AP News Digest 7:05 a.m.
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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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.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-GLOBAL — Tourism operators across Asia and the Pacific are making furtive and faltering advances, as well as some spectacular missteps, after travel was largely halted by the coronavirus pandemic that continues ebbing and mostly surging around the globe. By Rod McGuirk. SENT: 720 words, photos. With VIRUS OUTBREAK-THE LATEST.
HONG KONG — Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announces that the government will postpone highly anticipated legislative elections by one year, citing a worsening coronavirus outbreak in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. By Zen Soo. SENT: 430 words, photos.
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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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IRAN-US — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says his country will not negotiate with the United States because America would only use talks for propaganda purposes. SENT: 330 words, photos.
GERMANY-US TROOPS — Germany’s defense minister describes the planned withdrawal of some 12,000 U.S. troops from her country as “regrettable,” while suggesting it underlines the need for Europe to do more for its own security. SENT: 350 words, photo.
CHINA-GPS-RIVAL — China is celebrating the completion of its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System that could rival the U.S. Global Positioning System and significantly boost China’s security and geopolitical clout. SENT: 460 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-BRYAN CRANSTON — Actor Bryan Cranston says he contracted and recovered from COVID-19 and has donated his plasma because it contains antibodies. SENT: 160 words, photo.
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 — There’s no end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top government health experts will tell Congress.
“While it remains unclear how long the pandemic will last, COVID-19 activity will likely continue for some time,” Fauci, along with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head Dr. Robert Redfield and Health and Human Services testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir say in prepared testimony for a special House panel investigating the pandemic. By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Matthew Perrone. SENT: 620 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-VIETNAM — Vietnamese state media are reporting the country’s first ever death of a person with the coronavirus as it struggles with a renewed outbreak after 99 days without any cases. SENT: 170 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ASIA — India added another record surge in virus cases as the government decided to lift a nighttime curfew that was in force since March. The 55,079 new cases in the past 24 hours took India’s total to 1,638,871. The Health Ministry also reported 779 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking fatalities to 35,747. SENT: 8300 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-EID — Small groups of pilgrims perform one of the final rites of the Islamic hajj as Muslims worldwide mark the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday amid a global pandemic that has impacted nearly every aspect of this year’s pilgrimage and celebrations. SENT: 820 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-CHAMPAGNE — Champagne is losing its fizz. For months, lockdown put the cork on weddings, dining out, parties and international travel — all key sales components for the French luxury wine marketed for decades as a sparkling must at any celebration. SENT: 720 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-INDIA-FLOODS — Monsoon floods have swamped large parts of India’s densely populated Bihar state and displaced more than 300,000 people, officials say, exacerbating the risk of the coronavirus and stymieing its response to the pandemic. SENT: 430 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-BRITAIN — Britain’s health secretary defended the government’s abrupt re-imposition of restrictions on social life across a swath of northern England, saying it was important to clamp down quickly on new outbreaks of COVID-19. SENT: 400 words, photos.
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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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.
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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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.
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.
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.
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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. SENT: 1,240 words, photos.
AFGHANISTAN-PEACE TALKS — Afghan President Ashraf Ghani dashed hopes for a start to negotiations with Taliban insurgents, announcing the final 400 Taliban prisoners whose release is a prerequisite to start talks, will remain jailed. The announcement frustrates U.S. efforts to find an end to Afghanistan’s years of relentless war. SENT: 620 words, photo.
ZIMBABWE-OPPOSITION PROTEST — Streets were empty in Zimbabwe’s cities and towns as the military and police kept a strong presence to thwart an anti-government protest and enforce a coronavirus lockdown. SENT: 420 words, photos.
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.
SKOREA-VIRUS-OUTBREAK-CLEANING CASH — Money laundering is not a good idea, as a South Korean found out when he or she put banknotes in a washing machine to remove possible traces of the coronavirus. Officials say the loss was considerable. SENT: 340 words, photos.
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FINANCIAL MARKETS — Global shares were mixed, with European indexes rising in early trading, after Asian benchmarks mostly tumbled, as investors looked ahead to central bank meetings and corporate earnings reports. By Business Writer Yuri Kageyama. SENT: 640 words, photos.
EUROPE-ECONOMY — The economy of the 19-country eurozone shrank by a devastating 12.1% percent during the second quarter from the quarter before as coronavirus lockdowns froze business and consumer activity. It was the largest drop on record. SENT: 640 words, photo.
AUSTRALIA-DIGITAL-PLATFORMS — The Australian government says it plans to give Google and Facebook three months to negotiate with Australian media businesses fair pay for news content. In releasing a draft of a mandatory code of conduct, the government aims to succeed where other countries have failed in making the global digital giants pay for news siphoned from commercial media companies. SENT: 410 words, photos.
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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.
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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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