AP News Digest 6 p.m.

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 in AP Newsroom.

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NEW/DEVELOPING

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EARTH-DAY-FLINT-YOUNG-ACTIVISTS; ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-UN-AGENCY; BKN-LAKERS-NUGGETS; BKN-TIPOFF; ALLIGATOR-ATTACK; TRUMP-FRAUD-LAWSUIT; BIDEN-RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR; PHILANTHROPY-MAUI-WILDFIRES; ABORTION-PRIVACY; PEN-AMERICA-CANCELED-CEREMONY; EARTH-DAY-HEAT-FORECASTING; ASBESTOS-TOWN-RAILROAD; TRUMP-HUSH-MONEY-MEDIA-BLOGS; TRUMP-HUSH MONEY-TAKEAWAYS

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ONLY ON AP

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ELECTION 2024-ELECTION WORKER THREATS — A top concern for local election workers throughout the country this year is their own safety. A group formed after the 2020 presidential election is traveling the country helping them prepare for what could lie ahead and making sure they are connected to local law enforcement. The Associated Press was granted rare access to one recent session in northern Michigan. By Christina A. Cassidy. SENT: 1,540 words, photos, video. An abridged version is available.

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TOP STORIES

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TRUMP-HUSH-MONEY — Donald Trump tried to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election by preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public, a prosecutor told jurors at the start of the former president’s historic hush money trial. By Michael R. Sisak, Jennifer Peltz, Eric Tucker and Jake Offenhartz. SENT: 1,280 words, photos, video, audio. With TRUMP-HUSH-MONEY-MEDIA-BLOGS — Without cameras to go live, the Trump trial is proving the potency of live blogs as news tools; TRUMP-HUSH MONEY-TAKEAWAYS — Key takeaways from the opening statements in Donald Trump’s hush money trial; TRUMP-HUSH-MONEY-THE LATEST (all sent).

ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS — The head of Israeli military intelligence has resigned because of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, becoming the first senior figure to step down over his role in the stunning failure to anticipate or quickly respond to the deadliest assault in Israel’s history. By Tia Goldenberg. SENT: 810 words, photos. With MIDEAST-TENSIONS-THE LATEST.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-BATTLE RACE — Approval by the U.S. House of Representatives of a $61 billion package for Ukraine puts the country a step closer to getting an infusion of new firepower. But the clock is ticking. Russia is using all its might to achieve its most significant gains since the invasion by a May 9 deadline. In the meantime, Kyiv has no choice but to wait for replenishment after months of rationing ammunition. By Samya Kullab. SENT: 1,140 words, photos. With RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-EUROPE — European nations with Patriots hesitate to give their missile systems to Ukraine; BIDEN-RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR — Biden will send Ukraine air defense weapons, artillery once Senate approves, Zelenskyy says (both sent).

SUPREME COURT-HOMELESS CAMPING BANS — The Supreme Court has wrestled with major questions about the growing issue of homelessness as it considered whether cities can punish people for sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking. It’s the most significant case before the high court in decades on the issue, and comes as record numbers of people are without a permanent place to live in the United States. By Lindsay Whitehurst. SENT: 630 words, photos, video, audio.

CHINA-COVID ORIGINS — The hunt for the origins of COVID-19 has gone dark in China, the victim of political infighting after a series of stalled and thwarted attempts to find the source of the virus that killed millions and paralyzed the world for months. The Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak, despite statements supporting open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation found. By Dake Kang and Maria Cheng. SENT: 2,740 words, photos. With CHINA-COVID ORIGINS-TAKEAWAYS — Takeaways from AP report on how the search for the coronavirus origins turned toxic (sent).

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ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

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ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-CAMPUS-PROTESTS — Columbia has canceled in-person classes, dozens of protesters were arrested at Yale and the gates to Harvard Yard were closed to the public as some of the most prestigious U.S. universities sought to diffuse campus tensions over Israel’s war with Hamas. SENT: 1,260 words, photos, audio.

MIDEAST-TENSIONS — Satellite photos suggest an apparent Israeli retaliatory strike targeting Iran’s central city of Isfahan hit a radar system for a Russian-made air defense battery, contradicting repeated denials by officials in Tehran of any damage in the assault. SENT: 810 words, photos.

ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-UN-AGENCY — An independent review of the neutrality of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees found that Israel never expressed concern about anyone on the staff lists it has received annually since 2011. The review was carried out after Israel alleged that a dozen employees of the agency known as UNRWA had participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. SENT: 780 words, photos.

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EARTH DAY

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EARTH-DAY-FLINT-YOUNG-ACTIVISTS — Dozens of the children of Flint, Michigan’s lead-contaminated water crisis have turned their trauma into advocacy 10 years after it began. Now as teenagers and young adults, they’re providing input on public health initiatives, campaigning for social issues, distributing filters and providing free water testing for homeowners. By Tammy Webber. SENT: 1,490 words, photos, video. An abridged version is also available.

BIDEN-EARTH-DAY — President Joe Biden is marking Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities. He also plans to expand his New Deal-style American Climate Corps green jobs training program. SENT: 980 words, photos.

EARTH-DAY-HEAT-FORECASTING — U.S. health and weather officials used Earth Day to unveil a new color-coded system to warn Americans about heat danger, and it will set magenta as the most dangerous level. SENT: 820 words, photo.

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MORE NEWS

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SUPREME COURT-GHOST GUNS — Supreme Court will take up the legal fight over ghost guns, firearms without serial numbers. SENT: 350 words, photos.

ALLIGATOR-ATTACK — Diver pinned under water by an alligator figured he had choice: Lose his arm or lose his life. SENT: 410 words, photos.

EUROPE-CLIMATE — Europe is the fastest-warming continent, at nearly twice the average global rate, report says. SENT: 480 words, photos. With LABOR-CLIMATE-CHANGE — UN labor agency report warns of rising threat of excess heat, climate change on world’s workers (sent).

BRITAIN-EVEREST-MALLORY-LETTERS — George Mallory’s last letter from Everest said the odds of reaching top were ’50 to 1 against us.’ SENT: 720 words, photo.

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WASHINGTON

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SUPREME-COURT-TRUMP-CAPITOL-RIOT-EXPLAINER — The Supreme Court is hearing arguments this week with profound legal and political consequences: whether former President Donald Trump is immune from prosecution in a federal case charging him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. SENT: 1,200 words, photos, audio. With CAPITOL-RIOT-SENTENCING — Man who attacked police after storming US Capitol with Confederate flag gets over 2 years in prison. SENT: 740 words, photos.

NURSING-HOMES — The federal government is for the first time requiring nursing homes to have minimum staffing levels after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed grim realities in poorly staffed facilities for older and disabled Americans. SENT: 680 words, photo, audio.

ABORTION-PRIVACY — The medical records of women will be shielded from criminal investigations if they cross state lines to seek an abortion where it is legal, under a new rule that the Biden administration finalized. SENT: 640 words photos.

TRUMP-FRAUD-LAWSUIT — New York state lawyers and an attorney for former President Donald Trump have settled their differences over a $175 million bond that Trump posted to block a large civil fraud judgment while he pursues appeals. SENT: 460 words, photos.

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NATIONAL

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PHILANTHROPY-MAUI-WILDFIRES — The Entertainment Industry Foundation says the People’s Fund of Maui, an initiative started by Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson to benefit survivors of the wildfires in Maui, has given away almost $60 million. The fund deposited $1,200 a month for six months into the bank account of 8,100 residents who lost their homes. Johnson and Winfrey initially committed $10 million to the fund and also asked others to donate. SENT: 1,130 words, photos.

HIGH-SPEED-RAIL-VEGAS-CALIFORNIA — A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction, officials say amid predictions that millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. SENT: 710 words, photos.

ASBESTOS-TOWN-RAILROAD — A federal jury on Monday said Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railway contributed to the deaths of two people who were exposed to asbestos decades ago when tainted mining material was shipped through a Montana town where thousands have been sickened. SENT: 650 words, photos.

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INTERNATIONAL

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MIGRATION-BRITAIN-RWANDA — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged that the country’s first deportation flights to Rwanda could leave in 10-12 weeks as he promised to end the Parliamentary deadlock over a key policy promise before an election expected later this year. SENT: 610 words, photos, video.

AUSTRALIA-PAPUA NEW GUINEA — Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape has accused Joe Biden of disparaging the South Pacific island nation by implying that an uncle of the U.S. president had been eaten by “cannibals” there during World War II. SENT: 540 words, photo.

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BUSINESS

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ONLINE-CHILD-ABUSE-CYBERTIPLINE — A tipline set up 26 years ago to combat online child exploitation has not lived up to its potential and needs technological and other improvements to help law enforcement go after abusers and rescue victims, a new report from the Stanford Internet Observatory has found. By Technology Writers By Barbara Ortutay and Matt O’Brien. SENT: 1,050 words, photo.

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SCIENCE

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LAKE-STURGEON-LISTING — Lake sturgeon don’t need Endangered Species Act protections, federal wildlife officials announced Monday, saying that stocking programs have helped the prehistoric fish return to areas where they had vanished. SENT: 840 words, photos.

SCI-NEW-ASTRONAUTS — The European Space Agency has added five new members to its astronaut corps. They graduated Monday during a ceremony in Cologne, Germany, after completing a year of training. That brings the space agency’s astronaut roster up to 11. The new astronauts are from France, Belgium, Britain, Switzerland and Spain. An Australian has also joined them as part of an agreement. SENT: 650 words, photos.

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ENTERTAINMENT

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PEN-AMERICA-CANCELED-CEREMONY — Facing widespread unhappiness over its response to the Israel-Hamas war, the writers’ group PEN America has called off its annual awards ceremony. Dozens of nominees had dropped out of the event, which was to have taken place next week. SENT: 810 words.

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SPORTS

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BKN-LAKERS-NUGGETS — LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers try to snap a nine-game skid against Denver when they face the Nuggets in Game 2 of their Western Conference playoff series. By Arnie Stapleton. UPCOMING: 650 words, photos. Game starts at 10 p.m.

BKN-TIPOFF — Breaking down the three playoff series that have games Tuesday as the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers seek to maintain their home-court advantages and take 2-0 leads. By Steve Megarge. UPCOMING: 700 words, photos by 6 p.m.

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HOW TO REACH US

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A woman walks past flowering cherry trees in Centennial Park, in Toronto, Monday, April 22, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and children burn leavened items in final preparation for the Passover holiday in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish town of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, April 22, 2024. Jews are forbidden to eat leavened foodstuffs during the Passover holiday, which celebrates the biblical story of the Israelites' escape from slavery and exodus from Egypt. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Pedestrians walk past a charred body in Port-au-Prince's Petion-Ville neighborhood, Haiti, Sunday, April 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A protester shouts slogans as smoke billows from burning tires during a rally alleging a widespread fraud in the Feb. 14 presidential election near Constitutional Court in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, April 22, 2024. The country's top court on Monday rejected appeals lodged by two losing presidential candidates who are demanding a revote, alleging widespread irregularities and fraud at the February polls. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

A woman holds a "Free Azov" sign during a rally aiming to raise awareness on the fate of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 21, 2024. The U.S. House of Representatives swiftly approved $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies in a rare Saturday session as Democrats and Republicans banded together after months of hard-right resistance over renewed American support for repelling Russia's invasion. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Former president Donald Trump, center, awaits the start of proceedings at Manhattan criminal court, Monday, April 22, 2024, in New York. Opening statements in Donald Trump's historic hush money trial are set to begin. Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories he thought might hurt his presidential campaign in 2016. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool)

An Indian rag picker looks for reusable material at a garbage dump filled with plastic and other waste material on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Monday, April 22, 2024. This year’s Earth Day is focusing on the threat that plastics pose to our environment. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

NASCAR Cup Series driver's Ryan Preece (41) Josh Berry (4) and Corey LaJoie (7), upside down, crash on the final lap during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, April 21, 2024, in Talladega. Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

Cars drive on an alley between rape fields in the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

A voter marks questions on the ballot of a referendum proposed by President Daniel Noboa to endorse new security measures aimed at crack down on criminal gangs fueling escalating violence in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, April 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and children burn leavened items in final preparation for the Passover holiday in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish town of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, April 22, 2024. Jews are forbidden to eat leavened foodstuffs during the Passover holiday, which celebrates the biblical story of the Israelites' escape from slavery and exodus from Egypt. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

AP News Digest 7 a.m.

A Palestinian baby girl, Sabreen Jouda, who was delivered prematurely after her mother was killed in an Israeli strike along with her husband and daughter, lies in an incubator in the Emirati hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. Sunday, April 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)

AP News Digest 7 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top U.N. official said Friday that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine" after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory.

Cindy McCain, the American director of the U.N. World Food Program, became the most prominent international official so far to declare that trapped civilians in the most cut-off part of Gaza had gone over the brink into famine.

“It’s horror," McCain told NBC's “Meet the Press” in an interview to air Sunday. “There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it’s moving its way south."

She said a cease-fire and a greatly increased flow of aid through land and sea routes was essential to confronting the growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which controls entrance into Gaza and says it is beginning to allow in more food and other humanitarian aid through land crossings.

The panel that serves as the internationally recognized monitor for food crises said earlier this year that northern Gaza was on the brink of famine and likely to experience it this month. The next update will not come before this summer.

One of the U.S. Agency for International Development's humanitarian officials in Gaza told The Associated Press that on-the-ground preparations for a new U.S.-led sea route were on track to bring in more food — including treatment for hundreds of thousands of starving children — by early or mid-May. That's when the American military expects to finish building a floating pier to receive the shipments.

Ramping up the delivery of aid on the planned U.S.-backed sea route will be gradual as aid groups test the distribution and security arrangements for relief workers, the USAID official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity over security concerns for work done in a conflict zone. They were some of the agency’s first comments on the status of preparations for the Biden administration’s $320 million Gaza pier project, for which USAID is helping coordinate on-the-ground security and distribution.

At a factory in rural Georgia on Friday, USAID Administrator Samantha Power pointed to the food crises in Gaza and other parts of the world as she announced a $200 million investment aimed at increasing production of emergency nutritional paste for starving children under 5.

Power spoke to factory workers, peanut farmers and local dignitaries sitting among pallets of the paste at the Mana nonprofit in Fitzgerald. It is one of two factories in the U.S. that produces the nutritional food, which is used in clinical settings and made from ground peanuts, powdered milk, sugar and oil, ready to eat in plastic pouches resembling large ketchup packets.

“This effort, this vision meets the moment,” Power said. "And it could not be more timely, more necessary or more important.”

Under pressure from the U.S. and others, Israeli officials in recent weeks have begun slowly reopening some border crossings for relief shipments.

But aid coming through the sea route, once it's operational, still will serve only a fraction — half a million people — of those who need help in Gaza. Aid organizations including USAID stress that getting more aid through border crossings is essential to staving off famine.

Children under 5 are among the first to die when wars, droughts or other disasters curtail food. Hospital officials in northern Gaza reported the first deaths from hunger in early March and said most of the dead were children.

Power said the U.N. has called for 400 metric tons of the nutritional paste “in light of the severe hunger that is pervading across Gaza right now, and the severe, acute humanitarian crisis.” USAID expects to provide a quarter of that, she said.

Globally, she said at the Georgia factory, the treatment made there “will save untold lives, millions of lives.”

USAID is coordinating with the World Food Program and other humanitarian partners and governments on security and distribution for the pier project, while U.S. military forces finish building it. President Joe Biden, under pressure to do more to ease the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as the U.S. provides military support for Israel, announced the project in early March.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement Friday that offshore assembly of the floating pier has been temporarily paused due to high winds and sea swells, which caused unsafe conditions for soldiers. The partially built pier and the military vessels involved have gone to Israel's Port of Ashdod, where the work will continue.

A U.S. official said the high seas will delay the installation for several days, possibly until later next week. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operation details, said the pause could last longer if the bad weather continues because military personnel and divers have to get into the water for the final installation.

The struggles this week with the first aid delivery through a newly reopened land corridor into north Gaza underscored the uncertainty about security and the danger still facing relief workers. Israeli settlers blocked the convoy before it crossed Wednesday. Once inside Gaza, the convoy was commandeered by Hamas militants, before U.N. officials reclaimed it.

In Gaza, the nutritional treatment for starving children is most urgently needed in the northern part of the Palestinian territory. Civilians have been cut off from most aid supplies, bombarded by Israeli airstrikes and driven into hiding by fighting.

Acute malnutrition rates there among children under 5 have surged from 1% before the war to 30% five months later, the USAID official said. The official called it the fastest such climb in hunger in recent history, more than in grave conflicts and food shortages in Somalia or South Sudan.

One of the few medical facilities still operating in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan hospital, is besieged by parents bringing in thousands of children with malnutrition for treatment, the official said. Aid officials believe many more starving children remain unseen and in need, with families unable to bring them through fighting and checkpoints for care.

Saving the gravely malnourished children in particular requires both greatly increased deliveries of aid and sustained calm in fighting, the official said, so that aid workers can set up treatment facilities around the territory and families can safely bring children in for the sustained treatment needed.

Bynum reported from Fitzgerald, Georgia. Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power speaks with U.S. Rep. Austin Scott on Friday, May 3, 2024, during a tour of the factory where the nonprofit Mana produces emergency nutritional aid in Fizgerald, Ga. Power announced USAID is investing $200 million in emergency food aid for children in Gaza, Sudan and other countries where conflict has driven up need. AP Photo by Russ Bynum Sent from my iPhone

USAID Administrator Samantha Power talks with a worker Friday, May 3, 2024, during a tour of the factory where the nonprofit Mana makes emergency nutritional aid in Fitzgerald, Georgia. Power announced USAID is investing $200 million in emergency nutritional treatment for starving children as conflicts in Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere drive up the need. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)

USAID Administrator Samantha Power talks with Mana operations director Harry Broughton during a tour of its factory in Fitzgerald, Ga., that produces emergency nutritional aid for starving children, on Friday, May 3, 2024. Power announced USAID is investing $200 million to increase nutritional aid for starving children in Gaza, Sudan and other places where conflict has increased needs. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)

In this image provided by the U.S. Army, soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) and sailors attached to the MV Roy P. Benavidez assemble the Roll-On, Roll-Off Distribution Facility (RRDF), or floating pier, off the shore of Gaza on April 26, 2024. The U.S. expects to have on-the-ground arrangements in Gaza ready for humanitarian workers to start delivering aid this month via a new U.S.-backed sea route for Gaza aid. An official with the U.S. Agency for International Development tells the AP that humanitarian groups expect to have their part of preparations complete by early to mid-month. (U.S. Army via AP)