Learn Spanish (Latin America): El ministro intentó ocultar la noticia.

You could say lo del ministro. This translates to "the matter concerning the minister" or "the minister's situation." It is a natural way to refer to a known event without repeating the exact noun. Notice that de + el combines into the contraction del.

Why isn't there a preposition like a between intentó and ocultar?

The verb intentar (to try) connects directly to an infinitive verb without a preposition. English speakers often want to add a or de because of the "to" in "to hide," but intentó ocultar is complete on its own. If you used the synonym tratar instead, you would need a preposition: trató de ocultar.

"News" ends in an "s" in English. Why is noticia singular here?

In Spanish, una noticia is a single piece of news or a specific news story. Because the minister is hiding one specific story, it is singular. If he were hiding the daily news broadcast or multiple stories, it would be plural: las noticias.

Why is intentó in the preterite tense rather than the imperfect (intentaba)?