this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm james reynolds. 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'm going to walter reed hospital, i think i am doing this this 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.

hello and welcome. president 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 at extraordinary day. destination walter reid e hospital.” extraordinary day. destination walter reid e hospital. i think i'm doing very well that we are going to make sure that tings workout, the first lady is doing really well. thank you very much, i appreciate it, i'll neverforget it, very much, i appreciate it, i'll never forget it, thank you. but if the symptoms are mild, worries having to do boat hospital, particularly when the

white house has its own medical unit with a team of doctors and medical workers... on thursday night at what now appears to be grim irony, the president made a speech from the white house about the pandemics of the worst was behind us, he said.” just want worst was behind us, he said.|j just want to say that the end of 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 effect a serving president in decades. a hint of something being wrong came early in the evening when it was 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 millard —— minnesota, she became symptomatic and was quarantined under return journey. the ripples of concern will reach anyone who has been

in close contact with the president, not leastjoe biden who shared a debate stage with him fora who shared a debate stage with him for a shouting 90 minutes on tuesday night. a debate where the president ripped into the democratic candidate for his mask—wearing. i don't wear a mask 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. 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 for the president, the vice president and i were not supposed to wear masks, were supposed to wear a mask. the president has worn 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'll just speak louder, sir. oh, ok, good. you want to be politically correct. i just don't want to wear one myself. it's a recommendation, they recommend it. i'm feeling good.

and he's been holding rallies as though covid was in the rear—view mirror, with thousands turning up, no attempts at social distancing, few wearing masks. messages of support from around the world. this from boris johnson, who's been where the president is now. obviously i think we all want to send our best wishes to the president and the first lady, and i've done that this morning, as you can imagine. and i'm sure that they will both stage a very strong recovery. and messages of support too from political rivals. this from joe biden, who's tested negative today. my wifejill and i pray they will make a full recovery. 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 a 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 as in the —— 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 events 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. jon sopel, bbc news, at the white house. i'm joined now by barbara plett usher. she is outside walter read hospital. i understand there is an update? that's right, president trump's physician has put out another update and he has said that he took the decision to have president trump admitted to hospital for further modest —— monitoring

together with johns further modest —— monitoring together withjohns hopkins as well as the hospital itself but crucially, he said he had administered a dose of the drug remdesivir to president trump. this is an antiviral drug which has received emergency youth authorisation here to treat covid patients who are in hospital. this is after mr trump got another drug, and experimental drug which was supposed to prevent, those are some of mr trump's supporters, in case you can hear them, this is supposed to prevent serious illness was up he has had two doses of drugs so far. the doctors that he was resting co mforta bly. doctors that he was resting comfortably. that is the update at the moment. and it seems mr trump himself either has access to his phone or knows someone who does because his twitter account is active. yes which i don't think is a big surprise but he had tweeted as he landed

at the hospital, he sent out a tweet with the video of himself and now he has sent out one more tweet which says something like, "going well, i think, thanks to everyone, love, in big caps". so he is communicating in the way that he knows best but we will see whether that continues over the next couple of days will stop this will be crucial days because the disease presents different indifferent people but the common introductory is the symptoms start off mildly and can get white severe over a period of four or five days. i could still be in store for mr trump, perhaps not, but he is also being surrounded, the people who surround him are beginning to test positive, those results are coming in. the latest one is his campaign manager bill seppi and who has reported flulike symptoms. mr

trump has suspended his campaign events so this has been quite a day for not only the president but the campaign -- bill the president but the campaign —— bill stepien. we will have to see how it plays out in the next week but it is really quite extraordinary developments so close to the election. we will be monitoring that cluster of demonstrators who you have been trying to speak over. one of them held up a sign saying "science matters". could this be a moment where americans who were perhaps not convinced about the impact of the virus have a rethink? it certainly is an opening for that. to have the president who has been so dismissive of the virus and the seriousness of the virus and following public guidelines about the virus, to suddenly get ill and is perhaps a wake—up call. he is a very

public figure, obviously. it is wall—to—wall coverage for this first day. it will be beamed out across television and streaming in the united states about what is happening to him which will be brought into people's homes in a way that it happened hasn't been before if it -- if happened hasn't been before if it —— if they haven't personally experienced it. so it isa personally experienced it. so it is a possibility. i suppose that partly depends on what happens to mr trump himself, if he just happens to mr trump himself, if hejust maintains mild symptoms, he may be able to continue to say, and there goes another bevy of them. he may continue to say it isn't that serious and that the country is getting over it. but if he becomes quite ill, perhaps it will be much more of a harsh message. it is difficult to say but i can say that there is the opportunity for that at this point was not barbara, we listen to you, not them. thank you so much. i hope you can hear me. let's speak to our north america correspondent, peter bowes.

we have seen a lot of news in the last half—an—hour or so. president trump's twitter account, he is still using it. the white house has released the statement and what barbara has alluded to commit more names coming out of his inner circle, people who have tested positive. catch our viewers up on where we are with president trump and his entourage and those test, please. it is interesting that in the last hour or interesting that in the last hourorso, we are interesting that in the last hour or so, we are seeing good news, at least in terms of what the president's doctor is saying in his statement, what the president himself has said in that tweet but we are seeing not so good news in terms of other people close to the president as part of his inner circle who are coming forward to say that they, too, have tested positive. kellyanne conway he was a very high—profile figure who is very close, his special counsel, announced recently actually that she was leaving the white house forfamily that she was leaving the white house for family reasons, but she has been very close to the president all the way through his time at the white house, she has tested positive for the

virus and is experiencing some symptoms. as barbara was saying, the person who is guiding mrtrump's saying, the person who is guiding mr trump's presidential election campaign has also said that he is positive stop and this comes on top of, well, two republican senators who have come forward that they are positive. they attended the event last weekend in the rose garden at the white house where president trump nominated his choice for the vacant supreme court seat and it seems now that some seven people who were at that event have tested positive. what it seems, if there is some covert cluster, if you like, that seems to be penetrating really at the heart of american government. and of course looking ahead to the election campaign, in person voting day is only a few weeks away, mr trump seemed for a while he wanted it to be about law and order but surely now, family, this is the pandemic

election. -- -- firmly. and it has been four weeks. it has been four weeks dominating the headlines, like the protest during the summer, like the va ca ncy during the summer, like the vacancy on during the summer, like the vacancy on the supreme court, but everything seems to come back to coronavirus and the fight against this illness that is proving extremely difficult to eradicate. president trump has frequently talked about how a vaccine is coming very, very soon but we have seen no sign of it yet and as often as the president says that, we hear from his medical experts who expressed caution and say, well, the vaccine could appear but it could be many, many months before people are vaccinated on masks. —— on that. these are at the scented of these extraordinary election campaign as it is now. —— at the centre of this extraordinary election campaign. as the democrats, how do they proceed from here? joe biden is clearly continuing with his campaign and the

democrats has withdrawn all of the negative ads, the attack ads, which can sometimes get quite personal about individual candidates but now it seemsjoe biden will be campaigning on the issues, talking about what he will do in the future but you can bet he will be focusing on coronavirus. peter bowes, thank you so much. here is the tweet that, trump has sent out in the last hour. drjeremy faust is an emergency medicine doctor and coronavirus specialist at brigham and women's hospital and harvard medical school. he told me what he'd gleaned from developments in the last few hours. what i make of the condition is that we keep hearing more news, and in terms of a critical illness, more news is never good news unless it's explicitly good news, such as — the president's feeling better,

the president's ready to go home. any of these developments we're hearing keep adding onto this overall picture that this is not goin 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 a lot 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 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 mechanical ventilation — things like remdesivir are helpful for patients who have a more severe illness but not the most severe. 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. —— from the very beginning of this crisis, we have known a lot about who is most at risk. unfortunately, 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 that you described 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. you are watching bbc news. the 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. the president has been given a treatment that involves an injection of antibodies, similar to a system currently being trialled in the uk, to see if its effective against 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. rebecca morelle reporting. joining me now is craig spencer, an er doctor in new york and director of global health in emergency medicine at columbia university medical center. doctor spencer, thank you for joining us. you are aware of

this latest white house statement on the president's health. for our viewers who may be tuning in, the president's physicians as i am happy to report the president is doing very well and is not requiring any supplemental oxygen but in consultation with specialist, we have elected to initiate remdesivir therapy and he has completed his first dose and is resting comfortably. what do you make of that? it does not tell us all that much more than what we have heard through the day and so much of it right now is speculation and i do think the american public deserves more information on how the president is actually doing. it is not just a president is actually doing. it is notjust a health crisis, it is notjust a health crisis, it isa is notjust a health crisis, it is a national security crisis. but the fact that the president is not on supplemental oxygen according to this press release is encouraging. they mentioned he is doing well which is encouraging. he is receiving under severe which until over one month ago was only reserved for patients that were either low on oxygen or receiving supplemental oxygen but as of august 28, the fda in the us

hasissued august 28, the fda in the us has issued an emergency authorisation for nearly all hospitalised patients so it doesn't really tell us all that much. what we do know and what we will know is that if the ensuing next few days if he is put on steroids for example it will tell us that perhaps his illnesses actually but again, right now we don't have a lot going on other than the few state m e nts going on other than the few statements that have been released and a lot of speculation on twitter and in the news media. of course, going back to the second statement, i read the third, the second one came a few hours ago. it talked about the president wally —— receiving an eightg president wally —— receiving an eight g dose of regeneron's polyclo nal eight g dose of regeneron's polyclonal antibody cocktail and we did play a report explaining in broad terms what that was. great. when you see that was. great. when you see that regeneron and remdesivir, are you able to build up a picture of the strategy that president trump's doctors are engaging in? not really. regeneron antibodies are not really well studied. we have

had monoclonal polyclonal antibodies of similar medications for other diseases and they have been well tolerated. for this, it and they have been well tolerated. forthis, it has only been given to a few hundred people and does not have an fda emergency use authorisation like some other treatments for covid—i9. it is being offered on compassionate use only. it is there is some background work that is encouraging, saying that it works well in non— hospitalised patients early in their disease course, but we don't know a whole lot. this was mostly from the press release that we got this information, not from a good solid peer—reviewed journal article. again, a lot of this is speculative and we hope it works and it seems posit promising. it seems a little strange, many people including myself, to be trying and very mental medication on the president. right! -- extra mental medication. but we want to make sure that the president is well and it is early in his illness i do not think it is unreasonable and a lot would

depend on the symptoms the president has in the disease course and consultation with his position. we have to acknowledge and remember that there have been some unusual voices around the president when it comes to science. are you confident he is getting orthodox medical treatment? you mentioned the fact that he seems to be trying out an unproven treatment. quite frankly he is on one of the best medical centres in the world, right across the street from the national institutes of health where his own coronavirus advisor anthony felt works. i have to believe and trust of course that he is receiving best possible care —— faucl receiving best possible care —— fauci. i know someone who works in the er that vips often get more attention and more care which does not always translate into better outcomes, and as doctor felty mentioned you have to treat them like every other patient and for me, that resonates because i have been taking care of coronavirus microsoft to advise since marked ——dr fauci. i was in new

york when it was really bad and the apocalypse walking into the emergency room every day and at the time we did not have enough testing or treatment or ppe all the things that we needed in the things that we needed in the country to take care of our patients and our providers well enough and i really hope that we are able to use this opportunity as a rallying cry for the country to support science and to trust in public health because that is what is going to get us through this right now, we need those things, we need testing and treatment and investments in public health and we need a backing of science and if we're going to get through what been really the worst covid pandemic really the worst covid pandemic really a nywhere really the worst covid pandemic really anywhere in the world to date, we are struggling, we're going into fall with a lot of cases and deaths and we have a president in the hospital and it is all really, really saddening. doctor spencer, thank you so much. thank you. del quentin wilber is an investigative reporter for the los angeles times and also author of the book rawhide down: the near assassination of ronald reagan.

earlier, i spoke to him about the importance of donald trump's walk from the white house to marine one, seeing president regan walking was also relevant when he was shot in 1981. 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, that 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. you know, 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 "hey, the president is ok and he's doing hisjob" so they went into his room the next morning after he had 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 that 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 the american 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. this situation is different so for months and months and months trump has been downplaying the seriousness of the virus and only old people get it, it will go away, it is a hoax. he said all of these things and now he has it and he is in somewhat in some peril if he is going to the hospital. you know, for several days. and so it is a different situation. to bring you up to date with the latest statement released by the president's physician in the last hour, physicians as this evening i'm happy to report the president is doing very well, he is not requiring any supplemental oxygen, he is

now on remdesivir and has completed a dose and is resting co mforta bly. completed a dose and is resting comfortably. do stay with us on bbc news. 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.