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AP News Digest 3 a.m.

| July 31, 2020 12:27 AM

Here are the AP’s latest coverage plans, top stories and promotable content. All times EDT. For up-to-the minute information on AP’s coverage, visit Coverage Plan at https://newsroom.ap.org.

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TOP STORIES

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ELECTION 2020-TRUMP-REPUBLICANS — President Donald Trump repeatedly tests the Republican Party’s limits on issues including race, trade and immigration. On Thursday, he struck a boundary. GOP officials from New Hampshire to Mississippi to Iowa quickly pushed back against Trump’s suggestion that it might be necessary to delay the November election — which he cannot do without congressional approval — because of the unfounded threat of voter fraud. By Steve Peoples. SENT: 950 words, photos.

RACIAL INJUSTICE-PORTLAND — Oregon police took over protecting a federal courthouse in Portland that’s been a target of violent protests as local authorities try to tamp down demonstrations that have wracked the city every night for more than two months following the killing of George Floyd. By Gillian Flaccus. SENT: 790 words, photos.

RACIAL INJUSTICE-SCHOOL POLICE-SUPPORT — School districts nationwide are working to remove police officers from campuses, but some Black and Indigenous educational leaders are resisting the push prompted by the national reckoning over racial injustice and police brutality. Some say the system is hamstrung by a complicated mix of police response policies and a lack of support for alternative programs, which plays a role in students of color being disproportionately punished and arrested — the so-called school-to-prison pipeline. By Colleen Slevin. SENT: 1,110 words, photos.

VIRUS-OUTBREAK-FLORIDA TESTING — As coronavirus cases surge in hard-hit Florida, so do the turnaround times for test results. The reasons are many. Often it has to do with lab staffing, backlogs or equipment shortages. Sometimes tests are done in house, while other tests are sent to labs out of state. But there’s one place in Central Florida where people are being tested and getting results within a day: the NBA. By Tamara Lush. SENT: 1,180 words, photos.

UNITED STATES-CHINA-CONSULATES — The United States and China have done more than strike symbolic blows in their escalating feud by shutting each other’s consulates. They’ve also dimmed each other’s abiity to observe critical regions of their countries. By Matthew Lee. SENT: 875 words, photos.

EGYPT-HISTORIC-CEMETERIES — For centuries, sultans and princes, saints and scholars, elites and commoners have been buried in two sprawling cemeteries in Egypt’s capital, creating a unique historic city of the dead. Now in its campaign to reshape Cairo, the government is driving highways through the cemeteries, raising alarm from preservationists. By Lee Keath. SENT: 1,240 words, photos.

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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

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VENEZUELA-JAILED-AMERICANS — 2 American oil execs jailed in Venezuela put on home arrest. SENT: 490 words, photo.

SUDAN-DARFUR — Aid group: Darfur attacks strand 14,000 without medical help. SENT: 550 words, photos.

UNITED NATIONS-ANNUAL MEETING — UN leaders to meet virtually; Trump might attend in person. SENT: 320 words, photo.

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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK

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VIRUS OUTBREAK-CONGRESS-FAUCI — Dr. Anthony Fauci returns to Capitol Hill to testify before a special House panel investigating the coronavirus pandemic. His testimony comes at a time when early progress on combating the virus seems to have been lost and uncertainty clouds the nation’s path forward. By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Matthew Perrone. SENT: 620 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-ASIA — China is tightening travel restrictions in the Xinjiang capital amid a COVID-19 outbreak in the northwestern city. People arriving in Urumqi from regions considered to have high infection risk must undergo a two-week quarantine. Others arriving from less risky areas most show proof of good health. SENT: 880 words, photos.

VIRUS-OUTBREAK-TRANSPLANTS — A Chicago woman who last month became the nation’s first COVID-19 patient to undergo a double lung transplant said Thursday that she woke up days later, unaware about the surgery and unable to “recognize my body.” SENT: 550 words, photos, video.

VIRUS-OUTBREAK-CONGRESS-TESTING — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are under increasing pressure from lawmakers to boost testing for the coronavirus in the Capitol, an idea they have so far rejected because of concerns about the availability of tests across the country. SENT: 980 words, photos.

Find more all-format coverage on the Virus Outbreak featured topic page in AP Newsroom.

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MORE ON RACIAL INJUSTICE

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RACIAL-INJUSTICE-ALBUQUERQUE — Activists in Albuquerque say they are preparing to greet federal agents coming to New Mexico’s largest city with civil disobedience and peaceful protests. SENT: 370 words, photos.

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WASHINGTON/POLITICS

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ELECTION 2020-BIDEN-BASS — California congresswoman Karen Bass has emerged as a leading contender to be Democrats’ vice presidential candidate. Allies say her reputation as a bridge-builder would make her a strong partner to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. By Kathleen Ronayne. SENT: 1,150 words, photos.

ELECTION 2020-VOTING WORRIES — A shift to mail voting is increasing the chances that Americans will not know the winner of November’s presidential race on election night. But that doesn’t mean the results will be flawed or fraudulent, as President Donald Trump suggested on Thursday. By Nicholas Riccardi and Will Weissert. SENT: 740 words, photos.

ELECTION-2020-BULLOCK — An aide to Montana Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s senate campaign is fired after a history of racist, sexist and homophobic tweets surfaced. SENT: 360 words, photo.

FBI SURVEILLANCE — The FBI says errors in its applications for secret surveillance warrants in national security investigations were not as severe as the Justice Department watchdog made them out to be earlier this year. SENT: 400 words, photo.

CONGRESS-GOLD MEDAL — Congress awards the Congressional Gold Medal, its highest honor, to surviving crew members of the USS Indianapolis. The crew, with 1,195 personnel aboard, delivered components of the atomic bomb ‘‘Little Boy’’ on a top secret mission in 1945 that was critical to ending the war. By Matthew Daly. SENT: 500 words.

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NATIONAL

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TROPICAL-WEATHER — New Hurricane Isaias kept on a path expected to take it to the U.S. East Coast by the weekend as it approached the Bahamas, parts of which are still recovering from the devastation of last year’s Hurricane Dorian. SENT: 450 words.

JEFFREY EPSTEIN-ASSOCIATE — Newly unsealed court documents provide a fresh glimpse into a fierce civil court fight between Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, and one of the women who accused the couple of sexual abuse. SENT: 450 words, photos.

KLAMATH-RIVER-DAMS — Gov. Gavin Newsom has appealed directly to investor Warren Buffett to support demolishing four hydroelectric dams on a river along the Oregon-California border to save salmon populations that have dwindled to almost nothing. SENT: 700 words, photos.

ALASKA-"INTO THE WILD"-BUS — An infamous bus appears headed to a new home at a museum in Fairbanks after being removed from Alaska’s backcountry to deter people from making dangerous, sometimes deadly treks to visit the site where a young man documented his demise in 1992. SENT: 570 words, photo.

POLICE-SHOOTING-FERGUSON — St. Louis County’s top prosecutor announced that he will not charge the former police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a dramatic decision that could reopen old wounds amid a renewed and intense national conversation about racial injustice and the police treatment of minorities.. By Jim Salter. SENT: 840 words, photos.

MEXICAN-CHURCH-LEADER-CHILD-RAPES — California charges the leader of a Mexican megachurch with child rape and human trafficking, months after a court dismissed the previous allegations because of prosecution errors. Naasón Joaquín García, the self-proclaimed apostle of La Luz del Mundo, was charged with three dozen felony counts. SENT: 510 words, photo.

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INTERNATIONAL

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SAUDI-KING-HEALTH — Saudi Arabia’s King Salman was discharged from a hospital in the capital Riyadh after more than a week following surgery to remove his gall bladder, the Royal Court said. SENT: 410 words, photo.

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BUSINESS/TECH

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BIG-TECH-RESULTS — Big Tech companies reported mixed quarterly earnings a day after their top executives faced a tough congressional grilling over their market power and alleged monopolistic practices. SENT: 740 words, photos.

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ENTERTAINMENT

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TV-ELLEN DEGENERES — Ellen DeGeneres apologized to the staff of her daytime TV talk show amid an internal company investigation of complaints of a difficult and unfair workplace. By Television Writer Lynn Elber. SENT: 460 words, photo.

MUSIC-MTV-VMA-NOMINATIONS — It’s raining nominations for Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s “Rain on Me” at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, which will present new categories focused on live performances and music videos created at home during the coronavirus pandemic. By Music Writer Mesfin Fekadu. SENT: 500 words, photos.

FILM-VINTAGE BOX OFFICE — When historians look back on the top films at the box office in the summer of 2020, they may feel like they’ve slipped into a time warp, or maybe “Back to the Future.” Over the second weekend in July, “Empire Strikes Back” — 40 years after it was first released — was again No. 1. “Ghostbusters” claimed the July 4th weekend, 36 years after opening. Over the June 19-21 weekend and 27 years after it last led the box office, “Jurassic Park” again ruled theaters. In a pandemic that has resurrected all kinds of vintage pastimes, from puzzles to drive-ins, even the blockbusters are retro. By Film Writer Jake Coyle. SENT: 1,020 words, photos.

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SPORTS

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FBC--PAUL NEWBERRY-SEASON ON THE BRINK — If college football somehow makes it to the field, all we’ll get is a shell of a season. Fewer games. Conference bubbles. A limited number of fans in the stadiums. Is it really worth it? By Sports Columnist Paul Newberry. SENT: 950 words, photos.

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HOW TO REACH US

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At the Nerve Center, Vincent K. Willis can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, Courtney Dittmar ext. 1900. For graphics and interactives, ext. 7636. Expanded AP content can be obtained from http://newsroom.ap.org. For access to AP Newsroom and other technical issues, contact apcustomersupport(at)ap.org or call 877-836-9477.