AP News Digest 7 a.m.

Here are the AP’s latest coverage plans, top stories and promotable content. All times EST. Find the AP’s top photos of the day in Today’s Photo Collection. For up-to-the-minute information on AP’s coverage, visit Coverage Plan in AP Newsroom.

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TOP STORIES

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MIDEAST-WARS-LEBANON-SHIITES — The Lebanese civilians most devastated by the Israel-Hezbollah war are Shiite Muslims, and many of them believe they are being unfairly punished because they share a religious identity with Hezbollah militants and often live in the same areas. Israel has concentrated its attacks on villages and neighborhoods where many Hezbollah militants operate from, and their families live side by side with large numbers of Shiites who aren’t members of the group. By Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb. SENT: 1,120 words, photos.

MIDEAST WARS-CEASEFIRE-EXPLAINER — Diplomats and other officials say there have been several sticking points in ceasefire talks in the war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, even as conditions for an agreement appear to be ripe. Israel’s military has killed nearly all of the militant group’s top leaders. Tens of thousands of Israelis who were evacuated from the border months ago are pressuring their government to go home. And the world wants to stop regional conflict from spreading after more than a year of fighting. By Abby Sewell and Tia Goldenberg. SENT: 1,130 words, photos. With MIDEAST-WARS-THE-LATEST — Middle East latest: Israeli ambassador to US says Hezbollah cease-fire deal could come ‘within days;’ EMIRATES-ISRAEL-SLAIN-RABBI — The United Arab Emirates arrests 3 Uzbek nationals for the killing of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi; and MIDEAST-LEBANON-JOURNALISTS — An Israeli strike that killed 3 Lebanese journalists was most likely deliberate, watchdog says — SENT.

TRUMP-CABINET — Donald Trump’s personnel choices for his new Cabinet and White House reflect his signature positions on immigration and trade but also a range of viewpoints and backgrounds that raise questions about what ideological anchors might guide his Oval Office encore. By Bill Barrow. SENT: 1,240 words, photos.

TRUMP-SENATE — The withdrawal of Matt Gaetz as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general serves as a reminder that the Senate is still relevant when it comes to installing a president’s Cabinet. Yet it may be only a preview of the pressure on Senate Republicans as they try to hold onto their constitutional role of giving “advice and consent” to the president’s administration. By Stephen Groves. SENT: 1,060 words, photos.

THANKSGIVING-TRAVEL — The Thanksgiving travel rush is expected to be bigger than ever this year. AAA predicts that nearly 80 million people in the U.S. will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday — most of them by car. Thanksgiving Day falling so late this year has altered traditional travel patterns. By David Koenig. SENT: 880 words, photos, video. With CHARLOTTE-AIRPORT-STRIKE — Charlotte airport workers strike at outset of busy Thanksgiving travel week — SENT.

LITHUANIA-PLANE-CRASH — A DHL cargo plane crashed into a house near the Lithuanian capital, killing at least one person. Lithuanian’s public broadcaster LRT, quoting an emergency official, said two people had been taken to the hospital after the crash, and one was later pronounced dead. LRT said the aircraft smashed into a two-story home near Vilnius International Airport. By Mindaugas Kulbis and Jon Gambrell. SENT: 260 words, photos.

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SPOTLIGHTING VOICES

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UNITED NATIONS-KILLING WOMEN AND GIRLS — Two U.N. agencies say an average of 140 women and girls were killed by an intimate partner or family member per day last year. By contrast, the vast majority of male homicides take place outside homes and families. The agencies reported approximately 51,100 women and girls were killed in 2023. By Edith M. Lederer. SENT: 390 words, photos.

HAITI-CHILD-RECRUITMENT — A new UNICEF report has found that the number of children recruited by gangs in Haiti has surged by 70% in the past year. The increase comes as poverty deepens and violence increases amid political instability. Gangs that control 85% of Port-au-Prince are attacking once peaceful communities in a push to assume total control of the capital. By Dánica Coto. SENT: 740 words, photos.

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RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR

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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR — Russia’s state news agency says a British national has been captured while fighting alongside Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region of Russia, which is partially occupied by Ukrainian forces. SENT: 580 words.

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MORE NEWS

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BARBARA-TAYLOR-BRADFORD-OBIT — Barbara Taylor Bradford, million-selling novelist known for ‘A Woman of Substance,’ has died at 91. SENT: 800 words.

NEW-ZEALAND-WHALE-STRANDING — New Zealanders help to save about 30 whales after a pod strands on a beach. SENT: 270 words, photos.

EMIRATES-MYSTERIOUS-MARAS — A desert oasis outside of Dubai draws a new caravan: A family of rodents from Argentina. SENT: 730 words, photos, video.

BRAZIL-LGBTQ+-PARADE — Rainbow-clad revelers hit Copacabana beach for Rio de Janeiro’s pride parade. SENT: 280 words, photos, video.

NEW ZEALAND--KIM DOTCOM-HEALTH — Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has suffered a serious stroke, a post on his X account says. SENT: 490 words, photo.

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NATIONAL

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NEIGHBOR-KILLING-FLORIDA — A white Florida woman who fatally shot a Black neighbor through her front door during an ongoing dispute over the neighbor’s boisterous children faces sentencing for her manslaughter conviction. SENT: 380 words, photo.

CALIFORNIA MENENDEZ BROTHERS — A judge will decide whether new evidence warrants a re-examination of the convictions of Erik and Lyle Menendez in the shotgun murders of their parents in their Beverly Hills home more than 30 years ago. Their defense attorneys say new evidence of sex abuse by their father should set them free. SENT: 600 words, photos.

NEWTOWN-SHOOTING-INFOWARS — A federal judge in Texas is set to hold a hearing on whether the satirical news outlet The Onion made a valid bid for the Infowars platforms of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones alleges a bankruptcy auction was marred by fraud and collusion. SENT: 720 words, photos.

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INTERNATIONAL

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PAKISTAN-LOCKDOWN — Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s imprisoned former premier Imran Khan have defied a lockdown and widespread arrests to head to the capital to demand his release. SENT: 550 words, photos.

INDIA-VIOLENCE — Authorities closed schools and suspended internet services in a northern Indian city, officials said, a day after four people were killed in clashes sparked by an official survey probing whether a 16th-century mosque was built on a Hindu temple. SENT: 380 words.

INDONESIA-FLASH-FLOODS — Indonesian officials say rescuers have recovered 16 bodies under tons of mud and rocks or that were swept away in flash floods that hit mountainside villages on Sumatra Island. SENT: 450 words, photos.

FRANCE-RAPE-TRIAL — A mammoth rape trial in France is moving into a new phase with prosecutors setting out the verdicts and punishments they want for 51 men men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband. SENT: 190 words, photos.

ITALY-G7 — Foreign ministers from the world’s leading industrialized nations are meeting in Italy. Hopes for brokering a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon are foremost on the agenda of the Group of Seven meeting outside Rome. SENT: 800 words, photo.

URUGUAY-ELECTION — Uruguay’s leftist opposition candidate, Yamandú Orsi, became the country’s new president in a tight runoff election that ousted the conservative governing coalition. SENT: 1,100 words, photos, video. With URUGUAY-ELECTION-YAMANDÚ-ORSI — Who is Yamandú Orsi, the next president of Uruguay? — SENT.

ROMANIA-ELECTION — Romania’s political landscape is reeling after a little-known, far-right populist secured the first round in the presidential election, going from an obscure candidate to beating the incumbent prime minister and a reformist politician. SENT: 450 words, photos.

JAPAN-SOUTH-KOREA-SADO — South Korea paid tribute to wartime Korean forced laborers at Japan’s Sado Island Gold Mines in a memorial ceremony, a day after boycotting a similar event organized by Japan, as tensions over historical atrocities continue to strain relations between the two sides. SENT: 550 words, photos, video.

PLASTIC-POLLUTION-TREATY — Negotiators are gathering in South Korea in what’s billed as a final push to address the global crisis of plastic pollution, the fifth time nations are convening to craft a legally binding plastic pollution treaty. SENT: 870 words, photos, video. With PLASTIC-POLLUTION-TREATY-EXPLAINER — SENT.

CAMBODIA-LAND-MINE-TREATY — The U.N. chief, Pope Francis and others are calling for nations to end the production and use of land mines, even as their deployment grows. They made the appeal at a conference on the 25-year-old Mine Ban Treaty that opened in Cambodia. SENT: 620 words, photos.

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TRENDS & CULTURE

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REBRANDING-AND-REALITY — A spate of iconic rebrands in recent weeks have left some people reeling in a consumerist society where what we buy says a lot about who we are. SENT: 960 words, photos.

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SPORTS

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EAGLES-RAMS — Saquon Barkley ran for touchdowns of 70 and 72 yards in the second half and finished with an Eagles-record 255 yards rushing in the streaking Philadelphia Eagles’ seventh consecutive victory, 37-20 over the Los Angeles Rams. SENT: 890 words, photos.

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HOW TO REACH US

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A performer poses for a photo during the 29th LGBTI+ Rio Pride Parade along Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride (85) is unable to make a catch in the endzone on the third down as Seattle Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen (27) defends during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Supporters of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) celebrate the victory of candidate Yamandú Orsi in the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Yamandu Orsi, candidate for the Broad Front (Frente Amplio), and running mate Carolina Cosse, left, celebrate their victory in the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Lithuanian Emergency Ministry employees work at the site where a DHL cargo plane crashed into a house near Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Fragments of a rocket which struck Dnipro on November 21 are seen at a center for forensic analysis in undisclosed location, Ukraine, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Men pray over the body before the funeral of a victim of an overnight Israeli strike, outside the hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Injured children during an overnight Israeli army strike are assisted upon their arrival at the hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

AVIGNON, France (AP) — A mammoth rape trial in France moved into a new phase Monday with prosecutors beginning to lay out the verdicts and punishments they want for dozens of men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband.

After hearings stretching over nearly three months, the trial of 51 defendants in the southern city of Avignon is beginning to wrap up. Pelicot’s courage during the harrowing proceedings has helped transform her into an icon, even beyond France, for campaigners fighting against sexual violence.

The public prosecutors started Monday by focusing on Dominique Pelicot, the man that 71-year-old Gisèle Pelicot was married to for nearly 50 years, believing he was a loving, caring husband.

But he has acknowledged that for years, he mixed sedatives into her food and drink, so he could rape her and also invite dozens of strangers that he recruited online to rape her, too.

Prosecutor Laure Chabaud asked the panel of judges for the maximum possible penalty for aggravated rape — 20 years — against Gisèle Pelicot’s now ex-husband. Dominique Pelicot, who turns 72 this week, stared down at the floor, one hand on the handle of his cane, as the prosecutor spoke.

“Twenty years between the four walls of a prison,” she said. “It’s both a lot and not enough.”

The court is expected to deliver its verdicts before Dec. 20.

Gisèle Pelicot has waived her right to not to be publicly identified and pushed for graphic images that her husband filmed of the rapes to be presented in the courtroom, showing that she was unconscious and inert, audibly snoring.

“This woman was you, Madame Gisèle Pelicot, an ordinary woman," said prosecutor Jean-François Mayet, turning to her, as he praised her courage Monday and her desire to make shame change sides, so it falls on rapists and not their victims.

He noted that Monday also marked the international day for the elimination of violence against women and said that France faces “a long path for our society to change its view of rape culture.”

Gisèle Pelicot sat quietly, sometimes staring up the ceiling, as the prosecutors detailed how Dominique Pelicot amassed and carefully catalogued a library of 20,000 photos and videos of the abuse that stretched over nearly a decade. The evidence that he stored on hard drives, memory sticks and phones led investigators to dozens of the men he recruited, although about 20 others haven't been identified.

All but one of the defendants are on trial for aggravated rape.

“When did they ask the question of Madame Pelicot's consent? Not before. Not during," Mayet said.

Pelicot has previously tearfully acknowledged in court that he’s guilty of the allegations against him. He said all of his co-defendants understood exactly what they were doing when he invited them to his home in Provence between 2011 and 2020 to have sex with his unconscious and unwitting wife, who divorced him after learning what he had done to her. He had no difficulty finding dozens of men to take part.

In previous weeks of testimony, many defendants told the court that they couldn’t have imagined that Dominique Pelicot was drugging his wife, and that they were told she was a willing participant acting out a kinky fantasy.

Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said the prosecutors' request for the maximum possible penalty against him was justified “in view of the gravity of the facts and the seriousness of the acts of which he is accused.”

“There’s no surprise in asking for 20 years, and that’s what I personally expected. But it’s still a shocking and heavy sentence for a man who’ll be 72 in a few days,” she said.

Associated Press video journalist Marine Lesprit contributed to this report.

FILE - Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now former husband so that he and others could assault her, arrives at the court house, in Avignon, southern France, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

FILE - Gisele Pelicot speaks to media as she leaves the Avignon court house, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)