How do I disable “Apple News Spotlight” in Catalina?

Question

How can I prevent the News app from randomly splash-screening "News Spotlight" on my desktop?

I am, against my will, still being intermittently bombarded with Apple's idea of "news". It really breaks my train of thought if while in the middle of chasing down a bug, I am informed that the British Royalty are attending a social event.

This question is essentially the same as How do I disable "Apple News Spotlight" in Mojave?

None of the solutions in that question work for me. I therefore suspect something has maybe changed with the new OS.

Is it just my bad luck, or is every other maclander out there also getting this junk stuffed into their eyeballs on a quasi-regular basis?