honorary canons.
It was "not a promotion and not a personal reward".
However, a social media post from Tudor's Canvey Island parish in July 2015 suggests it was seen there as a reward.
Tudor's "hard work, determination and commitment to this place have been recognised by the diocese and this new position in the Church is very well-deserved," it said.
The BBC has also seen evidence - in leaked minutes from internal Church meetings in 2018 and 2019 - that Tudor's titles of area dean and honorary canon were discussed and there had been a suggestion Mr Cottrell could immediately have taken them away.
In October 2018, a meeting at Church House - the London headquarters of the Church of England - heard that Chelmsford diocese took the view that if Tudor "can be a parish priest, he can undertake the other roles".
A bishop from another diocese said "the Bishop of Chelmsford could remove DT's [David Tudor's] Canon and Area Dean titles straight away".
But in a follow-up discussion in November 2018, Chelmsford diocese advised it would not be appropriate because of "the difficulty of removing those titles without explaining why."
We asked Mr Cottrell's office why he had not followed the suggestion to remove Tudor's titles. We were told "it would not be appropriate to comment on any notes or decisions from a core group process which are confidential".
The investigation also highlighted the significant role played by former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey in the case.
We revealed Lord Carey had agreed to Tudor's return to priesthood after being suspended in 1989, and had also agreed to have Tudor's name removed from the list of clergy that had faced disciplinary action. He had also advocated for the priest.
After the BBC put this information to the former Archbishop of Canterbury, he wrote to give up his "permission to officiate", ending more than 65 years of ministry in the Church of England. Lord Carey made the announcement on Tuesday.
In October 2024, Tudor admitted sexual misconduct and was sacked by the Church. At no point has he responded to the BBC's attempts to speak with him.
US F/A-18 fighter jets were used in the attack (file picture)
The US military says it has carried out a series of air strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa targeting a missile storage site and command facilities operated by Iran-backed Houthi militants.
US Central Command added it also hit multiple Houthi drones and an anti-ship cruise missile over the Red Sea.
It comes hours after the Houthis fired a ballistic missile at Israel which injured more than a dozen people in a Tel Aviv park.
The Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group that controls north-western Yemen, began attacking Israel and international shipping shortly after the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians.
In a statement, the US military's Central Command said the strikes aimed to "disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden".
The US military also said it struck "multiple Houthi one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles, or drones, and an anti-ship cruise missile over the Red Sea".
American F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets were used in the operation, the US Central Command added.
Since November 2023, Houthi missile attacks have sunk two vessels in the Red Sea and damaged others. They have claimed, often falsely, that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK.
Last December, the US, UK and 12 other nations launched Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect Red Sea shipping lanes against the attacks.
Reuters
A Houthi missile hit Tel Aviv on Saturday with 16 people being treated for minor injuries
On Saturday, Israel's military said its attempts to shoot down a projectile launched from Yemen were unsuccessful and the missile struck a park in Tel Aviv.
Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's emergency medical service, said it treated 16 people who were "mildly injured" by glass shards from shattered windows in nearby buildings.
Another 14 people suffered minor injuries on their way to protected areas were also treated, it said.
A Houthi spokesman said the group hit a military target using a hypersonic ballistic missile.
Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported that nine people were killed in the port of Salif and the Ras Issa oil terminal.
The Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks until the war in Gaza ends. The US says its latest strike is part of a commitment to protect itself and its allies.
Amanda Walker felt trapped in a flat she couldn't sell because of its flammable cladding.
When it turned out that no government scheme would cover the costs of removing the dangerous material from her newly built flat in south London, she started campaigning.
She spent four years trying to get justice for herself, and for millions caught up in the scandal exposed by the Grenfell Tower fire.
Then, at the age of 51, she was found dead in her one-bedroom apartment by her mother and sister. An inquest recently recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.
"She would often phone me late at night when she just couldn't deal with it any more," her mother Glenda recalls.
"I wish she could phone me now."
Amanda's one-bedroom flat, which she bought for £500,000 in 2018, soon became a nightmare
Half a year earlier, in July 2023, Amanda had addressed peers in the House of Lords investigating the impact of the cladding problem on flat owners.
"It's devastating. It's just a quagmire. It's just chaos," she told them. "It's so unjust. I had done nothing wrong and it's destroyed my life already."
The video of Amanda's address to the Lords is now treasured by her mother, who's speaking for the first time since the inquest's verdict.
Glenda thinks Amanda, an office manager at a hedge fund in the City of London, started drinking to deal with the anxiety of having to face unaffordable bills to fix the cladding, running into the tens of thousands.
"I'm not ashamed for her for that because it was her way of coping. She used the term 'seeking oblivion'."
Amanda wrote countless letters to MPs, local authorities and other responsible bodies - but "always got the statutory response", her mother continues.
"There are still over a million people in this situation and [MPs and civil servants] would write these platitudinous letters saying 'oh we're doing this, we're doing that'."
She doesn't just see those as unhelpful - but as evidence that nobody really understood the scale of the problem and how seriously it was affecting people.
It felt like there was a black chasm ahead, Amanda Walker told a House of Lords briefing
The government did eventually launch a scheme - the Building Safety Fund - to pay to remove the type of dangerous cladding that is on the outside of Amanda's flat.
She was hoping that changes enshrined in a separate landmark law called the Building Safety Act - brought in after the Grenfell tragedy - would help her correct internal fire safety defects, like insufficient fire stopping between flats.
But they didn't. There were significant exceptions to who qualified.
Since some of the other flat owners in her development had bought a share of the building's freehold, she became what's known as a "non-qualifying" leaseholder - meaning she still faced huge uncapped bills to contribute towards the repair costs.
Several proposed amendments to the Building Safety Act that would've protected people in Amanda's position were voted down in the last parliament.
What always scared Amanda was the threat of having to pay unpayable sums. She described it as a "sword of Damocles over my head for three long years". For a brief moment there was hope. "And then they vote against us, on everything," she told peers.
Walker family
Amanda, pictured here with her brother and parents, became consumed by anxiety about her situation
Amanda's drinking increased and her family sought medical help. She agreed to be hospitalised. GPs and psychiatrists were clear in their reports: Amanda's drinking, stress and anxiety were down to the impact of the cladding crisis on her mental state. She was prescribed anti-depressants.
She continued campaigning with her mother, but things began to spiral downhill.
Glenda believes the anti-depressants she was given were not benefiting her. "I think she was over-medicated and her head was all over the place. She wasn't depressed, she kept saying: 'I am not depressed, I'm angry.'"
Amanda's partner split up with her as cladding campaigning consumed more and more of her life. Her mother and sister would make trips to see her to try to offer support.
If you've been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line
Glenda says Amanda had entirely lost faith in the government and believes medication was not helping her
Things came to a head one day this January.
Glenda was growing ever-more nervous about her daughter, and knew she needed urgent medical attention.
She says she'd written a "fairly assertive" letter to a hospital where her daughter had been previously treated, warning her condition was getting serious.
Travelling to London through the rain, she found herself "phoning and phoning and phoning" the hospital to try to get doctors to intervene again.
The following day Amanda was found dead.
Asked if she'd ever thought that her daughter might kill herself, Glenda says: "Manda had talked about it. She'd talked about it."
She says she can understand her daughter's state of mind that weekend.
"Yeah, I've seen it so often. I'm different from her and she felt despair… She wanted justice and she felt it was just awful. I think she lost faith in the government completely."
Amanda's parents, who still haven't been able to sell the flat, hope their daughter's campaigning will make life easier for people stuck in buildings with defective cladding
The government says that work is already underway through the Remediation Acceleration Plan "to make sure those responsible for the cladding crisis pay their fair share".
It says it is "continuing to look at all options to ensure residents no longer have to deal with the nightmare of living in unsafe buildings".
Amanda's flat has now passed to her parents to deal with.
Its exterior cladding has now been replaced and they are trying to sell - but they still haven't been able to, due to structural fire issues inside the property.
Unless the Building Safety Act is amended by fresh legislation, Amanda's parents or any future purchaser will be liable for paying to fix those problems.
Amanda's mother hopes that speaking about her daughter's death has not been in vain, and that her story can be a catalyst.
"You go through grief… and perhaps the anger's getting in there a little bit now.
"For her sake, we'd love to think that she had caused some small change."
A man accused of murdering four women and a nine-year-old boy by driving a car into them at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg has been remanded in custody.
The 50-year-old was brought before Magdeburg district court on Saturday evening following the incident on Friday when a black BMW car ploughed through the crowded market injuring more than 200 people.
Magdeburg Police said investigations are continuing and officers are appealing for witnesses to send in photos or video of the incident.
The suspect has been named in local media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had worked as a doctor.
On Sunday morning, Magdeburg police confirmed four women - aged 45, 52, 67 and 75 - were also killed in the incident.
"The judge ordered pre-trial detention for five counts of murder, multiple attempted murder and multiple counts of dangerous bodily harm," its statement said.
City officials said around 100 police, medics and firefighters, as well as 50 rescue service personnel, went to the scene shortly after 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Friday.
Witnesses described how they had to jump out of the car's path during the attack.
In an interview with German paper Bild, one woman called Nadine described being at the Christmas market with her boyfriend Marco when the car came speeding towards them.
"He was hit and pulled away from my side," the 32-year-old told the paper. "It was terrible."
Lars Frohmüller, a reporter for German public broadcaster MDR, told BBC Radio 4's World Tonight programme he saw "blood on the floor" as well as "many doctors trying to keep people warm and help them with their injuries".
A memorial service for victims of the attack was held at Magdeburg Cathedral on Saturday evening
The service was attended by families of the victims, emergency workers and federal government officials, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Getty Images
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has condemned the "terrible, insane" attack that has so far killed five people
During a visit to the market earlier on Saturday, Scholz described the attack as a "dreadful tragedy" as "so many people were injured and killed with such brutality" in a place that is supposed to be "joyful".
He told reporters that there were serious concerns for those who had been critically injured and that "all resources" will be allocated to investigating the suspect behind the attack.
Previously, Reiner Haseloff, the premier of Saxony-Anhalt state, said a preliminary investigation suggested the alleged attacker was acting alone.
President Bashar al-Assad, who wielded fear and force over Syria for more than two decades, fled the country under the cover of night — and a fake political address.
Lithuania’s national opera house had stopped showing Tchaikovsky’s 1892 masterpiece in solidarity with Ukraine over the war with Russia. Then a new minister expressed fondness for the Russian composer, igniting a furor.
In the West African nation of Niger, killings by insurgents have surged since the military seized power in a coup, expelled U.S. and European troops and stopped negotiations with Islamist groups.
A man accused of murdering four women and a nine-year-old boy by driving a car into them at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg has been remanded in custody.
The 50-year-old was brought before Magdeburg district court on Saturday evening following the incident on Friday when a black BMW car ploughed through the crowded market injuring more than 200 people.
Magdeburg Police said investigations are continuing and officers are appealing for witnesses to send in photos or video of the incident.
The suspect has been named in local media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had worked as a doctor.
On Sunday morning, Magdeburg police confirmed four women - aged 45, 52, 67 and 75 - were also killed in the incident.
"The judge ordered pre-trial detention for five counts of murder, multiple attempted murder and multiple counts of dangerous bodily harm," its statement said.
City officials said around 100 police, medics and firefighters, as well as 50 rescue service personnel, went to the scene shortly after 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Friday.
Witnesses described how they had to jump out of the car's path during the attack.
In an interview with German paper Bild, one woman called Nadine described being at the Christmas market with her boyfriend Marco when the car came speeding towards them.
"He was hit and pulled away from my side," the 32-year-old told the paper. "It was terrible."
Lars Frohmüller, a reporter for German public broadcaster MDR, told BBC Radio 4's World Tonight programme he saw "blood on the floor" as well as "many doctors trying to keep people warm and help them with their injuries".
A memorial service for victims of the attack was held at Magdeburg Cathedral on Saturday evening
The service was attended by families of the victims, emergency workers and federal government officials, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Getty Images
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has condemned the "terrible, insane" attack that has so far killed five people
During a visit to the market earlier on Saturday, Scholz described the attack as a "dreadful tragedy" as "so many people were injured and killed with such brutality" in a place that is supposed to be "joyful".
He told reporters that there were serious concerns for those who had been critically injured and that "all resources" will be allocated to investigating the suspect behind the attack.
Previously, Reiner Haseloff, the premier of Saxony-Anhalt state, said a preliminary investigation suggested the alleged attacker was acting alone.
A ferry overloaded with people returning home for Christmas capsized on the Busira River in north-eastern Congo, leaving 38 people confirmed dead and more than 100 others missing, officials and eyewitnesses said on Saturday.
Twenty people have been rescued so far.
The sinking of the ferry late on Friday came less than four days after another boat capsized in the country’s north-east, killing 25 people.
The ferry was travelling as part of a convoy of other vessels and the passengers were primarily merchants returning home for Christmas, said Joseph Joseph Kangolingoli, the mayor of Ingende, the last town on the river before the site of the accident.
According to Ingende resident Ndolo Kaddy, the ferry contained “more than 400 people because it made two ports, Ingende and Loolo, on the way to Boende, so there is reason to believe there were more deaths”.
Congolese officials have often warned against overloading boats and vowed to punish those violating safety measures on rivers. However, in remote areas many people cannot afford public transportation on the few available roads.
At least 78 people drowned in October when an overloaded boat sank in the country’s east while 80 lost their lives in a similar accident near Kinshasa in June.
The latest accident prompted anger at the government for not equipping the convoy with flotation devices.
Nesty Bonina, a member of the local government and a prominent figure in Mbandaka, the capital of the Equateur province where the ferry sank, condemned authorities for not properly handling the recent events.
“How can a ship navigate at night under the watchful eye of river service agents? And now we’re recording over a hundred deaths,” said Bonina.
The capsizing of overloaded boats is becoming increasingly frequent in this central African nation as more people are giving up the few available roads in favour of wooden vessels crumbling under the weight of passengers and their goods for security reasons.
The roads are often caught up in the deadly clashes between Congolese security forces and rebels that sometimes block major access routes.
On Friday evening, a man ploughed a car into a crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg.
The attack has left five people dead and more than 200 injured, with many in a critical condition.
One man has been arrested over the attack, and police believe he was solely responsible.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz travelled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a city councillor declared Christmas over for the city.
How did the attack unfold?
Unverified footage on social media showed a black BMW travelling at high speeds through the pedestrian walkway between Christmas stalls.
Eyewitnesses described jumping out of the car's path, fleeing or hiding. One told the Reuters news agency that police were already at the venue and chased after the car before arresting the suspect.
Footage from verified sources showed armed police confronting and arresting a man who can be seen lying on the ground next to a stationary vehicle - a black BMW with significant damage to its front bumper.
BBC correspondent Damien McGuinness in Magdeburg reported that the market is "surrounded by concrete blocks". However, "there is a gap which is wide enough for pedestrians to go through, but tragically wide enough for a car to go into the Christmas market", he said.
City officials said around 100 police, medics and firefighters, as well as 50 rescue service personnel rushed to the scene in the aftermath of the attack.
Images from the scene on Friday night showed an area outside the market awash with blue lights as dozens of first responders attended to the injured.
Video shows arrest of Magdeburg attack suspect
Who are the victims?
Five people have died in the attack, one of whom is a child.
More than 200 people have been injured and at least 41 are in a critical condition.
The toll had earlier been reported as two dead and 68 injured, but was revised to the much higher totals on Saturday morning.
None of the victims have been identified yet.
Reuters
Tributes have been left at a church by the scene
Who is the suspect?
German media has identified the suspect as Taleb A, a psychiatrist who lives in Bernburg, around 40km (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.
The motive behind the attack remains unclear, but authorities have reported that they believe he carried out the attack alone.
Originally from Saudi Arabia, he arrived in Germany in 2006 and in 2016 was recognised as a refugee.
He ran a website that aimed to help other former Muslims flee persecution in their Gulf homelands.
Evidenced by social media posts, the suspect is an outspoken critic of Islam, and has promoted conspiracy theories regarding a plot to seek Islamic supremacy in Europe.
A report from Der Spiegel said a complaint was filed against Taleb A with the authorities a year ago over statements he made. Officials did not see any concrete threat, the report says.
What have officials said about the attack?
"The reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears," the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on social media platform X.
Magdeburg's city councillor for public order, Ronni Krug, said the Christmas market will stay closed and that "Christmas in Magdeburg is over", according to German public broadcaster MDR.
That sentiment was echoed on the market's website, which in the wake of the attack featured only a black screen with words of mourning, announcing that the market was over.
The Saudi government expressed "solidarity with the German people and the families of the victims", in a statement on X, and "affirmed its rejection of violence".
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was "horrified by the atrocious attack in Magdeburg", adding that his thoughts were with "the victims, their families and all those affected" in a post on X on Friday night.
Oleksandr Usyk defeated Tyson Fury to retain his unified heavyweight world titles and prove his status as a generational great with another close points win in their rematch in Saudi Arabia.
Having inflicted a first career defeat on Briton Fury by split decision in May, Usyk's astuteness and will to win once again prevailed at Riyadh's Kingdom Arena - and he retained his WBA (Super), WBC and WBO titles.
Fury, 36, found success in the first half of the fight. Some of the more eye-catching shots came from the Morecambe fighter, but the volume of punches and cleaner work were from Ukrainian Usyk.
All three judges scored it 116-112 to the 37-year-old champion.
Usyk, an Olympic gold medallist and former undisputed cruiserweight champion, extended his undefeated record to 23 pro wins.
"He [Tyson Fury] is a great fighter, he is a great opponent. An unbelievable 24 rounds for my career. Thank you so much," Usyk said.
Two-time world champion Fury has only ever lost to Usyk, his two defeats the major blemishes on a record also consisting of 34 wins and one draw.
Fury left the ring without conducting an interview, before IBF world champion Daniel Dubois climbed in and called for a rematch with Usyk.
A visibly frustrated figure in the moments after the scorecards were read out, Fury said backstage he was convinced he won the fight by "at least three rounds".
Superstar Usyk edges a showcase of elite level boxing
In a rematch billed as Usyk v Fury 'reignited', the sport's two most technically gifted heavyweights served up another classic and showcased elite level boxing.
The Gypsy King was in playful mood with an unorthodox ring entrance to Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas Is You'.
Dressed as Father Christmas, Fury was still sporting the bushy beard which was cleared at a rules meeting amid protests from Usyk's team.
A stern-faced Usyk marched to the ring in super-quick time. Wearing a warrior-like robe, he crouched in the corner to recite a prayer.
After an 11-minute face-off on Thursday, Fury and Usyk picked up where they left off, their eyes fixated on each other as met in the centre of the ring.
Neither man over-committed in a cagey opening round. Fury showboated his way through the first fight but there was more seriousness to his work here. He wobbled Usyk in the closing seconds of the second.
With an advantage of six inches in height, eight inches in reach and four stone in weight, Fury used his physicality to keep Usyk at range.
But just as he did in the first fight, Usyk found success targeting Fury's body.
Two bruising left hooks landed flush on Fury in the fourth. "Keep it basic. He's running around - slow it down," trainer SugarHill Steward told Fury after the fifth.
An overhand left connected cleanly with Fury's forehead in the sixth. Fury's pace dropped and Usyk was heading into his groove.
Fury found a second wind, however, and edged the ninth. It felt as if it was still all to play for in the championship rounds.
Model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and actor husband Jason Statham watched from plush ringside seats, alongside a stellar list of boxing royalty including Roberto Duran, Lennox Lewis and Prince Naseem Hamed.
Usyk unleashed a sublime combination in the 11th. With Fury momentarily hurt, the champion applied the pressure.
Fury looked the more desperate of the pair as Usyk finished the fight on top.
Usyk remains the only boxer to hold wins over Fury in the pro ranks
Best of era Usyk running out of opponents
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Fury now faces an uncertain future after his first successive defeats
Two close defeats by a fighter of Usyk's calibre does not point to a sharp decline in Fury ability. On another day, with another set of judges, it may have been a different result.
"I'm really disappointed. We'll have to see what happens in the future for Tyson. I thought he was in control, boxed really well and had Usyk on his back foot," promoter Frank Warren said.
Fury is an enigma: a boxer who - even when he refuses to engage with the media or sell a fight as he did this week - is able to emit a certain energy and draw in a crowd.
Anthony Joshua is also at a crossroads after a destructive defeat by Dubois. Now may be the perfect time for the long-awaited all-British heavyweight tussle.
Usyk, meanwhile, can rightly call the shots on his next move.
Dubois, who was stopped by Usyk last year, still harbours a grudge after the referee's decision to rule a punch which dropped the Ukrainian earlier in the fight as a low blow.
Usyk has also previously hinted he could move back down cruiserweight. The discipline it would take to lose the weight and recondition himself is indicative of a man forever chasing greatness and new challenges.
The Crimea-born fighter certainly has options, but the best of his era is running out of credible opponents.
When Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in Damascus and gave a victory speech on the heels of a lightning military campaign that swept through the country and toppled Bashar al-Assad's regime, one remark went widely unnoticed. That was his reference to an illegal narcotic that has flooded the Middle East over the past ten years.
"Syria has become the biggest producer of Captagon on earth," he said. "And today, Syria is going to be purified by the grace of God."
Mostly unknown outside of the Middle East, Captagon is an addictive, amphetamine-like pill, sometimes called "poor man's cocaine".
Its production has proliferated in Syria amid an economy broken by war, sanctions and the mass displacement of Syrians abroad. Authorities in neighbouring countries have struggled to cope with the smuggling of huge quantities of pills across their borders.
All the evidence pointed to Syria being the main source of Captogan's illicit trade with an annual value placed at $5.6bn (£4.5bn) by the World Bank.
At the scale that the pills were being produced and dispatched, the suspicion was that this was not simply the work of criminal gangs - but of an industry orchestrated by the regime itself.
Weeks on from the speech by al-Sharaa (previously known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani), spectacular images have emerged that suggest the suspicion was correct.
Getty Images
Large quantities of pills were found hidden among industrial products
Videos filmed by Syrians raiding properties allegedly owned by relatives of Assad show rooms full of pills being made and packaged, hidden in fake industrial products.
Other footage shows piles of pills found in what appears to be a Syrian military airbase, set on fire by the rebels.
I spent a year investigating Captagon for a BBC World Service documentary and saw how the drug became as popular among the wealthy youth of Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia as it was among the working class in countries like Jordan.
"I was 19 years old, I started taking Captagon and my life started to fall apart," Yasser, a young male addict in a rehab clinic told us in Jordan's capital, Amman. "I started hanging out with people who take this thing. You work, you live without food, so the body is a wreck."
So how will al-Sharaa and his group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), deal with the large number of people in Syria and around the Middle East addicted to Captagon who may suddenly find themselves without a supply?
Caroline Rose, an expert on Syrian drug trafficking at the New Lines Institute, has concerns around this. "My fear is that they will really crack down on supply and not necessarily try to do any sort of demand reduction."
But there is a broader question at play too: that is, what effect will the loss of such a lucrative trade have on Syria's economy? And as those behind it move aside, how will al-Sharaa keep at bay any other criminals waiting in the wings to replace them?
The narco-war in the Middle East
The proliferation of Captagon pushed the Middle East into a genuine narco-war.
While filming with the Jordanian army on their desert border with Syria, we saw how the soldiers had reinforced their fences and learned about their comrades who had been killed in shoot-outs with Captagon smugglers. They accused the Syrian soldiers across the border of aiding the smugglers.
Other countries in the region have been just as disturbed by the trade.
For a while, Saudi Arabia suspended imports of fruit and vegetables from Lebanon because authorities were frequently finding shipping containers full of produce like pomegranates which had been hollowed out and filled with bags of Captagon pills.
Getty Images
This bag of pills was found in a gutter
We filmed in five countries, including in regime-held and rebel-held Syria, consulted well-placed sources, and gained access to confidential records from court cases in Germany and Lebanon.
We were able to name two major parties as having their hands in the trade - Assad's extended family and the Syrian armed forces, in particular its Fourth Division, led by Assad's brother, Maher.
Questions surrounding Assad's brother
Maher al-Assad was perhaps the most powerful man in Syria aside from his brother.
He was sanctioned by many Western powers for the violence he wrought against protesters during the pro-democracy uprising in 2011 that precipitated the bloody civil war. The French judiciary has also issued an international arrest warrant for him and his brother for their alleged responsibility in chemical weapons attacks in Syria in 2013.
Gaining access to the WhatsApp chats of a Captagon trader imprisoned in Lebanon, we were able to implicate Maher al-Assad's Fourth Division and his second-in-command, General Ghassan Bilal.
The revelation was a huge milestone in confirming the role of Syria's armed forces and Bashar al-Assad's inner circle in the trade.
Getty Images
Bashar al-Assad
Seeing the recent images of demoralised Syrian army troops fleeing without a fight as the rebels advanced, I was reminded of an interview we conducted with a regime soldier last year.
He told us his monthly army pay of $30 (£24) barely covered three days of food for his family, so his unit became involved in criminality and Captagon.
"It's what brings most of the money now," he said.
In May 2023, the Arab League agreed to re-admit Syria 12 years after it was expelled for violently suppressing the popular uprising. It was seen as a diplomatic coup for Assad, using promises to tackle the Captagon trade as leverage to be rehabilitated.
Can the rebel leaders crack down?
Now, as Syria's rebel leaders consolidate their power over the organs of state, it seems they are fully aware of positive signals they are sending to wary neighbouring states when they promise to crack down on the Captagon trade.
But it might be a steeper task for them to wrest the country away from a lucrative criminal enterprise after so many years when it was encouraged by the state itself.
Issam Al Reis was a major engineer in the Syrian army until he defected at the beginning of the uprising against the Assad regime, and has spent time investigating the Captagon trade. He believes that HTS will not need to do much to stop the trade initially "because the main players have left" and there's already been a dramatic drop in Captagon exports - but he warns that "new guys" might be waiting in the wings to take over.
This will be particularly problematic if the demand side isn't tackled too. There is little evidence of investment in rehabilitation from the time HTS controlled Idlib province in north-west Syria, according to Ms Rose. "[There was a] very poor picture for trying to address Captagon consumption," she says.
She also says there has already been an uptick in another drug being trafficked through Syria.
"I think many users will seek out crystal meth as an alternative, especially users who have already established a tolerance to Captagon and need something that's a bit more strong."
The other problem, as Mr Al Reis points out, is a financial one. As he puts it: "Syrians need the money."
Getty Images
These electrical storage components were used to hide pills
His hope is that the international community will help prevent people entering the drug trade through humanitarian aid and easing sanctions.
But Ms Rose argues the new leaders will need to identify a "new and alternative economic pathways to encourage Syrians to participate in the licit formal economy."
While the kingpins have fled, many of those involved in manufacturing and smuggling the drug remain inside the country, she said.
"And old habits die hard."
Additional reporting by George Wright
Top picture credit: Getty Images
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In 2012, Elon Musk had just completed a business trip to London and Oxford. "Just returned… I met with many interesting people," he wrote on Twitter. "I really like Britain!"
Fast-forward to 2024, and Musk's views on Britain are a little different.
"Civil war is inevitable" … "Britain is going full Stalin"… "The people of Britain have had enough of a tyrannical police state".
These are just some of his recent comments on X, as he renamed the site after he bought it.
He has repeatedly got into spats with politicians including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, he has amplified voices on the right and far-right online and is in talks to donate to Reform UK, according to the party's leader Nigel Farage.
So why has Musk's relationship with America's closest ally apparently soured and what, if anything, does he hope to achieve?
We would love to ask him ourselves but he didn't respond to our requests for an interview.
His X timeline offers some clues though.
The self-proclaimed "Chief Troll Officer" often exaggerates in an ambiguous way, unclear if he's being sincere or ironic.
When he writes, "Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?" he doesn't really mean that Britain is a totalitarian Communist state but also, he sort of does. Often he reposts content with just a single word - "interesting" - or an emoji, rather than going into details.
In recent years, however, Musk watchers have noticed that the kinds of things he boosts to his 200 million followers tend to come from a particular place: a world view that is libertarian and "anti-woke", against progressives and centrists.
'What's happening in the UK?'
The shift was explicit during last summer's riots following the horrific killing of three girls at a dance class in the north-west England town of Southport.
False rumours about the attacker were circulated on X, including by far-right accounts which had been unbanned since Musk took over the company two years before.
As a protest turned violent and rioting flared, Sir Keir issued a warning: "To large social media companies, and those who run them - violent disorder, clearly whipped up online, that is also a crime.
"It's happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere."
Musk replied with one word: "Insane".
PA Media
Musk made several comments about the Southport riots last summer
Later, he would state that "civil war is inevitable" and spread a false message from the leader of a far-right party, claiming that Sir Keir was considering building detainment camps for rioters on the Falkland Islands. By the time he deleted the post, it had been viewed more than a million times.
Musk also criticised Britain's "prison overcrowding situation" on Joe Rogan's podcast - watched 19m times on YouTube - saying we should "make Orwell fiction again", a reference to George Orwell's writings about dystopian society.
While free speech is not Musk's only big issue - he appears to care a lot about existential questions around the future of humanity too - it's a subject that the Tesla, SpaceX and X owner has repeatedly returned to.
Just a few weeks ago, in response to a tweet from a right-wing American influencer, making an exaggerated claim about a report from the last government on radicalisation, he commented: "What is happening in the UK?"
And he may be planning to do more than tweet. He was recently pictured with Farage and Reform UK treasurer Nick Candy, amid reports he is preparing to donate a large sum of money to the party.
Why Musk cares about Britain
Musk's interest in UK affairs could be a reflection of how his own political beliefs have changed. He previously described himself as a centrist and even donated to Hillary Clinton's campaign, but now he talks a lot about the "woke mind virus".
According to interviews he's given and a recent biography, the transition of one of his children from male to female - and that child, Vivian Wilson, subsequently cutting him off from her life - appears to be one of the key turning points.
Winston Marshall, a former Mumford & Sons guitarist turned podcast host and right-leaning political commentator whose father jointly owns TV channel GB News, speculates that Musk could be picking fights because "he cares very deeply about the UK".
"Britain is the birthplace of liberal democracy, of many of the great philosophies that underpin America," Marshall says.
"So then he looks over to the UK and he sees what's been going on for several years, but which is now crescendoing after the August riots, with many, many people being given long jail sentences for literally Facebook memes in some cases."
"Facebook memes" sounds pretty harmless but these examples include - for instance - a three-month jail sentence for a person who posted a meme along with the caption "let's [expletive] riot" on a Facebook group with "riot/protest" in the name during the Southport disorder.
Reuters
Musk meets former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at an AI summit in November 2023
Some question whether the tycoon is really as committed to free speech as he claims.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate, which scrutinises social media companies, was critical of Musk's tenure at X - prompting the tycoon to sue, accusing the organisation of misusing data and scaring off advertisers. The case was thrown out by a US judge.
Its CEO Imran Ahmed called the incident "indicative of the mindset of a man who simply cannot understand that freedom of speech is a freedom afforded to all, not just to him".
Other critics have pointed out that Musk has been careful not to criticise the president of China, a country where Tesla has huge business interests, despite Beijing's well-documented culture of censorship.
He has far less at stake, business-wise, in Britain, but the country could still affect his bottom line via the Online Safety Act, passed by Parliament in late 2023. It will allow regulator Ofcom to issue huge fines to social media companies if they're found to have certain types of illegal content on their platforms.
Andrew Chadwick, professor of political communication at Loughborough University, explains that while some provisions in the bill are uncontroversial, "where it gets a bit more tricky is where this illegal content blurs across into what we might call the kinds of disinformation or misinformation that we see circulate on a daily basis on social media platforms".
This could include "racially or religiously aggravated public order offences or the incitement of violence," he says.
The Act comes with some potentially huge punishments – a fine of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue.
Could it be that Musk is worried about Britain biting off a chunk of X's revenues – or even, as the Act allows for in some circumstances, blocking access to the site in the UK?
Defenders of the Act argue that it's got nothing to do with censoring free speech. Gawain Towler, former head of press for Reform UK, says while Musk might not have "a forensic knowledge of all the details of backbench committee" he does "see the bigger picture" – what Reform activists and others describe as a creeping culture of censorship.
"You don't have to concentrate always on the trees. And I think Musk sees the forest quite, quite well," he adds.
Nobody can read the mind of the world's richest man.
But it's clear that Musk has funnelled his vast wealth into influence and is now exporting his values – including a mainstream American view of free speech and largely unfettered capitalism – around the world.
And one thing's for sure – he's not yet done with the UK.
Two Somali fishermen wearing big scarves over their heads to hide their faces glance around furtively as they walk into the room for a secret meeting to tell me why they have recently decided to become gun-wielding pirates - in search of million-dollar ransoms.
"You are free to record - we accept," one tells me as they sit down nervously for the interview that has taken months to set up in the small coastal town of Eyl.
This behaviour is in start contrast to the bravado of the pirates who used to strut around this charming, ancient port nestled between arid mountains on Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast.
It has always been considered strategic, not only because of its location but also because it has a fresh-water source - and during the piracy boom of the early to mid-2000s the pirates made it their base.
It became known as "Harunta Burcadda" - the Pirate Capital. From here, they targeted the container ships that transport goods around the world and even some oil tankers, forcing shipping companies to change their routes.
The regional authorities held no sway - and the local police force was too scared to enter the town.
Pirates kept their hijacked ships anchored offshore and businesses in the town and region profited from ransom payments. Between 2005 and 2012 the World Bank estimates pirate groups earned between $339m (£267m) and $413m.
But the pirates suffered a reversal of fortunes when international navies began to patrol the seas off Somalia and these days the Puntland Maritime Police Force has a base in Eyl.
Most people in the town welcomed this as the pirates brought with them eye-watering inflation, drugs, alcohol and a notoriety that the local Muslim elders shunned.
But the longstanding resentment felt towards foreign shipping, in particular fishing trawlers, has never gone away in a town full of fishermen that depends on the sea for its survival. To this day they accuse these fishing boats of stealing their living - often violently.
"Ships came and took all our equipment and belongings," Farah, one of the fisherman-turned-pirates looking out defensively from behind his blue scarf, tells the BBC.
Both his name and that of his friend Diiriye, who is wrapped in a white headscarf, have been changed - one of the conditions of our meeting.
He and a few others had invested approximately $10,000 in a fishing venture for a boat, outboard engine and nets. But Farah says last year the crew of one foreign trawler came and stole the nets, along with its catch, and then shot the engine - destroying it.
The pair give another example: some of their relatives had gone out to check their nets one morning and never came back - usually the fisherman go out at dawn and return before the midday heat hits.
Three days later they were found, floating towards the beach.
"There were bullets in their bodies," Diiriye says.
"They had no guns; they had gone to the sea with their nets to make their livelihood."
Hassan Lali / BBC
Officers from the Puntland Maritime Police Force are now based in Eyl
Farah goes on: "We work and live by the sea. The sea is our business.
"When someone intimidates you and robs you, it is compulsory to fight. They caused the fight. Had they not taken our property, we would not go to piracy."
These men - aged in their 30s - are not alone in making the decision over the last year to turn to piracy.
According to the European Union’s naval force Operation Atalanta, which patrols nearby, there were 26 pirate attacks between 2013 and 2019 - and then not a single one from 2020 to 2022. But they resumed in 2023, with six attacks and surged to 22 this year, figures until 5 December show.
Most of these skirmishes do not end up in a successful hijacking - but when it does, it pays. Pirates say they received a ransom of $5m to release the Bangladesh-flagged MV Abdullah, hijacked in March 2024. The vessel's owner has not confirmed this, but did say it was freed following negotiations.
Sources inthesemi-autonomous Puntland state, where Eyl is located, told the BBC they estimate about 10 gangs, each with around 12 members, are operating in the area.
They go off to sea for 15 to 30 days at a time, packing their small speed-boats with AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), food and fuel.
Farah and Diiriye say their aim is to hijack a medium-sized vessel deep in the Indian Ocean and then make it back to their mother ship, using its GPS tracking system to find bigger ships to target.
"You can attack the ships using small speed boats," says Farah.
Their Bazooka rocket launcher is also an essential part of their strategy.
"We use the RPG to stop the ship. When the ship doesn’t stop, we shoot over it. We don’t kill. The aim is to get something, not to kill. [The aim is] to frighten them," says Diiriye.
All this weaponry does not come cheap - so the gangs essentially seek funding from interested investors. The disgruntled fishermen put out feelers and a syndicate is formed often involving different businessmen from the cities of Garowe and Bosaso.
One may fund the boats, another the weapons and a third sundries like fuel. These entrepreneurs sometimes invest in several groups in the hope that one of them will hit the jackpot when a vessel is captured so they can get their cut of the ransom.
And it is easy to get hold of a gun in Somalia - even in Eyl you can pick up an AK-47 for about $1,200, a legacy of its two-decade civil war and years of lawlessness.
Farah and Diiriye say they were not involved in the piracy boomtime and have not taken any advice from retired pirates, some of whom also started out as disgruntled fishermen.
Most of these old pirates have left the area - often they have gone abroad or have repented.
In one famous case a former pirate - Abdirahman Bakeyle - gave away his wealth. In 2020, he donated the houses and hotels he had bought in Garowe to Muslim charities and is now a travelling preacher going from town to town in Puntland urging people to lead an austere and morally upright life.
Adado, a town in central Somalia where pirates once invested, earned the nicknamed "Blue City" because their newly built mansions often had blue-painted iron sheet roofs.
A good deal of these houses now lie empty - or available to rent for as little as $100 a month.
In Eyl, the town elders say the main legacy of piracy is the prevalence of alcohol, often smuggled in from Ethiopia, and drugs such as opioids - with concerns that some young men who already chew the stimulant leaf khat, a popular afternoon pastime, are becoming addicts.
The men who gather outside teashops in the afternoons to play dominoes and discuss the news say they do not approve of piracy - although they understand the enmity towards foreign ships.
The recent incident of the three fishermen who were shot dead clearly rankles with many.
Ali Mursal Muse, who has been fishing for lobsters and sharks off Eyl for about 40 years to support his wife and 12 children, believes they may have been mistaken for pirates - as he was years ago.
"We left here with another fishing boat and went to the sea. At the same time pirates tried to hijack a ship. A plane came. My boat came to the shore; the other fishing boat was attacked," he recalls.
Hassan Lali / BBC
Hawa Mohamed Zubery believes her fisherman husband was mistaken for a pirate - he has been missing for 14 years
Forty-year-old widow Hawa Mohamed Zubery believes her husband suffered the same fate 14 years ago when he went missing.
This was when piracy was at its peak and she had just given birth to a son, whom they wanted to circumcise.
"My husband was thinking that if he caught a shark then we could pay to have the baby circumcised," she tells the BBC, clearly still distressed about his death. She says she struggles to pay school fees for her children from her living selling samosas.
Mr Muse says the main issue for him these days is the unethical behaviour of fishing fleets from countries like Iran and Yemen which often steal his equipment.
He believes they are issued with fake Somali fishing licences by powerful local backers who also provide them with gunmen for protection. He accused them of looting their catches and muscling in on their fishing grounds.
"They have a zone they work and they even come on the beach. When we go and ask for our equipment back, they shoot at us. Recently, they hurt some people. They shot a boy, wounding his hand and leg."
The fisherman says he has complained to the local authorities on multiple occasions, but nothing is ever done.
Puntland’s Information Minister Caydid Dirir admits the presence of some illegal vessels and says some foreign ships may be granted licences and "misuse them".
"Illegal fishing exists in all seas, and piracy can occur anywhere. Progress is being made gradually," he tells the BBC.
Illegal fishing has been a controversial issue in Somalia for many years.
Many fishing vessels operate without licences or with licences issued by bodies without the authority to do so, according to the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime.
It quotes evidence, including satellite navigational data, to show that many of the vessels originate from China, Iran, Yemen and south-east Asia. A report from the US embassy in Mogadishu suggests Somalia loses $300m each year as a result.
Operation Atalanta’s Rear Admiral Manuel Alvargonzález Méndez says his forces only target pirate vessels and now also have to protect ships from Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
But he maintains the area is much safer and Somalis can now "cast their fishing nets without fear" - as does the Puntland Maritime Police Force, which works closely with the EU naval mission.
Hassan Lali / BBC
Elders in Eyl do not want to see the return of pirates
Its commander Farhan Awil Hashi is confident that it will not return to the "bad old days" of piracy.
He believes the long-term answer is "job creation".
"Young people must get jobs, always. If the person is busy doing something, they will not think about heading to the sea and hijacking ships," he tells the BBC.
Farah and Diiriye make the same argument - they say because fishing no longer pays, hijacking a ship for ransom is the only way they can support their children.
They know piracy is wrong - and Diiriye admits he is too scared to tell his own mother.
"If she knew, she would be very disappointed. In fact, she would inform the authorities."
The Princess of Wales enlisted the help of recently-widowed Lady Gabriella Windsor in planning her Westminster Abbey carol service this year.
Lady Gabriella, whose husband Thomas Kingston took his own life in February, helped select which musical performances featured at the annual Together at Christmas event.
The second cousin of King Charles enjoyed her role in the service and was excited to take part after a difficult year, the BBC understands.
This year's service on 6 December marked Catherine's biggest return to royal duties after finishing chemotherapy. The event was dedicated to individuals who have shown love, kindness and empathy to their communities.
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Lady Helen Taylor and Lady Gabriella Windsor arrive at the carol service at Westminster Abbey
The Princess of Wales asked Lady Gabriella to be involved in the summer with Catherine understood to have been incredibly grateful for her contribution.
Lady Gabriella is the daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent - with Prince Michael, aged 81, a grandson of King George V and first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
In a tribute shared at the time of his death, Lady Gabriella and his family called Mr Kingston "an exceptional man who lit up the lives of all who knew him".
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Lady Gabriella and her late husband Thomas Kingston married in 2019 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
The Christmas message at this year's service was about promoting "love, not fear".
"Love is the light that can shine bright, even in our darkest times," the princess wrote in a letter to guests.
It marked the end of what has been a difficult year for her and her family with both Catherine and King Charles undergoing cancer treatment.
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The event was dedicated to individuals who have shown kindness to their communities
The Prince and Princess of Wales were joined by their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis at the service.
The 1,600-strong congregation all held candles during the service that will be broadcast by ITV on Christmas Eve.
The world-renowned Abbey Choir performed a number of carols and the event featured performances by Paloma Faith, Gregory Porter, Olivia Dean, and singer-songwriter JP Morgan who performed alongside the Soul Sanctuary Choir.
Readings were given by actor Richard E Grant, Olympic swimming gold medallist Adam Peaty and Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery.
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Paloma Faith was among the performers at the event
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The service featured musical performances, carol singing and ballet performances
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Singer Olivia Dean was selected to perform
It will feature three films about people and organisations that have inspired and comforted others in times of need.
In a pre-recorded opening address, Catherine will read extracts from a letter she wrote about love and empathy that was included in the event's order of service.
She will say: "The Christmas story encourages us to consider the experiences and feelings of others.
"It also reflects our own vulnerabilities and reminds us of the importance of giving and receiving empathy, as well as just how much we need each other in spite of our differences.
"Above all else, it encourages us to turn to love, not fear. The love that we show ourselves and the love we show others. Love that listens with empathy, love that is kind and understanding, love that is forgiving, and love that brings joy and hope."
Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of US President-elect Donald Trump, has withdrawn her name from consideration for a seat in the Senate.
She stepped down this month as co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), fuelling speculation that she might replace outgoing Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, whom Trump has nominated for secretary of state.
But in a post on X, she said she had removed herself from consideration "after an incredible amount of thought, contemplation, and encouragement from so many".
She said she wished Florida Governor Ron DeSantis luck in hand-picking a replacement to serve out the remainder of Rubio's six-year term, which ends in 2026.
In her post on X on Saturday, Lara Trump said: "I could not have been more honoured to serve as RNC co-chair during the most high-stakes election of our lifetime and I'm truly humbled by the unbelievable support shown to me by the people of our country, and here in the great state of Florida."
She said she had a big announcement to share in January, without giving further details.
Lara Trump was elected as RNC co-chair in March, solidifying her father-in-law's influence over the party as he campaigned for the presidency.
Alongside her husband, Trump's son Eric, and his older brother Don Jr, she emerged as one of the top campaign surrogates for the Republican candidate in the run-up to the election.
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