this is bbc news. i'm rebecca jones with the latest headlines at three... borisjohnson is facing questions about whether he tried to tone down an independent report which said home secretary priti patel broke the ministerial code by bullying staff. an online summit of the world's biggest economies is under way in saudi arabia. top of the agenda — the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout. an alternative to a covid vaccine for people without functioning immune systems is entering its final stage of trials. a rocket attack on the afghan capital, kabul — at least eight people have been killed and more than 30 injured. the firebreak is over, but the visitors remain locked down. how tourism businesses in wales are struggling to stay afloat.

hello. welcome to bbc news. the prime minister is facing further criticism for disregarding an independent report which said home secretary priti patel broke the ministerial code by bullying staff. number 10 has rejected claims — made by a whitehall source — that borisjohnson had asked for the inquiry findings to be toned down. it has insisted that the conclusions made by sir alex allan — who has now resigned as independent advisor on ministerial standards — were "entirely his own". our political correspondent helen catt has more. the findings of sir alex allan's report into priti patel were stark.

one of the government's most senior ministers had shouted and sworn at staff, and some of her behaviour had amounted to bullying. yesterday, she apologised. well, i'm here to give an unreserved apology today, and i am sorry if i have upset people in any way whatsoever. that was completely unintentional. but she stays in herjob, and that's put the focus back on her boss. borisjohnson‘s decision to back her and override sir alex's judgment on the ministerial code is drawing more criticism. the system depends on the prime minister standing up for standards in public life, and for taking action when his or her ministers breach those standards, and, for the first time, as far as i can remember, we have a prime minister who doesn't seem willing to stand up for high standards in public life. and there are claims that the prime minister had asked for the report to be toned down. a source has told the bbc that back

in the summer there were discussions between sir alex and borisjohnson about the challenges the report presented. another whitehall source said that sir alex had resisted pressure to make it more palatable. a downing street spokesman said that, as you would expect, the prime minister spoke to sir alex allan to further his understanding of the report, but that sir alex's conclusions were entirely his own. the report that's being published by sir alex allan is obviously independent. it is a nuanced report, reflecting clearly that the home secretary was working in an at times frustrating environment. borisjohnson considers the matter closed. labour does not. it has called for an independent investigation. downing street might be hoping that this will blow over, but there may be repercussions yet. helen catt, bbc news, westminster. alex thomas is a former civil servant who now works for the institute for government.

he told me this incident has shown the weakness of the oversight system. it might draw a line under the priti patel matter and obviously the prime minister has made his decision and he has got to accept the political fallout from that, so we will see, i suppose, over the next few days whether it proves sustainable. but the questions that the process has raised, they absolutely shouldn't be overlooked or drawn a line under. it has shown the essential weakness of the oversight system that exists in that the prime minister can not just choose to stand by his minister, but actually conclude that there has been no breach of ministerial code when an independent investigation has concluded otherwise. and if a prime minister can override an independent investigation, it does make you sort of wonder is it worth having them in the first place? well, we obviously know more about this than we did before. there is a report, an independent person has looked into this

and reached conclusions that we know about, even if we haven't seen the full report. so there is value in a process like this. i would say the answer, given what we have seen over the last few days, is not to scrap the system or say it's valueless, but to strengthen it and make sure that these things are properly investigated, both the commissioning of these sorts of investigations and the conclusions themselves. then the prime minister can hire and fire who he wants. what do you make of the claim that the prime minister tried to tone down the report to make it more palatable? how credible do you think that is? so, we obviously don't know and there seem to be disputed accounts. i think it is entirely reasonable for a prime minister to talk to the person that has produced the report. in fact, i think it's part of thejob — it is right that the prime minister wants to understand what has gone on and talk to the person that has done the investigation. if the prime minister then

applies a bit of pressure, then the role of the independent investigator, alex allan, is, as it seems to be case here, to resist that and say, "i have reached my conclusions and this is what stands," and that seems to be what has happened here. in one sense, that seems to be part of the system that is working, in that the independent report resisted any pressure if, indeed, pressure was put upon him. in the report, we understand priti patel says civil servants didn't support her in her work — colleagues and friends have come out and said she is a very direct and passionate person. would those be mitigating circumstances for you ? i don't think they are mitigating for the accusation of bullying. bullying is bullying, and whatever frustrations you might be experiencing in the job don't justify that. but it does suggest to me that nobody is coming out of this very well. it is pretty extraordinary for alex allan, who was a senior civil servant,

a very long and distinguished career, to conclude that both the home office and the department for international development were not sufficiently flexible and didn't support their secretary of state. it may not be quite what everybody is focusing on now with the bullying accusation, but that is some pretty hard questions for the civil servants in those departments to ask themselves as well. do you think the home secretary should resign, though? all i can go on is the independent investigation that concluded that she did breach the ministerial code. not every breach of the ministerial code needs to lead to a resignation or a dismissal, but if it is bullying, that is sufficiently serious, so that is my convoluted way of saying i think if you follow those steps through, you get to a point where she should resign. 0k, and i did want to come back to a point that you made at the very beginning, and this is probably more with your hat on as programme director of the institute for government.

you talked about the political fall out from this instance and whether borisjohnson‘s position was sustainable. what did you mean by that, exactly? i meant whether his decision to stand by the home secretary was sustainable. so, in terms of the way the system really is supposed to work, a prime minister, as the prime minister did with dominic cummings, can choose to stand by their person, but they need to deal with the fall out from that. so, if you have got the independent investigation, you can't really have a situation where a prime minister can't decide who should be in their cabinet or in their ministerial team, but there are and should really be consequences to those decisions, so as much as the prime minister has suffered from standing by dominic cummings in the summer, it is possible that there will be wider political and public opinion fallout from that. the prime minister has insisted he does not want to undermine devolution — after saying earlier this week it had been a disaster in scotland. borisjohnson told the virtual scottish tory conference he wanted policies which show how devolution can work for scotland and accused

the snp of making it work against the rest of the uk. just because i've criticised the performance of devolution doesn't mean i want to oppose devolution as a concept in itself. of course not. i'm a former mayor of london and i know how effective devolved powers can be, for example in making transport greener or tackling crime. devolution should be used not by politicians as a wall to sequester, to break away an area of the uk from the rest. it should be used as a step to pass power to local communities and businesses to make their lives better. the uk and canada have agreed a deal to continue trading under the same terms as the current european union agreement after the brexit transition period ends. the government says the agreement paves the way for negotiations to begin next year

for a new comprehensive deal with canada, which has been touted as one of the benefits of the uk leaving the bloc. the prime minister said, "this is a fantastic agreement for britain which secures transatlantic trade with one of our closest allies." leaders of the world's richest countries have begun an online g20 summit hosted by saudi arabia. the coronavirus pandemic is expected to top the agenda. aid campaigners have called on the meeting to provide urgent funding to help poorer nations deal with the pandemic. borisjohnson is taking part — he's calling for urgent action on climate change and the pandemic. our chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, is in riyadh where the summit is being hosted. the pandemic has completely dominated this summit, first of all, because every country around the world, almost without

exception is being affected, and many extremely seriously by this deadly virus. and here in riyadh, it has shaped the very format of this summit. you see behind me the screens where the summitjust opened, and it was like being on the most high level zoom call you will ever see, where you have the big screen coming up that all of us have gotten used to, except in this case, you have president putin of russia getting into his chair, you have president trump at his desk in the white house, borisjohnson at 10 downing street, all of the world leaders gathering in this screen wherever they are, at home or at work, to listen to king salman of saudi arabia, and so therefore, the covid—i9 crisis has forced our world leaders to meet online in this way, and it has also been put at the top of this agenda — first of all to underline

they are the wealthiest countries. they have to take care of their own nationals first, but they also have to be generous in helping the rest of the world, the poorer countries respond to this health crisis, but also the economic consequences of the covid—i9 crisis that everyone worldwide, including in britain, know all too well. you say it is completely dominating the summit, but we do know that the issue of human rights in saudi arabia is a long running issue, and i did wonder how much that might be overshadowing the summit, perhaps even at the fringes? if this is an online world, if you look online, you will find the g20 official summit statement and praising of the presidency of saudi arabia, but you will also find the counter summit organised by human rights groups, who have called for a boycott, who say that saudi arabia should release some of the dozens of activists, academics,

intellectuals and journalists who are languishing in saudi maximum security prisons. there was even a call from the european union parliament for the summit to be boycotted. but when you are here in the kingdom, you hear very little of that. saudi arabia wants to use this global stage to show its wide—ranging reforms at home, and there have been reforms on economic and social fronts, but in the same way that it is opening up economic and socially, it is closing down politically. so while it wants to shine on the world stage, there is still a dark cloud, most of all from the murder, two years ago, of the saudi journalist jamal khashoggi. that hasn't gone away. the chancellor, rishi sunak, is to change the way the government assesses big spending projects, to remove the longstanding bias that has affected northern england and other regions outside the south east.

the reforms are due to be unveiled in parliament at next week's spending review. our business correspondent katy austin has been giving us more details. with its political commitment to so—called levelling up, spreading prosperity across the country, the government wants to be talking about investment too, and investment in big public projects. so at the spending review, we are expecting the chancellor will announce tens of billions of pounds towards infrastructure, including road improvements, and the long—delayed national infrastructure strategy will be published, setting up flagship schemes on things like fibre broadband, flood defences and transport. and yes, another big change is that so—called green book, how it assesses the value of certain projects, will change towards considering the regional impact more, not just looking at the benefit compared to cost, which has been seen to favour london and the south—east at the expense of other regions, including the north. another thing we are expecting to hear about is something called

a uk shared prosperity fund. this is replacing money the european union has allocated to less well—off areas. this new fund will be targeted at so—called "left—behind places", including coastal communities and former industrial heartlands. labour's shadow chancellor anneliese dodds has called for the spending review to put the country on the right path, saying communities up and down the country didn't want to hear more empty rhetoric. the headlines on bbc news... the home secretary priti patel keeps her job after being found to have broken rules by bullying staff. now questions for borisjohnson over his influence on the report. an online summit of the world's biggest economies begins today in saudi arabia. top of the agenda — the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout.

an alternative to a covid vaccine for people without functioning immune systems is entering its final stage of trials. sport, and for a full round—up, from the bbc sport centre, here'sjohn watson. chelsea are top of the table at the moment, but that could change depending on the outcome of the totte n ha m depending on the outcome of the tottenham manchester city match later on. enjoy it for the time being at least! they have moved top after a 2—0 score. the argentine defender picking the ball over his own line, under pressure there. he said he was claiming it, but it wasn't his in the end. yes, chelsea

top of the table, own goal difference ahead of leicester who are at liverpool tomorrow. it was a tough match to come here. i thought we dominated the game and we could score more goals. that would be a frustration of ours. but i thought we did very well, i have to be happy. their winter day was hugely important. it was a big game. we lost it last year. it was a soft goal. the second one was a bit soft as well. we have to be a bit more cunning and create a fowl there, basically. he has run for 25, but make no mistake, it was a difficult afternoon. it is believing that you can take something from the big teams and big games and big occasions. frustrating afternoon for

its... no easy task if they are to do so. the late game sees manchester united at home to west bromwich. england and ireland are underway in their autumn nations cup match in what's been a double header at twickenham. earlier england's women staged an incredible late fightback to beat france. they were thirteen points down at one stage before a couple of late tries and then this penalty from emily scarett with the last kick of the match sealing a dramatic victory. they win the series 2—0. novak djokovic and dominic thiem are in action in the first semi—final of the atp world tour finals in london. and it's the us open champion thiem who has just taken the first set 7—5. the austrian going for a first title at the event in london, teh last time it's to be staged there.

djokovic is aiming for a record equalling sixth but has work to do in the second set. let's bring you some live pictures now, a break between points at the moment. novak djokovic serving at two games all in that live set. whoever wins this will go on to face the winner. rafael nadal and danniil medvedev who meet in their semi—final tonight. it is the last time it is going to be staged in london before it moves to turin next year. and britain'sjoe salisbury plays in the doubles semi—final later with his partner rajeev ram. the pair who are australian open champions meet lukasz kubot and marcelo melo this evening. the best thing about our partnership is that we get on very well on and

off the court. we are very open with each other, so that is important to kind of develop the relationship, to develop as a team and improve on the things which we are maybe not doing so things which we are maybe not doing so well. there are definitely going to be some nerves. there are some nerves here already. but that can be a good thing and bring out the best in yourself. a bit more pressure on it, and really wanting to get to the final. that is all the support for now, and your colleague can bask in the glory of his team being at the top of the league at this time in the season! at least eight people have been killed and more than 30 others injured in a series of rocket attacks in the afghan capital kabul. the taliban has denied carrying out the attack which occurred shortly before the us secretary of state,

mike pompeo, was due to meet the group's negotiators in qatar. secunder kermani reports: it should have been an ordinary day at school. instead, panic and fear, as these children run for safety. cctv cameras captured the moment the rockets landed outside this popular bakery. translation: i was having breakfast when the rockets landed. one hit a van belonging to a bakery. at least three people were wounded. they have been taken to hospital. a local resident filmed the rockets being fired from the street. this was the pick—up truck the attackers used. how they managed to get it inside the city is a major cause for concern. the taliban has denied responsibility, but violence has been flaring across the country in recent weeks, despite ongoing but slow—moving peace talks in doha. us secretary of state mike pompeo arrived there today to meet both afghan and taliban officials. some progress on initial issues

seems to have been made but they haven't even begun discussing a ceasefire or power—sharing arrangement. in spite of the violence, us troops are being withdrawn from here. the new american president might look for another way forward but the fear is the bloodshed is only going to get worse. secunder kermani, bbc news. the prime minister's pledge to ban gas boilers from new homes by 2023 has been withdrawn. it first appeared on the government website earlier this week, as part of borisjohnson‘s ten—point climate plan. but it later disappeared, with downing street claiming a "mix—up" and said it plans to set out further details in due course. our energy and environment analyst roger harrabin reports. normally, it's planes, cars and industry that get the blame for the emissions that are boosting climate change. but gas central heating also plays a role.

that is why the government is committed to improving insulation standards on new—build homes. heat pumps are one answer, taking warmth from the ground to create low carbon heating. but they only work well if the standard of insulation is high, so this week, the government announced a goal. by 2023, to implement a standard for new homes with low carbon heating and world leading levels of energy efficiency. now, that date has mysteriously disappeared. builders didn't like the idea of new standards in just three years. but the government's critics say it will have to face up to industry if it really means to tackle climate change. wales ended its nationalfirebreak lockdown almost two weeks ago, but tourist hotspots

are still being hit hard by tough restrictions across the border. it's been estimated that more than half of businesses that rely on tourism have remained closed because people are not travelling from england. tomos morgan reports. november in north—west wales, and the famous weather has already kicked in. wales finished its firebreak almost two weeks ago, but even in the rain, it still feels eerie on the streets of aberdovey — just like a lockdown is still in place. it's never been so quiet for this time of year in all of the 13 years peter holt has run his cafe. does it feel a little bit like a ghost town at the moment here? it's nice for the locals. the locals absolutely love it. but as a business, we need the people, yes. people need to come. well, we feel a bit safer. i know we can travel anywhere in wales, but i don't think people tend to do that either.

after the first lockdown, tourist hotspots across wales saw record numbers visiting with fewer people wanting to go abroad for the holidays. but areas like aberdovey, according to the welsh tourism alliance, are 80—90% reliant on visitors coming from england, so a lockdown over the border has a significant impact on businesses. from the celtic manor resort outside newport to zipworld and its adventure attractions in snowdonia, to the famous italian—style village of portmeiron, some of the tourist hotspots have remained closed during this period. it's estimated by the welsh tourism alliance that more than 50% of businesses in the sector have remained closed in wales as the lockdown in england goes on. the restaurant is closed, the bar is closed, 26 bedrooms have closed, for half the week. some, like this hotel on the outskirts of aberystwyth, have closed the majority of their operations and decided to only partially

reopen half of their 26 rooms, three days a week, until the end of the month. we based our decision purely on the lockdown in england. it's a major part of our business coming in. how long can you keep going, do you think, in this kind of state of in and out, partially open? well, we couldn't. i don't think any business can. it definitely needs unification now. it's a shame now that the two governments, and scotland and northern ireland as well, are not working together so that we can get on the same song sheet, you know. people tend to forget that this virus is the same virus in england as in wales and scotland and northern ireland. in response, a spokesperson from the welsh government said... a response from the authorities in westminster said...

whether or not the lockdown in england will finish on december 2nd will have a knock—on effect on much of wales' economy, and with the prospect of another lockdown early in the new year here in wales, what this industry really needs now is some assurances so they can get off to a flying start in 2021. tomos morgan, bbc news. many of us use online reviews to decide whether to buy a product or choose a service — and a bad review can make all the difference. well, now an owner of a small business in britain has started legal action against google, complaining the tech giant has failed to remove damaging fake reviews about his company. google says it monitors content and obeys local laws. angus crawford reports.

bad reviews can break a business. the hardest thing is, it was an invisible aggressor. they are anonymous, behind fake names, so you don't really know what to do. you feel quite helpless. "described as perfect and fully working but when we went to look at it the clutch was completely shot." one—star reviews, completely fabricated. fake names. google will not take them down. keeping his car sales business going during covid has been hard, made even more stressful by the stream of bogus reviews, which google still refuses to take down. it is the same response every

time, that it doesn't contravene their policies, they're very sorry and they're going to leave it there. we provided them with firm information which shows that these reviews are completely fake, fabricated, that the people that supposedly are leaving them don't exist, and they're not interested whatsoever. google users post 20 million reviews each day. well, they can bring a business to its knees, if you have a mass attack, somebody using multiple google accounts to attack a business, then it destroys their reputation in a matter of hours. the company told us the vast majority of reviews are helpful, relevant and authentic, and insists it monitors closely for content that violates their policies 21w. we know that bad reviews can destroy a business. but what about all the good ones?

are they everything they appear to be? imagine for a moment you want to get out of your time—share. you might come to this business. welcome, from the time—share termination team uk. we found 5—star google reviews from many customers, but are they really? that picture is actually of a government minister in tanzania. how about david ? no, he didn't write that one either. never heard of them! time to give them a call. some of them have never heard of you. there is no evidence the company has done anything wrong, and it says it has now launched an investigation. as for richard, in his fight against fakes, he is now taking legal action against google.