AP News Digest 6 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: NOT-REAL-NEWS, STATE DEPARTMENT-AWARD, BORDER WALL-LAWSUIT, VIRUS OUTBREAK-SIGN LANGUAGE, RON-PAUL-HOSPITALIZED, LOUISIANA POLICE DEATH-FEDERAL PROBE, ASTRONAUT VOTING.
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SUPREME COURT-VACANCY — Republicans expect President Donald Trump to announce Saturday that he is nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, as he aims to put a historic stamp on the high court just weeks before the election. Conservative groups and congressional allies are laying the groundwork for a swift confirmation process for Barrett, even before Trump makes the selection official. By Zeke Miller, Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick. SENT: 860 words, photos, video.
RACIAL-INJUSTICE-BREONNA-TAYLOR -- Breonna Taylor’s family and their lawyers sharply criticized Kentucky’s attorney general for the failure to bring charges against police officers in her death, calling for him to release the transcripts of the grand jury proceeding while vowing to continue their protests until the officers are charged. By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Bruce Schreiner and Angie Wang. SENT: 970 words, photos.
For complete coverage of the Breonna Taylor protests in AP Newsroom.
GINSBURG-LYING IN STATE — The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lay in state at the U.S. Capitol, making history as the first woman so honored in America, as an intensifying election-year battle swirls over her replacement. By Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro. SENT: 890 words, photos, video.
ELECTION 2020-BALLOT BOMBSHELLS — A federal prosecutor’s description of nine “discarded” military ballots found in the trash at a Pennsylvania elections office is seized on by President Trump and his supporters, despite any public evidence they were handled with nefarious intent. By Christina Cassidy and Mark Scolforo. SENT: 1,280 words, photos.
Find more coverage on the 2020 U.S. Elections featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
VIRUS OUTBREAK — It began with devastation in the New York City area, followed by a summertime crisis in the Sun Belt. Now the coronavirus is striking cities with much smaller populations in the Midwest and West, often in conservative corners of America where anti-mask sentiment runs high. By Heather Hollingsworth, Nicky Forster and Jocelyn Noveck. SENT: 760 words, photos. WITH: VIRUS OUTBREAK-MILESTONES-PHOTO GALLERY — A look at virus’s impact as deaths near 1 million. SENT: 290 words.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-VETERANS HOME — Two former leaders of a Massachusetts veterans home where nearly 80 people sickened by the coronavirus died have been criminally charged for their handling of the outbreak, the state’s attorney general said. It’s believed to be the first criminal case in the country brought against nursing home officials for actions taken during the pandemic, Attorney General Maura Healey said. By Alanna Durkin Richer. SENT: 815 words, photos.
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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-EVICTIONS-LANDLORDS -- Landlords are going to courts around the country, claiming that a national eviction moratorium unfairly strains their finances and infringes on their rights as property owners. At least 25 such lawsuits have been filed, including two in federal court that attempt to block President Trump’s directive halting evictions for many renters through year’s end. SENT: 920 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-NORTHAM — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and his wife have both tested positive for the coronavirus. The governor’s office said that Northam is showing no symptoms while those of Pam Northam are mild. SENT: 325 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-FLORIDA — Gov. Ron DeSantis lifted all restrictions on restaurants and other businesses in Florida in a move to reopen the state’s economy despite the spread of the coronavirus. SENT: 480 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-FRANCE — Angry restaurant and bar owners have demonstrated in Marseille to challenge a French government order to close all public venues as of Saturday to battle resurgent virus infections. SENT: 460 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-MIDEAST-WEDDING-BUSTERS — The party was going strong: traditional music blared, families cheered, throngs of revelers danced. Then, police burst in. Officers kicked out guests, slapped hefty fines — even locked up the tuxedoed groom and singers. In recent weeks, such unhappy endings to long-awaited weddings have become a common story in the Arab world, as resurgent coronavirus caseloads trigger tough police action. SENT: 1,110 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-BRAZIL-CARNIVAL — A cloud of uncertainty that has hung over Rio de Janeiro throughout the coronavirus pandemic has been lifted, but gloom remains — the annual Carnival parade of flamboyant samba schools won’t be held in February. And while the decision is being characterized as a postponement of the event, no new date has been set. SENT: 1,010 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-MILESTONES-ISRAEL-VIRUS-CZAR — It hasn't been easy for Israel's leading public health expert who had been hailed as the country's best hope for halting a fast-growing number of coronavirus cases. SENT: 1,070 words, photo.
EASTER ISLAND-SIX MONTHS STRANDED — For people around the world, the coronavirus has caused distressing separations and delayed homecomings, but the situation for a group of 25 residents from remote Easter Island stands out. SENT: 820 words, photo.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-CHINA-VACCINE — A Chinese pharmaceutical company says the coronavirus vaccine it is developing should be ready by early 2021 for distribution worldwide, including the United States. SENT: 560 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ASIA — India reports another 86,052 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, a declining trend with recoveries exceeding new cases this week. SENT: 580 words, photos.
A separate wire advisory has moved detailing our complete coronavirus coverage.
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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ASTRONAUT VOTING — NASA astronaut Kate Rubins told The Associated Press on Friday that she plans to cast her next vote from space – more than 200 miles above Earth. SENT: 240 words, photo.
RON-PAUL-HOSPITALIZED — Former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul has posted a picture of himself in a hospital but said he was OK after video circulated online of him struggling to speak during an interview. SENT: 200 words, photo.
POLICE-TRAFFIC STOPS — New York’s attorney general is recommending the New York Police Department get out of the business of routine traffic enforcement. SENT: 400 words.
BRITAIN HERO RAT — A rat has for the first time won a British charity’s top civilian award for animal bravery, receiving the honor for searching out unexploded landmines in Cambodia. SENT: 370 words, photos.
ODD-SCREAMING FANS-POLICE — A neighbor called sheriff’s deputies on some rabid Tampa Bay Lightning fans who were screaming “shoot! shoot!” as they watched Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final on television Wednesday night. SENT: 190 words.
MISSING REMAINS — A Kentucky woman is sending out what she calls an “urgent plea” after a box containing her mother’s cremated remains went missing after she mailed it to her sister in Florida. SENT: 280 words.
CHILD SUSPENDED-BB GUN — The president of a historically Black college has asked a Louisiana school superintendent to revoke the punishment of a fourth-grader who was suspended from school because his teacher saw a BB gun in his room during a virtual lesson. SENT: 340 words.
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NOT-REAL-NEWS — Numerous false claims are circulating online this week following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, including that on the day she died she tweeted she had information that would lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton. She did not. SENT: 2,310 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-TRUMP — President Trump unveils his second policy plan in as many days as he tries to chip away at Joe Biden’s support among Black and Hispanic voters and in key battleground states. By Jill Colvin and Deb Riechmann. SENT: 930 words, photos, video. UPCOMING: 990 words after 9 p.m. Virginia event.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-SENIOR-VOTERS -- President Trump’s remarks at a campaign event in Ohio this week reverberated all the way to a sparkling waterfront in Florida, where senior citizens parsed his assessment of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump said that COVID-19 was seriously affecting “virtually nobody” under the age of 18 and sought to frame the pandemic as largely impacting older Americans, as he argued for school districts to resume in-person learning. SENT: 960 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-BIDEN-UNITY — Joe Biden argues that he is in a unique position to mend a fractured nation and work — even with Republicans — to “unify the country” into some semblance of consensus. That central thesis of his campaign is being severely tested by the battle over the future of the Supreme Court. By Bill Barrow. 1,160 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-TRUMP-PRESCRIPTION CARDS — If you’re on Medicare, don’t run to the mailbox just yet looking for your $200 prescription drug card courtesy of President Trump. Officials say key details, from timing to how the government will pay the estimated $7 billion cost, have yet to be determined. By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar. SENT: 770 words, photos, video.
Find more coverage on the 2020 U.S. Elections featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
STATE DEPARTMENT-AWARD — The State Department’s internal watchdog determines that the agency lied to the public and Congress about the reasons it rescinded a prestigious award to a Finnish journalist who had been critical of the Trump administration. By Matthew Lee. SENT: 730 words, photos.
BORDER WALL-LAWSUIT — A federal appeals court revives a House challenge of President Trump’s use of Defense Department money to build a border wall after Democrats refused to provide funding he requested. SENT: 430 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-SIGN LANGUAGE — A federal judge orders the White House to begin providing sign language interpretation at White House coronavirus briefings starting Thursday. SENT: 260 words.
REL—ELECTION 2020-JEWISH VOTERS — Jewish American voters have leaned Democratic for decades, but Republicans are hoping the recent steps toward normalized relations between Gulf states and Israel — which Trump vigorously touted earlier this month — bolster his appeal to Jewish voters. SENT: 1,275 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-VOTING-WITNESS SIGNATURES -- The coronavirus pandemic is forcing millions of American voters worried about their health to scramble to vote by mail for the first time. But a requirement in a handful of states, including presidential battleground North Carolina and Wisconsin, that a witness or notary public sign a ballot envelope is tripping up some voters early. SENT: 1,080 words, photos.
ELECTION-2020-MONTANA-REPUBLICAN-JUGGERNAUT -- Since bonding on family camping trips more than two decades ago, Republicans Steve Daines and Greg Gianforte have worked in tandem — first to attain huge riches in the corporate world and more recently to leverage that success into a political juggernaut that’s pushing Montana’s Republican party further to the right. SENT: 1,185 words, photos.
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CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES — California’s largest wildfire is threatening a marijuana-growing enclave and authorities say many of the local residents have refused to evacuate. Their resistance to abandon their maturing crops comes even as forecasters predict a new round of hot, dry and windy conditions that could fan flames this weekend. SENT: 635 words, photos.
POLICE SHOOTING-WISCONSIN — A 17-year-old in Illinois accused of killing two protesters days after Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is fighting his return to Wisconsin to face homicide charges that could put him in prison for life. SENT: 1.050 words, photo.
2020-CENSUS — A federal judge has stopped the 2020 census from finishing at the end of September and ordered the once-a-decade head count of every U.S. resident extended for another month through the end of October. SENT: 500 words, photo.
LOUISIANA POLICE DEATH-FEDERAL PROBE — A Louisiana state trooper who died in a single-car crash just hours after he was told he would be fired for his role in the death of a Black man was buried with honors at a ceremony that authorities sought to keep secret out of concerns it would attract a mass protest. SENT: 570 words, photos.
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FRANCE-KNIFE ATTACK — France’s counterterrorism prosecutor’s office says it has opened an investigation into a knife attack near the former offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that wounded at least two people. SENT: 380 words, photos.
KOREA-MISSING OFFICIAL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un apologizes for the killing of a South Korea official near the rivals’ disputed sea boundary, saying he’s “very sorry” about the “unexpected” and “unfortunate” incident, South Korean officials say. SENT: 580 words, photos.
UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY-HUMAN RIGHTS — In a diminished spotlight caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, leading human rights defenders are urging people in these fractured times to connect through politics — and vote, too. SENT: 600 words, photos.
UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY-PALESTINIANS — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for an international conference early next year to launch a “genuine peace process” while criticizing the recent decision of two Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel. SENT: 500 words, photos.
UN-GENERAL ASSEMBLY-OUT OF THE SHADOWS — Japan’s new prime minister is considered something of a lightweight on foreign policy issues and has spent much of his career in the shadows. Much of that has been in support of his mentor, former leader Shinzo Abe, with backroom bureaucratic maneuvers and in scripted, sometimes prickly dealings with Japanese media. That will all change when Yoshihide Suga makes his debut, virtually, at the U.N. General Assembly, the world’s premier international gathering of world leaders. SENT: 980 words, photos.
UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY-VATICAN — Pope Francis is urging world leaders to use the coronavirus emergency as an opportunity to reform the injustices of the global economy and the “perverse logic” of the nuclear deterrence doctrine. SENT: 530 words, photos.
REL-VATICAN SCANDAL —Vatican cardinal pushes back after pope fires him in scandal. SENT: 480 words, photos.
RUSSIA-NAVALNY — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in Germany recovering from what authorities there determined to be nerve agent poisoning, thanked Russian pilots and paramedics for acting quickly after he fell into a coma on a flight from Siberia. SENT: 525 words, photo.
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HEALTH & SCIENCE
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MED-HIV-CURE CANCER — The first person known to have been cured of HIV infection says he is terminally ill from a recurrence of the cancer that prompted his historic treatment 12 years ago. SENT: 615 words, photos.
SCI--MOONSHOTS-RADIATION -- Future moon explorers will face ultrahazardous radiation levels. That’s the conclusion of a new study published by Chinese and German scientists Friday. SENT: 630 words, photos.
ENDANGERED WOODPECKER — Federal officials say a woodpecker declared endangered half a century ago has recovered enough to relax federal protections. SENT: 780 words, photos.
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DESK SHORTAGE — First it was toilet paper. Now, desks are in short supply. The slew of kids attending virtual school has parents scrambling to find furniture for them even as workers realize they’re home for the long haul and need to update their home offices. SENT: 570 words, photo.
FINANCIAL-MARKETS — U.S. stocks have closed with solid gains, the latest shift in a recent stretch of turbulence for the market. Still, the S&P 500 finished with a weekly loss of 0.6%, capping the benchmark index’s first four-week losing streak in more than a year. SENT: 1,090 words, photos, developing.
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MUSIC-Q&A-CARRIE UNDERWOOD — Country superstar Carrie Underwood on her first Christmas album being released Friday. SENT: 1,125 words, photos.
TV-TEHRAN — “Tehran,” a spy thriller series debuting Friday on Apple TV+, is an audacious project: An Israeli production that offers viewers a sympathetic view of Iran without anyone from the production setting foot in Israel’s greatest foe. SENT: 800 words, photos and video.
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HKN--STANLEY CUP — The Lightning lead the Stars 2-1 entering Game 4, the start of back-to-back games in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2009. Dallas’ top line is without a goal against Tampa Bay. UPCOMING: 750 words, photos. Game starts 8 p.m.
BKN--HEAT-CELTICS — The Miami Heat, getting big lift from rookie Tyler Herro, can reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014 by beating the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. UPCOMING: 750 words, photos. Game starts 8:30 p.m.
FBC--VIRUS OUTBREAK-COLLEGE SPORTS — A major college football season in peril six week ago is back in play, ending all talk of a spring schedule. The Pac-12 is to start a seven-game season Nov. 6. Nine of the 10 FBS conferences are set to complete their seasons by Dec. 20. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.
FBN--WATT FAMILY REUNION - The Watt brothers have been competing against each other for years, going back to the family backyard in Wisconsin. On Sunday, they share the field for the first time when J.J. Watt and the Houston Texans visit T.J., Derek and the Pittsburgh Steelers. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.
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HOW TO REACH US
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At the Nerve Center, Rob Jagodzinski 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.