AP News Digest 6:40 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 WESTERN-WILDFIRES-ECONOMIC-IMPACT, UNITED-STATES-CHINA-FORCED-LABOR, ROCHESTER-POLICE-DEATH, TEXAS-POLICE-SHOOTING-INDICTMENT, GREECE-MIGRANTS-SHIPWRECK, VIRUS OUTBREAK-SOUTH CAROLINA, VIRUS-OUTBREAK-CONGRESS-CDC, ELECTION-2020-WISCONSIN-ABSENTEE, GREECE-MIGRANTS-SHIPWRECK, BILL-COSBY, BRITAIN-OXFORD MUSEUM, ISLE ROYALE WOLVES, CHADWICK BOSEMAN-DEATH
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ELECTION 2020 — With the smell of California wildfires in the air, President Donald Trump ignored the scientific consensus that climate change is playing a central role in historic West Coast infernos and renewed his unfounded claim that failure to rake forest floors and clear dead timber is mostly to blame. By Jonathan Lemire, Aamer Madhani, Will Weissert and Ellen Knickmeyer. SENT: 980 words, photos, video. With ELECTION 2020-CLIMATE-WILDFIRES — Trump and Joe Biden take sharply different stands on climate policy. SENT: 460 words, photos.
WESTERN-WILDFIRES-ECONOMIC-IMPACT — The fires consuming the forests of California and Oregon and darkening the skies over San Francisco and Portland are also damaging a regional economy already singed by the coronavirus outbreak. The credit rating agency A.M. Best estimates that insured losses from the blazes in California could top the unprecedented $13 billion recorded in 2017 when the state was hit by three of the five costliest fires in U.S. history. By Paul Wiseman. SENT: 940 words, photos. With WESTERN WILDFIRES — Easing fires not as simple as climate change vs. forest work. SENT: 910 words, photos.
TROPICAL WEATHER — Hurricane Sally, one of a record-tying five storms churning simultaneously in the Atlantic, closed in on the Gulf Coast on Monday with rapidly strengthening winds of at least 100 mph (161 kph) and the potential for up to 2 feet (0.6 meters) of rain that could bring severe flooding. By Janet McConnaughey and Stacey Plaisance. SENT: 1,030 words, photo. With TROPICAL WEATHER-BERMUDA — Hurricane Paulette knocked down trees and power lines across Bermuda on Monday as it made a rare landfall in the wealthy British territory and strengthened into a Category 2 storm while still over the island. SENT: 350 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-FOOD INSECURITY — Brooklynite Sharawn Vinson felt she had no choice but to send her 11-year-old twins to live with their father in North Carolina after the pandemic threw into doubt her ability to make sure they had enough food. It was a painful decision, but it bought her time to save up money and food stamps, and find a job. By August the kids were able to return in time for a remote graduation and the start of youth football. Vinson is emblematic of some 2 milion New Yorkers facing food insecurity due to the pandemic. By Luis Andres Henao and Jessie Wardarski. SENT: 1,350 words, photos. An abridged version of 1,000 words is available.
VENUS-POSSIBLE LIFE — Astronomers have found a potential sign of life high in the atmosphere of neighboring Venus: hints there may be bizarre microbes living in the sulfuric acid-laden clouds of the hothouse planet. Two telescopes in Hawaii and Chile spotted in the thick Venusian clouds the chemical signature of phosphine, a noxious gas that on Earth is only associated with life, according to a study in the journal Nature Astronomy. By Seth Borenstein. SENT: 800 words, photo.
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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-SOUTH CAROLINA — South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Friday and is recovering in isolation with her family at home, officials said. SENT; 420 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-CONGRESS-CDC — A House subcommittee examining President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is launching an investigation into reports that political appointees have meddled with routine government scientific data to better align with Trump’s public statements. SENT: 440 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ONE GOOD THING-CAIRO CHOIR — With their concerts on hiatus and their usual routine of rehearsals upended by the coronavirus, members of the Cairo Celebration Choir joined virtually with musicians and soloists to put out song and video that offer a hopeful message amid the virus gloom. SENT: 560 words, photos.
ITALY-VIRUS-HOTSPOT-BACK-TO-SCHOOL — The morning bell Monday marked the first entrance to the classroom for the children of Codogno since Feb. 21, when panicked parents were sent to pick up their children after the northern Italian town gained notoriety as the first in the West to record local transmission of the coronavirus. By Colleen Barry and Luca Bruno. SENT: 620 words, photos.
Find more coverage on the Virus Outbreak on the featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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CHADWICK BOSEMAN-DEATH — Chadwick Boseman buried near South Carolina hometown. SENT: 200 words, photo.
BRITAIN-OXFORD MUSEUM — Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum has removed its famous collection of shrunken heads and other human remains from display as part of a broader effort to “decolonize’’ its collections. SENT: 420 words, photos.
GREECE-MIGRANTS-SHIPWRECK — Greece: 3 migrants dead, 53 saved after boat sinks off Crete. SENT: 220 words, photos.
INNOCENT MAN-PRISON RELEASE — Jailed for 37 years, Florida man cleared of murder, rape. SENT: 570 words, photos.
RWANDA-HOTEL RWANDA-COURT CHARGES — A Rwandan court has charged Paul Rusesabagina, whose story inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda,” with terrorism, complicity in murder, and forming an armed rebel group. SENT: 440 words, photos.
PEOPLE-PARIS-HILTON — Paris Hilton says she ‘feels free’ after YouTube documentary. SENT: 780 words, photos.
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ELECTION 2020-TRUMP RALLIES — President Trump and his campaign are openly defying health and safety guidelines aimed at containing the coronavirus as his rallies grow in size, calling them “peaceful protests” protected by the First Amendment. While Democratic governors have urged the president to reconsider, they haven’t gone all-out to block them. By Jill Colvin. UPCOMING: 990 words by 7 p.m., photos.
ELECTION 2020-SPENDING — President Trump’s massive campaign cash advantage has evaporated, and Joe Biden has outspent Trump by nearly double over the past month. By Brian Slodysko. SENT: 1,120 words, photos. With ELECTION 2020-BIDEN LEGAL TEAM — Biden is assembling a team of top lawyers in anticipation of court challenges to the election process that could ultimately determine who wins the race for the White House. SENT: 470 words, photo.
ELECTION-2020-WISCONSIN-ABSENTEE — The Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered that the Green Party presidential candidate should not be added to the ballot, clearing the way for local clerks to resume mailing absentee ballots to more than 1 million voters who have requested one. SENT: 590 words.
TRUMP-FOREIGN POLICY — In the past two weeks, President Trump has notched a string of diplomatic wins that he’s showcasing to voters, but his report card on the most serious threats to U.S. national security shows an incomplete. By Deb Riechmann. SENT: 980 words, photos. With UNITED STATES-QATAR — The Trump administration hopes to capitalize on agreements to be signed this week between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain by pressing for an end to a dispute that has roiled relations between the Gulf Arab countries. SENT: 370 words, photos.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT-EMISSIONS SETTLEMENT — Automakers Daimler AG and subsidiary Mercedes-Benz USA agree to pay $1.5 billion to the U.S. government and California state regulators to resolve emissions cheating allegations. By Michael Balsamo and Tom Krisher. SENT: 930 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-SCHOOL CHOICE — Millions of American children are starting the school year online because of the pandemic. The Trump administration is hoping to convert their parents’ frustration and anger into newfound support for school choice policies that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has long championed but struggled to advance nationally. By Collin Binkley.. SENT: 1,240 words, photos.
Find more coverage on the 2020 U.S. Elections featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
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ROCHESTER-POLICE-DEATH — Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren fired the police chief and suspended her top lawyer and communications director in the continuing upheaval over the suffocation death of Daniel Prude. SENT: 430 words, photo.
BILL-COSBY — Legal advocates are lining up on both sides of actor Bill Cosby’s appeal as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court prepares to review his 2018 sex assault conviction. SENT: 520 words, photo.
TEXAS-POLICE-SHOOTING-INDICTMENT — A Texas police officer has been charged with assault for fatally shooting a woman after a struggle over the officer’s stun gun last year, prosecutors announced. SENT: 500 words, photo.
SOUTH DAKOTA-ATTORNEY GENERAL-FATAL ACCIDENT — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg reported hitting a deer with his car but actually killed a pedestrian whose body was not found until the next day, state investigators say. SENT: 730 words.
RACIAL INJUSTICE-RURAL AREAS — Far from city streets filled with demonstrators, racial reckonings also are playing out in rural areas like New York’s Adirondack Mountains. SENT: 870 words, photos.
FATAL-POLICE-SHOOTING-PENNSYLVANIA — A police officer fatally shot a man with a knife after his sister said she called police to get him involuntarily committed, leading to street protests and vandalism in what the mayor of the small Pennsylvania city of Lancaster called a “heartbreaking day.” SENT: 600 words.
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UNITED STATES-CHINA-FORCED LABOR — The U.S. has blocked imports from four companies and a manufacturing facility in northwestern China suspected of using forced labor from people detained as part of a sweeping crackdown on ethnic minorities in the region. SENT: 720 words, photo.
GERMANY-RUSSIA NAVALNY — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is able to breathe on his own and briefly leave his hospital bed, his doctors said Monday, while Germany announced that French and Swedish labs have confirmed its findings that he was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.
RUSSIA-BELARUS — Belarus’ authoritarian president visited Russia in a bid to secure more loans and political support, as demonstrations against the extension of his 26-year rule entered their sixth week. SENT: 890 words, photos.
BREXIT — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his plan to unilaterally rewrite Britain’s divorce deal with the European Union as an insurance policy against the bloc’s unreasonable behavior. The comments came as his former attorney general joined a growing number of once-loyal lawmakers condemning the contentious move. SENT: 860 words, photos.
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HEALTH/SCIENCE
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GREENLAND-ICE SHEET — Scientists say an enormous chunk of Greenland’s ice cap, estimated to be about 110 square kilometers (42.3 square miles), has broken off in the far northeastern Arctic. SENT: 330 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-TREATMENTS — A drug company says that adding an anti-inflammatory medicine to a drug already widely used for hospitalized COVID-19 patients shortens their time to recovery by an additional day. Eli Lilly announced the results from a study of 1,000 people sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. SENT: 340 words, photo.
ISLE ROYALE WOLVES — Gray wolves that were taken to Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park to rebuild its nearly extinct population are forming social groups, staking out territory and apparently mating — promising signs despite heavy losses from natural causes and deadly fights, scientists say. SENT: 650 words, photos.
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TIKTOK-ORACLE-DEAL — The short-video app TikTok has chosen Oracle as its corporate savior to avoid a U.S. ban ordered by President Donald Trump. The U.S. government will review the prospective deal. That much is known. Everything else is confusion, at least to outsiders. By Matt O’Brien and Tali Arbel. SENT: 880 words, photo.
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LITERARY PEACE PRIZE-ATWOOD - Margaret Atwood’s sweeping body of work is being recognized with a lifetime achievement award that celebrates literature’s power to foster peace, justice and understanding. SENT: 680 words, photo.
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FBN--STEELERS-GIANTS -- The Pittsburgh Steelers, with Ben Roethlisberger back at quarterback, face a Giants team in which rookie head coach Joe Judge makes his debut for New York. By Pro Football Writer Barry Wilner. UPCOMING: 800 words, photos. Game starts 7:10 p.m.
HKN--GOLDEN KNIGHTS-STARS -- The Stars are on the cusp of their first Stanley Cup Final appearance in 20 years, entering Game 5 with a 3-1 series lead against Vegas. Dallas, behind goalie Anton Khudobin, has been one of the best teams in the bubble. UPCOMING: 750 words, photos. Game starts 8 p.m.
BKN--TIPOFF -- Denver started its season by talking about winning a championship way back in training camp, knowing very well that few would believe in the Nuggets’ chances. The doubters fueled them then. The doubters still fuel them now — even though they’re one win from the Western Conference finals. Game 7 awaits the Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers. By Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds. SENT: 680 words, photos.
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HOW TO REACH US
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