AP News Digest 7 a.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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BIDEN — President Donald Trump is facing pressure to cooperate with President-elect Joe Biden’s team to ensure a smooth transfer of power when the new administration takes office in January. By Will Weissert. SENT: 890 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK — As he begins his transition to the presidency, Biden is pivoting from a bitter campaign battle to another, more pressing fight: reining in the pandemic that has hit the world’s most powerful nation harder than any other. He has announced plans to launch a COVID-19 advisory board led by former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. David Kessler and Yale University associate professor Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith. By Philip Marcelo. SENT: 1,040 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-PFIZER VACCINE — Pfizer says an early peek at its vaccine data suggests the shots may be 90% effective at preventing COVID-19, indicating the company is on track later this month to file an emergency use application with U.S. regulators. SENT: 610 words, photos. By Medical Writers Linda A. Johnson and Lauran Neergaard. SENT: 610 words, photos.
BIDEN-ECONOMY — Biden will inherit a mangled U.S. economy — one that never fully healed from the coronavirus outbreak and could suffer again as new infections are climbing. It will in some ways be a reprise of when Biden became vice president at the depths of the financial crisis in 2008-09, with possibly fewer tools and less political leverage to press an agenda to both corral the virus and stoke economic growth. By Josh Boak. SENT: 1,210 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-TURNOUT — With votes still being counted, turnout in the 2020 presidential election has hit a 50-year high, exceeding the record set by the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama — an extraordinary engagement in what amounted to a referendum on President Donald Trump’s leadership. By Nicholas Riccardi. SENT: 980 words, photos.
ELECTION-2020-VIEW-FROM-ASIA — As Asia comes to terms with the reality of a Biden administration, relief and hopes of economic and environmental revival jostle with needling anxiety and fears of inattention. By Foster Klug. SENT: 1,150 words, photos.
Find more coverage below and on the 2020 U.S. Elections featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
TROPICAL-WEATHER — Florida is bracing for more impacts from Tropical Storm Eta, which has already brought heavy rains and flooded city streets in the state. Officials shut down public transportation and ordered some evacuations. Even if the storm doesn’t strengthen into a hurricane, its slow speed and heavy rains posed an enormous threat to an area already drenched from more than 14 inches of rain last month. Eta has already left scores of dead and over 100 missing in Mexico and Central America. By Kelli Kennedy. SENT: 830 words, photos, videos.
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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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OBIT-ALEX-TREBEK-AN-APPRECIATION — For 36 years, late “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek was a figure of consensus in an era that increasingly lacked it. He died at the end of an election week when those divisions were in full force. By Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton. SENT: 970 words, photos. WITH: OBIT-ALEX-TREBEK-A LIFE (sent)
CHINA-BIDEN-NOODLE RESTAURANT — The Yaoji Chaogan noodle restaurant beneath Beijing’s 600-year-old Drum Tower has hung up photos of Biden when he visited for a meal in 2011 as management hoped for his return. SENT: 200 words, photos.
NASHVILLE SHOOTING — An argument that started over a dog led to a shooting that left eight people wounded in Tennessee. SENT: 200 words.
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MORE ON ELECTION 2020
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TRUMP-CORONAVIRUS — The Trump campaign’s election night watch party has emerged as the latest cautionary chapter in the tale of the president’s approach to the coronavirus. SENT: 1,090 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-MEXICO-BRAZIL — There were two notable holdouts among the world leaders who rushed to congratulate Biden on his victory in the U.S. elections: the leaders of Latin America’s two largest countries, both of whom have been seen as friendly to Trump. SENT: 960 words, photos.
ELECTION-2020-GERMANY — German Chancellor Angela Merkel says U.S. and Germany must stand “side by side” in handling the coronavirus pandemic, fighting global warming and terrorism, and in working for “an open global economy and free trade.” Biden brings decades of experience in domestic and foreign policy to the job, and “he knows Germany and Europe well,” she said. SENT: 320 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. SENT: 1,340 words, photos.
ELECTION-2020-TRUMP-LEGAL-STRATEGY — Trump has promised legal action in the coming days as he refused to concede his election loss to Biden, making an aggressive pitch for donors to help finance any court fight. Trump and his campaign have leveled accusations of large-scale voter fraud in Pennsylvania and other states that broke for Biden, so far without proof. SENT: 1,210 words, photos.
CHINA-US — China says it has taken note of Biden’s declaration of victory in the U.S. presidential election but is holding off on sending any message of congratulations. China has had a fractious relationship with the Trump administration, characterized by friction over trade, technology and competition for influence in Asia and the world. SENT: 270 words, photo.
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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
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VIRUS-OUTBREAK-THE-LATEST — Portugal has entered a state of emergency, with curfews imposed in the areas worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. From Monday and for at least two weeks, some 7 million people — around 70% of the country’s population — must remain at home on weekdays between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. SENT: 960 words, photos, developing.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ASIA — Sri Lanka police say they will strictly enforce mask and social distancing requirements and punish violators as other anti-virus measures are eased to reduce the economic pain. SENT: 320 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-CAMBODIA — Cambodians are marking their Independence Day holiday, but new coronavirus restrictions are keeping them from celebrating at karaoke parlors, beer gardens, museums, cinemas and other entertainment venues, which have been ordered shut until further notice. SENT: 380 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-UTAH — Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has declared a state of emergency and ordered a statewide mask mandate in an attempt to stem a surge in coronavirus patient hospitalizations that is testing the state’s hospital capacity. SENT: 600 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ARIZONA — A top hospital official urged Arizonans to help curb the spread of the coronavirus by considering alternatives to traditional Thanksgiving get-togethers as the state reported over 2,000 additional COVID-19 cases for the second time in three days. SENT: 370 words.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-NEW MEXICO — For the third consecutive day, New Mexico health officials reported nearly 1,300 additional COVID-19 cases. They also reported 14 additional deaths. SENT: 190 words.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ARKANSAS — Hospitalizations from the coronavirus in Arkansas continued to climb, reaching a new one-day record high of 741. SENT: 170 words.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-TESTING — The Tennessee National Guard has administered over 500,000 COVID-19 tests to citizens throughout Tennessee, according to a news release. SENT: 120 words.
Find more coverage on the Virus Outbreak on the featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
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LEBANON-REPATRIATING MIGRANTS — Two Lebanese youths are on a mission to repatriate migrant workers who have been stranded in Lebanon amid the worst economic crisis in the country’s modern history. SENT: 770 words, photos.
VATICAN-MCCARRICK-EXPLAINER — The Vatican will release its report into the rise and fall of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the once-influential American cardinal who was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after a Vatican investigation confirmed decades of rumors that he was a sexual predator. A look at the case ahead of the report’s release. SENT: 970 words, photos.
BREXIT — Negotiators from Britain and the European Union are meeting to seek a breakthrough in gridlocked trade talks, with just days until a deadline to strike a post-Brexit deal. SENT: 520 words, photos.
AUSTRALIA-SUPPRESSION-ORDER — High-profile Australian journalists and large media organizations are on trial on charges that they breached a gag order on reporting about Cardinal George Pell’s sex abuse convictions in 2018 that have since been overturned. A total of 18 journalists, editors and broadcasters face potential prison sentences if they are found guilty. SENT: 750 words, photo.
LIBYA — Libya’s rival factions began much-awaited political peace talks in Tunisia’s capital brokered by the United Nations, with a goal of drawing a roadmap to presidential and parliamentary elections. SENT: 390 words, photo.
MYANMAR ELECTION — Myanmar’s ruling party says it won enough parliamentary seats to constitute an absolute majority. The party relies on the popularity of its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, despite her government’s economic shortfalls and violent conflicts with ethnic minorities. SENT: 550 words, photos.
HONG-KONG-CHINA — Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers say they will resign en masse from the city’s legislative council if Beijing disqualifies any of them. SENT: 250 words, photos.
AFGHANISTAN-INCENDIARY-WEAPONS — A new report by Human Rights Watch and Harvard’s human rights clinic has documented the use of incendiary weapons and their horrific human cost on civilians over the past decade in conflict zones like Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip and Syria. SENT: 580 words, photos.
AFGHANISTAN — A suicide car bomber in Afghanistan has killed at least four people and wounded 40 in an attack on a police base in the country’s southern Kandahar province, a regional official says. SENT: 220 words.
ESTONIA-MINISTER RESIGNS — Estonia’s far-right interior minister, Mart Helme, has resigned a day after he called Biden and his son Hunter “corrupt characters” without providing further details or evidence. SENT: 550 words, photos.
AUSTRIA-ISLAMIC-RADICALS — Investigators in several Austrian regions have carried out raids on people and organizations suspected of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas groups, prosecutors say. SENT: 130 words.
PAKISTAN-EDITOR-ARRESTED — Pakistan’s supreme court has granted bail to the owner and editor-in-chief of country’s largest independent group of newspapers and TV stations, months after his arrest in a decades-old case related to allegations of tax evasion. Mir Shakilur Rehman’s release comes amid increasing pressure on journalists by state institutions and security agencies. SENT: 200 words.
PAKISTAN-AHMADI-KILLED — Gunmen shot and killed an 82-year-old Ahmadi man on the outskirts of Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, officials said, the fourth-such apparently targeted killing of a member of the minority group in recent months. SENT:130 words.
PALESTINIANS-UN -- The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says it needs to raise $70 million by the end of the month or it will not be able to pay the full salaries of thousands of employees through the end of the year. SENT: 340 words.
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BUSINESS
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FINANCIAL MARKETS — World markets have reacted with relief that results from the U.S. presidential election were finally decided. There are hopes that trade tensions would de-escalate under a Biden presidency, although not all trade frictions are expected to vanish even if Biden rolls back some of the tariffs imposed by Trump. SENT: 610 words, photos.
EUROPE-US-BOEING — The European Union is pressing ahead with plans to impose tariffs and other penalties on up to $4 billion worth of U.S. goods and services over illegal American support for plane maker Boeing, but has also expressed hope that trade ties would improve once Trump leaves office. SENT: 510 words, photo.
JAPAN-EARNS-SOFTBANK—- Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. says it restored its profitability in the last quarter as its investments improved in value. SENT: 350 words, photos.
TURKEY-ECONOMY — The Turkish lira firmed against the dollar a day after the finance minister, who is also the son-in-law to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced his resignation on social media over what he described as health problems. SENT: 230 words, photo.
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ENTERTAINMENT
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JAPAN-HOKUSAI-FILM — A new film portraying the life of Edo-era painter and printer Hokusai features the artistry of two modern-day Japanese actors. SENT: 550 words, photos.
OBIT-NORM-CROSBY — Norm Crosby, the deadpan mangler of the English language who thrived in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s as a television, nightclub and casino comedian, has died. SENT: 540 words, photos.
PEOPLE-LEE-BRICE — Country singer Lee Brice has tested positive for COVID-19 and will not perform as scheduled at the CMA Awards. SENT: 220 words, photo.
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SOC-FIFA-INVESTIGATION-SWISS-BANK — A Swiss bank implicated in FIFA corruption investigations says it has agreed to a settlement in principle with the U.S. Department of Justice and set aside $79.7 million to pay expected fines. SENT: 230 words.
BBO-NATIONALS-BIDEN-FIRST-PITCH — The Washington Nationals have invited Biden to toss out the ceremonial first ball next season on opening day. SENT: 260 words, photo.
EUROPE-VIRUS — The pandemic is further disrupting international football with at least a dozen players from the Italian league blocked from joining their national teams. By Sports Writers Andrew Dampf and Rob Harris. SENT: 520 words, photo.
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HOW TO REACH US
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