given written evidence to this committee two months ago, it has not been published, that is not down to me, i have not been invited to give evidence to the committee and yet i am somehow being accused of not being prepared to answer questions. alex salmond was acquitted in march of 13 charges of sexual assault. the parliamentary enquiry at the heart of this row is looking into where the scottish government went wrong when it was investigating claims of sexual harassment against alex salmond, a process that was found to have been procedurally flawed. the convener of the salmond enquiry turned up the heat this week when she said she was completely frustrated with the obstruction she was experiencing. tory msp oliver mundell was ejected from the holyrood chamber yesterday after refusing to withdraw a claim that miss sturgeon had lied to parliament. nicola sturgeon has volunteered to give oral evidence any time the salmond enquiry

invites her to do so. both the scottish government and mr salmond say they have been unable to provide some documents for legal reasons. sarah smith, bbc news, glasgow. dozens of protestors are being removed from a woodland in buckinghamshire on the planned hs2 rail route. activists who oppose the 140 mile long high—speed line have been occupying the area for months. the site, known as jones hill wood is said to have inspired one of roald dahl‘s famous novels. from there, claire marshall sent this report. in the heart of an ancient beech wood, in the buckinghamshire countryside this morning, contractors for hs2. they began putting this fence up at first light. on this side, those who say they stand for the trees. that is not my problem. high in the canopy, a little community. protesters moved in here around eight months ago. they are no longer welcome. hs2 took possession of the wood

by compulsory purchase in march. they say they are here illegally. so, the contractors arrived before dawn. they have been here for a number of hours and that is why they are up the trees trying to dismantle houses up there. some people say that trains are good for the environment. i think if that was the case, the public, they would make more of an effort to make train transport cheaper than it is. it is a very inaccessible form of transport. kevin bunce owns the farm across the field. his family name was immortalised by roald dahl along with farmers boggis and bean who failed to outwit wiley mr fox. i used to walk through here with my dad as a child and i still do now with my children. but, from today, that ends. it's all gone. hs2 say the multi—billion pound infrastructure project connecting london first to birmingham and then on to leeds will not only bring jobs but help the uk's transition

to a low carbon economy. we have created an ambitious plan to develop a green corridor up and down the railway, so we are planting 7 million trees and shrubs along phase one alone. these woodlands in warwickshire were in the way of hs2. they were cut down in april. there are just tiny fragments of ancient woodland left, covering around 2% of our landscape. back in jones hill wood, another night falls. with some protesters still up in the canopy. there are many future benefits of high—speed rail, but are they worth the price being paid by the natural world today? claire marshall, bbc news, buckinghamshire. that's it. good night.

hello to the us in the uk joining those around the world. it is now time for us to take a first look at the national and international front pages in the papers. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me is the editor of labourlist, sienna rodgers and deputy leader writer at the sun, olivia utley. great to have you both with us, thank you very much for giving up your time. first let's have a look at tomorrow's front pages. starting with the metro and "the great lockdown rebellion" — it says boris johnson is facing a revolt by local leaders over his latest regional

restrictions, with the mayor of middlesbrough calling the rules ignorant and saying he would defy them. le figaro says paris could be placed on maximum virus alert as soon as monday. and ministers say the situation in five other cities, including lyon and toulouse, is also extremely worrying. snp mp margaret ferrier takes up the front page of the i. she travelled from scotland to london by train, having had a covid test — then travelled back the next day, snp mp margaret ferrier takes up the front page of the i. she travelled from scotland to london by train, having had a covid test — then travelled back the next day, having discovered she was positive — breaking the rules five times in the process. "mp took covid to the commons" is the telegraph's headline — it has a picture of her speaking in the commons on the day her test came back positive. that's also the main story in the daily mail — along with the interview that the duke and duchess of sussex gave to mark the start of black history month, calling for britain to end structural racism. in the mirror, george floyd's sister appeals

for americans to vote donald trump out of office — saying, "don't let my brother "george die in vain." the financial times' international edition leads with the announcement by the european commission that it is suing the uk over its plans to breach international law by violating the brexit withdrawal agreement. and finally the japan times leads with the technical glitch that led to the tokyo stock exchange halting trading in all stocks for the whole of thursday — for the first time since 2006. lots to get to, lots of different front pages, but let's start now with the i and the telegraph as well, but let's focus on the i for the time being, olivia, which is dealing with the snp mp, margaret ferrier, who broke the covid—19 rules after taking a test and testing positive and then still travelling to westminster and back

again to scotland. it feels a bit like deja vu. yesterday in the sun, in your paper, we had jeremy corbyn apologising for breaching rules, we also had boris johnson's apologising for breaching rules, we also had borisjohnson‘s dad without also had borisjohnson‘s dad without a mask in shops. what is going on? yes, i feel like those two stories yesterday were both mini barnard castle is, if you can call them that. small breaches of the rules which people will be a bit annoyed about. but this breach today is flubber casting! it is going to infuriate people and i think the way the i have done it has actually laid it out pretty well, they have got five point bullet points on that front page explaining exactly what she did, which as she travelled down from scotland to london, thinking that she might have coronavirus, having fought a bad enough that she had got herself a test. that is bad enough. but then she travelled back from london to scotland and you know, there is a great quote from the train staff in the telegraph who

have been working throughout the pandemic, trying to keep people's lives going on as normally as possible, train staff who have had to not see their families for a fortnight in case there have been in contact with it. they have had so many sacrifices, then an mp just gets on the train in the sure knowledge that she had coronavirus, willingly prepared to infect people, which is really shocking. and i think that really eclipses anything that we have seen before, ivor corbyn or stanley johnson that we have seen before, ivor corbyn or stanleyjohnson or even dominic cummings. this is a new level breach. i think the snp have... they have come down very ha rd have... they have come down very hard tonight. we have had nicola sturgeon saying on twitter that she is very angry. an snp on question time saying that she should have to stand down from being an mp. obviously the whip has been removed already. but there are, as the telegraph mentions, a few question still for ian blackford about why this story has taken so long to come out. this all happened on monday night she was given the positive

test, she was in the commons on monday night talking. she knew on monday night talking. she knew on monday night talking. she knew on monday night that she had coronavirus. why is this story only come out on thursday? i think that is what we will all be talking about tomorrow. sienna, the telegraph, as olivia was just picking up on, has a lot more details on this as well. it is talking about the fact she is now under investigation and they sing because to be fined £4000 for reckless behaviour. nicola sturgeon calling this utterly indefensible. what do you make of this? calling this utterly indefensible. what do you make of this7m calling this utterly indefensible. what do you make of this? it is absolutely incredible. i mean, as olivia said, this is kind of next level breaching of covert rules. —— of covid—19 rules. this is not breaking the will of six or popping into a shop quickly and not wearing a mask. those things we saw today are bad enough, but this incident, just to reiterate she felt ill and she went down to london and gave a speech in the house of commons with other people around her, so of

course the speaker is absolutely furious to have found out about this this morning. and then she tested positive for covid—19 and took a train back up to scotland, and then she has had to report herself to the police and to parliament. i mean, it is absolutely extraordinary that someone is absolutely extraordinary that someone has done this and the scottish sun i saw earlier quoted the snp source as saying, the thing with margaret is they will have been i'io manners with margaret is they will have been no manners to it, she isjust really ha rd of no manners to it, she isjust really hard of thinking. which obviously makes you laugh a little bit, but i do think people will absolutely be really furious about this story. it isjust making about this story. it isjust making a mockery about this whole system andi a mockery about this whole system and i feel nervousjust a mockery about this whole system and i feel nervous just following the rules, and i'mjust a journalist. how can you be an mp and going around not following the rules to that extent where you have actually tested positive and not feel terrible about that? i can't understand it at all, i can't relate. i'm sure we're going to pick up relate. i'm sure we're going to pick up on this in the next edition when we have more time, before the time being let's move on to the

metro, which is looking at the great rebellion, is the way that the headline is describing it. boris johnson facing a revolt by the civic leaders as his sweeping new regional lockdown law comes into force from friday. yes, the mayor of middlesbrough are being quoted in this paper, olivia. yes, it is a pretty punchy quote. it says it has been inflicted on the area and a monstrous way, and i think that is quite telling of what is going to keep on happening. at the moment, we have had labour backing up boris johnson's restrictions most of the time. we have had amazing corporation by the public, poll after poll saying that the measures. . . after poll saying that the measures... almost no one saying that the measures go too far. so we have had a lot of consensus up until now and i think this is the first real sign of the consensus breaking down, the mayor of middlesbrough saying that the city will ignore the rules that borisjohnson has imposed upon them. confusing and damaging to

mental health, he mentions. ruinous to the economy in the city. and i expect that they may out there on the ground knows what the people are thinking and are there on his side, and so this is very telling and a sign of things to come. there was an interesting piece i think today in the times by jane forsyth about her borisjohnson the times by jane forsyth about her boris johnson and his the times by jane forsyth about her borisjohnson and his cabinet are very worried about christmas and they know really that they must do something about these restrictions before christmas because otherwise people will just start to ignore them and as soon as people start to ignore them then the government is out of control and that is a very bad look, and i think we'rejust seeing the first signs of that today with andy preston, mayor of middlesbrough, coming out of this very punchy statement. indeed, and once again we will talk about this a little bit longer when we have got more time, but now just to move on to brexit, the international financial times looking at that. sienna, with the

european union starting the legal proceedings against the uk over the government's plan to the right parts of the brexit divorce agreement. —— plan to override parts of the brexit agreement. crucially, talks do still continue. absolutely, so we saw today ursula von der leyen, those videos went around of her announcing that brussels are suing the uk and this is all about the very controversial internal market bill. we saw ministers in parliament getting up and saying, yes, we do intend to break international law, so intend to break international law, so it is no surprise that the eu is reacting in this way and they are saying that even the draft bill itself hasn't even passed parliament yet as a whole because it hasn't gone through the lords yet, but even the drafting itself actually breaches the agreement because there isa breaches the agreement because there is a clause in it talking about good faith and negotiate in good faith and those provisions, they say, have already been broken. so yes, the

talks continue. i mean, whether this is all posturing, that is what the labour party is saying. rachel reeves has said both sides, whether the eu or the reeves has said both sides, whether the eu orthe uk, are doing an reeves has said both sides, whether the eu or the uk, are doing an awful lot of posturing and actually need to get on with it and solve those final sticking points in negotiations. we will see to what extent this was just a ploy in the negotiations. i think it probably was quite a lot of grandstanding. what do you think, olivia? don't wa nt to ta ke what do you think, olivia? don't want to take too much time on this, but what do you think? posturing, grandstanding, what you make of it? yes, i would agree with c and on that, it does sound like grandstanding, there are carrying on with the trade talks, so what is the point in this i'm not quite sure who the announcement was aimed at because the uk government isn't particularly going to be scared of this. the eu is apparently always suing its member states, so not a huge deal. i don't see the point when the talks are carrying on, so i think they're just keen to show they

are angry and that's what this was about. thank you. agreement there. if the leaders could get some agreement on this that would be great. the japan times, an absolutely horrible story focusing on india. yet another death of a young woman following a gang rape and once again we are seeing just the outrage, the anger on the streets with this just desperate, desperate situation, sienna. yeah, this isjust desperate situation, sienna. yeah, this is just about the grimmest story that you can read, to be honest. this is a problem everywhere, sexual violence not being taken everywhere, sexual violence not being ta ken seriously. everywhere, sexual violence not being taken seriously. rate epidemics, male violence against women, but this is the most extreme version that you can imagine. this story is about a 19—year—old woman who is from the lowest caste in india and she was cutting grass to feed families five milk buffalo, according to her brother, when she was dragged out of a field and gang raped and mutilated by a higher

caste men and she has