AP News Digest 7 a.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.
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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.
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-GLOBAL — Virus restrictions once lifted are being reimposed, shutting businesses and curbing people’s social lives as communities try to curb a disease resurgence before it spins out of control. The United States is the worst-hit country, with 3.4 million cases, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. More than 13.3 million people have been infected worldwide, and 578,000 have died. By Rod McGuirk. SENT: 910 words, photos. With VIRUS OUTBREAK-THE LATEST (sent).
TRUMP — President Donald Trump is expected to announce a new federal rule to speed up the environmental review process for proposed highways, gas pipelines and other major infrastructure. Critics are describing the move as a dismantling of a 50-year-old environmental protection law. Trump will travel to Atlanta on Wednesday to announce the federal rule as he seeks to make it easier to meet some of the country’s infrastructure needs. By Kevin Freking. SENT: 860 words, photos. UPCOMING: Trump scheduled to speak at 3:10 p.m.
ELECTION 2020-ALABAMA-SESSIONS— Even in defeat, Jeff Sessions reassures Alabama voters that the vision of President Donald Trump -- the president he served and who campaigned against his return to the U.S. Senate -- is right for America. By Bill Barrow and Kim Chandler. SENT: 755 words, photos.
Find more coverage on the 2020 U.S. Elections featured topic page on APNewsroom.
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. By Steve Karnowski and Amy Forliti. SENT: 675 words, photos.
EUROPE-APPLE — A European Union court has 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 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in back taxes to Ireland. By Raf Casert. SENT: 575 words, photos.
LEBANON-LOOKING EAST — Facing a worsening economic crisis and with little chance of Western or oil-rich Arab countries providing assistance without substantial reforms, Lebanon’s cash-strapped government is looking east, hoping to secure investments from China that could bring relief. But help from Beijing risks alienating the United States, which has suggested such a move could come at the cost of Lebanese-U.S. ties. By Bassem Mroue. SENT: 1,055 words, photos.
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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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FRANCE-DISNEY — The French tourist industry has received a further boost with the partial reopening of Disneyland Paris and the opening up of the top floor of the Eiffel Tower. SENT: 225 words, photos.
HONG KONG-NEW YORK TIMES — The New York Times says it will transfer some of its staff out of Hong Kong because of uncertainties about practicing journalism in the Chinese territory under its newly imposed national security law. SENT: 345 words, photo.
NAYA RIVERA-DEATH — An autopsy has confirmed that “Glee” star Naya Rivera died from accidental drowning. SENT: 530 words, photo.
PEOPLE-NICK CANNON — ViacomCBS says it’s cutting ties with Nick Cannon because of what the media giant called his ’hateful speech” and anti-Semitic theories. SENT: 340 words, photos.
VANITY FAIR COVER — For the first time in the history of “Vanity Fair,” the magazine’s cover art was taken by a Black photographer. The cover features a powerful image of Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis and was taken by photographer Dario Calmese. SENT: 260 words, photo.
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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-VACCINE RACE — Early stage testing shows the first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. revved up people’s immune systems the way scientists had hoped. By Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard. SENT: 720 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-CONGRESS — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’ll begin to roll out details of the new COVID-19 relief package to senators as soon as next week. McConnell suggests the measure will include new funding for school reopenings, some unemployment benefits and money for health care providers. The cost of the emerging Republican package could reach $1 trillion. SENT: 950 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-INDIA — As India’s confirmed coronavirus cases approach 1 million, lockdowns are being reimposed in parts of the country as local governments try to prevent the health system from being overwhelmed. India on Wednesday reported nearly 30,000 new cases and 582 more deaths, raising its totals to more than 936,000 cases and over 24,000 fatalities. By Aniruddha Ghosal. SENT: 510 words.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-LIVES LOST-BRITISH REFEREE — The best referees are largely invisible, keeping order unobtrusively and letting the players decide the game. They are more often recognized in their absence. Hundreds of football players in London are learning that after COVID-19 took the life of Jermaine Wright, a 46-year-old referee and driving force in their league for more than 20 years. Wright worked as a pharmacist for the National Health Service, but spent most of his spare time helping build a community on the Hackney Marshes. By Danica Kirka. SENT: 810 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-NYC RESTAURANT WAITERS — It’s been the story for many a starry-eyed creative type looking for a big break — wait tables to pay the bills, while auditioning, performing, writing, whatever it takes. But with the coronavirus putting thousands and thousands of food servers out of work in recent months, there’s concern about what that’s going to mean for the city’s creative class if the jobs are no longer readily available. By Deepti Hajela. SENT: 1,010 words, photos, video.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-ZIMBABWE-SELLING FROM CARS — Cars have become mobile markets in Zimbabwe where enterprising residents are selling goods from their vehicles to cope with economic hardships caused by the coronavirus. By Farai Mutsaka. SENT: 930 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-SRI LANKA-PATIENT 206 — For months he’s been anonymous, but now Prasad Dinesh, linked by Sri Lankan authorities to nearly half of the country’s more than 2,600 coronavirus cases, is trying to clear his name, and shed some of the stigma of a heroin addiction at the root of his ordeal. By Bharatha Mallawarachi and Emily Schmall. SENT: 1,090 words, photos.
Find more coverage of the Virus Outbreak in AP Newsroom.
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ELECTION 2020-BIDEN-CLIMATE — Joe Biden unveils a plan aimed at combating climate change and spurring economic growth in part by overhauling America’s energy industry, with a proposal to achieve entirely carbon pollution-free power by 2035. By Alexandra Jaffe and Will Weissert. SENT: 945 words, photos. With ELECTION 2020-BIDEN-MAP — Biden targets Texas, normally a GOP stronghold, with a modest advertising investment. SENT: 1,025 words, photos.
ELECTION 2020-TRUMP — President Donald Trump transformed an event that was supposed to highlight his China policy into an impromptu campaign rally. On Tuesday in the Rose Garden, Trump delivered an expansive and often rambling broadside against Democratic rival Joe Biden on trade, policing and his son’s business practices, among other topics. Trump spent more than an hour framing the November election as the starkest choice in the nation’s history. By Zeke Miller. SENT: 875 words, photos, video.
RACIAL INJUSTICE-TRUMP — President Donald Trump bristled at a reporter’s question about police killing African Americans and defended the right to display the Confederate flag as he continued to play into racial divisions in a pair of interviews. By Jill Colvin. SENT: 615 words, photo.
ELECTION-2020-TEXAS — MJ Hegar won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in a primary runoff that was postponed months over fears of the coronavirus, only to be held as the outbreak is worse than ever. By Paul J. Weber. SENT: 970 words, photos.
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FEDERAL EXECUTIONS-PURKEY — A Kansas man who raped and killed a 16-year-old girl and fatally beat an 80-year-old woman is scheduled to be among the first three inmates executed as the federal government resumes the practice after 17 years. Sixty-eight-year-old Wesley Ira Purkey is set to die by lethal injection on Wednesday at an Indiana prison. By Michael Balsamo. SENT: 655 words, photos.
CLERGY ABUSE-NEW ORLEANS SAINTS — A group of news organizations including The Associated Press are headed to court seeking to unseal court records involving the mental competency of billionaire Tom Benson when he rewrote his will to give his third wife ownership of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans sports franchises. The news outlets argued interest in the 2015 case has been heightened by revelations this year that Saints executives engaged in a behind-the-scenes public relations campaign to help the area’s Roman Catholic archdiocese contain the fallout from a clergy abuse crisis. By Jim Mustian. SENT: 445 words, photo.
RACIAL INJUSTICE-PORTLAND — Nearly two months of nightly protests that have devolved into violent clashes with police have prompted soul-searching in Portland, Oregon, a city that prides itself on its progressive reputation but is increasingly polarized over how to handle the unrest. By Gillian Flaccus. SENT: 925 words, photos.
CALIFORNIA SYNAGOGUE-RABBI FRAUD — The longtime leader of a Southern California synagogue who was wounded in a deadly attack at the house of worship he founded has pleaded guilty to participating in a multimillion-dollar fraud that disguised charitable contributions for personal gain. By Elliot Spagat. SENT: 725 words, photos.
NAVY SHIP FIRE — The Navy says a fire raging aboard a docked U.S. warship has moved away from fuel tanks, easing the threat of an explosion or a million-gallon oil spill in the San Diego harbor, but it’s too early to say whether the vessel can be saved. SENT: 535 words, photos.
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RACIAL INJUSTICE-BRITAIN-STATUE — An artist has erected a statue of a Black Lives Matter protester atop the plinth in the English city of Bristol once occupied by the toppled statue of a slave trader. Marc Quinn created the likeness of Jen Reid, a protester photographed standing on the plinth after demonstrators pulled down the statue of Edward Colston and dumped it in Bristol’s harbor on June 7. The statue, titled “A Surge of Power (Jen Reid)” was erected before dawn on Wednesday without approval from city officials. SENT: 370 words, photos.
POLAND-LGBT RIGHTS — Members of Poland’s LGBT community say they are feeling angry and afraid after President Andrzej Duda won re-election in a divisive and bitter campaign that cast their rights movement as a dangerous “ideology.” Some activists say the homophobic rhetoric that emerged echoes policies in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. By Vanessa Gera and Dorothee Thiesing. SENT: 795 words, photos.
IRAN-US — A seafarers organization says an oil tanker sought by the U.S. over allegedly trying to circumvent sanctions on Iran was hijacked on July 5 off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Satellite photos showed the MT Gulf Sky in Iranian waters on Tuesday and two of its sailors remained in the Iranian capital. SENT: 335 words.
HONG KONG-PRIMARIES — Young activists and localist candidates dominated Hong Kong’s unofficial pro-democracy primaries over the weekend, with hundreds of thousands of people voting despite warnings the election could violate the territory’s new security law. By Zen Soo. SENT: 660 words, photos.
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. By Mark Stevenson. SENT: 885 words, photos.
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CHINA-BRITAIN-HUAWEI — China has accused Britain of colluding with Washington to hurt Huawei after the tech giant was blocked from working on a next-generation mobile phone network. A government spokeswoman said Beijing will protect Chinese companies but gave no indication of possible retaliation. By Joe McDonald. SENT: 470 words, photos. With BRITAIN-HUAWEI — China’s ambassador to the U.K. questions whether Britain can offer a fair business environment following its Huawei decision. SENT: 190 words.
JAPAN-NISSAN — Nissan is rolling out an electric crossover vehicle, the Japanese automaker’s first major all-new model since getting embroiled in the scandal surrounding its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn. Worries about global warming and the environment have made electric vehicles increasingly attractive. By Yuri Kageyama. SENT: 660 words, photos.
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DANCING WITH THE STARS — Tyra Banks will be showing off her moves as solo host of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.” ABC says that Banks will replace longtime host Tom Bergeron and take on the role of executive producer for the celebrity dance contest. Banks started out as a supermodel and co-created “America’s Next Top Model.” By Lynn Elber. SENT: 325 words, photo.
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