AP News Digest 3:15 am
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ONLY ON AP
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THE AP INTERVIEW-PARIS OLYMPICS CHIEF — Tony Estanguet won gold medals for canoeing in the 2000, 2004 and 2012 Olympic Games. Now, the 45-year-old is the face and chief organizer of the 2024 Paris Games. The Paris Olympics boss tells the AP his colleagues won’t resign “for the moment” in police probes of Games-related contracts and insists that the situation bears no comparison with corruption and ethics scandals that have for decades dogged the Olympic movement. By John Leicester. SENT: 1,060 words, photos, video.
AP POLL-TRUMP INDICTMENT – Former President Donald Trump’s criminal indictment on charges of mishandling government secrets appears to have dented his popularity among Republicans — but only slightly — according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. By Jill Colvin and Linley Sanders. SENT: 1,100 words, photos.
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TOP STORIES
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RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR-REVOLT RHETORIC — Civil war. An evil that must be stopped. Fratricide. A bug about to be squashed. The dramatic weekend rebellion by a mercenary warlord in Russia that challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin was punctuated by dramatic language from the key protagonists — and some long silences — as the world held its collective breath at the biggest challenge to Putin’s rule of more than two decades. By Vanessa Gera. SENT: 1,370 words, photos. Also see MORE ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR below.
CANADA WILDFIRES — Canadian wildfires will send worsening smoky air across the country and neighboring United States in coming days after recent heavy rains in Quebec missed the places where the fires are most active, officials said. Smoke from the wildfires has lowered curtains of haze on broad swaths of Canada and the U.S., pushing into southern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and moving into parts of West Virginia. By Rob Gillies. SENT: 480 words, photos. With CANADA WILDFIRES-WIND MOVEMENT —Here’s why you better get used to a smoky stubborn summer in much of America; CANADA WILDFIRES-AIR QUALITY-GREAT LAKES — Smoke from Canada wildfires is increasing health risks in Black and poorer U.S. communities.
HEAT-WAVE — Scorching heat blamed for at least 13 deaths in Texas and another in Louisiana blanketed more of the Southeast, stretching government warnings of dangerous, triple-digit temperatures eastward into Mississippi and Tennessee. California, meanwhile, was facing its first major heat wave of the year. The National Weather Service warned that the dry, hot, windy conditions were ripe for dangerous fires in parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. By Kevin McGill and Ken Miller. SENT: 840 words, photos.
FRANCE-DRIVER KILLED — Police clashed with protesters overnight just hours after French President Emmanuel Macron called the shooting death of a 17-year-old delivery driver by police “inexcusable” and pleaded for calm while justice takes its course. It was the second night of violence in the Paris suburb of Nanterre even as the government heightened the police presence in Paris and other big cities Wednesday after the killing triggered a night of scattered violence. By Oleg Cetinic and Angela Charlton. SENT: 670 words, photos, video. With FRANCE-POLICE-SHOOTING-MBAPPE — Mbappé and France teammates Maignan, Koundé express criticism after police kill teenager.
TITANIC-TOURIST-SUB — Human remains have likely been recovered from the wreckage of the submersible that imploded during an underwater voyage to view the Titanic, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The news came hours after the announcement that debris from the Titan, collected from the seafloor more than 12,000 feet below the surface of the North Atlantic, had arrived in St. John’s, Newfoundland. By Patrick Whittle. SENT: 690 words, photos, video.
YANKEES-ATHLETICS — Domingo Germán of the New York Yankees pitched the 24th perfect game in major league history, retiring every Oakland batter in an 11-0 victory over the Athletics. It was the first perfect game since 2012. By Michael Wagaman. SENT: 1,140 words, photos.
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MORE ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR
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EUROPE-RUSSIA-UKRAINE — NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be key figures at the European Union summit, underscoring the importance the 27 EU leaders attach to protecting their eastern flank from Russian aggression and beefing up Ukraine’s defense capabilities. SENT: 430 words, photos.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR — Ukrainian authorities arrested a man they accused of helping Russia direct a missile strike that killed at least 11 people, including three teenagers, at a popular pizza restaurant in eastern Ukraine. SENT: 1,050 words, photos, videos.
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SPOTLIGHTING VOICES
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ASIA-EID AL ADHA — Muslims across Indonesia are celebrating Eid al-Adha, one of the biggest holidays in the Islamic calendar, with full meat-based feasts after fears of last year’s foot-and-mouth disease outbreak waned. By Andi Jatmiko and Niniek Karmini. SENT: 530 words.
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MORE NEWS
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MADONNA-TOUR POSTPONEMENT — Madonna postpones upcoming tour due to “serious bacterial infection.” SENT: 130 words, photo.
JOHN LEGEND-CHRISSY TEIGEN BABY — John Legend and Chrissy Teigen welcome baby No. 4. SENT: 140 words, photo.
DELTA-FLIGHT-ROUGH-LANDING -- Officials say a Delta flight landed roughly but safely at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport without its landing gear extended. SENT: 510 words, photos.
MISSING-INDIGENOUS — The U.S. Justice Department will provide more resources to address the alarming rate of disappearances and killings among Native Americans. SENT: 710, photo.
FUNDRAISER-CRASH — A man convicted of driving into a fundraiser crowd in Pennsylvania last summer, killing one person and injuring 19, and later killing his mother has been sentenced to two life terms. SENT: 440 words, photos.
BRITAIN-KEVIN-SPACEY-TRIAL — A London jury of nine men and five women has been seated in Kevin Spacey's sexual assault trial. SENT: 670 words, photos, video.
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WASHINGTON/ POLITICS
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ELECTION 2024-BIDEN-FUNDRAISING – President Joe Biden will be wrapping up the first fundraising quarter since he launched his reelection effort. His campaign has been mum on how much he has brought in at the roughly dozen, freewheeling fundraisers he’s held. By White House Correspondent Zeke Miller. SENT: 1,180 words, photos.
HEALTH CARE FRAUD INVESTIGATION — The Justice Department has charged dozens of people in several health care fraud and prescription drug schemes, including one totaling $1.9 billion and a doctor accused of ordering fake ankle braces for a patient whose leg had been amputated, officials said. SENT: 480 words, photo.
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NATIONAL
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MALL SHOOTING-TEXAS — Police released video footage of an officer killing a neo-Nazi gunman, quickly ending a mass shooting that left eight people dead and seven others wounded at a Dallas-area shopping mall. SENT: 570 words, photos.
CALIFORNIA-REPARATIONS — California’s first-in-the-nation slavery reparations task force wraps up its historic work with the official submission of a report two years in the making, one that documents the state’s role in perpetuating discrimination against Black residents and suggests dozens of ways to atone. SENT: 580 words, photos.
TEXAS EXECUTION-RODNEY REED — An appeals court denied a new trial request from longtime Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed, whose supporters say there is evidence to back his claims of innocence. SENT: 640 words, photos.
NORFOLK SOUTHERN CEO-INTERVIEW — Norfolk Southern’s CEO has spoken often of safety and better service since he took the job over a year ago, but it’s safety that has dominated discussions after one of his trains derailed and caught fire in February in Ohio, creating towering black smoke, forcing evacuations and raising environmental worries. SENT: 1,160 words, photos.
CALIFORNIA-TRAIN DERAILMENT — An Amtrak train carrying nearly 200 passengers struck a county water truck and derailed in Southern California, critically injuring the truck’s driver, authorities said. Fourteen people on the train were taken to hospitals with minor injuries. SENT: 360 words, photos, video.
ASBESTOS-TOWN — A federal jury ruled that a health clinic in a Montana town where hundreds of people have died from asbestos exposure submitted 337 false asbestos claims that made patients eligible for Medicare and other benefits they shouldn’t have received. SENT: 780 words, photos.
ALASKA-WEATHER TV — The “Alaska Weather” program has been must-see TV for 47 years in a state where extreme weather dictates everyday life. But the only weather show produced by the National Weather Service will have its last on-air broadcast Friday. It’s move to YouTube-only has led to fears that Alaska’s most vulnerable residents will have a harder time getting the information. SENT: 880 words, photos.
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INTERNATIONAL
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CANADA-UNIVERSITY STABBING — A professor and two students were stabbed during a class on “gender issues” at a university in the Canadian city of Waterloo and a suspect has been taken into custody, police said. SENT: 320 words, photos.
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HEALTH & SCIENCE
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GRAVITATIONAL WAVES — Scientists using a network of telescopes around the world report that they have detected for the first time signals from giant black holes colliding across the universe and throughout time, in the form of gravitational waves. They hope to further decode these waves to better understand how the universe behaves. By Science Writer Maddie Burakoff. SENT: 780 words, photos.
CLIMATE-UAD TURTLES — As sea turtles around the world grow more vulnerable due to climate change, the United Arab Emirates is working to protect the creatures. Turtles that wash ashore in Abu Dhabi are rescued, rehabilitated and then released back into the ocean. SENT: 490 words, photos, video.
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BUSINESS/ECONOMY
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FINANCIAL-MARKETS — Asian stock markets were mixed after leaders of major central banks said they need to keep interest rates high to fight persistent inflation despite fears that might tip the global economy into recession. By Business Writer Joe McDonald. SENT: 430 words, photo.
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SPORTS
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NHL-DRAFT — Connor Bedard can finally appreciate looking forward to playing for the Chicago Blackhawks after spending the past few months avoiding the subject. And the Blackhawks — who selected Bedard first in the NHL draft — can begin looking forward to a new era with a highly skilled offensive forward who’s drawn comparisons to Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. By Hockey Writer John Wawrow. SENT: 860 words, photos.
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