AP News Digest 5:30 a.m.

APTOPIX Iran Elections (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

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.

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TOP STORIES

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VIRUS OUTBREAK — The official COVID-19 death toll in Brazil is about to hit 500,000, the second-highest in the world. At the same time, science is on trial inside the country and the truth is up for grabs. Brazil’s Senate is publicly investigating how the toll got so high, focusing on why President Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right government ignored opportunities to buy vaccines for months while it relentlessly pushed hydroxychloroquine. By David Biller and Debora Álvares. SENT: 1,000 words.

CAPITOL BREACH-VIDEOS — Videos released under court order provide a chilling new look at the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, including body camera footage that shows a man charging at a police officer with a flagpole and tackling him to the ground. By Alanna Durkin Richer. SENT: 1,120 words, photos, videos.

TROPICAL WEATHER — Tropical Storm Claudette has formed Saturday morning along the U.S. Gulf Coast, bringing heavy rains and flooding to coastal states including Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said in a 4 a.m. advisory that the storm was located 45 miles southwest of New Orleans with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. SENT: 890 words, photos, video.

IRAN-ELECTIONS — Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief has won the country’s presidential election in a landslide victory. Initial results released Saturday propelled Ebrahim Raisi, a protege of the country’s supreme leader, into Tehran’s highest civilian position. The vote appeared to see the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. Raisi won 17.8 million votes in the contest, dwarfing those of the race’s sole moderate candidate. By Jon Gambrell. SENT: 910 words, photos.

WESTERN HEAT WAVE-PUBLIC HEALTH — The record-breaking temperatures across the Western U.S. this week are a weather emergency, scientists and health care experts say, with heat responsible for more deaths in the nation than all other natural disasters combined. With more frequent and intense heat waves likely because of climate change and the worst drought in modern history, they say communities must better protect the poor and vulnerable.

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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

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OJ SIMPSON LAWSUIT-SETTLEMENT — O.J. Simpson’s lawyer says he will keep fighting recent court orders in Nevada that the former football star owes least $60 million in judgments stemming from the 1994 killings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman. SENT: 550 words, photo.

CONFEDERATE MONUMENT-LAWSUIT — A federal judge has denied a request to move the trial in a lawsuit filed against organizers of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally out of Charlottesville. SENT: 260 words, photo.

OREGON KILLINGS — Police are searching for a suspect believed to have killed three people in wave of violence that included a hit-and-run crash and a shooting at a pot shop in a small Oregon city. SENT: 310 words, photo.

PENCE HECKLED — Some attendees at a conference in Florida for conservative activists heckled former Vice President Mike Pence during a speech. SENT: 140 words, photo.

SMALL PLANE CRASH — Authorities say two people are dead after a small plane crashed into a river on the state line between Florida and Georgia. SENT: 130 words.

OBIT-MILHKA SINGH — Milkha Singh, one of India’s first sport superstars and ace sprinter who overcame a childhood tragedy to become the country’s most celebrated athlete, has died. He was 91. His family says Singh died late Friday of complications from COVID-19. SENT: 340 words, photos.

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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK

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INDIA-VIRUS OUTBREAK — India’s coronavirus surge that left 180,000 dead over two months has devastated its universities, with the loss of professors leaving many students feeling anxious without their knowledge, guidance and often, friendship. At AMU, one of India’s top universities that has produced generations of politicians, jurists and scholars, more than 50 professors and other staff have died during the pandemic. SENT: 1.040 words, photos,

VIRUS OUTBREAK-EVICTION MORATORIUM — A Kansas judge is beginning to evict tenants who are behind on rent in advance of a federal moratorium expiring at the end of the month. SENT: 820 words, photos.

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WASHINGTON/POLITICS

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VOTING LAWS-VOTERS — Democrats and Republicans are fighting furiously over an issue that rarely sways elections — the mechanics of voting. But in Texas, one of the epicenters of the voting fight, actual voters have other pressing issues on their minds. By Nicholas Riccardi. SENT: 1,370 words, photos.

CYBERSECURITY-RANSOMWARE-TAXES — As ransomware attacks surge, the FBI is doubling down on its guidance to affected businesses: Don’t pay the cybercriminals. But the U.S. government also offers a little-noticed incentive for those who do pay: The ransoms may be tax deductible. By Alan Suderman and Marcy Gordon. SENT: 890 words, photo.

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NATIONAL

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JUNETEENTH-STATES — Congress and President Joe Biden acted with unusual swiftness this week in approving Juneteenth as a national holiday. That sent many states scrambling to clarify their policies on the celebration of slavery’s end. States have been slow to move beyond proclamations by governors or resolutions passed by lawmakers to formally recognize the date as a paid holiday. SENT: 620 words, photos. WITH: JUNETEENTH-COMPANIES — The declaration of Juneteenth as a federal holiday is putting the pressure on more U.S. companies to give their employees the day off, accelerating a movement that took off last year in response to the racial justice protests that swept the country. SENT: 1,040 words, photos.

ASIAN AMERICAN ASSAULT-CALIFORNIA — A man arrested after he allegedly stabbed a 94-year-old Asian American woman in San Francisco in an unprovoked attack has been charged with attempted murder SENT: 310 words.

MAYORS-REPARATIONS — A group of 11 U.S. mayors has pledged to pay reparations for slavery to a small group of Black residents in their cities. SENT: 730 words, photos.

HAWAII-FATAL POLICE SHOOTING — Civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is condemning the Honolulu Police Department in the fatal shooting of a Black man as various versions of what led to his death emerge. SENT: 560 words, photos.

CDC-FLORIDA CRUISES — A federal judge has ruled for Florida in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order making it difficult for cruise ships to sail due to the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday wrote in a 124-page decision Friday that Florida would be harmed if the CDC order effectively blocking most cruises were to continue. SENT: 570 words, photos.

OBIT-CONSWELLA AFRICA — A longtime member of the Black organization MOVE and the mother of two children killed in the 1985 bombing of the group’s home in Philadelphia has died at 67. Consuewella Dotson Africa died Wednesday. SENT: 570 words, photo..

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INTERNATIONAL

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MYANMAR — At least two explosions have rocked a neighborhood in Myanmar’s biggest city, killing two people, destroying a military truck and damaging a taxi in what appeared to be a serious escalation of violence between the country’s military rulers and their pro-democracy opponents. SENT: 410 words.

ARMENIA ELECTION — Armenians head to polls Sunday for an early parliamentary election stemming from a political crisis that has engulfed the country in the aftermath of the last year’s fighting with Azerbaijan over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. SENT: 940 words, photos.

NORTH KOREA — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has solemnly sworn to navigate his country out of deepening economic troubles as he concluded a major ruling party meeting, acknowledging food shortages and urging officials to prepare for both dialogue and confrontation with the U.S. SENT: 430 words, photos.

HONG KONG-APPLE DAILY — A Hong Kong court has ordered the top editor of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and the head of its parent company held without bail in the first hearing since their arrest under the city’s national security law. SENT: 580 words, photos.

FRANCE-PARTY VIOLENCE — A 22-year-old man lost his hand and several others were also injured amid violence as police tried to break up an unauthorized rave party in western France. SENT: 260 words, photos.

POLAND-LGBT PARADE — Warsaw is set to hold the largest gay pride parade in the region after a pandemic-induced break — and amid a backlash in Poland and Hungary against LGBT rights. The Equality Parade on Saturday marks 20 years since the event was first held in the Polish capital. SENT: 530 words.

HONG KONG-APPLE DAILY — A Hong Kong court has ordered the top editor of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and the head of its parent company held without bail in the first hearing since their arrest under the city’s national security law. SENT: 580 words, photos.

FRANCE POLICE-PHOTO GALLERY — On patrol with police in Paris’ tough suburbs. SENT: 680 words, photos.

LEBANON-EU — The European Union’s foreign policy chief has berated Lebanese politicians for delays in forming a new Cabinet, warning the union could impose sanctions on those behind the political stalemate in the crisis-hit country. SENT: 450 words.

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BUSINESS

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HUAWEI-FCC LAWSUIT — A federal appeals court has refused to hear Chinese tech giant Huawei’s request to throw out a rule used to bar rural phone carriers on national security grounds from using government funds to purchase its equipment. SENT: 330 words, photo.

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SPORTS

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RATINGS RECORD — A record-setting Women’s College World Series last week capped off a dynamic year of increased visibility for NCAA Division I women’s sports. Television viewership was up significantly compared to 2019 in the four most popular sports: basketball, softball, gymnastics and volleyball. SENT: 890 words, photos.

NCAA COMPENSATING ATHLETES — NCAA President Mark Emmert says he will seek temporary rules as early as July to ensure all athletes can be compensated for their celebrity. SENT: 780 words, photos.

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HOW TO REACH US

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