| White House reassurances about Trump's condition stir doubts instead Posted: 04 Oct 2020 08:47 AM PDT  Information released to show that President Trump is winning his battle with COVID-19 have only raised more questions about an episode clouded by suspicion, rumors and confusion.
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| Tasmanian devils return to Australian wild after 3,000 years Posted: 04 Oct 2020 08:46 PM PDT  Tasmanian devils have been released into the wild on Australia's mainland 3,000 years after the feisty marsupials went extinct there, in what conservationists described Monday as a "historic" step. Aussie Ark, along with a coalition of other conservation groups, revealed on Monday that they had released 26 of the carnivorous mammals into a 400-hectare (1,000-acre) sanctuary at Barrington Tops, about 3.5 hours north of Sydney. Tim Faulkner, president of Aussie Ark, said the "historic" releases in July and September were the first steps in a project akin to the successful move to return wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the United States in the 1990s. After 16 years of work, including the establishment of mainland Australia's largest Tasmanian devil breeding programme, Faulkner said it was "incredible and surreal" to have reached the goal. "It's the stuff dreams are made of," he told AFP.
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| He tried to carjack 4 people in a row, police say, but all the victims fought back Posted: 05 Oct 2020 01:37 PM PDT  An attempted carjacking case in Central Florida could have gone a very different way if the intended victims had not fought back. But they did, valiantly.
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| Photos Show Why Miami Public Schools Could Be the Next Ron DeSantis Coronavirus Debacle Posted: 05 Oct 2020 01:50 AM PDT  MIAMI—Last week, a few days before Donald Trump revealed he came down with COVID-19, Karla Hernandez-Mats went on a coronavirus safety fact-finding mission in South Florida schools ahead of their reopening on Monday.The president of United Teachers of Dade, the local teachers union, Hernandez-Mats said she and her colleagues conducted surprise inspection visits at 17 Miami-area schools that suggested administrators were still scrambling to put safety measures in place.At Miami Springs Senior High, one of the 17 schools inspected, administrators initially refused to allow her colleague, United Teachers of Dade First Vice-President Antonio White, to enter the building and called a police resource officer on him, the union officials told The Daily Beast."When administrators act like that, their schools are usually not prepared," White said in an interview. "That was the case at Miami Springs."COVID-Skeptical Florida Guv Outdoes Himself, Lifts All Restrictions on Restaurants and BarsFor instance, the school appears to be supplying teachers with alcohol-free hand sanitizer, which may be ineffective in killing coronavirus, the union officials said, providing The Daily Beast with a photo of just that. (The Centers for Disease Control's COVID-19 guidance recommends people use hand sanitizer that is at least 60 percent ethanol-based or 70 percent isopropanol-based.) Union officials also provided photos showing decals marking 6-foot distance requirements that were already peeling off the sidewalks near the school's entrance, and desks arranged in such a way that does not allow for 6-foot social distancing.Reached by phone, Miami Springs principal Torossian said he was unaware of police being called on the union official and referred further questions to the school district's media relations department. Spokeswoman Jacquelyn Calzadilla did not specifically address what had occurred at Miami Springs, but she said "our school site administrators are working around the clock to ensure a safe return to the schoolhouse for our students and employees."The flap illustrates the daunting task facing the public school system in Miami-Dade County, which has been the epicenter of Florida's COVID-19 outbreak for most of the pandemic. More than 10,000 teachers and 133,000 students begin filing into 340 schools this week on a staggered schedule. This after the Miami-Dade School Board voted to resume in-person learning under pressure from Florida Education Commissioner Richard Cocoran, a Gov. Ron DeSantis appointee who threatened to cut the school district's funding if classes did not resume by early October.Miami-Dade's daily positivity rate rolling average for the 14 days ending on Oct. 4 stood at 4.78 percent, just below the 5 percent positivity rate that the World Health Organization recommends maintaining for two weeks before lifting shelter-at-home and social distancing protocols. During the same 14-day period, Miami-Dade reported 5,456 new cases, bringing its total to 172,205.School reopenings have been a mess of infection, quarantine, and closure across America in recent weeks. But conversations with teachers, labor leaders, and experts in South Florida painted a picture of Miami schools as a new guinea pig for epidemiological mayhem imposed on high from Tallahassee.This past Friday, Thais Alvarez returned to Norman S. Edelcup Sunny Isles Beach K-8 in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, for the first time since the pandemic forced the shutdown of school buildings across the country.Alvarez, 48, believes keeping students 6 feet apart is going to be nearly impossible in some cases, despite guidance that she and other staff do so. "While my classes are significantly smaller compared to other years, I have some with 16, 19, 21, and 22 students," she told The Daily Beast. "There is no way to do traditional social distancing given the square footage of my classroom."For her personal protection, Alvarez said, she received three six-packs of facemasks and a face shield from the principal's office, along with a large bottle of hand sanitizer placed on her desk. To bolster the official offerings, some of her students gave her packages of clorox wipes in recent days to sanitize surfaces, added Alvarez, who teaches sixth, seventh and eighth graders.The teacher's concerns over clean and sanitized classrooms and bathrooms have a history at Norman S. Edelcup going back to this spring. Alvarez provided The Daily Beast email exchanges she had with Assistant Principal Neal Stayton and Principal Melissa Mesa as far back as May describing grimy conditions inside her classroom and bathrooms on the fourth floor of the school. In a May 7 email, Alvarez complained that objects such as cabinets and desktop screens were caked in dust and floors went unswept throughout the school year. She also claimed the bathroom often ran out of soap and toilet paper before the school day ended, and that toilets were not cleaned for days.In email responses to Alvarez, Mesa acknowledged that custodial staff were supposed to clean bathrooms, including toilets, on a daily basis. But the principal explained that the school district only allocates one custodian per floor and that, based on the workload, the custodian assigned to Norman S. Edelcup's fourth floor could only provide a full-service cleaning once a week. Mesa also noted that if the custodian missed work or went on vacation, it would take longer for full-service cleanings to take place."Please communicate custodial concerns with Mr. Stayton and myself throughout the school year and we will do what we can to assist you," Mesa wrote back on May 7. "Please know that the health and safety of all our faculty, staff and students is of paramount concern to us as well."When she returned to campus on Friday, Alvarez claimed the bathrooms looked the same to her and that her classroom did not appear any cleaner than the start of previous school years, when floors are stripped and waxed."I can't speak to the future," she added. "But if my past experience is any indication, it's going to be a dog and pony show in front of the cameras. Behind the scenes, it's going to be the complete opposite."Alvarez's bosses at Norman S. Edelcup referred inquiries to school district's chief spokeswoman Daisy Gonzalez-Diego, who did not specifically answer questions about the middle-school teacher's complaints."Miami-Dade County Public Schools administrators and school site personnel are following all recommended health and safety protocols to ensure our schoolhouses are secure and welcoming environments where children can thrive under the instruction of our inspirational educators," Gonzalez-Diego said in an email statement. "We also understand that beyond the academic benefits, in-person schooling provides children the social, emotional, and motivational support they need."But on a Facebook page administered by school district employees, dozens of teachers are sharing similar stories about their schools. One teacher posted photos of her classroom's moldy ceiling tile and moldy air conditioning vents. The Daily Beast obtained a screenshot of a text message from another teacher complaining that no one had provided her with masks, hand sanitizer, and wipes. The teacher claimed to work at iPrep Academy, which is adjacent to the school district's headquarters and whose principal is none other than Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho."The office made me feel uncomfortable as if I were asking for something difficult to get when I thought they had plenty in store," the text message read.In an emailed statement, Miami-Dade Public Schools said all teachers at iPrep Academy received bags containing personal protective equipment. Gonzalez-Diego also explained that the school district prioritized resources to increase existing inventories of cleaning supplies and purchase large quantities of personal protective equipment, among other precautions. "With these investments, our schools are now equipped with sufficient PPE and sanitization supplies to safely welcome our students and employees back to the schoolhouse for the 2020-2021 school year," Gonzalez-Diego said.Likewise, on Sept. 30, Superintendent Carvalho sent a letter to all school district employees that read: "Rest reassured that comprehensive measures have been undertaken and will continue to be implemented as a means of ensuring a safe and healthy working environment for all. There is an overall heightened awareness and adherence to prescribed cleaning practices in order to reduce the risk of exposure to our employees."Regardless of how well prepared it is, the school district has been forced to rush things because Carvalho and the school board caved to Education Commissioner Corocan's threats, Hernandez-Mats, the union official, argued. Cocoran, a Republican former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, is a staunch ally of Gov. DeSantis and President Trump, who have advocated reopening schools as part of their push to resume normal life even as health experts across the country warn Florida is about to experience another surge once flu season kicks into high gear.Schools Touted by DeSantis Now in a Quarantine Nightmare"Obviously, this is very troubling how they are getting pressure from Gov. DeSantis, who is falling in line with Trump, telling him to reopen schools," Hernandez-Mats said. "They are succumbing to political pressure instead of doing what is right to ensure the health and well-being of the students and the people who work in those schools with those kids."Gonzalez-Diego did not comment on Hernandez-Mats' criticisms of local cooperation with pressure from the state level. But Florida education department spokeswoman Taryn Fenske clapped back, arguing school unions like United Teachers of Dade want to dictate the type of learning environment students should have, instead of giving them a choice between online and face-to-face learning. "The union bosses are nothing but schoolhouse bullies who want to force everyone to make an identical decision," Fenske said. "They're just mad that we have no problem or hesitation with standing up for students and families, regardless of what the union demands." A spokesperson for DeSantis did not respond to a request for comment for this story.Florida International University infectious disease expert Mary Jo Trepka told The Daily Beast the sheer size of Miami-Dade's public school system makes it critically important that every school site has every possible precaution in place."It is not only critical that transmission be controlled within schools to protect students, teachers, and staff, but also because transmission within schools will fuel overall community transmission," Trepka said. "This could happen at a large scale… Even if only half are interacting in person, that is a lot of opportunities for transmission."Trepka said the danger of reopening schools in Miami-Dade was compounded by DeSantis' decision earlier this month to allow bars and nightclubs to reopen throughout the state. She said it's a recipe that could lead to another spike in coronavirus cases similar to what occurred during the summer, when local and state government officials first relaxed COVID-19 restrictions."I fear we will repeat the same situation now with the added problem of colleges resuming classes and the reopening of schools," Trepka said, noting that Florida's summer surge was initially driven by young people catching coronavirus."They ended up infecting older people," Trepka said. "Then, of course, we saw a lot of deaths."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Senator Graham Schedules Judiciary Committee Hearings for Amy Coney Barrett Posted: 05 Oct 2020 02:10 PM PDT  Senate Judiciary Committee head Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) announced on Monday a schedule for hearings for President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court.Republicans are attempting to confirm the nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, before the presidential election on November 3. The successful nomination of Barrett would give the Supreme Court a 6-3 majority of conservative justices.The Judiciary Committee hearings will take place from 9 a.m. on Monday, October 12, and continue through Thursday, October 15, according to a statement from Graham's office.> Graham schedules Amy Coney Barrett's hearings, beginning next Monday pic.twitter.com/1lRrpXRBwH> > -- Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 5, 2020While Republicans have been working to confirm Barrett as speedily as possible, the schedule for the confirmation process was put in doubt over the weekend after a number of officials in President Trump's inner circle tested positive for coronavirus. Among those who contracted the illness are Senators Mike Lee (R., Utah) and Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), both of whom sit on the Judiciary Committee.Lee is "getting better every day" after experiencing allergy-like symptoms, a spokesman told Deseret News on Monday. Tillis temporarily lost his senses of taste and smell, but a spokesman told Spectrum News that the senator has since regained those senses and is currently asymptomatic.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and ranking Judiciary Committee member Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) called for hearings to be delayed because of the coronavirus outbreak among Republican officials."It is premature for Chairman Graham to commit to a hearing schedule when we do not know the full extent of potential exposure stemming from the president's infection and before the White House puts in place a contact tracing plan to prevent further spread of the disease," the two said in a statement on Friday.However, Senator Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), who tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday, has vowed to appear in person for Barrett's Senate-wide confirmation vote. Judiciary Committee hearings could be held "electronically," Johnson said, but a Senate confirmation vote would have to be held in person."There's no reason we can't confirm Judge Barrett," Johnson said Monday on the Ross Kaminsky Show. "If we have to go in and vote, I've already told leadership I'll go in a moon suit."
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| A fired Amazon employee led a protest in front of Jeff Bezos' $165 million Beverly Hills mansion over workers' wages and job protections Posted: 05 Oct 2020 02:44 PM PDT  Amazon faces multiple lawsuits from employees over its working conditions during the pandemic.
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| Lawyer: Iran grants furlough to French-Iranian researcher Posted: 04 Oct 2020 01:14 PM PDT |
| This Latino cartoonist is on a mission to defeat Trump in November Posted: 05 Oct 2020 08:49 AM PDT  The self-described "perennial anti-Republican Chicano cartoonist" is even working with GOP strategists who are against the president's re-election.
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| U.S. court orders Iran to pay $1.4 billion in damages to missing former FBI agent's family Posted: 05 Oct 2020 01:06 PM PDT |
| As Trump fell ill, Republican report praised his leadership on pandemic response Posted: 05 Oct 2020 01:27 PM PDT  The rosy report contrasted sharply with the reality of a White House in turmoil, not to mention of a nation that widely disapproved of Trump's coronavirus response even before he himself fell ill.
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| Hurricane Delta? New tropical storm is 'strengthening' and could make landfall on Gulf Coast this week, forecasters say Posted: 05 Oct 2020 09:57 AM PDT  Newly formed Tropical Storm Delta is the 25th named storm in the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.
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| After $5 million bank heist, 26 years in hiding, being found in Hialeah, ‘The Ghost’ dies Posted: 05 Oct 2020 08:36 AM PDT  Until he decided to start ripping off Hialeah jewelry stores in 2015, legendary criminal Anibal Mustelier lived life at least one step ahead of everyone else.
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| Greg Abbott: Criminal allegations against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton "raise serious concerns" Posted: 05 Oct 2020 10:03 AM PDT  Paxton has been under indictment for more than five years on felony charges of securities fraud
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| Husband of South Korean Foreign Minister Breaks Her Rules—to Fly to America to Buy a Yacht Posted: 05 Oct 2020 06:07 AM PDT  It is one thing to flout a coronavirus travel ban to fly overseas for the purposes of buying a yacht.It's altogether another matter to do so when your wife is the one who made the rules.South Korea's foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, came under pressure to resign Monday after her husband defied her ministry's advice against all but essential travel overseas and flew to the United States on Saturday to buy himself a new boat.Lee Yill-Byung, a university professor, has now become the focus of considerable outrage in Korea after he was confronted by a television crew as he prepared to fly to the U.S. on Saturday, saying, "The coronavirus epidemic is not going to disappear any time soon. I can't sit at home all the time. I can't keep worrying about other people's lives as I live my own."His mission, as described on his now-deleted blog, was to buy himself a small yacht and enjoy a "cruising life" and be able to say that he "lived in a beautiful place" for several years before he dies.The opposition People Power Party was quick to condemn Lee's actions, with a party official telling the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, "Small businesses are suffering from the epidemic, but a family member of a high-ranking government official is traveling and buying a yacht."The paper accused Kang of "flagrant hypocrisy" as her ministry, just days before, had ordered Koreans to stay home for this year's Chuseok holiday, saying that people's "private lives are not an absolute right."Broadcaster KBS initially broke the news Saturday evening of Lee's travel, screening astonishing footage of reporters at Incheon International Airport confronting a defiant Lee, who told the reporters that he had "packed many masks."When asked if he was concerned about being the husband of a public figure and prominent lawmaker, Lee reportedly replied, "It could be a burden if I am doing something bad, but I am doing what I believe is right, and I am living my own life, so I don't have to compromise on this because of what others think." Lee was asked if Kang had spoken to him about the trip, and he replied, "We are both adults, so she didn't particularly tell me not to go."The following day, Kang told reporters that she was "sorry" about her husband's decision to travel overseas, adding, "He has planned the trip for such a long time and postponed it several times, so it's difficult for me to tell him not to go."The Korea JoongAng Daily said that sailing the world on a yacht was at the top of a bucket list on Lee's now-scrubbed blog, and that he has been planning the purchase for nearly a year. Lee reportedly was traveling to New York to purchase a 51-foot 1990 Kanter 51-foot Mistress V yacht, estimated to cost around $120,000.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Microsoft plans $1 billion data center venture in Greece Posted: 05 Oct 2020 01:23 AM PDT  Microsoft has announced plans to build three data center sites in greater Athens, providing a badly needed investment of up to $1 billion to the Greek economy which has been hammered by the pandemic. The news was announced Monday by the U.S. tech giant and Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis and follows nine months of confidential negotiations for an agreement that also includes digital-skills training programs for some 100,000 government and private sector workers as well as educators and students. "This significant investment is a reflection of our confidence in the Greek economy, in the Greek people and the Greek government," Microsoft President Brad Smith said at a ceremony held in the Acropolis Museum, facing the ancient site in central Athens.
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| Cuomo orders New York schools in coronavirus hot spots to close tomorrow Posted: 05 Oct 2020 10:30 AM PDT  In a press conference on Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered schools in coronavirus hot spots in Brooklyn and Queens to close on Tuesday.
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| Amy Coney Barrett and her husband tested positive for coronavirus this summer, according to reports Posted: 04 Oct 2020 11:49 AM PDT  President Trump's SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett recovered from coronavirus this late summer, sources told the Washington Post and CNN.
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| 7 key takeaways from the Lindsey Graham, Jaime Harrison debate Posted: 05 Oct 2020 08:09 AM PDT  Graham called the virus "serious" but said "we have to move on as a nation." Harrison said there had been "a failure in leadership."
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| Black ‘Good Samaritan’ shot and killed by Texas police as he broke up domestic violence fight Posted: 05 Oct 2020 10:41 AM PDT  Jonathan Price died after trying to stop brawl between man and woman
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| Disturbance expected to grow into Gulf hurricane, while tropical storm hovers off Mexico Posted: 04 Oct 2020 04:17 PM PDT  While Tropical Storm Gamma is nearly stationary just north of the Yucatan Peninsula, there is one more disturbance quickly growing in the Caribbean Sea, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday.
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| Merkel outraged over 'attempted murder' of Jewish student Posted: 05 Oct 2020 08:18 AM PDT  German investigators said Monday they were probing an attack on a Jewish student outside a synagogue in Hamburg as attempted murder with anti-Semitic intent, a case condemned by Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "disgrace".
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| Israel army strikes Gaza target after rocket attack Posted: 05 Oct 2020 11:30 AM PDT |
| Saudi business leader urges boycott of goods from 'hostile' Turkey Posted: 04 Oct 2020 09:53 AM PDT |
| Fauci said he's 'disturbed and concerned' by the number of new COVID-19 cases in the US and is not involved in treating Trump's illness Posted: 05 Oct 2020 08:20 AM PDT  Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN he's not involved in President Donald Trump's care and declined to comment on Trump's temporary trip outside the hospital.
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| Louie Gohmert joins three other Texas Republicans in vote against House resolution condemning QAnon Posted: 05 Oct 2020 09:20 AM PDT  The FBI has identified the conspiracy theory movement as a domestic terrorism threat
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| Hurricane Delta rapidly intensifies, likely to hit Gulf Coast Posted: 05 Oct 2020 06:57 AM PDT  Delta is forecast to make landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast around Friday.
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| 'We have lost a family member': Arkansas police officer killed, another hurt in shooting at motel Posted: 05 Oct 2020 05:33 PM PDT  One Arkansas police officer was killed and another suffered non-life-threatening injuries during a shooting at a motel in Pine Bluff, police say.
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| ‘I can’t wait to vote.’ Miami immigrants become U.S. citizens in time to pick a president Posted: 04 Oct 2020 11:00 AM PDT  As Carlos Aybar stood inside the Miami immigration office last Friday, holding up his right hand and reciting the words of the citizenship oath through a face mask, the Dominican native felt a big wave of relief.
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| Researchers find 'Queen of the Ocean' ancient great white shark off Nova Scotia coast Posted: 05 Oct 2020 12:26 PM PDT  The shark, named Nukumi by researches, is more than 17 feet long, 3,541 pounds and believed to be about 50-years-old.
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| August Browne: The Nigeria-born man who joined the Polish resistance Posted: 05 Oct 2020 03:08 AM PDT  August Agboola Browne is thought to have been the only black person in the Polish resistance.
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| Chemical weapons watchdog ready to assist Russia in Navalny case Posted: 05 Oct 2020 06:26 AM PDT  The global chemical weapons watchdog, which has been asked by Germany to test samples of what Berlin says was a banned nerve agent used to poison a Russian opposition figure, said on Monday its experts would be prepared to assist Russia in the case. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it had received a request from Moscow on Oct. 1 for help in the case of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, and was seeking clarification on what type of assistance Russia wanted. Navalny fell ill on a flight in Siberia on Aug. 20 and was flown to Germany for treatment.
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| Trump told Americans: 'Don't be afraid of COVID.' Here's why his odds are better than almost anyone else of his age and condition. Posted: 05 Oct 2020 12:46 PM PDT  The president's weight, sex, and age put him at high risk of severe COVID-19, but his race, wealth, job, and access to top doctors act in his favor.
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| Over 100,000 march in Belarus against authoritarian leader Posted: 04 Oct 2020 10:39 AM PDT  More than 100,000 people marched in Belarus' capital on Sunday to protest against the country's authoritarian leader, who won his sixth term in office in an election widely seen as rigged. The demonstrators demanded the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko, and freedom for political prisoners. Police used water cannons in an attempt to disperse the crowds, but the protesters remained undeterred.
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| Claudia Conway announces coronavirus diagnosis on TikTok Posted: 04 Oct 2020 12:25 PM PDT  Claudia Conway, the daughter of former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, revealed on TikTok Sunday that she has coronavirus. "Hey guys currently dying of covid," Conway captioned a video on the social media platform. Kellyanne Conway announced she tested positive for coronavirus Friday night and was experiencing some symptoms including a "mild (light cough) and I'm feeling fine." Prior to ...
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| Voters sue Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over his order to shutter ballot drop-off locations in Texas Posted: 05 Oct 2020 09:41 AM PDT  Abbott forced two of Texas' Democratic strongholds to close a number of drop-off sites which had already opened
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| Fired Amazon employee arrested for allegedly issuing false refunds Posted: 05 Oct 2020 11:20 AM PDT  A former Amazon employee fired by the company has been arrested and charged with allegedly issuing false refunds.
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| WH press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tests positive for COVID-19, a day after speaking to reporters without a mask Posted: 05 Oct 2020 09:18 AM PDT  White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced that she tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. This comes a day after she spoke to reporters at the White House without wearing a mask.
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| Philippines' Duterte scores record high rating, despite virus crisis Posted: 05 Oct 2020 12:56 AM PDT  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's approval rating has hit a record high, an opinion poll showed on Monday, despite a stubborn coronavirus crisis that has ravaged the economy and caused millions of job losses. The Pulse Asia survey, conducted last month with in-person interviews with 1,200 adult Filipinos, found 91% of respondents approved of both his performance and his personality, up from 87% and 83% respectively in December. The Philippines, for years among the world's fastest-growing economies, is forecast to see a 6.9% economic contraction this year, the World Bank has said, the biggest since the 1980s and worse than the government's projected 5.5% decline.
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| Report: Trump kept quiet about 1st positive COVID-19 test Posted: 04 Oct 2020 09:04 PM PDT  When President Trump called into Fox News on Thursday night and confirmed that his close aide Hope Hicks tested positive for COVID-19, he didn't share with viewers that he also had a positive result from a rapid test and was waiting for the results from a more thorough screening, several people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal on Sunday. Speaking to host Sean Hannity, Trump said he had been tested and would get the results back "either tonight or tomorrow morning." Early Friday morning, Trump tweeted that both he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for coronavirus.When Hicks tested positive on Thursday morning, Trump's top advisers wanted to make sure this was kept under wraps, and even his campaign manager, Bill Stepien, didn't find out until it was reported by Bloomberg News on Thursday night, people familiar with the matter told the Journal; Stepien announced on Friday morning that he tested positive for the virus. According to the Journal, Trump told another unidentified adviser that he or she should keep their positive test results to themselves, saying, "Don't tell anyone."On Thursday afternoon, Trump left Washington for a fundraising event in New Jersey. One official told the Journal the campaign squad was not consulted on whether Trump should attend the event, and the White House has since said the operations team determined it was safe to go, claiming Trump tested negative in the morning. Holding this fundraiser "in spite of knowing that one of the team was infected and had exposed others was a recipe for spreading disease," Lisa M. Lee, a public health expert at Virginia Tech University, told the Journal.More stories from theweek.com 4 plausible election scenarios after Trump's coronavirus diagnosis The pandemic wake-up call America needs Trump is sick. So is the GOP.
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| Thousands of coronavirus cases were not reported for days in the UK because officials exceeded the data limit on their Excel spreadsheet Posted: 05 Oct 2020 04:25 AM PDT  Officials failed to report 15,841 new cases between September 25 and October 2.
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| Why Armenia and Azerbaijan are fighting, and why it could get uglier Posted: 05 Oct 2020 07:24 AM PDT  The countries have fought for years over a breakaway region, but this time, the U.S. isn't helping to mediate, and other major powers are picking sides.
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| Conservation success or pests? Seals spark passionate debate Posted: 04 Oct 2020 10:00 PM PDT  Nick Muto has fished up and down the New England coast and there is nothing that gets his blood boiling more than the sight of a seal. Muto, whose two boats fish for groundfish such as skate and monkfish as well as lobster, is among a growing group of anglers, beach goers and local officials who are quick to blame everything from disease to depleted fisheries to increased shark sightings on the exploding seal population. "Areas that we used to traditionally fish that were as close to guarantees as you could get have been strip mined of fish, and the fish have been driven out of there by seals," Muto said.
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