Warning: This story contains distressing details.

Just before New Year, 21-year-old Shatha al-Sabbagh was out buying chocolate for her family's children from a shop in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.

The "fearless" journalism student – who wanted to shed light on the suffering of the Palestinians – was with her mother, two young nephews and another relative.

"She was laughing and saying we'll be up all night tonight," her mother recalls.

Then she was shot in the head.

For Shatha's mother Umm al-Motassem, the pain is still raw. She stops to take a breath.

"Shatha's eyes were wide open. It looked like she was staring at me while lying on her back with blood gushing from her head.

"I started screaming, 'Stop shooting! My daughter is dead. My daughter is dead.'"

But the shooting lasted for around 10 minutes. Shatha died in a pool of her own blood.

Shatha's family holds the Palestinian Authority's (PA) security forces fully responsible for her killing, saying their area is controlled by the PA.

"It couldn't have been anyone other than PA... because they have such a heavy presence in our neighbourhood - no-one else could come or go," she told the BBC.

But the PA blames "outlaws" - the term they use for members of the Jenin Battalion, made up of fighters from armed groups including Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas.

The PA exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

It launched a major security operation in the refugee camp in Jenin last month targeting the armed groups based there, which they see as a challenge to their authority. Nearly four weeks on, it continues.

The Jenin Battalion is accused of blowing up a car in the camp and carrying out other "illegal activities".

"We have confiscated large numbers of weapons and explosive materials," says the PA's Brig Gen Anwar Rajab.

"The aim is to clear the camp from the explosive devices that have been planted in different streets and alleyways... These outlaws have crossed all red lines and have spread chaos."

Gen Rajab also accuses Iran of backing and funding the armed groups in the camp.

The Jenin Battalion denies links to Iran. In a recent video posted on social media, spokesman Nour al-Bitar said the PA was trying to "demonise" them and "tarnish their image", adding that fighters would not give up their weapons.

"To the PA and President Mahmoud Abbas, why has it come to this?" he asked, holding shrapnel from what he claimed was a rocket-propelled grenade fired at the camp by security forces.

The PA, led by President Abbas, was already unpopular among Palestinians dissatisfied by its rejection of armed struggle and its security co-ordination with Israel.

This anger intensified with the PA's crackdown on the armed groups in the camp, which has been unprecedented in its ferocity and length.

Israel sees those groups as terrorists, but many Jenin locals consider them to be a form of resistance to the occupation.

"These 'outlaws' that the PA is referring to – these are the young men who stand up for us when the Israeli army raids our camp," says Umm al-Motassem.

At least 14 people have been killed in the crackdown, including a 14-year-old, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Now many Jenin locals say they fear the PA as much as they fear Israel's military raids. Shatha al-Sabbagh's death has only renewed their contempt.

Before she was killed, Shatha shared several posts on social media showing the destruction from the PA operation in Jenin - as well as Israeli raids on the camp last year.

Other posts showed pictures of armed young men who were killed in the fighting, including her brother.

Her killing was condemned by Hamas, which identified her brother as a slain member of the group's armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

The group described her "murder... in cold blood" as part of an "oppressive policy targeting the Jenin camp, which has become a symbol of steadfastness and resistance".

Mustafa Barghouti, who leads the political party Palestinian National Initiative, sees the fighting in Jenin as a consequence of the divisions between the main Palestinian factions - Fatah, which makes up most of the PA, and Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007.

"The last thing Palestinians need is to see Palestinians shooting each other while Israel crushes everyone," he says.

Inside the camp, residents say daily life has ground to a halt.

Water and electricity supplies have been cut off and families suffer from a lack of food, bitterly cold weather and relentless gun battles.

Locals who spoke to us asked for their names to be changed, saying they feared reprisals by the PA.

"Things are dire here. We can't move freely in the camp," says Mohamed.

"All the bakeries, the restaurants and shops are closed. The restaurant I work in opens for a day and closes for 10. When it is open, no-one comes.

"We need milk for the children, we need bread. Some people can't open their doors because of the continuous shooting."

The UN humanitarian agency, the OCHA, has called for an investigation into what it describes as human rights violations by the PA forces.

Gen Rajab said some of the "outlaws" who had "hijacked" the Jenin camp had been arrested and that others with pending cases would be brought to justice.

But Mohamed describes the PA's operation - with innocent people caught in the crossfire - as "collective punishment".

"If they want to go after outlaws, that doesn't mean they should punish the whole camp. We want our lives back."

Even going out to get food or water is a risk, says 20-year-old Sadaf.

"When we go out, we say our final prayers. We prepare ourselves mentally that we may not come back.

"It's very cold. We've taken down the doors in our home to use as firewood just to keep warm."

The BBC has heard similar accounts from four residents in the camp.

My conversation with Sadaf is interrupted by the sound of gunfire. It is unclear where it is from or who is firing. It starts and stops several times.

"Warning shots maybe," she suggests, adding it happens sometimes when PA forces are changing shifts.

Sadaf continues describing the camp, with "rubbish filling the streets and almost going into homes". More gunfire can be heard.

Sadaf's mother joins the call. "Listen to this... Can anyone sleep with this sound in the background?

"We sleep in shifts now. We're so scared they might raid our homes. We're as scared of this operation as we are when the Israeli soldiers are here."

People say security forces have deliberately hit electricity grids and generators, leaving the camp in a blackout.

The PA again blames "outlaws" - and insists it has brought in workers to fix the grid.

The armed groups want to "use the people's suffering to pressure the PA to stop the operation", says Gen Rajab. He says the security operation will continue until its objectives are met.

Gen Rajab says the PA's goal is to establish control over the Jenin camp and ensure safety and stability.

He believes stripping the armed groups of control would take away Israel's excuse to attack the camp.

In late August, the Israeli army conducted a major nine-day "counter-terrorism" operation in Jenin city and the camp, which resulted in severe destruction.

At least 36 Palestinians were killed - 21 from Jenin governorate - according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Analysts say that the PA is trying to reassert its authority in the West Bank and show the US it is capable of taking a role in the future governance of Gaza.

"What would be the harm in that?" says Gen Rajab.

"Gaza is part of the Palestinian state. Gaza and the West Bank are not separate entities. There's no Palestinian state without Gaza. The president [Mahmoud Abbas] has said that and that is our strategy."

But Barghouti says this approach is an "illusion". "All you need is to listen to what [Benjamin] Netanyahu says," he adds.

Under the Israeli prime minister's vision for a post-war Gaza, Israel would control security indefinitely, and Palestinians with "no links to groups hostile to Israel" - so none of the existing major Palestinian political parties - would run the territory.

But the US, Israel's major ally, wants the PA to govern Gaza after the war. Netanyahu has previously ruled out a post-war role for the internationally backed PA.

For the residents of Jenin camp, there has been no let-up in the violence and loss.

"The PA say they're here for our safety. Where's the safety when my daughter was killed? Where's the safety with the non-stop shooting?" Umm al-Motassem cries.

"They can go after the 'outlaws' but why did my daughter have to die? Justice will be served when I know who killed my daughter," she says.

Not even AI can predict the future (yet), nevertheless two of our tech editors have taken a look ahead to what they think will be big in 2025.

Crypto's friend in the White House?

As 2022 drew to a close the outlook was bleak for the cryptocurrency business.

One of its best know firms, FTX, had collapsed with $8bn (£6.3bn) of customer funds unaccounted for.

In March of 2024, the company's co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried received a 25-year jail sentence for defrauding customers and investors.

The scandal rattled confidence in the whole sector.

It seemed that cryptocurrencies would remain a niche product, with an enthusiastic but relatively limited following.

• What is cryptocurrency?

But just a few months later and the industry was fizzing with optimism again. Behind the enthusiasm - the success of Donald Trump in the 5 November presidential election.

The feeling was that he would be more favourable to the cryptocurrency sector and, so far, that seems to be the case.

In early December, Trump said he would nominate former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Paul Atkins to take up the top chairman role at the Wall Street regulator.

Mr Atkins is seen as being far more pro-cryptocurrency than outgoing head, Gary Gensler.

That announcement helped the value of one bitcoin, the biggest of the numerous cryptocurrencies, surge through $100,000.

"With Trump winning you can imagine in 2025 you'll get proactive regulation. You'll get removal of some negative regulation, which will then allow banks and other institutions into the space," says Geoffrey Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered.

In particular, Mr Kendrick points to a piece of guidance issued by the SEC called SAB 121. Since taking effect in 2022 it has made it difficult for banks and other financial firms to provide cryptocurrency services.

Such a move might help Trump to fulfil his promise made in July to make the US the cryptocurrency capital of the world.

If he makes good on that pledge it would be a remarkable turnaround from 2021 when Trump described Bitcoin as a "scam".

AI gets personal

As AI tools move into our phones – Apple, Google and Samsung have all launched services that can edit photos, translate languages and carry out web searches – we are at the start of an era in which AI becomes an intrinsic part of our digital lives and increasingly helpful on a personal level.

That’s if we allow it, because it does require a bit of a leap of faith.

Let’s take diary management as an example. An AI tool efficiently can manage your diary for you, if you allow it to access it. But how far should this go?

In order to be truly useful, does that mean it also needs to know who you would rather avoid meeting, or relationships you want to keep secret, and from whom?

Do you want it to provide you with summaries of counselling sessions, or medical appointments?

It’s deeply personal information, and potentially both hugely embarrassing and extremely valuable if some glitch meant it was shared. Do you trust the big tech firms with that kind of data?

Microsoft is pushing hard at this particular door. It got into trouble in 2024 for demoing a tool called Recall, which took snapshots of laptop desktops every few seconds, in order to help users locate content they’d seen but couldn’t remember where.

It has now made a number of changes to the product – which was never launched – but stands by it.

“I think we’re moving to a fundamentally new age where there will be ever present, persistent, very capable co-pilot companions in your everyday life,” the firm's head of AI, Mustafa Suleyman told me recently.

Despite the challenges, Ben Wood, chief analyst at technology research company CCS Insight, expects that more personalised AI services will emerge in 2025.

"The output will be continuously updated by drawing on evolving data sources, such as emails, messages, documents and social media interactions.

“This will allow the AI service to be tuned specifically to a person's communication style, needs and preferences," he says.

But Mr Wood accepts that letting AI loose on your personal information will be a big step.

"Trust will be essential," says Mr Wood.

Data on the move

The more money pours into AI, then the more datacentres will need building.

Training and running AI requires a lot of computing power, and works best with the latest computer chips and servers.

Over the next five years as much as $1tn could be invested in datacentres by the biggest data users, including Google, Microsoft and Meta, according to CCS Insight.

In Europe alone, between 2024 and 2028, data centre capacity is expected to grow by an average of 9% annually, according to property services company Savills.

But those new facilities are unlikely to be built in the current datacentre hubs like London, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam.

High property prices in those cities - Savills says that in London land prices can be as much as £17m per acre - plus tight electricity supply means developers will be looking elsewhere.

In the UK cities like Cambridge, Manchester and Birmingham could well be home to the next wave of datacentre construction.

Elsewhere, Prague, Genoa, Munich, Dusseldorf and Milan are likely to be considered in Europe.

At the heart of some of those new datacentres will be the latest computer chip from Nvidia, the company that dominates the market for chips used for AI.

Unveiled in March 2024, the Blackwell chip is expected to start shipping in significant number in 2025.

The new chip should allow tech firms to train AI four times faster and see AI operate 30 times faster than current computer chips, according to Vivek Arya, senior semiconductors analyst, at Bank of America Securities.

Nvidia's biggest customers, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Coreweave are likely to get the tech first, according to reports.

But other customers might struggle to get their hands on the super chip, with "supply constrained in 2025", according to Mr Arya.

• Follow BBC Technology Editor Zoe Kleinman on X
• Follow BBC Technology of Business Editor Ben Morris on Bluesky

Under growing pressure from his own party, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced he will step down and end his nine-year stretch as leader.

Trudeau said he would stay on in office until his Liberal Party can choose a new leader, and that parliament would be prorogued - or suspended - until 24 March.

"This country deserves a real choice in the next election and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election," he said during a press conference Monday.

Trudeau's personal unpopularity with Canadians had become an increasing drag on his party's fortunes in advance of federal elections later this year.

"Last night, over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I'm sharing with you today," he told the news conference in Ottawa.

"I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide competitive process," he said.

The president of the Liberal Party, Sachit Mehra, said a meeting of the party's board of directors would be held this week to begin the process of selecting a new leader.

Who might replace Trudeau as Liberal Party leader?

Why the Trudeau era has come to an end now

What happens next for Canada?

In a statement, he added: "Liberals across the country are immensely grateful to Justin Trudeau for more than a decade of leadership to our Party and the country."

"As Prime Minister, his vision delivered transformational progress for Canadians," he said, citing programmes his government has implemented like the Canada Child Benefit and the establishment of dental care and pharmacare coverage for some medication.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said "nothing has changed" following Trudeau's resignation.

"Every Liberal MP and Leadership contender supported EVERYTHING Trudeau did for 9 years, and now they want to trick voters by swapping in another Liberal face to keep ripping off Canadians for another 4 years, just like Justin," Poilievre wrote on X.

Trudeau, 53, had faced growing calls to quit from inside his Liberal Party, which ramped up in December when deputy prime minister and long-time ally Chrystia Freeland abruptly resigned.

In a public resignation letter, Freeland cited US President-elect Donald Trump's threats of tariffs on Canadian goods, and accused Trudeau of not doing enough to address the "grave challenge" posed by Trump's proposals.

Trump has promised to impose a tax of 25% on imported Canadian goods - which economists have warned would significantly hurt Canada's economy - unless the country takes steps to increase security on its shared border.

Trudeau said Monday that he had hoped Freeland would have continued as deputy prime minister, "but she chose otherwise".

Canada has since announced that it will implement sweeping new security measures along the country's US border in response to the threat.

In an online post, Trump claimed that pressure over tariffs led to Trudeau's resignation and repeated his jibe that Canada should become "the 51st State".

"If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them," he wrote.

Since 2019, the Liberal Party has governed as a minority party.

Following Freeland's resignation, Trudeau lost the backing of parties that had previously helped keep the Liberals in power - the left-leaning New Democrats, who had a support agreement with the Liberals, and the Quebec nationalist party, Bloc Quebecois.

The largest opposition party, the Conservatives, have maintained a significant two-digit lead over the Liberals in polls for months - suggesting that if a general election were held today, the Liberals could be in for a significant defeat.

Liberals will now choose a new leader to take the party into the next election, which must be held on or before 20 October.

A senior government official told the BBC that the race is an open contest, and that the Prime Minister's Office will fully stay out of the process, leaving it to Liberal Party members to decide their future.

Speaking to reporters, the Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet suggested that an early election be called once the Liberals choose their new leader.

End of the Trudeau era

Trudeau is the son of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who dominated the country's politics in the 1970s and '80s.

The younger Trudeau became prime minister after the Liberal Party won a sweeping majority in 2015 amid a promise to usher in a new, progressive era of "Sunny Ways".

His record includes a commitment to gender equality in his cabinet, which continues to be 50% women; progress on reconciliation with Indigenous people in Canada; bringing in a national carbon tax; implementing a tax-free child benefit for families; and legalising recreational cannabis.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak praised Trudeau's track record on indigenous issues following his resignation, saying in a statement that he "has taken meaningful steps to address issues that matter to First Nations".

"While much work remains, these actions have laid a foundation for future governments to build upon."

Clouds began to hang over Trudeau's government in recent years, which weathered a series of often self-inflicted scandals, including a controversy over a deal with a Canadian firm facing corruption charges and photos that emerged of the prime minister wearing brownface makeup.

Vaccine mandates and other restrictions were also met with fierce backlash by some Canadians, leading to the Freedom Convoy truck protests in early 2022. Trudeau eventually used unprecedented emergency powers to remove the protesters.

As Canada began to emerge from the pandemic, housing and food prices skyrocketed, and his government pulled back on ambitious immigration targets as public services began to show strain.

By late 2024, Trudeau's approval rating was at its lowest - just 22% of Canadians saying they thought he was doing a good job, according to one polling tracker.

In Ottawa, a small group of protestors danced outside Parliament Hill in celebration of his resignation.

One passer-by, however, said he thinks things were fine under Trudeau's watch.

"I'm a carpenter," Hames Gamarra, who is from British Columbia, told the BBC. "I mind my own business, I get my wages, I pay the bills. It's been OK."

Another Canadian, Marise Cassivi, said it feels like the end of an era. Asked if she feels any hints of sadness, she replied: "No."

"It's the right thing."

At least five people have died in a winter storm that has seized a swathe of the US in its icy grip, leading to mass school closures, travel chaos and power cuts.

Seven US states declared emergencies: Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Arkansas.

More than 2,000 flights have been cancelled, with about 6,500 delays also reported owing to the extreme weather caused by the polar vortex of icy cold air that usually circles the North Pole.

More than a quarter of a million people were without power on Monday afternoon, with snowfall forecast to continue into the night on the East Coast.

According to meteorologists, cold Arctic air is expected to keep conditions icy across a chunk of the country for several more weeks.

In Washington DC - where lawmakers met on Monday to certify Donald Trump's win in November's election - about 5-9in (13-23cm) of snow fell, with up to a foot recorded in parts of nearby Maryland and Virginia.

• Live Updates: Major winter storm brings heavy snow and travel disruption

In front of the Washington Monument, hundreds of local residents gathered at a local park for a snowball fight, a now 15-year-old tradition.

"Just having fun," one local man told the BBC. "Never done a snowball fight before."

Former US Olympic skier Clare Egan was found cross-country skiing on the National Mall, the central thoroughfare of the US capital city.

She told the Associated Press she had thought "my skiing days were maybe behind me".

Washington DC's weather emergency is declared until the early hours of Tuesday as a result of the system, which was named Winter Storm Blair by the Weather Channel.

Children who had been due to go back to classes on Monday after the Christmas and Hanukkah break were instead enjoying a snow day as school districts closed from Maryland to Kansas.

In other parts of the US, the winter storm brought with it dangerous road conditions.

In Missouri, the state's highway patrol said at least 365 people had crashed on Sunday, leaving dozens injured and at least one dead.

In nearby Kansas, one of the worst-hit states, local news reported that two people were killed in a car crash during the storm.

In Houston, Texas, a person was found dead from cold weather in front of a bus stop on Monday morning, authorities said.

In Virginia, where 300 car crashes were reported between midnight and Monday morning, authorities warned local residents to avoid driving in large parts of the state.

At least one motorist was killed, according to local media reports.

Matthew Cappucci, a senior meteorologist at the weather app MyRadar, told the BBC that Kansas City had seen the heaviest snow in 32 years.

Some areas near the Ohio River in Kansas and Missouri turned to "skating rinks" in the frigid temperatures, he added.

"The ploughs are getting stuck, the police are getting stuck, everybody's getting stuck - stay home," he said.

Data from Poweroutage.us, a tracking website, shows that over 260,000 people were without power on Monday afternoon, across the storm's path through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.

A Scot has been killed while serving as a medic with the Ukrainian army, his family has said.

Jordan Maclachlan, 26, from Ardnamurchan, volunteered to help Ukraine after Russia's invasion in February 2022.

His family said he died on Friday while serving on the frontline.

In a statement, they said: "Jordan always believed that he was making a difference and we are all so proud of him helping others."

'Greatly missed'

Mr Maclachlan's family said he joined Ukraine's army soon after volunteering three years ago.

They said: "We are waiting for further information from the Foreign Office as information is very limited.

"Jordan was a fun-loving son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and a friend to many and will be greatly missed by all who knew him."

The family asked for privacy at a difficult time.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said: "We are supporting the family of a British man who died in Ukraine and are in contact with the local authorities."

The FCDO advises against all travel to certain parts of Ukraine and all but essential travel to other areas of the country.

A number of Scots have made the perilous trip since the Russian invasion was launched on 24 February 2022.

Six months later a mechanic from Biggar, South Lanarkshire, who joined the fight against Russia, was hailed as a hero in his adopted country.

Adam Ennis, 35, left his garage business to join the international legion, with just basic training he gained from a cadet scheme at school.

But in December 2022 another volunteer, Jonathan Shenkin, from Glasgow, was killed in Ukraine.

A family tribute on social media said Mr Shenkin, 45, "died as a hero in an act of bravery as a paramedic".

Under growing pressure from his own party, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced he will step down and end his nine-year stretch as leader.

Trudeau said he would stay on in office until his Liberal Party can choose a new leader, and that parliament would be prorogued - or suspended - until 24 March.

"This country deserves a real choice in the next election and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election," he said during a press conference Monday.

Trudeau's personal unpopularity with Canadians had become an increasing drag on his party's fortunes in advance of federal elections later this year.

"Last night, over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I'm sharing with you today," he told the news conference in Ottawa.

"I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide competitive process," he said.

The president of the Liberal Party, Sachit Mehra, said a meeting of the party's board of directors would be held this week to begin the process of selecting a new leader.

Who might replace Trudeau as Liberal Party leader?

Why the Trudeau era has come to an end now

What happens next for Canada?

In a statement, he added: "Liberals across the country are immensely grateful to Justin Trudeau for more than a decade of leadership to our Party and the country."

"As Prime Minister, his vision delivered transformational progress for Canadians," he said, citing programmes his government has implemented like the Canada Child Benefit and the establishment of dental care and pharmacare coverage for some medication.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said "nothing has changed" following Trudeau's resignation.

"Every Liberal MP and Leadership contender supported EVERYTHING Trudeau did for 9 years, and now they want to trick voters by swapping in another Liberal face to keep ripping off Canadians for another 4 years, just like Justin," Poilievre wrote on X.

Trudeau, 53, had faced growing calls to quit from inside his Liberal Party, which ramped up in December when deputy prime minister and long-time ally Chrystia Freeland abruptly resigned.

In a public resignation letter, Freeland cited US President-elect Donald Trump's threats of tariffs on Canadian goods, and accused Trudeau of not doing enough to address the "grave challenge" posed by Trump's proposals.

Trump has promised to impose a tax of 25% on imported Canadian goods - which economists have warned would significantly hurt Canada's economy - unless the country takes steps to increase security on its shared border.

Trudeau said Monday that he had hoped Freeland would have continued as deputy prime minister, "but she chose otherwise".

Canada has since announced that it will implement sweeping new security measures along the country's US border in response to the threat.

In an online post, Trump claimed that pressure over tariffs led to Trudeau's resignation and repeated his jibe that Canada should become "the 51st State".

"If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them," he wrote.

Since 2019, the Liberal Party has governed as a minority party.

Following Freeland's resignation, Trudeau lost the backing of parties that had previously helped keep the Liberals in power - the left-leaning New Democrats, who had a support agreement with the Liberals, and the Quebec nationalist party, Bloc Quebecois.

The largest opposition party, the Conservatives, have maintained a significant two-digit lead over the Liberals in polls for months - suggesting that if a general election were held today, the Liberals could be in for a significant defeat.

Liberals will now choose a new leader to take the party into the next election, which must be held on or before 20 October.

A senior government official told the BBC that the race is an open contest, and that the Prime Minister's Office will fully stay out of the process, leaving it to Liberal Party members to decide their future.

Speaking to reporters, the Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet suggested that an early election be called once the Liberals choose their new leader.

End of the Trudeau era

Trudeau is the son of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who dominated the country's politics in the 1970s and '80s.

The younger Trudeau became prime minister after the Liberal Party won a sweeping majority in 2015 amid a promise to usher in a new, progressive era of "Sunny Ways".

His record includes a commitment to gender equality in his cabinet, which continues to be 50% women; progress on reconciliation with Indigenous people in Canada; bringing in a national carbon tax; implementing a tax-free child benefit for families; and legalising recreational cannabis.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak praised Trudeau's track record on indigenous issues following his resignation, saying in a statement that he "has taken meaningful steps to address issues that matter to First Nations".

"While much work remains, these actions have laid a foundation for future governments to build upon."

Clouds began to hang over Trudeau's government in recent years, which weathered a series of often self-inflicted scandals, including a controversy over a deal with a Canadian firm facing corruption charges and photos that emerged of the prime minister wearing brownface makeup.

Vaccine mandates and other restrictions were also met with fierce backlash by some Canadians, leading to the Freedom Convoy truck protests in early 2022. Trudeau eventually used unprecedented emergency powers to remove the protesters.

As Canada began to emerge from the pandemic, housing and food prices skyrocketed, and his government pulled back on ambitious immigration targets as public services began to show strain.

By late 2024, Trudeau's approval rating was at its lowest - just 22% of Canadians saying they thought he was doing a good job, according to one polling tracker.

In Ottawa, a small group of protestors danced outside Parliament Hill in celebration of his resignation.

One passer-by, however, said he thinks things were fine under Trudeau's watch.

"I'm a carpenter," Hames Gamarra, who is from British Columbia, told the BBC. "I mind my own business, I get my wages, I pay the bills. It's been OK."

Another Canadian, Marise Cassivi, said it feels like the end of an era. Asked if she feels any hints of sadness, she replied: "No."

"It's the right thing."

At least five people have died in a winter storm that has seized a swathe of the US in its icy grip, leading to mass school closures, travel chaos and power cuts.

Seven US states declared emergencies: Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Arkansas.

More than 2,000 flights have been cancelled, with about 6,500 delays also reported owing to the extreme weather caused by the polar vortex of icy cold air that usually circles the North Pole.

More than a quarter of a million people were without power on Monday afternoon, with snowfall forecast to continue into the night on the East Coast.

According to meteorologists, cold Arctic air is expected to keep conditions icy across a chunk of the country for several more weeks.

In Washington DC - where lawmakers met on Monday to certify Donald Trump's win in November's election - about 5-9in (13-23cm) of snow fell, with up to a foot recorded in parts of nearby Maryland and Virginia.

• Live Updates: Major winter storm brings heavy snow and travel disruption

In front of the Washington Monument, hundreds of local residents gathered at a local park for a snowball fight, a now 15-year-old tradition.

"Just having fun," one local man told the BBC. "Never done a snowball fight before."

Former US Olympic skier Clare Egan was found cross-country skiing on the National Mall, the central thoroughfare of the US capital city.

She told the Associated Press she had thought "my skiing days were maybe behind me".

Washington DC's weather emergency is declared until the early hours of Tuesday as a result of the system, which was named Winter Storm Blair by the Weather Channel.

Children who had been due to go back to classes on Monday after the Christmas and Hanukkah break were instead enjoying a snow day as school districts closed from Maryland to Kansas.

In other parts of the US, the winter storm brought with it dangerous road conditions.

In Missouri, the state's highway patrol said at least 365 people had crashed on Sunday, leaving dozens injured and at least one dead.

In nearby Kansas, one of the worst-hit states, local news reported that two people were killed in a car crash during the storm.

In Houston, Texas, a person was found dead from cold weather in front of a bus stop on Monday morning, authorities said.

In Virginia, where 300 car crashes were reported between midnight and Monday morning, authorities warned local residents to avoid driving in large parts of the state.

At least one motorist was killed, according to local media reports.

Matthew Cappucci, a senior meteorologist at the weather app MyRadar, told the BBC that Kansas City had seen the heaviest snow in 32 years.

Some areas near the Ohio River in Kansas and Missouri turned to "skating rinks" in the frigid temperatures, he added.

"The ploughs are getting stuck, the police are getting stuck, everybody's getting stuck - stay home," he said.

Data from Poweroutage.us, a tracking website, shows that over 260,000 people were without power on Monday afternoon, across the storm's path through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.

A senior Hamas official has shared with the BBC a list of 34 hostages that the Palestinian group says it is willing to release in the first stage of a potential ceasefire agreement with Israel.

It is unclear how many hostages remain alive.

Among those named are 10 women and 11 older male hostages aged between 50 and 85, as well as young children that Hamas previously said had been killed in an Israeli air strike.

A number of hostages that Hamas says are sick are also included on the list.

Reports from Hamas-run Gaza say Israeli air strikes killed more than 100 people there at the weekend.

The Israeli prime minister's office denied reports that Hamas had provided Israel with a list of hostages.

Ceasefire negotiations resumed in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend, but the talks do not appear to have made significant progress yet.

A Hamas official told Reuters news agency any agreement to return Israeli hostages would depend on a deal for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire or end to the war.

"However, until now, the occupation continues to be obstinate over an agreement over the issues of the ceasefire and withdrawal, and has made no step forward," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, Hamas posted a video of 19-year-old Israeli captive Liri Albag urging her government to make a deal.

She was captured along with six other female conscript soldiers at the Nahal Oz army base on the Gaza border during Hamas's attack on 7 October 2023.

On that day Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

Israel's military campaign to destroy Hamas had killed at least 45,805 people in Gaza as of Saturday, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

The same source says Israeli air strikes killed 88 people in Gaza on Saturday itself while on Sunday, Reuters news agency quoted health sources as saying a further 17 had died in four separate Israeli attacks on the territory.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that its air force had attacked more than 100 "terrorist" sites across the Gaza Strip over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas militants.

US President Joe Biden has announced a ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along most of America's coastline, weeks before Donald Trump takes office.

Trump had pledged to massively increase US fossil fuel production.

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President-elect Donald Trump has asked a New York judge to halt the sentencing in his felony hush money case, which is scheduled for 10 January.

His lawyers announced on Monday that Trump would appeal the decision by Justice Juan Merchan ordering that the sentencing would proceed.

In court filings, Trump's attorneys wrote they would seek "a dismissal of this politically motivated prosecution that was flawed from the very beginning".

Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in May 2024, making him the first former president convicted of a crime.

The charges stemmed from Trump's attempt to disguise reimbursements for a hush money payment to an adult film star as legal expenses.

Trump pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. His lawyers said that filing an appeal should halt the criminal proceedings in his New York case.

The sentencing had been delayed repeatedly by the 2024 presidential election and Trump's attempt to have the case thrown out based on a claim of presidential immunity. Justice Merchan ultimately rejected the immunity argument in December.

On 3 January, Justice Merchan issued an order saying he would move ahead with the sentencing before Trump took office, but wrote that he would not consider any sentence of incarceration.

He ordered Trump to appear virtually or in-person for the hearing.

"The American People elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate that demands an immediate end to the political weaponisation of our justice system and all of the remaining Witch Hunts," said Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump's presidential transition.

Trump's team has not publicly commented on whether the president-elect will be in court, but in its response Monday afternoon to the request for a stay, the Manhattan district attorney's office referred to "defendant's decision to appear for sentencing virtually instead of in person". The reference to a virtual hearing was repeated again several pages later.

In the response, the district attorney asked the judge to deny Trump's request for an immediate stay of his sentencing, and argued he would not be prejudiced by such a decision.

The weeks after the election featured a flurry of legal filings from both Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case, and Trump's legal team.

Bragg's office had previously indicated that they would not oppose delaying Trump's sentencing until after he finishes his term in office, four years from now.

But after Justice Merchan decided to move ahead with the sentencing, Bragg has asked the judge to proceed with the sentencing on Friday.

In his order last week, Justice Merchan wrote that "it is this court's firm belief that only by bringing finality to this matter" will the legal quandaries at play be resolved.

However, the judge left the door open to the possibility that Trump would seek to appeal the sentencing, writing that he "must be permitted to avail himself of every available appeal".

Apple has said it will update, rather than pause, a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that has generated inaccurate news alerts on its latest iPhones.

The company, in its first acknowledgement of the concerns, on Monday said it was working on a software change to "further clarify" when the notifications are summaries that have been generated by the Apple Intelligence system.

The tech giant is facing calls to pull the technology after its flawed performance.

The BBC complained last month after an AI-generated summary of its headline falsely told some readers that Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself.

On Friday, Apple's AI inaccurately summarised BBC app notifications to claim that Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship hours before it began - and that the Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.

This marks the first time Apple has formally responded to the concerns voiced by the BBC about the errors, which appear as if they are coming from within the organisation's app.

"These summarisations by Apple are spreading misinformation which does not reflect – and in some cases completely contradicts – the original BBC content," the BBC said on Monday.

"They are harming trust not only in the BBC, but in news and information more widely. It is imperative that Apple addresses these issues urgently."

• What is AI and how does it work?
• A simple guide to help you understand AI

Apple said its update would arrive "in the coming weeks".

It has previously said its notification summaries - which group together and rewrite previews of multiple recent app notifications into a single alert on user's lock screens - aim to allow users to "scan for key details".

"Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback," the company said in a statement on Monday, adding that receiving the summaries is optional.

"A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary."

The feature, along with others released as part of its broader suite of AI tools was rolled out in the UK in December. It is only available on its iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max handsets running iOS 18.1 and above, as well as on some iPads and Macs.

Several instances of the technology appearing to interpret messages in a highly blunt, literal way have gone viral on social media.

In November, a ProPublica journalist highlighted erroneous Apple AI summaries of alerts from the New York Times app suggesting it had reported that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the screenshots, and the New York Times declined to comment.

Reporters Without Borders, an organisation representing the rights and interests of journalists, called on Apple to disable the feature in December.

It said the attribution of a false headline about Mr Mangione to the BBC showed "generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public".

Apple is not alone in having rolled out generative AI tools that can create text, images and more content when prompted by users - but with varying results.

Google's AI overviews feature, which provides a written summary of information from results at the top of its search engine in response to user queries, faced criticism last year for producing some erratic responses.

At the time a Google spokesperson said that these were 'isolated examples' and that the feature was generally working well.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris will on Monday preside over the official certification in Congress of the result of November's presidential election - a contest that she lost to Donald Trump.

The date also marks the fourth anniversary of a riot at the US Capitol, when Trump's supporters tried to thwart the certification of Democratic President Joe Biden's election victory in 2020. Normally the occasion is a mere formality.

Heavy security is in place in Washington DC, and Biden has vowed there will be no repeat of the violence on 6 January 2021 - which led to several deaths.

As lawmakers meet in Washington DC, heavy snow forecast for the American capital could prove disruptive.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has vowed to go ahead with the certification at 13:00 EST (18:00 GMT) in spite of the weather, telling Fox News: "Whether we're in a blizzard or not, we're going to be in that chamber making sure this is done."

As the current vice-president, Harris is required by the US Constitution to officially preside over the certification of the result, after Trump beat her in the nationwide poll on 5 November.

Trump won all seven of the country's swing states, helping him to victory in the electoral college, the mechanism that decides who takes the presidency. It will be Harris's job on Monday to read out the number of electoral college votes won by each candidate.

Trump's second term will begin after he is inaugurated on 20 January. For the first time since 2017, the president's party will also enjoy majorities in both chambers of Congress, albeit slender ones.

• Just how big was Trump's victory?
• What next for Harris, after her bruising election defeat?
• Who has joined Trump's top team?
• What happens to Trump's legal cases?

Trump's win marked a stunning political comeback from his electoral defeat in 2020, and a criminal conviction in 2024 - a first for a current or former US president.

Amid the dramatic recent presidential campaign, Trump also survived a bullet grazing his ear when a gunman opened fire at one of his rallies in Pennsylvania.

While away from the White House, he has faced a slew of legal cases against him - including over his attempts to overturn the 2020 result, which he continues to dispute.

Following his defeat that year, Trump and his allies made baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud - claiming the election had been stolen from them.

In a speech in Washington DC on certification day, 6 January 2021, Trump told a crowd to "fight like hell" but also asked them to "peacefully" make their voices heard.

He also attempted to pressurise his own vice-president, Mike Pence, to reject the election result - a call that Pence rejected.

• What Trump said in speech before riot

Rioters went on to smash through barricades and ransack the Capitol building before Trump ultimately intervened by telling them to go home. Several deaths were blamed on the violence.

Trump's pledges after returning to office include pardoning people convicted of offences over the attack. He says many of them are "wrongfully imprisoned", though has acknowledged that "a couple of them, probably they got out of control".

Conversely, Biden has called on Americans never to forget what happened.

"We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it," Biden wrote in the Washington Post over the weekend.

For Trump's Republican Party, the new Senate Majority Leader John Thune has signalled a desire to move on, telling the BBC's US partner CBS News: "You can't be looking in the rearview mirror."

• How these new recruits will be vetted
• What Trump can and can't do on day one
• How undocumented migrants feel about deportations
• Can RFK Jr make America healthy again?
• What Trump's Ukraine envoy has said about war

Austria's president Alexander Van der Bellen has tasked the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, with forming a coalition government.

If the talks are successful, Austria will, for the first time, have a government led by the Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPO).

The FPO has been in power before, but only as a junior coalition partner.

The party came first in September's elections, with roughly 29% of the vote, but was then sidelined.

President Van der Bellen infuriated the FPO by not tasking it with forming a government soon after the election.

At the time, the leaders of all of the other parties ruled out making an alliance with Kickl.

In October, Van der Bellen gave the conservative People's Party (OVP), which came second in the election with 26%, the task of forming a coalition.

The former leader of the OVP, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, had called Kickl a conspiracy theorist and a threat to security.

But Nehammer's attempts to form a three-party and then a two-party centrist coalition collapsed this weekend.

He then resigned and the new leader of the conservatives, Christian Stocker, said his party would be willing to hold talks with Kickl.

President Van der Bellen has now tasked Kickl with forming a government.

The step is a dramatic reversal for the president, a former leader of the Green Party, who has long been critical of the FPO and has expressed reservations about Kickl as Chancellor.

On Monday, Van der Bellen said he had not taken "this step lightly". He said he would "continue to ensure that the principles and rules of our constitution are correctly observed and adhered to".

In recent months, Van der Bellen has repeatedly said he will remain vigilant to ensure "cornerstones of democracy" including human rights, independent media and Austria's membership of the European Union are respected.

The Freedom Party and the OVP overlap on a number of issues and both take a tough line on migration.

However they have clashed on the EU and the Freedom Party's opposition to aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

There is no timeframe for the coalition talks, which would usually take two or three months, but could be quicker.

If the talks fail, a snap election is likely. Polls suggest that support for the Freedom Party has grown since September.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has gone on trial in Paris, accused of taking millions of euros of illicit funds from the late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign.

In exchange, the prosecution alleges Sarkozy promised to help Gaddafi combat his reputation as a pariah with Western countries.

Sarkozy, 69, was the president of France from 2007 to 2012.

He has always denied the charges, saying they were brought against him by people with motivations to bring him down.

The investigation was opened in 2013, two years after Saif al-Islam, son of the then-Libyan leader, first accused Sarkozy of taking millions of his father's money for campaign funding.

The following year, Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine - who for a long time acted as a middleman between France and the Middle East - said he had written proof that Sarkozy's campaign bid was "abundantly" financed by Tripoli, and that the €50m (£43m) worth of payments continued after he became president.

Twelve other people - accused of devising the pact with Gaddafi - are standing trial along Sarkozy. They all deny the charges.

Sarkozy's wife, Italian-born former supermodel and singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was charged last year with hiding evidence linked to the Gaddafi case and associating with wrongdoers to commit fraud, both of which she denies.

Since losing his re-election bid in 2012, Sarkozy has been targeted by several criminal investigations.

He also appealed against a February 2024 ruling which found him guilty of overspending on his 2012 re-election campaign, then hiring a PR firm to cover it up. He was handed a one-year sentence, of which six months were suspended.

In 2021, he was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge in 2014 and became the first former French president to get a custodial sentence. In December, the Paris appeals court ruled that he could serve his time at home wearing a tag instead of going to jail.

Sarkozy was not wearing the tag as he arrived in court in Paris on Monday morning.

However, that is only because the details of that sentence have yet to be worked out.

It is likely that in the course of this three-month trial over the so-called Libya connection, the former president will appear wearing the device.

The trial is set to continue until 10 April. If found guilty, Sarkozy faces up to 10 years in prison.

Donald Trump Jr is planning to visit Greenland, two weeks after his father repeated his desire for the US to take control of the island - an autonomous Danish territory.

The US president-elect's son plans to record video footage for a podcast during the one-day private visit, US media report.

Donald Trump reignited controversy in December when he said "ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity" for US national security.

He had previously expressed an interest in buying the Arctic territory during his first term as president. Trump was rebuffed by Greenland's leaders on both occasions.

"We are not for sale and we will not be for sale," the island's Prime Minister, Mute Egede, said in December. "Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland."

Greenland lies on the shortest route from North America to Europe, making it strategically important for the US. It is also home to a large US space facility.

The president-elect's eldest son played a key role during the 2024 US election campaign, frequently appearing at rallies and in the media.

But he will not be travelling to Greenland on behalf of his father's incoming administration, according to the Danish foreign ministry.

"We have noted the planned visit of Donald Trump Jr to Greenland. As it is not an official American visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark has no further comment to the visit," the ministry told BBC News.

• Greenland profile

Hours after President-elect Trump's latest intervention, the Danish government announced a huge boost in defence spending for Greenland. Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen described the announcement's timing as an "irony of fate".

On Monday Denmark's King Frederik X changed the royal coat of arms to more prominently feature representations of Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Some have seen this as a rebuke to Trump, but it could also prove controversial with Greenland's separatist movement.

King Frederik used his New Year's address to say the Kingdom of Denmark was united "all the way to Greenland", adding "we belong together".

But Greenland's prime minister used his own New Year's speech to push for independence from Denmark, saying the island must break free from "the shackles of colonialism".

Trump is not the first US president to suggest buying Greenland. The idea was first mooted by the country's 17th president, Andrew Johnson, during the 1860s.

Separately in recent weeks, Trump has threatened to reassert control over the Panama Canal, one of the world's most important waterways. He has accused Panama of charging excessive fees for access to it.

Panama's president responded by saying "every square metre" of the canal and surrounding area belonged to his country.