this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: police in thailand move in to disperse pro—democracy protesters gathered around government house in the capital. france and germany announce new restrictions, including curfews, to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. the first lady reveals that 14—year—old barron trump contracted covid—19, but suffered no symptoms. could grey power he the x—factor in the presidential election? we report from a retiring, but not exactly shy, battleground in florida. how many of you just want this election to be over?

hello. riot police in thailand have clashed with a large group of anti—government protesters in bangkok. they moved in to clear the streets shortly after authorities issued an emergency decree banning all gatherings of more than five people. lines of police with riot shields quickly drove people back and cleared the area around government house. thousands had been camping overnight after another day of widespread demonstrations against the king and the prime minister. at least two protest leaders have now been arrested. the emergency decree accused the protesters of "inciting chaos and threatening national security", specifically mentioning this moment on wednesday, when the royal motorcade carrying the queen was surrounded. but on wednesday night, before police moved in, things had been much more peaceful, with a large group listening to speeches

and music. they are calling for reforms to the monarchy and for the prime minister to stand down. here's what two protestors had to say. translation: the thai people are being awakened more and more when it comes to the monarchy. more and more. but on the other hand with people in thailand being tied, this topic is hard to be pushed through. the monarchy has structural power which has been deep rooted in society for a very long time, therefore in order to reform the monarchy, we need a lot more people on board. our correspondentjonathan head is in bangkok. i think it isjust i think it is just after ten i think it isjust after ten in the morning there, this is a really extraordinary situation, isn't it? extraordinary in many ways but i think many people recognise that at some point, the government was going to put a stop to these protests simply because of the boldness with which they were talking about the monarchy and the king and the monarchy and the king and the royal family at the palace,

it was an unprecedented situation, the thai collective we re situation, the thai collective were holding their breath, and a lot were openly agreeing with these largely young protesters we re these largely young protesters were saying, and the government was extremely uncomfortable, particularly this moment because the king, who spent most of this year living in a hotel in germany, has come back this time for quite a long period of time, back for two or three weeks, and that put him together in the same space effectively as the protesters yesterday in the heart of the royal quarter in bangkok, andy king's motorcade itself went through without a problem but protesters moved away to avoid any confrontation, there was another moment where the queen's motorcade somewhat inexplicably ended up going up into a road where the protest it had already arrived and there were a lot ofjeers and people calling out quite insulting words and demanding that their taxes be spent better. it didn't last long,

but that is the justification that has been invoked by the authorities seeing this kind of obstruction of royal motorcade is unacceptable, but that there is unacceptable, but that there is chaos and they are now, thailand is under an effective state of emergency to deal with covid—i9 but we have an extra state now with the usual ban on gatherings of five or more people, restrictions on what can be published, and how far they could force that we will see but they have arrested quite a number of the top protest leaders are ta ken into locations outside bangkok so this is the beginning of a concerted effort to stop this three month old protest movement in its tracks. three month old protest movement in its trackslj three month old protest movement in its tracks. i think this has been building since february, hazarded, interrupted by lockdown, so now even protesters out of the streets at all, they are breaking the law. where will this go next? thailand has a whole raft of very repressive laws which can and have been used in the past.

it's just a and have been used in the past. it'sjust a question and have been used in the past. it's just a question of the wheel of the authorities to stop it. they feel they must stop it. they feel they must stop it. they feel they must stop it now to avoid things going further. it's all about the monarchy, they would have tolerated protests focused solely on the government's performance in the political system, but this has proved to be an inventive protest movement, partly inspired by what they saw in hong kong last year, that has attracted quite wide support. is not universal but quite widespread terms of society, there is a lot of unhappiness against the government in general, but we have discovered through this movement because what they said that a lot of thais do want to talk about the monarchy, it is dangerous, they have never done it before, people in the past have gone to jail or been killed for doing so but there is an appetite for that. whether the government can com pletely whether the government can completely suppress this or we don't see this protest movement p°ppin9 don't see this protest movement p°pping up don't see this protest movement popping up again after a couple of months when it is sat on, it's hard to say, but what we

do know is the underlying grievances of a poorly performing government, massive inequality, one of the most unequal societies in the world and the pain inflicted by covid—i9 and the collapse of tourism, all of those will continue to fuel unhappiness with the government anyway, so we are bound to see some kinds of protests in the future even if this particular movement is effectively suppressed in the next few weeks. many thanks for that update. northern ireland is to impose the toughest restrictions anywhere in the uk to try to slow the spread of coronavirus. schools are being closed for two weeks from monday. pubs and restaurants will be limited to takeaway and delivery services only for four weeks from friday. officials have suggested hospitals are only 10 days away from being overwhelmed. people in parts of the uk with high rates of covid—i9 will be banned from travelling to wales from friday evening. the first minister, mark drakeford, said he'd decided to act after boris johnson refused his request to stop people travelling in and out of virus

hotspots in england. the deputy chief medical officer for england has suggested that greater manchester and lancashire be moved to tier three — the highest level of virus restrictions. pubs would be closed and households banned from mixing. health officials will hold further talks with local government leaders later. germany and france have announced new controls. in france there will be a night—time curfew for paris and eight other cities. in germany, bars will be forced to close early and there will be limits on people meeting in areas with rising numbers of cases. simonjones reports. two leaders with two announcements that will have a big impact on the lives of their citizens. in germany, there is a warning that the disease is growing exponentially. there will be new restrictions in areas with high transmission including more mask wearing, a curfew for bars and limits

on people meeting. translation: i'm convinced that what we do and what we don't do in the coming days and weeks will be decisive for the question of how we get through this pandemic, because we can see that the curves on the infection rates are pointing upwards, in parts, quite steeply. translation: we are much closer to a second lockdown than people would like to believe. if we look at how the numbers are developing, then it's high time, maybe not even five to midnight but rather the stroke of midnight, to set the right course. in france, a state of emergency has been declared. there's real concern that hospitals and intensive care units will become overwhelmed. to try to stop the spread of the virus, there will be no more late night dining in paris. people there and in eight other

major cities will have to stay indoors from 9pm to 6am. the curfew will come into effect from saturday and last for at least four weeks. the details were announced at the elysee palace. president macron appeared in front of the cameras with a sobering message accompanied by a rallying cry. translation: we have not lost control, we are in a situation which is worrying and which means we shouldn't remain inactive, but we shouldn't panic. we cannot get through this if everyone doesn't play their part, doesn't do their bit. and in the netherlands, a last hurrah. bars, restaurants and cafe's are closing. the warning there, like in many other european countries, is that if the coronavirus rates don't come down, more drastic measures may be needed. simon jones, bbc news. with early voting very much underway in the us, an historic problem has reappeared in the state of georgia and several others. it's called ‘voter suppression‘, and ranges from excessively strict id requirements,

to removing huge numbers of people from electoral rolls, all of it disproportionately affecting black voters. larry madowo reports from atlanta. waiting for hours, long lines at polling locations at the primary elections in georgia in june. i have covered elections and other democracies in africa like nigeria and south africa, where america is seen as a beacon of democracy. but for some of its citizens like here in the heart of atlanta, it is a game of cards, and they have been dealt a bad hand. gary harrison is a nurse who volu nteers harrison is a nurse who volunteers as a poll worker. he sees people block forebodings for minor reasons. we may have votes but a lot of those words will be suppressed, and they will be suppressed, and they will have every reason they can use to strike the ballot, like felonies, or signatures not matching. officials at georgia's largest county are looking for redemption after

accusations of voter suppression. they rolled out a mobile voting unit to stop voters who have been frustrated too many times. ? how are you so? i'm great. is this your first time in the state of georgia? yeah. they want to make it harder for minorities devoted long lines, missing ballot, and voting machine failures at the primary elections were also criticised as instances of voter suppression. nearly 200,000 people were incorrectly removed from the state's voter role in 2019 according to civil liberties union of georgia. lot of the rules that seem to be reasonable if you are a middle—class person who works a white—collarjob and drives a car are actually voter suppression from the point of view of a person who moves a lot, is low income, working a

minimum wagejob. lot, is low income, working a minimum wage job. those fighting a documenting voter suppression he is a some tactics are deliberate, others just sheer incompetence, but these are all signs of a fragile democracy. they consider it a battle worth fighting because of civil rights in this country has come too far to turn back. officials hope that 80% of people will vote early or by absentee ballot to reduce the strain on election day. my staff, if you wa nt to election day. my staff, if you want to go around and ask them if they participate in any sort of voter suppression tactics i think you would get a resounding no. we have done everything since 2013 when i arrived, the only thing that we have been focused on is an and franchising voters. in-depth, the civil rights iconjohn lewis towers over atla nta's. this democratic state editor is willing to replace him in the

state. sees as a larger problem and how elections are run here. iam very and how elections are run here. i am very well aware of the leadership that we still have an estate, the legislator is republican—controlled, and a republican—controlled, and a republican governor and a republican governor and a republican secretary of state, so we are very much republican secretary of state, so we are very much mindful of the fact that we oftentimes have to go to the courts to get relief for voters in this state. a record turnout is expected in this election, but in the world's most famous democracy, full access to voting is not yet the full guarantee that has been promised. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the bard under the hammer — we'll tell you how much this copy of shakespeare‘s ‘first folio' went for at auction. parts of san francisco least affected by the earthquake are returning to life, but in the marina area, where most of the damage was done, they are more conscious

than ever of how much has been destroyed. in the 19 years since he was last here, he has gone from being a little—known revolutionary to an experienced and successful diplomatic operator. it was a 20—pound bomb which exploded on the fifth floor of the grand hotel, ripping a hole in the front of the building. this government will not weaken, democracy will prevail. it fills me with humility and gratitude to know that i have been chosen as the recipient of this foremost of earthly honours. this catholic nation held its breath for the men they called 'the 33'. and then... bell tolls. ..bells tolled nationwide to announce the first rescue and chile let out an almighty roar. this is bbc world news.

the latest headlines: police in thailand have moved in to disperse pro—democracy protesters gathered around government house in the capital, bangkok. france and germany have announced new restrictions, including curfews, to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. it‘s emerged that barron trump, 14—year—old son of the us president and first lady, tested positive for covid—19 but suffered no symptoms. in a personal statement, melania trump also describes her own symptoms as minimal. dr ashwin vasan is an epidemiologist and assistant professor at columbia university. what does he think of the first lady‘s announcement? obviously, i feel, as a parent, for barron trump. i am glad he has been asymptomatic and i hope he won‘t have any long—term symptoms, but this is, as dr fauci has said, a documented super spreader event, and it comes directly from a lack of adherence to masks, to social distancing, in both indoor

and outdoor settings, and it is pretty consistent with the overall lackadaisical approach that this administration has taken to the covid response, sending inconsistent messaging, allowing states to fend for themselves and undermining the number one thing that will help respond to pandemics effectively — consistency and clarity, and communication, and adherence to science. so this is kind of consistent with how the president has lived his entire life — flaunting the rules and not really paying the consequences. and it has emerged that it is an approach that was so lackadaisical, as you put it, that it even kept the senate majority leader away — a very staunch republican. yeah, that‘s correct. i mean, i think it is pretty telling when mitch mcconnell, who has been donald trump‘s number one enabler—in—chief, says i have not been in the white house since august because i don‘t think they have approached coronavirus in the same way that i think is appropriate for the senate.

you know, the white house is pushing a herd immunity approach which is really their attempt to take a failed policy and dress it up as an effective one, prior to an election, but there is a handful of reasons why that won‘t work. we have asymptomatic and pre—symptomatic spread that will ensure that, if we protect vulnerable communities, like the elderly, and let everyone else go about their everyday lives, it will get into those vulnerable communities, resulting in tens or hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, strain on our healthcare system, and untold effects of long—term morbidity, sickness, long covid, as we have been calling it. because we don‘t know how long immunity would actually last after getting it — and we are seeing reports of reinfection — this would lead to cyclical epidemics over the next years and we know that controlling epidemics does not work with just focusing our efforts on the vulnerable or particular populations, and not having

a population—wide strategy. so they are trying to dress this up as an effective and scientifically sound approach — they have even gathered a group of scientists to create a declaration, the great barrington declaration, to support this strategy. but i think there‘s a consensus and even written up in the lancet today, thejohn snow memo, signed by myself and tends of others, signed by myself and tens of others, scientists from all around the block, saying we know the way out of this and it is by controlling community spread, it‘s by population level measures like masking and social distancing, and testing, and isolation support, and it is by protecting vulnerable populations, as we say, like essential workers and the elderly, and there are countries — zealand, japan and others — that have shown that this is a viable way to go forward and it is not a choice between lockdowns and heard immunity. this that is a false choice. dr ashwin vasan.

is the uk prime minister has said a deadline of thursday but it has been delayed until friday. two catholic priests have gone on trial in the vatican. it is the first time it has prosecuted allegations of sexual abuse. neither man has submitted a plea or commented on the case so far. president trump is visibly bouncing back from his coronavirus infection, trying to make up for lost time, just 20 days before the election. at his rallies this week in florida and pennsylvania, supporters have packed in, without any regard for social distancing. and again tonight, the president was flouting white house guidance.

the president tells them there is nothing to be afraid of. but that message does not seem to be landing so well with the seniors or suburban white women who so helped him to victory four years ago. our north america editor, jon sopel, reports. love train by the o'jays plays. it is the morning aqua aerobics class, and these elderly ladies are being invited by the instructor to join the love train. but once they get out of the water, it will be the incessant demands to board either the trump train or the biden bandwagon. but they don‘t seem happy travellers, as i discovered at an impromptu focus group. how many of you just want this election to be over? cheering. laughs. they all live at the villages, america‘s biggest retirement community. and when i say big, i mean humongous. it has a population of 130,000, it covers an area bigger than southampton, and sprawls over five postcodes. the preferred mode of

transport — golf carts. and early voting is under way. the grey vote is critical for donald trump‘s reelection. but not all republicans are seeing it as black and white. i am thinking that biden is going to win. does that make you happy or unhappy? actually i prefer the republican platform, so i am voting for the republican platform is what i‘m voting for. not necessarily trump but the platform. this is a very, very important election and i made sure that my democratic joe biden vote got in early and on time. are you confident that he might win? yes. can you be confident with a "might"? i'm confident he will! the parties know how these are doing in these postal votes, and democrats have a spring in their step. the votes that have been cast so far are all vote by mail. and the return is higher than ever before. and well over 50% are democratic. and that says to me that the momentum that we felt building to this moment is

still there and still growing. four years ago, donald trump won a huge victory here in the villages. but the latest polls suggest thatjoe biden is well ahead amongst the over—65s. and if that turns out to be true on polling day, that could be the difference between success and failure in florida. butjust like four years ago, the republicans are saying don‘t believe everything you read in the polls. trump is a bombastic personality. there are a lot of people who really appreciate that. a lot of people like it, if you ask somebody a question, you get an answer. and donald trump will give you an answer. and i think a lot of people appreciate that. not a blade of grass out of place. it looks genteel but don‘t be fooled — there is a vicious and unrelenting fight going on that won‘t stop until november the 3rd. jon sopel, bbc news, florida.

he‘s the best known playwright of all time, so what price would you pay for one of these — a copy of shakespeare‘s first folio? you might have to dig a bit deeper into your savings. it went under the hammer at the world‘s leading auction house on wednesday, fetching a world auction record for any printed work of literature. tanya dendrinos has the story. an immeasurable impact on english literature and language, this "poor player" will be heard for evermore and, in part, it is thanks of this collection, published in 1623, seven years after shakespeare‘s death. friends of the bard compiled mr william shakespeare‘s comedies, histories and tragedies, including 18 plays that had never been published before. this copy is a complete copy. that means it has all of its pages and that is very unusual in that shakespeare was read and read and read and many copies — the vast majority of copies — are imperfect. and this is the first time

in a generation that a complete copy has come on the market. it is known as the first folio, and contains 36 of shakespeare‘s plays, including macbeth and julius caesar. lovers of literature the world over would argue it is priceless but the bidding had to start somewhere... they are only five complete copies known in private hands so it is an extraordinary honour for us to be offering this today, here at christie‘s. with that in mind, we must open the bidding at $2,600,000. $2,800,000 now... to be or not to be... for the folio here at christie‘s $8,400,000. sold. thank you, fernando. and that was just the hammer price. the total coming in at $9.97 million, a new world auction record for any printed work of literature, far exceeding the previous high of $6.16 million, set in 2001.

it was bought by an american private collector and founder of a rare book and photograph shop. a treasured edition, no doubt. as for the rest of us, it‘s beware of the green eyed monster. tanya dendrinos, bbc news. in another world first... in a world—first, athletes have dived 120—metres into a salt mine in romania. their bodies decelerated from 85 kilometres per hour to zero in almost twice the usual speed, because of the high density of the water. it is one of the world‘s oldest salt mines, but mining in the underground bell stopped in 1880. it has since become a renowned tourist destnation. a reminder of our top story: large numbers of police have been deployed in thai capital, bangkok, after an emergency decree was issued to break up a demonstration outside the prime minister‘s office. two protest leaders have been arrested. thousands of protesters have

been demanding the resignation of the prime minister. there has also been some unprecedented criticism of the monarchy. thank you for watching. hello there. when you think back to the start of october and just how wet it was, it‘s probably a good thing, actually, that we are in the midst of quite a quiet spell of weather. for many of us, we will have skies like these, over the next few days — often pretty cloudy, but with some brighter spells at times. high pressure to the north of the uk. low pressure in northern italy. and between these two areas of pressure, we‘ve got north—easterly winds feeding in. and those north—easterly winds are dragging in a lot of cloud from the north sea. thick enough to bring some scattered showers across eastern areas of scotland at the moment. and we‘ve got a few heavy showers just running into north—east england, although these will ease over the coming few hours. temperatures about 5—8 degrees celsius for most, but a bit colder where the skies do manage to stay clearest longest. on into thursday, then, and these north—easterly winds will continue to feed

the cloud in for many areas. the west is best in terms of any sunshine. but i suspect we will have quite a few showers at times through the morning across the wash area. and then the showers probably break out more widely across east anglia, as you head into the afternoon. all the while, we‘ll see this line of showers, through most of the day, affecting east kent and running on into the channel islands, where, for some, it could be quite wet. although, for many of us, again, away from those eastern areas, it will be a relatively dry day. brisk north—east winds gusting about 30 mph, around some of the north sea coasts, will make it feel rather cool. now, we still have those north—easterly winds for friday but, if anything, they‘re a little bit less strong. and again, friday is the day with rather a lot of cloud around, a few bright or sunny spells, and we will continue to see an odd shower or two popping up. the majority of these, again, affecting eastern parts of scotland and eastern areas of england. what about the weekend weather prospects? well, a lot more of that cloudy weather on the horizon, with a few light showers from time to time.

now, you‘ll start to notice the winds going round to more of a northerly direction, across the far north of scotland, bringing the showers in here. so a greater chance of seeing some showers for shetland and orkney, where things will start to get a little bit cooler. otherwise, again, a lot of cloud around, some bright or sunny spells and temperatures 11—14 degrees. sunday sees that colder air moving a little bit further southwards across the north of scotland. so temperatures will be dipping away here. again, a lot of cloud, a few brighter spells, but i think a greater chance of seeing showers across the northern half of the country, turning colder in aberdeen — highs of eight on sunday.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: police in thailand have moved in to disperse pro—democracy protersters who have gathered around government house in the capital bangkok. the government has brought in an emergency decree in response to a series of protests. they‘ve banned gatherings of more than five people. france and germany have announced new restrictions, to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. a strict night—time curfew has been imposed in paris. in germany, bars will be forced to close early and there will be limits on people meeting, in areas with rising numbers of cases. tough new restrictions are coming into force in the uk — schools in northern ireland will be closing for two weeks. all pubs and restaurants, hairdressers and beauticians will also have to shut their doors for a month. officials have suggested hospitals are only 10 days away from being overwhelmed.