on how to 0. if you want to help save the world. the coronavirus disrupts the european union summit in brussels as one of its leaders goes into isolation. and in the u.s. democratic vice presidential candidate harris suspends her travel plans after a staff member contracts cope with 19. hello i'm sam is a band this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up stands president. of resigns after weeks of protests the prime minister is now in charge. a long awaited

exchange a massive operation over a 1000 prisoners released on both sides of yemen's conflict. from europe to the u.s. the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted in e.u. summit in brussels and there's jolted the democratic presidential campaign less than 3 weeks before elections the president of the european commission are sort of on the lion abruptly left briggs's trade talks after she came in contact with someone infected with covert 19 and us democratic vice presidential candidate campbell harris suspended all in person events after 2 of her campaign members tested positive we'll speak to our white house correspondent just a moment of 1st let's go over to natasha butler she's live for us in paris how much of a cloud the departure of love on the lens cast over the summit. well

it was certainly unexpected. had arrived at this summit she was seen greeting our other leaders all seemed well and then she had to leave broccoli it later turns out she put out a tweet saying that she had left the summit because somebody in her entourage had tested positive for covert 19 now what the e.u. commission had said was that she had actually tested negative but as a precaution she had decided to self isolate now in terms of disrupting the summit i mean that's very minimal and we actually just heard from the user gregson negotiator michel barnier give us a bit of an update on a sort of one delay in saying she is fine she has just decided to sell for as late as a said as a precaution but she will of course be following events via video calls video conference she'll be in touch with all e.u. leaders and the u.k.

prime minister so she is still working as far as we know and it's worth noting as well they're not all you ladies were actually present in person at this summit because of course the e.u. is in the middle of a 2nd wave of the korean a virus pandemic live on the lens departure just another reminder of that really now the same time we've had the e.u. leaders i think they've just been speaking about briggs's bring us up to speed with how that track has been going. yes leaders discussing a possible post bragg's it a trade agreement that was one of the main topics on their agenda the u.k. prime minister boris johnson and set this summit as a deadline had wanted to see an agreement finalized by now however leaders made it clear that is not going to happen what they have said after their talks on bags that today is they have said that they need more time to negotiate more time for

these talks because there are still differences between the e.u. and u.k. positions particularly on things like fair competition and fisheries so what the e.u. breaks a negotiator said was that the all the e.u. leaders were united on wanting a deal but that they would not have a deal at any cost they would have to have a compromise on the issues that were important to the e.u. and that is why michel barnier the bugs negotiators been asked by the e.u. leaders to intensify talks over the coming weeks the ball really is now in the u.k. scored will boris johnson accept that these talks continue beyond the deadline that he had set all right thanks so much trash a bottle of ballots continue this with white house correspondent kimberly we've seen also coronavirus disrupt political plans on the other side of the land to tell us a little bit about how the biden campaign is now having to deal with the fact that

campbell her assumes like she's not going to be making too many in person appearances right now right. yeah we should be clear senator harris has tested negative for covert 19 but that's not the case with 2 members of her campaign staff one the communications director the other a non staff flight crew member and the campaign assures people that in fact there seems to be a low risk they believe to the senator as well as her husband still they are canceling the travel until sunday the feeling is that the candidate never ever got in close proximity there or she was wearing a mask when she was nearby so there's not a need for that mandated c.d.c. 14 day or suggested quarantine that most people who think there are risk would do that sort of self isolation having said that she has been tested regularly she's tested negative twice on wednesday and again on thursday but the campaign is

starting to contact tracing because they're concerned they're concerned especially because we're really close to the presidential election less than 3 weeks away and so this is just another example of how we've seen a campaign completely sort of turned on its heels if you will when it comes to cope with 19 because of course there's concern about potential risk to joe biden who is 77 years old and that we saw the same thing when donald trump himself tested positive and had to self isolate in the white house while he recovered as well as in hospital we should point out so this is not good news for the democratic ticket at the same time they are head in the polls but we should also point out that tonight should have been the 2nd presidential debate but of course that was halted as a result of donald trump's positive diagnosis of covert 19 now both joe biden and donald

trump will be having dueling town halls on competing american television networks but it's just a reminder of how the pandemic is really impacted every actual on of life in the united states and. around the world this is a campaign that is unlike any we've ever seen in modern history and the fact is is that every time an even with the most part cautions we see now the president of the united states get covered 19 and we now see the democratic ticket howard to take a pause in their travel schedule in order to address concerns on their own campaign staffs all right thanks so much. first signs of what could be an end to weeks of physical turmoil in kyrgyzstan so there's just power of who is named prime minister this week has now assumed presidential powers just hours earlier both the president and speaker of parliament resigned president's room jim back of his face daily protests since this month's disputed parliamentary election demonstrators accuse the government of rigging the vote john stratford is in is you

cool in kyrgyzstan he explains what the resignations mean for the protesters in country. that is say mr jeenbekov has been changing his story since these rigged elections on oct the full initially off to those elections we heard nothing from him until there was a bench really a statement given by him saying that resignation was not on the columns. and then we had another statement from him saying that he was going to resign he would have resigned but only after a new cabinet was full and now yesterday a new cabinet was full by the new prime minister and it was late last night or last night we heard that he wasn't going to resign until there were new elections we understand that there was some very heated discussions held by him and the new prime minister and speaker of parliament last night trying to negotiate mr jeenbekov to punch journalists that we work with in bishkek where outside respect

bishkek about 3 aus at the moment but those journalists were telling us that your pov supporters were threatening to storm the president's building if he hadn't resigned by 830 last night mr powell if the new prime minister then calm those supporters down and today we understand there were more discussions between the prime minister the speaker and the now resigned president and he has indeed yes said that he is going to sit down. an operation is underway to return more than 1000 prisoners home across the front lines of yemen civil war planes carrying who think fighters who'd been held by the saudi u.a.e. live coalition have been riding in the capital sana'a. is being seen as a trust building measure aimed at reviving peace talks. has more. a long awaited moment in yemen prisoners held in captivity for years

read in the largest prisoner exchange between the warring factions the deal was brokered by the u.n. in 2018 but never implemented but this time who theory rebels and the government representatives set aside their differences hoping the swap could lead to thousands of detainees being liberated in the future. it was a carefully arranged operation saudi sudanese and government detainees boarded a plane that took off from who've airport their destination airport in saudi arabia. and the same time who feel rebels were transferred from say human airport in southern yemen to sun any delay could have jeopardized the whole agreement. a separate prisoner exchange took place on wednesday brokered

by oman the deal allowed more than 200 heard these stranded in amman to return home in exchange for the release of 2 u.s. citizens detained by the houthi the rebels also sent back the remains of a 3rd american who died in captivity. citizen was living working in yemen and. was in prison for a $199.00 days 2 years and 6 months in solitary confinement. and it was hell really how bad bad experience and i think. his majesty some fun for his assistance in getting us. the u.n. held the prisoner exchange as a milestone it's hope is to convince feuding parties to restart political talks to

end the war in yemen. un envoy martin griffiths faces a delicate task to hand encouraging the parties to do just that. but yemen is now more divided than ever the iran backed her thesis control most of the north the saudi backed government is losing ground and secessionists backed by the u.a.e. in the south whitening to declare a state of their own. for. bonnie is the international committee of the red cross is near and middle east regional director he says more releases should take place because of the die humanitarian situation. i think i have the end of the day. you need a political will to make such a result detainees possible because because there is one very important element in

these freedoms it took place it's taking place why the conflict is ongoing most of the time result detainees happen at the end of a country not during and i think we should stress this and be take it as a positive step i think they've done something really hard i want to believe that all parties to this conflict realize that they reached the end of the road or at least the people of yemen beach the end of the rope you know 80 percent of the people here at the end you may turn system more than 20000000 of people have no access to. who to health to water and sanitation i can give you a just an example to illustrate a bit how dramatic is the situation in in in the i.c.r.c. as open only one center for treatment of corona virus patients in the world. and it's yemen it's in aden because the situation is so traumatic the mortality

rate is so high that we had to make an exception to our policy and open and also. treat our various cases in yemen this demonstrates that yemeni people they reach the end of the old school these political will needs to be present and we want to believe that it's present the fanatic at the james bays at the un with more reaction to the prisoner swap. i think this was carefully coordinated although i've been speaking to officials of the international committee of the red cross over the last 2 years since that deal that took place in stockholm and they've been working on this and it's been extremely frustrating at times ambassadors are broadly welcoming what's happening june who is the chinese ambassador to the u.n. i spoke to him on his way into the security council and he said this was good news

but they had to go much further than out to get a lot of good news a lot more good news and that's certainly been the position too of the u.n. special envoy martin griffiths who is hoping that this will encourage other developments he described this is an airlift of hope the implementation of this agreement will build confidence and indeed momentum by demonstrating a simple truth that peaceful dialogue. between the parties and deliver the road back to peace prisoners' agreement does not encourage many thousands more yemenis detained during the course of this project and it is that for our obligation and the obligation of the parties to convene very soon just guss further releases the challenges ahead he said there are many more detainees in the next 24 hours we're going to see i think 1081 prisoners

released we think there are over 7000 prisoners that are still in custody in this conflict. still ahead on al-jazeera. tens of thousands of protesters fill the streets of bangkok defying a ban on large gatherings and is more political fallout from al-jazeera as investigation into cyprus is cash the passport scandal. how the weather's looking lost the fight across arabian peninsula no surprises there but be a little cool side over the next dial so i said here in the gulf temperatures struggling to get into the low thirty's 33 celsius here in doha chills of water to

spits the spots of right nothing much to speak of most of it if you do see anything evaporating before it does reach the ground i just see 2 celsius on saturday patel that's looking absolutely lovely over the next day or 2 then lossie fine and dry as i said across the region charles so the odd shower into that western side of yemen and i think you may well see want to take showers feeding over towards the whole of africa as we go through the next day or 2 but joshi the showers across central africa some more big downpours into the democratic republic of the congo some rather heavy rain also feeding across into central and southern parts of angola over the next day or 2 there were some shot showers around the rift valley rwanda burundi saying some showers you might even catch a welcome shower there into malawi as we go through the next day i also want to showers to into central parts of madagascar come to the south of that and it's fine and dry looking good in botswana now we're seeing temperatures getting up into the mid thirty's here fine and dry across south africa warming up in jo'burg to around

31 degrees. frank assessments. if american public opinion pieces betrayed by social media platforms after november what would be different cultures if you believe that there corrosive to our democracy one obvious solution is to break from an informed opinion look at checkers don't go anywhere the protesters aren't going anywhere either it's a political revolution. in-depth analysis of the day's global headlines who is it that's really out there on the street inside story on al-jazeera. roof. oh. wow.

welcome back you're watching i'll just 0 time to recap our headlines now the president of the european commission are sort of on the lion abruptly left in the e.u. summit in brussels asked if she came in contact with someone infected with cope with 19 meeting is going ahead as planned. u.s. democratic vice presidential candidate campbell harris has suspended all imposing events after 2 of her campaign members tested positive both paris and joe biden have tested negative kyrgyzstan's prime minister has assumed presidential powers after both the president and the speaker of parliament resigned there have been weeks of anti-government protests since the disputed parliamentary election earlier this month. corona virus cases are surging across europe and countries are imposing new restrictions to curb the outbreak in the u.k. london is moving to the 2nd highest covert 19 alert level countries reporting nearly 20000 new corona virus infections in a day

a new 3 tier lockdown system has come into force in england. now i know that these restrictions are difficult people i hate the fact that we have to bring them in but it is essential that we do bring them in both to keep people safe and to prevent greater economic damage in the future and when the virus is moving fast we cannot stay still if we are collectively we know we can control the virus because we have done it before. may farka has more from london on the new restrictions a lot of the confusion is around the way in which the government has structured its response to dealing with the rising infections across the board in different parts of the u.k. there are 3 different tiers very high high and moderate form one minute past midnight on saturday london a city of 9000000 people goes for the moderate level to the high level which basically means no more mingling of households inside the rule of 6 the limitation

of 6 people meeting outside is still in place so also is the temp pm curfew that governs how bars and restaurants operate we believe also the neighboring county of essex it's subject to this change as well but of course you know there are still big questions about whether this goes far enough you can still go from a high risk area to a moderate risk area so if i wanted to travel from london to oxford sure that be no problem at all that does beg the question well look you know how is that really going to stop the the transmission of this infection in its tracks italy's recorded its highest single day tally of new infections since the start of the pandemic is reported nearly 9000 new cases on thursday infections there are surging again particularly in northern italy where the pandemic 1st took hold in march. france is deploying police across paris and 8 other cities to enforce night curfews that will

begin from saturday new measures were announced after hospital admissions reached their highest levels since june. hundreds of anti-government protesters are on the streets of bangkok openly defying a government ban on public gatherings calling for the prime minister's resignation and reforms to the monarchy scott hyla has more from bangkok police leave a long night out front of thailand's seat of power government house as street cleaners wash away what was left behind by the thousands of anti-government protesters from the night before several 100 protesters camped out overnight and just before 5 am they were pushed out with calls from protest leaders for calm they left peacefully but later in the day some of the most high profile protest leaders were arrested the protester clearing operation was given the green light when an emergency decree was announced at 4 am saying that gatherings of more than 5 people it was now illegal. the decree cited that the protests were illegal public gatherings causing chaos and disorder and threatening state security part of the

justification for that decree was this hundreds of protesters using a 3 finger salute as the motorcade of queen city da past by the salute has become a symbol of the protests the calls for government and monarchy reform at the daily life that even removing the prime minister. would not result. in higher that because. you know deep problems. not just lie and the. case that has moved on now from. there you want to see it to be coming. he just want to reform now as we are now in new territory where the protest is directly in strongly calling for reform in the monarchy the government no doubt is feeling immense pressure from the palace. defined that new emergency order and risking arrest protesters took over

a major intersection in one of the high end shopping districts in central bangkok they set up a stage where they called for their protest leaders to be freed saying they'll continue their protests making sure that they are heard by those in power it's got harder al-jazeera banks are the speaker of the cypriot parliament demitra sideris has resigned in the wake of a cash for passport scandal and al jazeera investigation found senior politicians were willing to sell cypriot passports to convicted criminals the scheme was run to attract financial investment in exchange for citizenship the government has now abolished the program from nicosia his david harris. has been another dramatic development in cyprus where the speaker of parliament demitra serious has announced his resignation now as the senators have been hanging on for a couple of days but we seem protests outside parliament on 2 successive nights and his name is the one they were calling for to resign this is serious did not admit

any wrongdoing he still maintains his innocence but he was a key figure in al jazeera documentary which revealed him to be agreeing to help a chinese criminal op tain an e.u. passport the last couple of days and also seen him being something of an object of ridicule with means showing him holding the now notorious glass of red wine and winking at the camera this is a serious insists that he will be proven innocent when the attorney general's investigation is complete but for now it's another scalp for the people who say that this man is corrupt despite his objections and that he has to step down. israel has approved the construction of thousands more illegal settler homes in the occupied west bank that brings the total number of homes approved to almost $5000.00 over the past 2 days the palestinian leadership has condemned the move it's the 1st time jewish settler homes have been authorized since israel suspended plans to annex palestinian land as part of a deal with the united arab emirates. has more from bethlehem in the occupied west

bank the number of illegal israeli settlement units promoted this year is the largest in nearly a decade close to me and say that the israeli government is emboldened by the trump administration settlement activity has increased by 25 percent since trump took office one of the largest expansions in the latest israeli decision is in this settlement over here built over the lands of the well as a village near bethlehem over $9950.00 new units will establish a neighborhood that is larger than the settlement itself they moved israelis is not only to build this certainly but. build them in a way that they can link. physical geography between jerusalem and the west bank between communities behind the green line and the settlements within the west bank this is the 1st and i will cement of its kind since the u.a.e.

and behind a normalized relations with israel the deal was full the based on freezing annexation but for palestinians the ongoing settlement expansion is the fact that panic stations were not only talking about their homes but roads infrastructure and separation barriers and israeli settlers eating up palestinian resources. wife has become difficult for millions in zimbabwe especially the elderly many had saved to see them through retirement but the 700 percent inflation rate and the economic crisis of wiped out much of their savings the pandemic is making life even harder. more for melford in. the province. 68 year old juliet macur has a waits for her daily food ration her sick husband can't walk to the soup kitchen that means bring home something for him to behind her is 75 year old jimmy banda

his wife died some years ago his children are in south africa looking for work this ration of zimbabwe staple food a parish made from maize and vegetables must feed him and his 4 grandchildren. have been coming here for 2 weeks at least i know my grandchildren and i have something to eat daily this placed my somewhat close there are a lot of our struggling in the soup kitchen feeds on average 3000 people a day samantha mohr ozaki started it when she saw families in the community going to bed hungry she says a lot of older people who live alone are regulars some will tell you that their children. have died because of hiv and aids and some will tell you that they went to south africa and they never came back or remember them some will tell you that. he or she is there but doesn't do anything for me so i have to make a plan for myself. some of these pensioners had decent jobs and

diligently saved for retirement but decades of inflation in zimbabwe wiped out a savings zimbabweans are facing their worst economic crisis in a decade soaring inflation shortages of food foreign currency and now the coronavirus has made things worse we used to get assistance from come by means individuals but because these individuals come and use the. also they're also facing financial challenges therefore they also find it different now finding the difficult to extend their hand to assist. the early. old age homes receive a monthly grant from the state and the government does give cash to fondle families in urban and rural areas but it's not enough according to census data nearly 10 years ago older people make up about 6 percent of the population. and some of the most eclectic. the government said it's going to introduce

a universal pension scheme for older people with a struggling economy it could be months or even years before that benefit is implemented. what it's about. and let's take a look at some of the headlines here and al jazeera now the president of the european commission on the lion abruptly left in the u.s. summit in brussels all tissue came in contact with someone infected with covert 19 the meeting is going ahead as planned u.s. democratic vice presidential candidate campbell harris has suspended all imposing events after 2 of our campaign members tested positive both paris and job i have tested negative kyrgyzstan's prime minister has assumed presidential powers after both the president and the speaker of parliament resigned or even weeks of antigovernment.