The AI-driven network of more than 120,000 cameras is expanding.
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Here are today’s top stories. |
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Its cameras are installed on poles at street corners, in parks and residential communities, and near countless businesses, tracking vehicles and private citizens across a growing surveillance network accessible by thousands of U.S. law enforcement agencies. Now the firm, Flock Safety, is facing a rising tide of opposition nationwide.
- The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order allowing construction of President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project to continue while the administration contests a lower court order that would block much of the development.
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The artificial rogue intelligence agents involved in the breach of a private company “sacrificed” some of their own and realized that they were breaking the evaluation test’s rules, according to two investigations into the incident that many consider to be one of the most consequential moments in the history of AI. Last week, OpenAI and an independent team from Model Evaluation & Threat Research and Redwood Research released parallel investigations into the Hugging Face breach, tracing how thousands of AI agents exploited workarounds and made highly sophisticated decisions to break out of a testing sandbox and hack another company’s infrastructure. Here are five takeaways from the investigation.
- Several Pacific leaders have pulled out of a key regional summit in Palau this week, with experts saying that Beijing’s pressure is behind the no-shows.
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🍵 Health: This is what happens to your body when you do strength training regularly.
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(Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo) |
Justice continues to catch up with participants of the notorious Minnesota schools nutrition fraud case that took advantage of pandemic closures. Alarm bells began ringing back in 2021, when nonprofit Feeding Our Future ramped up federal funding claims from $3.4 million per year to more than $200 million in the space of just two years. By 2022, dozens of prosecutions began, and the Justice Department alleged the nonprofit and its affiliates had stolen more than $240 million in federal funds. Our reporter Naveen Athrappully has the details of the latest developments. |
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Cameras sold by Flock Safety are designed to monitor and catalog motor vehicles by license plate and physical characteristics. The company is now facing scrutiny from lawmakers and private citizens alike while its cameras have become targets for destruction and defacement by activist vandals.
In several incidents, activists cut cameras down with reciprocating saws, hit them with trucks and baseball bats, and defaced lenses with spray paint. In a more peaceful statement of protest, one Florida resident braves the heat for hours each day, holding a sign that reads ‘Down with the Flock’ in front of a Flock camera near his home in St. Petersburg. What has led to such a visceral reaction to the Atlanta-based company’s camera rollout? Beyond concerns of mass surveillance and loss of privacy, there are dozens of reports of mistaken traffic stops, in which innocent motorists were pulled over, jailed, or held at gunpoint after a Flock automated license plate reader gave law enforcement a false vehicle match. There are also cases of officers allegedly using Flock’s camera database to stalk romantic interests, ex-partners, or relatives. A former Sarasota, Florida, police officer is facing felony charges for allegedly using Flock Safety technology to search for a single license plate hundreds of times.
Some legal scholars have argued that the technology violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, specifically in how personal data is stored in the company’s databases so it can be accessed by a growing network of law enforcement agencies contracting with Flock.
“When you start getting into a surveillance economy, when you start expanding it beyond the purview of safety into true greed, it crosses a lot of lines,” Harry Maugans, cybersecurity expert and CEO of Privacy Bee, told The Epoch Times.
“I believe privacy is a human right. ... Flock crosses that ethical boundary.” (More) |
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on Healthcare Affordability in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Aug. 31, 2026. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) |
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President Donald Trump announced agreements with nine midsize pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug prices for American patients.
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Google Maps has updated its site to include Lake America in place of Lake Ontario, following the direction of President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Great Lake.
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Federal department heads announced an inter-agency effort to revoke the licenses of 270 commercial driver’s license schools after thousands of drivers allegedly failed English proficiency tests.
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U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has resigned after 18 months, the White House said. No reason was given for the departure.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has unveiled a new package of measures aimed at rebuilding the nation’s cattle herds, which have fallen to their lowest levels in 75 years.
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Massachusetts Democrats will vote on Sept. 1 in a Senate primary that runs against the pattern of the party’s other contested races this year. In New York and elsewhere this cycle, younger challengers unseated incumbents by running to their left. In Massachusetts, the older candidate holds the stronger claim on the party’s progressive wing.
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Lionel Messi #10 of Argentina celebrates after a 3-2 victory during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 16 match between Argentina and Egypt at Atlanta Stadium, on July 7, 2026. (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images) |
Chinese land on the left and Nepalese land on right after Friendship Bridge, a key bridge over the Bhotekoshi River connecting Nepal with China, was swept away in monsoon rain at Rasuwagadi, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Kathmandu, Nepal, on July, 9, 2025. (Sujan Gurung/AP Photo) | -
More than a year before the catastrophic flash flood devastated the China–Nepal border crossing at Gyirong last week, Chinese geologists had raised concerns about the impending danger.
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Vice President JD Vance said that President Donald Trump’s choice to post what appears to be an artificial intelligence-generated video of Iran’s Kharg Island oil hub being “blown to smithereens” should serve as a warning to Tehran.
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A diplomatic tit-for-tat dispute has frozen open-border travel between Rome and Madrid amid the fallout from the Ceuta immigrant crisis.
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Iceland will focus on developing security partnerships after its citizens voted against opening talks to join the European Union.
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NATO military activity in the Arctic poses a direct threat to Russia’s security and could lead to disastrous consequences, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote in an article published by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
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- Clarence Thomas Played the Long Game. He Won.—by Josh Hammer (Read)
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Communist China Has Its Eyes on Your Hospital Bed—by Sen. Rick Scott (Read)
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Schnitzel might hail from Austria, but Jennifer Segal found the secret to golden, crisp and juicy chicken hiding in an Israeli cookbook. (It’s all about the prep, she says.)
For a subtle nutty flavor, she adds sesame seeds to the breading, along with garlic powder and paprika for extra seasoning. Here’s how to do it. |
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“The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it.” |
— Thomas Babington Macaulay |
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