US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates, switching their penalty to life in prison without parole.
Among those are nine people convicted of murdering fellow prisoners, four for murders committed during bank robberies and one who killed a prison guard.
In a statement, Biden said he condemned the murderers and their crimes, but added he was "more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level".
Biden's decision comes before the return of President-elect Donald Trump in January, who previously resumed federal executions in July 2020 for the first time since 2003.
"Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss," Biden added.
Disgraced former New Orleans police officer Len Davis, who operated a drug ring involving other officers and arranged a woman's murder, is among those who have been shown clemency.
The three remaining on death row include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof who shot and killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015.
Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshippers during a mass shooting in 2018 at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, will also remain on death row.
Biden has campaigned as an opponent of the death penalty, and the Justice Department issued a moratorium on its use at federal level after he became president.
During his first term in office, Trump oversaw 13 deaths by lethal injection during his final six months in power.
There had been no federal inmates put to death in the US since 2003 until Trump resumed federal executions in July 2020.
During his re-election campaign, Trump indicated he would expand the use of capital punishment to include human and drug traffickers, as well as migrants who kill American citizens.
Biden appeared to make reference to Trump's intentions in his statement by saying he could not "in good conscience - stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted".
In US law, these clemency decisions cannot be reversed by a president's successor.
Biden's decision will not impact people sentenced to death in state courts, which is around around 2,250 inmates according to the Death Penalty Information Centre. More than 70 state executions have been carried out during Biden's presidency.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. Six other states, including Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, have moratoriums in place.
Earlier this month, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 more convicted of nonviolent crimes.
He also pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who was facing sentencing for two criminal cases. He had pleaded guilty to tax charges earlier in September, and was found guilty of being an illegal drug user in possession of a gun in June - becoming the first child of a sitting president to be a convicted of a crime.
The US Constitution decrees that a president has the broad "power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment".
Thousands of people were killed and wounded in the surprise attacks
Two former Israeli intelligence agents have revealed how members of the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah used Israeli made walkie-talkies booby-trapped with explosives for 10 years before they were detonated in a surprise attack in September this year.
The two ex-Mossad agents told US CBS News how the service duped Hezbollah into buying thousands of rigged walkie-talkies and pagers without realising they were made in Israel.
Dozens of people were killed and thousands injured in the attacks. Israel said it was tailored to target only Hezbollah members, but civilians were among victims, Lebanese officials said.
The UN human rights chief called the attack a war crime.
At the time of the attack, Israel and Hezbollah were fighting a conflict which had spiralled since Hezbollah fired at Israeli positions a day after Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel 7 October 2023.
On 17 September 2024, thousands of pagers simultaneously exploded across Lebanon, mainly in areas with a strong Hezbollah presence. The blasts wounded or killed users and some people nearby, spreading panic and confusion. The following day walkie-talkies exploded in the same way, killing and injuring hundreds more.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel was responsible two months later, Israeli media reported at the time.
One of the agents, given the name Michael, said Mossad had concealed an explosive device inside the batteries operating the walkie-talkies, which he said would typically be carried in a vest nearer the wearer's heart.
He said Hezbollah had unwittingly bought over 16,000 the walkie talkies at "a good price" from a fake company 10 years ago.
"We have an incredible array of possibilities of creating foreign companies that have no way being traced back to Israel," Michael said. "Shell companies over shell companies to affect the supply chain to our favour.
"We create a pretend world. We are a global production company. We write the screenplay, we're the directors, we're the producers, we're the main actors, and the world is our stage."
The operation expanded two years ago to include pagers, CBS said.
Mossad found that at that time Hezbollah was buying pagers from a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo, it said. It set up a fake company which used the Gold Apollo name on pagers rigged with explosives, without the parent company realising.
CBS said Mossad put explosives inside powerful enough to hurt only the user.
"We test everything triple, double, multiple times in order to make sure there is minimum damage," said the second agent, whom the programme called Gabriel.
It said Mossad specifically chose a ringtone which would sound urgent enough for someone to check in incoming message.
Gabriel said the agency duped Hezbollah into buying the pagers, making advertising films and brochures, and sharing them on the internet.
"When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad," he said. "We make like [movie] Truman Show, everything is controlled by us behind the scene."
Hezbollah had bought 5,000 of the booby trapped pagers by September 2024, CBS said.
They were triggered from Israel when Mossad feared Hezbollah began to have suspicions, it said.
The explosions caused shockwaves across Lebanon, with detonations happening everywhere the pagers were being carried, including in supermarkets. Hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties, many of whom had been maimed.
Gabriel said there was a "strong rumour" that people also fell victim in front of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Days later, with Hezbollah still reeling from the attack, Israel began intense waves of air strikes against Hezbollah targets, followed by a ground invasion of Lebanon.
The two sides agreed to a ceasefire on 26 November.
Atul Subhash's suicide has galvanised men's rights activists and started a wider debate around India's tough dowry law
On the night of 9 December, a 34-year-old Indian man killed himself. Next to his body was a placard reading "justice is due".
Atul Subhash left a detailed 24-page suicide note and an 81-minute video in which he blamed the trouble in his marriage and divorce proceedings.
The letter and the video, which contain distressing details about his life, have gone viral on social media and caused outrage.
The software engineer from the southern city of Bengaluru accused his estranged wife Nikita Singhania, her mother and brother of sustained harassment and torture – accusations they denied. The three were arrested a few days later and a court has remanded them for 14 days.
News of Subhash's tragic death has also galvanised men's rights activists and started a wider debate around India's tough dowry law which was designed to protect women from harassment and even murder. Singhania had accused Subhash and his family of harassing her for dowry.
Many argue that with cases of divorce steadily rising, the law is now being misused by women to harass their husbands, even forcing them to kill themselves. India's top court has also weighed in, with one judge describing it as "legal terrorism" that was "intended to be used as a shield and not as an assassin's weapon".
Women's activists, however, point out that demands for large dowry payments from husbands' families still continues to kill thousands of women every year.
Bengaluru police
Subhash and Singhania (second from right) married in 2019, but had been estranged for three years
Subhash and Singhania married in 2019, but had been living apart for three years and Subhash said he was not allowed to meet their four-year-old son. His wife, he alleged, had filed "false court cases", accusing him of cruelty, dowry harassment and various other wrongdoings.
In the video, he accused the Singhania family of "extortion" and said they had demanded 30m rupees ($352,675; £279,661) to withdraw the cases, 3m rupees for visitation rights to their son and asked to raise the monthly maintenance from 40,000 rupees to 200,000 rupees.
He then spoke about the dozens of long trips he made over the past few years to attend court hearings and accused a judge of harassment, seeking a bribe from him and mocking him. A notice which appears to have been issued by the judge refers to the allegations as "baseless, immoral and defamatory".
News of the suicide prompted a firestorm of protests in several cities. Many took to social media to demand justice for Subhash.
They said his suicide should be treated as a case of murder and targetted Singhania, demanding she be arrested and sent to prison for life.
On X (formerly Twitter), thousands tagged the American multinational firm where she worked, demanding that they sack her.
Following the outrage, the police in Bengaluru opened an inquiry against those named in the suicide note. On 14 December, Singhania, her mother and brother were arrested on charges of "abetment to suicide".
During interrogation, Singhania denied the allegation that she had been harassing Subhash for money, Times of India quoted the police as saying.
In the past, Singhania had also levelled grave charges against her husband. In her 2022 petition for divorce, she had accused him, his parents and brother of harassing her for dowry. She said they had been unhappy with the gifts her parents had given during the wedding and demanded an additional 1m rupees.
Men's rights activists have held protests in many cities demanding justice for Atul Subhash
Dowries have been outlawed in India since 1961, but the bride's family is still expected to gift cash, clothes and jewellery to the groom's family. According to a recent study, 90% of Indian marriages involve them and payments between 1950 and 1999 amounted to a quarter of a trillion dollars.
And according to the National Crime Records Bureau, 35,493 brides were killed in India between 2017 and 2022 - an average of 20 women a day - over dowry demands, sometimes even years after the wedding. In 2022 alone, more than 6,450 brides were murdered over dowry - that's an average of 18 women every day.
Singhania claimed that her father died from a heart attack soon after her wedding when Subhash's parents went to him to demand the money. She also alleged that her husband used to threaten her and "beat me up after drinking alcohol and treated the husband-wife relationship like a beast" by demanding unnatural sex. Subhash had denied all the allegations.
Police say they are still investigating the allegations and counter-allegations but Subhash's suicide has led to growing calls to rewrite – even scrap - India's stringent anti-dowry law - Section 498A of the India Penal Code.
The law was introduced in 1983 after a spate of dowry deaths in Delhi and elsewhere in the country. There were daily reports of brides being burnt to death by their husbands and in-laws and the murders were often passed off as "kitchen accidents". Angry protests by female MPs and activists forced parliament to bring in the law.
As lawyer Sukriti Chauhan says, "the law had come after a long and hard fight" and "allows women to seek justice in cases of cruelty in their matrimonial homes".
Nikita Singhania had accused Subhash (pictured here with his mother) his parents and brother of harassing her for dowry - they had denied the allegations
But over the years, the law has repeatedly made headlines, with men's activists saying it is being misused by women to harass their husbands and their relatives.
India's top court has also warned against the misuse of the law on many occasions. On the day Subhash's suicide was reported, the Supreme Court once again flagged – in an unrelated case - "the growing tendency to misuse the provision as a tool for unleashing personal vendetta against the husband and his family".
Amit Deshpande, founder of Mumbai-based men's rights organisation Vaastav Foundation, says the law is being used "mostly to extort men" and that "there are thousands of others who are suffering like Subhash".
Their helpline number, he says, receives about 86,000 calls every year and most cases are about matrimonial disputes that include false dowry cases and attempts at extortion.
"A cottage industry has been built around the law. In each case, 18-20 people are named as accused and they all have to hire lawyers and go to court to seek bail. There have been cases where a two-month-old baby or an ill nonagenarian was named in dowry harassment complaints.
"I know these are extreme examples but the whole system enables this in some manner. Police, judiciary and politicians are turning a blind eye to our concerns," he says.
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Men's rights activists say the dowry law is being used "mostly to extort men"
Mr Deshpande says according to the government crime data for more than 50 years, a large majority of male suicides were by married men - and family discord was the reason for one in four suicides among them.
Patriarchy, he says, also works against men. "Women have recourse to laws and they get sympathy, but people laugh at men who are harassed or beaten by their wives. If Subhash was a woman he could have had recourse to certain laws. So, let's make laws gender neutral and extend the same justice to men so lives can be saved."
There should also be stringent punishment for those who misuse the law, otherwise this will not be a deterrent, he adds.
Ms Chauhan agrees that women who misuse the law should be punished, but argues that any law can be misused. The Bengaluru case is in court and if it is proven that it's a false case, then she should be punished, she says.
"But I do not support it becoming gender neutral. The demand for that is regressive as it disregards the need for special measures that acknowledge that women are disproportionately impacted by violence."
Those going after Section 498A, she says, are "driven by patriarchy and because it's a law for women, attempts are made to strike it down".
"It came after years of societal patriarchal injustice. And this patriarchy remains the reality of our generation and will continue for generations to come."
Despite the law, she says, demand for dowry is rampant and thousands of brides continue to be killed over it.
The need of the hour, she adds, is to "make the law stronger".
"If three out of 10 cases that are filed are false, then it is for the courts to impose penalty on them. But women are still suffering very much in this country so do not ask to repeal the law."
Lev Tahor members tried to take back children rescued by authorities
Authorities in Guatemala have resisted efforts by members of a Jewish sect to recapture 160 children rescued from its premises.
The children were taken into care on Friday when police raided a farm used by the Lev Tahor movement, which is under investigation in several countries for serious sexual offences.
Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez said they were allegedly being abused by a member of the sect.
But on Sunday, sect members broke into a care centre where they were being held in an attempt to get them back, leading to scuffles with police.
The Lev Tahor sect is known for extremist practices and imposing a strict regime on its followers.
It advocates child marriage, inflicts harsh punishments even for minor transgressions and requires women and girls as young as three years old to completely cover up with robes.
The sect accuses the Guatemalan authorities of religious persecution.
The community settled in Mexico and Guatemala between 2014 and 2017. In 2022, members of the sect were arrested in a police operation in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, but they were later freed for lack of evidence.
The events began when police raided the sect's farm in Oratorio, south-east of Guatemala City, on Friday, taking the children into care.
Prosecutors said there were suspicions of "forced pregnancy, mistreatment of minors and rape".
But two days later, about 100 of the children's relatives - all members of the sect - gathered outside the centre where they were being held to call for their return.
Some sect members then forced open the gate and tried to abduct the children and adolescents sheltered there, the Attorney General's Office said.
But the children were intercepted by the authorities and put into a white minibus, local media reported.
With police help, the centre "managed to locate and protect everyone again", the Attorney General's Office added.
Officials had previously tried to check on the children's wellbeing, but were prevented from entering the farm by sect members.
Authorities estimate that the community is made up of about 50 families residing in Guatemala, the US, Canada and other countries.
The Jewish Community of Guatemala has issued a statement disowning the sect, describing it as foreign to its own organisation.
It expressed support for the Guatemalan authorities in carrying out necessary investigations "to protect the lives and integrity of minors and other vulnerable groups that may be at risk".
A long-awaited report into former Republican US Representative Matt Gaetz is expected to be released on Monday.
It follows an investigation by the House Ethics Committee into allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use by Gaetz, who was briefly lined up for a top job in the cabinet of President-elect Donald Trump.
A draft of the report seen by the BBC's US partner CBS News - described as a final version - reportedly says there is "substantial evidence" that Gaetz broke state laws relating to sexual misconduct while in office.
Gaetz, 42, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying he is the victim of a smear campaign. He has not commented on the latest developments.
The 37-page draft seen by CBS is quoted as saying: "The committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favours or privileges, and obstruction of Congress."
From 2017 to 2020, Gaetz made payments totalling more than $90,000 (£72,000) to 12 different women "that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use", CBS quotes the draft as saying.
The draft also reportedly contains testimony that Gaetz paid for sex with a 17-year-old at a party in 2017, giving her $400 "which she understood to be payment for sex". Gaetz has denied having sex with a minor.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) - which Trump had initially planned for Gaetz to lead - also investigated an allegation that he had sex with a minor but ultimately did not file any criminal charges against him.
Gaetz represented Florida's first congressional district in the US House of Representatives, having come to power in the same election in 2016 that propelled his ally Trump to the White House the first time.
He was named last month as Trump's DoJ nominee. Gaetz promptly resigned from Congress, seemingly putting him out of reach of the ethics committee.
But an intense debate erupted over whether or not the report should be released. Gaetz then withdrew his name from consideration for the DoJ role, saying he hoped to avoid a "needlessly protracted Washington scuffle".
Gaetz's slated role as attorney general was one of those that required the confirmation of US senators - which looked increasingly unlikely.
The secretive ethics committee had investigated Gaetz on and off since 2021 - not only on the claims about sex and drugs, but also on allegations he accepted bribes and misused campaign funds. In all cases, he strongly denied any wrongdoing.
House Republicans previously blocked Democratic efforts to unveil the results of the report, but two of them later voted to do so, according to CBS.
Responding last week to news that the document would be released after all, Gaetz posted on X: "I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me."
He added: "Instead, House Ethics will reportedly post a report online that I have no opportunity to debate or rebut as a former member of the body."
Gaetz also wrote: "It's embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanised, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now."
Police were called to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn after a woman on a subway car was set on fire
A suspect has been arrested in New York over the death of a woman who was set on fire on a subway train in Brooklyn.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the incident on Sunday as "one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being".
She said the woman was sleeping on a stationary F train to Brooklyn when she was approached by the suspect who used a lighter to ignite her clothing.
The victim died at the scene, she said, adding that the suspect had been taken into custody after he was detained on another subway train.
Police said the woman, who has not been named, was sleeping in a subway carriage at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn at about 07:30 local time (12:30 GMT) when a man approached her.
There was no interaction before the attack, police said, adding that they did not believe the two people knew each other.
The man got off the train as police officers on patrol in the station rushed to the fire.
"What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames," Ms Tisch said.
Police are still working to identify the victim and the motive for the attack.
People have been leaving floral tributes for the victims of Friday's attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany
The Saudi authorities, I am told, are currently working flat out to collate everything they have on the Magdeburg market suspect, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, and to share it with Germany's ongoing investigation "in every way possible".
Inside the imposing sand coloured and fortress-like walls of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh there is a perhaps justifiable sense of pique.
The ministry previously warned the German government about al-Abdulmohsen's extremist views.
It sent four so-called "Notes Verbal", three of them to Germany's intelligence agencies and one to the foreign ministry in Berlin. There was, the Saudis say, no response.
Coming from a country where Islam is the only religion permitted to be practiced in public, al-Abdulmohsen was a very unusual citizen.
He had turned his back on Islam, making himself a heretic in the eyes of many.
Born in the Saudi date palm oasis town of Hofuf in 1974, little is known about his early life before he decided to leave Saudi Arabia and move to Europe aged 32.
Active on social media, on his Twitter (later X) account he labels himself as both a psychiatrist and founder of Saudi rights movement, together with the tag @SaudiExMuslims.
He founded a website aimed at helping Saudi women flee their country to Europe.
The Saudis say he was a people trafficker and the Ministry of Interior's investigators, the Mabaatheth, are said to have an extensive file on him.
There have been reports in recent years of dissident Saudis coming under hostile surveillance from Saudi government agents, in Canada, the US and in Germany.
There is no question that the German authorities, both federal and state, have made some serious errors of omission in the case of al-Abdulmohsen.
Whatever their reasons for not responding, as the Saudis claim, to the repeated warnings about his extremism, he was clearly a danger to his adopted host country.
There is also, separately, the failure to close off, or at least guard, the emergency access route to Magdeburg Alter Markt that allowed him to allegedly drive his BMW into the crowds.
German authorities have defended the market's layout and said an investigation into the suspect's past is ongoing.
But a complicating factor here is that Saudi Arabia, although considered a friend and ally of the West, has a poor human rights record.
Until June 2018 Saudi women were forbidden to drive and even those women who publicly called for that ban to be lifted before then have been persecuted and imprisoned.
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, still only in his 30s, just, is immensely popular in his own country.
Reuters
The Saudi crown prince pictured in Riyadh during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in October
While Western leaders largely distanced themselves from him after his alleged involvement in the grisly murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which the crown prince denies, at home his star is still in the ascendant.
Under his de-facto rule, Saudi public life has transformed for the better, with men and women allowed to associate freely, and cinemas reopening, along with big, spectacular sports and entertainment events, even gigs performed by Western artists like David Guetta and the Black Eyed Peas.
But there is a paradox here.
While Saudi public life has flourished there has been a simultaneous crackdown on anything that even hints at more political or religious freedom.
Harsh prison sentences of 10 years or more have been handed down for simple tweets.
No-one is permitted to even question the way the country is run.
It is against this backdrop that Germany appears to have dropped the ball with Taleb al-Abdulmohsen.
Robert Fico has previously reiterated his opposition to the West's policy of arming Ukraine
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico has made a surprise visit to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin - becoming only the third Western leader to meet the Russian leader since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Fico - a vocal critic of the European Union's support for Kyiv in the war - said they discussed supplies of Russian gas to Slovakia - which his country relies on.
A deal with Russian gas giant Gazprom to transit energy through Ukraine to Slovakia is due to expire at the end of this year.
"Top EU officials were informed about my journey and its purpose... on Friday," Fico wrote on Facebook.
Fico said the meeting in Moscow was a reaction to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky telling EU leaders that Ukraine remains opposed to Russian gas being piped through its territory.
The Slovakian PM, who survived being shot earlier this year, also said he had a "long conversation" with Putin and the two "exchanged views on the military situation in Ukraine".
Both discussed "the possibilities of an early, peaceful end of the war" and mutual relations between Russia and Slovakia, Fico wrote on Facebook.
René says he is now happy to be photographed "because the republic of fear is gone"
It belonged to his grandmother. Something solid. A thing to hold in his hands, and run his fingers across, and trace the path of memory. A small thing of beauty, inlaid with a delicate mosaic.
René opens the music box, and a tinkling music begins to play, the same song heard long ago in his Damascus sitting room.
"This is all I have left of my home," he says.
Everything about this young man suggests gentleness. René Shevan is short in height, slender and speaks softly.
All week his emotions have gone back and forth. Joy at the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Heartbreak at the memories it has triggered of his months in Syrian prisons.
"There was a woman. I still have her image here in my head. She was standing in the corner, and she was pleading…it's clear that they raped her.
"There was a boy. He was 15 or 16 years old. They were raping him, and he was calling his mother. He was saying, 'Mama... my mother... Mom.'"
There was his own rape and sexual abuse.
When I first met René, he had just escaped from Syria. That was 12 years ago. He sat opposite me, shaking and in tears, terrified of showing his face on camera.
The secret police had picked him up because he had gone to a pro-democracy demonstration. They also knew that he was gay.
Three of them gang raped René. He begged for mercy, but they laughed.
"Nobody heard me. I was alone," he recalled back in 2012.
They told him this was what he got for demanding freedom. Another officer abused him every day. For six months he suffered this abuse.
When images appeared on television this week of prisoners walking free in Damascus, René was carried back to images of his own.
"I'm not in prison now, I'm here. But I saw myself in the photos and the images of the people in Syria. I was so happy for them, but I saw myself there... I saw the old version of me there. I saw when they raped me, and when they tortured me. I saw everything in flashback."
He is weeping and we stop the interview. A few minutes, he says.
I look at his sitting room wall.
There is a photo of his ruined home in Syria, one of René running in a marathon in Utrecht. Then an image of the Jesuit priest, Father Frans Van Der Lugt, 75, a psychotherapist and ecumenical activist in Syria, until he was assassinated in 2014.
It was Father Van Der Lugt who told René - struggling in a deeply conservative environment - that he was a normal human being, that Jesus loved him whatever his sexual orientation was.
René takes a glass of water, then asks to continue our conversation.
Why has he agreed to show his face in front of a camera now, I wondered?
"Because the republic of fear is gone. Because I am I'm not scared of them anymore. Because Assad is a refugee in Moscow. Because all the criminals in Syria ran away. Because Syria returned to all Syrian people," he replies.
"I hope we will be able to live as a people in freedom, in equality. I'm so proud of myself as a Syrian, Dutch, as LGBT."
That doesn't mean he feels confident about living in Syria as a gay person just yet.
Under the Assad regime, homosexual acts were criminalised.
The country's new rulers have fundamentalist religious roots and have been implicated in violence and persecution against gay people.
"There are many Syrian LGBT who fought," René says.
"They were part of the revolution, and they lost their life. [The Syrian regime] killed them just because they were LGBT, and because they were part of the revolution."
René tells me he is "realistic" about the prospect of change. He is also concerned that all religious and ethnic groups - including the Kurds - are given protection.
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Some Syrian refugees have started to return home from neighbouring countries
René is among around six million Syrians who fled the country and found safety either in neighbouring countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey - the majority - or further afield in Europe.
Several European countries have already paused asylum applications from Syrians, following the overthrow of the Assad regime. International human rights groups have criticised the move as premature.
There are an estimated one million Syrians in Germany. Among them, a remarkable disabled Kurdish girl I first met in August 2015, when she had joined a vast column of people who had landed on the Greek island of Lesbos.
She travelled on through Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria on her way north.
To reach Europe from northern Syria, Nujeen had crossed mountains, rivers and the sea - her sister, Nisreen, pushing the wheelchair.
"I want to be an astronaut, and maybe meet and alien. And I want to meet the Queen," she said.
I crouched beside her on a dusty road, where thousands of asylum seekers lay exhausted in the midday heat. Her good humour and hopefulness were infectious.
This was a girl who taught herself fluent English by watching American television programmes. Nujeen grew up in Aleppo and then, as the war escalated, she went to her family's hometown of Kobane, a Kurdish stronghold which subsequently came under attack from the Islamic State (IS) group.
I meet her now in the bustling Neumarkt Square in Cologne, surrounded by Christmas market stalls where locals eat sausage and drink mulled wine, and the dramas of Syria seem far away.
But not for Nujeen.
All week she has been up watching television, long after the rest of the family has gone to bed. No matter that she has an exam for her business administration course. She will manage.
Never again, Nujeen understands, will there be a moment quite like the fall of Assad, a moment of such singular hope.
Nujeen was a teenager when she fled with her family from northern Syria and has settled in Germany
"Nothing lasts forever. Darkness is followed by dawn," she says.
"I knew that I would never come back to a Syria that had Assad as president, and that we would never have the chance to be a better nation with that man in charge. We knew that we would never find peace unless he's gone. And now with that chapter over, I think the real challenge begins."
Like René, she wants a country that is tolerant of diversity and cares for those with disabilities.
"I don't want to go back to a place where there is no lift and only stairs up to an apartment on the fourth floor."
As a Kurd, she is well versed in her people's experience of suffering in the region.
Now, as the Kurdish forces are forced to pull out of cities in the oil producing north, Nujeen sees the danger posed by a new regime that is backed by Turkey.
"We know these people that came into power now. We know the countries and the powers that are backing them, and they're not exactly fans of Kurds. They do not exactly love us. That's our biggest worry right now."
There is also the fear of a potential regrouping of IS if Syria's new leaders cannot achieve stability in the country.
There are constant calls to family still living in the Kurdish areas.
"They are anxious and worried about the future as we all are," says Nujeen.
"We never stop calling, and we are always worried if they don't pick up after the first ring. There's a lot of uncertainty about what's going to happen next".
The uncertainty is amplified by the change in asylum policy in Europe.
Still, this is a young woman whose experience of life - the experience of serious disability since birth, witnessing the terrors of war, travelling across the Middle East and Europe to safety - has created a capacity for hope.
In the near decade that I have known her, it is undimmed. The fall of Assad has only deepened her faith in Syria and its people.
"There are many people who are waiting to see Syria fall into some kind of an abyss," she says.
"We are not people who hate or envy or want to want to eliminate each other. We are people who were raised to be afraid of each other. But our default setting is that we love and accept who we are."
"We can and will be a be a better nation - a nation of love, acceptance and peace, not one of chaos, fear and destruction."
There are many hearts in Syria and beyond who will be hoping she is right.
Trump made his remarks in front of thousands at Turning Point's annual conference, one of the country's largest gatherings of conservative activists
President-elect Donald Trump has demanded Panama reduce fees on the Panama Canal or return it to US control, accusing the central American country of charging "exorbitant prices" to American shipping and naval vessels.
"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair," he told a crowd of supporters in Arizona on Sunday.
"This complete rip-off of our country will immediately stop," he said, referring to when he takes office next month.
His remarks prompted a quick rebuke from Panama's president, who said "every square metre" of the canal and surrounding area belong to his country.
President José Raúl Mulino added that Panama's sovereignty and independence were non-negotiable.
Trump made the comments to supporters of Turning Point USA, a conservative activist group that provided significant support to his 2024 election campaign.
It was a rare example of a US leader saying he could push a country to hand over territory - although he did not explain how he would do so - and a sign of how American foreign policy and diplomacy may shift once he enters the White House following his inauguration on 20 January.
Trump's comments followed a similar post a day earlier in which he said the Panama Canal was a "vital national asset" for the US.
If shipping rates are not lowered, Trump said on Sunday, "we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, quickly and without question".
The 51-mile (82km) Panama Canal cuts across the central American nation and is the main link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
It was built in the early 1900s and the US maintained control over the canal zone until 1977, when treaties gradually ceded the land back to Panama. After a period of joint control, Panama took sole control in 1999.
Up to 14,000 ships cross the canal per year, including container ships carrying cars, natural gas and other goods, and military vessels.
As well as Panama, the president-elect also took aim at Canada and Mexico over what he called unfair trade practices. He accused them of allowing drugs and immigrants into the US, although he called Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum a "wonderful woman".
Trump hits the usual themes
Trump made his remarks in front of thousands at Turning Point's annual conference, one of the country's largest gatherings of conservative activists.
Turning Point poured huge resources into get-out-the-vote efforts in swing states designed to bolster Trump and other Republicans during the election campaign.
It was his first speech since a deal passed Congress this week to keep the US government open, after several provisions were removed including one that would have increased the country's debt ceiling.
Trump had supported raising the debt ceiling, which restricts the amount of money the US government can borrow.
But his speech on Sunday avoided that issue entirely, instead recapping his election victory and hitting on themes – including immigration, crime and foreign trade – that were mainstays of his campaign.
He did, however, mention Elon Musk.
"You know, they're on a new kick," he said. "All the different hoaxes. The new one is that President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk."
"No, no, that's not happening," he said. "He's not gonna be president."
Several speakers here at the conference were critical of government spending and of politicians in both parties – however the divisions inside the Republican Party which have played out in Congress in recent days were mostly muted.
France is to hold a day of national mourning after Cyclone Chido devastated its Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte earlier this month.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for the nationwide remembrance during his visit to the island last week - where he was jeered by some islanders who criticised the slow delivery of aid.
It is feared hundreds, possibly thousands, of people died when Chido made landfall off Africa's south-east coast on 14 December bringing winds of up to 260 km/h (160mph) and 250mm of rainfall in the first 24 hours.
People across France will pay tribute and flags will be flown at half-mast in a show of solidarity at cities including Paris, Marseille and Lyon.
More than a week on from the storm survivors are struggling without water, communication and electricity while rescuers try to provide urgently needed assistance.
Mayotte, which lies between the African mainland and Madagascar, was already France's most impoverished territory before the cyclone struck.
Chido - the worst storm to hit the archipelago in 90 years - flattened areas where people live in shacks with sheet metal roofs and left fields of dirt and debris.
At least 31 people are reported by French officials to have died, but the death toll is expected to be much higher with thousands still missing.
A separate passport and citizenship is only available to fully independent countries, Wellington says
New Zealand has rejected a proposal by the Cook Islands to introduce a seperate passport for its citizens while allowing them to retain New Zealand citizenship.
Cook Islands, a self-governing island Pacific nation, is in "free association" with New Zealand, which is responsible for the former's foreign affairs and defence.
Cook Islanders can also live, work and access healthcare in New Zealand.
Prime Minister Mark Brown had asked for Cook Islanders to have their own passports "to recognise our own people" - but New Zealand has said that is not possible unless the Cook Islands becomes fully independent.
Documents first released to local broadcaster 1News and seen by Reuters reportedly showed that Brown has for months been pushing for a seperate passport and citizenship for those in the Cook Islands, while hoping to maintain its relationship as a realm country of New Zealand.
Reports say tensions between both countries have been escalating over the issue, with leaders of both places holding a series of talks over the past few months.
"New Zealanders are free to carry dual passports, there are a number of New Zealanders who have their passports of other countries," Radio New Zealand reported Brown saying.
"It is precisely the same thing that we'll be doing," he had said.
However some Cook Islanders had criticised their government for a lack of consultation over the proposal.
Thomas Wynne, a Cook Island national who works in Wellington, told local news outlet Cook Islands News: "The real question is what do the people of the Cook Islands want and have they been consulted on this critical decision? Or will it be a decision made by the few on behalf of the many?"
Other Cook Island residents told 1News that they were worried that such a move would also affect access to services like their right to healthcare in New Zealand.
But on Sunday, New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters effectively brought the conversation to an end, announcing that a separate passport and citizenship is only available to fully independent and sovereign countries.
Any move to change the current relationship between the two countries would have to be put through a referendum, he added.
"Such a referendum would allow the Cook Islands people to carefully weigh up whether they prefer the status quo, with their access to New Zealand citizenship and passports, or full independence," he said in a statement to media outlets.
"If the goal of the government of the Cook Islands is independence from New Zealand, then of course that's a conversation we are ready for them to initiate."
According to 1News, Brown later responded to Peters' statement by saying the Cook Islands would "not be implementing anything that affects our important status [with New Zealand]".
Nearly 100,000 Cook Islands nationals live in New Zealand, while only about 15,000 live in Cook Islands themselves.
Another small Pacific island, Niue, also shares a similar relationship with New Zealand - it is internally self-governing but relies on Wellington for defence and most foreign affairs.
Self-governing territories elsewhere in the world, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Puerto Rico, which is subordinated to the US in defence and foreign affairs.
Police were called to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn after a woman on a subway car was set on fire
A suspect has been arrested in New York over the death of a woman who was set on fire on a subway train in Brooklyn.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the incident on Sunday as "one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being".
She said the woman was sleeping on a stationary F train to Brooklyn when she was approached by the suspect who used a lighter to ignite her clothing.
The victim died at the scene, she said, adding that the suspect had been taken into custody after he was detained on another subway train.
Police said the woman, who has not been named, was sleeping in a subway carriage at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn at about 07:30 local time (12:30 GMT) when a man approached her.
There was no interaction before the attack, police said, adding that they did not believe the two people knew each other.
The man got off the train as police officers on patrol in the station rushed to the fire.
"What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames," Ms Tisch said.
Police are still working to identify the victim and the motive for the attack.
More than 10,000 people used to visit the baroque landmark in Rome every day
Rome's world-famous Trevi Fountain has re-opened after a three-month restoration.
Built in the 18th Century by Italian architect Nicola Salvi on the façade of the Poli Palace, the historic fountain is one of the city's most visited spots.
Between 10,000 and 12,000 tourists used to visit the Trevi Fountain each day, but a new queuing system has been installed to prevent large crowds massing near the landmark.
Speaking on Sunday Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri said imposing the limit will "allow everyone to better enjoy the fountain, without crowds or confusion".
Gualtieri also said city authorities were considering charging a modest entry price to finance the fountain's upkeep.
Sunday's re-opening took place under light rain in the presence of several hundred tourists, many of whom followed the mayor by throwing a coin into the fountain.
The three-month cleaning project involved removing mould and calcium incrustations.
The fountain and other key city sites have been cleaned ahead of the jubilee of the Roman Catholic Church which begins on Christmas Eve.
Getty Images
A new queueing system will be put in place to avoid large crowds, like this in September 2024
Making a wish and tossing a coin into the water is such a tradition that the city authorities used to collect around €10,000 (£8,300; $10,500) a week.
The money was donated to a charity that provides meals for the poor.
The Trevi fountain
Getty Images
Commissioned by Pope Clement XII in 1730
It is the end point of one of the aqueducts that supplied ancient Rome with water
The Acqua Vergine runs for a total of 20km (12 miles) before flowing into the fountain
Tourists can drink from a special tap tucked away at one side
According to legend, the water source was discovered in 19 BC by thirsty Roman soldiers directed to the site by a young virgin - which is why it is called Virgin Waters
The tradition of throwing coins into the fountain was made famous by Frank Sinatra's Three Coins in the Fountain in the 1954 romantic comedy of the same name
Robert Fico has previously reiterated his opposition to the West's policy of arming Ukraine
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico has made a surprise visit to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin - becoming only the third Western leader to meet the Russian leader since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Fico - a vocal critic of the European Union's support for Kyiv in the war - said they discussed supplies of Russian gas to Slovakia - which his country relies on.
A deal with Russian gas giant Gazprom to transit energy through Ukraine to Slovakia is due to expire at the end of this year.
"Top EU officials were informed about my journey and its purpose... on Friday," Fico wrote on Facebook.
Fico said the meeting in Moscow was a reaction to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky telling EU leaders that Ukraine remains opposed to Russian gas being piped through its territory.
The Slovakian PM, who survived being shot earlier this year, also said he had a "long conversation" with Putin and the two "exchanged views on the military situation in Ukraine".
Both discussed "the possibilities of an early, peaceful end of the war" and mutual relations between Russia and Slovakia, Fico wrote on Facebook.
Ten members of a family have died after a private plane crashed into the city of Gramado in southern Brazil.
Brazilian businessman Luiz Claudio Galeazzi, who was piloting the plane, was killed in the crash alongside his wife, three daughters and other family members, a statement from his company said.
The small plane reportedly hit the chimney of a building, as well as a house and a shop as it fell.
Local authorities say 17 people on the ground were injured in the accident, including two in a serious condition.
Mr Galeazzi, 61, was taking his family on a trip to Jundiaí, in the São Paulo state, according to reports in Brazilian media.
All 10 victims of the crash were members of Mr Galeazzi's family, Rio Grande do Sul state governor Eduardo Leite told a press conference. He added that the plane had taken off in unfavourable weather conditions.
The plane reportedly flew for 3km (1.8 miles) before falling into the urban area of the city just minutes after take-off on Sunday morning.
"At the time, it was revving up. You could see that it was accelerating a lot," an eyewitness, Nadia Hansen, told Reuters news agency.
"Then there was a bang as it hit the building and then it passed close to my house and then it fell, and I thought it had dropped in front of the house," she said.
Pictures from the scene show emergency workers attending to the smoking wreckage among debris from badly damaged buildings.
Reuters
Mr Galeazzi was the chief executive of Galeazzi & Associados, a corporate restructuring and crisis management firm based in São Paulo.
The company issued a statement on LinkedIn, paying tribute to the 61-year-old.
"Luiz Galeazzi will be eternally remembered for his dedication to his family and for his remarkable career as the leader of Galeazzi & Associados," the statement said.
"We also sympathize with all those affected by the accident in the region," it said, adding that it would co-operate with investigations into the accident.
The plane crashed near the centre of Gramado, hitting a house, a furniture store and a hotel, according to Brazilian media.
State governor Mr Leite said the cause of the accident was being investigated by the Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Center (Cenipa).
"The entire state is mobilized here to provide the necessary assistance," he told reporters at the scene.
Gramado is a popular tourist destination, known for hosting events during the festive period.
The region was severely hit in May this year by unprecedented flooding, which claimed dozens of lives and displaced around 150,000 people from their homes.
Trump made his remarks in front of thousands at Turning Point's annual conference, one of the country's largest gatherings of conservative activists
President-elect Donald Trump has demanded Panama reduce fees on the Panama Canal or return it to US control, accusing the central American country of charging "exorbitant prices" to American shipping and naval vessels.
"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair," he told a crowd of supporters in Arizona on Sunday.
"This complete rip-off of our country will immediately stop," he said, referring to when he takes office next month.
His remarks prompted a quick rebuke from Panama's president, who said "every square metre" of the canal and surrounding area belong to his country.
President José Raúl Mulino added that Panama's sovereignty and independence were non-negotiable.
Trump made the comments to supporters of Turning Point USA, a conservative activist group that provided significant support to his 2024 election campaign.
It was a rare example of a US leader saying he could push a country to hand over territory - although he did not explain how he would do so - and a sign of how American foreign policy and diplomacy may shift once he enters the White House following his inauguration on 20 January.
Trump's comments followed a similar post a day earlier in which he said the Panama Canal was a "vital national asset" for the US.
If shipping rates are not lowered, Trump said on Sunday, "we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, quickly and without question".
The 51-mile (82km) Panama Canal cuts across the central American nation and is the main link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
It was built in the early 1900s and the US maintained control over the canal zone until 1977, when treaties gradually ceded the land back to Panama. After a period of joint control, Panama took sole control in 1999.
Up to 14,000 ships cross the canal per year, including container ships carrying cars, natural gas and other goods, and military vessels.
As well as Panama, the president-elect also took aim at Canada and Mexico over what he called unfair trade practices. He accused them of allowing drugs and immigrants into the US, although he called Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum a "wonderful woman".
Trump hits the usual themes
Trump made his remarks in front of thousands at Turning Point's annual conference, one of the country's largest gatherings of conservative activists.
Turning Point poured huge resources into get-out-the-vote efforts in swing states designed to bolster Trump and other Republicans during the election campaign.
It was his first speech since a deal passed Congress this week to keep the US government open, after several provisions were removed including one that would have increased the country's debt ceiling.
Trump had supported raising the debt ceiling, which restricts the amount of money the US government can borrow.
But his speech on Sunday avoided that issue entirely, instead recapping his election victory and hitting on themes – including immigration, crime and foreign trade – that were mainstays of his campaign.
He did, however, mention Elon Musk.
"You know, they're on a new kick," he said. "All the different hoaxes. The new one is that President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk."
"No, no, that's not happening," he said. "He's not gonna be president."
Several speakers here at the conference were critical of government spending and of politicians in both parties – however the divisions inside the Republican Party which have played out in Congress in recent days were mostly muted.
Watch: Homeland Security Secretary says CEO murder rhetoric 'extraordinarily alarming'
The rhetoric on social media following the murder of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York earlier this month has been "extraordinarily alarming", US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says.
"It speaks of what is really bubbling here in this country, and unfortunately we see that manifested in violence, the domestic violent extremism that exists," he told CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday.
Some on social media have celebrated Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting dead Mr Thompson, and shared anger at America's private health insurers.
Mayorkas said he was "alarmed by the heroism that is being attributed to an alleged murderer of a father of two children on the streets in New York".
Mr Thompson, the 50-year-old CEO of the largest US health insurer UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel early on 4 December triggering a massive manhunt for the killer.
Mr Mangione, 26, was arrested days later in Pennsylvania and flown to New York where he is facing both federal and state charges, including first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism.
Investigators accuse him of carrying out a targeted killing, pointing to evidence that suggests a long-held animosity towards the US healthcare industry. On social media, support for Mr Mangione has often been accompanied by grievances and complaints with the health insurance sector.
"We have been concerned about the rhetoric on social media for some time," Mayorkas said on Sunday. "We've seen narratives of hate. We've seen narratives of anti-government sentiment. We've seen personal grievances in the language of violence."
Mayorkas, whose homeland security department is in part responsible for protecting Americans from domestic terrorism, said his department sees a "wide range of narratives" that "drive some individuals to violence."
"It's something that we're very concerned about," he said. "That is a heightened threat environment."
But the 65-year-old, whose time at the helm of the department will end next month, stressed that Mr Thompson's killing was "the actions of an individual [and] not reflective of the American public".
Watch: Mangione's extradition to New York explained in 73 seconds
Mr Mangione will remain behind bars in New York as his lawyers said last week that they would not present an application for bail. He is in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn, the same facility where Sean 'Diddy' Combs is being held.
He will likely be assigned a roommate and have daily visits from medical and psychological services, law enforcement sources told the BBC's US partner CBS.
While New York does not have the death penalty, he faces four federal charges, including murder and stalking, which could make him eligible for the punishment. He also faces multiple state charges.
He is expected to be arraigned on those state charges in New York on Monday. Mr Mangione faces 11 counts, including murder in the first degree and murder as a crime of terrorism.
An attack on a house in central Gaza killed at least 13 people, according to Gaza's civil defence agency
At least 28 people, including children, have died in a wave of Israeli military strikes throughout the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza's civil defence agency.
A school sheltering displaced families was among the facilities struck, killing eight people including four children over the weekend, the agency said.
It comes as the UN issues a plea for Israel to cease its attacks in the vicinity of a hospital in Gaza's north.
The Israeli military claimed a Hamas command centre was inside the compound of the Musa bin Nusair school in Gaza City, and has not commented on reports of attacks by the hospital.
"Hamas systematically violates international law," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on social media, adding that Israel's response would be to "act with force and determination against the terrorist organizations".
Gaza's civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told the AFP news agency that the school had been repurposed as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war.
One displaced man who had been staying at the school, Abu, told BBC Arabic that the attack came while he was asleep.
"We were sleeping peacefully, then suddenly we woke up to the sound of a very powerful explosion," he said.
Another man Mahmoud said he was asleep in a tent in the schoolyard when the attack took place.
"Stones and shrapnel were flying, the school's walls fell on our heads," he told BBC Arabic.
On Sunday, Pope Francis condemned the Israeli attacks on Gaza for a second day in a row.
He expressed pain thinking "of such cruelty, to the machine-gunning of children, to the bombing of schools and hospitals".
The director of the Kamal Adwan hospital, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, said its generators had been hit and claimed the Israeli army was targeting the fuel tank.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, issued a plea to the IDF to cease attacks in the vicinity of the hospital.
Saturday night's reports of "bombardment near Kamal Adwan Hospital and order to evacuate the hospital are deeply worrisome," he said in a statement on social media.
"We call for an immediate ceasefire in the vicinity of the hospital and to protect the patients and health workers."
The hospital's director also released a statement that said Israeli forces were treating the hospital "as if we were a military installation".
"Anyone who steps outside the hospital is at risk of being targeted," Dr Hussam Abu Safiya said.
He added that relocating the operations of the hospital would jeopardise the patients, and called for health staff "be allowed to operate without the threat of evacuation".
Israel has not commented on the reports of an evacuation order.
More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed during the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas, according to figures from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
The war began when Hamas-led gunmen carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
A local fire brigade has paid tribute to a nine-year-old killed in an attack on a German Christmas market.
André Gleißner died after a car drove into a crowd of shoppers at the market in Magdeburg on Friday evening, according to the Schöppenstedt fire department.
In a statement they said he was a member of the children's fire brigade in Warle, which is about an hour's drive from Magdeburg.
Four women, aged 45, 52, 67 and 75, also died in the attack. Authorities are holding a suspect in pre-trial detention on counts of murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm.
People have been leaving floral tributes for the victims of Friday's attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany
The Saudi authorities, I am told, are currently working flat out to collate everything they have on the Magdeburg market suspect, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, and to share it with Germany's ongoing investigation "in every way possible".
Inside the imposing sand coloured and fortress-like walls of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh there is a perhaps justifiable sense of pique.
The ministry previously warned the German government about al-Abdulmohsen's extremist views.
It sent four so-called "Notes Verbal", three of them to Germany's intelligence agencies and one to the foreign ministry in Berlin. There was, the Saudis say, no response.
Coming from a country where Islam is the only religion permitted to be practiced in public, al-Abdulmohsen was a very unusual citizen.
He had turned his back on Islam, making himself a heretic in the eyes of many.
Born in the Saudi date palm oasis town of Hofuf in 1974, little is known about his early life before he decided to leave Saudi Arabia and move to Europe aged 32.
Active on social media, on his Twitter (later X) account he labels himself as both a psychiatrist and founder of Saudi rights movement, together with the tag @SaudiExMuslims.
He founded a website aimed at helping Saudi women flee their country to Europe.
The Saudis say he was a people trafficker and the Ministry of Interior's investigators, the Mabaatheth, are said to have an extensive file on him.
There have been reports in recent years of dissident Saudis coming under hostile surveillance from Saudi government agents, in Canada, the US and in Germany.
There is no question that the German authorities, both federal and state, have made some serious errors of omission in the case of al-Abdulmohsen.
Whatever their reasons for not responding, as the Saudis claim, to the repeated warnings about his extremism, he was clearly a danger to his adopted host country.
There is also, separately, the failure to close off, or at least guard, the emergency access route to Magdeburg Alter Markt that allowed him to allegedly drive his BMW into the crowds.
German authorities have defended the market's layout and said an investigation into the suspect's past is ongoing.
But a complicating factor here is that Saudi Arabia, although considered a friend and ally of the West, has a poor human rights record.
Until June 2018 Saudi women were forbidden to drive and even those women who publicly called for that ban to be lifted before then have been persecuted and imprisoned.
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, still only in his 30s, just, is immensely popular in his own country.
Reuters
The Saudi crown prince pictured in Riyadh during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in October
While Western leaders largely distanced themselves from him after his alleged involvement in the grisly murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which the crown prince denies, at home his star is still in the ascendant.
Under his de-facto rule, Saudi public life has transformed for the better, with men and women allowed to associate freely, and cinemas reopening, along with big, spectacular sports and entertainment events, even gigs performed by Western artists like David Guetta and the Black Eyed Peas.
But there is a paradox here.
While Saudi public life has flourished there has been a simultaneous crackdown on anything that even hints at more political or religious freedom.
Harsh prison sentences of 10 years or more have been handed down for simple tweets.
No-one is permitted to even question the way the country is run.
It is against this backdrop that Germany appears to have dropped the ball with Taleb al-Abdulmohsen.
Cyclone Chido has killed 94 people in Mozambique since it made landfallin the east African country last week, local authorities have said.
The country's National Institute of Risk and Disaster Management (INGD) said 768 people were injured and more than 622,000 people affected by the natural disaster in some capacity.
Chido hit Mozambique on 15 December with winds of 260 km/h (160mph) and 250mm of rainfall in the first 24 hours.
The same cyclone had first wreaked havoc in the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, before moving on to Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
In Mozambique, the storm struck northern provinces that are regularly battered by cyclones. It first reached Cabo Delgado, then travelled further inland to Niassa and Nampula.
The country's INGD said the cyclone impacted the education and health sector. More than 109,793 students were affected, with school infrastructure severely damaged.
Some 52 sanitary units were damaged, the INGD said, which further risks access to essential health services. This is exacerbated further in areas where access to healthcare facilities were already limited before the cyclone.
Daniel Chapo, leader of Mozambique's ruling party, told local media the government is mobilising support on "all levels" in response to the cyclone.
Speaking during a visit to Cabo Delgado on Sunday, one of the most badly affected areas, Chapo said the government is working alongside the INGD to ensure those affected in the provinces of Mecúfi, Nampula, Memba and Niassa can rebuild.
In Mayotte, Chido was the worst storm to hit the archipelago in 90 years, leaving tens of thousands of people reeling from the catastrophe.
The interior ministry in its latest update confirmed 35 people had died.
Mayotte's prefect previously told local media the death toll could rise significantly once the damage was fully assessed, warning it would "definitely be several hundred" and could reach thousands.
More than 1,300 officers were deployed to support the local population.
One week on, many residents still lack basic necessities, while running water is making a gradual return to the territory's capital. The ministry has advised people to boil water for three minutes before consuming it.
Around 100 tonnes of equipment are being delivered each day, the ministry said, as an air bridge was built between Mayotte, Reunion and mainland France.
In a statement on Friday, interior minister Bruno Retailleau said 80 tonnes of food and 50 tonnes of water had been distributed across Mayotte that day.
Tropical cyclones are characterised by very high wind speeds, heavy rainfall, and storm surges, which are short-term rises to sea-levels. This often causes widespread damage and flooding.
The cyclone, the INGD said, "highlights once again, the vulnerability of social infrastructures to climate change and the need for resilient planning to mitigate future impacts".
Assessing the exact influence of climate change on individual tropical cyclones can be challenging due to the complexity of these storm systems. But rising temperatures do affect these storms in measurable ways.
The UN's climate body, the IPCC, previously said there is "high confidence" that humans have contributed to increases in precipitation associated with tropical cyclones, and "medium confidence" that humans have contributed to the higher probability of a tropical cyclone being more intense.
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.
Authorities are still trying to understand why the suspect carried out the deadly attack
Magdeburg's Christmas market is a sad sight. This should have been the busiest weekend of the season, but the whole area has been cordoned off and all the stands are shut.
Police are the only people walking around the boarded-up mulled wine and gingerbread stalls.
On the pavement, red candles flicker, tributes laid for the victims.
Lukas, a truck driver, told me he felt compelled to come to pay his respects. "I wasn't there when it happened," he told me.
"But I work here in Magdeburg. I'm here every day. I've driven by here a thousand times."
"It's a tragedy for everyone here in Magdeburg. The perpetrator should be punished."
"We can only hope that the victims and their families find the strength to deal with it."
There is sorrow here – but there is anger too.
Many people here see this attack as a terrible lapse in security. That is a claim the authorities reject, although they have admitted the attacker entered the market using a route planned for emergency responders.
Michael, who also came to pay tributes to the victims, said "there should've been better security".
"We should have been prepared better but that was not done properly."
Standing at the security cordon, I heard a group of locals complaining loudly about Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz and regional politicians.
"They are wasting our tax money, they are just looking out for themselves. They are not interested in us. We just hear empty promises," one man said.
"They are turning what happened here around and want to put the blame on the opposition and use it for their election campaign," he said.
On Saturday evening, around the same time as the square in front of Magdeburg's Gothic cathedral was filled with mourners watching a memorial service, a demonstration took place nearby.
Protesters held a banner that read "Remigration now!" – a concept popular among the far-right – and shouted "those who do not love Germany should leave Germany".
Suspect in German market attack appears in court as anger grows over security lapses
It is not clear yet what impact this attack may have on Germany's upcoming election.
Germany has been hit by a number of deadly Islamist attacks in the past, but investigators said the evidence they have gathered so far suggests a different picture in this case.
Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the suspect appears to have been "Islamophobic".
The suspect, Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, is from Saudi Arabia, and his social media posts suggest he had been critical of Islam.
He also expressed sympathy on social media for Germany's far-right political party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), re-tweeting posts from the party's leader and a far-right activist.
Food costs have surged in Nigeria over the last 18 months
The number of dead from a crowd crush in the south-east town of Okija in Nigeria has risen to 22, police say.
It is the third case this week of people being crushed to death at events where free food was being distributed.
The fatalities in Okija occurred at a charity event on Saturday, when residents rushed to collect Christmas donations, including rice and vegetable oil.
On the same day, a similar tragedy at a Catholic church in the capital city Abuja killed 10 people, while 35 children died during a carnival event on Wednesday in the city of Ibadan.
Police have now warned organisers to notify authorities before holding charity events in order to prevent such loss of life.
Toyin Abdul Kadri, who witnessed the crush at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Abuja, told AFP news agency the attendees "forced the gates and forced their selves inside".
The event involved "vulnerable and elderly individuals" and four children were killed, the police said.
In a social media post about the crushes, Amnesty International Nigeria wrote: "President Bola Tinubu's government must urgently prioritise addressing widespread hunger, higher unemployment and the rapidly falling standard of living."
Food and transportation costs have more than tripled in Nigeria in the last 18 months.
The global bout of inflation has been exacerbated by some of the policies of the government – designed to strengthen the economy in the long-term – such as ending a fuel subsidy.
In a statement on the deadly crushes, President Bola Tinubu said: "In a season of joy and celebration, we grieve with fellow citizens mourning the painful losses of their loved ones. Our prayers of divine comfort and healing are with them."
He urged state governments and the police to enforce strict crowd control measures, and has cancelled all his official engagements in honour of the victims.
He also noted the similarities between the incidents, including one earlier this week in the south-west city of Ibadan.
Thousands of people had turned up on the promise of free food.
Residents in Bashorun, a suburb of Ibadan, told the BBC the crowd soon exceeded 5,000 with many attempting to force their way through the school gate. Parents are said to have tried to scale the fence surrounding the compound to gain access.
Police spokesperson Olumuyiwa Adejobi said the three "tragic" incidents highlight the "urgent need for a more structured and effective approach to delivering aid to vulnerable communities and members of the public in general".
Oleksandr Matsievsky is now an iconic figure in Ukraine after his execution by Russian forces
Ukrainian sniper Oleksandr Matsievsky was captured by Russians in the first year of the full-scale invasion. Later, a video emerged showing him smoking his last cigarette in a forest, apparently next to a grave he had been forced to dig.
"Glory to Ukraine!" he says to his captors. Moments later, shots ring out and he falls dead.
His execution is one of many.
In October this year, nine captured Ukrainian soldiers were reportedly shot dead by Russian forces in Kursk region. Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating the case including a photo showing half-naked bodies lying on the ground. This photo was enough for one of the victims, drone operator Ruslan Holubenko, to be identified by his parents.
"I recognised him by his underwear," his distraught mother told local broadcaster Suspilne Chernihiv. "I bought it for him before a trip to the sea. I also knew that his shoulder had been shot through. You could see that in the picture."
The list of executions goes on. Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating reports of beheadings and a sword being used to kill a Ukrainian soldier with his hands tied behind his back.
In another instance, a video showed 16 Ukrainian soldiers apparently being lined up and then mowed down with automatic gunfire after emerging from a woods to surrender.
Getty Images
Russia and Ukraine have released some prisoners, including this Ukrainian pictured after his release in September 2024
Some of the executions were filmed by Russian forces themselves, while others were observed by Ukrainian drones hovering above.
The killings captured on such videos usually take place in woods or fields lacking distinctive features, which makes confirming their exact location difficult. BBC Verify, however, has been able to confirm in several cases - such as one beheading - that the victims wear Ukrainian uniforms and that the videos are recent.
Rising numbers
The Ukrainian prosecution service says that at least 147 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been executed by Russian forces since the start of the full-scale invasion, 127 of them this year.
"The upward trend is very clear, very obvious," says Yuri Belousov, the head of the War Department at the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office.
"Executions became systemic from November last year and have continued throughout all of this year. Sadly, their number has been particularly on the rise this summer and autumn. This tells us that they are not isolated cases. They are happening across vast areas and they have clear signs of being part of a policy - there is evidence that instructions to this effect are being issued."
International humanitarian law - particularly the Third Geneva Convention - offers protection to prisoners of war, and executing them is a war crime.
Despite this, Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Russia's Chechnya, briefly ordered his commanders involved in the Ukraine war "to take no prisoners".
Getty Images
Ukrainians regularly rally across the country in support of their troops in Russian captivity
Impunity
Rachel Denber, Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch, says there is no shortage of evidence supporting allegations of Ukrainian prisoners of war being executed by Russian troops. According to her, impunity plays a key part, and the Russian army has some serious questions to answer.
"What instructions do these units have, either formally or informally from their commanders? Are their commanders being quite clear about what the Geneva Conventions say about the treatment of prisoners of war? What are Russian military commanders telling their units about their conduct? What steps is the chain of command taking to investigate these instances? And if higher ups are not investigating, or not taking steps to prevent that conduct, are they aware that they too are criminally liable and can be held accountable?" she asks.
So far, there has been nothing to suggest that Russia is formally investigating claims that its forces have been executing Ukrainian prisoners of war. Even mentioning similar allegations is punishable by lengthy prison sentences in Russia.
According to Vladimir Putin, Russian forces have "always" treated Ukrainian prisoners of war "strictly in line with international legal documents and international conventions".
Ukrainian forces have also been accused of executing Russian prisoners of war, but the number of such claims has been much smaller.
Yuri Belousov says that the Ukrainian prosecution service treats such accusations "very seriously" and is investigating them - but so far no one has been charged.
According to Human Rights Watch, since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022 the Russian forces have committed "a litany of violations, including those which should be investigated as war crimes or crimes against humanity".
The Russian army's record of abuses is such that some Ukrainian soldiers prefer death to capture.
"He told me: Mum, I'll never surrender, never. Forgive me, I know you'll cry, but I don't want to be tortured," Ruslan Holubenko's mother says. Her son is still officially classed as missing in action, and she hopes against hope.
"I'll do everything that's possible and impossible to get my child back. I keep looking at this photo. Maybe he is just unconscious? I want to believe, I don't want to think that he's gone."
In Damascus, members of Assad's Alawite sect now fear reprisals
Driving into Mezzeh 86, a working-class neighbourhood in the west of Damascus, we are waved through a checkpoint manned by fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Buildings are rundown and in need of repairs.
This area is dominated by people from Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam whose members make up one of Syria's biggest religious minorities.
Alawites controlled power in the predominantly Sunni Muslim country for the 50 years of the Assad family's rule, holding top positions in the government, military and intelligence services.
Now, many from the community fear reprisals following the overthrow of the Assad regime by rebels led by HTS, a Sunni Islamist group that was once al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.
EPA
Bashar al-Assad was overthrown after 24 years in power
Dozens of Alawites who we had contacted by phone had refused to speak to us, with many saying they were scared.
In Mezzeh 86, the presence of HTS fighters at a checkpoint did not appear to be a source of anxiety.
Many Alawites did come up and speak with us - keen to distance themselves from Assad's regime.
"During the Assad regime, the stereotype about the Alawites is that they got all the work opportunities and that they are wealthy. But, in fact, most Alawites are poor and you'll only find one among a thousand who is rich," said Mohammad Shaheen, a 26-year-old pharmacy student.
"Even when HTS went to Alawite villages near the coast, they found all villages were poor. Only the Assad family amassed wealth," he added, referring to the Alawite heartland in the country's west.
Hasan Dawood, a shopkeeper, chimed in: "We were slaves for him - drivers, cooks and cleaners."
There's also a sense of betrayal.
"Bashar was a traitor. And the way he fled was cowardly. He should have at least addressed people and told us what was happening. He left without a word, which made the situation chaotic," said Mohammad.
But people from the Alawite community, and indeed from this neighbourhood, did serve in Assad's brutal security forces. Do they fear reprisals against them, we asked.
"Those who were in the military and did bad things have fled. No-one knows where they are. They are afraid of revenge," said Thaier Shaheen, a construction worker.
"But people who don't have blood on their hands, they are not scared, and have stayed back."
There have been reports of a few reprisal killings in parts of the country, but so far there is no evidence to suggest they were carried out by HTS.
"Until now, we are OK. We are talking to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and they are respectful. But there are people who aren't from HTS but pretend to be them who are making threats. They want our society to fail and they are the ones we are scared of," said Mohammad.
After taking control of Damascus, HTS and its allies said those from the deposed regime who had been involved in torture and killings would be held to account, although it is unclear so far what form that justice will take.
HTS also said that the rights and freedoms of religious and ethnic minorities would be protected.
The group has a jihadist past which it has distanced itself from. But it has an Islamist present, and many are asking what that will mean for Syria's plural society.
Yogita Limaye
"We don't want Syria to become another Afghanistan" - Youssef Sabbagh
"I'm so happy because the Assad regime fell. This is like a dream come true. No-one wants to live under dictatorship. But there is concern. I have to be realistic," said Youssef Sabbagh, a Christian lawyer.
"HTS are here now, and they are an Islamic militia. That's what they are. I wish, I pray they will be a modern Islamic militia."
"I speak not just as a Christian, a lot of Syrians, Muslims and everyone, we don't want Syria to become another Afghanistan, we don't want to become a new Libya. We have already suffered a lot."
Syria's Christian community is one of the oldest in the world, with the country home to some renowned holy sites.
When the uprising against Assad began in 2011, Christians were initially cautious about taking sides, but eventually members from the community fought on both sides of the conflict.
In the past week, the Archbishop of Homs, Jacques Murad, told the BBC there had already been three meetings with HTS, and they had been able to express their views and concerns honestly.
So far, the signs are re-assuring for many Christians.
Bars and restaurants serving alcohol are open in the Christian quarter of Old Damascus and in other parts of the city. Christmas decorations are also up in many places.
At a restaurant in the Old City, we met lawyer Ouday al-Khayat, who is a Shia Muslim.
"There's no doubt that there's anticipation and anxiety. The signs that come from HTS are good, but we must wait and watch," he said.
"It's not possible to know the opinions of all Shia but there is a concern about a scenario similar to Libya or Iraq. I believe, though, that Syria is different. Syrian society has been diverse for a very long time."
Yogita Limaye
"We are prepared to stay [protesting] and demand our rights" - Wajiha al-Hajjar
We drove around 110km (70 miles) south-east of Damascus, through black volcanic hills, to the city of Suweida, which is home to most of Syria's Druze population.
The Druze faith is another offshoot of Shia Islam, but has its own unique identity and beliefs.
Many Druze were loyal to the Assad regime, who they believed would protect minorities.
But opposition grew steadily during the war, and there were frequent protests in recent years.
The latest started in Suweida's central square in August 2023 and continued until the day the regime fell.
Activist Wajiha al-Hajjar believes that the protests were not brutally cracked down on like others in Syria, because Assad wanted to show the world and his foreign allies that he was protecting minorities.
"They did try to suppress our protest but in a different way - not through weapons or shelling, but by depriving us of passports and civil rights, and access to official documents. It became difficult to leave Suweida and a kind of siege was imposed," she said.
Hundreds still gather at the square every day. When we visited, there was an air of celebration. Songs were blaring on a loudspeaker, and young girls and boys were doing a gymnastics performance, their families clapping and cheering for them.
"We are celebrating the fall of the regime, but this gathering is also a show of strength. In the event that there is an extreme regime with extreme laws, we are prepared to stay in this square and demand our rights and demand equality," Wajiha said.
Suweida had a quasi-autonomous status under Assad, and the Druze want that to continue.
It is just one example of the diversity and complexity of Syrian society, and the challenges facing the country's new government.
Additional reporting by Aamir Peerzada, Leen Al-Saadi and Sanjay Ganguly
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.
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.
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