Tuesday morning news - October 6, 2020

Trump returns to the White House » After spending three days at Maryland’s Walter Reed military hospital, President Trump returned to the White House on Monday. 

His chief physician Dr. Sean Conley told reporters…

CONLEY: Though he may not entirely be out of the woods yet, the team and I agree that all our evaluations, and most importantly his clinical status, support the president’s safe return home.

Doctors said the president had been without a fever for 72 hours and “met or exceeded all discharge criteria.” But Conley said he was “not at liberty” to discuss the condition of the president’s lungs and whether there are signs of scarring or other lasting damage. 

Well-wishers cheered outside the hospital Monday as the president’s Marine One helicopter departed. 

The president received criticism for briefly leaving the hospital a day earlier to drive past supporters, waiving from his armored SUV. Some said it put Secret Service agents in danger of contracting COVID-19. But the White House said the short trip  was “cleared by the medical team as safe.” And Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told Fox News …

MEADOWS: We took additional precautions with PPE and others to make sure that they were protected. 

Earlier Monday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced that she too has tested positive for COVID-19. That adds to a list of more than a half-dozen officials with ties to the White House to test positive within the past five days. 

NYC to close many schools and may close businesses and religious institutions » New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered schools in some New York City neighborhoods to close today in an effort to halt a coronavirus flare-up. 

That after the city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, asked for permission to reinstate restrictions in nine ZIP codes where the virus is spreading more quickly. 

But while Cuomo ordered the closure of some schools, he did not immediately grant de Blasio’s request to shut down businesses as well. But the mayor said Monday…

DE BLASIO: Our plan is to move ahead Wednesday morning with enforcement in those nine zip codes of all nonessential businesses. We will continue working with the state in the meantime to get to a final resolution. 

Most of the neighborhoods targeted by the restrictions are home to part of the city’s large Orthodox Jewish community, where many religious schools resumed in-person instruction in early September.

And Cuomo said he may also bar religious services and other gatherings. 

CUOMO: If I do not have the agreement from the religious community directly as a starting point, then we will close down the religious institutions. 

He said he’s confident any such closures would survive legal challenges. 

Regal will once again close all U.S. theaters » The nation’s second-largest chain of movie theaters is shutting down all of its locations once again, less than two months after reopening. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports. 

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Regal will temporarily close all 536 of its U.S. locations on Thursday—along with more than a hundred theaters it owns in the U.K. The closures will affect some 45,000 employees.

The news comes after filmmakers once again pushed back several major planned fall releases, including the latest Wonder Woman and James Bond films. 

Studios grew increasingly skittish after the action-thriller Tenet failed to light up the box office. It was billed as the return of the blockbuster, but since its September 3rd release, it’s earned only $45 million domestically. 

Against the backdrop of COVID-19, Regal and it’s top competitor, AMC Theaters, have installed a host of safety measures to reassure customers.

But Regal said without major new releases to draw in moviegoers, it’s losing more money by remaining open amid the pandemic.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin. 

Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict heats up » AUDIO: [SOUND OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH]

Small mushroom clouds have billowed over neighborhood streets in Nagorno-Karabakh since Friday. That as troops from Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to fight over the disputed region.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry on Monday accused Armenia of shelling several residential towns. Armenia denied that accusation and accused Azerbaijan of firing missiles into the region’s capital of Stepanakert.

 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Monday…

STOLTENGERG: It is extremely important that we convey a very clear message to all parties involved that they should cease fighting immediately, that we should support all efforts to find a peaceful solution. 

The two countries have reported some 250 deaths since clashes erupted late last month. Nagorno-Karabakh is in the majority Muslim Azerbaijan but has served primarily as home to Armenian Christians since 1994.

Nobel Committee awards prize to three men for discovering hepatitis C » The Nobel Committee is awarding the Nobel Prize for medicine to two Americans and a British-born scientist…

PERLMANN: Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton, and Charles M. Rice for the discovery of  hepatitis C virus.

The committee’s Secretary-General Thomas Perlmann, heard there, credited the men with saving millions of lives.

Charles Rice said he found out about the award when his landline, which never rings, woke him at 4:30 in the morning.

RICE: I figured that, you know, this was probably a crank phone call or there was some disaster in the laboratory and, you know, one of our low temperature freezers was warming up and a crisis was occurring. 

The trio’s work, dating back to the 1970s and 80s, identified a major source of blood-borne hepatitis.

Before the discovery of hepatitis C, some compared blood transfusions to Russian roulette. But the committee said their discovery helped to essentially eliminate “post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world.”

Hepatitis C is a major cause of liver cancer and cirrhosis requiring liver transplants.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) President Donald Trump salutes Marine One as he stands on the balcony outside of the Blue Room as returns to the White House Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, in Washington, after leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md. Trump announced he tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 2. 

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.