News - Friday, September 18, 2026

Maxwell Duryea was waiting for the sun to rise.

His 16 mm camera was pointed at birds perched on power lines in Chattanooga, an ordinary image at the beginning of an ordinary day. But Duryea had been warned about filming in some of the places he was visiting. Standing there with his camera could attract the wrong kind of attention.

Gin Phillips was on her stomach in a cave, crawling into a slot in a rock barely two feet high.

The Birmingham, Alabama, novelist had signed up for a three-hour wild caving expedition at Raccoon Mountain in Chattanooga, where walking wasn’t always an option. There were times when she crawled on her belly and scrambled on her hands and knees. At one point, she used her hands and feet to bridge her body across a chasm.

In today’s data-driven economy, communities are increasingly grappling with questions about data centers, from proposed developments to their impact on local housing, infrastructure and quality of life.

While data centers are not new, their role in everyday life has grown dramatically. The first U.S. data center was built in 1945 at the University of Pennsylvania for military research. Since then, advances in computing, the rise of the internet and the proliferation of smartphones have made data centers essential infrastructure supporting everything from online banking to artificial intelligence.

The Hamilton County Election Commission has approved ballots and early voting locations for the Nov. 3 state and federal general election.

The ballot includes races for governor, U.S. Senate and House, state Senate and House, as well as municipal elections in Collegedale, East Ridge, Lakesite, Red Bank, Ridgeside, Signal Mountain, Soddy-Daisy and Walden.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee will host its annual public reading of the U.S. Constitution on the courthouse steps of the Joel W. Solomon Federal Building, 900 Georgia Ave., Sept. 18, 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. The public is invited to participate by reading one of 110 brief segments of the Constitution, assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Participants may arrive at any time during the event while readings remain available. Information

Researchers from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Marmara University in Türkiye have received a U.S. design patent for a wearable device intended to help people with essential tremor.

Essential tremor is a neurological movement disorder that can cause involuntary shaking during voluntary movements, making everyday activities such as eating, drinking, writing and using a computer difficult.

The intimate setting of the Hunter Museum of American Art will once again become a stage for some of the world’s leading chamber musicians when String Theory at the Hunter launches its 18th season in October.

Presented in partnership with Lee University, the 2026-27 season will feature six concerts and 21 internationally acclaimed musicians, with programs ranging from Bach and Schubert to bluegrass, American spirituals and a Grammy-nominated contemporary percussion work.

Move over angry and frustrated Titans fans, you’re about to have some new company: Apathetic Titans fans.

If most Titans weren’t already apathetic based on the last four seasons, the team did very little to slow them from arriving at that point with their season opener on Sunday.

It might not be time to give up on Cam Ward, but it is officially time to be worried.

One game into his second season, the 2025 No. 1 overall pick is exhibiting some of the same concerns that dogged him during his rookie season.

Ward wasn’t accurate in his season debut, missing a handful of throws that simply had to be completed. He and the offense were ineffective and boring.

Can the Titans bounce back from an objectively awful opener to have a competitive game against an upper-echelon opponent like the Philadelphia Eagles? Here are some keys to the Titans getting their first regular-season win of the 2026 campaign.

First down

Fix the run defense. The Titans allowed the lowly Jets to run for 152 yards in the season opener, and while Breece Hall is a nice back, he’s not Saquon Barkley. Robert Saleh is big on rotating his defensive linemen to keep them fresh, but the drop-off when Jeffery Simmons wasn’t on the field in the opener was highly noticeable vs. the Jets.

Shopping for a used vehicle can be nerve-wracking, even for seasoned veterans. Regardless of how well you know the mechanical workings of the modern automobile, buying a used car is always a gamble. If you’re one who likes to minimize risk, buying a certified preowned model can reduce some of the uncertainty.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people applying for unemployment benefits dropped sharply last week, another sign that layoffs remain rare and most Americans enjoy job security.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims slid to 196,000, the fewest since mid-July and down from 206,000 the week before. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, dropped to 203,250.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Thursday was considering an attempt to resurrect new Missouri congressional districts backed by President Donald Trump, even though the U.S. Supreme Court blocked those districts from being used in the November election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — About six weeks ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh announced that a divided central bank was keeping its key interest rate unchanged.

But on Wednesday, the Fed's rate-setting committee unanimously agreed to a rate hike, and nearly all policymakers signaled that a second increase later this year would likely be appropriate.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market rallied to its best day in six weeks Thursday after falling oil prices and easing pressure from the bond market helped Wall Street reverse many of its moves from the prior day.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.1% for just its second rise in the last nine days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 316 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.7%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days' notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it as President Donald Trump has threatened.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said his ruling would "avoid any confusion on that score given more recent events," including the sudden closure of the building to the public on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Thursday that it was withdrawing its nomination of Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ensuring that an agency at the forefront of President Donald Trump's domestic agenda will remain without a Senate-confirmed leader for at least a while longer.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has approved visas for top Iranian officials, including the president and foreign minister, to attend next week's U.N. General Assembly high-level meeting in New York even as the two countries are locked in a stalemated war.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has struggled to pass major legislation this year, putting off debates on annual spending, defense, cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence. But in its final weeks in session as the midterm elections approach, the Senate can agree on doing one thing — addressing college sports.

The College Football Playoff says it can't change the outcome of any games played during the regular season but notes that its selection committee relies on various measures beyond wins and losses.

The CFP issued its statement on Thursday, following the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee's announcement a day earlier that it also doesn't have the authority to overturn the result of No. 19 Michigan's controversial 13-12 victory over Western Michigan on Sept. 5.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge who blocked the creation of a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" for compensating President Donald Trump's political allies wasn't swayed by a government attorney's assurances Friday that the administration has abandoned the concept.

NEW YORK (AP) — America: land of possibility. And also: land of suckers.

Our enduring belief that anything is possible — whether based in reality or not — has helped the nation become the world's largest economy. It has also led us to fall head over heels for hucksters and charlatans, again and again.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Killing endangered animals while logging a forest or building a dam would not be considered illegal unless the animals were specifically targeted, under a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act by President Donald Trump's administration that marks a sea change in how the landmark environmental law is enforced.

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the U.N. health agency is hailing "encouraging signs" in the fight against an Ebola outbreak in one part of eastern Congo, while warning that case counts are rising fast in another as officials race to tamp down the virus.

Jon Stewart says he never really decided to focus his charity efforts on first responders and their families. It just happened.

The award-winning host of "The Daily Show" said he wanted to feel useful and support people who dedicated their lives to helping others.

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III on Thursday urged senior leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Nvidia to make sure that artificial intelligence remains under control and in the service of people and the planet.

The gathering in Scotland was convened to discuss how AI can benefit society, and comes at a pivotal moment for the technology as debate swirls around whether rapid advances will soon put it beyond the ability of humans to rein it in.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's central bank on Friday raised the benchmark interest rate to 1.25% from 1.0%, a 31-year-high.

The Bank of Japan has been trying to normalize monetary policy after decades of keeping interest rates near or below zero to try to encourage more borrowing and spending to counter deflation and pull Japan's economy out of the doldrums.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Todd Blanche is blurring traditional boundaries between politics and federal law enforcement with recent speeches at political events that mark a sharp departure from norms meant to protect the Justice Department from the appearance of partisan bias.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tensions are mounting between the Pentagon and Congress over the flow of information to lawmakers about the U.S. military's priorities, with both Democrats and Republicans accusing a Defense Department leader of being frustratingly opaque.

HENRICO, Va. (AP) — In-person voting for this year's midterm elections began Friday, ushering in the final six weeks for Americans to decide which party they trust to lead Congress through a cost-of-living crisis, a prolonged war in Iran and other pressing issues.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top official at the U.S. Postal Service said Thursday that the agency has stopped work on developing a controversial computer system that was central to President Donald Trump's effort to limit mail voting after the Supreme Court rejected his executive order this week.

As President Donald Trump tries to convince voters that Democrats have let crime run amok, he's digging into the country's political past to reference one of the most controversial campaign advertisements that relied heavily on racist tropes.

During a campaign stop Wednesday in Gastonia, North Carolina, to stump for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, Trump resurrected a 1988 George H.W. Bush presidential campaign ad featuring Willie Horton, a Black man convicted of rape and assault after his release through a Massachusetts prison furlough program.

The Trump administration illegally terminated a $7 billion Solar for All program intended to make solar power accessible to more than 900,000 lower-income Americans, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled Friday.

The Environmental Protection Agency rescinded the Solar for All funds in August 2025 after President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending law passed in Congress a month earlier, with Administrator Lee Zeldin calling the Biden-era grant program a "boondoggle."

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he was banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House due to what he called unfavorable coverage, and threatened that more such media prohibitions could be coming — offering his administration's latest test of constitutional First Amendment protections guaranteeing the freedom of the press.

CHICAGO (AP) — As Paramount looks to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, it's racked up billions of dollars in financial backing from three Gulf countries. And the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has now approved the company's ask for sizeable indirect ownership from those foreign investors.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to announce Friday that all 50 states will join in on a program set to provide most favored nation pricing to some drugs within the Medicaid program, bringing the net price of selected drugs down to prices paid in certain other countries.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has rolled out formal guidance for mandatory testosterone testing for male service members 30 and older, a policy that leaves out women for now and faces questions from medical experts about the need and efficacy of such a program.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street closed out an up-and-down week with a mixed finish for U.S. indexes as bond yields rose and oil prices swung.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.4%.

COMSTOCK, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration has started building the border wall through a west Texas section of the Big Bend region, marking the first major construction in an area of the U.S.-Mexico border where the administration's plans have met with heavy opposition.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni had only one thought with his offense on the field on a day so hot he needed intravenous fluids to cool off.

Play to win.

Jalen Hurts threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Darius Cooper with 9 seconds left, and the Eagles beat the Tennessee Titans 24-20 on a steamy Sunday when the temperature on the artificial turf was measured at 157 degrees Fahrenheit.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Sam Surridge scored in the first half and Brian Schwake finished off his league-leading 12th clean sheet of the season as Nashville SC clinched a playoff spot and remained unbeaten at home with a 3-0 victory over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night.

Three of the top four seeds in the College Football Playoff would be from the Southeastern Conference and two Big 12 teams would be in the bracket based on The Associated Press Top 25 poll released Sunday.

Texas, Georgia, Notre Dame and Mississippi would be the top four seeds and Indiana, Miami, Ohio State and Alabama would host first-round games.

Mississippi moved into the top five with its win over LSU, the Tigers stayed in the top 10, and Florida and Mississippi State cracked the rankings to give the Southeastern Conference 10 teams in The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll released Sunday.

NEW YORK (AP) — CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Monday sued President Donald Trump's administration days after they were barred from covering the White House, calling the selective ban an illegal action and "a blatant violation" of the First Amendment.

EDINBURG, Texas (AP) — Quinten Martinez, pumping gas under a hot South Texas sun, remembers a time when fueling up didn't require difficult decisions.

"Is it going to be groceries this week?" asked the 28-year-old Amazon delivery driver as he watched the numbers tick higher. "Is it gonna be getting gas in our tank to go to work?"

NEW YORK (AP) — The Gates Foundation is convening Anthropic, Google, OpenAI Foundation and dozens of other organizations to help make artificial intelligence more accessible in underrepresented languages.

The partners — 60 in total, according to Monday's announcement — include frontier AI labs, corporations, philanthropies and others already working to expand the number of languages available in AI tools that the Gates Foundation believes could combat global inequality. The coalition aims to reach more than 3 billion people over five years by better coordinating existing efforts.

NEW YORK (AP) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday the U.S. has proposed a new "notification mechanism" for artificial intelligence incidents that could affect national security, part of weekend discussions ahead of talks at the White House this week between President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding thousands of detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, an unannounced move that has made it far more difficult for lawyers and relatives to find them, according to current and former officials familiar with the practice.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Federal Reserve official said Monday that the central bank may have to cause economic pain in the form of higher unemployment to combat stubbornly high inflation.

Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said in a speech in London that the Fed is facing a series of persistent supply shocks that have driven up inflation, including higher oil prices from the Iran war and tariffs. Typically, Goolsbee noted, the central bank would essentially wait for such shocks to fade and inflation to fall on its own rather than raise borrowing costs.

TORONTO (AP) — For nearly four decades, Canada built its economy around closer integration with the United States. President Donald Trump has turned that dependence into leverage, imposing tariffs, threatening Canada's sovereignty and openly seeking to pull Canadian industrial production south.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch officials are preparing for the United States to impose a tough new round of sanctions on the International Criminal Court as it seeks to dismantle the global tribunal over what the Trump administration sees as overstepping its authority.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, world leaders meet at the United Nations this week facing new fears that runaway artificial intelligence could threaten humanity even as climate shocks and escalating prices are already making life much tougher for hundreds of millions of people.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Before taking over the sprawling Justice Department investigation into foes of President Donald Trump, Joe diGenova decried the lack of progress in bringing indictments.

Five months later, diGenova has left his position without charging a single case, clouding the future of an investigation that has animated right-wing commentators eager to prove an ill-defined theory of a "deep state" conspiracy to take down the Republican president.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump first ran for office, he called out China as a menace to the U.S. economy, saying it had gutted America's factories and eroded the middle class.

That tough talk helped Trump get to the White House a decade ago, but since then, he increasingly speaks in glowing terms about Chinese President Xi Jinping, the geopolitical rival Trump will fete on Thursday with a state dinner.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Communism, President Donald Trump says, is the greatest threat the U.S. has ever faced.

This summer, citing similarly grave concerns, he took the rare step of delivering a primetime address to the nation, accusing China of "sinister election meddling" in 2020 and reviving his yearslong push to dispute his loss in that year's election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that the massive arch he wants to build between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery would become a "top grade military complex" able to host drones and snipers while storing ammunition.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will meet with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani when Trump travels to the city for the upcoming U.N. General Assembly.

The meeting is scheduled for Monday and at Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence, according to Anna Bahr, Mamdani's communications director.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has renewed his attacks on the Federal Reserve after it hiked its benchmark interest rate Wednesday, but the Fed matters less than broader economic trends when it comes to longer-term borrowing costs, economists say.

CHICAGO (AP) — Twelve states and Hollywood writers challenging Paramount's buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to settle their lawsuits on Monday, effectively paving the way for the $81 billion mega merger to cross the finish line, with some new commitments from the company. The blockbuster deal will still bring together two of Hollywood's oldest studios, key TV networks like CBS and CNN and streaming platforms HBO Max and Paramount+, as well as decades-old libraries with titles ranging from "Harry Potter" to "Top Gun."

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street climbed to the edge of its all-time high, and stocks rallied worldwide after oil prices and yields in the bond market surrendered their market-rattling gains from last week.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.5% Monday and pulled within 0.4% of its record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 2.3% as chip stocks led the way.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump showed off his new White House helicopter landing pad on Monday, attempting to brush aside a First Amendment firestorm even as major television networks kept their cameras away in protest of CNN being banned from the grounds.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Fans made very clear they wanted the Nashville Predators to hire a new general manager with no ties to David Poile or Barry Trotz, eager for someone with fresh ideas and connections to revive or rebuild the franchise.

Flights were taking off and landing at New York City-area airports Tuesday with some delays and cancellations, after hours of disruptions resulting from damaged communications lines at a key air traffic control facility in Philadelphia that were later repaired.

NEW YORK (AP) — Movie studio Paramount on Monday agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by 12 states, the last big obstacle blocking the company's $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal that would transform the movie industry landscape.

The White House press pool, a rotating cast of news outlets that covers the president, is now a battleground over free speech rights between President Donald Trump and the media.

On Monday, the issue headed for the courts as CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the administration over being barred from the White House and, they contend, denied their First Amendment rights. CNN was banned from its scheduled pool duty for the day — and the pool announced that it was canceling its coverage of Trump.

BEIJING (AP) — China said Tuesday that it is now requiring permits for exports to the United States, Mexico and Canada of two additional chemicals that can be used to make illegal drugs, expanding controls on shipments to the three countries.

The Commerce Ministry and other authorities jointly announced the new regulations ahead of this week's meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump. The additions bring the number of chemicals under such controls to 18.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union and the Philippines have reached substantial agreement on a new free trade deal, the latest bilateral agreement that Brussels is pursuing as it seeks to diversify its economy amid tensions with traditional trading partners including China, Russia and the United States.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Donald Trump Jr. used his proximity to the presidency for financial benefit, after his recent wedding party was partially bankrolled by a Russian oligarch.

BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. and China have made uneven progress in fulfilling the trade commitments announced after their two leaders met in Beijing in May.

As U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping sit down in Washington this week, the question is whether their second face-to-face meeting this year can jolt their governments into moving forward on issues ranging from exports of beef and Boeing aircraft to artificial intelligence.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — With North Korea refusing dialogue and ramping up its provocative missile tests, South Korea's liberal President Lee Jae Myung is pushing for a step-by-step effort to end a decades-long standoff over the North's nuclear program.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — There is not much that diplomats can agree on these days. But if asked about the state of the world ahead of the annual meeting at the U.N. General Assembly, heads of state and government and ministers alike will describe a globe in massive turmoil.

LONDON (AP) — At the height of tensions among NATO allies over U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated calls for Greenland to become U.S. territory, he posted online a map of the island covered in the colors of the American flag.

That potentially perilous fight now appears to have been averted after Greenland, Denmark and the United States announced a deal over the future of the icy, mineral-rich territory.