chris krebs, for issuing statements defending the integrity of the recent elections. in a tweet, the president accused the director of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency of having made a ‘highly inaccurate' statement in relation to the poll. and the president 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 country, 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.

now on bbc news, tuesday in parliament. hello and welcome to tuesday in parliament. coming up, matt hancock says he's proposing "roving teams" to deliver any coronavirus vaccine across even the most rural parts of england. it's a critical principle that it should be deployed according to clinical need, not according to where you live across the united kingdom. nicola sturgeon announces a short, sharp tightening of coronavirus restrictions across parts of scotland. in this situation, it is specifically intended to have an impact in advance of christmas and the most challenging winter period. and what toll is covid taking on nhs staff? you barely finish your morning surgery by the time you start evening surgery. but first, in the last week, there's been promising news on two vaccines to combat

coronavirus — one from pfizer biontech and now a second from moderna, thought to be 95% effective. the government has ordered millions of doses of both. at health questions, matt hancock promised they'd be available across the whole of the uk. but mps wanted to know how and how quickly they'd be distributed. what assessment has he done of the logistics necessary to deliver a vaccine to more rural areas like cornwall? our principled approach is that we will deploy the vaccine according to clinical need in every single part of the uk and at the same time. mr speaker, kate bingham and the vaccine task force have done an amazing job in securing so many doses of vaccines as and when they become available, which will be procured by uk governments and equally available across all parts of our

united kingdom. does my right honourable friend agree that this shows the power of all parts of uk speaking with one voice and working together for the good of ourentire union? we should take forward this vaccine and we should ensure that it is available fairly and equally across all parts of our united kingdom. of course, it will be deployed in each of the devolved nations through the devolved nhs. and i've been working closely with my counterparts, and the nhs has been working, the four nhs organisations have been working together. but ultimately, let us hope that should a vaccine become available because we still don't have one authorised yet, but should one become available, it will be a moment at which the whole country can come together in support of making sure that those who are clinically most vulnerable will get support first wherever they live. as the house knows, i represent a vast and very

remote constituency. what worries me is the thought of the elderly and vulnerable constituents having to travel long distances to get the vaccine. we are proposing roving teams to be able to get out into rural communities across england, and i know that there are discussions going on between the nhs in england and in scotland who are responsible for the deployment of this vaccine, but it's a critical principle that it should be deployed according to clinical need, not according to where you live across the united kingdom. a labour mp asked a health minister how long it would all take. it looks, mr speaker, like vaccines to be effective may have to have two injections rather than one, which doubles the number. so, can she give any view at this stage — given the logistical efforts that are going in — how long it will take, in her opinion, for us to be able to safely vaccinate everybody in the country? we will deploy it as fast as it is... there is a process. we have to know it's safe through the regulatory framework. we then have to know that as it

arrives from the manufacturers, we can distribute it at pace. we are aiming to do that, and every sinew is being strained to make sure we can deliver as swiftly as possible. the prime minister is thought to be keen to return england to a tier system when the current lockdown ends. but the measures are under review after a senior government adviser said the three tier system used previously may need strengthening. labour wanted answers. yesterday, at his press conference, we heard that tier i has had very little effect and that the tiers must be strengthened. can he confirm that it's the government's intention to impose a tougher set of restrictions on tieri areas post this lockdown? mr speaker, it is too early to do the analysis that the honourable gentleman requests, but, of course, we remain vigilant. meanwhile, mps have been given an insight into the stress and fatigue faced by nhs staff during the pandemic.

a leading gp told the health committee that doctors and nurses had not been prepared to see "so much illness and death". the mps have been looking at workforce burn—out in the health service. they heard first, over a slightly unreliable videolink, from a senior nurse manager who was redeployed to the frontline. i myself as the evening nurse was also redeployed, but as you know, myjob doesn't stop, i still manage staff, i still needed to continue to do myjob, but went to work in the discharge lounge discharging patients. so at one stage, i was doing a 60—70 hour week to keep the wheels on the bus, really. i've been nursing for 43 years, i'm 62. i was absolutely shattered and exhausted at the end of each week. but i also felt very privileged, i have to say, that we were able to do our bit and help. so, within your practice and within the practice

of the nurse specialist, how would you describe burn—out? what does that look like to you? i think it's really difficult because we work on adrenaline, don't we, a lot of the time? and we just go, and we want to give, and that's why we've come into nursing, really, because we want to care and do all the right things. and i think, for me, i was tired, i was fatigued. it very much seemed like groundhog day every day. the mps then heard from the chair of the doctors' union, the bma. he told them that even before the pandemic, there were already high levels of stress and anxiety. a former health secretary saw a way to improve things. the nhs and the government have still not published

their ten—year workforce projections, which are the independent assessment of how many doctors we're going to need in ten years' time, how many nurses, how many ahps and so on. and ijust wondered how important is it for morale, for doctors, to know, even if we don't have enough doctors now, we are at least recruiting enough for the future? i think it's vitally important that while we, you know, acknowledge the constraints of today, to know that there is a very clear plan of addressing these shortfalls. remember, this was an experience that no doctor or nurse was prepared for, to see so much illness and death in their workplaces. i mean, to imagine being in a hospital that has no visitors. and we were doing surveys throughout the pandemic, tracker surveys, and when we asked about mental health, we had a huge response, with 2,000 free text responses, and doctors were describing things like the emotional

impact of having to hold a smartphone or an ipad as being the vehicle of contact between patients in their last days of life and relatives. just imagine, you know, a whole hospital without any visitors. nhs staff can get support through practitioner health. its medical director explained the impact of the workload and how it's changed. it is not hours worked, per se, it is the intensity of those hours that are worked. and you asked the doctor another question about his intensity. like he, i've been in my own practice for 30 years. you barely finish your morning surgery by the time you start your evening surgery. there is no gap. my father, who was a single—handed gp way back when, at the start of the nhs, used to go home, have a large lunch, half a bottle of wine, a siesta and then go back for his evening surgery. please don't quote me on the siesta. as he's now sadly deceased, he can't be referred to the general medical counsellor. clare gerada. now to scotland, where the first minister announced that the toughest covid restrictions are to be introduced in ii council areas

including glasgow on friday. scotland has a different system to england, with restrictions in levels zero to four. the toughest rules will see the closure of non essential shops, pubs, restaurants and gyms. the new restrictions will affect about 2.3 million people living across west and central scotland, and will remain in place until 11 december. level four is intended to be short and sharp. and in this situation, it is specifically intended to have an impact in advance of christmas and the most challenging winter period. in the latest projections, in the documents accompanying this statement, it shows that nhs lanarkshire, greater glasgow and clyde and ayrshire and arran could run out of covid hospital beds in the coming weeks and that icu capacity in those areas, along with fife and forth valley, will also soon be reached. while we will hope for the best that this is not the case, we must also plan for the worst. one of the reasons we are taking the really difficult decisions we are taking today

around greater glasgow and clyde, lanarkshire and stirling, as far as it relates to forth valley, is to make sure that our hospitals and our icu facilities do not get to the point over the winter period where they cannot cope, and i believe this action will help to protect our health service, but all health boards have contingency plans in place. for icu, that involves plans to double icu capacity and then, if necessary, to treble icu capacity. can the first minister explain to people, like those in north and south lanarkshire, what the hard data is, what the evidence is to move them up a tier at a time when the transmission rate in lanarkshire is coming down? and 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? he asked me for the evidence. the data for each local

authority is being published today, as he is aware. if you look at cases per 100,000 over the past seven days, the national average is 141. in north lanarkshire, it's 238. so it has stabilised and slightly decreased, but it must come down faster to deal with the biggest and most important bit of evidence that ruth davidson actually referred to in her question, that if we don't act now, there is a risk that hospital and icu services in nhs lanarkshire, as winter pressures kick in, would not be able to cope with covid and other winter pressures. is the first minister sure that these sacrifices will help cut the virus? is the first minister sure this is going to work? i am as sure as i can be in an inherently uncertain

and unpredictable situation that what we are announcing today will drive infection rates lower to the levels that we need them to be in the central belt areas. nicola sturgeon. you're watching tuesday in parliament with me, alicia mccarthy. the prime minister's chief adviser, dominic cummings, walked out of downing street for the last time on friday. his very public departure followed reports of behind—the—scenes rows and infighting in boris johnson's team. last week also saw the resignation of one of mr cummings‘s close allies, the downing street director of communications, lee cain. when mps questioned the former head of the civil service, lord sedwill, who stood down earlier this year, they asked him what he made of recent events. these things happen from time to time, advisers come and go in government, and clearly, the prime minister wants to try and ensure he has the right support around him

as he navigates through the next phase. but as for the specifics and the stories i've seen in the press, i don't really have any more insight than anyone else not directly involved. so you don't think it reflected any internal tensions that you might have been aware of as cabinet secretary? i think there are always tensions and frictions within government, particularly when governments are under pressure, and we've seen that in governments of different political complexions over the years. there are often stories around advisers, particularly high—profile advisers. i could think of several in the past, over the past couple of decades. and when those stories crystallize and when those advisers leave government, it's a big story. it's a big story within the westminster and whitehall village. i'm not sure it's a big story in the rest of the country, but it is obviously a significant political story at the time, and we've seen the same with other advisers in the past. but what about mark sedwill‘s retirement from hisjob as cabinet secretary and national security adviser? there were rumours

he was pushed out. now, you said that you mutually agreed to leave the cabinet secretary role with the prime minister. at whose instigation was that? well, we'd been discussing for some time, actually, when the appropriate moment was to separate the jobs again of cabinet secretary and national security adviser. that was never envisaged to be a permanent arrangement, including under the last prime minister, when she asked me to take on the cabinet secretary's role in the tragic circumstances ofjeremy heywood's, as it turned out, fatal illness, and it was always intended that would not be a permanent arrangement. and so we were discussing it for some time. actually, the timing, the instigation this summer that the time had probably come to do that was at my initiative, but it was really

part of an ongoing conversation with the prime minister. and just to be clear, because there has been some speculation about this, at no point did the prime minister ask me to step down. indeed, on several occasions — knowing that, actually, my personal preference would have been to step down and move onto anotherjob in public service at some point — he'd actually asked me to stay on and support him through the various key moments of his first year in office — brexit, the election, the aftermath of the election, then, of course, that first acute phase of the covid crisis. briefing against ministers, briefing against special advisers, briefing against other leading personalities involved with or in government is a regrettable feature of modern political life, and it is detrimental to good governance, whoever is at the wrong end of it. and, of course, again, it's not a new phenomenon, it's happened in the past. i think it's new for the civil service to find ourselves in the firing line in quite such a personalised way. i can't imagine any of my predecessors as cabinet secretary finding themselves

being speculated about being fired with a change of prime minister approaching, as i was while the leadership election was still under way, and that's just, i'm afraid, a feature of the period that we're in. labour has called for an investigation into allegations of cronyism in government. the sunday times reported that lobbyists, employed by ministers as part of the response to coronavirus, benefited from privileged information. it would appear that the chair of portland communications, the lobbying company, george pascoe—watson — who was until recently an adviser to the noble lord the minister — has used the words, and i quote, "the decision—makers have told me personally," with regard to the government's intended covid restrictions in an e—mail to his clients before the proposed restrictions had been publicly announced. my lords, in some places, this kind of thing can be regarded as insider trading —

profiting from private information for your own or your company's gain. my lords, i'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to set the record straight from the noble baroness, because i think it's worth showing the house that the e—mails to which she refers were sent after george pascoe—watson left his role as an adviser to the department. and with the greatest respect to portland and its chairman, they contained nothing more than the kind of speculation you might find in any national newspaper. and so at this stage, what i'd like to do is to give thanks to those who have served as advisers to myself and to the department. yesterday, former conservative attorney general dominic grieve described the johnson government as presiding over the disappearance of any standard of conduct in public life at the heart of government, and that the cronyism of administrative decisions had communicated to young people in particular a sense of government as corrupt.

given that, my lords, can the minister really be surprised that there was concern over the conduct of mr pascoe—watson after he'd ceased to be an adviser? well, i always take the words and advice of former attorney general dominic grieve extremely seriously and i value his opinion greatly. lord bethell. at first minister's questions in wales, mark drakeford faced calls for more to be done to support people's mental health, particularly during the current pandemic. i'm sure you'll share my concerns to the news that a recent mind cymru survey found a third of adults and a quarter of young people failed to get help because they didn't think they deserved it. can you tell us how the welsh government is responding to concerns from organisations like

mind cymru about ensuring people are getting the help that they need? getting the help you need for people who feel the pressure of these extraordinary months in their sense of mental health and wellbeing is very important indeed. and there is something for us all to think about in that result — that people hadn't failed to get help in the sense that they'd ask for it and help wasn't available. they hadn't gone looking for help. but he reckoned there was something the conservative uk government could do to help reduce the pressure on families, by making permanent a £20 a week increase in the benefit universal credit brought in to help people through the covid pandemic. i wonder if he'd like to add his name to that call today, because that is genuinely crucial support that families in wales no longer know that they can rely on. i know, first minister, that you want to distract from talking about your responsibilities as a government in order to highlight yourfailures — your failures when it comes to the health service, to the education system and your failures when it comes to the economy.

plaid cymru's leader turned to fears for the future of tata steel in port talbot. it follows an announcement that tata is looking to sell part of its european arm, separating the uk and dutch businesses, news which has been described as "extremely worrying" for tata's workers — about 4,000 of whom are employed at port talbot. adam price tied his question in to comments reported in the sun newspaper, which said that borisjohnson had told mps that "devolution has been a disaster north of the border" and had been former prime minister tony blair's "biggest mista ke". history has taught us as well, hasn't it, first minister, we cannot rely on westminster to solve wales's economic problems? and indeed, to reverse the prime minister's logic, it's because westminster‘s proven so disastrous to wales that this senedd exists. so now is the time to show the difference that having our own government can make, by bringing forward a counter—proposal to protect jobs and livelihoods in port talbot and the surrounding area. the senedd exists not because of the failure

of the boris johnson government but because of the success of a labour government in making devolution happen in the first place. and devolution thrives when there is a labour government to support it, and devolution comes under the sorts of pressures that it is now under when we have a conservative government, where you scratch the surface of the conservative party and all its old hostility to devolution rises back to the surface. that's what happened yesterday, when the prime minister thought he could show off in front of a few conservative mps from the north of england. we have the senedd because of a labour party — and this labour party will continue to make sure that we use all the powers that we have here, or the powers we have of persuasion, the powers that we have to intervene, not at this point to make a counterproposal but to work with the company on the proposals that it will want to bring forward. mark drakeford. the government's faced accusations of "bumbling incompetence" in the way it's striking trade deals.

the uk is in the process of replicating dozens of trade deals it was party to when it was a member of the european union. the government calls it the continuity trade agreement programme. in under two years, the uk government has signed or agreed in principle trade agreements with 52 countries that account for £142 billion of uk bilateral trade. this accounts for 74% of the value of trade with non—eu countries that we set out to secure agreements with at the start of the trade continuity programme. since the transition period began, we have expanded the ambition of our programme above and beyond this original scope. in november, we signed an enhanced deal with japan, accounting for £30 billion of uk trade in 2019, and we expect to make significant progress in securing further deals before the end of the transition period. we believe that this is the largest set of parallel trade negotiations ever

conducted by any country. the government has literally had years to protect our free trade with countries like canada, singapore and mexico. and with just six weeks to go until the end of the transition period, 15 of those continuity agreements have still not been secured, leaving £80 billion of uk trade at risk — that's two and half times our trade with japan — 15 agreements which have left so late that the government will now have to ride roughshod over the rules of parliamentary scrutiny to implement them in time. and she took a swipe at the international trade secretary, liz truss. it's sheer bumbling incompetence. and instead of taking responsibility today, the secretary of state has sent her minister in her stead — a fitting symbol of her total failure to grasp this issue during her 16 months in office. the minister insisted the government was following scrutiny procedures in the constitutional reform and governance act of 2010, otherwise known as crag. are we riding roughshod?

no, we are not. crag would still be fully operating... she scoffs, mr speaker, but she actually voted for crag in 2010 in the same way that idid. she should have belief in what she voted for in the last labour government. and he said that there was "an irony" in labour's position. the labour party complaining that we haven't rolled over all of these eu agreements, and that irony is this, mr speaker — that they didn't support these agreements in the first place. they voted against eu—singapore, they abstained on eu—japan, they split three ways on eu—canada. so they're complaining about agreements not being rolled over which they never supported in the first place! it's still a huge concern that we still don't have 15 of these deals done. indeed, the biggest trade deal that we have, with 44 days to go, with the eu is still uncertain. isn't it the truth that jobs, businesses and communities need to be better served by this

government in its work associated with brexit and these incomplete trade deals? time for the government to get its act together and quick. does my right honourable friend agree that we can't force countries back to the negotiating table, and we must not do any deals at any price? well, my honourable friend is quite right, mr speaker. it takes two to tango, and that is as true for international trade agreements. if the partner doesn't want to negotiate, of course, we will speak with them, we will use all of the levers that we've got to try and get them to the table, but at the end of the day, if the partner doesn't want to negotiate, i'm afraid that can happen. greg hands. and that's it from me for now, but dojoin me again, when — among other things — we'll have the highlights from prime minister's questions, with borisjohnson taking part remotely from number 10 after being forced to self—isolate. but for now from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye.

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 be 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. a bump of 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 through 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.

welcome to bbc news — i'm mike embley. our top stories... president trump dismisses his top cyber security official, chris krebs — who denied there was evidence of fraud in the presidential election. and the president orders cuts to troop numbers in afghanistan and iraq — but stops short of outright withdrawal. as fighting continues in ethiopia, thousands flee across the border into sudan. in thailand, more violence in the streets of bangkok as protesters demand changes to the country's constitution. water cannon is laced with chemicals, you can really smell the tear gas in it.