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What you need to know about the coronavirus today

UK tries to avoid national lockdown
Britain will do everything it can to avoid ordering a second national lockdown because it believes it will do more harm than good to the country, a minister said on Thursday.
As France and Germany ordered new national closures, British Housing Minister Robert Jenrick said the British government's clear policy was to use the tough local restrictions that were recently imposed on swathes of northern England.
After a lull in the summer, the virus started to spread again in September and an Imperial College study published on Thursday showed cases doubling every nine days, with nearly 100,000 people infected in England each day.

Merkel lashes out at populists
Populists who argue the coronavirus is harmless are dangerous and irresponsible, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday, defending a circuit-break lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.
"We are in a dramatic situation at the start of the cold season. It affects us all, without exception," Merkel told the Bundestag lower house of parliament, adding new restrictions to reduce social contact were "necessary and proportionate".
She said populists who question the seriousness of the crisis were putting lives at risk.

Poland's total cases top 300,000
Poland reported another daily record of coronavirus infections and deaths on Thursday with 20,156 new cases and 301 deaths related to COVID-19.
The health ministry said the total number of confirmed coronavirus infections had tripled in less than a month, exceeding 300,000.
Government officials have warned infections could rise fast due to massive protests sweeping Poland following a Constitutional Court ruling last Thursday that has introduced a near total ban on abortions.

Hospitals in Wisconsin, Texas under strain
UW Health University Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, has been rushing to convert available space into units for COVID-19 patients, as the state's medical facilities struggle to keep pace with new infections.
As part of the effort, the medical center opened a new intensive care unit this week ahead of schedule, and it is quickly filling with coronavirus patients.
"Today we have more patients than we've had ever before," said Dr. Jeff Pothof, an emergency medicine physician at UW Health. "It's putting a strain on our capacity. Our biggest concern is ICU staffing."

Breathalyser gives results in seconds
A company in Singapore has developed a breathalyser test for the new coronavirus which it says will enable people to know whether they are infected in under a minute.
Breathonix, a startup firm from the National University of Singapore, says its test achieved more than 90% accuracy in a pilot clinical trial of 180 people in the city state and hopes to get regulatory approval early next year.
Countries worldwide are looking to develop alternative tests to the Polymerase Chain Reaction nasal swab, which is invasive and in short supply in some places where demand has outstripped manufacturers' production capacity.

From Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Vaccines, Shell, China/cars, KFC
Demand for winter flu jabs boosts French drugmaker Sanofi, while Royal Dutch Shell has given bruised shareholders another dividend surprise. Catch up with the latest financial insights.

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U.S. Elections

Trump, Biden to take campaign battle to Florida
President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden will both rally supporters on Thursday in the critical battleground state of Florida – campaigning in the same city hours apart and putting on full display their differing approaches to the resurgent coronavirus pandemic.
Democrats say their advantage in early voting has allowed Joe Biden’s presidential campaign to sharpen its get-out-the-vote operation by targeting a smaller universe of potential supporters, while Republicans brace for an all-or-nothing scramble to turn out votes for President Donald Trump on Nov. 3.

So what if Biden is up in the polls? Weren't they wrong last time?
Opinion poll experts say there are good reasons to trust this year's polls more than those of 2016. Here are a few of them.

U.S. Supreme Court deals blow to Republicans in Pennsylvania, North Carolina vote-by-mail fights
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday dealt setbacks to Republicans by allowing extended deadlines for receiving mail-in ballots in next Tuesday’s election in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, states pivotal to President Donald Trump’s re-election chances.

Make Science Great Again: U.S. researchers dream of life after Trump
From his lab in Toulouse, France, Benjamin Sanderson models the range of extreme risks to humans from climate change, research he hopes can inform policymakers planning for worsening wildfires and floods. It is the kind of work he once performed in the United States - and hopes to again soon.

world news

Three dead as woman beheaded in France, gunman shot dead in second incident
A knife-wielding attacker shouting “Allahu Akbar” beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a suspected terrorist act at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday, while a gunman was shot dead by police in a separate incident.

Biden presidency for Turkey would mean tougher U.S. stance but chance to repair ties
Should Republican Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden win Tuesday’s election, as opinion polls suggest, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will be losing his most valuable ally in Washington, leaving Ankara vulnerable to the wrath of a deeply antagonized U.S. Congress and some U.S. agencies skeptical of Turkey.

As COVID persists and U.S. election nears, China growth lifts Asia
Asia is starting to see signs of economic recovery as it rides on the back of an upturn in China, which is entering a new expansion phase less than a year after it recorded the world’s first cases of COVID-19.

With improved leverage, North Korea leader Kim awaits winner of U.S. vote
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un awaits the winner of next week’s U.S. presidential election armed with greater leverage in high-stakes nuclear diplomacy, thanks to a more powerful and versatile arsenal of weapons than at the start of the Trump presidency.