AP News Digest 3:40 a.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 at https://newsroom.ap.org.

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TOP STORIES

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ELECTION 2024-ARIZONA — The decision by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to leave the Democratic Party raises the prospect of a tumultuous — and expensive — three-way Senate race in one of the most politically competitive states in the U.S. The 2024 environment is already shaping up to be extremely challenging for Democrats. By Jonathan J. Cooper. SENT: 1,240 words, photos.

ELECTION 2022-VOTECAST-CLIMATE — The impacts of climate change hit communities across the country, yet voters in rural areas are the least likely to feel Washington is in their corner on the issue. AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of the 2022 midterm electorate, shows clear differences between urban and rural communities in voter sentiment on President Joe Biden’s handling of climate. By Nuha Dolby. SENT: 1,050 words, photo.

GRINER RELEASE-NEGOTIATIONS DILEMMA — A Taliban drug lord convicted in a vast heroin trafficking conspiracy. A Russian pilot imprisoned for a scheme to distribute cocaine across the world. And a Russian arms dealer so infamous that he once earned the nickname “Merchant of Death.” Those are just some of the convicted felons the United States government agreed to release over the last year in exchange for securing the release of Americans detained abroad. By Rebecca Santana and Eric Tucker. SENT: 1,150 words, photos.

COLORADO-SPRINGS SHOOTING — A California woman who warned a judge last year about the danger posed by the suspect in the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting say that the deaths could have been prevented if earlier charges against the suspect weren’t dismissed. By Brian Melley, Colleen Slevin and Bernard Condon. SENT: 1,100 words, photos.

ITALY-AFGHAN-PROFESSOR — Batool Haidari was a prominent professor of sexology at a university in Kabul before last year’s Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. She used to lecture mixed classes of male and female students and helped patients struggling with their gender identity. Her husband owned a carpet factory and together they did their best to provide a good education for their 18-year-old son and two daughters aged 13 and eight. That comfortable life came to an abrupt halt on Aug. 15, 2021, when the ultra-religious Taliban swept back into power. Now in Italy, Haidar is among thousands of Afghan women seeking to maintain an active social role in the countries that have taken them in. By Paolo Santalucia. SENT: 720 words, photos.

SOC-OBIT-WAHL — Grant Wahl, one of the most well-known soccer writers in the United States, died while covering the World Cup match between Argentina and the Netherlands. He was 48. U.S. media seated near him said Wahl fell back in his seat in a section of Lusail Iconic Stadium reserved for journalists during extra time of the game, and reporters adjacent to him called for assistance. Emergency services workers responded very quickly, the reporters said, and the reporters later were told that Wahl had died. SENT: 810 words, photos.

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WORLD CUP

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WCUP-PHOTO-GALLERY — Highlights from the 18th day of the World Cup in Qatar on Friday. SENT: 20 words, photos.

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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR

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DENMARK-UKRAINE-YOUTH CHOIR — From a dank Kyiv bomb shelter to the bright stage lights of Europe’s theaters, a Ukrainian youth choir’s hymns in praise of freedom offer a kind of healing balm to its war-scarred members. The Shchedryk ensemble, described as Kyiv’s oldest professional children’s choir, were in the Danish capital this week for a performance as part of an international tour that also took them to New York’s famed Carnegie Hall. SENT: 720 words, photos.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR — NATO;s head expressed worry that fighting in Ukraine could spin out of control and become a war between Russia and NATO, according to an interview. “If things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. SENT: 680 words, photos.

RUSSIA-PUTIN-NUCLEAR — Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Moscow might think about adopting what he described as a U.S. concept of a preemptive military strike. SENT: 620 words, photo.

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TRENDING

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SHIPWRECK-PRICEY-PANTS — Pulled from a sunken trunk at an 1857 shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina, work pants that auction officials describe as the oldest known pair of jeans in the world have sold for $114,000. SENT: 950 words, photos.

GEORGE-FLOYD-SQUARE — The city of Minneapolis has decided to buy the boarded-up Speedway gas station at the intersection where George Floyd was killed by police and turn it into a racial justice healing center and permanent memorial for the Black man. SENT: 300 words, photos.

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WASHINGTON/ POLITICS

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CAPITOL RIOT-SENTENCINGS — A Tennessee man who authorities say came to Washington ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in a car full of weapons and assaulted officers who were trying to defend the Capitol has been sentenced to more than five years behind bars. SENT: 680 words, photo.

ELECTION-2022-ARIZONA — Kari Lake, the Republican defeated in Arizona governor’s race, is formally challenging her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, asking a court to throw out certified election results from the state’s most populous county and either declare her the winner or rerun the governor’s election in that county. SENT: 600 words, photo.

TRUMP-FBI — Lawyers for Donald Trump go to federal court in Washington for sealed arguments as part of the ongoing investigation into the presence of classified information at the former president’s Florida estate. SENT: 460 words, photos.

CONGRESS-FROST — Rep.-elect Maxwell Frost of Florida, the first member of Generation Z elected to Congress, says he is struggling to get a Washington apartment because his credit is “really bad.” SENT: 340 words, photos.

SUPREME COURT-IMMIGRATION-FREE SPEECH — The Supreme Court agrees to hear a case involving a scam that falsely promoted adult adoptions as a path to U.S. citizenship. SENT: 270 words, photo.

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NATIONAL

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SOUTH CAROLINA-MOTHER AND SON KILLED — A judge will determine whether evidence of disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes are admissible in an upcoming double-murder trial that has drawn worldwide attention for its bizarre twists. SENT: 900 words, photos.

KENTUCKY-TORNADOES — Chris Bullock has a lot to be grateful for as she decorates her new home for Christmas. One year ago Saturday, a massive tornado obliterated wide swaths of her Kentucky hometown of Dawson Springs. It left her homeless after a terrifying night of death and destruction. Things look much different now. In August, Bullock and her family moved into their new home. It sits on the same site where their home of 26 years was wiped out. The holiday season tragedy killed 81 people across Kentucky and turned buildings into rubble. SENT: 790 words, photos.

NEVADA-PRISON-HUNGER-STRIKE — Through stifled sobs, Nina Fernandez described a vastly different version of events than those shared by Nevada prison officials as to why her son and dozens of others have been on hunger strike at a maximum-security prison for more than a week. SENT: 670 words, photos.

OREGON-DEMOLISHED BLACK NEIGHBORHOOD — A lawsuit says racism motivated Oregon’s largest city to destroy Black residents’ homes and force them out of their neighborhood decades ago. The lawsuit filed Thursday by 26 Black people with ties to the neighborhood targets Portland, the city’s economic and urban development agency and a hospital. The case is another example of urban improvement projects or construction of the nation’s highways often coming at the cost of neighborhoods that aren’t predominantly white. SENT: 650 words, photo.

OBIT-JOSEPH KITTINGER — Retired Air Force Col. Joseph Kittinger, whose 1960 parachute jump from almost 20 miles above the Earth stood as a world record for more than 50 years, died Friday in Florida. He was 94. SENT: 470 words, photos.

SEXUAL-MISCONDUCT-HARVEY WEINSTEIN — Jurors at the Los Angeles rape and sexual misconduct trial of Harvey Weinstein have been deliberating for a week without reaching a verdict. SENT: 280 words, photo.

SIERRA-STORM — Another winter storm packing heavy snow and powerful winds was moving into the northern Sierra Nevada late Friday where as much as 4 feet of snow is forecast in the upper elevations around Lake Tahoe over the weekend. SENT: 270 words.

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INTERNATIONAL

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PHILIPPINES-HUMAN-RIGHTS — Hundreds of people marched in the Philippine capital on Saturday protesting what they said was a rising number of extrajudicial killings and other injustices under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. SENT: 540 words, photos.

HONG-KONG-PRODEMOCRACY-PUBLISHER — Batool Haidari was a prominent professor of sexology at a university in Kabul before last year’s Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. She used to lecture mixed classes of male and female students and helped patients struggling with their gender identity. Her husband owned a carpet factory and together they did their best to provide a good education for their 18-year-old son and two daughters aged 13 and eight. That comfortable life came to an abrupt halt on Aug. 15, 2021, when the ultra-religious Taliban swept back into power. Now in Italy, Haidar is among thousands of Afghan women seeking to maintain an active social role in the countries that have taken them in. SENT: 420 words, photo.

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ENTERTAINMENT

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YE-TOP 10 FILMS — Associated Press’ film writers offer their lists of the top 10 films of 2022. By Film Writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle. SENT: 1,360 words, photos.

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SPORTS

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BKN--BUCKS-MAVERICKS — Brook Lopez hit a wide-open layup off an inbounds play with seven seconds to go, and the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-105. The Bucks held on despite Giannis Antetokounmpo fouling out with 2:55 remaining. The Greek Freak finished with 28 points to end an eight-game run with at least 30 points. Luka Doncic had 33 points and 11 assists and put Dallas ahead on a layup with 29 seconds to go. But the Mavericks couldn’t make their free throws late. The Bucks won their fourth consecutive game while ending Dallas’ three-game winning streak. By Schuyler Dixon. SENT: 625 words, photos.

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HOW TO REACH US

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