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.
—————————
TOP STORIES
—————————
BIDEN-ASIA — President Joe Biden is devoting his Saturday to cementing ties with South Korea and its new leader Yoon Suk Yeol as the two sides consult on how best to check the nuclear threat from North Korea at a time when there’s little hope of real diplomacy on the matter. By Aamer Madhani and Josh Boak. SENT: 980 words, photos, video. UPCOMING: Updates throughout the morning; state dinner at 6:15 a.m.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR — In what would be its biggest victory yet in the war with Ukraine, Russia has claimed to have captured Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege that reduced much of the strategic port city to a smoking ruin, with over 20,000 civilians feared dead. By Elena Becatoros, Oleksandr Stashevskyi and Ciaran McQuillan. SENT: 1,160 words, photos, video. With RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-THE-LATEST.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-ADOPTIONS — The ripple effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been devastating for families of all kinds — including those who have seen their prospective adoptions put on hold. Ukraine was once one of the U.S.’s most frequent partners on international adoptions, but the war changed all that: The embattled country has halted all international adoptions as the country copes with the turmoil unleashed on its courts and social services. By Patrick Whittle. SENT: 850 words, photo.
ELECTION 2022-GEORGIA-WALKER — Herschel Walker, the football legend and leading Republican Senate candidate in Georgia, often boasts of his work helping service members and veterans struggling with mental health. But corporate documents, court records and Senate disclosures reviewed by The Associated Press present a portrait of a celebrity spokesman who overstated his role in a for-profit program that is alleged to have preyed upon veterans and service members while defrauding the government. By Brian Slodysko. SENT: 1,190 words, photos.
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-NORTH-KOREA — North Korea says it found nearly 220,000 more people with feverish symptoms even as leader Kim Jong Un claimed progress in slowing a largely undiagnosed spread of COVID-19 across an unvaccinated population of 26 million. By Kim Tong-Hyung. SENT: 990 words, photos.
——————————————————————————
MORE ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
——————————————————————————
BIDEN-ASIA-UKRAINE AID — The $40 billion U.S. package of assistance for Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russia’s aggression is hitching a ride on a commercial flight to South Korea so it can be signed by President Joe Biden. SENT: 360 words, photos.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-A WEEK-PHOTO GALLERY — Shattered lives and recovery in Ukraine war. SENT: 320 words, photos.
————————————
TRENDING NEWS
————————————-
BUFFALO-SUPERMARKET-SHOOTING -- A 32-year-old woman who was the youngest of the 10 Black people killed at a Buffalo supermarket was remembered as big-hearted and quick with a laugh before her funeral. SENT: 200 words, photos.
BABY-FORMULA-SHORTAGE — The first flights of infant formula from Europe, authorized by President Joe Biden to relieve a deepening U.S. shortage, will arrive in Indiana aboard military aircraft this weekend, the White House has announced. SENT: 250 words, photo.
CONDOMINIUM COLLAPSE-FLORIDA — A billionaire developer from Dubai is set to purchase the site of a South Florida condominium that collapsed last June, killing 98 people, for $120 million after no other bids were submitted by the Friday evening deadline for next week’s auction. SENT: 250 words, photos.
AMERICAN IDOL-CONTESTANT CRASH — A South Carolina judge granted bond to former “American Idol” contestant Caleb Kennedy who is accused of barreling into a man with his pickup truck and killing him. SENT: 270 words.
MICHAEL AVENATTI-STORMY DANIELS — Convicted California lawyer Michael Avenatti wants leniency at sentencing for defrauding former client Stormy Daniels. His lawyers cite a letter he sent to the porn actor saying he is truly sorry. SENT: 500 words, photos.
OBIT-ANGELL — Longtime New Yorker writer and editor Roger Angell has died. He was 101. Angell, the son of founding New Yorker editor Katharine White and stepson of E.B. White, contributed hundreds of essays and stories to the magazine over a 70-year career. SENT: 450 words, photos.
AIMEE OSBOURNE-STUDIO FIRE — Ozzy Osbourne’s daughter Aimee and her producer escaped a Hollywood recording studio fire that killed another person. SENT: 220 words, photo.
——————————————————
WASHINGTON/POLITICS
——————————————————
ELECTION 2022-CONGRESS-REDISTRICTING-WOMEN — For some female incumbents running for reelection in Congress, holding their seats comes with a new challenge. Because of redistricting, some of those congressional districts will be tougher to win. By Sara Burnett. SENT: 1,040 words, photos.
BIDEN-AMERICAS SUMMIT — The Summit of the Americas is a little more than two weeks away in Los Angeles, and there’s still no clear answer on which countries are going. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has threatened to boycott if Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua aren’t included. By Chris Megerian and Matthew Lee. SENT: 840 words, photos.
FEDERAL PRISONS-DIRECTOR — The former director of the Ohio state prison system has emerged as a leading contender to run the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons. Gary Mohr, who has also worked in the private prison industry, is at the top of the list of candidates to replace Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal. By Michael Balsamo and Michael R. Sisak. SENT: 870 words, photos.
PANAMA-JILL-BIDEN — U.S. first lady Jill Biden arrived in Panama Friday, her second stop on a three-country Latin America visit before the United States hosts the Summit of the Americas next month in Los Angeles. SENT: 280 words, photos.
YELLEN-TAX PLAN — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen celebrated last summer when more than 100 nations agreed to a global minimum tax deal meant to reform and equalize the world’s economy. This week, as she met with Group of Seven finance ministers in Germany, Yellen found herself insisting that prospects for moving ahead with the idea are “not hopeless.” By Fatima Hussein. SENT: 900 words, photos.
VIRGINIA THOMAS-ELECTION — Newly discovered emails show that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was more deeply involved in baseless efforts to overturn the 2020 election than previously known. SENT: 770 words, photo.
————————
NATIONAL
————————
CALIFORNIA-SHACKLED-CHILDREN — Several adult children among the 13 siblings freed in 2018 from virtual imprisonment in their abusive parents’ Southern California home found themselves a year later feeling pressured by the county’s guardian to move to an apartment in disrepair in a crime-ridden area, court documents showed. SENT: 650 words, photos.
ABORTION-OKLAHOMA-EXCEPTIONS — Oklahoma is only days away from enacting the toughest U.S. state ban on abortion and providers are preparing to stop terminating pregnancies. Meanwhile, questions swirled about how the law’s limited exceptions would be enforced. SENT: 980 words, photos, video.
TORNADO-MICHIGAN — A rare northern Michigan tornado tore through a small community on Friday, killing at least one person and injuring more than 40 others as it flipped vehicles, tore roofs from buildings and downed trees and power lines. SENT: 810 words, photos, video.
PELOSI-CATHOLIC-ARCHBISHOP — The conservative Catholic archbishop of San Francisco has said that he will no longer allow U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to receive Communion because of her support for abortion rights. SENT: 400 words, photos.
————————————-
INTERNATIONAL
————————————-
AUSTRALIA-POLITICS — Polling stations opened across Australia voters to decide whether Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative government will defy odds and rule for a fourth three-year term. Opposition leader Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor Party is a favorite to win its first election since 2007. But Morrison defied the opinion polls in 2019 by leading his coalition to a narrow victory. SENT: 880 words, photos.
ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS — Israeli troops shot and killed a teenage Palestinian boy as clashes erupted when they entered a volatile town in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and local media says. SENT: 210 words, photos.
UNITED-NATIONS-MIGRANTS-DECLARATION — More than 100 nations have approved a declaration calling on governments to intensify efforts for safe and orderly migration, crack down on human smuggling and trafficking, and ensure that migrants are respected and receive health care and other services. SENT: 790 words.
PERU-REMAINS RETURNED — Scene of one of the worst massacres of Peru’s internal conflict in the final decades of the 20th century, the town of Accomarca is closing a chapter that’s been open for more than 35 years. SENT: 650 words, photos.
———————
SCIENCE
———————
BOEING-CREW-CAPSULE — With only a test dummy aboard, Boeing’s astronaut capsule pulled up and parked at the International Space Station for the first time Friday, a huge achievement for the company after years of false starts. With Starliner’s arrival, NASA finally realizes its longtime effort to have crew capsules from competing U.S. companies flying to the space station. By Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn. SENT: 620 words, photos, videos.
————————————-
ENTERTAINMENT
————————————-
FRANCE-CANNES-ARMAGEDDON-TIME — James Gray’s autobiographical coming of age film “Armageddon Time,” starring Anthony Hopkins, Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong, has made the biggest splash of an American film not starring Tom Cruise at the Cannes Film Festival. Gray’s richly detailed film is as personal as it is political, and is often both at once. The New York writer-director based “Armageddon Time” on his own 1980s childhood in Queens. By Film Writer Jake Coyle. SENT: 1,100 words, photos.
————————
SPORTS
————————
BKN--MAVERICKS-WARRIORS — Stephen Curry scored 32 points with six 3-pointers and eight rebounds, Kevon Looney had a career-high 21 points and 12 rebounds, and the Golden State Warriors used one of their signature third-quarter flurries to rally past the Dallas Mavericks 126-117 for a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. By Janie McCauley. SENT: 870 words, photos.
GLF--PGA LOOKAHEAD — The PGA Championship is not the British Open. But it sounded like one at Southern Hills. That’s all because of the wind, and players that are helped by being on the right side of the draw. Will Zalatoris didn’t face any wind over his final two hours and shot a 65 to build a one-shot lead. By Golf Writer Doug Ferguson. UPCOMING: 770 words, photos. With GLF—PGA Championship; GLF--PGA-The Cut; GLF—PGA Notebook; GLF—PGA Glance (sent).
————————————————-
HOW TO REACH US
—————————————————
At the Nerve Center, Vincent K. Willis can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, (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@ap.org or call 844-777-2006.
