this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 11: as worldwide efforts continue to contain the coronavirus, three more people test positive in the uk. tensions at the top of the home office burst into the open, with the dramatic resignation of its most senior civil servant, who quit after what he called a ‘vicious and co—ordinated' campaign against him. there've been persistent reports of a rift between him and the home secretary, priti patel. i have received allegations that her conduct has included shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands. behaviour that created fear and needed some bravery to call out. a moment of history —

the united states and the taliban sign a deal that it's hoped will end 18 years of war in afghanistan. and borisjohnson and his girlfriend announce they're expecting a baby and that they're engaged. elizabeth moss plays a woman who leaves her controlling partner but finds herself menaced by something she can't see. find out what james king thinks of the invisible man and the rest of the week's top cinema releases in the film review. and we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers, nigel nelson and jo phillips. stay with us for that. good evening. and welcome to bbc news.

three more people have tested positive for coronavirus in the uk — as public health officials try to establish how a man from surrey, become the first person to contract the illness without travelling abroad. it brings the total number of cases here to 23. the virus, a respiratory disease, which causes pneumonia—like symptoms, has so far infected more than 85,000 people in over 50 countries. 0utside china, south korea is the country worst hit — with more than 3,000 cases. health officials in america tonight confirmed a man in his 50s has died, and there had been 22 confirmed cases of the disease in the united states. the death toll from coronavirus in italy, has risen by eight to 29. and tonight, the first case of the virus has been confirmed in the republic of ireland. duncan kennedy reports.

this is the health centre in surrey where the man reported feeling unwell. he is now the first person to be infected in the uk without having travelled abroad. as he was taken to hospital, the clinic was closed and cleaned. now reopened, those using it say they are concerned by what has happened. my husband has got a poor immune system and respiratory problems, so perhaps i'm a bit more concerned than others might be, but, just be sensible. tonight, the director of public health here in surrey said although this case in haslemere was a cause for concern, every necessary measure was being taken to try and stop the spread of this virus. the chief medical officer today confirmed three new cases, one each in hertfordshire, gloucestershire and berkshire. involving people returning from asia and italy. the government says the spread of the outbreak can be controlled. we are still in the containment

phase of this disease. we have been pretty good at containing it thus far and the chief medical officer has been very clear that there is no reason to think that we shouldn't be able to continue containing it and that is what our focus is on. the united states has now reported its first death. with president trump tonight confirming the news. at this moment we have 22 patients in the united states currently. that have coronavirus. unfortunately, one person passed away overnight. she was a wonderful woman, a medically high—risk patient, in her late 50s. in the tenerife hotel outbreak, a fifth italian tourist has now tested positive. but 71 low risk people have been able to leave the hotel. the foreign office said more than 200 british guests have to be tested first, before they can return home. and this was south korea,

where a well ordered army of soldiers turned cleaners has been combing public areas. but it was still a record—breaking day with 800 new cases. just one more country trying to master every possible resource against this potent opponent. duncan kennedy, bbc news. our health editor, hugh pym, has also been speaking about the preparations government are making — he said that containment remains the main strategy. that means taking cases who are diagnosed positive straight to hospital to isolation facilities and then tracing their contacts. and health officials still feel that will bring this virus under control. but there is a recognition that things could change very rapidly, globally and in the uk, in terms of the number of cases. and, to that end, the government is about to ramp up end, the government is about to ramp up its response with a series of announcements over the next week, starting tomorrow with the health secretary, matt hancock, who is

appearing on the mar programme. it will require a lot more co—ordination of government programmes to focus. there will be an action plan announced during the week. one of the measures being considered is something that will allow a rapid redeployment of retired health staff, bringing them back into the nhs, getting them reregistered quickly. that has been considered. and you've only got to look across the channel to see what can happen. in france, week or so ago there were only a dozen cases, now it is more than 100. and today the french authorities have announced a ban on all events involving more than 5000 people in confined spaces, for example a big agricultural show in paris. an example of this sort of thing governments are considering —— considering. and here the chief medical officer for england is considering school closures and events been cancelled if things escalate. that was the hugh pym.

and you can find out more about the symptoms of coronavirus and how to protect yourself against it on the bbc news app and on our website bbc.co.uk/news. one of britain's most senior civil servants, sir philip rutnam, has dramatically resigned as permanent secretary at the home office. he told the bbc it follows what he called a "vicious and orchestrated" campaign against him, and says he's suing the government for constructive dismissal. sir philip's resignation comes after persistent reports of a rift between him and the home secretary, priti patel. 0ur political editor, laura kuenssberg reports. you're not meant to have heard of him. permanent secretaries are the backroom bosses of the government machine. but this rainy saturday morning became a personal and a public storm for him. in the last ten days, i have been the target of a vicious and orchestrated briefing campaign.

it has been alleged that i have briefed the media against the home secretary. this, along with many other claims, is completely false. the home secretary categorically denied any involvement in this campaign to the cabinet office. i regret, i do not believe her. she has not made the effort i would expect to dissociate herself from the comments. priti patel has made no effort to engage with me to discuss this. i believe that these events give me very strong grounds to claim constructive, unfair dismissal and i will be pursuing that claim in the courts. priti patel is known as a straight talker, but denied doing anything wrong when whispers about her behaviour made their way to the press in recent days.

are you a workplace bully, home secretary? but there are now demands for an enquiry, with herformer top official taking the government to court and listing the accusations against her in public. i have received allegations that her conduct has included shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands, behaviour that created fear and needed some bravery to call out. sir philip ‘s time in charge was not without problems. the home office, a notoriously tricky part of government. you've probably already read a great deal more about permanent secretaries in the last few days than you ever expected to... but an exit like this is serious and highly unusual. the prime minister has to get a grip on this and notjust allow this chaos to continue. you have to have a positive functioning relationship between civil servants who work immensely hard to deliver and also ministers who need to show leadership and be held to account. tensions between ministers and officials are nothing new, but this exit is on a different scale.

there's no sense from number 10 at the moment that there will be consequences for priti patel and they have made no secret of the fact that they want to change things and they are not afraid of ruffling feathers, but there is a difference between decisiveness and dysfunction and ultimately this government, any government, needs the civil service to get things done. this has been a very difficult decision. but i hope that my stand may help in maintaining the quality of government in our country. sir philip, do you think that priti patel is fit for purpose? he will say no more for now. but for the government's opponents, sir philip's decision to go public speaks volumes alone. laura kuenssberg, bbc news. a little earlier, i spoke tojill rutter, senior research fellow at the think tank — uk in a changing europe — and a former senior civil servant. i asked her if philip rutnam's announcement was unprecedented.

we've had ministers and their top officials falling out before. usually that's dealt with, clearly in the way the cabinet office was trying to deal with at this time, where there is a sort of agreement where there is a sort of agreement where it would be betterfor where there is a sort of agreement where it would be better for both parties of the senior civil servant moved on. something is done to accommodate them, sometimes they get accommodate them, sometimes they get a peerage, sometimes they get a nice job at a quango or something like that, or they just take job at a quango or something like that, or theyjust take a package, and it's all ruffled over and somebody else is appointed and things revert to normal. what's absolutely unprecedented is that phillip broughton has got on the record like this and has also said that he is going to sue for unfair dismissal and say he was constructively dismissed by the home secretary's behaviour —— philip rutnam. it also made it clear that he doesn't thing the cabinet office has done a very good job for standing upfor has done a very good job for standing up for the civil service, because he says he needs to take a stand to protect the civil servants in his department and, think, more

widely, civil service values. what was hisjob? widely, civil service values. what was his job? why widely, civil service values. what was hisjob? why does widely, civil service values. what was his job? why does this widely, civil service values. what was hisjob? why does this matter? why does it matter? is the most senior official in the home office. he is one of those sort of elite, whatever, the standard, yes minister, sir humphrey character, i state mentioning that, he is that very senior official. —— is a. is basically a judge of the home 0ffice. basically a judge of the home office. the home office is one of the great offices of state. and he is the guy was charged with making sure it is managed well. so this really matters. what is calling out is the fact that, as laura kuenssberg was saying in herpes, this is quite a dysfunctional department and there is a breakdown of relationships between the top civil servants, probably, it looks like the top civil servant, and the ministers they serve. 50 what does priti patel or borisjohnson want of these civil service? is this a case of their agenda coming up against the way the civil service is run? what's going on? there is possibly a bit of that. but i am not sure that this is what this is about. the home

0ffice this is what this is about. the home office has, after all, been implicating its settled status scheme after brexit. the home office said it was going pretty well. it has announced its new migration policy. i don't think there's any suggestion that civil servants were frustrating. though they may have said to ministers that the timetable for delivering it was very ambitious, which it clearly is. there may have been big rows over the thing that happened a week or two ago about that court case that the home office lost about deporting citizens. so that could have been a big argument, because there were suggestions that there were arguments about how far the home 0ffice arguments about how far the home office should go in obeying the rule of law, to can imagine that. but this looks much more like it is about behaviours, but also ministers pressing the civil servants to go too far and beyond what they thought actually they could actually do. how likely do think it is that priti will come out of this unscathed? and, at the end of the day, like you are saying, it is so highly unusual, the way this was conducted, what has

he achieved by this, sir philip?” think he is he is putting a mark in the sand. he has gone on the record. think that is is interesting. i think rather thanjust think that is is interesting. i think rather than just actually friends of philip rutnam said one of the reasons behind his departure was the reasons behind his departure was the behaviour of the home secretary has decided to go and give a statement to camera. this is such an un- civil statement to camera. this is such an un— civil servant behaviour it is ha rd to un— civil servant behaviour it is hard to imagine a civil servant ever doing that. so he has decided to put it out there that she is behaving unacceptable it out there that she is behaving u na cce pta ble levels u p it out there that she is behaving unacceptable levels up at the moment, she has got the prime minister's support, so she could come out of it unscathed. the interesting thing is if it goes to court al maidan comes out there. at the moment he is pretty determined. he has turned out a financial settle m e nt he has turned out a financial settlement stop the interesting thing is if we see the home secretary versus a top civil servant ina court secretary versus a top civil servant in a court that could be pretty explosive. does the civil service need change? i think quite a lot of people say the civil service does need reform, does it discarded meltdown? i don't think so. what

this does raise as a whole bunch of questions about actually did philip rutnam feel he was getting the right sort of degree of support from the centre, from the cabinet secretary, mark sedwill, and from those. because he probably would be looking to them. after all, mark sedwill is the home —— in charge of the civil service. he will be looking to defend his civil servants. he makes it clear he has to go to defend his civil servants. that was jill rutter speaking to me earlier. the prime minister and his girlfriend, carrie symonds, have announced they are expecting their first child. the couple are also engaged and a spokesperson says they're "very pleased" to have announced their news. in a post on carrie symond's private instagram account, she wrote: "many of you already know but for my friends that still don't, we got engaged at the end of last year... and we've got a baby hatching early summer. feel incredibly blessed." the guardian columnist, 0wenjones, says he's concerned about the timing of the announcement.

today, there is a big massive government scandal. one of the most senior civil servants has resigned and is suing the government over what he calls an orchestrated campaign against him. the news that a british uranian woman who is languishing in an uranian present, insignificant part because of boris johnson lack of action, is expected of having coronavirus. —— iran. a terrible government response and it is worth saying, if we're about children, there will be many births today, tomorrow in a country where millions of children live in poverty and will not have the life this child will gladly and hope will have a happy and comfortable life but because of the policy implemented

and supported by the prime minister, my fear is tomorrow we will see, in a country whose press put some of north korea's needed to shame in it there cheering, almost dewy eyed cheerleading for the government, often acting as the propaganda arm frankly, the likes of the male, the sun, the telegraph, will splash this rather than holding the government to account which should be the prime purpose of the british press. the headlines on bbc news: as worldwide efforts continue to contain the coronvirus, three more people test positive in the uk. tensions at the top of the home office burst into the open, with the dramatic resignation of its most senior civil servant, who quit after what he called a "vicious and coordinated" campaign against him. a moment of history — the united states and the taliban sign a deal that it's hoped will end

18 years of war in afghanistan. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. 0nly only one place to start. liverpool's ali—game unbeaten run in the premier league is over, after being beaten 3—0 by watford, at vicarage road, a victory which moves nigel pearson's side out of the bottom three. but for the leaders, it's their first league defeat since january last year. nick parrott was watching: liverpool's march towards the first league title for 30 years seems relentless stop but rewriting records have not been easy. watford we re records have not been easy. watford were determined to do better. they went at liverpool, threatening going forward while keeping things tight

at the back. it looked like watford had been dealt a missing blow when a player was carried off but instead of getting weaker, the hornets grew stronger. liverpool fluffed their only attempt on target. a sting in the tail followed. record signing ismaila sarr showing his worth. just six minutes later, i come back was made even harder by ismaila sarr. watford needed the points more than liverpool. troy deeney‘s goal lifting them out of the relegation go on goal difference. it could be a turning point that keeps watford in the premier league. we had a very good day. maybe they felt the performance was not quite

at the level they have been hitting this year but for us, we have to keep... we have to keep the fate of our season in our hands and certainly, a game like today and a result like today does that. watford are now level on points with west ham. they also moved out out of the bottom three, after beating southampton 3—1 at the london stadium. jarrod bowen here opening the scoring on his full debut to secure a first win in two months for west ham. also on 27 points with watford and west ham are bournemouth, who drew 2—2 at home to chelsea. elsewhere, crystal palace beat brighton 1—0, while newcastle v burnley finished 0—0. rangers are out of the scottish cup. they lost 1—0 to hearts at tynecastle in the quarter final tonight. 0liver bozanic with the only goal midway through the second half. aberdeen are also through, they beat st mirren 2—0. chelsea have won the women's league

cup in dramatic fashion, beating arsenal 2—1. beth england gave them an early lead, within the first ten minutes, her 20th goal of the campaign. it stayed that way until 5 minutes from time, when leah williamson brought arsenal level, with the aid of the slightest of deflections from magdalena eriksso. and just when it looked like it would go to extra time, a second for england secured the win and a first league cup title for chelsea. there was late drama in rugby union's premiership when harlequins snatched victory at home to leaders exeter. exeter had been leading going into the final quarter of an hour but, after two players were sin—binned, quins took advantage and just wore them down — a penalty try eventually sealing the 3a points to 30 victory. leicester and saracens also won today. champions st helens are up

to second in super league. they bounced back from last week's world club challenge defeat to sydney roosters with a comfortable 32—0 win against toronto wolfpack. jonny lomax there scoring the second of his two first half tries. toronto remain bottom and are still without a win this season. england's tommy fleetwood holds a one shot lead heading into sunday's final round at the honda classic in florida. the world number 12 is five—under—par, one ahead of the american brendan steele and two shots clear of fellow englishman, lee westwood. fleetwood is still looking for his maiden victory on the pga tour. that's all the sport for now. the united states and the taliban have signed an historic agreement aimed at ending 18 years of war in afghanistan. under the deal, all us and nato forces would leave the country over the next 1a months, if the taliban keeps

to commitments its made. if the taliban keeps to commitments it's made. 0ur chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, reports from doha, where the negotiations have been taking place. they fought the world's mightiest army, but today they sat together. 0ld enemies shaking hands on a deal. the first step towards ending america's longest war. a glimpse of hope that afghanistan can finally move towards peace. but the us' top diplomat says that is up to the taliban. first, keep your promises to cut ties with al-qaeda and other terrorists. keep up the fight to defeat isis. welcome the profound relief of all afghan citizens, men and women, urban and rural, as a result of this past week's massive reduction in violence, and dedicate yourselves to continued reductions.

but for the taliban, today was a victory march. there is no doubt that you won the war. there is no doubt. otherwise, the foreign forces have not come to afghanistan. what would you say to those now who fear the return of the taliban? they should not fear. because the government which will come after this, will be acceptable to all in afghanistan. watching from the sidelines in kabul, an afghan government shut out of this deal. the taliban refused to talk to it. today, the nato chief and us defence secretary also sent them a message. they are still standing shoulder to shoulder with their afghan allies and their troops won't start leaving until peace talks start. but this is a different country from the dark days of brutal taliban rule. in doha, one deal is done. making peace will be much harder.

history is being made in this moment. this is not a peace deal, but it is a significant step forward and for all the uncertainty and scepticism, afghans know this is their best chance to move towards peace in a very long time. but they worry about a us rush to the exit. especially in an election year, when president trump wants to bring his troops home. lyse doucet, bbc news, doha. britain has been battered by another winter storm, storm jorge. weather warnings are now in place from cornwall to the north of scotland and across to northern ireland for snow, ice, wind or rain, alongside around a hundred flood warnings. in east yorkshire, people evacuated because of severe flooding still can't go back to their homes. from there, olivia richwald. residents in the village of east cowick were rescued by canoe today as efforts to alleviate

flooding in east yorkshire moved into their fifth day. we thought we would wait, because this is totally unprecedented and then, at god knows what time of the morning, bang, bang, bang, we heard, you've got to get out. so, here we are. residents sandbagged their homes and environment agency pumps tried to prevent more homes from being inundated. it has been the wettest february since records began. pictures filmed on a drone show flooding up to the roof of kevin and catherine laurieman's bungalow in the town of snaith. it has just been heartbreaking. we are going to have to demolish, i think. so, that has gone. we are up to the gutter line, as you have said. and, you know, i can't even explain. where i am standing is half a mile from the nearest river. this area is called the wash lands and these fields are designed to flood, but this time the sheer amount of water just overwhelmed

the man—made defences and flooded the town and now, there is nowhere for that water to go. the environment agency has more than 100 staff working in the area. unfortunately, the levels got so high in the wash lands, they have actually over topped some of those barrier bags which is why we have had the flooding here. so, while things have operated as designed, we need to find out exactly why this happened and what we can do in the future. volunteers in snaith are providing hot meals, tea and coffee and donations of food and clothes. after weeks of flooding across the country and, with more weather warnings in place this weekend, the kindness of communities could well be called on again. olivia richwald, bbc news, snaith. now it's time for a look at the weather with helen willetts. it is rather cold out there? it is.

the main rain has cleared away. the concern is for the strength of the winds. gusts around the because in particular. a deep area of low pressure, tightly packed isobars. to the south, the threat of rain, the next one tomorrow evening may cause some more concerns. the strong winds could bring down some trees, damage powerlines and of course cause further travel disruption because it has been very poor conditions already because of all that flood water. that rain across northern ireland, northern england, parts of southern scotland, meandering slowly northwards and snow over the hills. concerns with temperatures close to freezing. for most cities and towns,

temperatures just above freezing because of the strength of the wind. that strong wind is still with us. gradually to ease off. however, as the rain meanders northwards with its snow, it also becomes drier for england and wales. few showers today, more sunshine but not a dry picture, but not persistent heavy rain. in scotland rain and hill snow and perhaps a little less wet in the northern isles. a chilly day, despite the start of the meteorological spring. despite the start of the meteorologicalspring. more despite the start of the meteorological spring. more rain through the night with possibly snow on it northern edge. that could be the cheltenham downs because it looks like a cold night, frost issues. that clears away and then low pressure to the north, more rain pushing into what the south. still

an unsettled picture for the start of march but probably not so intense. the wind notices strong, the rain not so heavy. monday morning, a cold day again. temperatures barely reaching double figures so colder than it should be for this time of year. shari as well. not chilly by day but also by night so we keep the risk of frost and temperatures probably where they should be forjanuary and february. hello. this is bbc news with me, lukwesa burak. we'll be taking a look at tomorrow mornings papers in a moment. first the headlines. tensions at the top of the home office burst into the open, with the dramatic resignation of its most senior civil servant, who quit after what he called a vicious and coordinated campaign against him.