Newshour

Syria's de facto leader has reached an agreement to dissolve and consolidate rebel groups under the defence ministry. Also on the programme, is Israel nearing a hostage deal with Hamas? And, a Nasa spacecraft has made history with the closest-ever approach to the Sun. (Photo: A child looks on next to a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, during a protest against the burning of the Christmas tree in Hama, in Damascus, Syria December 24, 2024. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

A consortium of UN and other agencies says that famine is spreading across the war-ravaged country. The group, known as the IPC - the "Integrated Food Security Phase Classification" - say that five areas in the west and south of Sudan are already in famine. We hear about the details of the report and from one of the agencies working in the city of Nyala in the South. Also on the programme; we hear from Mozambique's capital Maputo where protests are continuing over disputed presidential election results; and a NASA spacecraft attempts the closest ever approach to the Sun. (Photo: People queuing for food aid in South Sudan; Credit : Photo by GUY PETERSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Germany's far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has held a rally near the site of the attack on the Christmas market on Friday evening - we'll speak to one of the party's members of parliament. Also on the programme: President Biden has commuted the death sentences on all but three of the federal prisoners on death row; and we'll look at the history and politics of the Panama Canal as Donald Trump threatens to re-assert control over it. (Photo: Memorial event and funeral march of AfD party after attack in Magdeburg, Germany - 23 Dec 2024. FILIP SINGER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Iran says it's had no direct contact with the new Islamist leaders of Syria, its one-time close ally. The US, in contrast, sent its top regional diplomat, Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf, to meet the de-facto leader in Damascus, Ahmed al-Sharaa; we hear how the meeting went. Also in the programme: Nissan and Honda announce merger plans which would create the world's third-largest car-maker; and we hear from the Mexican women celebrated and damned for helping migrants trying to reach the United States. (IMAGE: A delegation of US diplomats, including US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf (C, in green), leaves a hotel in Damascus, Syria 20 December 2024 / CREDIT: Hasan Belal/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Syria's new ruler says he wants all weapons and armed factions to come under state control - and that includes the Syrian Kurds. Also on the programme: Israel's latest targets in Gaza include an abandoned school housing homeless families and a barely functioning hospital; we hear from a woman who had an online exchange with the Saudi man accused of murder after five people were killed in a car attack at a Christmas market in Germany. And the Ugandan athlete who's just run from Cape Town to London. Photo: Syria's rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, Credit: Turkish Foreign Ministry Press Office Handout EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstoc

The German ambassador to the UK talks to Newshour about the "anger, sorrow, grief" that his country is experiencing following the attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg that killed at least five people and seriously injured dozens - so what warnings did the authorities receive? Also today: health and civil defence officials in Gaza say a wave of Israeli attacks across the Strip has killed at least twenty-eight people; and the Ugandan-born athlete Deo Kato has arrived in London, having run from Cape Town. (Photo: People mourn in front of Magdeburg Cathedral following a vehicle-ramming attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, 22 December 2024. Credit: FILIP SINGER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock )

As relatives and officials gather for a memorial service for the victims of the deadly attack on a Christmas market in eastern Germany, we ask what’s known about the Saudi man who has been arrested and what might have motivated him. Also on the programme: why the US is sanctioning Pakistan's long range missiles; and the ultra-orthodox Jewish sect in Guatemala that has just been raided by the authorities for mistreating women and children. (Photo: Memorial service after attack at Magdeburg's Christmas market, Germany Credit: FILIP SINGER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

The suspect is a doctor from Saudi Arabia, living in Germany since 2006. We hear from a local member of the state parliament and a counter-extremism expert in Berlin. Also on the programme: Both houses of the US Congress have voted in favour of a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown; and the wonders of swimming mice, dwarf squirrels, and blob-headed fish. (Picture: Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany party visits the site of the Christmas market attack in Magdeburg, Germany. Credit: Reuters/Christian Mang)

US Congress races to avoid government shutdown after bipartisan spending agreement was derailed following interventions by President-elect Donald Trump and his efficiency czar, Elon Musk. Also in the programme: A high level US delegation holds talks with Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Shara’a; At least two dead and 68 injured after a car drove into a crowd at German Christmas market; and 27 new species discovered in Peru, including an amphibious mouse. (Photo: Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the House, talking to journalists. Credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

What is happening now in Syria “is paving the way” for the Islamic State group to re-emerge. That’s according to a leading Kurdish commander who played a key role in defeating the group in Syria in 2019. General Mazloum Abdi told the BBC that IS activity has “increased significantly” and the danger of a resurgence has doubled. Our senior international correspondent Orla Guerin was given rare access to the largest IS jail - in the city of Al Hasakah. Also in the programme: A BBC investigation has found that the embattled military rulers of Myanmar control less than a quarter of the country; Malaysia has authorised a new attempt to find the wreckage of MH-370 - the flight that disappeared ten years ago; and the group of singers, with an average age of 92, which has broken the Guinness World Record for the world's oldest choir. (Photo: The BBC was granted rare access to the largest prison for IS detainees - Al Sina - which holds some 5,000 men. Credit: BBC/Matthew Goddard)

The French prime minister Francois Bayrou has praised the courage of Gisèle Pelicot, following a mass rape trial in which her ex-husband and fifty other defendants were found guilty. Dominique Pelicot was jailed for twenty years for organising the repeated drugging and rape of his former wife by dozens of strangers over a decade. Also in the programme, President Macron of France in Mayotte vows to rebuild the cyclone hit territory; and we hear from Angelina Jollie who plays the diva, Maria Callas. (Photo: Gisele Pelicot with her grandson, after the end of the trial in Avignon. Credit: Shutterstock)

Gisèle Pelicot thanks supporters after 'difficult ordeal' of rape trial as ex-husband jailed for 20 years. All fifty of other defendants were also convicted, with sentences of between 3and 15 years in jail. Also on the programme, the new de facto leader of Syria has told the BBC that the country is too exhausted by war to be a threat to other nations; and, the creator of the Chat GPT artificial intelligence service has set up a WhatsApp account so that its users can get answers to questions using the messaging app. (Photo: Verdict against 51 defendants of mass rape trial in Avignon, France - 02 Dec 2024. GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Since Syria's President Assad fell from power, the full horror of his regime has begun to be revealed. Mass graves have been discovered around the country. And a vast amount of documentation confirming many of the crimes is emerging. We hear from Canadian lawyer Bill Wiley who has been gathering evidence of atrocities by the Assad regime for years. He believes many of the perpetrators could now be brought to justice. Also on the programme: how a novella by Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky has become a TikTok sensation; the Russians say they've detained the man who carried out the assassination of a senior general in Moscow; and the polar bears bearing down on a town in northern Canada. Photo by BILAL AL HAMMOUD/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock (15014794bq)

After visiting sites close to Syria's capital Damascus, Stephen Rapp, who led prosecutors for the tribunals investigating war crimes in Rwanda and Sierra Leone, said "we really haven't seen anything quite like this since the Nazis." The Syrian Emergency Taskforce, a humanitarian and activist organisation, estimates half a million bodies could be buried in mass graves. Also in the programme: Ukraine assassinates a Russian general in Moscow; and we speak to the anti-whaling activist just released from detention in Greenland. (Photo: Stephen Rapp, head of Commission for International Justice and Accountability, talks with media as people inspect the site of a mass grave from the rule of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, according to residents, after the ousting of al-Assad, in Najha, Syria, 17 December 2024. Credit: Reuters/Ammar Awad)

Ukraine says it was behind the killing of a senior Russian general, Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, who died in scooter blast in Moscow.. The head of Russia's Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Unit was at the entrance to a residential block when a device hidden in an electric scooter went off. On Monday, Lt Gen Kirillov was charged in Kyiv for the use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine; he had already been sanctioned by the UK. We'll find out more about the killing and its likely impact. Also in the programme: A French member of parliament tells us the island of Mayotte has, after Saturday's cyclone, been "deleted from the map"; and we'll get a sense of Syria's revolution from two big cities outside the capital. Ukraine says it was behind the killing of a senior Russian general, Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, who died in scooter blast in Moscow.. The head of Russia's Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Unit was at the entrance to a residential block when a device hidden in an electric scooter went off. On Monday, Lt Gen Kirillov was charged in Kyiv for the use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine; he had already been sanctioned by the UK. We'll find out more about the killing and its impact. Also in the programme: A French member of parliament tells us the island of Mayotte has, after Saturday's cyclone, been "deleted from the map"; and we'll get a sense of Syria's revolution from two big cities outside the capital. (Photo shows Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov attending a press conference in Moscow, Russia in a still image from video released on 5 November 2024. Credit: Russian Defence Ministry handout via REUTERS)

Cyclone Chido brought wind speeds of more than 220km per hour, flattening areas where the poorest people lived in sheet-metal roof shacks. The French President Emmanuel Macron said he will be travelling to the French Overseas Territory in the Indian Ocean in "the coming days", as he pledged to support fellow citizens, civil servants and emergency services involved in rescue efforts. We hear from Senator Salama Ramia from Mayotte who sits in the French Senate in Paris. Also on the programme: why members of the Alawite community of ousted Syrian President Assad are fearful of the future despite assurances from the country's new rulers; and we pay tribute to Indian tabla musician Zakir Hussain who has died aged 73. (Photo: Aftermath of Cyclone Chido in Mayotte Credit: Reuters/Chafion Madi)

The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, faces a confidence vote in parliament after his coalition collapsed. But his party thinks it can defy the odds and win another election soon. Also on the programme: French ministers arrive in the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, two days after it was hit by a cyclone that is thought to have killed hundreds; and archaeologists say they have evidence that some Bronze Age Britons were cannibals who ate their enemies. (Photo: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivers a speech at the meeting of the German Bundestag on the vote of confidence in the Chancellor. Credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Israel's government has approved a plan to encourage the expansion of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was necessary because a "new front" had opened up on Israel's border with Syria, after the fall of the Assad regime. We hear from a former Israeli Prime Minister, who says the move is an unnecessary provocation. Also on the programme: We get a sense of the devastation in the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, where its feared hundreds of people have been killed by Cyclone Chido; and explore why America's ABC News agreed to settle its defamation case with Donald Trump. (Picture: Israeli military vehicles ride through Syria close to the ceasefire line between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria Credit: REUTERS/Jamal Awad)

Universities, schools and public institutions have officially reopened across Syria today, the first time since rebel groups took control of the country. This comes the UN envoy Geir Pedersen says he supports lifting sanctions on the Islamist group that led the offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad. On his first visit to Damascus since Assad fled a week ago, Mr Pedersen urged justice, not revenge - and he called for increased and immediate aid. Also in the programme: Five people convicted of drug offences in Indonesia have returned to Australia after two decades in prison; and we hear from Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan who has co-produced a film that's vying for an Oscar. (Picture: Students sit in a classroom at a school in Damascus. Credit: Ammar Awad/REUTERS)

The US's top diplomat is in Jordan for talks with representatives from several Arab countries, Turkey, and Europe to discuss the future of Syria following the ousting of the former president, Bashar al-Assad. Also on the programme, the South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has vowed to fight for his political future, after parliament voted to impeach him over his failed attempt to impose martial law; and, the director of "Goodbye Lenin", Wolfgang Becker has died. (Photo: Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Pool via REUTERS)