Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Pandemic: “The number of new Covid-19 cases is going up across the Midwest as the temperature is going down, the latest NBC News statistics showed Wednesday. Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin have seen a greater than 25 percent increase in coronavirus cases in the last two weeks compared to the two weeks before.”
* Meanwhile, in Europe: “President Emmanuel Macron of France announced on Wednesday that, starting on Saturday, the authorities would impose a curfew between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. in the Paris region and in the areas around eight other major cities, for at least four weeks.”
* A story we’ve been following: “For more than three years, federal prosecutors investigated whether money flowing through an Egyptian state-owned bank could have backed millions of dollars Donald Trump donated to his own campaign days before he won the 2016 election, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.”
* Hostage swap: “Houthi rebels in Yemen freed two American hostages Wednesday in exchange for the release of nearly 300 of the group’s members, in a surprise U.S.-brokered deal, according to the Houthis and American officials.”
* What a mess: “The mayor of Anchorage, Alaska, announced his plans to resign Tuesday after apologizing for an ‘inappropriate messaging relationship’ with a local TV news reporter who had posted what she said was a partially nude photo of him on Facebook.”
* Not too surprising: “Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who are both attorneys in their early 60s, were indicted by a St. Louis grand jury last week on charges of unlawful use of a weapon and tampering with evidence…. [T]he McCloskeys’ attorney, Joel Schwartz, indicated that Trump remains interested in the case. ‘They have spoken with the president,’ Schwartz said after the hearing. ‘The president contacts them semi-frequently.’” * I’d forgotten about this one: “The Trump campaign has suggested that Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former White House aide, pay for an ad campaign costing nearly $1 million as a ‘corrective’ remedy for her critical comments about President Trump in her 2018 book and in subsequent interviews.” * Jon Chait has the patience needed to explore this nonsense: “Rudy Giuliani has spent at least two years attempting to find some kind of Ukrainian dirt that can be used to discredit Joe Biden. Now he has unveiled his October surprise: emails, or images of what purport to be emails, between Hunter Biden and Burisma officials.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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