this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a five year—old boy has been rescued from a well in morocco where he had been trapped since tuesday. his conditon is not known. new appointments at number 10 as prime minister borisjohnson shakes up his team following the resignations over the downing street parties.

ministers in the uk are strengthening legislation that will force global social media companies to take down harmful content more quickly. a parent whose daughter took her own life wants the heads of these firms to be held to account. you're talking about human lives, and you can't excuse anything that doesn't prevent that. and the controversy over china's winter olympics intensifies as beijing is accused of using a uyghur athlete as a propaganda tool.

n0 sound. a structure, at least we believe, out of that well. this is an ambulance pulling away the last half hour or so. we know they have been successful at taking the boy out of the well but yet we don't know the boys condition, we haven't had that confirmed. let's speak to duncan kennedy, our correspondent. duncan, this is happening in the last half hour or so, this is happening in the last half hour orso, bring us this is happening in the last half hour or so, bring us up to what has been happening. hour or so, bring us up to what has been happening-— been happening. certainly some extraordinary — been happening. certainly some extraordinary scenes _ been happening. certainly some extraordinary scenes coming - been happening. certainly somei extraordinary scenes coming out been happening. certainly some i extraordinary scenes coming out of northern morocco this evening. hundreds and hundreds of people cheering, shouting, we are not sure

exactly what state of play is going on here because nothing has been confirmed yet. we are not even sure, confirmed yet. we are not even sure, confirmed weiss, that rayan awram has been brought out. there appears to have been a stretcher passed among emergency workers and that stretcher appears to have been put into an ambulance tyke vehicle and driven on in amongst what looks like bedlam there. many people shouting and screaming. clearly that bad things the boy has been brought out alive but visibly haven't had that brought out yet. all we know is he has been there since tuesday, so getting on for five days there. he was out with his dad, his dad was maintaining a well, and rayan awram fell down one of these wells, and thatis fell down one of these wells, and that is where he has been the last four, dublin —— days. they managed to get a camera down there during the week and it appeared to show a little boy with a bloodied face and

he appeared to be moving at that point but that was really tuesday and wednesday. they also managed to get down what we think was some oxygen pipes, maybe even a water pipe, but we are not sure whether rayan managed to operate these and take in any of the water. they think you might have done but they have not got that confirmed. and since that time, since tuesday, they have been digging this parallel trench, because the wits of the whole he fell down is about this wide, so it is about ten inches, that 25 centimetres wide, far too narrow for an adult to get down, so they have had to dig a parallel trench next to this and did in that way. and all throughout today, we have been learning they have been five metres closer to rayan, for me to sell you on this evening they were talking about being 80 centimetres away from him. and just about being 80 centimetres away from him. andjust in about being 80 centimetres away from him. and just in the last 20 minutes or so, him. and just in the last 20 minutes orso, news him. and just in the last 20 minutes or so, news has come through that what appears to be a rescue of rayan, but again, everybody being

very cautious, no confirmation from the moroccan authorities.— very cautious, no confirmation from the moroccan authorities. duncan, we are 'ust the moroccan authorities. duncan, we are just hearing _ the moroccan authorities. duncan, we are just hearing from _ the moroccan authorities. duncan, we are just hearing from reuters - the moroccan authorities. duncan, we are just hearing from reuters news i are just hearing from reuters news agency, i willjust read what we are getting from them. a moroccan boy trapped in a wealth of five days has died. the royal palace said in a statement carried by state media on saturday. so, this from the reuters news agency saying mccracken —— a moroccan boy trapped in a wealth of five days have died. the royal palace said in a statement. carried by state media on saturday. that is from the reuters news agency, and clearly that is a devastating conclusion to this five days of desperate efforts to save him. absolutely dreadful because we know his parents have been at the well throughout all this. his father was there when rayan fell through. the father has been quoted as saying he

just took his eye of his son for a split second, turned around, and rayan had fallen down this well how. his mother has been at the scene as well. in effect, praying for her son to be rescued. there was a huge rescue operation, but it has been incredible difficult. they can go down the well holed itself, that was too fragile, too brittle, they didn't want to bring all the rubble and sand down on a rayan himself, so they had to spend this four or five days digging in sideways, if you like, and whether that was a factor in this, whether he managed to survive the early hours of this incident, because we saw him moving on those camera pictures from tuesday going into wednesday, what happened after that we simply don't know. it may be that he couldn't get enough oxygen, he couldn't get enough oxygen, he couldn't get enough water. if these reports coming out of the royal palace are true, rayan hasn't managed to

survive this. it was a huge operation, literally hundreds of emergency workers, rescue workers, civil defence workers who had come into help run these cranes and these diggers that had been pouring away at the rocks and rubble next door to the hole where rayan has been. it has been a frantic 2a hour operation going on for the past four or five days. many of them have been working to exhaustion and they have been wanting to carry on author the effort to try and get out. other teams have been there as well. for the final few metres, there had teams have been there as well. for the finalfew metres, there had been using pvc and metal tunnels to shore up using pvc and metal tunnels to shore up the access point that they had been going in on so the rubble and the sun doesn't come down on them. it appears tonight as though they simply ran out of time in this huge effort to get rayan out of this well. 3 effort to get rayan out of this well. �* , , ., effort to get rayan out of this well. ~ ,, . ,, ., effort to get rayan out of this well. �* , , ., , , ., ., well. a desperate, desperate turn of events. well. a desperate, desperate turn of events- we — well. a desperate, desperate turn of events- we are _ well. a desperate, desperate turn of events. we are hearing _ well. a desperate, desperate turn of events. we are hearing that - well. a desperate, desperate turn of events. we are hearing that king - events. we are hearing that king

mohammed has sent condolences to his parents, again, a statement carried by the state media. duncan, thank you. we will keep you right up—to—date with any more we do here from the country. borisjohnson has appointed two new members of his back—room staff at downing street — in a move he said in a statement would "strengthen the role of my cabinet and backbench colleagues and accelerate our defining mission to level up the country." the cabinet office minister steve barclay becomes the prime minister's chief of staff, while formerjournalist guto harri is made his director of communications. it follows the departures of five senior members of borisjohnson's staff in the last few days. my colleague ben spoke to the columnist from the article this and former conservative advisor ali miraj and started by asking him what he thought about steve barclay's new role. well, steve barclay is someone i have known for many, many years. he is an exceptional candidate for thisjob. a highly credible very hard—working.

hasn't really put a foot wrong. he was the cabinet office cabinet secretary, so he has been doing a very importantjob trying to deal with the small votes. issue and multiple other issues, including veterans affairs, a whole gamut of issues he has been dealing with. before that, he was also brexit minister, and she also worked for rishi sunak as chief secretary to the treasury so, he is well connected with both number ten and ii and i think he is a highly credible candidate for this job. and it looks like the prime minister is actually getting a grip things, finally. steve barclay, correct me if i am wrong, is cabinet office minister. has he got time to do both that job and his newjob? well, i'm not sure exactly how it is going to work, it is all very hot off the press so we will have to wait and see how it operates. but certainly bringing in someone of steve's calibre right into the heart of downing street

and the cabinet office is just down the corridor anyway, so steve barclay is in daily contact with the pm anyway, manages a number of key committees already, but he is certainly a really credible figure. and he is also someone who has done the hard graft and politics. the charge against dan rosenfield, who by all accounts was a perfectly decent man, ex treasury civil servant, the outgoing chief of staff, but not someone with political nous. steve barclay is the opposite. he not only has got a serious experience in the private sector from his time at the fsa, but he has also got significant political experience, and she is also someone who didn't get elected, having fought in 01, didn't get elected in 05, got elected in 010. so he is someone who has played the long game, put the hard yards in, a highly credible figure. what about the new director of communications, guto harri? someone well, again, it looks like borisjohnson is returning to people who he knows can deliver and who he trusts. guto harri, again, someone who is credible, someone from his old days at city hall

who worked hand in glove with the prime minister. i was surprised that guto was not playing a more prominent role in number ten a lot earlier than this so again it looks like he is going back to trusted confidant who he knows can deliver, who he knows can do the job. confidant who he knows can deliver, and guto harri is very experienced, formally on your patch at the bbc. a huge amount of background steeped in dealing with these issues. and, i think again, credible addition to the team to lead the communications effort. we are turning to the breaking news about the five—year old boy who was trapped in the world. we can speak to hassan alaoui, a journalist who has been following the story. can you bring us up—to—date with the very latest information you have?

well, unfortunately, rayan is dead. well, unfortunately, rayan is dead. we were hoping to have some good news, even if it doesn't make sense for this story to end in a good manner because if you spent five daysin manner because if you spent five days in the bottom of a well, and you are only five years old, it is very unlikely that you can survive this terrible experience. so, tonight, at around 9:30pm local time, 8:30pm gmt, the ambulance came to the front door of this cave, and the rescue team just put the body there is rayan and left, and we didn't know at the time what was happening. but, then, we had the breaking news, the king himself,

king mohammed the sixth, he called the father and mother of rayan and presented his condolences to him cash to them live on television. this is something that never ever happened in the history of morocco, that the king himself expresses his condolences to family live on television. after that, isawjust condolences to family live on television. after that, i sawjust a short bit of the news at nine o'clock here, and there was an official statement from the palace itself. and it confirmed the bad news, unfortunately, and it said that the king is very sad to know about the outcome of this experience for rayan but this is god's well, and we can't do anything about it. —— god's well.

and we can't do anything about it. -- god's well-— -- god's well. listening to you describe those _ -- god's well. listening to you describe those events - -- god's well. listening to you describe those events of - -- god's well. listening to you describe those events of the i -- god's well. listening to you l describe those events of the last hour gives a sense of the scale of all this, not only the scale of numbers of people directly involved in the rescue effort but the amount of concern and good wishes from millions of people notjust in the country but around the world. exactly. this storyjust gripped the attention of not only moroccans but people all over the world and people were ringing television channels that were 2a hours broadcasting the story since tuesday when it started. and everyone in every country was praying and hoping against hope probably that the outcome will be a positive one. but unfortunately tonight they said nearly 45 minutes ago we saw the end of this rescue

operation which was a titanic one because you can't believe the amount of rubble and soil that was removed to reach rayan and the amount of, or the number of rescuers from all over the number of rescuers from all over the country. it is unbelievable the number of people who were involved in this operation. and it is unbelievable. the whole thing was turned upside down there and unfortunately the outcome was not as everyone was expecting but it is a terrible experience, not only for rayan, who died, unfortunately, for his family, but for the entire moroccans who were holding their breath and hoping and waiting for this story to finish. it breath and hoping and waiting for this story to finish.— breath and hoping and waiting for this story to finish. it has been an awful few minutes, _ this story to finish. it has been an awful few minutes, half— this story to finish. it has been an awful few minutes, half an - this story to finish. it has been an awful few minutes, half an hour. this story to finish. it has been an| awful few minutes, half an hour or awfulfew minutes, half an hour or so, where people around the world

are absorbing the news that the ending isn't what people wanted. we will leave it there, thank you very much and we will come and chat to you later as more details emerge, thank you. the uk government wants tougher laws forcing global social media companies, to take down illegal content, without having to wait for users to report it. it's an issue politicans across the world have been trying to deal with. last year g7 leaders agreed a set of internet safety principles to improve online safety. here in the uk the new legislation, would compel the removal of material under a wide range of categories, including drugs and arms dealing, and forums that encourage suicide. here's katie prescott. frankie was 15 when she took her own life in 2018. afterwards, her parents had her laptop forensically checked. and realised that, back earlier in the year, january, february, march of 2018, she had been accessing sites about self—harm, suicide. just appalling stuff.

and we had no idea and the school had absolutely no idea. stories like these are behind plans to toughen up regulations online. tech companies will face fines of up to 10% of their turnover if they don't take down material relating to... those sending threatening messages, like the racist abuse of england's footballers last year, will face prosecution, as will people at the companies themselves. the organisations will have to name | individuals who will be responsible | within those organisations - for complying with the legislation. if they continue to flout that - legislation, those named individuals will be responsible and could face up to five years' imprisonment. . social media companies have been tight—lipped about the changes today, but, in the past, facebook has said that it welcomes more guidance from government about what it should

and shouldn't do, and that it also wants to see the internet become a safer place, while not losing the economic and social benefits that it brings. other important industries... experts say the challenge will be putting it into practice. than 100 billion times a day. in 2017, facebook and instagram were taking down 35,000 posts a day about self—harm and suicide alone. so, this is regulation not at a minor scale, but at an industrial scale. while there's criticism about whether the plans go far enough, they will mean a revolution in how the online world is policed. katie prescott, bbc news. there's been a number of calls for mandatory age verification in order to to protect children online. iain corby is the executive director at age verification providers association, who represent organisations who provide age assurance services. he told us these proposals

don't go far enough. the problem with someone going on the internet is nobody knows how old you are. so if we want to offer better protection for children and preserve the freedom of adults, then we need to have a system in place that allows websites to know the age of their users so they can apply appropriate levels of protection. and while it is welcome to hear that the government has taken on board some of the recommendations of the committee of mps and lords who have been scrutinising the bill, this is just one of their recommendations and we are hoping that the government will put age verification into the face of the bill so it is in primary legislation. because they said today one of the reasons they are putting these other offences into law is because it will allow 0fcom to enforce them more quickly. well, that rather implies that if things are not in the primary legislation, if they are left for later decisions that will come, maybe years down the line, we could be waiting even longer for age verification

to protect our children online. well, there is something like a million or more commercial pornographic websites which obviously are a key risk for children being exposed to that sort of material. but the government already passed a law in 2017, the digital economy act, which was quite clever in how, instead ofjust trying to perhaps fine overseas companies, it put in place the ability to talk to the services that supply those companies, whether that is payment services, hosting services, or search engines, and get them to block access to those sites. and that is going to be the only way you can really enforce on what is, after all, the world wide web. the headlines on bbc news... moroccan officials say a five—year—old boy who was rescued from a 30—metre deep well in the past hour, has died. rayan had been trapped since falling into the well on tuesday.

ministers in the uk are strengthening legislation that will force global social media companies to take down harmful content more quickly. in the ukraine... additional us troops have arrived in poland as part of a new deployment to bolster nato forces as tensions with russia remain high. the soldiers from the 82nd airborne division of the us army, landed in the south—east of the country not far from the ukrainian border. the biden administration announced this week it will send 3,000 additional american soldiers to eastern europe. russia has massed more than a hundred thousand troops on its border with ukraine, but the kremlin denies it's planning to invade. adam easton has the latest. well, what we've seen so far is the first elements — actually, mostly equipment —

for this deployment has arrived in poland, and that's come from germany, from us bases in germany. the 82nd airborne division, which you mentioned, is based in north carolina, and 1,700 troops from that division will be arriving in poland over the coming hours and days. and this deployment, while that number, 1,700, is not particularly large if you compare it to the 100,000 russian troops that have massed on the borders with ukraine, it is a significant political gesture to send this many troops to poland, because it actually increases the number of american troops in poland by more than one—third, and if you compare that to 2014 when russia annexed the crimea, president 0bama then was thinking of sending just 100 soldiers to poland. so, this is 1,700, significantly

more, so a significant gesture that's been welcomed extremely by polish leaders. the polish prime minister mateusz morawiecki saying that this is an important signal of nato's unity against the threat of russian aggression. the controversy over china's winter olympics has intensified over beijing's decision to get a uighur athlete from xinjiang to light the olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony. china has been accused of using the cross—country skier, dinigar yilamujiang, as a propaganda tool, to undermine criticism of its policies in xinjiang. beijing is alleged to have carried out human rights abuses against the region's ethnic uighurs. my colleague tim spoke to our analyst michael bristow. he says this is china's way of hitting back at the west's criticism. well, the response has been essentially, this is a political

ploy by beijing essentially to cover up what it's doing in xinjiang. remember that it's being accused of really egregious human rights abuses against uyghur people, a million put in camps. a whole series of other measures introduced against the uyghur minority there. a whole series of other measures introduced against the uyghur minority there. without explicitly saying so, this is china hitting back and saying, "look, we're a nation of 56 ethnic groups, "uyghurs are among them, and this uyghur athlete taking part "in this ceremony," that is their way of showing the world that uyghurs are part of china and treated well. also, it's got to be seen in terms of the promotion by the chinese government because if you look on twitter, chinese diplomats

overseas are promoting this and sharing videos of this athlete's family. back home in xinjiang, celebrating lighting the honour of lighting the cauldron and the family being really proud of the fact she's part of the chinese nation and hoping she does well in the olympics. how well—known is she in china? i think her father was a national cross—country ski champion as well. she is well known in china, but there are many famous athletes are in china. she's just one of them. i think the main point is that she was the person with another athlete chosen to light the olympic cauldron. if you think about it, a moment where the olympics start, having a uyghur athlete do that is really china saying to the world, "we really want to show you that "uyghurs are treated well in china and all the accusations

"and criticism that we face over human rights abuses really "count for nothing." we just paused there to say goodbye to some of our viewers watching around the world. donald trump's vice president mike pence says he had no power to overturned the result of the 2020 us presidential election, and that mr trump was wrong to think he could have done so. the former president, who has falsely claimed the election was stolen from him, recently insisted again that mr pence could have blocked certification of the results. 0ur north america correspondent, david willis reports. mike pence was renowned for his almost filial sense of loyalty to donald trump, never publicly disagreeing with him and staunchly defending even the former president's most controversial actions.

but there was one area in which the two men have not seen eye to eye. donald trump maintains the former vice president could have used his authority to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election as they were being presented to congress. and following renewed assertions to that effect from mr trump in recent days, mike pence has now decided to speak out. president trump said i had the right to overturn the election. but president trump is wrong. i had no right to overturn the election. the presidency belongs to the american people and the american people alone. the former vice president was one of a number of lawmakers who were rushed to safety after a mob of donald trump supporters smashed their way into the us capitol as the election results were being certified on january the 6th last year.

some in the crowd called for mike pence to be hanged. senior republicans continue to regard the insurrection as a peaceful rally. and shortly before mike pence spoke, the party's governing body voted to censure two lawmakers who agreed to serve on a congressional committee looking into the events of that fateful day. liz cheney, the daughter of another former us vice president, dick cheney, and adam kinsinger both voted along with eight other republican lawmakers to impeach donald trump for inciting the insurrection. in a tweet, liz cheney said afterward she didn't recognise much of the republican party remains loyal to donald trump and the former president suggested that if he were to be re—elected, he would consider pardoning those who carried out the attack on the us capitol. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. and a reminder of our top story this hour — a small boy trapped in a well

in northern moroccan for five days died before rescuers managed to reach him, two government officials said. you can see here the pictures of his body being brought out of the well. rayan, aged five, fell into the well on tuesday, triggering a huge rescue effort that engrossed the country. moroccan king mohammed sent condolences to his parents. now it's time for a look at the weather with alina jenkins. hello. snow is likely to become a hazard across a large swathe of scotland through this evening and overnight, all driven by this cold front. 0n the front itself, we are seeing rain pushing its way southwards, milder air ahead of it, but behind it, colder air and those snow showers continuing to pile into scotland. coupled with the strong and gusty winds, it is going to mean blizzards, the potential for ice as well. further south tonight, we have this band of rain pushing its way further southwards, pepping up through parts

of the midlands, wales, south—west england, some heavier rain here by the end of the night. milder for many compared to last night but temperatures at or below freezing across parts of scotland so that ice risk, as i mentioned, and also a yellow warning from the met office for snow across a large swathe of scotland. we could see 10—15 centimetres over higher ground. still keep that risk of snow showers through tomorrow, this band of rain across east anglia, south—east england and the midlands will clear away. essentially tomorrow, it is a day of sunshine and showers but further snow showers for scotland and into northern england push through quickly on those gusty winds and it will be a cold feeling day for all.