this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. france raises its terror alert to its highest level after three people are killed in a knife attack at a church in nice. a 21—year—old tunisian man is held on suspicion of the killings. president macron visits the scene of the attack and calls it an act of islamist terrorism. he says it's time for people to end their divisions. translation: i ask for unity from everyone. that is the message that i wanted to express here in nice today. europe scrambles to deal with a surge in coronavirus infections — the german chancellor warns of a long, hard winter — as the country prepares to go back into a partial lockdown.

in texas, drive—through polling stations help to break early voting records, but campaigners fear there's scope for voter suppression in the lone star state. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. france is now in the highest level of security alert — after three people were killed in a knife attack — in a church in nice. the suspect — reported to be a 21—year old tunisian national who'd only recently arrived in the country — is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot by police. the attack happened less than a fortnight after an islamist extremist beheaded a teacher outside a school in the suburbs of paris. lucy williamson sent

this report from nice. gunfire. notre dame today was not a place of refuge. not for the attacker, nor for those he killed. inside these walls, a churchwarden and two worshipers became the latest targets of a terrorist attack. translation: i still imagine him, i still see him walking, lighting the candles and now i'm thinking, he's not there any more. one, a 60—year—old woman, was decapitated. the churchwarden was 55—year—old vincent loques. a colleague tonight described him as a cheerful man who took good care of people. another of the victims managed to escape. according to local reports, she spoke a few words before dying of her wounds. "tell my children i love them," she said. around her, the panic was already spreading through the streets. president macron, arriving in nice after a crisis meeting, said attacks like this

would never work. translation: if we've been attacked again, it's because of our values, our taste for freedom, the possibility there is here to believe freely and not to give in to any terror. let me say this very clearly again, we will never give in. france's prosecutor said tonight that the suspected attacker is a 21—year—old tunisian man who arrived in europe just a few weeks ago. the treasurer of notre dame new vincent loques well. he found his body at the entrance to the church this morning. translation: i'm utterly devastated. you dedicate your life to helping people and then this happens. it creates a big hole. it's less than two weeks since france mourned its last terrorist attack, the decapitation of a history

you are a you teacher in a suburb of paris triggered a wave of secular defiance here. the message today, faith offers no protection, and france no place of refuge from attack. this afternoon, churches across nice rang out their bells for the victims. they weren't symbols this morning, just three local people, a churchwarden, worshipper and mother whose last words were of love. lucy williamson, bbc news, nice. healthcare systems in the european union are at risk of being overwhelmed by the number of coronavirus cases — unless authorities act quickly. that's according to the head of the european commission — ursula von der leyen. her comments follow those from the german chancellor, angela merkel, who warns hard months lie ahead for the continent. paul hawkins reports.

lockdown eve brings anger on the streets of paris. translation: we don't want to be locked down. we are sick of the curfew and everything. we understand that it is for the disease but we should not get carried away. from midnight tonight we all have to stay at home. it's too much. i'm not going to. i'm going to stay here. from friday, no one can leave home u nless friday, no one can leave home unless it is for essential work on medical reasons. france limiting the liberty it is famous for embracing. this woman goading the authorities, telling them she does not care if she is fined for breaking lockdown. the french president insists a national lockdown is intentional to drive down effect delayed by infection rates before hospitals are overwhelmed. germany's new measures which come into force on monday are not as far—reaching as fans but they do include the closure of restau ra nts, do include the closure of restaurants, gyms, theatres and bars. translation: for the

coming timei bars. translation: for the coming time i wish for one thing. that will show solidarity and empathy to one under there. this is the only thing we will get through this historical crisis. this winter will be hard. it will before, long, difficult months. but it will end. infection rates are soaring across europe. the president of the european commission has said that this yea r‘s commission has said that this year's christmas will be different. translation: numbers of cases are rising, numbers of hospitalisations are rising. numbers of deaths are rising. not as fast, fortunately. meanwhile, ii of spain's regions will close their borders ahead of a public holiday on monday. new cases are growing 7i% holiday on monday. new cases are growing 71% in the last two weeks. let's get some of the day's other news: the big tech companies have reported their latest

sales and profit figures with demand for their products surging during the pandemic. amazon continues to be one of the biggest winners — with sales of 96 billion dollars in the last quarter. facebook reported 2.5 billion daily users on average across its platforms in september — up 15% from a year ago. the uk labour party has suspended jeremy corbyn over his reaction to a highly critical report on anti—semitism within the party under his leadership. the report found the party had been responsible for unlawful harassment and discrimination. the current leader, sir keir starmer, has promised to implement key recommendations. hundreds of families living in a camp in buenos aires have been evicted after police destroyed their makeshift homes. the owners of the land have been trying to reclaim it in court. about 2500 people were living there, although many agreed to leave before the eviction started. a nasa probe sent to collect rock from an asteroid is back on track after some technical issues. officials behind the osiris—rex craft were worried after a rock wedged open the door

of a container. nasa says the rock samples have now been safely sealed inside and the probe is ready to return to earth. to the united states — and with just five days left before election day — both president trump and joe biden have been making a final push for votes in the crucial state of florida. mr trump has made a stop at the western city of tampa — where he appeared in front of a packed crowd. as you can see. not much social distancing going on. president trump has lavished attention on florida — a clear marker ofjust how important the state is to his electoral strategy. mr biden, has also been in tampa and in broward county. in contrast with president trump's campaign style, the former us vice president's events were socially distanced affairs. and as you might expect — their contrasting approaches to

the pandemic were at the heart of their speeches. this is historic prosperity. another major tax cut to go along with the biggest tax cut in the history of our country. and record job growth. and joe biden‘s plan is to deliver a punishing lockdown. he's going to lock you down. at the debate last week with trump, he said, "we're rounding the corner. it's going away. we're learning to live with it." well, you remember what i told him? he's asking us to learn to die with it! that's what's happening! donald trump has waved the white flag, abandoned our families and surrendered to this virus. but the american people never give up! let's speak to our washington correspondent nomia iqbal. good to see you. not surprising, really, the

pandemic still dominating the themes today. very much so. in themes today. very much so. in the final stretch before election day we have seen cases go up. a single day record of about 88,000 covid i9 go up. a single day record of about 88,000 covid 19 cases and especially in those key swing states that both men need like michigan, wisconsin and ohio. and as we saw there from those clips it is notjust what they are saying, but just clips it is notjust what they are saying, butjust in terms of physically the way they are holding their rallies and events, very different approaches on the pandemic. it is impacting the election not just in terms of who people are voting for, who they think has been the best leader in terms of handling the pandemic but also how they are voting. more than 50 millions americans have already cast their ballots because of not wanting to be in queues on election day and that is about 50% of the total ballots that were cast in 2016. let's try to work out what those ballots will be meaning. what are the polls saying at

the moment? well, the polls do show that joe biden has a decent lead nationally and in the key battle ground states. but of course people are very cautious whenever you talk about polls because they say, well, 2016 donald trump supporters were under counted and on november three many of them will show up in person to vote which could change things. also, trump support generally don't talk to pollsters. they don't trust them so they are not reflected in the polls. many democratic supporters say they will vote forjoe biden but they might not turn up. there is a concern of voter suppression so, in the end, you know, it comes down to voter turnout but the results that matter are the results we hear on election night. on election night and in the aftermath of growing concerns about tension is rising, are in there? yes. we have seen walmart take ammunition and weapons of the sales floor. they are restricted. they have

done that before over the years and recently after the killing of george floyd but in stressful ti mes of george floyd but in stressful times gun sales do tend to go out. i was at a gun shopin tend to go out. i was at a gun shop in florida a couple of weeks ago doing a report on the shelves were empty and the gun shop owner said it is because of the pandemic, civil unrest and because of election fever. people tend to buy guns. and i think there is a concern about civil unrest. elections are a lwa ys civil unrest. elections are always better. throughout the yea rs, always better. throughout the years, but i think this is exceptionally polarising because you have a president who has pretty much said that if he does not win, then the result is not legitimate. i think the hope is that the victory will be so decisive that he joe biden victory will be so decisive that hejoe biden or donald trump, that it cannot be challenged. thank you. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the campaigners expressing fears of voter suppression — as early voting in the us election, approaches record levels.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: a 21—year—old tunisian man is being investigated on suspicion of killing three churchgoers in the southern french city of nice. as europe scrambles to deal with a surge in coronavirus infections, the german chancellor warns of a long, hard winter ahead. let's return now to the us presidential election: more people have voted early in texas than in any other state — but as our north america correspondent nick bryant reports — there have also been accusations of attempts to suppress voting among minorities houston, we have a problem. how to engineer the mechanics of a presidential election

in the midst of a planetary pandemic. the city that helped put a man on the moon has come up with a solution and borrowed from the coronavirus playbook to do so. drive—through polling stations that resemble drive—through covid testing centres. good afternoon. how are you? good, good, thanks for asking. and thanks for coming out to vote today. are you excited? yeah. all right... we were just spectators, not participants, and what we witnessed was the great paradox of the 2020 election. even though much of america remains in lockdown, record numbers of people are coming out to vote. in texas, turnout is three times higher than it was at this stage four years ago. it's been a very, very good experience so far. so, covid has actually made you find a more efficient way of voting? i guess you could say that, yes, sir. performing your civic duty is as easy as ordering a burger. this is your "i voted" sticker.

drive—in voting has actually been a huge success, but the local republican party has tried to shut it down. the state's republican governor has also limited the number of places where you can physically deliver your mail—in ballot, and that's made it harder to vote. in a city of almost 5 million people, it's meant long car journeys and fuelled complaints of voter suppression targeted at minorities. it's idiotic to me. this is not america, this is not democracy at all. voting shouldn't be hard. you know, voting should be everyone's privilege and everyone's right. it's just a deterrent, that's all it is. that won't work. yeah! texas now has a non—white majority, and that presents a demographic dilemma for a republican party that relies on a mainly white base. with each new generation, this conservative stronghold has turned more democratic,

so suppressing turnout is becoming a more urgent political necessity. at this counting centre, officials are not as busy as they should be because the republicans have blocked efforts to expand postal voting, restricting it in the main to those aged over 65. even those worried about catching the coronavirus have to vote in person. daniel, from a nonpartisan community group, says those tactics are blatantly undemocratic. the united states will brag about the strength of its democracy, how fair and equal it is, but it's actively suppressing the vote of its very own citizens. in this epic nationaljourney, texas has already reached the point where the country will arrive at in 25 years' time, when white voters nationally will be in the minority. the face of america is changing, a trend line that currently favours the democrats. nick bryant, bbc news, houston.

i'm joined now by robert cahaly, chief pollster for the trafalgar group. you got a lot of credit in the last election forgetting a number of tight calls correct in favour of donald trump and others didn't. at the moment the broad national polls there in the us havejoe biden ahead. what you have? we have very much like we had last year, we show trump trending positively, we show him ahead and leading in michigan and pennsylvania, florida, arizona, north carolina and we don't think that georgia and texas are even contests. we think you will win those. several of those states are what some other polling organisations are posing for joe biden. florida which he mentioned there, both candidates putting a lot of

emphasis on today but you are saying, according to your analysis, they are donald trump is? i think you will win florida by hard imagine the last time and a larger margin than the governors race. what is it about your polling methods that you think you have an advantage over other polling methods? they believe people tell the truth to pollsters. i don't. what does that mean? there is a shy vote. people don't want to bejudged for their shy vote. people don't want to be judged for their opinion and there has been a lot of that going on in this country. a lot of people, cancel culture, people attacked expressing conservative views. conservatives don't care about sharing their views. they kind of keep quiet. they have not

adjusted to try and find it. we deliver polls that create a much more secure, more anonymous environment for people and we don't allow live polls. we do a lot of digital methods, text, e—mail, and even our life because we go to extra lengths to ensure anonymity and we minimise that effect. i still think trump is doing better than my poll say because we have very short questionnaires, less than three minutes to participate. nobody really has time on this day and age to take 25 questions. it's ridiculous at old fashion. it does not work any more. fascinating to hear your methodology. just for transparency, you are a republican but you got these calls right four years ago. why do you think other

organisations have not followed your lead or are doing things differently? because they cannot give up on this model. they have got too much at sta ke. they have got too much at stake. they are like the guy is doubling down on selling cds when everyone is moving to mpss. when everyone is moving to mp3s. they will have a store full of useless pieces of plastic pretty soon. we hope that you will come back and speak to us after the election with whatever result is there and we will explain either your victorious predictions or your miserable failures depending on which way they are voting. lots of people saying and, actually, it is just too close to call. too many states just too close to call but you seem very confident. in none of the other polls, if you look at the averages, there are a couple like me out there who are keeping the averages close. but the mainstream polling establishment, they say it is one, it is over, biden has one. they are completely wrong. they we re

they are completely wrong. they were way off base in 2016 and in 2018 they didn't adjust. with the florida governor race eve ryo ne with the florida governor race everyone got it wrong except ours. they cannot give up on this model. absolutely fascinating to get your perspective and as i said we would like to speak to you again after the election. thank you for coming on. absolutely. thank you. as part of our us election coverage we are tracking how the candidates are faring in the national polls, and as you can see democratic challengerjoe biden is currently ahead with 51% while president trump is on 42%. you can find all the details on our website. preliminary results from a referendum in new zealand suggest the country will legalise assisted dying. with most votes counted, 65 percent voted in support of a bill to allow voluntary euthanasia for people with

a terminal illness and less than six months to live. in a separate vote new zealanders have narrowly rejected a proposal to legalise cannabis. let speak to our correspondent. let's talk about them. new zealanders are being asked to decide on issues that could well change the very social fabric of their country. now, these votes were cast in a general election a couple of weeks ago, in the last half an hour or so they have been made public and 65% of voters have decided that they would like to legalise euthanasia. 34% voting against, when it comes to the cannabis boat this was a vote to legalise the personal use of cannabis. 53% of voters decided that they did not want to legalise cannabis. 46% voting yes on the caveat to all of

this is that there are around half a million so—called special votes. these votes cast overseas or by post that are still to be counted so a final result is expected any time. was a surprise not these euthanasia one. opinion polls have suggested that new zealand have suggested that new zealand have a strong support for assisted dying. now, what happens now, this is a binding result in terms of the euthanasia vote. in a year's time new zealand is likely to have a new law giving people who are terminally ill, suffering from unbearable pain, with an expected life expectancy of less than six months, the right to consult doctors to end their lives. so this result has been really mirroring what we have seen in opinion polls. the cannabis vote has been far more divisive and in the event of these

preliminary results it is far closer so, as we say, we will get a true picture on the direction of these two referendums in the next week. thank you very much for bringing us up to date with those results from new zealand. thank you. a reminder of our top story. — after three people died in a knife. more troops are being deployed to protect religious buildings in franceattack at a catholic church in the southern city of nice. the country has been placed on the highest security alert level following the incident. prosecutors say the suspect — a twenty one—year—old man from tunisia — arrived in the country earlier this month. he was subsequently shot by police, and remains in hospital.

you can reach me on twitter — i'm @lvaughanjones. hello. the phrase it's raining again has been used rather too much this month, it will be used again before the month is done. if the phrase it's raining again has been used rather even into the first part of november, more rain on the way. strong winds, looking quite stormy on saturday. so, a chance of further flooding and disruption as a result. and now this is friday's big picture. this weather front producing some more rain, particularly into wales to start the day. scotland and northern ireland, though, behind it will see some sunshine. a mild start to the day for many of us. for scotland and northern ireland, a few showers around to begin with. they will tend to clear. we'll get more in the way of sunshine arriving here. just a few showers towards north west scotland into the afternoon. northern england brightening up

as well, and the early heavy rain in wales gradually easing. but for south east wales, the midlands, east anglia, southern england, it will stay cloudy. there will be further outbreaks of rain at times, although actually here is where we get to see the higher temperatures. still quite windy. not as windy as it was on thursday. but overnight and into saturday, this is where the winds start to pick up once again. and we'll see more rain pushing north across the uk. ahead of its arrival in scotland, it will be quite chilly. and it does look quite stormy, then, as the weekend begins. a deep area of low pressure to the north—west of the uk, so winds picking up across all areas. gales or severe gales are possible. and another band of rain sweeping east across the uk. some of this rain will be heavy, perhaps including some torrential bursts as well and really quite squally winds as it moves on through. behind it, though, you get to see the sunshine and a few showers. strong southerly winds, a few gusts here, but widely towards the north and west of the uk — 60 mph. maybe a bit more, elsewhere 50 mph. again, maybe a bit more, particularly when the heavy rain moves on through. it will be a mild start to the weekend for what it's worth.

it's still looking windy on sunday, particularly across the north west of scotland. an early spell of rain clearing east, then brightening up to a few showers. then with uncertain timing, the arrival of some more rain pushing in from the west later in the day especially into sunday night. there are some met office weather warnings out. do get across those online for what that means for where you are. and after a windy and at times wet start to next week and of course early november, after that, something quieter, drier and calmer.

this is bbc news. the headlines:

france has raised its terror alert to its highest level after three people were killed by a man wielding a knife at a church in nice. a 21—year—old tunisian man is being held on suspicion of the killings. president macron has described the incident as an islamist terror attack. authorities across europe are scrambling to deal with a surge in coronavirus infections. german chancellor angela merkel has warned of a long, hard winter ahead as she defended the reinstatement of a partial lockdown. rising coronavirus infections and deaths are now triggering tougher restrictions across the continent. there are now only five days left until the us election. as president trump and joe biden continue campagining, early voting has hit record levels. in texas, drive—through polling stations are contributing to the high turn—out. scientists in liverpool have

started trials of a new