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.
NEW/DEVELOPING:
MILITARY-SEXUAL ASSAULT, WATER WOES-NEGLECTED CITY, STARBUCKS-CEO, THERANOS-FRAUD TRIAL, AFGHANS-HUMANITARIAN-PAROLE, CLIMATE-HAWAII-HALTING COAL, R-KELLY, VENICE FILM FESTIVAL-TAR, US OPEN-UKRAINE-NO HANDSHAKE, OLIGARCH-SEARCH
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ONLY ON AP
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INVESTIGATION-TRACKED-FOG-REVEAL — Local law enforcement agencies from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina have been using an obscure cell-phone location tool, at times without search warrants, that gives them the power to track people’s movements over years-long periods, according to public records and internal emails obtained by The Associated Press. By Garance Burke and Jason Dearen. SENT: 3,230 words, photos, video. An abridged version of 1,090 words is also available.
AP POLL-GUN VIOLENCE — About 2 in 10 people in the United States say they’ve had a personal experience with gun violence or a connection to someone who experienced it. A poll by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also found racial and ethnic disparities in how people experienced gun violence. By Corey Williams and Michelle L. Price. SENT: 1,020 words, photos.
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TOP STORIES
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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-DEVELOPMENTS — A U.N. inspection team entered Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Thursday on a mission to safeguard it against catastrophe, reaching the site amid fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces that prompted the shutdown of one reactor and underscored the urgency of the task. By Yesica Fisch and Derek Gatopoulos. SENT: 860 words, photos.
TRUMP-FBI —A federal judge Thursday appeared to give a boost to former President Donald Trump’s hopes for appointing an outside legal expert to review government records seized by the FBI, questioning the Justice Department’s arguments that Trump couldn’t make the request and that it would needlessly delay its investigation. By Adriana Gomez Licon and Eric Tucker. SENT: 450 words, photos. WITH: Congress-Trump: A House committee seeking financial records from former President Donald Trump has reached an agreement that ends litigation on the matter and requires an accounting firm to turn over some of the material, the panel’s leader announced Thursday. SENT: 650 words.
MED-VIRUS-OUTBREAK-NEW-BOOSTER — A panel of U.S. health advisers voted to recommend Pfizer’s updated COVID-19 boosters that target the newest omicron strains for people 12 and older and Moderna's version of the booster update, to be used in adults only. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to adopt the recommendation, the last step before shots can begin. SENT: 600 words, photos.
BIDEN -- President Joe Biden will warn about what he views as “extremist” threats to American democracy from the forces of Trumpism, using a prime-time address Thursday from Philadelphia’s Independence Hall to reframe the November elections as part of a struggle for the “soul of the nation.” By Zeke Miller and Chris Megerian. SENT: 1,000 words, photos, developing. Eds: Speech set for 8 p.m.
WATER WOES-NEGLECTED CITY — For at least the third time in a dozen years, portable toilets are parked outside the ornate Mississippi Capitol because Jackson’s water system is in crisis. Even before the pressure dropped, Jackson’s system was fragile, and officials had warned for years that widespread loss of service was possible. By Emily Wagster Pettus. SENT: 1,190 words, photos.
MILITARY-SEXUAL ASSAULT — Alarmed by a dramatic increase in reported sexual assaults in the military, defense leaders say they want to beef up prevention, but they are still developing programs they think can work after nearly two decades of trying. SENT: 990 words, photo.
POLICE-SHOOTINGS-MENTAL-ILLNESS — People experiencing mental health crises have been killed by police in America. But how many is unknown. Federal law requires the Department of Justice to collect and publish data on that. But the law doesn’t require police departments to tell the DOJ how many people their officers killed, and many aren’t doing so. The National Alliance on Mental Illness says the killings highlight a larger systemic problem in helping people who are struggling with their mental health or are in crisis. Two killings, in Oregon and West Virginia, show how system failures had tragic results. By Andrew Selsky and Leah Willingham. SENT: 1,670 words, photos. An abridged version of 990 words is also available.
BACK-TO-SCHOOL-HOLDING-STUDENTS-BACK -- As some children struggled to keep up with school in the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, many states saw significant increases in the number of students held back to repeat grades. Twenty-four of the 28 states that provided data for the most recent academic year saw increases, according to an Associated Press analysis. By Brooke Schultz and Heather Hollingsworth. SENT: 1,125 words, photos. WITH: VIRUS OUTBREAK-TEST SCORES — Math and reading scores for America’s 9-year-olds fell dramatically during the first two years of the pandemic, according to a new federal study. WITH: SENT: 530 words, photos.
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MORE ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR — It was the first day of school in Ukraine on Thursday but children weren’t sharing memories of fun vacations with their families. Their stories were of surviving war. For many, their last day of school was the day before the Feb. 24 Russian invasion of their country. SENT: 1,065 words, photos.
NORTH-KOREA-REBUILDING-UKRAINE — As the war in Ukraine stretches into its seventh month, North Korea is hinting at its interest in sending construction workers to help rebuild Russian-occupied territories in the country’s east. SENT: 990 words, photos.
RUSSIA-MILITARY DRILLS — Russia launched weeklong war games involving forces from China and other nations in a show of growing defense cooperation between Moscow and Beijing as they both face tensions with the U.S. SENT: 665 words, photos.
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TRENDING
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THERANOS-FRAUD TRIAL — A federal judge on Thursday tentatively declined to overturn the jury conviction of disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes on four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy. That leaves the former Silicon Valley star a step closer to serving prison time. SENT: 225 words, photos.
R-KELLY — Singer R. Kelly told a federal judge Thursday that he won’t testify at his ongoing trial in Chicago on charges that accuse him of child pornography, enticement of minors for sex and fixing his 2008 state trial. SENT: 360 words, photos.
STARBUCKS-CEO — Starbucks has named a longtime PepsiCo executive as its new CEO. The coffee giant said Thursday that Laxman Narasimhan will join Starbucks on Oct. 1 after relocating from London to Seattle, where Starbucks is based. SENT: 400 words.
OLIGARCH-SEARCH — U.S. federal agents on Thursday simultaneously searched properties in Manhattan, the posh beach community of Southampton, New York, and on an exclusive Miami island that have been linked to a billionaire Russian oligarch whose $120 million yacht was seized in April. SENT: 550 words, photos.
TWITTER-EDIT-BUTTON — Permanently misspelled tweets might soon be a thing of the past. Twitter said it will roll out an editing feature to subscribers of its premium Twitter Blue service later this month, and hinted that all users would eventually get the feature. SENT: 370 words, photo.
AIRLINES-CONSUMER DASHBOARD — After months of large-scale flight cancellations and delays, the government has set up a customer service dashboard to help vacationers just in time for the travel-heavy Labor Day weekend. Travelers now can check what kinds of guarantees, refunds or compensation the major domestic airlines offer in case of trip interruptions. SENT: 390 words, photo.
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WASHINGTON / POLITICS
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CAPITOL RIOT INVESTIGATION-THOMAS — The wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas contacted at least two Wisconsin state lawmakers urging them to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in 2020 in the tightly contested state. Conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas also had sent identical messages to more than two dozen lawmakers in Arizona. SENT: 590 words, photo.
CAPITOL RIOT-RETIRED OFFICER — A retired New York Police Department officer was sentenced on Thursday to a record-setting 10 years in prison for attacking the U.S. Capitol and using a metal flagpole to assault one of the police officers trying to hold off a mob of Donald Trump supporters. SENT: 922 words, photos. WITH: CAPITOL RIOT-INVESTIGATION — The White House counsel under former President Donald Trump and his top deputy are set to appear before a federal grand jury. SENT: 370 words, photos. WITH: CAPITOL RIOT-OATH KEEPERS LAWYER — A lawyer for the far-right Oath Keepers group has been charged with conspiracy. SENT: 590 words, photos.
ELECTION 2022-REPUBLICANS-ABORTION — Anti-abortion Republicans in competitive House, Senate and governor’s races in key states are trying to distance themselves from their past statements and positions on the issue, in light of reignited enthusiasm among abortion rights supporters since the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe. v. Wade. SENT: 1,246 words, photos.
ELECTION 2022-MICHIGAN-ABORTION — An abortion-rights group on Thursday asked the Michigan Supreme Court to approve a November ballot question on whether a right to abortion should be enshrined in the state constitution. SENT: 780 words, photos.
ABORTION-COLORADO-SENATE — There are a few Republican candidates in high-profile races who say they support abortion rights, but Democrats are pressing the case that no GOP politician can be trusted these days to protect abortion access. In Colorado, that strategy has put the Republican Senate candidate on the defensive. SENT: 1,120 words, photos.
AFGHANS-HUMANITARIAN-PAROLE — The Biden administration said Thursday that it is phasing out a program that aimed to give at-risk Afghans a quicker pathway to the U.S. through humanitarian relief but was criticized for its bureaucratic barriers and for ultimately leaving people’s lives in legal limbo. SENT: 475 words, photos.
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NATIONAL
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WATERING WHILE BLACK — A Black pastor plans to sue an Alabama town whose white police officers placed him in handcuffs after he refused to identify himself while watering flowers for his neighbor on private property. Footage from one of the officers’ body cameras shows how quickly a previously noneventful evening on a quiet residential street in the town of Childersburg devolved into yet another potentially explosive situation involving a Black man and white law enforcement authorities in the United States. By Jay Reeves. SENT: 1,850 words, photos, video. An abridged version of 1,150 words is also available.
OPIOIDS-NEW-HAMPSHIRE -- Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $40.5 million in a settlement with New Hampshire over its role in the opioid addiction crisis, the state attorney general’s office said. SENT: 670 words, photos.
DUTCH-SOLDIERS-INDIANA — A 22-year-old Indiana man was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Dutch soldier and the wounding of two others in downtown Indianapolis. SENT: 520 words, photos.
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES — California firefighters worked in extreme conditions Thursday as they battled wildfires in rural areas north of Los Angeles and east of San Diego amid a blistering heat wave that is predicted to last through Labor Day. SENT: 480 words, photos.
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INTERNATIONAL
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CHINA-XINJIANG REPORT — China has denounced a long-delayed U.N. report that was released over its protest and that says the government’s arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the western region of Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity. SENT: 1,215 words, photos. WITH: CHINA-UN-XINJIANG-EXPLAINER — Why is China so angry over U.N. report on Xinjiang? SENT: 945 words, photos; CHINA-UN-XINJIANG-SURVIVORS — Camp survivors welcome acknowledgement of abuses they say they faced at the hands of the Chinese state. SENT: 1,110 words, photos.
GORBACHEV-HISTORY’S-BOOKENDS-ANALYSIS — One stood for freedom, openness, peace and closer ties with the outside world. The other is jailing critics, muzzling journalists, pushing his country deeper into isolation and waging Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II. Such are history’s bookends between Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s last leader, and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president. SENT: 1,190 words, photos.
RUSSIA-PUTIN-GORBACHEV — Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev but will not attend the late former Soviet leader’s funeral, a decision reflecting the Kremlin’s ambivalence about Gorbachev’s legacy. SENT: 685 words, photo. WITH: GERMANY-GORBACHEV — Gorbachev remembered fondly in Germany for enabling unity. SENT: 750 words, photos.
PAKISTAN-FLOODS — Pakistani health officials reported an outbreak of waterborne diseases in areas hit by recent record-breaking flooding, as authorities stepped up efforts to ensure the provision of clean drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people who lost their homes in the disaster. SENT: 750 words, photos.
VATICAN-THE-FORGOTTEN-POPE — Admirers of Pope John Paul I are using his approaching beatification to focus on the accomplishments of the pontiff instead of the intrigue surrounding his mysterious death at age 65. SENT: 1,030 words, photos.
SOUTH KOREA-DEFENSE — China and Russia’s reluctance to toughen U.N. sanctions on North Korea is “the biggest challenge” facing efforts to eliminate the North’s nuclear arsenal, a top South Korean official said, as the North remains ready to conduct its first nuclear test in five years. SENT: 980 words, photos.
POLAND-GERMANY-WWII — Poland’s top politician said that the government will seek equivalent of some $1.3 trillion in reparations from Germany for the Nazis’ World War II invasion and occupation of his country. SENT: 705 words, photos.
MEXICO-NATIONAL-GUARD — Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has proposed legislation that would transfer the country’s nominally civilian National Guard to total military authority, completing a dramatic shift for a politician who earlier in his career called for soldiers to return to the barracks. SENT: 665 words, photos.
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HEALTH & SCIENCE
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VIRUS OUTBREAK-SELLING THE BOOSTER — The Biden administration hopes to make getting a COVID-19 booster as routine as going in for the yearly flu shot. That’s at the heart of its campaign to sell the newly authorized shot to a public that has widely rejected COVID-19 boosters since they first became available last fall. SENT: 750 words, photo.
ZIMBABWE WILDLIFE CLIMATE — Zimbabwe has begun moving more than 2,500 wild animals from a southern reserve to one in the country’s north to rescue them from drought, as the ravages of climate change replace poaching as the biggest threat to wildlife. SENT: 680 words, photos.
CLIMATE-HAWAII-HALTING COAL — The last bits of ash and greenhouse gases from Hawaii’s only remaining coal-fired power plant slipped into the environment this week when the state’s dirtiest source of electricity burned its final pieces of fuel. But because renewable sources that are meant to replace coal are not yet ready, the state will turn to oil — another dirty source that will increase the cost to consumers. SENT: 1,120 words, photos, video, photos.
CLIMATE-CHANGE-CARBON-PRICING — Each ton of carbon dioxide that exits a smokestack or tailpipe is doing far more damage than what governments take into account, researchers conclude. SENT: 1,125 words, photos.
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BUSINESS/ECONOMY
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ECONOMY-JOBS-REPORT — High inflation has so scrambled the economy that it’s come to this: If Friday’s jobs report for August were to show a significant slowdown in hiring, the Federal Reserve and the White House would welcome it. The government is expected to report that employers added 300,000 jobs last month – down sharply from a blockbuster gain of 528,000 in July and from an average of about 440,000 over the past three months. Weaker hiring and wage growth would lift hopes that inflation pressures are starting to ease, helping the Fed achieve its goal of conquering high inflation. By Christopher Rugaber. SENT: 1,025 words, photos.
FINANCIAL MARKETS — A late burst of buying erased some of the stock market’s losses Thursday, leaving indexes mixed on Wall Street though still on pace to end lower for the week. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% after having been down 1.3% earlier in the day. The benchmark index’s positive turn in the last 10 minutes of trading ended a four-day losing streak. SENT: 780 words, photos.
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS — Fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market continues to shine despite weakening elements of the U.S. economy. Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Aug. 27 fell by 5,000 to 232,000, the Labor Department reported. SENT: 505 words, photos.
MICROSOFT-ACTIVISION BLIZZARD — Microsoft’s plan to buy video game giant Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion could have major effects on the gaming industry, transforming the Xbox maker into something like a Netflix for video games by giving it control of many more popular titles. SENT: 945 words, photo.
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ENTERTAINMENT
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TV-GROWNISH-AMELIE ZILBER — With millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok, Amelie Zilber is used to sharing her life with the public. That changed last spring when she had to hold back a big secret for months — she had landed her first acting job as a new character on Freeform’s “grown-ish.” SENT: 700 words, photos.
VENICE FILM FESTIVAL-TAR — Todd Field didn’t write “TÁR” with Cate Blanchett in mind. He wrote it for Cate Blanchett only. If she didn’t want to do it, it wouldn’t exist. The film, which had its world premiere Thursday night in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, looks at an extraordinary artist at the peak of her career. SENT: 714 words, photos.
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SPORTS
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TEN--US OPEN-WILLIAMS SISTERS DOUBLES — Serena Williams returns to Arthur Ashe Stadium under the lights, except this time she’s got her Big Sis alonside her. After two victories in singles, Williams pairs up with her older sibling, Venus, for the first round of doubles, their first match as a team since 2018. Play scheduled to start about 7 p.m. UPCOMING: 600 words, photos.
TEN—US-OPEN — Iga Swiatek is winning easily — and quietly. At this U.S. Open, even the world’s No. 1 player is a distant No. 2 as long as Serena Williams is still around. The two-time French Open champion easily beat 2017 U.S. Open winner Sloane Stephens 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday in the second round for her WTA Tour-leading 50th victory this season. SENT: 470 words. Developing.
US OPEN-UKRAINE-NO HANDSHAKE — A Ukrainian player declined to shake hands with Victoria Azarenka after the three-time U.S. Open runner-up from Belarus beat her at Flushing Meadows on Thursday. SENT: 600 words, photos.
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HOW TO REACH US
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