AP News Digest 4 a.m.

Via AP news wire
Tuesday 03 November 2020 09:09 GMT
APTOPIX Election 2020-Dixville Notch
APTOPIX Election 2020-Dixville Notch

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 2020 — After a campaign marked by rancor and fear, Americans decide between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden selecting a leader to steer a nation battered by a surging pandemic that has killed more than 230,000 people, cost millions their jobs and reshaped daily life. By Jonathan Lemire, Zeke Miller and Alexandra Jaffe. SENT: 1,340 words, photos UPCOMING: Updates throughout the day. With ELECTION 2020-WHAT TO WATCH — Election Day is finally here — even though 100 million people have already cast ballots. SENT: 1,160 words, photo.

ELECTION-2020-VOTING — The scourge of a global pandemic produced an election season like no other in the U.S., persuading record numbers of Americans to cast their ballots early, forcing states to make changes to long-established election procedures and leading to hundreds of lawsuits over how votes will be cast and which ballots will be counted. Polls were to open as election officials warned that millions of absentee ballots could slow the tallies in some key battleground states and as Trump threatened legal action to prevent ballots from being counted after Election Day. By Christina A. Cassidy and Anthony Izaguirre. SENT: 980 words, photos.

ELECTION 2020-LEGAL CHALLENGES — Trump says he’s planning an aggressive legal strategy to try prevent Pennsylvania from counting mailed ballots that are received in the three days after the election. Both parties have enlisted legal teams to prepare for the possibility that voting won’t settle the contest. By Mark Sherman. SENT: 970 words, photos.

ELECTION 2020-TRUMP ARMY — Trump’s campaign is poised to deploy an “army” of volunteers and paid staff to watch elections precincts in Democratic-leaning areas with the aim of gathering accounts of ballot fraud that might then be used to challenge the validity of the vote count in key swing states. By Michael Biesecker and Garance Burke. SENT: 1,560 words, photos.

Find more coverage on the 2020 U.S. Elections featured topic page in AP Newsroom.

AUSTRIA-POLICE-OPERATION — AUSTRIA-POLICE-OPERATION — Austria’s top security official says that five people have died — including one assailant — and 15 people were wounded in a shooting in the heart of Vienna hours before a coronavirus lockdown was to start. By Philipp Jenne and Frank Jordans. SENT: 480 words, photos.

AFGHANISTAN — Afghans are mourning the 22 mostly students killed in a horrific attack a day earlier on Kabul University, an attack claimed by the Islamic State. By Tameem Akhgar and Kathy Gannon. SENT: 450 words, photos.

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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

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ELECTION 2020-DIXVILLE NOTCH — Two tiny New Hampshire communities that vote for president just after the stroke of midnight on Election Day have cast their ballots, with one of them marking 60 years since the tradition began. The results in Dixville Notch, near the Canadian border, were a sweep for Biden who won the town’s five votes. In Millsfield, 12 miles (20 kilometers) to the south, Trump won 16 votes to Biden’s five. SENT: 320 words.

ELECTION 2020-PENNSYLVANIA VOTES-MISINFORMATION — Conservative commentator Wendy Bell is falsely claiming that the administration of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is attempting to “silence voters” by ordering people who were potentially exposed to the coronavirus to stay home on Election Day. SENT: 480 words.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-MICHIGAN — Meals at Michigan restaurants came with a new side dish: What’s your name and phone number? SENT: 320 words.

WALMART-ROBOTS —Walmart is laying off the robots it had deployed in about 500 stores to keep tabs on what’s on and not on the shelves. SENT: 160 words.

RESTAURANTS-BANKRUPTCIES — The coronavirus pandemic has dealt the final blow to many restaurant chains, the latest being Friendly’s, which were already struggling with growth in third-party delivery and consumers’ migration away from shopping malls. SENT: 450 words, photo.

FREEWAY SHOOTINGS-METRO PHOENIX — A landscaper once charged in metro Phoenix’s 2015 freeway shootings took the witness stand in a civil trial in which he alleges he was wrongfully arrested. SENT: 750 words, photo.

ELECTION 2020-BIDEN MASK-MISINFORMATION — Trump’s supporters seize on a photo circulating on Twitter that shows Biden not wearing a mask while he talks to a campaign staffer, although the photo was taken in November 2019. By Amanda Seitz. SENT: 420 words.

ELECTION-2020-THE-DAY-IN-PHOTOS — Election Day is Nov. 3, but the nation has been teeming with voting activity for weeks as the 2020 campaign barrels down the home stretch.

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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK

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VIRUS OUTBREAK-IMMIGRATION ORDER — Democratic lawmakers call on the Trump administration to stop the expulsion of unaccompanied children and other asylum seekers at the U.S. border using emergency powers granted during the coronavirus pandemic. By Garance Burke and Jason Dearen. SENT: 520 words, photo.

VIRUS-OUTBREAK-ASIA — India’s capital is seeing its worst wave of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic, even as the nation’s overall cases fall. SENT: 260 words, photo.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-NAVAJO NATION —Lawmakers on the Navajo Nation has approved legislation to reopen the tribe’s four casinos, even as the tribe’s health director warned that the coronavirus is spreading uncontrollably. SENT: 620 words.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-ALASKA — The leaders of the Alaska House and Senate say they do not have the votes to call the Legislature into special session to extend a disaster declaration for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and asked Gov. Mike Dunleavy for his help. SENT: 580 words.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-SURGEON GENERAL CITED — A lawyer for U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams pleaded not guilty on behalf of the official who was cited by Honolulu police for being in a closed park during a trip to help Hawaii cope with a spike in coronavirus cases. SENT: 340 words.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-CALIFORNIA-EMERGENCY RULES — A judge has preliminarily ordered California Gov. Gavin Newsom to stop issuing directives related to the coronavirus that might interfere with state law. SENT: 510 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-CHURCH LAWSUIT — A California judge has ordered a San Jose church to stop holding weekly indoor services for hundreds of people. SENT: 300 words.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-NEW YORK — Just under 50,000 New Yorkers tested positive for COVID-19 in October, roughly double the number who got the virus in September. SENT: 230 words.

HONG KONG-CHINA — Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam will travel to Beijing to meet with Chinese officials to seek help in reviving Hong Kong’s economy and discuss reopening the borders with mainland China as coronavirus infections in her city dwindle. SENT: 350 words.

Find more coverage on the Virus Outbreak on the featured topic page in AP Newsroom.

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WASHINGTON/POLITICS

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ELECTION 2020-SENATE — Control of the Senate is at stake. Republicans are fighting to retain their majority against a surge of Democratic challengers across a vast political map — New England, the Deep South, the Midwest, the Mountain West — in states once considered longshots for Democrats. By Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro. UPCOMING: 1,090 words, photos by 6 a.m., updates throughout the day.

ELECTION 2020-NEVADA LAWSUIT — Trump’s re-election campaign and Nevada Republicans filed notice that they’ll ask the state Supreme Court to stop the count of mail-in ballots in Clark County, the state’s most populous and Democratic-leaning county, including Las Vegas. SENT: 650 words, photos.

ELECTION 2020-TEXAS — A federal judge has rejected a last-ditch Republican effort to invalidate nearly 127,000 votes in Houston. SENT: 880 words, photos.

ELECTION 2020-SENATE-ALASKA — The major candidates in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race are making their last push for votes ahead of Tuesday’s election, with the campaigns calling Alaskans and knocking on doors and the candidates doing last-minute rallies and stops. SENT: 800 words, photos.

ELECTION 2020-NEW MEXICO — New Mexico election officials are bracing for a final day of in-person voting and absentee-ballot deliveries as Democratic candidates seek to extend their domination in federal elections and Republicans try to reclaim a footing in Congress and reelect the president. SENT: 780 words, photo.

ELECTION 2020-SENATE-ALABAMA — U.S. Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama has made a flurry of campaign stops as the Deep South Democrat tries to avoid being swept away by Republican Tommy Tuberville and a red wave on Election Day. SENT: 610 words, photos.

ELECTION 2020-ARIZONA — Republican Sen. Martha McSally and other GOP candidates barnstormed Arizona as they worked to get out their voters with their traditional election eve rallies. SENT: 960 words, photos.

ELECTION-2020-SENATE-IOWA — Six years after Iowa voters overwhelmingly elected Joni Ernst to the U.S. Senate, the Republican is in a tight contest with Democrat Theresa Greenfield in one of the nation’s most expensive races. SENT: 480 words, photos.

A separate wire advisory has moved outlining our complete Election 2020 coverage.

Find more coverage on the 2020 U.S. Elections featured topic page in AP Newsroom.

SUPREME COURT-JUVENILE LIFE IN PRISON — The Supreme Court hears arguments in a case that could put the brakes on what has been a gradual move toward more leniency for children who are convicted of murder. SENT: 470 words, photos. UPCOMING: 650 words after 10 a.m. arguments.

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INTERNATIONAL

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TURKEY-EARTHQUAKE — Turkish rescuers in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir have pulled a young girl out alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building four days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece. SENT: 300 words, photos.

IVORY-COAST-ELECTIONS — Ivory Coast’s electoral commission says President Alassane Ouattara has overwhelmingly won a third term in office after his two main opponents boycotted the election. SENT: 240 words, photos.

UNITED-NATIONS-THINK-TANK-EPSTEIN — Former Norwegian diplomat and politician Terje Rød Larsen, an architect of the Oslo peace accords, has resigned as president and CEO of the International Peace Institute. He apologized for his “failed judgment” in securing donations from foundations related to financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors. SENT: 500 words.

MYANMAR-FIREBRAND-MONK — A nationalist Buddhist monk in Myanmar noted for his inflammatory rhetoric has surrendered to police, who have been seeking his arrest for over a year for insulting comments he made about the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. SENT: 430 words, photos.

PERU-PRESIDENT-IMPEACHMENT — For the second time in less than two months, opposition members in Peru’s congress have persuaded legislators to adopt a motion that will require President Martin Vizcarra to face an impeachment vote. SENT: 300 words, photo.

TROPICAL WEATHER — Hurricane Eta has erupted quickly into a potentially catastrophic major hurricane as it heads for Central America, and forecasters are warning of massive flooding and landslides across a vulnerable region. SENT: 930 words, photos.

UNITED NATIONS-INTERNATIONAL COURT — More than 70 nations are voicing strong opposition to what they consider threats to the International Criminal Court and decrying sanctions on its top officials. SENT: 940 words.

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NATIONAL

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IMMIGRATION-PUBLIC BENEFITS-LAWSUIT — A federal judge in Chicago has struck down a Trump administration rule that would deny green cards to immigrants who use food stamps or other public benefits. SENT: 660 words, photo.

BLACK-CHURCH-FIRES — A Louisiana man who admitted to burning down three predominantly African American churches has been sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay the churches $2.6 million. SENT: 500 words, photo.

STUN GUN DEATH — Georgia’s highest court has found that a lower court was wrong to grant immunity from prosecution to three sheriff’s deputies facing murder charges arising from a man’s stun gun death. SENT: 730 words.

INDUSTRIAL-ACCIDENT-DEADLY-FALL — Two men have died in Delaware after a strong wind tipped over a lift that was holding them about 120 feet in the air. SENT: 90 words.

LSU-HAZING INVESTIGATION — Louisiana State University says a fraternity member has been arrested on charges including hazing in connection with an incident that news outlets reported had hospitalized a student. SENT: 290 words.

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BUSINESS

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FINANCIAL-MARKETS — Asian stock markets have followed Wall Street higher as investors await U.S. election results. SENT: 590 words, photos.

AUSTRALIA-ECONOMY — Australia’s central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.15 of a percentage point to a record low 0.10% in a bid to lift the economy from a pandemic-induced recession. SENT: 670 words, photo.

CHINA-ANT-GROUP-IPO — Chinese regulators have summoned Ant Group founder Jack Ma and two other senior executives to a formal meeting just days before the company’s shares are due to begin trading in Shanghai and Hong Kong. SENT: 390 words, photos.

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ENTERTAINMENT

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CAROL-ARTHUR-DELUISE -- Carol Arthur DeLuise, an actor who appeared in several Mel Brooks films and was the widow of Dom DeLuise, has died. SENT: 180 words.

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HOW TO REACH US

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At the Nerve Center, Kim Tong-hyung can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, Wally Santana can be reached at (ext. 1900). For graphics and interactives, (ext. 7636). Expanded AP content can be obtained from http://newsroom.ap.org. For access to AP Newsroom and other technical issues, contact apcustomersupport(at)ap.org or call 877-836-9477.

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