AP News Digest 6:10 p.m.
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NEW/DEVELOPING
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Adds: BIDEN-VOTING RIGHTS; BIDEN-GOVERNORS; CONGRESS-INFRASTRUCTURE; CALIFORNIA DROUGHT; AFGHANISTAN; BRAZIL-ELECTIONS; ALASKA-FLIGHT DISTURBANCE; ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-HUNGER STRIKE; GREAT-LAKES-FLOODING-COST; CHICAGO-VIOLENCE; GEORGE FLOYD-OFFICER-TRIAL; HEAT WAVE-WORKER-PROTECTION
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TOP STORIES
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BUILDING-COLLAPSE-MIAMI — Rescue workers now focused on finding remains instead of survivors in the rubble of a Florida condominium collapse paused briefly atop the pile to mark the two-week anniversary of the disaster, but said they had no plans to pull back during the recovery effort. By Terry Spencer. SENT: 885 words, photos, video.
Find more on the building collapse in the AP Newsroom hub.
HAITI-PRESIDENT-KILLED — Two men believed to be Haitian Americans — one of them purportedly a former bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Port au Prince — have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti’s president, according to a senior Haitian official. Seven other suspected assailants were killed, authorities said. By Evens Sanon, Dánica Coto and Joshua Goodman. SENT: 1,100 words, photos. WITH: HAITI-PRESIDENT-KILLED-EXPLAINER — Assassination threatens more chaos for Haiti. SENT: 855 words, photos.
BIDEN-AFGHANISTAN — President Joe Biden says the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan will end Aug. 31, delivering an impassioned argument for exiting the nearly 20-year war without sacrificing more American lives even as he bluntly acknowledges there will be no “mission accomplished” moment to celebrate.” By Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller. SENT: 1,130 words, photos, video.
LATINO OUTREACH — Even as he flipped heavily Hispanic Arizona to clinch the presidency, Joe Biden underperformed with Latino voters elsewhere. Democrats say a key problem was waiting until just before the election to intensify outreach to Latino communities. The party is now trying to break that pattern as Republicans look to capitalize on their 2020 gains. By Will Weissert. SENT: 1,270 words, photos. An abridged version of 970 words is also available.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-US — Pfizer says it is about to seek U.S. authorization for a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine. The company said that another shot could dramatically boost immunity and maybe help ward off the latest worrisome coronavirus mutant. By Lauran Neergaard. SENT: 880 words, photos.
FOSTERING-MIGRANT-CHILDREN — Some of the children who crossed the Mexican border alone are placed in foster homes, where families make them homecooked meals, take them on bike rides and tuck them in at night. Their experience is a stark contrast to the thousands of other children in US custody who have been placed in mass-scale shelters set up by the Biden administration in convention centers and on military bases. The government says it has faced a shortage of foster homes during the pandemic. Providers say families now are stepping forward and are urging the government to send more kids to the homes. By Julie Watson. SENT: 1,065 words, photos.
OLY-TOKYO-STATE-OF-EMERGENCY — All fans are banned from the Tokyo Olympics following a state of emergency aimed at containing rising COVID-19 infections in the capital. Fans from aboard were barred months ago. The Olympics begin in two weeks and are now a made-for-TV event. By Mari Yamaguchi and Stephen Wade. SENT: 750 words, photos.
Find more stories on the Olympics here.
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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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KIDNAPPED-GIRL-FOUND — Authorities say a 6-year-old Kentucky girl who was snatched from her bicycle by a stranger was found quickly, returned to her family and a suspect was charged with kidnapping. SENT: 300 words, video.
ALASKA-FLIGHT DISTURBANCE — 18-year-old passenger arrested after taking over small plane in Alaska. SENT: 185 words.
ESCAPED-INMATES-ILLINOIS — Four inmates escaped from a county jail in Illinois and authorities are advising area residents to remain locked in their homes as they search for the men. SENT: 165 words.
PYTHON-ESCAPE-MALL — Authorities say they’ve found a 12-foot python that escaped from its enclosure inside Louisiana’s largest shopping mall. SENT: 165 words.
TED-TURNER-NEBRASKA-RANCHLAND — Media mogul and billionaire bison rancher Ted Turner is donating an 80,000-acre ranch he owns in western Nebraska to a nonprofit agriculture ecosystem research institute. SENT: 275 words, photo.
NIGERIA-PREACHER-JOSHUA — Thousands of Nigerians paid their last respects this week to Temitope Balogun Joshua, one of Africa’s most popular televangelists, known as T.B. Joshua. The pastor died about a month ago at age 57. SENT: 270 words.
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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
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VIRUS-OUTBREAK — On the last day of Javier Vilca’s life, his wife stood outside a hospital window with a teddy bear, red balloons and a box of chocolates to celebrate his birthday, and held up a giant, hand-scrawled sign that read: “Don’t give up. You’re the best man in the world.” Minutes later, Vilca, a 43-year-old struggling radio journalist who had battled depression, jumped four stories to his death — the fifth suicide by a COVID-19 patient at Peru’s overwhelmed Honorio Delgado hospital since the pandemic began. SENT: 1,260 words, photos, video.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-GOVERNORS — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson becomes the new chairman of the National Governors Association, which has been focused on states’ response to the coronavirus since the pandemic erupted across the U.S. He takes over at a time when the COVID-19 delta variant is causing a resurgence of cases and hospitalizations in Republican-led states where vaccination rates are low. SENT: 545 words, photos.
OLY-AFRICA-COVID-CHALLENGES — South African swimmer Erin Gallagher got COVID-19 late last year and went from elite Olympic athlete in peak condition to lying flat out on a bed concentrating on just breathing. And yet, she’s one of the lucky ones. She recovered and is going to Tokyo. SENT: 915 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-MISSOURI — Federal officials are pushing back after Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he doesn’t want government employees going door-to-door to urge people to get vaccinated. SENT: 700 words, photo.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-VIRAL QUESTIONS-HOTELS — Most fully vaccinated people won’t need to take special precautions at hotels. SENT: 330 words, graphic.
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WASHINGTON/POLITICS
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BIDEN-VOTING RIGHTS — The Biden administration unveils new efforts to help protect voting rights as complaints have grown louder from civil rights activists and other Democrats that the White House has not done enough to fight attempts by several Republican-led state legislatures to restrict access to the ballot. SENT: 940 words, photos.
HAITI-BIDEN’S OPTIONS — The last time Haiti was thrust into turmoil by assassination was 1915, when rebels beat to death President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, triggering a nearly two-decade U.S. military intervention. But the era of gunboat diplomacy is long over and the U.S. is unlikely to deploy troops in the aftermath of the brazen slaying of President Jovenel Moïse. But the Biden administration may nonetheless find itself dragged into the country’s increasingly violent political conflict. SENT: 980 words, photos.
CONGRESS-INFRASTRUCTURE — Major business and union groups form a new coalition designed to build momentum for a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package that the Senate is expected to take up this month. SENT: 440 words, photo.
BIDEN-GOVERNORS — President Biden relaunches the council of governors, an advisory board of state leaders and top administration officials focused on strengthening federal and state collaboration on major national security issues. SENT: 540 words, photo.
POSTAL RATES-NEWSPAPERS — The U.S. Postal Service’s plans to raise postage rates could present another damaging blow to community newspapers already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic and advertising declines. SENT: 680 words, photo.
UNITED STATES-CHINA-NUCLEAR — A U.S. diplomat focusing on disarmament says China is “looking at” developing naval and aerial autonomous nuclear weapons systems, which he warns could disrupt strategic stability. SENT: 400 words.
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NATIONAL
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CALIFORNIA-DROUGHT — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked people and businesses in the nation’s most populous state to voluntarily cut how much water they use by 15% amid a drought. SENT: 470 words, photos.
MICHAEL-AVENATTI-NIKE — A New York judge has sentenced the combative California lawyer Michael Avenatti to 2 1/2 years in prison for trying to extort up to $25 million from Nike. U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe announced the sentence in Manhattan, where a jury in early 2020 convicted Avenatti of charges including attempted extortion and fraud. SENT; 790 words, photos.
CHICAGO-VIOLENCE — A federal indictment charges a 28-year-old Chicago man in connection to a drive-by shooting this week of three undercover law enforcement officers, and it says the suspect told authorities he mistook the officers for rival gang members. SENT: 280 words.
OFFICER-KILLED-TERRE-HAUTE — An FBI official says investigators haven’t yet determined the motive for the ambush shooting of a western Indiana police officer outside an FBI office in Terre Haute. FBI Indianapolis special agent in charge Paul Keenan says the suspected gunman in the shooting remained hospitalized after being shot by an FBI agent. SENT: 400 words.
TROPICAL-WEATHER-ATLANTIC —Tropical Storm Elsa carved a destructive and soaking path up the East Coast after killing at least one person in Florida and spinning up a tornado at a Georgia Navy base that flipped recreational vehicles upside-down and blew one of them into a lake. Elsa’s winds strengthened to 50 mph (85 kph), as the storm dropped heavy rains on parts of North Carolina and Virginia, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest update. SENT: 590 words, photos, video.
OPIOID-CRISIS-PURDUE-BANKRUPTCY — More than a dozen states have dropped their longstanding objections to OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s reorganization plan, edging the company closer to resolving its bankruptcy case and transforming itself into a new entity that helps combat the U.S. opioid epidemic through its own profits. SENT: 1,075 words, photos.
POLICE SHOOTING-MURDER CONVICTION — An Alabama police officer is still getting paid two months after a trial jury convicted him of murder. SENT: 380 words.
GEORGE-FLOYD-OFFICER=TRIAL — Prosecutors have asked the judge who handled former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial in George Floyd’s death to rewrite his sentencing order to delete suggestions that child witnesses did not suffer trauma. SENT: 500 words, photos.
GREAT-LAKES-FLOODING-COST — Shoreline cities and towns in the Great Lakes region will be spending heavily in coming years to fix public infrastructure damaged by recent flooding and erosion, with estimated costs approaching $2 billion, officials said. SENT: 400 words, photo.
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INTERNATIONAL
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AFGHANISTAN — An Afghan official and Iranian media say the Taliban have taken control of another one of Afghanistan’s key border crossings, this time with Iran. It’s the third border crossing the insurgents have taken in the past week, after previously seizing crossings with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. SENT: 540 words, photos.
VATICAN-POPE-SURGERY — Pope Francis temporarily had a fever three days after intestinal surgery, but routine tests proved negative, the Vatican says. SENT: 280 words, photos.
IRAQ — Rockets landed in and around the heavily fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, which houses the U.S. Embassy, causing material damage, Iraqi security forces say. SENT: 420 words.
ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS — Israeli forces have demolished the family home of a Palestinian-American man accused of carrying out a deadly attack on Israelis in the occupied West Bank in May. SENT: 440 words, photos. with: ISRAEL-GAZA — The World Bank estimates that rebuilding Gaza after the latest devastating war between Israel and the territory’s militant Hamas rulers will cost up to $485 million. SENT: 310 words. With: ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-HUNGER STRIKE — A Palestinian man held by Israel without charges will be released from custody and transferred to a Palestinian hospital in the occupied West Bank after being on a hunger strike for more than two months, his supporters said. SENT: 470 words.
SOC-EURO 2020-ENGLAND-DAY AFTER — There are virus fears as England prepares for the Euro 2020 final against Italy. The worry is that the outpouring of joy in pubs and the streets will worsen rising coronavirus infection rates, particularly among younger men, many of whom have yet to be vaccinated. SENT: 810 words, photos.
SOUTH AFRICA-ZUMA-PRISON — Human rights groups have welcomed the imprisonment of former South African President Jacob Zuma, who is serving a 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court. SENT: 580 words, photos.
HUNGARY-LGBT LAW — Activists in Hungary have erected a large rainbow-colored heart opposite the country’s neo-Gothic parliament, vowing to wage a civil disobedience campaign against a new law that they say discriminates against LGBT people and that has raised questions about what values the European Union stands for. SENT: 740 words, photos.
BRAZIL-ELECTIONS — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro is suggesting next year’s presidential election could be cancelled unless the voting system is reformed. Bolsonaro told supporters that “either we do clean elections in Brazil, or we don’t do elections at all.” SENT; 290 words, photo.
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HEALTH/SCIENCE
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MED-KIDS-VIRUS-OFFSEASON — The recent emergence of a virus that typically sickens children in colder months has baffled U.S. pediatricians and put many infants in the hospital with troublesome coughs and breathing trouble. RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is a common cause of cold-like symptoms but can be serious for infants and the elderly. Cases dropped dramatically last year during COVID-19 restrictions but began cropping up as pandemic precautions eased. SENT: 905 words, photos.
MED-ALZHEIMER'S-DRUG — U.S. health regulators approved new prescribing instructions that are likely to limit use of a controversial new Alzheimer’s drug. The Food and Drug Administration said the change is intended to address confusion among physicians and patients about who should get the drug, which has faced an intense public backlash since its approval last month. SENT: 565 words, photo.
BILLIONAIRES-SPACE RACE — Two billionaires are putting everything on the line to ride their own rocket ships to the fringes of space and prove it’s safe for tourists. This newest space race pits Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson, who’s set to soar Sunday, against the world’s richest man, Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos, who will follow nine days later. SENT: 890 words, photo.
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BUSINESS/ECONOMY
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VIRUS-OUTBREAK-UNEMPLOYMENT-BENEFITS — The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week even while the economy and the job market appear to be rebounding from the coronavirus recession with sustained energy. SENT: 560 words, photos.
EUROPE-CAR COLLUSION — The European Union has fined major German car manufacturers $1 billion because they colluded to limit the development and rollout of car emission-control systems. SENT: 540 words, photos.
SAMPLES-RETURN — With vaccinations rolling out and the threat of COVID-19 easing in the U.S., stores are feeling confident enough to revive the longstanding tradition of offering free samples. SENT: 740 words, photos, video.
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ENTERTAINMENT
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TV-SHARK WEEK — You can take a bite out of Shark Week this year but there will be leftovers. Discovery Channel is planning a new record of 45 hours of programming on TV and streaming on discovery+ between July 11-18. Celebrities involved include Tiffany Haddish, Brad Paisley, William Shatner, Eric Bana and Snoop Dogg. SENT: 985 words, photos, video.
TV-NEVER HAVE I EVER-JAREN LEWISON — Jaren Lewison was at his USC freshman orientation when he got the call to screen test for the Netflix series “Never Have I Ever.” He got the job and filmed season one while living in his college dorm. Lewison is a psychology major with a minor in forensics and criminality and he’s on track to graduate at the end of his junior year in the spring of 2022. SENT: 1,210 words, photos.
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SPORTS
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BKN--NBA FINALS — The Phoenix Suns, with Chris Paul and Devin Booker controlling the backcourt and Deandre Ayton owning the boards, go for 2-0 lead over the Bucks in the NBA Finals. Milwaukee is still getting strong play from a weakened Giannis Antetokounmpo but needs more out of Jrue Holiday. UPCOMING: 800 words, photos. Game starts 9 p.m.
TEN--WIMBLEDON — Top-ranked Ash Barty reaches her first Wimbledon final after beating 2018 champion Angelique Kerber. She will play for the title against Karolina Pliskova, who defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the other semifinal. SENT: 500 words, photos. SENT: 550 words, photos.
BBO-BALLPARKS-BACK-TO-WORK — Ballpark employees have had a chance to return to work after the pandemic hit many of them hard. It would be premature to say the scene at major league ballparks has completely returned to normal, but there’s no question this season has been a step in that direction. SENT: 735 words, photos.
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HOW TO REACH US
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