SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge in California has ruled three golfers who joined Saudi-backed LIV Golf will not be able to compete in the PGA Tour’s postseason. U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman made her decision in San Jose after attorneys for the sides each spoke for about an hour.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Idols don’t always come in the form of carved statues or reside in places of worship. Many pastors believe modern-day idols can be benign-looking desires with significant influence on people in their congregations.

NASHVILLE (BP) – In the midst of the back-to-school season, Southern Baptist churches are loving and serving the students, teachers and schools in their communities. Churches are meeting needs in a variety of ways including hosting back-to-school bashes, offering free school supplies and giving away free backpacks.

Police have announced a breakthrough in the killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A man from Afghanistan — himself a Muslim — was charged Tuesday with two of the slayings, and authorities identified him as a prime suspect in the other killings that put the entire community on edge. Muhammad Syed, who is 51, was taken into custody a day earlier after a traffic stop more than 100 miles away.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Ahmaud Arbery is being honored by his hometown after stiff sentences for hate crimes against the white men who chased and killed him. Dozens of people joined Arbery's family on a sweltering street corner Tuesday as Brunswick city officials unveiled signs designating a 2.7-mile roadway as Honorary Ahmaud Arbery Street. Arbery was fatally shot on Feb. 23, 2020, after being chased by three men in pickup trucks who wrongly suspected him of committing crimes.

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — An independent commission says renaming nine U.S. Army posts that commemorate Confederate officers would cost $21 million. The name changes would lead to the rebranding of everything from welcome marquees and road signs to water towers and hospital doors. The Naming Commission released its final report to Congress on recommending the new Army base names Monday.

FORTH WORTH, Texas - More than 100 Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist College students and family members benefited from this year’s annual Supply Day, held Monday at …

NEW ORLEANS (BP) – New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College recently announced an increase in the missionary scholarship for active International Mission Board personnel and returning International Service Corps personnel and Journeyman missionaries to cover 75 percent of tuition and fee costs.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans may finally be catching a break from relentlessly surging prices — if just a slight one — even as inflation is expected to remain painfully high for months. Thanks largely to falling gas prices, the government’s inflation report for July, to be released Wednesday morning, is expected to show that prices jumped 8.7% from a year earlier — still a sizzling pace but a slowdown from the 9.1% year-over-year figure in June, which was the highest in four decades.

DETROIT (AP) — Drivers lined up to get free gas in Detroit from a man who spent eight years in prison before he was cleared of four killings. Davontae Sanford limited the $25,000 offer to women and older men. Drivers lined up early Tuesday and Sanford says the city had his back "so it’s only right" that he give back to vulnerable residents.

WASHINGTON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia dairy farm has been fined after a release of food waste caused a fish kill. It's a rare instance of the government getting involved with a practice that counties can’t regulate despite chronic complaints from residents. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division fined McAvoy Farms, also known as Mar Leta Farms, $5,000 after nearly 1,700 fish died in the Little River in Wilkes County on June 16.

ATLANTA (AP) — The University of Georgia is starting a $68.5 million project to overhaul its football stadium, making it easier for Bulldogs fans to get around and building more suites for premium donors. University System of Georgia regents voted Tuesday to approve the plan for Sanford Stadium. It will be paid for with private donations and borrowing by the private UGA Athletic Association.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – This year’s Georgia Baptist Convention annual meeting is being moved from Augusta’s Marriott Convention Center to nearby Warren Baptist Church, a move that will provide significant cost savings. “We’re grateful for the hospitality of the people at Warren Baptist,” said Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director W. Thomas Hammond Jr. “They have everything we’re looking for in an annual meeting venue – a spacious sanctuary, plenty of meeting rooms and ample parking.”

Serena Williams says she is preparing to step away from tennis after winning 23 Grand Slam titles, turning her focus to having another child and her business interests. “I’m turning 41 this month, and something’s got to give,” Williams wrote in an essay released Tuesday by Vogue magazine. Williams said she does not like the word retirement and prefers to think of this stage of her life as “evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”

The birds no longer sing. The cows die. And if the people in this northern Myanmar forest complain, they too face the threat of death from militias. This forest is the source of key metallic elements known as rare earths, often called the vitamins of the modern world. Rare earths turn up in everything from hard drives to elevators and are vital to the fast-growing field of green energy. But an AP investigation found their cost is environmental destruction, the theft of land and the funneling of money to brutal militias.

PARIS (AP) — French environmentalists will try to move a dangerously thin beluga whale that strayed into the Seine River last week to a saltwater river basin to try and save its life. The mammal measures 13 feet and an environmentalist said Tuesday that the whale will be transported there for “a period of care” by medics who suspect it is sick.

DETROIT (AP) — A tax credit of up to $7,500 could be used to defray the cost of an electric vehicle under the Inflation Reduction Act now moving toward final approval in Congress. But the auto industry warns that the vast majority of EV purchases won’t qualify for a tax credit that large. That’s mainly because of the bill’s requirement that, to qualify for the credit, an electric vehicle must contain a battery built in North America with minerals mined or recycled on the continent.

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (AP) — Atlanta Falcons left guard Jaylen Mayfield has returned to practice after missing time with a lower back injury. It’s not known if Mayfield will be able to play Friday night in the first preseason game at Detroit. Mayfield started all but one game a year ago.

DUNCANSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Researchers are seeking thousands of volunteers in the U.S. and Europe to test the first potential vaccine against Lyme disease in 20 years. The shot developed by Pfizer and French biotech Valneva aims to block Lyme spread while a tick is biting. The new study will test three initial doses between now and next spring, and then a booster dose a year later.

The killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are sending fear through Muslim communities across the U.S. First was the death of a Muslim man from Afghanistan late last year. Then came two more slayings in the last two weeks — men from Pakistan who attended the same mosque. Those deaths were followed Friday by the city’s fourth homicide of a Muslim man in nine months.

After the disruption of online learning, first-year college students are arriving arrive on U.S. campuses unprepared for the demands of college-level work, experts say. Colleges from New Jersey to California have expanded summer bridge programs aiming to get students up to speed in math and English before they arrive this fall.

DALLAS (AP) — A Southwest Airlines flight attendant suffered a compression fracture in her back during a hard landing last month in California. Federal safety investigators say the jolt was so strong that the flight attendant thought the plane had crashed.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli troops killed three Palestinians in a shootout in the occupied West Bank, during an arrest operation in the city of Nablus. Israel said its troops killed two Palestinian gunmen in the clashes in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's presidential office says Russian shelling killed at least three civilians and wounded 23 others in the past day, including an attack not far from a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant. The governor of Ukraine's southern Dnipropetrovsk region said Tuesday that the Russians fired over 120 rockets from Grad multiple rocket launchers at Nikopol, a town across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Some of the heaviest rain in decades has swamped South Korea’s capital region, turning streets into car-clogged rivers and sending floods cascading into subway stations. At least nine people were killed — some drowning in their homes — and more rain was forecast.