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.
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TOP STORIES
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TITANIC-TOURIST SUB — The search for a missing Titanic-bound submersible has become an investigation and salvage mission that will take an indefinite amount of time, officials said, as tributes from around the world poured in for the five people killed when the vessel imploded deep in the North Atlantic. The announcement that all aboard perished when the submersible imploded near the site of the iconic shipwreck brought a tragic end to a five-day saga that included an urgent around-the-clock search and a worldwide vigil for the vessel known as the Titan. By Patrick Whittle. SENT: 1,090 words, photos, videos. WITH: TITANIC-TOURIST SUB-LAWS — Tourist sub’s implosion draws attention to murky regulations of deep-sea expeditions. SENT: 910 words, photos. Also see MORE ON TITANIC-TOURIST SUB below.
ELECTION 2024-ABORTION-BIDEN — President Joe Biden is banking on reproductive rights to be a galvanizing issue for voters in the 2024 presidential election as he collects a trio of top-level endorsements and hosts a rally to mark the approaching anniversary of the Supreme Court decision overturning federal abortion protections. By Colleen Long. SENT: 910 words, photo. UPCOMING: 1,100 words after 4 p.m. event.
ABORTION PILL-WYOMING — Abortion pills will remain legal in Wyoming for now, after a judge ruled that the state’s first-in-the-nation law to ban them won’t take effect July 1 as planned while a lawsuit proceeds. Attorneys for Wyoming failed to show that the ban wouldn’t harm the plaintiffs before their lawsuit is resolved, Teton County Judge Melissa Owens ruled after hearing arguments from both sides. Meanwhile, those plaintiffs “have clearly showed probable success on the merits,” Owens said. By Mead Gruver. SENT: 670 words, photo.
PFAS-DRINKING WATER-SETTLEMENT — Chemical manufacturer 3M Co. will pay at least $10.3 billion to settle lawsuits over contamination of many U.S. public drinking water systems with potentially harmful compounds used in firefighting foam and a host of consumer products, the company said. By Environmental Writer John Flesher. SENT: 600 words, photo.
HAJJ-HIGH COSTS — Saudi Arabia is hosting its biggest Hajj pilgrimage in three years But for many pilgrims, and for many others who couldn’t make it, global inflation and economic crises made it more of a strain to carry out Islam’s spiritual trip of a lifetime. With people balking at the cost, a few countries struggled to fill their quota of pilgrims this year, a startling sign when demand usually outstrips the supply of pilgrimage spots many times over. SENT: 1,070 words, photos. With HAJJ — Nearly 1.5 million foreign pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia so far for annual Hajj pilgrimage.
NBA-DRAFT — Victor Wembanyama was the presumed No. 1 pick for months, the rare certainty in an NBA draft process that’s often a guessing game. Yet as the clock above the stage he was facing ticked all the way down to zero, butterflies set in. “Longest five minutes of my life,” Wembanyama said. The San Antonio Spurs are confident he will be worth the wait. SENT: 960 words, photos.
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MORE ON TITANIC-TOURIST SUB
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TITANIC-TOURIST SUB-EXPLAINER — The latest on the Titan submersible tragedy and what’s next in the recovery efforts. SENT: 590 words, photos, videos.
TITANIC-TOURIST SUB-PASSENGERS — A Titanic expert, an adventurer, a CEO, and a father and son were killed in Titan’s implosion. SENT: 1,100 words, photos, videos.
TITANIC-TOURIST SUB-PILOTS' WIFE — Wife of pilot in fatal sub implosion descended from couple who died on Titanic, report says. SENT: 280 words, photo.
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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR
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RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR — Russia-appointed officials in Crimea said that a bridge between the Moscow-annexed peninsula and Russia-occupied areas in southern Ukraine was hit by missiles, threatening a key supply link to Russian forces. — SENT: 830 words, photos.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR-DENMARK TALKS — Denmark will host a meeting of national security advisers from Western countries backing Ukraine and countries that have refused to condemn the Russian invasion, officials said. SENT: 260 words.
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SPOTLIGHTING VOICES
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HAITI-UPROOTED — A gang rampaged through the Cite Soleil slum, killing and raping and setting fire to hundreds of wood-and-tin homes. Forced out of the neighborhood, one family of four lived on the streets of Port-au-Prince until they were struck by a truck as they slept. Two brothers in that accident. Jean-Kere Almicar opened his home to their distraught parents, then another family, then another, until there were nearly 200 people camped out in his front yard and nearby. They are among more than 165,000 Haitians who have fled their homes amid a surge in gang violence. SENT: 1,000 words, photos, video.
CHINA-LAWYERS — A disbarred Chinese human rights lawyer has been forced to move 13 times in two months as part of a pattern of harassment against him and three other prominent rights advocates in Beijing that is further squeezing China’s battered civil rights community. All four are prominent independent legal advocates, a rare source of help for people in China facing political charges, or trying to access benefits denied by often unaccountable bureaucracies. SENT: 850 words, photos.
TRANSGENDER RIGHTS-SUBWAY VOICE -- The voice is familiar to many millions of New York City subway riders. For more than a decade, Bernie Wagenblast’s voice has been ringing through bustling underground tunnels to herald an approaching train or remind the hurried masses to please stand away from the platform edge. Wagenblast has been using that deep, sonorous voice to inform and guide. Now, as a transgender woman, she uses it to inspire, mindful of the social and political upheaval in some parts of the United States. SENT: 850 words, video, photos.
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MORE NEWS
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SCI--BEE DEATHS -- Nearly half of US honeybee colonies died last year. Struggling beekeepers stabilize population. SENT: 820 words, photos, video.
UPCYCLE FOOD — The US has tons of leftover food. Upcycling seeks to turn would-be trash into ice cream and pizza SENT: 610 words, photos, video.
CONCERT-HAIL-FANS-HURT -- Firefighters say seven people were taken to the hospital and up to 90 people were treated for injuries after hail pummeled concertgoers at Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver. SENT: 140 words, photos.
TROPICAL-WEATHER-BRET — A hurricane watch was issued for St. Lucia as Tropical Storm Bret barreled toward the eastern Caribbean at near-hurricane strength. SENT: 405 words, photo.
CHINA-RESTAURANT-EXPLOSION – China’s president has ordered a national safety campaign after a massive cooking gas explosion at a barbecue restaurant killed 31 people. SENT: 690 words, photos, video.
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WASHINGTON/ POLITICS
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INDIA-MODI-PRESS — Narendra Modi did something very unusual on at the White House — he took questions from journalists. It’s a rare occurrence for the Indian prime minister who avoids unscripted moments and has presided over a steady decline in press freedom in his country. SENT: 770 words, photos.
ELECTION 2024-CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES — A year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, some of the Republican Party’s most powerful evangelical Christian voices are gathering to celebrate. At the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual conference in Washington, GOP presidential candidates will be urged to keep pushing for stronger abortion restrictions. By Will Weissert and Michelle L. Price. SENT: 920 words, photos. UPCOMING: 1,100 words after conference begins at 9:30 a.m.
MOMS FOR LIBERTY-HITLER QUOTE — An Indiana chapter of Moms for Liberty, which an anti-hate watchdog recently labeled as extremist, is apologizing and condemning Adolf Hitler after using a quote attributed to the Nazi leader in its inaugural newsletter. SENT: 610 words.
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NATIONAL
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NASHVILLE-SCHOOL-SHOOTING — More than a dozen parents at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, have written about the stress, terror and sadness in the wake of the March shooting. The descriptions are meant to compel a judge not to allow the release of the shooter’s writings and other documents. SENT: 830 words, photos.
OKLAHOMA-EXECUTION-SANCHEZ — An Oklahoma death row inmate scheduled to be executed in September for the 1996 killing of a University of Oklahoma dance student says he plans to reject his chance for a clemency hearing. Anthony Sanchez said in a telephone interview from death row Thursday there is little hope the governor would spare his life. SENT: 630 words, photos.
I-95-COLLAPSE — Interstate 95 is set to reopen to traffic less than two weeks after a deadly collapse in Philadelphia shut down a heavily traveled stretch of the East Coast’s main north-south highway. Crews worked around the clock and are poised to finish ahead of schedule. SENT: 320 words, photo.
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INTERNATIONAL
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ISRAEL-BAN KI-MOON — Former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says Israel is inching toward apartheid and drifting further away from the hopes of creating a Palestinian state. SENT: 670 words, photos.
HONDURAS-PRISON RIOT-FUNERALS — Fear simmered among the small knot of relatives gathered for the wake of a mother and daughter who were among 46 women inmates slaughtered in this week’s prison riot in Honduras. Relatives wept openly but said they feared the Barrio 18 gang that carried out the massacre might come after the victims’ families as well. SENT: 800 words, photos.
GERMANY-JEWISH CAMPUS — Germany’s biggest Jewish educational and cultural complex since the Holocaust is set to open in Berlin, five years after the groundbreaking. SENT: 860 words, photos.
GREECE-ELECTIONS — Greeks return to the polls Sunday for a second general election in five weeks, with the conservative front-runners eyeing a landslide win after toppling strongholds dominated by their opponents for decades. SENT: 790 words, photos.
AUSTRALIA-RUSSIA — A suspected lone Russian diplomat is apparently squatting on the site of Moscow’s proposed embassy after the Australian government vetoed the plan on security grounds. SENT: 620 words, photos.
TWITTER-EU-RULES — A top European Union official is in Silicon Valley to check whether Twitter is ready to comply with the bloc’s tough new digital rulebook, a set of sweeping new standards that the world’s biggest online platforms all must obey in just two months. SENT: 550 words, photos.
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BUSINESS/ECONOMY
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FINANCIAL-MARKETS — Asian shares sank sharply after several central banks around the world cranked interest rates higher in their fight against inflation. By Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach. SENT: 680 words, photos.
GLOBAL CLIMATE-FINANCE — The aim of a two-day climate and finance summit in Paris was to set up concrete measures to help poor and developing countries better tackle issues like poverty and climate change. Activists want rich countries to commit to debt relief, including cancellation of loans. One young activist said wealthier nations must acknowledge how current financial structures are reproducing the old colonial structure. SENT: 560 words, photos.
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HOW TO REACH US
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At the Nerve Center, Vincent Willis and Lorian Belanger can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, Masayo Yoshida (ext. 1900). For graphics and interactives, ext. 7636. Expanded AP content can be obtained from AP Newsroom. For access to AP Newsroom and other technical issues, contact apcustomersupport@ap.org or call 844-777-2006.
