welcome to bbc news. i'm aaron safir. our top stories: lee kun—hee — the korean businessman who turned samsung into one of the world's biggest electronics companies — dies at the age of 78. 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. i voted for a guy named trump. and in—flight food without the flight. the airline that feeds its passengers, but doesn't take them anywhere.

hello and welcome. we're starting some breaking news. south korea's samsung electronics chairman lee kun—hee has died. mr lee, who was 78, helped grow his father's noodle trading business into south korea's biggest conglomerate, with dozens of affiliates stretching from electronics and insurance to shipbuilding and construction. his credited with putting samsung on the global map. by the time he suffered a heart attack in 2014, it was the world's biggest maker of smartphones and memory chips. it is also a major global player in lcd displays. the compa ny‘s overall turnover is equivalent to a fifth of the nation's gross domestic product, making it crucial to south korea's economic health. his family, including his son, vice chairman lee jae—yong, were at his bedside.

lee was jailed for five years in 2017 after being found guilty of bribery and other offences linked to the former president park geun—hye after being cleared of the most serious charges on appeal and release later. in a statement, the company said: "chairman lee was a true visionary who transformed samsung into the world—leading innovator and industrial powerhouse from a local business." adding: "his legacy will be everlasting." we will have more of that later here on bbc news. let us turn to the coronavirus 110w. more countries in europe are tightening anti—coronavirus measures, with france extending a curfew and the italian government expected to announce more national measures. ten of spain's 17 regions are calling on the government to call a state of emergency. europe is now the epicentre of the outbreak with the polish president, andrzej duda, the latest world leader to be infected. his country's among a number

across europe to register a record daily high in coronavirus cases on friday or saturday. david campanale has the latest. 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 0ctober.

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 than one 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. 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 restaurants, we are seeing bars, we are seeing x, y or z. people mixing large groups, often. so it is a variety of factors, all contributing. but the basic factor of it is just a lot of the country being more open.

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. i think 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‘ offices, for instance, to delegate their own specific areas and kind of set their own rules. but now the country is fairly open. so it has really been a next response, i would 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, 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 tojust kind of go back to normal life. megan janetsky there. talking about the situation in colombia. 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 three, 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 campaigning in crucial states that could swing the contest in their favour. the bbc‘s lebo diseko reports.

—— this is president trump making his third stop of the day in wisconsin. he is speaking to supporters in wisconsin. joe biden also has been busy. both focusing their campaigning on those swing states that could decide the election. we have a full report 110w. 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'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. a little earlier i spoke to michael mcdonald, professor of political science at university of florida and head of the united states elections project, which tracks voter turnout. i began by asking whether any votes were actually being counted yet. well, they are being prepared to be counted, but in some states those preparations can't begin until election day. in a state like laura, actually, election officials are doing everything they can to prepare those words all the way up to the point where they can be counted. so the election has

begun, the counting hasn't. what we know than about these people who are out there voting already? well, we have had a record number and, you know, all that grim news that we have just heard, that is a good new story. we were very concerned about the ability to cast votes during a pandemic and, fortu nately, during a pandemic and, fortunately, we are able to do that. we have sent out 85 million male ballots to voters. voters are returning those in record numbers and they are voting and record numbers. we are conducting an election, despite many concerns it would be difficult to do so. and the fa ct be difficult to do so. and the fact that voters are spreading out the workload for election officials is also good news, because there was a concern with all the mail ballots, they would come back at the very end of the period and it would overwhelm the election officials. instead we are seeing this come through in the early voting period and it is helping manage the election.

sorry to interrupt, do we know, these people who are now voting, do we know what age group they are in, which party they are voting for? what kind of information do we have about the votes the parties can count on is being locked in already? there is a lot of information to suggest the people who are voting at this moment are predominantly democrats. we have party registration data, we have some polling data who tells us that information. even the parties when they model who i think their supporters are. they are saying that to. lots of democrats have voted so far, particularly by male. election day is when we expect a lot of republicans to be voting. so the numbers the parties are seeing now, iwill take the numbers the parties are seeing now, i will take them, the numbers the parties are seeing now, iwill take them, i will look at them, and it will inform decisions they make the remainder of the race, right up until election day? exactly. in

campaign hasa until election day? exactly. in campaign has a bit of a tactical advantage right now. they know all these people who have voted and they are crossing them off their list. they are no longer sending them male, no longer‘s making phone calls to their homes and refocusing and retargeting methods onto those people who they want to vote who have not voted yet. the trump campaign, meanwhile, has to focus on a large universe of people they wa nt to large universe of people they want to get to vote and i will probably have to wait until election day to get most of them to vote. and, michael, a final question, just a bit more broadly, when we see pictures of people waiting in long lines to vote, i wonder sometimes if thatis to vote, i wonder sometimes if that is a sign of enthusiasm is that is a sign of enthusiasm is that sign of something 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? well, by design we have fewer polling locations or in person early voting. it is not like we have a voting location in all the

schools and churches 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 person early, you are going to get long lines. it is just the fa ct get long lines. it is just the fact that we don't have enough capacity to handle the demand thatis capacity to handle the demand that is coming in right now. in most states things have settled down after the initial rush and people are voting safely and they are voting quickly. there have been some isolated problems, extended lines longer periods, but for the most part once we get past the initial rush of people who want to vote on the very first day, the lion's den to get a little bit shorter. michael mcdonald speaking to me a short while ago. let's get some of the day's other news. 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. sudan's former prime minister sadiq al—mahdi,

says his country's agreement to start normalising relations with israel could help ignite a new war in the middle east. mr al—mahdi, who leads sudan's biggest political party, said the move jeopardised the authority of the transitional government. other parties have slammed the deal and there have been protests in support of palestinians. 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. 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 treats millions of people from a different faith group in his country this way? first of all, check your mental health. that was the reaction from the turkish president. 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. this is bbc news — the latest headlines: lee kun—hee — the korean businessman who turned samsung into one of the world's biggest electronics companies — dies at the age of 78. france, italy and the czech republic become the latest countries to announce record numbers of daily coronavirus cases. 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 russia's far east, after hundreds of dead marine animals washed up on the pacific shore of the kamchatka peninsula. the causes of this ecological disaster remain disputed. russian state investigators say they are "most likely natural", while environmental ngos want a more thorough investigation. maria kiseleva from the bbc‘s russian service reports from kamchatka. 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 look reassuringly familiar? check—in at changi airport, it's as if covid—19 didn't exist. but these passengers know, they won't be travelling very far. instead, they have paid for the pleasure of in—flight food without the actual flight. 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 of service on offer. for $40, you can slum it in economy. for the best part of $500, you'll have a first class suite all to yourself. looking forward to bringing

some singapore airlines hospitality back to the sky but also we're oin the ground obviously. the a380 dining experience will be a wonderfuljourney for many, many people today. everyone 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 allman, bbc news. they may be firmly on the ground but many, many miles above us, a nasa space probe which slammed into an asteroid on tuesday to collect a rock fragment sample is at risk of losing its consignment. the 0siris—rex mission aims to bring material from the asteroid bennu back to earth in 2023. the team in charge of the spacecraft said excess rock fragments had wedged open the lid of the collector and particles they had hoped to study back on earth were now drifting

off into space. scientists are now trying to stow the samples on the spacecraft far more quickly than planned. 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: lee kun—hee, the chairman of the south korean tech giant samsung electronics, has died at the age of 78. mr lee helped to transform his family's small business into the country's biggest conglomerate. samsung rose to become the world's largest producer of smartphones and memory chips. 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.