AP News Digest 6:50 p.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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Adds: FEDERAL-EXECUTIONS; VIRUS OUTBREAK-MLB: TRUMP-GERMANY; MARINE CHARGED-RUSSIA; VIRUS OUTBREAK-CONGRESS-OVERSIGHT; TRUMP-BOLTON BOOK; HANGING DEATH-INVESTIGATION; EBAY EMPLOYEES-CYBERSTALKING; AMERICA PROTESTS-FRANCE; AMERICA PROTESTS-MEDIA; AMERICA PROTESTS-STREAMING REVOLUTION; ACADEMY AWARDS-POSTPONED; Q&A-QUEEN LATIFAH; POLICE SHOOTING-ATLANTA-WHAT HAPPENED
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DEVELOPING
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FEDERAL-EXECUTIONS—AP Exclusive: Justice Dept. schedules executions of 4 federal death row inmates beginning in July, following months-long legal battle. SENT: 700 words, developing.
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SUPREME COURT-LGBT RIGHTS — The Supreme Court rules that a landmark civil rights law protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment, a resounding victory for LGBT rights from a conservative court. By Mark Sherman. SENT: 1,280 words, photos, video. With SUPREME COURT-WEBSITE GLITCH — Technical issues leave some waiting for Supreme Court’s LGBT ruling. SENT: 640 words, photo.
AMERICA PROTESTS — Pleading through tears, the family of a black man killed by Atlanta police outside a drive-thru demanded changes in the criminal justice system and called on protesters to refrain from violence amid heightened tensions across the U.S. three weeks after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. By Russ Bynum and Kate Brumback. SENT: 800 words, photos. Developing. With AMERICA PROTESTS-THE LATEST SENT: 760 words, photos.
AMERICA PROTESTS-CONGRESS — Driven by a swift-moving national debate, Senate Republicans are on the brink of introducing an extensive package of policing changes. It is expected to include new restrictions on police chokeholds and other practices. By Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro. SENT: 850 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-RACIAL DISPARITY POLL — African Americans are disproportionately likely to say a family member or close friend has died of COVID-19 or respiratory illness since March, according to a series of surveys conducted since April that lays bare how black Americans have borne the brunt of the pandemic. By Kat Stafford and Hannah Fingerhut. SENT: 940 words, photo, graphic.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-NURSING HOMES -- A grim blame game with partisan overtones is breaking out over COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents, a tiny slice of the population that represents a shockingly high proportion of Americans who have perished in the pandemic. By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar. SENT: 880 words, photos.
Find more all-format coverage on the Virus Outbreak featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
PHILIPPINES-CONVICTED JOURNALISTS — Journalist Maria Ressa has been convicted of libel in a Philippine court decision called a blow to press freedom in an Asian bastion of democracy. Ressa was sentenced to a 6-year term over a story on her news website that linked a businessman to murder and other crimes. SENT: 790 words, photos.
POLICE SHOOTING-ATLANTA-WHAT HAPPENED -- The call started off as routine: a man asleep in his car at a fast-food drive-thru. But what began as a relatively calm encounter between Atlanta police and the driver, Rayshard Brooks, changed as soon as police tried to arrest him. He fought the officers, took a Taser from one of them and then appeared to point it at them as he ran away. Did police need to shoot him or could they have done something differently to defuse the situation? By Lisa Marie Pane. SENT: 900 words, photos.
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VIRUS OUTBREAK – European countries reopened borders after a three-month coronavirus shutdown, although international visitors are still being kept away and there was uncertainty over whether many Europeans will quickly embrace travel outside their home countries. The virus is far from being wiped out, and the need for constant vigilance came into sharp focus again as China, where COVID-19 first emerged last year, rushed to contain an outbreak in the capital of Beijing. By Ken Moritsugu, Geir Moulson and Menelaos Hadjicostis. SENT: 1,030 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-CONGRESS-OVERSIGHT — The House subcommittee investigating billions of dollars in coronavirus aid demands that the Treasury Department, the Small Business Administration and several large banks turn over detailed information about who applied for and received federal loans. SENT: 570 words, photos
MED--VIRUS OUTBREAK-MALARIA DRUG — U.S. regulators have revoked emergency authorization for malaria drugs promoted by President Donald Trump for treating COVID-19 amid growing evidence they don’t work and could cause serious side effects. SENT: 720 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-DISTANCE LEARNING — With huge percentages of students unplugged from distance learning, educators at schools around the country have been working to understand why. Some describe an urgent need to address impediments in case remote learning resumes in the fall, when the stakes will be raised by the return of formal grading and attendance tracking. In Hartford, Connecticut, where a school principal has been going door to door to speak with parents of children who have not been participating, she sees many of the reasons why. Internet service is unreliable. Parents are away at work. And some are uncomfortable with the technology. By Michael Melis. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-INDIA-PHOTO GALLERY — Izhaar Hussain Shaikh is an ambulance driver who is working tirelessly to ferry patients with the coronavirus to hospitals in India’s coastal city of Mumbai. It’s an exhausting job, fraught with health risks to him and his family, but he does it anyway at the expense of grueling daily shifts that sometimes stretch 16 hours. SENT: 450 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ONE GOOD THING-PEN PALS — An effort to connect nursing home residents in two neighboring New Hampshire communities during the coronavirus pandemic has ended up fostering friendships across the country. An activity aide at Sullivan County Health Care in Claremont, came up the idea to match his residents with pen pals at Summercrest Senior Living Community 12 miles away in Newport after the facilities stopped accepting visitors because of the virus. But it has since expanded and letters now pour in from around the country. SENT: 580 words, photos.
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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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AMERICA PROTESTS-MEDIA: What seems like the tiniest of steps — capitalizing the “b” in black when describing a race of people — has become a big talking point in the journalism community. Sent: 800 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-MLB — AP Source: Chance MLB won’t play increases in money fight. SENT: 570 words.
ACADEMY AWARDS-POSTPONED — For the fourth time in its history, the Oscars are being postponed. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said the 93rd Academy Awards will now be held on April 25, 2021, eight weeks later than originally planned because of the pandemic’s effects on the movie industry. SENT: 560 words, photo.
EBAY EMPLOYEES-CYBERSTALKING — Feds: Ex-eBay staff sent spiders, roaches to harass couple. SENT: 600 words.
BRITAIN-US-FIGHTER CRASH — The pilot of a fighter jet that crashed into the North Sea off the coast of northern England has been found dead, the U.S. Air Force says. SENT: 230 words.
MUSIC-BET AWARDS — Drake tops BET Awards nods; show to air on CBS for 1st time. SENT: 260 words, photos.
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TRUMP-GERMANY — President Trump says he is ordering a major U.S. troop withdrawal from Germany, a move widely criticized by members of his own party as a gift to Russia and a threat to U.S. national security. By National Security Writer Robert Burns. SENT: 710 words, photos.
MARINE CHARGED-RUSSIA — The parents of a former U.S. Marine who has been jailed for nearly a year in Moscow on charges that he assaulted police officers are urging the court system and government to ensure a fair trial for their son. By Eric Tucker. SENT: 740 words, photo.
TRUMP-BOLTON BOOK — President Trump says former national security adviser John Bolton could face a “criminal problem” if he doesn’t halt plans to publish a new book. UPCOMING: 500 words, photo by 7 p.m.
ELECTION 2020-TRUMP SPENDING — President Trump’s campaign poured nearly $24 million into a paid advertising tsunami across six battleground states from late April to early June, but his political standing sits at one of the lowest points of his presidency. By Steve Peoples and Zeke Miller. SENT: 920 words, photos. With ELECTION 2020-BIDEN FUNDRAISING — Joe Biden pulled in $81 million for his election effort in the month of May, a massive sum that shows the extent to which Democrats have unified behind him. SENT: 300 words, photo.
UNITED STATES-VOICE OF AMERICA — The director of U.S.-funded Voice of America and her deputy resign following recent clashes with the Trump administration that have sparked fears for its independence. By Ben Fox. SENT: 760 words, photo.
SUPREME COURT-ATLANTIC PIPELINE — The Supreme Court sides with energy companies and the Trump administration in paving the way for a critical permit for a proposed natural gas pipeline that would cross under the Appalachian Trail. By Mark Sherman. SENT: 580 words, photo.
MELANIA TRUMP — Melania Trump announces youth art project to coincide with the ratification nearly 100 years ago of the constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote. By Darlene Superville. SENT: 300 words, photo.
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AMERICA PROTESTS-FRANCE: Under pressure from police, the French government has backed away from a ban on chokeholds during arrests. SENT; developing. With AMERICA PROTESTS-EUROPE-TASERS: France’s government is testing stun guns for wider use and backing off a ban on police chokeholds after French police staged protests around the country last week. SENT: 1,100 words; photos.
ISRAEL-GIFTS FOR NETANYAHU – Israel’s prime minister is on trial for accepting gifts from wealthy friends. But that has not stopped him from seeking another gift from a wealthy friend to pay for his multimillion-dollar legal defense. Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping an oversight committee approves his request to accept $2.9 million from Michigan-based magnate Spencer Partrich. The awkward arrangement opens a window into the very ties with billionaire friends that plunged Netanyahu into legal trouble and sheds light on the intersection of money and Israeli politics. SENT: 990 words, photos.
VENEZUELA-VIRTUAL EMBASSY — The U.S. diplomat has found a rare path back into Venezuela a year after leaving the South American nation amid a historical break between the two political foes. James Story takes to Facebook Live once a week talking on a wide variety of topics from corruption to the oil-rich nation’s gasoline shortages. SENT: 930 words, photo.
RUSSIA-US ESPIONAGE — A Russian court convicted an American corporate security executive of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison after a closed trial that the U.S. denounced as a “mockery of justice,” and it angrily said his treatment in jail was “appalling.” SENT: 640 words, photos.
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AMERICA PROTESTS-STREAMING REVOLUTION: Bystander footage has been a driving force in the Black Lives Matter movement, with cell phone-bearing citizens capturing the deaths of George Floyd, Alton Sterling, Eric Garner and others. Those high-profile clips showed the extremes of police brutality, but in the nationwide protests following Floyd’s death two weeks ago, the ubiquity of smart phones has exposed for many the breadth of police aggression. SENT: 1040 words, photos.
HANGING DEATH-INVESTIGATION — State and federal authorities will monitor the investigation into the death of a black man found hanging from a tree in the Southern California city of Palmdale, officials said following large weekend protests. SENT: 400 words, photos.
POLICE CHASES-DEADLY CRASHES — Crashes involving Chicago police vehicles that killed retired teacher Verona Gunn last year and a young mother this month highlight the dangers of police speeding to crime scenes or during car chases. Gunn’s son says it’s a police reform issue that’s not getting the same attention as officers’ use of excessive force. Audio obtained by The Associated Press of police radio transmissions reveal that speeding officers were repeatedly told by a dispatcher to slow down before the crash that killed 84-year-old Verona Gunn. SENT: 900 words, photos.
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FINANCIAL-MARKETS — The stock market shook off a weak start and ended higher after the Federal Reserve announced its latest measure to support markets. The central bank said it will begin buying individual corporate bonds to help keep lending markets running smoothly. SENT: 770 words, photos.
ECONOMY-JOB MARKET'S UNCERTAINTIES — Layoffs are slowing, unemployment is declining and hiring is gradually rising, suggesting that a steady rebound may be afoot in the U.S. job market. Or is it? So many uncertainties are overhanging the economy that no one knows whether hiring will expand steadily in the months ahead or merely plateau as employers recall only enough of their laid-off staffers to partially reopen for business. By Christopher Rugaber and Josh Boak. SENT: 1,280 words, photo.
BRITAIN-BP — BP says it will cut the value of its oil and gas assets by as much as $17.5 billion and review plans for some oil wells as the COVID-19 pandemic reduces demand for oil and gas and forces major energy companies to speed up the shift away from fossil fuels. SENT: 560 words, photo.
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ENTERTAINMENT
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Q&A-QUEEN LATIFAH: Queen Latifah plays Oscar-winner Hattie McDaniel in the Netflix series “Hollywood,” and has a simple reaction to HBO Max’s decision last week to pull “Gone With the Wind” from its service temporarily: good riddance. SENT: 860 words, photos.
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FIFA-TAKING A KNEE — FIFA appealed for “tolerance, mutual respect and common sense” after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced the annulment of a policy that required soccer players to stand during the national anthem. SENT: 300 words, photos.
TOUR RETURNS — The PGA Tour returned after three months and Commissioner Jay Monahan felt every bit a winner as Daniel Berger at Colonial. There were no positive tests from the 487 administered at the Charles Schwab Challenge to players, caddies and key personnel. There were no fans, either. SENT: 870 words, photos.
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HOW TO REACH US
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