AP News Digest 3:15 a.m.

Here are the AP’s latest coverage plans, top stories and promotable content. All times EST. For up-to-the minute information on AP’s coverage, visit Coverage Plan.

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TOP STORIES

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UNITED STATES-CHINA — China says it was looking into reports that a Chinese spy balloon has been flying in U.S. airspace and urged calm. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning also said she had no information about whether a planned trip to China by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken would proceed next week as scheduled. SENT: 220 words, photos, video. UPCOMING: Developing.

ELECTION 2020-WISCONSIN REPUBLICANS — A newly released audio recording offers a behind-the-scenes look at how former President Donald Trump’s campaign team in a pivotal battleground state knew they had been outflanked by Democrats in the 2020 presidential election. But even as they acknowledged defeat, they pivoted to allegations of widespread fraud that were ultimately debunked — repeatedly — by elections officials and the courts. By Scott Bauer. SENT: 870 words, photos.

TYRE-NICHOLS-BLACK-GRIEF — The funeral of Tyre Nichols had all the hallmarks of what’s known as a homegoing service in Black American communities: comforting gospel hymns, remembrances from loved ones and a stirring eulogy from a clergyman. But in addition to offering an outlet for the private mourning of Nichols’ family and friends, this ritual was also public and political. Nichols was a Black man whose beating by five police officers led to his death. His service was a venue to air the shared grief of Black Americans — and to once again call for leaders to address an epidemic of police violence so that this time might be different. By Aaron Morrison. SENT: 1,230 words, photos, video.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-BELARUS-BORDER — The reconnaissance drones fly several times a day from Ukrainian positions deep inside the thick forest that marches across the border into Belarus, a close Russian ally, scouring sky and land for signs of trouble on the other side. Ukrainian units are monitoring the 650-mile frontier of marsh and woodland for a possible surprise offensive from the north, a repeat of the unsuccessful Russian thrust toward Kyiv at the start of the war nearly a year ago. By Samya Kullab. SENT: 750 words, photos.

WINTER WEATHER — Thousands of frustrated Texans shivered in homes without power for a second day, most of them around booming Austin, and fading hopes of a quick fix stirred grim memories of a deadly 2021 blackout after an icy winter storm across the southern U.S. By Paul J. Weber and Ken Miller. SENT: 790 words, photos, audio.

ECONOMY-JOBS-REPORT — The American economy has an unusual problem: The job market looks too strong — at least to the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve. By Economics Writer Paul Wiseman. SENT: 710 words, photo.

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TRENDING

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PRIVATE-EYE-DEATH-MURDER-CHARGES-DROPPED — Prosecutors in San Francisco have dropped all charges against two men accused in the murder of famed private investigator Jack Palladino two years ago, citing a lack of evidence. SENT: 460 words, photo.

FREEZER BODY-CHICAGO — A Chicago woman has been accused of keeping her mother’s dead body in a freezer for nearly two years while living in a nearby apartment. SENT: 160 words, photos.

BODY-BAG-WOMAN-ALIVE — A continuing care home in suburban Des Moines, Iowa, has been fined $10,000 after a funeral home discovered a woman sent to it in a body bag was still alive. SENT: 420 words.

FBN-BENGALS-MIXON — Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon has been charged in a warrant with pointing a gun at a woman and threatening her, according to court documents. SENT: 260 words, photos.

TEN-AUSTRALIA-KYRGIOS — Nick Kyrgios had suffered severe depression, suicidal ideation and insomnia in the past, a psychologist told a court when the Australian tennis star pleaded guilty to pushing a former girlfriend to the ground two years ago. SENT: 370 words, photos.

BOY’S GRUBHUB SPREE — A Michigan man says he was left with a $1,000 bill after his 6-year-old son ordered a virtual smorgasbord of food from several restaurants last weekend, leading to a string of unexpected deliveries — and maybe a starring role in an ad campaign. SENT: 570 words, photo.

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WASHINGTON/ POLITICS

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ELECTION 2024-REPUBLICANS — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may be months away from publicly declaring his presidential intentions, but his potential rivals aren’t holding back. A half dozen high-profile Republican White House prospects have begun courting top political operatives in states like New Hampshire and Iowa. By Steve Peoples, Thomas Beaumont and Anthony Izaguirre. SENT: 1,300 words, photos.

BIDEN-DEMOCRATS — President Joe Biden hasn’t announced a reelection campaign, but some of the themes likely to be the centerpiece of that expected run should be on display Friday night when he addresses a national Democratic Party meeting in Philadelphia. Biden will focus on his administration’s accomplishments creating jobs and stimulating domestic manufacturing. By Will Weissert. SENT: 990 words, photos. UPCOMING: 1,100 words after 3:30 visit to water plant; speech at 6 p.m.

CAPITOL RIOT-DEFENDANTS — Some Jan. 6 defendants who have expressed remorse in court after joining the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol have later struck a different tone or sought to downplay the riot publicly. By Alanna Durkin Richer and Michael Kunzelman. UPCOMING: 1,260 words, photos by 5:15 a.m.

SOUTH DAKOTA-GOP TURMOIL — The conversation between a state senator and a legislative aide started with a seemingly routine discussion about a bill. It suddenly spiraled as the senator allegedly harassed the aide because she had vaccinated her young child, plunging the Senate into a political drama that has divided South Dakota’s Republican Party. SENT: 1,050 words, phots.

ASIA-MILITARY-EXPLAINER — The U.S. is expanding its military presence and activities in Asia, in a string of announcements aimed at countering China and reassuring Indo-Pacific allies that America will stand with them against threats from North Korea and Beijing. SENT: 600 words, photos.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR-MILITARY AID — The U.S agrees to send longer-range bombs to Ukraine as it prepares to launch a spring offensive to retake territory Russia captured last year. SENT: 710 words, photos.

WATER-RIGHTS-TRIBES — Fifteen Native American tribes will get a total of $580 million in federal money this year for water rights settlements, the Biden administration has announced. SENT: 650 words, photos.

SEPARATED FAMILIES — A Biden administration task force designed to reunite children separated from their families during Donald Trump’s presidency has reconnected nearly 700 children with their families, but officials say more work remains to be done. SENT: 370 words.

ELECTION 2024-DEMOCRATS — A week after bitter divisions dominated a national Republican gathering, Democrats are eager to showcase just how much they agree on. SENT: 1,060 words, photo.

UNITED STATES-GUANTANAMO DETAINEE FREED — The U.S. releases a onetime courier for al-Qaida who completed his sentence, transferring him to Belize and ending an imprisonment that included torture at clandestine CIA detention sites and 16 years at Guantanamo Bay. SENT: 700 words, photo.

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NATIONAL

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ISLAMIC-STATE-SNIPER-TRIAL — He had been brought from the battlefields of Syria to a New York lockup, a U.S. citizen charged with serving as a sniper and weapons trainer for the Islamic State group. And even in jail, Ruslan Maratovich Asainov kept a makeshift version of the militants’ black flag right above the desk in his cell, according to trial testimony this week. SENT: 840 words, photos.

POLICE-SHOOTING-CALIFORNIA — Police in Culver City, California, have released body camera footage showing events before officers shot an unarmed man diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in the back last year, including audio recordings of his estranged wife telling police he was armed and dangerous. SENT: 650 words, photos.

POLICE LAWSUITS-LOUISIANNA — A civil rights group in New Orleans is pointing to two federal lawsuit settlements as examples of how civil litigation can hold police accountable for violent tactics in the wake of Tyre Nichols’ death in Memphis. SENT: 570 words.

CALIFORNIA-DANCE-HALL-SHOOTING-911-CALLS — A gunman had fired his first deadly shots outside a dance hall when Monterey Park police got a call for help from a man trying to make sense of what happened to his partner sitting in the car next to him. SENT: 530 words, photo.

TEXAS-EXECUTION — A judge has delayed next week’s scheduled execution of a man convicted of killing three teenagers while they slept in a Texas Panhandle home more than 25 years ago. SENT: 330 words, photos.

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INTERNATIONAL

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MIDEAST-RUSSIAN-MERCENARIES — The United States has stepped up pressure on Middle East allies to expel the Wagner Group, a military contractor with close ties to Russia’s president, from chaos-stricken Libya and Sudan where it expanded in recent years, regional officials told The Associated Press. SENT: 1,320 words, photos.

ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-ANTIQUITIES — Israel’s ultranationalist heritage minister has ordered officials to examine the legality of the U.S. government’s historic repatriation of an artifact to the Palestinian Authority. The artifact — a 2,700-year-old ivory cosmetic spoon — is believed to have been plundered from a site in the occupied West Bank. It was seized in late 2021 by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as part of a deal with the New York billionaire hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt. The Palestinians say the artifact is part of their cultural heritage. Israeli Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu’s office said last week that the legality of the repatriation “is being examined.” SENT: 1,050 words, photos.

INDIA-SAME-SEX-MARRIAGE — Utkarsh Saxena and Ananya Kotia’s love story began just like any other college romance. Except no one else knew about the gay couple’s relationship. It was 2008. Homosexuality was yet to gain a degree of acceptance in deeply conservative India, with many gay couples facing stigma and isolation. So Saxena and Kotia took their time, watching from a distance how people’s acceptance of homosexuality was changing. SENT: 1,060 words, photos.

IRAN — Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed damage done to what Iran describes as a military workshop attacked by Israeli drones, the latest such assault amid a shadow war between the two countries. SENT: 620 words, photos.

INDONESIA-ASEAN — Southeast Asian foreign ministers are meeting in Indonesia’s capital for talks bound to be dominated by the deteriorating situation in Myanmar despite an agenda focused on food and energy security and cooperation in finance and health. SENT: 680 words, photos.

UNITED-NATIONS-IRAQ — The U.N. special envoy for Iraq has urged the country’s new government to keep fighting corruption and move quickly on much-needed economic, fiscal and financial reforms. SENT: 630 words.

BELGIUM-CARNIVAL-REVIVAL — After a COVID-imposed hiatus, artisans are again crafting elaborate costumes and floats for the famed Carnival in the Belgian town of Binche. After the economic struggles of the past two years, and amid the pain from energy bills that went through the roof after Russia’s war in Ukraine, locals want to make this year’s festival one for the ages. The earliest records of the Binche Mardi Gras date to the 14th century. Many towns in Belgium hold ebullient carnival processions before Lent. But what makes Binche unique are the “Gilles”— the local men deemed fit to wear the Mardi Gras costumes. SENT: 760 words, photos.

BRITAIN-JAPAN-CHINA — Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss will join the former leaders of Australia and Belgium at a conference in Tokyo later this month to call for a tougher international approach to China. SENT: 480 words, photos.

MEXICO-SOLAR-ENERGY — Mexico was pushed to accelerate its turn toward renewable energy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year drove a sharp increase in global energy costs, Mexico Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard says. SENT: 470 words, photos.

SOUTH KOREA-POLITICS — A South Korean court has sentenced a former justice minister, Cho Kuk, to two years in prison, after he was found guilty of creating fake credentials to help his children get into prestigious schools, a scandal that rocked the country’s previous government and sparked huge protests. SENT: 410 words, photos.

PAKISTAN — Troops raided a militant hideout in a former Pakistani Taliban stronghold near the border with Afghanistan on Friday, triggering a shootout that killed two insurgents, the military says. SENT: 390 words, photos.

HONG-KONG-CHINA — Travel between Hong Kong and China will no longer require COVID-19 PCR tests nor be held to a daily limit, authorities announce, as both places seek to drive economic growth. SENT: 340 words, photos.

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BUSINESS/ECONOMY

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CHINA-TECHNOLOGY-CRACKDOWN — A grinding crackdown that wiped billions of dollars of value off Chinese technology companies is easing, but the once-freewheeling industry is bracing for much slower growth ahead. Analysts say China’s easing of restrictions on companies like e-commerce giant Alibaba and online games company Tencent and talk of support for the private sector reflects Beijing’s decision to refocus on growth after the economy was ravaged by the pandemic and restrictions imposed to fight COVID-19. By Technology Writer Zen Soo. SENT: 1,130 words, photos.

FINANCIAL MARKETS — Asian shares were trading mixed Friday ahead of a closely watched U.S. jobs report that may affect global interest rates. SENT: 450 words, photos.

INDIA-ADANI — Losses for the troubled Adani Group, India’s second-largest conglomerate, has deepened as shares in its flagship company tumbled another 25%, extending over a week of declines that have wiped out tens of billions of dollars in market value. SENT: 490 words, photos.

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SPORTS

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BKN--SCORING RECORD-LEBRON’S LEGACY — LeBron James is soon going to be in the NBA record books as the most prolific scorer ever. But for all his accomplishments on the basketball court, it is James’ ambitious pursuits off-the-court that may ultimately distinguish his legacy from other superstar athletes’. James co-founded an entertainment company, bought stakes in professional baseball and soccer franchises and, with help from product endorsements, his net worth is estimated to be above $1 billion. The off-court achievement James is most proud of is working to uplift the lives of people in his hometown of Akron. Many athletes have excelled in one or more of these areas. But few have done all of them as well as James. By Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds. SENT: 1,010 words, photos.

FBN--SUPER BOWL-CHIEFS’ ROOKIE RETURNS — The challenge of sustained success in the NFL lies in part in the draft, where good teams are forced to pick last. Well, the Chiefs turned all those late-round picks into crucial pieces in their Super Bowl run, right up through a pair of seventh-rounders who made crucial plays in the AFC title game. By Dave Skretta. SENT: 760 words, photos. With FBN--Super Bowl-Chiefs-Injuries (sent).

FBN--SUPER BOWL-EAGLES-HURTS — Brandon Graham laughed as he recalled all the doubters who rushed him during the offseason and blurted out the same question — the main concern, really — about the state of the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback. Yes, it’s hard to remember now, but Jalen Hurts was a bit of a mystery headed into his second full season as the starting QB. His solid 2021 season was marred by a poor playoff performance against Tampa Bay (that included two crushing interception) and reports of a rough go at organized team activities. By Dan Gelston. SENT

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