AP News Digest 3 am

Tuesday 22 March 2022 05:07 GMT

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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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TOP STORIES

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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR — Civilians making the dangerous escape from Ukraine’s embattled southern port hub of Mariupol describe fleeing through street-to-street gun battles and past unburied corpses as a steady Russian bombardment tries to pound the city into submission. While Russian forces carry on with the siege after Ukraine’s leaders defied their demand to surrender, Russian ground offensives in other parts of the country are advancing slowly or not at all, knocked back by lethal hit-and-run attacks by the Ukrainians. The Ukrainian army said that it had forced Russian troops out of a strategically important Kyiv suburb after a fierce battle. By Cara Anna. SENT: 1,150 words, photos, videos. With RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-THE LATEST; RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-THINGS TO KNOW.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-WHERE'S THE WHEAT — Farmers worldwide are weighing whether to change their planting patterns and grow more wheat this spring as Russia's war in Ukraine has choked off or thrown into question grain supplies from a region known as “the breadbasket of the world.” Countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa rely on those supplies to feed millions of people who subsist on subsidized bread and bargain noodles. By Aya Batrawy, Steve Karnowski and Rob Gillies. UPCOMING: 1,260 words, photos by 5 a.m. Also see MORE ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR below. For full coverage.

SUPREME COURT-NOMINATION — Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson faces senators’ questions for the first time as Democrats push to quickly confirm the only Black female justice in the court’s 233-year history. By Mary Clare Jalonick and Mark Sherman. SENT: 1,040 words, photos, video. UPCOMING: 1,100 words after hearing resumes at 9 a.m. With SUPREME COURT-TAKEAWAYS — Jackson makes history, GOP vows no “spectacle.”

CHINA PLANE CRASH — No survivors have been found as rescuers search the scattered wreckage of a China Eastern plane carrying 132 people that crashed on a wooded mountainside in China’s worst air disaster in more than a decade. The Boeing 737-800 crashed near Wuzhou in the scenic, semitropical Guangxi region, leaving a deep, charred pit on the mountain. The plane was nearing the point when it would begin its descent when it pitched downward in a steep, fast dive. By Dake Kang. SENT: 1,290 words, photos. With CHINA PLANE CRASH-AIR SAFETY — China Eastern crash is rare disaster for state-run airlines; CHINA-PLANE-CRASH-EXPLAINER — What is known about the China Eastern plane crash.

DISNEY WALKOUT — With some workers across the U.S. threatening a walkout, The Walt Disney Co. finds itself in a balancing act between the expectations of a diverse workforce and demands from an increasingly polarized, politicized marketplace. By Mike Schneider and Brendan Farrington. SENT: 1,040 words, photo.

SEVERE WEATHER — A storm system that left widespread damage and some injuries in its wake in Texas drifted into Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, possibly triggering “a regional severe weather outbreak,” the Storm Prediction Center said. SENT: 560 words, photos.

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AP News Digest 3 am