Coronavirus live: latest news USA

Donald Trump goes out of his way to insult anybody who doesn't support him or threaten them with jail. That's not normal presidential behavior. His actions embolden other people to be cruel and divisive and racist.

I get that this president wants full credit for the economy he inherited, and zero blame for the pandemic he ignored. But you know what — the job doesn't work that way. Tweeting at the television doesn't fix things. Making stuff up doesn't make people's lives better.

 

Majority of America on the brink of rampant coronavirus spread

Nearly two-thirds of US states were in a danger zone of coronavirus spread and six, including election battleground Wisconsin, reported a record one-day increase in covid-19 deaths on Wednesday while the pandemic’s resurgence in Europe strained hospitals, according to Reuters.

Coronavirus deaths hit fresh daily records in Hawaii, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, a state that also reported a record daily increase in new cases together with Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio, according to a Reuters analysis.

Covid-19 thwarts arguments as US judge reviews Trump rape case

Reuters report that a U.S. judge said he will consider without hearing arguments whether to excuse President Donald Trump from a defamation lawsuit by a former Elle magazine columnist, after the coronavirus pandemic unexpectedly derailed the government from presenting its case on Wednesday.

The decision by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan disappointed the lawyer for E. Jean Carroll, the former columnist, who said that Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store a quarter century ago and falsely denied it happened.

At the behest of Attorney General William Barr, the US Department of Justice has been trying to substitute the federal government for Trump as a defendant in Carroll’s case, shielding the president from liability and likely dooming Carroll’s claim.

But the Justice Department lawyer who planned to argue the case was stopped at the courthouse door because he had traveled from Virginia, requiring that he quarantine for 14 days under an Oct. 13 advisory from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Hopes for stimulus breakthrough push dollar to lowest in over six weeks

The dollar extended its losses on Wednesday, hitting its lowest in more than six weeks, after President Donald Trump boosted hopes for a large fiscal stimulus package, prompting some traders to ramp up bets on riskier currencies. Lawmakers in Washington have been negotiating intermittently since August, with Democrats arguing for a bigger package to help manage the economic fallout from coronavirus.

Trump raised hopes for a breakthrough on Tuesday by saying he was willing to accept a large aid bill, despite opposition from his own Republican party. The dollar fell in response to the comments, even though markets generally expect more fiscal stimulus to be passed in the near future regardless of whether it is agreed before the election. "It’s not a gamechanger – I think the base scenario for the market is that there will be another fiscal stimulus package at some point in the next few weeks or maybe in a few months," said Thu Lan Nguyen, FX and EM analyst at Commerzbank. "The market has still reacted positively to it because obviously the earlier the better in the current situation."

Meadows: coronavirus relief talks have entered a new phase

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on Wednesday the biggest sticking point in coronavirus relief negotiations remains funding for state and local governments, but added that progress has been made toward a deal.

"The negotiations have entered a new phase which is more on the technical side of trying to get the language right if we can agree upon the numbers. We're still apart. Still a number of issues to work on, but the last 24 hours have moved the ball down the field," Meadows said in an interview with Fox Business Network.

New covid-19 cases up by 46% in Idaho, one in four patients infected

Idaho is experiencing its biggest surge in covid-19 cases since the pandemic began. Infections are up by 46.5% during the past fortnight. 

At St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls, one in four patients admitted is suffering from covid-19.  It has more covid-19 patients than all three hospitals in the Treasure Valley, combined.

Idaho reported 821 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday and six deaths.

Montana nurse begs public to leave politics out of covid-19 fight

An emergency room nurse has urged Montana residents to take politics out of the battle against coronavirus as the number of cases in the state reached 24,000, the death toll surpassed 250 with 360 patients hospitalised. 

Charlotte Skinner, a nurse at St. Peter's Health in Helena told AP, "I have never and I will never run into the room of a patient in distress and ask them how they vote. People in health care don't discriminate and neither does this virus. I'm asking you to stop segregating yourselves into maskers and anti-maskers and to stand with us on the common ground of science and evidence, which is clearly telling us that masking works".

CORONAVIRUS STIMULUS CHECK

Second stimulus check: why does McConnell advise against the deal?

What does McConnell have against stimulus deal anyway?

Mitch McConnell recommends that the White House wait on passing a big stimulus package while negotiations continue between Pelosi and Mnuchin.

Pelosi hopeful for covid-19 relief bill despite Senate Republican opposition

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday said there was still a chance for a deal on fresh covid-19 stimulus relief despite resistance from Senate Republicans, though she acknowledged it might not pass until after the election. 

She told MSNBC that she wanted the bill to pass before the election, but suggested Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may only be willing to do it afterwards.

If that happened, she said, it would include retroactive aid. "I'm optimistic," Pelosi said. "We want it before, but again, I want people to know, help is on the way." Pelosi and Mnuchin are hammering out the details of a relief package that could be in the range of $2.2 trillion, the number Democrats have been pushing for months. Conservatives in the Republican-majority Senate object to the trillion-dollar-plus price tag under discussion.

McConnell does not want to bring a large coronavirus aid bill to the Senate floor before the election, a senior Republican aide said, as he focuses on trying to confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. 

More than $3 trillion in relief was passed quickly earlier this year, aimed at salving the heavy human and economic toll of the covid-19 pandemic.

Covid-19 tightens grip on U.S. Midwest; 4 states report record daily deaths

Four U.S. states reported a record one-day increase in covid-19 deaths on Wednesday including Wisconsin, a hotly contested state in the upcoming election, as infections kept rising across the Midwest and beyond. Coronavirus deaths hit daily records in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, according to a Reuters analysis.

Wisconsin also reported a record daily increase in new cases together with Illinois and Ohio, the analysis showed. Sixty-six people succumbed to the coronavirus in Illinois, where Governor JB Pritzker imposed fresh restrictions in some counties this week, the state's highest single-day increase since mid-June. 

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said 48 people had died from the virus as he announced that a week-old field hospital in the Milwaukee suburbs has admitted its first patient. "Folks, please stay home," Evers said in a statement on Wednesday. "Help us protect our communities from this highly-contagious virus and avoid further strain on our hospitals." 

Volunteer in Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine trial dies, wasn't given vaccine

A volunteer who was taking part in AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine trial has died, Anvisa confirmed. Bloomberg report that the volunteer was a a 28-year-old man from Brazil however, it is believed that he was not in the group that were given the vaccine. 

In a statement to NBC News, AstraZeneca confirmed the trial, which is at the Clinical Stage 3 phase, will continue.

Stimulus package "unlikely to get through Congress before 3 November election"

Goldman Sachs believe that there is practically no chance that Congress will pass new economic stimulus legislation before the election on 3 November, CNBC reports. “Some of the biggest issues remain unresolved and a deal doesn’t seem particularly close,” Goldman economist Alec Phillips explained. “With big differences and little time, it seems unlikely that Pelosi and Mnuchin will reach a deal before the election. More importantly, even if a deal in principle is announced in coming days, this seems possible, but not likely; it looks very unlikely that it would pass before Election Day.”

Melania Trump cancels rally appearance due to "lingering cough"

Melania Trump cancelled plans to join husband Donald at Wednesday evening's campaign rally in Erie, Ohio. Both she and her husband tested positive for coronavirus on 2 October and has since returned negative tests although she would not attend yesterday's rally due to a "lingering cough".