Global News Podcast - Fatalities and injuries in German Christmas market attack

Episode Date: December 21, 2024

A car has been driven into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg. There have been a number of fatalities and injuries.

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I'm Danny Cox. And in the early hours of Saturday, thest of December these are our main stories. German media reports say a number of people have been killed and many others injured after a car drove into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg. A top US diplomat has described Syria's new Islamist ruler as pragmatic after their first meeting and expressed hope for a sovereign Syria that respects the rights of all its citizens. Japan says it's coming up with a plan to dispose of 14 million cubic metres of radioactive soil, some may be used in road embankments.

Also in this podcast, scientists in Peru have discovered 27 new species in the northwest of the country, including an extremely rare type of amphibious mouse. It belongs to this group of carnivorous semi-aquatic rodents. On past expeditions, you know, we always search for this group of rodents and they're almost mythical because they're just so difficult to find. Just days before Christmas and what should have been a festive event, a Christmas market in the East German city of Magdeburg has ended in tragedy as a car drove into the crowd at top speed. Dozens of ambulances were on the scene shortly after the incident. As we record this podcast, officials say a number of people have been killed, including

a young child. Dozens of others were injured. The German state premier, Rainer Haselhoff, had this to say. This is a terrible tragedy. It's a catastrophe for the city of Magdeburg and for Germany in general. For this to happen at a Christmas market, it is hard to comprehend. Local officials say they suspect it was a deliberate attack. TV pictures showed a suspect being arrested by police with guns drawn. I heard more from our Berlin correspondent, Damian McGuinness. Well, what officials have now told us is that at least two people have been killed, one

of them a small child, one of them an adult. And it's thought that as many as 70 people could be injured, possibly 15 seriously injured. But of course, when you're talking about such large numbers, there's a lot of things that are unclear. You know, this is an ongoing situation, really. The whole area has been secured off now. The suspected perpetrator has been arrested, and officials are describing this as an attack,

because the numbers are so big of people involved, it does sound like, and it does seem, according to what police have been saying, that this was indeed a deliberate act. And it was a hired car that he drove into crowds at the Christmas market and I think that's what's really shocked people. It's a time when people would be relaxing and enjoying the festive season and Christmas markets are of course a big tradition across the country and that just makes this an even

more horrendous and horrific situation for all those involved and that's why officials now and politicians have been coming out expressing their sadness and sorrow at this tragic event. And sadly not the first attack on a Christmas market in Germany. Yes, that's right. So as you'll remember in 2016 there was a terrible attack on a market here in Berlin, not far from where I'm standing right now, committed by an Islamist extremist. And that shifted the debate in Germany. In that attack, 12 people were killed. And this was at a time when there were large numbers

of asylum seekers coming to Germany. And, you know, there had been a feeling of welcome to a lot of those people, and Germany had been coping well with the influx of lots of new people who were seeking asylum and refuge here. But what we saw after that attack, that the political debate shifted to a certain extent and it gave a boost to the far-right AFD party, which had been a new party on the scene in politics in Germany. And it also, I think it's fair to say, shifted the rhetoric slightly and made the debate around migration a lot more heated and in some quarters quite toxic and I think that'll be the worry about this attack as well. We still know very little

about the suspect and we don't know why he committed this and I think that will be the next question about why he carried out this terrible attack on, at a festive time of celebration for people. And briefly, Germany in political turmoil anyway just now with an election just weeks away. Yeah, that's right. It is of course a very uncertain time for Germany. There are snap elections coming up in February after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition collapsed in November. So politically it's quite an uncertain time and economically the country is, the economy is effectively stalled. So there's lots of uncertainties around in Germany

now and I think, you know, the last thing the country needs is a terror attack in the run-up to Christmas. So I think that that will make people even more nervous and of course the idea of a terror attack in the Rapskristens has been something people have been talking about for a long time and hoping would not happen but of course unfortunately the tragedy has happened this evening and that's why people will be mourning across Germany tonight. Damian McGuinness in Berlin. Officials say the perpetrator was a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had indefinite right to remain.

The police believe he was acting alone. Our security correspondent Frank Gardner has this assessment of the incident. There are often more than one reason why somebody would want to do this. It's not always purely terrorism. It's not purely ideology. It can be mental. There could be all sorts of reasons, stress that they're undergoing. They might have been fired. They might have their wife or partner has left them. They might be extremely upset about something.

There've been a number of similar attacks like this. For example, there was one in Nice some years ago where a Tunisian man used a lorry to mow down a large number of people. Around 80 were killed in the city of Nice in southern France. In this case, a 50-year-old Saudi Arabian doctor, that's very unusual for a number of reasons. Very few of the terror suspects in Europe have been Saudis. Now, obviously, the 9-11 plot involved a lot of Saudis, but that was a long time ago, 23 years ago. 50 is quite old, and it's odd this.

I mean, there are a lot of things that don't really kind of stack up. There was no particular warning, not sure that there was any particular spike in traffic or gossip or chatter, as it's known as in intelligence circles, about an imminent attack. That said, only two months ago here in the UK, the Director General of MI5, Ken McCallum, said, look, we're dealing with a huge number of state threats, specifically Russia and Iran, but also terrorism hasn't gone away. And over 70% of the terrorism cases that they're dealing with are Islamist-inspired, i.e. Al-Qaeda or ISIS-inspired, where people have got a grudge against the West generally for its

policies largely in the Middle East. Frank Gardner, a senior US diplomat, has said that Washington is scrapping a reward for the arrest of Syria's new leader, Ahmed al-Sharah. Barbra Leaf was speaking after the first meeting between senior American diplomats and de facto leaders of Syria. It was described as positive. Other Western diplomats have already met officials from the HTS Islamist group, which overthrew President Assad.

It's still designated as a terrorist group by Washington, but delisting it would ease the path towards sanctions relief that the new Syrian authorities need. Our correspondent Lina Sinjab is in Damascus. She gave us this update. They said that they were productive and detailed and they went into discussing a variety of issues, but most importantly discussing the transition to a Syria-led government that is representative and inclusive of the whole society. They've discussed the issue of the security and stability in Syria, regional stability, and also some U.S. interests, especially related to the missing Americans in Syria during Assad's time, on top of them, Austin Theist, who went missing in 2012,

and that they are still looking for traces of his whereabouts and they will continue to do so in cooperation with this new leadership and other partners on the ground inside Syria. And the Americans say they're also hoping there will be no role for Iran in the new Syria. They basically said that Iran had messed up inside Syria, they've been part of the killing in Syria and they shouldn't have any role in future Syria, while other regional countries who supported Syria like Turkey, they will have a different relationship with the country. They basically stressed that the most important thing is the stability and sovereignty of

Syria and also maintaining security that will enforce security for the Syrian government, for Syrian territory, but also for regional countries. What are the Americans hoping to achieve with these talks? They are taking baby steps towards their relationship inside Syria. They haven't mentioned anything about lifting sanctions that have been imposed on the country during the Assad time because of Assad atrocities, nor mentioned that they will be discussing or thinking about delisting Haia Tahrir al-Sham as designated terror group. However, they also committed to supporting

the Syrian society and providing some aid into the country. But the lifting the sanctions that will help rebuilding the destroyed parts of Syria, that's something that's still not on the table yet. Lina Sinjab. As the new Syria struggles to take shape, old threats are reemerging. The chaos since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad is paving the way for the Islamic State group to make a comeback. That's according to a leading Kurdish commander, General Mazoum Abdi, who helped defeat the jihadist group in Syria in 2019. He's told the BBC that IS activity has increased significantly in recent weeks. The general heads the mainly Kurdish SDF,

a force backed by the US. They're also responsible for holding around 10,000 IS suspects in Syria's Kurdish northeast. Arsenia International correspondent Ola Gurin was given rare access to the largest IS prison there. It's extremely rare to get access inside these walls. There's iron gate after iron gate. All along this corridor there are numbered cells. There are guards here, all of them with their faces covered, one standing outside each of the cells.

We've been allowed to get a look inside one of the cells, but we've been told we can't speak to the men. The cell is quite full. There are men sitting on the ground, lining both sides, sitting on blankets and thin mattresses. This is the biggest detention centre for IS prisoners. Most of the men being held here were with IS until the group made its last stand. Kurdish security sources tell us they were deeply committed to the IS ideology. What happens to these prisoners is one of the big questions facing this country.

Hello, I'm Orla from BBC TV. We were taken to meet a detainee who didn't want to be named. He's 28 and hoping one day to get back to Australia. He said he was speaking freely, but on the key questions, he had little to say. Do you have blood on your hands? Were you involved in killing anybody with IS? No, I wasn't. Did you support what they were doing, what IS was doing? Erm, I don't wish to answer that question, because it might be affecting my case.

If you skip that question, it's OK. This was IS in its heyday in the city of Raqqa in 2014. It brutalised one third of Syria and Iraq before it was driven out five years later. A key role in that defeat was played by the SDF, mostly Kurdish forces backed by the US. General Masloom Abdi, commander of the SDF, tells us IS is now gearing up again. Of course, since the fall of the regime, there are more factors allowing IS to get stronger.

We see it in many areas. They have more capabilities and more chances. The prisons are more dangerous and face more threat of attack. The danger has doubled compared to before. And the hope has grown in places like Rojkamp. It's a bleak and windswept expanse of tents, home to almost 3,000 women and children, never tried or convicted. They are the families of IS fighters and supporters. I'm with the manager of the camp. For security reasons she doesn't want to be named. Can I ask you what has the mood in the camp been like since the fall of the Assad regime? They have started to hope and believe that someone will come to free them. They've

packed their bags ready to go. They say, we will get out of this camp soon and renew ourselves. We will come back again as IS. Even their children have changed after these events. If you pass them by, they will say some slogans and swear at you and say, it, meaning IS, is coming soon. We will come back soon and get you. There are growing fears that IS will attempt to free its people from camps and prisons here in the north-east. That's just one of the threats facing the new Syria.

That report by Ola Gurin. In a world where we so often hear of the threat to endangered species the new Syria. including an amphibious mouse with webbed feet and a blob-headed fish. Nestling between the Andes and the Amazon, Altamayo is a lush patchwork of jungles, wetlands and mountainous terrain. Trond Larsen was the expedition lead. He's Senior Director for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Science at Conservation International. Julian Marshall asked him if they knew they might come across something new in the animal world. We led this rapid assessment program expedition to the Altomile landscape with a grander vision of really filling the knowledge gaps that are needed to establish a new conservation corridor. And a big part of that is really identifying where the most important biodiversity is in the landscape. And that includes the discovery of species that may be new to science as well as species that are already known but that are rare or that

are threatened with extinction. And so the results of the study really show where a lot of these high priority places are for conservation. And it all happened very quickly, as far as I understand. Day one, a new species of climbing salamander, and shortly after, a new species of climbing salamander and shortly after a new species of butterfly. Yes, the discovery started to come in fast and furious. It's really an incredible dynamic and diverse landscape. We have cities and towns and territories of indigenous peoples and local communities, but also fragments and larger pieces of these wild ecosystems of all different forest types and swamps and cloud forests.

So it just hugely varied an amazing terrain across the landscape where all of this biodiversity as well as people are thriving. And you got very excited about the amphibious mouse. I did get excited about the amphibious mouse because it belongs to this group of carnivorous semi-aquatic rodents. On past expeditions, we always search for this group of rodents and they're almost mythical because they're just so difficult to find and so naturally rare in most cases and many species are just known by one or a few individuals.

So finding any is really exciting and to find one new to science is really thrilling. And as you say, you discovered these for science, but the people who live there live alongside these creatures, which is encouraging. It is encouraging. And we work closely with indigenous Awahoon people who have a lot of extensive traditional knowledge of the area. They were able to point the scientists to some of the best places where they could find really interesting species.

And things like the blob headed fish, which, you know, one of the best places where they could find really interesting species. Things like the blob headed fish, which one of the incredible new species discoveries we made is something that's very well known to the Awahoon people and it's one of the fish that they catch and regularly eat for food. Tell me a little bit more about the blob headed fish because it sounds extraordinary. It really is bizarre and extraordinary. It's a type of armored catfish and what's interesting is it looks like it's close relatives in every way except that it has this massive extension on the end of its head. It's hard to describe it as anything other than a giant blob, almost like a big strange

nose. And the scientists have never seen anything like it and we really have no clue what its function is. So the discovery of 27 new species, but you reckon there's a lot more out there. Yeah, we have at least 48 additional species that are potentially new to science that require further study. And there's also many species that are known but are really rare and threatened. Many of them actually critically endangered according to the IUCN Red List of Species,

which is the highest threat level they could be in. I mean, overall, is the discovery of new species outpacing the extinction of existing species? Well, that's hard to say. And of course, the discovery of new species doesn't necessarily change their conservation status, but it does help us to understand where things live, what things might have restricted ranges and be threatened with extinction, and ultimately to come up with better ways to make sure that they continue to survive into the future. Tom Blasson of Conservation International.

Still to come. The Chinese president Xi Jinping has been in Macau celebrating the 25th anniversary of its handover from Portugal to Chinese rule. Hello, Jackie Leonard here from the Global News Podcast. Did you know there is an easy way to get new episodes automatically, whether it's the Global News Podcast. Did you know there is an easy way to get new episodes automatically? Whether it's the Global News Podcast or indeed any of your other favourite BBC World Service podcasts, just find the show on your podcast app and then just click follow or subscribe. And if you switch on notifications, you'll get a reminder too.

It's that easy. Follow or subscribe and never miss an episode. at a site covering 16 square kilometres. Mickey Bristo reports. Like many things, the soil was contaminated following the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear facility in 2011. Much of it is topsoil collected in order to decontaminate vast areas surrounding the plant. Japan plans to use the least radioactive soil in civil engineering projects such as road embankments. More heavily contaminated soil will be disposed of. The International Atomic Energy Agency has approved the proposal. But as with the discharge of water from the plant, some people will not be happy. Mickey Bristo

The Chinese President Xi Jinping has been in Macau celebrating the 25th anniversary of its handover from Portugal to Chinese rule. Chinese TV live-streamed the day's event, showing children with flowers lining the streets. There were visits to Macau's Science and Technology University and a Chinese military garrison. It was also an important day politically as Macau's new leader, Sam Ho-Fai, was inaugurated and President Xi was keen to point out the success of the city since 1999. Macau residents enjoy more rights and freedoms than at any time in history. And the political and social foundation of one country, two systems has become more solid. But the special administrative region on the southern tip of mainland China is most famous

for its casinos. Millions of Chinese tourists flock there to gamble. And President Xi also called on the city to diversify and cultivate new industries. So could we see Macau change? I spoke to our China media analyst Kerry Allen. Absolutely and today there's been a real emphasis on that. The suggestion that 25 years on that Macau has has gone from being what some media have described as a backdrop for a lot of gangster films. It's a city associated with casinos. Instead, there's been an emphasis

that it's become a sports hub. It hosts the Grand Prix. It's becoming a growing place for education development. That Macau's going to be a real development hotspot in the next few years. For example, its GDP in 2023 was seven times what it was before handover. So there's a real emphasis that it's not just a city full of casinos.

The phrase many people use to describe Macau is one country, two systems. We've heard that phrase before in the region. Yes we have. Yes it's something that's also used to describe Hong Kong and generally the idea is that both Hong Kong and Macau are under the umbrella of China. Even though they have their own separate governments, that falls under the umbrella of the Beijing Communist Party government. So in a lot of respects, what you get in Macau and Hong Kong is more press freedom. You get more local development that isn't the same as mainland China. And also it's worth noting that Hong Kong's chief executive has also been at these events today. So there's really a message of all three regions coming together, but for China's overall development. And how well is one country,

two systems going down in Macau? Well, in Macau it's always been regarded as the good boy or the good girl when it comes to its relationship with the central government. The chief executive has always been a one-horse race. So it's always been known that there's going to be a towing of the party line, working very, very closely with China. You don't get as much with Hong Kong. In fact, we know in recent years there have been lots of demonstrations and protests in

the city. There's a lot of British expats who might want to change the status quo and not work so closely, kind of look back on the British era much more fondly than under China's reign. But Macau has not had that relationship. It's very much been regarded as very much toeing the party line and as a result developing at a fast rate. That's how Communist Party media often report this. The BBC's China media analyst Kerry Allen. Netflix has secured exclusive rights to show

the next two Women's Football World Cup tournaments in the United States. It's the first time the streaming platform has acquired live rights to a sports competition in full. Here's Elettra Naismith. The deal was announced by football's world governing body FIFA, which said it was a landmark moment for sports media rights and for the women's game. Fans in the US and in Puerto Rico will be able to watch every match in the 2027 tournament in Brazil and in the 2031 competition live. Netflix is promising an unprecedented celebration of women's football with exclusive documentaries and star-studded studio shows, reinforcing the tournament status as the single biggest women's sporting event on the planet.

Elettra Nesmith. Stonehenge, the huge stone circle in southern England, has long been thought of as a religious monument. Now a leading archaeologist and authority on the site says he believes it was built for political reasons to unite early farming communities and not specifically for religious worship. Earlier this year it was discovered that the altar stone which is laid flat in the middle of the monument could only have come from northern Scotland. The other upright stones that make up the circle are from West Wales. Professor Mike Parker Pearson from University College London told James Menendez about his theory.

We're looking at a time in prehistory when politics and religion were two sides of the same coin. I think there's been a misunderstanding for hundreds of years that Stonehenge was some kind of temple. I'm coming around increasingly to the idea that it's really a monument, that it was built to remember, monumentalize. It's particularly the ancestors and the stones, of course, coming from different parts of Britain are indicative of where those people's ancestors resided. It might seem odd, why would you want to put huge stones in your luggage and pull them hundreds of miles? But of course we've got to understand that these stones were more than just objects. These must have

been emblems of identity and ancestral belonging. So to actually move them from one part of the country to the other is making a huge statement about joining in and belonging within a wider and larger territorial group. What was that political statement? Was it trying to forge unity or trying to commemorate some sort of unity? I think what they're trying to do is to construct it. The moment that the Autostone arrived at Stonehenge, as far as we can gauge, around 2500 BC, so that's four and a half thousand years ago, that's a really pivotal moment in not just British but European prehistory, with the arrival of groups from the continent of Europe. So it may well have been that this indeed was part of a legitimation of the sense of

unity, which of course was very much under discussion and possibly under threat. Professor Mike Parker-Pearson. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod.

This edition was mixed by Chris Hansen. The producer was Liam McShaffrey. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Danny Cox. Until next time, goodbye. podcast. Did you know there is an easy way to get new episodes automatically? Whether it's the Global News podcast or indeed any of your other favorite BBC World Service podcasts, just find the show on your podcast app and then just click follow or subscribe. And if you switch on notifications you'll get a reminder too. It's that easy. Follow or subscribe and never miss an episode.