The number of COVID-19 cases reported in the United States has surpassed eight million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. has seen a rising number of new daily coronavirus infections with a one-week average of more than 53,000 cases a day, an increase of over 55 percent in about a month, CNN reports.
New COVID-19 cases have been rising over the past two weeks in 41 states, with nine states reporting about the same number of cases during that time and none experiencing a decline, The New York Times reports.
"We are headed in the wrong direction," Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers told the Times.
On Thursday, the U.S. reported more than 63,000 new COVID-19 cases, which was the highest one-day total since the end of July, The Washington Post reported.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, had previously stressed over the summer the need for the U.S. to get its number of daily COVID-19 cases down to 10,000 by September to avoid another giant wave, a goal that was ultimately not reached. Regarding the number of new cases being reported each day right now, Fauci this week told CNBC, "That’s a bad place to be when you're going into the cooler weather of the fall and the colder weather of the winter," adding, "We're in a bad place now. We've got to turn this around." Brendan Morrow
Keith Raniere was sentenced Tuesday to 120 years in prison after being convicted of running a sex trafficking cult called NXIVM.
Raniere founded and ran NXIVM, which he branded as a self-improvement business. But prosecutors say it was a front for Raniere to traffic women and girls and mentally, physically, and sexually abuse them. Raniere's victims gave harrowing victim statements during his trial, detailing how they were blackmailed and otherwise prevented from leaving the cult, some for more than a decade.
Raniere was convicted a year ago on charges of federal sex trafficking and child pornography. He acknowledged wrongdoing within NXIVM, but maintained his innocence even in recent interviews ahead of his sentencing. Other NXIVM members have pleaded guilty to charges related to the cult. NXIVM gained notoriety as the subject of the HBO docuseries The Vow. Kathryn Krawczyk
Guess who's back?
Apple TV+ on Tuesday announced it has signed a deal with comedian Jon Stewart for multiple seasons of a new current affairs show. This will be Stewart's return to television over five years after his departure from The Daily Show, the streamer noted in a statement. Apple TV+ also said Stewart has signed a first-look deal with the company for "projects to be produced and developed for the service."
Stewart's new show was described as a "one-hour, single-issue series" that will "explore topics that are currently part of the national conversation and his advocacy work," and each season will be accompanied by a companion podcast. Since he left The Daily Show, Stewart has been particularly vocal in advocating for 9/11 first responders. Trevor Noah took over as host of The Daily Show in 2015.
Though this new show will mark Stewart's television return, the comedian earlier this year directed the political comedy Irresistible starring Steve Carell. Speaking in an interview with The New York Times in June about whether he wishes he still had his own show, Stewart said, "Sometimes I do. But not the one that I had. The one that I had is in wonderful hands and continues to elevate in a way that I couldn't have. My efficacy for that kind of conversation has passed." Brendan Morrow
One week out from Election Day, President Trump's campaign is reportedly pulling advertising out of Florida.
The president's re-election campaign has "all but pulled its advertising" out of the crucial state that he carried in 2016, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The campaign reportedly canceled $5.5 million in ad spending in Florida during the final two weeks of the 2020 campaign and is now focusing on four states: Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
Trump communications director Tim Murtaugh in a call with reporters on Tuesday predicted that Florida, where Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden have been roughly tied in polls, is "going to go the president's way," citing his "ground game" in the state.
Trump's campaign reportedly does still have about $350,000 in advertising spending budgeted for Florida through Election Day, but Bloomberg notes that the president "has cut $24 million from his national ad budget" since Labor Day, whereas Biden "has added $197 million." Read more at Bloomberg.
Update: The Trump campaign in a new statement is disputing Bloomberg's reporting as "horribly wrong," saying that "our ad buying week by week in the state has been consistent, and the reporting on this issue demonstrates a clear misunderstanding of how ad buying works." Brendan Morrow
President Trump's receipts from his own properties keep piling up — but he's not the one paying the bill.
The U.S. government and Trump's supporters have paid at least a combined $8.1 million to Trump's properties throughout his presidency, documents and public records obtained by The Washington Post have so far revealed. Those payments covered everything from rooms for Secret Service agents, to a variety of candles, to even the $3 water Trump and Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe sipped at a summit in 2018.
Trump has visited his properties around the world more than 280 times since his inauguration, bringing Secret Service protection and often his family and foreign leaders along with him. During the summit with Abe at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's aides stayed in a $2,600-night house owned by the Trump Organization, records show. When Trump met with Xi Jinping of China, the club charged the government $7,700 for Trump and Xi's dinner. And when Abe returned a year later, taxpayers covered $6,000 worth of floral arrangements for the occasion. Trump's Christmas visit to the club — no foreign visits included — resulted in a $32,400 charge for the Secret Service's guest rooms, the Post reports.
And by holding government-funded events at his properties, Trump has turned them into "magnets for GOP events, including glitzy fundraisers for his own reelection campaign," the Post writes. Trump's campaign and fundraising committee have so far spent $5.6 million at Trump properties, "turning campaign donations into private revenue" even as his campaign war chest ran dry, the Post continues. It all flies in the face of Trump's insistence that he's losing money by serving as president.
"Any suggestion that the president has used his own official travel or the federal government as a way to profit off of taxpayers is an absolute disgrace and lie," White House spokesperson Judd Deere said. Read more at The Washington Post. Kathryn Krawczyk