AP News Digest 3:20 am

Tuesday 05 October 2021 08:22 BST

Facebook Whistleblower

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NEW/DEVELOPING

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SWEDEN NOBEL PHYSICS — The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announces the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics. SENT: 180 words, photo. UPCOMING: Developing from 5:45 a.m. announcement.

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TOP STORIES

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CALIFORNIA-OIL SPILL — Officials investigating one of California’s largest oil spills are looking into whether a ship’s anchor may have struck a pipeline on the ocean floor, causing a major leak of crude into coastal waters and fouling beaches. The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons of heavy crude into the ocean, contaminating the sands of famed Huntington Beach and other coastal communities. It could keep beaches closed for weeks or longer. By Brian Melley, Matthew Brown and Stefanie Dazio. SENT: 1,240 words, photos, videos.

CONGRESS-FACEBOOK-WHISTLEBLOWER — Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager who provided The Wall Street Journal with internal documents that exposed the company’s awareness of harms caused by its products and decisions, is scheduled to testify before a Senate subcommittee. By Business Writer Marcy Gordon. SENT: 800 words, photo. UPCOMING: 990 words after 10 a.m. hearing.

BIDEN — President Joe Biden is shifting strategy to sell his ambitious social spending plan, refocusing on travel and courting Democrats who have complained they felt left out of the process. Biden goes to Michigan, visiting the district of a moderate lawmaker who has urged him to sell his proposals more aggressively. By Jonathan Lemire. SENT: 960 words, photos. UPCOMING: 1,100 words after 3:30 p.m. event. With CONGRESS-DEBT — Biden tells GOP to “get out of the way" on debt limit.

FRANCE-QANON-STYLE KIDNAPPING — The beliefs of the U.S. far-right extremist movement QAnon are finding a foothold abroad — especially the tenet that government workers are part of a cabal of child traffickers. QAnon influence has now been tracked to 85 countries, and its beliefs have been adapted to local contexts and languages from Hindi to Hebrew. Authorities say those beliefs are translating into real-world violence outside the United States, where QAnon traces its origins. By Lori Hinnant. SENT: 2,330 words, photos, video. An abridged version of 1,020 words is also available.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-ALASKA — The highly contagious delta variant is spreading across Alaska, driving one of the nation’s sharpest upticks in infections and posing risks for remote outposts like Tanacross where the closest hospital is hours away. “If somebody gets sick around there, there’s no place to take them,” said 78-year-old Alfred Jonathan, a village elder. By Mark Thiessen and Becky Bohrer. SENT: 1,330 words, photos, video.

PANDORA PAPERS-BRITAIN — Britain's Conservative government is facing calls to tighten the country's defenses against “dirty money” after a massive leak of offshore data showed how London in particular, is the destination of choice for some of the world’s richest and most powerful people to conceal their cash. The cache of almost 12 million files, which has been dubbed the “Pandora Papers," was published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its media partners, such as Britain's Guardian newspaper and the BBC. By Pan Pylas. SENT: 740 words, photos.

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AP News Digest 3:20 am

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