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.

And the Ugandan athlete who's just run from Cape Town to London.

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)