Morning, y’all! Raise your hand if you’ve been victimized by Joro spiders. No, they’re not dangerous to humans, but they are invasive and, more importantly, very scary looking. These giant nuisances have doubled their numbers in Atlanta over the past three years. We have an uneasy truce with the Joro gang at my house: They get their half of the porch, we get ours.
Let’s get to it.
WORLD CUP WATCHDOGS
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Atlanta leaders have made a lot of promises ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup next summer. A new watchdog group, called Play Fair ATL, will make sure they deliver.
- World Cup host cities have to submit human rights plans to FIFA ahead of the tournament.
- Atlanta’s plan includes safeguards against human trafficking and protections for unhoused people and workers.
- Play Fair ATL includes input from labor, housing, immigration and criminal justice groups.
- The organization will also be paying attention to Downtown Rising, the city’s plan to offer housing and support to unhoused people ahead of the event.
Our main concern is that we end up with a World Cup that is built on the back of poor and low-income people to benefit the wealthy folks and the corporate invested interests in the city.
🔎 READ MORE: What other World Cup hosts get wrong that Play Fair ATL wants to get right
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INTERNATIONAL FIRMS HAVE SOME DOUBTS ABOUT GA
Credit: Corey Bullard/AP
Credit: Corey Bullard/AP
Here’s an important thing to remember about the recent immigration raid at a Georgia Hyundai battery plant site that kicked off tensions between South Korea and the U.S.: The plant is still under construction, and Korean nationals there had specialized tasks like supervising equipment installation and training new hires. So, when hundreds of them were sent back to South Korea, those procedures ground to a halt.
- Other international businesses are nervous about the same thing happening stateside.
- Several foreign companies, diplomats and experts told the AJC they have to worry about worker safety in a new way now when they’re thinking about U.S. opportunities.
🔎 READ MORE: Execs from India, South Africa and more weigh in
MIND HOW YOU GO
A few notes about your Atlanta commute:
- Sewer repairs will shut down portions of 10th street in Midtown near Piedmont Park for about a month. Good thing that’s not a really important, highly trafficked area! Details here.
- The revolving door is spinning some more at MARTA. The agency’s Chief Capital Officer and Chief Operating Officer are both out. Those positions oversee, well, capital projects and operations, both areas where MARTA has recently fallen short of commuter expectations.
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🛢️ More tariff roulette: President Donald Trump wants NATO countries to stop buying Russian oil, and threatened 50% to 100% tariffs on China for doing so.
🪖 Trump is sending the National Guard to Memphis. Tennessee’s Gov. Bill Lee says he’s working on the details with the president. Memphis Mayor Paul Young is not pleased.
🏈 Speaking of Tennessee, what do UT fans think about their old coach Derek Dooley running for Senate? “I hope he’s a better politician than football coach,” one said. Owie.
🗳️ Early voting is on for the special state Senate runoff between Republican Jason Dickerson and Democrat Debra Shigley. They’re vying for the Fulton-Cherokee seat. If you’re in Senate District 21, get out and vote!
MURALPALOOZA
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin/AJC
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin/AJC
It was a colorful weekend in Cabbagetown where 54 artists painted sections of a half-mile wall as part of an annual celebration of public and urban art.
The Forward Warrior project is especially cool because the actual process is part of the fun. People gathered to watch the artists balancing on scaffolds, wielding brushes and spray paint as they transformed Wylie Street with color.
🎨 READ MORE: Scenes from this year’s event
NEWS BITES
National Hispanic Heritage Month starts today
Celebramos a todos nuestros vecinos aquí!
The Falcons got a win against the Minnesota Vikings
I actually typed this before the game ended. I’m manifesting it. If you’re reading this in the morning, it worked.
The Atlanta Dream won their first playoff game since 2018
Heck yes. The girls had it on lock against the Fever and are now eyeing a series win.
So many students are using AI, schools have to redefine what constitutes cheating
Enjoy your soft, untested brains, kids! The only person you’re cheating is you.
Our kids believe. I believe in them. They believe in each other ... I'm so happy right now.
Key had a lot of lovely things to say, and now Tech’s ranked!
ON THIS DATE
Sept. 15, 1959
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
From the front page of The Atlanta Journal: Who was Mark Twain? 3 Atlanta frogs flex space legs. Three Atlanta frogs are poised to add their fantastic bit to the world’s already fantastic collection of frog-lore. The local frogs, all from Emory University, are to jump 300 miles into space and 1,500 miles downrange across the Atlantic in a Jupiter rocket firing at Cape Canaveral, Fla. ... This will be the most celebrated frog jump since Mark Twain’s days in Calaveras County. The frog in Twain’s 1865 story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” didn’t jump much at all. He was loaded down with a buckshot. But the world’s literature can take in stride the Canaveral contribution.
What an incredible few paragraphs. The writer, John Hurt III, goes on to pull a few other literary frog references, and we are all the better for it. Frog-lore springs eternal.
ONE MORE THING
Sometimes I think about soccer balls too much and get overwhelmed. A soccer ball is a common example of a spherical polyhedron, where a regular combination of polygons fit neatly over the surface of a sphere. See, you’d think you could tile a sphere with hexagons. It seems natural, but you can’t! The fact that pentagons have to be in this particular mix is enraging.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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