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. who did you vote for today?” voted for a guy named trump! at least 18 people are killed and many others are injured in a suicide attack in kabul. and inflight food, without the flight — the airline that feeds its passengers, but doesn't take them anywhere.

hello, and welcome. 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, 10 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 one million confirmed virus cases, their regions responsible for managing public healthcare 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 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. in the last few hours, colombia has become the eighth country in the world to reach more than1 million confirmed coronavirus cases. the number of deaths from covid—19 in the country has also passed the 30,000 mark. colombia had one of latin america's longest lockdowns but cases are on the rise again. so why is the virus remerging once again? let's speak to megan janetsky, a colombia—based journalist joining us from medellin. why are cases to rise again? we saw an aperture in columbia after five months of quarantine, and now we are starting to get back to the new

normal. so we are seeing restau ra nts, normal. so we are seeing restaurants, we are seeing bars, we are seeing acts, why or the. —— bars, we are seeing acts, why orthe. —— x, bars, we are seeing acts, why or the. —— x, y or z. bars, we are seeing acts, why orthe. —— x, y orz. people mixing large groups, often. so it isa mixing large groups, often. so it is a variety of factors, all contributing. but the basic factor of theatre is just a lot of the country being more open. —— basic factor of it. of the country being more open. -- basic factor of it. we have heard from the start from the who and others about the importance of testing. test, test, test, is what we have been told. how easy is it to get a coronavirus testing colombia? it depends. ithink it depends especially on where you stand economically, so, a lot of poor populations in the country really do not have access to tests, and especially, in more rural and far—off zones in colombia you do not have this medical infrastructure that you might have in cities. so, tests can

be harder to access. and how has the government responded? how do people write the government's response? it is another thing were right around the world, different countries are taking different approaches and some governments have emerged with their popularity support increase? yeah, so, at the beginning of the crisis, colombia was very strict, they clamped down really fast on the coronavirus, and had a really long stretch and lockdown. they closed their country and their borders off very fast. and over the span of time, that lockdown was lesser enforced and lesser enforced, and now things are just kind of open up. the national government has been fairly flexible in allowing mayors‘ officers, for instance, to delegate their own specific

areas and kind of set their own rules. —— offices. but now the country is fairly open. so it has really been a next response, i would say. has really been a next response, iwould say. it is ha rd to response, iwould say. it is hard to generalise, i know, but i wonder the general feeling towards this situation, presumably people are tired and quite keen to return to normal? yeah, ithink quite keen to return to normal? yeah, i think there is a lot of fatigue. similar to what you are seeing in the rest of the world, but in colombia, this fatigue is kind of more complex, because you have got this long stretch of quarantine, and then also mixed with a lot of economic factors, where people have been hit really disproportionately. i think people are really eager to just kind of go think people are really eager tojust kind of go back think people are really eager to just kind of go back to normal life. megan, thank you for bringing us up to date.

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 3, a record 57 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 fourth, 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‘t just imagine a better future, 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 paul mitchell, who is vice president of political data inc, a bipartisan voter data firm based in california. thanks for your time here on bbc world news. what is the situation in california, then? talk us through it. every state does it differently, how can people get a male invalid, they want? —— mail—in ballot? how

many people tend to vote early in california? california has been transitioning to more voting by mail. in the primary election back in march 75% of the boats came in by mail. so ina way, the boats came in by mail. so in a way, california was more prepared for this than a lot of other states. we have all learned to do things quite differently over the course of this year, and i wonder if the rise of mail—in voting, it‘s huge popularity this year, something that will stay with the us in elections to come. when people get used to voting like this? well, in some states that have liberal methods of voting by mail where they do not require you to have an excuse not require you to have an excuse to become not require you to have an excuse to become a not require you to have an excuse to become a vote by mail motor, states like california, i think you will see more increase to voting by mail. in the us, voting really is habitual. and if people have a lwa ys habitual. and if people have always voted at the same precinct and is done it over and over, it is kind of hard to break that habit. so in this election cycle, a lot of voters are having to take on a new

habit, and it is very possible that those 25% of voters in the state of california who have never voted by mail before by going to like it. you were speaking to my colleague earlier and said the increase in male in voting that you have seenin in male in voting that you have seen in california has been absolutely huge. just talk us through some of the numbers? yeah, so, the pace of it has been absolutely huge. in past election cycles ballots get mailed out, and we see very few getting return right away. in most cases, voters will maybe ta ke most cases, voters will maybe take the weekend, and we start to see hundreds or, you know, 200 and 300,000 ballots coming in every day after that first weekend. this election cycle, we saw a weekend. this election cycle, we saw a quarter of a million ballots coming in on friday before the first weekend. it was really incredible. and something we‘d never seen. the previous record was just 12,000 ballots. so a 20 fold increase in the early voting, and we‘re still on pace right now to have a threefold increase in the

number of votes have been cast early, really, about two weeks before the election. so it has been astounding, the pace of the early returns. but we are still not sure what it means in terms of the total vote. the 30% of voters who have cast ballots already are largely very likely voters. people have previous voting history, people who had voted by mail before. we are who had voted by mail before. we a re really who had voted by mail before. we are really waiting to see who votes at the polls or even ballots that have been mailed in the last few days. it is just the beginning, isn‘t it? paul mitchell, thank you for your time. thanks for having me. let‘s take a look at some of the other stories making the news. an international treaty banning nuclear weapons will come into force in three months‘ time after it was ratified by the required 50 countries. the un treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons bans their use, the threat of their use, as well as their development, production, testing or stockpiling. several key nuclear states are not signatories, however, including the united states, britain, france, china and russia.

ethiopia has summoned the us ambassador after president trump suggested that egypt might blow up a controversial dam that ethiopia is building on the river nile. the ethiopian prime minister has said his country "will not cave in to aggressions of any kind". egypt fears the dam might reduce its water supplies. the nigerian police chief has ordered the immediate mobilisation of all resources to control the country‘s worst street violence in two decades. violence increased in the commercial capital lagos after the security forces allegedly shot dead people protesting against police brutality. 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. a little earlier i spoke to hajooj kooka, who is a sudanese member of girifna who describe themselves as a non—violent resistance movement. i asked him how surprised he was to hear that sudan had normalised relations with israel. it was more than a surprise. we we i’e it was more than a surprise. we were certain we had a number protester killed on the 21st of 0ctober much we had. we were all trying to do with that and at night, the news came out stop it was a tweet, we heard from a tweet and we were shocked. it was a tweet from trumpet. at the time, it was total denial for trumpet. at the time, it was total denialfor most of trumpet. at the time, it was total denial for most of us. we went to the internet and tried to see if our prime minister

said anything —— trump. we couldn‘t find anything if the government said anything and they didn‘t say anything. we we i’e they didn‘t say anything. we were like, is this true? because the reason we were shockedis because the reason we were shocked is because a few weeks earlier, our prime minister said this government, the transitional government of sudan it does not have the mandate to actually do this, to normalise relations with israel, this would be left to the democratic elected government that will come after them. and for the parliament thatis them. and for the parliament that is going to come. so we we i’e that is going to come. so we were surprised and shocked and obviously not happy and disappointed in our government for the. you say obviously not happy and disappointed. sudan and israel haven‘t had formal relations they have had a colourful history, let‘s say, not always a peaceful one. surely peace is a good thing and any step towards that, most people would welcome. why don‘t you welcome at? it was how it was done. it was, up to this

point, we thought it was our government, a government that would act differently than the dictatorship before that. before that, for example, when sudan separated and became two countries, south sudan separated. the sudanese people had nothing to do with it. we when asked about the negotiation, it was a dictatorship and they did whatever they thought was better for the country. they acted like they owned the country and they do whatever they want. and now we thought it would be completely different. this is democracy, we different. this is democracy, we would be asked about everything and be part of the conversation. and we were not. we were surprised that such an important decision is made in com plete important decision is made in complete secrecy and without us being informed about it. and we we i’e being informed about it. and we were informed by a tweet. it was just a total surprise to realise that this new government is acting like a dictatorship. and this is what we dictatorship. and this is what we hated. it‘s not a discussion about do we want a relationship with israel or not, we thought that would be up for debate and truthfully, it would have been

a way better way to do it if this was by the sudanese people being commenced this was better. which right now, didn‘t happen at all. there has been some concern that what you surprising now, this surprise and shock, may perhaps destabilise the transitional government. is it something you worry about? definitely. i mean, definitely i teared up when i heard this because it definitely broke this honeymoon we definitely broke this honeymoon we had with the government. it broke our relationship with the government and being in a city, everybody was like wow, i don‘t know if this is my government anymore. this is the reaction ofa anymore. this is the reaction of a lot of people. my first reaction was definitely feeling that i would not support this government anymore. and i think this wave went through a lot of people and right now most people and right now most people are in denial and people are shocked that this happened. you are watching bbc news.

the headlines: france, italy and the czech republic become the latest countries to announce record numbers of daily coronavirus cases. ten days to go — president trump casts his vote early in florida — a state he has to win to be re—elected. at least 18 people have died following a suicide bombing in kabul — the islamic state group said they carried out the attack. the bbc‘s 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. environmental alarm bells have been ringing in the russian far east after hundreds of dead animals washed ashore on the contract peninsula. because of the disaster remain dissipated. the russian authorities say they most likely natural while environmental ngos want a borrower investigation.

when hundreds of dead sea creatures washed up on this shore, nobody knew what was going on. why did large area of this pacific coast turn into the graveyard? parts of this beach are covered with the remains of dead sea creatures. mostly here it‘s dead starfishes and what looks like the remains of sea urchins. we spoke to the locals, and they are alarmed because usually it‘s just a couple of starfishes here. but now it‘s much, much more than that. this is what it looked like before the disaster. the ocean bed is covered with active marine life. this is after. in many places, plants and small animals are dead. we are considering two groups of causes — artificial causes related with industrial sources, maybe military sources, landfills and so on.

and second group is natural causes, like seaweeds. at first, many people thought the disaster was caused by rocket fuel from the kamchatka disused military ranges. others said it was poisonous chemicals. translation: in the 19705, some pesticides were buried there and other poisonous chemicals. theyjust dug a hole and left them there. as test results started to come in, experts questioned these theories. perhaps the causes were natural. there may have been poisonous seaweed. there could also be the red tide, when one type of algae consumes all oxygen in the water and other creatures suffocate. some local people were treated for burns to skin and eyes after swimming in the ocean.

translation: we are worried about our health and the health of our loved ones. and we‘re also worried for the ocean. the ocean is our whole life. until it is clear what happened, it will not be safe for people to into the ocean in what has been one of russia‘s most unique nature spots. maria kiseleva, bbc news, kamchatka. the airline industry has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. many countries have closed their borders and few people actually want to fly. companies are facing huge losses as air travel has all but disappeared. in singapore, they‘re encouraging customers to return but they‘ll be staying firmly on the ground. the bbc‘s tim allman explains. doesn‘t this all looked reassuringly familiar? check in at changi airport, it‘s as if covid—19 didn‘t exist. but

these passengers now, they won‘t be travelling very far stop instead, they have paid for the pleasure of in—flight food without the actual flight. the food is pretty amazing. it's the food is pretty amazing. it‘s better than the one they sell here on the flight. as with any normal plane, there are different levels with any normal plane, there a re different levels of with any normal plane, there are different levels of service on offer. for $40, you can slum it in economy. for the best pa rt it in economy. for the best part of $500, you will have a first class sweet all to yourself. looking forward to ringing some singapore airlines hospitality back to the sky but also underground obviously. the a380 dining experience will be a wonderfuljourney for the people today. everybody has allocated seats to make sure nobody gets too close to one another. and in flight entertainment is available to distract the youngsters. let‘s face it, this is unlikely to be the salvation of the airline industry. but it is a start.

tim orman, bbc news. it is not going to stop them making jokes about airline food though is that. thank you for watching, i will be back soon. 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—19 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 57 million people have already cast their ballots. this is largely due to fears over coronavirus, with the country seeing record daily highs. at least 18 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