defeat the. struggle over the miles on al-jazeera. quarantined in the white house president of trump and 1st lady melania test positive for covert 19. i'm sam is a van this is al jazeera live from doha also coming out. trump's campaigning is now on hold what does this mean for the election and his battle with joe biden. was there mistakes when needed when needed i were minutes ok i don't have i don't

like him every time you see he's going to miss. secretary of state was in europe now reconsidering his travel plans amid questions about how many other white house officials may have been exposed. by u.s. president isolated in the white house and a whole lot of new questions over the direction of the u.s. election campaign we're continuing our breaking news of developments from washington where donald trump and 1st lady melania have tested positive for covert 19 the president confirmed the result in a late night 28 hours after a top aide was confirmed to have the virus hope pigs had traveled with the trump several times in the past few days including on tuesday to the debate in cleveland ohio the next day they flew together to

a campaign rally in the. white house correspondent kimberly halkett joins us now live from washington d.c. so kimberly how do we believe the 1st the president of the 1st lady are doing at this hour. i we're still waiting an update from the white house press office where we are standing outside what i can tell you right now is that so far the condition of the president has not been updated from a symptomatic at this point it was only that he was tested v following the news of his trusted aide hope that in fact there became to be some concern about the president's condition now the questions that are now swirling in washington are why if hope it was expressing or at least exhibiting some symptoms of 8 coke at 19 but there were precautions that were being taken for the president and the 1st

lady and presumably others that came in close contact with her it's reported that hope ics was on air force one without a mask and that also that she was very close to the president and even the vice president as there were preparations for that 1st presidential debate that took place last tuesday so these are the questions the white house will now have to answer as the world 2 awaits an update on the president's condition for testing positive for covert 19 as rob reynolds reports. the news came in a late night tweet from the white house president donald trump wrote tonight the 1st lady and i tested positive for covert 19 we will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately we will get through this together. it is not known how despite elaborate precautions and constant testing of white house officials the white house press corps and others in contact with trump the president contracted

the virus but earlier one of trump's top aides hope hicks was confirmed to have tested positive hicks accompanied the president to the debate in cleveland ohio on tuesday trump phoned in to a fox television program earlier on thursday and talked about hicks having been exposed it's a tough kind of a situation it's a terrible bank so i just want to protest and we'll see what happens i mean who knows the white house physician sean conley said trump and the 1st lady are both well at this time and that the white house medical team will maintain a vigilant watch lonnie a trump later tweeted we are feeling good trump has several risk factors that put him in danger of complications from covert 19 he is in his bid seventy's and overweight only had to wait for the next few days and. were for some people

getting sick within hours but you know some people don't get sick until week after and so we have the reading be carefully observing the situation trump has declined to wear a mask on many occasions occluding at rallies where many of his supporters also refused to wear a mask. his entourage including family members went masculists at the tuesday debate trump even ridiculed democratic candidate joe biden for wearing a mask as recommended by virtually all public health experts i don't wear masks like him every time you see him he's got a mask he could be speaking 200 feet away from many shows up with the biggest mask i've ever seen if trump were to become seriously ill and unable to carry out his duties the constitution provides for a vice president mike pence to take over temporarily pence said he is praying for trump's recovery there can be no spin you can be you know harbor ups there has to

be clear understanding of what is going on with this person this president united states because otherwise if he's not going past the to take care of the business he will have to be by the 25th amendment transition has to occur. but a glaring question now is how the news will affect trump's reelection campaign already trailing nationally and in certain important swing states it would seem that trump can ill afford to stay out of commission for a quarantine period of 2 weeks trump joins other world leaders including brazil's president gyre balsa naro and the u.k. prime minister boris johnson who have contracted the virus worldwide the death toll from covert done teen has exceeded 1000000 robber and it's al-jazeera all right camilla going to ask you to stay with us from our we've got plenty of things to unpack here but before we continue with this let's remind ourselves that

u.s. secretary of state my pompei i spoke to reporters as he traveled to from italy rather to croatia a short time ago he was tested on board his plane and came back negative. i actually have not been with the president since the abraham accords on the team i've been traveling i can't remember the last of the last 17 days something like that and tell us 17 god i want somebody with me on trips up america like we're praying for the president and the 1st lady to have a speedy recovery i'm sorry i'm trying to pick up a little bit of a speedy recovery i spoke to the vice president for this morning as well we're taking this obviously very seriously and will do everything we can to keep everyone safe including you all you have the results here you know negative. go back to our white house correspondent kimberly houghton washington d.c. so he says he's tested and negative on the krona virus but there is a question here about how much of the trumpet ministration decision making

machinery may now be in isolation all you know was some question mark hanging over his head because of the fact that he's had a busy schedule donald trump that is and some of his close family members are administration officials right. it's not just administration officials it's also the president's supporters this recently as thursday the president was holding a round table with supporters so the number of people that have been in close proximity to the president is significant and it is presumed that most will choose or be forced to go into some sort of form of precautionary self isolation or order to ensure that they have not also contract to cope with 19 so the ramifications of this are challenging and also the challenges the contact tracing that needs to occur now again we're watching carefully for any updates on the president's

condition so far we have learned that he is asymptomatic but we know that for those that are elderly as the president is in this case that that can change very rapidly and so he's already receiving a number of warm wishes for a speedy recovery from a number of world leaders including german chancellor angela merkel egyptian president sisi it also russian president vladimir putin but again there are some significant concerns not only about what this means for the u.s. president's reelection chances but also from his campaign standpoint but also in terms of cotonou t. of government the question becomes would it be possible for that 25th amendment to be invoked or have to be utilized that being that the vice president would have to take over the presidential duties should donald trump become gravely ill and not be able to continue to perform as president known so kimberly's for a presidential candidate who has reliant on postal appearances and very open public

gatherings and rallies this is a bit of a disruption right. it's more than just a disruption this is cataclysmic for donald trump's reelection chances at least for a streamlined message that things are returning back to normal that he is getting this economy back on track after seeing tens of millions of americans lose their jobs overnight the president was continuing almost a 2016 campaign styles schedule in these final weeks particularly to battleground states we now know that the rally for friday evening in sanford florida has been canceled questions remain about what will happen for the rally in wisconsin another battleground state the president needs to win if he wants to win the white house for a 2nd term will he participate virtually perhaps it's still unclear and these are the questions that this white house is going to have to answer i suspect those details are still being worked out but in terms of optics and optics are everything

in the united states this is particularly bad no one is more attuned to that than toddled trump who is particularly crafting careful when it comes to his brand he is very much focused on projecting a positive image but the challenge of doing that given the fact that he has now contracted the very virus that he had times tried to downplay is only going to make that challenge that much more difficult all right thanks so much kimberly how can let's continue this though with alan fischer he's live for us from virginia and allen he would from the biden campaign about what the state is of joe biden because he shared the stage as we all know we've donald trump on tuesday right. we're expecting a statement just there are no it hasn't appeared i'm being told it's been what tone the what being over the slate they're trying to balance do they make a political point when they meet this statement we do know that joe biden will wish the president and the 1st lady all the best but it's

a question of whether or not they try to begin a political advantage from that at the democrats are expecting the republicans to put pressure on them to stop campaigning over the next 2 weeks while donald trump is self isolating that is highly unlikely to happen this is a political advantage the democrats want to push home that they will also need as you suggest joe biden to be tested because he was 8 to 10 feet away from donald trump on tuesday and there is the possibility that he may have been carrying part of the virus at that point given that he traveled with hope picks who tested positive for covert on the way to ohio. that the democrats are probably better equipped to deal with a slight disruption in any campaign a joe biden has put in place a very strict social distancing guidelines you saw don't try to make fun of him for always wearing

a mask it always does they've had many events and people have kept their distance with perhaps maybe one or 2 exceptions so we expect joe biden to be tested probably within the next few hours and the biden campaign has carried out cold holds fundraisers at rallies all online that's something that the trump campaign hasn't quite embraced the tend to do things face to face donald trump likes to be among his supporters he feeds off the energy of the crowd he likes the idea ration of those who admire him and so it's probably going to be a lot easier for democrats to make that pivot what is interesting in. the last 24 hours the democrats had announced that they intended to go door to door in person canvassing in some of the key election states over the next week or so that me will need to be rethought given what has happened it is still possible it could go ahead

because many of these campaign workers may well have been tested but obviously there's going to be a total recalculation by joe biden and his campaign on how to progress we're always told that there's a surprise who would have thought on the 1st of october the surprise would be the president testing positive for covert thanks so much alan fischer that. still ahead on al-jazeera more on president trump's positive test to get a year for all the latest reaction coming in from baghdad. and sham trials and sentence reversals how justice still being denied in saudi journalist him out of the job he's not the case 2 years after he was killed.

hello we've got cloud of rain into central parts of china now and that's going to continue just easing its way further east which is we go through the weekend meanwhile we have got clear skies there for japan window a final weather so essentially lots of warm sunshine coming through muscle area of high pressure just just no using its way in further north his area of low pressure to follow that round where we got some rather wet weather into central areas of china sinking further south with some heavy rain just around will hand the possibility of some travel disruption and some localized flooding and that will slide its way over towards shanghai as we go on through sunday with some say what weather coming in here as well again with the possibility of some disruptive heavy rain and flooding potential clear potential uprightness up the be some showers making their way into japan by this stage but they won't be too heavy some light showers to a possible she doubts will southern parts of china but rather for hong kong temperatures at about $31.00 degrees lousy dry now across what i could parts of

central and northern western parts of india still a little clutches storms that circulation just around northern parts of the buy up in gold heavy rain coming through addition pushing up through all the way across best west bengal and bangladesh. 2 planes came from sea. yes and 15 checked you know what tell you mr chairman. i think it is possible to fully clean the premises of the intelligence but what you then leave is evidence that you have for the clinton administration wanted to give an example of it from started speaking about the role in the before even the saudi government probably just as jamal khashoggi murder in a saudi consulate on al-jazeera.

welcome back you're watching i'll just air time to recap our headlines now u.s. president donald trump and 1st lady melania have tested positive for covert 19 the president confirmed the results in a late night tweet hours after a top aide was confirmed to have the virus. the diagnosis has thrown the presidential election campaign into confusion trump has canceled his next planned event in florida. trump is not the 1st world leader to contract the virus brazil's president an arrow tested positive back in july and british prime minister barak's johnson was moved to an intensive care unit in april after contracting it. johnson has wished the tramp's

a speedy recovery well obviously i think we all want to send best wishes to the president and the 1st lady and i've done that this morning as you can imagine and i'm sure that they'll both stage a very strong recovery speak to nadine barber joins us live from london so perhaps nadine some similarities some parallels for trying to draw some lessons from and what boris johnson also faced. yes i mean it's hard to say exactly what comparisons can be made obviously they're very different individuals in terms of their age their health and so on but boris johnson's message there clearly coming from a place of sympathy and from somebody who's been through it he actually was tested tested positive for coverage 19 at the end of march a few days after the country went into lockdown and

a week later after consistently hearing that the prime minister had mild symptoms and was continuing to lead the government we were then told that he couldn't come out of self isolation he still had a persistent high temperature 2 days later he was in hospital here in central london saying that he was feeling ok but the next day he was admitted to an intensive care unit where he stayed for 3 nights and it wasn't 2 until 7 or 8 days after going into hospital the boris johnson actually was able to leave and then 3 weeks after going into hospital he returned to work in the interim the foreign secretary was deputising for him so it's really hard not unsurprising really to see that kind of time scale where 10 days or so after testing positive for coverage 90 an individual starts to experience severe illness boris johnson in fact said that the staff at the hospital had saved his life talking about some very dark days well

it's not clear exactly how serious things were but certainly he has lost a lot of weight and he has become a lot more serious about his own health and the message that he puts out to the public this week he was asked if he had fully recovered he said that he was fitter than before he'd contract aids coronavirus and putting that down mainly to lost weight although he did admit that he had further to go and also saying that he acknowledged the existence of long coverage where people experience a severe health problems months and even years down the line and i thank so much the name bob of that. joseph farah is an associate professor of political science at texas a and m. university joins us on skype. via skype from doha good to have you with us so we could start with the possibility what is the what is the picture look like in terms

of how monch of the policymakers in the policymaking system from the trumpet ministration the possibility of that being disruptive because as we know that the u.s. presidents had a busy trip he's got policymakers in advisors even amongst his own family members yeah i mean i think there are potential versus tangible disruption in the way that the white house has been operating rather than turning to remote operations meeting online but it will work. the president has continued to grow with people person and i think many of the other senior officials that it is in the destruction of followed suit and so there is a potential for many people in the white house and in other senior executive roles outside of the white house and the administration to be able now and of course i'm sure they're getting the best health care and rapid tests but. it could be widespread were quite isolated and you're only. testing in tracing you know what

were the extent of it over the next few days. the president's campaign wasn't doing too well in the polls allays do you think this time now full the trump administration the trumpet campaign to readapt itself to a more sort of online presence and catch up on lost ground. well i think to some extent it will have to i mean the president. i mean 1st of all it will need to recover not only to. minimize the risk of other people being infected but to make sure that he stays in good health and recovers from me on this but it will limit is ability to travel so rather than. participating in marginal person rallies where he would need to be speaking for an extended period of time he's going to need to relax and recuperate and that's going to mean a change in strategy. for him in this campaign that's a much bigger change of pace than for example if vice president biden were to

become ill since he's already been campaigning largely online over the last few months so not only will this president's interaction perhaps disrupt the process of government but it's certainly going to require a big retooling of his campaign at least for the next couple of weeks presuming shortest possible time line for him to recover from it in fact this is a president who's been reported to make decisions off the interactions with other individuals for example the new york times reporting on october 7th 2019 that is decision to pull u.s. troops out of syria followed a phone call with the turkish president what does u.s. how might u.s. policymaking be impacted. now the level of contacts one assumes the u.s. president is going to have is going to be changed. yeah i mean my reputation as

a president who relies very closely on on personal interactions with the small trusted advisers many of whom are his family members so if they are also impacted if they are also him or if he is taking his words him seriously and from having those in person meetings it's going to be a big challenge for him to continue to get the kinds of the back and counsel that is used to have in your decision making process so again i think this could be not only a challenge for you scheduling it in those kind of logistics of government but it will really stress presidents of normal decision making and basic operations of a policy that. right thanks so much. armenia says it's ready to work with mediators to reestablish a cease fire in the disputed region of the gonna cut about fierce fighting between

armenian and azerbaijani forces has continued into a 6 day the us russia france of call for the resumption of talks they co-chair the minsk group set up to find a peaceful resolution to the decades old conflict it's been 2 years since saudi journalist was murdered inside this country's consulate in istanbul after initially denying reports of his death saudi officials said the journalist was killed in a rogue operation by team of agents sent to persuade him to return to the kingdom a coalition of human rights groups has been urging mayors of the world's major cities to boycott a summit being hosted by saudi arabia. my colleague maryam namazie spoke to agnes come on 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 jamal house shook. i think we need to ensure

that we do not get ourselves 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 pollution 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 the 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 that the very least saudi arabia feel the pressure political or you die as a hero dr callandar it doesn't seem as though they are feeling any pressure has the lack of justice and accountability in this case sort of led 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 to cuba only of johnny store 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 german casualty and the imprisonment of the woman human rights defenders within the civil society sector a number of actions being 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 about how difficult does that make your work of course it makes it extraordinarily difficult the all environment at the moment is one of normative counter-revolution it's one of the civil countries distracting the international system and other countries fighting over which is gonna dominate those contracts 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 vironment 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 i'm haskin for more to do that i've mentioned the u.s. congress taking a very strong stand on a bipartisan basis i'm 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 order johnno least that are threatened by their governments need. to adopt cashel get

sanctions in other words when they go a country a government is threatening john at least ease. violating the rights of journalists by detaining them or by indeed killing them individual sanctioned casualty sanction should be imposed on individuals even at the highest level and a reminder you can watch our special jamal hotshot g murder in a saudi consulate that's coming up at 12 g.m.t. on friday here now to syria. and let's take you through some of the headlines now the u.s. president on trumpet and 1st lady.