AP News Digest 6 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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NEW/DEVELOPING
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Adds 2020-CENSUS, VIRUS OUTBREAK-CANADA, NORWAY-LANDSLIDE, PAKISTAN-HINDU TEMPLE DESTROYED, RUSSIA-WOOLLY RHINO, OBIT-DAWN WELLS.
COTTON BOWL — Game starts 8:10 p.m.
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CHINA-HUNT FOR VIRUS ORIGINS — Top Chinese officials quietly ordered strict controls on all COVID-19 research in the country, internal documents obtained by the AP show, cloaking the search for the origins of the virus in secrecy. Meanwhile, state media are promoting fringe theories that the virus could have come from outside China. By Dake Kang, Maria Cheng and Sam McNeil. SENT: words, photos. Abridged version also available.
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-US — California announces its first confirmed case of the new and apparently more contagious variant of the coronavirus, the second case documented in the United States in a day. The cases have triggered a host of questions about how the version circulating in England arrived in the U.S. and whether it is too late to stop it now. By Colleen Slevin and Carla K. Johnson. SENT: 900 words, photos. With VIRUS OUTBREAK-CALIFORNIA — Los Angeles County surpasses 10,000 coronavirus deaths. SENT: 350 words, photos; VIRUS OUTBREAK-THINGS TO KNOW (sent).
VIRUS OUTBREAK-TRUMP-CONGRESS — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shuts the door on President Donald Trump’s push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks. The Republican leader says Congress has provided enough pandemic aid and blocks another attempt by Democrats to force a vote. By Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro. SENT: 1,080 words, photos, video.
2020-CENSUS — The Census Bureau plans to announce it will miss a year-end deadline for handing in numbers used for divvying up congressional seats, a delay that could undermine President Trump’s efforts to exclude people in the country illegally. It will be the first time that the Dec. 31 target date is missed since the deadline was implemented more than four decades ago by Congress. By Mike Schneider. SENT: 700 words, photos.
ARGENTINA-ABORTION — Argentina becomes the largest nation in Latin America to legalize elective abortion, a triumph for a feminist movement that overcame a last-minute appeal by Pope Francis and could pave the way for similar actions across the socially conservative, heavily Roman Catholic region. By Almudena Calatrava and Débora Rey. SENT: 750 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-LIVES LOST-COPING AND REMEMBRANCE — For those whose loved ones have died of COVID-19, the pain and devastation of 2020 will remain for years to come. Over the last year, AP journalists around the world have profiled dozens of ordinary people who became victims of the pandemic. As the turbulent year comes to a close, the AP revisited some of their families and friends to see how they’re coping. By Peter Prengaman and Raghuram Vadarevu, with illustrations by Peter Hamlin. SENT: 2,900 words, photos.
Find more year-end coverage on the featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-NEW VARIANTS — Does it spread more easily? Make people sicker? Mean that treatments and vaccines won’t work? Questions are multiplying as fast as new variants of the coronavirus, especially the one moving through England and now popping up in the U.S. and other countries. SENT: 760 words, photos.
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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN’ EVE — Joe and Jill Biden will appear on “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” SENT: 260 words, photos.
WALMART-TWEET — Walmart apologizes for a tweet that called GOP Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley a sore loser for contesting President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the election. SENT: 250 words, photo.
BRITAIN-QUEEN'S HONORS — Lewis Hamilton is now a “Sir” as well as a seven-time Formula One champion. SENT: 610 words.
TICKETMASTER-HACKING ALLEGATION — Ticketmaster agrees to pay a $10 million fine to avoid criminal charges accusing the company of hacking into the computer system of a startup rival. SENT: 150 words.
JEOPARDY-TREBEK — The final new “Jeopardy!” episodes hosted by Alex Trebek will air next week, with highlights that promise to be memorable. SENT: 150 words, photos.
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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-BRITAIN-VACCINES — Britain becomes the first country to authorize AstraZeneca’s inexpensive, easy-to-handle COVID-19 vaccine. SENT: 1,220 words, photos. With VIRUS OUTBREAK-BRITAIN — British government extends coronavirus restrictions. SENT: 440 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-CANADA — The Canadian government says that passengers must have a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days before they arrive in the country. SENT: 390 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-OBIT-CONGRESSMAN-ELECT — The death of Louisiana’s incoming Republican member of the U.S. House from complications related to COVID-19 stuns the state’s political circles. SENT: 700 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-NEW YEAR’S EVE — After a year like this, expect a strange New Year’s Eve. SENT: 970 words, photos.
YE-VIRUS OUTBREAK-YEAR OF THE FIST BUMP — 2020: A year where the fist-bump became mainstream greeting. SENT: 870 words, photos.
Find more coverage on the Virus Outbreak on the featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
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NEW CONGRESS-PELOSI — There’s little doubt in Washington that Nancy Pelosi will be reelected House speaker when the new Congress convenes Sunday. But it could take a high-wire act for her to get there, mainly because of the pandemic. SENT: 920 words, photos.
UNITED STATES-IRAN — Two strategic U.S. bombers have flown over the Persian Gulf in response to what U.S. officials say are worrying signs that Iran may be planning attacks against American or allied targets in the Middle East. By National Security Writer Robert Burns. SENT: 910 words, photos.
YE-BIDEN-BLACK POLITICAL POWER — As a barrier-breaking year draws to a close, there’s one undeniable fact: the strength of Black political power. SENT: 1,400 words, photos.
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EXPLOSION-NASHVILLE — The Metro Nashville police chief says his officers properly handled a visit to the home of the Nashville bomber more than a year before they say he detonated an explosives-laden RV on Christmas Day in the city’s downtown. SENT: 920 words, photos.
NEW LAWS — Responses to the coronavirus pandemic and police brutality dominated legislative sessions in 2020, leading to scores of new laws that will take effect in the new year. SENT: 1,300 words, photos.
BRIBERY-INVESTIGATION-OHIO — Ohio’s largest utility faces more than a dozen lawsuits filed by angry shareholders even as it is already battered by scandal. SENT: 910 words, photos.
OBIT-WWII MARAUDER — A Tennessee man who was one of the last surviving members of the World War II jungle fighting unit known as Merrill’s Marauders has died at age 99. SENT; 290 words, photo.
HURRICANE STRUGGLES-PHOTO GALLERY — Louisiana residents struggle months after storms. SENT: 290 words, photos.
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YEMEN — A large explosion strikes the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden shortly after a plane carrying the newly formed Cabinet lands there. At least 25 people are killed, none on the government plane. SENT: 1,070 words, photos.
NORWAY-LANDSLIDE — A landslide smashes into a residential area near the Norwegian capital, injuring at least 10 people, leaving 21 unaccounted for and destroying several homes. SENT: 280 words, photos.
PAKISTAN-HINDU TEMPLE DESTROYED — A mob led by members of Pakistan’s radical Islamist party demolishes a Hindu temple after setting it on fire in a deeply conservative northwestern town. SENT: 200 words.
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EUROPE-CHINA-INVESTMENT — European Union officials and Chinese President Xi Jinping conclude a business investment deal that will open big opportunities to European companies, but has the potential to irk the new American administration. SENT: 880 words, photos.
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RUSSIA-WOOLLY RHINO — A well-preserved Ice Age woolly rhino with many of its internal organs still intact has been recovered from permafrost in Russia’s extreme north. SENT: 230 words, photos.
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COTTON BOWL — Big 12 champion Oklahoma is back at AT&T Stadium 11 days later to play SEC runner-up Florida in the Cotton Bowl. UPCOMING: 750 words, photos. Game starts 8:10 p.m.
AP COACH OF THE YEAR — Coastal Carolina’s Jamey Chadwell is the AP's college football coach of the year after leading the Chanticleers to a surprising, near-perfect season. SENT: 760 words, photos.
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OBIT-DAWN WELLS — Dawn Wells, who played the wholesome Mary Ann among a misfit band of shipwrecked castaways on the 1960s sitcom “Gilligan’s Island,” has died of causes related to COVID-19. She was 82. By Television Writer Lynn Elber. SENT: 600 words, photos.
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HOW TO REACH US
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At the Nerve Center, Mike Stewart can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, 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.