AP News Digest 2 p.m.
Columbia Basin Herald | UPDATED 6 years, 2 months AGO
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.
————————-
ONLY ON AP
————————-
RACING FOR A REMEDY-PROFILE OF A KILLER — The coronavirus has rescripted daily life. And fighting it takes knowing the enemy, the essential first step in what could be an extended quest for normalcy. Countless hours of treatment and research, trial and error now make it possible to take much closer measure of the new coronavirus. But to take advantage of that intelligence, we must confront our persistent vulnerability. By Adam Geller and Malcolm Ritter. SENT: 2,845 words, photos, video. A 1,370-word abridged version is also available.
---------------—--
---------------—---
VIRUS OUTBREAK-GLOBAL — Countries around the world are reimposing lockdowns and implementing new health checks at their borders in an effort to curb a resurgence of the coronavirus before it spins even further out of control. Starting Wednesday, all travelers arriving in Greece from a land border with Bulgaria were required to carry negative coronavirus test results issued in the previous 72 hours. The new rules, which follow an increase in tourism-related COVID-19 cases, triggered an immediate drop in arrivals compared to recent days. By Costas Kantouris, Vanessa Gera and Rod McGuirk. SENT: 1,125 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-SCHOOL COSTS -- The cost of bringing students back to classrooms is proving a major stumbling block to safely reopening schools across the U.S. In the debate raging from the White House to local school boards about bringing students back, health concerns are getting most of the attention. But school and union officials say cost is a major concern. There’s a list of new expenses, including adding teachers, bus drivers, custodians and nurses, plus buying protective gear. By Geoff Mulvihill. SENT: 990 words, photos.
FEDERAL EXECUTIONS — A judge halts the execution of a man said to be suffering from dementia who had been set to die Wednesday by lethal injection in the federal government’s second execution this week after a 17-year hiatus. The U.S. has appealed the ruling, which also affects another execution scheduled for Friday and one in August. By Michael Balsamo. SENT: 986 words. UPCOMING: Developments expected throughout the day and evening, 990 words by 6 p.m., photos.
Find more coverage on the 2020 U.S. Elections featured topic page on APNewsroom.
TRUMP — President Donald Trump is ready to weaken a foundational Nixon-era environmental law that he says stifles major infrastructure projects, but that environmentalists say has served for decades as a safeguard for low-income and minority communities. By Aamer Madhani and Kevin Freking. SENT: 830 words. UPCOMING: Developing from 3:10 remarks in Atlanta, 890 words by 5 p.m., photos, video.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-WALMART-MASK MANDATE -- Walmart has become the latest major retailer to require customers to wear face coverings at all of its namesake and Sam’s Club stores. The nation’s largest retailer said the policy will go into effect on Monday to give the company time to inform stores and customers. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said that currently about 65% of its more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is already some form of government mandate on face coverings. By Anne D'Innocenzio. SENT: 530 words, photo.
----------------------------------------------—-
WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
----------------------------------------------—-
DISMEMBERED BODY — Police say the dismembered body of a 33-year-old tech entrepreneur has been found inside his luxury Manhattan condo. SENT: 260 words.
MUSIC-MICHAEL JACKSON — A month-long Michael Jackson channel is launching on SiriusXM radio. SENT: 280 words, photos.
BRITAIN-BANKSY -- Even if you are Banksy, tagging is forbidden on London’s Underground. Transport for London scrubbed the acclaimed street artist’s latest work on the subject of COVID-19 from one of its trains. SENT: 190 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-THEME PARKS -- Disney World’s last two theme parks reopen to visitors. SENT: 325 words, photos.
ODD-SEX DOLL-CORPSE — Georgia detectives discover body is sex doll. SENT: 125 words.
----------------------------------------------—-
MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
----------------------------------------------—-
VIRUS OUTBREAK-CONGRESS — Two months after House Democrats approved a sweeping $3 trillion COVID-19 aid package, Senate Republicans are preparing their $1 trillion counter-offer, straining to keep spending in check as the virus outbreak spreads and deepens. SENT: 890 words. UPCOMING: Developing, Pelosi news conference scheduled for 2:30 p.m., 890 words by 5 p.m., photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-PARENTAL BALANCING ACT -- For children, school is an opportunity to learn and make friends. For many parents, it’s more: a safe place for their children to stay while they are at work, or even a necessity for them to be able to work. The outbreak of the new coronavirus has seen these two versions of school collide in ways that have thrown lives into disarray. Now President Trump is demanding that schools reopen in the fall, but with the virus resurging across the country, many working parents say there are no good options. SENT: 1,100 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-JURY TRIALS -- Courts are beginning to hold jury trials again after the coronavirus shut down much of the criminal justice system. The proceedings are happening with added safety measures, but some attorneys say those precautions are insufficient and infringe on the constitutional rights of the accused. Many courts are mandating masks and screening people for fevers. SENT: 940 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-SHARING VACCINES -- More than 70 rich countries have signed up to a global coronavirus vaccine initiative intended to ensure that any effective shots are fairly distributed globally — but which may also allow them to buy more vaccines for their own stockpiles. In a statement, the vaccines alliance Gavi said that 75 countries have said they will join its new “Covax facility” along with 90 low-income countries, who hope to receive donated vaccines. The Associated Press reported this week that the plan may allow rich countries to reinforce their own coronavirus vaccine stocks while leaving fewer shots for more vulnerable populations. SENT: 375 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-OHIO GOVERNOR — Early during the coronavirus outbreak, Ohio’s Republican governor appeared prophetic with his decisive steps to ban spectators from a sports expo, shut down all schools before any other state and put a stop to the presidential primary. Since then, Gov. Mike DeWine has backed away from a statewide mask mandate, faced a mutiny within his party over business closures and juggled listening to both health experts and those who doubt them. SENT: 955 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-OKLAHOMA- Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt says he has tested positive for the coronavirus and is isolating at home. The first-term Republican governor made the announcement Wednesday. The 48-year-old Stitt has backed one of the country’s most aggressive reopening plans, has resisted any statewide mandate on masks and rarely wears one himself. SENT: 350 words, photos.
Find more coverage of the Virus Outbreak in AP Newsroom.
----------------------------------—
--------------------------------——
VIRUS OUTBREAK-POSTAL SERVICE — The Postal Service will delay mail by a day or more to cut costs and eliminate overtime, changes that come a month after Trump donor Louis DeJoy took over the sprawling service. UPCOMING: 700 words by 4 p.m., photos.
UNITED STATES-EUROPE — The Trump administration is hardening its efforts to prevent the completion of new German-Russian and Turkish-Russian natural-gas pipelines by warning all companies involved in the project they’ll be subject to U.S. sanctions. SENT: 460 words. UPCOMING: 700 words by 4 p.m., photo.
IVANKA TRUMP-ETHICS — Ivanka Trump defends tweeting a photo of herself holding up a can of Goya beans as a show of support for a company she says has been unfairly treated. But her move appears to have run afoul of federal law barring government officials from promoting specific products, raising broader concerns about how President Donald Trump and those around him blur the lines between politics and governing. UPCOMING: 700 words by 4 p.m. photos.
UNITED STATES-CHINA-HUAWEI - The Trump administration said it will impose travel bans on employees of the Chinese technology giant Huawei and other Chinese companies the U.S. determines are assisting authoritarian governments in cracking down on human rights, including in China’s western Xinjiang province. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said the administration is finalizing plans to minimize data theft from the popular Chinese video streaming app TikTok. SENT: 400 words, photo.
------------——
--------------—
GEORGE FLOYD-INVESTIGATION — Video from the body cameras of two officers charged in George Floyd’s death is being made available for public viewing by appointment on Wednesday, but a judge has so far declined to allow news organizations to publish the footage for wider distribution. SENT: 675 words, photos. WITH: GEORGE FLOYD-MINNEAPOLIS POLICE -- Attorneys for George Floyd’s family have filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death. SENT: 650 words, photos.
RACIAL INJUSTICE-CHILD KILLED -- A teen suspect has been charged with felony murder and aggravated assault in the shooting that killed an 8-year-old Atlanta girl near the site of an earlier police shooting, officials said. Police issued warrants a day earlier for 19-year-old Julian Conley in the slaying of Secoriea Turner, police spokesman Anthony Grant said. SENT: 350 words, photos.
RACIAL INJUSTICE-POLICE REFORM -- The city of Berkeley, California, is moving ahead with a proposal to replace police with unarmed civilians to conduct traffic stops. SENT: 650 words.
US-2020 CENSUS — From coal-mining country in West Virginia to Chiefs-loving neighborhoods in Kansas City, census takers are starting to knock on doors this week in a soft-opening to the largest peacetime mobilization by the federal government. The goal is to get a head count of America from the 55 million households that haven’t yet responded to the 2020 census. UPCOMING: 700 words by 5 p.m.
COLLEGE ADMISSIONS-BRIBERY — A California woman who paid $9,000 to have someone secretly take online college courses for her son and then demanded a discount when he received a C was sentenced to five weeks in prison. Karen Littlefair, 57, said she’s “truly sorry” for her actions and asked the judge for leniency, calling the experience a “nightmare” for her family. SENT: 500 words.
----------------------—-
----------------------—-
MEXICO-PRESIDENT-VIOLENCE — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is traveling to three of Mexico’s most violent states this week to counter what many call a “hands-off” strategy toward drug cartels that has exacerbated tensions with state governors. A surge in cartel killings in Guanajuato, Colima and Jalisco - all states governed by opposition parties - is threatening to become a political quagmire of finger-pointing for López Obrador ahead of 2021 midterm elections. SENT: 960 words, photos.
IRAN-US — An oil tanker sought by the U.S. over allegedly circumventing sanctions on Iran was hijacked on July 5 off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a seafarers organization said. Satellite photos showed the vessel in Iranian waters on Tuesday and two of its sailors remained in the Iranian capital. SENT: 600 words, graphic.
------------------------------—
----------------------------——
FINANCIAL MARKETS — Most of Wall Street was higher on hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine. Investors see a vaccine as the best way for the economy and human life to get back to normal. SENT: 850 words, photos, developing.
EUROPE-APPLE — A European Union court delivered a hammer blow to the bloc’s attempts to rein in sweetheart tax deals between multinationals and individual member countries when it ruled that technology giant Apple does not have to pay $15 billion in back taxes to Ireland. SENT: 620 words, photo.
--------------------------------—-
--------------------------------——
PEOPLE-NICK CANNON - Nick Cannon’s “hateful speech” and anti-Semitic theories led ViacomCBS to cut ties with the TV host and producer, the media giant said. “ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism,” the company said in a statement. SENT: 575 words, photos.
———————
———————
CAR-NASCAR-ALL-STAR RACE — NASCAR’s annual All-Star race is held at Bristol Motor Speedway -- just the second time in event history it has not been held at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Up to 30,000 fans are allowed in, which would make it the biggest sporting event in North America with the public in attendance since March. By Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer. UPCOMING: 700 words, photos by 4 p.m.
BBO-BASEBALL RDP — Major League Baseball moves closer to the one-week countdown to the start of its pandemic-delayed season as summer camps continue. By Charles Odum. UPCOMING: 650 words, photos by 7 p.m.
—————————————-
HOW TO REACH US
——————————————
The Nerve Center can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, Courtney Dittmar 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.