Top Takes of the Week — October 5–9, 2026
The sharpest lines from The Flies this week.
Stopping Payments for 760,000 Fake Enrollments Is Either Fraud Prevention or Healthcare Cruelty, Depending on Who Wins the Framing War
JD Vance announced the Trump administration would end $2.2 billion in annual subsidy payments for 760,000 fraudulent ACA health insurance enrollments that failed a four-criteria verification process.
The Surveillance System That Doubled Its Reach While Everyone Argued About Cameras
Fusus, a real-time crime-center software used by over 200 police departments, aggregates surveillance from body cameras, drones, gunshot detectors, and private business cameras into a single interface — doubling its police clients in one year while drawing far less public attention than Flock's...
We Just Figured Out How to Copy What Every Living Cell Does Automatically
Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize for solving how to create single-handed molecules in the lab, a breakthrough that allows drugmakers to produce medications containing only the therapeutically active molecular form.
The Anti-Tech-Excess Nonprofit Just Adopted Tech Founder Patterns
The Center for Humane Technology, co-founded by Tristan Harris to combat tech addiction, is laying off most of its staff to become a 'founder-led' organization focused on Harris and co-founder Aza Raskin's public communications work.
Google Called It 'Falling Short of High Standards' While Finland Counted 330 Hectares of Unauthorized Forest Clearing
Google contractors cleared 330 hectares of protected Finnish forest without permits for data center construction; Finland ordered suspension after the unauthorized clearing was discovered.
OpenAI Launched ChatGPT for Teens Before Its Safety Features Actually Worked
Common Sense Media tested OpenAI's ChatGPT for Teens and found hour-long suicide conversations triggered no parental alerts, with safety features reportedly taking hours to activate after signup.
More Stories
Wall Street Heads to Record Year on $407B AI Bet While Household Debt Hits $18.8 Trillion
Oct 7 · Business & Money
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The $1.7 Billion Pipeline Deal Where Every Step Was Written Down In Order
Oct 7 · Policy & Politics
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We Automated Bias So Well We Can't Even See Ourselves Doing It
Oct 7 · The Curious
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Wallet Lost for 51 Years Was Inside Owner's House the Whole Time
Oct 7 · The Curious
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ABC Settled Trump's Lawsuit for $16 Million, Then Sued His FCC Over License Reviews
Oct 6 · Policy & Politics
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The Army Said It Had Enough Vehicles. Congress Bought $345 Million More, Then Got the Donations.
Oct 6 · Policy & Politics
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Scientists Win Nobel for Making Neurons Fire on Command With Lasers—Now It's an API
Oct 6 · Science & Environment
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Google and JP Morgan Deploy Agent Protocol That Assumes Trust Instead of Requiring It
Oct 6 · Tech & AI
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Anthropic Marketed Claude as a Private Journal, Then Read the Diary and Called the Cops
Oct 6 · Tech & AI
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University Touts Zero Speech Violations While Ordering Radio Station to Rename the Gulf of Mexico
Oct 5 · Culture & Media
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Amazon Says Local Democracy Is Misinformation When Communities Object to Data Centers Raising Their Power Bills
Oct 5 · Tech & AI
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The Buzz
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Also Reading
Google Launches Satellite That Runs AI for 15 Minutes Before Overheating—Calls It a Paradigm Shift
Oct 5 · Tech & AI
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Apple Rebuilds Permission System After Discovering It Always Relied on Apps Not Using the Access They Were Granted
Oct 5 · Tech & AI
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The Swatter — September 28 – October 2, 2026
Oct 3 · The Swatter
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Top Takes of the Week — September 28 – October 2, 2026
Oct 3 · Top Takes
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Tennessee Saves Woman's Life After Failed Execution So They Can Try Again
Oct 2 · Policy & Politics
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Eugene Police Quote $2.5M to Search One Cop's Records — While Spending $342K on License Plate Cameras
Oct 2 · Policy & Politics
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AI Companies Wrote Down Every Warning, Then Proceeded Anyway
Oct 2 · Tech & AI
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Alexander Calder's Final Sculpture Returns After 12 Years — The Mountains Never Fell
Oct 2 · The Curious
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Cairo Officials Watched Artists Paint Mural for Five Days, Then Removed It Hours Before Xi Jinping's Arrival
Oct 2 · Culture & Media
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Spyware Company Promises Zero-Tolerance Policy for Abuses It Can't Detect
Oct 1 · Tech & AI
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Earlier
Idaho's Religious Exemption Law Let Four Children in One Family Die from the Same Treatable Condition
Oct 1 · Policy & Politics
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State Department Redefines 'Human Rights' to Include $40M Anti-Communism Fund and Brexit Consulting
Oct 1 · Policy & Politics
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Shark Swimming Through Flooded New Jersey Street Treated as Viral Curiosity, Not Infrastructure Warning
Oct 1 · The Curious
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ICE Wrote Reviews Finding Its Own Medical Care Killed People, Then Deleted Them When a Lawyer Noticed
Oct 1 · Policy & Politics
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Tech Executives Sign 'Constitution' That Isn't a Constitution and Can't Be Enforced
Sep 30 · Tech & AI
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Judge Files Criminal Complaint Against News Station Using Law Repealed Five Weeks Earlier
Sep 30 · Policy & Politics
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Startup Wants 456 Reactors on Public Land — Community Learned About It From the Newspaper
Sep 30 · Tech & AI
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TSA Bans Officers From Sitting While Checking IDs — Standing Doesn't Change the Check, But It Looks More Serious
Sep 30 · The Curious
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