AP News Digest 6:25 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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NEW/DEVELOPING
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Adds: VIRUS OUTBREAK-BOLIVIA; RACIAL INJUSTICE-KENTUCKY; VIRUS OUTBREAK-CALIFORNIA; EARNHARDT-PLANE-CRASH; TRUMP-LAWSUITS; BOY SLAIN-ILLINOIS; VIRUS OUTBREAK-BRAZIL-INDIGENOUS; RACIAL INJUSTICE-MUTUAL OF OMAHA; ELECTION 2020-WISCONSIN-PENCE; ELECTION 2020-BIDEN-SCHOOLS; TRUMP-HEALTH OVERHAUL; VIRUS OUTBREAK-CHILDREN
ELECTION 2020-VP SEARCH, listed on the 2 p.m. digest, will not move this cycle.
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-TRUMP-TESTING — President Donald Trump says the U.S. leads the world in coronavirus testing, but criticism of the nation’s response is mounting as states experience new spikes in cases. Long testing lines and processing delays are upending reopening plans and drawing complaints even from Republicans. By Zeke Miller, Darlene Superville and Michael Stobbe. SENT: 1,060 words, photos.
CONFEDERATE FLAG-PENTAGON — The Pentagon bans displays of the Confederate flag on military installations in a carefully worded policy that doesn’t mention the word ban or that specific flag. Officials describe the policy as a creative way to bar the flag’s display without openly contradicting or angering President Donald Trump, who has defended people’s rights to display it. By Lolita C. Baldor. SENT: 770 words, photos.
SUPREME COURT-GINSBURG — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she is receiving chemotherapy for a recurrence of cancer but has no plans to retire from the Supreme Court. The 87-year-old Ginsburg, who has had four previous bouts of cancer, says her treatment so far has succeeded in reducing lesions on her liver and she will continue chemotherapy sessions every two weeks. By Mark Sherman and Jessica Gresko. SENT: 610 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-GLOBAL — Millions more children in the U.S. are learning that they’re unlikely to return to classrooms full time in the fall due to the coronavirus pandemic. The announcements came as many states in the Sunbelt and elsewhere struggle to cope with a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. By Freida Frisaro and David Crary. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ECONOMY-BENEFITS EXPIRE— Anxiety is rising among people who have lost jobs, who have exhausted their government stimulus checks, who worry about unemployment benefits running out and about the growing possibility that their jobs are permanently lost. By Sarah Skidmore Sell and Christopher Rugaber. SENT: 950 words, photos.
MED--VIRUS OUTBREAK-TREATMENTS -- Fresh studies give more information about what treatments do or don’t work for COVID-19, with high-quality methods that give reliable results. British researchers published their research on the only drug shown to improve survival -- a cheap steroid called dexamethasone. The drug lowered the risk of death by up to 36% for patients needing help breathing but did not help less ill ones. By Marilynn Marchione. SENT: 750 words, photo.
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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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RACIAL INJUSTICE-PORTLAND — Federal agents in green camouflage uniforms have been taking into custody people in the streets of Portland, not close to federal property that they were sent to protect. The ACLU of Oregon says this “should concern everyone in the United States.” SENT: 700 words, photos.
EARNHARDT-PLANE-CRASH — Details released in 2019 crash of plane carrying Earnhardt Jr. SENT: 560 words.
BOY SLAIN-ILLINOIS — Woman who killed her 5-year-old son gets 35-year prison term. SENT: 500 words, photos.
BRITAIN-JOHNNY DEPP — A #MeToo activist said in a court document released that she was “misquoted and misused” by a British tabloid newspaper in an article that accused Johnny Depp of physically abusing his ex-wife, Amber Heard. SENT: 625 words, photos.
BRITAIN-ROYALS-PRINCESS BEATRICE — Buckingham Palace says that Princess Beatrice married in a private ceremony, with her grandmother Queen Elizabeth II in attendance. SENT: 175 words, photos.
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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-BOLIVIA — Long lines form every morning in one of the Bolivian cities hardest hit by the pandemic as desperate people wait to buy small plastic bottles of chlorine dioxide, a toxic bleaching agent that has been falsely touted as a cure for the coronavirus. SENT: 600 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-BRAZIL-INDIGENOUS — The first deaths from COVID-19 have come to a vast, remote region of the Amazon that Brazil’s government says is home to greatest concentration of isolated Indigenous groups in the world. SENT: 700 words.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-CALIFORNIA — California Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out strict criteria for school reopenings that make it unlikely the vast majority of districts will have classroom instruction in the fall. SENT: 600 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-CONGRESS — A new plan from Senate Republicans to award businesses, schools and universities sweeping exemptions from lawsuits arising from inadequate coronavirus safeguards puts Republicans and Democrats at loggerheads. By Andrew Taylor. SENT: 750 words, photos. With VIRUS OUTBREAK-ECONOMY — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urges Congress to quickly enact a new pandemic relief package targeting hardest-hit swaths of the economy. SENT: 750 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ONE NURSING HOME — As normalcy returns to many segments of the U.S. that were locked down as the coronavirus spread, most nursing homes remain frozen in the same position since March. Though some states are inching toward normalcy for residents of those facilities, most are still barring visitors and severely curtailing activities inside. The result is the country’s 1.4 million nursing home residents, many of whom already struggle with loneliness and isolation, are being even more isolated. SENT: 2,950 words, photos, video.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-GEORGIA -- Georgia’s governor and the mayor of its largest city accused each other of playing politics amid an escalating fight over face masks intended to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. The battle over masks in a state with rapidly rising cases of COVID-19 erupted into a public fight in recent days as more than a dozen cities and counties defied Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and issued local orders requiring masks in their cities. SENT: 425 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-BRITAIN — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says people will no longer be told to work from home and avoid public transit. That move appears at odds with the views of his chief scientific adviser. SENT: 800 words, photos. With VIRUS OUTBREAK-BRITAIN-DEATH TALLY — The British government ordered an urgent review into how daily coronavirus death figures in England are calculated amid claims the current method overestimates the tally. SENT: 430 words, photo.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-LIVES LOST-TURKEY-ROBIN HOOD DOCTOR -- An advocate for free health care, Dr. Murat Dilmener sometimes bent hospital rules in Istanbul to ensure people without health insurance got the treatment they needed. The professor and infectious diseases specialist frequently saw poor Turks for free at his private clinic and persuaded more affluent ones to sponsor medical scholarships. SENT: 900 words, photos.
Find more coverage of the Virus Outbreak in AP Newsroom.
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MORE ON RACIAL INJUSTICE
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RACIAL INJUSTICE-KENTUCKY — A prosecutor is dropping a felony charge against dozens of protesters who gathered at the Kentucky Attorney General’s home to demand justice in Breonna Taylor’s death. SENT: 300 words, photos.
RACIAL INJUSTICE-MUTUAL OF OMAHA — Insurance company Mutual of Omaha has announced it will replace its longtime corporate logo, which features a depiction of a Native American chief. SENT: 200 words.
RACIAL INJUSTICE-FRANCE — Assa Traoré started by fighting for justice for her brother Adama, who died in police custody on his 24th birthday four years ago. But now she’s fighting for much more. She’s at the forefront of a new movement for Black rights in France. SENT: 890 words, photos.
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ELECTION 2020-WISCONSIN-PENCE — Vice President Mike Pence is stepping up attacks on Joe Biden, casting the election in under four months as a choice “between freedom and opportunity and socialism and decline.” SENT: 760 words, photos.
TRUMP-HEALTH OVERHAUL — A divided federal appeals court upholds the Trump administration’s expansion of cheaper short-term health insurance plans, derided by critics as “junk insurance,” as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act’s costlier comprehensive insurance. SENT: 410 words.
ELECTION 2020-BIDEN-SCHOOLS — Joe Biden unveils a plan to reopen schools in the era of coronavirus. He is seeking to establish federal safety guidelines that he says will be based on science, not on political pressure for the country to arbitrarily put the coronavirus behind it. By Will Weissert. SENT: 560 words, photo.
TRUMP-LAWSUITS — When the Supreme Court decided that the presidency isn’t a shield against a New York prosecutor’s criminal investigation, the justices didn’t say whether the same goes for civil suits against the president in state courts. That has quickly become a question in two closely watched New York defamation lawsuits filed by women who say President Donald Trump smeared them while denying their sexual assault allegations. SENT: 750 words, photos.
REL--ELECTION 2020-BIDEN-FAITH —President Donald Trump’s appeal to religious conservatives is a cornerstone of his political identity. But Joe Biden is a different kind of foe than Trump has faced before: one for whom faith is a central part of his persona — often literally wearing it on his sleeve. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-HOUSE-NEW YORK —Former middle school principal Jamaal Bowman has toppled 16-term U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel in New York’s Democratic primary in another upset victory for the party’s insurgent wing. Many votes cast by mail in the race have yet to be counted, but an AP analysis of absentee ballots returned so far indicated that Bowman’s lead from votes cast in person is too large for Engel to overcome. SENT: 500 words, photos.
Find more coverage on the 2020 U.S. Elections featured topic page on APNewsroom.
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ISRAEL-A DIFFERENT PEACE — An influential American commentator has sent shock waves through the Jewish establishment and Washington policy-making circles by breaking a long-standing taboo: He has endorsed the idea of a democratic entity of Jews and Palestinians living with equal rights between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, arguing that a two-state solution — Israel and Palestine — is no longer possible. SENT: 1,170, words, photo
EUROPE-SUMMIT — European Union leaders acknowledge they are about as far apart from reaching a deal on an unprecedented $2.1 trillion EU budget and virus recovery fund as the seating distance imposed upon them for health reasons at their summit center. The challenges facing the 27 EU leaders — some of whom arrived masked, some unmasked — are formidable. SENT: 840 words, photos. With EUROPE-SUMMIT-MASKS AND ELBOWS — With all kinds of masks, social distancing rules, and new ways of greetings, some EU leaders reveled in the novelty of it all as they met in person for the first time since February (sent).
AFGHANISTAN-TALIBAN SHUFFLE -- Taliban officials say the son of the movement’s feared founder has been put in charge of its military wing and added powerful figures to its negotiating team ahead of expected talks aimed at ending Afghanistan’s decades of war, The moves mark one of the most significant shake-ups in years. SENT: 950 words, photos.
VATICAN-IRELAND-BABY HOMES — The Vatican has indicated its support for a campaign to provide a proper Christian burial for hundreds of babies and toddlers by first exhuming their bodies from the grounds of a Catholic-run home for unwed mothers in Ireland. SENT: 880 words, photos.
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FEDERAL EXECUTION — The U.S. government executes an Iowa chemistry student-turned-meth kingpin convicted of killing two children and three adults. It is the third execution by the federal government in one week after a hiatus of nearly 20 years. By Michael Tarm. SENT: 1,130 words, photos.
ILLINOIS HOUSE SPEAKER — The U.S. Attorney’s office says electric utility ComEd has agreed to pay $200 million to resolve a federal criminal investigation into a long-running bribery scheme that implicates Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. SENT: 930 words, photos.
OBIT-REV. C.T. VIVIAN — The Rev. C.T. Vivian, a civil rights veteran who worked alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and later led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, has died. Vivian died at home in Atlanta of natural causes, his friend and business partner Don Rivers confirmed to The Associated Press. Vivian was 95. SENT: 575 words, photos.
DISMEMBERED BODY --A personal assistant arrested Friday in the slaying of a 33-year-old tech entrepreneur who was found dismembered inside his luxury Manhattan condo was believed to have owed his boss a “significant amount of money,” police said. SENT: 500 words, photo.
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HEALTH & SCIENCE
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-CHILDREN - Evidence behind what role children play in the coronavirus pandemic and how it affects them is inconclusive, despite the Trump administration’s position that the science is clear. SENT: 700 words, photo.
HIGH PITCH-HUMMINGBIRDS — The Ecuadorian Hillstar hummingbird is capable of singing and responding to sounds beyond the range of pitches scientists had believed birds were capable of hearing, a new study says. SENT: 480 words, photos by 4 p.m.
CLIMATE-COOLANTS — A U.N.-backed report claims making air conditioners and fridges more energy efficient and using more climate-friendly refrigerants can significantly slow global warming. SENT: 400 words, photos.
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PEOPLE-NICK CANNON-JEWISH-REACTION — A prominent rabbi who met with Nick Cannon says the television host and producer is “genuinely concerned about the hurt” he caused by making anti-Semitic remarks, and they intend to work together to reject hate. SENT: 600 words, photos by 5 p.m.
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BBO--BASEBALL RDP — Despite the rampant spread of coronavirus through many of the league’s markets, baseball remains on course toward its July 23 opening. UPCOMING: 700 words, photos by 7 p.m.
BBO--FAN ENGAGEMENT-CUTOUTS — How to stay engaged with fans with no fans in the ballpark? Here’s one plan gaining popularity around baseball: Cutouts, with a fan’s likeness, placed in stadium seats. Of course, the fans will have to pay for it. SENT: 850 words, photos.
FBN--NFL TRAINING CAMP — NFL and its players’ union have still not agreed on testing and other safety protocols as well as economic proposals, increasing the possibility that training camp will be delayed. UPCOMING: 600 words, photos by 6 p.m.
CAR--NASCAR-THE BLACK EXPERIENCE — An influential American commentator has sent shock waves through the Jewish establishment and Washington policy-making circles by breaking a long-standing taboo: He has endorsed the idea of a democratic entity of Jews and Palestinians living with equal rights between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, Some Black NASCAR fans have felt uncomfortable at the track. SENT: 1,390 words, photos. An ABRIDGED version of 950 words is also available.
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HOW TO REACH US
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