AP News Digest 3:25 a.m.

APTOPIX Building Collapse Miami (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

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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ONLY ON AP

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ETHIOPIA-TRAPPED BEYOND AID — The letter came from a remote area in Ethiopia’s conflict-torn Tigray region: Help us, it said, stamped and signed by a local official. People in the district beyond the reach of aid are “falling like leaves,” the official said, with at least 125 people already starved to death. The letter dated June 16, obtained by The Associated Press, is a rare insight into the most urgent unknown of the war in Tigray: What’s the fate of hundreds of thousands of people cut off from the world for months? By Cara Anna. UPCOMING: 1,110 words, photos by 4 a.m.

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TOP STORIES

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BUILDING COLLAPSE-FAMILY TRAGEDIES — A New York City man bought a beachfront condo in Florida to start a new chapter of his life after his wife and parents died. Now Harry Rosenberg is missing in the rubble of the building in Surfside, along with his daughter and her husband, who were visiting for the Sabbath. The cascading tragedies are reminders of the toll the collapse has taken on many families after what was already a grief-filled year. By Adriana Gomez Licon. SENT: 520 words, photos. With BUILDING-COLLAPSE-MIAMI — Condo searchers eye tropical forecast as effort stretches on; BUILDING COLLAPSE-WHAT HAPPENED?

Find more on the building collapse in the AP Newsroom hub.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-PRISONS — More than a half-million people living and working in prisons got sick from the coronavirus, and the facilities were forced to adapt to unusual and deadly circumstances. But now, as new cases are declining and facilities are loosening restrictions, there’s little evidence to suggest enough substantive changes have been made to handle future waves of infection. By Katie Park and Keri Blakinger of The Marshall Project and Claudia Lauer of The Associated Press. UPCOMING: 1,980 words, photos by 6:30 a.m. An abridged version of 980 words will also be available.

PANDEMIC YOUTH-REVISITED — The AP recently spoke with young people across the globe who first shared their views of the pandemic in the first half of 2020. Those who have more freedom — and the few who are already vaccinated — are excited and nervous to be with friends, to go to school and to travel more. Others are frustrated to still be shut in. Overall, they say they’re more resilient, more empathetic. They still have hope. But without fail, each of them fears another pandemic. By National Writer Martha Irvine. SENT: 1,490 words, photos, video.

LEBANON-LIVING-WITH-SHORTAGES — Lebanon is struggling amid a 20-month-old economic and financial crisis that has led to shortages of fuel and basic goods like baby formula, medicine and spare parts. The crisis is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a post-civil war political class that has accumulated debt and done little to encourage local industries, forcing the country to rely on imports for almost everything. By Bassem Mroue. SENT: 990 words, photos.

CAPITOL BREACH-INVESTIGATION — The House is poised to launch a new investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection with expected approval of a 13-person select committee to probe the violent attack. The panel would be led by Democrats, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointing a chairperson and at least eight of the committee’s members. SENT: 970 words, photos. UPCOMING: 1,100 words after vote, timing uncertain.

VIRUS-OUTBREAK-THAILAND-TOURISM — Thailand’s tourism industry has been devastated by the pandemic, and nowhere has it been felt more than the resort island of Phuket. Even though coronavirus numbers are rising elsewhere in the country, officials say there’s too much at stake not to forge ahead with a plan known as the Phuket sandbox to reopen the island to fully vaccinated travelers. By Tassanee Vejpongsa and David Rising. SENT: 1,270 words, photos. With THAILAND-PHUKET-SANDBOX-CHECKLIST.

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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

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CONGRESS-CONFEDERATE STATUES — House votes to remove Roger Taney bust, Confederate statues. SENT: 940 words, photos.

JILL-BIDEN — Jill Biden teams up with NFL great to push vaccinations. SENT: 690 words, photos.

FOX-NEWS-HARASSMENT — Fox News fined $1 million for sex harassment and retaliation. SENT: 640 words, photo.

CALIFORNIA-CHILDREN-SUSPICIOUS-DEATHS — Mother arrested in deaths of three children in East Los Angeles. SENT: 310 words, photos.

JAPAN-SOFTBANK-ROBOT — Japan’s SoftBank says Pepper robot remains “alive” and well. SENT: 260 words, photo.

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VIRUS OUTBREAK

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VIRUS-OUTBREAK — A new surge of the coronavirus is finally penetrating Africa’s rural areas, where most people on the continent live, spreading to areas that once had been seen as safe havens from infections that hit cities particularly hard. SENT: 880 words, photos. With VIRUS-OUTBREAK-THE-LATEST.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-TUSKEGEE ADS — Relatives of Black men who were unknowingly part of the infamous Tuskegee experiment are promoting COVID-19 vaccines in a new ad campaign. By Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner. SENT: 510 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-BANGLADESH — Hospitals near Bangladesh’s border with India are crowded with patients struggling to breathe and worried relatives desperately trying to find oxygen cylinders. SENT: 780 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-NORTH KOREA — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un berated top officials for failures in coronavirus prevention that caused a “great crisis,” using strong language that raised the specter of a mass outbreak in a country that would be scarcely able to handle it. SENT: 640 words, photos.

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WASHINGTON/POLITICS

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CONGRESS-BANKS — As the GOP looks to take back the House in 2022 midterms, Indiana congressman Jim Banks is developing a policy agenda that could bridge the divide between the party of Ronald Reagan and the party of Donald Trump. UPCOMING: 1,650 words, photo by 5:30 a.m. An abridged version of 1,060 words will also be available.

BIDEN-INFRASTRUCTURE — President Joe Biden declares there is an urgent need for a “generational investment” in the nation’s infrastructure, as he tries to sell voters on the economic benefits of the $973 billion bipartisan package that still faces an uncertain future in Congress. SENT: 1,070 words, photos, video.

ELECTION-2021-NYC-MAYOR — The Democratic primary for mayor of New York City was thrown into a state of confusion when election officials retracted their latest report on the vote count after realizing it had been corrupted by test data never cleared from a computer system. SENT: 990 words, photos.

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NATIONAL

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PACIFIC-NORTHWEST-HEAT-WAVE — About a dozen deaths in Washington and Oregon may be tied to an intense heat wave that brought scorching temperatures to the Northwest and caused one power utility to impose rolling blackouts amid heavy demand. SENT: 930 words, photos, video. With CANADA-HEAT-WAVE — Sweltering heat wave linked to sudden deaths in Vancouver.

BRANDED-WOMEN — TV actor Allison Mack, who played a key role in a scandal-ridden, cult-like upstate New York group, is facing sentencing after pleading guilty to charges she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the group’s spiritual leader. SENT: 450 words, photo.

TEXAS EXECUTION — A Texas inmate faces execution after killing his pregnant wife, 5-year-old daughter and father-in-law more than a decade ago in what prosecutors called a brutal and senseless attack. SENT: 630 words, photos.

GEORGE-FLOYD-POLICING-MINNESOTA — The Minnesota House approved a modest set of police accountability measures that’s part of a broader public safety budget bill as a deadline loomed for the state’s divided Legislature to avert a partial state government shutdown. SENT: 810 words, photos.

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INTERNATIONAL

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CHINA-PARTY-CENTENARY — For China’s Communist Party, celebrating its 100th birthday not just about glorifying its past. It’s also about cementing its future and that of its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping SENT: 1,100 words, photos. With CHINA-PARTY-CENTENARY-PHOTO-GALLERY.

HONG-KONG-FADING-FREEDOMS — A year after Beijing imposed a harsh national security law on Hong Kong, the civil liberties that raised hopes for more democracy among many of its 7 million people are fading. SENT: 1,200 words, photos.

BRITAIN-BREXIT-EU CITIZENS — Millions of Europeans have freely lived, worked and studied in the U.K. for decades, but Brexit means that those rights are no longer automatically granted. SENT: 1,010 words, photos.

UNITED NATIONS-CYBERSECURITY — The U.N. disarmament chief warns that digital technologies are lowering barriers to malicious intrusions and opening potential areas for governments, armed groups, terrorists and criminals to carry out attacks, including across international borders. SENT: 810 words.

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BUSINESS/ECONOMY

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FINANCIAL-MARKETS — Shares were mostly higher in Asia despite new data showing factory activity slowed this month as virus outbreaks disrupted shipping at some Chinese ports. By Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach. SENT: 640 words, photos.

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HOW TO REACH US

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At the Nerve Center, Jerome Minerva can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, Wally Santana (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 844-777-2006.