AP News Digest 6 p.m.
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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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UNITED STATES-AFGHANISTAN; IRAQ-RUMSFELD; BILL COSBY; BIDEN-DIVERSITY; SURPRISE-MEDICAL BILLS; MEDICAID-EXPANSION; ISRAEL-AP-PHOTOGRAPHER; NORTHWEST-HEAT-WAVE-BLACKOUTS; STUDENT-DEBT-TEACHER-GRANTS; ROBINHOOD-IPO; OSCARS-NEW MEMBERS; GIRLS-STABBING-PLOT; HOME-COLLAPSE-NATION’S-CAPITAL; WASHINGTON-INVESTIGATION; LOS ANGELES-HOMELESS
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TOP STORIES
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TRUMP-LEGAL-TROUBLES — Donald Trump’s company and its longtime finance chief were charged in what a prosecutor called a “sweeping and audacious” tax fraud scheme that saw the Trump executive allegedly receive more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation, including apartment rent, car payments and school tuition. By Michael R. Sisak and Tom Hays. SENT: 1,500 words, photos.
SUPREME COURT-VOTING RIGHTS — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority cuts back on a landmark voting rights law in a decision likely to help Republican states fight challenges to voting restrictions they’ve put in place following last year’s elections. By Mark Sherman. SENT: 1,130 words, photos, video. With SUPREME COURT-VOTING RIGHTS-CONGRESS — Congressional Democrats come under increasing pressure to enact voting rights legislation after the Supreme Court raises the bar for discrimination claims. UPCOMING: 900 words by 7 p.m., photos. With: SUPREME COURT-KOCH-DONOR FIGHT — The Supreme Court orders California to stop collecting the names and addresses of top donors to charities. The justices voted 6-3 along ideological lines to side with two nonprofit groups, including one with links to billionaire Charles Koch SENT: 700 words, photos.
BUILDING COLLAPSE-MIAMI — Rescue efforts at the site of a partially collapsed Florida condominium building were halted out of concern about the stability of the remaining structure after crews noticed widening cracks and up to a foot of movement in a large column, officials said. The stoppage that began shortly after 2 a.m. threatened to keep search teams off the rubble pile for an unknown period and dim hopes for finding anyone alive in the debris a week after the tower came down. By Terry Spencer. SENT: 600 words, photos, videos. With: BUILDING COLLAPSE-BIDEN — President Joe Biden draws on his own experiences with grief and loss to comfort families affected by the Florida condo collapse, telling family members to “never give up hope” even as the search for survivors pauses. By Alexandra Jaffe and Jonathan Lemire. SENT: 1,160 words, photos, video.
Find more on the building collapse in the AP Newsroom hub.
CAPITOL BREACH-INVESTIGATION — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi names Republican Rep. Liz Cheney to a new select committee on the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, elevating the most unyielding GOP critic of former President Donald Trump to work alongside seven Democrats on the high-profile investigation. By Mary Clare Jalonick and Alan Fram. SENT: 990 words, photos, video.
BILL COSBY — The public outcry over Bill Cosby’s sudden release from prison, where he was serving a potential 10-year sentence for criminal sexual assault, was swift. But criminal law experts believe Pennsylvania’s highest court acted reasonably in finding that a prosecutor’s word should be honored, even by a successor. By Maryclaire Dale. SENT: 1,100 words, photos, video. With BILL COSBY-RASHAD — Phylicia Rashad is embroiled in controversy after expressing public support for Cosby’s release. SENT: 530 words, photo. With: BILL-COSBY-ME-TOO -- Now that Bill Cosby is out of prison, his conviction overturned, some worry the case will have a chilling effect on survivors. Calls to some sexual assault hotlines are up as victims try to process why Cosby was freed. SENT: 1,200 words, photos.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST-HEAT WAVE — Many of the dead were found alone in homes without air conditioning or fans. Some were elderly — one as old as 97. The body of an immigrant farm laborer was found in a nursery where he was moving irrigation lines. Amid warnings of record-breaking temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada, officials set up cooling centers, distributed water to the homeless and took other steps. But hundreds are believed to have died -- and the finger-pointing has begun. By Andrew Selsky. SENT: 800 words, photos. With: NORTHWEST-HEAT-WAVE-BLACKOUTS — The rolling blackouts that cut electricity for tens of thousands of Spokane, Washington, residents amid this week’s record-breaking heat wave mostly hit the same power customers repeatedly. SENT: 470 words, photos.
MED-ALZHEIMER-DRUG — Surprise over the approval of a controversial new Alzheimer’s drug has turned to shock that it might take nine years to find out if it really works. Drugmaker Biogen has until 2030 to complete a study confirming whether its new drug Aduhelm truly slows the brain-destroying disease. By Matthew Perrone. SENT: 1,145 words, photo.
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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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PICASSO-FOUND-IN-CLOSET — A painting attributed to Pablo Picasso has been sold after spending 50 years in a closet in a house in Maine. SENT: 250 words.
BRITAIN-PRINCESS DIANA — Princes William and Harry have unveiled a statue of their mother, Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday in a small — and brief — ceremony at London’s Kensington Palace. SENT: 870 words, photos.
HOME-COLLAPSE-NATION'S-CAPITAL — Rescuers trying to free worker trapped in DC home collapse. SENT: 160 words.
CHICAGO-IDA B. WELLS MONUMENT — A monument to journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett has been unveiled in Chicago. SENT: 388 words, photos.
GIRLS-STABBING-PLOT — Judge orders release of Wisconsin woman in Slender Man case. SENT: 250 words.
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MORE ON VIRUS OUTBREAK
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VIRUS-OUTBREAK — The delta variant is exploiting low global vaccination rates and a rush to ease pandemic restrictions. That’s adding new urgency to the drive to get more shots in arms and slow its supercharged spread. The vaccines most used in Western countries still appear to offer strong protection against the highly contagious delta variant. By Lauran Neergaard. SENT: 1,010 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-THE-BITS-AND-PIECES PARIS — Rebuilding the post-pandemic world will be a colossal human effort aimed at gluing back the pieces of human divides. People will have to dare to make plans again, take risks again, love again, laugh again. And be human again. But all or some of those things will be unattainable for untold millions who’ll emerge from the pandemic with even less than they had before the disaster swept so much away. SENT: 1,740 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-PANAMA-VACCINE SCANDAL — Investigators found two secret COVID-19 vaccine sites in Panama. The sites sparked outrage, though authorities said only 32 people received shots. Recipients were perceived as trying to use their privilege to cut in line. SENT: 990 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-AFRICA — The African Union special envoy tasked with leading efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the continent is blasting Europe as Africa struggles amid a crushing third surge of infections, saying that “not one dose, not one vial, has left a European factory for Africa.” SENT: 1012 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-WHO-VACCINES — The World Health Organization says any COVID-19 vaccines it has authorized for emergency use should be recognized by countries as they open up their borders to inoculated travelers. The move could challenge Western countries to broaden their acceptance of two apparently less effective Chinese vaccines. SENT 468 words, photos.
BRAZIL-EVICTION — Police started evicting hundreds of homeless families from a recently established tent city near Rio de Janeiro, an event that underscored Brazil’s resurgent poverty during the pandemic. SENT: 330 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-DIARY-REMEMBERING A MAN — As life returns to whatever normal will look like now, families will gather for the unfinished business of anniversaries, birthdays, and funerals. But closure comes hard when you were not able to say goodbye in person. As one writer anticipates a family memorial service, he is surely not alone in thinking that this particular life deserved better. SENT: 655 words, photo.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-VIRAL-QUESTIONS-ONE-DOSE — One dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine will provide some protection, but not nearly as much as if you had both doses. SENT: 290 words, graphic.
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WASHINGTON/POLITICS
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CONGRESS-INFRASTRUCTURE — The Democratic-led House approves a $715 billion transportation bill, a potential investment in roads, rail, public transit and water over five years that could serve as a marker in the negotiations over a bipartisan infrastructure package. SENT: 770 words, photo.
NSA-RUSSIAN MILITARY HACKERS — U.S. and British agencies disclose details of methods they say have been used by Russian intelligence to break into the cloud services of hundreds of government agencies, energy companies and other organizations. SENT: 700 words, photo.
BIDEN-IMMIGRATION — President Joe Biden will hold a naturalization ceremony Friday at the White House in which 21 immigrants will become citizens as the administration pushes for more pathways to citizenship. SENT: 290 words, photo.
SURPRISE-MEDICAL-BILLS — The Biden administration begins putting in place consumer protections against “surprise” medical bills enacted in bipartisan legislation signed last year by former President Donald Trump. SENT: 840 words, photo.
UNITED STATES-HUMAN TRAFFICKING — The Biden administration designates 17 countries as not doing enough to combat human trafficking and warns of potential U.S. sanctions. SENT: 510 words, photo.
CENTRAL AMERICA-CORRUPTION — The U.S. State Department has named more than 50 current and former officials, including former presidents and active lawmakers, suspected of corruption or undermining democracy in three Central American countries. SENT: 560 words, photo.
STUDENT DEBT-TEACHER GRANTS — The Education Department loosens the rules around a grant program that’s meant to help aspiring teachers pay for college but has actually left many stuck with debt. SENT: 560 words, photo.
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NATIONAL
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CALIFORNIA-WILDFIRES-UTILITY — Pacific Gas & Electric’s CEO is pledging that the future will get “easier” and “brighter.” But those words are ringing hollow one year after the nation’s largest utility emerged from a complex bankruptcy triggered by a succession of harrowing wildfires ignited by its long-neglected electrical grid. SENT: 1,160 words, photos.
CALIFORNIA-FIREWORKS-EXPLOSION — A massive explosion rocked a Los Angeles neighborhood as homemade fireworks were being destroyed by a bomb squad, leaving a trail of destruction, injuries and questions in its wake as the July Fourth holiday approaches. Seventeen people were hurt Wednesday night — including nine Los Angeles police officers and a federal agent — in the blast, which also flipped and damaged cars and smashed windows in homes and a laundromat. SENT: 690 words, photos.
ZION-NATIONAL-PARK-FLOODING — Zion National Park officials and business owners in a nearby tourist town were still cleaning up and assessing the damage from a massive flash flood that ripped through the popular red rock park, sending mud and debris onto streets. No injuries were reported. SENT: 280 words, photos.
POLICE-ACCOUNTABILITY-MISSOURI — More than half of all U.S. states have enacted police reforms in the 13 months since George Floyd’s death, but critics contend a Missouri measure would go the other way by reducing police accountability while increasing criminal penalties for some protest activities. SENT 749 words, photos.
VOTING-LAW-GEORGIA — Voting integrity activists argue several parts of Georgia’s new election law criminalize normal election observation activities, while the state argues that those provisions reinforce previous protections and are necessary for election security. SENT: 680 words, photo.
LOS ANGELES-HOMELESS — The Los Angeles City Council passed a sweeping anti-camping measure that will severely limit widespread homeless encampments that have become an eyesore across the city. SENT: 700 words, photos.
MEDICAID-EXPANSION — Tens of thousands of Oklahoma residents are now covered by health insurance as a result of Medicaid expansion in the state. The voter-backed expansion took effect on Thursday. As a result, Oklahoma is reaping federal bonus payments and staking a central place in the political debate over extending the program in every state. SENT: 960 words, photo.
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INTERNATIONAL
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UNITED STATES-AFGHANISTAN — The U.S. military will remain involved in the Afghanistan war into September, keeping the option of launching airstrikes against the Taliban to defend Afghan forces, U.S. officials say, even as the final combat troops and equipment prepare to leave the country in coming days. UPCOMING: 800 words, photo by 7 p.m.
IRAQ-RUMSFELD — When he heard on the news that Donald Rumsfeld had died, Ali Ridha al-Tamimi and his wife sat down with their four children and told them: “This is the person who ruined our country.” The heated emotions are shared by many in Iraq, where the name Rumsfeld is synonymous with the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein — and deaths, arrests and torture that followed. SENT: 850 words, photo.
ISRAEL-AP-PHOTOGRAPHER — Israeli soldiers held an Associated Press photographer against his will during clashes in the occupied West Bank earlier this week, in a spot where Palestinian protesters were hurling stones and the troops were firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets. SENT: 650 words.
ETHIOPIA-TIGRAY CRISIS — A bridge that’s crucial to delivering desperately needed food to much of Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region has been destroyed, as Tigray fighters are said to be approaching other combatants occupying large areas nearby. SENT: 558 words.
NETHERLANDS-SLAVERY — The mayor of Amsterdam has apologized for the extensive involvement of the Dutch capital’s former rulers in the global slave trade. She said that the moment had come to confront the grim history. SENT: 839 words, photos.
TURKEY-WOMEN'S RIGHTS — Turkey has formally withdrawn from a landmark international treaty protecting women from violence. SENT: 420 words.
HONG-KONG — Marking the anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese control, a top city official defended the national security law imposed by Beijing to crush pro-democracy rallies and says it would be used further in the coming year to ensure stability. SENT: 750 words, photos.
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HEALTH & SCIENCE
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SCI-LAST-ICE-AREA — A new study details how part of the Arctic nicknamed the “Last Ice Area” suddenly melted a bit in the summer of 2020. And researchers say climate change was partly to blame. The open waters north of Greenland are usually clogged with thick sea ice. The study says last year, it melted enough for an icebreaker to plow through. SENT: 425 words, photos.
BLUE ORIGIN-BEZOS FLIGHT — Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos has chosen an early female aerospace pioneer to rocket into space with him in just three weeks. SENT: 510 words, photo.
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BUSINESS/ECONOMY
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ROBINHOOD-IPO — Robinhood, the trading app that’s empowered a new generation of investors, wants to sell a big chunk of its stock to those customers when it goes public, instead of just the big professional funds that usually get first dibs. SENT: 890 words, photo.
GLOBAL-TAXATION — Some 130 countries have backed a global minimum tax as part of a worldwide effort to keep multinational firms from dodging taxes by shifting their profits to countries with low rates. SENT: 770 words, photos.
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ENTERTAINMENT
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TV-THE VIEW-McCAIN — Conservative firebrand Meghan McCain says that she’s quitting ABC’s daytime talk show ‘The View’ after four years. SENT: 660 words, photos.
OSCARS-NEW MEMBERS — Steven Yeun, Nathan Lane, Issa Rae, Robert Pattinson, Janet Jackson, Leslie Odom Jr. and Laverne Cox are among the artists being invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The organization that puts on the Oscars said that 395 film industry professionals, 46% of whom are women and 39% from an underrepresented group, have been invited to join the 2021 class. SENT: 400 words, photo.
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SPORTS
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BKN--HAWKS-BUCKS -- With two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo out because of a knee injury, the Bucks return home to play the Hawks in Game 5 of a tied Eastern Conference final. Two key players for Atlanta are listed as questionable: Trae Young (bruised foot) and Clint Capela (inflamed eye). UPCOMING: 750 words, photos. Game starts 8:30 p.m.
TEN—WIMBLEDON -- Coco Gauff has won in her return to Centre Court at Wimbledon. The 17-year-old American overcame some jitters to beat an opponent twice her age. Gauff beat Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-3 to get back to the third round. SENT: 550 words, photos. SENT: 850 words, photos.
WASHINGTON-INVESTIGATION — The NFL has fined the Washington Football Team $10 million and owner Dan Snyder is stepping away from day-to-day operations after an independent investigation found the organization’s workplace “highly unprofessional,” especially for women. SENT: 715 words, photos.
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HOW TO REACH US
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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 844-777-2006.
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