6 things you missed if you spent the past week under a rock

[View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter]( October 5, 2020 Howdy! I spent very little time online last week because I was driving a U-Haul, loaded with all my possessions, the 1,800 miles from New York City to Denver. I didn't think I would miss that much. Here's what happened instead: - The [New York Times]( obtained years of President Trump's tax returns and reported that he'd paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. He also wrote off $70,000 in haircuts and styling as business expenses. - Trump squabbled with Joe Biden during what many people considered the worst debate in memory. I listened to about 45 minutes of it on NPR before turning the radio off in disgust. - A former aide to the first lady leaked secretly recorded audio of Melania Trump [complaining]( about the media's focus on family separations at the border and its failure to appreciate the hard work she put in decorating the White House for Christmas. But that story didn't get a lot of play because shortly thereafter... - Trump got COVID. The eventuality we all considered but never really believed would happen actually happened. Surely, we thought, Trump exists within his own 6-foot personal bubble at all times. Surely, anyone who enters that bubble has tested negative. [Not so](. - And Trump wasn't the only one to get sick. So did Melania Trump. So did Kellyanne Conway. And Chris Christie. And Thom Tillis. And Kayleigh McEnany. And [many more people]( who came in contact with our reckless, superspreader president. - Instead of recuperating at the White House, or at the hospital, Trump showed just how much he cares about his Secret Service agents by getting in a car with them, risking their health so he could drive around and wave at his supporters. Did I miss anything? —Abigail Weinberg [Prescott College]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [29 Ways Trump and the GOP Are Making It Harder to Vote]( Republicans are doing all they can to preserve their power at the expense of the democratic process. BY ARI BERMAN AND AJ VICENS [Trending] [Trump's doctor just admitted he lied to stay "upbeat." He's still leaving big questions unanswered.]( BY DAN SPINELLI [Kyle Rittenhouse's lawyers see his case as a battle in their own culture war]( BY SAMANTHA MICHAELS [Why won't Democratic mayors crack down on the cops?]( BY DANIEL MOATTAR [The climate isn’t just making wildfires worse. It can damage a forest's ability to recover at all.]( BY LUNA SHYR [Prescott College]( [Health & Environment] [Special Feature]( [Trump, Infected With COVID-19, Goes on a Surprise Drive-By to Greet Supporters Outside Walter Reed]( Trump also said that he had met with soldiers and first responders during his hospital stay. BY INAE OH [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( [Recharge] SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR ONCE [A New Video Game That Sends Food and Medicine to Refugees Beyond the Screen]( Lual Mayen wasn’t old enough to walk when he fled South Sudan with his family to a refugee camp in northern Uganda, where he lived for 22 years. Food was scarce. School didn’t exist. “It was not an easy journey…I lost two of my sisters,” he said. By the time he was 15, he saw his first computer in passing, and over the next three years, his mother worked to secretly save cash to buy him one. “I couldn’t believe that it was real,” he said in a [story]( powerfully reported by Ryan Bergeron. “Where can I even charge the computer? Where can I even go and learn?…There was nobody that could train me.” Mayen walked three hours to the nearest basecamp to charge the computer. “If [my mother] was able to take us from a war-torn country to an environment of a refugee, I can also make it,” he said. He taught himself to code and design, and he set out to create a game that promotes conflict resolution, first running it over Bluetooth and then posting to Facebook. “That was the first time I started connecting with the video game community and getting support.” His game took off. He’s now the founder of [Junub Games](, which is ready to release “Salaam” (“peace” in Arabic), a mobile game that puts players in the shoes of refugee runners. Through nonprofits, he’s arranging to provide food, water, and medicine to people in refugee camps whenever a player buys supplies in the game. A Recharge salute to Mayen and his mother, and to Bergeron for the [story and images](. —Daniel King Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755