AP News Digest 3:25 a.m.
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TOP STORIES
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G20-BIDEN — Just hours after he arrives in Rome, President Joe Biden will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican where the world’s two most notable Roman Catholics plan to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and poverty. By Josh Boak and Zeke Miller. SENT: 840 words, photos. UPCOMING: Developing from the meeting. With: PRESIDENTS AND POPES — When President Joe Biden meets with Pope Francis, he won’t kiss the ring. By Alexandra Jaffe. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.
BRITAIN G20 JOHNSON’S CHALLENGE — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson flies to a Group of 20 meeting in Rome with one big goal: to persuade the leaders of the world’s biggest economies to put their money where their mouth is at the U.N. climate summit in Scotland. By Jill Lawless. SENT: 850 words, photo.
CLIMATE-COP26-WHAT’S AT STAKE — More than one world leader says humanity’s future, even survival, hangs in the balance when international officials meet in Scotland to try to accelerate efforts to curb climate change. Temperatures, tempers and hyperbole have all ratcheted up ahead of the United Nations summit. By Seth Borenstein and Frank Jordans. SENT: 1,120 words, photos. With CLIMATE-COP26-GLANCE — A look at the top issues for this year’s UN climate summit (sent).
CONGRESS-BUDGET-HEALTH CARE — Medicaid issues are turning up as winners in President Joe Biden’s social agenda framework even as divisions force Democrats to hit pause on far-reaching improvements to Medicare. The budget blueprint Biden released would fulfill a campaign promise to help poor people locked out of Medicaid expansion across the South due to partisan battles, and it would provide low-income seniors and disabled people with more options to stay out of nursing homes by getting support in their own homes. It also calls for 12 months of Medicaid coverage after childbirth for low-income mothers. But with Medicare, Democrats were unable to reach consensus on prescription drug price negotiations. By Ricardo-Alonso-Zaldivar. SENT: 890 words, photos.
GOOD-FIRE — Native tribes in the U.S. West are making progress toward restoring their ancient practice of treating lands with fire. For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples set fire to clear forest floors of undergrowth. It supported foods such as acorns and hazel wood used in baskets. But starting in the early 1900s, federal policy made such activities illegal. That disrupted the tribes’ hunter-gatherer lifestyle. And it built up fuels that feed wildfires. By Environmental Writer John Flesher. SENT: 1,830 words, photos, video.
AFGHANISTAN-VILLAGE — Residents of the Afghan village of Salar are embracing stability now that the war is over. After being caught in the crossfire during 20 years of fighting, any issues they have with Taliban rule are secondary to peace. But many draw the line at one point: They want an elementary school for girls. That determination in part pushed the Taliban to accept a U.N.-backed girls’ school in the village. By Samya Kullab
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TRENDING
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PHILADELPHIA-POLICE-SHOOTING — Philadelphia has agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Walter Wallace Jr., a Black man experiencing a mental health episode whose fatal shooting by police a year ago was recorded and led to protests, an attorney says. SENT: 460 words, photos.
AUSTRALIA-STORMS — Wild winds in Australia leave thousands without power. SENT: 270 words, photo.
CLIMATE-CHINA — China’s Xi to address U.N. climate summit by video link. SENT: 120 words, photo.
CALIFORNIA CONDORS-VIRGIN BIRTHS — Endangered California condors can have “’virgin births,” according to a study. SENT: 370 words, photo.
WORLD-SERIES-RATINGS — Fox World Series Game 2 viewers up 13% from 2020 record low. SENT: 100 words, photos.
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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-NYC VACCINE MANDATES — Mounting trash. Closed firehouses. Fewer police and ambulances on the street. That’s the possibility New York City is bracing for come Monday as a COVID-19 vaccine mandate looms and thousands of municipal workers remain unwilling to get the shots. SENT: 910 words, photo.
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WASHINGTON/POLITICS
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VIRGINIA GOVERNOR-SURROGATES — Democrat Terry McAuliffe has brought in the biggest names in Democratic politics to come to his aid in Virginia’s hotly contested gubernatorial race: Obama, Harris, Abrams, Biden (both Joe and Jill). Republican Glenn Youngkin, meanwhile, is campaigning with ... Glenn Youngkin. By Jill Colvin. SENT: 900 words, photos.
GUANTANAMO-WAR CRIMES-SENTENCE — A Guantanamo Bay prisoner who went through the brutal U.S. government interrogation program after the 9/11 attacks described it openly for the first time Thursday, saying he was left terrified and hallucinating from techniques that the CIA long sought to keep secret. By Ben Fox. SENT: 900 words, photos.
CONGRESS-BUDGET — President Joe Biden announces that he and Democrats in Congress have reached a “historic” framework for his sweeping domestic policy package. But he still needs to lock down votes from key colleagues for what’s now a dramatically scaled-back bill.. By Lisa Mascaro, Aamer Madhani and Farnoush Amiri. SENT: 1,160 words, photos, videos. With CONGRESS-BUDGET-HIGHLIGHTS — A look at the details of President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion framework. SENT: 630 words, photos. With CONGRESS-BUDGET-PAID LEAVE — With a paid family leave proposal falling out of President Joe Biden’s massive social spending package, Democrats in Congress feel they may have lost their last, best chance for making it happen. SENT: 1,000 words. With CONGRESS-BUDGET-IMMIGRATION — Senate Democrats are preparing to try letting millions of immigrants stay temporarily in the U.S. as part of the party’s massive economic plan. SENT: 760 words, photos.
BIDEN-BUDGET-ANALYSIS — Joe Biden set out to be a president who under-promised and over-delivered. That worked, until it didn’t. As the White House tries to nail down a nearly $3 trillion domestic package that Biden frames as a historic investment in infrastructure and social spending, the moment is clouded by a sense among many on the left that the pared-back package falls far short of the lofty expectations set by the president himself. By Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani. SENT: 1,290 words, photos.
VIRGINIA GOVERNOR-TRUMP — Former President Donald Trump is stepping from afar back into the hotly contested Virginia governor’s race with a tele-rally planned Monday for Republican Glenn Youngkin, according to a person familiar with his plans.. By Jill Colvin. SENT: 450 words, photos.
REDISTRICTING-ILLINOIS-CONGRESS — In the neck-and-neck fight to keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats need help from the few places where state lawmakers can make 2022 difficult for Republicans. Illinois Democrats have delivered, using their dominance in state government to advance new congressional district maps intended to eliminate two Republican-held districts and send more Democrats to Washington. SENT: 870 words, photos.
GEORGIA VOTING-FULTON COUNTY — Georgia’s most populous county, a Democratic stronghold that includes most of Atlanta, faces a high-stakes test in Tuesday’s municipal elections, with some Republicans itching for a state takeover using a sweeping new law. SENT: 890 words, photos.
ELECTION-2021-SEATTLE-MAYOR — Policing, public safety and accusations of racism dominated the last televised debate between the two people vying to be Seattle’s next mayor. SENT: 640 words, photos.
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INTERNATIONAL
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MYANMAR-MASS-TORTURE-RESPONSE — The U.S. State Department expressed outrage and demanded an investigation on Friday after The Associated Press reported that Myanmar’s military has been torturing detainees in a systemic way across the country. SENT: 760 words, photos.
INDONESIA-US-SUITCASE-MURDER — An American woman convicted of helping to kill her mother on Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali in 2014 walked free from prison Friday after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence and will be deported to the United States. SENT: 700 words, photos.
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NATIONAL
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PROP-FIREARM-INDUSTRY-QUESTIONS — The fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin on a movie set has put a microscope on an often-unseen corner of the film industry where critics say the pursuit of profit can lead to unsafe working conditions. By Film Writer Jake Coyle. SENT: 970 words, photos.
WHITEY BULGER — He was one of the most infamous criminals to ever be killed behind bars. And investigators narrowed in on suspects immediately after his shocking slaying in a West Virginia prison. Yet three years later, no one has been charged in the beating death of murderous Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger. SENT: 970 words, photos.
IMMIGRANTS-SEPARATING-FAMILIES — The U.S. Justice Department is in talks to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to each child and parent who was separated under a Trump-era practice of splitting families at the border, a person familiar with discussions to settle lawsuits say. SENT: 350 words, photos.
ARIZONA-SHERIFF-LEGAL-COSTS — Nearly five years after Joe Arpaio was voted out as sheriff of Arizona’s most populous county, taxpayers are covering one of the last major bills from the thousands of lawsuits the lawman’s headline-grabbing tactics inspired. SENT: 1,080 words, photo.
CLIMATE-VIRGINA-BEACH-FLOOD-PROTECTION — Voters in the sprawling coastal city of Virginia Beach will decide whether to approve one of the larger municipal bonds in the U.S. that would be used to protect against rising seas and intensifying hurricanes. SENT: 820 words, photos.
MOTHER SON KILLED — A judge is to hear arguments over whether independent representatives should take control of the money and other assets of a South Carolina lawyer involved in a half-dozen state police investigations. SENT: 740 words, photos.
CALIFORNIA-WATER-DEAL-REJECTED — A California judge has declined to validate a contract granting permanent access to federally controlled water for the nation’s largest agricultural water supplier, a move that means the U.S. government is not bound by terms of the deal. SENT: 810 words, photos.
WYOMING-LIBRARY-INVESTIGATED — A prosecutor won’t charge library employees for making sex education and LGBTQ-themed books available to young people in a deeply conservative city in Wyoming coal-mining country, saying he wouldn’t have a case. SENT: 470 words, photo.
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BUSINESS/ECONOMY
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VIRUS-OUTBREAK-JAPAN-TOURISM — Like much of Asia, including Taiwan, Vietnam and Australia, Japan’s borders remain closed to tourists. While other Asian countries are inching toward reopening, Japanese borders will likely remain shut for some time to come. That’s a hardship for the many businesses that had come to rely on foreign tourists, who numbered 32 million in 2019, before the pandemic. By Business Writer Yuri Kageyama. SENT: 840 words, photos.
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SPORTS
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PANTHERS-QUENNEVILLE — Joel Quenneville resigned as coach of the Florida Panthers on Thursday, two days after the second-winningest coach in NHL history was among those implicated for not swiftly responding to allegations by a Chicago Blackhawks player of being sexually assaulted by another coach during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs. By Tim Reynolds. SENT: 880 words, photos.
PACKERS-CARDINALS — Aaron Rodgers threw two touchdown passes, Randall Cobb caught both of them and the Green Bay Packers knocked off the previously unbeaten Arizona Cardinals 24-21 after Kyler Murray’s stunning late interception. By David Brandt. SENT: 800 words, photos. With FBN—Cardinals-Comeback Fails (sent).
WORLD SERIES-ASTROS-BRAVES PREVIEW — His day almost done, Jose Altuve walked over to a group of Houston fans clustered behind netting down the right field line at Minute Maid Park. For five minutes, he autographed their souvenirs. The Astros liked the sign they got from Altuve, too, after tying the Fall Classic at one game each. By Ben Walker. SENT: 730 words, photos.
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