🏀 Million Meal Pack milestone
Welcome, pandas!
Monday, Sept. 28 — Less than two years after sending Lun Lun and Yang Yang back to China, Zoo Atlanta has pandas again. Ping Ping and Fu Shuang landed at Hartsfield-Jackson yesterday aboard a FedEx jet dubbed the “Panda Express.” They’ll quarantine for about a month before the zoo announces when visitors can see them. Watch their arrival here.
☀️ Today will be sunny with a high of 83°.
🤕 A University of Georgia student was seriously injured after falling from an eighth-floor window at a popular off-campus apartment complex in Athens.
🚨 Authorities are investigating a mass shooting at a Bibb County park early Sunday morning that left 11 people wounded.
🏀 Angel Reese shot just 4-of-15 but still posted a double-double as the Dream beat the Mystics 92-77 in yesterday’s playoff opener, led by Rhyne Howard’s 26 points. Atlanta can close out the series Wed., Sept. 30 in Washington.
⚾️ The Braves, who lost yesterday’s final regular season game to Miami 5-3, face the Phillies in a best-of-three Wild Card Series beginning tomorrow at 2 p.m. at Truist Park.
💨 The nonprofit Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) is now accepting medical equipment and will begin accepting vapes in October.
🎭 Actor’s Express announced a slate of plays and musicals for its 39th season, including a world premiere by an Atlanta playwright and a Pulitzer Prize winner.
👴 Gallery Residential named Melanie Poole managing director of active adult living.
ELSEWHERE
📺 The federal government has spent more than $1.2 million airing two TV ads featuring President Donald Trump, drawing bipartisan concern about propaganda limits five weeks before the midterms.
⛈️ There was severe weather on both coasts this weekend:
- A slow-moving nor’easter flooded coastal communities from New Jersey to New England and left more than 130,000 customers without power. A falling tree killed a worker in New York City.
- On Nantucket, the storm surge uncovered wooden fragments believed to be from the Warren Sawyer, a schooner that wrecked there in 1884 while carrying cotton from New Orleans to Boston.
- Hurricane Nolo skirted Hawaii but threatened up to 20 inches of rain on the Big Island, which is still recovering from last month’s Hurricane Lala.
🎤 Madonna won seven awards at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards, and Taylor Swift took home video of the year. Cardi B claimed best hip-hop for “Safe,” featuring Kehlani.
🕖 Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter:
• Million Meal Pack
• Upcoming Events
• TEDxAtlanta
• Global Headlines
AND
• Look & Listen
🚆 Think working in Perimeter means sitting in traffic? Doug Nagy gets there from Midtown with a 20-minute MARTA ride. Follow along in this Heart of Perimeter video to see what a stress-free commute can look like. SPONSOR MESSAGE
1. Million Meal Pack assembly reaches milestone for Metro Atlanta
🏀 The Atlanta Hawks and State Farm on Sept. 26 rallied more than 5,000 volunteers for the 2026 Million Meal Pack, assembling one million meals to help combat food insecurity across Metro Atlanta.
Now in its sixth year, the Million Meal Pack remains the Hawks’ largest single-day community service initiative, delivering critical support to local families and communities.
Hawks players Kingston Flemings, Asa Newell, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Wilson, with executives from both the Hawks and State Farm, worked alongside volunteers throughout the day to pack meals and advance the shared mission of addressing food insecurity in Atlanta.
New Orchestra season dives into music by Brahms
SPONSORED BY ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
🎻 Tortured by the legacy of Beethoven. Fueled by hidden inner passions. Brahms created a symphonic language all his own. Join Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for a season-long exploration of this Romantic-era icon.
Oct. 1-4 | Opening Weekend with Nathalie Stutzmann features rising violin sensation Johan Dalene performing Brahms’ passionate Violin Concerto before the Orchestra unleashes the sweeping drama of his First Symphony.
Oct. 8-10 | The journey continues when Stutzmann explores one of music history’s most famous rivalries, pairing Brahms’ emotionally charged Third Symphony with selections from Wagner’s most beloved operas.
➡️ Get details and tickets here.
2. Upcoming Events
🪩 Kacey Musgraves; Wed., Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m. at State Farm Arena.
📻 Troubadour SM Launch Party; Wed., Sept. 30, 6-9 p.m. at Eddie’s Attic.
🎂 154th Smyrna Birthday Celebration and Culture & Spirit Festival; Sat., Oct. 3 starting at 11 a.m. in Downtown Smyrna.
🥂 Party on the PATH; Sun., Oct. 4 from 5:30-9 p.m. at Eclipse di Luna in Buckhead.
📧 Find out how you can get your event featured in Rough Draft.
🗓️ For more events, visit RoughDraftAtlanta.com/events.
3. Come for the ideas. Feel the energy.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TEDXATLANTA
✨ At TEDxAtlanta, the stage won’t just belong to speakers. Electric violinist Alex Ahn, vocalist Lisa Reich, Keeyen Martin and his band, the Atlanta Boy Choir, and the Taiwanese Youth Drum Team bring soaring strings, soul, young voices, and thunderous percussion.
They’ll create moments that move you, surprise you, and remind you: some ideas are meant to be felt.
→ Experience it live at TEDxAtlanta, Oct. 2 & 3. Get the last few tickets now.
4. UK arrests 5 men on terrorism suspicion; Pope Leo XIV in Paris
🇬🇧🇺🇸 British police arrested five men on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act near RAF Fairford, a Cotswolds base hosting U.S. forces. President Donald Trump said the U.S. had them “under view for a long time.”
🇬🇷 According to U.S. officials, four Americans were among the six people killed in Greece after a gas explosion collapsed a two-story building in Athens on Friday.
🇿🇦 Mass shootings in three major South African cities killed nearly 40 people this week while motives in each case remain unclear.
🇫🇷 Hundreds of thousands cheered on Pope Leo XIV Saturday in an open-air mass on the Champs-Élysées, the largest event of his French tour.
🇮🇶 More than two decades after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the United States is preparing to withdraw its remaining troops by the end of the month.
🇹🇭 After nearly 12 inches of rain fell on Bangkok in just 48 hours, floodwaters began receding as authorities opened more than 200 shelters for displaced residents.
🇬🇧🇮🇪 An Orange Order march down a predominantly nationalist area stalled amid a protester blockade after a Belfast court overturned an injunction barring the parade, reviving Northern Ireland’s Drumcree dispute.
🇮🇳 As childhood obesity and diabetes surge, India is moving to restrict junk food access by banning it from school cafeterias and barring its sale within 165 feet of the country’s 1.5 million schools.
🇪🇸 Thousands of Spaniards protested after an 87-year-old woman was forced from her longtime Madrid home following a steep rent increase imposed by an investment fund.
🇲🇽 A centuries-old manuscript that chronicles the rise and fall of the Aztec civilization through pictograms is on display in Mexico for the first time in 186 years.
🗓️ As governments and private companies accelerate their ambitions beyond Earth, critical questions about governance, security, and international cooperation are coming into focus. Join the World Affairs Council of Atlanta for a conversation with Georgia Tech professor Thomas González Roberts on the policies and geopolitical dynamics driving the new era of space competition.
🕯️ As the sun sets over Atlanta, the past comes alive. Now in its 20th year, history, theatre, and Halloween thrills converge at Oakland Cemetery for “Capturing the Spirit of Oakland” Halloween tours on Oct. 15-18 & 22-25 from 5-11 p.m. SPONSOR MESSAGE
5. Lights, camera, action!
VIA SCENE, A WEEKLY FILM & TELEVISION NEWSLETTER | SUBSCRIBE
Scene newsletter curator Sammie Purcell has some recommendations for all of you movie and TV junkies out there:
🇺🇸 I have not yet seen “The Social Reckoning” (it’s on the books, though), and I find myself a little … skeptical, to put it lightly. But, historically, Aaron Sorkin has meant a whole heck of a lot to me, and I love listening to (or reading, in this case) the man talk. For The New York Times, Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviewed Sorkin about why he’s making a follow-up to “The Social Network,” why he’s optimistic about AI – it’s not for the reason you think – and more.
📺 Much like they did with movies, The New York Times is compiling a list of the best television shows of the 21st century. Check out their ongoing list here, and fill out your own! My ballot includes “Battlestar Galactica,” “Girls,” and “The Leftovers.”
🧟 We’ve also got a jam-packed episode of “The Big Picture,” featuring critic Adam Nayman’s favorite movies from the Toronto International Film Festival and an interview with “Resident Evil” filmmaker Zach Cregger. Check it out here.
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