AP News Digest 6 p.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.
——————————————————
NEW AND DEVELOPING
——————————————————
Adds: CROATIA-WEATHER; OBIT-MIRISCH; GREECE-CARNIVAL-PHOTO-GALLERY; OBIT-GORDON-PINSET; CONGRESS-LOYALTY; KODAK BLACK-ARRESTED; MEXICO-ELECTION-PROTEST; OBIT-CICCONE; PANAMA-MIGRANTS; TRAIN DERAILMENT-OHIO
——————————-
TOP STORIES
——————————-
CARTER-WHY NOT ME — As 2024′s campaign season begins, politicians are looking in the mirror and deciding whether they see an American president staring back. It was no different for Jimmy Carter when he launched his White House bid on Dec. 12, 1974. And it took meeting several presidential candidates and then encouragement from an esteemed elder statesman before the young governor of Georgia, who had never met a president himself, saw himself as something bigger. He made the leap amid the fallout from the Vietnam War and President Richard Nixon’s resignation, and Carter leveraged his unknown — and politically untainted — status to become the 39th president. By Bill Barrow. SENT: 1,100 words, photos.
MIGRATION-ITALY — A wooden boat crowded with migrants smashed into rocky reefs and broke apart before dawn off the Italian coast. By sundown on Sunday, rescuers had recovered nearly 60 bodies, and dozens more people were missing in the turbulent water. United Nations officials feared the death toll could top 100 since survivors indicated the boat had as many as 200 passengers when it set out from Turkey. By Frances D’Emilio. SENT: 960 words, photos.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR — The town of Vuhledar has become one of the deadliest hot spots on the largely static front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces that stretches hundreds of kilometers (miles) in eastern Ukraine. Its ruins have joined Bakhmut, Marinka and other cities and towns as evidence of a grinding and destructive war of attrition. They also have become symbols of Ukrainian resistance. In the rubble, civilians cling on, too. SENT: 975 words, photos.
HAITI-HOSPITAL-MEDICAL-CARE-GANG WAR — One hospital is standing its ground in one of the most violent parts of Haiti’s capital. As gangs tighten their grip on the Caribbean nation, many medical facilities have closed. But Fontaine Hospital Center hangs on in Cité Soleil, the most densely populated part of the city and the heart of Port-au-Prince’s gang wars. By Megan Janetsky and Fernanda Pesce. SENT: 1,185 words, photos.
WINTER WEATHER — Some Michigan residents faced a fourth straight day in the dark as crews continued working to restore power to more than 175,000 homes and businesses in the Detroit metropolitan area following last week’s ice storm. California, meanwhile, was getting a brief break from a powerful storm that on Saturday left Southern California rivers swollen to dangerous levels and brought snow to low-lying areas around Los Angeles. By Rick Callahan and Christopher Weber. SENT: 940 words, photos.
MEDICAID-COVERAGE-LOSSES EXPLAINER — If you get health care coverage through Medicaid, you might be at risk of losing that coverage over the next year. Roughly 84 million people are covered by the government-sponsored program that’s grown by 20 million people since January 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Now, as states begin checking everyone’s eligibility for Medicaid for the first time in three years, as many as 14 million people could lose access to that coverage. SENT: 815 words, photos.
————————————————————————
MORE ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
————————————————————————
UKRAINE CHEF-RECLAIMING CULTURE — Don’t tell Ukrainian chef Ievgen Klopotenko that borsch is just food. For him, the beet-and-meat stew is the embodiment of everything Ukraine is fighting for. Klopotenko says food is a powerful symbol of a nation’s identity. He’s been trying to reclaim Ukraine’s traditional cuisine and show that its culture is distinct from Russia’s. SENT: 1,170 words, photo, video. This is the Monday Spotlight.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE PUTIN — Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast Sunday that after Russia suspended its participation in the last arms control agreement with Washington, it would “take into account” the nuclear weapons capabilities not only of the United States but of other NATO countries such as France and Britain. SENT: 850 words, photos.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR-BIDEN — As the war in Ukraine enters its second year, CIA Director William Burns says Russian President Vladimir Putin is being “too confident” in his military’s ability to grind Ukraine into submission. SENT: 670 words, photos.
————————
TRENDING
————————
KODAK BLACK-ARRESTED — A Florida judge has issued an arrest warrant for rapper Kodak Black for failing a drug test while on bail for a drug charge, court records show. SENT: 200 words, photos.
BICYCLIST TRUCK CRASH ARIZONA — A suspect has been arrested in connection with a crash that killed two bicyclists and injured 11 others in a Phoenix suburb, authorities said. SENT: 225 words.
AIRPOD THEFTS — Police say at least 21 people in New York City have had their fancy Apple headphones stolen right off their heads by a roving team of moped-riding bandits. SENT: 190 words.
MINNESOTA-FUNERAL-SHOOTINGS — Two men were killed and three other people were injured in a second shooting outside a funeral in St. Paul, Minnesota, this weekend. SENT: 160 words.
————————————————
WASHINGTON/POLITICS
————————————————
JILL BIDEN-AFRICA — Jill Biden gets an up-close look at the historic East Africa drought as she walks along arid land and listens as some Maasai women describe how their children and livestock are going hungry. She appeals for more countries to join the United States to help alleviate the suffering. SENT: 1,040 words, photos.
STATE-REPUBLICAN PARTIES — Election deniers who failed at the polls last year are now focusing on gaining control of state Republican parties, signaling a combative approach to the 2024 election cycle while deepening the GOP’s rift with moderates. SENT: 1,340 words, photos.
UNITED STATES-CHINA-TAIWAN — The CIA director says U.S. intelligence shows that China’s President Xi Jinping has instructed his country’s military to “be ready by 2027” to invade Taiwan though he may be currently harboring doubts about his ability to do so given Russia’s experience in its war with Ukraine. SENT: 420 words, photos.
ELECTION 2024-SOUTH CAROLINA — Early-voting South Carolina is used to increased attention in the years leading up to presidential elections, but 2024 feels different. Democrats decided to put the state No. 1 on their primary calendar and there may be two homegrown GOP candidates in the race. SENT: 1,020 words, photos.
CONGRESS-LOYALTY — The leaders of a new House select committee on China defended Democratic Rep. Judy Chu, saying it was abhorrent and unacceptable for a GOP lawmaker to question her loyalty to the United States based on her Chinese heritage. SENT: 300 words, photos.
————————
NATIONAL
————————
TRAIL DERAILMENT-OHIO — Shipment of contaminated waste from the site of a fiery train derailment earlier this month in eastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania state line will resume Monday to two approved sites in Ohio, according to federal environmental authorities. SENT: 450 words, photos.
BLACK CITY-WHITE LEGISLATURE — People in Mississippi’s majority-Black capital city say the mostly white state Legislature is trying to encroach on their rights of self-government. Republican lawmakers say they are trying to reduce crime and improve water service in the Democratic-run city. SENT: 1,455 words, photos, 1,000-word abridged version.
WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING ANNIVERSARY — Thirty years after terrorism first struck the World Trade Center, victims’ relatives and survivors are commemorating the deadly 1993 bombing that foreshadowed 9/11. Anniversary observances are planned Sunday at the trade center and at a nearby church. SENT: 850 words, photos.
TRIBES-BUSINESS-DIVERSIFICATION — Hit hard by COVID-19 shutdowns, Native American tribes with casinos are taking a closer look at diversifying their portfolios to help keep their sovereign nations economically strong for future generations. SENT: 1,020 words, photos.
————————————-
INTERNATIONAL
————————————-
MEXICO-ELECTION-PROTEST — Tens of thousands of people filled Mexico City’s vast main plaza to protest President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s electoral law reforms that they say threaten democracy and could mark a return to the past. SENT: 600 words, photos.
PANAMA-MIGRANTS — The government of Panama temporarily suspended bus services that transfer migrants from the dangerous Darien Gap area to the north of the country after two serious mishaps aboard the vehicles. SENT: 175 words.
CROATIA-WEATHER — Croatian authorities closed all roads connecting the country’s mainland with the Adriatic Sea coastline because of heavy snow and strong wind that sparked traffic chaos in the country and elsewhere in the Balkans. SENT: 300 words photos.
GREECE-CARNIVAL — Throngs of revelers across Greece have attended end-of-Carnival celebrations for the first time in four years. SENT: 315 words, photos. WITH: GREECE-CARNIVAL-PHOTO-GALLERY. SENT: 315 words, photos.
NIGERIA-ELECTIONS — More people in Nigeria have cast ballots even though voting in the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections had been supposed to end on Saturday. SENT: 580 words, photos.
ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS — The Jordanian government announced that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to de-escalate tensions, shortly after a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis in a shooting in the occupied West Bank. SENT: 875 words, photos.
NICARAGUA-REMITTANCES — Remittances to Nicaraguans sent home last year surged 50%, a massive jump that analysts say is directly related to the thousands of Nicaraguans who emigrated to the U.S. in the past two years. SENT: 720 words, photos.
BREXIT-NORTHERN-IRELAND — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Union leader Ursula von der Leyen are due to meet, with expectations high they will seal a deal to resolve a thorny post-Brexit trade dispute. SENT: 335 words, photo.
PAKISTAN-AFGHAN-US-VISAS — Hundreds of Afghan refugees facing extreme delays in the approval of U.S. visas are protesting in Pakistan’s capital on, as an American program to help relocate at-risk Afghans fleeing Taliban rule stalls. SENT: 400 words, photos.
HONG KONG-MODEL KILLED — Police in Hong Kong have filed murder charges against the former in-laws of a model whose body parts were found in a refrigerator and a skull believed to be hers in a pot. SENT: 400 words, photos.
PAKISTAN BOMBING — Police say a bombing at a crowded bazaar in southwestern Pakistan killed at least five people and wounded 16. No one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack in Barkhan, which is northeast of Quetta, the provincial capital. SENT: 190 words.
SRI LANKA-PROTEST — Police in Sri Lanka have fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters angry over a decision to postpone local elections after the government said it cannot finance them because of the country’s crippling economic crisis. SENT: 385 words, photos.
—————————————-
ENTERTAINMENT
—————————————-
FILM BOX OFFICE — Sunday studio estimates say the gonzo R-rated horror comedy “Cocaine Bear” sniffed up $23.1 million in its opening weekend, while Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” fell fast in its second weekend. “Quantumania” was still No. 1 with an estimated $32.2 million in ticket sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters. SENT: 545 words, photos.
SAG AWARDS — Last year, the top winners at the Screen Actors Guild Awards all corresponded exactly with the Academy Awards winners. Will Sunday’s SAGs offer the same preview? The 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern Sunday and be streamed live on Netflix’s YouTube page. SENT: 450 words, photos. Developing.
OBIT-MIRISCH — Walter Mirisch, the astute and Oscar winning film producer who oversaw such classics as “Some Like It Hot,” “West Side Story” and “In the Heat of the Night,” has died of natural causes, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Saturday. He was 101. SENT: 930 words.
OBIT-GORDON-PINSET — Gordon Pinsent, an award-winning Canadian actor acclaimed for his performance as a heartbroken husband in the film “Away From Her,” has died at 92. SENT: 550 words.
OBIT-CICCONE — Madonna’s eldest sibling, Anthony Ciccone, has died, a family member said Saturday. He was 66. SENT: 200 words.
——————-
SPORTS
——————-
SOC-LEAGUE-CUP-FINAL — Manchester United’s six-year wait for a trophy is over after beating Newcastle 2-0 to win the League Cup. United manager Erik ten Hag has wasted no time in guiding the club to silverware just 10 months after being hired. Casemiro headed United in front in the 33rd minute and Sven Botman’s own-goal made it 2-0 in the 39th. SENT: 540 words, photos.
BBN-PADRES-MACHADO-CONTRACT — A person with knowledge of the deal says All-Star slugger Manny Machado has agreed to a new $350 million, 11-year contract that will keep him with the San Diego Padres through 2033. SENT: 175 words, photo.
——————————————-
HOW TO REACH US
——————————————-
At the Nerve Center, Mae Anderson can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, Donald E. King (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.
