this is bbc news, i'm nancy kacungira with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. us cyber—security experts say a major hacking campaign, uncovered this week, posed a "grave risk" to the government's nuclear stockpile. no breakthrough in the post—brexit trade talks, the eu and the uk both warn of major obstacles ahead. safe, well and on their way home. nigerian officials assure the parents of more than 300 schoolboys, ta ken captive by gunmen last week. and, the british actor jeremy bulloch, who played boba fett in the original star wars trilogy, has died aged 75.

hello and welcome to the programme. a long—running cyber attack targeting government departments in the united states has now affected the two agencies managing the country's nuclear stockpile. investigations into the hack are continuing, but some analysts and politicians have blamed it on russian intelligence. our washington correspondent, lebo disekojoins us now. good to see you. so, we know that a number of government agencies have been affected, but this could go even further than we think right now, couldn't it? yes, the part of the department of homeland security that deals with cyber security said that the hackers did notjust use one method of

gaining access, and therefore it could be much larger than we think and as you said, this list of agencies that has been affected, from the pentagon to the treasury too, as you said, probably the agencies you would least wa nt probably the agencies you would least want to be impact said by something like this, those in charge of the upkeep of the nuclear stockpile have all been affected and this has been going on since march so for nine months the hackers have been able to gather this information and do, we don't know what with it, but it is a very, very serious concern. as you said, it has been called a grave risk to the federal government. and just how much urgency is there about this in the current administration, because we have heard president—electjoe biden said that this will be a top priority for him but we haven't heard from donald trump? priority for him but we haven't heard from donald trump7m priority for him but we haven't heard from donald trump? it was quite appointed from joe biden actually saying that it would

bea actually saying that it would be a top priority for him and it really contrasts with the fa ct it really contrasts with the fact that we haven't really heard anything from donald trump typically about this. his administration hasn't blamed it on russia specifically, the government has acknowledged that there is this attack that has taken place and obviously it isa has taken place and obviously it is a worry for them, but they haven't placed the blame on russia themselves. russia has denied responsibility, but obviously it is extremely concerning and joe biden using that to kind of point out the differences between their two approaches to this. and is there any sense yet of how officials are going about trying to deal with this hack? interestingly, in the last few hours the national security agency did put out quite a complex, technical statement basically giving advice on how to mitigate the impact of this attack and explaining the different methods that the attacks may be able to target

the infrastructure of the it systems. the fbi is investigating how this has happened and various agencies, they are actually companies that were involved as well who are also helping them, there is are also helping them, there is a sense of urgency for sure, i suppose it goes back to what you said about donald trump not having said anything, what many people are saying is that there needs to be some kind of statement from the top on this too. thank you very much, and we will have more for you on that story as we speak to a cyber security expert later on in the programme. britain's prime minister, borisjohnson, says talks to reach a post—brexit trade agreement are in a serious situation with a no—deal scenario now very likely for the uk, unless the eu position changes substantially. mrjohnson‘s comments came following a call

with the european commission's president, ursula von der leyen late on thursday. the bbc‘s political correspondent chris mason reports. ina in a fortnight‘s time on new year's day, the uk's relationship with the european union will have changed and changed substantially. and yet, two weeks out, we don't know if that new arrangement will be with an overarching trade deal or without one. what we do know is that the differences between the two sides which stand in the two sides which stand in the way of a deal are significant. last night there was another phone call between the prime minister and ursula von der leyen, the president of the european commission, and guess what? they agreed their teams would carry on talking. ina teams would carry on talking. in a statement after the call, borisjohnson said:

for those wanting a deal, the eu's comments contained a splash of optimism. ursula von der leyen said: and yes, both sides acknowledge how much fish can be caught on each other‘s waters isn't yet sorted out. and the issue of state aid is a problem too. supports either side can give toa supports either side can give to a domestic industry without breaching the terms of any agreement. the uk doesn't like agreement. the uk doesn't like a suggestion from the eu that support that comes from brussels rather than a member state should be exempt from any limits on state aid. both sides do want to do a deal if they can find one that is mutually acceptable, but that is no

guarantee one will happen. chris mason, bbc news. hundreds of schoolboys, kidnapped in northern nigeria last friday, have been released. the governor of katsina state says 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 obviously comes as a huge relief to the parents. so the state government has told the bbc that 344 boys have been released and are currently on their way from a forest in zamfara to the state capital of katsina in north—western nigeria. we are not clear whether that is the total number of boys who were abducted, there was always some doubt as to how many boys had been taken. the state government said it could be anywhere from 340—400 boys. boko haram claimed that they took 523 boys, so there is some questions about how many

boys have been released and whether it's all of them. in terms of responsibility, the extremist group boko haram have claimed that they were responsible for the attack. the 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 that showed dozens of young boys looking distressed in the forest, begging the nigerian government to call back their troops and say that some of their peers had been killed in air strikes. according to state officials, that's not the case. all of the boys that they've recovered are alive. this will be great news for their parents, some of whom have been waiting anxiously at the school where the boys were taken last friday, waiting for news. there has also been protests in katsina state calling for president buhari to bring back security to the state. it is unclear what the authorities intend to do

to avoid this type of incident moving forward. schools in the region are currently closed until they‘ re able to figure out how to keep them more secure. let's get some of the day's other news. 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 expected to authorise its use on friday, paving the way for six million doses to start being shipped as early as this weekend. brazil's supreme court has ruled that vaccination against covid—i9 should be compulsory and that parents will not be able to claim religious or moral exemptions from innoculating their children. cases were brought by a group who argued that compulsory vaccination was in breach of their individual liberties. tropical cyclone yasa has hit the pacific island nation of fiji. with winds of more than 300 kilometres an hour, authorities imposed a nationwide curfew. power was cut to much of the country as the cyclone

approached. sony has stopped the world—wide sale of one of the most highly—anticipated video games of all time, just days after its release. customers complained that cyberpunk 2077 kept crashing and freezing. the game's creators have apologised and said they would fix the bugs. in sydney in australia, the city has been hit by a sharp rise in coronavirus cases after months of low numbers being reported. health authorities reported a significant new cluster of infections in northern coastal suburbs, prompting the new south wales government to urge a quarter of a million residents to remain in their homes for at least the next three days. let's speak to our correspondent phil mercer who's in sydney and joins us via videophone.

good to see you feel, what happened? the authorities here in sydney are racing to identify the source of new infections in the city's northern beaches region. the number may be comparatively small but in the australian context as it is very significant stop at the new south wales government says that if this outbreak isn't brought under control within 2— three days there could be more restrictions. we have more than 250,000 residents of the northern beaches are effectively being told to stay at home. residents from other suburbs, other parts of the city, other parts of the state of new south wales have been told to stay away, too, and i think it is telling that the new south wales health minister brad hazzard explaining what has described as an avalanche of complacency for this

outbreak. australia, since the pandemic began, has recorded about 28,000 known cases of coronavirus, 908 people have died but this cluster in syd ney‘s died but this cluster in sydney's northern beaches is another sharp reminder that the fight against coronavirus here in australia is far from over. not out of the woods yet. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a full sports round—up — including the polish striker who beat ronaldo and messi to be named the world's best male footballer. music and 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: us cybersecurity experts say a major hacking campaign uncovered this week posed a "grave risk" to the government's

nuclear stockpile. no breakthrough in the post—brexit trade talks — the eu and the uk both warn of major obstacles ahead. let's get more on our top story. we can now speak to bryan cunningham, who is a a leading international expert on cybersecurity and a former deputy legal adviser to the white house national security council. he has extensive experience in senior us government intelligence under previous bush and clinton administrations. thank you very much forjoining us thank you very much forjoining us today. thank you. let's get an overview here. because, this seems to be getting wider and wider, even though it's been going on for nine months now? well, first and most importantly, to say in any situation like this, it is early reports are almost always wrong. my guess is this is going to get worse before it gets better. the fsb, the

russian intelligence service, a lwa ys russian intelligence service, always use multiple layers of attacks, so, my guess is, not having classified information at this point, but my guess is they have backdoors built into their backdoors and this is spread to probably every government contractor connected to the us government system, whether it is only bad or catastrophic will be known in time, but it is bad. you are painting quite a dire picture there. but talk to us a little bit about the methods that were used. because they have managed to infiltrate government agencies, including a nuclear—weapons agency? how did they do this? this is a great example of what cybersecurity experts have been warning for for a long time, it's essentially a supply attack. if you think of the entire cyber ecosystem of government agencies and private lenders, the wea kest agencies and private lenders, the weakest link is i was going to be the most effective point of attack. —— is always. rather

than going directly to the defence department or the nuclear security agency, the fsb went to government contractor solarwinds, and because they penetrated solarwinds and got backdoors into their systems, it seems like they were able to get to every customer of solarwinds, or could have had the opportunity to deduct, and that 18,000 customers. so —— opportunity to do that. so, the attack on fireeye would enable our enemies to take the tools from fireeye and attack our systems. but it seems fireeye wet it because they were also a customer of solarwinds. this thing can reach as far as solarwinds as customers and farther than that, because once they're in government systems, asi they're in government systems, as i said, they will push their attack tools out to other

companies connected to those systems. there are suggestions the level of sophistication you are describing there suggest that it was a nationstate behind this. would you make of that? it's notjust the level of sophistication, it's also the targeting. most cyber terrorists or cyber criminals are not going to care about the national nuclear security agency, this almost certainly was a nationstate, but only because of its sophistication, but because of the targets they chose to focus on. so we're in this position now, we were in it during the 0bama administration and drug administration, where none of our governments have punched the bully back in the face —— trump administration. they admitted and will continue to do whatever he can get away with it until the united states and its allies push back and show there is a penalty to doing this. bryan cunningham, thank you for sharing your expertise with us today. thank you. let's have the latest sport from the bbc sports centre. hello, i'm katie shanahan,

and this is your friday sport briefing. robert lewandowski and lucy bronze were the big winners at the fifa best awards on thursday night — named as men's and women's player of the year. they both helped their clubs to domestic and european trebles last season. lewandowski with bayern munich, and bronze with lyon, before rejoining manchester city. if you win such an award, and you share that tied to with massey and rinaldo, that is unbelievable —— title with messi and rinaldo. a long time ago, i remember that messi and rinaldo. a long time ago, i rememberthati messi and rinaldo. a long time ago, i remember that i was longing for this, for something like this, and now i can win such an awards good at it's incredible to be compared to lionel messi and christian rinaldo, that is an honour. what a surprise to be even nominated alongside two other players, you know, who i know

very well, both incredible players and outstanding beings as well. so, to be alongside two players of that stature is incredible. as for football on the pitch, manchester united are up to sixth in the english premier league after winning at sheffield united. marcus rashford scored twice as united came from a goal down win 3—1. the blades remain bottom, with one point from 13 games, while manchester united are now level on points with everton in fifth place. in italy, henrikh mkhitaryan was among the scorers as roma beat torino 3—1, to move into the top four. torino were down to 10 men by the time mkhitaryan opened the scoring with his seventh goal of the season. the pick of the goals was this team effort finished off by lorenzo pellegrini midway through the second half. the result takes roma level on points with third—placed juventus.

to golf, and lexi thompson of the usa leads ahead of the friday's second round of the cme group tour championship — the last event of the season on the lpga tour. there's $1.5 million for the winner of the tournament, and they'll also win the season—long race to the cme globe, and claim the order of merit on the lpga tour. thompson — the 2018 champion — opened up with a 7—under—par round of 65, for a one—shot overnight lead. last year's winner, kim sei—young, is two shots off the lead on 5—under—par. and here's a real star of the future. meet charlie woods, he's 11 years old and son of the 14—time major winner tiger woods. they'll be taking part in the father/son challenge at the pnc championship in florida this weekend. young charlie's got quite a swing on him and he's clearly going to be just as competitive as his dad.

it's just so much fun for me to see him just enjoying it. enjoying this opportunity to, uh, be out here and, uh, he is competitive, yes, as far as being competitive and shipping, thatis being competitive and shipping, that is part of what we do. —— chipping. and wayne rooney's son is also following in his dad's footsteps after signing for manchester united. kai, who's now 11, was pictured alongside his dad and mum coleen, signing a contract with the club. united's record goalscorer wrote on twitter: "proud day. kai signing for @manutd. keep up the hard work son." no pressure, then! you can get all the latest sports news on our website, including day two of the first test between australia and india. just visit bbc.com/sport. but from me — katie shanahan — and the rest of the sport team,

that's your friday sport briefing. the british actorjeremy bulloch, who played boba fett in the original star wars trilogy, has died aged 75. he was best known for playing bounty hunter, boba fett, in the empire strikes back and return of thejedi. the character has since featured in the second season of star wars spin—off series, the mandalorian. jeremy bulloch also appeared in the james bond film 0ctopussy, and the doctor who series in the 1970s. with me is our news reporter paul hawkins. it is sad news for star wars fans, then? especially the hard—core star wars fans, because of course boba fett is the bounty hunter in two of the original three movies. he appears in two of the original three films, the empire strikes back return of the jedi, and he doesn't appear in many scenes, doesn't have many lines. the voice was actually done by another actor, like darth vader. jeremy bulloch didn't do the voice but he did play

the actor and likewise as dave prowse who played darth vader, ha had to have some physical presence on stage. —— he had. so he actually based it on clint eastwood's the man with no name, from the famous western character, because both had gaits, both moved slowly, the way they held their guns — he based it on that. so that's what he's best known for. there's actually one bit of trivia which is there's a famous scene where in which princess leia shouts out, "it's a trap!" to luke skywalker and jeremy bulloch also played the imperial officer, there you can see him the background, who then marches princess leia off set. i think we have a steal of it

now. so he played two different characters in the same film which not a lot of people know. and actually, they didn't have anyone to play that character so he went and grabbed the costume and 20 minutes later he was on set. two characters in one film! that is a good bit of trivia. i was looking on twitter earlier and the star wars account obviously broke this news. there was a lot of sentiment around him. it's have been pouring in, haven't they? skywalker, played by mark hamill, said he was the quintessential english gentleman. a fine actor, good company and great to everyone. billy dee williams, who played the original lando calga cn in the original lando calga cn in the original lando calga cn in the originalfilms said the original lando calga cn in the original films said today we lost the best hunter in the galaxy. george lucas, the creative star wars said he brought the perfect combination of mystery and menace to boba fett. his family said he had a long and happy career spanning more than 40 years. his devoted

wife, three sons and ten grandchildren were missing. as well as star wars he appeared in doctor hu, the bbc sci—fi tv series, and he also appeared in three james bond films, playing smithers, who helped james bond test his gadgets —— doctor who. cubero much. —— thank you very much. finally, a romantic interlude at a translation. this train is being driven bipolar as you put into dublin's peer station. keep your eye on the left of the screen. you can your eye on the left of the screen. you can see a your eye on the left of the screen. you can see a carefully placed placed series of placards filling out the phrase will you marry me? at the end of the platform was her boyfriend with flowers in hand. as you can see, the answer, thankfully, was yes. 0ther irish rail staff were in on the plan and made sure another driver was on hand to replace

paula. that is something nice to and with. stay with us here on bbc news. —— to end with. 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 haveissued an amber rain warning. that rain could be bringing some travel disruption and some flooding, up to 100mm 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 end 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. as only the second president ever to be impeached.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. betting on a bailout. us markets close at new record highs, as congress inches towards a new $900 billion financial rescue package plus, last chance saloon, talks continue on a brexit deal, with both sides downplaying the chances of success. we start in the us, where stock markets have closed