The Guardian US briefing is going on vacation. We're taking a break after Thursday, 22 December but will be back on Tuesday, 3 January. Happy holidays! Berlin police 'seeking Tunisian man' in connection with attack Police are searching for a Tunisian man in connection with the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people on Monday, German media are reporting. Der Spiegel reported that police had found an identity document under the driver's seat of the truck in the name of Anis A, born in Tataouine in 1992, and that the suspect was believed to use different names. The documents announced a stay of deportation, Der Spiegel, Allgemeine Zeitung and Bild reported. Checks are being made in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the suspect was registered. Police sources have told German media that the suspect had applied for asylum and that his case was under review. He was reportedly known to police as a dangerous person with links to Salafist groups in western Germany. Authorities had previously said they had received more than 500 leads that could help them identify the suspect. A 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker who was arrested as a suspect was released on Tuesday evening after police acknowledged they had caught the wrong man. Follow our live coverage for updates throughout the day Death penalty in decline Judging by all the indicators, capital punishment is slowly disappearing from the US. The end of year report from the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonpartisan authority on the subject, reads like the final will and testimony of the practice. Among its findings: this year 20 prisoners have been judicially killed, down from 28 in 2015 and well below the peak of 98 in 1999. The slow decline seems poised to continue, as the power to terminate the practice rests with the supreme court and the president-elect is likely to nominate a hardline conservative to the bench. Despite the drop in executions, there was still a sufficient number to generate deep unease about the nature of the prisoners' convictions and stomach-churning spectacles within the death chamber. Death penalty slowly disappearing from the US, end-of-year report suggests Aleppo: last evacuation buses delayed The last buses meant to evacuate rebels and civilians from Aleppo have been delayed for nearly 24 hours for reasons that are not clear, according to human rights monitors. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 60 buses carrying 3,000 evacuees were waiting to leave eastern Aleppo – the final step that would surrender the Syrian opposition stronghold to the government. It also said 21 buses were waiting to evacuate the sick and wounded from Fua and Kefraya, two Shia pro-government villages that have been besieged by rebels for years. Evacuations from east Aleppo resumed on Monday after four days in limbo, when it appeared the truce might unravel. Last Aleppo evacuation buses still waiting to leave besieged city – monitor Time is running out to help the Guardian in 2016 As 2016 comes to a close, we'd like to ask for your support. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but far fewer are paying for it. And advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. The Guardian's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too. Support the Guardian by becoming a member or making a contribution. Deadly fireworks market explosion rocks Mexico An explosion has ripped through a fireworks market on the northern outskirts of Mexico City, reportedly killing at least 31 people and injuring 70. More than a dozen children suffered burns to over 90% of their bodies and were being sent to the US city of Galveston, Texas, for treatment, said Eruviel Avila, the governor of the state of Mexico. The explosion flattened the San Pablito market, where many people make a living from manufacturing fireworks, often in clandestine workshops. More than 80% of the 300 stalls at the market were destroyed by the explosion, said state official Jose Manzur. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation. Mexico fireworks market explosion leaves at least 31 dead Smog refugees flee Chinese cities in 'airpocalypse' Tens of thousands of "smog refugees" have reportedly fled China's pollution-stricken north after the country was hit by its latest "airpocalyse" forcing almost half a billion people to live under a blanket of toxic fumes. Huge swaths of north and central China have been living under a pollution "red alert" since last Friday when a dangerous cocktail of pollutants transformed the skies into a yellow and charcoal-tinted haze. "You ask me why I left Beijing? It's because I want to live," a woman told the Guardian. Smog refugees flee Chinese cities as 'airpocalypse' blights half a billion Detained children want their freedom for Christmas Today the Guardian publishes the Christmas wishlists of children aged two to nine years old, who are spending their second consecutive Christmas in an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania. Some asked for toys, like other children their age. But each card bears the same essential request: "to get out of here". For more than a year, the children have been held along with their mothers under the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The families held at the center have all been issued expedited deportation orders, but those are on hold pending a legal challenge brought by the ACLU against the terms of their removal. At immigration detention center, every child has same Christmas wish: freedom Obama bans drilling across Arctic and Atlantic Barack Obama has permanently banned new oil and gas drilling in most US-owned waters in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, a last-ditch effort to lock in environmental protections before he hands over to Donald Trump. He used a 1953 law that allows presidents to block the sale of new offshore drilling and mining rights and makes it difficult for their successors to reverse the decision – though his ban is unprecedented in scale and could be challenged by Trump in court. Trump has vowed to unleash the country's untapped energy reserves and exploit fossil fuels, previously questioned the science of climate change, threatened to tear up the Paris climate agreement and appointed climate-change deniers in his cabinet. Barack Obama bans oil and gas drilling in most of Arctic and Atlantic oceans And finally ... highlights from the Guardian's 2016 US coverage 2016 was a turbulent year for the world – and a defining moment for the Guardian's fearless independent journalism in America. Revisit some of our coverage, from our Anywhere but Washington series to Spencer Ackerman's three-part investigation exposing CIA attempts to hide the truth about torture. | 
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Police sources have told German media that the suspect had applied for asylum and his case was under review. Photograph: Silas Stein/EPA 
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