NEW: Meta reviewed, approved, and ran more than 50 ads containing AI-generated child sexual abuse material across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads. They ran for nine months. Some were live this week. After WIRED asked about them, researchers found ~30 more

Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery

More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.

wired.com

ICYMI: ICE added an estimated 920,000 DNA profiles to the FBI's criminal database in a single year. Most of the people swabbed have no criminal conviction. CBP records show 492 children under 14 sent to the FBI. 21 of them were five-year-olds. One was 4. By @dmehro.bsky.social

ICE Collected Nearly 1 Million People’s DNA Last Year—Including Young Children

Internal documents show ICE's DNA collection has skyrocketed in the second Trump administration. Now hundreds of thousands of people never convicted of a crime are in an FBI criminal database forever.

wired.com

I do like an off-the-charts chart www.economist.com/the-americas...

Great line from @bethosborne.bsky.social in this @strongtowns.org video Only adding carrots to transportation ignores the political conflicts, and precludes fundamental change. So we bounce from Dems building highways plus pennies for new stuff, and GOP going back to highways. youtu.be/8w1ss8BXCw8

At first, I thought there was an irony/contradiction in this new breed of US policymakers - they come from a "markets background" and yet constantly want to intervene in & manipulate markets. But actually it makes sense: they just think they are smarter than the market....

In the US, zero emissions buses accounted for only 5.6% of total new bus registrations in recent data theicct.org/publication/... US is absolutely falling behind on this metric, and things seem to be getting worse in recent months.

Warspitefella 🇬🇧🇺🇦@warspitefella.bsky.social · 10h ago

Electric Buses Point of no return - have gone from 12% to 56% of new city bus sales in Europe in just 6yrs Europe's 2035 target of 100% zero emission bus sales could be reached as early as 2028 Bravo Europe 🇪🇺!

The Trump White House now must choose: 1) Bigger humiliation than last time, accepting Iran in control of Hormuz and charging tolls, the very thing the US attacked last month to prevent 2) Escalation of uncertain outcome with no strategy and despite depleted stockpiles

Which version of the street do you like better? Montreal’s Wellington Street with cars vs. without cars.

New pod: America is switching from booze to weed www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn5I...

Conservative and Liberal Americans generally support free trade, and recognize that the extreme trade taxes imposed on them illegally by the president are—taxes on them. www.theargumentmag.com/p/who-suppor...

Avant / Après la piste cyclable Boulevard du Palais, Paris Centre. Pour des avant / après ici, pas si simple d'aller prendre la photo soi-même dans la circulation, heureusement c'est le type d'endroit où StreetView passera souvent pour avoir le choix pour un bon calage ;)

Avant / Après la vélorue Rue de Charenton dans le 12ème arrondissement de Paris. A cet endroit de la rue, on voit bien une différence avec une rue qui n'est pas une vélorue, ailleurs c'est un peu moins net. La différence vient en fait surtout du plan de circulation pour y avoir moins de voitures.

11 social housing apartments in Majorca Spain Gotta love those mint green shutters and terracotta floor tiles! By Oliveras Boix Arquitectes and Cati Mestre

A big social factor too. Republican officials are terrified of being labeled a traitor, becoming a hate object of right-wing media, and shunned by friends and family. Adam Kinzinger's family members publicly denounced him for saying the Constitution is good and a violent attack on America is bad.

Brian Finucane@bcfinucane.bsky.social · yesterday

My take on why at least some Rs on the way out the door don’t push back more on POTUS is that they want to remain Rs in good standing in order to take advantage of various post-Congress opportunities.

Tongue in cheek. But in all seriousness, this really is the Trump/Hegseth/MAGA/Manosphere theory of war. Both in the literal sense that cartoonish displays of try-hard toughness are key to defeating enemies, and in the meta sense that their war effort prioritizes memes for their domestic audience.

Uncle Tifa@labboypro.bsky.social · yesterday

"Mister international relations professor, you just don't understand modern warfare"

So we’re going to surrender Accepting worse conditions After launching a new offensive To force better conditions Than we accepted last surrender

How it started / How it’s going The greatest geopolitical disaster & failure of any president in the history of the Republic

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 18h ago

This has to be a Pulitzer finalist. @gettyimages.com

Stat of the day from the news that Elon Musk’s SpaceX wants toincrease its computing capacity from 2 gigawatts at the end of this year to “closer to 10GW [than 5GW]” by the end of 2027. as.ft.com/r/689423f9-c...

"I do not see right now a way to create a balance of interests where the Trump administration walks away with something that normal humans would regard as a win" - as.ft.com/r/76e3e95e-7...

Donald Trump trapped between escalation and an Iran deal on Tehran’s terms

US president faces few good options to exit a war he once said would end swiftly with the Islamic republic’s surrender

as.ft.com

Xiaomi Sky Nomad pre-orders estimated at over 100,000, aiding its annual delivery goal Xiaomi Sky Nomad's two EREV SUVs have generally received 200 to 300 intent-deposit orders per store, according to a local media report. cnev.co/aEt0Vmg 👇

Xiaomi Sky Nomad pre-orders estimated at over 100,000, aiding its annual delivery goal

Xiaomi Sky Nomad's two EREV SUVs have generally received 200 to 300 intent-deposit orders per store, according to a local media report.

cnev.co

‘The task for Labour is to generate a productivist policy vision that recognizes these services as the main provider of jobs and develop a set of policies that can transform the nature of work in them.’

Dani Rodrik@drodrik.bsky.social · 7h ago

My thoughts on where Andy Burnham’s (and the Left’s in general) priorities on the economy should be futureoftheleft.substack.com/p/the-left-m...

The Incheon airport express train is ridiculous. It runs express from the airport to only the main Seoul station, all important (and useful) interchange stops are skipped. You need to buy a ticket at a machine which assigns you a seat. Worst of all, it runs only every ~40 minutes!

Greenhushing is the new greenwashing, pass it on as.ft.com/r/636d05c2-e...

European green bonds rebound to take share from ‘greenhushed’ US

Issuance in the region will drive global sales to record high this year, despite ‘death of ESG’ in Trump’s America

as.ft.com

What is truly "shocking" about the polling miss in Michigan is that it is completely average for a primary "The expected error on the margin between two primary candidates in a race for governor or U.S. Senate is a whopping 13.0 points." blog.fiftyplusone.news/p/2026-texas...

Do we really know who's leading the Texas Senate races?

Primary polls have historically been rather unreliable, and a surge in new primary voters means turnout assumptions matter more than usual

blog.fiftyplusone.news

|horses|@chemotaxis.bsky.social · 8h ago

Polling is like really fucked. Strikes me as a huge problem honestly.

Renters pay higher property taxes in NYC than single-family homeowners

Chicago Tribune@chicagotribune.com · 22h ago

Editorial: New York’s democratic socialists put the squeeze on thousands of property owners

A story of cause and effect: Last November, Ontario banned cities from using speed safety cameras to issue tickets. Reckless speeding immediately surged in Toronto, Ottawa, Guelph, and cities throughout the province. A 🧵 about my latest in Bloomberg (gift link)

What Happens When Speed Cameras Get Shut Off

In 2025, Ontario banned automated traffic enforcement. Now the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit has surged, according to traffic data.

bloomberg.com

These stats on maternal care in rural America are sobering—and changes to Medicaid and the H-1B visa program might make them even worse. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

‘There were 560 collisions involving e-bikes and 795 involving standup e-scooters through the third week of July, according to police data. Both figures were up 28 percent from the same period last year.’

Stefanos Chen@stefanoschen.bsky.social · yesterday

City Council today announced a long list of bills designed to reform e-bike laws, after a number of fatal crashes www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/n...

Before (2014) / After (2026) Rue Androuet in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. This is Montmartre, and the shop at the end of the right is the grocery store made famous by Amélie. This street has been pedestrianized in 2024 and now terraces hope to benefit from the tourist attraction.

Avant / Après l'élargissement et la végétalisation des trottoirs à ce niveau de la Rue Pernety dans le 14ème arrondissement de Paris