this is bbc news. i'm aaron safir. our top stories — france, italy and the czech republic become the latest countries to announce record numbers of daily coronavirus cases. with ten days to go, president trump casts his vote early in florida, a state he has to win to be re—elected. mr president, who did you vote for today? i voted for a guy named trump. at least 18 people are killed and many others are injured in a suicide attack in kabul. and a moment of change for chile? we take a look at what's at stake ahead of sunday's vote on the constitution.

the number of confirmed covid—19 infections and deaths is continuing to rise across europe. many countries are reacting and hoping to slow transmission by imposing new restrictions. in the latest developments, poland's president, andrzej duda has tested positive and is quarantining. he said in a video message that he has no symptoms. the country is seeing a record rise in coronavirus cases, and it's imposed a partial lockdown. in spain, ten out of 17 regions have asked the central government for an emergency decree to limit people's movements. they also want powers to impose cu rfews. meanwhile, new daily records have been seen in the czech republic and in france — where a further 138 people have died from coronavirus — and in italy, where the regions of lombardy and campania are worst affected.

more than 23,000 cases were reported across the uk, up from friday's total. and from monday in the belgian capital brussels, masks will be mandatory in all settings and all culture and sporting venues will be forced to close. david campanale has more. alarm bells are ringing right across europe. the coronavirus pandemic continues to worsen in the czech republic, which has registered its worst daily figure yet for new infections — more than 15,000. over the past week, more people with the virus have died there, as a percentage of the population, than anywhere else in the world. but for top health agencies, concern extends to all but a handful of eu countries. they've declared now to be a critical moment. too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in cases, and that's now leading to hospitals and icus running close or above capacity and we're

still only in october. we urge leaders to take immediate action. a string of countries, including russia, poland, italy and switzerland, have again seen their worst daily figures yet for coronavirus infections. poland's second wave is far bigger than its first. their number of new cases is 22 times higher than the highest number of cases in the spring, and deaths there over the past 2a hours have been the highest since the pandemic began. with the president admitting to testing positive, poland has moved to impose the highest level of restrictions across the whole country. work is under way to set up temporary hospitals. 500 beds are being installed in the conference rooms of the country's biggest arena, warsaw's national stadium. translation: we have an exceptional situation this year. i call for visits to the cemetery

and family reunions, especially with the elderly, to be as limited as much as possible. in spain, the government will consider on sunday whether to bring in a new state of emergency. just days after registering more than i million confirmed virus cases, their regions responsible for managing public health care have been heaping pressure on the government to give them the legal right to impose tighter restrictions. as in the first wave of the virus, the challenge is to ensure hospitals everywhere are not overwhelmed. but there are increasing reports of intensive care units under severe strain. in one particularly hard—hit area area of belgium, liege, doctors have been likening the situation to trench warfare. in paris, a senior hospital administrator said the current second wave risked being worse than the first. restrictions across europe are being tightened, but many on the front line fear it's too little too late.

david campanale, bbc news. donald trump has voted in the us presidential election in his adopted home state of florida. with ten days to go until the vote on november the 3rd, a record 5a million people have already cast their ballots. this is largely due to fears over coronavirus, with the country seeing record daily highs. both mr trump and his democratic challengerjoe biden are camapigning in crucial states that could swing the contest in their favour. the bbc‘s lebo diseko reports. thank you, sir. thank you very much. donald trump moments after casting his ballot. no surprises for who. i voted for a guy named trump. after that he was off on a whirlwind of stops in battle ground states. he's hitting rallies in north carolina, ohio and wisconsin. 2016 saw donald trump gaining momentum in the last two weeks. no doubt he's hoping

to pull that off again. but today, the candidates presented two contrasting messages on the issue overshadowing this election. turn on television. "covid, covid, covid, covid, covid, covid. " by the way, on november 4th, you won't hear about it any more. forjoe biden, a drive—through rally in pennsylvania, a chance to hit what he sees as his rival‘s achilles' heel. on friday, america reported its highest ever daily number of new coronavirus infections, more than 80,000. what i told in that debate, we're not learning how to live with it, you're asking us to learn how to die with it! and it's wrong! there's going to be a dark winter ahead unless we change our ways! joe biden is ahead in a number of these key swing states, but it's not something he can take for granted. in 2016, hillary clinton, too, was ahead at this stage in the race, and so he's pulling out all the stops, bringing out his greatest weapon, his former boss.

hello, florida! we can'tjust talk, we can'tjust imagine a betterfuture, we've got to go out there and fight for it! we've got to outhustle the other side! we've got to vote like never before, and we've got to leave no doubt! more than 5a million people have taken up the option of voting early, so they've already had their say. but ten days is plenty of time for president trump and mr biden to make their closing arguments for those that haven't. lebo diseko, bbc news, washington. we can now speak to michael mcdonald, professor of political science at university of florida and head of the united states elections project, which tracks voter turnout. thank you very much forjoining us here. your organisation is the one keeping track of all this. more than 50 million people have already voted. are any of those votes

actually being counted yet? they are being prepared to be counted. but in some states, those preparations cannot begin until election day. in a state like florida, actually election officials are doing everything they can to prepare those votes all the way up to the point where they can be counted. the election has begun but the counting has not. what do we know that about the people who are out there voting already? we've had a record number. all that grim news that we just heard, that's a good news story. we we re very heard, that's a good news story. we were very concerned about the ability to cast votes in an election during a pandemic. and fortunately we are able to do that. we have sent out 85 million mail ballots by voters. voters a re out 85 million mail ballots by voters. voters are returning those in record numbers and they are also voting in person in record numbers. so we are conducting an election despite many concerns it will be difficult to do so. and the fact

that voters are spreading out the workload for election officials is also good news because there is concern that with all those male in balance, they would come back to the post right of the very end of the period and it would overwhelm election officials but instead we are seeing those billets come back all throughout the early voting period and that is helping officials manage the election. yes... sorry to interrupt or do we know the people who are now voting what age group they are in? what party they are voting for? what kind of information to be have about the votes the parties can kind of count on as being locked in already? there is a lot of information to suggest people who are voting at this moment have been predominantly democrats. we have party registration data from some states until to lessen polling data that tells us that information. we have even the young parties when they model who their supporters are. they are saying that as well. so lots of democrats voted so far and

especially by mail. the in person early voting will be very interesting to follow and of course election date we expect lots of republicans to be voting. so the number of the parties are seeing now, they will take then a look at them and that will inform the decisions they make for the remainder of the race right up to election day. absolutely. the joe biden campaign as a bit of a tactical advantage right now because they know everybody who is voting and they are crossing them off their list and no longer sending the mail and no longer making phone calls to their homes and they are focusing and targeting on to the people they wa nt to and targeting on to the people they want to vote but have not voted yet. the donald trump campaign has to focus on a larger universe that they are trying to get to vote and they will have to wait probably until election day to get most of them to vote. and one final question and a bit more broadly if you don't mind, when we see pictures of people waiting in long lines to vote, i wonder sometimes is that a sign of

enthusiasm or is that a sign of something maybe not really working as well as it could in terms of there being enough polling places and people having enough options when it comes to voting? by design we have fewer polling locations for in person early voting. not like we have a polling location and all of the schools and churches and everything else around the country to vote on election day. and when you have twice as many people trying to vote in person early, you are going to get long lines. it isjust going to get long lines. it isjust going to get long lines. it isjust going to be the fact that we don't have enough capacity to handle the demand that is coming in right now. most states, things have settled down after the initial rush and people are voting safely and they are voting quickly. there have been semi—slitted problems with extended lines for longer periods of the day but for the most part once we get past the initial rush of people who wa nted past the initial rush of people who wanted to vote on that very first day, those lines tend to get a little bit shorter. well michael

mcdonald, i should little bit shorter. well michael mcdonald, ishould not little bit shorter. well michael mcdonald, i should not the only ones talking to you today so thank you very much for your time here on bbc news. great to be with you. dealing with china will be one of the biggest foreign policy challenges for whoever wins the us election. both donald trump and joe biden have vowed to be tough on beijing. 0ur correspondent zhaoyin feng looks at how the two superpowers are clashing over trade, big tech and accusations of espionage, and how this rivalry is affecting the rest of the world. look closely. you could be in beijing, but this is new york city, usa. flushing is one of the largest chinatowns in america. here, the us—china rivalry is personal, and the community is concerned. after cracking down on chinese tech companies huawei and tiktok, washington is threatening to ban the chinese app wechat because of alleged beijing surveillance. but many chinese—america ns rely on wechat to talk

to loved ones back home. this man is suing the us government to stop the ban. it's kind of a discrimination because most of the people all know the chinese people in the united states are using wechat. and this ban, it's actually mostly only against the chinese community in the united states. as china and the us go head—to—head over technology, trade and covid—19, many chinese—america ns feel squeezed in between. but this rivalry between the world's two superpowers has been building for decades, and its profound impact will be felt in nearly every country around the globe. donald trump says that he's tough on china... us presidential rivals constantly argue over who is tougher on china. this biden campaign ad says the president got played by china. vice president biden. ..

meanwhile, trump says if his opponent wins, it will be a victory for china. a break—up between china and the us would have repercussions around the world. you might be forced to choose sides. say we're going to do business with just the chinese or just the americans, so it's putting countries, companies, students, employees in a very difficult position. there are more than 360,000 chinese students here in the us. they are already caught in the middle. the us government believes some are spies targeting american intellectual property while masquerading as students. people come to you seeking for better career development, for opportunities. they want to get a location. they want to make new friends. they want to make that happen for the journey in this different country. some of chenyu's friends

to china, leaving him with this hamster, winnie. but chenyu is unsure about how long he and winnie will stay. he feels less welcome and is looking forjobs back in china. whoever wins the us presidential election, the us—china rivalry is here to stay. it will define geopolitics in the 21st century. zhaoyin feng, bbc news, washington. on friday, president trump announced that sudan had agreed to normalise relations with israel, the third arab league country to do so in two months. but perhaps things are not as simple as they seem. some officials in sudan's transitional government say the agreement needs to be ratified by a legislative council, and that doesn't exist yet. and political opposition against the deal is growing, too. today, sudan's former prime minister, sadiq al—mahdi, said the agreement could help ignite a new war in the middle east. let's speak to hajooj kooka, who is a sudanese member of girifna, who describe themselves

as a non—violent resistance movement. he's in khartoum. thank you for speaking with us here. i want to start with your reaction then to this news that your country had agreed to normalise relations with israel. reasonably this was a surprise. more than a surprise. we we re surprise. more than a surprise. we were at a sit in and we had another protester killed on the 21st of 0ctober march that we had and we we re 0ctober march that we had and we were all at the city and trying to deal with that. and at night we heard the news came out. it was a tweet and we were shocked. it was a tweet and we were shocked. it was a tweet from donald trump. at the time, we were freaking out for most of us. we went to the internet to try to see if our prime minister had said anything. and we could not find anything. which i to see if our government has said anything and at the time they did not say anything as we were like is this true because we we re as we were like is this true because we were shocked because a few weeks

earlier, are promised or had said this government, the traditional government of sudan, does not have the mandate to actually do this. they don't have the mandate to normalise relations with israel in this will be left for a democratically elected government that will come after them. and for the premonition that is to come. we we re the premonition that is to come. we were surprised and shocked and obviously not happy and disappointed with the government for that. you say not happy and disappointed. sudan israel have not had formal relations but have had a colourful history. not always a peaceful one. surely peace is a good thing and any step towards that most would welcome. why don't you welcome it? it was how it was done. it was up to this point we thought this is a government that is going to act differently than a dictatorship before them. before that, like for example, when sudan separated and became two countries, the sudanese

people had nothing to do with it. we we re people had nothing to do with it. we were not asked about the negotiations. the dictatorship that whatever they thought was best for the country and they acted like they own to the country and could do whatever they want. and now we thought it would be different. this is democracy. we will be asked about everything and we will be part of the conversation. and we were not. we were surprised that an import decision like this is made in com plete decision like this is made in complete secrecy and without us being informed about it. and we were informed by a tweet. he was a total surprise to realise that this new government is acting like a dictatorship. and this is what we hate it. not about a discussion of do we want a relationship with israel. we thought that will be up to debate and truthfully it would have been a better way to do it if this was by the sudanese people being convinced this is better. which right now did not happen at all. there has been some concern

that what you are describing now, this surprise, this shock may perhaps destabilise the government. do you worry about that? definitely. definitely i teared up when i heard this. because it definitely broke this. because it definitely broke this honeymoon we have with the government. it broke our relationship with the government and being at a sit in, everybody was like i don't know if this is my government any more. this is the reaction of many people here. and my first reaction was definitely feeling that i will not support his government any more. and i think this is a wave that went through a lot of people. and right now most people are in denial and most people are shocked that this happened. the other thing that is a big deal is this whole relationship with israel was initiated by the army. initiated by the person who is the head of the sovereign council. he was assassinated by the prime minister

who —— it was initiated by the civilian ruler. and we are trying to reach civilian rule. we were done with islamic military dictatorship and are done with islamic political rule. and we are now trying to get rid of military rule. sorry to interrupt but we are out of time. we have are from prime ministers and presidents and it is great to hear from a protester out on the streets. thank you for your opinion and your time. thanks for having me. at least 18 people have died following a suicide bombing in kabul. the islamic state group say they carried out the attack. 0ur correspondent secunder kermani has the latest. according to officials, this suicide bomber was trying to get inside the tuition centre when he was challenged by the security guards and blew himself up. their bravery really preventing an even greater loss of life. the vast majority of these students would have been in their late teens and early 20s, many of them preparing for a university entrance exam. the islamic state group carried out a similar attack on another tuition centre two years ago.

in fact, a tuition centre quite close by to this one in which more than a0 students were killed. the area in which these attacks have happened is largely populated by afghanistan's shia minority, which has been repeatedly targeted by is. in recent weeks, there has been an upsurge in fighting in afghanistan, but that's actually largely between the afghan government and the taliban, despite the fact that the two sides are engaged in peace negotiations in qatar. is are not part of those talks, which in any case have largely stalled amidst attempts to resolve preliminary issues, but whether it's is, whether it's the taliban, whether it's civilians being mistakenly targeted in government air strikes, ordinary afghans are dying on a daily basis. france has recalled its ambassador to turkey for consultations after president recep tayyip erdogan insulted his french counterpart. ambassador herve magro had only been accepted as the french envoy

in august this year. he has been recalled following remarks mr erdogan made about president macron. translation: what can one say about a head of state who treat millions of people from a different faith group in his country this way? first of all, check your mental health. president macron, speaking after the beheading of a teacher in a suspected islamist attack, described islam as a religion "in crisis" worldwide and said the government would present a bill in december to strengthen a law that separates church and state. the french presidency condemned mr erdogan's statements, saying outrage and rudeness were undiplomatic and urged mr erdogan to change the course of his policy. french officials also expressed concern over calls by turkey for a boycott of french goods. chile has recently been praised as being one of the most stable in the region,

with dramatic falls in rates of poverty, too. but many inequalities remain, and the past 12 months has seen a stream of protests and demonstrations, prompting a referendum this sunday on rewriting the the country's ao—year—old constitution. katy watson reports. chile is a country used to earthquakes, but few people expected the shake—up that we've seen this past year. injust 12 months, chile went from being an oasis of stability, as its president described it, to a country wanting to rewrite the rules. it all started when santiago hiked its metro ticket prices byjust four cents. it represented the tipping point, unleashing anger and resentment among millions struggling to make ends meet in a country that on the surface looked like it was succeeding. in the weeks afterwards, hundreds of thousands took to the streets to call for change.

among the demands, better education, more equality, and for many, the president's resignation. the demonstrations were largely peaceful, but clashes with protesters and heavy—handed responses by the authorities have marked this past year, too. chile's current constitution was drawn up in 1980 underformer dictator augusto pinochet. in a modern democracy, there's no place for it, critics argue, and they say access to basic services shouldn't be in the hands of private businesses. the old system needs to change. after a pause in protesting because of covid—19, people have returned to the streets. peaceful protests like this...and more troubling ones like this. tension is high in chile, and so are expectations. translation: the problem that chile has, and the social movement have shown,

is that it's a system made just for a few people. it guarantees immunity, impunity, and a dignified life for the privileged few. what we want to have as a constitution that guarantees equality and rights for everyone, with dignified conditions where there's no such thing as first and second—class citizens. chileans are expected to approve a new constitution, but there are critics, those who say the current set of rules helped this country to prosper and tearing it up could bring economic instability at the worst possible time. chile needs to look forward and needs to build a better country. it seems to me that what many people want to do is rewrite history and deny the existence and the presence of pinochet and the importance pinochet had in implementing the economic model. is it rewriting the past or wanting to move forward with a clean slate? however you look at it, sunday's vote will define chile's future. katy watson, bbc news.

goodbye. hello. saturday brought some extremely wet and rather blustery weather for many parts of the uk. it was a particularly soggy end to the day in eastern and south—eastern parts of england. not quite as wet for most of us on sunday. still some heavy showers around, some blustery winds, but some sunny spells in between. you can see the speckled shower clouds here pushing in on our earlier satellite image. and it's this stripe of cloud here that brought the heavy and persistent rain for many during the first half of the weekend. that is now clearing away. low pressure still very much driving the weather, so it is going to be another windy day and that wind coming in from the west will drive a fair few showers across parts of northern ireland, western scotland, the western side of england and wales, and quite a few i think blowing in across southern counties of england as well. not as many showers across the north east of england

or eastern scotland. and we will see some spells of sunshine. but it's going to be windy for all of us. these are the average wind speeds. the gusts will be higher than that. we could see gusts of 50 mph or more in the most exposed places in western scotland, where the showers could well turn into a spell of more persistent rain through the afternoon. temperatures 11—14 degrees, a fairly cool feel. and it stays rather cool and blustery as we head through sunday night and into the early hours of monday. as you can see, there'll be further showers moving in from the west. some clear gaps in between those downpours, and temperatures generally in a range between 5—8 degrees. now, monday is another sunshine and showers day, but a bit of a shift in the focus of those showers. they will increasingly become focused across northern ireland, england and wales, whereas for scotland, i think things should start to turn a little bit drier and we will see some spells of sunshine. not as windy by this stage, but temperatures still struggling

a little bit between 11—14 degrees. it does stay unsettled, though, through the coming week. low pressure taking up residence to the north—west, a deep low out in the atlantic, so that'll drive strong winds and showers across the uk, some longer spells of rain at times. and it may well be that for the end of the week, this weather system brings some more persistent wet weather, so the outlook looks like this. there will be some heavy rain at times and some brisk winds, a very unsettled autumnal week on the way.

this is bbc news — the headlines.

covid—nineteen continues its fast spread throughout europe. many countries are hoping to slow transmission by imposing new restrictions. france, the czech republic and italy have seen a record number of daily cases. poland's president — andrzej duda — has tested positive for the virus and is in self—isolation. donald trump has voted early in the us presidential election in his adopted home state of florida. with ten days to go — a record fifty—four million people have already cast their ballots. this is largely due to fears over coronavirus — with the country seeing record daily highs. at least eighteen people have been killed and dozens wounded in a suicide attack near an education centre in the afghan capital kabul. the interior ministry said the suicide bomber detonated his device after guards stopped him. the building in the predominantly shia muslim area usually hosts hundreds of students. ecologists have criticised plans to move ancient woodland