LAS VEGAS (AP) — The NBA is coming off a massive financial year, with revenue topping $10 billion for the first time and basketball-related income reaching $8.9 billion, another record. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the numbers are particularly strong considering the league is still dealing with a pandemic, and it wasn't that long ago when some questioned whether sports could survive the virus — at least in the sense of whether people would want to gather again.

EL CAJON, Calif. (BP) – Meridian Village is a pilot housing program under construction behind Meridian Baptist Church. In partnership with the nonprofit housing advocacy group Amikas, the city of El Cajon, and social service agency Home Start of San Diego County, Meridian is hosting the pilot project that runs through December 2023 and will serve homeless single mothers and their children.

ATLANTA – The federal government is releasing monkeypox vaccine to Georgia in a phased approach. The state will receive 5,943 doses of the Jynneos vaccine from the Strategic National Stockpile during the first two phases, Dr. Alexander Millman, chief medical officer for the Georgia Department of Public Health, told the agency’s board Tuesday.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Military officials from Russia and Ukraine are set to hold their governments’ first face-to-face talks in months. They are meeting in Istanbul to discuss a United Nations plan to export blocked Ukrainian grain to world markets through the Black Sea. Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil. Russia’s invasion and war disrupted production and halted shipments, endangering food supplies in many developing countries and contributing to higher prices.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Surging prices for gas, food, and rent catapulted U.S. inflation to a new four-decade peak in June, further pressuring households and likely sealing the case for another large interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, with higher borrowing costs to follow. Consumer prices soared 9.1% compared with a year earlier, the government said Wednesday, the biggest 12-month increase since 1981, and up from an 8.6% jump in May.

LONDON (AP) — Conservative Party lawmakers in Britain are casting ballots in the first round of an election to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The internal party contest will replace the flamboyant, scandal-ridden Johnson with a new and much lesser-known prime minister. Eight candidates have secured the required backing to make the first ballot.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The office of Ukraine’s president says renewed Russian artillery barrages killed at least five civilians and wounded another 18 in the past day. Most of the deaths occurred in Donetsk province, which is part of a region where pro-Russia separatists have fought for eight years and the Kremlin is intent on capturing. Moscow is attempting to expand and consolidate its gains in the country’s east.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s president has fled the country without stepping down, plunging a country already reeling from economic chaos into more political turmoil. Protesters demanding a change in leadership trained their ire Wednesday on the prime minister and stormed his office. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife left aboard an air force plane bound for the Maldives. He made his prime minister the acting president in his absence.

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Surveillance footage captured the gunman in the Uvalde school shooting entering the building with an AR-15 style rifle and later shows officers in body armor milling in the hallway outside the fourth-grade classrooms where 19 children and two teachers were killed. The video was published Tuesday by the Austin American-Statesman.

Take a blend of red, white, and blue, mix in a hot and humid Atlanta morning, and add nearly 50,000 runners thrilled to see the July 4th tradition return to its normal format, and you get a sampling of the 53rd Peachtree Road Race.  The mid-summer event is a celebration.

While most Americans say religious liberty is on the decline in the country, even more believe Christians are increasingly confronted with intolerance in the U.S. But some say American Christians complain too much about how they are treated.

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — NASA has unveiled a new batch of images from its new powerful space telescope. Views released Tuesday included a foamy blue and orange shot of a dying star, five galaxies in a cosmic dance and a sparkling landscape of baby stars.

Twitter sued Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday to force him to complete the $44 billion acquisition of the social media company. Musk and Twitter have been bracing for a legal fight since the billionaire said Friday he was backing off of his April agreement to buy the company. In a fiery filing, Twitter accuses Musk of violating the merger agreement “because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The president of Sri Lanka has fled the country, days after protesters stormed his home and office and the official residence of his prime minister. That's according to an immigration official. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa left amid a three-month economic crisis that triggered severe shortages of food and fuel.

ATLANTA (AP) — Matt Olson hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the sixth inning, Adam Duvall went deep for two runs in the seventh and the Atlanta Braves beat the New York Mets 4-1. The defending World Series champion Braves trimmed the Mets’ NL East lead to 1 1/2 games, and the teams will play the rubber match of the three-game series Wednesday.

MACON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in February to sexually assaulting a girl while a missionary in Uganda. A federal judge in Macon, Georgia, sentenced 45-year-old Eric Tuininga last week. Tuininga must also pay $20,000 in restitution. Once out of prison, he must spend a lifetime on supervised release as a registered sex offender.

LITHONIA, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man became trapped while trying to crawl down through a vent from a strip mall roof into a pizza restaurant on Tuesday, forcing firefighters to slice open the …

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Georgia Baptists are being called on this year to provide a send-off to potentially dozens of new international missionaries who are being deployed to countries around the world, some to places so dangerous they have to hide their identities. The International Mission Board, which has begun holding “sending celebrations” as part of state Baptist convention annual meetings, chose Georgia to be the launching pad for the latest crop of missionaries.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A 500-year-old Orthodox icon that was looted from a church in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus has been returned to the island. The icon of the Enthroned Christ was presented at a ceremony Tuesday to the head of the island’s Orthodox Church.

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia police officer is being recognized for rescuing a 3-year-old boy wandering alone by a busy road. Stockbridge police officer Granville Barrett told WSB-TV he spotted the boy near Rock Quarry Road at midday Friday. He said 15 more minutes passed before a worker approached them from the ABC Early Learning Academy a quarter-mile away.

LONDON (AP) — Four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah says he was illegally brought to the U.K. as a young boy and forced to care for other children before he escaped a life of servitude through running. In a new documentary, Farah says his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and that he was from taken from the East African nation of Djibouti.

NASHVILLE (BP) – The weekday preschool ministry at Englewood Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, N.C., feeds approximately 60 children a day, a number that doubles in the fall. Food costs have always been a part of such ministries, but it’s just one of several areas where inflation has commanded more attention.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council has approval a resolution extending humanitarian aid deliveries to 4.1 million people in Syria’s rebel-held northwest in a victory for Russia. Tuesday's vote was 12-0, with the United States, Britain and France abstaining. Ireland and Norway had sponsored a resolution for a one-year extension vetoed by Russia but circulated a new draft Monday that provides for a six-month extension of deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing until Jan. 10, 2023.

Amazon is heading into its annual Prime Day sales event on Tuesday much differently than how it entered the pandemic. The company has long used the two-day event to lure people to its Prime membership. This year, it could help Amazon boost profitability amid a slowdown in overall online sales. That's quite a reversal from the early days of the pandemic when the e-commerce giant’s profits soared as homebound shoppers turned to online shopping to avoid contracting the coronavirus.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday that their forces targeted a Russian ammunition depot in southern Ukraine overnight, resulting in a massive explosion captured on social media. The Ukrainian military’s southern command said a rocket strike targeted the depot in Russian-held Nova Kakhovka, about 35 miles east of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, which is also occupied by Russian forces.