AP News Digest 7 a.m.

George Floyd Officer Trial

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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ONLY ON AP

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FEDERAL EXECUTIONS-DEATH ROW MOOD -- Inmates on federal death row tell The Associated Press that a leading topic of conversation through air ducts they use to communicate is whether President Joe Biden will keep a campaign pledge to halt federal executions. Biden’s silence on the issue has them on edge. By Legal Affairs Writer Michael Tarm. SENT: 1,210 words, photos.

CHINA CYBER ATTACK — A previously unreported cyberattack on the website of the Inter-American Development Bank is focusing attention on the role China plays in the multilateral lender. An internal IDB document reviewed by the AP claims that the September 2019 attack coincided with a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the bank and originated in more than 15,000 internet addresses throughout China. By Joshua Goodman. SENT: 1,710 words, photos. This story has an abridged version.

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TOP STORIES

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VIRUS OUTBREAK-ASTRAZENECA — AstraZeneca says its COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection against sickness and eliminated hospitalizations and deaths from the disease across all age groups in a late-stage study in the United States. AstraZeneca said Monday that its experts did not identify any safety concerns related to the vaccine, including finding no increased risk of rare blood clots identified in Europe By AP Medical Writers Maria Cheng and Lauran Neergaard. SENT: 880 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK - Despite the clamor to speed up the U.S. vaccination drive against COVID-19 and get the country back to normal, the first three months of the rollout suggest faster is not necessarily better. A surprising new analysis found that states such as South Carolina, Florida and Missouri that raced ahead of others to offer the vaccine to ever-larger groups of people have vaccinated smaller shares of their population than those that moved more slowly and methodically, such as Hawaii and Connecticut. By Carla K. Johnson and Nicky Forster. SENT: 1,140 words, photos. With VIRUS OUTBREAK-THE-LATEST (sent).

MASSAGE BUSINESS SHOOTINGS-SUPPORT — Many people are contributing to GoFundMe pages for victims of the deadly Atlanta-area shootings. Randy Park launched a page asking for $20,000 to help pay funeral expenses for his mother, who was killed in the attacks. By Sunday, the donations were approaching $3 million. SENT: 620 words, photos.

ISRAEL-ELECTION — Israelis vote Tuesday in their fourth parliamentary election in just two years. Once again, the race boils down to a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Netanyahu, who has served as prime minister for the past 12 years, hopes voters will reward him for leading the country’s successful coronavirus vaccine rollout and his diplomatic outreach to the Arab world. By Josef Fedrman. SENT: 1,150 words, photos. WITH: ISRAEL ELECTION-EXPLAINER (sent).

MYANMAR-KAREN ATTACKS — In the jungles of southeast Myanmar, the army was shooting and otherwise oppressing civilians long before last month’s military coup. This largely unseen repression continues even now. An army offensive has driven as many as 8,000 ethnic Karen people to flee their homes in what aid groups say is the worst upheaval there for nearly 10 years. By Jerry Harmer. SENT: 870 words, photos. With MYANMAR-AUSTRALIA — A friend of an Australian couple working as agriculture development consultants in Myanmar says they are being detained at their home after the woman was not allowed to leave the country. SENT: 380 words, photos. With EUROPE MYANMAR - EU set to target 11 Myanmar officials over coup, crackdown. (sent.)

GEORGE FLOYD-OFFICER TRIAL — Jury selection enters its third week Monday for a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death. Thirteen jurors have been seated for Derek Chauvin’s trial on murder and manslaughter charges, with the judge saying two more will be seated ahead of opening statements expected March 29. SENT: 560 words, photos.

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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

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AUSTRALIA FLOODS — Hundreds of people have been rescued from floodwaters that have isolated dozens of towns in Australia’s most populous state New South Wales and forced thousands to evacuate their homes as record rain continues. SENT: 420 words, photos.

BRITAIN PROTEST A protest in the west England city of Bristol against new policing legislation descended into violent clashes that left at least 20 police officers injured, two of them seriously. SENT: 400 words, photos.

TURKEY ECONOMY — The Turkish currency has plummeted against the U.S. dollar after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fired the central bank governor over the weekend for hiking interest rates. SENT: 250 words, photos.

AMERICA INSTANTLY-PHOTO ESSAY — An outsider’s eye, an instant camera and America seen anew. SENT: 350 words, photos.

JAPAN-NISSAN GHOSN-AMERICANS CHARGED — Japanese prosecutors have charged two Americans, Michael Taylor and his son Peter, in connection with the escape of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn to Lebanon. SENT: 560 words, photos.

NICKI MINAJ’S FATHER KILLED — Lawsuit filed over hit-and-run death of Nicki Minaj’s father. SENT: 250 words, photo.

GERMAN-LAWMAKER DIES — A lawmaker with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party has died after collapsing on a plane during a flight home to Germany. SENT: 140 words.

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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK

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VIRUS OUTBREAK-TAIWAN — Health care workers are receiving the first shots in Taiwan’s COVID-19 vaccination drive. But the campaign won’t use supplies from China amid uneven distribution of the vaccines globally. SENT: 380 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-GERMANY — German authorities are expected to extend lockdown measures again and possibly tighten some restrictions as they face a steady rise in new coronavirus infections. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors are holding a videoconference on Monday nearly three weeks after they agreed a several-step plan paving the way to relax some rules. SENT: 400 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-GERMANY SCHOOLS — Students, parents and teachers in Germany have been caught in the middle as authorities in the country take different and sometimes contradictory approaches to opening or closing schools in the pandemic. SENT: 790 words, photos.

SPRING BREAK-MIAMI CURFEW - Miami Beach officials are extending an emergency 8 p.m. curfew for at least another week. Sunday’s decision by city commissioners comes after days of intense partying, where unruly crowds gathered by the thousands on South Beach, fighting in the streets, destroying property and ignoring masks and other COVID orders. SENT: 540 words, photos, video.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-GREECE — Greece’s health minister is requisitioning the services of private sector doctors from certain specialties in the wider Athens region to help fight a renewed surge in coronavirus infections that is straining hospitals to their limits. SENT: 250 words, photo.

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WASHINGTON/POLITICS

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CYBERSECURITY-MICROSOFT HACK -- A tool designed to help businesses protect themselves from further compromises after a global hack of Microsoft email server software has been downloaded more than 25,000 times since it was released last week, the White House’s National Security Council said Monday. By Eric Tucker. SENT: 360 words, photos.

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NATIONAL

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REED-CONGRESS-MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS — U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, a Republican from western New York who was accused last week of rubbing a female lobbyist’s back and unhooking her bra without her consent in 2017, apologized to the woman on Sunday and announced that he will not run for reelection next year. SENT: 350 words, photos.

ALASKA-MARIJUANA — Regulators amid much fanfare last year approved two cannabis lounges in Alaska. The move made the state one of the few where customers would be allowed to use marijuana at retail pot shops. SENT: 780 words, photos.

AIRPORT-BODIES - Authorities are still investigating claims made by a man who said he killed a total of 16 people in multiple states, though a law enforcement official has confirmed that he is the primary suspect in the killing of his ex-wife and three others found in a car in New Mexico. SENT: 350 words, photos.

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INTERNATIONAL

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CHINA-DETAINED CANADIANS — A second Canadian citizen held for more than two years on spying charges in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a senior executive of telecoms giant Huawei has gone on trial at in Beijing. The trial Monday of analyst and former diplomat Michael Kovrig follows an initial hearing in the case of entrepreneur Michael Spavor on Friday in the northeastern city of Dandong. SENT: 860 words, photos.

CHINA-NYU STUDENTS DETAINED — New York University says it is seeking more information from Chinese authorities after the overnight detention of nine students from its Shanghai campus in what appeared to be police dragnet for drug suspects. SENT: 350 words.

HONG KONG-CHINA — Eight activists detained at sea as they sought to flee Hong Kong by speedboat have finished serving jail sentences in China and are expected to be handed over Monday to authorities in Hong Kong, where they may face further prosecution. SENT: 450 words, photos.

ITALY-HATE-CRIMES - A recent attack in a Rome train station on two men who were kissing has fueled calls by Italian political leaders for quick passage of a hate crimes law to protect members of the LGBTQ community, women and people with disabilities. SENT: 400 words, photos.

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ENTERTAINMENT

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FILM-WGA AWARDS — Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” was partly improvised and scripted by nine writers, but it still walked away Sunday night with one of the Writers Guild Awards’ top honors, best adapted screenplay. SENT: 400 words, photos.

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BUSINESS

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NABE-SURVEY OF ECONOMISTS — A majority of business economists think the recovering economy will benefit from much more government spending despite concerns in financial markets that the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief measure Congress recently enacted could ignite inflation. SENT: 600 words, photo.

FINANCIAL MARKETS — Asian shares are trading mixed, as sentiment was shaken by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s announcement that it will end some of the emergency measures put in place last year to help the financial industry deal with the pandemic. Japan’s benchmark fell, South Korea’s index was little changed, while Australian and Chinese shares rose Monday. SENT: 550 words, photos.

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SPORTS

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BKC—NCAA-MONDAY FUN DAY — It’s not like anyone’s going to the office anyway. The change in the March Madness schedule brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic will give basketball fans a first-of-its-kind experience -- eight games on a Monday. By National Writer Eddie Pells. SENT: 560 words, photos.

GLF--ROCKET MORTGAGE DIVERSITY — The Rocket Mortgage Classic emphasized diversity and inclusion when it became part of the PGA Tour schedule two years ago. That turned out to be just the start. Next up for Detroit’s PGA Tour stop is a four-day event called “The John Shippen.” The idea is to create opportunities for Blacks. By Golf Writer Doug Ferguson. SENT: 730 words, photos.

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HOW TO REACH US

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