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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and we're recording this at 13 hours GMT on Friday, the 2nd of October. Our main news, President Trump and his wife Melania, have tested positive for the coronavirus. Only a few hours earlier, he insisted the U.S. was beating covid-19.

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.

So what does this mean for the election just a month away? And how at risk is the 74 year old president?

Also in the podcast, we all went back to work, crammed into trains. Metrobus system of all the infections are back because they didn't control it.

We have a report from Spain where coronavirus cases are surging again and how European cities are changing as the pandemic leads more people to take up cycling.

Is this the infamous October surprise, an event which upends the US election with just a month to go?

Good morning to you and welcome to CBS This Morning. There's big news on this Friday, October 2nd. Twenty twenty, I'm Gayle King with Anthony Mason and Tony Taco Bell. Breaking news. President Trump and the first lady test positive for the coronavirus and are now in quarantine at the White House.

And the implications of that news for the presidential race and wider U.S. politics are huge. The leader of the world's most powerful nation is at raised risk. He's in his 70s and was classified as obese. At his last health check, Mr. Trump was tested after his adviser, Hope Hicks, was found to have the coronavirus, as he explained to Fox News.

I just went for a test and we'll see what happens. I mean, who knows? But you know very well she's fantastic and she's done a great job. But it's very, very hard when you are with people from the military or for law enforcement and they come over to you and they they want to hug you and they want to kiss you because we really have done a good job for them and you get close and things happen. I was surprised to hear with help, but she's a very warm person with them.

And she she knows there's a risk.

Well, announcing on Twitter that he and Melania had tested positive, Mr. Trump said we will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this together. Mika Mosbacher is an adviser to the Trump 2020 campaign.

He's a warrior and a fighter. And we do not anticipate at this point that he will become incapacitated.

He's got more energy than two 30 year olds. You just went through this a few months ago with your leader, Boris Johnson. It is obviously a hideous disease and many people have lost their lives. But fortunately, in this situation, the president is not even feeling symptoms. Yeah, so so we're feeling very optimistic about the situation.

And shortly before we came into the studio, the US secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, spoke to journalists on a flight from Rome to Croatia.

We're praying for the president and the first lady that they'll have a speedy recovery. I spoke with the vice president's office this morning as well. We're taking this obviously very seriously and we'll do everything we can to keep everyone safe, including you all.

I asked our North America correspondent, David Willa's, what was known about the condition of the president and first lady.

Well, all we know, Oliver, is from the White House, Dr. Sean Connelly, who said that both are well at this time and plan to remain at the White House during their convalescence. That, of course, throws this presidential campaign completely up in the air. President Trump will have to withdraw from the campaign trail for a period of time and remain isolated in the White House.

And what about his duty as president, commander in chief running the country? Will it be able to continue doing that?

Well, this raises that question. And, of course, the coronavirus affects different people in different ways. Should the president of the United States be incapacitated? It is, of course, the vice president, according to the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution, who would take over President Trump is, what, 74 years old? He's chronically overweight and he is therefore officially in a high risk group when it comes to covid-19. But we don't know his precise condition at this moment.

Now, his rival for the presidency is also elderly Joe Biden. And the two came into quite close contact at the presidential debate. Do we know how Joe Biden is at the moment?

Well, we don't there's been no word from the Biden camp thus far and how close Mr. Trump got to his Democratic rival before or after that debate is an open question. But we do know that Joe Biden gets tested weekly for the coronavirus. It's just one aspect of the questions raised about contact tracing. The president and Hope Hicks have been in contact with the president's sons, Eric and Donald Jr., his daughter Ivanka, the presidential adviser, Steven Miller, the Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, and so on over the course of the last week.

And what about the vice president? Because there is supposed to be a vice presidential debate coming up shortly. Will Mike Pence be able to take part?

Well, it's a very good question. He has also it's been reported being in contact with Hope Hicks quite recently. And, of course, is the man, as I mentioned, who might have to fill the president's shoes should the 25th Amendment have to be invoked. All we know is that he tweeted this evening saying that his wife, Karen, and he sent our love and prayers, as he put it, to their dear friends, Donald Trump and the first lady.

We join millions across America. The tweet goes on in praying for their full and swift recovery.

David Willis, our North America correspondent, talking to me in the early. As of Friday morning, in the past few hours, the vice president's spokesman has said that Mike Pence has tested negative for the virus while Joe Biden has wished the president and the first lady a swift recovery.

But just like the British prime minister and Brazilian President Donald Trump has become the latest world leader to catch a virus they previously played down in the TV debate. On Tuesday night, Mr Trump mocked Joe Biden for regularly wearing a mask. And just hours before he tested positive, the president gave a speech to a Catholic charity in which he said the U.S. was beating the virus.

We mourn for all of those who lost a loved one, and in their memory, we will defeat the virus. Through advances in treatment, we have reduced the fatality rate by 85 percent since just April. We're on track to develop and distribute a vaccine before the end of the year and maybe substantially before. 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.

Washington correspondent Anthony Zuiker has reported from the White House many times over the past few years. What does he make of it all?

It is particularly remarkable, given the way Donald Trump has handled the coronavirus pandemic from the beginning of this year, downplaying it, saying that it could disappear on its own. That is going to go away as if by magic and then even more recently saying that the US was turning the corner on this. There were times when the administration took this very seriously, when they were holding coronavirus briefings every single day. There were times where Donald Trump seemed to address the nation and say things like wearing a mask and social distancing were important.

But interspersed in those were also moments where he didn't take it seriously, quite honestly, where he held a massive convention address on the grounds of the White House with a thousand people in the past few weeks, he was holding rallies at airports where people were being bussed in, many of them not wearing masks. So all of that is going to be viewed in the context of this announcement. And while I think the president will get sympathy's from most of the American public, there are also going to be some very real questions about his handling of the virus and how this reflects on that.

Well, is it likely to mean for the presidential race it is going to put Donald Trump's presidential campaign on hold, at the very least for the next week or two? If he recovers without any symptoms, perhaps by the middle of October, we could get back on the campaign trail. But we're only thirty two days from the presidential election. So that is conceivably a half of the remaining days where if he can campaign at all, it would have to be via remote video or or virtually.

So it will be interesting to see how the Biden campaign, the Democrats handle this. There is a definitely a risk that they could overplay their hand in criticizing the president and get a backlash from the public who views Donald Trump sympathetically after this. It casts the entire campaign, not just the presidential campaign, but all of the senators and congressmen who are running for office. All of this in doubt because it is an event that, while shocking, I guess, is somewhat also not surprising given Donald Trump's attitude and his behavior in dealing with the virus.

But it is going to be very difficult to predict what happens in the next four weeks.

How was this allowed to happen? It's interesting to see because I have been in and out of the White House since the pandemic began and at the very first, they weren't taking it seriously at all. No one was wearing masks. Even reporters were wearing masks. Then they had some close calls. They had press assistant to the vice president come down with a virus. They had an aide, a butler to the president come down with the virus. And at that point, you could see the White House taking it much more seriously where everyone except the president was wearing masks and people began getting daily coronavirus tests.

Whenever I'd go into the White House, I would get a test in the morning if I was going to be anywhere near the president. However, it seemed like in the past month or so since the that convention where they had the big speech with all those thousands of people there, the White House may have been easing a little bit back on their restrictions. People weren't wearing masks as much, I noticed. So it has been a kind of an up and down road for the White House.

The one thing I think we've learned about this virus is that you can't let your guard down. You can't think you've turned a corner because it rears its ugly head again when you least expect it.

What does it mean for running of government? Because presumably Donald Trump has come into contact with a lot of people and indeed senators and and congressmen who are all running for election or many of them.

It is now in the inner sanctum of the halls of the corridors of power in Washington, the West Wing of the White House, the president himself, the president's wife, will one of his senior aides, if they have the virus, they could very well easily pass it on to other senior government officials, some of whom were traveling to Congress to either negotiate coronavirus pandemic. To leave or to introduce the new Supreme Court nominee there, Donald Trump announced on Saturday.

So you have an instance where this could very well spread throughout the Washington's power structure, or at least there are going to be very real concerns that that is going to happen.

Anthony Zuiker in Washington, D.C.. As we've been hearing, President Trump's age and weight mean he is at higher risk of serious complications from the virus. I asked our health and science correspondent James Gallaher, how have men of his age fared during the pandemic globally, in fact, at age 75?

So that's a year older than Donald Trump than it's thought that around one in 25 people who are infected with coronavirus will die. And that continues to spike quite heavily the older you go up to one in four people over the age of 90. So age is by far and away the biggest risk factor for coronavirus. But, you know, it's a dangerous game because you can compare to 74 year olds and one of them will be an incredible health. And one of them could already be in a care home needing a huge amount of support to stay alive.

So it can be dangerous to take these kind of big, broad spectrum things that apply across the whole of the population. Yes, age does increase the risk and try to read too much into one individual.

Of course, President Trump doesn't drink. He claims to be super healthy, but he is a bit overweight. How much of a risk is that?

Well, not as big as as ages, but obesity is another one of the risk factors that has cropped up. I mean, if you looked at the hospital data in the United States or in other countries, then you notice there were a disproportionate number of people who were overweight or obese in the past. The problem is we don't really know why. There are some suggestions that being overweight affects how the immune system works. It might be harder to fight the virus off or it might increase the risk of having that dangerous inflammatory response which causes severe covid-19.

Or if you have what, you might just have a dodgy heart and type two diabetes in your body, just struggling anyway. And it's easier to tip it over with a coronavirus infection on top.

Of course, the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, suffered. He looked okay at first and then he he struggled to be ended up in hospital.

So it can take quite a while to get over this.

Yeah, well, the thing to stress at the moment is we don't even know if President Trump is ill. I mean, he's tested positive, but there's been no description of him actually having symptoms that he has coronavirus. But does he have covid-19? We don't know. So the incubation period can be up to two weeks. Average is five days. But from the day you're infected, it can take quite a long time for the first symptoms to emerge.

And then it's a long process then after that, before it becomes a severe disease, at least another week after that. So I get a funny feeling when we talk about Trump for a long time, even without an election going on. James Gallagher, our health and science correspondent.

Still to come on the podcast, the EU is acting against those who oppose the democratic movement.

And I think this is a very important signal to the European Union announced sanctions against officials in Belarus over allegations of rigging the recent presidential election.

The pandemic has also caused political ructions in Spain, where the central government has been demanding that stringent new restrictions be imposed in the capital, Madrid, the regional government initially rejected the measures but is now implementing them while awaiting a court appeal.

The city has been struggling with a caseload twice as high as any other part of Spain. Here's our Europe correspondent Damian Grammaticus.

Outside one of Madrid's biggest hospitals. Ambulances are pulling up, patients being wheeled into the emergency admissions area. It's what every government in Europe has feared. covid-19 surging again.

Spain is registering around 10000 new infections every day, a second way far worse than anywhere else in Europe is breaking over. Already battered country and intensive care beds in Madrid are overflowing. Extra ICU beds again being used.

There are more patients that normally we can attend in critical areas.

Juan Jose Rios is the medical director of the La Paz Hospital. His staff, he says, who coped with the first wave fear. What's next? Psychologically, it's the worst thing because all the people are afraid that the tsunami will come again to the south of Madrid.

Schools are back. You can hear the children in the playground next to me in the road in front. There's a police block, policeman stopping cars and motorbikes, asking to see the written forms that show you have permission to move between areas. These restrictions are now covering about a million people in Madrid. And you're not allowed to leave your home area unless it's for a very specific reason. I'm going to let. At the station in the district of when Labrada, a train, disgorges commuters, 200000 people in this area already face restrictions.

Spain may have been too hasty to lift its first lockdown and then too slow to impose new measures. In recent weeks, Spain brought in its own rule of six limiting gatherings to six people told bars and restaurants to stop serving at 10 p.m.. So now the restrictions are having to be expanded across Madrid. We found Pollino out having a beer just before closing time, and we all went back to work, crammed into trains, murder of buses.

And out of all the infections are bad because they didn't control it.

What it is, they don't know. What about closing some neighborhoods and not others doesn't work. But on the other hand, how are we going to manage if we're all unemployed? I don't know what's worse and I don't believe it.

Miguel Hernon, a Harvard academic, advised Spain on its first lockdown there.

82 beds are our last line of defense. Once those beds and get fall, then countries are left with very few options, really some form of lock down, it can be delayed.

One speaking from the United States, he told me Spain's new measures may be too little, too late.

Well, we have seen in Spain over the summer it's a serious warning that we cannot relax. But there is a possibility of a serious second wave all over the world, a warning to London, to New York, to other cities.

And that report from Spain by Damian Grammaticus. The European Union has agreed to impose immediate sanctions on officials in Belarus who it says were involved in the country's disputed presidential election. Philip Hamshire explains the background to this action from EU nations.

They've been trying to push these through since around about mid-August. And the European Union was left very frustrated that the UK and Canada both impose their sanctions a little bit before the EU earlier this week. Is the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who thinks that the EU is sending a very important signal.

Reconnoitre Tsong dust is we can see that sanctions against actors in Belarus will come into force. That means the EU is acting against those who oppose the democratic movement. And I think this is a very important signal.

Signal 14 teams are on their list. However, it doesn't include Mr Lukashenko for now, and he is, of course, the man who is controversially being declared by Belarus to be the winner of the election. He is the president of the European Council. Shall Michel explaining why he's not on the list?

No, he's not on the current list. But of course we will. We'll follow the situation. We'll follow the developments. And you know that we are in favor of an inclusive dialogue, but we're also a role for the OSCE because we think that the OSCE can play a very strong role in order to facilitate a more constructive and more positive approach.

So you might be wondering if they had an agreement in principle on the sanctions back in August. Why has there been the delay of a couple of months?

And the reason is there was one holdout among the 27 nations in the European Union, and that was Cyprus. Cyprus, of course, has a lot of economic ties with Russia. So you might think that that was the reason, but it's apparently not. Cyprus wanted an exchange deal. They said, look, we're happy to allow a go ahead with the Belarussian sanctions, but only if you take a tougher line on Turkey, because, of course, Cyprus has a lot of problems with Ankara at the moment.

So they've announced the Byelorussian sanctions.

What does this mean for Turkey? Well, here's that tougher line. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said that Brussels is prepared now to act on renewed actions by Ankara.

We want a positive and a constructive relationship with Turkey. And this was all this would also be very much in Ankara's interest. But it will only work if the provocations and pressure stop. We therefore expect that Turkey, from now on abstains from unilateral actions. In case of such renewed actions by Ankara, the EU will use all its instruments and options available.

So rather curious that Cyprus has leveraged its position on Belorussia to allow the European Union to take a whack at Turkey.

Philip Hamshire, an award winning Sudanese filmmaker, has used. Cuca and four other artists have been released from prison after lawyers appealed against their sentences. The group was given a two month prison terms a fortnight ago after being convicted of causing a public nuisance. Six of their colleagues who are still in jail will have their appeal heard on Monday. Our Africa correspondent Catherine Byaruhanga reports.

Had Judge Kucher sentence caused international outrage as filmmakers around the world criticize Sudanese authorities for stifling freedom of expression. Kuka and 10 others were arrested when their play rehearsal was violently broken up by neighbors. The filmmaker has said the attackers were angry because women were involved in the workshop.

It's in Sudan. Say they're still targeted by Islamist. Leading officials loyal to former President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's transitional government, was under pressure to release the arts minister Deniz, who protested for months to remove Bashir from power last year once greater institutional and democratic reforms.

Catherine Byaruhanga across Europe. One effect of the coronavirus pandemic has been a boost in cycling as people swap cars and public transport for greener, healthier alternatives. And governments all over the continent are rapidly investing in cycle paths to support the shift to two wheels.

Anna Holligan has been travelling around Europe, meeting the people who are trying to implement the biggest change. Some cities have seen in decades. Across Europe, more than a billion euros has been invested in cycling in response to the pandemic. The streets of the French capital are being transformed to try to make going by bike an option for everyone. It's like a revolution, you know, David Balliett is the deputy mayor of Paris. Before we had a city with car only cars and no, we had the city with basically was the most iconic changes here on the notoriously petrol filled Rue de Rivoli sections are now entirely car free.

You gave a space for a bicycle to use it to build and they will come. Yeah, look at that. It's like it's a big traffic jam.

You know, people here have been telling me how it went since a long time and then came out. So this is a whole new world, these types of changes normally take decades because of the pandemic. There was an urgency which meant they happened here overnight. Since the coronavirus struck, the French government has invested 20 million euros in a push to get more Parisians using bikes, including subsidies of 50 euros towards the cost of bike repairs and cycling proficiency classes.

Are now free to anyone in the city who wants to learn to ride. And it doesn't end there. Milan was one of the first cities to use bikes as a way to try to get people moving again after a long time. This group that climate groups have warned people living in polluted cities are more at risk of contracting lung infections like covid-19 once a week, activists gather in the heart of the city to push for permanent infrastructure to support cyclists. Coronavirus is a moment in which, you know, every policymaker can make a U-turn.

And a general matter is an environmental activist.

There are few lines that are being built, but compared to the need and the necessity of this city and the will of people and the wish of the population of Milan to have a different mobility and way to go around, they are really a drop in the ocean.

Even in the Netherlands, the country widely regarded as having some of the best cycling infrastructure in the world, covid-19 is changing the way in which people move around.

The bike is now the most commonly sold type of bicycle in the Netherlands, and cargo bike sales are soaring here to buy up to 53 percent since the start of the pandemic.

But whether this covid related boost for pedal power accelerates depends on the scale of investments and how many of us commit to this change for goods. And Holligan with that report.

And you can see more on that subject in our world, Europe's cycling revolution on the BBC News Channel and BBC World TV this weekend.

Now, while we've been on air, the White House has announced that President Trump is experiencing mild symptoms of coronavirus after his positive test. And we'll have more on that in the next edition of the Global News podcast. Now, just before we go, time for our weekly news from elsewhere, where we look at some of the less reported stories from around the world. Joining us, Martin Morgan from BBC Monitoring. And Martin, first of all, an airline has decided not to call passengers, ladies and gentlemen.

Why?

Well, Japan Airlines would say that this is something that is long overdue. Starting this week, they're dropping the phrase, ladies and gentlemen, from their public address announcements as part of a new policy that they say will avoid alienating sexual minority customers.

The airline is concerned that the standard phrase excludes people who don't identify as male or female. Instead, what you will hear on planes are not airports in Japan is something along the lines of good morning, everyone, or good evening, dear passengers. Japan Airlines has been making a big effort this year to be more inclusive.

For example, they now allow female flight attendants to wear trousers and flat shoes rather than skirts and high heels. This followed a public campaign to get them to make that change. But it is worth bearing in mind that the phrase, ladies and gentlemen, is only being dropped from the English language announcements. The Japanese equivalent, which is a Menar summer, has got there already as it is gender neutral and just means everybody.

Now, we earlier heard about EU sanctions against some officials in Belarus, but President Alexander Lukashenko may have other things to worry about, including some less than flattering treatment on a local children's TV show. Well, that's right.

Yes. A children's puppet show on state TV has played out a story that some of you see us making fun of President Lukashenko. Now, he's been facing weeks of mass street protests, as you know, about the disputed presidential elections. So the story on this puppet show about a bear proclaiming himself king seems to some people have uncanny parallels with events in the grown up world. This is particularly true when the bear eventually falls off his throne this evening and Mr.

Lukashenko had himself inaugurated as president in secret last week. A lot of his opponents labeled this as a sort of coronation. A most telling of all is the plot twist that the bear is replaced on the throne by a female fox because the political campaign against Mr. Lukashenko is led by a group of women.

Martin Morgan from BBC Monitoring, thank you.

That's all from us for now. There'll be an updated version of the Global News podcast later. This edition was produced by Rahu Sonoike and mixed by Holly Palmer. Editor is Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conaway. Until next time. Goodbye.

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