The freeman foundation. Um judy and peter ovler foundation; pursuing solutions forne americas neglectes. And by contributions to this pbs station viewers like you. Thank you. Just over a week until the u. S. Election and the coronavirus pandemic is taking center stage. Wants to scare everybody. Ws the way hes handling covid is totally irresponsible. New Coronavirus Infections hit a record high in the u. S. , 83,000 in a single day. Our washington correspondent will take us through it. Countries across europe are strugg to contain a second wave of Coronavirus Infections. In belgium, some hospital has asked their staff who tested rkpositive to continue to if they have no symptoms. Several muslim majority rcountriesove french product fromhe shelves and around over france tougher stance radical islam. Scientists reveal their pain may be far more water moon. Could it one day provide a home for human beings . Welcome to our viewers on pbs id america and arhe globe. Let us turn to the United States , where the response to the pandemic is a focal point in the lead up to next weeks election. Er the weekend, the u. S. Reported the highest ever number of new daily cases. The white house chief of staff, markdo m, says the u. S. Is not going to contrhe pandemic because it is a coagious virus just like the flu. He said the Trump Administration is focused on vaccines and therapeutics instead. Here the latest from the president. E w have done an incredible job. Take a look at what is happening in europe. s whathappening toeurope is no one is they used to tell me all about europe. We are doing a great job. We are absolutely rounding the corner. Other than theake news wants to scare everybody we are rounding theorner. His democratic challenger joe biden says the white house is waving the white flag of defeat. Covid, the way he is handling covid is just absolutely, totally irresponsible. He is telling people we have turned the bend. He has gone as myld grandpa w said, he has gone round the bend. We are joined washingt. Good to have you with this, barbara. Just how big is coronavirus aying when it comes to people deciding how they are going to vote . Broadly speaking, it is one of t main things when peopl cite when asked about the electi and polls. Those who are going to be voting biden has an advantage because. Polls show people trust him more than mr. Trump, especially seniors who have been moving away from trump and moving towards biden. When it comes to this recent resurgence specifically whether that will changet patterns, m people have already decided how they are going to vote. Many of them have already cast their ballots. The virus is ravaging swing states which are crucial forhe upcoming the the outcome of to the extent it ices on decideds and independents itn could havepact at this late stage. It certainly means that President Trump has not been able to change the conversation which he keeps trying to do. Andlswith his chief of staff is saying the u. S. Cannot control the pandemic. Was there any response via tweet to that comment . Specifically. Mr. Meadows just articulated what has clearly been the white house sategy, which is to open the economy and behave as if everything is normal and trely on vaccines and therapeutics to fight the virus. Mr. Trump had already saidn o saturday all we hear about is covid, you will not hear about that after november he previewed mr. Meadows oomarks. If you at the way he is campaigning and the way his vice g president s campaigney show they are basically going full throttle with campaign rallies. Stay with us because we havue one moreion for you and the presidency daughter ivanka trump tweeted this picture showing her and her husband with mailin ballots. The president has linked mailin ballots with voter fraud. Do you think this will get a lot of attention, barbara . It could getome attention because mr. Trump has made such an issue of mailin voting and hear his family members are doing that. Many of his staffers have done it and have done it before. And i he has voted by ma previous elections. What he has been sing is that the expansion of mailin voting because of the covid crisis wilt lemassive fraud without any evidence. But his argument is that previously you had to register and ask for a mailin ballot. Ballots are being mailed out to everyone because of the covid crisis and that opens the door to fraud. Critics have said there is no evidence for this. He is being hypocritical and he is deliberately trying to undermine the outcome of the election in case he does not do welpat he has ind he would challenge the results if he does not do well. Thankou so much. We will of course go back to d. C. A number of times throughout the program. Lets update you on coronavirus across europe. Authorities are scrambling to contain a second wave of infections. New measures are being put in place. Lets take a look. There is now a nationwide overnight curfew in spain. In italy, gyms, pools, cinemas and theaters are shot. Restaurants and bars and cafes have to close at 6 p. M. Look very differentonight, will including here at the iconic baroque in the heart of the italian capital because all of the, restauran bars, cafes will have to stop Table Service from 6 00 p. M. They will only get Takeaway Service until midnight. From today, gyms, schools and cinemas and theaters have close. All contact sport has been stopped. Italians have been adved by the government only to move around if really necessary. The prime minier said today the infection rate is currently very worrying. There were 21,000 cases yesterday, 1200 people in intensive carat the moment. That is a rise of 1000 in the space of a month. It has echoes of back in march when italy became the first country in the west to be crushed by the virus and tor first in the to impose a National Lockdown. This time, it is looser, because what has changed is that covid fatie has set in. There been protests over the last few days. The economy has forecast to shrink by 10 this year. It cou take a few weeks for the impact of these measures to be felt on the infection the oppositi w hasned the government is chasing after the virus rather than controlling it. Has so much to mark. Lets tur to belgiusp several als, asked doctors and nurses who test positive to these are pictures from one hospital. It has been overwhelmed by new admissions. Up tafo a quarter of medical are off work with covid19. 10 who tested positive have no symptoms. You have been to visit some of teese hospitals. Us more of the situation. Iave to say that stopped me in my tracks. H, y it is the sort of thing you have to listen to twice to get that. Staff, medical staff, doctors nurses with covid told to stay asymptomatic. F they are that is what has happened in 10 hospitals. I was in more than one a couple days a. And they had quadruple the numberf wardsn the space of seven days and theyere running out of capacity. In five days they say they will reh crisis point having to shut down. They are transferring patients t of there. They have stopped all of the, most of the hospital across belgium have stopped nonergent surgury. They are treeiaging patients. As you mention the shearumber of staff that are off sick in these hospitals, 25 , they cannot cope with it anymore. The 10 who tested positi the last few days who are not showing symptoms, the staff are haw saying the hospital management, yo to turn up for work. And a doctor, one of the key doctors in the icu unit, who is the president of the medical union in belgium has said he knows this is a massive risk for the virus in transferring to very weak patients. But he said we do not have a choice because we do not have these people working nobody will be treating theatients. What happened in belgium . At t beginning, we saw such a high per capita rate of the virus. Now again. Isar there somethingcular in the society or the way that they treated it that has led to them being overwhelmed yet again . Start of the first wave of the pandemic belgium had the highest death ra per capital. Re world. Now what the experts and scientists and government have said is they were couing more thoroughly because they were not homes but those who were suspected deaths. This is different. You a,0 looking at now cases a day in a country of 11 million. The publics had the highest figure in europe. One of the issues they talk about, isovid fatigue but it seems to be more than that. The rate of spread, because you have brussels and liege the highest regions just Walking Around is a snapshot. I have got to say from my experience in portugal and spain and germany and france in recent weeks and months, there are a lot more people who seem in supermarkets were not wearing the mask properly or wearing it under se. This is a snapshot of what i am seeing is a journalist but there are layers of which the government is saying people are not getting the message. And that is why there are bigger problems here. Thank you so mu. Now, lets bring you mor dates from across europe. France has set a new daily record f infections on sunday with over 52,000 cases recorded in 24 hours. Tohe czech republic, one of europes worst hotspots. A partial lockdown is in place in field hospitals have been set up. Lets turn to spain. This is a state of emergency again, that same Legal Mechanism is being used, t same is back in the spring, but the measures being introduced under i is is not the same tight National Lockdown we saw in the spring. However, we do have this curfew in place as of last night, from 11 00 until 6 a. M. Although there is some leeway depending on which region you are in. And there is a new rule of six, limiting the number of people who can gather together at any one time. And all authorities are given extra powers so they can hetroduce the restrictions feel are necessary. Spain going through such a difficult time with the virus. Let us move to iran, also grappling with a surgeon cases. Lets take a frok at pictures irans biggest cemeterynd over the wee the country has reported 300 new deaths and 6000 new cases over the past 24 hours. State tv says that is a death every four minutes. A member of the medical council said the real death to is three t four times higher. Cases are rising in 15 pro ces. Measuresrb the spread, including the closure of schools and mosques and restauran have been extended until the end of november. Let me turn to my colleague from bbc persian joining me now. I see this described as a third wave. If you remember, iran was hir by theavirus early february. That is when the authorities admitted it existed inran. And it has gone through a number of sges. There are disputes whether this is a second wave or the next wave. Or there have n been any ways but the reason why ithas changes because of testing t numbers have changes because of testing. [audio breaking up] the numbers are three or four times more and its difficult to know how iran will cope. When you speak to family members and iran, they say they know many people who have contracted the virus. So, even these 5000 numbers a day,nu the truer is probably much higher. And what sort of, the audio wa glitching but i get what ey have gone through and also with the amount of testing being done probablthhifigure is much er. I mean, how do people feel, can they get, i suppose, the testing they need or indeed the treatment they need if in fact the figures are so hig no, notpeecessarily, ally in smaller cities and towns. Tehran, today w have had an authorities saying that the test kits areot reliable. Accurate. Estesults are were talking about people who are being tested and the result comes negative and they actually have been, have been ill tut nobody knoy have covid. It is very difficult to get a st and also it is very difficult to find a bed in severe conditions. We have people going from hospital to hospital begging for their loved ones to be taken in, and theed hospitals are ref because they have run out of beds. Goodness. A similar story really in so many parts of the world. Thank you so much. Updating us on iran. Tensions a escalating between france and some muslim majority countries over president macrons pledge to tackle radical islam in the wake of the killing of a french teacher. Turkas been most vocal. Here is what president erdogan had to say today. I am now telling my nation s just as they aing and france not to buy anything from tuckeriends. I call on my nation here to not paattention to french labeled goods. Do not buy them. Well, the row started after the first president french president pledged to defend secularism. The teacher had shown cartoons of mohammed tois class. He promised toattack slim extremism. The turkish president saidmc tht one needs a Mental Health check for speaking out so force play. The president tweeted we will not giv ever. We respect all differences in the spirit of peace. We do not accept hate speech and defend reasonable debate. We will always be on the side of human dignity. For more background, here is our reporter from bbcs tursh service. He problems between both countries having surfaced since late last year actually because the two countries are supporting opposing sides in the libya, syria, Eastern Mediterranean and narnokarabakh, but especially after macrons words aboutslam after h described his limit is a religion in crisis. Erdoganis started to use rhetoric off xenophobia and france. His words. He changed his rhetoric and for the last couple of ssys he never any speech without mentioning macron. Country to be raisingthe only objections. Lets take a looket at herr from the pakistani trying in primeter to Facebook Ceo Mark Zuckerberg asking for a b on islamic content on the website. He raises the cartoons and says this will lead to further polarizationf muslims in france. Have seen how marginalization leads to extremism, something the world does not need. Across parts of the arab world, a boycott of french goods is already underway. French cosmetic products bei covered at a shop in jordan. In solidarity with mohammed, peacee up him, all french products are boycotted. Here are some of the french products be removed from the shelves and is supermart in qatar. The boycott good go even wider. Could go even wider. It is one of the largest and a loud people go there to shop. It migve started with boycotting products, in saudi arabia, there is hashtag asking people not to shop for ete of the biggest superma in saudi arabia. So, if this becomes a bigger yop can see not going to supermarkets. That is what at least a lot of people areaying on social dia. Now, frances c muslimncil say muslims are not persecuted and france and they can freely in the past hour we see in the french government has confirmed it is not planning any reciprocal boycott against turkey. There are three things going on, the call to boycott french product across the middls east and caom radical is on their websi m and socialia to attack the french interest and renewed emphasis on that, and then there is this very onal vendetta being conducted by erdogan against france and against president macron in particular. And, together, there is no question about, they add up and french mines to a fully blown diplomatic crisis, which is why sador has been recalled from ankara. Why thehole french diplomatic is being told to go on t offensive to make the french case that means repeating over and over again the french which is that, no, muslims in france are not treated like jews in the 1930s. That there has been an awful lot of false propaganda and reporting around all of this. For example, the footballer is not about to leave the French Football Team because of his muslim sensibilities. And, no, the cartoons have not been projected frothe buildings of town halls in the south of france. What that was was the prection of cartoons by charlie hebdo. This reportingreeting a sense of antifrench hostility and in general the point get could be made that when president macron suts a cartoon, he is not saying i support the mohammed cartoons, i supported the right of publication of those cartoons. That iswo distinct things in french views. That distinction they believe is not fully understood in the arab world. Lets turngr to ps of workers and students there have been taking part in a nationwid strikeess for the president s resignation in belarus. These images are from minsk. Hundreds of students marched out of several univeities, chanting andinking arms. Riot police soon turned up and arrested several othem. Workers and some state run plants chanted slogans outside the gates at least p55ple were arrested for supporting the lets take a look at some ofies. The scenesrom sunday. The center of minsk turn into chaos and riot police fired stun grenades. They had come deliver an ultimatum either lever schenkel agrees to resign or they would come out and in nationwide strike. The authorities, the respse was no. This also happened. Police hunted down protesters in their apartments. This is not deterr. The proteste lets take more pictures. Protesters as you may know have been going on, the ninth of august when president lukashenko claimed an orwhelming victory in president ial elections that were widely viewed as rigged. Now they were met with the brutal crackdown and many of lukashenkos opponents haven jailed or forced into exile. One of them is the eeexiled Opposition Leader and she called for mondays nationwide strike in the event thalumr. Shenko refused to step down. Here she is speaking at the moment. The rl cant be changed, and even if we do not succeedotr if we are we are waitinge for,d people, we are looking for another kind of struggle, another kind of protest, but we will n stop. One of hers advisors spoke to us from the lithuanian capital. He is what he said about todays protests. Riot police, people in mass came to the facries and many people were arrested, more than 200 people, workers who joined the strike were detained by the police. We also see that T Administration and local authorities, they harassed, intimidate the workers, also students who support thetrike. There is really, they are really afraid. It seems this is the only form that really works. Lukashenko lost his credibility, lost thef remains os supportet among the soci he really counts on the riot police and the parts of thermy in the regular police bu thats it. He planned a programming last sunday, yesterday, but nobody showed up. Ey canceled the rhely. Right no is surrounded by thousands of people who dont want him, who do not want lukashenko to be reelected, and he is like in a bunker. Trying to protect himself, hes trying t find a way out but there is no easy solution here. Hes trying to save the face, and we need todeive, pro you with this opportunity to leave but also to respect us. Something completely different fornasa has announced