Here are the AP's latest coverage plans, top stories and promotable content. All times EST. For up-to-the minute information on AP's coverage, visit Coverage Plan at https://newsroom.ap.org.
TOP STORIES
CHINA-OUTBREAK — A recent speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping that has been published by state media indicates for the first time that he was leading the response to a new virus outbreak from early on in the crisis. By Yanan Wang. SENT: 990 words, photos. WITH: CHINA-OUTBREAK-AT A GLANCE (sent).
From left, U.N. Envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attend a news conference after the conference on Libya at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020. (Axel SchmidtPool Photo via AP)
ELECTION 2020 — Joe Biden, standing on a Las Vegas stage roughly 1,000 feet from the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, took on White House rival Bernie Sanders Saturday night for his past vote to exempt gun manufacturers from liability for shootings. The former vice president devoted the majority of his speech at a Democratic gala on the Las Vegas Strip to deliver a fiery charge against the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers, vowing to hold gun makers accountable if elected president. By Michelle L. Price and Steve Peoples. SENT: 1,200 words, photos.
Find more coverage on the 2020 U.S. Elections featured topic page in AP Newsroom.
WILDFIRE FUEL BREAKS — The Bureau of Land Management has announced plans to fund 11,000 miles of strategic fuel breaks in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada and Utah in an effort to help control wildfires. Fuel breaks are intended to create breaks in vegetation that slow a blaze’s progress and help protect firefighters, communities and natural resources. SENT: 390 words, photos.
WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT
CLUB SHOOTING-CONNECTICUT — Police in Connecticut's capital say one person was killed and four others were wounded in a shooting at a nightclub. SENT: 110 words.
INMATE DEATH-MISSISSIPPI — Another Mississippi inmate has died, making him at least the 17th inmate in the state's troubled prison system to have died in less than two months. SENT: 14O words.
AVOCADO PEST DISCOVERED — Invasive bug found feeding on avocado plants in Hawaii. SENT: 260 words, photo.
EUROPE-STORM — Storm Dennis is roaring across Britain, lashing towns and cities with high winds and dumping so much rain that authorities have urged residents to protect themselves from “life-threatening floods" in Wales and Scotland. SENT: 240 words, photos.
MORE ON VIRUS OUTBREAK
CHINA OUTBREAK ECONOMY — Millions of Chinese workers and entrepreneurs are bearing the rising costs of an anti-virus campaign that has shut down large sections of the economy. The government has imposed restrictions nationwide that have stalled travel and sales of real estate and autos. SENT: 1,100 words, photos.
CHINA-OUTBREAK — France has become the first country outside Asia to report a death from a new virus that originated in China. Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said Saturday that the deceased patient was an 80-year-old Chinese tourist who tested positive for the virus in late January. SENT: 740 words, photos.
WASHINGTON/POLITICS
TRUMP FUNDRAISER — President Donald Trump is mixing reelection business with pleasure during a weekend stop at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Trump attended a fundraiser expected to raise $10 million for his campaign and the Republican National Committee. SENT: 280 words, photo.
FACT CHECK-WEEK — It was the week of the New Hampshire primary, a Trump budget and machinations involving the Justice Department. An AP Fact Check takes a look at the political rhetoric surrounding such events. President Donald Trump told supporters that his U.S.-Mexico border wall is being paid for by people who live in the U.S. illegally, through what he called “redemption payments.” There's no such thing. SENT: 1,910 words, photos. Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd
INTERNATIONAL
GERMANY-LIBYA — Foreign ministers and other top officials are gathering in Germany on Sunday to follow up on a summit on Libya last month. At that meeting, countries with interests in Libya's long-running civil war agreed to respect a much-violated arms embargo and push for a full cease-fire. SENT: 330 words, photo. DEVELOPING: Will be updated after 5 am EST news conference.
ISRAEL-POLITICS — Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz is vowing he will form a government that will include neither the indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the Arab parties in parliament. SENT: 630 words, photos.
IRAQ- US ROCKET ATTACK — U.S. and Iraqi officials say at least four rockets hit near the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and a Iraqi base hosting American troops inside the Green Zone. A U.S. military spokesman says no casualties have been reported. SENT: 270 words, photo.
SYRIA — Turkey's foreign minister says a Turkish delegation will hold talks in Russia on Monday on the situation in Syria's Idlib province amid mounting fears of a humanitarian disaster there. SENT: 490 words, photos.
YEMEN — The U.N. humanitarian chief for Yemen says strikes killed more than 30 civilians in a Yemeni mountainous northern province. The U.N. official called Saturday's airstrikes “shocking.” The Yemeni rebels blamed the Saudi-led coalition for the strikes. SENT: 640 words.
NATIONAL
OBIT-AE HOTCHNER — Author-playwright A.E. Hotchner has died at age 102. Hotchner was close friends with Ernest Hemingway and Paul Newman and wrote memoirs about each of them. He also wrote bestselling biographies of Doris Day and Sophia Loren and a book about his childhood, “King of the Hill,” later adapted into a Steven Soderbergh movie. By AP National Writer Hillel Italie. SENT: 1,060 words, photos.
SANDRA THE ORANGUTAN — An orangutan who was granted legal personhood by a judge in Argentina and later found a new home in Florida celebrated her 34th birthday on Valentine's Day with a special new friend. SENT: 310 words, photo.
MISSISSIPPI SHOOTINGS — Opening arguments have begun in the death penalty trial of a man accused of killing eight people in Mississippi in 2017. The Daily Leader reports that a witness on Saturday testified that he saw Willie Cory Godbolt enter his in-laws' home, get into a fight and fatally shoot a responding deputy. SENT: 360 words, photos.
CALIFORNIA DEATH ROW INMATE DIES — A death row inmate died Saturday at a hospital, while the previous day another prisoner was killed after two inmates attacked him, California officials said. SENT: 360 words, photos.
OBIT-CLAYTON WILLIAMS — Clayton Williams, a colorful Texas oilman whose 1990 run for governor was derailed by making a joke about rape and saying he didn't pay income taxes one year, has died. SENT: 600 words, photos.
SPORTS
BKN--ALL-STAR SATURDAY NIGHT -- Aaron Gordon lost another epic dunk contest. And it was by a couple of inches — namely, the top of Tacko Fall’s head. Derrick Jones Jr. finally got his dunk contest title as an exclamation point to an epic All-Star Saturday Night, both for him and the Miami Heat. SENT: 1,170 words, photos. WITH: The Latest.
BKN--ALL-STAR-SILVER -- The NBA and USA Basketball are still considering playing in China later this year, though the complexities of both the political rift caused by a tweet last fall and the ongoing health concerns in the world’s most populous country are making those plans seem decidedly uncertain. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.
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