AP News Digest 3:30 am

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.

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A monitor with a graph of Covid-19 vaccine shots shipped abroad is displayed behind White House press secretary Jen Psaki as she speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. (AP PhotoAndrew Harnik)

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.

Patricia, 8 years-old, grimaces after getting her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old, at a vaccination center in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Jan.26, 2022. Romania has recorded a huge jump in COVID-19 infections, hitting a pandemic record of nearly 35,000 daily cases, almost doubling its previous record set only a day earlier. Deaths have also begun to climb amid the latest surge of infections. (AP PhotoAndreea Alexandru)

SPACEX-PRIVATE FLIGHT WINNER — The real winner of a sweepstakes for a ride in space has finally come forward: a Florida-based airline pilot. By Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn. SENT: 810 words, photos, video.

People walk through a tunnel in the direction to the pleanry hall prior to a debate about a vaccination mandate at the parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. (AP PhotoMarkus Schreiber)

UKRAINE-TENSIONS — The Biden administration and NATO tell Russia there will be no U.S. or NATO concessions on Moscow’s main demands to resolve the crisis over Ukraine. In separate written responses delivered to the Russians, the U.S. and NATO held firm to the alliance’s open-door policy for membership, rejected a demand to permanently ban Ukraine from joining, and said allied deployments of troops and military equipment in Eastern Europe are nonnegotiable. By Vladimir Isachenkov and Matthew Lee. SENT: 1,300 words, photos, videos. For full coverage of Ukraine.

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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.

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General view of the door of 10 Downing Street, in London, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. British Premier Boris Johnson is bracing for the conclusions of an investigation into allegations of lockdown-breaching parties, a document that could help him end weeks of scandal and discontent, or bring his time in office to an abrupt close.(AP PhotoAlberto Pezzali)

SPACEX-PRIVATE FLIGHT WINNER — The real winner of a sweepstakes for a ride in space has finally come forward: a Florida-based airline pilot. By Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn. SENT: 810 words, photos, video.

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A woman helps a child light a candle during the vespers in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic minor basilica of Santa Sofia in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. Pope Francis on Sunday had asked for Jan. 26 to be a day of prayer for peace in Ukraine and the world. (AP PhotoGregorio Borgia)

UKRAINE-TENSIONS — The Biden administration and NATO tell Russia there will be no U.S. or NATO concessions on Moscow’s main demands to resolve the crisis over Ukraine. In separate written responses delivered to the Russians, the U.S. and NATO held firm to the alliance’s open-door policy for membership, rejected a demand to permanently ban Ukraine from joining, and said allied deployments of troops and military equipment in Eastern Europe are nonnegotiable. By Vladimir Isachenkov and Matthew Lee. SENT: 1,300 words, photos, videos. For full coverage of Ukraine.

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WHO-TURMOIL IN ASIA — Current and former staffers have accused the top director of the World Health Organization in the Western Pacific of racist, unethical and abusive behavior that has undermined the U.N. health agency’s efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic. The allegations were laid out in an internal complaint filed in October and again in an email last week, sent by unidentified “concerned WHO staff” to senior leadership and the executive board and obtained by the AP. Dr. Takeshi Kasai, the head of a vast region that includes China and the Philippines, refuted the allegations. By Medical Writer Maria Cheng. SENT: 1,600 words, photos. An abridged version of 960 words is also available.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-POLL — Will the pandemic ever really be “over"? And what would that mean? A new AP-NORC poll shows that few Americans — just 15% — say they’ll consider the pandemic over only when COVID-19 is largely eliminated. By contrast, 83% say they’ll feel like the pandemic is over when it’s largely a mild illness, like the seasonal flu. By Kate Brumback, Nathan Ellgren and Jocelyn Noveck. SENT: 950 words, photo.

SPACEX-PRIVATE FLIGHT WINNER — The real winner of a sweepstakes for a ride in space has finally come forward: a Florida-based airline pilot. By Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn. SENT: 810 words, photos, video.

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TOP STORIES

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SUPREME COURT-POLITICS — Democrats across the political spectrum are embracing news of 83-year-old Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s looming retirement, which gives President Joe Biden an opportunity to follow through on a pledge to appoint the first Black woman to the high court. By National Politics Writer Steve Peoples. SENT: 780 words, photos.

SUPREME COURT-BREYER-LEGACY — Breyer will take with him a razor-sharp intellect and a relentlessly pragmatic approach to the law. That approach has often found him searching for a middle ground or grasping for an outcome he can live with on an increasingly conservative court. By Mark Sherman. SENT: 1,020 words, photos. With SUPREME-COURT-BREYER-RETIREMENT — Breyer to retire, giving Biden first court pick. Also see SUPREME COURT-BIDEN below.

UKRAINE-TENSIONS — The Biden administration and NATO tell Russia there will be no U.S. or NATO concessions on Moscow’s main demands to resolve the crisis over Ukraine. In separate written responses delivered to the Russians, the U.S. and NATO held firm to the alliance’s open-door policy for membership, rejected a demand to permanently ban Ukraine from joining, and said allied deployments of troops and military equipment in Eastern Europe are nonnegotiable. By Vladimir Isachenkov and Matthew Lee. SENT: 1,300 words, photos, videos. For full coverage of Ukraine.

AFGHANISTAN-WINTER WOES — In recent weeks winter cold is devastating Afghanistan’s most vulnerable. International aid organizations are scrambling to save millions from starving or freezing because they have neither food nor fuel. For the poorest the only heat or means of cooking is with the coal or wood they can scrounge from the snowy streets or that they receive from aid groups. By Kathy Gannon. SENT: 1,020 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-IRAN-VACCINATION PUSH — While the West sees vaccination rates slowing and infections soaring with the spread of omicron, Iran for once is not seeing grim COVID-19 statistics dominate the headlines. Iran, which has been pummeled by successive virus waves for nearly two years, has found a brief, hopeful respite in mass vaccination. Still, the threat of omicron looms large. The contrast in pandemic responses between the Islamic Republic’s new hard-line and president his relatively moderate predecessor has bred skepticism. By Nasser Karimi and Isabel Debre. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.

BEIJING-2008 VS. 2022-CRACKDOWNS — China has cracked down on Tibet, is at the midpoint of doing so in Xinjiang and is just beginning in Hong Kong. Though it plays out somewhat differently in Hong Kong, the approach is fundamentally the same, from crushing the Tiananmen protests in 1989 to snuffing out the candlelight vigils for Tiananmen in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park. By Ken Moritsugu. SENT: 1,070 words, photos. With CHINA-US — China demands U.S. halt Olympics “interference."

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