this is bbc news — i'm kasia madera with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. nigerian officials say more than three—hundred schoolboys taken captive last week by gunmen, are safe and well — and on their way home. us medical experts grant emergency approval to moderna's coronavirus vaccine — paving the way for it to be shipped, as soon as this weekend. britain warns that post brexit trade talks are in a serious situation — we'll examine how the uk's busiest trucking port could be affected even if there is a deal. the bbc‘s moscow correspondent gets the chance to put questions directly to president putin — at his annual meet—the—press session. and — the british actorjeremy bulloch, who played boba fett in the original star wars trilogy, has died aged 75.

hundreds of schoolboys, kidnapped in northern nigeria last friday, have been released. the governor of katsina state says that 344 children are on their way back from the forest where they were being held. the bbc‘s nigeria correspondent, mayenijones, is in kano in katsina. she says the news comes as a huge relief to their parents. (tx sot) so the state government has told the bbc that 340 for boys have been released and they are currently on their way from the forest in the neighbouring state to the state capital. we are not clear whether that's

the total number of boys who were abducted . there was over some doubt as to how many boys have been taken. the state government says it could be anywhere from 342 for hundred boys. boko haram claimed they took to 523 boys. there are some questions about how many boys are released and whether it's all of them. in terms of responsibility the extremist group boko haram has claimed that they were responsible for the attack. state authorities say that it was local criminals, kidnappers for ransom. with some connection to the extremist group. all of this news comes off the back of a video allegedly coming from boko haram on thursday it showed dozens of young boys looking distressed in the forest. begging the nigerian government to pull back the troops saying some of their peers have been killed. in airstrikes. according to state officials that's not the case. all of the boys that they have recovered are alive. this will be great news for their pa rents. some of who have been waiting anxiously at the school where the boys were ta ken last friday. waiting for news.

the president to bring back security to the state. it's unclear whether the authorities tend to do to avoid these types of events moving forward. schools are currently closed until they are able to figure out how to keep them more secure. i've been speaking to bulama bukarti — a boko haram expert and analyst at the tony blair institute for global change. what we should understand is that boko haram is not a centralised one group that is committed to one operation together. it has always been a group with terror cells in different parts of nigeria. and so different parts of nigeria. and so by my assessment this is the bandit criminalgroup so by my assessment this is the bandit criminal group that has beenin bandit criminal group that has been in nigeria operating in the northwest for ages. and have recently developed be a relationship with boko haram as either members or associates. it doesn't matter whether it's

boko haram it's coming from the northeast or recruiting its local associates to commit this attack. 50 that is a worrying development attack. so that is a worrying development in terms of the reach of boko haram. yes, it is. unfortunately, this incident has demonstrated boko haram his barbarity and also its expansion into northwestern i even its expansion into northwestern ieven during its expansion into northwestern i even during its heyday in 2014 boko haram has never had a cell in the northwest. it is always sent fighters from the northeast. this time they have succeeded in recruiting locals in the northwest and this is a very worrying development. governments must pay attention to. you touched up on 2014, that was the year that boko haram abducted 300 schoolgirls. many are still missing. yes, many are still missing unfortunately over 100 girls are still missing. even those who were freed were only freed after years in captivity. after

being subjected to use sexual slavery. that's why it is hardly for these boys. they spent long six miserable days but it is nowhere compared to the girls who have been in captivity for six years now. let's bring you up—to—date with some of let's bring you up—to—date with the other days news. the a panel of experts in the united states has voted in favour of granting emergency approval to moderna's covid—i9 vaccine. the us food and drug administration is now expected to authorise the vaccine on friday, making it the second to be cleared for use in the united states. it paves the way for six million doses to start being shipped imminently. 0ver over a ledge doping. the royal was to prevent athletes from pleading under the rushing flag at next years tokyo 0lympics the 2022 winter olympics and the 2022 winter olympics and the 22 football work—out. the

anti—doping agency had initially given a four year ban in december 2019. a court in france has jailed a morrocan man for life, afterfinding him guilty of a terror attack on a paris—bound train in 2015. ayoub el khazzani opened fire in a carriage, but was foiled when his automatic gun jammed. he was overpowered by passengers, including two off—duty american servicemen. india's supreme court has refused to block large—scale farmers' demonstrations, saying they have the right to protest, so long as there's no violence. the court was responding to petions compaining about closed roads. thousands of farmers have been protesting for three weeks against new laws they say will hurt their profits. borisjohnson has spoken to the president of the european commission, ursula von der leyen on the phone as uk and eu negotiators continue to try to thrash out a post—brexit trade deal.

mrjohnson says the talks are in a very serious situation with time running out. meanwhile the chief executive at the port of dover, europe's busiest trucking port, says he's expecting disruption when britain finally pulls away from the eu's trading rules at the start of next year. from dover, simonjack, reports. radio: there are long, long delays because of lorries waiting to get into the docks into dover. this might be the most important trade route in europe, the approach to dover. 9,000 lorries a day transport nearly a fifth of all goods bought and sold in the uk. avoid the a2 in that area at all costs. that wasn't an option for these drivers this morning. here on the road, six hours. six hours in traffic? there are still two weeks to go before the biggest change in decades to trade with our biggest partner, so is dover ready? the port is as prepared as they can be. we've been at this for four years now.

i think the most uncertain thing is how prepared is business to trade post 1st of january? there's an aspect of our operation where certainly if we add some additional friction to it, it's going to slow things down but the critical thing will be, at what point is that a tipping point? because it will take 24—36 hours via other routes to do the same thing that we can do in about six hours via this route. dover is the most important artery serving the blood stream of uk business and the challenge ahead is set against the logjam of other issues: disruption coming out of china, people bringing christmas stock, brexit stockpiling and on top of that, in 14 days, a whole new set of procedures for the first time in decades, requiring paperwork that many businesses haven't mastered, which they will need — deal or no deal. at the moment, they seem to be stuck in calais. logistics director adam shuter said he's seen truck movements rise 50% as traders scramble to get stuff in before year end. he said his customers haven't been given all the information they need.

the detail is not there and because the detail's not there, people are saying, yes, we need to get ready but they don't know what to do and in lots of respects i think they're just giving up and i think they're just saying, we'll wait and see what happens. brexit will mean 200 million additional customs declarations, requiring tens of thousands of customs agents that we don't have, according to a man who is training new agents. it could well be that we have a chronic shortfall of customs agents. it's the export side of things, that's what really worries me because if you want to take your goods to france, you've got to do an export from now on and if you've got no means of doing that, it's going to be hard to find that means when it comes to the first january because if you came to our company, we'd almost certainly turn you away and most other agents would as well. we just don't have the staff to take on the additional work. the government has provided grants for training new agents and will waive requirements for customs forms on imports tilljuly but this isn't about lorries, it's about toys, car parts and building

supplies going undelivered. supply chains are fraying before the uk's journey into the unknown. simonjack, bbc news, dover. to sweden — where the king says his country has failed in its efforts to tackle coronavirus. since the start of the pandemic sweden has attracted international attention for not introducing a mandatory lockdown nor ordering the wearing of masks — instead it relied on people adhering voluntarily to social distancing rules. for a while that seemed to be working but in recent weeks the numbers of cases and deaths has risen sharply prompting a change in course by the government — and a lot of soul searching over the country's approach. sweden's king rarely gives interviews and it's even less common for him to say something controversial. here's some of what he said. translation: i think we have failed. we have a large number of people who have died. and it's awful. it's something we all suffer

from, that we have not been able to help them, and it's sad. it's terribly sad. a ban on a injust two weeks, a ban on single—use, non—degradable plastic will come into effect in major chinese cities, with the rest of the country following suit by the end of 2025. that's sparked a rush to produce biodegradable plastic, which is marketed as a green alternative. but a new report from greenpeace says switching from one to the other is not the solution to china's pollution crisis and could be making it worse. mollyjia is a greenpeach plastics campaigner and wrote the report. i asked her to explain her concerns over biodegra bable plastic. the main point from our report is using biodegradable classics to solve the plastic solution problem. it's not only for china it's actually for the world. and our biggest concern

about biodegradable plastic is, when we hear something is biodegradable we would think that this disappear in nature really fast. but most biodegradable plastics don't break down naturally in the environment fast. and they require very special facilities. high temperatures, this kind of special facility won't in the most of the world including china. there are more concerns about it. the production of biodegradable plastics contain chemicals. and most of them are harmful to the environment. and potentially for human beings as well. so the biodegradable plastics are potentially harmful. what happens if they don't naturally biodegrade then and there aren't facilities to break them down, what happens to them? if they can't go into the composting facilities having high temperatures

and the right conditions for them to break down they wil just stay as long as several months or years or even longer. basically they will be behaving the same as conventional plastic. i see. when it comes to the pandemic and the lockdown and everything else that's been happening, how has that enhanced or increased the demand for plastics across china? the pandemic makes single use packaging more in demand. also the e—commerce sector is booming. especially this year because everyone is ordering from home. that will create a much more bigger packaging waste problem. many companies are seeking biodegradable is as a solution.

but it is clearly not a solution. even diet biodegradable is not really biodegradable and adds to package ways. the better alternative would be to develop more reusable systems and get rid of single use. still to come, short, sharp and hopeful — celebrities and key workers with their message in just six words at the end of a year like no other. 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 — nigerian officials say more than 300 schoolboys taken captive last week by gunmenare safe and well and on their way home. us medical experts grant emergency approval to moderna's coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for it

to be shipped as soon as this weekend. russia's president has dismissed claims that his security services had anything to do with the poisoning of kremlin critic alexei navalny. vladimir putin said if they'd been behind the attack on mr navalny — who's still recuperating they would have finished thejob. president putin was appearing at his annual news conference in moscow. steve rosenberg, went along and spoke to the kremlin leader. this was something new. video conferencing with vladimir. due to the coronavirus pandemic, for his annual end of year news conference, russia's president took social distancing to the extreme and stayed at home. forfour and a half hours, journalists competed for a chance to ask the kremlin leader a question. he speaks russian. mr president, i ask,

after 20 years in power, don't you accept at least some responsibility for the new cold war between russia and the west? or are the russian authorities squea ky—clean? translation: i feel responsible for what is going on in russia, for its people, and i will do everything in the interests of russia. as for being squeaky—clean, we are, compared to you. you promised that nato wouldn't expand into the east, but you didn't keep your word. shouting. i asked, too, about mr putin's most vocal critic, alexei navalny. experts in sweden, france and germany, confirm he was poisoned by novichok. can you explain to me, steven, president putin says, why can't they provide us with an official report about the use of this novichok? you're asking me, i reply.

i'm the journalist here, i say. i ask the questions. i'm sorry, replies mr putin, i'll continue to answer it. now that is rare. an apology to a bbc correspondent, from the president of russia. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. more than two thirds of english population will be living under the toughest covid rules on saturday as southern more countries move into tier 3. it comes admits in a surge in infections of 35,383 cases recorded on thursday up from 25,161 on the previous day. the changes comejust 25,161 on the previous day. the changes come just days before the five day relaxation of rules over christmas. here's our health editor hugh pam.

the government said the tightening was required to bring virus cases down. no one wa nts bring virus cases down. no one wants tougher restrictions anywhere than necessary. but where they are necessary we must put them in place to prevent the nhs from being overwhelmed and protect life. labour offered support for the new tier moves but called for tougher rules over christmas. portsmouth got support haven't moved up from tier 2 to tier 3. health officials say virus case rates in all age groups are increasing across most of the area. local people gave us their reaction to tighter restrictions. i think we should have been put into tier 3 a bit sooner. have been put into tier 3 a bit sooner. just to sort of keep it lower again. portsmouth has got quite a high rate of covid. and i think we are already half that rate. i know we are so closed it must be awkward but i think it would've been better

to stay in tier 2. tier 3 restrictions require no household mixing indoors or in private gardens. pubs bars and restau ra nts private gardens. pubs bars and restaurants are closed apart from takeaway. accommodation like hotels are also shut there is advice against travel out of the area. but over the festive season three households can form a christmas bubbles. pubs bars and restaurant will still be closed accommodation will be open for individual household. travel is permitted in tears in uk nations there with warnings to people to think carefully before going. pressure on the nhs is mounting with more covid patients and fewer beds because of social distancing. london's hospitals are understood today to be under particular strain. here's what's been happening with daily covid hospital admissions in the southeast of england. the solid line bear is the seven—day rolling average. and you can see it's been rising pretty steeply in recent weeks and is back where it was in late apriljust after the

peak of the first way. here's what's been happening in the northwest of england. hospital admissions rode sharply through 0ctober admissions rode sharply through october and then came down a bit. although they do appear to have leveled off. hospital sector leader told me the christmas season create further problems. if people push those rules much stronger than they should and they don't exercise proper restraint than what you can see is a very large number of people coming into hospital in january. of people coming into hospital injanuary. and of people coming into hospital in january. and the of people coming into hospital injanuary. and the nhs finding it very difficult to treat all of those patients. one area has moved down to tier i. that means up moved down to tier i. that means up to six people can't meet in households. this is really exciting it's good to see that coronavirus is not bad here. it means we can socialise more. go spend more time with ourfamilies. more. go spend more time with our families. especially now it's near christmas was up and it's near christmas was up and it gets a nice idea that it's tier1. ithink it gets a nice idea that it's tier 1. i think we still need to be very, very aware of the situation. and even here health officials are worried ones that

they were disappointed and that relaxing the rules just ahead of mixing at christmas would inevitably result in more infections. these agents said he died in hospital of complications after living with parkinson's disease for many years. our reporter paul harkins has been looking into his career another sad day for star wars fans. yes, really sad. 45 year career in film started out in film summer holiday 1963 with sir cliff richard. he's best known for playing the bounty hunter bobo set in two of the original star wa rs set in two of the original star wars films the empire strikes back and return of thejedi. he based the character, we should say by the way for those who don't know the bounty hunter is

very much a peripheral character in the star was found. he's not like darth vader or luke skywalker or princess leia. 0n the periphery but his gained cult status over the years. doesn't appear in many scenes, doesn't have many lines in affect the lines he does deliver weren't even delivered by him buying someone else. but like dave prowse who played darth vader but didn't do the boys. jeremy bullock was all about a physical presence on site. in that regard he based a lot of that movement on clinton eastwards man with no name. in fistful of dollars from the famous western films with the cave, the way he held his gun, etc. and the way he moves quite slowly. he based the character on him. also interestingly, a bit of trivia, in the empire strikes back he also plays an inferior officer. he placed two characters in the same film a bit where princess leia is warning luke skywalker at that it's a trap and one of

the officers grabs princess leah and marches and that's him. that's the guy who plays but with that. bit of trivia there. he also went on to play sort of a bit part characters injames sort of a bit part characters in james bond films sort of a bit part characters injames bond films are deposited and the spy who loved me he was also in the bbc‘s 19705 me he was also in the bbc‘s 1970s series dr who. i love that bit of trivia. you talk about him being a periphery of the character but of course he had the huge impact and tributes pouring in. daniel logan who took up the role in the 2002 attack of the clones star wars series, that's one of the three that then followed the three that then followed the prequels. said a ledge and i'll neverforget all you taught me i love you forever. george lucas who created star wa rs george lucas who created star wars said jeremy brought the perfect combination of mystery and menace to his performance of but with that. he called him

a true gentleman. very supportive of star wars fans. he's known to have gone to all the conventions. mark hamill who played luke skywalker has tweeted, describing him as the quintessential english gentleman. a fine actor, delightful company. bd williams who played the original land are ca ree see who played the original land are caree see said today we lost the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. sad indeed. thank you paulfor talking us through that. lots of reaction to the reaction thatjeremy bullock has passed away 75 years old. just time to tell you that a romantic interlude at a train station that would make any hollywood script writer proud. this is the view from the irish rail passenger train she pulls into dumplings station. keep your eye on the left of the screen. you can see a carefully placed series of placards spelling out the phrase it will you marry me. waiting at the end of the platform is her

boyfriend. in hand and as you can see, i'll give you a spoiler alert, the answer was yes. congratulations to both of them. how lovely. hello. 0ur spell of unsettled and mild mid—december weather is set to continue for another few days yet, before things get a little bit cooler into next week, but certainly for friday, it's going to be a windy day, very mild once again with some heavy rain around. now, the heaviest of the rain will be affecting south wales, where the met office have issued an amber rain warning. that rain could be bringing some travel disruption and some flooding, up to 100 mm falling over the higher ground of south wales. now, through the course of the early hours of friday, that rain is moving its way in from the west. throughout friday, it's going to be heavy for the south west of england, wales, moving into northern england, into scotland as well. this is 3pm in the afternoon. not only will there be a lot of heavy rain, it will be drier in the south east.

but the gusts of wind will reach around 60 mph three exposed parts of the irish sea, 30—40 mph gusts of wind elsewhere. northern ireland will see that rain clearing to leave sunshine and some scattered showers, but a wet and to the day for much of scotland, northern england, wales and the south west. very mild once again, 13—14 degrees. we could see 15 celsius and one or two spots. that rain will continue its progression, across east anglia and the south east, during friday evening and overnight into saturday. so, again, it's an unsettled picture as we head through into the first part of the weekend. plenty of showers on the map first thing saturday, frost—free certainly once again with overnight temperatures between about 7—11 degrees to start off your weekend. so the weekend will be dominated by an area of low pressure sitting out towards the north—west. we're going to be seen showers rotating around that area of low pressure, driven in on quite a brisk south—westerly wind, so still quite a mild direction, but a little bit cooler than it's been over recent days. lots of scattered showers, most of them in the west

and along some of these exposed southern coasts as well. sunny spells, nowhere immune to catching one or two showers, but generally driest in the east. temperatures still around about 10—12 degrees, a touch down on recent days. heading on into the second half of the weekend, and it's a fairly similar story, with a mix of sunny spells and a few scattered showers, again mainly in the north and west, but some coming in along the english channel as well. not quite as warm by this stage, temperatures around about 8—11 degrees on sunday. stays unsettled and a touch cooler as we head into the middle part of next week. bye for now.

this is bbc news.

the headlines — a senior official in nigeria says that more than 300 schoolboys, who were kidnapped last friday, have been handed over to government security forces. the katsina state governor says the boys are all alive and in good condition. a panel of america medical experts has voted in favour of granting emergency approval to moderna's coronavirus vaccine. the food and drug administration is expected to authorise the use of the jab within 24 hours, making it the second to be cleared for use in the united states. officials in dover, england's busiest trucking port, say their business is likely to be affected even if there is a post—brexit trade deal. britain's prime minister, borisjohnson, has spoken to the president of the european commission as uk and eu negotiators continue to try to reach an agreement. now on bbc news, it's hardtalk.