this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm tim willcox. president trump to cut troop numbers in afganistan and iraq, but stops short of outright withdrawal. as fighting continues in ethiopia, thousands flee across the border into sudan. the spanish businessman paid over $27 million of british taxpayers‘ money for his role in securing protective garments for the uk's health service during the pandemic. and we take a look at how china is pursuing the journalists who first reported the outbreak of coronavirus in wuhan.

donald trump had threatened to bring all american troops home by christmas. he's not going quite that far, but he will reduce the us military presence in iraq and afghanistan before he leaves office. so, let's look at that plan in a bit more detail. at the moment, there are 3000 soldiers stationed in iraq. 500 of them will be pulled out. the drawdown looks much more meaningful in afghanistan, where 2000 of the a500 us troops will be withdrawn. they are part of the nato force in place to support what is a fragile government. the acting defense secretary, christopher miller, made the announcement at his first news conference. together we have mourned the loss of more than 6900 american troops who gave their lives in afghanistan and iraq. and we will never forget the more than 52,000 who bear the wounds of war and all those

who still carry its scars, visible and invisible. in light of these tremendous sacrifices and with great humility and gratitude to those who came before us, i am formally announcing that we will implement president trump's orders to continue our repositioning of forces from those two countries. lebo disekojoins me from washington. he is the replacement for mark esper, and mark esper did not agree with this plan need to do international leaders. this is a reporter for quite a few days in the us media that this was going to happen and it's also being reported that prior to being reported that prior to being removed from his post, mark esper had actually written a classified memo in which he said that he thought it was the wrong time essentially to make

this withdrawal and that that was the opinion of the entire chain of command there. there has also been as you say criticism of the decision internationally. the nato secretary—general saying that it could actually give isis the chance to reform the caliphate and do more damage there as well. there are many who are unhappy about this. including political allies. mitch mcconnell speaking in the senate a few hours ago to listen to what he had to say. a rapid withdrawal of us forces from afghanistan now would hurt our allies and delight, delight the people who wish us harm. violence affecting afghans is still rampant. the taliban is not abiding by the conditions of the so—called peace deal. the consequences of a premature american exit would likely be even worse than president 0bama's withdrawal from iraq back in 2011.

suggestions also that president trump might want to put in place the total withdrawal which is what he said he would do when he became president four years ago by spring. 0r just after that. what do we know about that? i think there isa know about that? i think there is a lot of speculation about what donald trump might do and i suppose it kind of speaks to the situation that we are in. donald trump has yet to recognise that there is a transition in place. he is he had to concede. nobody quite knows what he might do next. i think the democrats that put them ina think the democrats that put them in a very difficult position. joe biden spent most of the day getting briefings from security experts but they are not people with classified clearance. they cannot actually tell him what is going on at the moment. and joe tell him what is going on at the moment. andjoe biden's team melissa statement to that effect not long ago, saying that essentially they are

unable to get those briefings and until then they are going to have to kind of keep talking to have to kind of keep talking to experts but that is obviously no match for three people inside the room as it we re people inside the room as it were who have access to this information about where and what is actually happening and what is actually happening and what the plans stay to play and situation is. ok, thank you very much. ethiopia is claiming that its defence forces have made sweeping military gains in its northern tigray region and are maching on its capital. insurgent regional forces say they're putting up resistance. the united nations is warned that a full—scale humanitarian crisis is unfolding as the conflict escalates, with nearly 30,000 people fleeing the conflict there since the start of november. 0ur senior africa correspondent anne soy reports. the way to safety is fraught with great risk here. these are ethiopians from the northern region of tigray. two weeks of fighting 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 over there. it's 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 ringleaders 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. police in bangkok have used water cannon and tear gas against protesters trying to get close to parliament, where debates are taking place on amendements to the constitution. thailand has seen months of demonstrations demanding reform and the resignation of the prime minister. jonathan head reports from bangkok. in thailand, a military—backed government is battling young protesters who want a proper democracy. they've been campaigning

for months for a fairer political system, but also for a monarchy that respects the rules. today, that battle got rougher and wetter. well, 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 really smell the tear gas in it. these protesters want to get through to parliament cos that's where the reforms they're demanding are supposed to be discussed. they're worried that a parliament dominated by the military—backed party, their reforms are just going to be swept aside. that's why they're staying put. and you can see how determined they are. for a moment, they vanished in clouds of tear gas.

but didn't retreat far. though a few were overcome. they've shattered a taboo against even talking about the monarchy. but they're up against the old men of thailand's parliament, and they've ruled out any discussion of the king. he's at the heart of this conflict. these days, the king is often seen on royal walkabouts, raising his profile. but he's spent most of this year at a luxury hotel in germany and has been accused of accumulating excessive wealth and power. many thais, though, still believe that their king is above criticism. yellow—shirted loyalists came out to confront the protesters

and to insist that thailand must stay as it is. well, it's all over for today, but the protesters are promising to come back again, as they have for the past 4—5 months. in asking for a monarchy that's accountable in the military that stays out of politics, they believe they're making reasonable demands. they're up against a state which does not even believe these things can be discussed. the gap between both sides is a yawning and not getting any closer. jonathan head, bbc news, bangkok. stay with us on bbc news. still to come, by private taxi to the international space station, the four astronauts transported by spacex. music. benazir bhutto has claimed victory in pakistan's general election, and she's asked pakistan's president to name her as prime minister.

jackson's been released on bail of $3 million after turning himself in to police in santa barbara. it was the biggest demonstration so far of the fast—growing european anti—nuclear movement. the south african government has announced that it's opening the country's remaining whites—only beaches to people of all races. this will lead to a black majority government in this country and the destruction of the white civilization. part of the centuries—old windsor castle, one of the queen's residences, has been consumed by fire for much of the day. 150 firemen have been battling the blaze, which has caused millions of pounds' worth of damage. this is bbc news. the latest headlines —

president trump is to cut troop numbers in afghanistan and iraq. the move is being criticised by republicans and democrats. as fighting continues in ethiopia, thousand flee to neighbouring sudan. the un refugee agency says it urgently needs access to those displaced. one year ago, what may have been the first case of coranavirus was diagnosed in china. the article from the south china morning post, citing chinese government data, says the first case of covid—19 can be traced back to the 17th of november 2019. the person is said to be a 55—year—old living in hubei province. the official position of the chinese authorities, we should add, is that the first case wasn't confirmed until december last year, one month later. fast forward to today, more than 1.3 million people have died from covid—19, with more than 55 million confirmed cases globally.

chinese leaders were seen as slow to react to the outbreak that began in the city of wuhan, suppressing information and even punishing those who raised the alarm. and it seems it is still intent of pursuing citizen journalists who covered the initial stages of the pandemic. the first to be publicly charged is zhang zhan, a former lawyer who reported from wuhan in february. she faces up to five years injail. i spoke earlier to yaqiu wang, a writer and researcher on human rights in china, from human rights watch. she told me more about zhang zhan. zhang zhan is a former lawyer, and she has been outspoken and been critical of the chinese government before. so, she has her youtube channels on her social media channels, where she used those platforms to voice criticism. so, in february, when the virus was raging in wuhan,

she went there and she saw what she saw and reported what she saw through social media channels. then later, the government got upset and detained her and now she's in detention. and she was detained and held by the authorities in february, i think, as well. but where is she now, and what has she been charged with? she was detained in wuhan by the police from shanghai. that's hundreds of miles away. then the police took her back to shanghai, she's from, and now she's in the detention centre in shanghai. she's been charged with picking quarrel and provoking trouble. that's a crime that is often leveled at activists and dissidents who will speak critically of the government. and what sort of prison

sentence could she be facing? right now, the prosecutor has recommended to the judge forfive years. so, the crime can result in 5—10 years of prison sentence. and zhang zhan has been saying that she hasn't committed any crime, so that could result in a heavy sentence. 0ne remembers the death of the doctor, who i think was detained as well when he reported the outbreak in the early days as well. but a year later, life in wuhan certainly appears to have returned to normality. people are moving around, and there appears to be public support for what the chinese authorities did at the time. does that mean that there is little support for zhang zhan? i don't think so. first of all, i think a lot of people are still very angry with what the government did in the very early stage, hiding information and

underreporting the cases. chinese society is so repressed, if you speak against the government, you can be can be punished heavily, like what happened to zhang zhan. i think there are a lot of people who are still upset. more than 2 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. in several areas, including scotland's largest city, glasgow, non—essential shops and bars, restaurants, hairdressers and visitor attractions, will all have to close. 0ur scotland editor sarah smith reports.

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. but just about every other business in between — the shops, cafes, barbers, beauticians and the bookies — they're all going to have to close for three weeks. existing restrictions preventing any performances mean this dancewear shop is already suffering. so, you're going to have to close? it's just a devastating blow. we have already been locked down before, and now we're the florist shop closed in the spring, but hopes to keep some orders going this time. so, you've heard about the new restrictions? if we have to close, it will be online orders, telephone orders and basically we'll 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's 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 6pm and can't serve alcohol. in level four, it's closer to a full lockdown. nonessential 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 the 11th of 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 the 11th. some breaking news from the us, president donald trump has just announced that he has fired his cyber security and infrastructure security agency director. i think that came in a tweet. i am not quite clear about it but i think we can bring you the tweet in a few moments time but president trump has fired his

cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency director. that in the last few minutes. a spanish businessman who acted as a go—between to secure protective garments for the uk's national health service staff in the coronavirus pandemic, was paid more than $27 million of taxpayers' money. the consultant had been in line for millions more according to court documents in florida seen by bbc news. as our special correspondent lucy manning reports, the legal papers also reveal the american supplier of the ppe called the deals "lucrative". 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, says he had business connections in china and court documents from america show just 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 was 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 is 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, "at no time have we ever used any middlemen. we have few full—time staff so for large projects we bring in short—term contractors for additional expertise. we are exceptionally proud to have played our part in providing front—line workers with the millions of pieces of ppe they need." the department of health said, "we have been working tirelessly to deliver ppe, delivering more than 4.9 billion items. proper due diligence is carried out for all government contracts and we take these checks extremely seriously." in august the bbc revealed the government bought 50 million masks that couldn't be used in the nhs and it is likely to face more criticism tomorrow when the spending watchdog publishes its report into how ppe was purchased. lucy manning, bbc news. it amounts to a private taxi service and a new era in commercial space travel. the first fully—operational nasa spacex flight taking

astronauts to the international space station has arrived at its destination. you can see here the five astronauts arriving emerging through the hatch. high—fives and hugs were in order. no need for social distancing because of their pre—launch quarantine. the falcon rocket and dragon capsule they used to get off the earth is a service the californian firm, owned by elon musk, now sells to nasa, and it has a contract for the the next five return trips. 0ur breaking news now and president trump has fired the director of the us cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, chris krebs, because of what the president claims were failings in the electoral system. writing on twitter, he said...

hello. the very mild air that's been with us for the past few days is going to get swept away, and we're set to see a real change in weather type through the course of wednesday. it's going to be windy with some rain moving eastwards, and behind that, some colder air moving in, too. it's all down to this area of low pressure with its trailing cold front here, which is moving its way eastwards. lots of isobars on the map, indicating strength of the wind as well. still very mild out there. in fact, first thing wednesday, the temperatures well in double figures, teens for most of us. more typical, really, these temperatures of daytime highs. now through the day, we've got some initial heavy rain across western parts of britain and northern ireland, western scotland, too. the rain will edge its way slowly eastwards. something really persistent for the northern isles and also for western parts of scotland as well. but it becomes a little bit more patchy as it heads across eastern england

during the course of the afternoon. so, cloudy ahead of that, with a return to some showers behind it and a drop in those temperatures. we are back into single figures in the west late on wednesday. now, wednesday evening, that's when the winds are really going to picking up, particularly for parts of scotland and northern ireland, western fringes of england and wales, too. further showers moving south and across scotland, those showers will be wintry, even down to low levels, first thing for thursday morning. so certainly colder air moving in. you can see those northerly wind arrows and blue colours that are going to be spilling further south, a colder air mass across the uk as we head on into thursday. above the high pressure is going to be squeezing away most of the rain, but we've still got some pretty windy conditions, especially in the east. so, gales possible for eastern scotland, down the east coast of england as well. some sunshine for most places of the day on thursday. one or two showers dotted around here and there, and they could be wintry across parts of scotland, in particular over the higher ground. it's certainly much colder than recent days. largely in single figures for most of us.

we may welljust get 10—11 degrees across parts of wales and the south west of england. but it doesn't stay cold for very long because by the time we get to friday, we see more cloud and outbreaks of rain working into the west. the breeze coming in from the south—westerly direction once again. so, many of us back into double figures by the time we get to friday, and it's looking fairly unsettled through friday. into the weekend, it's a little bit up and down, quite breezy through the day on saturday. cooler but brighter for most of us. some sunny spells by sunday. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. the headlines...

president trump has decided to halve the number of us troops in afghanistan and iraq before he leaves office. he stopped short of a threatened full withdrawal. the move has faced criticism from both republicans and democrats who fear it will damage fragile peace talks with the taliban. as fighting continues between ethiopian federal forces and tigrayan insurgents in the north of the county, thousands of refugees have poured over the border into neighbouring sudan. the un says they are urgently in need of food and fuel, but a communications blackout in the region means there is limited access. renewed clashes have broken out near thailand's parliament in the capital, bangkok, as lawmakers debate possible changes to the constitution. police used water cannon and tear gas against protesters

that is it