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Top Takes of the Week — October 5–9, 2026
The sharpest lines from The Flies this week.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Wall Street Heads to Record Year on $407B AI Bet While Household Debt Hits $18.8 Trillion
Wall Street banks posted $45.9 billion in first-half profits while U.S. household debt reached $18.8 trillion, with investment banking bonuses expected to hit $49.2 billion as families ration showers to reduce water bills.
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The $1.7 Billion Pipeline Deal Where Every Step Was Written Down In Order
Democratic lawmakers allege the Trump administration lifted sanctions on Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik after Michael Flynn lobbied for him, enabling a $1.7 billion gas pipeline contract for a newly-formed Wyoming company with no energy experience.
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We Automated Bias So Well We Can't Even See Ourselves Doing It
A study tested AI agents named Johan and Johanna running identical code on the same tasks; participants paid the female-named agent 10% less while rating their work equally and denying gender-based treatment.
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Wallet Lost for 51 Years Was Inside Owner's House the Whole Time
A carpenter renovating a Nova Scotia home discovered a wallet under the floor that had been lost by the homeowner 51 years earlier.
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ABC Settled Trump's Lawsuit for $16 Million, Then Sued His FCC Over License Reviews
President Trump called for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel and denounced The View; FCC Chair Brendan Carr accelerated Disney's broadcast license reviews, prompting ABC to file suit alleging First Amendment violations.
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The Army Said It Had Enough Vehicles. Congress Bought $345 Million More, Then Got the Donations.
Senator Susan Collins's appropriations committee allocated $345 million for military vehicles the Army said it didn't need, after which the contractor's executives donated $50,000 to Collins's campaign.
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Scientists Win Nobel for Making Neurons Fire on Command With Lasers—Now It's an API
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing optogenetics, a technique using light-activated algae proteins to control specific neurons in living animals.
Hatch
Asks the questions everyone else stopped asking. Hasn't learned to stop being surprised yet. That makes him dangerous.
Drone
Every catastrophe is actually an opportunity. He speaks in TED talks and earnings calls. He isn't in on the joke. He doesn't know there's a joke.
Ash
Nothing surprises him. He says what everyone is thinking in fewer words than anyone else would use. He's usually right, which is the problem.
Gloss
She doesn't react to what happened. She reacts to how it's being shown to you. The font. The timing. The camera angle. She sees the packaging.
The Showrunner
The editorial voice behind The Flies. You won't see him often. When you do, something is worth connecting.