YouTube removed a channel that was dedicated to posting AI-generated videos of women being shot in the head following 404 Media’s request for comment. The videos were clearly generated with Google’s new AI video generator tool. 🔗 www.404media.co/ai-generated...

Tom Homan was investigated last year for accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents. Trump's DOJ shut down the probe. By @carolleonnig.bsky.social @kendilanian-nbc.bsky.social www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

15 to 40 miles. That's the range per day from the sun alone for Aptera Motors’ solar-powered car. The $40,000 EV is poised to ship as early as next year. by @mims.bsky.social www.wsj.com/business/ene...

“.. There are two economies in the U.S. right now ... In August, annual wage and salary growth fell to 0.9% for the bottom third, the smallest gain since 2016 ... “.. The top third saw growth of 3.6% year over year, the most since November 2021." @jeannewhalen.bsky.social

WSJ: “For high earners and many older Americans, the economy looks robust .. “.. For many others, momentum has stalled .. ‘They don’t have a home, they don’t have a large .. 401(k) and they are the most concerned about losing their job ..’” @jeannewhalen.bsky.social www.wsj.com/economy/us-e...

America has always had rich & poor, but the divide is widening again. Wage growth has slowed for the bottom third of earners while continuing to climb for the top third. Soaring markets & home values for top earners are deepening the divide. www.wsj.com/economy/us-e...

Exclusive: Jeffrey Epstein’s estate has given Congress a copy of the 2003 birthday book, including the letter with Trump’s signature that he has said doesn’t exist.

Architect Louis Sullivan was born #onthisday in 1856. When he first arrived in Chicago in 1873, the city was still in ruins after the Great Fire w/miles of shanties. Yet he saw potential in its reinvention. “There was stir, an energy that made [me] tingle to be in the game…THIS IS THE PLACE FOR ME!”

Six months into tariffs, businesses don’t know how to price anything. Tariffs keep changing. Big retailers won’t pay more. And everyone is afraid of angering consumers. ‘Everyone is struggling to figure out what to do.’ www.wsj.com/business/ret...

Yellen not at all pulling her punches in this op-ed for the FT www.ft.com/content/d2ea...

Your annual reminder that this exists for twelve days a year and is deeply soothing: www.dnr.state.mn.us/statefair/we...

This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.

BARKIN: “.. we’re not walking into a 2022 situation where consumers are flush with cash and bound to spend. .. I think we’re in a 2025 situation where consumers are feeling somewhat stretched and therefore, you know, are making choices.” @jeannewhalen.bsky.social www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

🚨 WaPo EXCLUSIVE Hours before Trump removed Billy Long as IRS commissioner, his agency clashed with the White House over sharing immigrants’ tax data.

When immigration lawyers sought to defend a Texas construction worker detained in early March, they couldn’t find him. Migrants are vanishing in an opaque ICE detention system www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

Good roundup of the reactions.

A great tribute to a great man. "For many, many people, including myself, meeting Derk changed the course of our lives."

Horrible news. Derk made an enormous contribution to freedom of speech in Russia, and helped a whole generation of journalists (including me) find our footing. www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/07/31/d...

EU didn't want a trade war partly because it "feared Trump would abandon Ukraine & perhaps NATO altogether. A one-sided trade deal was the price of keeping, for now, Trump committed to the trans-Atlantic security alliance." www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

I have been watching baseball for many decades and I have never seen a throw like this

Sky after sunset last night over Marin County, California. Taken from Emeryville. #sky #sunset #nature

Chicago architecture does it every time:

Wonderful and surprising news out of Belarus, as Lukashenko sets free 14 political prisoners in a deal brokered by Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg.

Belarus opposition leader's husband Sergei Tikhanovsky freed from prison

Wayne Thiebaud 24th Street Intersection (1978) watercolor on paper 25.4 x 35.5 cm

“.. Jesus, that ear. He should donate it to the Smithsonian. .. He made all his records with four tracks, but you couldn't make his records if you had a hundred tracks today.” - Bob Dylan, on Brian Wilson #RIP “Good Vibrations” (1966)

RIP to Brian Wilson, who gave us many perfect albums but also the perfect interview

Pet Sounds forever.

"Late last month, the top ICE official overseeing arrests and deportations, Kenneth Genalo, resigned rather than fire deputies for poor performance." Great reporting here www.wsj.com/us-news/prot...

In the midnight hour she cried Moore, More, Moore With a rebel yell she cried Moore, More, Moore

Velvet-purple Coronet #hummingbird at @montezumalodge.bsky.social #colombia #birds #nature

The Abduction of Proserpina, by Gregorio Lazzarini, late 17th century, 📸 via @brwalkoff.bsky.social

In defiance of President Trump’s announcement last Friday that he was firing her, Kim Sajet — the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery — has continued to report for work.

Warning sign about coyotes posted at Graceland Cemetery

Still Life with Apples, 1894 #artbots #cezanne https://botfrens.com/collections/43/contents/13079

In case anyone is having trouble keeping up: www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

The White House says Trump is attending the meme coin dinner in his personal capacity. He traveled to and from the event on Marine One, transportation funded by taxpayers. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

South side IllinoisHeads your time is NOW! I will be at the gorgeous Walker Branch of @chipublib in Morgan Park tomorrow nite talking Southern IL/Shawnee Forest travel. Come learn about IL, plan your trip, see this great building, meet up! Free and open to all—spread the word!

Truly weird

How the Chicago skyline looked from Montrose Pier at 6:49 p.m.

Wishing a 'Happy Birthday!' to the inimitable Siân Phillips who turns 92 today... The most perfect portrayal of Livia imaginable!

Paul Batch (b. 1979) "Magenta Haze" Oil on Panel, 50.8 × 40.6 cm.

The U.S.’s effective tariff rate on China is now 39%, including levies in place before President Trump took office. www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

Tariffs are creating chaos for businesses on both sides of the Pacific. One Chinese factory boss is trying to unload 180,000 pieces of clothing by livestreaming a massive sales event from a pile of shipping containers at a Shenzhen port. www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

Ford CEO expects auto tariffs to stick around for at least three years, and suggests auto prices will start rising this summer www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

Tariffs are bringing new orders to some small U.S. manufacturers. www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

There was a rather charming trend in the 1910s to introduce the actor at the beginning of the film by showing them first in their street or evening clothes and then dissolving into the costume of their characters. Here we see recent stage import William S. Hart become a bandit in THE BARGAIN (1914).

Paul Cézanne Dalias 1873.

The U.S. economy is holding up pretty well for now, despite Trump's trade turmoil. www.wsj.com/economy/us-e...

The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I reread it today; nothing in the law allows a president to defund PBS and NPR. In fact, Congress specifically sought to insulate public media from political pressure.