Wake Up - Wednesday, September 9

Three stories worth knowing, the Atlanta details that can actually affect your day, and deeper reporting waiting on the web.

Now 71°F · FairToday High 91° · Low 71°Plan No meaningful rain issue today; hotter and stormier late weekMorning A baseball oddity worth appreciating: on Monday, Nashville left-hander Thomas Pannone retired all 27 Durham hitters on just 94 pitches. It was only the fifth nine-inning perfect game in International League history.Today Atlanta starts around 71°F and should reach about 91°F under sunshine. Tonight falls back near 71°F. Rain is not the planning issue today.

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Front Page · Front Page · Reuters

The Iran war has crossed a new line: the shipping lane itself is now under attack

Five Iranian tankers sunk, ten ships targeted near Hormuz, Brent above $100 — the energy shock is no longer just a risk around the Strait.

The U.S.–Iran war moved into a materially more dangerous phase overnight: the United States says it sank five Iranian oil tankers after missile attacks on a U.S. Navy ship, while Iran retaliated against ten vessels near the Strait of Hormuz and fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan.

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Front Page · Reuters

Google just bought something AI companies increasingly need: decades of electricity certainty

A €13 billion Finland buildout comes with a 22-year nuclear contract covering up to half of the Loviisa plant — a useful look at what the AI race is becoming underneath the software.

Google announced €13 billion of AI infrastructure investment in Finland for 2027–2028 and paired it with its first nuclear power deal outside the United States: a 22-year agreement with Fortum tied to the Loviisa plant.

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Exterior of the Atlanta City Detention Center: curved gray concrete facade with small square windows, glass doors, a red column, and stairs with railings; granite sign reads ATLANTA CITY DETENTION CENTER.

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Front Page · Axios

Atlanta and Fulton have finally agreed on the $68 million city-jail price — but the sale is not done yet

Mayor Andre Dickens accepted Fulton County’s offer for the Atlanta City Detention Center, pushing a years-long fight into its formal-approval phase.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has accepted Fulton County’s $68 million offer to buy the Atlanta City Detention Center downtown. Fulton has leased space there since 2022 to relieve overcrowding at the Rice Street jail.

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Technology & Making

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Technology & Making · Reuters

Qualcomm just bought itself a very expensive ticket out of the smartphone box

Amazon can purchase up to $60 billion of Qualcomm AI-data-center products, while Qualcomm grants Amazon warrants worth roughly $4 billion.

Qualcomm and Amazon struck a long-term AI-chip agreement that lets Amazon purchase up to $60 billion of data-center chips and related products. Qualcomm also gave Amazon warrants to buy roughly $4 billion of its stock at $161.26 a share.

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Technology & Making · Reuters

China may be putting a “show me revenue” test on the humanoid-robot boom

After Unitree’s spectacular rise and 45% slide, regulators are reportedly raising the bar for robot startups seeking public listings.

Chinese regulators are reportedly tightening IPO scrutiny for humanoid-robot companies after Unitree Robotics surged more than fivefold in its Shanghai debut and then fell about 45%.

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Technology & Making · Reuters

The next U.S.–China AI fight is over whether “learning from a model” becomes copying one

U.S. agencies accuse DeepSeek, Moonshot, Alibaba and others of industrial-scale misuse of American models; Beijing calls the allegations unfounded.

U.S. security agencies accuse several Chinese AI developers of using large-scale model distillation to extract capabilities from leading American systems. The companies named include DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Alibaba.

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Atlanta

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Atlanta · Atlantanewsfirst

Atlanta private parking lots are getting a rulebook drivers can actually see

Clear prices, payment methods, a grace period and a dispute path are coming under the city’s newly approved Parking Bill of Rights.

Atlanta City Council unanimously approved Ordinance 26-O-1370, the Parking Bill of Rights, aimed at private parking lots. Operators must make prices and accepted payment methods visible, provide customer-service information and give drivers a grace period to leave if…

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Atlanta · Aso

Tonight is an unusually easy Atlanta date-night option: the ASO is free in Piedmont Park

No tickets, 7:30 p.m. on Oak Hill, with Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi and Smetana under the “City in the Forest” theme.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra plays a free concert at Piedmont Park tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are not required; seating on Oak Hill is first-come, first-served.

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Atlanta · Itsmarta

MARTA parking gets $2 more expensive Monday — and the free window gets much shorter

Paid long-term lots rise to $7 or $10 a day on September 14, while the free period at those facilities drops from 24 hours to 14.

MARTA says long-term parking rates at paid facilities increase by $2 per day starting Monday, September 14: $5 lots become $7 and $8 lots become $10.

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National League East

Team	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Away	L10
Braves	85	61	.582	-	48-26	37-35	4-6
Phillies	82	64	.562	3.0	41-33	41-31	6-4
Marlins	72	75	.490	13.5	43-32	29-43	3-7
Mets	68	78	.466	17.0	34-40	34-38	7-3
Nationals	67	81	.453	19.0	33-40	34-41	2-8

WATCHING

On the Sports feed

ESPN · Sports · Auburn Tigers Football

Mississippi State Bulldogs vs Auburn Tigers

Record 5-4 · 10th in SEC · Sat, November 14th at 12:00 PM EST

Auburn visits Mississippi State in SEC play Oregon's 'Shoe Ducks' jab at Ohio State tops college football Week 10 trolls

Sports

Sports · Reuters

Braves status: 85–60, exactly 4 games ahead after Tampa Bay’s four-homer ambush

The Rays beat Atlanta 7–1 in the series opener. The division cushion survives, but the Braves have now dropped two straight at home-and-away transition time.

Tampa Bay hit four home runs and beat Atlanta 7–1 Tuesday night. Junior Caminero’s 455-foot shot was his 39th homer, and Braves starter AJ Smith-Shawver allowed four runs in 3⅓ innings.

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Discovery

Discovery · Reuters

Indonesia’s fires just became the world’s biggest carbon-emissions event of the week

Fire emissions hit 19.7 million metric tons of CO₂ from September 1–7 — more than ten times Russia’s level — as extreme drought hits Borneo and Sumatra.

Indonesia produced an estimated 19.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from wildfires in the first week of September, the highest fire-emissions total in the world for that period.

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Opportunity Radar

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Opportunity Radar · Atlantanewsfirst

The Parking Bill of Rights creates a tiny software business with a 180-day sales window

Private lot operators now need signage, disclosures, customer contact, grace-period logic and a dispute process. Package the boring compliance work.

Customer: small parking operators, property managers and local commercial owners running private paid lots in Atlanta.

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Especially worth your time

Front PageThe Iran war has crossed a new line: the shipping lane itself is now under attack →Front PageGoogle just bought something AI companies increasingly need: decades of electricity certainty →Front PageAtlanta and Fulton have finally agreed on the $68 million city-jail price — but the sale is not done yet →

THE LIGHTER END

The Curious Page

News of the Weird

A $10.5 million art heist that lasted under three minutes

Two thieves stole four Renoirs from a small museum on the French Riviera Tuesday. Police arrived quickly enough that they abandoned two paintings in the garden; two remain missing. The irony of stealing famous art is that its fame makes it extraordinarily hard to sell.

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Fun Fact

Venus wins the slow-motion contest

Venus rotates so slowly that one rotation takes longer than one trip around the Sun — in other words, a Venusian day is longer than a Venusian year.

This Day in History

The first enemy air raid on the U.S. mainland

September 9, 1942: a Japanese floatplane launched from submarine I-25 dropped incendiary bombs on an Oregon forest. The attack caused no lasting damage, but it became the first wartime air attack on the U.S. mainland.

♍

VIRGO

Today's horoscope

Today rewards choosing the goals that are actually paying you back. Progress is available, but some ambitions may need to be released because they have consumed too much time for too little return. Confidence rises as the day goes on; collaboration is favored this evening, while fragile plans are better kept flexible than forced.

Astrology.com · Virgo →

USEFUL THIS MORNING

What to Watch Today

Today

Atlanta starts around 71°F and should reach about 91°F under sunshine. Tonight falls back near 71°F. Rain is not the planning issue today.

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1:00 PM ET

Apple’s September event begins. Yesterday’s preview still stands: if you are considering Apple hardware, wait for the announcements before buying.

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7:15 PM ET

Rays at Braves at Truist Park. Atlanta enters 85–60 and exactly four games ahead of Philadelphia.

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7:30 PM

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra plays a free, no-ticket-required concert on Oak Hill in Piedmont Park. Arrive early for the best view.

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