AP News Digest 3 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.

————————-

TOP STORIES

————————-

GEORGIA ELECTION INVESTIGATION — A special grand jury investigating efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia says it believes “one or more witnesses” committed perjury and urged local prosecutors to bring charges. By Kate Brumback. SENT: 860 words, photos, video. With SECRETARIES OF STATE — Security experts warn of foreign cyber threat to 2024 voting (sent).

UNITED-STATES-AERIAL-OBJECTS-BIDEN — President Joe Biden says that the U.S. is developing “sharper rules” to track, monitor and potentially shoot down unknown aerial objects, following three weeks of high-stakes drama sparked by the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon transiting much of the country. By Zeke Miller and Chris Megerian. SENT: 810 words, photos.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR- REFUGEES — Months after Russian forces occupied the region of Kherson in eastern Ukraine last year, they started paying visits to the home of a Ukrainian woman and her Russian husband. They smashed their refrigerator and demanded possession of their car. One day, they seized the wife and her teenage daughter, put pillowcases over their heads and led them away. SENT: 1,280 words, photos, video. With RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-TIMELINE — Key moments in a year of war after Russia invaded Ukraine (sent).

TYRE-NICHOLS — Five former Memphis police officers were scheduled to make their first court appearance Friday on murder and other charges in the violent arrest and death of Tyre Nichols. By Adrian Sainz. SENT: 470 words, photos.

FETTERMAN-MENTAL HEALTH — Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat who was elected to the Senate after a bruising campaign during which he suffered a stroke, has checked himself into the hospital for clinical depression. Fetterman’s public struggle is extraordinary in a building where few talk about their own mental health. By Mary Clare Jalonick. SENT: 900 words, photos, video.

VOTING MACHINES-DEFAMATION LAWSUIT — Hosts at Fox News had serious concerns about allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election being made by guests who were allies of former President Donald Trump, according to court filings in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network. By Randall Chase. SENT: 880 words, photo.

————————————————————————-

MORE ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

—————————————————————————

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR-ARMY TANKS — A sprawling manufacturing plant in the small midwestern city of Lima, Ohio, is playing a critical role in the effort to arm Ukraine as it continues to fight against Russia. Army officials say it is expected to refurbish Abrams tanks that the U.S. can send to Ukraine, and is already preparing to build an updated version of the vehicle for Poland. SENT: 920 words, photos.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-FADED-PHOTOS — The ghostly gazes of Ukraine’s war dead are losing definition. At a cemetery in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, photographs affixed to headstones are almost imperceptible. Exposed to rain, sun and frost since the war began nearly a year ago, the graveside portraits’ once-bright hues are fading away and yellow stains and mold are encroaching. SENT: 680 words, photos.

———————

TRENDING

———————

OBIT-MCCARVER — Tim McCarver, the All-Star catcher and Hall of Fame broadcaster who during 60 years in baseball won two World Series titles with the St. Louis Cardinals, has died at 81. SENT: 1,650 words, photos.

NEW-ZEALAND-CYCLONE — The death toll from New Zealand’s cyclone reached eight on Friday with more than 4,500 people still unaccounted for four days after the nation’s most destructive weather event in decades brought widespread flooding, landslides and power outages, the prime minister says. SENT: 270 words, photos.

——————————————————

WASHINGTON/POLITICS

——————————————————-

ELECTION 2024-SENATE-UTAH — Republican Mitt Romney has established himself as a rare senator willing to publicly rebuke members of his own party. But the Utah senator’s outspoken stances and his willingness to work with Democrats have angered some Republicans in the deep-red state he represents and led them to cast about for someone to try to dethrone him in a primary race next year. By Michelle L. Price and Mary Clare Jalonick. SENT: 1,450 words, photo. An abridged version of 930 words is also available.

INTELLIGENCE-CONGRESS-SPANBERGER — One of the newest members of the House Intelligence Committee was herself once an officer running spies for the CIA. Abigail Spanberger, a third-term Democratic congresswoman from Virginia, spent almost a decade as a CIA operations officer. By Nomaan Merchant. SENT: 1,140 words, photos.

FACEBOOK-RUSSIA-MOLDOVA — Facebook allowed a Moldovan oligarch with ties to the Kremlin to run ads on its platform urging protests against that country’s government — even though he and his political party are subject to U.S. sanctions. By David Klepper and Stephen McGrath. SENT: 1,200 words, photo.

ELECTION 2024-BIDEN — In 2020, Joe Biden built his White House run around promises to beat Donald Trump “like a drum.” Today, Biden’s pledge to stick with that strategy is one of the building blocks of the reelection campaign he’s expected to announce in coming weeks. But what if Trump isn’t the Republican nominee? By Will Weissert. UPCOMING: 1,300 words, photos by 6 a.m.

————————-

NATIONAL

————————-

R-KELLY — Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to give singer R. Kelly 25 more years in prison for his child pornography and enticement convictions last year in Chicago, which would add to 30 years he recently began serving in a New York case. SENT: 860 words, photos, video, audio.

OREGON-CURBING-PARAMILITARIES — An armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge. Over 100 straight days of racial justice protests that turned downtown Portland into a battleground. A violent breach of the state Capitol. Clashes between gun-toting right-wingers and leftist militants. Over the past decade, Oregon experienced the sixth-highest number of extremist incidents in the nation, despite being 27th in population, according to an Oregon Secretary of State report. SENT: 850 words, photos.

LAS VEGAS-STUDENT-SLAMMED — A school police officer in Las Vegas was captured on cellphone video last week slamming a high school student to the ground and pinning him underneath his knee, prompting an investigation and renewed calls from Nevada activists who want to see police removed from schools and more resources for students. SENT: 740 words.

——————————————

INTERNATIONAL

——————————————

INDIA-CHILD-MARRIAGE — Nureja Khatun’s husband is one of more than 3,000 men who have been arrested in the northeastern state of Assam under a wide crackdown on illegal child marriages involving girls under the age of 18. The action has left her and hundreds of other women in anguish. Many of the women, who are now adults, say their families have been torn apart, leaving them angry and helpless. SENT: 940 words, photos.

SOUTH-KOREA-VIETNAM-MASSACRE — South Korea’s top military official has insisted the country’s soldiers didn’t commit any massacres during the Vietnam War and indicated the government will appeal a ruling that ordered compensation for a Vietnamese woman who lost several relatives to a shooting rampage blamed on South Korean marines in 1968. SENT: 840 words, photos.

KOREA-TENSIONS — North Korea has threatened to take “unprecedently” strong action against its rivals, soon after South Korea announced a series of planned military drills with the United States to hone their joint response to the North’s increasing nuclear threats. SENT: 630 words, photos.

TAIWAN-CHINA — Taiwan’s Defense Ministry says a Chinese weather balloon landed on one of its outlying islands, amid U.S. accusations that such craft have been dispatched worldwide to spy on Washington and its allies. SENT: 380 words, photo.

OLY-TOKYO BRIBERY TRIAL — A trial looking into widespread bribery at the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee began Friday with a former head of a major ad company admitting to the charges. SENT: 380 words, photo.

——————————————-

HEALTH & SCIENCE

——————————————-

JAPAN-ROCKET — The launch of a new flagship series H3 rocket carrying an observation satellite and an experimental infrared sensor that could detect missile launches was aborted after its auxiliary booster engines failed to ignite, Japan’s space agency says. SENT: 490 words, photos.

————————————————-

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

—————————————————

FINANCIAL MARKETS — Shares slipped in Asia after benchmarks on Wall Street had their biggest drop in four weeks as investors registered disappointment over an inflation reading that came in hotter than expected. SENT: 610 words, photos.

EMIRATES-GAS-IPO — The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s gas processing firm says it plans to sell 4% of its shares to local investors in the latest initial public offering to be made by a state-run energy company in the Middle East. SENT: 370 words, photo.

————————

SPORTS

————————

ALL-STAR-GAME-UTAH-IMAGE — Salt Lake City’s hosting of this weekend’s NBA All-Star game for the first time in three decades is giving Utah another opportunity to try to change long-held notions that the state is odd or peculiar. It’s building on a yearslong push prioritized by influential business and political leaders like Jazz owner Ryan Smith. SENT: 1,180 words, photos.

BKN-ALL STAR WEEKEND — More than 60 players are making their way to Salt Lake City for All-Star weekend, some of them for the first time, one of them for the 19th time. And while some events will tout the league’s future, many will be celebrating the past. SENT: 750 words, photos.

GLF-GENESIS INVITATIONAL — Tiger Woods had a loud and successful return to PGA Tour competition. Woods finished with three straight birdies for a 69 in the Genesis Invitational. That left him five shots behind leaders Max Homa and Keith Mitchell. SENT: 870. words, photos.

————————————-

HOW TO REACH US

————————————-

At the Nerve Center, Vincent K. Willis can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, (ext. 1900). For graphics and interactives, ext. 7636. Expanded AP content can be obtained from AP Newsroom. For access to AP Newsroom and other technical issues, contact apcustomersupport@ap.org or call 844-777-2006.