KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s nuclear energy operator says a team from the U.N. nuclear agency has arrived at the site of Europe’s largest nuclear plant to inspect security conditions that forced the shutdown of one reactor. Enerhoatom said the team from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived Thursday at the Zaporizhzhia plant that has been in the thick of recent fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces more than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine.

NEW YORK (AP) — Serena Williams eliminated No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 in the U.S. Open’s second round to ensure that the 23-time Grand Slam champion will play at least one more singles match. The 40-year-old Williams has hinted this will be the last tournament of her illustrious career.

At 5:30 a.m., it was still pitch dark.  Ink black.  Heading to Lick Creek for a RAM dental clinic last Saturday morning, I told myself more than once that I was on the right road.  But it was hard to tell. Still miles from the clinic location, I came upon a temporary traffic light on the winding road.  Orange barrels had been set up.  The red light glared in the darkness warning me to stop.  No one else was around.  Looking at the clock, I pondered how long it would take.  A car pulled up behind me.  I felt the pressure to move.  Still the light glowed bright “Do Not Go” red.

It’s great to see Georgia Baptist churches getting behind the Mission Georgia offering in a big way this year. And why not? The Mission Georgia offering provides churches a means to make a huge gospel impact in our state. With the pandemic subsiding and worship attendance on the rise, churches are poised to potentially top the $1.25 million given last year through the Mission Georgia  offering.

ATLANTA (AP) — Kyle Wright pitched seven scoreless innings to earn his major league-leading 17th victory, Austin Riley and Ronald Acuña Jr. homered, and the Atlanta Braves beat the Colorado Rockies 3-2. The defending World Series champion Braves avoided their first four-game losing streak since Sept. 14-18, 2021. Atlanta, with the NL’s third-best record at 80-51, remained three games behind the New York Mets in the East Division.

The Southeastern Conference has a national championship quarterback, a Heisman Trophy winner and a collection of talented passers both new and old. The group is headlined by Alabama’s Heisman winner Bryce Young and Stetson Bennett, who led Georgia to the national title over Young & Co. But it hardly stops there. There are established starters at Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi State.

Veteran quarterbacks are plentiful in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season. In all, 12 of 14 teams have at least one quarterback with nine or more career starts. That list is headlined by Louisville's Malik Cunningham with 38 starts. The list includes preseason league player of the year Devin Leary for No. 13 North Carolina State.

STATESBORO, Ga. (AP) — A biracial man who says he was fending off a racist attack when he fired a gun into a pickup truck on a Georgia highway has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter for killing one of the truck's teenage passengers. The jury verdict in Statesboro spared 23-year-old Marc Wilson from a felony murder conviction sought by prosecutors. Defense attorneys acknowledged during the weeklong trial that Wilson fired the shot that killed 17-year-old Haley Hutcheson in June 2020.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Gathering for the first time in person in 2022, Lifeway Christian Resources trustees heard how God has been faithful to the organization through a challenging season and is providing direction for an exciting future, according to president and CEO Ben Mandrell.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Atlantic hurricane season has been oddly quiet. There's been a record-tying zero storms formed in August, which normally is the beginning of peak season. What's really strange is that all the major factors for a busy season are there: warm water, low winds and a La Nina. All the experts predicted this would be a more active than normal season, but then nothing happened.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky will receive up to 300 donated travel trailers from Louisiana to shelter people displaced by flooding that ravaged parts of Appalachia. The governors of both states made the announcement Wednesday. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says the first 65 donated trailers are being transported this week to eastern Kentucky. He says more trailers will be sent to the region in phases.

ATLANTA – The University of Georgia is ranked 10th on a new list of top public colleges and universities in the country. The list, released by the rankings platform Niche this week, rates more than 500 schools based on academic, admissions, financial, and student life data from the U.S. Department of Education. UGA scored high marks for academics, value, diversity, and athletics.

ATLANTA (AP) — A skyscraper under construction in downtown Atlanta briefly caught fire Wednesday. Flames were visible from the roof, sending a dark column of smoke into the sky. Firefighters extinguished the blaze. The 32-story tower under construction is slated to be an 835-bed residence targeted for Georgia State University students.

ATLANTA – Two Georgia veterans lent their support this week to the use of the psychedelic drug psilocybin in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Following multiple combat deployments, Ethan Whitfield and Marcus Capone traveled outside of the U.S. for counseling and treatment of their PTSD with psilocybin after standard drugs failed to treat their severe depression. Both reported instant results following just one “dosing” session.

COLQUITT, Ga. (AP) — Gov. Brian Kemp has suspended a Georgia sheriff facing charges of sexual battery and violating his oath of office. Kemp signed an executive order Monday suspending Miller County Sheriff Richard Morgan for 60 days. The order calls for the chief judge of the Pataula Judicial Circuit in rural southwest Georgia to appoint an interim sheriff to serve in Morgan's absence. Miller was arrested Aug. 10 by Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents.

DULUTH, Ga. – With the pandemic subsiding and worship attendance on the rise, churches are poised to potentially top the $1.25 million given last year through the Mission Georgia offering. Congregations are gearing up to receive special offerings for Mission Georgia during September, the month designated by the Georgia Baptist Convention for that purpose.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. life expectancy dropped for the second consecutive year in 2021, falling by nearly a year from 2020. That's according to a new government report. In the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the estimated American lifespan has shortened by nearly three years. The last comparable decrease happened in the early 1940s, during the height of World War II.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Officials in Pakistan are raising concerns about the spread of waterborne diseases among thousands of flood victims as waters from powerful monsoon rains began to recede in many parts of the country. Massive flooding from the rains since mid-June has killed at least 1,162 people, a phenomenon experts blame on climate change. Some doctors said Wednesday that initially they were seeing mostly patients traumatized by the flooding. But now they're treating people suffering from diarrhea, skin infections and other waterborne ailments in the country’s flood-hit areas.

KIBBUTZ REVADIM, Israel (AP) — Israeli archaeologists recently unearthed the titanic tusk of an extinct pachyderm near a kibbutz in southern Israel. The Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday that the 2.5-yard long fossil belonging to the long-extinct straight-tusked elephant was found during a joint excavation with researchers from Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University.

BUNOL, Spain (AP) — People from around the world pasted each other with tomatoes as Spain’s famous “Tomatina” street tomato fight took place once again following a two-year suspension owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Workers on trucks unloaded 130 tons of over-ripe tomatoes along the main street of the eastern town of Bunol on Wednesday for participants to throw, leaving the area drenched in red pulp. Up to 20,000 people were to take part in the festival, paying $12 a ticket for the privilege.

CHARSADDA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani flood survivors recount how the surging waters were like nothing they had ever seen before, striking their homes swiftly and brutally. Rubina Bibi, a 53-year-old, says when the floods hit her village last week, they swept away her 5-month-old granddaughter, sleeping in her house's yard, so quickly her stunned family couldn't rescue her.

BERLIN (AP) — Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, is for many the man who restored democracy to many European countries under communist rule. He is being saluted as a rare leader who changed the world and for a time brought hope for peace among the superpowers.

LA PORTE, Texas (AP) — The greatest challenge in recent years for the only surviving battleship that served in both world wars has been a leaky hull that's raised concerns it could sink. Now the foundation in charge of the USS Texas' care is towing it Wednesday from its longtime home along the Houston Ship Channel to a shipyard in Galveston for much-needed repairs.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — United Nations inspectors are making their way toward Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Theirs is a long-anticipated mission to help secure the Russian-held facility in the middle of a war zone and avoid catastrophe. Underscoring the danger, Kyiv and Moscow again accused each other on Wednesday of attacking the area around Europe’s biggest nuclear plant.

Georgia officials say it could be months before an animal sanctuary reopens after being closed by bird flu among wild vultures roosting there. A note on the Noah’s Ark website says the site will be closed until Sept. 30. The state veterinarian says birds housed at what state officials describe only as a non-commercial flock in Henry County will be quarantined for at least five months.