AP News Digest 3:15 a.m.
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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ONLY ON AP
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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-NURSING HOME ATTACK — A United Nations report says Ukraine’s armed forces bear a large share of the blame for a deadly assault on a care home for the elderly and disabled. The U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says Ukrainian soldiers occupied the nursing home a few days before the March attack, effectively making the building a target. By Richard Lardner and Beatrice Dupuy. SENT: 1,530 words, photos.
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TOP STORIES
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JAPAN-ABE — The body of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was returned to Tokyo a day after he was fatally shot during a campaign speech in western Japan a day earlier. Abe was attacked in the city of Nara and airlifted to a local hospital but died of blood loss despite emergency treatment including massive blood transfusions. Police arrested the attacker, a former member of Japan’s navy, at the scene on suspicion of murder. By Mari Yamaguchi. SENT: 600 words, photos.
ELECTION 2024-TRUMP — In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump cruised to the Republican presidential nomination, despite losing the Iowa caucuses and winning only about a third of the vote in key early states, thanks to the crowded, dozen-candidate field. Now, as Trump mulls announcing a third White House run, the dynamic appears to be repeating with a growing list of candidates gearing up for their own potential runs. By Jill Colvin. SENT: 1,320 words, photos.
MISINFORMATION-DISBELIEF — As public trust in democratic institutions continues to fall, conspiracy theories and historic denialism are filling the void. In some cases, that’s leading the conspiracy theorists to doubt even their own allies. By David Klepper. SENT: 1,070 words, photos.
FRANCE-US-ABORTION — The right to abortion in France hardly seems under threat — it’s been inscribed in law for 47 years and enjoys broad support across the political spectrum. But more and more French women are asking: Could what happened in the U.S. happen here one day? The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to strip women of the right to abortion has reverberated across Europe’s political landscape, forcing the issue back into public debate in France at a time of political upheaval. SENT: 840 words, photos.
TWITTER-MUSK-TERMINATION — Elon Musk announced Friday that he will abandon his tumultuous $44 billion offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts. Twitter immediately fired back, saying it would sue the Tesla CEO to uphold the deal. By Barbara Ortutay Tom Krisher and Matt O'Brien. SENT: 1,060 words, photos.
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TRENDING
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OBIT-TONY SIRICO — Tony Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in “The Sopranos” and brought his tough-guy swagger to films including “Goodfellas,” died Friday. He was 79. SENT: 480 words, photos.
MANSON FOLLOWER-PAROLE DENIED — A California panel on Friday denied parole for a follower of cult leader Charles Manson convicted of slayings more than a half-century ago. SENT: 280 words, photos.
BACKSTREET-CULTURAL-MUSEUM-REOPENING — Ten months after Hurricane Ida damaged a museum celebrating New Orleans’ African American parading culture, the Backstreet Cultural Museum is reopening. SENT: 370 words, photos.
COLUMBIA-UNIVERSITY-UNRANKING — U.S. News & World Report has unranked Columbia University from its 2022 edition of Best Colleges, saying in a statement that the Ivy League institution failed to substantiate certain 2021 data it previously submitted, including student-faculty ratios and class size. SENT: 330 words, photos.
AIRLINES-FAMILIES-SEATS — The Transportation Department has urged airlines to make it easier for families to sit together on planes at no extra charge. SENT: 270 words, photo.
BREWERS-SHOOTING-VICTIM — The Milwaukee Brewers placed a ceremonial jersey in their dugout to honor an 8-year-old fan of the team who was wounded during the July Fourth mass shooting in a Chicago suburb. SENT: 210 words, photos.
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MORE ON JAPAN ABE
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JAPAN-ABE-OLYMPICS — Despite his prominence as Japan’s longest serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe may have enjoyed his biggest moment at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics before 70,000 at the city’s renown Maracana stadium. As a video was shown with Abe portrayed running late for the handover ceremony, the Japanese prime minister suddenly popped up on stage in Rio — to loud applause — dressed as Super Mario, the famous Nintendo video game character. SENT: 690 words, photos.
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MORE ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR — A Ukrainian regional official has warned of deteriorating living conditions in a city captured by Russian forces two weeks ago, saying Sievierodonetsk is without water, power or a working sewage system while the bodies of the dead decompose in hot apartment buildings. SENT: 1,110 words, photos,video.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR-MILITARY AID — A senior defense official says the U.S. will send another $400 million in military equipment to Ukraine, including four more advanced rocket systems. SENT: 550 words, photo.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-EMBASSY-ADDRESSES — Moscow has taken a page out of Washington’s playbook to troll both the U.S. and the U.K. by renaming the streets in front of their embassies in the Russian capital. SENT: 240 words, photos.
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WASHINGTON/POLITICS
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SUPREME COURT-IMMIGRATION-DEPORTATION POLICY — The Biden administration asks the Supreme Court to allow it to put in place guidance that prioritizes deportation of people in the country illegally who pose the greatest public safety risk. SENT: 540 words, photo.
BIDEN-CIA — President Biden lauds the CIA as the “bedrock of our national security” during a visit to the agency, which is part of the wide-ranging intelligence effort to support Ukraine’s resistance against Russia. SENT: 860 words, photos.
CUOMO-BOOK-DEAL — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo improperly used state resources for a book he received $5.1 million to write, according to a report by a law firm. SENT: 470 words, photo.
TRUMP-FINANCIAL RECORDS — A federal appeals court narrows the range of documents House Democrats are entitled to in their years-long investigation of Donald Trump’s finances. SENT: 430 words, photo.
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INTERNATIONAL
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EUROPE-AFTER-JOHNSON — From his days stoking anti-European Union sentiment with exaggerated newspaper stories, to his populist campaign leading Britain out of the bloc and reneging on the post-Brexit trade deal he signed, outgoing U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been the bane of Brussels for all so many years. SENT: 860 words, photos.
US-CHINA — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Chinese counterpart in a new effort to try to rein in or at least manage rampant hostility that has come to define recent relations between Washington and Beijing. SENT: 760 words, photos.
CANADA-NETWORK-OUTAGE — A widespread network outage left many Canadians without mobile and internet service, disrupting police, business and court services as crowds flocked to work at coffee shops with Wi-Fi. Rogers Communications Inc. said it started restoring service late in the day and said its teams “are working hard to get everyone back online as quickly as possible.” SENT: 800 words, photos.
COLOMBIA-US-HANDBAGS — A leading fashion designer whose accessories were used by celebrities and characters in the “Sex and the City” TV series, was arrested in her hometown of Cali, Colombia, and faces extradition to the United States on charges of smuggling crocodile handbags, Colombian prosecutors say. SENT: 340 words.
MEXICO-DRUGS — Mexican prosecutors announced they have seized a half-million fentanyl pills in a raid at a warehouse in the northern city of Culiacan. The statement came one day after the army announced a “historic” seizure of over a half-ton of fentanyl at another warehouse in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, home to the cartel of the same name. SENT: 340 words.
SPAIN-RUNNING-OF-THE-BULLS — The third bull run of Pamplona’s San Fermín Festival has ended with the event’s first gorings of the year. SENT: 210 words, photos.
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NATIONAL
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SHOOTING-JULY FOURTH PARADE — Mourners on Friday remembered a woman who worked tirelessly at her synagogue and a gentle man who loved art in the first formal services to be held for the seven people killed by the gunman who opened fire on a July Fourth parade. SENT: 920 words, photos.
FILIMING POLICE-LIMITS — Arizona’s governor has signed a law that restricts how the public can video police at a time when there’s growing pressure across the U.S. for greater law enforcement transparency. Civil rights and media groups opposed the measure that Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed Thursday. The law makes it illegal in Arizona to knowingly video police officers 8 feet (2.5 meters) or closer without an officer’s permission. SENT: 820 words, photos.
TEEN-RIVER-RESCUE — When Corion Evans saw three people at a party, the 16-year-old never imagined he would save their lives a few hours later. But that’s what happened in the early hours of Sunday when a car drove off a boat launch into a south Mississippi river. SENT: 670 words, photos.
NATIVE-AMERICANS-BOARDING-SCHOOL — U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland will visit Oklahoma for the first stop on a yearlong nationwide tour to hear about the painful experiences of Native Americans who were sent to government-backed boarding schools designed to strip them of their cultural identities. SENT: 650 words, photo.
TRANSGENDER-YOUTH-TEXAS — A Texas judge has issued an order to continue blocking the state from investigating two families of transgender youth who have received gender affirming medical care and said she was considering whether to prevent additional investigations. SENT: 550 words.
WILDFIRES-NEW-MEXICO — The supervisor of a national forest that erupted in flames earlier this year has been temporarily assigned to a post in Washington, D.C., as New Mexico looks to recover from its largest wildfire in record history and the U.S. Forest Service reviews its prescribed burn policies. SENT: 570 words, photos.
CALIFORNIA-WILDFIRES — The largest grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park was closed and hundreds of people ordered evacuated nearby as a wildfire burning through dense forest became the latest in recent years to threaten the world’s largest trees. SENT: 500 words, photos.
TEXAS SCHOOL SHOOTING — The mayor of Uvalde has disputed a new report that alleges missed chances to quickly end the massacre at a Texas elementary school, again reflecting the lack of definitive answers about the slow law enforcement response to one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history. SENT: 590 words, photo.
GEORGE-FLOYD-WHAT'S-NEXT-EXPLAINER — Now that former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to federal prison, attention turns to the fates of three fellow ex-cops. They’re still working their way through a complicated web of state and federal court proceedings arising from the killing of George Floyd. SENT: 940 words, photos.
NBA-PLAYER-KILLED — A Tennessee man serving life in prison after his first-degree murder conviction in the slaying of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright was sentenced Friday on lesser charges of conspiracy and attempted murder in the 12-year-old case. SENT: 460 words, photos.
OREGON-GUN-PERMITS — Backers of a proposed initiative in Oregon that would require people to secure permits to buy firearms say concern about recent mass shootings have buoyed their effort and they have enough signatures to place it on the November ballot. SENT: 470 words, phots.
SRI LANKA — Sri Lankan police fires tear gas at protesters demanding that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his government resign over the island nation’s worst economic crisis in recent memory. SENT: 380 words, photos.
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BUSINESS/ECONOMY
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TESLA-CRASH-INVESTIGATION — The U.S. government’s auto safety watchdog is sending investigators to another Tesla crash, this time one that killed two people along Interstate 75 in Florida. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed Friday that it sent a Special Crash Investigations team to probe the Wednesday crash into the back of a semi-trailer at a rest area near Gainesville. SENT: 580 words, photo.
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ENTERTAINMENT
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CASINOS-FINE ART — Hoping to broaden their customer base beyond the slots and buffet crowd, some casinos are using fine art as an attraction for new customers. One such effort is taking place this summer at Atlantic City’s Hard Rock casino, which is offering the Beyond Van Gogh exhibit. SENT: 580 words, photos.
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SPORTS
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WIMBLEDON — Ons Jabeur and Elena Rybakina meet in the first Wimbledon women’s title match between two first-time Grand Slam finalists since 1962. By Howard Fendrich. UPCOMING: 750 words, photos. Match begins at 9 a.m. EDT. With TEN--WIMBLEDON-MEN’S FINAL PREVIEW. By Howard Fendrich. UPCOMING: 700 words, photos by 9 a.m.
YANKEES-RED SOX — Josh Donaldson hit a three-run homer in a four-run first inning, Matt Carpenter homered among three hits in his first start in left field in a decade and the New York Yankees beat Boston 12-5 for their 10th win in their last 11 games against the Red Sox. Joey Gallo hit a two-run triple on a fly that right fielder Christian Arroyo lost in the twilight. New York opened a 15 1/2-game lead over second-place Tampa Bay in the AL East. The Yankees scored double-digit runs for a major league-high 14th time. SENT: 865 words, photos.
RUSSIA-GRINER-WNBA — Nneka Ogwumike says Brittney Griner is an American hero. Speaking ahead of the WNBA’s All-Star festivities in Chicago, Ogwumike focused more on Griner’s humanity than her playing ability as the league continued to push for Griner’s release from her detention in Russia. Ogwumike, the president of the WNBA players’ association, talked at a press conference calling for mercy for Griner a day after the eight-time All-Star pleaded guilty to drug possession charges that could see her sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. Ogwumike says Griner is her father’s favorite player. By Jay Cohen. SENT: 640 words, photos.
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HOW TO REACH US
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