Newshour

The former French president Nicholas Sarkozy has gone on trial today in Paris. He is accused of illegally taking funding from the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Prosecutors allege the men struck a deal to fund Mr Sarkozy's ultimately successful campaign for the presidency in 2007. In return, they say he promised to help Colonel Gaddafi shed his pariah status on the world stage. The former French president denies the accusations.Also in the programme: Hamas has released a list of 34 hostages that it says it is willing to release in the first stage of a potential ceasefire agreement with Israel. We speak to the daughter of one of those on the list; and the efforts to save the endangered Iberian Lynx in Portugal and Spain. (Picture: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives on the first day of his trial. Credit: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

Thousands of rival demonstrators have been protesting in South Korea's capital Seoul where the impeached president President Yoon Suk Yeol is refusing to hand himself in to investigators.Also on the programme: Venezuela's opposition leader, Edmundo Gonzalez, is touring South America ahead of the inauguration of Nicolas Maduro who he insists lost last year's presidential election; and we ask - after 15 months of war - is there anywhere in Gaza where Palestinians can still get medical treatment? And we'll hear the sound of a prison choir from Mississippi.Photo: People take part in a protest against the impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol near his official residence in Seoul, South Korea, January 5, 2025. (Credit: REUTERS/Tyrone Siu)

A bell tolls 39 times outside the childhood home of the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, as commemorations for his life and service to his country begin. We hear from his grandson and Democrat activist, Angelo Fuster who was working in the state capitol of Georgia when Jimmy Carter entered politics in the 1960s.Also on the programme: A supporter of the new government in Syria defends its decision to remove the teaching of evolution from the school classroom; and how the new teenage darts champion of the world is helping the game attract talent even younger.(Photo: A military body bearer team carries the casket of former President Jimmy Carter Credit: Brynn Anderson/Pool via REUTERS)

German officials have told the BBC that a decision by the new Islamist authorities in Syria to erase evolution from the school curriculum is troubling - a concern that is echoed by many Syrians. We hear from Germany's Special Coordinator for Syria and from Syrian writer Rima Flihan. Also on the programme: The US Surgeon General has called for risk warnings on alcoholic beverages, similar to the labels on cigarettes, following new research that links the drinks to seven types of cancer; and why a New York judge is insisting on sentencing US president-elect Donald Trump days before his inauguration.(Photo: Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and Syria's newly appointed Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, in Damascus, Syria January 3, 2025. Credit: Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via REUTERS)