ATLANTA — Fresh off the world stage with the departure of FIFA World Cup fans, Georgia is back in the limelight with the listing of the Okefenokee Swamp as an international treasure.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization announced Saturday that it had decided to add the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge to its World Heritage Site List.
The decision, reached during the 48th World Heritage Committee session in Busan, South Korea, makes the swamp the first such site in Georgia and the first listed national wildlife refuge in the United States, which already has more than two dozen listed sites.
“Receiving World Heritage status affirms what those of us who know and love the Okefenokee have always believed: this place is special,” Kim Bednarek, executive director of Okefenokee Swamp Park, said in a statement while attending the committee session.
Tracie Revis, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, delivered a statement on behalf of Chief David W. Hill, in the languages of her two tribes, Muscogee and Yuchi. She said in a phone interview from Busan that she expressed excitement for both the natural wonder of the Okefenokee and for the lives of her ancestors who lived there before they were forcibly removed from the land.
The designation “gives us a larger platform to showcase not just the biological side of things, but the cultural side of it,” Revis said.
Okefenokee advocates say the designation also will put South Georgia on the global map as a tourist destination, boosting the regional economy.
Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement that it was “a fitting recognition for the Okefenokee that will further strengthen rural communities that surround it.”
A 2024 study said a World Heritage listing would draw 800,000 tourists a year, doubling visitation and creating about 750 long-term jobs and about $60 million in annual economic impact.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff said in a statement that the designation “will help protect this renowned natural treasure for generations to come, promote tourism, and support Southeast Georgia’s economic growth.”
The Okefenokee is the first U.S. natural World Heritage Site added in more than three decades and brings the number of World Heritage sites in the country to 27.
Other natural sites include the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone in the United States, and the Great Barrier Reef, Mount Kilimanjaro and the Galapagos Islands beyond.
Sites can also have cultural value, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal.
The swamp’s mass of floating peat deposits makes an unstable surface for walking. It led to the swamp’s name, often translated as “land of the trembling earth” from the Muscogee language.
It also played a role in UNESCO’s decision, according to Bednarek’s group, which said the World Heritage Committee recognized the swamp for its ecology, biodiversity and the scale of its subtropical freshwater peatland ecosystems.
The nonprofit Georgia Rivers said it facilitated a study that found the Okefenokee contains five times more peat than earlier estimates suggested, meaning the swamp could store substantially more planet-warming carbon than previously thought. This strengthened the Okefenokee’s case for World Heritage designation by underscoring its “Outstanding Universal Value.”
Rena Ann Peck, executive director of Georgia Rivers, attended the committee session in Busan with Bednarek. She said she hoped the designation would encourage more swamp visitors.
The swamp has the largest undisturbed peat deposit on the North American Coastal Plain. It is also home to more than 1,200 species of animals and plants.
And it has mineral wealth that industry would like to tap.
For years, a threat loomed at the edge of the swamp, as a company called Twin Pines Minerals sought to mine titanium dioxide. Then, last year, that threat was neutralized when a group called The Conservation Fund assembled about $60 million to purchase the nearly 8,000-acre property.
But other properties nearby could also host a mine.
Researchers at the University of Georgia released findings late last year that showed how harmful this could be to the swamp.
Mining requires significant amounts of water. The mines would draw it from an aquifer deep below the swamp, under the assumption that an intervening layer of clay separates the swamp from the aquifer.
The UGA research found otherwise, tracing water isotopes and discovering that water from the swamp appeared to be draining into the aquifer. Their conclusion: mining would drain the swamp.
Meanwhile, political pressure was building to protect the Okefenokee.
Ossoff, a Democrat, and others from Georgia’s congressional delegation, urged the Department of the Interior to pursue the World Heritage designation.
Then, last year, University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue, who had previously been the state’s first Republican governor in more than a century and a former Cabinet secretary for President Donald Trump, joined the campaign. He asked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to seek the World Heritage designation because, Perdue wrote, it would “preserve a national treasure while also delivering incredible economic benefits to the state of Georgia.”
The group Environment Georgia noted that more than 30,000 acres adjacent to the Okefenokee remain eligible for mining.
“This World Heritage Site recognition affirms what so many Georgians already know — the Okefenokee is a natural treasure,” Jennette Gayer, the group’s Georgia director, said in a statement. “We call on our leaders to ensure this special place, a wonder of the world, is protected from the threats of mining.”
Revis predicted that placing the Okefenokee on a world stage will generate more support for protecting it, “which can sometimes add pressure if we need it down the road.”
UPDATE: This article has been updated to clarify the impact of research into peatland carbon storage at the Okefenokee that contributed to the swamp’s designation last month as a World Heritage Site. The nonprofit Georgia Rivers had said it was instrumental in facilitating a study that proved the carbon storage provided what the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization calls “Outstanding Universal Value.” The nonprofit recently clarified that the study contributed to the designation by complimenting other qualities, such as the swamp’s unique ecology and biodiversity.
ATLANTA — A data center that is expected to consume as much energy as a whole Georgia power plant can produce is to be built for OpenAI at a Savannah-area industrial site, the company announced this week.
The tech company says the community and the state will benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue and other contributions to local causes.
It also says it will mitigate its environmental impact by using a closed-loop water system to cool the computers at the core of the project. And it says it will not burden taxpayers with the cost of building the infrastructure necessary to power such a facility.
“OpenAI will pay the full cost of the infrastructure and electric-service costs required to serve it,” the company said in its announcement this week about what it is calling Project Camellia.
Georgia Power says it is prepared to deliver the 3,200 megawatts OpenAI will require.
That is nearly as much power as Plant Bowen in Bartow County can produce with its four coal-fired units.
Georgia Power added that the tech company has agreed to use as much as 1,000 megawatts less during peak demand periods.
Ratepayer advocates like that flexibility agreement because it can reduce the overall capacity required from Georgia Power, potentially leading to less construction of power plants, power lines and other infrastructure.
But the advocates also say there is too little information available to assess the actual impact.
“My reaction is tempered right now because there are no details,” said Bob Sherrier, a lawyer with the Atlanta-based Southern Environmental Law Center.
The Public Service Commission, which regulates Georgia Power, has implemented a rule requiring data centers to pay their own way. But Sherrier said the industry opposed legislation during this year’s legislative session that would have written such a requirement into law.
“We promise but don’t make it enforceable,” was their position, he said.
The White House this week announced that over 200 “organizations and stakeholders” had committed to President Donald Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge. It asks data centers to pay the full cost of the energy and infrastructure they use.
Gov. Brian Kemp praised the pledge in a video on X, saying he signed it. He also said the public should embrace data centers. As their electricity demand rises, electricity bills for everyone go down, he said.
The Southern Environmental Law Center says Georgia Power has raised rates nearly $40 since 2023.
OpenAI held an open house Thursday in Effingham County.
A few hundred people protested outside but far more went inside to learn about the project, said Beth Remmes, a local coordinator with the advocacy group Georgia Interfaith Power & Light.
People were concerned about things like water use, and noise and light pollution, she said, adding that company representatives said the facility would use diesel generators as backup power for only a portion of the system.
“But what is a small part?” Remmes said. “I think people still left with more questions than answers.”
ATLANTA — Democrats fired back after President Donald Trump’s visit to Georgia where he touted his policies and promoted Republican candidates ahead of the November midterm elections.
Trump called Democrats “Dumocrats,” and he accused the party of dragging the nation toward communism.
Democrats accused Trump of using the event at Wheeler High School in Cobb County Wednesday to distract from rising costs for everything from gas to groceries, adding that Republican policies were depriving thousands of Georgians of access to health insurance.
Trump used the event to promote GOP candidates for statewide office.
“This is a disaster for Georgia Republican candidates at every level of the ticket, who will be forced to own the failed president’s corrupt and unpopular agenda every day between now and November,” Charlie Bailey, chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said in a statement.
The event was billed as an opportunity for Trump to promote new tax-advantaged accounts for American minors.
Babies born during his current term also are getting $1,000 grants from the federal government to get their “Trump accounts” started.
But Trump’s speech, which lasted well over an hour, went far afield of that one topic. He also covered the war in Iran, drug prices, economic development, immigration, inflation, the stock market, tax breaks and voting laws.
And he promoted several GOP candidates, from Rick Jackson for governor to Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, for lieutenant governor, whom the president called “fantastic” while mispronouncing his surname as “Dolezwall.”
“You have my complete endorsement,” Trump said.
The campaign of Dolezal’s opponent, Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, accused Dolezal of blowing “baseless election-denier whistles” on stage because Dolezal had said Georgia was a red state in 2020, when Trump lost against Joe Biden, and that it remained one now.
“Don’t you believe for a second when the fake news will tell you this is a purple state,” Dolezal had said.
Dolezal cast the upcoming elections as existential, and not just for the state or the country.
“I believe that we are not only in a fight to save America, but we are in a fight to save Western civilization,” he said from the stage before Trump arrived. Dolezal returned to that theme near the end of his speech: “We are in a fight to save Western civilization. We will do it by saving America. And providentially, we will save America by saving Georgia. And we will save Georgia by saving the American Dream.”
McLaurin dismissed that part of Dolezal’s plank, saying in a statement that his opponent “continues to drone on about his battle for ‘the West.'”
McLaurin also criticized the Cobb County School District for hosting what was effectively a campaign event in a school.
“I was under the impression Cobb Schools was willing to host Trump as an official event, not as a GOP campaign rally with a series of statewide candidate stump speeches,” McLaurin said.
The district had already heard such criticism before the event.
John Floresta, the district’s chief strategy and accountability officer, said in an interview at the school before the candidates took to the stage that he did not see an issue.
After all, Trump was coming to talk about the Trump accounts, Floresta said. “We don’t think it’s controversial for moms and dads to hear about a thousand dollars being put in their kid’s bank account.”
ATLANTA — President Donald Trump visited Wheeler High School in Cobb County Wednesday to talk about the midterm elections, the impact of his policies on the economy and new tax-advantaged retirement accounts for children created under his administration.
He also talked about what he called the “skirmish” in Iran, saying the Iranian government was not yet ready to negotiate peace.
Prior to his arrival in Georgia, Trump had gone to Dover Air Force Base to salute the remains of four service members killed in the conflict.
Among them was Army 1st Lt. Tyler James Feeha, whose family is from the Marietta area. Trump gave them a ride home on Air Force One, and they attended his event at Wheeler High.
Trump said Iran cannot be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons.
He also said Democratic victories in the midterms would pose a greater threat to the country than both world wars and the attack on Sept. 11, 2001, because, he said, Democrats want to take America toward communism.
“The blue states are all going bad. They’re all going bad because communism is a loser,” the president said midway through his speech to an adoring crowd in the high school arena, which seats 3,000.
“With communism, everything turns to shit,” he added later to a roar of approval.
President Donald Trump speaks at Wheeler High School in Cobb County on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (Ty Tagami/Capitol Beat)
The visit was an opportunity to promote his party ahead of the November elections.
Trump has endorsed U.S. Rep. Mike Collins for U.S. Senate, with the hope of unseating Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Collins skipped Trump’s event, saying in a social media post that he had important votes to cast in Washington. Trump concurred from the stage, saying he ordered Collins to remain at the Capitol to vote on farming and military bills.
Trump used his visit to make it clear that other candidates for state office in Georgia had his “complete and total endorsement,” including state Rep. Tim Fleming, R-Covington, who is running for secretary of state, and two state senators — Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, for attorney general, and Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, for lieutenant governor.
Trump had endorsed the current lieutenant governor, Burt Jones, during Jones’ primary campaign for governor. But after Jones’ loss last month to political newcomer Rick Jackson, Trump switched to the winning candidate.
Trump invited Jackson onto the stage with him to talk about the retirement accounts for children, which are being called “Trump accounts.”
They are available to any American under age 18, but babies born during Trump’s current term will get a $1,000 contribution from the federal government.
Jackson said that if he wins against Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, he will urge the General Assembly to match that $1,000. The wealthy entrepreneur pledged to fund the matching contributions out of his own pocket if the Legislature refused.
Before Trump’s arrival, those other candidates took the stage to tout the tax-advantaged savings accounts, which were established by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year and took effect on July 4.
Also praising the new Trump accounts as transformational investments were U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Trump said the accounts would grow with the stock market, expanding to hundreds of thousands of dollars in value by the time newborns become adults.
But before his arrival, Bessent gave the crowd a slightly different estimate.
“Millions of American youth are now able to watch their investment accounts compound in real time from a couple thousand dollars in kindergarten to an estimated half a million dollars by retirement age,” he said.
Whether that will help the GOP in November, amid widespread frustration with the high costs for gasoline, groceries and other daily staples, is an open question.
Democrats see affordability as a clear line of attack.
Liz Pancotti, a vice president of the left-leaning Groundwork Collaborative in Washington, D.C., said in an interview Tuesday that the accounts would do little to address financial pressures on households in the near term.
Trump also touted the tax cuts he signed into law last year, but Pancotti said many of the president’s other policies, including the war in Iran and related fuel prices, had wiped out the benefits from tax cuts and refunds for most working people.
Trump’s trip to Cobb was in many ways a standard pre-election campaign event, she said. “The problem, of course, is that he has mostly delivered higher prices and a lot of economic pain for American families.”
Even so, throngs of Trump fans, many wearing red MAGA ball caps, stood in long lines in the baking sun to watch Trump speak.
As they waited, the Wheeler Wildcats rifle team was hawking bottles of water for a dollar.
Across the street, an anti-Trump protest had assembled behind metal barricades. One of the protesters yelled that water was free on their side.
During his time on the stage, Strickland, the candidate for attorney general, said that despite “all the noise” from those protesters, the Trump accounts were a “real investment” in American families.
“And I’m proud to put my name behind this kind of work,” he said.
After Strickland spoke, U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, a former Georgia state senator, noted the significance of Trump for GOP candidates.
“President Trump may not be on the ballot,” Beach said, “but his policies are.”
ATLANTA — The genetic testing company 23andMe gave tens of thousands of Georgians insights into their ancestry and health predispositions.
A massive data breach also subjected those Georgians to an invasion of privacy, allowing others an opportunity to see their genetic information after their data was published for sale on the dark web, according to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.
Carr announced that 171,125 Georgians were affected by the 2023 breach that compromised the genetic data of 6.9 million customers worldwide.
The unraveling of the company has led to a settlement between state attorneys general and the bankruptcy trustee for 23andMe that will result in a $452,232 payment to the state treasury, Carr’s office said last week.
The money comes from an $18 million settlement fund for participating states. It is separate from a $47 million class-action settlement with customers, a spokesman for Carr’s office said Tuesday.
The claim period for the class-action lawsuit ended in February.
The company initially denied the breach had occurred, then blamed consumers for exposing themselves with their account setup or password choices, according to Carr’s office, which said 23andMe initially accepted no responsibility for a “credential stuffing” breach.
Carr joined 41 other attorneys general to hold the company to account. Their investigation found “unreasonable” data security practices, Carr’s office said, including failure to remediate known vulnerabilities.
The company filed for bankruptcy in March 2025, and its consumer data and other assets were sold to TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit that was formed by 23andMe founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki and subsequently reregistered as 23andMe Research Institute.
Customers can delete their genetic data by signing into their 23andMe account: Start with the user profile in the upper right-hand corner, click “settings,” scroll to “23andMe Data” at the bottom and click the “view” button, then scroll down to the red “Permanently Delete Data” button at the bottom and click it.
Customers can download their data first by clicking the “Request Download” button after clicking the “view” button and before clicking the delete button.
