AP News Digest 2 p.m.
Here are the AP’s latest coverage plans, top stories and promotable content. All Times EST. For up-to-the minute information on AP’s coverage, visit Coverage Plan at https://newsroom.ap.org.
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ONLY ON AP
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VIRUS-OUTBREAK-COVID-2020-ATLAS — Almost no place has been spared — and no one. The virus that first emerged a year ago in Wuhan, China, swept across the world in 2020, leaving havoc in its wake. More than any event in memory, the pandemic has been a global event. On every continent, households have felt its devastation — joblessness and lockdowns, infirmity and death. And an abiding, relentless fear. SENT: 1,690 words, photos, videos. With VIRUS OUTBREAK-COVID 2020 ATLAS-UNITED STATES; VIRUS OUTBREAK-COVID 2020 ATLAS-BRAZIL; VIRUS-OUTBREAK-COVID-2020-ATLAS-PERU; VIRUS OUTBREAK-COVID 2020 ATLAS-SPAIN; VIRUS OUTBREAK-COVID 2020 ATLAS-ISRAEL; VIRUS-OUTBREAK-COVID-2020-ATLAS-GERMANY; VIRUS-OUTBREAK-COVID-2020-ATLAS-ITALY; VIRUS OUTBREAK-COVID 2020 ATLAS-KENYA; VIRUS OUTBREAK-COVID 2020 ATLAS-SOUTH AFRICA; VIRUS OUTBREAK-COVID 2020 ATLAS-IRAN; VIRUS OUTBREAK-COVID 2020 ATLAS-JAPAN; VIRUS-OUTBREAK-COVID 2020 ATLAS-INDIA; VIRUS OUTBREAK-COVID 2020 ATLAS-CHINA; VIRUS-OUTBREAK-COVID-2020-ATLAS-OTHER-COUNTRIES.
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-CONGRESS — Top congressional leaders near agreement on a long-delayed COVID-19 relief package, hoping to seal a $900 billion bipartisan deal that would extend aid to individuals and businesses and ship coronavirus vaccines to millions. The legislation would include a new round of stimulus checks and enhanced federal unemployment insurance benefits, aides say. By Andrew Taylor. SENT: 793 words. UPCOMING: Developing, 900 words by 5 p.m., photos, with updates likely into the evening.
VIRUS OUTBREAK— COVID-19 vaccinations are ramped up at U.S. nursing homes as the crisis deepens in places like California. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill close in on a long-stalled relief package that would send direct payments to Americans, and the U.S. appears on the verge of adding a second vaccine to its arsenal. By Adam Geller. SENT: 740 words, photos.
WINTRY WEATHER — The Northeast girded for a major snowstorm at a key moment in the coronavirus pandemic, days after the start of the U.S. vaccination campaign and in the thick of a virus surge that has throngs of people seeking tests per day. The storm was poised to drop as much as 2 feet of snow in some places by Thursday, and the pandemic adding was new complexities to officials’ preparations — deciding whether to close testing sites, figuring out how to handle plowing amid outdoor dining platforms in New York City streets, redefining school snow days to mean another day of learning from home, and more. By Jennifer Peltz. UPCOMING: 675 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-VOTING HEARING — Republican senators further perpetuate President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud at a congressional hearing just days after Democrat Joe Biden’s victory was sealed by the Electoral College. The session quickly devolves as Democrats push back and a former U.S. cybersecurity official who oversaw the election says the claims are dangerous. By Christina A. Cassidy and Maryclaire Jalonick. UPCOMING: 800 words by 3:30 p.m., photos.
BIDEN-CLIMATE — President-elect Joe Biden picks a couple of proven deal-makers and fighters to help lead a climate team charged with cleaning up America’s infrastructure and technology as fast as humanly and politically possible. Progressive groups are still waiting for signs Biden will take care of low-income and minority communities hit hardest by fossil fuel pollutants and climate change. By Ellen Knickmeyer and Matthew Daly. UPCOMING: 800 words by 5 p.m., photos. WITH: BIDEN-THE LATEST.
SCI-YEAR IN SPACE — This year was a big one for space and next year promises more achievements. 2020 had astronauts blasting into orbit from the U.S. again, and three countries sending spacecraft hurtling toward Mars. Those orbiters and landers will be arriving at the red planet in February. Next year, Boeing hopes to catch up with SpaceX in launching NASA astronauts. Space tourism may finally get off the ground. There’s also the planned launch of the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope in the fall. And NASA is still targeting November for the debut of its new moon rocket. By Marcia Dunn. SENT: 940 words, photos.
YE-VIRUS OUTBREAK-TRANSFORMED ECONOMY — The coronavirus pandemic has transformed how people around the world work, shop and travel, shaking up entire industries and in some cases accelerating trends that were already underway. But which of those changes will endure when a vaccine is widely available and life goes back to something resembling normal? By Paul Wiseman. SENT: 2,960 words, photos. Eds: An abridged version of 925 words is available.
Find more year-end coverage on the featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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BRITAIN-TOM CRUISE RANT — Tom Cruise launches an expletive-laden rant at colleagues on the set of his latest “Mission: Impossible” movie after he spotted two workers failing to abide by social distancing rules. SENT: 250 words, photos.
LONG LOST DOG — A Chihuahua dog named Sweet-Pea who went missing five years ago in Southern California has been found and is back home. SENT: 100 words.
CZECH-ORANGUTAN — Prague’s zoo says it’s finally completed the process of naming a critically endangered Sumatran orangutan born in the park on Nov 17. He’ll be called Pustakawan, or Kawi. SENT: 125 words, photos.
PYTHON-HUNTING DOG — Florida is now using trained dogs to sniff out troublesome pythons. SENT: 370 words.
SHARK BITE-FLORIDA — A Florida man has been bitten by a shark and walked home bleeding where a woman called 911 and had him taken to a hospital. SENT: 110 words.
PAKISTAN DANCING BEARS — A pair of sick and neglected dancing Himalayan brown bears will leave Islamabad’s notorious zoo for a sanctuary in Jordan. SENT: 675 words, photos.
GERMANY MUSEUM HEIST — Berlin police raided homes and jewelry shops on suspicion they could be connected to efforts to fence a massive 220-pound Canadian gold coin — piece by piece — that was stolen from a museum in the German capital. SENT: 320 words, photo.
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-PFIZER VACCINE — U.S. officials say they’re actively negotiating for additional purchases of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine after declining to lock them in earlier this year because they weren’t sure how well it would work. By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar. UPCOMING: 700 words by 3 p.m., photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-POMPEO — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is quarantining after coming into contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19. Pompeo and the State Department have been criticized for hosting holiday parties amid the coronavirus pandemic. SENT: 175 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-VACCINE PRISONS — Prisons nationwide have been hit hard by COVID-19 but most states don’t have inmates near the front of the line for initial doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Families of inmates are urging state officials to consider them alongside other people in group housing where outbreaks have been common. SENT: 890 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-BRITAIN — The consensus across the four nations of the U.K. over the planned easing of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas appears to be fraying — even though they all agreed Wednesday to keep in place the laws around the relaxation. SENT: 640 words, photos. With VIRUS OUTBREAK-BRITAIN-THEATER — Virus shuts many U.K. theaters but online the show goes on.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-BRITAIN-VACCINE MINORITIES — Research in the U.K. suggests that people from ethnic minority backgrounds or with lower incomes are less likely to take the coronavirus vaccine being rolled out in Britain. SENT: 580 words.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-GERMANY — Germany reported a record level of coronavirus deaths as it entered a harder lockdown, closing shops and schools to try to bring down stubbornly high new daily infections. SENT: 590 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ASIA — South Korea has reported another high in daily coronavirus increases as health officials face growing pressure to enforce stricter social distancing to slow the spread in the capital area. SENT: 830 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-CALIFORNIA — Hospitals are filling up so fast in California that officials are rolling out mobile field facilities and scrambling to hire more doctors and nurses to prepare for an expected surge in coronavirus patients. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.
ONE-GOOD-THING-SPARKS OF KINDNESS — A tin of cookies is left on the running board of an ambulance outside a nursing home with a note for the emergency workers who operate it: “You’re AMAZING! Yes, you!” A baggie sits on the edge of a fountain with dozens of copper coins and another message, for anyone who passes by and fancies tossing one in: “Take a penny. Make a wish! Hope your dreams come true.” This is the world of Sparks of Kindness, an online community of people going out of their way to put a smile on the faces of others. From thanking a teacher to leaving coloring books in a hospital waiting room, no act is too small. SENT: 710 words, photos.
Find more coverage on the Virus Outbreak on the featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
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BIDEN — President-elect Joe Biden introduces former presidential rival Pete Buttigieg as his nominee for transportation secretary, calling the 38-year-old former mayor “a new voice, with new ideas determined to move past old politics.” SENT: 514 words. UPCOMING: 790 words by 5 p.m., photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-PFIZER VACCINE — U.S. officials say they’re actively negotiating for additional purchases of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine after declining to lock them in earlier this year because they weren’t sure how well it would work. UPCOMING: 700 words by 3 p.m., photos.
TRUMP-SHOWERHEADS — President Donald Trump wanted more water to flow through showerheads to keep his hair “perfect.” Now the Energy Department has complied, finalizing a rule that tweaks the definition of a showerhead to allow it to dispense more water. By Deb Riechmann. UPCOMING: 300 words by 4 p.m., photos.
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FRANCE ATTACKS TRIAL — The fugitive widow of an Islamic State gunman and a man described as his logistician have been convicted of terrorism charges in the trial of 14 people linked to the January 2015 attacks in Paris against the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket. SENT: 1,155 words, photos.
NIGERIA-BOKO HARAM SCHOOL ATTACK — Anxiety has overwhelmed many parents in Nigeria’s northern village of Kankara who await word on their sons who are among the more than 330 kidnapped by extremists from a government boys’ school. Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist rebels have claimed responsibility for the abduction of the students from the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara. SENT: 875 words, photos.
IRAQ-CAMP CLOSURES — A push by the Iraqi government to close displacement camps by the end of the year threatens to leave tens of thousands of people homeless and without aid during a pandemic and at the onset of winter. The displaced were driven from their homes during the war against the Islamic State group. Many say they cannot return because their homes were destroyed or they fear reprisal by tribes and militias. Iraq’s cash-strapped government says it must accelerate closures to revive lagging reconstruction efforts. SENT: 1,040 words, photos.
NEW ZEALAND-ARDERN INTERVIEW — New Zealand this year pulled off a moonshot that remains the envy of most other nations: It eliminated the coronavirus. But the goal was driven as much by fear as it was ambition, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed in an interview with The Associated Press. She said the target grew from an early realization the nation’s health system simply couldn’t cope with a big outbreak. SENT: 900 words, photos, video.
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MINNESOTA JUVENILE-LIFER — A Black man who was sent to prison for life as a teenager took his first steps of freedom to the sound of ringing bells and cheering family members and supporters, hours after a pardons board commuted his sentence in a high-profile murder case. SENT: 1,250 words, photos.
OPIOID CRISIS-PAIN NONPROFITS — A bipartisan congressional investigation released found that key players in the nation’s opioid industry have spent $65 million since 1997 funding nonprofits that advocate treating pain with medications, a strategy intended to boost the sale of prescription painkillers. UPCOMING: 700 words, photos by 3 p.m.
HIJACKING-PLOT — Federal authorities have unsealed an indictment charging a Kenyan man with trying to stage a 9/11-style attack on the United States on behalf of the terrorist organization al-Shabab. Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 30, who was arrested in the Philippines in 2019, was transferred to U.S. custody Tuesday on charges that he conspired to hijack an aircraft and slam it into a building. SENT: 225 words.
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HEALTH & SCIENCE
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CHINA MOON PROBE — A Chinese spacecraft capsule has returned to Earth with the first fresh samples of rock and debris from the moon in more than 40 years. It’s the latest breakthrough for China’s increasingly ambitious space program. State media reported Tuesday that the capsule of the Chang’e 5 probe landed in the Siziwang district of the Inner Mongolia region at 2 a.m. local time. It separated earlier from its orbiter module and performed a bounce off the Earth’s atmosphere to reduce its speed before passing through and floating down on parachutes. SENT: 730 words, photo.
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FINANCIAL-MARKETS — Stocks were mixed as investors continue to balance hope for additional aid from Washington with a spike in virus cases that continues holding back a broad economic recovery. SENT: 525 words, photo. WITH: RETAIL SALES — Retail sales fell 1.1% in November, the biggest drop in seven months, a sign that Americans held back on spending during the start of the holiday shopping season. SENT: 330 words,
CURRENCY MANIPULATION — The U.S. Treasury Department has branded Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators while putting China and nine other countries on a watch list in an annual report designed to halt countries from manipulating their currencies to gain unfair trade advantages. SENT: 695 words, photos.
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FILM-MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM — “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” one of the year’s top Oscar contenders, is the second August Wilson adaptation, following 2016′s “Fences,” in an effort led by Denzel Washington to bring the playwright’s plays to the big screen -- or, in this case, Netflix. Viola Davis, director George C. Wolfe and Wilson’s widow, Constanza Romero discuss the project, including the final performance of Chadwick Boseman. By Film Writer Jake Coyle. UPCOMING: 900 words by 4 p.m., photos.
YE-AP BREAKTHROUGH ENTERTAINERS-YAHYA ABDUL-MATEEN — It’s been a strange and bittersweet year for Yahya Abdul-Mateen, capped by an Emmy as Dr. Manhattan in HBO’s lauded series “Watchmen.” That role, along with performances in the films “All Day and a Night” and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which he portrays Black Panther Bobby Seale, has earned him the recognition of one of AP’s Breakthrough Entertainers for 2020. SENT: 720 words, photos and video.
YE-AP BREAKTHROUGH ENTERTAINERS-DAISY EDGAR-JONES — When 22-year-old Daisy Edgar-Jones ditched her British accent for the dulcet Irish tones of Marianne in “Normal People,” the actor’s stardom hit a new trajectory. Launched during a global lockdown, the actor jokes in an interview she had a “captive audience” with a lot of spare time. It also helped lead to her selection as one of the AP’s 2020 Breakthrough Entertainers. By Louise Dixon. SENT: 660 words, photos and video.
Find more year-end coverage on the featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
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FBC-SIGNING DAY — The lead up to championship weekend in college football also includes the opening of the early signing period for high school prospects, where the title contenders also clean up. By College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo. UPCOMING: 750 words by 6 p.m.
SUPREME COURT-NCAA — For the first time in more than three decades, the Supreme Court will hear a case involving the NCAA and what it means to be a college athlete. The high court agreed to review a court decision in an antitrust lawsuit the NCAA has said blurred “the line between student-athletes and professionals” by removing caps on compensation that major college football and basketball players can receive. SENT: 850 words, photo.
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HOW TO REACH US
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