News - Friday, September 25, 2026

The secret to carving Dolly Parton into a cornfield, Dianne Fetzer says, is knowing a little algebra.

Once her likeness is replicated, the trick is keeping track of the people who wander into her hair.

“We check every Thursday to make sure nobody’s left behind,” Fetzer says.

A Chattanooga-area house had been home to the same family for 45 years.

By the time Realtor Bekah Cochran became involved, however, the family was facing a difficult transition.

The owners were aging and needed assisted living. Their daughter and son-in-law were helping them make the transition, and Cochran began working with the family to figure out what to do with the home.

A foundational principle of our democratic republic is that the will of the people is the basis of the government’s authority. This principle is one of the “self-evident” truths in the Declaration of Independence: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Is the market slowing down, or is it simply giving buyers and sellers a little more breathing room?

August’s numbers suggest there’s still plenty of activity in the Chattanooga region. Pending sales increased, inventory grew and prices continued to rise, even as homes spent a little more time on the market.

The Trust Company of Tennessee has hired Deena Turner as a relationship manager.

Turner brings 30 years of experience in financial services, insurance and relationship management. In her new role, she will work with clients to identify and pursue their financial and retirement goals.

National Park Partners will kick off the 21st season of the Rita Vital Memorial Moccasin Bend Lecture Series at 7 p.m. at the Tennessee Aquarium River Journey Auditorium. Dr. Brett Riggs, a noted research archaeologist at Western Carolina University and leading scholar of Cherokee archaeology and history, will present “Fort Armistead and the Cherokee Removal,” exploring the Tennessee site’s role in the forced removal of Cherokee people in 1838 and its later use during the Civil War. Admission is free thanks to the support of Tennessee Rep. Greg Vital, but seating is limited and advance registration is required to guarantee a spot.

Tennessee residents whose driver’s licenses have not been recognized or accepted by Transportation Security Administration scanners can receive replacement licenses at no charge.

The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security says a small number of state-issued driver’s licenses are not being recognized by TSA. The department is reviewing the affected licenses to determine the cause and correct the issue.

A fire engine approached a downtown Chattanooga intersection the morning of Sept. 16, but instead of relying solely on motorists to notice its flashing lights, hear its siren and get out of the way, the truck communicated directly with the traffic system.

EPB has launched an IonQ quantum computer at its Chattanooga quantum center, adding commercial quantum computing to the quantum networking capabilities already operating at the facility.

The IonQ Forte Enterprise computer went online Friday, Sept. 18, at the EPB Quantum Center. According to EPB, the addition makes the center the first U.S. facility to provide commercial access to both a trapped-ion quantum computer and a photonics-based local quantum network.

Feeling financially fulfilled means so much more than just the number in your bank account. It’s about being able to take your family out to dinner without calculating whether you can afford it. It means sleeping soundly on a Sunday night, knowing that if the water heater gives out tomorrow, you can handle it. And it’s saying yes to a vacation because you planned ahead and the money is there.

What are we to make of the Tennessee Titans’ improved play?

Is it a real, sustainable stride forward that could eventually lead to wins down the road? Or was Sunday’s late loss to the Philadelphia Eagles just more of the fool’s gold the Titans have shown us in early season games the past couple of years?

Sunday is going to be a reunion for many when the Tennessee Titans visit the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium.

Several Titans players and coaches made the trek south when former Giants coach Brian Daboll came to Tennessee to be the Titans’ new offensive coordinator.

The Titans hit the road in search of their first win of Robert Saleh’s tenure as head coach and will try to secure that win in the same stadium where Saleh was head coach of the New York Jets.

Granted, it will be the Giants as the opponent, and the two sides are quite familiar with each other. Here is a look at what the Titans need to do on Sunday to secure that win.

Crossovers have become a popular choice for buyers who want the practicality of an SUV without the size and expense of a larger vehicle. For many shoppers, that means finding a vehicle that’s easy to live with, offers enough room for everyday duties, keeps fuel costs in check and provides the versatility to be useful for a range of needs.

Man, your dogs are tired. They started howling about halfway through your day and you can’t wait to kick off your shoes, shed the socks or stockings and relax.

Then, you’ll put a couple blocks of foamy plastic on your feet and read in the new book “Croc,” by George “Boe” Boedecker, Jr., about those “ugly” shoes.

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have one of the NFL's most respected special teams coordinators and a kicker with a strong leg.

Yet they're struggling mightily when it comes to kickoffs.

"We need to get better at it," Titans coach Robert Saleh said. "We need to make teams return the kick, we need to cover kicks, we need to find ways to create advantageous situations coming off a kickoff."

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Republican California sheriff must return more than a half-million ballots he seized for an investigation into unfounded voting improprieties in a special election last year, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco in February seized approximately 650,000 ballots from a November 2025 special election on statewide congressional redistricting favorable to Democrats and pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The measure easily passed statewide, and won in Bianco's county by roughly 80,000 votes.

NEW YORK (AP) — Three news organizations banned from the White House for days were back Thursday, after a judge handed CNN, MS NOW and Politico a reprieve in an extraordinary showdown between President Donald Trump and outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Energy Department said Thursday that it will spend almost $2 billion to try to squeeze more electricity out of the nation's aging and stressed power grid, as President Donald Trump's administration steps up efforts to avoid blackouts amid skyrocketing energy demand spurred by artificial intelligence.

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 83 tons of meat are being recalled across the U.S. because the products were not properly inspected by federal authorities and were shipped out with falsified inspection stickers, the Department of Agriculture said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration voiced support for the safety of long-established vaccines at a hearing Thursday, even as senators questioned her about the White House's efforts to upend childhood immunizations.

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's cybersecurity agency on Thursday released an election infrastructure security plan 40 days before November's midterms, laying out potential threats to election systems and listing services it would offer to election officials to protect the vote.

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly everyone will feel the impact of what's going on in the bond market, no matter how far away and abstract it may seem.

Bond yields have jumped to their highest levels in roughly two decades, and that affects anyone who borrows money. That includes discouraged people trying to keep up with high inflation, as well as businesses wanting to build data centers for artificial-intelligence technology.

NEW YORK (AP) — After whipping through a couple sudden reversals, stocks ended a shaky day of trading on Wall Street Thursday roughly where they began.

The S&P 500 finished nearly flat and edged down by less than 0.1% following several turns between losses and gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 161 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite added less than 0.1%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed the "truly great friendship" he has forged with Xi Jinping as the Chinese leader began his highly anticipated state visit by pressing for the world's two biggest economies to work more closely together to avoid friction as they compete.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite rising political anxiety over the Iran war, senators on Thursday narrowly rejected a war powers resolution seeking to halt President Donald Trump 's military action, which has been largely blamed for the spike in gas prices and become a flashpoint in the midterm election.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas coach Steve Sarkisian knows what to expect when President Donald Trump attends Saturday's game at Tennessee.

Apart from the extra security measures, Sarkisian is anticipating problems communicating with his team.

"The one thing that you have to be aware of when the president goes to any game is that any time he enters the stadium, leaves the stadium or changes locations within the stadium, they cut all communication," Sarkisian said during a Zoom call on Thursday. "So they cut your headsets. They cut the headsets to coaches. They cut headsets for coach-to-player communication. So you have to have a plan for that, if and when it happens, and you get no warning. It just gets cut out."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI employees involved in the criminal investigation into President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in a broad Florida-based conspiracy probe, their lawyers revealed Thursday as they asked a judge to clarify whether they can testify without violating an order restricting the release of information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration voiced support for the safety of long-established vaccines at a hearing Thursday, even as senators questioned her about the White House's efforts to upend childhood immunizations.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new flu vaccine that tested well in older adults. But the federal agency responsible for telling doctors and the general public how to use it has made no recommendation on it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For decades, a key principle underpinned civil rights enforcement in American schools: Not all discrimination was intentional.

Even if a school policy was written without overt racial bias, it might unfairly hurt one group of students over another, the understanding went. The concept is known as systemic racism, and Republican and Democratic administrations agreed: Schools and universities that received federal funding had an obligation to address it.

NEW YORK (AP) — Some of the loudest cheers for Sen. Ted Cruz at the Republicans' recent midterm convention in Dallas came after the Texas politician targeted Muslim Americans and their faith's religious code.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A tech-heavy guest list, the fashion choices of those on it, who sat where and what was on the menu marked the softer — often and glitzier — details of diplomacy as Donald Trump threw a Thursday night state dinner honoring China's leader Xi Jinping.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump showed off some of his favorite things at the White House for the visiting leader of communist China on Thursday — bringing him inside his Marine One helicopter and exhibiting a new granite landing pad he built for it, along with the hulking, nearby construction site that will one day be a ballroom.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is taking Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit the National Archives on Friday, showing off the sacred texts of U.S. democracy to the leader of the world's most powerful communist country to cap off a three-day state visit criticized for being heavy on pomp and light on substance.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump warmly welcomed Chinese leader Xi Jinping with a personal airport greeting, a tour of his new helipad and a candlelit dinner. But outside the White House, protests against Xi continued almost nonstop Thursday during his state visit.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats are pressing for answers from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over what they describe as a previously undisclosed change to the ethics agreement he made before being confirmed, which they say calls into question his credibility and the integrity of his decisions.

JERUSALEM (AP) — As the U.S.-created Board of Peace pushes ahead with plans to rebuild Gaza, it has said there's no place for the U.N. body that for decades has provided support to displaced Palestinians. But the agency's last chief says that behind the scenes, board members and others have been more open to working with the U.N. agency for Palestinians than it seems.

NEW YORK (AP) — A cooldown in oil prices on Friday helped release some of the pressure that's built up on Wall Street, and U.S. stocks closed out their first winning week in the last three.

The S&P 500 added 0.5% to break a three-day losing streak marked by big swings due to rising yields in the bond market. Despite the week's uneasiness, the main measure of the U.S. stock market's health pulled back within 0.7% of its all-time high set last month.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday lifted restrictions on a controversial federal voter database before November's elections, granting President Donald Trump a temporary win in his aggressive campaign against noncitizen voting.

The court's three liberal-leaning justices publicly dissented from the decision.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is poised to pass a sweeping bipartisan bill on Monday that would regulate college sports, an attempt to end "chaos" in an industry that has been upended by skyrocketing athlete payments and near-unrestricted transfers between schools.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Cam Ward looked to have finally figured it out after a slow start, engineering one touchdown drive in the fourth quarter and marching down the field on the way to scoring again and leading the Tennessee Titans to a comeback victory.

Florida made a massive jump in The Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday and landed in the top 10 for the first time in five years while four new teams joined the rankings in a major shuffle.

The Gators' 24-point win over then-No. 4 Mississippi under first-year coach Jon Sumrall on Saturday earned them a 13-rung promotion to No. 8, their highest ranking since 2020 and first top-10 appearance since 2021.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration released new fuel economy standards Monday that relax regulatory requirements for automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and light trucks.

Fuel economy requirements set out how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline. The change furthers President Donald Trump's promise to revoke policies that encouraged or created incentives for the production of electric vehicles.

SpaceX launched its enormous Starship into orbit for the first time Monday and successfully delivered the most advanced Starlinks yet, but cut the flight short to ensure safety.

The spacecraft reentered over the Pacific and splashed down north of Hawaii three hours after blasting off from Texas. The company had been aiming for a 10-hour flight, spanning six full laps around Earth, to prove its readiness for NASA's Artemis moon program.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump had plans to dine late Sunday with the CEO of Anthropic, one of the leading voices on artificial intelligence but also someone who's sparred with the Trump administration over the military's potential use of AI.

NEW YORK (AP) — OpenAI said it has paused training of its latest artificial intelligence models as reports of AI agents going rogue mount.

The decision to halt development came just hours after the company disclosed Friday that it was reviewing several incidents from the summer in which OpenAI agents searching federal government websites acted in unexpected ways beyond what was asked of them while gathering and distributing information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is using taxpayer funds to air a television advertisement from Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign in the latest in a series of ads promoting the president ahead of the midterms that the White House maintains are "public service announcements."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Long before he was the top official at the U.S. Postal Service, David Steiner was a corporate executive surfing mid-oughts television when he came across Donald Trump on "The Apprentice."

CAIRO (AP) — Mediators are still working with Iran and the United States on brokering a deal to end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz — even after U.S. President Donald Trump publicly rejected Iran's latest proposal, three regional officials and a senior U.S. official told The Associated Press.

HONG KONG (AP) — The United States and China released Monday reciprocal lists of products worth about $30 billion each that will see tariff cuts, from American hair products to Chinese toys, in a deal expected to boost bilateral trade.

The details came days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with President Donald Trump in Washington in his first state visit to the U.S. since 2015. The U.S. had already reduced tariffs against China after Trump's tariffs reached as high as 145% at one point last year, as tensions between the two countries eased.

MILAN (AP) — The U.S. company building the new American consulate in Milan has agreed to a nearly 31-million-euro ($35 million) settlement that includes back pay and damages to foreign workers who prosecutors allege were paid less than $2 an hour, officials said Monday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart is aiming to assuage customers' fears about its new pricing technology as it rolls out digital price labels at its stores.

In a statement posted on the company's website, Walmart Inc.'s CEO John Furner vowed that the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer isn't using personal information like income, shopping history or a customer's willingness to pay to set prices, and it won't be doing so in the future either.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has asked Chinese President Xi Jinping if he wanted to buy weapons from the United States, the U.S. ambassador to China said.

David Perdue said Trump raised the prospect of the arms sales from the U.S. to its ascendant geopolitical rival, an unlikely offer that if consummated would upend generations of U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan and expose U.S. technology to a potential foe. Perdue, speaking to Shannon Bream on Fox News Channel's "Fox News Sunday" days after Trump hosted Xi for a state visit in Washington, didn't specify when the offer was made.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — On paper, South Carolina might be an odd place for Democrats to converge to campaign for midterm candidates. Republicans dominate state politics, and there's slim chance of that changing this year.

But South Carolina is also the first state in Democrats' next presidential nominating process, so White House hopefuls are looking for any excuse they can find to pop over.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are preparing a vast oversight agenda, with investigations of President Donald Trump, his family and his administration if the party sweeps control of the chamber from Republicans in the November elections.

The undertaking is as robust as it is daunting, spanning several House committees. With majority power comes bigger budgets and staff, and the ability to investigate, subpoena and potentially course-correct what the Democrats say are widespread corruption and abuses of power. Impeachment of the Republican president and Cabinet officials is not off the table.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — No. 17 Tennessee's successful onside kick against top-ranked Texas was incorrectly officiated, according to the Southeastern Conference.

The kick with 1:22 left on Saturday should have been flagged for a five-yard penalty and the down replayed because the ball was not kicked from the 35-yard line, the conference said in a statement on Monday. The ball also should not have been moved once was it was deemed ready for play by the officials.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recused himself Monday from a major climate-change case after facing calls to step aside due to stock holdings in oil companies.

A letter posted in the case did not specify a reason, but the conservative justice has previously recused himself from other cases involving companies where he holds stock.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Christa Pike was 18 when she killed a classmate in a jealous rage and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. Now 50, she is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday in what would be Tennessee's first execution of a woman in 200 years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to let it enforce, for now, restrictions on gender-affirming care in federal prison.

The emergency appeal comes after lower courts blocked officials from immediately carrying out the policy adopted after an executive order from President Donald Trump.

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV said Monday that concerns about artificial intelligence going rogue are not "fake news" and should be taken seriously, insisting that safety issues raised by AI experts should be discussed and acted on.

Leo, who dedicated his first encyclical to AI and protecting humanity in its wake, was asked during a press conference about what the United States and China especially should be doing to prevent AI from posing catastrophic risks to humanity. President Donald Trump has called concerns about AI going rogue a "hoax."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Andrew Bailey, one of the FBI's two deputy directors, announced Monday that he was leaving the position after just over a year on the job and would be returning to Missouri to spend time with his family.

NEW YORK (AP) — Yields in the U.S. bond market again reached their highest levels in roughly two decades and knocked U.S. stocks further from their record high.

The S&P 500 fell 0.8% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.9%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump disputed that he asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping if he wanted to buy weapons from the United States, contradicting an account from the U.S. ambassador to China.

Trump on Monday acted confused when a reporter asked him about Ambassador David Perdue's remarks over the weekend, suggesting the diplomat was confusing China with Taiwan. But then Trump said "maybe it's a good idea" to make such an offer to China.

The Southeastern Conference has experienced a steady drop in the number of players from its own states who stay close to home to play in the conference since the dawn of the name, image and likeness era that turned college sports upside down, an Associated Press analysis of recruiting data has found.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a sweeping bipartisan bill on Monday that would regulate college sports, an attempt to end "chaos" in an industry that has been upended by skyrocketing athlete payments and near-unrestricted transfers between schools.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — College football coaches have one thing off their overflowing plates.

In an era that has added revenue sharing, NIL and the transfer portal to day-to-day duties, coaches no longer need to decide if seldom-used players — usually, freshmen — should appear in four or fewer games to redshirt and gain an extra year of eligibility.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday blocked the authority of President Donald Trump's administration to withhold some federal counterterrorism funding from states that don't meet its election administration demands.

Courts have largely rejected the administration's previous efforts, which reflect untrue claims about widespread voting fraud and come ahead of November's midterm elections where Democrats seek to take control of one or both chambers of Congress and check Trump's power.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer who backed President Donald Trump's false 2020 election claims has resigned from a Justice Department investigation into whether former government officials conspired against the Republican president, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In Eastern Kentucky, Libby Honeycutt listened upstairs to the sound of glass breaking below as floodwaters tore apart her house. Twenty-six miles to the south, Ronald Conley rescued his dogs from his elevated house with a pontoon boat. Jennifer Campbell heard the screams from across the river of a neighbor desperate for rescue.s

NEW YORK (AP) — Immanuel Wilkins was riding the Amtrak from New York to Philadelphia when he got a call from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. But he said he had to wait to deboard the train to find out if it was life-changing news or not.

NEW YORK (AP) — The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation unveiled its 2026 class of fellows on Tuesday, an interdisciplinary list of 20 individuals ranging from artists to scientists.

The recipients will receive $800,000 over the next five years for them to spend as they please. The prize, often called a "genius" grant, is the result of a yearslong selection process that considers a wide range of recommendations. Fellows do not apply or participate in any way. Many express shock upon learning of their selection, a recognition that often yields new opportunities on top of the monetary award.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cassie Reed and her two young children had just moved from a domestic violence shelter into a third-floor apartment in Spokane, Washington, when she spotted a soon-to-open Head Start preschool on the building's ground floor.

Much of Reed's first three decades of life had been shaped by abuse and neglect: first, she says, at the hands of her biological mother, then in foster care and, when she became an adult, in a series of romantic relationships. She had lost custody of three older children a decade earlier, in part because she lacked stable housing. By March 2022, when she had finally landed an apartment in a transitional housing program, she had lost all faith in herself.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union nations have spent over an extra 100 billion euros ($113.5 billion) on energy imports since the outbreak of the Iran war, pushing politicians to seek alternatives to fossil fuels as prices skyrocket.

Consumers in some European countries pay nearly 50% more at the pump, equivalent to more than $11 a gallon, following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passed in peacetime.

ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans once saw Georgia and North Carolina as promising pieces of their strategy to keep control of the Senate. But hopes of winning the two states have been fading, and the GOP is increasingly focused on playing defense elsewhere with five weeks until the midterm elections.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans' confidence in the economy sank to the lowest level in more than a decade this month as prices remain elevated and wages stagnate amid the ongoing Iran war.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index tumbled 6.7 points to 81.9 in September, down from 88.6 in August. That's the lowest reading in the board's survey since April 2014 and below the lowest level reached during the pandemic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers posted fewer job openings in August, but the American labor market remains resilient in the face of higher energy costs caused by the fighting with Iran.

U.S. job openings slid to 7.08 million from a revised 7.34 million in July, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. Openings came in below the 7.2 million that forecasters had expected and were the lowest since they hit 6.9 million in March.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-Canada relations, already tense, are likely to deteriorate further after the United States went ahead early Tuesday with a decision to ban nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian imports, including alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles.

NEW YORK (AP) — Smart ring maker Oura Inc. says it is postponing a planned initial public offering due to market "uncertainty."

In a Tuesday press release, Oura said it's delaying the IPO "despite strong demand."

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday announced a new $15 billion steel plant being built in Iowa, highlighting an economic victory in a key battleground state where Republicans face competitive midterm races.

Trump announced the new plant at an Oval Office event alongside steel executives and Iowa Republicans, including two running for office. The event highlighted Iowa's elevated status for Republicans and for Trump, who on Monday pledged to campaign there in coming weeks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has lauded its revamped website America.gov as a way to simplify Americans' access to information and services scattered across a plethora of agency sites, but President Donald Trump probably won't like some of the answers his new site says are sourced from government information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against President Donald Trump, told lawmakers on Tuesday that he "will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution" from the Trump administration and that he believes the rule of law is being threatened like never before.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is revoking the visas of 27 Latin American officials, former officials and their families, including Bolivia's attorney general, over accusations of corruption.

The officials and their families come from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru — all nations with right-leaning leaders friendly with President Donald Trump. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Colombia, Ecuador and Peru this month, pledging U.S. support for their efforts to combat drug and human trafficking.

NEW YORK (AP) — There is doom. There is gloom. There is mistrust. There is insistence upon shared power and the prevention of political and military bullying. And there is a growing cry for permanent seats at the table of power — for island nations threatened by climate change and, more than anything, for Africa.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday promised the government wouldn't limit the development of artificial intelligence, even as top executives of AI firms that have called for delays convene in Washington.

"I will never stifle the growth of a technology that will be bigger than the industrial revolution," Trump said at the unveiling of an AI chatbot, America.gov, intended to help Americans negotiate government services. "We can't stifle it, and we're leading by a lot."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Mint stopped making pennies in 2025, but legislation passed by the Senate and headed to President Donald Trump's desk will formally end their production after 234 years.

The bill, passed by voice vote late Monday, directs the government to not make pennies, giving a legal stamp of approval to the Trump administration's decision to stop producing the currency last year. The penny, among the first coins to be made after the Mint was established in 1792, has become increasingly expensive to produce and is used by fewer and fewer consumers as digital transactions have become more standard.

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans placed starting right guard Fernando Carmona Jr. and backup offensive lineman Jackson Slater on injured reserve Tuesday.

Carmona won the starting job in training camp after being a fifth-round pick out of Arkansas. He started the first three games before going down on the opening series with an injured ankle and being carted off the sideline to the locker room in a 12-7 loss to the New York Giants.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's execution of Christa Gail Pike for a murder she committed at age 18 was halted Wednesday about an hour before it was set to begin, as a federal appeals court sought to review whether her allegations of childhood sexual abuse and rape were fully considered at her sentencing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday let President Donald Trump's administration continue swiftly deporting people to countries other than their own for now, while the justices consider whether the policy is legal.

The apparent 6-3 order temporarily lifts lower court requirements for migrants to get a chance to object before being sent to countries to which they have no ties.

WASHINGTON (AP) — About half of rural voters identify with Make America Healthy Again, a sprawling political movement championed by the Trump administration, but most said President Donald Trump's healthcare policies have not benefited their communities, according to a new poll from The Associated Press in partnership with KFF.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is planning to announce further cuts to the number of generals and admirals serving in the military in an address set for Wednesday, the Pentagon confirmed.

According to Pentagon officials, Hegseth will direct all the military services to double the 10% reduction that he ordered last spring to the roughly 800 flag and general officer positions, making it a 20% total decrease to be completed by Jan. 1, 2027.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department will no longer appoint civilians as tenured college faculty at the United States' military service academies, according to a memo signed Tuesday by Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The memo describes the decision to stop granting tenure to civilian faculty as part of an effort to refocus the military academies on warfighting.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he and a large group of leaders of artificial intelligence companies had signed a voluntary accord that will include internal and external reviews during a meeting at the White House aimed at addressing Americans' fears about the technology.

President Donald Trump is adding to the economic numbers he touts, claiming the lowest poverty numbers in history.

In part, he is correct. His comments, made Sunday and again Monday, are supported by the Census Bureau's latest annual poverty report, released earlier this month, which found that the poverty rate in 2025 was the lowest it's been since tracking began nearly 70 years ago.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Medication prices are soaring in Iran and some treatments have become hard to find, leaving patients and their families scrambling as a U.S. blockade and stepped-up sanctions squeeze the country's pharmaceuticals industry.

Some medicines have more than tripled in price, further squeezing Iranians' finances seven months into the country's war with the United States and Israel. Prices for food and other goods have skyrocketed even as unemployment has risen and the currency, which hit a record low this week, has lost half its value.

HARLINGEN, Texas (AP) — Eric Flores, a former federal prosecutor and Army National Guard infantry captain, was one of the Republican Party's prized recruits in this year's midterm elections. With help from a redrawn congressional map in Texas, he seemed primed to dislodge longtime Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in a region that swung toward Donald Trump in the last presidential election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation slowed a bit last month as Americans ramped up their spending, though prices are still elevated and a challenge for many voters that will head to the polls for midterm elections in just over a month.

Consumer prices rose 3.4% in August compared with a year earlier, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, below the 3.7% economist expectations. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3%, up from 0.1% in July, a sign prices that are still running hot.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a solid 2.2% pace from April through June as consumer spending and business investment came in strong.

Growth in gross domestic product — the nation's output of a goods and services — decelerated from a 2.5% pace from January through March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The second-quarter growth was an improvement on the department's previous estimate of 1.5% — a surprise to economists who had expected little or no change in the GDP number.

HONG KONG (AP) — China's factory activity expanded in September for the first time in three months, striking a more positive tone as Chinese officials look to bolster economic growth.

The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index, or PMI, climbed to 50.1 from 49.8 in August, China's National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. The index reading, based on an official monthly survey of companies, was in line with what economists had expected.

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney accused the U.S. owner of steelmaker Stelco, a subsidiary of Cleveland-Cliffs, of betraying Canadian workers Tuesday after it announced layoffs it attributed in part to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs — tariffs Cleveland-Cliffs' chief executive has publicly championed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Nicole Saphier, President Donald Trump 's third nominee for surgeon general, moved a step closer to confirmation after a Senate committee voted to advance her nomination on Wednesday.

Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor, was advanced out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on a 12 to 11 vote to serve as surgeon general after she was grilled at her confirmation hearing earlier this month about her stance on childhood vaccines.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has filed for divorce from her husband of 34 years.

Noem, who was tasked with leading President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown from January 2025 to March 2026 and previously served as South Dakota's governor, is seeking a divorce from Bryon Noem in their home state. The two married in May 1992 and have three children.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are dedicating one of the final votes before the midterm elections to a bill that attempts to address voter worries about data centers and their impact on energy bills.

The measure is a testament to voters' growing concerns about data centers and allows supporters to go on offense on what has become a top campaign issue. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Jon Husted, a Republican from Ohio, is in a tough reelection battle and has been labeled in campaign ads as the "face of data centers" by his Democratic challenger, former Sen. Sherrod Brown.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has withdrawn the United States from a top European anti-corruption watchdog as it forges ahead with plans to disengage from international and multilateral organizations that it accuses of exceeding their mandates, being inefficient or not adapting to U.S. policies.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security has tapped $20 million to pay for the campaign-style ads glorifying President Donald Trump that have drawn widespread criticism from Republicans and Democrats as a blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars that likely runs afoul of anti-propaganda law.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former special counsel Jack Smith forcefully defended his prosecutions of President Donald Trump and his investigative tactics, pushing back against repeated Republican criticism in a congressional hearing Tuesday that featured a senator's bungled attempt to accuse him of lying about a basketball game.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is not permitted to withhold beyond the end of the fiscal year ending Wednesday more than $800 million in spending approved by Congress. That's according to a review from the Government Accountability Office that was sent to federal lawmakers and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration finalized a last-minute reprieve Tuesday to avoid the closure of a camp in Qatar that houses more than 1,000 Afghans who assisted America's war effort or are the relatives of U.S. service members.