tonight at ten... more than two million people in scotland are facing the country's toughest restrictions from friday. the 11 council areas include glasgow where non—essential shops, bars a nd restau ra nts will have to close, but schools will stay open. these decisions will give us the best possible chance, albeit in a limited and careful way, of being able to ease restrictions in all parts of scotland for christmas. we'll have the latest on the strategy of the scottish government — and we'll be discussing the fallout from borisjohnson‘s remarks that devolution has been a disaster. also tonight... the spanish businessman paid over £20 million of british taxpayer's money for his role in securing protective garments for nhs staff. less than three weeks

after he was suspended, labour has reinstated jeremy corbyn — who says he's sorry for the hurt caused in the row over antisemitism. in thailand — more violence in the streets of bangkok as protesters demand changes to the country's constitution. they are spraying water cannon. it's laced with chemicals so you can really smell the tear gas in it. and for the first time, a fully—operational private spacecraft takes astronauts from earth to the intermational space station. and coming up in sport, on bbc news... a thriller at the atp finals in london — as the french open champion rafa nadal is beaten in straight sets by austria's dominic thiem. good evening. more than two million people

in scotland are facing the country's toughest restrictions from friday, to try to curb some notably high rates of infection. the new regime will be in place until two weeks before christmas. level 4 rules will be imposed in 11 council areas, including glasgow, as well as east and south ayrshire, renfrewshire and east renfrewshire, west and east dunbartonshire, north and south lanarkshire, stirling and west lothian. in those areas, non—essential shops, bars, restaurants, hairdressers and visitor attractions will all have to close. non—essential travel outside the local council area is now against the law in tier 4, and anyone breaking the rules could be arrested. but schools in the affected areas, along with nurseries and essential shops, will be staying open. we start with this report by our scotland editor sarah smith. maryhill road in glasgow, the city where scotland's infection rates are highest, and so tougher rules are to be imposed from friday.

under level four restrictions schools like this will stay open, as will the huge supermarket down the road. butjust about every other business in between, the shops, cafes, barbers, beauticians and the bookies, they will all have to close for three weeks. existing restrictions preventing any performances mean this dance wear shop is already suffering. so, you are going to have to close? it's a devastating blow, we have already been locked down before and now we are going back into it again. the florist shop closed in the spring but hopes to keep some orders going this time. so, you have heard about the new restrictions? if we have to close, it will be online orders, telephone orders and basically we will be delivering those orders without customers coming in store. the lowest tier of the restrictions is closer to normal, allowing for larger indoor meetings. in level one the rule of six from two household kicks in. but meeting in homes is only allowed

in some level one areas. in others, it is the same as level two where people are banned from socialising in each other‘s homes. in this level, pubs and restaurants can only serve alcohol indoors with a main meal. in level three, cafes must shut at 6:00 and can't serve alcohol. in level four, it is closer to a full lockdown. non—essential shops are closed as well as all hospitality settings and entertainment venues, but schools remain open. our objective in taking this action now is to protect the nhs, create the prospect of seeing some loved ones at christmas and completing the journey to next spring with as few restrictions as possible. the scottish labour leader asked why some areas with falling transmission rates were being put into level four. what assurance can she give them and millions of others moving to level four this friday that this time three weeks really does mean just three weeks?

the level four restrictions will end on 11th december and then we will decide what levels these areas go into then. until then, more than 2 million people in scotland are basically being told to stay inside. rubbish. total rubbish. i mean, i'll be honest, i might have to put the key in the door. my business might be finished. it needs to be done, so i think too many people have gotten too used to just getting a bit more relaxed. these tough restrictions are due to end on december 11th. nicola sturgeon described this as a short, sharp move designed to drive down infection rates in time to allow for a bit more freedom around christmas. she has revealed all four of the uk nations are working together to try and agree a common approach to restrictions around christmas time because people are going to be wanting to travel all over the country to see friends and family at the end of december.

studio: sarah, we do know, of course, the handling of the pandemic has been at the root of recent debate about devolution. now we have the prime minister saying apparently that devolution has been a ‘disaster‘. what's been the fallout from that today? there has been some furious backpedalling from ministers and also furious backpedalling from scottish ministers, the government have said that what he meant it is the snp government that is a disaster in scotland, not that devolution itself is a disaster, but of course there are crucial elections to the scottish parliament coming up in less than six months‘ time, and it doesn‘t help the conservative campaign for those elections when you have the prime minister saying things which disagree with the policy of his scottish party and frankly sound are tone deaf to people of all political persuasions across scotland. labour said today it is the prime minister

borisjohnson who is a bigger threat to the union than the snp and the snp are of course delighted, they think this strengthens their argument forfull think this strengthens their argument for full scottish independence at a time when a number of polls have suggested there may be majority support for independence in scotland. they are going to be really vital constitutional arguments going on for many months and the scottish conservatives have got to be really hoping that during those the prime minister picks his words a bit more carefully. sarah smith, thanks forjoining us. a spanish businessman was paid more than £20 million of british taxpayer‘s money for his role in securing protective garments for nhs staff during the pandemic. documents filed in a us court also reveal he was in line for millions more in subsequent payments. a legal dispute being fought in miami has revealed the sums of money made by some foreign companies supplying the nhs with ppe. it‘s led to further questions

about the way the uk government has managed the procurement process. our special correspondent lucy manning has the story. designer jewellery from a miami company is some way from the uk‘s struggle to get protective equipment, but the owner of miansai moved from pendants to ppe during the covid crisis, winning uk contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds. the owner, michael saiger, who says he had business connections in china, told a fashion website he was designing his latest jewellery collection while procuring ppe. court documents from america showjust how lucrative his new venture has been. notjust for him, but the man he paid to help him, a spaniard called gabriel gonzalez andersson. the two men fell out, prompting a court case in miami. the legal documents open the lid on just how british taxpayers‘ money was being spent. gabriel andersson was, the court documents make clear,

to help with product sourcing, logistics and quality control. the contract says that when the department for health and social care got the ppe, andersson would then be paid what is described as a consulting fee. byjune, saiger had successfully delivered two ppe shipments to the uk. for helping with that, gabriel andersson was paid a consulting fee of $28 million. that‘s about £21 million. the court documents say saiger‘s contracts with the government were lucrative and mr andersson did very well from them. the uk put in more orders. there were three more contracts agreed which would yield yet more money for the subcontractor gabriel andersson. a dealfori million boxes of gloves, the consulting fee was more than $1.5 million. for another contract for 3 million boxes of gloves the fee was more than $3.5 million.

and a final contract for 10 million gowns for the uk government and andersson would get $16 million. but it‘s claimed andersson didn‘t fulfil his role in these contracts and it led to delays delivering the ppe to nhs staff. the campaign group the good law project is planning to challenge the government in court over the deal. i don‘t blame saiger for making these vast profits. if government is handing out free money, then by all means stand in line. the real criticism that is to be made here is of the huge profits that government allowed to be generated. in a statement, saiger said... the department of health said...

in august the bbc revealed the government bought 50 million masks that couldn‘t be used in the nhs and it‘s likely to face more criticism tomorrow when the spending watchdog publishes its report into how ppe was purchased. lucy manning, bbc news. the government‘s official figures show that more than 50,000 people have died with covid—i9 in the uk but on another measure, called excess deaths, the figure is almost 71,000. excess deaths is the difference between deaths this year and the average number over the past five years. the latest figures also underline the differences across the uk during this second wave, with the north—west of england recording over a third more deaths than usual, while london has seen no difference at all. 0ur health editor hugh pym has been studying the figures.

a community hospital facing up to covid. the coronavirus ward at clacton hospital in essex is getting busier, more so than in the first wave. hello, sheila. we keep doing your swabs. some patients are here for two weeks or more, waiting till they test negative, but some have not survived. the staff at the moment are quite emotional. we've had quite a few deaths. it's quite hard managing staff that are emotional. they need emotional support. the overall covid impact is shown in total excess deaths from all causes. that‘s the number above what‘s expected at this time of year with the latest figures for the first week in november. this line shows the average number of uk weekly deaths over the last five years, and this one shows what has happened so far this year. you can see there was a sharp spike at the peak of

the first wave in april. the red area shows covid deaths, the blue, other excess deaths, some of which may be linked indirectly to the virus because people didn‘t seek or didn‘t get hospital treatment. then it falls back towards the average before picking up again in recent weeks. though it‘s still well short of that first peak. there‘s a lag between cases being diagnosed and then some patients getting seriously ill and not surviving. we can expect deaths to carry on going up for several more weeks because we already know that cases have been going up for several weeks and the people whose deaths were registered in the latest data will have probably caught covid sometime in october. there were big variations in excess deaths. the highest in the north west of england, wales and northern ireland were all around a third above their five—year averages in the latest week. scotland‘s were 12% above average. the lowest included the east

of england with 6% and london with no deaths above the average. experts say in some parts of the country, infection rates didn‘t come down as rapidly as others when lockdown restrictions were eased in the summer. in areas like the north west, it still remained much, much higher than areas like london and the south—east. so what that meant was, when we came into autumn and schools went back infections started to increase from a much higher level and so we are seeing those much higher levels in these areas feed through to much higher mortality rates and excess death rates. ministers and officials say case numbers should start falling soon and that should pave the way for a return in december to tiered restrictions in england. but what that means for christmas is anyone‘s guess. hugh pym, bbc news. as i mentioned, the latest official figures for the uk show that there were 20,051 new coronavirus infections recorded in the latest 24—hour period. 598 deaths were reported,

that‘s people who died within 28 days of a positive covid—19 test. it takes the government‘s official number of deaths so far across the uk to 52,7115. you france has become the first country you in europe to register more than million cases of coronavirus — only the us, india and brazil have recorded higher numbers. france will remain under a national lockdown until at least the 1st of december. the health minister says the spread of the virus has slowed down but it is still circulating widely. less than three weeks after he was suspended by the party, the former labour leader jeremy corbyn has been reinstated. he was suspended after he said that the scale of anti—semitism in the party had been ‘overstated‘. mr corbyn issued a statement today saying he regretted any hurt he‘d caused, and that there was no room for anti—semitism or racism of any

kind in the labour party. 0ur political correspondent iain watson is at westminster. i'iow iain watson is at westminster. that we have mr co statement now that we have mr corbyn's statement and he has been reinstated, is this the final chapter in this controversy? no, i think there is several pages to be written yet. in order to regain free admittance to the labour party, he had to re—clarify the comments that got him suspended in the first place. he said concerns about anti—semitism were not exaggerated, he simply meant the vast majority of labour members were deeply opposed to anti—semitism. he resisted pressure to apologise and that has reopened some of the old divisions. while long—standing supporters of his leadership of the labour party, including trade union figures, have welcomed the decision to readmit him, thejewish welcomed the decision to readmit him, the jewish labour welcomed the decision to readmit him, thejewish labour movement have denounced his swift return to the fold. i think what is interesting

about this, although he has been brought back as a rank and file labour party member, he has not been readmitted to the parliamentary labour party at westminster. some mps opposed to him, along with the board of deputies of britishjews are putting pressure on keir starmer tonight, not to readmitjeremy corbyn as a labour mp. i am told no decision will be taken tonight at least. i think it is very clear that keir starmer said he will introduce a new complaints procedure to deal with anti—semitism from next year. nonetheless, drawing a line under the anti—semitism row is far easier said than done. many thanks again. a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in northern ethiopia according to the united nations, with nearly 30,000 people fleeing the conflict there since the start of november. tensions between ethiopia‘s federal government and authorities in its northern tigray region came

to a head two weeks ago, after the prime minister launched a military campaign, accusing the powerful tigray people‘s liberation front of attacking military bases. hundreds of people have died and the conflict threatens to destabilise the region, pulling in neighbouring eritrea and sudan, as our senior africa correspondent anne soy reports. the way to safety is fraught with great risk here. these are arrivals from the northern region of tigray. two weeks of fighting between the local government affair between the local government there and the national army has forced them to flee. they are arriving in their thousands every day in sudan. translation: we came with the clothes on our backs. i don‘t know where my husband is. i have been looking for him for five days. translation: i don't know, but there was heavy fighting and many people died. after that they told us

to leave, so we fled. everyone did. they don‘t mind that the barren lands of eastern sudan have little to offer. they build makeshift shelters in which they can finally sleep in peace. aid is slow to come. the sheer size of the arrivals is really overwhelming the humanitarian response to the ordeal. it is kind of a call on humanity, to whoever is listening, because a country like sudan who already has nearly a million existing refugees, this is an additional shift in the refugee numbers and they will also need international support in this. these are some of the few pictures coming out of tigray. the national army says it has taken control of the western side. the state broadcaster showed what they say are celebrations in one newly liberated town.

with the communications blackout there, it‘s difficult to independently verify reports from the region, and the government has rejected calls for mediation. we don‘t need any mediation until we bring the leaders to court because any mediation would incentivise impunity and unruliness. and so, the onslaught continues. the federal government says it‘s making the final push for the regional capital mek‘ele, after a three day deadline to surrender passed, but there‘s doubt it can quickly subdue the war—hardened former rulers of ethiopia who govern tigray. as with every conflict, the real losers are the civilians whose lives have been disrupted and continue to be threatened with little help coming their way. anne soy, bbc news. people living in social housing in england will have more protection

and rights to demand improvements to their homes under new reforms in the wake of the grenfell fire in 2017. the government says the changes mean the voices of residents will never again go unheard. but critics say there‘s still an sufficient number of new social homes being built, with more than 90,000 households currently living in temporary accomodation. our home editor mark easton has the story. three years ago, hisam lost six members of his family on the 22nd floor of grenfell tower, including his mother and sister. he has been waiting every day since for politicians to deliver the answers he seeks. we wantjustice, people to be prosecuted. we want to make sure that this doesn‘t happen ever again. you don‘t think that today‘s white paper takes you part of the way? no.

after the loss of 72 lives in the fire which engulfed grenfell, the government admitted that for far too long the voices of social housing tenants had been ignored or silenced. long after the tv cameras have gone and the world has moved on, let the legacy of this awful tragedy be that we resolve never to forget these people. despite the prime ministerial commitment, it took more than three years to produce today‘s social housing white paper. it proposes a charter of resident rights, including, to be safe in your home. to have complaints dealt with promptly and fairly and to have your voice heard with stronger regulation. when things do go wrong we want to be sure that you can get redress quickly and easily with a much more consumer—focused regulator, who will take action to ensure people's rights are actually respected and upheld. for me, it‘s just paper. you sound disappointed ? i am, because if you look

at the charter, it‘s nothing new. the government had said that as well as action on tenants‘ rights, their proposals would boost the supply of social housing. but actually, there is no firm commitment on the document, despite a growing in desperate need. in the summer, a senior committee of mps told the government england needed 90,000 net additional social homes every year. for the last five years, there have been fewer than 10,000. the most recent annual figures show 6,300 were added, while 19,300 were sold off under right to buy. the government has allowed the housing market to become tilted towards a private rented, under—regulated sector and has failed to give the sort of support that‘s needed, both for social housing landlords and for social housing tenants. so here we are today with a white paper that promises

better rights for social housing tenants but does nothing about supply. ministers say they want today‘s social housing plans to ensure tenants are treated with dignity and respect. whether it will prove to be the generational shift in attitudes they promised, remains an open question. mark easton, bbc news, g re nfell tower. there‘s growing speculation that the treasury could announce a temporary cut in the foreign aid budget next week, as part of its spending review. ministers have said it is "legitimate" to look for savings at a time when the public finances are under great strain. but the idea has been opposed by some senior conservative figures. in thailand, dozens of campaigners have been injured in continuing protests in bangkok calling for reform to the constitution. police used water cannon and tear gas on the most violent day so far in the onging demonstrations. our correspondentjonathan head sent this report.

at a barricade by thailand‘s parliament, police battling some very determined demonstrators. they have been coming out time after time for months. a student—led campaign to transform the country‘s political system. even demanding changes to the monarchy, once beyond criticism here. these protesters are now trying to pull away at this concrete barricade to make a way through. and they are spraying water cannon. it‘s laced with chemicals so you can be smell the tear gas in it. these protesters want to get through to parliament because that is where the reforms they are demanding are supposed to be discussed. they are worried that a parliament dominated by the military—backed party, their reforms

are going to be swept aside. that‘s why they are staying put. and you can see how determined they are. next came volleys of tear gas. it was too much for some. but they would not give up. thailand is in the middle of an epic struggle pitting a younger generation demanding more freedom, more accountability, against a military—backed state which is offering them few concessions. jonathan head, bbc news, bangkok. the organisation that represents around three million people who don‘t qualify for full financial help during the pandemic, is warning of the devastating impact on their members‘ mental health. excluded uk says that almost half of the 3,000 members who responded to their questionnaire are struggling, with one in five experiencing panic attacks and one in seven having suicidal thoughts. our correspondentjeremy cooke

looks at the findings. i‘m always getting asked about the fried chicken burger. i love food. i‘m going to eat this one first, then i‘m going to show you how to do it. pete‘s 2020 started well. his high—end burger business, on fire. a success story for an ex—soldier who had, at one point, been facing homelessness. a reward for months of refining recipes, building up from nothing. it‘s a labour of love, i‘ve got to tell you. it‘s a labour of love. and then came covid. it‘s soul destroying. when you put your heart and your soul and your everything into something, for it to go wrong, you haven‘t got anything left. pete thought he‘d get help, but says he‘s received nothing from the government support schemes. 2020 has done a number on my mental health. it made me feel like i wasn‘t worthy of being in society any more. when we met, pete was staying positive. after the desperation and worry of being refused

government—backed loan, the bank said he could appeal. if the appeal for the bounce back loan is unsuccessful, i don‘t really know what purpose will be left for me in life. cheryl is another of the so—called excluded. a make—up artist for theatre and tv. over the last 20 years i've very, very rarely been out of work. but would lockdown, her industry and her work... ..stopped dead. i was so frustrated with nowhere to turn and just i literally lost it, turned my phone off and thought, that's it. i've got nothing, no one cares. another covid mental health crisis. an administration error delayed cheryl‘s tax return. not her fault, but enough to cost her any government support. just massive insecurity and total loneliness. what was the low point for you? my mum crying her eyes out and saying, you need to get help. because she was worried about you? massively worried about me. at least cheryl is getting some

work now, but it hand to mouth, no guarantees. just got to wait and see, there is no certainty at all about any of it. mentally, i'm hoping i'll be all right again. cheryl and pete, stories of isolation and desperation. for thousands of us, covid leads to money problems and in turn, to mental health crisis. we've had four or five suicides within the community. excluded was formed for those hit financially by the covic crisis. now, it‘s about mental health, too. a total crisis and these people have come from an experience that they never thought they would be impacted by mental health. you don't know if you can feed your children all keep your house. you can't deal with anything else, your brain isjust not able to function in the same way. pete‘s been back in touch and so we are back for a catch up. when did you actually

get the letter? as soon as i got back. it‘s bad news on the bank loan. they basically just said we are not doing it. a bitter blow. i‘ve got a myriad of emotions all rolled into one right now, but the main one is to spare. are you going to be ok? i‘ve got this far, i ain‘t going to give up. but, i don‘t know what it is i‘m not giving up on any more, because... there‘s not really any hope. the covid crisis, countless futures rewritten and reshaped and no way of knowing the long term mental health legacy. jeremy cooke, bbc news. for details of organisations offering information and support with mental health go to bbc.co.uk/actionline or you can call for free at any time to hear recorded information on 08000155 998.