Issue of October 3, 2026

Headlines

Match, meet fuse

Leaders · Don’t put Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in a room together

A “match” is both a meeting of two sides and the thing you strike — and the one commodity a fuse should never be introduced to.

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Ukraine’s red October

Europe · Putin’s new bombardment of Kyiv has a terrible logic

Three readings stacked in three words: the Bolsheviks’ Red October, Tom Clancy’s submarine, and the month itself — with “red” doing the bombardment’s work.

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Hollywood’s novel obsession with literary adaptations

Culture · Hollywood’s novel obsession with literary adaptations

The obsession is with novels, and it is anything but novel — producers have been remaking “Pride and Prejudice” every decade or so for a century.

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Why singing is note-worthy, even if you’re bad at it

Culture · Why singing is note-worthy, even if you’re bad at it

“Noteworthy” split down the middle, which is also roughly what happens to the notes in an amateur choir.

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Deadly reflections

Leaders · Mirror life is dangerous. Regulators must act before it becomes real

Reflections as in mirror images — the proposed bacteria with their chirality reversed — and reflections as in the sober second thoughts regulators ought to be having.

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Alternatives to GPS are around the corner

Science & Technology · Alternatives to GPS are around the corner

Imminent, and also the sort of thing navigation is for. Quantum magnetometers and stray Starlink signals, arriving shortly, two metres to your left.

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A freed press

United States · Abolish the White House press corps

The free press, conjugated. Lexington’s argument is that the only way to liberate White House reporters is to stop letting them into the White House.

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Buried in the text

Don’t worry, nobody is served lapin à la Michelin

Culture · What a rural American cooking contest reveals about food culture

West Virginia’s Roadkill Cook-Off, in one phrase: the Michelin of the guide, the Michelin of the tyre, and a rabbit that met the second before being judged by the first.

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Freud allegedly had a huge red pen (prompting talk of “pens envy”)

Culture · Can you really perform a tracheotomy with a pen?

A history of the pen that could hardly resist it, and was right not to. The same piece dates the fountain pen to the moment someone had “the idea — the ‘inkling’”.

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When attacking AI doomerism they find it easier to play the nerd than the ball

Leaders · Effective altruism is this century’s biggest idea

“Play the man, not the ball” — football’s term for going after the person instead of the argument — with the man swapped for the nerd, which is also the accusation.

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You would have to conclude that these are great pipes

Briefing · China is giving its economy a big shot in the arm

Nixon, standing at the Great Wall in 1972, managed only “This is a great wall.” China’s new Underground Great Wall is a pipeline network, and gets the sequel it deserves.

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Past Hormuz performance is no guarantee of future results

Middle East & Africa · Has Iran lost its grip on Gulf oil exports?

The disclaimer at the bottom of every fund prospectus, repurposed for a strait that has kept flowing mostly because the oil industry got used to the risk.

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Sue has the votes; Walter the accountants

Britain · Britain overtaxes well-paid workers

Three taxpayers, three backronyms: Sue the Standard Undertaxed Earner, Henry the High Earner Not Rich Yet, and Walter — Wealthy Already, Lightly Taxed, Ever Richer. Henry, having neither votes nor accountants, pays.

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It is time that is scarce

Business · The Swiss watch industry is shrinking but getting swankier

Rolex insists the waiting lists are craftsmanship, not strategy — so the scarce input in a watch is the thing the watch is for. Earlier in the piece, Rolex is “king of the ring”.

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A “FAFO” speaking tour

United States · Florida has put America’s boldest tax cut on the ballot

Florida’s chief financial officer named his agency the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight, then took the acronym on the road. The internet’s reading of those four letters is not an accident.

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To paraphrase Leo Tolstoy, every tax system is unhappy in its own way

Britain · Britain’s taxes are strewn with loopholes and perverse incentives

“Anna Karenina” opens by claiming unhappy families are each unhappy in their own way. Britain’s tax code, it turns out, qualifies as family.

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