welcome to bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: donald trump and joe biden have made rival tv appearances, with the president declining to deny online conspiracy theories involving him and his rival criticising him over coronavirus. i know nothing about qanon. i just told you. you just told me about what you tell me doesn't necessarily make it fact. i hate to say that. twitter says it's investigating a global outage as millions we have to hundred and ten plus thousand people dead and what is he doing? nothing. he is still not wearing masks and so on. twitter says it's investigating a global outage as millions of users weren't able to post or read messages. a warning to europe from the world health organization — impose new restrictions to save lives, as the continent reports more covid cases

than the us and india. hundreds of yemeni fighters return home after the largest prisoner exchange swap since the conflict began. they were meant to go head to head in what should have been the second of three presidential debates tonight. instead, president trump and his challengerjoe biden answered questions from the public in two rival tv town hall events. donald trump became agitated and some times combative as he was questioned about his handling of coronavirus and his refusal to condemn extreme right wing groups. joe biden at his event in philadelphia said mr trump was still in denial

about the scale of the pandemic. there's been criticism that nbc chose to show mr trump's appearance at the same time as mr biden‘s event meaning few americans got to see and contrast the two men. so let's give you a taste of the two events. first president trump during his appearance on nbc news answering a question about qanon, the conspiracy theorists. let me ask you about qanon. it is this theory that democrats are a satanic paedophile ring and that you are the saviour of that. now, can you just once and for all state that that is completely not true and disavow qanon in its entirety? i know nothing about qanon. i just told you. you just told me but what you tell me doesn't necessarily make it fact. i hate to say that. i know nothing about it. i do know they are very much against paedophilia. they fight it very hard,

but i know nothing about it. they believe it is a satanic cult run by the deep state. i'll tell you what i do know about, i know about antifa and the radical left and how violent and vicious they are and that they are burning down cities run by democrats, not by republicans. republican senator ben sasse said, quote, qanon is nuts and real leaders call conspiracy theories. he may be right. why notjust say it's crazy and not true? ijust don't know about qanon. you do know. i don't know. no, i don't know. in a town hall moderated by abc news' george stephanopoulos, joe biden spoke of mr trump's handling of the coronavirus. we need more teachers in our schools to be able to open, we need ventilation systems changed, there's a lot of things we know now and i laid them out in some detail. again, when i say i laid them out, i am not an officeholder. i am running for office, it's not like

i'm still vice president or a united states senator pushing this, so i do not want to say i, i, i, but we laid out exactly what needed to be done and take a look, we make up 4% of the world's population but we have 20% of the world's deaths. we have 210 plus thousand people dead and what is he doing? nothing. he is still not wearing a mask and so on. let's speak to our north america correspondent ben wright. so, another surreal moment, really, on this election campaign, both candidates speaking on tv at the same time so most viewers would not be able to watch them both and contrast them, that given they have now both happened, what do you make of them? well, one wonders whether donald trump doesn't go to bed tonight thinking maybe i should have done that debate withjoe biden head—to—head in some form as was originally planned for this evening. the offer was for our

virtual presidential head on me, toa virtual presidential head on me, to a debate, but donald trump decided he would not do it. i'm not sure whether he gained any ground here tonight. you might have had a better chance had yaxley gone head—to—head with your biden. instead, it felt like he was digging in and playing to his base and i think its hardcore supporters will not have minded that tangle he got into on qanon. i'm sure that some of them believe the discredited conspiracy theory around qanon. but it was a very odd place for the president to find himself, first of claiming he had never heard of it and then seeing he approved of what they had to say about paedophilia. i think it was emblematic of an view and an event which i do not think chicken very far and if you were trying to find new voters through these sorts of evenings on television with a huge audience, i am not sure he necessarily would have got them during this performance. i thought he was quite invasive, he was defensive around mask

wearing. as i said, he got into a tangle there around qanon. he was prickly and i think it was a stark contrast to your biden who was more expansive, he was more at ease, deep into the policy weeds. he spoke at length like he likes to do but it was a big contrast in terms of the two characters. some are big contrast pulled out and lets just speak about your biden for a bit. we know what he said there, we heard about his attacking donald trump on his attacking donald trump on his handling of coronavirus, but what about himself, his own policies, what kind of vision was he setting out to the people of america? joe biden is not someone who is wary of getting into the weeds of policy discussions. he very much enjoys being there and he was talking about corporate tax rates and his plans for a green new deal and he was talking about trying to bring a new bipartisan ship back to politics which has completed disappeared in the last few yea rs disappeared in the last few years and he claims that if he becomes president that he could

get 4—8 republican senators working with him to get stuff done. iv any laws are passed now in washington because of absolutely entrenched gridlock between the two sides, so he was trying to make the pitch that he would be a very different sort of president, someone who would seek bipartisan consensus rather than strive for division and on coronavirus, he was interesting, too. he said that if there were a vaccine, he would take it and he would recommend it to the american people that they should and he was emphatic that mask wearing isa was emphatic that mask wearing is a good idea and makes a difference. again, in stark contrast to president trump. i do think he got into difficulty, some though, on the question of whether he might pack the supreme court, expand it, which is what some on the more left of the democratic party would like him to do. he was quite evasive when pushed about what he might do in the future but said he would make his position clear depending on what happens with donald trump

is like supreme court nomination process that he would make his decision clear before election day, so that is pa rt before election day, so that is part of the campaign to watch on your biden‘s side. part of the campaign to watch on your biden's side. great stuff, thank you. i'm joined now by democrat party strategist mary anne marsh in boston and republican strategist ron christie in washington. great to have you both on. ron, let's start with you because there has been some criticism for donald trump's performance, but how did you view it and what positives do you think you can take away from it? well, good morning to you, once again. i think this was a tale of two moderators. i think when you look at how george stephanopoulos treated the former vice president and howard serena guthrie from nbc news treated the president, there were differences in style. i think that the nbc news reporter was very competitive against the president, but i think what you start with the president was that he was himself, he was combative, he was very open and

i think you did a very good job in an open—air format of explaining his policies and politics. i think where he really had his achilles' heel, of course, was talking about his tax returns and then you go up his tax returns and then you go up north from miami to philadelphia and you look at the former vice president and i think he had a very difficult time explaining to the american people why he would forward not pack the united states supreme court, in other words, pack the united states supreme court, in otherwords, expand the number of jurists on court, in otherwords, expand the number ofjurists on that bench from nine up to 15 or 16, so again, i was looking at this with the way the moderators we re with the way the moderators were treating the candidates not necessarily the substance of what they had to say when they met their antagonist or protagonist. this was a case in the joe protagonist. this was a case in thejoe biden protagonist. this was a case in the joe biden debate just reading some of the commentators online saying that joe biden was actuallyjust a bit boring. and i think a lot of voters would be fine with boring right now after the last four years, but i think there

was a stark contrast tonight. donald trouble trying to win an argument and joe biden was trying to win a vote and this shows where this race is right i'iow. shows where this race is right now. donald trump goes into the underdog, he came out the underdog, he came out the underdog and may have hurt himself. he is running out of time and opportunities to change the dynamic of this race and tonight was but one more and tonight was but one more and he did probably hurt himself talking about his taxes, confirming he owes at least $421 million, possibly to foreign entities, and a host of other things. the fact he is campaigning in georgia tomorrow tells us how much trouble the campaigners in. by contrast, joe biden really worked with every single questionnaire and try to win them over with long explanations about policy and politics. it was steady. he had a lot of singles, maybe a line drive year and there, no home i’ui'is drive year and there, no home runs but when you look at the two men side by side, it is clear joe two men side by side, it is clearjoe biden two men side by side, it is clear joe biden comes two men side by side, it is clearjoe biden comes out

tonight continuing to be the frontrunner and donald trump has a lot of ground and time and opportunity to try to make it up until the debate next week which may be his last chance. of course, part of the problem for many americans as they did not get to see the two men side by side because both debates were on at the same time. ron, let's come back to you, what do you think overall the difference is that has been made after these two events tonight? i think the difference isa tonight? i think the difference is a contrast in style. i think it is always easier when you are the incumbent in office to talk about what you have accomplished in the last 2.5 or four years in office and what you would hope to seek to do if you would hope to seek to do if you were given the honour and privilege to serve the american people once again. the vice president has had a difficult time of actually articulating a message. politics is about addition and not subtraction and all he talks about is the bad things that the president has done, but i am eager to

hear from the has done, but i am eager to hearfrom the former vice president what he would seek to do, what is positive vision is as opposed to trying to bring down the current occupant of the office. we should have positive differences, but i think what we have seen here tonight is a contrast in style and a contrast in policies and i think the american people are saying why did we not see these two gentlemen on the same stage at the same time rather than flipping between two different networks to hear what they had to say? on that theme, let's look forward then. we are due to have this third presidential debate. where do you think we are without? you never know until it actually happens. donald trump did not have a good first debate, declined to participate in the second debate, ergo the two town halls tonight and so far we are still on for next thursday night and the stakes could not be more high. tonight, what you also heard was donald trump still does not have a health—care plan as he is trying to dismantle obama care, yetjoe

biden at the same time was going into about how he would help to end the covid pandemic in this country, what he would do differently, how he would do its going forward. there were lots of differences in policy and donald trump really struggled to even say what next term would look like, whereas joe biden was going case bike, point by point on a variety of issues from racial injustice to fracking to his own tax plan to how he would help middle—class income earners, so how he would help middle—class income earners, sol how he would help middle—class income earners, so i think there is a big difference between the two men, notjust in style but in substance and i hope we get to see that next thursday night on the same stage at the same time because the american voters deserve to dojust that. the american voters deserve to do just that. ok, the american voters deserve to dojust that. ok, brilliant the american voters deserve to do just that. ok, brilliant to get your thoughts as always. thank you very much for coming on. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: (upsot three" we hear about one american man's lucky escape

when he came across this mountain lion while jogging in utah.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: donald trump and joe biden have taken part in simultaneous tv appearances instead of their second presidential debate as early voters head to the polls. twitter says it's investigating after a global outage. users weren't able to tweet, and were sent error messages saying "something went wrong". twitter says the the issue was caused by an inadvertent change made to their internal systems. earlier our tech reporter james clayton talked us through twitter‘s latest statement and what it means. "the recent issue was caused by an inadvertent change we made to our internal systems. twitter should be working for everyone within the next few hours."

something very similar happened to this in february and we don't know what happened. it could have been a developer pressing the wrong button. we simply don't know, but it does appear that this is not a hack and that's what people were worried about. last time something similar to this happened when verified users could not was because of a hack. jeff bezos, joe biden's account had been hacked. the crucial point here is that it does not appear to have happened this time. james, why is it such a big new story? why do people get so animated when a service just drops out even for a couple of hours? it's basically the message board for the world. donald trump uses it as a place where he puts all of his press releases. it's a place that has become hugely influential along with facebook. people, particularly in times of covid when people are at home, are on their phones checking what's going on in the world and so what happens on twitter and facebook is hugely

important, so when it goes down, not only is it a sort of why has that happened, but it is also a situation where you're kind of thinking, is this secure? is this a secure platform? it does make people worry, i suppose, that they have a lot of information on there and it seems to be going down and it happens, you know, not infrequently. twitter and facebook, of course, in the news, all over the news for so many reasons just this week for accusations from the right of censorship by not linking through to newspaper articles. it's just impossible for these platforms to avoid criticism or, at least, being the centre of news stories at the moment. exactly, three weeks to go until the election and they are trying to moderate that platform and they are being accused of all sorts of things from the left and from the right. facebook took down a presidential tweet the other day because he said that covid was not as bad as flu, so when you are having to make

these incredibly difficult decisions all of the time, you are going to get a lot of flak, so we have three weeks to go until the election. i think we have to get used to that. tensions are going to be really be raised in the next few weeks and i think twitter and facebook in particular are going to expect a lot of incoming from both trump supporters and biden supported. the european union is now reporting more covid cases than the us more than india and more than brazil. the world health organisation has warned today that european governments must impose tough new restrictions in order to save lives. in france, that means a curfew will come into force on saturday in nine cities, including paris. lucy williamson sent this report. time moves slowly in the cafes around the sorbonne. but student social life, virtually unchanged for centuries, has accelerated infections in cities like paris, marseille and lyon. mathilde is studying management here, and agrees that this

curfew is for them, but will it work? i don't think that it will work. if i didn't have a test, i think i will go out with people and do parties at 21—6am. the curfews are being imposed on france's worst hit places, the paris region and eight other cities, including marseille, toulouse, lyon and lille. hotspots which span the length and breadth of france, these may be targeted local restrictions, but together, they add up to a national problem. what the government is desperate to avoid is a national solution — some medics are already calling for another nationwide lockdown. translation: for several months now, we have adopted a tailored strategy. we have opted for targeted measures, city by city, area by area, rather than generalised bands. we rely on trust with

local officials, first and foremost the mayors. i want to say it again, without them, we would not succeed. the government has been careful to consult local leaders after accusations it was sidelining them last month. but there is still lots of opposition. the mayor of marseille says she's very angry about the cu rfews. "we know where infections happen," she said, "companies, "ca nteens, public transport. "we are putting the sticking plaster in the wrong place." almost half the life—support beds in paris are already full of covid patients, staff at this hospital said they were preparing for a marathon, not a sprint. one nurse we spoke to broke down as he described the past six months. "for us, it's not just numbers," he said, "it's names and faces." lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. the saudi—led military coalition and yemeni houthi rebels have undertaken the largest prisoner exchange,

since the conflict in yemen began over five years ago. more than a thousand detainees have been transferred following two years of un brokered talks. gareth barlow reports: smiles are rare in yemen after more than five years of brutal conflict. thousands have been killed by bombs, thousands killed by blockades restricting basic necessities like food and medicine. but on thursday, after two years of negotiation, there were celebrations. hundreds of fighters returned home after the saudi—led military coalition and yemen's houthi movement agreed to the largest prisoner exchange since the conflict began. translation: i have been a prisoner in saudi arabia for 3.5 years. we were subject to torture and insults, but this deepened our faith and trust in god. we are ready to be sent

to the front lines. and that's been the issue for the two sides — deciding who should be released and considering what they may do after being transferred. the deal‘s brokers say their focus has been humanitarian rather than political. translation: our role in this operation is neutral. we do not have any interference in the names that are on the list. we just facilitate the transfer process, make sure the prisoners are well and check up on their health following the precautionary measures taken due to covid—19. this is the reality of five years of conflict. yemeni children return to the shell of their school, no windows, no doors, no desks, but despite the ruinous consequences of the conflict, there is hope. the un special envoy for yemen told the security council he hoped the exchange would build confidence

and momentum towards further agreements. a call echoed on the ground. translation: this deal must be the beginning of others. this issue is humanitarian before being military or political. therefore this must be an introduction, otherwise we have to have pressure cards which will push the enemy to accept other deals as we still have saudi and sudanese prisoners. and that's the reality, whilst the number of people handed over is impressive, thousands more remain detained and 80% of yemen's population require a vital aid. this crisis is far from over. finally, kyle burgess — a young man from utah — was out for a casual afternoon jog, but it turned into a life—or—death situation, when he saw a mountain lion and her cubs. we invited him to come on bbc

world news to tell the story of his lucky escape. i was just out for my kind of morning... it was actually kind of an afternoon trail run and i ran into some wildlife. bleep! and now have a mama cougar who is really mad because she things i'm going to hurt her kids, so she was just doing what she was supposed to do. this is when i... nope! get the bleep away! the scariest part for me was when she kind of charges three times at me. go away! no! and that third time is when she got probably within four feet of me and i was like, oh, my gosh, i honestly almost squinted my eyes like, this is going to hurt. come on, dude.

i don't feel like dying today. i really wanted it to end because these six minutes were very long. actually, i was able to pick up a rock and toss it and it kind of startled her or hit her a little bit and, like, ok, then she left. dammit, ok. yeah, so, thatjust happened. right now, it almost feels like a dream. very surreal, it's kind of like, wow, this could have ended so badly. i'm glad it ended the way it did. i was able to get home to my family and the mama cougar is able to get back to her baby cubs. that's just about it from me. i will be back with the headlines ina will be back with the headlines in a couple of minutes. this is

bbc news, bye—bye. hello there. we're moving into a quieter spell of weather. it may only be short—lived, mind you. essentially we've got high pressure dominating but again the centre of the high pressure is towards the north of the uk, hence those winds off the north sea as we've seen over the past few days bringing with them a few showers as well. probably not as many showers today compared with what we had yesterday. and more places will be dry with a little sunshine. but it will be a chilly start to the day on friday especially where we've got the clearer skies in the west. we start with a few showers mainly for the eastern parts of england. they'll run their way through lincolnshire through the midlands towards parts of wales and some showers in the extreme south—east of england, the odd one possibly in northern ireland too. but more sunshine for south—west england and more sunshine for northern england. and the best of the sunshine in scotland, i think, will be across the western side

of the country. for many parts of scotland, it looks cloudy. it's going to be a cool day as it was yesterday. that cloud continues to push down across scotland into northern england. one or two showers continuing into the night, may be a few more showers arriving in the far south—west of england as well but probably not quite as cold early on saturday morning compared with friday morning. those temperatures under the cloud at around 6—7 celsius. the weekend looks quiet, little or no wind. the winds very light, we have a lot of cloud around, many places will be dry and still quite cool. got a few showers towards the south coast of england, the south west. the odd one from the cloud across england and wales and a bit of drizzle coming in across northern and eastern scotland perhaps into the north—east of england. that's going to make it feel quite cold. temperatures struggling to make double figures in northern scotland. 12—13 again is going to be a fairly typicalfigure, a lot of cloud around too. and on the whole, it looks quite cloudy on sunday but if anything, the cloud is a little bit thinner for many areas, so a better chance of seeing some sunshine. a better day for the south west of england for example.

but signs of a little rain just beginning to arrive in northern ireland, perhaps the north—west of scotland, and that's a sign of things to come really because if we look further ahead into the early part of next week, instead of high pressure dominating the weather, the pressure is falling and low pressure is going to take charge. you can see we've got a number of weather fronts on the scene as well. so, we can tidy that up really into just this sort of headline because the early part of next week looks like it's going to be a big change in the weather to wet and windy conditions, maybe not quite as chilly as the weekend.

this is bbc news. the headlines: donald trump and joe biden have been holding separate town hall events, instead of the second tv debate which was cancelled due to the president getting coronavirus. while questioned by the moderator, mr trump declined to condemn online conspiracy theories involving him. twitter is investigating a global outage as millions of users weren't able to post or read messages. twitter says there's no evidence to suggest it was caused by a security breach or hack, and there will be more updates to come. the world health organization has given a warning to european countries to impose new restrictions to save lives, as europe reports more covid cases than the us and india. a curfew will come into force in france on saturday in nine cities.

now on bbc news, panorama. tonight, we investigate a covid death that shocked britain. belly mujinga's death sparked protests, after reports the transport worker had been spat at by a customer. the police say the man couldn't have infected her. but how could they be sure? i think the police have made a mistake here with, er, their interpretation of that evidence. we're really no better than tossing a coin. belly‘s employer says it did all it could to protect her. but could it have done more? she had a very severe

form of sarcoidosis