Issue

Operation Blind Fury

Issue of March 21, 2026

Headlines

CBeebies or barbarism!

Rosa Luxemburg’s “Socialism or barbarism!” reworked for the children’s TV funding crisis. The stakes have never been higher.

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Petrostates of America

Finance & Economics · America may be a petrostate. But the energy shock still hurts

Swaps “United” for “Petro” in the national name. Clean and carries real analytical weight.

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Terminal solution

Finance & Economics · What if Donald Trump decided to ban oil exports?

Oil terminals, a terminal outcome, and a grim historical echo. Triple duty.

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Collateral advantage

United States · A muddled war and rising prices are boosting Democrats’ midterm hopes

“Collateral damage” flipped — the war’s unintended consequences are, for Democrats, an unintended benefit.

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Lingering fumes

Leaders · Gas will not be killed off by renewables any time soon

Gas fumes that linger literally, and the fossil fuel industry that won’t go away.

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Lovers’ tiff

Europe · How Ukraine and Europe got caught in a geopolitical lovers’ tiff

The article commits fully — “conjugal bickering,” “fears of divorce.” The headline earned the metaphor.

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Shop till you don’t drop

Letters · Are data centres in space less crazy than we think?

Inverts the idiom for AI shopping agents who never impulse-buy. Retailers’ margins drop instead.

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Buried in the text

”why split hairs over splitting heads?”

Culture · Re-examining one of the world’s most notorious assassinations

On the ice pick vs. mountaineering axe distinction in Trotsky’s murder. Gruesome and irresistible.

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“animal spirits were on something of a safari”

Leaders · Africa after aid is more resilient than you might think

Keynes’s “animal spirits” sent on a literal safari across Africa. The metaphor finally gets to go on holiday.

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“an offer, surely, they can’t refuse”

Culture · It’s strictly business: the enduring allure of mafiosi in culture

The Mob Museum offering discounted admission to law enforcement. The Godfather’s most famous line earns its keep.

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“the Coca-Cola of shareholder activism”

Business · Elliott Management and the art of telling bosses they’re wrong

Elliott called this right after it nudged Pepsi to cut products. The rival-brand metaphor is doing overtime.

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“Dangote Cement became the (concrete) foundation of his fortune”

Middle East & Africa · Africa’s richest man has ambitious plans for the continent

A cement company providing a concrete foundation. The parenthetical wink makes the intent unmistakable.

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“a sign of a bubble in the sparkling-water business”

Culture · Which is the best sparkling water?

A financial bubble in a business literally defined by bubbles.

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