this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: president donald trump has been taken to hospital for treatment after being diagnosed with coronavirus. he left the white house unaided, wearing a mask. on twitter he said he was doing well. i am going to walter reed hospital. i think i am doing very well, but we are going to make sure that things work out. the first lady is doing very well. so thank you very much. i appreciate it. i will never forget it. thank you. he's already been treated with an antibody cocktail and vitamins. his doctors earlier said he was fatigued but in good spirits. we'll look at the possible health risks the president is facing.

donald trump has been taken to the walter reed medical hospital as a precaution less than 2a hours after testing positive for coronavirus. his physician said he was feeling fatigued but in good spirits and is expected to spend the next few days there. here's our north america editorjon sopel. an extraordinary moment in an extraordinary day. the president leaves by marine one from the south lawn. destination — walter reed military hospital. i think i am doing very well, but we're going to make sure that things work out. the first lady is doing very well. so thank you very much. i appreciate it. i will never forget it. thank you. but if the symptoms are mild, why is he having

to go to hospital, particularly when the white house has its own medical unit with a team of doctors and nurses, and a well—equipped surgery? as you know, tonight's al smith dinner... on thursday night, in what appears to now be grim irony, the president made a speech from the white house about the pandemic. "the worst was behind us", he said. and i just want to say that the end of the pandemic is in sight, and next year will be one of the greatest years in the history of our country. but then later that evening came a bombshell statement that will reverberate around the world. the most serious health issue to affect a serving president in decades. a hint of something being wrong came earlier in the evening when it announced that this woman, hope hicks, had contracted the virus. on wednesday she was part of the inner circle to travel with the president on the cramped marine one helicopter. none of them is wearing a mask. as donald trump seemed to dance with joy at the rally in duluth, minnesota, she had become symptomatic and was quarantined on air force one for the return journey to washington. the ripples of concern

will reach everyone who has been in close contact with the president — not leastjoe biden, who shared a debate stage with him for a shouty 90 minutes on tuesday night. a debate where the president ripped into the democratic candidate for his mask wearing. i don't wear masks like him. every time you see him he has got a mask. he could be speaking 200 feet away and he shows up with the biggest mask i've ever seen. (laughs) and it was noticeable that none of the trump entourage wore face coverings. that actually violated the rules of the cleveland clinic which was in charge of all the safety issues inside the hall, which were that everybody except the president, the vice president and i were were not supposed to wear masks — i mean, were supposed to wear masks. the president has won masks in public on less than a handful of occasions, and his ambivalence towards them is evident. can you take it off? because i cannot hear you. i willjust speak louder, sir. oh, ok, you want to be politically correct. i just don't want

to wear one myself. it is a recommendation — they recommend it. i am feeling good. and he has been holding rallies as though covid was in the rearview mirror, with thousands turning up, no attempts at social distancing, few wearing masks. messages of support have come in from around the world. this from boris johnson, who has been where the president is now. i think we all want to send our best wishes to the president, and the first lady, and i have done that this morning, as you can imagine. and i am sure that they will both stage a very strong recovery. and messages of support too from political rivals. this from joe biden, who has tested negative. my wifejill and i pray that they will make a quick and full recovery. this is not a matter of politics. it's a bracing reminder to all of us that we have to take this virus seriously. but another leading democrat, the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, comes very close to saying to the president, "serves you right." this is tragic — it's very sad.

but it also is something that... again, going into crowds, unmasked and all the rest, was sort of a brazen invitation for something like this to happen. the president has now left the white house and is in the care of the medical teams at walter reed medical centre, to the north of washington. it is an unbelievable series of developments that have taken place today. two days ago, no—one could have imagined this. but now the president has coronavirus and he is in hospital, and who knows how the election will unfold. i'm joined now by barbara plett usher. she is outside the hospital. does the machinery of government simply moved to walter reed, where you are, or does it completely stopped while donald trump is there?

well, the white house has said that president trump is not standing down. he hasn't allocated his powers to somebody else. he is still in charge, and they have said that he will continue with his duties here at the hospital. now, that is possible in terms of capabilities, because he is in an executive suite designed for presidents, really, which has all of the bells and whistles he needs to do that communications office space and so communications office space and so on, but really it depends on how he feels. he has just started to show symptoms, and of course different people experience covid differently, but a common trajectory is that it tends to start soft and get quite a bit worse in four or five days. a lot will depend on how he feels, but he has the communications to be able to communicate with his advisers and make decisions if they need

him to do that at this point — at least that is what we are told. one of the fascinating contradictions i've been struggling with is that donald trump became famous as a german folk. he didn't really like shaking hands with people —— germophobe. how do we reconcile those perspectives from the same person? it's a good question, and i'm not sure there is an easy answer. you are right, he has defined himself as a germophobe, and yet in the midst of this pandemic he has been very, very unwilling to follow the public health advice. he doesn't wear a mask. he was shaking hands with people for a while long after that was — he was told not to do that. he has gone into public places, rallies, with people who are not wearing masks. no, he has said that he is distant from them — he is on

a stage, which is true, and most of them have been outside. but he has been doing inside events as well. it's possible that the white house and mr trump as well have developed a false sense of security because of all the testing they've been doing. i think he is tested every day at least, so there's a sense that if you test negative, he is ok, but you are only ok until your next test, frankly, because you could get covid between one of the other if you are not following the also, hejust had a if you are not following the also, he just had a very strong antipathy to admitting that the disease was getting worse, that he might have failed in how he handled the pandemic, and he just really wanted everything to go back to the way it was. he seemed to be willing it to go back to the way it was. so there may have been that kind of psychological blocks or mental decision as well. but you are right, it is an interesting contradiction. let's speak to our north america correspondent, peter bowes.

lets sta nd lets stand back a little bit. donald trump is meant to be the most protected man in the world — not just most protected man in the world — notjust him but the inner circle around him — and yet we see news just now kellyanne conway, one of his main advisers, has contracted the virus. he has contracted the virus. he has contracted the virus. the question is — how did the white house allow this to happen? well, i think many have made the point that donald trump is a law unto himself, and he might be the world's most protected man, but he does things his way. and it seems as if perhaps impart his attitude towards the coronavirus and the protection of himself, and therefore by definition those around him, has been subject to his views on the virus, the use of masks, the use of social distancing. i think that in big pa rt distancing. i think that in big part is why we are seeing what is happening right now. and there is a crisis that seems to

be worsening by the minute and a dawning realisation that there is seemingly a covid cluster that is affecting those very, very close to the president. you mentioned kellyanne conway, who has within the last hour or so tweeted that she is positive for the virus. she says she is experiencing mild symptoms and has a light cough. interestingly, she attended last weekend when donald trump announced his nominee for the supreme court, amy coney barrett, and five others who also attended that event, including two republican senators, have also tested positive for coronavirus. so this is swirling around the white house, and it's impossible really to predict where it's going to go next. so are their efforts to track the president's movements and those of everyone who has been affected ? those of everyone who has been affected? i those of everyone who has been affected ? i read those of everyone who has been affected? i read a number of white house journalists as

well. given there have been numerous campaign events and political events over the last week. yeah, there have been so many it's almost difficult to believe it's only a week since that white house event with the supreme court nominee. very quickly, last night, as the news was unfolding wants president trump revealed he had tested positive, the white house was quick to say that contact tracing was under way and that those relevant people who had perhaps been in contact with mrtrump, who had perhaps been in contact with mr trump, members of his family or his close entourage, we re family or his close entourage, were being contacted. but as you imply, this is a huge operation, and innocence, where do you stop? because the president has been to rallies. he attended, of course, the debate with joe he attended, of course, the debate withjoe biden in the middle of the week, and he has continued business as normal in the oval office of the white house, running the country, so the number of people, whether directly or indirectly, that the president and others have

come into contact with must run into the thousands. a very long week. thank you so much. the president has been given a treatment similar to one being trialled in the uk to see if it's effective for the coronavirus. our science correspondent, rebecca morelle, explains the thinking behind it. how does this work? when a person is infected with coronavirus, they produce antibodies. these attach to this spike of the virus, blocking it from entering our cells. we make hundreds of different types of antibodies, so scientists sifted through them to find the best at sticking to the virus. they chose two because they both attach to slightly different parts of the spike, so if the virus mutates and the structure changes, at least one will still work. both antibodies are then multiplied in the lab and produced in huge quantities. they are then mixed together and given to the patient,

immediately boosting their own immune response. here's doctorjeremy faust, an emergency medicine doctor and coronavirus specialist at brigham and women's hospital and harvard medical school. we keep hearing more news, and in terms of a critical illness, more news is never good news u nless more news is never good news unless it is explicitly good news, such as — the president's feeling better, the president's ready to go home. any of these developments keep adding onto this overall picture that this is not going as well as one would hope. however, we still have a long way to go before we can say this is over and that we are through the worst of it or that we can say that things can get much worse. so at the moment it's very tense, because things have developed extremely quickly. i think that that can happen with coronavirus, but in the light of those cases, those

are the ones that do catch our attention and deserve extra attention. what kind of things will doctors be looking for as they have him know in front of them in walter reed? if you wa nt to them in walter reed? if you want to follow the evidence—based medicine approach — that is, using the best data that we have come up with — then the things that really matter right now are his oxygen levels and just how fast he is breathing, and whether or not he develops any sign of any organ dysfunction. those are the prognostic indicators that would tell us that we have not a mild or moderate case but a severe or critical case. the treatments, such as dexamethasone, which the british trials have shown to help the most severe cases, become helpful for patients who require oxygen and even would require oxygen and even would require mechanical ventilation — things like rambo severe are helpful for patients who have a more severe illness but not the

most severe —— remdesivir. so you really have to look at the patient as a whole, try to forget he is the president and treat him like a normal person, and from there, it's straightforward. we've been told he has significant risk factors — his age, the weight he carries, the fact he is a man. these are all factors which will clearly be concerning to doctors. from the very beginning of this process we have known a lot about who is most at risk. unfortunately, we have learned that the risk is not just limited to we have learned that the risk is notjust limited to people of that demographic. we see younger cases all the time. but our initial impression about this virus is that it hits people in that demographic — those you describe perfectly — the hardest, and those that have to be admitted to the hospital, the risk is much higher. again, we are left to wonder — is he hospitalised because he needs to be hospitalised or because he is the president of the united states and it was advised to have a little more close monitoring? that's hard to know. so hopefully for him he is being admitted to the

hospital because he is the president, not because he would be if he were any other patient. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: with just a month to go before the election, what impact could the president's illness have at the ballot box? in all russia's turmoil, it has never quite come to this. president yeltsin said the day would decide the nation's destiny. the nightmare that so many people have feared for so long is playing out its final act here. russians are killing russians in front of a grandstand audience. it was his humility which produced affection from catholics throughout the world, but his departure is a tragedy for the catholic church. this man, israel's right—winger ariel sharon, visited the religious compound, and that started the trouble. he wants israel alone to have sovereignty over the holy sites, an idea that is unthinkable to palestinians. after 45 years of division, germany is one. in berlin, a million germans celebrate the rebirth of europe's biggest

and richest nation. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: president donald trump has been taken to a military hospital as a precaution after being diagnosed with coronavirus. he's already been treated with a cocktail of antibodies and vitamins. his doctors have said he's fatigued but in good spirits. well, with just a month to go before the presidential election, what impact could donald trump's illness have at the ballot box? our north america correspondent, nick bryant, reports from michigan. the lockdown is a scam! the covid press are a scam!

the coronavirus has opened up yet another fault line in an already fractured country. these militiamen part of a protest of those who see the covid restrictions as a threat to american liberty. cheering. it was packed with supporters of donald trump, most of them still not wearing masks, and began with heads bowed in prayer for the president. if we can take five seconds just to say a prayer for the guy, if that's ok? lord, we pray for president trump, his family, for a swift recovery. i understand he's got some mild symptoms, but i think he'll probably be over them soon and it'll be a victory for him. victory, in what way? victory in showing that there's a lot of overreaction to this covid stuff. ijust hope he pulls through it. do you think he took enough precautions? do you think he should have worn a mask? no. i think everybody, this is a free country and everybody should not be dictated to, and everybody shouldn't have to wear a mask if they don't want to. this was another covid protest, of childcare workers bemoaning

the lack of financial aid. and their responses to the overnight news spoke of how in american democracy right now, there's not even an agreed—upon set of facts. i don't believe it. why don't you believe it? i think it's just a ploy, because he did so bad debating. he did horrible in the debates. so i think it's a ploy to get out of debating again. and if he does have it, i don't believe it. i can't even say if he does have it. ijust don't believe it. michigan is a key battle ground state that donald trump won unexpectedly in 2016. but there aren't so many trump yard signs as there were four years ago. we've fallen flat on our face. jack spielman is a lifelong republican who supported him back then, but he's already voted forjoe biden, partly because of the president's mishandling of covid. initially denied it, called it fake news, blamed it on the democrats, blamed it on the chinese. then he transitioned

and said it's going to go away like magic. then it was going to go away when the heat comes. then we just had to deal with it, and then it was we were going to have a vaccine just before the election. we can't trust anything he says with it. in a bygone political age, the nation might have rallied behind a leader suffering from a virus that had killed so many of his compatriots. but this is such a deeply divided america, and this is such a deeply divisive american president. crowd: usa, usa! even this pandemic has become an accelera nt of political polarisation. nick bryant, bbc news, michigan. let's look at the international reaction to the news in asia. surbhi kaul is from bbc monitoring in delhi. surbhi, how are people in india and more widely in south asia following the news? in india, prime minister narendra modi

tweeted just within hours of the news being broken, he wished recovery to the president. but overall on social media, on average, what we have seen is that the reaction is deeply divided. while they have on people who have sympathised with the us president and wished him a speedy recovery, others have been much less supportive. in fa ct, been much less supportive. in fact, on chinese social media, the news of the president and his wife testing positive went viral and users were mocking the president for his past claims and making jokes about it. so it has certainly been a divided reaction. and in china, of course, because they would feel bitter and angry that president trump has used almost every occasion to blame china for the virus? would that explain the hostility some people have shown? yes, that would explain the hostility to some extent, and relations between the us and china have of course been at their lowest in decades now. in chinese social media users have been

following is about president trump and his various state m e nts trump and his various statements throughout. so there was a little bit of gangster there and they are using this as an opportunity to mock him and make fun of his previous state m e nts and make fun of his previous statements regarding the virus. surbhi, thank you. well, del clinton wilber is an investigative report of the los angeles times. he is also the reporter of the book rawhide down, about the assassination —— near assassination of ronald reagan in 19 181. earlier i spoke to him about the walk that donald trump made across the lawn of the white house, and housing president reagan what was also relevant when he was shot. well, it was a very important to ronald reagan, back in 1981, to demonstrate he wasn't in trouble. he wasn't on live television when he did that, right? in fact, it happened so quickly after the assassination attempt, three minutes, but he arrived at the hospital, he was doing it mostly to send a message to those around him. and himself, probably.

like, "i can do this." and then, as we know, he got into the hospital and managed to walk 35 feet before he collapsed like a dead weight into the arms of his agents. and we learned he had been shot and nearly killed. reagan lost more than half his blood that day and a bullet was extracted just an inch from his heart. but to your point about it being important for donald trump to be seen walking to the helicopter, it goes, actually, to the next day after reagan had been shot, the day after he had been shot he had to sign a dairy bill, and it's kind of crazy, the dairy bill, but if he didn't sign the bill it wouldn't go into effect, and they were desperate to make sure he could sign it, his aides, to send the message that the president was ok and doing his job. been shot and he scrawled, you can see how messy his signature is — and that was the moment that i think is more analogous to today, they are

trying to demonstrate that the president is doing hisjob and is ok. because you have to send a message. you don't want to send the message that the president is in dire straits. do americans tend to rally around a leader who is struck down either by a bullet, or in this case a virus? absolutely, there's a big sympathy factor. we don't want the president to die, people are praying for him to get better. reagan, when he was shot, there was a lot of goodwill from people but it went beyond sympathy. reagan was a very humble person. he showed a lot of grit and courage when he was shot. when he saw his wife, she walked into the emergency room and he was in the trauma bay with a chest tube jammed into his side, draining all this blood, he looked at his wife and the first thing he said was, "honey, iforgot to duck." he wasn't worried about himself, he was worried about those around him. those messages and the quips he issued that day got out, and it formed a bond with the american people because it reinforced the image of who ronald reagan really

was. he was a cowboy. well, to recap the menus, president trump, who has been diagnosed with coronavirus, has been admitted to walter reed hospital, nearwashington. this was the moment many people have been studying throughout the day, the moment president trump left the diplomatic reception room of the white house, having been diagnosed with coronavirus, wearing a mask and walking towards marine one. he then flew in a shortjourney towards walter reed hospital, and this is the seen live outside walter reed, where in the last few hours that small crowd has been growing to a certain extent. one protester, whether pro and teacher, has been saying matters". many of those people are in favour of donald trump. the white house says it expects the president to be in hospitalfor a few days, and will continue to monitor the president's progress and of course we will

monitor the future of the presidential campaign, as america had to devote on november three. hello there. scotland, northern ireland didn't fare too badly on friday with some good spells of sunshine around, some pleasant sunset scenes as well. but for england and wales, it really was pretty atrocious. wet and windy — all courtesy of storm alex — and it looks like all areas willjoin in with the heavy rain this weekend, including scotland and northern ireland. could cause some transport disruption, some flooding in places, and the winds will be quite a feature too. so for saturday, it looks thoroughly wet to start the day across much of england and wales, eastern scotland, that rain also drifting a little bit further westwards at times. but meanwhile, it will be clearing a little bit from the south—east, so here, we could see some brightness into the afternoon, but it stays windy. south wales into south—west england, those temperatures pretty disappointing — the low teens for most of us, could see 16 in the south—east.

but it's the rainfall amounts we are most concerned about this weekend. saturday into sunday morning, amber warnings issued for parts of wales, the south—west of england and also for the east and north—east of scotland. areas here, certainly over the high ground, could see in excess of two inches of rain, so flooding is likely to be an issue here. as we move through saturday night then, that rain really piles its way westwards, affecting northern ireland as well. winds will be quite strong across the south—west. temperatures a little bit lower than what we had for the previous night — typically around 9—10 degrees. now, this new area of low pressure will be sitting right across the uk as we head on into part two of the weekend. it will be sending bands of cloud and rain around the country, mainly around its periphery, where we will also see the strongest of the winds — gale force winds at times here — but in the centre of it, winds not quite as strong. and we should see some sunshine and that will set off a few heavy, maybe thundery showers. and again, those temperatures pretty disappointing — in the low teens for most. as we move out of sunday into monday, our area of low pressure begins to fill somewhat, begins to weaken a little bit, but it is still going to be enough to generate

showers or longer spells of rain, certainly around the edges. fairly strong winds, too, though those winds will continue to ease down. central areas will see the lightest of winds with some sunny spells through monday afternoon, but that could set off some heavy, maybe thundery showers again. temperatures again low teens for most but we could make 15 or 16 in the south—east, given some sunshine and light winds. but it remains unsettled as we head through the new week, certainly for england and wales, with a high chance of heavy showers and sunny spells.

this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump has been admitted to the walter reed military hospital in washington to undergo medical tests as a precautionary measure after having contracted coronavirus. earlier, the president's doctor released a statement saying mr trump was fatigued but in good spirits and he was expected to continue to work. president trump has been receiving an experimental drug to treat his coronavirus infection. it is a synthetic antibody cocktail which has not yet been tested on a large scale. early results from a small trial showed a decline in virus levels after patients had been given a high dose of the drug. mr trump's democratic challenger, joe biden, has twice tested negative for the virus following tuesday's debate. he's continued his campaign with a speech in michigan. he announced he would temporarily withdraw negative adverts regarding president trump due to his health. the first minister of scotland,

nicola sturgeon,