the u.s. president am election is three weeks away, instead of a debate, voters got duelling town halls and we will show you how this played out. and millions americans cast their ballot early, and we look at the impact of the race, plus, covid cases rise around the world. we will talk about the areas had getting hit hard. live from cnn, welcome to you, our viewers here in the united states, canada and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber and this is

cnn newsroom. on the night when joe biden and donald trump were supposed to share the same stage for the second debate, the two candidates held competing town halls on rival networks at the same time. you will see the sharp contrast between them in a moment. for biden, it was a familiar territory, he stayed to talk with voters off camera. contrast the president while he was more combative, trump's responses to pointed questions about the pandemic, white supremacy and conspiracy theories that were largely defensive and peppered with falsehoods. voters were hoping to find out what president trump plans to

do, if he wins a second term. he did not exactly give them a clearance. we have more from cnn's jim accosta from miami. >> the voters did not get a lot of straight answers from president trump during the town hall that took the place of a presidential debate with joe biden, given multiple opportunities to doe announce the false conspiracy theory, qanon the president avoided the question and would not say what he knew about the group. >> i know nothing about it, i know they are very much against pedophilia a pedophilia, they fight it very hard. >> they believe it's a satanic cult run by the dnc. >> what i do know about is antifa and the left, and how vicious they are. and how they are burning down cities. >> ben sasse said qanon is nuts

and leaders call conspiracy theories as conspiracies. >> i don't know about qanon. >> you do know. >> no, i don't know. i don't know. >> the president gave evasive answers and the biggest opportunity was when the president would not say when his last coronavirus test was, leaving open the possibility that he walked in to the last presidential debate with joe biden potentially symptomatic for covid-19. jim acosta. >> biden faced tough questions from voters in a town hall moderated by george stephenopolous, while his responses were heavy on policy, there were a couple of times he dodged rather than give a straight answer. >> reporter: over the course of a 90 minute town hall, here in philadelphia. joe biden faced a range of questions from how to handle the coronavirus pandemic to the economy, and even his support

for the 1994 crime bill. this was a heavily policy focused discussion as he faced questions from a mix of undecided voters and people who have already made up their minds about not supporting biden or trump. and one of the most noteworthy exchanges came in a discussion about the issue of court packing. joe biden has deflected when asked about adding more justices to the supreme court for weeks now. and he offered a bit more of a detailed answer in the town hall take a listen. >> i'm not a fan, it depends how it turns out. i'm open to considering what happens from that point on. >> you know, you said so many times in the course of your career, it's important to level -- >> it is, but george if i say -- no matter what answer i gave you, if i say it, that's the headline tomorrow. it won't be about what is going on right now, the improper way they are proceeding. >> don't voters have a right to know where you stand? >> they do, and they will know

before they vote. >> so you will come out with it before election day? >> yes. >> he said that he wants to see how the nomination with amy coney barrett had wiwill move f and will give more of an answer toward election day. he has criticized the president for the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and was asked about a coronavirus vaccine and whether it should be mandated. biden said there should be a discussion of making it mandatory and acknowledged there could be legal issues with actuallyi implementing that, he stayed policy focused as he was presenting his agenda for abide enadministration. offering a contrast to the president without the president being on the stage. now, on friday, joe biden is heading to michigan where he will have two stops in that critical battleground state as early voting is under way and he is trying to get people to head out and vote. back to you.

>> at the town halls both candidates were asked about the personal covid testing regimens. biden confirmed daily testing and described the test. president trump would not give specific details and refused to say if he took a test before the first presidential debate, days before he was hospitalized with the virus. >> did you take a test on the day of the debate? >> i probably did, i took a test before, and the day before that, and i was always in great shape. >> do you take a test every day? >> no, no, but i take a lot of tests. >> you don't know if you took one the day of the debate? >> possibly i did. possibly i didn't. >> before coming here, i took the deep test, and i take it every day, because i want to know if i -- if i had not passed the test, i didn't want to come here and not, you know, expose anybody. and i just think it's, it's just

decency. >> we are joined from london, where she is the head of the u.s. and america's program at chatham house, thank you for joining us. i want to talk about something which, well, maybe the president doesn't want to have keep coming up. you know, the qanon thing, we know the president doesn't want to alienate supporters who hold fringe positions, but in not condemning them in that question is that, just creating yet another distraction for him late in the campaign when the attention could be better focused elsewhere? >> well, i think to be very honest, distraction is a very mild word for something that is very dangerous potentially, in the words of the president, they speak miles to those who were listening and for q, and for permission. so, yes, it's certainly a distraction for him if he is trying to get that 5% of the eelectric tore ate that has not fully decided who they intend to vote for. if he is trying to persuade

them, it's a president that will ensure, you know, security and safety in america's streets, then i think it's a distraction. it's far more potentially damaging and destabilizing because it sends a signal to groups that the president is, is granting them permission to remain active. >> all right, let's turn to biden now, why the sort of waffling middle ground of not taking affirm position on court packing until later? >> yeah, this has been very interesting and we saw also, the vice presidential nominee kamala harris in the debate with mike pence deflect the question also. they have clearly wanted to watch and see the hearings for amy coney barrett to judge the public sentiment to see how quickly the senate will move towards a confirmation, all of these are critical questions. what we did hear last night is

that biden will make a decision before the debates, before the election. so, there's a commitment. but it is true that they have not wanted to very clearly say what their position yet is. and this is a very important, very important issue. obviously for democrat voters and trump's base. america is polarized andthey feel passionately about issues in different ways. and the supreme court is the lightning rod for that division. >> that's no question looking at them, of the two town halls the president got the greater grilling of the moderator, we heard them tweet about it after and it's all they were talking about on fox, that and hunter biden. will his supporters see this town hall as the real debate, the debate that trump is engaged with every day, a debate not against biden, but against the left wingpress, intent on destroying him, watching it will confirm everything that they

knew, that the establishment is against him and maybe it will further encourage them to rally the wagons? >> you know, i think that is beyond a shadow of a doubt the narrative that has really taken hold for several years now, it's not new, that the president has not been given that fair platform that he has been attacked by the media, and we have seen this, i don't it's going to change anything to do with the turnout or voting. it may drag more people to be sure that they vote. but remember, we are on track for a record turnout in the united states. david wasterman, is anticipating between 150, and 160 million americans will turn out to vote. that subpoena from 137 million in 2016, so, people are already passionate, they are passionate on both sides and absolutely, his supporters will see him as being attacked again. it will drive turnout, and a lot of what is happening right now

on both sides of the aisle is about ensuring that people stand in those very, very long lines that they mail in their ballo s that they exercise their right to vote and it's important, and it's important for the candidates to ensure that people do turn out and vote, as i said before, there's only 5% of the e electorate that have not made up their minds, for the rest of them, it's just about making sure they vote. >> almost 18 million americans so far have voted. is it a reflection of the energy in the campaign, maybe for either side or a reflection of the covid realities that people want to get it done early, and you know, given the misinformation coming from the white house might be afraid of voting by mail? >> it's the combination of factors, i think people are aware that voting is complicated, that it may not go

as smoothly as we would like it to go, that the lines are long, that the mail-in balloting has been fraught, because the president has attacked the legitimacy of mail-in balloting that he claimed fraud, people are worried if they had mail in the ballots they may not be counted. they may be contested. we have seen the litigation in the state of pennsylvania, a critical state. but i think people are just very certain of who they want to be president, they are passionate i mean, you know, the up side for america's democracy is people are passionately engaged, they are lining up because they want to be sure that their vote is heard. so, it's you know, there's many positive stories coming out of what is a difficult time in american politics. >> well said, thank you so much. leslie with chatham house in london. appreciate it. health officials are alarmed about a second wave of coronavirus cases engulfing europe, so just ahead, we will take you to lone on to find out

about the new restrictions the british are imposing and we will talk about a virus expert to see what he sees of president's trump on mask wearing. that is just ahead, stay with us. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. i got this mountain bike for only $11. dealdash.com, the fair and honest bidding site. an ipad worth $505, was sold for less than $24; a playstation 4 for less than $16; and a schultz 4k television for less than $2. i won these bluetooth headphones for $20. i got these three suitcases for less than $40. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. what if i sleep hot? ...or cold?

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troubling news for the u.s. in its struggle with the coronavirus, a model now predicts there could be more than 389,000 covid-19 deaths by february. as the country is seeing a spike in infections. >> new warnings, this pandemic is taking a devastating toll on rural america. tennessee's health commissioner, sounding an alarm for her state. >> that has been startling to me and the team over the last several days. our death rate in rural population is double that in the urban population. >> reporter: in kentucky, they

have reported record high hospitalizations for a day, the governor said residents have to be jolted in to action. >> everyone ought to be concerned and doing the right thing. and those out there that try to confront you for being a mask and being a jerk that is all they are, and they are putting your heth alth at risk. >> reporter: what is behind the spikes in rural areas across the u.s.? >> some of the bigger mandates that happen in cities like mask wearing and physical distancing is not translating and going as far as rural areas. >> reporter: this is coming as 35 states are going upward in experiencing coronavirus cases, for the first time in moss, the country recorded 60,000 new cases in one day. >> the trends, number one, fall weather brings colder temperatures and that means more people are doing indoor activities which is high risk when it comes to virus transmission. or seeing some restrictions

loosening in several states. >> reporter: meantime, america's top voice on the pandemic, citing the dangers of household gatherings told abc, this year, more americans may have to forego bringing their extended families together for thanksgiving. >> we have to be careful this time and each individual family evaluate the risk/benefit of doing that. >> and there's new push back to the idea of so-called herd immunity. letting the virus run unchecked through communities so more people contract covid-19t thought being some could later develop resistance to the virus. it's been promoted by some scientists interest some people in the trump administration, but 14public health organizations are condemning the idea. >> if you just let things rip and let the infection go, no masks, crowd, it doesn't make any difference. that quite frankly is ridiculous. >> and there's no concern that another great fall institution in america, college football, could be in some jeopardy. the biggest name had in the sport.

alabama head coach nick saban has tested positive. the coach of the university of mississippi said is his team is quote, having issues with covid after having played alabama last saturday. and a big game between florida and lsu slated for this coming weekend has had to be postponed at least until december, after several members of the florida program tested positive. brian todd, cnn, washington. >> now, of course, the u.s. is not the only country with coronavirus numbers heading in the wrong direction. we are getting some troubling new numbers from germany during the past 24 hours the country reported daily case record of more than 7,000 new infections and other european nations are ramping up restrictions as cases go up. in paris, they will have a cure few starting at 9:00 p.m. and the case numbers were a record with almost 9,000, and in the uk, london plans to increase the alert level from medium to high. we have all those angles covered

for you this hour. starting with you first in the uk, we are joining now on the new restrictions. several regions including london, where you are moving to tier 2 lock down, what does that mean? >> yeah, so it's london, but more than that, it's more than half of england's population that will live with tougher new restrictions from this weekend in most of the affected regions, nothing is being forced to closed but people's personal lives will be impacted. the key change is from saturday, tomorrow, people who don't live together will not be allowed to spend time together in doors. so, no hanging out with friends, and family in homes. restaurants, cafe, anywhere that is inside. they can still socialize outside in groups of up to six. that will be lesses practical as the winter deepens. what it means is people will find it tougher to maintain, to access and draw support from key personal relationships.

london's mayor said it's necessary because the virus is running out of control across and spreading rapidly across much or every part of london, he said. this is not just london, in the north of london, liverpool is in a higher alert category where pubs and bars and other businesses have been forced to close. the government wants manchester and others to close, and they are resisting saying that they need more financial assistance to do it. the tiered approach to dealing with the coronavirus through the winter is just recently been announced and it's got a great deal of pressure. on one side, you have those who believe the existing measures are inadequate, that they are weak, that they will not significantly slow the virus and they are pushing for a national move like a short-term lockdown to get ahead of the virus and then on the other hand, you is a

growing number of critics in the conservative party that are fed up with restrictions all together and who openly question, whether they do any good at all. >> all right, phil, back in london, appreciate it. >> well, for more on the surge in coronavirus cases around the world, let's bring in an associate professor of moleculor virology. you are in a region that was one of the hardest hit. we saw some 2,000 students in universities there in the northeast test positive in the last week or so. how big a factor has students been going back to school been in the surge that we are seeing in so many countries including, you know, here in the u.s.? >> so, back be in august, we saw many case cans of outbreaks and in universities and colleges in

the united states, and other times it became clear that, it was a major risk for any country in the world that the congregation of young people in the settings of schools and colleges would increase transmission. and there were warnings back then that we will see ongoing transmission in the community and that would lead to the cities being infected and risk of death of death or permanent disability or loss of quality of life because of the virus. unfortunately governments worldwide did not seem to learn from that situation. and not taking the necessary decisions to prevent the transmission. i am first and foremost an academic and an education focused person. i want to be next to my students to teach them, i enjoy that process more than anything but before that comes the health and the health of society. and unfortunately the place we are withstanding right now is

not supporting the health of students or the health of society. >> so you say in person education should not continue? is that the solution here? >> for the foreseeable future, unless it's necessary, it's very clear that we cannot have face to face education. and that involves both the academics the teachers at schools and i would even hazard the primary schools and below. nurseries, not being open. because we now have data from switzerland, from france, from germany, from italy, from greece, from everywhere showing that transmission happens with children and we do not know still what, and we won't know for years what is the developmental impact of the virus, and we cannot take that risk. beyond that, we need to be able to sustain function of this society and the economy. and if we are allowing the virus to create, to access bubbles of the sizes of schools and the associated families and

workplace, well, we are not achieving that. >> hm-mm. well, one thing that might help bring down those numbers, experts agree of course is we have to wear masks and even yesterday in a town hall with voters president trump questioned the use of masks. listen to this. >> i'm okay with masks, i tell people wear masks but just the other day, they came out with a statement that 85% of the people that wear masks catch it. >> all right, so, the president got the number right there, but the interpretation of the study was wrong. you know, the truth is though, i mean, wearing masks, especially cloth masks as we know is not necessarily designed to protect the wearer but how persasive is the masks don't stop the spread and how harmful is the misinformation that we are seeing with the rise in case numbers? >> it's absolutely and totally unharmful. i cannot stress in stronger

words without being inappropriate for the time of day, that the lack of use of reasonable personal protective equipment and by god, a cloth mask is a reasonable piece of protective personal equipment. put at risk everyone in your immediate vince and everyone in your community. the data is clear from the best universities of the united states to the best universities in the uk, the face masks prevent the -- you know the migration of aerosols and we have results showing that even the incoming aerosols can be contained to an extent by masks. so, why shouldn't you not wear this? there's nothing about it. the study about the 85% of people that apparently were wearing masks, well that's just a number, that, you know, can be very impressive. but what we don't know is were they the washing them or

discarding or washing their hands or getting infected by people at their homes in a setting where they were not wearing the masks. so, it's not as simple, you know, most people that get the virus are wearing masks anyway. it really isn't like that. no, it's multiple layers of protection and we need to take them all in to account. >> so, we have masks that are part of the solutions to prevention, while the cure is still eluding us and further to that a world health organization study came out and found that the anti-viral dug remdesivir has little or no affect on mortality of patients and doesn't seem to help patients recover faster. how disappointing is that now that it's become standard treatment for the serious cases here? >> look, you know, they have come out criticizing the design of the study, etcetera. etcetera. the reality is, clinicians will

take a drug that looks good enough and give it to people. that is what this trial represents. what we see from those graphs in the trial is that there's practicalally no difference between any of the four treatments. if there's a slight difference, that is that hydroxychloroquine and interferon, increased slightly the risk of death. and remdesivir do nothing. when you build a house, you want to have flat ground so you have stable foundation. so if there's a difference in levels you may see a wobble. that's the thing, this trial shows us that these two the drugs which i believe one of them was given to donald trump, actually -- the graphs are flat nearly as a pancake. so, here we are. we only have dexamethasone that seems to have a degree of affect on the outcome of the disease once you are hospitalized and

therefore, i need to bring home the message to the listeners that we have four drugs, four drugs that we had high hopes with, and none of them work. we have got many vaccines, also in advanced stages of trials and what we need to realize is the vaccines may not work. and we need to be working to that possibility. that the vaccines may not work, and not that we have to just live with this. but we have to eliminate this condition. because otherwise, society breaks down. and we just don't want that, do we? >> we will have to end on that depressing note. >> it's reality, i'm sorry. >> just wear a mask, that will get around a lot of the misery, thank you so much, in newcastle, we appreciate it. >> you are very welcome. >> well there's more ahead, including more analysis on the top story, those duelling town halls for the u.s. president and the democratic challenger, stay with us.

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and welcome back to on you, our viewers in the united states, canada and around the world, i'm kim brunhuber and you are watching cnn newsroom, with the early voting already under way the contenders held duelling town hall events. they did not debate directly because mr. trump refused to participate in a virtual format, at the respective events both candidates faced tough questions, including quarries on what they do if they lost. >> result in the election -- >> when i see thousands of ballots, right, unsolicited, being given out by the millions and thousands of them are dumped in dumpsters and when you see

ballots with the name trump, military ballots from our great military and they are dumped in a garbage can. >> that was a handful, we could go all night, but we won't. >> what does it say to you about where america is today? >> could say i'm allow lousy ca dpat a -- candidate and i the did not do a good job, i hope that, it doesn't say that we are as racially ethnically and religiously at odds with one another as it appears that the president wants us to be. >> election day is now less than three weeks away, 17 million early voters have cast ballots in 44 states and washington, d.c. cnn's political director thinks the u.s. president did not likely win over any new voters in the town hall performance. they said mr. trump's references

to conspiracy theories like qanon would not help them. >> who was the voter he added tonight when the headline is qanon once again, you know, all over the map on that. not discrediting it entirely. this notion that he can just retweet things that have no basis in fact to give conversation out there to the people that they should be able to talk about it. he is the president of the united states. he is behind in the race and there's, there are very few opportunities left with this kind of tune in factor for him, to actually add to his coalition now. >> conservatives, cnn political commentator said that republicans are not trying to add new voters they are trying to motivate the voters they already have. >> i understand what david said, and logically, logically, you would think it's a night where he is seeking to do some

addition. but that's never been the way that he has governed and it's never been the way that he run the campaign. it's not about addition in their mind. it's about motivation. >> smerconish criticized that the debates happened simultaneo simultaneously, and having viewers switch back and forth may have given them a sk cewed process. president trump was warned that giuliani was being used of russian intelligence, he was a target of russian intelligence. the russians' intent was to get giuliani to pass that information directly to president trump. after the president was warned, the president shrugged and said,

that is rudy. still ahead, a common challenge for the european union, france and italy are among the countries taking the firm action as covid cases spike. stay with us. ♪ ♪ for skin as alive as you are... don't settle for silver ♪ gold bond champion your skin

let's go back to europe and the alarming rise in covid cases. they say 80% of european

countries are seeing a rise in infections. here is a snap shot of those. fra france, spain, the czech republic and the uk, italy is starting to close schools that just reopened last month. we have reporters covering all the angles, we are live in france and rome, italy. france is imposing a curfew on the hot spots, including the capitol city paris, we will go to france, melissa, with the curfew just on the horizon, what is the latest? >> that is a very worrying figure. the largest daily increase in cases that we have seen since it gun. more than 30,000 cases declared. to put it in perspective, you have to consider that the french president announced on

wednesday, when he announced the series of curfews, he said the idea was to bring the number of daily cases down to 3-5,000. that is how far france has to meet the president's aim. the question is whether just the curfews will be enough. from saturday, we will see a curfew from 6:00-to 9:00. will it be enough to bring the soaring rates under control. the highest we have seen yet and just to put that figure in perspective. on the first of september, it was three times less than that. that is how quickly things have progressed and how widespread the virus is now, and how fast it's rising, especially in some of those really badly hit cities. >> we will keep following that story. melissa from france. so, now, we go to the italian capitol, where ben is tracking a surge in cases there. so, ben, the uk just added italy to its visitor quarantine list,

so, another sign, i guess of the worsening covid situation where you are. >> definitely, what we are seeing is, a surge in numbers, and in fact, yesterday, italy reported 8,804 cases. that's almost 2,000 more than the height of the pandemic earlier this year. what we also saw yesterday was the death toll jumped from wednesday 43 to 83, so, definitely the situation here is getting much worse. still much better than france fortunately, but there's certain parts of the country where there's real concern, and that's in the region of compania, where naples is located there, that, that region now has the second highest number of active cases and what is significant about that is that unlike the north of italy, where the public health system is very good, where

people are relatively well talt in the south, people are much poorer and the public health system is much less equipped than the north to deal with the outbreak of covid and in addition on to had that, you have some of the most densely populated parts of the country. so the fear is, that part of italy, which was relatively spa spared in the earlier phases of the pan especial-- of the pande this year is about to be hit like tsunami as a result of the rising numbers. so we understand in that area, schools will be closed, campania, restaurants must be closed by 9:00 p.m., all parties, civic gatherings and religious gatherings are banned and now there's talk of french style curfews on that part of

the country as well. kim? >> all right, thank you so much, ben, the in rome. appreciate it. >> and please to do stay with us, we will be right back with our top story, more on the duelling town halls. stay with us. ould be for me to discover all of these things that i found through ancestry. i discovered my great aunt ruth signed up as a nursing cadet for world war ii. you see this scanned-in, handwritten document. the most striking detail is her age. she was only 17. knowing that she saw this thing happening and was brave enough to get involved and do something- that was eye opening. bring your family history to life like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com

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voters wanting to compare the two candidates were forced to flick back and forth between different tv networks and nbc is coming under fire for letting the president take a competing time slot. here ae's cnn's achieve media correspondent. the twin town halls were a poor substitute for a presidential debate, they were still worthwhile and the critics who were complaining about the format and the scheduling started to change their tune half way through. of course, it was abc that scheduled a town hall with joe biden first and nbc followed up with a town hall with president trump. they were at the same type on the east coast in the united states. and some viewers did flip back and forth. but i think there was more interest in the trump town hall because he not sat down with a journalistic interview, someone of the caliber of this ever since is he came down with coronavirus two weeks ago, he has been calling in to fox and calling his friends on the

radio, he not sat down with a big interview. it was notable that he was challenged about his coronavirus testing history and other issues in the news. like his comments in the past about qanon, it was a news worthy interview, but there's been criticism about why the network decided to host a town hall with trump at the very same time that biden was scheduled to appear on abc, in some ways it was about a petty tv network rivalry, but the stakes are high with a few weeks left in the election and millions people voting. on a about. c, biden tried to appear to be above the fray and above the trump noise. trump as always, in the fray, making a lot of news and shocking people with comments. biden on the other hand, tried to play the decent statesman, suggesting to people, hey, look over at nbc, you really want four more years of that. it was definitely a split screen

for the ages for the networks. later on friday, we will hear about the ratings and we will see if trump or biden had higher ratings. i suspect trump will be the higher rated program but ratings are not all that matters. what matters is, was there news made? did we learn more about the candidates? and more importantly were any minds changedfall? of course, this time next week, there's one more debate on the calendar. trump and biden are expected to meet for one more debate on october 22nd. cnn, new york. >> all right, thanks so much for joining us, i'm going to be back with more after a quick break. please do stay with us. so you're a small business,

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hello, and welcome to you, our viewers joining us in the united states, canada and all around the world. i'm kim brunhuber and you're watching cnn newsroom. just ahead, the candidates vying for the u.s. presidency appearing in separate town halls. we'll get you caught up on the key moments. and a worrying glimpse into what the coming months could look like with covid cases hitting highs in states across the u.s., and defiance as cases surge in europe. local leaders in one city are rejecting strict new measures by