this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. 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. i know nothing about qanon. while in philadelphia, joe biden spoke out about mr trump's handling of the coronavirus. we have a situation, we have 210- we have a situation, we have 210— plus thousand people tear deadin 210— plus thousand people tear dead in what is he doing, nothing. he's 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. hundreds of yemeni fighters return home after the largest prisoner exchange 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. 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 area is this theory that democrats are a satanic paedophile ring and that you are the saviour of that. now, can youjust and that you are the saviour of that. now, can you just once and for all state that that is com pletely 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. i know very little. he told me but what you told me doesn't necessarily make it that. i know nothing about it. i do know they are very much against paedophilia. they fight it every 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. ido tell you what i do know about. i do know about antifa and the radical left and how violent and vicious they are and i know how they are burning down

cities run by democrats. republican senator ben sass said qanon is nuts and real leaders call conspiracy theories conspiracy theories. why not just say theories conspiracy theories. why notjust say it's crazy not true? you may be right, he may be right. i don't know about qanon. you do know. be right. i don't know about qanon. you do knowlj be right. i don't know about qanon. you do know. i don't know, 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 in, we need ventilation systems changed. there's a lot of things we know now and i laid them out in some detail and again, wheni them out in some detail and again, when i say i lay a them out, i'm notan again, when i say i lay a them out, i'm not an officeholder, it's not like i am still vice president or a united states senator pushing this so i don't wa nt to senator pushing this so i don't want to say i, i, i but we laid out what needed to be done and take a look, we make up 4% of the world population by 20% of the world's debts. we are in a

situation where we have 210,000 — plus people dead and what is he doing? nothing, is still not wearing masks and so on. 0ur north america correspondent, ben wright, has been following the debates. here is his assessment of the town halls. 0ne 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 a virtual presidential head on to a debate but donald trump decided he wouldn't do it. i'm not sure whether he gained any ground here tonight. he might have had a better chance, instead, it felt like it was donald trump digging in and playing to his base. i think his hardcore supporters won't have minded, i'm sure that some of them believe the discredited conspiracy theory about a place to find himself in, first denying he never heard of it.

an event that didn't take him very far. if he is trying to find new voters, with a huge audience, he wouldn't have necessarily got them. during this performance. i thought he was quite evasive, he was defensive around mask wearing. he got into the tangle there around qanon. he was prickly. a stark contrast to joe around qanon. he was prickly. a stark contrast tojoe biden. he was a big contrast. we know what he said there. donald trump, his handling of coronavirus. what about his own policies, what kind of vision was the setting out. joe biden

is not somebody who is wary of getting into the weeds of policy discussions. he very much enjoys being there and was talking about corporate tax rates and his plans for a green new deal and talking about trying to bring a new bipartisanship back to politics which is completely disappeared in the last two years. he claimed if he becomes president, he could get 4— eight republican senators working with him to get stuff done stop hardly any laws are passed now in washington because of the entrenched gridlock between the two sides. he was trying to make the pitch that he would be a very different president, somebody that would seek bipartisan consensus rather than strive for division and on coronavirus, interestingly, he said that it there was a vaccine, he would take it and recommend the american people they should as well he was emphatic that mask wearing is a good idea. it makes a difference. in stark contrast

to president trump. i do think he got into a bit of difficulty, joe biden on the question of whether he might pack the supreme court, expanded, 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 that said he would make his position clear, depending on what happens with donald trump's supreme court nomination process, that he would make his position clear before election day. that is pa rt before election day. that is part of the campaign to watch onjoe biden's side. well, to get their reaction to both town hall discussions, i spoke with democrat party strategist mary anne marsh and republican strategist ron christie. i began by asking ron christie how he felt president trump fared in his town hall in miami. this well, good morning to you. i think this is a tale of two moderators. when you look at how george stephanopoulos treated the former vice president and house savannah

guthrie treated the president, there were differences in style. the nbc news reporter was combative against the president but what you saw with the president was he was himself, he was combative, very open and i think you did a very good job in open and i think you did a very goodjob in an open and i think you did a very good job in an open air format of explaining his policies and politics. where he really had his achilles heel moment was talking about his tax returns, and then you go up north from miami to philadelphia and look at the former vice president. and he had a very difficult time explaining to the american people why he would or would not pack the united states supreme court. expand the number ofjurists supreme court. expand the number of jurists on that supreme court. expand the number ofjurists on that bench from nine to 16. i was looking at the way the moderators treated the candidates, not so much the substance of what they had to say but how they had to confront their antagonists or protagonists. interesting. marianne, let's go to you.

there was a case in thejoe biden debate, saying thatjoe biden's wasjust a biden debate, saying thatjoe biden's was just a bit boring. i think biden's was just a bit boring. ithinka biden's was just a bit boring. i think a lot of voters would be fine with boring after the la st be fine with boring after the last four years but it was a stark contrast. donald trump was trying to win an argument and joe biden was trying to win and joe biden was trying to win a boat and that really sums up where this race is right now. donald trump goes in the underdog, he came out the underdog. he is running out of time and opportunities to change the dynamic of this race and tonight was but one more. he did probably hurt himself talking about his taxes, confirming that 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 you how much trouble the campaign is in. by contrast, joe biden worked with every single questioner and tried to win them over with long explanations about policy and

politics. he had a lot of singles, may be a line drive here and there, no homeruns but when you look at the two men side—by—side, it's clear joe biden comes out continuing to be the front—runner and donald trump hasa be the front—runner and donald trump has a lot of ground in time and opportunity to try to make it up until the debate sweet may be his last chance. pa rt sweet may be his last chance. part of the problem with most americans is they didn't get to see both men side—by—side because they were on at the same time. ron, what do you think the overall difference has made after these two tv events tonight? i think the difference is a contrast in style. it's always easier when you are the incumbent in office to talk about what you've accomplished in the last 3.5—4 yea rs accomplished in the last 3.5—4 years in office and what you hope to seek to do, given privilege and opportunity to serve the american people once again. the vice president has had a difficult time of

actually articulating a message. politics is about addition, not subtraction and all he talks about is the bad things the president has done but i am eager to hearfrom the former vice president of what he would seek to do, what is positive vision is, as opposed to try to bring down the current occupant of the office. we can have positive partisan differences but what we've seen here tonight is a contrast in style a nd here tonight is a contrast in style and a contrast in policies. the american people are saying, why didn't we 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? we are due to have this third presidential debate. where are we with that? you never know until it actually happens. donald trump didn't have a good first debate, declined to participate in the second debate, and so

far, we're still on for next thursday night. the stakes couldn't be more high. tonight, what you also heard was, donald trump still doesn't have a healthcare plan, trump still doesn't have a healthca re plan, as trump still doesn't have a healthcare plan, as he is trying to dismantle 0bama care. joe. x make joe trying to dismantle 0bama care. joe. x makejoe biden trying to dismantle 0bama care. joe. x make joe biden was going into detail about how he would end the covert pandemic in this country. what he would do differently, how he would do it going forward. there were lots of differences on policy. donald trump really struggled to say what next term would look like where isjoe biden was going case by case, point by point on a variety of issues, from racial injustice to the fracking to his own tax plan where he would help middle—class income earners. we think there is a big difference between the two men, style and 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 because the american voters deserve to do just that. stay with us on bbc news, still to come:

we hear about one american man's lucky escape when he came across this mountain lion while jogging in utah. 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. our main headline: 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. next, 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 1,000 detainees have been transferred following two years of un—brokered talks. gareth barlow reports.

drumming 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: 0ur 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, martin griffiths, 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 that will push the enemy to accept other deals, as we still have saudi and sudanese prisoners. and that's the reality, while 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. gareth barlow, bbc news. now, twitter says it's launched an investigation after a global outage. users weren't able to tweet, and were sent error messages saying "something went wrong". twitter says 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, it's 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. i mean, facebook took down a presidential tweet the other day because he said that covid

wasn't as bad as flu, so when you're having to make these incredibly difficult decisions all of the time, you are going to get a lot of flak, so you have got three weeks to go until the election. i think we have to get used to that. the 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 supporters. as covid—19 continues to exert pressure all over europe, ros atkins has looked at one country which has been an outlier from the start of the pandemic. sweden's approach to covid—19 has again been demanding more attention. in late september, the who told us we must recognise that sweden at the moment has avoided the increase that has been seen in some of western europe, we will be very keen on hearing more from the swedish approach. well, what is the swedish approach? put simply, many countries went into lockdown in march, sweden

didn't. instead, it pursued involu nta ry didn't. instead, it pursued involuntary social distancing. that advice rested on the assumption that people feel like this. we in sweden trust the authorities and you feel if the authorities and you feel if the authorities and you feel if the authorities say stay at home, please work from home, we do that. so, they didn't need to say you have to go into lockdown. sweden's focus has been on people voluntarily managing their contacts with others and relevance of that is the role of the super spreader. it is thought most of the 19 infections are spread by 10— 20% of people who have it. this epidemiologist in sweden says people understood this. you need to look at this super spreader issue and limit them. that is really the most visible — the only real intervention they did was to set some gatherings were 50. so that is

sweden's approach, and how we assess it, let's compare the numbers. first, sweden's total deaths per capita is higher than most european nations, when it comes to the total number of cases per capita, both norway and the uk have lower figures than sweden but spain and france 0hio. third, while sweden has avoided so far an autumn surge, it's infection rate is higher than norway and germany and is rising. this definitely isn't a clear—cut success story and there are other issues, too. some critics argue the whole thing is actually a misjudged plan to achieve herd immunity, something that is strongly denied. also, sweden's approach has relied on thousands of people shielding. and has been accused of failing to properly protect care homes at the start of the pandemic. but the man behind sweden's response things in the long—term it will work. we in sweden have always had the same regulations in place,

the same regulations in place, the same regulations in place, the same recommendations and they still apply. i think it creates a sense of security and a long—term respect of, and it is easier to follow. at the heart of sweden's approach is the idea of the social contract that requires trust between people and national decision—makers. there is nothing in the data to show sweden is definitely getting it right, but there is emphasis on trust and consensus, which feels relevant as european governments once again change the rules by which people are living. that was ros atkins there. finally, karl burgess — a young man from utah — was out for a casual afternoonjog, when 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 that's really mad because she things i'm going to hurt her kids, so she was just doing what she was supposed to do. this isn't when i bleep die! 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. holy — come on, dude. i don't feel like dying today. ah! 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, 0k. 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 is just about it from me. now some friendlier animals. these ten pigments have been released back into the wild in brazil. they were weak and hungry when they was to assure —— when they washed assure stop the animal rescue organisation said the penguins were young and most likely got lost while out on theirfirst and most likely got lost while out on their first annual migration from patagonia in search of food. right. that's

it for me. get in touch with me on twitter. i'm @lvaughanjones. my my name is lewis vaughanjones, and this is bbc world news. essentially, we have high—pressure dominating, but the centre of the high pressure is towards the north of the uk, hence those winds off the north sea, as we have seen over the past few days, bringing with them a few showers as well. be not as many showers today compared with what we had yesterday, and more places will be dry with sunshine, but it will be a chilly start to the day on friday, especially where we have got the clear skies in the west. a few showers to the east, they will run their way through lincolnshire, through the midlands, to parts of wales in the extreme south—east of england, the odd one possible

in northern ireland, too. wasn't so. as england, more sunshine for northern england, the rest of the sunshine in the north will be on the west side of the country for many parts of the country for many parts of scotland. it looks cloudy, it will be a cool day, as it was yesterday. that cloud continues to push across scotla nd continues to push across scotland into northern england, one or two showers continuing into the night, maybe a few more showers arriving in the far south—west of england as well. probably not quite as cold early on saturday morning compared with friday morning, those temperatures under the cloud around six or seven degrees. we region looks quiet, winds very light, lots of cloud around, many places will be dry. it is still quite cool. a few showers towards the south coast of england, the odd one from the photograph england and wales, a bit of drizzle coming in across northern and eastern scotland, perhaps into the north—east of england, that will make you feel quite cold, but is struggling to make double figures in northern scotland. 12 or 13 is going to bea scotland. 12 or 13 is going to be a typicalfigure, a lot scotland. 12 or 13 is going to be a typical figure, a lot of cloud around, too. on the whole, it looks quite cloudy on

sunday but cloud dinner for many areas, so that a of seeing some sunshine does make a better chance of seeing some sunshine. a little rain is arriving in northern ireland, perhaps the north—west of scotland. but is a sign of things to come, really, if we look further ahead into the early pa rt look further ahead into the early part of next week, instead of high pressure dominating the weather, pressure is falling and low pressure is falling and low pressure is falling and low pressure is going to take charge. you can see we have a number of weather fronts on the scene as well. so we can tidy that up, really and with this sort of headline, because the early pa rt sort of headline, because the early part of next week looks like it's going to be a big change in weather to wet and windy conditions, maybe not 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