WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are pumping an unprecedented amount of money into advertising related to abortion. The spending underscores how central the message is to the party in the final weeks before the midterm elections. The most intense period of campaigning is only just beginning, and Democrats have already invested more than an estimated $124 million this year in television advertising referencing abortion. That’s twice as much money as the Democrats’ next top issue and almost 20 times more than Democrats spent on abortion-related ads in the 2018 midterms.

PONCE, Puerto Rico – The entire island of Puerto Rico lost power over the weekend as Hurricane Fiona brought havoc on Sunday, Sept. 18. Send Relief pre-positioned its response ahead of the storm’s landfall and has begun assessing the need.

NASHVILLE (BP) – Southern Baptists need to uphold and support Scriptural truth while maintaining love and cooperation, Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber said in addressing the SBC Executive Committee on Monday in Nashville. “You are just as much a defender of the truth when you argue for cooperation, as you are a defender of the truth when you argue for (Scriptural) purity,” Barber told the committee as it convened for its fall session.

NASHVILLE (BP) – In his Monday night plenary session address to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, Willie McLaurin urged Southern Baptists to continue to cooperate in carrying out their shared mission. McLaurin, interim president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, said just like the early church, the SBC must set the correct priorities during difficult times.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Authorities are making contact with some of the most remote villages in the United States to determine the need for food and water and assess damage from a massive weekend storm that flooded communities dotting Alaska’s vast western coast. No one has been reported injured or killed during the massive storm — the remnants of a typhoon that traveled north through the Bering Strait over the weekend.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona is raking the Turks and Caicos Islands as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says hurricane conditions are slamming Grand Turk, the British territory’s capital island. The government had imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas.

NEW YORK (AP) — Prime Minister Liz Truss kicked off her first visit to the United States as Britain’s leader with an admission that a U.K-U.S. free trade deal is not going to happen for years. On her way to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Truss said “there (aren’t) currently any negotiations taking place with the U.S., and I don’t have an expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term.”

IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Izium, in far eastern Ukraine, was among the first cities taken by Russian forces after the war started on Feb. 24 and became a command center for the occupying forces. By early March, the city was almost completely isolated — no cell phones, no heat, no power. Residents didn’t know what was going on in the war, whether their relatives were alive, or whether there was still a Ukraine.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A nighttime bus crash that killed 27 people in southwest China this week has set off a storm of anger online over the harshness of the country’s strict COVID-19 policies. The passengers on the bus were traveling to a quarantine location outside their city of Guiyang. Following public anger, Guiyang fired three officials in charge of Yunyan district, where the residents had been picked up.

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — College football coaches are notorious for hyping up their opponents with preposterous accolades. Still, it was a bit jarring to hear Kent State’s Sean Lewis sizing up the reigning national champion Georgia Bulldogs. He calls them "the greatest collection of talent ever assembled on a football team.”

ATLANTA (AP) — Kyle Wright won his major league-leading 19th game, Austin Riley and Eddie Rosario homered and the Atlanta Braves beat the Washington Nationals 5-2. The defending World Series champions won their ninth straight home game to improve to 92-55. Wright won his sixth consecutive decision, allowing two runs and eight hits with one walk and seven strikeouts in six innings.

ATLANTA (AP) — Marcus Mariota and the Atlanta Falcons have not found a way to win after two games filled with near-equal portions of encouragement and frustration. The Falcons showed admirable resiliency in trying to rally from a 28-3 deficit against the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.

CLAYTON, Ga. – A roll of toilet paper presented to leaders of Camp Pinnacle on Saturday was no gag gift. That became apparent when Georgia WMU President Lauren Sullens and Georgia Baptist Women strategist Beth Ann Williams saw “$25,000” written on the bathroom tissue.

MARIETTA, Ga. – As a pastor for over 40 years I encountered several people who were suffering from bipolar disorder. My heart went out to them because I could tell that they were in a merciless struggle for survival. They seemed to live at the mercy of their impulses. They were easily agitated and irritable. Their minds catastrophized everything that went slightly awry. I discovered that people who are beleaguered with bipolar have major manic and depressive episodes that are frighteningly alarming, and the whispering voice inside often insists that the only way of escape is suicide.

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – Going Deep is not just a book Clint May has written on children growing with God. It has been his driving vision for 20 years for children to share their Christian faith through hands-on experience in mission trips, evangelism, and other ministries. 

LONDON (AP) — Britain and the world are saying a final goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II at a state funeral that drew presidents and kings, princes and prime ministers. Crowds massed along the streets of London on Monday to honor a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an age. In a country known for pomp and pageantry, the first state funeral since Winston Churchill’s was filled with spectacle.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The family of a U.S. veteran and civilian contractor Mark Frerichs, held for more than two years in Afghanistan by Taliban, says he has been freed by the Taliban. Frerichs’ release appears to have been part of a swap and came as an imprisoned Taliban drug lord also said in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Monday that he had been freed from American custody. Frerichs’ sister said in a statement that her family had prayed every day for his release.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials say a Russian missile strike hit some 330 yards from a nuclear power plant in the country's south. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry called the attack an act of “nuclear terrorism.” Ukraine's atomic energy operator said the strike just after midnight Monday struck an industrial complex in the southern Mykolaiv region that includes the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant.

There’s just something about this place called Pinnacle. From the moment I first stepped foot on these grounds, I recognized that Pinnacle is a hallowed place – a place we regard as holy because of our personal encounters with the Living God on this hallowed ground, a place that belongs to God, and not to us.  We simply steward His gift. It is a place where God consistently meets our needs abundantly beyond all we ask or imagine.

TOKYO (AP) — A tropical storm slammed southwestern Japan with rainfall and winds, leaving one person dead and another missing. Residential streets were flooded with muddy water from rivers, and swathes of homes lost power. In Miyazaki prefecture, a man was found dead in a car sunk in water on a farm and another person was missing after a cottage was caught in a landslide.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A U.S. aircraft carrier is to visit South Korea this week for its first joint training with South Korean warships in five years in an apparent show of force against increasing North Korean nuclear threats. South Korea's navy says the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and its battle group will arrive at a South Korean naval base on Friday for a combined training meant to boost military readiness by the allies.

ATLANTA (AP) — Rookie Spencer Strider took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning and struck out 10, William Contreras hit a tiebreaking homer and the Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-2 for a three-game sweep. Strider didn’t allow a hit until Alec Bohm homered to tie the score 1-1.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit his 58th and 59th home runs of the season, moving within two of Roger Maris’ American League record with 16 games remaining. Judge’s 11th multihomer game tied the season record set by Detroit’s Hank Greenberg 1938 and matched by the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa in 1998. Seeking a Triple Crown, Judge leads the major leagues in homers and with 125 RBIs.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Flood waters are receding in parts of western Alaska battered by the worst storm in a half century. The storm left behind debris flung by powerful Bering Sea waves, the remnants of Typhoon Merbok, which was weakening Sunday as it moved north from the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Matthew Stafford threw for 272 yards and three touchdowns, Jalen Ramsey intercepted a potential go-ahead touchdown pass in the end zone and the Los Angeles Rams held off a second-half rally attempt by the Atlanta Falcons for a 31-27 victory. Cooper Kupp had two TD catches for the defending Super Bowl champions who bounced back from a disappointing defeat against the Buffalo Bills in their season opener.