AP News Digest 3:50 am

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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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AFGHANISTAN-TALIBAN-DIVISIONS — Friction between pragmatists and ideologues in the Taliban leadership has intensified since the group formed a hard-line Cabinet last week that is more in line with their harsh rule in the 1990s than their recent promises of inclusiveness, said two Afghans familiar with the power struggle. By Kathy Gannon. SENT: 650 words, photo. With AFGHANISTAN-THE LATEST. Also see AFGHANISTAN-AID-DILEMMA and BIDEN-AFGHAN REFUGEES below.

MALI-FRANCE-ISLAMIC STATE LEADER — France’s president announces the death of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara’s leader, calling Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi’s killing “a major success” for the French military after more than eight years fighting extremists in the Sahel. By Baba Ahmed and Krista Larson. SENT: 450 words, photo.

CALIFORNIA RECALL-REPUBLICANS — It’s starting to look like nothing happened. Millions were spent. Candidates gave speeches. TV ads hissed and barked. But the results of California’s recall election in which Gov. Gavin Newsom easily beat back an attempt to send him into early retirement look all-too familiar: California’s enfeebled Republicans were pounded again by Democrats who haven’t lost a statewide race in 15 years. By Political Writer Michael R. Blood. SENT: 1,010 words, photos. With CALIFORNIA RECALL — Democrats push for changes to California recall efforts. Also see CALIFORNIA RECALL-MIDTERM MESSAGE below.

PRIVATE SPACEFLIGHT — SpaceX’s first private flight streaks into orbit with two contest winners, a health care worker and their rich sponsor, the most ambitious leap yet in space tourism. It was the first time a spacecraft circled Earth with an all-amateur crew and no professional astronauts. By Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn. SENT: 950 words, photos, videos. With PRIVATE-SPACEFLIGHT-PASSENGERS — Contest winners, health worker orbiting world in SpaceX first.

VIETNAM LOCKDOWN IN PARADISE — An AP reporter set off for the seaside resort of Vung Tau in southern Vietnam for a long weekend in mid-July to see his partner who was working there long-term on business. The trip came just as the delta variant of the coronavirus began sweeping through Vietnam in the pandemic's worst wave yet, sparking harsh lockdown measures that left him trapped away from home. Nine weeks later, he's still there. Working, exercising, learning French and trying to cope with the monotony of the daily routine with no immediate end in sight. By Hau Dinh. SENT: 990 words, photos, video.

CENTENARIAN LOBSTERWOMAN — More than 90 years after starting, Maine’s oldest lobster harvester is still doing it at age 101. Virginia Oliver is the oldest lobster fisher in the state and possibly the oldest one in the world. Oliver still faithfully tends to her 200 traps off Rockland, Maine, with her 78-year-old son Max. She started catching lobsters when she was 8, and has no intention to stop. By Patrick Whittle and Robert F. Bukaty. SENT: 410 words, photos, video.

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TRENDING NEWS

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BIDEN-NICKI-MINAJ — White House offers Nicki Minaj call to answer vaccine questions. SENT: 320 words, photo.

TRUMP-BOOK — Gen. Milley defends calls to Chinese as effort to avoid conflict. SENT: 1,050 words, photos.

MISSING-TRAVELER — Search on for Florida woman missing from cross-country trip. SENT: 920 words, photo.

BUCKS-FEMALE BROADCASTER — Bucks hire Lisa Byington as TV play-by-play broadcaster. SENT: 290 words.

GRAND CANYON-UNEXPECTED FIND — Search at Grand Canyon turns up remains of another person. SENT: 530 words.

CHINA-EARTHQUAKE — Southwest China earthquake collapses homes, kills at least three. SENT: 240 words, photos.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK

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VIRUS OUTBREAK-VIRAL QUESTIONS-MASKING KIDS — Experts say there’s no scientific evidence showing that masks cause harm to kids’ health despite claims to the contrary on social media and elsewhere. By Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner. SENT: 350 words, graphic.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-FLORIDA-SCHOOL MASKS — A federal judge declined to block a ban imposed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to prevent mandating masks for Florida school students amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. SENT: 390 words, photos.

VIRUS-OUTBREAK-CANADA — The leader of the Canadian province of Alberta apologizes for his handling of the pandemic and says he is reluctantly introducing a vaccine passport and imposing a mandatory work-from-home order two months after lifting nearly all restrictions. SENT: 250 words, photo.

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WASHINGTON/POLITICS

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BIDEN-BUDGET — It’s the most sweeping proposed federal investment since FDR’s New Deal or LBJ’s Great Society, but is President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “build back better” agenda what Americans signed up for when he won the White House? By Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro. SENT: 1,030 words, photos. UPCOMING: 1,100 words after 1:45 p.m. Biden remarks.

ELECTION 2022-MISSOURI-SENATE — Republican Senate candidate Eric Schmitt is flexing the power of the Missouri attorney general’s office by filing a slew of lawsuits, including against Democratic cities and schools to stop mask mandates. SENT: 1,180 words, photo.

BIDEN-AFGHAN REFUGEES — The Biden administration begins notifying governors and state refugee coordinators about how many Afghan evacuees are slated to be resettled in their states. SENT: 57 0words, photos.

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NATIONAL

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CALIFORNIA RECALL-MIDTERM MESSAGE — Democrats say that by making the California recall into a referendum on Donald Trump and his supporters’ “extreme” resistance to coronavirus precautions, Gov. Gavin Newsom offered a formula for survival that could translate to dozens of races in next year’s midterm elections. SENT: 790 words, photos.

DEREK CHAUVIN-TEEN-CIVIL RIGHTS — A former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd is scheduled to be arraigned for allegedly violating the civil rights of a teenager in a separate case that involved a restraint similar to the one used on Floyd. SENT: 510 words, photo. UPCOMING: Arraignment at 10:30 a.m.

MOTHER-AND-SON-KILLED — A prominent South Carolina lawyer who found the bodies of his wife and son three months ago plans to turn himself in to face charges in a plot to arrange his own death that ended with the shooter only grazing him in the head, his defense attorneys says. SENT: 680 words, photo.

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INTERNATIONAL

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RUSSIA-ELECTION — After a few weeks of desultory campaigning but months of relentless official moves to shut down significant opposition, Russia is holding three days of voting this weekend in a parliamentary election that is unlikely to change the country’s political complexion. SENT: 960 words, photos.

KOREAS-TENSIONS — North Korea says it successfully launched ballistic missiles from a train for the first time and was continuing to bolster its defenses, after the two Koreas test-fired missiles hours apart in dueling displays of military might. SENT: 850 words, photos.

AFGHANISTAN-AID-DILEMMA — A month after the fall of Kabul, the world is still wrestling with how to help Afghanistan’s impoverished people without propping up their Taliban leaders — a question that grows more urgent by the day. SENT: 1,170 words, photos.

ISRAEL NAVY CHIEF-AP INTERVIEW — Israel’s navy has stepped up its activities in the Red Sea “exponentially” in the face of growing Iranian threats to Israeli shipping, the country’s just-retired navy commander says in an interview. By Josef Federman. SENT: 930 words, photos.

AUSTRALIA-SUBMARINES — Australia decided to invest in U.S. nuclear-powered submarines and dump its contract with France to build diesel-electric submarines because of a changed strategic environment. SENT: 970 words, photos.

INDONESIA-POLLUTION-LAWSUIT — An Indonesian court rules that President Joko Widodo and six other top officials have neglected to fulfill citizens’ rights to clean air and ordered them to improve the poor air quality in the capital. SENT: 220 words, photos.

PHILIPPINES-DUTERTE — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s top legal adviser lashes out at the International Criminal Court’s decision to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity during his bloody war on drugs, accusing the court of being used as a pawn by the popular leader’s political opponents. SENT: 750 words, photos.

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HEALTH/SCIENCE

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UNITED NATIONS-CLIMATE — The head of the United Nations calls for “immediate, rapid and large-scale” cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to curb global warming and avert climate disaster. SENT: 580 words, photo.

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BUSINESS/ECONOMY

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FINANCIAL-MARKETS — Stocks were mostly lower in Asia after Japan and China released data that were weaker than expected. By Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach. SENT: 560 words, photos. With JAPAN-TRADE — Japan exports slow as supply chain hiccups hit factories.

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS — The Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week. By Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber. UPCOMING: 130 words after release of report at 8:30 a.m., photo.

RETAIL SALES — The Commerce Department releases U.S. retail sales data for August. By Retail Writer Joseph Pisani. UPCOMING: 130 words after 8:30 a.m. release, then updated.

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HOW TO REACH US

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