Trump and Harris shaking hands ahead of a presidential debate last year
US Vice-President Kamala Harris will on Monday preside over the official certification in Congress of the result of November's presidential election - a contest that she lost to Donald Trump.
The date also marks the fourth anniversary of a riot at the US Capitol, when Trump's supporters tried to thwart the certification of Democratic President Joe Biden's election victory in 2020. Normally the occasion is a mere formality.
Heavy security is in place in Washington DC, and Biden has vowed there will be no repeat of the violence on 6 January 2021 - which led to several deaths.
As lawmakers meet in Washington DC, heavy snow forecast for the American capital could prove disruptive.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has vowed to go ahead with the certification at 13:00 EST (18:00 GMT) in spite of the weather, telling Fox News: "Whether we're in a blizzard or not, we're going to be in that chamber making sure this is done."
As the current vice-president, Harris is required by the US Constitution to officially preside over the certification of the result, after Trump beat her in the nationwide poll on 5 November.
Trump won all seven of the country's swing states, helping him to victory in the electoral college, the mechanism that decides who takes the presidency. It will be Harris's job on Monday to read out the number of electoral college votes won by each candidate.
Trump's second term will begin after he is inaugurated on 20 January. For the first time since 2017, the president's party will also enjoy majorities in both chambers of Congress, albeit slender ones.
Trump's win marked a stunning political comeback from his electoral defeat in 2020, and a criminal conviction in 2024 - a first for a current or former US president.
Amid the dramatic recent presidential campaign, Trump also survived a bullet grazing his ear when a gunman opened fire at one of his rallies in Pennsylvania.
While away from the White House, he has faced a slew of legal cases against him - including over his attempts to overturn the 2020 result, which he continues to dispute.
Following his defeat that year, Trump and his allies made baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud - claiming the election had been stolen from them.
In a speech in Washington DC on certification day, 6 January 2021, Trump told a crowd to "fight like hell" but also asked them to "peacefully" make their voices heard.
He also attempted to pressurise his own vice-president, Mike Pence, to reject the election result - a call that Pence rejected.
Rioters went on to smash through barricades and ransack the Capitol building before Trump ultimately intervened by telling them to go home. Several deaths were blamed on the violence.
Trump's pledges after returning to office include pardoning people convicted of offences over the attack. He says many of them are "wrongfully imprisoned", though has acknowledged that "a couple of them, probably they got out of control".
Conversely, Biden has called on Americans never to forget what happened.
"We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it," Biden wrote in the Washington Post over the weekend.
For Trump's Republican Party, the new Senate Majority Leader John Thune has signalled a desire to move on, telling the BBC's US partner CBS News: "You can't be looking in the rearview mirror."
The government has unveiled a new pledge to cut the list of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment in England by nearly half a million over the next year.
The plan, to be announced on Monday, will expand access to Community Diagnostic Centres and surgical hubs, alongside reforms designed to enhance patient choice and tackle inefficiencies.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it would create millions more appointments and "deliver on our promise to end the backlogs".
The British Medical Association (BMA) has welcomed the plan but was sceptical about whether it could be delivered.
The government has billed the plan as an important milestone in a broader effort to reduce the number of people enduring long waits for appointments, procedures and surgeries.
Sir Keir added: "Greater choice and convenience for patients. Staff once again able to give the standard of care they desperately want to."
A key Labour election pledge, now included in the government's six main priorities, is for 92% of patients to begin treatment or be given the all-clear within 18 weeks by the end of this Parliament.
This has been an official NHS target for some time, but has not been met since 2015. Currently, only 59% of patients meet the 18-week target, with three million people waiting longer.
The latest promise is to reach 65% by March 2026, which, according to the government, would reduce the backlog by more than 450,000.
A network of Community Diagnostic Centres, which provide appointments such as scans and endoscopies in local neighbourhoods, will extend their opening hours to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
The aim is to get patients treated more quickly, closer to home and without relying on hospitals. Officials say these centres will provide up to half a million extra appointments each year.
GPs will also be able, where appropriate, to refer patients directly to these centres without requiring a prior consultation with a senior doctor.
More surgical hubs will be created to focus on common, less complex procedures, such as cataract surgeries and some orthopaedic work. These hubs are ring-fenced from other parts of the hospital to ensure operating theatre time is not lost if there are emergency cases.
The new plan says that one million unnecessary appointments per year will be freed up for patients who need them. This will be made possible by abolishing automatic review appointments after treatment and only offering them to patients who request them.
Officials say the extra appointments created will be in addition to what was promised by Labour before the election. That pledge was for 40,000 more appointments per week, or two million a year, to be created within the first year.
This compares with a normal annual total of more than 100 million appointments. Ministers have confirmed that work on this pledge began soon after the election.
Plans for patients to use the NHS App to monitor and book consultations and test results, with greater control over where they are treated, have already been announced. The goal is to make the system more efficient and reduce the number of missed appointments.
NHS England Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard said: "The radical reforms in this plan will not only allow us to deliver millions more tests, appointments, and operations, but do things differently too – boosting convenience and putting more power in the hands of patients, especially through the NHS app."
The overall waiting list for NHS appointments, procedures, and surgeries in England stands at just under 7.5 million.
No target level has been set in the plan, but ministers say that the waiting list will inevitably fall as measures to meet the 18-week benchmark take effect.
The funding for NHS England has been set for the upcoming year, but the additional money needed to support extra activity in hospitals will be outlined in the government's spending review later this year.
Professor Phil Banfield, chair of the BMA Council, expressed doubt over whether the plan could be delivered.
"Doctors have been just as frustrated as their patients by the lack of facilities to deliver care and want to bring waiting lists down," he said.
"But the reality is that without the workforce to meet constantly rising demand, we will not see the progress we all hope for."
Ed Argar, Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, said it was the Conservatives who "revolutionised" the diagnostic process by rolling out 160 Community Diagnostic Centres.
He said the government's plan is "another announcement that makes clear after 14 years in opposition, the Labour Party have no new ideas of their own for the NHS – despite promising change".
"Patients cannot wait for more dither and delay from the government who promised so much, and so far have delivered so little," he said.
Liberal Democrat MP and health spokesperson Helen Morgan said the plan for waiting lists could risk "putting hip replacements over heart attacks", unless the "crises" in emergency and social care were addressed.
Linda De Sousa Abreu has been jailed for 15 months
A former HMP Wandsworth prison officer who was filmed having sex with an inmate has been jailed for 15 months.
Linda De Sousa Abreu was identified by senior prison staff after the clip was shared online and quickly went viral.
Judge Martin Edmunds KC said Abreu compromised her role as a prison officer, undermined discipline in the prison and put officers at increased risk.
Abreu, who was arrested at Heathrow Airport before attempting to board a flight to Madrid with her father, previously pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office.
The court was also told that a further recording of her performing a sex act with the same inmate was found on her prison-issue body-worn camera - and Abreu had admitted to having sex with that prisoner on an additional occasion.
The judge said the video which went viral was therefore not isolated and was part of repeated behaviour.
Isleworth Crown Court heard a partial written statement from the governor of Wandsworth Prison, Andrew Davy, in which he said Abreu's actions had taken "less than a day" to undo the many years of work on behalf of female staff in all-male prisons.
He said many female staff at Wandsworth report an increase in being "hit-on" by prisoners and are now "considered fair game".
Andrew McIntyre was involved in the most "sinister aspect" of the July disturbances, the court was told
A taxi driver whose social media posts were a "catalyst" for riots which broke out after three girls were stabbed at a dance class in Southport has been jailed seven and a half years.
Andrew McIntyre, 39, set up a Telegram channel called "Southport Wake Up" in the immediate aftermath of the knife attack in the Merseyside town on 29 July last year, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, said the case involved a "sinister aspect" of violence which took place in parts of the UK last summer.
McIntyre, of Rufford, near Ormskirk, Lancashire, had admitted encouraging violent disorder and possession of a knife in an earlier hearing.
The Southport Wake Up channel was identified by the group Hope Not Hate as a "catalyst for and origin of a series of posts" concerning incidents of violence, Mr Gibson said.
The court heard McIntyre shared content from a site called Tommy Robinson/Britain First/For Britain about a protest in Southport on 30 July.
He also posted a map after adding: "Mosque at the top of Hart St."
In a later post he wrote: "Rise Up English Lads. 8pm tomorrow St Luke's Rd Southport."
Hours before violence broke out in Southport on 30 July he posted a "clear threat to police", writing: "Message to All...Stand in our way, even if you're just doing your job...prepare to fall."
The day after the disorder, McIntyre posted: "Well done last night lads, to all you heavy hitters.
"Are you ready for Round 2???... Liverpool Mosque, West Derby Road, Friday 8pm."
Mein Kampf
McIntyre was working as a taxi driver when he was intercepted and arrested by police in Liverpool on 8 August, Mr Gibson said.
A knife was found hidden in the boot of his car and when his home was searched officers found weapons and a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf, the court heard.
The defendant followed proceedings on a videolink from HMP Liverpool, where he has been remanded in custody, while his parents looked on from the public gallery of the courtroom.
Julian Nutter, defending, said: "His parents are horrified that he is in this predicament.
"He is a man of previous good character and has never come to the attention of the police before."
Among character references were letters to Judge Neil Flewitt KC from McIntyre's parents and a family friend, the court heard.
Mr Nutter said: "Those who have spoken on his behalf describe somebody who is very different from what we have heard from the prosecution about him."
Treasury Minister Tulip Siddiq has referred herself to the PM's standards adviser after controversy over her links to her aunt's political movement in Bangladesh.
It comes after the minister was named last month in an investigation into claims her family embezzled infrastructure funding in the country.
Siddiq had faced growing calls for an investigation after reports in recent days she had lived in London properties linked to allies of her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted as Bangladeshi prime minister in August.
In her letter to Sir Laurie Magnus, who polices standards among government ministers, she said: "I am clear that I have done nothing wrong."
In the letter sent on Monday, she wrote: "In recent weeks I have been the subject of media reporting, much of it inaccurate, about my financial affairs and my family's links to the former government of Bangladesh."
She said she had done nothing wrong, adding: "However, for the avoidance of doubt, I would like you to independently establish the facts about these matters.
"I will obviously ensure you have all the information you need to do this."
Sir Laurie, appointed in 2022, is responsible for advising Sir Keir Starmer on whether ministers are complying with government conduct rules.
These include stipulations about registering and declaring their financial interests, as well as broader guidelines on how they should behave as holders of public office.
News of her request was revealed by Sir Keir during a press conference on healthcare reform earlier.
The prime minister told reporters he had confidence in his minister, who as Economic Secretary to the Treasury is responsible for tackling economic crime, money laundering and illicit finance.
He added she had "acted entirely properly" by referring herself for investigation.
It is understood Siddiq has cancelled plans to join a government delegation to China this week, with a Labour source adding she wanted to be in the UK so she is "available to assist" Sir Laurie.
Bangladesh probe
The decision to write to the standards adviser comes after reports she had lived in properties linked to political supporters of her aunt's government.
Last month Siddiq was named in an investigation into claims Sheikh Hasina and her family embezzled up to £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh.
The investigation is based on a series of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a senior political opponent of Hasina.
Court documents seen by the BBC show Hajjaj has accused Siddiq of helping to broker a deal with Russia in 2013 that overinflated the price of a new nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.
It is claimed that the deal inflated the price of the plant by £1bn, according to the documents - 30% of which was allegedly distributed to Siddiq and other family members via a complex network of banks and overseas companies.
A source close to Siddiq has previously described the allegations as "trumped up" and designed to damage her aunt, while Downing Street has said Siddiq denies any involvement in the claims accusing her of involvement in embezzlement.
Siddiq was elected MP for Hampstead and Highgate in 2015, the north London constituency neighbouring Sir Keir's seat of Holborn and St Pancras.
Hasina, who was in charge of Bangladesh for more than 20 years, was seen as an autocrat whose government ruthlessly clamped down on dissent.
Since fleeing the country Hasina has been accused of multiple crimes by the new Bangladeshi government.
Conservative shadow minister Matt Vickers said there were "clear questions" for Ms Siddiq to answer about allegations made about her.
"She must be held to the same standards as other ministers in his government, indications so far show that that may not be the case," he added.
Exactly 10 years after the jihadist gun-attack that killed most of its editorial staff, France's Charlie Hebdo has put out a special issue to show its cause is still kicking.
Things changed for France on 7 January 2015, marking in bloodshed the end of all wilful naivety about the threat of militant Islamism.
Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi burst into a meeting at the Paris office of the satirical weekly, murdering its star cartoonists Cabu, Wolinski, Charb and Tignous.
Overall, 12 people were killed by the brothers, including a Muslim policeman on duty outside. Two days later they were cornered and shot dead by police at a sign-making business near Charles-de-Gaulle airport.
That same day saw Amedy Coulibaly – a one-time prison associate of Cherif – kill four Jews in a synchronised hostage-taking at a supermarket in eastern Paris. Coulibaly – who was then shot dead by police – had killed a policewoman the day before.
A decade on, Charlie Hebdo continues to bring out a weekly edition and has a circulation (print and online combined) of around 50,000.
It does so from an office whose whereabouts are kept secret, and with staff who are protected by bodyguards.
But in an editorial in Tuesday's memorial edition, the paper's main shareholder said its spirit of ribald anti-religious irreverence was still very much alive.
"The desire to laugh will never disappear," said Laurent Saurisseau – also known as Riss – a cartoonist who survived the 7 January attack with a bullet in the shoulder.
"Satire has one virtue that has got us through these tragic years – optimism. If people want to laugh, it is because they want to live.
"Laughter, irony and caricature are all manifestations of optimism," he wrote.
Also in the 32-page special are the 40 winning entries in a cartoon competition on the theme of "Laughing at God".
One contains the image of a cartoonist asking himself: "Is it okay to draw a picture of a man drawing a picture of a man drawing a picture of Muhammed?"
The Charlie Hebdo and Hypercacher attacks appear now as the overture to a grim and deadly period in modern France, during which – for a time – fear of jihadist terrorism became part of daily life.
In November 2015, there followed gun attacks at the Bataclan theatre and nearby bars in Paris. In the following July, 86 people were killed on the promenade in Nice.
Some 300 French people have died in Islamist attacks in the last decade.
Today the frequency has fallen sharply, and the defeat of the Islamic State group means there is no longer a support base in the Middle East.
But the killer individual, self-radicalised over the Internet, remains a constant threat in France as elsewhere.
The original pretext for the Charlie Hebdo murders – caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad – are now strictly off-limits to publications everywhere.
In 2020, a French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded outside his school by a jihadist after he showed one of the Charlie cartoons in a discussion over freedom of speech.
And this week the trial opens in Paris of a Pakistani man who – a short time before Paty's murder – seriously injured two people with a butcher's cleaver at the Paris offices he thought were still being used by Charlie-Hebdo (in fact they had long since moved).
So as with every anniversary since 2015, the question once again being asked in France is: what - if anything - has changed? And what - if anything - survives of the great outpouring of international support, whose clarion call in the days after the murders was Je suis Charlie?
That was when a march of two million people through the centre of Paris was joined by heads of state and government from countries all over the world at the invitation of then President François Hollande.
Today, pessimists say the battle is over and lost. The chances of a humorous newspaper ever taking up the cudgel against Islam – in the way that Charlie Hebdo used regularly and scabrously to do against Christianity and Judaism – are zero.
Worse, for these people, is that parts of the political left in France are also now clearly distancing themselves from Charlie Hebdo, accusing it of becoming overly anti-Islam and adopting positions from the far-right.
Jean-Luc Melenchon, who leads the France Unbowed party, has accused the weekly of being a "bag-carrier for (right-wing magazine) Valeurs Actuels", and the Greens' Sandrine Rousseau said Charlie Hebdo was "misogynistic and at times racist".
This has in turn led to accusations aimed at the far-left that it has betrayed the free-speech spirit of Je suis Charlie in order to curry electoral support among French Muslims.
But speaking in the run-up to the anniversary, Riss – who counted the dead among his greatest friends and says he does not go through a day without reliving the moment of the attack – refused to renounce hope.
"I think [the Charlie spirit] is anchored more deeply in society than one might think. When you talk to people, you can see it's very much alive. It's a mistake to think it's all disappeared.
Venomous snakes bite millions of people worldwide each year, killing at least 120,000. Many of them are poor people in rural areas of Africa without easy access to treatment.
An image taken from video and released last year by Consolata Missionaries shows Sister Simona Brambilla, 59, who on Monday became the first woman named by Pope Francis to lead a major Vatican department.
Sarkozy, now 69, was the president of France from 2007 to 2012
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has gone on trial in Paris, accused of taking millions of euros of illicit funds from the late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign.
In exchange, the prosecution alleges Sarkozy promised to help Gaddafi combat his reputation as a pariah with Western countries.
Sarkozy, 69, was the president of France from 2007 to 2012.
He has always denied the charges, saying they were brought against him by people with motivations to bring him down.
The investigation was opened in 2013, two years after Saif al-Islam, son of the then-Libyan leader, first accused Sarkozy of taking millions of his father's money for campaign funding.
The following year, Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine - who for a long time acted as a middleman between France and the Middle East - said he had written proof that Sarkozy's campaign bid was "abundantly" financed by Tripoli, and that the €50m (£43m) worth of payments continued after he became president.
Twelve other people - accused of devising the pact with Gaddafi - are standing trial along Sarkozy. They all deny the charges.
Since losing his re-election bid in 2012, Sarkozy has been targeted by several criminal investigations.
He also appealed against a February 2024 ruling which found him guilty of overspending on his 2012 re-election campaign, then hiring a PR firm to cover it up. He was handed a one-year sentence, of which six months were suspended.
In 2021, he was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge in 2014 and became the first former French president to get a custodial sentence. In December, the Paris appeals court ruled that he could serve his time at home wearing a tag instead of going to jail.
Sarkozy was not wearing the tag as he arrived in court in Paris on Monday morning.
However, that is only because the details of that sentence have yet to be worked out.
It is likely that in the course of this three-month trial over the so-called Libya connection, the former president will appear wearing the device.
The trial is set to continue until 10 April. If found guilty, Sarkozy faces up to 10 years in prison.
Activists have vowed to maintain pressure against the government until all missing persons are accounted for
Four young Kenyan men who went missing just before the Christmas holidays have been found alive, family members and rights groups say.
Kenya has been gripped by a wave of disappearances, with the state-funded rights group saying that over 80 people have been abducted in the last six months.
The abductions generally target government critics and are widely believed to be the work of security agents, although the government has not admitted responsibility.
They began in June last year during nationwide anti-tax protests, but they increased in December, when AI-generated photos of the president in a coffin were widely shared.
Those released on Monday include 24-year-old student Billy Mwangi in Embu, in the central Mount Kenya region.
Local MP Gitonga Mukunji told journalists that Mr Mwangi "was whipped and beaten while in a dark room. He is traumatised".
His father said he was not able to discuss what he had gone through and had been taken to hospital.
"He came home around eight in the morning. He walked by himself - his mother and I saw him. We thank everyone who has prayed and supported him," he told the Daily Nation news site.
Last week, Mr Mwangi's father broke down in court as he pleaded for his son to be released.
A relative of 22-year-old Peter Muteti, who was seized in the capital on 21 December, told the BBC that he had been reunited with the family but was disoriented and unable to speak about the ordeal.
Amnesty International Kenya welcomed the releases and urged "the State to free all abductees and hold those responsible accountable".
Two weeks ago the police denied responsibility for the abductions carried out by men in plain clothes across the country, some of which were captured on CCTV.
On Monday the police released an update acknowledging the freeing of the abducted men, saying they were in already contact with one who had presented himself at a police station.
The police said investigations into all cases of missing people were underway.
Rights groups and other Kenyans have linked the abductions to a shadowy intelligence and counter-terrorism unit of the security forces.
Amid the public uproar, President William Ruto said last month: "We are going to stop the abductions so that our youth can live peacefully and have discipline", while urging parents to take care of their children.
Until now, no-one had been freed since he spoke on 27 December, with activists planning protests on Monday to push the government to act.
Two other youths - Ronny Kiplangat and Bernard Kavuli – have also been released, their families told local media.
Mr Kavuli, a content creator, was seized on the outskirts of the city in December, while Mr Kiplangat is the brother of satirical cartoonist Kibet Bull, who is still missing.
Kibet Bull is known for his silhouette cartoon memes critical of the president. Two others were seized after posting AI-generated images of the president in a coffin.
Police said that Mr Kavuli had been assisting them with their investigations after he had presented himself to a police station at Moi's Bridge in western Kenya.
A statement said that they would reach out to the three others "and their families and give them all the necessary support as we seek further information to assist ongoing investigations".
The Law Society of Kenya has filed a legal case against the state, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of seven individuals abducted last month, including those who have now been released.
The situation continues to stoke fear across the country, with parents worried about the safety of their children and activists vowing to maintain pressure until all missing persons are accounted for.
Exactly 10 years after the jihadist gun-attack that killed most of its editorial staff, France's Charlie Hebdo has put out a special issue to show its cause is still kicking.
Things changed for France on 7 January 2015, marking in bloodshed the end of all wilful naivety about the threat of militant Islamism.
Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi burst into a meeting at the Paris office of the satirical weekly, murdering its star cartoonists Cabu, Wolinski, Charb and Tignous.
Overall, 12 people were killed by the brothers, including a Muslim policeman on duty outside. Two days later they were cornered and shot dead by police at a sign-making business near Charles-de-Gaulle airport.
That same day saw Amedy Coulibaly – a one-time prison associate of Cherif – kill four Jews in a synchronised hostage-taking at a supermarket in eastern Paris. Coulibaly – who was then shot dead by police – had killed a policewoman the day before.
A decade on, Charlie Hebdo continues to bring out a weekly edition and has a circulation (print and online combined) of around 50,000.
It does so from an office whose whereabouts are kept secret, and with staff who are protected by bodyguards.
But in an editorial in Tuesday's memorial edition, the paper's main shareholder said its spirit of ribald anti-religious irreverence was still very much alive.
"The desire to laugh will never disappear," said Laurent Saurisseau – also known as Riss – a cartoonist who survived the 7 January attack with a bullet in the shoulder.
"Satire has one virtue that has got us through these tragic years – optimism. If people want to laugh, it is because they want to live.
"Laughter, irony and caricature are all manifestations of optimism," he wrote.
Also in the 32-page special are the 40 winning entries in a cartoon competition on the theme of "Laughing at God".
One contains the image of a cartoonist asking himself: "Is it okay to draw a picture of a man drawing a picture of a man drawing a picture of Muhammed?"
The Charlie Hebdo and Hypercacher attacks appear now as the overture to a grim and deadly period in modern France, during which – for a time – fear of jihadist terrorism became part of daily life.
In November 2015, there followed gun attacks at the Bataclan theatre and nearby bars in Paris. In the following July, 86 people were killed on the promenade in Nice.
Some 300 French people have died in Islamist attacks in the last decade.
Today the frequency has fallen sharply, and the defeat of the Islamic State group means there is no longer a support base in the Middle East.
But the killer individual, self-radicalised over the Internet, remains a constant threat in France as elsewhere.
The original pretext for the Charlie Hebdo murders – caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad – are now strictly off-limits to publications everywhere.
In 2020, a French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded outside his school by a jihadist after he showed one of the Charlie cartoons in a discussion over freedom of speech.
And this week the trial opens in Paris of a Pakistani man who – a short time before Paty's murder – seriously injured two people with a butcher's cleaver at the Paris offices he thought were still being used by Charlie-Hebdo (in fact they had long since moved).
So as with every anniversary since 2015, the question once again being asked in France is: what - if anything - has changed? And what - if anything - survives of the great outpouring of international support, whose clarion call in the days after the murders was Je suis Charlie?
That was when a march of two million people through the centre of Paris was joined by heads of state and government from countries all over the world at the invitation of then President François Hollande.
Today, pessimists say the battle is over and lost. The chances of a humorous newspaper ever taking up the cudgel against Islam – in the way that Charlie Hebdo used regularly and scabrously to do against Christianity and Judaism – are zero.
Worse, for these people, is that parts of the political left in France are also now clearly distancing themselves from Charlie Hebdo, accusing it of becoming overly anti-Islam and adopting positions from the far-right.
Jean-Luc Melenchon, who leads the France Unbowed party, has accused the weekly of being a "bag-carrier for (right-wing magazine) Valeurs Actuels", and the Greens' Sandrine Rousseau said Charlie Hebdo was "misogynistic and at times racist".
This has in turn led to accusations aimed at the far-left that it has betrayed the free-speech spirit of Je suis Charlie in order to curry electoral support among French Muslims.
But speaking in the run-up to the anniversary, Riss – who counted the dead among his greatest friends and says he does not go through a day without reliving the moment of the attack – refused to renounce hope.
"I think [the Charlie spirit] is anchored more deeply in society than one might think. When you talk to people, you can see it's very much alive. It's a mistake to think it's all disappeared.
Justin Trudeau's nine years as Canadian prime minister is coming to an end after he announced he will step down as leader of the governing Liberal Party.
It means his party must now find a new leader to compete in a general election in which polls suggest they are heading to defeat.
Here are some of the people expected to enter the Liberal leadership race.
The Toronto member of parliament is seen as one of the top contenders to replace the outgoing leader and became one of the most well-known members of Trudeau's team.
While she had long been seen as a trusted senior official in his inner circle, a rift with the prime minister's office led to her recent abrupt resignation in December.
Her criticism of Trudeau in her public resignation letter piled the pressure on him and made his departure seem inevitable.
Born to a Ukrainian mother in the western province of Alberta, the 56-year-old was a journalist before entering politics.
She entered the House of Commons in 2013 and two years later joined Trudeau's cabinet with a trade brief after he swept the party to power.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs she helped Canada renegotiate a free trade deal with the US and Mexico.
She was later named deputy prime minister and minister of finance - the first woman to hold the job - and oversaw Canada's financial response to the Covid pandemic.
Quitting last month, she criticised Trudeau as insufficiently strong in his handling of Donald Trump's threat to levy US tariffs on Canadian goods.
A 2019 Globe and Mail profile said depending who you asked, Freeland is either a last, best hope for the liberal world order or an out-of-touch idealist.
Her steadfast support of Ukraine earned praise in some quarters but the Harvard-educated MP has had her share of critics, including Trump who recently called her "toxic".
Former central banker Mark Carney
Getty Images
Trudeau himself admitted that he had long been trying to recruit Mark Carney to his team, most recently as finance minister.
"He would be an outstanding addition at a time when Canadians need good people to step up in politics," he told reporters on the sidelines of a Nato conference in July 2024.
Carney, 59, who has been serving in recent months as a special adviser to Trudeau, has long been considered a contender for the top job.
The Harvard graduate has never held public office but has a strong economic background, serving at the top of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.
He also brings with him expertise on environmental matters through his role as the United Nations special envoy on climate action, recently calling the goal of net zero "the greatest commercial opportunity of our time".
Carney is a champion of some Liberal policies that have been unpopular within the country's conservative circles like the federal carbon tax policy, the party's signature climate policy that critics argue is a financial burden for Canadians.
He has also already criticised Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, saying his vision for the future of the country is "without a plan" and "just slogans".
"I'm the one in the conversation who's actually been in business, who actually is in business, and makes decisions," he said.
Anita Anand, transport minister
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Anand is often touted as one of the more ambitious members of the Liberal caucus.
The 57-year-old lawyer entered the political scene in 2019 when she was elected to represent the riding of Oakville, just outside of Toronto.
An Oxford-educated academic, she has a background in financial market regulation and corporate governance.
She was immediately awarded the ministerial brief of public services and procurement, putting her at the helm of a mission to secure vaccines and personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic.
Anand was then appointed minister of defence in 2021, leading Canada's efforts to provide aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia and overseeing a personnel crisis at the Canadian Armed Forces mired by sexual misconduct scandals.
When Anand was shuffled out of that department to oversee the Treasury Board, many saw it as a demotion and critics of Trudeau went as far as to speculate that it was punishment for her ambitions to one day lead the party.
In December, she was moved again during a cabinet shuffle, into the role of transport minister and minister of internal trade.
François-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry
Toronto Star via Getty Images
The former businessman and international trade specialist is another Liberal minister said to be eyeing the party's top job.
But his journey through the ranks to a major portfolio was slower than Anand's.
Champagne, 54, entered the Commons in 2015 but since then has gone through international trade, foreign affairs and most recently the department of innovation, science and industry.
But there are several things that work in his favour. Champagne is from Quebec, a province whose voice has often been consequential in federal Canadian elections.
He has also been dubbed "Canada's Energizer Bunny" by some pundits, who have watched his enthusiasm as he travelled around the world under his innovation portfolio with a mission to sell all that is Canada-made.
And because of his business acumen, political watchers see him as a viable option for luring centrist Liberals back into the fold.
Mélanie Joly, minister of foreign affairs
Reuters
Like Trudeau, Joly represents a Montreal-area riding.
To foreign leaders, the 45-year-old is a familiar face, having represented Canada on the world stage since 2021.
As the current foreign minister, she has taken several trips to Ukraine in a show of Canada's support. She travelled to Jordan to aid in the evacuation of Canadian citizens in the region when the Israel-Hamas war erupted.
Joly has also been at the heart of some of the government's greatest foreign policy challenges, including the diplomatic crisis sparked by the alleged assassination of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil by Indian agents.
The Oxford-educated lawyer is a well-connected francophone politician who previously ran for mayor of Montreal.
She was tapped by Trudeau personally to run for a federal job in politics.
"He would periodically call me to say, 'Mélanie you need to run, we want you to run,'" Joly has said.
Senior advisers have hailed her ability to work a room of either seven or 700, and she has long held ambitions to run for Liberal party leader, close friends told Canadian magazine Macleans.
Dominic LeBlanc, minister of finance and intergovernmental affairs
Reuters
LeBlanc, 57, is one of Trudeau's closest and most trusted allies.
Their friendship runs deep, with LeBlanc even babysitting Trudeau and his siblings when they were young.
He has a record of stepping into portfolios at difficult moments, including becoming finance minister within hours of Freeland's bombshell resignation.
LeBlanc also took on the tricky assignment of accompanying Trudeau to Mar-a-Lago in November to meet Trump.
The former lawyer has been a parliamentarian for more than two decades, having been first elected in 2000 to represent a riding in the Atlantic province of New Brunswick.
Like Trudeau, LeBlanc was born into a political family. His father served as a minister in the cabinet of Trudeau's fabled father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and later as Canada's governor-general.
LeBlanc has shown previous ambitions to lead the party, running in 2008 but losing to Michael Ignatieff. He did not run again in the next leadership race, which was won by Trudeau.
He is in remission after cancer treatment and is known to be an affable and a strong political communicator.
Christy Clark, a former provincial premier
Christy Clark
The former premier of British Columbia has expressed an interest in throwing her hat into the Liberal leadership ring.
In a statement in October, she said she was "would want to be part of the conversation on the future direction of the Liberal Party and of the country" if Trudeau stepped down.
Clark, 59, served as the leader of Canada's western-most province from 2011 to 2017, where she built a reputation of being able to balance environmental priorities while developing BC's energy industry.
She has repeatedly said in interviews in the past couple of years that Trudeau had become a drag on the federal Liberals.
She has also reportedly been taking French lessons, according to broadcaster Radio-Canada. A fluency in French is considered a prerequisite for federal politicians in Canada.
Michael Barr oversaw an attempt to rewrite financial regulations that came under attack from a wide range of groups, including banks, lawmakers and even some of his colleagues.
Michael Barr will continue to serve on the Fed’s Board of Governors. The central bank does not plan to take up any major rule changes until his successor is confirmed, it said.
The Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl, has never led a government before
Austria's president Alexander Van der Bellen has tasked the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, with forming a coalition government.
If the talks are successful, Austria will, for the first time, have a government led by the Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPO).
The FPO has been in power before, but only as a junior coalition partner.
The party came first in September's elections, with roughly 29% of the vote, but was then sidelined.
President Van der Bellen infuriated the FPO by not tasking it with forming a government soon after the election.
At the time, the leaders of all of the other parties ruled out making an alliance with Kickl.
In October, Van der Bellen gave the conservative People's Party (OVP), which came second in the election with 26%, the task of forming a coalition.
The former leader of the OVP, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, had called Kickl a conspiracy theorist and a threat to security.
But Nehammer's attempts to form a three-party and then a two-party centrist coalition collapsed this weekend.
He then resigned and the new leader of the conservatives, Christian Stocker, said his party would be willing to hold talks with Kickl.
President Van der Bellen has now tasked Kickl with forming a government.
The step is a dramatic reversal for the president, a former leader of the Green Party, who has long been critical of the FPO and has expressed reservations about Kickl as Chancellor.
On Monday, Van der Bellen said he had not taken "this step lightly". He said he would "continue to ensure that the principles and rules of our constitution are correctly observed and adhered to".
In recent months, Van der Bellen has repeatedly said he will remain vigilant to ensure "cornerstones of democracy" including human rights, independent media and Austria's membership of the European Union are respected.
The Freedom Party and the OVP overlap on a number of issues and both take a tough line on migration.
However they have clashed on the EU and the Freedom Party's opposition to aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
There is no timeframe for the coalition talks, which would usually take two or three months, but could be quicker.
If the talks fail, a snap election is likely. Polls suggest that support for the Freedom Party has grown since September.
Activists have vowed to maintain pressure against the government until all missing persons are accounted for
Four young Kenyan men who went missing just before the Christmas holidays have been found alive, family members and rights groups say.
Kenya has been gripped by a wave of disappearances, with the state-funded rights group saying that over 80 people have been abducted in the last six months.
The abductions generally target government critics and are widely believed to be the work of security agents, although the government has not admitted responsibility.
They began in June last year during nationwide anti-tax protests, but they increased in December, when AI-generated photos of the president in a coffin were widely shared.
Those released on Monday include 24-year-old student Billy Mwangi in Embu, in the central Mount Kenya region.
Local MP Gitonga Mukunji told journalists that Mr Mwangi "was whipped and beaten while in a dark room. He is traumatised".
His father said he was not able to discuss what he had gone through and had been taken to hospital.
"He came home around eight in the morning. He walked by himself - his mother and I saw him. We thank everyone who has prayed and supported him," he told the Daily Nation news site.
Last week, Mr Mwangi's father broke down in court as he pleaded for his son to be released.
A relative of 22-year-old Peter Muteti, who was seized in the capital on 21 December, told the BBC that he had been reunited with the family but was disoriented and unable to speak about the ordeal.
Amnesty International Kenya welcomed the releases and urged "the State to free all abductees and hold those responsible accountable".
Two weeks ago the police denied responsibility for the abductions carried out by men in plain clothes across the country, some of which were captured on CCTV.
On Monday the police released an update acknowledging the freeing of the abducted men, saying they were in already contact with one who had presented himself at a police station.
The police said investigations into all cases of missing people were underway.
Rights groups and other Kenyans have linked the abductions to a shadowy intelligence and counter-terrorism unit of the security forces.
Amid the public uproar, President William Ruto said last month: "We are going to stop the abductions so that our youth can live peacefully and have discipline", while urging parents to take care of their children.
Until now, no-one had been freed since he spoke on 27 December, with activists planning protests on Monday to push the government to act.
Two other youths - Ronny Kiplangat and Bernard Kavuli – have also been released, their families told local media.
Mr Kavuli, a content creator, was seized on the outskirts of the city in December, while Mr Kiplangat is the brother of satirical cartoonist Kibet Bull, who is still missing.
Kibet Bull is known for his silhouette cartoon memes critical of the president. Two others were seized after posting AI-generated images of the president in a coffin.
Police said that Mr Kavuli had been assisting them with their investigations after he had presented himself to a police station at Moi's Bridge in western Kenya.
A statement said that they would reach out to the three others "and their families and give them all the necessary support as we seek further information to assist ongoing investigations".
The Law Society of Kenya has filed a legal case against the state, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of seven individuals abducted last month, including those who have now been released.
The situation continues to stoke fear across the country, with parents worried about the safety of their children and activists vowing to maintain pressure until all missing persons are accounted for.
Djokovic still has 'trauma' over Covid deportation
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Novak Djokovic is hoping to win a record-extending 11th Australian Open title in Melbourne this month
Published
Novak Djokovic says he still experiences "trauma" when he visits Melbourne, three years after he was deported because of Australia's Covid-19 regulations.
He was forced to stay at an immigration hotel for five days while he unsuccessfully appealed against the decision and was eventually forced to leave the country, meaning he missed the 2022 Australian Open.
The Serb, 37, is back in Australia preparing for the 2025 tournament, which begins on Sunday.
"The last couple of times I landed in Australia, to go through passport control and immigration - I had a bit of trauma from three years ago," Djokovic told Melbourne's Herald Sun., external
"And some traces still stay there when I'm passing passport control, just checking out if someone from immigration zone is approaching.
"The person checking my passport - are they going to take me, detain me again or let me go? I must admit I have that feeling."
He added: "I don't hold a grudge. I came right away the year after and I won.
"My parents and whole team were there and it was actually one of the most emotional wins I've ever had, considering all that I'd been through the year before."
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said she prefers to focus on this year's tournament.
"The responsibility of granting visas is a matter for the federal government and those decisions were made by the federal government at the time," said Allan, who was part of a government crisis cabinet leading the Australian response to Covid in 2022 - but was not involved in the Djokovic case.
"Covid was tough for all of us. It didn't matter who you were, where you came from, Covid didn't discriminate in who it infected, how sick it made you and how sick it made others in our community."
Australia prime minister Anthony Albanese criticised the previous government's handling of the situation, particularly the decision to deny Djokovic access to an Orthodox priest in the build-up to Christmas, which is celebrated on 7 January by most Orthodox Christians.
"I made comments at the time about it. I found it astonishing that in the lead up to Christmas, Novak Djokovic was denied by the then federal government the opportunity to see his Orthodox minister, priest, during that period," said Albanese, who became prime minister in May 2022.
"I think that was something that I think was hard to justify at that time."
Djokovic is hoping to win a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title when he competes in the Australian Open at Melbourne Park next week.
Nippon Steel and US Steel are suing the US government over blocking a takeover, claiming that President Joe Biden "ignored the rule of law to gain favor" with trade unions.
The two companies also alleged that President Biden, who is entering the last weeks of his administration, stopped Nippon Steel buying US Steel to pursue his own political agenda.
In rejecting the proposed deal on Friday, President Biden said a strong domestically-owned steel industry was essential for national security and resilient supply chains, including for the car and defence industries.
If the $14.9bn (£11.8bn) deal goes ahead it would create one of the world's biggest steel companies outside of China.
The takeover has been in limbo since it was first announced in December 2023.
In one lawsuit, Nippon Steel and US Steel have asked asked the court to set aside the review process of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, which has the power to vet foreign takeovers of US firms, saying it "failed to conduct a good faith, national security-focused regulatory review process".
Additionally, the companies are also suing the president of the United Steelworkers trade union, David McCall, and the chief executive of rival steel firm Cleveland-Cliffs, Lourenco Goncalves, for "their illegal and coordinated actions aimed at preventing the transaction".
On Friday, the United Steelworkers trade union said it had "no doubt" that blocking the takeover was the "right move for our members and our national security".
The union accused Nippon of undermining the US steel industry for decades through measures including dumping its products on the US market.
Nippon Steel and US Steel said they have "engaged in good faith with all parties" to show how the deal "will enhance, not threaten, United States national security" and how it would strengthen America's domestic steel industry "against the threat from China".
They also reiterated that Nippon was prepared to invest $2.7bn in Pittsburgh-based US Steel.
Earlier on Monday, Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed his concerns about the US decision to block the takeover and the impact it might have on trade relations between the two G7 countries.
"Unfortunately, it is true that we have heard concerns voiced by the Japanese industries over future investments between Japan and the US. We must view this issue as a grave matter," Mr Ishiba said.
He added that while it was inappropriate for his government to comment on individual companies: "We must insist on an explanation as to why there are security concerns, otherwise there will be no progress in future discussions."
Investigators are seeking to arrest Yoon over his failed attempt to impose martial law
South Korea's suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol remains defiant in his newly-fortified residence, with the arrest warrant over his short-lived martial law order set to expire on Monday.
Yoon's security team, which stopped investigators arresting him on Friday, installed barbed wire and barricaded the compound with buses over the weekend, to prevent another attempt.
Yoon had ignored multiple summonses to appear for questioning on insurrection and abuse of power charges, before investigators showed up at his residence - only to call off their operation after a six-hour standoff with the presidential security service.
Investigators may try to extend their warrant. They told the BBC they have asked the police to execute it, in the hope their efforts carry more weight.
Public anger has spiralled in recent weeks, as thousands of protesters braved heavy snow over the weekend, both in support of and against Yoon.
South Korea has been in crisis for the past month, ever since Yoon tried to impose martial law citing a threat from the North and "anti-state forces". The fallout continues as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Seoul, seeking to stabilise ties ahead of a Donald Trump presidency.
A looming deadline
Time has almost run out for the investigators leading the criminal case against Yoon.
Yoon's lawyers have claimed that his arrest warrant was "illegal" as the anti-corruption investigators did not have the authority to oversee a case as serious as insurrection.
The presidential security team has cited this as a reason for blocking Yoon's arrest - along with the fact that Yoon remains a sitting president until the constitutional court rules on his impeachment.
"For the PSS, whose primary mission is the absolute safety of the president, to comply with the execution of an arrest warrant amidst ongoing legal disputes would be tantamount to abandoning its duty," security service chief Park Jong-joon said on Sunday.
Mr Park denied accusations that his team was serving as a "private militia" for Yoon.
Getty Images
Yoon is waiting out the arrest deadline behind barbed wire and buses
Yoon's lawyers, who on Monday filed complaints against investigators over the arrest attempt, said Yoon has been "practically detained in his residence".
They also filed an injunction against the warrant, which was rejected by the court, and then said they were considering appealing the decision.
Meanwhile, acting president Choi Sang-mok has resisted the opposition's calls to sack key security officials obstructing the arrest.
The BBC understands that opposition lawmakers had asked investigators to try arresting Yoon again, but "more firmly and with sufficient means".
Investigators could also apply for a new detention warrant, which has to be approved by a judge. That would allow Yoon to be detained for up to 20 days, while an arrest warrant only allows him to be held for 48 hours.
But without a change to either the situation or their approach, it seems unlikely investigators or police will be able to make the arrest.
Getty Images
Protesters braved freezing temperatures and heavy snow to demand Yoon's arrest
As seen last Friday, they may again be blocked by the presidential security service which formed a "human wall" to protect Yoon. He himself has vowed to "fight to the end", dividing public opinion and spurring on his supporters, who have been demonstrating for days outside his home.
The tense standoff has also raised urgent questions about the robustness and effectiveness of South Korea's political and legal institutions.
Diplomatic headwinds
The situation also has consequences beyond domestic politics.
Up until last month, the Biden administration had sung Yoon's praises, delighted by his willingness to work with Washington to tackle the security threats posed by North Korea and China. The US put a lot of effort into helping South Korea repair its strained relations with Japan, so the three countries could address these issues together.
Mr Blinken's ongoing visit to Seoul, where he will meet South Korean foreign minister Cho Tae-yul on Monday, therefore comes at a difficult time for these two allies.
Yoon did not tell the US about his plans to impose martial law, meaning Washington did not have the chance to dissuade him and was unprepared for the chaos that ensued.
Blinken will not want to be drawn on the current political situation. He will instead want to focus on preserving the trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo beyond Biden's tenure.
Speaking during a joint presser on Monday, Blinken said the US had "full confidence" in South Korea's institutions, and reaffirmed the US government's "unwavering support for the Korean people as they work tirelessly to uphold those institutions".
"Over the past four decades Korea has written one of the most powerful, inspiring democratic stories in the world," Blinken said.
Korea's democracy has been tested in recent weeks - just as American democracy has faced challenges throughout our history. But you are responding by demonstrating your democratic resilience."
But it's hard to disentangle the domestic and geopolitical situations. South Korea could be months away from electing a new president, and that leader may well want to break with Yoon's foreign policies.
Trump, who enters the White House in a fortnight, will also pursue his own agenda.
Additional reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi in Seoul
Umm Mazen still doesn't know the fate of two of her sons who were arrested during the pro-democracy protests that started the Syrian civil war
The new Syrian authorities promise justice for crimes under the Assad regime. But it's a tall order, with many having suffered losses of every kind in the civil war. Sebastian Usher met people in Damascus for whom justice is key to how they see Syria's future.
On the edge of Douma, one of the Damascus suburbs most devastated by the war, in a shrouded living room next to a stove, Umm Mazen recounts the 12 years she desperately sought news of two of her sons, who were arrested in the first years of the uprising and civil war, and swallowed up in the Assad-era security system.
For her oldest son, Mazen, she finally received a death certificate, but for Abu Hadi, no trace of him has ever been divulged.
Her third son, Ahmed, spent three years in the security system, including eight months in the red block for political prisoners in that byword for brutality, Saydnaya prison.
His front teeth stoved in by a torturer's hammer, he remembers one moment when he believes he heard his brother Mazen's voice answering a roll call in the same jail, but nothing more.
What justice does Umm Mazen seek for the destruction of her family?
"There should be divine justice, coming from God," she says.
"I saw some local men bringing a shabiha (an armed regime supporter) to be killed.
"I told them: 'Don't kill him. Rather, torture him exactly the same way he tortured our young men'."
"My two children died - or probably have died, but there are thousands of other young men who were subjected to torture.
"I pray to God that Bashar [al-Assad] stays in a dungeon underground and that Russia, which used to protect him, can't help him.
"I pray to God to put him somewhere underground and that he is left in oblivion - just as he left our young men in his jails."
Lawyer Hussein Issa believes many of the judges who cooperated with the regime should be expelled from the courts
Lawyer Hussein Issa sought justice for dozens of people accused of political crimes under the Assads.
He faced constant pressure from the authorities over his advocacy, but persisted and managed to save some of his clients from being crushed under the wheels of the security system.
But for those assigned to the special terrorism courts, there was usually nothing that could be done.
The terrorism law loomed ever more darkly over Syria as the civil war continued.
Now, with the mountain on the edge of Damascus glimpsed through the window of his scruffy, smoke-filled office, the 54-year-old lawyer says he believes that many of the judges who were complicit with the Assad regime should be kicked out and legal action taken against them.
But others from that era, he says, could still play a role in the new judiciary.
As for the huge challenge of trying to deliver retrospective justice for the horrors of the past 50 years, Mr Issa says that establishing a judicial system capable of this is the most important task for Syria's new authorities.
"If this system is not good, the future of the new state will be grim.
"We don't know how bad it could then get. We are already afraid that some parties could cause strife and conflict.
"If we have a strong system and state, then we won't be afraid of these things.
"If we don't have them, we will be fearful. However, since I'm optimistic by nature, I think the new regime will definitely be better."
Khitam Haddad was appointed deputy justice minister in 2023, under the Assad regime
The monumental building in the Syrian capital where the justice ministry is located has been in suspension for several weeks after the fall of Assad.
Now, clusters of lawyers have gathered in the lifts and corridors ahead of the reopening of the civil and criminal courts.
In her fifth-floor office, the Deputy to the Minister of Justice, Khitam Haddad, says that criminal and civil cases will once again be dealt with, but the task of dealing with the crimes committed under the previous regime will not be tackled for now.
With her big, heavy desk covered in official papers, she says she's been working as a judge since 2013.
She was appointed deputy justice minister in 2023. For now, she remains in place.
"I felt a personal responsibility about the matter," she says.
"It is necessary for the work to continue, for the judges to go back to their work and for the courts to return, because as a Syrian I want my job to continue and I want this victory to continue, so that people have nothing to be afraid of.
"I want to send real and realistic messages of reassurance, not just talk."
But some lawyers are already concerned over a move by the transitional authorities to establish a council to oversee the Bar Association without putting it to a vote.
In a petition, they said such an approach would replace one form of authoritarianism with another.
For now, the laws and judicial structure of the Assad era remain in place, including the terrorism law.
It could be a long time before the cases of any of those accused of crimes under the ousted regime are brought to trial.
Syrians have been calling for accountability for the crimes committed by regime officials under the Assads
The new authorities have told Syrians not to take matters into their own hands, as videos have circulated of brutal summary justice being meted out to some former officials.
There have been raids and arrests - and some of those who escaped across the border to Lebanon or Iraq have been returned.
But there remains a big question over whether the justice system - which was for so long an instrument of repression – is capable of being reconfigured to take on this immense moral and logistical challenge.
High up on the mountain above Damascus, Syrians, young and old, are for now still breathing free - intoxicated by the cold clear winter air - in a place they were banned from entering by the security forces for more than a decade.
At cafes and kiosks that have sprung up in the weeks since the overthrow of Assad, they stare down at the city spread out before them – with both its dark memories and the promise of a different future, in which justice and accountability might just be allowed to play a part.
Fisherman Sondre Alnes-Bonesmo does five-week tours of the Arctic Ocean
The Arctic recently made headlines after Donald Trump repeated his desire to buy Greenland. Trump cited national security interests, but for many the territory's vast mineral wealth is the main attraction. Yet economic development elsewhere in the vast polar region has ground to a halt.
Working conditions in the Arctic Ocean are extremely challenging at this time of the year for Norwegian fisherman Sondre Alnes-Bonesmo.
The sun last rose at the end of October, and it is not due to appear in the sky again until the middle of February.
In addition to the endless dark, temperatures can plummet below minus 40C, and storms can bring vast waves.
Mr Alnes-Bonesmo, 30, works two six-hour shifts a day, during five-week tours on a ship called Granit. One of the largest factory trawlers fishing in Arctic waters north of Norway, and off the coast of Greenland, it doesn't stop for winter.
Unsurprisingly, he prefers the endless daylight of summer. "I do like it when the weather is nice, as we're not sent crashing into the walls and such, the way we are during storms, when the waves can be fairly big," he grins in understatement.
Mr Alnes-Bonesmo is a participant in the so-called Arctic "cold rush".
A play on words with gold rush, it began in earnest around 2008 when a series of reports identified vast mineral and hydrocarbon reserves across the Arctic region. Reserves that, together with large fishing stocks, could continue to become more accessible as climate change reduces ice levels.
This reduction in ice has also increasingly opened up Arctic sea routes, north of the Canadian mainland and Russia.
So much so that, in the decade from 2013 to 2023, the total recorded annual distances sailed by ships in the Arctic Sea more than doubled from 6.1 million to 12.9 million miles.
The hope in the longer term is that cargo ships can travel from Asia to Europe and the east coast of the US, through Arctic waters above Canada and Russia.
But the question Mr Alnes-Bonesmo now asks himself is this – did he arrive too late?
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In the summer the Artic Ocean offers stunning views, but in the middle of winter it is completely dark
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 much of the planned economic development of the Arctic region ground to a halt as relations between Russia and the West deteriorated.
"Russia had great plans in the Arctic," says Morten Mejlaender-Larsen, Arctic operation and technology director from Norwegian firm DNV. His company sets rules and standards for the maritime sector.
"They began constructing regional rescue centres complete with ships and helicopters to facilitate both destination shipping for gas, oil and coal projects in Siberia, as well as for shipping along the Northeast Passage [north of Russia].
"[But] since the invasion of Ukraine, international shipping in the Northeast passage has all but stopped, apart from a few Chinese ships," observes Mr Mejlaender-Larsen.
He adds that Norway has also halted oil and gas exploration in the region. "It's completely stopped," he says.
"We don't expect to see any further developments in the Barents Sea north of Bear Island." This small Norwegian island is some 400km (250 miles) north of Norway's mainland.
Norway's scaled back ambitions in the Arctic have pleased environmentalists who have consistently warned about the impact of drilling for hydrocarbons on both wildlife and the fragile environment of the polar region.
Last month Greenpeace welcomed the decision of the Norwegian government to stop the first round of licencing for deep sea mining in Arctic waters between Norway's Svalbard and Jan Mayen islands.
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The US already has a number of oil wells above the Arctic Circle in Alaska
Commentators say that while poor relations with Russia is a key reason why Norway is wary of ploughing money into Arctic projects, its interest in the polar region had already cooled.
Helene Tofte, director of international cooperation and climate at the Norwegian Shipowners Association, says that in hindsight the outlook for shipping in the Arctic had been "exaggerated".
She points out that despite the impact of climate change, the Arctic remains a difficult place in which to operate. "Conditions in the Arctic can be extremely challenging, even when the absence of sea ice allows passage," she says.
"Large parts of the route are far from emergency response capacities, such as search and rescue, and environmental clean-up resources.
"Increased shipping in this area would require substantial investments in ships, emergency preparedness, infrastructure, and weather forecasting systems, for a route that is unpredictable and has a short operational season. At present, we have no indication that our members view this as commercially interesting."
Mr Mejlaender-Larsen points to a "belief that thanks to global warming there'll be summers up there. That'll never happen. If it's minus 40C and it gets 3C warmer, it's still not warm."
Moreover, Prof Arild Moe, from Norwegian research group Fridtjof Nansen Institute, says the entire cold rush of the Arctic was based on exaggerated assumptions. "The exuberance was excessive," says the expert on oil and gas exploration in the region.
"What the reports from 2008 referred to weren't actual reserves, but potential and highly uncertain resources, which would be risky, expensive, and difficult to locate and exploit."
The Arctic region covers an area of 5.5 million sq miles (14.5 million sq km)
Regarding Trump's renewed interest in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, authorities in Greenland and Denmark were again quick to reply that it was not for sale.
Prof Moe says that Trump's "crude and undiplomatic statement" shows that the US under Trump eyes both security and economic interests in the island, including its "rich mineral resources".
The Danish government also responded by announcing a huge increase in defence spending for Greenland.
Elsewhere in the Arctic, Trump is expected to allow increased oil and gas exploration in Alaska, specifically in the resource rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
This 19 million acre expanse is the US's largest wildlife refuge, and back in 2020 Trump authorised drilling in one section of it.
Meanwhile, Canada is continuing to build a deep-water port at Grays Bay, on the north coast of Nunavut, its most northern territory. Grays Bay is approximately in the centre of the so-called Northwest Passage, the Arctic sea route north of the Canadian mainland.
Back on the Granit fishing ship, Mr Alnes-Bonesmo says that, while he has earned good money, fishing quotas continue to go down to try to preserve stocks in Norwegian Arctic waters.
Nevertheless, he is philosophical. "After a few years at sea I've grown more scared of the Arctic Ocean, but I've also come to respect and value it for all its power and beauty."
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