a small step for science a giant leap for womankind in kurdistan. and at the scheduled time the south like to be sent into space women make science the stance space school. on al-jazeera. and with our continuing breaking news coverage it's just past 5 in the morning in washington d.c. just a few hours ago the u.s. president of trump and 1st lady confirmed they tested positive for covert 19 they are now in quarantine we're told the cop all got tested after a top aide contract of the virus hope picks have traveled with the couple on

tuesday to go to the presidential debate in cleveland ohio and the next day they flew together to a campaign rally in minnesota well this is how president trump confirmed he tested positive here in a tweet saying flotus 9 tested positive for covert 19 we will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately we will get through this together. the top white house doctor is released a memo speaking about the president and 1st lady he said they are both well at this time and they will remain at the white house during their convalescence he goes on to say the president will continue carrying out his duties while recovering we've also heard from the 1st lady who also tweeted saying she and president trump are in quarantine at home alone your trump says they're both feeling good and that all her

upcoming engagements have been perspire own and she also encouraged everyone to stay safe our white house correspondent kimberly how he joins us now from washington d.c. kimberly's been several hours since we had that announcement by twitter any update yet on the symptoms on the condition of the u.s. president. there have been no updates from the white house in terms of the president's condition it is 5 am here in washington i'm standing outside of the white house the white house directly behind me where we know the president is likely asleep he was up very late into the wee hours of the morning sending that tweet with the confirmation that he and 1st lady malani a trump had tested positive of course they took these tests after the aide hope one of the most trusted advisors of the president started exhibiting symptoms on wednesday now the open question becomes why the president continued his vigorous

campaign schedule and did not start to self isolate as a precaution those are the questions that will be examined in the coming hours but for now what we do know in terms of the president's schedule at least is that it has been mostly clear and he had a very full schedule planned there was expected to be a telephone call midday that is the only thing that is still going to be on the schedule as he meets virtually with seniors who ironically have had experiences cope with 19 now the president can count himself among that group and then the president is scheduled to travel to the trump hotel and later to sanford florida for a make america great again rally why is florida important it's a pivotal state a battleground state as they're called the president needs to win reelection the following day he was scheduled to travel to another battleground state wisconsin it's unclear if the president will try to make that appearance at least virtually

but we know the plans for traveling have been put on hold the other big question in all of this is how many of the staff members around president trump even is immediate family members beyond the 1st lady may have been exposed may be at risk we know that the u.s. president was at the presidential debate on tuesday where there were a number of prominent top aides helping him for a pair. for that debate including hope x. the question becomes now if the vice president has been exposed that would be a national security issue given the fact of the continuity of government so already it can be presumed that the activation has gone into place to ensure that the health of the vice president remains stable and also that of house speaker nancy pelosi who would then follow the vice president in terms of acting on behalf of the president should he not be able to do his duties which is not the case right now but of course with covert 19 out of positivity test as well as the fact that the

president is of advanced age and also exhibit some signs of obesity this puts him in a very high risk group that well he seems to be exhibiting no symptoms at the moment things could change very rapidly and kimberly mean that speaks to the warring possibility that a rather large number given how busy the president's schedule has been given that some of his close advisors are members of his own family they could be a number of key policy makers who if not positive may have to be in some kind of precautionary quarantine or distancing or isolation system right now. yeah the for the standard protocol for the u.s. government at least from an agency standpoint is that anyone that's even had with notice casual contact with somebody who has tested positive is advised to go into self isolation as

a precaution to assure that they don't later test positive and start infecting others around them given the fact that we know with cope with 19 that often people are infected but are asymptomatic it's often too late to protect others once you begin to exhibit symptoms and that's the fear right now for those that have come in contact with the president because he has had a packed schedule he's had numerous interactions but the number of people that have come in contact with the president well he was asymptomatic and we presume that he still is but does have this positive test with a large number of individuals at risk the other thing that we should point out at all of this is that given there was a presidential debate and on tuesday the u.s. president came face to face with his rival democratic presidential nominee joe biden joe biden is also at risk he is in his late seventy's 77 i believe this puts him at risk given the fact that this was i heated in contentious presidential

debate with the 2 men yelling and shouting at one another and we know that those aerosol like droplets that come from our breath are what can transmit this virus so this puts the vice president or rather the the vice president former vice president but now the democratic presidential nominee for the democratic party at risk it well so the ramifications of this are enormous it's hard to see how the u.s. election campaign can proceed as normal given the fact that we're 5 weeks away from that taking place and talking about the u.s. election campaign this puts the focus back home covidien given the way the u.s. prison colony sits in polls this is not a good development right. it's not a good development it also makes it virtually impossible for the president to say things are returning to normal because now it's clear they're anything but normal things have only gotten worse from a standpoint of the president and his campaign and his effort to say that things

are improving that's what the president had tried to do he was pushing for reopening he was pushing to say that he built this economy up there was historically low unemployment he would bring it back again that's why he was pushing this grueling schedule holding rallies where people were attending en masse standing side by side often not wearing masks and the concern is that all of this is the president put even some americans at risk but the president has been plummeting in the polls in terms of criticism over his handling of covert 19 the fact that he openly mocked on the debate stage on tuesday his rival joe biden for taking precautions for holding virtual events for wearing a mask suggesting it was even somewhat excessive is going to really come back and haunt this president who has already been under a microscope and criticism now that is only going to intensify potentially the president even having to eat his words if you will thanks so much can really how

could that. take a closer look at the president's health now from his 74 years old i'm considered overweight both make him high risk for coronavirus concerns were raised about his condition in june when he appeared to have difficulty drinking water and coming down from the stage just an event he tweeted that the ramp was steep and very slippery this missing speculation about his health. in november last year trump made an unscheduled visit to the doctor for tests something he usually noted in his public diary the white house said he was in good health during his campaign in 2016 trump produced a note saying he'd be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency a doctor later said though that trump written the letter himself. is an associate professor of infectious diseases at the australian national

university he says there's still a possibility the president will experience mild symptoms of the virus. look he could potentially despite a couple of respect us have a very mild illness and hopefully that will be the case and he will get over it we're angry cover without any major complications the 2 things against against that are his age and potential obesity as well we know that if someone is around $74.00 which which is he $74.00 also if you're over 70 the mortality rate or the death rate from this infection now it varies in studies around the world but it's around 10 percent and if someone is a beast there's about a 100 percent increased risk of being hospitalized compared to someone who isn't about a 70 percent chance of having our critically ill illness and about a 48 percent chance of dying or right now how long might it take before one would

know if this virus you know if we're going to have you are going to suffer from this virus or it's going to be a mild case i mean how soon would one be able to make that determination normally you know this is quite different to start sars often early on people got unwell but with curve it it's usually early on in the 2nd week that people start to become unwell so the 1st few days of the you know this might be mild maybe that 2nd week that they start to become unwell and in fact when asked if a 48 percent chance of an obese person dying i mean of relative is not an absolute qualifying and from what we know about the president's schedule in the last 2448 hours you know he's he's had a busy schedule he's appeared a campaign rallies it wasn't long ago he was at that debate in cleveland ohio would you suspect somebody with that kind of active schedule may have passed this on to

many other people or many other people may have received it from where. he got it from as well that this is not going to be just an isolated case that's right but look at it also depends on a few things was he symptomatic or asymptomatic if you was coughing and spluttering you may be inclined to have expected more people than if he was asymptomatic so that is important as well but context traces will try and determine what or how many close contacts in a hat so how many people he was in almost face to face contact for 15 minutes or so or was in the same room for more than 2 hours so those sorts of things context races are going to go through in great detail to try and determine the number of close contacts that the president has had several world leaders to send their well wishes to mr trump russian president vladimir putin wished him

a swift recovery saying his vitality good spirits and optimism will help him cope the prime minister of india also reacted he tweeted wishing my friend donald trump and the 1st lady maloney a quick recovery and good health and the director general of the world health organization has tweeted saying my best wishes to president donald trump and 1st lady malloy here for a full and speedy recovery we've also heard from the president of the european council more on that let's go over to dominic cain is live for us in berlin so how is europe reacting to this news. yes you're right sammy the president of the european council at charlotte. has reacted to this reaction given on twitter on twitter he says wishing real trouble trouble that's the president's handle on twitter and fluxus that 1st lady melania trump a speedy recovery covert 19 is a battle we all continue to fight he says every day no matter where we live and he

is not the only european elected official who has been speaking about their reaction to what is happening to the president of the polish president andres do on twitter has said our good wishes for speedy recovery to off friends he says poland and the united states will get through the hardships and succeed in fighting 19 and one final thoughts this time not from an e.u. leader but from the british prime minister barak's johnson someone who himself got to the infection got coronavirus and had to be taken to intensive care in a london hospital viewers will recall earlier in the obviously mr johnson made a full recovery he has said on twitter my best wishes to president trump and the 1st lady hope they both have a speedy recovery from corona virus that is so far as the reaction is concerned from european officials it's quite interesting actually that amongst the elected officials elected heads of government heads of state in europe it has tended to be

the reaction that we've seen on twitter so far has come from leaders who come from the center right of politics rather perhaps than those from the center or perhaps from the center left of politics in european governments one other observation to make regarding the succession in the us presidency we've been hearing from kimberly earlier on about the precautions put in place for the vice president for the speaker of the house we understand that the u.s. secretary of state mike on players who of course also has a place in the order of succession to the presidency if the president and those below him in this order. incapacitated wal-mart my comp a is in europe right now he's in croatia and he has said that he was tested aboard the plane that he travelled to corrosion on and that came back negative he says the last time that he was with the president was on the 15th of september so that isn't in so far as the official reaction that we've been receiving here in the european

union and beyond united kingdom with with prime minister johnson the other reaction which has been of note has been on the financial markets in the 3 main stock exchanges in europe that would be the dax in frankfurt here in germany the cac in paris and the footsie 100 in london all of them when they opened share values dropped somewhere in the region of around one percent although in the past half an hour or so they have improved that they're still dan but say around half of one percent not as bad as when they opened in so far as other reaction is concerned we can anticipate that when the e.u. summit is taking place in brussels from where shawn the share the council president made his twitter post we can anticipate that when the summit breaks up when news conferences are held by the heads of government the heads of state the heads of the commission that they will be asked for

a reaction about what has happened to the president and what effect it might have on relations between the u.s. and the european union remembering of course the strategic importance of the united states here in europe the continuing strategic importance of the united states here in europe. all right thanks so much dominic kane that. president trump joins a growing list of world leaders who have been infected in iran dozens of politicians and religious leaders have contracted the virus that includes cabinet members as well as senior vice president as hark junglee and vice president. of the car in july a brazilian president jalal sanaa announced he'd caught it he's been one of the most prominent voices trying to minimize the onus calling it a little flu and flouting social distancing measures british prime minister boris johnson was admitted to intensive care in april he later said he was lucky to leave

after a week that doctors nurses quote saved his life no question you're watching al jazeera our continuing coverage continues of this breaking news story the u.s. president has tested positive for covert 19 after his senior advisor hope hicks contract with the virus 1st lady has also tested positive both had attended a fund raising event in new jersey on thursday afternoon with top white house doctor says both will quarantine at the white house and the president will continue his duties while recovering. in other news armenia says it's ready to work with mediators to reestablish a cease fire in the disputed region of the god knocked out about it comes after 5

days of fighting with azerbaijan and mounting casualties the u.s. russia and france called for the resumption of talks the 3 nations co-chair the minsk group set up to find a peaceful and diplomatic resolution to the unit got knocked out of the conflict with smith has more from step time curved in the bottom. we're going to care about defense minister says overnight there was intensive fighting along the line of contact all along the line of contact that's the border between the goanna karabakh and as a by jan it runs along the eastern side of a no go no karabakh from north to south and he says that in the last 2 days there's been a further $54.00 of their soldiers killed bringing that total to more now than 140 since fighting broke out on sunday the most tense period of fighting of contact between the 2 sides since 2016 the defense minister also says that if there is a desire to exchange the bodies of dead soldiers between both sides between are

between nagorno-karabakh and the azerbaijan side then there needs to be at least temporary ceasefire that he says at the moment there is no intention or there is no plan to have one and i mean as prime minister nicole he says that he told the white house recently that before there is any cease fire they need to get rid of the what he calls mercenaries and terrorists that are in this region and he needs to get them out of here before there's any cease fire he's referring to the allegation. sent in mercenaries from syria to fight alongside azerbaijani forces allegations turkey denies. the e.u. has sanctioned 40 belorussian nationals for their role in the disputed presidential election president alexander lukashenko is not on the list but the head of the european council is warning that could change police have crackdown on opposition

politicians and protesters since look at claim victory in august. we will implement what we have politically decided at least that it's immediate point 12 no question 2 it's not on the current on the current least but of course we will we'll follow this story really follow the developments and you know that we often include his delegate but i wish we teed that we then all the intimidations against the opposition we can then the violence against peaceful peaceful. members of the of the of the opposition. it's been 2 years since saudi journalist jamal ji was murdered inside his country's consulate in istanbul a coalition of human rights groups has been urging mayors of the world's major cities to boycott a summit being held by saudi arabia to mount a shell as well from istanbul. despite it being one of the most notorious crimes in

recent history 2 years have gone by and still justice has not been served in the murder case where jamal khashoggi 24 months on the focus on the saudi journalist who entered his country's consulate in istanbul never to be seen again may have died down but the outrage remains crucial she had been writing for the washington post the 1st anniversary of his murder was marked in a high profile vigil attended by the post's owner and the world's richest man jeff bezos a monument was placed just yards from the saudi consulate store a place for people to pay their respects for the slain journalist who was not afforded even the rights for a proper burial a saudi official still refused to disclose the whereabouts of his body or his remains should. this year's anniversary is being marked with the launch of the organization which will she was setting up before he was killed dawn or democracy in the arab world now it was this type of work his advocacy for freedom and poor

ism that earned him the wrath of saudi crown prince mohammed bin son man jamal was perhaps the arab world's most famous political exile saudi arabia try to silence. we will give a voice to thousands like him struggled for change in their countries while his friends and colleagues have succeeded in continuing his legacy through the launch of dawn there's been little success in their fight for justice after initially denying they killed him saudi arabia then pushed the narrative that the journalist was murdered by what they described as a team of rogue agents us document images that you know it took months before any form of court proceedings began and even then they lacked any form of integrity or transparency in december 2019 a saudi court sentenced 5 unnamed people to death and 3 others to prison for the murder but those sentences were commuted 3 weeks ago in what the united nations special envoy an extra judicial killings described as the antithesis of justice

meanwhile turkey says it's committed to holding those responsible for the murder to account on thursday the prosecutor's office said it was indicting 6 more saudi citizens in their ongoing case the latest names include true consulate staff crown prince mohammed bin son man who is believed to have ordered the murder appears to have weathered the fallout he's still very much in power and world leaders continue to do business with him but even in his death jamal khashoggi remains a foreigner in his side and one that could prove to be even more damaging still. a stumble earlier my colleague maryam namazie spoke to agnes cullum all the un special rapporteur on extra judicial summary and arbitrary exit q sions she says the international community must act together to prevent cases like the murder of jemaah. i think we need to ensure that we do not get our

service held hostage by the inner dick or seas of the saudi justice system it was clear from the start that it would be very difficult to get justice for jamal given the fact that the justice system in saudi arabia is so plan to political many provision it is incumbent upon other actors but to get only outside saudi arabia to put pressure and to do all they can to ensure that accountability is delivered now we know that it will be very difficult to get those who ordered the crime in front of a court. if indeed it is mohamed bin salman as a cia as suggested more than a yogo that said there are all other ways of ensuring that at the very least choice

is being delhi verd and at the very least saudi arabia feel the pressure put little i dial back you can ask you dr khalil are it doesn't seem as though they are feeling any pressure has the lack of justice and accountability in this case sort of lead to some kind of normalization in the way extrajudicial killings of viewed a you worry that something like this could happen again. well of course i am always worried that there will be more targeted killings only of giannone story human rights defenders but allow me to point out that actually there has been a heavy reaction to. the killing of germany and a number of steps have been taken by a range of activists including some of them and the state just last week 33 countries adopted a resolution condemning saudi arabia for the killing of jemaah casualty and the

imprisonment of the woman human rights defenders we've been though civil society sector a number of actions been taken international media i've kept investigating the killings there is not one move that mohammed bin simon can do we have done him of general cashel good beings on a team we know that for a long time long before the killing of a market. that the human rights agenda or the international level as a whole is very politicized it's beholden to the power play in power politics that how difficult does that make your work. of course it makes it extraordinarily difficult the whole environment at the moment is one of normative counter-revolution it so one of the several countries distracting the international system and other countries fighting over which is gone no dominate the last controversy cannot be trusted to to keep hammering those messages

and to put pressure on those who don't so we are we are working in an extraordinarily difficult and environment that there is absolutely no doubt this is why i think when action taken we need to highlight doors and we need to push for more i've talked about the actions taken by the mayor of many cities and has far more to do that i've mentioned the u.s. congress taking a very strong stand on a bipartisan basis and calling on other parliaments around the world to do the same it is time now that we move from seeking accountability for general to seeking accountability for all the johnno least that are threatened by their governments need. to adopt cashel get sanctions in other words

whenever a country a government is threatening johnno least ease. violating the rights of johnnie's by detaining them or by indeed killing them individual sanctioned a casualty sanction should be in paused on individuals even at the highest level and the reminder you can watch our special jamal murder in a saudi consulate coming up at 12 g.m.t. friday right here on al-jazeera. mexicans will get a chance to decide whether the state should be allowed to prosecute former presidents the supreme court ruled a referendum on the issue can go ahead it's a proposal by president. the court's decision could allow the investigation and potential prosecution all 5 former presidents. has more from mexico city this vote by supreme court does carry quite

a bit of significance perhaps more than anything it's a symbolic victory for mexican president under this model lopez obrador who campaigned under this anti corruption platform this certainly feeds into the rhetoric that we've heard from the president in the past regarding his his desire to go after corruption and root out corruption in the country but this initiative a referendum that would ask mexican citizens how they personally feel whether or not they agree that a president a former mexican president should not be emu in from prosecution should not be immune from from investigation that is something that just hasn't been done before that aspect of this is without precedent and it's something that the mexican president has been promoting heavily so in short this is something that makes the mexican president look very good this is certainly going to be a boost for his popularity having that said this vote today in the mexican in the mexican supreme court a $65.00 vote in favor of this referendum is specific only to the question of the

constitutionality of the referendum itself that would still be questions and challenges.