this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. my name is mike embley. a senior repuiblican finally break ranks with donald trump, mitch mcconnell, the most powerful us republican, after the president, congratulatesjoe biden on his election win. safe, and 94% effective, medical tests open up a path for the approval of a second us vaccine. days before covid restrictions are relaxed in england over christmas, two leading medical journals say that would be a mistake, and could cost countless lives. and, a royal deal with spotify, the duke and duchess of sussex agree to produce and host, a series of podcasts.

the republican leader of the us senate, mitch mcconnell has formally acknowledged thatjoe biden won last month's presidential election. it's the first sign of a split between the party's leadership and donald trump, who still maintains, without any evidence, that he is the rightful winner of november's vote. here's mr mcconnell speaking on the senate floor on tuesday. so, today, iwant to congratulate president—electjoe biden. the president—elect is no stranger to the senate. he's devoted himself to public service for many years. i also want to congratulate the vice president—elect, our colleague from california, senator harris. beyond our differences, all americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president—elect for the very first time. mr biden has gone to the state of georgia to campaign for the democrats in next

month's senate run—off elections. he gave a speech in atlanta. two seats will be decided on 5 january, and if the democrats win them both, they will split the senate total 50—50. but as the vice—president kamala harris would have the casting vote in the event of a tie, the democrats would control all three of the white house, the senate and the house of representatives. in both races, a republican incumbent faces a democratic newcomer: jon ossoff, 33, a documentary filmmaker is competing against senator david perdue, who is 70. while senator kelly loeffler, 50, is up against reverendt raphael warnock, 51, a senior pastor at an atlanta baptist church. jon and raphael are running on the commitment to be senators for all georgians. i'm asking you what you're already doing to support them, because if you do, the doors of promise and progress are going to open in washington. we're going to start to get done what we have to do, and more than anything,

we'll make the lives of every georgian, the lives of every american better. we can now speak to our north america correspondent, david willis, who is in los angeles. first of all, this move from mitch mcconnell, significant? highly significant. a senior member of the republican party, of course, and mitch mcconnell basically saying the electoral couege basically saying the electoral college has spoken sends a message to fellow republicans who, up to now in many cases have been unwilling to accept joe biden‘s victory in this election, to basically give up the fight, and more than that, mitch mcconnell also said, in a private meeting with senate republicans, that they should not endorse any moves by house collea g u es not endorse any moves by house colleagues to try to challenge the electoral college vote when it comes up for consideration by thatjoint it comes up for consideration by that joint meeting it comes up for consideration by thatjoint meeting of congress in three weeks time.

so basically the message from mitch mcconnell is that it is over, we must now move on and he offered his congratulations as well to joe he offered his congratulations as well tojoe biden and kamala harris. just looking specifically at the senate, there is so much talk ofjoe biden being a guy who works across the aisle, who knows how to do deals whatever the odd but nobody plays hardball like mitch mcconnell plays hardball. so much importance rests on georgia. if the democrats don't get both seats in georgia masturbating's administration is in trouble already, isn't it? it absolutely is, and george are of course is a state that was once considered a republican stronghold. now it has become a very interesting political battleground, one whichjoe biden won byjust 12,000 vote, flipping the state from donald trump and there is everything to play for there, because control of the senate rests on the outcome of that election on the fifth of

january, and of course victory therefore the two democratic contenders could mean thatjoe biden has a lot more leeway in terms of pressing home his agenda, in regard to the economy, in regards to the coronavirus and of course in regards to climate change. david, thank you very much for that. joe biden has nominated his former rival pete buttigieg to be transportation secretary, a move that would make him the first openly gay member of an american cabinet. mr buttigieg, who was the mayor of south bend, indiana, campaigned for the democratic nomination for november's election, but later dropped out of the race and supported joe biden. the 38—year—old has also served as a us navy intelligence officer in afghanistan. the us food and drug adminstration has opened the way for a second vaccine to be approved for use in america. the moderna jab has been found to be safe, and 94% effective. authorisation is likely to happen soon and and shipments of the jab could begin within 2a hours. it comes with the us

desperately struggling to contain the virus. let's speak to dr david diemert from george washington university. he's been principal investigator for the moderna vaccine trial that's been taking place at his university. how big a deal would you say this is? huge. we were thrilled to be part of such an amazing effort. couldn't be happier. there are of course other vaccines already and other vaccines already and other vaccines to come. how does it work having so many others? is it not likely for so many others to confuse the issue? it's very possible, but i think that we need as many different accents as we can get. there are only about 30 or a0 million doses that we are going to have of the first two to be licensed or have approval in the us by the end of the year, and we need over 300 million people to be vaccinated just in the us alone so we need as many

different ones that we can get. what is different about this vaccine and what are the chances of the virus adapting to it? both the pfizer vaccine that got emergency use organisation last week from the fda and also was approved in the uk and also the moderna vaccine are both what are called mrna vaccines. it is a relatively new type of vaccine but trying to be highly effective stopping there are other kinds of vaccines, other make—ups that are being tested and hopefully will also be approved, but sure, they could be confused, but i think us as clinicians have to be as upfront and explained in simple language what we are giving to people. 9496 effective sounds great. i guess it still means that about an one and 20 people, it will not work for them. will also be the concerns that there are with the pfizer vaccine that they pregnant women should not take it,

people who have the kind of allergies that necessitate them taking an epipen? the type of allergic reaction that has been reported with the pfizer vaccine in the uk, those two cases have not been observed with the moderna vaccine and i should point out they were not observed on the trails of the pfizer vaccine either. as far as pregnant women, neither of them are going to be contraindicated in pregnant women. the advice that has been given by the fda is that use in women who are pregnant should be made in consultation with their provider but they are not contraindicated. it sounds as though it will prevent many people developing covid—19. do you know yet whether it will stop people who are asymptomatic spreading it? we do not know that yet, but we will be getting that information. it is too early for all the data to be analysed and the samples that have been collected to be tested to

a nswer collected to be tested to answer that right now. you are right, it does stop people from getting sick, and when you said before that one in 20 might still get the virus, it might not be as bad or as severe. we do know that both the moderna and the pfizer vaccines that prevented people from getting severe illness, even if they did get infected, so an added bonus. really appreciate you giving us yourtime, bonus. really appreciate you giving us your time, thank. bonus. really appreciate you giving us yourtime, thank. —— thank you. there's growing pressure on the four home nations of the united kingdom to make changes to the covid rules agreed for the christmas period. further talks will take place tomorrow amid concerns that the guidelines as they stand will lead to a very significant rise in cases. two leading medicaljournals have joined forces to warn that easing the rules for a 5—day period is rash — and will cost many lives. the bbc‘s health editor hugh pym reports. christmas mixing will be a big mistake, that's the bleak message from two publications representing health and medical leaders. if the rules agreed by the uk's administrations which allow

some household mixing aren't changed, they argue that virus cases will escalate and the nhs will be overrun. the real striking, stark truth of the matter is that our health system is not going to manage if we allow the current trend to continue on top of the super spread event that will be these five days of christmas with three or more households meeting. people will find it hard to stick to those rules. but ministers were sticking to the line that people should make their own decisions within the rules set out. we have to trust the british people to act responsibly and do the minimum necessary for them within their family situation. but we should recognise it has been a very difficult year for many families. many families will want to come together. but the government at westminster is facing calls to look again at the planned easing of restrictions over christmas. i say to everybody, look at the evidence as it is, the last two or three days have

seen a spike in infections going up, notwithstanding the tiered system. we can't stand back and ignore that, this needs to be reviewed and this needs to be done pretty urgently now. and scotland's first minister suggested there might need to be a rethink. it's important we have that discussion across the four nations, given family patterns across the uk, but i do think there is a case for us looking at whether we tighten the flexibilities we are giving any further both in terms of duration and numbers of people meeting. the politicians will have to gauge public opinion. spending time together was not going to be the best thing... joe has already cancelled a christmas trip to see his sister. i think people just have to be sensible this year. and really think deeply about what really matters to them. but others have made plans they say will be hard to change. the turkey's on order. £15 turkey. if there's onlyjill and i for christmas dinner that's a hell of a lot of turkey to eat.

you're happy to have your injection today? yes. vaccination centres are now up and running including this one at barnet football club where they're hoping to get through 350 jabs each day, starting with the over 80s and the first appointments today. vaccination centres like this may have got under way but it will take at least four weeks and two jabs to build up protection and the process of getting through the most vulnerable patients will take time. and doctors in this north london area are very concerned about the rising case numbers they're seeing now. it is a phenomenal threat, it is very, very worrying. the number of cases and results coming in with patients being covid positive and actually unwell, especially at this time of year when we have the easing of the lockdown, people are mixing with each other, mixing with families, it's rising. some european countries are tightening up in response to higher infections but allowing a little leeway over christmas.

the uk's governments will continue talks tomorrow on how to strike the balance. hugh pym, bbc news. european countries are being forced to tighten restrictions ahead of christmas, following record daily cases and deaths this month. the netherlands has announced a new five week lockdown while germany will enter a hard lockdown from wednesday. anna holligan reports from the hague. the dutch had been dreaming of a relatively relaxed christmas, but over the weekend, photos of crowds cramming into city centres combined with an infection rate that's now almost double the dutch government's worst case scenario has meant there's a sense of inevitability about the christmas crackdown, which ironically means the dutch will be celebrating under what constitutes the country's toughest lockdown yet. translation: i'm sad that it has to be done, but it is important. yeah, i think that it's necessary. yeah, unfortunately. so, from today, all nonessential stores are closed, along with things like museums, cinemas, theaters

and amusement parks. restaurants, cafes and cannabis coffee shops can keep on serving takeaways only. and lots of these pink signs have been going up in protest from businesses that feel as though they're being unjustly targeted without enough state support to keep them afloat. traditional german christmas markets aren't as busy this year. most have already been cancelled, and a hard lockdown is coming into force as the number of deaths and infections has been surging. nonessential shops and schools will close from the 16th of december until the 10th of january. after weeks of national lockdown, travel restrictions within france are being eased today, meaning families can get together over the festive break. the infection rate remains stubbornly high, though. a nationwide curfew will be in place from 8pm in the evening, which will be lifted on christmas eve, but not

on new year's eve. italy is currently seeing the highest number of deaths since the end of march, and prime minister giuseppe conte has told italians to expect a more sober christmas without gatherings, hugs and kisses. there'll be a travel ban in place between different regions, but he reassured people father christmas is exempt from all global travel restrictions. until now, the netherlands has been reluctant to impose some of the stricter measures adopted by neighbouring nations. but with the number of covid—related deaths now approaching 16,000, hospital admissions increasing, infections rising sharply and pressure on the health sector intensifying, a full—blown lockdown comes in later than many had hoped. anna holligan, bbc news, in the hague. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: six weeks after the us election,

president putin offers his congratulations tojoe biden — the man who described russia as, the biggest threat facing america. music. chanting. saddam hussein is finished because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes, but they brought a formal end to 3.5 years of conflict, conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement. the romanian border was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off from the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out. from sex at the white house

to a trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteed bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: a senior repuiblican finally break ranks with donald trump. mitch mcconnell, the most powerful us republican after the president, congratulatesjoe biden on his election win. safe and 9a % effective — medical tests on a vaccine from the moderna lab open up a path for the approval of a second us vaccine. the russian president, vladimir putin, has congratulated joe biden on his victory in the us election six weeks ago. the announcement was issued shortly after the us electoral college officially confirmed mr biden's win over donald trump. according to the kremlin:

these diplomatic words tell one story, but what can we really expect in the biden—putin relationship? here's our moscow correspondent steve rosenberg. i think russia is expecting a very different kind of u.s.—russian very different kind of u.s. —russian relationship now. forfour u.s. —russian relationship now. for four years, u.s. —russian relationship now. forfour years, donald u.s. —russian relationship now. for four years, donald trump went out of his way not to criticise rutter, not to criticise rutter, not to criticise vladimir putin and at times openly praised vladimir putin. joe biden is very different. a vocal critic of the kremlin and someone who has for many years, expressed criticisms of russian policy and recently he labelled russia the main threat to america. let's speak to angela stent, an expert

on us—russia relations and author of ‘putin's world: russia against the west and with the rest‘. good to talk to you, thank you for your time. i know you have your own sources, people you have been talking to, what do you read into the delay in russia doing this and the fact they have finally done at?|j think the russians were sitting back and enjoying the spectacle of all the polarisation in this country and the chaos. the official line was they were waiting until the wind was officially confirmed, which was yesterday when the electoral couege yesterday when the electoral college voted and at that point they wrote that it voted that they wrote that it voted that they needed to recognise that joe biden would be the next president if they wanted to develop any workable relationship with him. waiting longer would have been bad. russian media really have been enjoying the stolen election theories and one host even offered donald trump asylum!

something which some americans would also think was a good idea! and all the official media, many of them have been parroting conspiracy theories here, that this is a stone election and that donald trump actually won but if you look at what nick, they have had a field day with that. —— sputnik. with significant things are to come? you two know each other but it is unlikely to be a loving, isn't it? they know each other but joe biden has been quite explicit that russia is a major threat. he has been very critical of putin. putin has been more reserved about him, may be. at best, the relationship will be normalised, we have had the strange situation where we had a president who wanted to have a president who wanted to have a wonderful relationship with russia and the rest of the executive branch of the congress took a tougher line is that you will have a unified policy and i think there will bea policy and i think there will be a focus on arms control, the

major challenge. the new start agreement which regulates the strategic nuclear weapons that the us and russia possessed between us, we have 90% of the wild boars nuclear between us, we have 90% of the wild boa rs nuclear weapons, that expires on february the fifth —— of the world's nuclear weapons. and if we can agree to extend this in five years, no changes will be made to the agreement otherwise the senate will have to vote on that and get tricky. i think we will definitely see that will be one focus but i think beyond that, you are going to see tougher rhetoric and the space for cooperation will be limited but i think there will be a normalisation of relations inasmuch as the traditional channels of communication say between the state department, the russian foreign ministry and other ministries will be restored. there has been real atrophy in the last four years. specifically about tougher rhetoric, the biting team have

talked about money laundering, there is a built—in clash there. democracy promotion and there. democracy promotion and the promotion of human rights and global anti— geography are important platforms of the biting team and that clearly will cause some frictions with russia. thank you so much. -- global anti— laundering. the islamist group boko haram says it abducted hundreds of schoolboys who were taken from a boarding school in northern nigeria on friday. this happened in katsina state, in the north—west of nigeria. about 800 students were at the all—boys government science secondary school when the attack happened. and at least 333 students are still missing. 0ne boy managed to escape byjumping out of a window — but he hasn't seen his twin brother since. translation: i was afraid, totally afraid. but what frightened me the most was that my brother would be in danger. when i looked for him, i couldn't see him.

boko haram's claim of responsibility has not been confirmed. the state governor of katsina has tweeted: "the abductors of our children have made contacts with the government and talks are ongoing to ensure their safety and return to their respective families. the security agencies deployed for rescue operations have also informed us that they have located their position." 0ur correspondent, mayenijones, is in kano, the capital of katsina state. the reason why this attack is particularly significant is because this shows that boko haram's area of activity, if it's true that they carried out this latest kidnapping, is expanding way beyond where they've traditionally been active in the north—east of the country. this would be the first attack of its kind in this part of nigeria, which is frankly a quite worrying trend. there's growing and strong criticism as to the president's performance when it comes to tackling security in the country. if you'll remember, he was elected in 2015 on the promise that he would tackle

the problem of security, particularly when it came to jihadi violence. earlier this year, there were protests in the north—west of the country because kidnapping here has been such a huge issue, and i think that this latest kidnapping — particularly the number of students involved, 300 of them, some as young as ten years old — is really a big blow to the buhari administration and their performance on the security front. harry and meghan — the duke and duchess of sussex will produce and host a string of podcasts for spotify, signing a multi—year deal with the audio streaming giant. the couple will make their debut in a holiday special set to be released this month just in time for christmas. in a statement, spotify said that the couple will create content that "uplifts and entertains audiences around the world". here's a little of the promotional clip which the sussexes released to publicise their new venture. should we, should we start? no, ladies first? no, say it cos i think it sounds really nice with your accent. what, archewell audio? yeah. archewell audio. i mean, really?

shall we? yeah, let's do it. hi, guys, i'm harry. and i'm meghan. one of the things my husband and i have always talked about is our passion for meeting people and hearing their stories. and, no matter what the story, they usually offer you an understanding of where someone else is coming from. and at the same time, remind you in some way of a story about yourself. and that's what this project is all about, to bring forward different perspectives and voices that perhaps you haven't heard before. you get the idea. just a few weeks ago, we brought a story to you about ghana, a spaniel puppy to you about ghana, a spaniel puppy who had a close encounter with an alligator! we can now bring you an update and not only is gonna making a speedy recovery but last week he was deputised by the sheriff and enlisted to teach children about safety and the sheriff

said that gunner's tenacity will serve an important lesson to the local children. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @bbc mike embley. hello there. tuesday night started on a dry note, but it's turned increasingly wet and windy during the early hours of wednesday courtesy of this deep area of low pressure moving up from the south, the centre of it moving across the republic of ireland. a swathe of rain and gales spreading across much of wales, western england, northern ireland and into scotland. so, wednesday's going to certainly start very windy, with gales at times. but the winds will slowly ease down through today. and there will be heavy rain for many of us. now, the heaviest of the rain will be across northern and western areas through the morning, pushing northwards across scotland. meanwhile, this band of rain will spread eastwards, exiting wales and western england and arriving towards the eastern side of england late in the day, although not reaching the far

south east and east anglia probably until after dark. a windy day for all, though not as windy as how the day will start. we'll see plenty of showers pushing into northern ireland and western scotland. some of these will be heavy. temperature, on the face of it, 9—11 degrees, which is fairly mild for the time of year, but when you factor in the wind, it might not feel quite as mild. now, that rain eventually reaches the far south east during wednesday night. it clears away and then we're into clear spells and blustery showers. some of these will be heavier across some western areas. but because of the strength of the wind and the showers around, its going to be a largely frost—free night, with those lows of 5—7 degrees for many of us. so that's wednesday's low to the north of the uk. we're in between weather systems for thursday, so a brief respite before the next system arrives later on thursday and into friday. so, for thursday, we should see quite a bit of sunshine around, some areas staying dry altogether across eastern scotland, eastern england. most of the showers will tend to be across western areas and they could pep up to produce longer spells of rain later in the day, particularly in the far west, as this frontal system arrives.

and it will be quite mild here, generally mild, but those values a little bit lower across scotland and eastern england. then as we head on into friday, you can see plenty of isobars and active weather fronts right across the country. it's going to be very wet indeed with some heavy rain in places, and very mild, too, though as we head on into the weekend, slightly cooler air will push in from the west. so friday is very mild, very wet and windy, the risk of flooding in places. we'll see sunshine and showers as we head on into the weekend. it'll start to turn cooler, particularly on sunday.

anna holligan, bbc news, in the hague. this is bbc news,

the headlines: mitch mcconnell, the most powerful us republican, after the president, has finally broken ranks with donald trump, and congratulated joe biden on winning the presidential election. mr mcconnell also urged fellow republicans not to object to the result when congress meets to ratify it. a second coronavirus vaccine looks set to be approved for emergency use in the us. the food and drug administration says the moderna jab is safe and 9a% effective, and it can be stored at higher temperatures than the vaccine developed by pfizer and biontech. if approved shipments could begin within 2a hours. pressure is increasing for the uk government to revise its relaxation of covid restrictions in england over christmas. days before the changes, two leading medicaljournals say the move would be a mistake, that could cost countless lives.