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 — Despite months of effort by the government to erect a protective barrier around nursing home residents, coronavirus cases are surging within facilities located in states hit by the latest wave. An analysis of federal data by University of Chicago researchers for The Associated Press also finds that nursing homes continue to face shortages of protective equipment, and report insufficient staff to care for residents. By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar. SENT: 920 words, photos, graphic. With VIRUS OUTBREAK-THE LATEST (sent)
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BIDEN — Joe Biden signals he plans to move quickly to build out his government, focusing first on the raging pandemic that will likely dominate the early days of his administration. Biden also will launch teams this week that have access to key agencies in the current administration to ease the transfer of power. It’s unclear for now whether President Donald Trump and his administration will cooperate. He has yet to acknowledge Biden’s victory and has pledged to mount legal challenges to the voting in several states. By Will Weissert, Alexandra Jaffe and Aamer Madhani. SENT: 990 words, photos.
BIDEN-THE PIVOT — Joe Biden’s victory means a pivot in tone for the presidency once he takes office. But Trump’s legacy won’t be easily reversed. As the country embraced at least the chance of reconciliation, the question is will Americans accept the olive branch Biden extends? The election was far from a comprehensive repudiation of the polarizing president. By Calvin Woodward and Michael Tackett. SENT: 1,600 words, photos.
TRUMP-LEGAL STRATEGY — President Donald Trump has promised legal action in the coming days as he refuses to concede to Joe Biden and makes an aggressive pitch for donors to help finance any court fight. Without proof so far, Trump and his campaign have leveled accusations of large-scale voter fraud in Pennsylvania and other states that broke for Biden. But senior officials, campaign aides and allies tell The Associated Press that overwhelming evidence of fraud isn’t really the point. They say the strategy is more about giving Trump an off-ramp for a loss he can’t quite grasp and less about changing the election’s outcome. By Colleen Long and Zeke Miller. SENT: 1,060 words, photos.
ELECTION-2020-ONE-NATION-UNDER-SIEGE — In the election of 2020, a viral plague and corrosive politics converged. Record numbers of COVID-19 cases coincided with an election that went on and on, underscoring an unremitting division in the world’s richest and most powerful nation. In the end, the voters picked former Vice President Joe Biden, but there was no time and little inclination to celebrate democracy — there was just partisan bile, and a mounting roll of the sick and the dead.. Was the die cast with this election — is this the way it will always be? By Jerry Schwartz. SENT: 1,250 words, photos.
Find more coverage below and on the 2020 U.S. Elections featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
OBIT-ALEX TREBEK — Alex Trebek, who presided over the beloved quiz show “Jeopardy!” for more than 30 years with dapper charm and a touch of schoolmaster strictness, has died at age 80. Trebek, who announced in 2019 that he had advanced pancreatic cancer, died at his California home, surrounded by family and friends, “Jeopardy!” studio Sony said. By Lynn Elber. SENT: 1,100 words, photos.
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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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SCI-SPACEX-CREW-LAUNCH — Astronauts head to launch site for SpaceX’s second crew flight. SENT: 790 words, photos.
NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKE — The strongest earthquake to hit southern New England in decades rattled homes and nerves Sunday morning, but didn’t cause any significant damage, authorities say. SENT: 320 words.
INDIA-HARRIS-ANCESTRAL-VILLAGE — Firecrackers and prayers as Indians celebrate Kamala Harris’ win. SENT: 740 words, photos.
OBIT-TOPPING — Seymour Topping, among the most accomplished foreign correspondents of his generation for The Associated Press and the New York Times and later a top editor at the Times and administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, has died at 98. SENT: 1,190 words, photos.
NETHERLANDS-PROTESTANTS-ANTI-SEMITISM — Dutch Protestant Church admits failing Jews in World War II. SENT: 560 words, photos.
GERMANY-BERLIN-AIRPORT — Berlin bids farewell to Tegel airport after 60 years. SENT: 480 words, photos.
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MORE ON ELECTION 2020
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TRUMP AND TRUMPISM — President Donald Trump lost. But Trumpism did not. It won in the parts of the country and with the voters whom Trump catered to over four years, constantly jabbing the hard edges of almost every contentious cultural issue into Red America. By Michael Tackett. SENT: 1,030 words, photos.
TRUMP — President Donald Trump never admits defeat. But he faces a stark choice now that Democrat Joe Biden has won the White House: Concede graciously for the sake of the nation or don’t — and get evicted anyway. By Jill Colvin, Zeke Miller and Jonathan Lemire. SENT: 970 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-BLUE WALL — Joe Biden shored up the Democrats’ “blue wall,” — more sturdily in Michigan, more tenuously in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — to rebuild the party’s path back to the White House. His relatively narrow margins there reflect the nation’s continuing deep divisions more than a newly strengthened Democratic bulwark in the industrial north. By Thomas Beaumont. SENT: 1,070 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-CORONAVIRUS HOPE — After a brutal year of trying to save the sick and burying the dead, news of Joe Biden’s ascension to president-elect came to some as a glimmer of hope that an end to the coronavirus misery might be in sight. By Matt Sedensky. SENT: 970 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-STACEY ABRAMS — Stacey Abrams spent years working to convince political power players that Georgia is a genuine two-party battleground, a Deep South state where the left could compete if it organized Black voters, other sporadic voters and stopped apologizing for being Democrats. The onetime candidate for Georgia governor, who has become perhaps the nation’s leading voice on voting rights, was right. SENT: 930 words, photos.
RACE ON THE BALLOT — Months of discussions about racial justice are being followed by change at the ballot box. Voters in five states decided to cleanse the public sphere of words and symbols that to many were painful reminders of the nation’s history of slavery and the systematic oppression of Black people. SENT: 800 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-GLOBAL-WHAT THE WORLD WANTS — Four years of inward-looking “America First” leadership by outgoing President Donald Trump have generated pent-up global demand for a more engaged and amenable America. The leaders of governments and global institutions will likely be hammering on White House doors and email inboxes with a long wish list of priorities they want American help with which Trump’s administration often refused to provide. SENT: 1,440 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-BRITAIN-US — Boris Johnson’s famous charm worked wonders on Donald Trump, but he faces a tougher audience in Joe Biden. Britain’s prime minister promised to work with the U.S. president-elect to spread democracy, defend human rights and combat climate change, as he sought to woo a leader who sees the world very differently to the outgoing American leader. SENT: 840 words, photos.
ELECTION-2020-GLOBAL-REACTION-PHOTO-GALLERY — The world was on pins and needles for days as the votes were counted, and the announcement that Joe Biden had won the U.S. presidential election on Saturday produced an burst of excitement. SENT: 250 words, photos.
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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
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VIRUS-OUTBREAK-SCHOOLS — Some schools are getting creative about finding extra square footage to facilitate social distancing and reduce the health risks associated with in-person learning. Districts are setting up makeshift outdoor shelters, bringing in trailers to house classrooms and making use of otherwise empty spaces like museums. SENT: 900 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-GERMANY-PROTEST — German officials condemned the actions of 20,000 people who demonstrated against coronavirus restrictions by jamming together in a Leipzig city square largely without wearing masks. They called for an investigation into how the protest was able to get out of control. SENT: 540 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ASIA — India reported 45,674 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, with the capital coping with a sharp surge of nearly 7,000 cases a day this week. SENT: 390 words, photos.
Find more coverage on the Virus Outbreak on the featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
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TROPICAL WEATHER — A strengthening Tropical Storm Eta sliced across Cuba and was aimed at the southern tip of Florida, where officials braced for storm that could hit at hurricane force after leaving scores of dead and over 100 missing in Mexico and Central America. SENT: 810 words, photos.
ARMENIA-AZERBIJAN — Azerbaijani forces have taken control of the strategically key city of Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh where fighting with Armenia has raged for more than a month, the country’s president says. SENT: 280 words, photos.
IRAN-US — Iran’s president called on President-elect Joe Biden to “compensate for past mistakes” and return the U.S. to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, a state-run news agency reported. SENT: 350 words, photos.
MYANMAR-ELECTION — Voters in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, turned up in large numbers to vote in nationwide elections that are expected to return to power the party of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. SENT: 960 words, photos.
THAILAND-PROTESTS — Pro-democracy protesters in Thailand were confronted by riot police and sprayed by water cannons as they tried to approach Bangkok’s Grand Palace to deliver letters about their political grievances addressed to the country’s king. SENT: 630 words, photos.
ETHIOPIA-MILITARY CONFRONTATION — Ethiopia’s prime minister announced major changes to his government’s military and intelligence leadership as he sought to defend a growing military action against the country’s defiant Tigray region, and urged citizens not to target the ethnic Tigrayan people amid fears of civil war. SENT: 650 words, photos.
BELARUS-PROTESTS — Club-swinging police went after demonstrators in Belarus’ capital who were demanding the resignation of the country’s authoritarian president on Sunday, the 90th consecutive day of protests. SENT: 360 words, photos.
FRANCE-EGYPT — France’s top diplomat visited Egypt in an effort to calm tensions with the Muslim world following anti-French protests over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and three Islamic extremist attacks on France. SENT: 310 words, photos.
EMIRATES-ISRAEL — The first flight carrying Israeli tourists to the United Arab Emirates landed Sunday in the city-state of Dubai, the latest sign of the normalization deal reached between the two nations. SENT: 490 words, photos.
JAPAN-CROWN-PRINCE — Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s younger brother, Crown Prince Fumihito, was formally sworn in as first in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne in a traditional palace ritual Sunday that has been postponed for seven month and scaled down due to the coronavirus pandemic. SENT: 500 words, photos.
BRITAIN-QUEEN — Queen Elizabeth II donned a face mask in public for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic when attending a brief ceremony at Westminster Abbey last week to mark the centenary of the burial of the Unknown Warrior. SENT: 430 words, photos.
TUNISIA-GREEN-FASHION — In a globalized world dominated by fast fashion brands, Tunisian designers are increasingly going back to their roots and embrace local artisans and environmentally conscious materials. Tunisia is a good fit for the kind of eco-fashion they want to champion thanks to the North African nation’s age-old textile-making traditions. SENT: 910 words, photos.
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FBN--SAINTS-BUCCANEERS — NFL career passing leaders Tom Brady and Drew Brees meet again, this time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints vying for first place in the NFC South. By Fred Goodall. UPCOMING: 750 words, photos. Game starts 8:20 p.m. With NFL Week 9-The Latest.
CAR--NASCAR-PHOENIX — NASCAR will crown the Cup champion at Phoenix Raceway in a winner-take-all shootout among Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano. Only Logano has won a title before in this format. By Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer. UPCOMING: 900 words, photos. Race starts 3 p.m.
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HOW TO REACH US
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