this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the british government considers plans for a month—long national lockdown across england in the hope that measures could be eased before christmas. a europe—wide surge in coronavirus cases has spurred a wave of tighter restrictions, with a six—week national lockdown announced in belgium and a partial lockdown in greece. rescue teams search through the rubble for survivors after a powerful earthquake hits turkey and greece — at least 27 people are confirmed dead. just three days to go — donald trump and joe biden campaign in the american midwest, where polls suggest several states could go either way.

hello and welcome, if you're watching in the uk or around the world, stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. the uk prime minister boris johnson is considering bringing in a month—long national lockdown for england. documents seen by the bbc suggest that unless further restrictions are introduced, there could be far more coronavirus deaths in britain than during the first wave. a new "stay at home" order could be announced on monday — but schools, colleges and universities would stay open. meanwhile, the united states has set a new record for the highest single day total of new covid cases of any country since the global pandemic began. figures from johns hopkins university show more

than 99,000 new cases reported on friday. that has seen the total number of cases in the us surpass the 9 million mark. in the rest of europe, the who reported total cases across the continent have gone over the 10 million mark. the second wave in europe has seen belgium, france and germany move to reinstate full national lockdowns and this morning the greek prime minister announced a partial lockdown from tuesday. let's get more on the situation here in the uk from our political correspondentjessica parker. to stay at home, protect our nhs and save lives. remember back in the spring? "stay at home" was the message and borisjohnson‘s now understood to be considering bringing in that instruction for england again. however, it wouldn't be the same overall. this time, schools, colleges and universities would stay open. official government documents seen by the bbc suggest the country is on course for a significantly higher death toll in the second wave of covid than the first, unless there are further restrictions. that is as cases continue to rise.

because action wasn't taken earlier when it should have been, we are now ina harder when it should have been, we are now in a harder place. the third tier approach levels us off at a bad place and the rest of the country is coming up to that bad place. it is the recognition of that scenario which is leading, i think, to what has been discussed today. downing street's understood to be looking at a month—long form of lockdown, in the hope restrictions could be eased in time for christmas. we've saying and we have been saying it for about three or four weeks that it's really important the government moves quickly and does tough lockdowns as quickly as possible, because otherwise the nhs won't have the capacity it needs. ministers have been defending tiered regional restrictions targeting measures in the worst affected areas, labour has called for a short lockdown for england to get the virus under control. u nfortu nately unfortunately the government is kind

of dithering on this, refusing to follow the science. it means we have missed the half term holiday when it could have had the most impact, and it sounds like it's going to have to be longer than it otherwise would have had to have been. last night government sources said that the country was at the crunch point, although no final decisions have been made. but it seems increasingly likely that the prime minister could take the national action that he was so desperate to avoid. 0ur political correspondent helen catt is in downing street. any indication as to when downing street are going to confirm their plans? they have been resisting this national lockdown for many weeks. yes, you are right, they haven't. the fact they are even considering it isa the fact they are even considering it is a huge shift. pretty consistently since the uk started to move out of lockdown over the summer, boris johnson has move out of lockdown over the summer, borisjohnson has been saying a second national shutdown would not be the right move for england. he pointed to what he said

we re england. he pointed to what he said were the dramatic economic consequences, the impact on health and mental health for people being told to stay at home for a second period of time. and all the measures he has brought in over the summer, the rule of six, the curb on hospitality and the regional tiering system, the point of that he said was having to take this sort of second national action. so the fact they are now considering that is a really, really big ship. and of course this idea of having some sort of shutdown, a short circuit breaker, was put on the table a few weeks ago. —— a really big shift. borisjohnson said he thought that was not the right way to go, he said he thought it was like turning out the lights. it is a huge ship they are considering. in terms of when we find out whether this is going to happen, downing street sources says this is a crunch point but no decisions had been made yet. we understand there is likely to be a cabinet meeting, a call this

afternoon when they will discuss this. borisjohnson afternoon when they will discuss this. boris johnson and afternoon when they will discuss this. borisjohnson and the chancellor rishi sunak have already discussed these documents that we should get a bit more after that meeting later. some of the numbers suggest that while at the height of the pandemic, the deaths in the uk we re the pandemic, the deaths in the uk were more than 1000 a day, and if there are not more restrictions it could go up to 4000 per day according to one of the models at least. is it plausible that that scale, completely out of the blue, could force the government to change pa rt could force the government to change part so radically? it is significantly higher than the current scenario significantly higher than the current scenario the government are working on. this document was part ofa working on. this document was part of a presentation given a group of scientists which look at the likely path of the disease. most of them put the peak of death without further action at about 2000 per day. one put it at the figure of 4000 that you mention. the key thing

is, asi 4000 that you mention. the key thing is, as i said, all of those figures are significantly higher than the worst—case scenario are significantly higher than the worst—case scenario the government was working to, and also significantly than the number of deaths we saw at the peak of the first way back in the spring, when it peaked at around 1000 deaths per day. that is why this data appears to be so stark. helen, thank you. professor calum semple, who you saw there in jess parker's report, is an infectious disease expert who sits on the government's sage committee — the scientific advisory group for emergencies — although he's talking to us in a personal capacity. thank you, professor. do you think that the numbers, if there is no national lockdown, will rise to 2000 or 4000 per day? without further intervention, and based on the cases we are seeing at present, that is very likely. why has the government not seen this coming and acted

earlier? i'm not prepared to give a political commentary. the advice that sage gives is based on best evidence, and i am responsible for collecting data from hospitals and sharing that data. scientists on sage did recommend a lockdown at the end of september. was that your view too? as you have identified, sage did identify that in september, yes. in terms of what should happen now, what would be the best course? how quickly should a lockdown be imposed and how expensive should it be? these are political decisions, but the experience from tier 3 intervention, particularly in merseyside and manchester... merseyside and manchester... merseyside had had it for 17 days. tha nkfully merseyside had had it for 17 days. thankfully we have seen a reduction in the acceleration of cases, but this has led to merseyside experiencing a plateauing of activity but it has stayed at a high

level of activity, so we are not accelerating but we are still in a bad place. and that is putting considerable pressure on our hospitals. we now have more people with covid in hospital than we did in the first wave. manchester, which came into tier 3 slightly later, is now catching up, in fact exceeding in absolute case numbers. and other parts of the country are also levelling up to this high level of activity. so yes, the acceleration of the outbreak is not as fast as it was in the first wave, but the level of activity is up and staying up, and that sustained level of activity are going to put pressure notjust on our hospitals, but throughout society as more people get sick. on our hospitals, but throughout society as more people get sickm there not an argument, though, with increased tier 2 and tier 3 restrictions that the government could instead allow those restrictions to take effect? because some of them have only been relatively recently imposed ? some of them have only been relatively recently imposed? but the

experiment shows that that leads to a high level of sustained activity at the point at which the intervention is made. so the tier 3 restriction put into liverpool occurred when activity was quite high, and it had then essentially fixed the activity at that point, it has not led to a massive reduction in cases. and remember, because there is a lag between cases in the community and those cases presenting to hospital, anything you do today will take two or three weeks before it has an impact on hospital admissions and then on deaths. so are there certain areas within the population, certain groups, that are more at risk, seeing the numbers go 7 more at risk, seeing the numbers go he more at risk, seeing the numbers go up? the frail and the elderly remain at risk, as do those with particular conditions that have been identified. what is interesting in the second wave, we have seen an exit number of women between 18 — 40 being admitted to hospital, around

three orfour times as being admitted to hospital, around three or four times as many women of that age than men. we didn't see that age than men. we didn't see that in the first wave, and what is different between the first wave and second wave is we now have hospitality and retail remaining open. so women in these sectors are getting much greater exposure. some of these women are also working in education and will be getting exposed to older schoolchildren as well. but on the whole we are seeing a slightly different demographic because of these younger women experiencing severe disease and coming into hospital. thankfully they are not dying because they have a good chance of survival, because they are relatively fit otherwise. we know there is a long covid people have to worry about once they are infected. do you think schools and universities and colleges should stay open if there is an another national lockdown? should older teenagers wear masks in the classroom, as in scotland? you are asking a number of questions. in

universities we have seen interesting patterns there. there was increased covid activity in universities when they came back for freshers' week, a lot of mixing, but numbers on the hole in universities have started to fall because of the stu d e nts have started to fall because of the students are well behaved on the whole, well contained and well organised. within secondary schools, there is growing evidence, although it is incomplete, that older schoolchildren do play a role in bringing the infection into families, and some amplification. but that evidence is incomplete at present. 0n the whole, balancing harm with benefit to society, it's going to be a finely balanced political decision about whether to keep schools open or closed secondary schools. my personal view is we can probably keep secondary schools open, but it's a very fine balance. it may be that as evidence im proves

balance. it may be that as evidence improves over the next few days, and we are gathering this data very carefully, it may be that some secondary schools will have to close as well. very interesting. we are out of time professor but thank you for your time today, much appreciated. rescue teams in the turkish city of izmir have spent the night digging through concrete blocks looking for survivors of the earthquake that struck in the aegean on friday. 27 people have now been confirmed dead, and at least 800 were injured. the quake also struck the greek island of samos, where two teenagers were killed. 0rla guerin reports. amateur video captured the awful power of the quake. this multi—storey building disintegrated into dust. 0n the streets of izmir, there was fear and panic. i saw people crying, trying to reach out to their loved ones.

everyone was shocked and it was a very chaotic moment. about 20 buildings were brought down. the quake was felt as far away as istanbul and athens. turkey is crisscrossed by active fault lines. the danger always lying beneath. rescuers picked their way carefully through the rubble. here, finding a survivor and gently cradling his head. the man was brought out alive, like dozens of others. and for some, emotional reunions. social distancing swept away by the chaos and the relief. izmir bore the brunt of this earthquake but two teenagers died in the greek islands. and in the midst of loss, there has been a rare display of solidarity between two nations

that are deeply divided. tu rkey‘s turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan thanked greece for offering its help and said turkey was standing with its neighbour in difficult times. this is a glimpse of one mother's terror today. she sprints to the next room for her only child, 18—month—old ilhan, asleep in his cot. she gets him away to safety. but danger also came surging from the aegean. sea levels rising because of a mini tsunami, and there has been about 100 after—shocks. the rescue effort is continuing, searching for life under layers of

crushed concrete. in turkey, there is grief and shock and the gnawing fear of when the next big one is coming. i'm joined from izmir by esra yal—chinap from bbc turkish. thanks very much forjoining us. tell us where you are and what you are seeing. yes, i am in downtown izmir at the moment. there are still eight search and rescue operations going on in the city. 0ut eight search and rescue operations going on in the city. out of the initial 17. nine have been completed. 27 confirmed dead. about half—an—hour ago, luckily, two young people were discovered, recovered from the rubble after 23 hours after the initial earthquake. that brought a lot of hope regarding the rest of the people who are still in the

rubble. after—shocks are very frequent, there have been more than 400 after—shocks since the initial earthquake which was 6.6 announced by the turkish officials. this morning at 830, there was one the size of 5.3, so people are still concerned about going back to their apartment buildings. that must be very frightening. we can see people walking and moving around behind you despite those after—shocks. how much progress is the rescue operation actually making? well, there has been initially 17 houses, apartment buildings more than ten stories high com pletely buildings more than ten stories high completely came down. nine of them have been completed, eight are still going on. and there is still hope

for the people who are missing at the moment. there is no official number or how many people are missing. more than 100 have been recovered from the rubble, announced by the ministry of health. thank you very much indeed from izmir. president donald trump and his democratic rivaljoe biden have been campaigning in the american midwest, home to some of the most closely contested states in the us election. with just three days to go, both candidates are trying to gain support in a last—ditch effort to win over undecided voters. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes reports. the final weekend. for donald trump, a final sprint around the country, as he tried to secure a second term in the white house. the president is focusing on the battle ground states that could decide the election. but, at a stop in minnesota, thousands of mr trump's

supporters were prevented from going to a planned rally in the city of rochester, when state officials limited the size of the crowd because of covid—19. only 250 people were allowed to attend. the president protested, and blamed local democrats. they thought he would cancel — a word they are very familiar with. cancel. cancel culture. but i said no way, i will never abandon the people of minnesota. i will come up. during his speech, the president repeated his view that america was rounding the turn on the pandemic, even though the number of new cases has again reached a record high for a single day, more than 90,000. speaking earlier in michigan, mr trump accused doctors of trying to profit from the coronavirus. doctors get more money if somebody dies from covid. you know that, right? our

doctors are very smart, they say, i'm sorry, everybody dies of covid. but in germany and other places, if you have a heart attack, cancer, terminally ill, and you catch covid, they say you have died of a heart attack. with us, when in doubt, choose covid. also campaigning in minnesota at a socially distance lives in raleigh, joe biden seized on the president's comments. the president of the united states is accusing the medical profession of making up covid deaths so they make more money. doctors and nurses go to work everyday to save they do their jobs. donald trump should stop attacking them and do hisjob. jobs. donald trump should stop attacking them and do his job. with tensions running high, businesses in some us cities have begun to board up some us cities have begun to board up their premises in case the election lead to civil unrest. in los angeles, early voting has been taking place at dodger stadium, days

after the team won baseball's world series. voting should be fun, and this is fun. and so that's why i'm here. and the dodgers won the world series. and i'm super stressed out about the election, and i could use about the election, and i could use a little fun. surreal scenes as america braces for an election day like no other. it was planned to open injune 2012 and is hugely over budget, but today the berlin brandenburg international airport finally opens. beset by technical problems from the start, it led critics to accuse the german authorities of making a laughing stock of the country. and the timing of the opening couldn't be much worse, in the middle of a pandemic with many airlines on the verge of collapse. here's our berlin correspondentjenny hill.

it feels as though germany's reputation is on the line here. this project is notorious — it's so overdue, it's so over budget. the people running the show here know they have to get this right. and only maybe 15 or 20% of the passengers we saw in 2019 and all over berlin will use it now. but on the other side, of course, you have enough space and time to learn and to listen to the people who use it when you don't have to start with a full capacity.

we've been calling out for a coordinated response, both when it comes to the testing, when it comes also to the quarantine, when it comes to the travel restrictions in general, it's also very confusing for customers in different countries that they have certain restrictions and certain types of testing in certain countries, but not in others. let's speak to stefan jacobs, a reporterfor german newspaper tagesspiegel. he joins us live from the new airport in berlin. thanks for your time today. the

german authorities can't be blamed for the timing of the pandemic in any way, but this has been a bit of any way, but this has been a bit of a fiasco from the start, hasn't it? absolutely, it has an eight year delay, this airport, because of technical issues. they have the kind of rebuild the whole interior of the building because the fire prevention system, and also things like doors and electricity didn't meet the current european german standards. it was enlarged over the process and they added parts of the building, so they added parts of the building, so the technique did not work with all of that so they had to rebuild the whole interior several times. the cost went up from 2.5 billion to close to 7 billion euros now. it contradicts the cliched image we have all germany being super efficient and brilliant at engineering. what is it going to me now, though, given that airlines are on their knees, for the future of

this airport? —— going to mean. on their knees, for the future of this airport? -- going to mean. that isa this airport? -- going to mean. that is a good question. it wasn't good for the reputation of germany in general. for german engineering, the problem may be one that it was led by politicians. a state owned company. 0n the board were politicians, not many engineers, so they didn't understand how to co—ordinate the work of the companies that built the airport. but now i think it should run smoothly, and for the future i'm pretty optimistic that it will work and will give what the airline demand. we will be hoping the aviation industry recovers, so how would this compete with heathrow in london and charles de gaulle in paris? it doesn't really compete with these airports, it is a question of the economic weakness of berlin. it is a good hub forflights to the middle east and eastern europe, because we are further in

the east here compared to munich and frankfurt. but berlin is not where the big german companies sit, so maybe it's not the most important hub in germany. it won't become that. thank you very much. now it's time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. hello. the weather's already being a little bit wild in places across the uk so far today. and there is more to come. more in the way of heavy rain at times and the risk of gales. there is a flooding risk with that rain continuing and of course there's wins, touching 70, maybe 80 mph through spots, some travel disruption possible too. the strongest winds will push to northern ireland into scotland, but it does help to clear the rain. strong gusty winds accompanying some

pretty intense areas of rain across the eastern half of england, which again should clear by the end of the afternoon. a bit more sunshine this afternoon. a bit more sunshine this afternoon to the north and east of scotland, but for now widespread gales. longest this afternoon across western scotland and northern ireland, with gusts of 70—80 mph. those winds coming from the south, so on the face of it a mild day, but in the wind it will temper the feeling somewhat. this evening in western scotland it breaks up into showers, quite dry for a time with lighter winds, but later in the night, more cloud, wind and rain arrives. the temperature could drop during the night but rising later on. into sunday, yet another area of low pressure. this contains the re m na nts of low pressure. this contains the remnants of hurricane zito, it is a bit further away compared with storm aidan today. the winds not as strong. could still touch gale force at times. some brightness in the

middle of the day in scotland, but more cloud later. staying cloudy and damp in many parts of england and wales, the rain heaviest in the west with ongoing risk of flooding in the hills and smaller rivers. the winds strongest later in the day across the north—west of scotland. the western isles could see the winds in the evening touching 80 mph yet again. a rather cool day for scotla nd again. a rather cool day for scotland and northern ireland. a mild night on sunday for england and wales. it will ease through the morning and early afternoon in the south—east on monday, brighter skies developing, a few showers in the west. from there on, the pressure sta rts west. from there on, the pressure starts to build in, so after a stormy weekend things should turn drier and colder with overnight trust and fog. —— frost.

hello, and welcome to the programme that brings together some of the uk's leading commentators and foreign correspondents whose stories are published back home, dateline london. this week, is coronavirus extinguishing not only lives and jobs but also our appetite for polarised populist politics? within days, if the polls are right, we could see the end of the extraordinary trump era. here in the uk, borisjohnson's conservative party is 5 points behind in one poll and jeremy corbyn, labour's former leader has been suspended from the party. amidst a crisis do we crave the conventional politics and duller virtues of competance and compassion rather than the swagger and promise of the populist?